Daneni awoke again to darkness.
Stretching out her hands, she felt once more the enclosing cold
wet stone that bound her deep beneath the earth in Neriak, city of the
Teir'Dal. Unwittingly, she gave out a little sob of fear and desperation
- and heard laughter in return.
"So, you awaken!" A voice from the darkness. Her tormentor
had returned.
Uncountable times, she had been woken by that voice, its owner unseen
in the total darkness of her tiny cell. Uncountable times, she had
been lured into conversation. The Lady Kyrisis had come once more
to her lonely cell - to talk.
"We spoke before about the historian Xerves. Tell me more
of what he said."
Daneni tried to sit up a little - hard in a cell that was probably
less than two feet high. "He - he wrote that it is proper for philosophers
to question the wisdom handed down by the temples to the people.
He said that the belief of the faithful twisted truth. And he said
that the simplistic contention that the origins of Norrath's races lay
in the hands of their gods was at best flawed, and at worst reflected the
vanity of the gods, who believed that they alone had a hand in our creation."
"He was a heretic, then?"
Daneni laughed. "The Combine Empire had many such - or
so I was taught. But we of Qeynos are not so concerned as others
are about our origins, for neither the Prime Healer nor the Rainkeeper
claim creation."
"Yet you see how the followers of the Marr twins and of Tunare
use these beliefs against my own people, stirring up hatred and resentment?"
"Yes. They claim that you are fallen elves - taken by Innoruuk,
your god,
and - perverted."
"And thus they justify their persecution of us!"
Daneni sighed. "Yes."
"And you yourself - when we met - were afraid."
"Yes. You are the villains of our stories - used like trolls
and ogres to scare disobedient children."
Again, laughter. "Ah, to be feared can be useful!
But I should like much more to be free to travel where I will, and suffer
no abuses! That, I fear, shall not happen until the power of the
temples of Light has been broken!" There was anger in her voice now,
and Daneni instinctively flinched away from it, pulling her legs back from
the unseen Lady.
Kyrisis, whose keen-seeing eyes were well accustomed to the dark,
gave a quiet sigh.
Then she spoke again: "Our Queen questions my wisdom in keeping
you here. Her advisors counsel me to deliver you to the Foreign Quarter."
She laughed, "I think there is much speculation there as to the price your
meat would fetch! Such well-fed stock, of noble lineage, and in prime
form, would mark a change from the unfortunate farmers, pilgrims and careless
adventurers that more ordinarily grace the tables of our larger brethren!"
Daneni gave no reply, too terrified to speak.
"Yet I think not. I think I shall keep you here awhiles.
Our conversations interest me…for now."