It took close to an hour for Ivan to appear next to me on his bedding.
"Where did you go?" I immediately asked, unable to help myself. There were other questions in my mind, but truthfully, that one was the uppermost.
"At times, I find my existence becomes more of an opinion than a fact in the mind of the holy Bahamut. It seems it is his pleasure to remind me of my place in the hells every now and again," Ivan replied, his eyes closed. He still seemed to radiate some sort of phantom calm and ease, but the way he spoke suggested some tiredness. I figured that continuing to pretend to be an acolyte of Bahamut wouldn't be the best way to allow him to get any break.
"May I ask you about Seya'ani? About how you know her?" I dared quietly, sneaking a peek at the other side of the room to check the Dragonborn female's interest in our conversation. It seemed she had begun writing, or studying some book while lounging.
"You may, of course!" Ivan replied, reaching his right hand straight forward. "You'll forgive my lack of gaze, will you?"
"I'm right here," I replied, putting my hand in his own. "I don't mind."
"Seya'ani and Imei'ishi were gifted sisters- one a warlock, the other a wizard. Seya'ani married well, to a spy talented enough to catch the emperor's eye. Imei'ishi disappeared with a bow-toting rogue, delighting her free spirit and crushing her family's hopes for her. The spy became the court jester- word of his whirlwind successes spread like a disease in the marketplaces throughout the Turathi empire. The rogue's name was never spoken- and he preferred it that way. It gave greater believability to his omnipresence. But today, I'll have to beg forgiveness of his spirit. Did you ever hear, in those beautiful courtyards where you played so carelessly, of The Blight?"
"The Blight was just one male?" was my wide-eyed response. The Blight was a curse that miraculously lit upon Dragonborn outposts and Tiefling camps alike. It was thought that some god was directing some terrible group of terrorists from both races. Dragonborn postings would be circled by a ring of fire. Tiefling clutches would be found with a trench of water dug around them. It was clear that there were archers involved, as there would always be arrow-wounds to the back of the neck, to the chest, or to the shoulder. The kills were so many, so precise and so perfectly executed, that a single perpetrator seemed out of the question. Sometimes there would be two or three strikes in a single day.
"Yes, he was," Ivan smiled, eyes still closed. "A male by the name of Vashen. And with twelve children, he was quite a male indeed. Imei'ishi was very good at teleportation, and he was very good at simple stealth. I am the last born male of his seed- well, his known seed, anyway. Himself and Imei'ishi were poly-amorous, and never had time to marry. By the time they were of a mind to do so, the empire had been destroyed, and there were no temples left to complete the rites. While Imei'ishi looks deceptively human, Vashen had thick, spike-like, unmistakable horns that curved up from his brow over his head and from there stuck straight back."
"How? No one my parents' age had horns," I replied. "All the children did."
"I cannot judge who the Hells touched and who they left alone," Ivan shrugged. "Two or three of my siblings could also pass for human, and I hope for their sake that they have."
I thought briefly on the Tiefling that had been in the Elven den of misery before I arrived. Dark Human- indeed.
"I know you have little reason to believe me, especially since you must wonder how I arrived here, while the rest of our family is either dead or flung to the four winds," Ivan continued. "I do not work with the same magic that Imei'ishi worked. She is uniquely powerful- divination comes as naturally to her as breathing. Unfortunately, many of my- talents- disturbed her deeply. She gave me just one gift before I left to find a place where I could live without fear of being burned to death. Somewhere here is a lovely, heavy dark stone."
I looked around the area briefly, then squeezed his hand a bit as I got up to actually physically search. The stone he was talking about, cold, black and smooth, was in a knapsack that was damp at the bottom. Seeing as the bag was sitting directly on the ground and there was a serious heft to the stone, I couldn't say I was surprised. As soon as I picked the stone up, some of the darkness retracted inward, leaving the rest to seem like a dark cloud suspended in remarkably clear crystal.
"You've stopped moving," Ivan observed. "Even your tail is still. You've found it?"
"Yes," I replied, creeping over carefully to put it into his hand. "Here it is."
"No, no, it's not for me to use right now," he clucked, smiling. "I need you to go and speak with Petrovich's other wife. Hand it to her. I will rest, for now, so that I may be ready when you need me. Go on."
"C'mon, then scat," the Dragonborn female added, looking up and putting her book on her resting place. "The guards outside will- escort you."
I briefly thought of bashing the fools outside with the stone, but shook that idea out of my head. Ivan had trusted me with some magical implement that Silveredge could make use of in some way- it wouldn't do for me to crack it or break it completely over some idiot's skull in front of other guards who would simply chain me up and lop my horns off. So I simply stepped outside calmly, the stone clutched in both hands.
Some time or other- who knows when?- the day had slipped into early evening. I stepped out into the coolness, and was instantly apprehended by the guards that had been waiting for me.
"I need to bring this to the master's intended," I said calmly, trying to match Ivan's tone. "He bid me give it into her hands."
One of the guards looked at it blankly, but the other had a better idea of what I was holding. "It's a scrying ball. He's just awful at divination, but why should he give it to you?"
"He didn't, fool," I sighed, frustrated. "Didn't you hear? I'm to give it to the Shadar-Kai. I can do about as much with it as he can, and now it's finally going to someone who can do something with it, ugh, by Baator, you're thick."
"Right, you give it to me, and I'll give it to her when we pass by the master's tent, how's that?" the smart one snorted. "We don't need you running in there casting any spells."
"Look at this, will you?" I replied, holding the stone up. The darkness inside it swirled as though it were liquid. "It's not supposed to look like this. I can't cast a single bloody cantrip with it. It's useless like this, or can't you tell?"
There was a silence.
"Well, can't you?" the second guard asked in a concerned voice.
"Alright, come on, then, but we're going in there with you, swords drawn," the guard replied. "One of them's going to be right at your neck the entire time."
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