View source for Elaejia (prime)/2023-11-14 - Twilight Departure

{{creative-work | title = Twilight Departure| type = short story | author = Elaejia | author-displayed = [[Elaejia (prime)|Elaejia Silithyr Loenthra]] | date = 2023-11-24}}

14th Eoantos, 5123

Elaejia shrugged into her lapis-hued velvet coat, smoothing the lapels and enjoying the plush fabric beneath her fingers.  Taking up Gliri's halter strap from its hook, she strode outside to find him browsing the foliage beyond the villa's small conservatory.  

"Tsk, Gliri," she chided, "Must you?"  Unruffled, the elk eyed her meditatively as he chewed and swallowed their tender autumn chrysanthemums.  Sighing quietly, she spent a moment pulling and adjusting the tools and supplies strapped to his flanks, then fitted his halter around his broad head and gracefully mounted, positioning herself atop his black kaajkur.  She turned in the seat to rummage in the saddlebags, checking again that she had her journals, field guides, and research notes.

Satisfied, she paused for a moment, gazing critically at the landscaping.   With a sniff, she curled her fingers around two skeins of mana, drawing them into visibility and forming a simple weave.  Glimmers of greenish light rippled away from her hands, seeping into the soil and briskly rioting the maimed foliage back to lush verdure.

Gliri chuffed eagerly, but she tapped his flanks with her ember-hued riding boots, setting off down Sylvar Wey and onward toward the gates of the city.   Passing the rear grounds of the Arboretum, she felt the familiar twinge of irritation as she was reminded again of her stalled research.  ''Well,'' she thought to herself, ''That is precisely what I aim to remedy, starting today.'' 

She opted to ride down Glamesine Var and avoid the typically crowded area around the Hanging Gardens.  The late afternoon sun shone brightly, though the thin mountain air carried a brisk chill that intensified as she passed through the long shade cast by the Tower of Shadows.  She pulled her fur wrap closer and spurred Gliri to amble the weys and vars a little faster in an effort to regain the waning sun.  

Passing Wax Eloquent, she noted the dust had been cleared from the windows and lanterns once again lit within.  ''Ah, yes,'' she mused dryly, ''I had heard Lady Gael is finally returned, another absence apparently unrelated to the schemes of Thaiagol.  Doubtless the court is overjoyed to strike another name from the list without expending effort.''

Frowning through Gliri's antlers as she finally approached the gate, Elaejia shook herself from her reverie.  ''Enough of these bleak ruminations, you've work to do and it won't be improved by a sour outlook.''  She nodded stiffly at the guard as she passed through and onward to Sylvarraend Road.  

The weeks of research she had toiled at this past spring had not been fully wasted.  She had spent the summer alternately recovering and reflecting.  Though the artifact had been rendered useless, she still had all the hard-won knowledge she'd gleaned in the weeks of maddening research, and had learned a great deal about its origins and potential.  The vase itself was burned into her memory even after seeing it for such a brief and fraught moment.  Neutered of its power, the pattern had been flattened and somehow stilled.  In her mind's eye though, she could see how it had once been - Vibrant.  Dynamic.  Alive.  And the academic Umaren had stated there were more of them.

Turning Gliri eastward she clucked him into a ground-eating trot.  ''Perhaps I ought to have set off with the dawn... but the twilight seems more apt to bring good fortune on this journey.  Tales and rumors are best shared in the evenings, and I've surely got a great many between me and my goal.''