As he stood there, holding her and trying to comfort her for the loss of her husband and her past life, he kissed the top of her head and wondered whether he would know if she traded places.
He hoped he would never have occasion to find out. He wanted this one to stay. He wanted her to stay for a long, long time.
Thanks to Enral’s Eternal Youth, it might prove to be a very long time.
The Spriggan Mirror
A Legend of Ethshar
Epilogue
Piffle slipped into the room as silently as it could – and as it was a wiry young spriggan, that was very silently indeed. It looked around.
There was the black box, just as the stories said, atop the giants’ table. Piffle looked up at the looming structure, then grabbed one of the table legs at head height and began pulling itself up.
It was perhaps halfway up the table-leg when a gigantic hand closed around it, pulling Piffle off its perch. It found itself swept up in the air and turned to face the immense hairy face of a He-Giant.
“Now, what do you think you’re doing?” the giant demanded, in its impossibly deep, rumbling voice.
“Nothing!” Piffle said. “Do nothing, really!”
A She-Giant appeared beside the He-Giant, looking at Piffle. Her incredibly long, lush hair spilled down around her. Piffle had never before seen a She-Giant’s hair so close up, and he was impressed.
“It just looks like an ordinary mirror,” she said. “You don’t need to see it. There’s nothing special about it – except when giants are climbing out of it. If you look at it, that might just happen.”
“I would think you’d consider eight of us to be quite enough,” the He-Giant said. “Especially after we smashed up those shops when we first appeared.”
“Yes, yes!” Piffle said, nodding wildly. “Enough giants!”
“Then don’t open the box!” the He-Giant bellowed.
“Yes yes yes! Put Piffle down now? Please?”
With a snort, the He-Giant set Piffle back on the floor. Piffle turned and scampered away. The He-Giant watched it go.
“Silly spriggan,” he said.
“They’re just curious,” the She-Giant told him.
“And attracted to magic.”
“That, too.”
The He-Giant glanced at the box. “Do you think more giants would really come out of it? Or did our mysterious message-writer have some other motive?”
She spread empty hands. “Who knows?”
“If more giants appeared – well, it might be nice to have more company.”
“Female company, you mean? I’m not enough for you?”
“Of course you are! I didn’t mean that. But where we’re all so much alike, the four of you sisters and my three brothers and me – aren’t there any different people wherever it is we came from? It might be nice to talk to someone who isn’t just like us.”
“Just talk? So you aren’t hoping that someday a beautiful woman might come climbing out of the magic mirror, so you’d have a choice, and not just the four of us with the same boring face?”
“You’re more than beautiful enough! Besides, now that I think about it, it’s just as likely to be another man, and I’m not interested in sharing you. Better we keep everything balanced, four and four.”
“Or maybe we’d get worse monsters next time,” the She-Giant mused. “Remember, we got those funny false spriggans before. We could get anything – it’s not as if we have any idea how the magic works, or where we actually came from.”
“Right.” He glanced at the black box, still securely sealed.
He wondered who had sent that message, sixnights ago, not much more than an hour after their own arrival – “SHUT THE MIRROR IN A SOLID BOX, AND NOTHING ELSE WILL COME OUT OF IT.” Why had it been written across a false spriggan’s belly? Why hadn’t the mysterious magician sent a piece of paper?
He shook his head.
They would probably never know – but they would do their best to see that the mirror stayed safely locked away. It was just too dangerous to let out.
They didn’t really need any more giants. The fact was, the He-Giant rather liked being one of only four men in a world of spriggans, an object of awe to all the millions of little green creatures. It was really quite enjoyable – so long as there were four women, as well!
The Spriggan Mirror
A Legend of Ethshar
Notes Regarding Gresh’s Family
Keshan the Merchant married Piri of Ethshar before the Magistrate of Bywater in Ethshar of the Rocks on the tenth day of Newfrost in the Year of Speech 5187. Their first child, a daughter, was born on the nineteenth of Greengrowth, 5188, and named Dina, a name they mistakenly believed to mean “fortunate.” (The actual root means “leader.”)
Dina showed a keen mind and an interest in magic from the first. As Dina the Clever she was apprenticed to a wizard, Ziridin of Farmgate, in Summersheat 5200. She completed her apprenticeship on the fourth of Summersend, 5206, and after various occupation as a journeyman, purchased a shop on Wizard Street in her native city of Ethshar of the Rocks in Icebound, 5212, and set up in business under the rather unimaginative name Dina the Wizard. She was granted master status by the Wizards’ Guild, allowing her to train apprentices, in Rains, 5213. Despite offers, she has never married.
Difa was born on the thirtieth of Greengrowth, 5190. Despite her parents’ attempts to prevent it, she spent much of her childhood as Difa the Sneaky, a name her older sister had bestowed upon her. On the fourth of Summerheat, 5202, popularly referred to as “the Night of Madness,” she had not yet been found an apprenticeship. Having been disappointed to discover that this new magic had bypassed her, she was delighted when the Council of Warlocks was established and an announcement was made that warlocks were to operate on the same basis as other magicians. She leapt at her chance, and on the twenty-ninth of Summerheat became the first girl in Ethshar of the Rocks to formally apprentice herself to a warlock, a former mason named Senden of Crafton.
She completed her apprenticeship on the thirtieth of Greengrowth, 5208, worked as a journeyman for three years, and was recognized as a master warlock by the Council in Summerheat, 5211. After sharing quarters with two other warlocks for a time, she bought her own shop in Rains, 5213. In Harvest of 5215 she married a magistrate’s aide by the name of Zarek of Hillside; they have two sons and a daughter.
Tira of Eastgate was born on the thirtieth of Snowfall, 5191, served as apprentice to Sensella the Witch from the fifth of Rains, 5204, to the sixth of Rains, 5210, and remained as Sensella’s associate until Sensella’s death in 5226, whereupon she inherited the shop. Tira married a theurgist named Dar of Norcross Street, some ten years her senior, on the sixth of Leafcolor, 5210. They have four children, two of each sex.
Chira the Clever – known as Chira the Also Clever until her oldest sister began her apprenticeship and moved out of the family home – was born on the seventeenth of Leafcolor, 5193. She served her sorcerous apprenticeship from 18 Leafcolor 5205 through 16 Leafcolor 5214 under the famous Thellesh of Tazmor and wed Cardel the Locksmith on the eleventh of Newfrost, 5214, setting up her business in his existing storefront at the corner of Wizard Street and Tinker Street in Eastgate. They have seven children; five girls and two boys.
Pyata was born on the third of Newfrost, 5195, and apprenticed to Alladia the Priestess on the first of Newfrost, 5208. She never formally completed her apprenticeship, leaving Alladia’s home and shrine in 5213 when she felt her master was behaving unreasonably. The tantrum that prompted this turned out to be an early symptom of Alladia’s final illness; Alladia died before Pyata could be convinced to return. Under the name Pyata the Divine she has done well for herself despite her lack of credentials, thanks to an unusually high success rate in her invocations. She has never married.