Eowenna!
The mental cry jolted her awake, sitting bolt upright on her bed. She knew that voice, as familiar to her as her own.
The mental voice came from one she loved as much, or more, than the brothers she had lost years ago. He had been present even in her dreams, beseeching her for aid.
"Kolya?" she said aloud even as she attempted to focus and transmit her thoughts to him.
For the first time in her memory, she received no response.
There was a strange emptiness, where there had always before been a warm sense of welcome ... even when no specific thought was shared in return.
'KOLYA!' the Paladin tried again, still receiving nothing whatsoever in reply. She flung back the blankets and hastily pulled on her armor.
His last message had been that he planned to hunt in the hills bordering the vast plains, to gather silks for his tailoring. A region they had both frequented before, many times, without mishap.
Feeling awkward, she hired transport to East Plains, near the hillsides Kolya favored for gathering silks. With no other guidance, she began her search.
'Kolya, please - answer me, let me know you're all right?' the Paladin transmitted the thought repeatedly, hour after hour, as she searched the hills and valleys. She received only that strange, empty silence in return.
Night fell, she continued tirelessly, growing desperate. "Father of Truth, please grant that Kolya is unharmed!" she prayed, fearing that her prayer came too late yet unable to stop asking.
Late on the second day she found him ...
He lay at an awkward angle, not breathing. His belongings were all with him ... the grass scarcely trampled about him.
Eowenna had not the tracking skills of a Ranger. But she knew that the giants, who sometimes passed through this area, were about the only creature in this region that could pose any challenge to this remarkable elf. Strangely, there was no indication that any giant had passed near here.
She prayed for Kolya's restoration, but nothing happened. She meditated, tried to calm herself, and prayed again ... again, no change.
The whole night long, she prayed over and over again ... every healing or restorative prayer she knew, all without avail.
At daybreak she scooped up the motionless form of her dearest friend and carried him to the nearest port stone. From there, she proceeded directly to the capitol city of the Elves, and thence to the temple near the center of the city.
===============================================
The High Priest watched the armored human approach somewhat apprehensively. She knelt before the priest, gently laying the still form of a young elvish man at his feet. "Milord," she said softly, though both her desperation and her ironclad determination could be heard in her tone, "a son of your kind is in dire need of aid."
She raised her tear-stained face unashamedly to the priest, her eyes both begging and demanding that he act. The high priest of Nature looked back at the woman in silence for a moment, and then knelt on the other side of the elvish man's body to examine him.
"What happened to him?" the priest inquired, while looking over the patient. "I see no mark upon him, yet he does not breathe."
"I know not, milord," she replied. "Kolya's thoughts called out to me, and then he went silent. I searched long, and then I found him as you see him."
Noticing that she wore a weapon that only a Paladin could wield, he began to speak somewhat sharply to her. "You are a Paladin, have you not prayed -" the priest changed his mind when he saw the reaction his words had upon her. "Of course you have," he interrupted himself, his voice more gentle.
Puzzled, and disliking the thought of an elf being cut off so abruptly, and so young, the priest also began praying for the fallen elf's resurrection. When the appropriate amount of time had passed, however, and his spirit did not return, the priest grew uncomfortable.
"Again, milord, I beg you..." her words were scarce above the sound of a breath, but they were clear and cut the high priest to his heart. Had the natural protections upon elvish spirits somehow failed this one?
Looking more closely, he recognized this particular wood elf. One who always stretched out his hand to help others ... even when it cost him more than it cost them. A kind and generous soul, whom all would be much poorer without ...
The High Priest signaled the other priests; a runner was sent to the healers among the wood elves. Yes, this matter was worthy of a council being convened, an elf fallen from no known cause... one young among them, and within the requisite time for resurrection.
Why then was his soul not restored?
Only the full council had the power to decide if extraordinary measures were to be attempted. In his mind, the sooner all arrived the better he would like it.
He wanted to shoo this human woman away, the ancient ceremonies were no place for any not of pure elven blood. Then he forced himself to reconsider. Her obvious devotion to this elven man, if it were at all mutual, might be the key to drawing him back from wherever he had gone or been taken.
"Tell me, child, all you know," the high priest said. His tone was gentle, yet commanding.
"Kolya informed me at our last parting, only a few days ago, that he intended to spend some time gathering silks for his tailoring." Her voice was filled with grief, yet the words were clear. "Two nights ago, I was awakened from dreams of him calling for me by his own voice in my head, a telepathic transmission."
Her voice broke; she bowed her head and closed her eyes. She took half a breath, and then released it as a sob.
"Please continue," he prompted. He didn't like the sound of this, that a seasoned elf could be that quickly overtaken. Occasionally things happened to the very young or very old, who took foolish chances ... but this one had been at his maximum potential. He was perhaps 100 years old, at the peak of physical and mental efficiency, and should have stayed thus for many centuries to come.
The Paladin nodded, jerkily, and took another breath before she was able to continue. "I tried to respond after hearing him call my name, yet there was only emptiness, milord," she said. "I hired transport to the Plains, and searched for two days ere I found him. He was laying upon a hillside in East Plains, much as you see him now."
The Paladin gasped again, pausing to regain enough composure to continue. "I saw no signs of attack or struggle, the grass appearing only as if he had fallen and rolled before coming to rest. I prayed..." her voice broke. After another emotional pause she continued. "I prayed all night, milord; every prayer I knew. Yet there has been no change."
The high priest considered briefly again, but before he could speak she whispered, "Please, milord ... I do not know if I can bear to continue without him!"
She doubled over then, giving way to the sobs she had choked down to speak. She clung to Kolya's still form, much as a shipwrecked survivor would cling to anything floating in the midst of an ocean. She would look up briefly, reach out to touch the still face or hair, and then collapse into heartbroken sobbing again.
The priest rose from his knees, stepping away and considering. Though not an elf, the Paladin bore no obvious mark of disfavor from the lord she served. And she was correct; this elf should not have perished irrevocably with so little warning. Breaking the tie that Life held on a soul was no simple matter.
The first of the Council arrived, the guild masters of the Capitol City's halls. Not long after, the guild masters from the wood elves also arrived. And a representative from the court, that the king may have an observer / messenger present. Last to arrive was the keeper of the archives, who hoped to have no additional entry to scribe.
The Paladin's weeping had neither slowed nor diminished, through all the hours it took for each Council member to shake free of their other obligations and come in answer to his summons.
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Eowenna was lost in pain; sobbing uncontrollably at the fear her dearest friend might be lost forever. She knew it happened sometimes, but it was a rare thing ... and usually was heralded with something more than a single cry for help.
She could not focus on what the high priest was doing, though she was dimly aware that he had moved away from her ... and Kolya. She looked up through her tears, reaching toward him, wanting to force him to do something, but the pain overwhelmed her again and she was lost in tears.
The Paladin knew not how much time passed, but eventually she grew dimly aware that a low song ... perhaps a chant? ... was filling the room.
She looked up, her vision still blurred from her many tears, and saw that the inhabitants of the room had changed. The merchants were all gone, only the priesthood remained. And there were wood elf healers, and she was fairly certain she recognized the Paladin guild master from the capitol city ... and a priest wearing the colors of the high elven court.
The song continued, in elder Elvish, for many hours. Eowenna knew not the meaning of the words, yet there was power in them. She could feel it both calming and energizing her ... and she looked down at Kolya.
His coloring had changed! He was no longer so extremely pale, now he looked almost flushed. She rubbed his hands, brushed his hair back from his face, and touched his cheek, mentally crying out to him to return to her.
His eyelids fluttered, and he drew a shallow breath. Eowenna wasn't sure if she'd seen correctly, but she laid her head on his chest and sensed what seemed at the time to be the most beautiful music she had ever heard - a fragile heartbeat.
She kissed Kolya's cheek, dropping her head to his shoulder to weep in relief.
================================================
The high priest saw the changed reaction in the Paladin, and saw the coloring had improved in the patient. Yet he also realized, with grave concern, that the spark had not returned.
The ancient ceremony always restored the body, but it could not always restore the spirit. Without that, they had done a greater disservice -- if they caused the semblance of life, without the life itself being restored.
It was a terrible risk, one reason the ceremony was forbidden unless the entire council agreed to the attempt.
The song would continue for days, but unless the spark returned ...
The paladin had sobbed herself to sleep, he realized, as she knelt beside the still form of her dear one and clung to him. The high priest signaled a young apprentice, whose unusual gifts in healing had warranted permitting him to witness the ceremony. The youth appeared mildly reluctant, but obediently moved to the side of the Paladin.
The acolyte gently began lifting her away from the elf's still form, having to remove her grip on him repeatedly as she reached out for him again ... even in her sleep. Finally he was successful, and carried her to a prepared room at an inn.
The High Priest watched for his return, which came slightly sooner than expected. The youth made the proper reverence, then nodded that his task was completed.
Humans usually had less stamina than elves; he had expected her to grow exhausted - even if only from grief - well before the ceremony was complete.
He respected her unwillingness to leave her friend. He hoped, both for her sake, and the elf's, that the ceremony would be successful.
=====================================================
Eowenna woke with a start, not sure where she was. An inn, she realized, and one not immediately familiar to her.
She sat up, looking around her in bewilderment. Then a breeze wafted the strains of the elvish voices raised in song, and she remembered. Whipping the blankets off her lower body, she stood and began moving toward the door. Eowenna glanced down to discover herself still fully equipped with her usual armor, so when she reached the door she opened it immediately and hurried down the hallway.
At the temple entrance, however, she encountered Elvish Paladins with drawn swords. They wore the colors and emblazons of the royal guard. She tried to move around them, but they blocked her way.
"Please," she said urgently, "I must get in to see Kolya." She tried again to slip past, but again was blocked.
"Your pardon, but none are permitted within until the ceremony is ended," said the firm voice of the captain of the guard.
"I think I may be part of the ceremony," she persisted, "or at least I was within earlier when they were singing."
"You are the Paladin that brought the fallen one in?" he asked.
"Yes, please let me pass!" Eowenna replied.
"I'm sorry; they said you may wish to return. I am ordered to forbid entry -- even to you -- at this time." He sounded sincere, though also firm. "Later you may be needed, so please stay nearby."
She was gently but firmly ushered away.
Eowenna tried again to get in, but each time there seemed to be more guards. Each time she was ushered back to her room at the inn. Finally, late in the afternoon, she found guards posted outside her door. She was no longer permitted to leave her room.
Three miserable days followed, during which Eowenna could hardly eat or sleep. Then, suddenly, she realized the singing had stopped. She wasn't sure how long since the silence had come, but was reasonably certain it couldn't have been very long. Hurrying to her door, she asked the guards what was happening.
Before either one could respond, a messenger came up the hallway. From her face, Eowenna feared the news would not be good.
"The High Priest sends his regrets, milady," the young messenger's clear voice said as she bowed formally. "There was nothing we could do."
"Nothing? But he was breathing again!" Eowenna said in disbelief. She began yet another attempt to pass her doorway guards, but in her weakened condition she was no match for them. She was unwilling to injure fellow Paladins, and they overpowered her without harm.
"Behold," the messenger said, her voice now clearly burdened with sorrow, "his funeral procession."
Eowenna looked out the window, and saw a coffin draped with banners of mourning. "No!" she gasped; the word was half a sob. "Oh no, dear God, please no!" she said, but the sight was undeniable.
Overpowered with sobs and grief, Eowenna abruptly lacked the power to stand unaided. She was escorted into her room, where she collapsed on her bed weeping uncontrollably for many hours.
====================================================
The High Priest watched the procession go, and then turned back to the temple. The priests who remained were the best elvish healers to be found anywhere in Norrath, and the highest level of each craft the elves possessed.
They surrounded a pallet, upon which Kolya lay sleeping.
"What shall we do now?" the chief Warrior of the wood elves asked.
"His body lives," said the chief lore master of the capitol, "but his soul cannot be reached. I must research the proper procedure. Always before, the body had suffered enough damage that it ceased breathing with the last notes of the song. This is a most unusual case."
The High Priest nodded his agreement. "If not fed, his body will waste away ... and we must also decide what to do about the Paladin. She saw him breathing; she may not be deceived forever by the funeral and the empty grave."
The chief scholar of capitol said, "If we find no precedent, mayhap the choice of how to tend him should be left to her." He smiled thinly at the shocked expressions of most of those remaining. "The decision must be made by someone - whether to tend his empty soul-house, nourish it and care for it and perpetuate this semblance of life ... or permit it to stop and rest. Since his soul has fled, the empty body belongs no more to us than to her. There is no question that she loved him well."
"But she's human!" protested one of the others. "He is elf kind, as are we all. No elf's fate should be left in the hands of some other race ... how could she possibly be expected to understand what is best for him?"
"She may contend the other side," mused the wood elves' chief healer. "We scarce knew him, as he so often went his own way out in the wild places. That Paladin accompanied him on much of his journeying, as much or more than any other did. His hands would still have their skills in tailoring and healing, his bodily reflexes should permit him to walk if led, or fight if needed..."
"He shall be tended, as if one who is merely ill, for the moment." The High Priest's voice held the authority of command as he made the statement. "The future can be decided as we learn more. Yet, as the rest of you, I hold no further hope that his soul shall return. Whatever force tore his soul from his body has sent or taken him beyond our reach."
There were murmurs of agreement at these words, and a certain shameful regret at their lack of power to right this wrong.
===================================================
Eowenna awoke the next day, late in the day. She had cried nearly all the night, crying herself to sleep sometime in the early hours of the morning. She had no interest in the meal she found laid out on the bedside table, but when she tried to stand and walk she discovered that she lacked the strength.
Part of her wanted to die with him, to go wherever he had gone. But a more practical part reminded her that he would have wished her to continue living.
Somewhat reluctantly, Eowenna forced herself to eat. Then she sat still until her legs grew steady. When she could stand, she walked down to visit Kolya's grave.
Her guild symbol was prominently displayed, though she hadn't thought about summoning them when she found Kolya. He had chosen to join a different guild that had since disbanded.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Eowenna knew that someone might call her guildmates. After all, the elves would feel uncertain how to handle a grieving human. So she wasn't terribly surprised when she saw a few guildmates, including her guild leader himself, coming toward the inn as she reached the doorway to the street.
She nodded to them, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm told they buried him, I..." she paused, trying to gain some semblance of composure. I need to see ..." her voice broke again, she could not say more without losing that fragile semblance of composure she had attained.
The guildmates who had come surrounded her, and accompanied her to The Elvish capitol's small cemetery. There she broke down again, dropping to her knees and weeping in hard wracking sobs over the freshly turned earth.
* * * * *
Weeks passed. Eowenna tried to continue without Kolya, but her life seemed very empty without her dearest friend. He had always believed in her, always believed the best for her ... they had plans, so many plans, that they'd been unable to fulfill.
Everyplace she turned, she saw a place where they had been together. Or a place they'd planned to go explore together. Or a place she'd seen first and wanted to show him. Or a place he'd told her about, and wanted to show her. Even entirely new places, her thoughts would turn toward him and wondering what Kolya would have thought of this place, and wishing she'd had opportunity to describe it to him.
Much of the equipment she wore was a direct result of Kolya's aid. Her mace was one example. He had given it to her when she reached her 50th cycle of study. Her helm - he had found it for her on a vendor in a most unlikely place. He'd helped her do the quest that had earned her the leggings she wore.
Everything she saw or touched reminded her of the absence of the one most dear to her. Many times the pain and sorrow of losing him became overwhelming, and she fled to a private corner to weep afresh.
She often returned to The Elvish capitol, somehow feeling nearer to him there. Eowenna couldn't understand why this, the final resting place of his flesh, should seem nearer to him than many places he had frequented more commonly when he lived.
Suddenly two memories came to her in exceptional clarity: one, the memory of how she'd hastily gathered all his bags into his cloak, and carried them with him to the temple. The second was the moment she'd seen his eyelids flutter briefly and heard his heartbeat.
Abandoning all other tasks, she made haste to the elvish capitol. The hour when she arrived was late, but that did not deter her.
She went to the home of the High Priest, knowing it was well past his usual shift to be in the Temple. She knocked on the door, impatiently trying to wait and be polite.
A household domestic answered, and she requested permission to see the high priest on a matter of some urgency. When the doorman hesitated, she brushed past him with a curt apology.
She followed the lights, and entered a small dining room. When her eyes adjusted, she caught her breath. There sat Kolya, being spoon fed by the high priest himself!
"Kolya?" she whispered, scarce above the sound of a breath.
===================================================
The High Priest closed his eyes long enough to inhale deeply. Then he turned toward the doorway. Looking past her, his first words were a rebuke to the domestic who had failed to keep her out.
The paladin didn't seem to hear it, since her entire focus and attention was on the emptied elf. As if entranced, she moved one step, then another, nearer to the form of her friend. He did not respond to her at all. "Kolya?" she asked again, barely giving voice to the name.
"He will not know you," the high priest said with a sigh. Setting down the spoon, he continued. "The messenger spoke truly, the Kolya you knew is gone."
"Nay, milord, I see him sitting before me plain as day!" she protested.
"His body, yes," The High Priest said wearily. "His mind, his soul ... that spark of life that makes each individual unique ... that is missing."
He continued, gently, but clearly. "We have tried, for a month now, to call Kolya's soul back from wherever he has gone ... or wherever he was taken. We have sent messengers to the ones who reside in the planes with the diverse spirits; we have searched everywhere we know of that someone's soul may be held captive ... all to no avail."
He paused, hoping to make his words sink into her awareness. "What you see before you is empty, as a house whose family has moved away. The reflexes, the instincts, the gifts and skills - those are here. But Kolya himself is gone."
The human woman had moved steadily nearer, slowly, hesitantly, as if fearful of waking from a dream. She knelt beside him, gently extending a hand to touch his shoulder. "Kolya?" she breathed, almost reverently.
"Do you hear me child?" the high priest asked rhetorically. "He is gone. We must decide what to do with his body, it cannot tend itself. It must either be nurse-maided till it gives out of its own accord, or permitted to lie and waste away until it belongs in the grave we made for it."
"No!" she said sharply, finally responding to the priest. "I will care for Kolya, as long as it takes. I will not see his body come to any harm, not while I have any strength left in mine!"
Looking back to the emptied elf, she continued softly, "... and who knows? Mayhap, if I tend him faithfully enough, mayhap one day he will know it is safe and return to me."
"Do not hope for that, child," he warned gently but firmly. "He will never again know you, or do anything of his own volition. You will have to lead him by the hand, or he will not walk. You will have to dress him, feed him, take him to the restroom, clean him ... his mind is gone. All you will gain is another body to care for."
"Tis better than losing him altogether!" she hissed. "He trusted me, with his life, many times. Shall I fail to care for him now?"
"Very well then," he decided, seeing that she was determined. Mayhap it was the only way she could let him go. "This charge I lay on you - tend him constantly, faithfully, or bring him back to me. Do not let this body perish for lack of care. If you find you cannot tend him, bring him here and we will see to releasing him properly. Are we agreed?"
"I shall tend him faithfully, never fear," she replied. When he allowed the silence to weigh heavily upon her, she added, "If I am incapacitated, I will see that others bring him back to you. He shall not languish. I will make all the needful arrangements."
"Very well then," he said. "Go, make all the arrangements first."
The high priest smiled at the expression of shocked outrage that grew upon her face when his latest statement was interpreted as not believing her promise. "Do not worry for his health while you are gone," he reassured her. "I shall tend him until you return, prepared to care for him."
"I have to leave him?" she asked, all other emotion draining from her face as the pain again grew foremost. "I am prepared, I can take him with me now!"
"You need to make a will, child," he said. "Make sure he will be sought out and returned to me if aught befalls you, or if you grow old and feeble and unable to tend him."
She shook her head, as if in disbelief.
"The sooner you set about tending these matters," he said gently but firmly, "the sooner you can return for him."
It was only a moment before that sunk in. She kissed Kolya's cheek, whispering that she'd be back for him soon. Then she made hasty reverence to the priest, and fled.
The High Priest sighed, hoping he hadn't done her a graver harm by granting her care of Kolya's body. He had little doubt but that he would see her again, very soon.
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Alas, it seems that Kolya was not the only one stricken!
A Barbarian Northman's final cry wakened his foster sister. Ldari found Meerc McLaird fallen in the frozen northern wastes where they had made their home. Knowing that the local village healers lacked the power to raise the dead, she carried his still form to the Temple of Life in the nearest city. They were able only to restore the body, his mind was gone.
A feline Rogue called to his littermate. Pouncibelle found Scre breathless, and took him to the priests in the nearest city. Resurrection restored breath to his body, but his spirit could not be reached.
A dark elven enchantress discovered an acquaintance, a reluctant gnomish necromancer, lying in a heap of robes within the hall leading to the bazaar. Beruthielle Silverleaf carried Gnoc Turnal to some friends who had the power to raise the dead. They were able to get Gnoc breathing again -- but his will was missing.
A young priest of Truth was discovered breathless by a human monk, and taken to his temple. The high priestess was able to get Fayhde breathing again, but he only lay with a vacant expression upon his upturned face.
An iskar monk was found suffering from the same affliction. Scampy was also brought back to having a functional body, but without any volition of his own - his spirit had fled.
Galadri Leafshimmer discovered her young sister, Abree, senseless and breathless in their small cottage. Though beseeching the holy Maker for her sister's life to be restored, the only response she received was the return of breath. Abree's soul remained absent. Galadri's sorrow was multiplied greatly when she went to the Elvish capitol city and discovered Kolya's grave ...
