Listen

When I left Beo's wagon that day I took with me the mysterious black feather that he had pulled from my shoulder. The black feather that had once been a dagger. It was now stained with my blood .. and I did not wash it clean. There was a clue there ... I just was not sure what it was.

I was disturbed. If she was powerful enough now to reach me in my dreams .. if she had grown fearful of my growing power enough to try to kill me ... I had a decision to make. I could ... as the voice of the Black Mask ... have her taken. But I can still smell the blood on the inside of my mask .. my father's blood ... I am in no hurry to fall into the same traps he did. I also have no desire to start more of a war with the Clan than I all ready have. I do not want them to fear me. Some of them are undecided as to which one of us is right .. some of them are even thinking she is though they will not speak out against me in this. If I silence her this way the question will always remain unanswered as to whether I was fair in my dealing with her. They have no idea what she has done to me .. what crimes she has committed in her zealous attempt to manipulate me in the craft. I know .. but I have no proof to offer anyone. No I can not use the Black Mask to solve this problem .. it will only make a bigger one.

So it is left to me to fight this war as I have been. Within the craft .. within the dreams. I must find the signature knot. I must discover the sevens. I can go no further in my quest without the lance. And to find the lance itself is turning out to be quite an involved sub-quest. I get lost in it when I try to think about all of it at once. I had to piece it out and take it one part at a time.

That night I ate at the fires of my wagons and Beo and Valerie joined us there. Date brought us bowls of meat and there was fresh milk. But before I could finish the meal Valerie rose and trotted around the fire to take my hand .. and she led me passed the wagons .. passed the bosk ... out onto the plains and we walked without a word between us until there was a great expanse of forest that stretched across the horizon. Then she turned to me and from her lips dripped molten fire that poured into her palms and danced from her fingers to the grass at our feet.