Ep.

Miah sat in a comfortable wing backed chair and ignored the book in her hands.  She found herself even turning pages every few minutes despite not reading anything at all.  The sitting room was expansive, a central feature of the Library of Loreholm.  Now it was deserted in the late afternoon as most members were out seeking dinner or drink or both.

One of the serving girls came up quietly and paused until Miah looked up.  “Miss Larenfall, will you require anything else this evening?”  The girl was young and slightly hesitant, with dark brown eyes and black hair tied up neatly under her beaded headdress.  She wore a veil over the lower half of her face and had several long colorful scarves draped around her.  

Miah smiled and shook her head.  “No, thank you.”

The maid nodded perfunctorily and then gathered her skirts and sat in the adjoining chair with a soft creak of upholstery and old wood.  “I’ve heard the story of your adventure on the destroyed island.  I’m terribly sorry that so many find it unbelievable.”

Miah had not wanted any casual conversation and smiled politely while raising her book to actually read.  “We’re still trying to understand what happened ourselves.  Thank you, though.  You’re most kind.”

“It’s not very difficult to understand, Miah.  Sounds like a very real threat.  And new threats are never seen by old institutions.”

Miah blinked and tried to stop the annoyance from flushing her cheeks rosy.  “What?”

“But, I’m guessing that you’re really most upset about the potential for great knowledge and discovery that was lost.”  The maid’s eyes started slowly shifting color to golden yellow.

A chilling touch of concern tingled Miah’s spine.  “Who are you?”

The maid reached up and unhooked her veil.  She lowered it away to reveal horrific scarring across the left side of her mouth that reached all the way down her throat.  “I’m a friend.”

The touch of concern became a surge of fear.  “How can you be here?  There should be wards stopping you from even stepping foot in here.”

She nodded her head.  “There are.  But none of the old magic works when someone is invited in.  And I just happened to find a young clerk who would happily open a gate in exchange for a promise of passion.”

Miah glanced around the empty room.  “What do you want?”

The maid leaned back in the chair.  “When we met the first time, I simply ignored you.  A team of insignificant wanderers.  The second time, I tested you.  Promising, but you especially caught my eye.  You seek knowledge beyond this world.  You want to walk the Astral Aura itself.  Have you thought more about my offer?”

“Not one bit.”

The maid smiled with a self satisfied look.  “Of course you haven’t.  Proud debutante of a storied family.  You don’t have it in you to commit to a life of complete knowledge.  You’ll just spend the rest of your life doing what you’re told.”

Miah stifled a yawn.  “You’re beginning to bore me.”

The maid nodded to herself.  “That’s your brother talking.”

Miah leaned forward.  “Make a point and begone or you’ll find I’m more powerful now then I was last month when I beat you at your own game.”

“Yes, congratulations on your advancements.  All of you.  Keep working on that.  Keep growing in strength.  However, you’ll find you’re only allowed to rise so far.  Very soon your family will put an end to all this silly adventuring.  And when that time comes, you’ll find that’s when you’ll need me.”

“Jo, you’re a delusional, Infernal liar.  I’ve no interest in working with you or learning anything from you.” 

The maid stood.  Her laconic smile didn’t change but the tone of her words did.  In the Infernal tongue she said, “Then why have you learned my language.  Why do you seek what is forbidden?”

Miah wasn’t quite her brother and couldn’t stop the color from draining from her face or the slight quivering of her lower lip.  Fuming, she stood and looked down on the beautiful maid.  “Stay away from me or I’ll give you another scar to bear.”

The maid’s eyes widened.  “That’s my girl.”  Then she turned and walked calmly out of the room.      

“Shattered Sea”, “Alman Arastokhet”, “Realms of Eldara”, “Eldar’ai Portal”, “Astral Aura”, “Loreholm” © Evan Blair, www.twitch.tv/evanblairart

This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at https://dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

© Jeff Draper, 2023