Post by Gavin MacNeil on Jan 15, 2015 1:17:03 GMT -6
Gavin was once the lord of a prosperous land and castle; The castle Sween. There he lived with his wife Juliana, and his brother Henry. Gavin was the youngest of the brothers, yet his father had judged his older brother Henry unfit for the throne, for he was too rash, too ambitious and too easily corrupted. This caused the two brothers who had always been close to drift apart until the only reason Gavin kept Henry in the castle was due to his loyalty to his family and clan. Gavin believed this was in the past, and in the years had begun to speak with his brother again, and the two managed to work together again, fighting off invasions and breaking many a shield wall together. Gavin trusted his brother Henry with his life.
Unknown to Gavin, Henry had never let go of this perceived betrayal, he saw the throne as his birthright, and this lust for power ate him from the inside. He plotted for years until his plans came to pass. Henry slew Gavin's wife with the family short swords to frame Gavin for the act. Fleeing for his life, Gavin left the castle with the family weapons, a pair of finely crafted silver short swords passed down through the ages from the lord of the family. Without these weapons, Henry could never truly claim the title of chief of Clan MacNeil.
Gavin spent a few years wandering mourning for his beloved wife, all the while his brother hunted for him, trying in vain to slay him and reclaim the swords of MacNeil. Gavin, needing a place to hide from his brother's fury, he followed his great grandfather's journal until came across a small town called Wildgard, and has been there in hiding ever since. Recently Gavin has finished the construction of Fort MacNeil, a safe place for travelers, traders and friends alike. Also stationed in this fort is the Red Cohort, a peace keeping force also used in the defense of the fort. He now commands the fort and Red Cohort to protect his people and enable them to go about in safety.
A few years pass.
After his departure to reclaim his home with his closest ally and confidante Maximus Antilles AKA The General, his fort was left in the hands of Thea, a founder of the fort with whom Gavin shared a bond and whom Gavin trusted to act in his stead. Gavin fought hard to reclaim his home and throne. He and Maximus were separated in the aftermath of an ambush, and Gavin found himself in land which in ancient times belonged to the Tristan Clan, the clan which would centuries later become the MacNeil Clan. In his journey through these lands searching for Maximus, he learned much of the history of them. He also learned why they were no longer occupied. When venturing about in search of his companion, Gavin found the ruins of an ancient castle, overgrown and crumbling. Gavin made his way to remains the throne room. Picking his way through the remains of what seemed to be an ancient battlefield in the throne room he found a runic tome adjacent an ancient map that had cracked in two. It read thusly.
"Herein lies the account of the last years of the Great King Gatlan and the Castle Barra as written by King Gatlan's last appointed Chief Scribe Antonius Favelos.
In the year 1375 our lands were in turmoil, we warred with our neighbors the Argyls. This blood feud had lasted centuries, but in the past 10 years we began to lose more than we won. Our lands wilted, the winters were cruel and many went hungry. In quiet hours my lord confided in me that he suspected his reign cursed, and his kingdom doomed. It would seem he was correct. We lost land, whole provinces to magisters, who had made demonic pacts to raise armies that did not die. Their blades could kill with a mere cut, how could we blame our king for his losses? In truth, where he not gifted in strategy, we would surely have come to this point much sooner. In his last months, he began to look to the arcane and spiritual realms in desperation for a way to fight back. To my knowledge, he found none. He swore against magic in its many forms for making a mans sweat and blood irrelevant, a trained soldier who spent years training could be felled in an instant by a bolt from a magic user. But i digress, we knew we could not win. The enemy stood at the threshold to our keep. The men died bravely defending us. The king sent the townspeople away with what they could carry a week ago. He gave his treasury to them in equal share in hopes they might start anew elsewhere. He had no more to give, yet still the army stayed loyal to the last breath. I know not the fate of the King, he went out into the Emerald Forest in hopes he might confront a final magistar in single combat. Now the doors are being battered as I write, and good, honest men die to buy me time for these words. I pray someone finds this, the Kingdom of Falconfar deserves better than a death in obscurity.
They are close now."
The text ended abruptly with the last words hastily scrawled scratches and an inkpot seeming to have been spilled across the bottom of the page. Gavin placed the broken map and the tome in his pack. With the knowledge of the history behind the lands, Gavin set out to find the final resting place of King Gatlan in the Emerald Forest in hopes he might learn more of his clans ancient past. This proved more difficult than expected, as centuries had passed since the account was written, and the Emerald Forest now encompassed a massive swath of land, reaching almost into the castle itself.
After searching for a few days Gavin had found many ancient battlefields, some still blacked from being blighted centuries ago. He scoured those a great deal, never finding a sign of the king. After two weeks Gavin was walking between battlefields when he found a Stone Crown partially embedded in a tree. Having checked the map, he knew the crest to be the ancient sigil of Clan Tristan. It was the first sign of the king since his journey started and Gavin was elated to be making progress. That was when the glowing started. The gnarled and twisted tree surged green with chlorophyll and unwound itself from around the Crown. At the same time he heard a voice from behind him, low and smooth and evoking images of leaves on the wind in his mind's eye.
"Greetings, King Gavin MacNeil. Son of Alcyde, heir to the line of Niall of the Nine."
Gavin slowly turned to face the speaker, the crown forgotten. Before him stood something both man, and yet not. He was a man of average high and build, yet his hair was intertwined with moss, and his shoulders had a barklike armoring that seemed to be growing from them. His eyes were a mix of greens and browns. His cloak was covered in leaves that somehow still lived. His face was covered in a black warpaint the style of which reminded Gavin of the art of the fifth kingdom, all hard lines and sharp angles. While Gavin was still taking in his appearance the speaker spoke again.
"I am Gale Ashfury, and I have foreseen your coming. I have waited a long time to speak to you."
Gale began to walk past Gavin, and Gavin noticed he made no noise on the forest floor despite it being littered with leaves and dry twigs.
"How did you-"
Gale cut him off.
"I am this forest's Guardian. I commune with nature, and it has blessed me in return for my services. I do not expect you to understand, only listen, for I have much to tell you."
Gavin nodded and remained quiet. If the man had wished him harm he could have killed him while his back was turned, and there were many questions he wanted answered.
"This is my home, and it has been so for many years now. I have protected it from the blights that would have engulfed it at the cost of feeling the pain it endures." Gale caught Gavin looking at the crown which now lay on what seemed to be a living trunk pedestal.
"Yes, that is the crown of the rightful King Tristan." He said confirming Gavin's suspicions.
"I keep it as a reminder of my past. The Kingdom of Falconfar is no more. You should have seen that keep in it's prime." Gale smiled a soft, sad smile.
Gavin did a double take. The man sounded like he'd seen the keep intact.
Noting the look of confusion on Gavin's face, Gale continued.
"Perhaps you would recognize me me better by my old name, the one i used before i came to this place? They used to call me King Gatlan, Imperator Maximus, and a great many other titles that feel both stale and worthless. I entered this forest centuries ago in search of death, and Gatlan found it. I was born anew as Gale Ashfury."
Gavin struggled to cope with this news. He'd fought wraiths and lichs before, but Gale seemed...young. He also didn't give off the same aura of dread as the undead. Gavin didn't find it hard to believe Gale could have looked this age when he entered this forest hundreds of years ago.
"As I said the forest has repaid me for protecting it. It has sustained me. As long as I remain here I will not age. I will not die until this forest does." Something akin to a shadow passed over Gale's face.
"But you see, it is time I leave. No man should live forever, me least of all."
Gavin began to feel on edge.
"You are a child of my blood, you will be the next."
Gale's eyes flashed brighter and the pedestal behind Gavin changed again, growing around his legs and trapping him in a living throne of wood before he could even react. Roots trapped his arms as he felt the stone crown being settled onto his head.
Gavin struggled against the living throne.
"Release me! I am no servant of yours! I am bound by no will but my own!"
Gale laughed, a sound like the low creaking of tree trunks.
"You have no choice, the forest must have a keeper. The one before me was much more harsh. You will be my heir, and you will learn the pain nature suffers."
Gale bowed low before Gavin, a gesture that could have been mocking, but somehow came across as genuine.
"Hail, Gavin MacNeil. Keeper of the Emerald Realms."
Gavin yelled out in anger "The line of Tristan is broken! I am the last of the Clan MacNeil! Would you doom another line to suffer your own fate?"
Gale seemed pained, looking down.
"I am...sorry. The time of Clan MacNeil is done, I have foreseen it. I regret it must be this way, but I must go. There are places i must go, things i must do before i pass. Nature sends me forth as it's avatar, it's warrior. I will see what you have built in..." He paused for a moment, as though listening to the breeze. "...Wildgard." He finished.
Gavin was alarmed at the thought Fort MacNeil looking like the keep he passed on his into this forest.
"Please, we can make a deal! I have people who need me, I must lead and protect them!" Gavin put as much emphasis as he could on that last word.
Gale shook his head sadly.
"It is simple, one of us must stay. All I can tell you is that by keeping you here, I save you from a much worse fate. I only regret I cannot do the same for your friend Maximus."
Gavin's blood ran cold at the mention of The General.
"Where is he? If i cannot return, send him in my stead!" Gavin was pleading now, desperate to save his friend.
Gale walked up to Gavin and put his hand on Gavin's shoulder, Gavin caught a faint whiff of roses.
"I can show you him, but his fate is sealed." Said Gale as he waved his hand.
A crystal clear pool of water formed in front of Gavin's oaken prison, the reflection was of Maximus.
Maximus was in the court of Henry MacNeil, Gavin's Brother and false lord of Sween.
He was pleading his case in front of Henry, attempting to get the eldest brother to see reason, which impressed Gavin somewhere in the back of his panicked mind, as Maximus was never fond of diplomacy.
Gavin knew it would make no difference. Henry was not a man to change his mind easily, and he had been committed to this con for nearly a decade now.
The surface rippled and the image changed, showing Maximus, this time looking weary and and ragged, as though he had been on the road some time. On his back were the twin swords of chieftainship of Clan MacNeil, and behind him were a small band of faces Gavin recognized from The Red Cohort, Fort MacNeil's military force.
Gavin had a bad feeling he knew how this would end.
The pool rippled one last time. Maximus lay bleeding at the steps of the throne room in the Castle Sween, a battle raging around him. He had an arrow in his arm, his shield was in in splinters, and his tabard was shredded and scorched. His face was tight with pain. The crimson pool below his form spread. His face slowly relaxed as his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell limp. Slowly the view zoomed out, showing at least a dozen bodies around him, and as the vision faded from the pool someone ran towards the broken form of the general.
Gavin stared in shock, stunned silent at having seen his best friend die in front of him.
After a long silence Gale spoke.
"You cannot save him, he ventures to get those men now. He will fight and die believing you captured by your brother and trying to free you."
Gavin slowly started to regain his senses and spoke.
"You can't just doom him to die! I can save him! Let me go and i'll regain my kingdom! Our kingdom!"
Gale frowned at Gavin.
"No, as i said before, you will remain here, and he will die a hero. You did well to inspire such loyalty." A whispering breeze came again, and Gale regained his composure and walked to the edge of the clearing.
"Now, I must leave you, it is a long journey to Wildgard." He gestured at the pool in front of Gavin.
"This pool will show you the outside world, many glimpses of the future you cannot change. I leave it as my gift to you. You will see only what The Spirit will permit you, so you would do well to not ask too much. I hope you will come to forgive me in time for this."
Again Gale bowed, then he turned and began to walk away.
Gavin screamed at Gale's vanishing back,
"I SWEAR UPON MY DEAD WIFE AND CHILD I SHALL FIND A WAY TO PROTECT WILDGARD AND MY PEOPLE! YOU WILL NOT TAKE THEM FROM ME TOO!"
Gavin fought his binds, but to no avail.
After about an hour of struggling and screaming and fighting back tears, Gavin gave up, his voice raw and body tired. He fell back in his new throne and prison.
It must have been in that moment that Gale left the forest. Gavin felt a surge of energy, refreshing him. He became acutely aware of every plant and creature in the the forest, from one side to the other.
The stone crown on his brow suddenly felt heavier.
Then came the pain.
A small amount of pain at first, then suddenly a great deal of pain, like a dam bursting.
Against his will Gavin cried out.
A villager hit a tree with an axe at the south-east side of the forest, and a splitting pain throbbed in Gavin's mind. He felt each blow as through it hit him.
He felt a deer breathe it's last on the west side of the forest, succumbing to a hunter's arrow. As it died Gavin felt a bit of energy leave him.
Gavin understood now why Gale was unwilling to stay. Three centuries of this would kill most lesser men.
Gavin asked the pool to show him Wildgard. It remained blank.
He asked it to show him The Fifth Kingdom, and it obliged. He saw the entrance hall, which still had the golem he and Thea had encountered the first time they braved it's depths.
He asked it to show him Sween. It continued showing the Fifth Kingdom.
He heard the breeze whisper to him, now able to make out the words it spoke.
"Your homes are closed to you."
Gavin gave in and began to sob.
The pain continued.
Somewhere far beyond the forest, Gale sat with Gavin's pack of supplies, he unrolled a map detailing Gavin's path out to these lands.
Getting up and walking to the crest of a hill he looked at the map and compared it to the sight before him.
Taking a deep breath in and then slowly letting it out Gale savored the lack of pain for the first time in three centuries.
"Now...on to Wildgard..."
Unknown to Gavin, Henry had never let go of this perceived betrayal, he saw the throne as his birthright, and this lust for power ate him from the inside. He plotted for years until his plans came to pass. Henry slew Gavin's wife with the family short swords to frame Gavin for the act. Fleeing for his life, Gavin left the castle with the family weapons, a pair of finely crafted silver short swords passed down through the ages from the lord of the family. Without these weapons, Henry could never truly claim the title of chief of Clan MacNeil.
Gavin spent a few years wandering mourning for his beloved wife, all the while his brother hunted for him, trying in vain to slay him and reclaim the swords of MacNeil. Gavin, needing a place to hide from his brother's fury, he followed his great grandfather's journal until came across a small town called Wildgard, and has been there in hiding ever since. Recently Gavin has finished the construction of Fort MacNeil, a safe place for travelers, traders and friends alike. Also stationed in this fort is the Red Cohort, a peace keeping force also used in the defense of the fort. He now commands the fort and Red Cohort to protect his people and enable them to go about in safety.
A few years pass.
After his departure to reclaim his home with his closest ally and confidante Maximus Antilles AKA The General, his fort was left in the hands of Thea, a founder of the fort with whom Gavin shared a bond and whom Gavin trusted to act in his stead. Gavin fought hard to reclaim his home and throne. He and Maximus were separated in the aftermath of an ambush, and Gavin found himself in land which in ancient times belonged to the Tristan Clan, the clan which would centuries later become the MacNeil Clan. In his journey through these lands searching for Maximus, he learned much of the history of them. He also learned why they were no longer occupied. When venturing about in search of his companion, Gavin found the ruins of an ancient castle, overgrown and crumbling. Gavin made his way to remains the throne room. Picking his way through the remains of what seemed to be an ancient battlefield in the throne room he found a runic tome adjacent an ancient map that had cracked in two. It read thusly.
"Herein lies the account of the last years of the Great King Gatlan and the Castle Barra as written by King Gatlan's last appointed Chief Scribe Antonius Favelos.
In the year 1375 our lands were in turmoil, we warred with our neighbors the Argyls. This blood feud had lasted centuries, but in the past 10 years we began to lose more than we won. Our lands wilted, the winters were cruel and many went hungry. In quiet hours my lord confided in me that he suspected his reign cursed, and his kingdom doomed. It would seem he was correct. We lost land, whole provinces to magisters, who had made demonic pacts to raise armies that did not die. Their blades could kill with a mere cut, how could we blame our king for his losses? In truth, where he not gifted in strategy, we would surely have come to this point much sooner. In his last months, he began to look to the arcane and spiritual realms in desperation for a way to fight back. To my knowledge, he found none. He swore against magic in its many forms for making a mans sweat and blood irrelevant, a trained soldier who spent years training could be felled in an instant by a bolt from a magic user. But i digress, we knew we could not win. The enemy stood at the threshold to our keep. The men died bravely defending us. The king sent the townspeople away with what they could carry a week ago. He gave his treasury to them in equal share in hopes they might start anew elsewhere. He had no more to give, yet still the army stayed loyal to the last breath. I know not the fate of the King, he went out into the Emerald Forest in hopes he might confront a final magistar in single combat. Now the doors are being battered as I write, and good, honest men die to buy me time for these words. I pray someone finds this, the Kingdom of Falconfar deserves better than a death in obscurity.
They are close now."
The text ended abruptly with the last words hastily scrawled scratches and an inkpot seeming to have been spilled across the bottom of the page. Gavin placed the broken map and the tome in his pack. With the knowledge of the history behind the lands, Gavin set out to find the final resting place of King Gatlan in the Emerald Forest in hopes he might learn more of his clans ancient past. This proved more difficult than expected, as centuries had passed since the account was written, and the Emerald Forest now encompassed a massive swath of land, reaching almost into the castle itself.
After searching for a few days Gavin had found many ancient battlefields, some still blacked from being blighted centuries ago. He scoured those a great deal, never finding a sign of the king. After two weeks Gavin was walking between battlefields when he found a Stone Crown partially embedded in a tree. Having checked the map, he knew the crest to be the ancient sigil of Clan Tristan. It was the first sign of the king since his journey started and Gavin was elated to be making progress. That was when the glowing started. The gnarled and twisted tree surged green with chlorophyll and unwound itself from around the Crown. At the same time he heard a voice from behind him, low and smooth and evoking images of leaves on the wind in his mind's eye.
"Greetings, King Gavin MacNeil. Son of Alcyde, heir to the line of Niall of the Nine."
Gavin slowly turned to face the speaker, the crown forgotten. Before him stood something both man, and yet not. He was a man of average high and build, yet his hair was intertwined with moss, and his shoulders had a barklike armoring that seemed to be growing from them. His eyes were a mix of greens and browns. His cloak was covered in leaves that somehow still lived. His face was covered in a black warpaint the style of which reminded Gavin of the art of the fifth kingdom, all hard lines and sharp angles. While Gavin was still taking in his appearance the speaker spoke again.
"I am Gale Ashfury, and I have foreseen your coming. I have waited a long time to speak to you."
Gale began to walk past Gavin, and Gavin noticed he made no noise on the forest floor despite it being littered with leaves and dry twigs.
"How did you-"
Gale cut him off.
"I am this forest's Guardian. I commune with nature, and it has blessed me in return for my services. I do not expect you to understand, only listen, for I have much to tell you."
Gavin nodded and remained quiet. If the man had wished him harm he could have killed him while his back was turned, and there were many questions he wanted answered.
"This is my home, and it has been so for many years now. I have protected it from the blights that would have engulfed it at the cost of feeling the pain it endures." Gale caught Gavin looking at the crown which now lay on what seemed to be a living trunk pedestal.
"Yes, that is the crown of the rightful King Tristan." He said confirming Gavin's suspicions.
"I keep it as a reminder of my past. The Kingdom of Falconfar is no more. You should have seen that keep in it's prime." Gale smiled a soft, sad smile.
Gavin did a double take. The man sounded like he'd seen the keep intact.
Noting the look of confusion on Gavin's face, Gale continued.
"Perhaps you would recognize me me better by my old name, the one i used before i came to this place? They used to call me King Gatlan, Imperator Maximus, and a great many other titles that feel both stale and worthless. I entered this forest centuries ago in search of death, and Gatlan found it. I was born anew as Gale Ashfury."
Gavin struggled to cope with this news. He'd fought wraiths and lichs before, but Gale seemed...young. He also didn't give off the same aura of dread as the undead. Gavin didn't find it hard to believe Gale could have looked this age when he entered this forest hundreds of years ago.
"As I said the forest has repaid me for protecting it. It has sustained me. As long as I remain here I will not age. I will not die until this forest does." Something akin to a shadow passed over Gale's face.
"But you see, it is time I leave. No man should live forever, me least of all."
Gavin began to feel on edge.
"You are a child of my blood, you will be the next."
Gale's eyes flashed brighter and the pedestal behind Gavin changed again, growing around his legs and trapping him in a living throne of wood before he could even react. Roots trapped his arms as he felt the stone crown being settled onto his head.
Gavin struggled against the living throne.
"Release me! I am no servant of yours! I am bound by no will but my own!"
Gale laughed, a sound like the low creaking of tree trunks.
"You have no choice, the forest must have a keeper. The one before me was much more harsh. You will be my heir, and you will learn the pain nature suffers."
Gale bowed low before Gavin, a gesture that could have been mocking, but somehow came across as genuine.
"Hail, Gavin MacNeil. Keeper of the Emerald Realms."
Gavin yelled out in anger "The line of Tristan is broken! I am the last of the Clan MacNeil! Would you doom another line to suffer your own fate?"
Gale seemed pained, looking down.
"I am...sorry. The time of Clan MacNeil is done, I have foreseen it. I regret it must be this way, but I must go. There are places i must go, things i must do before i pass. Nature sends me forth as it's avatar, it's warrior. I will see what you have built in..." He paused for a moment, as though listening to the breeze. "...Wildgard." He finished.
Gavin was alarmed at the thought Fort MacNeil looking like the keep he passed on his into this forest.
"Please, we can make a deal! I have people who need me, I must lead and protect them!" Gavin put as much emphasis as he could on that last word.
Gale shook his head sadly.
"It is simple, one of us must stay. All I can tell you is that by keeping you here, I save you from a much worse fate. I only regret I cannot do the same for your friend Maximus."
Gavin's blood ran cold at the mention of The General.
"Where is he? If i cannot return, send him in my stead!" Gavin was pleading now, desperate to save his friend.
Gale walked up to Gavin and put his hand on Gavin's shoulder, Gavin caught a faint whiff of roses.
"I can show you him, but his fate is sealed." Said Gale as he waved his hand.
A crystal clear pool of water formed in front of Gavin's oaken prison, the reflection was of Maximus.
Maximus was in the court of Henry MacNeil, Gavin's Brother and false lord of Sween.
He was pleading his case in front of Henry, attempting to get the eldest brother to see reason, which impressed Gavin somewhere in the back of his panicked mind, as Maximus was never fond of diplomacy.
Gavin knew it would make no difference. Henry was not a man to change his mind easily, and he had been committed to this con for nearly a decade now.
The surface rippled and the image changed, showing Maximus, this time looking weary and and ragged, as though he had been on the road some time. On his back were the twin swords of chieftainship of Clan MacNeil, and behind him were a small band of faces Gavin recognized from The Red Cohort, Fort MacNeil's military force.
Gavin had a bad feeling he knew how this would end.
The pool rippled one last time. Maximus lay bleeding at the steps of the throne room in the Castle Sween, a battle raging around him. He had an arrow in his arm, his shield was in in splinters, and his tabard was shredded and scorched. His face was tight with pain. The crimson pool below his form spread. His face slowly relaxed as his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell limp. Slowly the view zoomed out, showing at least a dozen bodies around him, and as the vision faded from the pool someone ran towards the broken form of the general.
Gavin stared in shock, stunned silent at having seen his best friend die in front of him.
After a long silence Gale spoke.
"You cannot save him, he ventures to get those men now. He will fight and die believing you captured by your brother and trying to free you."
Gavin slowly started to regain his senses and spoke.
"You can't just doom him to die! I can save him! Let me go and i'll regain my kingdom! Our kingdom!"
Gale frowned at Gavin.
"No, as i said before, you will remain here, and he will die a hero. You did well to inspire such loyalty." A whispering breeze came again, and Gale regained his composure and walked to the edge of the clearing.
"Now, I must leave you, it is a long journey to Wildgard." He gestured at the pool in front of Gavin.
"This pool will show you the outside world, many glimpses of the future you cannot change. I leave it as my gift to you. You will see only what The Spirit will permit you, so you would do well to not ask too much. I hope you will come to forgive me in time for this."
Again Gale bowed, then he turned and began to walk away.
Gavin screamed at Gale's vanishing back,
"I SWEAR UPON MY DEAD WIFE AND CHILD I SHALL FIND A WAY TO PROTECT WILDGARD AND MY PEOPLE! YOU WILL NOT TAKE THEM FROM ME TOO!"
Gavin fought his binds, but to no avail.
After about an hour of struggling and screaming and fighting back tears, Gavin gave up, his voice raw and body tired. He fell back in his new throne and prison.
It must have been in that moment that Gale left the forest. Gavin felt a surge of energy, refreshing him. He became acutely aware of every plant and creature in the the forest, from one side to the other.
The stone crown on his brow suddenly felt heavier.
Then came the pain.
A small amount of pain at first, then suddenly a great deal of pain, like a dam bursting.
Against his will Gavin cried out.
A villager hit a tree with an axe at the south-east side of the forest, and a splitting pain throbbed in Gavin's mind. He felt each blow as through it hit him.
He felt a deer breathe it's last on the west side of the forest, succumbing to a hunter's arrow. As it died Gavin felt a bit of energy leave him.
Gavin understood now why Gale was unwilling to stay. Three centuries of this would kill most lesser men.
Gavin asked the pool to show him Wildgard. It remained blank.
He asked it to show him The Fifth Kingdom, and it obliged. He saw the entrance hall, which still had the golem he and Thea had encountered the first time they braved it's depths.
He asked it to show him Sween. It continued showing the Fifth Kingdom.
He heard the breeze whisper to him, now able to make out the words it spoke.
"Your homes are closed to you."
Gavin gave in and began to sob.
The pain continued.
Somewhere far beyond the forest, Gale sat with Gavin's pack of supplies, he unrolled a map detailing Gavin's path out to these lands.
Getting up and walking to the crest of a hill he looked at the map and compared it to the sight before him.
Taking a deep breath in and then slowly letting it out Gale savored the lack of pain for the first time in three centuries.
"Now...on to Wildgard..."
