Faith and Dreams
Audric leaned back into the large chair inside his inn room, staring at the burning fire. The faint scent of burning wood and damp stone stirred forth what felt like ancient memories- watching the gilded chair burn back home. The battlements upon the great Citadel of Rhodes also seemed so long ago, decades or even perhaps centuries to a mind in constant duress. The finery and architecture of the manor that cared for dear Janos so reminded him of home.
The passage of time was foreign to him now- almost surreal and malleable. The human condition was a brief and fleeting experience, but he had been exposed to so much more thanks to the mists of Ravenloft.
Children were entertained or kept in line by tales of the mythical and magical- things that he knew to be more than mere fable. There was a plethora of creatures that went bump in the night- not just in this sandbox of terrors, but in each of the worlds whose inhabitants comprised it.
Even surrounded by monsters, or, surprisingly,literal demons- none of the spiritual or bodily wounds ever inflicted upon him or upon his allies could come close to mirroring the damage done by a friend- by a human, or more accurately, a humanoid.
Some of his greatest friends, or at least allies were in fact considered to be monsters. Orc-kin, dragon-kin, wererats- a grey alliance in the ever present struggle to redeem the darkness. He found more humanity in the underworld than in many of the blaggarts that proclaimed him their brother and drove a knife into his spine.
He remembered the shifting colors of her eyes, and the words spoke to him, a sentiment that continues to resurface amongst those in the underworld he's met with. It was all a dangerous game, but it gave him more reason to believe and hold faith than anything else.
There was hope that the very same inspiration could be passed on to others, forged by faith into a legacy worth remembering, especially in his Earthen brothers and sisters that were not cut from priestly cloth. If the wicked were empowered, with monsters, devils, fae, elves and even damned dragons roamed free then so too should the divine be tangible, and real.
Only one among them had the ability to carry that legacy on in times where their brothers are aplenty, or when they are at their weakest, she will be a constant. An unexpected anomaly- of all things, an Elf with mixed eyes. Perhaps one for each world she had been exposed to?
Long after he was bones and dust, she could carry their spirit- their legacy onward. Perhaps she had always been there to guide them- as she had done with him prior in the Kinship. Inspiration, and faith, can come from the most unexpected and obscure places- but she was a constant memory that you are never given a test that you are not able to overcome.
She reminded him that he was alive, and the others gave him courage. Audric, perhaps, hoped to pass it all on to the boy. Be it Ezra, or Be it the Lord, let him grow to be a man of faith, honor, heart and true nobility with steel and spirit.
A puff of whiskey and vanilla scented pipe tobacco, and the weathered veteran stood. There was work to do. Vallaki yet called him home.