“Nay, Mother, don’t leave.”
“What’s happening?” asked Elric. “Where is she going? What did she say?”
“She’s gone,” Persimmon answered with a deep sigh. Even though her mother’s ghost had frightened her before, this time it seemed to calm her and make her feel better.
“Persimmon? Who did she say was your father?” asked Stone, reaching out and placing his hand over hers.
“She said she couldn’t tell me. I am not sure if she knew or not, but I intend to find out that answer on my own.”
“What are you saying?” snapped Elric. “How do you think you are going to get that answer when I don’t even know?”
“I need to meet King Kapion and determine for myself if he or you are my true father.”
“Don’t be silly,” said the elf. “You don’t want to go anywhere near that evil man. And please don’t even think of giving him the gemstones. He can’t use the powers so they are no good to him.”
“Nay, but I can use them,” said Persimmon, feeling her heart beat faster. “And if King Kapion is my father, he needs to know that I am a chosen one of your gods.”
“This is a bad idea. Really bad.” Elric paced back and forth and rubbed his hands through his hair.
“Elric,” said Stone. “What I don’t understand, is how did you even get an opportunity to steal the stones from the gods in the first place?”
“My father is a messenger of the gods and goddesses of Mura,” explained Lira.
“What? Nay. That’s a jest, right?” Stone chuckled.
“It’s true,” said the elf. “The gods are also the ones who made me a sage.”
“You’re a messenger of the gods?” Stone shook his head, still unable to believe it.
“Sometimes, they give my father gifts,” said Lira.
“They gave me that gazing ball, Persimmon.” Elric nodded to her pouch.
“Not much of a gift if they knew he couldn’t use it,” Stone snorted.
“Did you give the gazing orb to Mother?” asked Persimmon.
“I did,” the elf admitted. “I had hoped to win her over.”
“You sound as if you really cared for her.” This surprised Persimmon. I think Mother cared for you as well.”
“I doubt it,” snapped the elf.
“She never said she hated you or anything. She just called you greedy and selfish and said you can’t be trusted,” continued Persimmon.
“That’s nothing that the rest of us don’t already know,” mumbled Stone.
“She even told me once that she had wished you’d stayed with us and not left us.” Persimmon waited for her father’s reaction.
“Too late now, isn’t it?” Elric was a real grouch and it was so hard to read him.
“The gods often get angry or aggravated with my father,” explained Lira.
“Gee, I can’t imagine why,” said Stone flippantly.
“The gifts are not always what he hopes they will be,” Lira continued.
“They aggravate me just as much at times.” Elric hurried over to an iron stove and put a kettle of water on the grate and lit a fire underneath it. “I just needed to know the future, and the gods wouldn’t tell me. I persisted to know, and they gave me a scrying orb that only a magical witch woman could use. I didn’t appreciate that gesture at all.”
“Mother’s ghost just told me you wanted to be the chosen one,” Persimmon told Elric. “Why?”
“Why not?” he answered. “I’m a sage and people expect me to know things all the time. It is exhausting.”
“Father, is something going to happen to Persimmon now that all of this is out in the open?” asked Lira, reaching out and taking hold of Persimmon’s hand. “I just met my sister. I don’t want to lose her.”
“I don’t know,” said Elric, jumping in surprise when the kettle on the stove started to whistle. He sped around the room, placing a cup and saucer in front of each of them. Then he hurried over to the kettle and dropped some leaves inside and closed the lid. “If I had someone to scry for me, then I’d know these blasted things,” mumbled the elf.
“Locking me away for an entire lifetime isn’t going to change the future,” said Persimmon. “And it still doesn’t explain why you hate me so much.”
“I don’t hate you!” shouted the elf. “It’s just been hard for me because I’m not sure…I don’t know if…”
“If you’re my father,” Persimmon finished the sentence for him.
“Well, now you know.” Elric zipped over to the stove and returned and poured them all a cup of tea.
Persimmon felt more confused and also lonelier than ever now. She cradled her cup, feeling as if she didn’t really know either of her parents. “How would you use the stones if you had the power, Father?”
Elric let out a sigh. “Well, I’m not sure. First, I’d have to find out what each stone could do.”
