The Fairy Diary Day 365 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

Nailbiter gave over to us his private audience chamber so we fairies (including the High Fairy) could question Dunfallon about his captivity. There are so many details that he could not recall. It was our hope that we could jog his memory. Especially as to what Willie had done – and what the Wisp was planning next. 

It had been disappointing to find the crystal cover to the chalice charred and cracked. I held its pieces and examined them throughout the questioning. 

What Dunfallon recalls was being knocked off his eagle and somehow being caught by Willie. It was a pleasant encounter at the first – Willie was friendly, even apologetic for his recent behavior. 

Noralei pointed to his silver whistle and asked why he had not used it to summon his eagle. By the pixie’s blank stare we all knew that there was a spell of forgetfulness at work. 

Rumble, Noralei and I left him in the care of his excellency to deal with the enchantment. 

We gathered outside the burrow to examine further the broken crystal. In the afternoon sunshine a facet to one of the crystal pieces flashed. Looking closer we could see a repeated image of our pixie being pushed off his eagle by the black bird.

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The Fairy Diary Day 356 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

Dunfallon has made a triumphant return. He located the artisan who created the chalice – but only the chalice. That is all that the dark elves had commissioned from him. The best Dunfallon could discover further was a list of other craftsmen that may have fashioned a cover for the chalice. 

He and Rumble will check their list with the one Rumble and I have assembled. 

But perhaps of more importance – our pixie had a sighting of Willie.  The Wisp led him on a spirited chase before disappearing as though into thin air. 

So, Dunfallon passed most of the day with Merlin trying to summon up the whereabouts of the Wisp with the seer’s stone. 

The search was fruitless and an exhausted pixie emerged at day‘s end, but not too exhausted that he could not tell us about the adventure he has been holding back.

The Fairy Diary Day 347 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

According to his say-so Bifitz has negated the curse. Through a lengthy spell he was able to physically remove it from within the pedestal. He examined the chalice and the red ash. He tells us that the dark elves must have been aware of the curse for he believes the chalice and something that had been placed on top to close it off was their attempt to deflect its effect. 

This may explain why it was stronger at other points along the Low-way in the deserted places. And that whoever took away whatever enclosed the chalice caused the curse to pour back onto the stronghold. Hence the horrific effect on the Dromadil pixies. 

Noralei and I met with Merlin afterwards and filled him in about the missing Will’o’the Wisp. He agreed with our suspicions that Willie may be responsible for removing the chalice cover. 

And he is fairly certain that it was some kind of crystal.

The Fairy Diary Day 344 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

Sitting atop the tower did much to clear my head. From  that height I watched the former dark elves stream out of the city below – some exiting the quickest way by the canyonlands – others via the gate to the Low-way to travel to the other access points along that route. 

There I was basking in the contentment flowing from the happy conclusion to our recent efforts when a cold cloud of fear descended upon me. A tingling in my back between my wings soon had me shivering all over. 

I looked down and saw that the pedestal upon which the chalice had once stood was icing over. 

I leapt back when the shivering ceased and the hot passion of the bloodlust was enveloping me. 

I shrugged it off and dove off the tower and flew to my friends. And related this disturbing incident to them.

The Fairy Diary Day 343 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

I detected a hint of embarrassment in our friend before he began the account of his latest adventure. That became clearer with the first words out of his mouth. In his  hasty pursuit on the Low-way of those bearing the dragon egg, he ran afoul of one of our traps. It had to have been one of our fairy traps. For he fell into a deep state of forgetfulness. 

And he wandered aimlessly until he fell into the company of a couple of dwarves – our old friends Fliget and Gnoston. That is how Merlin fell into the hands of the ever suspicious Artoxon. 

Something about his surroundings brought him back to his senses. (I believe that the fact of all that gold in one spot would make a perfect nest for a dragon egg did the trick). 

Once he remembered who he was, he thanked them, bid them goodbye, then disappeared from their sight. (He was none too keen to trust those dwarves based on their past history). 

He was more than happy not to explain more when Noralei laid before him the mystery of the chalice and the red ash. 

As the wizard conferred with her and Rumble, I went atop the tower from which it had been removed, and looked around.

The Fairy Diary Day 342 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

They tell me I fainted dead away from all the excitement surrounding the fast moving changes at play among the peoples involved as they have assented to agreements, signed treaties and began the exchange of habitations. 

Now I have reawakened I call it exhaustion and consider it just a delayed reaction to the amount of force that streamed out of me in dispelling the influence of that mysterious entity responsible for the madness visited upon the Dromadil pixies and the dark elves. 

The dark elves have already begun their trek back to the surface. They will repopulate the abandoned villages of the land with no name. And are considering to name it anew (they even desire to seek a new name for themselves, as they want to leave behind the stigma carried by the term ‘dark elves.’)

Dunfallon has gone off up the Low-way with a few of the Dromadil pixies in search of Artoxon and his dwarves to inform them that they may now return to this, their former stronghold.  

When I joined Rumble and Noralei who again had taken up the examination of the chalice and the red ashes, who should walk in but our friend, the wizard Merlin.

The Fairy Diary Day 341 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

The effects from yesterday’s battle and the events surrounding our victory continue to ripple as we dig deeper into its meaning. 

Just as my actions had freed the Dromadil pixies from under the grips of the bloodlust, so too have the dark elves undergone a transformation. This fact both Nililitil and Navril have remarked upon. A feeling of good cheer and fellowship has sprung up between these former enemies. 

Noralei has spent quite some time examining the chalice and its contents. And she has come to the conclusion that it is filled with a special form of the red ash. She then expressed what we all were thinking – we long for Merlin to be here with us and explain these mysteries. For though the present crisis has passed, in another respect I think it has only begun.

The Fairy Diary Day 340 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

We met no resistance at this end of the city. I would of thought the area deserted except for the furtive figures of what I took to be female dark elves and their children peeping out of the windows of the buildings lining the crooked streets. 

I remember being thankful that our fears about Willie had not come to pass. No hue and cry had been raised. We went about freely. 

It was not until the city center that we encountered any opposition. There the dark elf reserves were mustered awaiting orders. 

The Dromadil pixies burst in upon them with a fury that took me aback. The destruction they meted out was like watching the goblins at war. I could not believe my eyes. 

Then, I realized that they must have been in the grips of that entity Noralei and I had struggled against on the Low-way. 

So fearful were the dark elf troops to get away that they fled to the canyonlands side of the city and opened the gates in their panic to flee the pixies. This despite their brethren’s resistance to this action. 

I called on Navril and his elves, and Noralei and Rumble to bring order and discipline to the Dromadil pixies. 

Dunfallon would have been best for the task, but with the nearness to the outside world he had summoned his eagle and together they were everywhere – in and out of the stronghold. 

I so wanted to summon Merlin. 

But then I simply did what I knew I had to do. Removed my cloak – held my pendant in front of my armor and rose above the city. 

In the blinding flash that followed all activity ceased. 

As we pieced things together later, this got Dunfallon’s attention, and his gaze fell upon a chalice atop the highest tower in the stronghold. At the same instant Noralei noticed it too. She arrived before he could and wrenched it from its place. 

The result was immediate. As with a great sigh of relief the Dromadil pixies came to their senses. 

The dark elves stacked their arms and surrendered.