Mists roll into the camp and Gaenyn prepares to take his leave of the elvish visitors. One of them shivers in the fog, muttering about how uncanny it is, and the other asks whether the encampment ever has problems with undead attacks. He dismisses her concerns. “Our experiments may rouse sleeping undead from time to time. What of it?”
“Well, we know they can start fires,” Heppa says, not taking the question as rhetorical. It sounds to her like the magic done here has a side effect of disturbing undead, rather than that it actively seeks to control them.
“When you live in a forest, fire is an ever-present concern, as I hope you are well aware,” Tric adds.
“Folks like Donella over there,” Gaenyn says, gesturing at the large woman with the hefty spiked club, “quickly manage to put down any sacks of bones that wander this way.”
“Sure, bones and rotting flesh can be smashed with a mace,” Tric agrees cockily, “but how do you deal with a ghost?”
“Lightning,” Gaenyn replies succinctly.
Up until now, Tric has not quite believed the rumors, but that is indeed a good answer. “Does that work on skeletons too?” his cousin asks, mentally logging the new information. “I would think smashing would be better…”
“If you get in a good enough blast such that you knock them back, then they can shatter,” Gaenyn says.
“Ah, so they’re not especially susceptible to it. Good to know,” Heppa observes.
“Perhaps no more so than a living being, which would be considerably susceptible,” Tric adds.
“Well, there could have been something across the different magics,” Heppa says. “I don’t know.”
Gaenyn is not surprised. “There is much about human magics that I expect elves don’t understand.”
“Is lightning magic taught at Alduin?” Heppa asks.
Gaenyn’s replies with a bark of laughter. “No, those stodgy folks are set in their ways, only teaching what was decreed acceptable back in Haldric I’s time.” The elf is confused that a natural thing such as lightning would be unacceptable, and he clarifies, “We are not speaking of bolts that come from storm clouds.”
“Oh! I knew there was—” Heppa cuts herself off, clamping down on her excitement at this revelation. She has been wondering whether only necromancy was forbidden in human circles, and finally here is something else that is, though she cannot imagine why. “It seems like Alduin has a lot of rules,” she observes more calmly.
“At Alduin, they are… very limited in what they are willing to try. We here in the Society of Shadow, we dance between the dark and the light. And we retain our humanity as we seek that mystical balance.” Gaenyn’s voice grows wistful as his words turn philosophical and poetic.
“It just surprises me that lightning spells are considered forbidden,” Heppa comments, still grounded in practical matters.
“Maybe it’s considered too chaotic?” Tric suggests. “Although, compared to fire…”
Gaenyn shakes his head. “It is not the effect that is present in our material world that is at issue, but the manner in which one calls it to mastery.”
“There are different ways of accessing the aetherium than what they teach at Alduin?” Heppa asks, trotting out some terminology she learned from Kachen. “And your way is considered unacceptable at Alduin? It’s not the effect?”
“It is the pathway that the power courses through that those in Alduin believe corrupts in some way. They are wrong. It is the weak will of necromancers that leave them bound to their lich overlords. It’s nothing inherent with the magic,” Gaenyn says, as self-assured as ever.
This catches Tric’s attention. “Are there any among your number who prove to have too weak a will?”
“They are not among our number now.” Gaenyn almost sounds smug.
“But there have been, from time to time, presumably. Much like there are those who are too weak of will at Alduin.”
“Dropouts are a thing that all societies must face,” Gaenyn says uncaringly. “Culling the weak, is that not how nature works?”
“There is a regular cycle of things,” Tric agrees, though he feels Gaenyn’s words were a little harsh.
Heppa would love to get all the details on just how accessing the aetherium is different for this lightning case compared to the standard magic on Alduin, but Gaenyn shuts down her questions for the night. He cannot cram thirty years of magical experimentation into thirty minutes, and the fogs have already rolled in.
Once Gaenyn leaves them, the elves bed down for the night. Heppa is happy about the new information and scribbles down as much as she can in her map folio, including the names she heard Gaenyn say. She may be able to cross-reference those in her father’s library. As exciting as all that is, neither one of the cousins is particularly happy about the compromise they made to get the information. For her part, Heppa is not thrilled that future caravan raids will be easier for this group to conduct. But she takes comfort from the fact that, in the grand scheme of things, her father’s work against the undead threat is more important than these small local conflicts. If undead kill everybody, it will not matter how many caravans have been raided.
As for Tric, he would prefer his friends in the caravan not get hurt, and he has a few ideas in mind for how to accomplish that once Mate returns from wherever he has gotten distracted. For this night, though, they are under the watchful eye of Ulf. Probably if the elves were to try to attempt anything—like dashing off with the Book of Rhys during the night—he would get in a lot of trouble. At this point, though, the book is just a secondary concern. Thrandolil would like it, Tric is sure, but more important is whatever knowledge he and Heppa can bring back from here. At the very least, maybe when she talks with the scholars tomorrow, Heppa can learn something to help her interpret the Lay of Gritta. Thrandolil asked them to find out what they could about the Society of Shadow, and so far, what they have learned is that the group might be difficult to work with.