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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Urko" data-source="post: 2244167" data-attributes="member: 30822">Aldinis’ story, continued  (Eff Flat, Erin, Sanae, Xavier)Aldinis meets Sanae’s skepticism with a nod.  ”You’re right, of course.  The fact that there are only five of you is a problem.” She frowns and stares at nothing, forgetting to address Sanae’s second question for the moment. She barely seems to hear the exchange between Xavier and Erin.She shakes her head, as if to dispel her own uncertainty.  “ I understand your doubts. I have them myself. But I have found that the Prophecy tends to fulfill itself in unexpected ways.”  Aldinis pulls out and unfolds a larger sheet, about two feet square.  ”I received this just a few days ago from an associate. It’s a rubbing of the Vermithrax Tablet. Well, part of it, anyway. I’m told the entire thing is nearly one hundred feet high, and twice as long. I haven’t had time to write out a translation, so you’ll have to bear with me.”  Her lips move as she scans over the blurry characters, searching for the relevant section.  ”Ah, here we are. It refers to a great battle and the loss of a key. And something about a palace of ice – I haven’t figured that part out yet, but I assume it’s some sort of colorful metaphor; Vermithrax was quite fond of them. The important point is, several geographic markers are referred to that make it certain that it's talking about the same place I found...that.”  She indicates the leather tube with a slight jut of her chin before continuing.  ”Then there is a warning, ‘To defeat the ancient evil, the finder of the key must not bear it to the twin, but rather...’and there it cuts off. My correspondent informed me that the tablet was too worn to make a rubbing at that point. He could just barely make out what it said, but apparently, the key must be carried by surrogates.”Noting Sanae and Xavier’s increasing impatience, she hurries on.  ”As you’ve probably guessed, I’m asking you to be my surrogates, if not necessarily divine saviours.”  She flashes Xavier a weak smile.  ”I imagine you probably think that the connection between these two bits of verse is weak at best. There is the key reference, of course, but I do have more to go on beyond that. Many Prophetic verses are preceded by a set of signifiers that indicate the configuration of the moons and planes when the events described will occur. The signifiers for both are the same, and both are now, give or take a couple months. These things are cyclic, of course. The last time the alignment matched was during the second wave of human colonization of Khorvaire. The next time will be in about six thousand years.”Aldinis picks up the tube and fidgets with it.  ”Look, I know you have difficulty in believing all of this. Let me make a proposition to you. If your journey brings you across the sixth individual I described, will you at least consider the possibility? I’m not asking you to abandon your current quest. All I ask is that you take this with you, and let Fate run its course. If I’m wrong, and this is not the correct place or time, no harm done. Just bring it back to me and I’ll keep looking for the true meaning.” She fixes her eyes on Sanae. ”But if I’m right, can you, in good conscience, risk not taking what you need to destroy an ‘ancient evil’ as the tablet suggests?”</blockquote>

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