A familiar voice says, "Tell me, my son-"
Cutting him off, a Dwarven male responds, "I swear to all the Immortals if you 'my son' me one more time I'll find out whether its you or your Risen talking."
"Humorous. Tell me, what do you think about the state of our little... coalition here?"
"Festering with rot. You've spent over a decade hiding in a hole, bloating with idiots that think they're Philosophers. Half of them turn loony, two-fifths turn Perverse, and the rest only exist to take a crossbow bolt for you."
"I have not been as inactive as that, my- friend."
"The Risen was a nice trick and the fact that it keeps fooling them is depressing as the Spiral. Have you even taught your 'third generation Philosophers' to make permanent Risen?"
"Soon, but you are correct. We have been careful how much lore we introduce to the third generation. They must be Philosophers first, zombie-raising madmen second."
"Buuuullllll-chips. You're no better than the Empaths."
"You wound me."
"Not yet I haven't. Why did you want to see me?"
"Mutual cooperation remains... difficult for the older among us."
"There's a reason the title was called Triumphant and not Creator of the Hug Box, Book."
"But see the virtue of our situation. My situation. We have had unprecedented chances to work with unattuned minds. We have advanced our science by generations, ever closer to the goal."
"And still producing loons."
"And, yes, still producing... failures. What do you know of the True Sorcerers?"
"Legend. Complete nonsense. They're supposed to be mutants with the ability to see all frequencies at once. Exactly what we're trying to do."
"And what if I told you I found one?"
"I'd call you a liar and a fool."
"Call me what you want, but after you are done let us discuss what is sure to be the most revolutionary vivisection of the past hundred years."
-Armifer
"In our days truth is taken to result from the effacing of the living man behind the mathematical structures that think themselves out in him, rather than he be thinking them." - Emmanuel Levinas
