A Parting of the Ways

My Dear Alwyn,
 
I’m sorry for the long silence in these letters, but, unless I am very much mistaken I will be able make it up to you in person very soon - perhaps I may even race this message back across the seas, if fortune favours my journey.
 
These last three nights I have dreamt that I walking the streets of the Holy City with a clarity and a power that only a prophetic vision holds. I feel the aasimar blood in my veins stirring in anticipation.
 
Gilmore tells me that there is a message waiting for me at Whitestone, and, while I don’t know the details, I am quite sure it will be an invitation, or a summons, home.
 
I must confess that I would be overwhelmingly glad to receive such a communication. The past few weeks have been very difficult ones - I will tell you a little now, and then all about it properly when I see you, but I warn you that it’s a sad tale right from the start, and the ending is none too pretty either.
 
They say that tragedy often follows hot on the heels of triumph, and so it was with us. The sweet relief of our escape from the Erlking, the joyful reunion of the Lord and Lady of Whitestone, and, most of all, my delight at seeing Orlando’s faith blossoming at last, all these are memories I will treasure. After that, everything just… fell apart.
 
To cut a long story short, Sabali, who I had come to trust with both my life and my honour, turned out to be not at all the man we had believed him to be. The details are very unpleasant, and there is no need to dwell on them, but suffice to say that it became necessary to put aside my status as a Pilgrim of Justice and instead travel as a common knight, in order to avoid any further disgrace to the church from my failure to prevent his ill-considered deeds.
 
It is a complicated situation, and to what extent Sabali himself should be held fully responsible for his behaviour, given the strange circumstances of his upbringing, is unclear. So much evidence has now been destroyed that I doubt we will ever get entirely to the bottom of what happened, and perhaps that is for the best at this stage.
 
After the very dramatic events in Whitestone (which perhaps you will have already heard about by the time you read this) and seeking to redeem the shattered honour of our party, we travelled to the place which we thought to be the source of the corruption only to find it almost immediately overwhelmed and then abandoned by some more powerful evil. Of course, that was something of a relief in some ways, but the larger implications are very troubling, and I think it’s fair to say that we left that place with more questions than answers.
 
There’s far more to tell about all of this as you might imagine, but that would be best done seated in easy chairs before a glowing hearth and with a generous measure of whisky in our glasses. That will be possible soon enough, or so I hope, and then you can hear the whole sorry tale, if you’ve a mind to.
 
It nearly broke my heart to see things turn out as they did, and I think that I will need a little time before I can shape all this into a tale fit to sing in company. When I do though, you’ll be surprised at some of the new tricks I’ve learned - that trip to the fae realm seems to have opened something up in my music. It’s freer now, wilder certainly (this new style would hardly do to accompany a sermon) but it’s sweeter too, and here’s a longing in it that is expressing something of my spirit that I never really noticed was there before.
 
I’m beginning to think that music might be more than just a past-time for the long barrack room evenings or the lonely roadside camps - I can swing a sword well enough to defend myself of course, but real power, I think that’s somewhere else. My song can heal someone’s wounds now, or issue a rebuke sharp enough to sting more than an enemy’s pride. I can feel the weave itself shaping and twisting as I play - it’s glorious and terrifying at the same time. The sensation feels nothing like the power that comes from prayer, but at the same time, it also somehow seems like the purest offering I’ve ever made.
 
I don’t know if that makes any sense, but I hope it won’t be long before I can at least show you what I mean.
 
The last few weeks have been very hard to get through, I can’t deny it, but now my mind is almost brimming over with happiness at the thought of seeing everyone again, and the idea of sitting down to dinner at the Hall with my family - and seeing how much my nephews and nieces have grown in the past year! - seems like heaven. I know it’s not likely to be for long, but still, nothing refreshes the mind and spirit like home.
 
I will very much miss the Unbroken of course, but compared to how we all were at that first meeting at the Inn, they are all well able to look out for themselves. We’ve all changed a lot, and grown, and I feel very lucky to have been a part of it all - to see Orlando finally shake off the burden of Kraghammer’s orthodoxy, and discover his own joy in the divine act of creation was beautiful, but others have undergone transformations just as profound in their own way.
 
I’m sure that Orlando will write and tell me of all the adventures to come (with our letters no doubt crossing and chasing one another along the winding routes of our respective travels). Enessa too, I hope will keep in touch when she is able - we have become close companions and confidants, these last few weeks especially. I’m not sure that she always thinks of herself as a good person, but, of anyone in this group, alongside Orlando at least, I would trust her to make the right call when the chips were down.
 
My dear friend Wind is leaving the party here too - she will be remaining in Westruun and setting up her own place here. She’s brave enough for questing, no doubt there, but she’s never taken all that kindly to the rougher aspects of adventuring, and I think a life in town will probably suit her tastes better. It’ll be safer too, and I’m glad to know she’s out of harm’s way, especially if I won’t be there to watch her back in combat. Mind you, she’s saved my skin more than once these past months, so maybe I shouldn’t speak so hastily on that front. I don’t know quite what it is about her, but she can always make me smile, whatever else might be going on and I think that everyone in the group will miss her.
 
She told me before she left that she and Sabali had put a downpayment on that absurdly expensive plate armour from Gardain’s for me. It’s an incredibly generous gift - and no doubt will serve me well for many years to come - but it also makes me wonder exactly how much money does she have stashed away? That girl has an ability to attract coin that I’ve never seen the equal of, and which for my own peace of mind I probably shouldn’t look too closely into.
 
Anyway, this armour is apparently in a rather vivid and fashionable shade of purple, to replace my normal, and apparently rather boring, silver and white, so no chance of forgetting where that came from.
 
I’ll miss the others too - it’s been a strange and eventful few months that we’ve shared and I’ve become close to all of them. It’s tempting to stay and see how it all works out, but it’s always been in my blood, that sense of whether or not I’m where I’m meant to be. Back in Drynna, it was so clear to me that we should all travel together, Arin included then of course, but now duty calls me in another direction, and on a different path. I cannot deny that call, and if I’m honest, nor do I want to at this point.
 
That token which Orlando made us all, with the platinum ring for me, and the gold for Wind, I will always treasure that as a souvenir of an extraordinary time in my life, as I’m sure will Wind. Perhaps one day all of us - Arin too - will be together again - fate works in strange ways, and there is certainly still a sense of destiny yet to be fulfilled about all this.
 
But for now my thoughts turn to simpler joys - to home, to you and to everyone else that I’ve missed so much this past year, and to being among my brothers and sisters of the faith once again. To raise my voice in song with thousands of others in the nave of the great church and to lose myself in that holy peace is the best healing a heart could wish for.
 
That message waiting for me in Whitestone is a blessing I would not have presumed to ask for, but it’s one which I will accept with humility and gratitude. Had it been required of me, I would not have shirked my duty for all the world, but the truth is that I just feel utterly wrung out and exhausted by what has happened. The chance to be amongst those I love is as welcome to me just now as cold clean water to a man lost in the desert.
 
I cannot wait to hug you Alwyn, and to see all my dear friends again, it’s been far too long.
 
Your most loving friend,
 
Ceridwen Brightflame