Unexpected

[Slyfoot M'Zors]

Slyfoot stayed a little while longer at the hunter’s camp as not to seem suspicious, then dismissed herself saying it was a matter of business. It was no lie. So much had happened of late she could barely think clearly though it all. Thoughts of Bornus, her mother, her past all blinded her mind like a sudden mud-dark flash flood that just keep sweeping her concentration away in its currents. She shook her head clear, and gazed about her. She had kept walking straight and realized now that it was gently raining.

“Darlena, that’s right, I must head to Highborn and research the art of rebuilding lost memory…”

She squelched on through the muddy forest heading south to the erudite city. She wouldn’t admit it, but of all the lands and great cities that covered the continent, Highborn was her favorite of all. So much knowledge and principle lied within its well established and humble walls. It was one place that was fairly free from the corruption that ravaged the earth.

For days on end she traveled, stopping only to eat when dire need made itself irresistibly noticeable. She had a mission and time was suffocating under the never ending tide of passing days. She could see the soft folds in the mountains where the city rested. The sun was setting and she sifted her squinted eyes to the ground to avoid the glare. She stopped. There was a small withered plant just before her feet, strangled in the clay-yellow dirt. Her brow furrowed and she pursed her lips as wet sorrow threatened to breach the tiny aqueducts of her eyes. She stepped again on the dessert like ground, away from nature‘s miniature replica of her mother‘s grave. Small puffs of dust scuffed along the ground with each steadier step as she swallowed back the lump in her throat.

She sniffed and set her shoulders back and looked ahead again at the city gates. Whispering softly, her skin molded into a darkened hue and her features elongated as yet again an Eruditian form concealed her identity. She smiled and nodded at the guards as she past.

She glanced about the small city as she made her way to the library, but her gaze did not follow her desires, but rather remained transfixed on a little girl and her mother. She almost smiled as she watched the mother lift her child to her chest and grasp her tight, whispering in her ear how much she loved her. Her eyes blurred again, but she refused to release the torrent that begged to be free. She silently entered the warm atmosphere of texts and documents that Highborn was famous for. Being a frequent herself, it did not take her long to locate the section of books regarding memory loss. She gathered every book that seemed to breach the subject and piled them on a desk. Sitting back, she rubbed her traveled and worn eyes, and opened the first book. She glance over its contents finding nothing of relevance to her needs and placed it on the floor beside her. She continued in this fashion through several books written in varying languages, until a thump startled her. It took her a moment to realize the thump was her own head that had fallen to the desk in exhaustion. She shook night’s grasp from her eyes and continued on through the stack. Thump. She jumped up again a few moments later after sleep had begun to engulf her. This was important, she had to keep going. She took one of her daggers and pricked its tip in her leg. Every time she felt the weight of her eyes begin to drag her into unconsciousness, she gave a slight twist to the tiny blade, jerking herself back into awareness, as she slugged on through the volumes. Then, as if by magic the solution was before her eyes. One word was all it would take to bring back Nikkii’s memories of motherhood. But that one word was incredibly hard to pronounce, and the power necessary to ensue the desired consequence was immense. Yet within her Sly knew she could do it, she had to. She did not have the energy to practice, so she just trusted that her tongue would not fail her when the moment came that it would be tested. She looked at the word one last time, and put the books back, one by one by one by one. Finally she stumbled out of the warm building and made her way to a tavern for the evening, collapsing on the bed before she could even think of sleep.

[Slyfoot M'Zors]

The red glare the sun cast on her eyes woke her midmorning. She eased up, feeling the wariness of the days past weigh heavily on her sinuous limbs. She swallowed dryly, and moped down to the tavern for a bite to eat. The place was empty except for one lone couple that were so engulfed in their own world that it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Sly sighed as she sat at the bar. A faint voice echoed in her head until awareness told her it was the bartender asking what she would like. She ordered a simple meal, and rubbed visions of Bornus from her eyes. She discussed with the barkeep where she might find Nikkii and the gypsy camp. She could always rely on strange tidbits of information to float in the bar amongst its wafting stench. The thought of alcohol made her sick, as it always did, regardless of the habits she had begrudgingly formed to stave off her nightmares.

After finishing, she tipped the barkeep, and headed off to the stables. It didn’t take her but a day’s journey to near the gypsy camp, though it seemed to her only a few hours, as her mind kept her occupied. It was a chorus of clip-clopping hooves that caused her down cast gaze to shift up at the road ahead. She quickly dismounted and guided the horse with her mind off into the distance, as she hid beside the road shrouded by invisibility and bushes alike. As she watched the caravan draw closer, she eyed the rich decorations the group was adorned with, and then the red blazing hair of the Tier’dal priestess. For once time was working with her. It took but a moment for the horses to halt by her charming words. Fight as might, the caravaners could not coax the beasts into movement as Sly’s gaze remained fixed on the woman, who was glancing about knowingly that something was afoot. Sly waited patiently, waiting for a moment she would dismount the wagon and come close enough to enrich her target with memories of her history. That moment came shortly, and the ancient words hissed from Sly’s lips as the woman past. Sly felt her energy drain with her breath as it escaped from her. The last thing she saw was Nikkii grab her head, as her eyes grew wide with realization as Sly fell into blackness.

She was wet, cold, when she woke, laying beneath a blanket of morning dew. She pushed the scratching bushes aside and rose to her feet. Her horse was nowhere to be seen, but that was no worry. She brushed herself off and headed back down along the road, towards the closest town. Yet her mind traveled a different path. She didn’t bother to divert it, as she thought on about her love of the past, how she had thought she had see him, how she had once said she would no longer consume ale for him, how she wanted to change to be with him, how she hated the life she was living, knowing he was looking down on her. Her lips quirked in disgust as she thought back on all the blood that was on her hands, and how she had been lost to the sick pleasures of murder. She shook her head at the thoughts, and looked up to see the town sitting straight in front of her. She morphed into a set of human features and walked up to the vendors. She bought some parchment, some traveling rations, and a set of warm clothes, and packed them in a sack. She then stopped by the coachman for a steed and headed off to the north

[Slyfoot M'Zors]

The rhythm of the horse’s hooves lulled her into a daze as she rode on. Then she stopped the beast looked at the road ahead, set her head level as her eyes sharpened on the horizon. She healed the stead into a gallop and rode on hard until the sun’s long fingers grasped at the earth’s edge as it slipped into darkness.

She walked the tired animal off the road, and camped down for the night. Starting a small fire, she wrote two short letters, enchanted them, and then let them be swept up into the breezy streams of the sky. Laying back, she rested, thinking on the events the next day would hold. She looked up at the clear stars above her as she wrapped the sheltering clothes tightly about her in defense of the chilling northern breath of the mountains.

She eased her eye lids back just as the pink wisps of the new day were being painted across the horizon. She briskly packed up her belongings, took a deep breath of the crisp air, and mounted the horse. A light snow began to fall around her, as she reached higher elevations and ascended to the white world of the crystal ridges. She halted her beast at the sight of the dark hole nestled in the mountain side just ahead. She dismounted and freed the horse from all its man made contraptions, letting them clank into the snow. She rubbed her hands over the beast’s course hair and then slapped it into a gallop off to freedom. She clutched her clothes close to her, as she trudged through the snow, blinking away the light flakes that settled on her eye lashes. Her skin paled and she felt clammy and cold as she neared the cave, her stomach feeling nauseated as she drew nearer. She stopped, her body shaking as she stood at the dry mouth of the cavern, closed her eyes, swallowed, then stepped one quiet step into its sheltered confines, then another step, and another. She continued on, until the filtered light of the cloud hidden sun revealed the stark white curves and lines the lied on the red stained cave floor. Sly shuttered at the sight, and slowly bent to the ground and knelled beside the skeleton of her father. The only flesh that remained was the sinews that barely held his bones together. She gently slid her hands beneath his carcass and carried him out into the thickening snow. She laid his remains on the snow and bit her lip as warm tears silently streamed from her sorrowed eyes. Slowly she burried him under the snow, covering his white bones with a mixture of ice, powder, and tears. Sharp breaths rattled her lungs as she wept. Once he was well covered, she knelled back in the snow, sitting on her knees. She let the tears come freely now as she spoke into the wind.

“Father….” She paused as she choked on her tears. “Father, forgive me…..Forgive me for killing you that night. I was full of hate and I thought revenge would bring me happiness…but it only brought me more sorrow. Please forgive me, for I realize now that I was wrong to take your life from you. I was lost father….I’m sorry.”<br>
She lowered her lips to the ground and kissed it, right over her father’s grave. She sat back silently for a moment, then backed away from the grave a little, but remained kneeling in the snow. Her tears came harder now, and she shook as one by one she removed her daggers. One from the base of her neck, one from her bosom, one from her waist, one from the small of her back, one from her left calf, and one from each over her sleeves. She set all seven of them in a semi-circle in front of her and raised her face to the sky.

“Lord of Peace, where ever you are, forgive me….I regret what I have done in the past, the blood I have spilled with these wretched pieces of metal, the lives I have taken with these hands.”<br>
She glanced down at her hands as she flexed them closed then open again as they rest on her lap. But she raised her flooding eyes to the sky again.

“Forgive me for all I have done that brought ill on others. I deceived myself into believing such acts would release me of my sorrow, that somehow they would bring me a sense of free will and power. I offer no excuse for the horrors I have committed, the pain and agony issued from my whims. All I offer now is my apology. Forgive me….”

Sly breathed in sharply as a strange peace washed over her and her eyes flashed . She opened them again, and kept her ice-blue eyes fixed on the light in the sky above her. She stared in aw as the bright light seemed to get larger and larger though dulled by the blizzard billowing and buffeting the world around her. As the light engulfed her she exhaled as her lips began to curl into a smile. Then there was a bright flash, and a small ball of light floated and faded into nothingness as the winds slowed. Nothing remained but the soft breeze and the gently drifting flakes of feathery crystal drifting to the ground.