12.23.2132 - Back to the Future

[Johan]

"All right." Temmit said, sighing as he leaned backwards over the back of his chair. He stared at the ceiling through closed eyes.

"In 846 ESH, a pretty significant effort was made to bring eight individuals together who could explore the Outlands in covert missions. These men were selected after a presumably thorough round of testing, and presumably having been deemed to be the best. There was presumably additional training, equipment, and all that goes with such a dangerous appointment."

He pursed his lips a bit in thought. "Seven years of these missions continued then. There were plenty of men who died. We don't know how many, I'm assuming, but the sad fact is that it doesn't matter. The Patrol had the support of the government, and they kept going into what was a noble charter: finding other survivors, and penetrating the Karh'Thul presence."

"So one day, they find themselves with the ability to press into the Outlands, effectively at will, and effectively as far as they want to go. They use magic to get there, but the point is that they get there, and achieve their goals."

"They come back and report to the government...the church...whomever. The report leaves out the facts of the magic, but instead presents a laudable method by which we can now safely get through to the Outlands. Not only that, but they have apparently found a way to get past the Karh'Thul entirely. There's a cluster at our borders, but not the sea of them that we're led to believe would be there."

"This news should be met with excitement, one would think. It should allow us to completely escape from the demons and be free forever, one would think."

"BUT, instead, when this news reaches the ruling class, what we get is a disbanded Patrol, and soon thereafter dead patrolmen."

"Makes one wonder what they found there, and why the government doesn't want it known?"

"And if it was truly a case where the rulers didn't want us to get away from the Karh'Thul, then they must have been working with the Karh'Thul to keep us here for some reason. This collaboration must go all the way back to the beginning. It's not just Fresenius." Smokey whispered.

"Indeed."

"It also suggests that the government never expected the Patrol to succeed." He continued. "They were perfectly happy throwing the best soldiers into the Karh'Thul lines to die. And the only benefit that they thought that they would get from that is the appearance of trying to act in the interests of humanity."

"Not only that, but it served the dual purpose of taking the most dangerous of our soldiers and killing them very effectively. Details, boy."

"Indeed."

[Dray]

Mia and Leslie looked at Temmit with dumbfounded awe for a moment. Even though neither had heard the conversation between him and Smokey, they had been impressed with Temmit's presentation of the facts and awed by the portent of his words.

Mia was the first to break the awkward silence, her statement mirrored the unheard one by Smokey.

"If the story that Balthier gave the Council had any truth in it, especially in regards to the Karh'Thul being only populated at the Outer-Rim, it also makes you wonder about everything[/i] we have ever known. It was as if the Council doesn't want us to be free of the Karh'Thul, as if the Karh'Thul are nothing more than jailors..." Mia stated incredulously and then looked at Temmit with a sudden epiphany "...for a dungeon in which the Councilors hold the key."

The room was silent for a moment.

"For over two thousand years?" Leslie questioned in a choked whisper. The idea, as incredible as it seemed, also threatened to turn their world upside down, and Leslie was almost visibly shaking in fear of it.

[Johan]

"I was having similar thoughts." Temmit admitted to Mia. "And I'm sorry about the effect that these thoughts are having on your foundations, Leslie."

"But it's important to hang onto the realization that we're largely speculating right now." He hoped that this would help Leslie a bit.

"And as I think on the jailor model, there are a few discrepancies." He continued. "Why, for instance, do we now train our entire population to fight the Karh'Thul? Why also, are the jailers in the jail? If the goal was to keep us here, why give us anything at all? They could simply have thrown us in here to live in caves, never giving us weapons, armor, never giving us any education at all."

He settled a bit deeper in thought for a moment then. "However, what's up-most on my mind right now, is what did the Patrol find out there beyond their "tunnel"? Do the other medallions exist? Who are the descendants of the other members of the Patrol?"

He turned to Leslie then. "Do you think that you might be able to find that out by Spring End?"

[Dray]

With a shaking hand, Leslie wiped away the silent tears that had just begun to stream down her cheeks.

"Yeah...sorry," she added, her cheeks a bit flush with embarrassment. "Just a lot to take in at once is all."

She stood there, her slight form still shaking all over. It was if someone had come in and announced that a family member had died.

Mia for her part didn't offer any further information, and Temmit sensed that she indeed have more to give.

'Perhaps she too needs to get her head around this eventful weekend? You may want to turn back to the other reason we came here, warn her about Marcus and all that.' Smokey suggested.

[Johan]

"Good thinking. Thanks."

"I think that it's time to change subjects a bit. We need to digest these thoughts at any rate." Temmit said to the girls.

"I'd like to talk a bit about Marcus Faithborn. Do you know him, Mia?"

[Dray]

"That's supposed to be a better subject?" asked Leslie, but Temmit noted that she at least smiled.

"I didn't say it was a better subject. Only a different one." Temmit said with a wry grin and a slight wink. She let out the hiccup of a giggle and returned her fingers to the potato flanks, sniffing back the remainder of the now diminished speculation.

He turned back to Mia who had been giving Leslie a look of compassionate concern. Temmit's original impression that Mia was just another aspiring actress had changed a bit. For Leslie and Mia truly were years apart in maturity, despite the only year difference in physical age. Mia had not lived the sheltered life her little waif friend had.

"I know do not. Is he in Whisper?" Mia asked.

[Johan]

"No." Temmit answered. "And for the time being, we're trying very hard to not let him know about Whisper." His coal-colored eyes had taken on a bit of a hard tone.

"It is my belief that Marcus is working for Fresenius right now, trying to uncover groups like Whisper - probably Whisper itself - so that Fresenius can eliminate us. I interviewed him for membership in Whisper, and he is a dangerous individual. So much so, and so much changed from the person that he was before Fall End, that I think he's actually a different person." He looked hard at the two ladies. "An imposter, that is." He added for clarification.

"I am further concerned that the fortune that Mia told for you, Leslie, might mean that tomorrow might find Marcus in the Actor's house. The doppelganger enters your house a changed man." He repeated the fortune.

"Just be careful of him, and try to keep a bead on what he's up to, whom he's talking to. I have other plans to carry out to try to figure out for sure what he's up to, but those will take time.

In the meanwhile, I was thinking that if I'm Marcus, and I'm doing what Temmit thinks I'm doing, one of the avenues that I might follow is that of the rising young fortuneteller in Shantytown." He looked meaningfully at Mia. "If he shows up, don't read his fortune properly. Feed him something like The Capitol Offers no Resistance." He suggested. "When he was talking to me, he kept using the word 'resistance'...it should resonate to him."

[Dray]

It was Mia's turn to be a bit shaken.

"What have I gotten myself into?" she asked, but a small smile revealed a slight intrigue.

[Johan]

Temmit sighed and smiled softly. "It's not a question of what any of us have gotten ourselves into, Mia. It's a question of what circumstances have gotten us into, and what we're going to do in response." He paused for a moment.

"I, for one, would like to grow old oneday, and live in peace."

[Dray]

"And be a great actress on the stage." Leslie added.

They all paused for many moments, each lost in their own thoughts. Mia grabbed a handful of potato blanks and joined Leslie who still stood over them as she nibbled. It appeared Temmit pretty much had the floor.

[Johan]

"I think that's enough business for one day, ladies." Temmit said.

"Got any other questions, or any lighter conversation material?"

[Dray]

Both girls looked very much relieved at the announcement, although for apparently very different reasons.

"So...," Leslie began, "let's talk about your new nickname Slick[/i]."

The entire weekend finished up next with the thread  12.23.2132 - A Night By The River