Lorenor listened to the boy speak. Poor kid has been running for a long time...I'm glad I found him when I did. Lorenor thought to himself. Once the younger fellow was done talking, Lorenor could only nod. "You are safe here. Take all the time you need to rest." Lorenor said, and he meant that, he would protect the youth with his own life if need be. The old paladin stood up at that point and readied a sleeping bed for the boy. "Here." He handed the lad a pillow and a blanket, very simple in texture...but it would do. Lorenor watched the younger one fall asleep.

He stood there for a long while observing him in his sleep.

He's been on the run for a long time. Perhaps we all have been...maybe this is our divine punishment. Lorenor was old, but he didn't feel exhaustion in the same way the mortal kind felt it. He was Undead in nature...there were differences in blood...genetics. Lorenor watched the boy sleep for a little while longer then he returned to his work. He took several of the more incomplete tomes and he began to write...scribing down the teachings of the mad prophet Nenkulor Shima. As he wrote he kept thinking of all that he had seen in his long life. Many things passed through his mind, thoughts of the lives he'd touched. The enemies he'd made...the friends he kept close. As he wrote something happened...

A specter manifested behind Lorenor. Lorenor turned towards the apparition. "I have been waiting for you for a long time." Lorenor said to the ghost of Nenkulor Shima.

"I will always be with you." Nenkulor said. "You have completed my great work. It is now your to keep." Nenkulor said carefully.

"Will the ash-fall stop?" Lorenor asked...he needed to know...he had to give others some sort of a HOPE.

"Difficult to see. But that is not why I am here...this time." The ghost said to Lorenor.

Lorenor sighed. "This is difficult to deal with...difficult to understand it all."

Nenkulor looked at Lorenor with a very serious expression on his face. "You don't need the Thayne. None of you ever did." Nenkulor said. "There are other routes to power...you KNOW this." Nenkulor continued to talk. "But you and your friend are very tired. Make sure you rest well, it might be the last chance you ever have to." Nenkulor said. He walked towards Lorenor and sat down next to him. "You have many questions. But that can wait, for now I need to prepare you for something..."

And thus, it began.