Even Gods Must Fall by Christian Warren Freed Page B

life of a normal Giant youth for his pursuit of mastery. Until now it was a sacrifice he had no qualms with making. The isolation of Venheim left him sorely lacking in what he suddenly decided were important social skills.
    The others managed to interact well enough considering the variety of backgrounds and races. Groge half expected to find kinship with Ironfoot, but the Dwarf often kept to himself Their conversations were limited. Ironfoot often chastised Groge for his inability to accept his natural strength and power and to use them in battle. At first Groge felt disappointed, knowing their kinship through old blood, but then he came to understand the Dwarf’s need for battle. He didn’t necessarily agree with it, but strong people seldom changed their ways without proper cause.
    He’d been walking for most of the day lost deep in thought when he finally decided to confront Bahr with his problems. The Sea Wolf, to his credit, accepted the Giant’s sudden crisis of conviction.
    “Captain, might I have a word?” Groge asked.
    “Of course, my friend. What’s on your mind?”
    Groge paused, taken off guard by Bahr’s pleasant demeanor. “I have much on my mind. This quest is changing me, and not in ways I appreciate. I’m a simple blacksmith. Not a king or great warrior. I come from a humble people who want nothing more than to learn the secrets of steel. Fighting does not come naturally for me, nor would I wish it to. Yet everywhere we have been has led to another battle with more lives lost.”
    “We don’t always get to choose how we live our lives,” Bahr told him. “This is not the life I would choose either but it is the one I was given.”
    “I understand that. I do, but I can’t help but question what is the point. Should we prevail and the dark gods are defeated, what comfort is there? We’ll have sacrificed so much of ourselves that we won’t be the same ever again. I liked who I was. Who I am. The elders tell us change is a necessary evil if we are to continue to evolve as a race, but this is not the change that I need.” Groge shook his massive head. “What point is there in continuing when I will never be who I am again?”
    Bahr glanced to Anienam, hoping the wizard had some random bit of sage advice, but the wizard remained uncharacteristically silent. Bahr briefly considered pushing him from the wagon on principle. “Groge, you ask questions I don’t have the answers for. Each one of us has personal demons to overcome. We’ve gone through so much with no promise of survival. Would you believe I was not always this way?”
    “You?” Groge asked. It had never occurred to him that Bahr, famed sea captain and dispossessed brother of the king of Delranan, might have lived a vastly different life before this quest.
    Bahr nodded. “I am the eldest son, meaning I should have been king, but it was a hassle I never wished. I turned my back on the crown and my father to pursue a selfish lifestyle. My decisions are at least partly to blame for all of the problems inflicting Delranan now. I lie awake each night wondering if matters would be different if I had accepted my rightful place. Would there still be a war? Would the future be in doubt? I can’t answer those questions and I don’t feel as if I should. This,” he said and gestured to the rest of the group, “is my world now. I am responsible for their lives, and yours, if only for a moment. Nothing else matters to me, Groge. Nothing. Once we destroy this Olagath Stone and send the dark gods back to whatever hells they come from, I will finally be able to look back on my life and decide whether or not I was a good person.”
    Finding the answers to his potentially life-changing course of action mildly acceptable, Groge shifted the weight of the Blud Hamr on his back. It was no easy thing discovering he must reach his own conclusions while trying to struggle through day-to-day battles. He decided to change his method of approach. “What