Part 1 - The Trials of Eight

  Chapter One – Kere and Jori

  Igniday, 9 Tamihr, Year of Folivor the Restful Sloth, 489 AWA

  Candibaru and Meri’s Cove near Afa Masina, Andovarra

  Kere strode through the crowded streets of Candibaru, looking for her ex-boyfriend, now half-brother, Joridir, or as most people called him, Jori. The afternoon air carried the earthy scent of the mountains mixed with the sweet aroma of ripe yaifwi fruit being sold at a nearby stall, while the constant murmur of trade negotiations and haggling merchants created a soothing backdrop to her troubled thoughts. The crisp mountain breeze funneled down the narrow streets, rustling the colorful awnings overhead as shopkeepers displayed handwoven textiles dyed with vibrant pigments harvested from the forest. Bustling townsfolk moved around her, their voices echoing off the tan stone buildings that had been built into the foothills of the Sepina Mountains generations ago.

  It’s going to take me a while to get used to thinking of him that way, she thought, tucking a strand of teal-streaked black hair behind her right ear, and I still don’t know how I’m supposed to handle this change in our relationship.

  The news had come a mere three nights ago, when she and Jori had brought their respective parents to meet and have a meal together at a local inn. Jori's mother, a willowy green-blue haired Aquatic Elf woman with sand-colored skin and sea green eyes who he clearly favored, had taken one look at Kere’s father and asked in startled tones, “Dawyn?”

  Her father, equally bewildered, had asked, “Nimes?”

  Nimes had then glanced at Kere and asked her father, “Is she…?”

  Her father had replied imperturbably, “She is.”

  And then the story had come out. Her father and Jori's mother had had an affair when her father had been a young man, Nimes had gotten pregnant, and a few months after Kere’s birth, she’d been left on her father’s doorstep with a note saying Nimes couldn’t care for her infant daughter and Dawyn was to do as he saw fit with her. Nimes had honestly thought he’d find a way to adopt her out, never expecting the single young man that she’d taken up with would actually accept the challenge of raising his own child.

  Kere had always known her stepmother was her stepmother. With her parents both being Human and herself being Half-Aquatic Elf, it didn’t require a genius intellect to figure out one of her parents wasn’t her biological parent, and her parents had always told her they’d met because her father was having trouble caring for her needs and had fallen in love not long afterward. Although she’d inquired about her birth mother, especially during her teenage years, her father had always evaded her questions, saying he didn’t know where her birth mother was and that Daxylla, her stepmother, was the only mother Kere needed.

  Kere’s parents and Nimes had insisted on the spot that Kere and Jori break up, and under the circumstances, the younger pair couldn’t help but agree. Kere might under other circumstances have been curious about the woman who’d given her life, but she knew from things Jori had said about his mother that Nimes Lialaran was an altogether difficult and not entirely trustworthy Aquatic Elf. She was elegant and charming, to be sure, but Jori had said she lied easily and brazenly continued to lie even when caught red-handed.

  Over the last three days, Kere had thought a lot about that. She had asked Nimes on the night they’d gotten the news who in the family had Kere’s rich sapphire blue eyes and teal-streaked blue-black hair. Although her father’s hair was dark, it wasn’t blue-black like Kere’s was, and he had brown eyes. Nimes had replied airily that her mother had had eyes that shade of blue and an aunt of Jori's had similar hair. Jori had never known his extended family, having been brought to Candibaru as a child with his mother to better coordinate efforts against the Sahuagin that were mounting regular attacks against both the underwater city of Natania that Nimes had settled in and the towns along Andovarra’s western coast as well. As a result of this, Jori couldn’t confirm anything. Kere didn’t like not resembling either birth parent, and if Nimes was one to lie easily, could she be lying about Kere being her birth daughter? This was what Kere wanted to talk to Jori about.

  She loved the tall green-blue haired sea-green-eyed Aquatic Elf with all of her heart, and she honestly saw a future with him—or she had until they’d gotten the news about being related, anyway. They cared about the same things—nature, or more specifically, the ocean and its denizens—and he just got her, not always perfectly, but well enough. And she thought she got him, too, in that same well-enough way. It broke her heart to think that that might be due to shared blood and not an affinity of the soul.

  She remembered their first mission together for the Sapphire Society, when they'd spent three days diving among the shallow reefs south of Maraeva, documenting the strange coral blight. On the final evening, they'd built a small fire on a secluded beach, and Jori had used his ranger skills to call a pod of phosphorescent jellyfish close to shore. The tiny creatures had pulsed with blue-green light in rhythm with their heartbeats as Jori explained the delicate balance of the reef ecosystem. It was the moment she'd first realized she was falling in love with him—his passion for protecting the natural world matching her own druidic devotion. Now that memory felt tainted, like finding a pearl only to discover it was merely polished glass.

  Finally seeing the sloping shoulders and graceful stride of Jori, she called out to him. “Hey you, over here. Ferry’s leaving soon.” The ferry went down the Hotokewai River from Candibaru down to Andovarra’s largest port city, Afa Masina. The trip down the river was relatively quick, taking only about 40 minutes, but the trip back up was longer, taking a full four hours.

  Jori's eyes lit up when he saw her, then he quickly flushed. It seemed he was struggling as much as she was with the change in their relationship. “Well, let’s get on board then.”

  After they paid their fare and found some seats, she asked, “So how are you?” She offered him a tentative hug, then paused. Brothers and sisters could do that, right?

  “Well enough, I guess,” he replied, returning the hug equally tentatively. “You?”

  She gave a dry chuckle. “Well enough, if you ignore the people throwing rotten food at me and the women who want me to repent of my ways and turn to Zulene.” That morning, she'd even found a traditional Zulene marriage cord—braided white and gold threads tied in a complex knot—hanging from her door handle, a clear message from someone who believed she needed the marriage goddess's forgiveness. She'd burned it immediately, though the superstitious part of her worried about offending a deity.

  “Goddess of marriage, huh?” he asked wryly. “Nothing like that has happened to me, though in fairness, I’ve been underwater even more than normal. I could have used Meri’s help. How is she?”

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  “When we get to Afa Masina, why don’t you come with me and you can see for yourself?”

  “That works for me,” he replied. They spent most of the journey watching the riverbank slide by, both stealing awkward glances at each other when they thought the other wasn't looking. Near the halfway point, the ferry passed a small shrine to Thorian the Boundary-Walker built upon a rock jutting from the water. Several passengers tossed copper coins into the river, and Kere noticed Jori reflexively touch the small circular amulet he wore—a habit he'd developed since childhood, he'd once told her. A group of rivermen on the opposite side of the ferry were quietly singing a traditional Andovarran boating song, their voices rising and falling like the river current itself. The melody made Kere's chest ache with a strange mix of belonging and alienation.

  When the ferry arrived at Afa Masina, they began making their way to what they both referred to as Meri’s Cove, about half a mile up the coast from Kere’s home village of Maraeva, which was itself about about three miles north of Afa Masina.

  When they finally arrived a little more than an hour later, the sheltered cove spread before them like a painting—crystalline water gradating from pale turquoise in the shallows to deep azure further out, all protected by two jutting arms of weathered limestone. The late afternoon sun scattered diamonds across the gentle waves, and the air was cooler here than in the city, carrying hints of sea salt and the sweet decay of seaweed drying on the rocks. This place had always felt like home to Kere, more so even than her parents' house in Maraeva.

  Kere immediately raised her driftwood whistle to her lips and called, “Meri! COME!”A minute later, as Meri breached the surface of the water, her distinct dorsal fin appeared, with its band of white unpigmented skin at the base and crescent moon shape about six inches in front, and then a medium grey common bottlenose dolphin leapt out of the waves revealing a pink-tinged white belly and gave a joyful squee, landing with a splash, then raced toward the shore.

  Kere waded into the water and pulled a herring out of a pouch she kept for storing treats for Meri. When the dolphin arrived, Kere fed her, then patted her melon. “How’s my girl today?” she asked her.

  Meri just squeaked and chittered and Kere laughed, then handed Jori a herring. He grinned as he accepted the fish, then quickly fed it to the dolphin.

  Kere then pulled out a roughly round piece of floatwood and gave it to Jori, who hurled it as far out into the ocean as he could.

  “FETCH, Meri,” Kere commanded, giving Meri the signal. The dolphin took off after the ball.

  “She’s looking good,” said Jori, admiration in his eyes. He reached to put an arm around Kere, then quickly withdrew. “Sorry,” he muttered, his cheeks flaming an almost blue color.

  Kere decided to ignore it, as well as the part of herself that wanted him to put his arm around her. Mistakes were to be expected while they were getting used to the change in their relationship, after all. “She is, though she won’t be ready to mate for another three to four years at least.”

  “That’s a good thing, though, don’t you think?”

  “Of course. Her attentions would be divided if she had a calf to care for. I want to teach her as much as she can learn between now and then.”

  As Meri surfaced with the floatwood ball for the fifth time, she suddenly stopped, clicking rapidly and turning her head toward the southern end of the cove. Her body went rigid with attention.

  "What is it, girl?" Kere asked, instinctively scanning the water and shoreline.

  Jori shaded his eyes with one hand. "There's something moving out there," he murmured, pointing toward a dark shape near the horizon. "Might be a ship, but the silhouette seems... off."

  Meri's anxious clicking intensified before she abruptly dove beneath the surface, only to reappear moments later directly in front of them, as if positioning herself protectively between them and whatever had caught her attention.

  "Strange," Kere said, reaching down to stroke Meri's smooth skin reassuringly. "She's not usually this agitated unless there are predators nearby." She exchanged a worried glance with Jori. "We should keep an eye on that. The fishing boats have reported unusual migration patterns lately."

  The dark shape eventually disappeared from view, and Meri gradually relaxed, though she remained closer to shore than usual for the remainder of their visit.

  They threw the floatwood ball for Meri to retrieve a few more times, then both of them let Meri haul them around the cove a few times before they got out of the water and Kere pulled out a swath of material from her backpack for them both to sit on while the sun dried them off.

  As they got situated, Kere was overwhelmed with a desire to kiss Jori thoroughly, but she quickly squelched it. By Miella’s rosy chalice, this is hard! she thought to herself. Among druids, it was said that even the love goddess herself sometimes struggled with the proper boundaries of affection, and small clay chalices were offered at her shrines when seeking clarity in matters of the heart. Kere wished she had such an offering with her now.

  “So,” she said instead, “I had something I wanted to talk to you about, if you have time.”

  “Sure,” he said. “What’s up?”

  “Do you remember telling me about the way your mother can lie?” she asked him.

  “Yes,”Jori replied, although his eyes took on a closed look. That was never a good sign in Kere’s experience.

  “Do you think it’s possible she could have lied about us being related?”

  “Why would she do that? You’re her daughter. Even if she gave you up, she has no reason to dislike you.”

  “I’m not totally sure why she would do it,” Kere admitted, “although one possible reason does come to mind.”

  It was a mark of Jori’s trust for her that he asked, “Which is?”

  “You told me she wants you to go into politics. I’m hardly a fit prospect for a future politician. Maybe accepting me means she has to give up on that dream and she’s not ready for that. And for whatever it’s worth, both my stepmother and I got a sense of dishonesty about something from her that night.”

  “It doesn’t have to mean she lied about that, she could have been lying about something else, like maybe liking the food they served at the inn,” protested Jori. He hated when Kere criticized his mother, even when he himself had made the exact same criticism.

  “You’re right, and it really isn’t my desire to upset or antagonize you with this. I just would like for us to get some external verification

  of us being related.”

  Jori frowned. “Mother told us that night that she intentionally didn’t put your father’s name on your birth record. There won’t be anything to find.”

  "Convenient, isn't it?" Kere said, then immediately regretted her tone when she saw Jori's expression harden. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"

  "No, you did mean it," Jori replied, his voice cooling. "Mother may have her faults, but she wouldn't lie about something this important."

  Kere bit her lower lip, choosing her next words carefully. "It's just... something about her reaction that night seemed rehearsed to me.

  Like she'd been preparing for that moment. And when I asked about my eyes and hair, she had answers ready immediately, yet you've told me she rarely speaks of your extended family." She reached out to touch his hand, then hesitated, drawing back. "I'm not accusing her of anything specific. I just want to be certain."

  The tension in Jori's shoulders eased slightly. "I suppose I can understand that."

  “I know. And after doing a bit of research, my stepmother had a really great suggestion. There’s this spell that clerics and bards sometimes use in noble families to determine rightful heirs. It can tell whether people are related by blood. The problem is, it’s a fairly uncommon spell. We’d have to find the temple of a deity that cares about bloodlines and purchase a scroll. We figure Aysus, Chyros, or maybe even Zulene or Istyn would be the best bet. I’ve already visited all four temples in Candibaru and they only have the common spells, but the priestess I spoke to at Chyros’ temple said that the temple of Chyros at Nessa Kouya has a big library of uncommon spells .”

  “Nessa Kouya?” asked Jori, frowning, not recognizing the name. “Where’s that?”