before the fight

[cellio]

May 1, later

We had a fascinating conversation with the salamanders tonight. While they held back on answering many of our questions, they did reveal a lot. And what they revealed infuriates me! Garrett is even more evil than I had imagined. I'm surprised that this is possible. I will help kill that demon-spawn blackguard if it's the last thing I do. (I sure hope it isn't.)

Garrett was here 500 years ago. Farooq told us the story. The salamanders, who are the guardians of the oracle, gave Weeping Wounds its enhanced disease-giving power, at the oracle's instruction. (We are not sure why the oracle so dictated.) This happened after Garrett used magic to evade the duel, and then the fiend had the gall to test the dagger on one of their number. It took the salamander a month to die. He taunted them on the way out and fled too quickly for them to catch him.

Hamid, Zaid, and Farooq were there, and they would gladly kill Garrett if given the chance. Indzihar was not there but agreed with this sentiment. I suggested that we could team up since we all want Garrett dead, but Zaid feels that there will be complications. Assuming we win our duel tomorrow, we can ask the oracle. Farooq did imply that all of the elementals here share this enmity, however, so perhaps Liandra can invite them to fight at the proper time.

The salamanders already knew of our quest. They know a great many things, it appears, but only what the oracle tells them. They do not know anything about Elys' whereabouts.

Indzihar had an interesting proposition for tomorrow's fight: that we all enter the crucible with no spells cast and roll dice every few seconds to determine when to start. It adds an interesting element of randomness to the fight. We discussed it, and while it is risky (if we don't get all our fire resistance we're in real trouble), we agreed to it. We have more spellcasters than they do, so even with the fire issue they would be more hindered than we would be by an earlier start. Or so it seems to me, anyway.

So, tomorrow we are going to fight a duel. Farooq, Hamid, and Zaid are all large and fierce, and of course Indzihar is a spell-caster. It will be a challenging fight, especially as there is no point in me using my strongest magic. I hope we are able to prevail, because we really need an audience with the oracle!

At one point I spoke with Indzihar about magical fire. I was curious to know whether her natural affinity for fire aids her in learning fire-magic, and how she goes about conjuring fire. I can imagine so many approaches to this type of magic! Alas, she said that fire is trivial for her and the others, and that she had to eschew fire in order to develop other magical qualities. Fascinating! I haven't eschewed anything to develop my magic, though some of my spells have been impeded here. That's about the gorge of fire, though, not about my magic. Or at least, I assume that Indzihar, too, would have difficulty casting cold-balls. I didn't ask her. It sounds like using fire comes as naturally to the salamanders as breathing does to me.

It sounds like she's saying that the fire gets in the way of learning other magics. I have seen similar things with most humans -- they have a fixed idea of how things work in the world, and it overwhelms their ability to sense and use magic. Or at least, if true that would explain my relatives.

While it's hard to tell for sure, it sounds to me as if Indizhar is a sorceress like I am, not a wizard like Prolix. The way she talked about the magic coursing through her veins and how she could reach out and manipulate it sounded very familiar, and not at all like Prolix's discussions with Delyan.

I also spoke privately with her about the possibility of Garrett spying on us. Garrett sent the wicker-man that ambushed us three days ago, the salamanders said, and that was planted next to the only tree in the gorge of fire. We did not begin discussing tree-walking until after Prolix broke Melisande's scrying mirror, which means Garrett could have planted some spying device or magic on Turok before he returned to us. Indzihar thinks Garrett was just guessing with the wicker-man (and if he was wrong, so what? it's just a construct), and she didn't detect anything special about Turok. This makes me feel a little better, as Indzihar would have no reason to lie to us about harm from Garrett. (I asked out of earshot of the rest of the party just in case I was right, though.)