Bretonius' tower. Sometime after midnight but well before dawn, Elea rose quietly and dressed herself for traveling. Accustomed as she was to dressing in the dark, she was ready within minutes. She paused in the room to smile at the sleeping figure in the bed she had vacated earlier. Any extraneous noise she might have made as she got ready would have been easily drowned out by Donnan's snores.
Ever since the incident below Midmeadow, she had learned that there was at least one person in the group that she did not trust. In this matter, she trusted no one but her childhood friend. Elea stole over to the bed and shook Donnan's shoulder. She was quite surprised when Donnan rolled over in bed in mid-snore and winked at her. Throwing back the bed sheets, Elea saw that her friend and occasional lover was totally clothed and packed for traveling. She wondered how he managed to do that without waking her in the middle of the night.
Within moments, the two friends were on their mounts and stealing quietly away into the night. When they were a safe distance away from the tower, Donnan turned to Elea and said "So. Quaht a naight for riahding, eh?"
Elea smiled. "Yes. It is. I feel almost...roguish... sneaking out for a private adventure." She looked around. "By the way, you can drop the accent around me if you wish."
Donnan affected a chagrined look. "Ah, yes. I forgot. It's become almost second nature to me now." Donnan's voice was still tinged slightly with the Flannish accent that had been a part of his speech since childhood, but Elea noticed with relief that it was much less heavily accented than before. "So it is only the two of us, eh? What did Bretonius think of our stealing away?"
"He expected it. He could feel my restlessness. Of course, according to him, we have a destiny." She could not figure about if she believed in that destiny stuff that Bretonius hinted at. "I told him that we'd be back in a couple of weeks. We won't be missed." She paused and shrugged a little. "Even if we are, the others will assume that we are on a lover's tryst somewhere in the Tower." She looked over at her long time friend fondly. "They already assume it now." She grinned at him, remembering last night's enjoyable activities. "In any case, Bretonius told me to remember that time runs differently in the Tower and not to hurry."
Donnan cocked an eyebrow, and momentarily slipped back into his "fop" persona. "Ah lovairs tryst, eh? Gods forbid we have to get bahk eahrly and...maintahn covahr." Elea smiled broadly at Donnan's jest. They had been occasional lovers when the need and want arose (as it had the night before) but over the years, they always remained the best of friends. Then Donnan's grin faded from his face, and became that of a concerned friend again. "I've been meaning to ask...how are you feeling? Been sleeping any better?"
Elea's smile faded. She reigned her horse in a little and looked at him. "I'm sleeping better, thanks to this." She fingered a broach on her shirt. It had been a necessary gift from Bretonius. "But, I'm still scared." She admitted. It was a hard admission. "I still remember the dreams." She looked away from him. "And I still hear his voice in my head." She started up her horse in a slow walk. "I don't even know whose voice it is. The Drow mage is dead, so it can't be his. I think it might be that Paladin of Neurall. Bretonius told me that whoever it was had to have a psychic link with me and the only thing I can think of is that damned Tear of Lloth!" She clenched her jaw a little and then looked at Donnan. "Promise me that you will kill me if Lloth comes to make me hers!" She leaned to Donnan. "Please. Promise me."
Donnan looked at Elea, aghast. "Kill you?! Are you mad?! I can't kill anyone, anymore. Remember? Especially you!" He shook his head angrily, ashamed at the memories that Elea's words had dredged up from his mind. The years of killing, when the shadow of his father had hung on him like a shroud, remained in his recollection like a festering wound.
Glancing over at Elea, Donnan's heart skipped a beat, as it always did whenever she looked at him with her intense gaze. And, as always, Donnan realized that Elea had and would get her way. Again. Wishing to put the disturbing conversation behind them, and wanting to get Elea's mind off the subject, Donnan simply nodded once. Elea looked at Donnan a moment longer and then nodded, satisfied that he would not let the Dark Goddess claim her.
With a sigh, Donnan looked away east to the rising dawn. Somewhere, ahead of them, lay the town of Greenplain. "So," he said with a brightening tone, "what do you think we'll find in this mystery town of ours? We have a destiny, you and I." He poked fun at the mysterious destiny that Bretonius had hinted at the day before.
Elea also turned her gaze to the sunrise, silently marveling at the red and gold hues that streamed through the fading night sky. She thought about his question for a moment. "I think we will find a hidden ruin of a temple filled with old unsprung, lethal traps that will have been plundered 20 years ago." She grinned impishly. "Sounds like fun, huh?" She was purposely not thinking about the revelations of her past.
"Oh, wonderful." Donnan replied in his driest tones. "Yet another chance to get my best clothes ruined." He looked again at Elea and started to smirk. "You know, we could go back to the Tower and...ahem...reinforce our cover...so to speak."
She laughed softly, "Perhaps when we get back, dearheart. And... who says we have to wait until we return to the Tower?" She grinned and winked brazenly at him then laughed again. "Destiny or not, we have a mystery, Donnan. You can't resist it and neither can I. Right now, we have a 30 years old map of a hidden temple in Greenplain that no one knew about 30 years ago. You know there has got to be secret there." She paused, considering their route. "Besides, what's the worst thing that can happen?"
Donnan laughed heartily. He knew she was jesting but he had to admit that it felt good to be on their way. "Gods 'Lea, you've been at this adventuring thing for how long and can STILL ask me that?" He shook his head in amazement. "Well hells, if you're that optimistic, I guess it won't hurt to follow this through." Donnan looked back at Bretonius' Tower, now small in the distance. "And I don't mind saying, I like the thought of putting distance between us and Henry Appleyard for a while." Donnan looked back at Elea with concern. "He's...different from when we saw him last, back in Brotton. Changed. I don't like it, and I don't pretend to understand whatever it was that happened with him and that Drow in the tunnels..." Donnan's words drifted off into the cool summer breeze.
Elea frowned. "Yes. I don't know that man. I was never close to him but now. I don't know." She groped for words. "I mean, I am dealing with Winston and his religious preference but Henry scares me. He has his own code of ethics and I'm not sure what that is." She brushed her hair from her face. "We've all grown and changed, you know. I'm not sure I like all of those that we travel with. Most have good hearts, but some are down right naive and stupid in their actions." She glanced over. "That's why I wanted you and I to visit this temple. I trust and know you."
Donnan nodded and gigged his horse. The two friends rode in silence for a bit before Donnan spoke again. Both were deliberately not speaking of the recent discovery that their fathers were not the monsters that they were both lead to believe all their lives. "Winston's alright, once you learn to live with the fact that he's rather amoral. And of course I trust Stonefinger almost as much as I trust you. The others, tho' we have seen rough times together, sometimes alarm me. It may be that we will part ways for good soon." Donnan looked down the road, a harsh expression lining his handsome features. "It may be that we will have to part ways with Colin sooner rather than later. He worries me deeply. Worse than Henry. If you can get Appleyard to give his word, he'll keep it. At least, he used to. Colin, however...I think if treachery be in the wind, it'll come from him. I like him not."
"I have to agree with you. Colin has no sense and no honor. I did not like the Drow but even I know that there are rules to honorable combat." She was silence for a moment. "Well, Donnan, if you did part ways, where would you go? What would you do?" An impish grin crossed her face. "Follow up on that nubile lovely, Alanna?" Suddenly, she got the sense that someone or something was watching them, following them. She reigned her horse sharply and looked about.
******
Elea's feeling of being watched was more than just being observed. She felt as though she was some sort of butterfly pined to a board that some collector had captured. Even more than that, this spy was looking into the heart of her very Soul. Just as she was about to give up feeling that there was no escape. She felt the warm caress of a friendly caring friend shielding her from her tormentor. She felt her tormentor's grasp slipping from the mental hold he/she /it had on her. Her last sense of the mental hold was a hand with the Tattooed black spider on the back of it.
This vision was far worse than the Drider dream. Who ever or what ever it was, for just an instant had total control of her body and spirit. Everything she was, had been or would be was laid bare for this entity to see and control. This experience was far worse than being raped. Being raped is a physical thing, this attack went far beyond the physical. It was also much more than a mental attack. You feel as though you were peeled back layer by layer all the way down to your root being.
Elea has a sense of being lifted up and carried away. But she was only (by her estimate) 100 to 200 feet above the ground. Someone had hold of both of her hands. As she turned and looked, she saw a man in front of her. He looked to be her age, and was incredibly handsome. Perfect.
"I am Ballarius." he says, "A Time Lord and a Watcher. The old mage asked me and my associate to keep an eye on you and your companion."
Elea found her self drawn to this new protector, She felt that he was not only handsome but his appearance is what her idea, of what "THE" perfect man would look like. She felt safe and very attracted to him, despite her current predicament.
Ballarius warns Elea about allowing herself to experience base emotional feelings. He tells her that there are many doorways into the mind through that channel and not even the Broach can block them all.
Elea suddenly realizes that she has not seen his lips move once. He is projecting his thoughts into her mind. Then he shows her a scene of two people (a man and a woman) copulating under a tree by the side of the road in the moonlight. They are not making love but are rutting like two wild animals in heat.
As he brings Elea closer, she is shocked and horrified to see herself and Donnan biting and tearing at each other. She looked back at Ballarius as his Image begins to fade, his last words to you are "Remember, Lady Elea, you and your companion must be careful and guarded from now on."
The world around her darkened as she fell into a deep restful and peaceful sleep. She woke up the next morning lying next to Donnan naked, battered and bruised.
*
From the moment Elea said "Someone is watching us," Donnan felt removed from his body. It was as though he were looking over his own left shoulder, he is able to observe what is happening but is totally powerless to act upon or prevent events from happening in front of him. No matter how hard Donnan struggles, he cannot prevent his body from sexually attacking Elea.
Donnan did notice that Elea was not putting up any resistance, in fact she seems to be attacking him as well. He has never seen her like this, she seems completely unaware of where they are or that she is being brutalized in ways that Donnan told himself that he would never do. Whoever was controlling his body was performing every kind of perverse sexual act on Elea he had ever heard of and even some he had not. Donnan could not stop what was happening, only watch.
From what seems to be from behind and above him, Donnan heard a very attractive female voice ask, "Are you enjoying yourself?"
"No, I sure as hell am not." Donnan thought, disgusted and sick at what was happening. He felt a hand on his shoulder and then immediately found himself 100 to 200 feet above and to the right of what is going on below. He was turned around and in front of him was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
"I am Valaria. I and my companion are Time Wardens and Watchers. We have been asked by the mage to watch over you and to protect you and Elea if we could." She paused then continued on, "You and Elea must control your base emotions, that there are many ways, many doors to your minds and not all of them can be protected from psychic invasion."
As Donnan listened to her words, he noticed that she never moved her lips once. She was talking to him directly to his mind. Donnan was quite taken with her, marveling at her as his idea of the perfect woman. Donnan could not help he thoughts towards Valaria. As her form began to fade from his vision, Donnan murmured "I love you."
The last word he heard as he slipped into unconsciousness was her saying "I know." Then Donnan fell into a deep sleep. When he woke the next morning, he find himself lying next to Elea, naked, bruised and totally exhausted.
*
Elea had only been conscious for a few minutes trying to get her baring as to where they were and trying to make some since as to what had happen. The very last thing she remembered was Donnan making that statement about that witch Alanna. Everything was fuzzy after that. She remembered her dream and the man she talked to in the air. She had a vague memory of two people below her and the disgusting things they were doing under the tree in the full moonlight. The next thing she remembered was waking up here by the side of the road. She realized that she was naked, her clothing on the ground torn and lying all around her. She felt sticky and hot, and smelled of sweat and sex. Her body had bite marks and bruises all over it.
Elea felt as though she was used like a gold piece whore. She looked over at Donnan who was just coming to. He looked no better than she did, but he still had that hat on and as usual that was the first thing he thought of. She could not believe that her friend since childhood could or would have used her in such a sexual manner. Yet, there was no mistaking that smirk on his face of sexual satisfaction after sex, she had after all seen it before. But her memory was very slowly returning to her. Donnan seemed to be going through the same torment.
*
Donnan slowly sat up, his head spinning. "Oh shit..." he huskily whispered, a hand stealing to his aching skull. "What the hell happened..." Memories from the previous evening slowly filtered back. The first thing he did was to sneak a look at Elea. She was resting on her back, looking up at the burgeoning dawn. Donnan felt a wave of shame and disgust at himself roll his stomach over. Rolling over on his side away from his friend, Donnan retched into the grass. He remained where he was, too ashamed to look Elea in the face when she sat up.
Elea sat up, groaning softly. She could hear Donnan retching and felt ill herself. 'He must be so disgusted with me. But, it wasn't me. And it couldn't have been him. By Sons!' She thought for a moment, could not stand her own stench. She murmured the catnip ~*~Clean~*~ on herself. It cleaned the outside of her but what about the inside? She slowly gathered her back with clothes in it, silent for a bit. Finally, she ventured, "Donnan?"
Donnan lifted his head momentarily from the cool, dewy grass. The world had stopped spinning as mightily as it had been. Without looking at Elea, he whispered "Yeah?"
She slipped into a tunic. 'He must hate me. Tymora! I hate me. What happened?' She looked at him, wincing at the bruises and scratches on his body. "You OK?"
'Oh gods, she's concerned about me...' Donnan thought in a haze of anguish. 'How could I do that to her?' For a moment, his old defenses came back to him, and a one-liner nearly slipped through his lips. 'No no no! Not now!' "I feel awful." Donnan rolled over to look at Elea, his heart shriveling within his breast at the sight of her. Suddenly, the emotions became almost too much for him to handle, and a lone tear tracked down his dirty cheek. "Oh Elea, I'm so sorry, I don't know what happened!"
She wanted to go to him and hold him but she could not seem to make her body to it. "So, do I." She admitted softly, trying not to cry. She grabbed a bedroll blanket and offers it to him to cover himself. "I'm sorry. So sorry. I was floating, I could see it happening but I couldn't stop it." She also murmurs the catnip ~*~Clean~*~ as she hands him the blanket.
Donnan looked at the blanket for a long moment. With a ghost of his old swagger, he casts the blanket about both himself and the distraught elf. Suddenly, the moment is past, and the two old friends and sometimes lovers are in each others arms, trying their best to comfort the other. As the tension drains from them, Donnan realizes what Elea has just said. "You were out of you body too?" A sudden thought gripped him. "Did you see anyone else?"
Tears leak out of her eyes as she hugs Donnan tightly then she relaxes, realizing that he does not hate her. She is distracted by the question. "Yes. A man. A perfect man named Ballarius. He was... a Watcher. Time Lord." She felt a stirring at the thought of him but pushed it away. "He saved me from the man with a spider tattoo and warned me against my baser instincts."
"I got the same thing, except my...watcher...was a beautiful woman named Valaria. She said the exact same thing!" Donnan eased Elea back away from him for a moment, his hands resting on her shoulders. "What the hell is going on?"
Elea shakes her head. "Mind attack? I don't know. I think we will have a lot more problems in the future. It... I think it has to do with the Dark Goddess and maybe that temple."
"Seems to me if they were going to warn us about 'baser' emotions they might not have made us do that." Donnan grumbled under his breath. Aloud, he said "I'm really starting to get a bad feeling about this temple. Are you sure you want to go on?"
She thought about it. Honestly, thought about it. "Yes. I feel the pull. I would go insane wondering what was there if I didn't." She shakes her head. "I don't think the Watchers made us... um..." She blushed furiously. "You know. They protected us from being passengers in our bodies while it happened."
"Then who IS responsible?" Donnan ground out from between his teeth. "I'm getting tired of all-powerful mages and etheric beings pulling my strings!"
"I don't know. I'm tired of it too. We just have to be on guard now." She hugged Donnan and then wriggled out of the blanket and grabbed a pair of leggings to put on. Then she tossed Donnan his pack. "I'm hungry? You?"
"I'm sorry? Did you say something? I couldn't hear you for the orc screaming in the pit of my stomach for food." Donnan was quite hungry. Sex always did that to him. He pushed that train of thought away.
"I'll take that as a "Yes." She puttered around, keeping busy as she thought about her experience. She could not decide whether or not she was lucky that based on her experience with her uncle she was able to detach herself from bad emotions. 'I wonder how Donnan is really feeling.' She knew her headstrong companion hid his feelings well.
Donnan tried to put the incident from his mind. 'It was mutual, it was mutual, it wasn't our fault, it was mutual...' became a mantra in his mind as he put himself together and became presentable again. Once or twice, the thought of Valaria rose through the haze of guilt, but he quickly thought of other things. 'I can't be in love with that woman, can I?'
"I'm afraid that I can't offer you the same fare as in the Tower but I can cook a mean pot of stew." She kept herself moving and busy. Elea glanced up at Donnan and smiled a little. She knew that a mental attack like what just happened could have, and usually did, tear parties and friends apart.
******
By the time Elea and Donnan had finished their meal and cleaned up, It was mid-afternoon. Shading his eyes with one had Donnan looked towards the sun to find its position in the sky.
"Where has the day gone?" Donnan said as he looked back down at Elea. Elea shrugged with a little smile and went back to packing the camp gear. They both felt different now about what had happened the night before. It was odd but somehow the whole experience now had taken on the feel of more like an accident or something like a bad encounter that was no ones fault but just happened. Elea and Donnan's bruises, bites and various other light injuries from the night before, began to fade. Like the memory of the night before.
But Elea had the feeling that she had been in this area before. Something about this whole country side seemed familiar in the light of day. Like some distant child hood memory. 'That's silly I've never been here before now.' Elea thought to herself as she finished the last of the gear and packed them away on the pack animal.
Donnan came back to Elea leading their two riding horses, they were fed, watered and saddled. "I want to put as much distance between here and us as possible before night fall" Donnan said has he handed Elea the rains to her horse.
Elea was abut to speak when she thought, 'There is again, the feeling that I know this area?? But I know I've know I've never been here before.'
"What is it, Elea?" Donnan asked, bringing her back to herself.
"Oh it's nothing, I just feel like I've been here before. But that's impossible." Elea tried to shake off the feeling.
"Is it really?'" Donnan questioned. With that raised eyebrow look he always gave her when something may not be as it seems.
As she was about mount her horse, she paused and then looked at Donnan. "You know I can't get the feeling out of my head, I know that I've never been here before, but by Tymora's eyes, I know that down this very road about five miles or so, there's a small trail that leads off the main road. In about a mile is a small clearing in a glade of woods by a small clear stream. But how can that be?" Elea was perplexed at her knowledge of the area.
"I don't pretend to know Elea. But let's go see what we can see." Answered Donnan. So, they began their journey to the temple again. They road for two hours when sure enough, there was a small bath that lead from the main road. Elea felt uneasy but at Donnan's urging they took the bath. They road on for about a smile to the woods and there it ways. A small clearing by a sparkling stream,
"I don't like this Donnan." Elea said wide eyed and looking in all directions.
Donnan was nervous also but would not show it for Elea's sake. "OK, this looks like a good spot for the night." Donnan said as he got off of his horse.
Elea still mounted gave a wild look and said "By Tymora's hand! Are you out of your mind? Haven't you been listening to me? I said I've never been in these parts. Yet look!!" This is far more than any coincidence." Elea said then she got off of her horse.
"I tell you it will be all right, besides I know you if you don't stay and explore this area, you won't rest until you do. So come on and let's try to figure this out." Donnan said.
Seeming to know just where to go, Elea went to get fire wood. Donnan began unpacking the pack horse. When his ears were pierced by a loud familiar scream follow by Elea's voice yelling, "Donnan, come here quick!!"
Grabbing his dagger Donnan ran to his friend. She was on the ground sitting, her legs out in front of her. She was half being supported by one arm and the other hand was covering her mouth. With a trembling hand, tears in her eyes, and looking as pale as if she had just seen a dead man. Elea pointed to the back of a medium size bolder in front of her. "Donnan, look." Elea demanded still pointing.
Donnan looked in the direction she was pointed, and said "My God, Elea, can it be?"
On the Boulder, in the script of a child, was the words "Elea loves Dada".
*
A little distance away, magically hidden were two shadowy figures. One turned his head slightly to the other and said, "I told you this wasn't a good Idea."
The other retorted. "It can't be helped, He's close I tell you, very close. He couldn't have attacked their minds from any distance. When I find him, what I do to him will be legendary in the time it takes him to die."
"Even longer than her uncle?" The second one asked.
"Longer much longer." The first one reply's. they then both disappear from the area.
*
Donnan helped Elea up from her sitting position. "Elea, what does this mean? I don't understand."
She shakes her head. "I don't know! I don't know!"
"OK. Calm down. Take a breath." He steadied her. "Look, I don't know what's going on but we have to think this through." He looked her in the eye. "You trust me, don't you?" She nodded. "Then, you need to tell me what you know or think you know about your father."
Elea nodded. "I don't understand it but you are right." She followed as Donnan lead her back to the camp. They sat down together, across from each other.
Donnan handed her the wine skin. "You're probably going to need this." She took it from him, taking a swallow without tasting the sweetness of it. "Now. Let's begin at the beginning. Before Bretonius said anything to you, what did you know of your father?"
"As far as I can remember, I was given hints and impressions that my Mother was raped by a human male while in Veluna." She searched her memory. "My uncle was the one who gave me the "definite" answer, accusing me of being "no better than common whore, daughter of a lying, thieving rapist." I was only about sixteen when he said this."
Donnan felt his anger rise and immediately quelled it. 'Watch the baser emotions!' He chided himself. "Now we know that's a lie." He thought for a moment. "Are you sure that the writing on the rock is your writing?"
She nodded. "I am. It explains how I knew this place. I'd been here before."
"With your father, it seems." He observed.
"But, I have no memory of my father at all!" Elea tried to put the pieces together. "But, the writing is mine. So, I had to know my father." She shook her head. "I've never called anyone "Father," "Dad" or "Daddy" and meant it."
"So, let's assume that you were here with your father. That means, for some reason, your memory was erased. Not only of this place but every memory you ever had of your father."
"But why?! And why didn't Bretonius tell me about this? From the way he spoke, I never have met my father."
Donnan shook his head. "I don't know Elea. All I have is questions."
She nodded, voice determined. "It's time we found the answers."
Donnan hefted the map case. "I think we are already on our way."
The two of them sat there a bit longer and then continued with their chores to set up the rest of the camp. Both pondering the questions that kept growing.
Continue on to: 7. Temple Tricks & Temptations (Part 2)