Chapter 27: Broken Gates and Burned Bridges

Morning came and went, with little disruption to their continual walk towards Brentwood. The group had still yet to find a place to cross the large river, with many of them getting restless as a result.

"We need to cross soon. If we don't, we'll end up on the main route between Brentwood and Astor. Which we had been attempting to avoid, if you remember." Alistair called from towards the back of the group. Garrick, who had been looking over the map he had acquired, closed the piece of folded parchment in frustration at this.

"I am well aware of that, Alistair. But this map is basic, and only holds said main routes. While the river is there, it does not mark many crossing opportunities." In response, Alistair shrugged and gestured for Garrick to pass the map to him. Disgruntled that he thought he could read a map better than him, Garrick simply huffed and stuffed the parchment into his hands before walking towards the front of the group.

Alistair opened the map, then after a moment turned it left, right and even upside down. Indira sidled up beside him to look over his shoulder at the map, Peanut perched upon her shoulder, who did the same. "Any luck?" she asked curiously, unable to accurately read the map with all the movement he was making.

After a few seconds pause, Alistair slumped and folded the map once more. "Never could read a map, to be honest. Don't tell Garrick that though." Indira simply shook her head with an exasperated smile.

Garrick had reached the front of the group by this point, and was walking alongside Varus. Varus gave a brief look his way, before continuing to look ahead. "You know, swimming is still an option, old man. It's not so wide here." Garrick looked to the river, and shook his head. "Less wide it may be, but it also runs faster. We risk being swept away by the current." Varus shrugged, caring little about their method of crossing.

Karasumaru, who until now had been flying above the group, came down and settled upon Garrick's shoulder. "Well, why don't you try flying over? I've always found it works well for me, Squire!" Garrick simply raised an eyebrow at this suggestion, while Varus scoffed in disdain. "In case you haven't noticed, bird, we don't have wings."

Karasumaru shrugged, an action that looked very strange for a bird. "One of you does. Perhaps she could carry you over one at a time?"

Both Varus and Garrick stopped walking with widened eyes, nearly causing Na'ish to walk into the back of them. The two looked at each other briefly before turning to look at the group. "Mel? Is that something that you would...Mel? Wait, where is she?" Garrick asked, looking back over the short procession. Rogon had been plodding along near the middle, with Alistair and Indira still towards the back.

"Oh, she was just behind us…" Alistair started, before turning and realising there was not anyone there. "Or, at least, she was...weird." Indira looked back along the path worriedly, "I hope nothing happened to her...I certainly didn't hear anything." Alistair scratched his chin in thought. "Perhaps she got bored with us. She said herself that she was only following because she thought we were entertaining."

Varus rolled his eyes. "What, fights with the undead and magic houses not cutting it were they?" Garrick sighed, and looked at the sky. "Now would be a good time to catch a rest. Give her a chance to catch up, if she is truly trailing behind. Karasumaru, would you be so kind as to take a fly around, see if you could find her?"

Karasumaru gave a bobbing nod. "It would be an honour, Squire. Be back in two shakes of a tail feather, what what" he said, before launching off and heading back down the river.

The group settled down, eating the provisions helpfully provided by the man from the cottage. During this time, conversation was muted with most of the group simply sitting in silence and enjoying the warm midday sun. There was clearly a slight air of concern about the disappearance of Mel, at least from most of the group.

Rogon had chosen to sit a little away from the group, with Na'ish sitting next to him. Rogon, though conversing with Na'ish occasionally, seemed distracted. He kept casting glances Garrick's way, though the man had either not noticed or had chosen to ignore the Half-Orc. Na'ish, being the observant and quiet man that he was, had not missed these glances, but decided to wait until Rogon was ready to speak about it himself.

After about half an hour, Karasumaru returned. Noticeably, he flew back towards them from upriver. Garrick extended his arm to allow the crow to land. "Phew, bit of a round robin, Squire. I went back along the river, and then flew a loop in land before reaching the river further up. No sign of the winged lady, I'm afraid."

Garrick frowned, while Alistair and Indira exchanged a worried look. Varus sighed a little dramatically, "Well, there goes the flying idea out the window." His callous reaction drew a small scowl from Indira. Before she could retort, Karasumaru piped up once more.

"About that. I may not have found Lady Mel, but I did find a way across the river, Squire" he said, before pointing a wing in the direction he had flown from. "It's around a ten minute flight, so I'd say a half hour walk, what what." Garrick nodded in gratitude, before rising and swinging his satchel across his back. "Well, that solves one problem. Shall we?" he called, as the rest of the group began to gather their items together.

Rogon frowned, before stepping forward towards Garrick. "An' what about Mel? She ain't reappeared yet. We gonna just leave her?" Garrick shrugged, before turning to walk upriver. "If she wants to mess us around, that's up to her. We've a task to complete, don't forget" he said, before beginning to walk away. Rogon scowled at his retreating figure as Varus, Anya and Alistair walked past him. When Indira reached him, she placed a hand upon his arm, gaining his attention.

"We'll get to this crossing, perhaps Mel is actually ahead of us? She can fly after all. She might catch us up" she said soothingly, though it was clear that she wasn't confident in her statement. Rogon huffed, but nodded in agreement, starting to move off with the group, Indira and Na'ish falling into step with him.

Up at the front of the group, Alistair approached Garrick. "So, this crossing. It's a bridge, right? Didn't think we could see any on the map we had?" He asked Karasumaru, who was currently perched upon Garrick's shoulder.

Karasumaru tilted his head in his direction, "Ah, it's not exactly a bridge, per se…" he said, gaining a confused look from Alistair.


As predicted, it took the group about half an hour before they were looking upon the crossing that Karasumaru had found. They stood at the edge, looking across the unusual structure. The crossing in question was, indeed, not a bridge of any kind. It was instead a large ford, a massive shelf made by numerous stones gathering together in the river. This created a shallow section of river, easily traversible by simply wading across as the water only reached to the knees. By the appearance of the stones, they had gathered naturally, rather than by any sort of construction.

It was not the ford itself that caught the eye, however. It was the massive structures that sat at each end and in the middle of the crossing itself. Two great pillars rose from each bank. It was apparent that they once supported a massive arch that spanned the river in its entirety, though it had long since succumbed to the ravages of time. Now, large chunks of the arch sat in the river, diverting the flow in places along the ford. The only evidence that it had been an arch at all was a larger, curved section still being attached to the western pillar.

In the centre, a third pillar, larger than the other two, rose up from within the river. Situated right in the middle of the would-be arch, it would appear to have once functioned as its apex. Upon the top of the pillar was a large, stone-hewn throne-like chair. The chair, like the rest of the structure, was worn from the elements and had chunks missing, most notably a section of the back corner.

The group walked slowly across the ford, silently taking in the structure. Occasional fallen masonry aided their crossing as it acted as stepping stones in the water itself. The place felt as if it demanded respect, so much so that even Varus hadn't spoken a word since they arrived. The only sound was that of the water rushing over the lip of stone to continue towards Astor. Soon, they were all gathered at the base of the centre pillar, looking up at the chair upon it.

"...That's not something you see everyday. Who do you think built it?" Alistair asked, his neck craning as he gazed upon the structure. Garrick gave a non-commital grunt before replying. "I do not know. I feel as if I should know about it however." Alistair looked back down from the pillar to raise an eyebrow in his direction. Noticing his gaze, Garrick simply shrugged.

"The gate of Hysh. A place of rest of weary travellers in days gone by, this arch is said to hold the "seat of power" on one of the Seven" came the voice of Varus next to them. Garrick and Alistair turned in surprise to the source of the voice, only to see Varus currently reading a book and hardly paying his surroundings any attention.

"How the hell did you know that?" Alistair asked, his eyebrows raised in shock at the surprisingly useful nugget of information Varus had provided. Varus, for his part, simply looked up from his book with a slight frown. He then gestured at the book itself.

"Believe it or not, I read. This book here has stuff on the history of Astor, specifically." he stated, before returning his attention to it. Alistair craned his neck in order to read the spine of the book. "A Brief History of Lumeria...huh, didn't take you for the history sort. When did you get this?" he asked. Varus simply shrugged.

"In Astor. While you were messing around looking into the Duke's daughter's disappearance" he replied, before getting the feeling he was being glared at. Looking to the side, he saw Anya with her arms folded and giving him a disgruntled look. Varus simply looked back down and ignored her, not really caring if he had upset her or not. Garrick turned his attention from the Pillar once more to look Varus' way.

"Does it say which of the Seven this was supposedly the seat of power to?" he asked, genuinely curious. Something about the place was making him believe he should know the answer already, though it continued to elude him. Varus made a show of turning the page of his book, before answering the question.

"Says here it was the God of travellers. Someone called…" Garrick interrupted, earning a scowl from Varus, "Farlangh. That will be why I have heard of him. Many soldiers consider him to be a guardian of sorts. We certainly do enough travelling during times of war." Varus gave a huff, but nodded as he closed his book and stowed it away.

After a few more minutes of looking at the pillar in interest, Varus sighed before turning and wandering off towards the opposite bank. Garrick watched him go, before turning to Alistair. "We'll rest a few minutes more, but then we really must continue on our way." Alistair nodded in agreement, and Garrick wandered over towards Indira and Anya to get them ready to move.

As Garrick moved off, Alistair turned his attention towards the base of the pillar. Here, numerous bits of shattered rock littered the river bed. Many were clearly from the pillar and former arch, but one piece caught his eye. This piece was flat, with clearly defined edges, although they had worn somewhat from time. It appeared to be a piece that had broken off from the back of the throne itself.

Reaching down, Alistair hefted the piece up to get a closer look. It was around the size of a fist, and if it had had any defining features before, they had long since worn off. Shrugging, Alistair opened his satchel and placed the stone within. "For luck. If nothing else, it's worth a try" he thought to himself, before walking over to rejoin the group.


Over with Rogon, he was swift to notice that everyone was gathering up with the intention of heading out. Rising from his spot on one of the rocks, he looked around for any sign of Mel having turned up. Grunting in dissatisfaction at her absence, he turned back to the group to see Garrick starting to gesture for them to move on.

Scowling, Rogon stood and began to stomp his way towards Garrick. Garrick, noticing his approach, stopped searching through his satchel and turned to face him. "Can I help, Rogon?" he asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Yeh. Why the hell are we moving off? Mel hasn't caught up yet" Rogon said gruffly. Garrick shrugged, before returning his attention towards his satchel once more. "Mel has had ample time to catch up. We must assume that she has simply decided to leave us. She was hardly invested in assisting the Duke, after all."

Rogon scowled, "She ain't the only one. You know, some of us have more important things to do than run around doing chores for some busybody Duke. Tell me, why do we have to listen to you?" Garrick paused in his search, before closing the satchel and crossing his arms. "You don't have to follow us, Rogon. By all means, leave. I'm sure the rest of us could handle the task at Brentwood without you."

Rogon walked closer, getting within a few feet of Garrick. The others looked on nervously, worried where this confrontation might lead. "I would be more than happy, bud, to go on my way and continue my search for my pa. But you know where he is! You're keeping secrets, old man, and it's time you spilled them" Rogon nearly shouted, gesturing with his hand in the vague location of Garrick's neck tattoo.

Garrick unconsciously rubbed his neck where the mark sat, before shaking his head and frowning at Rogon. "As I said, those are secrets for a reason. The less you know about the man that is your father, the better." Rogon gritted his teeth in frustration, before beginning to pace back and forth. "And who gave you the right to decide what I should and shouldn't know about my pa? Huh!? What? You think that the guy's gonna harm me?"

Here, Garrick unfolded his arms and clenched his fists. "Yes! That's exactly what I think will happen, you know why? Because he revelled in killing Orcs! You think I have a hatred for your kind Rogon, but you have no idea how deep that hatred runs in your Father." Rogon stopped pacing and looked at Garrick before scoffing.

"My father hated Orcs? Please, then how did he and my ma have me then?" Rogon said, confident that he had found a flaw in Garrick's story. However, he was surprised when Garrick appeared to lose his fight, looking distinctly sad about what had been asked. "That right there? That's the question you don't want the answer to" Garrick said.

Rogon paused, his mind running a mile a minute. What was Garrick saying? Surely he didn't mean… "No. You're wrong. I'm going to find my pa, and I'm going to prove what you are saying is wrong. You hear me!" Rogon shouted, before he turned and started wading his way to the side of the bank they had come from.

Na'ish, who until now had been observing the argument from the side, watched Rogon leave with obvious hesitation on his face. "Go" he heard from beside him, and turned to see Garrick looking his way with a serious look upon his face. "Go, help him. He'll need it, if he plans to continue his search." Na'ish looked at the rest of the group. While Varus seemed unconcerned, Indira and Alistair were giving him looks of understanding. Indira gave him a firm nod, which solidified his decision.

Na'ish began to move to catch up to Rogon. Before he got too far, however, Garrick called out once more. "Na'ish! If you do ever find Rogon's father. Run. Because he will not give him, or you, any mercy." Na'ish stared at Garrick in silence, before nodding and continuing his jog in the direction Rogon had taken.

Garrick watched him leave for a few moments, before exhaling loudly. He then turned and began to walk in the opposite direction, towards Brentwood. "Come, we still have a couple of days of travel remaining" he said as he passed the rest of the group. Varus simply pushed off to follow, with Anya not far behind.

Indira and Alistair exchanged a look, before Alistair shrugged and turned to follow Garrick. Indira looked to where Rogon and Na'ish had left one final time. She felt Peanut wriggle free from her pocket to crawl up onto her shoulder. The small rodent gave her a reassuring squeak, and Indira nodded in apparent agreement, before also turning to walk away. "Keep well, Rogon and Na'ish. I hope we will meet again soon."


The Seven Prime Eternals

The seven good deities said to look over all of creation and its people. The Prime Eternals each reside over a different aspect of life in Lumeria. Vestus, the God of Community and Craftmanship, and Farlangh, God of Travellers are both members of the Seven.