In the Night

[Ginrai]

"Every person has their part to play.  Sorry, forgot to ask this before, but what's your name?"

[Brian]

His eyes flicker from you, to Serril, to Astryd, and then to Devin before they return to you.  "I'm Terrence," he says slowly, looking a bit uncomfortable.

[Ginrai]

"I am Parthipan of the Path of Wind.  Along with me are Astryd of the Path of Light, Devin of the Path of Earth and Serril of the Path of Fire.  If you are ready we can go to Loremaster Radagast's room now."

[Brian]

He blinks at you a few times, and nods slowly.  "Of course," he says, stepping out of his room and motioning for you to lead the way.

[Ginrai]

Ginrai leads everyone back to Radagast's room.

[Brian]

Radagast motions you and the others to take seats at the benches in his room -- which is still strewn with all sorts of seemingly random junk.  One table has been cleared, and Mattias and Eske sit at it.  Radagast paces between the cleared table and the central table (which is piled high with junk), and gestures for Terrence to take a seat.

"Please," Radagast says, "join us."

Terrence looks around warily.  "What is the plan that we all need to work together?" he asks.

[Ginrai]

Ginrai stays in one side of the room with the others, curious as to what type of questions Radagast will ask.

[Brian]

"Well," Radagast says pleasantly, "we wanted to see how well you could link your power with someone else's."

Eske nods, and explains, "If we link powers, then we can achieve much more impressive results across the battlefield.  The powers of the lorekeepers are greatest when all of the paths work together."

"So sayeth Aerun Patternweaver, founder of the Collegiate," Terrance agrees.  "But isn't it dangerous?"

"It's only dangerous if will is divided between two people in a link," Radagast explains.  "That's why we brought you here; we want to determine who would be most compatible with you for complete safety."

Terrance looks confused at first, and then brightens.  "Oh!  That makes perfect sense," he says, nodding to himself.  "I'll do what I can to help."

Radagast and Eske then begin a rapid-fire question-and-answer session with Terrance on the recieving end of the questions; a lot of their questions don't make much sense, either.  They ask about his parents, which makes sense, because his relationship with his parents might influence his personality.  They ask about his likes and dislikes, which makes sense for the same reason.

But then they ask questions that cause you to blink; what would you do if you found someone about to die, who was carrying a lot of money?  If you take the money, he'll die, and tell no one.  If you heal him, you know he's a greedy miser and will give you nothing for it.  And a billion other philisophical questions like this.  At one point you're halfway convinced that Radagast asked Terrance if he would help a tortise that had gotten stuck on its back, but you shake away the mesmiring effectof whatever it is that Eske and Radagast are doing, and realize that the question was about Terrence's favorite color.

When it's over, Terrance is drenched with sweat, and looks completely exhausted.  "Okay," Radagast says, heaving a sigh.  "He is innocent."

"I'm gonna go lie down," Terrance mumbles, crawling from his chair and curling up underneath one of the tables.

"Well?" Eske asks, frowning.  "Do we continue like this, and ask another?"

Radagast looks to you to guage your reaction to this question.

[Ginrai]

Pointing towards the table Terrance crawled under, a bewildered Ginrai says, "Shouldn't we first bring him back to his room?  Oh, and where'd Ashton go?"

[Brian]

"Ashton's in the next room," Radagast says, indicating one of the other doors leading out of this room.  "Terrance."  The lorekeeper wakes up, peering around tiredly.

"What?" he asks, sounding exhausted.

"Why don't you go and get some rest in that room," Radagast says, pointing to yet another door.

Terrance climbs to his feet and nods, opening the door.  The room beyond looks like another study, this one filled with books, papers, and little bottles of ink instead of the tons of completely random stuff Radagast has laying around in the current room.

[Ginrai]

"Well, time to go get the next Lorekeeper."  Ginrai waits for the others before heading out.

[Brian]

Astryd, Devin, and Serril follow you out the door, looking back towards where Terrance sat nervously.

[Ginrai]

As they near the next lorekeeper's room, Ginrai asks, "So, any thoughts on what you saw?"

[Brian]

"It was ... odd," Astryd says after a moment, not meeting anyone's eyes.

Devin and Serril just shrug indifferently.

[Ginrai]

When reaching the next lorekeeper's door, Ginrai knocks on it.