List of Names

* Selvennae (SEL-ven-nay, Woodland Lady or Woodland One)

* Cárastel (CAHR-a-stel or CAYR-a-stel, by dialect; elven origin)

* Gallick (GAL-ick)

* Terthrast (TER-thrast)

* Belisun (BEL-i-sun)

* Dórminor (DOHR-min-or; elven origin)

* Seligog, the South Kingdom (SEL-i-gog or SEL-i-gawg, by dialect)

* Dalûne (DA-loo-nay or DAH-loo-nay, an archaic phrase for Flowing Water; elven origin)

II.

Awaiting his sword, Aurimar readied his equipment and arranged for a fresh steed, then left the castle. He did not go far – once outside the walls, he found a nearby place of long grass and clover, and sat down to pray. His prayer was meditative, his mind and heart bathing in the peace of Selvennae, the lady of oaks, and reaching farther – to the One beyond. His keen elven ears detected the very whisperings of the grass-leaves, and his imagination carried further, reaching out to the embrace of a hidden music in the grass, without and within. Finding harmony, he listened.

Some time later, he returned to within the castle, and going to the smiths found his blade. It had been silvered well, and glittered in his hand beneath the sun. He returned it to the sheath and smiled, thinking of his friend. Then he turned, retrieved the chosen steed; and, after arraying himself in his armor, set out.

He rode hard eastward, upon the route known as Honor’s Path. It was named thus by the knights of the Order because it led to Nalthanatore, Honor’s Gauntlet, their stronghold a hundred leagues to the East in the midst of the South Kingdom. For long that kingdom’s peoples gave it their own names, until the terrible war – sixty years ago, when that kingdom’s eastern regions had been overrun by evil creatures. The knighthood had sent several thousand men marching along Honor’s Path, to meet with Nalthanatore’s garrison and ride out to check the enemy; and they had done so, at terrible, terrible cost. Ever since that sacrifice, which screened the western lands from harm, Honor’s Path had gone by one name to all the area’s people.

But Aurimar was not headed to Nalthanatore. The road took him east, across a small bridged river on the borders of the Order’s lands. After another thirty miles it crossed two more bridges, which spanned the east and west forks of the River Cárastel, wandering down from the mountains to the North. From there it bent south for a time, dipping into the great Gallick Plain. It was here that Aurimar, on his second day of journey, left the road, continuing south as it curved back eastward. He plunged into an open land of golden grasses, about two feet tall, dotted with scattered trees and crossed with occasional small streams. The prairie rolled on, gently and endlessly. On the fourth day of journey, Aurimar turned southeast. After dozens of miles, during which he sighted only a herd of bison, a few coyote, and several passing hawks, the plain began to slightly change. The grasses became longer and greener, flowing against his feet in the stirrups with a ceaseless rustling music. The fifth day passed in like manner.

On the sixth day, Aurimar turned straight east. He was not yet south enough, but only a few hours’ riding would lead him to Terthrast, a modest town in the midst of the grasslands. It was close to on the way, and he stopped in town to check in with a few knights of the Order that were stationed there, on another, quieter mission. He left his weary steed in their care, and borrowed another from his brother-knights. After spending one hour searching for rumor of Alquilan about the town, he set off. Farmlands surrounded the town to the East, and just past two more hours he spent, questioning farmers. His search proved fruitful! One older man had encountered just such a traveler, hooded and bearing an ornate staff, and stopped to talk with him. The staff, whose craftsmanship the farmer had greatly admired, well fit Alquilan’s description, as did the man’s longer blonde hair, and misty eyes. The chance meeting had been about two weeks ago, and the traveler had been heading southeast, toward Belisun. Aurimar thanked the farmer for his aid, offered him pay, courteously insisted when he refused, and allowed himself to be talked down to a lesser amount. Then he continued on.

As he hastened eastward the land became more varying, interchanging between smaller green prairies and little rolling, wooded hills. On this side of the great plain, he passed tiny villages, here and there, but did not stop. There was a touch of urgency upon him now, for it was now the seventh day: the first of the three weeks given him was at its end! He turned southeast again, and emerging for a bit from the wilder places he found a small road. This road originated from Dórminor, a nearby town, smaller than Terthrast, and linked it to several villages. Taking the road until he discovered a part of it that turned east, he headed in the direction of Belisun.

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Belisun was a larger city of Seligog, the South Kingdom, and it lay on the southern shores of Southtwin Lake. It was a city of docks, and fishermen, and trade; but about it lay less farmland than one would think for its size, for much of the lands around were tough marshes and fens. Aurimar Edawë entered this city in the morning of the ninth day, and again met up with a contact of the Order. Asking the contact, he learned that Alquilan had been in the city, but only briefly; and he had left it several days ago, heading east. Entrusting his brother-knight with his horse, Aurimar left to continue the search, among the fens, on foot.

He began with those wetlands east of the city, having been told the loremaster’s original direction. Wandering the reeds and bushes and marsh-grasses, searching for elusive paths to lead him between many dangerous bogs, he spent the rest of the ninth day. The fens were full of the music of insects, a rich humming in his ears, and it was pierced on occasion by the heart-wrenching cries of unseen songbirds. He found the call of the fens enchanting, and delighted in it, but continued his hunt. And he tested his silvered sword, meeting danger for the first time: a small flight of stirges, bloodsucking four-winged creatures, the size of crows, found him and set upon him. He was hard-pressed to prevent any from contacting him and draining him of blood, but Aurimar was a master of Dalûne, the Path of the Waterfall, and his sword-strokes created a flowing wall between him and the monsters, cleaving several before the rest were driven off.

The tenth day, he continued east into a region of wooded swamps. He encountered little, save marsh-hawks, and snakes hid among murky waters, and a few white jasmine-like flowers that glittered mysteriously beneath the trees. But, just ere sunset, he discovered faint tracks: the footprints of a leather-booted man among the mud, and the imprint of a walking-stick. He followed them amid the deepening gloom – and then by the stars through the trees and the full moon – for hours more, losing and rediscovering trace of the path. Past midnight he lay down, and awakened before dawn. On the eleventh day the faint tracks led eastward still, and the land became again fen-like and less wooded, and the trail became harder. By noon Aurimar’s skill was confounded, and he followed the direction the last discernible tracks seemed to head. For hours he continued in this way, until he reached a break in the marshlands, and strode through a land of grasses beside the lakeshore. Here he found again rumor of a man’s passing, though nothing sure, and began to turn slightly northeast. The wetlands returned, and became wetter and wetter; and by dusk he was trudging through bogs. He continued late into the night, and laid down to rest, uncertain. The twelfth day, he rose early, and returned to the lakeshore. At the water’s edge he sat, and meditated.

Now this meditation was the power of a virtue, one of the mysterious, holy qualities studied by knights of the Order. According to the lore of the elves, they had been revealed by the White Flame and His servants as notes of His music, pieces whose arrangement created the beauty and diversity of goodness in the world. Combining virtues like patience, compassion, and countless more, He had woven His love across creation, in a universal song too glorious for men to fully know. But with great effort study, prayer, and good deeds could reveal bits of this glory to mortals; and that universal song rewarded virtuous lives. Knights of the Order studied these holy qualities more than any others, but they were accessible to all men. Aurimar Edawë, a wood elf, had long studied the harmony of nature, seeking in it virtue, until the harmony of his spirit had brought him great peace, and shown him many things. He called upon that peace now, drawing spiritual power from the goodness of nature. The stillness and quiet of the lakeshore opened his mind. His senses sharpened. With an awareness highly enhanced he rose and continued on.

Within four hours he found his man. Striding through the marshy terrain, he continued to follow the rumor of a man’s passing he had found the day before. He wove between boggy pools and mires, the rustling of rushes and cattails in his ears. After a few miles, the songbirds of the marsh were no more, replaced by the lonely wailing of shorebirds – killdeer and plover – in a sad loveliness. The marsh was still around him, but it became more open, bog-pools interspersed with sandy and grassy areas, swept with winds from the nearby lake. It was at this point that, one of the times he stopped to listen, his keen ears – enhanced by the meditation – heard a man’s voice, talking. Moving carefully toward the source of the noise, he passed through a long body of tall, swaying cattails, and then.... he found Alquilan.