Chapter 3 Part 22

The girl entered the room again and this time she was followed by Samson.

"Well," Ultrecht said from the chair in which he sat, "Samson will also be joining us for the day."

"Leave him alone," Marlena scolded, "can't you see he's been through something tragic?"

"That leaves only Avery to arrive," Norwind observed.

"Your other comrade will not be joining us," the Oracle's voice said.

Ultrecht had been there the longest and had spoken at length with the disembodied voice. The Oracle had made it quite plain that it was not going to tell anything until everyone had been tested. "Are you saying that Avery did not pass the test?"

The voice did not reply.

Marlena stepped forward and addressed the darkness from which the voice seemed to come. "We were told that those who failed your test were killed," she said. "Is this true?"

The voice hesitated for a moment. "It is true," it said at last.

"Then you have slain the halfelf?" asked Samson.

"The one you speak of has not perished," the voice replied.

"Has he failed the test?" asked Armegon.

"He has not failed the test," the voice said.

"Then he passed the test?"

"Not completely. His solution to his test was, unexpected and ambiguous," the voice answered.

"He is alive. He didn’t fail or pass his test, but what he did was unforeseen?" Ultrecht thought on this for a moment. "Yes, that sounds like Avery."

"The one you call Avery was given a test to determine if he would risk his own life to defend the life of one who was doomed to die soon anyway."