Firiona Vie Everquest

A few days had passed since Stormfollower had brought Tajer to her, along with the news that her son was dead. It was a bittersweet day, for despite the bad news, Jetamio had a new daughter to show her husband.

Leaving the sleeping child in the care of Stormfollower's mother, Jetamio made the short trek up the hill to a small stone hut that she had declared out of bounds without her permission. She did not tell any of the villagers what was in there for they'd likely panic. She slipped in quietly, though it likely would not have mattered.

Tajer had not even stirred since being brought here, and finding her exactly as she'd left her, Jetamio knew that she still slept. If it were not for the fact that rigor mortis had not set in, most would believe Tajer was dead. But Jetamio knew better. And soon her husband would know too, but she wanted to wait until Tajer awoke. She wasn't sure how much Tajer remembered about their time in Infernal Dynasty together. It was usually a subject she avoided, and thankfully no-one had really asked her about her time there. It was there that she changed Tajer, and how she already knew the answer to the question he asked. Was she really the same Tajer of old, the original spirit?

Jetamio hoped she would wake soon so that the three of them could talk. For now though, she just stroked the fine silver hair of the prone Sanguine and wondered at the strange happenings inside her.

Everyday, and usually more often than once, Jetamio went to the stone hut to check on Tajer, each day hoping that she might be awake. When she had infused Remis with her magic, she had not forseen Tajer later drinking from him. Doing so had obviously affected the Sanguine and while she knew various remedies that could wake her up, she was hesitant to do so.

Today did bring a surprise as she slipped quietly in. Tajer was mumbling and thrashing in her sleep as though she had a fever. Jetamio touched her, and while she was not hot, her skin was noticebly warmer than usual for a vampire. After taking a single deep breath she settled again, her only movement being the flickering of her eyelids as she dreamed. Jetamio did not know of Tajer's usual inability to dream so did not find the fact unusual at first. She was however curious about what Tajer was dreaming about, and wondered if the Shaman would know.

Later that same day when Jetamio asked him about it he replied.

"I cannot say what that creature might be dreaming, we entered no covenant together that would allow me entrance to it`s dream-world and there is a great deal of preparation I would need to do before I could."

He looked with concern at his wife.

"Why do you not just remove the curse from her...I am sure you could convince her. Think you not of what torment it must be causing her soul?"

"Why should I go against her wishes? That would make me no better than the Sanguine who Turn people against their wishes. She has to want to be mortal. I already took a gamble with her soul years ago, I'm not chancing it again. I may not be so fortunate again."

She looked at him, pleading with her eyes for him to understand.

"She loves you, you know. She might not show it in the conventional ways, she does. She knew that if you...if you did the deed yourself," she tactfully avoided the mention of Remis' death, "that you would never forgive yourself. She saved you that burden because she loves you. She is Tajer.I know it."

She averted her eyes at the last moment, suddenly looking strangely guilty. Her eyes took a far off look as she remembered the past and she gave an involuntary shudder.

Stormfollower looked at her with deep understanding in his eyes for a moment she thought his right eye had become clear for an instant. He reached up and held her shoulders as she looked away. He brought them up and back into their normally resolute position.

"We must be strong, for her sake. You know the way to her soul and though it pains you to go down that path, you must. Seek her out so I may know the truth." He turned her chin towards him with a gentle touch of his fingertips so she was once more looking into his eyes. "Yours is the nexus of life and spirit. Without you there is no center. Go, through the past and unto the present. Reveal that which is Tajer." He hugged her tight then stepped away. "I go now to prepare the remains of our Remis. Be brave my love. Come to me when you are ready. I will be waiting, however long it takes."

"Wait!" she called after him, then ran up to him.

"Do you remember when we met? What house I belonged to, what I was? We met just before I had to leave... but do you remember?"

He turns slowly and looks her up and down. "Aye I remember when you came to us and from wence" His speech had returned to its archaic ways as it had been in the beginning of his great quest to free the lands of evil, unaffected by the mannerisms and tonal inflections he had since adopted in his stay in the south lands.

"Thow wert a drakkin folk then, a rogue too. And as gray as the void, treading the safe middle ground of ideology. I posed a question to my great friend Willowen of the nature of nature and why She did not rise up against the evils of Norrath... and you appeared to us to sum up Her intentions then and there." He chuckled softly and smiled. "You hurdled me headlong into a grayness I had never known before and in so doing opened mine spiriteye wide. I was as a bird on a broken branch before that day, afraid to sing for fear of breaking it. But is was She, the Lady of Grace who brought me back and showed me not to fear for I had wings. It was She who brought us together."

The corners of her mouth flicked up into a brief smile at his memories but faded again as she began.

"Storm, Tajer was killed long before she ever met Mogadeche, by a werewolf in the Undershore. I was accused of her murder and almost executed by Haavok. But she was all I had Storm, I did not have you, nor anyone else. It was she who took me to the Dynasty and I stayed because of her. I was lost without her back then. I had her cremated, for I knew no better."

Her expression turns troubled and guilty again.

"But after four months I could take it no more without her. I had spent time with the D'Orakaa's and learned a little about Necromancy. I knew then, that they could raise the dead. I spent days swimming around the ocean floor looking for a bone fragment, and then I allowed him to capture part of my essence in an emerald. He told me that she likely would not be the same because she had been dead so long, but he tried anyway. He used the bone to rebuild her body and my essence to bring her back. She had been wandering alone, not wanting to pass on for she was young yet. We didn't know at the time what I was, the power my blood held until much later. But her soul is bound to mine, so long as I am not destroyed, Tajer is herself."

She doesn't look entirely convinced that she has made herself clear, and simply waits for his reaction.

He looked at her with shock and amazement.

"You mean you made her thus?"

He looked away and then back at Jetamio twice, exasperated confusion flooding his normally calm expression.
"She is Tajer? Or she is what thow made to be Tajer?" He put his hands to his face and shook his head. "Such a piteous wretch and so full of the dark ones hate..and all this time it was you? You who came to us as the herald of Nature, transformed by the goddess herself to bring her will to us. This twice born child is of your lineage and you tell me she is unchanged by this transformation? That this thing that lies in yonder shelter is the young one you sought to bring back from wandering the shores of the ocean of the beyond? And now what? You will nurse her to health and set her free once more on the world, a parasite that feeds on the spirit of others? Or what? keep her locked away, barely conscious so she may stay to be your trophy of some long ago victory over bodily death and emotional upheaval? Look at what she is...she feeds on the life force of others, unable to generate her own, existing between feedings on a tether from you. What type of being does this?" He paced a few steps away, his distress and confusion building with every word.

"There are bad omens about."

She looks back at him, pained by his reaction.

"No, I did not make her Sanguine. Mogadeche did that. She is bound to my lifeforce, I gave her back life, but that does not mean I can control her. She was raised among the Tier'Dal, of course she is going to behave like them. I am part mortal too! I make mistakes, I have wants and desires too! Stop putting me on a pedestal and thinking I can do no wrong because I can make mistakes too!" She burst into tears and threw an arm in the direction of the hut. "Just go kill her, put everyone out of their misery. If I cure her she will hate us all forever and will likely be far more dangerous to us. So go kill her, go satisfy your agenda." With that she turned on a heel and ran towards the sea.

He let her go for he had no words for her. His heart broke to hear her mind. She had never before charged him with any ownership of misery but there it was...to her it was he who perpetuated the misery of these circumstances by his inability to accept them. He glanced up at the stone lodging Tajer was in and shook his head at its permanence on the otherwise harmonious landscape.

And so it was that Stormfollower called a great meeting to take part on the full moon the very next day. All the tribe swung into full preparation for there was much involved in a ceremony of such a emergent summons. Everything must be ready. Some beet bread into buns for the feast beforehand while others prepared the great fire pit. Corn was being husked and hunting parties were being brought back in. Everyone should be in attendance, at least his was Stormfollowers wish.

As the tribe all pitched in Stormfollower himself set about the cleansing of several colonies of honey bees. One queen had become too old and there was little to do but clean up the bodies there.The other 4 were infested with a small parasite. And though this parasite was tiny to him to each infected bee it was comparable to if a creature the size of his hand were feasting. They could not survive long without his help and the mites had spread in his absence. He had his work cut out for him and one by one he was painstakingly removing the infestation from the tribes source of honey. He maintained this isolation throughout the time leading up to the meeting and thought of nothing but Tajer and his wife.

Jetamio did not return to the village the rest of the day. She stayed on the beach out of the way, her head buried in her arms. She did not know about the meeting called, and even if she had, she would likely have stayed out of the way. She hated the gossip about her as it was.

Tajer bolted upright, her eyes wild. She had no idea where she was, and was a little disturbed to find herself laying on a low slab of rock in a tiny hut. She had been covered in furs, but still wore her bloodstained robe underneath. She calmed down a little after finding no-one else in there with her. The door was closed but unlocked, but this did not seem to make her feel any better. In fact her whole body seemed to be churning, and she even felt dizzy. A cold sweat overcame her and she looked around for some sort of container, just in time to catch her vomit.

She hung over the basket for what seemed a long time, inhaling deeply to try calm her quaking body. Inhaling...another oddity. Confused and even feeling a little afraid, she curled up under the furs and shivered, but did not fall asleep.