Feeling as if he had out drank a dwarven colony, Lithanus' eyelids slowly lazed open, allowing the bright morning sun to pierce through his eyes thus increasing the dull aching throb of his head. Turning his head to the both sides, he saw that he was lying upon a cobbled surface. With a groan he carefully sat upright, resting his arms upon his knees. The large gates of his father's home stood before him, looming far into the sky from the angle at which Lithanus sat. Suddenly remembering what had happened prior to him blacking out, Lithanus bolted to his wobbly feet, gripping the gate with both of his hands. The large manor which had stood beyond the guard of the dark gates was now gone. As though plucked from the very ground by a giant hand, there stood nought but a large open space where Lithanus had...for a brief time, called home. Nearly breathing the words, he recounted Throm's final words to him.
'After you leave, none will find this place again...' Peering through the greenery west of where the house had once stood, he could see a large structure poking out over the tops of the trees. 'I wonder.'
Lithanus broke into a slow run, heading down a dirt path along the western edge of the gate. As he rounded the corner, his pace quickened at sight of the airship hangar.
Skidding to a stop within the large bay of the building, he peered upwards into the scaffolds, hoping to see the shining hull of his father's airship hulking in the dock above. His hope was in vain. The dock lay barren, the connecting cables hung lifeless from the scaffolding. A sharp pain in his right hand caused Lithanus to open his palm revealing the small glint of a metal object within it. Holding the object up to the light he realized he had been squeezing the key his father had given to him. Staring at the key as he continued to hold it up to the light, Lithanus felt the frustration mounting within him. All that had been left for him was a sword and a key to which he had no lock. He had no answers. He had no idea what would have possessed his father to poison the lifestream. No idea why his very presence caused him to be violently ill. No idea why his father had by all appearances vanished from the face of Toril along with his manor and ship. Whatever his questions, Lithanus knew that here he would find no more in way of answers. Sighing he pocketed the strange key, shouldered his new found sword, and left.
