Episode 25: The Question

11... 12... 15.

15 Dusk Sages.

Walking on water.

Toward us.

Had I not been subjected to the exeriences I've had with my companions I probably would be staring with the same look of horror and amazement as the other Prill. I recognize one of them. Featherface, The-One-Who-Opens-Doors.

It's hard enough understanding the cryptic words of him/her/it alone. Now 15?

I prepare myself for the inevitable mental exertion to come.

Featherface asks us to follow them and we do. More out of relief that they weren't trying to kill us than anything else. We come to a circular hall lined with tall stone chairs, not unlike the scene we saw of the judgement of the Mad Sage.

Brought here for judgement? If only my woes had ended with the brown shower we'd recieved prior.

As it turned out, we ended up gleaning a lot of useful, cryptic, and altogether confusing information about the Dusk Sages, our current plight, and the Enemy. Again, I cannot help but imagine myself as a blind man trying to decide which of the voices he is hearing to trust.

Bottom line: Mana comes from the Dusk Sages. Kyo-Tee-Shee are the result of a Dusk Sage that attempts to resist the loss of its mana through involuntary creation (the Unraveling). The Enemy consume and annihilate mana, though for some reason the Kyo-Tee-Shee are able to harvest Mana from the Enemy. I would venture to guess that the Enemy somehow digest and convert mana or store it in some way. Though apparently, the Enemy can consume Kyo-Tee-Shee as well, and so we...

... must bind the Kyo-Tee-Shee to us so that we may ferry them to the enemy and have them destroyed. Great. After a night of the best and worst rest I've ever had we set about it. The other Prill asked me for permission to stay and learn from the Dusk Sages. Permission! Damn it, if I had the power to give and take permission from them I'd have told them to stay at the damned Chantry!

...But, that's just not my style. I told them that they should never seek permission to pursue knowledge and to make an effort to bring the lore they learn back to the Chantry. Hell, to Karia in general!

The ritual of binding was... gruesome. We summoned the Kyo-Tee-Shee and did our best to eat them, but only after they had eaten at least one full Dusk Sage.

I'm gonna say that one more time.

We LET them eat Dusk Sages, the mythical god-like teachers and very likely creators of Karians so that we could, in turn, eat them. Them being the Kyo-Tee-Shee. Ergo, a deceased Dusk Sage. So basically, we are eating DEAD gods, but only after they have cannibalized LIVE gods. I swear, the shit I end up doing on this trip...

Then the remaining Dusk Sages turned the ship into a SPACE ship and told us to take the fight to the Enemy ON the Wandering Star. Kiyoshi claims there's important info on the First Minds up there. The Dusk Sages says the Oni are there. Rei says that a scan she did from a Cheldrun ship indicated that the concentration of the Enemy up there is greater than anywhere on Karia.

They tell me to hang on and we rocket into the sky. Higher than a Vorax named Airhead, Una tells me.

I hope I'm not the only only thinking that beating the record of a being named Airhead does not sound like the soundest plans.