Chapter 78 IN PROGRESS

Another day of madness, taunted by the knowledge I could likely help most of those people out there, knowing they didn't even want my help. Another day spent with a snakeman guard.

And another sleepless, soulless night. Those two nights continue to haunt me. Every time I close my eyes, I can hear the moans of the dying, the mockery of the dead; I can smell the death, the musty snakeman; I can feel the ice in my veins.

At last, on the second evening, just when I thought I might finally go mad during the third night that was about to come, Peytra arrived and bid the snakeman (who had the key) to let me out.

I straightened my back, and tried not to appear as weary and beaten down as I felt. Peytra chattered without cease. She noticed very little, but I was certain the snakeman knew exactly how I felt and was gloating about it behind his scaly, inscrutable face and cold, beady eyes.

By the time we neared the cave where I hoped my friends still were, I began to hear and understand what Peytra was saying. She told me to try to remember the rules. "No magic. I know it's hard, but you must allow poeple to experience the changes that Tzeentch grants them." I nodded silently. I heard and I understood, and I had no intentions of promising not to help anyone. There was no point; I would break any such promise as soon as necessary.

Peytra escorted me in, and the relieved look on Miara's face, of all people, chirked me up. Peytra invited several of us to "services" tomorrow. I was pretty sure I didn't want to see that, but I supposed we might learn something useful. As she left, she said, "It's not a good thing to remain so cliquish. Talk with others so you might learn. You are expected to service tomorrow, and shouldn't miss it." She followed up with a pithy little homily about Tzeentch.

MK takes her advie and wanders around the cave talkign to people in Nipponese. Some avoid, some listen. And so we will not tunnel tomorrow. We will go to the service, all sit separately amongst the cultists. Who is not going: MK, Ashe, Bark, Slurk. Each one says Peytra's conversation was about how they were doing and issued teh invite. Jose was also asked how he felt about the service and what he learned. He said he just spouted back some of GM's lines to her, and she liked that. The fish continue to fall from Jose's shirt once in a while. A boy has been assigned to follow him around, collect the fish in a basket, and take them to the kitchen every now and then. It's hard now to collect fish for ourselves, and Jose cannot control it anymore. He even stays all night long and collects the fish. We steal fish from his basket when he falls asleep. In the morning, Jose tells the boy not to take the latest basket, and he feeds them to people here at breakfast. Sun helps. They look to MM for guidance, and she says the plans haven't changed: go to service, disperse. We do. Service is pretty much the same as yesterday. GM tells story this time, a short one. A member of the community was sneaking around in places they weren't supposed to be. This is not acceptable behavior. A flagrant violation of the rules. Our purpose ere is one of contemplation and preperation, not of exploring and gathering. He calls out a name: that little girl that talked to Jose. He calls her forward, and she seems very pleased about it. @ snakemen apear from the curtain, carry her ver to the later, she begins screaming like a terrified little girl, hyserically. GM cotinues, louder. We are preparing for the great change. We must be ready for the time when Tzeentch is ready to change the world. He sacrifices the girl, blood runs down. A lot of screaming , chanting, shaking, morbid curiousity. People press forward to get a better view. R realizes there's no way she could there intime to bring her back to life. SIgh. [read MK's log] We return and see MK's bandaged and bloody unconcisous body. And his message, which blaterhs about invisible demons and otherwise empty. Ashe didn't go with, but MK barely managed to fly back. Place is filled up. Everyone stays away from the bloody duo. R looks at him. He's in pretty back shape. No danger of dying, but he's severely wounded. She plays with his bandages and heals him just a tiny bit, to stabilize him. She can bring him back quickly if they need him. Ashe makes a big show of cleaning his axe and putting it back with the other three. It's midafternoon. R says she can wake up MK unobstrusively tomorrow. MM says we should spend the afternoon mingling (ick).