Bordell's Tales, Chapter 2: Broken Sword

You feel a whirlwind sucking you into darkness. You try to drag you up, but in the emptyness that surround you, you can't know where is the up and down, so you simply fight against the force that drag you, that push you, that spin you. Then suddenly, the force disappear and you start to feel you falling down. The fall first accelerate, if there was a ground, you would expect to die immediatly, but you fall into the emptyness, and then the fall slow down.

You are walking and you see profiling around you a landscape. At first, you can't recognize it. You see on the top of the hill a naked man, holding a sword and a shield. In front of him is a women, beautifull and dark. The dark eyes of the woman look directly to the blue eyes of the man. The man raise his sword, but the lady stop the blow with her arm. You see a small wound on her arm. She raise her hand, a delicate hands with a pale skins and obsidian nails. A wind raise and the man is push down the hills. The man rolls down the hill and finish into a bay. The man swim up to a small rocky island where he prepares himself again to confront the woman. The woman kneels on the shore of the bay and touch the water. A wave grow from the place she touch and strike the small island. At that moment, a blue ray projected by the lady touch the water, transforming it into ice. The man is stuck into the ice created with the water of the wave. All the bay have been turned into a cristal plain. The lady slowly walk toward the man, unable to move. As she come next to the man, she smiles at him, and stike the ice with her nails. The man and the island explode into a rain of cristal.

You are blinded a moment and when you are able to see again, all you see, it is a broken sword and shield at your feet. You feel cold that penetrate your body and you faint out.

You are in darkness again and hear voices. You can't distinguish the nature of the voice or what they tells, but they seems concern, they seems to have sorrow.

You see before your eyes another landscape. It looks like a large mountain range that cover the horizon. You are in a glade, and in the middle of it, a large oak. You walk up to teh large tree, and you see an hole. It is dark. You enter it. You are in a cavern. You follow the cave and at it end is the broken sword of the man you saw dying. You take it into your hands. You take the two pieces and insert them. They fit perfectly, so perfectly that when you try to separate them, they doesn't move. The sword seems repaired. You take the sword and you walk back the cave.

As you exit, you are no more in a glade, but in a desert. You see sands that surround you up to the horizon. As you turn around to look at the cave, the entrance is gone. You walk and walk and see nothing. It seems endless, you feels the thirst and the heat. You feel hope leaving you. You fall in the sands, too tired to continue. You think you would die and then a man appear, or is it a woman? You can't tell, he is in a cloak that cover all his body except his eyes. He helps you satnds up and show you the way to an oasis. in this oasis, is a small lake, and on it, you see the shield floating on the water. You walk into the water and take the shield.

As you look around, you are no more in teh oasis, but in the Gailian Royal palace. Your feet are in the central fountain of the garden. You see before you the dark lady. She is starring at you and seems angry. She raise a hand and you see shadows appearing all around you. The humanoid form rush on you and cover you. You fall again into darkness.

You feel weak. You feel as a vampire would have suck all your blood and would have left your lifeless body. You can't even open your eyes. The amount of energy needed to do that would be huge as a montain. You feel tired by each breath.

But even in that condition, you can still hear. it is the only sense that seems to work properly. You hear a faint noise of wind. You hear the sound of a firewood crackling. You hear someone breathing. You hear someone walking. The person walking seems far, but the one breathing seems close.

"Is there any hope?" ask a woman's voice. The voice seems familiar, but you can't tell.

"As long as he breath, yes. He seems more tired, you should put him to sleep." tells a man voice. That voice seems familiar too.

You feel some force that cloud your mind, and you lose consciousness again.

You see yourself in a forest. You are followed, but you feel it as normal. Your followers are two birds. The first is an white Owl, teh second a yellow canari. Those two strange companion follow you as you walk a path. You've walked that path once... it lead up to the huge Oak. As you take a turn, teh horned Owl start to shout. you see an hidden trail under the white Owl. You enter the forest, following that hidden path. The forest go silent, the fear start to grow in you, but teh carary sing and it seems to vanish....

You wake up again. You still hear the sounds of fire wood crackling. You hear someone whose gently shaking some liquid that is boiling. You smells the nice perfum of some soup. You are still too tired to open your eyes or to speak.

The person who is near you start to sing. It is the same voice you heard when you were last awaken. She is singing. You've never heard such marvelous voice. She is singing a bedtime song, for some kids, but you can't hear any other person in the room. You can feel some sadness in the voice that touch you. A tear form itself in you eyes, and feel the warm water drop to slide on your cheek. The softly song make you dream again.

You are in a battle field. Snow all around you is tainted with the blood of warriors. You walk among the corpse, and you see familiar faces. Kyle wailin have been beheaded, Greffit Vansel have been hit at the heart, a sword of his own creation still in the belly. Jeromy Masser have been hit in the back. Hanry steel have lost his leg. Bellmon lie his face in teh snow, the mark of two daggers in the back.

As you see more familiar faces among the deads, you see a pyre burning, and four man around it. The man burning is Roderick, master of your order. His executioners are faces you know well. Jasper Kriegspire is holding the torch, and next to him is Varence. But what shock you most, is you see the king of Gaile and Leopol Stone at there side.

You awaken after this nightmare. you try to figure what you,ve seen when you remark you have the eyes open. A faint light wave on the ceiling. You hear the crackling sound of the fire who create that light. You seems to be in a small house. You feel youself lying on a bed of hay, covered by a think sheet. Another sheet is over you. You turn your head and see a woman that is putting something to heat on the fire. As she turn around, her look cross yours.

You see a beautifull woman that seems tired. Her eyes show some curiosity. Her long red hairs are dishevelled and dusty. Her cloth are torn and have holes and can't hide her athletic body. Her hands are dirty and seems to be the gentle hand of a lady.

After a moment, you see you've been fixing her for some time, and her too. You close your eyes. "Finally. I was losing hope for you. I can't beleive you are still alive." You feel the hand of the girl taking you in the back and in the neck, and put you in a better position. You feel her strength and she move your with easiness. Your legs still lay on teh ground, but your back is now on a cozy stack of hay. In your half sitting position, you are now facing the fire. The woman sit near the fire and look at the content of her caldron. "How do you feel, hungry maybe? I doing some soup." As she talk about food, you feel your empty stomach... you feel like you could eat a beef, but you aren,t sure you could chew up more than a bit, as you are still very tired.

<How...> Xavier looks around. <Where...> He looks back at the lady, confused. He knows it's safe here, but it doesn't make any sense. How much time has passed? Is that important right now? His stomach is hungrier than his curiousity. For the time being, he can only nod at the offer of food. Soup is easier to eat than beef.

Once he has some soup in his stomach, Xavier will try to manage a weak "Thank you." He's curious to see how the lady will act.

The woman serves you a bowl of soup. You eat it quietly. You feel your stomach react positively to the soup. As you eat, you feel the wooden spoon as heavy as a short sword, nothing to prevent you to eat, but after eating a bowl, you feel a bit tired.

"Thank you." you tells to her.

"Your welcome." she tells. "You must have many questions." She takes your empty plate and walk to a small basin where she start to clean it. "I should be able to answer most of them. I let you determine which is most important to you. What do you want to know?"

Xavier breathes slowly, feeling a little of the warmth of the soup in his stomach. <I'd best find out how much she knows, first...> "What happened to me? And who are you?" He pauses for a bit, "I have no clue about anything that has happened, or about how much time has passed since my last memory, so I'd appreciate as much information as I could have." He looks under the blanket to see that he is fully dressed before he stretches his legs to see how much energy they have.

ooc: I'd ask 'what is the date' but I don't know what date it was before

She finish to clean the bowl and the spoon. She put it in a chest near the the firpit. She take a small pillow and sits on the ground, using the pillow as a cushion. "My name is Jade. I lives her, in this small house. Beyond these walls lay the barbarian's lands. I live now as a reclusive, as I've learn enough about Gaile and Theor to dislike living in these lands."

She pause a moment as you assimilate the informations. You remember having falled from the wall of Castle Theor, which is at three days of ride from the nearest border of the barbarian's lands.

"A few miles from here, the is a large river. I found you on the bank of it. It was in mid fall. We are now almost at the end of the spring. It makes around eight months that I have found you." She pauses again. You remember it was the fall when you arrived in Theor, and if she tells the truth, you really have slept for eight months.

"I took care of you during all that time, but alone, I doubt you would have survived. I have a friend that come to visit me, and he come here every few days. He gives me a few berry that he had prepared. I take out the juice from the berry and put it in your mouth. It is that which allow you to survive all that time without waking up."

She stands up and walk to a large chest that lay next to the bed where you are. "When I found you, all your cloth where thorn, and I didn't bother to keep them. But I kept that, maybe you can tell me why I found it next to you." She open the chest grab an item in it. You see in her hand a broken sword. The blade have been shattered in two pieces. She put the two piece in front of you. It take only a moment to identify the blade. You have manipulated too much time that you will never forget it. It is Leopol Stone's sword. What you can't figure, it is why the blade have broken. You remember the blade broke when Jasper Kriegspire gave you an hit with the sword, but the hit wasn't hard enough, and you body wasn't resistant enough, to broke teh blade. You've never seen a sword of better quality in your life, and you know that Griffit, the order's blacksmith is the best weaponsmith of all Gaile. You've always wondered who forged this blade and how it reached the hands of Stone, but teh story doesn't tell. One thing is sure, you owe your life at the weakness in the blade, as Kriegspire blow should have been fatal.