[Phone Call]

[dewdrop-pebbles.livejournal.com]

[Ring, ring. You there, Delita?]

Comments

[lionwarhero.livejournal.com]

[After the hasty departure, Delita is surprised by the unexpected phone call.]

Mjrn?

[dewdrop-pebbles.livejournal.com]

[Mjrn is silent for a moment. When she replies her tone is calm but wary.]

Our conversation is not over. You did not answer my questions.

[lionwarhero.livejournal.com]

[He knows what the topic is of and talk of the Lucavi quickly sobers him.]

To which questions do you refer Mjrn? I will answer if I may.

[dewdrop-pebbles.livejournal.com]

Why did you hide the stone? Why did you conceal such news from us?

[lionwarhero.livejournal.com]

[The first question being easier to answer than the seconds gathers his attention.]

I could not allow Lord Figaro to possess the entirety of the stones. The Lucavi have corrupted greater men than he.

[dewdrop-pebbles.livejournal.com]

And the second?

[lionwarhero.livejournal.com]

I had hoped to spare you the burden of the Lucavi. It was never my intention to place you in danger.

[dewdrop-pebbles.livejournal.com]

Yet, to know that we would need enter the very place where you hid the stone....

You ought have told us, particularly me.

[lionwarhero.livejournal.com]

I ought have trusted yourself with the news yet I did not. Please accept my apologies.

[dewdrop-pebbles.livejournal.com]

[Heavy sigh.]

You know what those stones cost me, Delita....

[lionwarhero.livejournal.com]

The cost was too great for all involved. I had thought the stone safe from all, until the tree appeared.

[He pauses.]

I should have declined your offer of assistance and kept you far from its grasp.

[dewdrop-pebbles.livejournal.com]

You should have given the truth!

[Silence for a moment, after that outburst.]

You have seen how Ashe's blade sundered the gem. Had you but placed trust in your allies, it could have been accomplished long ago. Hiding valuable information from each other gains nothing.

[lionwarhero.livejournal.com]

[There's that word again. He drops his head, even if she can't see it.]

I should have trusted you.

[He's trying a little of this trust thing he's been blasted with over the last couple of weeks.]

I know where none of the other stones are, else we could destroy them.

[dewdrop-pebbles.livejournal.com]

You would swear this?

[lionwarhero.livejournal.com]

on Tietra's grave I would.

'Tis said Lord Figaro hid them, yet I am fearful if those left lay within his grasp.

[dewdrop-pebbles.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Delita.

He seems a reasonable man. If the nature of Ashe's blade were revealed, he might agree to their destruction, once and for all.

[lionwarhero.livejournal.com]

Yet can we risk that he will flee with them upon the knowledge that their destruction is imminent?

[dewdrop-pebbles.livejournal.com]

He has given no indication that he wishes to use them at all. I lived in Figaro for many months, and not once did I witness interest in the Lucavi or their power.

[lionwarhero.livejournal.com]

I have seen its devastation. No man should hold all the stones. That gives me reason to pause regardless of who holds them.

[dewdrop-pebbles.livejournal.com]

Yet, we must make the attempt, must we not?

[lionwarhero.livejournal.com]

We cannot let this chance go by, yet Lord Figaro has no reason to give his trust to myself.

[dewdrop-pebbles.livejournal.com]

But he trusts Lady Ashe, I believe. If she were to speak with him, then all might be settled.

[lionwarhero.livejournal.com]

If you are sure, he trusts Lady Dalmasca, then perhaps a discussion is in order.

[dewdrop-pebbles.livejournal.com]

Aye. The attempt must me made, that a true end may be found for the stones.

[lionwarhero.livejournal.com]

'Tis the only way to ever be free of them.