Enderal:Myths and Legends: The Ash Widow
- NPC: Dead Adventurer in Vyn — Enderal (-33, -4) @ Z: 39.195133
- Ark, Library
Volume 3: The Ash Widow
One of the perhaps most eerie and gruesome legends of Enderal is the one surrounding the Ash Widow.
In life, the Ash Widow was a charming young woman who had been promised as a companion to a man of the Sublime Path. Her hair was long and shaded a reddish blond in the likeness of late autumn leaves, while her eyes reminded of the deepest blue of the sea. She was wise and well-read, played the lute and enjoyed large popularity at her family's estate, in no small part due to her cheerful character. Her future companion, the son of a rich count, was also of high repute; and when the two swore each other companionship, the bards were singing many a song in praise of the two lovers' dignity.
Not long thereafter the newlywed wife noticed discrepancies in her husband's character. Though at feasts, with other Sublimes present, he always spoke gently of those treading the lower Paths, his wife heard him tell different stories entirely after a few cups of wine: He held no sympathy for craftsmen, artisans and, worse still, those dwelling in the Undercity.
"There is a reason as to why Malphas blessed us with our Path," he said. "Our blood is of greater value." Initially it were only such words which made the young woman feel anxious, yet words quickly turned into deeds: He had the legs of a stable boy who had saddled his horse incorrectly broken and knocked out a serving girl's teeth after she had spilled wine on his coat. When the young woman confronted her husband about this, he merely regarded her dismissively and walked away.
As the years passed, the woman's sorrow grew with each new winter. Often she thought about running away, but since her husband's crimes were not directed at her and he could even display noble behavior at times, she did not dare to put these thoughts into practice: After all, where could she have fled?
One day, however, things took a turn for the worse: A young, Half-Aeternean maidservant had begun her service at the castle. She was barely sixteen winters old and of shy nature, but the woman noticed her companion's glances and stares - filled with a mixture of malevolence and lust that sent shivers down her spine.
Soon thereafter, the woman started to realize that the young servant always avoided her glance, the girl's head bowed as if she were terribly ashamed in her mistress' presence. Her companion, too, came to their bed increasingly absent-minded and unenthusiastic.
Day and night she pictured to herself what her husband might be doing to the girl, until she decided to hide in the wardrobe on the day the Half-Aeterna was supposed to clean the bedchamber. She had told her companion in advance that she would seek out the peddlers visiting the region near the castle, as they did every full moon. Both eager and dreading to learn the truth, the woman crouched between gowns and coats and waited.
As soon as the servant girl had entered and shut the door with shaking hands, the latch rushed down. From within the wardrobe, the woman saw her companion standing in the door frame, panting with excitement. The Half-Aeternean girl stood frozen, visibly frightened and without showing any sign of resistance when the man grabbed her - it seemed that she had accepted her fate long ago. After she was roughly shoved against the wall, hitting her head in the process, something unexpected happened.
A wave of magic suddenly took hold of the man - the traumatizing event must have awoken the young girl's magical talents. Black magical bands, like shadows solidified, appeared and snaked around the man's right wrist, up to the hand, and jerked it back. Within seconds his hand was covered entirely by seething darkness. His surprise quickly overcome by rage, he grabbed her by the throat. The choking grip made the shocked girl lose what little control she might have had over the spell. When the dark, otherworldly ropes dissolved abruptly, only a malformed claw remained of the man's previously healthy hand.
Furious, he stared at the deformation caused by the servant's wild magic, his unaffected left hand still around her throat. For a few seconds the both of them stood motionless while the permanent consequences of the magical defense sunk in. The man had to conclude that he would be banished from walking the Path of the Sublimes when soon all the world would know that he had laid hands on a witch. His current life of comfort and luxury would come to an abrupt end.
So he released the girl, only to yank a burning oil lamp off the wall. Before he was able to throw it at the still petrified servant, however, his wife stormed out of the wardrobe to stop him.
But it was too late - blazing oil poured from the lamp on the floor at their feet. In the blink of an eye the woman's and young girl's clothes caught fire and set them ablaze. In the moment of their death, the servant's wild-magical powers merged with the deceived woman's desire for revenge to form a powerful and terrible spirit-being: the Ash Widow.
After the fire had been extinguished, the man cut off his deformed, claw-like hand with a woodcutter's axe. To his family and the others present at court he insisted that the Half-Aeternean servant had attacked his wife with wild magic out of envy, burning down part of the room. His hand had been burned in the magical fire when he had tried to rescue his wife, forcing him to abandon her and remove the remains of his charred hand.
The count's son was able to preserve his good name, continued on the Sublime Path and eventually succeeded his father. But till the end of his life he was unable to find a new companion; and each night he encountered the Ash Widow, who robbed him of sleep and poisoned his dreams. His life as count and lord of the castle was a miserable one. When his final hour approached, he realized that it would long be forbidden for him to enter the Eternal Paths. With remorse he anticipated his next life, which he - in accordance with Malphas' will - would have to spend in the Undercity.
Author's note:
The myths claim that the Ash Widow's ghost still walks among the castle ruins, and those foolish enough to bring her husband's claw to the old castle will be able to raise her from the dead. We can only speculate on the claw's current location, but it is said that it still commissions high prices among antiquarians. Time upon time one sells the horrid remains for good money after acquiring it for little from disheartened and ashamed adventurers who turned out not to be daring enough to summon the Ash Widow's spirit.
