Arlen and all the men who had wisdom in battle had assembled in the great hall to talk of their strategy for defeating the Ra'zac. Among the assembled were Alaric, Ehren, Roran, Brynner, Baldor, and Arlen himself. The all stood or sat around a table with a map of the forest east of Cathalorn on it. The East Forest was where they had last encountered Kelshk so they would assume that's where he was now. Arlen did not know how they would find and kill him, but that was what they were there to figure out anyway.

Alaric seemed to have a plan though and he spoke it excitedly. "The way I see it, we have been holding back too much. We must sacrifice what we have in order to be victorious. While I would normally not suggest this, it seems easier than the alternatives to burn the Ra'zac out of the forest."

Ehren immediately objected. "You want us to burn down the forest—one of our greatest resources—just to kill this thing? There has to be another way."

"There are other ways, but as we've seen they don't work," Alaric replied. He then began to walk around the table to Ehren. "We've tried going in to find and kill him, and that didn't work. We've tried to starve it into attacking us, and that didn't work. We've tried using traps, and that didn't work. Everything we've tried has failed, so why don't we try something I know will work?"

"How do you know it can work?" Roran asked. "The Ra'zac could easily just leave for another part of the forest."

Alaric pointed to Roran and said, "Because I have already put spells over the forest to keep it in that place. They are relatively weak, but if he tries to leave, I'll know about it, and so far he hasn't."
Now that there were no objections Arlen asked the big question, but in a way to let Alaric know that they were on the same side in this. "How are we going to burn it out?"

Alaric smiled and said, "Magnora will burn him out. Tomorrow she'll fly over the forest and burn a line straight through the middle. As the fire grows he'll either be forced into the sea or come to Cathalorn where I'll be waiting for him. Any questions?"

Arlen frowned. While it was a good plan considering what he knew, there was a gaping problem that no one else seemed to notice. Of course it didn't come up much and Arlen only knew of it because he listened to his father's story of when they did it and the idea of a forest fire brought it up in his mind. He pointed to where the ferry dock was on the map and said, "The dock's fireproof."

Alaric suddenly seemed to be less than happy at this fact. "You're sure?"

"Absolutely," Arlen replied. "My father told me the story of when they fireproofed it in case there was a forest fire. They didn't want to be cut off from Ceunon if it happened, so they treated to be fireproof." Alaric paused for a moment, possibly trying to think of a different solution, when Arlen thought of something else. "What if it just stayed in the shallows waiting for the fire to stop and then walked out when it finally did?"

Alaric frowned and said, "I suppose my plan wasn't perfect, but if we put someone on that side of the forest? Any more than one might make the Ra'zac run and we can't catch him if he runs. And we'd need someone who he wouldn't think was a threat from far away."

Arlen let his arms fall to his sides and said, "Someone like me, right?"

Alaric nodded. "Someone like you."

Ehren didn't like that though. "No! Let me go with him!"

Alaric answered him shortly. "If you both went, he wouldn't show. This way we'll be able to corner him without him realizing he's cornered."

"Besides, I've fought the Ra'zac plenty of times before and this time he won't have the jump on me," Arlen said as he tried to comfort his brother. He didn't want Ehren worrying about him, so reminding him of his past survival seemed like the best way to assure him that this time one of them wouldn't be walking away and that one was the Ra'zac.

Ehren nodded and said, "I guess you'll be fine. Just come back in enough pieces so that we can put you back together again."

Arlen smiled and said, "I'll do my best."

Alaric looked around the table and he probably saw what Arlen did; a lot of men with little confidence that this would work out of all the things they tried and that it would just inflict undue damage to the village. Alaric did something about it though, and began to speak. "The Ra'zac believes we are weak. No matter if he is right in thinking so or not, that is his weakness."

Arlen wondered where he was going with this and listened intently. "The Ra'zac is stronger than us, yes. He is also faster, but most of all he is overconfident. While he has escaped with his life before and even slipped right under our noses to kill our people, he grows overconfident in his ability to do so."

It was then that he began to walk around the table, talking as he did. "He thinks we're weak; that we're cripples with nothing but a handful of sticks to defend ourselves with. We are more than that. We are Human! We fight each other, we love one another, but most of all we make mistakes, and that is our advantage. By making them we can learn from them, and so we grow stronger. The Ra'zac was born strong; we made ourselves strong, and we understand that strength better than he does.

"The Elves, the Dwarves, and the Urgals all think they're stronger, and they're right. They have their perfect societies where no one ever makes mistakes, but if they do make one, they get killed for it. But we Humans have the ability to survive and learn from our mistakes. Our survival is what makes us in some ways better than them. We are not better in all ways than them, but we have had to learn more than they did and in that comes understanding. We are strong in our own way, and tomorrow we'll show that to the Ra'zac."

He stopped and raised his left fist into the air. He then slammed it into the table and said, "Tomorrow we show the Ra'zac his mistakes and we make him pay for them! Who else will make the Ra'zac pay?"

Arlen slammed his fist into the table, and after he got over how painful it was he said, "I will."

Roran put his hammer on the table and said, "I will."

One by one each person at that table put their fist or something else on the table and agreed. Soon everyone was in agreement of the plan. Alaric smiled at that and said, "Good. Tomorrow we end this once and for all for Cathalorn."

Arlen and the others raised their fists and said, "For Cathalorn!"

After the meeting adjourned, Arlen went to be by himself by the great hall's hearth. Tomorrow he had a great duty to fulfil, and while he might not ever be in danger, there was a good chance he would be. He didn't need to prepare himself often, seeing as how trouble usually found him, but this time he had to wait, which was much worse. Now he had time to think.

He thought about every way the fight between him and Kelshk could end, and many times it ended badly. He needed to think of these things though; that was how he was able to defeat so many opponents. What he learned from this was that he needed to keep his distance until he saw an opening to stab him. He wasn't instilled with confidence, but at least he had a plan.

He didn't know how long he sat there by the hearth, but Leonie came and sat beside him. He was surprised at her presence, but not upset. She was a most welcome sight after having his mind on the Ra'zac for so long. She handed a cup with little wisps of steam coming from the greenish liquid inside, which he was hesitant to drink. "What is this?" he asked.

"It'll make sleeping a lot easier," Leonie answered.

Not wanting to hurt her feelings for not trying it, he took a sip. It was hot, but he could tell it had a dull, bitter taste. He also could only smell its earthy scent if he lowered his nose close to the cup. He didn't particularly like the drink but he did not necessarily dislike it either.

"You'll need to drink more of it for it to be useful," Leonie noted. At her prompting Arlen took a big gulp of it and found it even worse in large quantities. He must have been making some sort of face since Leonie laughed and said, "That's what I thought when I first drank it, but it's been in my family at least since my mother's mother gave it to her."

"Well," Arlen said, still tasting the bittern liquid in his mouth, "it certainly tastes that old."

Leonie laughed again. "I haven't needed this sort of stuff in a long time, but lately it's been the only thing that's let me sleep at all. The thought of that Ra'zac slithering into my room and… It's kept me up at night for sure."

Arlen put down the cup and put his arm around Leonie's shoulders. In turn she put her head on his shoulder. Alaric's speech about learning from mistakes was nothing. Humans weren't just defined by how they learned from their mistakes; it was much more than that. There was something fundamentally different about Humans that was unlike any other people, and it couldn't be said in any words Arlen knew. But in this moment, with their fears laid bare, Arlen and Leonie were Humans and merely Humans. They were not grand champions or evil villains. They were just themselves and that was enough for Arlen.

After a while Arlen felt himself get drowsy and he could barely keep his eyes open. He turned to Leonie and she seemed similar. He smiled and said, "Does Magnora being here really make a difference?" he asked.

"No," she replied with a smile coming to her lips, "you do."

He considered a possibility and rejected it almost immediately. He said to Leonie, "You should be getting home soon."

"Yeah, but not right away," Leonie replied. "Just a little while longer." And so they stayed there for a good long while before Leonie got up and left for home. By that time what little liquid in the cup was cold and Arlen felt tired enough to fall asleep where he was, but he managed to get to his cot first. There he cast aside all fears for tomorrow a replaced them with a hope that tomorrow Cathalorn would be free.