The Warden's Awakening

Chapter XXXI - Four Years Ago

Lacen sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for the send post to receive a message from his father. They had been talking for a little while about Lacen's final few weeks in Morvan, and making arrangements about his room and what he was going to do next. Normally his father would offer one of two types of advice: useless, or mildly helpful, but ultimately self serving. Today was more of the latter.

A plume of purple fire appeared on the send post and Lacen stood up to walk to it. The letter read exactly how Lacen thought it would read.

"Son, I know it is difficult, and you have been through some rough bits, but the important thing is that you stuck with it, and you never gave up. When you come home, you are going to have to find work, or your Inquestors will not even look at you. I can talk to Marcael to see if he can find something for you in construction. It's a good job, and you can earn a lot of money there."

The letter stopped, and Lacen imagined his father pacing by his own send post, waiting for Lacen to respond. Construction was a good job, and Marcael owned a rather small company that handled buildings in and around White Whirl and Hillside. It was back-breaking work some days, even with someone casting movement on the heavier materials. Not to mention they were only ever working four months of the year, as they could not work during the frost months, late in the warming, or early in the cooling: far too hot. And they generally worked all day every day, including the three days of rest. But if Lacen even mentioned those things to his father, he knew exactly what he would say: it is still a job.

"Father, Do not talk to Marcael for me. I will find work, I simply want it to be something worthwhile. I am not content with simply building for four months of the year. I want to do something that helps more people for longer. I want to make you and Mother proud of me," he wrote, then sent it off in a ball of purple fire.

Lacen sat back down on the bed and read through the Tome that had been stored under the desk next to his bed. Ever since his Seer had been teaching him from that, the world had seemed a bit more right. He felt that if One deity made everything, then that explained certain aspects of the world in a greater way. The Treatise teaches that Archael created everything in the Theln, but not the powers of Chymar, the destroyer. It also never explained how Chymar received his abilities, just that he had them, and waged war against Archael. But it made more sense if the One made everything, and gave his abilities to the Three.

There also seemed to be more historical writings about the One that were stricken from the libraries in the area. The Seer that was teaching Lacen had shown him a huge underground library beneath the Seer's tower that held at least four times the number of books and writings, all from different Seers or Scholars, that wrote about the Occanum Order, and even well before it. The Imperial libraries were less than helpful in Lacen's studies.

The send post lit up again, and Lacen quickly read the letter.

"Son, your mother and I are going to be proud of you no matter what you do. The work you do right now does not have to be worth while, just a first step: a starting point. Then, once more opportunities present themselves, you can try for them. Just know that whatever you do, you'd better own it," he finished. That last sentence grew under Lacen's skin and festered. As if he had never worked hard a day in his life. The nerve. His father always acted like that. When something went wrong and Lacen told him about it, it was always because Lacen had done something wrong. Someone could have shot him with an arrow in the market square and his father would ask why he was standing in the way.

Lacen did not reply to his father. It may not have been a natural stopping point of the conversation, but Lacen had told his father that he was rather far behind on work before they began the conversation. Rayetta was given a large order for the Imperial Army and Lacen had been working extra hours trying to fill the requisition. They only needed thirty more swords and twenty more shields, and Lacen could have that done by the end of next week. The swords did not have to be ornate: just the essentials, which made the order easier. However, Rayetta had to call in a few of his friends from Kellsund to give him a hand with the shields. They needed to have the Imperial crest on them: the likeness of the long head of a World Beast, with five swords arranged in a circle behind it representing each of the five nations. There was also some vines and what Rayetta called "filler" that just made the crest look more fancy. They were a bit behind, but working extra would have them ready to meet their deadline.