Subject: Back in the Saddle, er, email, or something

Rennik sits with Tichenor, quietly listening to the droning of Cadfaels words, wondering why humans needed to make language more complicated than it had to be. A tunnel the dark god doesn't know about? Passage at noon? Mission and he had strayed? It made some sense, but was more frustrating than illuminating.

Sa'id's words made the chaos of Cadfael's become clear. The tunnel had to be passed at noon for us to go unnoticed. Which would mean getting near the tunnel entrance before dawn if we were to pass the guards at the base of the mountain...

Mission and he had strayed. From Cadfael. Sa'id had mentioned this another day, how Cadfael protected them from the dark god. How being near him blinded the dark powers. And they had strayed, Rennik further than Mission even. The hairs stand up on the back of his neck as he realizes he could have died at the hands of the shebitch and her hellhounds without any way to escape.

"We must leave this place, now."

He stands and turns to the group, some of whom have spread back up the tunnel.

"Friend Sa'id knows. He understands. I left the party once, and I was seen and attacked by the dark god. I left the party again tonight."

His breathing is heavier.

"If the dark god could see me the first time, he could see me the second. He attacked the first time, when there was a chance to wound the party by killing me. This time, he means to attack all of us."

"I may not have been noticed, but there's a good chance I was. We need to leave this place. Now. Before he sends his minions looking. Before we are trapped by the shebitch and the zombies and the host of our enemies."

He looks at Cadfael, and then to Sa'id.

"This tunnel. It is an entrance to the mountain, and unguarded? Even if we were noticed on it, it is a better chance than the front entry. It seems our best option."

"But we need to leave here now. We can sneak past the guards and up the side of the mountain before we sleep, as close as we can to this tunnel. That way we don't have to move in daylight and risk discovery."

"We must stay together, and we must not stay here."

Subject: Muddling through...

Sa'id watches Cadfael's exchange with Mission intently, his gaze focused on the priest. He struggles to decipher the man's cryptic half-musings, committing each sentence to memory and mentally parsing every turn of phrase as many times as there are possible interpretations. Some of what Cadfael has to say seems fairly clear to Sa'id -- and surprising. He was saying that he would have to enter the mountain through the secret tunnel ALONE, that if anyone else came with him they would be killed. And that he could save Promise without aid.

At first, Sa'id mentally scoffs at this so-called plan. After all, the last time Cadfael had gone anywhere alone, events rapidly spiralled into a disaster. But, since he is doing his best to be thorough in his examination of Cadfael's words, he carries this idea through to its logical conclusion. A diversion would be needed. If the group attacked the main entrance at high noon, or just before... possibly from two sides...

Fire.

Sa'id smiles inwardly at the thought of the skeletons crumbling to ash, the human guardians screaming in agony as his conjured flame seared their flesh. It seemed so perfect. As many fireballs as could be conjured. Perhaps he would also take command of some of the undead guardians, turning them against the humans one at a time. Even the anticipation of feeling such intense satisfaction... the necromancer shakes his head quickly, hoping his mental smirk was not mirrored on his face. How could he harbour dreams so dark as these? How could he desire the painful death of these men, who had lives of their own, dreams of their own?

Or DID they have dreams of their own? Certainly the group that passed them in the tunnel did not seem soulless as the halflings that ambushed them. Elise was not soulless -- Elise was beautiful and terrible in that destructive beauty.

The colour of her hair. Fire.

Sand, which flame could melt and turn to glass. Fire creating beauty. Fire inspiring beauty, in Elise's case.

As it brushes over sand, Sa'id's mind makes a characteristic leap. Mission would not accept this course of action... unless he could somehow be made to see it as a test, set forth by his precious Path. Sa'id surprises himself with his own cynicism -- or is it pragmatism? He does, after all, want to live out tomorrow.

The halfling's words snap Sa'id back to reality. He listens to Rennik. Another connection is made in his mind -- Rennik has just clued in, unconsciously or otherwise, to something Cadfael seems to be trying to convey... the idea that they should move tonight, move to the mountain, and camp there. Sa'id nods mentally to himself. Farron's magical hut could shelter them just as well on the mountain as here in the tunnels, and it would save them having to climb openly under the morning's sun. Finally, he speaks:

"I think both Cadfael and Rennik are right. We can climb the mountain tonight, with the night to shield us from human eyes and Cadfael to shield us from the chained god. Farron can conjure his shelter there to keep us safe as we rest. As to what happens tomorrow... if what Cadfael says is true, and everyone save him will not be shielded from the dark god's sight once we enter the mountain... I... well, perhaps he is right that he should go alone. We can turn the god's eyes toward us by attacking the main entrance. Even I by myself could wreak substantial havoc there, provided I hid myself carefully in the jungle, and kept moving after each spell."

He turns to face Mission, forstalling the monk's reply with a raised hand. "I will not presume to instruct you, or to stop you if you feel you must go with the priest. But I think he may be right. If we have trusted him to come this far, perhaps we should trust him just a little further. The road we travel has been winding, and never easy. No," Sa'id chuckles, "the gods never make things easy. But it follows from that that sometimes the correct choice is the harder to accept."

Subject: Re: Muddling through...

I don't think Cadfael said any of that stuff about our certain doom aloud, actually.

Rereading, I think the only things he actually spoke were "Fools." and "Set on a path by a fool and abandoned by fools. If darkness watches appearances and disappearances these holes in the Earth will grow darker before too long. My Mission abandons me but I will see it through."

Am I wrong, there?