Letter to Gideon 9

Dear Brother,
 
Our journey to Keralon takes many twists and turns. When the morning sun rose on the 12th we still couldn't find Gael, afraid that sending him a message with our immerglade stones too soon might reveal him to Cornu. But by noon we felt like we had to know, I sent him a quick message to get an update and he sent back "Sylvesse found me, catch up later, keep going", so keep going we did. Now most people were fussing over me since I was "looking tired" and "one foot in the grave" (it was mostly Lil fussing as you can imagine) so I was forced to sit on top of the carriage and get pulled by our brave horses, the poor creatures looking like they can barely take more weight. And I'll be honest, I was feeling very sluggish and would be slowing them down, so while it hurts my pride I'm happy they allowed me to take a rest.
 
Later in the day we saw how the roads were opening up a bit, showing signs of the lumberjacks of Logvale. The town could only have been a few days away. But then a strange path was revealed to us, branching of this main path, with small sylvan runes that spell out "safety" revealing the path. Since no obvious danger was showing we followed it. And strangely enough a path full of these runes that lighted up as we passed led us after a few hours to the main road again which was strange because the directions we were following should not have brought us closer to Logvale, which thanks to a sign up ahead was only 5 miles out, a good two hour march. Hayley theorized we were led through a path in the Feywild that turned into a shortcut. We would later learn who did this, but let's keep some suspense, right brother? Deciding we can muster a last march to sleep behind some walls we set on to arrive at Logvale around sunset. Logvale itself was a small hamlet surrounded a strong wooden walls and gates, the walls alight with arcane runes that deflected the mist that has been plaguing us for days now. Our hope at safety was quickly squashed by Cornu and his Death Dogs emerging to block us off. He wanted to find Gael but would settle on using us as bait, luckily the gates of Logvale opened to reveal their leader, who we were later introduced to as Farah, urged us to get inside as the Fey could not cross the magic of the walls and opened fire on Cornu. The fight was a show in how far we've been driven up to now, our magic users relied on simple spells and our swords were swinging with less force than we're used to. I was on top of the carriage at the start, encouraging Elsa to stay close as I can block off some attacks, but as Elsa and Luke were at risk of falling behind the carriage I jumped off and warded off a death dog for them so they could escape. Meanwhile Liliana and Edward were squaring off with Cornu, Edward getting the worse end of one of Cornu's strikes, which forced Elsa to run to him and use her last remaining magic to bring her brother back into the fold. Everyone else was busy either making it for the safety of the gate or holding off a death dog so our horses could go forward. We were relieved to see Gael and Sylvesse arrive mid-battle and start attacking Cornu and his servants. And despite Edward going down we could see that Cornu was looking more and more wounded as the battle raged on, we were hopeful this might be the time we struck him down. But here, Liliana and I were struck down by Cornu once more and when we came to, thanks to Farah, the battle was over and we were inside the walls of Logvale. Apparently at this point Edward and Elsa managed to stabilize Lil and me respectively (Once again Elsa saves me from death) and after some death dogs were slain the carriage could charge into the town and an enlarged Dorr carried Lil and me to the town. But tragically, Sylvesse was slain by Cornu and his death dogs. My heart went out to Gael as the pain was clear as day, but he wanted space so we gave him that as he slept outside that night. There was also some hassle about who sleeps in what bed, Lil forced me into a bed while sleeping on the floor herself, if I didn't fall asleep the second I hit the mattress I could've fought this harder. But after pulling some straws I was told everyone found a place to sleep.
 
Gael sleeping outside turned out to be a problem as that night Gael woke us up with a scream that Cornu had somehow gotten in and was attacking him. Feeling a bit refreshed we all rushed to our friend's aid, who was already downed by an arrow from Cornu who himself was looking like he was burning away from the protective magic around the town. Luckily our magic was refreshed and Ileas brought Gael back as we started striking down on Cornu, and as if destiny itself wanted Gael to have revenge it was his arrow that struck the final blow, hitting his one functioning eye. Though a glow from a package he was carrying did seem to guide Gael's arrow. This package turned out to be Sylvesse's antlers, that Cornu cut from him. And as Gael was saying he would give his friend a proper burial once in Keralon the Antlers melted and formed a new bow for Gael, so that even in death Sylvesse could help protect Gael. It was quite the scene, dawn approaching as Gael held his new golden antler bow and Cornu's corpse was burning away. I also took the opportunity to take Cornu's greatsword, you can't help but respect a blade that has struck you down three times and spent the rest of the night/morning practicing with it, feeling the balance, sharpening it.
 
The next day we mostly spent resting and gathering info. Farah was kind enough to sell us two spare healing potion though we only bought one, as to not take too much. It also became clear this very small settlement had a lot of people wounded and resting from fatigue. Farah explained the mist was crashing into the settlement and the dianios tribes were harassing any party venturing from Logvale, I spent most of the day taking notes about paths to Keralon as our guide Onvyr was still turned to stone, something the people of Logvale couldn't do anything about, though they did propose to leave Onvyr there for when the next patrol of Keralon knights comes with a cleric who can undo the petrification. Gael and Hayley spent time healing the citizens. Liliana tried to put me into something resembling a resting position, the last few encounters in the Lorewood have made her more protective than she normally is. But you know me, I can't sit still to save my life, so after half an hour I always get back up and start asking more about the road to Keralon to prepare ourselves and no pointing at a tired E.J. nodding off on a bench will change that Lil! Seemingly she gave up on it as she started doing a patrol around the hamlet and was called by a mysterious voice to a pond that was frozen over, now it was a temperate day so this seemed like some fey magic, basically confirmed by the same sylvan rune spelling out 'safety' that we saw the day before. Now Lil couldn't see more but when she got everyone else we found a hatch going into an underground tunnel, lighted by more of the same sylvan runes. As we informed Farah that we're going to have a look, Elsa and Edward were eager to come with. E.J. especially wanted to go when he saw I went, apparently not wanting to be outdone by me. Now most others tried to prevent me from going as well but damnit, I can make my own choices. And I wouldn't want them to go into danger without me to back them up. Lastly we were joined by Dorr, who was drawn by the allure of an underground tunnel, almost offended we didn't ask the only dwarf in a 20 mile radius (at least I think) for his expertise.
 
Once we went in, Dorr immediately said it's not a tunnel made by dwarven hands, but it was definitely old. It went on for what felt like miles outside of Logvale as we arrived into a small depression around some hills. The clearing featured a gate and menhirs, forming a magic circle that activates the gate and kept the mist away. After a while a figure stept out, identifying herself as Vivienne, and who was to be Liliana's new boss as per our family's deal with her liege lord Ulther. She claimed to want to help us get to Keralon safely as a favor and to protect her 'investment', read: Liliana. The previous runes were her doing as well and she seemed to have some beef with Cornu too. She claimed the gate could become a portal to Keralon. I was mostly appalled by how she treats Liliana, closer to a pet than a person, petting her and complimenting obedience. I swear to the World Tree and back, Liliana can serve Vivienne and Ulther if she wants to, but our family's deal with Ulther ends after her. Power and Wealth might be its rewards but I don't believe in its price, what if your 2nd child does not want to go?
 
Anyhow, the more pressing matter was if we should accept Vivienne's 'gift' to take the portal to Keralon. We asked for some time to convene and it eventually came to a split: Hayley, Gael and myself wanted to take time to at least find Robert Talespinner. It might take some time but we do owe him some effort to find him. The rest weren't so convinced, and voted to take the portal, after making sure it really was a favor and not something that has to be paid for. I was a bit surprised Lil turned down adventure and finding Robert for a portal from her future master. But as the majority wanted to take the gate we took to gathering our stuff. Vivienne asked Lil to stay as she wanted to talk to her a bit, get to know her. Luke stayed behind as well so the rest of us went back to get our stuff. It does sadden me that we'll leave behind Torrin and Faerin (the other horse, who definitely earned that saint's name in combat) but I'm sure I'll be back here sooner rather than later. At least to see what happened to Robert. It also strikes me that we'll have to talk to Farah and try not to tell her how there's a portal at the end of the tunnel. Especially since lying is not something I want to do to someone who helped us so much. Though my mind is mostly on what Vivienne and Lil are discussing, seeing as Vivienne treats her as a pet I imagine she'll give her a toy or something.
 
Hopefully my next letter will come from the comfort of our family house in Keralon.
See you soon,
Ali