"Just... needed to excuse m-myself from the others," the Professor had finally climbed the rocks and sat, removing his hood. He watched the party enter the mines and finally relaxed once Riagan was out of sight.
He let out a sigh and cast his gaze skyward. "I feel, I feel that, I feel that we're wasting our time... We m-must recover the shards, and time is of the essence! However, however, I feel that..."
He paused as his voice dropped so as not to echo through the canyon. "I feel that... that Chakra doesn't have the same
urgency. This, this... this is not the first time that she had taken...
too long to act. If, if I, if I hadn't m-moved... we would have still been
outside the city gates."
He dropped his gaze to his hands in his lap. "We should tell her, or
remind her, or, or... or even go
ahead. Time is of the essence. M-mar is also after the shards. We need to be
one step ahead, but, but, but we can't if we don't
move."
"Elves huh....I've been mistaken for an elf before by little forest Goblins many times because of my ears....they're that bad?" Sakura wondered.
"You are of halfling stock," Riagan said simply. He didn't look at Sakura as he led her and the rest of the party through the mines. "You know not of the true nature of Elves. How they see themselves. How they carry themselves. How they
talk. We have a saying for their kind; 'an Elf uses more words than necessary to say more than they know.'"
He fell silent for a moment, save for his bootsteps echoing off the tunnel walls. "The Schism concerns more than the Elves. They were only a
part of it. The
Order set it in motion."