Role

Chapter 2

Time passes slowly as you dam the river of blood with your hands. Decaying
flesh and excrement surrounding the alcove of this tunnel generates the
sweet succor of heat passing through you and the stranger. "Thank you, child."
his voice is like a whisper straining against his own lips. A strange smile
crosses his features, an expression that seems all too unfamiliar to him
as he peers at you through the shrouded alcove.

"I had hoped to reach the surface and start anew. In spite of that, mine are
not apt to lend a compassionate ear to such betrayal. It is clear to me now
that I fell short upon the border of life and death, this wretched pit."
His eyes turn back to you, a bittersweet tinge a relief sparking faintly within.
"I would ask why you, a child of man, would be found rummaging about the
septic discharge of your own kin. You need not answer though." You meet his
eyes and are wracked with an unspoken familiarity as you commiserate his final
breaths. From his doublet he reveals a small sealed scroll and places it into
your hands, firmly disloding them from the open maw of his severed bowels.
"Take this. It is a writ of passage to Voralia. On the docks above find a man
named Balokur, tell him Vymir has sent you in his stead." His eyes begin to
drift as their light dims. "You are a kind child, you deserve better than this."
His mouth hangs open, his limbs flaccid. Vymir is no more, his form indistinct
from the rest of the carrion filling these tunnels.