World Revolution

[Rezantis]

Rez blinks, surprised.

"You must have very good eyesight.  But it's not water, like I thought it would be . . . it was like, well, very thick and very cold smoke, or fog."

[Brian]

Liandral squints thoughtfully.  "I wonder," he muses.  "That ... doesn't make sense.  How would it support the ice we're standing on?"

[Rezantis]

"I don't know. I was hoping you knew. There's no apparent way - it doesn't seem to be under enough pressure to be supporting the weight of the ice . . . and the icefields are far, far too wide for the ice to support it's own weight, so . . ."

Rez blinks as another question hits him.

"Liandral, is this world round, or flat, or has nobody ever travelled as far as they could in a direction?"

[Brian]

"Well, if Eske put us in the center of that map, then we're at the north pole," Liandral says.  "The world is round, but the sun and moon are ... irregular.

"It shines here for one hundred and sixty years, after all.  It's a wonder that this doesn't melt ... or that the storm-riders' eyes can adapt to the darkness."

[Rezantis]

"Hmm," Rez nods, "Thanks. It's . . . strange, to say the least."

[Brian]

Liandral shrugs.  "The days and nights work normally everywhere else, though," he muses.

[Rezantis]

"They do?"

Rez blinks, then sighs irritably.

"Goddamn magic."

[Brian]

Liandral shrugs wordlessly.  Eske and Mattias approach at this point, apparently ready for the scouting mission to the Dreadmarch.

[Rezantis]

"Let's get this done, I guess," Rez turns to Drac, "Have you anything in particular you want to know?  Or do we just walk in, have a look, walk out, and hope they don't spot us or the gate?"

[Dracos]

"I'd like you guys actually to wait until just around moonset.  I want to see how alert they are in the rear while a fight is going on in the front."

Dracos

[Rezantis]

"Ah . . . so rather than scouting while there's some light for us to see, you'd rather we scout when there's almost none?"

Rez is clearly not too impressed with this suggestion . . . visibility being bad enough as is.

[Dracos]

"Hmmm.  Fair enough.  Head out now.  Surmise readiness, anything that can be hit hard and quick, and that's pretty much it."

Dracos

[Rezantis]

Rez nods.

"I don't know what sort of information we'll be able to get you, but we'll see what we can do, I guess. When will Eske make a return gate for us?"

[Brian]

"I can either leave it open, or come with you," Eske says.  "I don't see anything else as safe enough to risk."

[Rezantis]

"You can't leave it open, it'll get spotted too easily, and you can't come with us. We're already risking one loremaster on this, there's no way in hell we're risking two."