[EQ2] Callysta Songweaver

[Jezerai]

   Callysta Songweaver set her bags down with a tired sigh.  Her Qeynos home had never seemed more welcome.  It was good to be back.  None of her friends and colleagues had questioned the explanation for her absence.  She was, after all, an entertainer.  Entertainers routinely travelled for long periods of time in order to earn a living.  They might question her, however, if they knew where she had spent the last several months.  And she wouldn't even be able to tell them why she was living in Neriak.  They would likely denounce her as a traitor. 

   Callysta had not foreseen that possibility when she had agreed to spy for the Queen in the city of her ancestors.  It had seemed like a once in a lifetime chance to visit her homeland and see for herself whether it was as bad as people said.  She had thought it would be good to live in a city where people did not eye you suspiciously when you walked down the street, either frightened or hostile because of your dark purple skin.  But Neriak was not as she had envisioned and those glances that used to feel so uncomfortable before felt as warm and inviting as melting butter on hot toast.

   Callysta was found in a destroyed wagon by her foster parents in the deserts surrounding Maj'Dul.  No one was able to say how she came to be there.  There were no bodies discovered or belongings that could provide any information.  Least of all Callysta herself, a silent child barely out of her crib, huddled under a broken board to escape the sun's rays.  It had been many months before she would speak at all.  And many more before she came out of her shell enough to talk about herself.  But she didn't remember any of her past before coming to her foster parents' home.  Her foster parents were good people, who believed that a child was not tainted by her heritage.  They took her in and decided to raise her so that they could prove their theory, much to the disdain of their neighbors who did not much like having a little Tier'Dahl playing with their children.

   Despite the mistrust and even hatred of her neighbors, Callysta seemed to prove her foster parents' theories were correct.  A merry child, who laughed easily and delighted in the music of the minstrels who sang for pennies on the street corner, she grew into a happy and contented young adult.  Her foster parents were more than willing to pay for music lessons when she showed a talent for singing and playing musical instruments.  Soon their home was filled with the happy trills and lilting voice of their young daughter and a troubadour was born.

   When Callysta had first arrived in Neriak, under an assumed name and with the falsified documents the Queen's spymaster had provided to her, she had been enchanted.  A whole city built in the dark of the underground, lit by glowing fungi which spread overhead and lit the cavern ceiling like small blue stars.  Her apartment was near the Neriak Concert Hall and she had loved the feel of the place.  Being near the palace, she had enjoyed watching the parade of people who regularly travelled in her neighborhood.  At first it had been disconcerting to see so many trolls and ogres wandering the streets.  It was several weeks before her hand stopped dropping to her dagger like a lover seeking the arms of his beloved when one walked by.  Even so,  it was comforting to live in a city where the vast majority of citizens had skin that was so similar to hers.  No one questioned her right to walk the streets.  No one looked twice when she entered their store.  And for the first few weeks it had seemed that she had finally found the place that she fit in best.

   At first, she managed to avoid the thrice weekly Innoruuk services.  But failure to attend, or to appear properly worshipful at services, could result in fines, imprisonment, or worse.  So it was not long before Callysta was forced to attend.  There she saw for herself that Neriak was not called the City of Hatred in vain.  Before arriving, she had not believed that an entire city could be hate filled and had expected to find that tales of Neriak's sinister inhabitants would be greatly exaggerated.  Instead she found that the citizens of Neriak who were not among the ruling class lived in such terror of reprisal that they would gleefully turn in anyone suspected of non-conformance for the slight reward that would be given in return.   The faces of the rulers were hard and merciless while the faces of citizens were drawn and pinched, with eyes that darted nervously toward any figure of authority who might approach.   There were small pockets of resistance, but these were ruthlessly stamped out.  Anyone who was suspected of failing to conform were given as fodder to the necromancers employed by Queen Cristanos. 

   The twinkling fungus overhead, which had once enchanted Callysta, became an ominous presence as the weeks turned into months.  The concerts she gave at the Concert Hall featured music which more and more reflected the dark environment she found herself in as time went by.  Ironically, as her music became more solemn, doleful, and even despairing, her popularity grew.  Eventually she found herself to be regularly invited to perform at Queen Cristanos' soirees.  Finally she found herself in a position to gather the kind of information which Qeynos sought.  By this time, the day that she had accepted the mission which sent her here felt to Callysta as though it had happened in a different lifetime.  While she sang she acquired access to many secrets of state which would never be whispered outside the privacy of the Queen's quarters.  These were the secrets she had been sent to acquire and she was able to provide a great deal of information to those who had sent her.  She hoped that the information was worth the terrible price she had paid to acquire it.