Selay the Cascade

Hemfar's Transcription

This is one story I must tell from the visions of my mind to truly communicate the anguish of a love centuries old and a betrayal much more recent.

When my hands touched the cold heart of Lethar, I saw only darkness there at first. Then, in the darkest recess of my mind's eye, a tiny shimmer of light emerged. There in the blackness of the toils of his heart was a truth that even he would not acknowledge at the end. It was love.

Selay the Cascade, a powerful dragon by any account, and Lethar were both born of Veeshan's brood and both grew together in the Nest, fumbling their way to adulthood. Selay, a blue dragon, and Lethar, a black dragon, both knew that anything beyond friendship for them was forbidden so it was not even something they contemplated while young. But as they aged and grew closer, so did their feelings. There was a bond between both of them which they shared without speaking of it.

With Lethar's heart in my hands, I could see that both dragons grew to live in anguish over their love for one another over hundreds of years as they aged. And there is one memory in the light of Lethar's heart that gleams above all else.

I saw a vision of the courtyard of Stillmoon Temple in the Nest, where both Lethar and Selay stood side by side at a great ceremony as the elder dragons announced the completion of Ashengate Temple, the shrine to Veeshan's Scale. Two elders, Rikkukin and Kessdona, called upon the Children of Veeshan for volunteers who would spend an eternity defending and guarding Veeshan's scale.

While the elders spoke of volunteers, they announced a list of names of which the volunteers must come. The Scale Guardians would be selected from different dragon breeds so that the magic protecting the scale would be equal and balanced. Lethar heard Selay's name called by Rikkukin. His heart skipped and his great stomach lurched. [See Vol. II for more]