It is said, even in these late days, when the last bits of the magic we found on this continent fade away, that there are hidden places. Long forgotten palaces of the fairies. Armies of Elves and Trolls, still waging their ancient war among the great forest. Giants sequestered away in the mountains, where the last of their mead halls still stand. Wizards and Enchantresses, those great adepts of the secret world, practicing their craft in secret. My grandson, all this and more have I seen. I have no fear to say it, either. No Greencloak or fouler agent of Eadric shall come to sentence a dying old man.

Enough! I beg you, enough! Do not interrupt. I know you are a rational man. Your mind is filled with ship manifests and other such accounts. A man of Eadric’s new Karlund. I would not, however, die without passing on my story. If the old world to vanish, I would know that there is at least one who still lived and knew of these things. Won’t you do this favor for your dying father? Ah yes. There’s a good land.

Many ages ago, when there were as many kings in Karlund as there are stars in the sky, I was a mercenary, that’s what you’d call it today, at least. I fancied myself an Adventurer, like in one of the old tales. Well now, back in those days, King Oswald of Blackenmarch- What? You don’t know the name? Pfa. I’ve supposed all the petty kings have been erased from the history lessons. Anyways, old King Oswald had a quest for me. Some of the peasants who worked his land had got talking you see. They said there was a cave deep in the nearby mountains where Ording was hidden!

Yes! You’ll know that name, I wager! Ording! The Sword of Karn! The Giantsbane, passed on to Egil and down through his line until it was lost with Thunir, when he set out to slay the last giants lurking about in the mountains. I see you have not forgot all my stories, lad! Hah.

Well, as you can imagine, Oswald wanted this sword quite badly. Half the northern kings would, of course. To be sure, they all claimed to be some descendant of Egil or another, but to hold Ording itself…

Well, your old grandfather was quite the different man in those days. One of the most skilled rangers in all Karlund, let alone the north. I had travelled from the Southern Coasts to the Northern Wastes. I’d parlayed with giants in their mountain homes. I’d hunted lycans in the great forests. Some said I even knew a bit of the old elf Lore. A gift I’d been given for assassinating a troll king. Hah. Most of it was nonsense, but it never hurts to have a legend swirling around you. They called me Greenshanks in those days.

So Oswlad brings me into his great hall. Well. It was really just a particularly nice home. Nothing like Eadric’s great palace, I’ll wager, or even Uther’s, but those places were built for Eir and Sul, so it’s not a fair comparison. Yes! Yes, there is a point to this! Humor an old man’s ramblings! Well. Oswald offers me a great feast. When we were both quite drunk, he brings out a chest of silver. This will be mine if I find this cavern and bring Ording back to me.

The old knew that the White Raven Kings would pay me more for it, of course. Half the petty kings could match his offer. So he decides to sweeten the offer up. He was a clever man. You had to be to survive in his position. He’d seen me eying his daughter. Fairest lass I ever set eyes on, until I met your grandmother, of course.

She would be mine as well, he promised.

Pfa. As if old Greenshanks needed such an offer to set out on a quest. Hmpf. We should have seen the old days were ending when kings offered their daughters, the blood of Karn if they were to be believed, up as payment like cattle. Though I admit, I did feel a certain stirring at the time. A grand adventure. Enough silver to buy myself a great holding. A beautiful woman to share it with. I was a young man, after all. I set out the next morning.

I didn’t make straight for the spot where the peasants said the cave was. That was what some shit-brained adventurer led by their lust would do. No, I went deeper into the mountains first. I found one of the more amicable giants, a fellow named Yg, great big bastar- What? Yes, the Giants are real. They just keep to themselves. Used to come down into human lands when I was a lad, but monster hunters seeking a place among the stars put an end to that. Well. This Yg was old. Knew much of the old Giant Lore. I wanted to ask him about this cave.

Now, the thing you need to understand about the giants, lad, is that they don’t like us. They were the rulers of the continent before we came. Fairy. Elf. Troll. Dwarf. All paid homage and tribute to the Giant King in his great mead hall. Some of them will do business with men, but only begrudgingly, so you need to bring a gift with you. They like elk meet, should you ever wish to seek one out. Hunt it yourself and drag the whole beast along, they won’t take some trimmed cut you found in a butcher’s window.

So I ask Yg about this cave, and he lets out a great laugh. As though he thought me a fool. If you go through your life without hearing a giant laugh like that, you be thankful for it.

“A man seeks out the cavern of fate?” he bellowed “How precious! I shall not deter you, Greenshanks. Aye, it’s real, and you’ll find many treasures in it.”

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“But the sword.” I asked “Do you know if Ording is to be found there, too?”

Now, that was a foolish thing for me to say. I told him I had been seeking a legendary sword there, but I hadn’t named it. Aye, there were many great swords back then.

“Ording!?” he roared “You seek that villain’s knife?! Hah! Do your people seek to slay the last of my kind? No matter! I know not if that devious weapon is to be found there. Leave this place! I shall not host you, who seeks such a besmirched thing, again! No matter how much fine elk you bring me!”

Stubborn old thing. It took eight full grown beasts before he would even look at me again. At the time, his anger meant little. I knew the cavern was real. I knew I wasn’t setting out on a fool’s errand.

Tracking the cavern wasn’t difficult, now that I knew I could trust my information. You know, it’s always struck me as odd. I expected it to be lined with pillars and tapestries. Some magnificent place born out of a legend. It was just a squat little gap in the grey stone of the mountains. Still, I slipped through it well enough. After squeezing through the tunnel what I saw was…. Beautiful.

You know what a grove is, right? In the forests? Aye, you married that wife of yours in one. It was much like that sort of place, though made of stone. A great chamber with a high roof studded in sparkling diamonds. Sunlight was fed in through a crack high up in the roof of the cave. At the center there was a lake with a little island in it. Damndest thing, there was a tree going there. White, like a birch tree, only with silver leaves.

Maybe I was being a bit too romantic, but I thought it would be fitting to find Ording waiting for me there, resting against the tree, perhaps curled up in some gangly roots. Perhaps I’d have to go through some mythical trial too free it. No such luck I’m afraid, dear boy. Though I did find something far more fascinating there. Two birds. One red. One blue. Of course, birds could have flown in through the crevice up top, but these ones were special. They spoke. Aye, I said they spoke!

“He has arrived.” The blue bird whispered “The man seeking a legend.”

“No no!” The red bird replied “That’s his stated purpose, but not what he truly seeks.”

They chirped happily, like ordinary birds this time, then the blue spoke again.

“Perhaps we should ask his opinion and settle this disagreement! You there, human! We have an offer for you.”

“An offer?” I asked, good to be leery around animals who speak our tongue. Remember that boy “What kind of offer?”

“Why, we’ll take you to that which you see, of course!” The bird declared “I will help you in your search for Ording.”

The red bird fluttered down and quickly added its own offer.

“And I will help you seek out that which your heart most desires.”

“What does my heart most desire?” I asked it.

“Why, we won’t know until we find it, of course.”

“Then I’ll go with your friend.”

The red bird snorted and went back to the tree. Look, lad, loyalty meant something in those. I wouldn’t take a quest from a king and then abandon it. Besides, I’m happy, aren’t I? I’ve lived a long, full life. What more could the red bird have shown me? Well, his blue partner leads me off down a tunnel far more spacious than the one I came in through.

“Is the sword here?” I ask the bird.

“I don’t know.” It giggles back “I said only that I’d help you in your search!”

“Why you scoundrel-“

“Be calm, human! I’m taking you to someone who will know exactly where it is. The weaver of destiny!”

Well, as you can imagine, I wanted to rip the little bastard to pieces then and there, but I didn’t have many options. Things tend to go that way when you deal with the supernatural, grandson. You remember that, now? I follow this little trickster, hoping the weaver of destiny it spoke of can help me. Before long, the damned bird has left me entirely in a cavern filled pitch black. It got so damned dark, I couldn’t see an inch in front of me. I start working with a flint and tinder, seeing if I can get a torch lit. As I work, a voice speaks, not the bird, a new voice. Soft. Distant. Wavering. Quite disturbing, all things together.

“So Greenshanks comes seeking Ording.” It whispers “Is it time for that, already? Hmn. The years grow late. I’ve lost track of things. Must remember to pay better attention. Hmn.”

“Who said that!?” I shout back “Speak! Demon!”

“Why, I said it, of course.” The voice snickers. The source of the speaking is moving. Above me. Beside me. Behind me. Above me again. “I am the Weaver of Destiny.”

“Where is Ording? The Bird said you would help me find the sword, Ording!”

“The bird was wrong.” The voice said with a snicker “Ording cannot be found, for Ording does not exist.”

Now I’m sure this doesn’t mean a damned thing to a modern man like you, but to me, it was inconceivable. I lashed out.

“Liar!” I cried “Where is the sword? Do not hide it from me!”

The creature hissed, it came closer and closer. I could feel it bearing down upon me.

“Do not take that tone with me, human!” It spat “Ording is a legend your people made to serve their own ends. The sword will not be found. The sword cannot be found. Fate brought you before me, so that you might learn this fact!”

I lit my torch. I saw what it was I was speaking to. A giant spider. It clung to the wall of the chamber, which was far smaller than I would have liked, and full of webs. I swung at it with my torch and my blade. It only laughed at me as I ran through the caverns.

“Go, human!” It called as I fled “Tell your people what you learned here!”

I squirmed through the corridors and the great chamber. The tree was now dying and the birds were nowhere to be seen. Soon, I was out of the cave again. This is the first time I’ve spoken of it to anybody. I couldn’t tell other’s what I’d been told. I couldn’t tell them what I saw, either. Oh, if I’d come back with Ording, it would have been different. I could have fostered a legend. As it was, it would seem like a fantastical excuse. I knew the way these things went. My life as an adventurer was over.

Well. That’s my story. Make of it what you will. It’s important to me that someone knows what happened in there, and it ought to be you, lad.