addendum to 2015 novel
Neither woman spoke.
"What is your purpose in telling me this? Are you planning on relieving me of duty?"
"No," Emma replied.
"Are you planning to change my teaching methods?"
"No !" Emma shuddered as she spoke.
"Good! Perhaps I had better visit my children." He stood, bowed to both women and made a sweeping hand gesture with both arms and then strolled to where his students were undergoing instruction.
He spoke to some about moves they had not realized he had seen, ducked to avoid a clumsy blow one young student has intended for his teacher but had lost control of, paused several drills to correct technique and flowed slowly through one Kata pausing when needful to emphasize pausing points.
The previous Temple Master laughed with delight and thought "now he truly knows what he thought he knew years ago.”
Emma said softly to D---"Do you think you could teach as he does?
" No, I do not. How does he know when to duck and when to block blows when he can not see the blows?
"
"I don't know", D--- replied.
" The Old Ones, such as Grandfather and my Great Aunt could."
"Who were they?"
" They lived a long time ago and helped raise me. Someday , I will share a glass of 'Triple Medicine' with you and explain."
That night, D--- asked her husband "have you heard of something called 'Triple Medicine'?
" Yes," he replied, "Some of the sailors visiting from the remote west told me they had read an article about' Triple Medicine' in a magazine published nearly almost 370 years ago. It was written by an Old Orc for quote his stinky ones unquote. The magazine was published for about 80 years in what was called 'City Four'. The Publisher was a slender Half Orc named Crystal. You may have heard the name?"
Yes, but when?
There is a Half Orc, a lawyer, who is an Archivist in the House of Assassins" who oversees storage vaults. I know Emma has said one of her Older brothers was a slender Half Orc named 'Crystal'. I have seen Emma hug this 'Crystal' and call him 'Big Brother'. He moves like a very old Orc."
" How did they sign themselves?" She spoke with sudden intensity.
" The House Mouse said both the 'Old Orc' and 'Crystal' were written in the Assassin Kant of the time. Did you know the nickname of our ancestors wa s'the Stinky Ones'?"
" It still is."
" Just how far west did Dent and his people get?""
That question kept both awake into the late evening...