Within a day or two, Donnan and Elea returned to the Tower. Elea was very careful not to let her true feelings be known to her friend. She was even more careful not to let her recent conversation with Be'ornhelm slip. While she moved to force it from her memory, she did not forget the scolding or the lesson the Be'ornhelm so deservedly had given her.
Valaria made herself scarce during their preparations to return to the tower and she did not travel with them. Elea had to assume that the Time Warden was around and had her own means of transportation. Already, Elea was distancing herself from her pain. She would do all that she could to be nice to Donnan's Intended.
In the end, Donnan and Valaria had decided to wait a week before getting married to allow wedding invitations to go out to his home town. With that sudden extra time, a couple of the group headed to Midmeadow to buy wedding gifts.
While there, Golin decided to guard Elea since she was set upon by the towns people for autographs. Elea played up the fragile elf maid bit, enjoying attention. She stopped in at Talon's Trinkets to buy Donnan's wedding gift. Talon was very pleased to see her and her companions.
Elea bought Donnan magic paper. You could write on them and then say a magical word and the paper would be clear again. Talon also sold Elea thin book sized Box of Holding. She was extremely pleased, knowing that the items she retrieved from the Box of Life would be safe in it. The Box of Life was too big to carry with her in their travels.
They left Talon's Trinkets and headed to the Armorers. Collum and Golin ordered various armaments that should be ready before they head out again. Business done, the group returned to the tower without mishap.
*
They were surprised to see Elea's parents there when they returned to the Tower. Apparently time had been modified while they were away. Elea greeted her mother and father warmly and was pleasantly surprised to find out they had been married in a small private ceremony a few days before.
She noted that Reynald looked a thousand times better than the first day she had seen him. Perhaps it was the fact that he had something... someone to live for. Sharlynn was obviously pleased by their union. It had been sometime since Elea had seen her mother so happy.
Two days later, Donnan and Valaria were married in a beautiful ceremony. Elea even sang at it, at the urgings of Donnan and her mother. Then came the rather riotous reception where Donnan and his new bride toasted to their new life. The rest of the group enjoyed the party well into the evening.
Fairly early in the night, Elea slipped off to her room with a bottle of mead. She was happy for her parents and for Donnan but could not share in the merriment. Rather than upset everyone else, she decided to disappear for a while. No one would miss her. No one did. She quietly spent the rest of evening nursing her mead and staring into the fireplace, watching the flames in their endless dance.
*
After several days of rest, Be'ornhelm gently reminded everyone of their mission to seek out the Cup and Talisman of Al'akbar - the fifth element needed to return Britage to his true form. As the group made preparations, Elea noticed that several new members had joined. She spoke to Donnan about it, not quite remembering previous conversations since the wedding.
Donnan laughed at her and alcoholic hazed memory and reminded her of those who asked to join: Melisangde, a young Elven fighter maid; Kenago, a Halfing; Shamu, a Dwarven cleric, Celeden, another Elven fighter and Sibyl, a human mage. Elea nodded, vaguely remembering conversations with each as Donnan and she had accepted them into the group.
Then they consulted a map. Be'ornhelm told them that a boat would be waiting for them at the Ruins of Bestien's Towers far to the south. They planned a course through Nether Woods, up the Arton Samay River, though Nyrdyv lake, pausing at the cities of Dyversm Verbobvc and ending up at High Falk about 5 leagues from the Veseve forest. It was a bit on the round about but fairly safe. The most danger part would be on the boat, going up river.
They traveled several days without mishap to Bestien's Towers. In fact, the most excitement they had was Melisangde telling everyone that she was actually a runaway from her family in the Veseve forest, that her Cousin had a reward out for her because she had 'borrowed' the family sword, "Faithful Truth," as she was leaving home.
Out of mishap comes promise. Using Melisangde's history, the group created a cover as to why they were going to the Veseve Forest. First, Melisangde had decided to bring the sword home and Elea was going to see her Great Aunt, the Lady Shurengyla. The group was escorting both to the Veseve forest. After some discussion, everyone seemed pleased with this story.
They arrived a day early. Everyone seemed quite cheerful as they set up camp with the help of Elea's unseen servant. Elea wondered if it was partially a forced gaiety because of the coming mission. Even with everyone's good mood they still set up watches for the evening.
Elea was fairly startled when Britage gently woke her for the fourth watch. She yawned and crawled out of her bedroll, thinking that she had gone soft for missing her bed. Britage, Winston and she were briefed by the sleepy Kenago who basically told them, "It's so quiet that even the mice are asleep." Then he crawled into his bedroll as was asleep before his head touched the ground.
The three on watch spent the next hour being bored out of their skulls but just as the first hints of gray trickled through the nighttime sky, they heard a male voice sneer, "Well, look what we have here. Easy pickings."
Standing at the edge of camp where two men. One was an obvious mage, the other an obvious fighter in good fitting armor. Britage was on his feet, pulling weapons as Elea did not waste anytime trying to figure out if they were joking or not. She fired a magic missile at the mage, striking him full in the chest. That heralded the beginning of the short lived battle.
By the time they were done, Britage stood over the dead fighter who was filled with arrows and sword gashes and Elea stood over the dead mage with Gaxis in hand. She was not sure when she called the sword to her. Celeden removed his arrows, checking to see if they were salvageable as Collum searched the bodies.
Among the interesting mage toys and the fighter's money, he found a note. Not being able to read Elven, he handed it to Donnan. Much to everyone's surprise, it was a bounty on the group's head. 150 gold pieces in advance, 1500 upon completion. All treasures found were the property of the bounty hunter. Then, there was an exact agenda of their trip.
Donnan looked at Elea as then read over the agenda. There was not one mistake. They turned to Be'ornhelm and had a small conference. The only way they could have this information was if one of the three of them had given it out. None of them had. Donnan asked Elea about her dreams, if she had had any lately. She had not but suddenly, she could see the thought he had.
Elea paled at the thought that, somehow, Racist was able to get into her head, her thoughts. It made her sick to her stomach. She backed away, telling them to replan the course they would take and to not tell her anything. Elea was visibly shaken her possible, unwitting betrayal.
Elea slunk off by herself to try to not think about anything concerning her group. As she looked out to the river, losing herself in the swirling water that was reflecting a myriad of colors from the rising sun, she noticed that Britage had come near her. She felt him more than heard him, figuring him to be near to guard her. Elea did not turn to speak or even look at him. She simply watched the waves and enjoyed Britage's quiet presence.
*
After some quiet discussion by Be'ornhelm and Donnan, they set out on the boat that arrived. It was carrying twelve other passengers. The group stayed on that boat for several hours, then unexpectedly disembarked and caught a later boat. More of a barge, really. Elea was surprised to see them load up about eighty horses first. Beautiful animals.
The party boarded the barge after speaking with the captain. The horses were the only cargo, the party were the only passengers. Elea kept her mind running over old lyrics and rhymes. She did not want anyone "eavesdropping" in her mind. There were twelve crew members working twelve-hour rotating shifts and six guards.
After the first day, Donnan asked about the horses. The group found out that the were prized stud horses headed for the PerrenLand. Each was worth about 1500 gold pieces each. Elea grinned as she watched various party members quickly work out the numbers in their heads. It was an impressive number. Well worth the guards along for the ride.
On the sixth day, there was a sudden attack drill. A horrible siren sound wailed across the boat and suddenly, men and weapons erupted on deck. The whole party was quickly, and non to gently, ushered below decks as catapults and harpoons were opened up and set in place. All the men were ready and at arms within three minutes. After that little display of prowess, even the ever-vigilant Britage relaxed to enjoy the calm of the river.
By the tenth day, the boredom was enough to drive even the most serene of the group to distraction. It manifested itself in practical jokes played on each other and poking fun at the poor dwarves who simply could not get used to the gentle rocking of the barge. There was more than one mess to be cleaned up when a weak stomach let loose.
Celeden approached Britage, more out of the need for something to do than true curiosity to ask him how he came to be like he is now. Elea came closer, watching Britage shift uncomfortably under the sudden attention on him. The rest of the group gathered around, curious as well.
Britage sat back and nodded. "Since you all are here to risk your lives trying to help me, it is only right that you should know. " His quiet, deep voice carried to all. "It was about one hundred and eighty years ago. I was a Captain in Lord Rauxes' personal guard. We were strong, arrogant and so full of ourselves. We took what we wanted, when we wanted it." The sorrow of his past deeds could be seen in his eyes.
"I was with, Tuland, another Captain in the Guard. We came upon a farmhouse with a mother and her two children. Tuland was going to rape the woman and kill the children after a bit of sport. He told me this, grabbing the woman by the hair. She screamed and pleaded for the lives of her children." Britage's face grew even more solemn. "Something in her eyes got through to me. Suddenly, I realized what we were doing was wrong. We were supposed to be protecting the people from others like us. I stopped Tuland." His voice grew bleak. "We fought over this. I had to kill him. I didn't want to."
He sighed softly. "Tuland was a personal friend of Lord Rauxes. He was most displeased with me. When I tried to explain. To tell him what had happened, he refused to listen. 'A monster you claim Tuland to be, eh? Well, a monster you will be.' With that, he had me cursed to live forever as a monster. Shunned and feared, no matter what was in my heart." He looked at each person. "That is my tale."
Suddenly, everyone grew that much more determined to succeed in the quest.
*
On the twelfth day, the barge docked at a small, non-descript port about forty leagues away from the Veseve Forest. Collum and Shamu were so glad to be on solid ground that they rolled in joy, kissing the earth.
Once everyone had their land legs back, they saddled up for a couple of days of hard riding. Elea hummed to herself growing more and more excited as they watched the great trees of the Veseve forest grow in the distance.
It took two and a half days to get to the edge of the Great Forest. Once there, everyone stopped to set up camp. Elea made sure that everyone was wearing the small medallions outside of their clothing. She did not want to see any of her party suddenly made into a pincushion by Elven arrows.
They decided to send in Melisangde and Kenago to find an Elven patrol. The group wanted to enter the forest with the Elves knowing they were there and why. Hopefully, the Lady Shurengyla would assist them on their quest. For now, there was nothing they could do but wait.
Continue on to: 12. Ta-Mar's Tomb