Advice

So where does the end begin? Does in begin with a shout? A roar of impending doom rushing down a mountain, or across a battlefield, or perhaps in the great halls of palaces and auditoriums?1

No. The end begins within the heart. Like the gentle brush of a cool summer breeze that raises the hairs upon your arm, the end begins as a gentle, hushed whisper, a whisper of a whisper in the heart of men. So it is that man fell. It was not the loss of Cise in the lower reaches of the Red Plains. Nor was it the greatly lamented death of Leoan Paril, eldest son of the king, as he crossed the Swifturn. The end began when good men chose to stop for but a moment and listen to the whispers of the dark. The mutterings of the Unvrereth, the hush of the Beneath.2

It was this that caused the fabled mountain walls of Miranoste to fail in their vigil. Zaa and Renarse alike walked the silver streets. You cannot imagine the darkness of such a day. It twas only ever exceeded when the armies of the mountain kingdom withdrew from the Toes and met their dark foes in the valleys below Falinoste. The Myrmin died to a man that day and the capital was ground to dust under the might of the hordes from the Beneath.3

So if you have tears let them be shed for the blood that was similarly shed. For the mountain kingdom was never to rise again. But do not mistake their fall for a brave one against an invincible foe. The men of Gyseria fell long before they felt the sting of the Menodow, the beautiful liars, the whisperers of the Beneath. Their hearts betrayed them…4

Do not follow their example.5


The words given to Zedwary Anderon from his master, Stor Vishet, the former captain of the guard under the direct command of Toum Dymen, father of Matick Dymen the now King of Keven.