While the others rest, Vahn quietly dictates his thoughts on recent events, and his internal struggles, recording them with a magical item he found.  But who can say whether or not anyone is listening?

Excerpt Two

Ok, I think I've figured out how to use this thing. Given my lifestyle, it's hard to find time to set quill to parchment- and I'm not a very talented scribe to begin with. As luck would have it, one of the trinkets “Trueblood” was carrying around is a magic item that records the spoken word. So I'm going to start using it to keep my little record.

I'm pretty sure someone snuck a look at my journal anyways. The trust in this group is overwhelming.

I'm on watch at the moment, although I'm sure someone is listening in. Elves don't really sleep, and I'm pretty sure Eladrin aren't much different. And even if not, Vengeance is only technically alive, so Bahamut only knows if he sleeps at all- he's probably just pretending.

He shot me some odd looks after our battle with the undead, and I'm going to have to explain what I did sooner or later. Hopefully I'll understand it myself when the time comes.

Princess. She looks so innocent, sleeping there. Bahamut help me, but I don't know what to do.

I should go back a bit. We finished up our business in the capitol as quickly as we could- we really pissed off the state religion, and I'm sure there will be repercussions for our actions here. We'd been led to believe it was just a drug trade, but the truth was very disturbing- they were using the drug to make people more open to suggestion, and lured them into serving their “One True God”.

Who needs magic to mind control people?

We learned that there would likely be competition on our quest to the Temple of the Four Winds- some idiots thought it would be a good idea to organize a contest of plunder. Oh sure, the adventurers will probably kill off the monsters and such, but there won't be much left when they're done!

As we left the city, I had my new shields, and I couldn't wait to try them out in a real battle. Dorian had gotten a new fetish to play with..merciful Bahamut, that joke never gets old! Hell, Max had even gotten his new crossbow sight (and he spent the entire trip grumbling about the quality not being up to his standards!).

There's an interesting feeling when you realize you've become stronger than you were before. You feel invincible, confident…too confident, sadly.

In the town, I came across another Dragonborn, who bought me a few drinks. I later found out he was known as “Trueblood”, and that he was an enemy. Too bad I found this out after I gave him information about my companions and our destination!

I mean, I guess they had it coming, but I really didn't need the damned hangover.

-

“Trueblood”, he calls himself. This is what I could have become. When the First Dragon died, they say, two new Dragons were born. One pure and Just, the other dark and Prideful. Just as we were made by the First, so do we all have good and evil within ourselves.

My people strive to emulate Bahamut in some fashion or another. It's not so much a religion as it is a philosophy, an ideal. Because no matter how noble we are, inside our hearts lie the seeds of pride. Ambition. Avarice. Arrogance.

Yes, I could have become just like him. I have to restrain my anger, the urge to lash out and finish him- not for who he is, but what he represents. My weakness. My failure. My shame.

These were my thoughts as we ventured further into the Temple. The undead guard the place fiercely- their touch weakens and drains your very life. They can pass through solid rock, and even when they fall, they bring destruction.

And then there was that damned knight. How can something like that have honor?

I almost died again. It was just like before, at the ruined temple. The undead surround me. Just being near them, I feel myself dying, bit by bit. I fought for life at every step- even when Dorian's curse fell upon me, I was defiant.

And then that sharp wail. And the claws. And…darkness.

There were no voices, no visions. I saw neither the shining heavens or the black abyss. Nothing. Was this the land of the dead, now that the Queen was gone? Or had it always been like this, and we had merely deluded ourselves into thinking there was an afterlife at all?

A cruel joke, that.

It felt like I was suspended in that black void forever, but I know it was only mere seconds. Primal energies surged through my body, and my eyes opened. I stood up, and rejoined the fight.

I remember the moment clearly. I don't think I'll ever forget it. The undead could pass through solid stone, making it hard to fight them. I was standing next to Vengeance, wishing I could understand how he could vanish and reappear wherever he wanted. With that kind of power, I could be anywhere I needed to be!

You're doing it wrong. Like this.

And I understood. I fell into Vengeance's very shadow, and arose behind my enemy. The intervening time simply didn't exist…or so I thought.

When I finally lay down to rest, however, that's when I remembered. I was in a dark place, and someone else was there. Someone I couldn't quite see.

Fate is always changing. Simply looking at the future changes the future. And your future is changing even now. Here are two Fates that could be yours.

I saw a future where my desire to protect the Princess caused me to turn from Bahamut. Where I came to serve Her, the Raven Queen Reborn.

I saw a future where I placed my fingers around her neck and strangled the life from her tiny body, destroying Death forever.

I look at her now, and I don't know what to think. What to do. She seems so peaceful now. And yet, everywhere we go, there is death and destruction. And she follows in it's wake. Even in our fiercest battles, she walks forward into the violence.

And by Bahamut's platinum scales, I swear she smiles. She smiles.

Is she really our last hope for a better world, someone to be protected at all cost? Or is she instead the greatest danger we have ever known? All I can do is pray, but Bahamut does not answer.

Damn him.