Whilst in the woods, (alone or with someone(s) at the author’s discretion) Wraithvine comes upon a dying man, a double-crossed messenger with an arrow through his chest. He begs Hir to deliver his letter. But, a dying man is not necessarily a righteous one, not all treasons are unjustified. Wraithvine must decide if fulfilling the promise is correct, and ze does not have much time… -- Deathshead419
On a road less traveled, more of a deer trail, there's only a few kinds of people one may meet. Those trying to avoid notice, those hunting for those trying to avoid notice, and folks like Wraithvine.
This time, the Eternal Wizard found a soldier with an arrow through his back. His hunter had found him, and having shot, left him for dead.
Judging by the tracks, the soldier had fallen, then picked himself up. Staggered on until the strength left his legs. Then continued to crawl onwards until Wraithvine found him. He should have died five yards ago. In fact, Mistress Dark was waiting for his soul to lose hold of his body.
"What's so important?" said Wraithvine. "Why spend more time in pain?"
The soldier fell, gasping, to the ground. Unlooped a small parcel from his neck. "Take... to... Stozadour. King. Message. 'Mport'nt..."
Wraithvine took it. "I will deliver it. Rest."
With one last sigh, the soldier let go. Wraithvine performed the final rites and buried the body before walking on towards Stozador. When ze made camp, ze opened the parcel to inspect a letter. There was a lot of security on the pouch itself. Easily unraveled by a mage with enough expertise in magic. Inside, the message was heavily encoded. And rather verbose for an urgent missive.
It boiled down to, "Send me your armies, I fear my slaves are about to revolt."
Wraithvine had been there when the Thrice-Sworn King was prophesied. Ze was never in favour of chaining up intelligent creatures. If a realm feared collapse because of a slave revolt, then it deserved one.
Nevertheless, Wraithvine had made a promise to a dying soul in order to give him ease. Ze never said how long ze would take to deliver it.
Ze would get to Stozador. Eventually. The long way around.
[Photo by Jan Behnisch on Unsplash]
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