Waist-length blonde hair hid her face as she bent over the grave. Intelligent hazel eyes read the worn words of the marker stone, though she had long since memorized them. The copper-skinned wood elf slowly went to her knees, setting the marigold flowers on the grassy bump of earth with care. Nienna (for that was the elf's name) gently reached out and brushed aside a vine that was crawling up the stone, so it was against the back of it. As she withdrew her hand, she paused, brushing her long, thin fingers over the name.
She sighed heavily. Life was so cruel.
He had been dead for how many years now? She had lost track. She had stopped counting after a while.
She had been 300 when they met. He died 150 years after that. So...roughly 500 years ago?
But she remembered his face like she had seen it only yesterday.
He wouldn't be waiting for her.
He had been an Unbeliever, therefor confined to the Wall, if his demonic blood did not send him to the Abyss.
Nienna was a druid of much faith in her diety, therefor she would go to the Higher Planes upon her death.
She would gladly follow him to the Wall of the Faithless or the Pits of Hell, just to touch him once more, hear his voice, smell him, caress him...
The wood elf gripped the stone tightly as her shoulders started shaking. Sobs began to escape her, a nearly entirely unfamiliar feeling, and tears ran freely down her cheeks.
“What have you done to me, Valen Shadowbreath?” she muttered in a husky voice. “I...do not cry.”
Even still, the tears streaked her dirty copper cheeks, and she couldn't stop them, not while knowing she would never see him again, her one true love.
He wasn't the only one, either.
Her poor kobold companion was gone, dust and bones beneath the ground, and many of the drow from Lith My'arthar whom she'd cared for were dead as well. Nathyrra, Imloth, the Seer...all of them.
She was the last one left.
Nienna always knew this day would come, but she could never have imagined how much her chest ached just thinking of her loved ones.
But...something she hadn't foreseen.
Though she had banished him with his True Name, Mephistopheles returned one hundred years later, and she was forced to banish him again, unwilling to put Valen at risk.
But another hundred years later, and the devil returned again. This time, Valen was gone. They all were. She had to fight him alone.
She failed. And fled.
Coward.
Now, Mephistopheles had taken over Toril, and she was to blame. She had been too weak on her own. She understood the power of friendship, now that she had lost it.
The druid sighed again, and stood up in this fiery world of hers. Maybe her cowardice would allow her to return to Valen's side when she finally died. It wasn't as if she was doing much with her life anyways.
“Aunt Nienna?”
The wood elf turned sharply, expression return to it's default 'dreamy' look once more. A pretty young drow girl was standing there, watching the druid with curiosity.
“Yes, Evaria?” the elder asked.
“Who is the man buried here? You never speak of him. I am curious.” Evaria added bashfully.
“He is...someone I love.” Nienna said, brushing the dirt off her padded leather armor.
“How did he die?”
“Old age.”
“Oh. He was much older then you, then?”
“...no. He wasn't an elf.”
“You can do that?” Nienna stopped and shot her ward an incredulous look. “Mate with a non-elf?”
“Don't be so xenophobic, Evaria.” the druid said with brief amusement.
“I...I didn't mean-”
“I know you didn't.” Nienna sighed yet again. “Would I be a horrible person if I said I wish I were with him?”
“Of course not. You loved him, didn't you?” the surface-raised drow smiled at her foster mother kindly.
“I love him even still.” she murmured. “Though death part us physically, we will always be together.”
“That is a nice sentiment.”
“...”
Nienna grabbed Evaria by the upper arm, carefully and motherly, and began to lead her back to the cave they used as a home in this hell, not wanting to think about it any more then she already did.
Nienna is my druid wood elf who was part of a society who detached themselves from emotion entirely, but as a young girl she ran off to live in the human world. Valen easily got to her and she found herself displaying a lot of emotion towards him. And then they fell in luuuuuv.
Evaria is my drow OC who's the daughter of the Seer and Imloth. Yes, I ship them. xD After the Seer and Immy passed on, Nienna took Evaria under her care as her ward (them wood elves like to do that, methinks)
Originally Nienna was just depressed after Valen died, but took care of Evaria until her dying day.
Thank you, A.C, for...informing me of certain elements. -cue D-D's wicked laugh-
(and no, Nienna didn't remove Valen's taint. She's a druid, after all; she would see it as removing a part of his being and therefor an affront to nature.)
Retour en haut
A friend of mind said I looked a little like him and the name kind of stuck 
In this playthrough I don't have Deekin in the party (skipped Chapter One) so he can't have taken it over. Maybe I'll load my save from just before the beholders and go through more carefully. 
