View source for Stormwaltz Quotes/Lay of Leikotha

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''This story was written by Chris L'Etoile as a prize for the Grand Loremaster of Dereth, Keth al-Sheth. It has not been approved by Turbine or Microsoft, and should be considered apocryphal.

'''<u>PRONUNCIATION:</u>'''<br />
''Leikotha:'' lie-KO-tha<br />
''Haebrous'' HAY-brus<br />
''Alysse:'' al-LEASE-ay<br />
''Jhenecaer:'' jen-ah-CARE<br />
''Planae:'' plen-AY<br />
''Arenir:'' ay-REN-ear<br />


Leikotha, child of Haebrous <br />
Stood proud upon the field, <br />
And spake unto the crafter Dhere <br />
The weapon she would wield <br />
Her eye was blue as tropic sea <br />
White-flecked with spindrift foam <br />
Her hair hung long and golden-hued <br />
Her high cheeks flecked with loam <br />
A set of silver armor borne <br />
To ward away the blows of man <br />
To stay the magely power faced <br />
Were rings once forged by old Velan<br />
<br />
Grim-visaged was the noble dame <br />
From training under great Illkarm <br />
No man's servant was she born <br />
A mighty chevaird, strong in arm <br />
Stands of saffron veiled her eye <br />
In nightspawn wind her hair blew wild <br />
The sweat of practice pearled her skin <br />
At hand stood Alysse, her child <br />
The girl looked to her mother stound <br />
Eyes bright and pale as Alb'arel <br />
For to her young adoring eye <br />
A goddess stalked the tiny dell<br />
<br />
Smith Dhere with all his subtle might <br />
Crafted silver burning bright <br />
Ashbane by name to the old wright <br />
And hardened then with chorizite<br />
<br />
So armed, she joined the great crusade <br />
The army sailed to west, away <br />
And crossed the raging Jhenecaer <br />
For four score and a dozen day <br />
So proud they sailed from old Planae <br />
Their banners snapping in the wind <br />
Argent were their alloyed keels <br />
With stalwart larchess bound within<br />
<br />
The damask light of sunrise washed <br />
The churning water in their wakes <br />
And glinted merri-ly about <br />
The polished fittings on their rakes <br />
Aureate sails unfurled as one <br />
To catch the rising vendavals <br />
Bells sounded bright along the shore <br />
And laymen filed from the halls <br />
With one great voice the people hailed <br />
To wish the ships quicksilver pace <br />
Leikotha, standing on a prow <br />
Sought in the crowd her child's face<br />
<br />
The tempests tossed the mighty fleet <br />
The starless waters bucked and reared <br />
Like mountains rising, falling fast <br />
As had the weather-sages feared <br />
Slow-turning galleons groaned aloud <br />
A-tremble in their sturdy bones <br />
The valiant chevairds sweated fast <br />
And tossed their well-worn knucklebones <br />
They sang the old rounds as they flinched <br />
At every creak and grumble <br />
Their swords and fire useless now <br />
To fight the dark seas' tumble<br />
<br />
Leikotha sat alone these nights <br />
And chanted songs of ancient days <br />
She practised on the storm-slick deck <br />
To maintain fine-honed warrior ways <br />
Yet more she thought of Alysse <br />
The gentle center of a heart <br />
Long-given to a chevaird's steel <br />
She grieved each day they were apart<br />
<br />
The army fell upon the shores <br />
Of ancient Dericost so bleak <br />
The decayed cities stilled the heart <br />
The mountains rose with silvered peaks <br />
Gelid brooded in the mists<br />
<br />
And sent its armies to the coast <br />
But only harried their advance <br />
Withdrawing 'fore the serried host <br />
Before that fell and drear plateau <br />
Both armies drew in lines abreast <br />
And 'fore the dawn of winter's morn <br />
The light advanced to face the test <br />
The living troops of the Ice Throne <br />
Were scattered in the foredawn mists <br />
As somnolent birds began to stir <br />
The battle echoed through the mists<br />
<br />
Leikotha's host slid through their foes <br />
As gromnatross through smoke and air <br />
She reached old brooding Gelid's feet <br />
As fading haze laid her host bare <br />
Then, revealed, the undead struck <br />
And slew her company in wrath <br />
Yet as her fellows turned and fled <br />
Leikotha held the one clear path <br />
Around her Ashbane drew a ring <br />
Declaring ground she would defend <br />
She beckoned then to clacking bones <br />
The passage back she would forfend<br />
<br />
The pestilencial foes advanced <br />
And Ashbane spun and whirled about <br />
The dead came on in blackened waves <br />
But Leikotha bold prevented rout <br />
Black tide advanced and then fell back <br />
Like seas oppressing stony shore <br />
Yet like the Rock of Sennaj stood <br />
The chevaird who their assaults bore <br />
High above the Sand Kings lurked <br />
To watch the violent play below <br />
And Nerash, mighty general, spake <br />
Unlimbering his mighty bow<br />
<br />
"Beautiful," he nodded down <br />
At Leikotha whirling 'round her foes <br />
He looked at her with eyes of lust <br />
And aimed his black and mighty bow<br />
<br />
The string did sing; the arrow flew <br />
And darkness ran the chevaird through <br />
A poison sliver pierced her breast <br />
Old Nerash smiled in private jest <br />
Her veins did burn with crawling fire <br />
And staggering, she then retired <br />
But Nerash high above worked charms <br />
To keep her marked and safe from harm <br />
"Alysse!" she called in pain <br />
As agony caused knee to bend <br />
Leikotha's host did pull her back <br />
Yet Ashbane fell from limpened hands<br />
<br />
Meantime, behind the shambling ranks <br />
Two heroes crept in lightless danks <br />
Heavy-bearded Jailne and the gold-eyed <br />
Alaidain <br />
Soldier-king of Haebrous; <br />
enchantress-empress of Yalain<br />
<br />
Alaidain alone returned <br />
To join her soldiers on the field <br />
The pools of night were gathering then <br />
The wounded had begun to heal<br />
<br />
The lesser undead fell like wheat <br />
The greater slunk away <br />
And vowed upon eternal life <br />
They'd have revenge one day <br />
The dead and twice-dead lay in heaps <br />
Across the smoking, frosted grounds <br />
The once were gathered in straight rows <br />
The twice in flaming charnel mounds <br />
"My lady," spake Leikotha weakly <br />
To the grieving Alaidain <br />
"Did the dread lord speak to thee <br />
Before sent into dark again?"<br />
<br />
"Nay," replied the Empress then <br />
"No words from that fell beast" <br />
Yet turned a worried weather eye <br />
To the deep and darkening east<br />
<br />
The army gathered then to leave; <br />
Return across the frozen plains <br />
Among them groaned the wounded souls <br />
And Gelidites in sobbing train <br />
But in the silvered mountain peaks <br />
Above the cities so decayed <br />
A fearsome squall brought heavy snow <br />
Besieged, the army was delayed<br />
<br />
One moonless night <br />
As ill winds gusted <br />
Nerash approached <br />
A tent snow-dusted<br />
<br />
Inside Leikotha tossed and rolled <br />
In the grips of foul dream; <br />
Her child held by rotted arms <br />
Alysse facing undead screamed <br />
The chevaird awoke with a brief howl <br />
To face the face of which she'd dreamed <br />
Nerash's rotted teeth did grin <br />
In hollow sockets pale fire gleamed<br />
<br />
"I love thee, pretty one," he said <br />
And laid his hands upon her <br />
"I would have thee by my side <br />
Until all ends in fire." <br />
Leikotha scrabbled for a sword <br />
Yet none lay close at hand <br />
And weakened by the poison bow <br />
She fell before the damned <br />
The camp awoke to find her gone <br />
And not a trace was found <br />
The snow withdrew, and so did they <br />
Back to Planae bound<br />
<br />
The proud chevaird was bound in chain <br />
None know the torments that occured <br />
To Leikotha at Nerash's hand <br />
In darkness of the underworld<br />
<br />
Three years hence a tattered ship <br />
Reached port at Haebrean Aribel <br />
From this wretched craft debarked <br />
A figure wrapped in grey, and fell <br />
Of all the greeters on the shore <br />
None stood forth to meet her; <br />
Though none saw face or skin beside <br />
Her voice was woman or of girl<br />
<br />
To blooming Dernehale she walked <br />
And spoke to few along the road <br />
Her way was paid with sparkling gems <br />
And walked as if with heavy load <br />
In blooming Dernehale she asked <br />
For the Lady Orsinu, and begged those <br />
In the fields if any of them knew <br />
Of the child-ward kept in her safe repose <br />
"Alysse?" the herdsmen shrugged <br />
For they knew of her mother's fame <br />
"Still in the lady's safe repose <br />
For her Leikotha never came"<br />
<br />
And the figure hurried on <br />
With pain'ed gait and shuffling <br />
To the Lady's verdant hold <br />
Where grain stood softly rustling<br />
<br />
Night had gathered up her skirts <br />
When the figure did arrive <br />
And ventured cautiously upon <br />
The well-worn stonework drive <br />
She sought not the iron gate <br />
Nor any other entry there <br />
But crept along the outer wall <br />
Until she reached a casement fair<br />
<br />
She entered into the great house <br />
Moved silently along the hall <br />
She ventured for the tower room <br />
Her thin hand clutching at the wall <br />
There within the tower room <br />
Lay Alysse in sweet repose <br />
A girl of thirteen seasons now <br />
And blooming like the summer rose <br />
The figure wept then, silently <br />
A thin hand to her shadowed face <br />
And looked upon Alysse sweet <br />
Curled up in her sleeping lace<br />
<br />
With a shaking, whispered voice <br />
The figure sang to Alysse <br />
An ancient Haebraen sleepsong crooned <br />
To drive the fears of night away<br />
<br />
But then the household guard did pass <br />
Along his nightly rounds <br />
And from Alysse's room he heard <br />
The whispered, sobbing sounds <br />
The door flung wide, he entered in <br />
And saw the figure stading there <br />
He drew his sword to slash and kill <br />
But only sliced the empty air<br />
<br />
The figure had evaded yet <br />
In motion lost her long grey shroud <br />
There disclosed by torchlight stood <br />
A rotting woman, proud head bowed <br />
The guard decried the vile thing <br />
Not-dead reviled by his race <br />
Alysse wakened in a fear <br />
And shuddered at the rotting face <br />
The woman glided for the sill <br />
And turned for one last stare <br />
"I love you," she said to the girl <br />
And leapt into the starless air<br />
<br />
The house was in a row till dawn <br />
Alysse clutching close beside <br />
Her warder Lady Orsinu <br />
Only the cloak was found outside <br />
At the guard's description <br />
Orsinu shook her head, dismayed <br />
Yet would not let her men alert <br />
The chevairds in Alaidain's pay <br />
"There is a monster on the loose!" <br />
The guard exclaimed in rage <br />
Yet Orsinu bade him to stay <br />
And spake words greatly sage;<br />
<br />
"I will not have her so decried <br />
So let it thus be known; <br />
Despite an evil done to her <br />
Leikotha Arenir came home"<br />
<br />
. <br />
. <br />
. <br />
...There a NO alien heads in AC. Nootch.

 | Developer = [[Turbine_Developers#Chris_.22Stormwaltz.22_L.27Etoile|Chris "Stormwaltz" L'Etoile]]

}} [[Category:Stormwaltz Quotes]]