Yet even in the praising of heroes, the people are never wholly free of their own puzzles.
So they ask, in taverns and on watchtowers and in the hush before battle:
To be Gae or not to be... What is the question truly asking?
And the wisest answer is not spoken loudly.
For it is not a riddle about a name, nor a dare flung in jest, but a mirror held up to every soul:
Will you live as you are, in truth and in courage?
Or will you bargain yourself away, piece by piece, to be easier for Evil to swallow?
In that choice, say the loremasters, every person meets the Shadow.
And some, if the tale is kind, meet Fencer also, walking among them, breathing among them, waiting not for Evil to arrive, but for it to reveal itself.
For Evil ever shows up.
And when it does, the chronicles say, there is a blade in the dark, and a laughter, low and bright, and the weak are not alone.