Evensong IX: The Mouth of Song

[Killthorne]

I was weary. The journey to Silverymoon through the night, the early morning of judgment, my meandering throughout the day of Silverymoon had nearly but all spent my waking energy, and my body and mind became sluggish. I sighed as my feet slowed to a stop in what was known as the Goodman's District.

" I need reverie," I muttered softly to myself as I sat near the large expanse of water that seperated Silverymoon into two parts. Off in the distance, I noticed a massive bridge spanning it's two halves, a giant smooth arc of eloquent design. There was no end to the wonders around me, and my mind could still not shake the thoughts of being enchanted in some form of dream.

I tilted my head slightly, as I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. It felt as if I were being watched, but gave it no second thought given that anyone from a window would indeed be observing my prescence. I leaned forward, resting my elbows upon my knees, and pondered as to where I could take meditation and renew myself. Would an innkeeper tolerate one of my kind for a few hours rest, or would I be unwelcome, as the man behind the desk earlier had informed?

" The treeless hill in the Moonwood." A soft, effeminate voice whispered from behind me suddenly. I turned my head to look, my tired body reacting a way that was less than efficient in speed. The glimpse of a body rounding a corner to a nearby building was all I had noticed. I turned my head back around to the water and arose, brushing myself off, looking about the streets. Gone. I frowned as my instincts went off like an alarm in my head, as did my sudden curiousity of wishing to know more. The reserves of my will and body's strength suddenly kicked in, fear and further intrigue driving me on. I would learn of this treeless hill, and be ready for a possible ambush, all for knowledge's sake.

I paced slowly back towards the Hunter's Gate that led to the north and the forest known as the Moonwood. As I made way through the Goodman's district, a human man, scrawny, impoverished and wearing little but rags, spoke to me as I passed.

" Spare a coin?" The man asked of me. I stopped to regard him even more. What a strange surface world it was, where humans asked ilythirri for coin. My memory took me back to one little human girl in a town along the long road that brought me to the Silver Marches. She proclaimed her hunger and I left her some of my rations. It was one of my Goddess' tenets to aid those in distress and I would see to that. I reached into my coinpurse.

" I suppose." I told him as I nodded to him slowly, observing his reaction. I held out several coins, and the man took them. I smiled at him, feeling good about doing what I could to aid this man.

" Yes, I knew you would." The man stated. Suddenly I was taken back. Was this beggar a diviner, or someone who could read into one's souls with but a glance?

" You knew I would?" I inquired, a look of surprise most likely revealed in my expression.

" The spider's web always breaks in time, does it not? Despite how strong it is." He claimed as if he knew what I had been raised to believe and what I had come to be, and I was utterly speechless for a moment.

" Yes." I nodded to him, as I was at a loss of words to the truth my heart knew for itself. I regarded him once more, and turned to continue on my mission. " Farewell to you... and better fortune."

I passed through the Hunter's Gate and dropped my pack to the ground, and began to pull out the contents I had needed. I dressed myself in my leathers, hooking my weaponry to their straps, and at last donning my veiled helmet. Once again, I was to travel into the unknown, and to regard myself in territory that would prove fatal, only this time, at the behest of a stranger's message. I was taking a serious risk, but I had to know what this was all for. I could not afford to not know by not taking chances on occasion. After all, this whole journey was a terrible risk that brought me to Silverymoon, a place that I could have never imagined would tolerate my kind at all.

The forest before me loomed ahead. I went north, passing several farms, and even one that had succumbed to the possible foretelling of future war in this land. Knights from the city kept vigil at the ruins, perhaps investigating as to why it had been completely destroyed. I sighed, as I knew the conflict was looming on the horizon, and I did not truly know the measure of power that these enemies, the Netherese, could wield against the people of the Silver Marches. I would do my best though to help where I could, so I swore to the Goddess.

The Moonwood swallowed me under it's canopy of leaves and wild flora as I searched for this treeless hill. Night arrived finally, my vision in the dark allowing me better perception, my wariness of the situation and environment about me, keeping my legs from slowing. I withdrew the longbow at my back and nocked an arrow in the string, praying that I would not run into any wild beasts.

In the distance, the baying and howling of wolves resounded all around. The further I went, their volume and number increased, as did the gnarled thickets and trees, all of which sent chills through me. Still no sign of a treeless hill and I felt as if I were being lured into a dangerous trap I could not escape despite my own clever plans and subtle tricks. Fear played out scenarios in my mind. The stranger could have been trying to lure me out here to be killed by beast or mob. I stopped then, in my tracks and pulled my holy pendant from the inside of my leathers and held fast to it.

" Please tell me Dark Maiden," I prayed in a soft whisper, closing my eyes briefly to the world around me," this is no trick." I opened my eyes to the forest and pulled my helmet off from my head, scanning for the treeless hill, the sounds of wolves and whatever else this forest's night produced, engulfing me with the dreaded feeling of possibly being lost. I could see no hill, as the trees' leaves and branches seemed to interlock in the distance, quelling the chance of spotting anything far and away. I stood there for a time, not knowing where I should head, what I should do.

" You wanted no caverns and tunnels," I muttered softly, admitting my desires, smiling uneasily to diminish the fear," this is it..." I looked to the east, and wondered if that was the right way, as the north seemed to only gain me a closer audience to the wolves.

" You look lost," a voice female, and in espruar, said from behind me. I turned startled, to see a female ilythirr dressed in black garb, wielding a silvered rapier. My muscles tensed slightly, my eyes darting about us both cautiously and briefly, for anymore possibly waiting in hiding to ambush me. But then again, she spoke with the dialect of the surface elves. My tension faded slightly but not completely.

" A little yes." I admitted to her in the same tongue of our surface cousins. This was it, I thought. This would be my end, or she would truly be here to aid me. I looked to her sword and back to her eyes. " I mean you no harm."

" She did speak to me." The female smiled softly, speaking ominously of whomever. She lowered her eyes to the sword in her hand and back to me. " I mean you none, but there are werewolves in this wood."

" Werewolves," I asked softly, glancing about me briefly again for signs of trickery," What are those?"

" Cursed beasts." She responded quietly, looking about the area. " They turn into wolves and attack all they see." She looked at me with a solemn expression, her voice still low. " And they can turn you into one of them as well."

" I see." I felt a dry lump in my throat rising and the one question I needed to be answered, sliding to the tip of my tongue. I swallowed at the lump. I looked at her curiously, still keeping the volume of my voice above a whisper. " Do you serve the Dark Maiden?" I tensed again, my hands sweating inside my gloves at the grip of my bow, hoping for the best and expecting the worse.

" She sent me to find you." She smiled at me warmly again, and I smiled back, though even more puzzled. Was she speaking of Eilistraee herself? Was our Goddess that involved in our people? The thoughts of such eased my mind about the female before me, but questions abound my cognition. She turned her head from me as a wolf a few leagues to the north howled at length. " You are travelling dangerously close to the wolves. Come, we are this way." I nodded to her, as more wolves howled not so far from our position.

She turned back to the south somewhat, and walked on, stepping gently on the grasses and leaves, barely making sound, her garb providing excellent camoflage on blending in with the lengthy shadows cast by the trees bathed in moonlight. I followed suit, stepping like her, mirroring her path and methods the entire way.

Several leagues from where she found me was the hill I sought. I looked up the hill's ridged side, that seemed to smooth out as it grew in height, and viewed that indeed, it was treeless. The hill's size was larger than I imagined, as well, as I could not even see the top. The female stopped, and turned to me, taking notice of my observation.

" Here the wolves and the spider-kissers can not get to us, " the female inclined her head to gaze up the hill, gesturing. I looked to her, realizing she was truly not a yathrin of Lolth, and smiled. I turned to regard the hill once more and pondered how such things could not get on top of the hill, but shrugged it off for the time being. She led me up atop a few ridges, along a narrow path that seemed to be the most efficient way of getting above. My legs strained from nearly a whole day and a half of travel against the incline, but yet my heart and mind could not let my body fail me and pushed me onwards.

The apex of the hill stood high above the forest floor, covered in various flowers and plants, and a circle of standing stones surrounding a center one. I looked out upon the Moonwood from the heights and felt the simplest form of liberation, the deepest comfortability in belonging where I stood.

" Quite a view," I admitted to the female, smiling brightly at the tops of trees spanning for leagues on end, and the faint light of Silverymoon off to the distance. I felt her eyes on me for a moment then follow my gaze outwards.

" The magic let you in," she stated earnestly," that's the first step." I smiled from the corner of my mouth and felt humbled by her words. Another one to know of my heart.

" What is this place?" I asked, realizing there had to be a reference to this hill.

" We call it the Mouth of Song." She answered. I let my eyes slowly wander the whole of the large, grassy dome that was about my feet, and felt my heart crying out to the world from this height, of my being. Tears welled in my eyelids and I rubbed at them with my fingers, trying to keep my composure, my lack of rest contributing greatly to my sudden tenderness.

" This is much different than the Promenade." I stated to the female still reeling with happiness much like the joy of being on the streets of Silverymoon. I nodded to her to affirm what I said, laughing softly at the vast differences of urban below and rural above settings between the Mouth of Song and the Promenade.

" I haven't been there. It's real?" She inquired.

I nodded once. " High Priestess Qilue Veladorn still oversees operations there. She... recommended I come to Silverymoon. "

" It is hard to tell sometimes." She resigned her voice softly in response. I nodded to her again, knowing that much conflict has kept Qilue from travelling as much as she would like to.

" The place is beset by much." I told her, to make sure that this female believed there was a reason.

" Here probably isn't much safer these days." She looked at me serious.

I nodded to her with agreement. " No, I have heard of these threats. I have come to aid in whatever ways I can."

Her eyes trailed to the east. " For now, the war is far from us. You should worry about learning this place before worrying about that."

" I am very foreign to all this," I admitted, staring at her momentarily then out towards the east and the forest, smiling to myself with thoughts of service to the ilythirri here and the people of the Silver Marches," but, this feels right. Whatever you need." My last sentance I made clear for her to understand my intent and I bowed my head to her.

" You should see the temple. " She regarded me then suddenly with her brow raised. " Need of you?"

" Temple?" I said nearly at the same time as she questioned me. I smiled and nodded my head. " I am in service of the Maiden."

She laughed, which struck odd to me, but cleared up why," There is no one in charge here. Come."

" Oh." How odd, I thought. No one in charge? No one to give orders or command others to do this and that? Though I had never experienced such ways of handling an organization or group, and it seemed a bit foolish at first thought, it felt extremely liberating.

She walked further on and led me inside a small tunnel, where a cavern lit by candles, laid all over. The soft illuminescence from the candles did much to apply serenity. I took a deep breath, noticing a small shrine to Eilistraee to the side. Again, my emotive side of myself was breaking through outwards, and I smiled as tears of overwhelming happiness tried to roll down my cheeks.

" I.. I am at a loss of words." I shook my head, still praying that the last day and a half was not a dream.

" Then don't use any." The female advised, and I smiled to her brightly, overshadowing my weary, easily invoked sensitivities.

" Thank you sister." I bowed to her of her wisdom.

" Do you want to stay here?" She asked of me. I took regard of my surroundings, subconsciously nodding subtly at first while my eyes scanned the cavern, and then willingly and directly at her.

" Yes."

" Mmm.. you might not thank me so much once you see the cots we have." She flashed a grin and walked towards a corridor that forked left and right, and I snickered softly. At this point, I did not care. If I did not take to reverie soon, I would end up falling over.

" I would rest on a bed of knives at this point." I exclaimed.

" We don't have any of those here." She traded back her banter. Her path stopped at the end of the corridor before a thick burlap curtain. " No one is staying here." She drew the curtain open and revealed a small cave, complete with a cot and a candelabra. A simple dwelling and it was all I needed.

" This is perfect." I nodded once firmly to the female. " And this cot is not so bad." I looked down at the basic cot, and smiled with approval.

" I am Vierna, "she continued, " if I didn't state it before... my cave is on the other end of the passage. There are others too, when they get back."

I looked to her and realized we had not yet introduced ourselves yet. " I am Orthea'xiad. Formerly known as the one known as Gryndal." I don't know why I wished to tell her my birth name, but the truth was easy to fall from my lips at this point. " But.. I wish to absolve that former life." I looked at the cot longingly, as my eyelids began to weigh heavy.

" Don't worry. That life matters not here." She affirmed to me, perhaps appreciative that I spoke what I had.

Tiredly, I nodded. " It is a pleasure and honor to meet you Vierna."

" Another day I will show you the wood around here, when the sun is up, so the wolves will stay away."

" Very well." My brow creased slightly. " If you do not mind, I should take reverie. It has been too long." I smiled at her, speaking politely as best I could.

She nodded to me once. " I am going back to my reverie too. Good night."

I returned her nod with my own. " Good night." I responded as she left the room, closing the curtain behind her. I sat depleted of energy on the cot, my defenses of normally being coolheaded worn away, allowing tears to form along my eyes. " I am blessed." I whispered in admittance.

I struggled at length with the unequipping of my weapons and armor, each object obstructing any sort of relaxed position. When finally I was free of all those things, I covered myself up with the fur cloak that kept me warm the whole while of this long journey. My mind faded into reverie easily, all that I had experienced and seen gently playing out scenes in my subconscious mind.

It was then in reverie that I remembered where I had seen the lost amulet lying on the grass in Silverymoon before. It was then that I awoke with a gasp for air and took the amulet out from the side pouch of the belt I had worn, to look upon it with the deepest loss and sadness.

I closed my eyes, clenching the amulet in my hand, my worried thoughts preventing me from taking reverie as easily as before.

She was here... in the Silver Marches....








The Dark Flower....

[Inaubryn]

Nice end, Kill.