Nalan and Arala explained that they were the last of their line, and that the forest I had been traveling in was only a tiny part of their domain. They were old enough to live on their own, though they were not yet adults by Tua standards—having lived for a mere eight hundred years of our time. That put them close to Iannis’s age, I reflected, but they seemed to mature a lot more slowly.
I asked if the entire world was so sparsely populated as the bits I had seen, and they explained that there were a few small towns, but most of their world was wilderness. The Tua were not a particularly fertile race—they could only bear one child every five hundred years or so. Breeding with humans was far easier but frowned upon by Tua society. Even so, every once in a while, some adventurous Tua would take up with a mortal from the other realm. From their disapproving tone, it sounded like Ta’sradala had defied her own realm’s customs as much as Recca’s when she kidnapped Iannis’s grandfather.
I listened intently to their words, aware that, as far as I knew, no other human had ever gotten a Tua to sit down and talk about their society like this. Iannis and Fenris would be thrilled at this information, if I ever got out of here. “We regret that we insulted you earlier by questioning your relationship with Iannis,” Arala said as she polished off a leg of what seemed to be pheasant, if pheasant meat was deep blue. “While you were asleep, Nalan and I have been looking through and discussing your memories, and now we understand better why it is such a sensitive subject. As far as I am concerned, being part Tua, he seems a worthy partner for you.”
I wanted to say that the Tua connection was the part I could do without, but that would have been a lie. I would not change a single thing about Iannis, not even the bits he got from Ta’sradala.
“He is so busy lately that you don’t see enough of him,” Nalan added with a pitying glance. “Politics in your world seem quite complicated, and unnecessarily so. Here in the Tua realm, we do not much regard shape or size or the type of power we wield, since everything can be changed so easily. Things would be much simpler in your world if you all treated each other as the same race.”
“You should tell that to Ta’sradala,” I said, unwillingly amused by Nalan’s philosophic ruminations. “Some of us are pretty bigoted on Recca, I admit, but her sense of superiority is truly out of this world.”
“Well, of course, she is Tua,” Arala said, but stopped herself when she saw me bristle. “Oh, well, it’s not likely we could ever agree on that. You don’t know enough about us to have an accurate opinion.”
“That’s true, I guess, but I can’t respect anyone who blatantly abuses their power,” I said. “I guess there are good and bad Tua, just as there are good and bad mages or humans. But a bully is a bully.”
As we continued the discussion, I was impressed by how quickly they grasped concepts and ideas based only on what they’d seen in my mind. Broghan was curled up on a bench nearby, and his eyes flicked back and forth between us attentively, as if he were following the whole conversation. I wondered if he understood everything that was being said.
“I am especially interested in meeting your absent friend, this Polar/Fenris individual,” Alara said. “He is like you in some ways, Sunaya, and yet so very different, judging by his memories as compared to yours.”
“Oh! Right,” I said, remembering belatedly that they would have looked at Fenris’s memories too. No wonder they’d been so fascinated—he’d seen much more of the world than I had, and was a scholar of magic and magical history. “Hopefully I’ll get to see him again soon. I was so relieved when he called Iannis and confirmed that he was alive and well.”
“I’m certain he’ll return to you soon, no matter the danger,” Nalan said confidently. “He cares for you and Iannis very much—he will not abandon you entirely.”
After the meal, we continued our conversation with a walk on the grounds. Broghan accompanied us in eagle form, soaring overhead as the Tua led me through the gardens of their gigantic estate.
“I would like to learn more about this First Mage that your mages worship,” Alara said as we walked along the edge of a shimmering purple pond. Giant red water lilies floated along the surface, and I caught a glimpse of multi-finned green fish swimming beneath the surface. “Fenris knew a lot about her teachings, but he had little information about her early life and origins. Does anyone know where she came from?”
“That’s a better question for Fenris or Iannis,” I said ruefully. “I’m still very new at being a mage and only learned about Resinah a year ago.”
“Hmm,” Nalan said, a distant but thoughtful expression on his face. “It seems that Fenris has heard about some memoirs written by her first disciples. Some of them have been lost forever, and others are kept locked up as sacred relics by their descendants. He has never been able to get at these records, though they are on his…bucket list, you call it?”
I suppressed a laugh—the Tua had expressed bafflement at Northian slang terms more than once. “A bucket list is a list of things that you want to accomplish before you die,” I said. “Fenris is a scholar, so of course something like that would be on the list.”
“What if Resinah was one of us?” Alara asked suddenly, her face brightening at the possibility. “She might very well have been amongst the first Tua to cross over to the human realm, and may have taken it upon herself to bring magic to your people.”
“There seem to be reports that she was extraordinarily tall for a human,” Nalan said. “Perhaps she adjusted her size to fit in better?”
“You mean like Ta’sradala did?” I asked. “She’s tall, but nothing like you guys when I first saw you.”
Nalan nodded. “She would be taller than even us in our realm, since she is much older. But we would frighten you if we walked through Recca in our natural forms, so it is only natural that we would shrink down to a more manageable size.”
I snorted at that. Eight feet was still considered freakishly tall by anyone’s standards, especially for a woman. But, admittedly, it wasn’t unheard of, whereas a thirty-foot tall giant would definitely attract attention.
“I don’t know about that theory,” I said after I’d thought about it for a moment. “The mages believe that Resinah’s power came directly from the Creator, and by all accounts, she wasn’t the type of person to create a whole religion based on a lie.” The mages back home would be outraged at the very suggestion. Could the same race have produced a Resinah and a Ta’sradala? They were like night and day.
Nalan shrugged a broad shoulder. “I don’t see how it is a lie. Our own powers come from the Creator.”
So they believed in the Creator, too. “Is Resinah a Tua name?” I asked.