In the Tower (Patreon)

I sat there in that chamber for I don't know how long, getting hungrier and thirstier and sadder with each hour that passed.  I thought about all the friends and acquaintances and enemies I had lost.  What had become of Estvan and Fifi and Burnside and Ms. Thomson?  Most likely I had murdered them all in a most horrible manner.

I kept hoping that some of my Ixies might show up with provisions for me, but they never did.  I could feel myself getting weaker.  A slow death by privation was undoubtedly better than I deserved ...

"Oh Mighty Fuma," I prayed fervently as I felt my demise coming on.  "Please forgive me.  I tried to do what you wanted, but it all went horribly wrong.  I don't ask that you save me from this predicament, only that you welcome me into your eternal Embrace.  I'm sorry for everything."

"Adler," a divine voice uttered from somewhere nearby and slightly above me.  "Pull yourself together."

"F .. Fuma?" I asked

"No, this is your mother."

"MOM?" I exclaimed, as I leaped to my feet and stared at the tiny image floating above the scry orb.  "Where have you been?  Are you all right?  What have you been doing?"

"No time for small talk," she interrupted.  "It is costing me quite a lot to contact you like this, and I only have a few minutes.  The Duchess of Daisies is loose and things are getting bad.  I've heard some stories about what happened in Albric Tor, but what's the real situation?  How are you holding up"

"Everybody's dead," I said, getting choked up again.  "The D-Duchess gave me a weapon called the Plague of Battles, and .. I .. accidentally used it.  The Queen Edessa placed a curse on me, imprisoning me in Albric Tor as punishment for my crime."

"What crime?" my mother retorted.  "It was an accident.  That curse shouldn't hold you."

"Nevertheless it does.  I'm actually stuck in the scrying tower because the land all around me is poisoned with the Plague."

"Are you eating properly?" she asked sternly.

"Mom, I just said I'm stuck in the tower."

"Well, can't you get your Ixies to bring you supplies?  I heard you have command of a whole swarm of them."

"My Ixies fled and I've been locked in the scrying chamber because some crows pecked at the corpses and caught the Plague, and then attacked us."

"So it's true about the Ixies then.  If we ever get a chance to talk again, you'll have to tell me how you managed that.  What about the exit to the lowfolk world?"

"If I could get downstairs then I could get there .. but I can't leave the circle," I replied.  "I already tried that."

"You should go there again," my mother recommended.  "The place gets occasional visitors now, and lowfolk are easily persuadable.  Remember your Wiles training.  Above all, you must survive and fulfill your destiny."

"My destiny??  Mom, it's over.  You just said the Duchess was loose.  That means there's no more Empire.  I failed."

"Faerie can be saved, and you were born to rule it," she stated firmly.  "You have to survive.  As long as you're alive, there is hope.  Practice your magick.  Read the books there in the chamber and learn how to use the tower.  Find a way to escape.  Find Zandar Skönk, whom you are intended to marry.  Re-establish the royal lineage of Irenaeus."

"Uh," I retorted cleverly.

"I've got to go," my mother blurted suddenly with a glance over her shoulder.  "Remember what I said.  Get yourself out of this predicament."

And then she was gone.

I didn't really feel any less miserable, but I did seem to have a new resolve after talking to her.  I guess it was nice to know that at least one elf was alive who was still friendly towards me.  Also, now at least I had something to do.  Books would have to wait; first I needed food.

I took a deep breath and opened the door of the scrying tower.

The enraged crows spotted me right away.  Were these the same ones as before, or were they new?  I didn't know how long I had been moping inside, but the presence of birds and the absence of Ixies was not a good sign.  I ran as fast as I could for the trap-door and dove under it before the first bird could reach me.

Was that a Gap I had glimpsed over the treetops?  I was too busy fleeing for my life to take proper notice of it.

I traversed the exit tunnel and poked my head out of the gate on the lowfolk side.  Immediately a lowfolk stepped around one of the standing stones and pointed at me.

"Lo, Martha," he declared excitedly.  "The Chanson speaks truth, for I espy some manner of forest-spirit or elf peering forth from yon barrow."

"The selfsame barrow which not ten minutes ago we ascertained to be empty?" someone whom I couldn't see inquired.

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