Getting to Know You

The young elven couple awakes from the vision of Moralach to find that their memories are beginning to return.

5.

Getting to Know You

 

 

He awoke with a start, his mind dazed and clouded from the intense vision they had just experienced.    His sight fell upon the large green eyes of the girl, who was just waking and seemed as confused as he was.

“Syndi…”  He said softly, then he realized that this was the girl’s name and he spoke it again, “Syndi… Synthaeia!”

She looked surprised, rising up on her arms to look at him in wonderment.   

“Syndi…. It’s…. it’s you…” The words grew familiar to him as he was speaking them, “You… your name is Syndi.”

Her lips quivered and for a long moment he thought she was going to cry or something, but she spoke instead, “Mmmm----…. Muu…. No…Mul…. Muld! Muld Mozzil!   Yes!   Muld!   You…. You’re Muld!”

He knew immediately that she was right, for it was his name, and it was almost as if he could feel the dammed up memories crack just enough to release a bit of information to him.    At least he knew his name and her name as well.

The beautiful redheaded girl rolled over to him, grinning so prettily that he forgot to breathe for a few seconds.   

“I…I… know you!”   She said, touching his cheek with her hand.   A tingle like electricity from lightning went through him at her touch.     Something powerful began stirring in his heart, radiating out in all directions throughout his body.   His heart raced and he shook from the overwhelming feeling coming over him.

“You’re so… so… so beautiful!”  He spoke to the girl and almost unconsciously he found himself running his hands through her long fiery mane without seeking her permission.   To his surprise and delight, she leaned in closer to him until her cheek was resting against his chest.   Her warm breath caused shivers to run through his body.

“It’s hard to… remember…”  She said softly, “Do you know… what happened to us?”

“I can’t think straight either.    But… I think… it’s starting to come back to me.”

“Did you have a strange dream… of a man who thought he was… a god?”

Muld nodded, “Mórálach was his name.   He made this place… I guess.”

Syndi sighed and pressed against him.   His whole body burned pleasantly at the sensation of the touch of her skin.

“I found this cave when I awoke in the pool.  But I felt like I was waiting for someone… that was you, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

“I feel…strange... when I’m close to you.”   She didn’t look at him, but her breath on his neck was almost too much for him.

“I feel the same way.    I’m afraid I’m really attracted to you.”

“I can tell,”  She whispered as she began kissing his neck.

“I know what I want to do… but I don’t think I’m supposed to do that… though I don’t know why.”

Syndi sighed as if she understood and shared his frustration.

“I understand,”  She said, “For now.   But we’re supposed to be together.”

“Maybe that’s why we’re here.. wherever ‘here’ is.”

“Well, we’re safe enough in this cave.”

“Should we try to find out where we are and what has happened to us?”

She looked up at him, her face only inches away and before he knew what he was doing, he had leaned in and kissed her.   Her lips parted and a moment later they were rolling wildly on the white sand in the cave.

Passion was overwhelming both of them, taking both of them eagerly toward its inevitable conclusion.    While he wanted that more than anything right then - in fact he needed it almost as if his whole life depended on it- there was something in the back of his mind that kept telling him that this wasn’t the proper time and place.

He wasn’t sure if Syndi felt it or not, because she seemed as wild and willing as he was and certainly wouldn’t stop any of his advancements.   Yet something wasn’t quite right - there was something missing, perhaps some information lost in their memories that kept nagging at him.

“We’ve got to stop,”  He said with great effort.

“I don’t want to stop,”  She replied.

“Don’t you feel like something isn’t quite right?”

She stopped kissing him and considered this for a few moments, and then slowly nodded, “There was…something… magic…”

Her words made the flash of a memory return to him, “A spell to keep us celibate until… until we were married!”

“Yes!   It was… it was my father that cast it upon us!”

“But he cast it on a pair of rings that we had to wear.”

They both glanced down at their hands which were devoid of jewelry. 

“We’re not wearing any rings… I wonder why?   Were we married?”

“No, I don’t think so.    But something happened… something traumatic.”

“We were… some sort of magic users or magicians… Practical Magicians!”   Syndi exclaimed.

Memory seeped into his mind.    Incomplete and somewhat confusing as a result, but he remembered that he had been a Practical Magician and Syndi was as well, but she had been something more.

“I remember Dark elves… wait… it was… Westmark!   The city of Westmark!”

“Queen Aurei was a Drow!   King… King Eleazar!   He was half-Drow too!   A lot of them lived there and I was trained by one of them… I can’t remember her name…”

“Alleania was her name, she was a Sorceress and the Queen’s mother.”

“That’s right!   But why would I train with a Drow lady?   I’m not a Drow… I have a vague recollection of my parents… they were a King and Queen too!”

“You are a Faesidhe elf.”

“Was that it?   No… not Faesidhe… Losasidhe!   Snow Elves!    I remember, Muld!   Losahome!  My father is king there!   I was named after my mother!   I have a sister, Eioldth… no… she’s… she died!”   Syndi’s eyes filled with tears, grieving for the recollection of her sister’s death.     

Muld hugged her to him, his own mind spinning as memories began flooding into his mind as well.  For a long time they just lay there lost in the slow but continual restoration of their past lives.   The process took their desire for each other away for a while, as the return of a lifetime of memories was rather overwhelming physically.

An hour passed before they moved or even spoke.  By then they had recovered enough of their memories to be able to piece together parts that were still cloudy.

“Are you okay?”  He asked tenderly as she lay against his chest, her eyes closed and tears staining her cheeks.

“Yeah, I think so.   I just relived learning about the death of my sister.    I think most of my memories have returned.   How about you?”

“I don’t know - I think most of what I knew is returning to me, but I’m still cloudy on events since I started the Practical Magic Guild.”

“Pirates and airships?   You don’t remember all of that?”

“It’s jumbled up and I’m sorting it all out.   I remember Gelden and the telepathy rings we wore.    We did kill him… didn’t we?”

“Sophia’s illusion did the trick.”

Muld snapped his fingers, “Right!    He had the Elemental Lord ring and we lured him into an airship’s vacuum engine.”

“I’d like to see my parents, Muld.    I sort-of remember hearing their voices… I’ll bet we were unconscious and they were trying to heal us.”

“The last I recall was listening to Sophia talk after we’d won and then everything went blank.    Your parents weren’t with the group that came from Westmark, so your memories of their voices must be from another time… or else we were brought to them.”

“I seem to remember my mother crying - and she seldom cries, Muld.”

“Well what happened to us?”

For a while they just pondered this question.

“You know, I just thought of something strange.”   Muld finally said.

“What did you think of?”

“When we were fighting off those soldiers -the spells that we cast seemed extremely powerful.   I mean that they were much more powerful than usual.”

“I thought so too.   It scared those soldiers to death.”

“Yeah, and I don’t think it was just the spells - it seems like they were a bit apprehensive about this pool.”

“They would probably know what it is called and exactly where we are, but I don’t think we could just walk into their camp and ask them.”

“Not after killing several of them.   Plus, we’re buck naked and they have already shown their intentions toward you.”

Syndi shuddered and hugged him tightly, “You saved me from that.”

“I’ve been thinking about the armor that they wore.   At the time, my brain was so clouded that I couldn’t identify it, but I’m very sure now that they were wearing legionary armor from the Southern Empire.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Well, after living in Aeropolis for years, I saw a lot of legionary soldiers.   The most important legions wore chainmail from head to foot, but added to it by covering the chest and back with laminated strips of steel that they called Laminar Armor.    It is somewhat different from plate mail or plate armor.     It is very good armor, but extremely hot to wear, so they wear it only in milder climates or just before going into battle.   Since there doesn’t seem to be any battle around here that I know of, I’m guessing that we are someplace where it doesn’t get extremely warm, or else it is some place that is unknown to the legions, so they are wearing their full armor as a precaution.   It is a standard procedure for the Southern Empire’s troops.  That, as well as their weapons and helmets lead me to believe that they were members of one of the Imperial legions.”

“Then we are outside of Marksylvania as well, as it is known to the Southern Empire.”

Muld smiled at her for her logic deduction, “Yes, that is logical.    So we’re not in Marksylvania and we’re not in any known part of the Southern Empire.    As far as I know, they were not interested in any regions to the west, but they were beginning to set their sights on lands to the northeast, when I still lived there.”

“So what lies northeast of the Southern Empire?”   Syndi asked.

“Well, let’s see… there were some petty kingdoms, as I recall, and then the ocean… wait, now I remember!    The island of Albyia!”

“Albyia?”  Syndi’s brows furrowed as she tried to clear her head so she could recall the place.

Muld waited a moment, allowing her memory the chance to clear.

“I think I remember hearing something about it,”  She finally said, “Isn’t it inhabited by some war-like elves?”

Muld nodded, “They’re primitive and fought off attempts by the Southern Empire to explore the island.   Just before Torrin’s people gained power in Aeropolis, the Imperial senate was debating funding an invasion force to take over the island.”

“Did they ever do it?”

“I don’t know.   It would be a drawn out battle, I’d say.     The earliest reports claimed that powerful Druids led the elves of the island and they were extremely xenophobic.”

“So could this island be where we are right now?”

Muld shrugged, “The only way we can find out for certain is to snoop around on the surface.    But we’ll need some clothing and weapons before we do anything else.”

“The only source for that would be the camp of those soldiers.”

“It won’t be easy sneaking into an Imperial Camp, and if we get caught…”

“So what do we do?”

“What options do we really have?   We’ve got to go up there sooner or later.   Let’s go and take a look.   But stay low in the pool and if we’re seen, head back here to this cave.    We need to stay close together.   We don’t have Autocaster rings, so if we get critically wounded, we will die.   Stealth is the answer.”

“I remember a fog spell that Alleania taught me - maybe that could help conceal us.”

“That sounds logical to me, but you’d have to cast it after we surfaced.    The spell doesn’t last but for a few seconds when the caster goes under water.”

“Well, let’s try it then; it is better than just lying here trying not to do something ‘naughty’."    Syndi rolled off of him and they went over to the edge of the pool and jumped in, swimming toward the bottom.