| The Revered Adiara, Cleric of Paladine, who together with Kithain Bloodsword,
Warrior of Gilean, saved the Silver Crown of Palanthas from the clutches of Mnordrashtka
the Unmaker and his dark scheme to rid the world of all life and creation. The venture,
although ultimately successful, killed Kithain. With the help of Kithain's spirit,
Adiara fought her way back to the Lands of Life with the Crown. As commanded by the
Gods, she split the Crown into three, leaving one portion each in the guardianship
of the Orders of Paladine, Gilean and Takhisis. Charged by the Gods to watch over the
fragments of the Crown until "the day the sun shares the sky with all three moons",
Adiara remained in the devoted service of Paladine for the next thirty years, guarding
the fragments and ministering to the ill, wounded and dying. Though Lady Adiara served
faithfully, she grieved deeply for Kithain, losing her eyesight in sorrow. |
This manuscript was found shortly after Lady Adiara's mysterious death,
when she was found lying peacefully in death at the foot of the Precipice of Faith,
the highest Tower of Paladine's Temple in New Thalos, on the day when all full moons
hung bright in the sky while the Sun shone. Her body showed no wounds, and her eyes
had lost the clouded glaze of the blind. Most mysterious of all was the expression
of peace and bliss upon her face. Many have speculated that the Lady Adiara had leapt
to her death from her room at the top of the Precipice on that fateful day. However,
the absence of any wounds on her body contradict that explanation. Her passing was
recorded by Astinus, Scribe of Gilean in the following words, "On this day marked by
the Gods, Lady Adiara was granted her final rest to be with Kithain Bloodsword for
eternity." |
|
Tell me, my love, that it was not farewell
Tell me you are not, to me, forever lost
Tell me I shall see you again,
Beyond the pathways where only the dead may cross.
In the darkened dungeons of the Keep
Where darkest spells are wrought and cast
Where many a bright young soul
Had shrivelled and breathed its last
Under that darkest of dark moons
In that coldest of cold wintery nights
Our paths crossed oddly enough,
Me trying to avoid, and you looking for, a fight.
I, a White Cleric, seeking in stealth to heal
The lost, the wounded, the dying;
And you, Red Warrior, looking for blood,
Oblivious to their suffering and crying.
An unlikely match,
Indeed, an oddly contrasting pair;
One who always felt secure in her holiness,
The other in his neutrality, driving her to despair.
You ruined my work there that night
And I ruined your magnificent adventure
But we found later beneath the three bright moons
A gift beyond all the greatest treasure.
We have paid the price, you and I,
For the world's peace and light,
For another respite from doom and grief
Another Age safe from the horrors of the night.
|
The gods made us take a wrenching decision,
The same as Huma's Choice
The same price, the same reward -
Us to shoulder the tragedy, to leave a world to rejoice.
Could it have been any other way?
Could we both have had it all?
Saved the world, saved each other,
Taken the glory, without the fall?
I wander now in darkness
Because I refused to believe
In the horrid truth of it
I prayed and wept for some form of reprieve.
The grief cost me my eyesight
But before I was bereft of the light
The gods showed me a vision
That one day all things would be set right.
I await the day when I shall hear your voice,
See your face, so craggily handsome, gruff yet kind
To feel your presence in reality
As I now see it only in my mind.
In the meantime, I bide the time
I sit by the window with the sun on my face
And your voice in my head
With my memories that nothing can erase.
One day I will walk forward into the light
Walk forward to where you are
Away from the shackles of mortality
To a bliss and happiness, so near yet so far.
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