The Prince's Mark

The Road to Dezmer - Twenty Two

Winter's strength was fading, its grip on Dezmer becoming more and more tenuous by the day. And yet, snow had not fallen once.

Tracou and Mirthal enjoyed their days together. Sometimes circumstances (the village or Pendaer) forced them to part for a time, but never for long. At its core their relationship hadn't changed, but Mirthal, in particular, had become much more prone to place a hand on some part of Tracou whenever possible.

Regardless of the hardships he had gone through as a result of meeting the elves, Tracou now had Mirthal, his home, and his wand. What more could a person want?

Late one morning, Tracou went around his home, removing dust with magic in lieu of Serpouhi when he heard a knock on the door. No one had arranged a visit with him and the elves were still inside, which left only Serpouhi. Tracou opened the door, finding instead Stepan with his familiar standing beside him. He stood with his sea monster wand in hand, scratching at it with his thumbnail.

The audacity of one of his villagers to visit unannounced! Tracou frowned.

"Good morning, Stepan."

"Yes, good morning, Lord Vartanian. I need to speak with you."

"Go ahead."

Stepan nodded. "Listen, Lord Vartanian. We haven't had snow and winter's nearly over."

"That is true," Tracou sighed. If there was an emergency, he could understand why someone might show up at his doorstep. Anything otherwise was both rude and presumptuous.

"It's a bad omen. Something bad will happen."

"Why? No snow seems like a good thing to me."

"It's easy to think that, but what is winter without it? Something's wrong. Snow comes as a blanket to hide the death that winter brings before the rebirth. Without it, we can see death everywhere, out in the open... It's a sign, Lord Vartanian."

"We've had years with no snow before, Stepan."

"Yes!" Stepan's eyes widened, as though surprised Tracou had recognized the problem. "Yes, when the silent sickness hit!"

Tracou's jaw clenched. He had no argument against that.

A presence moved behind him, closing in. Tracou glanced back. Pendaer stood there, watching Stepan over Tracou's head.

"And what do you propose we do?" Tracou asked, ignoring Pendaer for the moment.

Stepan wilted. "I'm not sure. Maybe tell the villagers to stay in their homes as much as they can." He shifted his focus to Pendaer, giving a solitary 'heh'. "Serpouhi said this one's always angry and I think she might be right."

Relieved by the change in subject, Tracou turned to grin at Pendaer. "He likes being angry," he said in Dezmerian.

"What does an elf have to be upset about?"

"Everything. Mostly me." Tracou itched to say that Pendaer was especially mad because he had entered into a relationship with Mirthal, but held his tongue.

"He must have a lot of energy. Anyway, Lord Vartanian, I wanted to inform you. We can't prevent another sickness, but maybe we can lessen it... I'll ask around."

"All right. Good day, Stepan."

Stepan gave him a nod and trudged away from the manor, his seagull toddling after him. Tracou closed the door. Once he had, Pendaer left, returning to the kitchen where the elves had been eating breakfast. Tracou followed him, hearing Elvish before he even entered the room.