Zorlon - Levdia

[ThetaOrionis01]

"Mara's tomb," Lurel replies without hesitation. "We heard from Steno how the desecration was discovered. Sadly, she did not have time to tell us more. Not knowing who all the ruling judges are, we simply picked the first one off the list. Sadly, Aliss had nothing to tell us. Perhaps you could help us, though."

 

He pauses for breath before continuing: "I am assuming that there was an investigation to find the person responsible for the desecration? Has anyone been brought to trial, or convicted for this crime? If not, do you have any suspicions who might do such a thing? From what I hear Mara was highly respected - who would have a motive to desecrate her tomb?"

[Malchik]

"We have it from Strigid that Mara's tomb was desecrated by magic. This we find hard to accept but he is adamant. The magic not only desecrated the tomb but somehow placed the key there. It does not seem as though you were meant to find it, though. That makes no sense to me. Perhaps you found it to prevent it being used to free the keeper. It..."

 

Something stirs in her mind.

 

"Theoretically our decisions must be unanimous. We do however usually accept one dissenting voice. There is one regularly recurring argument to which that applies. Every time there is an interment on Xetcherin the colony from which the entombed hero came seeks to allow freer access to the tombs. In the past it has always been three in favour, four against. But if one of the others were to change their vote Aliss would certainly go with the majority. In theory there would still be two against but... I wonder? Were that law to be changed perhaps someone could have gone to fetch the key. Interesting."

 

She is regarding you with a calculating look in her eye.

 

"I suppose you will want to know who already votes in favour and why. Cro-chuff and I do because we believe Strigid has too much power to himself. One of us can always persuade Coralot. Aliss is unfortunately not quite stupid enough to miss that Coralot does what she's told. He votes at present with the others. If one of the others changed, so would he."

[ThetaOrionis01]

"When was the last time you voted on this?" Lurel asks. After a brief pause he adds: "From what I have heard, the keeper is reviled and feared on Avelyssia - surely his release would not benefit anyone here?"

 

He gives Eghlette a puzzled look. "After what we've encountered in Xetcherin, I can understand why access needs to be controlled. Is this control of access the only power Strigid holds?"

[Malchik]

"We do not like it that we have no idea what these guardians are or what they do. Strigid says he knows nothing of them either but that is hard to believe. We are not in favour of removing access controls altogether but of freeing them to the important functionaries in Avelyssia. Currently not even the King may go there."

 

"The subject was discussed a while ago. It comes up at least once a year and is one of the matters pending. I raised it for the very reason you are talking about, because of the desecration we could not investigate!"

 

"And you are right nobody would see the keeper free. But id someone behind the alien magic is influencing one of us. Would we know what we are doing?"

 

She pauses.

 

"I cannot think why the key did not simply appear with whoever was meant to get it. Unless it is not the alien magic itself that is behind it but someone taking advantage of it?"

 

She looks as though she feels you have taken up enough of her time.

[ThetaOrionis01]

"Thank you for your time," Lurel says politely. "Who do you suggest we should talk to next?"

 

'I wonder.. could it be her, to gain an advantage in this war between the colonies? She appears intelligent and ruthless enough. Though I think we should speak to this Coralot.. if she is easy to influence, perhaps Anromaynius discovered that too. I wish we had a little bit more to go on.. I don't even know if I'm asking the right questions! Though I suppose we can probably rule Aliss out as a suspect...'

 

Lurel can't prevent a small sigh.

[Malchik]

"If my suggestion is correct you should visit Archivist, Steno and Kumor to find if any of them was intending to change their vote and why. Coralot is almost as useless as Aliss but she tends to repeat things told to her. If she were to say something that did not tally with what others have told you... Plan to be there for some time."

 

There is no doubt that she is mocking you but Lurel cannot sense more than a general dislike of 'foreigners'.

[ThetaOrionis01]

"Thank you for your help," Lurel replies, trying to suppress a sarcastic tone - not entirely successfully.

 

He looks at the others. "Any preferences as to where we go next?"

[Switch]

Ford blinks.

 

"No particular preference here. Whatever gets this political jargan over with soon. I'm starting to get a serious headache."

 

He grins.

[ThetaOrionis01]

"Let's see Kumor, then, as Eghlette suggested," Lurel decides. "And you're not the only one getting a headache from all this.... I get the feeling that they're not telling us all they know."

[Abramul]

"Too bad we don't have a mind reader...Lurel, would you be able to tell if Coralot says something original, versus repeating what he has been told to say?"