Where it began

One stormy night, no longer than a days ride north of Suzail.
In to the tavern came a young man, the young man was strongly built but with a rather small frame, compared to the common man, 5,5 feet from the ground to top, with raven black chin long hair, soaking wet from the rain outside, he had strong and dark facial features, with a long poorly groomed black goatee, suggesting this young man had been on the road for some time.
His hazel brown eyes glared with an amazing amount of fatigue over the tavern, seeing this tavern is not of high standards, dried pools of liquor and blood marked the floor, at the bar, the obese bald bartender was half asleep, leaning over the bar, and in the tavern where seven downtrodden looking men, sulking over their drinks. The young man walked slowly towards the bartender, obviously very cold, the bartender roused when he saw him, but not moving to escape from his posture. “what can i do for ya?” he spoke with a big yawn. “A mug of ale and a room would suit me” he said with his teeth clammering from the cold. The bartender moved from his posture and poured him his drink, he slammed the mug into the table, spilling some, then slided it over, as the young man moved to grab the drink, the bartender put his hand on top of the mug and said “before ye even think of starting drinking hand over any weaponary, for safety reasons” the young man moved to reply while he grabbed an axe from within his long coat. “You make sure you won´t lose it” and he slammed the axe on top of the table, a beautiful battle axe, the shaft was made out of dark wood, an exotic and extremely solid wood, and the head of the axe was no less exotic looking, it looked like it was made out of two different metals, the blade itself shone so bright it could have been made from silver, but the head itself had a light green, yet almost a white hue, and on either side where dark blue emeralds, this weapon was truly beautiful.
The bartender marvelled at its beauty, and then he secured it. The young man moved to a table where he sat down to drink his ale, to maybe get rid of the shiver in his bones.
The next hour passed only to the sound of rain and thunder, not one word was spoken.
The young mans eyelids became heavyer and heavyer by the minute, he soon fell asleep, but soon after he woke up by the sound of cheering, chattering, and violin play. He opened his eyes, where he saw the tavern was full of people, all of them covered in dust and soot. They where the local miners who had just finished their shift, and a halfling on top of a table with a violin, playing cheerful music. He was quite disoriented, he rubbed his eyes and realized that two dusty men where sitting at his table. “ Looks like sleeping beauty has decided to wake up” said one of them with a chuckle. “ you´ve been sleeping for two hours since we arrived, we where wonderin´ if we could rob yer clothes and if you woulf wake up ” the other said and they bursted into laughter. The young man was still trying to figure out the situation, but had no reply. “Well i´m Gandolar and this is Lemmy.” One of them spoke. “Cassius.” He replied.

They shared drinks and stories for some time, Cassius couldn´t deny that he liked these two jolly miners, he had been alone for almost a month, and was growing fast depressed from lack of conversations. These miners mainly did the talking, and that was alot, Cassius took his coat of and listened to their stories, which where mainly local gossip and stories of local heroes.
Soon walked in an elderly man, in his fifties,even his sixties! His posture was strong for a man of his age, he shook his wild gray and black shoulder long hair, which was mildly wet from the rain, the most noticable thing about the man was the scar on his face, starting from his forehead, coming down into his destroyed eye,and all the way under his wily beard.
“ If ye sorry looking bunch can´t keep it down for me beauty sleep, someone better offer me a drink! ” The room erupted into laughter, as a man ran over to the bar to fetch him a mug.
“Who is that ? ” Cassius asked. Gandolar and Lemmy boasted themselves and placed their right fist on their right shoulders. “Capain Roy” they said with a pompus tone. “A war hero they say!” Gendolar mockingly said. “Legend they know!” Lemmy bolsted. “ Saviour of all the realms! ” They shouted in drunken unison and erupted into laughter.
Captain Roy moved across the room to sit with his companions, moving passed Cassius, captain Roy looked at them briefly but as he passed he came to a halt, moving back, staring at Cassius, inspecting him from top to bottom. “ Can i help you ? ” Cassius spoke with curiosity in his tone, captain Roy started to walk away, but all of the sudden he spinned arround, launching a left hook at his temple, Cassius fell of his chair from that awesome blow, onto the floor, as he got to his knee he felt some grabbing his hair, and then he received a knee blow straight into the face, he fell again on his back, seeing Captain Roy with a bundle of his hair in his hand, Captain Roy moved closer but then Cassius tried to launch his feet at him, Roy intercepted his left leg with both hands, lifting him up, then he moved his right hand over to his back, grabbing his shirt and lifting him overhead. The crowd was cheering by this spectacle, this ultimate beating captain Roy was inflicting upon Cassius.
The Captain turned to face the bar, the bartenders face revealed horror, for he knew what was about to happened to his bar, Roy launched Cassius into the wall behind the bar, landing on and breaking several bottles and crashing onto the floor, where he landed he saw his axe, he picked it up, and rose to his feet, both arms on the axe in battle stance, he did not know alot about combat, aside the very few lessons his uncle Argyle gave him, but he knew that his opponent was unarmed and an old man, that should give him the edge in the battle, even though this old mans fists had the power of an raging bull. “stop now!” Cassius shouted desperately. “ I dont know you, i don´t know why you attacked me, now i am armed, and i dont want to kill you ! ” he said out of pure desperation, yet trying to play of as if he was in control. “ Well i know who you are! ” He spoke angrily.
“ A pesty, no good scum gravedigger ! ” He shouted with all of his fury as he moved to the bar, a strange look surfaced upon the face of Cassius, for he had no idea what he was talking about. As Roy came closer he picked up a chair and launched it at Cassius, which he barely ducked, then Roy used the oppertunity and leaped ontop of the table, landing on his stomach, Cassius straightened himself, and thought that this was the oppertune moment to strike, for this man was going to kill him, he swung the axe at him, as the axe was just a few inches away, Roy launched out his hand at the axe, grabbing the shaft, and pulling at the axe, at the same time, pulling in Cassius, he used his left elbow to elevate himself a little, then he pushed the axe away, into his face, doing so repeatedly, breaking his nose, then the Captain pulled him over the table slamming him into the floor. Cassius couldn´t do anything, his vision was blurry, the pain from his broken nose, and all of the glass that pierced his body, on top of that those bottles where liquor bottles, oh yes, the pain was unbearable, he saw the Captain lurking over his body, and then, all became black.




Cassius regained consciousness, he opnened his eyes, his vision still a little blurry, he saw the sky, the weather was still awful, arround him where four walls, at least 6,5 feet high, he discovered he was lying in mud, this was a grave! He saw a face lurking into vision, it was captain Roy! “This grave was intended for someone else, consider yourself privileged” he said with a sly tone and disapeared, then short burst of mud started flying down.
Cassius had no power left in him, but he knew that he had to to something or else he would be buried alive, he yelled as powerfully as he could muster, yet not powerful at all.
“ Why ? ” The captains face appeared again soon with a shovel, he unloaded his shovel, landing on his face, followed by insane laughter. After several minutes alot of mud was in the grave, and it was raining harder, Cassius was slipping in and out of consciousness, he knew he would die here.
Again Roys face prompted again, a thunder struck nearby, so his face lit up, revealing the face of a mad man. “ What name of the son of a motherless whore shall i put here, which i´ll visit this day, every year, only to shite upon it? ” Roy said with his frantic voice. “Cassius Severius” he spoke, but harldy hearable. “Say again?” he replied.
Cassius mustered all of his strenght, with all of his will, he screamed from the bottom of his heart and from the top of his lungs. “Cassius Severius!” and slipped out of consciousness.

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The sound of rain, the sound of thunder, more distant, he was no longer in this world.
The sound of crackling wood on fire, warm.
“ What? ” he thought, he opened his eyes he was lying in a bed, placed near a fireplace, placed on top of him was thick animal skin, what was going on? He looked arround, he did not recognize it, at another quick glance arround the room stood a man, captain Roy.
Cassius froze, the thought that this was a part of some evil torture, he could not move.
Captain Roy walked over to him, sat on the bed, turning his back on him. “ I can´t explain, how much, in all the hells, how sorry i am! ” Cassius was still frozen, he could not move a muscle.
“Your father is Victor Severius, and Argyle your uncle?” Roy muttered as he turned to face him, with such a sorry face, Cassius nodded. “ Yer lucky boy, the last time i met yer da was when you where three years old, if i had´nt paid him a visit yer be dead. ” he said with some sense of relief. “Why did you attack me ?” Cassius asked accusingly. Roy sighed, bent over as he was reaching for something on the floor, as he straightened himself, Cassius saw he was holding one of the dastanas, revealing the symbol. “Me, yer da and uncle where in the same platoon, we called ourselves The Eagles, ´cause we where swift, fast moving, and we could cover alot of ground in a short time, we all bought ourshelves these dastanas and had the symbol made, and we promised each other, that when we died, we would be buried with it, and when i saw ye with them, i thought of three options, stole from him, killed him, or dug up his grave, the ladder being the most likely one!” A short silence stalled the air, but abruptly broken by the captain. “ By the way why do you have the dastanas, his axe and armour? “ Cassius told him a story, not a true one, he told him that his mother and father where infected by some plague, which killed them, which lead to him and his siblings being adopted by their uncle Argyle, where the rest of the story was true enough.
“ Im sorry to hear that. ” Roy muttered with a heavy heart. “He was a good friend, a good soldier. ” Cassius nodded along, quite callously, he had buried this matter, deep within his soul, it was over, old history. “ Well i´m gonna do ye and yer father a favor, ´cause i think yer father is spinning in his grave as we speak over that poor performance! ” Roy said as he placed his hand on his shoulder. “ I´m gonna teach ye to fight. ”

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There it began, his story began, his greatness began, all big things have small beginnings. These mortals, they never cease to amaze me, their drive for conquest, for greatness, such folly. Cassius and his kind lives for mere eighty years or so, while other races, such as the elves, for seven hundred years, maybe even some of them reach the millenia, which is nothing to me, for i am eternal.
How sad must it be for a human wizard, finally, when he has truly come close to master the arcane art, he´s old, and he will die soon, unless they reach lichdom, for then, they will live until killed.
The only thing on the material plane i consider worthy, are the dragons, beautiful and horrible at the same time, packed with the strenghts of the eternal ages, yet they cower in their caves, like cowards, hiding from the lesser races, i am impressed.
The only significant question is, will i be impressed by Cassius?

- Tzchalalzch Necqrabelzion