The rest of Alric’s visit with Heppa goes smoothly, which is a surprise to Heppa. For some reason, her mother never takes her to task over defying her. It is late in the evening when Heppa returns from dropping Alric back off at the Parting Glass. On her way back to her house from Butterbell’s stable, a somewhat morose Tric finds her. He tells her a crazy story about what he and Penna discussed in the kitchen during the large family dinner. Thinking it is a joke, Heppa laughs.
“Look, she cornered me into saying what I had to say,” Tric says obliquely, still not wanting to articulate anything with finality. “And she eventually agreed that if we need to do what we need to do to stop your father, she supports that. I don’t want to do that. But I also really don’t want him to be a necromancer.”
“No really, what did you talk about? She just chewed you out, right?”
“Well, yes, also that,” Tric admits.
“That seems more believable,” Heppa says. “So… ‘do what we have to do’? Like what?”
“If he’s trying to raise corpses,” Tric says slowly, forcing each word out, “how do you feel about that, Heppa?”
“Is that a trick question? I’d like my father not to raise corpses, thank you very much.”
“But what are you going to do to stop that from happening?” Tric presses.
“We’ll just have to blow up Mal-Ravanal’s lair so that there are no corpses,” Heppa says.
“You and I both know there are corpses everywhere.”
“I think he’s just interested in the one.”
“I hope it’s just one,” Tric says, voice shaky. “But I have a feeling that with necromancers, they can’t have just one.”
“Something’s off,” Heppa admits. “When you said what you did at dinner, he didn’t even blink!”
“Maybe he’s doing better?” Tric suggests, but his words lack confidence. “I don’t know.”
“One, he asked for the circlet. Two, he didn’t even blink at the mention of Anador. Oh, and three, Alric and I found a third skull in his office.”
“Moss below… Look, you know your father best. You will know if we have to do… You will know if it comes to that. I think you’re the only one who can know for sure,” Tric says.
Unwilling to bear that responsibility, Heppa suggests alternatives. “Maybe we need to find a way to undo the memory magic.”
“There’s an idea… a dangerous idea,” Tric murmurs, mulling over the possible repercussions.
“If he’s trying to go down this route, it’s got to be by accident, unless it’s the memory magic. I mean, that can’t be good for him!” Whatever is going on, it is ultimately Penna’s fault in Heppa’s opinion.
Tric shrugs, “I mean, I agree, but I don’t actually know. Still, it’s going to be your call when we’re out there on the battlefield. Because you know him best.”
Heppa shakes her head. “This is all just conjecture! We don’t really know.”
“I think we have a lot of evidence, too,” Tric objects. “I think we have a lot of experience that has given us a lot of knowledge,” he adds, using Thrandolil’s own saying against him. “It’s not knowledge we necessarily want to have, but it’s knowledge we do have. I don’t want it to be true. I don’t think you want it to be true. But we need to be ready if it is true.”
“We’re not hurting Daddy,” Heppa says quietly.
“What if someone else did it?” Tric suggests. Heppa presses him for what he means by that. “If it came to it, and he needed to be stopped but could not be halted, someone else could.”
“Nobody is hurting Daddy,” Heppa declares more firmly. “That’s my call.”
“What if he’s hurting other people?”
“Nobody’s hurting Daddy. He’s not going to hurt other people. We’re just going to have to stop him from doing that.”
“Let’s hope he doesn’t,” Tric says, realizing he will not be able to get his cousin to agree to any firm course of action. He flips up his hood and slips off into the forest night, brooding over the trials ahead.
Fin