Best not to linger on the regrets, the things that might have been. They eat you from the inside out and when we are mages? When we work with spirits? [Does Gjurd need to finish that? No. Likely she's heard much more dire warnings in the Circle than from him and he gives those lessons when the children first show their magic, when the rogues are too quick with their tricks, when the warriors gnash their teeth and rage.
One day the grief will be less near at hand, the way Aura's retreats slowly but surely, same as that of the hold, that of the Boneflayers.]
We lived as we always have. I know that there are folk who say we were forced into the mountains long ago but we had no desire to be elsewhere. Why would we when all we ever want and need is here without the hurts that ravage elsewhere? [When did the Avvar last have wars the way the lowlanders did after all; it hurts enough in a raid to lose someone and to lose a person in a war that seems so senseless as the one Christine has lost her father to pains him. It won't be difficult to say a prayer to the Lady for this man, that his spirit finds rest, that the hardships are over and that she perhaps looks upon Christine kindly.
There is testing and then there is this. Capricious but never unkind - what are you trying to teach her, he wonders, but there are many gods who could be at work, should he ask them all how long it might take.
Or is this Asher's doing. And that stray thought makes him rub his beard to hid the smile.]
Most here live each day as it comes and by the season. Many of the hold think of the larder and how full it must be, how much we must make for ourselves, how much to trade. Others must think far ahead like myself, the Thane, Torbjorn, Hulda, Sigrid in guiding the young and guarding the histories but you know that you have walked through the fire of one war already. You are not untried, not untested. You have seen battle. You have seen death. If you ever have doubt in your heart, know that you will always have a place by the fire.
no subject
One day the grief will be less near at hand, the way Aura's retreats slowly but surely, same as that of the hold, that of the Boneflayers.]
We lived as we always have. I know that there are folk who say we were forced into the mountains long ago but we had no desire to be elsewhere. Why would we when all we ever want and need is here without the hurts that ravage elsewhere? [When did the Avvar last have wars the way the lowlanders did after all; it hurts enough in a raid to lose someone and to lose a person in a war that seems so senseless as the one Christine has lost her father to pains him. It won't be difficult to say a prayer to the Lady for this man, that his spirit finds rest, that the hardships are over and that she perhaps looks upon Christine kindly.
There is testing and then there is this. Capricious but never unkind - what are you trying to teach her, he wonders, but there are many gods who could be at work, should he ask them all how long it might take.
Or is this Asher's doing. And that stray thought makes him rub his beard to hid the smile.]
Most here live each day as it comes and by the season. Many of the hold think of the larder and how full it must be, how much we must make for ourselves, how much to trade. Others must think far ahead like myself, the Thane, Torbjorn, Hulda, Sigrid in guiding the young and guarding the histories but you know that you have walked through the fire of one war already. You are not untried, not untested. You have seen battle. You have seen death. If you ever have doubt in your heart, know that you will always have a place by the fire.