except, perhaps, for the crystal ball.
Le'lorinel hardly paid them any heed, though, for the elf was watching E'kressa. Dressed in robes of dark blue with red swirling patterns all about them, and a with a gigantic conical hat, the gnome seemed almost a caricature of the classic expectations of a wizard, except, of course, that instead of being tall and imposing, E'kressa barely topped three feet. A large gray beard and bushy eyebrows stuck out from under that hat, and E'kressa tilted his head back, face aimed in the general direction of Le'lorinel, but not as if looking at the elf.
Two pure white orbs showed under those bushy eyebrows.
Le'lorinel laughed out loud. "A blind seer? How perfectly typical."
"You doubt the powers of my magical sight?" E'kressa replied, raising his arms in threat like the wings of a crowning eagle.
More than you could ever understand," Le'lorinel casually replied.
E'kressa held the pose for a long moment, but then, in the face of Le'lorinel's relaxed posture and ridiculing smirk, the gnome finally relented. With a shrug, E'kressa reached up and took the phony white lenses out of his sparkling gray eyes.
"Works for the peasants," the illusionist seer explained. "Amazes them, indeed! And they always seem more eager to drop an extra coin or two to a blind seer."
"Peasants are easily impressed," said Le'lorinel. "I am not."
"And yet I knew of you, and your quest," E'kressa was fast to point out.
"And you know of Mahskevic, too," the elf replied dryly.
E'kressa stomped a booted foot and assumed a petulant posture that lasted all of four heartbeats. "You brought payment?" the seer asked indignantly.
Le'lorinel tossed a bag of silver across the expanse to the eager gnome's waiting hands. "Why not just use your incredible powers of divination to get the count?" Le'lorinel asked, as the gnome started counting out the coins.
E'kressa's eyes narrowed so that they were lost beneath the tremendous eyebrows. The gnome waved his hand over the bag, muttered a spell, then a moment later, nodded and put the bag aside. "I should charge you more for making me do that," he remarked.
"For counting your payment?" Le'lorinel asked skeptically.
"For having to show you yet another feat of my great powers of seeing," the gnome replied. "For not making you wait while I counted them out."
"It took little magic to know that the coins would all be there," the elf responded. "Why would I come here if I had not the agreed upon price?"
"Another test?" the gnome asked.
Le'lorinel groaned.
"Impatience is the folly of humans, not of elves," E'kressa reminded. "I foresee that if you pursue your quest with such impatience, doom will befall you."
"Brilliant," came the sarcastic reply.
"You're not making this easy, you know," the gnome said in deadpan tones.
"And while I can assure you that I have all the patience I will need to be rid of Drizzt Do'Urden, I do not wish to waste my hours standing here," said Le'lorinel. "Too many preparations yet await me, E'kressa."
The gnome considered that for a moment, then gave a simple shrug. "Indeed. Well, let us see what the crystal ball will show to us. The course of your pursuit, we hope, and perhaps whether Le'lorinel shall win or whether he shall lose." He rambled down toward the center of the room, waddling like a duck, then veered to the crystal ball.
"The course, and nothing more," Le'lorinel corrected.
E'kressa stopped short and turned about slowly to regard this curious creature. "Most would desire to know the outcome," he said.
"And yet, I know, as do you, that any such outcome is not predetermined," Le'lorinel replied.
"There is a probability . . ."
"And nothing more than that. And what am I to do, O great seer, if you tell me I shall win my encounter with Drizzt Do'Urden, that I shall slay him as he deserves to be slain and wipe my bloodstained sword upon his white hair?"
"Rejoice?" E'kressa asked sarcastically.
"And what am I to do, O great seer, if you tell me that I shall lose this fight?" Le'lorinel went on. "Abandon that which I can not abandon? Forsake my people and suffer the drow to live?"
"Some people think he's a pretty nice guy."
"Illusions do fool some people, do they not?" Le'lorinel remarked.
E'kressa started to respond, but then merely sighed and shrugged and continued on his waddling way to the crystal ball. "Tell me your thoughts of the road before you," he instructed.
"The extra payment insures confidentiality?" Le'lorinel asked.
E'kressa regarded the elf as if that was a foolish question indeed.