[RPG] [BT][Rio] Requiem for a Hero

[Marc J.]

On 1/27/07, Timothy Collett wrote:
>
> Delvin surges out of bed, ignoring the pain.  "*WHAT!!*" he bellows.
>
> The trembling scribe starts to stammer a reply, but Delvin overrides him.
> "Get out.  *Get out!*"
>
> His eyes flashing with grief and rage, he sits down on his bed again.  *Gods...Gods...Kakeru,
> dead...how can that be?  He was the best of us...and while I lay here
> wounded!*
>
> His face grim with anguish, Delvin takes up his sword, a brazier, and a
> small pouch and stalks out of the tent.  At the entrance, the head healer
> bustles up to him.  "Prime Minister, you're not fully healed!  You still
> have to rest!"
>
> Delvin glares at him, and in an emotionless voice that the healer has to
> strain to hear, he murmurs, "One of my best men is dead.  I am going to go
> say a prayer for him.  Are you going to get in my way?"
>
> The healer backs away from the look in Delvin's eyes, and Delvin turns and
> stalks off toward a nearby grove of birch trees.  Once he has gone, the
> healer turns to two of his subordinates and speaks to them briefly.  They
> slip away behind the tent.
>
> When Delvin reaches the grove, he moves to a clearing in the middle of
> it.  There, he sets up the brazier on its stand, and lays his sword in front
> of it on the ground.  Taking flint and tinder from his belt pouch, he lights
> the brazier, and begins to sing softly.
>
> *A warrior has fallen in the night; *
> *Raise his soul up to the stars. *
> *Let him come to the eternal light *
> *Freed from strife and mortal wars. *
> *
> *
> *Now let the trees undying shelter him; *
> *By the stream of life he'll lie, *
> *In the realm where light shall ne'er grow dim *
> *The realm where death itself shall die.*
>
> From the pouch he brought, Delvin takes a pinch of powder and tosses it
> into the brazier, turning the flame to a brilliant white.  Taking up his
> sword, he draws it and holds it high, reflecting the pure white flame.
> Tears stream down his cheeks as he calls out into the night:
>
> "Kakeru Date, Warrior and Hero of Riombara: these woods and hills shall
> ever remember your name, and the Sun shall ever shine upon the place where
> you fell."
>
> Before the echoes of his voice have died, the flame goes out, and with it,
> Delvin's strength vanishes.  He falls to his knees, leaning on the hilt of
> his sword.  Quickly, the two healers appear from the trees behind him, one
> supporting Delvin on his shoulders, the other gathering Delvin's sword and
> brazier.
>
> Delvin says not a word as they take him back to the tent and put him in
> his bed, but his face is still wet with tears.
>

Delvin, his strength sapped from his wounds, falls in, and out, of
conciousness... and, during the process, a strange sensation comes over him.
It is certainly not of this world, nor anything he ever felt before: but,
oddly, it feels somewhat familiar. Almost as if from a time, long ago - a
happier time, a more unified time.

"Delvin, Delvin, Delvin..." A man's voice murmurs into the darkness, (or is
it lightness? Things, sensations... everything is changing, indistinct) "One
of our best men has joined the Beyond... you call it, I believe, the Light;
it is known by many names, and will be known by all. True, friends - and
then enemies - we where in life... but know that Irombro's Marshall shall
not be forsaken. We shall wait... until all our time is up and then we will
be together again."

As the first rays of morning filter through Delvin's tent flap, a sense of -
not quite peace, but still something good - comes to Delvin.

Whether it was a dream or not... is for the Priests to say.

(OOC: Surprised even me to see that Kakeru's dead... only tribute I could
give him.)

-- 
Marc J.
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