A Wilderness Road Archive 1

Standing side by side with a pure elf was never something she thought might occur but as he came up beside her she realized that there was no other that she wanted to face this with if what she assumed to be true was true. The instant it had left her mouth she had to believe it for she was not allowed to speak untruths. Glancing up the man as he placed a hand on her shoulder she smiled, a small one, but with what he said earlier he could now see exactly how far her reach could extend and just how much she held back earlier. She had only done what damage needed to be done but this man, this man had destroyed thousands of acres for his own pleasure.

“I would be glad to have you by my side,” why those words came she knew not. She jokingly added,”Your highness,” in the same breath. It was a way to push him away from her internally if not externally. Mainly because his hand on her shoulder was reassuring.

Approaching the cottage she might have asked Vith to hide their movements from one who could scry if he was capable but her hatred clouded her thoughts. It did not cloud her words as she came up before him stopping about five feet from him. “Annonai,” her accusation was clear just in his name as wild eyes flashed, “Have you-“

She could not voice his transgressions aloud.

“So he can be taught,” dark humor seemed an appropriate answer for his response to his rather apt nickname she h taken from his own title. He was right, Myra was not a soul that could ever be ruled by words but only proven a path was right by the action of it. The result in the end was what made a journey start but part of the beauty of the trip itself was that journey. The discoveries made about who you were with, the sights upon the way, and giving yourself over the sway of fate as it guided you along your path. Occasionally there would be an odd set back or a laughable and teachable moment but there was also pain and suffering. The suffering of the land around her now had been ignored, even the first time she had set foot into these forests, but now it could not be. The wave of nothing rolled through her bones as she reached out to take its life. She willingly gave into her own power because within it there would be proof of what they sought. It was with this proof that they would confront the very Drow that had stolen all that was well with this land.

The accusation that came from her lips was not met with denial. No it was met with absolute disdain for the amount of time it had taken her to come to the realization. Annonai treated them like children goading them with a show of his power. The rabbit had been real enough it seemed for it disappeared beneath his touch its fur folding into its body as it began to trickle downward like sand in an hourglass piling over each other in a pile of nothingness. Ashborn he had called her, claimed the same, and stated his heart and conscience were full of nothing but the same.

Her chest hurt then, an ache in her heart that consumed her and ached as she watched the reveal of a swath of land that had been taken by greed. His greed had allowed him to create a world of his choosing, to fool all those who walked through his kingdom of illusion. Illusions that had fooled another who had the same impure talent and a Prince who would one day be able to cast his own star in the sky drawing together power from the sun which was unknown to them to be the largest star.

“Your wound,” he did not weep for the gaping hole he had left in this world, did not cry for its absence, but she did. Great full tears that welled up in her eyes and she allowed to fall openly. She had no more accusations left for there was nothing to accuse him of when he gave her all that she needed in an instant to decide he was guilty. Therefore her words were filled with the intensity of her attempting to speak through her tears and given a roundness as she forced them past her throat, “This is not your wound Annonai.”

“These forests belonged to themselves, the trees had a life that existed well before your time and the creatures that took to the paths within it had roamed here for thousands of years. None deserved an early demise by your hand. I would never, could never, do this.”

She could not stop in her speaking admonishing him like a mother did a child who had done wrong, “This is a wound upon the world itself. A terrible scar that it shall have to live with until there can be even a seed reborn in these ashes. Our kin may not be the kindest of races but even the lowest one is better than you.”

Her crying had stopped by the end but she still shook, burdened by knowledge now that this could be achieved by her. That if she allowed herself to overindulge. To take her birthright and make her own world that this is what might happen, “You are finished with your work Annonai. I will dispatch you if I must but I would hope that some part of you can change your path.”

I would hope some part of myself can be saved from what I have done, she thought.

Wild eyes flashed to Vith as he told her words she needed to hear but could not accept. What separated her and Annonai? Before he had decided her actions were necessary the Prince had thought rather harshly upon her word before and here it was revealed what could occur should she be set loose. Did he not see her differently now? But in what way. Myra was torn in her thoughts and in her actions for all she wished to do was pretend that the world was how it should be, that this had never occurred. That she had never left the little run down shack on the edge of the woods. It was quiet and when the rain poured it leaked in through the outer edges but it required no words.

Annonia had a thick regret clinging to his own. The sort of morose tone that spoke of true repentance and yet she could not feel it within him because she would not seek it and did not want to acknowledge it. She wished to make him suffer for his actions but to know he had already suffered would lessen her punishment on him and leave but a wanting within to see him truly given what he deserved. The ashen hair starting to grey the strain upon him physically showing in his form it was but one small sign of his true sorrow.

Shoulders tightening the muscles within them knitted together her shoulder blades drawing backwards as her palm tightened around the handle of her weapon. It was the sort that bludgeoned and broke bones instead of slicing them. It was a hateful weapon to carry as there was no swift end unless she swung well and true at the skull. It had proved to save her on more than one occasion and as she itched to pull it out she also felt herself release it and glancing away from Vith and Annonai surveying the land around them.

"Then you should fix it," the words came out in a hoarse voice, "Not with illusions but by planting and growing and bringing back the life you have destroyed."

Myra doubted that Vith's words would be taken well especially when the Drow had been fully blaming his problems upon the bright elves. His blame was misdirected but Myra's anger was not as she raised her voice to him, "You have a lifetime!"

"You have a lifetime to fix your mistakes," she repeated this more calmly as she released the hold on her weapon. She reached behind her drawing her pack over her shoulder and settling it on the barren ground, "You can start by seeking life beyond these borders. By taking seed from the nearby forests in order to regrow this one."

Offering this small consolation to his woes, to his excuses, if he refused it would unforgivable. His actions would have to face a harsher punishment other than attempting to reconcile his mistakes with hard labor. "You have power left from all that you have taken as well. Sing to the forest, sing them the old songs that you would know. Give them reason to grow."

She had settled down her pack for a reason and now she crouched before it reaching within its confines to withdraw a flower. A rather odd hybrid of something resembling a rose that was bright blue in color. It had been preserved by her own will and taken from her homeland as one reminder of why she was on this quest. To lose it was to lose a reminder of all that she worked for. The more distant she became the more she needed it in part but Annonai needed it more, he should also recognize that it was one of the flowers that grew around Host, spread by one of the elders from long ago who had crossed the sea.

"You may start with this," some reverence filled her voice and the thickness from her tears earlier seemed to be returned but it had to be done.

“You must.” To end this not in violence but in the beginning of a new life would be one of the few joys that she could return to this world. For Annonai to change it would take a great blossoming in his heart as well and she hoped that the Isemros would do so. She answered his unspoken question after Annonai asked of her if she kept it for that reason, “I kept it to remember,” not only to keep in tune with nature but to remember her home. Him planting it here would only bring some inspiration from a darker part of the world into the light and make it what it should be.

“Not only in my memory Annonai,” she told him before he could address Vith. “You do this for you as well. So that your heart will find healing in your work and so that this world will remember you for what you have one for it instead of what you have taken away.”

She had nothing more to say to the man her back turning as she picked up her pack swinging it back onto her shoulder. Her back turned as he spoke to Vith the way he smirked at Annonai as he spoke she smiled. Quickly hiding it by setting off down the hill she had to retrieve Uma. With nothing standing in their way now the forest clearing them of obstructions once they passed the next hill she would be able to see her.

Waiting for Vith to catch up after a few steps once he had and they were out of earshot she would look at him while they walked and tell him, “Thank you.”

What had occured had been a change for the better and not further destruction. His nature was against it and even the Drow felt how precious life was and would seek to keep things alive if it would be for the best. Still with all that had been done the result could have been less than favorable.

“But you stood beside me.” There was a quiet sort of insistence in those words even after he spoke of violence possibly being the answer. Annonai had cast an entire forest into being, made it into a beautiful vibrant land in illusion that had fooled both of them. To think that he was capable of that and that they could defeat him was folly. Myra’s thoughts were not upon the battle that might have been but on her companion. He had not stepped back or interfered with her decision but encouraged it in a sense. Even as he spoke of him keeping his word she knew that he would be interested in the final product. After all Elves had an eternity to keep up with promises made. Myra had the same but something within her told her she’d see Annonai sooner than she thought and that she would not be leaving so quickly next time. It was his work to rebuild the forest but a little help and a little teaching was not out of the question. They all had new things to learn it seemed.

Securing her pack upon Uma she’d lost her bedroll. Even in Annonai’s home she’d not seen it and to return there now would be but a painful reminder. Sparks of anger had flown between Vith and Annonai in the prior moments as well and resparking the fire of their indifference towards one another was not wise. Therefore she resigned herself to handling matters with her common predicament, going without.

“I believe he will.”

Mounting Uma she turned the horse about so they might set off down the road. Before when accusations had been made of her actions she would never have defended herself readily. Even now she felt the pain of saying it, “I am sorry,” she looked to her fellow rider her gaze unwavering as she did so, “about what I did to rescue you. Perhaps with more time I might have come up with another plan but I knew not their intentions and while I am apologetic I do not regret them.”

She’d seen regret in Annonai’s eyes. She couldn’t allow herself to feel it now.

“We would not should he have chosen to press the issue.” Anger had not been enough to blind her to the consequences of their actions. To believe that they were capable of defending themselves against one who was an elder of such age and talent was to believe themselves greater than what they were. The way Vith went on sometimes he might seem a fool but she knew him to not be when he spoke so openly like he did now. The possibilities of who he truly was were endless. Annonai had attempted to sway her but it was without truth to his words where she could speak nothing but. Standing behind Vith then they’d flowed so easily because she believed them and even now she found herself looking to her companion and wondering what made him act so differently to start. Was it a mechanism developed to handle High Haven? Had he been given no choice as to how his behavior must be. If it was the only good thing about her rotten childhood she would take all of the pain again to know that she was allowed to be her. That there was no forced masquerade as a noblewoman. Her speech on the other hand was an undeserved gesture from the council in an attempt to make her speak truly about events concerning her being Ashborn. That fateful day was not a fond memory that she lingered on often but meeting Annonai when he spoke of respect towards those capable and of their eventual rejection she wondered if some of this had not come about due to his work as well. It seemed every rabbit trail she now followed opened up a new avenue of misunderstandings. Annonai did not speak truthfully and Vithkun decided to go back and forth like a swinging door on how he acted to her.

“He will.” Faith came not so easily to the abandoned and yet she carried it within her like a torch. Faith was what she held onto in this journey that words would be kept true and kind. Vith spoke of the promises of their people and how they bound one so easily in agreements. A fate worse than death befell those who did not keep to their given word if the promise carried into their heart and was sealed by it. Never before had she seen the immensity of the failure touch another and she never wished to, she mirrored the smile that Vith carried, “He does not carry his burden lightly. Perhaps with time this will lighten his heart and release it as you say.”

Vith was just about to mount his horse when he spoke her name. She’d been halfway up into it but after acknowledging she was listening with a short, “Hm?”, she settled in properly. The words that followed were not unkind but they were just that, words. Unable to meet his gaze she had one hand on her reins and the other on the pommel of the saddle. Gripping it tightly her knuckles were turning white with the pressure. And what will you ask of me before this is over? What would I ask of you? She thought.

Voicing aloud her fears was unwise. Calling him by his name as he so readily used hers was also unwise. It was like a term of endearment and she could not cross that line no matter the want and it resting on the edge of her tongue. So instead she would say softly, “You never had to.”

Turning her horse about so her back was to him and the path before she gave her a gentle tap with her legs and she set off at a gentle walking pace.

Annonai's fate could only be revealed by the passage of time. Them lingering within the world of his making would not make him any more enthusiastic or truthful if he had expressed anything but. Therefore she saw it for what it was, a waiting game. There was not much more to be spoken on Annonai after Vith spoke on him and she lowered her chin as if in further thought on the matter but really she was considering Vith much more than the elder Drow.

When they first met he had been everything she called him. Pompous, loud, a true prince who placed no stock in the people around him other than what he might command them to do. The very next morning he'd continued only one change, a gesture of kindness as he purchased the saddle she now rode upon. That night he'd expressed a sweet side, one that spoke on the sky above them and how every star had once been cast and they fell from their light to the very ground beneath their feet.

He'd seemed surprised and yet glad to see her when she rescued him, that she could pass off as simply being grateful. Earlier when he'd left the pond he'd immediately sought her. He might have left now knowing the way as she had told him and assuming he might be able to pass by the dwarves. He might have even taken the long way; but he had not. He'd come to warn her that not all was as it seemed and even if he meant the forest then his words rang true about himself.

Now he offered some sort of ragged apology without the actual words. His sincerity sounded real enough even if he could not look her in the eye, she sought them though, waited for him to notice her lack of reply so he might look to her. See her own confusion at his manner as she asked him in a voice as soft as a summer rain, "Who are you?"

An answer born of straight manure that he was attempting to pass of as a real one. His fleeting facial expressions gave away the fact he was covering for something else and she was not going to allow it to pass so easily. Perhaps that first night if she had asked the same it would have been different, she would have accepted it was simply a slip and he felt more at ease with her but now after they had been through quite a bit, even in a short time, she really wanted to know. No needed to know.

She sighed the breath coming from deep within her lungs as she used her free hand to swipe at one side of her face rubbing it in a gesture of irritation before dropping it to her lap. He could ask her all that he wished and she could never lie, only omit or work around it, but he could so clearly do the same to her. It was beyond simply being annoying.

“You know that is not what I asked of you,” turning straight in her seat she focused on the road, “I cannot lie in return to your words nor would I have wanted to before but until you are ready to be truthful with me there is nothing to discuss.”