In the Night

[Brian]

Devin blinks, and then sighs.  "Sorry," he says.  "I forgot.  It was seventeen years ago that Windmaster Banor and Earthmaster Huron came up with a plan to expose the traitors we knew to be in out midst.  You started it by allowing it to be public knowledge that your soul was in a pendant ... which made you a more attractive target.

"Once this was done, we waited and warded ... until the assasins came, and killed you.  Luckily, your student sacrificed himself to give you a new host, inconveniently going mad in the process.

"You left the scene, and Radagast and Eske never knew the truth of what happened ... because we suspected it was their own advisor who could not be trusted.  They reported your death ... and then the traitors went to work.  Traitors and assasins all.

"Your last letter to me was that you had found a murderer headed to a temple in the wastes, and intended to stop him as soon as possible.  I didn't know it was Ashton; I would have guessed it was one of those who came with you ... but now that we've got him, we can find out who is behind the traitors.  Where their power comes from, and who we need to stop to cleanse the Collegiate."

[Ginrai]

Ginrai blinks.  "This brings up more than a few questions.  First of all, this was originally Cyric's body?  And I take it you're actually Huron?"

[Brian]

"I am," he says, which you sense as a truth ... but obviously, he's lied to you before and managed to conceal it.  "And that body was not.  Cyric created that body for you ... we're not entirely sure how, but the pressure of doing so destroyed his mind."

[Ginrai]

"Quite a noble act on his part."  Ginrai sighs.

"How long did you know I was Baron?  And who else knew this?"

[Brian]

"Banor," he corrects, wincing slightly  "You, myself, and before he vanished, Starmaster Journe.  Also, Cyric, who is no longer alive, and Devin, who is pretending to be me and continuing research at my home."

[Ginrai]

"Eh?  Also I heard before from Radagast that Huron supposedly died.  And that Journe vanished decades ago after finding a way to step between the stars."

[Brian]

"It's been a complicated conspiracy," Devin/Huron admits.  "My apprentice and I have pretended to be one-another so long that I've made a mistake.  He pretends to be himself, and I pretend to be him ... the power I used to fool the truth charm, that causes me on occasion to think I am him.

"Journe stepped between the stars, and spoke to me ... and to you, though I guess you don't remember it ... of a world beyond.  He said our world was only a dream to that world ... I'd venture that he found a way to your home.  He spoke of vengeful knights armored in gold who hunted him wherever he went between the stars.  Perhaps they caught him?  I'm not certain.  

"Regardless, he said he saw the world we lived in from the outside, which is how he knew to create the plan he ultimately did.  But some years ago, he stepped between the stars again ... and never came back."

[Ginrai]

"Hmm....  So you thought you were actually Devin a few times here.  Though I'm wondering what made Ashton believe he had your pendant.  Also, what do you know of Radagast and Eske's advisor?"

[Brian]

"Solariat bears no title, and has not left the grounds of the collegiate in over three hundred years," Devin/Huron says gravely.  "He hasn't seen the light of Sun in that long, either.  My suspicion is that his knowledge took him somewhere it shouldn't ... and he's been marked by a pact with the elder gods.  I can't prove this yet.  And I suspect that Ashton will be too inept to offer much in the way of clues ... but I also think that we will get what we need from him."

[Ginrai]

"And speaking of Ashton, while he is a power-hungry fool, I don't believe he was the murderer Banor was after.  Earlier Radagast mentioned that, due to our suspicious timing at their temple, it was quite likely that either my or Durant's other-self had murdered the former Priestess of Hammar."

[Brian]

"Well, I can't see why it would be...."  He blinks.  "Durant's other self.  So....  He's going to know where the real link to the traitor is, and Ashton was just a ploy."  Devin grits his teeth and swears.  "Ashton was bait, and like fools, we took it.  Now we're in their trap."

[Ginrai]

"What?!  What do you mean?"

[Brian]

"Think about it," Serril says, looking at Ashton closely.  "Someone so inept, such a blow-hard ... his melodrama makes him less a threat, and more a carichtature.  Ashton was too easy, too obvious.  Whoever's behind this probably set things up so that anything Ashton percieved, they'd be aware of.  The pendant you took," he adds, motioning to Devin/Huron.

Devin/Huron looks at it, and frowns.  "No," he says after a moment.  "Not mine.  But there's a power on it."

Serril shrugs then, saying nothing, and shares a meaningful glance with Devin/Huron and you.

[Ginrai]

"Communicator... oh, shit!"

[Brian]

Serril smacks one fist into the other.  "Well, crap, what do we do now?" he asks.

"Mattias," Devin/Huron says, lobbing the medalion to Parthipan.  "I can't say the rest; they'll hear.  But you should know," he says, looking at you intently.    "Now hurry!"