Role

Chapter 4

Ilyana sat ruminating, chewing on her lower lip as she stared unseeing out the window where rain fell heavily. The occasional flash of lightning did not cause her to flinch - she was buried deep in unhappy thoughts...

The Fortress of Light, that erstwhile bastion and bulwark of the Light - was the hour truly so late? Did the pretender Ignoah still mock the templar's Code from atop its high walls? Was he only an aberration, or a symptom of greater malaise?

Gaprizal, alongside whom she had crusaded long years - he was the epitome of a paladin. Fair of speech and conduct, bold but never brash except when it came to safeguarding the lives and wellbeing of innocents.

Wilice, who alone faced down the legions of Empire. Overmatched in numbers but not in spirit - prevailed against the odds defending the Watcher. It pained Ilyana still that she had not been able to join him, but the Spire serves a greater good.

In the twain she saw the very best of what the Fortress is - or once was, and could yet become again. But in the here and now... Another flash of lightning, outlining the silhouette of a dead or dying tree on the horizon.

Merelith disappoints - as Captain, where is she now in all this? Her silence, the silence from the Fortress in the long days since Ilyana wrote them - it continued to roar in her ears, like the loud silence in the deep places of the Underdark.

And where was the Marshall, the Cardinal, the Elder Prophet of the Light in all of this? Are they complicit through their silence, does the Code mean nothing to them, where is respect for the Laws...?

The candle burned out, and Ilyana had fallen asleep at her desk - troubled slumber, a fever dream. Imperials, Cultists, Reavers, wild-eyed orcs - so much blood. The laughing face of a storm giant, twisted, cruel - the Code ripped to shreds...

She awoke with a start, the rain had passed and it was bright outside. A knock on the door, more knocking - is that what roused her? Wilice! Ill news, Gapri was no more - tears, more tears. She had seen in them both the Fortress's future.

Now one stood bleeding before her, and he had just related to her the other's passing. Numbly she laid her healing hand upon him, if only she could as easily heal the ache in her heart. Gapri alongside whom she had fought long years, gone.

Grim determination suddenly replaced sorrow, catching her unawares. Gaprizal had stood for something, he was everything Ignoah is not. Ilyana resolved then to re-double her efforts - she would help set the Fortress straight, in honour of Gapri.

But if they refused to be helped, then she would press on and do the necessary. Lord Avderlain was right, red and gold - they do not tell the full story. If the Acolytes are failing in safeguarding the souls of the Marans...

Then let any who would serve the Light hitherto rally to the Spire - this new Fortress - instead. Let this second, greater shield of Light be raised high!