Iljian

*…Iljian cursed and muttered under his breath as the plate slipped out of his hand to shatter on the floor, spraying sharp little fragments mixed with remainders of his fish dinner all across the floor. It was just the right ending for a day such as this. Still cursing softly he crouched down and began to pick up the mess, dumping it all into the waste bin. Fortunately, the lighthouse was not too large so there was not too much space for the shards to spread out into. So much for going off duty earlier and having a good dinner.

It had been just as well though that he had left. Slinging more words with Stewan at the gate would have been of no use as he only saw what was already made up in his mind anyway, without giving the outside world many chances to interfere with his opinions. He could somehow understand Lady Meygan, who cared a lot for Lady Kimi and thus could not stand to see her hurt, but that was entirely different from Stewan, who had just decided that things be like that and never allowed for anything else.

Not that it was an easy question, but somehow it worked out if you considered it step by step. Someone must have summoned the spirit. That much was obvious. Probably either Antar alone, or Antar together with Stewan during the ritual in which the oracle was … grown? Called? Whatever it was that they had done. Either way, that part could not be blamed onto the spirit itself. No more than you could blame a baby for being conceived and born. From what he had gathered out of the words of the spirit it had not just appeared somewhere, but had somehow… how to put it… gathered? It was a little like with the water elementals that Alusair summoned. When you looked closely you could see that they would not just pop up but form out of the moisture in the air our out of puddles, moats, the ground. Supposedly, if you held your hand in the right place it would get wet from the drifting spray. So maybe the wood spirit had assembles and some things had become, well, in a way, wet. Meaning they had been affected by what was gathered in that one spot. Which wasn’t dangerous as such, either. Things had just grown. From the reports he had heard, a lot of it had been quite harmless. Some vines creeping up the city walls. A lot of mushrooms that were a little yukky but otherwise rather harmless and some funny flowers, not counting the one that had somehow managed to produce small flames. The algae had been bad, but not dangerous as such, either. They appeared everywhere and always sloshed around in the ponds and channels of Trinsic, just not in such amounts. Only the mushroom had been really dangerous. Provided you went close to it, which really was not a bright thing to do to begin with. But was that a planned and initiated attack or had it just happened? Overall, from the reports that he had read, it had been quite a random thing. Some things here, some there. Most of it in parts of Trinsic that were not too frequented. If something had the power to make whatever it wished grow then it shouldn’t be too hard to do much worse things. And all of it really appeared before the spirit had been seen for the first time, had it not? They had no evidence whatsoever that the spirit had done anything. It could have done, but they could not prove it. And since then, it had done a lot of good too. Walking through the woods and lands of the Duchy it was easy to see that everything was literally bubbling with life. Everything grew, bloomed and carried rich harvests. From the point of view of a healer Iljian could only approve. With all the fresh and tasty fruit coming in from the orchards the markets were literally flowing over and everything went cheap and plenty and people ate better and more healthy than they usually did. Farmers and peasants flowed in and out through the gates, bringing in their goods and going home with new tools, presents for their families and any amount of things that they could suddenly afford. It wasn’t really something that you could blame the spirit for, could you?

And as far as he could tell, it had helped Lady Kimi. She had claimed to feel better, even moments after the… after those… after what had happened. He wasn’t quite sure how the spirit had done it, but judging by all the little cuts the vines must have put something into Lady Kimi’s blood. Which was what some plants did, as far as he knew. Usually as a defensive mechanism, but still. Animal tries to eat plant, plant pokes animal with thorns, thorns are coated in some juice, juice itches and scratches and irritates animal, animal goes away. Simple. Iljian had learned about some of those plants from Anya during her training. The old woman had forgotten more about plants and herb lore than he would ever know, but he had remembered at least some things. And you could try it yourself, too. Children sometimes played with nettles, making it a challenge on who could stand having them brushed over their arm or such. All those were small effects, but if you wanted a bigger effect and a lasting one then maybe she would have used just the same system, but with more barbs and cuts to deliver more of whatever it had been that the spirit had put into Lady Kimi. It had been bothersome, but… Iljian knew from experience that healing wasn’t always clean and painless. Sometimes it could turn out worse than the injury itself appeared to be, but if it had to be done in order to save the patient’s life then well… what could you do? Refuse to keep the bed linen fresh and clean? Disinfecting a wound hurt like fire and yet nobody accused the healer of doing it for their own pleasure. It didn’t have anything to do with trusting the spirit, but if it did help and if what it had done for Lady Kimi gave them more time to find a proper cure then one owed it at least some gratitude. Like it or not.

With a sigh, Iljian stretched and dumped the remaining shards into the bin. A moment later he opened the windows too, letting the fresh and salty breeze from the sea wash out the fragrant, lingering smell of the baked fish. It was prudent to be careful and plan ahead in order to avoid traps, but it was cynical to believe that everything that happened would be bad. Especially just based on something else having been bad beforehand. Some criminals and drow walked undisturbed on the streets of Trinsic, despite the fact that they had murdered more than once and caused much greater harm in their days. And yet, nobody seemed to care. The one that now spoke most fiercely against the spirit had killed more than three times as many victims in the past. No matter what had happened since then.

And the thought that something good was happening for a change was tempting. It would be great if something happened that helped, supported and healed people rather than sow chaos and death. In Trinsic, life had gone on after the terrible deeds in Britain, yet the shadows grew longer and threatened to swallow some entirely. No matter what he said, the Duke was hurting badly and despite his efforts to hide it (which might have worked well on some) it was blaringly obvious to any that cared to look. Even more, Dukes seemed to be lonely. Which was a harder thing to realise amongst all the staff, servants, citizens and visitors that fussed around them day by day, but it seemed to be true. Iljian wasn’t sure that his clumsy attempts at conversation helped at all, but at least they might be noted as the attempt alone. And then there were the political implications of the murders. Nearly all of those that had ruled the realm had been slaughtered in terrible ways and so far, none of the heroes had stood up to claim their place. Overall, this could not bode well for the safety and peace in the lands. Especially not since the usual factions continued to wage their petty war back and forth across the lands. Not that they ever achieved anything other than make the lives of people in the contested territories more miserable.

As the sun settled down into the gentles waves of the sea, Iljian yawned and eyed the paper on which he had meant to put down his report. Not that it mattered much, what with the Duke being away most of the next week and barely any other guards taking an active interest in the things that he had to note down. Eventually, he settled down and scribbled quickly:

Too lazy to pen down anything more, Iljian folded his short report for handing in later and yawned. Determined to make it a nice and comfy evening after all he settled down to read some for a while and then took a quick dip in the cool and dark ocean before curling up in bed sleepily.*