Cassius Severius


My first memory, waking up in a pool of blood.
The blood was not mine
Everything hazy, i didn´t know where i was.
I was not a day older then ten.
I stood up, realized i was in my fathers workshop.Quite mundane, poorly lit, the sun was setting.I walked out of the workshop, shouting for mother.
She didn´t answer.
I walked over to the stables, shouting for mother.
She didn´t answer.
I walked to our house, i went in, shouting for mother.
There she laid on the floor.
She didn´t answer.
But i heard crying, coming from the kitchen, i entered, and there sat my father, sitting, his face dug in his palms, crying, bloody, with his axe at his side, a beautifully crafted
Battleaxe from his days in the military, also bloodied. As i walked in he retrived his face from his palms, and put his gaze upon me, there i saw a broken man, i was to terrified to ask what happened. He signalled to me to come to him, and that i did.
He spread his hands out and carressed me so tight i could hardly breathe, he asked me if i had seen my brother or sister, i was so terrified that i couldn´t answer, he pushed me away from him, he took hold of my hands and said “I am so sorry Cassius, no words can explain my sorrow.” I didn´t understand, what did he do? Did he kill mother? If my face was pale before then it was now, he told me to go, and that i did, i went out of the house, and started running towards the town, but soon i started to slow down, for the sound of horsemen was drawing near, soon after i saw an formation of riders, they where the town militia, coming for me, i halted, i waited for them, but as they drew near i saw my brother, Decimus, who is four winters older than i.
As they came to me, my brother jumped of his horse, ran towards me, with an terrified expression, for i was covered in blood, he checked me for cuts, found none, hugged me tight, and informed me that my little sister, Virillia was safe, then a concerned gaze was set upon me, as he asked about father, if he still was at the farm, which i answered correctly.
My brother grabbed me and he helped me to the saddle of the horse, then he mounted himself and rode back to town while the town militia rode to the farm to arrest father.

Later that day i saw the militia drag father into town, also learning that my father was to be convicted of killing eleven people, that in a weeks time, he was to be burned alive.
I didn´t understand it, why? My father, the decorated warhero, went berserk, and slaughtered innocent people.

In that weeks time my uncle, arrived to town, my fathers brother, Argyle, who fought beside my father, and did not fare as well as my father from the war, for he his leg was crippled, which caused a terrible limp and he had to use a staff to get arround, and lost his right eye.
But that did not render him useless, for he was a cleric, Cleric of Hoar, the god of Poetic Justice, of revenge.
He came to take care for us, for he was our closest relative. And also to witness our fathers execution, which we weren´t allowed so see. During the execution i used the opportunity, to sneak back to the farm, to collect somethings, besides our personal belongings, which we collected the previous day, no this time it was going to get something to remember my parents by.
I entered the house, and walked into the master bedroom, looking through mothers stuff, and there i found a necklace which i took, but more interesting i found my fathers armour, an old
and kind of scruffy looking chainshirt, it looked like it has seen a thousand battles, but yet looked like it could take a thousand more, also i found two metal braziers, called a dastana, which offer very little protection, but some did it still,inscibed into both of the dastanas was an isignia, a soaring eagle, and a sword placed under the eagle . I couldn´t leave it here, so i took it. As i was walking out i looked into the kitchen, i saw the battle axe, i came towards it and picked it up.
A million thoughts went through my head, did he kill all of them with the axe? Will i get to see him for the last time? I already knew the answers, childhood was going by awfully fast.
On instinct i grabbed the axe and made my way back to town, sneaked back into the inn unnoticed and hid the equipment in my bag.

Later that day, after the execution, we made our way to argyle´s home, The Justitia Sanctum, Temple of Hoar, our new home.

It was an old place, standing atop of a hill, with a whole lot of nothing arround it besides a river. The temple was a crossroad between a dozen small towns, unofficially serving as a magistrate for all of the town and as a peace keeper. The temple held a certain amount of charm and dignity about it, the green moss covered a large amount of the cryptic grey brick walls of this three stories high temple. At the high arc of the temple was the symbol of Hoar, the black gloved hand holding a two faced coin.
This was our new home.

The next five years passed pretty quickly, and we siblings had covered well from our trauma,
But it was harder for me and decimus, for virillia was only four years old when it happened.
There lived arround twenty people, mainly priests, apprentices, and orphans.
We all had our duties to uphold, mine was to assist the cook with the food, and to clean the yard with my brother, which i despised to do, but there was no choice in the matter, i had to do it. sometimes we travelled to the towns, serving as judges in criminal trials and investigators, and even to deal with ruffians. It always amazed me to see the combat prowess of these old clerics when “negotiations” with the ruffians went sour, which happened alot, for Hoar´s dogma dictated the philosophy of “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.” I never joined in on those violent events, but my brother, after two years did, for he decided to learn the ways of hoar, to be a Cleric of Hoar, i could have done the same, but i was not interested, i was very thankful for my time there, as i took Hoar into my heart as my deity, but i always thought my destiny lied elsewhere.

During my time there, every once in a while, i sneaked out in the night, with the chain shirt, dastana and axe, donning it, playing warrior. Me being small for my age, i looked like an blustering idiot playing with these things, non of the equipment even remotely fitted me,for this was made for an adult, but within these five years i grew larger, though not large, but rather strong did i grow, and i learned to swing the axe more properly, though not as a skilled warrior, but not as an blustering idiot.
One star lit night as i was swinging hard at the air at my invisible opponents i heard as someone approached, i turned arround and there stood my uncle argyle, with his always serious glare upon me. How i felt embarrassed, how i felt as i had betrayed him. I stole his brothers, my fathers war equipment, not only that, i stole the weapon that he used to kill eleven innocent men, how i felt i betrayed him.
I stood frozen, waiting for some response. After a long silence argyle started his limping approach. “ Playing a warrior are we? ” My head tilted down in shame. “ The slayer of the evil air ? ” He stopped less than a feet from me, his one hazel brown eye, inspecting me from head to toe. “ How much of a spitting image of your father you are! ” he said with a less serious tone, “ At first i thought your fathers ghost was haunting me! ” A small smile crept upon his face, and i was less afraid of being killed. “ Walk with me. ” We walked about 300 feet to the river and had a seat at the riverbank. The river was almost flat, you could almost see the exact detail of the moon from watching the river. The gentle breeze embraced us both, making this night quite magical. “ I have to tell you something lad.” Came out of argyle with a low pitched voice. “ Something you´ll not be telling your brother or sister. ” I nodded, meeting his gaze. “ When i came to Huddlesworth, i came to get you three, and to do a job ”
I felt like the air from my lungs was stolen away. “ I came to handle the execution of victor. ”
I stared at him long and hard, gathering courage to reply. “ Have you no heart old man ? Couldn´t you let someone else do it? to murder your own brother ? ” Argyle answered quickly and with anger. “ No heart you think? I loved my brother and it was not someones else´s job to do! ” He took a deep breath and sighed, stared at the river with a heavy heart. “ I loved him, it was my job to to and he deserved it! ” He returned his glare to me with sorrow in his eye.
“ He killed these people, and that deserves a cruel death, as i have teached you. ”
We both stared at the river both heavy hearted. I knew he was right, he had commited these evil acts, i had no right to be angry at argyle for being his executioner.
Many moments passed, argyle looked down at his side, seeing the axe, he picked up the axe and started to marvel at it´s beauty. “ I remember when your father got this axe, it was during the war, when me and victor where assigned to guard a town up north, a mountain town, there was some serious orc activity, we where under attack by a large orc warband, outnumbering us by three to one, we lost alot of good men that day, after our captain died victor assumed control, and lead us to victory, me and him took out their leader, but not without cutting out my eye, and crushing my leg, after the battle was over with, he picked up that axe, do you know what he said? ” I shrugged my head but was eager to listen to his story. “ He said : Look at this beautiful axe, it´s a shame that it has been used for such evil deeds, i have to redeem it! So, it will be used for good again! ” The grin on argyles face was almost in a full smile. “ I think cassius, that it´s a shame that this axe was tainted with such an evil deed, i think it has to be redeemed. ” He handed me the axe and i accepted it with pride. “ In three or four years you will be ready to leave, this temple is no place for you, i see the thrill of adventures in your eyes! ” He gave me a pat on the back “ Well lets get back inside, time to sleep. ”



On our way back, i couldn´t help to wonder, what adventures lied before me?