Haynuus heard the babble of words from Ameena, and they sort of made sense. He recalled, with the circlet prodding him and prompting him, of the bits and pieces. Of the orc in the blue armour, pretending to be Gholst, and yet not. Dargat, Soorec had accidentally called him. Gholst's real second in life, an orc that perhaps Haynuus might have mis-guidedly aspired to be in a different life if things had gone differently.
His body a sham... the spirit girl previously encountered had said to them in her rhymes. That was what she had meant.
And the parts of the soul stone. Haynuus recalled a dias with a stone, half smashed off. And a final piece...hidden in plain sight, a surprise to akll. A glowing white piece... they had reunited all the pieces, and yet somehow the Grey Lord could not stop Theron, there was a struggle, and...
The memory was wiped away in the brilliant white of the soulstone's cglow in Haynuus's mind, and then the cavern started vibrating terribly. A chunk of rock fell from the roof, splashing in to the lake!
- stop! Whatever you are doing, stop! - came a gaggle of voices, air elemental whisperings. They were new, and came from above. Ameena saw it first, there was a flash of green, and the butterfly flapped its wings and bounced around, floating as if towards Ameena and Haynuus. And then the butterfly moved off towards the back of the cavern where the waterfall was.
- trapped in stone. Twice trapped in stone, curse the creature that did it! But we found her! - said the air elementals, their tones all over the place from happy to angry. - she followed the task of the dead that walked, but was captured. And now she is free of its stench, she can smell your friends again. They are close. They are the ones who have appeared on the other side of this place. And you all smell of the crack, she says. She says you know what it is, without knowing. She says you keep it open, somehow. -
The butterfly moved towards whre the waterfall was, drawign the attetnion of all to the movement of the Trolins Petal railed against, and also the occasional view of thinner, taller, and less blue figures. They were all moving towards the cavern, where the waterfall had been.
- Come, she wants you to come! - whispered the air elementals. The three companions could feel the elementals gentlty beside them, as if only asking awaiting permission to be moved. Petal had a whirl of movement around her, air elementals obviously looking to see where she would go.
However, Deephold shrugged the attentions of the elementals away, to focus on what Petal had said. This time, Petal knew it was the real Deephold speaking, and not some vision. He looked at her with disappointed eyes at what she'd been further pushed to exress by her previous vision.
"There is one who serves Balance truly. I do not agree with his ethos, not one bit, and yet I respect his choices. The Grey Lord is the one that allows Trolins to dwell in his mountain. Why? Because he values the chaotic and the selfish as much as the lawful and the selfless. If there is no good and evil, there are still emotions and the restriction of them. He believes all life is equal, and until you opened your mouth now I assumed the same. You do not serve balance by wiping out one side or the other. I am a servant of Law, of Larethian, and of good. Yet IO will not raise my hand to those who are opposed to my ways unless I must. You cannot prove a negative. You cannot prove yourself that you are not affiliated to Chaos yourself, let alone prove without a doubt another is. You do not serve balance. You go to the Chaos of Lord Chaos, doing whatever is your whim and in your power without caring how the pendulum swings with your action. You are not balancing your emotions, you are turning from any pity you have and embracing a desire for revenge. I thought better of you. And I will not allow you to do what I do not beleive is within your ethos. At least, I hope it is not."
Meanwhile, even as Deephold lectured Petal's own knowledge was bringing her answers to the internal thoughts she had been confronting. She realised what the voice in her head meant. She had not escaped the mirror. This was real, she was here, but she was not free. The binding around her leg, that she could see if she focused her leg, was a representation of how she freed herself. Chaos had put his power around her body, knowing she would run from it, never be able to recombine with her body. However, she had found pity and compassion for even Chaos, or an aspect of Chaos, and in that act had managed to reuinte with herself.
However, she was not free. She had embraced Chaos's power, accepted the taint of it and let her own powers balance it and weaken her. and in the process its hold over her, in order to escape. She had done what Chaos would never concieve she would ever do, and yet it was still a shackle. She needed to do the thing she had promised she would not. She had to snap her link to that place, now she was aware of its insidious trailing. Otherwise, she would never be able to leave this mountain again.
Ok, leave it there. Ameena, Haynuus, the air elementals will move you across to where Westian and co are. Feel free to add that happening and say 'hello' Or you can stay and speak to Petal.
Raixel, Deephold will not leave unless you decide to go with the others, so you can continue the discussion. Or of course if you have said your piece, you can go contront the Trolins before Deephold (or maybe even the rest) manage to react.
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. Add in excited greetings aimed at the other party members, then, to Ameena's post...Actually no, wait, I'll do it myself and edit that in now...
