Scions of Magic: Poisoned Wells, Imaginiers Save Us From (Serialization 003)

*Ean is planning to go against the universe’s wishes to destroy him. He has ignored even the False King’s warnings. We’ve left our hero to plotting and planning. In this section, we will be meeting Peter, a minor character from the third Scions of Magic book. Here he is given his own adventure and he becomes a major character. Peter is the naïve Ean is looking for.*

It was Peter’s birthday. Well, to be specific, yesterday was Peter’s birthday but today was the day he would be getting a very special gift.  A gift only he could give to himself. He was going on an adventure. And not the pretend ones he’d hunted and rooted out for around town. Not the runs he’d made as Claray Benoit’s messenger. Not in the stories the circus folk had told him during their yearly journey to Claray Court to reaffirm Lord Claray Benoit’s favor. No, he was going to travel. He was going to create an adventure away from the lands of his birth.

He’d asked Annie to go with him. But she had said no. She had turned 12 a month before and it seemed that her birthday was the last day of mirth. All fun had been siphoned with the change of age. All Annie ever talked about was chores. About mending, about etiquette lessons, about earning enough to buy a new dress in town. Lately all she ever did with her free time was to look dreamily at Claray’s estate and castle…as if one day soon she’d be living alongside Lady Benoit as opposed to being a simple laundry girl. Annie no longer dreamt big—to become a ballerina, to write books, to be more than a hand maiden that could catch a Lord’s eye.

Peter remembered well how Annie spoke with excitement at the prospects of joining the circus, of apprenticing under Reshi, of learning to make art with her body. They’d both discussed learning how to juggle and how to tell fortunes. But then winter came and then she became quiet. She no longer was keen to run through the snowy woods in search for hidden treasures.

Despite what people thought boys were heart-wise and, because of this, Peter knew Annie had changed and she wouldn’t be changing back. Things between them would not get better. They’d be forever kind to one another, and maybe if he stayed, followed her lead loyally, when she was broken hearted over a travelling lord, if he left her with child and no coin, Peter could use the love they had as children to offer her a home. Peter was heart smart to know that possible future wasn’t fair. They both had dreams. And though Annie’s had changed for something closer to their birthplace, Peter’s heart couldn’t stay here, hoping Annie’s dreams would fail. If she wanted a lord, he hoped she found one that loved her. He wanted her to be happy. But he wanted to be happy too. They couldn’t compromise, they couldn’t offer each other alternatives to the dreams they desired. So Peter was going on an adventure today.

He’d had an odd dream the night before, of the King Magician inviting him to a table of meat and mead, of poached fruit and buttered bread. And as Peter ate, the King Magician mentioned stories, of his travels. Everything felt so real. So unlike his normal dreams. The fruit was sweet. The meat gamey. The stories full of details he’d never heard before. How the King Magician described Lady Death. Lord Ean knew exactly how many eyelashes Saravia had and the exsct shade of her eye color. Peter was fascinated. He wanted more.

Before Peter was waking, Ean invited him to share a secret. To find an adventure. And Peter’s heart couldn’t do anything but oblige. Annie would’ve called him silly to run off because a dream told him to. But the dream hadn’t told him to do anything…it inspired him. But as excited as he was, he didn’t want to go alone, so he planned to convince another friend.

While he packed his rucksack, Ean sat on Peter’s roof (invisible, of course) braiding grass together; he was weaving the trail he intended Peter to take. He didn’t want the course too perilous. He couldn’t have the child dying before he secured what Ean needed. Peter needed to get to Seinseyabo Library. He just needed the boy to enter the space where the oldest books and scrolls of the Dali held court. It even held a copy of Destiny’s tome. And he was very curious to know what those pages held. Ahh…to know what was planned would ensure Ean that he could plan to stay alive and without harm.

Ean frowned at the braid. It was too simple…and it would surely arouse the curiosity of Sharus. He began another braid that he’d twist around the first. He was tying the ends when Peter left the home he shared with his great aunt. He became wind and tied the bracelet to Peter’s rucksack before he moved on towards the Dazin. He decided to visit his sister and his niece. He wanted a strong cup of coffee and to visit the world he’d once called home.

*Terms*

Sharu: Sharu: In many of the history books, Sharus are compared to as angels. This is incorrect. Angels and Sharus are different. In the Salt Water Chronicles of the Golden Kingdom, Aiel Sedai defines the Sharus perfectly as:

beings who birthed humans and who were born of humans, who were of the spiral and, therefore,  tasted the bitterness of the human fall, the human loss, the human death…all this weighed greatly on the Sharus. Without humans, the Sharus would die out and without Sharu, the humans would cease to be.
Sharutan: creators of imbalance. Created by taint. It is the only thing that can truly cause a Sharu to cease to exist. In the Salt Water Chronicles of the Golden Kingdom, Aiel Sedai states:

A Sharutan was something from the underbelly of human consciousness. The negation of all that was human.