Alas, so long as the music plays, we dance

[arcaneadvisor]

WHO: Morrigan, Alistair, Gwenaëlle, Thranduil
WHAT: The hunt for Flemeth moves into the final stage when Kieran is taken from Sundermount in the small hours with only one possible suspect, leading to a desperate race for one place Morrigan knows they might find her mother
WHEN: August
WHERE: Altar of Mythal
NOTES: stage i + stage ii

From Sundermount to the Arbor Wilds isn't nearly so far as to the Tirashan, but their small party - roused by a Morrigan in what might only have been described as a blind panic - doesn't fly as the dragon does, cutting clear across the sky from one to the next. Instead the journey is longer, across the Waking Sea, through the Dales, and then to the place Morrigan had described to them. Morrigan, silent and snapping by turns (only Thranduil knows after all) until they at last come upon a place that carries with it the weight of memory.

Too bright and too beautiful compared to near all other elven ruins but then this is older still, is it not? A statue that even beheaded is familiar to those who've seen it before as life blooms about it, as the dread coils in Morrigan's belly to force her to a halt.

For there is no dragon here.

There is a woman Morrigan knows. A woman Alistair knows. A boy all four of them know. The woman kneels before the boy until the intrusion is realised, standing with her gauntleted hand upon his shoulder, a familiar smile and greeting upon her lips.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?"