Aunt Carri is back. Finally! The first I knew of it was when Karlie almost threw a plate of food she was carrying and dashed toward the door. I recognised the voice responding to Karlie's excited chatter immediately and confess that I too, felt an immediate sense of relief.
For much of my life, Aunt Carri has been a presence, along with her brother, Uncle Hadh. The two of them were as much my parents as my own, more so when mine joined our ancestors watching over us. Aunt Carri held me as I grieved for them at their passing and Uncle Hadh cajoled me out of my funk and set me to working, reminding me that what had taken my parents from me, from them, was still out there and needing to be guarded against.
The chatter from the other room lowered in volume and I heard an exchange of muffled whispers, followed by the sound of footsteps approaching the room wherein I lay on my cot. Karlie's face appeared as she peeked around the doorjamb, her normal smiling face nearly shining with joy as she looked at me. I tried to hide my own elation, which did no good, Karlie knows me better than most. Dashing a tear from the corner of her eye, she nodded and retreated, understanding that I knew what was happening and leaving me to greet my second mother in privacy.
I flung my blanket off and sat up as the familiar form replaced Karlie in the doorway. Aunt Carri paused a moment as we both sized the other up, seeking the differences and hoping to see nothing in the other that spoke of change. People who know us say we are more alike in appearance than I was with my own mother. Studying her face now, as she did mine, I was relieved to see that she had not changed to my eyes.
Oh, there were signs of travel on her, but her physical form was as I always remembered and her smile was as well. Her sharp eyes studied me intently and then she was in motion, arms going wide and the smile I had missed hit me in the gut as she spread her arms, seating herself on the edge of my bed and enveloping me in a certified Aunt Carri hug.
"Where have you been! Welcome back, Auntie!" I whispered in her ear, returning the hug as we spoke at the same time.
"What did I tell you about getting hurt, young lady?" she asked, her arms like to squeezing the breath from my body for a moment.
We both laughed, pulling back with our hands on the other's shoulders, eyes searching each other's gaze. I answered first, courtesy and affection demanding it of me to my elder and my relative.
"You said 'Try not to get hurt' and I did! I tried not to, but the drunken fool didn't want to do his part."
"Aye, that's about what I expected. How many times have you been out of your bed without Karlie's permission?" she demanded.
I answered right away, knowing that I'd hidden any sign of my recent forays outside of the clinic.
"What do you mean, Auntie?"
Carri's eyes narrowed and I knew that look. I'd seen it far too often to know it portended trouble.
"Three times, Mother." I answered, using her formal title on the Council. That startled her as I knew it would, she has only come to the position recently and though I have not seen her in nearly two years, I knew that she had not expected to be named to the council so young, if at all.
Exasperation filled her eyes as she pulled back a bit, looking at me and shaking her head slightly.
"Scamp.' she chided me gently, 'Don't act all subservient now. I know you and I'm not above paddling you again!"
I grinned at her, willing to take the risk if it meant she'd stay longer, even if it did include being disciplined.
Her demeanor shifted then and she settled on the foot of her bed, the time for business arriving as I had known it would.
"So...the Shadow seeks to send us another plague and you and your uncle are right in the middle of the trouble?"
"It does and we are, Auntie. Uncle Hadh goes north to lend his steel to the fight in the North and I am called to Kheledul to try to remove the enemy's means to bring this about."
We spoke long as I filled her in on the details known to me. By her questions, I knew she and her brother had already spoken, her questions were informed and concise. I told her of the elves involved in the crisis, Ahmo, Xanderian and her spitfire sister, Xandilif and the enigmatic elder I had rarely seen and never spoken to, Enthan of the Golden Woods.
I spoke as well of the humans caught up in the conflict, Addiela, Nethrida, Eduwiges and Masin, telling her what I knew of their stories while Aunt Carrie busied herself examining my wound and rebandaging it, satisfied apparently at Karli's care of it.
When we had finished, Aunt Carri tapped the knee of my wounded leg with her finger. "Brace it well and though I know you will not listen, be careful! The Dourhand have always been bitter enemies to us and their allies in this no less. For my sake and your Uncle's, take no chances you do not -have- to."
"I will float like a feather in the shadows as you told me so many years ago, Auntie." I promised, meaning every word.
"These enemies will not be drunk and they will howl for blood when you strike." she warned, a fact I well knew already.
I promised again to do my best, that answer satisfying her. I have never made a promise to her that I didn't fully intend to keep and I never intended to. With that, we spoke a while of things that had passed in her absence and of what she had been doing during her time away, a story I will set pen to parchment for later, when circumstances permit.
For now, circumstances bade her presence within the council or wherever they sent her, her skills as a healer almost certainly a guarantee that she would be busy should my mission succeed or fail. The thought of it failing was not to be borne, it meant the Shadow would be falling over Bree again and we would all be fighting for survival.
We are the guardians of the Crossroads and though few know of our mission, it is our birthright and obligation to see it done despite the costs. With this ominous and somewhat pretentious closing remark inked to my journal, I set pen and book aside, laying back on my cot and hugging myself, simultaneously overjoyed that Aunt Carri was back, however temporarily and terrified that what was coming might tear us asunder again.
