Title: King Edward, Part X
Author: Anonymous
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Price: 300
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Content:


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[/center]King Edward, Chapter X



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[/center]Chapter X: Josea and Lucky, Part II





 Mats continued his story of Lucky and Josea.



 *
*
*



 The years passed, twenty of them. More children came. Timmy
took a bride. The land continued to prosper. Few died, so
there were many people now, and much of the forest was
cleared for farms. Others became soldiers or sailors. Their
voyages and battles all prospered, and they returned home laden with booty. The gods were with them, people said, for they were virtuous and deserving folk. Skyrim was united now under King Vrage the  Gifted, second and noblest son of the legendary Harald of Ysgramoor, thus Josea's king was high king of all Skyrim. The Nords under Vrage's leadership spread into Morrowind and High Rock, conquering some of the sly and thievish dark elves and the weak and superstitious Bretons. 

 Josea and Lucky had opened a store and built a fine big house
for their family. One night Josea awoke alone, and heard
voices in the hall. She left her bed and crept to see. The
voices sounded angry!

 Lucky was standing there in his nightshirt; the passing years ha
d changed him little. He looked no older, but he had grown leaner and paler, and somehow less substantial. Standing with him were a tall matronly woman, dark haired, and clad in a fine blue robe, a knight in black armor, carrying a black sword and a handsome blond man, greenclad, with a bow. Two elves were there as well, one fair and one with golden skin; one had a harp, the other a lute. Elves had not been seen in Skyrim in years! How did quiet simple Lucky come to know such grand people?

 "Is this how you keep your pact with us? Did we not make the
rules clear to you?"

 The woman was shouting at Lucky, who only muttered, "Lady
Mara, I didn't realize it had been so long. It was only for
a few days ... and then a few days more. And then there were
the children and Josea needed me. I thought no harm. Things
seemed to go well for everyone. It hasn't been so long.
Tamriel did well enough without me before." Lucky spoke
softly, yet his face was set and Josea knew how stubborn he
could be.

 "Everyone! What of the Bretons? What of the dark elves? And
the wood elves. Of the ice elves I say nothing. They are gone,
gone altogether and forever."

 "Such shy folk ... I tried," Lucky faltered. "I did try.
The ice elves were very hard to find, and not that friendly
 changed him little. He looked no older, but he had grown leaner and paler, and somehow less substantial. Standing with him were a tall matronly woman, dark haired, and clad in a fine blue robe, a knight in black armor, carrying a black sword and a handsome blond man, greenclad, with a bow. Two elves were there as well, one fair and one with golden skin; one had a harp, the other a lute. Elves had not been seen in Skyrim in years! How did quiet simple Lucky come to know such grand people?

 "Is this how you keep your pact with us? Did we not make the
rules clear to you?"

 The woman was shouting at Lucky, who only muttered, "Lady
Mara, I didn't realize it had been so long. It was only for
a few days ... and then a few days more. And then there were
the children and Josea needed me. I thought no harm. Things
seemed to go well for everyone. It hasn't been so long.
Tamriel did well enough without me before." Lucky spoke
softly, yet his face was set and Josea knew how stubborn he
could be.

 "Everyone! What of the Bretons? What of the dark elves? And
the wood elves. Of the ice elves I say nothing. They are gone,
gone altogether and forever."

 "Such shy folk ... I tried," Lucky faltered. "I did try.
The ice elves were very hard to find, and not that friendly
when I did find them."

 "Are all the elves to follow them, and the Bretons, and
then the other races?"

 "I'll go; I will go. But High Rock and Morrowind are so far
from here. And how can I leave my children? Surely, I am
entitled to children? And my woman ..."

 "You could have arranged matters as I did," said the green
clad ranger. "Now it's too late for that. Matters have gone
too far. We trusted you. It was a simple assignment. Yet we
should have watched him." This last sentence was addressed to
the black knight.

 "I did watch him," the knight snapped, waving his sword, which
Josea now saw was actually a part of his arm. "Yet alone I
could do nothing! I'd few devotees in either High Rock or
Morrowind. Once I realized I knew I had to find the rest of
you; alone I could do little. What I could, I did. They're
halted for now, yet the damage must be repaired, and he who
caused it must do the fixing, Tinker! It won't be easy.
You'll have to avoid the Skyrim folk altogether for a couple
of hundred years, I think."

 "No! My Lord Ebonarm, no!" The cry was wrenched from
Lucky's heart. "I cannot. I implore you. Do not ask it of me
... leave me something of my own! Why must I always give it
all to others? I'm tired of it! You promised me a life, and
what you gave me, that endless wandering, was not a life!"
The black knight Ebonarm scowled back at Lucky.

 "We are a gentle folk," the wood elf bard said in his
musical voice, "yet Zenithar can no longer be restrained.
And if he wars against you, the other elven gods stand with
him! If the gods war, Tamriel itself may be destroyed. You
may find daedra to stand with you; they love chaos. But I
think you will find that not even Springseed, Ebonarm and
Mara will fight for you if you defy them further."

 "Jephre speaks truth, as ever. Let us not speak of war among
ourselves, my friend. We wished your folk no ill. We
deeply regret what has happened and will labor to repair
our fault. I regret our long absence, yet it was necessary.
Raen and I were needed -- elsewhere." Mara said. "And not
even a god, or a goddess, can be everywhere at once.

 "As for you, Sai," she said, turning to Lucky, "One night a
year with your woman and your children I will grant you.
But not in the flesh. The temptations are too strong for
you, I see. It was a mistake to let you hold the flesh so
long. I apologize to the rest of you. Now, go and make your
farewells. You are dismissed."

 The knight and ranger vanished, but the elves remained. The
golden skinned one spoke to Mara, "Watch these new folk of
yours more carefully, Lady Mara. We are a patient
people, and kindly disposed to other sentient races, yet there
are limits to our patience. Take warning." Then the elves
too were gone. 

 Lucky fell to his knees, clutching at Mara's robe, his face a
mask of anguish, "Lady, wait! I implore you. Am I never to
feel again? Never? It is more than I can bear. The rest of
you can assume mortal form on occasion. Better I should
have died naturally, and gone to rest," he added bitterly.

 Mara considered, frowning. "Others have paid dearly for
the life you have stolen. Their spirits are not at rest; they
too will exact payment. And yet ...very well. If you will
labor to repair the damage you have done, then you may on
occasion assume bodily form, but not as human. Wolf shape
shall be yours, in return for the kindness you showed
Grellan."

 And she was gone, leaving Lucky standing alone, barefoot.
Josea ran to him and clasped him ... oh, how thin and cold he
was!

 "What is it, dearest? Who were they? What does it mean? Oh,
don't leave us!"

 "I must," he said, shivering. "I have stayed far too long.
My dearest, I am Luck itself. I was born with the talent,
though mortal as yourself. My lord took me for a soldier. I
was killed in my first battle, even as the battle was won. I
e'er brought luck to others, ne'er to myself, never. Ebonarm
appeared to me, said I had an interesting talent and
offered me immortality if I would agree to spread my luck
about.

 "He said the gods were overworked, seeing to events, and
constantly quarreling over what should happen. He thought
that I could balance things out naturally with my inborn
talent. I was young. I'd barely lived. I didn't want to die,
so I agreed, and Ebonarm said that I could keep my body for a
time. I wouldn't age or die, but I would fade slowly, as
you have seen. I am nearly eighty now. I did as he bade for
many years. Then I met you, and found myself trapped by
your need, I think. I was your Luck, you see, what you needed.
And truth is, I needed you, too, my dear love.

 "Yet while I've stayed here, my luck has spread like
ripples, strongest in the center, weak along the edges until
there's none at all in Morrowind and High Rock and the
Wilderness to the south, and the folk are dead or chained in
slavery. Also I've brought luck only to the Nords among
whom I've lived, so that the wood elves have fled and the ice
elves have died. Now I must go, and bring Luck back to them
and redress the balance, as it should have been."

 He went to the children's rooms and kissed them as they slept,
while his tears fell on them. Then he said, "I'll be with you
one night each year, though you will not see me. Yet you will
feel my presence, dearest. Oh, and I could never speak of
love or marriage ... but know I love you, as no man or god
loved woman." Then he kissed her one last time, and was gone.

 *
*
*

 Mats stopped talking at last. The fire had burned down to
ashes. Edward drew a long breath.

 "That's some story," Edward said. "Is it true?"

 "Are you calling my grandmother a liar? I know she used to
leave a bit of food and a bowl of milk out on winter nights.
'For the Wolf,' she said. And we Nords hold it very unlucky
to attack a wolf unless it attacks you. It just might be Sai!

 "My grandmother said she got the tale from her
great-grandmother, and her great was Josea herself. So she
said. Or maybe it was her great-great-grandmother. I get
lost there. Anyway it happened during the reign of King Vrage
the Gifted, like I said, when the Nords invaded Morrowind and
High Rock. It took Sai a hundred and fifty years to get things
set right again, and he needed a lot of help. From
Moraelyn's brothers and father, among others. The dark elves
and Bretons have been lucky to get their lands back, you see,
and it's been hard times for Skyrim folk, although once your
luck builds up the way theirs did, it takes a long time to
really run out altogether. And Sai didn't make the same
mistake again. He's been spreading luck around ever since.
Otherwise folk get arrogant and start thinking they're
entitled to more than others. Yet he's kept his promise. You
see, I'm his descendant and once a year I feel his presence.
That was tonight."

 "I thought being a god means you can do just as you
please," Edward said. 

 "Well, they can, you see. Sai did, for awhile, but he and
his fellow gods weren't pleased with the results. There's
rules to being a god, it seems, just as there are rules to being
a man or a boy."

 "Who makes the rules then?" Edward demanded.

 Mats laughed. "Best save that question up for the
Archmagister. It's much too deep for me! Well, I don't know
about you, but I'm going to have a drink -- I'm parched after
so much talking -- and then rouse Mith, so I can sleep
myself."

 "Mats, I was taught that Moraelyn's father and brothers
were just raiders and that the Nords were the real owners of
the lands they took. That the dark elves come up out of the
ground and raid for meanness and profit."

 "Moraelyn's father, Kronin, and his brothers, Cruethys and
Ephen, took to raiding after the Nords drove them out of
Ebonheart. Guerilla warfare isn't pretty, but neither is
losing your homeland. Human memories of that time are faded
hand-me-downs, but there's a fair number of dark elves who
lived through it still around. Moraelyn's aunt Yoriss for
one, she who rules in Kragenmoor. Oh, there's some dark elves
still, along the borderland in Blacklight, who are just
thieves and kidnappers, no question. They have holds up in
the mountain caverns and raid farms and villages in east
Skyrim. But Moraelyn's folk have naught to do with them,
leastways not since they regained their own lands in
Morrowind. Moraelyn hates the raiding. He'd stop it if he
could." Mats sighed.

 "Why can't he?"

 Mats yawned widely. "That's a matter of politics and
power, boy. You ask him about it, and you'll likely get more
answer than you want, for once. Me, I'm off to bed. Good
night."



  

















   
