Codex - Green Marooning

Section 2

In Karem, I was among the most powerful Warlocks - I often said so myself. I wasn't modest, and my brother resented me for it. He was ambitious, and determined to outdo me at everything.

When he reached a certain age, he fell in love with a girl, and she did not love him. There was an accident which may have been in part his fault, and the girl drowned in the river Karem. He became bitter, and impossible to live with. Our parents cast him out, and he was forced to make his own way in Albodan, a dreary sort of town.

Section 3

I embraced my calling. I took to the sand circles, and debated down many prominent Warlocks. At the ceremony I was dubbed "the Warlock of the Past" for my style, and soon renounced the family name. Little did my know, but my brother had been following my progress from afar, and had been fostering his own arts. When he felt the time was right, he took to the sand circle in Putty, and became a popular figure there. They called him Warlock of the Gloam.

Section 4

This new identity should have suited him - no-one need know about the dead girl now, but his guilt remained only dormant. One day I recieved a missive asking me to meet him at the sand circle to contest our powers. Never one to spurn a challenge, I agreed.

On the day in question, I triumphed. I regret that I never once acknowledged him during the debate, though I knew beneath the swagger, he yearned to rekindle our family bond. I was too proud to tell him I felt the same.

Soon after the contest, my fame spread, and I received an invitation to the court of the Empress.

Section 5

Twenty years ago he had me kidnapped. I found myself stranded here like the Empress Getta Renata in the old story. But unlike her, I never had a saviour to rescue me, nore have I wanted one.

I no longer hold the petty ambitions and hopes of a young Warlock. Instead I crave the attunment with nature these islands confer upon me. I've learned to enjoy peace while I can, for I see that soon a great sadness with take us.

I have looked to the past and augured the future, and it concerns by brother. As the priests of Melliflua say, "destruction is the natural consequence of a heightened desire to preserve".

I have shared my mind with his, through the sibling bond that remains in spite of everything. He says humans are small and insignificant, and that their pride outweighs their value. He is ready to offer us up to the gathering folds of darkness, and I see no way to stop him.