Smuggler's Vale - Unrequited

[§~Samwise~§]

Taliesin peaked out the small window in the room and touched the earring. "Second check ... 2 hours is up, are any of you around?" There was a pause, at least 15 seconds. "Alright, I guess Ta'ro reaching out was a change of plans."

He took a deep breath and released the earring. "Well ... " There was silence followed by a strangely content sigh. Night was still falling, but The Refuge was already completely in the shadow cast by the mountain peaks opposite. Looking out and seeing darkness and needing to look up to see the light.

In the darkened room he focused and cast his meditation again. Glowing lights appeared across ceiling, light blue patches started to spread and snake sporadically forming what could be branches. As those finished filling in tiny dots formed and pulsed, starting green and moving to yellow only to return and vanish. This twinkling effect sometimes muted by shadows that weren't there, hints of leaves.

Still standing his hands aligned finger to finger with palms flat towards his chest. They moved in circle paths in and out, wafting air towards his nose. Sounds of crickets and leaves came from his mouth as he continued to cast. The scent of the crisp mountain air began to shift, and warm slightly. The warmth was not a true warmth, instead a scent that elicited warmth. The smells of the gardens of Kel'Alaryn expanded and filled the room. Being in a cozy room like this afforded the best application of this meditative practice.

"I don't know the symbol you shared, and right now I don't need to know." He said softly, grabbing the chair and spinning it to have the back face the bed. Straddling it he took a seat, arms wrapped around the back. "I'm more interested in what you might mean ... to me." He looked towards her sleeping face and continued. "Something about you calms me and I'm not sure if I fully understand it. You have this innate connection with nature, possibly due to your nature, maybe you're upbringing. Whatever it is, I feel like you understand better than others how I feel in other forms."

He shifted and hunched more, examining her features. "And it has been some time since someone chose to be near me without a sense of obligation. I hadn't expected to find you walking beside me on the road. And at the time I felt should move closer, but resisted. Now it feels strange to walk and not see you there beside me." A soft snort and he continued. "It's silly and makes no sense. Some human might say love at first sight, but that wouldn't be right. I've felt that keen sting and still do. But not all emotion has to be deep or intense. I've spent years sitting at the extremes and with that I end up speaking too dramatically. Spouting out drivel that might be found in some overt human play. All fire, passion, sorrow, happiness, and hate laid bare to make even the simplest understand and connect."

He shook his head with a chuckle."And I've gotten off-track. Another oddity. I try to stay focused, move from point to point as efficiently as possible. But there is an odd ... joy? in taking a longer path, in seeking other ways to get a thought across. Taking time to enjoy the journey rather than trying to spend all that time at the end."

"Here I am, talking at you. You're not hearing a word ... or maybe you are, but in your sleep it just isn't making sense? Would I be saying all this with you awake? Would you want to know? Does it matter?" He turned his head up and looked across the ceiling. "I may not know where you are from, but I can at least share where I'm from. Share the view from the Barks. Perhaps you've seen it or know it in its youth. After all, you knew about the First City where Moradin's Forge rests with the secrets of the warforged."

He looked back down. "Back when the Gods weren't stuck behind a veil. Though ... even with the veil we've spoken with gods before. Hell, had you been awake you might have had a chance to see one manifest - if Alain's ritual worked." He shrugged. "Communicating directly with Silvanis as I had ... it was still interesting to see him manifest into his statue to speak to the others. But if Silvanis already talked in annoying riddles I hardly think that speaking to a trickster like Kokinyu would be any more enjoyable."

"Certainly none of them that I have witnessed personally have been as enjoyable to speak with as you."

"You know, I've not had a genuine night off in some time. There was always something happening that I had to be part of. But tonight ... I chose to stick to the original plan and left my earring out to spend more time with you - to watch over you and hope that you might wake and allow me to relax about your health. And when the obligation arose no one was there." His eyes looked around the dimly lit room.

"All I can think of is to spend time here with you. Partly because what I did put you here, casting you into slumber for over 24 hours. But that isn't everything. I feel something new that I find myself interested in exploring. But perhaps it is pointless. You have your key back to home. Perhaps using it will indeed return you home to your time. Perhaps it would return you, but to something that is no longer what it once was. Were I a lesser person I might try to take the key ... or perhaps frame things in a light to force you to stay. That would certainly give me a chance to figure things out - a chance to see if perhaps your choice to walk nearer to me was a sign of something more."

He closed his eyes. "Of course this is all thoughts in a vacuum. Speaking to someone that doesn't hear that isn't responding. Nothing has consequences currently. Nothing for moving too fast, nor too slow. Nothing for honesty, nothing for withholding. Just ... un-returned words."

"And I am afraid that you will stay in this slumber until after I've gone. Afraid that the very memories I helped you get back would simply drive you to make your own path separately. Afraid that where you came from has long since been destroyed and that returning would just mean your death. A city that is known for having doors ... that ... that is not common knowledge now. It is ancient esoteric knowledge relegated to legend if any stories remain. It could be any number of cities. So many stories of extravagant features and arcane trappings. Places destroyed in the Days of Fury, or in the Cataclysm ... What if you used your key and where it took you was under water, under earth ... strewn across the sky ..."

He sighed and opened his eyes. In spite of trancing the night before there were signs that he was more tired than he let on. "I'm just over-thinking everything. Over-thinking because I've sabotaged myself in the past. Overthinking because preparing for the worst means that anything less than the worst is a relief. Over-thinking because there are no other words filling this void in response to divert those thoughts. Over dramatic ... yeah. That is me, it is what I do. Even as I work to ease those it still happens."

"And here I am ... watching over you ... not because this place is dangerous, but because ... I want to - I want to ..."

[§~Samwise~§]

Still lacking any response from Mirrai, Taliesin stood and retrieved his charcoal and notebook from his bag. He straddled the chair again and flipped through the pages to the relics. The shorthand of Elven and Sylvan where only the beginnings of words were noted.

"I'd tell you these secrets ... though some likely come after your time." He ran a finger along the notations and then paused. "Renegade King ... what if ..." He cast his eyes out to the darkness outside the window. "When Silvanus spoke he referred to everything based on where it was or whom it could be found with as of the time he spoke ..."

He moved his finger over the page, re-reading the lines of the stanza. "He ..." He flipped to the section of Moradin and then to Talos. "What if - what if The Renegade King is not a historic reference. We would need to find a King that fits the description of a renegade. But all the Kings we've known do not fit that category and none have a path per say." He looked back to the notes he tacked on to some of the lines from speaking with Alain.

"Alain-he had a group that included a Pirate King. The Pirate King died and the daughter took over and turned on Alain and the Gunslingers. That fits ... but - maybe it is reaching." He sighed and shook his head.

"Holy forest at the base of a mountain range in Otori - possibly a temple there..."

He mumbled as he re-read the remaining updated notes. "Well, whether or not the ritual went well I need to share these updates with the others."

[§~Samwise~§]

Taliesin's eyes widened. "No ... don't tell me ..." He flipped back to Talos' words. "Valley ... shrouded in mists of suffering ... vaults of the haunted tyrant. Did he have vaults? Did we miss a relic in The Deep Wood?" He tapped the notebook and thought on it. "The Deep Wood ... it was shrouded in mists and the tormented spirits of the Alurani were among the mists. And Rhuvain ... he was a haunted tyrant, so did he have vaults?"

He made a note in his book to explore that possibility. It would be some time before they might return, but it was worth it."How did I miss that clue? Or am I attributing something to the wrong thing?" He tapped the pages of the notebook considering whether he was simply trying to make sense of clues.