He sat alone at a table in the corner stirring his tea, which was, by this time, cold.
Ignatius entered quietly through the door, this time without his usual bravado and fanfare, and Eliezer saw him, but he paid him no mind.
Martin came to the bottom of the stairs to greet him, and grabbed hold of his shirtsleeve. "Ignatius, look at him!"
"What's wrong with him?" Ignatius asked.
Martin shrugged. "He's been here stirring his tea like that for hours. Hasn't said a word."
Eliezer heard them, but his mind was on other things, and his gaze never left the watery surface as he watched the swirling green of the self-made whirlpool in the little white cup.
'Ambassador...'
Sebastian's words rang in his ears, as did Jordan's, and his heart longed for the lady.
'I wish that I had told her something more.'
He stirred his tea. Again and again, it swirled around like his thoughts.
"Eliezer!" Ignatius shouted, and he saw he was standing now in front of him.
He looked up, brought suddenly back to his reality at present, and blinked. The two men laughed, and they must have been trying to get his attention for some time, because Martin seemed to have tracked the length it took to reach him.
"Goodness, man! What's gott'n into you?"
He blinked again and opened his mouth to say something, but he sounded as though he were mute and promptly returned his eyes to his tea.
"Eliezer!" Martin insisted, snatching the cup from him forcefully and splashing some of the tea out on the table.
He looked up at them, shocked by their insistence.
"Eliezer, what's gotten into you?" Martin asked him.
"Ah..." He shook his head. Unable to utter much more, he tried to get his head together.
'They charged me straightly that I should not tell anyone. Perhaps, about the girl.'
"I know!" Martin said. "It was that meeting, wasn't it?"
"Meeting?" Eliezer blinked.
"Yeah, you know - the one with Cleric Kenmore and the Board of Leadership," Martin reminded him. "They were going to ask you about taking over running the congregation as Overseer."
"Oh," he muttered. "Yes, I'd quite forgotten."
Martin looked to Ignatius. "My goodness, something really has gotten him."
Ignatius nodded. "Aye. He's very strange. We'll have to pull the answer out of him."
"Well, Eliezer," Martin said, turning back to his friend, "don't leave us hanging; what happened?"
"Well, you see... there was a lady I met who I rather admired," Eliezer admitted, looking down to the empty space and spilled tea on the table in front of him.
"Well... what's wrong with that?" Martin asked him, not seeming to understand the problem.
"She was a foreigner from another region," he told them. "We were interrupted when we had been talking yesterday evening. I had hoped that I might see her and we might talk more, but..." he shook his head. "I've searched all around town, and it seems that no one knows a thing about her."
Ignatius developed the most stricken look on his face, and he put his hands down on the table, leaning towards him with intense interest. "This girl's name wasn't Dorcus, was it?" he asked him.
Eliezer shook his head. "I didn't get a first name."
Martin looked to Ignatius with puzzled curiosity. "You think it's that seer we talked to?"
Eliezer looked at them questioningly. "What seer?"
Martin turned his head back to him. "After we left last night, there was a seer who met us on the way, a young lady. Quite pretty. Never seen her before, but... she was Trimble and Carder." He shot a second glance towards Ignatius.
"Oh, was she?" Eliezer breathed, avoiding eye contact.
He felt a faint hope growing in his heart, and he smiled, his chest filled with a strange warmth. 'Perhaps, then, I will see her.'
"Aye," Ignatius said, leaning in closer. "She was; and I think that you'd better tell us what happened last night b'fore we tell everyone about their bein' here."
Eliezer swallowed, looking down, and his eyes fell as he remained silent.
"Eliezer, I'm waiting," Ignatius told him.
He looked to Martin. "Give me the tea back."
Ignatius nodded and Martin passed him the cup. It slid across the table, stopping in front of him with another splash of the green leaf juice spilling out on the table. Eliezer frowned. The cup was never large to begin with and now it was merely half-filled.
"Say, Eliezer," Martin mused. "You don't know anything about a horse, do you?"
"What? No! I mean... I have one," Eliezer said, surprised by the strangeness of the question and the sudden change of topic.
"Do you still?" Martin confirmed.
"Yes."
"He isn't dead, is he?" Martin asked him.
"What? No! No, Regis is fine, thank you," Eliezer told him.
Ignatius chuckled. "Martin, you're an idiot."
"Hey!" Martin protested, taken off guard. "What's the matter with you? You heard what Carder said as well as I did!"
Eliezer chuckled. 'He looks as a man who's been struck.'
"Yes," Ignatius acknowledged, "and I heard what he meant, too."
Martin seemed startled. "What do you mean by that?"
"Eliezer, why don't you tell him what happened when Kenmore asked you to take his place as overseer last night?" Ignatius requested.
"Well, actually, he... didn't," Eliezer said nervously. "He... would have, but... something... came up."
"Of course it did." Ignatius smiled with self-satisfaction. "I suppose they told you not to tell us until the summons arrives."
Eliezer nodded. "Yes, that's correct."
Martin had been lost in the conversation. His eyes darted between them with questions and confusion as his mouth remained agape. He shook his head, recollecting himself, and blinked. "Summons?"
Ignatius turned his eyes slowly to Martin. "The horse is Carder's, not Eliezer's, and he is a man and not a horse, and he is very dead, indeed," Ignatius told him. "Carder came here looking to find himself a replacement, and that he has in our friend here." He shifted his eyes to Eliezer, and Martin's gaze followed him.
Eliezer felt his face turn red with embarrassment. "Yes, well..." he muttered.
Ignatius smiled. "Congratulations, Ambassador, on your new appointment."
Eliezer smiled politely. "Yes, thank you," he muttered. "But I haven't got it yet."
Martin seemed in awe as he stood quietly staring at him.
'I suppose that's a lot to have dropped on him.'
Eliezer took the teacup and brought it to his mouth, tilting it slightly upwards and pouring the honeyed green liquid into his mouth. It was cold, but he drank it.
'Disappointing.' He frowned.