Sanctuary : Memories and Webs (2)
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 2:03 pm
Tel sat in the corner of the inn, shadows cast by the flickering, dancing lights making her features shift as she gently rocked her child to sleep. She cast her eyes about the interior, a red light skitting past catching them, and for an instant they flashed with its reflected colour, a window to her soul.
She absently rested her finger in the childs palm, smiling slightly as she felt her daughter squeeze her tiny hand around it, she looked down into her eyes and remembered.
******
Fire, Bellows and roars. Four elves and a dragon. Sun, Moon, Wood and Drow.
Arrows fly, piercing the beasts scaly hide. It charges with a roar to tear the soul from the elven bodies in fear.
Sun to the front of the wyrm,Moon and Wood to his flanks...Drow to the rear, she watches, waits, strikes...leaping high onto his back as Sun severs its throat with a fell strike...
******
She smiled, a soft chuckle escaping her lips as she tickled the childs chin. She did not even notice the guarded looks cast her way from the bar, or the way the music seemed subdued, unsure...she remembered...
******
Ice..Ice and snow and wind bites into her cheeks, her pack digging into her shoulders and her wolf fur cloak whipping free across her back. Wolves howl.
This was not the maidens place...could not be...all her devotion, her effort, and she was nothing more than another blade here...Ignored, sidelined, cut off form the outside world.
A single tear runs down her cheek.
The moonlight plays across the tundra, she looks up to her brilliance.
Forgive me. This is not the place for me goddess...forgive me...
She turns away, her back to the moon, and without looking back dissapears into the black shadows of the cold night
******
The elf sweeping the floor did not notice her still sitting in the corner, or chose not to, she no longer cared. The cup of wine she had bought hours before sat untouched by her side. The sounds of the night drifted in from the street, Hawkers trying to sell their last wares, a dog barking, the screeching of two cats mating. None of it registered on Tel. She remembered.
******
The cave is cold, damp. It runs deep into the earth, she has already checked. A full half day and still the tunnels wound down and down into the dark.
The pool she uses to bathe lies frigid by her, the fire she has just cooked a joint of vension on dies down and shadows creep in from the night out side. An owls calls its hunting cry across Cormanthor.
How long since she has seen the Bardess...or the Paladin. Two cycles, nearly three. Alone.
Hate is all these fools know. Hate fighting hate in a cycle of destruction. They could not see, the time of the elves was past. But they could not see, and the lessons of the past were lost in blood, fire and death.
She lays aside her protective charms, and dons her armour for the last time. Taking the shield from the dragons hoard, her moonsword...she turns the ring the monk gave her on her finger.
All was lost, love was lost. She steps out into the night to her last dance...
******
Tel looked down to her child, it was time to leave. She gently, soothingly stroked the childs hair from her forehead and kissed it once.
Three things Kestal, there are three things I love and love me in return...you, Aszune and Eilistraee...the rest..it is shadows and lies
Tel took love, and trust. She forced it into a place it had lain hidden for so long...away from her. It frightened her how easy it was, it frightened her more how good it felt
******
At the back of Arzit'els mind, the spider that had lain dormant for six years began to spin its web once again
She absently rested her finger in the childs palm, smiling slightly as she felt her daughter squeeze her tiny hand around it, she looked down into her eyes and remembered.
******
Fire, Bellows and roars. Four elves and a dragon. Sun, Moon, Wood and Drow.
Arrows fly, piercing the beasts scaly hide. It charges with a roar to tear the soul from the elven bodies in fear.
Sun to the front of the wyrm,Moon and Wood to his flanks...Drow to the rear, she watches, waits, strikes...leaping high onto his back as Sun severs its throat with a fell strike...
******
She smiled, a soft chuckle escaping her lips as she tickled the childs chin. She did not even notice the guarded looks cast her way from the bar, or the way the music seemed subdued, unsure...she remembered...
******
Ice..Ice and snow and wind bites into her cheeks, her pack digging into her shoulders and her wolf fur cloak whipping free across her back. Wolves howl.
This was not the maidens place...could not be...all her devotion, her effort, and she was nothing more than another blade here...Ignored, sidelined, cut off form the outside world.
A single tear runs down her cheek.
The moonlight plays across the tundra, she looks up to her brilliance.
Forgive me. This is not the place for me goddess...forgive me...
She turns away, her back to the moon, and without looking back dissapears into the black shadows of the cold night
******
The elf sweeping the floor did not notice her still sitting in the corner, or chose not to, she no longer cared. The cup of wine she had bought hours before sat untouched by her side. The sounds of the night drifted in from the street, Hawkers trying to sell their last wares, a dog barking, the screeching of two cats mating. None of it registered on Tel. She remembered.
******
The cave is cold, damp. It runs deep into the earth, she has already checked. A full half day and still the tunnels wound down and down into the dark.
The pool she uses to bathe lies frigid by her, the fire she has just cooked a joint of vension on dies down and shadows creep in from the night out side. An owls calls its hunting cry across Cormanthor.
How long since she has seen the Bardess...or the Paladin. Two cycles, nearly three. Alone.
Hate is all these fools know. Hate fighting hate in a cycle of destruction. They could not see, the time of the elves was past. But they could not see, and the lessons of the past were lost in blood, fire and death.
She lays aside her protective charms, and dons her armour for the last time. Taking the shield from the dragons hoard, her moonsword...she turns the ring the monk gave her on her finger.
All was lost, love was lost. She steps out into the night to her last dance...
******
Tel looked down to her child, it was time to leave. She gently, soothingly stroked the childs hair from her forehead and kissed it once.
Three things Kestal, there are three things I love and love me in return...you, Aszune and Eilistraee...the rest..it is shadows and lies
Tel took love, and trust. She forced it into a place it had lain hidden for so long...away from her. It frightened her how easy it was, it frightened her more how good it felt
******
At the back of Arzit'els mind, the spider that had lain dormant for six years began to spin its web once again
