Dave Gross - Mistress of the Night

Dhauna looked up at her. Her eyes were tired, like drawn shadows at dusk. "I do need you, Feena," she said, raising one arm and gesturing around her. "All this… most of it I've accomplished in just the last few days and nights." There was a weary desperation in her voice. "Velsinore and Mifano are running you ragged, aren't they? I couldn't keep up with that and my duties to the temple and still try to work out what Selune is trying to tell me. I told you, I didn'tdon'tdare trust anyone inside Moonshadow Hall. They might be the very source of the danger. Even turning to Julith was a risk, but I know that I can trust you. You were the only one I knew I could safely put in charge. If you'd only come sooner…" She rubbed her eyes again. "A tenday, Feena. Give me a tenday and I think I'll have all the answers."

Feena turned and glared out into the darkened recesses of the archives. Her fists were clenched so tightly she could feel her nails digging into her palms. The headache the half moon coronet had given her was pounding like a hammer in her head.

"Tell me what you know."

"Feena, I can't-"

"Tell me," Feena pressed, looking down at the old priestess. "If I'm going to put up with Mifano and Velsinore, I want to know that it's worth it. I want to know what we're dealing with. What have you found so far?" She forced her fists open. "What are these dreams?"

She heard Julith hiss softly in warning, but Dhauna held her hand up.

"No, Julith. It's all right." She sat back in her chair. Her eyes focused in the shadows and she said, "The dreams fade quickly, but with each one I remember a little more on waking. The situations vary from dream to dream, but some things are always the samea profound unease that builds to horror. Sometimes I'm walking through a dark passage. Sometimes I'm just sitting in the courtyard of Moonshadow Hall at night, with nothing reflecting in the sacred pool but stars.

Sometimes I'm actually swimming in the poolor maybe in the seaalone. Wherever I am, the unease comes over me. Suddenly there are voices and something is dreadfully, terribly wrong. I know the voices, but what they're saying makes no sense. They're all around me, threatening to overcome me."

Dhauna's voice tightened. Her hands were wrapped around the arms of her chair.

"And there's something behind them," the old woman continued, "something very old, and no matter how terrifying the voices are, that thing is even worse. No matter how I try to escape it, I can't. Sooner or later, it's going to catch me and it's going to consume"

She gasped, and her voice broke. Feena felt as if she couldn't move, spellbound by the tale, but Julith stepped around the table and moved to the old woman's side. Dhauna took Julith's hands.

"I have to finish," the high priestess said. She looked at Feena once more. "I always wake up before it catches me, but just before I do, I realize that I'm carrying something." She gestured around them. "A book. That's Selune's clue, Feena. I'll find the answers I need here."

Feena drew a slow breath and said, "There are a lot of books here, Mother Dhauna."

"Yes," the high priestess agreed, "but I think I understand other parts of the dream now, too. Selune's faith is ancient, among the oldest in Faerun. We've had our dark times. The consuming horror with many voices… the old terror that destroys tranquility?" She leaned forward and whispered one word. "Heresy."

Feena's teeth clenched. "Heresy? Mother Dhauna, is that really"

"How old were you when the Time of Troubles fell upon Faerun, Feena?" Dhauna snapped. "Eleven? Twelve? It was before you came to Moonshadow Hall, I know that, but your mother must have told you about the fear and uncertainty that came with the casting down of the gods. Heresy is worse. It's insidious. It isn't a test of faith, it's torture, chaos that divides temples and turns sister against sister. Even in a faith so tolerant as Selune's, when heresy rises, all of us feel the upheaval."

"Mother Dhauna…" said Julith in soothing tones, but Dhauna brushed her away.

"What must be stirring now," she asked Feena, "that the Moonmaiden herself moves to warn us about it? Feena, believe me, whatever heresy grows in Moonshadow Hall, we have to stop it. We have to…"

She sighed and seemed to sink in on herself.

"Dhauna?" Feena gasped in alarm.

The High Moonmistress shook her head and replied, "I'm just… tired. Selune's warnings take their toll." She cast her eyes over the books in front of her, then turned a tired gaze on Feena. "I need to get back to work. A tenday, Feena. I'm sure of it. You'll stay?"

Feena nodded, numb.

"Good. Tell no one about the dreams, Feena. Even if you're defending me."

"I won't, Mother Dhauna," Feena promised, but the old woman was already turning back to her books.

A soft touch on her shoulder drew Feena's attention. Julith stood beside her. The dark-haired priestess shook her head and silently gestured for Feena to follow her.

"That's the best she's been in two days," she said as she led Feena back to the archive door. Julith glanced back over her shoulder at the pool of light that surrounded Dhauna. The High Moonmistress was gingerly unrolling a scroll that seemed ready to crumble at any sudden movement. "I'm worried, Feena. She's becoming obsessed with heresy. What if there is no heresy?"

"You mean, what if she's truly going mad?"

Julith held out her hands, helpless, and replied, "I don't know what to think. Sometimes I would say yes, but the books and scrolls that she asks me to fetch, the notes that she makesthere's a method to them, I'd swear it."

"There are things to be seen by moonlight that sunlight cannot reveal," murmured Feena. It was a favorite saying among the followers of Selune. Sometimes the

Moonmaiden's insights could be more than a mortal mind was capable of dealing with.

But sometimes the saying was just an excuse.

Feena gripped Julith's hand and said, "Let me know if it gets worse."

"I will," Julith replied. She returned Feena's gripand drew her into a close embrace. "And you come to me if you need to. I'll help you however I can."

Startled, Feena stiffened, but then relaxed. There was a genuine warmth in Julith's voice and embrace.

"I will," she said.

"If you need to be alone," Julith added, "I can tell you how to get rid of Velsinore and Mifano."

A smile spread across Feena's face and she stepped back.

"No, that's all right," she said. "I think they're done with me for today. But you're right. Some time alone is what I need."

When silence finally fell over Moonshadow Hall that night, Feena, wearing her own blouse and homespun skirt once more, slipped out of the chamber that Velsinore had reluctantly assigned her and down to the temple's kitchen. At the back of the big room there was a stout door. Feena murmured a prayer to Selune that nothing had changed substantially since her days as an acolyte at the temple, and drew back the door's heavy bolt.

The door swung open on a small kitchen herb garden built onto the side of Moonshadow Hall. Feena closed the door behind herself and stepped through the dew-damp beds to the wall that surrounded the garden. A squat, weathered pillar that might once have been a statue was right where she remembered it, if a little mossier and a little more deeply sunk in the ground. She stepped carefully on top of it and reached up.

As an acolyte, she had just barely been able to reach the top of the wall with her fingertips. Now she could wrap her hands securely over it. With a quick hop and a little straining, she was up on top of it then slithering down into the shadows on the other side. An alley nearby formed a conveniently private niche. Feena slipped out of her clothes and tucked them into a bundle in a corner. Then she closed her eyes, took a breath, and opened herself to the wild power within her spirit.