“You’re using too much resin again. You only need a little.”
Jaeyn nodded. It was useless arguing with his mother. He slipped the glued and trimmed feathers into the grooves. He began wrapping sinew around the end, tightening the glued feathers into place.
“Make sure it’s wrapped tight. You’re using too much.” She reached to snatch it from his hands, “Here, I’ll do it.”
He had waited for Vassanta to fall asleep before slipping out to the western side of the inn overlooking the sea. He looked down at the feathered dart that he held in his hand. The same one that Vassanta had caught in her arm. The strange sentinel, or ex-sentinel– she couldn’t be active– had probably made it herself, just as his mother used to. The fletching was tied exactly the way she had shown him. They probably taught the same method to all sentinels at Feathermoon Stronghold.
What had bothered him more was how much the woman had sounded like his mother. Not only in the actual sound, but in the way she spoke to him. He was not just a boy. He did not need protection.
He especially didn’t need protection from Vass.
He glanced back into the inn. Vass was curled up, hugging the pillow. Sketch lay on the floor beside the bed. Tumbles slept at the foot of it. Dog sat nearby, licking her paws. Sentinels stood at their posts around the inn. Vass would be safe. He walked down the steps, and around the northern side of the building. He walked north along the path there. He smiled when he saw his brother. He was outside.
The druid sat at a bench. He had small bags of herbs and vials spread out around him. He was crushing some with his pestle and mortar. Jaeyn sat on the other bench. “Hello Terivanis.”
Terivanis grunted without bothering to look up, “Hello.”
Jaeyn bit his lip. “There’s a woman about, trying to save me from my ‘demon’. I thought you should know so you could keep Vajarra from any harm. She threw a dart at Vass and hit her arm.” He placed the dart on the bench near Terivanis’s bags of herbs as he continued. “We think she’s a sentinel or an ex-sentinel. She might have been in the forest a long time.”
Terivanis looked up briefly, raising a brow as he did. He glanced at the dart then returned to grinding his herbs. “One of the sentinels already came by to warn us about her. She said that her name is Elanyl Nightmist and she has come to town before, but this is the first time she’s caused any problem.”
“Oh, the others know her then?”
Terivanis shrugged, “I guess so. They know her enough to know her name. The one that told me didn’t know much else though. She apparently doesn’t come into town very often.”
Jaeyn nodded. “That much is obvious. She didn’t know the difference between a draenei and a demon.”
“The sentinel said she usually doesn’t stay very long. She comes to town just to get what she needs, then disappears again for months.” He paused while looking at the dart. “Let’s hope she has finished getting what she needed already.”
All the rest 