Her Ancestors

Mom told me to stay out of Mari's room for a bit on the morning of the fourth day after she woke up, so I had to keep dad company for a while. As we were suddenly left unsupervised by the Duke's servants, my dad decided to start a conversation about Mari with me.

"Venna, what do you think of Lady Marisilea?"

"I… like her a lot. She's smart, observant, funny even with her deadpan expression. A little too obedient and stiff-faced, but she isn't anything like the rumors I've occasionally heard whispered from the maids."

"I have my suspicions about those rumors, but it's not our place to intervene in the matters of another noble house, especially one in a different Kingdom."

"Why not? It's obvious that something is going on and it's hurting Mari. If we can't take her with us it'd be best to try to change her conditions here. And who better to try to force change than you and mom?"

"It's exactly because of who we are that we can't just 'force change' here. If we tried to step between matters of another Kingdom's powerful noble house and their King, we'd be getting ourselves dragged into an inter-kingdom political quagmire. Despite the fact that they're a Duke while our family is equivalent to Royalty, they're still powerful enough to cause troubles for our Kingdom."

He paused briefly to give me a knowing look. I guess he wants me to consider these things more deeply given my position and responsibilities. I was hoping I'd get a break from the lectures on this stuff. He let out a deep sigh, probably directed at my apathy about political matters, before he continued.

"There's trade with such a large territory that borders us, which could hurt our people's livelihoods. Then there's the fact that small skirmishes could get worse on our borders. They don't have to openly send their own troops to cause trouble, they can always make excuses about 'bandit troubles' to easily avoid scrutiny. And their King would protect such a powerful house from too many repercussions for their transgressions. Within a certain amount of reason of course. If they went too far we could still apply some pressure in return, but we'd be on the backfoot because of our actions here."

"But can't we do anything? I know that she's important to you and mom, and we'll eventually come back to try to convince her to come to Feyris, but what about what happens to her in the meantime?"

I'm not convinced that we can't help her in some way. I don't want to cause trouble, but I also don't want to leave knowing that Mari is in pain.

"It's not just me and your mom that she's important to. And she's a living being as well with thoughts and feelings of her own… even if she doesn't show them to anyone... so we have to consider her opinion on this as well. But we're making progress in ensuring that her future isn't so bleak. We've hinted at a few things to the Duke and we're already seeing changes in her treatment. That doesn't mean it will continue after we leave, but I think it's safe to say that her life won't be in danger, and she'll receive better treatment when we're gone now."

"How do you know?"

"I had some suspicions about the reason for her treatment at first, but some of the things I've seen don't add up. And the Duchess' behavior makes me think things aren't exactly what they seem as well."

"Yeah, I remember how she reacted at Mari's Ceremony. Did I tell you about that?" At this point I'm convinced that she either didn't know the severity of her daughter's treatment, or she had no control over the situation for one reason or another. That doesn't mean I'm not angry with her for not at least checking on her daughter.

"No, Venna, I don't think you did. You need to think about the consequences of the things around you and inform the people who are important to the situation as soon as possible."

"Since I was busy with Mari…"

"That's an excuse Venna. Your position requires you to be more astute and rely on the people you trust more."

"I'm sorry. I'll do better in the future."

A flat look tells me that he doesn't exactly believe that. I guess I don't have the best record with these matters. I explained to him what I saw with the Duchess that night, and he acted unsurprised.

"Based on her actions I think she isn't allowed to do much regarding Lady Marisilea. Your mother might be able to speak to her alone, but I doubt that if she does what I'm thinking she's going to do today."

"What is mom going to do?"

"Something stupid probably. Don't tell your mother I said that."

"… I guess I should ask you since mom won't be back for a bit if she's doing something like that."

I'm still curious about the Duchess and the reason her family has Elven ancestors. And why Mari is so special.

"What is the situation with the Duchess? What's her family's relation to the Elves, and why did you and mom have to come here? I've never heard of any other human in our history that's had to come to the Elven lands or that could communicate with Laurelin."

"Well, your mother already told you that over four thousand years ago one of Lady Marisilea's ancestors was of Elven lineage. It's not known which branch the person was from because a lot of that is mixed up through the ages and there's no one alive from our branches who might remember that time. We only know that it was someone with a strong connection to both Trees, Laurelin and Telperion, that they fell in love with some ancestor in Mari's family line, and then they decided to move here."

Dad double checked to make sure I was still paying attention. I was actually interested in this as it wasn't something I had to read about over and over, and I liked romance stories. Well, some of them. Surprised that I was focused on him, he continued.

"There was a pact made between our two Kingdoms during that time because of the importance of their role with the Trees, and we've maintained friendly relations with Lestryal ever since then. The person who left died not long after their spouse, just like most elves, so we've had to track all of their descendants. Given the human lifespan and the proliferation of their lines, we spent a lot of time and gold to get help from their Kingdom and to keep tabs on all of them. We're incredibly lucky that Lady Marisilea is from the original line of descendants, the Marquis of Brighton, and that we've kept in contact with most of the women of their line, to include her mother, the current Duchess of Arkesh."

"If there's so many descendants, why are we only here now, why hasn't there been anyone else who could commune with Laurelin before this, and why specifically Mari?"

"The second question is simple. If someone has only partial Elven ancestry, then they might not be able to commune with Laurelin. That's why we had you make sure of everything first. The first and third questions are related to Laurelin. We might never find the person if we had to come to Lestryal and search every female descendant who's coming of age every single time, but part of what happened at that time was an agreement between Mari's ancestor and Laurelin. The Golden Tree would notify someone from our immediate family branch if someone in Mari's family line might be able to commune with her, or even have the potential to be a Sent-Cari."

"That makes some sense. Since there's only one Sent-Cari every generation though, she can't be a Sent-Cari as I've already been designated as the one for this generation, right?"

"That's something that is a family secret as well. In the past there used to be two Sent-Cari, one for each Tree. Since you've already inherited the title of Sent-Cari, then we had believed that Lady Marisilea could only be someone who could commune with Laurelin. But your mother and I have reason to believe she may be the second Sent-Cari, something that hasn't been seen for over four thousand years, and also someone that holds great significance."

Well, that's a massive change in everything.

"What significance though? You're being all mysterious about this."

"Because even I'm not sure. We'll have to look in the archives when we return for anything about this because most of the information regarding the second Sent-Cari is buried, and it wasn't of importance for four thousand years. Even the most long-lived Elves would forget something that old if nothing happened to shine a light on it."

"But every Elf knows about the two trees, Laurelin and Telperion, so why wouldn't anyone think to ask about a second Sent-Cari?"

"… Because it didn't matter to us, I think. I can't be sure, but I believe that when the Sent-Cari, and I'm choosing to believe that's what they were, left to marry into the Marquis of Brighton's house, they took with them any information regarding Telperion. I even have a suspicion that they might not even have been an Elf as we know them."

"So… you think they might have been a different race?"

"Not exactly, but I can't explain why there are two trees, but the Elves have never needed to commune with Telperion to access their magic. Why have none of us ever felt the pull toward Telperion that we feel towards Laurelin? But it's just another thing that I don't have enough information on, and I'd need to be at the archives to figure out."

"That's a lot to take in dad. How do you expect a fourteen year old to handle this?"

"You're always complaining that you're responsible and should be allowed to make more decisions, so here you go. Now you can help me with ruling the forest."

"Nope, I'm still young and need to enjoy my freedom while I can. Don't worry dad, you still have mom."

He rolled his eyes at that, and just gave me a quick shove on the shoulder. I guess he's not happy.

"How about we go sparring, Young Lady Rhyvenna?"

Crap, that's a look I've only seen when I skip my lessons or he catches me doing something I'm not supposed to. This is gonna be a long sparring session and I was hoping I could spend the entire day with Mari. Maybe if I can win he'll let me go early so I can spend more time with her?