Role

Chapter 11

The nightmares of Horatia and Grigori Felport's fates haunted Oirwn, and she
did her best to make the right choices to atone for things in her everyday life,
but Oirwn sensed her efforts might not be enough. That was how a chance meeting
with the Cardinal of the Golden Sun, Illanthos, became a discussion on Oirwn's
path toward seeking the Light's forgiveness.

"There are things I want to be forgiven for...to make up for," Oirwn told the
Healer, "But I'm not sure where to start."

The Cardinal was intrigued, and he brushed a few strands of hair from his face
in a motion that seemed almost as if it would help him listen to her better.

"What was done, cannot be undone," he told her, "but with guidance and
dedication, might be atoned for."

Oirwn was pleased to hear this. She had hoped to find in an Acolyte of the
Golden Sun, someone who would not chastise or look down upon her, but offer
concrete advice and a goal she could aim toward. She told Illanthos her story,
about her childhood as an orphan slave, and about how a knack for imitation had
gotten her on the mercenary's payroll instead of being sold off to distant lands
as a slave herself. She told him the story of how she fled that life, and
how she was still hunted, and reminded him to keep his voice down, lest her old
captors track her down.

"I find slavekeeping a most deplorable distasteful practice. The folley of youth,
and the blindness of desperation, I might sympathize with, however."

"I don't really know," said Oirwn, "It was all I'd ever known. When you're a
child, and someone with authority tells you to do something, most children just
do it."

Continued in next chapter...