Freeday, 29th of Gabri YotC 2267
“There is no peace in this world, except the peace we create. But the wisdom and solace that I have found through self-mastery and attunement project inward, and are impotent to change the course of the patterns that have emerged in every population center we find ourselves in. Wisdom dictates a course of acceptance, but I cannot allow my complacency to be a tool for oppressors.
The monk I spoke to in Charligan gave such an interesting answer to my question. He indicated that the grafted vine represents the cooperation of multiple entities working towards a common goal - but the production of fruit seemed secondary to the characteristics of the fruit itself. Have I misread that as indifference, or was he trying to share greater wisdom than I can yet comprehend?
I feel my course being steered by lesser wisdom. My companions have given me no reason to doubt them, but I doubt myself - would they still have such compassion if they could see more clearly through my cracked facade to the fear and anger that drive even my more admirable ambitions? I feel these emotions consuming me. I feel longing for the embrace of that soul who singularly held the ugliness of the world at bay, and I feel contempt for the world she so believed was worth defending. It destroyed her before she could save it.
I need to regain clarity in the thoughts that cloud my mind. The Monks Militant maintain a monastery in the range to the southwest, perhaps they can refresh me with their wisdom and create peace where there is so much torment. Abelard is acquainted with one of their order and wishes to accompany me, we depart at first light for the Fast of St. Urmath.”
Ren had been told that the monastery was inhabited by an order, Monks Militant, a sect of the Ordo Contemplata populated largely by former members of the Ordo Militaria and Gladium Aeo, tired, scarred and damaged by years of combat and quest. Instead, they had opted for a life of quiet discipline and training to hone and heal their minds, bodies and spirits. Abelard had been to the monastery many times, and counted it's Abbott, Huridin Mascus, among his oldest friends, having been on campaign together in decades past, and having been particularly concerned about Ren's well-being in recent days, offered to accompany him on the journey into the mountains.
When they arrived at the Monastery in the early afternoon, they received a somewhat more curt welcome than they anticipated, as the monks appeared to be preparing for defence and combat. They were told, as they pitched in their hands to help assemble the defence, that the monks had been besieged after nightfall on Lastday of each month for the past three months, by a small force of Acarnax accompanied by a massive, mangy black direwolf covered in sores and scars. The monks had lost 6 of their number in these nocturnal raids, and had recently sent word to the Baron in Charligan requesting aid. They had yet to receive a response.
Lastday, 30th of Gabri YotC 2267
“I might have known better than to seek wisdom from warriors and mercenaries. Retired though they may be, they have no greater peace to offer here than that ineffectual Baron who ignores their pleas and leaves them to be maimed and destroyed. Once again, desperation turns peaceful men to violence and destruction.
Abelard and I will do what we can, of course. But perhaps we can not stop so fitting an end for those who ‘lived by the sword.’ Perhaps this is the only balance that the Framework can offer.”
Abelard and Ren unhesitatingly offered fist and steel to help the monks repel the forthcoming assault, and waited dutifully for night to fall. Sure enough, when the cauldron fell behind the western horizon and darkness descended, the cursed pack fell upon the walls with fierce, unmitigated violence. The barricades were breached, but with the addition of the two heroes in their midst, most of the Acarnax were felled and the day was won. The giant wolf, however, fled into the night after their defeat, bearing a host of grievous wounds. Unfortunately, Ren himself was also badly wounded, a nasty slash across his abdomen which left a brutal scar, even after the ministrations of both the monks and Abelard. After receiving thanks and rations from the monks, they decided to head back to Northwall.
The mood during the 5 hour trip back to town was sombre, and quiet, with Ren's mood seemingly growing more sour by the minute. It finally culminated in an embarrassed apology after he snapped rudely at Abelard when his horse drifted "too close" to Ren's. Abelard has concerns….
Firstday, 1st of Jurni YotC 2267
“I have my answer, then. The Framework is composed in the language of violence and betrayal. How many times will I be brought back from the precipice of death? Direwolves, vampires, and depraved ‘lords’ - theirs is the only manifestation of power that seems to change anything in our Ardaine. If the void wants me so badly, let it take me. All that lies before me is ruin. Even the strongest bonds, the mightiest towers, the greatest armies will crumble and become dust. All gives way to destruction. Perhaps I judged Callie’s conclusions too harshly in my belief that they required justification. Maybe if we had just listened, she would have taught me again. But Cei wouldn’t have let her….”
After they reunited with their friends, Ren's mood swings were even more profound. He did not admit it to his friends, but even he was surprised by the ferocity and frustration he felt inside. After a round of annoying and agitating questioning by Cei, he snapped at her, surprising everyone with his vitriol, and stormed away. Lyra came after him, with patience and kindness, and helped to soothe his restlessness. Then Cyrus came with food for them both before taking his leave. Lyra let him simply be, and kept him company until sleep finally took him.
During a restless, fitful night, he was plagued by horrid dreams, indistinct flashes of brutal violence, perpetrated by his hands against innocent folk....and then, in the final act of the dream, he stalked an unknown innocent through city streets, his hands and face covered in blood not his own. He could FEEL the desire to kill within him.When he finally cornered his prey in a blind alley, shot through with ominous, almost spectating shadows, he pounced upon her, fists flying in unmitigated rage. When he finally regained primacy over his seemingly limitless anger, he saw that his victim had been Callie, bloodied and mangled by his fists, gasping for ragged breaths through broken nose, jaw and teeth, with a look of betrayed shock and surprise on her face.
He woke with a start to Cei gently rousing him, and immediately felt anger and confusion. He was shocked and horrified when he realized that his first impulse was to leap on her and throttle her until she finally shut up, and he just silently choked it down with the bile he tasted in the wake of his nightmare.
Cei proceeded to apologize for interrogating him the previous night. He felt intense guilt for what he had said to her, but even more so for those blackest of feelings he had experienced, even though his friends didn't know and couldn't understand.
He was exhausted, and felt ill inside, and he could only imagine how he looked. He felt disoriented and distracted, had trouble focusing on anything. Cei inquired after his well being, and he heard a voice, clear as day, telling him that "she was always such a nosy bitch", in reference to the Inquisitor General. Cei made him reveal the nasty scar left by the Wolf, which wouldn't heal properly, despite divine magic. The voice kept whispering to him, a stream of honey-tainted venom toward the Inquisitor and her inquiries. At first, he thought the voice was without, but he soon realized that it was Callie's voice, speaking into his mind, full of love for him and bitterness for the others....those who had murdered her without a second thought. "I know your pain, my love...you've carried me with you since long before I forced you to set me free. Our "friends" feel nothing. No remorse, no regret....they were glad to be rid of me, as they were the first time. But you know me like they couldn't. You LOVE me like they couldn't".
"Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!", Ren screamed, seemingly at no one. Cei knelt beside him, touching his arm. Her fingers felt cold against his skin. He struggled to get up into the rough bed. People were talking, voices like lead covered in wool: Cei, Lyra, Abelard, Cyrus....he thought he heard Bartholomew's voice through a fog....but he couldn't piece it all together.....he could see her now, Callie, there in his mind's eye: clear as day. The same sweet smile, the same sweet sadness, the face of innocence laid bare before a cruel, heartless reality: abandoned, abused, maligned, ostracized.....she was such a beautiful soul, and she tried so hard to see the beauty in the world, even though she had lived through such UGLINESS. Ren had held her hand through the worst of it. The others couldn't understand. They couldn't EVER understand. Huddled together under docks to stay warm and dry when the rain came, facing hunger and want with hope and faith, watching over each other when they did whatever ghastly task that survival on the streets of Bridge Burning demanded. And yet he also remembered her beyond the harsh, painful memories: dancing by the riverside on warm summer nights, playing hide and seek in the downs with their friends, chasing butterflies in Nigel Caddock's garden while Beatrix prepared dinner for all the children, the delicious taste of the honey candy Nigel made. And he heard her voice again: "The memories are sweet, my love....cherish them, as I do." And then, a face, beautiful and smiling, shining like the sun, through blackened eyes and bloodied nose, the shattered jaw, the terrible ruin of his own hands etched upon it. "And remember that I love you...I will always love you, no matter what....you freed me. You are my river, the river that I sail on. Your veins are the tributaries that unerringly steer me towards your heart".
And then he began to weep....sadness so black and deep and wide that he couldn't see the other side. And below it, RAGE. The reddest rage. Red like dusk. Red like blood. Red like flames never-ending.
Darkness. The kind that the light of the Cauldron never touches. There are caves in the mountains, so deep and winding that they are absent of light, wind, and soil. There is no fullness there, no sounds, no life.
The church has no dominion there. There is no Aeo there, no archons, no angels, and no outer dark. There is no violence, no oppression, no desperation, no poverty.
“How did I get here?” Ren asked suddenly. His voice was the only movement, and he was answered immediately by echoes. The bare skin of his feet scraped against jagged rocks. He was walking, but nothing visible betrayed his surroundings.
“Ren.” The voice was clear and bright, but quiet. The sudden sound didn’t frighten him - it never could. There was only peace in that voice. Warmth, acceptance, understanding…. Why was it so quiet? Why did it sound so familiar? It was a woman’s voice, clear but distant.
“Where are you?” Ren called out. “I’ve lost my friends, and I’m looking for my way!”
“Ren.”
“I… I can’t see you, and I’ve lost my flint.” Reaching into his pocket, he felt something delicate. A bit of string or lace maybe?
“Reniel Rivers, don’t make me wait a second longer!” A joyful laugh excited the air all around him. Ren turned, and as his foot slipped on something suddenly slick. In the darkness, an arm caught his and his other hand clapped onto a shoulder - small but strong. “I didn’t think I’d find you here so soon.” Ren could hear the smile in her voice.
“Callie-” Her name erupted, halfway between a question and and a declaration.
“What are you doing stumbling around in the dark, you almost took us both over!” There wasn’t a whisper of criticism in her voice, only humour.
“I… I slipped on something. Callie, what are you doing here?”
“It’s the clay. When it gets wet, it turns into a real mess. Don’t worry though, just lean on my shoulder and I’ll show you the way.” Ren’s shoulders relaxed as they began stepping through the darkness.
“But you died... I thought you died.”
“I did. We all did, a little. But I only died once - you have a much higher tally.” The clay was loose as they moved forward.
“I really miss you. Cei and Bart too - they’re going to be so excited when they find out you’re okay!”
“Ren, what do you mean?"
“Callie, everybody thinks you died! They.. they thought they had to stop you. Everybody was so worried, and you had this knife… and and Lyra and Cyrus-"
“You know Lyra and Cyrus?” She asked, joyfully.
“Well, yeah - we met when…” Ren stopped himself. “Callie, what’s going on? Why did you leave? Why are you back?”
The thick soupy clay was getting harder to move in. With each step Ren seemed to sink a little lower. The air was warm, and so was the clay as his next step unexpectedly sunk in halfway up his shin.
“Careful, you knucklehead - I don’t want to get it in my hair. You move like a new calf! How on earth did you survive on a ship?”
(Interaction- Cei wakes us up on the floor of your room. Lead up her asking what happened to you; your exhaustion about running around killing things, being in battle, and running into the demonic.)
“Oh, boats are different - and if you can see the water, it’s easy to predict how they’re going to move. Maybe I got too used to it. How much further till we’re out?”
“We’re not going out, silly. Why would we go out?” Callie paused. “Stop.”
Morning came. Ren and Lyra woke, still seated cross-legged on the floor of the inn, Ren’s partially eaten plate of food still in reach. A knock at the door produces Cyrus, Cei, and Abelard.
Cei is the first to break the morning’s silence. “In Aeo’s name, Ren - what has happened to you?”
The two came to a halt, and only then did Ren come to the realization of how loud their steps had been through the thick muck. Silence.
“Nothing.” Ren opened his eyes and stared deeply at Cei. “And for what its worth damn your god!” “Yes.” Callie’s voice chimed in, “Damn him!”
“Isn’t it peaceful?” She asked. “Isn’t this what you’ve been looking for?”
“Damn him to this very hell! If there was any justice in the Framework, his punishment would be to inhabit this place, to take part in his creation, dwelling in the vice and misery he’s created for the rest of us!”
“He did this to me!” Ren pulls up his shirt, revealing the red, swollen scarring across his lower abdomen. It takes all her energy for Cei to resist the impulse to gasp. But she can’t afford the luxury of accessing her emotions, everyone is counting on her - and the stakes are too high. She begins a more careful examination of his belly and and the wound, with more questions. But Ren either can’t hear her, or doesn’t care. Callie’s voice cuts into the moment. “She was always such a nosey bitch.”
Somehow Ren feels aware of Cei and Lyra fretting and fussing. They’re close, but somehow they feel far away. Callie seemed to have a better hold on the conversation. “Look who’s talking! She’s the ill one” “I’m just so tired. I had a nightmare last night. I didn’t sleep well.”
It was peaceful.
“Yes, rest now love.”
It didn’t feel eery, or uncertain. The echoes were softened by the clay, the dark soothed the ache of years of waking doubts and fears. Respite and release. In the stillness, Ren began to see movement. Not with his eyes, but with his mind.
“What can you see?” Callie asked, suddenly more serious.
“Ren, who are you talking to? Who's voice do you hear?”
“It’s Cei again.” Ren answered. “She and Lyra are worried. Bart too. Cyrus-”
“Get rid of her. Just tell her what she wants to hear and be done.”
Callie cuts Ren off, “Cei doesn’t surprise me, but it’s not like Bartholemew to get so squeamish.” The sound of Callie scraping into the thick mud made it harder to hear. “That’s so funny that you know Lyra and Cyrus, I got them some really lovely gifts you know - they’re going to love them! How did you say you met?”
“Its Callie. Its always been Callie. But not just today, since the day we left Bridgeburning. She’s always with me.”
The digging stopped, and suddenly the SCHLOCK of something large dislodging from the clay wall of the cavern.
Perched on the side of his bed, Cei’s worried eyes search Ren’s face for signs of lucidity. The others have already left - gone to seek the assistance of the Circle - except Abelard who stands guard at the door. Muttering a silent prayer, she takes his hand - where words fail, perhaps a reassuring touch will provide a measure of comfort.
“Ren,” she began.”Tell me what you remember about Callie. A happy memory, one of the moments that make you miss her the most.”
“Well, back in Bridgeburning, when we stopped you they-“
“Ren.” Callie whispered. “You didn’t stop me. Nothing could have stopped me. I’m right here.”
“She doesn’t want to know, Ren.” The rest of Cei’s muffled speech felt distant, as if lost in a fog.
Suddenly, the bright flash of tinder illuminated the cave.
“Callie always loved butterflies, like they held some special magic for her.”
A second strike, and Callie stood before him with a rudimentary torch.
“She and I used to travel together to the western bridges to watch them on cool autumn nights. Once, I stole paper from my father so Callie could draw them. She had a beautiful talent. It was well-worth the beating I received for stealing the paper.”
The damp, clay walls around them seemed to have no entrance or exit. In truth, Ren wasn’t looking for one. There was no part of him that wanted to separate himself from that moment.. She was right, there really wasn’t a reason to leave.
“She doesn’t want to know. Cei could never understand what we had to do to survive. To keep each other alive.” Cei expressed being unsure where those drawings would be now. Tears streaming down her cheeks.
With the light finally illuminating her face, Ren settled into the peace he felt around him.
“Do you know what happened to those drawings? That evening the guards stole them and threw them into the ditch before bringing me back to the orphan asylum. The sisters beat me near to death. You saved me that that time.”
The space seemed to be shrinking as they sank deeper into the soft, warm clay. But that feeling was not paired with anxiety. Ren welcomed it, and moved closer to Callie.
As Ren tries to speak, his face and body contort, as if in pain. “She was more my protector than I ever was for her. She oriented me in a whole new world. The real world. She became my sister, my partner, my closest friend. And she had no reason… she didn’t know me. I had nothing for her. We had never even met before that day.…”
Callie’s voice cut through the pause. “I would have never made it without you.” “That’s not true.” Ren coughed.
Except for his stumbling, they hadn’t touched each other - but now Ren lifted his hand to her shoulder.
“I would have never made it without you Ren.”
A wave of warmth and acceptance shuddered through him.
She was real.
Cei asks Abelard if she had ever told him how she met Ren. That she and her brother had snuck out and unknowingly went to a shadier side of town. Ren had lightly grifted them, but did show them around and explored with them.
THIS is real.
“Rest now my love.”
It’s not a dream.
She’s not a ghost.
This isn’t an illusion.
This is home.
Ren pretended not to fidget. “It’s so hot Cei, would you get me some ice?” “Of course, Ren.” She stood, and stepped first to the window, pulling up the sash and swinging it open to let in the fresh air and the morning breeze.
"I want you to stay with me Ren.” Callie reached up and let her and settle on the nape of Ren’s neck, her thumb just below his ear.
“I don’t think I can lose you a third time.” Ren answered.
ENTRY, AUGUST 9th 2026
In that moment with the window open Ren breaks his hand away and runs out the window. Jumps on the roof. Rolls down, and falls off onto the street below, he is winded and injured.
As Ren and Callie sunk deeper into the clay, suddenly Ren felt his feet break through and become free beneath the clay, which was now up to his chest. The sudden jolt was the first real sense of unease since Callie found him in the dark. Sensing his shock, Callie just smiled. “Do you trust me?”
Ren’s calm immediately returned. “Always.” The hole around Ren’s feet opened wider and swallowed both of them. Callie’s makeshift torch extinguished in the damp clay and Ren felt himself weightless, as wind rushed past his ears.
As he falls Lyra, Cyrus, and Bartholomew turn down the street to see him on the ground. Cei comes out on the roof and with a prayer shoots a gust of wind down on Ren. Lyra runs forward and hold Ren down and secure, trying to showing care to make sure to cause him no pain, asking him if he should come back to bed. Though he fought her it was unsuccessful, he is not himself. Abelard jumps down landing in full armor on the street. Bartholomew plays a lullabies, encouraging Ren to sleep.
The noiseless fall continued. In the dark, it was impossible to know when the fall would end - but the rising wind was warm and comfortable. “Callie?” Ren called. “Where are you? It’s so dark.”
When the answer came, it seemed to come from all around him. Low vibrations that he could feel in his chest shook his body as the voice spoke. “I’m here.”
As Ren is carried in safely, Lyra and Cyrus tell Cei that they set up a meeting with Valen and Jocasta to figure out what was happening with Ren. That we needed to head to the Manor in the city. Ren is tied up for his own safety, and though they are stopped by guards on the way who are easily waved off; they make it safely to the manor.
* * *
Cei addresses the Magus present, I owe you a debt, if anything has changed my views more its these people, no more then Reniel. A she begins to pray the 3 mages surround Ren, and begin a ritual. Removing the glow from him, they begin to chant and weave the energy before them. As the white mage chants blood pours from her eyes, The black mage laughs loudly. Ren who is twitching, arching and thrashing on the table.
The fall went on quietly for what felt like days. Dark and weightless, Ren found it impossible to orient himself even with the passing of time. But as suddenly as his decent began, it ended. It didn’t stop, exactly - in one moment he was falling, and the next moment, he simply wasn’t falling anymore. There was no impact, no landing, just falling until... stillness.
His feet were on solid, smooth ground. He stepped forward, still covered in clay. In the distance, a dim orange light illuminated a small table.
Callie’s voice came again, paired with the deep thunder that shook around him. “Keep going Ren. It’s just ahead.”
Ren picked up his pace and moved more quickly. As he got closer to the dim light, details emerged from the darkness. It wasn’t a table, it was an altar. Ren slowed as he approached the pure, white stone. On the top of the altar, a familiar dagger gleamed in the light of a single candle.
Then a sudden stop. Rens body still. He sits up eyes wide, red eyes; hands clenched.
“Take the knife, Ren.” The voice shook dried clay from Ren’s hair, face, and clothes.
The white Mage pulls out the holy symbol chanting. The black mage forms a cage of black veins around Ren. Something with a spiritual dead comes out of Ren hitting the cage around him.
Joining the chants are Valen, Cei, Abelard, Lyra, Cyrus, and Bartholomew supporting the mages. The air pressurizes and unpressurized around them, blood bleeding from the white mages eyes and ears. Around them swirls screams and cry’s to “not let her go”
“What will happen?”
“Everything, Ren. Eternity in an instant, the end of madness and chaos.”
Above the chorus of chanting come Abelard’s voice, “its time to let her go, son.”
In the distance behind him, a bright snap of lightning fractured the darkness. Ren
whirled around and saw… a door, but not a door. Light spilled onto the impossibly
smooth stone floor from a crack in.. nothing?
“Pick up the knife, Ren. We’re running out of time.” The voice sounded calm, even though the words did not.
Ren looked at the dagger, the altar, and the candle. He turned to look at the crack, and to his surprise he saw… his friends. Abelard, Cei, Bart, Lyra, Cyrus, and Severa. Visible concern marred their usual confidence.
“Callie, they’re here! Cei! In here!”
“They can’t come in Ren.”
“What do you mean?” The confusion in his voice was obvious. “Callie - it’s Cei! She’s going to be so excited to see you! You guys, I’m in here!"
“Ren, they CAN’T. It just doesn’t work like that.”
“What do you mean?”
“You can’t build a future if you’re not willing to lose your past. They can’t come where we’re going Ren, they don’t quite understand.”
“I’m… I’m going to lose them?”
“You will lose them, yes. But sometimes we must sacrifice the things we love.”
“I…” Ren’s voice trailed off as he gripped the dagger tightly in his hand. Callie’s voice suddenly changed, and her characteristic calmness was suddenly replaced by desperation.
“Quick, Ren! Drive it into your chest! There’s no time to explain, you HAVE to trust me!”
Ren, stunned looked back at his friends.
“They’re already lost Ren, I can’t lose you too!”
I can’t lose you too.
Ren looked down, and was surprised to see the point of the dagger aimed at the center of his chest.
“Callie….” Ren started to weep.
His fist tightened around the hilt of the dagger.
I can’t lose you too.
Ren looked back.
“I’m sorry." Raising the dagger above his head, he plunged the full length of the blade into the top of the while altar with a rush of wind and flame.
Everything went black.
An explosion blasts back, knocking over many. From the blast come a horrifying spectral figure resembling Callie. She screeched when seeing Cei, pointing her spectral figure at Cei “YOU RUIN EVERYTHING!”
Before attacking. Neverender shoots straight to Bartholomew’s hand as he uses it to cast haste on the group. With a swirl of Grand Master Jocasta hands everyone became rearmed, as Valen shoots silver daggers straight out their hands striking the wraith before returning to their hands. Cyrus collects energy and shoots a large blast of plasma at her. Abelard lunges forward taking his sword and plunging it through her heart. She explodes again leaving a shadow across the ground below.
Ren laying on the table began to wake, looking much better physically, but heavy with sadness. Cei runs to hug him. Ren embraces each person individually. Abelard embraces Ren while weeping silently, “you made the right choice. I hope I can be so strong.”
What happened Ren? “I had to make a choice. Choose to loose her, or choose to loose all you.”