//------------------------------// // Interlude 1 // Story: Geata na Déithe // by LinktheLazy //------------------------------// I own nothing, if you sue all you'll get is this cellphone. Interlude 1 (Unedited) Princess Assa Si’Crann of the Royal house of Beatha sat numbly on a log and stared out into the darkness. The rune engraved shield at her back warming her and the sound of hushed conversation from her comrades in her ears. No one was asleep. Nobody slept out here if they didn't have to. Her spear sat across her lap, its coppery, rune-engraved head gleaming with faint warmth. She dared not touch it, though - even if the flameless heat that kept the camp warm were to run out of power. The runes were designed to leech power from the target on contact and use it to spew gouts of flame, ideally to ravage the interior of her unlucky foe’s body. It had been a gift from someone who was absent now. “Thou appeareth troubl’d, my lady.” Said a familiar voice as he moved to stand behind her. She didn't answer him, however, as she knew that he already possessed an insight into her feelings through the link they shared. The topaz embedded in the back of her hand gleamed in the starlight as if to affirm her thoughts. Fearghal’s armor clinked as he shifted despite its spectral nature, and not for the first time she was struck with the oddity of being bound so closely to what was essentially a ghost. But, Fearghal was a stalwart and valuable companion, even with his quirks. “I am flattered.” A smile edged its way into her stern expression, just barely pulling the corners of her mouth up. Mind reaffixing to her quest, Assa’s eyes once again focused on the darkness. She knew that waiting out there, unseen, was the beginnings of a forest. It's mighty trees - really treants, thousands of years in age - crowded the ruins of the old empire’s capital, as if mother nature had deigned to lay a pall of emerald greenery upon the desolate city. At the center was her goal. Looming over the forest like a watchful mother, or perhaps a sullen king, was a truly massive tree, comparable in size to a castle on its own. In the daylight, its long, drooping branches seemed to reach over the entirety of the forest and hold it within their embrace. Its bark was a dull gray, and seemed almost lifeless, in spite of its majesty. Wisdom indicated this was simply the distance, but intuition told her that it would only appear more decrepit the closer they approached. What it was she was meant to do with the living monument, however, she did not know. “I imagine it will be a challenge to reach the center.” Fearghal said from behind her. “Fear not, with thou at the lead I doubt there will be anything that cannot be overcome.” Her smile broadened, “Your faith is reassuring, but I am here to guide us away from obstacles. Challenging and beating them into submission is your job.” “Thou wounds me, my lady.” The not-quite spectral knight returned, holding his hand over his heart with false grief. Her response came swiftly, without embellishment, “You give me such credit; I couldn’t even if I tried.” “And you give yourself too little,” He smiled, “I have many decades of experience, and thou have only just begun to walk about the world. I am thy better now, but thou are living, while I have died. This mission is all I have left, but thy future extends beyond it.” “But does it really?” The wayward princess mused. “Gloom does not suit thee, my lady,” Fearghal said seriously, “Place such sullen thoughts aside. We will succeed.” The knight’s words were comforting, as always, and steadied her resolve. But as they lapsed into silence and she gazed into the darkness, envisioning the overgrown city with its crumbled stone and rampant plant life, she could not quite remove such doubts from her mind. Had none who defended it said those very words?