Rough Seas of Time – Part 2: Eleutheria
WarderDragon

We gathered the following night in the mist-shrouded woods of Moonglow.

Magdalena and Lynne were waiting for us. You could see trouble etched on their faces. Was this the same ghost that had called to them? Invading their dreams with a thousand dying screams. Would he show? And what would we do if he did?

As if on queue, the Captain emerged. The transluscent shadow of a man who died a painful, violent death, and who has been tormented for decades.

Taliesin and the Shieldmaiden of Shieba approached him.

Erik Leeward: *he looks about at the faces gathered around him, silently*
Taliesin: We’re here to help. We’d like to see your soul at peace.
Magdalena: Why are you not at peace? Why do you still haunt here?
Erik Leeward: *inclines his head, looking from face to face, and then to Magdalena.*
*opens his mouth, his voice an issuance of what could be only a manipulation of night breeze.*
What know any of you of peace?

The gathered looked at each other. This could end bad.

Erik Leeward: Eight weeks.
*his voice grows stronger as it becomes more practiced.*
Eight weeks with my beloved Ellie…
Taliesin: Where is she now?
Erik Leeward: *looks sadly to Taliesin*
If I knew, I would not be here.
I left her only for an afternoon.
A few hours only.
Sarah Dawn: Where did you see her last?
Erik Leeward: I had business to attend. She stayed here…
*gestures emptily to the house*
Where she’d be…safe.
But they found her.
He found her.
Sarah Dawne: Who?
Taliesin: Lord Van Cort?

That name. The villain of our tale.

Erik Leeward: He who should love her most – he who should have wanted nothing but her happiness…
Her father and his band of cutthroats.
I found her emerald necklace. Evidence of a struggle.

Cykosis: Capt. Leeward, is revenge something we can offer?
Erik Leeward: *lifts his head to Cykosis, his eyes pale and blue*
Revenge does my spirit no good…
Sarah Dawne: So we need to find Ellie?
Erik Leeward: They had taken her…
I could see their ships offshore.
They couldn’t have had more than an hour on my arrival here.
Taliesin: Did you not give chase yourself?
Erik Leeward: I set out to catch them, aye.
When my ship neared, the scant crew I could muster gave a ballistics diversion.
Their ships and mine exchanged fire, and in the fray I flew overboard, to swim for Van Cort’s ship.
I took a grapeshot to the chest as I swam, I knew I didn’t have much chance of survival.
But when I boarded the ship I could hear her screams from below deck…
I’d have done anything to see her, just once more…
Her father – prideful man that he was – caught me before I could react …I was bleeding – slowed – the world swam around me.
He looked at the wound in my chest, and into my eyes. I believe in that moment he knew what I knew. What my lovely Ellie knew. That love – real love – is worth it all. Every last breath.
He knew too, that I was done for. He didn’t speak, but I saw his eyes soften, and then resolve before the dagger plunged into my heart.
Better perhaps, not to have her watch me die.
But if I could just have seen her – just once more.
Sarah Dawne: We will find her and bring her to you.
Erik Leeward: Her necklace is all I have…it holds me here…
I cannot go far from it…
If I stray, my spirit fades…
She was my reason for living…
My reason for dying…
I have to know what’s become of her…
Taliesin: What direction were the ships heading?
Wildstar: Van Cort did say that he wanted to take her to Yew.
Magdalena: Aye. Van Cort’s plan was to take her to the Abbey.
Sarah Dawne: We shall bring Ellie here.
Erik Leeward: Please…
Find her…
*his voice fades to a whisper and meshes with the wind*
Find her…

We took to the ships. Some set sail for Yew. Others for Vesper.

It was in our search that some came upon a trickster. Proserpina. The young girl seemed well versed in the sins of the previous generation – knowledge she had gained in her apprenticeship to Asimov of the Dark Tower – mocking Van Cort for succumbing to his everlasting shame.

Shame. It has not been long – little more than two decades – since Cantabrigian consolidated the realm and named the Dungeons of Sin. Perhaps…

We discovered the wreckage off the coast of Wyverns Spur, due west of the Dungeon Shame. Lance Marshal, Sally and Allie were the first to discover the remains of a lifeboat wrecked on the rocks, the skeleton of a woman clutching a weathered emerald ring. Eleutheria’s Ring.

We took the ring back to Leeward. The Shade almost collapsed in despair. She was dead. Her father had won. She had suffered and died alone…

Erik: *…his spirit seems to shake in the wind.*

My love, my heart…
Cykosis: Her father… killed her.
Erik: *focuses every ounce of his energy on lifting the ring in his palm, looking at it.*

“Gone,” he murmured.

Leeward turned. And gazed upon his beloved wreathed in shimmering silver light.

*shimmering silver light*

Taliesin: Ooo!
Sarah Dawne: Oh my…
Stefan Von Cross: *narrows eyes*
Erik: *the ring falls to the ground as he turns to her*
*he reaches for her hand*
Never lost…
Eleutheria: Apart. For a little time.

Erik: And thus is what we know as death truly the end?

Or …the beginning?
*leans in to kiss her softly*

Eleutheria: Beginning.
Erik: *Smiles and leads her inside.*

Leeward and Eleutheria were now at peace. Their souls drifting to whatever place awaits us on the other side. Nestled in the palm of the Creator.