Welcome back to Tuesday Tales!  This weeks prompt is Wired. 

And I’m back with my little short story fantasy series. This week I’m going to introduce a new character yet again. Ariawynne is an elf from another realm who has very distinct and secret knowledge.

She has been watching and guarding Elora her whole life without the woman’s knowledge. In this excerpt she has one task to complete:

Ariawynne crept along the edge of the river, careful to remain unseen. Most of those in this realm would never spot her. However, the person she trailed was not a normal mortal, she was not even mortal. Smart as she was, as talented with magic as she was, Elora had no idea what she truly was or was capable of.

While the woman tended to the berry bushes Ariawynne had intentionally diseased to draw her out, Ariwynne studied Elora with care.  The elaborate mask she bore on her features had kept her an outcast in her own society. It was for the better, though. In the elfin lands, Elora would have been targeted from birth.

Better an outcast than to live with a target on your back.

Ariawynne was one of the few in Shel Thalas that knew Elora even existed or what she was. For near-twenty-one years she had kept the secret, as she’d been bound to do. She’d been tasked by the king himself to keep watch over the Halfling.

The time had come for her days as Elora’s watcher to end, and the young woman still did not know enough. Ariawynne could do nothing to make Elora aware of her, but she wasn’t bound to prevent the Halfling from learning what she was.

She pulled the wire-wrapped pendant from her satchel and turned it over in her hand. The moment it was exposed to air, Elora straightened from her task. The pendant contained a Cilone stone from Shel Talas, and had been wired by Ariawynne’s friend, one of the most powerful metal workers in their land. The simple exposure to the air of Estaria set the metal humming as if an instrument string had been strung.

Sabra, Elora’s familiar, glanced Ariawynne’s way and its elegant tail swished back and forth twice. Years ago Sabra had become accustomed to Ariawynne’s presence. At the moment the feline’s large eyes focused on the stone, her ears twitched a few times before she yawned.

“What is that, Sabra? Do you hear it?” Elora tilted her head. “What an unusual sound. Perhaps Cymbeline is practicing nearby.”

Ariawynne closed her fingers over the pendant until the music ceased. She smiled as Elora stopped in her tracks at the same time.

“For years the truth has been hidden, from your people and ours, Elora.” Ariawynne moved deeper into the woods. “Once the truth is known to you, I can reveal myself and answer your questions. It has been too long, but just long enough.”

Ariawynne set the chain over a branch, and pulled the stone close. She whispered a spell and blew gently on the stone to infuse it with the proper knowledge. The specially powered wire would keep the knowledge where it belonged, revealing it only to Elora.

“It is time.”

 

 

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