[RPG] [FEI][TA] And a Farewell

[Anthony Anderson]

[Arella smiled.  It was good to be home.]

In the distance, she could spot a single rider approaching from the city up
ahead.  Curious, she continue on her journey.  The walls of Nahad were her
next landmark.  But something caught her attention out of the corner of her
eye.  Arella stopped, looking to the left, as if for further explanation.
But none came.

A few steps further, and the same thing happened.  Almost just a shadow.
Sometimes in front, sometimes to the side.  She even sometimes felt it
behind her.  But always going up.  Straight up.  Puzzled, she had no time to
investigate more before the rider slowed to a halt in front of her.

"M'lady!  I did not expect to see you here."  Looking up, she was pleasantly
surprised to see Bartilowe.  Once a young page boy, Arella had taken him
under wing even before she had become Duchess of Idapur.  With the help of a
few aging militiamen and younger squires, they had managed to drive out the
old, corrupt duke.  Arella then kept him for many years as her personal
scribe and assistant.  The young boy had grown into a young man, and had
more recently taken his leave and married a maiden of Idapur.

"Bartilowe!  How I've missed you!  What news brings you here at such a quick
pace?"

The man's cheerful smile suddenly turns sour.  "That's just it, m'lady.  I'm
riding out to the far reaches of our realm informing everyone of the news."

Arella's grin begins to fade as well.  "What news, my friend?"

"It's Nahad, m'lady.  Not Idapur."

A full frown now rests on the woman's face.  "Whatever do you mean,
Bartilowe?"

Clearing his throat, he announces stiffly, "Nahad has been declared the new
capital of Taith Aenil."  Softening, he adds.  "I'm sorry, m'lady.  I do not
like the idea any more than you do."

She knows this to be the truth.  And if she ever had a doubt, Bartilowe's
eyes begin misting up.  "You've seen them, haven't you?"

"Yes, my beloved boy.  But I didn't want to believe it.  Now I cannot deny
it."

The two of them turn to look around.  Bartilowe's time and mentorship under
Arella had given him much insight into the spiritual side of things.  He was
now referring to the shadows moving all across the landscape.  "The Aenil
are leaving," he whispers.

Arella's voice, barely above a gasp, returns, "Not just here.  The entire
island.  The last bastion has fallen.  If they ever return, it will be at a
new time.  One where they believe the balance can finally be restored."

Her breath catches, tears already flowing freely.  "All that will remain are
renegades.  Both of light and dark.  But the Aenil as a whole are forsaking
the world that has forsaken them."

She reaches out to the young man.  "Hold onto me, my friend.  I fear my
heart has broken.  Help me pass on in peace."
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