Interlude - Lew's Journal
Greetings All!
Since we have reached that point in the story, I thought I would post Lew's perspective on recent events...
Lew's Journal
"Brother Lew, did you hear something?"
After a short pause, Lew replied to the younger Scipio. "Hear what? I can't hear anything over Josephus' clopping."
Sextus shouted up to Rowan. "What about you? Did you hear that?"
A moment passed before the cautious ranger waved a slowing hand and disappeared off one side of the road.
Some Mid-Summers-Day this was. Back in Glynden, the carnival would be well underway. Most of the towns people were probably half drunk by now. Every year the day gets a little more festive as people put their worries aside for a day. But not this year. Not for Lew and his companions.
The party had ventured forth from the inn at an early hour, only to be greeted by the pelting rain. They had been soaked through before the inn was out of sight. As they waited silently for the scout to return, Lew noticed that the rain had begun to slow.
Rowan appeared around a bend in the road waving the party on. Lew lead the stubborn mule forward once again.
Ahead, in the middle of the road, a young man was apparently having trouble with his wagon. Rowan mad quick introductions as Quintus surveyed the damage to the wagon. He admitted to having little proficiency at smithing, but judged it to be little different than the hammer he was used to wielding in the mines. A few blows latter, the wheel was straightened and the wagon was as good as new.
The young man agreed to traveling together, and allowed Drusilla to ride in the back of his wagon. The rest of the day passed slowly. The weather remained miserable, although the rain stopped mid-afternoon.
Sextus strode along side the wagon, and sparked up some conversation. The young man turned out to be quite the gossip, and proceeded to tell all manner of fanciful tales to the attentive bard.
Lew could not help but notice that the backwater boy was quite the simpleton. He expressed wide-eyed, child-like amazement at even the simplest things. His tales were over-exaggerated, full of unnecessary detail, and often very hard to believe. Lew had decided it best to keep to himself, and let Sextus do all of the talking. That is, until he got dragged in...
The young man's eyes lit up. "You have one of those 'lighties' with you? Where? Which one of you is the lightie?"...
Lew's eyes rolled back into his head as he breathed a deep sigh. He did not want to talk with this simple man...but, if he truely was interested in the Light...
Lew moved closer to the wagon. "I am a brother of the Light."
"Really? Can you heal people? I have this pain in my back..."
The boy rambled on about his back pain, but Lew had already tuned him out. 'How do we always find them,' he thought to himself. The boy had little faith, if any at all. All he wanted was healing.
Lew sighed as he cut the young man off. "I will look at it when we stop. Do you follow the ways of the Light?"
The boy grinned eagerly, "Yes... go every chance I get...been to the Cathedral at least 2 or 3 times..."
Lew did not know what to say. The boy was actually proud of himself for going to the cathedral a handfull of times in his life. To him, that was reverence.
"Very well, I will look at your back when we stop." The boy did not grasp the hidden message that the converstation was over, so Lew ended up repeating this line several times. Finally, Sextus spoke up and changed the subject, saving Lew.
That evening, Lew examined the young man. His lower back was severely out of alignment, which Lew was able to deftly re-adjust. The boy screamed in pain for a moment, then began dancing for joy. He declared the Lew was a 'miracle worker' for fixing his back, and that Quintus was too for fixing the wagon.
Lew shook his head, but held his tongue. He figured that there was no point arguing with the simple man who was prone to exaggeration. The topic fell, and the night passed on uneventfully.
The next day passed much the same, although the weather had lightened a bit. Before long, the road had begun to dry up, and the wagon moved a little quicker to their destination. Little of note happened. Sextus and the young man continued to chat, now mumbling about the politics of Oar. At one point, several soldiers passed on rather strong-looking horses, but they
said nothing, and were gone over horizon in a few short minutes.
The party reached the city of Oar just before the evening meal. The city was more than any of them had ever imagined. The walls alone towered above anything they had seen before. The towers of the cathedral rose to imposible heights. And beyond...the vastness of the sea...larger than anything Lew could imagine...the entire party stopped to gape in awe at the amazing sight.
After they had wrapped their wits about them once again, Quintus proceeded toward an inn that came highly recommended. Lew decided it best to stay outside with Josephus (the mule and wait for the rest of the party. Before long they returned with incredulous looks on their faces. It appears that the inn was a little to expensive for their small purses. Dejected, and seing that there was little other choice, Lew suggested that they seek lodging at the Cathedral.
As they approached the city gate, Lew overheard a guard asking those that entered for their names. Quintus immediately began plotting, trying to assign each of the party members a fake name and story. Lew gave the young man a disaproving scowl, then stepped forward.
"I am Gandlewyn - Brother of the Light - I have business at the Cathedral."
Quintus frowned, but Lew could care less.
"And who are these?" The guard asked with a glance at the rest of the party.
"They are my companions..." He waved a hand for each to introduce himself. As he did, each of the party members gave a fake name, and some ficticious background. Each reply was like a dagger in Lew's heart. Why must they always lie? Even Rowan...
He expected little else from Quintus, but Rowan... he thought the ranger new better than to stray through the maze of Light and Shadow that are lies.
Quintus and Lew left the rest of the party in the piazza outside the church. Lew did not want to drag the entire party through the cathedral until they were welcomed.
After a bit of discussion with a lay brother, Viato, the party was welcomed into the Cathedral. Lew took a few minutes to pray to Osirian, thanking him for the safe journey. He then found the others in the quarters that had been set aside for them, washed up, and prepared for dinner with the Abbot.
Dinner was quite different than what the northerners were accustomed to. The foods were quite strange, but very good. They had been invited to eat with the abbot, and the elders of the church. Lew made a point to humbly thank them for the invitation, but was waved off without a thought.
The conversation revealed that Marcus had gone across the ocean on some quest for the church, and the the elder Knight of Tyrial was the brother of the man the party had met on the road. They also learned that Abbot Pratroclian had taken over the Cathedral since the cardinal had become to ill to maintain his duties.
Dinner went on for some time, and the wine flowed freely. It was late before they finally decided to call it a night.
The next day, Lew awoke to a pounding on his door. Viato was panicked over something, and seemed to think Lew was the one to solve the problem. A bit disgusted, Lew ended his morning prayers with haste, and threw the door open.
"What did Rose do now!"
Viato was a bit confused for a second. "No, it is not Rose... there are people here to see you... come..."
Lew folowed him out to the altar where 15 or more people stood. Each was deformed in one way or another from countless different diseases. "Where is Lew the miracle worker?" one of them asked.
Lew's head swam. There was nothing he could do for these people. He could not tell them that he did not have the power to do what they asked. He did not want to turn them from the Light. Worse, he did not want to know what they would do if they thought that he could help, but was refusing. 'If I could only help them see the True Path...'
Lew got an idea... It was risky, but he did not know what else to do.
He spread his arms as though to embrace the croud in a hug. "Brother Lew is busy serving the Light in important ways..."
The crowd swarmed him. Lew had to think fast. The words flowed to his lips in an instant, and suddenly a ball of blue-white light shone amidst the crowd. "Calm yourselves in the house of the Light!" His voiced boomed with authority, dropping the lilting tones he held before.
"Brother Lew serves the Light. He has important work. If it is healing ye seek, go north. There you will find brother Lew... Seek out the Light... travel to Fort Scipio..."
One of the men turned toward Viato. "Is he not Brother Lew?"
Viato looked like he was ready to pee his pants. "Yes, he is," was the reply he stammered out before he ran from the room.
Lew's shoulders slumped in despair as the mob rushed forward. He pushed them away as best he could, but before long they had him pinned to the floor. He gasped for breath, but under the weight of the mob, it was hopeless. As darkness closed around him, he could not help but smile at the irony. The very people he sought to help were those that would be his undoing...
~ Lew of Osirian
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