CHAPTER XXXVI
in which Ra'jira attunes to Pan ...
All in a Day's Work
The Silver Foxes return to Brenthia where they share news of their Tusker negotiations with Sovelus and Cadence. Assuming that Brenthia ponies up the demanded tribute, the Tuskers can be considered at least temporarily out of their hair, allowing the gathered coalition to focus its efforts on the impending Centaur threat. They also relate that Thrik, the Tusker chief, is seemingly unwilling to engage the Centaurs with his forces, though some of his people seem persuadable and he doesn't have any qualms about defending his territory. They then begin plotting out how best to handle Leshrec.
Haas raises the possibility of dispelling any mind control keeping the Centaurs enraged, but the Felspar officers and Elias point out that it's more likely that Leshrecs used propaganda rather than magic to keep his people in a frenzy. Glad believes the best way of disrupting the army enough to impose terms of surrender or ceasefire is to directly eliminate Leshrec, his sons, and anyone in the chain of command who could possibly inherit Equinos and utilize him against the allied coalition. He suggests using the Veckrans, the Stormbringer, and, ideally, Sentinel Tirza to form a protective barrier that holds back the Centaur foot soldiers, while the Silver Foxes act as the bait that will draw out and then take out Leshrec. Everyone in attendance pretty much agrees that the Silver Foxes are a good choice of bait having escaped Leshrec directly once, indirectly once, and attained some unseen magical marker from Xisben that should make them stand out to someone on Leshrec's level. Sovelus agrees that it's a good start for a plan at least, but there is an additional challenge that the Foxes were unaware of. Leshrec can manipulate nullity fields making Glad's ring a risky gambit and eliminating the effectiveness of null soldiers as a direct support, though they would still be valuable in holding back the army while Leshrec is dealt with.
Haas suggests further increasing their viability as bait by rallying Mercayens under the Mercayen statue she discovered once raised. Sovelus says that he'll help spread the word on that front. Meanwhile, Glad sends a message to Chracio's redscale sentinel, Engis, in order to draw further support. He figures having three sentinels will help even out the playing field against one suped up dragon/sentinel. And Engis is likely to jump at the chance to take down a rival sentinel with little to no consequence.
Crystal Caves and Crystal Dreams
The foxes split ways as battle preparations are made. Glad buys himself a deceleration enchantment, Ra'jira terrorizes a couple of unwitting Brenthian patrol guards, and Krom gets plastered in a bar. Then Haas, Ra'jira, Eierryn, and Glad take a quick trip to Pan in the hopes of locating former followers of Mercayen who attuned to the pillar. At the pillar, the gang split up. Eierryn passes her message along to Pan and some of the waiting attendants, since Pan's Sentinel Aglani is travelling elsewhere. Ra'jira goes crystal crazy and scoops up the glittering broken shards of crystal littering the cavern floor while Haas fails repeatedly to engage his attention. Glad sits on a mountain top practicing ball lightning. He then gets the idea to investigate the beam of light emanating from Pan by using dream wraith liquor. In his dream, he follows the beam past Pan's cave all the way to its source, a room of many colored crystals. One for each dragon and in the center of the room a crystal of ever-shifting color. Believing this room to reveal some inner truth about dragons and pillars (which is later verified by Chracio), he tries to investigate further but is stopped and awoken by a surprised redscale who seems to guard or curate the space. The redscale never gives his name.
Back in Pan's cave, one of the attendants is finally able to get through to Ra'jira, who is coaxed into focusing on the aura of the crystals and nonchalantly communing with Pan. In the process, he attunes to her and discovers the new-found ability to call out to and remove the embedded crystals from the cave. Naturally, he uses this to go after the largest crystal in the cavern which he successfully claims as his own, though he has to leave it behind because it's too large to carry with him. Having finished their business, the Foxes head back to Brenthia.