Journal - Fontainver and a New Direction

Fontainver

At last the citadel of Fontainver is in sight, still standing with Elven pennants flying proudly from the somewhat battered walls. The journey here was troublesome, with all manner of other-worldly creatures hell bent on destruction and death roaming freely around the countryside. The forest to the north was even more ominous that usual, with screeches and cries from within, and all that ventured there disappeared without trace. Even the animals seemed to shy away, and as we came farther east they all but disappeared. The farms had been looted and burned, with no food left to be scavenged. I had travelled with other men at times, but several had been hunted down and killed along the way. Luckily I had perfected the art of running faster than others and hiding well, with a little help from Essere when things got desperate. At least there was still meat to feed her then, now an increasing tide of humanity had stripped the land bare and all were heading for the one place left to find food - Fontainver. Despite the desperate times the people were uplifted - a massive army of demons had been defeated and there was still light and hope in these dark times. The strong were helping the weak and the fortunate sharing their goods with the starving.

Occasionally a small convoy would pass us in the other direction, under heavy escort by the armoured Elves, and each contained the same thing - farm supplies and equipment with a scared but determined family that knew the trade. They were off to make a new start of the farmland, a necessity if this number of people were to survive for long in one place. I thought of the things we had seen lurking around the farms and shuddered - best of luck to them. The closer we got to the walls (it was farther than I realised - the size of the place was impressive, despite the damage) the more I noticed that humans were no longer the norm, and instead it was Elves that made up most of the swelling columns snaking their way to one or other of the gates ahead. Despite the victory there were a lot of grim faces, and I did not hold up much hope of finding a hot meal and a warm bed that night. Piles of bodies were being burnt to avoid disease, and at least there seemed to be far more of the enemy in these pyres than of the Elven defenders. The lands around were not safe, but nor were they impassable, so there was still hope that peace could come again with the help of the Elves.

A temporary bridge had been built across the wide river to the south, allowing entry by more than one route, splitting those seeking shelter and making the approach more manageable. Despite this we were still pressed together as we entered an outer courtyard that swelled with refugees. We were near the harbour, which at least gave a breath of sea air to refresh us. The pace had slowed to a trudge and hunger beset us all. Marshalls gave out small flags with numbers, dividing the column into three and directing us towards areas where we could find a little shelter. I was intrigued to see the sign of Odin on these Elves, as I had not seen or heard of Odin's mark until those warriors engaged in the great battle with Malenwe spoke of Odin's light shining eternally to mark their victory, and here it was again. Here they gave out a warming soup and blessed those around, warming the soul as well as the body.

There was much destruction from the recent siege and battle, and signs of fighting could still be seen. The defenders' focus seemed to be on the people first and not their defences, which I took as a good sign for our safety. What pack horses there might have been were all gone, probably for food, and the only beasts left were the warhorses that the caravan escorts were using to take their precious farmers back out into the world. Now that I was closer to these Elves I could see that they did not resemble the forest folk we had seen from the Efferendil, and they acted in teams with rigid organisation, carefully dividing the people and seeing that their basic needs were met. My skin crawled to see that there was no freedom to move around, but I could understand the need to ration food and water carefully, at least for now. Besides which, those few that did not want to comply with the directions they were giving were treated harshly, like criminals, and beaten or worse until they had no choice but to conform.

By chance I had moved nearest to the docks, where it was clear that efforts to bring what food could be taken from the sea were as serious as those to restart farming. A strange ship, clearly not Elven, had just put in and a dour reception ceremony, heavily armed, looked likely to strip it of anything useful. In their way, though, was a figure armoured in a way I had never seen, face hidden behind a grotesque shaped mask with a helmet also hiding any hint of expression within. As they eyed each other up, a priest to one side shouted out to his fellows that this figure had been sent by Odin and that he had been gifted a vision of this arrival. This made me shudder again, as I too had seen strange visions at night. Admittedly this was not unusual after smoking good weed, but these had been particularly vivid and showed me a demon greater than any I had seen sweeping through the forest and besting even a great Elven mage. More than anything else this had made me avoid the dense forest and take a longer route here to the south. Desperate to escape our regimented progression, I dared to approach and speak of my own vision - at least this would be a curious diversion. The priest seemed to think that my sudden appearance was also Odin's will, and invited me to take food with him and the strange warrior, which I readily accepted.

After some curt exchanges in a language I did not recognise, the warrior left his ship and we both followed the priest, Baldir by name, as he led us towards a makeshift temple in the early stages of construction. Despite the damage to the defences, this seemed to be the one structure that was being worked on by any great number of people. They seemed better fed as well, perhaps to keep their strength up for the task set upon them. As I watched with amazement, a group of acolytes joined in prayer caused food and water to appear from nowhere upon what had been empty tables, and it was soon being divided up to be taken out to the camps I had originally been headed for. There were fires burning, giving warmth to the place, and some ale was handed round in some small measure of celebration for the solstice. Odin's name was spoken in thanks for every offering, and I decided that if it were not for the food I would probably prefer to be in the mass of people outside. As I turned to survey the area I was surprised to find that another man had followed us, dressed in greens and browns, armed, looking more like the forest Elves I was aware of and eyes set upon Baldir. He introduced himself, as the latter also took note of his presence, as Rhion from Walorin. This set my nerves tingling, as that was the name of the mage from my own vision! The foreign warrior was Takeda... and a bunch of other names I could barely follow, but Takeda seemed to be his given name, and he was related to the legendary Lanzi-Bao, the most powerful mage to walk the land since Lastar! This was indeed a fated meeting.

Baldir was wary, and excused himself to pray for a moment. Rhion claimed to be an elf in the service of Malenwe and his descriptions certainly matched some of my own visions. Perhaps he had some knowledge of the mage's "tree" that he had seemed so desperate to defend in my dreams. If nothing else there might be some knowledge of dweomer to be found there, but he seemed reluctant to be drawn on the details of the forest paths. He recognised Odin's followers, but said that he was "for Frey." Baldir returned from his prayers and claimed that Odin had guided him and that our company was to be entrusted with a task, and that Takeda would guide us. I didn't sign up for any quests!

Takeda explained that he was seeking a lost standard of his family (apparently mislaying a flag was a source of great shame where he came from, and no you can't just make a new one - who knew?) The last known location was at Vorsaykarai, which as it happened was where Lanzi began his journeys in our lands. My interest was piqued now - the chance to follow in Lanzi's footsteps (and with some well armed allies) was too good to pass up. We agreed to rest and meet at noon the next day so that we could prepare for our journey, and I was told that a mage at the keep would assist me in the morning, but the night was our own. We were all invited back to Takeda's ship, but I quickly made my apologies and got away to spend some time elsewhere. Let's just say that I wasn't expecting to see much female company once we left Fontainver... I also heard that there was some ridiculous argument about honour and who got to sleep where on the boat, so just as well I avoided that!