ashkevarna

"Has she read mine yet?"
"Part of the way through it," said Greta. "She took very many notes."
"Took notes?" he said, sounding enormously pleased. "A natural scholar."
"A very curious and intelligent kid, so — yes, pretty much," she said. "This girl drinks up books the way a desert drinks rain."

— Vivian Shaw, Bitter Waters

"Gimble? Feh!"

Ash was surprised by Kuku's reaction. "You do know about him, then?"

"Bunch of malarkey, if you ask me." Kuku rolled his eyes. "Wouldn't know a rhyme scheme if it bit him in the arse."

"But Kuku, that's just the thing - you would have only heard his work in translation." She began to recite one of the sonnets she had been using for practice. As the Gnomish rolled off her tongue, it took on the sing-song quality of a nonsense rhyme to Kuku's ears.

"All right, I see your point," he conceded when Ash had finished. "But why spend your time on gnomish drivel?"

"Well, most of my lab mates are gnomes, and it's standard practice to annotate engineering schematics in Gnomish, so it seemed like a good idea to me." She tilted her head. "Did you not ever study any other languages?"

"Never saw the need."

"Really? Not even Elvish?"

They were riding side by side, along the road that led home from Baldur's Gate. Kuku glanced around, then cleared his throat. "Tink, what did your father tell you about my role in the conflict that brought him here?"

"That you were the leader of the Kenku resistance fighters," Ash replied proudly.

"Aye, just so." Kuku tilted his head. "Did you think I accomplished that with weapons alone?"

"Well... honestly, I hadn't really given it any thought... and nobody ever seems to want to talk about what the battle was like."

"For good reason." Kuku grimaced. "But you should realize, Miss Artificer, that your dear uncle would have used his own measure of magic in his time. And," he continued, ignoring Ash's exclamation, "amongst the spells I learned was one that gave me understanding of any language I heard. That, plus being able to mimic the phrases being spoken to me, was enough for me to manage our alliance with the Shadar-Kai."

"With my father's army, you mean?"

Kuku snorted. "What makes you think he led the army?"

Ash was embarrassed to realize that she had always just assumed Morril and Kuku had both been in charge of their respective forces. She shrugged.

"I didn't even speak to your da until after he was wounded," Kuku continued. "The other Shadar-Kai who were hurt either had superficial wounds that were easily healed, or perished in the battle. Their leader wanted to return immediately to the Shadowfell, but I asked for your father to be left in our care, and in his haste to be gone, he agreed."

They rode in silence for a while as Ash processed this new information. Then she circled back to the question of Kuku's abilities. "How come I've never seen you do magic?"

"For the same reason I've never seen you use weapons outside of our practice sessions," Kuku replied. "There's been no need."

"So you've only ever used magic in combat?"

"I didn't say that." Kuku sighed. "Tell you what. When we've stopped for the night, I'll cast that Comprehend Languages spell I mentioned, and you can try your gnomish poetry on me again."

"You make it sound like you're preparing for an ordeal."

Kuku smiled at that. "Well, if that's the worst trial I have yet to face, then I'm a lucky bird indeed."