Poxig was always a winsome chum, but he knew how to watch his own tongue. It was one night after he and Lakfi were arguing about a certain theological topic, that he let loose his true thoughts, which Poxig hardly ever did.
“There is no light warrior prophecy,” said Lakfi. “Your trust is misplaced in Releven.”
Of course, this insulted Poxig, who believed himself to be the recipient of Releven’s emic language, as opposed to Lakfi’s etic false language.
“Releven was responsible for repelling Darxon at the Nitla pass. A god is just a hero in a non-human form. Our hero Releven remade us in his own image, and made the elvish people into a united country. Before, an elf was considered a kind of orc.”
At that point, Lakfi stammered and retorted. “You lost during the wars of religion, and that is why you are defensive about Releven.”
“Even now, Releven could win the victory against Garland, with his powerful magic!”
“You have no idea about the powers that be, and they are conspiring against you!”
Lakfi cast a muddle spell on his friend, he was so angry. Poxig had bested his most formal logic of darkness. Now, Lakfi wished to show him his power.
When Poxig revived, Lakfi said, “Darkness is power. This is something you can never understand.”
“Nor do I wish to,” said Poxig. “You and I will never agree here.”
Poxig gave him his wages for having finished the quest to reform Conrad the vampire. He had thought that this story would be an object lesson that would bring his deceived friend to the light. Instead, it had caused him to return to darkness. Poxig wanted no part of it.
A friend’s betrayal is still hard to take. This gainsayer had caused him to question his trust in his friend, and it was many more months before he would trust him again.
Andrew J. Wolfram 