Hounds Rising
Before and After

Through the blackness, Myla looked around her, trying to make sense of the space she was in. Turning around, her eyes adjusted on a small orb shining brightly. It was larger than her hand, and its light pulsed slowly as it floated roughly four feet off the ground. She waited a moment to see if it would react to her movement, but not seeing any change, she spoke aloud.

“Yla?”

Myla watched as the ball of light pulsed to her voice as if understanding. It glided closer to her, and she felt anxious. Dreams were not always safe, especially for someone like her or her sister, so caution was needed. The orb moved closer until it was a foot away from her.

Mentally, Myla reached out to it, trying to understand its intent. Its warmth radiated out, and she felt it as a form of safety. She had known this warmth her whole life and sighed as she closed her eyes.

“Hello, Yla. I need your guidance.”

She reached out, placing her two hands under the orb, and let it softly land in her palms. Opening her eyes, she focused her thoughts and spoke again.

“We left the monastery with little information. Why did we have to leave? What happened after we left?”

The orb pulsed slowly. Myla could sense something near her. To the right, she could see humanoid figures in full plate armor. It was thirty or forty feet away from her, but she could see the blackened armor as if burned and the insignia of The Eternal Pillars with scratch marks clawing through it. She watched as thirty… forty… fifty appeared in a forest, moving through the night sky. Above them, she could see large white wings soaring through the sky, connected to a humanoid figure. She squinted her eyes and tried to make out more detail, but they were too far away.

In front of her, she watched as trees appeared. She felt Yla pull her forward. Moving through the tree line, she watched as the Dark Order moved next to her. In the distance, she could see the firelight coming into view. As they moved closer and closer, she could see the first stone building come into view. It was only one story in height but turned back, leading to a much larger facility. Lantern light gave way to the white stone with the golden seal of a dragon next to the front door.

The doors opened, and a figure stepped out. He wore a similarly white outfit with golden embroidery. The man turned and shouted a command, then returned to the forest line. As the Dark Order ran out into the open field where the Monastery of Gildenfire sat, arrows fell from the sky from behind the building that Elaro Fallingstar stood in front of. He breathed in, then released a blinding spray of fire, which hit the first line of the assailants, but he was quickly surrounded. More people ran out of the monastery, and the battle became too hard to track.

Myla felt a pulse from the orb, and she watched as the scene vanished slowly, becoming more and more distant and blurred until she was standing in darkness again. Her eyes adjusted to the dark but then realized that she hadn’t been wholly pulled away. She could ask another question, it seemed. Myla thought for a moment, then asked another.

“Is part of my path this basilisk issue? Is there more to pursue there?”

The orb responded with pulses again, slow and calm. In front of them, a cart materialized. Myla moved to the side of it and saw a familiar eladrin kneeling in front of a campfire. She watched as Ana used a ladle to pour stew into multiple bowls, then carefully set them down next to her. Reaching into a small pocket on the inside of her cloak, she pulled out some folded papers. Ana stared at them, so Myla moved closer to see what they were.

While one paper was folded inward to not show the contents within, she could see the other paper covered in writing. Looking over Ana’s shoulder, she read quickly. She instantly realized this wasn’t a note or letter but directions. At the top, it told of Ana’s movements out of Calimshan, then moving East. Towards the bottom, it spoke of moving through Moonbright, then North to Aramore.

Ana placed the papers back into the pocket, stood up, and walked away from the campfire. She knelt near some tall grass and started pulling it up by the root. Myla watched as bulbous garlic emerged from the ground, attached to what she assumed was grass. Carefully, Ana stood and started to hand out garlic to an unseen group, a look of relief on her face.

Snow started falling around Ana and Myla, and a cold wind burst behind them. Myla turned and gazed up as a large castle appeared before her. It looked old but mostly covered in snow, making it hard to catch the building’s exterior details. An overwhelming feeling reached out from the building as if trying to grab her and pull her in, but Myla took a step back and shook her head as the building, the cold, and Ana vanished, leaving her in the darkness again, with only Yla as a source of light.

Somewhere in front of her, she could hear something nearby. Myla tried to listen carefully, the back-and-forth motion of something moving, almost like a brush. Then, a loud spitting noise echoed around her, then the brushing sound appeared again.

Myla opened her eyes and lay in bed in the Archmage’s Tower. She reached out instinctively towards Yla but found she wasn’t there, then turned towards the brushing sound she could still hear. Her sister was brushing her teeth across the room, next to the bedroom door. Lyla spat out the water from her mouth again, then raised her glass and took a deep gulp. Reaching for the towel near the water basin, she moved her head towards it and dried her face.

Myla let her head fall back into the pillow, which she immediately regretted. Her mind pounded against her skull, and she felt the need to throw up, remembering that they had gone out last night and drank. Her hangover felt severe, as even the room’s light felt too much for her. She carefully reached for her flask and took a large gulp, chasing away the dehydration as best as possible.

Did Yla contact you too?

No?

She came to me. She hasn’t talked to us in weeks, and I just had some really confusing visions.

Well, I’d imagine some coffee would do both of us good. Mr. Muffins usually has some prepared in the main hall.

The smell of freshly baked pastries and cooked meats wafted through their room, and Myla wasn’t sure if the food would help or hurt her in her current state, but she had to try. Carefully, she stood up and reached out to her sister.

“My head hurts too much,” Myla moaned. “Can you guide me? I must have made mistakes…”

Lyla moved over to her sister, and as Myla stood, she wrapped her arms around Lyla’s shoulders. Myla was lifted up, and she wrapped her legs around her sister’s waist as she was carried out of the bedroom and into the tower’s main hall.

The room was worse than their bedroom, though, as the walls were like one-way mirrors. While it showed the citizens moving around and running errands, the morning sunlight blared through the room and lit up every piece of metal or liquid, making it harder to see. Myla could feel her head throb in the light.

“Oh! Wait a second!”

Darion waved his hand, and Myla watched with squinted eyes as the tower’s walls turned back into stone, hiding the sunlight and leaving faint torchlight from various sources along the border. A sense of relief came over her, and she carefully dismounted from Lyla’s back and made her way over to a chair.

She could see Darion had an almost empty plate of food, a glass of wine, and a small pile of papers in front of him. He bowed his head slightly, smiling, then turned his head as they heard a door open. Rhokhishi walked out of her room, still in clothes from the night before, rubbing her temples as she made her way over to the drink cart and poured herself a glass of water. Myla could hear her gulping the water down, then turned towards a bottle of red wine and poured herself a small amount.

“Good morning ladies. The sun will only be out for the morning, and then I hear there will be rain in the afternoon. That must be a gracious gift from the sky to move the bright light away from us on this hungover morning.”

“The light is too bright…” Myla answered back. She picked up her plate and weakly reached in front of her for food, then slowly set it down to not make any noise. Her head throbbed, but she knew she’d be okay with food, water, and rest. Until then, she’d just have to work through it.

They ate in silence. Darion looked over his paperwork. Rhokhishi was sipping her wine slowly between glasses of water, but Lyla took most of Myla’s thoughts. She used their mental connection to share the vision she had received, and Lyla seemed to be a bit more anxious than usual. She reacted to the vision, but it was as if something else was on her mind. Myla couldn’t seem to reach it and figure out what it was.

Coming down the stairs, Myla saw Sir Nibs hop down from above, making it across the room. The squirrel stopped momentarily, looking at each of them in turn, then scurried away to Ana’s room. It scratched at the door for a moment, then opened slightly, giving the squirrel its entrance. Behind it, the door closed again.