Caleb's Journey

A new path

“

What hope have we now?” Caleb said aloud. “Our one chance to find Xerax and defeat him is gone, to say nothing of the three brave souls who died. We had the map and the Goddess on our side and still we have failed. We can’t even give them a proper burial unless you count buried underneath a mountain of rubble an appropriate funeral for comrades.”

“

It was their time, no matter what, my friend,” Malachael said with compassion and a tinge of coolness. “When the Goddess calls you home, you can but heed her wishes.” Here he laid his hand on Caleb’s broad shoulder, “We must move forward towards our own futures.”

Candellah eyed them all wistfully. Inside of her was a deep yearning to ease their suffering. “I have already prayed for all of them. We all should. Whatever happens, trust in Uua. Sometimes when bad things happen, we lack the power to see the long-term benefits. Only later in life are they revealed to us.”

“

Wise words,” said Sir Kyme. “I think our future lies back at Attalis. If Xerax really has the power to raise an undead army as some of you fear he has, what better place to meet them than from behind the walls of a heavily fortified stronghold?”

Ever wise, Malachael remarked that such a feat would take time and it was his desire that they strike the first and final blow, by getting to Xerax and wresting Uua’s Tear from him. He told everyone that he had promised the monastery that he would return the item and that he had every intention of doing it, even if he had to walk the path alone, whatever that path may be. To him, hiding behind the walls of the fortress and waiting for the enemy to attack removed any element of surprise.

Finally, after watching enough of his friends die, of putting faith in matters about which he was either ignorant or knew too little the master of masking his emotions Lord Lestrade seethed with rage. “Ready to face any challenge like the ones we’ve already faced? Does that make you brave? I see my men die by visiting your old girlfriend or by trusting in a child that finding a giant would help us. You don’t even know how to find Xerax! It’s sheer lunacy on your part to press onward to an unknown destination to find what you seek. I owe my knights my best and a spirited defense. That defense at a castle strikes me as the best means to achieve that end. My king and my oath make it my duty to protect my country and that is what

I am going to do.”

In his younger days Malacheal would have incinerated the knight for what he deemed an impudent tongue. Instead, he merely folded his arms in his brown cloak and let the words roll off of him like water off of a sloped rooftop. With a subtle nature, he tapped his brown boot on the ground like a parent does when listening to the pleas of a pouting child.

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Are you finished?” Was all that he asked of the knight. “ Let me put a question to that fiery mind of yours. You have either the mind of a skilled courtier, a fine military commander, perhaps even a politician, all of which equally distract your rational mind from greater goals and by robbing the arguments of reason and replacing them with emotion. Nobody holds life

more dearly than I, and I grieve our losses, but how greater still will our losses be if we fail to finish what we set out to do? Even if all but one of us survive this ordeal and we stop Xerax before he raises an army, for that is my guess of his purpose, we will have saved many more lives that would otherwise perish in combat at Attalis. My brother, we fight the same fight. Friend, trust me. This child, as you just called her, has proved herself to be invaluable in terms of divine insight. She’s been right about everything thus far. Let’s put our faith in that.”

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We’ve come this far,” urged Caleb. “Nobody has ever mapped the entire Wild for no civilization has yet to tame it. Let’s get on our steeds and see where this path takes us. Candellah, lead us where you will.” What Caleb said about The Wild was true. It was mostly a desolate wasteland, some speculating that it was filled with horrible monsters or that a great war took place there and that the ground was dry and cursed, save for the withered trees that grew densely together. So tightly were they packed at some point that no light shone through them.