For Eledriar (Ele, to those who know her well), it had always seemed that every time she found happiness, the world was determined to take it away from her.
Her mother, Luisa Glaeson, was a human innkeeper, and raised Ele until she was ten years old. She refused to speak of Ele's father; she never even mentioned his name, and Ele certainly never knew anything about him, other than the fact that he was an elf (and this she inferred from her own appearance). The first few years of her life were humble, but pleasant; folks that passed through her mother's inn seemed to enjoy seeing her around, and as she aged a little she began to be able to help around the place. Most impressive, though, was her skill with music, which began by her picking up the lyre that her mother had been given by a suitor in her youth (and that Luisa had never played since). Even when she was young, when she would sit by the fire and play simple tunes, folks would gather and encourage her to continue playing.
As Ele grew older, the inn grew less and less popular, and she and her mother began to struggle to make ends meet. This culminated in her mother falling gravely ill when Ele was ten years old, and passing away shortly after. Being now without family and without money, Ele grabbed her lyre and took to the streets, playing for passers-by in the hopes that people would drop a coin or two in her hat. When she had enough coin, she would buy what little scraps of food she could afford, and when the folks in her town were less generous with their change, she learned to find scraps where she could, and distract vendors enough to loot their food supplies only when she had no other options. Despite her best efforts, after some time she was always discovered, and often had to move to different towns just to escape the wrath of those that she took from.
One day, when she was still mid-adolescence, weary and weak from several years of undernourishment, she was mindlessly playing an upbeat tune on her lyre (the very same that her mother had given her), when she felt something... strange about her situation, the hairs on her neck pricking up. This feeling passed, but the same thing happened the next day, and the next - only when she played. On the fourth day, as soon as she felt what she was sure at this point must be someone watching her, she immediately stopped playing, stood, and turned to walk away. She barely took a few steps when she heard, "Stop. Please," in a gentle voice from behind her, and in the direction she had just been looking stood a tiefling. "I'm so sorry if I startled you - I only wanted to listen," he explained. "You play so beautifully, and I didn't want to unnerve you by making my presence known. But you knew I was there anyway, I suppose?"
The tiefling's name was Mordai, and, he explained, he was a travelling performer, sometimes being called for specific performances but sometimes simply playing in the street for money, just as she did. But as soon as he started to demonstrate, it became clear that Mordai was no ordinary musician. When he played his pan flute, Ele began to feel inspired, as she had not felt in many a year. Her heart soared, full of hope, and a newfound strength began to run through her. Mordai offered to let Ele travel with him, helping him to perform in exchange for teaching her the skills that he had demonstrated. This, then, began Ele's bard training.
Several years passed, and Ele and Mordai began to make a little more of a name for themselves. Famous was certainly not the word for it - they were still just simple street performers for the most part - but it did seem that whichever town they visited, someone had a friend of a friend who had sung their praises. After the years Ele had spent alone on the streets, with passers-by that she'd seen day after day for weeks trying desperately to avoid eye contact, she still couldn't really say that she trusted Mordai, but she certainly respected him and his skill. One day, though, when they were due to perform at an inn (in exchange for food and lodging), a young dragonborn woman pulled Mordai aside and spoke to him quietly for several minutes.
When he returned to Ele, he had a dark look on his face and explained that he had received some unfortunate news and had to leave immediately to find an old acquaintance of his. Ele begged him to bring her along, as they had travelled everywhere together in the last several years, but the more insistent she became, the more he bristled at the idea. Finally, he snapped at her, and informed her that he'd made a serious mistake bringing her along with him for so long, and that he'd wanted to ditch her from their first week together. With that, he gathered up his belongings and left as Ele stared dumbfounded at his back. What she didn't see was the mournful look on his face, nor the tears welling up in his eyes as he left.
So it was that she had to learn how to take care of herself, but without a mentor to guide her, she found herself drifting. She learned to become a big personality when it counted, to be a solo entertainer, but as soon as she was alone she retreated back into herself and almost never played when she didn't have an audience anymore.
That is, of course, until she found the party.
Subject: Living on the Streets 
Thu Dec 08, 2016 6:24 pm
