Chat with Midràn
Ravik Jumalin: "Are you the father of our visions. Of our nightly visits at the octagonal table?"
"The child of stone and frost speaks first. I was not the one to bring you to our table, child. No. I believe it was my brother in creation, however good his performance is. He cannot hide from me- not after our work."
Riga Tabris: "Your shaping of the Dragons, Inventor, and the barrier that contains the eighth? The keys you mentioned, the keys that cannot be lost - what are they? And what is their link with the Draconic Shards?"
"You have been initiated, child of the stars. Yes. You have stepped through frost and flame and shaped will into form. That is enough... for now."
"A lock must have its keys. A door must have its frame. And the world must have its seals. These truths are older than your ancestors. The keys you seek are far more literal than you believe - but far more alive."
"Not all Shards are keys. Not all keys are willing. Not all doors should be opened. But yes - some could be used. If the shard permits... if the wielder understands. To find them, you must look where memory sleeps and intent is buried. A key is not kept, a key is not merely taken. It is accepted."
Trick: "I ... someone has my soul. I think it might be my fault, but ..." "I'm trying to be ... better. Make better choices. So I don't know the best thing to ask, so if you can ... can help me. I'd like to know who has my soul, and where they are, and how to get it back. I understand if you won't answer all of those questions. I don't want to ask too much. I trust your wisdom if you will tell me what you think is most useful for me to know."
"You... I am sorry, child of the sands. But you are not lost. All beings, mortal or not, hold claim over their soul. What was done to you is of the most horrendous degree. I regret not being swift enough in punishing those who conceived it."
"The majority of your soul lies beyond the vales and fjords, where rain is rarer than gold. You know, in your heart, the one who holds it. Do as you did today. Accept the heat, but grasp the hammer either way. The greatest creations are not made while hiding away, but when showing your mettle to the world."
"Child. There is no way to know which choice is better. It is only after letting the hammer fall that we learn the pattern it leaves behind. Learn from the outcomes of your journey, but above all, trust in yourself, and in those who stand beside you."
Ravik Jumalin: "After he fell I looked for him for days. I dug every pile of snow. I searched every crevice. But I couldn't find him. Couldn't bring him home. Did he suffer?Is he at peace?"
"You do not come to me alone. The hands of your ancestors rest upon your shoulders this very moment. Your brother was at peace from the moment he touched my snows, and in my embrace he remains. Though you may not have found what was material, know his soul has already spun the cycle once more."
"Your effort is known. Your love is felt. No guilt is assigned. Rest easy, child, and cherish those memories. Hold onto those ideas like they could slip at any moment. It is through remembrance that we love those who cannot receive it anymore."
Riga Tabris: "Inventor. I wish to speak of another parasite who mocks mortals' claims on their own souls." "Asha'bellanar. I would welcome your wisdom on how to end her, and void the fate I bear."
"You have learned this, child. There is no fate upon this world- its mother is gone. What you and your kin hold is closer to a promise. It-"
He pauses. Riga feels the cold wave brush against her yet again, scanning her markings, ever respectful in its gaze. His eyes narrow, ever so slightly.
"...your links run deeper than circumstance. Learn to trust your allies, and their path will grant you the pliers that may sever your chains."
"Heal Tural, and seek the Wardens of Double Bay. Free them, and you may find yourself needing less."
Riga Tabris: "T-there is no fate," she agrees. "Only will." "What entraps the Hunters?"
"You know very well. You study the will's act upon reality. Never forget we are all craftsmen- it is by our hands that things cease to be, or are birthed out of the realm of the mind."
"They are beset by an enemy most ancient. No. Not an enemy. Lost children. You will find experience amongst your new peers."
Trick: "I know that the leader of The Deepest Shadows has found some way to cheat death, and if the nightmare he dragged me through is accurate, then he's found a way to grant that to others as well. Are all the Enshrouded ... able to rise again? Or is that something only the Gnolls can do?"
"Gnolls are a creation that drives me to feel nothing if not sadness. They are bound by strings beyond their control, made to hunger and nothing more. Any Gnoll eaten by its kin may rise again as walking bones. What you have seen... goes beyond that. Beware of the dark, but know it fears you."
Trick: "Why would they fear me?" "He said I helped him, even though that's not I wanted. And the only Shadow we've met since I left The Necklace seemed to ... to revere me for it."
"Do you not see how they warp your deeds? You are freedom. You are independence. You are possibility. You are everything they have worked to stifle and suffocate. Do not heed their words, do not let their taunts seep into your mind. Water can always be cleaned, but oil stains."
Ravik Jumalin: "My guest. He is old but is like a child. I think his mind is deteriorated. Is he were he is supposed to be? Does he need help? He does help me, but it seems unfair to keep him where he is if it is a prison for him."
Riga Tabris: "A key?"
"Through you, that child repents. Be glad you grant him a chance to witness the world once more. There is no gate he unlocks if not the one of his own making."
Riga Tabris: "Speaking of children... Gaia's child, the druid Walleh... he was certain, even in death, that only the cult held the true records. The gates and the temples you seek now... they are connected, are they not? How come they were lost?" "Is it related to what caused the 8th to awake, during the Draconic Wars?"
Not lost."
"Forgotten. Sealed away, so that none recall. So that none are tempted, in weakness. The Cult to our kin's corpse holds truth, but does not speak it to their own."
Ravik Jumalin: "We have had visions and dreams. And you consider your brother the originator of these. I assume you are of same mind as him. But as you know we did overhear a bit of conversation. Are any of your brothers and sisters working against what we are trying to do? And are your... cousins?"
Riga Tabris: "They made themselves forget,"
"Against...? Perhaps. Our sister has hungered for more before. And though we dared believe the lesson was branded upon her scales... hunger rarely forgets its name.
"Yet even in discord, our will is not erased. She may challenge, she may stray - but in the end, none of us would see the brunt of our work undone."
"It is our cousins who gnaw at the roots... they have grown resentful. Bitter, brittle things. They scorn our forges, sneer at our silence, convinced they would wear the crown better... if only they had struck first."
"Hesitation kept their hands clean... but it left their hearts untempered. Thrones denied them were thrones unearned. And still, they sulk in their hollow dens, naming our patience as weakness. They have not learned to value life if not their own. They have not learned to care for their creations as more than tools. They have not felt the pain of true loss, yet are lost all the same. Pity them, but do not let emotion hold the blade."
Riga Tabris: "'Tis their nature and nurture both. Jackals. Scavengers. Parasites"
"They are creators who do not appreciate the craft. Traitors to their purpose. Not in nature- but through nurture, certainly."
Ravik Jumalin: "Midrán. We have many questions. But little knowledge. What do you want us to know. What do you want us to ask?"
"You cannot know everything. Your journey has barely begun. Understand that. Accept that. Haste is any craftsman's bane."
"Ask me not what ends await you- ask what you are shaping with your steps. You may seek where the keys lie, but ask why the locks were made."
"I would have you know this: not all dragons are tyrants, not all gods are whole, and not all forges were meant to make weapons. Ask what you are meant to create. Not just what you are told to protect or destroy. That is the shape of true wisdom, crafted through experience and reflection alike."
Riga Tabris: "I know who I am meant to protect," "Who I am meant to destroy. What I shall leave behind when I'm dust. 'Tis wisdom born of patience and experience and reflection alike."
Ravik Jumalin: "Why were the locks made? Are they destined for one wielder alone? And matched to one lock?"
Trick: "The one who holds my soul ... can he force me to do things? Is he keeping me alive so he can use me against my friends? I don't ... I don't want to be used against the people I love."
"Our sister is dangerous, to creation and kin. Her presence corrupts, as she is now one with them. None other should be locked, but if we must..."
"Child of the sands, one who has walked upon the bones of mountains. You are your own being. The link may be wielded to harm you, but doing so weakens the bond. Rest easy knowing your blade is yours to wield."
Riga Tabris: "Yet your sister was corrupted, too. And the Far Realm keeps expanding. Vertiginously." "If 'tis not contained, drained, the trend inverted... even closed gates may break before the ram."
"'Tis true. Not all of it, but enough to wound."
"Our sister was taken for her duty, made to forget she was a Guardian."
"It was meant to be sealed. Not because it is evil... but because it is excess. A furnace's slag. A blade's shavings. A broken mold whimpering and whispering that it could've done better- that it is not its fault that it shattered. Much like our cousins, in a manner."
"Fate died holding that gate shut. Ask not what must be rebuilt, or repaired. Ask what must be remembered. Only then you may choose what must be let go."
Trick: "Have memories been taken from us? Or just never given to us in the first place? How do we know what must be remembered and what must not without knowing it all?"
Ravik Jumalin: "Are we meant to keep the temples and the keys and the locks and the shards a secret? The cult know. The lost memory, from us all, is imperfect or was never lost at all. She wants to be freed. And, your brother, seems to long for her. If your sister was... forgotten for her excess... Are we meant to free her, cure her or lock her away?" "
And, we name many things fate. What fate died?"
Riga Tabris: "Her death gave us freedom twofold... and her life gave us the sapience to appreciate it. To live, beyond just being. Whatever may come, whatever remains, that is worth remembering."
"No, child of the sand. But history has been taken away. Learn. Pursue. Experience. The world shall be the teacher for those who know to look."
"The cult- lost children, who think they know better. She is no more. They see and hear spasms and believe them prophecies. Free her from her pain at once, not just her chains- so that we may look to a future. Fate... this world has no determined end. It is clay to be molded by the hands of all, wood that is still neither chair nor table, steel that might grow to know blood or remain amongst oil. Fate was lost. Freedom was earned."
"Go. Do good, not just for yourself, but for all your path may touch."