Some days later, amidst quiet suspicion, the delegation of elves and eladrin arrived in Shade's End from the small nation of Irenmýr, nestled within the Shadewood. They came offering aid and information regarding the New Dawn. Romyr welcomed them warily. Anything out of the Shadewood was viewed as potentially dangerous, and the Irenmýrese had occasionally warred with Lowcliffs and the Shadowreach. For all that the nation proved a formidable opponent, it purportedly consisted of a single city. Those who believed the old tales insisted that Irenmýr was a sprawling empire within the Feywild, and that its inhabitants could cross over to the material plane at will.
Whatever the size of their country, the Irenmýrese were fierce fighters, often gifted with spellcraft. If they proved true friends against the New Dawn, a more formal alliance might be arranged, Romyr mused. That would keep the Rimespire lot in line for coming years. And so the gates were opened and the delegates were feasted, while Erryn and several other high-ranking Guild officials were surreptitiously invited to attend. Elves were elves, after all, and no one ever died of a little extra caution.
Introductions were made. The eladrin, making up five of the nine representatives, were marked by their cool, straight-backed grace and uniformly colored eyes. Their names and titles were lilting and flowery, like their accent. The elves shared many of the same traits - they were fair of face, slender of body, and walked lightly enough to make no sound - but were undeniably a separate race. While the eladrin were ethereal and aloof, the elves leapt from emotion to emotion with the swiftness of a mountain stream, allowing each to express itself however it might manifest at the time. They made walking seem a dance.
The names and faces were easy enough for Romyr to memorize, but none stood out until the Lady Myrenna Undome'elen.
She was attractive for a human, plain for an elf, with a fine-featured face and dark eyes. Her hair was feathery black, her skin the bronze color that was common among the Irenmýrese. The dress she wore was lamb's ear green, simply cut but of fine quality. A silver leaf-shaped pendant hung at her throat and a ring rode her right hand. All this, Romyr took in at a glance, but he found himself looking more closely, for their was something about her…
Upon seeing his face, her eyes widened almost imperceptibly. Her mouth opened slightly as if to speak, then with a swift glance at her companions she turned the motion into a smile. Instead of a curtsey she presented Romyr with a strange bow and murmured a pleasantry. Then she was gone, and the next delegate was being introduced before Romyr had time to piece together what had just happened.
The feast was sumptuous, and after everyone had a drink or three the mild tension in the hall began to ease. It was clever of Irenmýr to send a combination of elves and eladrin, Romyr reflected. By themselves, the elves were too wild and the eladrin too restrained, but with both together a balance seemed to establish. Men could relate to certain aspects of both, and perhaps recall that they had a touch of fey blood themselves. Slightly tapered ears were not an uncommon trait in the Reach, nor was an extended lifespan.
For his part, the Talon sat beside the ceremoniously empty chair, ornately carved, that was Rhaal Syrek's place at the high table. He ate what was set before him, talked and jested with the other lords, traded stories with the eladrin woman seated next to him. It would have felt just another feast and just another day but for the two dark eyes boring into him throughout the meal. At last, their owner seemed determined to wait no longer.
When the eladrin woman (Thèrain, her name was) seemed sufficiently distracted by an argument with the gentleman to her right, Myrenna Undome'elen approached Romyr, announced only by a whisper of silk. He turned in his seat to greet her, feeling much more at ease with several drinks in him. "My lady," he said in Elvish.
Her smile was amused, if a touch exasperated. She answered him in the common tongue. "Don't you 'my lady' me, Roamer. Where in the Nine Hells and all material planes have you been?"
The casual, intentional mispronunciation of his name threw him off balance. "I'm sorry, I don't take your meaning."
Some of the elf's smile faded. "We thought you were dead. We found Istar Luänin's body and assumed the worst. Why didn't you answer when we called you with the ring?"
"Ring?" Romyr asked faintly, now at a complete loss.
She offered the one on her own hand. It was silver, set with a pale green stone. Romyr recognized it. He'd woken up in the Shadewood with an exact copy on his finger. He hadn't worn it since. He swallowed, throat suddenly dry. "Do I...know you?"
The Lady Undome'elen looked as if he'd struck her. She took an involuntary step back, eyes narrowing. "Come on, now. Stop playing." When neither an apology nor any expression of amusement were forthcoming, she paled. "Gods above... Did they do this? Did the-" She searched his eyes, horror growing on her face. "No. The veil. Luänin said you'd be fine, may his soul be charred in Baator."
Romyr understood none of this, save for the mention of Baator, but a dim scrap of memory came back to him. He'd dreamed, the first night back in Shade's End. You'll feel a little blurry. With proper concentration, however, you should be fine. The meal he'd just consumed turned to ice in his stomach. "You know what happened to me?" It came out as a plea.
The elf hesitated, twisting her ring with a nervous tension. "We should talk elsewhere," she said softly, not meeting his eyes.
Romyr nodded in determined agreement. "Find me after the feast."
Lady Undome'elen melted away again. Romyr was quiet for the remainder of the meal, talking only infrequently and scarcely tasting the rest of the food. Excitement and dread fought for dominance inside of him. To find out what had happened in that blank space was an enticing prospect, but somehow it made him nervous. Whatever had happened in those couple days, it didn't seem to be anything good. He had just been feeling truly balanced for the first time since getting back, and now wondered if digging up the past was such a good idea after all.
As he left the hall, the Lady Undome'elen slid smoothly out of the shadows and fell into step near him, far enough away that it seemed they were walking together out of coincidence. Romyr was acutely aware of her presence. Looking at her out of the corner of his eye, trying to decide what that intangible somethingness around her was, he finally realized something. There was no spark of recognition when he looked at her. If that had been the case, he would have noticed straight off. No, she was too familiar for a spark of recognition. He'd somehow become so accustomed to her presence that he was totally and completely unsurprised to see her face.
He knew her, and knew her painfully well.
His rooms in the Talon's Tower were the only place he could think of off the top of his head where they were sure not to be disturbed. He glanced up and down the corridor before unlocking the door and slipping inside. When she joined him, she turned and locked it again.
"Alright," Romyr said, leaning against one wall with his arms crossed. "Tell me why I woke up in the middle of a forest with a knife in my leg and no memory of what happened."
"That, I don't think I'll be much help with," the elf responded. "I don't know what occurred after you left Silverspire with Luänin. But before-"
"Hold up. Where's Silverspire? And who's Luänin?"
She gave him an irritable look. "Silverspire is this city's reflection. One of them, at least." Seeing another question forming on his tongue, she rushed onwards. "Luänin is-was-our Taurn Istar, our high mage. His was a great loss." She glanced at the floor, brooding.
Romyr cleared his throat. "So I was at this...Silverspire for my missing days?"
The elf flinched. "Not...not exactly. You see, Silverspire is Shade's End's reflection in another plane of existence." Seeing his dumbfounded look and mistaking it for confusion, she added, "You were in the Feywild."
"The Feywild," he repeated, and felt ill. The Feywild was children's stories and old wives' tales. The Feywild was gods and monsters and feats of incomprehensible magic. The Feywild was legend, and that's where it should stay, locked safely behind a cage of words. The Talon of the Rhaal had no business in the twisted realm of chaotic magic, where impossible beasts stalked the landscape and nightmares roamed the forests.
It will be like waking from a dream.
"Godsdammit," he croaked. "You're serious, aren't you? I was in the- ...My blank space, my missing days were in the Feywild?"
Lady Undome'elen looked at him with a mixture of despair and pity. "Romyr...you weren't there for a handful of days. You were in the Feywild for five years."
The blood drained from his face. It was a full minute before he remembered how to speak. "That's not possible." The sword, the knife, the wrongness. "That's not possible, they never missed me, they said I was only gone for a couple weeks."
"Possible is relative. So is time, as it turns out." She sighed and began to twist her ring again. "In the Feywild...in any alternate plane, really, time tends to flow differently. It's worst in chaotic planes, where you simply don't know how time in that world will translate to time in another world. Years into days...I've never even heard of such a huge discrepancy, but you've always bent the rules."
He felt lost, no, drowning. Missing a few days was annoying and puzzling, but years? How could so much time have been stolen from him? Five years was enough to change a life, make one unrecognizable. Five years was too much. "What was I doing all that time? Why didn't I come back?"
She met his eyes with her dark ones. "You didn't want to. You thought o- You thought the work you were doing was too important."
"Our. You were about to say our." Romyr stared at her, trying to see a person he'd once known. "What were we doing?"
She hesitated. "Do you really not know me?"
It was her voice, it was the hunger in her eyes. It was the creak of a hinge in the dark and a flood of relief. "Ren?" he whispered.
Her gaze was uncomfortably intense, lit by a spark of hope. "You remember."
"I..." His voice twisted in anguish, because he'd had it, he'd seen it, for a split second he had know her. And then it was gone, fading to black. Oh gods, Ren, I'm blind.
She looked down again, angry disappointment in her expression. "I don't believe this. It's like you're gone. How the hell did this happen? How the hell could the veil take five years without a trace?"
Romyr couldn't look at her, couldn't stand the almost-remembering. His eyes fell on Daesalka instead, hanging reproachfully on its peg by the door. "What I- What we were doing... Did it have to do with the Last Light?"
Up came those dark, intense eyes. "You know the-"
She was interrupted by a knock on the door. Romyr jumped slightly, having forgotten where they were, and that other people existed. Ren raised an eyebrow. "Expecting someone?"
Wordless, he shook his head and unlocked the door, hand itching for Daesalka. As it turned out, he had no need of it. Tayna's curious face appeared in the slim opening between door and frame. "Romyr, I went looking for you after the feast. Is something wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, love." Without thinking, Romyr opened the door wider to admit her.
Immediately, Tayna's blue eyes landed on Ren, who was still standing quietly in the corner. Romyr felt the temperature drop by about ten degrees and realized his mistake. "It's not what you think," he said quickly, but too late.
"Oh, of course not." Tayna tossed her golden curls. "It's never what I think. When you offered to marry me, I thought we were in love. When you told me about your memory loss, I thought we trusted each other. When I came here, I thought you'd be alone, not dallying with some elf." She turned on her heel, hair and dress swirling, and stormed off into the corridor. Romyr unfroze and raced after her. "Tayna! Tayna, wait! She was helping me with-"
"Don't try to explain yourself! I don't want to hear it." She brushed him aside when when he reached for her. He'd never seen her so angry.
"Tayna, what's really wrong?"
"You!" she practically shouted. "Ever since you got back, you've been so- so distant, and just when I need you most I find you shut up with another woman."
"I tried to tell you, that was-"
"I don't care! You're off in your own world, and you never have thoughts to spare for me. I'm tired of being part of your background."
He was sorely tempted to point out that she was the one turning down his marriage proposal, but decided against it. "You've never been background for me. I've just when been feeling out of sorts, what with my memory loss and the Rhaal going off to fight."
She seemed only marginally calmer. "When you're back in sorts, find me. Until then, just keep out of my way." This time when she pulled away, he let her go.
Ren crossed her arms as he reentered the room. She was silent for a long moment, and Romyr could only guess at the emotions that flickered across her face. Finally, she said, "I am sorry."
"I didn't see you offering any help," he muttered, falling into a convenient chair.
"I could only have made it worse." Her eyes were unreadable. "You really don't remember anything, do you?"
She kept returning to that well-established point. It irked him. "That's a little unfair. I remember who I am."
"No, you don't," Ren said bluntly. A sigh. "I need to think about some things. Find me in the morning if you like, but don't expect good news." On that sunny note, she brushed past him and left the room as Tayna had done. The sound of the door shutting was crisp and final.
Long after he was alone, Romyr remained as he was, staring at the space Ren had vacated and feeling as if he'd lost something much more than memories tonight.
- End of Part One -
Things have been happening! I finally realized I had been neglecting my stories! Apologies that this chapter is a short one; there wasn't much left of Part One. Thanks to GambentIceBlade for the reviews! And speaking of... You have at least one finger with which to work the "Review" button, dear reader. I know you do. So click it! Thanks :3