"Please, tell me," Albin said with a grin, folding his hands in his lap. "What does bring you here?...You know...to Ancondria in the first place?"
We were in the smaller dining room in Albin's private quarters, located on the second floor of the residence. Pat and I briefly glanced at each other, quickly enough that Albin did not notice, and remembered what we rehearsed.
"Nix and I," Pat began. "Well...We were questing partners in the Arturian Realm. And we both came across your letter."
"Ah yes, of course. The Third Level Society," Albin said, leaning back a bit. "And I'm sure what I said in my letter hit home with you, with all the frivolous politics involved. I'm just curious, though, how bad have things gotten since my departure? I'm curious to learn of your experience...your side of the story."
I could not help but glance again at Pat. But Pat returned me a look of reassurance, as if saying that nothing would go wrong at this point.
Albin was nearest to me. He touched my hand to get my attention. "No one will judge. I promise: we are all friends here."
Despite my misgivings, I gave a detailed and accurate story of my time as a Third Level Society member, my rise and downfall, even including my short-lived romance with Helen Nichols-
"Sorry to interrupt," Pat said. "I am afraid that this very same Helen Nichols, for all of last year, was reinforcing the notion, a very false notion that is, that you, Albin, were a conspirator in the act of oathcrafting."
"Oh dear," Albin started.
I whipped around toward Pat with a look on my face that must have been shock and confusion. "You don't remember...?" Pat said to me.
"It's fine," Albin said, touching my hand again. "You clearly must have had the notion in your head this entire time without considering the source. Or perhaps your mind was bent toward the wrong source. But alas, that is a consequence of having fallen victim to oathcrafting. We won't judge you, Nix. We are here to help you, to bring you back to your senses so that you may turn and defeat your source of infiltration."
Pat rose from his seat and paced to a location between myself and Albin. Pat put his hand on my shoulder. "You need to understand, Nix. The Pageturner Guild has a death grip on the Third Level Society. As I speak, they are sowing confusion among the masses through oathcrafting. Every Member, including yourself, has been swayed. I was, too, for a time; and it was only recently that I finally was able to overcome the chains that held me."
"Divide and conquer," Albin added, looking sympathetic toward me. "That's what they do, both Guilds actually but more-so the Pageturners. Have you taken time to learn the history?"
Now Pat put his hands on both of my shoulders. "I think, Albin, that Nix's mental endurance for the day is spent."
"Indeed," Albin replied. "We will continue at a later time."
***
"How long have you and Albin been in league!?" I asked Pat back at our private guest quarters.
"I was the same as you till today," Pat said. "You know that with every argument, even from those we are made to despise the most, I always take a microsecond to view the argument from the perspective of the opponent. Ninety percent of the time it reinforces what I believe in the first place. But with the other remaining ten percent, as in with this incident, I have a revelation. In this case, everything adds up, if you think about it."
"What...? I don't understand. And don't you remember? What about the spellcrafter cross?"
"We will figure that out later," Pat assured me.
***
So I've turned in for the night; and needless to say, I am very confused.
Up to this point, Pat was more cautious even than I regarding the dangers of oathcrafting. But now Albin and Pat seem conspiring together to try and convince me that I was perhaps deeply swayed myself, and that Pat was an extension of Albin trying to pull me out of that abyss.
But that does not address the fact that Pat did not know Albin any longer than I did. And for him to have a sudden revelation like that? In the fifteen months that I've known him, Pat is not known to suddenly change his mind. Any "revelation" like that, Pat takes weeks, even months, to reach.
And I remember now that Albin is in possession of that spellcrafter cross, which might be the one stolen from Schraber. Even if it isn't that one per say, I'm afraid that he might be using it on Pat. And maybe on me as well, which is why I am writing in this journal. I definitely felt some sort of influence during that conversation. So I am scared that I am going to be swayed soon, if I am not already.
Hopefully, this entry will give me some grounding.
In the meantime, I am going to do something that I dare not mention to anyone, even to Pat: I am going to figure my own plan out to retrieve that spellcrafter cross.