...The most unbelievable story in 'Heroes in a Heroic Age…'
Transcribed by the Venerable Enlaith, Papal Historian and servant of the House Baraja
I started writing this book well before the Pope died, I had people doing interviews with survivors, picking up stories, following rumors… I even visited battlefields and had artists draw them as they looked as close as possible to the time of the battles that were waged there. I got special permission from family members to read letters left behind by those who lived and fought during those years, some were removed by two generations or more by that time, and except for the immortals, the memories of the living were literally dying off. When Neia died, I knew I didn't have a lot of time left anymore. She was the single strongest human I'd ever personally met, and having lived in her service at the papal estate, I met quite a few powerful humans.
Everyone I spoke with, every letter I read, had a story to tell, but none of them were quite like this one, which I present separately because, impossible as it may seem, every word appears to be completely true. I personally verified that he lived in the places he said he did, through surviving official records, eyewitness accounts, and written letters from those days.
What made him unique was that while everybody, even the great leaders, had a piece of the story, and many of the small figures had their own, somehow this unassuming elderly man, though never a figure who would be mentioned anywhere in any book after his death… saw almost all of it. Daiko Uten, a simple farmer from the Draconic Kingdom, had somehow blundered his way from witnessing or being party to one epic moment in the heroic age, after another. Had I not gained verification during and after the interview, I would have scrapped it all. But now that I know it to be true, I can't leave it unwritten.
He may never have changed the world as the Demon of the West, never forged an empire or led an army, but he is a living witness to things that would become legendary one day. So, here it is, with my impressions intact from start to finish.
I first heard of Daiko Uten from one of the veterans halls, a soldier told me about him. He spoke of an eccentric old man who had wild stories about the war years of the Heroic Age, who claimed to have met everyone from Neia to Raymond, to Nua and more… and yet somehow never merited a mention from anyone in public records.
It was a weird story and most of the soldiers laughed about it when I interviewed them, but something about it rang true. And, as the Grand Historian, I don't have the right to leave stories untold, so I followed the trail. From one veteran's hall to another, to merchant halls and libraries and taverns, Diako Uten seemed like a ghost. Like that 'girlfriend in another city' that nobody ever meets. Like that second cousin's first aunt's boyfriend who helped catch a fish 'thiiiiiiiis big'. But the funny thing about following in the footsteps of a story is that, if you can keep going back, you usually find a source. Finally, lo and behold, I found somebody who knew him.
Daiko Uten lived in a comfortable estate in the Minotaur Kingdom, not far from what used to be Kirakira prison. He was far from the wealthiest of men, but… clearly he'd made enough to buy a nice house, and when I went up to the door a half-elf servant answered my knock quite readily.
The furniture was simple, rough stuff, like he was someone who wanted a big house but didn't much care what went in it, as long as it was his. A lot of old humans were like that, the ones who made money kept their comforts basic but their homes… a little bigger than really needed.
I was invited into his home and explained who I was and what I wanted, and when the half-elf returned, she was happy to accompany me to the master of the house. I was taken to his private quarters, and found a very old, somewhat slender man with a bushy beard sitting there, it was hard not to like him, not least of all because he prepared the tea himself. I've always had a soft spot for people who did things for themselves even when they had a servant to help.
He had a twinkle in his eye and though he was clearly careworn and tired, he was hospitable and his voice had more energy than I would have thought an old human should have.
He asked if it was true what I wanted, and how I'd found him, and I explained that I just followed the stories of the farwalking human.
He laughed a bit at that and asked if I had been to fifty or a hundred locations, and I told him twice the latter. He seemed pleased with that and answered, "Well, I won't be wandering off anymore, not with bum legs and bad back and old age to keep me here… but you want to know how it was, I'll tell you, best I can 'member. Ain't pretty, but… it's my story to tell and yours to hear if you want."
I said that I did and he poured a cup of tea for me which I ignored in favor of my quill and paper. He didn't seem to mind, and that was where this story, his story, unbelievable and true both at once, began...
"I was born on the eastern border of the Draconic Kingdom, and inherited my father's farm after he died, I was seventeen at the time. I loved my father but you know... he lived a long, full life and died in his own bed at the ripe old age of fifty-two. That was a long life to live, back then, you see. So... I wasn't unhappy when the farm became mine. But then damn it, wouldn't you know it? The Beastman Kingdom chose to invade just after my first harvest. I guess I was lucky, I got word after my cart was loaded up to take to market... so I rode out of there as fast as I could with a wagon full of what had just become more valuable than gold. Living where I did, I knew enough about the Beastman Kingdom to know I couldn't go home again, so I sold my crops for a lot of money and kept riding west until I got caught up in Ha'ak Pale... I had the sense to hide my money, but not the sense to not get drunk with it. Which is why I was still there when the city was captured. Ironically that also saved my life, the Beastmen focused on the meat that wasn't already 'penned' so they delayed eating me... which bought enough time for His Majesty to show up and liberate us all. Listen, are you sure you want to hear this? I mean yah, I saw a lot, lady, but you worked with the Pope herself, what can I tell you that you didn't already know?"
I couldn't help but laugh at his folksy demeanor, the way he held his mug and relaxed in his chair, even the pleasant way he doubted the value of his own contribution to my work. He frankly looked the part of the man who lived the life he had, rough, grizzled, wrinkled, however with a peculiar happy verve about him that made him charming in the way only grandfathers can be. I wasn't about to complain even if I wanted to, 'Heroes in a Heroic Age' was meant to gather the stories of those years from around the empire, all the way up to the time of the last Turning and the death of the last mortal hero. For that, I needed the perspectives of the common people too. So I answered him, 'Yes. A time like this will never come again, every eye has value. Every story has worth.'
He shrugged at that, his old shoulders rolled a little bit, he had a fair number of scars I was sure, his weary motions were too 'off' to be just age. He accepted my answer, and went on, "So I didn't see how he killed the beastmen, but I remember seeing all them bodies, must have been ugly, you know. Not to say I felt bad for the beastmen, fuck em, they wanted to eat us after all. But it must have been a terrible shock to go from being the most powerful things in the area to being... nothing, just that fast." He snapped his fingers with a sharp gesture, and with that crooked smile on his face, I knew he still enjoyed the memory of the carnage even decades later.
"So anyway, after His Majesty let us go, I got my hidden gold, cursed myself for a damn fool, and decided to ride west until I couldn't no more, ended up in the Holy Kingdom, northern part, lot of available land out there, settled in a nice town what needed some farmers," he pointed a sharp finger at me and a wide, cocky grin formed when he said, "ain't nobody in this world farms better than a Draconic citizen, I promise you that, Miss Enlaith."
I smiled at him encouragingly, he took that favorably, and continued his story, "So I bought me some land, now I reckon this time was... kinda my fault, I mean I wanted a peaceful life, but I was still young and I didn't mind a little risk, so the town I bought at was in the middle of the north, I lived inside the walls of course, but the farm outside was where I worked, and things were good for awhile. Right nice, I had some good seasons there, till the damn demihuman stragglers showed up. See back then, even after the war, there were still lots left over, hid'in out and whatnot. Couldn't go home, couldn't swim the far sea to who knows what's out there. So... they stayed like bandits... an a whole bunch of 'em got together thinkin to sack the town I lived in. I blamed myself for stayin there, still do."
"But I got lucky, outta nowhere the woman who became the first Pope, she showed up with her hundred... I got to watch from the wall, we was right desperate, all I had was a damn rusty sword, some rocks, and a few spears barely fit to be called better'n sticks, but then there they was. I got to watch'er fight, an... you ever hear the words, 'heroes light'? Like what comes on people who ain't got any reason to be but to fight? Ones what won't quit an don't think'a nuthin, like living zombies, but heroes. I gotta say Miss Enlaith, that there was enough'a that heroes light out there to blind a young man. She ain't have no reason to help us, none of em did, but there they were anyway, it was one'a her first real big fights, an it helped make her famous. Ah tell you I'm not too humble to say, I helped make her famous too, musta told that story a hundred times the first month alone... course... I'd had enough'a that place, an sold mah farm for a nice profit, and lit up outta there. Told everbody everwhere about that fight until I made it somewhere else. Wouldn'cha know it? I chose a city this time."
His eyes sparkled a little bit with memory and amusement both at once when he asked me, "Miss Enlaith, can you guess what city it was?"
'Prart?' I asked him, and he laughed.
"Nope... my damn fool self went to the south, I went without stopping, all the way to the outskirts of Wenmark." He rolled his eyes, then hung his head, "Please don't be lookin too bad on me fer livin there, it was the Holy Kingdom too, an ah didn't know no better, never did anythin bad to any a yer kind, I promise. Wouldn'ta had time even if I wanted to, you know how hard it is to get a farm goin? Real hard, real hard. So, I bought some land on the outskirts there an settled in, now I had plenty'a money, an it was near harvest time for the south, sooo, I paid top silver for an old man's farm, he wanted to retire to the city, so I made it happen. I promised him I'd give him nine coins in ten from the next big harvest, the one he was too old and weak to handle, and I'd just barely gotten everything sold when wouldn't you know it... like shittin durin an earthquake, everythin got messy real quick."
'You saw what happened?' I asked him, and the leather skinned old man shuddered.
"Yer damn right I did, ain't never seen blue like that before, an by then I'd seen a lotta sky. But them circles, so many, all up in the air, an then that was it, saw some of the massacre first, I even hid some'a your race, see not bein from the Theocracy or the Holy Kingdom, all we in the Draconic Kingodm had to hate were the Beastmen, so I didna hate the elves like some others. I could see from mah corn field how the Paladin lady, Retardios or whatever her name was, been too long now, went crazy with all the killin, I gots real sharp eyes, y-you gotta, livin where I did, an I saw her face an how twisted and evil it was. I buggered off back to mah farm, an when elves started showin up, I let em hide out in my house. I was real scared some'a them cavalry would show up, but I guess they went elsewhere, they were riding round the city, guess they went back the way they came, cause nobody come to where I lived."
He shuddered and asked, briefly wiping away his tears, "How anybody do stuff like that? Elves ain't human, butcha ain't beastmen. Yah look a lot like us, we can read faces, happy, sad, hurt... saw a sword go through a woman's back, and come out her chest, she didn't even have much fer clothin, just a damn sack, what'd she do to anybody? Tweren't right. She was just doin what I done, run'in away cause she wanted tah live. Felt real bad about them, guess the pope was worse than feel'in bad, she musta got mad. I watched that there city burn for a day and a half before I lit outta there like that fire was chasin at mah back."
"Did OK though. See since the old man didn't live to get them coins, I had it all, so... I went north, I figured a city was still a good idea, but maybe I'd just let somebody else run a farm for me, I had the money, and maybe a friendly city would be better, soooo... it was off to... yeah, Prart this time." The old man slapped his face with his palm and held it there, "I know, right? Of all places? Why'd this keep happ'nin! Huh?! All ah wanted was ta grow some vegetables, get me a wife, and live a quiet life... Prart idn the easiest place to farm, so the land is right cheap, an now I had several farms worth of wealth, so I bought a bunch of land, and you know, all them elves showed up there, you heared about that, right?" He asked me and I shook my head.
"Oh, well see, lotsa elves made it out, more'n anybody knew, an some of em were miners, lotsa farmers, an so I hired them former slaves, I paid 'em good too, real good. Even got some magic casters there who could make a harvest grow faster, they had lotsa practice with that, so food started off right cheap... then yeah, next thing ah know we've got a full blown civil war and there's an army on the way... I wanted to bugger out, but damn it! I'd just got that farm and hadn't had time to sell the harvest, I'd lose everthin if I ran. I figured I could sell it quick and bugger out... but I got buggered." he laughed a half bitter laugh and shook his head sheepishly while he looked down at the floor between us.
"Everythin got locked down, an I got pulled for the fight, landowners 'had' to fight back then, it was a rule for the city dwellers, you wanted to buy land and not work it yourself, you had to serve in the militia, it was right neat seeing the pope herself again, she and her wife made a right pretty pair, in a scary kinda way. Like watchin a mated pair of wolves around their pups. I converted after that, I figured anyone wanted to do right by folk who were just gonna get killed fer livin, well, that was the side I needed to be on. The weddin day was a big'un, got a real sword then, felt pretty good to raise it fer her. But still, all I wanted ta do was have a goddamn farm! Why was that so much to ask?!" He rubbed his temple with obvious annoyance, and I did my best not to laugh at him when he went on.
"Them was dark times, it was cold, not enough wood for everybody, mages couldn't spare the mana for fire. I did get laid a lot though, everybody with a sword got a sheathe, that was the runnin joke was, cause we all figured we were gonna die. That many Theocracy and fanatics bearin down on a place what already fallen three times? I tell yah I enjoyed every single woman what came up to me, but damn it! I'da preferred to be a virgin than be in that lewd city under siege."
He shivered a little like the winter was yesterday, and I tell you readers, I swear I could feel it too, the way he looked away, haunted by it all.
"You know what it's like? Feelin yer own bones freeze? I got stuck on that damn wall for eight hours a day, an we rotated by the flames we set out to light our arrows, so we were only warmed for two hours at a time, all the rest ah those hours, frozen, I was on that wall when everythin went straight to hell. I did get to meet the Queen first, she really was as beautiful as the stories said, magic or no. But then ah almost got killed by the pope herself... I felt real bad about watchin her do what she did. Feelin bad seemed almost normal by then. I never had to kill nobody who wasn't tryin to kill me... but I'll never forget what I saw up there, not even if'n somebody makes me into a baby elf to start life all over again." He reached out and touched my knee, then squeezed it firmly. He still had more strength than you'd think for an old man, even for a farmer, but what he said was more powerful than what he did.
"Miss Enlaith, I felt sad when my dad died, at least some, I seen lotsa sad things by then, but ain't never seen anyone what looks like they regretted ever bein born at all. She blamed herself, I know she did. I know it even if she never said that to nobody, like she knew those people were out there just for her to personally kill, an she done it. That fat man down there took the arrow in his body, died, an then she almost killed us too..."
His fingers twitched while he talked about what he saw, and all I could think was, 'he probably never sought help after everything, poor old man.'
"When I was a real small kid, my da, he used to wrestle with me, an one time I remember he held me down an I tried to get up, an couldn't move, it was like that, but a thousand dads an then some. Hurt my knees real bad when I hit the stone, musta hit it wrong cause I couldn't move when chaos all began. She got that there power that made her even more famous than before... there was so much blood on her body, ripping her apart, reminded me of that time I saw a beastman skin someone still alive, it was real bad. Don't know if she could do anythin about what was happening, but she made it hurt the others worse. I couldn't move well, so I had to stay up on the wall, but I watched everythin. Don't know how many talked bout this but… His Majesty cradled her like she was a newborn baby, right weird see'in an undead cradle a woman that way… but I heard her whisper g'bye an then there he was. Saw bout everything. Only thin I missed was the fight between heroes that happened after she got healed."
'I must have shown how disappointed I was, because he gave me a bitter laugh and explained.'
"No, I 'saw' the fight, but them blades and arrows an whatnot, it was so fast, couldn't follow it, like watchin monsters or angels an' demons, weren't somethin meant for mortal eyes, like some kinda crazy dance, all that jumpin and twirlin and rollin... then next thing yah know, it was done. So much of the fight'n moved farther away. When it was over, I musta been one of them few who heard what the Pope an her wife argued about. Miss Skana musta been the nicer one, she stopped the beating. Made her wife kill the paladin monster quick like, one thrust through an through..."
"Anyway... don't like much talkin about that stuff, after she said, 'For all of them.' and killed the woman, it was over and I knew I had to get far away, soon as the battle was over, well I thin war was goin to end too, an you know, word came that the South was declaring independence. I happened to be around when the Queen was walking and talking to herself, she wanted to accept it, I could tell that much, so... I figured it was time to get outta there or get stuck like I did at that first town in the Holy Kingdom..."
'Let me guess...' I said, and all he could do was laugh and slap his knee for several minutes.
"Yep, soon as shit settled down and I wasn't made to fight no more, well lotta them elves wanted to stay there, Prart still has one of the largest populations of wood elves outside of the Elf Kingdom today, or so I hear. It was a boom town, so I sold off everythin and figured I could farm on the border, it was kinda roundabout, but I made my way to Yanana, right over the border, I figured the last of em would end up dyin to the north and then I could make a pretty penny selling food to Prart, so I bought some land outside the city and then... yeah... the survivors rampaged over everythin, took all my stuff, and made for the city. Now lucky me all they wanted were me crops... so they took that an left me my gold to eat, mighta taken that but they were in a rush."
'What was that like?' I asked him and waited while he thought it over.
"Sad, kinda, lot of em knew they were dead men walking, you know, so they did the things they did tryin to buy one more day to live, if'n I hadn't needed food ta eat, I might've pitied the poor boys, most of em weren't much but teenagers, kids who wanted to play hero and joined up cause their local priest said the gods wanted em too, lookin at em cold, shiver'in, hungry, they cain't eat their swords, got nowhere to go, no hope left, some of em didn't even have good shoes no more, an them theocracy folks, they were rough. Real rough, harder men, harder women, I'll credit them southern folk for courage just for bein still there after what I saw in Prart... but still, they left me to starve on an empty farm, so I weren't too sad at the time. Kinda am now though... just young'ns, younger'n me most of em, least I was in my twenties, an I could leave, they had nothin… not even hope."
He fell to crying for a little bit, I wondered if I should stop the interview then, and offered too, but he waved a hand vigorously in front of himself and straightened up before he said to me...
"No, you right, Miss Enlaith, this's gotta be said, back then I didn't like em, but like I said, just kids want'in some grand adventure an found themselves in hell pursued by the devil herself, tellin stories of slaughter behind em, what that paladin did musta crossed a line, because ain't nobody was livin no more what got in the way. Kinda understood why she went on trial later, somethin broke inside her when the fat man died if'n it hadn't already. Like you can take the good in somebody, as if it's a livin thing, and kill it with a lotta little cuts and jabs or even one big thrust... so much death, so many good kids who just wanted stories to tell when they got old... an they didn't get to become old..."
He fell to crying again then for a few minutes while I waited for him to recover, when he did, he wiped his face and said…
"Then I met Lakyus, that was back before she became an angel literally, and was just a beautiful young woman warrior, in them bright colors and with her beautiful face, she did seem heaven sent, and she might as well have been. See my land lay outside the city, an the plan... well they needed to dig up my land to divert the river... I didn't know it at the time, but she offered to buy it all for gold and enough food to get me wherever I wanted to go. She had a melodic voice, like a singer, right pretty you know, to listen too. I got enough goods and supplies, and I even got to be a guest in the camp, that's how I learned about the abandoned dead north of me. Nobody bothered to get rid of them bodies. Too big a hurry to get rid of em, an nobody worried much about them turnin undead later. Anyway, bein there is how I happened to get to watch the destruction of Yanana. I didn't think anythin but a god could control nature... but somehow they did it. Somehow... gods... the way the waters raged and roared when the bags holding it back were cut, I seen rivers, floods, lotsa rain, ain't never seen anythin like that. I thought I'd died and gone to hell... so many screams of horror, terror, disbelief… the walls fell, an I couldn't stay to the end. I took what I got, and got outta there."
'Where'd you go from there?' I asked him, and he was quick to reply more calmly, like he was grateful to be off that subject.
"Well, I figured that god didn't want me to be no farmer, an that's all I wanted, but if'n that wasn't goin to be, I'd be a merchant. I had a cart, and took up a couple' elves who'd been hidin in the woods while everythin went on, an we hit the last battlefield. See, I figured I could loot the bodies of the dead for things to sell, be a merchant, they didn't need none of it no more, an I did."
'You looted the dead?' I asked him, and he turned red when he snapped at me.
"Don't judge me for lootin the dead, I didn't make em that way, I just wanted a life, an they didn't have theirs no more. Would it have been better if the ground swallowed up their stuff?"
I had no answer to that, so he took it as an apology and carried on.
"Strange thing though, somebody survived, must have been blessed by god himself, black uniform, figured he musta been one of them elites, little different clothing, but he must have been harder than steel, because he survived gettin run through, spent days alive there on the frozen ground, unable to leave, he must have kept goin by eating snow and dragging himself to bodies looking for rations between his time passed out. I'm no monster, so I rescued him, got him help, told him I was a merchant, an... well, he didn't remember anythin about what happened, so I asked if he wanted to stay with me. He did, and I figured well, with the war surely going to end soon, I could try to make my way east, figured it would be safest near Kami Miyako... I mean two cities and whole armies done got erased, who would keep fighting?" He spread his hands out and looked at me wild eyed like he still couldn't believe the answer.
I suppose I couldn't either, because I couldn't think of anything to say.
"I didn't intend to be there long, figured one good harvest with a good bodyguard, them elves stayed behind, I hope things turned out well for em. But me an my bodyguard were just the two of us and a wagon, god knows how, but he somehow had really good instincts for avoiding armies, and we made it to Kami Miyako a few weeks before that turned out to be a really bad idea. That was how I met Cardinal Raymond Zarg Larrenson, and... well... you know who."
'You're kidding me?' I asked him, I couldn't believe my ears, this nobody of a farmer and merchant had so far encountered in passing, or observed, key events from all over the war, and all the poor guy wanted to do was grow cabbages or whatever farmers grow in those places. I started to wonder if this was just an old man's story blown way out of proportion, and he gave me an indulgent smile then pointed to a dresser.
"Go on, open it." He said to me, so I went to the simple wooden dresser, it was crude cut, not even polished, and opened the drawer, I saw what he wanted me to see, almost immediately.
"Yeah. Good enough?" He asked.
I reached in after a glance back, and at his nod, I took up the paper. In my hand was a deed, Daiko Uten's name below that of the last owner before him, and Cardinal Raymond's name below his, I knew exactly what it was, I'd lived in Kami Miyako often enough as a slave, and every elf knew what this meant. The salvation camps, the places that saved countless elven lives.
"S'right, that's my land, I bought it up when I arrived, figured the Theocracy'd have a lotta refugees, people runnin and need'n space to live, sold off what I had, bought land, and within a few weeks, I got a cardinal in my nice little house in the city, and alongside him this beautiful elf girl who always kept her back to a wall. The way she looked at him, I wondered if she was his concubine or somethin..." He snorted, "Seems a dumb thought now."
"But still, back then, how was I to know? He sat at my table, told me my land was vital to humanity and asked would I sell it, he wasn't a big man, not really. But I'd been by the Pope herself, met the Queen, stood beside Skana, and seen His Majesty a few feet away... an I tell you he was somethin else, like he belonged in that world, he radiated power even just being with me. But see I'd had enough nonsense, an I said to Cardinal Raymond…"
'Look I done moved all over creation now, an all I keep findin is trouble, ain't no way the war is com'in here, nobody with any sense'd keep fightin.' "And that was when she laughed at me."
'She?' I asked him.
"Nua, she must have accompanied him a lot, saw them out and about the city sometimes on errands, but that was the first time up close, an I never seen hatred like that up in my face. Made no sense to me, I didn't do nothin. But she hated me, I could see it, all she wanted to do was tear me apart, but that made her laugh an she said, 'Believe my master, the war is coming here. I promise you.'
The way she spoke, she believed it, in retrospect I should have known she wasn't just a slave, speaking to a human that way, but they were determined to convince me to sell, didn't know what the land was for, just that it was a work camp, and I looked at the elf girl with a lotta pity, place was sad, so many poor elves... and they saw it, I know they did. That must have been why they changed tact.
"Raymond, he said to me, 'It's for many sakes.' Well at first, I thought he meant 'humanity's sake' but the way they stopped and stared at me... well I knew it was a kinda test. I think they'da killed me if I'd failed, even if I'd misunderstood. But... I got it. Raymond, you know, he wasn't the most handsome of folk."
I couldn't help but giggle a bit at that, despite his seriousness, and he shared a mutual smile of understanding.
"Specially back then, gaunt and worn, tired, despite all his strength, but that was when I saw something else, sadness, reminded me of the Pope, watchin her face when she killed that guy, whoever he was, so much sorrow there, like he was watching death happen he couldn't do nothin about, an I realized he was tryin to do somethin good an here I was in the way. I sold him every scrap of land right then and there. Didn't need no land, seen so much bad already in those few years, ain't wanted to see no more... soon as he signed that deed, I looked over at his lady an said, 'We ain't all bad... hope everthin comes out good as it can...'
"Don't rightly know if that meant anythin to her, but ah think the lady got that I didn't hate her none, and I asked fer a pass to leave the city, didn't want to be there no more. He threw one in as a bonus, and I got outta Kami Miyako the next day after sellin everything I owned but a coupla carts and buyin enough goods to travel east with my bodyguard."
'You didn't.' I said to him, my mouth about to drop open.
"Yeah... yeah I did." He laughed uproariously, "I figured what the hell, take a job in the old country, get what I needed, then got the hell out of there, and merchanted my way all the way onto a ship and ended up in Mict'aratz, that there bodyguard settled down in Komestra, but me, I went to Pas'en, and I farmed there for a good number of years... then all hell broke loose… again. Now... I'm pretty tired Miss Enlaith... pretty tired, old bones an all that, so why don't you come back later, an I'll tell you what hot mess I saw out there, eh?"
I stood up as fast as I could, bowed over and over again, 'Yes! Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes! I'll see you in a few days, I have to compile all this... nobody will believe it... listen, can I buy that deed from you? It belongs in a museum. Nobody will believe this insanity otherwise.' I asked him, and he chuckled as old men do when the young doubt their stories.
"All the deeds are in them drawers, but that's my favorite, cause it's the only one I got what saved lives, take em all, I don't need em, I'm an old man, ain't got a lotta time left, an if this'll keep that time goin in people's minds, yeah, take it. We'll talk more soon, don't take too long now, old men ain't got forever, even in a place like this'n."
His eyes twinkled and I finished the tea he'd laid out for me in one quick draught, then left the old man to his memories for the night.