The Pretender Chronicles - Hepatoscopy and the Prophecy of the South

elendor - Monday, March 16, 2009, 8:49 PM

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Early Evening on Monday, Day 13 of June.

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Real time is: 20:00:32 MDT on Mon Mar 16 2009.

The Square of Judgement

An aura of dark foreboding hangs over this place. A huge gallows sits in the far western edge of the square. The apparatus dominates the square--a rope hangs ready. In front of the gallows, a tall whipping-post juts upward. The post is rough and scarred from use. You shudder when you envision the goings-on here--you can almost hear echos of the screams reverberating from the srurrounding buildings.

In front of the all the gruesome devices of death and torture, a series of lines are painted on the ground. Evidently, the area is also used for \'gentlemen\'s duels\' and training for combat.

Leading north and south from the square are several rows of shops and stalls selling all manner of goods. All around the periphery of this dark square are brightness and colors, scents, sounds and sights of the great Market of Umbar. Vendors shout out their wares to passers by in a cacophony of trade. Beyond the gallows to the west stands the impressive facade of the Guildhouse of Merchants.

The sky is clear and the sunlight shines brightly. The dusk summer air is very hot and dry around you. The moon is last quarter.

---

�As early evening begins to settle over Umbar, the Square of Judgement has been changed. Here, numerous stones are set up in a great circle, and in the center, a stone altar is laid.

������ There comes slowly up the street and into the square a melody of pipes and horns...

������� A procession. Yes, a procession is making its way to the square. First come maidens, dressed in black and red. Each carries baskets and in them are fruits of the vine, and bread as well. Their robes blow in the breeze and they carry a countenance of joy.

������� Following the maidens there comes two stout men. They lead two animals. First, is a great white bull. The second, a large black bull. Both of these animals seem content, knowing fully well perhaps that they march to join with the divine.

�And behind all this procession, walking with his staff is the bent form of the Prophet of the Desert, Zigur-Ziguran the Seer.

---

������� Su\'ad enters the square, with a few corsairs from Farside...and with Yussef, who is at her side so often that some think of him as her assistant. She is dressed up tonight for a good bull-killing, wearing a red tunic covered by armor, and over that a violet coverlet. Underneath all of this, she wears some completely ignorable brown breeches and boots, her sword at her side as always. \"Aha...here we are. I am not even sure, now that I think on it, that I know whose fortune he intends to tell. She meanders to a good vantage point near the gallows, where some fresh bodies still hang. These are ignored though as she finds a hard wooden seat on some equipment to be good enough. She pats the spot next to her and smiles at Yussef.

---

�������

������� Jugartha is already present, clad still in the dark robes of the desert dweller, though some acoutrements seem to be venturing out from the comfortable embrace of the shadows. Twin plates of pitted steel across the shoulder and dangling down like wings across the blades, held in place with a cinch of hide. The robe itself has been split between the legs to speed up movement in a land where the sandstorms are not so ferocious, revealing the tight black leather pants beneath, tucked into the cast iron riveted desert boots. Though still unarmed and armored, there are hints of armor now starting to migrate to the outside of his clothing. He doesn\'t carry any food with him, though a coconut shell filled with some noxious black tea like substance cupped in his palm.

---

\"There he is,\" Yussef says, settling on the afforded spot. The spear leans near at hand the youth swathed wholly in brown and black hues lifts a hand to point -- at the seer.

The wide-eyed glance, that lends him a somewhat nervous look, shifts from the procession to Su\'ad Captain: \"How was he to do it again?\"

---

�The maidens stop outside the circle. They will not enter, for the circle has been made sacrosanct and it is there that mortal Men may propitiate with the divine.

������� Pausing however are the men. They now wash their hands in bowls carried by the women, purifying themselves for this.

������� Zigur-Ziguran now approaches and espying Su\'ad he says in his dry and croaking voice, \"Captain, the hour has come. For this sacrifice, it would be auspicious if the Captain Su\'ad comes into the circle and abets with this event. Can you wield a stone axe?\"

---

�Another group of people arrive from a direction opposite the procession. In contrast, they are far less gay. A half-dozen Corsairs enters lead by Azradi anAzulada of Farside. She is dressed for a celebration of sorts. Though armed and armored. She wears in lieu of breeches, a long silken skirt of a golden hue. Her arms are bare save for a gold armband upon the left. Her hair is neatly brushed and unbound. Upon her midnight tresses rests a headdress of golden chains a single pearl of unsurpassed beauty dangles in the center of her brow.

---

������� Zigur-Ziguran sees now the Lady Azradi. He then speaks to one of the maidens softly.

������� This maiden now runs to Azradi and says, \"The Prophet desires the Princess of the Pearl to see him if she will.\"

---

�\"Certainly,\" smiles Azradi agreeably followed by two of her men, the three follow the maiden to Zigur-Ziguran.

---

������� \"Oh...who understands how a seer works? But I find it fascinating.\" Su\'ad answers Yussef in low tones, afraid to look away lest she miss something. \"He\'ll kill the bull...sss, I think, and then gain some sort of insight by...the shape or condition of their organs? I do not know. But I can just imagine him trying to moonlight in a butcher shop. He would be forever distracted with forebodings and predictions!\" Su\'ad laughs to herself, but then her smile melts off her face as the old man addresses her. After a moment, she shifts nervously and says loudly, \"I can, Grandfather.\" Then she looks at Yussef for a long moment, then advances to the middle of the proceedings with more purpose and confidence than she feels.

---

������� \"Zigur-Ziguran would like if the Princess and the Captain would propriate with him,\" says Zigur-Ziguran to each. \"For there are two offerings here. First, there is the black bull, and that is for the Captain. Second is the white bull. The white bull will be for the House of the Farside Tower -- for they have shown great kindness to Zigur-Ziguran. Let his offering also be sponsored by them.\"

---

������� Sipping at his tea, the southerner keeps his distance, and his counsel. An observer at this event, silent as a shadow, and motionless as something very still. Indeed, save for the occasional sip from his erstwhile tea cup he stays apart to observe. His body slanted, leaning back against a low wall, half seated, half standing, the sunlight, streaming between two close set buildings washing down across the back of his head, forming a long shadow extending like a phallus out into the square itself.

---

�������

�Two of Zigur-Ziguran\'s followers now come to both Su\'ad and Azradi. They bring to them great stone axes. They say, \"When the old man nod\'s, strike its head. Can you do this?\"

---

Yussef too laughs at the jest, if briefly. But that is his only answer the long look met. He but inclines his untroubled brow as she goes to do her part.

---

---

Glancing first to Su\'ad, Azradi smiles graciously at the old seer. In a clear voice, loud enough to carry to the crowd she says, \"House Azulada would will gladly sponsor this sacrifice along with Captain Su\'ad. We are grateful and pleased that Wise Zigur-Ziguaran holds such interest in our fortune.\"

Briefly, she glances back in the direction from which she came - as if looking for someone. Her attention is brought back by the approach of the men. She accepts an axe and replies confidently, \"Yes.\"

---

������� The Prophet now turns to the circle, and washes his gnarled hands in a basin of water. He motions for Azradi and Su\'ad to do the same.

---

������� Su\'ad accepts her stone axe, and finds it to be quite a bit heavier than she initially expected. It drops before she compensates. \"I imagine so. Are we splitting the skull?\" she quietly asks the assistant to Zigur-Ziguan.

---

������� \"Aye,\" replies the man to Su\'ad. \"Hit it straight and true. A quick death is a good sign from the gods.\"

---

Azradi washes her hands before she tests the weight and swing of her own axe. \"Skull then, not neck,\" she repeats to herself.

---

������� Su\'ad nods at this, and puts down the axe right on its head, handle standing straight up. She then moves to the basin to wash her hands. Then she dries them carefully, to prevent slippage, and picks up her axe once more.

---

������� \"Also,\" says the assistant, \"stand behind the bull when you swing. Very important.\"

---

������� Zigur-Ziguran now enters the circle and approaches the altar. He then turns and motions for the Su\'ad and Azradi to step inside the sacred circle.

������� Also now, the first bull is led in... the black bull.

---

������� His head tilting back, draining the last of the brew from his makeshift cup and then flinging his wrist, so the black liquid sprays across the stones that make up his little corner of the square. Tucking the shell back under his robe, Jugartha steps out from between the two buildings, meandering a little bit closer to where the two bulls await in blissful ignorance of what is to come. Sucking hard through his teeth, and then picking the stray leaves from between them, he rubs at his gums until his teeth squeak.

---

�Skirts swirling around her ankles, tall Azradi enters the sacred circle and reverently approaches the altar. She glances toward Su\'ad, uncertain which bull is to be sacrificed first.

---

������� Su\'ad lifts the stone axe with some effort, and moves inside the sacred circle as she is directed, though her victim lags behind. She tosses the axe up and down trying to get used to the weight, looking a little concerned.

---

������� Zigur-Ziguran motions for Su\'ad to step up and behind the bull. Meanwhile, one of the men lead the bull in front of the altar. Here, Zigur-Ziguran sets down a basket of grain. The bull passively dips its head and begins to eat.

�������

---

������� Su\'ad steps up to the black bull at the altar, as she is bidden, trying to find just the right angle for a good chop while still standing behind (and to the side. It is an awkward angle, to say the least, but she holds the axe up to her chest and stares at the point on the head she plans to strike, concentrating.

---

��Zigur-Ziguran holds up his arms and says, \"Hear Zigur-Ziguran, ye Lords on high. Hear great Lords of the Firmament and the World. Hear me most powerful one, the Lord of the Great Dark. This sacrifice today is to honour ye! For this black bull is offered by Su\'ad, Captain of the Saqrwa\'il. This white bull shall attest to Fates of the Farside Tower, the children of Azulada. Let good fortune smile upon her and may this liver be clean. I name the unnamed. The Master of the Fates of Arda. He whose spirit is imbibed in the very material and nature of life and death. He Who Arises in Might. The Giver of Freedom. Let Him witness this. Also too, shall we name the Seven, the Lesser ones who are in submission of the Great One. All are honoured, for they are the Powers that Move the world within and without.\"

---

������� Su\'ad glances over to the old man, his arms upraised in the air as he prays and calls down terrible spirits and the attention of great nameless beings. Its a little spooky, actually. But Su\'ad figures that once his arms go down, that is her cue. So she raise the axe high, holding it over her head and balancing it carefully. It is heavy.

---

With a firm grasp of his spear, so that his knuckles whiten leaning on it in fact, in spite of his decent seat upon which edge he is now poised, Yussef looks on with suspense, incredulous.

A voice somewhere over yonder in a mass of onlookers cries out:

\"You can do \'eh captain!\"

---

�Zigur-Ziguran nods to one of the men. He approaches the first bull. The black bull. In his hands he carries a basin of water.

������� \"Black bull. Great bull,\" says the Prophet. \"The Lords of the World make demand of ye for sacrifice. Your sinews and bones will waft to them, while we bound to earth shall join with them in a feast of your flesh. Will ye consent to the slaying?\"

������� Then the man next to the black bull pours water on his head. The bull moos and bobs its head.\"

������� \"So it is consented,\" cries Zigur-Ziguran. He lowers his arms and then nods to Su\'ad to slay the beast.

---

������� Jugartha folds his arms across his chest, the sleeves draping like curtains across his belly, streaming ribbons of black and red silk, but the steel bracelets that now bind his wrists, two links of chain still afixed, like the ancient manicles of the condemned rattling as he settles in to watch the sacrifice, apart from the Farsider\'s but keeping his distance likewise from those unaffiliated or bound to others. A single figure, solitary in demeanor and reality, watching, judging the proceedings.

---

�One can assume that it is mere coincidence alone that brings a newcomer into the square at this moment, as the desert seer orates and the Corsair captain lifts her axe. He arrives with a handful of warriors, armoured covered in blood from an all-too-recent battle, his likeness -- hidden by a veil -- well-known enough in its secrecy.

������� And coincidence it must be that Zigur-Ziguran calls upon the Great Lord Mulkher, and now arrives Alphros anAzulada, who has been known to call on Mulkher\'s name in fierce din of battle.

The Lord of Farside pauses at a distance, to watch the sacrifice.

---

Not in the inner circle, yet close enough to hear and see stands the woman Alimah. She stares in fascination, silent, not noticing the arrival of Alphros and his warriors.

---

������� Su\'ad is concentrating once more, arms over her head and the axe poised and balanced. She chooses her point of impact once more, and putting all her thought into that single place on the bull\'s head, allows the heavy stone axe to tip just a little forward, the weight of it being the only force in the beginning to bring it down upon the unwitting animal\'s head. But past a certain point, she suddenly pulls it downward, putting her own weight into it to give it additional force. As axe strikes bone, she grunts with the effort.

---

�

����

�And a great gush of red blood sprays up into the sky as Su\'ad\'s blow strikes home, crumpling the bull to its knees. Then Zigur-Ziguran, pulls forth a flint knife. He kneels and slits the beasts throat, but not before putting a bowl under its neck to collect the blood.

������� \"Well done,\" mutters one of the men to Su\'ad.

������� The men now bring forth the white bull and they motion for Azradi to stand behind it.

---

������� Dark eyes stare, witnessing death again, Jugartha manages a smile towards Su\'ad, though it was so quickly passed that were the Corsair not to be looking directly at the Southerner at that exact moment no hint would come of his approval. Studying the technique, and the practices of this seer and the fall of the great animal.

---

������� Su\'ad finds herself wincing, and releases the stone axe to wipe a fine spray of blood from her face. She stares at the blood wiped on her hand, then turns to watch as the old man prepares for the second sacrificing.

---

Having observed the death of the first bull, Alphros now moves towards the front of the crowd, gazing on in silence.

---

The sacrifice riveted Azradi\'s attention. But with the death of the first bull, her gaze lifts and seeks once more the direction from whence she came. She espies her brother and smiles at him.

Then she moves to her position behind the White Bull. Unlike Su\'ad, she does not heft the axe up in anticipation. But she does steady her grip on its handle.

---

�������

So thus does Zigur-Ziguran now turn to the second bull and he says to it, \"White Bull. Great Creature of the Earth, the Lords of the World make demand of ye for sacrifice. Your sinews and bones will waft to them, while we bound to earth shall join with them in a feast of your flesh. Will ye consent to the slaying?\"

������� Again the man with the water basin pours water on the animal\'s head causing it to bob.

������� \"So it is consented!\" cries Zigur-Ziguran. He now nods to Azradi.

---

�The noble Corsair lady lifts her axe. Azradi is tall and strong and yet even so, her arms show the strain of its weight - though she is more than able for task. Her native strength she uses to aim the weapon truly, leaving its own weight to crack the skull of the bull solidly.

---

������� And a second magnificent blow! Blood sprays up as the white bull collapses in its death with hardly a sound. Again, Zigur-Ziguran leans forward and slits the beast\'s throat, allowing the blood to collect in a bowl.

������� Now the old man turns back to the black bull and picks up the bowl of blood, he motions for Su\'ad to step before him

---

The Lord of Farside\'s expression doesn\'t change-- what little can be seen of it. He watches the blow fell the white bull, and the seer goes about his work. Then he watches his sister, and waits.

\"For what purpose do they do this?\" Alimah whispers to those around her, or perhaps to herself in general. \"Fate cannot be changed...\" She is near enough, perhaps, to be overhead by many, though the words are said discreetly and quietly.

---

������� Su\'ad wipes her face all over quite thoroughly...twice, and moves away from the black bull to stand before the seer. She looks him in the eye for a few moments, then her lips begin to move as she mouths...perhaps a prayer?

---

������� Lifting up one foot to avoid the splash of blood that arches through the air and lands with a splatter across the stone where he was standing. With the tip of his boot now encased in steel, he kicks at the floor of the square, as if attempting to draw sparks, but instead just smearing the bulls blood into a slow lazy spiral at his feet with the second death. One corner of his mouth rising, a sardonic sneer upon his face \"Maybe not to change, but to know.\" he responds to Alimah.

---

Blood bathes the anAzulada lady - swirling path of droplets from her face to her expensive silken skirt. She lowers the axe, glances once more to her brother, ere her attention settles on Su\'ad and the Desert Seer.

�

---

������

Dipping his fingers in the blood, Zigur-Ziguran now smears it on the brow of Su\'ad saying, \"Freedom, power, and blessing come to the Captain.\"

������� He sets down the bowl and motions for Su\'ad to take a step back.

---

������� Su\'ad does as she is bid, keeping her face impasive as possible.

---

������� The Prophet now gets the bowl from the white bull, and he approaches Azradi. He motions for her to stand before him.

---

Holding her head proudly, Azradi anAzulada stands before the old Seer.

---

Zigur-Ziguran dips his other fingers, the ones that have not seen the blood of the black bull, into the bowl and annoints Azradi with it saying, \"Freedom, power, and blessings to the House of Azulada.\"

������� He sets down the bowl and then motions for her to wait as well.

---

Inclining her be-pearled brow once, Azradi waits as asked.

---

�������

������� The Seer turns now to the black bull. The two men now take the bull and turn it on its side. Zigur-Ziguran cuts a long slit in its belly. He reaches in with one arm -- the arm that had touched the blood of the black bull. He then steadily removes the liver in one yank from the carcass. This he holds up to the moonlight and torchlight.

������� \"So smooth,\" says the Prophet. \"Zigur-Ziguran has seen few livers so clean.\" He cuts the outer flesh and peers at it with his corpse-like green eye and says, \"Favour is seen to the House of Su\'ad, so the omens tell. A tall tower will burn like fire, a swan\'s feather will fall. The curved sword cometh from the secret island -- whereby the Baroness of Amroth shall wield power by land and sea. For three long years this shall be, and then a choice shall be made. To return to the land of her fathers, or to find the doom for her that was laid.\"

You say, \"So the Fates decree.\"

---

������� Su\'ad\'s lips part as the prophecy is read, her chest rising and falling as she breathes deeply, perhaps excited, perhaps enthralled by the seer. When the old man stops speaking, there is a slight moment of awkward stillness, before she turns to the man and bows deeply. \"So says Zigur-Ziguran, so shall it be.\" she says, and touches her fingers to the blood traced on her brow in deference.

---

������� The prophet now turns to the white bull. He first washes off his hands as his men turn the carcass on its side. Here Zigur-Ziguran slits the flesh with his stone knife and reaches in. Yet now the liver does not so easily come to the Prophet and he pulls with his sinewy strength until at last it is freed.

������� Zigur-Ziguran holds the inner organ to the light and seems to gasp, for lo! It shines almost golden and reflective, a pulsing block of life that swims with nodes.

������� \"For a score of years Zigur-Ziguran in the desert sat alone,\" says the old Seer. \"Yet never has he seen such a thing. Never a liver so golden full.\"

������� He sets it down and cuts into the liver with his knife.

---

The veiled Lord of Farside lifts his brow as the seer delivers his prophecy. Yet still, he is silent.

�

---

Azradi\'s brow furrows as Su\'ad\'s prophesy is uttered. But she say naught, watching the rest of the proceedings with great interest - especially when the liver of the White Bull is pulled forth. She is rapt now.

---

A murmur passes amidst the watchers like sand waved to and fro in the waters.

\"How does he know that?\" Says one.

\"Inconceivable!\" Says another.

\"No wonder,\" Scoffs a third, \"Livers come scare in the desert!\"

---

������� The Seer now peers within the organ and his voice grows very strange. It sounds deep, of the earth and of the Darkness and filled with a power beyond the wont of his voice before. He chants, \"Thus does Zigur-Ziguran see a mighty King. A king of old come anew, to unite a realm by Land and Sea. The Princess shall be upon his left, a mighty shield, yet in his right shall be held by right, the proof of his royalty. A sword there was, a sword of old, worn by a noble king. A sword that was broken, but then reforged, but broken once anew. Seek the sword, the Sword of Kings, the Sword of Anarion, thence shall the rule of Numenor be rekindled and the line of Azulada shall come into its own. Look for the travelers of the North O King!\"

������� \"Thus do the Fates decree,\" intones Zigur-Ziguran.

---

������� Lifting one foot, Jugartha slams it down, leather slapping against stone, spraying globs of crimson ichor against the lower pants leg of his other foot. Teeth biting at his lower lip as he peers on with dark eyes, inscrutable in demeanor. He turns his head to look down the line of the other onlookers and smiling as he steps back and behind the crowd to slowly walk the length, pausing only long enough to lean in between two souls, his eyes studying the exposed money pouch dangling from the mans belt. A nod of his head, leaving it in place as he wanders further down the row and pushing through the crowds to watch the show. A furtive glance, and the southerner moves back down the road, this time reaching in to slice the mans pouch, walking quietly away to the rattle and tinkle of falling coins, a smile on his lips, stopping in time to hear the decree of fate.

---

Turning slightly, Alimah now catches sight of Alphros, and apparently recognizing the veiled man or else something in the man\'s stance causes her to bow her head to him respectfully for a few seconds. \"And these prophecies..they have meaning?\" she asks quietl.

---

Spell-bound, Azradi\'s gaze does not leave the old man until he has finished speaking. Immediately, she glances to her brother - and for long moments, she does not speak. Until: \"Grandfather. My brother has come. May he enter the sacred circle? It is right that he, the eldest, should offer you our House\'s thanks for this reading.\"

---

Zigur-Ziguran inclines his head to Azradi, \"So it shall be. Yet let the butchery commence.\"

---

������� Su\'ad breathes a sigh as she hears the anAzulada fate read. \"Well, that\'s a good fortune indeed...\" she says quietly to herself, then half-smiles. She looks back down at the butchered black bull, considering it. \"I\'ve only begun...\" she seems to say to it, then steps away from it...and the circle, assuming that the seer\'s assistants had some tasks yet to perform for the bull.

---

\"THIEF!!\"

\"Give back what you took or I\'ll rip you to shreds!\" One man cries out over yonder in Jugartha\'s path, wrathful needless to say grasping at the nearest handy fellow with large hands -- an innocent bystander, collatteral damage as it were. The reply is stammered, \"I-I-I ain\'t taken nothing, I swear it!\"

The exchange attracts a few eyes, but not so many as the proceedings and proclamations of the seer over yonder however.

---

Slowly, Alphros strides forward, nearing the bulls and the two Corsair women and the seer. He looks from one, to the other, and then inclines his head slowly, as if deep in thoughts that run more quickly than he can navigate.

\"You speak like the desert sorcerers of old, seer,\" the Lord of Farside notes, and perhaps there is uncertainty in his voice. \"But men often mistake trickeries for sorcery. I... I will read on this... Sword. And if you speak the truth, you shall be richly compensated.\" And never has there been more emphasis on the word \'rich\'.

---

������� Now the men light the fire and begin the butchery. First they begin with the organs. These are cut into strips and roasted so that the smell of meat begins to permeate the air. These are cooked rare and are brought to the direct participants: Su\'ad, Alphros, and Azradi to eat.

������� Also too the thighbones are cut and the sides. The meat is set to roast but the sinews, tendons and bones are kept and formed to makes a makeshift skeleton of the animals. These as one are set upon the hearth for this is the spirit of the sacrifice and given to the gods.

������� But soon enough, bread, wine, and meat are passed out to all as a celebration begins in the square.

---

�������

������� The Prophet kneels before Alphros.

������� \"Thanks to the King,\" says Zigur-Ziguran to Alphros. \"But Zigur-Ziguran does not desire riches. Zigur-Ziguran is a servant of the Fates. For twenty years he sat in the cave alone. Now the fates decree for him to come to Umbar. So he has come.\"

---

������� Mmm. Nearly raw liver. Su\'ad\'s favorite. You can just read it on her face...not! The Corsair never looked so reluctant to eat something in all her life. \"I shall need some salt, I think.\" she announces to the one who hands her her piece of meat. She takes a bite of the bloody meat as much for show as anything, then hardly waiting to taste it, she says, \"Mmm...yep,\" completely without enthusiasm. But the liver, like her fate, is hers to chew and swallow, whether she wants to or no. She takes a plate and finds a place to sit...and dine. She looks over to Yussef, beckoning him over.

---

������� Jugartha didn\'t take any of the coins, indeed, apart from opening a second entrance to the pouch, the southerner did nothing else. Perhaps a lesson taught, or just for his own amusement, but the coins are left to spill on the ground and fights to be fought by the belligerent as he folds his arms back across his chest, one wrist bent to scratch at the side of his broken nose, inhaling deeply as his chest swells with an inhalation. \"It\'s nice to know that people are going to do so well. What might have happened had the second bull been leprous. I suppose I\'m overly suspicious, but I suspect that would have been their fate regardless. It takes a very brave man indeed to tell a powerful man that he will fail, will fall or worse. But I\'m no prophet, and my time in the desert was for other purposes. So I doubt I\'m the one to judge.\"

---

�Alphros lifts a hand to the pendant that holds his cloak about his shoulders, and though his veil hides his face as always, as he gazes down at the seer there is something about him that is, for the first time, perhaps, filled with open... trepidation?

������� But the Lord pushes that aside, and nods slowly, gesturing for Zigur-Ziguran to rise. \"Perhaps then there are other things that will be of interest to you, seer, as a student of the fates. When the Emperor\'s throne is broken and the Council of Umbar is restored, come to Farside and I will show you the mysteries that lie below.\"

The liver is left waiting with one of Alphros\'s attendants.

---

������� In the cool shadow provided under the canopy of the entrance to a craftshop standing just a few yards away from the platform upon which the seer stands, a woman veiled in bright red colours has apparently been watching the whole scene unfold since the very beginning. However, it is not until now that she decides to move from her current spot and begin wading through the crowds, closer to where the free food is being given out. Her pace seems to quicken upon spotting where the source of these hand-outs lay, and the woman wastes no time in outstretching a hand to grab herself a plate of delicious, raw liver. After this is done, the red-garbed woman then proceeds to step closer to the seer, speaking out, \"You did a convincing job today.\" Her tone is slightly mocking.

--

Zigur-Ziguran bows his head to Alphros and says, \"Zigur Ziguran shall come upon command.\"

---

As called, Yussef comes.

\"You believe all that, Cap\'n?\" He says quietly, eyeing askance her, well... second sacrifice of the day.

---

\"Give it back I say!\"

\"I didn\'t take none!\"

\"Ooh, a florin...\"

So the argument proceeds.

�

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