Emalia found herself walking briskly to the Jihad compound. She carried her pack with her and thought about Colin the whole way. At least now she was able to leave the house claiming the need for alone time. The last argument they had was over the ridiculous Vectorian invasion and the danger she had been putting herself in. Then, like an idiot, she had attempted to use what her father had taught her, telling Colin to swing his sword so she could encase herself in her power. When Thasmudyan had done it, he easily deflected her blow. When she had Colin swing at her... she ended up with a cut and an angry red welt the width of his broadsword. Luckily, he had turned the blade flat. Luckily, she was a healer. But the incident had served to knock her down a peg. She was shaken now about her ability to protect herself and her child, and so, after finding Grobnak's office empty the first time, she decided to go back - renewed in her conviction that the answer was action. "Enter."
The hissing voice from beyond unnerved her a bit, but Emalia opened the large oak door with confidence. "Greetings, Child," Grobnak said after removing the spectacles from his black eyes.
"Hello Grobnak. I have to speak with you."
"If this is regarding the matter with the fellow you were with last time, I have offered my apologies." Indeed, that was the whole reason Emalia had avoided Grobnak. After his attempt on Colin's life, Emalia felt unsure about Grobnak's motives, and uncomfortable about the two of them ever meeting again.
"No, it is not in regards to Colin. It's in regard to the Vectorian invasion. Something must be done."
"The Pax Faerunis, who would save the people of the Realms lies back and does nothing while Kefka runs over their people. Yes? This is the hypocrisy I spoke to you of once before."
"Kefka must be stopped."
"We are already in the midst of negotiating with Kefka, in the hopes of alleviating the taxes he levies."
It was a relief for Emalia to hear this, though it left her wondering the extent of the things she didn't know. The Jihad was negotiating with Kefka and she had no idea. Still, it was nice to know that the group she also considered family was making moves to stop the invasion. Still, her thoughts drifted to the people of the realms. "It's terrible. The people need to unite, but no one has made move to do so."
"And you think that the Jihad can unite them? We must operate in shadow, Child. The world at large believes us to be evil..."
"Well we must show them we are not. If we show the people we are not evil, more may join with us," Emalia claimed. It was a stretch, she knew it was.
"All that we do is shadowed by questions because of our beliefs. Our motives will never be thought of as 'pure'."
"Then why will we not operate openly and do something? If we get Kefka out of here, who could say otherwise? People couldn't possibly question our motives."
"And if we succeed, Child? What then? Will the Pax regain control and then attempt to remove us, as well? Or will another tyrant stand in Kefka's place?"
When Emalia heard Grobnak's chortling laughter at her suggestion that the Paxian's might look at them differently, possibly ally with them, she felt a bit crushed. Grobnak admitted he was willing to try, but as Emalia found out, his trying was different from hers. Her thoughts went to what Epson had said about Kefka, and as a last ditch effort, she threw it out to Grobnak. "Kefka has threatened unborn even! I won't let my child be taken if I refuse his taxes."
At last, a reaction. Grobnak's black eyes turned to her, and in them, Emalia thought she sensed shock. "Your child?"
"Mine, and Colin's"
It was not the reaction Emalia had hoped for, but it did spark a discussion about the events that had transpired between Colin and Grobnak. It then evolved into the reasons for Emalia's even coming back to see him. I'm almost ashamed to admit I came here to ask about assassinating Kefka."
"That task would be far too difficult for us to accomplish, I'm afraid," Grobnak hissed. "The lunatic is well protected."
Emalia knew immediately what an assassination of Kefka would look like to the rest of the realms. It would only serve to reinforce the idea of the Jihad as murderers, and if the Guardians only knew one of their own was thinking of assassination... it was something she didn't really want to dwell upon. Still, Grobnak continued. "We have attempted to make contact with Kefka. He has not responded as yet."
Emalia nodded, hoping that Kefka would reply. If so, she wouldn't have to flee in order to save her family. The subject then went to Nephesh, with Grobnak's asking how their journey had gone. "Did you find the answers you sought?"
"I was only told to seek out the Balefire Mountains...And that after much travel and peril." Emalia's head was bowed, but when she looked up, she was a bit taken aback. Grobnak's normally deep green skin was paled, his mouth was pulled into a frown. "Do you know where they are?" Emalia asked.
Grobnak merely nodded, and Emalia's heart lept into her chest. Suddenly, Kefka and the Vectorians didn't matter. Her search for herself was nearer now than ever it had been before.
"You do?"
"I do, I was born there."
Of all the incredible coincidences, Emalia was utterly unprepared for this one. She inhaled a gasp, her eyes wide with excitement. "Then, you can tell me how to go... I mean, how to get there."
"I have not been there since my youth, I'm afraid."
"Mountains do not move so quickly. Can... can you draw me a map or give me a bit of guidance?"
Indeed, Grobnak pulled out a piece of yellowed parchment. Upon it was a map, and gingerly, Grobnak placed upon it a red "X". "You must seek out the ruins of my village. It is a frozen wasteland filled with orcs and barbarians, and other... creatures."
"What should I do when I get there?" Emalia asked with a heightened voice.
"I can't tell you that. I don't know the exact location of the Temple you seek."
Emalia nodded, looking at the "X" again while Grobnak spoke, "Is it any wonder that I, of all people, would be called to serve The Apprentice, when I am the last of my people? And born of these very mountains..."
"You are the last?"
Grobnak nodded as he handed the scroll case to Emalia. She slipped it into her pack, almost wishing she could set off immediately. That soon changed, however. "Child, you have come closer to solving a great riddle than any other since before the Sunite left."
Emalia stopped, turning her puzzled eyes onto Grobnak's face. "... What... riddle?" The question ignored, Grobnak pulled out the ritualistic dagger at his side and indicated his request for Emalia to kneel. Slowly, she did, but her mind was reeling. Riddle?
Grobnak spoke in a voice of officiation, "It would be better for you to throw yourself upon this dagger than for you to betray your family. Do you still believe in this oath?"
Suddenly, all of Emalia's conviction left her. She was there, kneeling on the ground, a dagger to her throat at the question of loyalty. 'What Riddle?!?" her mind screamed. Her face suddenly flushed, her breathing quickened, she swallowed, and her mouth hung open. 'What Riddle!!!?' Emalia's heart pounded in her chest, the rushing blood rising to her ears like the movement of waves upon the sea. "I... I don't know that I can say that right now..."
Grobnak looked upon her, his face clearly angry. Emalia bowed her head, cowed by the look of anger upon the face above hers. "I'm sorry..." she whispered.
"The map, if you will."
Emalia's head jerked up suddenly. "But..."
"We will not send someone out in search of the Temple who is not certain where her loyalties lie. There is too much at stake."
Again, the question of the riddle resurfaced. First riddle, now 'we will not send someone out, too much at stake. "Wait, I undertook this journey to find myself. Am I to understand I was sent for other reasons now?"
"Did I not suggest that you might find your answers at the temple? It was the journey that was important, Child. Not the destination."
"Yet you mention a riddle. What is the riddle. Tell me."
"The location of the Temple."
Emalia stared at Grobnak, shaken inside as he spoke the next words, "I did not lie to you, Child, if that is what you believe." Indeed, she did think that very thing. She reached into her pack and held toward Grobnak the oaken case containing his map. "All this talk of loyalty and betrayal," she whispered. "I thought you were trying to help me. Now I don't know what to think."
"We are trying to help."
"Are you?"
Emalia let the case be taken from her hand. She watched Grobnak slowly set it upon his desk and he calmly spoke, "The Temple of Light holds the power to destroy the RoK and leave it for another generation, or to resurrect The Apprentice and bring about the Rebirth. Would you leave it in the hands of someone uncertain where her loyalties lie, if she was also a member of an organization who would undo what we are working for?"
Emalia's whole world dropped onto her like a giant sack of bricks. She had been completely naive, completely blind, and completely foolish. She thought of Dorian in Luskan and how worried she was about Emalia asking after Keldon, now... it all became clear. She had been used. This, however, she couldn't even voice. Her body was numb, her stomach clenched with the threat of losing its contents. Grobnak went on, "I suggested the Temple of Light because you did not know where you were going, and because you needed to take a journey. It was your idea. I only gave you a very small hint at a direction. I never imagined that you would come close to finding it. I only imagined you would come close to finding the answers you sought."
"Why, did I not know this then?" Emalia asked, leaning heavily now upon the cherrywood desk.
"It should be in the book I gave you, Child."
The book, the damnable book. The one she sifted through only lightly, the one she thumbed through and never bothered to *truly* read. She set the volume on the desk - too weak even to hold it. "What am I to do? If I find this place... I have betrayed one family for the other. To not go, I have betrayed this family in favor of the other... Am I not first a Guardian? Or... or..."
"We are prisoners first to the world, second by the choices we make, Child. Oft because the world thrusts these choices upon us."
"I don't know what to do..."
"You will find the Temple, and you will be the savior of a generation, or of a world."
Emalia's stomach again revolted. Suddenly, her trip meant nothing. Her aim had been predestined, and the weight of the knowledge threatened to destroy her. "Then... I cannot remain with my Guardian family... if I go forth... I... I will have to l...leave them..."
"No, the Guardians would also want you to seek out the Temple. But for their own aims."
"Is that not what you seek?"
"Both the Guardians and the Jihad seek to stop the RoK and save the world. We just don't agree about how to do it. The Guardians are still young. They have not seen the generations and the destruction the RoK has caused when it has been stopped once but not forever. They do not understand Ao's treachery. I truly wish they did, Child. Sadly, it is the nature of time that those who have seen the past grow fewer as time passes, and new peoples take the stage and overrule those of us who have come before."
"It seems my only choices are to refuse and bring anger to both families... or go... and let them each fight for themselves... I will not choose sides... no." Emalia stood staring at Grobnak, her face red. "Do you want me to go, or do you fear my loyalties or lack thereof?"
"You will go whether I wish it or not, Child. That is your destiny"
Emalia had never been so disgusted with the word 'destiny' as she was at that very moment in time. The thought of having no choice, at least that she felt was of her own to make, sent her into reels of irritation and self-loathing. No matter what, death would be arriving in the realms, it only seemed that now she would be the one bringing it. She thought of her child, a poor child doomed to a world where the fate was bringing down the RoK early and possibly coming back, or having the RoK most likely fall altogether. She wanted to cry, but her soul seemed frozen.
Grobnak then spoke of a plane where she could go, where time flowed differently, where she could have her child, and be spared. This, however, only sent Emalia into a deeper chasm. Leave all she knew to spare her child? It was unacceptable.
She had made up her mind then to go to Jayden. He always knew what to do, it seemed, but this idea was thwarted soon after she mentioned it. Grobnak had a point, "There will come a time when you must choose, Child. I will not force it upon you, but I suspect that they will. As before, they will force this choice upon you, as they always do. I am sorry."
Oddly, it made some sort of sense. "Perhaps... you are right..." she whispered. "We are prisoners first to the world, And second to the choices that we make."
Emalia walked out, her steps sluggish upon the ground. Her boots caught on what felt like every branch and limb, every leaf seemed to hold her back. She truly did want to cry, but she couldn't. She felt more alone now - with a child in her, a loving companion, and two families - than she had ever felt in her entire life in the forests of Haon'Dor. Inside, her heart trembled... she was alone and the only thing it seemed that was ready to guide her way... was destiny.
