Storyboards: Ordici

Section 1: Briana, Ordici (Group storyboards)
Section 2: The Prophecy
Remorse | As time passed by | The return | Wandering | Is this for the best?

Remorse
I stood there on that porch, looking at the stars in the sky. My mind was total confusion. She knew, and was afraid to tell me. I couldn't stop thinking. But how... How in Belar's name couldn't she tell me? Did she think so little of me? Did she actually think I would leave her because some prophecy said we had to be together? How could she say she loves me and doubt me like that?
“She loved you so much that she was afraid you would think she was just fulfilling the prophecy, Ordici,” Oriana said as she came out to join me on the porch. It dawned on me in that second. My little sister was right! Briana couldn't bear the thought of me thinking that she didn't love me! But I wouldn't have... Would I?
I tell you on that night I had decided to do the one thing that I swore I would never do. I had to break my personal vow. The prophecy demanded it. Due to our failure, it now falls on me to find out what is needed to be done to mend the hole that this unfulfilled prophecy has created.
“Oriana,” I said as a shiver ran through me. “I have a couple of things I need to do.” I looked into her eyes, and I am sure she saw the new determination that radiated from my eyes, for she took a step back and gasped. “Then sweet sister... Then I go to confront our father and demand answers to the questions that I should have asked before!”
I walked back into the cottage and I let my thoughts go. I would always mourn my Briana, but now there was a journey to get underway.

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As time passed by
I reached the rise near the cottage, about a week after bidding Oriana goodbye. I wiped the few tears that fell down my face and I continued on down to that homey little cottage.

As I reached the door my little sister opened the door. By the look on her face I could tell she was worried, and it touched my heart to know just how much my little sister still loved her outcast older brother.

Ord, you been gone almost a week. Where have you been? Are you ok? She asked me as she ushered me inside by the blazing hearth.

I let her help me off with my boots as she handed me a mug of water. I drank it slowly as I looked into the flames. The face of Briana still haunted me night and day, and I can remember thinking all during that week if there was more I could have done. Had I let her down? These questions haunted my waking hours, as her face haunted my sleep.

I looked at my sister and I finally said quietly, Oriana, I just got back from Briana's family. I started shuddering and I buried my face in my hands as I continued. I had to tell them how their daughter died in my arms. Then I had to ask to see their histories to see if I could find more information on that bedamned prophecy.

Oriana gasped as the realization hit her. Yet again she had to contemplate something that I had been contemplating that week. The prophecy had a hook in my life, and I wouldn't regain control until it was finished with me.

I looked at my sister and she winced as I told her I found nothing else their sis. I can't believe I have to do this, but I have to go see the old man. I knew it was going to happen. But I just had to hope!

My sister jumped as the fire snapped loudly and I suddenly slammed down my mug on the table. ‘Damn him for not preparing me for this! Damn that prick to Torak’s bloody altars!’

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The return
Walking back down out of the mountains I looked back at my home for three years. The small cabin I built lost up there in the forest.
The quietness of the place really gave me a place to contemplate in peace. Oriana must surely be missing me, although I have not been around in a while, she did have Briana's cabin.
I ended up near the ruined city of Thalos and wondered, as I always have when I crossed this place during one of my quests as an Adventurer just what did happen here.
It must have been pretty bad, to cause so much destruction. Ahh, but I was prolonging this. Reidia, Maochro, Xanya.... They all must be worried about me... And then there was Urmela I may have to deal with.
Although I slammed my clan insignia on her desk, I still couldn't believe I was gone. Sure, I killed my father in cold blood, but it was his fault he never told me of that damn prophecy... And then there was losing Briana.
The pain has subsided, although sometimes I feel it as the doom it really is. The dark prophecy won one this time, and I am just worried as to what this may foretell to me. Poor Rhyrmon, my little nephew. I hope he doesn't have to grow up in a world where chaos prevailed.
Perhaps this was wrong, I thought. Perhaps I should have stayed up in that cabin. My father’s death... The Adventurers had to have put it out that I was a marked man. The only family I really knew, how they must despise me.
So as I headed into that rising sun, eastward bound I shaded my eyes and sight. Mumbling to myself the whole while that I was making a huge mistake. Knowing that I was doomed from the start. But, I couldn't go on alone anymore. My demons were laid behind me, and Belar could do his worst. I had to return. Briana may have been dead, but Oriana needed me, and I needed her.
Damn, her eyes, full of love still haunted me. How she looked up at me, when she thought I wasn't looking. Filing my features into her mind. How I would do nothing but sit and stare at her.... How I missed her still.
Looking around, I found a shade tree, and decided I would take a rest. Sitting upon the ground, and getting an apple from my pack I took a little nap. My back leaning up against the trunk, when all of the sudden, the bushes to my right moved.
Quickly springing to my feet, I unsheathed my rusty rapier and prayed I remembered how to use it. Facing the area I manfully said "Alright, I know you are in there, come on out."
I waited a little bit and the quiet was almost deafening. Have you ever heard nothing? I tell you, the birds stopped chirping, and it was like losing your way.
Tired of waiting I asked the person behind the bushes to hurry it up, when all of the sudden a wild boar charges out at me. Diving to my left the pig just narrowly missed me. I turned and looked back the way it had gone, when all of the sudden I heard a young mans voice asking " Have you seen my pig?" coming from behind me.
I nearly drove my rapier into him, when I checked my movements. Glancing the way the pig had gone and motioning. I took a good look at this monk-like man standing before me and almost fainted away.
"Belar, it can't be!" I thought to myself. I gasped out loud, "You are one of the Adventurers! I made it a statement and not a fact.
“You know of my clan?” the monk, just a few years older than me I would guess, asked me with pride. Silently I nodded my head, a tear rolled down my cheek and caught in the scar on my chin.
“Aye, I know your clan....” I said, and I couldn't continue. The memories of Maochro, Redia and Wylset. Little Rhyrmon, my nephew, or so I called him, when he called me Uncle Ordi. Looking into his small face, seeing the wonders of the world. Geez, he would have to be fourteen now.
And last I heard was part of the Wanderers. Shinara, I knew, would take care of him.
"Perhaps I now of you then, may I have your name?" He asks me this, at a time like this. How I wanted to refuse and return to my cabin. But, I needed to come home, something was pulling me onward, I just knew what it was.
So, wondering if this monkish man would call for my head, or go in search of the nearest rope for my this tree I told him plainly, and surely what my name was, looking for a reaction in his face.
"Yes, My name is Ordici Rhellan. I said softly, fearing the response.
I was amazed as he looked at me, and told me all thought I was dead. I almost laughed in response. I was dead, or close to it. Looking at the Rapier in my hand I resheathed it, remembering how many times I wanted to drive myself onto this piece of steel and end it all. To be with Briana, only Belar knows where.
As he tried to assure me that everyone around the Adventurers clan hall spoke highly of me, but as lost, I couldn't believe my ears. Urmela would surely hang me if she saw me again for the way I stormed out of the hall.
After a few minutes, he told me he was returning to Camaar, and I asked if I could join him. Perhaps Reidia would be able to help me drive the loneliness away.
And perhaps I could stop by Briana's cottage, where my sister now resided, last I knew, to assure her I was alive. Not well, but alive. And so, seeing how the sun had set, me and Aran, he said his name was, went back into the forest a little to sleep for the night. And the fears in me began to subside. I may have been gone, but by Belar, I was coming home.

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Wandering
After a few weeks of traveling the roads to Sendar I must say that spending this time with Reidia was healing. Sure, when I saw Wylset, the new leader of the Adventurers and let him know that I was back from my seclusion I knew I had made a hard choice in informing him that I had no life left for adventure.
I had to face it. Ever since Briana's death, and all the years I have been gone adventure was the last thing I really needed. I didn't think I would mind seeing the world, but I had enough adventure while dodging some of the things that the broken prophecy sent my way.
As Reidia and I camped for the night under the stars, I saw a tree that I know I knew. Don't ask me how I knew it after all these years. But I was in the right area, and that tree was one of the places that Briana and I used to sit under. I knew it was crazy, but I left the campfire and walked over to the tree.
Fearing what I would find as I walked around the tree, knowing that this was the moment I had been dreading since my return, I found what I wished to Belar that I would never have found. Bringing my eyes closer to the bark, there it was, plain as day. "Ordici + Briana".
The tears started to fall as I looked upon the tree. Reidia, noticing where I had went came up from behind. Laying her cool hand gently on my shoulder, I could contain myself no longer. "Oh Reidia" I wailed as I pulled her close to me and cried into her shoulder. "Why couldn't I save her!"
Reidia looked at what was there and pulled me tighter between her arms. Kissing me tenderly
she gently wiped my tears off my face and whispered words I couldn't comprehend into my ear.
Holding her to me, I knew that I would always love Briana, but that her death would always haunt me. It has haunted me for seven years. Why wouldn't it haunt me when I thought it gone?
Reidia held me in her arms that night, knowing somehow that I couldn't stand to be alone. She held me, and rocked me until I finally cried myself to sleep. Here was a woman who loved me, comforting me from the memory of the last woman I loved. Sure, it was moving fast, but she had to know that Briana would always be a part of me.
As I woke up in the morning, Reidia was still sleeping. I had to do this now, while she was still asleep. I hated to leave her there alone, but I knew the area, and knew that she would be safe when I returned.
Digging into my pack, I pulled out an inkwell and a piece of parchment. Dipping my quill in the ink, I scratched onto the parchment. My love, If you I am not here when you waken then please wait for me.
So I went down an old animal trail and saw it over the rise for the first time in seven years. I couldn't believe that it was still standing, let alone to see smoke coming out of the chimney. My eyes grew in wonder as I saw a coral at the back of the cottage, filled with bulls and cows of varying sizes.
Of course, I had to go see who would have moved into her cottage. Last I saw of it I had left, my sister, Oriana here. I gave Briana's family good gold to pay for her cottage. And to go down there in anger, and demand that the people leaved would be wrong. But my sister should have kept it for my return.
As I knocked on the door, I gave in to my reason. It had been seven years, perhaps she thought me dead. A young lady answered the door with a baby on her hip. Holding the babe close to her she asked in a near whisper "May I help you? Please keep your voice down, my son is sleeping."

After seeing my little sister at her cottage and remembering my time there with Briana, I walked down that dirt path with trepidation. Surely Reidia would understand why I had to go. It has been Seven years since I have seen the place... Or anyone else for that matter.
When I got back to the campsite I saw a note from Reidia saying that I should take my time at Briana's cottage and say hello to my sister. I don't know how she knew, but It put some trepidation at meeting up with her in Sendaria into my mind. The love we share is something I never thought I would ever feel again... and if she found out the whole truth... would she love me still?
So I headed into Sendaria. After our time on the road from Camaar I was really looking forward to seeing Rhyrmon again. The son of Wyslet and Reidia from their brief marriage... I wondered, how he would take the news that Uncle Ordi was now interested in his mother... and would he mind.
I remember Rhyrmon as a young boy. I was 16 the last time I saw him. I wonder what he would make of the man that I have become. Would he welcome me with open arms.. or would the fact that his mother was infatuated, at the least, with good ole' Uncle Ordi make him want to kill me.
Well, swallowing my emotions I finally hit the gates of Sendar. Man it has been a while since I had been there. But Sendar hadn't changed. I wondered if Emily would be happy to see me... and I wondered if her old man still had a fancy for skinning Drasnian Rangers.
Making my way to the chapter house of the Wanderers I was stopped in the path by the door man. Answering his questions about my business he led me into the visitor's hall there, and I was surprised to see Rhyrmon, with his back to me talking to Reidia, and a Woman I haven't seen in a very long time.
Upon seeing me enter quietly, Reidia bent over and whispered something I could not catch into her son’s ear. He giggled a little and then turned around. The amazement on his face, and the awe in his expression was enough to make me damn my self enforced exile.
His mouth rounded in an "O" of amazement and he ran up to me, jumping into my arms and hugging me tight, he whispered very quietly "Ordici, is it really you?"
How he could tell without hearing my voice was a marvel. I looked around for Delminia, for as Belar knows, you couldn't talk to Rhyrmon without having Delminia anywhere near. Not seeing her I hugged the young man in my arms and whispered something into his ear that I can not remember.
"So, you have returned, have you Ordi?" said an older woman’s voice from the seat near the fire. Looking up into her eyes, I knew that Shinara had to have had a hard time watching over Rhyrmon and Delminia. I nodded, forcing myself to speak something. What it was I can not recall. I carried Rhymon back to his mother and took her hand in mine, after depositing her son onto her lap.
"Aye, it has been a while, m'lady Shinara. But I have returned... I have put my Adventuring days behind me, and just wander too and fro" I said a bit jokingly.
She asked a few more questions, and I answered, holding Reidia's hand in mine the whole time. I wondered if she could sense the fear in me. Reidia and I have shared our bed for the last week, and she has to have had picked up on some of my tendencies.
To make a longer story longer, or a shorter story shorter, after a while Shinara asked me if I wanted to join the Wanderers, and for some reason I accepted. She said that the Minsterels needed some good people to help with some of the older stories, and of course, I had read the scrolls in my exile. So I said I would give it a shot.
Thus began the days of Ordici Rhellan, of the Minsterels division of the Wanderers Clan.

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Is this for the best?
The days of wandering came to an end. I do not know how it happened, for it happened when I was away. Perhaps the fact that I didn't tell enough ballads at the seedier inns in town had something to do with it.
I haven't talked to Shinara, so I will never know. All I knew was that I could now be with my wife. She had wanted me to join her in the Merchants. I don't know why of course, seeing as to how I have not really inherited my nations ambition to spy, or to own all the blood red gold pieces I can get my hands on.
Ahhh, but I did know how to fight. I have been dodging assassins for the last seven years. I know just about every back road from Sendar to Chtol Murgos. And I will tell you something, being a guide is second nature for a soul such as my own.
I am sure Rhyrmon would love to have me close by as well. Although I am still worried he may hold some resentment towards me for marrying his mother.
Sure, he was happy when we wed. But, it wasn't like the old times of the both of us sneaking out, worrying Rei to death. I mean, the day that we decided to run through Camaar like chickens, clucking at all the passers-by was fun... but we have yet to do things like that anymore.
Perhaps he has grown up since then. He has always reminded me of his father, when it comes to his seriousness. And now I am getting it in full measure. Belar, but that lad is bright.
So, now I sit, here in the Merchants hall, sitting in front of Lady Chyre, and wondering just what it is she would have of me. She tells me that my time of service is just beginning. Perhaps she thinks I will bring in some more gold for the coffers, but I know that buying and selling will never be something I enjoy.
Unlike my ancestors, who it was second nature too. I find that only games of the mind will suffice. But to play games for gold.. it is unthinkable.
I hope I am not a disappointment. For Lady Chyre seems to me to be interested in the coin. And Belar knows I will never be able to increase the wealth that the others may bring in. I hope she is happy with a Guide, or a Caravan Guard, for that, I feel, is all that I can be.

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