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Naivara nodded, letting her courtly mask slip, and letting carefully contained concern show over her ethereal features.

"Perhaps it would not surprise you to hear that I had a most disconcerting visitor of my own? Audacious indeed, to attack a wizard within their own sanctuary, a fanatical act of self-destruction, although not completely unexpected. I do not doubt you saw to your wards as did I."

"I had wondered if I was the only one they had targeted..." The dark mage answered.  "And yes, I saw to them. The next visitor to come calling to Ilmar will be in for an unpleasant surprise."

She sighed wearily,"We knew better, did we not, Eskel? What hope did we have in peace? What faith we did we have in jubilant royalty? What confidence did we place in indolent institutions? What trust did we still harbor in our hearts for the people of these realms?"

Naivara moved closer still, placing her right hand over Eskel's matching hand, squeezing gently,instinctively he pulled away."Such bitter thoughts I confess to you, old friend. This dream of politics, of great change, of great good, seems sometimes in the long hours of the night to have shifted slowly into a nightmare...But I remember much...I remember another dream."

"I remember an Eskel that could smile!" Naivara declared, leading Eskel towards a nearby set of chairs, but the grimace he wore upon his face only deepened."Come! Let us sit down, old friend. Let us face the facts. It is what she would have told us to do. We are faced with familiar cultists. We are faced with a familiar danger..."

"Don't tell me what she would have wanted." He snapped, refusing the chair that was offered to him. "We face familiar dangers, but everything else is changed. We are changed! For the worse! We barely survived the Eldritch Dragon the first time, and now, should we face it again, without Octavia!? I don't th-!"

He suddenly realized that he was shouting. The energy that animated the mage suddenly vanished. Leaving him as he was before. Tired, deflated, broken. He sighed, averting his eye from Naivara, his old friend.

"I'm sorry. I should not have come." 

"Eskel Rindarium," Naivara almost shouted back, thumping the end of her staff upon the floor with a loud metallic echo,"Do not let bitterness divert you from useful intuition. You know that we must act! You can feel things shifting. It is unmistakable. I can sense it in the very laylines upon which we stand. So do not speak such words of resignation to me!"

Unfamiliar fire burned in the eyes of the moon elf as she spoke, her voice sharp ice, stern and full of tones far more foreboding than any she had commanded short years earlier,"Cowardice does not suit you, Eskel. And apathy, apathy least of all will serve us now."

"I am no coward, and I still care about this world. How could I not? Octavia gave her life for it. I just... I just know I can still make things right." The far away look in his remaining good eye returned as Eskel's mind drifted back to the work that awaited him back in his tower. The work that he had now dedicated his life to.

Behind cold will, grief and anguish flickered, and Naivara drew a slow breath, swallowing her sadness. Baleful flames of determination faded slowly as her voice returned to a softer timbre, full of renewed warmth, and unguarded kindness,"I had hoped to share more than sorrow with you. I am afraid I can do little to ease your pain. I am a poor friend...and yet I must ask still more of you, Eskel."

"We all have our scars. Mine are no worse than yours. I'm fine." Eskel spoke the lie absently. He had almost come to believe it himself sometimes. 

Her free hand moved in measured gesture as she continued,"The spell we wove was not so weak as to unravel. Not now. Not so soon. Not without unwelcome interference. I see the hand of our nameless foe reaching from the shadows. We should see to our wards. We must proof our great work. The barrier may yet hold, but we must make certain of it."

"I haven't been idle these past few days. I have been trying to divine whether or not 
that is the case, but the auguries have been muddled. That's part of the reason I came here. Together, I am sure we can get to the bottom of what state the barrier is in."

"However, we need not meet certain danger alone. I have received word from Gideon. It seems we were not the only ones targeted. It would be wise to seek out the others. They possess many talents that we lack. And we should not underestimate the value of their council."

"Gideon? Really?" Eskel could not keep the look of disdain off of his face. "No, no I should have expected it. Still playing the perfect hero eh? Already appointed himself leader of the getting the gang back together? Oh no no, he would only ever 'humbly accept' such a role."

Naivara was caught halfway between a frown and a smile listening to Eskel's angry comments concerning Gideon. Such angry comments concerning Gideon were nothing new. Naivara did not like them, but there was old fire in Eskel's voice when he spoke and that was something,"We need each other, Eskel. Gideon means well, he always did. Our path may not be to walk in the welcoming daylight, beheld with affection from the common people, but even in the darkness, even feared, you and I have our own roles to play."

"Well then let's play them. As you said, no point in moping around here. We have a world to save after all." A strange look passed over Eskel's face, something that could have almost been mistaken for a rueful smile, as he turned to the doors of the Guild Association and marched out into the city beyond.

[hr][hr][sub]Collaborative Post with [@Kassarock]

Characters involved: Eskel Rindarium and Naivara Aamakiir
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