Lord Barin and Lady Halldora were hosting a meeting with friends. Part of what made it unusual was its location in an old basement room in their mansion in Ehart. That by itself might not have seemed odd if any casual onlooker had known to look but that it was held in a room filled with statues may have made it seem even stranger. It was an invitation only meeting and the guest list would have only added to the apparent oddity of the night. There were two members of the Healers Guild, four pairs of nobles and an Examiner. Considering the topic of conversation, that last addition to the guest list was the oddest of all.
"There is no question that the Chief Examiner is out of control, perhaps even insane!" The speaker, one of the Healers was passionate in his condemnation of Geinn. "Yet what worries me even more is that he has the ear of the king, so much so that the king seems to follow his 'advice' on every matter."
"I agree," said the Examiner quietly. "The chain of command has always been, King, Master Healer, Chief Examiner and in that order. Now is seems the Master Healer's advice is always ignored and the King chases Geinn around like a drunken puppy. If I believed in such things, I would say he was bewitched."
The two healers looked at each other quickly but it was not lost on anyone there. Lord Staril, the one who had initially raised his concerns in private with Barin, was head of one of the most powerful families in the Western Kingdom. It was his shipyards that were profiting from the kings sudden insistence on tripling the size of the Kingdom's fleet. The money mattered far less to him than the security of the kingdom and kings only ordered bigger navies when they were planning to use them. Staril cleared his throat. "You two know something of this?"
The female healer, a pretty blond who had introduced herself as Eiriol looked at the other healer and shrugged. "Gille and I were apprenticed at Summit Hall under Lady Melton, as some of you may know. A number of years ago, during our apprenticeship, an unusual woman came to the hall and was elevated to Master the same day! Not that she didn't deserve it as her knowledge of herbs is still unmatched by any I have met. Still, she was said to be unusual in her gifts." Eiriol looked helplessly at the other healer, Gille.
"Her name was Aeronwyn." When he spoke that name, Barin and Halldora jumped slightly. "Ah, so we are not the only ones who have knowledge of her, then? She had strange powers and Lady Melton chose to help her escape the Examiners, personally assigning her liegeman, Bron to protect her. I have heard nothing of her since, but it seems an odd coincidence."
Barin looked at Halldora, then at one of the statues, a woman with crossed arms and a bowed head. "We have met her and Bron as well. She is the reason we live. The story of our escape was changed at her request, since magic was involved in that too."
Lord Arthu, a minor lord and a cousin to Halldora, asked, "What did you call it? Magic? Never heard of it!"
"I have," the Examiners words quieted the room. "I was one of those assigned to the research that led to Geinn killing so many Senior Examiners. It was a word that came up often in old recordings. What this thing is with the king doesn't match anything I read in those writings."
"Nor could I imagine Aeronwyn capable of such evil. A woman that risked exposure and her own life to save us would hardly be the kind to control others." Halldora said.
"So could there be others with unusual powers? Is it possible to do this with herbs, or some other means?" Staril asked.
"Truthfully? We don't know and I think we had better try and find out," said Healer Gille.
"There is someone we might ask," Barin offered. "Someone I trust."
Arthu looked at his cousin and nodded, almost as one, they said, "Aeronwyn!"
They met for another hour, laying out plans to prepare a resistance if the king was corrupted somehow. When it was decided that they should try and track down Aeronwyn for advice, Halldora remembered that Aeronwyn had told her where she could be found. ”The Sessailaine. They know where she is."
