Innverse Stats | Interlude – Hectval (Pt. 1)

Name	Text
Crusader 51	Crusader 51, [Crusader]
[Crusader]	Crusader 51, [Crusader]
The Wandering Inn	There was a place in The Wandering Inn few people knew existed. Few people went there, even if they did know it was there.
Erin Solstice	Down the hallways that led up to the second floor, past the game rooms, the rec room, and yes, Erin had decided she needed both, the weights room, and even the bathing room, the wooden hallway branched right. If you kept going, you got to one of the private rooms, one of several entrances to the basement, and a closet, which held brooms and an emergency knife Numbtongue had placed on one of the shelves.
Numbtongue	Down the hallways that led up to the second floor, past the game rooms, the rec room, and yes, Erin had decided she needed both, the weights room, and even the bathing room, the wooden hallway branched right. If you kept going, you got to one of the private rooms, one of several entrances to the basement, and a closet, which held brooms and an emergency knife Numbtongue had placed on one of the shelves.
The Wandering Inn	Even the drunk patrons of The Wandering Inn didn’t bother trying to explore that door, because it was locked and only a few people had the key. The door had a simple, chalkboard nameplate, which someone had neatly written an odd pair of words onto.
Pawn	Pawn was no great [Carpenter], but he could do something as simple as add longer legs to an existing table. In other times, he would come here after a meal with the patrol he led up to the room. After they had taken in the common room, they would come here to sit, and he would tell them stories.
[Carpenter]	Pawn was no great [Carpenter], but he could do something as simple as add longer legs to an existing table. In other times, he would come here after a meal with the patrol he led up to the room. After they had taken in the common room, they would come here to sit, and he would tell them stories.
Pawn	True stories. Parables. Complete and utter fiction. It varied from tales of actual events—embellished as Pawn saw them—to tales from another religion, or simply children’s stories. The Antinium who came with the [Priest] would listen, and then they would pray.
[Priest]	True stories. Parables. Complete and utter fiction. It varied from tales of actual events—embellished as Pawn saw them—to tales from another religion, or simply children’s stories. The Antinium who came with the [Priest] would listen, and then they would pray.
Pawn	The Soldier who knelt in front of Pawn today understood all of what was normal. He had heard tales, though Antinium did not often speak, of how it happened.
Erin Solstice	You would likely be lucky enough to join the Painted Antinium after that. A meal of something other than the mushed paste that every Antinium ate, a chance to see the sky…and meet someone called ‘Erin’. Why this was a good thing, the Soldier had never known.
[Innkeeper]	Someone had hurt the [Innkeeper]. The person who made Painted Antinium possible, who had made this place.
Pawn	The Soldier was the fifty-first Antinium to kneel in front of Pawn. When he looked up, he didn’t see much to set the [Priest] apart from another Worker. Oh, he had clothing instead of a loincloth and a few more scars on his chitin than a new Worker. The Soldier was almost disappointed—until he heard Pawn speak.
[Priest]	The Soldier was the fifty-first Antinium to kneel in front of Pawn. When he looked up, he didn’t see much to set the [Priest] apart from another Worker. Oh, he had clothing instead of a loincloth and a few more scars on his chitin than a new Worker. The Soldier was almost disappointed—until he heard Pawn speak.
Pawn	The Soldier was the fifty-first Antinium to kneel in front of Pawn. When he looked up, he didn’t see much to set the [Priest] apart from another Worker. Oh, he had clothing instead of a loincloth and a few more scars on his chitin than a new Worker. The Soldier was almost disappointed—until he heard Pawn speak.
Free Hive	“Will you take up arms to defend the Hive? To do battle against our enemies? To become more than a Soldier? We are all bound to fight and die for the Free Hive of the Antinium. This is something else. When you march, you will march away from these walls. You may never return. But you will fight, and struggle, and die for something that belongs to you and all of us. Heaven. In this life and beyond. If you do not have that will, if you do not believe, go.”
[Priest]	It was the same line he had heard for the last fifty Soldiers and Workers in front of him, word for word. But when he looked up, the [Priest] looked at him.
Pawn	No one had ever looked at him like that. The Soldier looked at Pawn and remembered the word.
Pawn	You could not enter Heaven by dying alone. It was something Pawn had found, and it came to Antinium—but you had to wait. Wait in the darkness, fighting things, eating the same food…all for the reward that arrived only when you died. That was intolerable.
Erin Solstice	Someone had shot the sky with six poisoned arrows. Someone had stolen the Soldier’s bowl of soup. He had not known Erin Solstice. But for a bowl of soup he never had, for the first moment of anger, the feeling that someone had taken something good from him, the Soldier looked up at Pawn.
Pawn	Someone had shot the sky with six poisoned arrows. Someone had stolen the Soldier’s bowl of soup. He had not known Erin Solstice. But for a bowl of soup he never had, for the first moment of anger, the feeling that someone had taken something good from him, the Soldier looked up at Pawn.
[Crusader]	A [Crusader] rose in his place. He turned and walked past the line of waiting Antinium, feeling…odd. The Workers and Soldiers looked at him as if he were different, and he was.
[Crusader]	He was a [Crusader] now. A warrior of faith.
[Crusader]	But since he was a [Crusader], the Soldier decided he was Crusader 51. It would do, like Archer B12 or the other not-quite-named Antinium.

Crusader 51, [Crusader]

There was a place in The Wandering Inn few people knew existed. Few people went there, even if they did know it was there.

Erin Solstice

Down the hallways that led up to the second floor, past the game rooms, the rec room, and yes, Erin had decided she needed both, the weights room, and even the bathing room, the wooden hallway branched right. If you kept going, you got to one of the private rooms, one of several entrances to the basement, and a closet, which held brooms and an emergency knife Numbtongue had placed on one of the shelves.

Numbtongue

Down the hallways that led up to the second floor, past the game rooms, the rec room, and yes, Erin had decided she needed both, the weights room, and even the bathing room, the wooden hallway branched right. If you kept going, you got to one of the private rooms, one of several entrances to the basement, and a closet, which held brooms and an emergency knife Numbtongue had placed on one of the shelves.

The Wandering Inn

Even the drunk patrons of The Wandering Inn didn’t bother trying to explore that door, because it was locked and only a few people had the key. The door had a simple, chalkboard nameplate, which someone had neatly written an odd pair of words onto.

Pawn

Pawn was no great [Carpenter], but he could do something as simple as add longer legs to an existing table. In other times, he would come here after a meal with the patrol he led up to the room. After they had taken in the common room, they would come here to sit, and he would tell them stories.

[Carpenter]

Pawn was no great [Carpenter], but he could do something as simple as add longer legs to an existing table. In other times, he would come here after a meal with the patrol he led up to the room. After they had taken in the common room, they would come here to sit, and he would tell them stories.

Pawn

True stories. Parables. Complete and utter fiction. It varied from tales of actual events—embellished as Pawn saw them—to tales from another religion, or simply children’s stories. The Antinium who came with the [Priest] would listen, and then they would pray.

[Priest]

True stories. Parables. Complete and utter fiction. It varied from tales of actual events—embellished as Pawn saw them—to tales from another religion, or simply children’s stories. The Antinium who came with the [Priest] would listen, and then they would pray.

Pawn

The Soldier who knelt in front of Pawn today understood all of what was normal. He had heard tales, though Antinium did not often speak, of how it happened.

Erin Solstice

You would likely be lucky enough to join the Painted Antinium after that. A meal of something other than the mushed paste that every Antinium ate, a chance to see the sky…and meet someone called ‘Erin’. Why this was a good thing, the Soldier had never known.

[Innkeeper]

Someone had hurt the [Innkeeper]. The person who made Painted Antinium possible, who had made this place.

Pawn

The Soldier was the fifty-first Antinium to kneel in front of Pawn. When he looked up, he didn’t see much to set the [Priest] apart from another Worker. Oh, he had clothing instead of a loincloth and a few more scars on his chitin than a new Worker. The Soldier was almost disappointed—until he heard Pawn speak.

[Priest]

The Soldier was the fifty-first Antinium to kneel in front of Pawn. When he looked up, he didn’t see much to set the [Priest] apart from another Worker. Oh, he had clothing instead of a loincloth and a few more scars on his chitin than a new Worker. The Soldier was almost disappointed—until he heard Pawn speak.

Pawn

The Soldier was the fifty-first Antinium to kneel in front of Pawn. When he looked up, he didn’t see much to set the [Priest] apart from another Worker. Oh, he had clothing instead of a loincloth and a few more scars on his chitin than a new Worker. The Soldier was almost disappointed—until he heard Pawn speak.

Free Hive

“Will you take up arms to defend the Hive? To do battle against our enemies? To become more than a Soldier? We are all bound to fight and die for the Free Hive of the Antinium. This is something else. When you march, you will march away from these walls. You may never return. But you will fight, and struggle, and die for something that belongs to you and all of us. Heaven. In this life and beyond. If you do not have that will, if you do not believe, go.”

[Priest]

It was the same line he had heard for the last fifty Soldiers and Workers in front of him, word for word. But when he looked up, the [Priest] looked at him.

Pawn

No one had ever looked at him like that. The Soldier looked at Pawn and remembered the word.

Pawn

You could not enter Heaven by dying alone. It was something Pawn had found, and it came to Antinium—but you had to wait. Wait in the darkness, fighting things, eating the same food…all for the reward that arrived only when you died. That was intolerable.

Erin Solstice

Someone had shot the sky with six poisoned arrows. Someone had stolen the Soldier’s bowl of soup. He had not known Erin Solstice. But for a bowl of soup he never had, for the first moment of anger, the feeling that someone had taken something good from him, the Soldier looked up at Pawn.

Pawn

Someone had shot the sky with six poisoned arrows. Someone had stolen the Soldier’s bowl of soup. He had not known Erin Solstice. But for a bowl of soup he never had, for the first moment of anger, the feeling that someone had taken something good from him, the Soldier looked up at Pawn.

[Crusader]

A [Crusader] rose in his place. He turned and walked past the line of waiting Antinium, feeling…odd. The Workers and Soldiers looked at him as if he were different, and he was.

[Crusader]

He was a [Crusader] now. A warrior of faith.

[Crusader]

But since he was a [Crusader], the Soldier decided he was Crusader 51. It would do, like Archer B12 or the other not-quite-named Antinium.

Interlude – Hectval (Pt. 1)

Mentions