Melancholy smile
-
Merydian sat by the southern Norwick gate, her characteristic grin dancing on her lips. The slowly dying fire sent shadows flickering across her face. Reclining on her elbows, she smiled slightly at each passerby, offering some food or care for a wounded limb. She sat in this fashion for several hours, obviously pondering something. She continued until someone sat across from her and spoke gently, the voice carrying through the wisping smoke from the burning tree limbs.
Where's Mellia tonight?
Merydian slowly lowered her head, hands stilling as her emotions churned. The other person waited patiently, until she lifted her head and gave a melancholy smile.
Mellia's not here anymore.
The relative stranger smiled and moved on, but Mery continued to sit and stare at the fire's dying coals, chewing on her lower lip thoughtfully. It was not until a good number of people had gathered around the fire, eager for entertainment, that she spoke again.
_Me cousin Mellia was a bard, as some of you know. She used to help me fall asleep at night by singing or telling me stories. Sometimes when I needed someone to take my mind away from me troubles she would weave wonderful tales. She told me once of a fabulous creature called a jinn. Would you like to hear it? nods of consent, smiles coming to mouths in anticipation.
There was once a frail, old woman who lived by herself in a small cottage a few days away from the nearest village. No one really knew her, and no one really wanted to. She kept to herself, and only ventured into town when she was low of supplies she could not grow herself. The one store she always visited without fail, was the bric a brac store at the very edge of the village. It was full of knick knacks, old useless junk, and a few priceless treasures. This old lady would wander the aisles, smiling a faint smile at something that once held great beauty, or occasionally dusting a bit of grime off of something particularly unusual.
This went on for many years. The old lady would come to the village and get her supplies, visit the knickknack store but never buy anything, and then leave. Finally, one crisp clear day, too crisp and too clear to be inside a musty old shop, she found something worthy of buying. It was a small, rather unremarkable bottle of deep black, completely covered in grime. She brought it to the front counter at once, not even bothering to wipe the dust off of her hands. The dwarf at the front counter smiled a gap toothed smile as he took the two gold she offered, then raised a brow as she left without getting her change.
Once she had made her way home, the old lady reverently set the bottle on a clean square of leather and gently started polishing it. There was no billow of smoke or anything equally as dramatic. The first thing the old lady noticed was a sweet, spicy smell filling the cottage, and then there was a large man standing before her. This was no ordinary man. Besides being a jinn, he stood at least a handspan taller than the tallest men in the village. His skin was also the darkest black with a sheen like polished ebony. The old lady smiled as she stood, the top of her head coming to the underside of his chin. His eyes glowed a scarlet red as he regarded her, this puny human curiously. She continued to smile at him, then gently took his hand and led him towards the bedroom. Once he was inside, she locked the door, murmuring soft words and twisting her wrists to imbue the door with a magical seal. Once the jinn realized what she had done, that entire part of the house started to tremble and shake with the force of his rage. She murmured something else quickly, causing the tremors to stop, but she could still hear him screaming in his tongue, cursing her and all of her descendants. The little old lady wiped her hands clean on her robe with a melancholy smile, then continued on with her chores.
This continued for many days until finally the jinn resigned himself to his fate. Only when he had stopped screaming for many hours did the little old lady open the door. He stood in her bedroom, his shoulders scraping the ceiling, the scarlet pools of his eyes seemingly alight. She payed no attention to his rage and set him to working on various chores around the house. Through her magic, she made even the smallest chore turn into a feat, even for a jinn with magical strength. He chafed under this confinement, and his anger grew as hot as his eyes. This continued for many months until she called him into the house one day and bade him stand before her.
"I have had control over you for many months. You have done all of my bidding. For this you are now free. You see, I knew who you were when I found your bottle. I am the sorceress who put you there as punishment for all of your vile deeds you did when you were a man. You have completed the 5,000 year sentence, and you are now free. Of course, you may choose to leave, but I think you might find things more comfortable here"
As she spoke, the sorceress removed the incantations. She smiled in that same, quiet way up at him, waiting for his response. With two strides he reached her, scooping her up in his powerful arms. She made no struggle as he let his built up rage loose in a powerful cry and snapped her small body in two.
After he was done, the jinn smiled, cruelly, and made no move to clean up the woman's desecrated body. He ransacked her small house, stripping it of anything valuable before setting out into the world.
He came to the village first, bearing all of the woman's valuables in a gunnysack over his shoulder. The villagers screamed when they saw him, fleeing every which way. A few of the braver men advanced slowly, with pitchforks and flame to bar his way. The jinn smiled, the whites of his teeth glinting against his darkened skin. He threw out his hand to stop the men, fully expecting them to disintegrate before his eyes. Only then did he realize what the old woman had meant. She had freed him. She had taken away his shackles, but he then realized how intertwined his shackles and his power truely were. The villagers moved closer. Even with his great height and strength, he was far outnumbered. As they backed him into a corner, he realized how futile his situation was, and how foolish he had been. The last thing the villagers saw before they tore him apart, was his strange, melancholy smile._
The listeners waited until they realized that was the end of the story. Mery chuckled as she heard their questions.
Moral? I don't really know the moral m'dear. I just thought that was one of Mellia's best stories. shrugs her slim shoulders I'll always remember it…
Mery then slowly rose and started the long walk home to Peltarch, not smiling at all.
-
Abiie was sleeping on the small couch of the corner of the room. Merydian smiled ever so slightly as she gazed on the young woman who was like a daughter to her. Her brow creased as she started to again worry about all the things that mothers worry about.
"All that young, hot blood boiling around in that little frame. It seems like hardly yesterday I was only 20" Mery thought to herself.
"But of course, when I was 20, all me Da' had to worry about was whether Dane Forrester was trying to get up me skirts again" She chuckled slightly at the memory.
Her brow creased further as she looked at her daughter's prone form once more. There was much more to worry about with this one, oh yes. Mery sighed as she gently sat on the worn couch, avoiding the creaking corners, and stroked a lock of Abiie's hair. So much power and anger in this young girl, and Mery didn't have the slightest idea what to do about it. She knew that them living together was just a small reprieve. She just hoped that she could find some way to make her daughter change her ways before she grew bored with Mery's way of life.
Mery's lip curled slightly, her hand tightening on Abiie's hair momentarily as she thought of Syne. She was not going to give her daughter over to that man, after all of her fighting to get back into her life. And there were things… Mellia had said before she died. Mery took a deep breath as her racing mind contemplated some of the dangers Abiie could even be now facing. She closed her eyes a moment, then quietly covered Abiie more firmly with the blanket and stood.
Making as little noise as possible, Mery stood and grabbed her cloak, then left a few gold on the table for Abiie to get breakfast when she awoke. Once she was outside the room, she murmered a quiet incantation, her fingers twitching as her body tensed. Protection spells cast, she made her way out of the inn and to the bardic college to do some research.