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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3997212" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 337WORDS OF WISDOMThe flickering torches shed a light that pressed back the darkness in the large cavern.  The air was cold and damp, and the flame from the torches was but an illusion; they shed no warmth.  The companions had no fuel to make a real fire, only a tiny stove that Varo had brought with him.  Allera promised to create a heroes’ feast after their rest, but for now, just being free of the oppressive air of the dungeon level known as the Gates of Hell was enough for the battered companions from Camar. They ate in exhausted silence.  Talen and Shay left the camp for a while, stating that they were going to scout out the area for threats.  The others watched them go; there was not much in the way of trust there, but as Varo had quietly noted, there wasn’t much they could do about the vampires in their current condition. Allera looked about ready to collapse, but after they’d eaten she got up and walked over to Calla.  The girl had watched them from the edge of the firelight, the dancing flames flickering in her dark eyes.  “I know that you do not need to eat,” the healer said.  “But is there anything I can do for you?”The girl did not acknowledge her at first.  Allera knelt beside her.  “There may be something I can do... to help you...”At that, Calla did look up, and there was something terrifying in her eyes.  “The only thing that keeps me from tearing out your throat right now and feasting upon your blood is the will of my master,” she said.  There was no emotion in her voice. Allera started to draw back in alarm.  The girl rose, menace in her pose, but then a quiet voice came out of the darkness, and she froze. “Talen wants you, Calla.”  The girl smiled at Allera, bearing her long fangs, and then turned and vanished beyond the reach of the light.Allera turned to see Shay approaching, a dark shadow in the flickering light.  “Do not blame the girl.   She has no choice.”“We all have a choice, Shay.”The scout stopped a few paces away, turned slightly so that the light of the torches did not quite penetrate the depths of her cowl.  “You know a great deal, Allera, but about this... nothing.”“I want to understand, Shay.  Why?”“Like Calla, I had no choice.”“But we might have been able to do something for him...”“Tell me, Allera.  If you had to choice between your life and that of Dar, what would you choose?”“But he... Talen did this to you.  Dar would never hurt me...”Shay laughed, a short, strangled sound.  “I told you that you didn’t understand.”  She lifted her head, so that the eyes, liquid and cold within the cowl, fixed upon hers.  “He didn’t do anything, Allera.  Talen fought me; after I freed him, he tried to drive me away.  I made him take me.”“Oh, Shay...”The scout made a sharp cutting gesture with her hand.  “Spare me your pity, or rather, save it for those who need it still.”“Is everything all right here?” Allera started as Dar’s voice reached her.  The fighter’s heavy tread steadied her, and she could imagine Dar’s hand dropping to the hilt of his sword without even turning to look.  Shay merely laughed, and walked away.  Dar’s hand settled protectively on her shoulder.  “Are you all right?”She nodded, willing that he not see her fear.  We walk upon the dagger’s edge, she thought.“You should get some sleep.  Stay close to Letellia and Varo.  I will keep watch.”She knew that he was as exhausted as the rest of them, but was not about to suggest that they entrust their rest to the vampires.  “Be wary,” she whispered.  “Do not meet their eyes.”He nodded, and escorted her back to the camp.  Alderis and Letellia was already asleep, and within moments Allera joined her, wrapped within two of their heavy cloaks.  The vampires were not visible, but Dar could almost feel eyes upon him from outside the ring of light shed by their torches. “They are there,” Varo said quietly, confirming his thoughts.  The cleric was examining a ring of black metal that they’d found in the pool of the Overmind.  They had taken several items from the basin, including a wand of polished graphite and an amulet made of interlocking platinum rings.    Dar walked over to him, seating himself on a rocky protrusion that gave him a clear view of the camp.  “I have questions for you.”“I will do my best to provide answers.”“Why the elf?”Varo sipped tea from a small metal cup.  They hadn’t found Letellia’s pouch of holding, but fortunately the cleric had been carrying extra supplies in his handy haversack, so they were not short of necessary gear, like the cups and the portable camp stove that heated the cleric’s tea, and strong coffee for those on watch.  Dar accepted a cup of the latter as he settled himself, adjusting the scabbard of Valor so that the hilt did not stick into his side.  “Why did I give you the ring for him, you mean,” the cleric replied.Dar managed to keep his voice quiet and level, but it clearly took an effort.  “You know that’s what I mean.  Damn it, Varo, you knew that Nelan was going to die.  Why didn’t you give him a ring?  Damn it, you could have given him mine.”“You want the truth.”“I want a straight answer, for once.  And if you don’t give it to me, then we are done, demon or no.”Varo nodded.  “I told you before, about the Codex Thanara.”“That book of prophecy, that’s how you know what is going to happen.”“Not precisely.”  The cleric let out a sigh.  “I am not trying to mislead you, Dar.  I do not fully understand it myself.  The Codex is a map, but it is a map without key or legend, lacking scale or clear references.”“What use is it, then?”“It is a double-edged sword, but it was what first alerted me to the threat posed by the return of Orcus.”“Return?”“The Codex reveals a reality that is a cycle.  Rappan Athuk has been here for a very, very long time.  This is not the first time that these events have played out.”“You said that before, to Talen.  It makes my head hurt to think about it.”“There are many times that I have felt the same.”“What does this have to do with Nelan and the elf?  Don’t mess with me, Varo.  You warned me that the priest would die.”“Actually, I believe that my instructions were to break the amulet if Nelan should fall.”“Don’t fence words with me, priest.  You had this all set up from the beginning.”“I am not the master of events that you imagine me to be.  Like you, I am a mere mortal, buffeted by the rough winds of fate.  I have done my best to fight against what I believed was coming, to prepare for the confrontation that I knew might come.”“You once called Rappan Athuk a ‘proving ground.’” “It is that.  Look at yourself, Dar.  A few months ago you were a mercenary fighter, tough enough in a scrap, to be sure, but no different than any of thousands of armsmen found in any army, warband, or fighting-house in any city in the world.”“I never claimed to be any different, or any better.  I know what I am, priest.”“What you were,” Varo said, with surprising intensity as he leaned forward, the torchlight flickering on the edges of his face.  “Now, you are a living weapon, one of the most deadly fighting men of your age.  You have battled dragons, demons, monstrosities from nightmare made real.  Some of it is skill, mastery through constant struggle against terrible dangers, some of it is the strength that was always inside you, but there is more, something intangible, something that has grown inside of you.”Dar shook his head.  “Swinging a sword is no mystery...”“You know it is more than that.  Look at Allera.  When we met, she could save a man’s life, ease a fever, purge a body of toxins.  Now... her healing powers are more potent than any of her order, living or dead, in twenty generations.  She is rapidly approaching the point where the rules of mortality will be utterly transcended; already she has the power of life and death in her hands.  There are only a handful of priests with that kind of power, and I cannot think of any who achieved it when as young as Allera, back to the days of Camarius.”“And what about you, Varo?”“I am the most powerful cleric alive in the world today.  The power of Dagos flows through me like a spring torrent flooding a narrow gully.  It rages wildly, almost beyond my power to control it.”“What about the elf?  You still have not answered my original question, just told me what you’ve already said before, at one time or another.”Varo nodded.  “It was necessary, to make you understand.  As much as what is happening to us can be understood.”“Varo, just cut the bull and tell me straight out, why the elf is so important.  You’ve hovered over him like a mother ever since we found him in that first temple, bound up over the lava pit.”“There is a prophecy within the Codex,” the cleric said, his voice so quiet that Dar had to lean forward to hear him.  “It speaks of how Orcus can be defeated.  There are three that must be there, to confront the demon.  Three who must sacrifice that which they hold most dear.”“The elf.  And you, I would guess.  And the third?”“’The general.’  At first I thought it was Tiros, or Talen.  But now I know it is you, Corath Dar.”Dar snorted.  “General is only a word, a title.  It doesn’t mean anything.”“The word means little, but the man behind it is key.”Dar looked at him intently.  “Why me?”“Because you are the weapon that can harm the demon.”  Dar glanced down at Valor, in its scabbard at his side.  His hand started toward the hilt almost of its own volition, but he held it, clenching the fingers into a fist.  “I swore I would cut that bastard’s head off.  But I do not put much stake in prophecy, priest.”“I do not ask for you to believe anything.  But even you must agree that we are the best hope for defeating the demon before it is strong enough to yoke our entire world to its corrupt will.”Dar’s gaze shifted out over the camp.  “What about Allera?”“I do not know.  Truly, Dar, I cannot see the future.  It is... frustrating, to have only bits and pieces, and not be able to see what they mean.”“And this ‘sacrifice’?”“I do not know that either.  Only that it must be paid, if the demon is to be defeated.”“Nelan, and the others?  Were they also required sacrifices?”“Do you think I wanted them dead?  Do you think I wouldn’t have done everything I could to save Nelan, or Marcus, or Serah?  Do you think it is easy, to have just enough power to make a choice, to shift the scales a certain way that some might survive?”“Yet you made that decision.”“Yes.  And I have been wrong.  You know what it is like, general.” “I never asked for that responsibility.”“Neither did I.  I did not ask for my life to be torn apart, to give up everything on behalf of a world that didn’t want to hear about the darkness that was coming.”Dar looked down at the cleric.  In that moment, the man looked old.  For a moment, there was silence between them. Finally, Dar spoke again.  “I do not trust you, Varo.”The cleric nodded, almost to himself.  “Then you have learned wisdom after all.  I need to rest.  Do not turn your back on the vampires, but do not try to challenge them; their will is far stronger than yours, and they fight their instincts to remain with us.”“I am not a fool.”“No, I suppose not.” Varo walked back over to the camp, careful not to make any loud noises.  He stripped off his gloves and greaves, but left his breastplate on, wrapping a blanket around his frame as he leaned back against a sloping stalagmite.  Within a few moments he was asleep. Dar remained on solitary vigil, staring out into the darkness, the hilt of Valor clasped in his fist.  His jaw tightened as he looked down at the sleeping healer.  A word whispered in his mind, repeatedly.  “We shall see,” he said, his eyes shining in the flickering light of the torches as silence descended upon the camp in the cavern.</blockquote>

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