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Epilogue: Twenty-Six Temptations
Topic Started: Mar 26 2010, 02:31 PM (375 Views)
LadyRahl
Member Avatar
Supreme Goddess Of All Things Bright And Shiny
Come away, lovely daughters
Come away, sons of man
Dip your feet in the water
Put your lives in his hands
For you belong not to life
You are living in hell
And you cannot blame the devil
It’s his primordial

Twenty-six Temptations
Temptations

When you listen to reason
We’ll sell religion
As they burn down your village
Steal your beautiful wide-eyed sons
And they think no-one is watching
But the true Lord sees all
You whores in the river
His fortress shall fall

To Temptation
Temptation


Lyrics to: Twenty –Six Temptations
Preformed by: DeVotchKa



4 Years Later



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Mara/Enon
Nelwyn – The Beach House

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Enon rolled over in bed, his hand sliding over the satin sheets only to find the other half of the bed cold and empty. With a sigh, he opened his eyes and looked at the still perfectly fluffed pillow unused from a good nights sleep. Sitting up, he looked across the small bedroom to where Azazel lay in the pool of sunlight spilling in from the window having abandoned the now cold hearth. He ran a hand over his face and slipped out of bed, grabbing the pair of black trousers that he’d tossed to the floor the night before and slipping them on.

“Did they come to bed at all?” He asked looking at his familiar who just blinked at him. He knew the answer before he had asked it and his hand raked through his dark mass of hair as he walked barefoot through the house towards the front entrance to see the sun rising over the horizon.

He found Mara there, sitting in the shallow water where the sea washed up on the sand, the waves slowly moving back and forth around her. Her long dark hair was pulled up off her neck and he knelt down behind her, kissing skin gently finding it cool as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

“I’ll never be good enough for him,” she said staring out at the horizon, her voice soft still partially stolen by the underdark.

“Yes you will,” Enon said gently shifting so that he was sitting behind her, one leg on either side of her. “You worry too much.”

“What do you think he wants from us,” she aske as she pulled the golden pins from her hair letting it spill down around her shoulders. Her fingers grabbed a handful, pulling it to her nose and taking a deep breath. With a disgusted expression she let it go. It still smelled of the underdark.

“Does it matter?” Enon asked. “He’s been true to his word.”

“I wonder what would have happened if you’d done it,” she said leaning back against him.

Enon rested his head on her shoulder feeling her skin slowly warm up. Every few days Garret came and every day he took her to the underdark for training. Every time she returned tired, drained, her skin cold to the touch. Mara never complained, but he could see the truth. She’d always excelled with ease at what she did and now she was struggling and she was struggling with more than finding out her real father was the Unknown, the leader of the Forsaken. She was struggling as well with the loss of her two best friends Deirdra and Aro. The gods were truly crewel at times.

“How is your training going?” She asked entwining her fingers in his, stretching out her legs in front of her the waves carrying the layers of her skirt up and down her thighs gently.

“It’s going,” Enon replied kissing her ear. “Beryl is…” he trailed off not knowing the right word to use. Garret had told them shortly after the temple incident that slowly the doorways to the Forsaken keeps would open and slowly, one by one, they would all emerge.

She had been the first.

Beryl… his mother… had been without a doubt one of the most beautiful women that Enon had ever laid eyes upon, second only to his beloved wife. Until that moment he had doubted Garrets words to be true but when he had seen her, seen the woman who had bore him, he knew it to be true. How many nights as a child had he dreamed of her, of finding his mother alive, to have her arms wrap around him only to believe that would never happen and when it did… it had been all he had dreamed.

“You’ll figure it out,” Enon said standing up and pulling her up to her feet, untying the ribbon on the back of her dress, pulling it off her shoulders where it slid down into the sea, pooling at her feet. He watched as a smile came to her face, warming his head and she stepped out of the dress as he led her deeper into the crystal clear water pulling of his pants as they went and throwing them away with her dress.

Over the last four years Nelwyn’s borders had grown tremendously to cover almost a quarter of Ardith. With the help of his mother and Garret things had taken off. Immortality was his, as was proven when he had been run through on the battlefield a year ago. The blade had torn through his chest with a spray of red after Enon had been outnumbered. Three against one, he’d had no chance.

For a moment, he had thought that was it, as he thought he felt the spark of his life extinguish but it hadn’t. His fingers had grabbed his attacker’s blade instead, pulling it violently out of his own chest with a yank before burrying it into the stomach of the man who’d struck him. As the other two had backed away in shocked disbelief Enon had pulled off his heavy armor to look down in time to see the skin knit shut under the hole in his shirt. Not even a scar remained.

Mara sank down onto the water, submering herself entirely and she swawm out deeper feeling refreshed by the warm water leaving Enon in the shallows. His eyes followed her as she swam wondering if she would be as lucky if she had been in his shoes, though he wasn’t about to cut her open and find out.

They were together and that was all that mattered.

“Enon,” called a voice behind him and he turned to see his mother standing at the edge of the water watching them with hazel eyes. Her hand rose and she gave him a wave, a happy smile on her face and he turned to see Mara come out of the water.

Her eyes moved from him over to Beryl and she gave her a small wave. “Go on,” she said to Enon. “You can ravage me after you’re done. I need a nap anyway.” Mara laughed, running her hand over her wet hair. “Some vacation… they always find us.” Kicking back towards the shore she headed towards the house, Vardem appearing in the doorway with a large towel for her as Zar stirred on the roof where he’d been sunning.

“Mother,” Enon said retrieving his wet slacks and managing to pull them on doing his best to hide his nakedness from her.

Beryl laughed. “You’re my son,” she said kindly. “It’s nothing I haven’t seen.” She walked barefoot down the beach, Enon following her. “I’m sorry to interrupt your vacation. You two have worked so hard to earn it.”

“Not like Garret hasn’t interrupted,” Enon replied. “Mara didn’t come home last night.”

“Well you know Garret,” she replied with a smile, sliding her hand into her sons. “It’s good to see you happy. I’m sorry about the child.”

Enon let out a long breath as they walked thinking about the miscarriage that Mara had several weeks ago. They didn’t speak of it really. She avoided the topic with the utmost grace. In truth, Enon still wasn’t sure how he felt about it. When they’d found out that she was pregnant they’d both been filled with a mix of terror and excitement. Now that the child was gone…

What was done was done however, and Enon didn’t dwell on it.

After all, they had an eternity.

“You’re completely right,” Beryl said wrapping an arm around his shoulders as they walked. “You have as long as there is breath in you bodies.” Her hand rubbed his bare arm warmly.

Enon found himself smiling despite the interruption to his and Mara’s vacation. Beryl and Garret came and went as they wished, here, back at the castle… sometimes as the most inopportune and intimate moments. The words ‘private time’ didn’t seem to mean much to them. More than once Mara had been on her knees before him when one of them just appeared out of nowhere and more than once her hands and been lost in his hair as he’d returned the favor only again to have one of them, or both appear.

“You love her, and she loves you,” Beryl said as though reading his mind “and expressing that love is nothing to be ashamed of. Oh come now, I’ve seen far worse things in my life than my son buggering his wife.”

“Mother,” Enon said feeling his cheeks turn crimson.

“Well I have,” she said leading him up the path towards a small private graveyard. She took a deep breath looking up at the blue sky. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen that. I’d almost forgotten how beautiful it was.”

“You’re nothing like I had expected,” Enon said as they crossed the edge of the entrance into the graveyard. Almost immediately the air seemed to spark around him and he felt the hairs on his arms stand up. She led him back over to the same grave that they’d been working on for their last three meetings, a woman who had died after being poisoned by an angry lover. According to Beryl, this was the easiest to raise and control, recently dead with little physical damage.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes really hoping that today went better than the last time they had tried this. He really didn’t relish spending the night underground again with a moldy corpse in a coffin. His punishment for failure.

Funny, he thought, he’d never asked Mara what her punishment was.

“Now let’s get started,” Beryl said pulling Enon down into the grass to sit beside her. He had so much potential she thought… they both did. They just needed to learn to use it.



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Epona/Deirdra/Otho/Orvas/Edain/Balthasar/Aro
Various locations in Hosuth

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“Epona,” Deirdra said turning her head to look at the girl. “Are you paying attention?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry,” she replied running her hand over her face. “I’m just tired. This is hard.”

“It’s hard because it’s important,” Deirdra poured the girl a glass of water and walked it over to where she was sitting on the floor beside the fire. “The magic inside you is dangerous, as proven when you wiped out the Solari Keep. Bahamut…” she shook her head and sat back down on the floor so that her knees touched Epona’s “you were lucky that the lord of the dragon’s didn’t turn on you.” She watched as Epona slowly sipped at the water clearly lost in her own thoughts.

Deirdra ran her fingers though her hair knowing that the girl was trying. Learning what came naturally to Deierdra was a challenge for the girl and in a way, it really was the fault of her parents, or at least the people that she had called her parents. Out of fear of the world finding out who and what Epona was they had denied her the instruction needed to adequately control the power that was inside her. Deirdra was doing her best to train her but there was a large difference between white and black magic. She was doing her best though, which is all that the Dark Gods could ask of her.

Over the last 4 years Enon’s powerbase had been growing, with no small help from Garret (her stomach still sank over the facts that he’d revealed to them all). Nelwyn had grown exponentially and he’d made it no secret that even though she had returned to Hosuth, he still considered it Mara’s and thus a part of his empire that he sought to regain control of. Thankfully her armies had been enough to hold him off but it was only a matter of time. If he borders continued to grow as they had been another few years and she wouldn’t be able to hold off his attacks.

Getting the girl trained was of the utmost importance, as was rebuilding the Solari numbers, this time with people that would hold true to the old Solari ideals. Deirdra was finding herself in an odd position, working with the people that she was, giving them shelter, safety… people that she would normally have shunned or considered enemies. At one point Hosuth was known to be an enemy of the Solari but now… now they were rebuilding her numbers in her lads and she’d given them a place to rebuild their keep.

Did this mean that she was now working for the ‘good’ side of things? She didn’t think so. Desperate times called for desperate measures and these people needed her just as much as she needed them to defeat Garret and the rest of the Forsaken. She’d prayed and meditated on this for weeks and even though her mind told her that this was crazy, in her heart she knew that this was what had to be done in order to win the battles to come.

Perhaps when it was all over this truce of sorts between herself and the Solari would be over, and perhaps it would be not. Desperation made for strange bed fellows at times. She looked at Epona as she continued to drink her water.

The rightful Queen, Deirdra thought to herself. Life truly did have a strange way of working out. Perhaps though all this was for the best. Once Garret and his lackeys were defeated and she was where she was supposed to be, perhaps things could be as they once had been with Nelwyn and Hosuth side by side and standing together. This was an idea that Deirdra had mixed feelings over but in the end she had faith that the dark gods were leading her down the right path.

“Are you ready to begin again?” Deirdra asked as Epona finished her water and set the glass on the stone hearth of the fireplace.

Epona nodded and took a deep breath. “I think so,” she said feeling tired, her nerves frazzeled. All she really wanted to do was curl up in Balthasar’s arms and sleep but she knew that he was busy right now with his men. “I don’t want to work on Summoning though,” she said honestly “it takes to much out of me and I don’t have the strength left to control it.”

“Very well,” Deirdra replied. “Then we’ll work on honing your white magic abilities further.” The girl nodded and Deirdra held out her hands. Epona took them and the two women closed their eyes, allowing their magics to mix together. As they did this however, Deirdra couldn’t help but wonder if this might not cause some pollution of their magics. No white and black mages to her knowledge had ever combined powers like this. White taught white. Black taught black. Such was the way it had always been.

Then again, she thought, this was a new era that they now found themselves in.

Their will be done, she told herself, their will be done.


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Otho struck the last chord, the final bars drifting away into nothing and the small mass of children sitting before himself and Orvas burst into applause. These young ones were still too young to partake in regular schooling and so three times a week he and Orvas held impromptu concerts for them in the royal parks in Hosuth.

“That was AWESOME!” Cried one of the children clapping madly, waking up several that had fallen asleep. She jumped to her feet, her white blonde curls bouncing happily and she began to run circles around the group whooping and hollering in excitement. “More! More!”

“Ride of the Marked Knight?” Orvas asked strumming his harp gently looking at Otho. It wasn’t a well known song that he was mentioning, but one that had never been played in public. One that the two of them had been working on together. It was a loose adaptation of Balthasar’s life in the Solari leading up this his arrest, imprisonment, the destruction of the Keep by the lord of the dragons and his escape and struggle against the Forsaken. It was a song that they intended to release to the public to pass the word not to lose hope, that the Solari were still alive and well and rebuilding… that the most noble of them all had survived.

Otho considered the suggestion for a moment before nodding. “I think we should take a small break though and let the teacher round them up. He watched as Goldie began to chase the blonde girl, a few other children now running about with the teachers trying to keep up. Setting down his hurdy gurdy, he missed his old one. He’d been forced to leave it in Nelwyn during their escape and he hoped that it hadn’t been destroyed. Standing up, he stretched his back and walked over to a small basket where enchanted bottles of water rested. Otho pulled out the stopper feeling the small wave of cold escape and he took a drink.

Orvas sat and watched Otho drinking and he let out a long sigh, missing Nelwyn, missing Mara and Enon… missing his old life. More than once he had pondered returning to Nelwyn only to have the idea met with resistance. He wasn’t being kept in Hosuth against his own will, it was more than clear that he was welcome to leave at any time… but whenever this was brought it was also mentioned that he’d been brought here for a reason, that he hadn’t been left behind for a reason though no one knew why.

His hand went to the symbol that he wore under his shirt remembering all the things that Garret had said in the temple. While others seemed to struggle with the idea that they were all children of the forsake, well all except Epona, he knew it to be true from the moment the words had escaped the man’s lips. Orvas had always lived under the feeling that he was special, different from others… that somehow the strange necklace that he wore would someday prove to be something special and it had.

It just seemed strange that things had all fallen the way that they had.

“What are you thinking about?” Otho asked coming back over and handing a second bottle to Orvas who took it with an appreciative smile. “Nelwyn again?”

Orvas nodded and opened the bottle, taking a drink. The cool water slid down his throat where it sat happily in his stomach. “It’s been four years,” he said setting it back down in the grass. “Do you think they’re okay?”

Otho snorted as he picked up his instrument. “Undoubtedly,” came his reply and he bit back his next comment about how he really didn’t care. Well he cared for Mara at least, she’d been kind to him when she’d been there and come to think of it even Enon had been. Even knowing what they had done he couldn’t seem to find himself able to hold any ill will towards them. If there was anyone that he was still angry with it would be Orvas himself. His familiar had caused Epona the most intimate and crewel of pains but since she had chosen to forgive him, Otho had as well.

“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows,” he said under his breath as the last of the children finally sat down and Orvas began to play the opening melody.


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“Hey there buddy,” Bathasar said reaching down and scooping Ranse up in his arms. “Slow down, where’s Edain?”

“Dunno,” Ranse said with a giggle wiggling in his father’s arms to be let down wanting to keep running. He could remember his own parents telling him how he’d been nothing but a bundle of energy when he’d been this young and Epona, well she was still full of that kind of restless energy. He kissed the top of his son’s head gently and set him down as Edain appeared in the doorway.

“I’m so sorry,” she said with a tired smile. “I was trying to meditate during his nap,”

“It’s okay,” Balthasar replied and his son ran over to Aro holding up his arms.

“Up,” he demanded loudly and Aro smiled picking the boy up and throwing him in the air, catching him easily. The child let out screams of delight thrashing his arms and legs around.

“How are the plans going?” Edain asked walking into the room and getting a better look at the world map that was painted on the wall behind where Balthasar and Aro had been working. The map, enchanted by some mage eons ago, flexed and changed its borders according to the current state of the world and she looked at Nelwyn, looking how it had grown to now even cover her own homelands. Her heart ached as she thought about them, thought about her parents and if they were still alive, if they’d fought in the battle and died, or had been defeated and were now slaves. No matter what was said, her parents were the ones who had raised her, the ones who had loved her and cared for her… not some nameless evil entity that had slipped through some magical doorway.

“As well as they can,” Balthasar said looking at the ancient scroll that was rolled out on the table in front of him. The edges of the scroll were burned and turn from the destruction of the Keep. They’d been able to save a number of items from the Keep library, some of them still readable, some almost completely destroyed. They’d lost over half of the information that they’d been able to save trying to restore it. “We’re trying to locate the remaining eleven doorways, but we’re having little luck.”

Beryl’s doorway had been the easiest to find since it was located in Aromar but they had arrived too late. The doorway had been opened and she was gone leaving behind only an army of the undead for them to defeat. Without their mistress there to control them the battle had been relatively easy but the damage was done. They knew that the doorways were opening and one at a time the Forsaken would all be released. They had to locate all the doorways and also figure out the order in which they were going to open and with their now limited library this task was going to be difficult.

“We think we’ve located two more,” he said turning to look at the enchanted map, the sections burning with a cold blue fire.

“So that means that we know where five of them are, correct?” Edain asked and Balthasar nodded.

“At this point most of the scrolls that we need are written in the language of the Forsaken,” Aro said setting the four year old boy down who immediately ran over to his father holding up his arms to be picked up again “and I’m afraid that I’m just a little rusty.”

“Plus they’re written in cryptic riddles and odd little puzzles,” Balthasar said as Aro picked up an intricately jewel encrusted gold box, his fingers moving across the stones trying to figure out the pattern to unlock it. Over the last few years his eye was slowly beginning to heal though he had accepted the fact that he would never be able to see out of it the same again. He now had some vision in it, but not much though Epona worked on it every night making a little more progress with each try.

“When the door is unlocked,” Aro said moving over to Edain and wrapping an arm around her waist “they are as vulnerable as any mortal. When they were imprisoned, it was either the Solari wisdom, or perhaps Garret’s cold sense of humor, that separated them from their gifts when they were imprisoned. It was probably because,”

“It was because he wanted their abilities,” Edain said without hesitation. “If he can kill them before they get their abilities back, he’ll absorb them when they unlock.” Where the words came from she didn’t know but she knew the truth behind them. All three of them did. “He didn’t see Beryl getting out so quickly so he missed his chance with her for now. We need to find the next one.”

“Agreed,” Balthasar said “and I think I found something that will help us.” He turned to look at the map, Ranse playing with his hair oblivious to the adult talk. “I believe it’s located deep within Ya’hi.”

“The Forbidden City?” Aro asked.

Balthasar nodded. “It was once a Solari stronghold during the time of the Forsaken. It was where we kept our most precious of items.”

“But when the Solari moved to The Keep,” Edain began to say and then stopped. “You don’t think that they got everything do you?”

Balthasar shook his head and reached out with a free hand picking up a silver disc from a small table under the map. On the disc were several intricate symbols that were carved into the face and grooves on the edge like clockworks. “We never knew what this was for,” he said.

“Tat’s da key, Dada.” Ranse said looking at it.

“I know buddy,” he said resting his weight on his hip. “He’s been saying it for weeks and I haven’t been paying attention.” He tossed the disc to Edain. “I believe that it will open a door in the old stronghold that will tell us where each of the doorways are, and the order that they will open… or at least lead us in the right direction. “All I need,”

“I’ll leave right away,” Edain said slipping the disc into the pocket of her dress.

“Not without me you’re not,” Aro replied with a smile, kissing her cheek and Edain smiled. “I’ve done all I can here Baz, I’m not going to be of any more use.”

Balthasar nodded. “No, it’s a good idea. Of all of us you have the widest knowledge base. Keep me informated. Now, give your aunt and uncle a hug and kiss goodbye,” he said setting little Ranse down. Concieved that first night that he and Epona had laid together, he was a godsend for his wife. The loss of Xanath mixed with the loss of Ranse, who she found out was her brother, had haunted her deeply and it did to this day. Their son’s smile however warmed her heart and Balthasar had no objection to naming their son in honor of her brother. His only wish was that he’d gotten to know the man better before his death.

So many had died that day, Balthasar said as he watched Ranse hug and kiss both Aro and Edain giving them both rocks that he’d stuffed into his pockets during the course of the day for ‘good luck’. How many more of them would die before all of this was done?

He couldn’t afford to think about that though. Blood was a natural result of war and when the fate of the world hung in the balance, everyone was expendable.

Even himself.




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Mod Note:

I just wanted to take a moment and thank you all again for playing. This isn’t my strongest finish, but there’s a hell of a lot going on right now in my life and I’ve been struggling to finish this last half for almost a week now. If you’re disappointed I’m sorry. If you love it I’m happy.

I face the idea of a sequel with a good face certain that it will be much better than this one was, at least on a personal note. I did have fun modding this game and as always it’s been an honor.

Hugs and kisses to all.
Edited by LadyRahl, Mar 26 2010, 02:32 PM.
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Skin by Spades aka Volture.