Role

Chapter 8

Have faith, she mumbled, lost - keep faith. That was her vision - the Laws offered the only hope for Light and Dark peoples to co-exist peaceably, and she was confident that a Lawful existence would overtime redeem and rehabilitate all.

But how was Kerubiel to know this? How could he, that one-time friend and bard of Battle who had crusaded with her and Gapri in Corte. She had hurried to the Chieftain's aid, heard out his complaint that the bard had assailed him.

In Galadon, the heart city - fighting back revulsion, she had laid hands upon him, salved his wounds even as she initiated investigations. Investigations which would give offense, kill a friendship - and so she was immortalised in song.

Kerubiel had wit, she gave him that - so biting, so hurtful, and yet strangely beautiful - his little song, his poem. Carried upon the four winds - let the Marans heap scorn, let the self-righteous laugh, no matter.

To be a magistrate is to be a magistrate first. Elf, drow, dwarf, duergar no longer. Crusader, rogue, warrior, mage no longer. A magistrate before all else - the person does not inhabit the office, the office inhabits the person.

Commit to this, trusting that it is the right thing to do. Commit to this, having faith that the Laws are the only hope for peaceful co-operation between disparate races, that at the end of the Spire's journey lies the redemption of every soul.

"Keep the faith!" she cried out, waking with a start, her face wet with tears, her back wet with dew upon the grass where she had spent the night - so suddenly had sleep taken her. Yes, it had been a day of many conflicts.

But it was all worth it, to raise this second shield of Light - the enduring Aegis that is the Spire and its Laws. For was it not on that self-same day of conflicts that she had also rescued Elithranduil from Elanshemor?

Perhaps earned the trust of a Chieftain of the orcs, and begun to know the character of Ediije the Shadow Lord? Unsavory characters both, but deserving of a second chance - also leaders in a position to make a difference for the better.

It was a start, she told herself. Suddenly re-energised, she broke into a slow jog down a hill, then started to sprint up the next - in the direction of the rising sun.