It was decreed, however, that the Arch-Mage Merrick had a way to return the spirits to the living, but they all had to be gathered in the glen of the Fae as the seals were made to banish the Demons. I had to find my missing head!
I searched high and low, looking, asking for direction from those I thought may be able to help, but to no avail, and when the summoning time came, I was too far away, and too late. All had been completed without my presence... I was lost.
I wandered the realm, still a spirit, and stood near where I had died by the Shrine of Illustree. Dyisi found me there, and was unhappy at my plight. We told our Lord Merrick what had happened, and he was quite disturbed by this as well.
We found our Lady Rosaria, Cleric of the Shrine, and asked for her help as well. We had one problem.... the head was still missing.
I again went in search of the missing head. I found Merrick, and was able to find out where he had thrown the errant Noggin, and I dove deep into the sea to fetch it, and return it to its rightful place on my shoulders.
We gathered around my headless corpse, and began the ritual that brought forth my spirit into the lifeless shell. Rosaria stitched the neck back carefully as Dyisi cradled my head gently into place. It was a gruesome thing indeed.
Merrick called upon his powers as Arch-Mage, and I found myself deposited back into a world of pain, this time compounded by a large wound that encompassed my neck. Yet I was thankful.
I looked around at my friends, and croaked out a thank you, but Rosaria, from overexertion, had passed out, and Merrick had left the scene more quickly than a hunted fox down a burrow.
Dyisi knelt by my head, trying to sooth me with her words. I closed my eyes, and tried to relax. When I opened my eyes, Dyisi had gone, silently, unnoticed, but Rosaria still lay comatose.
I staggered to my feet, and tried to help her up, but I was too weak. I made my way to the Gypsy campfire where many were standing, talking... I called for help, which was attended to quickly.
We rested by the heat of the fire, which I, for some reason, did not feel. I lay awake and watched as the people stood over Rosaria, and hovered near me. They did all in their power to make us comfortable and heal. For this I was thankful.
As I sat, watching the fire, I began to hear other voices, not from the people around me, but from elsewhere. They were hollow, empty, but full of emotion and desperation. Soon I realized these were the souls of those I had spoken to while in the afterlife. They were long from the world, and were unable to come back to the land of the living during Merrick's summoning.
I clamped my hands over my ears, for the cacophony was almost Maddening. I stood quickly, and quietly, and spirited away to the Mage Guild Hall, where I had once found peace in my meditations.
There I sat, and concentrated on the voices, one at a time, to single them out, and try to understand what it was they wanted from me.
They wanted their stories to be known. They wanted their descendants to know who their ancestors were... So I began to write... and to read upon the darkend tomes that were secreted away in the Hall.
I could feel the darkness of those book begin to creep into me, but it caused me no pain. In fact, after sitting in the Hall, I had felt less and less, and more detatched from the outside world. This frightened me only for a moment, but I saw what kind of boon this was to my understanding of the dead.
I continue to study the dark tomes, and have traveled many places to seek knowledge forbidden in many lands... and since that day that I was brought back, I have not eaten, nor drank, nor slept a wink. Yet I continue on. I will see how this way of life folds out in front of me, so I may learn from the past.
No comments:
Post a Comment