eachdraidh | video

[Aubri looks pensive: ear tufts flat against his head, gaze piercing, posture not quite relaxed. He speaks slowly, deliberately softening his accent for the sake of this message.]

Not so very long ago in my world, two great mages fell into war. Ma'ar grew to love power too much. Urtho was the only mage who could even think to stand against him.

[Aubri taps the ground next to the locket. The tap tap tap of his talons is dimly heard until he speaks again.] Ma'ar polluted magic. He poured every evil he possessed into his creations. Our troops were decimated. In the end, Urtho's only defense was to build a weapon as great and terrible as Ma'ar could conceive. I do not know if Urtho knew how great the consequences would be.

I helped deliver that weapon. [Okay, no. Not really, but he was there when Skandranon delivered it. But those are details and he'd rather not get into those... because then he'd have to talk about getting caught and abducted and that's just not fun talk.] It was a terrible price to pay for our lives.

[But he would do it again, if it meant saving the lives of so many people.] The magic corrupted the land and all the creatures in it. We could live there no longer. The storms would have killed us, if the creatures twisted by magic did not first.

[A pause.] Be careful out there, my friends.