Gilliamtown. Aftermath.
Rhori will actually give Mia no later chance to talk with him about her intent to revive the Innkeeper. Basically, after the public discussion wherein Rhori expressed his certainty that it was wrong to raise the dead (which happened in the last game), he grabbed his stuff and Calais and set off through the night. After a few moments of reflection, Paris hurried out after them.
Theoretically, shortly thereafter Calais returned to the group. Rhori had explained to him the route he intended to follow whereby the group would be able catch up with him on the morrow.
Paris was gone considerably longer. When she returned, most of the Party had probably gone to bed. [This assumes that Mia will do the revivification spell the next day; if this is not so, then I'd like to know if the Party/Paris had _any_ way of knowing when it would be done. That might change when Paris tries to talk with Mia.] Ewen had waited up. Paris and Ewen talked a little....
When Mia gets up in the morning, Paris will be waiting for her. (If necessary, Paris will stay awake all night; it's very important to her that she talk to Mia before Mia does her revivification spell. And we did not indicate during play when Mia intended to do it.)
"Mia, I need to ask you to do something for me when you go to cast your spell over the Innkeeper." Paris looked the other girl in the eye. "Please hear me out. You know that Rhori was very upset with us. He is convinced that bringing people back from the dead is unnatural and that doing it without their explicit permission is wrong. It bothers me a great deal when Rhori is upset; a Guardian of Nature is, in some sense, the other side of a Guardian of Man. I can't help but be aware of both trusts. If a Guardian of Nature thinks something is unnatural then there is a strong likelihood that it is. As he has pointed out, everyone dies. It's natural."
"I agree -- and disagree. When someone dies of illness or old-age or even, often, from accident, they oft-times welcome death, happy in the fullness of the lives they have lived or happy in the release from the pain they could not avoid. To me, these are natural deaths. When one dies foolishly, this too may be a natural death; a way that nature chooses to deal with foolishness in terms of long-term benefit to all. I really can't say on that. When a criminal dies at the hand of the hangman, I see it as both just and natural: the foolishness of crime does not benefit the people as a whole and it is natural to try to root out a 'danger' to society."
"But when one dies an unjust death -- as did the people of Jouet when the orcs came, as did Roget to the demon, and the Innkeeper to the trolls; when neither nature nor foolishness had a hand, I see this as a place where it is possible that such powers as yours were given to rectify injustice. But I cannot seem to make Rhori see this -- which means I must think upon it more and determine for myself if there is some blindness within myself or whether I see clearly."
"Nonetheless, Rhori has pointed out to me that the matter of choice is important to the idea of resurrection. He believes that there are those, including himself, who will object to the unnaturalness of such, who would chose to remain dead, to accept their final allocation as a fitting 'act of the universe.' He believes that to not give a soul that choice, is to put oneself in the place of a god. And that is neither natural nor fitting. In this, I cannot help but see that he has the right of it."
"So I ask of you, when you go to use your powers on the Innkeeper, that you will please -- when you commune with the Red God as you have described your experience with our late King -- ask the dead man's will in this matter. And if he does not or cannot give consent, please, consider well that perhaps he should not be raised. You do not carry anyone's death on your shoulders; but it is possible that you will carry their life thereon." Paris looked extremely sad. "I know. It cannot be that different than the responsibility I feel for bringing Rhori out of the innocence of his child-mind. What he now knows of unhappiness lies chiefly on my shoulders for making him make the decision I felt was best."
"This is all I can think to say on the matter. I must trust you to be wise."
[Paris is especially vulnerable, tending -- as a Sheryl character -- to react to the emotions and actions of those around her and -- by design -- already feeling responsible for the simpleton he was and the life she has now forced him into. Rhori can, likely, destroy Paris -- if Michael decides that's what he wants to do.
I'm pretty sure that Mia will go through with the ceremony. The 'ask his permission' is the 'compromise' Paris came up with. Rhori intends to consider what Mia does and Paris has obviously condoned to be wrong, wrong, wrong. Which, on top of his last disappointment in Paris not 'controlling' the Party, probably means that Paris will be able to exert less and less influence over Rhori.
*Sigh* I know he means it to come down to a basic conflict in the Final Decision. Rhori has decided:
Mia deciding that her 'want' is important and the Party having 'decided' that someone's personal 'want' is a 'good and sufficient' basis on which to make such a serious decision -- despite someone's serious objection gives precedent for Rhori to exercise his 'want' -- no matter what -- in the Final Decision.I really pity Paris when we come down to that; I had been working really, really hard to see that Paris and Rhori stayed 'in sync' on the really important things just to avoid that sort of conflict. *sigh*]
" Revivification " copyright 2000 S.Knowles. The contents of this site are copyright 2004 Sheryl A. Knowles unless otherwise specified. All rights reserved.