Luskan Border - - -

--Casavir

I awaited the ranger's answer as well. Sand just loved showing off his hearing in bars, but hadn't done it outside like this before. Bishop's expression of disgust meant he was unhappy to have been overheard. Tough. I doubted whatever he was saying to his companion, was going to be that personal. But he's intruded on enough private moments, that there was an element of justice here.

Before anything was said, I caught the distant sound of music coming towards us. Elanee really kept them moving, despite the darkness. This was a more pleasant instrumental than Grobnar's whistling.

Sand repeated his question, "What was only a dream?" Complete with that superior intonation of implied idiocy.

I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't so worried about his answer. Bishop was obviously angry to be telling us, and snarled at the elf at first.

"Last night about this time..." came reluctantly after a moment from the ranger, "I was sleeping, with furball here on watch after a short fight with some Luskans. I heard him whining, agitated about something. I... don't have clear speech with him, and can't always guess what he wants to tell me. I thought it was a threat, but couldn't sense anything threatening. No sound, no scent, nothing moving, though something still had his attention.

"I waited a bit more, and still nothing. He must have been dreaming, when he was supposed to be watching over me while I rested. And I started yelling at him, when I thought I had heard your commander insulting me. I thought she was here, and demanded she come along. When she didn't, I went looking for her, and found nothing. No woman, no tracks, nothing. Now you tell me she's been missing for months, so I must have been dreaming."

"Interesting, ranger, but incorrect," Sand said dryly. "Obviously, the paladin here has not yet briefed you properly. Let us wait a moment for the others, and I will begin it properly."

Elanee came into the clearing, followed by Grobnar and Neeshka. The latter two seemed to be winding up a discussion of the seedier bars of Neverwinter, while he played. There was a lack of greetings, I'm not sure how they all felt about dealing with Bishop again, aside from the necessity.

Despite some pokes from Neeshka, everyone settled around the fire. Bishop was alone on his side with the wolf, while the rest of us curved around the other. Grobnar's music shifted to an instrumental, a pleasant, rippling melody.

Sand began his lecture, "I don't know how much you've picked up about divinations, but its not a type of magic most rangers have much experience with. Divining the future is more a function of the holy magics. Agents of the divine, such as Casavir, or nature herself like Elanee, are usually the only ones to get hints of what may come. Those more in favor of their Power, may even get spontaneous omens. But more typically, there is some kind of ceremony to ask guidance. And the value of the guidance depends on their favor, the questions asked, and skill in interpretation. Arcane magics are better at short term, or gaining current information through scrying, which doesn't involve interpretation as much as observation.

"Of course, as we trickled back to the Keep after the war, we were concerned about the Commander's survival. Divinations revealed that she was alive, uninjured, safe, and unimpeded from returning..."

I had to correct this, "Bishop has already suggested that we hadn't asked if she was able to return."

"Hmm. I had been thinking that the delay as perhaps being because she was unwilling to return. As I said before, interpretation is often the dangerous part. The Powers rarely send their messages in plain words," the elf said thoughtfully.

But they do, if one is being pig-headed enough, to my shame.

"To continue, then," Sand returned to his dry oration, "Casavir, six days ago felt the presence of scrying, while with Khelgar. And the scryer was apparently the Commander. So something has changed since the last divinations, for she never had any interest or skill in scrying. Casavir persuaded another to inquire again and the answers had changed radically. She lived, and was now on this plane. The other answers were more disturbing. She was both injured and uninjured. She was in immediate danger, and not. Riding a horse to her location was both possible and not. And lastly, on whether she was still herself, yes and no were both true, before settling on 'yes'. The spell he had been using is usually yes/no, and with his skill, he should have had a number of additional questions, but he was told, instead ''You will find her in the dark places, where no path leads and magic is twisted, though the path will be long and fraught..."

"Fraught with what?" Bishop got out.

Interesting that we all jumped on that one fragment.

"With re..." Sand's voice was very mild, "It's too small a fragment to try to identify, as there are just too many words or names that could fit there, and then adding the interpretations would make this a dead end. So forget it, unless we get a continuation."

"You want me for this path?" Bishop asked, in an oddly neutral voice.

"There's more." I had to tell this part. "As this information was not enough, I did a vigil."

Bishop was looking smug, for the first time this evening. It seemed odd, after all that time without.

"Regardless, I did learn more. 'Follow the darkened one into the darkness where spiders lost dominion. To the place where no path leads.'"

"And you thought I was this dark one?" he snarled.

"You did spring to mind, but I don't think you would hurt her directly. Finding her is the point. It was also impressed on me, that I had to get you whether I liked it or not, to find her."

This came out more heated than I liked, though I noticed the others were amazingly staying quiet, aside from the music still flowing from Grobnar. I took a deep breath to try to calm myself.

"You left her to rot for months??" Bishop was under no such restraint.

"Like you really cared for her, when you sabotaged the gate!" I found myself with my hands around his neck to throttle him, and he was hitting me. I did not care.

The music had stopped, and I heard the sound of Sand casting a spell, but my vision was too red for me to notice anything else. Bishop's face was changing color nicely, when I was paralyzed. Others pried my fingers off his neck and separated us.

Once we were apart, Bishop regained color, and lurched away. There was a loaded silence, but I couldn't get a good look at anyone from my position. Grobnar started playing a light, bubbly tune. Knowing him, it was probably about some rubber duckie.

I was quite ashamed of how I had lost control, and waited for the spell to expire. And when it did, I slowly returned to a more normal stance, and stretched. The silence stretched out far more.

The tune drew to an end, and Grobnar began playing that rippling one again. And I thought about why this mission was important, and sighed.

"Maybe we should get back to the inn. I'm out of ale, and my voice is soooooo dry!" Neeshka could be counted on to say something silly. Elanee, Sand, and she began to move back towards Simonton.

Leaving Bishop and me.

This was so important, we had to find her. Before whatever my intuition feared, came to pass. Before she was lost forever. Worse even, than if Bishop won her...

The pole axed look on his face told me I must have actually said some of that aloud.

"Part of my vigil, left me with the surety that more is at risk than my hopes. And the last part was that 'You know what you must do'. So that is why you are here."

He nodded. And began, quietly, "I don't know why I want her so, still. She's not my style, and she seems to get on with Karnwyr better than I do. You and she both want to help the weak survive. I always wanted my freedom above all else, never following the crowd. There was always a crowd following her, and yet I stayed. She understands and see me too much. And things that stretch back to my training and further..."

I also nodded, thinking about how she balanced all of us, despite the desperation of those days. Her good humor and warmth... Lord Tyr,

"I miss her."

We both said it, and we looked at each other in surprise, before looking away.

Then in a minute or two, I noticed how uncomfortable I felt, physically. And that I could still hear Grobnar's music, softly. He wouldn't.

He would.

"Grobnar! Get out of here! We'll be along in a bit. I promise not to harm him, but we need to reach some kind of... compromise in order to do this!"

"I'm not really worried, Sir Paladin. Your human mating rituals are always fascinating, I just thought it would be better if you knew what was true feelings. Wasn't quite what I think any of us expected."

"You will not spread this around, gnome!" Bishop was now the one ticked.

"Oh, no. While dramatic, you all deserve better. I won't tell. Now, the rest are also clever, so they may realize some of this on their own. But nothing to anyone outside the family. This all would make a lovely ballad, but you all haven't decided the ending yet, so you're safe. I always thought it a bit cruel to do that kind of ballad when the principals were still living..."

While I dreamed about glory and heroic epics when I was young, I really didn't want to be in one of those classic love triangle ballads... "Just go!" I said, trying to keep my voice level.

"Very well," he caroled. Finishing off that infectious tune, he started whistling cheerfully as he moved away.

Once I was sure he was gone, Bishop said, "Karnwyr is pacing him and I can tell they're both too far away to hear."

"What a mess. But we can't afford to waste effort. I propose a truce, until at least she makes a decision, and after whatever business is necessary." I wasn't sure he would abide by any agreement.

"And we don't do anything stupid or showy to try to cook your chances? She is free to choose?" He was insistent on this.

"I think she knows both of us pretty well. And her decision has always been her own," I avowed.

"My word, then. Not that you probably think much of it, but I follow my own rules, just not whatever crap societies or stinking 'lords' come up with."