Chapter Text
Aine sat playing with her twin brother when suddenly her hand doubled up into a fist and she hit the blocks and they went flying about the room she shared with him.
"Aine! Why did you do that?" Daithi complained as he grabbed his forehead where one of the blocks smacked him.
"I'm tired of these baby games." Aine nearly yelled as she stood and moved to leave their room.
"Where are you going?" Daithi asked as he watched his seven year old sister open the door.
"I'm going to get Dad's hammer and have some real fun." Aine said as she moved on out of their room.
Daithi's eyes went wide as he scrambled up and moved to the door.
"You'll get in trouble." Daithi told her.
Aine looked back at him as she rolled her eyes before walking across the living room to the master bedroom.
Daithi looked about before he quickly moved across the room following in her wake.
Aine moved the handle and pushed the door open. Selase looked in from the balcony as she watched Aine move to her Father's dresser. She reached up and grabbed the bag that always hung from his belt when he went out. She opened the bag even as Daithi stood at the door staring at her.
"Aine, stop it. Let's just go play in the courtyard if you are bored. This isn't a good idea." Daithi pleaded.
Aine frowned as she felt inside the bag but didn't feel the hammer. She remembered something and she grinned.
"Garrison." She said and suddenly her hand was struck by something even as the hammer flew out of the bag and struck the ceiling before falling down close by where Daithi stood watching.
"Why'd you throw it at me?" Daithi complained.
Aine rolled her eyes.
"I didn't throw it. It flew by too quickly and I missed it." Aine told him before she closed the bag and sat it back up on the dresser.
Aine walked over and grabbed the handle and pulled but the hammer barely budged.
"See, this is a sign. I'll help you put it back in the bag and we need to get out of here before we get into trouble." Daithi told her even as he reached down to help.
Aine pushed his hand away.
"This hammer is my birthright the same as it is Ralph's and I'm going to teach it that it needs to obey me." Aine said as she grabbed it with both hands and struggled but finally raised it up off the floor.
"See, I told you I could do it." Aine said proudly even as she puffed.
"You heard Dad telling Ralph, you can't be proud of yourself like that. It will lead to trouble." Daithi told her.
Aine rolled her eyes.
"I'm going to be the next Paladin of the wise Lady so you better get use to it." Aine told him even as she walked out the door struggling to carry the hammer.
"Where are you going now?" Daithi asked.
"I'm going down to the inner court yard. I want to practice with some of Dad's training dummies." Aine told him even as she stopped and opened the servant's door.
"Why are you going out the servant's entrance for?" Daithi asked without believing what she was doing.
"You think I want someone stopping me before I get to practice at all? The servants won't stop me." Aine told him as she looked back from the other side. "Are you coming?"
Daithi shook his head.
"You might have Dad wrapped around your finger but I don't. I'm not getting into trouble over this." Daithi told her.
Aine rolled her eyes and closed the door before picking the hammer up off the floor.
Daithi ran to the main door and opened it. He stepped out and ran down to Ralph's bedroom and knocked on the door.
"You just missed him Master Daithi, he's out in the outer courtyard. He was saddling a horse to go riding with Patty." A tower guard said as he was climbing the back steps to the Keep's roof.
"Thank you Thomas." Daithi called to him. He ran to the same stairway and began traveling down the steps as quickly as he could.
Aine had been correct as she moved down the servants' corridors those few servants she passed had looked at her funny but figured she was taking her Father's hammer to him. They all smiled and greeted her along the way. Aine stepped out into the inner courtyard and looked about. She held up the hammer with both hands.
"By the wise Lady." Aine said loudly looking up into the sky.
Daithi ran out the entrance of the stairwell into the outer courtyard and looked about but didn't see Ralph.
"Did you see which way my brother went?" Daithi asked the guard who was standing there.
"He just rode out the south portcullis with Miss Patty, Master Daithi." The guard pointed with a smile.
Daithi thanked him even as he ran for the portcullis.
Aine smiled at the hammer as it began glowing weakly.
"Thank you wise Lady." Aine said as she looked about the yard and saw the closest dummy.
Aine tried to throw the hammer and she had to yank her foot back as it fell and almost smashed her toes.
"How embarrassing, I'm glad Daithi didn't come after all." Aine said as she looked up and saw Selase looking down at her.
She struggled and got the hammer back up as she thought back to the time Ralph explained how he had first used the hammer. She took the end of the handle in both hands and lifted it up and over her head carefully and then let the weight pull her arms on back behind her.
Aine took in a deep breath and stepped forward as she pulled against the weight of the hammer as hard as she could, she felt it coming back up and as it came up she dropped to one knee and whipped her arms back over her head. As her elbows were parallel with the floor she forced her hands further forward and dropped her elbows more before letting go.
The hammer flew out from the kinetic actions and slammed into the first dummy. There was a momentary explosion of light as it struck. Aine knelt there breathing hard from the exertion. Raynold sat in his office reading when he heard the commotion and he smiled as he turned to see what Lord Walter was doing.
His eyes opened as he only saw Aine on her knees, her head down and her Dad's hammer lying out in the middle of the courtyard. He jumped up and ran out of his office.
Aine took a number of big breaths trying to regain her energy as she looked up. She grinned seeing the dummy half off its base and the hammer lying there. She stood up and dusted off her knees and then held her hand out in front of her.
"Garrison." She said firmly.
The hammer flew off the ground back towards her. And like that day eight years ago a shadow passed over her and a strong youthful hand reached out and caught the hammer moments before it would have struck and Ralph landed nearly ten feet out away from his sister.
"Have you lost your mind Aine? Do you have any idea of what could have happened to you?" Ralph yelled at her.
"Don't you yell at me Ralph. I'm going to be the next knight of the wise Lady." Aine yelled back.
"Is that right?" Ralph looked back out over the courtyard and threw the hammer missing a dummy.
Aine giggled.
"You missed." Aine teased him.
"No, I didn't. I want to show you something. Come out here with me." Ralph told her while grabbing her hand and walking her out into the courtyard.
Raynold ran out into the courtyard and swore.
"Oh thank the wise Lady." Raynold said as he watched them walk out there.
Ralph grinned at him before he stopped and pointed at the dummy.
"Now, do you know how hard Dad's hammer strikes when it returns?" Ralph asked her.
Aine frown but shook her head.
"Try and move the dummy with your hands." Ralph told her.
Aine shrugged but put her hands against it and pushed but couldn't move it.
"Now I want you to step back here with me." Ralph told her as he stepped back. Aine walked back with him.
"The hammer is now on the opposite side of the dummy. Call for it." Ralph told her.
"But the dummy is in the way." Aine told him.
"Exactly, it will show you how bad you almost got hurt. Call for it." Ralph told her again.
Aine frowned but held her hand out.
"Garrison." She said firmly.
The hammer flew back at her and struck the dummy knocking it off its base and Ralph's hand caught the hammer before it reached her.
"Had Daithi not came and got me, this hammer could have killed you. Do you know how bad that would have hurt Mom and Dad? Me? Daithi? As well as your little brother and sister? Not to mention everyone in Dad's lands? You very well may be the next knight of the wise Lady but if you do anything like this again you might not get the chance." Ralph told her.
"But I only did what you did." Aine complained.
"And did you miss the point of the story, how Dad had to save my life? Had the wise Lady not awakened him when she did this hammer would have killed me. It might have hurt Mom as well." Ralph told her as he turned and carrying the hammer put his hand behind her head and made her walk with him.
"But Dad isn't training me. I need to be learning what I'm supposed to do." Aine complained.
Ralph sighed.
"Dad's got his hands full with you. First, you need to wait until I pass my tenets between now and next year, if I failed them this year. And then you have to wait until Dad says you are ready." Ralph told her as they saw Daithi kind of hiding behind Raynold.
"Tattletale." Aine accused him.
"Be glad he told me. That was brave and smart on his part young lady." Ralph told her.
Patty stood just inside the Keep wall smiling.
"You might one day be as good as your Dad, Aine, but Ralph's right. At least he had the good sense of restraint." Patty told her.
Aine stuck her tongue out at her.
"Young lady, you put that tongue back into your mouth this moment. What is going on here?" Lady Paige demanded as she came around after being told by Lisa that other servants had seen Aine with her Father's hammer.
Aine swallowed hard.
"Nothing, we're just going back up to our room to play." Aine said.
"Indeed, nothing at all. Then can you explain why your brother is escorting you inside the Keep while carrying your Father's hammer? When he is supposed to be on a date with Patty? Not to mention that hammer is supposed to be in your Father's bag?" Paige asked with deceptive calm.
"Ralph has already scolded me. Do we really have to make a state case out of it, Mother?" Aine asked.
Paige's eyebrow shot up.
"Oh, you think this is a state case? Then by all means let us make a state case out of it and go up to the great hall." Paige told her as she grabbed her wrist and yanked her up onto her hip and turned as she moved for the stairs.
"That's okay, Mommy, we don't have to do that." Aine explained quickly. "Honestly, I'm really sorry."
"You haven't even gotten to the sorry part, let alone the really sorry." Paige told her as they came off the stairs on the floor of the great hall.
Paige strolled into the great hall and they saw Lord Walter as he sat minding their two youngest children, three year old Patrick and two year old Veronica.
"Ah, there my love is, with your big sister no less. I wondered what was taking her so long." Walter said as he looked back up at her and frowned seeing the look on her face.
"What is wrong, my love?" Walter asked as he stood up.
"Your daughter has gotten herself in trouble and as I went to speak with her about it she asked if we really had to turn it into a state case." Paige told him after kissing him.
Walter frowned.
"Young lady, that isn't how you speak with your Mother." Walter told her.
Aine gave her Father one of her patented looks.
"Oh no, young lady, you are not getting out of it that easily. Perhaps I have been too lenient with you all this time. You need to learn a lesson. You owe your Mother more respect then that. So, I think it is only right for Mother to sit in judgment since you feel so big as to challenge her. She might be your Mother, but she is also the Lady of Scorpion Keep. And you will respect her in both forms." Walter told her as he escorted Paige over to sit in his high seat and he took Aine from her and kissed Paige before she sat down.
Walter walked back out about ten feet and sat Aine on the floor to look back and up at her Mother.
"What are the crimes besides being an insolent and spoiled child?" Lord Walter asked in his commanding voice as he saw Ralph standing there with Patty and Daithi.
Ralph held up his hammer and tossed it through the air to his Father.
"She took your hammer Father. And went out to the inner courtyard where she empowered it with the wise Lady's light and used it. Fortunately Daithi reached me in time that I was able to keep her from killing herself before the hammer returned to her hand.
"Aine?" Lord Walter asked quietly. "Is this true?"
Aine looked up and saw the worried look on his face and so she tried to play up to him again with her eyes.
"It's true, Daddy, I did that." Aine told him. "Please forgive me,"
His face instantly went dark and Aine took a step back closer towards her Mother.
Lord Walter struggled with his anger for a moment and then looked up at his wife.
"My Lady, the child has confessed her crime. What say you?" Lord Walter finally asked.
"I believe a week's work in the scullery will serve her punishment this time. I also believe that she needs to have a firm hand of a true knight of the wise Lady to explain why a child her age shouldn't be doing things like this as well as proper respect for her Mother." Paige said.
"Let it be so." Lord Walter said even as Aine stared from her Mother to her Father.
"But Daddy, you didn't punish Ralph for doing that." Aine whined.
"I think we should go on that note." Ralph whispered to Patty and she nodded quickly and they walked out of the great hall.
"Young lady, there is a world of difference. Most importantly Ralph wasn't disrespectful of your Mother afterwards. And at the time he did it we were in danger. He wasn't just bored. But rest assured, you won't be bored again until school re-starts. You'll be tired yes, bored, no." Lord Walter told her.