At the Well

"Do you have any water?"

It took several moments for her to realize that someone had spoken to her. When it did sink in the voice had asked again. The idea that someone would speak to her both shocked and stunned her. She looked down at the clay pitcher in her hands, it was chipped and cracked around the rim. It was so plain down there in her hands, like her so plain almost beyond notice. She stared at the bruise peaking out from under her sleeve, almost unnoticeable.
Why would anyone speak to her anyway? She was no one- well no one that anyone would want to speak to. Wasn't that what her husband would always say. That she was worthless, that she was below notice?
"Do you have any water?"

She blinked in surprise, she stared down at the edge of the well, focusing on each of the worn blocks surrounding it. With an effort she still her trembling hands on the clay jar- she would not- could not afford to drop it again. Not after the last time. She discovered that she might be able to look at the speaker without seeing him. She would look for his feet, but only that. If she knew where his feet were she would know which way to run should she have to. She could not, no would not look up at the speaker for the fear of her husband learning of it made her hands tremble again. The pitcher shook, the waters spilling over the sides. maybe if she pretended not to hear, he would go away.
She would just turn and walk slowly, carefully away from the well and enter her house. She would not- no could not afford to spill the water again. Her husband said she was so clumsy. She took several deep breaths and made herself steady her hands and thus the pitcher.

"Do you have any water to spare?"

Why wouldn't he leave her be? What had she done to this man that he would persist in his requests? Didn't he know that just by talking to her, he increased her own torment? Maybe... just maybe if she offered him the water then he could drink and go away and her husband would not see. Just this once, please, please, just this one time. Hesitantly she held out the pitcher towards the man. She looked and saw the man's feet. They were bare on the hot stones of the square. He stood on them comfortably as if they heat did not bother him.

Suddenly her hand met another hand. She had touched the man's hand and- the touch was cool like the water that was in her clay pitcher. She felt refreshed in a way she had never felt before. As the feeling flooded her, she looked up from the earth and saw the sky as if for the first time. It seemed that it had been a long time since she had seen the sky, it was so blue.Then their eyes met. The man who touched her hand smiled at her.

"Thank you."

Though he spoke to her, it was his eyes that spoke more. She could not say what the words were that she saw written in his eyes but they were so important that she knew that she needed more. A burden lifted from her chest and she took a very deep breath unlike any breath she had breathed since she had woken for the first time in her mother's arms.
They watched each other for a long time it seemed, His eyes were with her even as he drank from her pitcher. The moment lasted a long time, perhaps an eternity, perhaps a few seconds.
A moment later he handed the pitcher back.

She felt shame at having looked, she cast her eyes back at the ground despite want to keep them up. She was about to apologize, to make an excuse that would somehow explain her boldness, that would...
She stopped before she could began and stared at the pitcher in her hands. She knew it had to be the same pitcher she had carried out to the well, it was the same one she carried everyday. It was the one her mother had given her on her wedding day. It was the same pitcher but now it was no longer chipped as if time had been erased from its surface, as if the cracks had never formed.
She stared at it in shock, disbelief and wonder. Her fingers traced it's simple but pure form crossing the now smooth surface. It was pristine, unblemished.
Forgetting every warning of her husband, every trepidation she looked back up at the sky and the well in the square for the smiling man. Afterward she could not say that he had ever been there, but she would not say that he had never been there.
She felt the smile come out from under the swollen lip on her face. She felt the rush of blood as the blush spread under the yellowing bruise on her cheek. She looked down once more and found the footprints on the stones in front of her.
She blinked back the tears and realized that she was thirsty. Thirsty for something more than the water in this well; for more than this moment in the light. She stood in the moment that she had just held with the man at the well, a moment of truth.

"I am thirsty." She heard a voice say. A voice she had no heard in a long time. It was her voice.
She felt her smile spread through her whole being.

"I am." She heard the man say again. She looked down at her pitcher which was now brimming with new water. She gazed at it in wonder. It had no weight in her hands. In its reflection she was almost sure she could still see the man where he sat on the edge of the well waiting- waiting for her.

I am thirsty.
"Drink deep." She heard him say.

She raised the pitcher to her mouth and drank deeply.


*****
This one is for my friend, Rick Redmond.

The Black Elves of Midgard

            Of all the accursed and hated races in all existence in Midgard, the Black Elves are the first to be mentioned. Their names are whispered in taverns and temples alike by men who use them as threats and curses; or by old women who weave them into frightful tales told to children to scare them into behaving.

            It is written in the books of Ilmattar, that the Black Elves rose out of the darkness of creation near the end of the Frostfir war to aid the Tuatha De Daena (True Elves) and thereby gain victory over the Giant-Kings- driving them out into Jotunheim. After the war ended the Tuatha offered the Black Elves a place in the sunlit world to reign forever.

The Black Elves called themselves the Drowannes after their Queen who perished in the Frostfir war. For a thousand years peace reigned supreme on Midgard and both races prospered. Then suddenly the Black Elves were discovered to be practicing the black magiks and summoning foul beasts from the Abyss. The Tuatha declared war on the Drowanness and the first Darklight war broke out.

            At first the Drow (derivative-see notes) were winning, shattering the Tuatha Homeland with their powerful magiks. Chaos ruled supreme as the Tuatha struggled to survive the Drows’ vicious onslaught. As the Drow marched on the Golden City (the last of the Tuatha Strongholds), the Tuatha surrendered their immortality in a pact with the Gods of Light for the power to defeat the Drow. The Tuatha swept out of the Golden City and crushed the invaders in a terrible and devastating battle. The Drow surrendered and asked for mercy. The Tuatha spent many years debating the Drow’s plea- meanwhile the Drow army was sent to rebuild that which they were destroyed. Finally, the Tuatha sentenced the Drow to darkness in the lands beneath Midgard. At first the Drow resisted, so the Tuatha gathered the Drowaness up and marched them into the Mouth of Darkness and sealed the Drowaness inside.

            It is said, though only the Drowanness know for sure, that the Drow sold their very souls to long forgotten gods from the lower planes for the power for revenge. A thousand years passed and the Tuatha De Daena soon forgot the Drowanness as their homeland soon returned to its original beauty.

            Then out of the Mouth of Darkness came the Drow with new armies. They swept out and over the Tuatha Homelands as before, except this time there were no Strongholds to stop them. The Siege of the Golden City was in its tenth year, when the Tuatha realized that their new power could only match the Drow, so they knew that they must find a new way to conquer the Drow. Finally after much debate, the Tuatha decided to divide their power and bestow it into their offspring. Thus in the Fourteenth year of the Second Darklight War, the Tuatha called forth from themselves the four offspring-races into existence. The Elolin-mirrors of the Tuathan souls, the Vanir- the Tuatha heart, the Sylvan- the Tuathan strength, and the Idun- the mind of the Tuatha. With their new offspring the Tuatha rose up from their siege and drove the Drow back down into the Darkness. The Tuatha built a great door over the Mouth of Darkness and locked it with a Wooden key- The Quaalines.

            As the days passed after the end of the Darklight war, the Tuatha tried to summon the offspring races to return to be reborn again as Tuatha De Deana, but the offspring races refused and the first division occurred. While the Tuatha and their offspring were struggling with their newfound existence’s, the Drowanness plotted their ultimate revenge.

            From within their new imprisonment, the Drow called forth to the offspring races with offers of friendship, promises of power and finally with lies and myths about their betrayal at the hands of the Tuatha. At first, these rantings brought forth little response; as the offspring races- though divided- paid them no heed. By the time the Tuatha themselves had learned of this, the temptations had turned into threats and pacts with some of the offspring and the Third Darklight war broke out. The Elolin and Vanir as a whole supported the Tuatha with a couple of individuals siding with the Drow, the Sylvan at first threw their lot in with the Tuatha then withdrew to a neutral position. The Idun were split into two factions, those who sided with the Drow and those who had not made their choice yet. Unlike the first two Darklight wars, the third Darklight war was slow and plodding. The Idun remained divided and out of the main conflict. The actual war, was one of magic and minions (particularly in the case of the Drow who used every available creature they could dominate to fight for them-as they were imprisoned.{see Goblyn Wars treatise}). The Faction of the Idun that sided with the Drow were simply assisting the war effort with weapons and magiks.

            Then one leader arose amongst the Idun, Mallkis, who unified his people by sword and reason. His vision was to reunify the races and create a permanent peace between the Drow and the Tuatha. This plan worked initially until the final summit where a squad of Vanir found out that the Drow had planned to sign the treatise in order to lull the other races into a false sense of peace then fall upon them and slaughter them where they slept, and that some of the Idun had sided with them. So the Vanir, somewhat foolishly, attacked the Idun-suspecting that the betrayal ran deeper than they originally thought. The end result was chaos amongst the offspring and the Tuatha, with the Drow laughing at the Vanir for doing their dirty work. Mallkis collected the surviving Idun and declared war on the Vanir and the Tuatha. At this point the Sylvan Elves withdrew from the war and declared neutrality.

            The new war went badly for the Idun and Malkis lost support as a new Idun rose in to take his place. This new Idun was called Hiisi and many Idun collected under his banner until Malkis stood with less than fifty followers and was cast out from the Idun Cell. Malkis and his followers disappeared into the Eastern lands and became a myth unto his own family. Hiisi was a renegade warrior and was known for constantly for breaking the rules of engagement. Hiisi managed to collect the Idun forces and create a stalemate; then in a lull, he stole the Qualiness and unlocked the door over the Mouth of Darkness. The Drow flooded out and the tide of the war changed. Like the Drow the Idun made pacts with the forgotten gods and became charged with power.

            At this point the Elolin made a pact of ReUna-fikashon with the Vanir and brought forth the Rivendell Elves. The Rivendell were trained from birth to be warriors and granted certain abilities to give them an advantage over all other elves including the ability to quickly reproduce. The Rivendell combined with the other elves brought the war to a stalemate and it was the Idun elves who finally tipped the scales against the Drow. They became disinterested in ruling alongside with the Drow, so they betrayed the Drow to the Rivendell and separated their armies. The Rivendell swooped in a destroyed the Drow advance, driving the remaining forces back down deep into the Underworld. Then the Rivendell destroyed the path back to the Mouth of Darkness and then destroyed the Mouth as well. The Drow swore revenge as they were sealed beyond even magical communication in the earth. They have not been seen since, thank the Gods.

                                                                                                -end Chronicle.

            Despite their disappearance, the Drow have remained a part of folklore and myth.

The fear remains, though many have never seen them. No one has reported seeing the Black Elves and lived.

The Hersi of Drowanness

{ the history of the Children of Mistress of the night }

The First Ones fought by their great Queen, Drowanness in the Frostfir War and mourned Her loss but felt pride at her sacrifice for her world. The Others invited our people to live them, but they did not treat us as if we were their brothers. So while we trusted them, they pushed us into a point of slavery to their whims.

First we looked to the bright gods in the sky but they did not look back. Then we looked back into the night and found our old gods. When the others discovered our old gods, they declared them evil.

And then after years of peaceful coexistence, they declared war on us, thus starting the first

War of Expulsion.

The Others sought to expel us from the Sunlit world, but we fought back with the cause of righteousness and stubbornness granted to us by our Great Queen. We won the war and as we begun to celebrate, the surviving Others made a pact with a terrible god and swept out of the Golden City and killed most of our people not caring about whether they were old or children.

We surrendered when we were cut off from our old gods and the Night. They made us slaves again and took our children to be whores and bedfellows.

Then they came in the middle of the night and dragged us from our beds and homes into the streets

of their cities and marched us into the darkness and sealed us in the darkness absolute.

Many of our people died as we prayed to the old gods in vain. We were starving and blind in the darkness.

Then our high priestess made contact with a goddess from the lower planes who called herself

Lolth who promised to gives us the ability to not only to survive the darkness but to become masters of it- like we were in the night.

All she asked for in return was eternal love and devotion. So we took her at her word and she transformed our eyes and minds. We built a great dome in the high caverns to her and prayed to her every moment of rest. She made us strong with new magic’s and then she showed us a way to bypass the seal on our imprisonment. So we returned to the surface to gain our revenge.

So began the first War of Vengeance.

Once again we won, we were newly strong and powerful and the Others had grown complacent and weak. As we lay siege to the Cursed Golden City, Lolth came to witness our victory. The Others saw her and

called her a name we had not heard “Larrin” Then they opened wide their doors and spewed forth mutations of themselves called the Offspring. They made us powerless and drove us back into the darkness.

Then the Others’ god burnt Lolth with his sun and drove her too into the darkness. This time they sealed us in with the Quaalin-a great door with many locks. In the Darkness again, Lolth made new pact with us, promising that She would prove to us that She was worthy of being our Goddess. Then she departed into the lower planes to gain a great power called Allignos.

In her absence, it was discovered that some of us had brought back idols of the old gods and many returned to their worship but all of their power could not free us. At this time a group of us rose to power because they found a way to contact the surface. They hatched a plan in which we would tempt the Offspring into betrayal of the Others.

A new War of Vengeance broke out with an army of underlings we had gathered, mostly orcs and golbins who thought us gods and those of the Offspring who came to collect under our banner. Things went moderately well until one of the Offspring, Mallkis of the Idun came forth and withdrew almost all of our Offspring allies. He wanted to unify the Offspring, the Others and us into one race. Many of us welcomed this, but their were some of us who were not so trusting. We secretly planned to sign the treaty and once released from the darkness, fall upon the Others and slaughter them and their allies. But those of the Offspring called the Vanir somehow found out our plot and attacked the Idun thinking them betrayers and then all out war broke out. Chaos reigned supreme as the Vanir and the Evioliss banded together one banner with the Others. Those of the Offspring called the Sylvan withdrew from the conflict supporting neither side. Malkis tried to lead the Idun, but thing s went badly in the war-since he had no allies. He was soon forced out by a new Idun leader Hiisi who would not follow the rules of engagement and then he allied him people with us. Then he stole the key to the Quaalin and released us from our imprisonment. At this point our warriors rose with the Instigators and Wizards to fight as our priest looked for their gods.

At first we won, but we underestimated the Evioliss and Vanir who crossbred to spawn a new cursed race of Offspring. These new Offspring were bred for war and rapid reproduction- so when they enter the war, they were many and strong. The war ground to a stalemate until the Idun betrayed us to the Rivendell Offspring who ambushed our advance and mercilessly killed our people. Then they attacked us and drove us deep down into the darkness killing all who would not go. They violated and destroyed the Dome of Lolth. Once they had driven us so deep that we had forgotten day and night, they left us there and destroyed the path back to the daylight world.

In the Darkness, my people cried out in anguish and despair- and in the Darkness, She heard our cries and returned to us. In the Darkness, our sight returned and Lolth-Larris made us masters of the Darkness. She led us into the Darkness to the underworld of tunnels and caverns.

In the Darkness we forged a new destiny,

but when we returned to the sunlit world, the light blinded us.

Now we are the Darkness.