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16th of Goodmonth

The Maelstrom Blade

by Tycho Ralesh

The knock at the door was Li’ell’s, but forceful and off tempo. She didn't wait for my leave, marched in briskly and set a book upon my desk. I recognized it; a book of lore liberated from Iggwilv's inner sanctum...one I had yet to examine. Li'ell waited; she hadn't calculated what would happen, and that was peculiar...peculiar that she hadn’t, peculiar that it showed. I glanced at the book, almost apprehensively. I didn’t know what to expect, but I could feel destiny charging the air around me, building a luminous, almost stifling weight. As I moved forward, she pointed to a particular passage, and it suddenly loomed large and vivid as all else recede away.
 
"Drunken tales abound of the cat-eyed thief, Ashen Grey, brandishing his black bladed swords and felling minions and champions alike. Though many accounts of his prowess are surly embellished, his name has not traveled down dangerous roads without cause.
 
Cocksure and fearless, he charged his enemies seemingly transformed into a maelstrom vortex of scything blades. Ashen bewildered opponents, weaving his body and whirling his blades, deftly evading attacks as he leapt and tumbled. Feigning strike upon strike he unbalanced his foes; deathblows were sudden and precise, piercing flesh and bone from impossible angles. Woe be to those who raised the ire of the Maelstrom Blade."
 
I stared at the passage over-long, increasingly aware that I was blinking at unnatural intervals. Li’ell finally spoke:
 
“Had you...seen this passage in some other tome?” My expression left no doubt that I had not. She continued: “You told me that before you met Keldimir...you told me your life had turned to ash and grey. Those words always struck me—ash and grey. Now we have this tale, the tale of Ashen Grey? A cat-eyed man...a leaping, tumbling man brandishing two swords...a man known as the Maelstrom Blade? This is you Tycho: uncannily you. Yet these words were put to ink before you were born...before I was born, and they tell tales older still.”
 
I was gazing at my reflection in a pane of glass. I contracted my pupils, a trick I use to unnerve my foes. My subtly fiendish eyes became cat-like indeed: fields of clarion green punctuated by thin, inky slits.
 
Had Keldimir known this tale, and planted a ‘destiny’ in my mind? Or was he a figment of Sylvexen’s machinations, leading me along her designs? Had I lived before, in some distant time by some other name? Had Keldimir somehow possessed me, and others before me, living through us each in turn without our knowing? I was dizzy with a cacophony of wildly divergent thoughts. None coherent. I came back to my senses and thanked Li’ell for these tidings; I asked a moment to consider their weight. She placed a hand on my shoulder, inviting me, should I seek her comforts, and quietly departed.
 
I resolved myself. I am not Keldimir, nor am I Ashen Grey. I am only what my deeds make of me. Mine shall be the deeds of Tobias Tycho Ralesh, now become The Maelstrom Blade.

Continue reading...

  1. Background
    1st of Readying
  2. The Fouled Stream
    20th of Readying
  3. Words with Lord Summerford
    21st of Readying
  4. I Believe You Mean Warlock
    23rd of Readying
  5. Miner Difficulties
    27th of Readying
  6. A Victory Celebration
    28th of Readying
  7. In response to Ilias
    1st of Coldeven
  8. The Winged God.
    14th of Coldeven
  9. A Patron's Favor
    15th of Coldeven
  10. A Traitor to the Folk
    16th of Coldeven
  11. The Scions of Elemental Evil
    11th of Planting
  12. A Gift to Palor
    24th of Planting
  13. First Conversations with Morley
    25th of Planting
  14. Roots of the Humble Ogre
    26th of Planting
  15. At the Temple's Steps
    24th of Flocktime
  16. Trapped in the Labyrinth
    25th of Flocktime
  17. Warmth of the Light
    27th of Flocktime
  18. The Horizons of Mind
    1st of Wealsun
  19. A Whoelsome Diversion
    3rd of Wealsun
  20. Pursuing Derider
    4th of Wealsun
  21. Rising Filth
    4th of Wealsun
  22. A Winged Shadow Flees
    5th of Wealsun
  23. The Slumbering Ogre
    7th of Wealsun
  24. Paradise Defiled
    22nd of Wealsun
  25. One Man's Salt
    23rd of Wealsun
  26. A Song of Whispers
    28th of Wealsun
  27. Lost No Longer
    3rd of Richfest
  28. Revelry and Memory
    4th of Richfest
  29. Many are the Guards who Wait
    28th of Reaping
  30. Lament
    2nd of Goodmonth
  31. The Maelstrom Blade
    16th of Goodmonth

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by 3 Armored Kittens · Prodromos v.1.1 - World Anvil 0.9.15.045 © 2017-2024 [en] | Anvil Time: 01:29, May 25 2025