Hello, Everyone!
Last time, after Mary came back from being summoned to her Patron, our heroes went to Myth Adofhaer’s Archives. This time, they had some leads to their original case, as well as something really interesting – Mary’s birth heritage! It turned out that her father did, indeed, live in Myth Adofhaer. So did her mother, before the person responsible for all the kidnappings chose her as one of his first victims. Nobody knew what’d happened to her.
But maybe if Mary and her friends manage to finish their case, they’d finally get all the answers? Let’s read ahead and find out!
There were four files with the name ‘Olivia’. Mary and her friends read and discussed them one by one.
Olivia an Corten was the one they already knew about. Her file was classified since the moment she joined the Council of Hundred nearly 40 years ago, but before that she used to write works on various political topics. There was a list of her previous reincarnations. In one of them, in the year 750, she used to be part of the Imperial authority. That pro-imperial attitude obviously stuck with her between reincarnations.
The next Olivia, d'Algo, was only fifteen years old. Her father was Algo Ders, a famous elven painter, and her mother was a Hunter. This Olivia was a student, who, according to her file, was showing a promising intellect.
The third Olivia had died of old age in 1204. She was an exceptionally gifted merchant and diplomat. There were two young elves born very close to her passing who were currently discussed as her possible reincarnation.
The final Olivia, Olivia Enry, sparked Mary’s interest--for a few reasons. First, she died in 1199 – the year of the first abductions. Second, her adventuring party was on a mission beyond the Teeth and they were attacked by Undead. And the third, most interesting thing, was that there were no indications of her soul ever being reborn. Just like the ones of the kidnapped elven girls.
“This one,” Mary showed the others. “We need to learn more about her.”
It turned out that there was only one survivor of Olivia Enry’s adventuring party - her husband Correlon Entivio. He was still alive. After his wife’s passing he retired from adventuring and was spending his life in the city.
They decided to go see him in the morning.
They left the Archives late in the night. After the Olivia-s, Mary tried to learn more about her family but, except for her mother's--really short--file, she had no luck. Her grandparents' files were classified and obviously the only way they could get access to them was by asking Tiriel Elaire. And that sounded almost impossible.
Tesaya's friend locked up behind them and politely but firmly asked that they wouldn't do any more after-hours visits to his working place. When they left him behind, Mary caught up with Tesaya.
"Do you know anything about Falka and Terros?" she asked.
Their hostess took a long look at her and sighed.
"You must know," she said carefully, "that there are things I simply cannot tell you about. Everything I've given you so far can be justified as information needed to solve your case… but that…" She sighed again, "is something completely outside of that. If I am to share it with you, I'll be… reprimanded." She paused and gave her a small encouraging smile. "But I can assure you that your grandparents weren't bad people."
That was weird, Mary thought. Those were the same words she'd used with Gillean about her father. How did Tesaya know…
"You can get access to this information, if only you decided to reveal your heritage," Aurum chimed in flatly. "You have the right to know!"
"I don't agree," Bruno said. "Myth Adofhaer has the right to keep its secrets. The fact that Falka and Terros were your family doesn't change that."
"Regardless," Mary said. "I don't know if I should say anything. Halas was running from something--or someone--when he died. If whoever was chasing him had bad intentions, it might not be a good idea to… um, publicly announce that I'm his kin."
They reached Tesaya's house and, before entering, their hostess turned to the others, looking quite serious.
"Suffice to say," she said, "if you were to talk with anyone about what I've shared with you, I never mentioned Falka and Terros. Or, for that matter, you never said anything about sneaking into places. If I was to follow the rules, I would be in Balaine's office right now, informing him about Mary's true identity."
"But you're not," Mary said.
"I'm not."
It wasn't long before the four of them started preparing for bed. While they did, Mary gave Aurum several contemplative looks, unsure whether to actually speak to him. The silence between them weighed heavily on her heart. She wanted to apologize for running away from him, but she felt that her words would sound hollow. So, she just left it for a better time.
It had been a long day. Even though she'd napped in Gillean's orchard, she felt her arms and legs as heavy as lead, and her head was spinning from the exhaustion. She'd actually like it if she could sleep some more. Gillean had told her that it was OK.
She fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
She was in the bug-covered cavern. Her heart was racing, she was running, and the insects were crunching underneath her feet. Behind her, she could hear giant footsteps, the scraping of metal on stone, and Nurvureem’s promises of what she was going to do to her. Suddenly, the floor sloped down and she plunged into the darkness…
Then, there was the smell of oranges and the cave disappeared. She was sitting on a sandy beach with a book in hand, and a glass of a rainbow-colored drink on a small table next to her. The sea was washing up the shore, seagulls were calling out in the sky and everything was peaceful and calm.
She stayed in Gillean’s dream for a good while, and woke up with a smile.
Sooo? How do you like the story so far? Are you enjoying the mystery? I’m really curious about Mary’s grandparents, as well as the circumstances of her father’s death. It seems that this interests me a bit more than the overarching investigation, which is a shame because it’s really interesting, too!
Anyway. Right now, our heroes are kinda stuck, and they have to think about what they’re going to do next. So, in the next couple of episodes, we’ll have a bit of talking and shenanigans. It makes me really warm and fuzzy to think about them! <3
See you next time!
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide and the Glossary for the series. You're welcome!)
An important disclaimer: These are my notes from a D&D game turned into a narrative. All the worldbuilding and NPC encounters belong to our DM, and all the actions of the other main characters (Aurum and Bruno) belong to my co-players. My contribution to the story is only everything Mary-related (actions, reactions, inner thoughts), as well as the writing itself.