Main Plot, Chapter 2

[Angmor]

"You have to hand it to Straethir," The man beside him said wryly. "He sure knows how to throw a party."
Taraak nodded, hardly able to disagree. While he had never actually been to a party in the traditional sense of the word himself, he could reasonably say this was one of the strangest gatherings he had ever seen.

It had been almost four weeks since the disastrous peace-summit in Feinster. Since that time, Taraak had been very busy, even more so than usual. Since few others where in doubt about whose fault it was that the Summit had failed, it had fallen to him to investigate the forces behind the violent explosion that had triggered the whole fiasco. The leads he had were tentative to say the least, but after a long and rather interesting chase, he began to uncover some disturbing facts concerning the identity of the bomber, facts which suddenly cast the events of the summit into an entirely different light. After conferring with several other spies of the Varden, they reported that they too had been finding interesting revelations that when put together, made for a rather chilling picture.

However, there had been little they could do with this information. Since she had escaped the melee of the summit, Lady Nasuada had been adamant in her assertion that the entire incident had been devised by the Empire, holding it as further proof that they could not be trusted, and would not listen to any arguments to the contrary. However, Taraak and the other spies found a sympathetic ear in the form of Rider Kyemen Straethir.
He too had thought the events of the Summit didn't quite add up to an Imperial plot, and was soon as convinced as they were that something was very wrong. Not only that, he had also come up with a plan to do something about it.

Over the next several weeks, Straethir had compiled a list of names from the intelligence dossiers that Taraak had smuggled into the Rider's quarters. Straethir then had the Varden intelligence community very busy, delivering covert messages to every person on this list, Varden and Empire alike. These messages, distributed with utmost secrecy to the recipients through such methods as reverse-pickpocketing and leaving them on pillows, were all the same message, written out by Straethir in neat runes:

The events of the summit were merely the tip of the spear. There is something much deeper going on, and the very survival of our world may depend on it. Just look at the edge of the Guarding Forest or check on the Empire's food-stores if you do not believe this to be true. The Varden and the Empire cannot afford to fight one another while this taint continues to lay waste to our land. You have been contacted because I believe you are one of the few who is able to lay aside prejudice to combat this common threat. Our leaders can no longer be seen to act together, therefore we must act without their knowledge. This is why you have been contacted in secret like this, and why I cannot go into detail here.
There is a large plateu just south of the imperial village of Melian. If you wish to know what I know, travel in secret to its western side after sunset on June 3rd.

Here they were signed by Kyemen, and underneath this, strangely enough, was the more flowing signature of Malandra Ramakrishna. Taraak smiled to himself.
There was an interesting story about he and Straethir had gotten her approval on this...
"That's the last of them!" Called a voice from across the dell, snapping Taraak out of his reverie.
He was standing in a large, bowl-shaped hollow atop the wooded plateu above Melian, the chosen location for this clandestine gathering. The bright full moon overhead provided the only illumination on the small knot of people on one side of the dell, some standing nervously in small groups, some standing calmly apart, surveying the proceedings with varying states of interest. There was even a few dragons present, their scales glinting in the silvery light as they moved. None of them gave Taraak much notice as he stood silently aside, practically a shadow himself with his cloak wrapped around himself like a black shroud.

The procedure had been fairly simple. As people started to arrive by various conveyances at the foot of the plateu, they were met by one of the Varden spies and told to follow. One by one or in small groups, the spies led them through a magical illusion that Straethir had set up and up a narrow pathway, arriving finally at the dell, where they were met by Kyemen himself. Now at last, the final person on the list had arrived. Taraak was rather surprised by this. He felt sure that at least some of them would not come, but it seemed that Straethir, in that odd mix of niaevete and intuition he possessed, had come through again.

The elven Rider took a step forward toward his newly completed audience, his typical grey clothing rendering him to little more wisp of smoke in the moonlight. His dragon Sierthra stood behind him, her cloudy green outline made difficult to discern by the green background of the trees. Really, the only person present who was not reduced to a wispy shadow was Dr. Ramakrishna, who stood a few feet removed from Kyemen, watching him with an inscrutable expression on her face. As usual, her attire was brazenly sensual, making her practically glow in the dark like something out of a trashy romance novel.
Just the way she likes it, no doubt.

[/Color] Taraak thought to himself, feeling his lip curl in disgust. One of his many duties since the summit had been researching some of the many Imperial personalities he had seen there, with Ramakrishna being one of the primary targets. There was a definite trademark of chauvinism about her, an attitude that Taraak found vulgar and repulsive. For the moment though, she merely stood impassively in the background, watching Straethir speak.

"Thank you all for coming." The elf said quietly, probably using a spell to make sure that his voice was heard by all without carrying beyond the dell. "It shows a degree of courage that is all too rare right now. I would imagine that I don't need to go into a lot of detail here, as everyone knows what is happening out there. And everyone here has either heard what happened at the Peace summit, or were there themselves." Several heads nodded in the assembly. Taraak knew it might have been his imagination, but he thought he might have caught a quick flash in Ramakrishna's black eyes. While her artificially flawless face held no sign of the neat maiming Kyemen had given her, her hair was still cut a bit shorter than she had worn it at the summit.
"At first glance, what happened there seems pretty straightforward," Kyemen continued. "Our hatreds boiled over beyond the point of control, and we reverted back to what we usually do in each other's presence. When I thought about it a bit more, however, it became more and more clear to me that something isn't right. Many questions occurred to me, as I'm sure they have to many of you. Who was it that threw the bomb that started the whole thing? Who sent him? Why did he do it? I think we can all agree that with this taint on our land, further fighting serves no one. What is the point in fighting for Alagaesia if Alagaesia is dying?" Straethir was silent for a moment, letting it sink in.
"I appreciate your sense of the dramatic, Straethir, I'm sure this has occurred to everyone here." Rang out the voice of the imperial scientist Remy Kamenwati.
"Aye knife-ears," Spoke in Nemo Ramsey, in a tone of voice just loud enough to make everyone jump. "Get to the bleedin' point. I did'n get hauled out here in the bloody middle of the night just to 'ear things I already know."
There was a murmur of agreement. Straethir raised a hand for silence.
"You're absolutely right, thank you Nemo. What some of you may not know is that I pointed out these unanswered questions to Lady Nasuada, and she rejected them out of hand. So we, some spies of the Varden and myself, started to investigate without her permission. What we found is... disturbing to say the least. I am now going to have speak one of the people who actually gathered the information about to be shared with you." Straethir turned, looking directly at him. "Taraak?"

Taraak had been dreading this moment for some time now. It had been agreed beforehand that since he had gathered most of the intel, he should be the one to speak. Or at least, it was agreed by everyone else besides him. With the instinct of his profession, he felt the eyes of the group all turn to him at once, probably seeing him here in the corner for the first time. His stomach churned unpleasantly. For a spy, being the center of attention was about the worst thing that could possibly happen, and Taraak was sure that the rest of the spies were quite happy with his being chosen.
Well, screw them. I'm not going to give them any satisfaction.[/Color]
On the strength of that thought, He strode forward, hearing Straethir muttering under his breath.
"Well," He began, then stopped again. He had the oddest sensation that his voice was being siphoned away, like it had been lost to a great wind. Apparently, Kyemen had fit him with the same spell for augmenting speech. At least now he wouldn't have to shout, but still... weird.
"Well, for those of you who didn't know this, I was one of the people who chased after the bomber after the explosion at the summit." He began again, a bit more confidently. "We... Or that is, Za'lyyr and I, managed to track the man into the east courtyard of the palace, trying to escape over the wall there. When we finally caught up with him however, the bomber was dead. Beheaded by some kind of very sharp blade, probably a sword." There was a stir through the assembled listeners at that. Apparently, after Za'lyyr had reported back, Galbatorix hadn't seen fit to make that sort of thing common knowledge. Taraak smiled despite himself.
"We can only assume," He went on. "That he was killed by the people who had been there to aid his escape. That in itself should raise some questions. After the Empire left Feinster and things had cooled down a bit, I questioned everyone that I could about the identity of the bomber. Turns out, the man's name was Kirth Felding, a fairly competent mercenary from Dras-Leona. He had been hired by Lady Lorana to do some bodyguard work, and he had been stationed near the balcony above the great hall during the summit, at his request. After that, I started to dig around at some of Felding's old haunts in Dras-Leona, questioning his old associates as to his recent activities. There I was attacked several times, which led me to think I was on the right trail. Eventually, I learned of a meeting between Felding and four others, a meeting in which Felding received a very large amount of money. I discovered the names of three of the others, and got the description of the fourth. This, however, is where it gets interesting. These four men have no connection whatsoever with the Varden or the Empire. They are all prominent members of the Thieves Guild. What’s more, after that meeting, those men have not appeared again, almost as if they vanished off the face of the continent. Now, one question immediately arises; If the Empire did not hire Felding to throw that bomb, and if the Varden did not hire him, then who did?"
There was silence for a moment, during which time Taraak made his way back to his corner, relieved to have presented a question interesting enough to get people’s attention off of him. He had said his piece, now it was time for Straethir to wrap up.

“Alright, we get it, there is something weird going on.” Came a voice that Taraak couldn’t identify. “What’s your point in all this, Straethir?”
“My point is very simple.” The Rider replied, taking the floor again. “We all know the stakes here. The Varden isn’t as blind as you might think. We know of this famine that the Empire is trying so hard to hide. Eventually even the meekest of citizens starts to wonder where the food is. And many of you elves might not know this, but Islanzadi has written up plans for the evacuation of Osilon. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’d call that pretty serious. Not only is the plague threatening to kill us, there also appears to be a mysterious third party that is determined to make sure that it does. And there isn’t much that the Varden can do about it, when Nasuada refuses even to see what’s happening. And from what I hear from Dr. Ramakrishna, it’s not exactly a popular idea in the king’s court either. The summit has shown that our governments cannot be officially seen to work together. Therefore, we will have to work together unofficially. Dr. Ramakrishna and I have agreed to set up a network for exchanging information in secret, in order for us to find a way to fight the infection together. But that won’t really be my part. I myself am going to try and track down these people that seem determined that we do not work together, find out who they are, and why they are doing this. But there is only so much that I can do alone, with Nasuada looking over my shoulder. The reason we have called this meeting with you is to find out who is willing to help.” Straethir looked out at the assembly, seeking the eyes of each face in turn in a way that almost made Taraak shake his head at the over-dramatic-ness of it all.
“Who is with us?”[/size][/blockquote]


Ok, basically, this was an in-character announcement. All those people who were in the crowd was, well, all of you. This is a rather neat way to tell the story, while keeping it all open-ended. If someone wants to join late, they can say that their character was at this meeting. It also helps if someone has to leave suddenly and we have to hush it up. Please, don't respond to this post In Character.

Well, I'll either leave it to Emma to describe the threads we're actually going to do, or I'll wait until tomorrow, because I really have to go to bed. Stay tuned!