Chapter 69 Story Exchange

We had to find a way to destroy the Crystal. I considered my Crystal vision, where I saw myself trying, and failing, to throw the Crystal into a small hole. In the vision, I was certain that would permanently get rid of the thing. Then I thought about the others' visions, and I realized something: mine was the only one that showed a way to destroy it. I asked the others to repeat their visions, to be sure, and I was right: mine was the only hint.

It was cold, and windy, and the air was thin. Up high in the mountains, perhaps? And Goldrim had another one of his visions in which the prisoner would have the information we needed. So before we escape the Cold Fire Knights, we had to somehow speak to their prisoner, whom they guarded most carefully.

Before we could start conspiring, José returned to tell us that Knight Captain Mechtilda von Stronhann wanted to speak to the whole village. So we joined the rest of the villagers at Querla's, where the captain stood up on the stairs, with her prisoner at her feet in chains, and talked down to everyone.

Essentially, they're here searching for the Zogin Rock, as if we hadn't guessed already. The prisoner is a scholar who knows something about the Crystals of power, and her magic-user should have no difficulty sniffing it out. José has to be able to talk to the prisoner somehow, which calls for a mighty distraction.

To that end, José and Miara conspired in sending a lofty-sounding note to the captain requesting a meet-up, and he and Sun helped her put together something impressive out of her tattered wardrobe. She played up the foreign noble theme. Although the answer was off-hand, we were essentially invited to dine with them anytime we wanted to. And so we went to Querla's for dinner.

Formal introductions, and we all mingled around. José tried to get to the prisoner, Kostinlos, but was warded off. Trying the direct approach, José asked the captain if two scholars could have a conversation. After a little bickering, she told the guard just to bring Kostinlos over to the table, so everyone could listen to their erudite discussion of dusty, scholarly topics.

José did his best to sound as boring as possible, and Miara was struck by inspiration. As people's attentions to started wander, she began telling a story, sort of connected to what José was blathering about, from Nippon. She entranced everyone: the entire table hung on her every word. She told story after story, and José had his private conversation with Kostinlos after all.

After an hour or so, José returned to the table and nodded. Miara brought her tales to an end and we took our leave.