A Flame Rekindled

22 Yarthmont, 990
 
I found out that all the River Bandits had been hung, even the one we had made a deal with. Valum said we had no right to negotiate that and it was void. These men were irredeemable and nothing would be able to make up for their actions. This saddened me. I had hoped that people could change and make up for their misdeeds but it seems humans want to hold onto their grudges. At least most of them I suppose. I shouldn’t lump them all together as each person is their own unique individual.
 
21 Felmont, 990
 
The last two months have been fantastic. We stayed in Edgewater and Rhiannon’s family really seems to be warming up to me. The sense of family loyalty is strong, if only humans could have this loyalty within larger groups. Perhaps it’s just their short lives? During this time we spent time in Melinir playing and relaxing, spent a large amount of time in Silvercrest and then time back at Rhiannon’s home as it is very tranquil there and isolated. It was nice to ignore the Rifts issues for once and just spend time with Rhiannon without having to be worried about being pulled away. She also seemed to loosen her grip on me somewhat and let me wander about out of her sight. I don’t mean that in a negative way either. I had definitely screwed up not letting her know where I was.
 
I also spent time working on my epic for the story of the Dwarves. Some of the songs I wanted a more direct influence on but there were many emotional pieces I asked Rhiannon for assistance on. I know I cannot write the song from a dwarven perspective but perhaps they would like it. I tried to ensure the length was not too long to keep humans interested in it as well. My time playing in Melinir taught me that they do not have the patience for long elven songs and tales.
 
22 - 27 Felmont, 990
 
 
This day started like any other. It was getting close to the time we all agreed to meet back up so Rhiannon and I went back to Melinir. I wished to try out a few of the songs in my dwarven epic to see how people reacted. We went to the Sarcastic Goat to have dinner and some wine. Shortly thereafter Connor stopped in and said the Quadrial had some questions for me on the River Bandits and asked if I could come soon to meet with them. I looked at Rhiannon and she assured me it was OK, it was important to the Rift. I nodded to Connor who said he would come pick me up in an hour or so when they were ready.
 
I kept conversation away from our adventures even though it was forefront in my mind now. I had picked up a book on Traladaran history and one on the Five Shires and was discussing with Rhiannon that we should travel to some of these places once we got out of the Rift on our way to Thyatis City. She seemed excited about the prospect of visiting these new lands and meeting new people. This made me very happy as, like i said before, i was worried she would not want to go out and would want to stay with her family here in the Rift. We need to really look into opening one of these passes.
 
After some time Connor came back and said they were ready. I asked Rhiannon to just wait here for me and she said that was perfectly fine and that it would be a nice night for a walk once I returned. Connor was very talkative on the way over. I felt bad he was so isolated here, I should make it a point to visit with him more often. The Quadrial just had some basic questions on the things that happened. I went over everything but they seemed most interested in the purple gem we destroyed. They didn’t give me any more information on it really. I asked about the tar substance as I was more worried about that really but they dismissed me.
 
As I was walking back to the Sarcastic Goat to meet back with Rhiannon I saw a figure in the dark that looked similar to her. As I got a bit closer it looked very much like her and she ducked into an alley. What was going on here? This was very odd. I whispered to Melwin to check the Sarcastic Goat for straw hair. This absolutely could not be her, this must be some trick. I cautiously approached the alley. She was walking down the alley constantly looking at her surroundings and saw me, turned and I saw her. It was her. Or something that looked like her. I pulled a lightstone out to see better and it even more amplified that it was her but I noticed a fine black cloak outlined in green. I called out to her but she did not respond and looked utterly shocked. I shifted to mages eyes and there was no glow around her but the cloak. This baffled me, what was this trickery? I called out, “are you ok?” and her expression changed from startled to confident. I heard Black Thom call out behind me, “she’s fine” and all went black.
 
When I woke I felt the splitting pain in my head but the worst pain was in my heart. It felt like an icy dagger had been plunged into it. I was bound, gagged and blindfolded. Little things flooded into my brain. The chance meeting months ago on the streets with Black Thom when I was with Rhiannon and whatever happened in their past. Her being fine with our dinner being disrupted by the Quadrial. The fact she wanted to “take a walk” after dinner. In the back of my mind I felt this could not be true but emotions flooded through and told me to face the facts. Humans only knew betrayal. The elders warned me I might not be old enough to venture out and my naivety could get me into trouble. Now here I was, betrayed by the one human I completely trusted. I was utterly devastated and felt a flame of hatred burning in my heart towards all these people. I could not point it to Rhiannon no matter how hard I tried. In my heart I still loved her which I suppose is why this hurts so much but there was just this nagging feeling that this could not be true. Perhaps it was just hope that I didn’t want it to be true no matter what.
 
I heard Black Thom talking in the background to another person. His boss wanted all four of us gone. His boss being Maybush. Hands grabbed me and stood me up. Weakly I pushed myself up just dumbfounded. A collar was placed around my neck and I was told it would stop me from pulling mana and would also cause me pain on top of that. If it was possible for me to be more panicked and defeated this was about it. Betrayed by the one I loved and trusted and now locked from my birthright. The flame grew inside me. If I was to escape from this there would be no more mercy. No more compassion. All who betrayed me would die and I would retire back to my clan. Except Rhiannon. I still could not bring myself to even wish harm on her. I even hoped she would escape so no harm would come to her. It’s hard to explain but that’s how I felt. At least I could feel Melwin was safe.
 
I was dragged around for a while by orcs I believe and then stood up and my blindfold, gag and bonds were removed. I was shoved into the cell and heard it crash behind me. I saw Dram and the green grocer boy plus other humans but it mattered not. I moved from the iron bars and crumpled to the ground. Dram rushed up to me asking me if I was ok but I barely registered him. The pain was so great. I tried to concentrate on what he was saying and he was rambling on about how I had a black and green cloak and had lured him into a trap. I shot up at that and pressed him on it and he confirmed. It was me and I had on a black and green cloak he repeated. Relief flooded through me and the fire of hatred in my heart almost disappeared. The nagging voice that said it couldn’t be true must be right, it was some sort of foul magic that only made the vision appear real! I felt a renewed vigor and told Dram that “hope has been restored, let’s find a way out of here.” He seemed puzzled but I did not wish to share what had happened. For me the pain was too deep.
 
That was easier said than done. These were all dwarven carved. I had hoped to find some up to now unknown secret door but I scanned the walls twice and saw nothing. No way out of the cell directly. That night I reflected on my memories of Barrik on this collar. He knew what it was and with Dram’s help discovered there was a dwarven rune of pain carved into it. It takes any mana the wearer tries to channel and dissipates it. The rune then focuses it into a pain spell to hurt the user. There was a keyhole on the back to remove it. Barrik also knew that flooding it with power could destroy it but could kill the user even with no rune. Dram thought perhaps if he could use the crude tools given to us working in the mines he could knock the gem out which would break it too. The only problem was that guards were always watching.
 
The next morning (I suppose they still followed day/night cycles still) they split all the prisoners up into two groups. They mentioned something about a new tunnel they needed to work so half would do that and half would dig in the salt mines. The work was hard but my desire to get out of here alive drove me to keep working despite the weight of the underground. They at least gave us plenty of water. They were not stupid enough to let all their workers die of lack of water I suppose. After some time digging the salt I was switched to carrying the loads into a large room with four dwarves smashing and sorting the red salt out. There was an Ogre in there watching over the dwarves and beating on them every so often. Potential allies if we could get them free. After the day was over we were returned to the cell. The other group looked very haggard and dirty. Dram was chummy with one of them and they explained they had been digging straight through rock and it was very rough work. Since everyone was exhausted the humans all quickly fell asleep leaving me awake to ponder.
 
After examining the walls again and feeling confident we had no exit directly through secret access I pondered on the recent events and what I thought was betrayal. Black Thom was a known ladies man so yes Rhiannon could have had some relationship but she seemed disgusted by it now. Being OK with me pulled away at dinner? She was just more comfortable with me being out of her sight. The walk after dinner? Not a trap, she just likes romantic walks and is totally ordinary. I felt stupid for thinking she would do something like that and ashamed. Putting that out of my mind as best I could, these humans did seem to betray and abuse each other quite a bit. I need to be more cautious in the future in dealing with these people.
 
The next morning they did the same thing. Split the groups up into two, one to go dig into this new tunnel and the other to continue mining the red salt. It was another day of hard work and no opportunity of escape. Whoever was handling these orcs was very efficient and smart and kept them in line. I had a renewed vigor to get out now. It wasn’t even revenge at this point though I did desire that. I just wanted to get back to Rhiannon at this point. When we got back Dram’s friend had some visible injuries and there were fewer of them. They said they had broken into some dwarven ruins and been attacked by some creatures in there. He didn’t want to talk too much about it and just wanted to sleep. Dram was starting to get worked up about needing to get out of here but there was simply no opportunity yet. He was also lamenting how ridiculous this whole thing was and all I could tell him was to read his history books. This kind of thing was common with humans.
 
The next morning was the same but our crew was smaller now. They were even giving the other group some blunted weapons so things must be pretty bad down there. We went into the salt mines and the other group went to the dwarven ruins. We were working as usual and Dram said we needed to help these people and we needed to try to escape quickly. There were slightly fewer guards but it still seemed very risky. Dram seemed convinced it was the right thing to do. We would create some diversion and the other humans would join us to escape. It was a difficult decision. I was leery to trust even Dram on anything but I needed to have some trust with people close to me. The thought of betrayal still stung even though I was confident now there was no betrayal. I nodded that I trusted him this was the right time and suddenly the whole cavern shook. A few of the guards ran off to see what was going on and this seemed the perfect opportunity. Then the cavern shook again and again and a hobgoblin that seemed to have some authority rushed in and ordered the guards to bring us back to our cells and that we would have the rest of the day “off”.
 
We were brought back to the cell and many fewer returned from the ruins. Dram's friend said there was a Dragon down there! He also showed us a large golden dwarven coin with a large gem in the middle. He said if we ever got out of here he would be rich but I could see in his face he never expected to leave alive. We had an idea to try and use the very hard gem to scratch the rune off. Dram’s friend was not excited about it but if it could help us escape he would try. It was no use though, the dwarven magic was just too strong and even though the rune was destroyed the magic remained. Again Dram lamented on the situation that the “master” was an idiot throwing away his slaves. Again I told him to read his history books. Humans were prone to betrayal. Not all humans but too many for my liking.
 
The next day there were only five of us in the salt mine gang. Dram, two traladarans, the green grocer boy and myself. The others were going back down to face the dragon. From what he had described I could see no return for them. Even giving them weapons was fruitless, a young dragon would kill them easily. Dram’s friend seemed to know his death was near. He told him that the large coin was buried in the straw in the corner. If he died and we were able to get out it was ours. Sadly I watched the other group disappear to their death. Now there were only two orc guards but far fewer of us. It seemed to be now or never.
 
I started a scuffle with Dram, blaming him for this whole thing and swung repeatedly at him. The orcs thought it was hilarious and cheered us on though they did get irritated that Dram was not fighting back. They whipped at him and said to fight so he rushed at me, picked up and went straight toward the ork. The movements were too fast for me but Dram quickly had the things sword and the other was rushing in and Dram retreated behind us. I pleaded with the two other men to help us to take these things down. They obliged and were able to quickly take down the orcs. They stripped the orcs of weapons and armed themselves ready to fight on. Dram took the crude tools and asked if I was ready. To get back to my clan and my new soon to be family, yes, I was ready to endure whatever. It took some work and it hurt a lot but Dram was able to shatter the gem. I felt a change and tentatively reached out a simple apportation spell and it worked! Now these things would pay.
 
Dram had told me earlier how he was led to a room where there were a bunch of magical items, some weapons and armor. Perfect, we should head there first. The only problem was there were plenty of other things in the way. I pondered on this and had a spell that might help. I asked Dram if he could sketch out what he knows of the caverns/mines so far. He sketched it out and I saw a potential place to create a tunnel to bypass the most dangerous things. I made the earth disappear by making a tunnel into another hall and it was right on! We crawled through and Dram led us down a few halls to a door and he believed it was beyond here. He listened and said there was at least someone else there. If it was where the magical items were it could likely be this mage we had heard about. This could be dangerous.
 
Dram wanted to rush in but I had a better idea. I asked him if he remembered the gas I created at the Black Knights keep? I moved up the door and smiled, held a hand and gestured. Within a few seconds we heard choking and gasping from inside. The door flew open and a bugbear came out choking. The fighters made quick work of the thing but then my gas was being pushed out of the room back at us. I dispelled it as it came out and Dram rushed in tackling the Mage. I finished dispelling the gas and entered quickly looking around the room. Dram had the mage down. I saw my dagger and other items on the table and Princess Adelle with a collar on. I should note they had told me about her earlier so it wasn’t too surprising. Unfortunately my rage took over and I grabbed the dagger and rushed over to the mage. “Give me the key for the Princess!” I told him and Dram echoed it. He quickly fumbled and pulled it out. I unlocked the Princess who started to thank me but my fire had grown and I took the collar and slapped on the mages neck. I asked Dram to hold him up and held my dagger close. I forced him to cast, mostly to ensure the collar worked but also I wanted to see the pain in his eyes. He did so and it did work but I felt nothing good from the pain caused. The taste of revenge wasn’t to my liking. I pressed him on the cloaks, what were they, how did they work? He seemed to know nothing and I held my dagger closer now but I remembered the feeling of seeing his pain. He did say that the cloaks were a Black Thom and his boss thing. Killing this mage would do nothing for us and nothing for me except scar me. I loosened my grip and we bound the mage up and I released my anger. I apologized to the Princess for ignoring her when she tried to speak to me initially.
 
We examined the room. My staff, obviously my dagger and my power stones were here. I searched all over for my leaf but it was not here. I almost wanted to cry. But there were other helpful magical items and his spell book that would help us. Unfortunately my stones were drained but the others had some better items now. This was where the cheap potions were coming from. They were pinkish from the red salt here. Dram was able to use these as he had been injured in the past fights. The next thing to do was to clear out any other orcs and free the dwarves. Clearing out the orcs was simple, there weren’t many left as most had gone down to fight this dragon. The ogre was still there and it would be a problem. I did not have much energy and we weren’t fully outfitted to fight the thing. Princess Adelle suggested she could create a distraction and I could use a spell to hopefully defeat it or at least hurt it enough. She did not want to kill it but I had no such qualms.
 
She created a very realistic looking and sounding dragon entering the room. In that time I cast a large bolt of lightning to hopefully knock the ogre down. The dragon scared both the ogre and the dwarves. Dram rushed in and soon the dwarves were being unlocked. I loosed my bolt and hit the thing but it did not bring it down. Dram and the dwarves rushed in and in a flurry of blows the thing was down. We led the dwarves to the armory and had them suit up. The Mage said he could help us get out with passwords and such. Dram wanted to help the people down with the dragon but the Princess said it was folly. With the number they took down and the age of the dragon they stood no chance. Dram was insistent but I had to side with the Princess. Even the dwarves refused to go down there. It hurt but it was certain death to face a dragon that age without the proper equipment, numbers and a trap.
 
Dram was insistent on going down though. The Mage was still trying to barter his freedom. He would allow us to escape with the survivors of the battle and get us out past the orcs above. That was laughable. I told him we could just ambush any of our captors who survived, free the humans and smash the orcs above with our numbers. He went silent after that. Dram returned a short while later from his venture looking very sad. Everyone was dead. Everyone. Our captors and all the humans. I felt saddened as well lamenting the fact that perhaps we could have tried earlier to escape but there was no looking back now. Dram returned to grab the coin, we grabbed the rest of the magic items in the mage's room and headed out. The dwarves made quick work of the orcs above and we were outside again! Earlier Melwen had given me some sense of where we were so I knew Kleine was to the east. As soon as I emerged Melwin swooped down from her hiding place and landed on my arm singing and happy I made it out. I asked her if she saw straw hair at the place with the broom lady but she excitedly said something along the lines of not making it there before she felt the danger and forgot. Well it’s not a big deal, there was no betrayal.
 
We headed to Kleine and Dram’s parents who took us in and fed us. Since it was getting dark we stayed the night there even though I greatly wanted to get to Melinir as quickly as possible. Dram seemed insistent we notify someone else of what was going on so I put a short note on Melwin that we had the Princess and a very short summary and sent her off to Silvercrest. Dram’s mother got Princess Adelle some better clothing and in the morning they sent us packed up with a load of supplies for the road. I thought we could just take a raft down but the Princess was not comfortable with that, apparently it was how they were taken so we decided to walk. The road down went through our forest and our scouts quickly appeared to escort the Princess. She would head to Melinir with us still under escort though to meet Elladin. We hastily made our way to the city.
 
As we got closer we discussed how to try and nab Thom and Maybrush. Dram and I would sneak in and attempt to handle it but before we could do so Valum and company rode out to meet us. Elledin rushed to Adelle and Valum questioned us on what was going on. We quickly explained what was going on but he already knew some of the details. I had failed to tell the elves to keep this secret and the whole town knew now. Drat. Thom and Maybrush had likely already fled then. Dram, the dwarves and I rushed to the Dancing Dragon but Thom was gone. Valum reported that Maybrush was gone as well. Horror quickly entered my mind and I asked if anyone saw Rhiannon lately. No, no one had seen her in Melinir. I told them I needed to get to Edgewater even though it was late already. Valum didn’t understand but Dram sure did. We rushed off to Edgewater under escort of the dwarves who felt a sense of obligation to us. I sent Melwin ahead to check on her.
 
When we got there the town was silent of course. I rushed over to their home and pounded on the door. Her elder brother answered and was furious! How dare I show my face after what I had done to his sister! He told me to leave and never come back and slammed the slit shut. What? I thought she would be happy I was back? Then it dawned on me…Black Thom. I rushed over to where Rhiannon’s room was and pulled out my lute I had grabbed from my room in Melinir. I played and sang the most loving song I knew and put all my heart into it. She opened her window and started yelling at me! I can’t just do what I did and come back and sing a love song and expect things to go back to normal! I was still shocked but all I could say was “I was paid a visit by Black Thom.” With that I could see the shock and horror on her face. She closed the window and I knew she would come down, I just knew it. Dram wasn’t sure and asked if we should just leave. I told him no, just wait and walked over closer to the door. The door opened and Rhiannon rushed out and threw her arms around me sobbing and sputtering out a story. It turns out Black Thom had spun a story that I wished nothing more to do with humans and was leaving though he begged me to stay for Rhiannon’s sake. He told her I threw my leaf at him and told him you deal with her. Of course she was devastated and everyone was mad at me. I understood their point of view. With the leaf and the disappearance of our party it made sense. She released her grip on me and pulled out my leaf and held it out. I took it back and put it on. I held her face in my hands and stared into her eyes and saw nothing but love there. It was all a trick. I kissed her, held her close and cried. She said Thom had come by last night and explained he came into a lot of money and was leaving the rift. She admitted she had thought about it due to what she thought was my betrayal but in the end declined. I told her how he lured me into the alley and that, I too, had thought she had betrayed me. With that she got angry at me saying she would never do such a thing! I was a bit confused, I wasn’t angry she had thought to go with Thom. Well, I know by now I shouldn’t be confused anymore by these things and Thom was a master of lies.
 
With that we explained to the rest of the family what happened and they were all understanding. Even though it was late her family broke out some wine, beer and food and celebrated and I felt even better about our relationship than I had before. That flame of hatred I felt briefly had died down to cinders and the flame of hope rekindled. Though I was going to be much more cautious of humans outside my immediate group of people I know. It seems some betrayal lurks around every corner.
 
28 Felmont, 990 to present
 
After that there was much commotion. Some things of concern. We verified by Seeker spell that Maybush had indeed escaped the rift. The spell put him solidly outside the mountains. Thom we were not able to find anything personal of his to cast on unfortunately. I really hoped he escaped the rift as I did not want to deal with him again and I was afraid he would possibly hurt Rhiannon now. Valum examined the mage and realized he looked exactly like a very young Geoffrey. Connor let us know in questioning the thing melted once Geoffrey tried to force it to speak with magic. He called himself “Zanzier Tem”, Connor also noted that some entity started speaking through him and called himself the same thing. Perhaps this was the Master they were speaking of during our captivity. It seems separate from Maybush and Black Thom.
 
On a less serious note Connor asked Valum about an assistant but he was not too keen on it. With all of our efforts I did speak to Valum about it and I got him to at least “think about it”. Knowing Valum it sounds like that is definitely leaning towards yes. I mean yes we have caused some trouble but we’ve stopped a lot of bad things from happening here.
 
Oh yes and Rhiannon again said I was not leaving her sight again. She has been keeping this promise a great while longer than before. I was safe to venture around Silvercrest but outside of that she wanted to be with me. Which is fine as I enjoy the time we spend together.
 
The four dwarves were all brothers and gave us their name and to call on us if we ever needed anything and they went back home. There was a plethora of magic items to go through which Pickman assisted with since I am not quite done with that spell yet. Quite a few very nice items.
 
There was a great celebration in Silvercrest with the return of the Princess and the reuniting of the pair. We spent most of our time there. Rhiannon does love it here plus she wanted to spend more time with those of the clan working on the wedding. Despite Thom’s efforts he was not able to destroy our bond. I’m not keen on another adventure so soon but this Zanzier person is still out there so we need to be cautious.