Hethurin’s Notes

• Things have been going well. We had a day at the school where prospective students could come visit with their parents and that went really well. So far, we have four new students since the fall session started, and another should be in contact in a few days, hopefully. The parents wanted time to decide in the last student’s case, and so I’m giving them until the end of the month. Honestly, I’d accept them after, but I won’t hold the spot for them after that so it’ll be first come first serve.
• There’s still a lot of space left anyway. Vyn and Sal moved to the new building so the attic rooms are empty, and I would like to get students in those again. Keyalenn, Xarola, and Loralinde all went to the new buildings too, so that cleared out a few rooms on the second floor, which means I have guest rooms again. Desdeyliri, Zalindri and Lhoris all stayed here in the rooms they’ve had since first coming here.
• With the new students, there’s two rooms left in the women’s new building, one in the men’s and then just the attic rooms here which I would like to be filled by either two girls or two boys. It will probably wind up being boys because the boy’s building is almost full already.
• One of the new boys, Kindroth, knows Keyalenn. They used to go to school together in Silvermoon. I guess Keyalenn recommended the school to him. Maybe the other students will recommend it to their friends too.
• The classes are going well. The new students are settling in nicely, and a couple of them are interested in specializing in arcane. The students who were here before are all doing well too. Raleth tells me that Keyalenn is doing very well and should be ready for his testing soon, which is great! We’ll have our second graduate! Des is doing very well also, and she doesn’t have much left to learn either. Some of the newer students aren’t sure what they want to specialize in yet, and that’s okay too. Sometimes even those that do know wind up changing their minds later on. I think Lhoris has finally found his specialty too, as Aeramin has asked to schedule extra private lessons with him.
• The builders will have a small break for winter. I think Sath’alor wants them in the spring to build more cabins. They did a wonderful job with Malwen’s room. They added a private bathroom for her, and over it, she has a doll loft. When Narise is old enough, we’ll move her into the room next to Malwen’s and have it renovated to be similar to her sister’s room with her own bathroom and loft area. That will be a few years though. She’s still so tiny, but Esladra said she could start eating some pureed food. She has grown a lot since we adopted her. I still carry her around a lot during the day. She likes going to the lessons with me, and I give her milk while I’m working in my office. Ter says I hog her, but he hogs Malwen. He says that while laughing though, so I don’t think he’s mad about it. Malwen’s always following him around when she’s not working on her lessons. Lali gives her homework, and Ter will sit with her and help. She doesn’t need much help. She’s very smart! She likes to help him with the baking and the gardening too.
• I signed her up for a class in Silvermoon. It’s a class for sewing for girls. I made sure to ask if there would be other girls her age there, and I was assured that there would be. There’s no one out here at her age, so I thought she might like to have some friends. Maybe she’ll be able to make some in the sewing class. It’s every weekend in the morning. Terellion has been going with her, though he waits outside or does some shopping and things while she’s in the class.
• Speaking of classes in Silvermoon, Vaildor is still going to the art school, and I have to make portals for him twice a week so he can get there. I found out that he’s been seeing father at lunch while he’s there. He hasn’t even written to ask how I’m doing since the wedding! Well, okay, he wrote once, but that’s nothing like seeing someone twice a week. I invited him to the mask party. I hope he can make it.
• The mask party is going to be so great this year! Malwen is really excited, and Ter is making spooky cake. I don’t think Narise cares much yet, but she’s going to be a pea pod. Malwen won’t tell me what she and Terellion are going to be. Ter won’t tell me either. I’m just going to wear a regular fancy mask with feathers on it, which is probably boring, but it’s enough for me. Besides, I want something that’s easy to take off so that Narise will recognize me.
• Xyliah was by the other day and she mentioned that she and Berwick are going to leave after the holiday. I have an idea to get them something, though Renner probably won’t approve. I don’t see how it would change anything though, so I’ll just do it without asking him.

A Visit to the Priest

Hethurin Fairsong took a seat outside Priest Sunstone’s office at the Spire in Silvermoon City. He had been told that the priest would be a little late for his afternoon appointments as he was running some emergency errands around the city. Hethurin hoped it wasn’t too bad of an emergency. He had to return to the school in an hour to teach his next class.

Thankfully, the priest walked in a few minutes later. He was an older elf with long, greying blond hair that hung loosely halfway down his back. He looked down at his clipboard, “Hethurin Fairsong?”

“Yes.” Hethurin replied, rising from the chair.

“You look familiar. You’re Isturon’s boy, aren’t you?”

Hethurin nodded, “I am. I changed my name a couple of years ago when I moved to the Ghostlands, and started a school there. The name change has just been made official.”

“I recall he told me about that. I didn’t remember your new name. Hethurin then.” He glanced back down at the clipboard. “You’ve come to ask questions about marriage?”

Hethurin nodded again, “My father said I should come see you.” He followed the priest as he motioned towards a door on the other side of the room. Hethurin continued as he went to the priest’s office, “I’m getting married this summer, and my father is going to officiate it. However, my future husband and I have decided we want it done on paper beforehand.”

Priest Sunstone closed the door behind them and motioned of Hethurin to take a seat. “May I ask what the rush is?”

Hethurin smiled, “Malwen. She’s an orphan we sponsored during Children’s week. We can only visit her on weekends now, but we really want to be able to adopt her so we can bring her home.”

Priest Sunstone sat at his desk, and opened one of the drawers. “I’m happy to hear you’ve decided to give an orphan a family. If you’re even half as successful as your father claims, she’s going to be one lucky little girl, and with two loving fathers too.” He pulled out some papers and put them on the desk in front of Hethurin. “I just came from the orphanage myself.”

Hethurin glanced at the papers but wondered why the priest had gone to the orphanage. Had his emergency been there? “Is everything okay?”

“Well, one of the kids broke his arm a few weeks ago so I had to follow up on him, but while I was there, a baby was brought in. She’d been left in a rubbish heap in the Row, much like your Malwen had been. She wasn’t more than a few hours old. I had to stay to check her out. She had a couple of small cuts, probably from broken glass, but other than that she’s a perfectly healthy baby. She was lucky to be found and brought in when she was.”

Hethurin blinked at the priest, “Malwen was found in the garbage like this baby was? Who would do such a thing?”

Priest Sunstone shrugged, “There are many desperate people in the Row who do many desperate things. Enough people there have trouble taking care of themselves without adding a child to the mix. They still wind up having them because they can’t afford ways of preventing it. I’ve been trying to make an impact there by handing out teas to some of the women. I can only reach a few at a time, and going by what happened today, I know it’s not enough. However, I think it’s better to believe that perhaps I prevented two babies from being brought in instead of just the one, but even one abandoned child is one too many.”

Hethurin nodded with a frown.

“Of course, you’re here for these.” The priest indicated the papers on the desk. “You and your future husband both have a section to fill out. After that, you’ll need to bring them back to me. You’ll both have to sign them at the bottom in front of myself and another witness.”

Hethurin paused a moment, waiting for further instructions. When none were given, he asked, “Then what?”

“Then that’s it.”

“Will I need another appointment to bring them back? It’s just that it takes two weeks to wait for the appointment, but I’m sure we can fill out this form in thirty minutes. We’d really like to bring Malwen to her new home as soon as possible.”

“Normally, yes, but I understand the situation. If you fill them out this afternoon, you can bring them back before I leave at the end of the day, if you wish.”

Hethurin paused in thought before saying, “I have an idea.”

“Yes?”

“Well, we’d like to list you as a reference when we fill out the forms to adopt Malwen, especially since they know you at the orphanage. However, you haven’t even seen where we live. I could come back at the end of the day and make a portal so you can have supper with us. I’ll show you around the house so you can see where she’ll be moving to. Then we could sign the papers, and Terellion and I can go to the orphanage tomorrow.”

The priest smiled, “I didn’t have plans tonight. I think that sounds like an excellent idea.”

“Great!” Hethurin grinned, “I’ll be by just before the office closes for the day.” He picked up the forms the priest wanted him to fill out.

“I’ll see you then.”

Hethurin continued smiling as he cast his teleport. He couldn’t wait to tell Terellion.