*Book One of The Accursed Chronicles*
August was a man from a normal world, living a mundane life until one night everything changed, and he was sent spiraling into a world stuck forever in winter, full of magic, creatures, and a curse that has grip...
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After Ronan, Leuthar, and I left the apothecary, with only our cloaks on our backs and a single satchel per man, I realized for the first time since I had come to Laelmos that this was my home now. This place I dubbed a freezing hell was where I would live and die, but I knew that before I took my last breath that I would see the sun shine down on this land again. I was sent here for a reason, and while I didn't know that reason, I would make my own as I went.
I glanced over my shoulder at the walls of Merk, the same walls I had seen two months ago when I had left Merk for Darrose with Daesa and Ronan. Those walls, so tall and blending with the flurry of snowfall, had once amazed me. Now they looked bleak the further away we rode as they disappeared into the night with only the torches upon the walls creating dots of patchy light.
When we'd left Merk under the cover of dark, I had assumed that we would go by foot to Eyrin, but that had only gotten me a snide comment from Leuthar calling me a half-wit again. I'd thought we were law abiding, upstanding citizens, but no, I had been the only one. Leuthar had broken into the stable closet to the Eastern gate out of Merk and together Leuthar and Ronan had secured us each a horse. I had been an accomplice to thievery and knew I would never live it down.
Once Merk's walls were gone into the night, I sighed and turned my gaze forward. The path through the covered forest was trampled from hooves and paws and cart wheels, making the snow packed and dense. The trees were still, not even a whistle of wind through the leafless branches could be heard. Only the clip-clop of our horse's hooves plodding through the snow filled the silence.
Ronan had said it could take us a week or more to get to Eyrin's capitol of Kalle. It meant more time for us to be hunted across Krak and avoiding capture, but in the end, it would be worth it. Leuthar had grumbled about the accepting nature of Eyrineans, that because mages there shared their land with elves that it made them more welcoming with arms open wide. The drawback was that they were the skeptical type and would prod anything to death. In the long of short, Eyrin would welcome us while also slapping iron on our wrists. It didn't sound like the best thing to look forward to, but anything beat being confined to the frigid outdoors.
All of this was coming at the cost of my comfort and sanity, but I knew it wouldn't be the last of what I would have to pay to endure this cause. I could see the toll it had taken on Ronan and Leuthar to be a part of The Remnant for years, as Ronan was closed off and Leuthar had his claws always sharpened. They had paid in blood and sacrifice and would continue for as long as we followed this narrow path.
And I, too, would follow in their footsteps down this unstable, hopefully heroic road leading to the unknown. The costs were plenty and the reward was small, begging the question of whether tearing our own heart out for thankless people was worth it.
In truth, the secret that I held from them was that their priority wasn't my priority. We were on two separate pages going into this.
I knew that when all was said and done and when we had done all we could to save a burning land, I would rather watch Laelmos crumble into ash than lose those beside me to a world that never cherished them.
