Archives: The Golden Egg
Chapter 24: Daybreak at the Dormatories
Pale as morning mist, Eliamn emerged from the premises of the Mages’ Guild. It was not daybreak yet and there was a cold wind that caused her blonde hair to weakly whip to one side as an accompaniment to her flapping skirt. She paid it no mind, though; truly, it was refreshing compared to the topics she had studied throughout the night—things no elf usually subjected herself to learn, things that chilled the soul.
Now facing the somewhat run-down inn, Eliamn called upon the spirits silently again, this time a plea to Sylph to still sounds around her. Cloaked so against sound, Eli entered the inn quietly enough to spark a master burglar’s envy. She crossed the common room and began climbing the stairs, even the creaks of the old wood barely registering to her own ear.
On the second floor, Eliamn stopped, allowing her eyes to adjust to the much dimmer light the corridor offered and then began looking around not with her eyes, instead relying with her sense of empathy toward living things. Feeling around, she quickly located Naclia and Wilhelm, recognizing them from back when they cooperatively lent her their strength for her rituals. Searching a bit more, she located the only other shaman inside the inn... Aiden.
She soon crossed the threshold of his door, opening and closing it with en-spelled quietness. With the little moonlight filtering in from the window shutters, she could see better in the room—glimpsing the bulge he made in the bed, how it rose and fell with his breathing, where his blond hair spilled. She couldn’t hear whether he breathed quietly or snored—her ritual was a two-edged sword—but just seeing him like that was enough to make her smile.
With a mental entreaty to the Leprechaun, she then touched upon Aiden’s mind... lowering his wariness and impulsiveness; enhancing his sense of peace—she wished his waking to be a gentle one. She came to sit lightly upon the edge of Aiden’s bed, bade her Sylph friend to cease cloaking her in silence and then bent slightly over the ranger, using the back of the fingers of one hand to caress his cheek in a fashion similar to how her mother had done for her back when Eliamn was much younger.
“Wake, Aiden. It is nearly daybreak,” she bade him, her voice soft and gentle.
Aiden gave a soft contented sigh at the feel of delicate feminine fingers brushing across his cheek. In the haze of waking, the first thought to come to mind was the pretty little violet-haired priestess whom he had momentarily forgotten had sacrificed her freedom so that they could continue their search for Mycen’s egg. “Lyassa?” he whispered as his eyes fluttered open, but the woman he saw above him was definitely not who he expected. The long golden blonde hair and tapered ears gave Eliamn away.
However, as he was unknowingly under the influence of leprechaun, he did not shy away as he likely would have on his own. Looking up at the elf peaceably, though disappointed to find it was only his friend, he gave a small smile. “Oh, good morning Eli,” he spoke, then covered his mouth with his hand as he yawned. As consciousness returned, he distantly thought of how speaking Lyassa’s name could have betrayed him, but he was too at ease to worry about embarrassment.
Eliamn smiled back, allowing the leprechaun’s magic to wane now that it had fulfilled its purpose. She sat straighter, returning her hands to her lap, and returned a pleasant:
“Good morning Aiden.” The shamaness did not question about Lyassa, as that would only inspire embarrassment from her ranger companion. She also didn’t immediately launch in an explanation on her progress through the night, what she had learned and what their group ought to be doing now; favoring instead giving Aiden time to have his wits about him.
Aiden sat up in his bed and wiped the sleep from his eyes, gathering his wits first thing the morning. Eliamn waited by patiently, and Aiden noticed she seemed to have an air of confidence and mystery about her. As he sat in his bed, he lazily draped his arms over his knees and looked at the shamaness. “So, I assume your search was fruitful?” he said, basing his assumption on her demeanor.
“As fruitful as a single sitting would allow,” Eliamn nodded in agreement. “Not nearly enough to boast any real ability with the dark arts, but much better than going blind. I will spare you complex jargon and sum up that Audran Mur-Cavendrel is no novice at either sorcery and its necromancy sub-school if he can understand and use everything I have skimmed over, but I should be able to at least keep him in check if it comes to a fight.”
“Most of my efforts,” she explained, “revolved around trying to cobble together the sort of ritual he was likely to use in regard to the dragon’s egg and himself, in addition to finding defenses and counters to some of the nastier necromantic spells I came across.”
Aiden frowned, looking down at his knees. “If he’s that skilled... We have little knowledge of ways to combat sorcery,” he said. “But, we have a mission to complete for Mycen, and I don’t dare to see what happens to those who fail to serve a dragon.” The elf looked back up at Eliamn. “Well, you’d best go wake the others,” he started, but then considered her welfare; perhaps she’d like some sleep. “When do you want to leave?”
“Whenever everyone whom should go is ready,” Eliamn replied, implying that now that they were ready to face down the Mur-Cavendrels that perhaps not all their group should go.
Aiden nodded to Eliamn. If she wanted to sleep on his back again to make better time, he wouldn’t complain. “Well, I need to get dressed, so you should go wake the others,” he suggested, and then a thought occurred to him. Glancing to the bed next to him, he realized that it hadn’t been slept in. He had a good idea where Talen was. “Perhaps Wil first.”
Eliamn lowered her gaze a moment and then looked back into Aiden’s eyes. “I do not think Wilhelm, Kima and Rylan should go. We will have to go on horseback to reach the Mur-Cavendrel and that will make the minstrel sick, not to mention he has been growing increasingly jittery to the idea that confrontation might await us.”
“If we indeed head into trouble, bringing Kima would be ill advised. Wildling or not, I hate the idea of bringing risk upon the child. With Wilhelm staying behind, she should be well enough cared for.”
“Finally, I would leave Rylan behind with a charge to protect the other two in case those whom came after priestess Lyassa come upon them as well. Rylan has shown unwillingness to enter buildings so if he comes along, he will only accompany us until we reach our destination. Furthermore, the human nobles probably have horses and their treatment of the domesticated animals likely will not be exemplary by our standards. I know it is unlikely... but we will have enough trouble with the necromancer Audran and I do not want to risk having to deal with Rylan flying into a rage as well.”
Aiden frowned at Eliamn’s suggestion to cut down on their company, but she did make some good points—especially regarding Kima. The feral child was a liability, though despite that, he didn’t know what to do with her. If they left Wil behind, she would probably stay with him, but Aiden was counting on Wil’s silvered tongue to help them further. “You make good points, though we should speak to Wil and Rylan about it, I think,” Aiden replied.
At the mention of Lyassa, Aiden felt a pang of guilt in his heart again. Not only did he miss the priestess personally, she might have been of good to use to the group as a whole if she continued with them. At least she was sane, didn’t get horse-sick, or have the potential to go berserk...
Eliamn had shrugged off her bags while Aiden spoke and then dropped to her side, letting her head fall on Aiden’s pillow.
“Indeed you should,” the shamaness replied with a teasing lilt in her voice, trusting the task to him seeing how the night before they had talked about how he took responsibility for others, making him the ‘leader’ of their little group.
Eli was unwittingly being a little unfair. She had roused Aiden, approached him in a familiar fashion, handed him responsibility to deal with advice she had given him and then lay besides the man with an unconscious display of femininity and sensuality while he was missing another girl. He certainly couldn’t change with her apparently determined not to get out of the room yet!
Aiden was growing increasingly frustrated by Eliamn’s antics this morning. What did she want, and just what was she thinking laying next to him in bed? Was she that naïve? With a grunt of frustration, Aiden threw aside his blankets and hopped out of bed. He still wore his small clothes, but he purposefully kept his back to Eliamn as he went to gather his belongings. He wasn’t going to play games at this hour of the morning.
“Alright, I’ll handle dealing with the others,” he grumbled as he pulled on his breeches, his back still to Eliamn.
Eliamn briefly turned her head to watch what Aiden was doing and then shifted in the bed to set her head more comfortably on the pillow, giving a faint sigh. “I am sorry for annoying you, Aiden. I thought you would allow me a little feminine pique after a sleepless night.”
Aiden pulled his shirt on over his head, then pulled out his long mane of blonde hair from underneath it. “My dear Eliamn, there is much you need to know before approaching a man first thing in the morning, especially when you act like that,” Aiden said, glancing over his shoulder with a wink. He was trying to put her at ease, but at the same time, he couldn’t entirely restrain his frustration.
“I just thought it would have been a waste to not take advantage of already warm blankets.” Eliamn turned her back to Aiden, pouting slightly. “My only real experience with men, Aiden, are my siblings. They never got annoyed because I took the pains to gently wake them up. Talking them awake never seemed bad either, and light teasing then was never really taken seriously.”
Aiden chuckled, then picked up his boots and sat on the foot of the bed to pull them on. “Brothers are one thing,” Aiden replied. “An unrelated man who’s missing a pretty girl who might have just been interested in him is another thing.” Aiden gave a sigh at the thought of Lyassa and what could have been after both boots were on his feet, then he stood back up.
He moved over to the side of the bed and gave Eliamn a teasing pat on the head before he headed for the door.
* * *
Naclia and Talen headed downstairs to find that they were yet again alone. Their table from the night before had been cleaned up, showing that at least the residents and staff had been around at some point, but Aiden, Eliamn, and Wil weren’t down yet.
The ranger took a seat at a table near the door to wait for their companions to come down, but she didn’t care to bother anyone for breakfast. She still had a few trail biscuits left after all, that was good enough for her.
Talen followed close behind Naclia as they arrived at the common room, moving over to take a seat next to her at the table near the door. “Well, it seems like we have no choice but to wait for the others,” he said, looking over at her with a smile on his lips. Though his mind was full of what had occurred between the two of them last night, he had to wonder what the others would have thought of it, considering that he was assigned to share a room with Aiden, and he never showed up.
* * *
Aiden had hesitated at the thought of waking Wil to tell him that they were considering leaving him behind. Eliamn’s reasoning made sense to him, but at the same time, he really didn’t want to be the bad guy in the situation, considering how they had clashed before. Instead, Aiden had resigned and instead gone outside to explain the situation to Rylan.
The centaur took it well, and in fact, seemed quite at ease with the idea of staying out of harm’s way. He didn’t want to go berserk any more than they wanted to deal with him berserk. Aiden also explained that they wanted Wil and Kima to stay behind, and that Rylan might have to explain that to him. Of course, he could also leave a note behind with the the dormitory for Wil, but the more time that passed in between speaking with Eliamn and breaking the news, the more Aiden felt at a loss for words in explaining to the minstrel. Dammit, Eli, why did you have to put me in this position? he cursed to himself as he headed back into the inn.
Once inside, he entered the common room to see who was waiting for him, and to his relief, it was only Talen and Naclia. However, when seeing the way the two looked at each other, and how close they seemed to be, he gained a good idea of just what they had been up to the night before. That only added another weight to his shoulders. I shouldn’t be so upset by it, Aiden thought, but he had to admit, he had mixed feelings about their relationship.
---END---
