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This I successfully did, and as I entered the room, led by the Canitaur who was on watch, the others stood politely and greeted me with an apparent intrigue. Our conversation proceeded at follows: "I am Wagner of the Canitaurs, my friend," said the one who appeared to be the leader, "And these are Taurus and Bernibus," the latter being the one who had led me down. "Welcome to Daem."
The forest itself sprawled like a great metropolis along the lands above the large central lake of Daem, Lake Umquam Renatusum, which was close beside the Canitaur outpost where we had narrowly escaped discovery and capture.
We made our way through the bottom half of the room and down the long flight of stairs that wound down the great tower in the Temple of Time. When we reached the bottom, we went again into the long room with the bookshelves, the table, and the altar to Temis. Already there waiting for us were the Canitaur emissaries, Wagner and Bernibus.
And eat we did, for it was brought by a food service Canitaur on a tray, and I was surprised to see that it was a mixture of broccoli, spinach, and mushrooms, with a flavorless, glowing sauce. He was right, incidentally, for it was both bitter before and pleasant after its consumption. "I know of the solids, but what is this sauce?" I asked of him. "Carbon" he replied.
I was walking in silence through the rugged forests of northern Daem alongside Bernibus the Canitaur, with his fellows Wagner and Taurus before and behind us, respectively, the former leading the way, the latter covering our tracks, and both on the lookout for an ambush.
Sitting there like they had been woken from sleep to attend to us were the delegates, looking tired and untidy, a rare state for a Canitaur to be in, with their clothes ruffled, their hair uncombed, and their eyes glazed with a discordant state of mind.
Bernibus grew angrier, a terrifying state for a Canitaur to be in, and he was a strong and powerful one at that, though his meek nature had hidden it before. "You would never dare to kill me in the open, you coward, the council would banish you," he said. Here the King joined in once more, laughing, "He wouldn't, no, but I would.
Along the way I asked Bernibus of his wife, Wagner's sister, of whom I had heard little and seen nothing. He was quiet for a pause, and then said: "She was an angel, what else can be said?" "Was?" I asked hesitantly. "Yes, she was killed by the Zards on a border raid, as we were at that time living apart from the Canitaur mass with a few friends.
So did I then feel, the Canitaur guards being able to slay me on the slightest whim of fancy that struck their minds into a sadistic mood. Yet I was not afraid, instead I was overcome by a feeling of relaxation, where all cares and worries are given up as frivolous burdens, not necessary and not helpful, being, in fact, harmful to the mind.
When faced with death he had no courage, no strength to face the unknown beyond the veil that separates life from death. As I turned and cast my eyes across the horizon, I saw the faces of hundreds of men, whether Zard, Canitaur, or Munam, and written on everyone of them was a great despair, for they stood unprotected in the presence of death.
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