Fire Angels

Chapter 10 part 1 Shadows of the past.

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Afterwards as we lay drowsily among the tangle of quilts, damp skin pressed against damp skin, I told Shad what I had learned in the council chamber.

"We must hope the Duke of Gallia will go south as soon as possible," he said. "I do not love the Burning Light but I would no wish to see them fed to demons. Tell me will the Duke listen to you if you urge him to go into the Wasteland?"

"I wouldn't think so. I'm scared to death of the Duke. I'm sure he hates me. Or, not hates me.... despises me. He knows how I failed. I doubt he was blinded by the fact that I slew a demon."

"You are too hard on yourself. Who else could be as hard?"

"The Duke's an autocratic man. He entrusted me with the guarding of his favorite mistress and I let him down."

"Did he tell you this?"

"He did not speak to me in private after the battle. He rewarded me as was expected of him and then he helped me to disappear to Cardun. I don't want to see him again. Nonetheless I will try to speak to him and tell him of what I have found out here."

He squeezed me.

"That's courage in you. Personally I'd rather fight ten Fire Angels than have to seek favor from any Duke."

Then I told him of the Wanderers' foretelling.

"It's all very well for you to laugh," I said as he chuckled, "but why do they have to be so frustrating."

"Foretelling is a frustrating business. Truly. The Wanderers call it the bitter gift, because to see the future and have it to fear can blight a whole life. As children we were warned of this; of how you can see a vision of your brother with a bloody knife and assume he is going to kill you, when really he is going to kill the large bear that would have eaten you. By killing your brother you make it certain that you will be eaten by the bear. That's a simple version, but always there were warnings and warnings and warnings about putting too much weight into foretellings, especially before they had been judged. And the future does change. A foretelling is only a vision of what will happen in the future if things continue as they are. The council must like the future they have seen and be afraid of changing it by telling you too much."

Growing up in Moria there had always been Wanderers around in the background - seen passing on roads, heard speaking to the servants in the garden or glimpsed performing at fairs. During my exile in Gallia I had come to know them better; Cardun was on one of the Wanderers regular routes and they had always called in at my hut on their way through.

"Were you keeping an eye on me?" I asked Causa as we sat by the fire in the spirit cave the next day.

She shrugged.

"Foretellers have seen the seventh child of Marnie Holyhands in the visions of the future for many years. In Cardun one of our people recognized you as her. We Wanderers cannot help but want to hang on to sweet visions."

"So it wasn't to protect me from the necromancer in the Great Waste."

"It crossed our minds, but there has never been any danger. It is only since you killed that Fire Angel that the Destroyer has considered your existence."

I stared at the fire. There was still no smoke in it and now I noticed there was no heat either. I put my hand into it and felt the magic flowing over it like warm water. Was it Hamel who had said Wanderer magic was different? Amazingly it seemed he must be right. This magic was nothing like the magic I was used to.