As the group is leaving the valley of the ice-soldiers Alexis addresses Rask.
“Since we got Zrithrak out of you, he’s still been reaching you somehow.” They all keep walking. “Is that what’s been driving the extra training?”
Alexis and the group keep moving up the valley.
“It is our weak spot. The idea of another Zrithak-type event is on my mind, to be sure. But, the Shadow-control magic in… Nodden Torr… the night of fire and blood…”
Rask pauses briefly.
“It’s much more than just Zrithak. I hadn’t heard from him at all until we were… Until we left Nidden-Torr… the night we spent at the Stag pool.”
Rask looks alarmed and confused.
Alexis looks at Rask, concerned. He gives him a moment.
“What did you hear from Zrithrak at the stag pool?
It was a dream, or felt like it. Not as intrusive… maybe it was the night after the Stag Pool though… after the weird Inn?
He told me that Sassy could smell the Tear, to hide it…
Alexis nods along, thinking.
Alexis gives a whistle of astonishment “Shasherak made a lot of enemies.” He keeps walking. “Apparently enough that even Zrithrak doesn’t want him back. And I suspect Zrithrak might have been working for him during the Great Betrayal… as well as the Arru-Norroth.”
He glances at Rask, but still thinking.
“But that’s not the only time he’s reached you, is it. Tell me about the others.”
Rask nods.
“So I hadn’t heard anything from banishment until after the stag pool, maybe after Hadonis stopped the rain?
“Anyhow, since then… after we found the dead Nal’cir, when you were looking through the crystal ball… he said it they got what they deserved, called them meat for the hounds…”
“Just now, at the standard, I heard his cackle, and he wanted me to take the standard and pretend to serve, then betray Sassy…”
“I’ve been able to make it go away, but I want it to stop Alexis.”
“We’ll surely need to stop somewhere before the fortress anyway. When we do, let’s ask Carm about it. He’s done it before.”
After the conversation with Rask about Zithrack ends.
“I had a thought. The mention of the stag makes me think.. who got the boon from the Stag ‘protecting’ us?
We, I think, saw it as a boon to us, as we were protected, for a night, from the agents of Bandesign.
I believed, or assumed, or didn’t think, no I believed that the Stag was sent by Raiden to shield us. But little of that night actually looked like Raiden.
Instead could it have been Ave, that sent the Stag to protect us from the agents of Bandesign. Surely Ave doesn’t want the Tear to go to Bandesign, to bring back Shazerak?
If not Ave, if not Raiden… what god did send that Stag, and for what actual purpose?”
Rask nods along with Ethelred, but looks a bit confused, or at least not entirely convinced.
“When I drank the water there I felt the need to protect Alexis over you or Ca’armine,” Rask offers and shrugs:
“What god would that serve most?”
“Raiden?” Alexis says, not sure of it. He scratches his stubble.
“I’m carrying the Tear, so maybe I’m worth more to somebody than the Sentinel of Raiden.” He nods toward Ca’armine and shrugs.
He squints at the horizon, then pulls his hat down against the wind.
“The stag isn’t a Raiden symbol, not one I know of. It’s not Avv’s either. The blood could go either way. The flowers that came up from it reminded me of Ty-Lynn.”
He looks north, into the wind.
“How would Boreas show himself?”
“Boreas shows himself through strong, cold winds, usually from the North.”
Rask responds, almost as if reciting something, he pauses in thought for a moment.
“I don’t know of any of the Wind Gods being associated with particular animals, Boreas is winter, the North, strength, anger and willfulness, those sound a bit like a white stag I guess?”
Rask is clearly skeptical that the Stag was servant of Boreas.
“Worth keeping in mind. There are many forces stirred up by the return of this particular Tear.
We should assume not all ‘gifts’ are meant to aid us directly.”
Red’s mind goes to the small ball of earth from Shava.