The boat was rocking back and forth beneath her, again. The feeling wasn’t new. She had been hiding here for what felt like an eternity. What had felt like a good idea more than a cycle ago had long since devolved into a feeling of regret, fear and occasional moments of panic. Yet, she kept a voice in her mind, bravery. Her mother, Deselra had called her that. And Thessalia knew that her mother needed her. She knew that her mother was in danger, and that she was the one to help. Thassalia rolled over under the tarp, trying to find a more comfortable position to sleep in. She tried to quiet her thoughts and cast her mind back to the beginning of her adventure.
When the Elves with white hair had first arrived in Trott’s Ferry they had been easy to miss. So many people came and went in the city because of the war to the north. There seemed to be an almost constant flow of refugees through her hometown. Thessalia had grown up in Trott’s Ferry and seen the river barges coming and going her entire life. She had never left the town either. Despite her preference for remaining at home or at the temple, she was called a traveler. The word ‘traveler’ was a kind of nickname in Trott’s Ferry. A person earned it when one of their parents was an elf, the other was a human. If that human and elf had a baby? poof, the child was a ‘traveler’.
She snapped awake and heard voices somewhere on the dock, they were far away. She could recognize the language as the one spoken by the locals in Ter’ A-Til. She had arrived in the halfling city several weeks ago, she wasn’t sure how many. Without any money she had nowhere to stay so she had been sleeping rough down on the docks. There was usually plenty of space between cargo crates that were waiting to be loaded on ships, but it was easy to get caught there. Tonight, and for the last few nights she had been sleeping on a small rowboat, underneath a tarp. It was a launchcraft that belonged to some rich priest in the town. Nobody ever seemed to use the small boat so it had become Thessalia’s latest temporary home. The voices faded and she tried to sleep once more.
The elves with white hair had arrived in Trott’s Ferry a season or so after the initial wave of refugees from Emser. Thessalia eventually learned they were called Ferdir elves, and they were feared by many of the refugees. Apparently these elves had been waging a rather successful war in Emser. Deselra had told Thessalia about the war, mainly rumors from the town’s docks. Apparently the Elves had laid waste to the city, defeated the Emserian army and were generally very dangerous. Thessalia had heard other rumors at the Mahinan temple she attended. According to her classmates, Ferdir rode dragons! No, they rode regular horses but they had magical armor. No, they had very fine armor but they were all necromancers. It didn’t matter to Thessalia if they rode dragons into battle or not. The Ferdir elves that arrived in Trott’s ferry didn’t seem dangerous. Sure, they always seemed to be scowling at everyone but they never really seemed to do much. Thessalia saw them walking around town from time to time in their black leather armor but they never seemed to talk to anyone. Until one day, the elves knocked on her mother’s door. Deselra was an arc-wright and she ran her own shop on the docks of Trott’s Ferry. An arc-wright helped to mend ships, make improvements to magical navigation equipment and provide certain arcane wards for any ship’s captain with enough coin. Deselra had let the Ferdir in out of kindness that day. When her mother was speaking with the white haired Ferdir, Thessalia had tried to listen but her mother had shooed her away to school at the temple. Plenty of disreputable, dangerous sailors had visited her mother’s shop before. However, when Thessalia had returned home that evening, Deselra was nowhere to be found.
The voices on the docks were back now, louder this time. Thessalia poked her head between the seam of the tarp and looked around. It looked like a pair of halflings were arguing about something. A small bounce of panic rummaged around in Thessalia’s stomach but she brushed it aside. She heard her mother’s voice telling her to be brave. As long as their argument stayed all the way over there, that was fine. She tried to sleep again.
That evening Tessalia had turned their house inside out, spoken to anyone in town that had worked with her mother and nobody could tell her anything about where her mother may be. Destroyed by fear and grief she turned to Jadeshi, the town’s leader for help. The kind human put her in touch with a hunter named Bolt. Jadeshi explained that Bolt could find anyone or anything in Trott’s ferry or out in the jungle surrounding the town. Bolt was an affable human with tanned skin and rough hands. She remembered his hands because he greeted her with the most bizarre handshake she had ever experienced. Bolt was kind and funny. It was hard to envision him as a hunter, but he always seemed to emerge from the jungle with some kind of recently snared rabbit or bird. For the next while, Thessalia stayed at home and Bolt would report in to her. On the third week of waiting she had been alone in her mother’s darkened shop. Suddenly Bolt had come to her with the name of a river barge, The Turtle Gut. Apparently this barge had left Trott’s ferry bound for a far off town called Riverweld. When it had left, several of the white haired elves and other passengers, refugees, had been on board. Bolt believed that one of the other passengers must have been Deselra. Thessalia’s heart simultaneously sank and lifted at the news. When Bolt offered to travel with her to Riverweld she leapt at the chance. Apparently Bolt knew several people in Riverweld who could help them track down her mother.
Thinking back to that day Thessalia wished she had listened more to Bolt. The arguing halflings were still there on the docks. Shouting about something. Docking fees? Trade fees? Thessalia wasn’t sure but she let their shouts carry her back to sleep.
The trip to Riverweld had been the first time that Thessalia had ever left Trott’s ferry so she wasn’t prepared for the rocking of the ship. It almost felt like the vessel was going to launch everyone on board into the thrashing river several times during their journey. Bolt never seemed too worried. He always had a way to calm her down, whether with a joke or some strange story about his travels to far off mysterious lands. Apparently Bolt had a sister too. She was back in Trott’s Ferry. Her name was Bryer, and Bolt loved her very much. Thessalia could tell that something bad had happened to their parents, because any time Bolt spoke about Deselra, he would get sad.
After several days the barge arrived at Riverweld. Thessalia had never expected a city could be so big, so full of people, and so hot all at the same time. Bolt showed her around the city and introduced her to a woman named Aiyanna. It wasn’t until Thessalia met Aiyanna, who was another traveler, that she learned not everyone used that word. Apparently, in Riverweld people called Travelers, Half-elves. It was a strange quirk and the term felt strange when she said it. Riverweld was a new city and Thessalia found herself overwhelmed by all there was to do. Aiyanna must have been extremely wealthy because she worked in an enormous stone tower in the middle of the city. Apparently, she was in charge of a place called the Arcanum. Riverweld didn’t have anyone like Jadeshi, but Aiyanna seemed to command the same respect and authority. Aiyanna gave Thessalia her own room to sleep in, new clothes and as much food as she wanted. If this had been any other time, these gifts would have been the most wondrous things she had ever seen. But the tension of not knowing where her mother was, made her forget the clothing, the food and everything else.
Thessalia, reached down and tugged on the dress she was wearing. It had gotten wedged underneath her. It was one of the dresses Aiyanna had given her. Beautiful red fabric with green stitching. It was one of the only pieces of clothing Thessalia had now, along with a set of armor that had belonged to Bolt. She recalled the weeks in Riverweld.
They had been wonderful, but tinged with sadness. Aiyanna had found an instructor to continue her lessons on healing and medicine from a Mahinan temple. The instructor from the Arcanum was very talented and helped her to learn a great many things, but always in the back of her mind was a cloak of sadness wrapping her up. Thessalia missed her mother. She had taken to going on walks after her lessons. The city was pleasantly hot most nights and the breeze from Lake Matsaya always seemed to keep her on the pleasant side of comfortable. That particular night hadn’t been remarkable. She was walking past some of the commercial docks when she saw two people with shocks of white hair walking up the gangway onto a ship. She had ducked behind a crate and peered around the edge, eager with anticipation and fear. Sure enough, white hair, slender frames and black leather armor. She had found Ferdir! But why now? With no news from Bolt or Aiyanna for weeks, where had these two Elves come from? Was she just in the right place at the right time? There were other passengers queuing up to board this ship. Without thinking Thessalia took a deep breath and blessed herself with a charm she had learned. She felt herself straighten, her posture pull back and her confidence blossom. She joined the line of passengers and with suprisingly little difficulty, talked herself on board the ship. The ship was called the Lilly, and it was bound for a place called Ter’ A-Til.
Thessalia thought back with a sense of regret on that night. She had followed those elves without so much as a second thought. Impulsive, wreckless, ignorant! But once again, she felt her mother’s voice add another word in her mind, brave. She knew that night, if she hadn’t acted she may never have found another Ferdir. The journey to Ter’ A-Til took several days and once again, she was aboard a boat that felt like it had undertaken a personal quest to make her sick. The elves barely noticed her for the entire journey. It turned out, being sea sick made it easy for people to ignore and avoid you.
By the time they had arrived at Ter’ A-Til, Thessalia didn’t think she would ever eat or drink again. The weather had been terrible and when she finally realized that she was in another city, this time alone, she was at a loss. She didn’t have Bolt. Aiyanna was gone. She knew nobody, but that didn’t matter. She had to find her mother. If these Elves knew where she was, she would find out. If the Elves didn’t know where her mother was, she would make them take her to someone who did. That had been weeks ago, and now she was in the bottom of a rowboat with no money, no leads and no food. She drifted off to sleep finally with the rocking of the harbor waves. Tomorrow will be another day. She knew the Ferdir were still in the city, and that meant she still had a chance.
