Ariana grinned; thinking about what her parents would do if they
saw her always caused that reaction.  Born into a wealthy merchant elven
family, Ariana was expected to be graceful, yielding, and feminine.  Her
mother Elliandra called those the three golden keys.  “Use what I’ve taught
you, Ariana, and you may even become a member of the Royal House of
Galadriell.  Wouldn’t that be exciting?  I can just imagine you and Prince
Tradeir, a wedding at the palace, a honeymoon by the Qaerith Ocean…”
        Unfortunately, that idea resounded in Ariana’s dainty pointed ears
like the slamming of an iron dungeon door.  She didn’t dare say this to her
mother.  Smiling wanly, “Yes, exciting,” she murmured absently, walking
away and leaving Elliandra to her delusions of a glamorous palatial wedding.
        So how did she end up here?  The argument with Elliandra all began
with her mother’s typical comment about her choice of dress: Green tunic,
soft suede breeches, and riding boots.  “You are too old to be wearing that
in public.  You aren’t a child anymore, and you need to start dressing like
a lady of your station.  Neither the Prince, nor anyone else of marrying
age and social stature will notice you in that.”
        “Yes, mother,” Ariana said, waiting for her mother’s back to turn
before grabbing her cloak, and silently slipping through the heavy oak
door.  It closed behind her, and she stood squinting in the freedom and
brightness of the sunlight.  She tugged at a chain around her neck, pulling
it out from under her tunic and letting it fall visible on her chest.
Gleaming silver, it picked up a soft green from the tunic.
Ariana strode briskly to the heart of Galadriell, muttering as she walked.
I can’t believe she would even think of marrying me off to that prissy
foppish prince.  I couldn’t even spend ten minutes with him, let alone the
rest of my life.
As she neared the square, she unconsciously fingered the massive and
detailed snake and hawk ring that hung on her silver chain.  While it was
her one regard for beauty, it was also her dedication to justice.  She
never took it off, although at home it remained tucked under her clothing,
and its weight reminded her constantly of her vow and her duty.
        Reaching the town’s center, with its cobbled streets surrounding
the gleaming white palace that perched like a griffin over the squat plain
buildings of the town, Ariana arrived at the bookshop of the local writer’s
guild.  She briefly wondered whether the griffin was protecting, or
menacing, and she caught hold of her ring again as she pushed open the door.
        The bookshop was a place of wonder.  Ariana could not afford
anything (her parents felt books a foolish thing to spend money on), but
she loved the smell of the old volumes coupled with the scent of the newly
printed pages in the attached print shop.  Here was the place for her,
curled up in the cozy dimness with whatever book Irint, the wizened
gray-haired proprietor of the shop, had for her that day.  The one thing
she did thank her mother for was teaching her to read whatever the reason
behind it. (It was a suitable skill for a woman of high station to know.)
        Today as she entered everything seemed different.  Irint and about
a half dozen others sat around a table, and as soon as she entered dead
silence fell over the room.
“Apparently someone forgot to lock the door again, Besairn?” snapped a
young raven-haired elf with flashing topaz eyes.
The golden-tressed elf, to which he was talking, Besairn shrank noticeably
under his stare.  “I…uh…I apologize, Kandar…I...-”
        “I’ll just leave.”  She backed slowly toward the door.
        Irint looked up.  “Wait,” he said, “come closer for a moment
first.”  He motioned with a kindly gnarled hand.
        Kandar, about to protest, was silenced by one look from Irint, and
as she approached his eyes first widened in surprise, then narrowed in
suspicion all in the space of about a second.  “The ring,” he breathed,
“where did you get that?”
        Ariana pulled her eyes away from Kandar’s, and glanced over at
Irint.  He gave a small reassuring nod.  “Before you begin to answer,”
Irint said, “please go lock the door, and get a chair for yourself, then I
will introduce us.”
        After Ariana sat down, Irint began.  “This is Kandar, Besairn,
Ratirin, Heweln, Ulz, and Pruet.  Further explanation can only be made
after you have answered Kandar’s question.”
        “It’s my brother’s; the ring was his.”
        “What is his name,” Ratirin asked, peering at her intently.
        “Vaneth Allion Tillearn”
        A collective gasp, by all but Irint, added to the tangible tension
in the room.
“He left.  I was fairly young.  He woke me up in the middle of the night.
I can still see him kneeling next to my bed with the moonlight softly
illuminating his face.  He gave me this, and said, ‘Keep this for me, and
vow as my true sister, that when you understand its meaning you will do all
you can to help.’ It was a long time ago, but I remember it clearly.  When
I woke up the next morning I heard my parents yelling.  I climbed out of
bed and asked them what was wrong.  They looked like they had been crying,
but now they appeared more angry than sad.  They told me he was gone.  I’ve
worn the ring around my neck ever since.”
        As abruptly as they had turned to stone when she entered, the
features of the elves, most noticeably those of Kandar, melted.  “Welcome
Ariana,” he said, “you are no longer a stranger here.”
        “I’m sure you have questions dancing through your head,” Irint
said.  Your brother was one of us, and we are going to do all we can to
help him as well as accomplish the goals we are all dedicated to.”
        “Where is my brother?  Is he in trouble?  What are your goals, and
how do I know I can trust you?  I mean, I’d like to believe in all of this,
don’t get me wrong, but…”
       “Wait, one thing at a time,” Kandar interrupted, “Let me answer your
first questions before you go on.”  He told her of their commitment to
justice, and hatred of the monarchy.  “Our first order of business, the one
we’re planning tonight, is freeing your brother from the palace dungeon.”
        Ariana gasped, “He’s been there all this time?”
        “Your parents know about it.  I thought you must have known.  They
never told you”
        Ariana bit her lip.  She didn’t even notice that she was gripping
the ring so hard it was leaving indentations in her palms.  All this time
and I didn’t even know.  “After he left my parents disowned him.  They told
me never to mention his name in their presence again”
        “I’m sorry it came as a shock to you,” he said softly.
“It’s not your fault,” Ariana said flinty eyed, “They should have told me.”
“After we rescue Vaneth,” Kandar went on, “then, with his help, we can plan
our next action.  We want to pull Queen Faldara’s power out from under her
like a rug.  We can’t allow the monarchs to feast, while the rest of the
people beg like dogs. And things will only get worse once that son of hers
takes over.”
        Ariana nodded.  She had seen the way the people lived right in the
shadow of that palace.  She thought back to when she had seen the palace as
a griffin earlier that day.  Now she knew, the griffin was menacing.
“I hope that answers your questions.  I can not tell you much more without
putting both you and us at risk if you choose not to become involved.  If
you would like to help, meet us on the southern edge of the forest of
Ademir when the bell strikes three times.  If you don’t want to be
involved, you must not mention this to anyone.”
        Kandar bowed as she rose to leave.  “My lady.”
        Ariana looked for a sarcastic glimmer in his eyes, but found none.
She left, and forced herself to walk slowly toward home.  Her thoughts, on
the other hand, were tumbling one over the other, like a waterfall, and
showed no sign of slowing down.  Her main concern was how she would deal
with her parents in the time before she left.  How would she keep them from
finding out what she had learned, how would she keep from exploding in
anger when she saw them?
        Knowing before she even left the bookshop that she would meet the
others that afternoon, Ariana bided her time.  By the time she arrived home
the sun had lazily sunk past its zenith, and slowly counted out the time
before she could leave.  She tucked her necklace under her tunic again, and
opened the heavy door that opened into her prison.  Fortunately her parents
had not stopped her as she entered the house and went up to her room. She
paced back and forth, listening for the bells chiming off the hours and the
quarters of the hour.  She resumed pacing as the bells rang a quarter to
three.  Only fifteen minutes left to wait.
        Taking a quick look around her room, grabbing her walking staff,
cloak, and a few other things, Ariana dashed out of her house.
        “Going for a walk in the forest,” she yelled to the almost silent
house, letting the heavy door slam shut behind her.
Delirious with the freedom of open sky after the oppressive air of her
house, Ariana skipped, jogged, practically flew through the empty fields
between Galadriell and the forest of Ademir.
        “I’m here!” she breathed with a quiet excitement upon reaching the
others, who were already assembled in a circle on the forest floor.
        “So we see,” responded Ratirin.  Oldest of those present, except of
course for Irint, Ratirin knew too much about the cost of their cause for
exuberance.  He smiled a wistful half-smile, remembering that he had been
the same way.
        “Now that we are all present,” Kandar said, “Swear upon your ring,
that you will give your allegiance to the brotherhood of snake and hawk,
that you will dedicate your life and spirit to its members and cause, and
that you would die before you would betray it.”
        Ariana met the eyes of those in the circle, a little shaken by the
formal finality of those words.  Reassured by the kindness she saw beneath
the dedication there, and thinking of the vow she made to her brother as
well as the lies of her parents, she clasped her ring in her right hand.
Never having rehearsed it, or being told what to do, somehow by instinct
she knew.  Holding onto her ring so tightly her hand quivered slightly, she
took a deep breath, “I swear.  I give freely my allegiance, my life and
spirit, and my vow never to betray.”
        Laughing to break the silence and tension of formality, Kandar
bounced lightly to his feet.
        “I don’t like being as cold and formal as that, but even formality
is necessary from time to time,” he said offering Ariana a hand to help her
up.
        Ariana took his hand.  “It was a little unnerving.”
        “But now, you are truly one of us,” he said pulling her to her feet.
        “Now that that’s over,” Besairn ventured, “don’t you think it’s
time we ate?”
        “I agree,” Irint said smiling, “we can discuss everything else over
dinner.”
        They followed Pruet, the tallest of the party with brown hair only
two shades darker than his skin and large liquid green eyes.  He had never
spoken in Ariana’s presence, and still didn’t now.  Everyone simply fell
into line behind him.
        Once they were deep in the heart of the forest following a small
trickling stream, they reached what looked to Ariana like a rather large
brush pile, but turned out to be a hideout designed to resemble a brush
pile.  Heweln and Ulz began building a fire, while Irint took Ariana aside
to talk to her in more detail about the principles of the alliance.
        When Irint had finished, dinner was ready around a small, but
crackling and warm fire.  Ariana hadn’t realized how cold she had been
since the sun went down until she reached the fireside.  They ate, and
planned the rescue.
        “It is too dark for you to go home now.  You will have to spend the
night here, and when you go back in the morning tell your parents you fell
asleep in the forest and it was too dark to make it back,” Kandar said.
        Go home?  Ariana hadn’t even thought about home.  She had been
envisioning staying in this place forever.  This brought her sharply back
to reality.
        “For tonight you may have my sleeping space in the shelter.  I will
sleep out here under the stars.  They remind me that I am insignificant,
and even the enormity of our quest isn’t as large as it often seems,
something I need to realize every so often.  Good night, Ariana.”
        “Good night, Kandar.  I… nevermind.  May the stars watch over you
while your spirit follows the ways of dreams.”
        Turning and walking toward the shelter, Ariana used most of the
will power she had not to look back at Kandar over her shoulder.  Once she
reached the door, she allowed herself a look back at the group by the fire.
        “Good night, everyone.”
        “Good night,” returned the group.