The Lingering Question - Why?

JP with mdman and Cindy

"I have wondered every day, why they chose me. I believe it is because, in part, I know the Helians better than some one born and raised in Arcadia would. I know their hatred of all things that are not like themselves. Hatred of all magik." Islana explained. "However, there is likely other reasons the Twins chose me. I just am unclear what they are."

She took a breath, "I've had a feeling, nothing more but a strong feeling that the Twins choice has something to do with my mother. However, it's not a question that can ever be answered."

“Your mother?” Ch’Truta asked, purely attentive and interested. Ch’Truta didn’t know much of his parents. His father was killed and his mother was captured by another brood making a raid. “Tell me about her.”

He knew so little about Islana. This was an opportunity for Ch’Truta to learn more of her.

Islana's hand instinctively went to the small silver bird, adored on her necklace. "I don't know much about her. She died in childbirth with me. My father, didn't tell me much about her, just that I was a lot like her. In looks but I often thought there was more to it. I had older siblings, a brother and sister, but my sister was far too young to recall our mother. My brother was five when she passed and recalled only some things." Islana kept her hand on her necklace. "This was hers, My father gave it to me when I turned six." She took a breath. "All I really know about her was that my father loved her enough to give up his business and former life to move to the woods and build a house in the middle of practically nowhere. When she died it devastated him, he turned to the bottle."

“I am sorry,” Ch’Truta replied. He wasn’t certain how best to comfort her. Taking her lead from when he was struggling, Ch’Truta reached and clasped her free hand. “She must have been very beautiful if you reminded your father of her.”

"Thank you. I imagine her as looking like me, with slight differences. She's was a redhead. My siblings didn't have red hair, neither did my father, just me and her." Islana continued. "I often thought she might have had magik, like me. None of siblings or father had that either. It would explain so much. My brother often told stories that our mother would tell about snow capped mountains, and waters with no end. Places nothing like where I lived as a child though Helias has places like that. I don't know where she was from originally. I really can't say much else about her, so, I have wondered if the Twins chosing me was somehow connected to her."

Islana realized she left out a crucial piece to all of this. "The first Sister wasn't Ozaine, she was from Fang. She had been a Priestess of Fosia, the fire God. She was also a redhead. I'm not at all saying that we're related but it's an odd coincidence."

Ch’Truta eyed the necklace. It had been a possession of her mother’s when she was alive. Perhaps it is a clue.

“The necklace,” Ch’Truta suggested, “does it have any magik connected to it? If your mother had magik skills, perhaps she instilled something into the necklace.”

Islana shook her head, "Not that I am aware of. I am not even sure how one would tap into such a thing." Or even if it was possible. Gods tended to infuse things with power but she had never heard if a person doing the same. "I wish my father had told me more about her. During the pilgrimage, I had visions of people I care about. Almost all of them were in Arcadia, but I also saw her. Or my idea of her, I didn't get to see her for long and she didn't say anything but it was an amazing experience, if brief." Still it hadn't given any answers. "Maybe my father would have told me more, if he had been sober long enough, or I had been older or different. I believe he loved me but never understood me, not completely. He was always worried about my gift being found out. Maybe, if my mother had magik, he thought if I knew I might pursue it more. Which could have gotten my whole family killed, but as a child I didn't understand that. Even if I knew about the inquisition."

Ch’Truta realized that they had some in common. Both knew very little of their parents. He realized that Islana would have most likely known more of her father had he been sober.

Ch’Truta gently tightened his hold on her hand to bring encouragement. Now, it was time for him to be truthful, no matter the outcome. He could hold it no longer.

“Islana,” he said quietly, withholding the Sister Locust, as he was speaking solely to Islana’s heart, “I would like to be by your side as you discover you.” He realized she had embarked to this world to find more out about herself. “I realized something about myself in my last vision of the swamp spirits,” he confessed. “I have found that I have come to deeply cherish you.”