Interested, and perhaps yearning to be in the company of the living again, I introduced myself to this Zephyr Loregiver, and accompanied him to his lands of Stonegate.
He was a magnetic man, so full of vitality and charisma, so very eager to build his nation and expand himself. It was so very, very easy to serve him with happiness in my heart. Perhaps on some level I even loved him, though not in the usual way that a woman loves a man.
I took up a position in Stonegate with a zeal that I do not remember having about much else. I believe that I had been infected, not unwillingly, with Lord Zephyr's passion for his lands. I did whatever I could to ease his burdens, even if it was only to serve him tea while he spoke to an important guest.
With his blessing, I began the task of putting together a council that would advise my Lord, and handle the more day to day aspects of the governance of
such a large realm, and called it the Circle of Oracles. I myself took a position as the Oracle of Water, and added these duties to both other sets with a joyous heart.
I was as overjoyed as he to see the halls of Stonegate filled, to see visitors, guests and friends walking, talking, and yes, even fighting in the lands of Stonegate.
There eventually came a time when Zephyr succeeded in expunging from himself all that was good. After a series of events that I do not honestly have a clear recall of, I left Stonegate.
One cannot truly remove such a thing as goodness from the world, however, so I took as my new task the care and instruction of the being that Zephyr had created from himself.
This being took the form of a girl, pale and beautiful, with a purity that I have not seen anywhere else in this life. I named her Aleta Kayurai Loregiver, after a friend I dimly recall having in the realm.
And that is where I stand now, as the surrogate mother of this pale and beautiful child, and as the Priestess of Sorrows. And some part of me waits yet, for Zephyr to come back through that door and call me home to Stonegate again.... |
