CXXII: A Feather for Five Fellows Fey: A Quest: i (part one of a story from Ralquez); and CXXVI: A manna from an unexpected place
By Breogán they started, at the bank
where, soon, the Stones of Staggering1 would stay.
A vengeful hawk, a knight of noble rank,
a druid, and two bugbears bold were they.
There Zephia they found, the Shadow Thief,
but knew her not, for long had been the war.
As all had not a home, their pause was brief,
before they went to help her with her score.
They never could have known the fate they sued,
for feyfolk often seek but what’s their own.
But while the Rogue had many plans construed,
she never could have guessed the seeds she’d sown.
Though gentle is the breeze that moves the heather,
so move the fates of all by one small Feather2.
~~~
The manna didn’t come from heavens high.
No, not today, at least. It came from man.
An unsuspecting man who wandered by,
where, on my nightly vigil, it began.
He came downstairs to ask me for a hand.
I did what little that he asked I do.
Just what becomes a hire where I’m manned;
and then he said “now I’ve a thing for you.”
And, out of nowhere, fruits and roots he drew—
from air, from lockers that I couldn’t see.
The kinds of foods my father would have grew,
and mother would have cooked them well for me.
For but a moment, for he would not stay,
I had a dad and had a mom today.
The Stones of Staggering were an implement used in the final stages of the Rend. When the Eastern front between elves and men was crippled, the Elves pressed their chances Westward into the Fey territories. The constructs built by the dwarf Syddik were yet untried against the Fey, but due to the experience of this adventuring party comprised mainly of Western natives, the Stones were quickly adopted into the conflict.
Four great boulders, crackling with abjuring energy, rested beside the corners of Breogán Bridge. They acted as insatiable magnets for the arcane power which quickened Syddik’s machines, disabling them if they drew near.
It is unknown what became of the energy imbibed within these Stones, but many agree that, should a scholar find a way, they could yet contain an abundant source of power to any number of magical systems. For now they remain, glowing ominously, a warning against former days.
The Feathers of the Seraphim were the main impetus which catalyzed the final days of the Rend. While three Feathers (of Locrien, Prydien, and Lydoria) had been in circulation between the three major participants for the majority of the war, obtaining the fourth and lost feather (of Aeonia) was the main goal of Zephia the half elf. She believed, rightly, that whoever possessed that final asset would be able tip the intracontinental stalemate that had continued unabated for centuries.
While she had been seeking to steal another feather at the time this poem takes place, the advantage she saw in a potential party of displaced adventurers would indeed lead to massive changes in the war dynamic; and ultimately to a steeply paid peace, largely by the hand of the half elf Holbrook’s Wrens.