Submitted: 11 April 1999

Through the Eyes of the Familiar

A Poem by Aegwin Ballistae

A wizened Warrior Mage is he, his mind is one with mine,
His thoughts and feelings a part of me,
A great sense of despair and longing is his,

And therefore my own sense of inner sadness fills me,
A lost one, a shadowy figure in the depths of his mind,
Shrouded by the mists of time, I understand, and I obey.
Away to fly, away from his side, to find the One,

Catching a gusty breeze, I take and loft on the cool spring air,
The City of Shard lies within vision on this night,
A beacon of light in a world shrouded in seemingly eternal blackness,
To the north, over the forests and swooping through the chasms,
I fly, passing the gondola midway to its destination in Zoluren,
Harder I fly, I must, swooping through the streets of the elven stronghold,
Flitting among the branches of the great tree in its center,
My search is fruitless, onward, I fly, northward, I fly, in search of the One,
Over the Endrus Forest and passing the dark Forest of the Night,
Sweeping over the current of the Segoltha River.
Seeing where the mouth empties into the foamy green seas,
Gliding on the winds, scrutinizing the great city of the Crossing,
Flying past bank and smithy, but the search turns up nothing.

Wheeling and circling about the tower of Warrior Mages,
I press northward once again, onward, northward,
Through the halfling city, over the rocky terrain where the trolls lurk,
Darting forth over the mountains surrounding the town of Dirge,
Past the marshes where reptilian creatures lie in wait for their next victim,
Over the river and into Riverhaven, my search still on, still unsuccessful,

North, I must push farther north, the One must be found,
Into the northern reaches of the continent I travel,
Over hill and dale, in any weather I push on, I must push on,
Langenfirth unsuccessfully search, Therenborough empty of my goal.

A final place to search for the One,
I delve deep into a black pit of the void, nothing shall bar my path,
My mission is on, need surging through my veins in a torrent,
I shoot forth through the depths of the Abyss itself and see my goal.

My masters only desire within sight, at last I have found the One,
A woman of elven origin with dark hair and a tanned complexion,
She has eyes of the deepest blue,