Winged
Visage
By Bobby Lewis
Jenna pushed through the dense green foliage that seemed ready to reach out and grab her and the small party that journeyed with her. A dry brown thorny vine caught her long golden hair and lifted it into the sunlight, as if examining it.
“Ow!” She exclaimed, reclaiming her locks.
Garrius spoke in his calm, low rumbling voice “Did I not
tell milady this was not the best approach?
The Karnus trail is overgrown with jungle and has not been used in over
fifty years. Not since the great Orc
wars. Should we not backtrack to the
While Jenna hacked and slashed at the growth with a machete, sweat ran down her slender face. She was cooking inside this leather armor! She glanced back at the old sage who despite his advanced age seemed to journey so effortlessly. Garrius just swung his staff back and forth, almost rhythmically to push back the encroaching plants around him.
“I’ve told you already. We must arrive at the Silver Temple of Perrus early. The dwarves have the enchanted armor ready for the king but they won’t wait long out in the open, away from their mountain caves. The elves and their creations are wandering around these hills just searching for something like a bunch of dwarves to kill and do only the gods know what with.”
Partuff, the human mage who traveled with Jenna spoke up as he motioned a bush to bend away from him. “The dwarves are not defenseless my lady. They prefer the comfort of their stone palaces deep beneath the earth. It is not because they are afraid of the dark elves in this area.”
“I’m aware of that Partuff. I do have a decent education, you know? Still, Braknor’ah seemed edgy in the message he sent to King Alius. I think he wants no part of this war.” Jenna paused to hack a dying tree limb away from the path lest it fall on one of the porters following them. The porters seemed almost like children, mindlessly following the path behind the three in her group. One had nearly walked off into a ravine. Still, the groundskeeper back at the castle had sworn that they would obey and could carry any load. “But they should know better. Once Alius falls, the elves will turn to the dwarves and their precious mountains next. They will stop at nothing!” Angrily she swung rashly at a limb and nearly lost her balance.
Garrius leaned forward and pulled Jenna back to her feet. “Calm, my lady. Seek the path which has been laid before us, not the one we shall never see. The elves are here and you have allied yourself and the other half elves with the human king, for better or worse we shall see. But you are right to put yourself in the way of such evil as besets the land today.”
Almost without thinking Jenna brushed her hair back and touched the slightly pointed tops of her ears, which she usually kept hidden. She sometimes wondered if fighting her own kind was truly the right thing to do. As her thoughts turned inward the group became silent.
They trudged into the night, stopping only for a short meal. The temple sat still several days away on the far side of this jungle. Taking the mountain pass would have taken at least an extra week, even if it meant moving twice as quickly.
As the night passed on, Jenna asked Partuff to light a few fire globes. “Certainly, milady.” The mage replied. He never responded to her with her name unlike Garrius. She couldn’t figure out yet why, if it was because he didn’t feel comfortable around her yet, even after three weeks of traveling together, or something else.
Chanting beneath his breath, Partuff moved his hands slightly beneath the cream sleeves of his robe which were embroidered with pale blue and silver runes. Flicking his wrists to bring his hands palm upward, he opened his hands and small blue globes of fiery light burst forth from nothingness and flew to hover above them, growing slightly in size as they did so.
Jenna paused and breathed deeply as Partuff cast the spell and drew mana, the natural energy force of all things, from around them. She tried to seek out the flux of mana into Partuff, but felt nothing. That part of her mother’s heritage, the elven magic, had not been passed down like her ears and slender build. Some half elves had magic, others did not. Regardless most “pure” elves as they thought of themselves looked down on her and her kind either way. Just as well they had teamed up with the humans in this war. They treated her as an equal.
Partuff’s eyes, normally green but glowing blue in the eerie light met Jenna’s, then quickly pulled away.
“Thank you. Now hurry, we still have a great journey ahead of this through this krell of a forest!” Her back ached as she continued to hack away, but Jenna put all thoughts of fatigue away. They could rest when they had the armor secure.
The trio led the porters for hours in silence through the forest. Though the travelers all wished for rest, the world around them had sprung to life as the moon rose and the golden sun set. Nocturnal creatures swished through the trees and scuttled across the ground just out of sight of their mage globes. Jenna peered into the wavering shadows on her left trying to pick out a creature she saw hanging from a tree branch when suddenly the light pulled back from her and she was left in darkness.
“What the hell? Partuff!” Jenna spun around in the dark, seeking out the others. Her eyes took a few moments to adjust to the moonlight absent the blue flame of the globes. Partuff was taking off in the opposite direction, and Garrius seemed ready to start after him. The blue globes seemed to be leading the way, darting through the foliage, their blue sparks fading in the dark.
“Garrius! Where does he think he’s going?” Jenna stomped over to her advisor. It was late, and she didn’t have the patience for a mage’s wanderings.
“I don’t believe he had any choice in the matter, lady Jenna. Something pulled the globes that way, and our mage friend I believe is attempting to find out what. Shall we follow?” But he had hardly to ask as Jenna was already off after the wizard shouting at him as she ran and hacked at low hanging limbs and vines that hung as black lines barely visible on a dark blue background of the starry sky.
“What’s happened?” she shouted.
“I don’t know, but something is calling the mage globes this way. I can feel it calling to all the magic around here.”
Suddenly, they burst into an open clearing. Pausing for breath, Jenna heard the crash behind them of Garrius and the porters. The blue globes danced and bobbed in the middle of the clearing.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.” Partuff walked slowly around the globes, slowly reaching out to one as if trying to touch it or call it to him. “I can only exert the weakest pull over mana here. The mana in the area seemed weak earlier, but it’s so strong here.” He stroked his chin in thought as he wandered slowly around the clearing.
Garrius stood nearby and gazed slowly about the clearing. “Empty of mana you said? But strong here. As if the siren’s song had called the weary sailors all to her island.” Jenna simply arched an eyebrow at the sage’s cryptic statement. The middle of the night was not the time to wax poetic.
“Garrius, what on earth are you talking about?” Jenna cocked her head and rested one hand on her sword belt.
Partuff walked up slowly to her. He gazed in her direction, but his eyes betrayed that his thoughts were a thousand miles away. Slowly, he nodded. “Garrius is correct. Of course! A sink!” The revelation lit up his face and he smiled broadly at her.
“A sink?” She looked around at the flat ground, searching for a depression.
“No, no, my lady. Come, see.” He held out a hand to her which she grasped and he walked her towards the center of the clearing where the globes sat dancing merrily away. His grip seemed anxious and when they were a few steps closer, Partuff glanced down at their interlocked hands and quickly let go her own. “Here, look.” Slowly a few yellow sparks appeared between Partuff’s outstretched fingers. “I should be able to draw a strong yellow flame with this spell, and keep it in my hand. Any apprentice knows this trick.” But, contrary to his words, the sparks leapt from his hands and lazily swam towards the blue globes and began dancing amidst them.
“I don’t understand. Is it some sort of enchantment?” Jenna was now more cautious, afraid of some sort of trap. She couldn’t quite figure out why the wizard looked so excited and nervous.
“No! It’s natural. I’ve read of them. It’s nothing you can see. A mana sink. Mana flows through everything, resides in every stone and leaf. Some places in nature gather mana, call it to them from the surrounding area. Much like a siren’s song.” The wizard turned and nodded his head towards the sage at this last bit.
“Fascinating. Why aren’t they heard of more often? Wouldn’t wizards love the mana sources here for enchantments and such?” Now she could see why he was excited. What kind of powerful magics could be done in a place like this? What had happened here in the past?
“They’re incredibly rare. They are favored by wizards, but no doubt deep in these woods like this, few know of this one. Plus, they aren’t so easy to use to enchant a sword or such. Once the magic is bound to something, pulling away the enchanted item from this place would be like dragging a small hill with your hands.
Suddenly, Partuff darted towards the center and stood amongst the various lights. Looking closer, Jenna noticed other things flowing about the wizard: purple smoke, green flames, and other magics that must have been called over time to this spot. Reaching down to the ground, Partuff let his hand rest on the grassy earth. Instantly, a large moonflower, pale and silvery sprouted from the ground and bloomed. The plant grew in a matter of seconds to a large bush laden with blooms. Other plants started blooming and growing around it til Partuff was standing in a small garden in a matter of moments. Jenna gasped.
“How beautiful!”
“And the spell only called for a single flower to bloom. I felt such power rushing in when I called to the mana! Here, for my lady.” He plucked one of the large silver blooms and held it towards Jenna. She stepped forward to take the bloom and hesitated for just a moment to look at the wizard. She smiled at her realization and took the bloom, letting her fingers lightly rub over the wizard’s hand.
“My thanks kind mage.”
Garrius stepped forward and beckoned the mage to step out of the lights and plants. “Caution, young sir. Such power can be tempting, can it not?”
Stepping forward and turning to look back at the lights, Partuff nodded. “Absolutely, Garrius. Dangerous no doubt to those unable to resist or unprepared.” Partuff gave a small grin to Jenna, who returned it. “I can’t wait to report on this to the guild masters. Come, we must explore the area!” And Partuff took off, tugging Jenna along with him.
Glancing back, Jenna called out to Garrius “Tell the porters to set camp for the evening!”
Garrius nodded slowly, in his formal and serene fashion. Fortunately, the young two adventurers were distant enough to not see his smile as he silently admired their youthful curiosity. Turning, he walked back towards the porters who stood milling a good distance away, unsure what lay before them.
Jenna and Partuff wandered through the dark columns of tree trunks at the far edge of the clearing. Dark moss hung down from the ancient limbs and brushed at their shoulders. “What exactly are we keeping an eye out for?” Jenna asked. Partuff had become silent and serious once he entered the trees, his eyes flitting back and forth.
“Not sure exactly. Anything unusual. I’m trying to keep a feel for the mana in the area as well to understand how this all works.” They still walked hand in hand, having run across the clearing that way like young school children running across the commons on a spring day.
“Partuff, is there not some young maiden pining away for you back at Caer Nohn?”
“Young maiden? Milady? Umm..no! A wizard is courtly and honorable. I wouldn’t toy with a woman’s affections.” Even in the dim light Jenna’s elven eyes could see him flush, and felt his heart quicken in her hand.
“I simply jest with you. You are allowed to court a woman, aren’t you? Or do your wizards forbid even that?”
“No, they do not. Why does the lady ask, if I may?”
“No reason, Partuff.” Jenna squeezed his hand and grinned at him, then let go to amble through the trees to their side. She had finally realized earlier Partuff’s fancy for her. She was still trying to figure out for herself how she felt about this young wizard she barely knew.
She had been watching the ground, the rivulets of water from some spring running over mossy stones and around gnarled roots, when she looked up and realized that Partuff had been silent for some time. “Partuff?” She spun around and her heart quickened when she realized she couldn’t see or hear him.
Jenna began running through the trees back in the direction she thought he’d last been in. Coming round a tree, she nearly bowled over a silent, staring Partuff.
“Wh…” Partuff put his hand over her mouth and nodded ahead of him. She turned and only then realized they had both been bathed in an odd, flowing green light. Jenna gasped at what stood before them.
The image of a woman hung in the air, green light seemingly emanating from her very being. She seemed dressed very formally in a peculiar dress with large, flowing tails and a tight, low cut bodice. Her hair seemed braided up in long, straight sections with flowing curls bubbling forth from the tips of these braids. She seemed lost, looking around, not even seeing the two of them.
Jenna whispered to Partuff, “Is it some sort of risen spirit?”
“Perhaps. It spoke a moment ago, softly. I heard it and walked this way, but it has not spoken since. It seems to somehow have noticed us though; because once I approached it quit moving and has stayed here in front of me.”
“Will it follow us?” Jenna grabbed his hand and turned to take a few steps, watching her footing carefully over the pile of stones at the base of the large tree behind them. She turned to see the spirit following them, somehow drawn to their presence.
When they returned to the clearing, they found a small collection of fires and tents at the far edge. The porters seemed hesitant to enter the clearing, likely fearing dark magic at work. Garrius sat on a small boulder to the side, watching them approach with their new ‘friend’ in tow.
“I see you have found something, young adventurers.” Garrius looked over the spirit as the three of them stopped before him. The ghost or whatever it was continued to turn back and forth, searching for something.
“I thought I heard her speaking once, but she’s been silent since. What do you make of it? I think I sense some spark of magic in her, but I also feel there’s something very real to her presence.”
Garrius lifted himself slowly with his staff and walked about her, the staff softly thump, thumping on the dewy grass as he circled. “They don’t cast these apparitions much any these days boy. I haven’t seen one in a long time. Now days a wizard’s orb or a spirit tongue can take a message anywhere instantly. And, they relay exactly what they’re meant to.”
“Then what is this? Some older form of enchanted communication?”
“Exactly. A winged
visage. An image of the sender,
embodying even a small piece of her essence, some might say her soul. Like a soaring eagle, the visage can travel
fast and light across the hardest terrain.
She’ll deliver her message as soon as she meets her intended target, though
she can speak along the way.”
“How incredible!” Jenna exclaimed. She tried touching the visage but her hand passed through the green shimmering air. Mages often entertained with glamors and illusions, so the appearance of this woman was nothing. But locked within, was a piece of the actual person. “So she can think, respond?”
“Yes, I believe so. To a limited extent. She is focused primarily on what the sender was thinking at the moment of creation. She will fade back into the world around her when her purpose is served.”
Partuff turned to the visage and pondered, “And why do you not speak, milady? To whom is your message intended?” He stood, one elbow in the nook of his hand, the other hand tracing his upper lip.
Jenna and Partuff nearly jumped when the visage turned to Partuff and spoke. “My dear Prince Chaltred? Where are you? I cannot find you!”
“I was about to tell you, young sir. Simply address the visage as a person, and it will communicate.” Garrius turned and sat back down upon his rock, resting his staff across his robed legs.
“And your name? Can we help you find your way to Chaltred?” Jenna asked.
The woman turned to Jenna and looked her directly in the eye for the first time and smiled at her. “Would you? I must get my message to him. I can only hope he is willing to accept it. In my heart of hearts I desperately hope his departure was a ruse to escape my father’s watchful eye and the blades of his troops.”
“Your father? Who is he? From whence do you come?” The visage turned now back to Partuf and met his gaze.
“Duke Elrin, of the Kingdom of Ta’wen, Duchy of Destre. Chaltred is in Pielios, I believe. I can’t seem to find my way there. This forest goes on forever!” The visage wrung her hands in frustration.
Partuff turned towards the other two living beings next to him. “The sink. She can’t find her way past it because it keeps calling to the mana which makes up most of her presence. I think we could guide her out. Part of her is human and may be able to overcome the call of the mana sink.” Jenna nodded in agreement, Garrius only sat still in silence for a moment, then shrugged acceptance.
“Stay with us this evening, and we will guide you to your prince.”
The four sat about a fire later, talking into the early hours before finally sleeping. At least three of them did. The spirit didn’t seem to need to sleep and so stood silently outside their tents and waited mutely, if tensely as they broke camp.
They headed out from the clearing, which in the early morning now laid covered in a blanket of grey, damp fog. They had learned much from the woman, such as her name. Aleandra D’Destre was heir to her father’s duchy. Partuff and Jenna were unfamiliar with many of the names she spoke of people and places, so her home must have been some distance off. Strange that her prince had left her for so far away a destination.
Apparently she and the prince had been near wedlock and very much in love. Her father approved, until he learned that the prince’s mother, Queen Illia had been attacked in a ambush by opponents of a rival nation. Apparently Aleandra and her father’s duchy were part of a separate kingdom near these other two nations that were at odds. The queen was dead and the enemy king had begun seizing control of Prince Chaltred’s country. Secret caches of troops and arms built up for a long period of time came seemingly out of the woodwork and took over the small kingdom in a matter of weeks. Chaltred escaped with only a handful of troops to the safety of Castle Destre. The other king did not have interest in Destre or the kingdom it sat in, nor did he care for Chaltred. As long as the prince was out of the picture he didn’t seem to care if he lived or died.
Aleandra’s father was another matter. Everyone was shocked at the horrible misfortune, and Chaltred was in a terrible mood for weeks. Finally, he came around and decided that while he might not be King of his birthright, he could be the husband to the Duchess, and one day perhaps avenge his mother and his kingdom. Plans for the wedding commenced, but the Duke seemed distant from them now and much less pleased for his daughter.
The day of the wedding, bells rang in the chapel in the courtyard of the small castle. Large bolts of fabric, dyed in spring blues and greens were strung from the rafters of the great hall. Before the ceremony began however, Duke Elrin stormed in with a dozen troops, forbidding his daughter to marry a hopeless remnant of a noble. Chaltred would merely marry her for her troops and wealth and use them to start a war against an enemy nation, ruining her family’s duchy and kingdom. Despite the lovers’ protests to the contrary, Elrin would hear none of it. He bade Chaltred come clean with his plans or die at that very moment.
Breaking Aleandra’s heart, Chaltred turned to her and did just that. He had actually found another love to the south in his escape from the takeover of his home and intended only to use Aleandra. He spat at her feet and bolted from the great hall, disappearing from Destre that day.
Aleandra’s heart was broken and she locked herself in a high tower, going over and over the events of her failed wedding day. She believed that Chaltred had done such a horrible thing to survive, and would contact her soon to make amends. Betrayed by her father, Aleandra was ready to relinquish her birthright as well and escape with her betrothed somewhere far away, if only he contacted her.
Tired of waiting, she sent a message, a winged visage to find him.
Fog had rolled in thick during the night, and the clouds overhead seemed to mirror the murky ground. A rain storm was sure to come later in the day. Jenna pulled her burgundy cloak about her, the fabric damp from the fog. She got everyone started on a strong march from the clearing. They had spent too much time in the curiosities of the mana sink and Aleandra and still had an important meeting to make.
The mysterious woman’s story sat heavy in her mind. So many details seemed strange, out of place, about the story, yet she couldn’t put her finger on any one issue. Partuff seemed to think the same. More than once though, when she glanced at Garrius, who was unusually quiet, he seemed to be observing her furrowed brow give away her thoughts were as clouded as the sky above and the fog around them. He seemed to be waiting for something from Jenna, but when she questioned the old man he only asked her what answer she expected from him, then promptly commented on the weather.
Aleandra walked…floated?... along with them. But, only a short distance from the clearing, she turned to the side and began to slowly circle back.
“Aleandra? Where are you going?” Partuff called after her, following her. Reflexively he reached for her and watched his hand as it passed eerily through the green visage of her bodice sleeve.
Aleandra turned to them, confused, not recognizing any of the group for a moment. “Wha…? Oh, I don’t know. I…thought I …I’m not sure. I felt a call to go back there.”
”The mana sink. Its power over you will
fade as you travel away. Focus on your
destination, think of Chaltred waiting for you. You’re message will reach him and you’ll be
together in time for the Festival of Sarrus!!” Partuff smiled at her to lighten her mood,
remembering the spring festival from his youth.
Aleandra, however, only cocked her head and looked perplexed at the
mage.
“Sarrus? I don’t believe we celebrate that ceremony. I must hurry…I am to tell my beloved to meet me, the real me I mean, three weeks from the day I left, the full moon. On the beaches beneath the cliffs of Arrogan.” She sighed and looked away, memories of some distant place rising within her. “We first met there. It was a magical evening beneath the full moon. Chaltred was such a gentleman.”
It seemed at times as if they spoke different languages with
Aleandra. Arrogan? She had not heard
of Sarrus? The pale Chelt
cliffs on the Ou’en Sea were not too terribly
distant, perhaps four days ride. “Well,
my lady, best we get you from her soon.
You must have been trapped here for some days. The full moon is only a little over a week
away.”
Aleandra’s slender eyebrows arched in surprise at this. “Yes, yes, I must! Please help me escape here! My thoughts are so muddled here, already they have begun to clear. I kept thinking over and over of what I was sent to do, but I never could get to doing it.”
Partuff and Jenna took turns talking to Aleandra, helping her focus. The going was tough in some places. Occasionally, nothing they said could stop her from backtracking some distance before she even seemed to hear their voices again. Jenna raised her head to the sky to judge the time, but the clouds still obscured the sun. Small droplets had begun to fall gently from the sky upon their hair and misted on her upturned face. It seemed about mid-morning. Much more of this delay and they would have to leave Aleandra to the sink. Something in her couldn’t do it, even to a magical equivalent of a piece of parchment. Something about the visage was alive, even if only for a small purpose, it deserved a chance to live its life to the fullest. And, Partuff had seemed to take up her cause quite seriously. Jenna smiled at the priest, who shyly returned the smile. Would they consider a courtship when they returned? Who knew.
They stopped at
“I thought the sink’s effects would be weaker as we went away from it!” She exclaimed, half way through her meal, as she realized Aleandra had once again wandered away. She set down her meal and slapped her hands on her leather-clad legs as she arose.
“I don’t know. I presumed so. This is definitely worth telling the guild masters about!” Partuff got up to follow her.
Some distance away stood Aleandra, motionless. When they arrived, she held a finger to her lips for silence. “I thought I heard my sweet Prince! Perhaps he is here looking for me!” The other two listened for a long moment, but no sounds came to even Jenna’s sharp ears but the sounds of birds in the trees, old oaks moaning a slow, tired cry against the wind, and grasses whispering to the trees.
About to turn away, Partuff grabbed Jenna’s arm and pointed ahead. A figure moved between the trees, a faint purple aura about him. They walked up to him, and motioned Aleandra to follow, though she did not seem to see him as they did.
A young man, fairly attractive for a human, Jenna judged, with dark curly ringlets of hair wore a studded leather jerkin with filigreed design along the edges. A cape trailed behind him, clasped at his neck by some jewel. Obviously some noble, he seemed lost until he met their eyes. The most shocking, however, was that he was a spirit, as insubstantial as Aleandra.
“Her prince? Do you think?” Partuff turned and asked conspiratorially of Jenna.
“She doesn’t even seem to see him? How strange! How many of these creatures are wandering the wood around this sink?”
Garrius slowly approached from behind, his staff swishing gently through the tall grasses. “A visage sees true living beings, not other magical apparitions. They will not see each other.”
“Is this her prince then?” Jenna asked.
“Best you ask him.”
Partuff stepped forward. “Sir, sir?” The face, slightly afraid, eyes darting, locked with the wizard’s and held them. “May I ask your name? I am Partuff D’Orrnan, Silver Mage of the Taen Guild, apprentice to Ohmn. Can we help you?”
“Yes. I am lost. I
was sent for my beloved, but these damnable woods go on for an eternity. I am Prince Y’ehrn Chaltred Ou’eal D’Gorin, exiled heir to the throne of Angor. I seek my love, Aleandra.”
Jenna turned from the spirit to consult with Partuff. “They both sent visages to each other! At least Aleandra’s hopes were right. He did want to get with her.” She turned and looked at the two spirits, who stood not ten feet from each other, but faced only herself and Partuff, oblivious to each other. “I guess we’ll have to act as intermediaries of some sort.” She turned back to Chaltred. “Prince Chaltred, I am Jhai’nayian’ouea, of the Elven Clan Chei’th’shei’thoie’atha’. But, you can call me Jenna.” She involuntarily smiled, humans often seemed so perplexed by the long, complex words of the Elven language. “Do you have a message for your lady? Aleandra has sent a visage to you as well. You were both, um, trapped here. Partuff?”
“Your highness.” Partuff half bowed, unsure how to treat a magical ghost of a noble. “Both of your visages are part human, part magic. The mana in you was drawn to a mana sink. Mana flows everywhere, smoothly, through all things. Here, though, it does not. You have been lost from your loved one due to the call of the sink.”
“She is here?” Chaltred looked around, frantically, straight through where Aleandra stood. “Why can I not see her?”
“To whom do you speak, kind travelers?” Aleandra asked.
Jenna turned to Aleandra, then back to Chaltred, then to Partuff. “Ok, you take the prince, I’ll take the maiden.” Partuff smiled and nodded. She stepped away to explain the situation to Aleandra.
“Chaltred. You are both a winged visage, are you not?
Are you aware of what you are?” The prince nodded firmly, once. “Good.
A visage cannot see another magical creation, only beings. We will guide you both out from this sink,
and can talk for each of you to exchange messages. You must both communicate to your real selves
where you intend to meet. You do intend
to meet up with Aleandra and make up for what was done?”
“Yes! Yes! I hate myself for those actions. I wish to escape with Aleandra. We will travel to Abeth’non. The dwarves will give us asylum there and we can travel with the nomad gnomes until we find a new home. Tell her we shall meet one month from now under the cliffs of –“
“Arrogan?”
“Yes! How did you know? A month from now will be the anniversary of our first visit to the royal court. The first time we both received formal approval to begin courting.”
“Well, Aleandra wants to see you sooner. The full moon, at the cliffs. You met under the full moon, she says?”
“Yes! Excellent. I will tell her when I see her that I accept
and will be there. You will tell her
visage to tell my true self this as well?”
“Yes, Jenna over there is speaking to her.” Partuff and the prince turned to Jenna, who had apparently finished her conversation as well. The prince and Aleandra turned to look at approximately where each stood, but stood only staring into the depths of the forest. Each took a step towards the other, standing only a foot or two away, yet miles apart.
Jenna turned and broke into a big, very un-elven smile. She and Partuff conferred quickly, then she turned to tell Garrius the news. When she did though, it was as if a strong force hit her in the chest. Garrius stood several yards away, a deep frown on his worn face.
“You know not, then, what the situation we have here is?”
“Two lost lovers! Sending messages to one another to meet
up, but the messages were lost on the way.
Something out of a childhood tale, Garrius, but we get to set it right.”
“Turn not to the past to correct things, my dear sweet lady, but to the future.” At this Garrius nodded at Jenna and Partuff, and their hands, which in their excitement they had joined without realizing it.
“Well, yes, Partuff and I do, um..” she turned to Partuff, who shrugged, “do perhaps have something. But why can Chaltred and Aleandra not?”
Garrius turned to Partuff. “Let silence fall about us?”
Partuff nodded in understanding and dropped Jenna’s hand, who looked confused at Garrius. Partuff closed his eyes, and chanted. Slowly he extended his arms and hands and called for the air about them, the whispers in the grass, the moans in the trees. They rushed to him, and he felt the wall build about them, a small bell that curved up around the three. Nothing could be seen to the naked eye, but to the ear, not a single sound would pass in or out of that bell. The spirits outside would not hear a word they said.
“Why do you not wish them to eavesdrop?” Partuff asked as he opened his eyes and dropped his hands, a slight ache running through his body as he felt the toll of the spell.
“Have you not been confused by the names and places Aleandra and Chaltred have mentioned?” The two young, hopelessly idealistic persons before him nodded. “Does her hair and dress not seem foreign to all the courts you have both attended?”
Jenna and Partuff turned to each other and back, and nodded. “They are from somewhere rather distant, I suppose, thought I don’t know how their messages ended up here.”
“Chaltred speaks of the
“Ahln’be…” Partuff stroked his
chin as he pondered the ancient tongue. “Ruin. Resting place. Why?” Then Partuff’s
eyes opened wide. “Alnbengora? Alnbengora’s a
small fishing village on the
Garrius sighed, the teacher slowly explaining his lesson to his students who would much rather go out in the field to play. “And what is significant about such a small village you would know of it?”
“The old castle ruins. Little is known of the people who might once have lived there.”
“Alnbengora. Ahln’be N’Angoria. Resting place of the kings
of Angor.
The Ellin believed Alnbengora,
when they came upon the castle ruins, was the most likely place that the royal
castle of the ancient
“You’ve heard of Angor? It’s ancient? Why haven’t you said something?”
“I suspected. Aleandra’s hair is in a courtly style of none I’ve ever seen. Destre is no duchy that has existed in my many years. Not til I heard the prince speak of Angor did I realize whence he came.”
Jenna shook her head and interrupted the language lesson. “Wait, what are you saying?” She half expected what came next, but wanted to hear something else.
“Angor was a great kingdom, collapsed through treachery. A queen was the last regent. Little else is known. But Angor is not from this age, nor the Age of Ellin, but from a prior time. Thousands of moons have risen and set since Angor’s last days. Chaltred and Aleandra have been captured here for hundreds, even thousands of years. Winged visages are barely known of in today’s guilds, an ancient spell that uses primal mana forces to pull living essence into the creation.”
Jenna turned, in despair to the couple, the purple and green ghosts still hovering inches away, looking forlornly in each other’s direction and towards the silent threesome. Her throat tightened up and tears welled in her eyes, which seemed suddenly dry and wrapped in swollen eyelids, her throat raw as she swallowed. Partuff stepped to her and held her as she released her frustration.
How? Why? What gods would play such a cruel joke? Let her find lost lovers and believe she could unite them? Only to know that even if both had left for their meeting place at the appointed time, likely they never met. Images rose unbidden in her mind. Aleandra died an old maid, bitter at her former love for betraying her. Worse yet, she was married by her father to an unloving husband to better her duchy’s position. The children she bore and raised she hated, despising every feature that looked that of their father’s and not of her long lost love.
And of Chaltred? Had he gone looking for her? Captured by the rogues who had taken his mother’s throne? Consigned to die as he had no love, no soulmate to live for?
She released Partuff and turned to face he and Garrius, who looked uncomfortable in his role as the bearer of bad news. “Oh, Garrius. You told what needed be told. I’m a romantic I suppose! I wish there were something we can do!”
“Actually, there is.”
Partuff looked up in surprise at Garrius. “There is human essence in both, true?”
“Yes, you said so yourself. I can feel it intermixed with the mana flowing in them.” Partuff responded.
“You have the ability within you to call that mana out, release it. For a very short time, they will both be corporeal, of this world. They will see each other, and they can say goodbye.”
Jenna turned to him. “We should, shouldn’t we? We condemn them to an eternity of hell if we leave them here.” Partuff held her hands and nodded.
Silently, he stepped away, motioning to break the bell of silence. He stepped towards the spirits, who came up to him. He spoke to the air, to both, but not looking. “You will see your beloved soon. Cherish the time you will have, as it is all I can give you.” He didn’t have the heart to say anything further.
Searching his pouches, Partuff pulled small clumps of dried powders, red, cobalt blue, and varied others. He rubbed them in his hands, and poured them into a dried talac leaf rolled up. On it he dripped a small drop of a thick, black liquid he carried in a small skin. Finally, he grasped the leaf and crushed it in his hand as he squeezed his eyes closed and focused.
Focus….focus. The world was black. No, there were pinpoints of life all about, and mana swum about him like a swarm of fireflies, or a torrent of rain as he stood in the midst of a gale. Two though, he sought. Purple and green, they stood against the blackness and white dots of life elsewhere. He called to them and they came. The potion he had concocted gave him stronger sight into this world of spirit, and made his call alluring to those he sought. Each was a dancing sprite, intertwined with a pale white ribbon of light. Slowly, carefully, as an old maid at her knitting, he split apart the strings of mana from life and pulled them into him. Power and thought, emotion and energy rushed into his head, pounding away behind his eyes. Fighting for control, he slowly released the energy into the world about him. He heard Jenna’s gasp from nearby, and it helped to call him back to the physical world.
Opening his eyes, he swayed mightily, a foot lurching out to keep his balance. Jenna grabbed him as he released an exclamation of exhaustion. The world came into focus, and before them stood two human beings, not spirits, not translucent, not glowing in some otherwordly light.
Chaltred looked in shock at his hands, then at Partuff and Jenna, and finally at Aleandra. Their faces alit with a mix of shock, pleasure, and confusion. They could see know the fine detail in his garb, the gold lilt on his belt and the diamond clasp on the bright green cloak. His boots and the tail of the cloak gave away his rapid journey he had made before having the visage created. Aleandra was beyond beautiful. Her fair skin and fragile angles in her face gave way to a peachy complexion about her cheeks and soft lips, her hair fell from the long, stiff braids in golden red curls. Her eyes seemed fiery emeralds set in an exquisite china face. The detail on her garment spoke of great wealth, a fine silver thread wound its way through the layers of fine silk and other materials, glinting in the sunlight which had begun breaking through the clouds as the rain ceased.
The two ran to each other and Chaltred swept Aleandra up in his arms, swinging her about him, her laugh ringing out like soft silver bells being struck in harmony. They kissed deeply and shared a soft whispered moment. Partuff and Jenna took each other’s hands and, almost embarrassed to be present at such a moment, began to turn away.
“No, wait!” Chaltred said as he sat Aleandra down and they approached the couple in front of them. “I know not by what magic you brought us together, and I know you said it would not be long. But for these precious moments, I thank you.” He turned to Aleandra, whose whole face was alight with joy, her smile dimpling her face. “I understand what you did not say, that we will not be together for some reason to live out our lives…”
Partuff cleared his throat, “You actually –“
“No, we need not know. This moment is ours. We wish only to thank you, and we will be off. Good journeys, and enjoy your days together!”
Before Jenna could say ‘we’re not really together’, the two had given them each a brief hug and then run off into the woods together, laughing heartily as they skipped away, occasionally, stopping to swing each other around in a dance to a tune only the two of them heard. Jenna had even smelt the exotic, beautiful fragrance Aleandra wore when she had leaned forward to hug her and whisper into her ear “Thank you”.
Jenna turned back to Garrius and Partuff with a tear in her eye, but for a far different reason this time. She laughed and cried at the same time, joined by Partuff, and she could almost swear even Garrius had a glint to one eye.
“Come, we must be on our way. I believe I shall steer clear of these sinks
in the future, lest who knows what we come across next time?” Together, the three walked away back to the
porters.