Besides the infrequent passing of travellers from the south and far west, and the more common passage of scouts and soldiers who patrolled these northern reaches, at night gnomes and goblins used this road as well, as did other creatures under the dark gloaming of the sullen northern skies over Morag, and it was for this reason among many that Belloc had chosen to live in this place.
The ruins nearby were of many an age ago. Where once had stood the fair elven city of Nith on the southwest border of the ancient elven Province of Morag, itself a vestige of an earlier, more ancient independent elven Kingdom, there remained only crumbling stone, and dark, whispered rumours.
Anest had arrived at Belloc's dwelling when he was but thirteen years of age. While he was not an introverted boy, any childish tendencies had been driven out of him by the sobering experience of loss.
His mother had died years earlier in a manner that his father would not speak of. And his two older brothers had been lost while patrolling the northern boundaries of Brand. As a result, his father had become a grim, silent figure, whose thoughts and feelings had drifted so far away from his only remaining son that he had become a total stranger.