by Glenn » Sun May 26, 2013 1:49 am
This is a story about Myrken Wood and a young man who made it his home and wished so very much to keep it safe.
Myrken Wood was a land constantly under siege. It was a cursed land where monsters, inhuman and human both, preyed upon the good, vulnerable people. A threat would arise and the people would fight back. They would endure. They would rebuild. They would learn nothing and the cycle would start anew.
Glenn Burnie was a boy without a home, a boy forged by cruel men who cared only about the necessities of society and tempered by witnessing a dozen blatant horrors and being able only to run from them. When he arrived in Myrken Wood he was fostered by those brave people who knew only how to fight back and rebuild. He decided to stop running and fight with them. He decided to find a better way.
Cinnabar Calomel seized the Governorship. He was looking for a way out for Myrken, a path to a better day, an end to the cycle. He provided Burnie first with the means and then, after he stepped away, the opportunity. Even then, this boy who was becoming a man, who wanted only to map out that path for the Governor and his people, could not take the steps necessary and cross the lines that one must cross to truly create something new.
The very chains of humanity that originally bound young Glenn to Myrken Wood were severed three years ago in the dank, desperate catacombs of Underdark. The binds to his land and his people were not. Once he had simply sought answers to old questions in order to light the path. Now he created an Inquisitory to destroy the night altogether. Once he had shielded his bethrothed from all that might harm her. Now he turned and wielded her against the darkness.
An old lady had told her stories. Lives had been changed dramatically. Testimonies were recorded and thanks to the hard work of Inquisitors Tolleson and Bromn the truth had begun to take shape. It was not Gloria Wynsee, herself as much of a victim of these stories as anyone, had come forward at much risk to her own life that the shape of the truth finally became clear. The man in black had tried to silence her, but wonders and horrors had stayed his hand. It inspired Myrken's 'angel' to look deeper into the Jerno's mind and discover just what she was not to say.
Even with all that, even with a Myrken more prepared and proactive than ever before, it was the Storyteller's own avarice and carelessness that would be her downfall. Rhaena had been enjoying the carnival with Glenn. From there, she felt the deaths of children she considered so important. She was emotionally linked to those whose young intellects she tended. Her heart was so large for them. She felt their deaths deaths deeply and it brought her full attention to the woods. As she was trying to hone in on the loss and pain, to find them, to help them, the Storyteller dropped her glamour so that she could fully feast upon this macabre tale. To Rhaena Olwak it was like a flame that blotted out all other light.
The Storyteller feasted. She shut her eyes. She gorged as she had not for so long. Eventually, though, she had to open those eyes. When she did, there, out of the woods before her were two figures. Glenn Burnie strode forward, his beloved upon his arm. She herself was a victim of the stories, not that the Governor knew it, but that would not help Grawnya now. It would only doom her. A bevy of constables had been assembled and were now forming upon her position in a ringed formation.
The Governor spoke, firmly and calmly, his anger as cold as Rhaena's was hot. "Storyteller, I think you would be somewhat mortified to know how I like my tales. I like to flip to the back page. I like to learn how they end and have that knowledge in my mind from the very beginning. Sometimes I like to ruin them for others that way too. Let me tell you how this story ends." They walked forward in chilling unison, minds connected and guiding their strides. "It ends with you in chains, starved and helpless, divulging to me your every secret. It ends with you punished for all that you've done to us. It ends, Storyteller; it is your end and the beginning of that end is now."