endbook_rogue_3_3_3

Valarqvin stands calmly in thorns.

Around the altar sit Snowpriests and Cyclopes. All turn towards her when she speaks.

'I have brought what I saw from the end of the icefields.'

'Pray foresee... pass judgment.'

At first, she saw a great ring on the icefields, covered in silver frost, but it was no natural formation.

She was not the only one who saw the vision. The Cyclopes shared knowledge, but it was silent, meaningless, inscrutable.

Then, Valarqvin saw the demon emerge from the ring, just as foretold a thousand years ago. The Cyclopes learned that the object located at the end of the icefields was a gateway.

But the icefields themselves were inhospitable to any living soul, except the disaster that had come into the world. A thousand years of observation could not provide an answer: What is it? It had no more emotion, no more thought, no more means of expression or communication than a natural phenomenon. In past records, they seemed to appear out of thin air, so why did they now use the ring as a gateway?

The demonic threat to Sami was growing. Sami warriors and the Cyclopes each took action on their own. For an instant, Valarqvin gazed upon a vision the likes of which she had never seen.

She did not tell anyone about the vision. For once, she had a clear vision of herself.

More importantly, she saw that the ring before her was different. It reflected the starry sky like a mirror.

In that instant, she decided that if she was destined to be there, that she would choose the cause herself. She would go before the ring to observe, and integrate all that she saw into the collective memory of the Sarkaz. She would supply knowledge for questions that could not be answered in the past, and she must know why the door would open when she arrives there.

If she could arrive there, so could humanity.

If there was a way to open the door, then humanity could pass through it.

Destiny appeared as an ill fate, but it was not a dead end for humanity.

She did not care whether it would be a dead end for herself.

But she survived.

Back at Sami, she bids farewell to Typhon and the research team beneath the mountains, and tells her experience to the warriors of the north. Then, she tells it again to the assembled Snowpriests and Cyclopes.

She is neither forgiven nor punished. After a long silence, one member of the assembly stands up, their voice echoing in the cavern.

'If we must pass through the door, then at least one of the great enemies that wait yonder has been defeated.'

'We do not know if life and death apply to our enemy, but we know that a victory buys a period of peace for the land.'

'Observer, explorer, or survivor... this is our best chance.'