As Garinor considered his rash actions, he realized that he had erred greatly. He couldn’t imagine a world in which his best friend stared at him with such disgust.
“I will give up my soul to free the prince,” he said solemnly.
“A noble Choice. Very well, Chosen One,” spoke the Voice, and there it dissipated forever.
The green light surrounding Garinor was pulled from him toward the scepter. As it left him, his soul was pulled along and wrenched out of his body. The pain was excruciating, and if it had been physical pain he would have passed out from it at once. As it was, he was forced to endure the extent of it, wishing he could cry out and release even that much. But the agony was contained within him.
All at once, he was encased within the crystal dome of the scepter. The emeralds faded and their surfaces went gray, leaving him with no uncertainty that he had died. But he swung his gaze about and he could see that his body had not dissolved like the prince’s had. Instead, a new glow erupted around him and the light of the rubies flared into being and crept toward his body.
He realized what was happening and he wished beyond anything that he could prevent it. But he had traded his soul with the prince’s, and the prince’s body had already been destroyed. So it was that the prince’s soul was placed into Garinor’s body for the rest of its life.
The pale rose quartz shards glowed and mingled with the violet amethysts. Their light swept Garinor up into the chamber and whisked around the room. His consciousness was carried through the walls and he found himself soaring across the land, encased in pink and purple light, spreading the word of truth to the entire land. It was a frenzied journey, but he delighted in being part of it. The light spread out across the land and then condensed sharply back into the cave where Garinor was again trapped inside the crystal dome.
The scepter shuddered all around him and then it burst. The iron and glass shattered to countless pieces and fluttered to the floor, leaving nothing behind in its wake.
Tomli’s face was creased in dismay as he watched Garinor drag the prince toward the scepter to die in a flash. Then another flash had erupted when Garinor touched the scepter and he knew now the entire land understood that he was the rightful king.
He frowned at Garinor. “I understand why,” he said sadly, “though I don’t agree with what you did.”
“What are you talking about, fool?” said Garinor’s voice oddly. He reached his hand up to his throat and he coughed. “What foul magic is this?” He sputtered again and then he looked down as his body, realizing that it wasn’t his own. The prince corrected himself quickly and tugged his shirt down and stared Tomli in the eye, pretending to be Garinor whose body he inhabited. “I did what I had to do.”
But Tomli wasn’t fooled. He knew the Garinor before him was not his friend. He didn’t understand how, but he realized that the prince had taken over Garinor’s body. He turned to the two Daggerfists in the room and beckoned them forward. “Seize him.” They glanced at each other, bewildered, but obeyed.
“You can’t do this to me. I’m your friend!”
Tomli leaned in close and whispered, “I see in your eyes that you are not the one I have known all my life. You are the traitor who sought to kill me.” The prince wailed in response so violently that he needed to be gagged.
They returned to the Daggerfist camp and Tomli had a difficult time explaining to Terrian why his son was bound. He had a skeptical look about him, but he accepted the king’s explanation.
“My first task as king,” Tomli announced that night over a great feast celebrating his ascension, “is to honor one who has protected me since my birth. Terrian of Paligar, I would be honored to name you captain of the king’s guard.”
After that, many of the Daggerfists stepped up to be knighted as well, though Tomli first bestowed the honor upon Song, who needed to be carried forth on a litter. “To Garinor,” Song said when he was given a goblet of wine to raise, “for facing death and acting in noble form.”
Tomli raised his own glass to his friend, whom he realized had acted impulsively by dragging the prince forward but then had corrected his error in giving up his own body. He hated looking at the prince, who stared back at him from his friend’s visage, and it wouldn’t be long before the prince would be sent to the dungeons to live out his days.
During that first night of celebration, another surprise awaited the new king. It was something he hadn’t expected at all and so when it first occurred to him, he denied it and thought he had simply been indulging in too much wine. But when he looked at the firelight and squinted his eyes, he was certain that he could see Garinor looking back. Not the imposter, but his real friend.
Indeed, because he had acted in noble fashion through most of his journey and again at the very end, Garinor was given the chance to roam the land as a spirit. He accepted this gratefully and stayed by Tomli’s side for many years, offering silent counsel and companionship. They worked out a series of hand and arm signals in order to communicate since Garinor couldn’t speak. He was also able to scout in places no one else could go, and so he alerted the new king to some perils that he would have been hard-pressed to put down without prior knowledge.
In this way, the kingdom was guided along a prosperous path. Terrian trained many warriors in his day and they protected the people well. The previous king, Vehn, was offered a place in Tomli’s court, which he accepted, for it allowed him a sense of his former power and comfort. But Garinor uncovered a secret plot in which the king conspired with his brother to invade Tomli’s land and overrun him. After that, the old king was reunited with his son in the dungeon, though he refused to accept the prince in Garinor’s body.
The years went on and Tomli’s heirs took the kingdom from him in due course. His eldest son, Garin, was a fair and just ruler and it was then that his namesake’s spirit knew his journey was at an end. With a final farewell, Garinor’s soul departed the land, embarking on a new, eternal adventure.
You have come to the end of Garinor’s adventure, but there are other paths to explore. Start over and guide Garinor again along his journey.
The End…