20 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
20 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
A fragment from Wesnoth
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<p>I did some writing I’m feeling rather proud of today. It is storyline text from a <a href="http://www.wesnoth.org">Battle For Wesnoth</a> campaign I’m working on. I’ve decided to post it here as a teaser and let my readers have the fun of deducing the kind of context in which it makes sense.</p>
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<p><span id="more-666"></span></p>
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<p><b>“WHO ENTERS THE TOMB OF AN-USRUKHAR?”</b></p>
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<p>“I..I am Delfador, a mage of Wesnoth.”</p>
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<p><b>“I am the will of An-Usrukhar, greatest of mages, he who bestrode Irdya in the morning of time, who sleeps now in a death beyond death until the unmaking of the world.”</b></p>
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<p>“I am only a man, a living man seeking a way home from the house of the dead.”</p>
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<p><b>“Living? …I see that it is so. Your breath stirs dust that has lain untouched since the Primal Aeon. And it was foretold that one like you would come.”</b></p>
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<p>“Foretold?”</p>
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<p><b>“Foretold in the Primal Aeon, years past beyond your counting. An-Usrukhar the Great, he of whom I am but the tiniest shade and fragment, foresaw in the Mirror of Evanescent Time that a living man would come here to be tested. AND I AM THE TEST!”</b></p>
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<p>“I have felt the coils of prophecy on me before. I am beginning to dislike them.”</p>
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<p><b>“It is only given to the small not to feel the hand of fate on their shoulder; the great must suffer its weight whether they will or no. Delfador, mage of Wesnoth, ARE YOU A SERVANT OF THE LIGHT?”</b></p>
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<p>“I serve my king and my kingdom.”</p>
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<p><b>“Your king will die in an eyeblink and your kingdom in the drawing of a breath. Delfador, I ask you again, ARE YOU A SERVANT OF THE LIGHT?”</b></p>
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<p>“I serve my people and my land.”</p>
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<p><b>“Peoples vanish and lands wither under the pitiless gaze of eternity; the true matter of the world is deeper. Delfador, I ask you a third time, and on your answer hangs your life: ARE YOU A SERVANT OF THE LIGHT?”</b></p>
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<p>“I…I serve life against death. Love against fear. Light against darkness.”</p>
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<p><i>(There is a momentary, brilliant flash of light.)</i></p>
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<p><b>“IT IS WELL. Take up, O servant of light, the Staff of An-Usrukhar. The trials before you will be great. So is its power.”</b></p>
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