[One of the initial events has taken place already. Keep an eye out for a paranoid Ynnwn.
]
Monala Colleler was pleased to find company upstairs at Trasok's. Particularly since it happened to be her best friend, Roled. The two exchanged their hellos and set to work, the Ynnwn admiringly watching Roled hammer away at his stocks, marveling at how strong he'd gotten since they first met outside of Kada El's - she had shown him the way to Levrus's shop, glad to get away from the nasty brawl that was going on in the tavern, and subsequently fell in love with the lost Dermorian almost immediately. The feeling wasn't mutual, yet there was still a strong bond between the two. Much had happened since then; things that might have broken any other friendship, and yet Roled was one of the few who didn't hold it against her that she'd been missing for quite some time before returning to Hydlaa. Her train of thought was interrupted as he turned to speak to her.
"So, Lady Monala, how are ye?"
"Ah, I"m alright. Been huntin' a bit. You?"
"I have been...studying..."
He had a nervous look on his face, his tone cautious. She knew what was up - even for his kindness, his attitude towards her had still changed as vastly as everybody else's. She also knew he was studying magic. His heart was in the right place, but she didn't like the fact he was a mage. Making a feeble attempt to play clueless, she replied.
"'Ey now, wha'ss with--"
Roled began hammering again. Annoyed, she looked at the dagger she was sharpening and, satisfied with her work, sheathed it and tucked the whetstone away. The hammering stopped.
"Hunting, did ye say, Lady M?"
"Aye...'aven't 'ad much success, though. It'd seem I'm outta' practice."
"I still be trying to get better at swords, but ye knows I don't wish to kill."
"Mm, I see."
"I did ask Gregori if he might put some straw dummies in the arena for practicing upon."
"'Ow'd 'e react to that?" she snorted amusedly.
"Believe it or not, Lady M, he said he would think about it."
"Really? I think 'e's gettin' soft, I do."
She chuckled to herself, remembering the conversations she'd had with Gregori - she thought the arena master came off as a self-important brute with respect only for others like himself.
"You're getting to be more of a brute yourself, lately." She pushed the thought to the back of her mind. It was true - her most recent lover, possibly the longest-running one she'd ever had, had brought out her gentle side, but had run off with another woman while Monala was away. Single again, she tried to avoid dealing with the pain of yet another heartbreak by spending more time hunting and practicing swordplay.
"Either soft or he's figured out the way to get rid of little elves who don't like them big claymores he wields."
Roled paused, and then asked:
"Have ye -- have ye seen yer brother, Lady Monala?"
She nodded.
"Chays? 'E's been around - still layin' low. I've been teachin' 'im a bit about huntin' th'beasts. 'E's used t'huntin' crooks - says the beasts tend t'be smarter."
Roled laughed. Monala didn't.
Chays had rescued her from the predicament that had caused her to go missing. A woman had lured her off and asked her for help with some experiments with the Azure Way. She was a witch and an alchemist, specializing in illusions. Monala had agreed at first, and the illusions were quite pleasant, but she didn't realize she'd been trapped. Told the potions were part of the process, she'd trusted the witch that brewed them, and ended up unwittingly taking large doses of several potions brewed with mostly illegal and dangerous ingredients. The witch, for reasons Monala never found out, began turning the illusions against her - immersing the increasingly mentally unstable Ynnwn in them, making her unsure of what was real or not, and conjuring terrible, nightmare-like scenarios.
Deror - a friend of hers - had found Monala cowering in the woods, telling some unseen foe to stop speaking to her. Knowing something was wrong, he wrote to Chays, a guard in the Ynnwn's hometown, and naturally, Chays came to her aid. Not being well-versed in magic himself, and not having been able to enlist the help of his friends back home, Chays had truly killed the witch with a poisoned dagger. Deror gave them a head start, ensuring nobody came across the body over the next few days.
The Colleler siblings camped in the wild for quite some time before Monala made her return to Hydlaa, relatively certain that word of the witch's murder hadn't spread far, if at all.
Uncomfortable with the present subject, she segued into another.
"Ah, speakin' of fellas we don't see much of, seen Dragonis? 'E still mad at me?"
"Lady Monala, I ha'int seen me Brother fer quite some time."
"Ah, I see."
"Seems he came back into Hydlaa for new quarterstaves from Jardet, but then he disappeared again to practice."
She nodded. Dragonis did stay in the wild quite a bit for his own reasons - and she hadn't seen much of him since returning to Hydlaa. Last time she did, he'd completely ignored her. He was livid that she hadn't sent for him to try to rescue her, and talked like she'd left with no goodbye on purpose, as if she knew it wasn't going to be one of her usual hunting trips that only lasted a couple of days. She wished she could be mad at him too, or let it slide off, but all she felt was loss - the klyros was a close friend, and now he wasn't even around to try to reason with.
"I wish he were around to teach me more Blue Way magicks; I be floundering on me own here."
Monala frowned at the mention of magic, reminded once again that Roled was involved with such a sinister force.
"That might not be such a bad thing," she replied, a slight edge to her voice. "After what 'appened t'me - I-I jes' dont think th'same of magic, any more."
Roled hammered at his stocks again for a bit before seeming to do a double take.
"But Monala! Magicks be the most amazing--" he paused. "Oh, umm, aye, now I remember. Sorry Lady!"
"Aye. It can do amazin' things, but it's dangerous."
"Aye, Monala, it might be dangerous, but that be why we must train with ethical teachers."
His expression darkened for a moment, and then he began hammering again, more vigorously than before.
"Ethical teachers don't always beget ethical students. Th'witch studied under Levrus an' then taught 'erself 'ow t'manipulate Azure Way into th'illusions..."
She shuddered and trailed off.
"Monala, ye were just unlucky." Roled reasoned. "Magicks be the most important way to keep ourselves safe in this world!"
"Is it? We could do without, an' I think we'd be better off that way. Frankly, I think th'gods made a mistake, bestowin' glyphs upon th'mortal races."
Roled turned in horror at Monala's words.
"The Gods cannae make mistakes by helping us to live!"
"Th'gods make mistakes. Or 'ave ye forgotten what 'appened between Laanx an' Talad?"
"Nae, I've not forgot. But they be more...endowed than we mortals be, that's fer sure."
"Endowed, aye, but givin' people th'powers magic provides....well, power corrupts. Jes' read th'books in Dakkru's lil' library, next ye 'ave th'misfortune of bein' there, if ye don't believe me. She's a right power-mongerer, that one - jes' wants things dead so she can 'ave more. An' then there's th'favored followers she mentions: Rogues, murderers...somethin' like that...despicable lot, anyway. An' th'Dark Way mages, bringin' th'Grendols up..."
Roled turned to reply, which is not a clever thing to do while one's hammer is still on its way down. He smashed his finger.
Monala's eyes widened and she clamed a hand over her mouth at the sight as Roled dashed downstairs to stick his hand in the quench tank. Monala ran after him.
"Roled! A-are ye...?"
She trailed off as he fainted from the pain. The phrase
"It's my fault," repeating in her head, she carried him to an abandoned building and, sure there weren't any rogues about to harm her friend and unable to bring herself to stay with him until he came to, she promptly ran off to drink away the guilt.
