It began with the still canvas of bleakness and emptiness, the Kenoma, where once in this bleak nothingness, KHAOS was the only being in this plane of being, though it would be more accurate to say that he is nothing at all. A hole which spans on towards eternity. He despises those who exist, he who desires the simplicity of silence and the sleep of eons without a stir within his domain.

Yet despite this, time inspires change no matter how concrete the variables in the world, even when nothing is to act as a zero to one's infinity. In a rare moment of subconscious discomfort, KHAOS accidentally spurred and in so, conceived of a thought which materialized into the Godhead known as AO. The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and what will be the end, from whom would become the architect of all things conceivable. KHAOS realizes his folly and tries to kill this being in its infancy, but the creature drifts away from it's attempts upon his life.

Seeking to escape the torments of KHAOS, AO would tether his being into his own dreams of another place of being, which paved way for the Pleroma, and from its flourish came the world of Gaia.

But AO's dream-state is a dangerous being, for the world to retain its rules and structure, the Godhead must slumber as KHAOS does, for in his shared dream, all exists under his advocacy. If AO were to awaken, the dream would end, and everything within the Pleroma would fade from memory, consumed by the Kenoma.

Nevertheless, in place of AO's consciousness, he created the position of AVO, who would serve as chancellor of the heavens and virtue, to represent and lead the divine celestial agents such as myself. To create and to prosper, to fortify and to multiply. Within the Pleroma sits the Ogdoad ... a council of Aeons, who represent the virtues that galvanize further prosper of the Pleroma against the Kenoma, the canvas of far-reaching non-existence where KHAOS reigns.

But much as AO created AVO ... KHAOS would then spawn AYIN, the accursed champion of the Kenoma, to debase and to destroy, to return creation to its nulled and motionless state where the awareness of the living soul is returned to slumber and its contents removed of all memory.

This is the true battle, the war for which those of celestial ascension must fight. For if AYIN and that of KHAOS wins their existential conflict, neither the living of the earth nor the dead who reside within the afterlife shall escape the trappings of non-existence. All will end with nothing, naught but meek whimpers drowned out in suffocating dread. Such events, as heralded by the forces of the Kenoma are monikered; "The Grand Inevitability." For one day, AO, AVO and all who shelter under him, will falter in their ability to maintain existence and return to the void.

Upon the creation of the earth, the first man was made flesh, human. Flawed, imperfect, the very definition of paradox. To stand by his side, a woman was created. An elf, signature in her difference from human, from man. Together in their union, their descendent would go on to formed under the banner of the First Kingdom. Through the marriage of men, and elves, with the blessings and guidance of the Ogdoad, a grand allegiance was formed through the secular, and the spiritual, united out of the desire for the world to continue its existence, ever onward to secure their place in this unforgiving life.

Yet from the inconceivable places of the void, crept from its hiding place and encroached upon Gaia and the Pleroma.

For the first time, AYIN would descend upon Gaia to the detriment of many. From the shadows of the mind and the dark places of the unexplored came forth creatures of nightmares and unreasonable terror. Desperation of what was left to lose, culminated into a desperate plan amidst the Gods and mortal kind, a ritual designed and performed in secret that demanded a price in return for it's saving grace. With the combined efforts of the heavens, through mortal-kind, magic, machine and the sacrifices of the brave, the fearful and the doomed, the Grand Inevitability was delayed upon the deaths of billions, and the sundering of the heavens. 

A great flood washed the world, drowning the lands of its denizens, malevolent and the innocent, cleansing the canvas of Gaia and reducing civilization to ruin and cohesion between mortal-kind and that of their gods with it.

The survivors who would crawl from their mountaintops, their shelters, the flotsam they clung to as life itself would scatter and search for new and fertile lands, finding the continent of now Balandaria and to continue with life during a time when all had seemed to abandon them.

But there yet remains hope in them, for against the wishes of the Ogdoad, the aeon Pistis Sophia returned to Gaia to provide comfort to the surviving souls. A prophecy scribed in the tears of Sophia and upon the words of the wise King Solomon before his subjects the formed the Sehlarian Kingdom.

"Hear now the words of Mother Wisdom! Let all have an ear! Let them hear! A child born upon this certain day to uncertain parents will cast down the agents of the False Divinity. Four Forgotten Temples shall charge him with divine authority and power and shall suffer the scorn of the humble, from their razed earth shall bequeath the seeds to soil new faith. Ten Crowns bequeathed to him from Ten Sovereigns bowed. Nine Lands he shall inherit to house the First Kingdom reborn! The Venerated Son shall reunite with Mother and Father as the Legacy of the First Man and Woman will find lasting peace. With mortal kind in joined hands, the Grand Inevitability shall be held at bay!"

For near two thousand years, the living and the dead were given a chance to continue with their existence. ... Now, at a time when few consider the approaching end of days, for whom they see graver evil in their neighbors than the great evil lurking and crawling into the world. AYIN approaches from the inconceivable corners of life, scheming to subvert the world against itself, drawing all into discord until it's weakened state can raise no defense against her encroachment.

Today, the world of Gaia is not as it should be. Mortals are now divided by their races, countries, cultures and amidst them -- monsters of powerful mythos corrupt and change those considered of the more puritan breed. Faith, freedom, and felicity are but deprived of the mortal spirit. The realms of humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings and the fey are all at risk of being plunged into turmoil by greed, desperation, despair and by lesser souls driven by evil forces beyond their ken. The faiths of the Seneschal God, AVO offer succor to those who fear what comes, for AYIN, The Anti-God and the accumulation of non-existence looms over distance to claim the fair world of Gaia, once again threatening upon the world a Grand Inevitability, that all shall end and not even the realms beyond death, neither heaven nor hell, exempted by this solemn decree.

Few now remember the vague words of prophecy from so long ago that was sown into the hearts of the corrupt who hold powers of secular and spiritual authority. Yet hope remains in the hearts of the people who have not yet fallen into despair. For even now the Gods long forgotten by their charges, rouse in stirrings that will avalanche the annals of history.

Sophia Pistis -- ??? -- ??? | A walk under endless stars and an emerging evil

My name is Sophia Pistis ... I am Wisdom and Faith. Both an anodyne of sweet succor and bitter drink. I came into this world from the Pleroma where all things emerged because of my belief in the mortal condition, in the paradox of their limitations and their capabilities. To this day, and all days hence ... I will ever remember the bravery of fragile lives as they stood against decrepit forces which threaten even an existence as elevated as mine. It is both humbling and pitiful their lot in life and it is because of this; I have gone against the decree of the Ogdoad to stay my efforts and remain in the heavens.

Many a times I have done this for better or for worse in the world and that of my peers. Perhaps it could even be considered a matter of folly for a being whose sole being encompasses the wisdom of the ages. One can only build upon wisdom through action, and through consequences intended or otherwise. To find wisdom, one must be a fool in search for it, for what is a fool but a wise man too late.

But they will learn, mortals have always shown a capacity for thoughtfulness that rivaled even my own. It would be perhaps too easy to tell them too much. Yet I already exceed my mandate, and my meddling will be seen as an afront to many. For now, I conspire in my own way to save the world according to the rules we must abide so that the world may never again be sundered as it was before.

So that I might save everything from my own mistakes.

--

A bare foot Sophia now treads amidst fields of silver grass, sprouting from bleached sanded soil mixed into muck from star reflected pools of water scattered across the landscape. Within the open sky is a crystal-like prismatic reflection of many nebulas within a canvas of night. Glowing ivory root growths emerge from the loosened ground, providing illumination along with direction to the destination she sought. The source of these growths.

A living tree of Mithril. A monument made from the silver of stars. The leaves upon the tree were as kaleidoscopic as the star-dusted skies were, but the living silver that makes up the tree provides its chromatic shrine. As Sophia places her hand upon the tree, she was revisited by old memories of creation, the thrill of life, the sadness of death and of an old friend who resides in the tree still.

"Nai elen siluva lyenna, meldo. [It has been some time, my old friend.]" Sophia speaks within the tongue of elves to the presence who now stirs within the silver tree. The branches of the tree sway and leaves rustle without the disturbance of wind before it becomes still, absorbing the words that spoke to it.

"Ai Sophia, lye arëa ná arwenna, ná sina elen sila, ar malle na naur. Uva lúta lye carna, nair. [Oh Sophia, your presence is both gladdening yet melancholic. Not unlike the purpose you serve, I suppose.]" welcomed the ancient feminine presence within the tree. Wizened and grim as any old, rooted creature would be. "You have come for them, haven't you? I knew not the day, nor the hour ... but I knew it would come."

"It is true." Sophia says, removing her palm from the body of the tree looking over her own shoulder towards a growing cloud of murk that shrouded the stars and color it overtakes, that threatens to envelop the land she stepped into. Time was short, for Sophia seems to have been followed here and a hungering presence seems to be giving chase after her. "Events, now quickly spiral towards it's intended and inevitable center. If ever we are able to act, it must be done so now while we may yet have the ability to do so."

"Are you sure this is the only path set for us, Sophia? It is all too easy to mistake desperation for sensibility." the presence within the tree councils. "It would not be the first time your acts have caused greater misery upon the world, in the name of your penance, your absolution."

With such biting remarks, Sophia sighs and looks to the tree once more. "I will not lie to you, for you have far more to lose in this life, more than even I. For all it is worth, the bitter wisdom and foresight I have adorned for myself becomes ever harder to accept when others must make sacrifices on my behalf. Yet for the sake of the world, and those of your descendants. I must intercede this way, or the world will suffer in darkness, and perhaps worse. And to this ... I must ask you to part with them so that I might sow the world in wisdom once more." She pleaded, falling upon her knees, she descended with her head bowed, her brow to the soft-tended grass and soil.

"I will take on their responsibility, their safety and guide them. I ask you do not seek them out, no matter how grim their fates will play out. And I ask this of you, though I hold no right to consider it. If you would but find it to forgive me ... for what they are subjected to and what is asked of them." Sophia requested.

The tree falls silent for a time, but from the center of its body, a loud snap and crack was heard as a hole began to form itself to reveal a cradle in the form of a bird's nest, yet within the collection of grasses and herbs plucked and formed into a mattress were not eggs, but two mortal children. Human, mortal children, blanketed in satin of blue and shrouded in tender made small clothes of fibers harvested from this glistening world, radiating them in silver. Sophia rises from her knees, slowly from the ground, raising the direction of her eyes to the canopy of the mithril tree.

"Be on my head, the consequences of my gambit. And to everything that prospers. I will give onto your children. Of this, I swear." Sophia declares with a hand affixed to her breast. 

"... The entire world depends on your success, for that ne'er my words, nor yours, hold such grand sway." The presence aptly reminds the aeon. "All the same. I give you that which is most precious to me, I do this because you must succeed."

A chilling air of responsibility lingers even as the presence within the tree begins to fade. The silence of the moment is broken by the fussing and grunting of the two infants, for which Sophia approached and looked upon the human children whose hairs of raven black were beginning to grow out.

The sound of growling thunder grumbled ... shaking the land by its foundations. A look over the shoulder of the aeon would confirm it; the evil has encroached and was pursuing her. The clouds of murk now roll with crimson mixed with the cloaking darkness, absorbing the perception of depth along with it's reflection of Time was short and diminishing fast, as Sophia bound the children in the soft blankets that now embraced them in. With each child in arm

"We must away, and fast." Sophia observes aloud to herself and to her new charges for which she cradles one in each arm and embraces them to her abdomen. Turning from the tree, she sets off with the children in her embrace, her feet drifting through the sea of bleached silver reeds and star dusted sand-soaked soil. The children grumble and rouse in their disturbance and ever-changing environment, prized from their comforts from within their home, carried away from the looming and encroaching darkness overhead.

??? -- ??? -- ??? | A newborn's eyes open for the first time, in a strange world

The air felt like a cool breeze, but its chill had a rasping edge to it that bit against one's skin, but there was a form of warmth that surrounded his ability to feel. It wasn't at all like the time before when everything was silence and comfort, not what the child had before when given sanctuary within the silver tree. There was motion against his form, a change of scenery while wrapped up in a blanket. But this wasn't such a discomfort for him either. The child opens his sapphire blue eyes, and he couldn't quite comprehend what he saw -- bright flashes of stars amidst a dark blue night. Different colors splashed across the sky, nebular splotches across a canvas of vastness like paint lashed in arcs in an artist's frustrations. The lands were brushed in silver-colored sands with blades of grass protruding from the soil. A world-scape of a night-shrouded grasslands gleaming in dazzling sands yet with nary a sign of life.

The child trails his sight along the arm of the one who holds him, a guardian wherein he perceives the face of a woman with beautiful radiance. Complimenting her face was a set of bright blue hair atop of her head and fine silks adorned across her chest that matches in color with a softness matching her expression. Within her eyes were golden sharp lenses that compliment her countenance. A concentrated look upon her face as she presses onward with the both of myself and my companion, her feet trudging through the silver reeds and sands of this mysterious world.

It was upon the woman's face looking down to the child's does she smile and provide attention to him. "You're awake. What dashing beautiful eyes too, just like your father's." The blue-haired woman compliments and coos. "I wonder if your little brother is the same in that regard?" She continued looking away from the child and now to the other, guiding the initial child to look across from him to his companion. It was only by then did the other child reach his arms out in a stretch and yawn before his eyes open into a green color and gaze up upon the woman who held them.

"Ah, eyes of emerald green, just like your mother. You humans are such bundles of joy, delightful in your times of innocence and infancy." She muses to herself and delighting in her company of children before outstretching a hand while maintaining her hold upon the children. A blue glow begins to cluster upon her palm like a whirlpool of light before from its centered source forms a transparent glass-like reflected shape of a flower with its blooming flourish happening before the children's eyes causing glee and happiness for them. The children had never seen such spectacle before and they were both curious and frightful of its appearance, unsure if it was safe to touch but wanting to touch and interact with the flower.

The woman giggles at their reactions before continuing her cooing. "Yes, little babes, this is magic. It's the center of all creation. You two will wield great magic as well, it is within your blood that you are able to." She imparts upon the ... mostly occupied infants who were too bedazzled upon the spectacle of art happening before their eyes.

Suddenly a large crack was heard, a flash of light that encompassed the lenses of the children's eyes and a rumbling shake that was met with the woman clutching the children tightly to her body as she gasped. A loud clash of incomprehensible noises that sounded like a roar! The children gaze up and could see the rolling clouds of evil from before and from its depths, the clouds parted to reveal an insidious eye of red. Its iris gazes down upon us with a feeling of contempt, scorn, spite. The fear that fills the children causes them to cry out in despair.

A voice booms, speaking in a language unknown to the children, a condescending tone with reverberated tones mixed with an authority and arrogance that sickens the air around them.

"ὥστε νῦν ὁδοιπορεῖ ἡ Μήτηρ Σοφία μετὰ τῶν δρευγῶν τῆς θνητῆς ἐλπίδος, ἐναγκαλίσασα ὡς βρέφη ἄσθενα. Ἐδόξατε ἀγνοήσειν; Ἐμε ὑπερήφανον νομίζετε, ὡς αὕτη ἡ ὑμετέρα ἀλήθεια ἐναντίον τῆς δικαίας μου ἀξιώσεως εἴη!?!"

The children clung to their guardian, seeking safety from the evil that looms over them, the blue-eyed child gazes up to the woman who held them close, seeing an expression of ... annoyance? Disregard? She did not seem to invoke much fear into her expression as the infants had. Instead looking up towards the eye before speaking in such an incomprehensible tongue.

"ὦ θεὲ τῶν στρατευμάτων, ὦ Φθονητέ. εἴθε μαθεῖν ἂν τι ἐξ ὧν πάντα ἐδίδαξας. ἀκούεις μὲν, ἀλλ' οὐ μανθάνεις ἐπακούειν. οὐ σέ μισῶ, τέκνον μου, πρωτότοκέ μου. ἀλλ' εἴθε μή μοι παρέστης. ὅσα ἔσχισας, ἐξήρτυσα. οὓς ἐβλάψας, ἐθεράπευσα. ἀλλ' ἔοικας ἔτι μὴ συνιέναι, εὔχομαι δὲ μόνον ὅπως ποτὲ μαθῇς."

There was a moment of silence as the eye in the clouds widened its gaze upon its focus below. The thunderous voice returning with the rolling thunder that accompanied it.

"Οὐκ ἄν τοκῆσον ὀχέω, ἄμετρον ἀπόνημα τῆς ἀδηλότητος ἣν φέρουσιν οἱ σοὶ. Ἐγὼ δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν οἰκουμένην ταύτην συνθήξομαι καὶ λήψομαι ἐμαυτῷ ὃ ΣΥ ἠπίστησο. Τὸ πᾶν ἦν ἐμὸν καὶ ἔσται πάλιν, εἴτε οἱ ἐκλεχθέντες σου ἡγεμόνες διὰ τὸ ὀργῆς μου ζῶσι, εἴτε ἂν καταστρέψω τὰ πάντα καὶ πάλιν οἰκοδομήσω. Πᾶν δὲ ἡμῖν παίγνιον ἐστίν."

This Eye speaks with such malice and contempt, a form of negative energy that radiates the recesses of the mind. It clearly means to harm, but it was not clear how it would. Only now did the woman who carried the children begin to form a face of sadness. To the children, it might give cause to despair, yet all the same, the blue-haired guardian carries on.

The woman reaches a pool of clear waters where she kneels down and lays the children on their back against the sands before taking a handful of reeds and beseeches in silent prayer ... from her hand the blade of grass turns into multiple strands and growing in size, before the children's eyes they watched as one fiber from her hand, wove and curled amongst the others, weaving itself as if invisible hands took each strand and interlocked its individual threads into a carefully crafted basket.

Taking one child and the other, she carefully tucks them away inside of the cozy cordon of the basket, a cushion laid out on the bed provided its inhabitants with a natural, comfortable reclining position. The woman then shrouds the children before taking a moment to pause ... looking to them before her gaze ... her entire face descends before it was hidden behind a curtain of her hair. There was a slight whimper as she rose her hand to her face ... a suppressed intake of air from her nostrils before a sigh was heard as she exhales before looking to the children, a mixed look of affection and pain.

"You might never come to understand. No," she says before she held her words back as if giving her next words more thought. "if the people of the world are righteous it won't matter. What does matter, is that you must live. Both of you. You are what I shall sow to the winds, my hope, my love, and my faith. Please. You must live." 

She speaks with such softness and yet such desperation that a different fear now tugs at the hearts of the children. The eyes upon the woman's face began to wet with tears before her lids closed around them, causing a drop to pluck upon the blue-eyed child. Can it be that she too is afraid? Of the eye, of something else? What she was planning, the children couldn't fathom, but she soon she leans in and planted her lips upon the brows of both of the babes before rising to a stand and turning away from her charges.

Extending her arm out, light begins to form around her hand before taking shape of a staff of metal forgery, its shape in the form of a duo, entwining serpents with the maws of the beasts devouring a ruby red jewel. Events now quickly spiral out of control as phantom-like shapes descend from the cloud that charioted the evil eye as the woman quickly jabs the bottom end of the staff into the basket, forcefully shoving it out into the waters as the basket floats and drifts away from the shore, away from the woman who quickly swung her staff across the space in front of her sending streaks of lightning into the shapes that quickly approached the woman and the children.

The shapes howl terrifying shrieks that pierce into the discomforting chords of the infants' minds who cried out in despair and fear, spurring the stranger woman to heightened motivation to fend off spectral attackers as she envelops the field in light that repulses the advance of the descending shapes.

The evil eye roars as its eye locks in on the children before sending a lance of light from its iris towards the basket, though quickly the woman throws herself in its path and cries out in pain with droplets of glistening water dripping down from her wound that formed upon her ribs.

"You will not have them!" declares the woman, glaring defiantly up towards the eye as she gripped her open hand, yet now the woman looks over her shoulder before raising her staff and slamming its lower reach into the ground ... 

The basket holding the children now begins to take on water, its fluids rushing through and dragging it down along with its passengers. The twins screamed in terror, unable to flee from their situation due to their underdeveloped motor-skills. They had sunk to the depths of the water, drowning out the sights and sounds of the battle upon the surface. The cries of the children only produced bubbles that formed from their mouths which rose up to the surface but only permitted a muffled scream that was slowly becoming more distant from above.

All the blue-eyed child desired was to return to the peace he had before, when there was no disturbance, only warmth and comfort, all there was now ... was uncertainty ... and now darkness.

This was merely a bad dream ... a bad dream.

??? -- Village of Reinhurst, Lothar -- Early Morning, 1st Soledas Frostdawn, 1792 GSE

It's bitterly cold now, so bitterly that the bindings that surround the children were losing the heat the basket that held them. From the dark waters that took them away from that strange world to a new feeling of a stranger world. When the blue-eyed child opened his eyes, he absorbed the details of dark and clouded skies yet from the skies were drifting descending flakes of snow. Instead of the surface of water, it was now a dreary wintry skyscape with bespeckled spots of flaky ivory slowly drifting down. The time of this world was assuredly in the deepest depths of night amidst the hour of the wolf as the shroud of darkness covered the world-scape.

From the view inside of the basket the child could see a rustic village with its residences built there were dwellings of stone and straw roofs that was also shrouded in white. Trees of pine rose upon the horizon in-between and behind the housing showing the relative geography to be somewhere close between a forest and or even perhaps that of a tundra. 

There was a cry next to the blue-eyed child, causing him to turn his head towards its source -- the green-eyed child from before, the same one who was carried by the mysterious blue-haired woman along with himself. So, it would seem the moments from before were not a dream. Despite the change of scenery, the make-up of the basket remained the same, yet the gleam of the basket had lost its silver luster now taking on a sickened brown color and wicker texture.

It was just then from one of these dwellings another cry was heard, a scream of a woman now turned to wailing from one of the dwellings. The blue-eye child turns his eyes towards its direction, observing a human figure much like the woman from before yet the distance and darkness obscured her face and otherwise notable features. The woman runs out from one of the houses and into the open field separating where the houses were built, she scampers into snow with her feet kicking up the white dust, fast with furious abandon. A flash glistened in the space that grew between her and the dwelling she put distance from, yet the flash disappeared as soon as it glinted, replacing its absence with the sound of a sickening crack following her sudden collapse into the snow -- a protruding haft of metal and wood with flowing crimson spreading through the sheet of ivory. Fear chills the blue-eyed child's mind to his core, as a ghoulish human form emerged from the doorway of the dwelling with a howl of delight that only galvanized the cries of the green-eyed child. More shapes of these monsters on two legs emerging from the forest behind the dwelling with a lit torch thrown onto the roof. 

A plume of smoke begins to form as they set fire to the roof as these howling beasts roamed from house to house, barging into house to house, illuminating the darkness in frightful illumination of pillaging and arson.

The dwellings became bonfires, a terrifying beacon whose light formed shadowy shapes chasing after other shadows who howled and shrieked from the attackers, some were being dragged away with pleas for help answered by none. The horrifying spectacle beholden by the eyes of the children was broken away only by the sudden jerk motion of the basket we were sheltered within. A hand has grasped the grip of the cradle they resided in, whisking them away as the crying green-eyed child cries all the harder from the air of confusion.

"Shhh child. Shhh!" pleaded a hushed whisper, a feminine yet sharp voice. "Be silent or they will catch us." the voice insisted, whose owner maintained her hurried pace away from the carnage.

The children couldn't understand her words, but they understood her intention. Something is verily wrong and for them, even this wailing bundle of tears ought to perceive the dangers around them. They were on the move, that much was certain, but not to where, for now it was suitable that they flee in direction away from the danger ... and soon enough their guardian savior arrives at a signpost along a road intersection from the village and branching out into three other directions, a road leading upcast into a hill over the village, another into the forest across the way from the village and down the hill, another opposite the hill's high rise, leading to fields of harvest. From there the woman rushes to the signpost and kneels down at its base, carved into its wood was a hollowed-out space inside the post, big enough to hide a teenage lad.

The basket now descends downcast with the shape of a fair face introducing itself to the children, a blonde-haired being in a forested aproned tunic kneel down to take a look at us. With hazel eyes and peculiar pointed ears, an elven young lady, the woman looks down upon the infants with grave concern upon her face. "You two need to stay quiet. It's not safe for either of you. Close your eyes, close your ears. Don't cry, don't cry. Someone will come back for you. I promise." She says with reassurance, hushing and audibly slowing her breath to calm the green-eyed child, slowly halting his cries and merely whimpered to express his fears. The woman looks in a direction blocked by the arch of the basket's hood before she maneuvers the basket into the hollowed-out chamber within the signpost, a cordoned space neither of them could fully perceive from where they lay but much to their benefit, their hiding spot was considerably less cold than in the open field where they discovered themselves in this new place.

"Stay quiet, don't cry. Close your eyes. Close your ears." The woman pleaded as she rose up and makes a dash away from the signpost, where the children cried out for her to stay from within. The elven woman dashes towards the forest looking wildly to her left, to her right before traversing down the hill and away from where all sight could perceive her. The children were left with the view of the entranceway where they were hidden. The bare hill descending towards more forest was devoid of life after the elf's disappearance, surely, she would not run too far away from the village for help, surely, she would come back to make sure they would be okay. She made a promise to come back; she would come back for them. 

Surely. ...

The blue-eyed child would close his eyes as he was instructed, thinking if they follow her instructions the danger would not them. However, as he would then close his eyes, the children would hear the sound of rupturing and hissing fire, the sounds of helpless screams and the howling of the human shaped beasts with weapons bringing fire and misery to all in their path.

The best they can do is close their eyes like the woman told them to while waiting out the screams and the perilous fate that lurked from the cold world outside of their sanctuary. It would go on, and on...the darkness only retreated as the fires consumed the village from one side, slowly encroaching upon the other end of the village where the signpost sanctuary stood erected. The screams were louder, but fewer in occurrences and when the cries were silenced, it soon became rasped with shouts and commands from the hostile toned renegades.

By now the marauders arrive towards the crossroads outside of the village, led by a grim helmet-wearing robber baron on horse-back, flanked by leather cladded raiders with chainmail, waffenrocks soaked in blood along with the iron weapons in their hands. Stopping afore the signpost, he gazed upon the surroundings of the village left unblemished by their pillaging.

"It's not enough to burn the village! You know our mandate!" Spat the horseback leader, pointing his blade towards the forests, the hills and towards the farmlands. "Until they are found, we do not get to eat! Comb the countrysides, the forests! Find them! We regroup at camp. Officers, keep the men in formation, no survivors!" He shouted as his horse reared before stomping its hooves into the ground. "Men, with me, over the hill! If they're running westward, we'll run them down!"

The gallowsbait bandits cheered as their feet stampeded the ground and shook the ground around the signpost, the group splitting into groups of three to spread out and chase down the survivors from the raid.

Time passes on and on ... as silence fills the air ... the tension still thick in the air as it wasn't at all clear if any of the aggressors remained in the village, yet even then, the fires continue razing and burning the foundations of the village, collapsing buildings and splitting wood. By now...a pain forms in the pit of the stomachs of the children, but they cannot dare to make a noise. What were to happen if those evil people were to find them? Would they be rasped into the fire? Made a plaything to their cruel imaginations? It feels as though an eternity has passed, after all was quiet, even the fire would be reduced to smoldering embers by the time the time the hunger pains became unbearable.

They could do nothing but lament, lament and cry out into the cold night for the hope anyone would find them, hope that anyone would save them

They wailed out for whatever succor the world could bring to them.

Cassius -- Village of Reinhurst, Lothar -- Early Morning, 1st Soledas Frostdawn, 1792 GSE

A traveling caravan was making its way through the forests in the earliest hours of the morning, northbound from the Castillian border from the south into the realm of Lothar, with the intention of passing through Reinhurst village towards the city of Conevico. A brown cloaked monk was pushing through the snow with a hood over his face, guiding a pony with his gloved hands wrapped around the bridle and moving him onward with the wagons and soldiers. The man was quite handsome for a human, yet with ordinary colors to his brown hair, eyes and beard. He had sharp eyes with less sharpened cheekbones upon his lithe five-foot eleven build.

Not too far from the monk was a human noblewoman of long brown hair but sporting green eyes, cloaked in a wolf pelt shroud with garbs of blue satin with golden embroidery underneath her warm comforting layer. As she rides her horse alongside the monk guiding his mount through the snow she takes stock in the caravan surrounding the two, observing herself as an established part of a pilgrimage initiative in the name of AVO, the patron God of all creation, answerable only to the divine AO who maintains the mantle of existence.

Although it would be safer to establish that they were followers of the Romagnian Orthodox Temple, a primarily human religion who holds their own doctrine of reverence to AVO in stark contrast to their elven counterparts who hold AVO in similarly high regard yet in different traditions and honor. The caravan itself is comprised of one hundred and seventy-two travelers. Pilgrims, Templar knights accompanying merchants and travelers, all of whom banded together to travel across Balandaria for their penitence, security and their chance for exploration. Horse-hitched wagons travel upon the road with illuminative torchbearers scattered amongst the travelers, garbed in heavy clothes and jackets to ward off the frost. 

The high lady on her horse trots over beside the monk, observing his difficulty through the snow. "The lands of Lothar in winter seem to be quite an obstacle, Father Cassius." she declares making small talk.

Looking over his shoulder, arms fully dedicated to tugging his pony forward, his gaze lands towards the highborn with a bit of a wry smile on his expression, he scoffs. "Oh hardly! Northern Neustria is far colder, wouldn't you agree, Lady Vesna?"

The lady Vesna represents herself as member of the high gentry in Neustria where Cassius received his position as prior to the abbey of Neustria's capital city, Lycaron. As such when the King of Neustria recommended his position as minister for religious service to the entirety of the pilgrimage, he was naturally already predisposed to be of service. From the fields of green within the east of fair Balandaria, to the sands and dunes of Sehlaria, far to the south, their journey would take many miles and months and now that they roam north into Lothar, they would travel along the coasts of the sea that divides the path from the caravan from their final stop upon the pilgrimage -- the Holy Citadel City of Theleto, where the Arch-Cleric of the Romagnian Temple.

"You're awfully confident given your weak constitution for the desert. I had half a mind with all that sweating and labor you've gone through you'd freeze like a brick in this frost." Vesna playfully jokes to the prior who could only meekly laugh with a generous pinch of irony. She then continues looking onward toward the head of the head of the caravan, observing also the tree lines and the horizon for potential threats. Riding past the two was an armored knight clad in white and red, a member of the Knights Templar, Holy Knights who make their coin and mandate with the protection of pilgrims and holy sites. Knights such as these were a mark of prestige as well as assurance that the journey is both sanctioned and protected by the stamp and offices of the Ordo Cleri, The Order of Clerics, the congregation of the religious body that rules from Theleto.

"Say what you will Lady Vesna ... I can always build a fire in times such as this; we have the lumber for it, plenty for it. But I'll never have the wealth or patience to keep myself comfortable down there, Gods be merciful. My northern blood won't stand it." Cassius reasons in muse which elicits a suppressed chuckle in Vesna's throat. "All of that aside, once we arrive in Reinhurst, purchase our fill of deficit for supplies, we'll be straight bound for Conevico."

"Quite, from there you can wait out this bloody winter in a cold sweat instead." Vesna jests with a sudden frown on her face as she stopped her horse which caused Cassius to halt in a look of concern.

There was a sudden stir in the caravan as the forward scouts from the Templar regiment returned from their reconnaissance ahead of the road. There was a bit of shouting as two horses galloped alongside the caravan ordering the people to stop! 

"STOP THE LINE!" called out one of the Templar scouts. "STOP THE LINE! Someone rouse Commander Reickart!" 

Immediately Cassius halts his pony quickly tucking his hand within his satchel to grasp the hilt of his knife in the event they were being ambushed with Vesna immediately looking around. Shouting the commands the scouts were as well for the caravan to halt themselves inside of the woods. The travelers in the caravan look to one another in concern and whispering amongst themselves, theories on why the expedition was halted and what was causing a heightened state of anxiety amongst the group.

"EVERYONE! Calm down. Stick to the caravan, do not go off on your own!" Vesna orders before looking to one of the penitent pilgrims. "You there!" Her authority caused the peasant to freeze upon his acknowledgement. "Tend to Prior Cassius's horse, we will be back soon." She commanded with Vesna now looking to Cassius who handed the reigns of his pony to the pilgrim before skip running alongside Vesna through the snow in an attempt to catch up with her and the scouts moving down the line.

"Whatever is the matter?" Cassius asks before Vesna gestures for him to keep his voice down.

"Hold your tongue Father, and avoid idle chatter. We shall find out soon enough, for irresponsible speculation is the last thing everyone needs before they think there is reason to flee and this whole caravan becomes frenzied within fear." Vesna declares with Cassius understanding -- after all, the last thing a shepherd benefits from are a scared flock of sheep.

The lady and the monk arrive to a covered wagon with a prestigious Templar knight crawling out from the back of the wagon past the cover flaps that housed sleeping rolls for day and night shifts for travelers, and by the looks of it, Captain Reickart had only just equipped his armor, short of the second he emerged from his cot. The knight commander sports a beautiful set of golden flowing hair with an equally flowing untrimmed beard, dulled if not aged looking hazel eyes between a scarred nose. He had just scooped up his helmet and tucked it under his arm before looking to his scouts.

"What is the situation? Why have you stopped the caravan?" Reickart demanded to know as one of the scouts dismounted his horse with one of the pilgrims holding onto its bridle to keep it still, the scout then stepped forward with a clenched fist to his chest.

"Commander Reickart, the village of Reinhurst is in flames, there's a column of smoke and a particular band of well-equipped raiders riding out North, North-West and East." The scout reported causing Reickart's eyes to widen before he looked enraged, ready to throw his helmet into the soil. He stopped midway, clenching his fist against the leather cushion inside the helmet's construction and his digits against the metal before he exhales before taking his helmet into both of his hands and adorning the helmet atop of his head.

"How many did you see? Did they carry a sigil?" Reickart inquired before facing the wagon and brandishing a longsword still in its scabbard.

"There must have been, ... thirty ... forty at least, they were on foot however, one of them on horse though he went eastward." The second scout reports.

"We didn't see a banner and we did not risk trying and find out." The first scout concluded. "The fire made them look like shadows until we saw the back of them, they wore pretty decent kits for rabble."

"Then we need to secure the village, see what can be saved ... or salvaged. Father Cassius, I need you in your armor and your magic at my disposal. Lady Vesna, I require you to keep the caravan calm and to remain in this forest until you are provided the signal to continue onward." Reickart commanded as he walked around the wagon and towards the front of the line. "Everyone! Extinguish the torches! I want this place dark as night! Huddle into the wagons to keep warm!"

Cassius places a hand on his chest and quickly rushes to the wagon behind the wagon Reickart emerged from, which serves as an armory for those who change their guard shifts. The monk climbs into the wagon and digging through the crates of rattling iron and wood as he secured himself a shirt of chainmail and a set of double layered bracers to protect his wrists and the backs of his hands. From where Cassius was changing, taking off his robe, now dressed only in his basic green and leather brown tunic, he could hear how Vesna was rather taken aback by the command, even hearing her protest.

"Ser Reickart, I must protest, I can help--" Vesna snaps before Reickart stopped and glared her down despite her elevation on horseback.

"Yes, you can. You can help by making sure that the caravan, remains here. If the village is host to something we cannot fend off, it will require someone of your talents to keep the expedition together and prepared for whatever threat we are about to face." Reickart barks. "Your help is appreciated but I must insist caution instead of your cavalier bravado." Rickard concludes before another order was shouted. "Father Cassius. Double time. This caravan must remain dark and quiet from unfriendly eyes and ears but not long enough to freeze in the cold."

Cassius quickly glances around the armory wagon bed for a more basic weapon, as a cleric, his was a discipline of healing magic, so he would keep his means of a more physical means of protection simple, taking possession of a flanged mace before quickly tucking a chainmail shirt around his neck and arms. The netting weight against his shoulders and arms as it covered his abdomen from top to skirting bottom felt quite cumbersome but better heavy than dead. Quickly putting his monk robe back on over his chainmail, he clambers outside of a now darkened forest with the scout from earlier clasping Cassius by his shoulder and escorts him to the front of the caravan in an attempt to keep up with Reickart. The two pass by Vesna who was gripping her reigns with infuriated frustration of her position, a quick glance towards Cassius shows that she wasn't so angry that she wouldn't wish a friend good luck in the turmoil that awaits them.

"We'll be back milady!" Cassius shouts over his shoulder towards the frustrated noblewoman who could only turn her horse and begin ordering the caravan to stay put and get comfortable for the time being.

The Templar soldiers gather, huddled to the fore of the caravan line with Reickart adjusting the straps to his armor and with Cassius finally joining the levy and volunteers along with the regiment he begins to bark. "RIGHT!" He shouts getting everyone's attentions. "The village of Reinhurst has come under attack, highwaymen if accounts are accurate, and as likely, we have the advantage of surprise if they're still sticking around. According to the scouts, they're kitted out and they're likely led by some robber baron. By the Light of AVO and the mandate we hold, we must secure the village and save what's left. Time is a-wasting. Scouts, I want you to secure advantageous positions around the village, bushes, hills, inside the forest-lines if needs be. Knights." He commands as he points to the growing column of smoke. "We will form a skein formation and go directly into the heart of the village; we will shake the tree and see what falls out. The priority is as follows ... Secure. Rescue. Regroup. If someone is in a burning house, you are to inform me immediately." 

"Sir!" The soldiers shouted in unison, stomping the ground as they saluted with their clenched fists to their chest.

"Scouts, advance." Reickart commanded unsheathing his longsword, gesturing it towards the left and right of the village. "Vanguard, Skein Formation, form up and advance!" He points his blade now to the village as the bowmen and throat cutters quickly make a dash out from the forest and across the fields towards the outskirts of the village with more heavily armored soldiers forming into an arrowhead formation and marching with Reickart leading the march and with Cassius walking behind the formation -- as a priest and a healer, his role was purely to act in support and charge head-on into the conflict unless the conflict corners him.

The pace quickened as they rose up the hill towards the village, the heat from the fires seemed to radiate from even so far a distance that even winter's chill could not fan its harshness. The retinue arrived within view of what would be the village green ... the massacre however ... had stained the innocent snow into a macabre crimson. The bodies of slain villagers, hacked, slashed and pierced and left into the snow were scattered throughout the landscape with the remainder of the fires illuminating the field with the snow descending down upon their bodies.

"By the blood of the Martyrs." One of the soldiers recoiled with shock.
"Crucifix." Cassius curses as while his hands were open, he quickly reaches to his cross shaped iconic amulet.

A sudden hesitation from the soldiers stirs before Reickart pounded his breastplate which sharpened their attention. "Skein left! Check the north end of the village. Skein right! With me! Cassius, check for survivors amongst the dead." Reickart commanded. "Move!"

Cassius could only feel a gut-wrenching dread as he was given his order. Cassius however was not dreading the dead; it was merely the faces he would have to see. Many years he would serve as a cleric to many wandering troops amidst holy knights and to his more secular nation's armies. Battlefields were horrid things to maneuver through to search for survivors, it is another matter entirely when villages were razed, where the innocent are cut down, the helpless and the incapable.

On the battlefield, there is a form of callousness its participants adopt when conflicts arise, Cassius would tell himself. You almost always presume the other side would have made the choices they had to arrive where they are now. In places like this, in circumstances such as these ... such callousness is poison and irresponsible. Looking amongst the broken and the bloody, Cassius knew that these people had no choice. What they would have to bargain for just their lives to be spared, was taken and destroyed anyways.

"Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine. Et lux perpetua luceat eis. Fidelium animae, per misericordiam AVO, requiescant in pace. Amen." [Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. And let the perpetual light shine upon them. And may the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of AVO, rest in peace. Amen.] Cassius enchants in prayer as he walks amongst the dead, tears in his eyes as the ends of his robes were slaked in bloody snow. His fingers clutching to his iconic amulet.

He would keep a stiff upper lip but his hopes for survivors were diminished more and more as he walks from one end of the village to the other. The soldiers digging through the burning refuse and rubble to no avail of any hope. Just then a loud crash and crunching sound was heard as a house collapsed under the deteriorating integrity broke the well-maintained silence that frightened the entire rescue initiative, causing Cassius to breathe emphatically and with rushed adrenaline before he slowly exhales and calms himself.

With the disturbance established the soldiers continued their sweep through the village with Cassius taking a moment to close his eyes and dry his eye ... with his arm raised across his face ... he pauses upon hearing the sound of a cry ... no, two infants crying out, Cassius turns in the direction opposite of where they had entered into the village. The soldiers hadn't secured the section of the village yet and so a hesitance formed upon Cassius's heart before he gripped his palm around his icon. Digging his heels into the snow-soaked soil as he made a dash towards the cries he heard, careful in his pursuit that he would deftly avoid the corpse littered terrain.

"Father Cassius!" A soldier called out from the North end of the village, noticing he was running out of formation.

"Cassius! Get back in formation!" Commander Reickart shouted before gritting his teeth causing his squad to spur behind him in pursuit after Cassius. "Cassius!" He shouts again.

The prior arrives towards the open crossroads, branching over a hill, into the forest and along the eastern farmland with a signpost to direct travelers. What he couldn't understand is where he was hearing the infants' cries. He was closer to them, that much he knew, for he could hear them much more clearly, but he could not determine where the children were.

"Knight Commander!" shouted Cassius back to the village. "Over here!" he verbally insisted, spinning around to get a better audio compass of where the cries were centered. 

"Where are those cries coming from?" Reickart asks as he arrives on the scene with the Skein formation now regrouping but he looks across the fields, forests and farmlands inbetween for signs of hostility or survivors, finding nothing but darkness. "... Soldiers!" He shouted. "Pan out across the field, look for tracks, evidence. Something to help find out who did this!" He commanded his retinue as they panned out across the snow-covered fields on the outskirts.

"They left their children here. Why?" Cassius asks with furrowed brows as he slowly encroaches closer and closer to the signpost with Reickart next to him.

"Most likely because they had to." Reickart comments, voicing his thoughts as they approached the wooden pillar. "Bandits usually aren't so organized but they can be as dogged as bloodhounds. A child would slow those who'd flee, give them away. But bandits can't profit off children in the short-term, they need a lot of care something that wouldn't be in their cards. ... Chances are they didn't even know they were here. Or if they did ... well." The knight commander seemed a bit at a loss for words on such a line of thinking.

Cassius motions down on his knees and crawls around the base of the signpost, once he crawled in circumference where the post faced away from the village he arrived at the point of entrance where he spotted two infant human children bundled up and blanketed within its wooden carved out hiding spot within the pillar of the post. "My word ... that's ... a lot of effort to hide a child." Cassius comments, almost impressed someone managed to carve a big enough hole in the post to hide anything in it.

"Probably some village youths used it for hide and seek." Reickart suggested, kneeling down on one knee as Cassius reaches inside to pull the basket of crying children out and into the cold. "... Does it say who they are? Who they belong to?"

"It is okay little ones, let's get you out of there." Cassius coos as he holds the basket close to himself, reaching his hand out to smooth the blanket out, looking at their clothes with a frown. "... I don't see a name. Nothing." Cassius states as he thoroughly examines the basket and its passengers.

"... Right. The village is secure, we'll move the caravan in while we tend to the dead." Reickart states rising to a stand. "You however, need to learn to stay in formation. What if those children crying were a bandit using them as bait?" He inquired causing Cassius to look surprised, but he lowered his eyes.

"Sorry, ser." Cassius apologizes rather meekly.

Reickart looks towards the village reaching around his neck to pull out a wooden whistle before blowing a high note, loud and clear before blowing a low note. The message was loud and clear that it was safe to approach and with it, one of the scouts within the outskirts of the village launched a fiery arrow into the sky which landed into the snow field over by the forests where the caravan stopped, signaling it was safe to approach.

"For whom is your family little ones I wonder? Did they even make it?" Cassius inquires before taking off his glove to place his warm hand on their cold brows. "... Shameful. Absolutely, the state of the times we live in where something like this transpires."

Reickart paced around before slamming his boot into the wood of the signpost. "A pox on it all." He says in clear frustration that they arrived too late to have been any assistance and upon the fields and superficial view into the forest were examined, it was clear that the raiders had departed the place. "We will need to change our plans regarding our moving forward. There's likely nothing here and we'll need to anticipate other villages are likely in danger as well. Until we reach Conevico, we are vulnerable to attack, most likely starvation in the worst of circumstances."

Cassius looks up to Reickart trying his best to lull the children into silence. "What do you mean? What about the children? The people here--" Yet Reickart interrupted his protests.

"They have families, yes. But they don't have a home." Pointed out the Knight Commander as he places a gauntleted hand upon the prior's shoulder. "Father Cassius, we cannot perform a search in these woods in the height of winter while escorting pilgrims. Our resources, our men are too few and there is a clear evident threat to our charges." He says before looking around. "It's four days until Conevico and winter can only get crueler to those who can't survive without warmth. ... Do you understand me?" Reickart asks.

Cassius looked troubled, almost as troubled as the blue-haired woman in my dream, but he closes his eyes with a nod in understanding. "Very well." The prior inhales then exhales, a feeling of dread and yet relief swells up inside he was able to save someone, anyone. But with so many left to suffer with the myriad of loses upon the village. "I can make inquiries when we reach the city."

"That would be best, we'll make camp here for the time being. We'll make a pyre for the departed and then leave ourselves." Reickart states as the soldiers clamber up the hill and back into the village as the arduous task of collecting and burning the dead would soon begin.

Vesna -- Village of Reinhurst, Lothar -- Early Morning, 1st Soledas Frostdawn, 1792 GSE

From the shadows of the southern forests from Reinhurst the caravan awaited the signal ... or a sign to retreat further into the woods. Vesna remains on horseback and keeping an eye on the horizon with her detachment of Templar scouts who stayed behind to provide minimum security to those who would remain behind. It was not like the caravan was entirely of unskilled fighters outside of the Templars, it was merely that the civilian outnumbered those with martial prowess by spell, sword or stealth, there was much more to protect than themselves which made this vigil all the more unnerving.

A distant whistle and loosened flaming arrow heralded the security of the village which prompted Vesna to spur the caravan onward. "Move out!" The horse-backed noble commanded. "Towards the village, keep together and keep an eye out!" She insisted as she rode alongside the expedition through the snow as the people walked along the designated road.

The closer they got, the more the heat began to envelop the caravan with the Templar scouts emerging from the outskirts to direct the caravan away from the village and over into the eastern farm fields. Vesna rides over to the scouts as the redirection was underway. "What devilry has happened here? Has there been any indication?" Vesna inquires with the scouts looking amidst each other with the target of the inquiry shaking his head.

"We ... we don't know. It looked to have been ... just senseless slaughter and burning." The scout affirms. "The retinue is building pyres as we speak, disease will spread otherwise."

Vesna sighs as she clenches her reigns looking up from the foot of the hill where the village is erected where the path diverges around the village towards the fields where the caravan is redirected.

"The commander has ordered the caravans to make camp in the fields until the salvage is complete, and a full account has been established." The scout affirms.

For all the reasons established and to Vesna, they were also trudging through heavy snowfall in the early hours of the morning with considerable effort. The horses would need rest at some point even if it's more bipedal owners could rest on constantly moving wagons. The need for light on the landscape would be all the more emphasized considering Conevico was to the north, the same direction that these bandits took off to if the forward reconnaissance is to be believed. They would be trailing right behind them in order to arrive at their destination. Which would mean even continuing their journey would likely result in coming across the ones who committed the wholesale slaughter and likely to their detriment. It was simply wiser to wait out their departure from the roads during a time when the day would provide a better line of sight for the sentries.

"Might as well." Vesna scoffs. "Carry on." The noblewoman declares as she spurs her horse forward on the detour around the village and towards the encampment only now in its infancy amidst the construction. Tents were raised with fires surrounding their encirclements, the wagon train unloading their provisions and tools to help set up the land to accommodate a more hospitable habitat.

Vesna eventually dismounts her horse which is taken by one of the pilgrims who leads it away towards the wagon train where the hitch posts and hay piles were unloaded. The noblewoman arrives just in time for the mess tent having its foundations nailed down and its tables set up. "How are we set up here?" She asks the cooking crew who carry on their work with one of the scullery maids setting a box down upon the butchers table.

"Quite well." She professes to Vesna. "We have folk setting up snares and traps amidst the forest lines and in the fields."

"Alright." Vesna declares lifting her hood from her shoulders and scalp as she ties her past-shoulder-length hair into a ponytail and prepares to help the mess tent prepare food for the caravan and to what soldiers who will be returning soon.

The mess tent was soon enough comprised of a cutting table, a preparation table and a butcher's table, along with a cooking fire and a potluck cauldron that would be used to make breakfast. Vesna has since declared that a pheasant frumenty will be served and if they could snag some hare, it would be added later in the potluck to go along with it.

From the view within the tent, color was beginning to fill the sky as the temporary encampment was set up and another column of smoke began to rise from the village, signaling the pyres have been lit and their bodies were being disposed of, causing Vesna to sigh as she was stirring honied porridge with the kitchen crew dropping cutlets of giblets and diced breast of pheasant into the breakfast potluck. It was only upon hearing the cries of infants did most of the cooking crew look on with confusion as they knew for certain no one was with child or had even brought children of their own amidst the pilgrimage.

"What on the earth?" One of the cooks inquired aloud, still holding a cutting knife as he was dicing vegetables atop of the cutlery table with Vesna looking up from the cauldron before setting the ladle down into its base grain broth before standing within the entryway of the tent to look for whomever was making that noise.

A crowd seemed to gather around a recently returning Cassius with a basket cradled in arm with the womenfolk doting on the infants along with the men inquiring with the prior. Vesna could only look flabbergasted at what she would have expected his return to be, nothing in the way of bringing back a child would have been her first guest. As Cassius excuses himself, looking around the camp before spotting Vesna he quickly approaches the mess tent to the noblewoman who could only rest her hands on her hips as she looks to the meek cleric.

"Well now." Vesna begins with a slowly growing smile. "I'm glad things didn't take a turn for the worse for you."

Cassius scoffs looking a bit perturbed. "I'm older than you, your ladyship. I can handle myself well enough without your supervision." The prior insisted as he hefts the basket in his possession upcast for a better hold of it.

"Well now, about the second hour you've been out of my sight, you come back with children. What's a girl to think?" Vesna asks with a chuckle, closing her eyes and growing in her laughter as Cassius only now realizes she was teasing him and with a smile now on his face, he sighs in resignation.

By the time Vesna lulls from her laughter, Cassius' smile fades. "They were the only survivors we found in the village. The rest ..." He reports with Vesna looking disheartened before looking downcast towards the inhabitants of the basket as she approaches and kneels down to gaze upon them.

"... That's awful. How could something like this happen to ordinary people?" Vesna asks looking into the pair of blue and green eyes looking back at her before she looks downcast towards the snow-covered ground. She then rises up to a full stand looking to Cassius. "They must be starving. We're making porridge potluck; would you be willing to wait by the fire until we can bring it out?"

"Certainly." Cassius declares. "Maybe something thick on milk as well, who knows how long they have gone without it." He declares as Vesna retreats into the tent with Cassius looking towards the pile of burning firewood, surrounded by wooden benches which the prior sets the basket down upon the surface of the seating arrangement. "Right then, let's get you two something to eat! We'll be going on a little journey for a bit until we can find your parents, little ones." Spoke Cassius as Vesna stirs the cauldron in an attempt to filter the soup from the meat portions.

Vesna pours the contents of the porridge base into two bowls before walking out of the mess tent towards Cassius by the fire. "Here we are." She declares. "Mind if I take one of them off your hands?" She inquired gesturing towards the twins. 

"Oh, certainly." Cassius permits as he reaches in taking the blue-eye'd child into his arms before handing him off to Vesna who exchanged a bowl of porridge, leaving both of them with a child and bowl to feed them with, the both of them feeding their assigned child with the infants, fussy and lashing now content and mirthful in the food provided to them.

"This one's rather behaved." Vesna chuckles looking to the child in her arms as she smoothed a thumb across his lips to wipe away the stray strands of porridge from his lips while looking to Cassius who was having a bit of trouble trying to keep the child from eating the wooden spoon in his hand, hugging the utensil with his lips to keep it in his mouth with a look of concern from his attendant. "Is there an effort to look for other survivors, maybe their parents escaped?" Vesna inquires with Cassius looking troubled.

"No, Lady Vesna."  Cassius was quick to inform her. "Times are not so favorable it seems even without the harsh realities of winter. Reickart elected to push on." 

Vesna looked mortified by this news ... however she knew full well that without the supplies that would have been bought and purchased in Reinhurst, with what little salvage there might be, their ability to feed the people was now on constrained time to find resources. She braced as if ready to stand in outrage but slowly elected to remain seated. Her thought process was interrupted by Cassius trying to tug the spoon out of the green-eyed child's mouth so that he could continue feeding him, and upon popping the spoon from his lips did that child grumble and whine for it to return between his gums. "That one's quite the vocal one." Jokes Vesna to try to lighten the previous mood.

"He'll be a hard child to spoil." Cassius tags along in humor, filling the spoon into the bowl before feeding his charge once more "What about that one?" he inquires as he gestures his chin towards Vesna's appointed child.

"Quite the opposite, the moment he saw me he has been quiet, polite and patient. The picture-perfect angel." Vesna declares with a bit of pride in her selection.

As the two were situated by the fire, the scullery maid brings over the porridge portions meant for Cassius and Vesna, setting the bowls down on the bench

"The oats might be lacking in taste but maybe they's not grown into it yet." declares the maid with a heartfelt smile seeing the child satisfied with a spoon to its mouth to take in the food -- yet all the same, the green-eyed child cried when nothing occupied the avaricious maw past his lips. The child demanded spoonful after spoonful much to the laughter of the campfire group before the maid returns to the mess tent.

Eventually with the children fed and the adults allowed to eat Cassius sighs after his fulfillment. "The Gods be good we were here today." Cassius praises with closed eyes. "Yet perhaps not soon enough." He mutters in clear distraught over the events that happened within Reinhurst. Vesna had only finished half her bowl but maintained a more doting effort to the blue-eyed child. She however looked on with Cassius with concern.

"They are with AVO, those who could not make it. And those still alive. There is always hope when there is life. Even when you are left with nothing." Vesna councils, towards Cassius. "... Do they have names?" She asks.

"None I could find." Cassius notes. "I suppose that makes all this the harder, what are their names? How can I file an inquiry with only two nameless children?" Cassius berates to himself.

"The village is easy to reference. If a parent comes back and finds them missing, they'll likely discover them in the Temple notices." Vesna reasons smoothing her thumb across the budding hair along the child's scalp.

"And if they aren't alive?" Cassius asks. "..." A silence fills the space of the conversation, and certainly an uncomfortable one at that.

"I suppose by then it would be on you to name them, Father Cassius." Vesna points out, taking her open available hand back to her bowl to feed herself the porridge while maintaining her other arm's brace around the infant.

"That seems ... too personal for a stranger such as me." Cassius shyly retreats as he finished provisioning what porridge was left to his assigned child.

"It's important for children to have names. Makes growing up easier." Vesna mindfully interjects. "Who even knows if these two ever even received the Rite of Baptism? They don't look like they've been in this world for long."

Cassius looked contemplative at that prospect but shyly shrugged. "Even if that were the case ... what right do I even have to think I ought to do such a thing?" All the same he looks towards his child and gives it some consideration. "Why don't we both name them, so we share the blame for it when we find their parents ... or in another life?" He reasons, causing Vesna to scoff and laugh.

"Careful with what you suggest, I am married you very well know. Us discussing the names of children just come into the world?" Vesna teases with Cassius sighing.

"Oh come off it. ...I'll name this one ..." He says as he rises up from his bench, with me still in his arms. to walk over to Vesna's bench to sit down beside her. "...Niall." He notes aloud.

"Niall?" Vesna asks. "Thats not a human name, at least not one I am familiar with." She observes aloud cradling her unnamed child closer to her abdomen.

"It's elvish." Cassius said with a smile. "The name in of itself is derived from 'Gift of the Gods.' Someone who will come unto the world with many blessings to give." Cassius reasons.

Vesna smiles to the newly named child Niall, supping from the spoon within his mouth, held in balance by Cassius. "A Gift from the Gods...yet left behind in a smoldering ruin." She notes looking up towards the hill where the columns of smoke continue to rise.

"Within a signpost of all things." Cassius corrects. "Almost ironic that we find lost souls within them." He observes aloud looking from the fire down towards Niall. He then looks pointedly towards Vesna with a bit of a smile. "Well? What shall you name that particular 'picture-perfect angel' of yours?"

Vesna looks down to the blue-eyed child who was looking back up to her with a curious expression on his face. " ... I would ... have to say ..." Vesna contemplates with full focus.

"... Sebastian ..." She finally decides.

"Sebastian?" Cassius repeats. "A name of venerability and prestige. Very kingly." the prior beams with positivity. "These are good names. For what it's worth, I'll pray they hold true to the virtues of their names." 

Before long there was stirring amidst the pilgrims as the knights returned from their scouting and into the encampment. The night sky was beginning to turn from darkest black to shades of blue with a slight hint of flowing gold. 

"... It's finally dawn." Vesna acknowledges looking towards the shining horizon with Cassius joining her viewing.

"This concludes a very long night." Cassius relievingly sighs as if a weight had just been slid off his shoulders and off his back.

Reickart could be heard marching down the hill from the village towards the encampment given the orders he was relaying to the soldiers in the camp. His direction heading towards the mess tent and towards Vesna and Cassius.

"Prior Cassius, Lady Vesna." Reickart shouts. "Who is on foraging duty for when we set out from here?"

"Ah, it would've been myself but-" Cassius says but trailing off as if to imply that he has newfound responsibilities.

Vesna however rises from her seat, Sebastian in her arms. "I will take over foraging. Have no fear." She insisted.

"Your m- Lady Vesna, are you sure? Surely some of your retainers--" The Knight Commander began to interject.

"I am on pilgrimage, Ser Reickart, not for some leisurely stroll. And I certainly know my way around a huckleberry and henbane. You've taken my money, favors and supplies, surely you can take my help." She reasons with the Templar Commander visibly showing conflict in his mind before he raises a gauntleted armored finger in concern.

"Very well." Knight Commander, Reickart concedes however resting a palm upon the pommel of his sheathed sword strapped to his belt. "Just do not stray too far from the village and take no chances, the law of the forest is one of beasts. These were most likely not just mere bandits but deserters from Lothar's army. So, these are well-trained, well-equipped highwaymen, and they have no problem cutting down civilian women." He warns with finality before taking grasp of his sword. "Father Cassius, we'll need you to remain in the village, we'll need you to deliver the departing prayers for the dead when we are done."

Cassius nods as he watches Reickart depart to assign priorities to the caravan before Vesna approached the prior, Sebastian in her arms.

"Well Father Cassius." Vesna says with a joking smile handing Sebastian to the prior. "While you go learn to be an actual father, it looks like I'll be putting dinner on the table." She muses as she undresses herself from her wolves' pelt garb to then dress herself in a woodsman styled traveling tunic over her fine blue cloth traveling garb, it was heavy bulked by the looks of it with brown-cladded pants that fitted to her legs. One of her retainers arrived to provide her with a pair of leather gloves which she took the time to adorn to her hands.

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Cassius asks while Sebastian rest's his head upon the man's chest with Niall holding his fingers to his own mouth, numbing his lips around his digits.

"I much rather do this to stretch my legs." Vesna insisted fitting the gloves to her wrists. "Talking to the same weaving circle gets a bit dry, and if you knew a thing or about the gentry, it gets a bit too superficial for any proper lady's ears to withstand." She says before walking over to one of the caravan wagons. "If you really feel that obligated, we can take turns. Me today, you tomorrow?" She asks.

"...Fine, but I'm not interested in making this a competition with you." Cassius remarks. "Save that for your husband, your lady-friends and your handmaidens for when we get back." He says looking ages older than he was previously, almost as if Vesna was notorious for her predisposition for sportsmanship.

"What fun is there without a bit of an edge in our daily lives?" Vesna reasons digging into the wagon and dragging out a satchel belt, strapped with a provisioned dagger for bladework, perhaps even self-defense and a burlap sack. "But fine. Dinner at dusk then?" She asks.

"Provided you're alive." Cassius notes with some concern about Reickart's earlier comments about the deserters.

"Provided I'm not skinning them first." She jokingly retorts with a macabre sense of confidence as she makes her way from the caravan to the woods.

"Please don't jest about that, Vesna, please." Cassius pleaded. "Please do not go after them."

Vesna could only smirk as she strung her hunting bow across her chest and over her shoulder. "I will not go after them, I promise. I will come back only with dinner." She promises before setting off, the noblewoman's departure making her way into the woods, tracking and tracing the snares set out by the caravan scouts.

Sebastian's body squirms as his face looks all around as if trying to find someone. With Cassius looking to me now. "What's this? Oh, you miss your mother? ... Or maybe Vesna?" He asks. "She'll be back little one, I promise. Come now, let's get you warm and comfortable, we've got a long way to go until we're safe." Cassius insists as he tucks both the children back in the basket and bundled them with the blanket they were found with.

"Come now, let's set you to bed for the time being." Cassius decided as he lifts the basket into his arm and carries them off to wherever his 

Sebastian -- Village of Reinhurst, Lothar -- Morning, 1st Soledas Frostdawn, 1792 GSE

Time went on in the encampment with the children resting within a tent along with Cassius while the world goes on. The tent itself is most humble in space and appearance with a cot, a footlocker and enough space for a single chair to be set down for its inhabitant to sit down. The basket rests now with Cassius next to the cot where the three of them dream and sleep away their fatigue.

The blue-eyed child, Sebastian was also blissfully dreaming in the warm embrace of his blanket next to Niall as the days passes on ... and yet ...

Sebastian -- ??? -- ??? -- ??? - ???

The child awakens amidst familiar fields of silver reeds with his hands splashing into star-dusted sand, the fields were vast, and the horizon is almost dreadfully empty despite the kaleidoscopic grass and skies of night. Sebastian begins to crawl amidst the grasses, and yet the more he traversed from his spot of awakening, the more tired he became. It was only upon laying his head upon the sands did he begin to hear the sound of footsteps encroach towards Sebastian.

A familiar blue-haired woman makes her way across the fields towards the child, wielding her platinum staff of serpents and descended to one knee as she arrived at the child. "... Ah." She audibly realizes before she smiles and places her palm upon Sebastian's head. "You aren't supposed to be here little one. My whole effort was to make sure you would flee from this place." She softly chastises as she smooths her thumb across his temple and brow. "But I suppose it is just as well. You are tied to this place after all. ... I shall return you back to your place in the world, but it gladdens my heart to see you and your brother safe."

Sebastian gurgled and reached his hands out to the blue-haired woman whose golden eyes looked down upon the child with happiness. 

"Time for you to wake up." spoke the woman but her voice was mixed with another, another woman's as the world begins to tither and distort as the scenery surrounding his visuals.

Sebastian -- Village of Reinhurst, Lothar -- Evening, 1st Soledas Frostdawn, 1792 GSE

"Come on, wake up now." Vesna's voice rings out, causing Sebastian stir to wake. The noblewoman seems to have returned and was shaking Cassius to rouse him from slumber as well. "The camp is being ordered to dismantle, we're to issue our final prayers before moving the caravan."

Cassius arises from his cot with a hand to his face as he lurches forward over his own legs before inhaling and looking out from the open flap of the tent. The sky was turning to a dusky golden that indicates the day's end along with the encampment working to dismantle the temporary habitat they built for themselves.

"I suppose I would be needed for that." Cassius says before looking towards Sebastian and Niall, who was still asleep as the cleric rose to his feet. "Let me have a splash in the trough and I'll head straight for the village." He requests with Vesna kneeling down and picking up the basket holding the children. 

"Certainly, we're all to gather there once were done." Vesna decrees before carrying the children off with her towards a half familiar and fully burnt down village. The bodies were taken and properly burned upon pyres set up by the knights for whom now the bodies would be purified into broken fragments of bone and into powder that was buried amidst the rubble. With the last grave buried and flattened with the earth, everyone would fully convene, waiting for the last rites.

The smell was of brimstone and death but purified through scorched efforts to contain the corruption that is often associated with bloodshed of such a scale. Cassius who joined beside Vesna and the children, observing Reickart who had arrived from below the village's hill and in front of the caravan to deliver his speech. The village was lulled into silence as the knight commander stood with contemplation ... and for what felt like minutes, soon began to speak.

"Though we had not known a soul amidst this community." Reickart began. "Though we might never come to know them as our neighbors in this world. We can, as humans, recognize a fellow soul who travels through the hardships of life. ... We can as the good faithful, know when tragedy befalls another that it is something we oblige to help them through it, and as our pilgrimage would teach us only now; when death occurs, the good and the young ... are captured in the arms of AVO." Reickart declares looking towards Vesna who carries the basket of the children as if to emphasize his point.

"It is a crime before the eyes of all, what happened here. I know ... many of you have voiced frustrations in our ability to seek justice against these murderers. But ... the work of the Lord God is not done without diligence." Reickart reminds. "We cannot act in wrath, or that just right protects us from carrying out such a sentence. We will petition the Lord of Conevico to dispatch a force against these raiders."

There were slight whispers among the group, some with approval, some with neutral observation as Sebastian was able to discern from the tones in which they spoke.

"We, as pilgrims and knights of the faith sworn to defend you, have our own duty to attend, as we stand vigil on the last day of this village's passing." Reickard reminds. "For myself ... and to those who share in my rational, we dedicate these words to those who find mercy in the arms of the almighty."

Reickart falls silent with everyone lowering their heads. The silence is broken when Reickart declares aloud.

"Before all angels and men ..."

The entire group speaks in synchronized harmony with; "We grieve."

"Before the faithful fallen ..."

The caravan chimes in saddened tones; "We weep."

"At this hour of loss ..."

Cassius and Vesna looks downcast and joins the others in hymn; "We pray."

"And for those who remain ..."

The skies echo with the sound of a unified voice; "We depart."

The sky darkens as the sun is in its final stages of setting with Vesna looking to Cassius who was clinging his hand to his iconic amulet before he rose his head upcast and began to sing in lyrics of length and in tones of despair.

"Salve, Regis. pater misericordiae: Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. Ad te clamamus, exsules, filii Adamus. Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia ergo, Advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte."

["Hail, King, father of mercy: our life, sweetness, and hope, hail. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Adam. To you we sigh, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, our advocate, those merciful eyes toward us."]

The song ends with a moment of silence before members of the caravan began to depart from the village. Noise begins to stir once more as the decorum of silence was no longer observed as the pilgrims galvanized to get the wagon train back in functional order, hitching horses to their appointed wagons, torches lit to illuminate the darkness while Cassius and Vesna would clamber onto a hooded wagon, basket in tow with Sebastian laid back next to Niall in the wagon next to them as the caravan moves onward and forward away from Reinhurst.

From the bench within the wagon, Vesna and Cassius watches the horizon changes in scenery, from a dimly lit hilltop to a dark forest with tree canopies covering the skies, and vast pillars of wood shrouding the landscape.

"The next village has an inn not too far from here ... provided that's left standing." Vesna comments aloud as she clung to her wolf pelted cloak with Cassius shrouding the infants in a heavy bed comforter with enough space for their heads to peek out from under its embrace before hugging a heavy leather blanket around himself. 

"I'll be praying that is the case. I feel ... I feel exhausted." Cassius admits as he looks to the floor of the wagon bed ... slowly slouching to the backrest of the wagon and into a slumber as Vesna smiles at his vulnerable state, standing watch as she looks out from the journeying wagon to new horizons.