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call courage.
    Heart racing, blood roaring loudly in
his ears, and his hand more than a little shaken, Jovian pulled the
sword free from the sheath. He let out a rush of breath when he
looked upon the one-sided sword the swept down to the angled tip in
a slight curve, and he whispered, “Father, it looks like a katana
from the Realm of Water.”
    “Yes, that is indeed what it looks
like, doesn’t it?”
    Jovian slid the blade back into the
scabbard admiring the cool steal of the blade, allowing the
sensation to wane as the sword was once again concealed in its
sheath.
    Dauin paced back to the chair and
retrieved another item. He held a black book that looked dainty in
his large hands. He looked down at it and smiled lovingly as he
remembered the woman it had once belonged too. He spoke, voice
thick with emotions and times past.
    “This is the one item out of all of
them your mother had very little use for, but she carried it with
her everywhere she went. It was a gift to her from her sister, and
she loved her sister more than anything in the world. The only
thing was, your mother’s sister had a tendency to be pushy, and
this gift was an attempt to get your mother more versed in the lore
of herbs.” He handed the book to Joya. “A gift I feel the need to
pass along to you, seeing how you look so much like the woman whom
this gift was originally from.”
    Joya, like Jovian, was overwhelmed with
emotion, and it felt to her that she now had a piece of a loved one
whom she had never had the chance to meet. Tears welled in her eyes
as she flipped open the book gingerly due to the worn pages. It was
all in an archaic type of handwriting, and if by habit, the book
automatically flipped open to a page marked with the herb aconite.
Beside the name and description of the plant was a sketch of the
herb to make recognition easy. Joya peered curiously at the folded
page and then closed the nondescript herbal book.
    None of his children could tell what he
had this time, as it was small enough to fit in his palm, which he
held clasped with his other behind his back as he peered into each
of their eyes. “This was one of your mother’s favorite pieces of
jewelry, though she rarely wore it. This was something she had
obtained long before I met her, when she had spent time among the
elves of Nependier. There was something special about this ring,
and Misha often said that she could not wear it for longer than an
hour without getting a headache.”
    Dauin removed his hands from behind his
back. “It is one of the most precious gems of the elves, which had
been fashioned into the platinum band.” Holding it up for all
gathered to see, the dainty gem in the thin band seemed to glow
with an inner fire. The room was filled with a fluttering blue cast
as the sun trickled through the window and illuminated the stone.
The light seemed to hum, and it held Angelica entranced. She stared
into that gem, and beyond she saw rolling hills and mountains that
reached high into the sky, disappearing into the clouds. With a
sigh, she was brought back to herself as her father spoke again.
“This gem is blue topaz, and it is sacred to all elves.” He closed
his hand around the ring, and instantly the dazzling blue light
went out. “Like all of the gifts being handed down to you today, I
don’t know what its significant is, or if it is significant at all.
All of these items were a part of your mother’s past that she
longed to forget. And all of them were kept in a locked box, which
I only found the key to last night.”
    Shaking his head, disappointed that he
could not share more of their mother’s past with them, Dauin walked
to Angelica. Kneeling down, he gently pulled open her fingers and
placed the ring firmly in her palm. The ring, which had been held
tight in his hand for so long, was surprisingly cold against her
skin. It was also filled with a power, a wild, untamable power that
provoked a gasp from her the moment she felt it.