The story of Willow Hauksen.
Cassandra sat to write for memory the continuation of Asliendor's stories. She had found some other sources on the Hauksen family, perhaps more complete, perhaps less emotionally engaged, but the first-hand narrative of someone who had met Willow Hauksen was something more valuable than dead archives. It was only hours after his first tales, that the ranger decided it was time to proceed. He approached her between a game and an auction, at a time where the bank steps in Mirith were quieter.
"Alrigh Cassandra... Ready for the story of Willow Hauksen?"
"You bet!"
"Some of the details elude me, I must say. It was such a long time ago."
"Tell me how you remember it. Your memory might be refreshed by the telling."
"Alright... Hm... actually... so many important parts just aren't ringing at the moment.. Just brief little horrible bits... We were always fighting together..."
"How did you meet? Oh, wait, with Vei!"
"She was so kind at heart. A might warrior... Yes, she was lumberjacking in Lerilin. And one day in Aborek, we were searching for something, a silver leaf I believe. She was wounded, I thought she was killed... I don't know... it is all such a haze."
"Only the two of you in Aborek?"
"More than ever... I don't know why. No, Vei was there, some others. She became very sick... Altaira Mei was looking after her in Marali. She didn't remember me.. she didn't remember anything."
"What affected her?"
"I knew we had to do something... It became clear to us that there were 8 silver leaves scattered around Oberin. Ancient leaves that could be brought together to have great power... Altaira Mei thought she could use them to help Willow. It took so very long to find them all... We met many strange characters along the way... Mercenaries, thieves... and a great ancient dragon by the name of Crausaar."
"Where were they?"
"All sorts of dungeons, camps of enemies... a few we just discovered... Crausaar was the only ancient dragon we knew of at the time. The only one who could fly, he said there were so few left of his kind. Anyway, the story of that dragon and myself is a whole other story too. There was a strange... voice. He led us around, he left us a note at Aborek when we discovered the blood dagger."
"The voice, you mean? Or the dragon?"
"We never discovered is nature... he was a shadow at the edge of what we could see. The voice, he called himself B."
"Did you give it a name? Ah."
"B?" asked Claire, joining the group.
"B. Thats all we knew... B... Discordia... Discordia means the end of the world. He would only hint to us, we never learned more. And there were other strange things..."
"Tell us more!"
"In Marali... I found ancient tracks of a flying dragon. Marali used to bury their dead around the mountains. But I am getting ahead of myself... The last battle took place on the black island. The final silver leaf awaited us. It was filled to the brim with brutal enemies. Two dragons sitting at each fortress. I remember Birek got trapped by some sort of tree formed by dark magic. He tossed me his ring so I could put up a better fight... but he was being killed slowly in his trap..."
"You always get the rings."
"So we now had to hurry. Death awaited at every turn... there were many frost giants roaming around. But we had a vast force and prevailed, slaying the ice dragon and finding the silver leaf but a powerful red dragon was now stalking us. And we did not have the power to defeat it. Eventually it blocked our path to leave the island..."
"Oh my."
"We had to give it some great magical item in exchange for letting us go."
"What was it?"
"A greater protection ring of Birek's perhaps? I don't remember. We had all 8 leaves.... we thought we had won. But we were wrong... We took them back to Altaira Mei and Marali. Prepared ourselves for a spell. I was in Mirith talking to Nafets.. he urgently told me we were wrong, and that the silver leaves would bring a terrible fate. So I raced to Marali to inform Altaira Mei and Father Vei to hault the spell. But it was too late... they had cast it. And Willow seemed alright... but.... she died not long afterwards. After that, we would see her ghost appear before us. Running around, screaming... From time to time appearing out of nowhere. But even so... I met a strange person one day."
"What... what would she say?"
"Who looked just like her... talked like her, wore the same helmet even! But I never saw that person again, or Willow's ghost."
"Who was that person?"
"That's a strange story."
"Yet... something floods back into my memory. I felt something so important... A sweet scent... It occured here and there... no one else ever did know what I was talking about. But I can remember that sweetness so clear!"
"Was it like the smell of a Nevia flower?"
"No. I couldn't tell you."
"I thought Willow belonged to a huge family, though. I remember seing her surname somewhere. As mercenaries? Is it possible?"
"They were in fact a family of mercenaries. I remember meeting her sister in Brigobaen."
"Who would they work for?"
"But Marali's forces stormed into Brigobaen. They weren't supposed to, Brigobaen is sacred neutral grounds. King Galandir was furious, as was Cecil, as was I."
"Of course."
"They took Willow's sister, and left her in Marali's jail. Left her there to be executed when it fell to the Twins..."
"Marali and authority... There are things that never change. Did the Twins kill her?"
"I imagine. The sweet scent..."
"Memory keeps strange details, yes."
"No, this was important!"
"Did that scent have any sort of effect on you? Like some drug?"
"No, not that I recall. It was related to Crausaar... the seer... and willow. The seer!"
"The seer?"
"A name whispered only on the winds, man could only prove himself worthy to be granted such presence. There is a man here who speaks of the seer. At the restraunt."
"Here in Mirith?"
"Yes."
At this point, however, the had been interrupted. Libe, the little troublemaker that sometimes dwells in the sewers of Mirith, had lost something. Once again it was proved that even though festivals are a great occasion to learn stories from the past, they are also full of distractions. Libe was looking for a page ripped off a book by a rat. A story about Mirith, to be told by a bard at some point in the festival. "Hmmmpf. That bard never came," thought Cassandra to herself, while archiving Asliendor's memories near the remaining documents on the Hauksens.
[I copy below Aslan's posts in the old forum. Just because they are already a compilation of the Hauksens' story, and it feels right to reproduce it here. You might also be interested in reading this thread, and this, or even this.
Aslan - Wed Jun 29, 2005 - The Story of Willow Hauksen.
(Compiled from several sources - individual accounts may vary)
Part 1.
It all began two years ago in the bowels of the ruins of Aborek. The Family Hauksen, the first mercenary family of Oberin, had been hired to infiltrate a vault under Marali. They were only told that there were "valuable items" inside - they took this to mean magic rings, gold, magic weapons, and so forth.
The Hauksens had discovered that the best way to infiltrate this vault was to use the white portal at the bottom of Aborek. As they were attempting to open the portal, a shadowy figure appeared and stopped them. It was Zara, the Kiss of Death. After a brief struggle, she stabbed Willow Hauksen with her vaunted "Thousand Cuts" technique. By this time, the Marali soldiers had discovered the plot and were on their way to stop the Hauksens.
The Hauksens fled to the surface. There, they bandaged Willow up as best they could, then decided to split up. Furin Hauksen, the father of this family, took Willow, and the rest fled in the opposite direction. However, Willow's wounds soon began to worsen, beyond the help of her father, and he was forced to do the unthinkable - leave her at the doorstep of his new enemy, Marali.
The healers of Marali are known in Oberin as the most skilled in all the lands. However, even they could not keep Willow alive. She fought valiantly against the wound of the Thousand Cuts, but she eventually died.
Standard practice in Marali at this time was to dump enemy combatant's dead bodies in the mountains around the city instead of actually burying them properly - a powerful message to those who would seek to harm the great Fort. Willow's body was dumped in the mountains East of the city after her death. Also, her death was kept a secret from virtually everyone - from the rest of her family, from Father Cecil, from Zexe (who had been a long time friend of Willow since she was a child), from everyone but a few in Marali.
What no one knew, however, was that Zara's technique has an even more sinister facet - it wounds the spirit itself. A body and it's soul cannot be rejoined if the spirit is damaged in any way. The Ghost of Willow Hauksen was injured by the attack, and was destined not to rest until her body was retrieved and buried properly. She would haunt those close to her when the wound occurred, and not let up until either they all died or she was buried with the correct funeral rites.
Fast forward two years. A young woman arrived in Oberin around the time that this generation of heroes had arrived. Her name? Willow Hauksen. She quickly made friends, and made a name for herself as a potent ally in fighting undead. Slowly, however, her new found friends understood that something was wrong with Willow - she heard voices that drove her to seek Cecil. Soon after, Willow began to have delusions - that her newfound friends were actually her family members, and that they were still on the same mission that killed her - breaking into the vault under Marali.
Incredibly, the events happened much like they did before. Zara showed up, just as she had two years ago, and attacked Willow with the Thousand Cuts. Willow ran off. Her friends left Aborek only to be captured and interrogated by General Falvo. They were let go, eventually, but they had more questions than answers.
Soon after, a Marali patrol discovered a body near the ruins. It was of a young girl, blond haired, wearing a gray Robe of Protection. She was badly wounded, with frost marks, large bruises, and a particularly nasty wound to her chest. She was brought back to Marali, where she was treated. The healers named her "Anon".
Part 2.
Anon reminded many of the healers of Willow Hauksen - same hair color, same clothing, same facial features, same strong fighters build. She also reminded them of her spirit - Anon fought hard against her wounds, and eventually made a partial recovery. She was weak, but she could resume her former life of fighting the beasts of Oberin. One vital piece was missing - Anon had no memory of who she was. She didn't remember her name, her parents, her family, her childhood - nothing. It was like something wiped her mind completely.
It was soon decided that this person, this "Anon" was actually the Willow Hauksen that attempted to break into the vault a second time - somehow, Willow's spirit had been forced upon another person for a short time, and made to relive her last weeks of life. The friends that Willow had made the second time around attempted to help Anon return to normalcy, but it was going to be a tough road. Anon despaired often about her lack of memory, about everything being so new and strange, about her wounds... and she was being haunted.
By this point, the people who had been with Willow in Aborek when she was wounded (both times it turned out) began seeing Willow's ghost. At first, it was fleeting glances. Then, in a chance encounter, Willow began to change. Anon's friends happened across the place where Willow's body was dumped - there was a burial stone at the site, as well as Willow's ghost. She tried to talk to them, but she was too weak to understand. After this occurence, the ghost of Willow will haunt these people in more aggressive ways - first by loud angry OOOOO's, then by actual violence (spells). There was a glimmer of hope, however - near the burial stone were the tracks of a very old dragon. A dragon that could fly. The dragon had the body of Willow.
The glimmer of hope, however, was quickly dimmed - Anon had been getting worse, and wouldn't survive without a cure. A cure consisting of 8 silver leaves...]
"Alrigh Cassandra... Ready for the story of Willow Hauksen?"
"You bet!"
"Some of the details elude me, I must say. It was such a long time ago."
"Tell me how you remember it. Your memory might be refreshed by the telling."
"Alright... Hm... actually... so many important parts just aren't ringing at the moment.. Just brief little horrible bits... We were always fighting together..."
"How did you meet? Oh, wait, with Vei!"
"She was so kind at heart. A might warrior... Yes, she was lumberjacking in Lerilin. And one day in Aborek, we were searching for something, a silver leaf I believe. She was wounded, I thought she was killed... I don't know... it is all such a haze."
"Only the two of you in Aborek?"
"More than ever... I don't know why. No, Vei was there, some others. She became very sick... Altaira Mei was looking after her in Marali. She didn't remember me.. she didn't remember anything."
"What affected her?"
"I knew we had to do something... It became clear to us that there were 8 silver leaves scattered around Oberin. Ancient leaves that could be brought together to have great power... Altaira Mei thought she could use them to help Willow. It took so very long to find them all... We met many strange characters along the way... Mercenaries, thieves... and a great ancient dragon by the name of Crausaar."
"Where were they?"
"All sorts of dungeons, camps of enemies... a few we just discovered... Crausaar was the only ancient dragon we knew of at the time. The only one who could fly, he said there were so few left of his kind. Anyway, the story of that dragon and myself is a whole other story too. There was a strange... voice. He led us around, he left us a note at Aborek when we discovered the blood dagger."
"The voice, you mean? Or the dragon?"
"We never discovered is nature... he was a shadow at the edge of what we could see. The voice, he called himself B."
"Did you give it a name? Ah."
"B?" asked Claire, joining the group.
"B. Thats all we knew... B... Discordia... Discordia means the end of the world. He would only hint to us, we never learned more. And there were other strange things..."
"Tell us more!"
"In Marali... I found ancient tracks of a flying dragon. Marali used to bury their dead around the mountains. But I am getting ahead of myself... The last battle took place on the black island. The final silver leaf awaited us. It was filled to the brim with brutal enemies. Two dragons sitting at each fortress. I remember Birek got trapped by some sort of tree formed by dark magic. He tossed me his ring so I could put up a better fight... but he was being killed slowly in his trap..."
"You always get the rings."
"So we now had to hurry. Death awaited at every turn... there were many frost giants roaming around. But we had a vast force and prevailed, slaying the ice dragon and finding the silver leaf but a powerful red dragon was now stalking us. And we did not have the power to defeat it. Eventually it blocked our path to leave the island..."
"Oh my."
"We had to give it some great magical item in exchange for letting us go."
"What was it?"
"A greater protection ring of Birek's perhaps? I don't remember. We had all 8 leaves.... we thought we had won. But we were wrong... We took them back to Altaira Mei and Marali. Prepared ourselves for a spell. I was in Mirith talking to Nafets.. he urgently told me we were wrong, and that the silver leaves would bring a terrible fate. So I raced to Marali to inform Altaira Mei and Father Vei to hault the spell. But it was too late... they had cast it. And Willow seemed alright... but.... she died not long afterwards. After that, we would see her ghost appear before us. Running around, screaming... From time to time appearing out of nowhere. But even so... I met a strange person one day."
"What... what would she say?"
"Who looked just like her... talked like her, wore the same helmet even! But I never saw that person again, or Willow's ghost."
"Who was that person?"
"That's a strange story."
"Yet... something floods back into my memory. I felt something so important... A sweet scent... It occured here and there... no one else ever did know what I was talking about. But I can remember that sweetness so clear!"
"Was it like the smell of a Nevia flower?"
"No. I couldn't tell you."
"I thought Willow belonged to a huge family, though. I remember seing her surname somewhere. As mercenaries? Is it possible?"
"They were in fact a family of mercenaries. I remember meeting her sister in Brigobaen."
"Who would they work for?"
"But Marali's forces stormed into Brigobaen. They weren't supposed to, Brigobaen is sacred neutral grounds. King Galandir was furious, as was Cecil, as was I."
"Of course."
"They took Willow's sister, and left her in Marali's jail. Left her there to be executed when it fell to the Twins..."
"Marali and authority... There are things that never change. Did the Twins kill her?"
"I imagine. The sweet scent..."
"Memory keeps strange details, yes."
"No, this was important!"
"Did that scent have any sort of effect on you? Like some drug?"
"No, not that I recall. It was related to Crausaar... the seer... and willow. The seer!"
"The seer?"
"A name whispered only on the winds, man could only prove himself worthy to be granted such presence. There is a man here who speaks of the seer. At the restraunt."
"Here in Mirith?"
"Yes."
At this point, however, the had been interrupted. Libe, the little troublemaker that sometimes dwells in the sewers of Mirith, had lost something. Once again it was proved that even though festivals are a great occasion to learn stories from the past, they are also full of distractions. Libe was looking for a page ripped off a book by a rat. A story about Mirith, to be told by a bard at some point in the festival. "Hmmmpf. That bard never came," thought Cassandra to herself, while archiving Asliendor's memories near the remaining documents on the Hauksens.
[I copy below Aslan's posts in the old forum. Just because they are already a compilation of the Hauksens' story, and it feels right to reproduce it here. You might also be interested in reading this thread, and this, or even this.
Aslan - Wed Jun 29, 2005 - The Story of Willow Hauksen.
(Compiled from several sources - individual accounts may vary)
Part 1.
It all began two years ago in the bowels of the ruins of Aborek. The Family Hauksen, the first mercenary family of Oberin, had been hired to infiltrate a vault under Marali. They were only told that there were "valuable items" inside - they took this to mean magic rings, gold, magic weapons, and so forth.
The Hauksens had discovered that the best way to infiltrate this vault was to use the white portal at the bottom of Aborek. As they were attempting to open the portal, a shadowy figure appeared and stopped them. It was Zara, the Kiss of Death. After a brief struggle, she stabbed Willow Hauksen with her vaunted "Thousand Cuts" technique. By this time, the Marali soldiers had discovered the plot and were on their way to stop the Hauksens.
The Hauksens fled to the surface. There, they bandaged Willow up as best they could, then decided to split up. Furin Hauksen, the father of this family, took Willow, and the rest fled in the opposite direction. However, Willow's wounds soon began to worsen, beyond the help of her father, and he was forced to do the unthinkable - leave her at the doorstep of his new enemy, Marali.
The healers of Marali are known in Oberin as the most skilled in all the lands. However, even they could not keep Willow alive. She fought valiantly against the wound of the Thousand Cuts, but she eventually died.
Standard practice in Marali at this time was to dump enemy combatant's dead bodies in the mountains around the city instead of actually burying them properly - a powerful message to those who would seek to harm the great Fort. Willow's body was dumped in the mountains East of the city after her death. Also, her death was kept a secret from virtually everyone - from the rest of her family, from Father Cecil, from Zexe (who had been a long time friend of Willow since she was a child), from everyone but a few in Marali.
What no one knew, however, was that Zara's technique has an even more sinister facet - it wounds the spirit itself. A body and it's soul cannot be rejoined if the spirit is damaged in any way. The Ghost of Willow Hauksen was injured by the attack, and was destined not to rest until her body was retrieved and buried properly. She would haunt those close to her when the wound occurred, and not let up until either they all died or she was buried with the correct funeral rites.
Fast forward two years. A young woman arrived in Oberin around the time that this generation of heroes had arrived. Her name? Willow Hauksen. She quickly made friends, and made a name for herself as a potent ally in fighting undead. Slowly, however, her new found friends understood that something was wrong with Willow - she heard voices that drove her to seek Cecil. Soon after, Willow began to have delusions - that her newfound friends were actually her family members, and that they were still on the same mission that killed her - breaking into the vault under Marali.
Incredibly, the events happened much like they did before. Zara showed up, just as she had two years ago, and attacked Willow with the Thousand Cuts. Willow ran off. Her friends left Aborek only to be captured and interrogated by General Falvo. They were let go, eventually, but they had more questions than answers.
Soon after, a Marali patrol discovered a body near the ruins. It was of a young girl, blond haired, wearing a gray Robe of Protection. She was badly wounded, with frost marks, large bruises, and a particularly nasty wound to her chest. She was brought back to Marali, where she was treated. The healers named her "Anon".
Part 2.
Anon reminded many of the healers of Willow Hauksen - same hair color, same clothing, same facial features, same strong fighters build. She also reminded them of her spirit - Anon fought hard against her wounds, and eventually made a partial recovery. She was weak, but she could resume her former life of fighting the beasts of Oberin. One vital piece was missing - Anon had no memory of who she was. She didn't remember her name, her parents, her family, her childhood - nothing. It was like something wiped her mind completely.
It was soon decided that this person, this "Anon" was actually the Willow Hauksen that attempted to break into the vault a second time - somehow, Willow's spirit had been forced upon another person for a short time, and made to relive her last weeks of life. The friends that Willow had made the second time around attempted to help Anon return to normalcy, but it was going to be a tough road. Anon despaired often about her lack of memory, about everything being so new and strange, about her wounds... and she was being haunted.
By this point, the people who had been with Willow in Aborek when she was wounded (both times it turned out) began seeing Willow's ghost. At first, it was fleeting glances. Then, in a chance encounter, Willow began to change. Anon's friends happened across the place where Willow's body was dumped - there was a burial stone at the site, as well as Willow's ghost. She tried to talk to them, but she was too weak to understand. After this occurence, the ghost of Willow will haunt these people in more aggressive ways - first by loud angry OOOOO's, then by actual violence (spells). There was a glimmer of hope, however - near the burial stone were the tracks of a very old dragon. A dragon that could fly. The dragon had the body of Willow.
The glimmer of hope, however, was quickly dimmed - Anon had been getting worse, and wouldn't survive without a cure. A cure consisting of 8 silver leaves...]
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