#earthrunes

"We know one disguise" Earl says "let's not get overconfident."

"Why would he change it, if that's his face for Firnost and he wants Zara to find him?"

She twists her braid again. "He asked me to go there. He wants to see me. I have been hiding from him."

"Meeting him but once was a mistake, I know."

"Why is he after you, though, Zara?"

"He... he would not hesitate to use sovereign in FIrnost, I think..."

"He is a knight. Let him try sovereign." She grins.

Her shoulders curl inwards. "He.. he thinks me the object of a prophecy."

August looks down at Coradel's question, then shakes his head and responds to Zara. "He wouldn't succeed against me." Quiet confidence.

"And would lay claim to me, call me his to own."

"Prophecy? Claim? I either need more details, or I actually am as stupid as some think, and I don't think it's the latter."

"I think meeting him ever was a mistake" Earl mutters then sighs sympathetically to Zara's comment about claim "It's not something we share with many, Baroness, so please don't be offended at reluctance. Paler is an evil and psychotic man"

"Paler? Is that the name?"

"That... that there would be a nocker-made weapon, one that would bring the Balor great power, one that could let them claim dominion over many..."

"Aye... Arawn Paler..."

"So now there is a nocker weapon involved. Is it a blade or a firearm or a seige weapon, or what?"

Earl sighs "That's what others in House Balor thought it would be. Paler has a different theory"

"Paler... Paler believe the weapon would be a... person..."

"Nocker-made... ah.. nocker-birthed..."

Coradel looks from Zara to Earl, then to August. "Well, then, who?" Impatience. "All of you are speaking in circles about something which you all know about, and leaving me out of it, and my hold is at risk, and I am getting IRRITATED."

"He thinks me to be the weapon. That I would s-serve Balor..."

"... which, of course, she wouldn't. Ever."

Coradel is quiet, looking at Zara, thinking.

Then at Earl.

Earl nods at that. "He is obssessed with her... acts like she's a weapon he prepared rather than just a person. He has threatened her family, her loved ones. We have foiled him more than once"

"Balor sssstole my mother from me. Enssslaved her. Tortured her and ssold her to coarse men to use."

"He...is your father, then? Or one of the other men that he sold her to?" Checking that she's making the connections properly.

Zara shrinks, her face twisted with shame and guilt. "...aye..."

"Which one?"

"H-he is. Paler. That.. that is his claim on me."

She swallows, waiting for the reaction.

Coradel frowns a little bit...then shrugs. "He's an asshole, then. If he's spilled salt tears and harmed others in other ways, I have no pity for him. And if he's going to threaten this hold, then I have an issue with him." She turns to the others. "So...Firnost, you two veiled, and then August and I capture him when he is soothsayed. Or I can dictum him, but again, if you want to be able to go back to Firnost, we can't do that there. Firnost has been very useful to us...I'd hate to lose that trod access."

"Though...I wonder if violating escheat in the hold itself would bar one from the trod nexus in the gardens? Easy enough to get to the street or other trods without going into the hold."

Earl looks grateful for some reason, then says "Well, you're in the loop now, Baroness. We've only told a few ."

"Hmph." Coradel still looks mildly miffed, and one might imagine that August is going to get an earful about this later.

"I... I asked for it to be kept quiet... I... I wished not to invite trouble, or to be seen as... as what.. as some Balor plant..."

"I do think there is risk in using Sovereign in Firnost. It has ways of defending its rules..."

He glances from Zara to Coradel, the latter getting a beseeching look.

Coradel waves off the notion of Zara as a Balor plant. "You're not," she says with simple confidence.

"Fine, then we get him out of Firnost, which takes us right back to the lure plan. And August, don't give me that look, you know I'm right."

"But I did draw his eye here, and for that... I... I regret that..."

Earl looks at Zara "You have to live. We can't keep you on the farm forever, it's not fair to you"

"Zara...you would not intentionally do anything that would harm August, or Sparrow, or Magnus. I'm certain of this." Confident, end of story.

"No. Never."

"The Farm? You've been on a farm? I thought you'd just been very good at hiding in here...."

"There are other ways. I could tell him I know where Zara is, offer to lead him there."

"Would he believe you, August? If he knows you're her friend, that just screams It's a trap! "

"He... he would follow me, I think."

"If we do not go to Firnost, but I let myself be seen in a place he thinks vulnerable..."

He shrugs. "Oathbroken."