:: Written in Dwarven ::
:: On the parchment shoved in the back of his book ::

It took a day to make it to the surface, I have never actually seen daylight before. All of our trades I have been on have been in the cover of darkness. I have only been two surface trades before this trip. With the first steps into the BRIGHTEST LIGHT I have ever seen since the fire in Azad’s residence in the Dwarven Fort of Etrinan (hence our tribe’s name).

Azad (when he was alive) and the other elders call this area the Rocky or Stony Desert of the Wastelands. I remember the painting fragments found among the books of history of the works of the Elves! I can only imagine the battles that leveled the Baalgor Forest! Pouring over old journals, reports of the various war efforts of the Dwarves as I studied the histories of the Fair & the Strong. I can’t wait to meet my first Dwarf, that race that my people became war veterans with from the war of the Fair & the Strong.

Even with Mologoth hide boots this gravel is painful! What was that noise?

:: turns head and can’t make out the shape but then everything goes black ::

When I came to I noticed marble floors and the room looks like the Temple of Light from the descriptions of it in the Golden-City of Baalgor!! I gazed about and the furniture was clearly sized for True Giants! I can’t believe the opulence of this place…

:: Turns around hearing someone approach ::

… I looked up and saw a living statue of Isis walking toward me! No WAIT IT IS SHE OF COUNTLESS NAMES!!! ISIS HERSELF!!!

My legs gave out and fell on my pride looking up at the wife of my lord, Osiris the Lawgiver!

CRAP!!!!!!!

I DIED!!!!!!!!

I scan my body and can’t see any scars but would they show in the realm of the Gods!?!? What in the heavens killed me?

Isis speaks and the tones sound like a soft sing song voice, “Xerx’ses, please come stand now.”

I pull myself from the marble floor of the hall of the Gods of Light! I now kneel before She-of-Countless-Names and look at her feet. So this is what eternity feels like?

“Xerx’ses, it is okay, please stand I need something from you,” the Goddess spoke to me directly.

I cannot believe that She-of-Countless-Names needs anything from a mere dead soul. Standing I still look upon her feet not wanting to offend her in fear I may be given to Ammit the Beast as a snack for an unworthy soul. Is it morbid to wonder if my dead soul is crunchy?

Isis proceeds to tell me that I am not dead! FANTASTIC! Hmmm, focus a goddess thinks your worth a few moments of her immortal lifespan. I was told that she has a “motley” group of races aiding her in rebuilding her husband, my chosen lord. I was am being selected to assist this group! When She-of-Countless-Names was finished she asked if I had any questions.

Questions? What could I possibly ask a god?

“Why me?”

Isis told me she was not completely sure, however, the amount I prayed played heavily in her decision.

“It helps me think and focus oh She-of-Countless-Names.”

She said it was good I did this and that I did it without asking for anything. She warned me the group has begun to loose their way only asking or praying when it was life or death.

“Its easy to pray when you might die”

I was surprised that a God of Light has been paying any attention to a mortal. Gourn’na often said the Gods don’t care about anyone and we are merely playthings in a never ending cosmic conflict. I thought our life had embittered him and having Isis mention she had paid attention to me made me feel pity for Gourn’na. Luur’na! I thought I had a brilliant idea.

“Oh She-of-Countless-Names, I will aid your people if you grant me one request.”

When She-of-Countless-Names spoke the tone could be felt vibrating my skin, “YOU would barter with a GOD!?”

“I ask not for me but please help those of my race that makes an honest effort to be better than the sins of the eons before them.”

“NO,” She-of-Countless-Names replied, “your people have to choose to be better and will save themselves; we will not intervene.”

I was stunned, I had not expected the War of Chaos to continue to stain us eons later. However, She-of-Countless-Names made it very clear that as a species we were on our own. I was at a loss as how to feel but every history book I have read makes my people out to be the harbingers of doom and the chief lieutenants of evil. Gourn’na was not completely correct, it’s not that the gods don’t care its that our race has been such bastards as servants of the Old Ones that we can expect no help from them to change our destiny. The wounds we have done the Gods of Light run to deep.

“I will go where you send me oh, She-of-Countless-Names. I will help to rebuild my lord, your husband.”

As she raised her (palm out) toward me I closed my eyes as the world went black once more.

>> Written by Xerx’ses, Wizard of the Golden Flail on Corg 31st in the year 111.<<