It was after dinner now, and moonlight shone into Rowan’s room with both father and daughter sitting upon the bed. Willow was fidgeting nervously and kicking her legs back and forth as her feet dangled off the side of the mattress. Rowan was similarly uncomfortable and unsure on where he should start the tale of his late wife. There was just too much to cover, and while there was plenty of time, every word uttered would be a reminder of the pain of her loss.

  He wasn’t sure how much of that pain he could take.

  Eventually his eyes fell on the mirror sitting on his dresser and he knew where he should begin. He got up, surprising the girl next to him, and picked up the old memento stroking the side of its face with a large and calloused thumb as he did. He then went back to the bed and sat back down, making it groan slightly under his weight.

  “Do you know what this is?” He asked his daughter while showing her the tarnished silver mirror.

  She nodded hesitantly, grey-green eyes staring at the treasure. “It’s Ma’s old mirror, right?” At his slight surprise that she knew, she elaborated. “Maple told me when I asked her why you talk to it sometimes.”

  He hid a grimace at the idea of one of his children hearing him talk to the object in his hand, those words were for him alone.

  “That’s right.” Was all he chose to say on the subject. “I think I’ll start by telling you how she got this mirror and we can go from there all right?”

  At her nod and eager smile, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and began to speak.

  ***

  The sun had just reached its apex in Oikogaia, the largest city in the domain of House Petros, when a young farm boy came in through the front gate riding a spirit beast of earth and wood. He was grinning from ear to ear at the sights he was seeing, having only been to the smaller outlying towns to help hawk his families produce. His storm grey eyes were bright, and his dark and curly hair clung to his scalp due to the heat of the sun above.

  Beside him was a sullen smith’s apprentice, walking double time to keep up with his friend.

  “Can’t believe they made such a fuss over your stupid turtle.” He grumbled, clearly unhappy at being kept waiting in the hot sun. Which was funny to his friend, the guy could take the heat of his fathers forge just fine, but a little sun tended to make him crabby.

  He decided to crack a joke to lift his friends spirit. “Don’t know whatcha mean, Bough’s awesome. Of course they’d wanna bask in his majesty for as long as they could.” In truth he was quite annoyed by the constant tests and prodding they put his family's beast through in order for them to pass, but he was honestly too excited by the upcoming festivities to let it sour his mood.

  He’d finally convinced his Da to let him compete in the yearly binder tournament, and even his best bud decided to tag along with him. It had been a rough couple of weeks to make it through the mountains of the region to get here right on time, but hopefully it would all be worth it.

  “What’s all this have to do with Ma?”

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  “I’m getting to that, be patient, sprout.”

  Getting to the venue was a trial in it of itself as the streets were packed with bystanders and potential participants alike. Even the bulk of his spirit beast didn’t help as there were other beings of similar size in the main thoroughfare they were told to make use of. The entire time they were inching forward he was gawking and commenting his findings to his moody friend until he’d finally had enough.

  “Rowan, I love ya like a brother, but can you please shut your damn trap for a moment.” He rubbed a bit at his sunburnt skin before continuing. “The crowds and sun are already doing a number on me without your ceaseless prattling.”

  This just caused the young man to snort, Lucius could be such a stick in the mud at times. He did take mercy on him and took in more of the sights sans commentary.

  It was then that he first saw her.

  Tanned olive skin, light chestnut curls, and the most piercing green eyes he had ever seen were currently gazing at him from the window of an ostentatious carriage. She blessed him with a bright smile when their eyes met and he returned it with a nervous wave and a smile of his own. Luckily they were out of earshot of each other or the poor boy’s voice would’ve cracked the first time he tried to speak to her.

  Another head poked out of the carriage and seemed much less impressed with what she saw. The still admittedly pretty girl with short black hair, pale skin, and dark eyes whispered to her companion and they both started giggling which caused the young man to feel flustered despite not knowing what was said.

  He forced himself to look straight ahead as they were beginning to near the venue, and by the time he worked up the courage to look for the carriage again it had vanished. Probably took some side route or another, though the boy was definitely disappointed at not being able to see that beautiful face again.

  The two youths made it through registration with minimal issue, both opting for the team fight division where they fought alongside their spirits rather than the pure martial or spirit fight divisions. Rowan and Lucius wished each other luck as they headed to their respective waiting areas for their match to start. The two of them were both in the under twenty category of fights, but due to Bough’s size Rowan had to wait in the area set aside for beast binders with large partners.

  Already there was a woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties laying atop a pile of coiled viridian scales drawing in a lungful of smoke from a pipe. A serpentine head lifted up and looked at the boy and turtle who entered the area, black tongue tasting the air. A low hiss filled the air before the woman lightly smacked the beast with her pipe.

  “Easy now Rotter, no need to threaten the boyo. They ain’t our competition.” She spoke with a lilt unfamiliar to the young man, but he couldn’t get a good look at her due to the positioning of the wide brimmed hat she wore.

  “Heya, I’m Rowan, and this is Bough.” The boy said, trying to be friendly.

  She lifted the brim of her hat a bit and gave him a once over seeming disinterested. “I don’t rightly care, boyo.” Though when she looked closer at the beast the boy rode she disentangled from the coil’s of her partner and walked over. “Now that’s an uncommon beastie, wood and earth in one, aye?”

  A bit confused by the strange woman’s about face in regards to interest he just nodded and said. “Yeah, they’ve been in my family for a few generations now.” He patted the old turtle-like mound of earth fondly and they rumbled in approval.

  “Hafeta wonder where they found a guy like this. Earth is usually suppressed by wood, but the two seem to be roughly equal in this fella.” She walked around the boy’s beast poking and prodding and making observations until an aide came around to tell them their matches would be starting shortly.

  She scowled at the news. “Bah, you best not lose. I wanna take more notes on this little beastie.” Was all she said before striding off with her strange snake companion in tow.

  Completely baffled by the encounter, Rowan began psyching himself up for the coming challenge.

  It would be his first proper fight, and he didn’t like losing.

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