Role

Chapter 14

'Twas but a span ago, upon a trek down Sumner's road, I chanced upon an inn,
its walls bulging like a forge at full roar, teeming with souls more than is
wont. Crossing the threshold, a shiver coursed through me; an aura dark and
dire did press in from each nook and cranny. The very air did pulse with an
eldritch crimson, save for a locus where the red did burn with an intensity
fierce as dragonfire.

The presence of malevolence was nigh overwhelming-I could name each fell
creature, their vile deeds as clear to me as the stones beneath my feet. It
was as though a dream took hold, and I was but a player upon its stage, steps
drawn inevitably towards the inferno's heart, to the place they call the Fire
of Living Ghosts.

The red glare did blend and weave, a tapestry of evil's call and the crowded
shades that dwelt within. A clarion call stirred within my spirit, a yearning
to scour clean the murky sight, to still the tempest in my mind. My silver
blade, glowing as if moon-kissed, slipped from my grasp as a prayer sprang
forth to my lips, a holy verse seeking purgation.

Hand aloft, the sacred word thundered from my tongue, and a celestial
benediction enfolded me. The power to cleanse flashed bright, and for an
instant, the world was clear as the mountain air. Those wretched beings clad
in aura's bloodied hue writhed and wailed, their essences scattering like
leaves in a gale.

But that moment, as fleeting as it was profound, stretched long as the ages.
Then came the onslaught-desperate they were, flailing against my shield with
steel, claw, and fang. The clash was but a heartbeat in time, and ere I could
summon that divine might once more, the inn's guardians, those bouncers stout
as oak, tore me from the fray and cast me out upon the cold stones of Sumner's
road.

Now, a burden weighs upon me soul-a confession claws at the gates of my heart,
begging release.