[Mkguild] Covenants (1/2)

[Christof M. Bradford]

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(*sigh*  The story turned out to be just a tad too long for the post limits.)

Metamor Keep: Covenants
by Christof M. Bradford and Charles Matthias



Friday, March 30th 708 CR

The limestone walls of the buried town slithered around in each direction as
Father Felsah made his way from little home to little home, greeting the
other townsmice and spending a moment to pray with those who were sick or in
need. Their relieved faces, full of bright whiskers and dark eyes glistening
in the light of candles and lanterns, warmed his heart and made each new
visit easier than the last.

He soon came near to his favorite cafe and his thighs itched with the desire
to quicken his steps.  Though he was eager to join his colleagues in the
service of Eli in their nightly conversations over coffee and pastries, it
was not proper for a priest to hop through the streets like a pup at play.
He knew this evening's conversation would be most stimulating when the
animated voices of Farshid and Mahmoud reached his ears before the scents of
coffee and honey could reach his nostrils.

". . . has sinned in the eyes of God!"

"Not so, learned colleague, the Shah, may God bless him with long life and
wise rulership for all his years, would never dishonor himself in such a
way, and I cannot believe the Shahbanu is a harlot."

Felsah's whiskers twitched in amusement as the topic of their latest quarrel
revealed itself in those few words.  The news of the Shahbanu's pregnancy
had been as much a surprise to him as to the other Follower townsmice, not
to mention the flocks that Farshid and Mahmoud tended.  But with nearly all
matters regarding the golden-backed jackal who ruled as Shah, Felsah,
Follower priest of Eli for a small jerboa village that was one stop along a
trade route connecting oasis to oasis and finally to the river and the sea,
knew that there was little point worrying over something he could nothing about.

"Cannot believe?" Farshid's excitable voice echoed out one of the cafe
windows as Felsah did his best to restrain his pace.  The open doorway was
so close now, and the scent of dark coffee and pungent teas made his
nostrils twitch. "The Shah loves strange knowledge and foreign philosophies;
he does not love women!"

Felsah let an expansive sigh escape his muzzle as he stepped beneath the
opening and into the dimly illumined cafe interior.  Little lamps with
softly burning stones hung from the walls and the ceiling, bringing enough
light for their sensitive eyes to see by.  The eye and snouts of Farshid and
Mahmoud both turned inhis direction as he entered, and the mullah stretched
out one paw in invitation to the little table and cushions he shared with
the rabbi. "Ah, my good Father Felsah, come!  We are having a little dispute
on the nature of love and the rewards Eli brings to those whose love is true!"

"I would not describe any such dispute in such diminutive terms," Felsah
replied with a chittering laugh as he settled down on the cushions next to
them.  His tail and legs stretched out behind him as he leaned forward
across the table, paws laying at its edge to brace himself.  His short claws
ticked the hard clay top as he glanced from the exasperated
whisker-twitching expression of Farshid to the overly magnanimous and
expansive wideness in Mahmoud's smile.  As the mullah's nose twitched, his
lower incisors revealed a bit of nut that had lodged between them.  He
seemed to notice this and quickly rubbed his face with one paw and the back
of his teeth with his tongue before smiling wide again, this time with
perfectly aligned incisors.

"What then do you believe?" Farshid asked. "For it is obvious to all that
the Shah cannot be the father."

Mahmoud's smile darkened as he retorted. "And it is obvious to me that the
Shah has led us wisely and he has been equally as wise before Eli in his
bedchambers!  I believe that their love is sincere enough and strong enough
for Eli to have blessed them so."

Another mouse came behind him bringing a small bowl of steaming coffee, rich
with a nutty flavor that made Felsah's tail bounce in delight. "Your usual
coffee, Father.  Shall I bring you today's special pastry?"

Felsah smiled to the young mouse, one of the younger sons of the cafe owner,
a good friend even if he did obey Mahmoud's ways instead of following
Felsah's.  "Thank you, young Kharif.  Tonight I will definitely want to
sample one of your family's pastries!"  The young mouse did not dare laugh
at the jest wit the mullah reclining in front of him, but he did bob his
head with vigor and hop back through the cafe to so that he could laugh out
of earshot.

Mahmoud sent the young mouse a withering but amused glance, and then turned
to Felsah. "You are going to need a pastry tonight?  And why is that?"

Felsah sniffed at his coffee and then lapped a single taste, but the brew
was too hot to drink.  Still, he could savor the aroma and the warmth that
tickled his jowls and whiskers. "Of course, esteemed colleague.  One should
never discuss such weight theological matters on an empty stomach!"

And that was one thing that all three of them could agree upon.

But like all of their conversations, and like all bowls of coffee and all
plates of pastries, it came to an end and each of them, wishing Eli's
blessings on each other, went their separate ways.  Farshid and Mahmoud
would seek their families.  Felsah however, sought solitude, and for that he
needed air.

So with a lightness to his steps, Felsah climbed the steps out of the burrow
into a crisp desert night illumined by a bright moon just rising over the
undulating dunes on the horizon.  His eyes lifted to that silvery disc, and
with a deep breath that wrinkled his nose and whiskers, he contemplated the
beauty of Eli's work.

Buoyed with a sense of peace, he hopped through one of the fields
surrounding his village's oasis, savoring the cool nighttime breeze ruffling
his fur.  When he reached his favorite spot for contemplation - just beneath
a little shelf of rock overlooking the tranquil waters - he removed his
outer robe and spread it out on the sand as a blanket.  Lying down, he gazed
at the bright stars and reviewed the day's events, planning his next homily.

His thoughts were interrupted as his ears picked up the labored breathing of
panicked running.  He looked up to see a human woman running awkwardly
through the sand.  She covered her unsightly pelt-less body in layers of
woolen garments that were quite inappropriate for the desert's heat.

She caught sight of him, and in an instant was cowering at his feet.  "You!
 You are a priest of Eli, are you not?"

Felsah, alarmed at her manner but quickly mastering his instinctual fear,
bowed his head slightly and nodded, tail flicking from side to side behind
him. "I am, Child.  What do you have need of from Eli?"

She breathed a sigh of guarded relief, face flush from a long run, hair a
tangled mess and her body reeking of sweat.  "One of your god's servants
seeks my destruction, I beg of you to rebuke him and grant me sanctuary from
his wrath."

Felsah's large ears twitched at a new sound following in her wake, a sound
that set his whiskers and nose twitching.  It was like a songbird trying to
imitate a lion's roar.

The fur-clad woman shrieked, "No, oh no!  He's coming!  Please, Priest of
Eli, stop him!"

At his size there was little he could hope to stop that made this woman so
afraid.  But he was a priest and so he put a paw on her shoulder and smiled
as best he could. "Eli will protect you here, my child."

Suddenly, from nowhere, a strange lizard that resembled something like a
cross between a crocodile and a secretary bird covered in brightly colored
plumage emerged before them through the many fronds dotting the oasis.  Its
scaly beak-like snout opened, revealing dozens of sharp teeth that would
very much be at home in a crocodile's maw.  "I've caught you now, Thief.
Now to add your teeth and finger bones to my trophies," it crooned in a
pleasant male tenor that was completely at odds with its display of
savagery by way of shaking its necklace of teeth and bones at the woman..

Felsah stood as tall as a mouse could and, tightening his grip with his paw
on the woman's shoulder, extended the other toward the feathered lizard.
To say he felt no fear would be a lie, but at the very least he showed none.
 "I will not allow you to harm this woman.  In the name of Eli and Yahshua,
I ask you to lay no hand on her."

The interloper cocked its head to one side like a bird regarding a crumb of
bread dropped  nearby but not yet close enough for him to dare to approach.
 Only this creature's intense eyes glistened with a bemused pause. "There
are two problems with your command, Felsah of the Questioners.  Firstly, I
am not one of the Morningstar's fools for you to rebuke.  Secondly, the
creature kneeling at your paws is no mortal soul worthy of your sanctuary.
It is a minion of the Soul Thieves, those who would dare to name themselves
gods in defiance of Eli," the lizard said with a harsh trilling sound that
Felsah somehow knew was bitter laughter.

And with that one word, Questioner, Felsah knew that he was in a dream more
vivid than he could ever remember having.  Memories of his real life did not
flood into his mind, but he did feel a strange sense of disquiet knowing
that the jerboa in the burrow were merely wisps of imagination.

Felsah felt rather overwhelmed, and a part of him wondered if even this
confrontation was not just another part of a very imaginative dream.   But
his dreams were rarely this detailed or this coherent.  Normally whenever he
dreamed, even those he knew well in life often appeared in different guises,
or places he knew were arranged completely differently.  Yet he neither knew
this place nor this visitor.

Still, dream or not, this strange creature before him seemed real, and the
woman crouching at his long feet seemed real too.  Felsah's whiskers
twitched as he gazed down at the woman in consideration of the rest of the
feathered lizard's words.  "Do you renounce all false gods and believe that
Eli is the one true God, that Yahshua is His only Son and who died on the
Yew for the salvation of souls and forgiveness of sins?"

A smile slipped over her lips as she closed her eyes in concentration.  Her
breathing, ragged from her flight and her desperate pleas, slowed until she
let all of that energy out in a long slow exhalation. "I d uhh ahhh."  She
frowned as the words seemed to stick in her throat, but opened her mouth
again and forced them past, "Ye-ehh. . . No."  Upon voicing her refusal, she
clapped her hands over her mouth, and looked back at her hunter in fright,
body taut like a bowstring and ready to dart off into desert behind them.

Felsah nodded sadly, somewhat surprised as he could not feel evil beneath
his paw, but the tricks of the enemy were many and they often took on fair
countenances to make their prideful rejection of Eli seem a harmless thing.
 With a faint sigh, he lifted his snout to the feathered lizard who stood
with his hand claws tapping against each other with a dangerous patience. "I
see that you are right.  But I have given her my protection and I cannot
refuse it even now.  Together we can pray for her repentance and conversion."

"Repentance?" The creature trilled, its thin lips curling back over serrated
fangs in an expression that could only be a bitter laugh and a sneer. "Oh,
that would be a tale to tell the hatchlings, that is if there were any
left!!" he said, roaring his last words in the woman's ear.

Felsah kept one paw on the woman's shoulder, though more to hold her in
place now. He tightened his grip, little claws pricking into the furs
covering her flesh. "But who are you who accuses her?"

The feathered lizard gestured at himself at what must have been his chest
with one of his long-fingered and long-clawed hands. "I am *series of trills
and chirps*, but you can call me Troud.  I was the guide and guardian for
the Tened." His eyes narrowed as a regard full of fury bore down on the
woman. "That is until her masters drove them into extinction!"

"Who were the Tened?"

For a moment the rage disappeared from his snout and his feather puffed out
in pride. "They were the best, the only ones who held on to the truth until
the very end.  All the others, the humans, the elves, the dragons, even the
binoq in their tunnels, either traded their faith for this lot, or decided
that they didn't need gods at all."  He snarled at the woman, a bright
hissing sound that made Felsah's tail start twitching in helpless anxiety.
"When you and your masters, buoyed by your success in fooling the others,
made your offer of power to the Tened, we were the only ones to drive you
away.  We knew that it was a fool's bargain."

Felsah drew on his reserves as a Questioner as he listened; this creature
was obviously very ancient and likely had a wellspring of patience that
would outlast even Grand Questioner Kehthaek's regard.  Still, he waited as
patiently as he could while Troud spoke, his tail flicking back and forth
some and his whiskers twitching at the words.

As if his eyes were drawn to the motion, Troud returned his focus to the
jerboa Questioner.  Still, he told his story, the venom in his tongue never
once directed at the rodent who could have been a simple snack at any time.
"But they couldn't accept our refusal, their greed wouldn't allow that.
They would see us beg to serve them.  We began to sicken and die.  Plague
after plague ravaged us, but none of our healers could understand or cure
the pestilences.  When our numbers had been cut to a quarter of what they
once were, they came back to us, oozing false sympathy.  'We can cure you,
save you from death's grip.  All you have to do is promise us your service.'
 Again, we refused them.

"When we were reduced to little more than a single village in these lands
now known as Metamor, I discovered that the sickness destroying my people
was no natural calamity.  One of those who called themselves Daedra had
created it, and set it upon us."

Felsah's muzzle twisted in righteous indignation at that, but he otherwise
held his peace.

"I went before Eli and begged Him to set things right.  He refused, saying
that to restore health to my people would deprive their choice and faith of
meaning.  'What good does it do them to make hard choices if they know that
there is no real risk?'  When the last died, I swore eternal vengeance.
What was done to us, I will do unto the thieves and their servants."

The words that this Troud had placed upon Eli's lips seemed strange to
Felsah, likely a condensing of whatever great and incomprehensible truth
that had been distilled to Troud in that meeting.  That prayer perhaps?
Many of his own prayers had left him feeling dry and uncertain.  Felsah
could only shake his head, bewildered. "Revenge?  Is that what Eli wishes
you to do?"

Troud leaned close to Felsah, and it took all of his self-control to keep
from backing up.  That reptilian beak and sibilant tongue brushed across the
soft flesh of his ear and whispered, "Not in the presence of those who don't
belong here."  Stepping back, long tail waving from side to side, he glared
anew at the woman.  "Let her go, she is safe from me this night."

Felsah gazed down at the seeming woman and fixed her with his eyes and the
Questioner intensity. "Know this woman, that it was a servant of Eli who
protected you, even if you are Eli's enemy.  Eli will always grant clemency
to those who repent.  Dwell on that.  Now go."  He lifted his paw from her
shoulder, doing his best to still the anger that had blossomed in his heart
at hearing Troud's tale.

"Yes, go.  Leave this man's dreams in peace and never return to them, lest I
forget his pleas for mercy and take my trophies of tooth and bone from your
shattered husk."

She cast one look at Troud, then another at Felsah, wide eyes glimmering
with a vile hatred, and then she fled into the desert as if the pagans' hell
hounds were after her.

When the Dream Walker's presence had faded, Troud bobbed his head twice on
his long neck and twisted it to the right to a degree that looked painful,
"To answer the question that you put before me, hatred causes Eli pain.  So
no, I sin in His eyes when I hunt her kind."

Felsah had watched the woman flee, but now, he folded his paws before him,
the one that had touched her shoulder aching with a numb chill.  He rubbed
it idly with his fingers and grimaced, the ache in his heart of Troud's tale
still the worse. "So why do it if you know it causes He to whom you are
faithful such pain?"

Troud leaned back a bit, the thumb claw from his right hand scratching at
his chest feathers just beneath the chain of bone and fangs draped about its
neck.  He spoke almost as if he were a scholar instructing pupils. "Each of
Eli's children have an individual failing to which they are most likely to
succumb. For the Dragons, it is Pride, though Greed plagues them almost as
much. For the Elves, it is Sloth. Humans, such as what you once were, enjoy
Lust far too much, though Pride drives them almost as much as it does the
dragons. For us, it was Wrath. Hatred was easy for us, and by the same token
forgiveness was something even the Saints amongst us found difficult to
achieve; though our most noble possessed a gentleness that..." his tongue
failed him as his eyes seemed to slip into memory of a time long past.  That
brief flicker of peace was cut short by a hiss of renewed anger. "And try as
I might, I have found myself unable to forgive them their slaughter of us.

"My people, my Eli-given charges, are gone.  All that I have left until
Eli's covenant is fulfilled are my sorrow and hate.  The only joy left to me
is the all too transient pleasure I feel when I catch them in my claws and
teeth and take my trophies of bone and tooth."

Felsah lowered his snout some, whiskers drooping. "I am so very sorry for
you, Troud.  Not only have you lost your people, a faithful and good people,
but you have lost something so precious... something I have struggled to
keep at times, but never like this..."

The Tened ruffled the feathers of his crest and along his neck in an
inscrutable gesture.  "Thank you for understanding.  I do have something to
look forward to, and telling you of my pain helped remind me of it.  Eli
promised me that I would see the Tened live again. We would once more feel
the wind in our feathers, and feel soil and sand between our toes.  That
there will be new children hatched into the world for us to raise."  Troud
rubbed the side of his snout with his right hand.  He gazed across the
waters of the oasis as the moon reflected in its depths.  The tension in his
body faded as he stared into the measureless distance. "I forget that
promise sometimes."

Felsah chittered a little rebuke as he hopped a step closer to his
dream-time companion. "You must if you would give up hope for something that
does not bring any joy to you.  What is worse, it brings you pain because it
separates you from Eli who would have you trust in Him with confidence and
hope!  You may be weak to anger, but knowing your weakness is not an excuse
for giving in to the weakness.  If Eli is to bring the Tened back, then what
will your actions, your sufferings have merited you?  Nothing at all; will
you have learned anything of faithfulness to Eli?"

The words struck Troud even more firmly than he'd expected.  The Tened
slumped to the sand with his legs folded up under his body like a nesting
bird.  With his head pillowed on a small dune he sighed.  "Dear Eli, I am so
tired.  Five thousand years of hunting, of hurting, is too much, even for
me."  He pointed a clawed finger at Felsah.  "I am like you, Questioner.  I
can only live in the present.  I can not see what is yet to come, and I can
only remember the past."

Felsah moved closer to Troud, sitting next to him on the sand, his tail
flicking back and forth, brushing out the smooth sand as the moon shone
across the oasis, casting a brilliant silver light everywhere. "Then stop
hunting.  Protect those who need protection from the evil ones, but do not
hunt them.  Trust in Eli and Yahshua.  If He died that my sins would be
forgiven, I cannot imagine why yours can't be as well.  But you need to
confess them and repent of them.  I am a priest; I have never heard a
confession in my dreams before but if this is real then so too shall the
forgiveness be."

"Of that, I have no doubt.  Nor do I doubt that Eli will forgive my sins; I
just... can you listen to five thousand years of hunting?  Can you listen to
five thousand years of a pain that could only find release in the hunt and
in this?" He rose his neck from the dune long enough to lift the necklace of
bones with one hand, jangled them together like the dry rustling of grass,
and then dropped them back to his neck.  The crest along the back of his
head lowered as if it were a pillow whose stuffing had been removed. "I want
it to end.  I do want forgiveness.  But those murderers and liars are still
murdering and lying and stealing souls!  Someone has to stop them..."

Felsah twitched his toes, catching the reflected moonlight in his claws.
"Their ways cannot last forever.  Who can stand against the power of Eli?"

"No one," Troud admitted with a heavy sigh.  He slid his head over slightly,
a bright golden eye focused curiously on the jerboa. "Would you really hear
my confession?"

He nodded. "If you would offer it." He reached into one of the pouches at
his side and drew out a small purple stole and draped it over his neck.
Either end bunched into his lap, but he kept them from falling into the sand.

"Then be grateful that time in dreams does not pass as it does when awake!"
Troud shifted a little closer and nodded for Felsah to begin.  The
Questioner took a deep breath and began to opening invocation.


*     *     *


"And for your penance," Felsah said after an interval of time he had no way
of measuring.  Though Troud had recounted a history of his existence since
the death of his beloved Tened that was beyond the ability of the jerboa's
mind to contain all at once, the moon had not shifted more than a handspan
in all that time.  It still glimmered across the oasis, the crops for the
burrow mice still swayed in a cool desert breeze, and the stars overhead
seemed fixed in their place as if each were its own northern star.

Troud listened patiently to what Felsah proscribed for him.  In truth he
asked for so little in comparison with the weight upended on him; he felt as
if the entire contents of the Galean Sea had been poured down his throat.
But the penance was always lighter; this was one of the mysteries and humble
realities of the Ecclesia.

Felsah made the sign of the yew over Troud's long brow, and the feathered
lizard repeated the gesture with his sharp-clawed fingers. "Thank you,
Father Felsah.  Thank you." Slowly, almost as if he had to remind himself
how his body worked, Troud rose his sickle-clawed feet and walked to the
oasis pool, golden eyes lost in a strange sort of daze.  He lowered his
snout into the water, rippling its surface, scattering the silvery light of
the moon and making the faint shadows in the sand dance like a cavalcade of
puppets.

When he lifted his dripping snout from the water, the distance in his eyes
was immeasurable, and the thin lips covering his fangs split while his crest
lifted and then fell several times.  At last, in a faint hiss, he turned
back to the jerboa and said, "How very curious... the Canticles given to
your people say that He works in mysterious ways." He nimbly walked back to
the set of dunes where he laid next to Felsah in the soft sand, much closer
than even when he'd offered his confession. "I was hunting one of Nocturna's
servants on that mad endless quest, and whose dream should she enter to hide
from me?"

Felsah nodded and laughed lightly at the strangeness of it all.  Though
uncountable hours, if not years must have passed since he'd first come out
of the burrow village, a part of him could still remember the taste of the
coffee in the cafe, and the bristling good humor between Farshid and
Mahmoud, not to mention his own true life at Metamor where he slept in a
small monastic cell near the Cathedral for the last few days.

When the jerboa managed to find his voice again he said, "Even the evil
unwittingly bring Eli's will to fruition.  I have seen it first hand even in
my short life... You have told me your name, and your deeds, but what are
you exactly?  You are not a pretender like the Lothanasi, and you are not an
angel.  But you are not a man, nor a Tened either. And yet, you sin like we
do and suffer weakness as we do.  What are you?"

Troud offered him a trilling laugh, one borne of genuine good humor and
unburdened delight. "Oh, but I am a Tened.  Just because I never lived life
in flesh on the earth does not make my spirit any more or less than that of
my people. Eli breathed life in me to be their guide and intercessor.  I
taught them; I hunted with them.  And now!"  His golden eyes filled with a
joy that Felsah could feel like a sweet comb of honey carried in his paws.
"And now at long last, I can do it again."

Felsah pondered that for several seconds as he stretched his toes in the
sand but was forced to admit he didn't understand. "You can do it again?"

"Aye.  Oh aye!  Eli whispered to me when I was drinking here just a few
moments ago.  It has been so long since I have heard His voice I did not at
first know it was Him, but it was.  How sweet it was, Father.  How sweet!
And He showed me that the hour of the Tened's return has come." Troud's
demeanor changed as he related those words.  Feathers that seemed dull and
sad became fluffy and vibrant, rich in hue and vivacious in color.  "So much
to do!  And yet, I am to rest for a time?"

"Was that also revealed to you?"

"Yes.  There is so much to do, and yet Eli wishes for me to rest?" Troud
tilted his head to one side in confusion.

Felsah pondered what that might mean but knew that he had no more answers to
give. "Perhaps this is when you must trust Eli the most. He has forgiven
you, but He is also asking you to practice this trust if it is to come to pass."

"True, true."  Troud trilled softly in laughter, the good news too much for
even his uncertainty  over what his rest meant to dispel his elation.  He
turned his beak-like snout toward Felsah, and shifted back on the sand so
that the side of his tail thumped up and down with his excitement.  Both
golden eyes studied Felsah as if noting his shape for the first time. "When
you first came to Metamor, the Curse was to make you a fennec fox, for that
is the form that best matches your soul. But Eli said that the lands of
Metamor have a surfeit of foxes. Now that I see you in your mind's eye, I
have to admit that the jerboa's body suits you almost as well."

Felsah twitched at that, startled to hear this strange spirit tell him
something similar to what Madog had once said. "Why do you say that?  Why
say I should have been a fennec?  And why say that jerboa suits me?"

"Did you never wonder why you became such fast friends with the automaton
Madog?" Now Felsah could not hide the squeak of alarm that erupted from his
throat.  He grasped either end of the stole still dangling about his neck
even as his tail lashed from side to side in surprise.  But Troud paid his
paroxysm no mind. "It was because you reached out to a kindred spirit."

"What mean you a kindred spirit?"

Troud shifted one claw as if he were balancing scales. "It's difficult for
me to explain.  It's how you view the world, the things that make you happy,
the things that fill you with fear or grief."  Troud snarled in a faint
frustration, and then pointed his claw at Felsah's chest. "The traits of the
spirit, the mind, that make Felsah of Gardara, the Questioner, a unique
person from anyone else, mean that the body that would be most comfortable
for you to wear is that of a fennec."

When Troud said no more of Madog, Felsah found he was able to corral his
instincts and bring them back under the Questioner discipline he had been
taught.  Still, he held out his short arms and flicked his long tail back
and forth. "But that is not what I am."

Troud chuckled a throaty high-pitched laugh, "As I said, the lands of
Metamor are practically overrun with foxes.  But the jerboa is a good fit,
nonetheless."

Felsah laid his paws atop his knees as he sat, eyes glancing over the oasis
near his dream burrow town, and then turned back to his guest. "You know me
that deeply then?"

"To some degree, yes.  Eli has given me some understanding of you.
Understanding that I will forget when I leave here."

"Why would you forget?"

"Remember, I am not an angel.  I do not have an endless capacity for insight
into another's spirit."

Felsah shook his head, feeling the burning chase for the truth ignite in his
heart. "That does not answer my question.  That you cannot know all that
there is of me, that you explained.  Why you will forget what you have
learned, that you have not answered."

"Because I do not want to remember.  I have no desire to be privy to
something that should remain between you and Eli.  I am not your confessor,
nor do I wish to be."  He trilled softer then, and lowered his gaze. "Thank
you again for being mine.  You will not remember much of it when you wake
either."

His whiskers twitched as if he'd been rebuked, but after a moment he'd
settled his nerves and managed to accept what he'd heard. "But there must be
a reason for you to be here now, to receive forgiveness, and to learn that
your people will come back, right here in my presence."

"Yes, I understand now.  I am here, in your dream, which in itself is a
reflection of a life you could have lived, because of who you are.  You are
a Questioner, a member of an order that much resembles the Tened's
priesthood of ages past.  You will have a role to play in what is to come."
 Troud lifted his hands in a shrug, "And that is what I know of why I am
here, in your dream."

Felsah nodded his head. "Then, if this dream is true, I will keep my eyes
open for any sign of you or your Tened." A sudden thought came to him and he
blinked in surprise when it did. "There is one fellow who is a creature that
lived along with the Tened; he says that he is a Kharrakhaz.  Know you of this?"

"I know of the beasts, but not of the man.  You did a passable try at
pronouncing the name.  But truly, the Curse upon this place did that?  That
is. . ." Troud trailed off in thought.

"He seems a good fellow.  He rescued me from being attacked by men who were
much bigger than I."

"Well, well.  This bears some thinking about."  Troud stood up and twisted
his tail from side to side. "I think it's time to be on my way.  Thank for
for sharing these moments of peace with me, Felsah of the Questioners. Eli
guide you in your endeavors."

"And you as well, Troud. If nothing else, remember hope.  Without hope in
Eli, we have nothing to keep us from sin."



*     *     *


The morning sun's light warming his ears and leaking through his eyelids,
and the taste of fur in his mouth were the first sensations that greeted him
as he struggled towards wakefulness against his body's nocturnal instincts.
 Felsah opened his eyes to see that he had started sucking on the tufted tip
of his tail during the night.  He opened his mouth and moved his tail down
to his feet.  "Yashua, grant Your servant the strength to face the day with
open eyes and a spring in my step."

With his morning prayers completed, Felsah put on his smock and carefully
walked with one foot put in front of the other to the plank of wood resting
on bricks that served as his desk.  He pulled a sheet of parchment in front
of him and re-filled his pen with ink to write down the details of his
strange dream. As he nibbled on his quill his eye caught sight of something
on his desk that was not there the previous night when he forced himself
into sleep's embrace.  Three letters were placed in a row with the seals
facing up.  All three letters bore the same seal, the seal used by the
Patriarch on  official documents of some importance.  Felsa returned his pen
to the ink bottle and reach out with a trembling paw(?) to take up the
letters.  One was addressed to Patriarch Geshter, the second to Kehthaek,
and the last to Felsah himself.  Setting the letters to his superiors aside,
Felsah opened the letter addressed to himself.

To My Confessor

As you read this letter, a wagon is approaching Metamor having journeyed a
great distance indeed to deliver news of Eli's Covenant with His children of
Scale and Feather.  Watch for its arrival and guard the Heralds from those
who would see the Tened remain a fading memory remembered only by the eldest
of Dragons and Elvenkind.

Yours in Service to Eli, Troud



- -- 
I have an old tome.  A tome bound of flesh and scribed in blood.  It
holds many secrets, secrets for you to reveal.
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