Welcome to Gaia! ::

The gold dragon sighs. "Using a vessel to hold life normally won't protect you from Tamara and her minions, mage. She is the goddess of life and hunts the undead with a vengeance. So something is withholding her hand at this moment. What is it?"

He walks forward to face Kerobian and extends his hand. "Still if she can stomach you... I suppose you can't be half bad... even if you were probably the most foolish of individuals to have attacked her realm in the past."

The gold shrugs and looks around at everyone. "Where are the other, E'li... Surely you went to them all."

"Personally... actually... I'm afraid that for now, this is all we have." says Paladine quietly.

"And I still haven't heard anything beyond this mage's words to give me proof..." grumbles the red-head. "Forgive me, Lord.... but words carry little weight with nothing solid to back them up."

A soft laugh directs everyone attention to the woman in the silvery robe. "I believe you've already said that, Kerobian. Her brown eyes contain barely hidden mirth and she bows to him. "I trust him, Hlal-son, and with good reason as he is an honorable man. Which is why Tamara trusts him as well... He fairly reeks of the fact..."

Tamara steps forward with a firm nod. "I for one trust his words, though not entirely because he has spoken them. This one I have watched for many a century now... waiting for him to make a false move... once he walked a fine line... and many have been the time when he came close enough for me to wield my blade... yet something has stopped me, I know not what... now a days, though, his feet are firmly planted. Who has guided him so, I cannot say, though I sense something in his makeup that wasn't there before. Silveria may call it honor, but it runs far deeper than that. That he was willing to come before us, knowing perhaps that I might be here is enough for me. It takes a certain form of bravery to do what he has done today and in truth... he needed not do it. He could have sat back and watched us flounder in the hands of one I refuse to name."

She smiles at him, still thinly, but with a tinge more acceptance. "Did I not say you have changed? I remember a time, Mater Kerobian vules-Noctuslain, when you would have done just that. Something has awakened within you... compassion perhaps? honor, truly? and most of all loyalty... You have indeed changed.

"But enough of all this, we need to formulate a plan, a way to fight back. Does anyone have any idea as to how or what the nameless one might be up to."

"But you did and for that we are grateful." says Paladine softly. "Some of you are not aware of this but Kerobian here now has the privilege of calling me father... as I have the honor to call him son. True, he is not of by blood born, but of my kin I now claim him and of his kin I also lay claim. For one who started out as one of our blood, he has had a difficult and harrowing road to walk, he has of course strayed, as have we all, but in his straying he has learned much and that knowing has in many ways led him back to us. For that I beg of you, let him leave. He has important work to do and cannot do it, if he is caged here behind our walls."

The four dragon lords agree to discuss this and ask Paladine and Kerobian to step outside for a few minutes.

Paladine starts to talk to him, but seeing him fall into the meditative trance sighs instead and sends one of his underlings off for something to feed Kerobian when he comes to. He knows of the mage's hungers and understand that spending his skills so recklessly might trigger an appetite that could actually dwarf his own.

Paladine snorts softly and leads him to a table set with a variety of foods. "Eat..." he commands. "Yer practically white with hunger... and stop calling me daddy. Ye've earned the right to call me E'li. Have I not called ye kin?"