Out in the Middle of Nowhere and moving Fast

The ranger looked the knight up and down. He spit upon the ground. "I feel like a pig in a poke stuck over a fire in Haunt!"

"Indeed, indeed," agreed Fred.

The Duchy of Haunt, one of the many Independant Duchies, often finds itself involved in the struggles between Allaria and Hespan. The idiom 'Never look up in the sky when you spit' specifically refers to both nations. Allaria bears no real malice towards Haunt, and even tries to win over the inhabitants; Hespan, too, as a rule is not against Haunt. Yet there are more than enough human prejudices to go around, indeed, though neither Allaria nor Hespan touch her borders, the people of Haunt have found their lives to be intricately wound up within the whims of her bigger and angrier neighbors.

Besides being known for her unappealing geographical location, the Duchy of Haunt is also renown for her famous and infamous personalities. One such is the Chiurgeon also known as the Priceless, or simply as Vincent. Another is the Madrigal who is called Sylvester. Yet another is the Inquisitor; the man born under the name of Thaddeus vanDamn. For our instruction today we need but go to his castle on the hilltop of Galil, far from the borders of Allaria. Within that castle are servants who care for the place and its... things. Among those things is a library filled with parchments, rolls, maps, and books. It is within one such book that we readers shall learn a great deal, even though the actors within our play have no idea of its existance or its import.

"31 mai of the yere of Consul Gervas: I write here what I have learnt in my recent travels about the Thinge which has no Name yet is called by many. Only this day have I returned from....

Though it has no Name, the Thinge is called by the gypsies Agata and through them I have learnt that the Geldans call it Gat'aboth. Poor William, goodly ass that he is; he traveled as far as I and with my own burden upon him, but therewith to produce great fruit for the Work. We traveled to....

...there I discovered that those people have tales of t'bath, and coming northward again, those people know of thoabath. Hespan was my last stop before coming home. The elder people of the Continent, here before the migration of the Allarians, the Califs, the Lux. It is always instructional to hear what they have known for eons. In their land they call the beast Juradestro'zar; the Destroyer of Oaths.

...this Destroyer is far more evil than any pure Spirit, for it is human. A human so base as to choose to bring harm to its loved ones. Ha! What is love to such a beast? A demon is created with hate in its black heart, but the Destroyer learns hate, and accepts it, and even comes to love it. The irony! The Destroyers are thrice damned; first by death, second by the ShadowRealm, third by their very choice. What good is a soul filled with hate? What good a body filled with malice? Beware this Thinge, beware its guile, beware its deception and treachery!

Why read of such things? Because it is our very own Astra of Aquilaria who suffered many things within the tunnels of the Wyrm; it is our beloved Princess of the South who screamed at pain unconceivable; it is our own WarriorWoman who died in those caves though only a few knew of it.

Fred did not know, nor does he today. Cedrik did not know, and still he does not. But Astra knows, for she is what she has chosen herself to be: a deceiver, a liar, a betrayer.

Far from Trescent, far from that Pub of the Boar's Head, far from any form of civilization, Astra and Cedrik were running.

"Hurry!" hissed Astra. "We mustn't be caught, or we shall perish!"

That was a lie, of course. No one was chasing them at the moment, but Cedrik did not know that. Astra had a plan, a plan to bring down the reigning Family of Allaria. It was a good plan, too, a delicious plan. And it wasn't for glory or money or political intrigue. Astra had thought up the plan simply for fun. Part of her plan meant keeping up the pretense of being just the Princess from Aquilaria, she even hid her true thoughts from her very self while near enough to others, to be Thoabath was to be a Pretender, even to the point of nearly fooling oneself. She knew of enough demons and even of humans who had power to reach into another's mind.

~~I wonder what happened to that dunderhead Fred?~~ she thought. ~~I put enough weed in his water to make a fat man see pink dragons. I wonder if he went mad or simply attacked at everything he thought he saw. I hope he killed the whole village, I hope there was lots of blood.~~ Indeed, Astra had made a most evil choice after death, and though she still looked like the same warrior maiden, she was something most foul.

1. Meanwhile Frederigo and Alfredo make their escape...
2. Meanwhile King Emry sends out another homing pidgeon, yet this one had a most special message to a most special recipient...
3. Meanwhile the mysterious and magical stranger in Alfredo's village bumps into the little girl who likes to sing...

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