NEM by Randolph Lalonde

Author:Randolph Lalonde [Lalonde, Randolph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781988175324
Publisher: Randolph Lalonde

Chapter 21

I want to take a moment to explain something about the first teacher I had in the magical arts, Inae. The more you get to know her, especially when you’re looking the possibility of having a natural life that could last centuries in the face, the more you realize how small your perspective is. How little you understand what having so much time means. How you constantly fail to comprehend the consequences your actions could have. Living so long can mean that something you did a couple centuries ago could come back around.

Inae, her husband, and the people who survived their early adventures have been around for so long that their deeds have become part of history. Imagine if the Wright Brothers survived into the twenty-first century and were still in their prime. What would they be doing now? Would they have kept inventing? Would they have retired to become public speakers or professional celebrities? What would they have gone on to do with all that time? What if they kept innovating, pushing progress further by inspiring and instructing people? I would eventually learn that Inae and her husband mastered many types of magic and their students numbered in the thousands. They weren’t just legends as adventurers, but revered as teachers and King John tried to ruin that by keeping them to himself.

All that is easy to forget when you’re standing right beside someone like that, because Ondi usually age slowly. It takes centuries for them to go from looking about eighteen to thirty and they have ways of doubling and tripling the length of that long summer.

I was reminded that she’d seen a large chunk of history personally by something she said as we passed through the portal leading to the outskirts of Olur’s temple. “This is as terrible as the border war when I was a girl. When Highshield was in its third expansion.”

That was hundreds of years ago. The giant wall that was separating the tamed lands of the coast and the wilds beyond was still being built then. A great army from Brightwill crossed the sea and forced the clearing of forests, killing thousands of peaceful Ondi-Ne villagers and claiming dwarven hill-homes. A short war erupted, and the army from the Brightwill Kings was defeated.

The Brightwill Kings got what they wanted in the end. The next section of the Highshield wall was built several leagues further inland, giving them more land for farming and other resources, all of which would be shipped directly back to their kingdoms. To think that Inae was a little girl when that was happening reminded me that I was standing next to a person who was most likely more wise and experienced than I could imagine. I was also amazed that she wasn’t falling apart before my eyes, because it was common knowledge that she and her husband had been together for most of their lives. If I lost someone who I was so close to, I wouldn’t be able to function at all.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.