Intertwining Destinies

Chapter 16

"Your Highness, please come this way," Romeran requested, leading Nuada upstairs to his study. His home was among the bigger dwellings in the troll market and was located far away from the centre of activity. They reached a large room filled with dusty columns holding thick leather-bound books on wooden shelves. Standing on the floor were large earthenware vases stuffed with metallic cylinders containing rolls of parchment.

"There is someone who would very much like to meet you, Your Highness, and who might be better able to assist you in gaining the knowledge and wisdom you seek," Romeran said in a timid voice.

"Whom do you count as superior to the court mage, himself?"

"Mage Kalidren, Your Highness."

Nuada remained silent for a few moments as he absorbed his astonishment at Romeran's declaration.

"He is here? After all this time, when we thought the old judicious fool was dead and lost?"

Romeran bowed his head in assent. "Please, if Your Highness would give me a few minutes, I will go to fetch him."

"Yes, this is just as well. I am in much confusion over the human I have captured. She speaks of possessing powers which I have never heard of among the fae, or the humans. I would not have believed her claims, had she not proven them to me. It would take very powerful magic to accomplish what she worked upon the forest god and yet, she is no sorceress. She is easily subdued and wounded," he finished with a frustrated growl.

"It was her? She made it disappear?" Romeran asked, awed. Then, remembering that he was talking to Nuada, added more respectfully, "Your Highness?"

"Yes. Get Kalidren, so that I need not repeat myself."

"Yes, of course, Your Highness."

Romeran bowed himself out of the room, leaving Nuada seated in one of his plush chairs. The prince wondered what the ancient mage had to say to him, as more than a thousand years had passed since their last meeting. Nuada had then, completely disregarded his advice and had forced King Balor to build the Golden Army. Did Kalidren now intend to reprimand those actions? The old mage had never feared Nuada's fury as had the rest of the court. He had served as tutor to both him and Nuala in their youth, and he'd retained a manner of being which made Nuada uncomfortable about disobeying him. The mage was also among the very few fae nobles for whom Nuada felt genuine respect. It had upset him to learn that Kalidren had left Bethmoora at the start of the Great War, and the prince wondered if he would come now with the same plea, to prevent him from awakening the Golden Army for a second time.

Of course, Prince Nuada would not waste his time listening to the same old warnings that Kalidren had so passionately cried out to him a thousand years ago. His memory still freshly retained every word of the old mage's tirade. He cared only to learn the secrets of his human prisoner who did not fit with any of the supernatural entities of his experience.

As he thought of her, he could not help feeling anxious about his captive, who had remained slumped over his shoulder all the way from the market square. His first opinion had been that she was like the rest of her lethargic kind, and would rather be carried than walk. However, she hadn't moved when he had laid her down in Romeran's parlour. The wound inflicted on her arm had cut very deeply through the flesh, and been left untreated. He should have taken more care, and not paraded her out in the open. He had studied her face, which looked drained of colour in the bright parlour light, and her glaring green eyes had remained shut. With absolutely no violence or punishment on his part, the woman continued to injure herself and he, Prince Nuada, had to keep reviving the damned curious human. She was an exasperating creature that demanded all his patience to restrain himself from throttling her. Why couldn't she just be rendered immobile with fear, like the rest of her kind? Instead, she stared at him, and at the objects in his spartan lair with avid curiosity.