Discworld and Member Articles
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Written by Mynona
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Thursday, 25 August 2005 |
It was an early autumn day, the cold had begun to return and a chilling wind blew across the land. Reminding whomever met it about the cold of winter, something all too easy to forget below the summer sun. The clouds raced each other over the sky but every now and then, the sun would brake through carrying the memory of warmer summer days. In the fields outside the town, the oat fields shimmered as a golden sea when the wind caressed it. Yellowing trees formed a forest where the fields ended and just within sight the Himmelars, the mountain range, were visible. The mountains parted the known world from the wastelands beyond.
It was an early autumn day, the cold had begun to return and a chilling wind blew across the land. Reminding whomever met it about the cold of winter, something all too easy to forget below the summer sun. The clouds raced each other over the sky but every now and then, the sun would brake through carrying the memory of warmer summer days. In the fields outside the town, the oat fields shimmered as a golden sea when the wind caressed it. Yellowing trees formed a forest where the fields ended and just within sight the Himmelars, the mountain range, were visible. The mountains parted the known world from the wastelands beyond.
East of the town the pastures ended where the great sea began. Tagerna, the river passing through the town of Tage, was its main source of income. The ships crossing the sea traded with Tage since this was the only good harbour the Kingdom had and the town sold the merchandise to other parts of the country. Trading was very important especially since no ore could be found within the Kingdom. Some brave people had tried to mine in the mountains but the few who had returned talked about trolls and other, in the eyes of those who knew best, such nonsense.
Rame Iskalat was the mayor in Tage and thereby responsible for the peace in the town. This was why he approached the stranger clad in a dark robe with the hood up. He immediately thought of the stranger as a man, maybe because of the way he moved, a slow energy saving walk but at the same time he looked prepared to burst into action, there was no doubt about the person being a warrior. The man had stopped and Rame reached his hand up to pat the stranger on the shoulder and thus bring the stranger’s attention to him.
“You there!” The man slowly turned and answered
“Yes…” Came the reply, spoken with a deep, cold voice that was almost metallic. Rame quickly threw his earlier assumptions out the window when he realized that the man in front of him was female, and very much so indeed. Rame thought about his wife, who quite frankly, didn’t have a chance in his present company. The woman’s hair was blond and her eyes a piercing green, not the usual pale green but the more living green of a spring forest. The only thing Rame could think of to say was what he originally had planned.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m just passing through.” The stranger answered with that awful voice that clashed so horrible with her appearance. She looked at Rame’s faded blue cloak, the grey linen shirt and trousers. Black boots and thick silver chain with the symbol of his office completed his look as someone of some importance but with restricted funds.
“Well then, where are you heading?” He asked, a little taken aback by the strangers voice.
“Not that you have anything to do with it, but because you ask so nicely: I’m looking for someone.”
“Who?”
“I can’t help to notice that your parents taught you manners.” She answered, partly annoyed but mostly humoured. “I’m not sure.”
“Then how can you be looking for this person?”
“Since it looks like I have to answer your endless questions, can’t we proceed to the alehouse and get something to eat and drink while we talk?” It was close to a command than a question but Rame didn’t seem to notice as he led the way to the Black Cat, the town’s only inn.
Inside the warm and surprisingly clean room the stranger ordered two ales as they sat down at one of the tables.
“Why don’t you ask all of your questions and I’ll answer them the best I can” She offered as she sat down. She had taken her heavy robe off which had hidden a forest-green tunic that ended at knee and elbow. A brown leather belt around her hips and a pair of knee high brown boots laced down front completed her appearance. Her clothes were simple and worn but well tended. Her most prominent feature wasn’t visible, her hair hid a pair of pointed ears that would have raised a multitude of questions she didn’t want to answer. According to the people of the Kingdom elves, and other nonhuman beings, didn’t exist outside of fairytales and she had no intentions of changing that.
“Who are you? Were do you come from? Who is it you are looking for? Why are you looking for him?” The questions flowed out of him. She held up a desperate hand to slow him down.
“I’m called Lasaret even though it’s a name I’ve taken rather then the name that was given to me. I was born a long way from here and I was told to go and find a person. My employer,” Her smile widened as she said this and her eyes held a spark of amusement. “is interested in the person I’m looking for and, actually I am too.” She carefully left out the part about him sitting in front of her and that she now needed to find the other person, the female, or at least she thought that the second person was supposed to be female. “As to why my voice is as it is…” When her voice slowly trailed off into silence Rame looked distressed. “I can see that you want to know but that you’ve finally remembered how to be polite.” Rame’s look gradually changed from distress to embarrassed. “There was an accident when I was young. Who are you to question innocent travellers?” A quick change in subject saving both participants from talking about things better left unsaid.
“I’m Rame, and I’m the mayor in this town.” The answer full of pride just as he was full of himself. It is, Lasaret thought, all together too easy to impress oneself, in most cases it could be seen as a partial blindness. You only see your actions, not how others have contributed too.
“An important person then, lucky me.” She said and made him even more self-conscious, he didn’t notice that the smile had changed into a smirk. Lasaret noted that her sarcasm was totally lost on the man, a pity really. A barmaid came and asked if they wasted to eat but she declined the offer, paid for her ale and left the warmth of the indoors for the cold outside.
Lasaret left town thinking about her mission, she had found the male, and by the sound of it he wasn’t going anywhere. That was good since she could focus entirely on the female. If Rame had followed her out he would have seen that she went back the way she had come and as she reached a funny-looking rock by the wayside she disappeared into the forest. She reached a small clearing where some ashes betrayed the placing of a small fire. She reached down and pulled a well made sword and a strange looking staff out from under a juniper. Lasaret avoided bringing her weapons into cities and towns since this only led to trouble, and she didn’t want to explain their looks, they were rather different from human merchandise. Her mother had made her sword and they were the only things she still had from Landarin, the city of the elves. It was a memory from a place she could never visit again. Elves are creatures of light and were made to live in the light, she missed the beauty of the city so much it was almost a physical pain. She swept her robe tighter and fell asleep and the memory of the accident haunted her sleep as a nightmare, as it had many nights before and would continue for many more.
oooooooo
Yes, the accident mentioned before did have something to do with her exile. She had been young when it happened, an elfling by all standards, barely 50 years of age.
She was a member of a hunting- and scouting party that had left for the mountains to gather food for the winter. She followed a deer’s trail along the mountainside when a gang of darkbrothers captured her and three others. The captors brought them over the mountains and into the wasteland beyond where they live, or at least she assumed they did. It was hard to truly tell since she had been unconscious at the time.
Lasaret woke slowly her head pounding but as her ears registered unfamiliar sounds she forced herself to become wide-awake, something that proved to be a mistake. The first thing she saw was the dirty ground she was laying on, her other senses joined in and told her about the pain in her wrists where the manacles had dug into the flesh and the cool sensation of iron encircling her neck. She gathered enough willpower to move her head but found that she shouldn’t. The pain that before had been a dull throbbing became more acute and her vision swam. By the light that was filtered trough the ‘walls’ and what she had seen before the pain had became too much she realized that she was in a tent.
As the pain in her head subsided once again, a pair of moredhel, or darkbrothers, entered the room. Wizened by earlier experience she was careful not to move her head when she glanced at them.
“So, our little bird is finally awake” the taller one said in an accented common tongue. To weak to answer, she continued to watch them warily.
“To good to speak with us, are you?” the other one said and placed a foot on Lasaret’s chest and turned her over so that she was on her back. “but that will change soon” he added with a cruel smile.
“Calm down” the tall one said “there is a couple of things we need to do first, remember what the chief said”
“I do, but reluctantly” They checked her cuffs and made sure that she couldn’t escape even though she wasn’t in any shape to move at all. She noticed that there was a chain connected to her collar and that its other end was fastened to a pole in the ground. After they left she rolled back unto her side so that she wouldn’t lay on her hands.
The darkbrothers returned after an unknown amount of time had passed; the sound of feet close to her head awoke her. This time the men had a tray with a mug and a piece of bread with them. They fed and watered her, the food that was old and stale. The water had a strange taste, as if it had been contained too long.
The next time she woke the heat in her tent was pressing the air out of her lungs. The tall one was on guard and when he saw that she was conscious he fed her again. She was awake for a little bit longer, not that it mattered since nothing more happened. The two darkbrothers took turns on feeding and guarding her and she slowly felt her strength return. Never once she thought about the strangeness in taking prisoners only to make them healthy again. When she had enough energy to protest against the food they force-fed her. This strange routine continued until they one day had a visitor.
“Who do we have here?” he asked Lasaret glared at him. She wasn’t completely recovered and didn’t believe that her voice would work properly after such a long time of being quiet.
“We’ll soon find out” he answered his own question and left the tent only to return a short while later. He carried something big that jingled menacingly when he put it down. A fire was started and the new man looked at her smiling.
“Soon little bird, you will sing to us” And so began a long time of torture which she thankfully didn’t remember much from. It was only the memory of intense never-ending pain that still was alive. She didn’t remember what they did or what she did, she didn’t remember talking to them but she didn’t remember being quiet either. Something they did damaged her vocal cords so bad that even the best of the elven healers only could give her a voice, not her voice back. Maybe the memory loss is a way for the mind to protect itself, it blocks out memories that is too painful to avoid further damage.
Lasaret awoke and noticed, to her tired surprise, that she wasn’t chained to the post. Either her captors had forgotten to do so or they had thought her to weak to escape. Lucky for her, her tent was in the outskirts of the little gathering of tents. She managed to travel the wastelands and into the mountains without being caught. Most likely, the moredhel didn’t want to spend manpower on searching for an escaped prisoner who most likely would die in the harsh environment anyway.
She was awoken by magic and realized that she didn’t hurt as much as she rightfully should have. The search party stationed in the mountains to find Lasaret and her lost companions, or their bodies, had found her and brought her back to Landarin. The healers had done what they could for her but her voice was forever lost. The healers had made her regain consciousness so that the Queen could speak with her. The Queen of elves questioned Lasaret about the moredhel which no elf had seen in ages and they had secretly begun to believe that all the darkbrothers had died. When the Queen had left, other elves had continued the questioning. After being thoroughly questioned Lasaret allowed the darkness take her against the others will. Healing takes a lot out of the one being healed and she needed the sleep badly.
She woke after six days but she thought it felt more like six minutes and more questions were asked and answered. The Queen visited with news. No traces of moredhels had been found and some members of the council thought that Lasaret had killed her missing companions and made the story up others were suspicious to why she had managed to escape her captors when none of the others had and they hinted that she might be allied to the darkbrothers. That she made some kind of deal with them to be set free. Whatever the reason the members of the council was scared of Lasaret and had decided that she wasn’t trustworthy anymore. The Queen looked sad as she told the young elf in front of her about the ban. Lasaret was to leave Landarin and never come back. She had to live in exile without meeting other elves again. Lasaret was devastated, first she had to live through torture and then her own people questioned her loyalty and banned her from the elven city. The Queen sadly watched Lasaret process the information and added that she could stay until the healers said she was ok but then she had to leave.
Lasaret sadly left Landarin one sunny afternoon, only the Queen and her sister, Lasaret’s mother, had came to see her off. She had lived at numerous places since then but nowhere was home. Home was the only place she couldn’t go.
oooooooooooooo
Shaking the dream, and the memories it had reawaken, off her in morning. Damp from dew she had a cold breakfast before destroying all evidence of her stay in the clearing. With an ease perfected by many years of practice she put on her sword and left for the capital.
She travelled for many days but avoided humans because she was tired of how they reacted to her voice and looks. The only exception was when she had to buy food, only eating meat from hunts did get boring after a while. It got colder and the day of the first frost was the day she reached Rayde, the capital.
The city was pretty boring and depressive. In the poorer parts, houses made from wood were cluttered and huddled together with only narrow alleys to travel. In the richer part, the big houses fought the grand parks and avenues to get as much space as possible. The houses competed against their neighbours to be bigger, more elegant and more richly decorated. The effect became that of beauty crammed together in too little space and thus loosing its appeal. The royal palace had its own wall in the middle of Rayde and the big white exterior dared anyone to make a better, more beautiful building. It was a palace built for the sole purpose of being impressive. Bring the leaders of newly conquered provinces and pushed them down even further with the sight of the power that could erect something this grand. A building built to oppress. Lasaret took it all in and maybe she would have been impressed if she hadn’t seen Landarin, or the homes of the poor. She thought that the beauty of a palace could never outdo the ugliness of the people left poor so that someone could build something that big.
Despite that the richer part of the city held what she desired, cleanness, she settled in one of the simpler inns. She walked the streets getting the feel of the people living here, the inns, alehouses, markets, street urchins and vendors. The noises and smells nauseated her but she needed to find the woman. On the third day she decided that if she didn’t find her today she would leave she had gotten enough of humans.
The pull appeared that afternoon and she followed it into a house without any decorations on the front. It turned out to be a brothel. Hood up staring disbelievingly at the ‘mother’ she tried to take in the scene in front of her. In an abundance of red velvet chairs, sofas, armchairs and futons was placed so that they held a minimal amount of privacy. Scattered among the furniture was a dozen, and in two cases not so, young girls who wore about three square feet of fabric between them. The ‘mother’ led Lasaret to a chair happily talking about the pros and cons with some of her girls. It was embarrassingly clear what she thought Lasaret was there for, but on the other hand, there is just one reason to visit this kind of establishment. The ‘mother’ deposited her new client in a small loveseat with the words that if he wanted to take anyone upstairs just talk to her. Besides Lasaret there was two other customers in the hall, both of them greeted her with a small nod when they felt her eyes on them. One of the young girls approached with a glass that most likely held something highly alcoholic.
“You want to?” she asked with a voice that clearly stated that she didn’t.
“Only looking for now, girl, maybe later” the girl flinched at her voice. Not even here, where you could get away with almost anything as long as you paid enough, she was free from their reaction. Lasaret never imagined that it could be so unnerving; she thought that the feeling would go away but it hadn’t. Lasaret had no idea of who she was supposed to meet but she hoped that she didn’t have to stay here long. The girl seated herself on the floor beside the potential customer and began to stroke Lasaret’s leg in a way that was supposed to be seducing but it only made her feel sick. Another girl had now entered the ‘fore sale’ stage, and this was the one Lasaret had been waiting for. She nudged the girl at her feet
“Who’s that?” she asked and studied the girl. She was pale, with long dark hair and blue eyes, she was pretty for a human if it wasn’t for the abandoned look in her eyes. She had seen the things that can, and will, scar any living thing and had lived through a lot of emotional pain. The girl at my feet waved her over and presented her as Sela with a tone of voice that clearly said that anyone who would chose another girl over herself was clearly insane.
“Shall I get you two a room?” Lasaret made a ‘not yet’ gesture, she didn’t want to be left alone whit one of these girls, there was no telling what they might do. The new girl watched her customer as ‘he’ declined the room, judging him, wondering about ‘his’ actions. It looked as she had never seen a man decline a room before, but why should she have, it was after all the sole purpose of this business.
“Er, we can talk, if you want to” it was clear that she didn’t know what to do with this new kind of customer. Lasaret answered with a wave that could be interpreted as ‘lets go over there’ Sela reached for the glass but with a shake of her head Lasaret denied.
“I take it you don’t like this stuff” she said as she looked at the glass “It’s an aphrodisiac but I guess it doesn’t work for everyone” as they sat down Lasaret made sure to go against her instincts as she sat with her back to the door.
“You don’t talk much do you?”
“No, it tends to do people uncomftable” Lasaret answered and was surprised over how small Sela’s reaction was.
“So that’s why you wanted to speak to me in privet first” Lasaret didn’t bother to correct her since the easiest way to avoid answering questions is to be quiet and let others draw their own conclusions. At the same time, Lasaret wondered how she would get the girl out of this place. This was becoming harder than she had thought when she had first gotten the quest. People are creatures of habit and they feel safe in the environment they live their daily lives in no matter the dangers the environment possessed.
“How did you end up here?” Lasaret tried some small talk to get more time to think
“My mother worked here and I don’t know who my father is” and Lasaret understood that not many options where open for a girl with her background.
“Would you like to get out of here, to work with something else?”
“And how, my dear, do you propose that I do that? You’ll help me if you get free sex is that it? Well the answer is no, as so many times before” Lasaret tried to calm the ranting girl down
“You misunderstood”
“Sure, now you’re going to say that you’re in love with me and that you’ll marry me. The answer is no to that too, marriage is just free sex when you think of it and I’d rather stay here where I get paid” she rose to leave but Lasaret’s hand on her arm stopped her.
“Sit down. Please?” with her free hand, Lasaret reached up and removed her hood. Sela’s eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the beautiful woman in front of her.
“but, but” she stuttered “I thought” she never told what she thought but Lasaret had gotten a pretty good idea during the rant
“Do you still want to get out of here?”
“Of course I want to leave, but how?” pleading with her voice.
“Come to Talon of the Dragon, the inn where I stay, later this afternoon and I’ll tell you how” Lasaret left and got an angry stare from the ‘mother’ since she hadn’t gone upstairs. Whether she was angry for the loss of money or the indication that her girls weren’t good enough didn’t show
oooooooo
When Lasaret left Landarin she knew this was the last time she saw the elven city. She felt sad and dejected as she slowly made her way southwards, towards human civilization. She travelled in the forest staying away from the humans who lived here. She didn’t care about herself, her looks, her health. The only thing she heard was the words the condemned her, the only thing she saw was the face of the Queen when she uttered the words.
She hunted enough to stay alive, barely. But the day came when her intended prey escaped before she had a chance to kill it. She was disgusted when she realized that this was because she smelled, reeked, enough for them to find her even though the wind blew the other way. It dawned on her that she could never be the one she had been, never return to her old life, what happens stays happened but she was still an elf, still herself. She looked at her torn and worn clothing, her filthy matted hair with loathing clearly written on her face.
After a couple of hours of hectic searching, she found a small lake in which she threw herself clothes and all. She enjoyed the feeling of the cool water that caressed her skin as she took her clothes of. A sound behind her, a quick glance over a shoulder and the image of her back in the water. Carved into her pale back was the elven rune for darkness, pain, death.
No wonder they were so scared of her. Simply the thought of it still being there despite the healing magic was enough to make her shiver. Injuries healed by magic didn’t leave scars, sometimes the skin went pink where the wound had been but it paled rather quickly. The moredhel had used magic to heal the wound partially but at the same time preventing it from ever healing completely. She stared at the mark that had sentenced her to a life in solitude.
Yes, she was bitter but mostly she was annoyed with herself for letting this happen to her.
To forget, both herself and the situation she was in, she travelled long distances. The difference this time was that she cared for herself. She needed money to get food and clothes but she couldn’t risk working least someone would notice that she wasn’t human and who’d hire her? Stealing proved to be a solution to that particular problem, she never took a lot and never from anyone who needed it more than her and in the end she got quite proficient at it.
Lasaret seldom visited human towns or cities but she needed some new clothes and therefore she visited on of the bigger cities. Carrying her staff in hand and with the sword at her side a cocky guard halted her. He was wearing a dark blue tabard with a silver crow embroidered over his heart that showed that he was a part of the local duke’s privet guard.
“Halt!” he commanded, “who are you and why are you wearing a sword? This is a peaceful city, we no one but nobles and guards are allowed to carry weapons inside the city walls”
“I’m sorry, I’m just travelling trough and didn’t know that weapons weren’t allowed” Lasaret said humbly, trying to calm the guard down.
“What’s your name? And show your face, don’t hide it under a hood like that!” he pointedly ignored Lasaret’s voice in a manner that suggested he was the kind of man that ignored anything that didn’t fit.
“My name is Lasaret, but I’d rather not show my face” she answered
“If that’s what you want you’d better come with me to the castle” he said and led her away with a hand on her elbow. She could easily had shred his hand of her and fled but didn’t want more attention drawn to her.
Well inside the castle walls he started leading her towards the dungeons, but one of his superiors stopped to talk to him. While he was talking, Lasaret took a chance to examine her surroundings and she felt the presence of magic. Discreetly scanning the area for it’s origin her eyes fell on what looked like an animated red cone. It was a man clad in a red robe with bright yellow patterns, runes and symbols on. Lasaret hoped that she was right when she assumed that the man was a wizard and began to fill her aura with magic too hoping that the man would pick it up. Faster than it should have possible, regarding the man’s girth, the wizard had crossed the courtyard and was now standing beside her.
“Can I help you friend? You seem to have attracted the attention of our excellent guard”
“Yes, it’s all rather unfortunate. I’m on an urgent mission and don’t have time for prisons and explanations. Can you help me?”
“Of course I’ll help another wizard!” the man exclaimed and addressed the guards
“This man is a friend of mine and I’ll take him from here. Thank you for showing him the way here” and he strode of with Lasaret.
“You do have time to talk to me, don’t you? Lets go to my office” he asked with a smile. Lasaret followed the man and thought that she at least owed him a this since he had saved her.
The wizards office turned out to be a rather large room with the walls covered in bookcases. Paper, scrolls and books littered the whole place that smelled of dust and slowly moulding paper. The desk as well as the four chairs in the room hosted even more books. He emptied two of the chairs and the sat.
“So who are this mysterious stranger I have saved from our brave guard? And what happened to your voice”
“I’m Lasaret, there was an accident” she started to explain but fell quiet
“Oh yes, magic is dangerous when you’re young. Why don’t you take your hood off?” his curiosity was almost palpable. As she still felt she owed him she humoured him. His surprise was great but not as great as when she deliberately shook her head so that her pointy ears showed trough the silken hair. The wizard almost fell out of his chair.
“But, you don’t exist” he looked at her accusingly. Lasaret thought that that was one of the stupidest sentences ever, and here she thought that humans were an intelligent race.
“I beg to differ but I do exist” she deliberately misunderstood him “and that was why I didn’t want to end up in the prison” The man in front of her had begun to catch a rather nice looking purple colour that suggested that he’d have an hart attack very soon. His mouth opened and closed as he did small ‘wa, wa, wa’ noises.
“So now you know” Lasaret was getting nervous, the mans behaviour scared her, what if he died on her?
“I’ve dreamt of this since the day I was born, I’ve never doubted your existence” he said, not caring that it contradicted his earlier statement.
“What are you going to do with this knowledge?” Lasaret tried to calm the overexcited man down.
“I’ve always wanted to meet someone like you, think of all the things I can learn from you”
“The question still stands”
“Are they right? The stories I mean, of course everything can’t be true but which parts are?” the
man was babbling
“What are you to do now?” Lasaret demanded
“First I have to contact the board, then I think I’ll write a book; ‘My life with the elves’ does that sound like a good title? Never mind I can change it later.”
‘He’s been talking to me for five minutes’ Lasaret thought ‘and it’s all his life’
“Then gatherings where I can present you to the nobles and to my colleagues, of course, and” Lasaret decided that she had to stop this man as he was obviously not sane.
“First I’d like to say that I’m an elf, not an rare animal, I won’t stand in front of a lot of gawking humans, whoever they are, just so that you can show me off. Secondly, there is a really good reason to why no now living human has seen an elf, or a dwarf for that matter.
“I’d, you’d be famous” he corrected himself
“Why would I want to famous?”
“But I have to tell…” the man was almost in tears
“No you don’t” Lasaret laced the words with the little magic she had. The wizard would always remember this meeting but wouldn’t have any desire to share his knowledge about it in any way.
“Maybe you’re right” he confessed “it has to be is you have been hiding
“Yes very important” Lasaret agreed. They continued their conversation for a couple of hours before Lasaret could leave without remorse.
oooooooooo
Later the same afternoon Sela arrived at the in. Lasaret was a little surprised by this as she had predicted a little more carefulness from Sela. Lasaret sat in a corner so that she could survey the door and anyone passing in or out. Sela entered in a tentative manner, shooting glances over her shoulder as if suspecting that someone was following her.
“You came”
“Did I really have a choice?”
“Do you want to leave now or would you prefer to wait until morning?”
“As soon as possible, if it’s all right with you. I sneaked out from ‘mother Rosa’s ‘ and I want to be as far from her as possible from her when she finds out”
“Wait here while I fetch my things from upstairs” Lasaret went to her room to collect her things wise from earlier experiences she kept her weapons looked up in her room with a repulsive charm on the door. The charm was very basic magic, all elves has a natural talent for elven magic but to different degrees, which was lucky since Lasaret wasn’t a very talented at it.
When Sela saw the outlines of the sword against the fabric of her companion’s robe she couldn’t help but to flinch. They left the in and the city and with it everything known to Sela. Lasaret was impressed, when she had left Landarin she had known what was waiting for her, she knew how to survive in the wild all by herself. Sela on the other hand had lived her whole life in the city and trusted a stranger with her life, something that must have taken a lot of courage judging by her earlier performance in the brothel. Sela walked nervously beside her more confident companion trying to look at everything at once. Noticing Sela’s behaviour Lasaret decided to make camp early and since Sela never had been outside the capital before she knew she had to do all the work.
Lasaret collected some firewood so that she could warm water to Kathi; a brew made from several herbs in hot water. It was strong and bitter but warmed well on cold nights. Sela sat stiffly looking into the fire, accepting the food quietly. She fell asleep before Lasaret had a chance to say goodnight.
Lasaret spent the night on guard, resting in that special way of the elves, it’s not as good as a night’s sleep but it was enough to feel refreshed. At sunrise Lasaret woke Sela to the smell of cooking meat, she had caught a rabbit that was now suspended over the fire. To Lasaret’s grateful surprise the other woman took over the cooking. The elf approached cooking much in the same way anyone approaches skunks, if you absolutely have to do it do it quick and have it over with.
Back on the road Lasaret realised that her companion needed new clothes and a pair of decent boots. The ones she had wasn’t so much in poor condition as made for town life, not hiking in the woods. The elf knew that their mission would take some time and it was definitely not going to be easy, and if something as simple as proper shoes could make it easier then she would get some. The gods must have been smiling towards them, and judging by the mission maybe they were, because as midday came they met a tradesman who invited them to join him and his partners for lunch with the reservation that they brought their own food. When the two groups parted after the meal the businessman’s money pouch was as much lighter as Lasaret’s was heavier. She didn’t like stealing in towns since smart, and foremost still alive, thief leave the crime scene when they’ve gotten what they want.
Over the following days they fell into a pattern, and Sela adopted surprisingly fast. Fresh air, sun and exercise did the former whore good and some life started to return to those before so lifeless eyes. It took them two weeks to reach Korch something that showed they were halfway to their goal, but here things got out of hands.
Lasaret made camp, collected firewood and all did the other necessary chores while Sela had gone into the town to guy some things. For obvious reasons the elf preferred to stay out of towns. The weather was cold but dry, the snow had yet to come, sleeping outdoors wasn’t too uncomftable.
Sela liked going into these towns, no one knew her or her past and she happily talked to the persons exhibiting their merchandise. She didn’t notice the eyes that carefully followed her progress. They saw her walk purposely from one end to another and when they were positive on what route she had chosen the owners to all but one pair melted into the shadows. One man followed her while three others moved through into the slum in a way that suggested that this wasn’t the first time they did this. When Sela passed one of the numerous alleys the man who followed her shoved her into it and the hands of the two waiting thugs. The last man had ventured further to cover up if Sela had chosen another path. The quickly donned a gag, put a hood over her head and tied her hands behind her back. Sela struggled and was rewarded with a blow to the head that made her dizzy.
Lasaret had finished preparing their campsite for the night and walked to the road to meet up with Sela when she arrived. It was getting dark and the human wasn’t good at finding her way in the forest and rather than having her get lost Lasaret went to fetch her. She was after all the elf’s responsibility, she had taken the human from her home and was going to lead her to some rather nasty places. And the quest was doomed to failure if the humans didn’t survive.
She leaned towards a tree as she stood searching the road for any signs of her companion. Hiding so that she herself wasn’t visible from the road. Lasaret spotted movement but as it came closer she saw that it was just four friends helping a rather drunk fifth companion home. It was a common sight as many farmer’s sons celebrated the few times they visited town. All of the sudden the small party darted towards the forest in a place where no humans lived. Lasaret felt uneasy, there was something very wrong with the picture. Trusting Sela to wait at the place they’d decided on earlier she went back into the forest and angled towards where their tracks would be. When Lasaret reached it she realised that you didn’t have to be elven bred or trained to follow this track. Slowly and silently she advanced on the five men, not wishing to be spotted but with a desire to know what was going on. Straining her ears to catch the sound of her ‘pray’ she gathered that they had stopped and wasn’t going further. She decided that a bit of spying was in the order, it was good to be using her knowledge again.
She saw four men on the ground, three of them leaning over the smaller man, one at his head and the other two at his sides. The fifth man was guarding the others but his eyes kept darting towards the men on the ground. At the sound of fabric tearing Lasaret became aware of the wrongness in the situation. Thanking her lucky star that she had brought her staff with her she rushed out from the shadows she had been hiding in.
Hitting the guard over the head with one vicious blow that sent him to the ground she drew closer to the men. As the others realized that there was something going on they began to rise but one fell as the end of Lasaret’s staff hit him in the stomach and as he keeled over it came up to meet his chin on its way down. The two remaining men was on their feet and reached for their weapons, the elf turned with the staff low only to bring it up in the last possible instant and she hit one man on the elbow with a soft crushing sound indicating that his elbow was crushed. Turning back to the last opponent and getting her staff up just in time to parry his knife as it swung towards her. The man was fast and had some experience in fighting and brought his knee up to prepare a kick, Lasaret saw the movement and raised the staff in front of her and angled the butt from her and blocked the kick by directing from his body and swept the staff towards the other leg so that the man fell. At the same instant something connected with the backside of Lasaret's knee sending her to the ground as well. She cursed her own idiocy which had made her ignore an enemy who wasn’t down. Trying to get out of harm’s way she rolled and got on her feet. A burning pain in her back told her with annoying clarity that the fourth man had recovered too. Coming back up she tested her knee and decided that it would suffice as long as she avoided overusing it. Feinting a blow to the left she quickly changed the direction of the staff and hit the man over his already injured elbow because of the pain the man let his guard down and Lasaret hit him on the neck insuring him a painful death as his crushed windpipe would swell until he wouldn’t be able to breathe anymore. The last man attacked with his knife once again and she hit him over his knuckles with a stinging blow. He dropped the knife and she finished him off with a blow to the head before carefully walking towards the man on the ground.
ooooooooo
About half a year ago Lasaret had visited a small country inn. She some money and had decided to sleep inside for a change. As she sat at a table waiting for her food to arrive three men approached her.
“This is our table” the biggest of the man sourly said
“I’m sorry I was unaware of that” Lasaret answered and made a move to leave.
“The kid has a sword” the obvious leader of the group told his minions and attempted to bait Lasaret into a fight. She didn’t take it and continued to picked her things together, nodding her head towards the now empty table
“It’s all yours”
“It’s a nice sword you have there, far too good for a whelp like you. That kind of sword demands a man” encouraging grunts could be heard from the other two. They’d probably not had to think a single thought by themselves, ever.
“It was a gift” she answered truthfully, after all her mother had made it for her.
“Then you may give it to me” the leader said. His statement again accompanied by approving grunts, possibly because anything else would prove to be too difficult for them to pronounce.
“No” she answered and reached for her staff that was still leaning towards the wall.
Before her hand could close around the dark wood another hand closed around her arm.
“Listen, boy, that was not a suggestion it was a command. Give me the sword. Now!”
“No” she said still calm and composed although a slight change in her stance was noticeable. She was ready to fight and was slowly adjusting her body to get a better position. She didn’t want to fight, especially not inside. All three of them had swords and three opponents was too many if they knew how to cooperate. In most cases two or more persons with swords will only get in the way of each other, if they have practiced together things can become very difficult. It was crammed so Lasaret didn’t have the upper hand a longer sword would get you. The fight was short but vicious, Lasaret won but the price was high. She had a long deep cut in her side and it was serious. She knew that she could heal it but needed time and peace to do so. The inn was no longer an option, not after wrecking a table and several chairs not to mention two corpses and a badly beaten up man.
Slowly she made her way to the forest, she walked as far in as possible to minimise the risk of being found and disturbed. She eased herself down to the forest floor and willed herself to relax to sink into a trance. Although this time it was different, instead of the clearing surrounded by the kind of trees that only grows in Landarin, she found herself on a field with covered in short grass. In front of her was a pond made from what looked like liquid light and in the middle of the pond there was a hill covered in the same grass as the field. She got frightened, maybe she had gone too far without healing and maybe she was dead.
Small dots of light appeared on top of the hill they danced and whirled around each other, the tempo ever increasing as more dots were added. The lights became brighter and brighter until Lasaret had to turn her head away from it because it was too strong to endure. A final burst of light and then it was gone. Lasaret blinked to get rid of the impression of light in her eyes as she once more turned towards the hill. There where the lights had been now stood a proud beautiful male elf. He not as much stood as floated about a feet above the ground. He was more beautiful than any elf she had ever seen, he was perfect, the ideal. He came closer, it looked like he was walking but he was still above the ground not touching it.
She noted his eyes and hair that had the same colour as moonlight and his identity hit her like a rock. This was The Singer; he who gives everything its true name, one of the two elven gods. The other is the Mother, she who creates, and of course their opposites the Destroyer and the Liar.
When he reached the shore and neared Lasaret she kneeled, head bowed in respect. She didn’t know how to treat the god but on the other hand not many alive beings do. He emitted a faint light and his presence was calming.
“Rise child” Lasaret fought to get some control over her limbs as she stood.
“Don’t be shy” he said and she looked into his all-knowing eyes. Elfish spoken with a voice as smooth as silk, she had missed the language.
“Why…” Lasaret didn’t know what to call him or what she wanted to ask.
“Since I call you child, as you are my child like any other elf, you can call me father”
“Father” Lasaret was embarrassed because she was so easy to read.
“Why are you here Father?”
“It has to do with what happened to you” she realised that it was the exile rather than the injury he was talking about. Her heart sank like a rock and she lowered her eyes and started to back away from him. She was sure that this was it, now he would take her elfdom from her, banned from the elven race as well as from Landarin.
“No” he said and put a hand on her shoulder, it radiated calmness and peace. “Don’t think like that your elfdom is one thing no one can ever take from you. Not even me”
“I’m sorry Father” she said unconvincingly
“Don’t doubt yourself” she felt the despair that had threatened to overcome her again. “and above all, don’t doubt me” his voice as smooth as ever but there was an unmistaken hint of steel in it, it was a command more than anything else. Lasaret felt even smaller, she wanted nothing more than to seep into the ground and disappear. His hand moved from her shoulder to her chin, which he lifted so that she once more looked him in the eye.
“We believe in you, child, if we didn’t I wouldn’t have come” he had removed his hand but his eyes held hers captured. “We need your help”
“Why? And with what?”
“Usually we wouldn’t ask a mortal but this time we have no choice” her reaction to this question was a weak ‘why me?’
“As you may have noticed, there are moredhel out there but your kind doesn’t want to believe in it. It’s up to you to prove their existence to both elves and humans. You’ll get help, of course but if you don’t succeed in your mission we fear that neither race will be more than slaves”
“Help?”
“Two humans will help you”
”Humans?” she asked enquiring
“You of someone should know better than to look down on humans” the hidden steel in his voice had become much more apparent.
“Yes Father, I should” she agreed
“Who are the humans?”
“I don’t know their names”
“Then how will I know who they are, Father?”
”Kneel child” she did his bidding and closed her eyes, it seemed somehow appropriate. His hand ghosted over her forehead and came to rest between her eyebrows. At first the only thing she felt was his ever-present aura of peace but it was soon shattered as pain stabbed trough her brain. It left as quick as it had come and the only proof that it hade ever been was the distinct feeling of the people she needed. She didn’t know their names or what they looked like but she knew how they felt and what traits they had.
“How can I be sure that I get the right persons?”
”You will know, child”
“Thank you Father” he smiled and left her standing on the field as he floated back to the island. When he reached the top of the hill there was a bright light and when she tried to find him again the only thing she saw was a lone dot of light slowly dancing.
She noticed that she was cold and that meant that she was slipping out of her trance. She sat up in the real world with the memories from the encounter etched into her brain. Then it hit her, the tiredness that usually follow a healing was absent. At first she was afraid that she hadn’t healed while in trance, that the god’s appearance somehow had cancelled out the healing but her side didn’t hurt. And when she saw no sign of her injury she came to the conclusion that the Singer had somehow given her some energy and helped her to heal. She quietly thanked him and got a faint response, a faint impression of his peace settled in her heart.
oooooooo
The sight of Sela’s body on the ground made Lasaret's blood turn cold, this was the person she was supposed to protect, and now she just laid there staring at the sky without seeing. She collected the human in her arms and hurried towards camp. When they reached their clearing she carefully put Sela on a blanket and seated herself beside the other woman. She put one hand on her forehead and the other over Sela’s heart and let her senses guide her into the other’s body. Sela’s body was fine but her mind was in a much worse state. Healing in the way of the elves is mostly speeding things up so that the body gets extra time to allow it to heal. Healing the mind is much the same but injuries on the mind often needs much more time to heal than injuries to the body. Lasaret spent a lot of power trying to collect the shattered pieces of Sela’s mind that night. She didn’t think that a rape could effect someone who had worked with something very similar for so many years but obviously she was wrong.
When Sela finally relaxed and fell into a normal sleep, Lasaret was exhausted but didn’t dare to fall asleep in case Sela woke up before herself. Instead she fell into the special elven half slumber, it wasn’t enough but she did get some rest. She’d have to sleep for real when Sela woke up but until then she would sit on guard.
Sela began to stir and that alerted the elf who immediately was by her side offering her food and water. After Sela had reassured Lasaret that she would survive by herself the elf fell asleep.
To help Sela accept human company again Lasaret taught her how to use throwing knives. They made camp a little earlier every night so that she would get time to practice. She became quite sufficient at it before they reached Tage.
Sela turned to face the hooded shape of her companion
“I appreciate this but I think I can visit the town by myself. Don’t you want to head back to the forest?”
”No”
“No? But you always…”
“I always what?” her companion asked careful not to let her amusement show in her voice.
“You never show yourself”
“Do you mean that I’m invisible?”
“No, I meant among people” she became more and more frustrated “You know very well what I mean” she accused the elf
“Yes” said elf answered
“But why did you insist that you didn’t?” and as the thought hit her “You’re coming with me?”
“Yes” and with that Lasaret walked off with a confused Sela a step behind.
They continued along the main street, in reality the only thing worth naming street, until they reached the inn where they had some lunch and asked for directions to the mayor’s house.
Rame’s house was the largest in town, they had probably found it without directions but Lasaret wanted to be sure. It had two storeys, the bottom one made of stone and the top made from wood. It looked nice, large and announcing that someone important lived within but without screaming out its intentions. A young boy, about 15 answered Lasaret’s knock. He was brown haired and strange blue-grey eyes. His cheekbones and jaw line suggested that he was related to Rame.
“We’d like to meet the mayor” Lasaret said
“Your voice” a timid whisper replied
“Yes, what about it?” she didn’t even know why she cared any longer.
“You sound strange”
”And you sound like a five year old. When we now have covered all aspects of your manners could we, please, meet the mayor?”
“You can’t say that!”
“Why, pray tell, not? I have an important message to the mayor and while we stand her chatting away we lose valuable time”
“Who sent you?”
“No one sent me”
”No one important comes himself, they always send someone else” he accused the two visitors. “and you don’t look important” As Lasaret heard this she felt an urge to strangle the boy but that would make it take even longer time to get to talk with Rame.
“Just fetch someone” To their surprise the boy left and came back a little while later with a motherly looking woman in tow.
“I’m Reesa, Rame’s wife. Please excuse Ari, he’s new to this. Rame isn’t here at the moment, but so come in. Can I offer you something?” Lasaret asked to go back to the inn and wait there before entering the house. Reesa showed Lasaret into a room and two chairs. Beside the chairs were a table with two glasses and a carafe with an amber coloured liquid. Lasaret poured herself a glass of whatever it was and tasted it carefully.
“Is there anything else?”
“Company would have been nice, is Ari doing anything special?”
“I’ll send him in at once” she answered and left. Lasaret took another sip from the glass trying to determine what it was.
“You wanted to see me?” Ari came through the door
“Not as such, I think the term talk to you would be more fitting. Please sit”
”What do you want?”
”Talk to you a little. You are the son of Rame and Reesa?”
“Yes” he started to get big headed.
“You’re important then?”
“Of course I am” if his head got any bigger, he wouldn’t get trough the door
“In what way? Being important means that you have power, right? What kind of power do you have?” Ari stared at this strange person in front of him
“I’m the mayor’s son”
”Do you make any decisions?”
“No” he sullenly agreed
“Then I ask you again, are you important?” Lasaret could actually see him deflate.
“Maybe not”
“Just because someone doesn’t fit your description of important doesn’t mean he or she isn’t”
“Who are you?”
“I’m known as Lasaret”
”What are you and why do you want to meet with my dad?”
“I’m no one important”
“But only important persons talk to my dad?”
”What did we just say about important persons? But as for the reason for my visit it is only fro your father to hear” As she said this she heard someone walking purposefully towards the room they were in she lowered her hood. A sharp intake of breath alerted her about Ari’s presence.
“You’re beautiful”
“Thank you” she answered as she rose to greet Rame.
“You have a sword!” Ari exclaimed
“Yes I am aware of that”
“Why are you here, and why are you wearing a sword?” Rame asked
“I came to speak to you”
“A woman with a sword” Ari said unbelievingly “You should know that my father is really good with the sword. Not that you women knows anything about fencing” Rame looked at his son in horror.
“Out!” he yelled
“I came to you because I have a proposition for you”
“You are here on business then?”
“In a way yes” she couldn’t tell him about the mission, so she needed another way to make him come with her peacefully. “I’m afraid that my proposition means that you have to take a trip with me to the capital”
“To the capital? That would take a month to go back and forth to the capital. I can’t leave Tage for that long”
“I promise that it’ll be worth it” She didn’t mention that the trip would take more than a month, that they weren’t going to Rayden and that there was a good chance they’d get killed.
“How much worth it?” there was a gleam of greed in his eyes
“Very much so I assure you”
“I can see you have some founds. That is a very nice sword you got there. Tell me whose is it?”
“It’s mine; it was given to me as a gift”
“Is that so” he said and smiled like we shared a secret. “I propose a bet”
“A bet?” Lasaret asked
“A bet, if you win I go with you, if I win I get your sword”
“What do we bet on?”
“Since we’re talking about your sword, lets make it a duel between you and me. For you can use it, since you wear it I mean” The last sentence suggested that he doubted it.
“I don’t know” Lasaret sounded hesitant, it was a win or win scenario for Rame but on the same time she didn’t doubt who would win.
“Don’t chicken out on me” Lasaret stalled it a little longer before agreeing. They went out to the backyard.
“What rules?” even though Lasaret had practiced and used her sword a lot she didn’t know what rules the humans played by. At the question Rame looked even more snug, it was no question in his mind that he was going to win. His would be opponent didn’t even know the rules of duelling.
“Have you ever duelled before?”
“No” Elves never duel they fight. Ari had seen us so he came out after us and looked interested when
he heard what we talked about.
“To first blood, and try not to make it something lethal or maiming”
“That sounds reasonable”
oooooooo
No one knew when elves first walked in the forest, or when dwarves first started mining in the mountains. All that was certain was that it was a long time ago.
The elven race was one, they lived in peace with all other living things and they followed their gods; the Singer and the Creator. They taught magic and healing to their willing subjects and all was good. At some point during this period called the forest age humans started to develop the Old Country on the other side of the sea.
The humans learned fast and soon, too soon in the eyes of the other intelligent races, they could build ships and not long after the first explorers had crossed the sea. What they found was something akin to their promised lands. Lush forests and unclaimed fields perfect for farming just lay there waiting for the new settlers. They didn’t care about those who already lived there.
It was then trouble started, when the humans were few they didn’t pose a threat but as their numbers increased so did their territory. The first encounters, actually most of them, between humans and elves were violent, the elves were unprepared and suffered great losses. The need for protection led to a desire to learn how to fight. The gods complied as they saw their peoples suffering. They learnt defence and managed to retreat to Landarin and the forest surrounding it. But it’s true what they say, power do corrupt and it didn’t take long before one of the king’s advisors, by the name of Astuke, proposed that the elves should launch an attack against the humans, driving them out of elven territory and regain what had been theirs. Some of the elves supported the idea while others were dead set against it. It lead to a rift between different factions, the once so proud elven race was being ripped apart from within. In a desperate attempt to unite his people, the king decided against any offensive actions. Astuke grew angry with the impassive king and after an attack, in which the humans killed his daughter, in a fit of rage, something unheard of among elves up until this moment, he sliced the kings throat and declared himself the new leader of the elves.
The tear between the two factions became even larger and the elves that didn't support Astuke revolted and put the old king’s daughter at the throne, the queen had died only days after her husband. With sadness in their hearts they drove Astuke and his followers out of Landarin to the mountains, the Himmelars. Here the dwarves took over and the renegade elves ended up in the wastelands beyond. Those elves that had followed Astuke became known as the moredhel, the dark brothers, because they thrive in violence and pain. They turned from the light and started to worship the Destroyer and the Liar instead. They occasionally raided over the Himmelars to capture humans, elves or dwarves to use as slaves.
Many generations past even for the long-lived ones and the moredhel became more and more bitter, they had to live strenuous lives in an environment that strived to kill anyone and anything that dared to enter. They longed to go back to both Landarin and that that was now known as the Kingdom. The moredhel stayed in place and waited, gaining power and numbers. Seeking revenge on those they felt had wronged them. In their growing insanity, they had wits enough to wait. No one had survived or returned from one of their raids, no one had seen them for a long time. They were as much fiction to the elves as the elves was to the humans, with the one exception. The elves didn’t like to remember what happened, it was embarrassing that elves could behave in that way, so they tried very hard to make it fiction no matter what the facts said. This is why they became scared when Lasaret did something never had, she had seen moredhel, the chagrin of the elven existence. They simply did not want to be reminded of what happened.
The moredhel had finally gotten a sign from the gods, the time had come for them to reintroduce the world to the pain and suffering their gods promoted.
It was time to go to war.
oooooooo
Rame’s sword was both too long and too heavy for him, but his stance was acceptable.
“Ari can judge” Lasaret agreed and pulled her own slender blade. What followed was possibly the shortest and most ridicules duels in the history of swordsmanship. After almost on time at all Lasaret stood pointing her sword at Rame’s neck while his sword lay on the ground several feet away.
“Did I win?” Lasaret asked innocently
“How did you do that?” Ari demanded “You said you hadn’t duelled before”
"I never said I hadn’t used a sword”
Two weeks later found the travellers on their way westward towards the mountains, unbeknown to Rame who though
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