Azure locks

                “Moon elves saw the stars in the sky and never reached them. We saw the  stars in the depths of the sea and followed them”
                Dimernesti folk
                Year 235 BC


- Our songs are sung by seamen, our songs rustling under the waves, our songs - Heart of the Water, they will echo in nacreous horns for the centuries, listening the singing Zeran.

He was looking out of a window of a high tower on the storming night sea. The voice was so beautiful and tender, and it seemed improbable, that his owner was on the coast in this time, under Dambrathan summery rain.

The clouds were gathering, cloaking the stars and Selune. The rain plentifully watered earth. Water was dripping down from the sky and pattering on a stone windowsill where Zeran was standing. When the voice had quietened down, he had a sudden attack of sorrow and fatigue.

A dim, shivering candle flame poorly lit up the room of a noble half-drow. Too much of the hot Dambrathan and pleasant weather did not please the townspeople of Catyr. Only rain, rain…
There was a knock on the door. Zeran turned away from the window, and his sight fell on an unfinished chess game. He knew, that behind this door was standing a wizard - Nazos The Hathran. The magician always hid his face under the dragon-bone’s mask. With a cat’s grace, the half-drow made his way towards the door.

- Enter, my old friend.
- Greetings, Son of the First.
The white cloak of the mage shone with cold bluish luminescence when he entered. Cocks’ feathers framed the dragon mask of the moon elf.
– I hope you guessed why I am visiting you on this rainy day? Nazos smiled.

He was looking at the azure coat of arms of the First House on close-fitting waist of Zeran’s black caftan.
- To finish our chess game? said the aristocrat without thinking, inviting the wizard to sit down.
- No, I’ve come to offer you a travel which you will never forget, the magician begun as by chance, as if his speech was accidental. Knowing your impetuous and enthusiastic nature, I’ve decided acceptable that you should not remain tormented by idleness and should not sit within the castle walls like a pale shadow.
- I’m listening, Zeran said sitting down at the chess table with a flash of interest in his eyes. He folded his arms and prepared to listen more attentively.
- As an introduction I brought you wings of a backwater.
- For what? the aristocrat asked becoming too serious for an instant.
- For the flight in sea depths, Nazos made pair of passes and the step pyramid grown from a wooden floor on which laid densely twisted paper sending.
After some humming and ahing, Zeran agreed to his own decision and took in hands the package. Behind Nazos’s mask, the Son of the First did not know that the magician started to get tired from his indecision.
- Fourteen swans. Fourteen daughters. Seals of the insane. In snares of the Lord of the Sea, said the magician. Have you ever heard these strophes?
- Rhyme and syllable… Poetry is not my speciality, answered the half-drow.
- You should make a note of it, hal’abbil, said the Moon elf beating a rhythmical staccato on the table.
- What are these arrangements, Nazos The Hathran? You visit me after a month as if you wished to teach me by and by. You push me on an unknown and unclear business at once after you’ve entered into my retinue. I am not a criminal and I am not going to get involved in something similar.


Thanks for GlassSiva for the help. I appreciate it :)