Chapter Two: Truth and Consequences
Aron merely shook his head in disbelief. He just stood there, broken. He didn't speak. He didn't move. He just stood there, paralyzed with the shocking pain of it all. That's all he could do. There was nothing Earwyn could do to stop the guilt that rose and fell like tidal waves. Then, she realized it was anger that she felt. It was a sort of angry sympathy. "You're not my mother! Who on earth do you think you are to trick yourself into thinking that you have any authority over my personal life? Well, newsflash: you don't. So I would just stay out of it if I were you!" As she said this, hot, angry tears fell down her cheeks. The fire blazed up in a majestic roar. She could feel Aron's insides burning up to her cruel words like dry leaves to a forest fire. She knew that he was dying. She never meant to be so harsh. It just slipped out. She stared off into the almost touchable darkness of night remembering all Aron had done for her. Level two, he dived into the river in Lakeside County to save her from the wrathful hands of a scale broodcaller. Level five, he searched her out when she had so foolishly gotten herself lost in the vast expanse of the Shiverpeaks. Level seven…The list just went on and on. In the same night that he saved her from her father's malice, she told him to get out of her life forever. As she turned back, the monk's expression had not changed. He sat there intently, his eyes as cold as ice yet deep with wisdom beyond his years. When she turned back around Aron was gone. The monk arose from the grass and put his hand on her shoulder. "Where are you going?" Earwyn asked, almost pleading. "Home." He said naturally. "Why? It isn't late?" She inquired; he sighed. "I have dealings with Prince Rurik in the early morning; I must rest." Earwyn was then filled with a new enthusiasm. "Really? So do I! The ultimate quest?" She hoped to Dwayna that they shared a common mission, for Rurik had told her not to tell a soul. "Rurik speaks in riddles." He said commandingly. This didn't seem to have anything to do with the conversation. For the first time, he had a triumphant sneer on his face. "Let me guess, he gave you the Ultimate Quest, future talk he gives the level ones down in Green Hills County."
Earwyn did not like the idea of being condescended and outsmarted by an outsider, so she bluntly revolted. "The Ultimate Quest takes you to the future!" The monk lowered his head in the same humble way he had previously. "Like I said before, Rurik tends to speak in riddles. Only the most wise know of the great danger we have all been in- for fifteen years." Earwyn was astonished. Living in grave peril for fifteen years? Her mother left fifteen years ago! That must account for something.
"You see, Bonfaaz Burntfur and the charr began to threaten Ascalon in the pleasant month of Autumn, about august sixteenth a decade and five years ago. Silent, bloodless battles of threats and lies and mockery raged on restlessly. It was already the next year when man and charr made a deal in the damp and festering darkness of the dreary catacombs, where an eerie chill blew through windless lands. They gave us fifteen years to get out, before they would lay the greatest siege in the history of man and beast alike." He recalled softly to himself in a mumble as if he remembered it, but he could not have been a day older than she, or so she thought.
"Burntfur commanded king Adelbern lead him to the end of the catacombs to verify the deal. Little did we know that he had no interest in peace…we should have known. All that he wanted was to see where the catacombs ended, so he and the charr could find a way in. For weeks they beat at rock and earth before they broke through. I saw with my own eyes that they had." The firelight reflected in his eyes. Earwyn could not believe this. They sat in the abbey right near the catacombs, and it didn't take a lore-master to see that there were no charr in Ashford Abbey. "I don't see any charr!" Now she sounded ignorant, though you or I would have said the same.
"Oh, they're coming. Every day they move closer. The catacombs are long and vast and dark, young Kolethe. Mile after painstaking mile they stretch unceasingly. Days without food or rest and there pace is no less quick. We have three days until the sky rains fire and all in their path are destroyed." Earwyn couldn't help straining her ear toward the catacombs. She only thought she heard thundering footsteps far in the distance. "How does that ex-" Her words were cut off by the monk. "I wasn't finished. Two days after the deal was in action, Rurik began gathering the strong. He took them to an underground part of the city and for fifteen years they prepared for the war, some less, without the light of day to guide them. Your mother was with the men…there was never a day without pain in her eyes…the source is not known to me now…" His words ran together and drifted off. Earwyn was letting her tears fall uncontrollably. "What about my family?" she sobbed. His previously emotionless, lipid eyes now held compassion as he placed a soft hand on her shoulder. "You can find your mother if you go with me, to the war. I guess that Rurik has already recommended you go." She kept on weeping.
"How do you know my name?" she asked as the fire dimmed slightly.