The Nekromancer - 95. Chapter 95

The elf stared across the chasm, listening to the hollering from the crowd as they jeered. He didn’t know why he was still here. But somehow, the journey to Mendev felt less manageable on his own.

Amnor Sen had been happy in Holomog, tending to his shop. He knew he had only himself to blame for being stuck thousands of miles away from home, and he had a choice to make. Did he return home to pick up where he had left off, broken and alone? Or did he continue north to Mendev and try to work out a way to aid the crusaders against the demons? He was lost, and Amnor Sen slowly backed away from the chasm, heading toward a bridge.

The Ascendant Court held most, if not all, of Absalom’s temples. Including the Museum of the Eternal Rose. The elf followed in the footsteps of his former companions, his bag on his back and indecision in his heart. As he crossed Iomedae’s Way, the elf let his mind wander, trying to discern just what his god wanted from him. He had tried to follow Shelyn’s teachings all his life, strictly at times, yet she had been increasingly silent in his life since blessing Jakun and Zephyr. Had he upset her? He didn’t feel like he’d lost her favour, but leaving Jeremy was a serious blow against him. The elf still loved the cleric. But he couldn’t be with Jeremy anymore, for his own sanity if nothing else. Breaking up lovers went against so many of Shelyn’s tenets, but Amnor Sen had to believe cleaning up after a drunkard’s messes was not what the god wanted for him.

If it was, he would accept his mistake, return to Jeremy… if the cleric survived. It occured to the paladin that he might have sent Jeremy on his path, might have pushed him over the edge, into jumping the chasm that the elf walked over now. But then Jeremy needed to learn to take responsibility for himself. Amnor Sen hadn’t pushed him over the chasm, he had done that on his own. He couldn’t be his lover’s parent any longer.

A grey robed elf approached, a look of mild pity crossing her face as she gazed upon Amnor Sen.

“Lost child, what do you seek here?”

What was it that marked him Forlorn? Sadira had noticed in Geb, and now this guard. He wasn’t broken, the other elves had no need to pity him for being pushed down a different path to their own. Growing up among humans, he had lost every friend he ever made as a youth, watching them wither away. It made him no better or worse than an elf growing among their kin. Just a little more somber.

“A way home,” Amnor Sen sighed. “Do you know the way to the temple of Shelyn?”

The elf nodded, turning away from the bridge. She motioned for Amnor Sen to follow, leading him down a busy road.

“The Eternal Rose’s faithful gather this way. If you seek to return home, Queen Edasseril would accept you in the forests of Kyonin.”

Amnor Sen frowned slightly. He had never once considered returning to his ancestral roots. His parents had been from Kyonin, and they spoke as if it were a place of tranquility and stagnation in equal measure.

“Please view it as an option. No elf should be forced to grow among humans. Living among them is hard enough; they are so fragile.”

“I loved a human,” Amnor Sen admitted as they walked the streets, passing dozens of worshippers going about their business. “He was reckless.”

“As are the youthful races. I am sorry for your loss.”

“He crossed the chasm on his own,” Amnor Sen sighed quietly. “I find myself at a loss of direction, and I was trusting Shelyn to guide me.”

“A word of advice. The ones you call gods may give wisdom and advice, but it is up to you as to how you take it. I have seen religion destroy many a good person, man or elf. Do not let blind faith and fanaticism consume you.”

“You work in the temple district yet do not believe?” Amnor Sen frowned.

“I am a Greycloak. We do not view the gods as all powerful. I believe, but I do not worship. It makes keeping peace easier when you are not forced to take a side,” the elf replied. “The entity Norgorber is evil. We do not deny this. Yet we protect his temple as fervently as those of the good, for who are we to tell others how to live?”

“I met a druid north of Geb who told me to seek neutrality more than good,” Amnor Sen mentioned. “She spoke along the lines of too much good taking away from the world, that evil had its place in balance.”

“She sounds like an interesting person. I will admit I try to be good more often than not, but that is merely of my own desires than out of a desire to please a god. That is not to say being good to please a god detracts from good deeds, it is merely not a crutch that I lean upon.”

They stopped in front of a marble white hall, a rose fountain sitting just outside the doorway. Amnor Sen’s eyes travelled the flower, admiring the way the water travelled over the exquisite sculpting.

“Please do not think I am trying to sway you down one path or another. Your way is yours to choose,” the elf said, stepping away. “Should you need another guide, you merely have to ask.”

“Thank you,” the paladin said quietly, before stepping around the fountain.

He looked up at the tall columns marking the outer edge of the temple, lost in thought. Amnor Sen wasn’t so sure Shelyn would see fit to guide him, but she hadn’t seemed to steer him wrong yet. He would continue to have faith in his god.