((OOC: Hopefully this will be a shortish solo for me to flex some rusty writing muscles))

A lot had changed on the island nation of Corone.

The war for Radasanth had been a brutal affair which saw far too many dead in such a short period of time. The upcoming upheaval of the current government to the brotherhood was upon everyone’s lips when Sage had taken his detour to Stonevale. And ever since he had arrived back on his home nation it was still all everyone was talking about. Whispers from the north, roomers spread by merchants and neutral parties that wanted nothing to do with the war.

Much like Sage himself.

Oh, that was not to say that he did not have his opinions on who was right and who was wrong. But Sage was not a fighter of any kind and held no political clout so anything he had to say would never be heard by the leaders on either side.

But it was all everyone wanted to talk about and yet despite the war was now abruptly over with the status quo remaining as it had before the war, both sides were far too busy picking up the pieces of the calamity that caused the fighting to stop.
The meteor shower that rained down hell all over Corone.

And yet, beyond Sage’s understanding, there was little said about that particular even that had stopped the war. The damage was extensive, villages had been crushed, farmland had been razed to the ground. The land of Corone had been forever changed by the event that new maps would have to be made just to account for the craters that now pockmarked the landscape.

Sage sighed and ran a hand through his long flowing hair.

Perhaps it wasn’t that the people of Corone were not just talking about it, they were a hardy people, death and destruction was almost commonplace in the world. Perhaps that people were not talking about the meteor fall unlike the war because out of the two, the Meteors had been the less devastating of the two.

‘Which is foolish. If both sides were serious about this war, then all that would have come from this would be a temporary cease fire.’ The boy groused as he tapped the leather-bound grimoire with his finger.

He wished that people had something more interesting to talk about. Like the Meteors that had fallen. There was so little gossip about it that any information Sage did have about them was scant at best, but that did not mean that the people had been oblivious to where they had fallen.

One such Meteor was said to have fallen somewhere in the south west region of Concordia forest. And unlike the last one, Sage was hoping that the remains had yet to be picked clean by the Alliance or the Brotherhood and he was certain that none of the typical scavengers had gotten to it either because most people would tend to leave the forest alone.

Sage was hoping to be the first one there so that he could claim what was left of the meteor. But first he needed to get to the nearby village of Tristen so that he could then form a small band to help ward off any nasty surprises that may be awaiting him within the forest. Which was what had lead Sage to here an now, sat reclining against a fallen log with a small caravan parked nearby that was warming a stew over an open campfire. It was one of the merchant caravans that often carried goods from Tristen to Radasanth and he had managed to hitch a ride along with a woman and child that had been seeking to get away from the war.

All they had been talking about was the war, much to the point that Sage had withdrawn himself away from the group.

He was far more interested in the meteor shower and not all of it was a purely academic interest. The nature of the meteor storm had reminded him of the similar calamity that had created the Vale of Dreams, a magical poisoned desert that warped any living creature that lingered too close. Granted, that incident had occurred in a completely different world, but that did not mean that the meteor falls here did not also have some unique properties. But most of all it would perhaps allow him to put his mind to rest with his own theory that the meteor storm was actually the by-product of a spell.

And after the incident in Stonevale, he really had a sinking feeling that this was the cause of another similar fanatic cult that really ought to be culled.

But he would need to actually get a hold of one of the Meteor shards first before he could start any investigation into it, but his gut twisted with the thought and he hoped that his suspicion would be proven false this time around.

“Are you going to read that book, or stare at the cover all night?” a low rumbling voice startled the boy out of his thoughts and he looked up to the large weather worn man stood before him. The man was one of the caravan guards who routinely made the trip from Tristen and Radasanth transporting goods and wears and occasionally merchants who bartered passage. His hair was greying along the sides and his face was pock marked with only a few scars, though his leather armour and the sword he kept by his side certainly appeared as worn as he did.

Sage wrapped the grimoire in his arms close to his chest as he tried to stammer out an answer. “N-no, w-well yes, I did plan on reading it, its just that”

“You look like you have your head in the clouds” The man said with a smile and held out the bowl of stew he had been holding for Sage. Flushing with embarrassment, the young Mage politely took the bowl and uttered a shy “Thank you”

Sage positioned himself to sit upright against the fallen log he had been using as his backrest and placed his grimoire to the side and he turned his attention fully on the free meal he had been given. There was no spoon given and the stew was still steaming hot so he was careful on how he held the bowl as he brought it up to his lips and carefully tested the heat of the stew.

It was far to hot for him to try it just yet, so he held the bowl close and stared deeply into the watery broth.

“Something on your mind” the Caravan guard asked him taking a seat atop of the log Sage was resting against. The boy sighed thoughtfully, there were honestly a lot of things on his mind, some he wanted to talk about and much more he dared not wish to speak of. “Nothing, it’s just … I know my family is safe, Crossroads wasn’t hit by the Meteor shower”

“Crossroads eh? That’s the other way from here, why are you heading to Tristen?” The guard asked curiously, to which the boy just continued to stare into the steaming stew and gave an almost unnoticeable shrug.

“I honestly could not say, other than there is something I need to see for myself” he answered plainly.

“I’ll take that as wizard talk for, none of my business” the Guard said absently with a straight face.

Sage looked up at the guard alarmed, thinking he had just insulted the man “What no I didn’t mean it anything like that at all” he said quickly not wanting to offend the man, but the elder just laughed after holding a straight face for a moment longer.

“Relax kid, most mages I meet tend to be the private sort.” He said honestly and sage absently agreed with the man’s stout observation. “My name is Maximillian, but everyone around here just calls me Max”