Eldritch Thoughts

Iridescent Dreams

Their campfire had nearly died away when Rock finally paused to wipe tears from his eyes with the back of his hand.  He looked up at the stars in the clear skies above before taking a deep breath.  "I carried her body out of the castle and had Pete—"  He stopped and shook his head.  "I had the rock golem dig a grave for her on a hill overlooking the castle.  Probably the same hill you and Galaramir based your camp on.  Was there still a boulder near the west face?"

Ammdayan nodded.  "We noted it seemed somewhat out of place but that was all."

"That's where Serena's buried," Rock said.  "I went back into the castle to grab my pack from the room they'd prepared for me.  I didn't see a single person.  All the servants and courtiers had either fled or were hiding.  So after I got back outside, I had...  I had the titan and a giant tear down the castle."

"Why?" Kezia shouted.  Her face was streaked with tears, and Aerin watched Rock with an unblinking gaze.  "Why did you have to destroy the castle?  The Ghouls wouldn't have known we were defenseless if the castle had still been there.  We'd have been safe until the royal army got there."

"Erall had destroyed Serena," Rock said, "so I destroyed Erall."

Kezia's jaw dropped, and Ammdayan raised an eyebrow.  "I believe the reasoning behind that conclusion is faulty," the cleric said.

"Thank you, Ammdayan," Rock growled.  "I know, okay?  I know.  I was angry.  And I regret it.  But right then, I needed to break something."

"That's reasonable," Xalastik said, nodding.

"Reasonable?" Kezia asked, still shouting.  "He destroyed an entire castle!"

"Better than slaughtering the villagers too," Xalastik said with a shrug.  He didn't seem to notice the sudden, chilled silence.  "Like my mother always said," he went on, "if you're going to incinerate something, make it a thing and not a person."

Matt tried to hold back his laughter, but was not entirely successful.  "Following the wisdom of the gnomes now, are you man?" he asked Rock.

Rock ignored him.  "You actually have a saying for something like that?"

The gnome nodded.  "Oh yeah. They really drill that one into us when we're growing up."

"Gnomish culture never ceases to amaze and terrify me," Ammdayan said.

"He may as well have incinerated us though," Kezia said.  "As soon as the Ghoul scouts saw the castle had been destroyed, they swarmed.  They rounded up or killed everybody they could find and took us all underground.  I've been a slave for an entire year because of you."

"And you are free again because of me," Rock said.  He smirked.  "And you discovered the love of your life because of me."

"He is no such thing," Kezia said, but she blushed and turned away.

"You also have to go back down because of me," Rock continued.  "We need to find Galaramir, and soon.  You need to tell us everything you can about your captors and their defenses."