35.5 What I Want to Be

General Summary

Days 530 - 536

The days tick by without much stress as we continue travelling West. The beasts we encounter pose little challenge and there are only abandoned settlements along our path. The students all continue to be doing well, though Trillium is quite shaken.   Late one night finds her telling me of faint memories she recalled after our last attempt - someone tall, strong, and comforting. Soaring above the clouds feeling safe and free, and somewhere high in the mountains that felt like home. And now she feels so alone and afraid, so angry at Void for not telling her what he surely knows.   It's a painful dance to try and comfort her without pushing past the barrier of what must stay hidden. She can feel the presence sleeping inside her that might one day destroy her and all I can say is that that thing is a piece of how she once felt, and we are working on being able to encounter it without losing her again.   And perhaps the process will help her find herself again as well. Lately she has felt like maybe she wasn't meant to hold a sword forever, a feeling I can certainly relate to.  

Day 537

A day's travel outside of the Weaver's Village we encounter an entirely new human settlement - New Calston. It is new after the storm and must only be a few months old but already they are changing the landscape and clear-cutting around them to establish themselves. I am unimpressed and Trillium is wary that they are so near the Weaver's Village but have not simply joined them.   We have our evening meal in the village and find it generally civil but certainly not welcoming to elves. They have a reasonable relationship with the Weaver's Village but refer to them as 'the saints'. When we depart we are not missed, and Trillium remarks that as we move past the Shield Mountains we will likely continue to encounter more humans who have seen and accepted less of the world.   That night our camp is attacked by nearly a dozen human bandits and I am so annoyed that I have the others stand down as I handle the attack myself. They flee almost instantly and I hold back only two of them for a conversation: A large brooding man named Ipoch and a rat-faced scrawny thing who calls himself Mouse but admits that his name is Steven when I pry for a name he actually uses and likes.   They're both so young and clearly terrified out of their wits, even as I have Liliales prepare tea and sit down with them for a talk. Ipoch in particular seems to recognize my name - rumours have spread that I am a general, a war hero who has never been beaten, that I'm out for vengeance for elves and I've defeated an entire order of the Candlemaker's crusaders. The rumours have more fidelity than they often do. But they also say that I have gone East, or they never would have risked moving against us.   But it is clear that these two are not leaders, and that even their leader (Crude?) is not particularly focused at elves so much as anyone carrying valuables. They speak his name with such fear and discomfort that it's clear my hope of sending them back with a message would not end well for them. Besides, they tell me that Crude himself is only working at the behest of some bigger fish in Ilac called 'the Gentleman' who has men everywhere. Maybe I will pay him a visit when we stop there to see Sean Baker.   With my strategic plan waylaid I do what I usually do with wayward souls: Ask them what they are doing and why. It comes out that both of them are branded criminals according to some human tradition in the area that physically brands convicts with symbols and slashes. Steven has been apprehended multiple times for pickpocketing and Ipoch is a horse thief who is apparently permitted to be killed if he is caught. His eyes soften as he mentions the horses.   It's such a stupid, stupid system and the magic of the Sentinel isn't even strong in the brand. It's easy to overcome and heal the wounded flesh, leaving the two young men able to find honest work again. Ipoch says he will be able to return home to Oluap now and maybe work with horses now that he has gotten better at it. And despite his wallowing insistence that he isn't good for anything, Steven will join him. The both of them promise to repay their debt to me by offering kindness to my people. And I have them further agree to be open to kindness when it finds them before Vostilae takes them across the river and turns them loose.