The Man On The Stump

[Folian]

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Red skies beget broken hearts.

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How fleeting it is.

The warmth in one's chest,

the smile on one's face

joy.

...And how easily does the cold return.

Winter's touch,

a taste of death.

I know it all too well, by the black wyrm's curse that still marks my skin.

But this...

A taste of true emptiness.

Is this... death?

Stolen with but a brief whisk of the hand.

Like dust to the wind.

Was that all my everything was worth to them?

I should've known better.

I should've listened to her.

Should've bound my heart in chains and followed her word to a T.

Just like I always have.

But I didn't.

Now I pay the price.

Your remains taken from me...

All I have to remember are the paintings that line my walls,

and that book of Atmos which serves as your epitaph.

Now what?

What's the point without you?

You who shared my dream.

You who saw the truth.

You.

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I'll make sure they have more than just a fuckin' book to remember you by.
Soon they'll know.

[Folian]

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Twenty years have passed since that fateful day; where skies turned red and his love lay dead.

As the east did march to the doomed quarry, repeating history anew, the Archon of Vengeance was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, far to the west by the Inn he once stood as Proprietor was a hooded titan seen passing into the woods.

Within a quiet meadow did it come to kneel before a stone.

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ALANIS GRIMMORE

1869 - 1892AC

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Was the show amusing enough for you, Alanis?


Blood did spill in droves, and the heavens did crack anew... And just as I promised, I burned away my humanity.
I did it all for you; a parade in your honor.

It was by my word I swore they'd remember far more than the pitiful fate they left you with.

The fire of revenge in my chest was all that carried me til now.


It took me two decades. Twenty years to see it done, but I held my word.
I hope it brought contentment as you watched from above, up there that astral gaol.

For the work of Majin has passed... at long, long last.


Until we meet again, when the stars hide their fires.

Farewell again, my love.

And let the screams be your epitaph.

For what I seek now may take centuries, and soon Esshar will finally be long behind me.

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From the titan's shoulder was an identical headstone laid unto the earth beside that of the long-fallen Grimmore...

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MAJIN OKABE
1867 - 1913AC

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...And a weary soul was at last put to rest.
Now a wayward Archon had his own aims to fulfill, no matter how long it might take.

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