RavenGuard By Sean Kobel
Chapter 1 (Ch1P1)
“To uphold the walls of our city fair,Against whose might no fools doth dare.
We labor in our lands so that none ever starve,But in exchange,
Stone hearts we slowly carve.Here we are free of all man's vice,
But for this boon there is a grave price.Our kith and our kin,
To cruel fortunes whim.”-Valerian Nursery Rhyme
It began as a stirring, a disturbance in the upper air lazily crawling down the layers of
aether. It meandered slowly, finding its way eventually to the tumultuous lower reaches. It
slipped between the mountainous heavily laden clouds as their cargo drug them earthward. It
too bore a heavy burden, but its hold had not coalesced upon it just yet. It gracefully licked the
foaming white caps of its beloved sea and danced among the hills and valleys that roared in
its wake. It drank the cool brine of the coastal air, savoring its last moments of freedom as the
tendrils of binding whispered in the distance, singing their siren's song.
The familiar feeling settled slowly upon it, gently caressing its form. It started from the
edges of its being, always wary and careful the effervescent strands laid their chains with
precision and efficiency, sparing no unnecessary energy on roughness. Like a second skin
that fit just a little too tightly the bonds settled into place and nudged it westward. It
remembered still the first time, how it had fought, raging and calling down every being of air in
the eastern sea. Its tantrum had devastated the coast for a thousand leagues and completely
exhausted it. It rarely fought now, remembering how draining resistance was. Now it
conserved its strength, knowing that even after it had finished its nightly chore, it would be
called again the following eve when the moon began its ascent once more.
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It struggled slightly for a moment, only stopping when the tension of its bonds
increased minutely in response to its momentary resistance. It focused on preserving its
mental state, knowing full well the physical abilities of its nemesis were beyond it. Valmora,
yes, it remembered that name. That was the voice that sang to it, the name it could not forget.
Rage overpowered reason and it flexed its strength to the breaking point, rending its bonds by
its unanticipated act of defiance and fleeing to the freedom of the open sea.
It reveled in the warmth of the setting sun, screaming over the golden waves burning a
path to freedom before it, like shimmering angels illuminating its exodus. The seas parted for
its escape, cutting a deep crest in its wake and scattering nearby vessels into the abyss. The
dying wails of man were lost in its exultation as it bent the winds to its aid, pushing its abilities
to the limit as it fled its dogged pursuer.
Like a lash the binding cut deeply as joy quickly transformed into agony and what was
once a gentle suggestion became blunt force trauma. Cables of blinding pain consumed all
senses and wrenched it screaming from its beloved sea. The soft voice that had gently
enticed to meander westward now wailed like a banshee as it was beaten and bludgeoned
into unquestioning submission. Its will to escape evaporated as its mind surrendered to
inevitability.
Instantly the pain vanished in response to its acquiescence. Relishing in relief it drank
once more the sweet salt of the sea as the ability to respire found purchase in its body. After a
deep pull of brine soaked air it sang a pleading song to the heavens. It called for aid, knowing
its desperate flight had spent too much energy and the task would now require more than its
strength alone.
Its brief respite dissipated all too fast as the pull upon increased steadily. It drifted
doggedly westward whilst the sun was inexorably extinguished by the chill waters of the
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eastern sea. It watched the glorious warmth of day fade, like the final embers of a guttering
flame. It mourned the last tendrils of light as they smoldered brightly upon the horizon. They
too fought inevitability whilst the sun wept fire at their passing and was consumed by the sea.
A final thought of resistance fluttered across its consciousness and was annihilated instantly
as it followed the well known demands of the compulsion and gathered its fortitude for the
arduous chore to come.
Black pinpricks rapidly grew before it as the silhouette of Raven's Bay appeared. The
great towers that marked the gateway to the east stood as both sentry and salvation to the
few surviving ships fleeing the roaring maelstrom following in its wake. The placid calm of the
bay erupted into madness as the winds reached gale force, sending mammoth waves
crashing against the unyielding sea walls. It paid no heed to the few vessels foolish enough to
be caught in its torrent. It battered them against the walls and bashed them together like
matchsticks, as indifferent to the sailors cries as it was to the their deaths.
It swallowed their drowning screams as it whipped through the stone causeways of
Draenoch, barreling relentlessly against the well battened storm shudders and creating a wail
of its own. The staunch city endured its rage with stoic apathy. The well ordered grid of streets
were empty and the inhabitants weathered the tempest safe within their fortified homes thick
stone walls. The massive black clouds hovering over the city then decided that now was a
good time to release their watery cargo. The water rose in the streets and flowed in an orderly
fashion into well worn culverts, then the downpour raged into large cisterns that quickly
overflowed. Release valves were opened and the now well provisioned citizens allowed the
deluge to find its own way into the roiling sea.
It whipped the rain into a frenzy and pulled it inexorably upward, lashing against the
black cliffs of Sharr. The forces of gravity angrily opposed its task and it gladly accepted the
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help of its allies timely arrival from the aether. With their combined might the rain traveled
impossibly skyward against the shimmering obsidian walls soaring menacingly before them.
Together they marshaled their will and transcended from chaotic gusts into focus incarnate.
Like a bowstring pulled taught they drew together both wind and water and climbed unto the
heavens. They wove their way, battling both cliff and physics as they wrenched the storm from
the sea unto the stars. Finally they found the icy peaks that towered above the unswerving
port of Draenoch. From this height only the massive towers guarding the seawall were visible
as black pinpricks beneath the raging squall.
The frozen winds of Valmora's breath roared defiance at the ascent of the storm into its
domain. The frigid air moaned, drawing the storms warmth into itself and unleashing a force
greater than elemental might and storm alike, threatening to tear down the mountains with its
fury. The tempest rent the heavens and screamed defiance at the moon as it took on a life of
its own, barely contained by the efforts of the elementals it broke free of the clouds and
escaped the glacial crown of the black cliffs. The gale raced across the ebony crags and
plunged downward in an avalanche of air, gathering speed as it coalesced into a creature of
focus once more. The wastelands below rapidly increased in size as the object of its labors
grew near.
As if a thousand pit lords all cracked their whips in unison the sails spread their canvas
as one. No normal wind could move such massive stone behemoths, but this was no normal
wind. The unearthly gale pushed them at a snails pace at first that slowly inched into a crawl.
The scrape of stone on stone crunched like boulders tumbling down a mountainside, the
rumbling gaining in volume as the beasts gained velocity, eventually becoming loud enough to
rival the maelstrom raging around the obsidian beasts. Each creature was a small mountain
on its own. The massive bulk of the things was clearly evidenced by the ground surrounding
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the road sinking noticeably as the monolithic creations approached. The caravan stretched
unendingly across the wastes until it disappeared into the gaping maw of a massive tunnel
cutting its way beneath the root of the mountains to Draenoch.
As smooth as glass and black as pitch they began to gain speed as the gust broke
them free of inertia's grasp. All curves and no hard edges the flotilla looked more like beings
from the depths of the ocean than wagons. Each spanned the breadth of the great highway
that could easily fit eight mounted cavalry riding abreast. Even their sails were black, nearly
invisible against the night sky, only their crackling canvas in the roaring wind betrayed their
existence. Triangular in shape they stretched across their vessels girth and resembled
enormous cones, sliced in half and stretched lengthwise from end to end. The wheels were
cleverly concealed behind stone windshields so that only the portion contacting the road itself
was visible beneath each beast.
The road resembled a river of twisting night as it snaked before the procession, made
of a stone so lacking in color it seemed to drink the very starlight. It was only clearly visible
when the moonlight cascaded across it, dashing a quicksilver glimmer of its presence across
the blackened and broken landscape. The wastes surrounding the highway were a bleak
expanse consisting of broken volcanic stone covered occasionally by pockets of ash. The bits
of coarse pumice and basalt stretched endlessly in all directions save east. There the high
arcing cliffs of Sharr broke the line of desolation with an even more foreboding presence.
They provided a gloomy backdrop for the strange procession stretching westward, drawn ever
onwards by the howling torrents that seemed to only touch their sails and stirred not a stone
off the road.
For what seemed an eternity it battled its brethren. It badgered and bullied the great
winds to follow it. For they too desired to return to the upper air, but it did not have the
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strength to move all the accursed hulks on its own. It was glad for the company as well. The
fact that they all loathed it for committing upon them the same act of compulsion that
enslaved it was irrelevant. It had the aid it needed to complete its task, willing or not. The fact
that they despised it was of small consequence.
It's loathing however, was entirely devoted to Valmora and her creatures. The smell of
them reached it first. It began as a slight warming and a hint of decay brushing the edges of
its senses and slowly enveloping them. It braced for the nausea and let the fetid stench soak
into it and consume consciousness for a few moments until it acclimated to the overpowering
odor. Nargs, it couldn't see them, but it didn't need to. Their aroma signaled the foul beasts
presence long before any visual confirmation was required. While it detested the wretched
creations, their smell had become a welcome one over the last thousand years. It signaled
the final portion of its journey.
The land around the great highway was slowly changing, the previously lifeless rubble
now contained bits of tall grass and murky pools festering in scattered pockets that were
slowly increasing in frequency. It felt the anticipation mount within it as scrub grass
transformed into warped brush and eventually gnarled trees that refused to grow more than a
few spans high. The stunted growths were patchy at first, gently coalescing into a dense murk
that was as much peat and moss as tree. The air was rancid and practically liquid as was
evidenced by the condensation forming all over the rapidly moving caravan. Still cool from the
chilly sea air the rapid change in temperature was creating eerie cascades of condensation
that occasionally caught the moonlight in ghostly splinters. Like a quicksilver serpent snaking
silkily through the swamp the ghostly procession bled silver across the highway, setting it
aflame with iridescent fire as the moon ignited the glinting water droplets left in its wake.
From on high it watched its burden cut through the bog burning brilliantly, and savored
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the beauty for a moment, for that was all that time allowed. The tightening on its skin
reminded it of its purpose and it bent its will to containing the howling gale desperately trying
to escape into the warm humidity of the swamp that pulled voraciously on the frigid sea air. As
the surroundings grew warmer its' task grew more difficult, battling the forces of nature, the
frozen tempest around it screamed dissent at its efforts at containment. It surrendered its
senses and focused on its task completely, allowing the passage of time to continue
unnoticed whilst it trudged endlessly through the marsh.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beleaguered and it exhausted it felt its grip on reality slipping and it released the winds,
clinging to its fractured sanity and desperately searching for its senses. The swamp had
finally dissipated into the same scrub grass and desolate rubble as before. The unchanging
road continued forward as always. However, in the swamp the great highway had snaked
across scattered patches of bedrock and dry ground, but now cut an arrows flight into the
distance without so much as a chip in the stone to mar the seamless streamlined perfection.
Its' despised destination began as a speck, a tiny shimmering flash upon the horizon
catching the glimmering quicksilver escaping the patchwork of passing clouds. As the
procession devoured the rapidly diminishing distance the glinting reflection of moonlight
slowly stretched into an elongated line that grew steadily. Finally the line stopped its
horizontal growth and began to attack the vertical incline instead. The procession rumbled
onwards as the ramparts crowning the walls became visible.
Atop the immensity of the fortifications, its gaze was always stolen first and foremost by
the curious structures mounting the walls. An oddly glittering assortment of crystalline bluish
black blades that tilted in such a way that they arced across each others paths at perfectly
symmetrical angles. Like the depths of sapphire eyes torn asunder they resembled an iris cut
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and lain across the earth, shimmering sadly in the starlight as if they missed the eyes they
once illuminated. Despite the size of the walls themselves, the ramparts always demanded its'
attention, the ribbon of blades reminding it of its own effervescent bondage as they rent the
stars in crystalline fury.
The imposing line of shimmering shards was broken only by intermittent towers twisting
through the woven weapons and breaking the continuity by sheer bulk alone rather than
beauty. Each black monolith was unadorned and massive, defying gravity and calmly rending
passing cloud banks with ease. The structures were neither rectangular nor purely cylindrical.
Instead they grew, like stalactites born of heaven's dew. Such creations could not be birthed
by the hand of man. It preferred to imagine that they had been molded from the stone, pulled
from the earth and stretched unto the sky by the gods themselves. Adjacent to each tower the
blackened walls curved outward eerily in a massive v, arcing towards the road on either side,
seemingly inviting entry rather than prohibiting.
Two such structures stood sentinel on either side of the road. However, the titanic
towers were silhouetted by a mass so gargantuan as to dwarf the entire city by sheer girth
alone. Standing imposingly behind both tower and wall Beloch's Cairn provided more
deterrence than any fortification ever could. A veritable mountain on its own, its eastern face
was dotted with a variety of bizarre structures with a single commonality, they all reflected the
silver shafts of moonlight light piercing the clouds, sending them cascading in a dizzying array
throughout the city. Each growth of stone seemed to wander with a life of its own, lazily
curling around more like fungal spores than colonnades. A web like lattice of these curious
columns crowned the cairn. They began from the sides of the ebony tomb as oddly twisting
pillars of iridescent night that sprouted out of the mountain and into the moonlight, catching
shafts of light and twisting them into eye wrenching kaleidoscopic ribbons. At the base of the
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web they appeared randomly alloted, like a creature of nature they seemed to grow wherever
they pleased when examined individually. However, as it looked higher up the cairn it found
that the tallest among the strange machinations was composed of seven such pillars woven
from every side of the mountain. They innocuously swirled around each other, weaving in and
out of almost pattern like designs and culminating in a single latticework of intertwining spires
that swirled together to create a single spire. As the nightly procession slowly approached the
walls, the glittering knot work veritably pierced the moon, like a fiery lance slaying some
mighty beast.
Despite the queer beauty displayed dazzlingly before it, its attention was roughly
redirected as the fiery light was lost beneath the great walls' shadow suddenly looming over
the wind haulers. As the distance to the city evaporated the true size of them became
apparent. Over two hundred spans high they cast a colossal shadow and were a truly
daunting sight as they seemed to be growing astonishingly fast. Made of the same strange
black stone as the haulers they too were devoid of any plane or angle. Seamless and gently
curving they looked like no thing cut by the hand of man. It considered them and decided the
earth must have bled them out, a monumental scab to staunch some great wound. As smooth
as satin they stretched across the night unendingly, curving slowly with periodic towers
breaking free of their grasp.
Of all the glory before it,only the gates appeared to be the work of man. The walls
curved out around the road invitingly, supporting the gatehouse to the left and right with
symmetrical arcing wings. A small hill on its own the gatehouse was carved in the semblance
of a gigantic bird of prey. Its wings were permanently affixed in the down stroke of flight and fit
seamlessly into the walls of the tunnel arcing beneath it with no noticeable breaks in the
stone, as if the creature was attempting to escape from the wall itself. The beasts' breast
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arched above the great tunnel and its talons surmounted the outer portcullis guarding the
passageway. A stone gate fully four spans thick stood open for their entry and the titanic
portcullis was raised in perfect unison with their arrival, each crossbar the breadth of a horse.
Its binding chafed and its will was taxed to the breaking point, it could feel
consciousness slipping from it once more. It feared this time it would not be able to find its
own thoughts in the chaotic knot work of magic binding its will. Surprise fluttered across its
fading senses, the hold upon it was weakening. It redoubled its efforts and the stone caravan
groaned in response. It hated the tunnel for there was no sky within it and it yearned to soar in
the upper air once more. Finally it passed a second massive portcullis and entered Valenoch
feeling the last of the threads that bound it snap. With a howl of elation it broke free of the
earth and screamed its ascent home unto the heavens.
Still cruising along under now slack sails the curious caravan slowly spent its remaining
momentum plodding into various gigantic box like buildings situated in orderly rows along the
highway. Within moments of their arrival a veritable army swarmed upon the wind haulers like
ants on a carcass. Out came food stuffs of every sort. From one came fruits and vegetables,
another nuts and dried meats. From the others came live stock complaining loudly as they
were transported via more mundane methods to the slaughterhouse. Still more goods flowed
forth unendingly until the first tremulous hints of dawn touched the city. The final goods were
removed and other more refined products were inserted. Works of skill and technology
replaced the bounty of the harvest. Bundles of wheat exchanged for blades and armor. Into
other wagons went jewelry, fine cloaks and textiles of the highest quality. Finally, as full dawn
broke upon the horizon, the wagons' brakes were released and they slowly reversed under
the weight of their own girth. Their expert drivers pivoted them eastward to begin their long
return to the sea, trundling now under gravities pull. First at a crawl and then with increasing
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velocity they rolled down the gentle incline and began their return to Draenoch.
Chapter 2 (S1P2)
The morning exodus of the wind haulers still amazed him, despite thirty some odd
years of watching them depart with the rising sun. The sea of black machines more closely
resembled a funeral procession than any trader's caravan he had ever witnessed. Although
they did serve a rather important purpose he surmised. Transporting items was a very
necessary and honorable profession after all. The fact that it was his chosen calling had
nothing to do with his opinion obviously. He prided himself on his reasoning skills, favoring
reason as the most valuable trait any individual might desire to have in ones repertoire of
abilities. However, just as that particular thought arose several turnips lurched rather violently
in his cart, bringing his mind back to the importance of transportation.
Transporting goods to Valenoch was necessary and important, especially food, due to
the rather lacking nutritional quality of the soil. If one could even call it that. He hadn't seen
dirt in several decades in fact. That bizarre monstrosity of a transportation system was the
cities lifeline, and he really did value a full belly even more than having good reasoning skills.
He then pondered whether a person's bodily needs aught to be held separately from their
mental needs. He decided it was a sound philosophical decision and congratulated himself
with a broad grin that surprised several half asleep pedestrians staggering out of a local
tavern rather hastily. He purposed that the large angry individual wielding a cudgel behind
them might be the cause of their untimely exodus from alcoholic paradise. There was one
thing that Valerians were good at after all, and that was making beer. That, and drinking it of
course. Which just so happened to be one of his favored past times and was really quite
enjoyable to boot. That, and considering that which required consideration. Or rather
reasoning that which needed logical analysis from one of his intellectual caliber. He decided
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that anything that received his mental capacities must be of extreme import after all.
The dangerously unstable turnip positioning within his cart suddenly decided at that
moment that it required all his phenomenal faculties. With an ungainly flop he half rolled, half
dove forward to save his precious cargo from upsetting the delicate balance of his cart.
Luckily his tactical shift of weight was precisely calculated and delicately executed with such
grace and poise that he managed to stop the untimely demise of said turnips. He then
proceeded to extricate himself from the offending turnip pile and shuffle the contents of his
cart to better distribute the weight to prevent a second event. Phineas felt quite proud of his
turnip rescue and congratulated himself with a mental pat on the back accompanied by a
second broad smile. He then decided that “thinking about thinking” was quite possibly a
perilous pursuit at this hour in the morning and wondered whether meta-cognition was a
subject better saved for after the fourteenth tankard. His head was beginning to hurt as it
often did when he out thought himself. A difficult task no doubt for one of his stellar intellect,
but he was proud to say that he was the only person who could out think himself, or out
consider his thinking perhaps.
A yelp of dismay brought him back the world outside his own mind as he realized he
had nearly run over an older woman carrying a basket rather slowly across the road. He then
decided that he should save his pondering for when his cognitive skills were not necessary
and thus stored this most important of topics in his well oiled machine of a memory. He placed
it right next to that other rather important thing he was thinking about the other day, something
about this or that or something or other.
His brain thusly freed of its taxing task he decided to revert to his second favorite
morning distraction of examining the cities peculiar architectural features. While he truly did
enjoy philosophizing during his morning haul it tended to give him rather impressive
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headaches and without ale to alleviate said discomfort, he decided not to carry said musing
too far. And besides, the city always fascinated him. The buildings of course were odd by
most individuals standards, but it was the ground that held the greatest interest for him. Made
of dark black rock shot with veins of red, blue, purple and various combinations in between. It
shimmered magnificently when the early morning light hit it just so. He had spent enough time
gazing at the streets of Valenoch to notice that the odd stone only shimmered at dawn and
dusk. He had spent years considering the why of said oddity, but reverted to his previous
decision concerning too much analytical thinking in the morning and let the mystery remain
unsolved for now. The great road was worn as smooth as polished marble due to the heavy
traffic it endured on a daily basis. However, other less traveled boulevards and avenues within
the city had strange lumps and mounds oozing from them at decidedly interesting angles. It
reminded him of when he had once considered taking up baking as a new profession, a
decision made in passion without the careful reasoning process he now professed to follow. It
had all been a result of the most amazing pastry, and as such he couldn't really be blamed for
his rash decision. Anyone who had eaten such a magnificent treat would be compelled to
become a baker as well. He thought for a moment that perhaps others had eaten said treat
before, but dismissed the idea offhand as pure foolishness. He knew for a fact that that tart
was one of a kind and could never be replicated.
Regardless, his ill fated attempt at baking had produced some very interesting
concoctions that had oozed at odd angles when he had tried to mold them into some
semblance of a cake. He imagined that eating the rock would probably produce a taste similar
to his own creations inedible flavor. He shook his head in disgust at the memory, muttering
“skeefo” under his breath. The curse brought more unwanted attention as several cultist's
stared him down with their patented, “shame on you” expression. He had seen it a thousand
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times and it always made him smile. This of course unnerved said shaming cultists and ruffled
their feathers in a very satisfactory way. He decided this would be a good day with such a
fantastic start. Humming contentedly to himself he considered whether the city had been
molded out of dough, or perhaps out of clay. It certainly looked like it was made out of dark
ceramics, it was completely devoid of straight lines and even the streets had a mild curve to
them. They were certainly clean and orderly, but they never ran in one direction for any length
of time. He then remembered that the city was not set up in a grid like his birthplace and
shrugged, forgiving himself for the understandable mistake.
He then pondered whether the entire city was once liquid and something had frozen it
into place, hardening it like clay in a kiln. Now that was a novel idea, he would have to store it
in his fantastic memory next to that thought he had this morning concerning drinking about
thinking, or was it clinking when drinking? Regardless, it was a good thought and had served
to exercise his mental fortitude as intended. Speaking of intention, he now recalled that
architecture was his chosen subject for the morning hall and returned to it with a vigor. The
narrow alleyways caught his eye as usual. They had seen the least use over the past
millennium as was was distinctly evidenced by the sharp contrast between them and the
adjacent well traveled thoroughfare upon which he was currently traveling.
They reminded him of the rapids near his grandmothers cottage on the banks of the
river Lascia. As a child he had sat for hours entranced by the unpredictable torrents raging
within their churning roil. The stone here rose and fell in a similar fashion, cresting in small
waves generally less than a quarter of a span in height, but no less interesting for their
diminutive stature. He considered his own span and a quarter height and agreed with himself
once more that important things were generally small, and larger things could often be
overlooked as commonplace objects that didn't require as much thought as minuscule
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mysteries such as himself. This brought his thoughts to one of his favorite alleys that just so
happened to be approaching his esteemed personage. It still had tiny lines seemingly carved
in it that marked the eddy and flow of a once turbulent river of a stone, at least he assumed it
was turbulent at one point. Though he surmised that perhaps it was a placid stream of stone,
stone always seemed calm to him. Although on occasion it did have a wicked sense of humor.
It tended to have a decidedly dry wit, he liked that of course, finding it rather fitting after all.
He had always loved the stone, like was simply not a strong enough word for his
connection with the earth. It understood him as nothing else did. Or perhaps it simply put up
with him as no one else did, he thought with a loud chortle followed by a happy snort. The
snort startled a group of religious zealots mumbling under their breath and brought down a
new series of curses upon him. He listened for a moment, always game for learning new
insults. Unfortunately they were of the common variety, insulting his mother and his birth. He
pondered how people could assume that an act on his part reflected on the ranking of his
parentage. He thought this especially valid as his impression of nobles was decidedly low. His
experiences with the gentry thus far had placed them below most of the common laborers he
dealt with daily. Following this perfect logic he decided that clearly this transformed said insult
into a complement and thanked the angry cultists with his usual face splitting grin. This of
course unnerved them to no end and they shuffled off into some dark place to continue their
incantations. After all, he had known a number of fantastic fishmongers as wonderful drinking
companions. As such he considered being “a no good son of a fishmonger” as a rather
positive thing. Especially as the fishmongers had been far friendlier than his real father!
This train of thought threatened to stop on a subject he felt best left banished to the
recesses of memory and never again returned to the fore. As such he decided that extolling
the virtues of stone was a far more beneficial activity than ruminating on the sins of his father.
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Most especially in terms of his mental health, something individuals seemed to question on a
daily basis. Stone was solid, dependable, helpful in any number of situations and generally
quite reliable unless neglected. This foreign earth was not quite as familiar to him as his
native limestone hills, but he didn't hold that against it. People can't help where there from
and he had never been a fan of all that racist gibber jabber tavern folk seemed so fond of.
This strange earth had become closer to him than his family ever had been. He decided that
although it wasn't quite in the same species as himself he could still consider it a distant
cousin. If he wasn't racist against the humans he might as well not be racist against the stone
either. The stone was certainly a better companion than most of the greedy men he had met
in his time.
This stone did feel slightly off however, it seemed unnatural somehow. He loved it all
the same, he was after all a tolerant sort of fellow and he did love his strange companion all
the more for her eccentricities. He certainly had his fair share of them after all. He pondered
the list of his own oddities for some time until a gentle humming brought his mind back to the
world around him. He looked up just in time redirect his cart out of the path of a rather large
patrol of city guardsmen and silently thanked the stone, receiving a gentle thrumming in
response that sounded decidedly bemused to his ear.
He listened to the gentle chorus for a time until he recalled his previous distraction of
examining architecture. The buildings of Valenoch did not look built so much as born, the
children of the black rivers of volcanic glass surrounding them. They varied in height
immensely as well. The monsters of the warehouse district dwarfed the various official
buildings bordering them. The customs and excise house he was now approaching displayed
the typical Valerian utilitarianism. Squat and functional he doubted it had changed in its last
thousand years of use. The nearby and much larger city guard post held a great deal more
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interest for him. A three story, somewhat rectangular mound, it was littered with carvings. The
most obvious were the crenelations and cornices that truly brought the building to life. Each
corner was a wealth of beauty, with mostly natural themes. An understandable subject matter
considering the distinct lack of greenery in Valenoch. He paused a moment to examine a
particularly beautiful leafy facade until the angry shouting of the traffic behind him forced him
to instruct his faithful steed to initiate their sojourn once more.
Legend had it that there was so little crime in the city that once the guardsmen had
needed a separate police force to monitor the guards who were often bored to madness
watching crime free streets. Supposedly, one clever sergeant had been an apprentice stone
carver before he had signed the pact. As a result he found a hobby among his idle hours in
this particular guard house. It had started with his room and he had kept it quite secret,
fearing reprimand. Oddly enough, when the captain of the guards had inevitably discovered
the sergeants' redecorated quarters he had complimented the work and suggested he train
others in his hobby. Soon after the officers mess was dotted with a number of crude carvings.
Eventually others took up the chisel and unofficial training sessions began in the quiet off
hours within the officers' mess hall. Slowly the caliber of the carvings improved as more skill
was discovered in particularly interesting places, or so the legend goes. He remembered
hearing the tale while waiting in line to pay his taxes. A guardsmen had been explaining a
rather crude carving in the excise office. A merchant had asked why the outside was so
beautiful while the inside was quite the opposite. The guard had explained that the first
carvers had started on the inside, and only the best were allowed to work on the outer facade.
The proof was plane in the elaborate carvings that illuminated the otherwise gloomy
barracks. His favorite was an ancient carving, still beautiful despite being worn by the gritty
and frighteningly consistent eastern wind. It consisted of two falcons soaring over a forest.
Page 17
The detail was exquisite and their eyes seemed to glow in the morning light. It reminded him
of his youth, escaping from the great hall and playing amongst the trees. The reprimands and
whippings were well worth the afternoon hours spent daydreaming in the groves of the
dryads, when dryads had still inhabited those woods, he recalled with a fond melancholy.
His gentle reverie was ripped from him as he was plunged into gloom. After a moment
his eyes adjusted to the heavy shadow cast by the inner walls of the city proper. He nearly ran
over a silk clad fellow wearing the distinctive tattoos of the deep south. The arrogant sod soon
began cursing in the strange rasping dialect of Qul'At as Phineas's cart trundled on
unperturbed by the foreigners colorful tirade. He was quite sad that he couldn't understand,
he found the art of insults to be a lively and entertaining exercise of the mind. He decided at
some point he must learn more languages, seven was simply not enough.
He pondered where he might find another teacher, generally he tended to learn from
sailors. Unfortunately, they often remained in the city for only a few weeks or a month at most,
always claiming the sea was calling them. This of course made consistent teachers very
difficult to find and as such he was often in the process of learning four or five languages at
once and he sometimes mixed them up and blended them together, making a rather
wonderful new language he liked to call the Phinetian dialect. Despite their truancy, sailors
fortunately tended to know many tongues and generally were more than happy to teach him
the choicest bits of any language for a few pints. He had found that a few years of said bribery
resulted in a tolerable handle on a language. It also allowed him to curse in more than twenty
tongues. A boast he was quite proud to prove on request at any number of taverns.
As such he had earned a certain notoriety and was often consulted on matters of
extreme import, such as how to best insult a particular person based on his country of birth or
race. This of course brought up thoughts of his own country of birth and how best to insult
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himself. Naturally this digressed into his reason for finding succor in Valenoch, which naturally
reversed his thoughts back to architecture.
He looked up at the eastern gate and smiled. Like the outer gate it was surmounted by
a huge Raven. The similarity between the structures ended there however. This creature was
constructed entirely of darksteel and she called to him with her sweet morning song. He had
many reasons he could easily list ad nausea to leave the city, but the sight of her banished
them all. Her feathers arced out from her body along the sides of the tunnel seamlessly
transitioning from obsidian to the deep purplish blue of darksteel. Her pinion feathers curled
down towards him lovingly, teasing him with their proximity. The tantalizing tips were so close
that he could almost reach them if he stood on the top of his cart on his tip toes. He had tried
jumping to reach them on a number of occasions, but his beloved stone was an unforgiving
mistress when he crashed into her bodily. He decided he did not need any new bruises this
morning.
Tall amongst his own people, his span and a quarter height was quite tiny compared to
the average Valerian's two spans. He stared longingly over his shoulder at the claws
descending from the base of the sculpture one hundred and fifty spans above him and wished
they would lift him up into their gentle caress. His desire to fly was still strong after two
hundred years, he wondered if he would ever be granted his wish and soar amongst the
clouds. He had constructed a great number of fabulous devices to this end, much to his
dismay. He had never hurt anyone with his creations, well, not on purpose anyway.
His sigh caught on his lips as he saw the vendors preparing for market. Called the
gateway to the east for good reason, Valenoch's exotics market always held some new
contraption or gizmo for him to investigate. Occasionally he would save enough drakes to
acquire said novelty. He would test his willpower to the limit playing with it until he would
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succumb to inevitability and give his curiosity free reign. He would spend days carefully
diagramming its inner workings and examining their intricacies. He just couldn't resist
discovering all the wonderful cogs and contraptions within. Unfortunately, despite precise
reassembly they never seemed to function correctly after his ministrations. He wondered if all
the spare parts left over had something to do with this particular predicament and dismissed
the foolish thought out of hand. They were simply extra pieces placed within the device in
case something failed and needed replacement.
He diverted his cart from the main road filled with the morning haul and continued on a
minor detour or two through through various treasure troves of machinery. He meandered
through the stalls with his cart, occasionally listening to the curses and cries of anger caused
by his inattentive wandering. Or more specifically by his mighty steed's occasional sampling
of this and that. He couldn't blame her, donkey's were curious by nature, much like himself.
One simply must satisfy said curiosity at some point or the mind will naturally explode with an
over abundance of curiosity . He could appreciate this as he was often a victim of terminal
curiousness himself. Here and there he glimpsed various glorious bits of this and that. He
wisely kept his distance by maintaining his perch upon the seat of his cart. He had learned
that placing himself in too close a proximity of shiny things was detrimental to his pocket
book. He really loved shiny things. Eventually he forced himself to turn away from the market
brimming with mechanical goodies and headed back to the now much less congested
thoroughfare.
He surmised that lost time would be made up for by the greatly decreased traffic and
turned through the great eastern square fronting the foreign quarter and continued south to
the coopers street. He trundled past the cobblers and barrel makers and lost himself in their
work as his faithful companion guided the cart onwards. She knew the way at least as well as
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he did and she was much less easy to distract. Her curiosity was roused by edible things
rather than items of a reflective nature. Thus, the reason for their avoidance of the various
food markets in the city as a general rule. It was an understanding they had, when passing
the metalworkers he allowed Matilda to lead and as such he was less likely to start
conversations that detracted from his timeliness.
Onward they trundled, leaving the wagon wrights and barrel makers and entering the
street of the unnamed smiths. It had achieved this particular title due to an ongoing feud
between copper and bronze smiths. He chuckled as they traded clever insults across the
road, pausing now and then to take mental note if one was particularly clever or novel. On the
left the coppersmiths cast fine kettles, handles and various assortments of cookery and
household items. On the right bronze smiths cast items of a similar ilk as they loudly extolled
the virtues of bronze to their apprentices in the familiar and generally quite friendly banter that
filled this particular avenue of the bustling city. He enjoyed their jests and especially enjoyed
frequenting the nearby taverns of this district and asking his favorite question of: “why isn't the
street named bronze or copper street?”. He would then allow some fine, and generally very
drunk, copper or bronze worker to explain that it really ought to be copper or bronze street.
This would assuredly start a fantastic drunken debate on the true name of the street and
degenerate into insults and the infrequent scuffle. It was all very good natured generally and
many copper smiths were extremely good friends with bronze smiths so long as “the
discussion” was not started. He was well known in the area and generally well liked, having
been dubbed “the instigator” some twenty odd years ago for his habit of starting “the
discussion” on any number of instances.
The iron and steel smiths were far more somber, calmly forging instruments of death
every day must take a toll on ones sense of humor he mused. Not all forged weapons, some
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made plows or various items requiring more strength than copper or bronze. There were a
few machine shops that specialized in making parts for Valmora's more eccentric desires.
Namely the engineers school held the majority of their contracts, but sometimes foreigners
would ask for something requiring quality and skill that was difficult to find in the field of
machinery outside of Valenoch as her smiths were something of a legend in the outside
world. Only the Dwarfs competed with Valenoch where machinery was concerned, but four
thousand leagues of distance between them dampened that considerably and competition
wasn't particularly fierce. Especially since half the Valerian smiths were Dwarfs and staunchly
refused to speak of their northern brethren. The Valerian tradition was not to speak of your
past or why one arrived in the dark city, but the Dwarfs took it to extremes, refusing to even
speak of their kin. Once again he considered his own previous home, not so far removed from
the Dwarven halls beneath Auroch's spine and quickly reverted to thoughts of shiny things.
He had often pondered becoming a metalworker of some sort as he watched the
smiths beating on intensely glowing shards of molten earth. Something had always stopped
him however, metal was nice and all, but it was no stone. The stone was his love first and
foremost and despite his infatuation with trinkets and machinery it could not displace the earth
from the core of his soul. He quickly dismissed dreams of trinket creation as the his favorite
building appeared before him. The steel foundry and its massive smokestacks always made
the hair on the back of his neck rise, of which there was a great deal. He desperately wanted
to go inside and see all the different types of stone that were smelted into metal pulled from
the never ending mines beneath the cairn. He considered perhaps finding work inside, just to
see how it worked and immediately dismissed the idea. It involved far too much work and he
had long since discovered he had an extreme allergy to that particular malady. He decided
that manual labor allowed too little time to think and required too much strain on the body. He
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believed his body to be very picky about what it did, and keeping it in perfect condition with as
little work as possible was a high priority for him. It was difficult to think and work at the same
time and it often caused accidents, or so he had discovered on multiple occasions. He
concluded that with his brains he really aught to be on the design end of things anyway.
Finally he approached the stone masons college. It was his second favorite building,
second only because of the unfortunate religious aspects associated with it. He had been
disabused of the notions of religion at an early age and that was a particular lesson he had
never engendered to forget. Human sacrifice was an extremely strong motivator after all. His
love for humans wasn't particularly strong, but watching their hearts burned while they were
still in their chests was just more than his stomach could take. Belael had never been his
favorite among the gods anyway. After all, it was what lay inside the building that he was
curious about. Supposedly, stone from every land in the known kingdoms was housed within
for research purposes. He fondly remembered years ago when a fellow wagoner was
accepted as an acolyte. He had told him of the wondrous stones and how different they were
from anything he had ever seen here or in his native southern forests. Soon after he had
moved into his new quarters within the college and had not exited since. At least no one had
seen him after his acceptance letter and successive celebratory pub crawl.
Many, many times he had thought of masonry, far more than any other possible career
he had considered. He feared the mysticism associated with the cult like profession and knew
zealots too well to surrender to his desire for greater knowledge of the stone. His love after all
was for the earth, not some religious ceremony. He still loved the building though. It wasn't the
structures fault that it housed lunatics obsessed with ridiculous incantations. Erected of solid
black marble and carved from end to end in fantastic reliefs, it told the story of Valenoch's
construction and served as a history of the city's initial construction and eventual expansion
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starting with the citadel and outer castle followed by the inner city and various quarters as well
as the massive undertaking that was the outer fortifications. Some day he would examine
them all, when he found the time. Some day...
For now he must calm his donkey, Matilda never liked the southern bridge across the
dark river. Her obstinate refusal to cross it had become something of a daily ritual for them.
He still wasn't sure if it was the bridge or the river she didn't like. Both presented unique
difficulties to a donkey. Finally, after much begging and pleading concluding with the usual
bribery she tenuously stepped onto the gigantic structure munching on a turnip.
It stood out in stark contrast to all of its surroundings. Its brilliance immediately
separating it from the gloomy backdrop of the dark city. Built entirely of brass it required an
army of laborers polishing it indefinitely to maintain its incredible shine. The perpetual
polishers, as they jokingly called themselves, took the position for life and spent a month or
two polishing the bridge from end to end. After which it naturally required the process to begin
again due to the tarnishing of the initial portion of the bridge. It wasn't the best job, but it paid
fantastically well for a job requiring little or no skill. This was due to the constant hazard of
falling into the river whilst polishing the more difficult locations, it was an aspect of their job
they never spoke of as falling into the southern branch of the dark river was supposedly a fate
best left for nightmares and bed time stories.
The result of their labors however, was really quite spectacular and very, very shiny. As
if the material wasn't enough to steal his attention, the construction of the it was like nothing
else in the world. It was a suspension bridge, supported by a network of posts starting at ten
spans and increasing gradually in height until reaching the final central pillar of nearly two
hundred spans in height. Each post held massive half span thick cables in place and was cast
in the guise of birds of prey, each one increasing in size and scope as they neared the center
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of the bridge. Each was different and incredibly unique and he wondered how many years
and how many artists it must have taken to create such a structure. Not to mention the size of
the molds involved in such an undertaking. He supposed each must have been cast in pieces
and assembled afterwards. However, he could find no evidence of seams or wielding in any of
the creatures, making him wonder if they had actually been cast as single pieces. The central
post was by far the most magnificent of all. It alone on the bridge had a twin, on each side of
the bridge the twin phoenixes faced outwards to the north and south. Their wings stretched
the length of the bridge and served as supports, connecting the various posts and gargantuan
cables holding the bridge in place. The phoenix's seemed particularly fitting since the whole
bridge looked like it was on fire in the morning light.
The burning bridge, as it was often called, created a fantastic point of reference in the
city. It was visible from the entire southern half of Valenoch as a blazing beacon between the
outer and inner walls, straddling the dark river like a caged bird trying to escape its gossamer
prison. He wondered if the great foundry had been created solely for the bridge's construction
as he began his descent into the merchant quarter. By now the sun was well above the
horizon and he was very, very late.
Page 25
Chapter 3 (S1P3)
“Phineas!” Called a rotund and distinctly unremarkable individual to little effect.
“PHINEAS! You slovenly excuse for a hunchbacked centaur!” He called once more to the
same effect. “PHINEAS BARTHALOMEW OGLETHORPE your mother was an ogre and you
smell like cabbage!”
“Ah mum, what d'ye be wantin now!?” Replied a particularly ugly and especially small
man driving a decidedly unstable cart filled well beyond its capacity.
“You're late AGAIN!” Shouted the clearly upset man rather agitatedly.
“Yer not me mudder!” Said a startled Phineas.
“Yes, I know, but you really are very late and its making me late and I HATE being late,”
said the man with a hint of exasperation.
“I swear I heard me mudder though,” muttered Phineas as he looked around with a hint
of paranoia in his eyes.
“Phineas, I have a great deal to do today and I can't stand that gods forsaken dialect of
yours. Please speak to me like a Valerian and offload the shipment.” The man spoke calmly
with obvious effort.
Phineas simply nodded, muttering to himself about “the ole bat wouldn't follow me
three and a half thousand leagues … would she ?”. He forcefully shook his head in response
to his own question, showing just a hint of paranoia in his eyes. It made quite a comical sight
as Phineas had a beard that fell clear down to his toes and it shook rather violently in
response to his affirmation. Jax couldn't help but giggle in response to the immensely comical
sight. He tried to stifle the fatal chuckle mid breath, but it was too late. He had been
discovered. His father turned instantly to stare at the barrel that had transformed from
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fantastic protection and a wonderful hiding spot into a deadly prison in less than a second
flat. However, Instead of the usual colorful tirade his father his father did something
immensely worse. He didn't explode, he didn't yell, scream, or throw nearby objects. He did
the worst thing imaginable, he didn't get angry. He simply growled a single word, “inside”.
By now Phineas had wound his unkempt beard around his torso and was in the
process of tucking it into his belt.
“My apologies,” mumbled Beorg to Phineas.
“What about them?” replied Phineas.
“Never mind,” grumbled Beorg.
“Don't mind if I don't then!” the little man howled with laughter, feeling especially clever.
“Gnomes,” Beorg grumbled under his breath.
Phineas slowly turned and a dangerous glint entered his eyes like a well banked forge
fire, ready to ignite into an inferno at the slightest provocation. Beorg felt the previously chill
morning air increase in temperature rather rapidly as beads of sweat started to form in the
small of his back. He took an involuntary step backwards as Phineas casually lifted a barrel
twice his height and width and casually set it across his shoulder, hefting it like a pillow rather
than a twenty stone mass.
Beorg recoiled in a stumbling shuffle and made a nervous effort to busy himself
immediately. Beorg had never particularly cared for the tiny man, but he could do the work of
two in half the time and for less than half the price. Even if he was always late, he was willing
to make an exception as Beorg's love of punctuality was narrowly superseded by his love of
coin. Contemplating the importance of timeliness inevitably brought his mind to his errant
knave of a son's similar lack of punctuality, finding the thought of Phineas to be a trifle
unnerving. Thankfully, despite the interruption, Garreth was still working away cataloging and
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checking the new arrivals, whilst Jax was not visible as usual. The boy had an unnatural
ability to disappear when wanted and appear when least desirable. The contrast between his
sons was so profound he wondered how they came from the same womb.
Staunch Garreth was everything he could ask for, reliable, trustworthy and a hard
worker. He could give Garreth a task and leave him to it for a week without needing to check
in on him. Jax on the other hand couldn't be trusted with sweeping the store room without
constant supervision. It took more effort to make him work than to do the work itself. The boy
was a menace and he desperately wanted to find him an apprenticeship somewhere just to
be rid of the hassle of watching him. Unfortunately, despite his obviously cleverness, he
seemed determined to apply his keen intellect to circumventing labor rather than increasing
the efficiency of said work.
He had tried apprenticing him out to over twenty different trades and the result was
always the same. “Doesn't work”, “causes trouble,” or the worst comment of all was “things
seem to have a habit of disappearing when he's around Beorg, I'd keep two eyes on him as
one just ain't enough with them nimble fingers of his.” Thankfully the man was a good friend
and had kept his sons indiscretions to himself, after Beorg had paid him for his trouble and for
several trinkets missing from his wifes jewelry box. He had never found the missing items
despite an epic search of the entire house and shop, and Jax had pleadingly expressed
innocence. Beorg was quite positive that his son was responsible, much as he wished he
wasn't. The trend of items “disappearing” around Jax was occurring far too consistently to be
coincidence.
Beorg simply hung his head, he wanted to love the boy. He truly wanted to teach him
his trade and make him useful. He wanted him to have good moral values and listen well. It
was as if the boy wasn't even his blood. No, that idea cropped up far too often in his head and
Page 28
he refused to admit his wife would commit such an act. They had been through far too much
together for him to even consider the idea of her betrayal. It was unconscionable, though he
didn't even look like him. Garreth had his weak chin and sandy hair, his brown eyes and
button nose as well as Beorgs' tendency for overindulgence where food was concerned. Jax
on the other hand, took after his mother he supposed. Jax was lithe as a whip and had a
strong hard chin with high cheek bones and jet black hair. His eyes were the deepest blue,
crystalline and piercing. They unnerved Beorg when he looked into them. This tended to
result in a number of uncomfortable encounters between them as Beorg desperately wanted
to look into his sons eyes and see some good in them. He thought, if only he could find
something that the boy enjoys doing, some trade that strikes his fancy, he could put that mind
to something useful rather than his constant mischief.
By now Phineas had finished unloading his bursting cart and strode coldly towards the
pensive, muttering Beorg. Phineas interrupted Beorgs grumbles by simply holding out his
hand expectantly. Beorg silently handed him a carefully weighed and measured pouch of
coins. Phineas wordlessly accepted the payment, slipping the pouch into some hidden pocket
in the folds of his grimy tunic without counting them or even pausing the gauge the weight. He
never counted his fee and it unnerved Beorg's meticulous nature. He had never cheated the
man, but the fact that he didn't count his fee was extremely unsettling. Valenoch was a city of
undesirables, a haven for those who weren't wanted elsewhere in the world. No one was
foolish enough to commit outright theft under the watch of the city guard, knowing full well the
price. However, many would try to short others in business deals by using false coins or “light
weight” gold, shaving off bits here and there and selling them in bulk to jewelers was a very
lucrative trade in the dark city. Most haulers would first weigh the pouch with their own scales,
never trusting a merchants. They would often then bite the coin to assure themselves it bent
Page 29
like gold, rather than resisting and giving off the truth of nickel or tin hidden within.
Not Phineas though, he had a feeling Phineas would know if the purse was light.
Although the odd little fellow was generally and rather disturbingly jovial, he had no desire to
see the extent of his patience. It was rare to see him upset and today was perhaps the third
time in as many years that that odd fire had arisen in his eyes. The comment about gnomes
had clearly set him off, which surprised him as he had always assumed him for a gnome. “If
he was a gnome, why would he be upset by being called one?” He thought out loud.
“Well, maybe he's a dwarf or a man with a bit of goblin in his blood.” Replied Beorg
quietly.
Beorg nodded to his sons surprise intrusion to his thoughts, always a solid fellow his
comment was a valid one. But more unsettling wasn't Phineas's parentage, but his strength.
Each of those barrels were filled to the brim with flour and weighed well over twenty stone. It
took himself and both his sons to drag one a few inches and usually two burly haulers over
twice the size of Phineas to actually life the things. To make it even worse he had actually
carried them. Haulers usually only lifted them onto a roller, as even two large men had
difficulty carrying them the few spans from the cart to the roller. Beorg had always thought
agora's a silly thing. Although massive and useful for long term storage, they were extremely
cumbersome and difficult to transport. The fact that Phineas had lifted one of the gigantic two
span high containers like a quarter keg of ale sent a shiver down his spine.
Jax chose that moment to attempt his escape from the store room as he heard his
father grumbling over the new shipment. Beorg quickly turned his fear and discomfort
concerning Phineas upon his impudent sons untimely arrival into his field of vision. There
soon followed a number of pointed remarks about “places not to be and times not to be
there” punctuated by a multitude of smart slaps across his bottom with a wood soup ladle.
Page 30
This particular ladle was Jax's true nemesis as it always seemed to be handy in times like
this. Jax managed to stammer out a semblance of an apology between the steady beatings
he was receiving and his father stopped with a sigh of complete exasperation. The familiar
sigh seemed slightly more resigned than usual and Jax quirked his head to the side with
curiosity, wondering if there was more in his father's exasperation than the usual
dissatisfaction with his unruliness.
“I have too much to deal with today to add you to my list. I want you to take the list off
the counter and collect the packages waiting for delivery. Take them to the addresses listed
and return immediately. I can't be bothered to watch you today.” Beorg said sullenly.
Jax barely managed to maintain a meekly bowed head as he grasped the neatly
wrapped package from a nearby shelf. He forced himself through sheer will power to silently
and slowly exit the shop, showing no signs of excitement. The second he escaped however,
he leaped full four farthings in the air, twirling gleefully into a pirouette and gracefully landing
with a flourish. His victory celebration was abruptly cut short by his brothers pointed throat
clearing. Jax turned, trying abashedly to allow his raven's mane to cover his scarlet cheeks as
he stared intently at his shoes.
“Harrumph, ahem. It is rather difficult to deliver a package without a destination. While I
am sure you will deliver the package and return, you might require the destination and receipt.
Now, no payment is necessary as this item was paid for upfront. “Please brother, just take it
there and come back. Things aren't going so well right now, take this freedom as an
opportunity. I know you hate this place, I know this life isn't for you. But maybe if you just take
the package and come back father will give you another. I know its not perfect, but if you run
deliveries for father you have a sort of freedom. Besides, there's no soup ladles involved in
deliveries as I understand.” He said the last with a wicked grin and a wink as he set the list on
Page 31
the package and returned to the shop whilst Jax stood dumbfounded and involuntarily rubbing
his soar bottom with his free hand.
Garreth was a mystery as ever. He rarely spoke, claiming one shouldn't speak unless
something really needed to be said. According to Garreth idle conversation wasn't particularly
necessary and as such they had never been close. He had never been cruel, distant, boring,
but never cruel. That monologue was perhaps the most words Jax had heard from his lips in a
month and they had been words of advice. Garreth didn't give advice, if asked what to do he
would say, “ask someone with more experience.” This of course was maddening as Garreth
was the only person really available with more experience than Jax. He couldn't ask his
mother as she would just say, “please, just listen to your father, he loves you.” As such Jax
remained blissfully uninformed when in need of advice. This strange burst of affection and
advice from his brother was more than he could bare and he sat down on the steps to the
shop in stunned amazement.
This of course reminded him that his backside was still quite sore from his discussion
with his father concerning places not to be. With a yelp he leaped into the air, dropping his
package as a result. Immediately recognizing the absolute peril of his situation he nearly bent
himself in half twisting in mid air to capture the lost package, turning his shoulder to the hard
ground and throwing himself into a roll to break the fall. Coughing and spluttering in the dust
he grabbed the list of delivery addresses and made his escape before his brother or father
came out to see what the commotion was and stripped his new found freedom from him.
Limping slightly and nursing a severely bruised shoulder he darted into the nearest
available alley before his father could revoke his punishment from him. Usually his “dutiful,
faithful, trustworthy” (and a host of other often repeated adjectives) brother was trusted with
special deliveries. He stopped for a moment and mentally apologies to his brother. Garreth
Page 32
really wasn't a bad sort. He was just so damned good all the time it was impossible to
measure up. Even when Jax tried to do things the way his father wanted it was never as good
as Garreth. As such Jax had decided a long time ago that he was doomed to be second rate
and as such there was a blessing involved. As he was permanently last it didn't matter if he
was second to Garreth by a hair's breadth or by a landslide. As a result he had decided if he
was going to be second to his brother he might as well enjoy it. This naturally meant that he
had stopped trying to cover his tracts and had instead found that it was more important to find
an activity that was so much fun that it was worth the punishment afterwards. Following this
strategy he had found life far more enjoyable. He got in trouble a little bit more, but he didn't
really mind as he had already accepted the possibility of trouble and the severity of
punishment involved, calculating the ratio of fun to punishment and finding it acceptable
before hand.
As such he had been dubbed good for nothing by most, but at least he was happy, for
the most part anyway. At this particular moment a fantastic realization dawned on him though.
His plan had worked! For once, one of his masterful escape plans had worked. Not that his
plans didn't usually work, they just tended to get interrupted is all. But not this time! This time
he was free! He considered whether he could take credit for the escape as he casually
juggled the package above his head, watching it soar over drying laundry stretched between
the buildings on either side of the narrow alleyway. It was his plan after all, sort of. He had
wanted to get out of the shop and had hid behind the barrel as a method of possible escape.
The rest had been a bit of luck, but it had all truly began with his plan. He decided to take
credit regardless.
Whilst basking in self congratulation and juggling happily he considered how best to
spend his morning of freedom. The package juggling was starting to tire his arms and it made
Page 33
him realize that this burden would clearly become tiresome during his morning of freedom. He
decided to deal with it first and turned down another alleyway pondering where he might
deposit it to be free of its weight. He wandered a time and caught sight of the dark river
cutting through the great canal on his right and an idea miraculously presented itself. He
would take it to his stash and place it there for safe keeping until later. He would deliver at
some point or another, when he found the time.
He wove his way through the familiar alleyways, avoiding the major streets as usual,
preferring the shadows as always. He had never been a fan of large crowds, as they were
generally smelly and he had long since discovered that his keen sense of smell was far more
detrimental than helpful. He could smell sailors at five hundred spans and the thought of
coming within a few farthings of a fisherman nearly upset his breakfast. Besides, the bright
sun always hurt his eyes and the shadows of the alleyways were much easier to see straight
in. After a short time of navigating the maze of Valerian back streets and by ways he came to
an access grate a few hundred spans from the burning bridge. He expertly slid a small piece
of wire into the rusty old lock, turning it slowly while applying a slight upward pressure until the
familiar click notified him of success. He lifted the grate up just enough to allow his slight form
to squirm in, ignoring the grit and dirt sliming its way onto his freshly laundered tunic and
canvas leggings.
He followed the old drainage pipe in pitch black, knowing the way by heart and dodging
the occasional well known pothole in the small culvert. He continued on, counting his steps
and making a turn here and there, rushing past the intermittent overhead drains. It was his
favorite game, pretending he was a spy infiltrating the castle. Obviously he had to sprint past
the grates as he mustn't be discovered for fear of being tried for espionage. Finally he arrived,
panting and smiling at his favorite hideaway. It was a dilapidated cubbyhole caused by a
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millennium of water eroding away the wall. The entryway was barely two farthings in height
and he had to bend double to enter it as always. He preferred it this way, assuming that any
counter intelligence agents searching for him would be too tall to see the hidden entryway.
Within was his treasure house. The room itself was not large, perhaps three spans in length
and half that in width, above him was a small drainage grate that allowed a modicum of light
to enter. Thankfully it was usually shadowed by nearby buildings and as such allowed for a
tolerably low light environment for his sensitive eyes to view his wealth with. He carelessly
tossed the package and receipt to the side and surveyed his glorious pile.
It was magnificently illuminated by the eerie glow reflected off the bluish black stone of
the obsidian walls. He gazed upon his hoard with pride as the soft purplish light glinted
beautifully on the pile. It had started as a hobby, borrowing this and that because he liked the
way it looked. Then he started “borrowing” just for the fun of it rather than a desire to posses
an item. It was the thrill of taking it, the excitement of planning his infiltration and the rush of
adrenaline as he actually did the deed. The immense satisfaction of escaping unscathed and
placing said item within his hoard deep beneath the city, well, a few spans under it anyway. It
was not long before he was caught of course. Those first few beatings were extremely
valuable learning experiences however. He was now much more cautious, always planning
each heist to the letter, practicing escape routes and considering possible predicaments that
could arise during the execution of said task.
He took a last longing look at his heap of bobbles and assorted rubbish and found his
way back to the streets again. He emerged under the southern bridge, shielding his eyes from
the blinding light cast by the noonday sun. The reflection off the massive brass monstrosity
certainly didn't help. Everyone thought the damned thing so pretty, so well made and
beautiful. To him it was an eyesore, quite literally, he could only stand looking at it in moonlight
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as normal sunlight just burned his eyes when it reflected off the thing. With his head down he
ran beneath the bridge, eyes firmly pointed earthward sprinted up to a spot just past the
bridge where the canal wall was slightly lower and cracked in a few plays, presumably a result
of the river freezing in the winter and thawing in the spring. At least thats what his father told
him when he asked how the walls might crack.
With unnatural grace he nimbly vaulted two spans and placed his foot in the familiar
crack, using it as a spring board to launch him the remaining span over the canal wall and into
the street. He landed with his usual poise, slipping slightly and rolling forward, only just barely
catching himself before getting mauled by a large coach. His spectacular leap was heralded
by the usual curses and angry mutterings rather than the applause it truly deserved. He
understood they were simply too uncultured to appreciate his amazing abilities is all. He
quickly darted into a nearby alleyway, escaping the heavy noonday sun into the succor of the
shadows.
He began his freedom by testing his willpower, he hated that damned bridge, but he
loved the other side. On the eastern side of the burning bridge lay his favorite market of all,
the weapons market. Conveniently located adjacent to the smithing quarter, every possible
instrument of destruction could be found here. Jax didn't actually have any money, but his
window shopping was quite well known in the area. The merchants tolerated him so long as
he didn't touch anything. He had learned the hard way once, weapons were sharp. He spent
hours pouring over the scimitars, rapiers, and even saw a few of the rarer katana's from the
deep south. The knives interested him far more, he preferred the ceremonial ones though.
They were so much prettier. Most of the weapons here weren't for show however. This was
the real weapons market. The type of gold hilted gem studded trinkets that nobles bought
weren't really sold here. This was a place of business, not luxury. They sold death and they
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knew it. Jax felt strangely at home here. He had even considered working with weapons as a
trade, but he knew it was the one place his father wouldn't allow him to go. His family was
unreasonably pacifistic and his father especially had a hatred of weapons of all sorts that ran
deeper than any attribute associated with his father he could think of.
Jax wondered if his father's hatred of weapons had something to do with his
fascination with them. He had learned that anything forbidden seemed irresistibly interesting
to him. As a result he was never quite sure whether he loved something, or simply loved the
idea of it. The allure of the forbidden his mother called it when he tried to explain his logic to
her once. She had simply said that he would eventually learn that things were forbidden for a
reason and it was usually a good one. He certainly understood the sharp aspect of weapons
being dangerous, but if they had told him they were so sharp he wouldn't have touched them.
Well, he probably wouldn't have anyway, he conceded with a self-effacing shrug.
He meandered into the more exotic knives and examined the katars absentmindedly.
They seemed more pie cutters than weapons to him and didn't really hold his interest very
long, not that much did. He had long since accepted his ephemeral shifts in thought as
something he couldn't change or anticipate. Now the Sa'Lan, that was a weapon. Supposedly,
the legendary spies of Qu'Lat used them for high profile assassinations. At least thats what
the sword smith's apprentice next door had told him. He had been his first real friend and a
true treasure until he told his little sister a story about an assassination with a Qu'Lat in it. His
father generally ignored the fairy tales he spun for his five year old sister, but this one
suddenly had his full attention at the mention of a Qu'Lat. He had promptly beaten him without
reason before asking him where he had heard of a Sa'Lan or Qu'Lat. When he had told them
about the new boy next door he was instantly forbidden from ever speaking to him again.
Normally he would have completely ignored it and continued to see the boy, but his
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father had spoken to the neighbors and told them that Jax had the pox and that they shouldn't
let their son near him if they knew what was best for themselves. Obviously they had just
fallen off the turnip cart or they would have known Valerians were completely immune to
disease so long as they honored the pact. Unfortunately for Jax they thought the pact was
only a superstition and that magic was imaginary. Obviously they hadn't been in Valenoch
very long. Most people lived their entire lives in the city without seeing any magic, those
unlucky enough to bring enough attention to warrant magic being used generally regretted it.
Especially since most magic the common folk saw was when some poor fool broke a law and
magic was used in their apprehension and generally involved a great deal of kicking,
screaming, and wailing followed by a rather profound silence. As such there really wasn't
much crime in the city.
Remembering the sword smith and his young son had a rather depressing sobering
effect on Jax. He decided he needed a boost to his morale. Naturally he sauntered over to the
food market to smell the sweets. He meandered down fleet street allowing his overly keen
sense of smell to be put to use in a more useful way than avoiding fishmongers. The smell of
fresh baked pies reached his nose first, quickly followed by various breads. He played one of
his favorite games as he wandered through the alleys surrounding fleet street. Jax tried to
separate the smells from each other. He could tell at least three different breads at first, rye,
wheat, and sourdough were the strongest by far. There was another he couldn't quite
recognize until he thought for a moment. Ah, it was the holy month of the southerners bizarre
religion. He recalled his mother teaching him about the various religious of the south and that
many would bake “friendship bread” to give to their neighbors during the month of Avri. He
had never tasted it, but it certainly had a distinctive scent. He imaged it would be sweet and
salty at the same time. Although he could be mixing up the scents, he wasn't entirely sure at
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the moment. He wondered if there was a job for someone with a really good sniffer. He could
definitely do that job, so long as he got to eat what he sniffed after that is.
At last he picked out the scent he loved most of all, pie. Rhubarb, apple, raspberry,
strawberry, even a hint of marionberry reached him. Fruit was exorbitantly expensive in
Valenoch unfortunately and as such he could never actually afford pie. On special occasions
his mother would splurge and bake one, much to the rage of his father and chagrin of Jax.
She always said, “Beorg, life is meant to be lived, not mourned.” To which his father would
silently and sullenly eat his slice, grumbling and muttering vehemently. Jax simply assumed
his father didn't like pie. The idea was difficult to accept at first, but so was the idea that
anyone could win an argument with his father. It had taken him a good five of his twelve years
to understand that his mother always won against his father. She just didn't celebrate or admit
victory, instead she quietly persuaded him rather than brow beating her points. Jax decided
that he really needed to ask her how she did that. Maybe it could be of use the next time he
got in trouble.
Speaking of trouble, he stopped dead as he caught the scent of the best of the best.
Honey, chocolate, raspberry, strawberry, and something creamy caught the undivided
attention of all his sniffing faculties. He accepted at that particular moment that his life would
not be complete without the consumption of whatever that was. He pondered the wiseness of
this particular decision for a spare two or three seconds and began sauntering like a king
down fleet street towards the tantalizing treat. With careful precision he identified his objective
and made a preliminary pass of the vendor. It was a difficult shop, set into the building with a
small stall outside the bakery and trays filled with steaming delight waiting for him. It appeared
they were preparing a delivery as something with so many delicacies couldn't be for sale on
the street. Most chance passers by could afford something like that. Someone must be
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celebrating something special today. Jax decided he would celebrate with them.
He continued walking past the shop and found a nearby alley, looping back through
the back streets until he found a good vantage point to view his prospective celebratory feast.
A fantastic distraction arrived in the form of a young princeling and his entourage sauntering
past examining the various treats. The baker allowed greed to overcome prudence and
rushed out to greet the prospective customer professing the glory of his baked goods. Jax
took that particular opportunity to dash forward and snatch his steaming prize. He then deftly
disappeared into the alley amidst cries of surprise from the army of retainers flanking the
princeling. This was closely followed by the angry shouts of the baker. Jax pondered possibly
improving his technique for next time, as snatch and grab seemed awfully crude. He was
definitely effective though!
He spent the next five minutes putting as much distance as possible between himself
and fleet street. After five minutes of dashing down this alley and that he decided any pursuit
was dealt with and sat upon a nearby rain barrel to enjoy the goodness of his savory treat.
His victory was short lived however. He finished his meal and began his journey back
to his hideaway to commence his much delayed delivery. Unfortunately the moment he
entered the main road a heavily mailed black fist descended upon his shoulder and
unceremoniously half dragged him to his fathers shop. His brother looked up from his
sweeping only long enough to shake his head. His father simply hung his head in shame and
asked, “what has he done now?”
“Nothing too serious, pie filching, I took care of it.” Said his mailed captor.
“Oh, um, thank you for your discretion guardsmen.” Said Beorg with obvious shock,
clearly searching for words.
“Sergeant.” He replied curtly whilst promptly discarding Jax into his fathers custody and
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leaving as abruptly as he had come.
“Flame and fury, by the gods boy, what in the Raven's name have you done?” His
father said with astonishment screaming in his voice. Jax was too stunned to respond, it was
the first time he had ever heard his father curse and the shock was a bit too much for him at
the moment.
“First you don't make your delivery, then I find out you took the wrong package and an
extremely expensive one at that! Then a RavenGuard drags you home and says he caught
you filching pies! Why in the seven spheres a RavenGuard is catching petty thieves I don't
know, but then to find out he is a sergeant! And he took care of it?! Sky and star burn me now
boy! What could you have possibly done to warrant the attention of THEM! Even worse, what
could you have possibly done after so that he not only DOESN'T punish you, he instead walks
you up to my door and says he took care of it. BELAEL! What did you promise him? What
could you possibly give him?” His father said, changing between creative curses that even
Jax had never heard and berating him intermittently.
Jax stuttered, trying desperately to comprehend what his father was saying, remember
those fantastic curses, and fabricate a suitable lie to explain this most colossal of
predicaments that he had somehow found himself in. He spared a moment to ponder what
was in that package that was not only wrong, but expensive also. His response was never
allowed to come as the moment he began to speak his stutter was cut off by a low grating
voice that didn't even remotely sound like his father.
“No, I don't care, I need to close up here. Go home. I will deal with you tonight.”
For the first time in a very long time, Jax was genuinely frightened. His father had not
yelled, shouted or screamed in his general direction. Instead he had cursed. He had cursed!
The incredibility of it still hadn't sunk in. His moral mountain of a father had cursed! What on
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earth could stealing a pie have to do with the RavenGuard? They were supposed to be
Valmora's personal guard. Then again they were also supposed to be ten feet tall and shatter
stone with a glare. His captor had seemed normal enough, from what he could see as he was
dragged home. His armor had been fantastic though! He wished he could have a better look
at it. It shimmered so wonderfully, not the eye wrenching shimmering of the citadel or the
blinding pain of the burning bridge. No, this was poetry in motion, it seemed to caress the light
rather than bend it or break it. The air shimmered around it, as if the light was melting in its
presence. He looked up from his musing to see his approaching house and his thoughts were
wrenched back towards the problem at hand.
It was a big one this time. Beorg had been calm, calm was bad, calm meant bad
things. He hadn't raised his voice, he hadn't vented, his father was like a steam machine, if it
didn't vent it would explode. He preferred venting by far, he would handle him the ladle the
moment he arrived tonight. He would line up various inexpensive objects for Beorg to throw
so that he wouldn't be angry after breaking something expensive at Jax's expense. This
calmness was unnerving and he didn't like it. He was really craving some yelling and
screaming now, yes, Beorg would come home and yell and scream and everything would be
fine.
“What are you doing home so early?” Jax's mother's soft voice startled him and he
jumped at the sound.
“I, um, I well, I was just a little ..” Jax stuttered searching for words.
“Again Jax? Why can't you just mind him? Is it so difficult? To carry a parcel or sweep a
shop? Does he really ask such terrible things from you? I have seen children forced into far
worse work. Would you like to work in the mines? Would you like to clean chimneys? There
are far worse things in this world and many people who would gladly take your life from you to
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make a few coins. Thousands of children would gladly take your place and do all he asks of
you and more in exchange for a full belly. Oh you silly spoiled child, I pray you never realize
how evil and cruel the world truly is. If you only knew how lucky you are.” His mother was in
full blown nag mode and he knew it. He resolved to bear it rather than attempt his usual
escape. Luckily his sacrifice was short lived as his mothers rant was cut short by a miniature
whirlwind of energy screaming into Jax with the exuberance only a five year old possesses.
“Jax!” She squealed with delight, tackling him with a limitless display of enthusiasm.
His mother simply grumbled, “just like his father” and returned to her sweeping. Jax
was soon coaxed into a fantastical account of his days adventures. Teia's breath hung on his
every word as he recounted all the trials and tribulations of his day with a few minor
embellishments added here and there solely for the benefit of theatricality. Utterly spellbound
she asked her usual torrent of questions to which he gladly fabricated fantastical explanations
of gremlins, goblins and the occasional appearance of an ogre or two in the city streets which
he was promptly compelled to vanquish. The story soon digressed into tales of dragons and
daemons. His mother seemed indifferent until dragons were mentioned at which point she
seemed to take an interest. Just as quickly she scoffed, “enough, stop filling her head with
nonsense.” She said it half heartedly, almost with a sense of longing.
“Aw, mum, jax tells the best stories! He was just telling me bout how he road a dragon
through Qu'Lat to rescue the fire witch princess from the evil RavenGuard!” Teia Rambled in a
single breath, preparing for another expostulation of the virtue of Jax's story telling prowess.
“He is also the best at getting in trouble!” She replied, cutting off her excitable daughter.
Jax gave his mother a roguish grin, bowing dramatically and thanking her profusely.
“Oh mum, I don't know if I'm the best. I mean, I am good and all, but the best? Surely
someone is better than me! I do strive to achieve greatness, but I think I have a lot of practice
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ahead of me before I am the best!” he replied, giving his sister an exaggerated wink.
His mother threw her hands up in mock exasperation and crushed him and his sister
an a monstrous hug that forced a mouse like squeak from Jax. Jax and his sister struggled
unsuccessfully to escape until she finally released them, quickly turning away with a sniffle
and wiping a tear away.
It was at that precise moment that Beorg entered the house like a thunderhead and
uttered a single word in an icy calm voice, “Bed.” Jax wordlessly went to the children's shared
room and resigned himself to starving to death in glorious martyrdom. His death was narrowly
prevented by his mothers timely intervention in the form of a loaf of bread smuggled to him
during his fathers nightly extended exodus to the latrine.
With a full belly Jax slipped into an uneasy and restless sleep filled with vengeful
dragons and angry daemons. Strangely featured in all of them however was his mother. She
always appeared at the last possible moment, flaming hair splayed behind her and massive
wings of fire illuminating her as she banished his tormentors time and again.
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Chapter 4 (S1P4)
A pallid chill slowly crept into Valenoch with the morning sun. Twilight seemed to linger
a little longer than usual. Even the shadows stretched just a bit farther in the quiet pre-dawn
light as a soft menace wove its way into the air with such seamless grace that it was almost
too inconsequential to notice, almost.
Despite the approach of full dawn the sun seemed laced with ice. Even as the warmth
of day attempted to breach Valenoch a foul mist rose from the dark river, shadowing the sun
behind its malice. Its golden rays drained of all color, leaving only the Valerian end of the
spectrum visible, gray and black. The peculiar architecture of the city didn't seem to mind the
wash of colorless light, it seemed more fitting. Occasionally a shaft of pure light would slip
through the mist, only to be captured by the lattice of crystalline blades arcing across the
walls. Most of the light surrendered to their fate, but the rare strand of purest light fought,
casting blue fire across the sky and causing the brilliant morning lights. Each strand of light
was shattered into a thousand fragments of every color imaginable. Visible for only a moment,
each burst was both blinding and electrifying, creating an eerie shimmer in the air above the
walls as they fought the morning twilight.
The city itself slept, immune to the colorful displays roaring above its walls. Its gloom
appeared self imposed. The dreary morning did nothing to alleviate the worries of her citizens.
More so than usual a sense of unease and fear gripped the denizens of the dark city today.
The drawing came at dawn, ravaging morale far worse than any disease. It was this macabre
contest that left every parent within the walls with the same comforting notion, a single
glimmer of hope. Perhaps if I stay in bed the covers will protect me from this day. The
anticipation of pain is far worse than the malady itself, a fact Valerians knew all too well as
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they lived in perpetual expectation.
Much to their dismay, the covers were not enough to stop the sun. The forces of nature
continued on despite their silent protests. The waning moon was all but spent and on this eve
the new moon would rise, one would be chosen and none but its family would weep, such
was the price they gladly paid.
Smoke slowly crept out of the chimneys of Valenoch's merchant quarter, each curling
wisp vanishing into the gathering fog rising over the rooftops. One chimney in particular
seemed more lethargic than all the others. Within this home, the inhabitants moved in a
similar fashion, staggering in a haze of unease. They moved through syrup, following the
motions of routine without conscious thought. The dwelling was modest and made of the
standard Valerian material, dark stone. It was unadorned, squat and mildly rectangular with
nothing to set it apart from its neighbors aside from a small work shed adjacent to it. A single
story with few windows, it was nearly invisible amongst the huddles of similar homes
scattered around it. The front door was constructed of the same stone and fit almost
seamlessly into the walls. The small shimmering runes glittering iridescently across its face
made its location crystal clear however.
Both protection and prison each door held three words every resident of the city knew
by heart. Few knew which symbol was which, but all knew the meaning of the words. Some
claimed each symbol held a spirit within, trapped, only to be released when it performed its
duty. Others claimed human souls were similarly imprisoned, most ignored the rumors and
the runes, preferring not to think about such things. Despite the abstention of most decent
folk, the tavern gossips loved to discuss all the grisly possibilities of the ever present door
wardings, proposing all the horrible events that would occur should someone break their pact.
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Albeit a favorite subject for drunken speculation, none really cared to test the theories.
First among the symbols was Raenor, the shepherd, whose duty was to watch the
border of life and death and guide wayward souls to their proper destination. Second was
Nadim, the binder, who held oaths bound in blood and bone and punished oath breakers. The
first two's purpose was generally understood by Valerians. Raenor kept the angry dead
fueling the cities myriad of magical sundries at bay and Nadim exacted swift vengeance on
any who broke the pact. The third rune was a subject of much debate however, Ashenoch
was the dawncaller, his duty was to banish all souls back to the realm of the dead. The
theories concerning the purpose of the third rune ranged from Armageddon to punishment for
the wayward dead. Total destruction was a favorite among those who believed Valerians were
partially undead themselves, although these were considered by most to be crackpots. Some
thought Ashenoch was to keep the Ravenguard at bay, others to hold off the nargs. In truth,
most had no idea and preferred to keep the subject silent except for the occasional tavern
based discussion after the fourteenth tankard.
The runes on this door were quite standard. In fact this door was entirely
unremarkable, the same as the one to its left and right. Most likely the same as the one three
doors down as well, within the home it was equally unremarkable. Rough unfinished stone
floors matched identical walls of dark granite. A small coal burning stove provided a smoky
warmth trying unsuccessfully to warm the room due to a dank chill hanging tangibly in the air
thanks to the morning fog.
The air held more than fog in this home, tension matched the water drop for drop,
hanging thickly and showing visibly in Beorg's face as he closed the small slate shudders. It
did little to guard against the frigid morning breeze, but he was fidgety. Keeping his hands
busy helped his agitation a little, allowing at least his body to be occupied by something more
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mundane than his own inner turmoil. He turned and surveyed his home, considering the
relative poverty of it and wistfully recalling better days. It was clean however, above all things
he valued order and consistency . It was ordered here, and safe. So very safe, always
enough to eat, no fear of disease, but at such a cost. Yes, he was safe here, but was it worth
it?
Keeping himself busy, yes, thats the answer, don't think about it. His wide frame
showed visible exertion as he waddled over to the large stone table that dominated the
western portion of the room. He paused to look at the similar stone floor and wondered, not
for the first time, where so much stone came from. He knew of no stone quarry closer than
the northern mountains over four hundred leagues distant. He shook his head as thoughts of
the mornings gruesome prospects arose. Hoping to busy himself with work in an attempt to
further distance his mind from reality he began to collect the scattered papers strewn across
the table by the morning gust that had prompted his closing of the shudders. Why was it so
windy every damn morning? Always just before dawn and always from the east? Every light
cursed dawn brought a freezing wind and his wife always left the light cursed shudders open.
For fresh air she always said, damned woman was always cold and she wanted fresh air at
night. Frozen fresh air to boot. He sat on a stone bench next to the table and sighed with
exasperation, it was impossible to be angry with her. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't
remain upset with her for more than the time it took to create the thought. He decided anger
wasn't a suitable misdirection from his misery and shook his head in exasperation, returning
to other musings and various meaningless distractions to postpone his dreary thoughts
concerning the inevitable.
Shuffling through the papers brought some consolation, distracting his chubby fingers
and keeping his mind considering each paper and its importance in the stack until one sheaf
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escaped from his clumsy digits to slip beneath the table. Grunting with strain he bent beneath
the table to search for the lost article. Despite the new found blood flow to his face he still
appeared pallid and worn. His countenance was rutted with deep furrows and heavy lines
showing an age far beyond his years. A darkness around his pale blue eyes indicated
frequent sleepless nights. Beorg's features were rounded and soft, like lumpy clay pressed
unevenly across his cheeks . Something about the set of his jaw indicated his face was not
always so however. Even his waddling stride was not the resigned hobble of someone who
had long since acclimated to their corpulence. His was instead unsure and cautious, the walk
of a man unused to his current situation.
He placed the retrieved paper atop the table and deposited himself in heavy rough
hewn stone chair near the stove, staring into the glowing coals as if searching for an answer
within. Despite the icy air he reached into his damp tunic and produced a well worn and
heavily embroidered silk handkerchief. Mopping his dripping brow he silently ruminated on
better days, staring at the sweat soaked cloth longingly.
The early morning hours passed slowly thus. The mighty stack of parchment remained
untouched on the table. The usual joy of studying accounts receivable was not enough for
Beorg this morning. For perhaps the hundredth time his eyes strayed to his children's door.
He told himself he had been lucky before, perhaps his luck would hold.
With grim determination he rose and carefully re-sorted the already ordered
parchments by date rather than alphabetically. The set of his shoulders belied a similar single
mindedness as he set aside the accounts and knelt beneath the table. He showed a
surprising agility whilst he slithered under the granite table and removed a false section of
wall behind it. Carefully placing it to one side he strained to haul a small bronze strongbox
from the alcove. It had been seventeen years and not a day had passed without the thought
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of his fateful choice cropping up and torturing him. Lottery day was always the worst and that
was why on this day alone he allowed himself the luxury of perusing the remnants of his
glorious past.
He reached beneath his sweat soaked tunic and selected a small copper key from a
ring around his neck. With a faint click the lid popped open to reveal an odd assortment of
items. First he fingered a fine gold ring, ornately carved and bearing a large sigil containing a
stallion rearing amongst sand dunes. Next he gently felt a scrap of fine white silk bearing
initials he could claim no longer. After a long series of similar bits of faded finery and
memories of wealth long since relinquished he brushed aside an ornate gold dagger to grasp
a small broach. It seemed fragile and delicate in his chubby fingers and he handled it with
exaggerated care. It consisted of no metal he could name, at once gold, bronze and brass it
shimmered even in the absence of light. Turning it over he examined the simple clasp that
always refused to open. Rotating it in his hands again he felt along its serrated edges. The
metal seemed more woven than cast, made in the semblance of no bird he had ever seen in
life. Its wings were infinitely detailed and forever frozen in flight. Even the feathers seemed to
move in the slight breeze, glittering magnificently. Each pinion was encrusted with tiny rubies
and shimmering with inlaid diamond dust. The face glowed menacingly, set with fire agates
cut into eerily familiar eyes that radiated warmth despite the frigid temperature. He ran his
fingers over the magnificent piece and recoiled, nearly dropping it as the memories flooded
into painful reality. He began to relive the fires, the exodus to Valenoch and the fateful choice
that brought them here. Just as fast as the torrent began it jolted and dissipated. When he
had regained his composure he was staring at his wife as she bent to return the strongbox to
its hidden alcove.
She was as different in appearance to Beorg as can be possibly imagined. Where he
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was of middling height and exceptional girth she was slight and tall. Standing in the chill
twilight she seemed to glow, radiating heat. Clad only in a short shift she revealed an endless
expanse of shapely legs that quickly turned Beorg's thoughts towards a decidedly
inappropriate nature. He allowed himself the slow pleasure of letting his eyes follow the gentle
curve of her hips up unto her small shapely breasts. He felt a strong desire to wrap his arms
around her and gently kiss her neck a thousand times. She giggled like a child and hopped
onto his lap, still the foolish girl he had hopelessly fallen for so many years ago.
Her flaming hair cascaded over him, blinding him in an inferno of flaming locks that
seared away the chill cold of morning. He stared into her face, her perfect porcelain face.
Cast from marble into the semblance of a goddess it was as pale as moonlight and just as
mercurial. Her emerald eyes cut through him as her face showed the slow recognition of what
day this was. Always finding the good in everything, only she could giggle on a day such as
this.
“Carmen, we have no time for such foolery on this day.” Beorg fumbled out curtly,
showing a desperate attempt at restraint as she sat haphazardly on his lap.
“Well, you did give me that look.” She said petulantly with a beautifully pouty lower lip
that swelled with inviting fullness.
Beorg had just enough humility to flush and rearrange his uncomfortably snug trousers.
“I see the equipment still works, even if you deny y ourself its use.” She bit the words
off, playfully emphasizing the last few for added impact. At that moment she did the last
possible thing he could have expected. Like a placid lake suddenly caught unawares by a
sudden storm, she wept like a child. Perhaps she thought smothering herself into his chest
would prevent the events of the day from transpiring.
Beorg held her close, feeling her warmth against him he offered what little comfort he
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could spare. She felt so fragile in his arms, clinging to him brokenly as the tears flowed freely
into his already drenched tunic. He wanted to weep, to add his own fear and doubt to the river
flowing down his chest. He wanted to cry out and tear down the walls with anger and
frustration. Anger he could control, he could focus it and vent it. He could take anger and
release it, let it out, but this misery and helplessness was maddeningly unassailable.
At some point in the hours that followed Teia had wheedled herself between them and
now clung there like a limpet. Faithful, solid Garreth stood like a statue, gently patting Beorg's
shoulder with a pained expression of utter confusion painted starkly upon his plane features.
Seeing his sons confounded expression cleared his self pity momentarily. He gently cupped
his wife's weeping face in his hands and stared into those limitless depths of Jade. She
looked the same as the day he met her. In twenty two years she hadn't aged a day. Some part
of him deep inside told him he should speak now, that this chance my never come again.
In a barely audible voice, he whispered to her as he held her close, “I love you.”
A loud rapp on the heavy door responded to his heartfelt entreaty. Beorg slowly stood,
depositing his wife and child gently in his former seat. Like a ghost he drifted to the door and
undid the latch while his wife pleaded tearfully, “don't open it, please, please.”
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Chapter 5 (S1P5)
Garreth watched the mornings events through a fog. A thick haze obscured everything,
he watched a tall dark eyed man walk into his home. He wore dark armor and spoke softly in
a cold expressionless baritone. Everything seemed to happen in frozen images, skipping from
one moment to the next with unrecorded gaps in between, yet permanently etched upon his
soul.
His mother pleaded and cried. His father stood stoically silent and pointed to the
children's room with a horribly impassive face. The tall man walked into the bedroom, glanced
once at the small stove in the corner, whatever he saw eliciting a barely perceptible grin. It
was so fast Garreth wondered if he had imagined it, another aspect of this horrible living
nightmare sliding across his vision. The face returned immediately to featureless stone, cold
and emotionless. The dark stranger spoke again and his father started yelling. His mother
held Teia tightly as she cried with renewed vigor, finding fresh tears in a well previously run
dry. Both his parents seemed to be trying very hard not to look at him. The tall man simply
glanced at him and shook his head as if deciding whether a piece of fruit was past its prime.
Did he speak? Everything seemed silent, the world devoid of color and the air lacking sound
as if ash had filled his senses.
Garreth then watched his tiny sister calmly detach herself from their mother and gently
place her hand in that of the tall man, and walk out the door. His mother's tears stopped
momentarily as shock consumed her senses for a span of moments or minutes, Garreth knew
not which until she frantically found the keening wail of misery once more whilst she stumbled
out the door in search of her daughter.
He simply stood dumbfounded as he watched it all numbly as if they were someone
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else's family, someone else's eyes, someone else's world crashing down around him. He was
a stone, he felt nothing. His father spoke, but Garreth heard nothing. He only stared at the
door, reliving the memory of his sister's departure again and again.
The day continued, he ate food, he drank water, but the world was choked with ash.
His father spoke, and sometimes wept. At other times he yelled and beat him with a wooden
ladle, but he felt nothing, heard nothing. At dusk that evening the tall man returned with his
mother limply strewn across a shoulder as if she were a feather, her slight form caused no
change in his stance or gait. He laid her with astonishing gentleness and care upon her bed,
pulling the covers across her dirty scantily clad form. He then did something decidedly odd
that stood out strangely in Garreth's mind. He could have sworn that when the stranger laid
his mother to rest, he smelled her hair. Her short shift was torn and filthy. Her eyes were
open, but there was no life left in them. She stared vacantly at some unseen vision beyond
Garreth's sight.
He heard the distinct baritone tell his father that she had fainted. He heard his fathers
mumbled thanks as the man left. Like a tower built of sand with the final support removed, he
crumbled. Reality struck hard and without mercy, his walls fell and Garreth crashed hard to
his knees upon the floor. He clutched her limp clammy hand and cried, letting the river flow
across his form as if it could scour clean the events of the day. How long he continued he
didn't know. At some point exhaustion consumed him and sweet oblivion devoured the agony.
Garreth and Beorg continued existing, but it was most definitely little more than that.
They worked and met the needs of their bodies. Sometimes they spoke when the situation
demanded it, but their was no room for anything save grief in their world. They suffered
silently together in their stoic fashion, twin paragons of misery enduring the pain of living.
Carmen remained silent with them. She ate when prompted, using a chamber pot as
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necessary, but otherwise she simply stared unblinking into the distance.
No one ever mentioned Jax, or his conspicuous absence on that fateful morning.
Phineas didn't really care for the atmosphere of lottery day. Too much doom and gloom
for a person of his optimistic nature. He firmly believed that every day was like any other, if
one put special meaning into this day or that, they allowed themselves to make it a negative
day. He preferred that every day be thought of as a blessing, so long as it ended at a fine
tavern with a full belly. Then again, if it ended at a dirty tavern that was just as good, as they
tended to be much cheaper after all. Unfortunately the ale was often a bit watered down, but
such was the price one paid. After all, he went to taverns for their lively atmosphere, not the
ale. Well, not only for the ale anyway, it certainly helped improve the atmosphere though.
It was on this particularly gloomy evening that he found himself with a common
dilemma, which tavern to frequent. He could stay in the merchant quarter, where his daily
deliveries had only recently concluded. However, remaining in said quarter left him with a
great deal of depressing individuals. He was never quite sure if the husbands and fathers of
the quarter drank to celebrate not being chosen or to forget the fact that someone was
chosen. Regardless, he had a far more important decision to choose this particular evening.
“Where to drink? Where to drink?” Phineas mumbled aloud as he trundled through the
warren of neighborhoods, following his usual meandering policy of “I'll get somewhere
eventually.” In time he definitely arrived somewhere and after some careful observations he
decided it wasn't the where he wanted to be. The not quite so noble of the nobles were the
worst of drinking companions. They thought they were noble, but couldn't afford to live on
nobles row. And so here they placed their slightly above average income families, a place he
preferred to call the lesser row. The name was popular among commoners, but the minor
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noble families despised it, creating various names amongst themselves to call this
neighborhood and that. While he thought Wilfordshire was a fine name for a town, it was
certainly a silly name for a street. It just so happened to be the street he was on at the
moment in fact. He examined the small overly gilt sign placed at the front of the street. Rather
than normal orderly black stone of most street signs in Valenoch, this one was clearly some
fools attempt at displaying his wealth. Phineas decided to place a little of his own touches on
the sign and asked the stone for a little help. After a few hours he had managed to improve on
the accuracy of the street sign in question. It now had a slightly permanent addendum
beneath it elucidating the true location of said street. It now read, first in silvery gold script and
then in his own block lettered stone carving, Wilfordshire also known as Wilford's street, to be
found in the lesser row.
Said matter of importance having been aptly accomplished, he decided the hour of
drinking was upon him. Or perhaps he had happened upon the hour of drinking. Regardless,
he really needed a drink.
Deliverance appeared slowly, for first he must traverse the dead calm of the great
square. It was beautiful in the typical Valerian fashion of Gothic gloom. The massive expanse
was ringed on two sides by heavily gilt shops filled with all manner of overpriced noble fodder.
Trinkets and such he loved, but for their magnificent machinery, not because they were
dipped in gold or platinum. Here there were few trinkets to be investigated, rather this place
was filled with hoards of overpriced jewelry. While occasionally pretty or clever in design, for
the most part Valerian fashion dictated wearing enough shiny metal to cause bruising on most
womens necks. The problem had become so common that jewelry often had pads on the
topmost part of the chain, allowing for reduced chance of lacerations due to overt display of
wealth.
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This phenomenon had of course resulted in a whole host of insult opportunities at the
expense of the nobles and it was this particularly important line of logic that his honed intellect
was following at the moment. He considered which animals had arched necks, considering
cranes and king fishers as well as a host of other waterfowl. Unfortunately the clearest
correlation he could find was most unfortunately in that of the Nargs. Their trademarked
hunch to their neck seemed most fitting to the current contemplation. Not only that Narg and
noble both started with the same letter. It was as if the gods were speaking to him, now if only
he could find the proper combination of said novelty.
Whilst his mind was heavily occupied with combining n words together in the most
amusing fashion possible he found his way into the northern section of Valenoch. The odor of
the upcoming fish market denoted his exit from the well to do portion of the city. He wondered
how many lower nobles wished they were commoners so they could move to the merchant
quarter. The smell alone had been the basis for an obscene amount of jokes he had
concocted at the nobles expense. Then again, the nobles claimed that the fish market
provided a fine incentive for advancement. Only the lowest of the low lived near enough to
smell it and it was often said the great houses purposely owned a multitude of houses in the
odorous quarter to be used when a family member caused great shame upon the house.
Such failures were quite often, usually a failed assassination attempt or a great loss of money
on some economic gamble. As such the greatest business in the area was that of movers.
The burly fellows operated quite a profitable business carting in this recently shamed noble
with his head in his hands only to turn around and cart out another proud noble beaming
happily as somehow they had found their way into their particular houses good graces.
Phineas had often helped out in the area whenever the game of houses heated up, as
increased activity in the game always resulted in a great deal of positional exchanges. He
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thought the system rather silly, as rather than investing their wealth in making more wealth
they generally preferred investing it in any number of schemes to vi for position in their own
house. The particularly dangerous schemes however, were when one house attempted to
exchange positions with another house. They were often bloody and extremely messy.
Fortunately there were strict consequences for any noble involving a commoner, both for the
noble and the commoner. As such the commoners were always involved, but in extremely
discrete ways that never allowed for direct involvement. It was simply easier to find a noble
than to pay a commoner enough that they would attempt anything.
He did like that aspect of Valerian law anyway, it kept him free of the game, yet still
able to profit from it in any number of ways. In fact, the great game kept a good portion of the
city employed, forging documents, treating injuries, digging graves, moving furniture between
the lesser row and the odorous quarter. All in all he figured the great game wasn't so bad after
all. In fact, he decided that would be the subject of his nightly rant! Yes, he would find a place
to drink and discuss how glorious the great game was tonight. That aught to get a reaction,
either laughter or a brawl, preferably both.
This of course caused him to recall the original problem of the night, where to drink. He
had arrived at the fish market and saw before him a glorious sight. Here the sailors drank, due
to the immediate proximity of their vessels as well as the less expensive of the bordellos
being conveniently located near the docks. As a result of their nightly binges, the fish market
was equally composed of fish mongers, pubs, and brothels. Naturally it was one of his favorite
locations in the city. Despite being all composed of the usual Valerian stone, each building
was beautifully painted to denote its purpose. The fish mongers loved painting all kinds of
fantastical scenes on their shops that they claimed kept the demons of the deep that lived in
the dark river at bay. He wondered if they truly existed as he trundled up to one of his favorite
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depictions. This one showed a glorious depiction of the southern isles, palm trees blowing in
the wind as they provided shade for three topless mermaids singing their siren's song. It was
truly a beautiful sight and he decided that if he ever got over his deep dislike for boats he
would have to travel south to see them someday.
Supposedly the mermaids used their beauty to lure sailors into the water, only to
subsequently devour them with razor sharp teeth. He didn't hold that against them, if the
mural was any indication of their endowments, he decided a fellow could find far worse ways
to die than staring at a topless mermaid up close. He chuckled at the thought and added it to
his mental list of things that required further consideration. He smiled as he looked at the odd
mishmash of canvas arcing over the stone structure. Erected for protection from the winter
rains it looked more like the huts of shanty town outside the walls. Regardless he supposed
no one really bothered looking at the canvas protection above the mural when the mural itself
was so unbelievably appetizing and far kinder to the eye.
Phineas then allowed his mind to follow the new tangent, as usual a slave to the whim
of his mind as it found some new mental delight to sample and consider. The tarps
themselves only worked for light rains, often resulting in a great deal of necessary restoration
work on the many murals of the fish market. He decided this wasn't such a bad thing though,
as it employed a whole host of would be artists and served as the artistic proving ground for
the city. Those skilled enough were often snatched up by the noble houses to paint the
insides of their ever expanding domiciles. This of course was also quite necessary as the
nobles tendency to attempt “burnouts” was frighteningly common. He pondered the subject of
sealing all doors to a house and starting fires in the basement for all of three seconds. It was
far too gruesome a subject to be considered on such a gloomy day.
Regardless, it did produce a burgeoning artist community. The pay for artists wasn't so
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good, as fish mongers couldn't really afford quality. As such the trade was more often in kind,
the fish sellers would offer fresh fish in exchange for artwork or touch ups as needed. As most
artists held day jobs it was quite a nice arrangement for all parties involved. And of course all
the artists harbored a secret hope that some noble would see their work and offer to be their
patron. In a way, this was yet another form of lottery, a sliver a hope to escape the smell of the
fish market. Then again, he had grown up in close proximity to a fish monger and as such had
long since developed an immunity to said odor. Then again, he despised the sulfurous odor of
the Narg quarter and assumed that to the unacclimatized nose the fish market must be quite
similar in abhorrence.
By now Phineas had passed a good number of brothels covered in various
exaggerations of the human form. While he could appreciate the occasionally fantastic
craftsmanship, the human body just didn't quite do it for him. They were always too tall. He
wondered if someone would ever decide to paint something more of a Dwarven or Gnomish
stature. He quickly dismissed the idea, humans just couldn't seem to understand the beauty
of a beard on a woman. In fact, they often mistook them for men, which generally resulted in
said humans massive headache as Dwarven women were well renowned for their bar fighting
skills.
Speaking of bars, one of his favorites was rapidly approaching and its mural was
magnificent. The fourteenth tankard was a legendary establishment owned and operated by a
wonderful dwarf by the name of Ichabod Stoutstone, said to be an honorary name due to his
inherent ability to drink an entire keg without vomiting. As such his stomach was often referred
to as “stout as stone”. This had also resulted in an ale of the same name which contained
mythical proportions of alcohol within it. Thus, any who claimed to be able to “drink anything”
were presented with said vile brew. Oddly enough it had become a favorite of sailors who
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generally brewed their own version of ale at sea. Since grog was a byproduct of seaweed and
unbelievably foul and alcoholic, they loved stoutstone ale and constantly tried to replicate it
themselves.
Naturally none could compare with the dwarf's fabled brewing abilities, then again he
had had several centuries of practice while the short lived humans generally only had a few
decades at best. Ichabod was always good natured about it, never offering advice but always
willing to test any ale presented to him. As such it was always a fine place to start or finish an
evening. He considered the mural before him and sighed at its glory.
Labeled simply as “the pub crawl”, it showed the legendary exodus of the stone callers
on the first day of the Dwarven new year. Nearest to Phineas it began with a host of dwarfs
entering the Dwarven pub nearest to the Stonecaller clan hall. It showed several more scenes
in which the crowd got smaller and smaller as those too drunk to carry on found the nearest
gutter to sleep in or attempted to crawl home. Finally the glorious masterpiece ended with a
few brave souls staggering up to the door of “The Fourteenth Tankard”. The brave fellows
were of course dwarfs of legend. One of the three was Darius Stonecaller himself, the founder
of the clan. The second was Ichabod Stonecaller, namesake of the pubs proprietor and
supposedly his great great great great great great grand uncle thrice removed. He also
supposedly was the first to brew beer in Valenoch, a fine accolade to place by any individuals
name if ever there was one. The third was Dante Stonecaller, the first admiral of the
Stonecaller armada and supposedly the founder of piracy in the eastern sea. All in all they cut
a fine image, stumbling upon the door of the tavern both in the mural and in reality, for the
mural ended in the actual door of the tavern.
He preferred the dwarfs method of glorifying heroes far more than the humans, using
humor and reality to display the glory of the past rather than depicting stern marble deities
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they chose to show their heroes as glorious drinking companions. Naturally he held the later
in far higher regard than some gold embossed nameplate beneath a flawless marble statue.
He preferred to remember people as they lived, rather than to think of them as some flawless
ideal.
Speaking of flawless ideals, there she was, finest gnomish lass in the land. Bessy's
beard was the longest of any he had ever seen, wispy and shot with a fiery red that matched
her disposition she was the sassiest bar maid he had ever met. Someday he would find the
courage to do more than ask for another pint, someday. Regardless he had important matters
to attend to. He turned his cart down a small alley and instructed his faithful donkey to watch
the cart, not that anyone could actually make Matilda move short of bodily lifting her with a
crane. If nothing else, she was loyal to a fault. He supposed it came from being stuck with him
for the last century or so. He couldn't imagine replacing her with anyone, he imagined she
would be his companion to the end, knowing her penchant for mischief she would probably
outlive him just to spite him.
Regardless, his mighty steed was now safely in place near someones drying laundry.
He knew she wouldn't leave so long as she had something to chew on nearby. With said task
accomplished he found his way into the pub and observed the surroundings. Inside it was a
somber night, as to be expected with it being lottery day. Naturally he decided to stir things up
and live up to his nickname as, “the instigator”. He began by deciding who was the drunkest
and then promptly informing them that someone nearby had called them a low born, fish
munching, no good, son of a Narg. The intoxicated individual naturally promptly stumbled
over to the entirely innocent and hopelessly drunk individual and asked him why he had been
thusly called. As to be expected a fantastic discussion between their respective drunken fists
ensued followed by a general livening of spirits. Ichabod came out of the kitchen to see what
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the ruckus was about and noting Phineas's arrival simply laughed, stating that “You always
know how to cheer a fellow up you old sod, one on the house for the finest hauler in hell.”
This was of course followed by a cheer as two burly dwarfs bodily lifted the two
brawlers up and threw them in the street, after relieving them of the cumbersome weight of
their coin purses naturally. After the brawl the mood lightened visibly and Phineas lost himself
in a fine evening of drinking, debauchery, and of course, lively discussions.
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