The Vengeance of Fiabelhie Stillriver
Spring, usually a celebration of rebirth, brought strange tidings to the Serenwilde. Instead of newborn creatures and budding leaves, Miakoda cried out with alarm at the Mother Moonhart, sensing a fear in the trees themselves. Leaves were falling early, a foulness leeching their life away. Iasmos came to investigate, and found the Wheel of the Goloths had moved once more, coming to rest at the entrance to Moon River. The Serenwilde gathered to attempt to move it, but it was not to be. None of the inhabitants of the forest, nor Maeve of the Fae, knew how to shift the Wheel away.
Only one had even an inkling of what the Wheel might do. Upon hearing that it was poised at the mouth of the river, having some impact upon the water, Eurytus hurriedly threw together a bag of necessities and left the Serenguard Lodge for parts unknown, promising to return once he had determined whether a long-kept secret might be affected.
Days passed peacefully. Abruptly, the Wheel was once more on the move. Visions blossomed across the sky of the past as the Wheel made its way up Moon River. The Serens could not impede its progress, and the images grew darker and darker. It came to rest ominously at a fork in the river. Those gathered girded themselves for battle, but nothing emerged to challenge them.
Eurytus reappeared at the Mother Moonhart, entreating those of the Serenwilde to remove the Wheel from the borders of the forest lest an ancient evil be loosed once more. At his behest, many travelled to speak to Albion, and gathered the essence that she asked for. Hundreds and hundreds of bits of essence were brought, and with them Albion formed a sphere of pure moonlight. Wielding this, Enyalida Zayah drove the Wheel of the Goloths down the river and back into the sea beyond, where it sank out of sight.
But it was too late. Twisted glah’rai naiads had emerged, loyal to an unknown Fiabelhie Stillriver. They were quickly dispatched, but more appeared, and with them the water of Moon River rose in murky waves as though trying to drown every living thing. Eurytus gathered the Serens at the Moonhart to tell a sobering tale.
One of the unfortunate victims of the Taint many years ago was Fiabelhie Stillriver. Caught in the insubstantial Mistwalker form of the Lakedancers, it took decades for the lost furrikin to coalesce, and by that time her beloved Ackleberry was long lost. And she blamed the Serenwilde. Filled with fury, she advanced upon the forest and attempted to flood and destroy. Only with the combined might of all was she caught within a crystalline prison, tended by the fledgling Serenguard. Over time, as she slept, only the tutor was charged to remember the pledge, should Fiabelhie ever wake.
The Wheel had twisted time itself, creating a loop that moved an early version of Fiabelhie Stillriver forward through the timestream to the present, creating a paradox whereby she was never imprisoned at all. Eurytus asked help of all of the Serenwilde to find the steel magnolia that he could use to forge a living lock that might bind her once more. Many rose to the cause, and even as more and more naiads emerged, the lock was made. All that remained was to locate the prison, and soon enough Fiabelhie Stillriver freed herself.
Shouting insults, the former Lakedancer emerged from her prison – beneath the place that the Wheel had so recently paused – and trudged down Moon River towards the Mother tree. A first attempt at vanquishing her left many dead, but as she moved towards the Moonhart, the tree itself repelled her. Serenwilde fought her once more, and this time met with success. They took the corpse to the shattered remains of the prison, and the Magnolia Lock was used to bind her once more with a single steel strand.
Eurytus charged the Serenguard to keep watch over the prison, for it is the duty of the tribe to keep Fiabelhie entrapped, lest she ever emerge to flood the Serenwilde once more.
Meanwhile, the mysterious Wheel of the Goloths has been repelled back to the Inner Sea, where it has sank down to the depths. And there it lingers, as though biding its time for whatever unknown purpose that compels it.
