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Location: Ebonscarp, Westland
Year: 113 F.A.
Status: Mid-Spring

Ebonscarp was a small village, the second smallest town in the entire Westland. The only village smaller than it was Tavari, the town that the travelers had left only a week before. But as small as Ebonscarp was, it felt huge to Alassëa, who had not been there in decades.

“There are so many people,” she said anxiously, gripping her staff tightly with her free hand. Her other arm was linked with Aethos’s, both so that she wouldn’t get lost or wander off, and so that she wouldn’t feel alone.

“Just don’t hit anyone,” Aethos warned her, only half joking. “You don’t need to be arrested for assaulting people.”

The blind woman blushed, embarrassed by his comments because she knew that it was true. She reacted far too quickly and too violently to the slightest commotion around her. In her defense, it was due to decades of living in the swamp, where quick and violent reactions were the only way to stay alive; but she knew that she was going to have to change herself if she was going to be living around people from now on, if she didn’t want to hurt them and get herself into trouble.

“Sorry,” she murmured, facing away from Aethos. “I will try to be more careful.”

Aethos chuckled softly and squeezed her arm gently. “Don’t you worry about a thing,” he grinned, even though he knew she couldn’t see it. “I’ll be here with you.”

“Yes.” But Alassëa didn’t feel a whole lot better. Being here was different than being in Tavari. Tavari had just been a village to her, a place where she could meet people and learn new things. This was different. This was the village where she had been raised, where there were people she had once known (even if it was only in passing), and this was where she had done her healing studies as a child. She was nervous – anxious, really. Wondering about how people would react to seeing her, if they would even recognize her … what they would think of her reappearing so long after being left for dead.

“Hey you two!” Luk called out, running up to them suddenly.

With a yelp, Alassëa jutted out instinctively with her staff, and she would have hit Luk full in the face with it except that Aethos had guessed something like that might happen, and he reached out and grabbed the staff before she could swing it.

“Thanks, Aethos,” Luk blinked, fully realizing the pain he had barely avoided. “Sorry, Alassëa, I thought you would have heard me coming.”

“There’s too much noise here,” Alassëa said quietly, turning her head one way and the other. “I hear … everything. There’s just too much.”

“Well, I think we should leave the staff here,” Aethos told her. “With the wagons. That way you won’t be tempted to hit anyone else with it.”

Her grip just tightened on the weapon. “I can’t.”

“You can,” Aethos said patiently. “You just won’t. Come on, you’ll have your falcon with you, she can help guide you. Just as she helped you in the swamp.”

“But I’ve always had my staff to feel the ground, to see where it’s solid or soft,” she protested.

“Here it’s all solid,” Luk told her, looking around. “And you’ll have your falcon to tell you when there’s something in the way, and you’ll have us to warn you where there are steps and the like.”

Alassëa looked doubtful. She wanted her staff with her for reassurance. It was her lifeline, had been for as long as she could remember. She needed it – not only physically, but mentally.

“If I hold it differently?” she asked hopefully, shifting her grip as she spoke so that she was holding it along her arm, like an extension, instead of in front of her, as a weapon. “So I can at least feel where I’m going?”

Aethos sighed, then smiled at her bemusedly. “If you must. But remember, don’t hit anyone, all right? It’s harder for me to stop you if you hold it that way.”

“I’ll do my best, but that is all I can promise,” she agreed sheepishly, knowing how difficult it was going to be. In her favour was the fact that it would be more difficult for her to maneuver the staff to hit anyone in the first place.

“I’m heading out with Emile for a bit,” Luk told the two. “Have fun! And remember, we’re meeting at the inn for lunch. Don’t be late!”

“We won’t,” Aethos chuckled. “Go on.”

The groups waved goodbye and set off in their own directions.

“Which way would you like to go?” Aethos asked Alassëa, making sure that her arm was securely tucked into his.

Alassëa started walking with him, her staff ticking against the ground in front of her as they went. “It’s been such a long time since I’ve been here,” she murmured, “and I was just a child … I forgot how to speak, how can I remember where anything is?”

Aethos chuckled. “True. My apologies. Are there any people that you remember? Perhaps someone who might be eager to see you again? Your parents, perhaps, or a sibling?”

“Sibling?”

“Brother or sister,” Aethos explained, fully aware that she was still working on recovering her vocabulary.

She only shook her head. “I have no brother or sister, and … my father is gone … dead, I think … and my mother … I … do not think she is from this village. I was very young when I came here to learn … from … somewhere else. I don’t remember where.”

She blinked. “My teacher … I don’t remember his name … if he is still here … I would like to meet him again.”

“Do you have any idea where that might be?” Aethos pressed.

She smiled, amused by the question. “I studied healing,” she pointed out. “Who would teach me that?”

The sola laughed. “Good point. So. Where would he be located?”

Alassëa tilted her head slightly. “What’s around us?”

Aethos looked around and described the area surrounding them to her. A bookseller, a candlesmith, a few other shops, the names of the streets around them, a fountain that was bubbling at the end of the street …

When Alassëa was satisfied, she turned and pointed with her staff down a side street. “I think … this way. Towards the middle of the village.”

“As you say,” Aethos smiled, amused by her. She said that she couldn’t remember her way around, yet he described to her a small area of the village and here she was giving him directions.

He was even more amused when he realized that she was right. It wasn’t long before they reached a second water fountain, larger and more elaborate than the first. The square was filled with people – clearly this was the center of the village. There were vending stalls all around, children playing – and from one building, a boy and his mother were exiting, with the boy’s arm in a sling.

“I think you remember more than you let on,” he laughed as he directed them towards the healer’s home. “What else aren’t you telling me?”

Alassëa blinked, her staff still tapping against the ground. “What, are we there?” she asked in amazement.

Aethos laughed again. “Yes.”

Without warning, Alassëa stopped walking, and Aethos nearly tripped over her. “What-”

“I don’t know if I can do this,” she whispered, her eyes suddenly wide.

“What are you talking about? Of course you-”

Alassëa shook her head vehemently. “I can’t. I’m sorry, I can’t explain, I just – can’t.” She changed her grip on her staff, holding it once more like a weapon instead of a walking aid, and clutched it close to herself. “What if he doesn’t remember me?” she whispered, and the fear was evident in her eyes. “I barely remember him … what if he’s disappointed in me?”

“What’s there to be disappointed about?” Aethos asked her honestly. “You’re alive – which is the most important thing, I think – you’re beautiful-”

Alassëa blushed at that. “The one thing that hadn’t entered my mind,” she murmured, her face a deep shade of red.

Aethos just chuckled. “Well, you are. And you’re smart – truly bright. Sure, you’ve forgotten some things, but who wouldn’t after living alone for decades with no one to talk to? It’s amazing what you have remembered, how much you’ve retained. Anyone else would have forgotten all of it. I would have.”

“You’re certain I won’t be a disappointment?” Alassëa asked, still blushing.

“Absolutely,” Aethos replied, tugging her forward again. “Now come on. And don’t hit anyone with that staff of yours. Then you might have some explaining to do.”

That made her laugh, but it also relieved her, lifting the weight from her shoulders.

“Just you be careful,” she grinned, shifting her grip on her staff once more. “I might make you his next patient.”

“Try it,” Aethos dared her with a chuckle as he led her to the house. “I can see, after all, so I could stop you before you managed it.”

“So you think,” she teased him as they stepped inside. “I might prove you wrong someday.”

“You can try.” He laughed and looked around to see if the healer was still in the room. He wasn’t, but upon hearing the laughter it was only a moment before he returned. He looked at the two of them curiously – and no wonder. He was a healer, and these two didn’t seem to require healing.

“May I help you?” he asked cautiously, wondering what they were doing there.

Alassëa’s eyes grew wide. “Yes!” she exclaimed, turning her head towards the voice. “Yes, I remember you … Adar!”

“You see?” Aethos laughed, poking her in the side and earning himself a rap on the knuckles from her staff. “You do remember more than you believe!”

A look of confusion crossed the healer’s face, and he stepped forward hesitantly. “You … who are you?” he asked. “I can’t heal blindness …”

“That didn’t stop you from teaching me to heal just about everything else,” Alassëa replied softly. “The hours you would spend reading me books … making me write them out when I couldn’t even see what I was doing …”

Adar’s eyes grew wide, and he sunk slowly into one of the chairs that lined the walls of the room. “No …”

“It’s me, Adar,” she smiled widely, feeling more comfortable now that she remembered the man who had been her teacher for several years, almost like a father to her. “Alassëa.”

A tear fell down the healer’s cheek. He was staring at Alassëa, wide-eyed, and he didn’t even bother to wipe it away. “Impossible … you’ve been gone for … so long …”

“I know …”

“It’s not …”

Alassëa slipped her arm out of Aethos’s grip and tapped her way forward with her staff to where she could hear the healer breathing heavily and sniffling ever so softly. As she held one hand out to him, her falcon eyed the man cautiously from its perch atop her shoulder.

Adar looked at her hand, then looked up into her face. Ignoring her hand, he rose slowly, staring at her in utter shock and disbelief. Then he threw his arms around her and hugged her tightly. It wasn’t long before his tears soaked through her clothes.