Lost Wanderer Awakened - Book One of the Airendell Chronicles (51 page)

Then she is using it as a mighty weapon to
pound and destroy any infinitesimal trace of the evil she finds.
Her love for him, which is so strong, so mighty, so boundless,
surely it cannot truly be contained in the heart of one single
beautiful, perfect, exquisite woman.

Suddenly Luca realizes he is again hearing
only his own thoughts, sounds that he only he hears, things that
only he sees. The link is broken. He’s not experiencing everything
through her any more. He almost sobs at the extreme sense of loss
that overwhelms him temporarily. He can’t warm himself by her
passion for him anymore. Now, he doesn’t see himself anymore as she
sees him. The beauty has gone away and he mourns its loss.

Luca is holding her like a child. Tenderly,
sweetly, innocently. Morna gradually drifts off the sleep. Luca
stays with her until he is certain she is sleeping soundly. Then he
motions for Breena to follow him to the sitting room. Breena spots
the cigarettes on the suitcase and snatches them up as she walks to
the sitting room.

Once Breena is seated she lights a cigarette
and pours a little more scotch. Luca starts pacing the small room.
Recalling the tortured thoughts he had experienced in Morna’s mind.
Trying to go back and review them all, even the one’s she was
hiding. “Somehow, on some level, she knew she was being attacked.
That’s why she had reached out to you Breena the first time,” Luca
mutters.

“She must have recognized that she was being
attacked and she naturally reached out for the one other First
Order Weaver that she trusted to help her, Breena. She must have
been looking for additional help rebuffing the attack when she
connected with Aideen, both times. Aideen is also a First Order
Weaver. Magic seeks equal magic? Right?” he continues, deep in
thought. “And she was really focused on Aideen because Carlisle and
the Elf envoys had mentioned her to Morna.”

“Makes sense to me,” agrees Breena.

“Tonight the attack must have centered on me,
her fear of losing me, perhaps? She reached out to me to try to
keep me safe, not for me to keep her safe. That must be it,” he
decides. Then he looks to Breena and explains what he had been
experiencing while Morna was linked with him. “Was your experience
similar to mine?” Luca asked.

Breena looks thoughtful for a long while, and
then says, “I was receiving a very strong clear signal from Morna,
and it was as though I was actually in her skin. I guess, because
we are connected by blood and are both First Order Weavers, the
connection was more direct. But you two are so tightly connected on
other levels. Your lives, souls, hearts, your very beings are
tightly entwined, and you always have been. That and you do have a
great deal of magic in your blood, from whatever mysterious
source,” chuckles Breena.

“I think I should try to contact Ari and
Almeda,” says Luca thoughtfully. “We don’t know enough about
Shades, and other magical beings, or these connections that Morna
is forming to solve this puzzle. But I am certain that she was
being attacked tonight. I could feel, actually taste and smell the
evil of the attacker. He despises her with a venomous hatred. I
can’t understand why anyone would hate her like that.”

“Luca, your view of Morna is somewhat
distorted.” When Luca looks at his sister in law doubtfully, she
says, “Well, maybe not distorted, just incomplete.” Breena holds up
her hand to stop Luca from protesting. “Hear me out.” Luca sits
across from Breena and gives her his full attention. “Luca, you
never had to go up against Morna. Your daughter nailed it on the
head when she said Morna is a one scary ass broad when she needs to
be.”

Breena takes a deep breath, and thinks how to
explain this, “She is powerful and fierce when she is in battle.
You have only fought alongside her, you never had to go against
her, but when we were kids even, she never gave any quarter to even
me. She never gives an inch when doing her duty. She does what she
thinks needs to be done, and too bad if it makes someone else
unhappy, or hurts anyone she perceives as threat. I am not saying
she is bad person. She’s not, but she is a warrior and it was her
mission to protect Airendell and our Guild, to protect the gateway
into the upper-world. To keep the mortals safe. Nothing got in her
way when she was performing her duty.”

“What if this person attacking Morna is
someone she faced in battle or some other type of confrontation
where she would be using her warrior persona. That persona is not
loving, is not patient, is not kind, or giving. Her warrior persona
is ruthless, direct, single-minded, determined to win, and
exceedingly dangerous to her opponents. Being struck down by that
Morna might certainly engender the feelings of hatred you
describe.”

“Hmmm,” says Luca thoughtfully. “I have
fought beside her, but she never turned that side of herself
against me, so I guess I can’t recognize it as being part of her.
But I know she has it, I have seen the results of it. She used it
on you? Really?” he asked incredulously.

“Yes, we don’t talk about it. It’s a shameful
time for me,” Breena admits. “I was thirteen, almost fourteen
actually, and Morna was barely ten. A middle-world traveler came to
our village. He was beautiful and told lovely stories. Almost all
of the children and most of the adults were totally charmed by him.
Morna was suspicious of him from the beginning, she immediately
recognized him as a threat. No one else did, but Morna was just ten
years old and everyone dismissed her warnings. But she saw him for
the threat that he was, and set out to stop him. He was there to
steal the Guild’s healing and defensive talismans. Do you
understand how serious that is?”

“Yes,” Luca replies. “When Morna taught me
the lore of the Spell Weavers she made it clear to me that it was
the duty of all Weavers to protect the talismans. They were gifts
from the Elves, and that with them, the natural descendents of Ari
and Almeda are able to channel the trace amounts of magic that
reside in their bodies to heal and protect the Guild, the gateways,
and anyone in need of protection. She explained that Weavers cannot
use their powers in a purely offensive way. They could not for
instance, go out and conquer another group, unless it was a
defensive action.”

“Even then it would be iffy,” says Breena.
“Going on the offensive as a defensive measure doesn’t always work.
Think of Trendor. He tried that and his magic failed him. He was
easily defeated and destroyed.”

“But I digress; The Traveler was trying to
steal our talismans. He had everyone fooled but Morna. I was
particularly taken in by him. He charmed me, romanced me. I was
young and easily influenced. He persuaded me to bring the talismans
to him. He said he only wanted to look at them, to behold their
beauty. I was stupid enough to believe him.”

“At any rate, whatever my motivations, I
stole the talismans, and was handing them over to The Traveler when
Morna discovered us. Even at only ten years old, Morna recognized
the serious threat to our kind; she acted without even having to
think about it. She immediately pinned us both with binding spells.
A spell she was too young to have been taught, I might add.”

“She could read The Traveler’s intent in his
heart. She knew he wanted to destroy us. Morna offered him quarter
if he would change his heart, and swear loyalty to us in a fealty
ceremony. He vehemently refused. Morna knew he would come back and
attack again. Morna destroyed him Luca! She choked the very life
out of him without laying a finger on him. She was a tiny, little
ten year old, angel of a girl, and she destroyed him without giving
it a second thought because he posed a current and ongoing threat
to our Guild.”

“Then she turned her attention to me. There
was no malice in her actions. She knew my intent had not been to
harm the Guild, but she also knew I had let my affections for The
Traveler supersede my loyalty to the Guild. She reminded me of my
duty, of where my loyalty must always remain. She did to me just
what she did to The Traveler, only stopping short of taking my
life. Then she gathered me up in her arms, carried me to our
cottage. There she healed me without weaving healing spells, she
should not have known how weave the healing spells, much less be
able to heal without them at such a young age.”

“Once I was well again, she took my face in
her hands and looked me in the eyes. She said; “Breena, I love you
with all my heart. You are my dearest sister. My very best friend
in the whole world, but if you ever allow someone to harm our kind,
I will finish what I started today. Do you understand?”

“When I told her I understood, and she could
see the truth in my words, she took me in her embrace and cried.
She wept for what she had nearly had to do to me. I knew she loved
me. I knew it would be like killing part of herself if she had to
kill me, but she would have done it without any hesitation. Morna
knows her duty, above all else. She will perform her duty, what is
right. No matter the personal pain it may cost her,” breathes
Breena.

“Don’t you see Luca, she has made enemies.
Her single minded focus on duty and determination to perform that
duty makes her dangerous to any who seek to do harm to our Guild,
or access the gateways for evil. She is a force to be reckoned
with. Someone has been trying to take her out of the equation for a
long time, a very long time. I believe that is what is behind all
of the horrible things that have befallen you two. You are a target
because you are her mate. You are her weak spot, the chink in her
armor. But I know if it came down to saving you or saving the
Guild, the true Guild, not our mother and her cronies, Morna would
do her duty first, and save you second.”

Luca nods, “No doubt about that,” He
concedes. “Once when we were fighting off a small band of trolls, I
broke off from my defensive position at the gate to guard her back.
She ordered me back to my position. And when it was all over, she
literally beat the tar out of me for leaving my position open and
defenseless. She said under no circumstances could a defender of
Airendell put his or her personal feelings before their duty. She
told me that it would have been my duty to let her die rather than
leave my position open to protect her. It was shock to me at the
time, but I was young, and in love with her. I was foolish. She
made me see that. She made me understand that to do one’s duty
often involves personal sacrifice.”

“Yes I do understand her single-minded focus
on duty. And I can see how that makes her a target. But she is no
longer in Airendell; she no longer guards the talismans. How is she
still a threat?” Luca asks.

Breena sighs. She can’t understand why Morna
has never told Luca any of this. “Luca, Morna is still guarding the
talismans… well actually…. Oh hell, let me go back to the
beginning. That’s the only way this will make any sense.”

Breena lights another cigarette and gets up
to start pacing now. Luca is becoming anxious. He wonders, “What
has Breena so troubled? And how could Morna still be guarding the
talismans? She hasn’t been back to Airendell in nearly 600 years!
Or has she? Is that where so goes between incarnations, and when
she disappears without warning from her mortal existences?”

Breena takes a deep breath, sits beside Luca
and takes his hands into hers. “Morna is the talismans!” she blurts
out!

Luca stutters, “What? How? I have seen the
talismans.”

“No, Luca, you have seen the replicas the
Elvish envoy made to fool our enemies. I told you Morna was
protecting the talismans when she was only ten years old. Well by
age twelve no one could refute it, she was a full blown warrior of
the First Order of Airendell. She had rebuffed a total of six
attacks on the talismans and the emerald gateway. She was
fearsome!”

“On her twelfth birthday a compliment of
Elvish envoys from Alfheim came on an official mission to
Airendell. Their seers had predicted a massive and sustained threat
to our talismans. But they told the Elders to take heart, that we
had the means to protect them, but one of us would have to make a
great sacrifice to protect the talismans.”

“They informed the Elders that Morna must be
afforded the full rank of Warrior of the First Order of Airendell.
The envoys said that she had already demonstrated a willingness and
ability to protect the talismans at all costs. The Elders balked.
She wasn’t even a Weaver yet. She had not yet ascended. How could
they bestow such a prestigious rank on one who might never ascend?
The envoys told the Elders that there was no doubt that she would
ascend on the day she turned nineteen… But she must receive the
official rank as First Warrior immediately. The Elders finally
complied and bestowed the rank to Morna, it was truly no more than
she deserved.”

“I can tell you there was a lot of heated
debate about this. I realize now that something in our mother
changed that day. Her feelings for Morna, her allegiance to Morna,
everything started deteriorating. Magdrid was jealous, I believe.
It poisoned her view of Morna, her affection for Morna. Mother‘s
affection for me has deteriorated because I have stood by Morna
against her. It‘s a mess. Mother resisted the Elvish envoys, even
tried to make them leave, but the Elders would not hear of it.”

“The Elvish envoys called Morna before them,
and they prepared her for her role as protector of the talismans.
She had to endure a ten day sauna and fasting. Then she was fed a
special meal of milk and cheese from Audumla, a supernatural being
who nourished the first magical beings with her never ending supply
of milk.”

Then her true heritage was revealed. Our
father, Neill, was not Morna’s true father. Her true father was a
being named Valiant. He was the offspring of Vali, [who was the son
of Odin and the giantess Rind], and Enna, [a human female, a
chieftain’s daughter, her lineage gave rise to the noble classes in
Viking and Irish lands].