A Misplaced Blade
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 8778
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Aethir MacFionn stroked his wild beard as the warrior woman finished her
tale. He almost felt sheepish around her, for though she was a stolid
fighter, something about her spoke of nobility. Her story was simple, and
told of how she and her friends had ventured into the forest for some
magickal unguents. However, what she left out intrigued him more than what
she had revealed. She neglected to mention why she called herself cursed,
and, he mused to himself, it must be a very important quest she was on if
she traveled with Simon D'Chretien and...Charles D'Honaire's son? The mention of Frederigo had given him pause. Aethir wondered exactly how long he'd been in the clutches of the Faerie Rath, for when he had left, Charles and Morgwen D'Honaire were just celebrating the birth of their first son. Strange indeed, but, he reminded himself, he knew exactly what must have happened on the outside if Simon had come. He absently rubbed a small chunk of stone, broken on two edges, but smooth and curved on a third, and remembered the last quest of the Four Winds. He did not want to do what he would have to should they rescue Simon, especially if he had grown old, as Astra had said. Shaking himself from his contemplation, he regarded her. "I know what we need to do. Before they captured me, I held out for many nights here, and took down a few faeries in the time prior to my imprisonment. There are ways, and though I am quite drained from their attempts to break me, we are two, and we just might be able to free your three friends." Astra grew wary again. "How did you manage such? I thought nobody had entered the Rath before you..." "That is both true and untrue, by the logic of the Wood. There was someone, but he entered before you, or I, or anyone in this kingdom had even been born. His name was lost to even him when I freed him, and the Grove had almost completely drained him. However, before he died, he taught me much...and gave me a tool. Now, if I'm correct, I hid it somewhere around here before they got me..." The bearish man then pursed his lips, and groped about as one blind. "What are you doing? Is something wrong," Astra said, growing slightly worried. Aethir hushed her, then explained, still groping, "you don't see with your eyes here. If you see with your eyes, you'll be lost, because as long as the Rath is cloaked, you see what they want you to." "What are you trying to find?" The legendary warrior's hand shot out, almost reaching through reality, and grasped something unseen. "I'm trying to find..." he said, drawing out a blackish dagger from the air, "this." The dagger was tinged with spots of rust in a few small places, but otherwise it was well preserved. It looked to be made of wrought iron, and it was a wonder it even held an edge. Astra looked at the old weapon quizzically, but Aethir answered her question in short order. "Cold-forged iron. The fey can't withstand it. Also, it tears apart the very dreamstuff which makes this place what it is." To demonstrate, the legendary hero reached out with the blade and cut the air. Through the tear, she saw the grove as it actually was. What's more, she realized she could step through...
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The Traveler
4/18/2000 4:40:22 AM
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