Distant Echoes

'''The Shadow Factory has fallen. The Remnant is demoralized. How will Vocus recover?'''

Background
Written by SDM, Distant Echoes takes place after the climatic battle at the Shadow Factory and the Remnant's defeat. It is from the perspective of Vocus, both in the present day and from his childhood as an 11-year-old boy.

Synopsis
The solo begins in the present day as the Remnant returns to their base defeated, demoralized, and effectively ruined. With the silent command to be left alone by his subordinates, Vocus retreats to his sanctum to think. His despair at the destruction of their progress is mitigated by what gains they have made, and as Vocus finds solace around the statue of Executor, he begins to plan the finish to the High Lord's Final Campaign, with the light of the Moon gazing upon him.

The solo then shifts to a younger Vocus, now an 11-year-old boy dealing with his sick sister and failing farm. Despite his best efforts, their home was slowly going under, but fate intervened with a knock on their door one wintry night. Vocus answers the knock and is shocked to come upon a black-cloak-with-red-trimmed figure, who quite literally had no face to speak of. The figure introduces himself as Lord Valis, a nobleman of the Coronai, and offers aid to the family by buying up their entire farm to give them a steady paycheck as well as giving Vocus's sister the best care in the country. His family quickly accepted the offer, and Valis made good on his promise: Mages from Valis's small legion manipulated the weather to ensure a year-long harvest, and thanks to doctors from the capital the sister was able to make a good recovery.

Their future assured, Vocus and his family continued to work the fields, and under Valis they obtained sums of money they could only dream of. When Vocus's parents grew too old to work the field, Valis sold the farm and used the money to allow his parents to retire peacefully and his sister to attend Magician's School. This left Vocus out, but Valis was swift to offer him an apprenticeship, though to what is not explained. All Vocus does is give Vocus his new "uniform", a black cloak similar to Valis's own (minus the red trim) and say that he will meet new friends in the forest the following night...

Trivia

 * Distant Echoes is part two of a seven-part series detailing Vocus's early life and perspective during the relevant episodes, with Vengeance - Remorse being part one.
 * Distant Echoes is the first solo written by SDM to not have any music accompanying it.