Explanations and Revelations

The truth is that Seldan's been pretty boring company for the last day or so. He sleeps a lot, tires easily, and doesn't move much when he is awake. He does seem to be recovering slowly, though, because he blinks as he wakes, looks around, and pushes himself up onto his elbows to get a better look around. A draft through the house reminds him that it is winter, but he does not allow that to stop him as he slowly, carefully, pushes himself up to.a full sitting position.

It seems that Zeke has timed his arrival perfectly, for he arrives into the room just as Seldan is sitting up. He gives Seldan a carefully measured examination to try and measure if the effort is too much for him. Then he walks to the bedside. The tea he is carrying is placed on the table beside the bed, and then he turns to face the other man. "Would you like thisss one to move your pillowsss to help you sstay upright?"

It is an effort for Seldan, but a good one. A better measure of when a thing is too much to ask, or he tires, is to watch it for oneselves. "That - would be welcome, if it may be readily done," he answers, plucking at the blanket with one hand. "I do not wish to be a burden to you, since I rest in your own bed, if I do not mistake myself."

"It is in my mind that I owe you an explanation."

Zeke immediately starts to arrange the pillows when Seldan grants him permission to do so. Once this is done he bobs his head in an affirmative. It is after all his bed. He has spent the last few nights sleeping on his couch or in a chair at Seldan's bedside. Depending on the night in question. "You are not a burden Sseldan. You are kin and alwaysss welcome in thisss oness nessst. The bed isss needed more by you than by thisss one." He swishes his tail and starts to make a joke but realizes quickly that Seldan might not understand his humor here.

"Thisss one iss owed no explanation, but thisss one admitsss to curiosssity, and you sseem to have a need to ssshare wordss on what happened." Zeke settles into the chair near Seldan's bed. "Would you care for sssome tea?"

"I would, do you have some to spare." Does Zeke have some to spare? Seldan's words are formulaic, for he knows perfectly well that Zeke always has tea around. "In truth did I tell none not directly involved of our intent, that it not get back to Eclavdran untimely. I did not wish to be overheard, and I did not wish for you to worry. There is - much of which I have spoken but little, although it is in my mind that you know more than many. First - what of the scroll?"

Zeke looks at Seldan, his expression unreadable, and begins to pour out the tea for Seldan. It's a light tea, mostly mint to help keep Seldan's stomach settled and also to awaken his appeitite. There are a few other herbs, but in such small quantities as to make little difference to the flavor, but rather should stimulate Seldan's mind and clarify his thoughts. To Zeke's thinking, Seldan could use something to bring him peace.

"Thisss one in undersstandsss your desssire to maintain your sssecretsss. Any-one could have over-heard a conversssation that we had. Through sscrying or other meansss. Better to tell only thossse that were necesssary what you were doing." He says nothing about the fact that he wishes that he had been necessary. That he could have been helpful. These are not the words that Seldan needs to hear. "Ass for the sscroll..."

Zeke reaches into his robes and pulls it out. Offering it to Seldan. "It isss here, and in working order. Thisss one went to fetch it thisss morning whilesst you ssslept, ssince it ssseemed to worry you ssso. It doess not appear that any-one knowsss that thisss one isss in posssesssion of it."

"That is well." Crestfallen a little, Seldan reaches to take the scroll, examining it carefully, its contents and all. Not until this point had he settled back into the pillows provided, but he does so now, and raises a hand as if to begin a spell, frowning at the scroll. "I wished to be certain of his destruction, but this, of his magic, yet remains. I ought to attempt to dispel it." When the tea is poured, he accepts it, but continues to stare at the scroll.

"If it can be dissspelled, then allow thiss one to try in your ssstead. The only reasson that thisss one hass not done sso yet, isss becausse Malik sseemed sso sscertain that we sshould not." Zeke offers, holding his claw out for the scroll in question. "It isss a magical item, desstroying who created it would not necessssarily dessstroy it in turn."

"It is in my mind that Mal - had hoped to turn it against him," Seldan begins, handing over the scroll without demur and relaxing back into the pillows, with his tea cupped between his hands. "He is no more, and such is no longer needed. I would see it destroyed, and if it be not dispellable, then I would see about disjoining it. A thing of pure evil, it is, and no good can come of allowing it to continue to exist."

GAME: Zeke casts Dispel Magic. Caster Level: 14 DC: 17
GAME: Zeke rolls 1d20+14: (2)+14: 16

Zeke takes the scroll, and studies it a moment. "Then we are in agreement." After all his study of the thing, it still gives him a bad feeling to interact with it. As if he is committing some terrible wrong just by possessing it. The knowledge that it can be used to break into people's private lives is disturbing in every way. He murmurs a prayer to the Dragonfather, tracing a sigil in the air above the item and... Nothing happens. He frowns at the scroll. "Perhapsss... a more powerful ssspell iss needed. Thisss one hasss one."

"As you will, or I shall attempt it, do you need." Seldan takes a long, careful pull of the tea, as he has done on each occasion when it is offered. "I would see that utterly destroyed. I mislike that it remained at all."

GAME: Zeke casts Greater Dispel Magic. Caster Level: 14 DC: 20
GAME: Zeke rolls 1d20+14: (5)+14: 19
GAME: Zeke rolls 1d20+14: (17)+14: 31

Zeke takes a moment to steel himself before casting again. This time his prayer is louder, the marks made by his claw a little sharper. He does the spell with a confidence that seeps into his bones more and more. At first unconfident, but then... The last line is drawn and the scroll shimmers. It doesn't seem to change beyond that shimmer, but something has certainly happened to it. What? Is unknown.

GAME: Seldan rolls knowledge/arcana: (8)+18: 26
GAME: Seldan rolls knowledge/arcana: (16)+18: 34

"You have destroyed but one effect of several, upon the thing, I think," Seldan watches the shimmer and fade of the scroll. "It will require several castings to fully cast aside all of the foul enchantments, and yet did you remove the one most needful. A _permanency_ effect. It is in my mind to heave the thing aside, and see do the other magics upon it fade," he suggests. "If not, then I shall dispel the rest."

"Thisss one hass no other sssuch sspellsss for today. Rarely are they needful." Zeke explains. "If the sscroll hass not faded by tomorrow, thisss one will pray for more sssuch ssspellss, and sssee it dessstroyed for good." He tucks the scroll into his vestments then, unwilling to let it out of his sight even somewhat disenchanted as it is. "It can wait for thisss yess?"

"It can," Seldan agrees reluctantly, bringing the tea to his lips again. "I would prefer to see it destroyed, and may be of aid, though." A clear offer, but he does relax some once the matter is resolved. "I spoke to you of the Champions of Eluna, did I not?"

"You did, though you did not explain very much about them, or their connection to Eclavdran." Zeke says, picking up his own cup of tea at last. He mentally resolves, that if he is unable to destroy the scroll himself, he will ask Seldan for help. But only if, and only then.

Seldan says, "He brought about the downfall of at lest one ... it was yet a trifle unclear, but the texts I read suggest that he lay with one such, and that brought about their downfall. Certainly did he steal the holy artifacts given them, and turn them to his own purposes. A wicked trick, to be sure. _In the heart of the world lies a beast's broken heart_," he murmurs quietly. "Too would I find any other of those hideous undead, that their souls might be granted peace."

"Yesss." This is said solemnly, and Zeke turns his head down at the thought of those whom were tainted and twisted by the magic that Eclavdran had wrought. "Jussst becaussse he iss dead doess not mean that all that he hass wrought ssimply vanissshesss. However, it will be far eassier to deal with the cult and thesse other thingsss with him gone."

"We must -" Seldan stops himself abruptly, his eyes closing and lowering. "Nay. I - must leave that to others." He says it slowly, as if it is not an easy thing for him to say. "It must begin as swiftly as possible, that none more be caught in that evil web. And -" A heavy sigh punctuates a second abrupt stop, a sigh that says what his lips cannot bring themselves to say. _I cannot._

He opens his eyes, then, and stares down into the dregs of his teacup, then looks up, in the way of one mentally shaking themselves. "What else would you know, of all that transpired?"

Zeke considers Seldan's question, and Seldan's admission that he can not do anything right now. Or rather the lack of ability to admit that out loud. He reaches out and touches the other man on the shoulder. "There isss no sssshame in needing to care for your-ssself Sseldan. You have fought well and hard. Now it is the turn of othersss. You your-sself sssaid that you failed to trusst thossse that you sshould have; trussst in othersss now."

He is silent a moment and then shakes his head. "Thisss one thinksss that you have adequetly explained what happened. Though thisss one mussst asssk two thingsss. When you defeated Eclavdran, did you feel any part of hisss evil take root in your-ssself or thosse that aided you... and - Thiss Tanith, why do you trussst her ssso?"

"Would you see to it, that the need to eliminate the cult is known?" Seldan's eyes lower again, knowing that the truth is being spoken to him, and not liking it in the slightest. "I would not have it be forgotten. And - what of Mistress Aya?" He lets that trail off, the silence meaningful and fraught with uncertainty.

He considers the two questions asked. "I did not. It was a near thing - he sought to overwhelm us all - but it is in my mind that he did not succeed. The attempt was enough to leave one feeling as though one had dived headfirst into an otyugh's den, and yet - I felt nothing pierce. As for Tanith - I have not spoken to you of how Mother was healed."

"Thisss one will do ssso." Zeke offers reassuringly to Seldan. It is something that he has already been trying to do, but convincing others to help destroy the cult was a priority for them both. "Ass for Aya... thisss one hasss heard no word of a sighting of her ssince sshe was ssspotted before the fight you had with the balorsss."

"Thisss one knowss that your nessst mother wass healed, but thisss one doess not remember hearing how it wass done. Thisss one asssumed that you did it sssome-how." Zeke is admittedly curious as to what this has to do with Tanith.

"Then I shall spin the tale."

Seldan finishes his tea and sets the mug aside, his eyes fixed somewhere between the wall and the ceiling above him. "I had heard tales of her, but had not met her, until the day she popped in and started to pester me, near out of a clear sky..." It takes him a few minutes to spin the tale of the warning she had given him, of the fight with the guards, the would-be body double that had intended to kill his mother, and how Tanith dragged him back before the guards until he abruptly turned a knife on himself.

The story does not stop there, though. He goes on to tell of the time he spent in the arcanist's dungeon with her after that, and of his desperation to find a way to cure her. Of how Tanith had come along, and had found the answer - of the small piece of Kol's flesh that had been forced down Carissa's throat, and of her destroying it post-haste, utterly ignoring the anti-magic field. "I had seen her power, when I sought magic on the man that would impersonate me - she was near blinding to look it. She has a great love for fish, and a near-endless appetite for it, and is difficult to understand at times, but she was a true and faithful friend to me many times over, and Mother would not live today, were it not for her. She came to me, sight unseen, and her heart is as good as she is powerful."

"Thisss one hasss found her to be remarkable, but did not know that ssshe wasss ssso remarkable. Thisss one heard tell that there wasss more to her than meetsss the eye. Yet it doesss sseem that sshe isss a force for good, if one perhapsss a bit odd at times. It isss good that ssshe wass able to assisst you." Zeke had been silent through the story, all but bespelled by Seldan's recounting of everything that had happened. It seems that there was much that even in the aftermath, he had not known of.

Immediately, Seldan nods. Clearly, there is no doubt in his mind. "So she is, both odd and a force for good, but one I do not call upon lightly. The stone covering on Eluna's moons was a spell of Eclavdran's making, a soul trap. It was she who destroyed the stone on the first two, and I had scarce to ask, although ask I did, and for her gift would I have hunted fish for days. I knew not how she did it, and when the third appeared, I had but one option. It is in my mind that the power backlash from disjoining that spell caught her attention, and I cannot in truth say that it was not her who destroyed the third."

GAME: Zeke rolls knowledge/religion: (1)+18: 19 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Zeke rolls knowledge/religion: (12)+18: 30

Zeke grows still at this statement, his head quirking up to the side. "Ssseldan... Did sshe appear after you casst the ssspell? Or during? Could you tell?"

GAME: Seldan rolls intelligence: (2)+4: 6

Seldan's eyes lower as he concentrates, thinking hard. "Nay, I cannot. I but know that I read the last of the spell, felt the backlash wash over me, and when that had passed, there she was in a blinding white light. She does as she chooses, and I cannot say why she chose to arrive, but I felt her will as well, in the fight to destroy Eclavdran's soul, and thus am I grateful that she did."

He blinks a few times, and pushes that stray lock of hair from his eyes.

"I - did not see much, so much as I _felt_ it. Serene did battle with him, I think as a distraction."

Zeke blinks slowly, and it's clear that he's considering saying a thing, then rethinking it. Then thinking about it. And rethinking it once again. Finally he lets the thought go to pay attention to Seldan's words. "You defeated him. And that isss what isss important." That much is true. He sets his empty tea cup down and glances toward Seldan's partially empty one. "Would you care for a meal?"

GAME: Seldan rolls fortitude: (9)+23: 32

"I very much would, if it is no trouble." Carefully, Seldan pushes himself back to a sitting position on the bed, the covers wrapped around his waist, and passes a hand over his eyes. "In truth had I not wished to ask too soon." As if to punctuate the point, there's an audible growl from his midsection.

The blue-scale makes an amused noise and rises to his feet, picking up the tea service and turning away with it. "Thisss one will get sssome-thing for you. You, relax and thisss one will return sshortly." Zeke makes his way out the door and beyond, his tail swishing behind him.

-End