Legends of Belariath

Reiluna

"Winddancer, winddancer, sister wind be,
carry me high as a bird fly over tree,
where mountaintops, rainbows and clouds fly and see,
sister wind make me as winddancers be,
sister wind make me as winddancers be."
Childs rhyme
Age of dreams

"And so the knight took the sylph's veil and made the winddancer his wife..." This is the tale of the Sylph's veil, as legends are told as songs are sung. Yet to the Elissis family, it is an ancestral legacy, for those who remember this is how the Legend transpired:

Seven millennia ago, within the Age of dreams, there lived a sylph, a winddancer, within the mountains near the streams. There she lived, laughed, bathed and danced , from dawn's early light to soft glow of twilight. Chance led an elven knight to the vale of winds on the night of the full moon when its tears danced upon the lakes mirror. When the knight saw the bewitchingly elegant form of the winddancer, dancing upon the mirrors surface, he was moon-struck. Thus he took her veil, demanding a night of passion from the girl in return. The helpless sylph agreed, soon the night of passion turned into a day, the days to weeks, the weeks to moons, as the knight took the winddancer who was unable to r eturn to the clouds as his wife. In time the helpless sylph bore the knight twins, yet without her veil, sadness in her heart and contempt within her soul the sylph prematurely extinguished her flame of life. Thus legend has it that eventually the descendants of the union used the rhyme to find the veil and their way back to the clouds.

The Elissis family has kept much of the bloodline of the union within them, and their descendants have flourished, each descendant arriving within the world with an innate attunement with magic itself. Their descendants manifested their magical abilities from tender ages demonstrating what the elven high magi call "gates"; a direct access to the manaweave that allows them to tap energies formerly not accessible to elven sorcerers. Thus over time, the legacy became a story, and the story a legend. Few know of the legacy now except for what manifests itself in the descendants of the union. Yet through the millennia, many rumours have arisen that the sylph incarnates herself within her descendants granting her blessings or her curse upon them. Some have also prophesised that after nine and forty generations shall twins once again be borne to the bloodline, an angel of life, and an angel of sorrow that would enact the final chapter of the legend and ascend to the clouds whence they once came.

Many generations after the origins of the legend, twins were borne to the family of house Elissis - Reivyus and Reiluna were children of almost moonlike beauty and innocence, yet the first born, the boy child Reivyus was secreted away from the unconscious form of the lady Elissis by the midwife under the employ of a distant cousin who is known only as Aereivian.

Thus as the only child of Lord and Lady Eilssis of Lunarian Citadel in Horizon's Edge, Reiluna was raised. As a child she was quiet, discerning and elegant, her grace was always impeccable, her manners always in perfection. Few could match her majesty, and the natural, almost sensual ability to be as a girl should be, as dictated by etiquette. Always seen never heard was Reiluna, for it was soon known that the beauty was born with out the delight of a voice.

As she grew, the latent magic of her blood and the legacy of her mother's ancestry awakened each day as she flourished, many speculated, yet few knew or even related it to the ancient legend, all apart from one who watched from a distance, a flourishing male child by his side.

Time passes as it always does, and soon she came of age, the royal house of Horizon's Edge arranged a fitting betrothal to a wealthy Lord of a mountain realm to the far north of the Kingdom. The passes being impassable but for three moons each year, an alliance that would ensure a near impregnable Northern frontier.

Thus the betrothal contract was laid, the engagement was arranged to be within the next two summers, a marriage within the following three. The expectations were many, the instructions were few. She was to be escorted to the boundaries of Nathalion, and left, on her own, to travel to the Loney Inn, where she was to await the arrival of some unknown guide that would take her the rest of the way to the house of her new Lord. Therefore she journeyed to the Lonely Inn and here she will remain, until her escort arrives.

And therein from his throne room within his halls of stone and magic, watches Aereivian, Reivyuis at his side, gazing upon the key to the gate, behind which the veil resides.

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