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===Osyn and The Caravan===
[Approximately 80 Pre-ME]
A fragment took hold in a large centipede-like creature, made from the surrounding mud and sticks, wrapping around the base of a large tree. A human was approaching, looking for an answer. The Caravan saw all, it could surely give the man an answer. “The path you need lays before you, wanderer,” the fragment said, keeping itself hidden with the trees, its voice echoing in the forest below.
“Hello?” the man said, shuddering slightly, “who’s there? what do you mean with the path I need?”
“We illuminate that path, we have watched you journey through maturity, the fragile determination binding you to fate,” the fragment whispered. “Fate, peculiar as it being not the only path taken, for we see all the paths, but we watch as a fish you swim where the current takes you.”
“I don’t know what yo—"
“You care for many things, your wife, your children, your family. Your wife cries to fall asleep, the aching pain within her soul. A thread cut cannot be reattached without leaving a trace, her father hurt her, but you knew that. She smiles and you smile. You smile knowing that the current isn’t the only direction the fish can move.”
The fragment spoke making it seems like the voice was coming from its own mind, “so tell me traveler what is it you seek?”
The man was taken aback by the information. Surely the voice speaking to him could help then. The man stuttered as he softly croaked, “I want my wife to be happy again and not be in pain.”
“An apple falls from the tree when it is ready, when it intends to. Its only purpose is to serve as a nutrient for the organism that will soon eat it, but it’s own wish is not to fall from the tree to serve. You grew up your entire life a wealthy man. You smile and she smiles. Everyone fell at their knees for you, a man of power and riches. Anything you wished you could ask for.”
The fragment continued, now almost speaking from within the man’s thoughts. “You couldn’t possibly want something except to make your wife happy. But deep in the corners of your soul, locked in the chest you never thought to open is what truly haunts you. Your prestige is what brought you here. She smiles and you smile. Regardless of the smile, you think to yourself whether without the birth rite you would’ve had any of that.”
The centipede-like creature moved from tree to tree, circulating around the man, eventually reshaping itself into a blonde girl. The girl stepped out from behind the tree, as story book as you would expect a flawless maiden to be. She walked closer to the man watching her, he eyed her as she approached. “It’s okay,” she said, pulling him into her arms, wrapping her warmth around his chest. She cradled his head into her arms and held him close.
His body shuddered slightly within her embrace, she pulled back resting her arms on his shoulders gently. Her pale blue eyes looked directly into his, looking deeper into his soul. “It hurts doesn’t it?” Her soft voice gently caressed its way into his ears. “The weight on your shoulders, it’s almost too much to bear. But you are too good for that aren’t you, you must carry the weight?”
The man's face was slightly strained, “What weight?”
“You are Osyn are you not. We know of you. Manage the trade of goods between Alius and the Farlands. Why don’t you tell us?”
“What weight?” Osyn demanded in a broken voice, but the short blonde girl looked up at him poignantly. “I was a trader my whole life, I worked my way to the position I am now with hard work. I make a living for me and my family. So, what weight?”
“That weight,” the girl said softly and started to pout slightly, “And the weight you’re holding on to. We see all of it there’s no reason to hide it.”
Osyn sighed heavily looking up at the sun peering through the leaves. “My wife was the sister of the queen in the Farland’s. In the end her connections are what got me this position. I’m the dedicated agricultural importer for the Farlands. My wife seemed to only care about me until I got this job. Her and her sister are probably siphoning money.”
Osyn knew the burden he carried on his shoulders; The Caravan knew it to. The girl looked up at him begging for him to continue. “Now that Vastata, the king, has been killed, her sister won’t be in line to rule anymore. That entire family is gone because of that whore,” Osyn paused for a moment, “I was just a tool for my wife wasn’t I. I don’t know the last time has used my actual name. I’m just a wealthy man used to make some people even wealthier.”
Before Osyn could break down again, the girl held him close, “So tell me Osyn, who’s weight do you carry.”
“Everyone’s, all of it,” Osyn said, a tear now falling down his cheek.
She brushed the tear off his face, “it doesn’t have to hurt you now anymore. You don’t have to worry whether they really love you or not.” The man turned walking away from the clearing with the girl used to be. The fragment had already disassembled into the floor. By the time that fragment had reached the next continent, the man’s lifeless body was already swinging by the neck at the edge of the forest. The Farlands were now doomed to fall.
===The Caravan and Extermination===
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