Nessalir the Red

"I had grown used to Koroth, I suppose, by the time I was well enough to return to raiding." Nessalir brushed a branch out of her way, a bitter smile upon her lips. "I thought to put the healer and his apprentice behind me, yet over the next three years I became well-acquainted with their work. They tended often to my fellows, and to me as well. When the king's son fell ill, Janek and Koroth remained ever by his side, and it was Koroth's tireless efforts which brought the young prince back to health.

"Gradually, my enmity toward the man vanished. I found myself comfortable with Koroth, and then I found myself looking forward to when next I would keep his company. When I returned from the raids, I would tell him of the battles I had fought, and he would share with me his knowledge of healing herbs and how to care for wounds and illness. Every time I returned to the king's hall, I would hurry to see Koroth as soon as I could.

"As I'm sure you know, warriors are terrible gossips. Soon rumors spread of my supposed romance with the healer's apprentice. They shamed me, and I withdrew from my association with Koroth. For months, I ignored him, until finally one night he approached me and demanded to know what offense he had committed that should scorn him so."

Clearly, she could recall that night: it was unusually warm, and the stars looked down upon them from a cloudless sky. Koroth had found her outside the hall, caught her as she was returning to a feast after having relieved herself. His face, so soft and unscarred, had been filled his worry and sorrow. One look, and Nessalir knew that he truly believed her distance was his fault, and that regret for whatever he had done now consumed him.

How her heart had broken to see it!

"I did something then that I had never before imagined myself doing. I told him the truth. I told him the whole of what I felt; about him, and about the rumors that had shamed me into distancing myself. I told him of how fond of him I was, and how desperately I missed him, and how deeply I yearned for his touch. That night… it was the first we spent together. It would not be the last."

She smiled, even as tears ran down her face at the memory.

"Koroth was a good man. Better than this world deserved."

"What happened to him?" Iarius asked, and from his tone Nessalir knew that he had already guessed at the answer.

Nessalir was silent for a moment. She stopped even her journey through the woods as she gathered her thoughts and cast her mind back to the day when her life had well and truly fallen apart.

"A year later," she said quietly, "there was a snowstorm. A blizzard which lasted for twelve days and twelve nights. It was unlike anything any of us had ever seen. It came suddenly and without warning, during the Summer season when such storms do not happen, even in the northernmost regions of our lands. King Longren sought to consult a mystic, but could not send word. We remained confined to his hall, his stockpiles quickly running low, as we waited the blizzard out.

"When on the thirteenth day, the storm dissipated, we dug our way out into the snow, and found Lorveg under siege. Frost giants marched upon our kingdom, breaking down the walls of our homes and seizing the frozen, half-starved people inside. I watched, horrified, as a giant took a child too exhausted to even struggle, and bit into him. I saw the blood stain the snow at the giant's feet, saw the child's innards as he slurped them up. Everywhere I looked, I saw madness and terror.

"And in the distance, towering over us all, his form obscured by mist, and his body so solid and broad that I first I mistook him for a mountain, stood Yovarth, the Winter King, oldest of the Frost Giants, called Baphór by the Teluirans and Gangarios by your people. He had come to Lorveg, called the Winter, and invited his sons to gorge themselves upon our flesh.

"We fought. What else could we do? The giants were few in number, though they made up for what they lacked in numbers with their sheer strength. Many warriors died that day, but in the end we emerged victorious. Yet Yovarth remained impassive, watching our triumph over his sons with little interest.

"Survivors were gathered and taken to the healers. King Longren began to plan for an attack on the Winter King himself. Snow began to fall once more.

"As the sun began to set, a new blizzard began to form in the air. Yovarth lifted a mighty foot, and the Father of Giants advanced upon us. From the storm, we saw the shapes of more giants, and we knew that this night would be ruled by battle.

"Koroth refused to leave his patients. He saw people in need. He saw sick and injured who needed to be tended to. Even as war fell upon Lorveg, he remained steadfast. Even as we fought and bled just outside his door, as giants tore down the walls of Longren's hall, he continued to work his healer's art. I saw the king fall around midnight, pulled apart by a pair of giants, and then Yovarth stood over us directly. He lifted a massive sword, as tall as the sky itself, and brought its blade down upon the hall.

"I could watch, exhausted and covered in giants' blood, as the place I had once called him was destroyed utterly. I fell to my knees, and I howled out my despair, and I swore an oath of vengeance against the Winter King. I swear, looking into the sky, I could feel his eyes upon me then. I leapt to my feet and charged into battle once more, certain that when the sun next rose, I would be dead alongside my countrymen.

"But the Winter King had one final humiliation to force upon me. With a single kick, he sent me plummeting into the snow, and consciousness left me. When I next I woke, cold and pained in my body and heart, I saw the sun shining above me. There was no sign of the frost giants or their terrible father, save for the corpses of those we had slain the day before. I wandered the remained of Lorveg for hours, searching desperately for other survivors. Yet I found none.

"In the pile of broken wood and stone which had once been Longren's great hall, I found the bodies of the injured, and the body as well of Koroth. I gathered all the dead I could in the remnants of that hall, and I spoke a prayer to the stars above, and called upon the flames in my lungs to light a grand pyre. And so what was once my home became the ashes of Lost Lorveg."