"All I did was see through Vale's mask. It was not an intentioned thing."

"Perhaps. Regardless, but for you the outcome could have been disastrous."

"How so?"

"Vale was attempting to drive a wedge between elf and man," he told her meaningly. He turned his eyes to the dark, as though probing it for hidden secrets. "I wish now that Dorain had not prevented the creature from speaking its final words. We might have learned something, even if those words had been malicious lies. It is said that nothing is learned from listening to such talk, but I would argue that one inevitably is enlightened about the speaker. For example, one may discern, if one listens long enough to a liar, the underlying reason for the liar's digressions.

"That said, another matter troubles my mind. That Vale creature died far too easily! And to my senses, there was a disturbing lack of conviction as to the manner of its death. The whole thing spoke to me of matters of the stage, with we the unwitting players and Vale a director hidden somewhere in the shadows.

"Even as I looked on, I felt myself wondering if I could credit my senses. And it seems to me, even now, that Dorain's victory was too conveniently scripted to be credible. I feel that someone has contrived to give us what we desired to see, in order to divert our attention from another matter entirely-"




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