After checking up on Alexia, Sterling realized that there was a critical flaw in their plan to rescue Zakiyah and sadly expressed it to everyone saying, "Hold up guys, I just remembered something. We have a summoning rope that allows us to call the Lorekeeper, but who's to say that Venger doesn't have one as well. Or at the very least a summoning spell designed to retrieve the only Lorekeeper the Realm has left."
The Dark Elf sighed and continued, "What I'm trying to say is that even if we are successful in rescuing Zak, Venger could summon her right back into his presence the moment he realized that she was gone! Chances are the Dark Lord would do it out of sheer spite! And thus make all of our work and risk-taking count for nothing!"
"And on top of that,' said the Drow with some reservation. "Venger may very well go ahead and torture Zakiyah for escaping the first time. The Dark Lord would take such an escape as a personal insult. He may even torture her, stick her in a magic-proof cell, and then dare us to rescue her again. You know, it sickens me to my stomach to say this, let alone to think it," concluded the Swordsman evenly. "But Zak might be better off where she is now."
"Now I'm no expert on Venger," continued Sterling solemnly. "Nor do I claim to be, I just worked for the guy for a century, that's all. But I can say this much about the Dark Lord. Venger at times can be much like a child. Once he finds a new toy, he'll play with it awhile, until he gets tired of it and then sets it aside. I'm hoping and praying that he treats Zak the exact same way, toying with the Lorekeeper until he grows weary of her and then letting her go without a second thought."
Half admitting to himself, Sterling said, "I don't pretend to know the future guys, I don't know what he has done to her or what he is doing to her or what he will do to her, but I do know this: If we pull the rug out from under Venger with this little stunt and he decides to summon Zak back into his company, the Dark Lord is quite capable of hurting her badly. I've seen what he has done to escaped prisoners that are returned to him, and its not very pretty. I just wanted to throw this out to you guys so that we could think about the consequences of our actions, should we succeed. If I'm completely off-base tell me, so what do you guys think?"
