He's still a jerk...

So we ended up in the Crystal room with the Queen and her Captain of the Guards who's name I can never remember. There were alot of conversations going on about what had just happened but I just kept looking at the crystal. It looks like it is in pain and slowing. I looked at it and I could see the taint in and surrounding it. I was very sad that this is happening but my fiends and I agree that it is a product of what is happening to the north. The Queen gave us passage to go up and find out what exactly is happening in the mine there.
 
Arjm lowered her thing a ma doodle down the hole under the crystal and found a wellspring of Aether. The Hat had told me about that and how would be initiates would take pilgramages to a wellspring and come back with some secret knowldege. I wanted to jumpd downa nd find out but I made a promise to not jump into any unknown holes or portals so we left. We came out as they began to haul away the jerk who turned into the Esper. No'vani wanted to talk to him about her mentor and they had a conversation and then Arjm got one of her headaches again and saw a conversation between the two. It looks like this attack on the queen had been layed out for awhile now. Even talking to No'vani he was still being a jerk becasue it was her that was supposed to do it not him. He called her a bad name which made me so mad I wanted to unleash all kinds of mental hell towards him and I even told him. But then, he told us why he did this and I kinda felt sorry for him. He had someone taken to the north against her will and it turns out that the Queen had banished those who were Aether sick to go build up defenses against the monsters there and the coming of this "Empire". So then Noni whispered to me that we could use this jerk to find her mentor. I thought about and agreed asking the Queen to spare his life and put us in charge of him. She did at the cost of a boon to us (not like she had magical Noliths or anything like that) so it was a decision we all agreed to. He was released and we headed back to the inn.
 
Our two young friends were ok but mad that we didn't invite them to the Queen's reception. After telling them about what happened, we started talking about Noni's mentor. I looked around his office and found out that about a year ago, things changed with him. his handwriting changed and he began to wear an earing that I think had white magicite in it. It allows memories to be stored and I think that wizard guy Pastereu used it to assume his identity. I brought this back to my friends and they seemed to agree with me that this was not No'vani's mentor. So the discussion turned to how we could get to the North fast and to whether we need another cart to haul our "guest". I guess after a good nights sleep we will figure that out. Even though we saved this guy's life, he still kept saying bad words to us and just being overly grumpy. You think that us giving him another chance would lighten him up, but no he still is a jerk...