Konan's Letter Revealed

Winnacer's face looks bleak as it becomes clear that Xavier and Faewen'il are going to miss the reunion. He blows out a deep breath, the air noisily passing between his pursed lips as he ponders the possible implications:

"It would not be surprising if Faewen'il decided to take more time to devote to her studies. Nor can we be sure that such works were her only agenda for staying in Pardubitze. I truly fear that she may be on her way to meet with Konan."

Bennett looks curiously at Winnacer:

"Why would she meet with Konan?"

Winnacer takes out a scroll that looks as it was cut neatly in two. He hands the scroll to Jihan to peruse as he recites the words on the parchment.

Jihan notes that the handwriting is no other than Faewen'il's.

"Greetings," Winnacer starts, as he begins to read what's on the scroll.

"I know you have not believed me in the past, but this one last time you will have no choice but to trust in what I say. It is a shame that it has come down to you having to read this letter, that you could not trust in me until all was ready. What you are about to read is to be shared with no one. The curse of Boscobeleous is not what you think it is. The spellbook was cursed, but only after I requested it be so in order to hide this truth. It is not a curse now which plagues me; it is the living spirit of the necromancer himself. What you killed in the tower was simply his shell, he now lives inside my head and governs my life and magic."

Winnacer pauses as he hands the scroll fragment around for all to see it for themselves. The elf's eyes open up wide as this revelation is made, and he quickly devours the contents of the scroll before handing it across to Will.

Will is very interested in reading the scrolls. He looks at the LawBringer accusingly:

"About friggin' time you came out with this. Knowledge is power, and you have been hoarding it, Winnacer. At least now we know what is going on. The risk is far outweighed by the chance we have now to combat the true foe which was until now lurking among us, and was before unknown."

"How many of us have bothered to ask?" Jihan interjects. "We shouldn't leap about making accusations without first considering our own place in all of this. If even the seniormost priests of the valley were unable to do anything against this foe, we can't go about blaming each other. Apparently, things APPEARED to be fine, but they've been swinging out of control recently. If this was done to protect Fae, from our... suspicions and speculations when nothing immediately could be done... And to protect ourselves, if Boscobelous can truly leap from body to body and know our thoughts through her... I wouldn't be surprised if something concrete had been done to make her BELIEVE that she was not inhabited, so that even her own thoughts would not betray her..."

Shaking his head, the elf then points towards the scroll now held in Will's hands.

Bennett looks at Jihan:

"I think it's probably safe to say that Fae, and those priestesses who worked on her at the inn, know whether or not she is possessed. That type of thing can't be kept a secret from so many. Unfortunately, they have that same damn close-mouthedness that Winnacer has, and they wouldn't tell me anything. For some reason, it's assumed that those of us who aren't Spraveledna's faithful servants won't be able to handle the information, even though it seems pretty clear that the whole church, plus Konan and everybody BESIDES us already knows about it."

"If this letter is true..." the elf says, pausing for a moment, "then perhaps our salvation lies doubly in Olmutz, the MECCA of religion in Bohavia."

"This is not good at all..." he adds with a sigh.

Bennett nods:

"It seems we have two choices at this point; either we grab Fae forcefully and submit her to another examination, the results of which the bastard priests won't reveal to us making it mean nothing, or we allow Fae to rejoin us and find out through her amulet that we already know her secret, in which case Bosco will find the quickest road to get the hell out of here. Truthfully, I think we HAVE to go to the Temple, and then Olmutz, leaving a message here in town stating where we have gone. That way at least hopefully Xavier and Fae will follow us, and if they don't, there isn't a whole lot we can do about it. Anybody here think they can track Fae down if she doesn't want to be found?"

Bennett looks around:

"I didn't think so. The only avenue open to us at this point is to try and fool her into going to Olmutz where we hopefully can bring her to some high muckety-mucks of the church who can actually do something about her possession, rather than mumbo-jumbo her and then keep it quiet."

Bennett then looks at Winnacer:

"I still think what you did at the Inn was wrong, and you too, Will. But the next time, if we have actually gotten her to somebody that can fix her, I will help. As much as I don't embrace abusing women as much as you two appear to, if it means saving her soul, I'll do it."

Will looks at Bennett, the hurt of his conscience from his actions against Fae evident in his eyes:

"None can despise the use of force against a woman more than I. I despise my actions, but there seems no other choice in the situation than to allow Bosco to destroy Fae."

"Bennett, I too agree that the timing and place of Winnacer's choice was poorly done. There was little to be gained at that time from a confrontation in my opinion, but I trusted to Winnacer's judgement because I had only my suspicions to lean upon. I still don't understand why we ever left the company of the only ones who could possibly help."

"But casting blame is not going to solve the problem that still exists."

The bard then looks towards the LawBringer:

"Winnacer, I too will continue to help in any way I can if need be to save Fae."

"Y'know, Bennett," Padre Kokal says, without any trace of challenge or threat. "Not everythin' that's done is done t'be a personal affront t'ye. Isn't it obvious that possessions and such're not simple thins? Hell, even I, 'o 'as devoted 'is life t'a church, don't know anythin' 'bout 'em. But I 'ardly thin' Spravedelna's church, 'specially, or any of 'er agents -- 'specially the High Priestess -- 'ave done as they 'ave or said as they 'ave t'urt Faewen'il or any one else... or t'play games with ye. I thin' they 're doin' what they thin' best t'elp -- an' I thin' they KNOW best what's best. An', after all ye 'ave been through, 'aven't they earned th'benefit of a doubt .. or 'asn't at least th'lass, if ye can' trust anythin' from a church?"

Padre Kokal resists actually reading the scrolls when the opportunity comes, waving it away without so much as touching it.

"I know next t'nothin' 'bout possessions, or mages, or possessed mages... an' less than that 'bout th'Boscobelous evil ye talk of," he says. "But, Lord Winnacer, I know ye are a holy warrior of a good and mighty faith, so fer now anyway, I will trust what ye say ... an' I will surely 'elp the young magess any way I c'n. The revolution owes 'er much, an' 'parently 'as taken much, so it should be high time it gave back, I say."

"But any more thoughts 'bout it than that I'll put in m'ead meself, not those damnable scrolls."

Bennett waits until the letter has almost made the rounds, then almost dreadfully takes it and reads it. He is very shaken by its contents, and looks pleadingly at Aneira, murmuring:

"But I thought you said?"

He looks at Jihan:

"Is that her writing? Not some forgery?"

He obviously doesn't wish to believe this.

Aneira reads the scroll as it is passed to her by Bennett. Her face tightens visibly. She seems to be fighting to control a bout of rage:

"By keeping this scroll and sharing it with us, you endanger Fae's life. How can you possibly justify such a thing? If you have this little regard for her life, why not just kill her? At least she wouldn't have to suffer then."

Her anger grows beyond words and she fights for control. Finally, she throws the scroll down on the table:

"Destroy it. Destroy it now," she grinds out between clenched teeth.

She then turns and walks out into the snow.

Padre Kokal watches the ice priestess depart and then looks back at the others:

"If'n yer goin' t'discuss these thins more, though, Ill be joinin' the priestess outside, lest what Winnacer says 'bout th'more we let into our 'eads 'bout it, the more danger t'Fae an' th'rest of us is true."

The Padre then pulls his cloak tight around his shoulders and then heads out of the door after Aneira.

Winnacer pauses as each give their thoughts to the contents of he scroll, then he continues:

"Perhaps none of you wish to believe this letter as well. And that would be all your own perogative. Like Faewen'il, I have tried to be quiet about it to protect the group at large. With Faewen'il's ability to read minds and Boscobelous' ability to switch bodies, information will only place each of us in peril. Spravedelna's love protects my soul and body from Boscobelous, and it is an act of will to keep any knowledge I have of things from the tip of my mind."

Bennett is too amazed by the letter's content to snort at how much difficulty Winn seems to have keeping secrets.

"How this impacts the fact that Faewen'il and Xavier are late, I cannot even speculate," the young Lord continues. "But I believe it is imperative that you all understand the truth of Faewen'il's condition and the fact that her priorities may not even be her own. I am very worried about her, as it would be quite feasible for her stubborn and headstrong nature to keep away those that could truly help her."

Bennett shakes his head:

"But then Xavier is in great danger, isn't he? Wouldn't it just be in Bosco's interest to take Fae and make off with her to some forbidden location to go on with his nastiness? Why leave her in our company, what with our constant exposure to priests and such? Perhaps he does not totally control her actions after all? It seems she still has some will of her own to me."

He thinks for a moment:

"Why has Konan not sprung this trap already? Now if Fae returns, she will surely pick the thought from one of our minds and Bosco will know. What hope do we have in that event?"

Continuing his thought pattern:

"Wait a minute, didn't your priestesses say that she wasn't possessed, or some such? They weren't too informative to me, but they surely told you what was going on. Why didn't they force Bosco out in the Inn? There are some other things going on here...."

Will ponders the situation and speaks:

"So it is as I suspected."

"Perhaps Bosco harbors revenge for us and that keeps Fae near us."

"I dont know what would be the best way to deal with this either. Certainly we have not the knowledge or power to cleanse Fae, so it would seem a foregone conclusion that we should have stayed with Konan and the master mages he can draft into service so that this matter could be dealt with swiftly."

"I have thrown enough stones. What are we to do now? It is my opinion that we get help for Fae as soon as possible. And although I expect no apologies for the tongue-lashings Winnacer and I received after our past actions, I also expect to hear no more of such dribble from anyone. If this is not proof enough that Fae is in dire straights and needs assistance, sometimes seemingly against her will, then I for one will not seek approval from my accusers."

Yaz snorts, and looks like he's about to reply, but scratches his head as he realizes he doesn't understand what Will means by that last bit.

"The truth of the matter is that we do not know the full details of Fae's circumstances," Will finishes. "Given our lack of information, we must seek the aid of those who do understand and can help. We must get Fae to Konan and the master mages as soon as possible. For her sake, our sake and the sake of the cause."

Yaz snorts again, with zeal this time:

"Lemme get this straight. We don't know what Maire's 'circumstances' are, but the letter somehow proves she's in trouble? And KONAN's gonna help her? Shit, he's the guy who started this whole f***ing charade in the first place! And he already told us he can't do dick to help her anyway. And the master mages, well f***, I know what those guys are like, having traveled with one, and I'd rather be strung up by my toenails than listen to another one. Lotta help they'll be, I'll bet.

"Look, if Maire' wants to think she's possessed by a necromancer, that's her problem. IF Maire' even wrote the letter, and it wasn't just Konan pulling your chains. Don't you think that if Bosco really is inside her, he wouldn't have let her write the letter? It could be anything. It could be just her excuse for being dark, this Faewen'il thing."

The name is like a hiss once more.

"Or maybe she wants us not to trust her. Or maybe it was a joke on Winnacer to see what he'd do. Or maybe, shit, maybe Bosco really IS moved into Maire's brain, and is fixing it up, making it his place."

"But f***, people, none of it's anything we can do anything about. If what you guys think is true, then you got a little problem, in that as far as I can see, there's been nothing dangerous about it. Strange, yes, a little dark, yes... but Maire' says in her letter -- if it's her -- that it's all not ready yet... like she knows what she's doing. Maybe she does! Did anyone ever think of that?"

Yaz stops flailing his arms around:

"Winn says that nobody should talk about it anymore, and he's right. When we get to Olmutz, maybe you guys can ask her to see a priest -- hopefully one that actually gets out of doors every once in a while -- so you can ease your consciences."

He pauses, coming to a resolve:

"But if you try to force her again, you'll have Prirodna to deal with."

His eyes smolder, and he sits.

Winnacer then blinks from his reverie:

"Then again, I guess they could just be snowed in. Either way, we need to get a move on to the Temple of Nemotz. We certainly could use the support of Xavier and Faewen'il, but if we delay overlong they will note the disappearance of their patrol and likely be more wary. I would believe the death of a GermSpreader would not go unnoticed."

Bennett nods wearily:

"I had some thoughts about this, and I still think we can pull it off, but how to focus on this when we know one of our own is possessed by such great evil? Out there with our unsuspecting and adoring Xavier as her only company?"

He shrugs lightly:

"What can we do about that?"

"We certainly have enough seasoned adventures here to handle most any circumstance," The LawBringer continues. "Our collegues will be missed, but the sooner we rid the world of this plague, the sooner we can worry about being reunited. Plus, they are likely to move quicker than we are, we can leave a message as to our general destination. And, as Bennett mentioned, if Yaz's bird is able to stand the extreme weather, we can employ it to keep an eye out."

"By the Three..." Jihan utters, letting the scroll fall from numb hands as he reads it again. The elf's multi-colored eyes rivet into Winnacer's own, filled with a pain as deep as any who know him have ever seen.

"Oh my Lord and Ladies preserve us..." he whispers fearfully beneath his breath. "I know her hand too well... too well... And you say things that make the danger greater, for us and her..."

The pain in his eyes becomes desperation, and he steps up to approach Winnacer. He grabs at the young warrior's shoulders to pull him down to head level, then puts his mouth by Winn's ear. His voice is a low hissing whisper, such that only those right by them could hear it without severe difficulty:

"Another meeting with Konan? And Boscobelous being able to switch bodies? Why did she want to keep this from us? She can read minds, Winn, and if HE controls her life, HE knows our thoughts as well. I cannot unhear these things, things that the letter did not say, nor can any here. How can we reunite now, with these words in our heads? And what has Xavier been condemned to? We don't all have Spravedelna protecting our souls, and we don't all have the will to prevent ourselves from thinking certain thoughts. Now we have the information, and now we are in peril. One break in the charade... You've got us carrying this cross with you now, but can we? Who will save US? What are we going to do?"

Realizing what he has said, the elf steps away from the LawBringer, his hands shaking. Wringing them together, he stares again into the young Lord's eyes:

"What are we going to do?"

Yaz simply snorts derisively:

"You're all f***ed, just like Konan," he says. "Bosco my ass. This possession shit is picking my cornhole. Maire's strangeness has nothing to do with that."

Throughout the discussions it is appearant that Gronk's mind was elsewhere. He becomes more alert as he hears Maire's name:

"Who da 'ell is Maire?"

Quieter, Yaz continues:

"Maire' started getting strange way before the Tower. I remember when it was. It was back at Heimlin's village, where those gnomes lived. That was where she chose 'that name'."

His lips curl, and his pronunciation of the name drips with acid:

"Faewen'il."

To Yaz the room darkens as he says it, and his eyes dart:

"We all know -- well, some of us I guess, who were around back then -- that Maire' wasn't 'Faewen'il', she wasn't dark from the start... not like she thinks, anyway. The name she took after she killed goblins, after she used magic to kill. Somehow she thought that one thing, the one thing she did that went against what she promised herself she would never do, meant she was dark all over. Right through. She doesn't know her true nature."

"Oh, da witch-bitch," Gronk says. He then goes back to ignoring most of the conversation.

Yaz shakes his head, disturbing the lazy ring of smoke about his head:

"She doesn't know. Yeah, she's got a sharp tongue, but she's not dark.... By choosing that name, she chose to be dark. Not real, not like Maire', but like darkness. The world needs dark, to be sure, but dark's for people who were made that way. What the world needs is for people to be how they were made, and to do what their natures tell them. That's how the Balance works -- different natures pulling in all directions."

The druid shrugs:

"F***," he says, taking another toke, "that name is what's killing her, not some f***ing spirit. If she's gonna keep on denying her other natures, and keep on thinking she's some sort of dark creature and that's all she is, she's hooped. The light part of her gave up real easy, just like in Bohavia. And if she keeps that name, she'll end up unnaturally dark... and her next life will be..."

He shudders:

"I don't accept it... Faewen'il."

The name escapes his lips like a hiss once more.

"It's not her nature."

"But we can do nothing."

Jihan only watches as Yaz continues on about the root of Faewen'il's evil being her name, seemingly preoccupied. The druid's words cause old memories to dredge up in the elf's brain, and when Yaz is finally done, Jihan can be heard to mutter beneath his breath.

"Part, but not all..."

Nodding his head, he goes back to contemplating a glassteel dagger, which he twirls almost lazily in his fingers.

Winnacer watches the various reactions and shakes his head:

"None would listen to me in Pardubitze despite all the protestions I made. We are all in danger by this, and hence deserve to know about the danger so we can make our choice to deal with the peril or to retreat from it. I am not ready to retreat."

"I will tell you what we have to do. We have to just keep on doing what we've always done. We need to keep an eye out for Faewen'il while trying not too hard to restrain her. Make Faewen'il suspicious and you'll make Boscobelous suspicious, or worse you'll be welcoming Boscobelous' spirit into you. There will be no baiting Faewen'il, there will be no dragging Faewen'il off to see the priests of Olmutz, there will be no effort on our part right now."

Bennett shakes his head at this:

"No, Winn, you won't make our decisions for us anymore. If you choose to keep your actions and motivations a secret, that's fine, but you won't dictate to us what we do or don't do regarding Fae. I think it's pretty clear you're in over your head here. What we do in Olmutz we will discuss in Olmutz. No unilateral declaration of yours means a damn thing to me."

His tone is quiet, not combative, but the intent is serious.

Winnacer pauses and turns to look at those whose criticisms have been the loudest:

"Despite what you wish to believe, I have been trying as hard as I can to do the right thing for Faewen'il. And I will continue to do what I can for her. Blame me as your personalities require, but as Faewen'il's words say - for her and I there will be time for apologies later."

Bennett sits with a half-smile, staring at Winnacer, then shakes his head, not seeing the necessity to speak.

Will's eyes catch the mis-speak:

"This version says nothing of the sort Winnacer. I assume you are referring to the portion that has been cut away. Why was it cut away and what did it say?"

The bard continues:

"Trust of your intentions was never questioned. Trust of your judgement has been weak, my friend."

Winnacer looks deeply at Will, his face nothing less than dead serious:

"You all would do yourself best if you thought on this letter no more, nor ask any more questions. Question my judgement on this as well if need be, but do it silently and privately."

Yaz has trouble containing himself at this, and breaks into uproarious laughter. Soon, seeing everyone glaring at him, he straightens himself up, wipes the smile off his face, and says to Winn, with earnest:

"Yessir. Silent and private."

The restraint doesn't last long, however, as a laugh makes its way through his nose once more, and he covers his mouth. He clears it again:

"Sorry, Winn," he says to the Paladin sincerely, "but I..."

He lifts his arms helplessly, wearing a sheepish grin.

Will responds again:

"On that I cannot disagree, we must guard our words, actions and thoughts when in Fae's company."

"Is there any way to get that bedamned amulet from her until this is all just an unpleasant memory?"

The bard's face shows no expectation for this to become a reality.

Winnacer turns a stern eye on the entire party, one that reflects the anger and hurt they have put him through:

"You will have to trust me for a change. And trust the gods that govern our lives to see that Justice is meted out in the end. It is now best we forget about this, leaving in the back recesses of our minds, and get back to things that we can do something about. Like saving this village from the vile hands of the Nemotz."

Bennett laughs openly at that, harsh and bitter, more a bark than a laugh. It is obvious that he has much to say, but keeps his mouth shut once again. He then walks out into the snow after Aneira.

Jihan can just nod his head, stepping away from the warrior, his thoughts elsewhere:

"Fight without fighting..." he mutters cryptically.

A silence then descends over the room as each of those who are still within try to wrack their brains in order to try and come up with a solution. None can, however, and the silence simply grows louder.

Evenutally Winnacer breaks it, starting with a deep sigh. He turns to those that remain within the room and speaks:

"Well, it would appear that, with Aneira, Bennett and the Padre having already having departed this room, there is no way in which we can start upon our journey to the Nemotz priests' lair whether we would wish to or not. Therefore, it seems as if we have no alternative but to wait and pray to our gods that Faewen'il and Xavier arrive here as quickly as possible."