#dawnwatch

“You are insane, Sunsheer. You should know better than to ask that of me.”

The arcane magic bristling in the air spoke what remaining words the nigh colorless elf dared not hiss through snarling teeth. He could feel the warning in it; sizable fingers extended from Inathorel into the ephemeral threads of magic pervading the space around them, flirting far too close to a threat for his wearied tastes. He must not have been the only one to take note of their conversation’s shift. The anxiety in the innkeeper’s squinting eyes from across the dimly lit common room was near as palpable as the force threatening to smother him on the spot.

“And you should know I would never ask this if circumstances were not as unstable and dire as they are. As it stands, I do not know if this would even help our cause in the end.”

“You would ask me to risk myself on such uncertainty?” His jaw sealed together in an aching deadlock as he watched the pale man scowl openly at him. “The answer is the same as I told you the second you found me: no.”

Hamathiel set his tensing arm up on the table, giving in to the building, exasperated tick to use that newly establish support to cradle his head and massage at his own furrowed brow. Whatever approach he took, this would be difficult. He came to grips with that fact the instant he forced himself to make his decision. Diplomacy with a creature who knew him for what he was as much as he knew its own nature was near impossible, and dancing around the issue to lessen the blow would only aggravate Inathorel all the more.

Upfront honesty was his only express choice if he was to have any chance in acquiring assistance, and for as much as that fell in line with his own preferences, it made the intended discussion no less volatile. In what years he had known Larinath’s quiet aid, to the point conversation was what had worked, too.

Yet never had he expected the cleric’s unconventional shadow to be a dragon, and a nether dragon of all things.

His unwelcome introduction to that fact lent him all the less ground to make use of in speaking to Inathorel on finding the man-- dragon, he was a dragon-- off taking leave from the Shore. The subject matter in question hardly did him extra favors, but too much time had already sloughed away needlessly on his part. He needed to act, and it was now or never. Taking his hand back away from relaxing features, he righted his posture and set Inathorel with an abruptly stolid gaze.

“You can continue to refuse and do so once I have finished, but I ask that you hear me out to the end. Please.”

The request came out infinitely quieter than he intended, no more than a bare whisper amid their already soft-spoken dialogue. Whatever cord he hoped it would hit looked to connect nevertheless, thankfully. Agitated as Inathorel clearly remained, the overt hostility creeping into anger narrowed eyes had begun to abate little by little. The willow thin elf’s body language looked no less bent on snapping across the table to strangle him by the time their conversation resumed, but what jagged edges had soured Inathorel’s silvery voice were smoothed out once more.

“Then speak, and speak quickly. My answer will undoubtedly remain the same, but I will... listen. For now.”

Hamathiel held to the quiet Inathorel’s tightly pursed lips enabled that little stint longer to nurse his cooling coffee, acrid tang sobering as much as it was a begrudging relief. He was going to need it today.

“You have heard my mention of the Kiel-Succor and what I wish of you, but you have not let me speak as to why. Your time on the ship has left its mark on you--”

“Sunsheer--”

“-- and we both know that,” he continued through Inathorel’s short snap, the flash of pearly teeth across the table almost looking sufficiently sharp to glide through flesh. “The nature of the fragmented portal would be made easier with your attunement to the ship, as well as the extra assistance in refining said portal with Mar’cadus’ hold having sapped away Willaude’s magics. You would not even be required to follow us through.”

That belatedly introduced fact wore at Inathorel’s rigid expression further, glower molding to one of bemusement as his out sunk in. “You mentioned I may not have an impact, lest you forget that detail. Why would that be the case if you are adamant my presence would make it an easier task?”

“Because of the where as well as the when of our destination. The Isle may be static in where it appears to be stuck amid a daily stratum of time loops, but the cause and effect of actions do clearly have an effect there. If they did not, the likelihood of running into yourself or other duplicates of people would be nigh guaranteed if you arrived in the same place each time. So, there is a possibility of being able to get to a specific when of the Isle’s existence in theory. My only doubt is that if that theory manages to hold water for us in practice once the appropriate means are aligned.”

A distinct disquiet he merely assumed the existence of to that point inched across Inathorel’s frown. “Say that I assist you in stabilizing this portal. What’s to say they do not take that as a means to find me again as well? I have been free of them to this point. Why in all of creation should I help you with this, let alone any further than that as you have made unsubtle hints at?”

“Because if they succeed at whatever gambit they have in motion, there will be no place or time that you will keep you from Da’na’shan’s machinations. Even if you do not take into consideration the massive damage this could cause to other people and parts of the war effort, we are both intimately familiar with how demon’s are with their grudges-- and their prizes. We cannot fail in this, and for that, we need every possible edge we can muster. Whether or not it does anything in the end, I am not willing to rush into this any more blindly than we have to.”

His utterance of the eredar’s name cowed Inathorel down in his seat just as he anticipated it would, and the rest of his segued pledge visibly wore at the obstinate fury woven through the foundations of porcelain features.

“You continue to make my life hell, Sunsheer, but you are correct. Running would... it would avail me little in the end. You know I cannot take--” Inathorel’s cheeks puffed out like sheer curtains around a sigh. “The portal will be anchored, but anything else... I will have to think about whether I agree to it or not. When would you have me do this?”

A tentative spark of surety slipped down his spin, bowing it forward as he leaned his arms over the table in a glaringly conspiratorial fashion. They might have a better chance of this than the catastrophe he had been silently fearing over the past week. Shaky as that good news was, he would take it where his group was concerned. “How soon will you be able to make yourself ready?”

Inathorel’s ears made an apprehensive shift back through mindfully kept sheets of platinum blond. The man’s-- dragon’s-- uncertainty was mounting in his expression by the second, yet Hamathiel found himself an answer in shorter order than even he had been expecting. “... tonight.”

“Then tonight.”

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