The Diary of Belboz

Dear Elaine: By the time you are reading this, the plan I will have been nurturing for many centuries will have come to fruition. Now at last I shall have a chance to undo the evil I did countless years ago. This diary explains how Telluria fell and how I came to conceive of this plan. I have all but succeeded in rebuilding Celubar's machine, with only one thing missing: a green gemstone of great power from outside of time and space called the Tear of the Brazen Man. It lies in the depths of these very caves. Minestus sought it but could not take it it because it was protected by a creature which even he could not defeat. Perhaps with my powers combined with his you will be able to do so. You must find the Tear as soon as possible. Once you have it you can complete the machine and save Telluria from destruction. I only ask you one thing: whatever may have passed between you, be kind to my daughter and protect her.

Elaine couldn't bear to read any more. She carefully closed the diary and put it down on the table. So she'd been manipulated by Belboz all along. Somehow he'd managed to anticipate just about everything she'd done. How was that even possible? And why should she keep carrying out this horrible plan? Maybe she should burn the diary and be free of Belboz forever. And yet... Belboz said that she'd be able to save Telluria. If there was even a chance he was speaking the truth she'd do anything to save her homeland from death. And he had known it.

So what would she do now? Belboz had said that she should find the Tear as soon as possible. Perhaps Fred and the rest could help her. She felt a sudden panic, a desire to leave as soon as possible. She didn't want to stay here alone amid Belboz's remains. But how could she get the rest of the group to trust her? First, she'd have to hide the ring from them so they'd think she wasn't under Belboz's influence. A simple illusion, cast in the space of the second, caused the ring to fade into invisibility. Then she'd have to hide the diary in a place she could take it out when she wanted. As she wondered what to do she fiddled with the ring on her finger. Then as she touched a button on the side it popped open. So Belboz had planned for that too. She shrunk the diary to the size of a pea and placed it inside the ring, closing it back up.

Of course, concealing them from Sigin would be harder. She knew she would have to restore him if their foe was what Belboz said it was. But Sigin's sense of magic was well-honed and he knew her better than most. She'd have to give him a reason not to suspect her. For all the time she'd been his apprentice he'd known her as a weak, vulnerable girl, and perhaps if she appeared to be that again he'd overlook what she'd done.

And so Elaine cast one more spell upon herself, using the heart-flame of Minestus--a curse. There was a bright flash of light and when it faded away Elaine could no longer see. Not with her eyes, at least. She could see at a far deeper level now, and knew both where the Tear was and where her rescuers and one-time friends were. They were deep in the caves and now were not far from the Tear and its guardian. They'd moved quite far and Elaine wondered just how long she'd been lost in that reverie. It must have been hours. Well, now was the time to act.

1. Elaine stepped to a cavern just outside the one where her friends were.

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