We knew we would be outnumbered. We knew what we were walking into. Perhaps we had been overconfident. Had we grown naive in the reverence of our own capacity? As I sat upon Nimue, grimacing at the "thunk thunk" of arrows breaking through my plate, I reflected on recent memories and past mistakes. My life now seemed a mercurial flash of moments and paltry details of a meaningless existence. My eyes were weighed down as I endured through the pain, my mind struggled aimlessly to instruct Nimue to take me to safety, but I already knew what fate lay before me. Like cold dark water I was crushed under the weight of overbearing failure and regret. I felt the whisp of cool wind as Nimue sprinted out of the city. Damp leaves brushed across my already chilled face as my body fell completely limp. My ebb into the dark was completed.
I opened my eyes to the world once more, now pale and dim with a grim overcast. It was the forest outside Eastmoor, though an ominous film ate through the saturation of the world. I could see only so far before shadows entrapped the landscape. An unspeakable silence filled the air, the only audible detail being the dull whispers one might hear from an empty well. Nimue was nowhere to be seen, and I felt her connection no longer. The sensation was one I can only describe as a disconnection from reality. Only two roads saw fit to remain visible to my eyes, Eastmoor and the unholy forest. I arose easily, giving a sense of vertigo which required balancing. I moved cautiously up the road towards what I had thought to be Eastmoor. I had not yet realized my allies would not be crossing this way, ever.
It was when I reached Eastmoor I truly realized what was amiss. The gates were shut, and no sign of a battle could be discovered by my eye. No living thing was in sight, and I now noticed bizarre shades shuffling about the landscape about me. They moved from shadow to shadow, in and out of vision. They did not look at me for they had no eyes, but they were absorbed in my residence. I averted the sense of their gaze and looked instead to the heavy gate ahead. I called out, receiving no answer. I would have felt anger, but I as of yet could feel nothing in this cold setting. As I began to turn away towards the road, the gate opened, blinding me with fantastic exuberance. I sheltered my eyes, and as the radiance receded, I saw a most impressive figure standing several feet beyond my head. He bore the symbol of Pelor, and was undoubtedly the man himself. I felt as if a thin cloth had been cast over me at the very sense of this beings presence. It was an experience I saught to end quickly. A calm and warm voice not unlike my father's rolled across the distance between us. "Who are you?"
I hesitated in my response as I looked at the man inquisitively, "Ridley Paradis."
"Ah yes... Ridley. You were once a son of mine, but no longer. I am not sure when, but you seem to have turned your back on the light, Ridley."
This man's chatter rattled my ears as would a dagger scraping plate. I resisted the temptation to childishly cover my ears, and allowed him to continue.
"Come back, Ridley. There is still hope for you. Don't continue down this path of darkness upon which you feel the need to blossom. Allow yourself back into my light." He held his arms open to me welcomingly. A memory passed into my mind.
I fell panting before my father. He had effortlessly caught the blow I had sent angrily in his direction, and expertly tripped me onto the ground, pinning my arms behind me. He spoke, "Calm yourself, my son. What madness plagues you into these fits of hate?" He released my numb arms as he choked back tears that tried to desperately express emoton in his quivering voice. "Is it I who is at fault? Is it your damned father who failed to listen to the outcries of a motherless child? If I have wronged you, my son, please tell me!" I could not find feeling in even the deepest crevace of my heart. I felt undeniably emotionless to the situation at hand, nor did I feel the need any longer to feign affinity. I turned to look at him, and he held his arms open to me welcomingly, "son, have I done nothing but try and shape you into a man of honor, of conscience? Not out of a greed to have you as a proud trophy, but out of love and the desire for you to have the best station you could attain." I slowly stood and met him eye to eye. I spoke, "I need you no longer." I walked out of Colonel Darius's tent, stopping only breifly to look upon a familiar bow, mended at the center where it had once been broken so long ago. I shook away a thought, left the tent and mounted Nimue for the ride into Oakcrest.
Pelor stood before me, expecting an answer. I saw now the stark resemblance he bore to my father. Then I felt it, the aberrant animosity that had plagued me since my childhood. I fought to suppress it. Anger is what killed me. I looked deeper into myself for something more, something stronger. I felt so little, and possessed less. I found inspiration in a promise of allegience. I spoke out to Pelor, "I do not need your light, your walls, or your blessing. Most of all, I do not need you."
Pelor sighed, not with dissapointment, but with melancholy. "Very well, but I warn you, without my light in the Shadow Realm you will simply become one of... them."
I was already walking away. I would rather be among the looming shadows. I walked into the darkness of the forest, and did not look back to the city. I moved onward into what I expected would be my total dissolution.
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