Thelus, start of third term, Tos and Sray, Kallon and Kith
"What do you think of ol' Thelus?" Ientel glanced sideways up at her as they walked.
"He is very practical."
Ientel laughed. "If you chose one word that would be it. He is nothing, if not practical."
The night they arrived, Sray fell into helping handle the horses and carriages. Ottlin was with her, and they worked in tandem, helping to unload the vehicles and unhook and tend the horses.
Between the drivers, their grooms, and the hands of Thelus, Chevandler, and their students, the drive was soon devoid of animals, stagecoaches standing empty on the hard packed gravel, feeling like a ghost town whose buildings are the only testament to human existence as all traces of life vanished into the building and barns.
Harnesses were stripped, coats brushed, leather wiped down and hung, and the animals turned out in every spare space that would hold them. The drivers and grooms who were not a part of the usual residents of Engama retired to the bunk house where a meal awaited them. Sray and her fellow students crossed the lawn in the dark, Ientel carrying a lamp and leading the way back to the dining hall.
They arrived while everyone else was already well into their reunions and meals. Kem hailed Sray and the evening passed with stories of the past weeks spent home. Sray still curated her responses. She was much more comfortable around them all now, she knew what to expect of them, but that did not mean she needed to share every detail about her life. Kem had no such reservations and kept up her babble until Sray snuffed out her lamp and put her back to the room, happily succombing to her exhaustion.
The next morning Sray woke up and headed to the barn before the fires were even started to cook breakfast. The horses and carriages needed to be readied to head back out. Once all the teams were on their way, Thelus' wife provided them with breakfast before they dove into the task of cleaning up after the extra number of animals that just left. Meikal joined them and was on the manure spreader with Thelus as Sray and the others piled the waste into easily shoveled mounds.
The last term started without fanfare. The number of students still exploring the craft options had dwindled to five.
Her heart felt like it was breaking. The immense wave of grief crashed into and overwhelmed her. She buried her face in his neck and felt his head against hers, his arms tight around her as she inhaled roughly. She had the sensation he was holding her together as the tenuous bands that kept the pieces of her broken heart together for so long finally gave away. Wave after wave of grief crashed around her, breaking and reshaping her. The loss of their place in Geteilpohth, leaving the mountains and canyons and their cliff-side home came into sharp,npiercing focus. The feeling of abandonment and, as she grew older, betrayal that accompanied the loss filled her up again. It washes over and enveloped her before being replaced by the disappointment and disapproval of her Human grandparents in her very existance, the anguish of feeling there was no place she could really be accepted as she was, being rejected even when she tried her hardest to be what other people wanted. Everything she had missed and longed for and knew she couldn't have or get back. She felt it all sharp and fresh and raw, only maintaining the faintest grounding in the present moment through the feel of Tos holding her.
Time slipped by uncounted as sobs slowly lessened and she found her breath again. It took even longer for her to find her voice. She lifted her chin onto Tos' shoulder. Her tear-blurred vision made the plains look momentarily and impossibly fog-covered. She blinked it away and filled her lungs with the dry, warm air of the early summer before breathing out and melting away the last remnants of the grief and fear she had held and tried to contain for so long. The emotions all spent, exchanged, and reordered in a new strange way.
"Sorry." She whispered when the word finally made its way to the surface.
"What for?" His voice was low, the vibrations from the words rumbling against her own neck.
"For everything." She breathed softly. "All the things I can't tell you."
"You can tell me anything." He replied with simple honesty, lacking any trace of doubt.
"I want to believe that." The words threatened to catch in her throat again and she swallowed the threatening emotion down.
"Someday you will." His hope was relentless. He inhaled long and slow. "I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you," the words were layered with regret and barely contained emotion, "or stop any of it from happening."
She pulled back and saw that Tos' eyes were reddened from the extra salt of his tears and they left damp trails along his cheeks. She hadn't heard a single sniffle from him, but she had been too deep in her own despair to notice anything else.
She fell apart and was put back together again. She was unmade and reassembled into something new and strange and perhaps wonderful.
Kallon has begrudging respect for Kith Serrith. He was not happy to see Kith and Sray looking like they were courting each other, but he appreciates what Kith has done (protecting Sray during her time at Engama). Kallon is still very much a Tos fan and would much rather see the man whose character and intent he's known most of his life end up with his sister.
Ledawnrick Mishor was alive during Depths of the Forge but I think he will be gone by the time we hit Heat of the Flame.