When with the darkness You speak face to face The Lord of the castle Will take his right place
The Wild Hermit
The Brothers
I walk with my Robbing brother through the wilderness he has lived these many years. He recites the prophecy he received from the Wild Hermit that prompted him to parley with, and eventually surrender to, me.
BraveHeart: So you think this Hermit of yours can help find the offering I need to win back the heart of my Princess?
Robbing: I am sure of it! He can be a bit terrifying, but I have never known him to be wrong.
B. However did you find him?
R. Better to say he found me. After one of my more painful sallies into the castle, he found me and patched me up.
B. Was that when you asked him how to defeat me?
R. [chuckling] No, I was never that wise! I merely thought him a kindly healer, to fix me up when I was hurting. It never occurred to me to ask him how to avoid injury in the first place.
I merely thought him a kindly healer, to fix me up when I was hurting. It never occurred to me to ask him how to avoid injury in the first place.
Robbing
B. What finally changed your mind?
R. It was after our previous battle. As you know, I made it all the way to the Tower where our princess awaits before your — our — brothers caught me. I heard her voice and called out to her. I was sure she heard me and was about to reply. Thus in my desperation, I fought like a madman when they captured me. As a result, the injuries they inflicted were far more severe than usual when they dumped me back on this side of the bridge.
B. I am sorry, my brother. Due to the curse, and my vow, all our brothers were bound to defend the princess by any means necessary.
R. Think nothing of it! If anything, you all were far more gentle with me than I deserved. Of course, at the time I thought myself grievously ill-used. I made the mistake of venting my frustration on the Wild Hermit with an unkind rhetorical question.
B. What was that?
R. Something like: If you’re so smart, why can’t you make a potion to stop the Black Knight from attacking me?
B. How did he respond?
R. He didn’t! Not at first. In fact, he grew so still I feared I had offended him. I was heartily ashamed of abusing my generous benefactor, and opened my mouth to apologize. But before I could speak he held up his hand to forestall me. I held my peace while he sat there, apparently lost deep in thought. Finally, without a word he rose and gestured me to follow.
B. Where did he take you?
R. To this very shrine we are going to now. I had never been there before. It is… well, you just have to see it for yourself. Anyway, he guested me there many days while I recovered my strength. Finally, he went away for a day and a night — I know not where — and when he returned gave me the prophecy I just told you.
B. How extraordinary! Has he really been living here all this time, so close to our castle, and we knew him not?
R. That… is hard to say. The shrine itself is ancient, but the hut we stayed in was more recently built. I thought him a newly arrived wanderer, but some hints he dropped made me wonder if he knew our father.
B. Really? The why didn’t our father tell us about this extraordinary friend?
R. That always puzzled me too. Unless…
B. What is it?
R. Do you remember how he used to tell us stories about a wise emperor-over-the-sea?
B. Yes, of course.
R. Well, sometimes Father would make cryptic or fanciful statements about getting a message from the emperor. I always assumed they were childish fairy tales to amuse us. But now I wonder…
B. Whether they were real, and the Hermit was the messenger of the emperor!
R. Exactly. It hardly seems credible; but then again, no stranger than the curse that befuddled my memory and enslaved you to your fate.
B. But if he knows so much, and is kindly disposed toward our family, why did he not act sooner?
R. Ask him yourself. For we are here!
The Wild Hermit
I was expecting someone like John the Baptist. Unkempt hair. Ragged homespun clothes. Filthy skin. Living in a rickety hovel of twigs and twine.
Instead I find a well-built shed of oaken planks, presumably carted in at great effort and expense. The man of indeterminate age who emerges could have been just another mendicant friar, clean and well-dressed in a woolen robe and well-tonsured scalp.
B. Brother, your Hermit seems mis-named. I don’t see anything particular “wild” ab—
I cut off abruptly as I see the burning eyes set in the Hermit’s gentle face. They seem to glow with an unearthly fire. As if the man had stared into the sun for so long he had drunk its light into himself.
I swallow my comment, and my pride, and prostrate myself before him. My brother looks askance for a moment, then shrugs and joins me on the ground.
B. Wise Hermit, thank you for restoring my sanity and my brother to me. We are forever in your debt. Anything you ask of us, we will do. Yet I fear our quest is not complete. If it is true that you also seek the restoration of our family, I have one more boon I would presume on your generosity.
Face down as I am, I cannot see his reaction. But I think I hear a smile cross his face as he replies.
H. Rise and stand, brave knights. I am merely an unworthy servantlike yourselves. Your debt is not to me, but to the emperor-over-the-sea. For myself, I am content that your brother has been restored to you, and himself.
I rise uncertainly. My brother helps me up, grinning foolishly, and drapes an arm over my shoulder.
R. See, brother?
I nod, unsure what he means but acknowledging the Hermit is everything he said he was.
B. Thank you, kind sir. But I confess I am perplexed. We have heard many wondrous tales of this Emperor, but always as a distant figure of benevolence. If it is true that I owe him a debt, I know not whence to repay him. Though my heart chafes at the delay, surely that takes precedence over my quest, and any further boon I dare ask.
At this, a broad grin comes over the Hermit’s face, though his eyes somehow become hard like diamonds.
H. You have heard much of the Emperor, yet you still know very little. He knows what you would ask even before you do. More, he knows the whys and wherefores behind your ask that are hidden even from you. The debt you mention is far more grave than you can imagine. Yet far from delaying your quest, paying it is the only path to fulfilling the deepest desires of your heart.
“The debt you mention is far more grave than you can imagine. Yet far from delaying your quest, paying it is the only path to fulfilling the deepest desires of your heart.”
The Wild Hermit
Overcome, I drop to my knees.
B. Then show me this path, good Hermit. For my heart is torn within me. Too long have I lived a prisoner in my own castle, bereft of my wits, my wife, and the warmth of my family. If this Emperor of yours can do as you say, gladly will I pledge him my fealty and serve him all my days. No matter the cost.
Too long have I lived a prisoner in my own castle, bereft of my wits, my wife, and the warmth of my family.
BraveHeart
At this, the visage of the Hermit transforms again. Now his face is as hard as flint, yet his eyes twinkle with suppressed mischief.
H. Little do you know what you ask, bold knight. Yet your plea is honestly made, coming from the depths of your broken heart. Those who approach the Emperor like that, he will in no wise turn away.
The Quest
He turns and gestures to his shed.
H. Come, break your fast with me and rest you this day and this night. Tomorrow we leave at dawn.
R. But, where are we going?
H. To the place where all questions go to die, that answers may be reborn.
The place where all questions go to die, that answers may be reborn.
The Wild Hermit
B. But is there any such place this side of heaven?
H. Who can say? But that is where we must go.
R. Does this place even have a name? And how can we get there?
H. To get there, you must travel a most arduous path. It is not for the faint of heart, but you will not travel it alone. I will walk beside you, for I have been there many times myself. Though the way seems beset by many dangers, I have never suffered harm.
B. Your kindness overwhelms us, good Hermit.
H. Ha! Whoever said I was good? In truth, I should be thanking you. You are not the only one who owes a debt to the Emperor. Each time I bring him someone new, he reveals a missing piece of my own broken heart.
Each time I bring him someone new, he reveals a missing piece of my own broken heart.
B. How can this be? If the Emperor is as powerful as you say, why has he not already healed you? And does that mean my own quest will be similarly futile?
He stares at me in shock, and for a moment I fear I have offended him. Then he throws back his head and erupts into riotous laughter.
My brother and I stare at each other uncomfortably, unclear at what just happened. I am beginning to have second thoughts about entrusting our fate — and our kingdom — to this unstable recluse.
Finally he wheezes to a stop.
H. Forgive me, forgive me my brothers. I meant no offense. I had merely forgotten.
R. Ah… forgotten what?
H. How hard it is to properly value the Emperor’s gifts until you experience them for yourself. I am sorry. I did not mean to discourage or alarm you.
B. Please, good hermit. Surely I am the one who should beg pardon for doubting you.
H. It matters not. The important thing is that we are undertaking this journey, and that we are doing it together. The rest is for the Emperor himself to sort out.
The important thing is that we are undertaking this journey, and that we are doing it together. The rest is for the Emperor himself to sort out.
The Wild Hermit
R. So will we actually see him?
H. No… and yes.
B. But… how can that be?
The Hermit merely smiles, turns, and walks back into his dwelling to prepare our meal.
My brother punched me in the arm, then claps me on the back to usher me after our host.
Radically Happy 
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