Rebirth

     “I miss you, Father.”

     Vaylin had returned back to Veran, the place her father had brought her to as a baby to escape the war. Since being taken to Mdelza-be, she had yearned for the forest she had long considered her home. Here, she could be at peace. Here, she could feel like she belonged. Bjorn and Dorn had remained in Renfeld, now watching over her followers. The expectations and questions had been so great, she had only taken this reprieve at their insistence to gather her thoughts and plan what to do next.

     The mob had somehow been intrigued and pacified by her offer. With them all in tow, Vaylin had traveled to the High King, who had personally assured the disaffected that justice would be met against Governor Kordin in this life and the next. Many of the Fey were awestruck as he took his time to speak with each and everyone of them present, vowing to right the wrongs they had endured. For once, Vaylin enjoyed her fans gushing about someone other than her as they journeyed back to Renfeld.

     The sight of her hut still standing warmed her heart. Here, there was no one to boss her around. Her life had been so simple; before Valin had vanished, her only concerns were about what food to eat, and how she could outwit her father in combat.

     While nearly as old as she was, the hut still stood proudly. The magyk Valin had used to preserve the building’s integrity continued to hold up, though upon closer inspection, revealed to her that the local wildlife were certainly doing their part to return it back to the wild. Nests, almost too numerous to count, had been built inside, where many of the Greater Dragonflies had chosen to rest after maturing and leaving the myriad of ponds artificial scattered around Veran.

     The dragonflies watched her with disinterested curiosity, seemingly content to observe her as she waded past them. Her father waited for her in the den, and Vaylin felt her eyes grow moist as she bowed before his portrait. Almost as if grasping the importance it had as the centerpiece in the room, the dragonflies left it and her alone.

     “I’ve gotten stronger,” she continued. Talking as if he was there with her, felt like the easiest and hardest thing she ever had to do. It helped and hurt her, knowing he died saving others. Was that why she couldn’t turn her back on the plight of others? “Wiser too, though that part is a lot harder than I thought it would be. It makes me glad I’ve got the friends I have to help me keep my head on straight.

     “You’d think I’d be popular with my status, but really it's quite the opposite. Every choice I make seems to irritate someone, no matter how hard I try to help solve the problem. Sometimes it feels like I don’t know what's right or wrong anymore. All I can do is move forward, hoping the choice I make is a good one.

     “Speaking of good ones, you’ll hate this. I really think they’re the ones. Two of them, brothers. Used to work for Atrion, but abandoned him when I left the archipelago.” A smile graced her lips. “You’d like them. They make me think. Make me want to be better.”

     A dragonfly, barely reaching the length of her elbow to her hand, zoomed over and landed on her shoulder. It looked at her with its comprehensive, alien eyes. She wondered if it knew this was her home.

     “Don’t worry about the mess, father,” she continued, gazing serenely back at the insect. “I’ll have some visitors coming to help clean up the area soon. It seems I’ve developed quite a fan club since I was last here. I was thinking I would call them, ‘Verani’. At least they seem to like me. I had the idea that we could spruce the place up again, and turn it into a center for training. Kinda like how when you were raising me.” Tears began to fall from her cheeks as she found herself unable to continue.

     Excusing herself from the den, Vaylin made her way to the reflecting pools. Once calm and tranquil, the waters were awash with activity as nymphs flitted about to and fro. The dragonfly that had joined her inside the hut took flight, hovering above the surface, waiting for prey. Vaylin frowned. Something would have to be done about the insects. She didn’t like the idea of kicking them out after having been gone for so long. Perhaps some kind of symbiosis would be possible. Dorn was better attuned to nature, she’d have to ask him.

     “I thought I’d find you here,” a familiar voice said. Vaylin’s stomach curdled. Great. “Do you know how irritating it's been to track you down?”

     She turned to see Atrion entering the clearing. Despite his primate physique, the old silverfur looked like he didn’t belong in the forest. Uncomfortable. Rigid. She was surprised he even lived long enough to trek to this secluded locale, considering his age. It wasn’t as if Veran was easy to get to; her father had chosen the place for a reason.

     “Probably only half as irritating as it is to see you again.” she said whimsically. Vaylin removed her shoes and dipped her feet into the pool. Nymphs raced around them, curious as to what just entered their domain.

     Atrion snorted in derision. “Still as flippant as ever, I see. You truly are Valin’s daughter.”

     “His memorial is in the den. I’m sure he’d be thrilled to hear that himself.”

     “Contrary to what you might think, I do hold your father in high regard; I’ve been meaning to visit this… hovel, for quite some time, actually.”

     “Could have fooled me,” Vaylin muttered, then louder asked, “how did you even know to find me here?”

     The old man flashed a shard of a scrying mirror towards her from the inside of his robe’s sleeve. “Your lovers have kept in contact with me since you departed my care.”

     “Oh.” She didn’t like that Bjorn and Dorn were communicating with Atrion behind her back. She needed to talk with them. Considering that the old fool was always trying to meddle in her affairs, it constituted a gross breach of trust that they had been keeping tabs on her for him. Was their relationship even real, or just another fabrication by the elder?

     “They really can’t shut up about you, you know.” he continued as if she wasn’t there. “I don’t know how you did it, but I can barely get any useful information from them when they report. I’ve heard them say, ‘She’s amazing. I can’t believe she chose us. I love her confidence,’ and every other kind of romantic nonsense you can expect more times than I’d like.” Atrion sniffed. “I’ve begun to suspect that they’ve only been doing that lately to hide your activities from me. It came as quite a surprise when they told me I’d find you here.”

     “I’ll have to talk with them about that.” Vaylin said, eyes narrowing. “You’ve found your way here, so you can just as easily find your way out.”

     “Why must you always vex my weary heart?” Atrion sighed. He took a seat on the stairs to the hut, regarding her with barely hidden disdain. “I’ve done nothing but try to guide you as an Asura. Yet you’ve done nothing but resist my guidance. Why?”

     “You did disrespect my father last we spoke.” She pointed out.

     He held up his hands. “But that was when we last spoke!” Atrion let his head fall into his hands. “We’ve known one another for what, a decade now? Ever since we’ve met you’ve tried to undermine me.”

     “You really don’t understand the role of an Asura, do you?” Vaylin asked, arching an eyebrow.

     “Valin and I fought several times together in the War of the Roses before he abandoned us,” Atrion informed her. “I thought I knew what the role meant. Evidently not, considering what has happened.”

     For just a moment, she tried to see things from his perspective. A soldier, forced to fight his entire life in a war he didn’t choose, following orders he didn’t like. And at what might have been at his darkest hour, his Asura, the guiding light of his people, vanished. It made a degree of sense, now that she thought of it. Or rather, allowed herself to think about it. Vaylin had been so wrapped up in her annoyance and irritation she felt from Atrion’s meddling that she hadn’t bothered to consider why he would have been so controlling.

     But that still didn’t mean what he had done was right.

     Yet one question still confused her. Why had her father abandoned his duty?

     “He wanted to protect you,” answered Atriox, reading the question on her face. “One day, the Elves’ war claimed your mother’s life. In his grief and in spite of the protestations of the elders, Valin chose you over everyone else. He chose family over duty.”

     “And you fear I’m just as rash as he was?”

     The old silverfur didn’t have to say anything to answer that question for Vaylin. She looked away towards the reflecting pool, pondering the exchange. Was her father right to leave? Vaylin couldn’t say, except that his choices led to the foundation of who she is now.

     “My family is my duty, just as my father’s was.” She said solemnly.

      Atrion’s head snapped up. “What?”

      “I am a child of the Divinity, appointed to watch over Their children.” Vaylin continued, louder. “Therefore, all the races are my family. And it is my duty to protect, serve and guide them back to the Gods.”

     “You’re as foolish as your father. There are five Asura for a reason. To watch after every race as one woman is the height of selfishness.” sneered Atrion.

     “Perhaps,” Vaylin replied. “But I’m certain the House of Axis will have no objection to having a helping hand for the Asura.” Off in the distance, she spied a group of familiar shapes drawing closer to her home. “Now if you’ll be so kind as to leave, I’d appreciate it.”

     Atrion looked insulted, but in fairness, he had also been insulting. Muttering under his breath, the old man departed. Vaylin made a mental note to never let herself become a rotten silverfur as he was as she grew older. As a woman only in her early fifties, she still had all the time in the world to be better.

*     *     *

     They had prostrated themselves before her the moment they entered her presence. It took everything in Vaylin’s power to not immediately demand why they had maintained contact with Atrion. It wouldn’t be proper, what with Pineapple, Landon and Rena having accompanied Dorn and Bjorn to her home.

     Still, they knew what they did, and obviously seemed remorseful about it. She might talk with them in private about it, but in the end, it didn’t seem to have caused any real damage. At least not any immediate damages.

     They could make it up to her in private, Vaylin decided.

     The other three, however, seemed enthralled by the fact they were in the midst of her nativity. Pineapple quickly became fixated on the nymphs swimming about in the reflecting pools whilst Rena had devolved into a child, all but wrapping herself around Vaylin as she asked question after question about Veran. Meanwhile, Landon had zeroed in on a rusty anvil sitting within an open air forge.

     “What was it like living here? Is this where your animal features came in? What’s your favorite color?” Rena asked in rapid succession. Her eyes were as large as silver coins and a pair of triangular tipped ears were beginning to poke out of the top of her head. “What did you do to get so strong? Can I get that strong? Do you have a girlfriend? Could I be your girlfriend when I’m older? Please please please please please!”

     Vaylin pushed Rena away, holding her at arms length as the teenager began to devolve into whimpering. “Uh, it was like home, yes lived here my entire life, red, I sparred with my father Valin all day every day, you probably can as that’s why I invited you here, no I don’t have a girlfriend, and no I don’t think I want a girlfriend, sorry.”

     Her admirer could not be deterred, however. Rena’s eyes grew larger and she jutted out her lower lip, quivering. “Maybe I can change your mind when I’m all grown up?” she insisted, adding a hopeful note into her question.

     “I doubt it.” Vaylin said, patting the girl on the head. “Don’t make me regret inviting you here.”

     “Okay…”

     She called them all back to her, and her new students stood at attention. “Welcome, my new Verani,” Vaylin began. She hoped her confidence in battle was translating well to public speaking. “Today marks the beginning of your new lives. Today, we’re going to change the world, one step at a time. I will teach you how to live off the land. How to defend yourselves. How to stand up for yourselves and for others. And hopefully, make the world a better place for everyone, not just ourselves.” A vision flashed into her mind. Scores of people, too many to count, dressed in garb similar to her now. Vaylin saw them spread out among all of Axis, integrating with the humans, elves, unimus and cait sith. A culture centered on the tenets she would lay down today that would last for generations. A lump caught in her throat as she beheld it in its majesty. “Do any of you have any questions or reservations?”

     The three of them shook their heads.

     “Good, let’s get started.”