Lokelani Moonsilver - Recorded Musings of The Fey Rose
-
After one long day slogging through the bowels of Moonreach Keep to do her part in discouraging the goblins from swarming up through the basement, Lokelani slouched back against the door to room H3. Her room, and home away from home here at the Keep She bumped the door to finish closing it behind her.
A room with a prospering indoor garden and water feature the perfect match for a woman of fey blood. She isn't tied to a tree the way her dryad grandmother, Ali'ikai, is. Lokelani's strong fey heritage does give her an undeniable drive to be in wild, open spaces, especially forested open spaces.
Remaining in cityscapes or most enclosed spaces for very long can leave Lokelani restless, filling her with anxiety and even drive her 'stir crazy'. Cabin fever, like humans forced to stay indoors all winter long. Lokelani can driven to cabin fever in a matter of weeks or days. Green spaces like parks or gardens like the one in her room can do wonders to for her ability to cope and adapt to prolonged presence in cities or indoors. She was a wild rose after all, not a cultivated one.
Swiftly stowing her gear, Lokelani loosened and removed her armor and clothing so she could sink down into and laze in the shallow waters of her room's garden fountain. As the water enveloped her, the fey woman could feel the day's tension and stress from trekking all through the dank and dark places below the Keep melt away. It was no sylvan spring around her home village of Forest Knoll. Little in Faerun could compare to the Moonwood, not even Silverymoon itself.
Bathing in this magical indoor garden fountain was the next best thing though. Lokelani closed her eye and sank deeper, this time into meditation. The green edges of the indoor garden blossomed out, pushing aside the stone confines of the Keep within her mind's eye. It stretched and grew into an ancient forest not unlike the one she was born and grew up in.
She laid in the fountain's waters, relaxing awhile in their soothing warmth and the serenity of unspoiled woods she imagined stretching out from horizon to horizon beyond them. The familiar beating of large gossamer wings, scent of lavender followed by growls and scraping of small claws on stone broke Lokelani out of meditation.
Lokelani didn't need to open her eyes, the lavender scent and noises alone were enough to inform her Hokulanil was awake. A faerie dragon, Hokulanil had been her friend and companion since childhood when her magical talents had first awoken. The prank-loving, little dragon could speak, but rarely deigned to do so.
Lokelani imagined her faerie dragon friend thought anything but draconic was beneath him, though on the rare occasion he saw fit to speak with Lokelani, he did her the favor of speaking Common.
After seeing evidence of his habit of 'trading' shiny pebbles or small semi-precious gems for objects of interest around the Keep, Lokelani was ready to scold her friend. Letting her eyes rest a little longer, she sighed, "Hokulanil, I don't have the energy to hunt down your stash right now. Could you please refrain from trading so I don't have to go around apologizing on your behal-"
She interrupted herself when she finally opened her eyes, and spotted Hokulanil carrying a very special crystal over to the fountainside. And that was why she could never stay angry at the little faerie dragon, because he always seemed to know where to find the things Lokelani needed before she knew she needed them herself.
The small bluish crystal was a gift from her grandmother. A very minor elven artifact dating back from before the Crown Wars if what Ali'ikai told her could be believed. It had one function and one function only, to record and playback short snippets of audio. Lokelani had always used it as a journal. It always glowed a little brighter, grew warm and vibrated to cadence of speech it was playing back in playback mode. When recording it pulsed and grew dimmer and cooler.
Hokulanil chirriped and cocked his head cutely at Lokelani, offering up the recording crystal from his muzzle. Lokelani couldn't help shaking her head nor could she help the smile spreading across her face. She sighed and chuckled before gently chiding her familiar, "You are adorable and thank you. I was just about to look for that. We're still going to have to have a talk about your 'trading' later."
With a contrite sounding little growl that Lokelani assumed was translated from draconic to mean okkay, the faerie dragon scampered to the room door. He chirped back at Lokelani.
Lokelani chuckled, "Of course, but remember NO MORE 'trading.'" She rose from the fountain waters to go open the door and let Hokulanil flutter out into the hall.
Closing the door again, she returned to the garden fountain. She picked the little blue elven recording crystal from the fountain's stone ledge, held it up before her vibrant, spring green, almost glowing gaze. Lokelani's fist closes around the crystal, and she closes her eyes to attune it to recording mode. Feeling the crystal cool in her grasp, she opened her hand again. It's inner magical blue glow now pulsed dimly. She smiled and chimed, "Hello again, Hokanoe."
Lokelani set the crystal back on the fountain's ledge in recording mode. She relaxed back in the fountain's waters and sighed, a melancholy smile over her face now. "I don't know if I'll ever show these recordings to you if I f- when... WHEN I find you. I've said some things... I just..."
Faltering over her words, she teared up and choked up. Lokelani let the crystal keep recording while she collected herself. She sniffed and continued, "I'm sorry I ever gave up on you. What kind of sister am I to give you up for dead without solid proof? To move on is expected and the way of things. That doesn't mean to let all hope of seeing each other again to extinguish in my heart. In this life or the next, I know we'll meet again."
Lokelani's voice steadied as she went on, "When that little sneakyface in the Peltarch docks, as Doba would say, told me you had been seen in and around Moonreach Keep my heart soared. But I also felt like I had let you down in the worst way. I promise I will never stop looking again, until I find out one way or another what happened to you."
The sorrow turned hope and joy in her voice just as swiftly sours to enraged venom, "And if it turns out I must wait until the next life to see you again, I will make the Zhentarim responsible for the raid on our home pay. They will meet retribution for splitting us apart, for what they did to our parents, for what they did to our village."
One deep breath later, all that seething anger bubbles out of her voice as her usual cheerful, melodious tone rises back in. "Thankfully, it's been more good news than not of late. I hear from Doba that, like me, you were delving down below the Keep. I hope those with you are your friends and not your keepers. From the sound of things, the answer lies somewhere on the free side of things."
Lokelani happened lift a hand from the water and saw how puckered her fingers were getting. She sat up and leaned on the ledge of the fountain by her elven recording crystal. "Laura and I think Doba is truly adorable the way he puffs his feathers up when he all happy. I like to think you would too. Mm Laura.. she's one of a handful allies I've found here at Moonreach to help me find you. Remind me to tell you more about them sometime. For their sake and the good of the Keep I will stay my retribution against the Zhentarim until we find you. I need them to do that, and it wouldn't do to get my new friends and allies killed or worse."
She sniffs again, "So you just hold out down there or out there you here. With a whole rainbow's worth of those crescent moon keys you and your friends should have a whole host of safe refuges to hold out in. I know you've always said that I'm the strong one, the fearless one. the truth is I've always envied your quieter strength. Your the cool and calm one. Nothing rattles you. And I need you to dig into that quiet and steady inner strength to pull through anything thrown at you I can find where you are."
Lokelani taps the crystal once to pause the recording and buy a little time to think on how to wrap up her current journal entry. It takes but a moment to organize her last thoughts for the day, tapping the crystal to unpause the recording, "You were always the one keeping us out of trouble. I mean if it weren't for me you might never have done anything exciting, but if it weren't for you I might done one too many stupid things, and gotten all of is exiled from our home. It would have been something to live with grandma... but I still wouldn't trade how things were if it meant you weren't there. Your my twin sister. We are two halves, adequate alone, but incomplete. As much as I try to be more like you, it's just not the same as having you here to fight and argue with." She sighs softly, mentally shifting gears, "Anyway, Hokanoe, l should go. I need to go make sure Hokulanil isn't doing more of his 'trading.' If I could just find his stash of shiny things he wouldn't have anything to 'trade' with. Talk to you later. Love you."
Lokelani double taps her elven recording crystal to end the current recording. She grabs the crystal as she rises up out of the water and fountain to go dry off and get dressed for dinner.
-
It was one of the most serene and beautiful gardens Lokelani has ever seen. She was sure it rivaled the likes of which her and Hokanoe's dryad grandmother would create in her grove.
Kneeling in her blue kimono amidst the garden's mystical pink glow, Lokelani drew out the bluish, ancient elven recording crystal from her sleeve. She cast her neon Spring green gaze around the small cavern that housed this botanical wonder. Flowers, the talking wolf had said, that grew nowhere else in the Mycorrhizae. They grew only here in the vicinity of the glowing blue wisp that hung in the air before her. A fragment of her twin sister, Hokanoe.
Lokelani could help the tears that came quietly rolling down her cheeks, reaching out to touch... to hold her sister's non-existent hand. There she was, and at the same time there she wasn't.
Closing her grasp around the recording crystal, she closed her eyes, concentrating to attune it into recording mode. Once she felt it grow chill, she set down and saw the dimmed inner glow pulsing. Recording mode on.
She set the crystal down beside her and glanced again up at the memory fragment floating there. Lokelani smiled wistfully and tenderly at it. "Hokanoe... hello up there. You wouldn't believe where I'm talking to you today. and today... you actually here with me! In... in a manner of speaking... part of you is here. I'm not really sure how to describe it. It's beautiful. This little garden of yours.. and this memory fragment of yours just floating here among so many fallen petals. I-I can even talk to you... the real you and not just the you in my head that I talk to during these recordings... Yet.. this thing floating here... isn't really you either."
"It's a part of you for sure... but only a part of you...a small part of you. It can only answer one or two questions at best before it starts over in its loop. I..I... after all this time.."
"I feel so many things at once... For one... I'm elated! I finally found you! And you're not spore-addled as I had feared!! Yet also... the truth might be far worse than being spore-addled. Oh Hokane! What did you do to yourself?! And no.. no I don't hate you for this.. so... please, please, PLEASE don't go thinking that. I could never hate you."
"I don't understand everything you do, but I think that alway went both ways. I'm pretty sure you don't understand everything I do either."
"Anyway... I just want you to know I won't stop until I've made you WHOLE again! I'll seek out every last one of these hidden gardens your memory fragment showed me.. and then with the help of the gentle mushroom witch who has promised to help me figure all this out... and all my friends... we'll make you you again..."
"Then we can go back home to our rebuilt cottage or wherever it we decide to go... together."
"I-I-I love you, sis. I don't know how wanting to be one of the true fey lead you to this...but my friends and I figure this out. I swear it."
"For now... I'm just going to sit here and share some of this crystals older recordings with your memory fragment. I don't know if... it will stir anything... but I'd like to think that wherever you are right now... that the sum total of all of you knows I'm here and is listening. And if you are listening, I want to help you remember."
Lokelani double taps the crystal to end the recording and restore playback mode. The recording crystal dates back to before the Crown Wars as far as Lokelani knows, so she isn't sure how old the oldest recorded log is, but the logs do tend to fade and grow full of static with age until even the static is gone.
The first log she plays for Hokanoe's memory fragment is one of the oldest logs still playable. It was old even before Lokelani and Hokanoe were even born. It's an ancient elven melody full chimes and flutes and still quite soothing despite the static. Lokelani and Hokanoe often used this old recording as a lullaby to go to sleep to as children.
Next Lokelani plays a series of logs from when they were children, full of the twins laughter and childhood secrets, like sneaking over the village's baker's house to snitch his fresh baked cookies from the windowsill. Or the times Lokelani was forced to defend Hokanoe from the elven children of the village who would take advantage of Hokanoe's gentle and kind nature. Or how Hokanoe helped Lokelani make friends with those very same children once they were all older.
Lokelani spends hours playing back logs of such things for Hokanoe's memory fragment... and even just chatting to it about nothing at all.
-
The afternoon sun beat down on Lokelani's brow and the streets of Peltarch around its southern wall. With a deep grunt, the fey knight shoved the wagon wheel she had hefted from the supply depot into the barricade she had spent the better part of a day supervising the construction of. She turned and twisted the wagon wheel to lock together and reinforce the junk all piled and interlocked together in the makeshift barricade. The overturned wagons, assorted furniture and spare wagon parts all fit together in a giant, improvised jigsaw puzzle.
She wiped sweat from her brow as she looked over the rest if the day's handiwork. One more street sealed off, even if it would only slow down a determined enemy. That was the idea though, buying every precious moment for the evacuation should Zhentarim forces breech Peltarch's gates.
Lokelani glanced over her rag tag crew of civilian volunteers. Ever since the Zhents overran Norwick, there had been no shortage of volunteers to help shore up Peltarch's defenses. With city's standing Defenders doing all they can just to hold or even slow the Zhents down, it was up to the detachment of Silverymoon Knights in Silver, city guard and civilian volunteers to hold Peltarch. Or as the mission kept shifting focus to ensure the local populous was lead to safety.
She bellowed to make sure she was heard, "GREAT WORK EVERYONE! THAT'S LUNCH! WE'RE AHEAD OF THE OTHER TEAMS, SO AFTER LUNCH DISPERSE AND GO SEE WHAT HELP THE OTHER TEAMS MAY NEED UNTIL SUNSET!"
Lokelani smiled and waved to all the men and women she'd worked with all day, and headed off to the Mermaid for a little quiet time to herself while she ate. She seated herself at empty table outside, and ordered the Icelace fish and chips.
At their usual table closer to the door to the Mermaid's indoors, she spotted her commander, Knight Captain in Silver Amalith, sitting with the much vaunted Golden Geese.
Seeing them in person, it was hard to see why they seemed to have the Cleimant Council in such a tizzy. Sitting there around an ordinary tavern table, to her foreign fey eyes, they mostly blended in with the rest of the Mermaid's patrons that came and went. Lokelani only really knew them from her commander's fireside stories.
It looked like they were listening to Isolde, probably regaling the rest with the most recent news from the war front. Isolde was the fashion forward redhead, right? Or was that he grim-faced blonde. Now that she thought about it, every Goose was looking rather grim and tired. The news must be poor to have them all looking so glum.
The large man that somehow squeezed in at the table, reminded her of a wolf in some ways. That was Dogmac, right? No Dogmac was the nickname her commander's giant of a dog back in Silverymoon. No.. no this was.. what wa ls the name of the giant combat dummy in her commander's basement again? Cormac! That was it. She knew it was something-mac.
He's the one her commander got her knew katana from. Then there was Nick or was it Nate? No Nate wasn't over there... she thinks. It was Perun... Aerith... Geordi... Rihanna... and Lokelani shook her head, because none of those sounded right. The fey's guesses were only getting worse as she went. She really should pay closer attention to Knight Captain Amalith's stories in the future.
"Bah! Pest!"
Lokelani didn't catch what else was said in the group, but whatever it was had turned the collective dour mood to a jovial one based in the laughter. It also drew Lokelani out her thoughts. Beat she could tell, the Geese were taking turns commenting at Dogmac.. er.. Cormac's expense. Whatever did he do to deserve this?
It seemed the Geese were departing for City Halll, so she offered Juniper a warm smile, a salute and a cheery, "Knight Captain Amalith. Good to see you."
Juniper smiled and saluted Lokelani as she followed the Geese to City Hall. "Dame Moonsilver. Good to see you too."
Once they were gone, Lokelani finished up the fish and chips that had been brought to her while the Geese were still at their table. While she ate, she drew her ancient elven recording crystal from her cloak, setting the bluish gem down on the edge of her own table. The fey cupped a hand over the crystal, closing her eyes to concentrate on attuning it into recording mode. Once it had grown chill to the touch, and it's core inner glow pulsed dimly, she lifted her hand away.
Lokelani smiled warmly down at the crystal, "Hokanoe! Hey, Sis. Gods! Sometimes I hate being the responsible twin. Would you believe I met the Mushroom Knight! Finally, someone who seems to know you well enough that they recognized me before I told them I had a sister who looks like me."
"Yet here l am, back in Peltarch, helping my fellow Knights in Silver oversee preparations for the likely inevitable Zhent siege. Don't get me wrong, that is a worthwhile endeavor. It's just that after so many years of seeing you being a pie in the sky dream... I'm SO tantalizingly close to actually finding you, and my official knightly duties have me out here handholding folk who didn't probably thought us Knights in Silver should all go back to Silverymoon until a few weeks ago."
"If I weren't the responsible one, I could just blow all this off, and run out to find out right this instant. But... I can't just abandon these people to the Zhentarim. For once know you are safe...I have good grounds to believe you are safe.. please be safe... and of sound mind. Despite my reservations after talking to that Mushroom Knight, I know these people in Peltarch need us right now. Anything hypothetical mushroom spores have done to you, have likely already done their thing, and likely wouldn't be any worse in a couple weeks than it already is... because you've already been there so long."
"I know, who am I trying convince? Me... and I'm failing at it. Sadly, the recent spike in drow raids all through the Moonwood, Cold Wood, Druarwood and the Night Trees in and around the north of Silverymoon means a permanent replacement can't be sent out here anytime soon. Knight Captain in Silver Amalith has been kind enough not cancel my leave of absence, but I still have to put in a day or two helping out now and then. All depends on how serious the Zhent threat to Peltarch currently is."
"I'm not saying you would ignore their plight... but maybe if I were more like you, Hokanoe... Maybe then I'd have the courage to do what is right for us, and what's left of our village. In reality...I don't think I'd forgive myself if I did such a thing."
"But back to that Mushroom Witch... You don't know how happy I am to know you so close...but if that witch truly has gotten spores in your head... Heads will roll until you are restored to me. That knight was a good sort, but something about his manner was worryingly strange. Who says 'learn your sister'? What did he mean? This is what worries me... Hokanoe.. please be alright. I... I don't what I'll do if I find you a shell of your former self or that you truly don't remember me... Please tell me that's it's just your silly sister being paranoid again... Please..."
Lokelani's voice held steady through most of her introspection, but now she falls silent, choosing to bid her sister farwell as her lunch break comes to an end, and her resolve threatens to evaporate if she dwells any longer on these hypothetical dark thoughts. Deep breaths to calm herself.... "Anyway.... Lunch is over, so I better get going. Talk to you later. Love you, Hokanoe."
She double taps the crystal to stop recording mode, and pockets the crystal. Lokelani leaves her table and the Mermaid to go check on her civilian volunteers.
-
The lazy afternoon sunlight filtered down through the canopy of the Moonwood, casting dappled shade over Lokelani and the fallen log she sat on. She was resting and watching the hired hands from Silverymoon start work on what will be a cabin on the edge of Forest Knoll. The very same village she was born and raised in.
Lokelani was still decked out in her most silvery and shiny ceremonial armor complete with the katana she had received from High Mage Silverhand for completing her training as a bladesinger in the ancient Elven traditions. Refurbished from an old blade Knight Captain in Silver Amalith had found in some old skald's shop back east in Peltarch.
She drew the well-honed blade, and observed how it glinted even in dappled sunshine. The fey knight swished her sword to cut a figure eight through the air, and reached into her cloak's pocket with her free hand.
Looking over the blade once more, she whispered to it in Sylvan, "We're going to cut our way to Hokanoe, you and I. It does not matter how many goblins, hell goblins, kua toa, undead, Zhentarim or whatever gets in our way."
Her free hand drew out her bluish recording crystal, which she set down on the fallen log. Sheathing her new katana, Lokelani settled back on the log beside her recording crystal, she cupped a hand over it. Vibrant, neon Spring green eyes lightly close as she draws her focus to attuning the crystal into recording mode.
Once it's chilled and it's inner glow had dimmed and started pulsing, she knew it was ready. Lokelani just hoped her thoughts were as well.
Brushing a few stray red hairs back behind one of her elongated fey ears, she smiled warmly down at the crystal. "Hokanoe! Hello."
Lifting her neon Spring green gaze up to workers breaking ground on her new cabin, she continued, "You wouldn't believe where I am right now. Home! Forest Knoll! Believe it or not there's nine survivors who have returned to make it a living village again. And if its not too presumptuous of me... soon you and I will make it a population of eleven. That's not quite half what it was before, but it's a start."
Tears both wistful and joyous well up, "Frankly, I'm not invested returning to Forest Knoll or even the Moonwood once I find you. As long as we're together, the Moonsilver Twins can make it anywhere. But I've been to Caldera Manor, Hokanoe."
"Met some more of the people you met. They say you're really nice. Even the big scary bugbear general. No surprise there. You always could charm anyone... with or without the benefit of our heritage."
"I'm sure you've seen the big ruby there. The one the half-fiend keeper of the red keys seems so enthralled by. I don't know how much you know about it, but apparently there's an alien presence within it. And after getting foolishly way too close to the ruby myself, I now understand why it has the half-fiend so enthralled."
"In it, I saw you... and me. We were reunited already! And so happy again. It was like all of the past few years hadn't happened at all. I... I had to literally be dragged away from the ruby or I'd be as enthralled as the half-fiend."
Lokelani had been holding herself emotionally steady, even if she was teary while she spoke. It is now that her voice falters briefly and she chokes up, leaving silence in the recording. The rustling of leaves in the gentle breezes, and distant sound of the hired hands working on the cabin. Then with a deep breath she starts talking again as if she never stopped.
"I know none of that was real... but that ruby made it feel so real... that I had to do something to make sure that when we do reunite, it's every bit as fulfilling. So I've gone to the trouble of having us a new cabin built in Forest Knoll. The old one, like most of the old village was a smoldering ruin when... that night was over. So we couldn't move back to our old cabin if we wanted to. I'm not sure I would want to."
"But we have to live somewhere, and being around the other survivors might be good for us. At minimum, it's a place to start, if we can't decide on anywhere else immediately. And here that?"
Lokelani picks up the crystal and holds it out toward the sounds of construction, which do grow louder when the crystal is aimed toward them. They grow faint again as Lokelani sets the crystal on the log again.
"That's the sound of our new home coming together! Of we decide to move back. No pressure... just... it'll be nice to have one less thing to worry about after we're finally reunited."
Lokelani chuckles darkly, "Listen to me, talking like even that's a sure thing." But there is an undeniable, unsinkable cheer in Lokelani's voice as she continues, "But you know what? In my heart of hearts, I feel like I know its gonna happen."
"Rebuilding our childhood home is not the only reason I'm back in and around the Moonwood these past couple days. I've also completed my bladesinger training. I'm the the first new bladesinger to complete the ancient Elven rights in years, at least while in service to the Knights in Silver. So they made a big to do about it. Alustriel Silverhand, herself, presided over the ceremony. She officially knighted me into being a full Knight in Silver. Technically, I already was, but now in every way that counts, it couldn't be any more official finally. She used a new katana that Knight Captain in Silver Amalith got me from her ex-husband in Peltarch, and had refurbished. It's a sight to see...you can feel the Lady of Dreams in its moonlight like glow."
"It also came with a fancy title, Dame Lokelani Moonsilver, Bladesinger and Knight in Silver. I don't know how I feel about having Dad's last name in there instead of Mom's 'of the Moonwood', but apparently official titles require official last names."
Lokelani hears one if the hired hands call her over, so she smiles wistfully back down to the crystal. "The people rebuilding our cabin need to talk, so I guess official congratulations need to wait. Talk to you later, Hokanoe. Love you!" She double taps her elven recording crystal to end recording mode, and pockets it back in her cloak before rising to go see what the hired hands want.
-
Ordinarily, Lokelani of the Moonwood can be seen wandering this way or that through the halls of Moonreach Keep. She's usually keeping herself busy refininf the sword techniques her Knight Sargent in Silver taught her when she was still a Squire in Silver or honing her understanding of the Weave. Pursuing the path of a bladesinger requires strong dedication to both.
It also requires keeping a certain balance in one's life. Doubly so after Lokelani learned that she and the rest of the Locus Operandi had been cursed. It was hard enough to lose a friend like Laura even briefly. The thought that Lokelani and any of the other Operandi could forget about one another hit even harder.
That's what that curse they had all been struck with was threatening. Scarier still, was the thought of forgetting about her sister, Hokanoe, or Hokanoe being targeted by the same curse and having already forgot all about Lokelani.
All of that horrified Lokelani to no end, which is why today she had declared to be a day of rest. The Lady-of-Thorns, as Aen had started calling her, had no intention of giving into this curse. Keeping mind and body in balance was all the more important now.
She had willed her fey song onto one of the newer guards on top of her natural, sparkling fey charms to ensure privacy in the Keep's bath. Lokelani also had to play go between to get couple shifts voluntarily traded between guards, but for the next hour she should have the bath all to herself. Sure the fountain in her room garden was excellent for soaking in. Today was special. To get the most of her day of rest, Lokelani wanted to be stretch out in way that just wasn't easy in her fountain.
After securing door behind the guard in the hallway, Lokelani shed her kimono, and strode over into the bath waters. She pulled a small bluish crystal from her kimono's sleeve as she dropped the garment to the floor. The garden and this bath were her two favorite places in the Keep. To a rose whose roots grew up in rich forest soil, they offer welcome respite.
Settled in the water, Lokelani held the bluish crystal in her fist and closed her eyes to attune it to recording mode. Once the crystal was cool to the touch, and it's inner glow was pulsing dimly, she set it on the edge of the pool.
She smiled warmly and chimed at the crystal, "Hokanoe! Hello."
The fey slouched down low enough to dunk her head of red hair under the surface. She rose in the water only enough to blow bubbles across the water surface while composed her thoughts. For an awkward moment, the only sound for crystal to record was sloshing water and gurgling.
Lokelani laughed nervously, her voice taking on a playfully formal tone, "Sorry for the long pauses, Lady Alustriel." In her next breath, the joking was gone from her voice, "But what I plan to say during one these audio logs to you always goes out the door. So let's see if I can get back on track here."
She chuckles and shakes her head, "It feels like ages since we played as two of the Seven Sisters, ruling Silverymoon from our own little corner of the Moonwood."
The fey allows herself to dwell on the amusingly pleasant memory, continuing to giggle thinking back. Her giggling subsides into a heavy sigh. She continues in a more somber tone, "I love that memory, and keeping it and all my others from fading into the ether, is why I'm talking to you today. Locus Operandi, that little group I told you about before, well it turns out we've all been cursed. A curse that purportedly will rob us of all our memories as it gets worse."
She sighs again, pausing to keep herself collected before continuing on. Neon spring green eyes blurring her vision with their own moisture, she dried them on a couple fingers, "I'm sorry. It's just that ever since learned of this curse, and since we got it doing some of the same things you and your little group were reportedly doing, I can't help fearing how you might have been struck by the same curse. And if you have, do you even remember me? When we meet, will you even recognize your own twin sister?"
Momentarily breaking down at this possibility, the crystal recording the sound of her short, shallow sobbing, and her struggle to keep control of herself. Lokelani laughed at herself in embarrassment. "Listen to me carry on... after everything I'm sure you've been through, the last thing you need to hear is your dear sister losing it." She chuckled again, "No, Hokanoe, I won't do that to you."
She sighs more softly, shaking her head at herself once her self-effacing laughter settles. "My friend and fellow Operandi, Laura... we temporarily lost her from the living. After she was restored to us, it turned out her premature death accelerated the curse's effects. She didn't remember many of the letters she had recently written her own missing sibling, her brother. Yet it was the comfort she seemed to take in having those lost memories to read about that inspired me. I'm going to tell the story of how the Zhentarim shattered our family. I know you'd rather not relive that, but this recording is more for me than you."
To keep from losing her nerve, she continues straight into her story, "If it weren't for this blasted curse, I know I'd never forget that day. Remember it was the first Summer after we reached the age of ascension that Spring. We were so excited to finally be seen and treated as adults around the village. At least, I was. You weren't so keen on all our new responsibilities."
Lokelani chuckles and smiles wistfully as she continues, "You may be the 'good' twin, dear Hokanoe, but one of us had to be the responsible twin. That fell to me."
Sniffing, Lokelani just barely kept her emotions in check. The way her voice caught in her throat and quavered would come through in playback. "But I failed at that the one time you actually needed me, didn't I? On that horrible, horrible day..."
Her voice trailed off and it her a moment to not break down completely into sobs. Lokelani was laughing again through her tears when she managed to continue, "It started out such a good day. Sure I was stuck helping mom collect more herbs for her poultices and potions, but she finally trusted me to go out into forest alone. I was... so proud of myself. The whole day to my own, and all I had to do was make sure to collect enough herbs for mom by the end of it."
Lokelani sloshed little water as she leaned on the pool's edge, closer to the crystal, "I had such a grand morning. Meandering through the forest at my own leisurely pace, no need to hurry. I knew where all the best places to collect herbs were, and had more than enough time to take the scenic route. It was around time I was heading back for lunch when things went bad... everything went bad."
She peered into the crystal's blue dimly pulsing heart, "Mom came running out of the village, she was so... terrified. I'd never seen her like that in my life. Scared, worried yes, but never so terrified for her life... our lives. Though she was tremendously relieved to find me and see I was still okkay. She said the village was under attack, and that we had get back to the cottage for you and dad so we all could all flee to Silverymoon quickly as possible."
Now that the story was pouring out, it was far easier keeping her composure. Lokelani still sniffled, but went on without pause, "There would be no time for packing. She took my hand, and we hurried back toward our cottage. Only... only we were already too late."
Letting the tears roll freely down her cheeks, fresh soon filled her verdant, neon spring green eyes, story still on a roll, "The raiders...the...Zhentd had bound and dragged dad out. They had on him on his knees were taking turns beating on him. Those slavers had apparently gotten word of young fey twin girls in the village, and they were doing their worst to him to find out where we were. It was awful! His nose was broken, face heavily bruised and bleeding from various cuts. Yet didn't say a word. He would never give us up."
Lokelani again verges on the edge of losing herself to sobbing, but feeling it important to get it out, she forges on, "It... it.. it was more than could bear! I can't even fathom how mom was feeling. I couldn't sit by and let the Zhents do that to my... our dad. But mom physically held me back from rushing in. As bad I'm sure she wanted to go in too, there was no way she was going to risk losing her daughters too."
"So we sat and w-waited... hoping the Zhents would give up and move on, leaving dad behind." There's some more sloshing as Lokelani slumps and slouches back in the pool. "Then bad dream turned full nightmare..."
Lokelani leaves one more long pause as she gathers her wits again, before going on. "I imagine you felt every bit of rage and fear, wanting to get out there and stop them as much as I did. Because before I knew it, there you were charging out of hiding to save our dad. And you were too far away for mom to stop you in time like she had me. I have no doubt you could've saved dad from one or two of the raiders, but there just too many of them for all of us, let alone you by your lonesome."
"Y-you were overrun and overwhelmed before you could even get to dad. And that... and that... a-and that..." Lokelani's quavered more than it had before anytime during the whole retelling so far.
"...an-and that was when Mom turned to me and told me to run and keep running until I was safe in Silvermoon and have help sent back. She kissed me on the forehead and shoved me to start running. When she rushed out to take on the whole squad of Zhent's by herself, I knew she was counting on me. So I ran... and when dared look back, Mom was holding her own against all of them. She was cutting them down and had almost made her way to you. Being an experienced druid even before we were born, that was no surprise."
Voice still cracking and quavering, "The Zhentarim Lieutenant who had been leading dad's interrogation stopped her in her tracks. He and his main enforcer towered over mom. i didn't pick up on his actual name nor the enforcers, but I'll never forget their faces. I later learned the enforcer had some stupid moniker, like the Butcher... you know the kind of name real monsters revel in."
Seething rage soon fills Lokelani's voice mingling with her grief in every word. "Those two plus the surviving Zhent grunts were too much even for Mom. I-I didn't see the end though, I ran as far and hard as I could, while they were distracted. Silverymoon is not that. Far south of Forest Knoll as the crow flies... but that day, it never felt further or more distant. It may as well have been on the other side of Faerun, but I kept running."
"And running and running and running....and running. It was late nightfall by the time I reached Silverymoon's northern walls. Running for your life and evading Zhent troops while doing it takes a lot out of you."
"The rest I only know second hand from the Knight Captain in Silver who responded to my plea for help on Forest Knoll's behalf. From what the knights could tell when they got there, you were nowhere to be found, and there signs that mom and dad had.. h-had been partially eaten!! The Butcher is apparently infamous for eating many elves... well now he could count our dad as one of them! And a half-fey, our mom! What was left of them had been so desecrated or cursed that restoring them to life was impossible!!"
An angry splash and scream of rage later, Lokelani begins to calm again, enough to wrap up her log. "The same Knight Captain in Silver is the one who recruited me into the Knights... said they saw in me someone who didn't want only blood in vengeance, but also someone who wanted to make sure the same thing never happened to someone else. I thought they were full of it at the time, but here I am... a full-fledged Knight in Silver, who really does enjoy helping others. But make no mistake, a big important part me will see that there is blood to be repaid."
"That's what my heart wants... the part of me that still wishes I had run out to help you and mom.. My brain, that part of me that makes me the responsible twin, always tells me to not be stupid and not to throw everything I've built since the raid. That Mom and Dad would hate it if I threw my life away like that."
"And maybe once I find you... it will be easier to listen that part of me... and one more time be the responsible twin you need me to be. But, Hokanoe, that's not always as easy as I may have made it seem. I was never doing it to ruin your fun or make you look bad. I know you know that.... I hope."
"Love you, Alustriel. Alassra out."
Lokelani double taps the elven recording crystal to end the log, and spends the rest of her hour in the pool in meditative contemplation.
