The History of Alliliel
Part VIII
Master Yeolarn-
So ends another year in Freeport. I have continued my service this year as a lecturer and governess in the Paladin Academy in the Temple of Marr. It a rather different program than what we use to school our young Paladins, but I have many recommendations and suggestions for our program, based upon what I have seen and learned here. I look forward to sharing them with Tynkale and Jyleel when I return to Felwithe in the summer for Tunare’s Festival.
These young squires have boundless energy and enthusiasm, and they are fierce, eager and young. The seneschals have some trouble keeping them in line! However, for the most part, they treat me with respect and kindness. My concerns over taking the training position have been proved unfounded, and it is a relief. I did not know if the students would be kind to an elf, after some of the behaviors I have seen amongst the townspeople.
I also have to report to you the case of our charge, Wildimir. He has grown strong and tall this past year, and excels at his studies. The seneschals selected him as Squire Captain and command seems to sit lightly on him. The others follow him without question. I am pleased with his official progress.
Yet there is restlessness in him, it sits just below the surface, where only those who have known him long can see it. Sometimes, I do not know if it was wise to hide his history from him. I worry about if he should he find out about his parents, and what he might foolishly try to do. Perhaps, after all this time, we might try to get him sent to Felwithe, as the slayers of his family are no doubt long gone. The gentle breezes of the Faydark are a salve to such a nervous soul. I will consider this idea and send a recommendation shortly.
On another matter, Master, this has been my tenth year of service to the Clerics of Tunare. It has also been my tenth year away from home. The Clerics of Marr have made me at home here in Freeport, and they have done so much for me, first as a student of theirs, and now as a teacher of their students. But my soul aches for home, Master. The spring will be upon us soon, and I yearn to see the flowers blooming in the gardens of Felwithe and to share it with my own people. I am looking forward to returning home for Tunare’s Festival and I shall at that time make an official request for reassignment. I hope you will look upon it with favor.
Your Most Humble Servant,
Alliliel
Cleric of Tunare
---
Squire Captain Wildimir scrubbed the metal pips with the polish. The other squires worked on their evening chores in the barracks, cleaning and straightening for tomorrow’s inspections. While many of the boys joked and carried on, Wildimir sat alone.
He did not mind being Squire Captain, but the loneliness was sometimes hard on him.
"Let them ignore me," he thought. He did not need companionship from them, later he would sneak out and be back in Vyssa’s arms; that was all the companionship he needed.
Putting the newly shined pips on the collar of his cloak, he stood and walked down the barracks rows.
"Squire Vilneaus!"
Rising, the much younger boy stood at attention for the Squire Captain.
"Sir!"
"The shine on your training sword is unsatisfactory. I expect it presentable before retirement this evening."
"Yes sir!"
Continuing down the line, Wildimir surveyed the working cadets and smiled to himself. Soon, they would be the best regiment in the school, if they kept up the hard work.
---
The moonlight danced across the dark streets, wet with recent rain. Mostly deserted now but for an occasional patrolling guard, it was silent. The fog settled around North Freeport, cool and damp in the midnight silence.
Footfalls sounded quietly from the alleys. Wildimir knew that if the city guard patrols caught him, the seneschals in the Temple would punish him severely for breaking curfew.
Slipping around a corner, he headed up to a blue wooden door and opened it slowly, careful not to let it creak. He listened for a moment, to see if he had been noticed. Satisfied, he entered and closed the door and headed up the stairs to the bedroom door above.
He took his fingernail and quietly scratched door twice. It only took a minute and the door opened and he slipped inside to his rendezvous.
---
They lie in bed, Wildimir cradling Vyssa, tracing her ears gently with his hand. He stared up at the wooden ceiling, lost in thoughts of romance, while she contentedly hummed a lullaby.
"I cannot sleep, love. I must return to the barracks, or I shall be missed."
"Will you have leave tonight? I have friends I so want you to meet!"
"After dinner I’m on my own till late. I’ll come see you, as long as I can avoid your father. If he knows we are together, he’ll attempt to kill me, I suspect."
"I so wish you both would be friendly," she said, looking down.
"What will be, will be. All that matters is that we are together here, even if only for a little while." He paused a moment. "When I lay in my bed, I shall dream of thee, Vyssa."
He kissed her once upon the cheek before rising, collecting his things and spiriting away before dawn.
---
Alliliel rose early, as was her custom. The elf dressed quickly and left her room. Up the stairs to the tower she went, hurrying while it was still dark. Alliliel so loved the dawn, and rarely missed it. Climbing to the pinnacle of the tower, she sat and waited for the break of a new day.
It was cool and a little damp from the rains the night before, but the air was clean and fresh. Only the sounds from a few patrolling guards and the night watch at the Temple gate below disturbed her peaceful wait.
Closing her eyes, she meditated in the fading darkness.
Irregular footsteps below broke her concentration. The guards at the Temple marched in regular patterns. Someone was moving below on the courtyard, and reveille for the squires didn’t sound for another hour. She could barely hear it, and if she were a human she would not have heard it at all. Peering down, she spied none other than Wildimir stealthily climbing through an open window into the barracks.
The cleric leaned back, sat down and considered what to do.
---
Alliliel taught classes on Combat Healing and Alteration Theory in the morning to the cleric acolytes and in the afternoon she had the young squires for Blunt Weapons training. The squires seemed to enjoy her classes and found a non-human teacher somewhat of a novelty; even if she was demanding and distant.
In the midday sun thirty squires stood abreast, practicing with training flails against wooden practice dummies. As they continued their drills, Alliliel walked behind them, watching their form and correcting them gently. The flail was not forgiving of mistakes, and a moment’s lost concentration meant hitting yourself instead of the dummy.
"Squire Wildimir!"
"Yes Ma’am!" said the young man as he put the flail to his side and stood at attention.
"Are you afraid of hurting the dummy’s feelings?"
"Ma’am?"
"I said, are you afraid of hurting its feelings?"
"No ma’am!"
"Then hit it like you mean it! Put some effort into it! Your enemies will expect more from you. Do you understand me?"
"Yes ma’am!"
"Perhaps you are tired and that has made you weak. Are you well rested?"
"Yes ma’am!"
"I see. Carry on then, and practice well, or not at all."
"Yes ma’am!" said the squire as he returned to the drill.
Alliliel wondered if she should say more for a moment, then she turned and continued down the line of squires.
---
Wildimir and Vyssa walked down the bazaar outside the bank.
"Umm, spicy cakes! I love these." She said as she took a dainty bite.
Wildimir smiled. "I love them too, but not as much as I love you."
"Shhh! Someone may hear! I don’t want you to get into any trouble. They might cut off your weekend leaves, and then where would we be?"
"Ah, ‘tis a hard thing to be so in love and not able to share it with the world."
"Oh my, look at the time, we have to get to East Freeport and meet Villiam and Berina!"
Wildimir stopped and faced Vyssa. Taking her hands in his, he looked in her eyes.
"My love, I know you love your friends, but I have such little time away from the Temple. Must we spend it with others? I only want you."
"Oh but Wil, I’ve told them so much about you and they want to meet you! Please?" She looked in his eyes and pouted, as only a sixteen-year-old can.
"If it is thy wish, it is my wish, Vyssa. But I must be back to the barracks by nightfall. I think they suspect I’ve been sneaking out at night and I must be on my best behavior. Governess Alliliel is going to be watching me, I think."
"Oh that old witch! She keeps pushing you to do silly schoolwork and all that spit-and-polish! It’s just so boring. You should leave that awful Temple, and then we can be together!"
"And do what? Where would I live? The Temple and my studies are all that I have after you, Vyssa. I have no other home; it’s all I’ve ever known. Soon I will be graduated, and then we shall have all the time in the world to be together. I have not much patience, but I do understand that much. Don’t ever ask me to leave the Temple. It’s the one thing I cannot give." He paused for a moment, looking down. "Let us not talk of these things. Let us go and meet your friends, I don’t have much time left today, so let us spend it singing songs and speaking of happy things!"
The young lovers headed off to East Freeport.
---
Villiam had his own room at the boarding house. He had only a small bed in his room, but a large table with many vials, glass beakers and many strange liquids inside them. He had a few small animals in cages and a small fire with several pots brewing over it. He was at best an odd young man and his only friends were Vyssa and Berina.
He sat patiently, reading from a dusty old scroll, and poured the contents of one vial into a pot on the fire, and watched as the contents turned from brown to red.
"Ohhh. Nice. Very nice."
Berina came up from outside with a large pouch.
"I have it. Is it almost ready? When will it be ready?"
"Give it here, and we shall see!"
He took the pouch and opened it up. Looking inside, he broadly smiled. "Good! Good! This will work nicely." He pulled out the batch of Aviak eggs and sniffed them and then held them to his ear. "Ohh, very fresh." He held the eggs, one at a time, carefully between his hands, and cracked them open, extracting the preserved chick inside and dropping it into the pot.
"How long Villiam? I need it," she whined pitifully.
"Soon. It will be ready when Vyssa is supposed to come and her new friend. I hope he’s not uptight, that we don’t need."
Berina sat on the bed and rubbed her hands vigorously in anticipation of another fine draught. It was hard to think of anything else when Villiam was brewing a batch of his fine potions.
---
Villiam stared at the young man in front of him. A paladin squire with some rank, and Vyssa tightly clasped to his arm stood before him. He always thought that Vyssa liked the straight-laced men, but not stiff ones. If he was momentarily stunned, he recovered quickly.
"Vyssa! Darling! Come in, come in. This must be Wildimir, no?" He pumped the squire’s hand vigorously and led them inside.
"Vyssa told me you can’t stay long, so I have food, drink and some delightful diversion ready! Let us sit quickly, and you may tell us what happy accident brought you two together! We have heard so much about you, Wildimir!"
---
The four of them sat at the table, each with a plate of small delicacies and a goblet of wine. Wildimir drank, and looked at Berina surreptitiously. She looked a little pale, and gaunt. He suspected that perhaps she was not well. He had a knack for seeing illness, but it was not a disease that affected her.
They made small talk of the weather and Villiam inquired politely about the Temple. Vyssa happily chatted away with Berina about her father and how controlling he was. Wildimir felt this was wrong somehow, that these people didn’t belong together. There was something below the surface that he could not put his finger on.
After the light meal they reclined on the threadbare furs Villiam had set in front of the fire.
"You like being a squire, Wil?" said Villiam.
"It’s a blessing to me, they’ve been very kind. It’s the only family I’ve ever know since my parents disappeared."
"Disappeared? Really? How rude of them! Ah, but seriously, it has to be very difficult, being so prim and proper all the time over there. All that ‘Yes sir’ and ‘No sir’ all the time. Sounds dreadful."
"It’s solemn work, really. I’m...I’m glad to be a part of it."
"Sure, sure! But I wager you might like to loosen up on your time off, hrm? I’m sure Vyssa here makes your times together... ‘cozy and comfortable’, let’s say?"
Wildimir’s face turned red and he looked at the ground, his ears burning.
Villiam continued. "There’s no shame or secrets here, Wil. We are open with each other, always. Didn’t Vyssa tell you?" He paused for a moment. "Ah, no matter. We have something for what ails you, my good squire!"
Rising, Villiam ladled out four cups of steaming liquid from the pot on the fire, handling one to each of them. Berina didn’t even pause, but took the entire draught in one long swallow. Vyssa sipped at hers, while looking at Wil with her wide, feminine eyes.
Wildimir held the hot cup to his chest. Every voice in his mind told him it was something he should not touch, that it was an unclean draught, filled with some dark magic. He paused, and then hastily put the cup down.
With a slight smile, he said "Not thirsty right now. But thank you for your kind hospitality, friend."
Vyssa frowned.
"Wildimir, please! Don’t be rude! After all, you haven’t ever felt anything like this before. Won’t you try it, just for me?" She blinked her eyes at him, and licked a drop from the top of the cup.
Looking into Vyssa’s eyes, he picked up the cup and without thinking, he took a single swallow.
---
The room became fuzzy. Wildimir tried to speak, but he felt as if he was stuck in a haze. He suddenly felt flush and was strangely aware of his rapidly beating heart. He felt almost drunk, but oddly alive, and warmth passed from his throat to his belly and out to his limbs. Waves of tingles washed over him, from his fingers, to his chest and his legs. Shifting colors appeared in his vision, and he reached out for Vyssa…
---
The cock crowed twice in East Freeport and Wildimir awoke. Groggy, he felt as if the whole Temple of Marr was sitting on his head. He tried to take a breath but his mouth felt like an old rug, and he coughed. He was vaguely aware of a warm body lying next to his. Reaching out for Vyssa, he draped his arm over the side of the sleeping woman.
A sudden burst of panic hit him. He opened his eyes to see Berina, naked, cradled up against him. Vyssa was also there, lying half-covered under a fur next to Villiam. The four of them were tangled together in front of the embers of last night’s fire.
Rising with a start, Wildimir dressed himself and flew down the stairs before the others awoke. Reveille for the squires must have sounded at least three hours ago.
---
Wildimir tried to think clearly, but his mind was still in a haze. It was well past morning meal and drill. If the gate guard was in his regiment, he had a good chance of bluffing his way in.
The third-year squire on watch at the gate looked at the unshaven and disheveled Squire Captain.
"No sir. I will not let you pass. And if you attempt to bribe me again, the seneschals will be doubly upset," turning from Wildimir, the guard shouted "Watch Captain! Watch Captain! Gate 1!"
Wildimir considered running, but he knew that it would not have been a secret he was missing the minute reveille sounded and he was not in his bed.
The Watch Captain came and led him up to the Seneschal General’s office.