Childhood

City life gave me all that I could ask for. My parents were well off, both working in the trade industry, and were able to provide me with academy level training and education. Sometimes the lifestyle was daunting but because I knew I belonged here I pushed when other faltered.

I had few friends, but of them the closest was Rhalyf. We shared most of our schooling time together and during our free periods we made up games to play. Looking back, it seemed so childishly delightful. He was so extremely adapt at playing hide-and-go-seek, but, no matter the hidding spot, eventually I could find him. Other times we would practice our fighting. Being as young as we were they only taught us the defensive stances but it was only a matter of time until we out grew our lessons. Once we snuck into the city guard's training grounds. Rhalyf, being the crafty one that he was, helped me scale the walls so we may watch together. He had such an uncanny ability to know which stones were loose and where to grab. We spent hours together watching the men and women train. My job was to take notes and memorize the movements so we may practice together afterwards. Somethings that Rhalyf would miss, I would notice, like the way to set your footing before swinging a sword, or how their hands were placed on a bo staff. Between our games he would find fun in quizzing me. He knew my favorite subjects were history and lore. Often he would marvel at the little things I could remember from our class. He loved bringing up the far out land of the elves, Evermeet. Over and over he would ask. I knew he knew everything that I said, after all, we shared the same lessons. I think that he just liked hearing about it. He shared with me one day about his anxiety of being half kin and that he wouldn't be welcomed into Evermeet or that if he was it was merely an act of petty. I hugged him tight that day and told him that any one who would turn him away clearly misunderstood how incredible he was.

We grew up eventually. I had a few years on Rhalyf but his human side made up for that quick. Rhalyf would eventually apply for apprenticeship as a Bladesinger but when no word returned he feared the worst. Wether it be from his half human blood or the fact he was no Evermeet citizen he took the news hard. He was at the top of our class, only riveled by me, so whatever the reason he was sure it was something due to that.

I with met him the day before he left. He had been crying, one of the few times I've seen him ever do that. Being a Bladesinger was all he ever wanted. Powerful guardians. Champions of elven kind. Adventuring was in his blood. And that's why he had to leave. A college had accepted him when Evermeet and her master's did not. My memory is so vivid of that night. We were in his room for hours, from set to rise. Perhaps my mind knew already the long length of time we would have to endure before seeing each other again and so it captured every detail it could. We sat in his room, near the open window. It was summer and the wind stayed warm many hours after the sun had left. He had candles burning, a mix of fresh pine lumber and lemon, something he always burned when worried or stressed. We talked but also enjoyed comfortable silence.

His time to go came. The sun had it's first light over the city and Rhalyf was adamant about leaving without other people's knowing, wanting to avoid the fuss of good byes.

I hugged my friend again before letting him go down his path but not before he asked one last question.

"Vox, why don't you want to go?"

Adulthood

But why would I leave? Where would I go? What place could I go to that was better than here? Perhaps I was too bought in on the idea that our elven differences were so firm, at least that's what others thought of me. What can I say? I am a full blooded sun elf. A lot is expected of me wether they admit or not. Time out "adventuring" could be time spent on bettering myself and I must be the best me.

When finished with the academic portion of my life the next series of months blended together. My memory is very strong but there's not much I could tell you about that time. I wouldn't discribe it as a 'blur', but more like the gears of a clock. Days mimicked days and weeks were mirrors of each other. The only breaks of the continunity were the local festivals that my city observed but those matter much less after Rhalyf left. Those days were better spent with personal projects.

Cooking was an interesting venture for me but was short lived as I don’t eat much. I tried my hand at my parents' own vocation but rarely did they require my help. Most hours with them had me idle and anxious to be else where, doing something different. Tutoring promising start. I was with a youngling named Ceara. Access to an apprentice came in handy and I was most pleased to influence her and give guidance. She had fallen behind in school due to what her parents thought was a poor immune system. It turned out to be more than that. She would fall ill randomly and after enough encounters with our family physician we took it into our own hands. I admired how willing and brave she was. It took some trial and error, something that wasn’t easy on either of us. Eventually, over the course of months, we discovered that Ceara had an sensitivity to the weave of magic that was omnipresence. When the threads suddenly changed course and caused a peak or valley Ceara would experience something akin to vertigo. After that we found prescriptions useful to her and mindful meditation aided Ceara’s mental strength to withstand the occasional shifts. It wasn’t long after that she was caught up with her classmates and no longer required my tutelage.

That lasted for a little over a year and maybe it was for the best. Teaching wouldn’t be my calling. Maybe in a century or two later would I consider but not now.

By this point it had been close to four years since Rhalyf left for college. Letters were sparse, mainly sent in time for each other’s birthdays. I had gathered enough spare gold to send a care package of some of our home city’s goods. Fresh fruits, a green and gold ribbon from the Day of Color festival, a supply of candles. The item most pleased to send was a flat palm sized slab of obsidian. It came to my possession via my parents. It was an oddity that never sold after years of trying. The material was rare but in such small quantities it hardly had any appeal. It was always warm to the touch and I suggested he store it in his glove or a pocket. He was far north in the snowy lands and judging by his correspondence afterwards he’ll never receive a better gift. This was quite some time ago and had recently been considering sending another. Tutoring Ceara had landed me a windfall of gold. Her parents insisted on paying extra after going such lengths for their daughter.

It would have been such a surprise for Rhalyf had he not surprised me first.

The Silver Hymn

I threw my arms around my dear friend and hugged him tight. He had grown but not quite to my height. His clothing choices were different too. He sported a more fashionable attire that leaned on ostentatious. His hair wasn’t cut short any more either and was pulled into a low pony. So much had changed but I could still quickly pick my friend out in a busy crowd.

We exchanged our pleasantries before finding a place to sit and talk. We traded our stories from the past four years. I asked questions about some of his letters and he did the same back. He was impressed on how much I could recall from them and accused me of rereading within the last few days. I teased him, saying that he wishes and was quickly reminded of how acute my memory could be. He then asked about Evermeet and about the Bladesingers. Of course I remembered as children how he used to do this but there was something he was leading up to, I could tell. And he didn’t let down. After my brief lesson of the Bladesingers he asked me if I thought they were the only ones, sword fighters with a wholly original style of combat. I said yes and he thought so too, until he left. His theory is that there could be others. He hailed from the sword college now and that the talents he learned from the mountains were cousins to the Bladesingers, and that there could be more. He showed me an insignia that I later learned was for “The Silver Hymn”.

The Silver Hymn is a guild of lore seekers, or would eventually be. As of now it was just him and one other, the guild’s benefactor. He explained to me that he needed me, that there could be no one else to do it. Anyone could memorize text from a book and retain knowledge but only in me did he see the passion for it. He described the types of roles I would play and after two days of considering I said yes.

It was interesting work to say the least! Within a month we had grown from two, to six. Actually it was seven but it was hard to consider the guild’s benefactor as a member. Rhalyf and myself were looked to as the founders. Darcan and Jhaan were the first to join, classmates that had also stayed with in the city. They were revered well but were having trouble finding work without dedication to a mage college. After we had Eleyon join, a half moon elf who out grew her peers in the class room and was eager to start their adulthood. She was the youngest but carried her weight just as much. We weren’t sure if the guild needed any more until a wood elf of the name Kel joined. He was older and had experience far outside the city that both Rhalyf and I knew we couldn’t pass up on.

Gold was steady for the guild. We would receive a payout every two weeks. Darcan would prep and send the progress report in the in between weeks. Darcan has the finest of penmanship. Sometimes I would review his report just to see how that man writes his o’s. Jhaan had a knack with accounting and was quick to fill the role of treasurer. She made sure we had everything we needed and budgeted accordingly. Eleyon lacked initiative to work on her own and found her time better suited with me as an assistant. Kel we were still getting to know but he was delightful at the six string and had a tongue of silver, something useful when ever the need showed. No matter our talents we all poured over every book.

It took some time for any honest progress. Eleyon felt like we were shooting an arrow with out a target. She didn’t like the ambiguity of what we were looking for. It was actually Ceara that gave us our first step in a new direction. I had the sudden impulse of checking in on her, seeing what improvements she had made. I told her what I could of what we were doing. Until then we had just been cataloguing events of Bladesingers but they had been kept factual, likely to keep the art form a secret. Ceara asked why if we were looking for something like the Bladesingers. From there Eleyon suggested we look into folk lore, specially since Kel always said stories like those always had some truth to them.

It was the best months of my life. Rhalyf and I, working closely again. Making new friends. Together we separated fiction from non. There were examples of what Rhalyf was searching for. A sword fighter had returning from the Moonshae Isles and was completing feats of mastery, acts similar to Bladesingers but not exactly. This fighter single handedly protect