We had to go back to Mithram to get the Unseen Blade. Before we left Mithram, I had inconspicuously repaired all the damage I had caused to the buildings surrounding the courtyard during the Xerith ambush. Mira, Bandit and I then sailed the Unseen Blade upriver from Mithram. We had a nice voyage, and we talked a lot. I told her about my experiences in Havanalil and with the Icosahedron. I emphasized the parts with the deadly magical traps and the way it was judging me before it changed me. After all, I had acted out of ignorance and desperation when I sought it out, and knowing her, I thought Mira may try something similar. The Icosahedron could have very easily turned me into dust right then, and I didn’t want to take a chance that it would happen to her. She wasn’t a sorcerer like me, and I didn’t know if the Icosahedron would accept someone who practiced a different kind of magic. I told her as much, and she seemed to understand. By the time we got back, we were comfortable being friends again, even if she wasn’t ready to be a wife.

  With all the people living there, the Smith house was usually a hub of activity. Dortham walked up the stairs from the smithy and into the living room of his home. The family was chatting in small groups or performing the final preparations for dinner. He’d been in an Elder Council meeting with Prince Kimorel this afternoon, and we were all waiting to hear the news. It had been a week since the events in Mithram, and the dust had finally settled.

  “So, what’s the news?” Samirah asked as she set the table. Elric’s wife was our source for the town’s gossip, and she loved to hear news before any of her peers. It made her unofficial royalty in those circles.

  Dortham walked over to Nora in the kitchen and kissed her on the cheek before he said anything. “The prince has informed the Council that the king’s back in his right mind. The council wasn’t really aware of the problem before then, and I tried to act surprised. Duke Gabria of Blackrock was found to be guilty of treason and hanged, and Prince Anturin was granted the Duchy of Blackrock after the position opened. The Church of the Overgod was banned from all of Mithram’s holdings, too.”

  “What about the Executors coming to Stonekeep?” Mira asked.

  “I’ve scouted them with the Throne. They’re still about four days travel away,” I said. “Grath offered his services, and the two of us will handle it.”

  “Aren’t you going to need some help to take on all those Xerith?” Bran asked.

  “Not on an open road, we won’t. Grath and I can handle a hundred of them in their caravan without any worries. They still think they can do whatever they want, secure in their disguise as benevolent priests. They don’t know what’s coming for them,” I said with certainty.

  “When were you planning to deal with them?” Bran asked.

  “Tomorrow,” I said.

  There was a pause as they considered what I said. They looked at me a little differently after that. They were surely wondering how I could be so confident after they found out for themselves how dangerous those creatures were. I let them wonder.

  “I met with the prince two days ago to give him my report along with a certain enchanted goblet we may have possibly seen before,” Mira said. “I kept things pretty ambiguous and just told him I nicked it from the wine cellar. He seemed grateful, but he appeared worried, too. He said he’d speak with his father personally, then he dismissed me.”

  “Prince Kimorel said today that he’d be travelling to Mithram tomorrow. He’d gotten a dispatch from King Korban earlier today with the news and a summons to the palace,” Dortham said. “At least he doesn’t have to worry about it being his execution he’s traveling to.”

  “That’s a good thing. I wonder what they’ll be discussing regarding recent events,” I said.

  “If they put their heads together, they’ll know that Mira knows who the Mordonian sorcerer is,” Dortham said. “We’ll see what they do about it. There’s nothing else we can do.”

  “We’ll all need to be careful, then,” Bran said. “If the king has any crazy ideas lingering in his head, we could all be facing a visit from his soldiers.”

  “Or assassins,” Mira said brightly. “I’m sure there are plenty of them out there that aren’t Xerith.”

  “Lovely,” Bran said.

  “We have a couple of weeks at the very least until we find out, anyway,” I said. “I have a few projects in mind that I’ll be working on, so I won’t be wandering the streets.”

  “Oh? Like what?” Mira asked.

  “Well, the steel plate armor I made years ago won’t take the punishment that a mob of Xerith or an earth wyrm can inflict, and I need a bigger harness anyway, so I’ve already started making a suit of adamantine plate armor. And I promised I’d make a shirt of adamantine chainmail for Elle like I made for you,” I said.

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  “I’d really appreciate that!” Elle said. She noticed Bran’s slightly downcast look and laid her hand on his arm. “Although I’ve really come to appreciate the armor you made for me, Bran, I’m not strong enough to fight well with it. I could use something that I could wear secretly.”

  “Sure, just spit on the gift I worked so hard to make,” Bran said playfully.

  Elle stroked Bran’s arm. “You know I didn’t mean it that way.”

  Bran hid his eyes with a hand. “You’ve grievously wounded me.” He held a hand over his heart then. “I don’t know if I’ll live. Oh, the pain.” Bran comically spread his fingers and peeked at her to see if she was buying it.

  “I’m so sorry,” Elle said. “I only meant to traumatize, not to maim.” She had an expression of deep concern on her face, but then she smiled and laughed lightly. We all had a little laugh at that.

  “Lunch is ready,” Nora announced.

  We all had a seat at the table and began passing the bowls of food around as we conversed.

  “I suppose I need to make a pair of leggings for each of you as well,“ I said. “I can’t have you going around only half protected.”

  “That would be wonderful,” Mira said.

  She kissed me on the cheek, purposely smearing gravy all over the side of my face. It felt very slimy. Mira smirked at me as she chewed. I made a long-suffering sigh and cleaned my face off with a little cleaning spell at the flick of my finger.

  “I’ve been watching out for Kromwell, just so everyone knows. He disappeared inside Fellton, and I think Raynold and Bermin are with him. When I try to get a view of them, I see only gray mist. I get the same results when I try to focus on Mordon and Ismaera. An odd coincidence, wouldn’t you say?” I asked sarcastically.

  “It’s not much of an intuitive leap,” Mira said.

  I nodded. “I think that whatever threat Mordon saw those twenty years ago was in Fellton, and that it snared him there. Whatever has the power to snare a High Mage like Mordon is something we need to be very wary of. I don’t even know what can do that.”

  “I feel strongly that we need to end the influence of the Xerith and their church over people,” Elle said. “As we saw in Seacrown and now in Mithram, they do a lot of harm for entire generations.”

  “It’ll take a lot of surveillance and sneaking around to find them and their plans,” Mira said.

  “So, it would take someone equally sneaky to find them?” I asked with a blank face. “Do we know of anyone who’s always sneaking around causing trouble?”

  “I’m sure I don’t know anyone like that,” Mira said with her nose in the air. I thought I heard a little snort coming from where Bandit was eating daintily with both paws from her little dish below us. I tried not to look and give her away.

  “In all seriousness, what we’re discussing here involves a great deal of deadly danger,” Dortham said. It was like he just threw a bucket of cold water on us.

  “I’m taking it seriously, dad,” I said. “I think I can equip us with the best armor we can get, and I’ll keep watching. I only know a few tricks right now, but maybe I’ll learn something of use from the library in Stonekeep.”

  “I’ll be learning some things, too, I hope,” Mira said. “We have those books from the Pirate King’s personal library, and I think I can barter that knowledge to Whizzbang for lessons in magic. He’s still my mentor, you know. I’ll bet he’ll say yes.”

  “That sounds like a fine idea, Mira,” Nora said encouragingly. “By the way, do you have a place to stay here in the city? The ship is a bit cramped, I’d wager.”

  “I just have my quarters in the Unseen Blade right now,” Mira replied.

  “Why don’t you stay here?” Nora asked. “We’d love to have you with us.”

  Elle smiled. “That would be nice.”

  “You wouldn’t mind?” Mira asked timidly.

  “Of course not, dear. Why don’t you settle in tonight?” Nora suggested.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Smith. That’s really nice of you,” Mira said.

  I could tell that Mira was very moved by this. She spent her childhood not being wanted or valued as a person, and the feeling of being a part of our family was very important to her. Mira was very happy to be adopted, much like I had been.

  “Speaking of living arrangements,” Elric began, “Samirah and I will be getting our own house soon. My share of the gold we found in the temple will see to that with some left over. We’ll be seeing Calim Carver and his folks about buying some furniture with the rest.”

  “Oh! We have some bunk beds and chairs and things if you’d like them,” Mira said.

  “You do? Where’d you get them?” Elric asked.

  “From the Pirate King’s lair, of course. We have ten sets of bedroom furniture that are for anyone who needs them,” Mira said. “Half of them are Seeker sized, which is great for the boys, and they won’t get old and creaky.”

  “I almost forgot about that,” Bran said.

  “Thanks, Mira. I’ll let you know when we find a suitable house.”

  “We’ll miss you all terribly,” Nora said.

  Dortham looked at Elric with both a little sadness and with pride. “You’ll still be working the smithy, right?”

  “Of course. We’ve got a good thing going here and it’s better to cooperate than compete,” Elric said.

  “Good thinking, son,” Dortham said.

  “We didn’t want to steal your thunder, Elric, but Bethan and I were thinking along similar lines,” Darek said.

  “Wait a minute,” Dortham protested. “Who’s going to take care of me in my old age?” His eyes smiled even if the rest of his face didn’t.

  “Bah, we’ll just put your old bones on a log and send you down river when you can’t swing a hammer anymore,” Bran said.

  “Why go through all that effort?” Elric said, already chuckling.

  “Yeah, we could just kick his tired, old backside out into the street,” Darek joked.

  “I want all of you thankless, lazy louts out of here right this instant,” Dortham countered.

  And so it went. Barbs were hurled back and forth between brothers and father for a good while. Our family had a way of turning what could be a sad situation into a laughing matter sometimes. With a world as dangerous and cruel as Aldon could sometimes be, that was a way we coped with emotional things. There was an expression that Dortham used sometimes: “eat for the hunger that’s coming.” That same saying could be applied to times of happiness and sadness. We learned to take the good times and use them as armor against the bad.

  It was a lesson I’d need to apply to myself over and over during the course of what could be a very long life. As it was right now, I had trouble sleeping, and if I got caught up in my sheets, I’d have nightmares about the Xerith grabbing me. I always woke up just before the talons and fangs actually got me, but Mira was right when she said I’d been through some trauma, and she had no idea how terrifying that battle with the earth wyrm was.

  We all had dark times, but we all had each other.