Recollection - Volume 2
A highly detailed frontispiece featuring an open book and a quill, the symbols of Vorin, decorates the inner surface of the cover of this book. Right below it, a few simple words:
- With the blessings of Vorin and the generous aid of Gorstag Tessele of the Blue Order of the Sky
The title page also bears a picture, this time as background: that of a dark moonlit glade, the boles of the surrounding trees looming over it, pressing in thickly. The drawings of the leaves in the foreground are extremely detailed, almost a study of botany, with each vein and margin, are drawn precisely.
Recollection, Volume 2 by Thienna Relimion, as a Fatespinner Savant of the Blue Order of the Sky (now a member of the Green Order of the Forest)
This is the story of the dracolich known as Thanalos, as told in his own words. Whether it is read for edification or entertainment, the story is a profound one.
He left, and continued his rampages elsewhere as she returned to her kingdom. Many centuries pass. The dragon escaped death as it closed in on him, becoming a dracolich. Until one day he received a missive... from the queen, requesting his aid.
He had forgotten about it. It had been so long, and so many new memories had taken its place. Yet the missive itself made him nostalgic for another age.
Thinking that he will have either the chance for great rewards, the chance to exact revenge, or if nothing else, to see what became of the queen who had stared him down so long ago, he returned to the forest.
There he found the queen rebelling against her own native land, T'Nanshi, with an army of undead at her command. The dragon was taken by surprise, but lured to stay by the promise of riches beyond compare at the sacking of T'Nanshi.
He flew to battle alongside the undead and waded into the forces of elves. Hundreds fall at his claws, and their cries of pain bring him great joy. He pays no attention to the battle. He does not care. He revels only in the endless carnage, consumed by his own bliss.
He noticed too late the battle has turned, that he has been slowly driven back...
As the last of his opponents fell, he retreated into the forest, completely naive as to what has happened, but even he dared not take on an entire country alone. As he arrived in the forest, a wave of blackness spreads out, slaying all it touched. But he was already dead.
Those living within the forest, the queen's subjects, rose up in undeath, eternally bound to her.
The dragon attempted to leave the forest, the battle lost, but he could not. He was caged. Again and again he tried to escape, but nothing got through the invisible wall that bound him within the wood.
He demanded the queen release him, but she only laughed and refused. The dragon, though panicked, is intelligent, and realized if he attacks her, he should have to face the whole of her army. And he now wondered if she truly IS as powerful as she once, long ago, claimed to be.
Perhaps she doubted whether she could defeat him, perhaps she felt a small hint of remorse, or more likely, perhaps she simply no longer cared. But she was not willing to risk destroying him.