Setting: The night before the Assault of Gorost
The fires surrounding the city of Domitius failed one by one in the night as the rampaging tarrasque stomped out their keepers in the darkness. A cruel wind howled outside drowning out all but the mightiest of noises from the dispersed battlefield.
Under the watchful eye of Caelum the party shared uneasy rest in the hours as the sun began to warm the eastern sky prior to dawn. Leaning on his scythe with fatigue Maugan approaches Caelum. “I can’t sleep knowing it’s out there.” He spoke wearily.
Caelum - Funny - I can't sleep either; well, not like I usually sleep much anyway…
Maugan - They say you sleep much when you're dead… In my experience the nights are filled with scheming and slaughter and the days quiet reading. So the rumours about the journal are true then…
Caelum - Well, I have been doing some reading, but mostly at night while the others are sleeping, but it's been another journal that's caught my attention lately; one that chronicles you.
Maugan slowly raised an eyebrow in surprise, an unfamiliar gesture of late. "Who's been spying?"
Caelum - Stories of the children you've been helping have made it all the way to Aire. And you thought you were hiding them so well. Aren't you supposed to be the smarter one?
Maugan – Solstice, murmured the necromancer, his suspicions confirmed. "It's strange, among the Ludimarites mercy is seen as an ugly weakness, yet I learned much secreting away innocents these past few years."
Caelum - I am glad you started listening to them. Most probably it was their love that saved you. Imagine what you could have learned if you had been listening all along.
"I have learnt much of darkness also Caelum…" he replied ominously, "enough to know how dangerous our quest now is, Ludimar will not release Recamia Anastal without one hell of a fight."
Caelum - And we're planning a heavenly victory. (Very obviously casting Zone of Truth) We've already defeated Solstice, and I have a feeling Ludimar will have more enemies that will join us in the battle.
Maugan - Many allies join us in war upon ludimar, but save for Anastal… and Peaches we go to battle alone.
Caelum - Do you not see, brother? We are not alone. Others are watching - Gods and Saints and spirits - we are never alone. Someone was watching you save those children, remember?
Maugan pauses taking a laboured breath, his conscienice heavy upon his shoulders, "Even so, I can't help but think that we go now to a battle that neither of us can hope to survive."
Caelum - We don't have to survive it, so long as Ludimar doesn't survive it. It's one of the things I've learned from the many times I've met you before now - your death is not the end as long as your ideals survive. It was true of the humans in Donlin crater, of Shimin, of Tolast, and obviously of you. What we need to destroy is the cult of Ludimar, and that includes him and many others. That's why I fought against you - not for who you are, but for your ideals. I prayed for you every time I met you.
Maugan - And tonight you should pray for both of us… for all of us, for tomorrow our ideals will be put to the greatest test of all.
Caelum - I hardly ever stop. (Caelum summons an Elysian thrush)
Categories: Posts, Posts by Caelum, Storyline
