The Hunter and the Templar

            Maghda continues to elude us. Every time I get close, she slips through my grasp. And every time she leaves a demon in my path as an obstacle. While this gives me an outlet for my hatred and provides a small pleasure when they fall for the final time before me, I want her. Not any random demon, not some worthless flock of cultists, her. And I will have her. Only now that I have ruined her last plans with the stranger, she has an actual use for me beyond vengeance. She will lead me to her master.

            The stranger. It is a pity that Cain perished before he learned that it was no random angel that fell to this world. The Archangel of Justice himself fell. Tyrael. A name to finally go with the face. Only, as he told me, angels have no faces. Rather, whatever face they have is but a void as they are the reflection of the good within us all. Demons have faces because our nightmares do. They have faces to frighten and disgust us in order to further their own powers.

            Such events only lay to rest a couple of mysteries I had already guessed at. Only an angel could have healed my broken arm so suddenly. Even if it had not been healed completely, and even if his mind was shattered, Tyrael helped me do in days what it might have taken weeks or months to overcome.

            In the end, it matters little to me. Tyrael arranged for a caravan to take us to Caldeum--the great city where he said the darkness is taking root. And the place he came to warn us was but the first step for the last remaining Lords of Hell to launch their final attack upon our world. I cannot wait to meet these cursed creatures face to face. If they require a face to spread fear, then they shall know mine as the last fear they ever see.

            After our return to Tristram, Haedrig provided him with a new set of armor, primarily plate with more bulk than his leather-metal mix. The new shield is larger and shaped in a way that should come in useful for both of us. I'll have to explore that later. My own armor was finished as well and while heavier than what I'm used to, it's not much more difficult to move in than my old armor was. Haedrig truly knows his craft well.

            What really concerns me is that after we had bathed and rested, Lyndon--a thief we aided and has stuck around since--has been teasing him. This time, the templar is barely even rising to the jabs. In truth, I think that the scoundrel is worried as well since he has hardly attempted to flirt with Leah or myself once since we returned. Leah has been too preoccupied with laying Cain to rest before we depart to notice.

            Tonight, once the caravan is underway, I will have a talk with the templar. If he does not cease this odd behavior...it may just lead us to getting killed. And...maybe I am just worried about him for other reasons...

            My dreams all revolve around the templar. While I have no gift of foresight or prophecy, these are troubling things. It is almost as if I am re-living the events that led up to our first encounter but with something...different. I cannot pin it down. I still see the same demonic circle, the cultists, the sight of him thrashing at the heart of their torment. In the dreams however, I hear him scream as he did in the caves.

            And in these dreams, I do not act, I stay at the top of the stairs against the railing unseen. Then all I do is watch, listen, and breathe. Every time he screams in my dreams...I cannot really figure out a way to describe my reactions aside from...darkness and hunger unfamiliar to me. But always the dream ends the same. I finally move into view and follow the same actions I took to free him. And every time I release my bow's string to fire the first arrow, I wake with the chanting still in my ears.

            The other troubling fact is that...I have no memory of the chant when I freed him. They were speaking too low for me to make it out. Yet, I am certain what I hear so clearly in my dreams is what they were saying. That certainty makes me wonder just what I am trying to tell myself in my sleep. Did they do something to Kormac that has only now begun to reveal itself? Or...is something going on that I'm just oblivious to? I am very well aware that hatred blinds. Could it be that my hate is blindi--

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Author's Note:

            Ok, next chapter will be something I hope you'll enjoy. There will be a couple of references to the game chat of course but the majority of it is un-scripted. The real journey begins next chapter because Killa's finally become a more powerful persona now that I've gotten all of this stuff out of the way.