[RPG] [Dwi][PeL] Alanna Anaris ~ An Unexpected Reunion

[Timothy Collett]

Alanna's guards quicken their pace to keep up with their Queen as she
practically runs down the steps of the palace and out the main gate into the
city of Askileon, calling after her, "Your Majesty! Wait! It is not safe!"

"In my own capital?" she calls back over her shoulder. "Come now, can't you
keep up with a near-cripple?"

Alanna laughs, and the echoes ring from the stones of the palace walls
strangely multiplied.

*By the Gods, though; I feel better than I have for many a moon!*

Suddenly she stops, and a chill runs down her spine, as the echoes of the
laughter break through her focus on finding Yavanna—echoes that are *not* in
her own voice—and she remembers when she *did* last feel this hale. As the
guards catch up to her, she hisses under her breath, "What are you playing
at, Elanzil?"

One of the guards, who had lagged behind in quick conversation with a
messenger, catches up and says, "Your Majesty, I have word of the Lady
Yavanna. She is being conveyed here even now by the guards from the docks."

Alanna does not respond. She scans the crowd, straining with eyes and with
her inner senses to catch a glimpse of Elanzil's form or a momentary flicker
of her essence.

"Your Majesty? Did you hear me?" asks the guard tentatively.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she spots something—what, she's not
quite sure: a flicker of dark hair, a hand waved in invitation—but she sets
off after it at a run. Bewildered, the guards follow her, barely keeping up.

For some time, Alanna weaves through crowds, along cross streets, and down
back alleys, following tantalizing flickers that only her eyes can see. At
length, she finds herself in front of a small shrine, where an old woman
prays, apparently totally unaware that her Queen stands beside her...and her
Goddess before her.

"Well, that was fun," Elanzil remarks.

"What in the name of—of—of *Urlos* was that all about?" Alanna snarls. "My
best friend from Ikalak is here, and You lead me on some kind of wild goose
chase, just to show me a little shrine?"

Elanzil chuckles, then sobers, and looks directly at Alanna with Her
unearthly eyes. "You needed to be reminded of Who I Am." She turns and
gestures to the somewhat crude representation of Elanzil's victory over
Akorin in the Starlight Battles before time began. "I am the Dark Victor,
Alanna. I am the one to whom all women will turn to help them when they have
no more hope. I am your patron, and have been for years...as I have been *
hers* also."

Alanna's eyes widen as her mind turns over all she knows of her friend, and
her mouth hangs open, arguments dying on her lips.

"Yes," the Goddess murmurs, "you see it, don't you? She has served Me
faithfully for some time now, though she knows not My name or My face. Now,
go to your friend. Go to her...and when you have greeted her properly, when
she is comfortable in this new land...bring her to Me. Bring her to this
place, and teach her of My glories. And do not forget how easily you were
able to run here..."