[Tyrana]: 64.Xaadn.Chapter One

Xaadn woke with a bit of a start: Voices below…

“Thank you, sir. I will take everything into account and get back to you in due time. Now, though, we must all get some rest. One is quick to dismiss even the most important decisions in way of sleep at such an ungodly hour. Are you certain you want to journey home so soon, though? There’s more than enough room here, and with this weather…”

An older voice answered the inquiry made by the proud, booming man Xaadn knew slightly as her… unofficial godfather by force, if you will. This older voice wasn’t pitched nearly as low, and it was a great deal less abrasive. Xaadn thought she might even consider it to be… gentle. In sorts, of course, for it was hard to be gentle in times like these. Perhaps the informal politeness of the older man led her to believe he was a gentle person. Perhaps she was overanalyzing the situation due to the fact that it had just then woke her from quite a restful sleep… Xaadn assumed the latter, of course, but such a transaction taken place so late at night must have been of some importance. So she fought sleep, and, on her new position on the floor over the two men, lifted one of the smaller slates just high enough for her to put her head to the ground and see the majority of what was happening below her.

“No, no… quite unnecessary. My driver will not be happy with me; neither will the poor creatures that have to pull me along. But I must get back home…”

A slight smile crossed his lips, and his voice softened.

“My grandchildren are expected to arrive tomorrow morning. Two little girls, you know. And nothing short of a disaster will keep me from being the first to see them. You understand. You have a small one around here yourself, don’t you?”

At this, he made a quick glance to where Xaadn was peering through the slate. Her heart froze. But the old man simply smiled, and gave a quick wink, but turned, so the bigger man, on the verge of legitimate (but controlled) drunkenness, didn’t give the slightest notice. Instead he shook his head.

“Xaadn. My sister’s daughter. Illegitimate, of course. My sister was never one for… legitimacy. I either took her in, or she would have died in her mother’s keeping. Crazy woman, my sister. Not much better than what I can say for her daughter, I suppose. She’s a strange one. You saw her? In the downstairs garden, no doubt. Or the attic.”

“I did see her as a matter of fact, Master Nalnsyr. A clever-looking child. Pretty little thing from what I saw. She was writing. How old is she? Eight? Nine? Wrote at a devil’s of a speed that one.”

Apparently, the man had been here longer than she had thought. Then they must have waited some time to talk about whatever it was they needed to discuss…

“Twelve. She’s Twelve.”

The other man raised his eyebrows. “Twleve! Her mother’s a small one, then, is she not?” He said, looking at the massive man in front of him. This man must’ve been a full two heads taller than himself, at least. And with the widest shoulders he had ever seen…

“Her mother…” He paused. “Xaadn is small for her age.”

The older man nodded.

“So she is. She’s a clever one, though. I can tell. I have a… knack for such things, you know.”

“I have no doubt you know more than I when it comes to most things, Sir Kitram. But as I have observed, the snow has fallen at least another two inches from when you said you were leaving last. If you have any hope of getting home, you should leave as soon as possible. And with more of a jacket than that! There’s a terrific wind outside.”

This was true. With every pause in conversation, you could hear it beating up against the walls, tearing through the trees. It was nearly impossible to see through the windows now. The gusts were sweeping the snow in mountains against the north side of the building. The unaccustomed weight of it caused the walls to creak, which, when added to the sounds made by the wind, resulted in an eerie symphony of noises. Most of this, of course, occurred at night, which added to the eeriness, as darkness will often do.

“Why, I do say! How beautiful! It’s wondrous how such beauty can come about in situations that are so terrible, isn’t it?” Sir Kitram walked over to the window and squinted outside. Master Nalnsyr raised one eyebrow, and his head cocked slightly to the side.

“I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

“Eh… I mostly didn’t expect you to. Old cooks like me just come out with these things now and again. You’ll understand someday, I’m sure. But I suppose I really must be going. I have a long way to go, and in this snow, I’ll be lucky if the time is only doubled.” With this, he scooped up the pack by his chair, and threw the remnants of his drink into the fireplace. It went up in green flame. (Which made Xaadn very curious, and slightly frightened. The only substance she knew of that did that was… well… certainly something you wouldn’t drink. Not willingly, anyway).

“Sir. A jacket. Surely…”

“I have no intention of coming all the way back here to return a jacket in a week’s time. I will be fine. I… lived through the first storm, you know,” and with a wink, “Not to mention the trip here, right? Okay, then. My driver should be waiting for me. And seeing what time it is, he’s most likely very angry with me. I didn’t mean to keep him out so long. Be sure to find some way to inform me of the…” He glanced up at the ceiling. Just for a moment. “Did you say your niece played in the attic?”

“Sir. The snow. It’s falling as we speak. With all due respect, Xaadn isn’t important right now. She rarely is. You need not put a moment’s thought to her. Your diver will be up to his neck by now…”

“Xaadn is a clever child… my… I suppose she won’t be much of a child anymore in a few years, will she? I apologise, sir. I just… take joy in children, is all. You have a remarkable one on your hands, I think. She writes…”

“Sir!”

“Yes, yes. You’re right. I’ll be leaving now. Be sure to send me results as soon as you have some. And get some sleep, master! You look as if you haven’t rested in weeks!”

With that, he hoisted the heavy pack onto his hip, and made toward the door. Before he left, he turned around to face Master Nalnsyr, and the small crack in the ceiling, once more.

“I don’t mean to bother you at such a time, but may I take the rest of those with me?” He said, pointing to the small tray of seed biscuits on the table. “I will not stop on the way home, and I already haven’t eaten much else today.”

“Of course,” said Master Nalnsyr. He grabbed the platter from the middle of the table. “There are only a few left. I have more over here. I’ll just be a moment.” He walked to the far corner of the room. Xaadn heard shuffling. When she looked back at the old man, he was staring directly into her eyes. He took a small instrument from his pocket and set it on the far corner of the fireplace with an equally small slip of paper. He then nodded to her, and turned again to the window. Nalnsyr came back a moment later with a small bag. “You’ll find a good number of biscuits in here, and some fruit,” He also handed him a little bottle, “To warm you up,” with a wink this time, which was out of character for him. Either the cheerful nature of the old man was mirrored in him, Xaadn imagined, or he was drunker than she thought. The old an smiled warmly at him, and shook his hand.

“I look forward to hearing from you.” He opened the door (with some difficulty, as the wind has beaten a great deal of snow against it), and stepped into the darkness. Nalnsyr closed it behind him. No sense in letting heat out. He shook his head.

“Poor old bastard’ll be lucky if he makes it to the end of the drive.”

Xaadn’s eyes flicked back to the fireplace, where the… thing lay. It was about as high as her long finger, she had decided. She was sure it was for her, as strange as it was. She lay perfectly still, watching through the slit as her uncle put out candles and put stacks of papers and books in stacks. She was sorry she missed a conversation that was obviously very important. Or would at least give her some sort of clue as to what exactly Sir Kytram placed on the fireplace for her. She was terribly curious, and ways of getting to it unnoticed ran through her head as she watched her uncle finish up and leave the room.


As soon as the door closed behind him, she let out a sigh and dropped the slate back down. Both of her legs were asleep. She tapped on them gently to wake them up as she thought.

Xaadn did a great deal of thinking. This, ironically, led people to question her intelligence. When one spends much of their time reflecting upon their thoughts rather than sharing them with the people around them, that’s usually the result. She often put these thoughts on paper, s as not to forget them. Xaadn would write down everything; Dreams she had, theories she had thought up concerning some little thing or another… One couldn’t read what she wrote, though, and find any significant amount of knowledge behind it; Xaadn preferred to keep what she found important completely to herself. These things amounted to something relatively small for Xaadn, who had many other thoughts that were to be considered ‘bigger’, but Xaadn found these few small ideas and memories were far more important than anything one would consider ‘bigger’…

The people who lived here at her Uncle’s place (mostly government-related people in ‘high places,’ which didn’t interest her in the slightest) found her to be more of a bother than anything. Her uncle didn’t want her there, and he made that very clear. The people here tended to share his opinions when it came to most things. The ones who shared more of his opinions were known to hold the highest positions, to become more successful than the rest, to prosper. Those who didn’t… well… they didn’t. Unfortunately, Xaadn didn’t.

Her mother had been gone for years now. Xaadn was informed of her death after having lived with her uncle for nearly four years. This was told to Xaadn as an afterthought. Her mother’s life was indeed strange, and her death seemed to fit all too well. Her body had been found, though barely recognizable as even human, for it was nearly inside out when they came upon it, stuffed between two pillars under the small footbridge that adjoined the two little towns in the area. Xaadn believed her mother had come down with a fever, and had passed peacefully away in her bed when Xaadn was ten. In reality, the remains of her mother had been disposed of a little before Xaadn’s sixth birthday.