Editing Journal - Flames and the Guardian (section)

==A Beginning, an End, or Both?==

Shit! Where do I start? At least that evil fucker was dead; I watched him burn. Enjoyed it too. But at what cost? Would I ever see... what did the Guardian call him? The Harlequin? Would I ever see him again? I miss him already.

I'm getting ahead of myself, though. After he left I headed towards shithead's tent to get my stuff back. Thankfully it hadn't been incinerated. I grabbed everything but just carried my armour - the fires must have been like a beacon and who knows how many, or what kind, of people would come looking. I thought of searching for some information, in case the mage had been seeking the sword as well, but there wasn't much left of that side of the tent. I was lucky, though - there was a mostly intact scorched map with lots of crosses on, so I grabbed it. I headed to a hole in other side of the tent, aiming to get away as soon as I could. I didn't even know where I was, really, so I peered out to look for some cover.

There was a disappointing lack of cover, but there was at least a small copse to my right so I headed that way. Then someone spoke to my mind, asking me not to go and that they wouldn't hurt me - like I believe men that say that! I spun around with swords drawn, dropping my armour and calling him to show himself. He appeared from nowhere, hidden by dweomer, but didn't look like anyone associated with the legion. He was acting weird, though, and a bit obsessive so I was wary. He at least agreed to keep his distance whilst I got my armour on. I went to the trees anyway, and managed to sort myself out just before he sent a warning - there were others approaching.

I peered through the trees as the stranger, who called himself &quot;Falcor&quot; walked towards the new arrivals with open hands, trying to speak to them. There were at least five of them, and three carried bows. They were wrapped in cloth that concealed most of their faces so it was hard to know their intentions. That little conundrum was soon resolved as they loosed arrows at Falcor! Whoever they were they would fire on an unarmed person trying to greet them, so that made them bad in my book. I rushed around the trees and towards the archers, leaving Falcor to deal with the other two, but I conjured a shield to help deflect arrows (I'm not completely stupid).

I have to say I was quite impressed by Falcor's reactions - he drew a bow of his own and sunk arrows deep into the chests of two of them, killing them both before I could even reach them! The last one fell to my swords as I closed the remaining distance, and I turned to see that Falcor had dropped his bow to parry the attacks of the other foes. Arrows came from his right flank - they had surrounded him! Now, though, he showed his prowess with a sword and cut both of the ones he was in melee with down with accurate strikes. The other archers turned and fled, and we let them go.

As I went to join him I noticed that he was now clad in armour, which had somehow appeared in the middle of the fight. Of more interest, though, was the star symbol on his chest - it was exactly like the one on the sword! When I asked him about it he knew of the sword, and claimed it as his own... but more than that claimed to be the Guardian himself! He was just a boy, though - strong and proficient, yes, but too immature to be a centuries old leader of clans. He did ask if we needed to get moving, which was a good point - I had been distracted! This was not over, though.

We left the remains of the camp, which from the symbology seemed to be part of the 12th legion (the Golden Cocks) and headed roughly south until we found somewhere sheltered to rest. I took up the conversation again at once - just who was he and how did he get here? He claimed to have come from &quot;the forge&quot; and be some kind of reincarnation of the Guardian in human form, but that he could take the form of an Elvradrak! I showed him the map, as I wasn't sure where I was either but at least I'd been in the same region before I got knocked out. One of the crosses was closest to the town I'd been in, and was marked differently, so I reckoned that was most likely to be the camp. It wasn't clear whether the other marks were potential locations for the sword or just other companies of the legion, though. All I knew was that there was one of the tree folk rumoured to wield the sword, which meant it would be near a forest. That left us with a couple of places marked, one closer to a road than another, so I suggested the latter as a place to start. It was a long way to travel, though.

I still wasn't convinced that he was the Guardian he claimed to be, so I decided to call his bluff and asked him to show me his Elvradrak form. Incredibly he did it. Transformed before my eyes into a huge beast, and then offered to take me up into the air. Sat upon his back, he leapt up and then we were soaring around hundreds of feet aloft. It felt... strangely right, and certainly exhilarating. Was this some inheritance from my mother's people, to be so at ease with such a creature? I wasn't sure what to think anymore, but perhaps he could be the key to finding the clans and being accepted? The Guardian and the sword together, if as he said he recognised something in me, then that would be irrefutable, wouldn't it?

We returned to earth quickly, not wanting to be seen, and tried to settle for the night. I was wary of sleeping with a stranger nearby, but eventually managed to drift off. My sleep was restless, though, and I was plagued with visions of the sword we sought but with a wind blowing dust and fire. When I woke Falcor was doing some martial training so I left him to it and meditated for a little, feeling the power coming back to me as always but still not knowing where it came from. When we were both done, Falcor announced that he thought we were being observed from somewhere to the southeast, but not by eyes alone - he said it was through his mind that he felt it.

We stuck to our original plan to head for one of the crosses on the map, walking northeast for a full day (Falcor had caught some hares that we could eat) and then eventually reaching a road on the second day. This put us a little farther north than we had thought, so we turned southeast and continued until we spotted some smoke rising to our south. This time it was no conflagration, but a sign of an encampment. As we approached it was clear that it was more than that, instead looking like a fortified position that might eventually become a full fort of the legion.

We halted once we realised the significance of the site and Falcor used his dweomer to turn us invisible. As long as I was close to him I would stay hidden, so we measured some rope beforehand to keep us close (and by keeping it fairly taught I had some reassurance that he wasn't too close either). The encampment was huge, easily fitting a whole legion inside in mostly canvas tents, but it was still under construction and wasn't surrounded with walls yet. Some towers gave good lookout positions at each corner and wooden stakes were positioned to funnel people through mostly the centre of each side. It was built with the usual regular shape, and was split into quadrants inside with a wooden building at the centre. There were a great many people inside and a few patrols moving around the perimeter beyond the defences. We could see the symbols of two legions here, the Sharks (which we did not know but thought might be local) and the Cocks, which I knew all too well.

We carefully made our way inside, sticking to the wide thoroughfare to the north so we could easily avoid any people nearing us, and there was plenty of noise to hide our movements so we were not discovered. As we neared the building at the centre the alarm was raised, with shouts from the south indicating that there was something coming. A cry was passed back towards us: &quot;look to the skies&quot;! A gigantic creature flew over about a hundred feet up, and not something we had seen before - it was not a dragon but it was as big as one, although it did not attack.

The legion reacted in its usual fashion, with discipline and order. The Sharks seemed to gather in one quadrant, not defending the fort itself but only their area; the rest moved quickly to the outer defences, on all sides. A number of archers formed a ring around the building in the centre, and we watched with interest to see what activity there might be there, getting slightly closer. The entrance seemed to be on the west side, but nobody entered or emerged for a good ten minutes. Eventually, though, the door opened and three members of the clergy emerged, one clearly older than the other two. They summoned someone from the ring of defenders and talked for a few minutes before two returned to the building leaving the youngest clergy member by the door.

It was about another ten minutes when we heard new cries of alarm being passed back - a warning of enemies to the south that was followed by sounds of fighting. The legion maintained their positions, though, with the only reaction seeming to be the cleric by the door opening it to pass information inside. After a little while there were more cries, this time &quot;they're through!&quot; and alarm bells sounded. Troops in the southern two quadrants reacted, coming towards the centre to meet the threat, although those in the north remained in place.

We soon caught sight of the threat - giants were charging down the centre towards the ring around the building we were near. Falcor claimed to have seen the like before, but I had not. They were impressive in size and strength, taking several legionnaires on at once and felling perhaps three for every one of their own. They were engaged by the archers now they were in sight, as well as being chased by foot soldiers, and it was clear that despite the carnage they were causing they would not break through the defences. We thought about getting inside during the fighting, but the cleric was always by the door and enough archers covered all sides to make it difficult, so we remained where we were and watched.

As I predicted, the defence held and the few that had broken through were put down. About an hour after the initial assault the Sharks formed up and marched out to the north, although for what purpose was not clear. The rest of the defence had all been the Cocks, which was a little odd as from their equipment we thought the Sharks were more used to fighting. Eventually, though, things started to settle down and it was clear that the attack had been repelled. We made our way out of the camp, to the west this time, and around to the south to see the aftermath.

Looking around the bodies we found evidence of the tree people, with arrows that the giants would not have used to be found, but none of the bodies were theirs. I did find a shiny marble with swirling colours inside, but as I picked it up there was a moment when I thought I felt the energy inside and then it crumbled to dust. The sensation was a little like that of my father's realm, but with an aftertaste of fire and dust if there could be such a thing. That just confirmed in my mind that the tree folk had the sword somewhere. Falcor reckoned that the place they had come from was not on Karmana, and that the marble was a means of travelling between places.

We found a spot some distance from any activity and rested for the night. We were undisturbed, although a couple of carts left with solders just after dawn and returned with timber - presumably this would be used to improve the defences. We were not sure what else we could learn here, not confident that the elder cleric would not be able to detect our presence even if we could find a way into the building at the centre of the camp. Instead we looked to follow up on Falcor's feeling of being watched along with the distribution of the marks on the map, which we now suspected were previous attacks.

There was a lake near a city to the south that was a likely point of interest, so we headed that way. We reckoned we could reach the city before we ran out of fresh water and could resupply there. We reached our destination without incident and it was impressively fortified, and the amount of soldiers suggested a garrison town - although there were plenty of civilians too. The symbol of the Sharks was prominent again, but also a crossed swords that we did not recognise as well as the lightning bolt of the 10th Shock Legion - they were only supposed to be sent to places in an emergency to deal with a threat. Well we had seen a pretty significant threat, so it made sense. Perhaps this was a sign that we were getting closer.

We bought a few supplies and took a room for the night. Thankfully Falcor seemed happy enough to sleep on the floor. I was beginning to trust him a little, but was he just using me to get to the sword? Our plan was to set off in the morning on the road and then cut south to find the lake. Strangely when I had asked about fishing earlier the only direction I had been given was to head towards the mountains some way south, with no mention of the lake being made. I didn't press anyone, not wanting to raise any suspicions, so we would have to see for ourselves. The gem merchants were heavily regulated so I was able to sell a number of gems that Falcor gave me for imperial coin, and in turn buy a couple of horses.

We headed out of the city to the east and then turned southeast after a few miles towards where the map suggested the large lake would be. Around midday Falcor went hunting and came back with a deer, skinning and gutting it, then wrapping the meat and burying the remains. As he was finishing up we noticed some riders approaching from the south. We rode slowly across their path and they diverted to meet us so we stopped and waited. They warned that it was dangerous to the south and advised not traveling that way. They said that &quot;creatures of nightmare&quot; were attacking people, and if we wanted work we should look to the north or west.

We agreed and slowly rode west until they were out of sight, then returned to our southwest journey. By evening we started to see campfires ahead where a large force seemed to be camped, so we veered west to avoid them before making our own camp some distance away. There was some noise in the night from the direction of the fires, but nothing came too close. Possibly it was a patrol seeking to protect their camp. In the morning we continued skirting where we thought the camp was until, just after midday, we reached an expanse of water. Well, sort of reached anyway... it was visible just over a mile away and a couple of hundred feet down from the edge we had come across.