DUMPLING ch 50
“Wait! You’re Bumbling Bertol?” Jae exclaimed dubiously, in far too loud a voice. A moment of clarity seemed to overtake him, and he cleared his throat. “I mean… uh. Sorry. Bertol. So, uh… you’re Bertol then, huh?”
The giant did not appear to take any real offense at the mocking moniker and merely regarded Jae with an easy stare.
“I used to be. That name… well, I cannot say I did not earn it,” he explained with a resigned sigh. An air of wistful regret came over him as he stared passed them. “I was a pathetic creature in my younger days. I went from hamlet to hamlet, village to village, selling my talents for whatever coin or bauble they saw fit to give me. I sold predictions, but nothing too grand. Not in those days, at least. Ordinary folks only wish to know ordinary things.”
He plucked up three apples and tossed them into his mouth. “The housewife wants to know if she’ll bear a son, the poor farmer wishes to know if the year’s crop will be bountiful, and the young maid aches to know the name of the man whom she will wed.” He sighed in frustration and his expression became bitter.
“Simple questions that should have simple answers. But life is far more complicated and twice as cruel. The housewife will have her son, but he will die of pneumonia at too young an age. The farmer’s harvest will be plentiful, but it will be his last before a heart attack strikes him down. The young maid learns the name of her beloved only to find he is fifteen years her senior and a foul drunkard.” Bertol took up another apple and rolled it idly between his fingers. “Such dire predictions. They grind against your soul after so long. I grew weary of seeing the doom ahead of so many people. So I took solace in herbal concoctions and alcohol spirits. I became the man they called Bumbling Bertol. Truthfully, I don’t recall much of those days. I don’t remember a good many of the predictions now credited to my name. Most of them are silly anyway.”
“How did you meet Ellis?” Haiyer asked, his eyes alight with intrigue. The little boy had taken up a spot near Bertol’s knee and was listening with rapt attention, despite the morose subject matter.
“It shames me to say that I don’t quite remember how or where I met her,” he admitted, shifting in his seat and running a hand down his beard. “I was drunk. I know that much. And that she watched over me while I was passed out in a gutter somewhere. She claims that in my wretched inebriated state I called her beautiful and that was why she took pity on me. But I know that is a lie. Fairies are notoriously voyeuristic and mischievous. And I suppose in that state I was quite a humorous thing to behold. In all truthfulness, she was probably bored and looking for some fun. But after I had sobered up, she still stayed with me. She would watch me as I made my predictions, drank myself stupid afterwards, and spent the following hours or days wandering around like fool.”
As he spoke of his fairy companion, Bertol’s dour expression softened and a smile came to his lips. He turned to look down at Haiyer. “She watched over me. Much in the way she looks after you, little one.”
He gestured to the little boy. “She did that for me. Then she began to teach me things about magic, things I never knew. About how my gift of foresight could be harnessed to see beyond merely the terrible. My predictions began to change the more I learned from her. I began to see the good and less and less of the bad. The promise of new horizons stretched on before me and I needed the bottle less and less. For a small amount of time, I was quite content.”
“So then,” Jae pressed, biting into his apple, “where does the Gold Prophecy come into play?”
Nenani ran her fingers across one of her apples as her heart raced. She was all too familiar with the Gold Prophecy, and while many of the people who spoke of it did so with a mockingly or dismissively, it always left her feeling ill. Those were the words that echoed in her dreams, that were spoken by centuries-dead mages deep within the Vhasshalan catacombs, and most worrying of all they were the very words Aidus spoke the day she first met him face to face.
Those words were a curse.
At Jae’s question, all warmth left Bertol’s face. His expression soured and the giant snorted derisively. “That damn prophecy. It has caused me nothing but misfortune from the day those accursed words left my lips.”
“Do you…” Nenani began, feeling an uneasiness in her belly. Her mind drifted to the catacombs within the Vhasshalan keep and to the skeleton mage. She rested a hand against the fire opal on her belt. “What is it really about? The prophecy?”
“Who knows,” he grunted. “I speak the words as they come to me. I am not omnipotent.”
“Ah, come on!” Jae whined, clearly dissatisfied with his answer. “That’s bullshit! It’s gotta be about someone.”
Bertol glared at the young man and leaned towards him.
“And you think it is about the King do you?” he asked with a sneer.
“Well, a lot of people do,” Jae replied defensively. Meeting Bertol’s eye, he steeled himself and nodded firmly. “So yes. I do think it’s about Warren.”
Bertol glare darkened. “You are hardly the first to ask me the meaning of those words or to believe them to be about one person or another. Many came to me to ask if those words foretold their rise to power. And like you, they did not care for my answer. Some tried to force me to declare that it was always about them and, when I would not, I would be beaten or imprisoned.” A sly grin crossed his face. “So Ellis taught me a useful trick for escaping such circumstances and I am not ashamed to say I have become quite good at it. I became a wanted man.”
He sat back up and gave a half shrug. “And so we went into hiding. I became something of a hermit and avoided people at all cost. I found life in the mountains away from people quite suited me. That was until the war spoiled everything.”
“The war?” Haiyer asked.
“We were able to distance ourselves from the worst of it,” Bertol continued. “Until one day we came upon the aftermath of a battle along the Deahil Nenani river.” His eyes drifted to Nenani and seemed to size her up. “The very river you’re named for.”
“Riftside,” Jae supplied. “That was the battle of Riftside. Warren’s brother died there. Prince Mourin.”
Bertol grunted as he waved the anecdote away. “A corpse with a crown on its head is still a corpse, boy. And believe me, there were many of them. Human and Vhasshalan alike. Further down river from the battle’s center is where Ellis found him, a Silvaaran mage. He was gravely injured, but alive.” Bertol paused and for several long moments did not say a word. He appeared to Nenani as though he were replaying the events in his mind and he did not look pleased at all. “Ellis convinced me that we should save him. So I pulled the man from the water and tried to dress his wounds as best I was able. Ellis was dissatisfied with my quality of care and decided to use her stone.”
“Stone?” Nenani asked. “What kind of stone?”
“A stone of power, a ruby. It was a dear treasure to her and not a gift she so easily bestowed upon others. She used it to heal him.”
“Stones of power can do that?” Nenani asked, looking down at her opal.
“Not the stone itself,” Bertol replied, reaching into his bag and pulling out a red river rock. He turned it idly through his fingers. “The magic infused within is the healing catalyst as the stone is merely a vessel. Fae magic is wild and can be amazingly powerful when wielded in the proper way. Horrendously destructive if misused.” He tossed the stone into the air and caught it with his other hand. “The mage was healed and saved and he was very grateful of course. But as I was a giant, I made him nervous. I attempted to calm his fears and, not much to my surprise, he had heard of me. And he had heard my prophecies., including the one that would become known as the Gold Prophecy. Like so many before, he was very interested in that one. A little too interested for my liking, so I left Ellis to it. She likes to make pets of mortals every now and again. I thought she would do the same with this one.” He shook his head as he glared out into open space. “He attacked her while I was away. Stole her ruby and tried to absorb all that magic it had soaked in over hundreds of years. The fool.”
Nenani ran her fingers over the opal set inside her belt, trying to imagine what hundreds of years of built up magic would feel like. Extremely unpleasant, she was sure.
“It should have killed him, trying to take in all that magic,” Bertol continued. “His aura turned black and his body began to flake apart like ash. But he somehow held himself together, though he was nothing but smoke and cinders and… I don’t think you could rightly call him human after that. Both Ellis and I tried to get the ruby back, but we were not a match for him as he was. I was lucky to have survived and without her stone she could not heal me. The smoke mage disappeared with the ruby and Ellis and I retreated into the hills to lick our wounds.”
“Aidus,” Nenani declared. Her hands rested in her lap, clutching hard enough to turn her knuckles white. “The mage you’re talking about. That was Aidus, wasn’t it?”
“I learned his name much later,” Bertol explained.,“when Ellis found him again after a long search. You must understand, without her stone she was no longer permitted to return to her home realm as it was considered a Fae relic. To return home, she would have to get her ruby back. But in the end it did not matter as her other crimes came to light. Her fellows discovered that she had taught me Fae secrets and that was the reason she was banished.”
He tossed a few more apples into his mouth and was silent as he chewed. “There is nothing like the vengeance of a Fae being. She wanted that mage’s blood. It did not matter that it was I that got her banished. She blamed the mage all the same. I’m not sure what she was planning to do once she had found him. He could and would kill her. Fae can live on forever, but that doesn’t mean they cannot be killed. They are not gods, no matter how much they may act as though they are. But when she did find him, she also found something else. Or rather… someone.”
He regarded Haiyer with a pointed look. “A baby.”
Haiyer pointed at himself, grinning wide. “Me?”
“Yes,” he said with a small smile. “You. It seemed as though the moment she found you, all thought of revenge dissipated. She said you had faint traces of green in you and that you needed protection, so she would watch over you.”
“Green?” Jae asked. “What does that mean?”
Bertol rolled his eyes. “Green. As in the forest. Nature. A green mage.”
Jae glanced at Haiyer and then back at Bertol with a heavily dubious expression. “…green mages? You think… Haiyer’s a green mage?”
“Not so much me,” Bertol replied. “Ellis. It’s what drew her to him. She claimed he was an unbloomed green mage. A rare thing these days and, to the Fae, a precious one.”
“Why would him supposedly being a green mage make her drawn to him?”
“Green mages are supposedly descended from the Fae.”
Jae blinked and then laughed loudly. Through his chortling, he asked “…are you saying Haiyer’s part fairy?”
“No,” Bertol growled. “Green mages are said to have once been descendants of Fae, but they are absolutely human. It’s their connection to the earth that attracts Fae to them. Same way dragons are drawn to fire mages or sea serpents to water mages. They share a common element, their primal sources are the same, and so one will attract the other.”
“And like fairies,” Jae shot back, “green mages are supposed to be nothing but children’s stories.”
“And like the Fae, green mages like to keep hidden and to themselves,” the giant retorted. He glanced up at Nenani and smirked. “The exact opposite of fire mages. Flashy blowhards.”
“Hey!” Nenani barked with a mouth full of apple.
“When she found this one as a babe,” Bertol continued, tapping Haiyer on the head, “she tried to take him back with her, away from Aidus’s clutches. But there was some sort of barrier that would not let her pass through with him. It seemed that Aidus had sensed her peeking about and had made precautions against her meddling. So she settled for watching. But when his mother finally escaped, Ellis was able to better help them, steering them towards clean water, away from poisonous plants. Once they were safe in Vhasshal, I thought her watch over the boy would end. But then the last time she went to visit him… she never returned.”
Nenani recalled back to her first magic lesson and how Maevis had suddenly pulled something invisible from the air and sealed it into a jar. For weeks now she had been harboring a slight suspicion of what was really inside that jar, but now there was no doubt.
“That was Maevis,” Nenani said, casting an apologetic sidelong glance at Jae. “He… he thought it was Aidus snooping around.”
“And so she has sat in that same jar ever since,” Bertol said with a sneer as he balled his hands into tight fists. “That damn magician…”
“Hey!” Jae snapped, pointing a warning finger at the giant. “Maevis is my good friend, and if I hear you say one nasty thing about him I’ll—”
Bertol laughed, cutting off whatever Jae may have said, and leaned into the boy’s space. Jae fumbled back with a start.
“You’ll what?” Bertol demanded. “Just because the King has made you a prince does mean that you possess any real power. You are still my prisoner and a human. And not even a mage at that. So don’t throw around commands as though anyone would listen.”
“Hey,” Jae said, squaring his shoulders. “Just because—”
“Your value is only that which the King has placed upon you,” Bertol said, cutting Jae off again.
The boy glared as his face colored in frustration and embarrassment. “Well… technically speaking I’m not a prince yet.”
Bertol waved a dismissive hand at him as he pulled away. “Close enough for my purposes. You could be as common as a mushroom so long you’re valued by the one in power.”
Jae frowned at the giant and looked up at Nenani.
“I think he just called me a mushroom,” he said. But when she did not respond or even acknowledge him, he grew concerned. It was then that he noticed that her hands were glowing. “Nenani?”
“I’m just wondering,” she said at last, staring off into space. “How different everything would be if… if you and Ellis hadn’t saved him. If you just let him die there.” A pause. “Papa would still be alive…”
Jae didn’t have an answer for her and he looked over to Bertol, a question in his eyes. In turn, the giant stared at the bubbled girl, but his face revealed nothing.
“It is useless to dream of what could have been or to mourn what never was,” he said at last. “The truth is both Ellis and I made a mistake that day. One I imagined cost many lives and much sorrow.”
“Do you feel guilty though? Even a little?” she asked, looking him in the eye. Her magic surged with every beat of her heart, and she could not keep from thinking of all the years she would have had with her father if it hadn’t been for the actions of the giant before her. And his fairy. Right then, she did not care that Ellis had protected her brother all those years. If Aidus had just died at Riftside, her father would be alive and her mother would have never been taken. Haiyer would have been born in the Southlands and uncle Halden would have not been killed. The fire would have never burned the fishing fleet. She would have her family. They would be safe and alive and whole and together.
Bertol just stared at her. “What use would my guilt be?”
His words were incendiary and the ever present fire deep within her began to rage and burn with an unbridled fury.
“But it’s your fault,” she told him. The anger within her surged like a pot boiling over and the glow of her hands began to spread up her arms and chest. It traveled up her neck and across her face and her eyes began to glow.
“N-Nenani?”
“Calm down,” Bertol snorted, reaching out and cupping the bubble between his hands. “There isn’t anything—”
“It’s your fault!” she yelled over him. The bubble filled with fire as she cried out and then abruptly it was gone. The shock of sudden weightlessness extinguished the worst of her flames and she dropped, only to fall into Bertol’s hands. Before she could recover enough to recall her anger, his fingers wrapped around her and held her firmly. His fingers began to glow a bright yellow that contrasted starkly against the angry orange and red of her fire.
“Now that is enough!” he said in a booming voice. His large face loomed above her and his eyes narrowed. “It’s generally ill-advised to be lighting fires within a small and enclosed space. Much like fire, people need to breathe air to live and without it they have the annoying habit of suffocating.”
She glared at him, trying to summon her fire again, but found it oddly difficult. Her arms were trembling, and no matter how deep she tried to reach inside to pull it out, she found her magic weakened and drained away. Looking at the glowing hands around her, she panted with sudden exhaustion. “W-what… what are you… doing… to me?”
“Keeping your flames down,” he growled. “Until you’ve calmed yourself.”
“You can’t do that!” Jae barked. He ran to the giant’s side and grabbed onto his vest, pulling with all his might. “Put her down! NOW!”
“Stop that,” Bertol snapped at him. “I can do as I please. Or have you forgotten you are my prisoners?”
A half-eaten apple struck the giant’s temple and he jerked his furious gaze down at Haiyer as the boy picked up another apple. “Leave my sister alone!”
“If you all don’t stop this right now,” Bertol growled, shifting his gaze between Haiyer and Jae, “I will bubble all of you!”
“Ellis said you were nice!” Haiyer cried as he threw another apple that struck the giant’s shoulder. “But you’re not at all! You’re mean. You’re an arse!”
Nenani renewed her struggles and tried to kick at the giant’s wrists. “And you smell really bad!”
“ENOUGH!” the giant cried, the sound echoing loudly in Nenani’s ears. His hands disappeared from around her, but instead of falling to the ground, she fell back against the now familiar walls of a bubble. Below her, she saw Haiyer and Jae both in bubbles of their own. Bertol got to his feet and stared at the three of them with fury as he tried to catch his breath.
“You will be quiet and meek as mice for the remainder of our time together,” he told them in a low and firm voice. “And then once Ellis is returned to me you will be someone else’s problem.”
Nenani was still too drained to attempt another escape and only wished she’d been re-bubbled with her blankets. Without their cushioning buffer, the bubble was quite uncomfortable.
“Um,” Haiyer spoke up hesitantly and shifted oddly within his confinement, “…I have to pee.”
Bertol glared daggers at the small boy. “Too bad.”
“But—”
“I said,” Bertol began, his face hard, “too ba—”
“BERTOL!” bellowed a voice from outside the tent, drowning out the giant’s words and startling all four of them. Nenani perked up with a grin.
“Farris?” She said with a hopeful voice and looked towards the open tent flap in hopes of catching a glimpse of him. Bertol’s gaze followed and his frown deepened.
“YE BETTER BE GETTING’ YER MOLDY OL’ ARSE OUT HERE NOW YE FUCKER!”
“Oh yeah,” Jae agreed with a grin of his own. “That’s Farris.”
With his eyes still fixed upon the tent’s opening, Bertol raised his hand and, in unison, all three of the bubbled humans rose as well. They followed after him as he left the tent, floating along as though pulled by invisible leads.
Once outside, Nenani was finally able to see exactly where they had been brought. Far off in the distance she could see snow-peaked mountains and below that a wide grassy valley of low sloping hills and sparse copses of trees. A heavy,frigid mist blanketed the ground, and as Bertol stepped out his bare feet made low crunching sounds against the frozen grass. Despite all the evidence pointing to the morning being especially chilly, Nenani did not feel cold at all. Thinking back, she realized with some confusion that she had been perfectly warm the entire time and yet there had been no fire to guard them against the morning frost.
Several yards outside the copse of trees where Bertol had pitched his tent stood Farris and Keral. Farris had exchanged his white apron for a long brown overcoat while Keral was dressed in his ranger’s uniform. In his hands he held a lantern that appeared very similar to the ones Maevis had created for the detection of Aidus’s magic. It was glowing and the sight gave Nenani pause, but she realized with relief that the light was the wrong color. The lantern glowed with a warm golden light rather than the pale violet of the warning beacons. As she studied it, Nenani could make out the shape of a person within and she blinked. Ellis, she realized. That was Ellis.
“If yer wantin’ yer damn fairy back,” Keral called out to Bertol. His voice was nowhere near as loud as Farris, but still managed to sound equally as cross. “Ye better hand over the lil’uns. Now.”
Bertol stopped at the edge of his camp to face the brothers with a hard glare. “You’re more than welcome to take them back. I’ll be glad of it,” he said. “As soon as ye release Ellis to me, that is.”
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BONUS ART
