Chapter 3 Part 1 – Easier said than done
And I stand
On shaken ground
The earth moves beneath my feet
And I shout “forgive me”
But there’s no God listening
And these walls surround us
Always black and grays I see
And we found this time
On our weakness it will feed
Is this the end of the world?
I cannot bear to watch it burn
But we’re crawling in the dirt
Is this the end of it all?
Well we used to stand so tall
I barely recognize us anymore
I don’t believe
In the things I cannot see
But the sky is dead
And they are coming for me
I shout “forgive me”
But this proves I’m now too weak
And I try to speak
But hope has been taken from me
The Sun finally decided to peak over the horizon, beams of light peered through the tree canopy. The smell of foliage wisped around following the morning mist that blanketed the floor, and the morning birds had awoken. I hadn’t slept all night; I rarely did the night before a job. Like somehow my conscience was trying to tell me that I needed to change my path. But how does one measure how good or evil they are? Even the mightiest of war heroes cut a bloody swathe through the land.
I sat down on a tree stump pondering the recent events in my life, as if trying to justify my moral choices. I began laying out my weapons in front of me, each a beautifully crafted instrument of death in its own right. I moved on to thinking about the amount of lives I had taken with them, not the game I had killed for food but the actual people. Bandits I could easily say that I had defended myself from harm; they would have raped and murdered me if given the chance.
I ran my fingers over the runes and engraved patterns lost in the train of my thoughts, so lost in fact that I failed to notice the tall athletic build Imperial standing before me. He wore robes similar to mage clothing, but the material was thinner and of higher quality and was sleeveless, he wore simple sandals with linen foot wraps and linen hand wraps. He carried a long wooden pole arm covered in Rune like carvings; his head was completely shaved and had a thumbprint of war paint between his brows.
The man stood before me, unsure how best to wake me from my daze. Instead he took a few steps back and sat cross legged on the floor before me and closed his eyes then running his fingers over the runes on his pole arm. The downward spiral of my thoughts seems to take a new direction, I began feeling happier and my moral dilemma just seemed less important than it was a few moments ago.
My mind began to fill with calming light; I could almost hear the chimes of small bells. As I opened my eyes and noticed the man sitting in front of me, I almost jumped out of my skin. He had a strange faintly glowing eye above the thumb print on his forehead; I looked at it intrigued by it for a moment.
“Erm Hi” I said sheepishly, thinking it a bit weird that this man chose here of all places to meditate. The glowing eye faded away with my feeling of enlightenment, as he opened his eyes I noticed he was blind which raised even more questions.
“Glad tidings child” He said bowing his head and placing one hand in a fist and covering it with his palm. “My name is Mattius, I did not mean to startle you young one” he paused for a moment looking me dead in the eyes, which was really strange. How could he tell? “You seemed to be lost in your thoughts; I sought only to improve your mood”
I smiled properly for the first time in a while, I felt much more relaxed around this stranger. It was almost as if he had an aura of calm and control around him. “You are not like the other locals I’ve met Mattius, or like anyone I’ve met period actually. Was that really you, the light and the chiming?”
Mattius Stood up before me holding his pole arm by his side. “I cannot say for certain what you experienced, but I attempted to bring you peace through my own meditation” I stood up to meet Mattius, while sheathing my weaponry. “That’s amazing, are you some kind of priest? And I don’t wish to offend but can I ask about your eyes”
Mattius chuckled “No child I am not a priest, I do not follow any one religion. I guess I would be a traveling Monk if you were to put a label on it. About my eyes, there are many ways of seeing, you need only look” Feeling a little confused by Mattius I decided to turn the conversation in a new direction.
“Your weapon does not look very sturdy; perhaps you should trade for a new one with…. A blade perhaps” Mattius and I slowly wandered in the direction of Falkreath as we made conversation. “This is not a weapon, it is an extension of myself. Every carving on its surface is a story, of what has happened and what has yet to happen. It will never splinter or snap because my will binds it”
Before I could react Mattius readied into a battle stance, spinning his pole arm about his body then snapping it into place as he held onto one end and the other extended out behind his back. He held out his free hand in front of him in a claw shape as he listened intently for their pursuers.
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