Editing Midnight RPG - Chapter 44.143 (section)

=== Ahemia, Lady of Steel ===
::  '''"... clear... as crystal...?"'''  she smiles looking to any one of the hundreds of quartz gems wedged into the granite walls...   she continues with a touch more formality than she had in previous days with Eranon.  This is the first time he's treated her as a co-worker... as someone would have amid the Black Nail... ''This isn't the tone of a friend'', she thinks...  As she snaps her fingers to usher Dahiran off her lap.  Ahemia stands and walks to a stool.  She pulls it out at the table and reaches into the bag where her brush was placed.  Pulling out a rudimentary map of the Cold Downs she sits it on the table, a piece of charcoal with it...  she offers Eranon a stip of dried Coney she'd hidden away from the elf's last food scavenge...
::  '''"  Of course, elf...  You are alone in the world are you not?  Your people are with you..."'''  she taps her finger to her head then her heart...  '''"... but in essence you're alone, correct?"'''  she only waits for indication of a nod, then continues...  '''" You see... I was alone all my life.  Even with my family behind me, I was alone.  The only thing that kept me warm was knowing my family was proud of me... With the twisted treachery of the Vile, I lost all I'd worked for.  I lost any friendships that I'd managed to gain (although I'm not sure what of those WERE friends...)  and then I found Zael... Zal'Kazzir... rather, he found me.  He made a way for me and accepted my faith, while I knew in his heart he didnot believe.  He risked his life to hide me from you... his friends.  In a way he paid that cost yesterday...  I've been nothing but a failure to everyone I've hoped to love.  I have prayed for guidance and have had nothing but lose returned.  Yet I will remain true to those I love, I will remain true to the guidance of my grandfather and my father.  They pointed the way to the Dark Star...  your "Killer of Trees"  and  that faith has been the only thing that's given me solice in the cold night.  Now... in this... in... in you... I've been given a glance of how that pray can be answered... you brought back to me the little girl of my youth.  You brought back my Dahiran and with it my faith I'd somehow managed to faulter in"'''  (she says referring to the, now, confusing time of being Mind manipulated to leave her faith)
::  '''"... Now Eranon, you see... I must continue on your path... I don't know where that's going, but the faith you have in your heart... is it really that much unlike mine?  You hold dear to your 'Great Lady'... I'm seeing now that perhaps She and He are not that different in nature.  The Dark Star draws from the strength of your Great Lady as did Zal'Kazzir from me...  And as with m'lord, Zael's light was turned darker by the need to become a great man.  Perhaps the Dark Star seeks a similar greatness, perhaps He seeks only to ride at the lead of the Host to find his way into the other stars.  And as Zael did, he only now uses the Great Lady's strength... Loving Her as Zael did me...  Perhaps this magic that builds your hopes and dreams are what bolster the Dark Star in these 'Last Days' of the 'Last Age'?..."'''  Ahemia seems confused, but desperately trying to work out the reasons for the events of her life, the recent death of her love, the birth of her child, this "friendship" she's made with Eranon...  The puzzle isn't one to be made by warriors such as her (and Eranon) but they are the ones that live the lives of the common folk, those that are not of divine inspiration.  
::  '''"...so... Eranon.  Are you asking me these things for a purpose?  Is it time our 'friendship' has come to an end?  Has the Orc or the Wizard threatened my life again?  Are you asking, hoping that I will leave?...  because if you are Eranon...  I... I must tell you... I... I have no.. place to go............... "'''  Ahemia didn't cry at the death of Zal'Kazzir.  There was no lament, no soul-searching.  She didn't take time for that.  She was strong in front of her "enemies"  (the Orc and Wizard).  But now... here... in this place... with you... her voice quivers....  and she turns her head, her raven hair masking emotion.  <br>  Ahemia slides over the map on the table, with a strange marking unkown to Eranon... it is a map of the province of the Riismark and the Northlands, up the "River Eb" as much as she knew to draw - some 200-300 miles north of Theros Obsidia...  to Bastion.  There she has noted details of villages that would naturally be taxed by legates that lead up to what she's labeled "the Black Road" that trained in the High City... and also the other area well marked is the mouth of the Ishensa River at Port Esben as it opens to the Pellurian, up as far as Davindale...  with her head still turned...
::  '''"...Esben has been a major supply port for the armies in the south and home to the most capable ships, manned mostly by humans and hobgoblins, in the Shadow’s navy.   If Fallport is the shipyard, Esben is the naval hub... for what it is.  Your plan... It won't work without considering Esben...  And it would be a boon to the Dorn's goodwill if you have plans to fall their Traitor Prince... "'''  the Lady of Steel, having pushed back any emotion seems now intent on becoming a player in this deadly game...  She begins to plot, hoping Eranon won't have seen the weakness in her armor...
::  '''"Prince Vildar is the lord of the land, commander of Esben of the great Dornish Houses... he can't be bought ... he is by far, the most dangerous and calculating of the traitor princes, it is said he delights in manipulating his family, his clan, military leaders, the local legates, the dwarves that navigate the Ishensa and even the orc warbands stationed on his lands. They all battle for influence and power by dancing to his music, whose rapid shifts in tune and time are bewildering to all who do not have to live in Port Esben. Those who lose in this very deadly game adorn the gibbets outside the town, which never seem to lack for occupants.  If you take him, the others would tremble..."'''  (meaning other Traitor Princes)

::  Ahemia pauses...  Looks to Eranon and asks...  '''"...Now... I must ask YOU why.  Why did you help me?"'''