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Moira's Diary

Chapter 9 (11th May 2001 CE *)


At the Keep - dawn.

Father finds a door to a chamber under the font, and disappears inside to investigate, leaving the rest of us to deal with the outer world. Carsen returns, and says he needs to speak with Father. He's killed the barbarian army's leader outright, and their 2 IC is happy to fight Carsen for leadership of the army. Carsen acknowledges he's not up to it as the 2IC is pretty strong; he's wondering if Father would be willing to do it. An answer is needed by sunset.
Torrez returns. Michaela nearly wrecked his efforts with the other, hi-tech army. He says she is too impetuous and has now gone off somewhere. Torrez has spoken with the leader of the army, whose name is Mandor. He is from the Courts. He's solely after the wine in the Keep's wine cellars, and says he has no interest in the Keep's power. Torrez says he should be happy to desist from his siege if we give him the wine he's after.

I say I'll go down and report to Father, and Torrez can stay and look after things up here. He 's not happy with this, and asks who died and made me queen ? Did he have a problem with the suggestion I ask? Then ok, he can go down into the font of power and talk to Father, and I'll stay up here. He seems a bit shy about this, and backs off, protesting. I pointedly ignore him and turn away to walk up to the parapets to survey what's happening. When I get there I see Father already there ahead of me. Odd, as last I saw him he had gone down into the rooms beneath the Font.
I walk on up there anyway. Father extends an arm to embrace my waist, and I lean comfortably into the curve of his shoulder as I have done before. He gropes me. I return it. I ask him some leading questions and comments, which he fails. Confirming my suspicion that this isn't Father but rather someone in his guise. He admits he's not really convincing me and I reply no, not really. He shifts form and becomes Loki, my beloved. He wants to show me now the thing that he didn't get to show me before. I agree, but that I need to report briefly to Father first; then we can go. I go and talk to Father, and then go back to Loki. I meet him in the courtyard. I vault up onto a big black stallion; he has a paint horse. We hell-ride for days. We arrive at last in a valley, then through a canyon to a cave entrance. We dismount. We enter the cave, Loki leading his horse. There are sounds of earth moving, steam, the smell of sulphur and the sound of wind blowing in one direction and the other.
What is this place ? I ask.. Loki replies that it is the home of his friend, who will kill his father Helgrimm. Two large yellow eyes stare at me, about 2' apart and 3' off the ground. This is the source of the wind noise - it's breath in and out. It is the head of a huge wolf with iron-like fur. It is the Fenris-wolf. It and Loki appear to be on good terms. I ask Loki if I can approach it; he says yes. I move to go forward and the beast growls. I stop, and bow to it (I figure good manners can't hurt, and it is rather huge). I slowly extend an arm for the beast to sniff for my scent. It creaks forward, sniffs me, then grabs my arm in its fangs, lifts me up and shakes me. I fly off, and hit the ground, my arm severed. I scream (not surprisingly). Loki is concerned for me (so he should) and helps bind my stump. We leave. I ask how he found the beast. He says he came upon it in this shadow. It was imprisoned in the cave.
As we travel back to the Keep Loki asks if I think there would be a place for him with Father ? What is the line of succession ? I warn him off my brothers, that I wouldn't take it kindly if anything happened to them He looks disappointed.
When we return to the Keep Father is still sequestered. Torrez says that Father says to simply hand over the wine to Mandor and make an ally. He'll go out and fight the barbarian army's 2IC before sunset. I ask him if the wine's been handed over yet - he says that it's underway. I say that he seems to have things well under control - I'll go down and start work on researching the Font.


* Note: CE = Chronology of Earth

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