The next day, Oshal put a plan into motion. After talking with Roshil and Kurgm separately, he needed one more thing to complete his plan. Someone to back him up, someone who wouldn’t take sides. Someone who could get peoples’ attention and hold it.

“Apprentice Sirshi, I need your help.”

While Roshil and Aonva could almost always be found together in the library, Sirshi could almost always be found in the Temple of the Rising Sun. This made it easy to enlist her help.

“What do you need?”

“Someone who can yell louder than I can.”

Sirshi stopped her chores.

“Why?”

“I told Roshil and Kurgm to meet me in one of the study rooms this afternoon. I’m going to figure out why they’re upset with each other and fix it.”

“Why do you care?”

“Because Roshil is my sister, and Kurgm’s my friend. I don’t want them to be angry at each other.”

“Why do I have to get involved?”

“Because Nourd’s not allowed in the castle unsupervised yet, and you’re the only other person I can count on not to be hostile toward my sister.”

Sirshi sighed. “What time?”

“One hour.”

“Fine.”

---

Roshil and Aonva met Oshal in one of the study rooms. He had told them that he needed help studying. He knew Roshil suspected him of being up to something; he rarely asked them for extra help, but Aonva was all too willing to help out. Roshil wouldn’t let Aonva go alone, as Oshal had suspected.

Roshil was happy to see Sirshi, almost happy enough to stop being suspicious of Oshal. A few minutes later, Kurgm showed up, and the shouting started.

“What’s he doing here?”

“Me? What are you doing here?”

“Oshal’s my brother! I’m helping him study!” He felt her glare on him again. “At least, I thought I was!”

“I thought we were meeting here before going out!”

“Why would he want to spend time with you?!”

“We’re friends! That’s what friends do!”

“Oh, really? I thought friends abandoned the people they cared about when a better offer came up!”

“Stop it!”

Sirshi did her part and raised her voice over Roshil’s and Kurgm’s. Oshal felt her thread move and block the door, barring their escape. None of them would try pushing past her. With Sirshi’s part out of the way, it was Oshal’s turn.

He reached out to the four threads, starting with Aonva. According to Roshil, everything centered around her. A wave of terror blocked out the sun, threatening to crash down and destroy everything. He thought back to the guilt he’d sensed from Kurgm every time he’d looked at Aonva. Something had happened, something about which Kurgm didn’t want to talk.

“Kurgm, why did you stop spending time with Aonva?”

That same feeling of guilt arose once again, but Oshal felt something else along with it: shame.

“I… I’ve just been busy.”

“But not too busy for—” Roshil started.

“Roshil!” Oshal said, glaring at her (something made considerably harder with bandages over his eyes). Still, it smothered her anger before it got out of hand.

With that, Oshal turned his attention back to Kurgm.

“Kurgm, is that really the reason?”

Kurgm’s shame grew bigger, an ugly monster looming over him. Oshal had sensed a lot of things from Kurgm, but never had he felt so small before. More than that, Kurgm felt foolish.

“Was it—” Aonva’s voice squeaked when everyone paid attention to her. Oshal really understood why Nourd likened her to a squirrel.

Aonva’s fear grew stronger, binding her mouth shut. She knew something, something helpful, but she was too afraid to say anything. Not for the first time in his life, Oshal wished he could hear thoughts instead of only sensing emotions.

“It’s okay,” he said. “What were you going to say?”

“If you hurt her,” Roshil said.

“Roshil!” Oshal said. “Aonva, it’s okay.”

“He didn’t hurt me,” Aonva said. “It wasn’t anything like that. Only we stopped spending time together the last time your uncle was here. I thought maybe it was what he said that time we were going to eat together. We didn’t spend much time together after that, so I thought that maybe…”

“What did he say?” Oshal asked, cutting off his sister before she could start yelling at Kurgm.

Silence prevailed once again. Kurgm wasn’t going to say anything, so Oshal turned his attention back to Aonva.

“Aonva, what did he say?”

“I shouldn’t have been listening. It was something he said when they were leaving. I don’t think they knew I could hear them. I didn’t mean to, honest I didn’t. But… but… he said I’d drag him down.”

For the first time since she’d called for silence, Sirshi started paying attention. Both she and Roshil glared at Kurgm. Fury radiated from the pair, and for the first time, Oshal began to wonder if this had been a good idea.

“I don’t care about that!” Kurgm said. “He said it, but… but he also said… he made me think that Aonva might not stay in the court.”

“And that’s better?” Sirshi asked.

While Sirshi started yelling at Kurgm, Aonva herself was shrinking. She wanted to run and hide.

Instead of joining Sirshi, Roshil stepped closer to Aonva. Oshal felt a whirlwind of emotions from both of them, but it softened as they drew closer.

“I didn’t know what to think,” Kurgm was saying as Oshal turned his attention back to them. “If Aonva was only going to leave, I didn’t want to… um…”

“It’s okay,” Oshal said. “You didn’t want to get hurt.”

Kurgm’s guilt remained, but his shame began to subside.

“Yeah. I didn’t. Aonva, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“It’s okay,” Aonva said softly.

Oshal felt something new from Aonva: confidence. Its attempt at overpowering her fear felt as futile as a mouse beating a wolf in a fight, but she was trying.

“See?” Oshal said. “There’s no reason we can’t all get along again.”

“She still enchanted another apprentice,” Kurgm said, turning on Roshil. “That bracelet hurt Aonva.”

“It was an accident,” Roshil said, her temper rising.

“Please stop,” Aonva and Oshal said together.

“Kurgm,” Aonva continued, “I’ve already forgiven her for the bracelet. It… it wasn’t meant to hurt me.”

Oshal smiled. His sister’s relationship with rules wasn’t always the best, but he knew Roshil would never do anything to hurt Aonva on purpose.

“See? There’s no reason we can’t all be friends.”

He heard his sister huff. That meant she’d folded her arms and knew she had to apologize.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” she grumbled.

“I’m sorry I yelled too,” Kurgm said. “I… I should’ve realized you wouldn’t have hurt Aonva on purpose.”

Oshal opened his arms.

“Group hug?”

“Not happening,” Sirshi said.

“I don’t really like hugs,” Aonva said.

Something the approximate size and shape of his sister collided with him and wrapped its arms around him.

“You’re a pain sometimes,” she said, “but I love you.”

“Great, everyone’s happy,” Sirshi said. “Can I go now?”

“If we’re not going anywhere,” Kurgm said, “I should get going too.”

Oshal figured it was too much to ask for them all to go out in the court, so he let everyone else go. It wasn’t perfect yet, but it was a good start. Most of his best friends, all getting along.

#VolumeThree #GettingAlong

With Oshal by his side, Nourd walked into the great hall for the first time. He’d seen the doors, been told what it was, but had never walked inside to see it. It looked to him like every other room. There was still a ceiling blocking the open sky. There were still walls on all sides, stopping him from leaving. He didn’t like it.

“I don’t like it,” he said to Oshal.

“Why not?”

“I cannot see the sky. I like the sky.”

“Don’t worry. It’s only for a little while, then you can go back outside.”

Oshal led him to one of the stretches of wood laid out in the room. Master Gorkle had called them “tables”. He’d also instructed Nourd on how to act while in the great hall. He could sit and talk, but everyone stood at attention when the officers walked in. Unlike most other human customs, this one made sense. Of course the leaders ate first. They were the leaders.

Oshal introduced him to some other humans. He recognized one of them, the male with glass on his face, Kurgm. He sat with his mate, Demndun. None of the other humans had mates, although the other two males were in the process of attempting to gain the attention of the other female.

“Hello,” Kurgm said.

“Hello,” Nourd replied, as he’d been instructed to do.

The other humans talked with Oshal, mostly ignoring Nourd. As Master Gorkle had told him, the officers walked in, and everyone stood up, including Nourd. When King Fohra walked in and took his seat, everyone else did.

Nourd liked the food, although the strange tools humans used to eat still confused him. Why didn’t they use their hands? Master Gorkle had explained that most humans didn’t like being dirty, so they used tools to avoid getting their food all over their hands. As with most explanations, it ended with the phrase “That’s how humans are”.

What confused him more was that some food could be eaten by hand, but there was no way to tell the difference. Master Gorkle provided little help explaining the difference, only saying he’d figure it out.

“Oshal says you’re a druid?” Kurgm asked him.

“I do not know what Oshal says.”

“He grew up in the forest,” Oshal said, smiling. “You should tell them about it. I’m sure they’d be interested.”

“That’s not surprising,” the other female, Cremwa said. “Your manners certainly fit that.”

The other males, Zifor and Muwen, snickered.

“Apprentice Parom wanted me to go to the Temple of the Known Shadow with him before I go back to my assignment,” Cremwa said. “I’m only in the court for two days, and he had the nerve to ask me to spend it staring around at the dark. I have better things to do today!”

“Tomorrow,” Oshal said. “The Appreciation of the Dark. They do that once every month to help people understand that the dark doesn’t have to be bad.” He smiled. “I like going.”

“Seems like a waste of time,” Cremwa said. “Right, Demndun?”

“I’m sure they think it’s important,” Demndun said.

Nourd wasn’t sure about Cremwa. If she was trying to be the pack leader, she wasn’t good at it. A pack leader needed to know the goings on of all those in her pack, like Elder Wolf did. This female didn’t know anything about the others, and certainly didn’t know anything about Nourd. If an outsider had approached the pack, Elder Wolf would’ve inspected them thoroughly before allowing them anywhere near her cubs.

“Why do they appreciate the dark?” Nourd asked.

“The Temple of the Known Shadow believes in helping people with their fears,” Oshal said. “Most people are afraid of what they don’t understand. The Temple of the Known Shadow tries to help by showing them the unknown doesn’t have to be scary.”

“The forest creatures are like that. The deer do not like humans, so they—”

“Like I was saying,” Cremwa said, “I’m not going. I have more important things to do with my time.”

The way Cremwa smelled reminded him of deer. They held themselves higher than the other creatures. They were proud and cautious, but arrogant. Nourd responded to her the way Elder Wolf had taught him to respond to deer: he growled.

Cremwa looked at him in disgust.

“Did he just growl at me?”

“Nourd, we’ve talked about that,” Oshal said. “Don’t growl at people. It’s not polite.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Cremwa said.

“He did say raised in the forest,” Muwen said.

“Come on, that’s enough,” Kurgm said. “He’s a little different, that’s all.”

“No, Oshal’s a little different,” Demndun said. “No offense, Oshal.”

Nourd decided he didn’t like the great hall. He missed eating in the gardens. Or better yet, back