THE LIGHT THAT GUIDES US

***THE LIGHT THAT GUIDES US*** is the thirty first session of *Glimpses Into The Fade.*

## Musings

*A man torn apart*

*Body.*

*Soul.*

*Will.*

*He closes his eyes and sleeps, unmoving in the realm of dreams. Lost.*

*Will he open his eyes again? Will his friends find the light that guides them back to him?*

## **Synopsis**

Rewinding time, Vilya moves her hand away from Hira revealing a tiny antler covered in small etchings, a lucky charm, a keepsake so Mithal could find her. If Hira finds herself at death's door, it would allow for Mithal's Halla to find her, she is sure Mithal would greet her warmly. As Hira puts the antler in her pouch, she finds herself able to read the Sylvan carvings; *"In Mithal's embrace and so in Falo'din's fury."* Puzzled, she brings this up to Vilya, who hands her more scripts in Sylvan, which she can decipher as a recipe. Vilya brings out a leather bound journal, showing a page with old Elvish she had seen on ruins in the Fade. Hira hardly understands the sentence, but makes out the words *"ten"* and *"sky."* Jotting this down, Vilya begins going through notes to show Hira with her new found ability.

Meanwhile as the remaining Fireflies sleep, Anthir finds himself walking in a void. Hearing the rushing of water from a stream, Anthir finds himself walking along a river and comes across a familiar Halla he had sparked a deal with. They greet him, stating this path is his to walk, offering their services to him. Anthir asks of this place and the Halla bends down to purify the water with its horn, revealing a reflection of the blue skinned tiefling of Anthir's past, moving through a crowd of people. The Halla states this is him, there are many futures and paths to take. There is potential in them, they must simply walk. He might find a future for them, whether it is something he's going towards now the Halla isn't sure, but destiny and fate is strange. The Halla hopes he makes his choices correctly as he's in Mithal's embrace, they hope he leaves behind 'that dirt' on his hands. Anthir will try his best, beginning to walk the path closest to him.

He smells a soft ocean breeze as he finds himself at a split path: to the left the water runs lower and hot, to the right the river flows strongly with faint sounds of a city. Anthir moves to the right, as the path to the left closes with a puff of sand, it leaves behind a red scarf familiar to him, although far more worn out with splatters of blood on it. As the void turns to cobblestone streets, Anthir finds sun in his eyes as he awakens on a plush mattress. Laying beside him fast asleep is Mio, familiar plants and books on the shelves of his own home. He hears pots and pans clanging below, he moves towards a mirror glancing over himself seeing himself older, with longer hair and faint scars of battles. Looking at his hands, the darkened blue of his hands moves up his arm, along with a golden band on his finger.

Making his way downstairs, Anthir encounters Resan, his now father in law, moving out of the kitchen with a large pot in hand. The two greet one another, asking Anthir to bring a meal to another table. The morning rush dies down, allowing the two to begin having breakfast. Resan grumbles about his son still being in bed, complementing Anthir for being a hard worker. Anthir rebukes saying Mio is a hardworker, to which Resan calls him a softie for his son. Soon Mio joins them at the table, kissing him on the cheek as a greeting. Grabbing the newspaper, he asks Anthir if he's heard from his friends at all. Anthir has seen Riya, but not anyone else. Mio doesn't mind him going out, stating he's capable, but urges him to be careful. As Resan excuses himself, Mio asks where Anthir had gone last night, asking if hes having trouble sleeping again.

Anthir can't recall going out, he felt hungry so perhaps went down to eat. Mio accepts that answer, continuing to eat his breakfast. Mio speaks about leaving Moonvale due to all the danger occurring, stating Elderfield is safer. It's at this point Anthir realizes the Blight is ravaging the world, cruelly so the people continue living despite the Archdemon ruling over the world. He can recall a fight at the Blighted Notch, the fall of Pride upon the world. But as the Time Knight said, the Fireflies grew apart, Anthir found himself in love, healing and cooking. Anthir fears not finding work elsewhere, but Mio reassures him he has plenty saved up, instead focusing on a serial killer on the loose around Moonvale. The paper refers to them as *The Gutwrencher,* every victim has no guts, splayed open. Anthir urges them to move then, to which Mio holds his hand stating he'd rather risk hardship then risk losing his husband.

As Mio goes to kiss him, a pang hits Anthir's stomach, a lurch of hunger within. A loud cheer is heard on the streets, stating the Order had killed Wrath. Despite the cheers of happiness, the hunger in his stomach strengthens as the voice of his distant father echoes in his head:

```
*"It is your turn now........slay him...in my name..."*

```

Anthir attempts to ignore the voice, but is compelled to follow through. He goes to wrap his arms around his waist, but digs his hand into Mio's flesh. Anthir blacks out, finding his husband dead on the floor, looking across the room, Resan's body lays limp as well. This is one of many paths that he may walk. Hel will find him, it is only a matter of how prepared he is in the future.

Focus shifts to Riya, unlike her usual dreams wandering through forests, she finds herself as a cloaked figure walking through a cityscape, filled with white stone buildings flecked with gold accents. Moving through the streets, seeing dozens of purple skinned elves adorned with white ink like herself. The Golden Citadel is hundreds of feet up in the sky, home to many scribes like herself. Today she makes her way to the Heart of the Citadel, as she is the scribe of the Ten Gods, and they require her presence.

Making her way, Riya attempts to dig into her memories. She attempts to recall why there's only ten Gods, but a intense pain enters her head. She doesn't remember having a name, nor how she got the position, it's perhaps what she was made for. She approaches a huge arching tree, a large circular table along with ten chairs sits beneath it. A young Drow man sits, neck adorned with furs. Behind him is a knight standing behind him in obsidian armour, an axe on his back. She recognizes him as Fen'harel, the God of Magic.

An intimidating pair enter the room, a woman with a deer skull mask, antlers branching out like a massive crown. Mithal is accompanied by her husband, Falo'din - cloaked, the antlers in head thunder around behind him, black and pointed. As the representation of the Hearth and Death, they seat themselves in the middle, representing balance. As the two enter, the scribe notices Fen'harel leans away from them, as his knight puts a comforting hand on his shoulder to calm him. Soon more Gods enter, but only these three are in spotlight.

The ground reverberates as a man stands up, with long firey hair and sunkissed skin signals the start of the meeting. A garbled voice speaks, causing Fen'harel to stand up in anger. With her roll the scribe picks up pieces of conversation:

```
*"You....her behind! ...Monsters....erase....I will not stand for this."*

```

The room grows intense, the scribe tries to gauge body language of the Gods. Mithal and Falo'din don't move a muscle, instead the other Gods and Goddesses have lept from their seats to point at Fen'harel in argument. Beside Fen'harel's seat is an indentation in the grass, there used to be a seat there, but not anymore. They dig deeper into their memories, drowning out the arguing as she remembers the seat, an embroidery of a mountainside etched into the pillow. She remembers a gorgeous woman, brown hair held up in a high ponytail with multiple braids adorned with golden ornaments.

```
*"She is the most beautiful woman you've ever seen..and she is part of your heart..and she is missing now.*"

```

Her eyes gaze over to the remaining ten of the circle, someone had wanted her gone, but can't remember who. Not for a lack of a memory, but they do not let them remember. The scribe looks down at the reflective table - they are Drow, with off white hair and blue eyes. On their skin there are tattoos, they don't represent the crashing seas, or towering mountains, or billowing forest -- someone changed it, as they are still fresh to the touch. Tuning back into the conversation.

> "*She was the best of us and you all left her."*
>
>

```
"We did what we had to do, we cannot let her tarnish our image, Fen'harel."

```

> *"What kind of image are we trying to show to our people if we are corrupt to our core?"*
>
>

```
"You speak of human emotion, of mortal emotion. We are Gods, we are above this. We must make the necessary, the needed sacrifice for our people."

```

> *"She held us together, and you treat her like this? I will not stand for this, I will not provide my service any longer to this, this fool of a court we have."*
>
>

```
"You are foolish to try to defy us, *wolf*. We will bring you down if you do not *sit*."

```

As they say this, Fen'harel begins to step backwards as the seven of the Evanuris begin to enclose on him. They state they must did what they needed to do, beginning to speak in unison.

As they say this, Fen'harel begins to step backwards as the seven of the Evanuris begin to enclose on him. They state they must did what they needed to do, beginning to speak in unison.

```
 "She will serve a better purpose for those human lot below us. She is beneath us now and you will sit down and understand this, less we take away your status."

```

Very subtly the knight behind Fen'harel moves his hands behind of his waist, preventing him from biting. He holds back, settling back down in his seat as he glances towards another elf with dark scales adorn her neck, the two sharing a quick glance. They continue their discussions, giving no mind to the scribe. They left June down with the humans, there she will rest asleep, and there she will stay, beneath the Golden Citadel that soars up high in the sky. She sleeps in a lush forest, where even in winter is filled with greenery, in the cold North. As the scribe wishes to fight back, wishing to remember what had occurred the one thing sticks in both Riya and the scribes mind: Fen'harel could help her.

Soon the four sleeping Fireflies begin to awake, finding Vilya and Hira surrounded by paper in midst of their research greeting them. Bran sits up to tend to Monsoon wordlessly, whilst Anthir sits up and frantically checks the spread of blue on his hands, which looks to be the same. Riya wakes up crying, to which Hira asks what's the matter, but Riya insists its a dream. Through interactions Hira begins to piece together everyone had some sort of dream, she asks if anyone wants to talk about it. Vilya states if it's going to impede the mission they might as well talk about it, maybe their dreams will help them.

Bran attempts to remember the rune his mother had drawn on his palm previously, remembering it to be a binding spell, but only remembering the beginning of the movement. He moves to Riya and Vilya, asking for a sheet of paper to draw it out. As he writes, he tells Hira he had a dream of his past, he reassures he'll tell her one day but not now. He shows the paper to Vilya, who states its familiar to her, something she's seen before in Rune.

Vilya asks if the group really doesn't want to talk. Riya unconsciously puts a hand over her ring, stating she dreamt of another life of hers, stating she'd need time to process it. Hira asks if it has something about June, who confirms is related to her. She brings out a journal to begin jotting down the details of her dream. Anthir describes his dream -- how he saw a Halla by a split off stream, he followed a path which lead to Mio. He was there with him, stating he overheard Wrath being slain. He reminds the group of Hel, which confuses Vilya, but informs her that his ancestors were under Hel's charge, and he's seemingly next to follow their murderous footsteps. Anthir explains after Wrath's death he felt that hunger, leading to him killing Mio and Resan.

Bran asks who stopped Wrath, Anthir mentions the Order had. Vilya reiterates Arel is attempting to bring back Pride, which puts their act on spotlight for the entire world to see. Hira reminds them that if Pride reenters Orion, it will only inspire others, seeing it as possible. Vilya wishes she could say she has hope in them, but they did just get bodied by a copy of her brother, a giant lizard and some skeletons - saying they'll definitely need help to take a dragon down. Oriza wonders of Wendy, Arel might not have interest in her and is still wandering. Vilya states Arel has interest in white-haired folks.

Vilya knows they took something of her, her magic. It's like Arel is trying to grab bits and pieces of folk who have passed. Vilya imagines if Arel has two things out of three, assuming the third thing is Bran, she suggests trying to get back Monsoon, to keep the two of them safe if possible. Hira feels as if there are two Arels, as one previously yelled at them to run away, she suggests looking into their journal. The party converses on where to go next, suggesting they just begin to move forward. With help, the Fireflies makes a makeshift gurney attached to Spectre to carry Monsoon.

## Featured Characters

#### The Fireflies

* Anthir
* Bran
* Hiraeth
* Oriza
* Riya

#### Returning

* Monsoon
* Vilya
* Mio Griwald
* Resan Griwald

#### Mentioned

* Arel

#### New

* Mithal
* Falo'din
* Fen'harel