“When Sorda returned to Kanarth, Linia and I had been married for over thirty years. We hadn’t seen him for a majority of that time so it was quite a shock when he knocked on our door one day. He looked to be doing well though, seeming heavy and having a smile on his face. He told us a lot about his travels and the many strange things he encountered. It turned out that he’d gone to many temples and hidden cities deep in the jungles of what is now considered the Feral Wildlands. He told us of the different creatures and cultures he encountered and how he learned much about their ways of life. It really opened his eyes to the vastness of the world. One of the places he visited during his time away was Venoria, before it fell. You see, the war between Venoria and Kanarth took place during those years where Sorda was gone from home and I was living a happy life with Linia. I was not involved in any of the fighting, and if I’m being totally honest with you all, I really didn’t care all that much. It was simply something that happened out of sight and I didn’t think one way or another about it. But my morality as a young person isn’t what is at question here. Sorda told us that his stay in Venoria was particularly interesting as they believed that the people closest to the creators would earn their favor and be reincarnated into their next life with memories intact. He said it was fascinating and there was apparently a trick to it that had to do with the Twin Snakes. He didn’t know that when Venoria was razed to the ground, the emperor of Kanarth took the Twin Snakes for himself. I remember asking him what he wanted to do next. He said something about finding out more about a story about an ancient mage that had some interesting ideas about magic. After reading your and Cobal’s letters throughout the past year or so and after talking it over with Dionil, I’m convinced that the mage Sorda was interested in back then was Shifeth, the Undying King. Apparently your friend Cobal is currently looking into him and his followers, who I believe he said were called the Jasmine Order.” Karnisal sighed, taking another sip of their drink. “We ended up inviting him over to stay with us as he no longer had a home in Kanarth. For a few weeks, things seemed to be peaceful and going well. I initially worried about his sudden return but nothing about his behavior gave me cause to worry, he seemed to genuinely be doing quite well. And to this day I still think that was true to a point. His obsession with immortality and fear of death were still present, you could hear it in the things he talked about and the way he talked about certain cultures and their beliefs, but he seemed to be in a much better place mentally, so I didn’t want to force the issue. I even spent several hours talking about it with Linia as we considered what we should do. Our aim at the time was to try and get him to stay in Kanarth for a while so we could get an even better idea of what was going on. Things were great for those few weeks so neither of us found it particularly strange when one evening he went out to speak with an old friend of his. We said goodbye to him and told him to be quiet if he came back late and then we went to bed, not suspecting that we were hours away from the destruction of our city, our nation and our entire life. I remember that last night so vividly it almost hurts. Linia and I spent some time sitting in front of the hearth, talking about a business opportunity that I was considering. We drank some good wine and eventually went to bed quite late. Sorda hadn’t come back by that point yet, but it wasn’t late enough for us to find that strange. We’d both been asleep for a while when the bells rang.”

Karnisal stared into the middle distance for a while. Mirgia cleared his throat and then took a drink from his wine. He’d heard bits and pieces from Karnisal about their youth, but only small bits and pieces. Nothing more than was necessary to convey information about Sorda’Thun and even that seemed like it was something Karnisal was hesitant to share with him. Hearing all of this about a person he’d known his entire life felt strangely invasive. Karnisal also referred to themselves as a young man so Mirgia wondered when that perspective changed for the old elf, but he didn’t want to ask in case it was considered rude. He saw that his companions were all listening closely. Rolin was staring at one of the corners of the room, Mirgia wondered if it was to avoid being overwhelmed by the colors that Karnisal’s emotions would be giving off right around now. Kimi was tapping the different holes of her flute rhythmically as a sort of nervous tic. Teddy looked as comfortable and tranquil as ever, sitting comfortably on the corner of the couch with his legs pulled under him since he was too short to reach the ground anyway. Karnisal didn’t move for a minute, struggling to find the words. They eventually continued.
“The bells only rang when there was an emergency and it had not happened for at least a decade, so we were a little bit slow on figuring out what to do. We didn’t know what it meant that the bells rang, what sort of emergency we were experiencing and who rang them. But we would find out soon enough as the emperor’s palace was engulfed in a blaze. That’s the last time I saw Linia. We split up when she went to go find her parents and I went to go towards the palace to see if I could help out in any way. There was a small battalion of mages from Venoria that had come to avenge their fallen kingdom and steal back the Twin Snakes in hopes of restoring glory to their clan. They had managed to kill the emperor, his wife and his oldest son before anyone figured out what was going on. Not only that, one of them had snuck into the depths of the city and gone on a massacre. I was able to see some of the aftermath of that fight, but it was brutal. The depths of the city were the location of the magical artifact that kept Kanarth afloat and their plan had been to make the city plummet to the ground. They killed dozens and dozens of guards because despite our kingdom being almost impossible to attack, the emperor had always understood that our safety was incredibly fragile if the core was not protected. Despite all the guards, they managed to make it all the way to the artifact and destroy it. By the time I got there with a few other volunteers from Kascoma it was already too late. The city was plummeting towards the ground and we had mere seconds to figure something out. This was beyond us. The most powerful mages of our time and all we felt was panic and dread. We tried to repair the artifact but none of us had been part of the original team that created the artifact in the first place and the magic was so sophisticated that we didn’t even know where to start. There were mages in the palace that dedicated all of their studies to making sure they knew how to operate, repair and charge the artifact, but doing any of that would be time consuming and we had less than seconds left. This is where things get hazy and even after all this time I still have questions about exactly what happened next. I remember being at the artifact and trying to see if there was any way I could help. Then two figures showed up. One of them was hooded and I couldn’t see their features at all. The second figure was equally hooded but he took off his hood when he approached me. It was Sorda. He told me he’d help resolve this situation and I believed him immediately. Sorda had his demons but he was an incredible sorcerer. He then motioned to his companion to do something and grabbed me by the shoulder. He whispered some words and bit into the skin of his thumb until it started bleeding. He then moved his thumb over his forehead and mine, and in a flash of light we were gone. The next thing I remember is the nightmarish sight that haunts my dreams at night. Sorda and I were teleported to the ground, far enough away to be out of the range of any debris. At least that’s what I thought when I saw the city hit the ground. Or at least it was about to hit the ground I think when it exploded into thousands of shards. These shards hovered for maybe a tenth of a second before violently shooting into the ground. A shockwave hit us and I lost consciousness. When I came to again, Sorda was sitting next to me, reading a strange book with two snakes crawling through the leather cover. When he realized I was alright he closed the book and put his hand on my shoulder again. “I am sorry, brother,” is all he said before he walked away. I lost consciousness again.”