Elfborn

An Awakening

Nona nearly ran through the snow towards Misha's toka, clutching her shawl awkwardly around her shoulders as she went. She had seen the flashes of light in his windows from her own and her heart throbbed with a sickened rhythm in her chest as she ran on. Had the Hybernians caused some sort of harm to come to the one that had begun their transformation? If they had, she would personally see them dead!

Then she was skidding to a surprised halt as the door to Misha's toka was abruptly flung open, letting the three Hybernians step out. Behind them stepped a tall, strong looking man, a touch of gray in his hair, his skin tanned a deep brown and his face handsome and young. He was dressed appropriately for the weather, his coat fitting his lean and fit body perfectly and was pulling on his gloves as Naneen was saying something to him. At first glance, she put him in his mid forties, close to the prime of his life.

And then fell to her knees as she recognized the face, the strength leaving them without warning. It was Misha. Or, rather, how Misha looked nearly thirty years ago. A thoughtful expression was on his transformed face, as if he was contemplating a hidden riddle.

Only to have it swept away by a brilliant smile as he caught sight of Nona kneeling in the snow.

"Mistress Healer!" he declared cheerfully, his voice a powerful tenor that, despite her fears, sent shivers of passion through Nona's body. "In the name of the Great Spirit, what are you doing, kneeling there in the snow?"

Nona's hands shook as she accepted the small cup of tea from Sonja's hand, her eyes still on the handsome, middle-aged man that Misha had become. She now sat in her own toka, at her own table. Yet, surrounded by the Hybernians and this man she barely recognized, she felt familiarity slip away and anxiety move in to replace it. What was going on? What was happening?

She took a careful sip and swallowed the almost too hot mixture immediately, feeling it calm her nerves all the way down to her stomach. It was mint tea, one of her favorites. Sonja flashed her a quick smile before stepping back, bowing her head in respect as Misha stepped forward.

"Quite the change, eh, Nona?" Misha said with that newly energized voice of his. He grinned almost boyishly as he looked down at his hands, now covered with a spidery network of dark lines. It didn't take much for his sensitized eyes to discover the rune-within-rune pattern that now lay there. He let his hands drop to his side to look into Nona's dark eyes.

"It's like ... Maker, I can hardly describe it. Like I've shed three decades! I feel like I'm young again. Filled with vitality and power." Abruptly the smile vanished.

"And once again filled with the magic that is our birthright." Misha leaned closer, his face serious. "The magic that was stripped from us because of our betrayal of the Shae, from which we sprang."

"Our ... betrayal?" Nona whispered, her face uncertain as she gazed into the face of the man she once knew.

Misha nodded.

"Yes. Thanks to Naneen and the Hybernians, I now know the sin that caused the Tsigani to be cast out of their homeland. A land that sang in our veins." He shook his head and stood erect.

"We are well named," he said almost musingly before directing his words back at Nona. "You see, it is from our people that the Fire Lords sprang." At Nona's loud gasp, quickly echoed by Sonja and Josilin, who had joined Sonja at Nona's request, Misha nodded.

"Terrible, yes. But not the cause of our sin." Misha grimaced. "As I think upon it now, it fills me with horrible shame. Something that has shamed our entire people." He sighed then went on. "Our sin is even more terrible than giving birth to the creatures that nearly destroyed our world in the War of Domination. Indeed, it is the most foul deed I have ever born witness to. Our sin is that we did nothing to stop them. We let the Fire Lords begin the war against the Shae, which, at that time, contained our own Humanity. And we let the Fire Lords nearly wipe out the rest of Humanity while our people looked on. Still we did nothing when the Elves finally came into the fray. We watched as hundreds of thousands died in horrible warfare, both magical and mundane, before the war was finally done five hundred years later."