[[ AN: Hello! Remember me? I remember you! I know it has been an abhorrent amount of years since this was updated, but things were not so peachy for me for a long time and this project fell by the wayside.
We're going to pick up at an odd spot, and for that I deeply apologize. Right about where we've left off is actually where a very important arc was written for Brinella – but so much time has passed that I've unfortunately lost many of the logs through computer errors, rebuilds, and just general document/forum loss erasure.
Laughably, the middle where we are is difficult to continue with, as I don't remember a great deal of what was planned – but the end has long been planned. I have known how, in general, this ends from the very beginning! Argh! How frustrating!
I hope you can forgive the bit of narrative that follows. It may not do the arc itself justice, but it will catch us up and tie us in to where we need to be. Where I need to be.
Thank you for staying with me for so long. :3 ]]
It goes as you expect it might. In the wake of burying their dear friend, our adventurers find themselves spread to the farthest reaches of the world, divided in their goals and in their work. Though all take the time to continue writing letters, as the months progress and time preys on bonds of loyalty and affection, the swell of letters between the group trickle to merely a few every few passing weeks, and finally to nothing.
It is not all for naught, of course.
For some, the lack of communication is due to new passions that have been lit between others. It is very much as such for Miss Brinella, who finds herself becoming slowly enamored with a clever co-worker named William. Where Brinella has embraced the raw brutality of the bear spirit and provided her mass as a bulwark for those they work for, William has clawed his way into place as a scout – his small bird form perfect for quickly flitting in and out of enemy camps.
It is more than just their teachings that have bonded them. Brinella's blindness becomes something that William can help with, and though their knowledge of one another began as something that would often be teased as a 'hate-hate relationship,' as the flash-blindness wears off and Brinella needs her friend less and less for most things, they find instead that their formal arrangement has somehow bloomed broader and buried itself deeper.
It's in the boughs of a tree in Duskwood that a game is played, with the bounty simple; the winner gets something they desire from the other. In this case, though neither will admit who won or lost as the months go by, it is a kiss that's won – the first that Brinella has dared shared since the loss of her beloved, the pain of which has been several months scarred over, and for the first time in a very long time, she at last feels as though she has found a measure of joy.
It is this, perhaps, that keeps her from writing to Triadae.
The loss of Kalthor is a burden that the Knight refuses to let go, no matter how Tiroth and others in her company might warn. They know only too well that she will run herself into the ground, that she will carry his memory until there is nothing left of herself but the bitter taste of regret and longing.
Too late has she realized that she loved the warlock far more than she ever admit to him, and too late has she found that she could abandon pride and find herself in the arms of someone who does love her. Though he stays near, Tiroth is repelled time and time again by the Knight, and as Miralai falls ill to a sickness sweeping the city, it is with his own regret that he chooses his child over the woman he loves and withdraws, ceasing his letters of pleas and concern.
Without Triadae's knowledge, Leybright gives birth to her and Kalthor's child – a healthy son whom she bestows with a name found within old journals gifted to her by friends of the warlock. She calls him 'Kelonthir,' a name Kalthor himself has written multiple times as the name he wishes his first born son to have – not because of any familial love, but because it was the name of a favorite character in one of the first books that Triadae ever read to him in their youth, sitting beside a pool where frogs would jump into their laps and atop their heads, and they would laugh as children did.
Devoting herself wholly to her work, Triadae spends her time on the field of battle, rising up from mere nameless soldier on another field to a decorated Knight, then Master, and finally Champion. She ceases her work as whispers begin of her rank going further, shying away from the glory of leading as the battles wage toward the Bastion of Twilight.
Unable to move past the torture that she experienced at the hands of her best friend and fellow agents, she begs for a relocation and is moved away from that field of glory, finding herself instead set to lead others – under supervision – into the Firelands.
Winnie and Lydros have found themselves parted for surprising reasons. As friends scatter around them, the pair find work for themselves among the dwarves of the Twilight Highlands, and Winnie not only makes fast friends with a fair few, but finds herself romanced by a daring gryphon rider named Gerd – a buxom blonde who sweeps the woman off her feet for more than just ale and tales, it's a bitter time for Lydros as he realizes himself that his feelings run deeper than they should for the redhead.
It is during the wedding that he decides to lay out his wishes, his voice thick with his drunken thoughts and wavering past bride and bride and all their families. Ashamed of his actions, the fight that ensues is one that shatters the bonds of friendship as Winnie demands that he leave and never return. She is happy, she is safe, she is wanted… and he had years to say what he has said, and she has had years to accept it will never happen. Now he must, no matter how much it may hurt.
Chastised properly, Lydros leaves and finds himself once more among the caravan, his thoughts dark and his mind muddled by alcohol. No more does he hunt, and his beloved companions slowly drift away from him as if they know that their time is past. He remains in the care of Eaxoa, who tends to his person as best she can – but some things cannot be healed by magic.
It is in these months that the corruption that has laid so deep within Brinella comes forth in devastating fashion. When William is injured, Brinella retaliates upon the aggressor in such a way that the seed long since planted by her foray into the Nightmare so many months prior teases from the cracks like an insidious vine, twisting around the woman that they know and drowning her beneath the thorns of deceit and manipulations.
The Brinella that they know is now caged, a Nightmare-twisted reflection now taking up residence in her mind. Cunning and cruel, it wages war on all that Brinella loves while disguising itself as her in entirety. One by one, members of the company that the druid works for begin to experience terrible nightmares that extend even into the waking world, where hallucinations make them believe that which is not real.
Those who believe too much, who accept without thought, are soon pulled into the Nightmare themselves. Locked fast in slumber, they suffer while being able to hear Brinella scream to them through her bond in the Nightmare. Determined to break it's host completely, Brinella's shadow manages to commit the deepest blow against Brinella herself – William, unknowing that his love has succumbed to the Nightmare in retaliation for his being injured some time past, asks for Brinella's hand.
The nightmare laughs as Brinella falls deeper, devastated that William cannot recognize that something is wrong, and knowing full well that the thing she is becoming will continue to corrupt and devour everything that it can until it has consumed the very world itself.
Unable to fight her own darkness, she chooses to work alongside it until that which is wrong is displayed in full. As a now fully corrupt Brinella seeks to open a portal to the Nightmare itself and bring upon the world an everlasting darkness, the call goes out to all of those who have called the wayward Druid friend.
It is without thought that Lydros abandons his drink and accompanies Eaxoa to the Hinterlands, to the portal that sits within Seradane. Winnie, too, comes astride a battle gryphon, fit for combat. Triadae takes leave of the Firelands with help from others, and all sweep to meet those who now advance on what could either be the final battle of a great threat, or the beginning of an eternal nightmare.
Formidable, it takes the might of many to battle their way to the portal, and it is a select handful that are pulled forcefully through the portal itself as an attack is loosed that puts those who remain without into a state of eternal slumber – prey to the wicked spiders that now weave webs of lies over those who cannot defend themselves.
Fighting as hard as she can, it is the last vestiges of Brinella's sanity that reaches out to the group that she now shields from the innumerable horrors just aching to be let free. With sorrow heavy in her heart, she explains that all that has happened over the last several months has been her fault, and she begs their forgiveness even as she confesses what some have already begun to fear –
To end the corruption for good, they must end what started it. Brinella must be cleansed, and her corrupted body must be culled. For everything to return to normal, for all to be good again, Brinella must die.
It is with heavy hearts that those who call her friend carry out her wish, and there is no celebration to be had as those who watched her dissolve into the Dream now wake those who were caught in Nightmare. As the wounded are carried away and the healers begin talks on how best to treat those who will no doubt experience restless sleep, William is stopped by a strange figure – one that no one else claims to have seen when asked later.
It advises him, as it hands him a small seed, to heed Brinella's final request – and to have faith that the cycle continues for all people.
Broken-hearted, William travels to the cliffs of Gilneas, where he buries the seed near the gravestones carved by Brinella herself over a year past. Left to grieve, William wakes the following day against the trunk of an enormous willow tree, amidst a sea of Gilnean roses.
Beneath the boughs, he can swear he hears familiar laughter and softly spoken whispers of care and affection. Thinking himself insane, he confesses these thoughts to others… and it is not long before those who miss the woman dearly are now found beneath the boughs of her willow, caring for and cultivating the roses that spread further and further each day, embracing the feelings of love and calm beneath the expansive boughs.
So it is that even Triadae soon hears of the rumors, and once more leaves her post – this time by herself – to attend to the tree and hear it's secrets…
… and perhaps tell secrets of her own.
All the while, they are watched. All the while, the drums of war sound harder.
The end is near.
The bells are tolling.
Whose souls will be saved in this, the hour of twilight?