On a late-winter morning, a junior trade envoy from Ardolenor's capitol is anxious to reach her first assignment in Crossdale far to the south. Nevertheless, she interrupts her descent through the northern mountain pass into the county of Aiden's Rift to process the startling discovery ahead. Though the heavy late-season snowfall has made for slow going, it also blanketed the forest in beautiful white satin.
The previous night she believed the magnificent landscape paintings on display in the quaint mountain inn to be works of fiction; now she knows better. She also believed this morning's warning from the elderly innkeeper to be an exaggeration; again, she was mistaken. Reversing course, she begins to backtrack along the mountain trail returning to the hamlet of Toilbreak, leaving behind the only other footprints to mar the pristine snowscape -- wolf or... mountain lion?
For her second descent of the morning, she has two new companions: a conifer rat curled up in her pocket and the teenage son of Toilbreak's head ranger. With the winter morning mist now burned off, she sees the sheltered valley is bordered both north and south by protective mountains. Between them lies a large rift lake which bisects nearly the entire county, though her escort says it wasn't always this way.
He recites an obviously well-worn narrative.
"Countless generations past, life in a placid village was upended when the world began to rumble. Desperate, village elders looked skyward for answers and observed Aiden was prominent as it passed into the House of the Leffit. Unable to interpret what this portended, they could do little aside from reassuring those under their charge that everything would be okay. Fate did not agree...
"The rumblings worsened, water sources fouled, and daily life became a hardship. The local game began to die and their village with it, so they were forced to flee. Little did they know their village's demise was nothing more than collateral damage in the opening salvos of the War Between the Virtues and Vices.
"Decades later, the gods only recently sealed away, a newly-anointed leader named Bourne cradles his infant daughter. He dreams of all the things they will do, all the stories they will share. He vows to his little girl her childhood stories will be of growing up in their ancestral land. He orders preparations to be made. He's taking his people home.
"Upon arriving, they find a landscape much changed from that in their stories, though no less idyllic. Bourne, awed by the lower montane forest below, recalls the tale of Aiden's passage and discerns its dual meaning.
"Aiden, symbolizing opposition, entering the House of the Leffit, representing duty and obligation, portended their answering the Creator's call to take up the Sword.
"Aiden, symbolizing defense, and the House of the Leffit, representing land and romance, portended the protected valley they would find when they eventually returned."
"That's why the county is called Aiden's Rift?"
He gives her a wry glance. "I suppose they could have called it Leffit's Bottom."
A punch to the shoulder and a shared laugh later, they resume their journey as he regales her with local fables like "The Goshawk and the Grouse." The conifer rat offers nary a peep.
Around midafternoon the town of Cardinal Crossing comes into view. As the county seat, it serves as a home not only to Count Bourne but also to the only bridge crossing the lake.
"Father says the Bournes have always applied the virtues of Pacyen and Asiduuryn to their land-use policies, but I think this place is growing too fast."
She suppresses a snicker as she surveys the picturesque lakeside town, contrasting it with her own massive fortress-city home.
"Still, you have to return to this place in springtime. It's not cardinal bees which give the town its name, but the red fireflies found only here alongside their more common gold and green cousins."
On a cool late-spring evening, fireflies dance across the lake like a choreographed reflection of the night sky. Comets make brief appearances, their multi-hued tails leaving ripples in space. A golden star winks out of existence when it dares light upon the water's surface. Oblivious to the stellar conflict, a pair of fox cubs play while their mother forages for grubs. Only a frog's mournful dirge marks the passing of the firefly as the trout retreats again to the depths.
The envoy closes her eyes. "I love this place." From her pocket, the conifer rat offers nary a peep.
