Role

Chapter 5

"Welcome, brother."

Such glory! The heavens are so wonderful, so peaceful, so quiet! Slowly I walk up
an ethereal staircase, as my guide floats beside me, the weariness of mortality
and age becoming distant.

"Is...it over?" I ask "May I finally rest?"

He stops suddenly, and with a sad smile turns to face me...Caelestis?

"The fight against chaos and evil never ends."

Before I can answer, he regards me with a stern, pitying look and speaks.

"You have lived your life as a tribunal, then a paladin. Secure in your Order, your
methodical plans, but have you ever seen hope where there is none to be had? Have you
ever fought without knowing you would win?"

"You need one, final lesson, as a *paladin*, lest you fail here."

Sweating, I awake. Ever since the disaster, ever since being demoted to Seantryn
Modan I've wrestled with doubt, bitterness, and despair and dreams of failure.
All the work all that effort...gone...

...or is it one final test, one of True faith to overcome?

These words, burned into my mind from the Masters of Light shall guide my life.
I shall either ascend and become an archon, or act as one until I die, for in that
moment of despair and taunting, I was told:

Your virtues of Hope and Temperance are tested by the Imp, and you strive to take
solace in Faith.

And so I shall.