[EQ] Elvanyllene's Woes

[Eureka!]

The dining hall of House D'tretlar is a splendid room by all accounts. A long room with a high ceiling, arched at the top. The entire room was done up in shades of indigo with gold accents. Blue fires burned in sconces to provide light all around the room. The table itself was magnificent, made of solid blue marble, with many high-backed chairs all around it. But for the moment, only two were occupied, one at each end. On one end, a mature Teir'dal woman in gorgeous black robes was sitting back, casually reading a rather grim-looking tome as she ate. On the other end, a younger Teir'dal, sitting up straight, looking down at her bowl.

Elvanyllene was not particularly pleased with her situation, looking from her mother sitting across the table with her nose buried in a book, to the bowl of mushroom stew she was expected to eat. Frankly, she couldn't decide which was more unpleasant, her mother or the stew.

She picked up her fork and stabbed one of the mushrooms, bringing it up to look at it a little closer. Then she put the fork back down in the bowl with a heavy sigh. "I'm finished, mother. May I be excused?"

It took a couple of seconds, but the woman at the other end of the table waved her hand in a vaguely dismissive way. Elvanyllene calmly sauntered out, until she was out of sight. Then her walk became considerably more stompy.

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"I'll admit, M'lady, I still don't totally know why you ask me to do this." Maliriel mused as she ran a brush through Elvanyllene's hair. "I'm just going to have to do this again when you wake up."

"Sadly for the rest of us, Maliriel, not everyone can look as good short-cut and unkempt as you do." Elvanyllene mused, smiling at her handmaiden in the mirror. "Do you have anything for me?"

Maliriel smirked. "Have I yet failed you, M'lady?" She asked, producing a package wrapped in brown paper. "A fresh delivery, skimmed off of an unsuspecting idiot in the Foreign Quarter."

Elvanyllene tore into the package greedily, to reveal a pile of small red cherry tomatoes. She picked one up and studied it closely for a few moments, before popping it into her mouth, savouring the flavour spreading over her taste buds as the fruit burst between her teeth. "Mmm... What would I do without you, Maliriel?"

"Have a Troll dressing you, and live off mushrooms and lichen." Maliriel replied casually, resuming running the brush through Elvanyllene's long, silky hair.

"So I'd turn into my mother, then?"

"Exactly. I'm the only thing protecting you from your worst fears."

"Uh huh. Have a care, Maliriel. Mouthy servants are quickly replaced." Elvanyllene said in a chastising tone, though the twinkle in her eyes suggested she wasn't seriously considering being rid of Maliriel. "Have you tried any of these?"

"No, I already ate at the Fancy."

Elvanyllene sighed. "Oh, I remember when you snuck me out to visit that place. How come it is that you can visit places like that so much more often than me?"

"Because your mother doesn't care about me."

"She doesn't care about me either."

"Permission to speak freely, M'lady? That's a load of bear crap." Maliriel didn't wait for permission to speak freely. "Your mother cares about you more than anyone other than herself. That's why she oppresses you. It's because she cares."

"She's trying to safeguard her legacy."

"Naturally." Maliriel stepped back and assumed a truly uncanny vocal impersonation of the Ilharess of House D'Tretlar. "Our society is crumbling, my daughter! The filth and corruption seeps ever deeper into the hearts of the Teir'dal. Even the Third Gate is not free from it. In Cuisine Excelsior, I saw spices and meats and vegetables from the surface, brazenly on display! They did not even bother to try and disguise them! Oh, it is a dark time for Neriak indeed! Well, this corruption shall not touch the noble House D'Tretlar, I swear it upon the Prince of Hate!" Maliriel then relaxed and resumed her usual voice. "She's never lectured me like that. She doesn't care what I do. She's trying to guard her bloodline against her own worst fears. Since your sister is off with the Spurned, you're all she's got left. You know she's never going to adopt or steal another Teir'dal child, or let one of your cousins take control. She's too much of a purist."

Elvanyllene sighed and shook her head. "Her purist ideals will destroy us. I refuse to inherit a smoking hole in the battlefield of this city's social scene. Maliriel... we're going to have to move up the timeline."

Maliriel had just been taking a nightgown out of Elvanyllene's wardrobe when she heard that. "...What?"

"Tomorrow, specifically."

"I thought you said you wanted a few more years of study in the Lodge of the Dead before you took to the surface?"

"I fear that we may not have as much time as we were hoping for. Make the necessary preparations, Maliriel." Elvanyllene stood and spread her arms.

Maliriel took a deep breath and walked over to put Elvanyllene's nightgown on her. "Are you sure about this, Elvy?"

"We will be fine, Maliriel." Whatever Elvanyllene was feeling or thinking, her voice and face projected nothing but confidence.

Maliriel shrugged. "Alright. You're the boss. Now, try to get a good rest. You're probably gonna need it. I'll see to it that everything we need for the trip is prepared."

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Elvanyllene walked into her mother's study, in a full set of purple-blue robes, a dagger strapped to her side and a pack strapped to her back. "Mother. I must speak with you." The Teir'dal woman at the desk didn't look up from the letter she was writing.

"What have I told you about interrupting me, Elvanyllene?"

"I am leaving Neriak."

Well, that got a reaction. The sound of the quill stopped immediately, and Elvanyllene made eye contact with her mother for the first time this week.

"What... madness, has overtaken you, Elvanyllene?"

"No madness." Elvanyllene replied calmly. "I am going on a mission for the Dead. There are certain texts that have fallen into the hands of Haeth'un across Norrath, from Paineel to Ak'anon. Texts the Dead requires back in our hands. Or at least, out of the hands of the unworthy."

"Then they will send someone else!"

"They cannot send someone else." Elvanyllene remained absolutely calm and neutral-faced against the anger radiating from the necromancer across the desk from her. "Only someone noble and incorruptible can be trusted with a task like this. Who better than the scion of one of the most ancient, most noble houses in all Neriak? Such is their reasoning."

"So their proposal is to taint my heir?"

"Please, mother, don't be so dramatic. It's not like I'm going to be going native and moving off to Paineel or anything."

"Do not speak to me in that manner!" She hissed. "The Lodge is sending my own daughter off, to venture on the surface, be touched by the light of the sun, live on the surface, maybe for years!"

"In service of the city. In service of the necromantic arts."

"By stealing ideas from the filth that crawls the surface? We invented this art!"

"By reclaiming our own ideas from those not worthy to possess them. Surely that is a goal you can find no fault with." After pausing for a moment to be sure her mother could not, Elvanyllene continued. "This will gain our house prestige, mother. Knowledge. I will be able to practice my powers on the Haeth'un on their own turf, and prepare myself for the day I take control of House D'Tretlar. And either way, you cannot stop this." Elvanyllene produced a sheet of parchment and placed it on her mother's desk. "This is a royal edict commanding the Dead to undertake this mission. They chose me and I am therefore bound."

Elvanyllene watched and waited as her mother's eyes flashed across the paper rapidly. She was still as a statue for many moments, until finally...

"Fine. Begone then. But there will be no mercy for you if you return with so much as a whiff of surfacer stench on you." Elvenyllene nodded and turned to leave, but was stopped when she heard her mother say something else. "Do not perish, Elvanyllene. I do not want the sole heir to this house being your sister."

"Neither of us want Tyrlinith to become the Ilharess, mother." Elvanyllene replied. "Walk in hate."

"Walk in hate."

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"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

Elvanyllene clung tight to the rock face just outside the K'rais tunnel as she stared straight up. The black night sky twinkled with stars, looking like a thousand eyes staring down in a void that stretched on for infinity. Elvenyllene could feel it stretching out, pulling at her. She was certain that the moment she let go of the rock face, she would plummet straight up.

"How do these Haeth'un stand it?!" She cried out, her fingernails leaving little scratch marks on the rock. "Just an empty expanse of nothing, yawning over them! No protection! No... nothing!"

Maliriel, meanwhile, was standing next to Elvanyllene with her arms on her hips and a big grin on her face. She was done up in chainmail, and had a pair of daggers strapped on as well as various other gear. "Yup. But funnily enough, the same force that controls which way is down underground also controls which way is down on the surface."

"But HOW?? There's no ceiling! NOTHING!"

"I guess the force isn't dependant on a ceiling. Also, I've heard some people say there's some kind of invisible ceiling or something."

"THAT'S INSANE!"

"But it works." Maliriel replied casually. "Come on, Elvy. It won't hurt you. You won't fall up."

Maliriel reached out and grabbed Elvanyllene's arm and tugged once.

"No."

She tugged again.

"No!"

Maliriel put her foot against the wall and tugged with all her might, finally ripping Elvanyllene away from the rock face. They stumble back.

"AAAAAAAAAaaaahhh...?" Elvanyllene looked up at the sky, then down at her feet. She swallowed hard and took one tentative step. Encouraged, she took another, and then another. "...Oh!"

"Yeah, oh is right. Come on, I thought you were supposed to be the smart one." Maliriel said, patting Elvanyllene on the shoulder. "Let's get moving."

The two began to walk along the road from Neriak, Elvanyllene still looking around, marvelling at the sights of Nektulos Forest. "What did you bring for provisions, Maliriel?"

"Basic trail food. Some biscuits. Plenty of water. It's all in your pack."

"Biscuits?"

Maliriel smiled. "Wheat biscuits."

"Ha! There really is no end to your resourcefulness."

Maliriel chuckled and shook her head. "I live to serve, M'lady."

After several hours of straight walking, the pair came to a fork in the road. "Alright, Maliriel, this is where we must part ways, for now."

Maliriel turned to Elvanyllene, the look of shock plain on her face. "Wait... what? Permission to speak freely, M'lday? That's a--"

"Permission denied." Elvanyllene said firmly. There are some things each of us needs to do. Things that would only be impeded by the presence of the other. I need you to go to Freeport."

"Freeport? What could possibly be of value to us in Freeport?"

"A paladin."

"A paladin?!"

Elvanyllene smirked. "Well, not a paladin, per se. His four pampered daughters who, under his nose, have turned to banditry."

Maliriel grinned a little. "And so you want me to..."

"Find Jayla, Kayla, Shayla and Tayla Nybright and help them grow their operation, in exchange for an alliance with House D'Tretlar."

"You want me to work closely with four spoiled young daughters of a paladin and help them to start an organized crime syndicate?" Maliriel laughed a little. "Elvy, I didn't even get you anything!"

"Consider it repayment for you sneaking in food for me since we were children."

"Fair enough. But where will you go?"

"Rivervale."

"You must stop dropping shocks on me like this. Rivervale? Are you kidding me?"

"Not Rivervale itself, but near Rivervale. I have it on good authority that Halflins are culinary experts. They make the best food in Norrath."

"You're risking an awful lot for food there, M'lady."

"It's not for food. It's for the future." Elvanyllene opened her spellbook. Inside was a letter, concealed. "Once you feel secure in what you've done enough to break away from the Nybrights for a time, come to these people to reunite with me. This is the organization we will be working with as I expand our house's operations to the surface."

Maliriel looked at the writing on the back of the letter. "Saga... how do we know these people will trust us?"

"They needn't trust us, just let us in. I will prove to them that we mean them no harm. After all, we don't, really." Elvanyllene put her hands on Maliriel's shoulders. "Don't take unnecessary risks. And don't die. I haven't learned resurrection yet, and everything would fall apart without you."

Maliriel nodded. "And my loss would break your heart, of course."

"I have no heart." Elvanyllene replied, but there was that twinkle in her eye. "Farewell, Maliriel. I'll see you in a worse place, I'm sure."

The two Teir'dal parted ways, each walking down a different path. Each confident that their actions would change their fortunes for centuries to come.

[Kalese]

I love it.  You have got to do more!

[tanare]

yes I eagerly await how all our tales will start to interact with each other's . differenet perspectives of the same events and all that