The Judgement of the Blind

"You are accused of slaughter!"

"Who are you?" we asked.

One of the men in front replied, "I am Brady, a Defender of all that lives. And you are responsible for slaughtering the men in that caravan!"

"We didn't slaughter anyone. Where is your evidence?"

"I don't need evidence. You're guilty unless you can prove your innocence."

We tried to explain ourselves. "We didn't kill anyone. Are you sure it wasn't the Chimera or his men?"

Brady hissed at the sound of that name.

"We spoke to one of the Chimera's men," we continued to explain.

Brady glared at us. "We have a way to tell if you're lying. You'll have to come with us."

Tiny whispered to us that they seemed to be fanatics but had no special desire to kill us.

Garg narrowed his eyes. "How far do you want us to go?"

"We are close by our camp," Brady answered. "We have been following you for a while."

"But if you followed us," Firinne pointed out, "You would know we didn't kill anyone."

Brady would not be dissuaded. "Come with us. Now."

We followed them to a camp, where we were met by 2 dozen other men. Near the fire sat a blind man. Brady gestured toward him.

"You will need to tell your story to Dunnell."

We sat next to Dunnell. "These ones are innocent," Dunnell declared. He felt the need to apologize for his comrades. "You understand -- it is a hard life to lead, when one is responsible for defending life against the agents of the Chimera."

"Are you sworn?" asked Kale.

"Yes," Dunnell replied. "We are sworn to fight the Lover. We swear ourselves to fight. Would you like to be sworn?"

"Uhhhhhhh -- no thank you. What do you know about the 100?"

"The 100 fight the Chimera. We are preparing ourselves for their return!"

"Didn't the 100 work for the Lover?"

"It sounds like you're confused. The 100 defended every living thing against the Chimera. They were forced to leave in order to muster their strength. But they will return with an army."

"From father to son, we have passed along the oath," Dunnell continued. "We are preparing ourselves for service when the 100 return."

"But the 100 did ally themselves with the Lover at some point?"

"The 100 were given their immortality by the Lover of the Raven Queen. He tricked the 100 into doing things for him. He enslaved the 100. But soon, they will return with their army."

After some discussion, Dunnell agreed to "share book" with our Finder. As he and Caleb walked away to talk, Kale turned invisible and followed them. Kale saw Caleb writting down notes from his talk with Dunnell.

After they were done, we returned to our camp. Caleb said, "They gave me a lot of good information. There is a direct path to Lordahl -- we just need to go through the 'Fenns' for a few days. We need to go through this swampy area around the river."

"There was something else that was odd," Caleb mentioned. "In this area, we will find a place called 'the Armory'. What an odd name for a place in the middle of the swamp."

We slept through the night. After waking up in the morning, we headed to the swamp.

The trek through the swamp was long. We could not make it through in a day, so we were forced to make camp and sleep there for a night.

And it was during this night that we were attacked -- by the darkness.