Keithson Family/Paul/BloodOath
A Fontanese stable boy pulls the donkey cart up to the door of the prison where forign nobles are kept. His job is simple - whenever a ransom is paid, he takes the noble and delivers them to the nearest caravan heading in the direction of the nobles realm.
Impatiently he stands there, absentmindedly kicking the wooden cart until the noble is brought out to him. Covered in bruises and in rags, the man looks almost asleep or unconsious. The only nobles that he'd seen in this bad shape came from Avamar, so he headed straight for a shop with a caravan heading towards the east.
As the cart rocks back and forth, the nobleman seems to awaken. Relising where he was, he asked the boy where they where going.
- "You're going back where you belong, you dirty Black Hand!" the boy said with great pride
A sad chuckle broke out of the beaten noblemans mouth.
- "So, I'm a dirty Black Hand, eh? And what are you? A blood thirsty Fontanese pig?"
Shocked, the boy starts to stutter. The nobleman waves dismissivly,
- "Nevermind... just take me towards Oligarch."
After several minutes of wandering around, the donkeycart reachs a caravan heading north. Before the nobleman had a chance to get off the cart, a strange, wizened, old man stumbled towards him.
- "Shoo! Go on, get out of here!" The boy yelled, but the creepy old man continued to stare at the nobleman in the cart.
Slowly, with barely formed words, the old man began to speak:
- "Rebirth... the first... shall become last... the gods are watching, watching, watching, watching..."
With that, the man seemed to fall asleep on his feet.
As the nobleman turned to look at the transfixed boy, the old man screamed out:
- "POWER YOU HAVE NOW, BUT THE GODS CLAIM ALL! THE GODS CHOSE ALL! ALL GOLD AND MONEY COMES FROM THE GODS! YOU LOVE MONEY AND POWER, BUT IN THE END, WILL YOU HAVE EITHER?"
His "quest" fulfilled, the old man turned and stumbled away, muttering as he went.
Geniune fear showed in the eyes of the nobleman, terror shone in the eyes of the young boy.
- "They... talk..." the young boy stuttered, "They've never talked before...".
Shaking his head slightly, the nobleman climbs gingerly out of the wooden cart, hands the boy a gold coin and makes his way towards the waiting caravan.
Several hours later, with the provisions for the trip bought, the caravan starts back north. With the nobleman in his own private carriage, he slowly repeats the words the old man yelled at him:
- "The gods chose all... in the end, will you have either?"
As the words become a mantra, the nobleman falls into a fitful sleep with dreams of Oligarch City burned to the ground, Westmoor razed and Ashforth flying the flag with the white tree on it.
Tossing and turning, the caravan continues ever northward.
At last, the nobleman's caravan comes into the gates of Oligarch City. The merchants have told the nobleman all the information they know of, included The Mother Of All Battles in the city of Avamar and the appearance of the odd old men.
During the night, the merchants had bantered ideas back and forth about what this means. Some of the merchants thought the gods where going to come down and sweep all the realms away to replace it with a better system of government. Others took to opposite view, the gods would come down and give the noble class new and amazing options of government. One merchant, (obviously drunk) went so far as to say the whole Island would be destroyed and the legendary "West Continent" would replace it!
For only the second time in a week, the nobleman had a laugh.
But the carefree evening came to a close when the moon came out. It was time for sleeping, and now the caravan had made good time and where inside the city of Oligarch.
Thanking the merchants for their company, (and slipping the leader a small bag of gold for his trouble) the nobleman walks into the palace of Oligarch.
Showing the palace guards his seal, the nobleman continues into the inner chamber of the Dictator Lysander. Noticing the Duke Mutdonter huddled in conversation with the Dictator, the nobleman kneels before both of them and re-swears a oath of loyalty to the Duchy of Oligarch City and to the Realm of Oligarch:
- "I swear an oath of fealty to the Duchy of Oligarch, to be held by the Duke Mutdonter, and to the Realm of Oligarch, to be held by the Dictator Lysander, until death takes me."
Hesitating a minute, the nobleman then slowly takes a small dagger from its sheath. With both the Duke and the Dictator watching, the nobleman drags the keen edge of the dagger diagonally from his left shoulder to his right hip.
His eyes closed, a line of red appears though the thin blouse he wore. Slowly, the nobleman lowers his head and recites a different oath - an oath sealed with his own blood:
- "When blood is spilled, something must die. When the person who bleeds does not die, something must take its place. Since I do not die, I place the Realm of Fontan in my place. With my blood, I declare a BloodOath against the Realm of Fontan."
Silence mets the nobles words. Again, he speaks:
- "Either I will die, or Fontan will die. This I vow in the presense of my liege and of his liege. My vow has been witnessed and will be fulfilled."
The nobleman rises and hands a copy of his heraldy to the two men for proof.
Lysander takes it and says;
- "Welcome back Paul..."
