Skwyr Court

The four of them walked in silence to breakfast. Their collective gloom cast a shadow around them. Oshal couldn’t feel anything else. He forced himself to stay positive, but he didn’t say anything. Knowing Roshil, talking about it would only upset her.

Their silence persisted through breakfast. The din of emotion from the other apprentices and their masters didn’t do much to drown out the sadness his sister felt. She poked and prodded a few pieces of food, but hardly touched any of it.

What saddened Oshal most was the thought of how happy she’d been when he’d arrived the previous day. Her cheerful demeanor had stuck with her, and he’d thought for a moment that she’d be happy in the castle. But she wasn’t happy anymore. It wasn’t unlike their first few days in the court. People stared at them, often uncomfortable around them. Their father insisted it was because they were new, but Roshil had insisted on staying inside after that. She’d always been treated differently, and had decided it was best to avoid people.

As breakfast ended, Master Durwey fetched Oshal. Like the previous day, he couldn’t feel much from her, but for a brief moment, he felt a flicker of discomfort from her, the same as he’d felt from everyone around them. He ignored it and bid farewell to his friends. Kurgm wished him well on his first day as an apprentice, Aonva softly corrected that to first full day, but his sister said nothing. While Oshal wanted to stay with her, he knew he’d have to go. Hopefully she’d be feeling better at dinner.

Master Durwey led him out of the great hall. As they moved away from it, the emotions of the other people in the castle faded away.

“Most of your time will be spent with me,” she said. “There are classes: history and social structure, both of Skwyr and the other kingdoms; science and mathematics; language studies, including Arcane. As a weaver, it won’t be as important to learn magic, but you’ll need to know a basic message spell, so you will need to learn Arcane. Special accommodations will be made, of course, given your condition.”

“It’s the same teachers I’ve had, isn’t it?” Oshal asked.

“Yes, of course. They’ll be familiar with you by now.”

Oshal couldn’t sense how Master Durwey felt, but he was familiar enough with how people reacted when they first met him. They were always flustered and uncertain around him. Most people were curious about him, since the bandages around what used to be his eyes were a giveaway that something had happened to him.

As they walked, Master Durwey would point out places, only to remember that Oshal couldn’t see. Despite her apologies, Oshal wasn’t bothered by it. He missed being able to see sometimes, but more often than that he wished people would stop treating him differently.

“You will have someone to escort you around the castle,” she said after the fourth time she apologized for pointing to something he couldn’t see.

“I can find my classes from the teachers, but my sister would be happy to walk with me if she needed to.”

“Your sister is not responsible for you here.” While he didn’t sense it from her, he heard anger in her voice. “I am. Unless you have class, I will be walking with you wherever we need to go.”

“But—”

“That’s the end of it.”

Oshal had intended to say that he didn’t need anyone to walk with him. He didn’t know when Roshil would need to walk with him at all. But Master Durwey continued on.

“It’s clear by your abilities that you don’t need to learn to sense others’ emotions, but instead that you need to learn to control it.”

“Crowds are difficult.”

“They can be at first. After we teach you control, you’ll need to learn to mask yourself from other weavers. You can already follow threads to other people, so we’ll also work on sending emotions along the threads.”

Oshal had learned about many of the abilities of a weaver after his parents had found out how easily he could sense emotions. After his mother had explained it to him, his first question had been about Roshil. She’d always been so lonely, he wanted to know if he could make her feel happy.

“You have to be responsible,” his mother had said. “Don’t assume that you know better than anyone else what’s best for them.”

They walked through the castle until they came to a stop. Oshal didn’t sense anyone around them, so they weren’t at another room. He waited for Master Durwey to tell him where they were, rather than waste time asking.

“Today we’ll start by isolating you from people,” Master Durwey said. “We’re going to go out into the forest and sit alone for a time. This should give you a break from the noise.”

Oshal nodded. He used to think that one day he would grow used to the constant noise, but he never did. The feelings of others always swirled around him. He always knew how his father and sister were feeling. At least, he had, until Roshil had gone to the castle. It’d been a long seven months without her, but he was with her now, so she’d be okay. They both would.

He followed Master Durwey. A tingle spread through his body, causing him to jump.

“It’s alright. All the doors do that. You’ll have to get used to it. It’s why you never want to lose that bauble I gave you.”

Oshal knew the bauble was in one of the pouches on his belt. Everything was always where it was supposed to be, so he could find it later. He wondered if Roshil had lost hers. She wasn’t always organized, getting too caught up in her latest project to notice when something was wrong. He knew why she was like that; it helped her shut out everything else. He liked her that way, rather than being sad all the time.

The ground underneath his feet turned from stone to dirt. The echoes of voices were replaced by the ruffling of leaves. He didn’t sense anyone else outside with them. The noise of emotion faded away as they walked farther from the castle.

“How’s your head?” Master Durwey asked.

“Much better, thank you.”

“Good. We’ll be walking back and forth a few times. When you’re inside the castle, find this feeling again. It will keep you grounded in yourself. It’s also a good first step toward masking your own emotions from other weavers.”

Oshal nodded while studying how he felt. Calm, peaceful. Nothing else in the world was a problem. He could still sense a few threads, but he knew whose they were. One of them was Roshil’s, another was their father’s. There were a few with which he was becoming more familiar, those of his new friends.

Then there was his thread. The thread Oshal didn’t dare touch. The one he hoped he never had to follow. Despite reassurances that its owner couldn’t track it back to him, it still scared him.

“Are you alright?” Master Durwey asked.

Oshal focused on the other threads, on the calm noises of the outdoors. It was peaceful here, and he loved it.

“Good. I’m glad you’re learning. It won’t be perfect, and it’s always possible to lose control when you feel strong emotions.”

Oshal wondered if that’s what happened whenever Master Durwey was around Roshil. Why did everyone seem to think there was something wrong with his sister?

The wind rustled the trees as they walked into the forest. He heard sounds of animals flitting from tree to tree. There were no threads, and not much in the way of emotions. His mother had told him that animals feel emotions differently than humans do, which is why weaving didn’t work on animals.

Then he sensed something else. Something human. Something human in the trees.

“That’s probably one of the druids,” Master Durwey said. Oshal heard her whisper something. After a pause, she took his arm.

“We’re going back to the castle now,” she said in a low voice. “Don’t make any sudden moves.”

He sensed confusion and fear from the other human, but it quickly changed to anger. It grew into a chorus of screeching and shouting animals, threatened by something new.

Or angry people, threatened by someone different.

He remembered the feeling of so much negativity concentrated toward his sister. He didn’t want anyone to feel like that, nor to feel how his sister had felt.

Oshal gathered his thoughts before the rage could overwhelm him. Everything else dropped away, leaving only he and that thread.

“Don’t be afraid. We’re friendly.”

The anger faded away, leaving curiosity in its wake, like when a dog sniffed his hand.

He smiled.

“My name’s Oshal. What’s yours?”

“Apprentice Oshal, stop. Return to the castle at once.”

Oshal had learned early on that only select pieces of information could be gleamed from the threads. Emotions, a sense of location, but also basic facts about a person, like their name and gender. That’s why he knew the other human was a boy.

And a word came into his head: Nourd.

Nourd stayed in the trees, motionless. Lady Durwey grabbed Oshal’s arm.

“Now.”

Nourd was confused, curious, but more afraid than anything. The moment Lady Durwey began leading Oshal back to the castle, he fled.

As Oshal walked back to the castle, his thoughts stayed on Nourd. He could still sense the thread that led back to him, but he wanted to know more. Had Oshal’s kindness helped? It didn’t always help, but it was nice when it did.

“You are not to go into the forest without a master accompanying you,” Lady Durwey said. “There’s a reason for that. We don’t know who or what that was, apart from human and not from the court.”

“His name is Nourd.”

“I’m glad you’re capable of picking that out of the thread, but you shouldn’t introduce yourself to every passerby. There are dangerous creatures out there.”

“I know.”

Master Durwey stopped walking.

“Of course, you do. That was foolish of me to say.”

As they walked back through the forest, it wasn’t the dragon that came to Oshal’s mind, but the people from the temple. He liked Nourd already, at least enough to want to know more about him. Nourd had listened to Oshal; he’d been curious about him. But the people at the temple had already made up their minds about him and his sister. Why couldn’t people listen?

#VolumeOne #TheOnesWeLove