The Epilogue from The Battle of Evernight:
When the Gates were Closed for the second time it is not known for sure whether they were ever again opened. It was said in tales that they were.
Once.
The reign of Edward lasted many years. Certain it is that the shang unstorms never more came and went, except within the violence of the Ringstorm roiling around the waist of the world. Certain it is that sildron-powered ships no longer flew, nor did Stormriders rule the skies, and that their once-great Houses declined, becoming squabbling, land-bound clans.
It was maintained (and indeed it was set down thus in the annals of Erith) that the bride of Edward, King-Emperor, was a damsel of great beauty, although her ways were strange, quiet and remote, and the marriage was childless. She outlived her husband by many years. When he died, a distant relation of the House of D'Armancourt came to the throne and Edward's widow retired to a country estate, where she lived for an extraordinary length of time. Her beauty, though it faded in the end, faded slowly.
But others added a fanciful twist.
They avowed that she who became the wife of Edward, King-Emperor of Erith, was not his heart’s choice but a substitute, and that he never loved her as deeply. According to their version, his first bride was stolen away in the very hour they were to be married. On the day of the royal wedding, into the midst of the ceremony walked a tall stranger, more beautiful than the night, and a white owl flew above his shoulder, and no man could touch either of them. Before the marriage vows were exchanged, the stranger demanded a boon of Edward, and to the amazement of all those present, it was granted. Whereupon the stranger took the bride in his arms and kissed her.
Then the whole court stood back staring in astonishment. For where the visitor had stood, a great eagle rose up. By its side flew a white sea-bird, and the two were linked by a golden chain. The roof opened like a flower to let them pass.
They flew away and were never seen more in Erith.
Introduction to CHAPTER 13: The Wedding
The glamour of the Faêran us beguiles;
How they amaze our senses with their wiles!
Fine clothes or rags? Gold thread or common straw?
Ah! Who knows what the truth is any more?
Retelling tales would seem, at first, to be
Safe bet to save them for posterity,
Yet stories change while passing door to door,
And who knows what the truth is, any more?
In domed mind-vaults we archive history
To keep it sound, in perpetuity.
Yet when retrieved, ’tis altered from before,
And who knows what the truth is, any more?
When sleep’s false dreams our waking visions cloud
And fractured memories the past enshroud,
What chance have we to know what came before?
Who can know what the truth is, any more?
It was those who were disparaged as being ‘fanciful’ who really understood the truth. The rest of the population were sadly deceived. How could it be, that this ‘fanciful twist’ had remained in the minds of some of the citizens of Erith, while contrasting opinions had taken hold in everyone else? The answers lie in the workings of men’s minds, and in the influence of the Faêran illusions that so adeptly confound the senses of mortal creatures.
Throughout history, different versions of the same event commonly evolve. In some cases, the natural effects of time and erratic memories are accentuated by clever bewilderments worked by the Faêran.
It was Rosamonde whom Edward eventually married; she who had always loved him. The daughter of Tamlain Conmor was indeed a damsel of great beauty, whose ways were strange, quiet and remote. The life of Rosamonde had been unusual, and tinged with gramarye. This was the reason for her distant manner – doubtless she often dwelled on the wonders of days gone by. She had been conceived in Faerie, and had mingled with immortal beings; by this, her lifespan was greatly lengthened. She was content in her marriage, even happy, this gentle, gracious queen.
To understand the power and the reach of Faêran guile, one need only recall what happened in the years that followed the Battle of Evernight:
Since the return to Caermelor, Angavar laid aside the lion of D'Armancourt and openly displayed his own eagle escutcheon, the sigil of Faêran Royalty. The couriers and everyone in the kingdom who knew him by sight, were fully apprised of the truth - King James had asked the Faêran High King to rule in his place until Edward came of age. Surprisingly, or perhaps predictably, this truth did not affect history as it existed in the minds of the soldiery and the majority of the citizens of Erith, who recognised the face of their sovereign only from crudely stamped images on coins. The King-Emperor had come to be regarded as a sovereign without parallel, a paragon, the most popular ruler in history. The people would have followed him into any sort of danger. They found it difficult - nay, impossible to accept the idea that the entire Empire had been under glamour's illusion for so many years, that this monarch they loved was in fact not of their race. Popularly, the obvious explanation was that the King-Emperor had been slain at the Battle of Darke, and his ally the Faêran High King had subsequently arrived to stamp out those of his enemies who remained alive...
Now from every country came, at last, the Talith. The scattered remnants of that race gathered at Court to meet the Lady Ashalind, the betrothed of the Faêran King - she whose hair now glimmered with a daffodil sheen to match their own. If the Talith wondered at this newcomer in their midst, in their delight they put aside their questions. It may be that their natural curiosity was dulled by the gramarye hanging in heavy veils about the Palace, drifting like incense through the corridors and halls.
For sure, Angavar was able to cast nets of illusion over the entire populace of Erith. He had already used such glamours to ensure that the exchange between himself and the real King-Emperor went unnoticed. When he snatched Ashalind – who had become ‘Ash’ after her memory was taken a second time - from the scene of the wedding, and returned with her to Faerie, he left a legacy of confusion veiling the minds of most of Erith’s people.
For he did steal her away, of that there is no doubt. And this is how it came to pass:
After Ashalind exited the Gate for the final time there was a short period during which both she and Angavar actually dwelled in Erith simultaneously, before he was borne, Sleeping, from Eagle's Howe into Faerie. Certain minor wights, and wild creatures such as birds spied Ashalind emerging from the Gate and making her way to the monument that was her own memorial. Several of these creatures slipped into the Fair Realm when the Faêran carried Angavar back to his own kingdom. After he woke, one of these informants revealed to him that his truelove still lived. Whereupon he opened the Gates immediately, and stole her from Edward on the very wedding day.
Angavar and Ashalind flew away to Faerie, where he restored her memories and she was reunited with her family and friends.
(The chapter itself is available here.)
