The night was filled with shadows after we had received Mask's aid. As usual, I couldn't sleep. I'd often divine where sorrow was in the world when I had tried correcting it and to have it so close to me was painful. The lost apprentice paced back in forth in the circle, more apparition than actual person. I shed my invisibility spells and tried talking with him but he proved not to enjoy such banter. The gift the Weeping Child had given me did catch his attention though and after a small ritual bright light burst through the circle and engulfed me. I was somewhere else, a new temple. One I hadn't been in before. Again sobs filled the air, and the cries of a child no more than six or seven echo'd in a room full of light.
The sorrow ran deep in this place. Shar and her touch was visible though out the temples but this was different. Sitting next to the Weeping Child I put an arm around him to comfort him. He talked much better after coaxing him to speak about his brother whom I had met in the ruins. He couldn't remember how to enter the City of Shade and that's why he and his brother were stuck here. He was grateful to know his brother still lived and I began to think of my own loss. Such young eyes to have seen so much, I thought to myself. A tear came across my own eyes and the boy gave me a rose. It was dirty and old but it was a rose nonetheless and I thanked him for it.
It wasn't long ago that I had chosen a mortal form. Chosen it so I could be with him. To descend from the stars and influence the world directly rather than by inspiration. It seemed like a dream, as if it hadn't really happened at all. Such as things are when recollecting them, the past is so fleeting, so misleading and so filled with foolish fancy and poor memory. Some things would drown in a sea of forgetfulness if not for the simple words we take for granted. This place was more Illusion than anything else. I wondered why the shadows seemed to flicker and take on lives of their own...
It was years earlier, the Summer Sun radiated warmth down into the valley. It was all a dream, like some insane play. The girl in a lightweight blue and white dress that didn't cover her arms or go below her knees was me. And there he was, I was filled with happiness just to see him in the dream but I knew it couldn't last. There was no life where death had already claimed what is inevitably his. Their lips met and then the horns could be heard. Faint at first but then like thunder off the mountain. The pale green skin of the former elves turned orcs could be seen even from a distance. A distance that was diminishing quickly. His arm grabbed her as they ran for the cabin they had built. How could she not have seen this, she knew the art, the old ways, the divination spells. Dream faded into nightmare as blood pounded in her head and no matter how her legs burned, they just weren't fast enough. Then I could feel magic exploding around them as curses landed close to us. I searched frantically through the small bag I had brought and couldn't find the spell components I needed. The sharp ring of a sword being drawn sent shivers up my spine as I knew what he was going to do. The Hoard of orcs chased us down, I could hear hear metal against metal but having no weapons I continued to flee. In could feel it in my soul how bad I wanted my bag of spell components. I wanted to turn and rain down fire from the heavens upon them. But the Orcs clawed hand grabbed at my dress which tore. And then another hand tripped me as it grabbed my ankle. And yet another grabbed my risk and as they turned me over to do horrible things to me, I found the stone I'd needed in my little bag. I closed my eyes and thought of the a place these orcs would never find me.
I shivered on the floor of the white castle. Screaming in horror and crying historically, the others members of the order that was such a large part of my life came running.
