#Lore24 – Entry #249 – Fantasy Month III #6 – The Road to Hearthlight
As Told by Hatae Ulla, Exotic Entertainer, Dedicated of Yurisaya
“Oh, so you’re deeming me worthy of speaking to you again? Aren’t you pleased that I left the muzzle on this whole time? I’ve worn it longer. It’s part of my performance, you understand. What’s a little discomfort in the name of doing something you love? Yurisaya understands; maybe you should take some time and read up on the Dark Lady’s tenets?
Alright, so what’s on the menu this time? I won’t make any promises, but I’ll try to keep things a little more concise this time. Just because I’m being nice, mind you!
How did we get out of Caerlon? Well, it was actually rather easy! Since those guys didn’t know that Siduri and Teelsa were helping us, they were able to smuggle us out pretty quickly, in all honesty. We just hitched a ride with the bards that were moving on to the next town after the business with the Bronze Unicorn happened, with me and Eri hiding in their supplies. Hmm? Or, so Siduri said that? Well…yeah, there is a little more to the tale, but you wanted the short and sweet version, right? So that’s what I’m giving you. I’m not usually one to tell stories, that’s Teelsa’s bread and butter, after all, so maybe you should check with her?
Anyway, we stayed in the wagon till nightfall, when we were a good way down the road from Caerlon, heading toward Hearthlight. They had to push the horses pretty hard that day, and it was a rough ride sometimes, especially with me and Eri crammed into that box like we were.; side note, the cage I lost at the Unicorn would have been a lot more comfortable for two people! Anyway, we eventually made it to the Wayrest sometime after nightfall, and once they’d made the bargain for our stay and confirmed there weren’t any undesirables on our tails at the moment, we were let out of the crate to recover and come up with some plans!
We couldn’t stay with the bards forever, but Teelsa had decided to stick with us. She’s really excited to make some kind of epic out of this whole affair; guess you can’t really know when inspiration is going to strike! We eventually decided we’d continue to Hearthlight, try to uncover more details about who was after us.
Yeah…well…okay, so I kinda knew who it was chasing me, but Eri didn’t have a clue why she was being chased by those mercenaries. She had dealt with a demon cult or something like that before, so thought maybe they were related to that group, but something didn’t feel right about that. Oh, who was chasing me? Well…that’s kind of a long story and is really only interesting if you’re wanting to delve into the politics of Shey’Inasrith and the machinations of the Mantis Queen. Did you know that we don’t know her name, by the way? And yet they still worship her. Kinda crazy, don’t you think? And that they get so worked up when one of their family just decides that life isn’t for them and leaves it behind? I’d call it madness, really, the lengths they go to in order to keep their machinations going. I don’t even want to be involved! And I had exactly zero plans to do anything against them; I just wanted to leave it all behind. But no! They just had to send their men after me and try to ruin MY life, to draw me back into that horrible situation! I don’t even know which house they’re from! They’ve intentionally left anything that would identify them behind, just to make things more difficult! I’d almost believe it was my mother, hmmm, or maybe one of my sisters, or perhaps one of my aunts? I suppose it could be one of my cousins, too…there was that one that I kind of rubbed the wrong way a few decades back over how her hairstyle didn’t really fit with her face, or something like that. I mean, I wasn’t being particularly mean or anything, I was only observing that-MMMPH!”