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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4085090" data-attributes="member: 143">Thanks for the posts, guys!* * * * * Chapter 368REFLECTIONSThe door to the chapel swung open quietly, and Corath Dar entered.  The fighter looked a good deal different than he had in Rappan Athuk.  His clothes were new, layered garments of wool and linen of muted and practical design.  The terrible winter had finally broken, but the air was still chilly, and it felt as though summer would be a complete miss for this year.  The suit was devoid of markings or insignia, and he bore only a long dirk for a weapon.  His face was creased with hard lines, and he looked like a man a good decade older than his thirty-four years.  The only other man in the room looked up as Dar entered.  The Patriarch of Camar did not look surprised to see him.  Dar came up to where Jaduran stood near the altar, but said nothing; the two men merely stood there for a moment in tranquil silence, as the weight of events sorted themselves out for both of them. “Has there been any word from the Tribune?” the Patriarch finally asked. “I imagine you’d know before I would,” Dar said, his words a bit clipped.  But when Jaduran’s placid expression did not change he shook his head.  “No, nothing.  I think he’s going to pardon Kyros Livius, though.”“You disagree with that course?”Dar shook his head again, more violently.  “No, damn it, the people need peace, after all that Camar’s been through.  But that bastard put us through a lot, and he deserves a blade in the gut more than a pension and a stern finger-wagging.”“As you said, Camar has been through a great deal.  From what I understand, the people of Dalemar did not weather the winter well.”“Yeah, well, that’s one reason why they’re talking, instead of gearing up for a spring campaign.”“At least matters are quiet in the south.”“Yeah, it’s been placid enough since Gravorr’s dwarves cleaned out the region.  But the freaking council vetoed my suggestion to establish a permanent base at Southwatch.  They’d rather write off the whole south, and try to forget any of this ever happened.”“Camar has lost a great many men, Dar, even in the areas not directly assaulted by the Demon.  It will take decades even for the core provinces to recover.  And you cannot fault people for not wanting to resettle the southern marches, not after what happened.”“Maybe so, but in ten years, that entire region’s going to be a wildlands.  Wouldn’t surprise me if the orcs move down out of the mountains as well, now that our forts along the frontier are empty.”“You may be right.  But we will face that challenge when we come to it.”  The cleric started changing out the depleted candles in the altar display.  Without looking up, he said, “I heard that you refused the permanent appointment to the council.”Dar snorted.  “I am not a politician.  If I had to sit through any more of those meetings, I’d probably end up in a noose after throwing that fat bastard Eutropius through a wall.”“I heard that Tiros offered you the command of the Dragon Knights as well.”“Yeah, well, I’m no knight.”  Dar ran a hand through his hair, scratching at his scalp.  “Have you decided what you and Allera are going to do?”“I’m tired, Patriarch.  I’ve had not one, but two swords broken; I think it’s a sign that I shouldn’t push my luck.  There’s a little place, a community not far from Highbluff; it got emptied out during the war but the survivors are going to go back, try to make a go of it.  Allera thinks she could open up a hospital there, maybe train some more healers.”“Helping others is always a worthwhile way to spend one’s time, regardless of where it is.”“If you want that armor back, I can bring it by before we go...”Jaduran shook his head.  “No, keep it. I hope that you will never need it again.” The suit in question was a full set of plate mail of brightness, one of the magical treasures that they had recovered from Orcus’s throne.  Dar had worn the armor, with a breastplate engraved with the blazing torch of Soleus, during the mopping up operations that had followed their victory at Rappan Athuk.  They had also brought back with them a book of infinite spells, and an assortment of lesser items, including those that had been the property of Alderis and Varo. “What about the dagger?” Dar asked. “It has been secured somewhere very safe,” Jaduran replied.  Dar nodded.  Both men knew that the significance of the mithral blades went beyond the value of their inherent magical powers; they were keys, very important keys, to a place that had to be kept secure at all costs.  Unfortunately, there had been no sign of the other two; those had been lost with Letellia’s magical pouch of holding within Rappan Athuk.“Are you going to wait until Tiros returns?” Jaduran asked him. “No, I don’t think so.  I’m sure I’ll see him again before too long.”Jaduran extended a hand.  “I wish you peace in the Light, Corath Dar.” Dar shook the extended hand.  He started toward the exit, but hesitated, and Jaduran turned back toward him, waiting.  “Varo,” Dar finally said.  “Allera told me what Nelan said to her, in the Celestial realm.”“I don’t pretend to understand any of it.  I was dead when all that crazy stuff started happening, and Allera was barely conscious, and completely out of it by the time that Orcus bought it.  Yet somehow, he and Letellia did it.”    “Faith can be a strange thing,” Jaduran said, lighting the fresh candles with one of the older ones that had nearly burned down to the nub.  The glow from the tiny flames brightened his face, and cast a tiny sparkle into his eyes.  “You know, I tried to read that book of his, the Codex Thanara.”Dar grunted.  “And?”Jaduran finished, blew out the scrap of candle, and put it down on the tray that held the now-empty box of fresh ones.  “I could not make any sense of it, to be honest.  It just seemed like... chaos.  Maybe it’s my training; my mind has been conditioned to seek things in orderly paths.  But if someone hadn’t come along who had been able to see the warning in the book...”“Someone crazy enough, you mean.”Jaduran shrugged.  “If that is so, perhaps we are the ones who are mad.  In any case, we are entering a new era for religion in Camar.  You have seen the new church that is being built in the Docks Quarter?”“Yeah, well Varo got that, after all.  Never thought I’d see a church of Dagos in Camar, not in the open, anyway.  Though that guy Alzoun is about as crazy as Varo was.”“I may go down and listen to a service.  Perhaps our faiths are not so dissimilar as some have believed.  You know, there are some old scholars who wrote that Soleus and Dagos are both aspects of the same god, a branching that enables a reconciliation of the necessary duality of order and chaos in a way that mere human beings can understand.”“You’re shi—you’re kidding me.  You believe that?”Jaduran shrugged.  “Why, it is heresy, of course.  But an interesting concept, nevertheless.”The two men faced each other in silence for a time.  Finally, Dar’s mouth twisted in the approximation of a smile.  “Well, like you said, ‘new era’ and all.  So long, Patriarch.”Jaduran inflected his head in a bow.  “Good fortune, Corath Dar.”The fighter left, the heavy wooden door to the chapel swinging shut behind him.  The leader of Camar’s predominant religion stood there for a long minute, watching in silence, then turned back to the altar, and starting picking up the rest of the spent candles.</blockquote>

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