Husband and wife dance song after song, the first in silence, and then Ellowyndriel finds her voice and looks intently into Loviander's eyes.
"Loviander�why? I must know-- why have you been so cold and distant to me all these years? So many people have commented to you about how lucky you are to be with me�how beautiful I am-- I have heard them-- yet you never seemed to agree! Please�if we are to start over, I must know what I did wrong so that I may not repeat it."
Loviander gives her a gentle smile. "My w--�Ellowyndriel�" he begins, and Ellowyndriel nods and smiles back in encouragement of him choosing to use her name over her station.
"�you have done nothing wrong."
"Then what is it? Please tell me, Loviander! Think back to the day of our wedding. You gave me such a look of fear when I approached you to take you arm! I noticed, yet I was so consumed with the magick and breathlessness of my wedding-day that I told myself it was just nerves. But you looked at me like that everyday afterward until we finally got over our shyness and began to converse. Please�why were you so afraid of me?" Ellowyndriel speaks in low tones.
Loviander closes his eyes and thinks back to that day. He sees his young bride-- as young as he-- approaching him down the aisle. 'She is so radiant�so beautiful�and her smile is genuine�her eyes�' Loviander's brow furrows, and then his thought continues, '�her eyes�a glowing purple�yes, that was what color they were.'
He opens his eyes and looks down at Ellowyndriel.
"You were the most beautiful creature I had ever beheld, yet I did not know anything about you. We were betrothed at birth, and had never been introduced until the day of our engagement-ritual-- which went by so quickly that I cannot remember a thing about it."
Ellowyndriel nods and gives a shy laugh, remembering back to that day. Loviander continues.
"It was when you walked down the aisle towards me. The look in your eyes-- it was a look of pure admiration and love. That is what did it. I did not know you-- not a thing about you-- and yet you looked at me that way. I felt the weight of the universe come crashing down on me, for I felt myself worthless to be your husband, and knew that I could not measure up to that look of admirations-- knew I could not be worthy of it in earnest. I felt that the longer you were around me, the most I would disappoint you�the more YOU would realize that I was not worthy of the pure love you were so innocently giving me without having spoken a word to me. I wondered why you looked at me that way."
Here Loviander pauses, and Ellowyndriel feels that her husband is asking her a question rather than making a statement. She thinks for a moment, and then nods her head.
"I was a carefree, romantic Sidhe, Loviander, and here was my husband-to-be, and he was everything I'd dreamed of! At least in appearance, for you are right-- I did not know you, and had never interacted with you. You were tall�majestic�handsome-- the man our people's own fantastical tales describe! I felt so lucky�so happy! I knew in my heart that in no time we would fall in love and live a beautiful life together. I�I really did not expect anything of you except for your love. You could have been bad at sword-fighting�bad at cantrips�bad at ruling�but as long as you loved me-"
"Bad at making love?" Loviander asks quietly.
Ellowyndriel pauses in mid-sentence, her mouth open. Her face falls a little.
After a moment Loviander nods and takes up the conversation as he and his wife dance in their own little bubble of existence, the ball continuing on around them without their notice.
"My nervousness at your expectations took on�a very embarrassing side-effect. It was not you, my wi--, my Ellowyndriel. You are still the most beautiful creature I have ever seen, and that terrified me. I do not know how you could find me so attractive. Me-- a skinny man who is bad at sword-play! I was terrified to disrobe before you�terrified to touch you, for I knew not how to handle your beautiful body as you were my first--"
"--and you, mine." Ellowyndriel interjects very softly.
Loviander nods, and then bows his head in shame. "I performed badly on our wedding night. Had I been able to draw from self-confidence�humor�anything to assist me in my terror, our lives might have been much different. But I let my terror consume me, and was only barely able to consummate our marriage for failing you. That, Ellowyndriel, is why I chose to stay away from the palace�to go off on missions and trips at every opportunity. Why I called upon our friend Damascus to administer potions that I could father children by you. I--" Loviander closes his eyes. "--I am not fit to be called a man. I did not feel I was worthy of the task of raising a son, for what could I teach him? You, who are the cantrev's-- no, the entire principality's best swordsman!"
Ellowyndriel pulls Loviander to her and holds him tightly for a moment before they pull apart to continue dancing. She faintly hears the giggling and whispering of Fae around her.
"Loviander�you are far more powerful in the use of Glamour than I am! You were always able to keep a level head in any situation! You have so much to teach our children!" Ellowyndriel's eyes suddenly turn sad when she thinks of her poor Gwendolyn. She takes a deep breath and continues.
"I have been waiting so long to hear the reasons why! To know if it was my fault�if you just weren't attracted to me, but were trying to make the best of our marriage by staying in it! In your honesty you shine like the stars, my poor Loviander! Oh if only you'd told me much, much sooner!! I wish we could start over from the beginning, knowing what I know now!"
Loviander lifts his eyes, and the years seem to fall from his face. He exhales in relief, and holds her face in his hands.
"There isn't any reason why we cannot start over. We have all of eternity before us, Ellowyndriel! I WOULD so dearly like to go back and watch our children grow�I owe you so much for the wrongs I have done to you�Gwendolyn�Corrander�so much�" Loviander's eyes fill with tears of regret and frustration.
'Gwendolyn�please come home�' he whispers, his teary eyes searching fiercely past the ceiling of the great hall, which has gone transparent that the guests may be able to see the show the stars are putting on outside.
Ellowyndriel smiles and feels her whole body relax and grow light. She wishes she could somehow tell Amon not to feel bad for her any longer-- that she, at last, has a husband in her life! She gives a little sigh of regret, and then realizes that all the creatures of the "occult" world must have received word of what happened to the gates, so he MUST know that it wasn't her fault she can no longer travel with him! All he would have to do would be to find any Fae and they could tell him! She closes her eyes and sends out a heart's-message filled with thankfulness and love to him for his friendship, wishing that he might feel it and find the strength to continue his work until the end.
As Ellowyndriel finishes this wish, the current song ends, and a slower one begins. Damascus catches her eye and gives her a look of wide-eyed bewilderment. She grins back and gives him a little nod. He reaches behind his back and brings out a goblet, pointing to it questioningly.
Ellowyndriel gives a little laugh and shakes her head. Damascus mouths the word, "WOW!" dramatically, and Ellowyndriel has to cover her mouth to stifle giggles.
Loviander peers down at her face, eyebrow raised in amusement.
"What is it, Ellowyndriel?" He glances to where she was looking as Damascus quickly brings the goblet behind his back and gives Loviander a big, toothy grin, and Loviander laughs light-heartedly for the first time in centuries�if not longer.
"Ellowyndriel, are you flirting with that Satyr?" he grins.
Ellowyndriel gives a loud laugh, and then lowers her eyes shyly. "Not at all, Loviander! I was just letting him know that his potions would not be required tonight." She glances up at Loviander's face, still with a shy look in her eyes.
Loviander raises his eyebrows questioningly, and then his face takes on a look of worry.
"I understand. You need time. I will give you time and space-- as much as you require."
Ellowyndriel's mouth falls open in fear. "Oh no-no, no, no! That is the last thing I'll ever want again! I only meant that you wouldn't need the potions anymore because I will instruct you, myself, in how to 'handle my body,' as you so delicately put it!" she giggles.
Loviander feels his face turning red, and Ellowyndriel feels her eyes shifting to match. And for the first time in his life, Loviander feels himself respond to his wife's desire. So does Ellowyndriel, for she gasps and glances between them before looking up to meet his eyes. Suddenly they both burst out laughing, and hold one another tightly.
Loviander pulls back enough so that he can see her face. "Ellowyndriel�I have not had the courage to tell you when you could hear, but�I do love you. Would you still have me as your husband?"
Ellowyndriel feels her laugh choke into a sob, and her eyes fill with tears. She quickly closes them. "How long I have waited to hear that�how much I would have GIVEN to have heard those words�" she whispers. Finally she opens her eyes-- which are a bright turquoise blue that seems to glow from a source within�so breathtaking that it startles Loviander, but warms and encourages him, as well.
"I will have you as my husband, Loviander. I love you, too!" she barely manages to say without her voice breaking, and then Loviander takes her chin in his hand, and brings his lips down to hers.
Meanwhile�
A group of Fae stand off by themselves, watching the Count and Countess dancing together.
"Look how happy they are, those two! So many people from their cantrev dead-- by HIS orders-- and he DARES to throw his own happiness in our faces! So what if his daughter is trapped on the other side? She went by her own stupid choice! HA! How like those arrogant Sidhe to think that they could be powerful enough to make an amulet that would bring them back! When she doesn't come back, oh how he'll suffer!" a Nocker mutters.
"Having him alive only prolongs my suffering�we did away with the one who ordered the gates destroyed, now it's only fitting we finish the task by doing away with the one who ordered our people killed as they struggled to make it back into Arcadia!" a shadowy Sluagh hisses.
"I believe we are all in agreement about that, Moriddig." a Troll rumbles. "Ninian, here, may want to see him suffer before executing him, but I wish to see justice done. The Count must answer for his crimes so the Sidhe do not think they are so powerful that their every whim will go unchecked."
A Boggan nods. "Much as it pains me, Pyr is right. We allow the Sidhe to rule because that is what they do best. But when one orders something as horrific as the slaying of his own people�"
The crowd murmurs and nods.
"When then?" Ninian the Nocker asks.
"Soon�before his people, that they may truly find peace, and before his wife and son, that they might know we ALLOW them to continue ruling because we judge them innocent of the crime." Pyr the Troll answers. "We have only to wait for Corrander to return. He may not understand-- he may hate us for it-- but then he was always overheard to say how he was plotting his father's murder, anyhow."
The crowd murmurs again in agreement and nods, all eyes turning to the door that Corrander exited through some time ago.
A few minutes later�
Corrander enters the great hall, takes a deep breath, and looks around for his parents. His eyes fall on them just as his father takes his mother by the chin and kisses her lips, and he stops walking, stunned.
"Thank the gods�" he whispers, and then all hell breaks loose.
Ellowyndriel kisses her husband-- years of yearning and frustration and pain finally starting to melt away. She moves her arms around him to hold him to her, and suddenly feels a strong but small impact against her wrist. Her eyebrows lower, and then she feels something impact just below.
Loviander's eyes widen in pain and lock onto her, their lips still pressed together, and then Ellowyndriel hears her son's voice shriek in anger, and time slows.
She pulls back from Loviander, but he leans heavily in her arms, and she realizes he's having trouble standing. In a daze, she helps lower him to the ground-- her hand fumbling across his back-- and then when her fingers rest on the hilt of a protruding dagger, she lets out a scream that rockets through the room, stopping the band in mid-song.
Dancing Fae turn quickly, and lesser screams erupt as Fae panic and scatter to the edges of the great hall, leaving Ellowyndriel and Loviander in its center.
Ellowyndriel lays Loviander down gently on his side, desperately blinking tears out of her eyes so they don't obstruct her vision.
"Oh gods�what has happened�just hold on, my love�it's a dagger�I will remove it and heal you�do not worry, my Loviander�" she murmurs, trying to find that calm amidst the storm that her husband so easily masters.
She continues murmuring as her hand tightens around the hilt of the dagger, and-- tuning out all the screaming, shouting, and commotion going on around her-- closes her eyes and hums a low note that gets louder and louder until she finally pulls the dagger from Loviander's back. Loviander gives a groan, but doesn't move. She inspects the dagger for only a moment, and her blood freezes. The dagger clatters to the hard floor beside her and she presses her hands to the wound-- his blood staining her fingers.
Her eyes turn a brilliant green, and she starts her humming again. Warmth and health flows through the wound and the bleeding stops�then the wound closes. She watches breathlessly�and then the wound re-opens and blackens slightly, but no blood comes out.
She feels herself about to faint. Poison. She cannot cure this death-poison-- whatever its manner of making. And there beside the bloody dagger lies an identical one�the one that struck her wrist without piercing it. Who did this?? WHO???
Her head lowers-- loose hair falling into her face-- and as rage fills her body, she doesn't even notice her son fall down beside her husband, crying, and murmuring to him about how sorry he is�how he didn't know this would happen�Ellowyndriel hears none of it. She stands slowly and turns-- eyes black as pitch-- and as she does, she grabs the front of her gown and yanks and the entire garment dissipates into mist and there she stands in her full Faery armor.
Her eyes scan the crowd until they fall on the mob of Fae-- that same mob who, unbeknownst to her, helped her son kill Sir Iolyn-- and then she sees the Sluagh Moriddig with a dagger in his hand identical to the one she pulled from her husband's back, and her head lowers as she strides towards him-- steady at first, and then faster and faster.
Moriddig's face blanches, and his fingers turn nerveless. He drops his dagger and stumbled back a few steps.
Ellowyndriel reaches over her shoulder and grasps the hilt of her sword Petrus' Fist and pulls it from its scabbard with her teeth gritted, and then with a mighty shriek she swings it and brings it down at an angle between the Changeling's neck and shoulder, cleaving his body in half in a diagonal cut. The two halves of the body turn to stone, and fall in a crash to the floor-- pieces chipping off-- the face frozen forever in a scream.
Ellowyndriel-- blood flowing with the heat of anger and battle-- turns to the next person, brings her left hand in front of him palm up, and he suddenly seizes in panic as he feels his Countess search his mind for his guilt. When she finds it, her eyes narrow and she lifts her sword, swinging it so that it perfectly severs his head. The body stays standing, but the head falls to land at its feet and rests on its side.
And so Ellowyndriel mows through the traitors one by one without stopping to ask questions-- all those who came here with the purpose to do murder to her husband-- until finally she stops before the Troll Pyr. Then at last does her face break into sorrow when she lifts her hand and discovers that he, too, was in on this. Suddenly her sword feels heavy, and she brings it down to rest on its point-- her eyes lightening slightly to a navy blue.
"Why�why�?" she asks in a strained voice.
Pyr stands straight and tall, unafraid to meet his end, and unwilling to lift a hand against his countess, who he judged to be innocent. He watches as Corrander-- cheeks wet with tears-- advances to stand beside his mother.
"All of you�" Corrander chokes, shaking his head. "�you betrayed me!"
Pyr lifts his chin. "We did not. We used you for our purposes-- knowing you wanted the Nocker's death-- but we were not finished." Pyr turns back to Ellowyndriel, knowing his fate.
"You did not see�were not there�and for that we held nothing against you. We knew you fought for us, my lady. Fought to have the two days extended and to bring our kind home. We know of the amulet, but-- while it was a noble gesture, it appears not to have worked."
Ellowyndriel swallows and tightens her hands on the hilt of her sword. "Oh it will work�my daughter will return and lead the Fae of our cantrev back through the broken gates. I only regret that you will not live to see that day, SIR Pyr." She says his title with sarcasm.
Corrander moves to stand behind Pyr and folds his arms. The rest of the Fae are silent as the grave as they watch this exchange.
"Why did you-- ALL of you--" she motions to the dead, petrified bodies laying cluttered around them, "--do this?!? This was�IS your LORD!" Ellowyndriel's voice echoes harshly through he great hall, motioning behind her towards Loviander who barely clings to life.
Pyr regards Loviander emotionlessly and then looks back at Ellowyndriel. "While you prepared to journey into the Dreaming to rescue our people, your husband stood by those who were conjuring to shatter the gates. He gave the order to the guards to kill any who tried to push past them into Arcadia." The Troll announces.
Silence fills the hall, and then a guard steps forward.
"He did not, Sir Pyr. Were you close enough to hear, you would have heard him tell us to hold them back by means of Glamour, lest they be destroyed by the closing gates. Then our lord left to find Lady Ellowyndriel. We guards�we�" he glances shamefully around the room, and then at Ellowyndriel. "We felt overwhelmed. Count Loviander is powerful in the ways of cantrips, but we�we could not concentrate enough to take hold of the Glamour. We�we panicked�and drew our swords."
The guard gets on his knees in front of Ellowyndriel and offers her his sword, hilt first.
"If any is to die, let it be me."
Ellowyndriel stares from the Troll-- who looks badly shaken as if his universe had fallen on its side-- to the guard who waits for his death, to her son who stares at the Troll's back with eyes filled with rage, and then she hears a weak voice calling her name.
"Ellowyndriel�before I am gone�" She turns and sees Loviander stretching his hand towards her, and then runs back and falls down at his side, laying her sword down and wrapping her arms around him.
"Oh gods�GODS, don't go now Loviander!!! Please!! Just hold on a little longer!! Oh GODS!!" she sobs.
Fae begin to cry quietly around them-- the sound of mourning filling the great hall.
Loviander gives her a weak smile. "I tried to fight the poison, myself-- ingenious mixture, really. I am sorrowful that any such a mixture is needed in our lands when we should all know nothing but joy here." He reaches up a hand to touch her armor lightly. "You had on another of your chimerical gowns, my dear? You really should--" Loviander pauses a moment, eyes tightening in the effort to speak, "--try going�one day without the armor. It is�really unnecessary�my�wife�" His eyes close, and his breathing grows slower.
"I won't wear it anymore, just please don't go, Loviander!!" she begs, smoothing back the hair from his face desperately. "How did you know I wore it at all times?? Oh it doesn't matter-- don't exhaust yourself telling me! Just rest�rest and we'll find a cure!"
She turns her head. "DAMASCUS!!!" she screams, and the Satyr leaps across the ballroom to skid and stop at her side.
"My lady??" he asks, wiping tears from his eyes.
"We need a cure!!" she sobs, her eyes shifting from bright yellow to deep blue.
He shakes his head, more tears starting from his eyes. "There is no cure, my lady. I am sorry."
Loviander's hand tightens on Ellowyndriel's and she turns back to him.
"I watched you�using Glamour�" he whispers.
"What, my husband?? When??" Ellowyndriel sobs.
"Everyday�to make sure�you were well�saw the armor hidden�under your�gowns�" Loviander struggles from breath. "I will�find�" and then Count Loviander Moonstone ap Dougal, lord of Cantrev Snowdonia, dies in his wife's arms.
Ellowyndriel kneels there with her husband in her arms for a moment in stunned shock, and then when she finally realizes that he's gone, she raises her face to the ceiling-- where the stars have frozen in place and also weep-- and lets out a scream of rage and pain. Her eyes deep blue and streaked with black, one moment she's kneeling on the floor, and the next she's standing before the Troll Pyr with her sword in her hand.
That was the moment Corrander had been waiting for. With one hand he has woven an entrapment-cantrip, and with his other hand he reaches out towards the sword the guard still holds out to his lady to take. The sword flies from the guard's hand to land hilt-first in Corrander's, and then Corrander brings his other hand onto the hilt and enchants the sword.
Just as Ellowyndriel plunges her sword through Sir Pyr's heart, he jams the enchanted sword into the Troll's back, releases the cantrip, and then yanks it out. As Sir Pyr's skin turns to stone, his body inside stays alive by chimerical means, trapped by the prison of its own skin.
Ellowyndriel-- in her grief-- did not notice what her son did, nor realize the cantrip that had been released. She watches in satisfaction as the traitor petrifies, and then re-sheathes her sword.
Corrander steps around from behind the Troll to stand before his mother Ellowyndriel.
"Mother�" he says in a voice surprisingly steady. "�may I have one wish?"
Ellowyndriel turns shimmering blue eyes on her son. "Wh-what is it, dearest�dearest Corrander�" she stammers, emotions threatening to overwhelm her.
"Let this�Troll stand to the side of the drawbridge as a show of what happens to traitors to all who enter here. There he will stand in wind and rain�covered in the droppings of birds to endure the spitting and pelting of men and women as they pass�forever." Corrander's eyes stray to the eyes of the Troll, but as they are stone they can betray no emotion.
Ellowyndriel nods slowly. "The Troll is yours to do with as you please, my son. I do not care�" She turns slowly and walks in a daze back to her husband's body. "I do not care�" she repeats in a haunting voice.
The centuries pass on earth with no hope in sight for a world where the gates of Arcadia can, once again, open and call her children home. The Renaissance paved the way for the Age of Technology. Scientists explained away magick and wonder, and as pockets of glamour grew smaller and further between, those Changelings who inhabited the earth feared the coming of the Endless Winter.
And then the impossible happened. On July 21, 1969 man landed on the moon. The fascination and wonder that gripped people all over the world caused trapped glamour to suddenly burst forth in a great explosion. And this explosion temporarily blew open some of the shattered gates to Arcadia within the British Isles and especially the United States. Unfortunately, this new supply of glamour couldn't withstand the disbelief ingrained in mortals by the iron grip of technology and Christianity-- amongst other evils-- and the opened gates to Arcadia slammed shut once more�but not before large numbers of Sidhe were able to return to the world to claim their followers�
Since the day of her husband's death, Countess Ellowyndriel has never again donned her Faery armor, nor drawn her sword from its sheath. As the decades passed with no sign of her daughter, she grew more and more despondent. Her loving son-- trying to keep his mother from giving in to banality and fading from the world of the Fae-- has spent every day with her, making sure she rises in the morning, and trying exhaustingly to make her smile. But as more time passes, her spirit and will to live grow weaker and weaker.
Corrander took his father's place as Count Moonglow, but only to respect his mother's wishes. She felt no energy left to be an effective ruler and didn't want the cantrev to suffer for it.
Corrander-- being younger and more inclined to bouts of optimism-- never gave up hope that his sister might be alive and still on their collective quest. He had a tower built onto the palace-- one that raises higher than the castle walls with a window that faces the drawbridge-- and there he spends many nights after his mother has gone to sleep�staring intently at the place where the gates to the Dreaming once stood�sending out his thoughts and wishes to his sister that she might hear them�wherever she was.
And that's where he was when the gates suddenly blew open that day in July of 1969.
Corrander blinks quickly, jumps up, and runs to the window of the tower, clutching the sill.
"Gods�gods�come now, Gwendolyn!! If the amulet didn't work, come now!!" he murmurs to himself.
All the Fae-world had felt that something was going to happen. A great number of Sidhe were preparing to leave in the case that gateways WERE re-opened. Many were curious to see the mortal realm again, but more than anything else, they felt bad for the trapped Fae who had been leaderless for so many centuries. They were ready to take their rightful places as the nobility the commoners had for so long been denied.
Corrander stands there a moment, and then rushes from the tower down to his mother's chambers. He bursts through her doors to find her maids quickly helping her on with her gown.
"Did you hear it, Mother?? The gates have opened of their own accord! Glamour must be suddenly flowing abundantly in the world of the mortals! She'll be able to return now! Don't you see? We must have botched the amulet! That's all! She wasn't able to return because the amulet was faulty! Come, Mother, come! Let us go out and wait for her!" he cries jubilantly, doing a little jig.
Ellowyndriel watches her son with a tired smile. She knows the amulet wasn't faulty. It IS possible her daughter is still alive, but she has no more strength to raise in hopes of it.
When he maids finish, she turns and takes Corrander's arm. "Yes, dear heart�let us go out and wait�we've already waited so long, haven't we�" she sighs, but Corrander ignores her gloomy tone.
The two walk outside and join the throngs of Fae who are standing expectantly around it. A celebratory mood is in the air, and musicians start up playing while people sing and cheer. A Boggan offers Ellowyndriel and Corrander sweet, cool drinks, and they accept them with bows of their heads.
Corrander sips his, but Ellowyndriel merely plays with her straw and stares up at the Cloud Elementals playing and forming smiley-faces in the sky. Her eyes fill with tears.
'Oh Loviander�where have you gone? I will join you in time, if I can�not a too distant time�I stay for our son�' she thinks, and then quickly offers a shaky smile to her son when he turns to her.
Corrander mistakes her teary eyes for tears of joy, and gives a laugh.
"Oh Mother, isn't it wonderful?? The gates will open all over the world, I am sure! Everything will be as it once was!"
The day grows on, and no Fae appear from the Dreaming. The people grow a little confused and worried, and soon those Sidhe who had been talking about leaving pack up their things and begin to file through the gates.
Corrander begins to pace. He calls to him the most powerful Glamour-weavers in the cantrev, and they begin inspecting the gateways. When night falls, they return to Corrander.
"Bad news, my lord. As day passed here, many months passed in the mortal realm, and again Glamour is growing weak there. Whatever happened to blow the gates open was temporary, and Banality is spreading itself over the lands. I'm afraid the gates will, once again, slam shut, and we have no way of knowing for how long. Perhaps Glamour is fighting to fill the world, but at this moment it is losing. What would you have us do, my lord?"
Corrander feels his heart freeze in his chest when he hears this news. So many centuries without Gwendolyn�he cannot stand by and watch his only chance of finding his sister again be cut off without doing anything!! He cannot!! His mother slowly fading�he knows that without the hope of finding his sister keeping him going, he, too, will begin to fade. He-- so like his mother-- cannot exist without those he loves. He lives ONLY for those he loves. Without them, what point is there to existence?? These people around him all have families�all so carefree and filled with joy! Only he and his mother suffer! Suffer while their people seem oblivious to it!
He turns back to the Glamour-masters. "Let the people hear this news. Tell them that if any wish to leave for the mortal realm, they do it quickly. I must speak with my mother."
The Glamour-masters bow and depart, and Corrander hurries back to Ellowyndriel and takes her arm.
"Come, Mother. To my chambers." He says with an eerie look in his eyes.
Ellowyndriel notes the change in his voice and demeanor and looks at him with alarm.
"What is it, Corrander? Tell me quickly."
As the two enter the palace and begin to ascend the stairs, Corrander relates to her the news the Glamour-masters gave him. He sees his mother's face turn ashen, and clenches his jaw.
They walk down the corridor in silence until they reach his chambers, and then enter. As Ellowyndriel sits on the edge of Corrander's bed, Corrander begins to grab items from his room and pack them into a bag.
Ellowyndriel watches him in a daze for a moment, and then finally clues in to what's going on.
"Corrander�for the love of the gods what do you think you are doing???" she cries, standing.
"Do not try to stop me, Mother. I am going through the gateway. You do not know this, but I enchanted the amulet so that any of your blood could see the fates of those who wore it before. I will find Gwendolyn, and if I do not, I will learn what became of her!"
Corrander picks up the bag and takes it around with him, throwing items into it.
Ellowyndriel-- eyes wild and swirling like a gray storm-- follows him around the room.
"My son-- no! Don't make the same mistake! You saw what happened! She did not return!! You are all I have left!! If you go, I will surely die!! I think I welcome death�" she closes her eyes and leans against the wall.
Corrander grabs his mother's upper arms and holds them tightly.
"*I* will die if I do not go!! I love her so much!! She is the only woman I have ever loved, aside from you, Mother!! I must find her!" he shouts, clenching his hands-- not meaning to hurt his mother. But she doesn't flinch, only watches him with her storm-cloud eyes.
He finally realizes what he's doing, and quickly releases her arms.
"Listen to me, my sweet Mother. If you believe in the power of the amulet, you will let me go. I will find it. And when I do, I will either find her, or find out what happened to her. Then I will come back-- with or without our people. Enough of this quest! What is important is that we have our family reunited!"
"And what of the other Fae who have been waiting for their families to return with her?" Ellowyndriel asks in a quiet voice.
Corrander looks at her with tight lips, and then turns back to his packing.
"I do not care anymore." He mutters.
Ellowyndriel finds a high-backed chair and falls into it, her eyes closed. Her son is right. Someone should find out what happened so everyone can have their resolution.
Suddenly her eyes quickly fly open.
"How will you find the amulet, Corrander?" she asks worriedly.
Corrander smirks and turns around. Opening the front of his tunic, he brings out a chain that has a piece of metal suspended in amber hanging from it.
"This is an extra piece of metal you had laying around after you'd finished crafting the amulet. I simply held it in my hand as we were enchanting the amulet-- in case I had to come after you, Mother. Seems my dear sister had the same idea. The metal has the power to locate the other metal it was cut from. I protected the metal by letting tree-sap harden around it, but it will work just fine-- I assure you."
Ellowyndriel feels panic rise up in her chest when she realizes her son is right, that she's going to have to let him go, and that he really does mean to go. She stands and helps him finish packing, and then wordlessly walks with him out of his chambers and down the corridors. She wracks her brain-- trying to think of any last item to give him-- but if he is to return soon there would be no reason for that, anyhow.
All too soon they are walking across the drawbridge towards the gateway. Commoners and nobles, alike, gasp and stand back. Their count?? Leaving??
Corrander turns and looks at each and every face.
"I am going into the mortal realm in search of our people and my sister. I will find out what has become of them, and then I will return-- accompanied or not. Support my mother�she suffers greatly." Corrander's voice chokes up at the end, and that is where his words to his people stop.
He turns to Ellowyndriel, and then reaches up and tucks a piece of stray hair behind her ear-- as was always his habit-- and gives her a crooked smile.
"Never a person I admired and respected more than you, Mother. I love you through the ends of all existence and beyond. Take care of yourself, but remember: I know your heart. I know the pain of living and breathing as do you. I, too, live for love, and would die for lack of it. If my quest fails, or I return empty-handed, we can fade together into that place where our kind goes, and perhaps there we will find Father and Gwendolyn if the gods are kind. The cycles our people go through when they die�perhaps they chose not to be reborn, but simply wait. What do you think, Mother? We have seen no sight of their rebirths. Yes�I am sure that is what they do."
Ellowyndriel nods her head tiredly and closes her eyes to hide her tears. "Perhaps..." she murmurs.
Corrander moves his hand to Ellowyndriel's cheek, and mother and son lean in for a parting kiss, embrace, and then Corrander steps back, slings his bag over his shoulder, walks backwards a few steps with his eyes on his mother's, and then turns and disappears into the rift.