Thomas Reid: The Crystal Mountain

Kael smiled. "It does," he agreed, turning back to look at her face.

"I wish I'd gotten to live with you," Aliisza said, her voice fainter. "You know, when you were a boy. I would have liked to have raised you."

Kael sniffed and rubbed a hand across his eyes. "I know," he said. "I missed you then too."

Aliisza opened her mouth to say something more, but she coughed, and blood came with it.

"Don't talk," Kael said. "Be still and rest."

She shook her head. "No time," she whispered. "1 can't breathe."

Kael felt his throat constrict with sorrow. "I'm sorry," he said, his voice cracking.

"I want you to have this," Aliisza whispered, fumbling for something on her hand. "It was Pharaun's. Your father's."

Kael saw her slip a ring from her finger and hold it up to him.

"He would want it back," she said, smiling, "but since he can't have it, you should."

Kael took the ring from her. It was thick and silver and had a strange, spidery emblem etched into it. "Thank you," he said.

Aliisza died smiling at her son.

Kael spent a long time sitting on the edge of a rock, staring out over the golden water of the Lifespring. After a time, Eirwyn came and sat next to him. Though she seemed frail and weak, her own wounds had been healed by the divine powers of the pool.

"I'm sorry," she said. She put one hand around his shoulder, pulled him close in a hug, and gave him a gentle kiss on his forehead. "We tried as best as we could."

"Thank you," Kael said.

They sat together in silence for a time, until Eirwyn said, "The intuitive part of me senses that the worst of the battle with the demons is over. I can feel relief spreading through Celestia."

"That's good to know. Wait… Celestia?"

Eirwyn nodded. "Something tells me that we will no longer know this place as the House of the Triad. Torm intends to make a few changes. Regardless, shall we go find news?"

Kael sighed. "No," he said. "Do what you must, but I won't."

Eirwyn drew back and looked squarely at him. "What? Why?"

"I don't know who I am," the half-drow said. "Nothing makes any sense any more. I thought I understood my place, but it all vanished today. I lost one father I hardly knew, a mother I grew up despising, and a father who was as different from me as two people could possibly be, and yet I loved him most of all. Now I find myself grieving for all three of them."

Eirwyn smiled. "That's not so unusual," she said. "You came to see them as the people they were, rather than just the creatures they were."

"I suppose. But now I don't just see myself as the person I am, but also the creature."

"Be careful," Eirwyn cautioned. "Don't get sucked into the notion that your heritage is what makes you who you are."

"Isn't it, though? Can I ever be like you? Can I ever truly belong here, in this place?" Kael gestured around the two of them. "I don't think so."

"But you also can't be like Aliisza or Pharaun. You are a product of your forebears, true, but you are also what your heart says you are. In the end, if you are true to what you believe in, things should work out."

Kael chuckled ruefully. "Funny, that sounds a lot like something Pharaun told me."

"Well, then, he was a wise fellow. At least, for a drow wizard," she added.

Kael nodded. "In any event, I have to leave, at least for a while."

"You have to find your own path," she said, "and no one can tell you in what direction it lies. I understand that. Perhaps better than you realize." She tilted Kael's chin until he was looking at her. "Your destiny may take you far from here, or it may bring you back. Wherever you go, draw on your experiences here to remember both your heritage and the love all of them gave you."

Kael stood. "I will," he said. "Thank you, Eirwyn." He hugged her, a long embrace that let him release much of his sorrow.

When he stepped back from her, she smiled. "My duty calls me in another direction. I hope our paths will cross again, Kael."

With that, the angel took flight.

Kael watched as her form grew small and eventually vanished on the horizon. Then he pushed himself aloft too, and started on his own way.