Souls Kept and Lost
Seventh Day of the First Month 294 AC
After all the battles you have fought on land and sea across the four corners of the world and in the spheres beyond it you had never considered how heavy a battle never fought could weigh on you. By the time you reach the first wardstone, the
Moonchaser hovering overhead, the storm was beginning to clear.
Two wyverns lost, though hopefully not their pilots also, against the spirits of dead dragons and their courts of accursed spirits. A price you can afford to pay, especially given that the
Moonchaser had put to flight one of the champions of winter able to call down a shadow of the Long Night even when summer still reigns.
Then news arrives from Thennhold of the attack which had cost hundreds of lives, among them two of your own vassals Danar and Alyssa Crowl as well as Styr's most skilled and loyal warriors. "You could hardly even call it a battle," you murmur with a shake your head looking upon the ruin of the longhall. The dead dragons had poured black flame into the hall and everyone in its path had died, their soul torn from them and shackled into the service of the Void.
"They fought back harder than most could have in their place," Ser Richard says, a note of quiet respect in his voice. You suspect he won't forget to call the Thenn's Free Folk in the future.
"It still wasn't enough, too many died. We should have evacuated sooner..."
"The ships have been here for almost a week, it took this long to get all the people organized and gathered into Thennhold and before that it took months to convince all of them that they
should be going." Dany reminds you. Pointing to the Magnar silhouetted against the bonfire he had ordered made to signal the people to gather, she adds. "Does that look like a man who just lost a battle? The enemy they have so long feared came for them and when it did there was someone here to push it back, all of us, the Heralds, the fleet. I think we'll be getting quite a few would-be recruits from among the Thenns."
If you had been doing the persuading and organizing personally it could probably have all been done sooner, you think but no not say aloud. The counterargument is not precisely hard to find either, your own time is limited and the Thenns would have chaffed dealing with an envoy. "We should raise all we can, not just Danar and Alyssa and the pilots, but the people who died in the hall also," you say instead.
"I'll deal with it," she nods. "What about the... others?"
The ones whose souls are chained in frozen darkness.
"There is still a little time left to look for them."
The remainder of the day passes in a whirlwind of preparations.
Danar and Alyssa waking under the power of your magic shivering from head to toe, but still insisting on embracing 'to be sure the other is real'.
Lost 10,000 IM
Giving an account of all you had found about the Lost Clans and the others themselves to the surviving leadership of the Thenns.
Sigorn formally presenting himself to Waymar to acknowledge owing the young 'southron' his life and soul only for him to explain that there is no debt for he was by both oath and natural inclination here to protect all of Thenn, including Sigorn. A defter way with words than your friend would have once managed. Tyene would be proud.
***
You do not have time to linger here, in truth none of you do, but it is your hope that you can find some at least some of the souls torn untimely from their lives to serve the enemy of all and grant them either peace in death or a new life alongside their fellows. Alas the enemy is more cunning than you would have hoped.
"Eight... there are eight wraiths in all the vale out of more than a hundred that slipped into the earth this morning?" you ask, not really wanting to believe what Lya's divination showed.
"Yes, all the ones that were able to resist the call of Winter at least a little, they have all been
twisted of course." She shivers slightly, though like all of you she cannot feel the bite of the evening wind. Even the account of Alyssa's few nightmarish moments under Others' sway had been horrifying. Any longer under their sway would be you can only guess at. "These eight loved the vale, their home, too much to leave."
The irony that it was the desire to stay here that would allow those eight the chance to pass the vale once more and make a new life in the south does not escape you, but you are more concerned with the others. "How far north did the others go?"
"Beneath the mountains, how far we can only find by looking," Lya replies. the obvious fact that it could well be a trap hangs between you. Ser Richard looks like he is practically biting his tongue against speaking up.
What do you do?
[] Slay only the eight wraiths still in the vale and then return to Sorcerer's Deep
[] Travel deeper into the Frostfangs in search of the lost souls
[] Write in
OOC: And here we are back to Viserys at last after what I think was the longest series of interludes in the quest so far.
