The Tale of the Abysswalker

III - Vengeance

The following couple of days breeze past. I look on in the huge cave as Seath and Logan are teaching their crystal golems to walk in formation. It's proving to be pretty difficult to hold a stone great shield without proper hands. This is easily fixed with some sorcery, however.

In Nito's training ground, things are going well. The skeletons have even learned to parry. That will not help them in the slightest in fighting dragons, but it's neat to see them develop their techniques so fast, especially with their lacklustre intelligence.

Suddenly I feel a hand on my shoulder, I turn immediately with my hand on my sword's hilt, but I pull back immediately- It's Ciaran. What a mistake that would've been, killing the Lord's favourite assassin.

"Attentive as always, I see?"

After calming down, we sit down at the side of the cave, looking out over everyone practicing. I take a good look at Ciaran and realize that their stature is quite small. I'm still intrigued to know if there's a man or a woman underneath all of that armour.

"Artorias, art thou sure thou're not joining in this conflict f'r thy deep-seed'd hatred f'r the dragons?"

I jump back a little, angered by Ciaran's words. The dragons took everything dear to me. My dad was killed by one when he was throwing out our waste at the top of the tunnel. We heard him scream for hours. Then it was my mother, who got roasted in our tunnel when I was out playing with my friends. I've been an orphan since the age of 8, and all I knew was swordsmanship. I trained every day in hopes to one day defeat the dragons.

"Of course it's not just that! What an incredibly stupid argument."

Ciaran puts their hand on my shoulder, and pulls away the mask. My suspicions were instantly confirmed; Ciaran is a woman. Her eyes were a deep blue and her hair a shade of red, which was also surprisingly long considering she hid all of that under her mask. She looks me right in the eye and says to me.

"Revenge is a beast that begets itself, and solves nothing. It only leads to more pain. Yea in the darkest of suffering, one can sleep, but f'r the ones who inflicts that suffering, their minds cannot rest until their last breath hath been had. Art thou certain 'tis not thy fate to avenge thy parents and rather to fight f'r thy lord?"

She gets up as she picks up her weaponry. Unlike most of Gwyn's Army, she wields two daggers rather than the classic combination of a sword and shield. They are often referred to as The Dark Silver Tracer and the Gold Tracer for their striking colours. Her armour also appears to be very light. I suppose an assassin focuses on silent kills rather than brute force and durability.

"Just prithee make sure, thou will nev'r let go of a dream, 'r a desire. Once thou let go of such feelings, life is empty. Doth not fuel yourself with envy 'r I will nev'r forgive thou."

And away she goes. Putting back on her mask, she walks off to talk to some of the sorcerers. I think to myself, am I really doing this for my Lord? Or am I being consumed by my own hatred? And what the hell did Ciaran mean with what she just said?

"Just prithee make sure, thou will nev'r let go of a dream, 'r a desire."

I repeat the sentence in my head over and over, but it remains a mystery to me. What do you mean, Ciaran? And why are you telling me this and exposing all this information about yourself? Confused as I am, I continue my way to go training with Seath. It's been too long since I've trained.