The World is not as it should be. Faith, Freedom, and Felicity are but deprived of the mortal spirit.
The realms of Men, Elves, Dwarves, the Halflings and the Fey are all at risk of being plunged into turmoil 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, 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.

But there yet remains hope.

A prophecy written in the tears of the Aeonic Goddess of Wisdom, Pistis Sophia, spoken upon the words of the heretical half-elven herald, Rahnius, afore his unjust execution:

"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 Divine Usurper. Four Forgotten Temples shall charge him with divine authority and power. The offices of Temple and Chantry shall suffer the scorn of the humble and from their razed earth leave soil to new faith. Ten Crowns bequeathed to him from Ten Sovereigns bowed. Nine Lands he shall inherit to house the First Kingdom reborn! The Scorned 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!"

These vague words strike fear into the hearts of the corrupt who hold powers of secular and spiritual authority but hope 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 world.

??? -- ??? -- ??? | A newborn's eyes open for the first time, in a strange world.
It feels like a cool breeze but it's chill was muffled. There was a form of warmth around me of which I can only describe as a layered embrace, have I the mind and ability to speak. It wasn't at all like the time before when all I had in terms of feeling was the warmth of before when that was all I ever knew. But this isn't a bad feeling either. Opening my eyes I couldn't quite comprehend what I see -- bright flashes of stars amidst a dark blue night. Colors splashed across the sky, nebular splotches across a canvas of vastness like paint splashed in an artist's frustrations. The lands were brushed in silver-colored sands with blades of grass protruding from the soil.

Amidst the openness of the sky however, a giant vengeful Eye of darkness and scorn gazing down upon me like it's contempt is towards my existance. I cannot understand it, why is it so angry towards me? I need to know more and to do so I have to move, and just like that, I discover I could crane something below what gives me sight. More vastness, more stars, more color, the size of the vengeful eye encompassing the expanse that laid before me. But what I didn't originally see was an arm cradled around me and holding me close. Not just me, across from me onto the other arm, a small miserable creature, a child bundled up just as similar as I. Was I similar to this being? A rounded head protruding atop of a neatly wrapped fabric. Two spotted eyes with lids over them sitting next to a nose-shaped protrusion that runs across the surface of its head and a cavernous chasm beneath the protrusion. 

Turning my gaze up to the origin of the arms who held me, I perceive a similar, if not a more refined version of the peculiarity I saw before, with shiny radiance and star-dusted hair adorned atop of her head, with an azure, blue color that matched the eyes within her face. A concentrated look upon her face as she presses onward with the both of myself and my companion.

Something rings in my head! Something unprompted and unallowed that disturbs my very being and causes not just myself but the creature across from me to wail in fear!

"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!?!"

What was this!? Did it come from the one holding me? The Eye!? Is the warmth going to end? Would all of this end!? A softer voice enters my being, distilling a calm amidst my disturbance. 

"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."

From what I feel, the softer voice emerges from that which was holding me. The more developed variety of human than the one in arm across from me. Alas the Eye speaks once more with the harshness and coldness that frightens me to my core.

"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 my mind. It means to harm but how will it? Just now the face of the one who holds us both gazes down to each of us with a warm and pleasant expression, out of the fear we felt, the terror. There was something to hold onto in the least. Something to prefer than this Eye!

"You might never come to understand. No," she pauses as if giving her next words more thought. "if the world is 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, and my love. Please. You must live."

She speaks with such softness and yet such desperation that a different fear now tugs at my heart. The eyes upon her face begin to wetten before her lids closed around them, causing a drop to pluck upon my own face. Can it be that she too is afraid? A sharp intake of breath came from the one who held us before distance forms between me and her, from the clutches of her arms I descended and grew further and further away from her.

What is this?! I feel like I'm falling! All turns to darkness around me! Nothing surrounds me, not the woman, not the eye, not the sky, not the warmth! What was going to happen to me?! Closing the lids around my sight, the eyes I see through, I dare not open them. I want to return to the time when I felt nothing but the warmth and nothing else!

I want to forget all that happened! Return to the peace of never having to perceive again.

??? -- Village of Reinhurst, Lothar -- Frostdawn, 1st Soledas, 1792 GSE
It's cold now, so bitterly so that the bindings surround me were losing the heat that cradle me. The winds are far crueler than before, but I refuse to open my eyes. Not to see that Evil Eye, not to see the anguish on that woman's face. It was a dream, all of it a bad horrid dream.

There was a cry, similar to the one I heard before in that strange dream. The child that was nestled into the arm of our dream guardian. Then, what happened before, it couldn't have been a dream. Looking ahead in my laid-back position was a clouded night sky with spotted stars hiding behind the quickly motioning column of fog, funneling upcast and blotting the view of the sky. What was this cloud? It was black as charcoal and spotted in glowing orange like fireflies within a forest-line.

A glance from where I laid revealed I am bundled inside of a basket, the crying bundled child next to me. From the view inside of the basket I could see a cascade of falling white spots that drifted so softly to the ground that blanketed the ground. Further away from my lofty view were trees that rose from the white blanket yet with shriveled canopies bearing no vegetation. Dotted within the landscapes were erected dwellings of stone and straw roofs that was also shrouded in white. It is a cold and bleak looking place, the makings of a cold winter.

It was just then from one of these dwellings I hear a cry turn to wailing from one of the dwellings as a human figure much like the woman in my dreams, runs out into the open fielding where the home was built. Just like that as she scampered into snow with her feet kicking up the white dust, a flash glistened in the space that grew between her and the dwelling she put distance to. The sound of a sickening crack follows her sudden collapse into the snow -- a protruding haft of metal and wood with flowing crimson spreading through the sheet of ivory. Fear chills my mind to my core, as a ghoulish human form emerged from the doorway of the dwelling with a howl of delight that only galvanized the cries of my bundled companion. More shapes of these monsters on two legs emerging from the forest behind the dwelling with a lit torch thrown onto the roof. 

The dwelling became a bonfire, a terrifying beacon that captures my attention, broke away only by the sudden jerk motion of the basket. A hand has grasped the grip of the cradle we resided in, whisking us away as the crying noisemaker beside me only cries all the harder from the air of confusion.

"Shhh child. Shhh!" pleaded a hushed whisper, a feminine voice. "Be silent or they will catch us." the voice insisted. 

I couldn't understand her language, but I understood her intention. Something is verily wrong and we, even this wailing bundle beside me ought to perceive the dangers around us. Close our eyes and they would not find us, I thought to myself. Yet despite the closed eyes I maintain for myself I could 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.

I feel the basket we were carried in descend downcast with the shape of a fair human-like blonde being in a forested aproned tunic kneel down to take a look at us. With hazel eyes and pointed ears the woman looks down upon us 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, my companion slowly halting his cries and merely whimpered to express his fears. The woman looks in a direction blocked by the arch of the basket before she maneuvers the basket into a strange chamber I could not fully perceive from where I lay but it was considerably less cold than in the open where we were left when I awoke.

"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 chamber we were placed within, looking wildly to her left, to her right before traversing down a hill and away from where our sight could perceive her. We were left with the view of the entrance of whatever chamber we were placed within. A hill descending towards more forest, surely not too far away from the dwellings where the rest of the people live. She made a promise to come back, she would come back for us. 

Surely. ...

The best we can do is close our eyes like she told us to while waiting out the screams and the perilous dangers that lurked from the cold world outside of our sanctuary. It would go on, and on...the darkness and the fires that illuminated it wouldn't stop polluting what sight I could muster when I open my eyes in midst of curiosity, in checking if the woman would ever return. Yet nothing. 

One hour later the screaming and the howlings stop, two hours after that the fires stop razing. By now...a pain in the pit of my stomach began to grow but we cannot dare to make a noise. What were to happen if those evil people were to find us? Would we be rasped into fire? Made a plaything to their cruel imaginations? Yet it is inevitable, an hour after all was quiet, we can do nothing but lament, lament and cry out into the cold night for the hope anyone would find us, anyone would save us.

We cried, me and this child next to me, cried for whatever succor the world could bring to us. And just as strength was soon to dissipate from us, the sounds of galloping were heard.

"By the Gods. Stay back! All of you! They might still be here. Knights Templar, Skein Formation!" Shouted a voice. The sound of rustling was heard. "Forward march. Rouse through the rubble." Commanded the voice as footsteps and rustling of armor was heard, one sound was the unsheathing of a blade in the far distance.

"Knight Commander!" Shouted a rasped voice. "There was a child's voice, over here."

The both of us uttered our cries, signaling for help, for them to see us! We were too weak and underdeveloped to move...

"Where are those cries coming from?" The Knight Commander asked as the sound of horse trotting came closer and closer.

"They left a child here?" Asked the rasped voice as their footsteps came closer and closer.

"Most likely because they had to. Bandits might not be 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 if they planned to raid a village, they need a lot of care something that wouldn't be in their cards." Stated this Knight Commander whose horse stopped clopping and from the sounds of it, made a motion like he got off his horse.

And for the first time since the woman departed us, a sharp faced man with brown loose-wrangled shoulder length hair maneuvered his face into the windowed view of our sanctuary. "There's two of them." The wispy voice said as he fully moved in front of the carved-out hole where they were placed. "...Quickly, is there something we can feed them?! Anywhere in the village?!" Asked the brown-haired man for whom the Knight Commander shouted out from where he stood, possibly to signal someone from their entourage.

"It is okay my children, let's get you out of there." He chirped, reaching in to take the basket by its sides and pulling it out like a loaf from an oven. "There we go. ...Such brave souls. What strange irony...lost souls clinging to a signpost." He says with growing pity in his voice. The man was dressed in ragged if not humbling tan robes with a leather brown hood fitted around his shoulders and neck.

"For whom is your family little ones I wonder? Did they even make it? There's not even a name I don't see..." The brown-haired man says aloud to himself inspecting the basket, it's wicker down to the blankets that bind us as the child beside me begins to cry. "Oh, it will be alright, it will be alright..." chides the man who keeps the basket close to his chest, providing my perception of the slowly brightening sky in signal of a dawn emerging across the land.

A heavily armored soldier wearing the insignia of a cross paltered in red amidst a canvas of white emerges from the distance, bearing the voice of the Knight Commander. "Ol' Matthias has some oat porridge and cow's milk. We'll likely acquire something more decent when we arrive at Conevico."

"Conevico!?" Exclaimed the man holding the basket. "What about the people here? These two children--"

"They have families, yes. But they don't have a home." Pointed out the Knight Commander. "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." 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?" Asks the Commander.

This man, this 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. This is the village of Reinhurst, yes? Perhaps I can make inquiries when we reach Conevico, perhaps even Theleto."

"That would be best. If these children have families that made it to civilization, the Temple can find them with more efficiency." Explains the Knight commander turning to return to his horse to clamber onto his saddle. "We'll see what we can salvage and move onward." He concludes. "We make camp here!" Shouted the Knight Commander who trots his horse onward towards his men scouting the range and outskirts of the village to make sure the perimeter was clear.

"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 he escorted us away in his arm towards a group of many people in fine furred cloaks and traveling tunics. So many colors faces, the sea of people in contrast to the emptiness was quite overwhelming to say the least. Every person that passed us by told a different story of where they came from, who they were all of it in descriptions my

"Ah, Lady Vensa. Do you mind if we join you? We found some little ones..." Cassius spoke as though trailing off. From the view outside my basket-abode I could spot a refined woman reclining upon a entrenched log that served as a bench, cloaked in gray wolves' pelts with hair that matched the color of the fires the razed the village, tied back in buns to esteem a proper view of a woman. It looks as though some of the other caravan goers were collecting what salvageable wood they could find from the burnt dwellings and settlement. Likely they were preparing a campfire to instill warmth against the bittering cold.

"Oh not at all. Oh dear." She speaks in a growing hushed voice, most likely in realization that these children came without parents. "Are they going to find their parents?" She asks Cassius as her retainers began to compile stones in front of us.

"I fear not Lady Vensa, times are not so favorable it seems even without the harsh realities of winter. We've elected to push on." He explains as Cassius idly smooths a hand to soothe the fussing now crying child beside me who was growing in hunger. Vesna elected to stand, taking the child from the basket and into her arms to soothe him until the food was prepared. "That one's quite the vocal one." Jokes Cassius as he looks back into the basket towards me.

"He seems like he'll be a hard child to spoil." Vesna tags along in humor. "What about that one?" She inquires.

"Quite the opposite, except maybe when he thought he was going to starve. Now he's quiet, polite and patient. I wish all my monks were nearly as attentive as this little one." He praises. Easy for him to say and think, the pain in the depths of my body wrack and grip harder than ever!

Vesna looked from the fussing child before standing up. "Ov'er here!" She exclaimed as one of the pilgrims arrived with bowls of food for us. By now Lady Vesna's retainers provided fire to the timber and stones to give those who sat around its piling.

"Might be lacking in taste but maybe they's not developed it yet." Uttered the pilgrim with a heartfelt smile seeing the child satisfied with a spoon to its mouth to take in the food -- yet all the same it cried when nothing occupied the avaricious maw past his lips. The child demanded spoonful after spoonful.

Finally, it was my time to eat as Cassius secured me in his arms and smoothes the spoon from the bowl to my lips. A most ... boring of pallet. It was as if it was holding something...tacky, icked yet with a structure that melds with the saliva on my tongue. But it serves as anodyne to stave off the pain in the depths of my body thus no reason to not accept it.

"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.

"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. "...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?"

"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.

"And if they aren't alive?" Cassius asks. "..." A silence fills the space of the conversation.

"I suppose by then it would be on you to name them, Father Cassius." Vesna points out, keeping the spoonsful of porridge flowing into the child's mouth. 

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

"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?"

Cassius looked contemplative at that prospect, what exactly was Baptism? I certainly didn't know. But at least I was comfortable with the nearby fire cradling warmth around my body once more. My time of turmoil seemed to be at an end for now. And so too the one that has been with me all this time.

"Sebastian." Cassius says, almost as if coming to a conclusion in his own head. "This one will be Sebastian." He says decidedly.

"Sebastian." Vesna recants with a look of approval. "A noble name of reverence, venerability." 

Sebastian, I repeat in my head. What is that name? What do these words mean? Their intention feels as though they were giving me something, but I can't understand it. Was it more food? I am content with what I was given.

"He seems to have a good temperament for the name. I pray that holds true later in life." Cassius jokes. "Now...for that 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 the child, possibly name Niall?

"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."

Elvish? What was an elvish? Why was someone else getting different treatment than me?

Vesna smiles as this looking down to the newly named child Niall. "A Gift from the Gods...yet left behind in a smoldering ruin." She notes.

"Perhaps a bit too apt of circumstance for a name." Cassius admits. "But it is what I shall name him. Sebastian and Niall." He reaffirms.

"They are good names. For what it's worth, I'll pray they hold true to the virtues of their names." Vesna encourages. 

I can tell that these were good people, or from what little I could see in terms of intuition. I don't know what this world has in store for me, I don't even know why Niall was there in the dream with me, why we were bundled up and abandoned, what that world with the Blue-Haired Woman or the Evil Eye was. But this is where I find myself. Carried by one, another, ever and onward learning what I can in the hope of seeing what comes of this life that I find myself in. I only wish I can do more rather than just take from other people. For now, it seems like my life are in the hands of these pilgrims and this Cassius.

Before long there was stirring amidst the pilgrims as the knights returned from their scouting. The Knight Commander retaining his position on horseback as he called to the pilgrims to mobilize.

"Let us away! The sun's risen, we need to make distance before the sun falls yet again!" Shouts the Commander. "Cassius, do you know who is on foraging duty?" The Knight Commander asks looking down to us. Cassius rose with me still in his arms.

"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, Niall in her arms. "I will take over foraging. Have no fear." She insisted.

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

"I am on pilgrimage, Master Reickart, not for some leisurely stroll. And I certainly know my way around a huckleberry and henbane. You've taken my money surely you can take my help." She reasons.

"Very well." Knight Commander, Reickart concedes, shifting the reins of his horse from his one hand to both. "Just do not stray too far from the caravan and be sure to keep up with it. Turns out these were not just mere bandits but deserters from Lothar's army. So, these are well-trained, well-equipped highwaymen." He warns with finality before kicking his spurs to his horse to trot it onward down the road, looking to get the caravan into formation.

"Well Father Cassius." Vesna says with a joking smile handing Niall to him, once again I find myself in a familiar position with me in one arm and Niall in the other. "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 to a woodsman styled traveling tunic, 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 I rest my head upon the man's chest with Niall holding his fingers to his 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 lady-friends and your cronies." 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.

Seeing the noblewoman's descent down the hill reminded immediately of the pointed eared blonde woman who kept us safe by hiding us within the signpost and how she ran down a similar hill to the woods! Was she okay? Will she come back!? I couldn't see her amidst the group of pilgrims so maybe it was a matter of her not finding us yet.

My body squirms as my face looks all around as if trying to find her. 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, we've got ourselves a journey to march on." Cassius insists as he tucks both me and Niall back in the basket and bundled us with the blanket that resided within it.

'She promised things too, but she hasn't come back either!' I voiced in my head in the way I knew how. But I have only the assurances of those around me to keep me comfortable. Well, that and the blanket, a fire and good food. Considering what little I started out with, perhaps I should reconsider my priorities on such thoughts.

With a heft of the basket up in Cassius arms and a step onto the wagon, the caravan begins moving out from the ruined village and onto the road towards the city of Conevico. And so our journey begins.