I spoke with Gerard before we left for
The Elven Court and asked him about the illness that the cleric of Mystra told me about. He told me not to worry about him and that he was seeking his own answers but I know that he's holding something back. I do love him very much and I'm trying to make amends for the way I've treated him for the last several months. He may have known about my true parentage, or had his suspicions, but he has never once treated me like I wasn't part of his family.
I am in my room at Gerard’s house and I am trying to study my spells but nothing is making sense to me, even the spells that I have previously mastered. I find myself growing more and more frustrated and when I reach the point of breaking the dream shifts to me in the garden. I am working with Gerard, cleaning flower beds and pruning the flowers when I notice that something doesn’t look quite right about him. He seems very quiet and there is a fine sheen of sweat upon his brow and he is quiet. As I turn to ask him if he is all right, he grasps his chest and falls to the ground. He opens his mouth in a silent scream and a choking black cloud pours from his mouth. I reach for him and it is Vicho laying before me. We are in the forest of the Standing Stone where we had encountered the Ettercap. Katniss & Trey are encased in cocoons and they are hanging from the trees. I prepare to cast a spell to help my friends and the assassin vine snakes down and entangles me and begins to compress the air from my lungs and I am helpless.
As I am about to fall unconscious I feel the energy from within as it overtakes me. I awaken to find the vine dead at my feet unknown how much time has passed. The cocoon where Katniss’ small body was, is no longer hanging in the tree. Vicho is still at your feet but breathing. I reach down to check his pulse, to make sure that he really is still alive. As I touch his neck his body melts into the ground and I am standing the middle of a forest clearing. The sun streams down into the meadow and I am surrounded by wildflowers. Pixies and sprites dance among the flowers and I am filled with a sense of peace and joy that I have never felt before. I feel the wild magic inside me calm as it has never done before. But out of the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of the man who I thought was my father and I start to cry. As each tear hits the ground a small blue flower springs up in its place.
As I weep, a storm quickly approaches and the radiant colors fade and everything looks ominous and gray. The pixies and sprites dash away to the safety of the forest as a chill reaches my hallow bones. My delicate wings tense as I turn around to see, walking toward me, a creature that walks as I do. Has wings as I do. Is beautiful as I am. But I can’t move and all I see is his dark red eyes looking at me as the tall grass gives way to his approach. The creature leaves behind him with each step, a slimy trail that kills the grass like a dragon’s acid. As he reaches out for me, a tiny blade rips through his stomach and he struggles to speak, an ashamed look upon his face. As his lifeless body falls to the meadow floor, I see Katniss standing there with her cute smile and proudly pronounce, “there, I took care of that for you.”
I awoke from my dream to find my friends sleeping. Trey was sitting away from the warmth of the camp fire as he devotedly watched for danger. I could not rest anymore that evening as my wings tensed up… a storm is approaching. What does the dream mean?
Aside from my troubling dream and the encounter with the
Mohrg, we arrived at the Elven Court with almost no trouble, although Vicho did begin to feel sick again. The elven patrol had been watching us for a while but when they saw we intended to enter the boundries of the Elven Court, they made their presence known to us. The leader of the patrol told us to turn back but I told him that we were seeking an audience with Donrain & that we had been sent by Gerard. Once I mentioned Gerard's name, the elves seemed to take our request more seriously and led us into the heart of the Elven Court.
The Elven Court is very beautiful, the most beautiful place that I have ever laid eyes upon but once we were left alone in the ante chamber, I pulled out my spell book. Vicho seemed almost offended by the fact that I would prefer to study my spells instead of feasting upon the sights before us. Perhaps my dream was more insightful that I first realized because the fear of failing those who I love outweighed the wonders of The Elven Court. Our wait was short lived because we were summoned to an audience with the Regent of The Elven Court, Donrain.
Vicho spoke very eloquently when he explained our situation and our need for assistance with Gerard's illness, the prophecy in the scroll that we found in the Goldenleaf crypt, how Vicho & I are descendants of the Ventari family, &
the changes to the properties of the elven curve blade that we had found. I was very unsure as to how Donrain would receive this information, seeing as how she seemed to think we were meddling in affairs that didn't concern us. In fact, I was very surprised that she even allowed us admittance into her presence but she seemed genuinely sorrowed by the fact that she had no answers in regards to Gerard's illness. Apparently he had already sought out the elves as a source of aid.
However, when it came to discussing the prophecy Donrain was much more skeptical and at times she was exceptionally patronizing. She did not think that we were the four mentioned in the prophecy and that we were actually causing more chaos by involving ourselves in the situations that we had encountered. I asked her if she knew more of the prophecy and she said that it states that the chosen four will defeat the evil that the elves created and unify the humans, elves, and dwarves back into the society that once existed at Myth Draannor. At one point I thought she was going to blame the attack on Tangled Trees on us! I am ashamed to admit that I lost my temper with the Regent but before the discussion could become overly heated a bright, celestial light appeared in the room.
The light was so overpowering that I had to turn my eyes away but when I was able to look back, the most beautiful elven woman that I have ever seen was standing in the room. She was surrounded by a nimbus of that celestial light and her hair was the darkest black, her eyes a piercing blue that gazed into my soul. Her gaze seemed to linger on each one of us; showing sorrow as she looked at Katniss, hope as she turned her eyes towards me. Her gaze moved back and forth between Trey & Vicho several times and then she turned to look at Donrain, who was standing behind her. As she turned her head back toward us, she raised her hand and it was then that I saw she was holding a sword crafted from stone. The woman then presented the sword to Vicho and after a slight hesitation, he took the sword and she vanished.
The woman was
The Srinshee and the sword is one of the three elfblades of Cormanthyr, also known as
the Crown Blade. And it had just been presented to Vicho, a half-drow from Harrowdale, as if in defiance to Donrain's denial of our connection to the prophecy. Donrain did not question The Srinshee's choice but immediately dropped to her news and vowed her loyalty to the new Coronal. We have spent the past month at the Elven Court, slowly gathering allies within the court and deciding our future actions. Unfortunately, Donrain has offered little guidance in that respect, saying it is something that we need to decide for ourselves.
I was able to learn a little more about my father but I fear the news is not good. He is a druid and also fey and apparently he has much dominion over the other forest creatures. The elves of the court would count him among their enemies and if we hope to gain the assistance of the fey, I....I mean we will need to defeat him. I'm hoping that this will not be the case. If I get the opportunity, I will present myself to him and seek to gain his assistance for our cause.
We were about a day out from Harrowdale when we were attacked by three elves. They had prepared an ambush for us and had cast
spike stones upon the road we were traveling. Although, on thinking back, that is a druid spell and there were no druids among their party. Did my father have also have a hand in this attack?
I think that this has been the most vicious combat that we have faced thus far and I was grievously wounded several times. If it was not for Katniss' healing spells, I would've had died in the forest that day. The wizard was much more powerful that I am, especially with evocation spells and he cast several powerful fireballs at our party. However, we were able to defeat the mercenaries and spare the lives of two of them and in so doing, we learned that Em'peri Goldenleaf, one of the members of the Harrowdale council, hired them to kill us.
Em'peri learned that
we were responsible for removing the amulet from her ancestor's crypt and demanded that Gerard return it to her. He willingly gave it back to her and so I do not understand why she would have hired the mercenaries to kill us. I wanted to take the two living mercenaries back to town, along with the contract with her signature, and confront Em'peri. Vicho thought it best to set them free and to keep our knowledge of the contract to ourselves, using the opportunity to show the elves that he was a benevolent and merciful leader.
Gerard informed us that Em'peri had been found dead in her home a few days ago and that it is believed that she poisoned herself. I asked him if the amulet was still within her possession and he wasn't sure about that. I can't believe that Em'peri would take her own life but then again, I never would have believed that the elven woman would have hired killers to come after us. I know she was very angry with us but I can't help but feel as if there are darker forces than we know of behind this attempt on our lives.
I am ashamed to admit that I was very frightened by my near death experience and was afraid to let the two mercenaries go. I wanted the mercenaries & Em'peri to be punished for trying to kill us and was looking at the situation personally, not thinking about the long term ramifications of Vicho's reasoning. I also became very argumentative when it came to splitting the items that we had taken from the mercenaries, something that I have never done before. I saw the inadequacy of my own equipment and felt that the far superior magical items of the mercenaries would protect me. Thankfully, Vicho and the others understood my fear and did not take it personally.
