Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest

The Twenty Fourth of Elnu-hamba [Elnu Descendent] Year 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

You do not hear what Zaia is saying, not really, but you answer... something appropriate you are sure. Yes you understand, yes it makes sense, no you do not bear him any rancor. Part of you wishes that you could feel angry... that you could feel anything, but the smoldering fire that had been lit in your heart after the horror and disgrace of the war in Egypt seems to have gone out. You do not feel anything at all, it is all too big and too distant, as though you had tumbled into a song about the man lost in Elfland. There will be no returning for you from this land, this world, no way out and no way forward.

How long you sit in the chair by the window staring at nothing you can only guess by the shifting shadows. It is afternoon, but you are not hungry in the least. If you do not eat you will starve and so eat you do, tasting nothing. Tom looks troubled to see you but you shake your head and turn to your food. There is nothing he can do, there is nothing any of you can do.

Still, duty moves you from your seat for you had promised to speak more to Hugh today about his healing. "Strange fellow this Ohun, but not a wicked one I would say." The smile sits strangely upon your lips and words of reassurance do not come easy. "All he asked is that we go take a look at some stones for him, being as we have horses and his folk don't..."

"A tale to tell my grandchildren that," the man gives a shaky laugh. "Assuming my layabout of a son ever gets to siring any 'fore I die."

We are all going to die in this land. You do not say the words, but something of them must have shown on your face for his expression darkens and he says hesitantly. "You did the best you could, my lord. If Saint Peter asks about me being late for judgement I'll say it was from a bargain well meant, no matter how it turns in the end. "

"Thank you," the tone sounds a little more like you and you do mean it. Even if you have nothing else, no hope of seeing kin and home again, you still have your duty to your men and the oath you had sworn with Zaia and Antonio, one that will bind you now to the end of your days. One foot in front of the other until the path runs out, it is the best you can do, the only thing you can do.

Though the light of day still seems darkened to your eyes the ground is a little more solid beneath your feet as you head out to see Silver. He would not care about which world he was on so long he did not have to get on a boat again. Would he have to? Suddenly the future looms before you trackless and uncertain. If there is no return home than should you just remain here, an oddity at the court of a petty king, selling your sword for salt and bread? Or should you instead sail away with Antonio... and what, guard him as he grows ever more rich off dealings honest and not?

You pass through the gates of the town caring little of the stares of the guards, but then just ahead you see a glimmer of white light, familiar in its strangeness. What was Inge doing out here alone?

Looking for you it seems and worried about you. "Doctor give... did the doctor give you bad news?" She frowns, her expression almost comically offended. "All your tongues silly tongues."

You shake your head, the faintest glimmer of amusement lighting your thoughts. "I suppose they are." After considering her other question you reply vaguely. "He just had news about where we are, and it was not what I wanted to hear."

"I am sorry you had to get lost to find me," the child says slowly. Then the light in her eyes changes to something altogether harder. "I'll help you find your way home, no matter how long it takes, how far it is."

Though your heart goes out to her you know that is a task beyond her no matter the strange powers she wields. "It is too far..."

The girl looks up at you for a long moment and there is no sound but the wind playing in the grass and far away the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. "Then I help you make new home here on islands or in southlands where the towers go up to the sky or in Blue Sea lands where the merchants trade in yellow gold and bright bronze, even in white ice lands where Ikomi's breath blows. Where you go, I go." There is a weight to the words far beyond her years.

How do you react?

[] Accept, a strange oath to take, but no stranger than the hour it is made and you will not deny a generous heart

[] Refuse, you do not wish to see the girl shackled to your wanderings

[] Write in

OOC: I went back and forth a lot here on whether to give you a mechanical flaw for numb (or any of the other choices) and in the end I decided no since for balance reasons I would also have had to make a vote for a feat or trait to balance it out and it would have fit in this chapter about as well as a pig falling from outer space. So instead on your next level up you will be given the option to pick up a re-fluffed Weak Will in exchange for an extra feat. Also Inge made a decent Diplomacy roll against Roland's Sense Motive so she got through to him a bit. For anyone wondering the +5 is circumstantial because of who she is and what she is offering. Inge is not actually very good at this.