The Flame

[Mizbiz]

Oh, gods, gods, Glorfindel is dead. Nicha had gotten word to me. All of us in Daggersprings who's lives he had touched, myself, Velyn, Rose, Alendir all mourned in our own way. Velyn's had moved me the most. He had gone off; taken his dagger, sacred to Fenmarel Mestarine, and sliced his own palm. "Blood for a brother..." His dark blue eyes darkened to black reflecting his mood.

We made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Kelemvor. For Glorfindel's beloved Nicha's sake as much as for anything else. She had come there with me after Arakiel died. Now I knelt and prayed for her love as she had for mine. Arvandor is richer for gaining Glorfindel, and the realms poorer. Another old friend, another loss; each one taking another piece of myself. Each death though, made me that much more determined to live life to the full. To balance the deaths with life. Sadness with happiness.

Alendir, Rose, Velyn and I huddled around the fire in the middle of Daggersprings, trying to find warmth after such chilling news. I heard footsteps, someone approached, the fire illuminated his face.

Kemeras.

"Good to see you again, Brother of the wood" Alendir said. Velyn gritted his teeth, and Kemeras? Kemeras smiled at me. The nerve, when I could barely stand to look at him without screaming. "Not his fault", my brain kept repeating to itself. This was going to take some time, getting used to seeing him in the flesh, rather than my nightmares. Grasping Velyn's hand I forced myself to be cordial. "Are you feeling better, Kemeras?" Yes, he replied he had been meditating.

I could sense it was time for the small talk.

We mentioned a giant we had seen on the road. "Giants!" he said, "I have seen, they are a plague in the Earthspur mountains, but I have never faced one in battle, it's been along while since I fought..." I looked Kemeras over, that I could believe. He was emaciated...nothing like the skilled fighter and trapper I rememered. Velyn's fingers twitched. How hard this was on him! Kemeras mentioned the Brotherhood of the Yellow Rose, who had found him. He then changed the subject, and I did not press. Alendir, Kemeras and I spoke of times we had spent before, avoiding the obvious, painful subjects. Eventually, though, they could be ignored no longer. Realizing this, my love held my hand in a grip almost painful.

"You had more questions, I am sure, Kemeras."

"Aye" he responed "I do about Keriwen but if this is not a good time I can wait." A good time, when in the hells would be a good time? I again saw the flame in Kemeras' eyes during the ritual. A flame kindled in my womb. Alendir had to go, time for his reverie. Rose sat near me looking attentive. Velyn whispered in my ear, "<e>May as well get it over with if you want to now." I whispered back "<e> I want you here with me." His eyes held mine. "<e> I am not going anywhere." I turned and faced Kemeras. "Ask what you will". He nodded. "Aye then I need to ask...where is she and is she safe?"

Safe, Keriwen?

The only way I was going to get through this was to just face her pain, my pain, Arakiel's pain. Now it would be Kemeras' pain as well. The darker part of me was glad for this. Time for him to suffer. He has suffered, I admonished myself...has he not suffered enough? Regardless, it was time for more. "I may as well tell you the worst first".

Deep breath.

"Arakiel and I were married when she was three winters. He never left us once he found out I was pregnant, and we fell in love before Keriwen was born. It had taken us that long to fulfill the dwarven courtship rituals". Kemeras traced his fingers in the dirt. "Arakiel was a great man, I am saddened by his loss and yours". I carried on "Keriwen of course, knew Arakiel was not her actual father, she called him Arkie. He was such a doting father, writing her lullabys and playing with her". Kemeras and Rose smiled at this. Velyn's face did not change. Kemeras said "I owe him so much, he and Babras" Damn right, I thought. "Keriwen knew nothing but love from him, from myself, and my foster father, Babras. In fact, Babras called Keriwen 'Haluar', which is dwarven for 'gift'."

Gift. Babras' love was the gift.

"As you may have surmised, Keriwen was not born a hybsil, as Mother Manara thought she would be." Kemeras nodded. "When I asked Manara why, she said that my spirit overcame the Stags, so that Keri looked elven." I did not mention the third possibility, that instead of hybsil, or elf, that because of the poison of the spider spirit Ananasi, I could have birthed a spider. Velyn knew this, for I had shared my relief about her birth in reverie. Arakiel had known, as had Babras, about the spider. Both had said they would stand by me no matter what. If I had to face the horror of a spider, I do not know if there would have been a me for them to stand beside. The muscles in my jaws ached with holding my expression in place. "Back to the bad." I said. Rose's face fell at this.

"Not long after we were married, Alendir, Arakiel, and I recieved word from Tangled Trees that a young druid had been taken by the drow." Here again, Velyn's fingers twitched, longing to grasp his dagger. I squeezed his hand again. "We jouneyed to the Vale of Lost Voices to help." Kemeras' eyes narrowed as he listened intently. "Because of foolishness and a bard, Arakiel and I were made prisoner, and Alendir slain. Our friends found a cleric to restore his life. When the drow found out I was an Ironstar, and Arakiel my mate, they decided to hold us for ransom. We were thrown in a dungeon." Kemeras nodded. "I can understand why" he said "the Ironstar clan is a thorn in the drow sides". My hand shook in Velyn's, he covered it with his bandaged left one.

"While we were held, the drow in Daggerdale struck"

"Oh my" breathed Rose. "As one they struck White Chalk Hollow, Daggerfalls, and Daggersprings." I went on "they took the High Priestess of Chauntea in White Chalk Hollow and killed her. The same with the High Priestess of Lathander in Daggerfalls. My father Babras and Hignar lead the counter attack there" Kemaras mouth fell open in shock "By Mielikki..." was all he could say. Rose had covered her eyes. "They killed a vrock, and the drow drew off. By that time, Babras heard that Daggersprings was under attack as well." I looked about at the villiage. "Here, they dragged Mother Manara into her own garden and killed her. I am told by a witness that she called upon Chauntea to forgive her killers. The first group faded away."

"Then the drow assassin Kylara'anon appeared and demanded that Keriwen be brought forth".

Kemeras shook his head with a look of horror on his face and gasped out our daughters name, "Keriwen..." I pictured the guardian of the shrine, so big and strong, like the bears he raised. "Valencian, who had been defending the children refused. Kylara put out one of his eyes." Rose's head fell. "Keriwen, seeing that, and what had happened to Manara, said she would go if Kylara'anon would stop hurting the others." Shuddering, I held on to Velyn, as Kemeras emotions played across his face. "Such courage..." he gasped. Velyn wrapped his arms around me, supporting me with his body, his heart.

"Babras arrived moments too late, the villagers told him what happened to his granddaughter". Feeling my need, knowing what was coming next, Velyn kissed my cheek. "Babras had been studying the ways of Kylara'anon for a long time. He knew where she was going. On the banks of an underground river he found them. Keriwen crept off to the side as these two old adversaries came to grips.

The conclusion, though was foregone".

Rose looked up and said "Who won"? "Babras had already been sorely wounded, and now Kylara'anon's poisoned dagger found gaps in his armor. He knew he was dying. Babras threw the mace of the Ironstars to Kerwien. 'Get this back to the clan, Haluar. I love ye' he said. With his dying strength and a prayer to Claggeddin, he wrapped the assassin in his mithril encased arms and dove into the river, carrying both he and the drow to their deaths". Tears rolling down my cheeks, I had to pause, oh Da, I miss you so. Thank you for your love, your sacrifice."Keriwen made it to the Ironstar Halls. Once I was ransomed by the clan that is where I found her. She had told the clan what happened to it's greatest hero". My child's eyes, so large so full of hurt as she told me of Babras' ending. I gave her a chunk of mithril my father had given me once, as a symbol of his strength. Tears leaking from his eyes, Kemeras pumped his fist in the air. "By Mielikki, Babras was one of the great ones", he exclaimed. "Kemeras, do you know how old Keriwen was when all of this happened to her?" Sobering, he said "Nay, but she must have been very young..."

"Three winters".

Rose wiped her tears on her sleeve. I did not bother, let them come. "That would have been very hard on a child of her years" was Kemeras' insight. Oh really? You think so? my mind screamed. Velyn, again sensing my mood, my need, kissed my cheek, calming me. "It was" I plowed on. "We showed her more love than ever, Arakiel and I, to make up for it. Then, her druid gifts begain to show themselves. First, it was calling light, then calling animals. She could do this from enormous distances. She had a giant scorpion named 'Mr. Grabby' obviouslly from the desert. He liked to hide in Arakiel's boot". "That is a great distance", Kemeras smiled. Rose laughed as she got the joke. "Finally, Keriwen settled on a giant lizard. A huge male that she named Spike. She still has him. Again things were happy. We had some peacefull years, and Arakiel and I decided to add to the family. When I became pregnant, I knew I carried twins. But this attracted the attention of people. The wrong sort of people.

Malarites."

Kemeras frowned deeply, turned his head to the side and spat on the ground. "One Malarite in particular" I continued as Rose winced. "A man who had decimated the Shadoweir of the High Forest. A survivor of the High Hunt who as his boon for surviving, asked to serve Malar with power. His name was Fang Wolfsbane. Knowing the code of the Malarites, that they would hunt no child, nor breeding woman, he used this to his advantage. With me Fang would leave messages for Alendir, for Sulak. Arakiel's messages he left with Keriwen. She tried to attack him once, and he knocked her unconcious. Fang's message was this. That the Bloodmoon was coming, the time of the High Hunt was approaching, and he had selected his prey....One of the males of our Fellowship."

"By this time I was seventeen months pregnant and could do nothing. The moment I raised a weapon I would become fair game. While I was willing to risk my own life, what of the twins sleeping inside me?" Kemeras again spat as if to clear a bad taste from him mouth, saying, "Malarites are fools and a sin against Mielikki....no, you did the right thing. The protection of the young is far too important." Now would come the hard part. "The night of the Bloodmoon came, and Daggersprings was besieged by creatures of Malar; werewolves lesser and greater, Malar panthers, Malar stalkers, these horrible shape changing spiders..." even with Velyn's arms around me, I shudder at the memory. "Ooo...am I glad we collapsed their cave" Rose moaned. Kemeras nodded and said "Sweet Mielikki, what a nightmare that must have been". No Kemeras, the nightmare is coming...wait a bit it gets much worse. Pushing on again, though my throat keeps trying to close up, "The males of the Fellowship, our sister in Rillifane Ahleera, and Dain the dwarf kept fighting them off, but the beasts came in waves. During the fighting, one of the males was lured away and taken. Alendir was to be the prey."

"I thought Ahleera, his beloved at the time would go mad with the rage of it." Rose nodded "Understandable". Kemeras nodded. I looked Velyn in the eyes, his blue, blue, eyes trying to draw upon our love, for to relate what happened next, I would have to need all of his support. "All I could do was heal. Finally, I was drained, my strength was gone. Keriwen was there, I wanted to get her to safety. A huge werewolf blocked our path, she then did something I had no idea she could do. Though only seven winters old, she raised her hands to the skies and called down the lightning." Kemeras' jaw dropped. Stunned, he managed to gasp out, "At only seven winters?" I sagged into Velyn's arms, he kissed me again...go on, you can do it, he all but said. Choking up again, I said "Keriwen's lightning killed the werewolf but there were villiagers nearby who were struck too. Keriwen saw what she did, screamed, and ran off." My voice was tiny, fading now "I ran after her, but could not find her...druids are so hard to track." Rose looked completely stunned. Kemeras tried to deny it. "No" he said "No.....

The burdens she must carry."

"The burdens we ALL carry!" my mind shouted at him. My voice had failed. I willed it back into usage, "Alendir survived the High Hunt. The boon he asked was that the Malarites leave Daggerdale for good, or at least for his lifetime. He is an amazing druid, Kemeras. Later that night, a fey came to me. A satyr. He told me that the 'Silvanitrix' which is what they call Keriwen, had gone to live with her fathers people. He meant the Stag of course. Keriwen had sought refuge with the fey." Kemeras was crying now, tears flowing freely down his cheeks. I have cried many times with the grief of this incident, it is about time he did. Again, I forced my thoughts away from such thinking. Not his fault. Rose was just awed "Blessed be" she said. Blessed? To have killed the innocent at such an innocent age? I dragged my thoughts back to the past. "Out of loyatly to me", I said "the fey would tell me how Keriwen fared. But out of loyalty to her, they would not tell me where." Kemeras found his own voice, "Is she well"? Well, a relative term, I suppose. Rose cried out "Has she never seen her brother and sister"? "Not to my knowlege, Rose, no. The twins were born the day after Keriwen ran away".

Kemeras had stopped crying. He asked sensible questions "Can she come? Have you seen her since"? Time to rip open another old wound. "The first of us she sought out was Arakiel. She was still to ashamed to talk to me. She was scarred, he told me. As if she had seen much battle. Keriwen told Arakiel that she had defeated an insane dryad, and had one object she wanted to ask me about" unconciously, I fingered the runestone Keri had given Arakiel. "She gave him the stone in question. Also she gave him a green saphire. Told him that it reminded her of my eyes. As Keriwen said farewell to him. for the first time in her life she called him 'father'....." a sob welled up in my throat, escaped...

"That was the last time Arakiel saw Keriwen."

Velyn, dear love, held me in a tight embrace. Again, I drew strength from him. Rose looked upset at my tears, but I could not help them. "Not long after Arakiel's death she sought me out. She gave me her love and condolences, asked my pardon for not coming to his memorial, there were too many people there for her". I looked up at Velyn. "Myr was with me. She said we would meet again." Now my gaze fixed on Keriwen's blood father. Blood, not spirit. "Kemeras, the older she gets, the less she looks like us, and more like one of the fey. For so she is". Rose, almost as if to herself, said "Nearly four years since that". Kemeras nodded and looked thoughtful, "Well," he said "I hope that she is still well, and that I have the honor of meeting her". "Oh, she is well" I replied "The elf you met the other night, Kermeras, Maielchyr. Keriwen led him to Daggersprings." Sighing, he nodded again. "We were used Arien, but not poorly, not poorly at all". Kemeras managed a smile. "We were just the clay the gods used to mold her out of". Clay? I rethought. More like the tinder and flint used to spark the flame that is Keriwen. For Keriwen is a spirit of fire.

Like her mother.

-Arien






*EDIT*-spelling errors and such. I was writing at five in the morning.

[Mizbiz]

Velyn's point of view:

We return to your regularly scheduled lengthy posts another day, but not this day...





Velyn was silent as ever. Kemeras again. Arien and he had decided to just get it over with, and she was relating the story of Keriwen's life to Kemeras. Velyn had nothing to say, so he sat with her, arms around her in comfort, listening to a more detailed version of the story he had heard before.

"One thing I want to tell you privately before you go, Kemeras." Velyn stood up and walked away from the fire, motioning for the half-elf to follow. He looked around a bit to make sure none were close enough to overhear.

"She explained the ritual to me, and I know it was not your fault. She also forgave you, so I'm willing to let it lie," he whispered.

Kemeras sighed with relief. "My thanks Velyn, it was drawing heavy on my heart."

Velyn interrupted him. "However." His eyes grew hard and he stared at Kemeras. "If you ever hurt her again, you will never see me coming, and no one will ever find your body."

[Misty]

WOW


Wow... powerful.



Well done, Miz

[Mord]

Splendid stuff

[Mikayla]

Fantastic and moving Miz.

[Ghost]

very nicely written

[Mizbiz]

Thanks Mikayla, coming from you that means alot.

I want everyone who reads this story to note that Mikayla was the DM of the drow in Daggerdale. The invasion of the drow was hers, as was half drow/half fiend assassin Kylara'anon. This was probably Mikayla's favorite NPC, but when Squamatus as Babras rolled a 20 trying to kill her drow with his dying strength, she went ahead, bit the bullet, and let her NPC go in what was probably the best NPC death in afla ever. It was a very Holmes/Moriarty moment.

Mikayla then turned around and played Arien's daughter Keriwen, when Arien found her child in the Halls. She played Keriwen's grief so perfectly and delicately that I almost washed my keyboard away crying. The most complete reversal of character perspective I have ever seen a DM make.

Frankly, Mikayla wrote a huge part of this story with her amazing RP talent.

Thank you, Mik.

-MizBiz

[Grand Fromage]

Cheese approves!

[Killthorne]

Arrrrr... .such good writin'... makin' me forget about...Main Forums... and .. n00bs.. want to.. .log in....




I love ya' Miz. Each moment I get to roleplay with ya', is 99.34% a treat ( .66% when Arien is moody and down on herself... cause then I get moody )...

It's been such a blast DMing for you all lately on DD.


~Killthorne~

[Grand Fromage]

I love ya' Miz. Each moment I get to roleplay with ya', is 99.34% a treat ( .66% when Arien is moody and down on herself... cause then I get moody )...

But then you get to watch Velyn make an ass of himself in a desperate attempt to cheer her up.

[Burt]

Wowsa!

[wvincenti]

Beautiful work Miz!
Ye made both me and Andrea cry.

*sighs*

I've got to collect some of Glor's memories scattered as they are.
That week of Arakiel & Arien's wedding was some of the most intense RP I've had in ALFA even now. Who needs xp? I lost sleep, not from being in game too long, I was too stressed out from the RP.
That was amazing.

*shivers slightly*

-Bill

[Mikayla]

I do not know what to write really, other than thank you for all those kind words Miz. Its been a privilege to play with you all.

[McJoker]

Likewise, Miz...love it!

For those that don't know, that story played out through at least 4 HDMs, with many ADMs assisting, over quite a time period. From playing Arien's first love (OOC, after our previous characters were simultaneously...slaughtered...lol), to playing many of her antagonists (some more antagonizing than others), and catching up on what happened after I took my (long) hiatus from ALFA.

The whole lot of the players and DMs involved in this particular extended storyline shows what is possible, especially when you have players that are so motivating and wonderful to RP with!

My hat goes off to all involved: Memneth, Esiovm, Mikayla, Squamatus, Biz, Killthorne, Miles, Twiggy, GF, and many others, whose names I currently can't think of (and for that I apologize), but most of all to Miz...for all she has done and inspired people to do.