The Portal of Fate is the worst experience in the world.

You pass through the Portal. Then you don't know who you are. You don't even
remember what happened in there. You're clad in gray and you have a backpack,
and you are on the top of a mountain, and you don' remember who you are.

Its me there. But I don't know who I am. Who am I? I remember: I am a Seren
Guardsman. Who am I? I remember: I am Carolan. Who am I? I remember: I have
wings, I am a trill. Who am I?

Rapidly you realize that those don't answer the question. You aren't a guild
you've never met, you're not a name you've never used, you're not a raceAnd
then you're just left with the nightmares and the memories. The two are not to
be taken lightly. Maybe I could have been normal had I avoided the Portal. Then
again, maybe I had a good reason to go through the Portal. I don't know. I don't
remember.

I knew one thing: I needed to get off that rock.

I had gone east of the place where the portal left me, and had found more
cliffs upward. No. I wanted to go down, not up. Important rule of mountains:
get off of them.

The shale cut my feet. I had returned to the place where the portal left me. A
kid named Malboury was there. He was a good kid. Furry. Short. We were both
clad in gray. We both remembered killing our own shadows and commandeering our
own fates. The winds were too loud outside the Portal of Fate. We were on
Avechna's Peak, though neither of us knew it.

With some hand signals we worked out that we'd be sticking with each other. We
headed west because that was the only way to go. Our feet were bleeding. We
took off our tunics and bit them, ripped them, tied them in knots about our
feet. It kind of worked.

We found a trail downwards. Good. We continued around and down the cliff.

We marched a circle about the mountain. There was only one path. Finally, on
the southeast edge of the mountain, we found a crossroads. After half an hour
of hand motions, we communicated that he would take one and I would take
another, and we'd return soon.

So we did. I had found more cliffs down, this time to a road. I didn't find out
what he found, because by that point, I was pulling him along excitedly. We
descended off the mountain. Our feet were bloody from Avechna's sharp rocks.
The Fates don't like to give you boots. Down the road we went. Another
crossroads. A sign, pointed to the Serenwilde. Yelling above the wind, we found
that we were both Seren, and that we both wanted to go there. For once, we could
at least hear each other. The wind was very cold, but the sun was warm. It was
an awkward experience where any part of you in shadow was numb. Our tunics were
on our feet, and we were on a road, and we didn't know where we were going.

At the crossroads in the Wilde, we saw two trails. I took the north one, he
took the south one. We camped that night, discussing our plans. He hadn't found
anything to the south, except a casino. I had found dead ends everywhere except
two things: A cliff and a river.

So we decided. We'd take the river. I didn't understand why we didn't just
follow the road further, but he insisted. He wanted to swim.

We slept.

I won't describe getting swept down the Moon River. Malboury... Malboury was
behind me at one moment, and when I clutched upon the shores, he was dead. His
body was carried by the river, and I was alone. We had fought together and
survived together, and there he was, flowing down the river, his head no longer
breathing for air.

I was myself almost dead. I coughed out water. The wind was still strong, and
so I was freezing. I couldn't last. I slept.

I woke up to red. My eyes didn't want to open. I forced them open. Blinding
light. I shut them again. My numb but dry, dirty body finally registered that
it was looking up. I turned my head. It hurt to move. My voice was dead. I
looked around. A trail.

If you're in a maze, you try to go right at every turn you can. So long as the
exit isn't somehow in the middle of the maze, and so long as you can get to the
exit, you will.

It wouldn't work in a forest, though.

I stumbled randomly. I found a huge tree, and it made me feel safe. I collapsed
there and slept more.

When I woke, there were many Serenguard warriors around the tree, meeting and
talking and whatever. One helped me up.

A friend died and I was lost. I knew these were my allies -- but I didn't know
how or why. I accepted it. And so I joined the Serenguard. That was how my
journey began.