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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 3665024" data-attributes="member: 3448">Bonus length for last post for a while!* * *Lord Davion nodded.  “And now, a question for you.”  He opened a small bag, which kept on opening wider than would have been possible without magic, and dragged a humanoid cat out by the scruff of the neck.  “Do you want this, or should I just kill it?  It was spying last night, at my lord’s townhouse.”“I should think we would want to at least interrogate it first.”“It had spells that it thought would conceal it from my sight, foolish thing.  It is a half-breed; half-rakasta and half-rakshasa.  I took away its magic, its communication crystal, and this odd note.  I am afraid that I do not recognize the language in which it is written.”Dame Brionna held up her sun disc and concentrated for a moment.  “It is clearly evil.”“Thank you, Lord Davion.  We will question the prisoner and have the note deciphered.  If we find anything of interest, we will let you know.”Lord Davion bowed seriously and prepared to depart.“Oh, Lord Davion, we had one other question,” added Kit.  “Do you know what these coins are?  We know they’re from Krashmere, but…”  She showed him the crystalline coins that the Master Unbidden had left with the city guard’s body.He chuckled.  “How remarkable to see such here.  These are laen hoard tuals.”“Do you know how much they are worth?”Lord Davion drew a small abacus out of his bag of holding and made a rapid series of calculations.  “Well, at present value, if you market them carefully… about 275 gold each.  The Noldar keep much of their wealth in this form, but they are very rare outside of Noldar lands because they are never spent.  These are among the middle-value coins.  Besides the various common metals that humans use as coins, there are also osmium coins below the value of laen tuals.  Osmium is a bone-white metal, like ivory.  Those coins are worth about 125 gold.  And both the osmium and the laen coins are much less valuable than adamantium, but adamantium is rarely used publicly.”“Really?  I thought I had heard of adamantium coins in more common circulation than these,” said Alistair.“Ah, but the small rebel adamantium coins are adulterated, of course.  I was referring to the pure adamantium coins that the Noldar use, not the rebel counterfeits.”  Lord Davion thought for a moment.  “The key with these will be figuring out how to get full value.  Your best bet would probably be to sell them back to the embassy.”“Thank you, Lord Davion.  That is most helpful.”The Forsaken bowed deeply and departed.“I like him,” said Kit with a smile after he left.“I’m certainly glad he’s one of ours,” replied Alistair.  “I asked the questions about his son because I think he might be a reasonable candidate to receive the Earldom of Caldra or Caligshire.  We’ll need to verify Lord Davion’s statements, but if he is a skilled general and an excellent administrator, that would make him a good choice.  It would also be a good way to honor Lord Davion for his service-- I think he would appreciate it.”Dame Brionna nodded thoughtfully.  “And his son is a paladin of Glor’diadel, so we can both trust his integrity and expect him to be good at rooting out corruption.”“Plus, as a half-elf, he’ll live a long time, which will be good for stability.  I like it,” said Kit.  “Anything we can do to hold down succession issues is a good thing.”“Actually, my understanding is that he has chosen to take after his father’s heritage even though he’s Glor’diadelian.  As a half-Noldar who embraces his elven blood, he’ll be immortal, or all but.”“He might still choose to abdicate at some point, your grace.  But I agree that we could expect him to reign for a millennium or more, which would make it more stable than any of the rest of the Archduchy.”“As I said, we will need to do some more research.  Also, it’s ultimately the Duke of Furrows choice, not ours, but I think that he will be likely to take our counsel very seriously.”After checking it for traps and confirming that the only psionic effect on the cat-being was the mental malaise that Lord Davion had put on it, the Council sent it off to the dungeon to be interrogated.  They also sent the note to a sage for translation, and quickly received a report.  The note was the equivalent of a wanted poster, describing a female catperson and two kittens.Kit immediately set her network on the task of locating and securing the rakasta family.  Based on the details included in the note, she should have arrived in Canberry City about a day earlier.  Kit also made sure that her people understood that the rakasta might have sufficient magic to conceal its appearance.  They also sent for Reverend Canon Toddle in the hopes that he would be able to help locate the rakasta before the agents of the Abomination of Shur could.The diviner arrived soon after the message for him had been sent.  He was holding a cat as he entered, petting it calmly.  The Council was immediately suspicious, but the cat gave off no signs of psionics or evil, and appeared to simply be a cat.“May I ask how you ended up with a cat?” said Dame Brionna.“Of course, Dame Brionna,” replied the Reverend Canon.  “It was meowing in an alleyway for several days, and I shared my dinner of fish with it.  It purred happily and has been clinging to me ever since.”  The cat meowed contentedly as the diviner continued petting it.  He seemed mellower and less agitated than on any of the previous occasions they had seen him.  Reverend Canon Toddle then continued firmly.  “You wished to see me because of the branching of the prolipses.”Not exactly, thought Alistair, but if the prolipses is branching, we should probably know.  “Indeed, in part.  Can you tell us about this branching?”“Three great branches lie directly ahead.  One leads to the place where the stone boat has gone.  That branch must not be taken.”  His tone was unusually emphatic, and the Council noted that that was the first time he had ever definitively rejected a choice.  “Of the other two:  Both lie before the Archduchy like fields at the feet of the farmer.  You can have one or the other.  Before you lies either growth to the South and war to the West and Southwest, or growth to the East and loss to the West.  The path before your feet is crystal clear, but a middle way would yet avail you.“You must commit your energies, though you do not wish to, to one of the two.  Your heart you will never commit, but your energies you must.  If you commit to the one to the South, then the Archduchy will gain great lands, and those who seek their demise will become an implacable foe.  If you choose the one to the East, who is still a more viable one than you think, you will gain lands to the East, but give offense to the ones in the South.  Because of the offense of the one to the South, the West will crumble.”“What about the middle way?”“You take neither.  You make alliances, and you choose another from far away.  You keep all that you now have.  The war that comes eventually ends.  And what you pass on is greater than what you have, but less than what it could be.”Alistair thought for a moment.  “Will war come to the South either way, with the only question whether we are involved?”“Indeed.  The enemies of the South will strike at it regardless of your choices.  If you stand with the South, our armies will be pulled into these battles, but will triumph after much war.  If you do not, Canberry will remain secure, but the refugees will suffer greatly.”“And what about the stone boat?” asked Dame Brionna.  “Why must we not choose that?”“Its sending will come soon.  Its allies have brought forth the one that is to seduce.”  Reverend Canon Toddle looked at Alistair intently.  “If you take that path, their last hope, the kingdom falls.  It is not one that has been spoken of before.  You will know her by that.“Is there aught else?” he asked.  “My vision is clear today.  I can see nothing else but the branching.”“Have you seen a female catperson and her two children?” asked Kit.“Yes, she steps here and there.  There is great power within her, but great power seeks her.  She has taken refuge in the poor quarter, where he will not think to search for her.  There are assassins sent for her.  Three entered the City.  One watches the palace, one searches the noble houses, one watches the gate.  They hope to still catch her; traitor they call her, though true she is.”Kit grimaced at the mention of assassins.  “We’ll need to catch them first and deal with them quietly.”“If you take out the assassins yourself, they will know that you know that they know she’s here.”“We’ll just have to be more subtle, then,” replied Kit.  “Things happen by chance at times.  If we work carefully, we should be able to create incidents that will appear more general, but will engulf the assassins anyway.”Reverend Canon Toddle nodded.  “That could fool them, at least for a time.  But now, I must ask.  There is a baby in the nursery.”“Yes.  What about him?” responded Dame Brionna.“He confuses me.  Because he is, but he is not, the Archduke’s child.”“There is an imposter,” answered Alistair.  “We think the imposter might be a clone.”“A clone?  A clone…” Reverend Canon Toddle’s voice faded away as that word triggered memories of other visions.  A moment later, he slipped back into a trance and began talking emphatically but without any conscious though.  “A nest of clones below the hunting lodge has been disturbed.  Many have been brought forth.  Some died when they were raised, but some walk.  Three walk!  He walks, a mindless general walks, and another, a woman.  A woman I have seen before.  A member of the royal family, but not a member of the royal family.  I see her clearly, dimly.  But she passes out of time.  I cannot see her footprint in time.  It is like seeing a ghost, but it is not even like seeing a ghost.  It is a horrible thing they have done.  The one in the north, the one in the north walks to Ecsilias now. Now!”  He tottered forward and fell.  For a moment it seemed he would land on the cat, but Dame Brionna and Kit leapt forward and caught him before he could.  The cat looked worried, for the first time.After an hour, the Reverend Canon recovered and could be led back to his dormitory.  A note from the Archdeacon informed the palace that they had seen a similar pattern before and that it would be weeks or months before he could foresee again.The Council quickly dispatched warnings to Ecsilias and to Lyneham warning them about the imposter.  Ecsilias was the highest threat--the Archbaron had daughters, nieces, and granddaughters, any of whom the false Alistair might target, and an incident involving Ecsilias could easily develop into a diplomatic nightmare.  The warning for Lyneham was more personal.  Without a warning, the people of Lyneham would welcome Alistair as their liege, and the people the imposter would attack would be people that the Council had met and grown to like during their visit there.  Any atrocities in Lyneham would be all the worse because of the betrayal of trust involved.The Council then discussed what to do about the Sixth Daughter.  They agreed, based on Lord Davion’s assessment, that she was free.  At the same time, the notion of being given her services still rankled, as did the notion that upon Alistair’s death she would return to her mother’s house, regardless of her preferences.  Finally, they decided that they would accept her services, but upon their terms, not upon the terms of the drow.  They sent a message to the matron mother informing her that her Sixth Daughter would be accepted into service through a relationship of fealty, as with the knights of Canberry, and that upon Alistair’s death, she would be given the choice between returning to her homeland or continuing to serve as a vassal of Alistair’s heir.  The messenger reported that the matron mother was not displeased by this, and if anything seemed amused.They then sent for the Sixth Daughter and met her in a throne room, where they asked her if she wished to enter into service to the House of Ashberry.  When she said that she did, not without some confusion, Dame Brionna instructed her in taking an oath of fealty to the Archduke.  Alistair, for his part, swore to carry out the duties of a liege to a vassal and presented her weapons back to her, as she was now an honored vassal.  She remained confused, but at the same time was honored and beginning to understand that surface societies were even more different than she had realized, and perhaps better.  Alistair also offered to have a redactor cure the extensive scarring if she wished.  She decided to consider the offer rather than deciding immediately--there were advantages to being underestimated and shunned, but it had its costs as well.[End Session 22]</blockquote>

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