Homecoming

by Luke Thomas

Dear Diary,

We made it to Tarn.

There’s a strange, hollow feeling in returning to your childhood home not in triumph, but as a fugitive leading a caravan of refugees. But the people here… they are good. They opened their homes. The woodcutters are felling extra timber, the farmers helping to build new shelters. In the span of a single week, Tarn has swelled from a sleepy hamlet to a proper, bustling village. It feels like a small, defiant victory.

Life is finding its new rhythm. Galiene is awake. She’s still pale, weak, but her eyes are open and aware. Alistan has barely left her side, and I see a lightness in him I haven’t seen in months. He’s already started work on the Old Keep, the ruined fortress on the hill, intending to make it a home for them. My sister, meanwhile, has unceremoniously co-opted old Terrin’s cabin, with Liliana in tow. Terrin—Hayley’s first mentor—doesn’t seem to mind, but they’re already expanding it. We build, even as the world burns. It's all we know how to do.

And I am building, too. The refugees are angry, dispossessed. They look to us, to me, and I see the core of an army. I’ve begun drafting them, organizing basic training. But I’m more interested in the sparks I’ve found. A few with natural, wild talent—sorcerers. A half-dozen more with the discipline to be taught. For them, I raised a tower, pulling slabs of stone from the earth with my own magic. It’s a crude, makeshift thing, but it’s a start. Anna is helping me, even though her own training is far from complete, she’s a brilliant student, already leagues ahead of the new recruits.

Amarra found me during one of the first lessons. She asked, bluntly, if I’d decided to use her ritual—the one to fuse the elemental hearts and banish the fey. I told her I was holding it as a last resort. "It should be your first," she countered, her gaze sharp. "It could avoid all this bloodshed." She has a point, of course. But to wield that much power, to unilaterally decide the fate of an entire race, even one that has caused us so much pain… it feels wrong. I can't shake the feeling. She sighed, but said she would follow my decision, hoping I’d "grown wiser." She even agreed to teach a few classes. I suspect it’s just her way of keeping an eye on me.

Our relative peace was interrupted by Gael. He needed to perform a ritual in the Lorewood and, reluctantly, asked for our help. He led us to a moonlit clearing and began to sing, his voice weaving a strange, ancient melody. At the song's end, a beam of moonlight pierced the canopy, and a shape coalesced from it—a sphinx. A lion with brightly colored feathers, its eyes burning with ancient intelligence.

It fixed its gaze on Gael. "Coward," it boomed, its voice shaking the trees. "You will not be allowed to finish what you started." It lunged, claws extended, and I realized with a jolt of horror: it thought Gael was Vincent, his maybe-yes/maybe-no father.

Liliana screamed for it to stop, that it was confused. But Gael, to his credit, laid down his bow and knelt. He said he was only there to ask questions, to honor a friend. The sphinx just growled, "Still pathetic," and raked its claws across Gael’s shoulder, tearing flesh. That was enough. Hayley called on the forest, and vines lashed out, but the beast was too strong. It roared, and as it swiped at Gael again, I summoned an earth elemental, a massive sentinel of stone, to distract it. I pelted the creature with fire bolts, the flames glancing off its magical hide. The sphinx looked at me, then back at Gael, growling. "I see you now, boy," it said, and with a final, contemptuous look, it teleported away.

As we were catching our breath, something truly strange happened. Gael suddenly had two shadows. His own, and a new one, cast from the moon. He spoke to it in Sylvan, and the shadow... replied. It shifted, twisting into the shape of a small house cat, and greeted him. Gael later explained: his mentor, the stag Sylvesse, was a Moonshadow. This... thing... is another.

It seems Vincent, his fey-marked ancestor, is a hero to one fey faction (Immerglade) and a traitor to another (Neverhold). The sphinx guards the Moonshadows of Immerglade, whose queen was a captive of High King Ulther and we met on the last day of her life. The plot, as always, thickens, and now Gael has a fey spirit bound to him.

After a week in Tarn, we couldn't wait any longer. We had to find out what happened to Rosebloom. We returned to the massive wall of thorns. This time, I didn't hesitate. I summoned a fire elemental and had it burn a tunnel straight through. We emerged into a town shrouded in an eerie, green twilight. We found a house. Inside, the brambles had forced their way through the walls, wrapping the townsfolk in thorny cocoons. They were unconscious, the thorns embedded in their skin leaving dark green, venomous-looking wounds.
Back in the bramble of vines, I saw forms moving in the distance, navigating the dense brambles with an impossible ease. Liliana called out. The only answer was the snap of a twig, and then we were ambushed. Wolves, their fur matted with burrs, burst from the undergrowth. And with them, Sir Flinn. Or what was left of him. He was distorted, his face a feral mask, his eyes glowing. "I told you to stay away!" he roared, and blasted Alistan with a concussive burst of brilliant light.

Dire wolves with breath like a winter storm closed in. I unleashed fireball after fireball, the explosions tearing the brambles and the beasts apart. I was channeling the flame, feeling the tide of the battle turn, when a shadow fell over me. Sir Flinn was suddenly right there, grinning. I felt the ice-cold bite of his sword, once, twice, a flurry of bloodletting slashes. The world tilted, my strength bled out into the dirt, and everything went black.

I woke to the taste of one of Gael's goodberries and the warm glow of Hayley's healing magic. Sir Flinn was gone. But from here, through the burning hole in the thorns, I could see it. The top of his castle, the source of the magical blight.

I got to my feet, my blood still singing with the memory of the assault. I know exactly where we need to be. I gathered the magic still left in me, tore a hole in the fabric of the world itself, and opened an Arcane Gate to the highest tower.

We are going in.

Continue reading...

A test of magic
24th of Aran, Y126 Year of the Tree

Trades and Punishments
1st of Edon, 126 Year of the Tree

Homecoming
15th of Edon, 126 Year of the Tree

A Festival of Foxes and Frolics
30th of Dagda, Year 121, Era of the tree

Elsa

Adventure Ahead!
1st of Lug, Year 121 of the Tree

Rosebloom's Bookworm
4th of Lugh, Year 121 of the Tree

What to do when your hostess has a Secret Society Membership
5th of Lugh, 121 Year of the Tree

The most useful kind of magic
6th of Lug, 121 Year of the Tree

A Betrayal of Satyrs
7th of Lugh, 121 Year of the Tree

Maladies of the Mist
8-11th of Lug, 121 Year of the Tree

The Hunter
11th of Lug, 121 Year of the Tree

A Hidden Path to Logvale and Beyond
12th of Lug, 121 Year of the Tree

A Master of Fire
13th of Lug, 121 Year of the Tree

Too Many Goodbyes
20th of Lug, 121 Year of the Tree

Letter to Hayley I
1st of Ogan, 122 Year of the Tree

Letter to Hayley II
3rd of Solstice, 122 Year of the Tree

Letter to Hayley III
24th of Edon, 123 Year of the Tree

Letter to Hayley IV
17th of Gobu, 124 Year of the Tree

Letter to Hayley V
7th of Daga, 125 Year of the Tree

Letter to Hayley VI
14th of Mannan, 125 Year of the Tree

The Reunion
14th of Mannan, 126 Year of the Tree

The Emissaries of the Fenhunter
15th of Mannan, 126 Year of the Tree

The Fall of Cairn Fussil
4th of Nuan, 126 Year of the Tree

Festival Frenzy
10th of Nuan, 126 Year of the Tree

The Terror of Ravensfield
13th of Nuan, 126 Year of the Tree

Dragon Bones in the Dark
15th of Nuan, 126 Year of the Tree

The Determination of an Undead Kobold
16th of Nuan, 126 Year of the Tree

Battle at the Burning Village
17th of Nuan, 126 Year of the Tree

A Reminder to Take Action
18th of Nuan, 126 Year of the Tree

A Grand Ball of Intrigue
20th of Nuan, 126 Year of the Tree

The Search for Norgar
20th of Nuan, 126 Year of the Tree

Why you can never trust a bard
20th of Nuan, 126 Year of the Tree

A Royal Reward and a Challenge
28th of Nuan, 126 Year of the Tree

An apple a day...
29th of Nuan, 126 Year of the Tree

Dealing with the fey
30th of Nuan, 126 Era of the Tree

Aunty's Wrath
3rd of Aran, 126 Year of the Tree

Best served cold
9th of Aran, 126 Year of the Tree

Venturing into dangerous waters
11th of Aran, 126 Year of the Tree

The Fury of the Marsh
11th of Aran, 126 Year of the Tree

The young stag and the undead wolf
20th of Aran, 126 Year of the Tree

Anaya's Prison
21st of Aran, 126 Year of the Tree

Tales of Immerglade
22nd of Aran, 126 Year of the Tree

The festival of Wolf's Rest
26th of Aran, 126 Year of the Tree

Battle of the Bards
26th of Aran, 126 Year of the Tree

Undead at the Cathedral
30th of Aran, 126 Year of the Tree

Elves and worms
4th of Brigan, 126 Year of the Tree

How we got Sixteen Cows
8th of Brigan, 126 Year of the Tree

Descent into Acid
9th of Brigan, 126 Year of the Tree

Sorry we stole your hoard
10th of Brigan, 126 Year of the Tree

Strange Dreams of the Northern Wetlands
12th of Brigan, 126 Year of the Tree

Latebra Velora
15th of Brigan, 126 Year of the Tree

The Tragedy of Alistan De la Roost
17th of Brigan, 126 Year of the Tree

From Keralon into the Feywild
22nd of Brigan, 126 Year of the Tree

A Feywild Festival
??, 126 Year of the Tree

Into the Jaws of the Warg King
??, 126 Year of the Tree

The birds have wings
??, 126 Year of the Tree

Sneaking into Whitewail
??, 126 Year of the Tree

Arrival at Nimmerburg
29th of Gobu, 126 Year of the Tree

The Fey Tournament
1st of Madan, 126 Year of the Tree

Lumiria
1st of Madan, 126 Year of the Tree

Homecoming
2nd of Madan, 126 Year of the Tree

The dinner party
4th of Mannan, 126 Year of the Tree

The Mausoleum
11th of Mannan, 126 Year of the Tree

Chain of Souls
11th of Mannan, 126 Year of the Tree

Sister Willow's Story
15th of Mannan, 126 Year of the Tree

The Briar's Ritual
15th of Mannan, 126 Year of the Tree

The Water Temple
22nd of Mannan, 126 Year of the Tree

An unexpected journey
22nd of Mannan, 126 Year of the Tree

Temples of Sand and Air
22nd of Mannan, 126 Year of the Tree

Haggayn
22nd of Mannan, 126 Year of the Tree

The beginning of the end
30th Mannan 126 Year of the Tree

Ashes of Wolf's Rest
30th Mannan 126 Year of the Tree

Exiles of the Silver City
10th of Edon, 126 Year of the Tree

The Prison of Rosebloom
15th of Edon, 126 Year of the Tree

The Darkness around Hillfield
16th of Edon, 126 Year of the Tree

Setting the stage
16th of Edon, 126 Year of the Tree

Why is it always spiders?
9th of Duna, 126 Year of the Tree

The Ethereal Bard
9th of Duna, 126 Year of the Tree

Homecoming

Continue reading...

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