From - The New Master - The Legend of Tscon Lightbringer Book Three

Tscon slowly opened his eyes. As his sight came into focus, all he could see was what appeared to be a wooden ceiling. Suddenly, the last things that had happened to him came flooding into his mind. The swamp, the zombie, and the explosion. He tried to get up, but his body seemed too weak for him to even roll over. He turned his head to look around at his new surroundings. He appeared to be in a small room, which was just big enough for the bed he found himself lying on, and not much else. The doorway to the room was at his feet. He could hear sounds coming from the doorway, and he caught sight of a few shadows reflecting off a light source he couldn't see, probably a fire. The shadows were small, but moved rather quickly. They seemed to be numerous, jumping here and there, all over. Suddenly he felt something climb or jump onto the bed, near his feet. He looked down to see a solid white cat staring back at him. The animal regarded him coolly for a moment, then let out a loud, long cry. Tscon heard a voice answer it from the other room, a human voice. Soon a figure loomed into the doorway. It took the monk's eyes a minute, but he soon recognized the figure as the witch he'd met weeks earlier, the person he'd traveled so far to find. Kivcie.

"Well, well, look who's found his way into my bed." Kivcie smiled widely, intensely amused at her own joke. "Fancy meeting you here, stranger. I think it's fairly safe to assume you've come out here to see me for some reason. Either that or you've chosen to end your life in a swamp, and somehow you picked mine. Ha, of course, I'm sure it's the former. Well, anyway, you look pretty weak, I'll whip you something up to get your strength back, then you can tell me why you've come, and why you blew up my zombie."

Tscon was taken aback by this last statement. Blew up her zombie? Did she mean that terrible thing in the swamp belonged to her? And had he indeed destroyed it? He started to go over the last minutes he remembered. Something had indeed happened when he channeled the Chyr, but he couldn't remember an explosion. It certainly had never happened before when he touched the Chyr with his mind.

He didn't have to long to think about it, as Kivcie soon reappeared with a small cup in her hand. She had to squeeze into the room next to his bed, as there was almost no space between the bed and the wall. When she was near his head, she bent down, and raised his head enough to sip from the cup. At first, he was unsure of whether or not he should drink it, but soon realized he really didn't have much choice. He drank several sips, and then Kivcie let his head down. She shuffled out of the room and went out of sight.

Tscon felt his strength returning almost immediately. He was soon able to sit up, and move his legs. He stood up slowly, and found that although his strength was back, his balance seemed to be returning at a much slower pace, and he almost fell more than once as he tried to make his way out of the room. At last he emerged from the small bedroom, and took a moment to look around at the new room he found himself in.

It was a rather large room, with a fireplace set into the far wall. The ceiling was a good ten or twelve feet high. One wall had a large window set into it, the others were devoid of any openings, They did however, have numerous paintings of cats, of all kinds and colors. He also noticed a number of domesticated cats walking around all over the room. Some were sleeping on the few furnishings, and some were walking about. A few were playing, batting at one another or running off into other rooms.

The biggest cat of all, however, was lying near the fireplace.

It was solid black, at least five feet long with a long, thin tail. It was huge, much larger than the other cats in the room. Tscon estimated the beast must weigh at least two hundred pounds, if not more. It appeared to be asleep, but Tscon couldn't tell from where he was standing, as it's face was turned away from him. Next to the huge panther was Kivcie, rocking back and forth in an old rocking chair, regarding the monk wistfully. She had a slight grin on her face, perhaps still laughing to herself at her jest about him earlier. Tscon approached her slowly, not wanting to disturb the great beast lying next to her, who's back she was calmly stroking. When he had gotten closer Kivcie finally spoke.

"Good, you're finally up. I'd offer you a seat, but the only other one I have is that rickety old chair behind you, and I'm afraid it'd collapse on you if you tried to sit in it."

Tscon turned to look at the furnishing she was referring to. It did indeed look spindly, and completely unable to bear his weight. He didn't really feel comfortable enough to sit anyway.

"That's alright, " the monk responded, "I'd prefer to stand for a while anyway. How long was I off my feet, by the way?"

"Quite a while, I'd say. I came out when I saw the explosion, and dragged your heavy carcass in here. You were in my bed for several hours after that. Hehe."

"You mentioned an explosion earlier, what was that? I was fighting some kind of zombie  creature out there. I think he was weakening me, and when I tried to use my power to strengthen myself, something happened. A bright light or something. Then I woke up here."

"Ahh, well, you just told me what I needed to know, young man." Kivcie responded. "That, zombie, as you call him, was indeed draining your strength. That was his job, to weaken intruders so I can question them about coming into my swamp. When you drew on your power, it must have conflicted with the power the, zombie, was using to drain your strength, and the result was that explosion. You're lucky to be alive, the force of that blast blew my servant to pieces. And he was the only one I had. You have no idea how long it took me to find a corpse suitable enough to raise for that spell. Well, what's done is done, what we can talk about now is how you're going to compensate me. But first, I want to know what you're doing here in the first place. "

Tscon wasn't sure he wanted to know what kind of compensation this woman would require, fortunately she was more interested in his reasons for being there, so he hoped he could keep her mind on that.

"I've come to seek your knowledge, and your help. A friend of mine is gravely ill with some kind of magical disease, and we've no idea what this affliction really is. We need someone with a deep knowledge of magic to tell us what kind of spell has been cast on her. I was hoping you could help us, as you know there are very few people practicing magic by themselves these days."

Kivcie's eyes narrowed when Tscon mentioned magic. She began to eye him suspiciously.

"Ummhmm, so you need some magical expertise, ey? If I didn't know you already, I'd think you were working for those cursed wizards in that forsaken Council of Archmages, but I've already seen what kind of person you are, so I know that isn't the case. Hmm, magic disease, you say? I find that highly unusual, as there aren't any magical diseases that I know of, except for a few curses, heh. So what does this disease look like ? How do you know it's magical in nature?"

Tscon went through Daenna's whole situation, from fighting the plant monster, and the sudden appearances of the growths, to his own attempts to cure it, until he got to where they were now, with Daenna lying unconscious in Breystill, awaiting rescue. Tscon noticed Kivcie's face soften a bit when he mentioned Daenna's name, and by the time he'd finished his story, the older woman looked absolutely forlorn. At first, Tscon thought that the old woman had a much softer heart than he had given her credit for, but when she didn't speak or stir for several minutes, he began to suspect something else was involved. At length, Kivcie looked up at him, almost in tears.

"You say this friend of yours is named Daenna? Is she a small person, inquisitive and talks alot? Did she mention wanting to learn magic?"

At that point Tscon knew that Kivcie must be aware of who Daenna was,  and obviously knew her well.

"Yes, that is correct. You know her then? I hope that means you'll help us."

Kivcie looked down, and stared for a long time into the fireplace in front of her, leaving Tscon to wonder what was wrong. When she finally spoke, her voice was almost shaking.

"Yes, I know her. Daenna is my daughter. This was her home, until recently. Several weeks ago, she left. We weren't on the best of terms. In fact, we were quite angry with one another the last time we spoke."

Kivcie stopped again at this point. She hadn't moved her head, still staring into the fire, as if she were seeing into the past. When she continued, her voice was still uneven.

"Daenna wanted to be a magic-user, like me. Of course, I was very proud of her for wanting to follow in my footsteps. But magic isn't something you can take lightly. Before one learns the spells, they must learn to respect the power of magic. And she was never one for patience. I taught her a few minor incantations, enough for her to burn her fingers a few times, and make a few other mistakes, hoping she'd learn just how powerful magic really is. But somehow, those lessons never really sunk into her mind. I don't know why. She was always begging me to teach her some, 'real' spells. I just couldn't seem to get through to her that she wasn't ready."