Some monks say the true Master does not fight; he arranges himself to the world and the world arranges itself to him. To me that means your fist just is where it needs to be without having to swing it. But I guess sometimes necessity is no fist at all.Nobody died last night, which was not looking like most likely outcome for a while there. Had sent Quicksilver to tell mayor change in plan; alarm goes off and it's Kanton, dressed as Grendel, climbing in hole in first upper-floor. Had picked up some new reflexes since saw him last - took a swing when he went for Parna with his double-tined stick thing and couldn't touch him. Turned out he only knocked Parna over the head though. Claimed he wanted to talk, so got him to jump back out the hole, Barg and I joined him on ground. Figured he was that much further from Illendi rooms that way.
And we talked. With a few interruptions... caster with him put a silence whammy on Parna and had to yell at them a bit. Kanton was full of dire warnings - they're here to conquer, it's war or slavery, and so on. Had to play a bit of "who has the worst memories". Tried to make the case for working with the peaceable ones and point him towards going after the real monsters - Goraj and Thosophin - if his role is to fight them. Told him I agree that they don't belong here, but that they should go back where they belonged - he says the staircase there will be built of our bones. Then after he was like "we should kill them" - the delegation - he was all "so who are they anyways", which I thought was pretty dumb, but then he asked if I had ever asked a question I knew the answer to. Like this one? Not really sure what he was getting at there. But I did feel a couple times like I was talking to the old Kanton under there, and he did start to take his mask off at the end. Think there's still hope for him... his path could still lead him to righteousness. Which would be handy as he would clearly be a powerful ally, and a huge pain to kill.
Parna a bit unclear on Illendi history and what masks mean. Gave brief overview. Think it's still sinking in. For me too - Kanton said if our masks weren't controlling us they "just hadn't kicked in yet". Have never tried putting mine back on. Hasn't seemed right. Figure I will know when... probably some dire last-ditch move. It would be.
But, in some ways - feel more at one with my path than in a long time. Like I finally see where it's going. Those Illendi who would conquer must be turned back or killed - that's always been true. Those Illendi who would trade in peace, well, great. But that's all tailings. The main vein, they've got to go back to where they belong. And that's a way of things that's deeper than any superficial matter of surface-dweller settlement-politics. Kanton probably right about great changes - but wrong about bones. My people were made to carve the mountain without destroying it. We can do this. And, of course, could be construction project of great decade.
Kanton also said we had more information than anybody. Think he means we stand in a unique place, right leverage to hit right spot. But think we maybe need a bigger hammer. Towers that talk to you and want to whisk you through time... cityfulls of people falling to their knees because of a few extra arms... the land itself getting antsy, if you believe the druids. Against which Barg is real good at chopping monsters, I can land a punch and dodge one, Parna's got four hands of skewer and now I guess Quicksilver can read people's thoughts, shudder. Hate to get any more mixed up in the hoodoo business, but I think we need to go after this felderoke thing. We sure don't want the Siarrans getting it, and the druids wouldn't crack open the dullest rock for a treasure of amethyst, and the dream mages aren't exactly focused on reality. Had sort of figured what would we do with it if we got it - *I* couldn't use it, Lucan too likely to want to "study" it or something, Siarrah a bit young yet, mayor an unknown and busy with ordinary city stuff, everyone else out of the question. But, "Brother Barg" does magic stuff now... and for all that he sometimes goes off in bellowing frenzy, is pretty reliable guy. Knows when to take action. And local to area. Not that I would tell him that... but I think it could work.
But, if going to go after felderoke, not a matter of leaving tomorrow. Need to find out everything we can from Marius, maybe druids too. And, if dream mages really do have it in dreams somewhere... *somebody*'s going to need to be able to work dream whammy, do dreaming stuff. Pity we lost Wind off that cliff... thought there was maybe some dream-mage connection there. Guess we could all start practicing. Might want to take on some local jobs, build up our skills a little before heading to Ermery. Assuming nothing else happens first.