The Lay of the Grandmasters Way - An Official Eternal-Lands Story

The Lay of Rivena, Act 4

It is hard to imagine the solitary existence of an outcast. Most people, regardless of their race, like to think they can sympathize, or at the very least pretend to have the ability to empathize, but few indeed know the truth of the matter, of the heart rending seclusion from one's friends and family, even one's own people, whether by choice or ill favored fortune.

But from the dust of coal are diamonds made, and Rivena was never one to bow to pressure, nor crack under the strain of intolerance. Academically speaking, she was quite an adept, learning the ways of her kin as all elves must, if they wished to proceed into wood magery. Caring for the homelands of the elves was no easy task, and the training alone ensured that those whom set forth to protect their lands were well equipped to do so, with more that just bow and woodcraft to aid them. The ability to call forth the very essence and nature of the trees and woods around them in defense of their realm was a dire and all to often relied upon necessity. This and other things Rivena learnt with not so much a passion as a determination that she would at least be seen an equal to those who seemed to find it far easier to master the way of the elven mages, than she herself did.

Her talents and aptitude for certain spells were varied, and oft times puzzling to her stoic tutors. It was, they said to each other in their private discussions on student matters, almost as if she was ill matched for magery, yet possessed the latent ability of magic to a degree that seemed flawless when untried, foundering only upon its application into anything of a practical nature.

Such was the words that were used to describe her abilities, when a report was made to her father of her progress, or, in certain areas, her lack thereof.

Ill pleased, to say the least, was her father's reaction to these tidings, and he arranged private tutelage to begin without delay, to avert the disaster of disgrace at having so "wayward and inconsistent a daughter".

But alas, these too proved ineffective in teaching Rivena how to master those very magics that were the basis of all Masters of the Woods. He was recommended therefore to send her to learn of alchemy in the local areas.

The very nerve of it. A daughter of his to go and be some common powder-grinder! He was once again displeased, almost as much with Rivena and her inability to focus herself, as with the tutors he had arranged at no small cost to himself for suggesting such monstrous things. Yet, in the end, he believed it futile to try and continue inviting Mage and Master around to impress into Rivena the things she was lacking as a student. He considered it a far easier lie to live with by sending her off as recommended, to learn Alchemy. Yet to all who inquired, Rivena was, of course, merely visiting distant relatives.

The most convenient, and therefore expeditious method of maintaining this deception, was to send her to be 'prenticed by an Alchemist on the outskirts of Grahm's village. "Old Ursul" was the one he should try, he had been told. He had, of course, absolutely no knowledge of how old Ursul was, nor indeed anything else in the way of knowledge about this person, other than she was an Alchemist and had contacts as high up as the Grandmaster of Water.

Had he known at the time that this "Old Ursul" was a dwarf, and that Alchemy was a mere hobby of hers, and her means for support came not from her skills as an Alchemist but rather from being a washer dwarf, he would have probably thrown the tutor who suggested her, bodily out of the treehome he lived in. It would have been, of course, the only proper thing to do, for as any elf knows, theres "no trusting in one who digs beneath the roots".

Of course, by the time he DID discover Ursul's nature and true profession, he had other, far more immediate concerns regarding his daughter. But that came later.

Rivena herself was intensely ashamed at having failed not only her fathers will, but also her own self made goals. But in spite of this, or perhaps because of it, she did as her father bade and journeyed away from the home she had known so long, and made her way to the south-western regions of White Stone.