Blade of Erogrund

Chapter 28- Legends Within

She did not and indicated so. 

Saracyir gently tucked a strand of her long hair behind her ear. "Many years ago a great darkness rose in land apart from this. There were many who rose to fight against both it and those who carried it with them, though few of my kin found it in themselves to do so. However there was one among us who was determined to see the darkness break." It seemed to Mira like the elf's voice wavered as Mira had never heard. Her eyes deepened as though they were staring back into a bygone era before continuing. "Never shall I forget the look in his eyes when he took up his sword and left us. Never shall I forget the words he left us with. 'Always will the demons of this world claim us,' he said. 'But we may choose whether they are the demons that taste the tip of our sword or the demons that keep us from wielding it.'" 

The eyes of Mira had read more words than she could recall. Words of great poetry, words of renown, or even the fairest song written in the finest scroll tucked away in Naevir. Yet every one was overshadowed by the voice of Saracyir as she murmured this quote there in the darkness of the Great Hall beside the King's bed. 

"And that is why you are here?" 

The question was perhaps more a realization that a true inquiry. Saracyir nodded gently all the same. 

"It is not in my nature to let evil continue for fear of what may come when I stand against it. I have carried those words with me for longer than I care to remember and always they have been a reminder to me that the only bad end is the one we give up our hope to." 

"What ever happened to him?" Mira whispered. 

Again Saracyir bowed her head, perhaps hiding the pain that ebbed into her voice. "He fell at the hands of his foes. But the darkness broke and the end that was written for him was penned by his own hand, as he would have wished."

"He sounds nearly like Ennor." 

A sad, wistful smile turned the corners of the elf's mouth. "I daresay he was. But enough talk of him and I. Now may you see that not all ends are to be feared if we only have the courage to do what we must." 

"And what," Mira began after considering these things for a moment, "shall we do when we do not have the courage? Or when we do not know what it is we must do?"

"If we do not have the courage then we find someone who can give it to us. If we do not know then we follow our hearts, but," she continued solemnly, "always under the council of our minds."

Even though Mira had expected such an answer, she could not help but cringe as the voice of Power cried out inside her. With it surged the familiar tingling of strength in her fingertips until she drew them away from where Ennor lay lest the Power begin to work of its own accord. My heart says it is right. But dare I.....

Saracyir's eyes narrowed in the flickering half-light of the candles. "Are you in need of courage, Mira? Forgive me, but something still seems to ail you."

Mira buried her head in her hands, feeling the dried blood against her fingers and the twists of her ginger hair fall about her. Through her closed eyes she vividly felt emotions coursing through her and heard the host of voices in her mind. But even as her eyes closed her mind cleared and she knew what must be done. 

"Saracyir.... I can do things. Things that I shouldn't be able to do." The elf's countenance immediately changed but her expression was unreadable. "I can heal Ennor as though he had never been wounded." Mira felt her voice quiver. "But it would be a grave evil..." 

There was no response from the woman for quite some time until she finally spoke in a tone utterly unknown to Mira. "Why should you say these things? What is it that you believe may come about?" The words were neither accusing nor skeptical but flat inquires devoid of all but the most subtle concern.