The Note

As Muld and Syndi dream of their upcoming wedding, a mysterious note threatens their happiness.

         The Wizard of Windhaven

By Eddie Davis

© 2016

 

1.

The Note

 

The crystal peal of brass bells from the arcane floor clock that Muld Mozzil had in his apartment brought the two of them abruptly out of a very pleasant shared dream.

Due to the restraining magic of the chastity rings they wore, the dream was not sexual, but simply one of the two of them sailing in a small sailboat, a thousand feet above the ground, enjoying the sights of the world rushing by, blissfully together.

Muld looked down at Syndi where she lay entwined within his arms and was again awed at the Losasidhe princess’ beauty.    Her deep green eyes stared back at him and for a while they just laid there looking contently at each other.

“I could never tire of waking up to see your radiant face smiling at me, my dear,” he said to her, touching her cheek gently to make certain she wouldn’t fade away like the Aleiryid dreams.

Syndi smiled brightly and took his hand, kissing it.

“You have such a way with words, Muld.   You could sweep any woman off her feet with your silver tongue.”

“I already have the woman that I want more than anything in this world.”

She sat up and kissed him.    “It thrills me to know that you mean me, my love.”

“This is almost surreal to me, Syndi.    I can’t believe we are here together, officially engaged, with your parents’ blessings, only a month away from being married.”

“Scary, isn’t it?”  She laughed nervously.

“Tell me something, sweetheart; does this feel forced or too rushed to you?”

“Not forced, but it is sudden.    I’m still trying to figure out exactly what I feel.    But I do know that I am extremely glad that you are my mate… well, at least in all ways except physically.    I feel so different now… but it is wonderful.   Suddenly you are my everything.   I just want to stay with you all the time.”    She squeezed his arm, kissing his fingers.   

“That would be fine by me, my dear.   But we have responsibilities.”

Syndi sighed, “Yeah, I know.    I’ll really miss you today.”

Muld smiled, thrilled over her strong desire to be with him, “It’ll go by quickly.    We’ll be together this evening… and all night.”

“It is still too long… wow, listen to me!   A handful of days ago I was terrified of feeling this way!   Now it’s the most wonderful feeling in the world.”

“Do you think it fades away after a while?”  Muld asked, stroking her hair.

“Well, Queen Aurei and King Eleazar are an Aleiryid joined couple.    They seem deeply in love.”

Muld nodded, “They are extremely affectionate toward each other.”

“They’ve been married about 88 years and they seem passionate about each other.   King Aedric and Queen Snoe are also an Aleiryid joined pair, and I believe Amala and Carn are as well.”

“They certainly are - you can see it when they look at each other.    Now we’ll act all stupid toward each other too! That is if we can survive this next month,” Muld laughed, though at the back of his mind he worried about the suppression of their desire for one another by the magic of the chastity rings.

Syndi arched her eyebrows.   “It is especially frustrating to me, Muld!   I had just reached the same level of interest in you that you had for me, and then my parents ask us to just put everything on hold for a month.   I went from being an emotionally unsure girl, to a suddenly passionate woman, then into a strange grey-area where these new and wonderful feelings are stifled.”

“I’m not sure this whole thing is healthy for a couple in our… situation.   But we have to honor your parents.”

“I’ve done that all my life, Muld.    Those few hours of wild, wanton feelings actually felt… exhilarating to me.    If you had been here when I arrived…”   Syndi’s eyes twinkled with the thought.

“Well, it probably is best for us… I guess.”   He was torn in two about it as well, but he certainly didn’t want this sweet girl that he so deeply loved to feel regret or shame afterwards.   Their attraction toward each other was only one part of Aleiryid.    “You know, Syndi, I have been thinking - I haven’t been a very devout follower of Yesh my whole life.”

“You don’t seem that bad; why would you say that?”

Muld shrugged, “Maybe it was that dream I had while being on the brink of death.    I just began to realize how focused on things I am.    I need to be much more spiritual.    I promised Yesh that I would serve him if he kept you safe when The Locust was ambushed by pirates.     But though he kept you out of harm’s way, I haven’t done anything devout to thank him.”

“Well you refrained from making wild love to me and agreed to be placed under a chastity geis for a month so we can be married in a manner that Yesh commanded.”

“Yes, but a person shouldn’t turn to God just in times of trouble and then struggle to remember him the rest of the time.   I’ve got to change, Syndi.   If I’m going to be your husband, I need to learn to prioritize my relationships.   Aleiryid is a blessing from Yesh, and so you and God need to be at the top of my list.     I have no problem putting you up there, but I never really went to church as a child.   Master Hofflis was a kind man who believed in Yesh, but he wasn’t too thrilled with religious rituals.”

“Well, I have no problem with going to church, Muld, though I don’t think I should wear my sorceress garb there.”

“Lady Sophia is a sorceress of your school and she was the head of the Watchers until Yesh dispersed the order.”

“Yeah, I guess that is true… but I still wouldn’t feel that it is proper to dress like that to worship God.”   Syndi shifted a bit uncomfortably.

“Is something wrong?”

“Our conversation topic moved from sex to going to church,” Syndi smirked.

“Both are important considerations for a couple in our unique situation.”

“Why do I feel guilty talking about them one right after another?”

“I know what you mean -  I think it is just the wild physical aspect contrasting the ascetic, spiritual side.   They don’t seem to jive.”

“I just know that when desire overwhelmed me, I didn’t seem to really care about the ‘ascetic, spiritual side’.    Isn’t that awful, Muld?”

“That’s how a lot of physical reactions are, my dear.    It doesn’t make you awful at all.  In fact, maybe it was God who intervened to keep us from getting too involved before we really understood.”

“I don’t know if I understand marriage… do you?”

“No, not really.    But I do want to be as respectful as I can.   You deserve respectability.”

“Well, you are ‘Lord Muld’ now, so that is respectable.”

“Yes, but… I guess what I meant was that I feel that to deserve the love of someone as wonderful as you, I should be more respectable.”

“Muld, for heaven’s sake, you are well respected in Westmark and in the Losasidhe kingdom.”

“But I’m eccentric.    Eccentric people can only be so respectful.”

“That makes you more charming… it’s what first got my attention.”  

“I just always worry about failure, Syndi.    It used to be worried about ideas and practical magic plans failing; now I’m afraid that I’ll fail you as a husband.”

Syndi just shook her head, leaned over and kissed him.    “I’m not worried, Muld.   We’ll make mistakes, that is for sure, but we are obviously very compatible and love each other.”

Muld hugged her close to him.   “Yes, that is very true.    As long as we can forgive each other of our mistakes, we should survive.”

“Well, I forgave you for bringing mother and daddy to your apartment, so anything is forgivable,” She joked, glancing over at the clock.   “Hey!   What’s that in the floor?”

“What?  Where?”

Syndi pointed to the door.   “Over there; there is a piece of paper lying in the floor, halfway under the door.”

“How’d that get there?  The front door was locked.”   The implications made them both jump up and go over to it.     Bending down to examine it, they could see written on it:    ‘Muld Mozzil and Princess Syndi - Urgent and private!’.   The pair looked at each other, shrugged, and Muld reached down and picked it up.   It was a piece of paper, folded over and sealed with a wad of red wax.    There was a seal pressed into the wax, which looked like mountain peaks with stylized wind or perhaps clouds blowing against them.

“I’ve never seen that seal before, have you?”   Muld asked his fiancée.

Syndi shook her head, “Whoever sent it, knew I was here, and I didn’t tell anyone other than Lady Alleania.”

“Well, I guess we should open it and find out.”

With Syndi looking over his shoulder, Muld broke the seal and they gazed onto the contents of the letter.

 

***

The slamming of the front door of the main guild building made Jevon, Tadd and Mutt all jump, looking up in alarm.

Rick, glaring as if he was ready to kill someone, stormed into the workroom, flinging down the pouch he used to carry the plans and instructions for practical magic incantations.

“Is something wrong?”   Tadd timidly asked.    Rick turned to him with an annoyed frown.

“What could possibly be wrong?    Everything is just going wonderfully!”   He plopped down into his chair and began flipping through work orders that had piled up on his desk due to the recent interruptions that the guild had experienced.

“What is it then?”  Tadd persisted.

“I don’t want to talk about it, okay?   Let’s just get to work; we’ve got a thousand things to do.    Where are Muld and Syndi?   Aren’t they here yet?   I guess Syndi has to go to Sorceress training, but Muld ought to be here.”

“We haven’t seen them; they haven’t come down yet, at least not by the front stairs,” Mutt replied, shooting a glance to Jevon, who shrugged.

“Well, that figures!”  Rick snapped, “Stupid elves…”

“Whoa, buddy!”  Jevon stood up and walked over to him, “What in the world is wrong with you this morning?”

“Mind your own business!”  Rick growled.

“Right now, your attitude is all of our business, because you are clearly angry about something and we don’t need you snapping at all of us.   We’re as busy as you are, you know.    So spill it - what is going on?”

Rick gave Jevon a venomous look for a few seconds, then with an exasperated sigh, turned and pulled his pouch over to him, jerked several things out and then pulled out a piece of paper that looked as if it had been crumpled up and then straightened back out.   He held it out to Jevon angrily.

“Here - if you are so nosy, then read the damned thing and leave me alone!”

Jevon took the paper and scanned over it.   He recognized the paper as elven in manufacture, for they grew a papyrus like plant especially for paper, and it gave their paper a slightly golden color.

The beautiful handwriting told him it was a woman that had written the note, so Jevon already had figured out who the note was from before he finished reading it.

It was from Jain, the Losasidhe girl that Rick had danced with during their time in the Losasidhe capital.   He had seemed very smitten with her.

“I’m sorry, Rick.”   It was all he could think to say to his friend.

“She sent it with King Eiolmoel and Queen Synthaeia - he gave it to me just as they were leaving the banquet last night.    What a thing to get handed to you at the end of an evening!”

“Did she…?”  Tadd hesitantly asked.

“She said we couldn’t see each other any more!”  Rick almost yelled to the Halfling, “She said she enjoyed the time spent with me, but since I was a human and she was an elf, she couldn’t get involved with me.    It would be too hard on her to watch me age while she stays the same!    What a crock!   She knew I was a human when she first saw me, but that didn’t make any difference when we were dancing and she was flirting with me!   I was so stupid!   I always heard not to get romantically involved with an elf!”

“Well, that worried me too.   When we were dancing with her and Braellia I knew we had to be careful,” Jevon said gently.

Rick nodded, but gave his friend a frustrated look.   “You didn’t get too attached to Braellia!”

“Oh, I thought she was wonderful, Rick, but I just knew it had to be a nice evening dancing with them.    When we saw them last week, they were already acting a bit cooler toward us.”

“Well, I wish you would have told me!   I acted like a damned fool for her when we were there.   She didn’t have the heart to tell me then - that’s what she said in the letter.    God, but I’ve been such an idiot!    Women!   It doesn’t matter if they’re elven or human, they all can rip your heart out.”

“Not all of them are like that,”   Jevon tried to comfort his friend, but Rick shook his head.

“I’m done with all of them, I can tell you that!    I’d be better off just finding a prostitute then trying to romance any of them.”

“Come on, Rick; you know you don’t mean that.”

“Maybe not, Jevon, but I’m just going to stay away from them for a long time.”

“You’ll have to be around Syndi,”   Tadd mentioned.

“Oh, I know that!   Now that she and Muld are engaged, that isn’t going to be fun, since I used to have a crush on her.”

Jevon snorted and replied, “You’ve always had a thing for elven women.    You had a crush on Amala when we worked on that coach along side her.”

“Who wouldn’t have a crush?   Amala was gorgeous and Syndi is gorgeous too.   I was over my crush on Syndi months ago, and I’m happy for her and Muld, but…”

“I understand, believe me.   I’ve learned just to not take relationships with elven women as serious.”

“Yeah, well I’m done with elven women, I can tell you that.   When I get my heart healed up, it’s going to be human girls or nothing.”

“That would probably be best,” Jevon commented, and any further discussion was interrupted by someone coming into the guild building.