Successful Mission

[Bjorn]

Bjorn pauses, studying the priestess with a faint frown.  "Mistress Lindsey, I do not ask you these questions to discomfit you.  It simply seemed to that me that you, as the servant of Aestock in this place, with knowledge of arcana far beyond myself, would have thoughts that might be of aid.  If you're unwilling..." his voice trails off.

[Brian]

"I'm sorry," she says apologetically.  "If you have a sin you wish to confess, I am here ... but otherwise, I don't know who the traitor is, or an easy way to single him -- or her -- out."

[Bjorn]

Bjorn sighs.  "Very well, Mistress.  It is unfortunate that you can not be of more assistance, but so it is."  He bows, slightly.  "I hope we may talk again in times of peace."  He places no emphasis on that last word, but still watches for a reaction.  "My apologies for disturbing you."

[Brian]

She nods at you, but otherwise only seems a little confused.

[Bjorn]

Nodding at Radagast, Bjorn goes with withdraw from the room, reclaiming his sword as he does so.

[Brian]

You're free of the room, re-armed, and know nothing new.  "That wasn't productive," Radagast says slowly.

[Bjorn]

"Not quite," Bjorn disagrees.  "There were two things that we got out of that.  The first is that I'm fairly confident that she doesn't know who -- or what, rather -- I am.  She might suspect a little now, but she can't know for sure.  The second is that she was very, very resistant to helping us.  Even if she had no confidence at all in her advice, if she was truly working to the same ends as us, I'd expect her to be willing to help as much as she can."

He grimaces.  "That's not much, admittedly, but without being openly confrontational, I don't know how to get more.  She didn't exactly give me a lot of openings."

[Brian]

Radagast makes a thoughtful noise, and leads you back to his study -- where you left Mirallia.  When you get there, Parthipan and two other Lorekeepers are already waiting.

Bjorn now momentarily joins Moments in the Sun.

[Bjorn]

Having parted from Radagast and the three st... lorekeepers, Bjorn walks back with Mirallia to their quarters, thinking to himself.

[Brian]

Mirallia shakes her head.  "How do you use these magic words?" she asks, frowning.  "Can they be understood by anyone?  Or....?"

[Bjorn]

"Hm?" Bjorn says, absently.  "Ah.  In theory, yes.  The words come from a different language."  He frowns.  "Hrm.  Are there different languages here?  Well, it's the same idea as Radagast speaking the tongues of the beasts, anyways."

Shaking his head once, he continues, "On top of that, the message has been... shuffled, so that each symbol has been replaced by another.  Even if someone spoke the language it was written in orginally, they wouldn't be able to read it unless they knew how the symbols had been rearranged -- which means they would need to be able to answer the questions that Nat... Sir Shuker posed."

[Brian]

"How clever," Mirallia says, though she clearly doesn't understand the entire process.  "You can send a message in secret.  That will be invalulable."

[Bjorn]

"In principle," Bjorn says, somewhat grimly.  "But sending messages in secret does us little good if we end up sharing the contents with a traitor."  He sighs.  "Two suspects for traitors, with no certainty, and no way of knowing if the list stops there.  I don't even have reason to share my suspicions, which means that if I share this message with anyone, it'll likely end up in the hands of the Dreadmarch.  But information not used is useless."  He shrugs, helplessly.  "And so we're back where we started -- we need to find and stop the traitors."

[Brian]

Mirallia nods at that, saying nothing else until you reach her quarters.  Once there, she gives you room to work at the writing table -- or the main table, if you prefer.  She just sits in one of the chairs and starts flipping through the holy book of Hammar you were carrying around.

[Bjorn]

It takes Bjorn several false starts to decode the message -- false starts not helped at all by various mistakes on Nathan's part.  At the end of it, he has the following message:

Code Select Expand


ESTOFTHEEMERGENCYENCRYRTIONSYSTEMWERMOUINGTOTGMPLESWIUHESKETOROUNDUPTHESTRAGILERSAFTERTHATMOPLANSYET

WARNINGTHEDWARFWITHTHEDREADNARCHLOOKEDLUKEEKIMBUTWIUHBROOZEHAIRAODANAXEASKHIM

NENTKEOIUSEWILLCETHEDECIPHEREDFSRMOFTHISLGNELAINPOINTOFTHISISQOSEAIFTRISWORKSIFSOWEATLEASTHAVECOMN


The first two lines Bjorn can easily make sense of: the storm-riders have found Eske and are going around to the various temples, with no plans after that.  They've also found out about the dwarf with the Dreadmarch -- and apparently have seen him, since there's a description of him (bronze hair and an axe).  The last line, however, is a mystery to Bjorn, beyond something about establishing communications.

After a moment of thought, Bjorn pulls a fresh sheet of paper over, and begins encrypting his own message, using the key of "the place where Jacob's house is, Nabiki's refuge from idiocy, and the original name of Nathan's ward."  What he eventually produces is (after careful double-checking):

Code Select Expand


UHBKWKRMYABBWCBGVFLHWSVZFZTNMIEGOLSQNLOMOQLTMUOGCECG
DGAHCGJEUZYNTHRQMPPDEPBBZZXJHHIUAZZEXSSOFYMLSIHCMUJKYHW
YLQEOGYQFHTNFFKIFUBDYFUGQBXFAKUXVZGOHMSSEVMIHOECCSIKKAP
JVTUVUHIMSEJOBDNIYAZMYAB


Studying Nathan's message once more, Bjorn nods, then takes all the papers but the one with his message on it, and feeds them into a candle.  "Well," he says, breaking the long silence, "shall we go?"