Memories (Featherfall)

[DoS Archive]

Date: 12/18/97 4:40 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: FeathrfalI


((I figured I'd post this as a way of explaining why she came to RhyDin. Hope you enjoy.))Though we share this humble path aloneHow fragile is the heartOh, give these clay feet wings to flyTo touch the face of the starsBreathe life into this feeble heartLift this mortal veil of fearTake these crumbled hopes, etched with tearsWe'll rise above these earthly caresCast your eyes on the oceanCast your soul to the seaWhen the dark night seems endlessPlease remember mePlease remember me... --Loreena McKennit "Dante's Prayer" from The Book of Secrets Two years? Had it been that long? Featherfall sat in front of a window in the Arena, all alone with her memories as the world passed by outside, the moonlight shimmering off of her silver-white hair. It had been two years ago that night that k'Leshya Vale was destroyed, as well as the entire population of the Vale, save her. What does the Star-Eyed have planned for me when She saved my life? I would have been perfectly willing to die by their side. She closed her eyes, tears falling down her cheeks as memories as vivid as if it were yesterday, filled her mind. Rumors of a Mage Storm that had been building since the Cataclysm of over a thousand years ago were spreading around the Vales, but it was shrugged of as just a rumor. It was sunset when it hit. She and her beloved, Whitehawk, were taking their evening walk along the paths that passed the bathing pools, enjoying the presence of each other and the pleasantly cool evening breeze, when a visible wave of magical energy passed just overhead, knocking her (and all other Mages and Healers in the Vale) unconscious. She awoke to the deafening sound of an explosion, sending a return shockwave of white-hot energy that setevery tree it touched ablaze and burned a group of children to ashes as it passed. Her body screamed in pain as she weakly pushed herself to stand. "Hawk?" she called, clutching her burned arms to her chest, stumbling around in a feeble attempt to find somebody alive. She knew in her heart, however, that she would not find a single person left living in k'Leshya, for she felt each of their deaths. As she walked towards the center of the Vale, she looked about in shocked disbelief. The whole Vale looked like a war zone,with burning trees and dead bodies as far as she could see. In reaching the center of k'Leshya, she would find the most startling sight of all. The heartstone of k'Leshya Vale, the man-sized crystal that stood as a battery of magic and an anchor for the spells that kept the Vale in a constant spring-like state, kept the draughts away and kept the people of the Vale relatively safe from outsiders, had shattered in the wave of pure magical energy that passed over the Vale, sending the return shockwave that set the Vale ablaze. With that sight firmly etched in her mind forever, she fellunconscious from the pain, the mental cries of those that died still echoing in her mind. Feather opened her eyes and looked to her arms, where the worst of the burns were and where the Healers of k'Treyva could not fully remove the scars. These and her memories would always be with her. Looking back out the window, she resolved that she would rebuild the Vale here in RhyDin. k'Leshya would live again.