They listen to you without interruption, although there are some interesting facial expressions.
What was more concerning was he was thinking about a plot....
causes Captain Maris to raise an eyebrow.
Durer was also thinking about The Mocker, who I still don't exactly know anything about except he seems to be a bad person.
Maris nods at this.
I'm assuming Brom was reading my thoughts last night as well, which I was trying to use to convey a bit more information to him.
Brom's face turns to something between a frown and a scowl.
...he was calling me a telepath. He also was thinking about how he wished he was able to use radios in the castle, but that it would draw too much attention. I didn't know that technology existed here.
This brings very puzzled expressions, and they look at each other in bewilderment.
He was also talking about the fact the universe doesn't know Grammarye has telepaths yet. What is Grammarye anyway?
They look more bewildered at this, but Brom says, "Go on."
I think I should explain a little more about my history. I wasn't born in this time period and perhaps not even on this world. I was involved in a series of events that has caused me to be displaced from my original location in time and space. As such I have knowledge of technology which I believe surpasses what is present here. Until hearing Durer's thoughts about the radio I imagined electronics did not exist here and thus my knowledge was not necessary.
Through all this they look completely lost, although they start looking less so when you continue:
Radios are devices which allow long distance communication through inaudible signals transmitted through the air.
The last of Durer's thoughts before he left were that he needed to eliminate me...
Both men look somewhat concerned at this point.
They look at each other, and Maris nods to Brom, who begins the answers.
"First, Grammarye is the world--the entire world, the world of men and elves and beasts, from ocean to ocean. Catherine is queen of all. I don't know what ye mean, about being from somewhere else.
"Second, I'm not a warlock. I am the queen's jester, and the only one like me, but I do not have the powers the witches and warlocks share. I can't read your thoughts, lad.
"As to these words--'telepath', 'radio', 'technology', 'electronics'--I've never heard such words before, and they have no meaning that I know. Nor can I say where you could have been born if not here on Grammarye, but I'll not say ye be not honest in saying so, nor that ye be crazy to believe so. After all, no one can say where you are from, and if ye arrived from another world, that would be as good an answer as any. Do ye know how ye traveled here, or why Grammarye was your destination?"
Maris steps in.
"I want to hear more of this plot. I realize that you only heard what you heard, but that he was plotting something together with the Mocker is, as Brom says, not credible, and we can't imagine what agreement might be between those two.
"Durer is Councilor to the Duke Loguire. I know not his origin, but he is seen as the chief of these councilors who have appeared within the past ten years, one at the ear of each of the leading nobles of Grammarye other than the Queen herself. The Duke trusts his advice, although argues with him more than any of the other nobles argue with their councilors. There is tension between the Duke and the Queen, but also I think much love--when her father the King had to fight a rebellion among the lords to the north, he sent her south to stay in the Loguire demesnes; he is her uncle, or near as, and she grew up for half a decade with his two sons.
"All thought that she would marry the younger, Tuan Loguire, a skillful, dashing young man but a year older than she; but when her father died the year after she returned home, she accused him of seeking her hand only for the power of the throne, for whoever she marries will rule Grammarye. He so disgraced was separated from his family; but he runs with the House of Clovis now, which is where The Mocker stays.
"The House of Clovis styles itself an inn, but it is a den for thieves and beggars. Tuan Loguire appears to be the leader, but The Mocker, a decrepit hunched distortion of a old man, seems to do a lot of the work behind the scenes. I have more than once thought the place ought to be destroyed, but the Queen says not--and well she might, because although Loguire preaches against the nobles openly in the streets of the capital, he also always preaches loyalty to the queen.
"Durer, meanwhile, seems to be pushing all the nobles, through their councilors, to demand more authority for themselves and a quelling of the rising rabble. The queen is in the middle of this, but she tends to favor the rabble against the nobles--"
"I think that's more than enough about that particular subject," Brom interjects. "What the Queen decides about policy is not to be second-guessed by soldiers and jesters and even warlocks.
"But this radio of which you speak it is a machine? You say it uses inaudible signals over long distances, just as the witches and warlocks do when they communicate by thought, yes? You have seen such a machine? Where?"
--M. J. Young
