<html> <body> Metamor Keep: Divine Travails of Rats by Charles Matthias and Ryx Pars VI: Acceptio (j) Wednesday, June 23, 724 CR, Evening Charlie felt overwhelmed by all that he heard. Several times as they walked through the festival crowds gathered to celebrate the final night he'd stubbed his toes on the paving stones trying to avoid them so distracted was he by his father's discourse. Everything that had been revealed in the last two days circled in his mind; many questions he'd had for the founder of House Matthias were answered though some of those answers left him with new questions he had never before thought to ask. But there was a question – the question – which remained unanswered. When his father said nothing more for several long seconds he dared to give voice to it. “I do not believe I will ever be able to understand all you went through, Father, but of the one thing that matters most to me I do not know any better now than I did before. How is it I am a Sutt and not a Matthias?” They walked down the main thoroughfare through Keeptowne leaning in toward one another that their voices might be heard over the cacophony of the crowd. Keepers of all shapes and sizes thronged the streets and the stomping of their boots, paws, and hooves upon the fitted-stone was drowned by their voices all shouting in an attempt to be heard by the Keeper beside them. The crowd was thick enough that the two rats were jostled from time to time as they walked, and at times their passage was blocked by a carriage or wagon trying to fight its way through. Keepers and visitors from beyond the valley milled this way and that through the choked streets. Some rushed between the many vendors whose prices had now dropped that they might rid themselves of their wares. Others were trying to find the inns and taverns to continue their celebrations. And some had gathered just to cheer the Duke and the other nobility as they had ridden back to the Keep. Many of them, including both rats, lifted their eyes to gaze at the evening sky. The sun had descended behind the Dragon mountains and now the clouds overhead were bathed in an orange light, even as the sky above darkened to indigo. Summer sunsets were always breathtaking and both rats kept silent for a moment more as they enjoyed the sight. Charlie wondered how close it came to what his father had seen at the top of the spire in the beyond. But the question had been asked and neither crowds nor beauty could forestall its answer for long. After several seconds admiration, Baron Matthias let his gaze slide back to the crowds ahead of them. He slowly shook his head and dropped his whiskers. “I told you this story so that you would understand better what you saw in my dreams. I did not sell you to Nocturna. I did not! The corruption of Marzac guided my actions. You were not sold, my son. You never were. Your adoption came later.” Charles lifted one hand to still the next question before it leaped from his son's throat. “And as for Nocturna herself, I cannot speak to her motives. I have neither sought her again nor heard word from her again. You commune with her because of your gift, but I do not. You will have to ask her yourself.” The hand lowered to his vest where it gripped the lapel. “It would be another year before we knew we had to give you to Malger. After all I have told you took place, I told both him and your mother of your ability with dreams and we agreed that he would train you, but in time we learned that alone was not enough. You needed to be his son that he might protect you in the way only he could.” Charles took a deep breath and lifted his eyes toward the towers of the Keep. The sky above the top-most towers was clear, but the light from scattered clouds cast the gray stone in a somber, bronze warmth. “Your father described for us what you would experience as you grew the day after my ordeal. The Sondeck had given me an anger I could not control. The Dream exposed you to every frightening terror that anyone near you experienced in their sleep; worse, it gave you the temptation to interfere in the dreams of those you loved, an interference that could harm both you and the dreamer. You know this better than I do.” “Aye,” Charlie agreed. He could not recall a time in his life without the Dream and so its dangers and his precautions were instinctual. Other than Bryn, he'd never tried explaining it to anyone else, and Bryn had understood only after several attempts. Had his father and mother truly understood that day? As if answering his unspoken question, the Baron continued. “I do not believe we truly appreciated what you would undergo, but we could not have given you up then. Malger returned to Metamor later that day to give us time to ponder what should be done. I spent the next few days with you when I wasn't out dealing with the injuries I'd caused.” “Like Silvas?” “Aye. I visited the shepherd and made recompense for the ewe I killed. And I promised him that none would ever molest his flock on my lands again.” “And Bertram?” Charles grimaced. “I never did anything to him, praise Eli, but aye I did bring you children down to the lake to play with him at Gibson's home.” The moue lifted and with it his whiskers until a smile emerged on his snout. “You each took to swimming far better than I did at your age! I can still remember the way you all splashed about and used your tails to glide like little otters! Bertram was so happy to have you as playmates. After we returned from Sondeshara he and Erick became close, inseparable friends; Erick needed another boy to play with now that you were at Metamor; he needed a brother. And when Bertram was old enough I took him on as a squire but that was many years later.” Charlie nodded as he listened. Somebody had started up a cheer in the crowd just outside a workman's tavern fronting the street and dozens had gathered to join. Charlie lowered his head so his ears were beside his sire's snout that he might hear over the roar. “But much of what I hoped to do had to wait. Only four days after the ordeal Lindsey and Pharcellus returned from Arabarb carrying my friend Jerome.” A distant look crossed his eyes and his whiskers backed against his cheeks as if he were snarling at something. “I could do nothing to help Jerome as they'd hoped. My ability with the Sondeck had always been used for combat; he needed healing. I knew after only a few minutes that Jerome's only hope was to be taken to Sondeshara where the masters of Sondecki healing could examine him. “And when I knew this, I knew of what my friend Ladero had truly spoken when he told me that I had to set things right. Many years before I had abandoned the Sondeckis. Now I had to return and accept the consequences for my dereliction. But I was not going to be separated from you and your brother, your sisters, and your mother; not after losing little Ladero while at Marzac; not again. And so I asked your father if he could help us. Not only did he have the contacts, the position, and the wealth to make a sea voyage possible for a family of Keepers, but he also could train you in the Dreaming while we journeyed. “The prospect of a happier adventure appealed to him and so he readily agreed. What I had thought would be a simple matter turned into a much larger venture as he brought your mother Misanthe, and several servitors along, as well as hired the sea bird brothers as messengers. And of course, we had Jerome, Garigan, and two dragons in our company so you can imagine it was a significant undertaking! I left James in charge of the Narrows during my absence; I wished he could have come with us but he was the only I could trust with my lands. Despite all the arrangements that had to be made, it only took a short time make each of them and to gather the necessary supplies; we waited at Metamor for about two weeks before we could begin. And, to my delight, I was able to help one of those I'd seen suffering in the hells during the wait; also as Ladero had promised!” Charlie began to ask who it might have been but his father did not pause in his retelling. “And then by June we headed south and with your father and mother, their servitors, the bird messengers, a pair of dragons and my friends, we began the long journey by sea to Sondeshara. And it was on that journey that your abilities truly manifested themselves, and the painful – very painful – choice to give you to Malger as a son was made. I knew it would have to be made by the time we left Sondeshara but it was not until we neared the ports of Menth that all of us understood, accepted, and agreed to it.” Charlie remembered that other image he'd seen in his sire's dreams, of the pier and the bargains made over the vessel that took them south. A slight smile touched his whiskers as he remembered his father, Malger Sutt, cradling him when he'd been just a little rat. “You've told me some of that journey before. I... I would very much like to hear the rest some day.” One of Charles' eyes lifted. “Not today?” He shook his head and could not help but chuckle. “No, no. I can wait to hear the rest. I can wait.” He shouldered past a goat bent over laughing at some unheard joke. In that moment, Charlie could not help but wonder how many others had heard even a fraction of his sire's tale. How many dark secrets had he forced the man who'd given him life, and who had been forced to give him up, relive over the last two days? How many dark thoughts had he harbored against that same man whose sufferings he'd now sampled? With each question Charlie felt an anxious regret weigh upon his heart. “Father, I... I am sorry.” “And you've been forgiven, son. You don't need to apologize any more.” “Not for that; I know you've forgiven me my foolish anger. I mean, I am sorry I made you relive all of this. I had no idea...” Charles patted his back and chortled. “Again, you are forgiven, my son. What you saw had to be explained. I would have been hurt more had you not asked. And remember, with as much evil as I witnessed, I also saw a good greater than all of it combined. That solace, and the bounty of the life I've been given since, has always helped me turn the nightmares back. And Kimberly...” His father sighed and for the first time it seemed to be one filled with peace. “Your mother has always been able to quiet the storm. I owe her more than my family – more than you. I owe her my sanity. I owe her my peace.” He sucked in his breath. Despite standing taller than his father, for a moment he felt much smaller. “Does... does Erick know these things too?” “Which things? He knows his father and mother love each other and need each other and that they both love him and his brothers and sisters. He does not know all of our pains. And neither do you, my son. You do not know all of the pains Malger and Misanthe have either. And one day you will also have a wife and children; they will not know all of the pains you and she share. Nor the joys. It is the way of families.” ---------- May He bless you and keep you in His grace and love, Charles Matthias </body> </html>