Homecoming

  Years later I find myself back in the desert of my homeland.  It has changed much from what I remember.  It has expanded beyond the simple oasis of my youth and become a vibrant walled city.  The people throughout this land are insular and fearful yet trade willingly with those who have coin.  In this particular city it does not hurt that their often imagined invaders and raiders have been living side by side with them for years without battle, and now themselves have a fair amount of influence.  The city is quieter than those near the center of these lands and my own stay has been uneventful thus far.
   My journey here is undocumented.  I have no reason for this.  I have failed at endevours, yet triumphed among others yet felt nothing worth journaling.  I find myself older, broken by my travails yet still full of seeking.  I have what I need for now, The Woman, a small amount of coin, and my family.  A Brother more mad than sane, rambling his chtonic versus whilst living amongst those that dwell in the dark.  A Father still living the wars of his youth, fighting both old demons and the new ideas that the future brings.  A next generation of nieces and nephews to instruct and care for.
   These last years have not been kind to my body.  I have let my alchemical skills with insects fade and wither and relied much more on my stamina and endurance to survive and find work.  I have withstood blizzards and burning sun in order to survey lands for capricious vassal lords till I could stand no more.  I have crossed hundreds of leagues on foot in search of treasure that was not to be found and very likely never existed.  And so exhausted and seeking change I reached out to an old ally, The Lieutenant.  He had found himself in a far off land,and while in better circumstances, still served another not to his liking.  A faustian deal was struck.  I would forego serving another for a time, surviving off my hidden cache of coins, and dabble in mysteries and chaos.  On my back would our new kingdom be built with the secrets of the etheral plane.    
    I find myself again a novice, this time meddling not in realm of the natural, but in the realm of gods, the domain of mages and warlocks.  I begin by trying to take its most simple tricks such as glamours and visions and make them my own.  There is coin to be made here and I will find it. There is no academy this time.  Only the missives of far off mentors, sages and wizards peddling their teachings for a price, regardless of the consequences their unattended magic brings.   It will be a long path, and likely a dangerous one.   In the meantime I can not survive off of magic alone.   I have squandered much while savoring calling no man master.  I now am forced to seek opportunities to use my old skills to lead men, mix potions, or to hunt the giant scorpions and arachnids of these lands but as of yet I have found nothing.  I still remain hopeful.  The lethargy of winter has begun to shake off these people, the insects and arachnids have begun to stir.  I will find use here and in turn will recieve the coin I need to continue my experiments.                      

Kinetic

     (orginally scribed 02-20-12, year of the walrus)

     It is a fundamental property of magic that an object in motion tends to remain in motion, resisting changes spatially and ethereally until its starting energy is spent.  It is not my field but every novice is taught these base theories.  "Every action there is a reaction" the base law of fate.  "Magic can neither be created or destroyed, only manipulated" the base law of the arcane.  These simple phrases any novice of any order can spit out but only in my age do I see how far they rule our lives.
     Change has come, the object in motion.  Others wail with confusion and defiance but I know enough to accept the change however disdainful it seems at present.  I am not willing to expend the energy to change the direction of the object.  I do not have it in me yet.  My lord gone I have simply endured under the leadership of those once my equals.  There bickering, both natural and manufactured ensures no one looks in my direction for long.   My cadre broken, I have formed another from its ashes.  I have elevated the Mage to my second in command. It is he who now controls my men with the Veteran at his side. It is he who ensures that the wards are renewed around the kingdom, the torches lit at night, and the populace sleeps without knowing the trouble just under the surface.  I have sent word to the Ronin.  He will be entering these lands as per his custom, as the time of troubles has nearly come full circle.  The fungus that has blighted the kingdom has given way in respite, its vegetative fury spent. For the first time in ages I have time to breathe, time to think, time to plan.  This change has presented me an opportunity to either find my fortune elsewhere or increase my station.  The moons have aligned as they have not in decades and I mean to exploit.      
     
                 

Entropy

     Alchemy, and even magic is based on order.  We seek to dominate randomness by lessening variance.  To describe any variable in order to account for it.  To empty the sea by removing a drop.  Any novice knows that true understanding will always be beyond them and only villains and madmen reach beyond that scope.  Our lives are similar in this respect. We group together knowing each one of us, despite our own grandiose dreams of free will, is an accounted for variable.  Good or evil, there is only a handful of actions we can accomplish in comparison with the vastness of the cosmos.  While humankind can be monstrous, inexplicable, and magnanimous it is rarely incomprehensible.  It is never beyond the realm of our imagination and therefore not truly chaotic.  Even though we do not speak of it in this way it is why we congregate.  Why we fill our kingdoms and villages.  Our ordered nature is a small fortess against the overwhelming armies of chaos, a small bastion of hope against an unknowable universe, a reason to take another drop from the ever reaching sea.  In spite of this order change does come.
     My world has become almost unrecognizable from the one the year before.  We are at war.  A plague of fungus has descended on the kingdom.  Whether magical, alchemical, or natural in nature I can not determine nor do I have the time to particularly care.  It squeezes the breath from the land's loyal subjects, and destroys the buildings it inhabits as a source of fuel and warmth.  It's own desexual aeros nature spreading it quickly as if its own version of lust.  As the only one with any such experience in these matters it is I who leads the charge.  I have only a few stalwarts left in my band now.  The Mage now oversees my day to day operations so I can general this war.  The Squire now a Knight is my veteran.  The Lieutenant finally gave in to his raging intellect.  No longer was it enough to simply exist, content to repeat the same tasks day after day, he has left to seek greater challenges.  I have released the Barbarian.  The madness of his people had finally taken hold.  He has become uncontrollable and as such a liability.  I allowed him honor in exile, a lone man left to test his skills wandering the wastes.  
   The biggest change has come from above my station.  Greater glory has beckoned my Lord to another land leaving my own position here unstable.  Another will assume his place in time and I have gone to great lengths to make myself invaluable with those that would assume his powers in the short term until one with proper parentage can be found. I am prepared for all outcomes and should I be honest with myself I would not mind a change of scenery.  My Woman also battles for position.  Soon she will be in the service of the council as a proper Alchemist so unlike the rogue I have become.  Should circumstance take her elsewhere I can't imagine I have much left to keep me here.  Surrounded by the vastness of chaos I do not fear this ordered change.  In truth I have expected it for some time, even hoped for it.  I will be ready.  Change is coming.    

A New Way Forward

      The great orb has once again slipped from its spire and a new year has begun to rise around me.  The land still gripped in Winter, I found myself content to read in my abode with a fire burning in the hearth as revelers poured from their homes to celebrate in drunken fashion throughout the land.  As many do in this time I found myself looking back.  I had gained a good many things; arcane knowledge, a trusted circle of companions, a good woman, and rank in the eyes of my Lord.  I had also lost things that even the foulest of necromancies could not bring back; my feline Hunter, and my Alchemist's title.
       I found upon taking measure of those events that the scales of fortune had swung heavily in my favor.  While my Woman stands at my side I am unbeatable.  With my esoteric knowledge I am able to continue my studies without the council, sating my own need to understand this world's curiosities. With my elevation to the Vassal of his Lordship I am able to have the small amount of power that I crave.  While seemingly content with all those things I found that I still wanted.  As if the rewards that some small amount of luck, or skill, or even the simple tangled yarns of fate had brought me had stoked the fires of my ambitions.
       I have seen through three troubled times, three winters, three days of remembrance of my own birth while living in this Kingdom.  It is longer than I have spent anywhere for the last fifteen winters.  I can feel the wanderlust rising up to take me.  I have ties to this land though; friends, property, fealty to a lord, and a love.  Ties I have been reluctant to make in every other land I have passed through.  A weakness maybe but a necessary one.  I believe these ties anchor us to our humanity.  Without these things what do we fight for?   I feel this will be a time of compromise.  I will seek out the secret paths that will allow me my freedom and my life here.  I will explore them all finding a middle ground that increases my fortune.  I will not rest on my accomplishments as I would.  I will marshal my forces and continue forward.  
       The first step is the hardest and I have begun to take it.  Complacency has taken me this last season.    My position at the Kingdom has always been one of direction from afar.  My bidding has always passed from myself through an underling that roamed the lands, of which I saw far too rarely, down to my adventurers to carry out their tasks.  Passed through my Lieutenant, Barbarian, Huntress or Ronin as I poured through the scrolls they brought me, bartered with the others of my rank when I was forced to intrude upon their domains, and insulate my men from the politics of the court.  As my powers have increased I find myself staring at more scrolls, and pouring through libraries of the large tomes that the Kingdom's Mages, Alchemists, and Metallurgists are so keen to produce.  While not a warrior, I have seen battle.  I recognize the value of exertion and toil.  My body once ready for combat through force of arms or guile and treachery is now soft with decadence.  My gold buys a good meal but does not save me from my own gluttony.  This season will be one of changes. Changes which I can only imagine will lead me to hardship and war.   I have begun training for battle.  I will not be content to sit in my castle and have fate steer me any longer.  I will seek out my path and to the gods go those that stand in my way.    
  

Transitions

     The Kingdom is quiet.  A season has past quickly since the time of troubling.  Winter is upon us now and my intrepid cadre of heroes have mostly gone their separate ways.  I am left with only my inner circle now and even they too shall soon pass into obscurity.  The Mage, his studies almost complete, will soon depart for greater challenges.  The Barbarian, too long in these lands, will need to seek greater foes so that he might find his death in battle instead facing the decline in dignity that age will bring the rest of us. The Lieutenant, having returned after the successful negotiation of our previous treaty, will be looking for more than these lands alone can provide him.  Even my Rival, her training complete shall soon depart, a victory marred by father time's hand rather than my own. 
     As for myself I find I am content for now.  The earlier trials I weathered and defeated have been recognized and my Lord has elevated me in title.  My promotion has come with additional duties that challenge me however scarcely more coin reaches my pocket.  With age I no longer seek the path of the miser, seeking out each coin as if wealth alone will bring me what I need.  I have enough.  While my adventurers are on their way out, they are not gone yet.  The Mage, ever one for lively debate, still challenges my deeply held concepts that hold this world together.  The Lieutenant regales with his tales of travel for any situation in which we find ourselves in.  The Barbarian himself a source of unintentional entertainment, his offensive behavior now crudely endearing.  With them I still employ the Ronin from time to time when his travels bring him near our fair lands and the Squire has remained and become a force in his own right.  His even temper and obedience keep our path straight and our tasks simple. 
In terms of my personal life I have given up on the Council.  My only link to them, tenuous and frail, will readily snap if either side decided to pull.  While this balance has last since the time of troubling with varying degrees of effort, time will surely end it soon.  My travels, my wars, my life, have made me a man too unlike those who wear the robes.  I will not stop with my studies of the Transmutation of insects but I will have to be more discreet in the future without their sanction.
     The Woman, my princess still accompanies me to battle and bed.  It is through her effort that I am most content to stay here and live the life I have avoided for so long.  To create a home that is more than can be stuffed into the contents of one wooden trunk.  For the first time I do not see the quiet as a thing to be feared but as a thing to be enjoyed.  A chance to enjoy food and mead, of which I do too readily.  It will not last these periods of calm but I will not have it written on my tomb that I ran from battle to battle never knowing peace.  I know it.  I appreciate it.  It just will not last.         
        

The Huntress and Disaster

With my enemies massing I decided I needed some time away from the Kingdom.  I would have considered myself a coward for fleeing but my ego had left me having been long shed so that I could find peace at night with the things I have done in the name of service.  I traveled for the port city of Crisfield with the Woman at my side.  A couple of sundowns of isolation would serve to bolster my confidence and allow me the breathing room to divine a plan of counterattack.  We spent our time on the water, our small boat traversing the canals cut into the wild marsh, my own thoughts deconstructing the alchemy happening around me, the flitterings of many small dragonfly, the peaceful but raucous giant cicada calling to its companions, and the unfathomable plans of the jumping spiders plotting in the reeds around us.  I had nothing to fear from these creatures aside from the bloodthirsty mosquitoes and the biting flies abandoned by their demonic masters so long ago and left to rot out their days in our plane of existence.  My absence while sanctioned by my Lord had left a void as the Mage also traveled.  His eyes toward his own homeland, his cabal of wizards.  It was the Huntress that had stepped up to take charge of our band.

The Huntress
    The Huntress was a traveler, a mercenary like the Ronin.   However unlike the Ronin who used his stealth to advantage the Huntress ensured she was seen.  Her fiery temper and ability to take charge of any situation ensured she was forefront of any fray.  Confrontational and obstinate she frequently battled for control with the Barbarian but had come out the victor this season.  My Lord and his like had been impressed by her confidence, by her ability to lead and had asked me to elevate her to position which I had not minded in the least.  It is she who had overseen the disaster that was too come.  

     Myths are powerful things.  They can remind us of lessons lost, they can warn us of future dangers, and they can charm us into believing we can be better.  A forgotten myth is even more dangerous.  It had been a long time since we have had an attack and when it came we were not ready.  The Barbarian had been on routine assignment, his cart loaded with the Giant, the Ronin and a Squire we had just begun to test.  A quiet lad who had been on the job barely a month.  They had not seen it coming.  They had not heard the roar of her wings or felt the heat of her breath before she was upon them.  It was a cataclysmic strike.  The great beast focused on the Barbarian finding him to be the greatest threat.  She dove into him.  There was a crash as she plowed through the timber of the sturdy forest trees and then the upended the cart itself.  The Giant and young Squire went flying, the Ronin managed to stay inside as the wooden cart righted itself, his extraordinary agile body managing to keep pace with the motion.  The Giant was up first.  His peaceful nature shed itself as if the molting skin of a spider, replaced only with rage.  The Ronin too was on the battlefield, his eye on the fallen Barbarian who did not move and this great creature before him.  She did not move and only then could they see what had hit them.  A dragon.  It was elderly even for those creatures that did not measure time as man would.  There was no fight here.  She did not move.  The Giants anger faded when he saw the state of the once great creature.  Knights from the Kingdom were already arriving having seen her on the horizon and they too could do nothing but stare.  It was not long before the Huntress too was on the scene.  The clerics had now arrived and were taking the now conscious Barbarian to the temple to heal, his wounds severe but not life threatening.  She accompanied him there, these two who would be enemies now found themselves reluctant companions in battle.  Of the Dragon I can not say.  She had not died in that crash, the Knights had taken her without incident to wherever a Knight could keep a dragon.  This story is surely not over.                    

            

The Truce

The Woman has brokered a truce with my Rival. It is against my better judgement as it can not hold but she remembers a time when our civility wasn't forced, a time when our smiles weren't just masks we wore in passing. The Woman wishes to return to those far-gone days, the days before my fallen friendship, the days before her own dark history with my Rival. She is a better person than both of us in this regard as we can only see to our coming conflict. I acquiesced while feigning belligerence, which she easily saw through. If this is what she wanted I would support her. I would watch this truce burn on its own merits and be there when she was ready to fight back. In a way this Truce has bought me some breathing room as I have other problems that need attending to.
The loss of my Lieutenant has created ripples among my band. The Mage is holding, an effective planner, the work is getting done but it is only a matter of time before he is challenged. Already I see the Barbarian plotting. Frequently I have seen the need to intervene as he will listen to no one besides myself and only then when it suits him. His delusions of grandeur have even set his eyes on my position. He has seen opportunity outside our little group now and has begun to whisper in my lords ears. It seems his efforts have been rewarded. My liege has begun to task him directly. My liege has also begun to court the Ronin, and I can feel the Lieutenants manipulative hand in this despite our parley. Already his knowledge of us is working against my plans. I believe in the Ronin's loyalty but I also know that he can only wander for so long. His skills are useful and more detrimentally to myself,completely obvious. It was only a matter of time before he was lured away by the promise of gold and glory. The Giant will also be leaving soon, returning to his homeland. A departure I had long expected but had begun to dread. A calming influence on the group, a foil to the barbarian, I had begun to count on him for stability. None of these problems are insurmountable on their own but I can see what is coming and it does not bode well for me.

Parley

     Potions are a problem. Two years ago when I came to the kingdom it was overrun with potions.  Potions that bond, cover, and affect other changes in wonderful and creative ways.  However no potion is without consequences, whether it be simple effects of the health to more outrageous transmutations, each container was itself a Faustian deal.  The alchemists do not like to see their creations used for incompetence or evil and so attempt to regulate their use.  However once made and contained any cutpurse with access to a man or two can get their hands on these potions and undercut their sometimes outrageous guild prices and so the black market of potions was born.  The men of the Kingdom can not be blamed in whole for their transgressions as my lord and his like have not made it easy on them.  Sometimes when a job needs to be done in a hurry a potion is the fastest way and the bureaucracy they have to cut through is more time than they have.  One of my jobs is to regulate the potions trade internally before the Alchemist's get involved.  Before their powerful guild can implement their official punishments such as trade embargoes and blacklists as well as  the unofficial consequences in which piles of gold must trade hands before we can be right with the guild.  These last weeks my people have begun raiding storehouses and workshops and we have recovered many illicit potions that the lords had not realized we possessed.  Now the Kingdoms eye is on me and my men.  A scrutiny we have not known before.  
      War is a honest thing.   The goals are clear, your enemy is obvious, your emotions are true.  Measured only in blood, the victor is unequivocally the best force.  I miss it sometimes, I miss that clarity.  Instead I operate in a shadier world.  One much darker.  Every imagined slight a possible attack.  An off hand remark may lead to an ambush.  A world in which victory is measured by the attainment of power.  I can not decry this world I find myself in.  I made very clear choices at many points in my life to be where I am but I can realize when I've taken on too much.  I have gained too many enemies in too short a time.  I have been reactive for far too long.  It is time to act.
     With the Kingdom's eye on me I must look to my secrets.  I have a leak.  My old Lieutenant is a problem.  He knows too much of the inner workings of my band.  Although his allegiance is, in essence, to the same lord I have sworn fealty too I would rather my lord not know everything on how I accomplish my tasks.  The dirt I have to walk through sometimes is not for such as him.  I must treaty with the Lieutenant and ensure his ambition does not affect our small band.  I have called a Parley.  We are traveling to a neutral spot to discuss this singular problem.  I have decided to take the Woman and the Barbarian on my travel.  The Barbarian due to his sometimes almost friendly relationship with the Lieutenant and his muscle should I need it and the Woman for her companionship, to ensure the mood is light and that I do not push too hard.  Conversation is not my forte.
    We must first travel through the Dwarvish cave system of Them'etro .  Made centuries before but long since abandoned by the small hands that created the labyrinthine system of tunnels, it now acted as the main trade route of the kingdom.  The Kingdom had created long ornately engraved carriages that can hold a plethora of passengers and tens of thousands are moved everyday toward their destination.  It was a simple system but it did have its dangers.  Their were bandits even here, and the mad seemed to flock here as if their temple.  As I stood their in the tunnel looking in the subterranean entrance the scroll in my hand warmed to the touch.  Mages had long ago created a system in which communication could be effected across vast distance.  I have such a device in my possession.  The message was from the Barbarian.  His words had none of their usual confidence.  I had known he would not like this task.  He did not like being underground and had gone to great lengths to avoid Them'etro until now.  He was nervous.  I reassured him and left it. He would show.  Fear was not for one such as him.  We boarded the carriage and left.
    Our destination was reached without incident.  We arrived first and were seated at a tavern flush with the decor of the land.  I had traveled these lands in my past and smiled at the small details they had changed to suit their seemingly large foreigner client base.  Instead of plush pillows we were were seated in conventional wooden benches of our homeland.  I saw that they had metal utensil's offered for those upper class individuals who could not stomach placing their own hands into plates in which other hands were eagerly grasping for nourishment as well.  The Lieutenant soon arrived with his constant traveling companion.  I had met her once before.  She was a bright woman with a clever mind and an acerbic tongue.  I could not tell if this was a good sign as she would be a formidable foe should this meeting turn sour.  They both sat with a smile which did not settle my unease.  After some moments the Barbarian entered.  He arrived and sat.  I knew immediately he was uncomfortable but I was unsure if it was because of the unfamiliar setting so unlike is own land or if it was because of his earlier sub-terrestrial adventure.  He did not elaborate.  Our meal came then.  A 7-course meal, each communal plate coming after we had finished the one before.  The man-servant acted disinterested in our musings but immediately appeared when our conversation lulled and our serving was done.  His silence was bought with coin but still my tongue wagged less frequently when I felt his eye upon us.  Finally our meal had finished and we had come to an understanding, our words analogs of the points we wanted to make without actually being direct.  The language of the Kingdom.  Our unspoken pact finished we were then interrupted by a trio of dancers.  From places even further than this land, these foreigners had been pressed into service.  They were not attractive dancers as per the customs of the land.  Their gelatinous gyrations were amusing and their integration of the curved sword so common to their warriors served to pique even the Barbarians curiosity.  It wasn't long before they were able to coax him into their Bacchic revelry.  The general sense of camaraderie seemed to infuse even me and I found myself dancing in their throng as well, my old bones cracking with each step but ignored for the moment.  A sense of the old bonds had returned and it seemed as if nothing had changed our small band.  A long mug of mead was needed now to seal the agreement however due to the laws of this land this establishment did not serve that fare.
    The Lieutenant knew a place where our needs could be met. I did not ask him how he had come by this information but we were not disappointed.  The place was easy to enter but not easy to find.  Its sign taken down long ago to avoid confrontation from the locals and the morality guards it had to pay off from time to time it was simply dubbed "the pit" from its regulars.  The crowd was easy and uninterested.  A perfect spot for ruffians, cutthroats, and vagabonds.  A perfect spot for the likes of us.  We ordered a mug and sat.  The conversation flowed easily but it was not long before the Barbarians tolerance for the liquid was met.  His mood soured as we continued our drinking and he went without by his own choice.  So much so that it was not long before the Woman was calling his manhood into question due to his quiet belligerence.  She slapped him twice to illicit a response and he responded with the cold stare we all knew so well but one she was now just meeting.  The night broke its zenith and we were interrupted by the fact that the carriages in Them'etro would stop running soon.  The Barbarian nervous about the travel was waiting for us to leave with him.  We grudgingly agreed and led him out.  The travel home went smoothly despite the time of night as we were not accosted.  After we had reached our destination we exited giving the Babarian simple directions on how to flag down a merchant that would be traveling in his direction from Them'etro entrance near his own abode.  They usually waited around the entrances to pick up passengers to add a little coin to their own purse as they headed to the various outlying towns to sell their wares.  I stepped from the carriage and my head cloudy with mead forgot him a moment later as the Woman and I staggered home.
    We had only just lain down to sleep when a glow suffused the room.  My scroll was glowing indicating I was being contacted.  A drunken stupor had fallen over me and I could barely understand the words that I stared at.
     "You lied, no merchants.  I am alone."
     I did not even begin to think on those words as darkness claimed me.                          

       

Death of a Friend

Many years past when I had traveled in a far off land I found myself faced with a curious creature.  A jungle cat I called it, a pest the natives would correct me.  Orange with a crooked tail, smaller than the lot that plagued the forests, it still a babe could only stare up at me with its yellow inquisitive eyes.  I was instantly on guard for a mother, no animal would be without one at this age but as I stared at the diminutive creature curiously looking left and right I knew it to be alone.  I considered leaving him then but a moment later the cat was at my leg, sniffing once then butting into me playfully.  It would not survive on its own.  It had decided on its path.  I had as well.

Domestication was easy.  That cat took to me unnaturally, willing to suspend its baser instincts in exchange for simple things such as food, water, affection.  In return I gained a hunting companion.  Many a day was spent in the forest hunting for all manner of beasts from the great lizards of Tuc'sone to the chitinous mantises that sullied the cliffs of Denton.  Side by side we stalked our prey, well in all honesty, he stalked.  I would frequently have to still myself long before we reached our quarry or face a disgusted look from the noble beast at my lack of stealth.  He did not like to run after all, a fact which he had made clear to me many a time as he lazily ignored the castle roaches just out of his reach.  He preferred instead to pounce from close distance, which is perhaps a side effect of his lavish lifestyle.  I had spoiled him greatly.

His own effect on me was much greater.  A strategist by nature, my thoughts frequently turn to paranoia and self-interest.  Allies are such in that there is a benefit to our acquaintance.  There can also become a weapon for your enemies.  I have spent a decade using people for my ends, dangling them from strings as if some street-side puppet master.  Never letting them close, giving them just enough to push them in the directions I need.  Over ten years I have come to care about few things.  Indifference brings you a type of freedom not many can know.  Your motivations are truly your own and can't be mediated by external influence.  Yet I am not truly indifferent to all things.  I have cared about that cat.  More so than many people I have known.  He is loyal, easy to read, and wants so few things from me in return.  In a life where I frequently move from kingdom to kingdom, sometimes on a whim, he has been a constant for over a decade.  I have people in my life now that matter to me.  He kept that window open.  He showed me that even after all the betrayals, after all the battles I have fought in, after all the horrors I have witnessed it was still possible to care about something.  Without that surly feline I would surely have traveled a much darker path.  My party of adventurers, the Apprentice, and the Woman were able to use that window that he kept open in order to become part of my life.   Whereas before they may have only been a means to an end, they have instead become an end in themselves.

The cat died last night.  He had lived a full long life for a jungle cat, wanting for little.  He had traveled farther than most people I have known to get to this place.  I know I did everything I could to keep him with me for a few seasons more but it was just his time.  I buried him in one of his favorite hunting grounds, churning the earth with my bare hands till they were raw.  May the gods take him now or at the very least allow his spirit to haunt those woods chasing every metallic tiger beetle and bird as he did when just a kitten.  That is how I will remember him.  My cat, my Hunter.              

Listlessness and Intrigue

It's been creeping on me as of late that I need a change.  A waking dream I wander through quietly, my outward exterior rarely betraying my true motivations.  I received a missive of censure from the Council of Alchemists.  The note read simply that I had failed at some small attempt at bureaucracy that these people so loved.  The consequence of failing to remedy the situation would result in a loss of gold...had I been paid by these fools, as some of the other alchemists are.  My profession is my currency,  my passion for transmutation is everything else but the Council's rules are not for one such as me.  I will go rogue soon, practicing without their consent.  They will send their dogs for me in the short term but I can outlast them.  I can endure.  My skills are many, I can find employment in other lands should the fires of the coming war reach my liege.  My failing, my strength is that their consequences have no power to guide my hand as they think on such small levels.

Also of note is that I soon could be fighting war on two fronts.  I have heard strange tidings and seen queer things in the last few days.  Connections being drawn between my Lieutenant and Rival.  I had known of their past, he as a student and she his mentor, but those days had long past I had believed.  I now believe them to be on friendly terms which bodes no great fortune to me.  Also of consequence, another in the field of the transmutation of insects,  a person I had identified early on as a possible ally due to our common goals and similar interests has taken to the Rival romantically.  Whether it is indeed a true romance or another attempt at me, another of these constant attempts to redefine our battle it will need to be answered.  We are cordial in public and scheming in private and I find that it is becoming wearing.  Like those undead sailors, the Vampirates, that have long troubled the shipping lanes she has begun to suck at the last vestiges of my strength.  I have clearly played this game too long. Maybe this can no longer be just a game for me.  Maybe it is time for open warfare.

In times such as these I would turn to the Woman, my own princess, for guidance and solace but she is gone.  Fighting her own battles in far off lands I can only wish her luck.  Skilled and ferocious in competition, I expect nothing less than news of victory as well as no shortage of battle wounds to be displayed proudly.  My resolution without her counsel is that I aim to maintain both my duties for the Kingdom and the facade that I am still in league with the Council until it is time to break with them forever and strike out on my own.  This will be a complex betrayal and I will need more time to put my pieces into place.
                              

Betrayal and the rise of another

I was summoned early.  As I passed the portcullis of my liege I knew something to be amiss.  Not just for the simple fact that I was rarely beckoned.   My liege knowing me to be capable allowed for my independence.  No there was something else that forced me into cautious paranoia, forced me to begin devising plans and counter-plans, to anticipate my lord's demands before they left his mouth.  It was as if there was an unnatural crispness to the air now, every strangers face a mask of someone that knew a great secret.  I could not pin down where the feeling came from but in it I knew one truth.   Something in my world was about to change.

My liege greeted me warmly.  Any other person and I would have remained on guard looking for any falsehood, but I had known him many years and while his whims could sometimes be fanciful, his actions were not.  His demand was simple and to the point.

"I am taking your Lieutenant."

The smile on my face never wavered but in my mind I reeled as if hit.  I had no plan for this, no stratagem by which to use this to my advantage.  This could only be construed as a loss.  The hard season had barely begun and already a defection.  He continued speaking but my mind was already whirling in other directions looking for the best way to salvage this situation.  We spoke at length, or to be more precise he spoke at length, while I continued to nod and plot.  When the gathering was over I had come to the only solution I could manage.  I would need a second Lieutenant.  I would need someone I could trust.  It was time to elevate another of our band to a station of importance.  The Barbarian could not be trusted with power, the Ronin had no long term stake in our affairs, the Giant while capable would be leaving our lands before the end of the hard season.  Only one person had the experience I needed, had the wisdom to get our tasks finished, and had the loyalty to ensure my will was done.  It was the Mage's time to lead.
There was much uncertainty in this route.  Enough so that even a strategist like myself, one who preferred the riskier path for greater glory, was having doubts.   While capable, the Mage had never been tested.   He had survived the machinations of his dark arts but would he be tempted by the trappings of power that too often plague those of the flesh?  Would this absolute power corrupt him?
Every plan leaves dangling questions as if yarn from a tattered shirt.  Loose ends which once set in motion would be answered in time.  I had already decided my position so I determined not to dwell on them.  A second more immediate problem lay on the horizon that overshadowed the first.  The Lieutenant was not leaving for a far off kingdom, he was not sailing across the ocean.  He was merely serving another for our liege.  Would our secrets be safe?  I had underestimated his ambition, perhaps his loyalty as well.  His move while not upward was still strategic.  It had given him an ability to showcase his particular talents where as before I had used those talents to bolster my own.  Perhaps this was a play for my position.  Perhaps this was a move worthy of a counter move.                
      

The Woman

At the heart of every story there is a conflict.  At the center of every great conflict there is a cause worth fighting for.  I find I am not prone to the machinations of others.  I am rarely a follower by belief.  Perhaps all men say this before they truly realize how far they have been manipulated in their path.  However in spite of such a truth I believe my path to be my own and therefore my travails are my own.  In my youth I fought in many battles, for reasons both fallacious and true.  It is easy to be an idealist when you are young.  Every outrage to be met with force. Now I find that there are few things in this world that I allow to stir my sympathies.  A weakness to some, a trait I have long heralded as a strength.  There is none who can have leverage over me.  I will not be manipulated.  I will not be threatened.  I will scorch the earth beneath me rather than yield.  I had thought no cause was worth my soul.

The Woman
How many great men have been undone by the affections of a woman?  So many that it is a truth.  A hard logical fact that underpins this world.  Whatever your ambitions, whatever your path, when you start down that road, you will end up somewhere completely different.  I am weak, as men frequently are in these matters, but I like to think it took an extraordinary woman to break me.  It's not simply a matter of beauty, of which she possess more than her fair share.  Nor can I attribute it only to her brilliance.  Trained as a Mage in their arcane sigils and numbers, ideas and theories the like of which I have no hope of deciphering, she has turned to alchemy now in an attempt to fuse her previous training with that of the natural world.  While I very much enjoy having someone of a similar background for lively discourse, it is her spirit that draws me in.   Much as a moth to a flame, it is an unquenchable fire that will surely burn me and yet I can't turn away.  She shrugs off her hardships with a smile, her gaze is both commanding and reassuring in one pass.  The wits of a mage, the resolve of a warrior, she is an army in herself.  Traits that have won her many friends but have also gained her powerful enemies.  Enemies we now share.  A few among those that I once counted as companions.                                  

The Rival and the Apprentice

I have many skills.  I have had many professions.  While I toil for the kingdom I am also a student of the world.  A naturalist by heart I seek the understand the mysteries of this realm.  I am in no small part an alchemist.  I am of those that would seek to unlock power through the natural processes of this plane of existence.  I am not alone in this pursuit.

The Rival
There is a woman whose position rivals my own at the academy.  Her skills are beyond mine but her  inexperience keeps us as equals.  Her ambition is raw, unyielding, a thing to be rightly feared, however her clumsy attempts to rise through the ranks have revealed her nature amongst our masters.  Where once they had mistook her intellectual challenges for reasoned debate they now know it to be born of simple ego.  This is one who will not be reasoned with, who will not be challenged, who will rise above them and should the moment come, crush them into the dust of oblivion.  We had been traveling companions once, our days filled with discovery and new challenges, laughter and stories, on a common path to the future.  Now our days are spent on subterfuges, tiny intrigues designed only to provide pain, to show that we can still hurt the other.  In this we are not equals.  While her skills in the art are impressive, it is my years of experience, my lifetime of enduring horrors that she could not even begin to fathom, my ability to rise from even the most untenable of positions that will carry the day.  She has chosen her enemies very poorly.

The Apprentice
I can not even remember the exact moment I knew that this was my path.  The simple curiosity tugging at my every thought, never letting go.   The longing to know every tiny fact about my chosen alchemical field, the transmutation of insects.  The weakened grub to the durable beetle.  The slowly moving maggot to the swift fly.  The homely caterpillar to the stately butterfly.  My protege does not share my interest but does share my passion for questioning this universe.  Integral to the workings of my attempts at decrypting these mysteries I have come to rely on her greatly, nearly as much as she relies on my reasoned advice as I walk her through the path she has chosen.  Boundless enthusiasm, unwavering loyalty, and an ability to smile in the face of adversity have endeared her to me in that our interactions have become something akin to friendship, if I am still capable of such an act.  Her nervous nature and our frequent odd conversations have pushed us to the fringe of our colleagues but it is a price worth paying.  She is a staunch ally.  

         

The Giant

The intrigues of the kingdom sometimes require a strong hand to be played.  The politics of the castle keep us constantly vying for position.  Each of my colleagues straining for the ear of their dukes and lords, willing to step over each other to get that attention.  I am in no way vilifying their intentions as I too have done hard things in my own quest for upward mobility.  Our own tasks however require more than just planning.  We have a wealth of cunning, strategy, and wisdom with no small share of trickery and deceit.  To elevate my status, to accomplish more for my lieges I needed more strength than my injured Barbarian could muster, more than just the raw skill of my Ronin, more than the feral cunning of my Lieutenant.

The Giant
Visually this man is a powerhouse.  With this man at my back no other could challenge me.  None other would dare.  A gladiator by trade he battles for the amusement of the populace.  Coliseums have been packed on his name alone however he rarely fights alone, his specialty is fighting with companions.  It is this quality that has brought him to my attention.  His years of experience in the arena have shown him the value of a team.  I sought simply at first to control him but his large frame belied a gentle soul and I seek now only to understand him.  Not only does he bring the power I wished for, the simple power of intimidation by sight, but his quiet easy going nature also strengthens the bonds that this group is forming.  I had wanted a fist but I instead received a shield, which has far more value for me now.

            

The Ronin and the Lieutenant

You can't keep a cadre of talent such as this moving in one direction without help.  My prestigious skills aside I just don't have that ability.  This means I frequently have to recruit from outside the kingdom.  This means I need a good right hand man.

The Ronin
A wandering sell sword.  A quiet mercenary from far off.  Hired during the hard seasons when I need a trusted steady hand when the work gets rough.  His quiet nature and enormous skill set frequently force him to the outside of our little group rendering him invisible.  This is just another of his valuable skills.  The ability to be discrete is always worth paying for, especially in our line of work where being seen in the wrong place can quickly lead to war.  His years of service have gained him many friends and few enemies, that along with his own familial connections in the kingdom have also benefited us greatly in our tasks.  Analytical, unassuming but always interesting, he provides a bedrock of experience for the newer members of our team.  The fact that he has hit me with a horse and still has continued employment speaks far more to his worth than any description I could conjure.

The Lieutenant
A man of no small skill, his indifference frequently allows him to make the hard decisions that sometimes even make myself pause.  Experienced, more than competent, and with an eye for detail he takes to each task with an energy I find myself lacking.  He has the ability to manipulate each personality in our group with the responses they need ranging from flattery to intimidation in order to put them on the most beneficial path.  There is not much that this man would not do in order to accomplish our goals.  His own lack of ambition is all that stops me from sleeping with a blade at night for fear of being replaced.  Whilst the frequent threats of the barbarian now ring hollow should this man find that he desires my position I have no doubt he could quickly take it from me, accounting for no small amount of unpleasantness in our little part of the kingdom.          

The Barbarian and the Mage

My work while mundane is necessary.  I am a surveyor by trade.  I manage the Kingdom's resources.  I ensure the torches light at night pushing back the darkness, the refuge of brigands and even more monstrous creatures.  I ensure the warding's on the town doors are set against the thieves that would stealthily enter.  I quest for my lieges when their sometimes capricious ways demand this of me.  To this end I have employed a party of adventurer's to help me in my tasks.

The Barbarian
A fighter by trade  Wounded from his time at sea he has become ill tempered and brutish.  Or perhaps that was his personality before the war.  I did not know him then.  This man is quick to anger and sometimes slow to think.  His manner offends but his heart is true.  A reliable soldier, he follows my orders after a bit of good natured prodding but refuses to accept command from any other, save my Lieutenant.  His swarthy manner and his constant threats that he "will stab you" have ceased to be offensive but instead have become a part of how this motley group functions.  He is easily seduced by small amounts of power and while trustworthy to myself is watched most closely for signs of betrayal against the others.            

The Mage
I've known the Mage the longest of my adventurers.  Diminutive but quick of mind.  A man of order, quick to point out rules and regulations, quick to point out the short comings of my plans.  He is well read, well traveled and provides enlightened conversation.  His ostentatious garb marks him as Mage from first meeting.  Wide brimmed hat, scarf and longcoat he stands out amongst my simpler dressed men.  His weapon of choice the rapier, he is a master fencer, but his true weapon will always be his mind.  A religious man at heart, he is gentle until riled.  Like all Mages his handwriting is chicken scratch making his frequent written reports frustrating yet intriguing, making the simplest scroll a mystery to be solved instead of a simple listing of resources.  The Mage can be difficult but is always interesting.                       

Storm

A storm is coming.  Thunder has been booming in the distance but only now are the clouds starting to darken.  It's been a while since the last squall.  Almost too long since I felt the rain on my face, the moments of complete blackness, the lightning breaking the darkness.  All the things that get my blood pumping, keep my  mind sharp, replace the mundane thoughts that constantly fog up my subconscious.  That single bolt of light that will make everything clear again.
The kingdom stands oblivious at the moment.  Only a few people have guessed what is coming and have begun to prepare, but for the rest there is only the peace that ignorance brings.  This storm will split the world but as always there is calm before the catastrophe.  This is a good place for our story to begin.