Role

Chapter 1

Olelladaria lived much of her youth in Evermoon Glen, a child of two high elves,
her father being something between an ambassador and a business envoy from Darsylon.
She grew to enjoy the company of one of the local boys, a tall free-spirited boy with
ears too long for his short-cropped white hair and tiny little nose, but over the decades
of youth she found she admired the young man who had grown into his ears. Olelladaria's
mother, always the more observant of her parents, noticed this and suggested to her
husband that the two be allowed to enter the courtship process.

The young couple put behind them the free unsupervised play of children to embark
on one that might ferry them into adulthood. Olelladaria's parents wished to hire
a traditional matchmaker, but their counterparts would hear nothing of such a thing,
and so both parents agreed to compromise on a chaperon, and the courtship began.

One fine summer day with wind causing the tree leaves to dance like silver-winged
fairies, their governess (as Rathatalus called the couple's chaperon) had led their horses
up to the ridge where a clan of dwarves had created a settlement. The chaperon snarled at their presence,
thinking they should be pushed out or exterminated. Olelladaria disagreed, for their intentions
struck her as pure. Her beau would not take a stance, stating he was neutral on the matter.

The rest of the day she grew taciturn as she wrestled with the notion of good and evil.
Rathatalus tried to draw her out, but Olelladaria became increasingly dismayed with the
thought that her intended could be ambivalent to a discussion of killing off a people
who at heart were good. His principles, his values, his priorities were at question.

Her mother noticed the turn in Olelladaria's mood, and plumbed the depths of her dilemma
a week after the trip to the settlement. Later, both her parents insisted that their
daughter should continue with the marriage, as to do so would jeopardize the relationship
her father had been trying to build over the last century.

That night, Olelladaria wrote a note explaining her intentions to study the nature of
the Light. She packed up her belongings, a memento from Rathantalus, and left the letter on her pillow.