Vale took one worried glance at the full-length mirror before turning away quickly.
"I said to take a real look," Chel, from his seat on their bed, continued staring at her with his piercing gaze. The new high priestess stared back, until she was forced to blink, rubbing at her watering eyes,
"Don't you blink?" she complained, looking back at him, purposely avoiding the mirror.
"Not if I don't have to," replied the dragon, who stood, his slender elven hands carefully adjusting his habitual black robes. Standing behind Vale he wrapped his arms around her waist, gently turning her to face the mirror, "Go on. There's nothing to be afraid of."
Biting her lip, the young elf looked at her reflection. Her deity had seen to it that she was fully equipped for her new post as high priestess. This included several set of everyday robes and a more ornate set of formal robes. Even her two daggers, which had vanished somewhere during her possession, had returned to the sheaths on her belt.
Vale's robes consisted of a platinum robe slashed to reveal the blue material underneath it. A blue sash was wrapped around her slim waist and to complete the outfit there was a black, open-fronted robe with long sleeves.
"You look beautiful, Vale-uke."
She smiled and leant back against Chel,
"Not as beautiful as you I fear." The dragon's only response was to laugh softly.
"Thank you for everything," Vale hugged both the paladins as they stood outside the wooden boarding house they owned. Chel stood a little way away, his hands clasped together in front of him and the hood of his cloak down. There was a serene expression on his lovely face.
"It'll be... quiet without you two," Keroigar ruffled her hair affectionately, a smile on his face.
"You are sure that you don't need an escort?" Samera spoke in his identical voice. Vale shook her head,
"We'll be fine."
She stepped away, taking Chel's offered hand. She looked back, smiled and was gone.
A second later a massive dragon arrowed across the sky of Waterdeep, flapping its wings once to avoid the city walls, then was gone.
Tiamet Pendragon stood at the summit of Mount Waterdeep, watching his son fly off to the east. Though there were many people up here, repairing the damage caused they didn't notice him. One soldier changed his course without realising it.
Hello brother.
The shade of Tiamat floated across to him.
"My hunch was correct, you did survive Chelevva's attack."
If you can call this surviving, she gestured to her ghostly body.
"You sound remarkably lucid."
I have my moments. But they grow fewer. In my mortal body I haven't had one of these sane moments for seven hundred years.
"Then why aren't you hiding, plotting my demise?" the deity and the shade began walking across to the Celestial Stairway where Tiamet took a seat.
Isn't obvious? I want the deific death, I want oblivion. I do not want to be a drooling mad wreck of a goddess, the shade sat down too, I did a lot of research into this, before the War. There are spells I put on myself so I could survive anything you or your spawn could deal to me. I cannot be killed... unless I so wish.
"And you want me to kill you?"
The shade turned to him,
Believe me when I say that I hate you. I despise you. You are my reflection, my antithesis. But I do respect you brother, at least when I was sane. Will you kill me and end this damn war? End my wretched existence!
Tiamet solemnly nodded and reached out a hand.
Magical energy roared and the shade was instantly consumed. A smile formed on the other deity's face before she vanished.
His job done Tiamet willed himself back to his kingdom.
The valley was golden in the light of the late afternoon. To Vale it was the most beautiful sight she'd seen in a long time. Her eyes were drawn to the vast forest that filled the verdant valley. Her home.
The scene blurred before her eyes as the tears welled up.
"Vale-uke?" Chel dabbed at the tears with his voluminous sleeve, "You are alright?"
Vale looked up at him,
"I'm... home..." abruptly she dropped to her knees, "Fy daear! Fy glawd! Mi dychwelyd!"
Chel smiled as the young cleric cried out in her native tongue: My soil! My land! I have returned!
The pair walked beneath the high, leafy boughs. Unusually their was no sign of any of the elves, any that wanted to be seen anyway. A few times Vale caught sight of a flash of blond hair or of blue eyes staring out at them.
They headed straight for the Temple, passing the buildings of the city, graceful and elegant homes in magically-hollowed out trees that remained living.
The Temple was the largest and grandest building in the forest. White stone steps ran up to the entrance which was a magnificently carved archway with heavy doors of bronze, oak and iron. There were dents in these door from the orc siege almost a thousand years ago.
A huge statue of Tiamet adorned the square before the entrance, watching the coming and goings of the elves with flawless eyes of emerald, amethyst and golden topaz.
Vale and Chel settled down on the bottom step, their legs stretched out in front of them.
Nervously Vale glanced about. There still was no sign of anyone.
"They'll be here Vale. Don't worry," her guardian gently squeezed her hand.
No sooner had he finished his sentence than two of the Guards dropped heavily to the ground.
The elves of the Guard had cloths wrapped round their heads, obscuring their sight. That in no way hampered their fighting ability. Their mounts acted as their eyes.
The mounts of all of Vale's people were, of course, dragons, even if they were the lesser dragons known as wyverns. The wyverns of the Guard were huge and armoured lightly in thin elven steel.
Spears were pointed in the direction of Vale and Chel but uncertainly so. Chel was instantly recognisable with his pale skin, white hair and wings and his black clothing and, even after all this time the guardian commanded instant respect.
A eerie hissing arose from the Guards. It was a sign that they were communicating among themselves. They stopped and one wyvern roared.
It was a sign for the watching elves to come out of hiding. Vale shifted, a little embarrassed, on her seat. Some of the elves were from the Scouts or the Armsmen. Behind them, emerging from the Temple were those of the Clergy. But most were ordinary elves she'd grown up with.
Chel touched her head decorating it with a silver circlet. A murmuring arose from the crowd and was at once silenced as wyvern landed on the ground.
The wyvern was massive, the largest in the forest and the patriarch of the wyvern clan. He was covered in old battle scars and one of his ears had been torn off.
"Hello Gram," whispered Vale before transferring her gaze to the elf sliding off Gram's back.
This elf was tall for his kind and was trying to force his arms through the sleeves of a silk robe to hide the plain hunting leathers he wore. Then, with barely a though, he abandoned the garment, ran to Vale and embraced her.
"Vale..."
"...Father," Vale looked up into her father's face. His eyes, the exact same shade of blue as Vale's, were brimming with tears. The circlet of white metal he wore was askew and his bow was still slung over his shoulder. There was a dab of mud on his cheek.
She burst into tears and hugged him back,
"You still the same Father," she sniffed.
"It is so good to see you... high priestess," her father lifted his eyebrows but then grinned widely (another thing Vale had inherited from him), "You're still the same too."
He turned, one arm still holding his daughter, his other hand straightening his crown,
"The princess and the Imperial Guardian have returned!"
There was a moment of silence then her people began to cheer. Even Gram and the Guard wyverns gave rattling cries that were almost like cheers.
The elven princess looked out at the celebrating elves then turned, smiling, to her father and her guardian,
"I'm home!"
Chel smiled,
"We both are."
THE END
Jessi: And so it is done... Well I must say that this story has changed a lot as well as taking up a lot of time over the past five years. And to see the end result... it is almost unbelievable. Two books, twenty-eight chapters and over thirty thousand words... not to mention all the reviews I've gotten.
Thank you to everyone who has read or reviewed this story. Thank you for putting up with slow updates, rewrites and spelling errors. Thanks guys ;)
As for if I'll write another Dragon God Chronicles... I simply do not know. I do know, however, that I would be very sad to abandon Chel and Vale. So maybe... Maybe...
Thank you again.
Jessica Doyle
2nd October 2005