Disclaimer: Neverwinter Nights 2 storyline and most of the characters featured here are the property of Obsidian. I'm just borrowing them and trying not to damage them too much, in case I need to give them back. Selenya is completely mine, except for the floppy hat which you can buy from Deekin. I'm not a native speaker of English, so grammatical errors (and other strange stuff) are possible and I'm sorry about them. Sometimes, when I feel like a true artiste and decide to break the rules, the errors are deliberate (yeah, right…). I couldn't come up with a better title, since I'm not yet completely sure where this story is going.
Chapter 1: Memories
Selenya
The first thing I remember is dancing at the Harvest Fair. I must have been five or six years old then and I don't remember anything that had happened to me before that. To be honest, my memory has always been a patchwork of significant moments, and all the usual, everyday events have left little mark in my mind. I envy those people who can easily tell me what they did during that wonderful summer when they were seven years old, since the only thing I know is that I must have been seven at some point, but can't really say more about the matter. I blame my mind which has the annoying habit of wandering around, going from one thing to the other, or the fifteenth, in a matter of seconds. When something important happens, my mind can pull itself together to concentrate on the moment and then I might just remember it later on. In my mind, there are huge blank spaces that span for months and then some perfect or horrible day that I will remember for the rest of my life, each little detail of it branded into my memory. But Harvest Fair, when I was five or six, that's what I was going to concentrate on now.
It was a very sunny day. I was annoyingly energetic and curious, as children of that age usually are, and I remember how pleased Daeghun had been when Retta Starling had promised to look after me for the day. I had a new dress, well, actually an old dress, a gift from Mrs. Keefe, whose three daughters had owned it before me. But it was new to me, and clean and red, so I wasn't complaining. We headed to the Fair and there were the usual things that are so wonderful to a child and quite boring for an adult. The biggest pig, longest cucumber and cutest chicken, or something in those lines. And then there were the bards. At first they told some stories, which weren't as good as Georg's stories. When you're a child, the most outrageous lie is also the best one. But once all the stories were told, they began to play.
It wasn't as if I hadn't heard music before. There were travelling musicians coming through the village and performing every now and then, and some of the villagers were also keen musicians. But even though I had heard music before, it had never registered as more than a background noise, something you could tap your feet to. But the music these bards played, it wasn't just something to tap your feet to. It was something that got inside of you and tapped your feet for you. I didn't even realize that I had suddenly left Retta's side, but there I was, in the middle of all the dancers, hopping and twirling and feeling the music, feeling the movements, the motion. Feeling alive, really. At some point Retta asked me whether I was tired and I said no, even though my feet ached, because then she would have taken me home and I couldn't have danced anymore. Finally the bards decided to take a break and Retta snatched hold of my arm in a way that suggested I should follow her or lose the arm. Bevil was standing besides Retta and staring at me with a surprised look on his face.
When we were walking away, one of the bards hurried after us. She was a beautiful woman with long, curly red hair and freckles on her face. She was smiling a brilliant smile when she stopped in front of us and told me that my dancing had been beautiful and that she thought I was very talented. I remember going speechless, not believing that anything I did could be described as beautiful, but she smiled even more and asked me to continue dancing. Then Retta said, in her best mother-voice, that it was way past our bedtime and the beautiful bard nodded and smiled at me one last time and walked away.
"Dancing, of all things," Retta muttered when she marched me back home, but there was a strange, almost sad look in her eyes. I was sent to bed straight away, whereas Retta talked with Daeghun for a while, probably telling him about my behaviour. I should have tried to eavesdrop, as any self-respecting child who is sent away when adults speak, but my head was full of music and my feet couldn't stop moving. I hopped around the room like in a trance, not realizing that Daeghun had appeared to the doorway before he called out my name.
"I thought I told you to go to bed," he said, but he didn't look angry. He often didn't show any kind of emotion. He looked disappointed sometimes, especially during the Harvest Fair when I was eighteen and… But that's a memory to be explored at another time. This time he actually looked a little amused. "Retta told me you were dancing."
"Yes!" I said, and I can still remember that excited squeak in my voice. "It was wonderful, the bards and the music and the…"
"Go to bed now," Daeghun said, quite gently. "There will still be music in the world when you wake up." He stroked my hair, something that didn't happen often either, and then left. I undressed, dropping the beautiful red dress into a messy pile of clothes on a chair and put on my nightgown. Then, unable to resist the urge, I danced around the room as quietly as possible, humming the music in my mind. I'm not whether Daeghun heard me or not, but he didn't come and order me to go to bed. I guess he understood what I had experienced that day. Not that I realized it then, I just felt I had managed disobey a rule, which is a wonderful feeling for a child to have.
Yes, that is the first memory that I have and it's of the Harvest Fair. My favourite time of year. My other good memories are centred either on the Fair or on other moments of joy and dance. No wonder I was drawn to Lliira in a community where most people thought that Chauntea was the sensible choice for a god. I've never been a very devout follower, it's just not a part of my nature, but I'm willing to accept that Lliira exists and that the things she stands for suit me. I'm not certain what kind of afterlife this attitude will earn me, but it's at least true to who I am.
It's unfair that the worst memory of my life is also set in the Harvest Fair. After a wonderful day, winning the Cup and dancing until my feet ached, and of course spending that very pleasant hour with Webb Mossfeld, I went to bed, feeling like I owned the world. I must've only slept for couple of hours when I woke up to screams and shouting and the feeling that something horrible was happening. Amie and Bevil rushed in, telling me to get my weapons because the village was under attack. I put on the leather armour that Daeghun had bought me even though I had told him that it hindered my movements, suddenly very glad of extra protection. I took my dagger, sword, a couple of bandages and, as an afterthought, my lockpicks. Always a smart move, in my opinion. You never know what you will come across, and lockpicks are a girl's best friend. And then I stepped forward to see my whole life burn down.
Not all my memories are nice, but I believe they stay with me for a reason. Always remember what happened to those you loved and remember what you're fighting for. I don't understand why these things are happening to me, why it was Daeghun and not someone else who found the shards. It could've so easily been someone else from the village, and that person might have hidden them elsewhere and then things would have been completely different. I would still be in West Harbor. I wouldn't have come to Neverwinter and met my uncle, or the people who I can now call my companions, even friends. I sometimes feel like I should still be in West Harbor, but I can't deny that it feels good to see the world. To learn new steps, as it were.
Now, because I'm in the service of Neverwinter, I need to travel to Old Owl Well. Hopefully this task will be the last one and I can then get access to Blacklake and find the sage who should be able to tell me something about the shards. Once I have that information, I can travel to West Harbor to tell Daeghun what I've discovered. And ask him about my mother. Duncan knows something but won't tell, so I can only hope that my father can for once open up and talk about my past, about my mother. Share his memories with me.