Velien looked out over the rolling hills with silver eyes showing reverence. It was night and never had she seen a more beautiful place beneath the stars. The holy power seemed to make the air itself glow slightly silver like a mist, clinging to the ground. She could feel the holiness as easily as she felt the light breeze play against her bare arms. She wore her usual form-fitting vest, sleeveless undershirt, flowing gray pants, and dark brown boots. Covering her face was her helm. She had worn it so much, it had almost become a part of her. On her bare arms, she wore her finely made bracers.

This was not a place she had come to as a part of her mission. She had sidetracked, even though Ves'vor'eis had warned her not to. Even he, though, could justify coming to this place and see the land where the celestials made their greatest victory.

The field was surrounded by hills on all four sides, one of which she now stood on. There was also a hill in the center that almost seemed to have been purposefully raised from the ground. It was not very tall, smaller than any of the hills that surrounded the field. At its center was a single, large white boulder. It stood like an edifice to the skies, reaching, trying to go home to Celestia.

As Velien walked down the hill and got closer to it, she could make out runes carved into it and inlaid with a dark stone, possibly ebony or obsidian. When she got close enough, she recognized the runes as the most holy of tongues, the Tongue of True Names. Even she did not know how to decipher what it said, even after studying in the libraries of Celestia for over a year.

When she reached out to caress the largest of the runes, power almost threw her hand back. Never had she felt so much power held in a single focus. Instead of pulling her hand away from the sudden surge, she put her entire palm over it.

The power was almost overwhelming. It felt as though a previously dammed river slammed into her. Wind began whipping her hair and clothes, like a whirlwind around her. The moon shone brightly, directly above her and a beam of silver light touched the stones top, making all the runes glow with a silver outline.

Velien closed her eyes tight, trying to hold onto the surge of power, trying to harness and control the flow. She was no mage though.

Like a star imploding, the moonlight within it seemed to ignite. There was a sound like a thundercrack across the sky and Velien was thrown back by a blinding sonic boom.

She fell about ten feet away, it had hit her with suck force and the wind was knocked out of her. She gasped, filling her lungs with air again, taking several breaths before sitting up, somewhat embaressed. She knew it had been a stupid thing to do, to try and enmesh herself within such power...

What Velien did not know, though, was that even the most skilled and powerful mages could not touch that stone as she had. Any who had tried to tap into that great power had been overwhelm by it and their physical bodies, nor their spirits could take the surge of power and had lost their lives or worse. It had been her powerful bloodlines that had saved her, and perhaps the stone itself sensed her significance and spared her. She would never know, though, until she learned the truth...

The discahrge of such magic made Athiyk stagger, even though she had yet to even crest the rise of one of the surrounding hills. She stumbled to her knees for a moment, but not letting a cry of surprise rise past a small gasp. It was late and she had no desire to make unecessary noise. What had caused the shockwave of power?

Athiyk knew of the stone that had been placed there, but never had touched it. She knew of what it could do to people. Erthe, Athiyk's winter wolf, whined a little at Athiyk's side, worried about her master, but immediately calmed when she saw Athiyk stand up again.

The drow woman shook her head slightly in wonder. "Let us see what has caused the rock to do such a thing," she whispered in drow to Erthe, who seemed more hesitant than her master to go see.

Athiyk had gone out of her way to visit Izimet's Field, on her way back to the Temple of Night, where Faeryl awaited her as well as Jhael. She had never seen the field, though she had heard stories.

Walking to the top, she looked down into the valley, letting her eyes slip into the infrared spectrum. The stars hurt her eyes while they looked for heat waves, but it was the best way to find any people down below. The rock was giving off red waves. It was very hot. Then she saw another, much smaller form sitting several feet away from the rock. Whoever it was, had to have been the cause for such power to be released and this made her very curious indeed.

Letting her eyes take on light again, she made her way carefully down the hill. Her perfectly fitted armor and piwafwi hid her from being more than a whisper of a lost spirit, flitting down the hillside towards the woman.

She stood on shaking legs, that gave out and she stumbled again, trying to catch herself. It was one of her less graceful moments as she tried to find her feet like a newborn foal. She was trembling uncontrollably and was a little disoriented for a moment.

Velien simply stood for a moment until she was sure she wouldn't fall again. The she glanced around. She knew such power surges might attract certain magic-feeding beasts. Along with lore, she had studied bestiaries of Imythess and knew of two different monsters which were relatively common that fed off magic and power itself. She rested a reassuring hand on her scimitars just in case and listened carefully, scanning the starlit skies around her, not paying much attention to the ground as both the creatures she knew of flew. Velien did not see the shadow that slipped so silently towards her.

Once she was relatively sure nothing was coming at her, she turned to retrieve her helm as it had been knowcked away in the blast.

When she saw the girl hold onto her scimitars for a long moment, Athiyk paused as well as she watched her head sweep the horizen for danger before standing up all the way to get her helmet. As soon as she seemed to lower her guard somewhat, Athiyk continued to creep closer, Erthe at her heels, crouched in the long grass.

Had this young warrior caused the discharge of power? More powerful people had tried to harness and tap into the power of the stone and it had let them off somewhat worse off than this girl seemed to be.

Should she let her presence be known? Athiyk was not sure. She was curious to know how this remarkable girl had lived through such a charge of power, but also didn't know how much of a threat she was. Not much, the drow supposed, but looks could be infinitely deceiving and if she was powerful enough to live through a shock like that, who knows what else she could do. Perhaps she was not even human or half-elven at all?

Athiyk did sense some strange power in the girl's aura... she cursed herself that she had neglected to learn a detection spell of any kind to use to sense one's alignment.

She mentally went through the list of spells she had at her disposal and didn't find anything that would be much use. She could change into a different form, but couldn't think of a form she had that wasn't overly threteaning or one that would be of much use. More than once Athiyk would had taken the shape of a white hawk, but that would do little good in the darkness, nor would it allow her to get very close. The rest she could think of would be useless if she had to defend herself.

Finally she decided on more direct means and approach the girl herself. First, though, she cast Armor of Stars upon herself for protection and readied Disspell Magic in case she had to use it if they girl turned out to be a mage. An unlikely suggestion, though, judging by how she was dressed and armed.

Taking a deep breath she stood up and began walking the next thirty paces towards the stranger under the light of the moon above.

Velien turned when her senses suddenly began tingling. Someone was there. She turned to face the stranger, pulling her scimitars free of their scabbards at the same time.

"Come no closer, if you value you're life," she said loudly, swinging one scimitar around, in a show of her skill. Velien had no desire to fight, and doubted she would last very long in melee, the after-shock of the blast still rattling her bones. "I do not want to fight you, but I will defend my life if need be."

She then realized the race of the stranger. Drow. The second she had run into on Imythess. Was this one, like the last, not evil, but good? Using her inborn senses, she tried to detect any evil presence within the woman and found nothing. If she was evil, she may have been hiding it with a spell. She gripped her scimitars tightly, observing the drow carefully, ready to react as soon as the woman did something such as go for a weapon or begin the gestures for a spell.

The woman also wore scimitars, two of them. Strange that they should share the same fighting style. The drow's seemed much more powerful, though, possibly having magical properties.

"Then let there be no bloodshed on this night. I am Athiyk Darkblade of the Temple of Night" Athiyk replied to the girl's words, introducing herself. As she spoke, Athiyk had sensed the girl's power come forth, barely noticeable and she suspected it was some form of detection spell. "I mean no harm. I happened to be nearby when the stone let off a burst of power. It is very rare to see or feel that and I merely came to see what had caused it... Was it you who touched the stone?" Athiyk asked the question directly, her silvery eyes looking deeply into the girl's.

There was something familiar about her. This familiarity confused Athiyk as she did not understand it. There was also something alien about her, as though she might not have come from this world at all.

Athiyk also noticed the girls gaze to the scimitars at each of her own hips. "Draa velve, my people call it. 'twin swords,'" she explained. "I have long left the Underdark, however, and given up their ways of torment."