Consequences

28th of Solae, 1485

Last night was a wreck. It turns out that Rowan refused my teleport. I didn’t notice it at first, possibly because I was too concerned with ensuring that I brought us to the correct location and minimizing the risks of sending us into more danger… I didn’t want to miscalculate, or mishap in my casting and send us to the middle of the ocean, or something equally horrible. But regardless of my reasons, Rowan is not amongst us… I should have paid more attention to where the little gnome was, not that I could have forced her to come with us…
 
Inira thinks that Rowan stayed behind to tend to the tree, but I am not so sure… I fear that Rowan might have given up on us. She is so unabashedly good. Maybe she is unwilling to associate herself with people like us… and I use that sentiment in the most critical of ways… why would she? Rowan has no actual need of any of us to follow her goals… and I would be lying if I said that I am a good person.
 
I wish I was, and I’ve tried to be… but would a truly good person have ever done what I did in that Latrian village? Yes, it was a mercy… and that is what I tell myself, but is it really true? Was there no other way? And, if Hasim was able to hear my conversation with Dekar, then I am sure that Rowan did. It would hurt though, if she did leave partially because of that, and didn’t even talk to either of us first. I do hope that she would ask me about it instead of just assuming the worst…
 
I look around our camp and find myself relieved that we are all in one piece, and I trust that Rowan is taking care of herself, wherever she might be. Just when I was getting ready to conjure up the tiny hut and retire for the evening, Hasim approached me and asked if I know how to scry. I don’t know why I found it so surprising that he didn’t know that it’s a fairly rudimentary spell that nearly every competent wizard can cast, but I did. I shouldn’t have been surprised though, for I get the distinct impression that Hasim is about as familiar with the intricacies of magic as Secilia is with Alcarin politics…
 
I asked Hasim if the child had anything of Hasim’s in his possession… He and Inira were both insisting that I’d already met the child, so it was irrelevant. I do not think that either of them understood my purpose in asking… Yes, I have met the babe, and it would be a small task to scry on an infant… but that was not the purpose of my questions… for, I wanted to instead attempt to scry on the items through Hasim. Finally, Hasim told me that he had given the child the letter he wrote, and tied that letter around the nail he used to cut the babe out of his wife’s body. A grim gift to be sure, but it would serve my purpose…
 
I pulled out the mirror that I had acquired from Gaius of Astoria when we were in Runestone for the coronation of Damian’s late sister, in exchange for the original copy of one of Gaius’ ancestor’s writings. I had already made a copy of the work, so the originality was of little import to me. Gaius, however, valued it enough to trade me a gorgeous silver mirror, that has since become my means of scrying.
 
Within a few moments, a scene coalesced in the mirror… a small babe, wrapped in a piece of snakeskin leather, was sitting up in a cradle. I was surprised to see the baby sitting so soon, and when I asked Hasim, he said that it isn’t normal for either human or yuan-ti babies… apparently the little guy is an unusually strong baby. Grimaldus seemed very pleased, and not surprised, because he did dedicate the child to his dead god, after all.
 
I moved the scrying sensor out, away from the baby, to show the room and building that the child was staying in. There was an elderly human couple in the room, and judging by the interactions, they appeared to be caring for the child. It looked like a fairly safe environment, in what appeared to be the outskirts of a city.
 
Grimaldus and Hasim said that the location was in the outskirts of the city, Antelya… and the couple are on the outskirts because men are not allowed in the city at all… apparently it is a city ruled and peopled entirely by women. The only men that they allow into their city are prostitutes, and that is only for a limited time. It is a foreign concept to me… why would you want a place that entirely excludes one gender, but then again, many human customs seem odd to me still.
 
Hasim was visibly relieved to find his child well and safe enough for now. I didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but the baby is in possession of items that belong to Hasim… I warned him that there is a very good chance that those individuals who are hunting him can just as easily find his child through the same means as I had. Oddly, he didn’t seem terribly concerned about that possibility.
 
A cold wind blew through, rustling the leaves. A crackling, booming noise cut the air. A swirling, black mass appeared, slowly coalescing into the body of a man, wearing a tattered black cloak and black spectacles on his face. He would have been unmistakable even without his long, flowing white hair… Vlatrossi Melkinov.
 
Oh fuck. There could be a myriad of reasons why he could have decided to make an appearance… and none of them were good…
 
“Greetings, Melkinov.” I called out, as he floated his way over to our camp. I stepped out, dropping the spell around the camp.
 
“Hello.” He said, extending his arm with a half smile. “It is good to see you.”
I took his hand and asked why he was here. His familiar, the white snake, slithered its way out of his sleeve, and I could feel Meriwald’s instant revulsion.
 
“I wanted to see how the Black Wind had affected you, and it seems you’re okay. I tried to dispel it from a distance.” Vlatrossi said.
“What?” Hasim asked.
“You did not notice?” Vlatrossi sounded surprised.
“Were you keeping an eye on us, or keeping an eye on Hatholdir?” I asked.
“I was trying to kill Targileus.” He stated matter-of-factly.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because, it is an acquisition I wanted.”
“You want Rafulkarn?” I asked incredulously.
“Yes.”
“Why?… it is a cursed place!” I exclaimed.
“Not anymore.” Vlatrossi stated. “The risk we took was calculated, but Hatholdir knew.”
“He actually knew?”
“All along, yes.”
“So that entire suspicion we had about there being some other plot behind all of this… that was this?” Hasim interjected.
“No… The merchants are corrupt. Delanius will be next.”
“Hasim,” I introduced. “Vlatrossi Melkinov; Vlatrossi, Hasim.”
“His Excellency, Vlatrossi Melkinov.” He interrupted.
“Sorry, his excellency…”
 
“I was able to dispel the Black Wind. You were able to succeed. Very minimal risk and almost no losses. I wanted to see that you were unharmed and unchanged.” Vlatrossi explained.
“Unchanged how?” I asked, unsure of what he was referring to exactly, and apprehensive of where his explanation was going to go, considering his own unenviable condition…
“The Black Wind changes individuals who may have strange dreams or feelings that are unfamiliar, or if you’re touched by magic, permanent changes.” He continued.
 
“He looked at me when he said that…” Hasim looked decidedly uncomfortable. “Why did he look at me when he said that?”
 
Ignoring Hasim, I commented that I do not need any more dreams.
 
“No, of course not.” Vlatrossi chuckled. “But they are an unfortunate truth in this world.”
“Yes…” I started to say, but Vlatrossi interrupted me.
“The Princess has also fallen ill.”
“What?” I felt as though my stomach just dropped out of my body.
“Yes.” Vlatrossi confirmed.
“What of the child?” I asked, panic setting in.
“The child is safe.” He confirmed.
“Where is the Princess?”
“In Alcarin… she was afflicted with World Weary… are you familiar with this?”
I shook my head, so he explained. “World Weary is something that afflicts particularly old Elves. It is something that happens when Elves grow very old, in the rare cases that they live over a thousand years… their minds in this world start to collapse under the weight of all of their memories… they start to relive old moments and go mad.”
“She is too young…” I breathed.
“I know.” Vlatrossi said, before confirming my suspicions. “She is too young for it, you’re right… the Well…”
“Fuck…”
“She’s asleep… suspended until it can be treated.” Vlatrossi explained. “But you and I both know that there is no cure for World Weary… it is not a disease… it is a condition of the mind. And the only way to do it would be to rid her of her memories… you understand what a conundrum it is…”
 
I shook my head. “If you rid her of her memories, you’d be ridding the world of the memories of three thousand elves…”
“Yes.” Vlatrossi confirmed. “I wanted to talk to you about what was the last thing you spoke with her about… what would cause this to trigger? Was there anything that would, perhaps, aggravate the condition? Anything she was looking into?”
 
I took a deep breath before replying. “Let me ask you something… along the same vein of the conversation we had back in Crastvongrad…” I asked. “Are you lying to me?”
 
“You wouldn’t even be able to tell if I was.” Vlatrossi said coldly. “You don’t have a choice.”
 
Much as she did when I spoke with Filandrel on the banks of Yaharghul, Inira chimed in, saying that Vlatrossi wasn’t giving a reassuring answer.
 
“I don’t mean to be reassuring. I’m being factual.” He snapped. “If I was not telling her the truth, she wouldn’t be able to tell, and it would be for her protection. If I wanted to take an answer from her, I could extract it from her.”
 
“I get very tired of hearing that…” and I do… I have grown to appreciate the sentiment behind it, but I do grow tired of people in power thinking they are “protecting” me by withholding information. “I don’t know exactly what she was looking into…” I too have learned a bit on how to withhold information. “Many things… she was supposed to meet with me.” I admitted
 
“With the approach of this dragon, it is very likely that Runestone will be plunged into one of two things… either a civil war, or they will seek to subjugate everything that is not human.”
 
Inira didn’t know about the dragon, so she asked, and Vlatrossi explained that the dragon of the west, the betrayer has reemerged and is going to claim the advisor’s seat that legend says has been held empty for his eventual return.
 
“Wait…” Hasim asked incredulously. “You guys revere him?”
“No!” I spat out. “We do not revere him.”
“Men do.” Vlatrossi stated.
“Men are weak.” I muttered.
“It is a saintly creature…” Vlatrossi explained.
“In the east, he is…” Hasim explained, “…not a saint.”
“Men revere very… misbegotten ideals.” I said, then turning to Vlatrossi, I conceded. “Apologies.”
“I was never religious.” Vlatrossi brushed it off. “My father was.”
 
“So, she was looking into things and you were talking to her…” Vlatrossi returned to the important conversation at hand.
“Yes. She was supposed to meet with me.” I admitted.
“About what, exactly? I don’t understand. Why would she come out here?”
“I was possibly going to go to her, but she offered to come out here.”
“Is there something you were looking for? Some research?”
“She has something…”
“An item?”
I ignored his question and continued. “Something that I gave her and I asked her if I could borrow it back for a time…”
“I see… perhaps it was not triggered by your conversation… perhaps she was looking into something similar to it, or related to it…” he paused. “This only bodes more questions. You understand that this dragon in the east is a problem as well?”
“Yes.” I confirmed. “That is why I contacted her in the first place…” I shrugged. “This is what I get for wanting a break…”
“There is no such thing as a break for people like us.” Vlatrossi said wearily.
 
“Valeria says that you’ve become quite a capable group…”
Inira asked how he knows the woman who runs with a pack of wolves. “She is an old friend.” Vlatrossi explained. “We fought a necromancer together… she knew Articus as well…”
“How is he doing?” I asked.
“That thing is not Articus.” Vlatrossi insisted. “That thing is the idea of Articus. But Articus is dead.”
“Anastasia would disagree.” I said quietly.
“Anastasia and I rarely agree on many things…” Vlatrossi admitted. “But, you have to understand that her condition bodes insecurity, a lack of stability across the sea… I cannot have that.”
“What are you implying?” I asked, guardedly.
“I’m implying that it is likely that a war will brew, if the Empire seeks to save itself. Either that, or it will collapse under its own weight.” Vlatrossi said. “Neither is convenient.”
 
“What is Damian’s role in all this?” Inira asked.
“Your friend has to take a side, depending on the side that the throne takes… he will either side with the dragon, or against it. And it’s not a simple proposal either… if he knows what’s good for him, he will become friends with this thing…” Vlatrossi explained. “The dragon seeks war, with everything that is not men or willing to be subjugated.”
 
“Why is that?” Inira asked.
“It’s motives are unknown to me.” Vlatrossi admitted. “I learned of Anastasia’s condition when I tried to reach her. To speak and see what we could concoct in regards to this creature.”
 
“How did you try to speak to her?” I asked.
“I went to Alcarin.” He stated, as though it were obvious.
“Have you tried to talk to her in the Dream?” I asked.
“I am not privy to such a thing, and if I was to use prying means, I don’t think I’d be welcome…”
“No prying means… but that’s why you cast it and then you ask Kyoko if you can talk to Anastasia…” I explained.
 
“That woman is not fond of me.”
“Why am I not surprised?” I commented. “So why are you here?”
“I am here to see if there were any answers… that and the matter of the Black Wind, of course. Lastly, I wanted to ask what your plan was in regards to the dragon. It attacked Wei Jang. It was fought off, but it was a test of strength. Even then, it still managed to slay thousands…”
 
“We are apparently not welcome in Wei Jang.” I admitted.
“Because of the thing you carry, correct?” Vlatrossi said, looking straight at Grimaldus and his mace sitting conspicuously within his reach. “Do you understand the implications of the thing you bear?”
“Yes…” Grimaldus stated implacably.
 
“The dragon seeks to be reunited with its mother, by whatever means…” Vlatrossi began, seemingly expecting a different response from Grimaldus.
“It will pursue you… if I was able to find you, chances are the creature already knows where you are, it’s merely waiting for an opportunity.”
 
“Oh…” Hasim said sarcastically. “Give it enough time, I’m sure Grimaldus will be using that mace to do a lot of reuniting between the two of them…”
 
The rest of the conversation devolved into banter between the men, before Vlatrossi had enough and bade us goodnight. He teleported out, and I was left with my thoughts… none of which were pleasant.