Kostajor's Last Telling

From: ThadRQ_at_aol.com
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 1997 09:34:35 -0500 (EST)


Hey all. My friend, John E. Boyle, wrote this fragment of fiction and asked me to post it. Enjoy.

KOSTAJOR'S LAST TELLING The following is a translation of an annotated scroll sold by a wolf pirate in the port of Corflu 1621 S.T. There are three different parts to the scroll, each written in a different hand: the first and longest is in Tradetalk, in redroot ink on plain vellum. The second and third are notes written at the end of the scroll at a later date and are a fine black ink in well-educated Esrolian. As per your orders, I am forwarding it to you.

							T. G.
     


"Let me tell you, so that you may know."

        Once we were more than we are now. When the Sun returned to the land of the living, we were a mighty people. Our packs filled the forests of the westlands, and our songs filled the night. In war, Telmor's children numbered their fighters not in the hundreds, but in the tens of thousands.  In peace, our energy was boundless; our elders were wise, and the pool of their knowledge was both wide and deep. We builded up a city of our own: Telhamoran that is lost. Its pylons and towers reached so high that it seemed that the stars themselves were but lamps set to light our glory. And then the Deceiver came.

        He sought our aid in the fighting of his wars, and we thought this good, for is not the way of the hunt and the kill the way of Telmor's Children? Not knowing that the Deceiver's very breath was a lie, we agreed to his offer and so our kin ran and fought beneath the banner of the Bright Empire. To help us fight the better, he offered us a gift, his Blessing, and in our folly we took it, and never did any people receive a more bitter prize. We, who had needed no stranger's blessing, freely accepted our greatest curse, and had our blood marked by the Deceiver from that day to this. Thus we set the course of our own doom and we changed: we trusted, and were betrayed, and now we trust no one. For as surely as death follows life, so did Bane follow in the Deceiver's tracks.

        Bane came upon us from the West, laughing, and his fang was sharper than a dragon's claw and it's blade glittered like ice beneath the stars. Our champions fell before him like flowers before a child's switch, and his army's fury consumed our warriors like fire running through the long grass.  Our city was cast down into the dust; and our people were scattered like chaff, to wander the width of the world till Bane's Fang was found again.

        Since that time, the world has changed and changed again. After an age of wandering, we found this land and won our place in it. But soon, the world will change again. There will come a war in whose grip the world itself will scream and bleed. Heroes will flock like geese to rend the earth with their fangs and stain the heavens above with their blood and the smoke of their burnings. Now, this war is upon us; for as has been foretold, Bane's Fang has again been unsheathed against us and runs red with the blood of our folk.  This I know, for I myself saw the sheen of its blade when my brother was reft from me, to leave me alone and old in a world grown dark and cold.  So I tell you now, as was told to me:

        Between the time of Bane's Fang's coming and the time of the Dragon's Passing, the Children of Telmor will make a Choice. If we choose the Wrong Path, then our people will be broken beyond healing and we will fade from the world, never to be more than eyes and teeth gleaming in other men's shadows.  But, if we choose the Right Path, then a battered remnant of our people will have the chance to climb again the stairs of Power, to reclaim what once was ours, and become what we could have been.

        BEWARE! The world changes around us and the spears of our foes hedge us ever closer. My time is past, but yours is just begun. It will be your task to Wait, and Watch, and CHOOSE.

"So I have told you, and now you know."

To:	 Makenthael Blue Thumb, Second Librarian
From:	 Ailer Road Walker, Sage

Fireday, Movement Week, Sea Season, 1614 Solara Tempora The Great Library of Nochet, by the grace and protection of the Pharoah, Ruler of Kethaela, Lord of the Six Lands.

        Master, I hope this letter finds you well and in good spirits. Knowing of your abiding interest in prophecies dealing with the fabled "War of Heroes", allow me to gift you with this rather interesting scroll. It purports to be a transcript of the last public speech given by Kostajor Wolf-Champion, one of the most famous Sartarite warriors of the past century, sometimes referred to as the King of the Telmori. I cannot fully verify its authenticity, but it was given to me, unsolicited, by a proven friend who sought to pay a debt he felt that he owed me. I hope it makes an interesting addition to your collection.

                                                Your pupil and your friend, Ailer

From:	 Ullenlar of the Ten Pens, Lord of the Stacks, Third Librarian
To:	 Makenthael Blue Thumb, Second Librarian

	My dear Makenthael, surely you can't be serious about imputing this rag with
even a grain of truth? You know what Ailer is like: barely past his exams, wet behind the ears and so gullible, its pathetic. Not to mention the riffraff he hangs about with, Sartarite rebels, tricksters and the like.  They were probably all drunk when he bought the stupid thing anyway. I did look it over, just as a favor to you, and granted I was a bit surprised at seeing mention of Telhamoran outside of Carmanian folklore, but really!  Telmori armies numbering in the tens of thousands? A city of "pylons and towers"? The Telmori can barely work flint and can't even build huts of wattle and thatch, let alone a tower! I hesitate to...

Here the fragment ends


End of Glorantha Digest V4 #235


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