Chapter 12

Once all have situated themselves, Toshiro stands toward the middle of the room. Placing himself deliberately inbetween Falling Leaf and Cael, he slows his heartrate a bit and lets his senses see more than normal. If anything untoward is to happen, may as well be ready...

A half-turn to Cael. "Cael, I understand you have a distinct issue with our guest. And you," turning toward Leaf, "do not wish to die without cause. Evidently... whatever you had done involving Cael was done with reason for reasons unknown..."

Listening with rapt attention Brygund sits there with his fried lizard (mmm Yummy!) listening to the conversation. He understands a bit more of why this priest of Eho seems so unlike his brethren. And has decided to join there quest. Besides he can use all the parchement and such to write and document their quest. At the most tense moment, Brygund belches loudly. It seems to break everyone into fits of laughter at this unusual priest of Oghma. Brygund intentionally belches to ease the situation.

Falling Leaf does not laugh, nor even smile. But she does turn her flat gaze on the Oghman for a moment and one eyebrow raises, ever so slightly.

After the burp, Cael's lip quirks into a small smile, and he glances over at the Oghman. ::Eho bless thee.:: He pauses, then says "Or perhaps I should say 'Oghma bless you.' Too bad Kvelti isn't here to hear you pay proper respect to her cooking."

Cael looks back at Toshiro, studiously ignoring Falling Leaf. "There is no need to stand in the middle, Toshiro. As we have entered this room, it is obvious that both have realised that here and now is not the time to resolve matters of the past." He barks out a short bitter laugh. "In fact, her abilities may be well suited for what we do. She has had much practice in killing the priests of the Ehosian Church, and I fear it may come to that before we are done." He finally glares at Falling Leaf and adds, in Ehosian, ::But you will it hard to slip your dagger through these ribs into *my* heart, flame-snuffer. There's little left of it from our last meeting.::

Leaf replies, "You are not a target. You did not sign orders for six elves to die by the Fury of Eho." She regards the assemblage with the same blank face. "Those who have angered Eho are sent into the desert to face... to face..." Her left eye tics suddenly and she abruptly stops talking.

Those blank, dark eyes widen just a bit and seem to turn inward. The left one tics again.

She stands up so suddenly her chair overturns. The best description of her expression is the look of someone who is about to be violently ill, but is trying to hold it off long enough to find an appropriate place to be sick in. "Cael..." her voice is somewhat distant, and she sways almost imperceptibly. "Cael, I would speak with you...alone..."

Cael starts a little when Falling Leaf says "You are not a target. You did not sign orders for six elves to die by the Fury of Eho." He suddenly had an image of Thorn, abandoned in the Great Desert, and shuddered. No one should have to die that way.

Without waiting for any sort of response, she turns to the door and goes through it. While she doesn't actually stumble, she totally lacks the self-possessed grace with which she moved downstairs earlier. The door across the hall opens and closes swiftly.

Cael is broken from his grim reverie as Falling Leaf stands, addresses him, and leaves. Almost involuntarily, Cael stands and starts heading towards the door, once he sees the pain that Falling Leaf is in. His heart warred against itself, silently screaming to him to go, comfort her while at the same time warning of the pain she brought into Cael's life.

Toshiro steps aside as Leaf leaves the room. Hmmm.... all is most definately not right with that woman. He thinks. But unless I most seriously wrong, there is something most peculiar there... something that needs to be settled before we leave this place.

"Cael, she isn't after you. It's those above that are corrupt and or are elfslayers- your abbot was eliminated for this. Now you plan on 'cleaning house'.... I know she can help but you both have to decide if you will be able to work together."

Toshiro's face falls a bit as he approachs Cael. "I know what it's like to be used..." he said in a low voice. "It cost me my wife and almost my son to save a land. You have lost a mentor but have gained insight into what you must do to save your faith. Her actions set you free, in a sense, to do this. Don't forget that when you speak with her....." Stepping back, he motions toward the hall. "I can be outside the door if you wish...."

Gwenh watched all this with a passive look on her face, the humor of the belch was lost on her. Her head turned left and right as she looked at each person talking. Sort of confused now, she just sat and looked at those left in the room to see what they were going to do now.

Cael stops only briefly on his way to the door to address Toshiro.

"I know some of the truth behind the abbot, Toshiro, but it still doesn't heal the wounds caused on that day. Here," and he touched his forehead, " I know that she bore me no personal ill. I was just a useful tool for her. But here," he tapped his chest, above his heart, "there are wounds that bleed still."

"Please, stay here for the moment. But keep an ear open." His eyes move to include Gwehn and Brygund. "I do not know what to expect from her anymore." With that, Cael step out into the hall, and without knocking, opens and steps through the door Falling Leaf went through a minute earlier.

After Cael leaves, Toshiro turns to Brygund.

"Good priest, Cael was showing you some papers earlier. Were you able to make sense out of their contents? They may provide us with a lead as to where to begin the housecleaning... Gwenh, have you any thoughts on this?"

"Why yes he did! I almost forgot!..." Brygund fumbles with scroll. "Hmmm...let see now...hmmmm....interesting...hmmm....Ahhhh...ok..that helped a bit..."

Brygund scans the scrolls. "Well, the fellow who wrote the letters was a fairly well-placed person, if I read his title right... a Flame Pearl should be in charge of several large temples, according to... which text was it? Well, it's not all that important...

"The fellow recieving them, called an Agent... hmm... this is really rather strange. He's being told to kill the trees and... how's that? 'Bleed the life-sap back to Eho.' Poetic, I suppose... a few mentions of marking areas with dead trees for possible timber harvest... Hmm... a few fairly desperate requests for more 'life-sap'... asking him to step things up, I think.

"A lot of pious nonesense about their campaign against the blasphemous eternals, the coming extinction of the elves, typical rhetoric if you've ever read anything written by an Ehosian in the past hundred years or so. Only, um... well, by this conjugation, and that imperative tone... hmm. I think he may actually mean it."

"I see," Toshiro mused. "The past hundred years.... Brygund, when, if you recall, did the change from respect for elves to hatred take place? I overheard some of the convesation downstairs before all of the excitement."

At this, Toshiro began to pace a bit, thinking aloud for everyones benefit. "If I heard the two of you correctly, the priesthood of Eho and the elves got along alright- not perfect but pretty good. If the change can be pinpointed within... oh, a year or two, then we can begin to figure out what or who is behind the change. A god of the sun is usually a god of life, is it not?" Toshiro stopped his pacing and looked at Gwenh, who had been very quiet throughout the entire exchange. Gwenh, you are an elf; although not from here, do you have any knowledge of the relations between Eho and others not of humankind?"

"I'm an elf?" Gwenh looked at Toshiro for a moment. "Oh, yes, an elf. Well I'm not a real elf, and I am from around here." She bites her lip. Well, I guess I can trust him, but what about the priest? I don't know. They said to tell only those I trusted, but I do trust them, even the fat priest guy. "Well, I don't know if you'll believe me, but I'm, ummm...I'm not an elf." She sits their and watches them both. Damn it, am I stupid? I'm not a real elf, how lame does that sound? "What?" Toshiro says as he turns toward Gwenh fully. "What do you mean by this? You appear to be one admittedly with somewhat strange hair but an elf none the less." "If not an elf, then what are you?" As he says this, Toshiro's mind is racing along. If not an elf, then what? Ancestors, could she be a spiritfolk? Or given the strangeness of late, a creature from tales told as a child...

Gwenh bites her lip harder. "I know this isn't a good time to tell you, or even a good way to tell you. If this place was secluded, maybe if I had more room, I could show you what I am." Come on Gwenh, get to it, just tell them what you are and let them decide they believe you. "Although I may look like a young elf maid, I'm really 623 years of age. I am a silver dragon, that explains why my hair is such an odd color and my lack of common elf knowledge." She looks at the fat priest. "If you don't belive me, then I assume that he could vouche that I was telling the truth. I know I shouldn't of decieved everyone into thinking that I was an elf, but it's the only way to freely travel around with humanoid races..." She tenses waiting for a response as she lets her gaze fall back on Toshiro.

Toshiro sits down hard, a look of minor shock crossing his face. Ancestors! Could this be true? Looking at the Oghman's reaction at the lack of fib, he looked at Gwenh again. Stories and tales.... the Wujen did warn me of some tales being more true than false.

"Gwenh, I know of tales that describe your.... change but I always thought they were more tale than truth." Toshiro mind raced to wrap his brain around the concept.... and the obvious fact of (if she wasn't lying) that she was a friendly sort. "When I last encountered a relative of yours, his redness tried to have me and my companions for dinner...."

Gwenh listens to Toshiro's words. I suppose now would not be a good time to tell them that my father was a red dragon... "That is the way of reds. I am a silver, my race is the opposite of the darker colors. I came to walk among humanoids of my own free will, I wanted to learn about different races and study them from a close perspective. I choose the form of an elf, because that was the first none dragon form I saw. This form is a tribute to the young maid I saw." She stops talking. What exactly am I trying to explain here? "Anything you wish to know about me or my race, please just ask and I will answer your questions to the best of my abilities."

Getting over the shock, Toshiro thought a moment before answering. "What are you capable of? The one member of thy race I met was quite.... powerful but disinclined to be of help. You are most likely younger than he."

A pause and he looked her straight in the eye. "Gwenh, I do not mean to be rude in asking this nor so foward but why are you here? Other than the reasons you've stated..... what is it you wish to learn other than our habits and frailties? I would imagine we 'normal' races would be a boring lot." Toshiro smiled as he said the last bit, in an attempt to make her realize it was an attempt at humour (a rather bad attempt but one nonethe less). "It isn't that I disbelieve you, but I feel it is a strange choice to make.... especially for one belonging to such a powerful race of creatures." Then again, no stranger than some of the choices I have made in the past.

"Capable of? Well I can use cast spells, I know a few languages, I can transform between dragon and elven form at will...my main weapons in dragon form are a cone of cold, and a, cloud of paralyzation gas, I can cloudwalk also, but that's more fun then useful."

His attempt at humor having been lost on her, she shakes her head. "Other races aren't lesser or boring. Silvers are rather fond of other races, we make it our goal to study and live among them. Some dye their hair so that the silver doesn't show through, I never bothered."

She looked at the floor. "As far as why I'm here, I got caught up in the quest and decided that I liked you all and wanted to help you as best I could..." He can tell that their is something she's not saying. Da...how can I tell them about you? I almost did...luckily no one heard me. Exile, who would want to befriend an exiled dragon? I am nothing now, when once I was your daughter, Da...

Noticing her facial expression, Toshiro picks up on her inner turmoil. She has more to say.... but the subject is a painful one. Hmmmm... an upset and hurting dragon is not something one should make angered. Even the tales were plain on that.....

"If you can alter your form to appear more human, that would more than likely aid our cause unless we come up with a good disguise. As to your hair, it may be necessary to dye it; silver is not all that common of color."

Toshiro stands and moves in front of her. Going in to a squat, he meets her gaze with his own. "Gwenh, I thank you for your help and for caring. Not many humans would have cared untill it was too late... and your abilities will prove valuble, including cloudwalk. Strange knowledge always proves useful at some point in life; it's all a matter of when. Incidentally, how good are you with your blade?"

"Change my form?" She shakes her head. "I can't, once the form is chosen, the body keeps it. The polymorph will only work for elf in humanoid. I could change into a dog or another animal, but it would still be silver, and what help would that be?" Thank you Da, I could not bear to speak of you now, later perhaps when the wounds have closed, or I grow to trust them more.

"I want to be a help to all of you." She lifts a lock of her hair. "The easiest color to cover silver with is black..." She whispers, "Ulanya...this would have been your path..."

Looking up and meeting Toshiro's gaze she sighs. "I could dye it black, or use a disgiuse spell, but that wouldn't work for very long." Da, Ulanya, I need you both now, but I can't have your help can I? Nay, I must now fend for myself, for the first time I must. But why now? Why with these mortals? I feel as though I have no choice but to help them...

"I'm not that good with my sword...yet. I'm afraid that my training was unexpectedly stopped..." Yes, my teacher was exiled and murdered, then I was exiled...that really halted training...

A smile reaches Toshiro's lips. "Well, it was a thought. As to your swordwork, I think I might be able to help there; I was a teacher of the sword art for a long time."

She halfway returns the smile. "That's awfuly nice of you..." Why does this remind me of what happened so? I don't want to care about others anymore, but I can't help it. I get thrown out of one mess and into another, yet I'm wanted here...yes wanted... "In exchange I could teach you how to ride on a dragon or some magic if you'ld like. Maybe even my language if that suites you."

A slight bow and Toshiro responds. "It is not necessary for anything in return.... but learning the tongue of dragonkind, even if only a little, wouold be a fair exchange."

He turned toward Brother Byrgrund. "I am sorry Brother... we must be boring you."

With a start, Brygund responds, "No not at all. This is just facinating. I've never met a dragon before! This is something most interesting to myself. I've..uh...well never left the abbey til today!" Actually quivering with such incredible information; A living breathing dragon! I am so excited I hope I don't wet myself!I need to write all this down as soon as I can!

Then from the excitement Brygund realizes he is a bit gassy and excuses himself from the conversation to get more fried lizard. (Brraaaappp!) is what is heard down the hallway and a distant cursing.

The door has scarecely closed from Brygund's passing when it is flung open again, and Cael stalks in. Once there, he grabs his mug still half full of ale, and quickly drinks it down.

"I'm heading back down to the bar for a moment. That one..." he gestures angerly at the room he left, "it will take much drinking to deal with that one on this trip." With that, he heads downstairs.

A scant few moments pass when Falling Leaf reappears. "I apologize for the interruption. I do not expect for it to happen again." She resumes her seat as if nothing strange had happened. "What are the goals of this group? How are we to work together?"

As Gwehn was getting ready to say something to Toshiro about dragontounge and how easy it is to learn yet hard to teach, Falling Leaf came in. She looked at the elf then at Toshiro and waited for him to answer her.

"Our overall goal is to prevent the destruction of the forest by the false priests. And yes, false. It seems that the priesthood here has strayed from the true path of the faith. According to what information we have, the clergy was on good terms with elvenkind untill a hundred years past."

Toshiro fixed Leaf with an unblinking stare. "What ever happened then was evidently responsible for the needless strife. For your information, if he didn't tell you, he no longer is a part of the clergy here; however he still holds favor with his god. Based on what I have lived through in my homeland, this is a most distinct omen."

Toshiro moves toward the door, motioning for Gwenh and Leaf to follow. "If I am right in my thoughts on what has happened to him, the near future will be quite life shattering....." Holding the door open, he stopped and faced Falling Leaf, sporting a very enigmatic smile. "... for him and his people. The false priests will have a different problem, if we have anything to say about it."

Falling Leaf steps through the door, thinking.

The human claimed that the current priests of Eho were not actually following Eho's will.

Further, he seemed to believe that Eho was giving signs that he wished his people to be reformed. Cael seemed to be one such sign... an exile priest still in favor with the diety.

Eho was unhappy with his current clergy.

Her lips curl into a thoroughly unpleasant smile.

"Fury of Eho," indeed... it did have a certain ironic ring to it.