Location: On the road to Monthaven
Timeline: Sixth Age, 52st Year, Spring
While I was busy wrapping things up in Atlantis, events of the world continued to march on. I know you want to find out if I got my hands on Dagaal, but patience, little one. First let me tell you more about the foibles of my nemesis Emcorae – and the part where my rival Alyssa continues her meddling ways…
The Boy Returns
On a certain day in a certain place—a dusty, unremarkable stretch of road near the human village of Monthaven —the golden-haired goddess Alyssa, the immortal self-styled Goddess of Love, indulged in one of her petty, manipulative obsessions. She was concealed behind a massive elder tree, a shimmering predator hiding in plain sight, as a very mortal young man galloped past her position, racing along a dirt trail through the forest.
Even were Alyssa not concealed, it mattered not, for the mind of the youth was elsewhere, focused on the mundane joys of his return. The traveler was none other than Emcorae Azop, racing towards the village of Monthaven—a place he hadn’t seen in six years. Interestingly enough, Monthaven was the very location that the goddess had just come from, having paid another secret visit to his grandsire.
As the young man passed her position, Alyssa noted with pleasure how closely the boy-turned-man physically resembled his grandsire, Alfranco Azop—the very person that the goddess had just secretly visited.
This, of course, was no chance encounter in these woods. Instead, it was a perfectly orchestrated event that the goddess had been planning for nearly fifty years.
The Fool and the Goddess
Only later did I come to know about any of this, but it seems that – half a century past – Alyssa, in her typically melodramatic fashion, made a solemn promise to Alfranco Azop concerning the life of that man’s first-born grandchild. A promise, a debt, a manipulation—all the hallmarks of her sentimental rot.
To really understand the sickening devotion Alyssa held for the Azop bloodline, one must understand the pathetic little drama that unfolded those fifty years ago. Back then Alfranco Azop was but a young man himself, just shy of his 18th birthday, when he’d finished a two-year military tour of duty that bore witness to the end of the Last Great War whilst I was myself down in Illusia.
Despite his youth, Alfranco’s timely accomplishments during the war had established him as a hero among the Amorosi elves, and after the campaign ended, the man returned with his new friends to their haven within Arbola Forest.
Living in that the forest haven, Alfranco partook of some much-needed tranquility, a feeble attempt to wipe his mind from the horrors of war. While at Arbola, Alfranco was given the honorary title “Al-Corragio” (“the Courageous One”). More importantly—and this is where the rot truly sets in—while at Arbola, Alfranco became a favorite of the Goddess of Love. [As an interesting side note, this is also when he became a drunk].
Their initial encounter occurred one night shortly after Alfranco’s arrival to the great forest. Earlier that evening, Al-Corragio had been officially honored in The Great Green Hall with a celebration that touted his deeds—the most significant of which included his saving the life of Aslan, the Regent of Regalis Forest and the largest of the Amorosi kingdoms. After he’d endured a food and wine festival such as elves are legendary for, a more than tipsy Alfranco had gone for a walk to clear his head.
Alone in the enchanted forest that was Arbola, the man aimlessly wandered the wending pathways among the eld trees. His mind spinning from the fermented drink, he stopped when there was a break in the canopy to look at the stars and wonder how his life had come to such an unexpected venue. Whether this was chance or whether the goddess orchestrated the meeting is irrelevant, for nothing happened in the vicinity of a god without a purpose.
Al-Corragio’s footsteps soon led him to a mysterious glade surrounded by warm, wet mists rising up from the dew-filled forest floor—magical mists that rose around him to block out even the night sky above. Finding himself within a steamy haze, the young man quickly lost his sense of direction. Yet he continued walking, his courage fueled by the lingering effects of the heady wine and the ego-inflating party in his honor. As Alfranco walked through the bewildering mists, the sticky moisture clung to his clothes, saturating through to his skin. In truth, his pressing footfalls had taken him to the borders of a fairy realm, and with the humidity ever rising, Alfranco shed his clothes piece by piece, until he ventured forth naked through the glade.
He began to feel a growing sense of direction, as if he heard someone calling to him. Faintly at first, the voice seemed to be an aria that had always been there, deep within him, brought to the surface by the enchantment of Arbola Forest. The siren song grew clearer, the alluring notes ringing true within his heart, welling up within his being. The warm, sticky dew clung to his body like honey, invigorating him with the very vibrance of life itself.
Suddenly, Alfranco himself was singing too—his bold tenor stepping in tune with the melody of the sensual soprano that filled the air – an amazing feat, considering the fact that Alfranco had never ventured to sing before in his entire life! Onward the man pressed, rapidly sensing a rising need that strained forth from the center of his being.
The hot mists now bespoke of a mutual lust that needed urgent satisfaction—as Al-Corragio at last had reached a break in the mists. Although he didn’t know it, the place he’d emerged into was the very center of that mysterious glade, and there, among the clearing of the haze, waited Alyssa—the Goddess of Love—whose own naked form was also glistening with the droplets of that magical forest dew.
With her arms beckoning him forward, Alyssa’s voice filled the air, perfecting the harmony of love in time with Alfranco’s song. And the goddess smiled, as for the first time ever, in all her many encounters, finally she had reached complete perfection! Finally she had witnessed a flawless answering of her lust-filled calls! Finally the perfect virile young male champion had come to her!
The One the Fates had promised her so long ago!
After their initial encounter, Alfranco Azop became much more than just a one-time fling for Alyssa. Indeed, he and the goddess had such a passionate love affair that the fires of Alyssa’s heart burned so hot that she thought of nothing other than being with Alfranco at all times. As for him, what energetic male boy just shy of his 18th year would turn down limitless access to uninhibited passion with the most beautiful woman in the world whenever his burning young loins so desired?
And yet, for whatever reason, theirs was a union which was ill-fated and untimely. Despite the time-stopping enchantment and soul-refreshing sustenance of the elvish forest, and despite the even more powerful erotic allure and sexual power of the goddess herself, Alfranco Azop—a simple human man—all too soon remembered the life he had left behind in Monthaven.
Thus, inexplicable though it might seem, after only a year of passions that quenched the thirsts of his soul, his mind, and his body, Alfranco somehow found the necessary willpower to leave behind a magical Arbola Forest and a very heart-broken Alyssa—a spurning event that had never happened to the goddess in all her millennia of existence!
And this is where the true scheme begins.
A Broken Heart and a Vow of Possession
A broken heart is a dangerous thing in a goddess. Although crushed by Al-Corragio’s decision, they parted as friends, and the goddess ever maintained contact with him. And while they were never lovers again—for in time he eventually would have a family of his own—still Alyssa had always watched over him.
As is so often the case of star-crossed lovers, Alyssa made a promise to her beloved just as he was about to part from her those many years ago. A promise that she had never forgotten, and one that she felt she was now on the verge of fulfilling. For upon their initial farewell in Arbola Forest almost fifty years past, the goddess had advised Alfranco that one day he would have a male grandchild whose life would be special. For his part, Alfranco had been both amazed and shocked to hear of this future good fortune. He was still a young man, and the responsibility of caring for a wife and family was not his priority, which was one of his reasons for breaking his relationship with Alyssa. Furthermore, Al-Corragio had also been afraid to hear such news, for having seen the horrors of the real world during his time in the war, he was not all that sure that he wanted a son or grandson who would be subject to witnessing such death and destruction himself.
However, the goddess had suspected these fears in the psyche of her lover, and it was because of that fear that she’d made her fateful vow: “Al-Corragio, fear not, my love, for I promise that I personally will watch over the life of your first-born grandson and I will make his life an extraordinary one.”
The Goddess Waits
For his part, Alfranco had been filled with happiness ever since the birth of Emcorae seventeen summers past. Yet Alfranco had never fully realized the magnitude of Alyssa’s promise those many years ago
In fact, only the goddess herself knew what her ultimate plans were – for the true purpose was not to protect the child, but to possess him.
Alyssa had lost her lover Al-Corragio half a century ago, and although she had had many passionate interludes in those interim years—she was, after all, the Goddess of Love—still she could not forget about the longing of the sensual soulmate who had left her behind.
She knew that Alfranco now had a family and would not break his faith. But Alyssa also knew of the “potential” of Emcorae. Ever since his birth, she had watched over Emcorae Azop, using her woodland helpers to keep track of his progress while he was just a boy. When he began to grow and near puberty, the goddess could not allow him to remain so far away from a protective haven, so she engineered his presence in Arbola Forest under the guise of his training to become an Azora warrior—thus ensuring his virgin purity. Above all else, Alyssa did not want to risk another woman getting a hold of Emcorae first!
He Will Be Mine
And so it was that, during the Spring of 52, all the hard work of the goddess’s vigilance seemed that it was about to pay off – for Emcorae Azop, although a finely sculpted mature young male, was indeed still a virgin – and that fact suited the goddess’s plans for this day very well indeed.
Before the sun rose again, Alyssa would claim her long-awaited prize! Soon would the young man look upon her for the first time, and then he would fall in love with her, so deeply in love that he would never want to leave her—ever!
“I may have lost Alfranco, but I shall ne’er lose Emcorae,” thought the goddess. “Thus will an Azop ever be a part of my life and happiness—for such have the Fates promised me, and such shall I have!” And once again, the goddess smiled as she silently followed Emcorae’s progress from a distance.
[A pathetic, yet undeniably effective, piece of manipulation on a worthless mortal? Where’s the fun in that?]
The Apocrypha of Azazel 