Scribblings

Najal and Ardel rode in silence as they approached the manor house.  Despite Najal’s cheerfulness earlier, she had grown quite as soon as they had sighted the manor from a nearby hill.  When they dismounted at the gate, there was another horse already grazing in the front yard.  Najal shook her head.  Her father would not be particularly happy about that.  Looping the reins over the gate, Najal and Ardel walked up towards the front door.  To one side, Ardel noted a large indentation in the ground.  “Is that where?” he asked, tentatively.  She nodded.  “Yes.  That’s where Grandfather Corus held me hands as I killed my first person,” she said sadly.  “That was also the day I left here and went to the Academy.”  They walked up to the door and Najal knocked on the door with her staff.

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A rider sat upon his horse on a hill overlooking Asery.  He wondered what brought him here.  There were less populated places that he could hide in.  There were more populated places that he could lose himself in.  So what brought him to Asery?  He gazed at walls of the fortified town and grimaced.  There may be many places he could escape to, but only Asery held the Citadel of Kunir and that was his destination.  Two ten-days after being pelted by rain and hail, he was no longer a prisoner, yet still not free.  His dreams had returned in full force.  The draconic eyes of his former Mistress still haunted him.  The copper-haired girl still chased her away and stood over him.  The only place he had rested comfortably and without dreams had been the Santuary of Kunir in Biqam.  He could not, however, stay there.  It was too close to Ardosrian’s lands and he couldn’t bring himself to stay so close to the disaster.  The horror of that place was unbearable.

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