TSSArtifactBook27

The Shackle Spires and Vergalid Vol. I --Released from Ashengate--

Mad and broken after years of torture and lying pinned under rocks that had fallen upon him within Ashengate Temple, Vergalid was confused and suspicious of Lethar's mercy. There seemed to be no reason for Lethar to allow him to escape Ashengate after so many years of agony at the hands of Lethar and his terrible son.

All the same, even though Vergalid was no longer in full control of his faculties, he was not foolish enough to remain at the shrine. He was fearful and timid after many years of terror and confinement. After Lethar dug him out, Vergalid drug himself humiliated out of the shrine as Lethar and his offspring laughed.

Slowly and awkwardly, Vergalid inched his way down the mountainside. Exhausted emotionally and physically, Vergalid did not examine the weight of the rocks he crawled over as he heaved himself up over a crest of stone. Faster than he could react, rock fell away under his belly and he crashed and tumbled over ridges and brush for three hundred feet. When he hit the ground, he laid with his eyes open for only a moment, praying for death, until his mind could take no more. He passed into unconsciousness and slept for two years.

Vergalid was surprised to have awoken at all. He had come to terms with his death when he fell from the last great peak. Slowly examining his surroundings, he realized he remained where he landed. And while his wings were broken, he found his legs had healed and while still sore, functioned well enough to move. This wasn't right, he thought.

Someone had to have tended to him, but there was no sign or evidence of anyone or anything nearby. Even his mind after long rest seemed calmed, though part of it nagged that all of this good fortune was too much good fortune. He ignored it.

His goal now was to find a new den, a lair to call his own, a place to rule after so many years of commanded servitude at the scale and then years of torture at the hands of Lethar. [See Vol. II]