NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Haraash Saan" data-source="post: 4561319" data-attributes="member: 46615">Back in my room at the inn I hurriedly broke the wax and unrolled the note from my sister. Written in her careful and considerate flowing hand was;     “Dearest Gerard,    Please accept my small gift. Wear it and speak to me of your thoughts brother. It will be as when we were young, when our thoughts were one.    With my love,    Isabella"     I examined the scarf. It was clearly well made but it did not seem unusual in any way. But my sister was blessed with power and I trusted her. So I tied it around my waist so that its ends hung from my hip. Inwardly I chuckled at the memory of how she and I used know how we felt by simply thinking of the other. How we could share our thoughts and have conversations in silence. Funnily I had never really given it much thought until now. I had never really considered why or how we could do it. I suppose I just attributed it to Izy’s gift.    I must admit I felt a little foolish when I called to her with my mind, as I used to when we were children.    “Isabella?”     “Dear brother, I see that Absquith gave you my gift.” Isabella’s reply blew into my mind.     I was so startled that I jumped. Momentarily my mind felt violated as if my thoughts were no longer my own, but then her thoughts seemed to blend with mine, and my anxiety was replaced with the comfort that I remembered from long ago.    “Beloved sister, I had not imagined that we would ever converse like this again. It’s been so long.” I said.    “Indeed it has.” laughed Isabella, “But fear not, for I can sense some fear in your mind, I can only hear those thoughts you direct at me. I cannot read your mind, well not without touching you.”    We spoke for hours. I told her of all my adventures and she spoke of her rural life and her experiments with her sorcerous talents.    “What of your own talent Gerard? Have you been practicing?” she inquired.    “Indeed I have. In fact I was being taught in Yorath by a worldly fellow named Zmrat. But I fear I have very little of the gift that you are blessed with.” I said, “However, during my travels I have seen many wondrous magics and even found some books that discuss all manner of spells and tricks. I have been trying to decipher them but am having a great deal of difficulty.”    “Hmm, book magic. How interesting.” She replied thoughtfully. “Perhaps you could find Leo’s apprentice Freydis. She is in Halfast gathering all manner of things for old Leo. She may be able to help you unlock the secrets of your magic books.”    Leo was an ancient, hobbled wizard that had retired in Montfort. He was very strange but very clever and studious in the arcane arts. Freydis learnt what she could from the old man and repaid him with errands such as the one my sister had mentioned. She may very well be able to teach me how to understand the power within the parchment of my books.     “And what of you gorgeous one?” I asked, “No doubt you have some rustic knight or three swooning over you.”    “No, far from it. Since running from Mowbray and Father’s selected suitors none have been interested in courting me. I keep to myself, inland from the trade dock.” she replied, “I spend time with one of your less forthcoming subjects, Grimhilda. I am not sure you would have heard of her, let alone collect her taxes each month. She lives on your north border, closer to my cottage really.     “Perhaps she should be my subject?” Isabella added with a laugh. “What of you, the great adventurer Gerard de Mowbray? My handsome brother must have all the ladies of the court chasing him hmm?”    “Whilst it should be so I have not really been presenting myself in court. I have been avoiding it truth be told. And in any case I have a beautiful lass that is providing me with company.” I said, telling her of the delightful Melinda.    Isabella feigned shock that I, son of Sir Reginald de Mowbray, would dare share my bed with a peasant. We both laughed for our half sister Regina came from a similar indiscretion of my Fathers.     Our talk moved to more benign topics. Izy had been creating an ‘herb’ garden, ‘Recreational herbs’ she described her produce. Immediately I thought of Moxadder and how he would enjoy a visit to my sister’s home. And then how the honey had been excellent in Montfort and Astrid, brewer of Astrid’s Marvellous Mead, had had a fine year.    “But dear brother not all is well here in our lands.” She said sadly. “Barbarians have been spotted by trappers on my northern borders. And whilst they seem to pose no threat, I am still worried that they will venture further south.”    It was unusual that the violent and uncultured creatures would be so far from their usual haunts of the mountains and the steppes. I myself had not seen a barbarian before, but I recalled Absquith’s tales from the borders of Guerney where he fought the barbarian hordes. They were a tough and hardy nomadic people that lived off the flesh of anything that they could find. Their skin was the colour of the night sky and he said that in the darkness only their yellowed fangs and red eyes could be seen. Fell and repulsive to look upon they were ferocious warriors. I certainly did not want these beasts near my sisters or my lands.    “Grimhilda has also brought news of several bandit attacks on merchants. Some were attacked coming down the river to Montfort, others on the road North from Thessingcourt.” Isabella continued. “I think it would be best if you came home to see for yourself what is happening in your lands.”    “Indeed I will my dear one.” I said with conviction, “I will come North. North to my home and North to ensure that you are safe.”    And so we ended our conversation, my mind still tingled with her lingering words.     A few days after having conversed with Isabella I ventured to a herbalist to see if there were any plants, berries or potions that may be able to aid me in the Games. After seeing the effects of drugs on Moxadder I was almost certain there must be some good to be found in the plant world.    “These will make you feel more energetic and more powerful young Master.” said Miscrott, the hook nosed proprietor of the store as he offered me some small purple berries.    I purchased them with a little scepticism but thanked the little fussy man for his wares and help. He told me to take them just before entering the arena so that they would give me the best effect.    As I stepped from his quaint little store back into the sunlight of the chaotic street I noticed, though squinting eyes, a familiar face. In fact it was really an unforgettable face.     The nose that sat upon it was broken and crooked. The left eye was half closed through some strange affliction and several large warts congregated on its chin.     “Freydis!” I exclaimed as I recovered from my natural repulsion, “How good it is to see you.” It was an interesting expression in her case.    “Milord?” she said    “Yes indeed Freydis.” I confirmed jovially. “How are you and how is old Leo? Causing no magical mischief is he?”    “I am well milord. Thank ye for asking. As is Leo, although I fear his mind may be slipping in his dotage.” She replied sheepishly, no doubt uncomfortable speaking to her master.    I explained my circumstance and asked her if she could help me with interpreting my books, offering her payment of the knowledge within. She was most excited by the prospect of taking me on as her pupil, but also at the chance of acquiring more magical knowledge.    In those days leading up to the Halfast Games I spent my mornings sparring with my companions or Absquith, my afternoons locked away in my room at the Inn at the End of the Road trying to decipher my magical books and my evenings enjoying the inn’s hospitality and later Melinda’s.    She was a delightful girl, and I must admit to beginning to fall for her. She had strange sort of innocence that one doe not find in the ladies of the court and she quite simply adored me (which of course was understandable). Although perhaps that was because of the mistreatment she had experienced. In recent months one nefarious scum, Vrsock, had taken an interest in her, at first he himself took her forcibly but then began paying her for her company to make her ‘safe and secure’. I was mortified that she had been raped by him and then essentially used her has his own personal prostitute. The thought of this Vrosck character forcing my Melinda to lie with him made me furious! I made a vow to myself to catch him and make him pay for harming her. </blockquote>

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