Bardsongs: Part VIII: Seeking Balance

[Aerthrin]

This is from a Play by Post that the Cold Lands Team has been doing, my PC Riordan Parnell. I was fond of it so I thought I'd share:

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Riordan strides out into the early morning haze, hoping to find at least a couple of merchants with decent pack meat and a cask of wine.

"Why is it this outing weighs so heavy on my shoulders... do I so truly dread the sight of those lands I once called home?" With a glassy gaze, Parnell looks out over the town, its squalor and pain apparent.

"When will all things be as they should? When will we learn to rise up from these sorrows and burdens around us?"

With a whisper of words steadily passing his lips, he continues to head back into the market... passing the commonfolk with his quick strides...

"Perhaps it is for us to decide... perhaps we shall set this land aright again." With renewed hopes, Riordan sits beside a market stall, not looking up even once, pulling his lute out and singing in a wispy low voice...

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Can a man become more than his name
Can he look past his time and his place
When a man stands before his reflection
Can he see something more than a face
I try to see virtue and honor
I look hard for the grace and the dreams
There is so much more there that I look for
A reflection so much more than it seems

I look for the same in my shadow
In the outline that traces my frame
But blurred are those visions before me
My hopes there are not quite the same
I see the sorrows that rend through my heart
The pain and the shame behind the eyes
In my shadow I am made fully honest
In that outline there can be no disguise

Most important the ability to see
Beyond what is hidden in a name
A reflection can carry your virtue and hope
And a shadow will provide for your shame

It is a balance that keeps our hearts honest
Our scars teach us all how we fell
It is friendship that guides our next footfall
This is the wisdom of Riordan Parnell


With a small smile and a shake of his head, Riordan rises and turns, seeking out the supplies for the journey ahead...


-As sung by Riordan Parnell of Bloodstone Pass