81 lines
2.1 KiB
TeX
81 lines
2.1 KiB
TeX
\herosection{The Wayward Gift}{chapters/2025.10.06-TheWaywardGift/image/the-wayward-gift.jpg}
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\DROPCAP{../../dropcap_c/dropA.png}lia found a ragged man at the forest's edge,\\
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hungry, \\
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limping, \\
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and shunned by all.\\
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The villagers hissed warnings:\\
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He is a thief, a shadow, a fool.\\
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You will regret your kindness.
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But she gave him food from her pack anyway,\\
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and bound his wounds with strips of her own cloak.\\
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``Thren is my name,'' he said, when asked.
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Alia was on a pilgrimage \\
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to offer her sacred gift\\
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at the temple on the other side \\
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of the Grey Mountains.\\
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When Thren asked to walk with her,\\
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she said yes, \\
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though unease stirred in her heart.
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For many days they traveled,\\
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and she began to hope her mercy was not folly.\\
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But when they reached a narrow mountain pass,\\
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he betrayed her.
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He stole the gift \\
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and vanished into the crags,\\
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leaving her with empty hands \\
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and brokenness.\\
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She staggered homeward, \\
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grief-struck,\\
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while the village mocked her soft heart.\\
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Mercy is wasted on the unworthy, they said.\\
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Now you see.
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Years passed.
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Alia lived quietly,\\
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alone,\\
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her quest abandoned,\\
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her heart still tender but scarred.\\
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She never knew what became of the thief.
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Meanwhile, far from the village,\\
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Thren lost his way in the wilderness.\\
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Starving, \\
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half-mad,\\
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he stumbled upon a hidden monastery.\\
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The monks took him in, \\
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asking nothing.\\
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There, \\
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he found a silence \\
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that would not let him hide,\\
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and the chants at dawn \\
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pierced him deeper than any blade.
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Thren became someone else,\\
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slowly, \\
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painfully.\\
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He became the one who rang the bell at dawn,\\
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the one welcoming wanderers at the gate,\\
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the first to volunteer for the lowliest chores.
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In time, \\
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he became the one they called Abbot.
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He tried many times to find Alia,\\
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to return her gift.\\
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But when he had first stumbled upon the monastery,\\
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he had been so lost with cold and hunger\\
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that afterward he could never retrace his steps.
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And so the sacred gift he had stolen\\
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was folded into their worship,\\
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woven into their daily prayers\\
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until it seemed it had always belonged there.
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Alia never knew.
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