Coraline: The Fate of Eavesdroppers
Girded, alert, ready for battle... and I find myself having to confront quite another kind of struggle.
I was halfway down the stairs just now when I overheard Kivan and Aerie in the common room below. Aerie was telling him how glad she was to be travelling with kin once more – him and me. Yes, there is a bond all elves share, Avariel or no, and she has been sundered from it too long. Even one raised among humans, like myself, feels it... as I felt its absence during my Candlekeep days, a nameless, inexplicable, soul-deep ache. A wound I never knew was there, until that day at High Hedge when I met the eyes of a full-blooded member of my kin for the first time.
Kivan... yes. What did he say to Aerie in reply? Most of it I cannot recall, except for one thing, spoken in most matter-of-fact tone imaginable: I will be travelling south as soon as Coraline is out of danger.
No. No. Not again. One parting was enough for me – more than enough. That day on the battlements of Baldur's Gate, watching as he disappeared from my life...
I could pray never to know safety again for the rest of my days. But that is not the way it goes, is it? He is bound to return to Shilmista one day, and I... I to whatever destiny holds for me.
One tear, two, three... and that is the most I will allow myself at this hour of the morning. Stand up, Coraline; put the journal away and wipe your eyes, before the rest show up. We have a slaver compound to take care of.
I was halfway down the stairs just now when I overheard Kivan and Aerie in the common room below. Aerie was telling him how glad she was to be travelling with kin once more – him and me. Yes, there is a bond all elves share, Avariel or no, and she has been sundered from it too long. Even one raised among humans, like myself, feels it... as I felt its absence during my Candlekeep days, a nameless, inexplicable, soul-deep ache. A wound I never knew was there, until that day at High Hedge when I met the eyes of a full-blooded member of my kin for the first time.
Kivan... yes. What did he say to Aerie in reply? Most of it I cannot recall, except for one thing, spoken in most matter-of-fact tone imaginable: I will be travelling south as soon as Coraline is out of danger.
No. No. Not again. One parting was enough for me – more than enough. That day on the battlements of Baldur's Gate, watching as he disappeared from my life...
I could pray never to know safety again for the rest of my days. But that is not the way it goes, is it? He is bound to return to Shilmista one day, and I... I to whatever destiny holds for me.
One tear, two, three... and that is the most I will allow myself at this hour of the morning. Stand up, Coraline; put the journal away and wipe your eyes, before the rest show up. We have a slaver compound to take care of.