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Now the late afternoon sun streaks across the chamber and paints the wizard's study in shades of honey and amber. The old wizard pulls himself up from his chair and crossed the chamber to the fireplace. He stirs up the last embers of the morning's fire and tosses a new bundle of sticks onto the coals. After a long pause he returns his gaze to Gavin who is scanning the documents spread out on the table before him trying to figure out his role in these events. Burne draws in a breath and launches once more into his tale.
"These matters remain largely invisible to the kingdoms of men. The days of trade and discourse with the elves are long past and their accounts are resigned to dusty tomes. To your kind our memories must seem short indeed. It is only old men like me who can recall the last of those days. Yet everyone can see that splendor of the past is waning. The reign of kings gets shorter and bloodier and each new usurper to the throne rules over an ever shrinking domain. The untamed lands between kingdoms grow fiercer and few risk travel along the old King's Road. Strangers once welcomed are now treated with suspicion. All who can remember better times sense that there is worse still to come but most have resigned themselves to fate.
"Maybe we men of old had the luxury of being dreamers in our youth that is not to be had now but we knew that there was more to the world than could be seen and touched and tasted. We devoted ourselves to the arcane arts which had been all but forgotten. We pored over the lore surrounding the world that was and means of our study came to learn much about that realm of Faerie which touches our world but is not of our world. We have seen the awesome power of the wild realms of chaos that lie beyond even your world and invade into ours only when the Seelie court cannot hold back those unwholesome tides. Indeed there are some who, being corrupt in their very hearts, seek to align themselves with the chaos and become its servants in exchange for sorcerous power and dominion over mortal men. We remember well the last time that such a despot rose to power. It was only through the combined effort of elves and men that his dark army was defeated and his tower broken. It seemed for many years that the dark times were behind us but now it seems that a shadow has again fallen across the land.
"But you had asked me what can be done to stop these unfortunate events. Alas, while the members of my order have compiled a great deal of information about the past we can only guess at the course of the future. Since the gates of Faerie have closed to outsiders there has been more speculation about the current state of affairs than hard facts. That is why we we have developed such a keen interest in any soul that ventures from out those lands. That is why we have kept so close an eye on you. Many years ago, at the start of this course of events, we should have watched your father as closely. Had we done so he would not have slipped away so easily. Now we are forced to investigate every mention of his name in the hopes that it will bring us closer to the man himself. We hoped to have from him directly the tale of what caused him to flee the Faerie lands on the very eve of the sundering of the Seelie court."
Inspired by a growing sense of dread over the possibility that a dark and chaotic force may yet overspread all of the Faerie and mortal lands, Gavin nearly blurts out the rest of his secrets to the old wizard. He feels compelled to share with Burne the truth, that his father had not been the captive and consort of the Lady Rhalta but rather of his mother, who was not a queen but an outcast former member of the queen's court, who had begun to delve into dark magicks, while living alone in the outskirts of the kingdom. And now, with terror taking hold in his heart, Gavin begins to suspect the real truth behind all the secrecy, that it was while she lived alone in those dark woods, those in-between lands as Burne had described them, that the chaotic forces from the wild realms beyond even Faerie, had begun to influence her mind and direct her actions. Could it be that his mother had already succumbed to the darkness and was already conspiring with the Erlking and his minions? And if so, why hadn't these same forces affected Gavin during those long years he lived there with her? Was he somehow protected from their influence? And if so, why?
ReplyDeleteThe thought that Gavin's mother could be an instrument, a conduit through which these dark corrupting forces could burst forth into the world, disgusted him and filled him with dismay. And was this the reason his father fled back to the mortal world? Did he intend to return to warn humankind of their peril only to have the true import of his stories and songs go unheeded?
And what was it, exactly, that Burne was asking of him? Was it to seek out is father to learn from him the truth of his journeys into and out of the Faerie realm? Or, he wondered to himself as a lump formed in his throat, was he being asked to return to Faerie as a spy, to gather information about the goings on there and report back to Burne and his order? He couldn't be sure. And where, he wondered, was Lord Oberon? Could he be sought out and asked to return to his throne so that he might restore unity to the Seelie Court?
But Gavin asked, simply, "Burne, what can I do?"
At the directness of the question Burne grows a bit sheepish and, for the first time since Gavin's arrival at the tower, seems at a loss for words. With a bit of uncertainness he attempts to follow this new tack. "Yes, well, you see... I'm sure you can imagine... the necessity of... our plea being carried to the one or the other, caught as we are in the middle." Burne's look turns quizzical apparently not understanding how his point could not be clear.
ReplyDelete"Ah, but could it be? Could you not know about the emissary? How could I have missed such an important point? You see, young lord, you are not the only sojourner to wander out from elven lands. There is another come from the misty isles of Mintarn in the sea. Quite a coincidence that there should be no sign for so long and now not from one of the lost kingdoms but from two. No, I suppose you could not have known... unless it was planned in advance; a meeting perhaps between two of the mighty elven nations on neutral ground? Have I been a fool all this time? Has the very meeting which I have hoped for already been set? If it be true, keep me in darkness no longer. Tell me the truth of it, has the Lady of Celene herself sent you forth to meet this agent of Mintarn? Where is the meeting to take place? We have traced the path of the emissary southward along the coast of Alaron but we know not his destination.
Burne gazes across the table at his guest attempting to read his expression. Gavin tries to understand this new piece of information and its possible relevance to him and gauge whether or not he should feign prior knowledge of so-called emissary. As his mind begins to race to weave a tale tell the old man he becomes acutely aware of the wizard's stare. Although the odd lenses he wears over his eyes seemed at first to obscure and distort them, Gavin now notices that he sees man's eyes very clearly and that they seem to burn with preternatural brilliance. Looking into the blue fire of the man's eyes makes him feel vulnerable as though all his secrets were exposed for any to see. Just as he is about to wince from the now nearly blinding light from the old man's eyes he begins to feel a sensation like a low vibration or barely audible hum. In that moment Gavin realizes he is feeling the raw flow of magic just as he did when in his mother would use her elven glamour or in the later years when she would practice darker enchantments alone in the woods and the whole forest would seem to be filled with unseen energies. Once Gavin recognizes the enchantment it loses any power over him and the eyes of the old man once more seem dim and distorted. The wizard peers squinting through his lenses at a face of the young man for a moment longer then apparently unable see what he was trying to removes the spectacles from his nose. "No, perhaps you truly don't know of what I speak," mumbles the wizard mostly to himself. Then in a louder voice he continues, "In any case I'll try to tell you as much as I know and you can confirm any part of the account you would care to."
ReplyDeleteGavin rises from his chair with a start, unnerved by the magical energy and the reminder it brought of his mother's dark powers. For a moment, he thought it might have been his mother herself, trying to send her spirit out to him. On a number of occasions since leaving the elven lands, he felt her presence and got the uneasy feeling that she was using an enchantment to communicate with him ... or to draw him back home to her. Then, as now, he fought against the influence of that power, but it always left him disturbed and exhausted.
ReplyDeleteGavin makes a step for the door like a panicked, trapped animal who sees a way out of the snare. But he catches himself, masters his paranoia and turns instead to look through the window.
"I know nothing of an emissary, Burne, nor was I sent from Celene," he says quietly. "In fact, none but the night watchman even knew I left. I went in secret from the land of my birth. I came to seek out my father, whom I've never known, though he seems known to all the world. I knew nothing of these larger matters, and yet ..." he pauses reflectively, "it may be that they were taking place all around me, though I was quite blind to them."
Gavin then sits back down at the table and returns a gaze to Burne to match the wizard's supernaturally penetrating stare. "Tell me what you know, Burne. I should like to know if I do indeed have a larger part to play in these matters and to what extent my own story may be deeply woven into this great tapestry that is now unfolding before my eyes."