Roillard blinks. "Of course," he says, "that would make sense given your tasks. Well, I will be in my quarters if you need me for anything. Please keep me informed."
After several hours of study, Silhouette and Gabriel manage to decipher the message in the gem:
Gem Journal of Kirris the Black
Tenth of Secondmonth. Picked up a job for the Lady of the Black Hills. I don’t like it, but we need her money and her association, and it’s true that now is the best time. Still, who knows what Roillard still has hidden up his sleeve?
Twelfth of Thirdmonth. The latest batch of pups is coming along nicely. Divinations reveal that some have the gift. We will not be without warriors and sorcerers in the next generation.
Fifteenth of Thirdmonth. We have finally found the Tomb of Theophilus! As suspected, it lies in the Black Hills. We may be able to retrieve the Black Rage within a month. Our association with the Lady is paying off. We should organize a strike force to deliver on our promise before she grows impatient.
Sixteenth of Thirdmonth. Debacle. Total and utter failure. Though we killed one of the demons and stole its weapon, I lost the entire strike force. They knew the risks, but the tribe cannot afford to keep losing trained warriors in this fashion. Well, we are better on defense. Perhaps they will come for us and further thin their numbers – what then? I have no real interest in Roillard’s Lair, but I would be forced to counterattack after a successful defense.
Ah, Roillard, how did it come to this? To think that of the original group you and I would be left in the most pitiful straits, fighting tooth and nail over such a ridiculously small patch of land. Ikagenni would be amused, if his intelligence network were good enough to pick up word of this. No, that is not quite right – what you truly have is not the land, but the gateway in it. And what I have is not really land, but rather the feelings and future of a tribe. Each of us pins our hopes on small things.
I suppose I can’t expect you to understand. You never did like associations like that. Even within our little circle – Ikagenni the White, Roillard the Grey, and Kiriss the Black – regular contact was too much for your antisocial tendencies in the end. I could see that, though what you did to Lirre was abominable. She was one of us. Talnen had it coming: he was of little use and would certainly have opposed our plans for power. But why Lirre? Why not Ikagenni? Even now, that smug bastard has grown larger than us both! Why did you not kill Ikagenni back then, instead of Lirre, who posed no threat?
Maybe that’s it. In the end, we can’t understand one another. I wonder if you will come with this group of planar outsiders, or if you will use them as you treated all the others. I suppose it doesn’t really matter.