Late in the two weeks, most of the studying is done. Alexis turns a silver coin over in his fingers.
“Hadonis.”
“I keep thinking about him and wondering if we should be worried.” He shrugs.
The coin goes over and back.
“Say he’s alive here. Say he’s the same man. He’d still have to know we exist, and I can’t work out how he’d come by that.” A beat. “Unless his god tells him.” Alexis shrugs again.
“We could look. We’ve still got the ball, although it’s still tainted. Is it worth it to shield us from the taint to see what’s become of Hadonis here/now? De we want to know?”
He pockets the coin and looks around at the group.
Rask looks at Alexis, still a bit confused by all the talk of timelines.
“Knowing more about our enemies is always useful. Hadonis, Bandesing, Drennos.”
The last he says with particular vitriol, not the seething black rage of days gone by, but a personal vendetta nonetheless.
“Is there a chance they would know it was us spying on them though?”
“The crystal ball carries the corruption of centuries. If we clean it, it will take time. Time that we’re not moving north.” Alexis shrugs.
“Tradeoffs.”
“Can they know we’re spying on them? Maybe, but we’ve never known when Varis was spying on us.”
Rask nods in acknowledgement and furrows his brow in thought.
“I am eager to take the fight to Bandesing, but… things have changed, that much is clear. The monastery is gone? No longer.. never? existed? What else is different? ”
Rask is still confused and shakes his head to clear his thinking. He shrugs.
“How much can we learn with the crystal ball while shielded? It seems there is much we don’t know about… what has changed?”
“If the taint is fully suppressed, there is much we could learn with the crystal ball. Better than suppressing the taint, would be to actually clean it, but that would take time.” Alexis raises his hands up indicating that no route is without cost.
Rask nods and shrugs, “Protection has never been free” he mutters before speaking more clearly, still thinking out loud:
“We got the Tear, we are in some version of home. I am eager to take the fight to Bandesing… but we need to know more about this… world first…”
He pauses and nods, thoughts coming together more clearly.
“One way or another we will learn more as we venture away from camp. I am thankful that you are the one to balances these decisions and not me, Alexis.”
Rask looks at Alexis with genuine respect and gratitude.
Ca’armine pipes up. “I have some new ideas about how to purge the taint, from magical items like the crystal ball.”
Alexis meets eyes with Ethelred and then looks at Ca’armine expectantly.
“Raiden has given me access to some new and powerful purification magic! I don’t know if it will be successful– but if Raiden wills it, I can cleanse the artifact.”