Ailnea ate her dinner quietly while the family they were with caught up with each other concerning the ordinary sort of everyday affairs. This was a very good meal indeed, and she made a mental note to thank Xis’tiel for it as soon as the proper moment presented itself. Right after she had finished a particularly juicy chicken leg, Kythor turned the conversation on her.

“So, what’s it like living in the Aibrone temple? I hear everyone lives amid mountains of silk and gold, and that the elder himself sleeps upon a bed made from the feathers of the most exotic species of birds.” Kythor said.

“Oh, no, nothing as fancy as all that, though there is a particularly beautiful silk tapestry trimmed with gold depicting a phoenix in flight in the doorway to the healing center in the citadel. No, plain beds stuffed with straw, wooden furniture, it’s the simple life for us. All that fanciness tends to be distracting. As for what sort of bed the elder sleeps in, I believe it to be filled with cotton, though I do know he recently purchased a brand new goose down quilt in anticipation of the oncoming winter months.” Ailnea said quietly.

“So, what, you sit around and meditate all day?” Raequan asked, seemingly genuinely interested in life in the Aibrone temple.

“Only when necessary, more often we do a variety of activities. For instance, there are our world famous arenas where many skilled persons from all walks of life have come to undertake a variety of challenges, each for their own reasons.” Ailnea said.

“Is it hard raising the dead?” Kythor’s wife asked.

“Yes, it takes more skill than I possess to accomplish such a feat.” Ailnea responded.

“So what are you going to that accursed temple for tomorrow?” Kythor asked, almost with a snarl.

“Must you know every detail of our guest’s life?” Thrugh'lhak asked.

“I don’t mind.” Ailnea said, then turning to Kythor, “Imagine you were born on the other side of the world, no family save for the kind strangers that took you in and raised you as one of their own. You grow up thinking your one of them, just, slightly different, somehow. Then, a merchant vessel pulls into port, and you learn of Deathain, a land where many others like yourself live. You learn you’re Draconian, and that there is an entire culture, an entire aspect of yourself you missed out on growing up. Wouldn’t you sail back with the merchant vessel and learn about who, and what, you truly are? It is the same for me. I have never in all my life encountered another like myself. My mother died in birth, and yet growing up and living in the citadel all these years, not once has another like me ever appeared. Then, my mother’s spirit returns to tell me what I really am, an eldritch creature from beyond the stars. She tells me there’s a temple built by my people, that I should investigate it, to learn more about my true self.

I do not go for power, or glory, for such desires are the domains of the vain and the foolish. I do not go seeking to bring harm to others, I seek to know more about what, and who I truly am. It is not enough for me to know that I am an alien to Althanas, a non-native entity with no place in this world. I need to know where my place is, what my purpose is, and my reason for existing. Is it really too much to ask, to let me learn?”

The words had welled up from deep in her heart from some unknown place, as though another had put them there knowing they needed to be said now, rather than later.

Kythor snorted and finished eating in silence, a silence that seemed to affect everyone. Only the crackling of the fire in the hearth broke the silence when it popped unexpectedly.

“I didn’t know eldritch creatures from beyond the stars were so pretty.” Raequan said, bringing a blush to Ailnea’s cheeks.

This caused a round of chuckles and the moment seemed to have passed.

~~~

The next day saw them setting out from the village in silence. Ailnea had retired to the guest room quickly after supper, and as she fell asleep, she heard whispered voices arguing heatedly. She knew she was distrusted because of the temple and what she was, but trusted Lorenor to stand up for her.

Whatever had been said, Kythor now rode along in brooding silence. He had a brown stallion, though Ailnea had missed hearing what its name was. Before setting out, Ailnea offered to simply let him stay behind if he didn’t want to go, but that had brought such a terrifying glare from the man that she hid behind Lorenor and quickly accepted him as a guide.

She noted that it was Kythor who rode in the front, and she who rode in the back. Why he disliked her, or even hated her, she didn’t know. She had never knowingly done anything to him, or his family.

Fog covered the ground as they set out, and it seemed to distort the normal sounds of the creatures in the swamp. It was almost like walking through another world. Ailnea examined the world around her closely, for it felt like the temple was all around her.

The things she saw in the distance, such as the betentacled tree snatching a bird out of the sky, were things she wasn’t sure if it was real, her imagination, or what it might’ve been.
Suddenly she realized she was all alone, Kythor and Lorenor were gone!

“LORENOR! KYTHOR! WHERE ARE YOU?” she yelled out through the fog.

She stopped where she was knowing Lorenor at least would come back for her. Hours passed, and no one came. How could they not notice she was gone? She got down off her horse to stretch her legs, and walked forward a few feet, fear of abandonment creeping into her mind. When she turned around, she gasped, knowing something unusual was going on for the ground she had just walked on was gone, leaving a yawning chasm stretching deeper into the ground than she could imagine. Fog covered whatever was in the distance.

She turned as she heard something move behind her, and caught her breath in fear. A scream died in her throat, as her mind and body stopped working entirely. From the fog came a massive eye easily larger than most mountains, and it was staring right at her. It floated in mid air, attached to a small stalk as thick as an ear of corn. She was on the only pillar of land in a gulf far greater than her mind could accept existed.

“Ailnea, come to me, I await you with eager anticipation. Trust in me, fly to me. I have been gone from this sphere for so long, watching only from a great distance. Let me return Ailnea, summon me back to this place. Ailnea, Ailnea.” The thing called, but not with a physical voice. Its words simply rolled through her mind with all the force of an exploding volcano. The eye shot toward her calling her name, and everything went black.

“Ailnea!” a familiar voice called, and Ailnea woke up to find herself on her horse, slumped over in the saddle.

“If your going to fall asleep in your saddle, hand the reins to us so you don’t fall behind. Be thankful we both have sharp hearing and realized your horse had stopped walking when you dropped the reins.” Kythor said sharply. He had her horse’s reins, and was glaring at her again.

“But, but how? When did I fall asleep? I couldn’t have been asleep. We set off from the settlement, walking along, I was looking closely at the world around us, and suddenly you were both gone, and never came back for me, even after several hours of waiting in one spot. Then, after I dismounted to stretch my legs, the ground fell away, and a giant floating eye told me it was waiting for me. It flew at me and everything went black, then suddenly here I am waking up. What happened? I know I wasn’t hallucinating, it was too real. I couldn’t have been dreaming, I don’t remember falling asleep.” A terrified Ailnea cried.

“You may not remember falling asleep, but you definitely did. If it wasn’t for the hideous things you were hissing in your sleep, I might’ve taken a few minutes longer to realize your horse had stopped. Don’t even ask me to repeat what you were saying; I don’t think I’m physically capable of producing such sounds. Though one phrase did sound oddly familiar, observe, observer? Something like that, anyway, before I woke you up, you were hissing that one phrase, whatever it was you were actually saying, over and over again. Like I said, next time you feel like your about to sleep in your saddle, hand the reins off to us so your horse can be lead.” Kython said, dropping the reins and continuing on not knowing it was actually Eldritch Ailnea had been hissing in.