Successful Mission

[Bjorn]

Bjorn snorts.  "Don't be stupid," he says derisively.  "And try not to assume I am, either.  If I don't trust you, I'm hardly going to 'sit back,' especially when the main thing I don't trust is your motives.

"I repeat: why should I trust you?  This isn't antagonism, it's a flat-out, reasonable question.  I know you know more than me.  I'd be an idiot to pretend otherwise.  But what I do know, in the end, is that we're opponents.  We're not enemies that you take seriously, of course -- hell, Pax Arcana plans to use us, don't you?  But we're not allies.  And I'm supposed to simply believe you when you say, 'We're going to help you?'

"The Dreadmarch is the sort of thing, frankly, that I could very well see Pax supporting.  A scourge cleansing the land, which only the chosen, the strong would survive."  Bjorn shrugs.  "So.  I'm hardly going to sit back and let you have free rein.  And if I'm acting to oppose you, and you happen to be telling the truth, I would badly fuck things up for both of us.  

"If you really want to win this, then you'd better bloody well want me to trust you.  And because I want to win, it so happens that I'd really like to trust you, too.  Now, having said all that, I ask again: why should I believe you?"

[Brian]

"What do you want as proof of trust?" Lindsey asks.  "What can I do to make you trust me?"

She shrugs.  "Pax Arcana works in very specific ways, but every agent of Pax Arcana does not bear every trait that defines the organization.  We were chosen specifically for our adaptability.  And destroying this place would mean nothing.  This place is, literally, a dream.

"A dream that needs to survive -- Ourobos shouldn't be awake, because his dream is a layer of insulation between our reality, and the Enemy.  The last thing I -- or anyone else in Pax Arcana -- wants is everyone to die."

[Bjorn]

"Openness would be a good place to start," Bjorn says, uncrossing his arms  "For example, where are the other four?"  He starts ticking off items on his fingers.  "What do you know of what the Cabal set up?  And what plans have you laid to try and stop the Dreadmarch?"

[Brian]

"Liandral is watching over Nathan and Bloom.  I met him."  Lindsey looks like she's concentrating.  "I'm not sure where Serril is, but I'm sure he's around ... probably incarnated as one of the Lorekeepers.

"I haven't actually gotten in contact with Anton or Sam yet," she finishes with a shrug.  "Did you actually all arrive together?

"As far as we can tell, the Cabal set everything in motion ... I haven't got any proof, but as far as I can tell, they arranged for all of the heroes of this world to be disposed of before the battle, and then messed up the leaders of the regular armies.  Except Lord Kevin, anyway.  Everyone else -- like Bloom -- got deposed, or replaced with people who the Cabal already bribed or otherwise convinced to work for them.

"Our plans for stopping the Dreadmarch involve...."  She trails off, and frowns.  "How much do you understand about what happens to you when you actually enter the dream?" she asks.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn grunts.  "I didn't know about Liandral, but Serril is, in fact, one of the lorekeepers.  Yes, we all arrived together.  Not long before we had to make it through Hadrick's pass.

"As for your question... let's say I don't know anything.  Probably safest."

[Brian]

She nods, relaxing a little bit.  "Okay.  Well, you've probably already figured out that you can access your hosts abilities, if not memories.  But the thing to remember is that while you've got their abilities, any ... power you had from your own world was left behind.  But the ability to pull things ... it goes both ways.  As you gain more willpower, you'll learn to take what you need from your real self, and bring it here.

"We've got some useful tools for dealing with low tech armies," she says.  "Though, I will admit, we need some time, and I don't know where Liandral is.  Or how close he is to being able to bring what he needs."

[Bjorn]

Bjorn frowns.  Pulling things from... I wonder...

Turning inwards, he clears his mind, and examines the edges.  When he first arrived in this world, he remembers, he felt for his mindboard, and couldn't find it.  Now, though, he concentrates.  The mindboard is there, he tells himself.  It's simply a matter of making that certainty into a reality, of focussing on the memory until it crystallizes.

[Brian]

It takes a lot more effort than you remember -- you have to shove aside a lot of the things you were hanging onto from your ... host's? ... abilities to do it.  But you can.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn touches its surface, surprised at how comforted he feels to have it back.  Didn't take me long to get used to it...  Pushing aside the feelings that elicits in him, he quickly scans it to see whose smudges are present.

[Brian]

Well, you've got all the smudges you left on it from before.

[Bjorn]

Interesting.  Bjorn mentally eyes the Lazarus-smudge, but decides to leave off experimenting with that one.  Instead, he reaches out for the Dracos and Nathan smudges, linking the mindboard into their minds.

[Brian]

"What are you doing?" Lindsey asks, frowning at you.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn holds up a finger.  "One second, please," he says, with a distracted tone.  "This is a bit more difficult than I remember."

[Brian]

Linsdey looks at you with a raised eyebrow, but says nothing else for the moment.

[Bjorn]

With a sense of near-relief, Bjorn relaxes and lets the mindboard disappear again, feeling the knowledge and combat-sense of his other-self rush in to fill the void.

"Liandral is with Nathan and Philip," Bjorn says to Lindsey.  "They've been harassing the supply lines of the Dreadmarch, and recovering the stragglers in the temple with the help of Eske.  They've also determined that the Dreadmarch has another million troops on the way, and that they're being led by an Archon."  He grimaces.  "Anyways.  You were saying?"