Valehna felt uncharacteristically paranoid. "Not really," she responded to Tal. "But I'll be ready if she tries anything."<br/><br/>Mesaraih shook his head. "Not particularly," he said. "Just..." he trailed off, letting Ester continue speaking to the group at large. He nodded at Tal's response. "That," he said finally. "I have this feeling the spirit is going to be waiting for us outside. Then again, it's not like we have any way of knowing which of the two dangers is the greatest one."<br/><br/>Valehna listened to the others until Ester asked her what she thought.<br/><br/>"All I know is that gathering the lyrium has predictable danger. If we leave without retrieving it, we have no idea what to expect. It could be a lot less dangerous, or a lot more. We can't kill the spirit, you know. The most we can do is send it back to the Fade. There's a chance it'll constantly want to come back to try and hurt us."<br/><br/>Mesaraih considered her words. "Sounds annoying," he said. "We'll all have to go our separate ways eventually, though. I'm the one who agreed to gather the lyrium and take the supplies. He'll probably come after me. I'm sure the rest of you won't have anything to worry about."<br/><br/>He gave Valehna and Tal a subtle wink.<br/><br/>A small smile crept onto Valehna's face. The shem seemed far too much like himself to be controlled by Ester. "I suppose," she said, her expression returning to normal. "What about you, Tal? What do you think?"