I awoke one night as from a dream,
or was I dreaming still?
For a lilting song had filled my ears,
and called me to the sill.
And through the clouded glass I gazed,
into the star dim light.
To seek that haunting singer,
wrapped in that haunting night.
Then out I went to find that call,
beneath the darkened moon.
And wandered to the forest’s depths,
through shadows and through gloom.
A hill then rose before me,
and massive trunks did part.
With rising mists about my heels,
up to the heights I start.
The crest ahead grew closer,
‘midst gathered fog and gloom.
Would I find the calling song ahead?
or would I find my doom?
I heard great wings about me,
and heard a raven’s caw.
The mist lay dark before me,
and seemed an empty maw.
And then a breeze caressed me,
and fog and mist did part.
And I beheld the singer,
and awe did fill my heart.
Her tresses were the dark of night,
her eyes were depths unknown.
Her voice could call the dead forth,
so haunting was her tone.
She’d called me through the darkness,
and lead me to this scene.
But I’d no words, and stood in awe,
before the Phantom Queen.
She smiled at my inaction,
she spoke as I stood dumb.
“I’m glad you finally heard me,
and glad that you have come.”
The Great Queen then recounted,
a tale of times now gone.
Of a people she’d protected,
of those who’d heard her song.
She spoke of their descendants,
and the prices they had paid.
And how their trials had driven them,
and how their memories fade.
“Of those I once protected,
some traveled cross the sea.”
“Some stayed upon the lands they knew,
but few remember me.”
“And now my song they fail to hear,”
and in a saddened tone.
She spoke there in the darkness,
she spoke, and seemed alone.
“But you have heard, and you have come,
as others will, you see.”
“And I will guard and guide you.
Will you remember me?”
I gazed up at her darkness,
I gazed up at her light.
Unworthy of her favor,
her beauty filled my sight.
Her hand extended toward me,
I fell down to my knee.
And spoke with all conviction.
“I will remember thee!”
~Ceridon Dalkorith
11/29/2019
The Ravens' Grove 