As we made our way back to Resta, I spoke with Takaa at length about his brother, probing him specifically about the origin of his magical propensities. As it turned out, Flinbek had once been ostracized by his village for harboring a foreigner who was known to practice magic. Takaa recalled his detail with some irony since having done the same thing with me. But while Flinbek's guest hid among the Ravagers, she had repaid his hospitality with some lessons in her craft. When these private lessons were discovered by their parents, the witch had been driven out of the village, never to be seen again. Takaa had assumed that she had died in the wilderness like most foreigners do, but I wasn't so convinced. To my mind, there was no way a witch of enough knowledge and skill to teach Flinbek soul magic in such a short time could have perished so easily. I believed that a magic user of this caliber could have easily made her way back to Mortanis, so there was still a chance that she could be found. So, I asked Takaa her name.
And he told me her name was Adaling.
Hindsight struck me heavily upon hearing that name. Adaling was a counterpart to Garanda, a spirit of a long-deceased witch that had been inflicted upon my dear cousin Adamora just as the Demon Knight once plagued me. It had been many years since I had given the Dread Witch much thought because I had always heard that Adamora had been far more successful than I at resisting our curse. As a Serene priestess, she had learned far sooner than I of the pacifying spell that I once used to repress the evil that I carried. To discover then that Adaling had acted on her own after all was both a reminder of my shameful neglect towards a similarly suffering family member and a crushing symbol of the fate that awaits me. Even in the caring hands of Serenity, we would never truly be safe from our demons.
Upon landing in Karatal, I left Takaa to explore the relative technological marvels of the port city's industrial region and turned back toward the coast for a new destination. I flew east to Crescent Isle, a private island belonging to my extended family located close to the coast. It was there that I hoped to find Adamora, but by then the house was occupied only by my uncle Kaleth. He explained to me that his daughter had left the island for an pilgrimage to the Towers of Tranquility five years previously and failed to check in. The last person to have seen her was Kaleth's former ward, now a templar named Kartal Marle.
Finding Kartal was a simple matter since the Archknight Rebellion's conclusion. The Archknight Rebellion describes the various events that led to the Gods' renewal and the ascension of the current Restan King, Kyle Baldus. However, this term fails to account for the simple fact that the movement was driven by multiple groups. Such is how I came to learn, only after the fact, that Kartal had performed a critical role in releasing the Gods from their exile. Such a legendary feat had earned him a lot of attention and he was rewarded for his victory with a unique command as head of the Goodwill Company. This army, instituted by King Baldus, exists to thank Resta's allies for their roles in saving our country by lending their support abroad. While I do not approve of their interventionist mission, the Goodwill Company's existence signaled my old friend's location wherever they marched.
I would find Kartal in the western sea, sailing for Midania on a diplomatic mission. Having heard of my exploits not only at Hem Academy, but with my blood coven, he was far from pleased to see me. I could understand his reservations in speaking with me, but I lacked the luxury of time spent warming him to me again, so I asked my questions anyway. Through his deflections, I could tell that he knew something about Adamora's location, but he could not trust me with a single answer. Perhaps he worried that I was seeking Adaling at Garanda's bidding. Whatever his reasons, I could tell he had no intention of being helpful.
This was a troublesome position to find myself in because there was no clear path to the information I required. Reasoning for his trust would be difficult because he was known to be stubborn. There was also no hope of forcing an answer from him because he was too intelligent to be manipulated and notoriously powerful. He had trained for his entire adult life to help protect others from Adaling and, as far as he was concerned, this responsibility required him to become Garanda's equal as well. I was not up to testing my power against his at that point, especially since we were on a ship surrounded by his subordinates.
Instead, I resolved to follow his ship to Midania while I thought of another plan. For any other troublesome gatekeeper to the information I needed, I would have considered employing some magic to bewitch them into talking with me. But Kartal was a seasoned templar anointed in the traditions of Chaos and was thus trained to resist my spells. The one advantage I had over him was my intellect and the only way to exploit this advantage was gradually. Fortunately, my familiarity with his childhood has supplied me with knowledge of a specific weakness of his. Under threat of revealing his secret, which I shall respectfully conceal in my writing, I convinced him to let me join his expedition.
Upon landing on Midania, the Goodwill Company faced an unforeseen problem: the sai'mul did not immediately welcome their presence. There is no wonder why this was so to my mind. Resta was in a state of rebuilding after a long imperialistic regime that attempted to force an alternate religion on everyone had destroyed its reputation. It was clear to me at this point that the Goodwill Company's foundation was a mistake, but if I wanted Kartal's cooperation, I couldn't allow him to fail this mission. So, I took to the streets and began to talk to the sai'mul, approaching every one with an open mind, full of curiosity. Aside from being of benefit to my own goals, I was eager to embrace this opportunity to hear stories from new perspectives.
Upon interacting with the people of Midania, one common desire which I could assist with was increasingly clear. This was an island that was inhabited by lost souls of many different breeds, including masterful warriors, powerful wizards, and wistful dreamers. Though, this was the most socially diverse society I had ever encountered, they all seemed to share a cruel reality devoid of wonder since they were walled off from conventional magic. So it was that I found a way to help the Goodwill Company ingratiate themselves with the common people of Midania. I rounded up a group of former wizards and offered to teach them some new skills that did not require a divine activation. Most of those I had asked were suspicious when they discovered soul magic among my offerings, which I later learned was antithetical to Salican culture, but were eager to learn what I knew of the arcane and of blood magic.
I was reluctant to teach the sai'mul blood magic and tried to excuse myself from that particular proposition by expressing uncertainty that someone without a living blood stream could even learn it. The locals were persistent in at least determining if my suspicions about this handicap were true, so I relented and tested one of them in a simple technique: siphoning blood. As it turned out, sai'mul were perfectly capable of using blood magic, but not with their own blood. I offered them some of the blood that I had taken from Victory Trail not only out of desperation for the next step in my search but out of curiosity. They accepted my gift gratefully and I learned that an undead body can't degrade blood that has been used in blood magic. In exchange for bringing just a bit of magic to their island, I found allies who were willing to vouch for the Goodwill Company on my behalf.
Kartal was shocked when the elders of the island, the precursors of their national congress, summoned him. When he returned, he had come back with word of the Goodwill Company's first mission which was to rout pirates in the north sea. While his crew prepared to set sail, Kartal took me aside and told me he was aware that I had something to do with this change in his fortune before questioning me as to how. His curiosity brought back some semblance of the rapport we had as children, which provided an opportunity for me to tell him my story. When I finished, Kartal apologized for hindering me in the belief that his sworn responsibility should have extended to stopping Garanda as well.
He then told me what I needed to know, that Adamora had run away to the Marble Desert in southern Tanis to isolate herself from others. She had taken on the pseudonym Telandra Dawnstrike and chose to wander the sands in secret. The urgency with which I thought of Flinbek required haste, so I said goodbye to Kartal and his Goodwill Company before flying back west once more, bound for Tanis.
Continue to Part 13
Upon landing on Midania, the Goodwill Company faced an unforeseen problem: the sai'mul did not immediately welcome their presence. There is no wonder why this was so to my mind. Resta was in a state of rebuilding after a long imperialistic regime that attempted to force an alternate religion on everyone had destroyed its reputation. It was clear to me at this point that the Goodwill Company's foundation was a mistake, but if I wanted Kartal's cooperation, I couldn't allow him to fail this mission. So, I took to the streets and began to talk to the sai'mul, approaching every one with an open mind, full of curiosity. Aside from being of benefit to my own goals, I was eager to embrace this opportunity to hear stories from new perspectives.
Upon interacting with the people of Midania, one common desire which I could assist with was increasingly clear. This was an island that was inhabited by lost souls of many different breeds, including masterful warriors, powerful wizards, and wistful dreamers. Though, this was the most socially diverse society I had ever encountered, they all seemed to share a cruel reality devoid of wonder since they were walled off from conventional magic. So it was that I found a way to help the Goodwill Company ingratiate themselves with the common people of Midania. I rounded up a group of former wizards and offered to teach them some new skills that did not require a divine activation. Most of those I had asked were suspicious when they discovered soul magic among my offerings, which I later learned was antithetical to Salican culture, but were eager to learn what I knew of the arcane and of blood magic.
I was reluctant to teach the sai'mul blood magic and tried to excuse myself from that particular proposition by expressing uncertainty that someone without a living blood stream could even learn it. The locals were persistent in at least determining if my suspicions about this handicap were true, so I relented and tested one of them in a simple technique: siphoning blood. As it turned out, sai'mul were perfectly capable of using blood magic, but not with their own blood. I offered them some of the blood that I had taken from Victory Trail not only out of desperation for the next step in my search but out of curiosity. They accepted my gift gratefully and I learned that an undead body can't degrade blood that has been used in blood magic. In exchange for bringing just a bit of magic to their island, I found allies who were willing to vouch for the Goodwill Company on my behalf.
Kartal was shocked when the elders of the island, the precursors of their national congress, summoned him. When he returned, he had come back with word of the Goodwill Company's first mission which was to rout pirates in the north sea. While his crew prepared to set sail, Kartal took me aside and told me he was aware that I had something to do with this change in his fortune before questioning me as to how. His curiosity brought back some semblance of the rapport we had as children, which provided an opportunity for me to tell him my story. When I finished, Kartal apologized for hindering me in the belief that his sworn responsibility should have extended to stopping Garanda as well.
He then told me what I needed to know, that Adamora had run away to the Marble Desert in southern Tanis to isolate herself from others. She had taken on the pseudonym Telandra Dawnstrike and chose to wander the sands in secret. The urgency with which I thought of Flinbek required haste, so I said goodbye to Kartal and his Goodwill Company before flying back west once more, bound for Tanis.
Continue to Part 13
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