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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 1765564" data-attributes="member: 99">Actually, it looks like there will be three updates before I start posting Cathal's.  Expect the third tomorrow morning.Two days later Speaks and Lazarius huddled on the snow-covered rocks that surrounded the pool in the center of the sinkhole.  Though the blizzard had left several inches of snow at the bottom of the hole, the pool stayed clear of ice.  Speaks guessed that it was fed by a stream warmed by the heat of the earth below.“Let’s make this quick.  It’s cold as an Ice-Demon’s horn out here,” groused Lazarius.Speaks shook his head at the complaints of the Imperial Wizard, so used to the comforts of home and so ill at ease with the privations of living in the wilderness.  “You’ve studied this spell as well as I have.  You know that it takes time to do properly.”Lazarius sighed in resignation.  “Yes, yes.  Well let’s at least go ahead and get on with it.”Speaks began his incantation.  He called upon the waters before him show him things within their depths.  He focused his will and his power and shut out the howling of the wind above until, slowly, an image began to resolve itself in the dark waters of the pool.  An image of Ilrath.He looked haggard and dirty and tired.  His face was grimy, his beard unshaven and caked with ice at the tips.  Dried blood covered one cheek but it wasn’t obvious who it had belonged to.He struggled along up a narrow defile, neither first nor last in the line he was part of.  He stopped as he reached a place where the defile leveled off and made a turn.  He gripped the shoulder of the man behind him and hauled him up the last few feet and did the same to the next one.  Both bore the clothing and look of Fodor tribesmen.  They were in no better shape than Ilrath.Ilrath offered his hand to the next climber who reached out to take it…with a black-skinned hand with rough black nails on the tips of his fingers.  His cowl was pulled close against the bitter winter air but it fluttered back to reveal the grinning, fanged mouth of an Orc.  Ilrath gave a pull and helped the creature further up the steep path and did the same to the other five toward the end of the line.  He then wordlessly fell into line at the back of the group and continued his climb.Speaks let the image slip back into the depths of the pool and looked with astonishment at Lazarius.  The Wizard was clearly just as surprised as the Druid.  They withdrew back into the cave and spoke of this with their companions.“Orcs!?  Can you be certain of this?”  Cathal was incredulous.  “Why would Ilrath be aiding Orcs?  Are you sure he wasn’t their prisoner?!”Speaks shook his head, “He bore no chains or ropes and he willingly aided them in their climb.  Also, I doubt that a prisoner would have been allowed to take a position as a rear-guard.”“Why in Hell would Ilrath be allied with Orcs?  Weren’t your people just at war with the Orcs a year ago, Cathal?”  Marius too was puzzled at this surprising news.  It was Lazarius who ended the speculation.“This conversation is pointless.  We can’t possibly guess the reason for this bizarre turn of events.  Let’s just go there and ask Ilrath ourselves.  Either he needs rescuing or he doesn’t.  Either way, let’s go find out.”Marcus was still a bit unsure of the description that Lazarius had given as to their method of travel.  “And you’re just going to snap your fingers and take us there?  I’ve heard of this kind of magic before but never seen it myself.”Lazarius wrinkled his nose at the characterization of his magic, “It has taken me years and years of study and thousands of gold Imperials of expense, the majority of which I’ve had to pay out of my own pocket, to become adept enough to master the Spell of Teleportation.  So no, I’m not just going to ‘snap my fingers’!  It’s vastly more complicated than that.  But yes, it will take us there, instantaneously.”Marcus nodded his head slowly.  “If you say so.”Speaks headed off another diatribe that he could see boiling within Lazarius.  “Did you get enough information from what we saw?”Lazarius collected himself and responded, “I’ll need you to do it again in the morning.  Hopefully they’ll be stationary then and I can get a better reference point.”Speaks replied, “We can do that.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I must go bid farewell to Feathers In Flight.”Speaks exited the cave and found Feathers prowling around the bottom of the sinkhole, his ursine teeth crunching on the bones of some dead Shocker Lizards that he’d dug from beneath the snow.  He turned to regard the approaching Druid, “These really aren’t too bad.  I’d prefer they were warmed a bit, but they do taste rather like chicken.”Speaks smiled.  His master seemed to have adjusted fairly well to his bear form.  That was only natural considering how much time that Feathers had spent shifted into forms other than human.  “Do you feel that your strength has returned?”“Yes.  And I can use my magic freely now.  It seems that it was only the Fetter that kept me from using it.”  Feathers referred to a magic collar that the Keepers of Night had placed upon him, blocking off his abilities to do magic or shift his form.  “I do hope it can be destroyed, but I agree that it will be essential if you run across any more of the Keepers.  I’ll try my best to find out if there were more than the two sent after you.”Speaks smiled.  “That would be appreciated.  And also, if you don’t mind, will you look in on my mother and make sure she’s alright?”“Certainly,” replied Feathers, “after all, I’ll need to take refuge from the eyes and ears of the Circle and there are few places that I would not stick out aside from the Temple of Obad-Hai in Oar.”Speaks chuckled for a moment before the sound died on his lips.  “Also, if I don’t make it back for some reason, tell her about father.”Feathers' big furry head nodded in a very human gesture.  “You take care of yourself lad, and you’ll make it home to tell her yourself.”  He looked skyward and saw that the clouds had now parted revealing the bright stars above.  “Time I should be going.  Take care of your friends, Speaks With Stone.  And yourself.”  With that, the bear shrank to a fraction of its size and became a falcon.  With a flutter of wings the creature rose up toward the top of the sinkhole and disappeared over the edge.Speaks quietly spoke into the sky, “And you take care of my family, Feathers In Flight.  And yourself.”  He turned and went back into the cave to pack his things and get some sleep.  They would depart at dawn for wherever Ilrath was.</blockquote>

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