With ambush set, first thing down passage was... ball of darkness. In Druid-daylight turned out to be one of those darkness demons like squished in Feydark holding area of darkness out on a stick, so not standing in middle of it. V. clever, but got killed anyways with an arrow from Grettir in the belly and a slice from my circular axe, which flies like a dream. Er, flies very well.
Second ball of darkness contained barghest - nasty sort of large goblin-wolf. It got away. Chased a bit but it made it back to junction; we ended up just going on south.
We made it to the city at the Throat of G'Mar which is rather amazingly built into the sides of v. large chasm. In fact crossing chasm (hanging from rope, ugh) it seemed bottom might open onto Another Place as there seemed to be daylight down there, and did likely form in Cataclysm so who knows.* Warned Rokanoi lady and dwarven council that Emsariel scouting party/army might be coming down behind us. Also recharged Druid light thingy and sold nasty whip to someone planning to throw it down the chasm. For good price, too, v. good work by Parna.
Were there two nights, one full day, then crossed valley and continued on into delving. Occurred to me later that leaving the city that day it had been 100 days since Lucan and I met Barg and Ceder and Jason in Fenneldale. Wonder how Lucan and Ceder fare.
 [Click on image for larger version. It's worth it.] |
Is funny - back in the monastery the stories of monks walking *between* places seemed impossible, and now in meditating I can see how if you were sure enough where you were going you could just step there. Am not, yet, but in another 100 days like these have been I may well be. Fading like that seems fantastic like those stories used to, but if you were sure enough of your body could you just will it not to be there? Maybe in a lifetime of meditating.
Are nearly to settlement at (blocked-off) junction out to Perridhol tower. All this time walking has given me time to *think*... or not so much think as notice things I already knew but hadn't noticed.
Like: if there's a brawl, and it smashes up a bar, here's what you get: broken mugs, broken chairs, broken barrels, maybe some barrels smashed *into* chairs so that they sort of end up on the chair legs or bits of mug embedded in barrel staves like little axes. Here's what you don't get: new whole bottles, pieces of things that weren't there before.
The Cataclysm broke things, and it twisted things out of shape, and it smashed together some things that shouldn't have been fused like that, like abominable beasts and stuff. But it couldn't have created *new* working things - that's the work of, well, work, of the labor of creation. Maybe some things got *really* twisted and smashed together, but there must have been *something* there to start with. You can't create by destruction.
So what did Emsariel used to be? I've already seen to ask, this other winged-demon Kesiana saw, the Mur-lendi, where did he come from? Can Emsariel twist more Anghil to his demon-shape, can he call them to him from some other place. But it's just as much a question, or more, where did Emsariel himself come from? Okay, he's Thosophin consumed by flame, but where did the part that was in the mask come from, the Emsariel part that's been the Rokanoi big evil for ages and we think got "created" in the Cataclysm. What part of what Anghil got twisted and mixed up with what else to make that? Korin told us his tools, his aims, were all death, but what exactly was around to get avatared into death like that? If the Dwarven death took a body that sure as crystal wouldn't be it. If my mask is the Silver Clan and their unfinished work in the world made to fit one dwarf, and Barg got the Lightbringer which is some sort of thing about the Orcs made into a guy, and Cedar and Lucan got Guardians which are some sort of thing about the something made into weird mechanical guys (and I bet there was a piece of Dwarven automata squished into them somehow), what was Thosophin's mask?
There's only one source on hand where I might be able to see what was around before the Cataclysm that could have turned into Emsariel after it. But I can't see if this is where my path leads or not. I've looked at the outside of my mask a lot, but I haven't ever looked at the inside again. With us racing the length of the delving it would be stupid to get sidetracked fooling around with Big Magic for knowledge that might not even be helpful. But my sense of the fight tells me I can't beat this enemy knowing nothing about him. That to kill him I'm going to have to understand what he is. And even if the mask can't do that it must help to know *something*. But I can't tell if that's the right thing to do or not. I just can't tell.