A Land Far Away

Sorting other people's belongings

Betty Chan opened the chest in her room with some hesitation. Only recently, the items in
this chest belonged to her roommate, Luva, who had just recently been allowed back into the
House of Wonders. It seemed that Luva had finally been forgiven for the transgression of
falling for a follower of Shar. It was either that or maybe that transgression was just
being overlooked. Betty never met the follower of Shar apparently named Ikari. Betty knew
that half of the objection to Luva's return had been her mentor,
Cyrus as he felt Luva had been extremely reckless in her love affair and that her love of
this Ikari was against all of the principles of Lady Mystra. After he passed away,
however, those objections seemed to have quieted substantially and Luva and Betty had
begun sharing this room. It had only been a short while.

The last time she had seen Luva, Luva seemed very happy and excited. She told Betty how
she was going to go with her boyfriend, Heriphon, to help some others including the
warrior woman Sheshe vanquish some plague rats in a secret house in the Castle Ward. Apparently
it had been recently discovered by Sheshe and an elf cleric of Hanali named Ariella. Betty had
never met Ariella but she had briefly met Sheshe. Sheshe seemed to be a frightening
woman that enjoyed giving her enemies a beating. Betty knew that Sheshe and Luva had been
roommates at one time when Luva had been kicked out of the House of Wonders some months
back. Sheshe must have had a soft side if Luva lived with her so long, Betty thought.


Now, Luva, Sheshe and several others were dead. Apparently, eight in total went to that place of
unspeakable horror and only the four elven followers of the Seldarine returned. How could
this be? What happened to all those beings that Luva used to call on for assistance? These
were questions that Betty had no one to answer for.

As she sorted through Luva's belongings, she came across a rather heavy pouch with a tag with
the words "for Aelenta". Betty opened the pouch and found some bombs that it appeared that Luva
had crafted for him. Aelenta was the only one who had survived that ordeal
and had bravely rescued the other elves. She did not feel any resentment about this as had
it been 3 Mystrans and 4 others Betty would have done the same in that situation.
Athough Betty would have liked to ask him exactly what happened, she was unsure if she really
wanted to know.

Betty sent a small note to the Temple of Beauty that
read "Hi, Aelenta, it appears that Luva had a pouch of items for you". -Betty

Within a few hours, Aelenta appeared at the House of Wonder. With a small but sad smile,
Betty handed over the heavy pouch. "I'm sorry for your loss" he said as bowed and took the
pouch and left. Betty only nodded a thank you and went back to her chamber to do more sorting
of Luva's things.

Would Luva be able to receive a resurrection if her body was recovered? Would she be too
mutilated to perform such an act? Would there be anything to resurrect? Betty sighed at
her frustration at being such a low-level member of the clergy. She did not even know the
spell to preform and might never learn it at this rate.


Betty sighed deeply. She wondered if this place that Luva had died would be too dangerous
to go to recover her body. At the same time, she could not tolerate the idea of Luva's
body lying in this horrible place with plague rats and apparently sh*t demons. Betty had
only heard of such things and thankfully had never seen one in person. What kind of ungodly
place this must have been? The thought that she might soon see for herself filled her with
a feeling of horror and revulsion.

Betty closed her eyes and prayed, "Lady Mystra guide us through this horrific journey that
we are about to embark on. Please keep all of us safe and let us not suffer the same fate
as those who went and did not come back."

It was supposed to be a mundane trip to the lower sewers to find a shopkeeper. Instead, lying on the ground were 5 people, Mystrans, new converts and friends of the House of Wonder. All of them were within two steps of death's door. Gromrick Runseholder, head mage of The House of Wonder, under the cover of invisibility, reverently opened the scroll that Betty had handed him before the trip began. It was a scroll of teleportation. Within seconds, Gromrick, Betty, Declan and the 5 that were nearly dead were whisked away to the safety of the Adventure's Quarter. Betty, without fear of the unholy creatures of the lower sewers' attack, began tending to the wounded until they were safely back on their feet and taking the next coach back to the House of Wonders to rest and recover.

"Take this scroll, Betty. Do not be afraid to use it in case of an emergency. It will whisk you to the safety of Adventure's Quarter. You can always meet up with the others later." These were the words of her mentor, Cyrus Thelvair, the man she lovingly called "Milehre", Damaran for "my teacher/mentor".

When Betty first came to the House of Wonder, she had been sent there to study under Annovalis (Nova) Starmane to try to focus her mind as a cleric of Mystra. Instead, the first person she met was the Head Mage of the House of Wonder, Cyrus. She had never expected that the Head Mage of the House of Wonder was so young and handsome. She had no idea how this meeting would change the course of her life. Because of him, she became interested in studying magic. It was he who encouraged and instructed her on ways of the Weave with patience and kindness. When she admitted to him that she had somehow disintegrated a pair of healing gloves that Nova had given her, he simply said
"You will make her a new pair of gloves when you have reached that ability to replace them."

On the same day that he had given her the teleportation scroll, Cyrus handed her a beautiful wooden staff with the word "Betty" etched on it. Next to her name was with his unmistakable sigil of a mask with glowing eyes. "I expect that by the time that you have to replenish the magic on this staff that you will be able to do it", he said with a confident smile. "Danke, Milehre" she said as she took the staff and proudly held it with both hands.


Now this beautiful staff and that teleportation scroll were all that she had left of him.

They were supposed to meet the next day after Cyrus gave her these gifts for him to instruct her on how to use the teleport scroll. All she knew was that he had some business to attend to but was going to be back in the afternoon. Noon became night. Hours became days. Betty asked around frantically, but no one seemed to know where he went. No one seemed to bothered except for her that the head mage of the House of Wonder appeared to be missing.

After days of trying to find out what happened to him, a painting saying "Cyrus Thelvair" with two years with a dash in the middle appeared. It was then that she knew he was gone. The picture did not even look like him. It did not capture his handsome face, especially his eyes that always showed a depth and intelligence that were far beyond most people's comprehension. Despite her inquiries, no one seemed to know who delivered the painting or how they knew he had passed away or how he passed away.

With some acolytes and Luva the elven Mystran Sorceress as a witness, Betty collapsed on the floor of the House of Wonder foyer, screaming "Milehre" over and over again while rolling around on the floor.
She was inconsolable.

Somehow, after this, life returned to "normal" at the House of Wonder, no one spoke of Cyrus or bothered to have a memorial service for him.

Now that the teleport scroll had been burned, and Betty had time and quiet to think in her room, it was as if she had been stabbed in the heart again. She could not control herself anymore and began crying uncontrollably remembering her loss.

"Milehre, even in death you saved us."