Chapter 1 Youths

  “These adjust the amount of air and these adjust which pipes receive it.” An older middle-aged priestess of Halya explained to Isaac as he sat on the organist’s bench.

  “Which in turn changes the notes, but by how much?” Isaac wondered. The organ in front of him was different from the other one that he had seen in Material de la Celestia.

  “You are familiar with flat and sharp notes, are you not?” The priestess asked.

  “Yes. I am competent on the piano. I would say that I have mastered it in my own way.” Isaac informed her.

  “Good.” The priestess replied and immediately moved on: “The amount of incoming air alters the volume, hollowness, and pitch by an amount of one or two thirds of a note.”

  “One or two thirds?” Isaac parroted with obvious confusion. That was not how he thought written music worked but it was a six hundred year old organ.

  “Yes, and altering which pipes have air to them will allow you your shifting of octaves by simply using different pipes.” She explained.

  “So if I do this, and press this pedal, it should be a baritone D flat?” Isaac asked to which he got a nod of agreement from his instructor.

  “But if you press this pedal and press this E key, you will still get a D flat.” She informed him. “Go ahead and do them both and let’s hear the difference.”

  Isaac did as he was told and was instantly aware of something. “The D key D flat sounds hollow, almost hauntingly so.” He commented.

  The priestess smiled. “Yes, it does.” She agreed. “Now, would you like to try to play a simple song?”

  Isaac couldn’t hide his child-like excitement and nodded instantly. “Of course!”

  Lenna smiled from the railing that she was leaning against as she watched Isaac. He had only been in their world for one year, and she had spent most of that time with him, and it was hard for her sense of time to rationalize that. She had spent nearly three centuries in their planet and yet it felt like more had happened to her in the past year than those two hundred and ninety something years had. In a way, that feeling was accurate.

  Lenna was a noblewoman, born and bred to fill a role of Matriarch, General, and Paladin. She had fought countless battles, both to the death and in controlled environments. She had taken dozens of lives, most of them in combat, but enough during her short term as Contantis’ Executioner, as her position required, for her stomach to turn at the thought. She had nearly died over a hundred times but at least a dozen of those had been during the past year.

  During the past year, Lenna had thrown her old life to the wind, broken her oath, sworn a promise, been saved emotionally, mentally, and physically, gone on quests that she could have only ever dreamed of, saw sights that no living mortal dark elf had ever seen, met demigods, helped slay one, fought a dragon, fought her own people, fought an army of skeletons and their lich overlord on two separate occasions, witnessed every extreme of divine power, fallen in love, gotten mated and married, had her strand of fate bound to a human, eaten dinner with a king and a being who now only existed in memory and legend, been embraced by her goddess, doubled in power and more than doubled in level, but most importantly, she had found happiness. Sure, there were still plenty of things that brought negative emotions to the forefront, but she could genuinely, finally, say that she was truly happy. There were ways that she could be happier, sure, like if she and Isaac would have a child or two together, or if they could both reach maximum level already so their power could truly cement their place in the world, but more happiness when one was already happy was just icing on the cake.

  Lenna gave Isaac a warm smile that he could feel in his chest through their bond but couldn’t see. “I love you.” She whispered even though he couldn’t hear her.

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  Her mind then shifted on to things from Isaac’s perspective. The crazy, barely older or more mature than a boy, had been dropped in the middle of the second or third most dangerous place on or in the planet and had managed to get by with luck, quick reflexes, and talents he didn’t understand. He had to wrestle with the fact that his power was tailor made to kill only those that were seen as ‘Good’ in the world. Nature, metallic dragons and dragon kin, humans, anima, lightfoot, and most kinds of elves, dwarves, and gnomes. Yet in this world, where half of it was out to get him for being a human, he could only easily help those who would do him harm on principle. Lenna couldn’t imagine how she would’ve fared if the roles were switched. One thing she did know for certain, was that the drow of her homeworld would have executed one of their own, if they showed a soul deep connection to Light and Life.

  Then, she had sworn to protect him out of seemingly nowhere from his perspective and he had to drag a lost and frightened weapon of war around with him everywhere he went. Lenna knew that she had caused more problems than those she helped with in those early days. Just her race alone was enough to put him on a collision course with plenty of powerful people. If it wasn’t for her, then Isaac wouldn’t have nearly died from bleeding out against the shadow-wolves, he wouldn’t have nearly been assassinated by the men Gio hired, and he wouldn’t have taken his first three human lives. There were so many fights that he wouldn’t have ended up in if he were alone but she just couldn’t keep up. It didn’t matter how strong she was if she was the only reason he got hurt. The worst part was the times when he got hurt because they were doing something directly related to her. The fights with Fen, the battle against Jallen, their fight against Shamsha, and even the most recent ambush by her second cousin and the most famous assassin in drow territory. It was a struggle every time she thought about those fights to keep from turning any negative emotions inwards. Emotions that she knew that he could now feel through their bound strand of fate.

  Lenna stood there, in quiet contemplation as Isaac learned to play the Happy Birthday song on the organ. It made her chuckle at how young he looked with a smile that was totally unrestrained. ‘Did I make a mistake?’ She asked her goddess who couldn’t easily reply as it was only two hours until noon and Lua was on the other side of the planet. ‘Did I force my centuries on someone who has barely truly lived for a year? Someone who, by his own fragmented memories, said that he couldn’t be older than three decades?’ She knew that Lua wasn’t going to answer but it still helped to get her thoughts off her chest and out into the open, even if Lua was the only one who would hear them.

  “Lenna!” Isaac called towards her which yanked her mind out of her internal musings. “Come play with me!” He told her and slid to one side of the bench so she could sit next to him.

  Lenna chuckled and joined him on the bench. He had definitely felt how doubtful she was feeling through their bond and called her over to distract her, it had worked as now that she had a task in front of her, Lenna had to do it to the best of her abilities. After all, there was one part of V’Nova culture that she would never willingly shed: Always give everything you have, always forwards and never back, and never kneel before someone who isn’t worthy.

  Lenna’s internal musings were nearly entirely washed away by the time evening mass came around. Isaac hadn’t given her a single moment to think about anything other than their organ lesson, and she was in awe at how easily he picked it up, and that she was even able to pick it up at all. Lua’s blessings were certainly pulling their weight as the far too eager mage and barely not musically inept paladin learned one of the most complicated instruments of all time.

  The duo stuck around for mass. It was strange and not something that the duo would have ever done normally. The priest spoke of the words and lessons that Halya had left them with. Given examples and parables of nurturing and forgiveness, but also of cutting ties like dead branches. There were prayers led by the priest as well as a time for individual prayers but most of it just boiled down to wishes for growth, prosperity, and for the crops planted so far, and in the coming months, to grow large and yield an even larger harvest.

  The reason the duo stuck around was actually so they could watch the priestess who had been teaching them play the organ. She played as the people all filed and, in the middle when they had taken a break from the sermon to sing about Halya, and then again as everyone filed out. The older woman’s hands had danced across the keys while her legs moved from pedal to pedal. The organ was actually a magical item in the way that it sucked in fresh air for the pipes by a set of enchantments so no one had to do so manually. This also meant that playing the organ got a gentle breeze to begin flowing through the hall which kept the place from getting too hot or stuffy from all the people inside.

  “Did you enjoy it?” A grandmotherly voice came from behind them. Isaac and Lenna had both heard her staff as it impacted the floor with every step as she approached but neither had seen who it was until she rounded the corner to end up right behind them.

  “It was interesting.” Isaac replied to the pope noncommittally as he straightened and the duo turned to face her. “Hello, Pope Chrys, thank you for allowing me to learn on your organ.”

  The elderly woman smiled warmly at him and then at Lenna and she gave the elf a nod in greeting as well. “You will make good on your promise, won’t you?” She asked the duo.

  “Of course.” Isaac replied. “I don’t know where to start, but there are plenty of simple things that the youths of Safeharbor would benefit from.”

  “Oh?” Pope Chrys asked to get Isaac to come up with a plan on the spot without even trying.

  “Well, most of them are illiterate so bankrolling a school that teaches basic numbers and literacy would be an option. I know that Sera has tried to do similar things in the past but the underground in Safeharbor really doesn’t want their future members and customers to be capable of finding a better life somewhere else.” Isaac went on. “Another option could be facilitating apprenticeships or building another orphanage. A place to sleep and food should be two things that no child has to worry about.”

  “Those are things that the duke and duchess would be more than happy to do if you were able to guarantee their survival.” Pope Chrys told him. “But what about something that only you could do?”

  “Like what? A school of ass kicking?” Isaac joked but then realized, mostly from the look of affirmation in the old woman’s eyes, that an adventurers’ school was exactly what she had in mind.

  “Of course, you don’t have to do that. Any of your other ideas hold great merit and will help the next generation.” Pope Chrys told him. “Just something to think about.” She finished, and then continued on past them to go and talk to the priest who had led the sermon and the priestess who had led the songs.