A black void swept over the red landscape that were once
Myrra's eyes. The
drow's head fell backwards, her body went limp, she collapsed into Malgadrin's arms and was held in an embrace that lasted for only a few seconds for
Nasir and Kassa but for the dark
elven girl...
She was invisible. A void moving against a backdrop of events. She saw the Undercity, bustling and thriving with people. She understood that there were political rivals, powerful families who controlled influence. These families took their orders from the religious elders and their lines of succession were groomed and shaped by the holy priests. All betrothals, all marriages, were pre-arranged and authorized by this body of clergy.
Zaeneir was one of the most prosperous lines. Controlling multiple districts within the Undercity, ever loyal to the church, and having only one major rival. A family called Ichylst who dealt predominantly in the refinement of the various ores and gemstones within the Underdark. That was when Myrra was shown what the Drider had wanted her to see. A woman, who looked strikingly like Myrra, from House Ichylst. She had fallen in love with the heir of Zaeneir against the wishes of their families and particularly against the wishes of the temple.
From the perspective of the religious order having the two most powerful families united by marital ties wouldn't be acceptable. They'd be more difficult to control, they'd wield enough power to potentially threaten the clergy's grasp on the Undercity. This was the reason why Myrra's parents kept their affair private. Kept it secret.
"I don't understand what I'm witnessing," Myrra admitted to the empty void.
Malgadrin's voice called back, "Patience child."
If Myrra would've had a face in this moment it would have srunched in curiosity. "Were they found out? Banished for their relationship?" It was a fantasy that provided some sort of justification. Some reason for her parents to have abandoned her. Perhaps they were cast out, desperate, got themselves into some trouble and giving the child up was their only chance.
"Patience," the spider-queen's voice called back once more.
Myrra's parents love was discovered when her mother fell pregnant. Though they hid it for awhile once she began showing it was nearly impossible. It became a well known secret among the rest of the Ichylst household that the second daughter of the elder had fallen pregnant to an unknown boy. Once the child, a girl... Myrra... was born was the first time the mother confessed that it was a child of Zaeneir. Enraged the elder of House Ichylst demanded she leave, find repentance with the clergy. Seeking out the father of the child it was the lord of Zaeneir that showed some pity. "Bring the priests," was his only response to the news from his son. The news that his son loved this woman of Ichylst and wished to marry her, raise the girl.
The priests did not approve of the marriage. Myrra sat stunned as she saw the events play at hyper speed. These men of the cloth not only condemned her parent's relationship they prophesied that the child would bring great calamity one day. The elder of Zaeneir, and Myrra's father, swiftly changed their tone and called for the girl's death. Her mother fled, returned back to the family home of the Ichylst, and pleaded with her own family to take them in.
Her father, Myrra's grandfather, agreed only on the condition that the child be killed. Otherwise the mother and daughter would be banished. Losing all status, all privilege.
"This must be when it happens, when my mother leaves and takes me to
Elbion," she reasoned aloud once more.
"No, child," Malgadrin answered, sounding sullen. The spider-queen had seen all of this play out.
Myrra's mother agreed. The babe was handed off to a trusted house servant. A male drow with dusty hair and a warm face. He was entrusted with the baby that would grow to become Myrra and it was he that was ordered to kill it. He retrieved a knife from the store room and announced he'd take the child to the glowing stream, give it a proper death, and then be off.
But it was a lie. He couldn't stomach the idea of killing an infant. He smuggled her out, gave her to a ship captain bound for Elbion, and the rest... well... the rest Myrra had already been shown by Kassa.
"This can't be how it happened," Myrra stated, "my parents chose privilege over me? They didn't want me because I was an inconvenience?"
Malgadrin did not answer this time. She merely allowed the elven girl to persist in this void, stay a bit longer, until she was prepared to return to reality.
Red eyes blinked rapidly as her vision returned from the void she was in back to the colors of the Underdark. Of Malgadrin's home.
Myrra collapsed to her knees and fell silent. She didn't want to be here anymore. The Undercity could burn for all she cared.
