Gifts of the Living Phoenix

Chapter 13

            “Every year, I receive a very small wooden carving.  Of an animal, or elven figurine.  It has changed throughout the years, but it always comes, once on my birthday.  The post mark is always from the second realm…so I don’t know….that’s where he’s from and I guess he was telling me something? Though I don’t know what!  It never came with a note or explanation!  All I know is that he has a life in the second realm without me.”

The words came whooshing out of Miala so quickly she didn’t know if she had taken a breath the whole time.

            “So, let me get this straight.  He MAY have been trying to HINT at you all these years and you just what… took his cute little carvings as a gesture of remembrance??”  Karlina gasped.

            “I don’t know.  I mean, what was I to think? I thought maybe he was just being nice,” Miala said weakly.

            “Being NICE??  Cousin, you are a nut.” Karlina said exasperated. “The elf wasn’t being NICE.  He was trying to reach out to you…and you left him hanging year after year.  Oh my god!”

            Miala and Karlina continued bickering on as if Faith and Hope wasn’t even in the room.  As for Faith, she was lost in her own thoughts trying to untangle the mess in her head and make sense of it all.  Hope on the other hand just cried silently for a second time that day.  This time it was for her sister.

Her uncle, or her father, ugh, whatever he was had moved on and just left them.  If he loved her mother, why hadn’t he tried to reach out, or to find out what happened to her.  Maybe it was all one sided and her mother didn’t realize it.  But her mother wasn’t one to fabricate things, nor exaggerate them.  But still, why wouldn’t he try to contact her.  Why didn’t he?  It just didn’t make sense.  What about closure?  What the hell, why was there so much drama in her life all of the sudden?  None of anything that happened in the last week made sense.  Faith walked out of the living room and neither her aunt, sister nor her mother even realized.

In the morning, Faith rolled over in her bed and saw a small book sitting on her desk.  She sat up on her elbow to read the small scrap of paper that was left on the top of the book. On it was a hand written note from her mother:

Faith,

I know that what I tried to tell you last night only made partial sense.  I am leaving this book in your care, so that you can read and understand what I was feeling back then and know it wasn’t just a passing fancy.  So that you can forgive me for deceiving you and keeping this from you.  I think deep down I knew you were Colvine’s.  It was so easy to live a lie after a while, I left it alone.  I hope you can forgive me.

                                                                                                                                        Love, Mother

The faded cover of the book was like many others that Faith had seen in her mother’s study.  She wrote a lot when she was younger.  She would never have looked for this book, nor thought it curious enough to pull out and read.  She wondered if her father had ever suspected.  Faith carefully touched the edges of the book and saw the worn pages on the inside.  She opened it up, but then slowly closed it back up.  She didn’t want to know.  It was just too much right now.  She sat the book back on her desk and rolled back away from the desk.  Later, she thought to herself, maybe later. 

Second Realm

“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, we will be arriving in the second realm in about 10 minutes.  The weather is currently 22 degrees and snowing.” 

The train attendant speaking magically overhead brought Faith back to the present.  As she looked out the window of the small train, she wondered what she was doing.  Before she left the first realm, she had steeled herself to the idea to find her uncle and confronting him, the man that was her father.  What was she going to do?  What did she think she was going to accomplish? 

Part of her wanted to turn around and go back.  Back to her mother and her life in the first realm.  But was it going to be so easy to forget about what her mother had told her?  Her father  had been a good elf.  She never doubted he loved her and he was her father, so why was she here?  Why come all this way across the realms to find a man that walked out on her and her mother?

As the train stopped in the terminal, Faith pulled the box out of her bag, and stared at the figure inside.  Her mother did not know that she had this memento.  Why did she bring it?  More questions than answers.  The answers will come she thought.  Now I just need to find my uncle.  The map she had didn’t really make her feel confident that it would be easy.  

When Faith walked through the boarding area, Faith couldn’t help but notice how small the terminal was, three gates and two office areas.  Wow, nothing like the crazy congestion of the terminal in the first realm.  It wouldn’t be hard to get out of here.  She slung her purse over her shoulder and pulled her bag to the counter. 

“I have a reservation, the name is Geniason,” Faith announced.  The older man behind the counter looked at her with a raised eyebrow.  Apparently they don’t have a lot of young female elves come through here she thought. 

“We only have a few drivers left Miss, with the snow coming down out there, will that be alright?” he asked.

“It will be fine, thank you.”

“You’re lucky we dropped down our age requirement to 16 last year for traveling alone.  What brings you all the way out here from the first realm alone?” he asked as he handed back Faith her identification card. 

“Looking for my uncle, General Geniason?  Maybe you’ve heard of him? I was told he had a home not too far from here.”

“Sure have, great fishing out there, just head out to the main route labeled 81, head south to Route 14 and it’s  about a two hour drive from here, maybe longer with the snow.”

            Faith noticed that his nametag read Art. 

“Thanks Art,” she said.

“Good Luck,” Art said with a smile, “Be careful out there.”

            As Faith headed out of the terminal, the frosty wind cut right through her.  It was colder here in the second realm than in the first.  Why were these people so desperate to get above ground so quickly?  She did realize that quite a bit of renovation had occurred which allowed for more secure buildings and compounds to be built.  She was used to the first realm cold, but this was different, it had more of an edge to it.  The blowing snow didn’t help matters any.  She found her driver, instructed him on who she was seeking and pulled away.  “Here I go,” she thought. 

            About 12 inches of snow had piled up on the roads.  Did they say the Ogacio was over?  These people were crazy Faith thought.   Traffic was moving, but moving at a pace well below the posted limited.  Still, in the midst of the blowing wind and snow flurrying down, Faith could not get over the beauty of this place.  The mountains, the snow and all the trees, trees all up and down the highway, lined up neatly in a row.  Someone had taken extra care to plant those trees she thought as she continued on her way.  She wondered how they stayed alive in all this cold. 

            Faith struggled with the idea of giving her mother a mindlink, just to check in and see how she was doing.  They had stopped talking once her mother had told her the truth.  As she looked at her bag, she realized she didn’t have anything to say.  She couldn’t even see the streets outside and she wondered how the driver knew where he was going. Just convenient, she thought. 

            Memories of her life with her father continued to invade her thoughts as they drove on.   The late nights in the playground area training with him, sipping fizzy drinks with him and talking with him, even the days when they didn’t say much at all.  Those were the days on the tattered green couch.  Memories of birthdays, Christmases past, how he was so proud of her when she got into accepted into the Unity School.     Then her mind pushed forward and she remembered her mother’s lies, the deceit, the last time she had seen her parents together when they came to visit her.  She struggled to push those thoughts out of her mind, to keep the memories of happier times in the forefront of her thoughts. 

            Finally, she saw the driver exit off the main road, as she slowly pulled away from the life she knew and into the unknown.  Not much farther now she thought.

            Faith still had a long way to go to get to this town that would change her life forever.  The road twisted and turned, taking her deeper into what looked like the country side.  Small towns passed by, as the smell of burning wood seemed to penetrate the air.  The snow was coming down harder out here, and the sun was beginning to set.  4:30 was the time on her watch, and she still didn’t know how much farther she had to go. 

            Surprisingly, Faith realized she was hungry.  She realized that she hadn’t passed any inns or food cart. Lots of people normally sold food out food carts but the weather was so cold up here she wasn’t sure how it worked in the outer world.  The rumble in her stomach reminded her that she hadn’t eaten a thing since she left the first realm.   

As she made the long turn, she noticed a dimly lit sign with the word D I N E R.  Cute she thought, that’s all it said.  Carefully she motioned for the driver to stop and they slowed and pulled the carriage in between two large and very old carriages.  The snow was still falling, and the air seemed to feel colder now that the sun had gone down. 

As she walked in, she noticed that there was a counter, a few tables, a couple of booths and animal head on the wall.  What was that about!  She had never seen such an animal. 

Faith felt like she had gone back in time for sure. The smell of coffee and stale charcoal smoke hung in the air.  The two older elves at the counter gave her a courtesy look and went back to their coffee and conversation. After taking a booth by the window, a server in a dingy pink outfit came over and dropped a menu on the table asking her if she’d like something to drink.

            “Tea, please” she said as she pulled off her coat and scarf. 

She came right back with a cup of hot water and a weak tea bag full of loose leaf tea 

            “What will you have, dear?”

Faith quickly scanned the menu.  Not a vegetable to be found.  Something that looked like chicken, some pork, ground protein or flax bread.  She quickly decided on the chicken with the flaxbread.   The serverleft and placed her order with the cook.  Faith was surprised when she returned.

            “So, what brings you all the way out here, Sweetie?”

            “Just looking for an uncle who lives nearby as far as I know.” 

            “Well, who is it you’re looking for?”

            “Um, his name is General Geniason, Colvine Geniason,” Faith provided without giving it a second thought.

Both elves at the counter turned and looked in her direction.  The man with the red flannel jacket offered, “With these roads out here today, you won’t make it unless you have a special four wheeled vehicle.”

Oh no, she thought.  Just her luck, travel 2000 miles and now she can’t make it the last 10.  The doubts in her mind were no longer dormant but smacking her straight in the head.  This was a mistake.  This was definitely a mistake.

            “Is there lodging or inn nearby that I could stay at until the storm passes then?”

            “Well, this storm is going to be with us for a few days,” the man in the red flannel stated.

            “That is, if that elf is to be believed,” countered the other elf sitting next to him.

            “Really?   But there is lodging close by?” Faith asked, a little more worried.

            “Not an inn,” grinned the flannel wearing man, “ but a really old lodge owned by an elf a mile down.” 

            Just as Faith was mulling this new piece of information over, the waitress brought her dinner.  Obviously this establishment was accustomed to serving large amounts of sustenance to the folks around the area, providing them with enough food to fuel them through a hard day of working outdoors.  The plate before her had more food than she needed.  As she started to eat, the rich food warmed her from the inside out.  The tea had been soothing, but the food seemed to warm her all over.  Faith was enjoying her meal so much that she barely noticed when the door opened and a young elf walked in. 

            “Evening Ms. Helene, Walt, Ben, sure is coming down out there and the council plows haven’t seem to have made it this far north yet.  Gonna be rough in the morning,” said the new elf.

Faith looked up when she heard him speak and smiled when the others all nodded in agreement.  She noticed that this young stranger had a bandage on his left hand.  He looked as though he had been working in this weather, his blonde hair was wet, boots were muddy and she noticed a slight smell of charcoal as well.