A legacy lost

[Andureus]

Evening
Fourth Cycle Ioannes
Twentieth Candlemark Darkening Lunaria
Summer Era III Celestine Mandate
Twelfth Era Post Fractum, First Era of the Reign of Arabella
Paradigm: Kattarian Fleet Sighted
In a stately manor near the Temple


(private/prequel)


Linguistic note: All spoken portions of this dialog are presented in common but were spoken in the language of the Esh'lahier in which the term “young master” is a single word denoting worthy youth, or great potential with little experience.


***********************************************


Thel'donis examined the scattering of parchments, vellums and hastily scribbled notes arrayed before him on the heavy white pine table. His pale wheat colored hair was gathered back in a series of elaborate braids flowing past the pointed arch of each ear and meeting above the nape of his pale milky neck in a series of silver clips spreading like a metallic flower there. From that silver bloom the hair spilled through into a loose ponytail.


Like most of the Esh'lahier or Shadow Elves, Thel'donis had snowy skin and a slender frame. He reached a thin hand past the mess of documents collecting a crystal wineglass holding some pallid amber liquid that matched the light honey color of his eyes. His white tunic was trimmed in silver and the long white cloak of his house he wore this evening in the style of a toga thrown over his shoulder.


The room in which he sat was the very picture of opulence with white stone walls hung with tapestries imported from as far as High Peaks as well as inset alabaster and marble bas relief images of battles, heroes, and various avatars of virtue. Balls of icy mage-light shimmered like great diamonds in their sockets far up close to the molding on the high ceiling, itself carved with a geometric designs making it seem very much higher than its fifteen feet from the polished marble floor.


The door at the end of the room opened enough to allow another shadow elf male to enter with quick measured steps. This one wore silks of a light chocolate brown with white, tied on sleeves and loose surcoat of finely corded tan linen. Thel'donis cut his washed out gaze upward to the newcomer.


“Nethric, how are things.” His tone was direct to the point of rudeness but Nethric seemed to take no notice.


“All is as you wished it.” He said with a small bow of his head. His own hair was a frigid platinum and loose, bobbing around his face as he spoke. Thel'donis rose from the carved chair pushing the paper to one side messily.


“You sent the invitation to the girl?” He asked


“Yes, liege.” Answered Nethric.


“You prepared the library?” Thel'donis asked getting a grimace in return from the other elf.


“Neth?”


“Thel, the carpet is ruined.” Nethric answered turning his face away in apprehension. Thel'donis waved the look away.


“Now is no time to quibble over a length of costly fabric Neth. I would sell that and more, all things for…” Thel'donis stopped mid sentence caught by another thought.


“The courier…” he began, pointing past Nethric to the door but the linen clad elf held up slender hands as if to hold Thel'donis back.


“It is done, the package rests in the library just as you required. All is just as you wanted.” Nethric said reassuringly. Thel'donis just nodded and took another draft of his wine.


“This is a dangerous game we are playing Neth.” He said over the silver rim of his glass.


“Power is as dangerous to chase as it is to oppose.” Said Nethric sagely.


“Is he here?” Asked the toga clad elf to which Nethric just dropped his face slightly to one side affecting a look both wounded and conciliatory.


“yes, yes of course he is.” The older elf corrected himself.


“Very well Neth, let us begin. Have him brought before me.” Thel'donis said taking his seat again.


Nethric gave a small bow and left the room. Thel'donis took a deep breath arranging both his body and his mind for the upcoming game. Minutes later the door opened again and Nethric entered again this time leading a younger Shadow elf by an unresisting hand.


The young elf was clad in a plain gray tunic as would befit the summer months. Loose sandals scrapped across the polished stone floor as he shuffled forward with Nethric’s silent guidance. He was slight like all shadow elves and his hair was white as snow and long enough to be gathered back into a simple tied tail even though some few strands had escaped and waved now in the cool air of the stone room. His ash gray eyes gazed blankly as if into some faraway horizon.


Nethric looked at Thel'donis, who nodded gravely. Then the linen clad elf leaned close to the young one and whispered something into his ear. He looked at Thel'donis and held up four fingers and silently withdrew from the room.


The four seconds passed quickly and the faraway eyes slowly focused into one of confusion and then panic.


“Andureus. Is that a Medonian name?” Thel'donis asked conversationally from behind the desk sitting easily in the carved chair. The young elf looked at Thel'donis seeing him for the first time and took a step backward.


“You are Andureus, yes?” he asked the young shadow elf with a careless grin. The young elf just nodded beginning to look grave. Thel'donis smiled and leaned back into the chair.


“Good, excellent. Would you like something to …” he began indicating the tray of drinks near the desk but Andureus broke in with a clear voice.


“Where am I?” The air in the room seemed to subtly shift at the sound of the young elf’s voice causing Thel'donis’s skin to prickle up to his neck but he revealed nothing of his misgivings and just sat back into his chair.


“You are in my house, young Andureus. We are near the Temple. It is evening, barely a candlemark from sunset. You have been here for some four hours. You are uninjured and shall remain so if I can help it at all.” He said with a flourish of his thin hand toward Andureus and a gentle smile. But the young elf seemed unmoved and somewhat defiant.


“Who…” He began but Thel'donis stood, suddenly taking control of the conversation.


“I am Thel'donis Ethelantri of the House of Ethelan-Geth’Renur of late a Magister of Elemental Archanametrics.” Andureus took a breath as recognition flowed into his eyes.


“Ah yes, now you know me.” Intoned the older Elf moving around the side of the desk with a very slight limp.


“I worked with your father, I was even with him when…” Thel'donis saw the edges of the young elf’s eyes clench with the pain of memory.


“Yes, a dreadful business that. He was … “ Thel'donis felt the threads of his goal slipping away. He shook his head moving around the desk and past the young elf.


“We have no room in here, come to the library where we can sit and talk.” He said and moved to the door. Andureus followed him silently, his questions extinguished in a flood of childhood memories.


The hallway beyond the door was a white marble passage that curved slightly to the left with floral motifs set into the light stone walls facing the arched windows that formed the other wall of the hall. Beyond the vast planes of expensive glass rooftops slanted and curled away to a majestic tree line shown only in shades of black topped with a thin visible line of starlit sky.


Thel'donis stopped at a door covered in beaten tin strips that stacked together to gave the impression of a tree winding its limbs artfully up the face of the portal. He touched the door and it opened beneath his slender hand.


Just past the door was a odd shaped room in which the walls seemed to fall away from each other and the far end of the room was wider than the end closest to the door. The walls were all hidden behind slabs and panels filled to capacity with books and scroll cases. Andureus gaped at the sheer wealth around him. It was like being immersed in gold or drowned in jewels. Thel'donis rested his weight against a long table supporting even more books and a small slender wooden box. It was then that Andureus noticed the corpse.


It lay naked and facedown on the carpet, a red sticky looking stain had spread from beneath its head. It was a human male and the similarly rusty matting in its curly black hair told the tale of his demise on this spot.


“Yes,” the older elf said looking at the corpse as well quirking his thin lips up into a sad grin.


“Yes that does bring us to the meat of this matter young master Andureus.” The young elf looked back, stricken, to meet Thel'donis’ serious face.


“I hope I can impress upon you the barbarism to which I am willing to stoop in order to get what I want.” He said as Andureus’ mouth moved soundlessly. The air whistled through the room wafting the scent of the goats blood past Thel'donis like an accusation. The Young elf looked back and forth between the dead human and the older elf, at a total loss now.


“Let me tell you what I want, son of my friend. I want all of your fathers research, I want all of his belongings. You may or may not know that before his death he had contacted the very thrones of the elements, spoken to their core beings. He had made pacts, bargains, unlocked such power as even the old mages had never known. And that research, that power will be my own.” Thel'donis was standing now and breathing hard with the notion of commanding the thrones of the elemental lords.


Andureus looked at the older elf as one might look at a dangerous animal and Thel'donis could see understanding dawn in his gray eyes with fear right on its heels. The younger elf back away toward the door.


“No, no young master, you will not be harmed, You have my word on it.” The older elf said limping toward the door even as the Andureus snatched at the latch swinging it open.


“But Velsindia may fare poorly if you leave.” He said quickly, stopping Andureus halfway through the door. Thel'donis gave a small chuckle.


“Yes, we wouldn’t want anything to happen to her, would we?” he asked rhetorically. Andureus stepped back away from the open door pushing it closed again.


“But do not worry, young Andureus. You will get your chance to leave. Indeed, you will be leaving the city.” The young elf looked up sharply.


“But I haven’t even started…”began the young elf but his voice just trailed away with the enormity of his predicament.


“Started what? Arcana training? Weapon training, perhaps? You can do those things my boy, but not here.” Thel'donis finished with gravity moving to stand beside the young elf facing the opposite direction.


“There is more I am afraid. I have taken the liberty of having you marked.” He said nodding and limping to the raised tray holding glasses and a slim vial or blue liquid. Andureus looked after him with disbelief.
“A tattoo. The Seal of Jorel.” The older elf said tilting a glass toward Andureus. The younger elf gasped in spite of himself and, open mouthed, swung a hand to the small of his back. It had been sore since he had awoken in the office down the hall. Beneath his fingers he could fee the raised lines of inflamed skin, painted under with ink, perhaps even ensorcelled. If it was indeed the seal of the fallen one then he had become a breathing blasphemy.


“If you should decide to come back or oppose…”Thel'donis managed to say before Andureus barreled into him burying his slim hands in the fold of the toga. The young elf forced Thel'donis bodily backward knocking over the wine tray to the tune of shattering glass and scattering droplets of wasted wine. The older elf smashed into the wall pinned there by the young assailant who breathed violently into his face. The sound of wind whistled through the bare inch of space between their eyes. Beneath his fists Andureus could feel the lacing of burn scarring scoring the older elf’s body. It was craftily hidden beneath a veil of arcanna.


“Did you not think me prepared, boy? Do you think that my death will not spread word of your mark? Of your deeds?” The grappled elf hissed looking across the room to the corpse. Andureus followed his gaze and then released the stately and now somewhat rumpled elf staggering back. Thel'donis snapped his toga back into shape glaring at the young elf who covered his mouth with a sob turning away.


“When you leave here gather together what you will need to leave the city. Take nothing of your fathers. I will collect all of your fathers things.” Tel’Donis’ scowl softened and he laid a hand on Andureus’ shoulder where it shook.


“I will take good care of his things, my boy. You have my word.”


“When can I come back?” the young elf asked in a small voice, wiping his face, still turned away.


“Never, young master. You can never return.” Thel'donis said solemnly. Andureus nodded and moved shakily toward the door.


“Andureus.” The older elf called out and the youth stopped with his thin pale hand on the latch.


“Here, you should take this.” Thel'donis said snatching a slim box off the table.


“He used it in his rituals but I don’t need it…you should have something of your fathers.” He said opening the wooden box and fishing out the simple pendant. He held it out to Andureus who took it numbly. The older elf held on to it for a moment longer.


“If anyone should find out about this arrangement…” he didn’t have to indicate the corpse. Andureus nodded again and the stately elf allowed the chain of the pendant to slip away as the other elf slid past the door and was gone. The air seemed thick and oppressive and with a popping sound in Thel'donis’ ears the door in front of him slammed shut. Then the pressure fell away and he turned form the door breathing out in a great sigh of relief.


In the corner of the room an image faded into view with his hands held outstretched toward the corpse on the floor. Nethric slowly allowed his cramped arms to loosen and fall and as he did the corpse changed from a naked human to a white and black goat with its throat cut.


“You heard it all.” It wasn’t a question but Nethric nodded anyway sinking into a nearby padded chair.


“Masterfully done, Thel. But the box…” Nethric asked. Thel'donis grinned slightly.


“My own touch. The final security.”


“It is not his fathers?” Inquired Nethric sitting forward. The older elf shook his head.


“No, it is a piece of an obscure collection kept within the Grand Temple. And it is quite stolen. If he should oppose me, I can just indicate its theft and he will be hunted down. If he stays or hides, someone will recognize it and again his life will be forfeit.” The faintest shade of regret floated across the older elf’s face.


“Masterfully done Thel, bravo.” Said Nethric with the true conviction of one witnessing a master at his art. Thel'donis turned to look at the seated elf with accusation in his slender eyes but it faded as quickly as it had formed.


“Neth, old friend. Get this room cleaned up and have a detail sent out to gather the Master’s things.” He said limping away from the crushed glass sparkling on the carpet. He moved out of the room as the thin linen clad elf was rising from the chair grinning a grin that belonged on a feral dorin rather than a elegant shadow elf.


“Yes master Thel, It shall be as you wish it. It shall all be just as you wish it.”




(cont-)

[Andureus]

Evening
Fourth Cycle Ioannes
Twenty Third Candlemark Darkening Lunaria
Summer Era III Celestine Mandate
Twelfth Era Post Fractum, First Era of the Reign of Arabella
Paradigm: Kattarian Fleet Sighted
In Andureus' family home


(private/prequel)


***********************************************

The smell of bread came from the hallway as the heavy wooden door shut behind Andureus. The house that opened from the hallway was a normal holding of a wealthy Archmage. Ornate tables covered with papers and half constructed experiments. The stone stairs wound up from the teakwood floor just past the end of the hallway and spiraled up to the second story. Andureus slept there in his small room he had occupied for all memory. The big one down the hall was his father’s. He never went there.

Andureus walked down the hallway like a being in a trance. Stepping past the hall’s end he was bathed sunlight. The arched window far up on the wall of the tall room was, in reality, no window at all but a crystal that stored light during the brightening and shed that light during the darkening. A gift from an archprelate or some such dignitary. Little motes of dust drifted past on their dusty errands. Nothing down here had been touched since his father died.

“Andsa, Is that you dearest?” Came a light voice from the kitchen behind the stairs. Andureus felt his heart clench. It dove beneath an icy lake of dread when Isinsarien drifted from the heated room. Even in the shadow of the stairs he could see clearly her pale gold hair pinned back except for the two locks to either side of her smooth face. They hung down strung through with gold threads and those braided seamlessly into elaborate knots at the end such that the beautiful hair seemed to just become true gold at its tips. Her dress was a simple affair of gray silk with white ties down the back. It was off her shoulders allowing the extra fabric to drape down the back like a miniature cape framing her slender shape. She always wore gray when she visited him.

“Andsa? You look dreadful. Where have you been?” She asked in her sweet soft voice like a whisper. Even telling the time could be an intimate event with her. She stepped forward into the light and Andureus looked down. She had rare dark wine colored eyes and he could not bring himself to look there.

“Andsa? You invited me and then you were gone? What has happened?” She said with concern tilting her head slightly to look at Andureus’ face. Invited? He looked back up at her as realization flooded in. Invited. This was his chance to save her from that madbeing Thel’donis. Surely he would kill her if she found out about his predicament. She would ask questions, inquire after him unless…

“You smell of sandalwood, were you in the temple district?” Isinsarien asked in playful suspicion.

“You have to leave.” Andureus blurted. She is so smart, he thought. How can I fool her, what can I do?

“What?” She said with a laugh revealing lovely white teeth.

“Why would I leave? I have new made bread, ready to eat in your unseemly absence. Would you like…” She said starting to turn.

“I cannot do this” Andureus thought.

“Because I am tired of you.” He said. She stopped and turned back toward him with an stunned look.

“You were never much to me.” He said stiffly.

“She is smart, be confident, be calm, don’t hesitate.”

“What are you talking about?” She said cautiously, looking at him as if he were someone else now, a stranger that she had suddenly noticed.

“I'm saying that I am tired of your constant nattering, take it with you when you go.” He said shifting his weight slightly to look more casual.

“She is going to know, I cannot do this!”

“What are you really saying?” She looked down at his feet and he could feel her eyes scouring him upward like a wire brush.

“You aren’t a very good lover and I am tired of the disappointment. I cannot stand your smell. You should get some perfume or bathe perhaps. I ...really cannot spare any more pity for you.”

“Ah the pain! She is going to know. Stay focused!”

“White dust, Sandalwood. You were in the temple district. You spoke to someone there. What did they say?” She said directly, piercing his calm like a stealthy blade.

“She knows, she will find out, he will kill her, what can I do, Oh no no no no…”

“I have a new lover and she is…by far your superior. Come, come don’t beg like a dog. Take your whining back home…little sow.” He said around the spasms in his stomach. The sweat ran down his back like nails raking across the new tattoo at the base of his spine.

“I am losing. I cannot do this! How to turn her, how to make her…”

“You are lying.” She said with a air of haughty triumph looking at his hand clutched around the pendant given to him by Thel’donis.

“One chance…mercy for me, mercy on my heart, I beg it…”

“What do you have? Shall I go and find…”she started just as Andureus’ other hand lanced out lightning quick and spun her around with a stinging slap across her perfect white face. The two locks of gold braided hair swung out mimicking her arms, flung out to catch herself as she tumbled back. She fell to her hands and knees sending dusty eddies and spectral shapes in all directions.

“No no no ohhh no…”

“What use could I possibly have for you. Go away, silly little animal. I am finished with you.” Andureus said tightly.

For a moment she did not move but just stayed there on her hands and knees staring at the wooden floor then in a swirl of silk and seething golden hair she twirled, rising at the same time. She lunged into him and Andureus though she had flung herself into his arms until he felt the cold steel of the dagger laid bare against his throat. She laid her body against him breathing into his neck, her breath misting across the mirrored width of the blade where it pressed hard against his pulse.

“This would be better, yes this would be best”

He could feel her mouth move but no words came out, then something dropped onto his collarbone, a drop of anguish from her reddened cheek.

She turned releasing the dagger to fall to the floor in a raucous clatter covering her steps as she quickly slipped out the door leaving it open in her wake. She disappeared instantly into the night without so much as a backward glance.

Andureus looked down at the bone handled dagger. It was missing a chip from the tip where it had struck the flooring. As he viewed it gleaming in the faux light a small sunlit gem fell toward it from his face, shattering into a thousand tiny droplets against the sunlit blade. Then another fell and another. The still air smelled strongly of burnt bread.

(cont-)

[Andureus]

Night
Fourth Cycle Ioannes
Twenty Eighth Candlemark Darkening Lunaria
Summer Era III Celestine Mandate
Twelfth Era Post Fractum, First Era of the Reign of Arabella
Paradigm: Kattarian Fleet Sighted
Entering the Forest of Light


***********************************************

The four shadow elves clustered close to Andureus now. They had come to collect him at his fathers house earlier all smiles and jokes, as if this was one big adventure set out upon by a band of friends. Now that the walking group had descended the valley and exited the gate there was only the slim path that curved into the forest of light and no one said anything. Even the forest itself was quiet and stilled as if watching him as well.

At his fathers house he could not decide what to take with him. The whole desperate situation weighed so heavily on him that he could scarcely think to pack anything. He had tucked the chipped dagger left behind by his love into his belt and hung the gem offered by the mad Thel’donis around his neck. The house was so still and motionless. As if the whole of the world had spun slowly to a stop over a lifetime and now there was no life left in it.

With automatic motions he had gathered his traveling clothes, the gray corded poncho-style cape with the hood, the heavy trousers and the light leather boots. The boots were not for traveling really but they were the heaviest footwear he owned.

He looked around the house. Portraits, books, papers, arcane laboratory apparatus and paraphernalia lay strewn over most surfaces and dust lay on top of that. He was surrounded in a great glacier of knowledge and learning snowed under with the dust of his own apathy.

There was no knock. He just looked up to find them standing in the doorway looking at him solemnly. He knew that they were there for him, sent by a madman on a mad errand. It hardly mattered now.

The four were dressed in festive tunics and shifts of light blue and green. They had wine skins and were all very familiar with each other. Straight away from his door they started up the carousing behavior, singing and laughing as if drunk. He was shouldered into their midst, groped and grasped along the streets toward the outskirts. They must have looked like a proper gang of bravos with him the only gloomy cloud in the tiny tempest.

The gate guards and the archers higher up kept a weather eye on them but who could dampen a youths spirit on a perfect night like this. They were easily motioned through and vainly shushed to silence.

Once the Forest of Light had bent the path away from the gate, the singing stopped and the four elves kept him close, looking in all directions to be assured of the forest’s intentions. The great conifers and oaks just waited patiently, towering in the shifting summer moonlight.
One of the elves, in a blue tunic, who had been holding his arm stopped the group and turned Andureus around to face them.

Without a word he produced a beautiful side pouch and opened it. From it he pulled an imperial visa and showed it to Andureus by holding it in front of his face in the moonlight, then he stuffed it back into the bag. He also showed him a parchment that the young elf could not really read in the dim blue light, but back in the bag it went.

Another smaller bag came out of the pack. The guide jingled it and it sang with the music of coins from inside. Then it too went back into the bag. Finally he produced a wrapped slice of jerky. It looked meager but Andureus was not hungry in the least. Indeed, the proceedings had begun to make him slightly ill. The dried meat was stuffed back into the bag and that bag pushed into the young elf’s numb hands.

Andureus stood there awash in misery gripping the beautiful bag. The front panel of the pack bore a stylized calligraphic circle script of the three virtues of truth, law, and justice rendered in lovely beadwork. The young elf wondered if this was some sort of celestial joke.

The one who had handed him the bag shifted his eyes to the others who looked back at him with a meaning indecipherable. Blue tunic fished into his own bag and pulled out a wrapped piece of meat and he stepped forward and put it into Andureus’ bag. He then reached up and placed his hand on the younger elf’s head with the thumb on the forehead in the farewell of fondness between young males.

With a motion each of the other bravos came forward and gave him their ration of food, pushing it into his bag. They also gathered their wineskins together filling one fully and this they offered as well hanging it over his shoulder. Each one offered the farewell as they passed him on their way back toward the hidden gates.

Blue tunic leaned in so close that their foreheads almost touched.

“North by north east to Mystique. Show them your visa. The deed is in your bag. Respect the forest…do not come back.” He said to the young elf. Andureus tried to nod but blue tunic did not wait. A moment later he was alone poised on the edge of the open maw of the forest. He was stricken by the cruelty that had passed this night but stunned by the kindness of strangers.

Closing the bag and buckling it onto his belt he moved into the forest which accepted him like a very patient predator. North by north east, step by step, as the tall canopies swallowed the stars whole and bled the moon away to a great dark nothing.

Welcome, Andureus though, to the Forest of Light.

[Gryffin]

The Forest was a magical place and it showed between the bows of all the old and ancient trees. Light dappled the ground, creating the varying patterns of the leaves upon the traveler within. While it seemed all that nice and pleasant, the reality was far different.

Fae stalked the branches, the small guards watching those that walked through the trees with silent vigil. This was their home and they would be damned if anyone would desecrate such a place.

Andureus’ journey had only begun, following the sun silently; the shadow elf was left untroubled by the Fae, his kind being welcomed in the forest more than any other. Still, the little people couldn’t stop everything.

Skulking through the trees was a creature of common rarity. Rare in such a way where it was uncommon to stumble across one, and common in the sense that many had killed one, or had been killed by one. The Hellbear lumbered through the forest, its gruff grunting and extra canines symbolizing its maturity. It was mating season, and it was injured. The bear had wandered to close to a Fae village and was peppered with tiny arrows.

It saw the shadow elf and began to turn toward the boy. With an impressive roar the bear lurched onto its hind legs, showing its impressive height of seventeen feet. When it landed back on its front paws, it began to charge. As it did a spell was invoked, flames rippling out over its body. The only hope for Andureus was to run, very fast.

[Andureus]

Past mid darkening
Fourth Cycle Ioannes
Second Candlemark Darkening Solaria
Summer Era III Celestine Mandate
Twelfth Era Post Fractum, First Era of the Reign of Arabella
Paradigm: Kattarian Fleet Sighted
Entering the Forest of Light

***********************************************


The forest seemed to buckle in all direction with the trees nearby rushing backwards while the image of the flaming bear with his hungry baleful eyes rushed toward him. Panic dumped a sky of ice into his spine and the moment between fight and flight stretched out before him in ages past. The voice of his father came to him from days almost forgotten, almost but not quite.

****

“You are always in the college, you never spend any time with me” Accused a young Andureus of a tall pale skinned shadow elf with slanting clear light blue eyes who looked down at the child with amusement. The elf child crossed his arms and huffed, standing his ground in the open door way blocking his father’s way from the house.

“You think I do not think of you?” asked the tall elf quietly gathering his long gray half-shoulder cloak up to kneel down to the child.

“You never stay with me.” Said Andureus sulkily allowing his pale eyes to disappear beneath a messy mop of silky snowy white hair.

“Andsi, my Andsi.” Said the tall Elf wistfully reaching out to touch the young elf on the point of his thin chin. The little boy looked up with sad eyes.

“The time I spend in the college helps you, little cloud.” He said making the small elf smile in spite of himself at the play name. the tall elf quirked his thin lips into a lopsided grin and touched the young ones nose making him flinch back with a small laugh.

“I am making your future Andsi. When you are old enough you will be a prince of air, a peer among the great cold thrones of lightning.” Then the tall elf’s face dropped into a serious mask all levity evaporated in the heat of a direct gaze.

“You remember how we talked about fire, though?” he asked looking into the little elf’s eyes. Andureus bobbed his head affirmative sending strands of hair swirling in the swishing breeze from the square beyond the still open door.

“It will only ever get worse. You must avoid fire always. It will hate you forever. It will kill you if it can. It will kill you without thinking, without asking, without the slightest hesitation. Never get near fire ever, son of my love. If the thrones of air swear to your life, great burning forces have sworn to your death. Remember that always.” He said with a little shake of young Andureus’ shoulders. The little boy nodded gravely and the tall elf look slightly relieved as he stood.

“Now I have to go. I shall bring you back a treat.” He said shuffling the young elf to the side as he stepped from the door .

“I don’t want a treat, I want a word game with you.” Said the little elf again but without the rebellious tone. The tall shadow elf offered a conciliatory smile.

“So impatient, little prince, We have all the time in the world.”

*****

And that was how Andureus saw his father, standing in the street of his home city in the bright Ioannes sun, cycles ago. Bathed in the light of lightening like a halo and looking at his with those eyes full of everything. All that sandwiched into that instant between the vision of the dark lump moving in the dank underbrush and the image of the great flaming bear rushing at him.

The sight of the fire gouged him with fear. It was not the bear that was after him. It was the flame, the blade of the sun, the Tellasi incarnation of pain. The flame had found him!

He turned and sprinted into the woods letting the leaves slap at his face, the brambles rake at his thighs and sides. Leaning into the stride he tried to think. He father had always said that thinking could save you where noting else could. Andureus certainly couldn’t call on anything else at this point. A chipped dagger? A budding magical skill not even trained, not even realized? He could not outrun a creature of the forest. He could not fight it. He could not face flame. That left only one option, one chance. Wits.

Sprinting and weaving around and through trees Andureus kept his eyes peeled for signs of water, reeds, ruts. Sniffing at the air he begged his senses to find what he was looking for as the huge flaming barrel of fury crashed through the brush behind him.

[Gryffin]

Running and running, the lone shadow elf would soon slow, the Hell Bear catching up and doing the unknown. It lumbered onward, closing the gap between the pair. As Andureus ran, all he could hear was the grunting roar and the licking flame until, nothingness.

Should he open his eyes, the Shadow elf would find himself hovering over a small gorge in the forest. The noise of a fallen warrior rose up from the bottom, the flames all gone now. Soon he would feel the grass beneath his feet and see only tiny wisps of light zoom off in every direction.

He had strayed far from the path, on either side of the small clearing were huge brambles. Over by a tree, a small blue being hovered, chirruping excitedly. It led Andureus back to the path from which he had strayed and left him to his wandering.