Well, it appears that Gerard and Tobias will not now die, though the gods only know how long it will be until they recover. One assumes magical healing will help in this. Perhaps that is why Crystal is here. Let us hope that Rayner, too, has received the medical attention he required after being slashed at by that demon of Dara's.
I did not realise Xandra cared so much about Gerard. But then, I suppose I know very little about her, and her opinions of the elders. I have, after all, not seen her in a social situation with very many of them.
She seems to consider the Chaos Gem an 'awful thing', and it certainly seems to be, from what it did to Tobias. I stand by my suggestion that it was probably made to be used against us. Let us hope Simon stores it in a secure location. But still, I continue to wonder why it reacted so differently to me than to the others.
I think it was a good idea to discuss my - and Xandra's - precautionary plans against any infiltration by shapeshifters. One hopes that we do not have any spies (of the non-shapeshifter variety) here with us in the Atrium. But at least our ... chat gives me confidence that my - our - plans are not full of large and gaping holes.
I shall talk to Crystal regarding my idea for the magical detection (and perhaps revelation) of shapeshifters. She does continue to seem the most magically skilled of us all.
As Xandra has pointed out, though, even if we can detect any and all shapeshifters, that still leaves the more mundane, and harder to detect, forms of infiltration. From what she says - and with her having said it, I have to agree with her - magics to detect deception are impractical at best, highly misleading at worst. At least that aspect of security is not currently my responsibility, though I am considering the matter. And also one should bear in mind that were our enemies were to discover our plans to reveal shapeshifted infiltrators they would no doubt replace them with more conventional spies before too long...
I feel as if there is something I know lurking just out of reach in my mind, something I am not quite realising in all this talk of shapeshifting. Quite annoying, really. But one hopes that whatever it is will surface in its own good time...
Xandra surprised me when she said that she thinks she could get on with Legion. I simply do not see how she can think so. Did she not see him looking at her as if she were a thing? As a buyer looks at an attractive - beautiful, let us be honest here if nowhere else - slave on the suction block? As meat. Meat for him to own, and not a person at all.
I know Xandra sees the world - the worlds - in a very different manner to myself, but I had not realised just how different is her point of view.
I wonder what she thinks is my reason for hating Legion? I understand why she thinks that Legion dislikes me, and if it is so then it would appear that Legion needs to open his mind, just by the tiniest amount. And assuming his brain did not then fall out, we might get on better. This is not something I shall rely on in the future, though.
Xandra's views on torture also seem very different to those I am used to. She implies by her words that interrogation without torture is possible. And that she thinks all of us should think its use a bad thing. Well, I cannot say I truly disagree with her regarding that, but if it were necessary I should use it without hesitation. I do not think she would bow so to necessity.
She says people - shadow-dwellers - have resisted torture for years. I am sceptical. From what I have seen all that that means is that whoever was performing the torture did not know what they were doing. I am sure the people of Timashkurabad were as tough as any, but I never heard of anyone the Oricarians could not break.
Xandra does continue to behave like a strumpet. But ... with her it seems so much more ... well, innocent, I suppose ... than I would expect from such a woman in Timashkurabad. As she seems not to see it such a manner at all. This is no doubt one more example of the many ways in which things can be different across shadow. Pay attention Legion! You might learn something!
But still. She should not have offered herself as a slave to Tobias if he woke up then. I know it was only in jest, but I have seen, I know, too much of slavery to think it anything but too terrible a thing for jokes.
It is good, at least, to see that Xandra is not all-knowing, however pleasing it would be to talk to someone who was, and who was as free with the information they held as Xandra is with hers. But still, speaking with Xandra is quite ... educational ... even if I have so little comprehension of so much of what she says.