Chapter 18

Part 3

“Do not bow to me.” Alilia said to Mark before he could do so.

“All right, though I’m pleased to meet you.” Mark said in puzzlement. “May I ask why I should not bow?”

“Because I have done you an injustice. If you bow to me, you will regret having done so when you learn what has occurred.” Alilia told him, her voice brittle.

This left Mark with no response, and Yazadril hurried to fill the awkward lull in the conversation. “This is my wife Nemia.”

“Pleased to meet you.” Mark said with a bow, which Nemia returned.

“And this is my daughter Talia.”

“Pleased to meet you.” Markee bowed with a broad smile. “Yazadril has spoken fondly of your mother and yourself. And your sister of course. How is she?”

“She is dead.” Talia stated quietly. She finally managed to tear her gaze away from his face as he gaped in shock, and she turned into her mother’s arms as she burst into tears. Soon they were both sobbing sadly.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry, I didn’t know…” Mark stammered, ashamed at his unintended insensitivity.

“There’s no way you could have known.” Yazadril told him sadly, and wiped his own fresh tears away.

“How did it happen?” Mark asked, then wondered if the question was inappropriate. “No, I’m sorry, it’s none of my concern…”

“Actually, I’m afraid it is.” Yazadril told him sadly. “And as I said previously, there are matters that are difficult to speak of…”

“Perhaps for you.” Alilia interrupted bitterly, then turned from Yazadril to Mark. “Sit down, it is irritating to have to look up that far. I will tell you what has happened.”

She continued as Mark abruptly sat. “My son Bezedil arrived here yesterday, and quickly fell in love with Yazadril’s daughter Dalia. Twin sister to that one, and nearly perfectly identical to her in appearance.”

She pointed at Talia without looking away from Mark, and continued. “Then, while Dalia was out of the room, Talia came to Bezedil and passed herself off to him as her sister. Dalia returned to the room and found Bezedil and Talia consummating. Dalia was so struck by what she saw as their betrayal that she committed suicide by leaping from a high window. Realizing his mistake, and filled with remorse for what he’d done, my son leaped after her to save her. He was too late, and upon seeing her die from impact with the ground, he was so filled with grief and despair that he did not save himself.

“When I learned this…”

“That is not what happened.” Talia interrupted, quietly but firmly.

Alilia’s head whipped around in surprise as she looked to Talia, then her face contorted with rage. “How dare you say that! All was revealed in my son’s last Reading, as his life was fading from his broken body before my eyes!”

Tears flowed freely down Talia’s cheeks, but her jaw was set with determination. She swallowed hard as she was held by Alilia’s gaze. “It did not happen like that. You made me see the Reading as well. You made me see Dalia die. But you did not see what happened before that. You hate me, so you will not believe what I say, and I… I cannot speak of it. So Read me. Read me so that all can know what really happened.”

“If you are innocent, why did you not declare it so yesterday?!” Alilia demanded.

“There was nothing but grief and pain in me then, overwhelming all else.” Talia stated quietly. “The twin of my soul and my destined love were both dead, and I wanted only to die. I was not listening to anything that was said. I did not care what you did to me.”

“And now you do.” Alilia stated frostily.

“I still do not care what happens to me for my own sake, and it would not matter if I did.” Talia told her, struggling to control her voice. “You have damned me for eternity, and that is all there is to that. But I have regained my thinking enough to consider my parents’ feelings, and they should know that it did not happen as you think it did. Furthermore, Mark will need to know the truth.”

“If you can bear it, we must perform the Reading, Yazadril.” Theramin quietly pointed out before Alilia could retort. “It is her right to defend herself.”

“Ah. It is too late to consider rule of law.” Nemia stated calmly. “And it is too early. We must concentrate on minimizing the harm that has been done, and on preventing any more harm to ourselves or to each other. After that is done, we will deal with legality and diplomacy.”

“You will perform the Reading, or I will, and less competently than you could have done it.” Alilia stated coldly. “But we will know the truth.”

“Uh, if you don’t mind my asking, what does a Reading do?” Mark asked, hesitant to interject, yet driven by his need to understand what was happening.

“It allows the caster to experience some of the memories or thoughts of the person it is cast upon.” Yazadril explained. “In this case, I will cast a variation of it that will read a specific segment of Talia’s memory, rather than her present thoughts, and transmit those memories to the rest of you. We will experience them with all of our senses as if we were reliving our own memories, complete with every thought and emotion that Talia experienced at the time.”

“Oh. And uh, will it work for me?” Mark hesitantly asked. “You said that this affects me, and I’d really like to understand what’s going on.

“No, now that you mention it.” Yazadril admitted. “It is unlikely that you could receive the Reading. Let me think. I could re-cast the vision of the Reading as an Illusion. You wouldn’t be able to see it, since you didn’t see the Illusions of the Wards, but I could use the Illusion as the pattern for a Light spell. Nemia brought some white cloth in her tailor’s pack, and if we stood in the shade of the trees and I projected the light pattern upon the cloth, you should be able to see what we are seeing.”

“And a very complex piece of work it will be, Yazadril.” Theramin said. “Performing the Reading, casting it to us, casting the Illusion of it, and casting the Light projection of it. Only you could do it. However, it still only conveys the visual component of the Reading to Mark, here. I will assist by casting Sound of the audible component.”

“And I will simply relate Talia’s thoughts and emotions verbally, and translate those and the spoken words into your language, Mark.” Nemia nodded, moving to stand next to him. “You will still lack the components of touch, scent and taste, but those are less important, and I can tell you of any important evidence of those natures that occurs in the Reading.

“Theramin, you will have to keep your Sound casting quiet enough that Mark can hear both your casting and my spoken translation of it.”

“Thank you. I appreciate everything you’re doing to include me in this.” Mark solemnly said.

“Fine. Let us have it done, then.” Alilia snapped as she turned on her heel and strode to the nearest edge of the clearing.

The rest followed, and Nemia took a folded white cloth from her basket. Once under the canopy of the trees, she unfolded it to a three-meter square and Levitated herself to pin its upper corners to two branches, so that it hung with its lower edge touching the grass.

“Thank you Nemia.” Yazadril said as he moved to face the center of the cloth. “Theramin, let me Read you for a moment while you watch me, would you?” he asked.

Theramin nodded, and Yazadril hummed a short arpeggio and did so, nodding when he had a firm Reading.

“Shared Reading, first test.” Yazadril stated, and clapped his hands three times. “Thank you, Theramin.” he said, and mentally reviewed his spells. He hummed a short melody and cast an Illusion of himself near the cloth. The elves present saw a duplicate Yazadril standing before the cloth. He cast Light upon the cloth, then gradually linked it to the illusion of himself that his eyes were seeing. It gave him a strange double vision of his own image until he had the two perfectly synchronized.

“Tell me what you see, Mark.” he said, as his brow furrowed in concentration.

“There was a big round white light on the cloth, and then it changed, and now there’s a picture of you, from the front!” Mark explained in amazement.