#will5nevercome

One of my Mother’s Day presents

The 2 at-home kids got me a sterling charm bracelet with hearts on it.

Di and Nael drove down and met us at a Chinese buffet and bought my late lunch. Then they came back to the house and Di stretched skin for me while I did this tattoo I’ve been wanting for ages.

My Husband who writes the https://will5nevercome.com/ web comic recently made a portrait of my D&D character Hiereus. For anyone intrested in his back story I have included it below.  Below is one of the nutritive pieces I wrote for Hiereus back story. To set the stage first you need to know that his ancestors were enslaved by an unknown demon, but though their belief in the devise power of the Flame they had been able to resist their master and free themselves.

The story below starts with Hiereus after leaving his home land of Eluthane but includes a flash back.    

The Story of Hiereus: A Flash back with in a Flash back.

Hiereus sat on a stone near the fire he had built outside the kobold slave camp. The fire itself was small as to not draw the attention of the house whose field he was in, but big enough that the kobolds knew he was there.

“The light of the Flame is liberation, and the path to freedom is trust and benevolence,” he spoke the mantra in his limited draconic vocabulary avoiding the common used by their human masters.  As he spoke the words the Flame's light became a bright scarlet; its warmth touching not only his skin but reflected deep in his soul.

It was his third night outside the camp, four full months since he left his home in Eluthane in his search for Moira. That search itself had turned up little, but finding himself in Vinita Hiereus had seethed to find the persistence of slavery in the Republic, for all the talk of liberty in the fledgling nation he had been disappointed.

As it was no kobold had yet approached the fence near his fire. Still he remained; their sidelong glances reassured him of their curiosity.  

He starred deep into the flames as his mind drifted to a time too far away when he and his sister prepared for their first guarding rites.

*** Hiereus was fifteen as he prepared for his first time ministering rites as a member of the Eluthanai temple. His mother was still officiating of course, but this was a right of passage into the priesthood for him and his sister.

“Are you still getting ready?” Moira's voice came from the door, “Mother's waiting for us,” she said.

“One moment,” Hiereus called, “I need to apply some ointment to my stump,” he said reaching for a bottle he keep on his writing desk.

“It's still bothering you?” his sister asked concerned, “It's been weeks since we made our lamps.” She ran her hand over the place from where her own horn had been cut.

Hiereus offered his sister as pacifying smile, “It's only irritating once and a while now, I just don't want it to act up during the ceremony.”

Moira rolled her eyes and nodded, “Of course,” she said, “But hurry, you're making us late.”

The ointment was applied quickly, and soon his hood was raised. Taking up his lamp he fallowed his sister into the frigid air of Eluthane.

The guarding rite at the kiln probably drew the largest gathering of the town each year. It wasn't the most religiously significant holiday of they year, but the one that affected the lively hood of most of the townsfolk in Eluthane.

Ceramics where his peoples primary export. They weren't the biggest producer of stoneware, but over the generations their work had gained enough of a reputation that Eluthanai pieces were highly valued, sufficient that the communally run kiln could sustain his people in their cold home.

“So their you are,” their mother, Phose, called as they ran across the frozen earth to meet her. “Your father just came past to tell me they are almost done loading the kiln, I was afraid you'd miss the lighting.”

Moira frowned, “You're the leader of the temple mom, you'd think you'd be able to delay the ceremony a bit for your own children.”

Their mother sighed, “A position I have only through the trust of our people, you wouldn't want me to take advantage of that would you?” Hiereus winced at his mother's words. Since gaining their freedom, trust was the foundation of their town's order, leadership was elected, and that was perhaps the biggest token of trust one could win, to violate it, well it was a taboo that was seldom broken.

Moira's tail drooped from the chastisement, “even still 'our people',” she made scare quotes in the air,  “are our friends and neighbors, I'm sure they would forgive you a little tardiness, besides, Hiereus' stump is still bothering him.”

“Moira!” Hiereus cried in a mortified tone.

“What? Still?” his mother said moving to inspect her son's head.

Hiereus pulled the edges of his hood down over his face in protest, “No, Mom, it's fine.” he said agitated, “Lets just go to the kiln.” he huffed.

“If you say so,” she said looking down at her son still worried.

“Yes.” he responded not letting go of his hood until their mother lead them away.

---

Most of Eluthane had gathered near the hillside where the great step kiln had been constructed generations ago. Hiereus' could see his older brother, Rai'Tu'Sai, working at  its front loading the wood whose ash would become the color to decorate the work of the potters.

“Ah, mother!” Rai'Tu'Sai said greeting them as they approached, “We're almost ready, Pa just sealed up the back. Once we've set the kindling you can start.”

Their mother nodded, and Rai'Tu'Sai turned to his younger siblings, “So, you two ready to stay up all night trending the Flame?” he said with a grin, “To be honest, I'm glad not to be doing your job tonight. I'll tell you what, I'm going to sleep well while you two are out here.” he said as he ran his knuckles over Hiereus head.

“Stop that!” Hiereus wailed, and his brother chuckled.

“I suppose that's why you didn't join the priesthood!” Moira chided.

“Well one of us had to follow in Pa's footsteps, it may as well be me right!” Rai'Tu'Sai said back.

“Cut it out you three,” Their mother reproved them in a harsh wispier while rubbing her eyes, “The whole town's here! And Moira it's good keep a potter in the family, their work is in many ways harder than ours, and we contribute as a family.” Phose finished.

Moira sighed, “Yeah I know,” she said, “just make him leave Hiereus alone,”

Hiereus tail sank low to the ground as he grumbled. His sister was too quick to defend him, and he wished she would just let him handle himself.

“Your brother's fine,” Phose said, and Hiereus wasn't sure which she was referring to.

Rai'Tu'Sai shrugged and went back to work.

---

In short order it was time for the rite of guarding to begin. The Moira and Hiereus fallowed their mother and the other priests to the pavilion sheltering the front of the kiln, and Hiereus withdrew a prayer book he had tucked into his robes.

“What are you doing?” Moira asked in disbelief, “don't you have your part memorized?” she said though clinched teeth.

“I do.” Hiereus whispered back defensively, “I just want to be sure.”

“Whatever,” Moira breathed, “Just remember they all know you're my brother.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Hiereus asked but apparently not softly enough as he caught the fiery gave of his mother that cut him short.

The tone of a bell silenced the crowd as Phose stepped forward, her horn lamp held aloft, it's flame deep red.

“We who once toiled enslaved by darkness are now liberated by light.” she intoned.

The next priest stepped forward and lit their lamp from the one Phose held, “By the light of the Flame our work is now ours” they said as the Flame's light was shared with them.

Moira then joined the others, and their mother lowered her lamp to share the flame with her. “Trust and benevolence is the path to freedom, may we share our work and labor together.” she said as the flame on her lamp took its crimson hue.

Heiress had followed along in his book, and his turn had now come. He stepped forward and met his mothers smile. “May the light of the Flame … Protect our labors...” he was reading aloud phrase by phrase and frowned as he stumbled, “my they carry its light... so that the darkness... cannot over take them.” He looked at the ground as he finished.

His mother nodded and raised his chin as she lit his lamp, “You did good,” she whispered to him, and he was relieved when as it turned red like the others; its power reflected in his heart.

Then he with the other priests turned to the kindling at the base of the kiln, “May the light of the Flame provide you with strength, wherever you go.” they chanted together as they each lowered their lamps to light the kindling together.

The potters who worked the kiln pumped bellows to stoke the Flame which soon spread to the wood inside.  Cheers and applause erupted from the crowd, and Hiereus grinned to hear them break out into the traditional song.

Whirlwinds of danger are racing around us O'erwhelming forces of darkness prevail Still in the fight see advancing before us Red Flame of liberty that yet shall prevail!

Then all of you workers Rightly will reign All over the world and the land and the sea

On with the fight for the cause of our liberty March march your toilers, and the world shall be free!

Then all of you workers Rightly will reign All over the world and the land and the sea

On with the fight for the cause of our liberty March march your toilers, and the world shall be free!      

***

The memory of years past was bittersweet since his sister disappeared. It had been that night she had brought it to him, the book of drow lore, a variation of the Ballad of Creation.

A community of the dark elves lived in a cave network in the hills south of Eluthane, which had led Hiereus to study Undercommon.  Moira had given it to him as a gift to encourage his studies. But in some ways the myths he translated from it were to beginnings of their troubles.

They had known the story of Creation, or at least the most common story, but the drow who lived in the caves, they didn't believe they sheared a creation by Zephranus like the other elves, instead they believed there genesis to be from the caves themselves.

Further the text called the tieflings demons, the spawn of same who had once enslaved them, rather than the creation of Liliq.

Hiereus grimaced, that book ate at his sister's soul until she left to find their true creator whomever it was.    

His only hint that she was still alive was a sending he received a year before his journey began, “I found it.”That was all the contact that he had, and his own attempts to respond had failed.

He poked the coals of his fire, and sighed. Looking up he saw that he was being watched closely by a kobold through the fence.

“Who are you?” the kobold said in it's own draconic dialect.

“One whose people were once enslaved like yourself, one who brings the light of the Flame, and to show you the way to liberation.”

Fin.