Continues from S3-3-10: Blade & Rodrigo Bandras. “If you come seeking enlightenment, you are welcome cousin. But if you are here on my father’s behalf, then go back now, for I will not leave!” Lennara greeting was not the welcome Rodrigo had hoped for after he, Blade, Rynard and Syn had ridden hard for seven days through Ilmiora’s central highlands to reach the House of Stars on the upper slopes of Mount Armilla. “I am here on your father’s behalf,” Rodrigo replied sternly, “and you will return to Ordis with me! He has allowed you to indulge your fascination with the stars for three years, but now it’s time for you to fulfill the obligations of your birth and marry the man he has chosen for you.” “You mean it is time for me to be sold to a man I’ve never met, who can give my father some greater status or wealth,” she spat back. “Well I refuse! I have met a man here who has taught me the truth of the Elithior; that the Lords of Law and Chaos are not the masters of our destiny, but it’s the stars above who are the only true gods!” “What blasphemy is this?” the Vilmirian nobleman roared. Since meeting Syn, he had begun to question the teachings of the priests of Law, but they were only men interpreting the will of the gods. To claim that the Lords of Law were not true gods and that the stars govern man’s fate was too much. “If your father heard you speak this heresy he would turn you over to the Inquisition himself!” “It’s only heresy if it isn’t true,” she snapped back at him, “and I’ve learned the truth here!” “Who is this teacher of such truths?” Syn interrupted their argument, which showed no sign of ending any time soon, in a cold commanding tone that captured both their attentions. “What heresy is this cousin,” Lennara mocked Rodrigo as she glanced back to him. “You travel with the spawn of Chaos… a Dragon Lord! What would the Inquisition say to that?” Then, without waiting for a reply, she turned fully toward Syn and answered in a haughty tone. “His name is Thayland Dune… and he is a most learned scrutineer from Elwher of Eshmir.” To be continued on S3-3-12: Lennara Thrinsus (Portrait). The spoiled daughter of a Vilmirian noble house, Lennara traveled to the House of Stars, a celestial observatory in the Ilmiorian central highlands, as a devotee of the Lord of Law, Vallyn the wise, but became seduced by the Eshmirian philosophy of the elithior and the renegade scrutineer Thayland Dune. Denouncing the Lords of Law, and refusing to obey her father’s order to return to Ordis to be married, she began a chain of events destine to end in tragedy. Lennara’s refusal to return to Vilmir at her father’s command brought her cousin, Rodrigo Bandras, into contact with Blade, Rynard Adae and Daeron Syn for the first time, and drew them all into a conflict far greater then any of them anticipated. The eleventh installment in the thrid "book" of my Stormbringer characters adventures. Thanks for looking... Hope you enjoy! Comments and suggestions always welcome and appreciated!