>>FROM:@STORMBORN | >>TO:@ALL

[dorzalta]

I ask that you use caution if encountering Yhych in the courts. Or at least carry with you an anti-toxin.

[ dot dot dot . . . ]

Is anyone a weapon-maker here?



>>FROM:@STORMBORN
>>TO:@BURGERKING, @PONYTAIL, @MODERATUS, @POINTANDKICK, @DIEDHARD, @BOARING, @AEGONNER, @PERSONALSTAFF

Ignore my next message until you are alone or are able to control your reaction.

[ There will be a pause, one which seems to tick away as an eternity for her. And then: ]

I'm told Kebechet is here.

Comments

[dorzalta]

I've not heard of them. The House of the Undying is a large tower which housed the warlocks in Qarth. Pyat Pree represented them and kidnapped my dragons. When I went to find them, I was caught in illusion after illusion.

He did mention the gods, including one who raised him. He's not made mention of Scout to me.

[northerndragon]

You're not there now.

His gods aren't the same as the gods of our people. It seems like the gods of Scout's people would be different still.

[dorzalta]

I'm not, those illusions were like puzzles, not pointless violence. The fact remains that there is magic which exists, the sort which goes beyond what we understand. Ymir, these other gods, maybe even Scout as well.

[northerndragon]

So you solved the puzzle.

It makes me wonder. Ymir, wasn't it once something like Bob The Fish is? Are we meant to try to kill Bob if we lose this supply? It seems wrong to me.

[Morally wrong. "I don't know if I can continue with COST" levels of wrong.]

[dorzalta]

I killed the warlocks.

[ The span of silence with his question grows uncomfortably long, an answer in and of itself. ]

I refuse to participate in that.

[northerndragon]

That's one way to solve a puzzle.

So if killing Bob and having Irriella harvest the bones is the only option, we leave COST, then. We're agreed? No matter what it means? We accept that some wars aren't worth winning.

[There's a lot that each of them would do to win a just war. Both undeniably have blood on their hands.

That's a few steps past it, he thinks.]

[dorzalta]

[ She's laughing. You can't hear it, too bad, Jon. ]

You know my preference for solving problems.

[ But the levity dies as soon as it appears. ]

We leave if that is the only means of winning, agreed.

[ She promised Grothia her aid, but there are limits, and Bob was... Gods, what sort of toll would that take on Irriella? Was it worth the protection of their children, such an ancient being's death? ]

We can protect them. We have to protect them if it reaches that point.

[northerndragon]

We find some other way to make something impossible happen.

[dorzalta]

Together.

[northerndragon]

Together.

And if we fail, it won't be because we didn't try.