"Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it."
George Santayana
“Well, how else do you think we arrived on the island?” He replied rhetorically.
There was stunned silence as everyone digested his rhetorical question before father finally shouted, “By boat like any other normal person.”
“We didn’t come by boat?” Mother asked to clarify. Taking the time to make sure that she truly understood what it was that he was saying.
“No, we came here on foot.” He answered simply. It looked like he might finally be about to come clean. Aleera and I sat on the edge of the conversation watching the drama unfold.
“I came here through the depths of the Lodestone.” She asked to confirm her suspicions despite her disbelief.
“Yes.” He replied. I had a greater understanding of the situation and could see a little further ahead. I could see where her questions would lead her. My question was how much would he reveal at the end of the day and how much he would try to keep hidden.
“We came under the ocean.” Her understanding of her world and origins being rewritten by his words.
“Yes.” He seemed to be resigned to telling her the truth now that he had revealed the existence of another entrance to the depth below the island.
“From the Compass Continent?” She checked to see if anything else had been a fabrication. Was she even from the Kingdom of Maestro as he had told her?
“Yes.” Simple questions returned simple answers.
“Then why don’t I remember?” she asked confused as to why she had never realised this before.
“You were just a babe in arms when we finally arrived. You weren’t just brought through the Lodestone Labyrinth to Wester Ponente you were born in it.” He finally added something I knew not.
“You said we fled after the fall of the Silverwood family.” Still confused about her past. She had always assumed that she had been too young to remember their journey across the ocean. Now it transpired that she was too young to remember the journey under it.
“We did but you had yet to be born.” He answered. I couldn’t imagine how they could have possibly survived months beneath the earth always travelling west. Although it was now clear that her mother my grandmother at least had not made it out alive.
“The Silverwood family?” Lady Acacia questioned unaware of our hidden heritage from the Maestro Kingdom. The same Compass Point Kingdom that held the Elven Empire within its borders. Or rather the quadrant held both the Elven Empire in the Forest that filled the majority of the northwestern quadrant. The Human kingdom fills the spaces along the coast and the borders of the forest. Perhaps it was even possible that she knew them or was raised within a week’s or month's walk of our ancestral estates. Whatever they might have been.
“Yes, our family served them before their fall, or at least that is what I was told by him.” She pointed back to my grandfather. “Or was that a lie too?”
“I never lied to you. But there were truths that you did not need to hear that have kept you safe. Allowed you to live a normal life far from strife. One that you have been happy with.” he hastened to add.
“But why not tell me everything?” she pleaded, tired of the half-truths.
“It was your mother’s dying wish.” He answered brokenly. “She did not want you swept up in the tragedy that was the fall of the Silverwood family.”
“So, what really happened then? How did we get here? What happened to my mother?” She asked. Insistent on finally finding out the complete truth.
“The house fell, that much is a fact.” Lady Acacia stated surprisingly as she entered the conversation to support Grandfather in his answer. “They were famous for their production of starsilver and lived on the northwestern border of the Elven wood. But their wealth created as many enemies as it made them friends and with the waning of their starsilver seams and decreasing production driving its price higher their house was broken by others. As far as history believes they were wiped out in an unsanctioned and merciless attack three decades ago. Their home was overrun by monsters both human and not. No living heir survived.” Her historical account at least confirmed some of what she had been brought up hearing but now she wanted to hear more.
“The house fell and we ran West as far as we could but we were hotly pursued. They wanted no witnesses so we were given no chance to surrender and had no choice but to run. Family, guards, servants and their kin all were hunted and so all scattered to the four winds.” He finally started to tell his tale. The complete story something he had hidden from her for so long.
“Who ran with you and why not sail west if you were trying to get as far away as possible?” She asked.
“Including your mother, there were nine of us. We had no time to prepare we took only what we could grab as we fled. There was no time to do anything but run and entering any fishing village or port town would have been too dangerous to risk with us unaware of who exactly was targeting the family.” He explained.
“Then how did we end up here?” she asked.
“Between Drogheda and Dundalk on the edge of the Elven wood there is an entrance to the depths, the Bealach sealed in the mound of Bruna. We were fleeing for our lives and there was simply nowhere left to run. So, we made the descent. Slipping down into the depths without disturbing the monsters two stayed to defend the entrance their deaths and blood drawing forth the trolls which battled our pursuers allowing us to escape into the depths.”
“Why not head north or south?” Lady Acacia asked intrigued. “Even east under the elven woods would have surely been safer than delving west under the very ocean itself?”
“We were attacked by mainly men but they had brought monsters as well to overrun our defences. We knew we had to flee as far as possible and to seek support from the elves was folly itself. The Silverwood family were not well-liked by them for mining so close to and even occasionally under the Elven Wood we would have found no support there. West was our only option and it was what we had been commanded to do.” He finally added the true reason the fact that he had been commanded. I wondered whether others would have noticed. Bound by blood his oaths had given him no other option but to run ever westward. Had it been the same with the other eight companions of my grandmother?
“Subsequently the seven of you ran westward into the Lodestone Labyrinth. What happened next?” Mother asked.
“We died. One by one over the weeks and months our company grew smaller. We hid and fled no longer from men but from the beasts of the earth. We would escape one territory only to walk into another. First, there were seven, then six, then five, four, three and finally just the two of us. Your mother was magnificent but I was always the least of us. Able to survive through stealth more than might. Then one day two became three but it was not to last. Your mother died down in the depths and I continued to run ever westward hidden in the darkness I carried you until finally, we were able to climb toward the light. We emerged here on Wester Ponente slipping past a goblin tribe to finally reach the surface. I swam to the isle with you and I have been here ever since. All I have ever done is try to keep you safe and make you strong.” He summed up what had surely been a traumatic and arduous journey which had very nearly left him as the sole survivor.
We sat silently trying to absorb what he had finally after decades of keeping it to himself finally explained.
“My mother died down in the depths.” Mother whispered.
“Yes, I could not carry her and you and still remain hidden. I had to leave her body behind.” He explained regretfully.
“But you saved me. What was her last wish?” she asked almost fearful.
“That you live strong and free.” He answered.
He had finally told her the truth but still not all of it. I wondered whether he would go the final mile. It seemed impossible for him to give up every secret unless forced. Unwilling to say what might cost him his daughter.
She sat still in contemplation of everything he had shared.
“What was your mother’s name?” Lady Acacia asked as if on cue.
“Elora.” She turned to her grandfather for confirmation.
He nodded almost in defeat. He could see where this line of questioning led as well as I.
“Then she was Elora Silverwood of Maestro Kingdom." Lady Acacia announced. "Your family line is the last of the Silverwood Line.” She answered convinced she was correct and unfortunately, she was right.
“Is this true?” Mother asked shocked by the revelation on top of all the rest.
Grandfather was silent in his affirmation. Failing to deny what he knew to be true.
“The lady of the house escaped with the traditional guard of eight.” She added. “They were never heard of again and presumed dead in the depths for they never re-emerged.”
“You were my mother’s guard?” she questioned apprehensively,
“The least of them.” He humbly answered.
“Then you are not . . . my father.” She followed the line of reasoning they had revealed to its bitter end.
“I am in every way but one.” He answered before turning and leaving unwilling to face whatever words she had to say next. He had often been bitter in his comments but now I feared he might be broken by the truth he had kept concealed. Even if he had done it under oath and for her safety.
. . .
Each one of us had a different reaction to the news. I had already known for the most part the truth of my grandfather’s past if not the details. Father and Aleera sat there in shock while mother put up a hand to stop them and stalked out silently as well. Lady Acacia looked in on the family drama with surprise but was also almost delighted at discovering her suspicions about a noble heritage in our forefathers and in this case foremother was correct. Even if it was not elvish.
I did not know whether to run out after my mother or grandfather. But decided in the end it was best to give each one of them a little space for the moment. We were broken from our thoughts by Lady Acacia.
“In that deluge of new information, he failed to explain where exactly he exited the depths.” She frowned on realising that despite all his honesty over his history he had left her unsatisfied in the knowledge of its location.
“I can guess at that,” Father added to our surprise. “It was before my time but when the island was first settled there were goblins on the northern coastline in the mountains there. If he slipped past a tribe of goblins to exit the depths then the entrance must be on the northern plateau at the base of the mountains or at the source of the stream.” He explained. “They were the reason Wester Town has walls when it was first built.”
He sat pondering how this new information changed his view of the history of the island.
“Your mother and . . . Arawn,” He hesitated to call him Grandfather in light of the secrets that had been uncovered. “Lived on this isle for as long as I can remember but if his story is true, he is also the reason there are no longer any goblins left on the island. They must have died out with his arrival and the town never searched for the reason why. To hear my father tell of it, it was assumed they wiped themselves out. But I guess that wasn’t the case.”
“Either way, that is another exit to the depths that must be watched closely if Arawn hasn’t been already.” Lady Acacia lectured unaffected to the same extent by the family revelations.
“I think that is enough for now. Would you give us some time to come to grips with this Lady Acacia?” Father asked politely.
“Of course, I have some things of my own to research.” She answered equally politely the whole situation was more than a little awkward.
After she had left. He said, “I need to find your mother can I trust you two to behave?” He asked.
“When haven’t we behaved?” Aleera asked.
“It’s not so much you that I’m worried about.” He answered her and then turned to me.
“Yes, father I promise to behave.” He raised an eyebrow at that, “I won’t leave the island.” I moderated my answer.
“Good enough. Give your mother some space to come to grips with this,” he said before he turned to go and find her. She might not want him to say anything but whether she wanted him or not he needed to be there to support her in silence if nothing else.
That left only the two of us.
“You didn’t seem too surprised.” She commented on my reaction or rather my lack of one.
“We all have secrets.” I shrugged aware of the hypocrisy if I were to complain about anyone else's considering my own.
“Well, perhaps we shouldn’t have if this is the result of them.” She gestured at the empty room. “They can drive us apart if kept too long.” she cautioned well aware of my habit to collect them like shiny shells on a beach.
I nodded but didn’t reply and we too headed off to our separate tasks. As soon as she was out of sight I slipped into my secret tunnels. I had always seen them as fun. Kept them secret for secrecy’s sake. It was what made them special. Would they drive a wedge between us when they were revealed? I hoped not. But that was something to consider.
I set off down my tunnels.
It was possible for Grandfather to hide from me but he wasn’t hiding from me right now. Only the rest of the family. Sat in his own secret cubbyhole he was drinking the equivalent of sailor's rum while staring at the wall. An old man morosely minding his own business while contemplating his past and the pitfalls it had created. Exiting my secret tunnel I popped up in his.
“How are you feeling old man?” I commiserated.
"Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it."
George Santayana
“Well, how else do you think we arrived on the island?” He replied rhetorically.
There was stunned silence as everyone digested his rhetorical question before father finally shouted, “By boat like any other normal person.”
“We didn’t come by boat?” Mother asked to clarify. Taking the time to make sure that she truly understood what it was that he was saying.
“No, we came here on foot.” He answered simply. It looked like he might finally be about to come clean. Aleera and I sat on the edge of the conversation watching the drama unfold.
“I came here through the depths of the Lodestone.” She asked to confirm her suspicions despite her disbelief.
“Yes.” He replied. I had a greater understanding of the situation and could see a little further ahead. I could see where her questions would lead her. My question was how much would he reveal at the end of the day and how much he would try to keep hidden.
“We came under the ocean.” Her understanding of her world and origins being rewritten by his words.
“Yes.” He seemed to be resigned to telling her the truth now that he had revealed the existence of another entrance to the depth below the island.
“From the Compass Continent?” She checked to see if anything else had been a fabrication. Was she even from the Kingdom of Maestro as he had told her?
“Yes.” Simple questions returned simple answers.
“Then why don’t I remember?” she asked confused as to why she had never realised this before.
“You were just a babe in arms when we finally arrived. You weren’t just brought through the Lodestone Labyrinth to Wester Ponente you were born in it.” He finally added something I knew not.
“You said we fled after the fall of the Silverwood family.” Still confused about her past. She had always assumed that she had been too young to remember their journey across the ocean. Now it transpired that she was too young to remember the journey under it.
“We did but you had yet to be born.” He answered. I couldn’t imagine how they could have possibly survived months beneath the earth always travelling west. Although it was now clear that her mother my grandmother at least had not made it out alive.
“The Silverwood family?” Lady Acacia questioned unaware of our hidden heritage from the Maestro Kingdom. The same Compass Point Kingdom that held the Elven Empire within its borders. Or rather the quadrant held both the Elven Empire in the Forest that filled the majority of the northwestern quadrant. The Human kingdom fills the spaces along the coast and the borders of the forest. Perhaps it was even possible that she knew them or was raised within a week’s or month's walk of our ancestral estates. Whatever they might have been.
“Yes, our family served them before their fall, or at least that is what I was told by him.” She pointed back to my grandfather. “Or was that a lie too?”
“I never lied to you. But there were truths that you did not need to hear that have kept you safe. Allowed you to live a normal life far from strife. One that you have been happy with.” he hastened to add.
“But why not tell me everything?” she pleaded, tired of the half-truths.
“It was your mother’s dying wish.” He answered brokenly. “She did not want you swept up in the tragedy that was the fall of the Silverwood family.”
“So, what really happened then? How did we get here? What happened to my mother?” She asked. Insistent on finally finding out the complete truth.
“The house fell, that much is a fact.” Lady Acacia stated surprisingly as she entered the conversation to support Grandfather in his answer. “They were famous for their production of starsilver and lived on the northwestern border of the Elven wood. But their wealth created as many enemies as it made them friends and with the waning of their starsilver seams and decreasing production driving its price higher their house was broken by others. As far as history believes they were wiped out in an unsanctioned and merciless attack three decades ago. Their home was overrun by monsters both human and not. No living heir survived.” Her historical account at least confirmed some of what she had been brought up hearing but now she wanted to hear more.
“The house fell and we ran West as far as we could but we were hotly pursued. They wanted no witnesses so we were given no chance to surrender and had no choice but to run. Family, guards, servants and their kin all were hunted and so all scattered to the four winds.” He finally started to tell his tale. The complete story something he had hidden from her for so long.
“Who ran with you and why not sail west if you were trying to get as far away as possible?” She asked.
“Including your mother, there were nine of us. We had no time to prepare we took only what we could grab as we fled. There was no time to do anything but run and entering any fishing village or port town would have been too dangerous to risk with us unaware of who exactly was targeting the family.” He explained.
“Then how did we end up here?” she asked.
“Between Drogheda and Dundalk on the edge of the Elven wood there is an entrance to the depths, the Bealach sealed in the mound of Bruna. We were fleeing for our lives and there was simply nowhere left to run. So, we made the descent. Slipping down into the depths without disturbing the monsters two stayed to defend the entrance their deaths and blood drawing forth the trolls which battled our pursuers allowing us to escape into the depths.”
“Why not head north or south?” Lady Acacia asked intrigued. “Even east under the elven woods would have surely been safer than delving west under the very ocean itself?”
“We were attacked by mainly men but they had brought monsters as well to overrun our defences. We knew we had to flee as far as possible and to seek support from the elves was folly itself. The Silverwood family were not well-liked by them for mining so close to and even occasionally under the Elven Wood we would have found no support there. West was our only option and it was what we had been commanded to do.” He finally added the true reason the fact that he had been commanded. I wondered whether others would have noticed. Bound by blood his oaths had given him no other option but to run ever westward. Had it been the same with the other eight companions of my grandmother?
“Subsequently the seven of you ran westward into the Lodestone Labyrinth. What happened next?” Mother asked.
“We died. One by one over the weeks and months our company grew smaller. We hid and fled no longer from men but from the beasts of the earth. We would escape one territory only to walk into another. First, there were seven, then six, then five, four, three and finally just the two of us. Your mother was magnificent but I was always the least of us. Able to survive through stealth more than might. Then one day two became three but it was not to last. Your mother died down in the depths and I continued to run ever westward hidden in the darkness I carried you until finally, we were able to climb toward the light. We emerged here on Wester Ponente slipping past a goblin tribe to finally reach the surface. I swam to the isle with you and I have been here ever since. All I have ever done is try to keep you safe and make you strong.” He summed up what had surely been a traumatic and arduous journey which had very nearly left him as the sole survivor.
We sat silently trying to absorb what he had finally after decades of keeping it to himself finally explained.
“My mother died down in the depths.” Mother whispered.
“Yes, I could not carry her and you and still remain hidden. I had to leave her body behind.” He explained regretfully.
“But you saved me. What was her last wish?” she asked almost fearful.
“That you live strong and free.” He answered.
He had finally told her the truth but still not all of it. I wondered whether he would go the final mile. It seemed impossible for him to give up every secret unless forced. Unwilling to say what might cost him his daughter.
She sat still in contemplation of everything he had shared.
“What was your mother’s name?” Lady Acacia asked as if on cue.
“Elora.” She turned to her grandfather for confirmation.
He nodded almost in defeat. He could see where this line of questioning led as well as I.
“Then she was Elora Silverwood of Maestro Kingdom." Lady Acacia announced. "Your family line is the last of the Silverwood Line.” She answered convinced she was correct and unfortunately, she was right.
“Is this true?” Mother asked shocked by the revelation on top of all the rest.
Grandfather was silent in his affirmation. Failing to deny what he knew to be true.
“The lady of the house escaped with the traditional guard of eight.” She added. “They were never heard of again and presumed dead in the depths for they never re-emerged.”
“You were my mother’s guard?” she questioned apprehensively,
“The least of them.” He humbly answered.
“Then you are not . . . my father.” She followed the line of reasoning they had revealed to its bitter end.
“I am in every way but one.” He answered before turning and leaving unwilling to face whatever words she had to say next. He had often been bitter in his comments but now I feared he might be broken by the truth he had kept concealed. Even if he had done it under oath and for her safety.
. . .
Each one of us had a different reaction to the news. I had already known for the most part the truth of my grandfather’s past if not the details. Father and Aleera sat there in shock while mother put up a hand to stop them and stalked out silently as well. Lady Acacia looked in on the family drama with surprise but was also almost delighted at discovering her suspicions about a noble heritage in our forefathers and in this case foremother was correct. Even if it was not elvish.
I did not know whether to run out after my mother or grandfather. But decided in the end it was best to give each one of them a little space for the moment. We were broken from our thoughts by Lady Acacia.
“In that deluge of new information, he failed to explain where exactly he exited the depths.” She frowned on realising that despite all his honesty over his history he had left her unsatisfied in the knowledge of its location.
“I can guess at that,” Father added to our surprise. “It was before my time but when the island was first settled there were goblins on the northern coastline in the mountains there. If he slipped past a tribe of goblins to exit the depths then the entrance must be on the northern plateau at the base of the mountains or at the source of the stream.” He explained. “They were the reason Wester Town has walls when it was first built.”
He sat pondering how this new information changed his view of the history of the island.
“Your mother and . . . Arawn,” He hesitated to call him Grandfather in light of the secrets that had been uncovered. “Lived on this isle for as long as I can remember but if his story is true, he is also the reason there are no longer any goblins left on the island. They must have died out with his arrival and the town never searched for the reason why. To hear my father tell of it, it was assumed they wiped themselves out. But I guess that wasn’t the case.”
“Either way, that is another exit to the depths that must be watched closely if Arawn hasn’t been already.” Lady Acacia lectured unaffected to the same extent by the family revelations.
“I think that is enough for now. Would you give us some time to come to grips with this Lady Acacia?” Father asked politely.
“Of course, I have some things of my own to research.” She answered equally politely the whole situation was more than a little awkward.
After she had left. He said, “I need to find your mother can I trust you two to behave?” He asked.
“When haven’t we behaved?” Aleera asked.
“It’s not so much you that I’m worried about.” He answered her and then turned to me.
“Yes, father I promise to behave.” He raised an eyebrow at that, “I won’t leave the island.” I moderated my answer.
“Good enough. Give your mother some space to come to grips with this,” he said before he turned to go and find her. She might not want him to say anything but whether she wanted him or not he needed to be there to support her in silence if nothing else.
That left only the two of us.
“You didn’t seem too surprised.” She commented on my reaction or rather my lack of one.
“We all have secrets.” I shrugged aware of the hypocrisy if I were to complain about anyone else's considering my own.
“Well, perhaps we shouldn’t have if this is the result of them.” She gestured at the empty room. “They can drive us apart if kept too long.” she cautioned well aware of my habit to collect them like shiny shells on a beach.
I nodded but didn’t reply and we too headed off to our separate tasks. As soon as she was out of sight I slipped into my secret tunnels. I had always seen them as fun. Kept them secret for secrecy’s sake. It was what made them special. Would they drive a wedge between us when they were revealed? I hoped not. But that was something to consider.
I set off down my tunnels.
It was possible for Grandfather to hide from me but he wasn’t hiding from me right now. Only the rest of the family. Sat in his own secret cubbyhole he was drinking the equivalent of sailor's rum while staring at the wall. An old man morosely minding his own business while contemplating his past and the pitfalls it had created. Exiting my secret tunnel I popped up in his.
“How are you feeling old man?” I commiserated.
