The shade exhales sharply. "Yes, that is what my originator, the one whose mind I am a copy of, believed."
The shade flickers and you see in the purple crystal the image of the shade once more, but now surrounded by other avariels. They seem to be having a heated argument. "My originator, Ivarus, maintained this outpost along with several of his comrades. They were in contact with other outposts and with the Avariel Council via such devices as the crystal you now view. The Locusi's abuse of our magic was killing us off through the new disease, and one faction suggested trying to play with our own body chemistry while another advocated trying to find a cure while at the same time striking back at the Locusi with a variation of the magical disease. The disease attacks only a specific race, so changing the make-up of our body would likely work but the extent of the change would be unpredictable. The Council's leader, Lavara, argued strongly against retaliation, but also did not want to alter her people's bodies in order to escape the plague. The argument became heated..."
As the shade of Ivarus gives a passionate speech, another shade begins to loudly argue with him. Ivarus says something sharp in his language in return, and the second shade lashes out in anger. Ivarus stumbles backward and falls, a crystal lodged in his chest. The second shade looks shocked. "One of the leaders of the faction pushing for retaliation argued with Ivarus, and in the midst of this discussion he felt rage for the first time and stabbed him with a crystal he had been holding. This man was called Vivaran." The image in the crystal begins to grow dark. Ivarus could hear his comrades yelling in confusion as he fell dying. In all the years since leaving Celestia, no avariel had ever struck another. We had come to this world in order to change it for the better, but it had changed us instead. I believe that in this shocking moment, Lavara decided our fate for as Ivarus faided away he heard her voice from the crystal intone Let there be change."
The image shifts once more, this time to a Council chamber with a large green crystal in the center of the ring of marble chairs and tables. "This is the Council Crystal, a powerful artifact normally stowed inside a vault underneath the Council floor that can be opened and raised when needed. This crystal powers some of the avariel's more powerful magic. With it they could divine cures, divine how to create a counter-disease, or drain the crystal of some of its permanent magic in order to perform greater magics such as changing the entire avariel race into something different so that the disease would no longer effect them. It is this crystal that may hold the key for you, if a cure hasn't already been developed."
You recognize the Council. It is the same Council as you had visited earlier in the year in the land of the elves, though you had not seen the crystal then.
