The March to Stone Shard - Part 3

I couldn’t believe it still.

I had heard first-hand from someone who had been there to witness the event and I still couldn’t accept it.

How could someone hate someone else so much that they would jeopardise the entirety of the Gold Crusade?

What could have happened to them to make them hate one another so much?

I decided to ask the Wisdom Keeper first as he taught them both back when they were young boys.

“Hmm, were they like that?” Keeper Rarrack wondered, staring off into space.

“Do you not remember back then very well?”

“It’s not that. I don’t ever remember them fighting at all. At least, not in my classes that is.’

“So, they did fight.”

Keeper Rarrack let out a long sigh and shook his head. “They never did.”

“What?”

“In my classes, when they were boys, they got along extremely well,” Keeper Rarrack continued, his voice much sadder and quieter. “They helped one another with their work, helped each other whenever the other had a problem and, whenever they practiced their sword fighting, no matter how hard they hit one another, they always had smiles on their faces at the end.

“Even when they no longer required my classes, I saw them a few times when they returned to the Archives and they still seemed to be as close as always, so I assumed that their bonds had remained as strong as always.”

I was too stunned to say anything.

Lord Long-night and Taigstun were friends?

And since they were children?

…If this was true, why did it seem that no Dwarf alive knew about it?

Would any Dwarf ever believe such a thing?

I still can’t, even as I write this.

“…Did you not know of their feud?”

Keeper Rarrack looked down at the ground, a bleak expression on his face, and said, “No.”

I couldn’t bare seeing Keeper Rarrack like that and quickly left after thanking him for his time and apologising to him.

“…Yes…Yes…” he said.

He didn’t say anything else as I left.

I feel sick.

I feel cold.

Even as I write this, I can’t shake this feeling from my chest.

Keeper Rarrack was like a second father to me, and to the other scholars in the Archive, and I’d hurt him.

I took the precious memories of two of his pupils and tainted them, an act that I can never take back.

The most that I could do now was continue to find out the truth about Lord Long-night and Taigstun and make it so that every Dwarf in the city from now until eternity knows the truth about them, and that there was a time when the two were friends.

Perhaps they even considered each other brothers once.

I decided to go to Sir Euwan after this as he had been by Lord Long-night’s side since they were boys.

“It sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it?” Sir Euwan asked with a thin, sorrowful smile. “There were times when I thought that their bond was so strong that they could’ve been brothers, if not by blood but by name. I still remember the first time I met Lord Taigstun. Lord Dorvan and I had just turned seven years old when Lord Taigstun’s mother and father came to visit the Long-night house. Lord Dorvan and Lord Taigstun had grown to be friends in Keeper Rarrack’s lessons and the two were overjoyed to see one another.

“Lord Dorvan gleefully introduced Lord Taigstun to me and said that he was his friend from his lessons and Lord Star-forged was very kind to me. He even asked that I treat him as I did Lord Dorvan…” Sir Euwan’s expression twisted and he clutched onto his arms more tightly. “He even asked that I call him Taigstun; just…Taigstun. A minor noble like myself would never be allowed to call him by his first name without losing my tongue, but he assured me he’d protect me if anyone tried anything like that. We spent the rest of the day playing together and I felt like I had two brothers…I still do, even now.

“From that day, whenever Lord Dorvan and Lord Taigstun finished Keeper Rarrack’s lessons, they would rush back to our house where they knew I was busy doing work for my father and order me to play with them. Then, when we were out of the sight of the others, they’d drop all formalities with me, and we’d play until dinner.”

Sir Euwan let out a small sigh and his eyes twitched; he dug his nails into his arms. “Those were good days.”

I excused myself shortly after as I knew that Sir Euwan wouldn’t be able to stand talking about his lost brothers any longer, and I retired to my room to write down our conversation before falling asleep.

…They were friends.

So then why…why would Taigstun do such a thing?

I cannot fathom it.

Perhaps, yes, just perhaps, Taigstun thought that Anvil would make for a better forward operations base and wanted to secure it first, then send the wounded back with a garrison to strengthen Stone Shard, start the supply trains and then reinforce Anvil at the same time?

Perhaps he was looking at a bigger picture that Lord Long-night and the others couldn’t understand, and he was merely annoyed that someone thought his plan was foolish and thought their own was better.

Ancestors I hope that is the case.

This morning, I decided to ask one of the surviving members of Taigstun’s retinue about what had caused the two lords to fall out with one another and…I don’t know what to say, so I’ll let the testimony speak for itself.

“Lord Star-forged and I served together during one of his terms at Strangúld on the front,” the captain told me. “I, my lord and Lord Long-night were there during the Slaughter of Slayers.

“We were all assigned to one of the phalanx battalions when the goblins assaulted the gates. That day, they had half a dozen trolls dragging gigantic hammers with them. The phalanx units were deployed beyond the gates and set up in formation, ready to receive almost fifty thousand goblins head-on, to give the Slayers enough time to set up and fell the trolls.

“They smashed against us with an unrelenting wave, those green bastards, but we held them, until the trolls swung their hammers at us, smashing our formation into pieces. My lord and Lord Long-night were caught up in one of the troll’s swings, breaking Lord Taigstun’s leg and trapping Lord Long-night under a dozen corpses and shields.

“Even with his wound, my lord limped to his friend’s side and dragged corpses and shields off Lord Long-night, while also fighting off whatever goblins came close to him. He managed to get enough off that Lord Long-night could stand, but Lord Taigstun was slashed from behind, badly wounding him.

“Lord Long-night dropped as much of his armour as he could, hoisted my lord into his arms and ran back through the lines to the medics. I ran with him, protecting the two from goblins as we pulled back. We reached the medics and Lord Taigstun’s wounds were treated and…” The captain’s eyes narrowed. “He saved my lord’s life.”

I imagine your question right now was the exact same as mine.

“Why did this make them hate one another?”

The captain grimaced. “…It was what happened afterwards that made them hate one another.

“Once we had made sure that Lord Taigstun was okay, Lord Long-night and I rushed back to the front lines. He took command of the defence until the Slayers had set up. When all their trolls lay dead, Lord Long-night rallied the phalanx, got them back into formation and ordered the counterattack, forcing the goblins to retreat.

“When the battle was won, the soldiers cheered for Lord Long-night and called him a hero. Days later, news of his bravery and skill on the battlefield made him renowned as a hero throughout all the Dwarven Kingdom.

“Lord Taigstun’s actions were all but forgotten.”

Even before the captain said it, I thought that would’ve been the case.

“Lord Long-night tried to tell people about what my lord had done for him, but no one wanted to hear his words. His praise fell on deaf ears, with most dismissing it as just him being humble, improving his reputation even further.

“You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who wasn’t angry with that sort of treatment.

“Lord Long-night tried many a time to speak with Lord Taigstun after that day but, every time, my lord was either occupied or Lord Long-night ended up swarmed by admirers on all sides, adding to my lord’s bitterness.

“And, soon enough, my lord lashed out at Lord Long-night and, well…they ended up how they did.”

It wasn’t either of their faults that they ended up as enemies.

Taigstun was forgotten by the people, left to feel useless and pathetic, whilst the people praised Lord Long-night, leaving him on a pedestal above his childhood friend and unable to get a moment to explain himself to the people or Taigstun.

Without that explanation, Taigstun’s heart twisted and he lashed out first…and that slowly twisted Lord Long-night’s heart in turn.

Words fail me.

Wait…

Lord Long-night never mentions such a thing in his journal entries, ever.

He makes no mention to the time when they were friends, not in his notes for the Crusade or even in the years prior.

Lord Long-night’s son was kind enough to allow me to see his father’s journals stretching back almost all his life, back to when he was but seven years old, and I found something that was most unusual.

There were entire pages ripped from the books, entire sections crossed out or scribbled over with ink, and there were some with singed corners, presumably from an attempt to burn some of the pages contained within.

When I first saw them, I thought nothing much off it, as strange as I found it, but now I can’t help but wonder what he was trying to erase?

…Was Lord Long-night trying to erase those memories from history?

If he was willing to do that for his own private journals about his childhood, journals that no one else would ever have seen normally, what is to stop him from omitting details from his journal on the Gold Crusade?

In fact, now that I think of it, the sergeant from Taigstun’s retinue mentioned that his unit had been assigned to Lord Long-nights army as it headed for Anvil and that Lord Long-night screamed angrily every night in his tent, his hatred directed to Taigstun and the High King, but Lord Long-night doesn’t ever mention this.

I checked each page again and again, but I didn’t find him mention it even once.

When I told the captain that Lord Long-night vented his frustrations after the meeting, the man laughed.

When I asked why, he said, “It wasn’t just there and done. When we ran into a Goblin town in the tunnels, he spent about a half a minute repeatedly slashing the corpse until it was ribbons, cursing Taigstun all the while.”

“He did that in public in front of the troops?”

“Of course not. He did it when he thought he was alone in a back alley and I saw the entire thing. Quite the sight, given how dignified and polite he usually was in front of everyone else.”

Lord Long-night never, ever, talks about this in his journal.

…What other details has Lord Long-night left out of his writings?

I can’t help but wonder how unreliable Lord Long-night’s might actually be, but, even then, it’s the best account that I have of the Gold Crusade…

I can worry about that another day, perhaps when I’m fortunate to have more information at my disposal.

The next morning, after the less-than-ideal meeting of the lords, the Gold Crusade divided into three and they set off for Anvil…off to their deaths and the end of our people’s dream.