LOREN
Neither Pim nor Phoebe had attacked Loren yet, so he’d still label this confusion as trending in the right direction. Then, of course, she explained that she was missing, well, any shred of evidence or proof; though he raised an eyebrow at that, as well as the comment about poisonous plants, Loren, wisely said nothing, perhaps the first smart thing he’d done this entire conversation. ”So you think the Spire holds the secrets to the origin of the blight, and with that last piece of information you can make a cure?” It seemed flimsy, but they might be down to such slim chances soon. Not quite yet, though, so Loren was safe from the Spire for now.Again Loren ignored the dark expressions Phoebe sent his way; her bark was way worse than her so far non-existent bite. Even Pim had so far proven a relatively docile guardian, no matter how fiercely he bristled. The pieces of information she laid out didn’t quite fit into the mold she was trying to force them into, but they painted an interesting whole nonetheless. ”Wait a minute.” He frowned and looked down at the ground as he let his thoughts percolate: he was operating under relatively incomplete information, which meant they moved almost glacially slow. For instance, he didn’t know who The Voice was, nor did he know its relationship to the Ascended, through form the way Phoebe was speaking it was a powerful being that had a special relationship to that race.
But a pretty scary picture started forming in his head. ”So we know the blight can affect even goddesses if they’re exposed to it. And we know the blight only appeared after The Voice did?” He hated how uncertain his own voice sounded, but there was no helping it. ”The Voice was exposed to the Ascended, and you say the Ascended brought it to the Greatwood?” And there was some connection between Ascended fluid, not that he really knew what that was, and the blight. The technical explanation went way over his head.
Even though he knew he was just reiterating what she’d said, he was trying to put the timeline together in his mind. ”And The Voice was trapped for an indeterminate amount of time, and we don’t really know what happened during that time.” Finally he looked up, very much hoping she’d yell at him again and tell him he was an idiot. ”What if The Voice is the source, but not because it’s deliberately spreading the blight. What if The Voice was the first victim?” Of course, she knew far more about it than he did, so he might’ve been completely off base.
Again, he very much hoped he was.
A beggar's book
outworths
a noble's blood
