Thoughts in the Early Morning

[DoS Archive]

From: lorduziel@aol.com (Lord Uziel)
Date: 11 Jan 1999 05:51:42 EST



Adonai stepped out into the evening air from the Arena, watching Morte head down the avenue with his sleeping daughter in arm. He smiled a bit, the sounds of RhyDin Towne winding down for the evening dinning in his ears as he sorted out the evening in his mind.
Pulling open a rift in space with his will, he stepped inside of it, instantly being transported from the cobblestones of the Red Dragons' entryway to the darkened study of his estates in the Northern Wilds of RhyDin, a peaceful, mountain top abode where he and some of his people stayed while preparing the way to Dracos Skyweir, a small land built with the combined wills of himself and the Valheru Lore Masters, within a small space of another
dimension, free from the petty squabbles of humans and keeping the wise, but warlike Valheru themselves uninvolved in the affairs of humans other than singular contacts.
The room was dark, Adonai himself just being able to make out the desk in the blackness, after edging around slowly and rewarding himself with a quick sharp pain as his shin struck a table edge, he muttered under his breath and decided to do it the other way.
" Light, " he said quietly, his will flowing into the room slowly, every candle in it suddenly leaping into joyous flame and the fireplace itself roaring to life to appease his quiet command. Nodding to himself he sat himself at his desk, noting with a small amount of pleasure the fact that his factor Maleoch had apparently taken care of most of the incidentals in his absence, judging from the very small pile of papers on his desk.
He thumbed through a few, vaguely noting bits of news from several corners of the realm, none of them earthshakingly important...but obviously things his factor believed he should know about. A couple of them he lingered over, the announcments of Elle's marriage to Stefano de Fortenza, a former Overlord of the Duels....and the proclimation of the birth of her daughter.
' Sometimes its far to easy to lose track of time. ' He muttered to himself, doing his best not to give in to regret. Ages had passed before his eyes, he always did what he could to assure himself that this one was no more important than the last, but it rarely worked. These last several years had been the most momentous to him, having come down out of the mountains to mingle with the humans and learn of them...he had gained and lost more in
the last several years then he believed he'd ever had. His daughter...the absolute jewel of his life....sometimes,....no he shrugged that thought out of his mind...Ais would always be his little girl...no matter how much time passed.
He turned the announcements over and over in his hands, not quite sure why they were bothering him so much....Elle was a fine woman to be sure, a mistress of appeal and lush invitation and a lady of refined grace when it suited her. A friend of many years now...a face he had always enjoyed seeing in the crowds at the Arena. Years of play and counterplay, tease and flirt....and now.....
He rubbed a hand across his forehead, lightly massaging his temples with a massive hand. It was a moot issue he decided, feelings he didn't want to admit were there or that ever existed. And with the current situation...could easily be locked away and forgotten....like memories of hundreds of years before, and another woman that was much like her.
" Humans..." He mused, looking at a faded oil painting on the back wall with the image of a nearly forgotten red headed noblewoman, having often considered how they maintained the collective mind they were unaware of, but seemingly died off to never return in short, sometimes pointless lives, only to have another....alike to them appear hundreds of years later...but totally unaware of any prior existance.
" Morbid thoughts." Adonai said, setting the announcements in a drawer in the oak desk and turning his mind to the present, judiciously putting his thoughts of Elle to the side, to be dealt with in another time, mayhaps even several lifespans from now.
His return had been satisfactory, coming back to the place he knew and loved so well. News of losses and gains of title, the memories of fine evenings of dueling...and the presence of them, all coming together. Altogether...he was content with his return to the Arena, it of course not being what it once was. But then again...nothing ever is.
He stood, trying to shake the melancholy mood off and strode over to the cabinet set at the other side of the stonewalled room, his feet lightly scuffing through the deep red carpet on the way.
He removed a small key from its hiding place just inside the lower edge of the cabinet and unlocked it, withdrawing a bottle of brandy so aged its distillers name had been lost in the annals of his memory long before the bottles painted label had faded and crumbled to dust. Taking a small tumbler...he squeezed the bottle gently but firmly, the aged' cork popping with a gaseous hiss as the brandy breathed air for the first time in several
thousand years.
He then poured a small amount into the tumbler and headed over to his black felt overstuffed *throne* and turned it towards the studys window and sat back in the chair and kicked his feet up onto the small occasional table in front of him and took a slow drink of the brandy.
Adonai exhaled a semi contented sigh and watched, through the stone edged window of his tower study, the sun begin to paint the sky with its various argent hues as it rose, wondering idly where tommorrow would take him.