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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1942501" data-attributes="member: 143">Book VII might contain a bit of a surprise for you, then. * * * * * Chapter 294“She’s gone to Saradush.”“Saradush?  Alone?” Arun asked.  Hodge snorted.  “Hoy, that’s two ‘unnerd bloomin’ miles!  What, the girl grew wings now?”“Close,” Mole said.  “She’s mastered teleportation, apparently.”“Let me see the note, Mole,” Dannel said.  His face was already a thundercloud, but the storm deepened as he scanned the short message.  “That fool!” he exclaimed.  “That fool girl!  As if we weren’t being hunted by assassins... you know, it isn’t just the good guys who have access to scrying magic, or magical means of transportation...”“She says she knows what she’s doing,” Mole said.  “She’ll take precautions...”“Bah!  That’s what the man on the bridge of glass says...”“Well, she has already gone,” Arun said.  “Cursing it cannot make it not so.”“She took some of the remaining jewels with her,” Mole said.  “May’ap she decided she’s ‘ad enough o’ this madness, thinkin’ it’d be a good time to up and get out’a this asylum,” Hodge said.  “Might not be such a bad ideer at that now, mind yer.”“No, Zenna would never abandon us like that,” Mole said, with firm sincerity. “She ain’t been actin’ quite right o’ late, that girl,” Hodge persisted.  “Even fer her.  Ever since we came back from that damned ice-locker, and them pillers...”“No, I agree with Mole,” Arun said.  “Zenna knows what is at stake here, and has given us no reason to mistrust her motives.  We shall have to trust, eh?”  The last statement was made with the paladin staring at the elf, and Dannel finally nodded, reluctantly. “C’mon Dannel, you said you’d go with me to Weer’s,” Mole said.  Although they’d agreed to stay together in pairs, at least, when going out into the city, that cautionary stricture had already been disobeyed more than once by both the elf and the gnome.  But both, it seemed, needed a friend now, and Mole’s own concern was not hidden well as the two left.  “I’m goin’ fer a breath o’ air,” Hodge said.  Arun turned a hard look at him—the paladin was not as relaxed on the issue of splitting up in the town—but the dwarf only shook his head.  “Quitcher worryin’, I’m only goin’ o’ver to the stables.  Them new fawns o’ yers seem far too dainty entire, and if yer goin’ to let ‘em stick ‘round ‘ere, they’s goin’ need to know the hilt o’ a blade from the sticker.”Arun nodded.  “A wise precaution.  I will come join you shortly.”The older dwarf winked and put on a knowing look.  “Aye, I get yer meanin’, friend.  Goin’ to get yerself a quick one ‘ere supper, eh?”Arun’s look was cold enough to cut iron, but the other dwarf only laughed the louder as he turned to go.  As he was leaving, he paused in the doorway.  “Tell yer missus that if the two o’ yer are goin’ to bring in any new ‘recruits,’ try and get at least a few dwarves, eh?  An’ a looker o’ two wouldn’t be amiss nay no how, eh?”Arun waited until the other dwarf had left, then he let his hard look loosen into a smile.  There was no changing Hodge, but the man was a boon companion, and loyal, and that was enough for Arun Goldenshield.  “That man is a boor,” came a voice from behind him, in the other doorway.  “He’s loud, obnoxious, odorous, and overly fond of the drink.  But damned if he can’t swing an axe, and that counts for a lot in our line of work, I’d say.”Arun’s smile deepened as he turned around to see Beorna standing there, regarding him with a quizzical look on her face.  “What’s so funny?”“Nothing.”“Well, wipe that silly grin off your face, then.  We’ve got another recruit, another of them boys who wants to slay dragons and fight off evil; it’ll have to be with his forehead, ‘cause I’m not sure I’d trust him even with a blunt weapon.  Come on, you’re the one they always ask about, and so it’s your duty; I’m no nursemaid...”“How many is that now?  Sixteen?  At least Jenya doesn’t have to worry now about her church being understaffed.”“Well at least they can muck stables and slap whitewash,” she agreed.  “Well, come on then; I want to get this new one settled before supper, if he isn’t just here to mooch a meal before he disappears, like that half-elf kid.” Arun nodded, but the templar’s point wasn’t really serious; in fact, of the recent initiates, only that one she’d mentioned had proven less than true in his desire to serve.  They were a diverse lot, men and women of almost all the civilized races, mostly young, although one old fellow who had to be pushing fifty had appeared at the gate of the temple one afternoon, offering his skill to “that brown dwarf that’s been cleanin’ up this here town.”  Jenya had been surprised, but after the first few of the new volunteers had been given quarters in the nearly empty temple rectory, she’d told the paladin that it made sense, in a way.  The people of Cauldron had been through a lot in the last year, and there were many who felt that they needed to do something, to strike back in the only ways they could.  And so they found themselves drawn to the front lines of the battle against the darkness spreading through the city, drawn to the place where people of reputation were fighting back. Arun started toward the waiting templar, but before he reached it a commotion drew him around.  Mole burst into the room—for someone who could be utterly silent when she wanted to, she could make a lot of noise—followed by Dannel, and behind him a third figure partially obscured in by the doorway.  From the look on his friends’ faces—Mole eager, Dannel worried—Arun knew that their sudden return likely meant trouble. “Hey Arun, look who we ran into!” Mole exclaimed, as their companion entered the room. It had been over six months since he’d last seen Fario Ellegoth, and at first glance it did not appear that the intervening time had been friendly to him.  The half-elf had a haunted look to his face, his smooth, lean features pinched and tight with layered worries.  He looked as though he hadn’t slept in days, and the paladin could see that he was highly agitated.  “What’s happened?” he said.  He shot a quick glance at Beorna, who nodded.  “I’ll get our weapons,” she said, turning quickly and departing. “I need your help,” Fario said.  “Fellian’s been taken.”</blockquote>

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