The House of Addlebright

An Allegoriian Origin Story

[version 1.0]

The two sisters Addlebright- little Mellodii and the quite-taller Ellavere - could not, of course, have known at the time that they had been about to wander into the heart of our story. But then they did.

Ellavere sensed it first - being always perceptive. Mellodii, as was her nature, had been humming a happy tune as they walked, and not paying so much attention to other things.

Ellavere held up her left hand, which was a single for them both to stop and consider the present situation. Mellodii's tune faltered a bit, and she stopped walking.

"Ella, what is-"

"Shhh!" Ellavere waved her raised hand about, as she scanned their surroundings.

They were in a glade, surrounded by butterflies, and the sun shower had recently stopped, and there was a rainbow behind them, over the distant mountains... but they had not noticed that last thing, since they had been walking the other way.

Melodii had put her song away in a drawer in her mind, to return to later. She had thousands of these drawers. She looked behind her, at what Ellavere was already seeing - a beautiful rainbow.

"Ohhh!" Both said at once. It was beautiful.

"Ella...", Mellodii said, sidelong, not taking her eyes from the sight before them. The rainbow began over the Castle of the Kinged Queen Natheelia Neversorrii, soared into and through the perpetual wood-and-coal smoke of the town of Greater Glassworks, high into the azure blue above, and arced across it and then back down, plunging at last, somewhere behind the Razorspine Peaks.

Ellavere felt inspired and afeared all at once. There was a tingle beneath her skin.

"Ellaaa...", Mellodii said again, this time in the musical way she used to bring her sister out of conflicted moods.

Ellavere looked at Mellodii. "Mello", she said, "How did we know the rainbow was there?"

Mellodii had hoped Ella would know. Ella always knew most things before she did. Ella is where she acquired all of her sense of current events. "I'm not sure, really. We just did."

They both looked again at the rainbow, which was already beginning to twinkle out, having reached its zenith at the exact moment it was perceived by the sisters - as though meant for them alone. But that was impossible.

Surely, that was impossible.

"Let's sit and think", said Ellavere, and they both sat themselves down in the meadow, among the tall grasses and wildflowers. The butterflies found their ways around them, and a bee or three found them too, bumbling about (as they do).

Mellodii voiced the next question which they had both been thinking, "Do you feel something? I mean-"

"-something new, Yes. Yes, I do." Ellavere had, in fact, sensed the subtle shift right at the start of my story (which is just up top there, if you recall). "It is as though there has been a subtle shift in our... Fates. Something has fallen into place which wasn't there before."

"Yes," agreed Mellodii, "Even the place for that something to fall into, it feels to me, must also be new."

Ellavere slow-nodded at this, somehow knowing it to be true. It had become too late to remain obscure. With a worried look, she whispered, "I think we've become... heroes, somehow."

"Oh dear. Oh dear..." Mellodii did not like the sound of that. Not heroes. She was just barely no-longer a child, and Ellavere, though older, was surely not yet old enough either. It was too soon. "I don't want to be a hero, though."

"Neither do I - I certainly don't want to be one either. But I feel we have, somehow... levelled up."

"What? I don't know what that is." Mellodii was looking about, nervously - as though a giant rat or sickly Goblin might appear at any moment, to harass them into some kind of action.

Ellavere was taking out her small Field Guide for Surviving Rural Farmlands, which Master Morbidithurm had printed for the occasion of her assuming the role of Kinged Queen Candidate, at her recent age of eighteen. The small book was bound in rubber (she had refused leather from the age of four, on the basis of having met a nice cow, once before), and was tied in ribbons which her mother had made. She opened it to the section on Common Perils Whilst Out and About in the Isles. She found the entry she had recalled, and read it out loud:

"Common Peril Number Seven: Accidentally Becoming a Hero Whilst Wandering About

Not quite as common as becoming thoroughly tangled in the Hedgewild, but somewhat more common than being nearly stampled by Running Wuggers during the wet season, is the still-too-common peril of becoming a Hero, in spite of all efforts to do otherwise.

Precious few, it is true, wish to shoulder this burden, naturally, and so many will go to great lengths to ensure they never do.

It can happen quite by apparent accident - not unlike tumbling into a pit, or walking into a tree, while reading something interesting about either of those things.

Little is known of the exact mechanisms which cause this to occur. It is not believed (any longer) to be entirely by chance, and few these days believe it to be writ indelibly in the Stars, either.

Heroship is, instead, both a chance and a choice - where the two meet, the Levelling Up can occur. It can be sudden then, and quite hard to avoid - like a raindrop, or a lightning bolt. It may sound and feel, in fact, like either of those, or even both. Or, actually, almost any other thing."

Melodii had to interject at this point, "Who wrote this? It is a very odd story."

"It's not a story Mello", Ellavere corrected, "it is a compendium"

"Alright." Mellodii didn't follow.

"It means it is a book of anecdotes, observations, speculations, and opinions - which is not the same as a narrative."

Melodii deferred to Ellavere's opinions on most things. She chose to nod. "I see. Please continue."

Ellavere found her place and continued to read.

"Nobody really knows for certain, how all Heroes receive the call.

From where the term Levelling emerged, there is little agreement. There appear to be four directions though, in which a Levelling may occur. They are as follows:"

At this point, Ellavere continued to read silently, her brows furrowing as she attempted to unravel the words. Mellodii began to squirm a bit impatiently, and finally said, "What? What are the directions?"

Ellavere had turned to another section of the book, scanned its contents for a few moments, and then closed it quickly, putting it back into her pouch. "It's all a bit complicated. We shall study it later. Right now, we have a problem. I think we have wandered into a Storied Meadow."

The sisters sat and looked at each other, unsure what should happen next. Among the grasses and wildflowers and fluttering things about them, a light wind began to blow from the East, brining with it a new aroma - one neither had ever encountered before.

They were still children. They were not yet ready. But their Fates disagreed.

Somewhere not far off, a Crow clackered a curious signal, and quickly the word fanned out among its kin, and throughout the Realms: The House of Addlebright had been Storied at last.

A new chapter in the Allegoriian Isles had just begun.

B.B. Butterwell's Compendium Allegoriian by B.B. Butterwell is marked with CC0 1.0 Universal