CHAPTER 1

You leave the cabin.

The Ways of Beledain can be described as the driest point before the Westmarshes. It is a simple way. It is not a sinuous or branching path, and before it was not even treacherous. It is simply a place you go through expecting to leave. The main road simply leads to Orlin, but now? I am not even sure that way is safe anymore. Maybe that way is undefensible, for the city is simply entrenched in a dry, open land, with only a meager wall to hold back. But it is simply void of any sort of goodwill, you expect, if the people are still even alive. After all, you think, that at this point the entire border is lost. You wonder then, if there are any survivors at all; the ones that have escaped, to where? But then you must realize, you think, that you haven't seen a single one of those things, and after such a long time, maybe they are gone? You hope, atleast, for you feel dully lost; shuffling your feet beyond the rocky road.

The cliffs outstretch like deep clawing things. Their shadows overseeing the path like a guardian. You see them, as they hug your left, that their shadows are deep, but they fight the bright light that shines throughout the mouth. This deep glare, you see, like a serpents eyes, shines in deep rays and circling bulbs: from the grassy path to the hilltops and at the face of the cliffs, beyond you don't know, but placed there haphazardly you see the fortress of the orsenmen.

You see then, the long thick steelwrought chains that pierce the earth like razor thorns. And it seems like the fortress floats in mid air, held by the giant hand of the thing. A tower below, a round stair and a dirt path welcomes.

But you will not go through here. The ominous signs have been foretold to you: The Mouth of Mardun lies hidden behind a stone. You enter.

And it seems like time stands still, until you exit through the dark passage of the Mouth.