TL;DR Kay and Eldthor story

[Zen]

[This is a collaboration between the two of us, BTW...]

Kay is listening to Conna deliver her address to the impressive assembly of giant clans. She's technically listening to Eldthor translate Conna's speech through a Message spell, actually, and Anna is doing the same for a the rest of "The Order of the Rusty Dragon" who don't speak Giantish. Dothan could have done it, but she wanted to take notes, and boy is she! Tons!

But Kay is having a hard time concentrating on the speech...

I almost died today... AGAIN!

She sighs heavily and feels Eldthor's hand tighten around her shoulder.

He probably knows exactly what I'm thinking.

She turns her head toward her husband and gives him a weak smile, which he returns with a slight nod of his head and another squeeze of her shoulder. She leans her head on his armored shoulder and allows the sureness and steadiness of his nature to calm her inner turmoil, as it always does. Though she can tell he was shaken by the events of the day as much as she was, he is always stronger than her when it comes to force of will and making wise choices.

If I had to guess, he must think the wise choice at this point is to be strong and support his foolish wife so she doesn't fall to pieces before they get out of this meeting.

When Conna begins to talk about Wizardry versus Sorcery, it reminds Kay of her own prejudice against "book learned" magic that she used to have, oh, all of four months ago, was it? She used to argue with Cass about it sometimes, though it was mostly teasing.

I've come to appreciate the merits of book taught wizardry, though. First Cass, then Anna have shown me that their magic is not inferior to sorcery in any way, even if I dedicated myself solely to its pursuit, my sorcery would be, at best, equal to Anna's scholarly pursuits of the arcane. It's a shame the giants cannot see past the evil uses it was put to and appreciate the benefits. But, it seems, Conna's fears for her son were well founded, so I suppose I can't fault them for their ways. It is their culture, after all. We'd best keep those spellbooks we found well hidden, though, or Conna may demand they be destroyed!

Lost in her own thoughts, Kay doesn't really notice that the Giant clans have begun dispersing. Eldthor leads her away from the gathering, clearly a bit worried that she is so distracted, but understanding why.

They head to the library with Dothan next and, frankly, it is probably exactly what Kay needs, because she is able to put away all thoughts of fighting and lamiae and nearly deadly blows from nasty, heavy blades that sink into your flesh with the weight of a battleaxe...

Instead she's busy translating ancient texts at breakneck speed, urged on by an impatient little tyrant of a Bard whose thirst for knowledge knows no bounds and is, frankly, frighteningly impressive when she gets like this.

Thanks to using a Message spell, both Anna and Kay can translate to Dothan by whispering so they don't have to read everything aloud, otherwise their voices would have been hoarse long before evening arrived.

Finally, Kay realizes that Dothan isn't going to stop for food or rest unless someone forces her to, so she looks around while Anna is reading a passage and grasps onto a trump card to use.

When Anna finishes, Kay says, "Dothan! Don't you think it's time we break dinner and to rest for the night? And where's Uncle Il? Did he go off on his own again?"

Dothan looks at Kay as if she's speaking a language she doesn't understand for a moment, blinks, then looks around. "Dinner? Rest? ... Oh... yeah... probably... Yeah... Where is Uncle Il, anyway? I'll go find him! you guys get dinner ready, alright?"

"And... she's off!" Anna says with a sly grin as Dothan rushes out to look for her wayward uncle. "Well played, Kay! Are you doing alright yourself?"

"I've... been better, frankly. This was useful... let me turn the brain off for a bit..." Kay stretches. "Oh, and thanks for letting me read through those ... " she whispers, "spellbooks," then continues speaking normally, "I think I found a few things that will really be helpful." Between passages, Kay has been researching spells in the new spellbooks that Anna 'acquired' recently in order to solve a particular problem.

"Anytime!" Anna bows her head.

"I wonder if anyone is preparing food?"

"That would be me, Dwyn, and Hal." Eldthor says from the doorway of the library. "It's just about ready. I take it you're ready to take a break here?"

Kay nods, takes her husband's arm, and heads to dinner.

Eldthor notices that Kay is fairly quiet at dinner, but isn't surprised. After all, it had been a long, exciting day, what with defeating one very large giant, two small dragons, two lamiae, Kay being knocked unconscious by a blow from a lamia, Conna's speech to the giant clans, and all of the research in the library. As the group settled down for the night, Kay and Eldthor shared the first watch.

A little while into their watch, Eldthor says, "You really had me worried today, when you were knocked out. I saw you fall, and all I wanted to do was throw down my bow and run to you! You had Hal there with you, and Sam can do a better job with healing than I ever could, so I knew I'd be more help if I stayed where I was and just fired as many arrows as I could. But it was hard!"

Eldthor looks away from Kay for a few moments. When he looks back, there are tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

"I know you love mixing it up, and I don't want to keep you from doing that. But if you ARE going to keep doing that, we really need to find some way to give you more protection, or allow you to take a hit without getting knocked out or killed. And Dwyn might be right about these Sihedron runes, so I'm not sure I want to rely on the 'false life' abilities of your amulet for this stuff."

Kay realizes now, seeing tears welling in Eldthor's eyes, that what has kept her in a funk all day is largely this. Her actions don't just impact herself anymore. Sure, Dothan, Hedda, Akif, and Illian would have been upset if something happened to her over the past three years, but only really in passing. She was a new person in their life, no matter how well treated she had been.

I think Illian would have taken it hardest and he was there the least. That's just who he is. Now I know he'd take it badly if something happened to me... I have to be more careful!

But I have a real family again now. I have a husband who would be devastated if I died, the same as I would if he did. Dothan is like a sister, as is Dwyn, and Hal a brother. Sam and Anna seem more like Aunts... It must be their Elven nature. And, of course, Uncle Il is Uncle Il!

A single tear rolls down her cheek and she realizes she hasn't responded to Eldthor yet. "I'm so sorry, El!" She takes his hand. "I was an idiot! I should have stopped and used a potion after I was hit by the dragon's breath! And I should have released my shocking shock shield when I realized she was attacking! Then maybe she wouldn't have gotten the attack off!"

"But what if YOU were stunned by the spell instead?" he replies, "Then you don't have the shield AND you're a sitting duck for her to bash with no armor and no ability to dodge!"

"That swing, the shield didn't matter anyway, sweetie!" Kay sighs. "But I understand what you mean. And as for the medallion," she reaches into her haversack, "I took it off earlier today. After spending the afternoon reading about the depraved civilization these things are associated with, I don't want it around my neck ever again! Not unless you need to preserve my corpse with it! And then only if you think you can find someone who can bring me back to life without some sort of evil ramifications! We're getting pretty powerful now. We should be able to cheat death soon... Let's try to live long enough to get there!"

Eldthor puts his hand under Kay's chin and turns her head so they're looking in each others' eyes. "I'll try, if you try." He leans forward and gives her a long kiss. "There's more where that came from, but it will need to wait until after our watch has ended."

"I'll hold you to that!" Kay leans in and kisses her husband again. "And I'll try to be more careful, my love! Some things are more important than an individual battle, after all. Now... let me tell you about some ideas Dothan and I had, and some of the things I've found looking through those new books Anna has!

"First off, I'm going to buy an amulet of Natural Armor, but more powerful than yours I think, and a Ring of Force Shield so I can drop my Shocking Shock Shield without losing protection! And I talked with Dothan about fiddling with this tunic to augment the magic to make me even quicker than I already am! That will make me harder to hit AND I can swing Tempest with more accuracy! But the big one, I think, is a spell I found called 'Bear's Endurance'..."

Kay prattles on about her magic item wish list as Eldthor tosses in the items he wants to get as well as their watch shift goes on. It helps pass the time until they can get back to what they would rather be doing together... A ... life affirming activity after a nearly deadly day of combat, so to speak...

[Phoebe]

an impatient little tyrant of a Bard whose thirst for knowledge knows no bounds