The moment I appeared in the small stone lined tomb-like chamber, the overpowering presence of incense made my eyes water and it hard to breathe. A small barrier of divinity resolved the issue. It really was indeed a small room.

There was barely any room for the hulking figure of Hallvard, strong and mountain-like as he was. A small and simple altar, with armour on it, took most of the rest of the room up. The whole place felt hard and angular. In fact, the only sense of softness in this entire stone lined room was the thick carpet which lay beneath his knees.

Since the last time I saw him, he had started to waste away. Those craggy features looking more worn than ever. His once strong, proud shoulders looked slumped, as if an earth slide had slid down the hill.

I squeezed myself into a corner of the room, next to the small altar. Even though he was kneeling, I could look at him face to face.

From how he was acting, his shoulders tensing up, and his breathing losing the calm, easy rythum it had, I knew he knew I was here. Still, Hallvard’s eyes remained closed.

‘She’ll not answer,’ I said.

His eyes slowly opened, and finally he looked at me. There was a wariness within them. A wariness that was inside me, too. I needed his help, but was afraid if he learnt what I knew, then he would… I didn’t know what he would do.

Still, right now, I needed to focus on him. Unlike my wariness, his was simple. He wanted to believe it was me within this tiny room with him, but at the same time, doubted it. Not that I could blame him, it had been a long time since we had disappeared and for me now to reappear in this most private and secure places.

Yes, it was easy for him to doubt me.

‘You heard from Alis about the meeting at Netherfane in two weeks?’

He nodded his head slowly.

‘Will you not attend?’

‘I know not who you are, or what you want, but my faith in Aggard remains strong.’ His voice sounded as strong and gravelly as ever.

‘As is your faith with Alis, and I guess me, too. Though I’m not sure about that.’

‘Just who are you, and why do you take that form? Why do you torment me so?’

‘Torment you?’ I shook my head. ‘No, I’ve come to ask you one very important question.’

‘Ask away, you tormentor.’ There was a deep rumbling, as if he was threatening me.

Not that I was worried about the threat. For the first time in my short time with Hallvard, I knew that, though his skills were much grander than mine, he would never again beat me in combat. Not unless I allowed it. And the threat I faced was so much more dangerous than Hallvard would ever be.

So all I could do was smile wryly.

‘First, may I ask for you to trust me. For if you do not believe that I really am Klarric, then I will never get an honest answer from you.’

‘But Klarric died in Netherfane’s dungeon.’

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‘There’s some truth in that statement, Hallvard. Yet it is not the full truth.’

‘So you are a corrupted being, brought back to torment me in the hour of my greatest weakness.’

Finally, his strong facade broke.

It hurt to see the strong, unyielding Hallvard like this. I reached forward and rested my hand on his shoulder. ‘No. I have no wish to torment you. For it was you who saved me on behalf of Aggard. It was you who brought me to Rynstowe. It was you who opened up this path on which I now tread.

‘A path which I fear you will ignore. As you are stubbornly clinging onto something which is lost, yet I will help you find what you lost.’

‘What have I lost?’

‘Aggard.’

‘She has fallen?’

‘She Fell before the Isles of Dunkeltal were formed.’

He seemed puzzled by this. ‘Yet she called to me, spoke to me, set me upon this hallowed path which I now tread.’

‘We both know that before she asked you to come and save me, she never once spoke to you.’

He hung his head. ‘But the sense of purpose and comfort I got from her presence led me down this path.’

‘And now the comfort has gone? The sense of purpose is but a chain dragging you down.’

‘So you have come to torment me. To drive me away from the path I started walking down long ago.’

‘No, I’ve come to guide you back to the correct path.’ Now I had finally said it, the tension with which I had lived with since I learnt about the truth flared into life once more. There was no going back now. For him, or for me.

‘The correct path?’ His voice cracked.

I sighed. This truly was a difficult question to answer as it went straight to the heart of the tension. ‘You see, Aggard is not who we thought her to be. In our scriptures and mythologies, she is seen as a Mother. But that is a lie. She never gave birth to any of our current deities.’

What was I trying to say? Even though I had the knowledge which Aggard had gifted me, trying to explain it was difficult. Not only that, but I dared not touch upon all the dark details which she left me.

‘She didn’t adopt them, either. If anything, she overwhelmed them and forced them to worship her. I honestly cannot explain it better than that, yet even that explanation is somewhat lacking.'

I took a deep breath and looked at Hallvard, still kneeling. His attention was fully upon me. It was as if I was a teacher and he was an eager student, willing to learn.

‘Anyway, did you not find it strange that Aggard seemed to have less power than any of the other deities out there? She barely had enough to claim a position of a demi-goddess. Yet all of the other deities worshiped her. They worshiped her, loved her, believed she was their kind and caring mother.

‘That she loved them is a lie. She only ever thought about using them. But they didn’t understand this because she had split her power out into three separate places. Think of two of them as anchors. One was in the divine realm. It was a statue of her in a prominent position. In it, she placed all the potential motherly love she had. She did that for many reasons, not only to anchor her, but to cut out that which might hinder her true goal.’

Hallvard looked at me. He was troubled, yet he remained silent.

The next truth I would tell him would either completely destroy Hallvard, make him hate me, or would change his faith in ways I couldn’t ever understand.

I didn’t want to make an enemy of Hallvard. Honestly, I wanted him on my side. I believed in him enough to tell him the truth, even though it might make things even more difficult. All I could do was trust in him.

Trust in him and hope I wouldn’t mess things up between us.