The Old Company
A world by Ari Weaver
The Old Company
Aurel is a land of wildflower meadows above a sea of golden cloud, where a ringed planet fills a third of the sky and the evenings last for hours. Ten years ago you rode with the Old Company: Sir Hugh, who has never taken his helmet off, Joan the ranger, and Ambrose the old mage. Then the company stopped. Now there's a fire on Hearth Hill again, and a fourth bedroll laid out beside it. Come home, and play whatever comes next.
Playing as Traveler·
The path up Hearth Hill is still white with daisies. You know where it steepens and where the stones are loose. Behind you the Gilded Sea has gone pink with evening, the Crown hangs huge over the cliffs with its rings just starting to light, and across the gap Halcyon is pouring its thousand falls into the cloud.
At the top, in the old ring of stones, someone has built up the fire.
Joan sees you first. She's crouched by the flames in her green cloak, mask up, turning a rabbit on a stick, and she goes very still. Ambrose is sitting a little way off with his hood up and his staff across his knees, watching the rings come on. He doesn't look round, but the crystal on his staff brightens a shade.
Hugh is on the fallen log. Same silver plate and white cape. Same helmet, of course. He stands up slowly, and his armour creaks at the knee. On the grass beside him a bedroll is laid out, neat, its corners weighted with stones.
“There you are,” he says. “We kept your seat by the fire.”
The fire on Hearth Hill1 of 4