The Silver Sphinx

 

“There are two religious practices in Sigil that are strictly forbidden for the greater good.

 

a) Worship of the Lady of Pain

According to Her own decrees, it is strictly forbidden to worship the Lady of Pain as a goddess.

Anyone caught worshipping Her will be executed without trial and without chance of pardon or respite, should the Lady's Shadow not fall upon them first.

 

b) Worship of Aoskar

“The former god of portals, who was rightfully slain by the Lady of Pain, was an enemy of the City of Sigil. He and all his followers were guilty of anarchy.

Those who worship him will be executed without trial and without the chance of pardon or respite, should the Lady's Shadow not fall upon them first.”

point 5 of "The Five Major Violations in Sigil", as enacted - 496 HR

 

 

Fourth Lady's Day of Savorus, 126 HR

The day after the rather unfortunate conversation with Garush, Naghûl waited for his friends in the garden of the Festhall. Morânia had told him that they would meet there after peak to talk about everything. The tiefling had agreed, of course. After his first anger had subsided, he still held certain views on the matter, but he was quite willing to admit that he had overreacted concerning the question of the Styx Tea. In any case, everything had been very emotional and he too was keen to resolve the matter. He had already talked to and reconciled with his wife Morânia the night before. As she had to take care of some faction matters she stayed away from the meeting, as did Kiyoshi, who hadn't been present at the incident in the house. At the appointed time, Lereia, Sgillin and Jana appeared in the garden and approached him as soon as they saw him.

Sgillin nodded conciliatory. “Hello Naghûl.”

Jana and Lereia smiled in greeting, though a little hesitantly and cautiously.

No wonder, the tiefling thought to himself, the words of the argument the day before still hung over them like a dark veil. He returned the smile and greeted them kindly, hoping to lighten the mood a little. “Lady's Grace,” he said. “It's good to see you and thank you for coming. I think we have to sort things out.”

Sgillin nodded. “Indeed.”

“I agree,” Lereia replied. “There should be no unspoken things between us.” Her smile was now more open, and she seemed relieved and pleased with Naghûl's greeting.

Jana, on the other hand, seemed more hesitant. “Well, I think it's ... too late anyway,” she murmured.

Lereia shot her an alarmed glance. ”Why?”

“Nonsense,“ Sgillin objected immediately. “It's never too late.”

Naghûl gave the sorceress an inquiring look. “What's too late, Jana?” he asked diplomatically.

She smiled apologetically. “That ... well ... nothing. It doesn't matter now, excuse me. We are here to resolve the recent trouble, but not to reopen old stories.”

Naghûl sighed to himself. As so often, Jana knew how to bring a certain uneasiness into the conversation.

Lereia, however, merely nodded and did not let herself be unsettled by it. “If these stories are older than the ones we experienced as Chosen, I agree with you,” she said objectively.

The tiefling was glad that Jana's comment hadn't caused further trouble and led his friends to a small seating area in a more secluded corner of the garden. Under some maple trees with orange and yellow leaves, three wooden benches stood around a fountain. A crystal was embedded in the edge of the fountain that could activate a sonic barrier. All faction headquarters and many other places in Sigil had such arcane devices to enable undisturbed conversations that could not be heard from outside the barrier. When the others had taken a seat, Naghûl activated the spell stored in the crystal by lightly stroking it and then sat down as well.

“There are some things that I have on my mind,” he began, ”I would like to expound them because they may explain my attitude towards Garush.”

Sgillin just nodded and lit his pipe, while Lereia smiled encouragingly.

“I would like to explain my behavior,” the tiefling continued. “You should understand why I acted that way - even if I have to admit that the insistence on the Styx Tea was a bit extreme. First of all, I want you to know that I am very much opposed to this we're all in the same boat attitude. We don't know that. We don't even know what role we play at all. And we don't know how many Chosen there are either.”

“I took it that we all have to work together somehow,” Lereia interjected. “Or at least that's how I interpreted it.”

Naghûl shook his head skeptically. “We don't know whether it's not even planned that we work against each other. Only one thing we know for sure: We are replaceable.”

“Yes,“ Lereia agreed with a sigh, apparently not particularly pleased with this thought.

“Therefore, I want to make one thing clear,” the tiefling emphasized. “First of all, there are only six of us in the same boat, namely Lereia, Sgillin, Jana, Kiyoshi, Morânia and me. And if information about one of us is revealed, it affects all of us.”

“Hm.” Lereia wound a strand of her white hair around a finger, as she often did when she was thinking. ”You mean it was no coincidence that we found each other, right?”

Naghûl raised his hands. “Well, at least you, Sgillin and I were sent to the house at the same time. And by a dabus. A dabus works exclusively for the Lady. No, it doesn't sound very coincidental to me.”

Jana, who had been staring into the water of the fountain without saying anything, now straightened up. ”May I say something about that?”

“Sure, Jana.“ Naghûl nodded encouragingly.

“Thank you,” she said with a somewhat forced smile. “Well, first of all, you're absolutely right: Of course we're not all in the same boat. I would not even say that for the six of us, so ... yeah. And that applies even more to Garush.”

The tiefling gave her a doubting look. He remembered that she had said exactly that during their conversation with the amazon, namely that they were all in the same boat. Once in his presence and a second time later, when he had already left. That was what Morânia had told him. Lereia also frowned in astonishment and Sgillin shook his head slightly, but said nothing.

“But the point is,” Jana continued, ”that we don't necessarily have to admit that to Garush. We can certainly act as if we were her friends and yet mistrust her and meet her with a wall of silence if we proceed skillfully. We would have, I mean. She could have been an invaluable source of information.”

Lereia turned her head to Jana and looked at her, openly confused. “Let me ask you something: Did you or did you not trust her the last time we met?”

Naghûl nodded, grateful that the young woman had phrased the question so directly but objectively. He himself had been on the verge of a sharper remark, but he held back.

“No!” Jana answered the question. “Of course not, not for a second. But actually, you should have been able to guess that, right?”

Lereia raised her eyebrows a little. “Then why did you take the risk of sharing a vision? And why did you agree to her knowing about your gift afterwards, if your plan was a wall of silence?”

“Yes.“ Sgillin nodded in agreement. “I find that a bit confusing too.”

Jana raised her hands. “Sharing the vision was ... careless and more than ill-considered, I admit. I thought I could control it, but ...” She shrugged. “And then it had happened and so it was pointless to deny it.”

Lereia crossed her arms and there was an undertone of annoyance in her voice. “Then my knowledge of human nature is worse than I thought. I assumed that what you said was meant that way. Naghûl and I almost had Garush out of the door, then the vision happened. And after that I didn't interfere because I thought it was your decision if you wanted to share it. If I had known that you actually didn't want to, I might have reacted differently.”

Naghûl sensed how Jana's words caused him a certain resentment, and he could only wholeheartedly agree with Lereia. But he also knew that if he went into this in more detail, it might lead to the next argument. “Whatever,” he replied, deliberately composing himself. ”It happened, and there's nothing we can do about it now. I just want to make it clear that we have to treat Garush with caution. And it's not so much about her as a person. I'd like to believe that she is completely sincere, but her faction is certainly not. Everything Garush learns, Mallin will learn as well. And let's not forget: Mallin arrested all of us to extort Sarin. I don't have to say more, do I?”

“Which I still find strange,“ Lereia interjected. “I thought they were allies.”

Naghûl shook his head. “Yes, but Sarin chose to cooperate with other factols, and surely with good reason.”

“Maybe he would have worked with Mallin, too, if he had known about Garush,” Lereia suggested thoughtfully.

“But certainly not with the Sinkers or the Dustmen,“ Jana said. “Or ...” She looked at Sgillin.

“I'm not one of them,” the half-elf replied curtly.

“Sgillin is Sgillin,” Naghûl came to his friend's aid. ”And that won't change. For my part, I will trust Sgillin.”

He put a certain earnestness into his voice and the ranger smiled. “Thank you.”

Jana's gaze was also serious as she scrutinized the half-elf. “No matter which faction you belong to, or if you belong to any at all ... You've betrayed us before, so ...” She shrugged.

“What?” Lereia raised her eyebrows and Sgillin glared at the sorceress. “Betrayed?! I didn't betray you at all! You'd better go eat something before you say things like that!”

Jana held his gaze. “You didn't?”

“I never mentioned your names or anything about you,” the half-elf explained emphatically.

“It doesn't matter if you mentioned us,” Jana replied coolly.

Naghûl took a deep breath as the conversation threatened to get out of hand again. Perhaps his wife should have come along in her role as a Cipher after all. But he tried to keep calm. “I hardly think that Sgillin ran through the Hive, shouting Hello, Golden Lord of the underworld, catch me!”

“No,” Jana replied, unyielding. “But he had the choice and could have remained silent.”

“I'll introduce you to Shemeshka when I get the chance and then I'll see how you remain silent,” Sgillin retorted resentfully.

She crossed her arms. ”At least I won't whine afterwards.”

“I didn't whine, I told you about it!”

Naghûl could sense that his friend was about to lose his temper. He wanted to say something, but this time Lereia intervened. “Jana, that's enough,” she said, composed but with a clear hint of annoyance. ”If you have a problem with this, why didn't you ever say anything? I mean, to Sgillin?”

“I did say something,” Jana replied, visibly miffed. “Back then, when it was brought up. And I certainly won't let myself be silenced.”

“You didn't say much about it,” Lereia objected. ”I mainly remember Naghûl and Morânia speaking.”

“But I did say something,” Jana retorted. ”Maybe not much, and maybe you weren't listening. But it doesn't matter. I don't keep telling Morânia that I don't trust her either.”

Lereia took a deep breath and leaned back, but when his wife now became the focus of Jana's attention, it was the last straw for Naghûl. “What does that mean?” he snapped at the sorceress. “Why don't you trust Morânia?”

“She's a paladin,” Jana replied curtly, as if that explained everything.

For her as an Athar, it probably did. But that didn't apply to all members of her faction, so Naghûl shook his head disapprovingly. “You should take a page from your factol's book, Jana.”

“I'm not my factol, though,” she replied snidely. “What are you accusing me of?”

The tiefling frowned. “I'd like to remind you that you are the one to fling accusations about like there's an Isaac's greater accusation storm.”

“Jana, which of us do you actually trust?“ Lereia asked. “And that's not a trick question now, I'm just worried about our group cohesion.”

The sorceress hesitated only for the blink of an eye with her answer. “I don't trust anyone, if you want to know exactly. ... The Great Unknown,” she then added cautiously. “Maybe.”

This statement was followed by silence. Jana's words were like a heavy, cold stone that she had thrown into a deep lake, creating ripples that drew ever wider circles.

“Not bad ...” Lereia murmured at last. She looked at the ground and seemed to be thinking.

Naghûl and Sgillin remained silent and continued to eye Jana with a mixture of disbelief and displeasure. When she felt the others' stares weighing on her, the sorceress stared into the water of the fountain. “It doesn't matter,” she said softly. “I guess I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I ... don't want to blame you for anything.”

“It's a bit too late for that now,“ Sgillin remarked snappily.

“By the Lady.” Naghûl sighed deeply. “I don't want to witness if you actually want that.”

“Yes,” Jana replied curtly. “Me neither.”

The tiefling took a deep breath, determined to keep calm. “I'll speak for myself and say that I don't see any betrayal in Sgillin's actions, just a bit of cluelessness ... maybe a bit much,” he added with a brief smile. “But we'll come to terms with that.”

Jana shook her head. “And I say that I trust him even less than the rest of you.”

“I don't give a shit,” Sgillin replied gruffly and shrugged. “Knock yourself out!”

Lereia looked unhappily from one to the other. “I find it deeply disturbing that one person in our little fellowship seems to have no trust in anyone. That hurts me and scares me, too.”

“I can't help it,” Jana said curtly. “And I don't want to either.”

Naghûl examined the sorceress with a skeptical look. “Jana, I see a burgeoning zealotry in you that worries me.”

“Burgeoning zealotry?“ The sorceress' eyes widened. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Athar, as you seem to become one, are the ones giving your faction such a bad reputation,” Naghûl explained without sugarcoating it. He was beyond soothing words. “Athar, who at some point will use bloody violence against worshipers of deities.”

“Bloody violence? I find that quite impertinent, to be honest! Have I ever launched threats against Sgillin?” Jana glared at the half-elf in outrage. “Do you feel threatened by me?”

“If you look at me like this, yes,” the ranger replied with raised eyebrows.

Stunned, the sorceress shook her head. “And you wonder why I don't trust you?”

“It's not about your mistrust of Sgillin,” Naghûl explained. “I can understand that to some extent. But I dislike your generalizations and they worry me.”

Jana waved it off. ”I exaggerated.”

“You mistrust Morânia because she is a paladin,“ the tiefling replied indignantly. “Those were your words.”

“There are different levels of mistrust,” the sorceress objected.

“To be honest, you're getting too complicated for me,” Naghûl said, increasingly annoyed. “Maybe you can express yourself in a more specific manner?”

Jana pursed her lips a little. “Excuse me for not fitting into your simple patterns.”

“Oho!” Naghûl's tone changed from angry to sarcastic. “Please, go on, more insults, Lost One.”

Jana stared at him for quite a while, then she tore her hair with both hands. “I don't want to argue with you, really.”

“But you're doing quite well doing exactly what you did not want to do anyway.” Naghûl's eyes narrowed a bit. “Have I expressed myself complexly enough?”

“I'm not saying anything anymore,” Jana defended herself, now much less offensive. “I just think I have a right to my own ... well, I don't have to trust someone just because I'm working with them.”

“Yes,” Sgillin said curtly, putting away his pipe. ”That's your right, and there's nothing we can do about it anyway.”

“But doesn't that go hand in hand in our particular situation?” Lereia objected.

Sgillin shrugged. ”But you can't force trust.”

“Of course, that's true,” Naghûl agreed. “And Jana has the right to express it. But she must also allow others to show little enthusiasm for her words in return.” He paused for a moment and then frowned. ”Help, I sound like a Cipher …”

Jana just nodded. “Yes, you do. And as for me ... I never asked for your trust, did I?”

“No, not really,” Naghûl said. “But somehow it's one of my simple traits to trust people with whom I literally went through hell and into whose hands I put my life. Just weird, I know.”

Sgillin nodded. “I also thought that trust would follow from that. But whatever the case, we won't get anywhere like this. So let's focus on our endeavor and how we will continue to deal with it.”

Jana sighed softly, and Naghûl had the impression that she was beginning to regret her words a little. Whether just the fact of having spoken them or also their meaning, he couldn't fathom, though. “I didn't say that I don't stand by your side,” the sorceress said. ”Or that I don't commit myself wholeheartedly.”

The tiefling was about to reply, but at that moment he noticed the two people who were approaching them. He felt his heart sink. It was his factol, Erin … and she was accompanied by Sarin.

 

--------------------------------------------- 

played October 12, 2012

For our group, this was one of our most memorable evenings. Even today, we still say from time to time: “Do you remember the evening when Jana dropped this bombshell?” (And the second part of the evening, which follows in the next chapter, also contributed to this.)