Cafell Enid

Cafell Enid

In the western region of Stygia near the mouth of Styx, Amunet had grown in power silently without being noticed, and she was of no threat to none in authority. When she felt threatened, she unfolds her wings and let conjure a massive storm from the air above. When they would returned with their mages, her would simply appear to have vanished without a trace, even after their tracker search the area the most that they would find cobras’ nest or an ostrich feather or two. For the safety of children and their own gifts, she educated them at home before send them each separate direction to learn more of the world in which she could teach them except for the youngest daughter, Ife.
As Ife grown and developed over the years, she had shown her signs of any sort of gift. Her siblings were gone off and were nobles throughout Stygia either in their courts or on their battlefields. The noble class sought her sisters out, because they were able their gifts to find ancient artifact to increase their hold over lesser people. Her brothers proved to be tacticians on the battlefield and often held positions as generals or greater. She had no gift of value to offer and appeared too homely. They received word that her and her mother would be travelling to far north beyond Cimmeria into the lands of Vanaheim.
As they travelled north, Amunet and Ife made several stops the way to gather herbs. Ife’s skill with a sword had slowly improved and her knowledge of herbs had significantly grown since leaving home. Her mother had not noticed because she was blinded by the reaching their goal. Every night before bed, her mother would talk of Storr Hrafn Afagddu and his cauldron. The cauldron held magic within it and with these very herbs would give her desired gifts. She was expressing the importance of them not wasting time and for them reaching the cauldron by certain date as the magic would be at its peak. Ife knew understood it was a journey for her mother more than her, because she was happy being who she was.
Finally the day had came Amunet’s daughter to receive the first three drops as told, but after all of her patience had been spent, and she had fallen asleep. While she slept, Storr Hrafn Afagddu had came in gotten those for himself and replaced with another three drops. He summoned the daughter after waking the mother. He watched a loving mother give her trusting daughter the three drops of poison from the black cauldron.
As she starts gasping for air, Ife motions for her mother to come close. With dying breath, she said, “I may not gifts like my siblings, but I loved and trusted you mother.”
With a great booming laughter, he pulls the first three drops and takes them himself. As he turned to leave, he says, “Thank you for restoring my power to me.” With those words, he changed into a giant raven and flew out of the window.
With a scream of agony, Amunet decided to show him a taste of her power. She pursued him as in the shape of an eagle with thunderstorm behind her. They flew southward over Cimmeria and fallowed Thunder River to the southern area of Aquilonia. As he landed, he took the form of a great hare to try the Stygian witch, but she became a great greyhound to continue the pursuit. Near Thandara, he took a form of a fish thinking he could out swim her, but she hit the water turning into an otter and continued to give chase. In what she thought was an attempt to escape her, he leaped from river transforming into a small insect and hides within the tall grasses. In full pursuit, she comes from the water in time to see where he hiding and changes into a chicken in which she is able to devour him.
Only when it too late did Amunet realize that she had been tricked and was impregnated with his child. Due to magical nature, the child grew faster within womb than normal, and she was resolved to kill the child. Not wanting to be reminded of Ife’s death and the child’s unnatural birth, because she saw a possible good brewing within small baby girl. She decided that she would give her away and not taint her with her hate of the baby’s birth. She made a basket and wrote a note as she roamed the riverbank watching for someone that she would entrust to raise the baby. Not knowing from what lands the couple had came, but they were well dressed and seemed to share their love for each other, so she sent the basket and note a drift. The note explained that they are deserving of a child with unique abilities in which they could teach her to love. She ended the letter with a thank you. Her daughter would not know of her mother except through visions in which was down side of her gifts.
Amunet returned home in Stygia. By her magic, she hid house from any men that may come looking her, but she would show herself to young women that appeared to need help. She especially helped the women around the dates of her last two daughters. Due to this, the area was quickly labeled as being haunted. She had to chase off a group of growing occultist, because they were claiming she was a guardian goddess reborn. With the same spell, she managed to disappear from even them and from history, itself except for that know how to look between the folds of time.

The couple was the Lord Owen and Lady Armes of the Argoel Villa in Imirus of Aquilonia. They had been walking along watching abundance of fish swimming around and away from them as they threw pieces of bread in the river, when they spotted a basket had been tangled within some driftwood. From where they were, they could the arms of a small child reaching out. Without giving a thought to his safety, he dove into the water to rescue the child. After swimming to shore, Lady Armes holding the small child with white hair and within the basket was a letter expressing great gratitude. The two simply looked at each and without a need for words decided to raise the child as their own. As they looked at her, the name Cafell Enid came to mind. Woodlands and small farms surrounded their home. Moreover, between the farmers and hunters, they never were short of food and had plenty to share with the servants as well.
It was not until Enid had grown old enough to go a trade expedition into Cimmeria with her father that she saw for the first time the wonders of the Mount Crom. When its great shadow crossed her, she felt something stir within herself. For the remainder of the journey, she was ill and slept. When awake, she would tend to needs and fall fast asleep again. After returning home, she had begun searching the land for a secluded area across the river in the mountains where she could see the surrounding lands. The locale people begun to think that the mountains were haunted and named it Gaothenid (Windy Spirit). On one faithful day, she found a cave lined with crystals that shined and sparkled like the stars in the sky when a small fire was lit in the center of the cavern’s floor. From this very spot, she was able to see the direction to give that would prove to profitable family. The gift of hers spread by way of word and it did catch the ears of slavers and traders alike, because they saw a profit in selling a prophet.

The Advisor Alphos to Lord Morn had searching for a new location to build his Lord’s castle, when on this rare occasion he witnessed a young Stygian woman entering the clearing known as the Menhir Telyn Owena on the river bank. It was well known for the three giant statues in which appear as hooded giants and as the gathering place for the Druids. As Enid knelt down to pray, “I am Cafell Enid, and I only ask for spirits of nature to show them to me. Why do I have these strange gifts?”
Alphos saw this as opportunity to take advantage of foreigner to his lands. He slowly came up from behind her saying, “Well…well what do we have here? Lovely stranger in a strange wait for what I ask?” He unbuckles belt as he comes closer.
Enid knowing of the dangers had hid a dagger within her robes. She waited for the moment to take the defensive on the truly offensive man. As he turned her around for whatever wicked desire he had in mind, she lashed with her dagger to give him a nasty cut across his cheek. With a squeal like a mouse, he ran as quickly as he could to the site where they were trying to build Lord Morn’s castle to inform him that he needed to find the daughter of Stygian witch with no known parent and mix her blood into the mortar. He told the scouts where he had found one such girl and needed to capture her.
The scouts brought Enid to the location and the Master Ashlar was ready to ready to cut her wrist, when she asked, “Have you had had the foundation of the area?”
He answered, “No, why should I, is there something that I should look for?”
“I tell you where look if you spare my life and do as I advise,” she replied. “You must go to the heart of the layout and dig. There you will find mouth of the cavern where two great dragons are locked in an endless battle for survival. With no room, neither one will live for long. Free them both, but do it with when you have your Lord’s eye on you and the injustice can bring to justice.”
Ashlar took her to Morn after gathering a hand full of men to follow him to location in which she had described. After a short period of digging with a pick and shovel, a great white winged beast burst from the ground and flew to the north. A great black wingless dragon came up next and flew to the south. They would fuel the fires when the slavers and traders learned that Enid had something to do with finding, especially when she turned to Lord Morn to say, “Hail to the fathers of Bran Mak Morn.”

Not long after the construction had started and the Advisor Alphos had been ran out of the court, he gone to the court in Cilearo to the south. With a wicked tongue, he had convinced Lord Melchiorre to lend him a small group of well-armed men to march against Lord Morn. Along the way, he decided to send a kind and sweet letter to Thandara asking Lord Aimone for men against a growing threat. As the two forces met under Alphos’ command, he marched to the site in which the Master Ashlar was leading the work on the foundation for the castle.
To Alphos’ surprise, Lord Morn had armed men in mixed with the workers and hidden in within the woods as a precaution, because of the vision that Enid had seen the slaughter of his men. She had seen the leader of the guilty party being found dead where he fell suffering a stabbing and drowning wounds that would took his life.
Alphos panicked not being an experienced horse rider within battle, after an arrow had struck him in his chest. He lost control of his horse as it reared up and throwing him into the river, where he landed onto his own sword with face in the water said. There he died as Enid describe.
Even with a near fatal wound, Lord Morn took charge of the remaining men and gave them a choice to join him or to return their Lords with letters explaining that a cad had used them unjustly. As most of them rode off to their Lords with letters and pledges to the fallen, he had fall as Enid foreseen. She was already riding to Menhir Telyn Owena to meet the healer Cloelia and to convince the healer to return with her to save his life. Because of her healing craft and wisdom, Lord Morn was overwhelmed and fell in love with her. They were wedded soon afterwards and had the blessings of the courts and the Druids alike.
During a Yuletide Feast, Lord Morn and his wife Cloelia had a surprise visit from a couple Aurvandil and Groa. The winter’s air was extremely colder than anyone could ever remember.
Aurvandil stood before the Lord and his guest, “I proclaim that my wife, Groa, has skills of divination far greater than anyone in this court.” With a smirk on his lips, “I challenge your greatest diviner.”
With such a boast, Lord Morn and Lady Cloelia felt that they had nothing to lose if they were to take the challenge and sent for Enid. To test Aurvandil’s claim, Lord Morn ask, “What will lead to destruction to this castle and to Aquilonia?”
Groa spoke clearly, “I see a secret scheme for the hand the whore maiden that is none other than the Lady Cloelia herself.”
Enid shakes her head and speaks, “True there is a scheme with a whore maiden but it proves to be false with a hand and a ring, but that Aquilonia falls to an Ice Age long after we are gone.”
Aurvandil demands to see Lady Cloelia’s hand. She shows her hand, and Groa points to the ring finger in which was bare. Both, Lord Morn and Lady Cloelia were surprised as the guests started to murmuring that she was unfaithful to her husband.
As the rage was building within Lord Morn, Enid walked calmly to an untouched loaf of bread and broke it. It presented the ring to the Lord and Lady and their guest. Anger and relief was felt in the very chamber, she turned to guest and spoke directly to Groa, “Finding the ring proves that the Lady was only baking own bread for the guest here tonight.”
As Aurvandil and Groa were leaving, Enid with met them. “I have personal challenge to you both.” She waited for them to agree before continuing, “If either you should ever return to these lands, your lips would pucker and would only be able to make nonsense sounds, because as long as I am alive these kind people and castle will have a protector.” She looked at them and added, “Now you had better race home with the wind or suffer my wraith.”
After that day, Cafell Enid was appointed as the diplomat between the courts of Owen in Imirus and Morn. She was on a diplomatic mission for their families to Galparan. It was near the very heart of the Shirki River between Picts borders and the Border Kingdoms south of the Gunderlands. She should have been safe from bandits on their road of travel, or so they had thought until they were ambushed by well-armed and masked bandits attacked them. The guardsmen headed off the bandits allowing the driver of wagon to escape with Enid to north.
Fleeing north, Enid’s guardsmen were slowly killed one by one in their retreat. The mountain roads were so rough on the wagon’s axils that the rear came off by time they had entered the territory held by the tribes Cimmeria in which they called the Field of the Dead. The bandits were slowly catching up to them, when the driver placed Enid across a horse and rode off in a daring attempt to escape them. The remaining guardsmen stayed to allowing them to ride away. They passed the Great Ben Morgh as they rode into the Eiglophian Mountains. Within this mountain, they thought that they could hide from them. She was able to aid in their survival thanks to arts she had learned from the Druids and Lady Cloelia, but they had stumbled into the Nordic lands of Nordheim as they thought they had escaped the bandits.
Standing before Enid was the couple Aurvandil and Groa. They stood huge, taller than before in the court some months ago. Aurvandil stepped forward saying, “I welcome you to Vanaheim little sister. We or rather the Nordic King has interest in hearing of your words of the coming Ice Age. We can offer you free passage to see Ymir, the All Father, to tell him what it means it means for his children and his future during that time. Or Groa could speak with Thrym, who has been on friendly terms with us but has been fighting with those from Asgard, she could tell him you are Asgardian spy and he would kill you.”
The bandits arrived as if on cue, and Aurvandil continues, “Or we have the third option. We could let the bandit take you.” The surrounded giants laughed.
Groa steps forward to add, “These were not normal bandits, but the best slavers gold could buy. See little sister your choice are limited.”
Enid stood there weighing her choices knowing none where good for her. After a very long moment of silence, she spoke, “I want your word that my driver is free to go home.” She waited until they agreed and continued, “I go with the slavers.”
Before the giants could react, the slavers took her and rode to coast as fast as they could ride. Their patience had paid off. They had a prize worth a king’s ransom in gold. The Sisters of Wyrd had a card to play themselves. In route to their post, a sudden storm came up. The winds tore and ripped the sails and masses. Many of the crew became food for sea life. Yet Enid manage survive, and found herself on a foreign sandy shoreline. With the only port being in Tortage, she had to do what was needed to recover and find her way home.