Anneli: The female elven main character, played by Andy. Last session she had led a human expedition into the ruins of Argentum Prime, where she had been possessed by The Ghost of a dead prostitute who had been killed by Salomo, her aide. She fought off a bunch of orcs, got run through by one of them, and was rescued by Marian, who had brought her back to their base to recoup. Her unit had been dispersed by The Ghost.
Marian: A human member of Those Who Sailed, who somehow got to the Island of Eternal Youth to make a wish. Marian has appointed Anneli as her successor to the group by giving her a toy sword that came from her eldest son, Thomas, who is long dead.
Nomi: Anneli's elder sister. She had become a dark elf, had captured one of their friends, and then taken Anneli's toy sword forcibly. She's also been a horrible terror to the humans and killed many of them. They talk of Nomi in hushed whispers.
The Dagger of Betrayal: Presumably a weapon of Leviathan, the Creature Who May Not Be, the Dagger of Betrayal allows one to control the person who is stabbed by it. Spar had been given one to stab into the back of Tara. He had died in that attempt.
Anneli was back in Dream. She was in an open field, with an enormous tree next to her. On the branch sat a small White Bat. It spoke to her with a surprisingly deep voice. Anneli needed to save a friend who was in deep trouble, and there was no time to waste. The White Bat told her he didn't know exactly who it was, but promised that it would help her defeat Nomi.
Anneli wasn't convinced. This was Dream, after all, and the White Bat was clearly in control. How did Anneli know she could trust him? A hole opened in Dream and Marian poked her head in. She looked relieved to see Anneli, who had just gotten up and left in the middle of the night. Anneli was suspicious, but Marian coaxed her out of Dream; she could see right through herself. Anneli took a good hard look at Marian but it didn't appear to be a trick. Marian explained she had been in Dream before. It was a strange place, but Anneli could trust what happened in there as actually occurring. Marian promised to be there when Anneli returned. So Anneli stepped back through.
Anneli realized that she had her sword strapped to her side. The White Bat told her that her friend was to the south. Anneli followed him as he flew. The White Bat told her she would need to climb a fence. An enormous wall materialized in front of her. Anneli found she could put her hands into the wall, and so she began to climb. The wall grabbed her foot and she couldn't move. The White Bat asked her if she was going to move. Anneli began to yank her foot and found herself singing an elven mariner's song. The wall became a gigantic rigging; Anneli got a nasty cut as she yanked her foot free. She continued to climb.
When she got down Anneli found herself looking up at an enormous castle, with a moat and bridge. And hornets. Enormous, lazy hornets. There were a ton of hornet nests built into the castle. The sound of their wings was physically painful, but Anneli was able to withstand it. At the end of the drawbridge was a small door. Anneli crossed the bridge, drew her sword, and began to hack at it, commanding the door to open. The Ghost took over and hornets began to gather. Seeing the hornets The Ghost screamed and threw herself into the moat. When Anneli got control back she found herself in the water, surrounded by gigantic wasps. Anneli dove, but didn't get a very good breath and came up too soon. She received a number of extremely painful stings. Pulling out her sword she killed three while treading water, and the rest flew off, not wanting to deal with so energetic a target.
Anneli pulled herself up on the bank, and found herself wishing for more cover. Trees and bushes appeared around the castle, providing cover from the hornets. As she walked by a rock a green hand reached out from under it and grabbed her ankle. The Ghost came out again, drew Anneli's sword, and began stabbing the troll that came out from under the rock, right in the face.
The troll had a bow tie on. He was also asking (politely, between yelps) for the stabbing to cease and desist.
When Anneli regained control she could not apologize enough. The troll was pretty good-natured and forgave easily enough. It helps when wounds regenerate so quickly. He asked what she was doing and she told him she was looking to rescue her friend, at the guidance of The White Bat. The Troll asked why she hadn't said so before? He and The White Bat were good friends, and for a long time! The White Bat flew down and congratulated Anneli for getting this far and seeing The Troll. They took her right in the hacked down front door, down the stairs that were in the front hall.
They went to one of the dungeons, where Anneli found herself drawing her sword. Nomi was neck deep in a gigantic wasp hive, hands holding an object.
It was a Dagger of Betrayal
Lore note: The profane objects known as Daggers of Betrayal were known to the elves in their elder days as instruments of slavery, used by the Khen-Zai to force an elf to do something he refused to do. The elves despise Daggers of Betrayal on an almost genetic level.
Anneli asked The White Bat what that was doing in Nomi's hand. The White Bat told her to ask Nomi herself. Anneli threatened revenge, no matter how small, if The White Bat was showing her a lie. The White Bat promised this was the truth. He wasn't pulling any strings. Nomi had come to them, not the other way around. Nomi had sealed herself into the hive. The White Bat merely observed.
Hesitantly, Anneli approached Nomi; Nomi's eyes were glazed over and her lips were moving. Anneli couldn't make it out. She asked who had hurt Nomi.
No response.
Anneli screamed at her sister, who finally noticed her. She croaked out the words "I won't. I won't."
Anneli cut off the hand that held the Dagger of Betrayal.
She woke up in Argentum Prime, next to Marian, who was very happy to see that Anneli had made it out. Marian pointed out that Nomi was on a nearby hill of debris. Marian had not been noticed, and Marian had made no effort to make contact. She asked if Anneli wanted to talk with her sister. If so, Marian had her covered, and her hands glowed as she spoke.
As she got closer Anneli was shown a most wretched sight. Nomi's clothes hung bag-like on her frame. Her hair was falling out and her lips were cracked. Her eyes, so bloodshot there were hardly any whites to them, were staring into the ground. In one hand was the toy sword. In the other was a Dagger of Betrayal. Anneli reached for the toy sword. Nomi's grip became a vice. And all of a sudden she shot a deathly look at Anneli.
But then she smiled.
A real smile.
Like she used to. Anneli couldn't even recall the last time she had seen it.
And she let go of the toy sword.
Anneli knocked the Dagger out of Nomi's hand. Nomi pitched backwards, into Anneli's waiting arms. Nomi had always been far heavier than she looked; she was even lighter than her frame suggested. Nomi asked if she had succeeded. Was Anneli free of the Dagger? Had she been stabbed with it? Anneli told her it was on the ground, far away. And Nomi began to shake. A barking noise came from her lips; her throat and eyes were too dry for anything else. Anneli wondered if Nomi would break all her ribs, she sobbed so hard. Nomi stroked Anneli's hair as she shook, weakly tensing and relaxing her grip on it. She whispered that she just wanted Anneli to see the world as she remembered it, before their continent had become the Ring of Tears. For hundreds of years it had been her only goal. But when the dark elf cult she was a part of had given her the Dagger to use on Anneli, so that way they could get her wish at the Island of Eternal Youth? Nomi couldn't do it. So she took the toy sword, hoping to find the Island on her own. But the sword had to be given, and it wasn't, and so she couldn't leave, but she couldn't stay either.
Anneli called Marian over and put her sister into Marian's arms. Nomi's eyes were too weak to see Anneli that far away, and she called out for her baby sister, over and over, bony hands flapping in the still air.
Anneli couldn't answer.
She told Marian she had hoped Nomi had been coerced, forced, that it wasn't her sister's fault. And the truth was so much more complicated that that. Regardless, Anneli needed to return to the fort. As she turned to leave Marian blurted that once, a very long time ago, she had searched for a Dagger, but could not find one. Had she found one at that point she would not have hesitated, unlike Nomi. Daggers of Betrayal had to be used by someone who knew the victim; you stabbed a random person the sheer malice in the dagger would turn back upon the user, transforming them into something monstrous. Marian told Anneli, between tears and gritted teeth, that whatever Anneli thought, the fact was that Nomi still had something in her.
Anneli told Marian she didn't know what to think. Regardless, she had to get back.
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