Hello, Everyone!
Last time, Mary asked Bruno to talk to her father’s remains in Falka’s mausoleum, in order to learn more about his passing. She feared that there might have been some grand evil plot to assassinate Falka’s kin, but it turned out that it was just an accident. She was quite disappointed.
In this chapter, we’ll try to look up some information on all the loose threads we can think of.
As much as Mary hated it in Myth Adofhaer, she begrudgingly admitted that she wanted to stay for a few more days, just to find out the answers to some of her other questions. Using her status as an Agent of Pamagos, she managed to get access to Myth Adofhaer’s library and, mostly out of courtesy, invited her friends to join her. Bruno shook his head and Aurum straight out laughed at her face.
“If we visit any archives or libraries ever again, I’m gonna use Mosrael on myself until I pass out,” he said.
So, Mary was left to do her research alone. Not that she minded. There were some things she didn’t want her friends to know she was looking for.
First off, she tried to get her hands on the books from Entivio’s laboratory. She was constantly thinking about the promise he’d given her – to resurrect her parents if they'd just let him go. With his death, of course, that offer was off the table, but there might have been some answers in his notes.
Unfortunately, they were currently in Tiriel School of Magic and Mary couldn’t get access to any of them. Tiriel Elaire was keeping a tight grip on her secrets.
That didn’t discourage Mary. She asked around for any means of bringing people back and found out two things. First, there was a way to resurrect someone who’d been dead for less than a century--which her parents were, yay!--but second, there was no known way to do that to someone who’d been turned undead--which, unfortunately, her mother was. So, even if Mary found a powerful enough caster to help her, she’d only be able to get her father back. And if Dalia had been his only companion, would he even want to be alive without her?
Mary wished there was a way to speak to him – really him, not just an imprint.
She abandoned this part of her research--for now, at least--and concentrated on all the other things she wanted to find out. She had a long list of questions that needed answering.
Like, for example, where did the name ‘Kloth’ come from? She knew she’d read it somewhere before. She didn’t know if it was important--after all, Entivio was dead--but she couldn’t get rid of the feeling that Olivia Enry’s words--’he’s eternal’, ‘he’ll be back’--meant more than just blind faith in her husband.
Kloth, as far as she could learn, was the name of an ancient red dragon that had lived in the southern part of The Teeth. The last available information about him was from a few centuries ago. Was it a coincidence that Entivio’s staff was also made out of a dragon’s remains?
While she was reading about names, she came across a small poem that sparked her interest. It was about the high deity of the elves, Corellon ‘The Arch Heart’ Larethian. She started reading it because of him being Entivio’s namesake. But she found something else. In two verses of the poem, a mysterious figure was mentioned – Corellon’s ‘unruly Son’ who had something to do with oranges and was 'always causing trouble for his Father’. 'Oranges' made her think of Gillean, but as much as she searched, she couldn't find any more information about him.
The next thing on her list was the mystery of the sapphire and the dark-cloaked elves. Nobody wanted to talk about them – not Balaine Endoras, nor the Archivists, not even Tesaya. That odd group of elves was decidedly different from the others of their kind, not just in the way they dressed but also in their mannerism. During the fight with Kloth, they'd been like some elven 'special forces' – they'd appeared, fought the Undead and disappeared when the task was done.
Mary spent a lot of time flipping through various books in search of a mention, or at least a picture of the symbol engraved inside her sapphire--the letter 'F', formed like a dragon--but there was nothing. It was as if they didn't even exist!
Disappointed, she tried something else. Back in Frinkeltong, when the librarian Mr. Pruste didn't want to give her a book because it was 'too complicated' or 'not for children', she would spend days buttering him up with home-made cookies and being-extra-helpful-and-polite, until he would give up and she'd get what she wanted. It had worked every time.
So, she tried it on Tesaya.
Now, Lilly Windfiddle wasn't here to make the cookies as she’d done previously, so Mary decided to go with coffee. Each morning, she'd wake up before their hostess, serve her breakfast in bed and spend a considerable amount of time helping out with chores and being just the sweetest.
Finally, one day Tesaya cracked.
"What is it, Mary?" she said. "I have a feeling you need something."
Mary asked about the sapphire and the dark-cloaked elves and Tesaya sighed.
"All right," she said. "I'm going to give you one thing. Only one. But you must agree that you won't ask any more questions after that."
"Yes, of course!" Mary said with the full knowledge that she was going to ask as many follow-up questions as she could.
"No, you must promise," Tesaya said. "I'm serious."
Mary frowned. Her curiosity clashed with the desire to be liked by Tesaya. Finally, after a few seconds of really thinking about it, she nodded.
"I promise."
"The division of the dark-cloaked elves is called 'The Order of Falka'. The sapphire is their badge. "
Mary's eyes widened. A million questions flooded her mind. Why did she have to promise not to ask them?! She pressed her lips and looked at Tesаya pleadingly.
"Falka was my grandmother!" was the only thing she said.
"And I am forbidden to speak of her," Tesaya said.
And they left it at that.
Oh, noooo! I’m so curious now! How could this happen? Such juicy information, and not a single way to find out more!
I’m disappointed in you, Mary! You should be careful what you promise!
Sigh! Anyway. We’ll have to continue these ‘Last Days’ anyway we can. See you next time, when we’re about to start preparing for the next leg of our journey. I can’t wait!
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.