Meanwhile, inside the castle, there is certainly trouble brewing.Well, the have to run out of oil sometime.
Saddith has been running rampant around the castle, stirring the pot of fear & discontent, focusing the people's ire on the Castellan. She shows everyone who can look the damage the Castellen did to her when he beat her.
In one of (IMHO) SRD's better pieces of writing, we witness the emotion of the mob rise to a fever pitch, expecting nothing less than Lebbick's blood & retribution for Saddith's hurts & their own position of being besieged, trapped in Orison.
All the while a 'tall man in a jet cloak' noted the developements, encouraging Saddith to continue her course. The mob is covienently directed to the laborium, where Saddith exposes herself for all to see.
The man in the cloak is pleased as she continues, until Lebbick himself arrives to believe it or not, apologize to Saddith & admonish the crowd.Lebbick did this! He did it to me!
Saddith, of course, will have none of an apology & screams for his blood
Hmmm..... I wonder who this guy might be........The man in the jet cloak grinned with undisguised relish.
Lebbick actually manages to catch the attention of the crowd long enough for Saddith to try to take measures into her own hand, only to be 'spitted' by Ribuld's longsword.
We have had many discussions regarding Saddith & her climb to 'prominence' in Orison. She was used to the utmost degree by a ruthless power-mad man, even to her death and it meant nothing to him. She 'made her bed' in the way she acted, but, no one deserves to be sacrificed in such a way. She ended up trying to out-smart Eremis, which was her downfall.
In the aftermath, the mob destroys several mirrors in the laborium before being driven back by Lebbick's guard.
The next day finds the ever arrogant Eremis (have I told you I really don't like this character?) finds himself gleefully engaging the ever drunken Tor in a one sided conversation, delighting in the state he finds the old Lord. Eremis, pokes a delightfully sarcastic question to the Tor:
The response is one of the best one-liners in the book:"What has King Joyse been doing?"
Practicing what you ask????? Hop board????"Practicing."
Not a chance - the Tor answers in the second best one-liner in the book:
The Tor ambles off to find some more wine, leaving Eremis slightly surprised, but even moreso, delighted - this was going to be more fun than he thought."Swordsmanship."
Eremis can barely contain himself as he visits Barsonage and the Master praises him for his work in "saving" Orison by refilling the resevoir. He comes to the point of his visit - he wants to rejoin the Congery, but oddly, Barsonage goes on about he is too important to be called on like an Apt to meetings and they are only respecting his privacy during the difficult time. - What a load of sheep dung!!!
Barsonage goes on to explain that the Congery has reason to believe that Terisa is an Imager, which Eremis cannot accept, until Barsonage shares the fact that Lebbick told Artagel, in secret that Terisa and Gilbur did NOT leave the laborium together. Rather, Terisa had translated herself into one of the mirrors and Gilbur left via the corridor.. Eremis is a bit confounded - he knows someone has lied to him, but he can't be sure who.
In the end, he comes to the matter he wanted to discuss with Barsonage - how can one translate safely thru flat glass?
He suggests to Barsonage that perhaps a flat mirror could be translated into a curved mirror image, adjusting the flat image to fill the curved mirror and make two simultaneous translations, safely. This appears to make sense to Barsonage & in a flurry, Eremis has 'hooked the fish' on the idea and has accomplished his goal for coming - he has convinced Barsonage to work toward a goal he already knows is impossible - the trick was not in the translation - it was in the glass!!
We are left with the picture of the ever smug & conceited Eremis positively excited at the thought of the coming game.
Have I ever told you how much I don't like this character?????