Aesida looked around at the deserted battle field at the destruction she had caused, watched the creatures she had animated from the dead randomly killing anything left alive, and suddenly she wondered what she had become…

She had left Heartwood as a young elf, hungry for adventure, wanting to play her part in wiping evil out of Sosaria. She had travelled to Moonglow, the city of magic, to learn what she could of the ancient art of magery, and all had been going so well… she had excelled in learning and was soon able to cast spells of great power, banishing evil from the land she now thought of as her home.

But somewhere along the way her ideas changed. She became more interested in the power of her spells than using them for good. When she found that she could learn no more in Moonglow she left and travelled to Umbra to study the dark art of Necromancy… and this was where it had left her, surrounded by death and decay, alone apart from her dark summonings.

Her simple life in Heartwood seemed so far off now, as she thought of how she had lived peacefully in the World Tree for so long. She knew she could no longer carry on as she was, she couldn’t continue on the path of the necromancer, but nor could she return to the purer form of magic she had first strived to learn. For her now all the magic arts were infused with the darkness of necromancy. If she ever wished to turn back to good now she would have to start all over again, away from the magery that had drawn her into darkness…

She must become a plain warrior, fighting for good, but who would train her in combat skills now? She was known across the land as the Dread Lady Aesida, and few decent people would have any dealing with her, certainly not to teach her new ways of killing. She must teach herself, out in the wild, the basics of swordsmanship, and, by fighting what lesser monsters she could with her meagre skills, try to undo some of her past evils and dispel her bad reputation.

Hopefully one day people would believe that she had changed, and someone would teach her properly, so that she could do real good, leave her past completely behind, but for now it would be a struggle. An unavoidable struggle however… she knew that she could not stay as she was.

Aesida jumped off the skeletal steed she had been riding, and, letting her book of necromancy fall to the scorched ground with a dull thud, turned and walked away from the destruction she had caused on foot, scattering the magical reagents she used on the ground as she went and eventually even discarding her old book of plain magery.

It was time for her to start again, as a new person, under a new name, with a new aim in life…

*nods*

Starting anew can be fearsome, but wonderful. I myself started again a time ago...*stares into the distance*

You will do well. Very well.

I bid you fair roads on your new Journey, Aesida. You have travelled far from yourself, the return trip may be difficult, but it will be well worth your time.