The Scrolls of Skava

Return to the Emerald Oracle - Part 3

     The Oracle nodded. “Ask your question,” it said in a voice that sounded hoarse and rasping to the wizard, but which Shaun and Diana heard differently, in character with the person they saw sitting on the emerald throne. Thomas paused, thinking over the phrasing of the question in his mind one more time to make sure there was no room for error. The last time there’d been six of them. If one of them asked a stupid question that got a stupid, useless answer, there’d been five others to try again, but this time there was just him. Shaun and Diana had asked their questions during their last visit, so if Thomas made a mess of it there’d be no second chance.

     Finally, he was satisfied that he’d phrased it as carefully as he possibly could and, taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, he spoke. “This is what I want to know. I want you to read to me the complete text of everything that is, or was, written on the Scrolls of Skava, translated into the common tongue.”

     The three of them held their pieces of charcoal poised over their sheets of paper, ready to begin scribbling as soon as it began to speak, but when the Oracle did speak it was such a shock and a surprise that for a moment they could only stand there, paralysed like statues, while the words seeped slowly into their stunned brains. “I am forbidden to answer that question,” the Oracle replied, slowly and emotionlessly. “You may ask another question.”

     “What!” exclaimed Thomas when he was finally able to speak. “Forbidden? By who?”

     “Tom!” cried Shaun in horror, and the wizard put his hands to his mouth in dismay. He’d asked a question! Asked his one and only, once in a lifetime question! He’d blown it! Now they’d never find the Scrolls of Skava and it was all his fault! One careless, thoughtless slip and their one and only chance had gone for ever!

     The fates were merciful that day, however. “I am forbidden to answer that question,” the Oracle replied, in exactly the same tone of voice it had used before. “You may ask another question.”

     They all breathed a sigh of relief, and Shaun grabbed Thomas by the front of his jacket. “In the name of the Gods, Tom! Think before you speak! Think!”

     “I know, I’m sorry,” replied the wizard as Shaun released him. “I was just so taken by surprise, that’s all. The Emerald Oracle! Forbidden to answer a question! Who could have the power to give orders to the Emerald Oracle?”

     “The Gods?” suggested Diana. “Could this be their way of telling us that we’re on the wrong track?”

     Shaun shook his head in bafflement. “The last time we were here, when I asked it whether war was coming, it said that it was unable to answer. Unable. This time, though, it said forbidden. The first time it would have answered if it could, but didn’t know itself. This time it does know but isn’t allowed to tell us.”

     “So what do we do now?” asked Thomas.

     “What we originally planned to do,” replied the soldier. “Just ask it where the Scrolls are. We’ll just have to find them ourselves, that’s all.”

     “But they could be on the other side of the world,” protested Thomas. “It might take months to get there. Years!”

     “Doesn’t matter,” replied the cleric with a smile. “We can use Resalintas’s Farspeaking spell to tell him where the Scrolls are, and then he can teleport directly to the spot. Get them for himself instantly.”

     “Oh yeah,” replied Thomas sheepishly, feeling stupid for not having thought of that for himself. “You’re right. Okay, we’ll do that.”