*
Tasha was frustrated.
For the last seven and a half hours, she and Ambori almost wished that they were back on the road freezing to death. As the bard had put it, I'd just as prefer to be turning into an icicle as to be grilled over hot coals by a bunch of stodgy man-lions. Immediately thereafter, Tasha had smacked him very hard.
There had been but one break during the whole proceeding, and that was an hour gone by this point. Skarlett had been very thankful for it, getting the chance to water down his sore throat. Tasha suddenly felt bad for thinking how rough the whole ordeal was on her considering how their cleric friend was pulling double-duty, acting as the translator for both sides of the occasion.
The Wemic Council of Seven was an interesting group of people to say the least. Tasha had been considerably uncertain as to what to expect upon meeting them. In some cases, it was what she'd anticipated, in others...
There are seven distinctly different cultures in the wemic society, each of them known as a Pride. Skarlett told them that before the Council, all of the Prides roamed aimlessly around the plains keeping solidly to themselves. In fact, there was a time in which certain Prides were at territorial war with others. After several generations, the Council was formed by the heads of each Pride to, if not unify the Prides as one, at least make them be civil towards one another. They succeeded. Now the Prides act with respect towards each other, keeping their own cultures separate and sharing the Pridelands with each other without overt hostilities.
At the present, it was hard to tell which, if any, of the Council were on their side in this venture. For any decision to be reached by the Council, it must be reached unanimously. And since the time of Korum, no being had been given permission to ascend the Dragon's Tooth.
The head of the Wamior Pride refused to even meet Tasha or Ambori's gaze. His objections to their request were twofold. Primarily that no one could be trusted with the Book of Korum, to the point that no one should even be allowed near it. And secondly, it came down to a personal point with him; that the thought of a war fought with magic was wrong. Just wrong. No explanation beyond that. And according to Skarlett, and Tasha was inclined to agree with him after taking a good look at the scars on the aging wemic's battered body, no explanation was needed. The Wamior Pride was strongly anti-magic in any form and if not for some timely intervention, the being would have seen to it that Garn received no medical attention whatsoever from them given his clear prejudice.
The other opposition came from the ancient head of the Chonathor Pride. She was a wizened old wemic with stark white fur and taut, weathered flesh. But the look in her eyes was sharp and precise, without any trace of senility. Her only objection was merely based on tradition; none had gone up since Korum and that it should stay that way.
"To translate what the head of the Chonathor Pride has just said," Skarlett continued. " 'In all five hundred and fifteen of my years, I've seen many a crisis come and go. Some were of world shattering importance, and others weren't. But we survived! And all worked out all right in the end. As will all this time.' End quote."
Tasha was now very frustrated.
Apparently, so was Ambori. "But this is different!" he exclaimed, leaping to his feet in outright agitation. "We're talking about the most powerful wizard who has ever lived! In all of history! If we let him back, there's no telling what could happen! He could... He could... " He trailed of rather embarrassingly at that point as his words began to fail him. "... I don't know what he could do." He finished lamely.
"Is that everything?" Skarlett asked sourly. And looking at the disapproving faces of the Council, Tasha was inclined to agree with him.
Ambori nodded his head rather shamefacedly and took his seat once again as Skarlett began to translate, altering the phrases so that they would make some sort of sense.
Tasha smacked Ambori once again. He grimaced painfully and glared at her with a hurt expression on his face. "Give me a break," he pleaded.
"Not likely," Tasha whispered back to him. "The next time you feel like getting upset and yelling at the entire council, do us all a favor?"
"All right."
"Don't."
The remaining Prides; Clawra, Manorm, Taille, A'sarnh and the ErAngha seemed to be, if not in favor at least indifferent to their plea. They listened attentively and all, but in no way did they have an opinion on the issue one way or the other. At least that's how it appeared on the surface.
Tasha knew differently.
For the last several hours of the debate, Tasha had kept her meager mental abilities focused on the members of the Council, scouting out their emotions and trying to glean their views on the whole situation. On the whole, it looked good. But good wasn't going to be good enough this time. Not when you needed a unanimous decision.
The Clawra, Manorm and A'sarnh were all in favor of letting them ascend the Tooth and just be done with it. The young, female head of the Taille, Skarlett's Pride, was willing to go with whatever the cleric said – clearly having more than a bit of a emotional attachment to him. The head of the ErAngha, an older wemic with a long, luxurious beard was willing to go with the majority either way.
But with the other two, there was nothing that Tasha could discern in the way of an angle to work in their favor with them. The Wamior was too stubborn and stuck in the 'traditional methods of warfare' to even consider the possible necessity involved here. And the ancient Chonathor was just honestly certain that there was no real need for the Book to be involved.
And Tasha couldn't think of any other way to convince them. She'd already had Skarlett translate the tellings of her visions in full detail. Detailed to the point that Tasha began to get the chills just repeating them. She told them everything that she could remember of what Garn had told her about Xir and what he was capable of. That hadn't really fazed them. Nothing had.
Another thing that Tasha noticed as an aside, this having nothing to do with the topics at hand. It was odd talking to these individuals for the simple reason that they didn't sit. No chairs, obviously. They stood. The whole time. Thus giving them a superior height advantage and an intimidation factor that Tasha was having a hard time dealing with.
Skarlett was right in the middle of fielding a question from the Wamior head when one of the wemics that had been guarding the hut came trotting in unannounced. Very briefly, he got a stern dressing down from each of the Heads for interrupting the meeting. He began to give some sort of explanation for his conduct. Skarlett looked rather surprised and said something very quickly to the Council before trotting after the guard.
Tasha rose and caught his arm as he went past. "What is it?"
The cleric looked down at her in brief confusion. "I'm not certain, I think it's good news."
Ambori grimaced. "That would be a pleasant change... Oww! Dammit Tasha, would you please stop hitting me? I'm allowed to express my own opinion, you know!"
"Shut up, bard-boy." Tasha looked up at their wemic friend. "Will you be long?"
"Just wait here." And with that, he was out the door.
Tasha resumed her seat and stoically ignored Ambori's sullen gaze. She watched as the Council all congregated around each other and began to speak about the events of the day and what each of them had decided and for which reasons. Tasha tried to 'listen in' on all of them at the same time and wasn't having a lot of luck with it. From what she could gather, no one was changing anyone else's mind. Which was both good, and bad.
At that point she realized that Ambori had been trying to get attention for some time now. She returned her 'sight' back to her body and felt with discomfort the soreness of her shoulder where the bard had been repeatedly poking her. There was an audible smack as Tasha nailed him once again. With a manly effort he kept from crying out in pain. "What is it now?" Tasha asked exasperatedly.
He glared at her once again, rubbing at his sore arm. "I was going to ask why you kept hitting me, but now I think you'll hit me if I do."
With a deep sigh, Tasha placed her head in her hands. "If you keep speaking out when you either don't know what you're talking about or when you shouldn't be, I'm going to keep hitting you."
"But why?"
Without even thinking about it, Tasha cracked him one again. He yelped slightly and shut up, sliding a bit down the bench and out of her reach.
Skarlett re-entered the tent. At first Tasha was concerned, but then he smiled at her in a reassuring way. What is it? Tasha thought at him. But Skarlett merely motioned for her to remain patient and stood before the Council once again. He spent at least five minutes speaking to them. The whole way through his spiel, it seemed as if he was asking them for something. After he was done, he waited for the Council to congregate with each other, discussing amongst themselves. After a few chat, they returned to their regular spots behind the table and, as one, nodded.
Skarlett smiled in relief and turned towards the entrance to the hut, motioning with one hand. The wemic at the door nodded briefly and stepped out of sight.
Now curious beyond belief, Tasha rose and stood next to the cleric. "What the hell is going on?" she whispered.
Placing his free arm around her shoulders, he whispered into her ear: "I had to ask the Council's permission for someone to join today's proceedings. Typically, once a Gathering of the Council has begun no one can join in later."
Tasha's eyes lit right up. "Please tell me it's Garn, we could really use him here."
Skarlett's face fell just a smidgen and he cast a quick glance over towards the entrance. "Well... " he began.
"No of course, Garn's still too sick. He needs his rest," Tasha interrupted, misreading Skarlett's expression. "It's okay, Ceorn shouldn't be able to harm these proceedings."
Skarlett's face fell just a smidgen more as Hal walked into the hut and Tasha stared at him in astonishment.
For a brief moment, she couldn't take her eyes off of him. He stood there, in the doorway with his usual bland expression firmly in place, dressed in a pair of black denims and his shirt and cloak. His weapons were snugly in place and (this one threw Tasha for a brief loop more than the others) his hair was neatly tied back in a pony tail. And aside from the immense dark bags beneath his blue-gray eyes along with the still chapped flesh on his face and hands, he looked all right.
Wordlessly he surveyed the room. Then, after unconsciously checking that his weapons were in their right places, he strode towards Tasha and Skarlett with his gaze firmly locked on the Council members.
Tasha was absolutely flabbergasted. Of the three that were out of commission, Tasha had never expected Hal to be the one coming to the Council meeting. And especially now that he was apparently obligated to say something to prove that he had a right to be there.
Her first, knee jerk reaction was to just send him away. That would solve a lot of problems and would take away the strong possibility that Hal would say something to offend the Council in some way. And while it might not be the politest thing to do to the big man, it was probably the most logical.
But, as he neared Tasha couldn't bring herself to do it. It was something in the set of his eyes, the sheer undeniable determination that rested there. The same determination that was obviously all that was keeping him on his feet and awake after their journey. And while that favored the instinct to send him back to bed, she knew that it would do no good. If he went back, he wouldn't let himself sleep until he heard the news from the Council.
And besides, Tasha thought with a bit of humor. What could go wrong?
Hal stepped up and looked Tasha in the eyes. He hid it well, but she could see the pain he was dealing with as plainly as if it were her own. He nodded slightly. "Milady," he began, then cleared his throat trying to get rid of the rasp. "Forgive me, I didn't realize that my... That being here could be a problem. If you'd like, I can leave?"
Tasha thought about it once again, going over all of the possible pros and cons of the situation. Then she shrugged minutely and laid a hand on his upper arm. "No. Don't bother. We've done all we can, maybe you can think of something we haven't."
His eyes widened briefly, amused. "You jest, milady. It would be better if I... "
"Stayed," Tasha interposed firmly. "Trust me," she continued with a smile. "You can't hurt the proceedings at this point.
Hal took several moments to think about that possibility silently. Then he showed a trace of his boyish grin. "All right, what do I say?"
Skarlett chuckled. "Step aside with me and I'll let you know what's been said." Hal nodded and took a step or two away from Tasha for a hurried, whispered conversation with the cleric.
Tasha sat back down next to Ambori. He looked at her in indignation. "How come Hal can say something and I can't?"
Tasha merely raised her hand and Ambori scooted across the bench away from her. "I wasn't aware that you liked it so rough," he muttered.
"I'll pretend I didn't here that," Tasha whispered. Ambori shut his mouth.
Skarlett spent at least a good five minutes filling Hal in on the situation to this point. Tasha reached out with her mind 'watched' Hal trying to organize what he was being told into 'good' and 'bad' categories and had to smile. Then she witnessed the beginnings of an idea form in the big man's mind and got out of there before potentially influencing his thoughts.
They waited a few minutes more as Hal took several deep breaths and sorted through what he wanted to say one last time. Then, at long last, he looked up at Skarlett and nodded once.
The cleric took a few minutes to introduce Hal to the Council and bring them back to the topic at hand. They all seemed to accept Hal's presence outwardly and some, especially the Wamior head, appeared almost eager to hear him speak.
Skarlett then took a step back and motioned for Hal to the head of the table. "You're translating me, right?" Skarlett nodded reassuringly. "Okay. If you can... I dunno, make me sound smarter … or something... "
The cleric smiled and nodded sagely.
He took one last deep breath and stepped up to the table.
For a few moments, he didn't say anything. This trend continued for a few uncomfortable heartbeats. Tasha began to get edgy, suddenly wishing that she'd sent Hal away after all. Ambori appeared to be about to make a comment so she smacked him one on sheer principal and and told him to whimper more quietly.
Then Hal began to speak.
"I'll tell you all the truth," he said, his voice pitched low and his words soft. "When I came here today, my only plan was to just... y'know, listen in? I never wanted to be in front of you, talkin'. But, here I am. Talkin'
"I know you've been in here all day and are gettin' tired and all, so I'll try to keep this short. Y'see, we have to go up that mountain. I know that you're... nervous about us goin' up there and all... But we have to do it all the same." He paused for a long moment, during which Skarlett had more than enough time in which to catch up. Hal ran his thick fingers through the few loose strands of his hair nervously and was visibly trying to think of some way to say what was on his mind.
"Look," he said, his face eerily calm. "I'm not a smart guy. It doesn't bother me anymore... well, not too much. Anyway, the point is... I don't know very much about... much. So because of that, I have to trust my friends." He pointed over to Tasha then, his gaze lingering for a brief second. Her breath caught in her throat when confronted with the look of absolute pain in his eyes.
"Milady Tasha over there is my superior... and my friend." He smiled weakly at her. "Which one comes first is a talk we're still supposed to have, I think. My point is, she knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt that what is happening in the world right now is bad. Really bad."
Hal had begun to fidget restlessly, resting one hand against the table for support. Skarlett continued to translate. Hal continued. "To be brutally honest, I really don't know what's going on. But I've seen some frightening stuff so far on this journey. And if that's only the beginning of the end here... then we are in some serious trouble. But d
on't take my word for it, just wait a couple of months and find out for yourself. Or, let us up the mountain. Let us get the Book and maybe stop things from getting worse." After that Hal leaned against the table with both hands wearily and went silent.
After Skarlett finished translating the Pride had a varied range of responses. Going from horror at what might happen, to humor at what the big man had said. Tasha was hardly unsurprised to be frank. Ambori just kept sulking and cringing every time Tasha shifted her arm.
The wizened leader of the Chonathor spoke out in her gravelly, almost grandmotherly voice. Skarlett interpreted. " 'Again I must say, you have yet to give us one solid reason as to why we should allow you and your friends up the mountain. This world has survived through crisis and catastrophe before, and it'll live through this one.' "
Hal didn't respond for a moment, taking the time to sort out his thoughts and keep them in the right order. "Milady," he began respectfully. "I must ask. In all of the other … crisis’s? Is that the right word?" Skarlett Shrugged slightly. "Fine. With all of those other crisis’s, their survivors needed to work up a plan for defense or something. Am I correct?"
" 'You are indeed, youngling.' " Skarlett translated.
"Well, milady. We, my friends, the King of Southmoor... The people of this world, you, me, your Pridesfolk... I'm told we need the Book of Korum to plan this time. You see, without the Book, we will fight back. We will do all in our power to stop Xir on our own. But what everyone with smarts are tellin' me is that without the Book we don't even have a fighting chance." He took a well deserved deep breath. "Do you understand, Milady?"
The leader of the Chonathor pondered the translated words for a long moment. When she responded, it was with a slight smile and a faint twinkle in her eye. " 'Methinks that you believe in yourself too little, young one. Moreover, you make an interesting point.' "
Hal shrugged and smiled wearily. "Thank you, milady."
Tasha was speechless. Ambori made some crack that she didn't quite hear and she was so thunderstruck that she forgot to smack him.
The head of the Wamior Pride spoke next. " 'Hal, you speak like one after my own heart.' " Hal nodded politely upon hearing the translation. " 'Like a warrior! One who lives for the battle, for the thrill of the fight! So I'm sure you will agree with me on this point. A war should be fought as a war should be fought. With warriors on either side of a battleground rushing towards each other and then beating each other senseless somewhere in between.' " They both had a good laugh at that one. " 'My point though, is that is how a war is won. On the battlefield. Where no magic enters in and none is wanted!' "
Again, Hal took a few moments to concentrate on his thoughts. "Milord, I do agree with you," Hal began, letting the big wemic smile smugly. "To a point." The smug grin slipped away. "Milord, how do you describe a fair fight?"
" 'Where both side are equal in most respects with few to no advantages for either side in weaponry or manpower.' "
"Agreed, Milord. However if we were to try to take on Xir right now, with no magical support... it would be like sending a child against your best soldier." Hal gave that a moment to sink in. "Milord, I don't like magic either. Truth to tell, it scares the... it scares me. But, by being friends with a mage I have picked up some things along the way.
"It's like this. If a seasoned warrior were to attack a... rookie mage, the warrior will likely win. If that same seasoned warrior attacked an average mage, with nothing truly special about him... or her, I guess. That mage will win. The mage can destroy you before the battle even starts.
"Now, as it stands today; my friends and I are gonna take on someone who is called the most powerful wizard of all time! Armies won't defeat him. Legions won't defeat him. Nothing can defeat him... Except, maybe the spells in the Book." Hal took a deep breath. "For the Gods' sake, Xir is still stuck off in his prison and he's already attacking us. Tasha's visions, that big flash of light, the laughter... " Hal suddenly realized that he was shouting and shut his mouth.
Hal looked the Wamior right in the eye and held the gaze locked for a long time. "All I want is a fair fight, Milord. And I need the Book of Korum to have that." He held the wemic's gaze until Skarlett finished translating his words.
There was a long moment of silence in which neither party said anything for a long while. All members of the Council eyed each other cautiously, not sure what needed to be said. Then, as one, they backed away from the table and huddled together. Skarlett laid a comforting hand on Hal's shoulder.
Tasha was still thunderstruck.
Ambori leaned over to her then. "What do you think?"
"Shut up."
"Right."
There were heated voices drifting out from the huddle. The discussion continued for close to fifteen minutes. Hal refused to sit or move away from the table, claiming that he had to seem strong enough to be worthy of their decision. He said that it was important. To him if no one else. Skarlett made Tasha let it drop.
At roughly the twenty minute mark, the Council of Seven returned to the table. The ErAngha representative spoke for the Seven in a clear and precise voice. The wide smile that broke out onto Skarlett's face gave it away before he could translate. With a cry of relief, Tasha leapt from her seat and jubilantly surged forward, throwing her arms about Hal and holding him close.
"You did it Hal! I can't believe it but you... " She broke off in dismay when the big man's knees buckled and he collapsed to the floor.
Noticing for the first time the cold sweat on his face and the general clamminess of his skin, Tasha became very nervous. "I gotta stop doin' this," Hal muttered weakly. Skarlett crouched down and propped Hal up to his feet with only a minimum of effort. With a pass of one hand, the cleric made some sort of magic happen and he smiled with relief after he was done.
"Is he all right?" Tasha asked, surprised at how frantic she sounded. "Is he... "
"He's fine." Skarlett replied. "The hypothermia is out of his system. He's just tired. By all rights, he should still be asleep at this point."
"S'what Shonarr said," Hal grumbled.
"I'll take our stubborn negotiator back to his bed so he can get better."
"I'll give you a hand," Tasha said, rubbing at one of Hal's clammy but massive arms. "It's the least I can do after he saved our whole campaign today."
"Well, hey!" Ambori burst in with an indignant expression on his face. "I helped too!"
Tasha didn't even have to aim anymore.
"Ow!"