My name is Larilliana Lychis, daughter of Marand R'shia and Triella Lychis. I was born in Leth Deriel on the 26th day of the 4th month of Shorka the Cobra in the year of the Amber Phoenix, 304. That makes me... far older than I care to think about, really.

My mother was the beautiful, charming, Empathic daughter of two of the city's council members, and my father was a kind, handsome, scholarly War Mage. He also happened to be Human.

What? You don't see how that would be a problem? Really, I don't, either, but after the victory of Lanival, anti-Human sentiment ran rampant, especially amongst those, like my grandparents, who were exceptionally proud of their... "pure" bloodline. My parents were young and impetuous and in love, and not about to let a bunch of silly conventions stand in their way, and so my father proposed to her in the shadow of the Sana'ati Dyaus.... Almost prophetic, that.

One night, they ran away to the nearby Tamsine's Rest to be wed. The only witness was my father's cat familiar, Bella. Apparently, this feline watcher quite amused the Cleric of Tamsine who was kind enough to perform the ceremony, and my parents returned to Leth Deriel proper practically glowing with joy. At the sight, my grandparents miraculously softened a little, and decided that they would merely disinherit my mother and prevent her from ever joining the council. She was allowed to stay in Leth and remain married to my father, which was all she really cared about to begin with.

Well, yes, I'm getting to that. Patience, I have to explain the history of my parents so that mine will make sense.... We're getting to me, yes.

A few years later, I was born. See? My grandparents were overjoyed, and thanked the Gods that chance had seen fit to make me Elven, and the spitting image of my mother, at that. When it was discovered that I had also inherited my mother's Empathic gifts, my education as a scholar and Empath began. What, it surprises you that Empaths should be scholars? I don't see why.... Some of the greatest teachers and historians I ever had the pleasure to study under were Empaths. Even our Guildleaders require that we know our lore, and while some prefer to study the bare minimum necessary, I have always found myself attracted to history and study.

So, I spent my childhood studying histories and learning to speak Common better than most who grow up speaking it almost natively, and as my mother before me, I was universally petted and adored. I have... strangely vivid memories of my time in Leth Deriel, even though....

When I was in my early teens, still very young for an Elf, my mother became pregnant again, and gave birth to my younger brother, Gryddon. He was Human.

My grandparents were enraged, and decided that my parents had worn out their welcome in Leth Deriel. They used their considerable influence to convict my mother as a traitor, and a consorter with the inferior Humans, and my mother was exiled -- under penalty of death should she ever return.

My parents gathered up their meager belongings and began to journey northward. Since my father was an orphan, raised by grandparents now long dead, and my mother's family no longer tolerated them, there was no one they could turn to. They traveled back to the Crossing, where they had met. My little brother was still a tiny, weak infant. It was winter, and bitterly cold... he died shortly after we arrived in the city. My father was almost insane with grief. He screamed and tore at his hair and declared that my grandparents had as good as killed his son. It took him months to be able to function normally again. I was still so young, too young to really understand. Most of what I know has been gleaned from my mother's journals. Always the historian, she chronicled her own life as carefully as she chronicled Nissa's in the only history she ever wrote.

So, I grew up in the Crossing. Yes, this explains why I still get lost whenever I have the occasion to visit Leth Deriel. My grandparents are long dead, having faded away shortly after they effectively killed their only daughter and her baby son. I'm sure my mother would have been welcomed back to Leth had she ever asked to come back... but she never did. I still avoid the city most of the time. It doesn't seem to have any relation to the beautiful place where I spent my early childhood.

We were poor, but we were happy. As soon as I was able, I tried to augment the family income by healing people alongside my mother. Neither of us was tipped often or well, which is still really the case, but we made enough to live on, and my father hunted whenever he could. Many years passed quietly like this... and my father grew old. I was still pretty much an adolescent, and my mother had not changed much from when they first met. But the short Human life span was getting the best of my father, and he weakened.

It was almost a miracle, the birth of my younger sister. Nialle was born when my father was past seventy, and she worshipped him. She looks much like him, with the same long, fine, silky black hair he had, and she was as Human as he. She was absolutely devastated when, about ten years later, my father simply died of old age. My mother, utterly unable to live without him, chose to overheal and kill herself. She forbade me to heal her, and I cried and cried but obeyed. I try not to think about that time too much....

I'm sorry. A moment? Thank you.

As for Nialle, she's never been quite the same since then. She has this quiet, bitter aura about her still, even though she has mellowed a bit in the passing years. She was so young when our parents died, and I was so much older than she, I was like a second mother instead of a sister. It's been... ten years since their deaths, Nialle is now a Cleric, and I have come a fair way in my career as an Empath.

Although this story seems to be full of sadness, my life has not been a vale of tears. I have wept, aye, but I have been happy and excited and in love. I cannot say that I would have traded in a single moment, even those of hardship. They have made me what I am, and as anyone who knows me can tell you, I'm... satisfied. Although I will go willingly when Hodierna calls me to her, I hope to have many, many joyous days before then.