Ethelred on watch hears some of Rask’s utterances, seeming to be open to turning on the group.
A night later while Rask sleeps Ethelred chooses to awaken Alexis and Ca’armine. Taking great pains to make little noise. He signals them each individually to be quite and to move away from the group. The three move out of vocal range, but can still see the sleeping Rask (and Gustav).
Whispering and keeping a solid eye on Rask as he sleeps…
“Gentleman, I am worried about Rask. I have heard disturbing utterances from his own lips last night. He seems to be pondering, relishing?, attacking us.There is something not right with Rask.
If we are to pursue taking the fight to Bandesingh we must all be aligned. We do not know enough about Bandesingh. Bandesingh might be able to effect Rask in a way that would leave his even more vulnerable to the soul that seems trapped with in him.
I have racked my brain for things that I might be able to do to help free Rask, but the magics that posses him are beyond my understanding.
Do we need the skull that was involved in the ‘ritual’ that Rask performed to take the soul into this sword?
Car’armine might you have some healing, or turning that could help?
Alexis what light might your goddess shed onto this situation?
It would seem that combining the powers of Ave and Raiden might prove to be a challenging knowing some of the history of them. But maybe that is an option?”
Red looks between his companions, a clear expression of concern is upon him.
“With Rask’s tattoos to Raiden, and with Gus and yourself” Alexis nods at Ca’armine “being aligned with the same power, that seems like the obvious path.”
Alexis turns to Ca’armine “those tattoos are from your source. What is the nature of the power in them? Protection? Prowess? Connection to the land? Can you manipulate the tattoos? Perhaps to hold Rask in place? Perhaps to squeeze him hard enough to drive the possessing entity out of him? Can you turn the tattoos inward?”
Alexis waits to hear what Ca’armine has to say.
“Red you are speaking my mind in this. Rask is too strong to be left unchecked when his will is overborne. I am working up a plan to deal with this, but the next thing we need to do is disarm Rask. Hopefully he will give up his swords voluntarily. We also need to let Gus know, outside of Rask’s hearing, and have him ready to defend me from Rask—if an evil creature possess him, and impels him to carry out the dream, he will attack me to get his sword back. We can’t let him succeed. I will speak to Gustav.”