The Last Traveler was an agent of the Book of Briars during Fragment Three. He was later revealed to be Brandon Lachmann.
Personality
Like other agents of the Book of Briars, The Last Traveler was mysterious. Although the Traveler was unable to communicate unless he was sharing a new poetic fragment, he was able to be of assistance to The Mountaineers.
Biography
At roughly the same time as Fragment Two, recruits noticed that a new user had begun to post on Deirdre Green’sInstagram and blog posts. With each new post that Deirdre made, the Traveler would post a new line of the poem.
One recruit, Johanna, decided to post a comment in response to the Traveler. Asking who he was, the Traveler responded with “He l o J0ha, I”. Johanna suggested that other recruits respond to the Traveler, and see if he would give them any more information. Accepting that this was the only way the fragment could be solved, more and more recruits asked the Traveler questions. His responses became increasingly garbled, eventually being reduced to only a few letters. However, he was able to communicate some critical information, such as the number of lines in the poem, and its name, The Minnying of Ojorad. Unfortunately, the Traveler was eventually unable to communicate, and all of his comments were deleted before he could deliver the final line of the poem, though the recruits were rescued by a blog post from Deirdre. Her post, ‘Should I stay or should I go now,’ contained the final line of the poem, in the form of a handwritten note that came along with the copy of The Wolf and the Wild which she had recently ordered.
Despite this, recruits were unable to sort through the lines of the poem. They turned to Cole Sumner, on Tumblr to see if he recognized it. As it turned out, he had seen it once before, in the form of a dream. Cole had dreamt of the Traveler who, in the dream, was sitting on a forest bench, holding a number of branches. The Traveler told Cole “that the road ahead was broken. No one could pass. He said something happened before the road was finished being built and it was all his fault. He tried to give me the branches in his lap (he called them obenhedge), but I didn’t want to take them. I don’t know why. I kept telling him that I remembered them being called something else, but I couldn’t remember the word. He said the poem he was trying to remember could help me, because it’s about remembrance. But the poem was broken too. He shook his head and then he disappeared. It was so sad.” Cole was able to help recruits verify the correct order of the lines, which allowed him to remember the true name of the Obenhedge, Vhelicorus.
Towards the end of Fragment Four, it was revealed that the Traveler was Brandon Lachmann. He had successfully made the journey out of the world bereft of most magiq, and into the magical world, stating that he “escaped the forest.” Brandon was thought to be the only one to accomplish such a feat, and thus earned the title, ‘The Last Traveler.’ Brandon stated that he had used a lot of power to cross the divide between the magic world and the world of lies, destroying most of himself in the process. However, he had accepted the risk when he took the mission. Wishing The Mountaineers good luck with the Storm ahead, he permanently disappeared.