Crel Merden

(a.k.a. Cathma Selevar)


         Art by Sherlock

First Appearance: Heirs of Mâvarin, Chapter One

Trivia: Crel is distantly related to Shela Cados.

Quote: “Somebody told me a story a few days ago,” Crel said slowly. “It changed the world around me, and I don’t think the effect is ever going to wear off.”

Crel Merden is the 16-year-old twin sister of Del Merden, Rani Fost's best friend. Crel is more responsible than Del when it comes to doing chores or obeying the directives of their Uncle Jamek, the local stablemaster and Liftlabeth's part-time mayor. Even so, she questions authority often, and is forthright and outspoken to a fault. In her own way she is as impulsive as Del, which sometimes gets her into trouble. She's about to have all the trouble she can handle, when Del suddenly leaves home in the company of a tengrem, and Crel learns that "Crel Merden" isn't her real name at all!

 

 Crel's Journal: Entry #1

Comerdu, 6th Day of Dortem, 896 MMY, just before breakfast

I've been saying for years that I ought to start a journal, so today, in honor of our 16th birthday, I'm finally going to do it. I don't promise to write in it every day, but if something interesting happens I'll try to remember to get it on paper.

Maybe I should start by saying something about myself, not for the sake of anyone else who might read this (Del already knows who I am), but so that I can come back to it when I'm older and remember what it was like to be me at this age. My name is Crel Merden. I'm an orphan, but that doesn't matter. I live with my Uncle Jamek and my twin brother, Del. Uncle Jamek is a stablemaster and the part-time mayor of Liftlabeth, about three days south of Thalemar on horseback. Del and I help out in the stables, which makes us apprentice stablemasters, I suppose.

In a few minutes Uncle Jamek will give us our birthday horses. I'll be very surprised if I don't get Molin, and Del is counting on getting Pandar. I won't say he deserves the best horse Uncle Jamek has, but Del needs all the good news he can get today. His best friend, Rani Fost, has been missing since yesterday afternoon. Uncle Jamek thinks a tengrem killed him. I'm not sure that's true, but he definitely didn't come home yesterday, and at least one person was killed where Shela last saw Rani.

More later.

Crel

Crel Rats Out Her Brother
(from Heirs of Mâvarin)

 “You’re in trouble, you know,” Crel said as Del rode up.  Her apron was full of carrots and mud, and she was pulling lettuce as judiciously as if the fate of the kingdom depended on her harvesting the right plants in exactly the right amounts.

“I’m always in trouble,” Del said.  He dismounted and tied Pandar to the hitching post next to the house. 

“You don’t have to sound as if you’re proud of it,” Crel said.  Gathering her apron, she stood up carefully.  “Uncle Jamek was worried.  Where were you?”

Del shrugged and headed for the house.  Voices were coming from inside, Uncle Jamek’s and a woman’s.  Del stopped near the open window to listen.

“...it will be your fault,” Uncle Jamek was saying.

“Were I you, Jamek Barst, I would not be so quick to place blame.”  Del’s whole body twitched in shock at the unexpected sound of Shela’s voice .  What was she doing here, of all places?  “Del is likely to return unharmed,” Shela continued, “but if something should happen to him—”

“Aren’t you coming in, Del?” Crel said loudly at his elbow.

The voices inside stopped, and Del heard the heavy tread of his uncle’s approach.  “You did that on purpose!” Del hissed at her.  Crel smiled as she opened the door.

 Crel's Journal: Entry #2

Sabedu, 7th Day of Dortem, 896 MMY, a little after midnight

Del's gone. He galloped off into the forest tonight on Pandar, along with Shela the selmûn Wanderer and the tengrem that supposedly killed Rani. I'm sure Del had a reason for doing it--not a good reason, maybe, but a reason. It's hard to figure out, though, what that reason could be. The note he left on Uncle Jamek's desk said that he and Shela were going to find Rani and help him. How are they going to do that, when Uncle Jamek and Jord and Bil and Shela and the others already looked everywhere, and found no trace of him except his pocket knife? And why, in Thâle's name, would they keep company with a half-sentient monster? I would have thought that maybe Del and Shela were chasing the tengrem to try to make it tell them where Rani is or what happened to him, but it didn't look like that. The tengrem called to Del, and Del followed it. The tengrem wanted them to accompany it. Why? Did it promise to take them to Rani? If so, why didn't Del pause long enough to tell us that? Instead he just turned and galloped away, as if we were his enemy and the tengrem was his family!

Del's note said that he and Shela would probably be gone for several days, so I'm not surprised that he's not back yet. It's nearly dawn, so he's been gone all night, in dangerous company. Where did they go? Odamas? Thâlemar? Some dark, secret place where the tengrem could kill them without the bodies ever being found?

If Del gets himself killed, I'll never speak to him again.

Crel Merden

(not Cathma Selevar)

First Appearance: Mages of Mâvarin, Chapter Eleven

Trivia: Crel is involved in the Mâ-na-Mâ underground resistance movement.

Quote: “My memory’s fine. It’s reality that’s all messed up.”

The otherworld Crel Merden is the 16-year-old twin sister of Del Merden, and Rani Lunder's ex-girlfriend. Crel shares Cathma's keen sense of right and wrong. She refuses to pose as Cathma, even if it means incarceration. 


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Introduction and Sample Scene from Heirs of Mâvarin

Introduction and Sample Scene from Mages of Mâvarin

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