The Chronicles of Bael

The Chronicles of Bael Part 18

Freezeday, Fertility Week, Fire Season, 1600

We raised a cheer upon seeing the whitewashed walls of Furthest today. Our return journey from Snake Pipe Hollow had been as uneventful as our short incursion into the Hollow had been eventful. We had returned Erissa Mar to her shrine in Too Far but had won no friendship from her. The healers of Chalana Arroy are a strange folk, no sight of death not even that of Chaos pleases them. I could find no common cause with my fellow Lightbringer.

I bade Gorath and his six surviving companions farewell at the docks, we both knew that he and his followers would attract greater attention from the Lunar guardsmen on the dock than would I, attention that Gorath felt I need not share and I wished to keenly avoid given the contents of my pack. Gorath and I parted in the knowledge of a bond that only those who have faced death together possess. His temple would only be denuded of warriors for a short time for once the stories of his adventure spread; every young hot head in the town and beyond would be presenting Gorath with their ten silver coins in tithe.

It was disconcerting to walk through the main gate of the Temple today. I had been changed by my adventure. I had stepped out from beneath my Masters protective wing, survived and prospered. Yet nothing within the Temple had changed, nor could my fellow scholars sense the change in me. Few greeted me in the main yard, too intent upon their own studies and concerns to even have recognised my absence from the Temple. Though, to his credit, Tallbar the Lascivious was at my door within seconds of my arrival asking after the Ogre penises he had asked me to procure.

My Master seemed distracted when I sought him out in the Library, even hesitating briefly before leading me back to his rooms. Once behind the closed door of his rooms I presented him with the Melmarrow as well as the map I had produced of our journey and the notes and drawings I had made describing the giant, the insect creatures and the vegetation of the Chaos Garden. If I expected high praise, I was certainly disappointed when he bundled my notes away, placed the Melmarrow in a locked coffer and asked me to return the following day. I do not think that he even recognized my disappointment at his swift greeting. We both left his rooms together and he hurried back to the Library. I have seen my Master like this too many times in the past, always when his studies have revealed to him some great secret of Chaos.