[RPG] Re: [Arcachon] Quest for the Relics, Part I

[bpratt]

Elerik entered the peasant hut belonging to the woman - her name was Shalnya
- where her daughter was waiting for supper.

"Ryla?" she called. No answer. The form in the corner was still. The fire in
the center had burned out. "Ryla?" Now there was more urgency in her voice.
Elerik stood frozen as she went to her daughter.

"Oh, gods, Ryla! Wake up!"

Elerik sighed. This was too much. Had he arrived just in time for yet
another tragedy? The mother would be broken by it... such cruelty...

But Ryla began to move. She was alive and breathing. And she suddenly sat up
and looked - straight - at - Elerik Taim. Her eyes were a milky white, as if
the membrane of a cooked egg had closed over them. In her face he was
reminded of Lechis in her dying weeks - fraily, but incredibly old. The
mother gasped in shock.

*"High Priest of the Way, Elerik Taim,"* the girl spoke. Her husky and dry.
It didn't sound like it could come from a little girl. Elerik felt a chill
run through his body. The mother's eyes opened wide and she backed off,
speechless.

Elerik tried to maintain his calm. "Yes... yes, it's me. How did you know?"

Then the little girl laughed cacklingly. The voice was amused and it made
him feel wary, as if an unknown prankster was taking a joke dangerously far.
*"I know,"* the girl-not-girl said.

"Who are you?" he asked, kneeling in the dry earth of the peasant hut,
looking the little girl in her strange, sightless eyes.

*"You ask the wrong question, Seeker,"* she replied, giving him yet another
shock. Few knew of his original moniker... there was Lechis, and Dormondt...
and now this little blind girl far, far from the Dark Isle?

"You're not Ryla," he pointed out. He heard the mother swoon, and looked
over to her with a sort of detachment. She would be alright when she awoke.
Elerik idly wondered if he was in a dream himself.

*"I bring a message, priest,"* she said, leaning toward him
conspiratorially. Her voice continued to run chills up and down his
spine. *"You
seek the Relics of the Gods. Hast thou in thy arrogance forgotten the will
of man and demon? They shall oppose your search. Many will die. You will
fall. Yet still you search."*

Blinking, he tried on several questions. How do you know all this? came to
mind. Which do you represent here, god or demon? did too. No words came out.
She continued.

*"Seek then the Foot of the Black-Haired Scourge. Pass the Forsaken One and
break through his False Stone. There your quest will resume. But beware,
Elerik Taim. For you will sacrifice something of great value to you. And
thereafter, upon each successful step toward the Relics, the seekers shall
sacrifice yet something else. Will the ends be worth the sacrifices? Ask not
me, Seeker."*

With that, the little blind girl slumped. He reached out and caught her. His
breath was quick and his pulse racing. Her eyes were closed, but she was
breathing - apparently asleep like her mother. She looked like a normal
little girl now. He didn't know if she would be blind when she awoke. But
somehow he knew that the message had been delivered.

*Will the ends be worth the sacrifices?* her words echoed in his mind.

It was a question he didn't even need to answer. For now he knew beyond a
doubt, that the Books, and the Relics, would eventually be found. And with
them, the power of the Gods would bless his people.
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