Chapter 8: Muzzle & Manacles

Quartz

Ever since I was captured by Jace, I have been focused on the only thing that matters: getting the grimoire. For some reason, though, I feel like I am not acting as I usually would. I am a strategist and an expert in public speaking, so why am I so focused on killing Jace? Why am I so adamant in my desire to avoid letting things come down to diplomacy? Well, if I cannot recall the reason for my adamance in avoiding diplomacy, the reason was most likely of little import. Wait, would that not make resorting to diplomacy even more appealing? No, surely I must be mistaken. I should stop thinking about such strange things.

I must keep track of the limits of the grimoire and Jace's own abilities. Once I get these manacles off, I will need to use everything I know now and everything I learn along the way to take down Jace. I believe I already have a countermeasure that would successfully prevent that shadow shift of his, but I now know that the grimoire is a far greater threat than I could have ever imagined. Not only does the grimoire produce its own magical power without the use of its weilder's stamina, but the grimoire also merges aspects of the divine and the demonic--an accomplishment that was thought to be unattainable no matter the means. Once I have retreived that grimoire, I must lock it away somewhere where no one will be able to find it. I should hide it within the mountains of Dryst. The desert is so inhospitable that only the most dangerous of all the monsters, literate races, and demonic creatures roam its lands.

That grimoire covers Jace's most glaring weakness: crowd control. If he was to use that grimoire on civilians, there would be many deaths. However, considering his reaction to my use of a large crowd in Tidebreak, I believe such a method could be effective so long as I seal his shadow shift. The only problem with that method is the fact that I have no clue where the hell Jace is heading off to, so I also do not know if his destination has a lot of people to begin with. Hmmm what to do, what to do... mmm, I don't know. I will simply have to keep an eye on Jace until I discover a way to take him down.

Jace

Riding a horse with a certain transparent prisoner has proven to be far more troublesome than I ever could've imagined. I initially thought I could simply have Quartz ride her own mount, but she immediately tried to ride away. Of course, I had no issue recapturing her, but she went as far as trying to bite my left carotid! I mean, I knew she was trying to kill me, but I didn't know that she wanted to kill me that badly... oh well, I'm sure her anger issues will sort themselves out with some time and some therapy. In the end, I had to muzzle Quartz and have her ride on Silence with me. For some reason or another, Quartz became unordinarily meek when I sat her down in front of me on Silence. Although I don't know the reason for her sudden change in attitude, it sure does make my life easier.

Quartz

What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What.(Quartz's mind remains similarly confused and empty for the duration of the day's traveling.)

Jace

Silence is far superior to almost any other form of transportation, and Quicksilver was able and surprisingly willing to keep pace despite having to carry all of the luggage. I suppose our familiars are smarter than they seem as, despite Quartz's unnaturally standoffish attitude, Quicksilver seems to be acting in whatever way the steed personally believes would be best for Quartz. I would like to believe that Quicksilver has chosen to trust me, but, considering the fact that my own friends wouldn't trust me, I won't get my hopes up too high.

Now that we've reached the base of the shortest hill surrounding the valley in the center of which lies the tallest peak in all of Unnatrulus--no known literate race has ever climbed to the top of the peak. Even I didn't scale the damn thing! I...uh...kind of...how do I put this...got dragged up there by a wyvern? Eh, that's a tale for another time. For now, I need to focus on how I'm going to get up there. What if I tried to scale the side using shadow shift repeatedly? Wait, no, if I ran out of stamina half way up I'd literally just fall to death. Hmmm...what about using wyverns? No, that won't work either, the time a wyvern brought me up there was basically the wyvern's way of telling me to suffer a slow death, so why would any wyvern bring me up there if it knew I wanted to go up there? Besides, I need to think of a method that can get both Quartz and myself to the top of the peak. How about I try to get the villagers in the valley to carve handholds in the side of the cliff face or make a staircase? Although that may work, it would take a lot of manpower and persuasive skills, and I have neither. If Quartz would just agree to help... no, I can't trust her to help me, even if she were to say she would. She attempted to kill me several times, one of which was with such a crowd as the one I would have to seek aid from in order to create a feasable path for scaling the sheer cliff face--how do I know she won't just attempt to turn more innocents against me? Well, the grimoire might have something that could help...let's see...embodiment...spirituality...solidarity...uniqueness...freedom...capacity for relationship with the gods...maybe if I try to combine that aspect of embodiment with this aspect of freedom...yes, yes! That could work! I'll have to test out my theory in the morning. For now, I...I need rest. I haven't slept much in the past week. Since Quartz brought a tent with her, I'll set it up for her and let her sleep in there and I'll dig another ditch to sleep in...I really should get into the habit of carrying a tent around with me; that artificial winter was brutal!

After using the other pair of manacles on Quartz's legs to prevent her from trying to run away or kill me in the night, I prepare to sleep in the hole I dug.

"Goodnight, Quartz...sleep well, sleep deep."

Quartz

Jace has always confused me. If you're going to go through the trouble of setting up a tent, why would you have the person who's been trying to kill you sleep in the tent while you sleep in a hole in the ground? I understand that he probably still sees me as his ally; Jace probably still sees me as a fellow Wanderer. However, I do not understand why he would put my well-being over his own well-being when doing so will only make it more likely for me to kill him in the long run. I simply cannot comprehend him.

"I would say goodnight, Jace, but may you please remove this infuriating muzzle before you go lie down in that little grave you dug for yourself? ...Did he really already fall asleep? You must be kidding me. Well, I guess the muzzle stays on tonight."

Jace was not asleep when Quartz said this.

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