A Heavy Burden

Page #3
Part of the following chapter Morgaine's Journal #7
The price of hubris.

My brother has left us with a heavy burden. The Corruption it seems spread not only through his mind and body, but also through all the implements and trappings of his power. His staff, an artifact of great magic potential, is as infected as a festering wound. But this wound has an agenda. A yearning. It longs to return to the agents of the Corruption, and bring with it the doom my brother promised them when his mind was overthrown. And so, in this thing he abandoned, his transgression yet remains. And so we must choose. I can take possession of this tainted staff and pray that its temptations for eternity. This, of course, would require that my will and resolve be even greater than that of my fallen brother – a fool’s hope if ever there was one. Or I can choose to make a sacrifice of this place’s natural energies to draw the poison from his artifact. Much to my chagrin, it seems that fate forces my hand. I can only hope that this craven act will be vindicated by the turning of the hourglass. And that the salvation of Aeternum and its people is worth the contamination of this land its magical lifeforce.