"I will tell you the story as my aunt told it to my brother and me, when I was very young-"
"Long ago, when the world was young, there lived a great hero called Sargasso Wind-Dancer, of whom many songs are sung. Their blade flashed like sunlight on water, and so light were their footsteps that they could run across the tall red grasses of the Carmine Approach without bending a single stalk. As beautiful as their swordplay were the songs they composed, ringing across the plains and echoing off the hills, for while Sargasso Wind-Dancer was a warrior of surpassing skill, their true love was in music and dancing and beauty. But this is not another tale of Sargasso Wind-Dancer's many adventures. This one is a little smaller, and a little sadder, and that is how you know it is important.
Far away to the south, in a land that knew no music beyond the whistling of the wind through the trees, there lived a perfectly ordinary person called Cintra. Who they were before they entered the adventures of Sargasso Wind-Dancer, the tales do not tell - only that one day, they heard a song like nothing they had ever heard before. Cintra knew, in the bone-deep way that flowers know to turn toward the sun, that they had to follow the song, and meet the singer. So they set off on a long journey north, until they reached the shores of Eslaiqeza, and the edge of the Carmine Approach. The song was that of Sargasso Wind-Dancer, as you have probably guessed, and there, where the forests give way to the red, red grasses, Cintra found the source of the song that had called them so far from home. They fell to their knees before Sargasso Wind-Dancer, and offered forth the sword they had brought with them, and their faithful service, if only the Wind-Dancer would be their teacher and companion. In those days there were no such thing as knights and squires, but in spirit the oath Cintra offered was the same. Sargasso Wind-Dancer had grown lonely, with only the breezes for company, and so they accepted Cintra's sword and service, and vowed that the pair would support and learn from each other.
Now the thing you must remember about Sargasso Wind-Dancer is that they came from a land where it was always day, and they could not see in the dark. Cintra, as it happens, came from a land where it was always night, and as the Wind-Dancer guided them during the bright days, every night thereafter Cintra watched over their teacher as Sargasso slept.
Cintra and Sargasso had many adventures together, becoming the subject of tales the land over. Few are the villages of Western Eslaiqeza that lack a story of a monster slain or a canyon carved by the Wind-Dancer's hand, right where the houses now stand. And just as Pentavess stands at the very edge of the known world, the last tale that is told of Sargasso Wind-Dancer happened right here. In those long ago days, the western edge of the Carmine Approach was terrorised by the great beast Idra. Sargasso knew that the beast's dominion over the Approach must be ended, and so, assisted by Cintra, they prepared for the fight of their life. When they finally challenged Idra, the battle lasted 100 days, and for 100 nights, Cintra guarded Sargasso's back in the darkness, should the beast try a treacherous strike. Finally, Sargasso Wind-Dancer's speed and precision bested Idra, and they struck one final blow, cleaving the beast's body in twain. Then, seeing that their great work was accomplished, Sargasso Wind-Dancer planted their sword in the earth beside the corpse of their fallen foe, and with a final salute to Cintra, disappeared into the gathering dark.
Where the two halves of Idra's body fell, the Iddrich Mountains rose, and the people who settled there remembered the one who had saved them, and called the narrow pass left behind the Dancer's Cut. And as long as Cintra lived, they kept watch where their teacher and friend had left them - their vigil earned them the name Cintra the Watchful, who's eyes were ever raised in guard over their fellows, and who never stopped watching for the return of one they loved.”
