Prologue - Reminiscence
All around her was fire. The fierce heat rose and surrounded her, prevented from reaching her only by virtue of the stone walls on all sides, and a stone hatch that had kept her hidden. The blaze had started over an hour ago but now it seemed to be at its most violent. The girl who had been hidden away when the attack began tried to focus on survival, tried not to think about the oxygen disappearing or the smell of charred corpses that permeated the cell. Everyone she knew, everyone who had looked after her and raised her until today, was likely dead.
She slept. Exhaustion overcame her and although she tried to fight it, she couldn't stop her eyes from closing and blessed oblivion taking charge. When she woke, she was in a different place, a different time. She was no longer eight years old, scared and missing her family. She was now in the form of a grown woman, in her early twenties, long flowing red hair and slender body, sitting at a table, in a tavern, on a far away continent. Around her sat the companions who she had joined with on a brand new journey, a fellow human, an elf, a half-elf, and a rather strange little dwarf who she recalled fighting alongside on another quest, many years ago.
"Everything alright?" The voice came from the half-elf, Corryn Sabrae, who was sat to one side nursing a mug of ale. "You drifted off there, for a second."
"I'm fine," she said, "just remembering." A few days previously, Willow had opted to discuss a few things with her new comrades-in-arms. After a hundred years and more of wandering, maybe now she had found a group of people who she could trust with her past. Now, as they waited in the tavern with food and ale for their contacts to arrive, from the mysterious organisation known as the Wish Seekers, she chose to tell her story.
"I was born in a place called the Mistvale. It's a long way from here, you probably won't have heard of it. Not much more than a small valley in the middle of a mountain range that stays covered in fog all year round, even in summer. Not much I suppose, but it was home.
"My family were Rangers, in charge of looking after the Vale. For hundreds of years, they fought against any threat from outside, whenever bandits came down from the mountains or wild animals strayed into the settlements looking for food. They would defend the people and in return the people took care of us, gave us food and clothing and made sure we were paid for services rendered.
"I don't need to tell you all, that kind of life can be dangerous. You make a lot of enemies. One of the mountain tribes took offence, and decided to give my family a lesson against defying them. They came to our home one night, and tried to kill everyone inside. First, they attacked the outer wall with arrows and stones. The guards fell quickly and the tribesmen swarmed inside the keep, slaughtering as they went."
At this, Willow looked at each of her fellows, one by one. They all held her gaze. She considered herself lucky Kaylessa wasn't present. The half-nymph, who could arguably be considered the most immoral of the group, was still sleeping off the previous night's fighting inside a Watch cell. She would have a nasty surprise when she woke up and thought herself under arrest, although in reality she would be let go after a brief question and answer session with the watchmen.
Truth be told, Willow couldn't say she had taken to Kaylessa as much as the others. There seemed to be something... off... about her. The surname seemed familiar – Silverleaf – and Willow remembered she'd fought alongside another Silverleaf many years before, back when she had first met Rob. She'd not seen the elder of the name for many years now, however, and had no clue what had happened to her. Maybe this girl was a relation? She couldn't be certain though, and had no real inclination to ask. Instead, mindful of her current audience, she pressed on with the tale.
"I was lucky. My mother realised what was happening and had me hide in a small stone cell, down in the basement. I was only eight. The next day, I emerged to find my entire family dead, and the timber walls of the keep burned down to the ground." At this, she paused. Back when the memories were raw, and she'd scarcely had time to grieve, she recalled crying uncontrollably, but these days not much was able to draw a tear from Willow's eyes.
"That must have been awful for you." The new voice belonged to Kristoph Zeichnung, a wood elf who had joined them just one night before. He had helped the party out of a sticky situation with the Centralis Watch, after they were mistaken for the bandits they had in fact just killed. As it turned out, he had also been issued an invitation to join the Wish Seekers, and agreed to team up with Willow's group. There was no hint of sarcasm or malice in his words, although he seemed a bit strange sometimes, as if he wasn't quite all there. Constantly relaxed no matter the situation. Instead, he seemed genuinely concerned, looking out for Willow as if they had known each other for years. It helped that as soon as they'd met he'd saved her from near death with his spells and healing words, something she would have to pay him back for some day.
"I thought I had died, and gone to hell. I wandered around the bodies and the ruins with no idea what to do, where to go. I was all alone, for most of the day. Then someone else arrived.
"A monk from the nearby monastery had been sent to investigate. They were based just up the next mountain, overlooking the Vale, and saw the flames and smoke. As soon as the tribesmen had cleared out the monks began to travel, looking for survivors. Not that there were any. Except for me.
"They took me in. They raised me, they trained me in their ways and I started to learn how to fight, and how to defend myself. I embraced their tenets, I took on their creed and dedicated every aspect of my life to them, out of gratitude for saving my life. But I was never really one of them. I don't know why, but I never felt like I... belonged.
"I spent ten years with them. After that, I decided to use what I had learned to strike out. The tribesmen had long since moved on, but I followed whatever clues and leads I could to track them down. They had joined up with a bandit group operating in the plains towns on the other side of the mountain range where I was raised. So, I decided to move to the plains towns. I set myself up as a bounty hunter, helping out the Watch wherever they needed me and gathering contacts to keep tabs on the bandit group. The tribe that killed my family... they took over the bandits and made it their own group. The Watch were after them as well... but I was too quick."
With this, Willow stopped again, and looked at her audience, one by one. They mostly seemed to be engrossed in the tale, but she could tell Rob MacLiuthar, the dwarf who she had first met over a century ago, was getting somewhat bored. She wasn't surprised. If it didn't involve drinking or killing then he wasn't generally too interested. Ah well, no matter. He would be happy enough soon.
"I started targeting each bandit who had been part of the group that attacked my family. The others I left alone, the Watch could have them, but I didn't want anyone else to have the revenge that I considered to be mine. One by one, I hunted them down and ended their lives. I built up an intelligence network to confirm who had been there and who hadn't. I'm... not proud of what I did. It was reckless, stupid, arrogant even. I should have left them to the Watch. But I couldn't... I just couldn't let them get away with what they did to us."
By now, Willow's voice was on the verge of breaking. She took a large swig of her drink, whisky rather than the ale the others had favoured, and calmed her nerves. "Eventually there was just one left. The chieftain who had led the attack, had taken over as bandit leader. I managed to sneak into their compound one night, and made my way to his chambers. No-one spotted me. By the time I was inside it was too late. I crept up to his bed while he slept..."
As she spoke, she could see Rob in the corner of her eye, now becoming more interested to the point of nearly falling from his high chair. He leaned forward and motioned for her to go on. "When he woke up I was already directly above him, knife pressed to his throat. I asked him, 'do you know what happened at Clearwater Keep, ten years ago?'. He tried to feign ignorance but at knifepoint there was only so much he could do. He nodded, and I asked him what involvement he had. His next words... broke my heart."
Willow was now breathing heavily, the memories flooding back. Even now she couldn't quite manage to cry, not that she wanted to in this public place. She forced the next words out. "He told me that he had the head of the keep at his mercy. My mother... he held her to the ground as his fellow tribesmen set fire to the walls. Then at the last second... he grabbed her head and twisted. Her neck snapped..." Willow choked, and pressed on. "I was always one for poetic justice. I dropped the knife... and I did the same to him as he did to my mother. I broke his neck with my own bare hands. Then I grabbed a lantern from the sideboard, and burned the compound to the ground."
There was silence. At this point not a single member of the group could meet Willow's eye. She didn't blame them. What she had done... it was barbaric, horrific, but ultimately served its purpose. She'd finally had her revenge, but what had it gained her? For years after she had wandered around, not only in the plains but also returning to the monastery to atone. She took up the role that her parents would have wanted for her, until it became clear the Mistvale was no longer in need of defending, and subsequently struck out on her own.
"I realised there were more places out there that needed help. I told myself that the best way I could repair what I had done was to travel around and bring aid to anyone who needed it. I generally stayed outside the confines of the law, but I did what I could, whatever good I could manage. That's kind of how I met Rob."
She glanced at the diminutive dwarf, who gave a hint of a smile, before looking back at the others. "I know this whole story makes me seem like some kind of heartless monster. For a long time, I thought I was. I murdered people, to get a kind of vengeance, but it didn't bring my family back. It didn't mean anything, for a long time. I used to think that I couldn't build connections, that I would be alone forever and that maybe... I deserved it."
"And now?" Lionel Grey, the only other human in their party and resident cleric, asked. He generally kept himself to himself, but was another one that Willow now owed her life to.
"A lot has changed since then. I... um... went back to the monastery once more. They taught me a lot, including how to halt the ageing process. I'm a hundred and twenty four now, and with a long life comes a more rounded view.
"I suppose I'm the same cynical bitch I always was. Some things never change. But I used to be afraid. Afraid of losing people, afraid of building friendships, connections... falling in love. Maybe I still am, but not for the same reasons. I was scared that if I ever let myself get close to someone... I would lose them, like I lost my family, or they'd see me for the murdering piece of shit that I became. I never wanted to go through that pain again. Now? I'm still scared. That never goes away. But I also realise, life isn't worth a damn thing, if I don't get to enjoy it with people. That's not what my parents would have wanted for me. That isn't what those monks saved me for all those years ago. If I live my whole life like that, then I may as well have died in the ruins of the keep along with everyone else."
With Willow's words came silence. Everyone sat and looked away, into their drinks or towards the fire. It felt good to get everything off her chest, she had to admit. The random sex and the drinking were fun, good ways to distract herself, but they could never fill the hole in her heart that had been left open all those years ago. Telling her story to everyone, finally admitting what she had done and allowing herself to move on, were much better. She could start to fix the hole and maybe find something new to fill it for good. If nothing else, it was worth a try.