{"id":395,"date":"2024-02-18T04:15:15","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T04:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/?page_id=395"},"modified":"2025-03-21T02:22:21","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T02:22:21","slug":"onward","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/the-ghoul\/onward\/","title":{"rendered":"Onward"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One morning dawned like any other, but Kelofun could feel the difference. Today was the day he would leave the Temple, never to return. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As he walked the dimly lit halls for the last time, venturing out into the dazzling morning sun gracing one of the Temple courtyards, he tried not to be overwhelmed with emotion and preemptive nostalgia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The other monks he passed gave him knowing glances; all knew of him, all knew this was the day. He had come to be entwined with the Temple; he lived its law and cared for the building physically as one would care for a beloved relative. It was far more than a home, it was an extension of himself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eventually he came to the Abbot’s chamber. It was more like a throne room, the Abbot more like the High Priest of some cult. The Abbot wore an elaborate mask; none ever saw his face. He wore layer upon layer of lavish robe, and sat on an ornate throne surrounded by statues of important deities and bowls of smoking incense. Yet he was also fatherly, towards Kelofun at least, and had always held a special place in his heart for his most ardent student. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But rules were rules, and for Kelofun nothing in life was above the Rules. He was honor bound to spend the next five years of his life away from the Temple, living the life he had prepared for, being the brave warrior and protector the world needed, would always need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meeting was brief, tense with far more emotion than either man was supposed to bring to the occasion. The world was dangerous. Kelofun was bound by oath to the Temple to risk his life to save someone in distress; to intervene in all incidents of injustice; to represent the weak in their disputes with the strong. He would be called to fight all manner of unscrupulous vagabond trash coughed up by the roadside, and to settle all manner of argument between villainous merchants. The odds of him ever returning to the Temple were beyond slim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Abbot reached down and gave Kelofun his parting gift; the newly crafted daisho set of katana and wakizashi that would become the instruments of his craft from this day forward<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One morning dawned like any other, but Kelofun could feel the difference. Today was the day he would leave the Temple, never to return. As he walked the dimly lit halls for the last time, venturing out into the dazzling morning sun gracing one of the Temple courtyards, he tried not to be overwhelmed with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":396,"parent":228,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-395","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":750,"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/395\/revisions\/750"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}