fandomania | The Adventure continues... (Reply)

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“Thank you, Orlando.” I said simply. “Is there someplace that I could sit down? The heat of this room is starting to make me dizzy.”

Concerned, Orlando took me out of the hatchery and then into his library. There was an upholstered leather chair in there and I gratefully sat down. He went out of the library and came back a few minutes later with a glass of cool water for me. “I am sorry, little one. I keep forgetting how heat susceptible humans are. Drink this. You should start to feel better soon.”

I drank a few sips. “This isn’t plain water, is it?”

Orlando smiled. “Not entirely. There is some saline and a few other minerals in it to help you recover. There is nothing in there that should harm your baby. Trust me.”

“I do. You should have noticed I drank first and then asked questions. If I didn’t trust you, it would have been the other way around.”

Orlando chuckled.

“I have been meaning to ask you something. What is a geis?”

“It is something like a curse or a blessing. Only the ghods are powerful enough to invoke one. I have never heard of a human or a dragon magi being able and powerful enough to do so. The difference is that a regular curse or blessing is something that a being cannot avoid. With a geis, or the plural geasa, there are possibilities of avoiding them if you are careful.” Orlando told me.

“Like how?” I asked.

“In the case of a curse, think of the curse you received from Varpa-Makštis. You always have it. When you try to avoid its terms, it hovers over you like a vulture, ready to pounce. If this had been a geis, it probably would have been more specific, like ‘every time you make love under a linden tree, you will conceive’. In that case, if you do not wish to conceive, you just avoid having sex under a linden tree.”

“Is there a possibility for there to be less specific geasa?’

“I am sure there may be. This is not an area I am an expert in. Since I cannot perform them, nor do I wish to be cursed with one, my knowledge of them is not as deep as it should be. Why are you asking about them? Please do not tell me you have offended a ghod?” Orlando looked at me anxiously. “After being hit with three curses by Varpa-Makštis, I would think that you would avoid ghods altogether and especially avoid offending one.”

I said nothing to him in return.

“Patra! What have you done? You have to tell me, so that I can help you as much as I can!” Orlando said alarmed.

“But you just told me not to tell you…”

“Patra …!”

“The ghoddess Deivė placed three geasa on me.”

“When? Why? What did you do?”

“It was just after I discovered Donal’s body. I had tried to revive him just as I had in Riverford, but it didn’t work. I tried to use my crown to help me but it refused, saying it was forbidden. I then thought of asking for the ghoddesses’ help. I managed to get their attention, but they refused also, saying that he had been dead too long. I wasn’t thinking properly and I said something disrespectful and that is when I was given three geis. I did apologize immediately, but I still was punished.”

“Is that why we found you in the chapel?”

I nodded affirmatively.

“All right. Tell me what exactly was said to you.”

“The first geis: No matter how many times I sought death, it would be denied me. I would find myself unable to do that which I desired. I would not meet death until my destiny had been accomplished.

“The second geis: After my mourning period is over, I will find myself accepting and fulfilling the first marriage proposal that whomever asks of me.

“The third geis: Anyone who asks for my love will receive it, no matter who it is.”

“Specific, yet not specific. Blast it!” Orlando looked unhappy.

“Have you told anyone else about this?”

“No. I am afraid to. You are probably the only being still alive that I trust one hundred percent. And maybe Piatrus and Haral.”

“Thank you. That is good company to be in.

“You need to keep this to yourself. If someone should find out about this, they could use it against you, and use it to control or harm you. There is a legend from the ancient days, about a king who was a mighty hunter. He had gone hunting for boar and unknowingly wound up killing the pet boar of a ghod. The ghod was so upset at the death of his beloved pet that he placed a geis on the king that he could never kill another boar, under any circumstances. When the king’s enemies found out about this, they kidnapped him and imprisoned him on an island on which only boars lived. There were no other sources of food. The king, unable to kill any boars, starved to death.

“So do not tell anyone else about your geasa.”

His words frightened me. “I promise. I won’t!”

“As for the geasa themselves … The first is rather a blessing, although I know you think it a curse. It explains your behavior at Donal’s funeral. I was just about to put as spell on you to prevent you from throwing yourself into the flames, when you suddenly stopped. I can see why now.”

“I think it helped me when Dashal grabbed me and tried to cut my throat. I kept wishing that he would do it, so that I would join Donal in the afterworld. Dashal, I think, would have killed me also, but the geis stopped him.”

“Well, this is a good thing. And it tells us that you will not die unnaturally. You should take comfort in that.”

I looked at Orlando but then decided to say nothing instead.

“The second geis is problematic. It is specific and not specific at the same time. If it had been, ‘you will accept a marriage proposal from anyone named Jon’, then all you would have to do is avoid anyone named Jon. I suppose you could avoid becoming close to any man who is unmarried. But that would be difficult to do, as you would have to ascertain their marital status before meeting them.

“The third geis is just as bad.”

“What am I to do?” I asked dsspairing.

“Let me think about this for a moment.” Orlando went over to his bookshelves and started looking and reading several heavy tomes.

I waited patiently while he looked things up. After an hour, he finally came back over to me and sat down next to me.

“I could cast a spell on you. It wouldn’t be permanent. It could be removed if someone were to cast a dispel magic spell. But if I word it correctly, it could be a protection spell so that only someone who is truly in love with you would ask those things of you. I cannot keep someone from asking you to marry them or for you to love them. I can only put a specifier on to the geasa. Would that be all right with you?”

“Yes. That would take a lot of worry off of my mind. I don’t want to remarry. I would rather remain Donal’s widow for the rest of my life. The thought of being someone else’s wife is repugnant to me. But if I am forced to do so, it would be better I do so with someone I know will love me rather than use me. The thought of marrying another man like Jaizel horrifies me.

“I know that I should not have gone to the ghods for help. But I was in such a state after finding Donal dead, I wanted to try anything I could to bring him back.

"Everything I do, I do wrong. I suppose it is because of what you have been trying to teach me for so long; that I have to think before I act; that my actions have consequences. Now I am stuck with more curses. And every one of them I could have avoided if only I had thought things through better.”

I covered my face with my hands and began to sob bitterly.

“There, there, little one. I know it looks bleak right now. But we have some time. You won’t have to worry until you are out of mourning. In the meantime, I can continue to search for other solutions. I suppose we could ask Haral to intercede for you, but from all the myths and stories I have ever read or heard of, getting a ghod to change his mind is next to impossible. In my honest opinion, Haral would be the most likely to succeed. I am sure that we can trust him. But I am also doubtful of his success. Sometimes, it is the wisest thing to make the best of a bad deal and then forget about it.

“My dear, tell me what you want me to do, and I will do everything I can to help you. Just stop crying and talk to me?”

I looked at Orlando and he seemed genuinely moved by my tears. “I am sorry. I am turning into a water fountain, am I not? I am sorry.”

“Do not apologize. It isn’t needed. Just tell me what you want?”

“Do the spell. Continue the search only if you wish to. I do not want to waste your valuable time on my petty problems. And accept my thanks for being such a wonderful friend and mentor to me. I would be lost without you.”

“It is nothing, little one. Without you, I would have died of boredom years ago. And your ‘petty’ problems have occupied my time and my intellect, giving me the incentive to live on. Without you, I would never have met Fiorenzia and started another family. Without your constant conundrums, I would never have learned all the new things I have learned. I plan to stick with you until every unanswered question has been answered. I am sure the journey with you will be filled with surprises, problems and impossible solutions.”

“Thank you. Knowing you will be with me no matter what is very comforting to me.”

“Good. So let us get this spell done.”

Orlando spent the next half hour making sure that the wording was exactly correct, before proceeding. When he was satisfied, he raised his hands over me and started to chant in Old Tongue. As he did so, an orange glow enveloped me. I closed my eyes as the power of his spell worked its way into me. When he was finished, there was a brief residual sensation and then it went away.

“Is it truly done?” I asked.

“Yes, it is. You will be protected by this spell for as long as it is needed.”