After the Troll: Rhori and Paris.
As Anton and the others worked at reducing the troll pieces to charcoal, Rhori paused a moment to regain his breath. He noted when Paris stood and stretched a moment after her session crouched over Kenneth and Mia's bodies. Mia was going to be ok, the big ranger noted. Slowly he made his way over to Paris.
"We need to talk, Paris," Rhori panted. As she looked at him questioningly, he nodded to a more distant wall. "Over here. Away a little." Silently the female fighter followed her big friend. He slumped down, back against the wall, and she realized they could keep watch over the others and down the corridor from there but were not likely to be overheard if they spoke quietly. Clearly Rhori wanted to talk privately.
"I think I've figured out why you're so sad, Parris," Rhori said with sad triumph. "You are going to be made a lady knight and you don't really want to be, do you?"
Paris bit her lip and gave Rhori a warped sort of smile. "I think I have wanted all my life to be a lady knight, Rhori. Back when we all were still in Jouet, before the changes happened, when I was still just a farmer, I used to watch when the occasional knight or armed fighter rode through our village. I don't think they ever even looked at any of us. Jouet wasn't big enough to notice. But -- back then -- I wanted to be one of those knights. I wanted to be like the knights in our padre's storybooks. Genelle and I used to read about them. Rescuing people and fighting wrong and being brave and noble and good. I wanted that." She looked away from him and her voice dropped. "But there is a lot more to learn than I ever thought there was. And I just don't seem to be learning it. I just don't seem to be good enough."
Rhori looked confused. This was not what he had thought. "I know about learning," he commented comfortingly. "It is very hard work. I don't learn very well. But I don't understand what you mean by good. I am not very good at learning, but you like to learn a lot. What do you mean by good? Not good at something or not good good?"
Paris looked ashamed. "Both, Rhori. I do not seem to be learning what I was sent to learn. The Prince, my teachers, say there are things I must learn. But I am not. So I am not good at learning. And that may be because I am not good enough to be a knight."
Rhori, earnestly, "I don't think you mean you are not good good. You are the most good person here. You are more good than the person who is a priest sort of. But I know about learning. Before my father got et, the wheels that turn the wheel that makes flour sometimes got broken. I would work and try but I never could get it fixed when he was there and watching. I never could. But when he was drunk and the wheels broke, then I could fix it. It had to be fixed and I did it. Maybe you have this prince always watching over your shoulder and that is why you cannot do it right? Was there a test that you had to take, like we had in school? Did you fail?"
"Oh, Rhori," Paris shook her head unable to think of an explanation that would make sense to the simple giant. "Yes, there will be a test -- in many things. One will be a test of arms -- fighting. I am already good enough to pass that test, I was told. But they will test the other things that are part of a lady knight. Like leading a group." She looked with discouragement at the others scattered around the cavern. "And I fear that I will fail those things. It is very important to the Prince that I become a lady knight. He will be in trouble if I do not, I think."
"It does not matter if the prince will be in trouble," Rhori said stoutly. "It matters what you want. You are going to be important. You are going to be the most important one of us. You will be one of the people who will tell the prince where he must fight hardest, where the biggest dangers are. You have been to Tarot twice and that is important. You understand about the gates and tears. I do not understand. I will be one who is told where to go to fight the bad things, but you will help the prince tell people like me where to go. It is easier, I think, with trained people. Not a group like this." He gestured to the others in the cave. "These do not work together and maybe never will. But you have them working on this -- thing we do for the prince. Going to islands here and there. I do not understand that but you do. You need to not do it all yourself. The prince sends out good people to do the things he needs to have done. He does not go himself." Paris found herself nodding agreement. "If you are to help tell the others what it is best to do, you should not go out front where you will be hit and not be able to do anything for a long while. You should look at us. I am bigger than you. I am really good at hitting things and things do not hurt me like they do you. I cannot tell people what to do. They do not listen to me. If you are down or killed because you stepped in front of a wraith, then I am in charge and I cannot make them listen. So we all will die. And it will be your fault that we are dead!"
Paris looked away again. "You are right. If any of you get hurt or killed on this quest, it will be my fault. I accepted their help." She looked back at the big youth as he shifted and noticed the arrow in his arm. Rhori's eyes followed hers and he, too, noticed and wrenched the offending object out. Paris reached out; her healing glow suffused the wound.
"No, Parris," the ranger argued, "That is not why it is your fault. You are just sortof in charge. You are not really in charge because these people are here for their own reasons and not because you 'accepted their help'."
"You should not argue with me about who should go in front, Parris." Rhori resumed his thesis. "No one will think you are a coward if you do not. Well..." he amended, "perhaps Anton will call you a coward but that does not matter. He might call you a coward if you were fighting the biggest monster that ever threatened him. There is no telling what he will say in his songs. You would not let what he says make you change? Perhaps you worry about protecting the others too much. Perhaps they can take care of themselves and we both worry too much. Worry does not help. It makes it hard to think. I try not to worry."
"No, Rhori," Paris replied softly. "No, Anton could not make me a coward. And I do worry a lot." She stretched and added musingly, "I wonder when I learned to worry so much."
"You are..." the big youth searched for the word, "responsible! You had to watch Calais. You had to keep him out of trouble. And you used to keep the other kids from picking on me. And.. and..." Rhori ran out of words.
"I couldn't always be around, Rhori," Paris said tenderly. "I am sorry."
Rhori: "Then I want you to promise that you will not always try to go in front. You will not always put yourself in danger. You will use the party -- other people have armor and protection and stuff -- rather than doing it all yourself. Even I should not always be in front, maybe. And promise not to worry."
Paris was taken aback by her young friend's earnestness. "Rhori -- I will try. I promise I will try."
The young giant seemed satisfied. "I have never seen you not do what you try to do. The others try and sometimes they fail. But you do what you say you will do. And you help people while you are doing it. We are doing our job for the prince and have killed lotsa monsters and have helped lotsa people. We killed lotsa orcs back where we came from. And monsters here. And maybe there are monsters in Dungeon. Monsters everywhere! And -- someone said -- the monsters come from Tarot?"
Paris hesitated, then nodded. "Yes, Rhori, the non-human monsters come from Tarot."
Rhori, pleased. "And we are good at killing them; pro'lly better than anyone else. You do good for lotsa people."
"Not everywhere, Rhori," Paris corrected. "There were no monsters in the valleys around Pelier, the city with the big library."
"You mean the big mountain? Yeah. No monsters. I wonder why?"
"I wonder why as well," Paris answered softly.
"I wonder why there were no cards with this big rubbery monster," the ranger complained. "There were cards with the orcs and cards with the dogs. You need cards so that you can get tough and not get knocked out when you fight."
Paris looked shame-faced. "Yes, I know, Rhori. There were no cards with this monster. That is why I hesitated when you asked if all monsters come from Tarot. The monsters with cards come from Tarot. This monster had no cards, so, perhaps it did not come from Tarot after all. I do not know, Rhori."
As she was shaking her head, Rhori dumped his bombshell on her. "Parris, I do not want you up front with me in our next fight." Paris stared in hurt amazement and then bowed her head, the blood pounding in her ears as the young giant, her friend, continued. "I do not want you with me until you have taken enough cards to make you tougher. You must stay back in the party. Brillig can come up front."
Hoarsely Paris protested. "But I have good armour, Rhori, Brillig has..." her voice faded as she gazed at the young ranger's implacable face. "We - we - will go talk to Brillig," she allowed, her voice expressionless, her attitude numb.
[Michael: There were various bits and pieces in there of course but all the meat is here now IIRC. There was stuff about dresses, dancing, doing what God wants and doing good, more about the motivation of the various party members, and the first lady knight (queen whomever), Silverlocke being a better/easier leader to deal with than the prince, people doing what they do best (such as me burying axes in monsters heads and that maybe that isn't Paris' forte.)
Basically Pat, Rhori spent a lot of time building up Paris, trying to get her to relax and do God's work and then spent a moment at the end crushing her (potentially)]
[S: I did remember another piece that I forgot. Sometime when we were talking about using people to their best abilities, Paris touched on using Hobbes, not always holding him back.
And .. somehow (I've been completely unable to figure out how we got there -- unless Rhori started musing about how to get cards for Paris -- and I am sure that that never came up in the conversation. Paris would have reacted strongly.) .. Rhori mentioned possibly borrowing some of Hobbes' cards (my vague memory says it was for something Rhori wanted) and Paris did react, telling him that it might not be wise to take cards from someone who wasn't part of the Party when he earned those cards. Rhori replied that "he was my buddy" and, in careful questioning Paris becomes reassured that the bond between Rhori and Hobbes had indeed been formed before the lion killed the fire dog. She went on to explain that one should only take cards that one has earned but that there is no evil in inequitable sharing of cards within the party. And that this information is something of a secret. Paris just needed to make sure about Hobbes.] [Michael: Right, and we discussed about the nature of the cards and the bad things that can happen if you misuse them or use them correctly but don't 'deserve' them. Both Rhori and Paris are very worried about that as they do not trust most of the party to pass up a free card from a passing stranger... "psssst hey kid want a silver card? no strings attached.."]
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