Utterly Mad

A dream. Here she was just 'Nora.' At home, no one called her Ferret. She was lying awake in her bed, listening to her father and her tutor discussing the goings on in the world. "The hollow legion has gathered and is on the move, hard to tell what's rallying them. For now, they seem content to harass the ratkind that venture too far towards the ruins of the central kingdom." Explained Stam, "To make matters worse, the Zantian military is in shambles after the recent civil war and the Iron lich has seized the fifth spire. Not that there was anyone to stop him." Nora could smell the smoke of her fathers pipe and the acrid smell of burning pine resin. She could imagine him staring deep into the fireplace, working out in his head the implication of what his old friend had told him. He would take a long draw from his pipe and then blow the smoke out in a long stream through his greying mustache. "What will happen do you think?" He asked. Stam responded immediately, "The hollow legion will stay where it is unless whatever is driving it decides it needs to guide it in this direction, the Zantian city states will divide up the country along pretty much the same border lines as before, and the Iron lich... The Iron lich will almost certainly turn his eye towards either towards Il-wooch, Sunken Gulgatha, or Bright Point. Any way it goes, it would be a disaster." It was the first time she had heard the name of the sunken city. She rolled it around in her head. "Gulgatha." She would ask Stam about it later. Even though she had never heard the name before, it had grabbed her. The name alone fascinated her, called to her. "Gulgatha." Her father was speaking again. "I need to go to Gulgatha then." Stam raised his voice, "Out of the question. You'll do little more than make your wife a widow and deprive your daughter of her father." Her father had probably shaken his head. She heard him start to explain that he had his grandfathers things, many notes. She would have heard him try to reason that if their heirloom wasn't reclaimed, it might never be. Would have heard Stams argument against it, against even bothering to stir up that place, but the dream had begun to grow hazy and distant. Her father had finally relented to staying away from that place. "Gulgatha." Nora thought, the name ringing in her mind.