Stardeep_ The Dungeons - Bruce R. Cordell [37]
Telarian nodded, saying, "My orders may seem counterintuitive, Commander. But, as I'm sure you appreciate, as a Keepet 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 Traitot 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 swotd, and if that did not suffice…
Telarian shook away the impulse. Not the most diplomatic of responses. But the commandet 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 Sildeyuit. 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, Statdeep 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 emetge 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, blooding 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 Btathtar's competence was unmatched. He needed Brathtar in his current role. Too bad force wouldn't secure him Brathtat's trust. Nor would truth-his plan spi-raled 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 ttained 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 tapestty of pattial 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