Onwards

[Anastasia]

Cresiel doesn't even slow down as he passes it. Yet as you do you smell cooking - a pie, you think. Mmm. Surely flaky, buttery and filled with sweet fruit. You find your mouth getting wet just thinking about it.

[Nephrite]

That reminds him of that person he met when he woke up in Venya.

She sure was nice -- ... but she must've moved on to Chronias.

Just like he needs to move on here.

"...Is there even really a pie in there?" Moore asks with some incredulous feeling in his voice. "Or is it just the feeling of something home-cooked, rather than something physical?"

[Anastasia]

Cresiel sniffs the air, "There's a pie," he says gravely, "It would be the best pie you've ever had."

Xandra doesn't even glance back, walking on all the while, keeping her pace to match Moore's. "We'll have to have pie after this," she remarks. "Apple or strawberry pie."

[Nephrite]

"I wonder if that blue dragon from the Consortium has any pie recipes." Moore says as he continues to walk.

Huh, is this how Whimsical Sweets actually defeats evildoers?

[Anastasia]

You ponder as you keep going. On and on and on you go - until you come to an old man. He is bent and stooped, ancient and weathered. His skin is a deep brown and his head is covered by a wide brimmed hat. He wears brown clothes, thick and with a cloak.

Here Cresiel stops, "This is Moore," he introduces, "As well as Xandra." He slowly turns and begins to walk back the way he came, the old man following.

[Nephrite]

Cresiel didn't say to stop walking or to stop following him, so Moore turns slowly and follows after.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Moore says.

He keeps walking.

[Anastasia]

"Greetings," Xandra says.

The old man nods briskly, "I'm known as Old Lymosh. It's not the name I was born with, but it has sentimental value."

[Nephrite]

"Sentiment is probably the one thing that has more power here than what this place represents." Moore says as he walks along.

This seems like the type of lesson where he should just answer questions he's asked and not offer himself up unnecessarily.

[Anastasia]

As the four of you walk there's a short pause before, "Out with it," Old Lymosh says, "Cresiel said you have reason to talk to me. Don't get tongue tied now."

[Nephrite]

"I am trying to overcome anathemic knowledge." Moore says. "I know that many have tried, but I have reasons -- which, I am sure, many have had before as well. I do not think myself better than them or more deserving than them... but my role in this Creation is to bring hope to the hopeless."

He continues to walk.

"To overcome the impossible is the embodiment of the idea of hope. To do that which others give up on is to bring hope to those with hopelessness. If I can overcome anathemic knowledge, then I can overcome anything, even the Lady of Loss." He says -- his voice carries a solidarity, a focus of will.

[Anastasia]

"I see the logic." Old Lymosh agrees, a sweeping gesture of one ancient, liver spotted hand. "Secrets are part of Shar's power. Do you have the foggiest on how to deal with anathemic knowledge?"

[Nephrite]

"Reinforcement. Repetition. Retention." Moore says, echoing Xandra from a few hours ago. "I would imagine that tying the knowledge to something else that isn't anathemic will lead you back to it, time and time again. In the case that I'm working with, it's something that I kept trying to overcome, to remember, and basically kept chipping away it for myself."

Moore takes a breath here. "I know that my soul still remembers it, even if my body doesn't. So I'm aware that the knowledge doesn't simply vanish, even if people think it does -- it simply goes to a place that people generally only go to find answers on things they already question, not things that are hidden."

[Anastasia]

"Hmph." A stride forward as you can begin to smell pie once more. "Is there any particular anathemic knowledge in particular you resist?"

[Nephrite]

"That which was opened that let Benfal rise to Elysium, and its guardian gatekeeper." Moore responds.

He pauses, and then adds, "As well as the knowledge from the Lost Realm. Though that may be different."

[Anastasia]

"You sound like you're close to the answer as it is," Old Lymosh says, as the house comes close once more. The smell is incredible, pie now out on the windowsill. You find yourself eyeing it as he goes on. "Tell me the answer if you can."