As the first days of spring approach, Penna subjects Heppa to the usual judging looks and critiques regarding her failure to settle into a career. Quaemilya has been a sorceress for a full year now, and Heppa has not yet even entered the shaman ranks. This particularly rankles Penna since her younger daughter has been spending so much time in the company of the druid Fenowin. Heppa does not push back against her mother aloud, but she remains resolute. She clings to her leathers and her bow and sword, not because she uses them so much, but because they are a sign that she is not a shaman. The one thing Heppa is willing to commit to, is that she will not commit to anything.
But it is true that Heppa has been spending a lot of time with Fenowin. They have much to talk about. Following the visit to the saurians and dwarves, Heppa in particular wanted to share what it was like to sense corruption in the Foul Fen. That was a major breakthrough for Heppa; all the meditation practice with Fenowin finally paid off.
They have become friends in their quiet time together in Fenowin’s glade. On one such visit, Fenowin teaches Heppa how to grow flowers for securing hair braids. Heppa relates her previous hair experiments with Knots, including her alchemical attempts to make her fine hair behave more like his coily hair. Once Heppa masters Fenowin’s technique, she no longer needs ribbons to hold her hair in position. Now stems can do so, and as an added bonus, she has blooms around her head. She imagines that Alric would like those. Just wait until I show him!
It is at this very moment that Heppa makes up her mind that she really does want Alric here to meet her grandparents and her parents. Inviting her grandparents to visit without her parents’ permission was a bold move for Heppa, and she always feels braver with Alric around. Hopefully her mother will not cause too much of a bother about it. Daddy will smooth it over, she tells herself. She and Alric have exchanged messages by bird over the course of the winter. She already knows he can make arrangements to visit her whenever she would like.
Alric is brave and intelligent and considerate, but he is not really the wilderness type. Even though she gave him a map detailing the route between South Tower and her home, she feels she should escort him along the route, at least for his first visit. She does not want to just disappear without telling anyone, though. To that end, she pays her father a visit and asks whether he has any messages that he would like delivered to Lady Sabine in South Tower. When their further conversation reveals that Heppa will be bringing a human back with her, Thrandolil advises her that her mother may take issue with that. “Oh, and will you also be returning Lady Sabine’s ring to her?” he asks.
Before heading off across Wesnoth, Heppa had asked her father for advice about returning the ring, and yet somehow it is still in her possession. She firmly intends to return it… someday. She just does not want to deal with any unpleasantness around it, such as the complication that the ring seems to still be in its rightful place. And that it might shorten the wielder’s lifespan. “Uh, yes, if she’s available,” Heppa tells her father.
The weather is pleasant for her and Butterbell on their ride to South Tower. Once there, Heppa drops her father’s letter off at the tower gate without making any attempt to return the ruby ring. Then she heads to the Parting Glass. Haskel is still on staff, waiting tables, but she does not see Heledd at all. Much to the dismay of Yggy the cook, the tavern’s former owner Maebl takes the reins at the bar for the week or so Alric will be away.