Episode 2: Already So Far From Home

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A hot, spicy stew was brought out for them to eat, as well as wine and a keg of ale. The stew was thick and filling, and tasted wonderful after a couple of days of travelling. The ale was light and had a good taste, Uther felt, but it was a bit more thin than he liked. Just havta drink more, he mused.

"So, what is this place?" Rikkard asked his host.

"This tower was once the heart of a great city -- the capital city of all Mannan, once," began Sam.

"How long ago?" asked Ioan.

"Oh, nearly a thousand years ago, I think..."

"A thousand years!" Rikkard exclaimed. "Surely, you're not that old!"

Sam smiled. "No, son, I didn't come with the city," he said sarcastically. "No, I've only been here for about three-hundred -- actually almost four-hundred! -- years."

"Four hundred?"

"I know, boy, I don't look a day over one hundred, do I?" he laughed. "I started here back in the days of the uprising... All of Mannan was at war in those days, and the old Ulsterian council had dissolved because of clashes between the great Houses.

"The King himself had become under the influence of a particularly dark scheme for power, and monsters began to ravage across the land. Right out there, on those plains, that is where the last battle was fought against that king's army. The great Houses joined together as one to defeat that army, which was incidentally the path to stability after the fighting was done.

"The battle was fierce; it lasted for two weeks, and the land still bears some of the scars from the magicks used then. Through it all, however, this tower remained, and remains to this day. The city below was mostly destroyed, and most people returned to their homes.

"Me, I just stayed. They made me a Baron." Sam shrugged. "I couldn't say no -- it would have been rude!"

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Full, drowsy, and somewhat intoxicated, they settled into comfortable chairs around the fireplace. Sam turned to Abigail, a sparkling in his eye.

"You still don't remember me, do you 'Phina?" he asked with his singsong lilt.

Abigail shook her head. "No, Sam, I'm sorry..."

"I suppose that you weren't much taller than I am now when I last saw you, some, uh, dozen years ago..."

"I was only four! I don't remember much of when I was that age, except playing with Wish and Toby and--" Realization spread across her face like sunshine. "Sam!"

Sam grinned. "Aye, 'Phina, it was easier to be just another child to you, although I always wanted to be called yer Uncle Sam..."

Abigail gripped Sam in a hug. "I always thought you were just made up!"

Sam chuckled. "Yeah, your father got a kick out of that, too."

"So what's this about a brother?" he asked.

Abigail stiffened. "David. He would have been born just after you last visited."

"Was he, I mean... Is he the Lady Underwood's son?" Sam asked carefully.

Abigail's shoulders drooped slightly. "Yeah," she answered. "But he's my brother."

"So, what's he like then? Is he a chip off the old block, like his -- your -- father, then?"

"David is most definitely his father's son," Abigail said, a little sadly. And I'm...

"Well, maybe you can bring him by, sometime! I don't get out much that way, and I don't get too many visitors neither. So feel free to drop by at any time, 'Phina, and we'll play like when we were kids!"

"But what of your brother, Sam? I expected we would run into him, and I'd like to congratulate him on that marvelous platform."

Sam sighed deeply. "Sad to say, poor Padriodoc's somewhere lost... He had it in his mind to travel to Ishtar, and I've never heard from him since. I told him -- I said that gnomes and water don't mix! But he just wouldn't listen. Curse the sea!"

"I'll drink to that!" answered Uther, who promptly gulped from his barrel.

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