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!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Canaan" data-source="post: 2970246" data-attributes="member: 40239">Chapter 23:  Shallahai's VisionSorry this took so long.  D'nemy's had a busy Summer.  I'm going to make these updates a bit more frequent.*****    This strange, unique and unquestionably powerful figure stood before us. His eyes fell on Talon and he nodded. Talon returned the greeting.     When the reborn, reincarnated Shale’s eyes fell on Lilian, Gabriel and me, they narrowed with impudence and his lips pulled back into a sneer, as if he saw in us a bitter enemy of which he could barely stand the sight. I turned to Lilian and saw she was looking over to her brother, just as perplexed. Gabriel looked away, shaking his head, his face growing purple with a growing resentment.     “Shallahai?” I cautiously began. “Why do you greet us with such enmity? We have sacrificed much to bring you into being. Gabriel lost his leg to a pack of wolves. I nearly drowned under the currents of the rushing Tangle River. Lilian’s will was almost subjugated by the whispers of the Witch Tree. Forgive me if I seem impudent, but…”    Shallahai raised a hand and I cut my retort short.     “Evora.” He began. “You are a Canaanite. Do you really know what that means? Do you know who you serve?”    He did not give me a moment to respond as his eyes glazed over and he began his story.         “First there was darkness. I felt the passage of time. A slight breeze blew a leaf across my face, bringing with it the humid scent of Summer.  A cacophony, dizzying and overwhelming, sharpened in my ears, resolving into the gentle sounds of a forest in the late afternoon; birds singing and insects at industry.  I opened my eyes.  A green blur focused into a sunlit canopy of trees.  My back was cool and I realized I was lying on the cool ground, naked.  Glancing at my body, I could see it was badly broken and caked with blood which mingled with mud, dirt and soot.  The memory of the recent past descended on me like a bolt of lightning, knocking the breath from my lungs.  I gasped for air.  I thought. ‘What has become of my friends? What has become of me?’The last thing I remembered was Lilian getting cruelly cut down by the Dark Knight and the wicked black blade he called, Murder.  Murder; the name was somehow familiar to me.  I had heard, or perhaps read, of a wicked blade named, Murder.  But I could recall no more about it.  Then, I heard Hu Li’s concussive explosion.  That was the last thing I heard before darkness took me.Gathering my mind to the present, I gingerly sat up, tensing for the inevitable pain.  But none came.  Confused, I stood up and examined my wounds.  The wounds were clearly fatal, yet there was no pain.  My skin prickled with the beginning of fear.Just then, the ground shook and a great rumbling sound began from my left.  Ethereal at first, I thought it was Her.  But I inexplicably and immediately realized it was very real and it was not Her.  It was too unnatural.  I began to turn my head to the left, intent on determining the cause of the rumbling, when I was struck with a vision so strong it knocked me off of my feet.  In a green haze I saw thousands on thousands of mounted horses.  An army.Holy Men lead armored templars, knights and guardsmen through the forest.  Pages and standard bearers wielded glorious standards depicting the symbols holy to Canaan.  A nimbus of blinding white light surrounded the army, pushing back the green haze of my vision.  The army rode swiftly.  I felt bruised as the horses’ hooves bit into the ground and my skin stung as the steel of man-made weapons slashed through low hanging tree limbs. I slowed my breathing as I acclimated myself to the vision, which came in snippets of time.  The army came to a tiny village in a forest glen.  Its people did what they could to provide the army with water and provisions.  The priests of Canaan demanded it of them.  But the priests wanted more than the village could provide.  A druid met with the priests to negotiate passage and was met with swords. He was burned for heresy.  The Green’s holy symbols in the village were destroyed, and the people made to convert or burn.  Leaving desolation, the army moved on. I was overcome with rage.  How dare He?My vision blurred through time and space, racing past the forest at the speed of sunlight coming over the mountains in the morning.  It stopped in the heart of The Wildlands.  A colossal mausoleum; massive graves and lesser crypts marked the perimeter and two large green statues marked its entrance.  As I looked closely, something black seeped out of the top of the door to the mausoleum.  It was sinister.  It pulsed, as if alive, tendrils snaking forward to find new purchase.  I recoiled from it, as I saw it oozing down into the ground.  Something took hold of me and I was lost in the grip of a seizure. The putrid inky blackness seeped further into the ground and the life of the earth withered and died at the spot.  The pain was too much.  I collapsed on the ground writhing; it was as though I was drowning in acid, my body melting.  My stomach was in constant spasms.  Retching, I was overcome with the feeling of hatred and revilement.  Nothing so foul as this can exist.  But the physical pain was not the worst of it.  I could feel the black tendrils in my mind, feeding off of my sanity.  I could not escape it.  It was anathema to all life! Then, my vision pulled back, and my pain subsided.  The vision extended into the earth and I beheld the source of the putrid blackness, the wellspring from where it bore through the surface to infect the forest around it.  The source was a massive maw, and I could feel its teeth grinding into me, into the earth, into Her!  Deep under this mausoleum in the heart of The Wildlands is a place so dark, so vile, so tainted; it is indescribable. It is a doorway to Hell itself.  I saw Canaan’s holy army burst into the clearing and storm the mausoleum.  A titanic battle ensued.  The vision faded from blur of blood and death to a rushing scene of maybe five, maybe six, blood covered holy warriors running away, out of the forest, their faces twisted with insane panic.   I sensed that they were all that was left of Canaan’s mighty army.The Green.  She was.  She is.  She always will be.  She is the unstoppable juggernaut.  Complacent with her creation and the cycles she created for it, she slept for eons in the hidden parts of the world.  Now, She stirs.  A voice, both masculine and feminine, thick and grinding, slow and measured spoke.  Whether or not it was to me, I was uncertain.“I tire of their interference!” She said.  Then She commanded me:“Evolve!”* * * *    “Detestable!” I muttered and glanced at Lilian. I could see by her crest fallen posture that she too was sickened by what Shale had told us.     “Those men.” I said to no one in particular. “Those soldiers and priests, justicars and inquisitors, all fools! All hypocrites! Blinded by their arrogance, fear and thirst for glory! Canaan does not persecute! Nor does he reward such hubris!”    “Agreed.” Lilian seconded. Her voice startled me at first, lost as I was in my own growing ire. “Their actions better served the will of the Adversary than of Canaan! If history teaches us anything…”    “It is beginning again.” Talon said with a sigh. “The signs are all around us. The black clouds of war gather on the horizon. Kharas Voor’hees. The Orcus cultists. A new Voice and Will. We are witness to a great upheaval, and it seems, at least in terms of the Green, that She has provided Turgos with a new, powerful ally.”    We all turned to Shallahai, taking in his entirely alien appearance.    I shuddered. Such powerful portents and unsettling omens have I witnessed up to this date. Balian’s mark squirmed in my forehead as I looked back and tried to put everything that had happened up to this point into perspective.     Veshra and the Succubus roaming free on Turgos. The mad boars. The goblins. Balian and Helena. Kharas Voor’hees. Orcus, the Cultists and the attack on Goldfire Glen. Tanner and the Voice and Will. Lilian and Gabriel’s miraculous resurrections. Tagavarious and my trial before the Curia. The humanoid invasion of Brightstone Keep.  The Witch Tree and its curse on Wiltangle.    All of these strange and ominous occurrences in such rapid succession and over such a short period of time. I had barely a moment to catch my breath, let alone dedicate enough thought to begin piecing any of this together.     One thing was certain, we were standing on the precipice of history. Though its outcome was unclear and our roles in the events, if any, uncertain, we were conscripted to be more than mere witnesses to what lay ahead.    That evening it was decided that first we would travel to Auros and warn Duke Devonhilt of the threat at Brightstone Keep.  Then, we would seek answers, perhaps from Balian.     Before reclining to sleep, I prayed to Canaan. I asked of Him how such evils could be perpetrated in His name by His Followers. I was granted no answer, but the vision of those few remaining soldiers, racing madly from the maw of Rappan Athuk blinked into my consciousness.     “Yes.” I thought. “Blind faith’s only boon is blindness.”     With that, I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. * * * *The following morning, Baern presented Shallahai with Yuindr, the silver sickle.  “This blade is Yuindr.  Gothgul misappropriated it from its hallowed sanctuary under our Order's protection when he was under the Witchtree's influence.  It is not mine.  It is not yours.  It is Hers.  She has marked you, so you shall wield it.  Be warned.  It contains a part of Her passionate essence.  Yuindr despises fiends.  If you encounter one while you wield Yuindr, you may succumb to its desire to purge The Green of the taint the fiend represents.  In that case, your will may not be your own.  And you could be in great peril.”  Baern looked at Shallahai solemnly.  “If it is Her will that I wield this weapon, I will accept that burden.”  Shallahai responded, taking the blade.After breakfast, we rode to Auros.</blockquote>

Verification