What I have to tell may not be
important. Or it may be relate to a danger looming off the
horizon. Several of us now think the old elf somehow hints at
that which has threatened Spur for centuries. I write this to
make concerned citizens aware of the situation. However, I
won't use the old one's name. Not matter who or what he is, I
would feel bad if he suffered rude attacks.
I first saw the old elf in the bard
guild. Monilea the Psycian had announced that she was going
to tell the story of the Summoning of Dazrada Soros. I went,
hoping that the story might have bits of Hithual history in
it as well. I saw him sitting to the side, propped weakly
against the wall. He was dirty and unkempt, a state in which
I had never seen a Usil. He bore the mark of Taath. As folk
milled about, he talked with Monilea, asking her if her tale
was a history or fiction, and implying that he knew much
about Spur 200 years in the past.
Monilea began her tale, and he sat back
against the wall with his eyes closed, as if he were seeing
the events with an inner vision or memory. As she spoke, he
repeatedly fingered something hanging from his neck. Monilea
told of a Great Fire in which all the high priests of Spur,
including Aremaia Starling of Rinanni and Dazrada Soros of
Taath, had disappeared. Aremaia returned to Spur after nearly
100 years, but not Dazrada the Psycian. The Master Assassin
Esteban Lovecraft-Dubois, a Muat, yearned to bring Dazrada
back as well. In Old Spur, there was a San, Hex ChunChan, who
was a Dhuvghal, a recursive. Recursives were ones, whose
spirits were immortal. Their bodies could be destroyed, but
they would return in a new form years later. These Dhuvghal,
according to Monilea's scrolls, are evil and serve a
mysterious master.
Hex had a Usil, Strangeangel
Sondemiroir, killed with a terrible weapon called a Fang of
Rhangkhorre. Through this person's death, Hex gained control
over several magickal amulets. Esteban learned of this, and
killed Hex in exchange for the spent fragment of the Fang.
Hex's head soon stood in the Temple of Taath, and Esteban
used to shard to summon his old priest, Dazrada.
The old elf said many strange things
during and after the tale-telling. Strangeangel stole the
amulets. Everyone, including himself, wanted to see Hex
destroyed, and the old elf smiled at the thought of Hex's
head on the Taathian altar. The one who called himself Soros
in Old Spur was an impostor of Dazrada Soros, who was found
dead in the Temple after his summoning. An impostor took his
place, and soon stole the White Dove of Rinanni.
The mysterious old one knew of the
Dhuvghal, and called them the servants of the Dhuweireor. He
said they were like fingers of one hand. The thought of them
appeared to unnerve him. Whereas he had been lucid before, he
now was confused, being unable even to explain how he came to
remember so much of the past. He said that he lived the
fantasies or dreams of others. I was standing closer to him
now, as folk began to leave, and I could see that the thing
that hung around his neck was a leather book.
Those that tried to communicate with
him later, found him in a poor state, coughing and so
confused that he did not always realize that folk were trying
to speak to him. He appeared to be trying to talk to someone
else that was not there. He soon disappeared. However, he
later used ESP in his madness, and all happened to hear his
thoughts. There was a battle in Town Square, but a secian
friend was able to write down his thoughts.
"The smiling dead have forsaken me.
Why. Their voices are silent.
Like the blood in those old cracks.
The eyes of the Choropleth burn.
His bowels writhe with the Dark ones whose
names are erased.
The worlds of the silent and the damned are
tied by the discords of pain and forgetting.
It's eyes burn... Burn.
My name is so tired.
No one will know me, and their comfort will
leave me alone in my despair.
I am drowning.
And the smiling dead have left me here.
So long. So very long."
Well, that would be scary enough.
Except for what happened several days later. I was coming
back from visiting the Yelican Forest, when I came upon the
same strange, old figure south of Town Square. I turned
around to follow, but he disappeared into the gloom. Then he
used ESP again. I really think he does this without realizing
it, as he yearns to communicate with someone or something out
there.
"Where might I find death blood in some
abundance?
Why kill?
Killing feeds the mouths that suckle, the
mouths that speak.
Killing grows the blackness from which all
things come."
Things soon got hectic. I heard stories
of young Rijom appearing in different parts of Spur and then
dying. I and others spent time in the Southlands seeking
clues. On one of these sorties, I came upon him again in the
Rogue Fields. At first, I walked right by him, but then I saw
a motion out of the corner of my eye, and turned around.
There were several folk fighting rogues, but the old one
appeared oblivious to it all. He was pulling up handfuls of
blood-soaked grass and stuffing these in a pouch. I greeted
him, saying that I had seen him at the story-telling and had
noticed that he knew much of Old Spur. He appeared unsure if
he had been there but briefly agreed that he remembered much.
I wanted to ask him about some of the famous Hithuals of the
past, but I could not ignore the handfuls of bloody grass. I
asked about it, and he merely wheezed "Death blood."
This did unsettle me, and I asked, hopefully, if he needed it
for a medicine. He would only say, "Medicine is for the
living." That book, bound black in leather, still hung
from his neck. I asked about it, which was rude of me. He
said, at first, that he had no such book. Then he whispered
to me that he could not speak of it: "My mind is feeble,
and I don't like to remember."
Who is this strange and sad figure? Did
he really live 200 and more years ago, or is he some mad and
deluded historian? Does that book give him these memories and
names or help him forget them? What is his purpose here?