Brathtar.
Brathtar studied the shadowed gallery, squinting, and said, 'Keeper Telarian, I didn't realize you were observing the War Room. Please forgive my lapse.' A questioning, attentive mask settled upon the Knight Commander's face. A mask, because Telarian knew the commander had come to view him with grave misgivings.
Telarian allowed one gloved hand to fall, as if by accident, upon the pommel of his darkly sheathed sword. With its touch, even through the barrier his glove offered, the confidence of his convictions reasserted itself. He said, 'I couldn't help overhear the concerns you and your people were discussing regarding my orders. Did I hear correctly?'
Brathtar visibly steeled himself, then replied, 'Keeper Telarian, I'm afraid I must admit to real tactical incomprehension regarding the foray you've ordered. I judge such an action will merely draw the attention of the wood elves. My intelligence gatherers assure me the Causeway's location, and perhaps even the existence of Stardeep itself, remains a well-kept secret in the Yuirwood. If we venture forth in force. .'
Telarian nodded, saying, 'My orders may seem counterintuitive, Commander. But, as I'm sure you appreciate, as a Keeper my sources of information reach farther than yours. I assure you, Brathtar, this foray is imperative. A physical patrol is warranted, lest sympathizers of the Traitor creep too close.'
Rank disbelief battled across the face of Telarian's most trusted commander. The Keeper wondered from where his first reaction came-to bash sense into the man with the blunt side of his sword, and if that did not suffice. .
Telarian shook away the impulse. Not the most diplomatic of responses. But the commander had been showing more and more disregard for Telarian's orders the last few years. His insolence was becoming tiresome.
As Keeper of the Outer Bastion, the Empyrean Knights answered ultimately to Telarian. He should not have to suffer Brathtar's second guesses and impudence. When had the trust between them evaporated? In the not too distant past, Telarian had occasionally joined Brathtar and his captains for their dice games. Other times Telarian had invited the Commander to his quarters for a glass of the sparkling white he imported once a year, at great cost, out of Sild?yuir. Once they'd even ventured into the first leg of the surrounding dungeon tunnels, tunnels whose existence hadn't been realized when Stardeep was initially sited and constructed. Apparently, Stardeep hadn't been the first prison to occupy this out-of-the-way locale. Brathtar had saved his life during that foray, when they'd disturbed a swarm of fossilized. . undead? They were mindless but cruelly animate. Brathtar had ordered the tunnels closed after that, of course.
Telarian supposed things began to change between him and Brathtar after his Epoch-enhanced gaze first glimpsed the glyph-scribed blasphemy in the clouds. When he'd foreseen that the citadel of the Traitor's hope was fated to emerge from prehistory, Telarian immediately bent all his thought toward averting that fate. With his investment in saving the world from catastrophe, time to nurture friendships was difficult to schedule.
Altering a fated future was said to be impossible-all the classic divinatory texts warned against such attempts. It was a fundamental philosophy of his school. When one attempted to thread destiny's needle, unplanned consequences always followed. But it wasn't in Telarian to give up. Even when sacrifices were required.
The Keeper's gaze fell to the silent, brooding blade sheathed at his side.
The stakes were too high to back out now. Nis was a requirement of his plan, even if his dreams were sometimes tainted by the thing's dark influence. If his relationship to Brathtar was another requisite sacrifice to change the future, then so be it. Better a soured friendship than a world overturned.
He looked back to his commander, who was impatiently enduring Telarian's long silence. He could relieve the man of his office. . but Brathtar's competence was unmatched. He needed Brathtar in his current role. Too bad force wouldn't secure him Brathtar's trust. Nor would truth-his plan spiraled too far from what any sane person would accept without the proof that only an Epoch Chamber vision could provide. And no one in Stardeep was properly trained to endure such a vision. Except himself. So secrecy was required. Yet his commands still met resistance.
So he'd tried diplomacy. It had always been one of his strengths. Had he completely lost the knack? No, it was Nis. The blade put everyone off, even if they didn't realize why. But Telarian couldn't bring himself to leave the blade unattended, even locked in his inaccessible quarters.
But beyond Nis, the falsehoods he daily mouthed were taking their toll. The justifications he provided for all his recent decisions were a tapestry of partial truths.
To be sure, the carefully constructed bed of untruth served as the necessary and moral foundation of his true effort to avert the final apocalypse. In the balance, he doubted a few truths twisted for sake of all Toril would stain his soul.
Yet he remained a poor liar.
'You have my orders. Your place is not to question, but to act as instructed. Please do not provide further reasons for me to wonder about my choice of Knight Commander.'
Brathtar's eyes narrowed. But he said, 'You are the Keeper. I am pledged to Stardeep and will do what is necessary to protect her. I've already prepared the foray. A handpicked troop will venture forth down the Causeway.'
Telarian let the commander's dig pass unremarked, giving a curt nod. He called to the air, 'Cynosure? Connect me to my quarters.'
Moments later, only shadows inhabited the balcony above the War Room.
When Delphe opened the door from her chambers that led to the common area of the Inner Bastion, something fluttered to the floor. A vellum envelope. She bent, retrieved it, and examined its exterior. The red wax seal proclaimed the letter was from the desk of Stardeep's Empyrean Knight Commander.
What was the man's name. .? Brathtar, that was it. She recalled seeing him in the Inner Bastion from time to time, enjoying Telarian's patronage, though not recently.
'What have you found, Delphe?' inquired Cynosure, his voice issuing from a small statue standing in its niche at the center of the hallway.
'A memorandum from the Knight Commander. How odd. Why didn't Brathtar ask you to pass the message?'
While useful for communication sent beyond the confines of Stardeep, a hand-delivered letter was hardly a substitute for asking the idol's aid. Cynosure was everywhere in Stardeep. Perhaps the man enjoyed his formalities?
Silence greeted her question, so she broke the seal and shook out the parchment within. On it was scrawled:
Keeper Delphe,
Forgive this sudden request, but I humbly ask you to meet me at your earliest convenience. Please come in person.
Yours,
Commander Brathtar
'Odd. . Cynosure-please relay to Commander Brathtar a question: Why do you want to meet me?'
Cynosure's voice remained silent a moment, then relayed, 'I'm afraid that's impossible, Delphe-Commander Brathtar and a contingent of his Knights departed Stardeep via the Causeway just this morning.'
The Keeper nearly dropped the letter. 'Empyrean Knights rode forth from Stardeep? What's happened?'
'Telarian ordered the excursion. I believe he had some concerns regarding a nearby wood elf encampment. You'll have to inquire of Telarian directly. My purview doesn't extend beyond the Outer Bastion.'
Delphe turned from her door and strode the curved length of Tardoun Hall, so named for one of the first Keepers to inhabit Stardeep after its delving. A frieze of carved figures ran along both sides of the hall, depicting elves involved in all manner of clerical and teleological pursuits-charting the courses of the stars figured prominently. She passed doors leading to the lounge, the baths, the archives, the repository, the noisy chamber housing Cynosure Prime, the dining hall, the steeply sloping stairs that led down to the Outer Bastion, and various
