Role

Chapter 5

Aging is an interesting thing. At once it is normal, impossible to
imagine not doing, and yet flashes of existing where a thousand thousand
years go by as if just one evening of revelry. The Fields knows time,
notes the events elsewhere, but is also unto itself timeless and eternal.
It causes some consternation sometimes, even some confusion, when I feel
separate from everything around me.

In some ways it's similar to my home. For many years now (at least it's
many in the eyes of a mortal human) I've been part of the BattleRager
village, and it holds the place in my heart where a family would be.
But at the same time I am constantly reminded how different I am from all
of my brothers and sisters. The obvious feeling of dirtiness that crawls
all over my skin when I have to spend time near my duerg brothers is just
the start - though I think I've had a good impact on Sekope. He smells
far better than when I first met him, and he has not participated in any
of the usual depredations and foul, twisted behavior common to his people.
But even with others who are commonly called gray the differences appear.
They worry so much about sparing enemies, enemies who come and kill our
guardian giant or the destructor, but they think nothing of wantonly
killing the innocent goodly souls those enemies summon - kidnap, really,
just as I was stolen from the Fields. I have tried, and will continue
to try, to walk them, step by step even if they don't realize it, toward
the Light. They are all for the most part good companions as they have
seen the truth of magic's evil. But the war exists in this world, and
being a good person still matters.

Not all is negative though. While there are many setbacks, still there
are some successes. I've completed the lessons of the various guild-
masters. Fifty times they've advanced me and now they have no more
general skills. They do have some small things they've learned over the
years to give an edge in battle, and from time to time I share a tale with
them to coax them to show me, but they are hard to please and hold their
specialized knowledge close to their vests.

Also my first true battle after attaining the final rank was with a
powerful undead, a wight, surrounded by its zombies and other magical
undead creatures, and though I was grievously wounded, the wight fell
to my flail and mace. A dark and potent magic laid low at least for a
short while, unable to do harm to anyone.

And finally I've been working to keep my word to Lord Jormyr. He is
vile, and as with my frustration at living in a village led by a duerg
I am constantly shocked at how I've ended up here, but the truth is the
truth, and his wisdom is undeniable. He exhorted me to work to keep the
veil strong as one of the best ways to sew up the hole between this world
and the Fields, and so I have done, even using some of my precious credit