A great city overlooks the sea, its massive stone walls built into the very cliffs that rise above the crashing waves, as if seeking to extend them still further in the conjoining of the glories of nature and the feats of man. The streets are paved with stone, a maze of lanes crisscrossing this way […]

Dawn comes with no sign of their companions. But with the coming of light, Cirien and Elmáriyë descend the slope of the mountain and draw near to the castle, though not within a hundred yards. For a while, they debate entering, for both of their hearts are sick with worry and uncertainty, and sitting and […]

Eldárien stands before the narrow bridge of stones, hesitantly looking out across the lake of fire. Even if the pain was not real bodily pain, he still remembers the dream-pain that he had felt when the Lord of Mæres had cast him into the other lake of fire, the one of the mind and spirit. […]

The chamber in which Eldárien finds himself is ornate, the stone on the pillars and archways carved in various shapes, though none of them beautiful to the eye. This is not because they are crude or poorly made, but rather because the stone is not carved in elegant shapes but in sharp and jagged edges, […]

At the coming of morning light, the company rises and prepares to depart. The night was dry and thus more pleasant than the preceding nights with their drenching precipitation; even the wind blew in no more than a gentle breeze throughout the nocturnal hours. And though it picks up now, as if stirred into movement […]

In the morning they set off early, as soon as it is light, for there is no reason to linger in the damp and the cold, and they shall find it easier to stay warm by moving than by staying still. The precipitation has ceased now, though the sky remains heavily overcast, dark with clouds […]

The day of departure comes much too quickly, or so it feels. It is almost as if the smoke from the burial fires has hardly settled before the dawn breaks on the morning that they must leave Ristfánd for the unknown destiny that awaits them in the west. Eldárien takes comfort in the fact that […]

The festival of Sun’s Height comes with tears and mourning and with the painful experience of the beginnings of Imperial occupation. The palace of the hæras is converted into the dwelling of Erinéäs, second commander of the armies of the Empire, and from here he exercises his authority with an iron hand. The first thing […]

Eldárien’s heart stirs him awake as deep anguish settles upon him like an incalculable weight begging to be borne. And were it not for the preceding peace, which even now does not depart, holding him at the very foundation of his awareness, deeper than thought or feeling, he would be crushed by the feelings that […]

As Elmáriyë, Rórlain, and Eldárien emerge from the palace of the hæras, they find the streets quiet and the light of dawn cresting the horizon in the east. The company of men over whom Rórlain has command stand in the gardens of the palace as in a dream, exhausted and scarred, both externally and internally, […]