Seeds sown

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There he was standing in the middle of the common room of the small forest house, that thankfully was known to only but one, besides the two newlyweds. Aingeal watched him from around the corner quietly for a moment; his red robes always crisp and bright, his walking stick in his right hand as he scanned the table that housed all the tools of her own trade. Moments like this touched her deeply. Did he realize how he had breathed life back into her? Did he realize that finally she felt whole? It mattered not to her, she had made her mind up and was not going to back down now.

"Minalan" She whispered as he turned swiftly to see her. She smiled as he crossed the room; the limp that marked his gate was invisible of to her. But her knowing mind knew others probably thought the two of them the oddest pairing but it was the most natural thing for the two of them.

"My wife" he spoke with such conviction, wrapping his arms around her. "You should prepare to travel, we have to go speak with Judas"

His words fell heavy in the air; Aingeal knew what this would be like. She had heard from the others that always gathered at the wooden tables in the tavern. The night the news of Elerius' death reached their friends; how Judas exploded... And his following interrogation of her the following night as to what exactly happened or what she knew. Aingeal knew it was not fair to keep much of what brought the poor apprentice's demise to pass was of her doing. She could feel it in her bones. Minalan's hands traced down the middle of her back as he kissed her, bringing her back from her own thoughts. "Come then let's face them together" as the air crackled with electricity and the blue hue of a magical gate tore open the portal that would lead to what was to be a most uncomfortable conversation.

Faeryl was sitting there in solitaire, but she was quiet even as the heavy wooden doors opened. Aingeal sat across from her, giving her a welcoming smile, that brought no reaction from her. "What is the matter Fae?" The only response was a shake of her head.

Judas came from behind the bar, calling to Fae, "Were going to move her to Trins... OH your both here, good. Come down stairs Anna has been injured." The mood of all gathered left a sour taste in Aingeal's mouth. A forgotten comment said long before that was forgotten.... Something along the lines that something would slowly tear these adventures under..... "Was this it? Death by a thousand cuts?" Aingeal thought. As they descended the stairs to the hidden room that was found in the back of the cellar. As the door opened to the dimly light room there was Anna beaten. the site frightened Aingeal, "Is that how I looked? Hollow and broken...?"

Judas helped her to stand as they made their way to Trinisic. Jolicia was oddly silent and drunk as the libation in the bottle sloshed as she tipped it back to her lips. Slowly the procession paraded over the sandstone streets. Finally the Healers rushed out to collect the broken paladin. With Anna attended too.. It didn't take long for the attention to turn towards the newlyweds.

Judas and Minalan spoke briefly in hushed tones; it ending in the air giving that whiff of ozone as from the ground grew the portal that would lead to the inquiry Aingeal had secretly dreaded for so long. As the world came into focus once again, there was the great house that once was her own quiet haven that was warm against the cold nights she tried to escape. The place where upon her discovery, she had come to walk the path of those she had grown so accustom too...

Entering it they all sat at the vast empty table. Surely years past when grand banquets were held there, but tonight it acted as a barrier keeping a war from conceding and taking them all to places the other feared. Aingeal felt Minalan take her hand and reassuringly squeeze it.

"Well I suppose I'll start then." Judas spoke in calm manner that seemed odd given the body language that Aingeal observed; Judas seemed uncomfortable and barely keeping control of how he wished to approach the subject that had for months been veiled in words of "promise and under control". Jolicia's hat hid her eyes from view, but the shield of contempt that was thick from her. Playing over and over in Aingeal's mind was every scene that brought them, to this place. The raised voice of Jolicia broke into her thoughts as she spoke spitting venom towards Minalan, his hand grew hot as his temper began to flair. Aingeal squeezed his hand tightly in a feeble attempt to calm him. Once again. Silence. A stalemate had come to pass. Something that she feared more then anything. but out of the eerie calm Minalan's voice came through strong and with conviction. His words of love, of his never ending desire to see her free from all that chained her to the land and to the People that had been her whole world as long as she could remember. It was in this single moment the realization that all that had past all that was to come from this meeting was for her benefit. Minalan spoke of it all the time to her in private but to hear him vocalize it here, made it more real then it had ever before.

His arm pulling her to his side suddenly gave her a new courage that she had forgotten for far to long. No she would not allow them to lay this blame of a common spy at his feet. Elerius' crimes were not that horrible to see his life cut short in a blaze of fire and great pain. But at the crux he was a spy, he had betrayed Minalan's trust. Why was this lost on her friends. Aingeal leaned against him letting his warmth keep her from shaking. Just like that it was over. An uneasy truce. Watching Jolicia and Judas leave Aingeal felt an ache of sadness. She did love the two of them but now it seemed as if it was conditional to what would benefit the whole. The whole. Was that what she had forgotten? "Have I become selfish? Am I just realizing what others feel? Perhaps the Crone is right I am not worthy of what was blessed to me, to what I had given my word, my very life too. Broken vow to the Fates, the People, the Land. "...By fire..."

"What I have wield will not come to roost." Aingeal thought as Minalan lead her back to their hidden paradise.

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Sleep was not a luxury afforded tonight.

Aingeal stood before the great hearth in the Keep; naked as the day she was born, trying to reach out to those she had only ever known, that understood her better than any other.

Silence.

Only the cracking of the logs giving in to the flames and the sound of the wind losing its battle against the masonry that kept it at bay. Glancing back to see her own shadow ebb and grow taller as the fire fed on its prey.

Closing her eyes she attempted again. “Great Mother… Hear me; let them show mercy upon me, my work is not complete.”

Silence.

Her entire being was at unrest; the only thing containing her emotion was the skin that covered her muscles and bone. Tears streamed down her cheeks dripping off her chin to the floor, covering her mouth to hide the whimpering that ached to escape in a great howl of despair.

Turning her back to the fire Aingeal’s vision was blurred by the unrelenting tears. Staring aimlessly at the door, where on the other side, her husband slept soundly. She knew the moment she descended the stairs from her trial, she was never to lay eyes on any of them again, or if she did they would view her as a ghost, something that once was but does not exist now.

“Alisiea… I have to get to Alisiea before the news finds her. I… I… must tell her how she must forgive me, I failed her. I was not strong enough to stop all this folly.” Pacing back and forth wringing her hands in front of her, her legs shook under her weight, each step became harder. Stopping before the doors that led up to the library, Aingeal laid her hands on the door, as if taking the pulse of the house. “I am nothing now, it was all for nothing.” Falling to her knees, her face turned up to the ceiling, pleading with the very Fates that control all outcomes, for forgiveness, for compassion, or of a sense of what was to come.

Silence.

[Minalan]

Two heavy iron-wrought chained manacles held me upright in the dark, damp confines of the prison cell. The cuffs dug painfully into the flesh of my wrists every time coughing spasms wracked my body. My flesh crawled under the iron mask I was forced to wear. I could feel the sorcery within it, preventing me from using any sort of magic, and leaving me perpetually tired and helpless. I drifted in and out of sleep, with nothing but my own cursed sluggish thoughts to keep me company for days on end.

My head swam, and I heard voices. At first, I thought it a fragment of my fevered dreams. “He shall be forever remembered in the vaunted halls of the wisp dungeon. We shall dedicate a monument to him. It shall read: Here lies brother Minalan. A great sorcerer, and a loyal Cabalist to the end.”

A eulogy? For me? I struggled to raise my head, but only managed a slight nod. “What? He still lives? Ruin my grand epitaph? Kill him!”

My head swam with pain, barely aware of what was happening. I was surrounded by hooded cabalists of the cult of Zog, all with daggers drawn. The overlord known as Cear shouted, “Stop!”

The cabalists froze, inches from ending my life. “I meant, free him! Yes! That’s it.”

I awoke on the beaches of the Blackrock settlement, the rising tide brought the frothy ocean surf to my face. I choked and coughed on the water I had inhaled. One of the cabalists rolled me onto my back with a foot. I caught my breath and sat up, the taste of bile and salty water on my lips, “Touch me again... and I will burn you to ash!”

Some believe that the members of a cult dedicated to one foul cause or another would naturally get along. Like some kind of twisted family. The truth cannot be further from it, we of the Cabal are one and all misanthropic sociopaths to some extent. None of us possess any degree of ardor for the company of others, the least of all one another.

I had originally joined for the volumes of knowledge and ancient magic the cabal keeps locked away from the world in our great library of Anskitas. Of course destroying the world was always a part of the bargain, but what can I say? I was once an angry and deeply embittered cripple with nothing else to live for. That is, until a certain barefoot gypsy came into my life. Few have any idea of what my bride has truly done, and it may change the fate of the world someday.

“Brother Minalan” the jouster began, “You will explain to me the circumstances of your incarceration. Every. Last. Detail.”

I explained all of the details I could muster: The void magic. The scholar Nico. The expedition I hired the Emerald Trading Company. My findings. My experiments. My likely betrayal. The battle outside of my keep with the Lyceum mages. My imprisonment.

“Void magic? To what possible purpose?” he asked angrily.

I hissed my response, “Don’t lecture me on working with dangerous magic that could potentially end the world, overlord. The irony alone would suffocate both of us. Suffice to say that all knowledge is power.”

The Cabalists broke to discuss my fate, as I drank thirstily from a water skin they left. When they returned, the vote on my execution was three to two against. I would live. No doubt my dearest Narcissa and the ever-hungry goblin had voted to end my life. The former hates everything living (especially me), and the latter no doubt wanted a convenient meal of human flesh. I always believe that it is better to have enemies that I am aware of.

I gathered my things from my tower, and departed for the city of Wind. I needed to speak with the wizard known only as the “Nethermancer”. He is the head of the Torrud Cabal, a secret society of mages that are the real power governing the city from the shadows. More than anything, they desire influence in the Lyceum Council, and I am about to help them obtain it - for a price.

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The heavy door creaked open. The entrance hall immediately stole her breath from her, making every breath painful. Each step grew heavier and harder. Again another door, Aingeal reached out clutching the doorknob her knuckles white; as it stealing the very strength from her entire being. Crumbling to her knees the tears flowed. Much like the spring rains flood the shallow lands that try to confine the water’s edge to a small stream. The only afforded sound was those of her tears hitting the marble floor. Splat. Splat. As if buried deep in her broken spirit a sound; primal penetrating the stone walls echoing down the stairwell through the mortar and into the surrounding woods.

Moments… Hours… Days may have past as time could not contain the woe that had over taken her. Pressing her head to the door it opened. Pulling herself to her feet, Aingeal followed the long hall ornate with its rugs, tapestries and furnishings of one that was of wealth. The hearth cold nothing left inside it but burned edges of once proud trees, reduced to ash and blackened reminders of their former glory. The Chamber door was open, Aingeal pushed to its full breath standing in the threshold, making a mental note of each item. Each drop of absent wax from the once brightly burning candles, how the water shimmered in the fountain that absently filled and emptied with no knowledge of what had come to pass, with no awareness that its owner would never dip his hands within. Hanging on the edge of the perfectly made bed, a red cloak; Aingeal ran her hand over it slowly, caressing it, letting the fabric grab her fingertips. Lifting her hand bringing the edge to her face, she breathed in deeply searching for any scent of him. Faintly it still lingered, slowly pulling it around her, tightly binding her entire being within it. Just where she had once set it was the wooden box, ornate carvings that was once the most prized possession she had. Dragging the cloak behind her as it tripped her as she opened it.

All was in its place, with the addition of one thing, a scroll tied with a red ribbon. Sliding the ribbon off the parchment unfastened revealing words that were once meant to comfort her, only now left her empty. Her eyes devoured each word:

“My beloved Soul...
I have embarked on a task that will allow me to dedicate…. “

“How did it all go this wrong…?”

"…Know love that I dream of you every night, my heart aches to be with you…”


Aingeal held it close to her, listening for the faint sound of his voice.

“…If anything should happen to me, know that I will always be yours. Forever, Minalan”

Aingeal’s hand shook as she placed it gently back inside the box, taking it from it once happy home. Aingeal took the box and the cloak standing in the middle of the room she had shared with him. Forcing herself to remember just how it once was, filled with laughter and soft words that melted her very being.

“…it is all gone now. The price heavy and to high…”
Her voice trailed off as she backed out of the room leaving all that once made her feel whole behind.