Confrontation/Chapter 14

"WHO ARE YOU?!" I demanded again of the stranger. "Where have you come from and why are you interested in me?"

"You are a man of many demands considering what you have done, Galrick," he said, and turned and continued walking, refusing once again to answer the simple questions I put to him. He always responded with some new puzzle or enigma.

"You are maddening," I said again. It was probably the twentieth time I had said it since he had led me out of that world. Though I gradually realized then as we were walking that we were not on Neld; the coast was entirely wrong.

"This is not Neld," I said.

"Quite astute," he replied with a smirk, and I noticed something then.

"Your eyes were green before. Now they are azure. They change, and not just like hazel eyes change."

The stranger stopped and placed his hand on top of the gem that crowned his staff.

"You want to know about me? Fine, I will tell you. It will not save you or give you meaning. When you learn my position elsewhere, indeed, you may wish to flee me as rapidly as The'Galin. Yet if you wish to press, I will tell....But it would be better if you accept this as my answer. I am a simple sojourner. A seeker of the truth. A deflector of lies and the source of the answer."

"That is not an answer," I objected. "What about your eyes and where are we?"

"You ask too many questions without knowing the right ones to ask and without waiting for the answers of any of them, no less giving them time to sink in. This place is Paxia. I took you here to show you more of your master's work. Now will you accept my answer about me or must I tell you all you demand?"

"Tell me," I insisted again.

"Very well then, I shall...."

And he began.