(Part One of Con’s Tale)

As con absorbed the power that was being transferred to him, he began to go back through old memories. The terrors he’d witnessed as a child. The depravity of the horde, the lack of control within the Valthud, and the innocence stripped away from youthful refugees. It had all haunted him. It had driven him.

He had served them, but they were going to turn him into a monstrosity. And those poor prisoners! What horrible fates! What a vile, wicked organization! Demons! That’s what they were, Demons!

The gods, whatever gods there were, forbid they be loosed! They would spell the doom of all who inhabited the Renge, that wedge of land between two converging rivers. Ah, the four lands of the Renge. Estryn, Austryn, Nordun, and Sudia-what would become of them? Their cities and their kingdoms, though corrupting and decaying, deserved a more dignified death…not a wasting brought on by demons.

As he slipped into a trance, he slipped back to his youth. Bit by bit, his past came into view. From beginning to end, it came flooding in. His earliest recollections were of the quasi-peaceful existence he’d had with his grandfather. And now, he regretted leaving it. But he woke up from a dream and found himself in the nightmare of the Inquisition. For that, he could only blame himself.

From as early as he could remember, he had been with Bezreddyn. The old bard had protected him. Kept him from slavery. No one dared touch him. Bez was much more than a bard, though. He was a Wizard First Class. That placed him just below a Mage Third Class, and far above a Druyth First Class. He could talk to shades, do simple magicks, and battle demons. Even more, he’d discovered the secret if quasi-immortality. This did not mean he could live forever, but he could choose when he would die.

This explained how he knew the complete histories of Yndarr. Indeed, he had been born when the city was still young and the Inquisition was yet to be born. He’d watched the city slip into decay. He’d fought in the battles.

Indeed, he’d fought against the old gods. He’d adopted the newborn deities. But, he’d never given up on the old. They’d never failed him, except before he battled them. Perhaps that was how he gained near-infinite life, Con didn’t know.