#stealing ardbert's body was a high caliber dirtbag move

[viiioca]

[ roevember day 7 - crowd ]

From the journal of Estelle de Laussienne, 12th of the 5th Umbral Moon, 5 7A.E.

I must respect the audacity, if nothing else. Such a clever stunt he's pulled! Who could have anticipated that Elidibus -- a man of quiet presence and subtle works -- would stride so brazenly into the center of town after riding Ardbert's body about Lakeland as if it were a prized racebird? Not I. And oh, the crowdwork! A lovely little flourish. We are caught on the back foot between two unappealing options: we deny him, opening the way for the world to be convinced that their saviors are in fact liars, and turn on us as quickly as they had turned on the Warriors of Light all those decades ago; or we stay true to our course and open the way for his power base to grow with no great effort on his part. We are pinned to the board like a butterfly specimen by our pretty ideals.

But such has always been Elidibus's way. If Emet-Selch believed in the fundamental ugliness of man and leveraged it to build empires of breathtaking cruelty, Elidibus has always exploited the goodness in man, appealing to a higher calling and better nature. When he approached the Scions, it was with an olive branch extended. Thordan, too, received of his advice -- do you not want to protect your people? -- and fell right into Elidibus's game, for all that he thought he had the upper hand. So it was with Ardbert as well: salvation in one hand and an appeal against evil in the other. He has always worked his schemes through heroes and iconoclasts. But what of this newfound assertiveness? This is not an offensive born of confidence, deployed by a man who still has patience and time in abundance. This is a cornered animal baring its teeth.

The Great Work rests with him and him alone now. It's the sort of burden that could crush a man. The sort that could kill him, if he isn't careful. Does desperation not make beasts of us all?