Forums

(11) After walking in silence for more than half a day, Ikov saw before him the glowing embers of an extinguished fire. He reached into his bag and drew out a scrap of wool which he lit upon the hot embers. In the flash of light, he saw that the place was once inhabited: there was a bed of foliage, some wood, a rock of the right size and shape to serve as a chair, and another rock upon which was scattered the remains of food, all in the middle of the empty tunnel. He knew no one lived there any longer, that the spirit had lit the embers in a perverse gesture of welcome. Ikov accepted the gesture, and laid down upon the bed to sleep. He soon woke, ate from the rations in his bag, and continued his walk down the tunnel through the night.

(12) For another day, Ikov walked in total darkness, always straight and gently downward. He stopped to eat again only once. All the while, he saw in his mind's eye the hooded figure walking beside him, and he could hear the flat blade dragging against the stony ground. But he knew it was just in his mind; the spirit waited for him at a deeper point. So he continued to walk. As he walked, Ikov felt lonely, more alone than he had ever felt, alone in complete darkness, deep beneath jagged mountains in unexplored regions of the earth. At times the image of the seer walking beside him seemed to comfort him, to offer him companionship and strength. But Ikov did not accept the invitations of the spirit. His determination numbed him to any feelings of warmth.

(13) After some further hours, Ikov could feel the presence of the spirit close to him, but he could not tell how close. Though he could see nothing, he could still sense what he might have seen: the body stood somewhere before him; it had no life in it; the flesh had been decaying for years; only fungal growths clung to the inner folds of its cloak; a spirit forced it to stand upright and through it held onto presence in the world. Ikov continued to walk. He could feel the two-sided spirit: bitterness and hate, and warmth and welcome. The sentiments persisted anxiously side by side, and grew steadily in intensity. Ikov drew his sword and continued to walk, resolved to destroy the spirit and its invitations and its contradictions. In moments the feelings reached their utmost intensity; the hooded image breathed against his neck; the imagined clinking of the blade pounded in his ears.

(14) Then Ikov heard a sound in the silent darkness, the fleeting clink of metal lifted from stone, and in that instant he swan* his sword with all his might. In that great sweap, he felt it enter flesh through the crack of a collar bone and exit through the snap of a hip. He heard the undead corpse suspended before him collapse to the ground in two large pieces. The spirit was gone, and all about him was still. He heard only his heart and his breath. He breathed deeply and closed his eyes. After a minute, he opened them, and he saw the faintest light. Up ahead, on the right, appeared a wide crack in the tunnel wall, through which shown the light of stars.

(15) For another day, Ikov climbed out of a deep crevice above the tunnel and up the adjacent wall of rock. As the sun set over mountaintops in the west, he pulled himself atop a high plateau. Two miles from him, he beheld the camp of his army and the Fremennik, distinctly visible upon the snowy plain, which glowed in the waning light. He arrived late in the evening, and all rejoiced at his return, but celebration was delayed until the morning, and he slept.

(16) Ikov arose early in the morning, hours before dawn, and walked outside the camp. He stood near two watchmen, who were gladdened by his company. Armadyl also arose and came to meet Ikov. The god watched him standing near the sentinels and looking at the sky, studying the stars. "What do you see?" he asked. "Today is my twenty-third birthday," said Ikov. Armadyl studied him, amazed, recognizing his youth once more. The watchmen were likewise amazed to hear his age. The four stood together in silence. Later that day Armadyl, Ikov, their army, and the Fremennik migrants feasted together upon the snowy plateau. The troubles of many lands had been quelled, and they had a new journey ahead of them. It had been only two weeks since they'd begun their tre*k through the hill country.

Part 8: Transitions

(1) From their camp on the snow-covered plateau, in the last weeks of winter, Armadyl, Ikov, their army, and the Fremennik pioneers traveled to each of the three Fremennik villages upon the glacial plains. Many of the Fremennik pioneers had already abandoned the villages to return to their homeland in the west, but some had remained, to wait for their kin from the hill country. Then all of the surviving Fremennik who remained in the east were united again, and all together they came down from the frozen mountains into their ancestral lands.

(2) On the first day of spring, the Fremennik of the west beheld a great host coming down from the mountains. They prepared for battle. But their scouts soon reported that the host included over a thousand of their kin. They followed an army of about three hundred soldiers, severe in their demeanor, of mixed ancestry, all from nations far to the southeast. At the head of the army marched an eagle-like creature - unmistakably a god - and a man who had the appearance of a hero, the champion of the multitude. The Fremennik welcomed their guests and their homecoming kin. For an entire week they held a feast and festival grander than any in their memory. Throughout the spring, Armadyl and Ikov dwelt among the Fremennik, spoke often with their leaders, hunted with them, and enjoyed the company of so noble and blessed a people.

(3) After a time, Armadyl and Ikov assembled their army, and Armadyl addressed them thus: "Soldiers of sea-folk, Asgarnians, and woodsmen - my friends - you have accompanied Ikov and me through an incredible journey, and you have aided us in the fulfillment of a glorious task, to bring freedom and justice to your homelands and to the troubled regions of the northern steppes. For centuries bards will recall your quest, and forever you will have my gratitude and my friendship, for your courage and your sacrifice. Now the task is finished, and we find ourselves in a distant land, among a noble people. But Ikov and I cannot settle here; we have a further task ahead of us, but on this journey we must embark alone. So now I invite you, our friends, to consider: will you settle here among the Fremennik and share henceforth in their ways, or will you return to your homelands beyond the mountains? I have spoken with the Fremennik chiefs, and they have agreed to sail anyone home who so chooses, when the winds are right, and even more eagerly agreed to accept into their halls any of you hardened warriors who chooses to stay."

(4) Nearly the entire company elected to remain among the Fremennik. Another feast was held, at which the company blessed and thanked their god and their hero Ikov, and gifts were exchanged between the soldiers and their Fremennik hosts, as well as solemn oaths of friendship. Armadyl and Ikov again thanked their troops and their hosts and bade them all farewell. Early the next morning, after three months among the Fremennik, they set out for the lands to the south.

(5) Armadyl and Ikov walked alone again, just as they had when they set out from Al-Kharid almost two years before. They spoke less frequently than then, but their friendship was mature, founded upon the journey they had shared. They traveled for about a month, first south until they crossed a river, then along a stretch of land amidst several large lakes, and then southwest through forests and fields. They encountered no one in the wilderness, until one day they saw ahead of them in the plain a camp of men and gnomes. As they approached, the men and gnomes came out to meet them and to present themselves to the man and god: they were the gnomish royal court and the human lords and ladies of an entire nation. The nobles explained that they had heard all about the journey of Armadyl and Ikov, that the god and hero had just crossed their northeastern border, and that the nation waited to assemble before them at the capital city, located to the southwest on the banks of a great river running from north to south through all the land.

(6) The nobles ordered some of their retinue to remain where they were to construct a monument to the advent of the god and hero. The rest accompanied Armadyl and Ikov through the towns and villages on the way to the capital city. They were met with celebration in every place they went. After a week, they arrived at the capital, and the palace and court which had been built for them there, where tens of thousands of men and women, as well as gnomish envoys and dwarven ambassadors, assembled. There the men and women pledged their allegiance to Armadyl, their new god, and to Ikov as their human lord. Then followed ten days of festival and feast.

(7) After the celebration, many of the lords and ladies returned to their towns throughout the land, and the gnomish royal court to their kingdom in the northwest, and the dwarven ambassadors to their home near the mountains in the northeast. Then Armadyl and Ikov consulted with those nobles who remained, and they learned more of the kingdom that had welcomed them. The humans lived in towns and villages spread between a massive range of mountains in the west and the shores of the sea in the east. To the north were swamps, lakes, the coasts of the northern sea, and Fremennik lands. To the south lay open fields, all unsettled, and beyond them hills inhabited by a civilization of peaceful creatures called skavids. Legends told of elves beyond the western mountains, but they had not been heard from for an age. Legends also told of a portal in the northwest, near the last mountain of the range, whence they themselves had come millenia before.

(8) The nobles also spoke of their history. Humans and gnomes had ruled those lands from time immemorial. Only legend spoke of their coming from another world, as well as a god who brought them there - a god well remembered only by the gnomes. But much of the remembered history was fraught with violence. In the last century the nobles had come together to make peace among themselves and to put an end to their petty conflicts. Since that time they met regularly in the capital, as equals, to discuss the affairs of their people. They clarified: they pledged their allegiance to Ikov as the first among their equals, as lord of the palace of the capital. Despite the progress of the preceding century, threats to their harmonious state remained. Competition among the nobility, and unwise ambitions in the most talented among them, threatened to end the peace. When they had heard of Armadyl's quest, they looked forward to his coming, for he especially would make clear the demands of justice. Most recently, exactly one year before, a spirit had appeared in the mountains to the west, a shadow which sometimes took a winged, reptillian form. Some nobles took it as an omen favorable to their tyrannical ambitions, and others as heralding the end of peace. Thenceforth the nation looked to Armadyl and Ikov to guide them.

(9) Armadyl counseled them not to worry about the ominous spirit. He promised to provide them with laws fitting for their customs and their government, laws which would maintain peace in their country and with their neighbors. He also spoke to them of his people, the Aviantese, and of his desire to bring them to this world to settle upon the mountaintops in the west and upon islands in the sky. Finally, he spoke of leaving for a time, to journey to the portal in the northwest and through it back to his people; he would return with them to establish laws for both humans and Aviantese, as well as gnomes according to their desire, and he would remain there with his combined people forevermore. All were comforted by his words.

(10) After their meetings with the nobles in the capital, Armadyl spoke with Ikov privately. He said, "Ikov, I see that you are restless. This spirit in the west is greatest enemy you will face: it's the shadow that fled from the mount of Kathekontos upon your approach; it's the spirit that stirred the earthen giant for me to fight. This spirit is greater even than that one, but only a man can defeat it. You will have to face it on your own, but do not be afraid. You have time to rest, and you will be ready when the time comes."

(11) Armadyl paused, and then said, "Of course you know this already: when I met you two years ago you were a skilled sorcerer, but now your skill has exceeded even mine. I know you won't find peace here. After you drive this spirit out, survey for me all the spirits of the land, and then you are freed from my service: follow the spirits whithersoever they lead you. Rest now, and when I go, you go also, to fulfill these tasks and then to find your way. You go with my blessing and my friendship." Ikov left Armadyl's presence happy, but also with much to ponder in his heart. For three more months, Armadyl and Ikov remained at the capital, listening and giving counsel to the people; they spent much time together, but often in silence. Then, at the start of autumn, Armadyl departed for the portal in the northwest.