Orlan

The other day I stopped at the 1st National Bank of Dad to check on my money. I chit-chatted with the banker for five minutes, asking about his wife and children. He asked me about school and my life. Then we got down to the nitty gritty. He tells me where I should put my money, what I should invest in, what I should sell. In the end it's always save, save, save. As I get ushered out the door I ask for another loan and get denied. Fortunately, I have another account at the 1st National Bank of Mom, and I seem to have better credit.

Well I'll be a sonuva....this thing is still up? I used it like 7 years ago. Just goes to show you

The person above me has the title "Babe who is the Color of the Sky of The Great God and Pharaoh Nanotoknonnen "

sex lax i en lax ask.

“Who hired Taleth?” Dayane asked immediately when the memories slowed down and the Holy City of Anlise came into focus. Taleth stood with his back against the wall next to a double door. He wore the armor of the Royal Guard and looked quite striking in it as well. Another guard stood on the other side of the door. “I don’t know. In fact, there’s an entire part of Taleth’s life right before he came to Anlise that I cannot see. Regardless of how many times I tried to go through his memories or go straight to that time, I always am pushed backwards or forwards. It’s as if he had forgotten them all completely. Or he has something there he doesn’t want seen,” Rysabella explained. “So then Taleth forgot who hired him to kill you?” Dayane asked, giving Taleth an appraising look as she thought about this particular turn of events. “Not completely,” Rysabella said, searching for a way to explain. “Taleth is very professional with his assassinations. While he has a perfect memory, he also has a masterful control of it, and he can bury his thoughts deep in his mind so people who try to see anything get blocked. I’ve been through his mind many times and have overcome a lot of those blocks but they were not easy. Maybe it’s because it lead up to something big, or maybe it’s because I’m here but for some reason Taleth has that part locked away so tightly that even I can’t break through.” “So you don’t even know who killed you or why?” Dayane said. Immediately she regretted her words. She realized how insensitive they sounded after they had left her mouth. “I’m sorry, that didn’t sound right.” “Don’t apologize for things you say when you speak what’s on your mind,” Rysabella said with a smile. “No I don’t know who hired Taleth to kill me. Honestly, I don’t even know if Taleth was going to kill me. The memory goes blank as he is about to do anything to me. You can judge for yourself if you like.” “What about the other Taleth, the one in the cabin?” Dayane asked. “Does he know?” “I’m sure he does, but he will never tell. If Taleth locked the memories up so tight that I can’t get at them then I’m not going to find out from the other Taleth.” “I guess you’re right,” Dayane said. “Guards, come in here for a moment please,” came Mellara’s voice from the other side of the door. Taleth and the other guard each took a door and pulled them open. Within was a spectacular bedroom, one many times larger then Dayane had ever used or seen. A large bed was placed in the center of one wall, with the opposite wall leading off to smaller rooms. One of the walls had a single arched window, and next to the window was a table with a handful of chairs. Sitting in one of these chairs was Rysabella, looking as she did standing next to Dayane now. The only difference was that this Rysabella wore a regal gown fit for a queen, not a night dress. The Crown of Life was on her head and seemed to glow on its own. Across from her was Mellara. Dayane realized that both these women looked the same today as they did when this memory took place. Nothing changed about them. The revelation was an eerie one. Mellara looked from Taleth to the other guard. “I need you two to take this chest,” she indicated a large chest that was by the table, “and bring it down to the royal vault. It’s quite heavy so you’ll most likely have to both lift it.” “But we can’t leave the queen unguarded,” the other guard spoke up. Mellara looked at him oddly. “What makes you think she’s unguarded?” Mellara said, her voice holding almost a small threat as if she wanted him to challenge her. “The law is quite specific in her being within voice of a guard, milady,” the guard protested. He kept his eyes forward but Dayane believed that was more out of fear of eye contact with Mellara then of duty. “Well this chest has to be moved, and I doubt either one of you could move it yourselves,” Mellara said. It sounded like a challenge. “Here,” Taleth said as he handed his halberd to the other guard. Everyone looked at him oddly but the guard accepted the weapon. Taleth walked over to the chest and reached down to the latch. He put his fingers on either side of the chest and squeezed. The latch glowed red for a moment, and then the metal pieces that covered the eight corners of the started to glow the same red. Taleth grabbed one of the handles on one end and easily lifted the chest up and set it on his shoulder. He did not look like he was struggling with it at all. “How?” the other guard asked. “The metal is Lode Stone. It’s used on a rare number of chests. It makes the chest light as a feather if you trigger the key lock correctly.” Taleth explained this fact as if it was simple knowledge. Mellara gave Taleth a proud look and then turned to Rysabella. “I told you that your guards are necessary,” Mellara said. “They are hand picked for a reason, Your Majesty. They have limitless knowledge, undying loyalty to the queen and they follow orders to the letter. They are the best, and I am keeping them here.” Dayane look at the Rysabella in the memory and caught her in a less then regal moment. She was literally staring a hole into Taleth with her jaw dropped a little bit. Dayane had to laugh. The other Rysabella sighed from behind her. “I told you that I did about the same thing that you did,” she said. “I stand by my actions at that time, though. Hard to find a man who looks fairly good and is as knowledgeable as Taleth is.” “Your name?” Mellara asked Taleth. “Rhian, Lady Sorceress,” Taleth responded instantly. Dayane watched the flawless lie be accepted at face value. “You can call me Mellara, Rhian,” Mellara said. “Of course, Lady Sorceress,” Taleth replied with a straight face. He turned to the other guard. “I’ll be back momentarily.” Taleth started walking out the door. “Thank you, Sir Rhian,” Rysabella said. The other Rysabella put her head into her hands and groaned. Taleth turned and bowed. “Of course, Your Majesty,” Taleth replied. He walked right out the door. The memories grayed over and sped by. “‘Thank you, Sir Rhian?’” Dayane asked Rysabella. “You sounded like a young girl on her first crush.” “I didn’t expect the guards to be able to solve that so simply. I was caught off guard, alright?” Rysabella said. She was turning a little red from embarrassment, though. The memories stopped moving again and Taleth stood in a hallway. He was not wearing his guard uniform now and instead, wore black clothes and stalked his way everywhere. “So what was Taleth doing as a guard?” Dayane asked Rysabella. The queen composed herself again. “Reconnaissance,” she replied. “I’m sure he knew he wouldn’t be able to just waltz in here and get to me. He spent several months as a guard here, learning the layout and routines. The amusing thing was that he even stopped an assassination attempt on me. He caught someone sneaking into my room one night when I was asleep and killed him quick and clean and disposed of the body. Not a soul knew that it had happened.” “Why would he do that?” Dayane asked. “Taleth’s loyalty to his job is a pillar in his life,” Rysabella said. “Even though acting the part of a guard was just a ploy, Taleth took the job to heart and preformed his duties flawlessly. That included protecting the queen, me.” Taleth leaned against a part of the wall and peaked around a corner quickly. He reached into his boot and took out a stone. He tossed the stone hard around the corner and a moment later it made a fairly loud noise. Taleth sprung around the corner and moved silently down the hallway. Rysabella and Dayane moved him and saw two guards protecting the door that Taleth was guarding earlier. Both guards had their heads turned away from Taleth’s approach. Dayane surmised that they where looking at the source of the sound that Taleth’s stone made. In a flash Taleth sent his knee into the side of one guard’s head, sending him spinning. The other guard reacted fast enough to duck under Taleth’s kick and bring his halberd around in a low sweep at Taleth’s other leg. Taleth let himself be tripped up by the sweep and brought his knee down to the handle of the halberd, breaking it. The guard stumbled forward right into Taleth’s elbow and fell in a heap to the ground. For the ruckus, Dayane was still amazed at how silently Taleth fought. A moment later Taleth was in Rysabella’s room. Moonlight streamed in through the one window, somewhat lighting the room. Taleth’s superior sight made it easier for Dayane to make out more images. Rysabella lay on her bed, sleeping peacefully. “I know that was a quiet fight, but I would have assumed that you would have heard something,” Dayane said. “Taleth slipped a sleeping draught in my wine,” Rysabella explained as Taleth slowly crept across the room. He had latched the door back up so it would not be easily opened. “I could have slept through a thousand battles without even a twitch.” Taleth drew out a dagger from his belt. This time, for some reason, it sounded much more heart-wrenching. Dayane’s heartbeat and breathing both quickened their pace. It occurred to her that she was about to witness one of the most epic events of the past millennia. Part of her wanted to turn away, for she knew that this death would not be a pretty one, but she could not. Taleth took slow methodical steps toward the sleeping queen. When Taleth neared the bed voices became raised in alarm from outside the room. A loud bang sounded and the door jumped for a moment as if something smashed into it hard. Taleth continued walking slowly towards Rysabella. Dayane became curious. Taleth was taking so many precautions right now. There were probably a half dozen guards outside the room right now with more on their way, yet Taleth seemed to refuse to move any faster. Dayane wondered if he was afraid of any traps that were be placed around the queen but that seemed a moot point when Taleth reached the side of the bed unharmed. Taleth slowly raised the dagger up to Rysabella’s neck. “Close your eyes,” Rysabella warned. As Dayane closed her eyes everything became bright. The light was so intense that Dayane could still see it through her closed eyes. Dayane heard a woman’s scream, and then Taleth started to yell out in pain. The slams against the door became louder and louder. The light subsided and Dayane once again opened her eyes. Floating in the air before her were Taleth and Rysabella. Strings of white light went from one to the other creating what looked like a spider web between the two, just like the bard tales had told. Dayane could see the anguish on Taleth’s face as he tried to hold in the pain. Rysabella looked like she was holding in too, yet her high pitched screams echoed through the room. The door suddenly broke down; behind it was a bear of a man with a gruesome axe in his hands. He looked lost in battle frenzy but snapped out of it when he took in his surroundings. The guard stood there awestruck. A pair of women and a trio of men filed in, various weapons in their hands. All wore the armor of the Royal Guard. They all froze and stood, awestruck. “What’s happening?!” Dayane asked of the Rysabella that stood next to her. She found herself yelling to try and overcome the screams. Rysabella gave an honest shrug. “I don’t know exactly,” Rysabella said quietly. Dayane was only able to make out what was said by reading the queen’s lips. Dayane turned back to Taleth in time to see Rysabella fall from where she was and crumple to the floor. The Crown of Life stayed in the air for a moment longer, strings of white still attaching it to Taleth, and then it too fell to the floor. The crown made a loud clang as it hit and then stopped moving immediately. The strings of light all flooded into Taleth’s body and then Taleth also dropped to the ground. Taleth was able to get his feet under him but he did stumble to his knees. “Petila! The Queen!” one of the guards shouted. One of the women immediately went and scooped up the queen’s body and moved to the side of the room opposite Taleth. The huge man who had bashed in the door moved and stood menacingly before her, apparently guarding her. The guard had who spoken gave signals to the four other guards and they formed a semi circle around Taleth yet they held their ground. Taleth rose up from his knees to his feet and stared curiously at his hands. He shook his head out once and then looked around the room. He looked very confused. “Uthngar,” Taleth said to one of the guards. “What are you-” The guard he was speaking to lunged at him, rapier point out. Taleth’s hands went to the sides of his head and he yelled, “GET OUT!” Taleth’s body flashed white for a moment and then Rysabella appeared. It looked to Dayane as if the queen had just fallen right out of Taleth’s body. Dayane watched Taleth dive to the side and roll, avoiding the strike. The guard passed right through Rysabella, not even noticing her. Taleth got to his feet in time to avoid a broadsword swipe. The sword struck the ground and stuck in for a moment. Taleth put his foot on the sword and kicked the woman who held it in the chest with his other foot. She was knocked back into the guard who had barked out the orders earlier. A guard brought his staff around, spinning it over Taleth’s head and then down at the assassin. Taleth ducked enough to dodge the first blow, but the second one caught him on the shoulder and sent him rolling. When Taleth stopped he moved his head to the side to avoid a rapier strike. Taleth reached up his hand and grabbed the guard’s wrist just beyond the rapier hilt. With a grunt of strength he tossed the rapier-wielding guard into the guard with the staff. The staff wielder was able to dodge the body and brought his staff down in an overhand chop. Taleth somersaulted backwards and the got to his feet. The guard raised the staff back overhead and swung in a large arc, aiming for Taleth’s head. Taleth reached out his hands and caught the staff. He then yanked the staff out of the stunned guard’s hands and twirled it around, cracking the guard under the chin and knocking him out. While Taleth was fighting Rysabella was looked around, confused and most visibly frightened. “What is this?!” she demanded, trying to grab a guard. Her hand passed right through the guard. The guard moved away from her to attack Taleth while Rysabella stood there stunned. After a moment she turned back to Taleth. Taleth’s stolen staff had broken in two and he was dodging the woman with the broadsword, moving across the room. Taleth had a little smile on his as he led the woman at the big man who was guarding Rysabella’s body. Dayane watched Rysabella run at Taleth. The woman with the broadsword got a lucky hit on Taleth that tore at his sleeve. In a fluid motion Taleth tore off the sleeve and continued backwards. In a flash the big man was behind Taleth, his axe raised over his head, about to strike. The woman with the broadsword gave a thrust at Taleth’s stomach. Taleth began falling to one side. Dayane watched helplessly as Taleth started dodge both blows so the axe would fall right onto the woman. Rysabella was not as helpless. “No, Alaralen!” Rysabella yelled as she ran right into Taleth. This time she did not pass through Taleth, but he glowed white for a second and Rysabella vanished. An instant later Taleth was rebalanced and reached out one hand to grab hold of the broadsword, stopping the woman in mid thrust. The other arm, his bare one, went over the woman’s head to block the axe. Dayane watched the axe hit skin with enough strength to shatter granite. The axe exploded in a shower of sparks. Nothing moved for a moment save the axe handle which dropped to the floor. Taleth was breathing as hard as the conscious guards were. The woman let go of her broadsword and leapt away from Taleth and the big man took two steps backwards, still staying between Taleth and the queen’s body. Taleth stood still for a moment with a stunned look on his face and then let go of the sword letting it clang to the. Taleth put his hands on the sides of his head. “Get…OUT!” Taleth roared once again. Like the last time, Taleth flashed bright for a moment and then Rysabella stood in place where Taleth was just standing. Taleth stumbled to his knees and looked up at Rysabella. “What the hell is this…?” Taleth said to himself as he slowly got to his feet. He began backing away from Rysabella, who stared at Taleth with her own confused look. “Your Majesty!” Mellara said from the doorway. Dayane turned and saw the sorceress standing there, breathing heavily. Mellara was staring wide-eyed at the body the guards where protecting. Her gaze turned to Taleth and Dayane became frightened by the look she saw. A bolt of blue followed by an innumerable amount more launched from the tip of her staff at Taleth and when Dayane turned back she saw Taleth leap for the window. Dayane and both Rysabella’s where taken along with Taleth. Dayane moved along as Taleth fell out the window and though Dayane was falling with him, she was not freefalling. Taleth hit the ground with a loud thud, yet he was unhurt. He got to his feet and turned to look up at the window he just leapt from. He saw nothing but did not linger long and instead started running. Things began to turn gray and speed by. “You where able to control Taleth’s body?” Dayane asked Rysabella. The queen nodded. “I still can if I want to, but it is infinitely more difficult now since Taleth is again in full control of himself.” Rysabella’s gaze roamed around the gray outlines that popped up now and then. “It was how we spent the first few days.” The gray stopped and Rysabella stood in the middle of the street with Taleth walking circles slowly around her. There was no one else around this late at night. “So we’ve established that you’re dead,” Taleth said to Rysabella, his voice quiet. “But why are you …” Taleth seemed to be struggling for a word, “… attached to me? And why did the guards not do anything even though they were all in the room with you and me?” “I don’t think anyone but you can see me, assassin,” Rysabella replied. It was clear to note that from the tone of Rysabella’s voice she had little care for Taleth right now. “Which makes this very difficult.” “Yeah well you’re dead anyway, what difference does it all make?” Taleth said. Taleth seemed to say this mostly to himself and the other Rysabella did not react to it at all, which made Dayane think she did not hear anything. “What do we do about this then?” Taleth asked of Rysabella. “This is your mess,” Rysabella said. “But I obviously need to take things into my own hands if I want to see this done correctly. We can go see Mellara. She should be able to make some sense of what happened.” “Heh, yeah that’s a brilliant idea,” Taleth said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Why don’t I go see the Royal Sorceress about the Queen she thinks I murdered, doesn’t that sounds like a brilliant plan?” “We can always do this the hard way,” Rysabella said walking into Taleth. Taleth glowed white for a moment and then he turned around and started walking towards the center of the city, towards Mellara. Taleth stopped suddenly and he wrapped his arms around himself and grunted in pain. “No…NO, dammit!” Taleth yelled. His body flashed white again as Rysabella stepped out of him. “Dammit woman I’ll go see the sorceress…just stay the hell out of my body. The sooner I am rid of you the better.” “Cross your fingers then,” Rysabella said. “I’ve never heard of anything like this before. We might be stuck like this.” “That’s no way to live a life,” Taleth said. Things grayed out and sped by again. “You seemed calm for what happened to you,” Dayane observed. “I was queen of all the known lands,” Rysabella said. “I had long learned to control my emotions. I can assure you I was on the verge of hysteria the whole time.” “Oh,” Dayane said. She felt very awkward right then. “Don’t worry about it, Dayane,” Rysabella said. “You need to present yourself in a more regal manner if you intend to lead.” “I’m only the leader of a group of about twenty,” Dayane said. “I don’t need to be that regal.” “You never know,” Rysabella said. The memories stopped speeding by before Dayane could ask another question. Taleth was creeping along a ledge to a window that had light pouring out. Dayane noticed that she was standing on nothing. Dayane thought it best not to look down much in case vertigo would attack, yet she was awed watching Taleth keep his balance on the tiny ledge. The assassin’s eyes where shut and he appeared to be concentrating hard. Rysabella’s head poked out through the wall and she turned to Taleth. “Everyone else is gone, get in here and let me do the talking,” She said. “How?” Taleth asked, but Rysabella was already gone by then. Taleth grit his teeth and leaned off of the ledge. As he started falling he reached out his hand to grab the side of the window and he swung himself into the room. The room looked much like Rysabella’s room in the palace; the only difference was that this room was in Mellara’s house. Dayane finally realized that this place was the same place she met Mellara the first time. It looked much better now then it did when she first arrived. “This was my room some times,” Rysabella explained to Dayane. “I would come here when I didn’t want to deal with something at the palace. Mellara would always tell anyone else that I was detained in studies.” “Studies?” Dayane asked. “Mellara taught me magic,” came Rysabella's reply. “Though I never would be as good as she was, I did have some latent talent in me, and with the Crown of Life that magic power was amplified. I was learning to fine tune it all.” “Stand still,” the other Rysabella commanded Taleth. Taleth looked at her oddly and then became wide-eyed. “Oh no you don’t,” Taleth said, backing up a step. “This is the only way to get her to believe you,” Rysabella said. Taleth ground his teeth together once again. “That’s a horrible habit.” “You’re the reason I started doing it,” Taleth spat back. “Fine, but you try anything funny and I’ll…..do something.” The threat sounded hollow since Taleth could not back it up with any specifics but Rysabella seemed to take it to heart. “My word,” she said. Taleth sighed and stood still. Rysabella walked up to him and his body flashed white. Taleth looked at his hands and touched his face. “Gods this is strange,” he said to himself. Dayane hadn’t noticed it before but she could also hear Rysabella’s voice under Taleth’s. Taleth did not give her enough time to dwell on that as he strode through a door. In the other room Mellara sat at a table, crying. Her arms were crossed on the table, and her head was buried in them. Her long hair covered her back completely and jumped with every sob that broke through. “Mellara…” Taleth began. Dayane could hear the pain plainly in Rysabella’s voice. Mellara’s head shot up and she first showed a look of shock on her face which instantly gave way to anger when she recognized Taleth. “Mellara wait, it’s me-“ In a flash Mellara stood and her staff was in her hands. A lance of blue light streaked out and took Taleth full in the chest. Taleth was blown back; Rysabella suddenly appeared, standing right where Taleth had been. She had apparently not felt anything. After a second it was apparent that Taleth felt nothing as well. Taleth got to his feet almost immediately after he made an imprint into the stone wall behind him. “I guess I’m immune to magic as well,” Taleth said to himself. He stood up and started to run toward Mellara. “I don’t think your way will work like you wanted it to,” Taleth said as he moved through Rysabella. “The audacity you have…the pure arrogance!” Mellara yelled. “You dare to show you face to me after what you did!?” She leveled her staff at Taleth and a bolt of lightning flared out at him. Taleth raised his arm and the bolt slammed into his arm, burning away the clothing. Aside from that, the bolt did nothing to stop Taleth. Taleth dodged another bolt that was sent at him and was able to get to Mellara and grab her staff with both of his hands. Mellara was not expecting this and she fought to free her staff from Taleth. Power surged from the staff and into Taleth but the assassin seemed not to notice. Mellara looked bewildered but continued to struggle. “If you want to talk now would be the best time,” Taleth said, fighting to hold the staff that was most likely now trying to magically move itself out of Taleth’s hands. Rysabella ran up to Taleth and stepped into his body again. “Mellara listen to me! It’s Rysabella!” Mellara’s face did not change at all as she continued to try and rend her staff from Taleth. “For the love of…Mellara Ioapenal! I, as your queen, command you to STAND DOWN!” While it was Taleth who yelled, Rysabella’s voice clearly rang though the room. Mellara let go of her staff and stumbled backwards. The magic died out suddenly when she let go of the staff. “What trick is this, Taleth the Black?” Mellara said. “No trick, Mellara, Royal Sorceress of Queen Rysabella,” Taleth said. Rysabella’s voice was once again soft in the background. “Though the body you see before you is that of Taleth the Black I assure you that I am Rysabella in spirit. And right now you’re my only hope for some understanding of what is wrong with me.” The last words came out as a plea, which Dayane was amazed to hear in Taleth’s voice. Taleth dropped to his knees and began sobbing. Taleth the stood up, leaving Rysabella on her knees below him sobbing on her own. Taleth wiped his hand over his eyes. “Rysabella?” Mellara asked. “Sobbing at my feet,” Taleth replied, only his voice this time. He wiped his hand across his eyes and got rid of the tears. “I haven’t cried in a long time,” he said softly. Taleth looked down at Rysabella. “Now that she’s not trying to kill me we’ll talk like this.” It did not seem like there was any leeway in that statement. Taleth looked Mellara straight in the eyes. “Why did you kill her?” Mellara asked bluntly. “I didn’t,” Taleth said. “If I did, why would I be here?” “Don’t dodge the real question. Who paid you?” Mellara asked. “Nobody did,” Taleth said, his face straight. “Don’t lie to me, Taleth the Black.” “Or you’ll do what? Kill me? Apparently I’m invulnerable.” “You don’t seem very happy about it.” “If it’s from what I think it is, it came with far too high of a price.” Taleth looked down on Rysabella and Dayane swore she saw pity in his eyes. The pity vanished as he looked back at Mellara. “We both want to know what’s wrong, and we both want to be able to free ourselves from this.” Taleth tossed Mellara’s staff back to her. Mellara looked him over for a moment. “Sit down,” she said. I’ll see what I can do.” Memories began to speed by in gray again. “She was unable to figure out anything about what happened, other then that it might be tied to the Crown of Life,” Rysabella explained. “After a week of staying down in her study, out of sight from everyone else, Taleth broke out. As you might have guessed, Taleth does not like being confined. I found I was unable to take over his body for a long period anymore, and any time I was able to, he could quickly knock me back out. Taleth learned to tune me out a long time ago. He continued to do what he knew how to do, which was killing. After a decade Taleth began to notice that he failed to age as well as being invulnerable to nearly everything. “Taleth spent most of the first eighty years of immortality looking for information on how to separate us, but he found nothing. As you could imagine, there was not a lot of information on what happened to us, and we ran into a lot of people who refused to help Taleth since he was who he was. After a while I think he just gave up looking. Of course…I think we also became accustomed with each other’s presence. Taleth still gave no sway to my opinions or feelings, but he wasn’t openly hostile to me anymore. I’ve honestly grown to like Taleth; he has a good heart despite his chosen profession.” “Taleth?” Dayane had seen some soft sides of Taleth, but his soft sides always came with a sharp edge right after. “You’ve seen the Taleth that made up the first thirty or so years correct?” “Yes.” “Then compare that to the Taleth we go to see now.”

Taleth’s first order of business when he was released from his indenture to Kilka was vengeance. Seven years of hard training had turned Taleth from the small boy he once was into a warrior of amazing capacity. Dayane herself was a little taken back when the gray clouds of passing time parted to show Taleth walking into Milanka, the desert city. Taleth had a pack slung over his shoulder and the hilt of a sword sticking out of the opening. He had a thin cream-colored tunic on and wore a pair of baggy breeches yet, the sweltering heat seemed to have little affect on him. “If you stare too long you might go blind,” Rysabella said, snapping Dayane from her thoughts. Dayane found that she had been staring rather hard at the well-toned arms and chest that she could see through Taleth’s tunic. Dayane blushed a deep red to which Rysabella laughed. “Don’t worry, you’ll see me do the same thing later. Taleth does have a few things going for him and he’s far from ugly, that’s for sure.” This interlude of laughter was soon the only thing in Milanka that was uplifting. From the moment that Taleth stepped into the city he was focused on his one task. Dayane watched in amazement as this Taleth, so different from the little boy she saw a moment ago, bribed, cajoled, stole and killed his way through the city. Taleth began small. He killed a few slavers who where drinking in a bar as they left. Then slowly, he began going after the slave masters, the ones who lead the slave caravans and ran the auctions. However, on every slaver that Dayane watched Taleth kill was the same insignia. Taleth was only killing a certain sect of the slavers. He even went out of his way once to flee from a fight with other slavers. Taleth sat in a bar one night with his back to the wall, listening as other patrons of the bar told tales of the deadly assassin who seemed to have a grudge against Pahoan. Dayane watched as Taleth’s eyes went wide in shock as he heard some old man say that Pahoan was leaving tonight. Taleth left the bar and immediately set off to the home of the slave trader Pahoan. Taleth easily slipped into the house, past the guards and through the traps the house had. Dayane could only watch in awe as he saw how flawlessly Taleth worked. He was, before immortality, probably the greatest assassin of all time and immortality simply cemented that title. Dayane began to understand where Taleth’s limitless confidence and arrogance came from. “I don’t care!” yelled someone through the silk curtains that the room Taleth just broke in to from another room. “But sir,” came a pleading protest from another voice. “What will everyone who’s employed by you think if you up and run away from this assassin?” “They’ll think ‘hey, that’s a damn good idea, I need to follow his lead and get out of here before I end up DEAD!’” the first voice said. Taleth parted some of the hanging silks for a moment and looked through. Dayane watched as he slid a dagger out of his belt and held it over his head ready to strike. “Why do you-” the second voice began but was silenced an instant after Taleth let fly his dagger. A woman shrieked from the other room. With an over exaggerated flourish, Taleth threw aside the silk curtains and strode into the other room. Dayane and Rysabella followed him into a large dome room with a flowing fountain in the middle of it. The floor was tiled around the fountain instead of stone like the rest of the floor. Right now there was a body face down in the fountain with Taleth’s dagger sticking out of the back of it’s skull. The fountain was red with the dead man’s blood. “Bad taste,” Taleth said as he looked around the room. One end of the room was lush with large pillows of all sorts of colors. On the pillows were three harem women clinging to one another, obviously frightened. Near them was a small wiry man with a horrid taste in clothes. He was as multicolored as a tropical bird and he had more jewelry on him then a marketplace peddler. He was currently stuffing gold into various bags on his belt. “Who are you?!” the little man demanded. Taleth reached down to the dead body in the fountain and ripped the dagger out of the back of the body. With slow and methodical movements he wiped the blade clean on the dead man’s clothes and, after giving it a final bath in the fountain, pointed it at the small man. “You know exactly who I am,” Taleth said. “I’m why you’re running away.” The wiry little man dropped the bag of coins he was carrying and they spilled over the pillows, some of the rolling over to stop at Taleth’s feet. “Why are you after me? What did I ever do to you?” the man demanded. The man, Dayane assumed he was Pahoan, was shaking as Taleth started walking towards him. “You destroyed my life. That should answer both of your questions.” Taleth continued his advance. The man stumbled backwards and tripped over a pillow, landing on his back. “Wh-what are you going to do to me?” the man said as he tried to regain his balance. In answer Taleth let his dagger fly. The dagger sunk deep into the man’s chest and his body crmpled to the ground. Dayane had to turn her face away from the gruesome sight. When she turned away she was staring at one of the harem women who was transfixed on Taleth. The woman’s mouth was opened in awe as she watched Taleth walk over to Pahoan’s body and retrieve his dagger. The harem woman raised a hand to cover her mouth but stopped and it looked like something just occurred to her. “What gives you the right to kill him? Or any of his men that you killed over the past week?” the woman suddenly asked. Dayane looked at the woman with abject horror. She took a step back and turned to look at Taleth. Taleth gave no reaction that he even heard the woman. He continued to wipe off his dagger and then resheathed it in his belt. “I’m asking you a question!” the woman said, this time louder. “I heard,” Taleth said in a quiet voice. Taleth turned in space and faced the woman down. Dayane watched the woman move back a step. Taleth’s eyes were cold and emotionless as he held the woman in his gaze. “And I don’t care what your opinion is.” Taleth turned towards one of the doors and started walking away. The woman paused for a moment and then started laughing out loud. Taleth stopped and glanced back over his shoulder at her. “You,” she said, “are the perfect assassin.” “What?” Taleth said, confused. “You are the perfect assassin, and I want to hire you.” To Dayane, the woman looked as if she was eager to have Taleth working for her. Taleth gave her another look. “I’m not for sale,” Taleth said. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said. “With the years I’ve spent as a slave trader’s harem girl I’ve seen that everything has a price.” She leaned down to the ground and picked up a handful of gold coins. Thrusting them out at Taleth she gave him a sly smile. “You could be as rich as you want with your skills…all you have to do is kill one person for me.” “What gives you the right to kill?” Taleth said, echoing the woman’s earlier remark. “I am not the one who is going to kill, you are,” she said. “I’m simply paying you for the services.” “That is the faultiest logic I have ever run into,” Taleth said and he turned to start walking away, but then stopped. Dayane watched him as he stood still, thinking of something. The harem woman’s breathing quickened. Her nervousness was getting to her. “But what do I care?” Taleth said, quietly, to himself. Dayane was barely able to hear it, but she could not miss Rysabella’s sigh from behind her. She turned to the queen who Dayane had almost forgotten was there. “A hundred gold.” “Agreed,” the woman said. Rysabella’s eyes locked on Taleth and her face showed a great swell of pity. “All he had to do was say no and so many troubles in this world would have been avoided,” Rysabella said. Dayane turned back to Taleth and the harem woman. “What’s your name?” the harem woman asked. “Taleth. My name is Taleth.” “Fine then,” the woman said after an appraising look up and down Taleth’s clothes. “Taleth the Black it is.” The world turned gray and memories began speeding by. “And thus was Taleth the Black, the deadliest assassin, was born,” Rysabella said with a sigh. “That was….so surreal,” Dayane said. It truly was something surreal. It was as if the gods themselves had put that woman there to make Taleth into an assassin. Her words seemed to have had a control over Taleth that nothing else could. “Truly, but like everything we will see, it is unchangeable, and therefore we must learn from it and not dwell on it all,” Rysabella said in a regal manner. Dayane was always amazed at how wise and deep Rysabella was. “Where do we go now?” Dayane asked. “There are a few assassinations we must bear witness to,” Rysabella explained. “However, our next stop is when Taleth gets caught.” “Taleth got caught? When? I never remember him being in the royal dungeon.” “He was not caught by the royal guard…” * * * A few assassinations later Taleth was sitting in the middle of a warehouse. He sat, wary of everything around him. Dayane watched him, as she had for the past five years worth of memories that they skipped through. Taleth was older now then he was on that night in Milanka when he became Taleth the Black. However, he had aged far too much in few too many years for Dayane’s liking. Taleth’s face had a few more scars, as did his arms. To Dayane, the most disturbing part was that he had many fewer scars in this memory then he had in the real world. The thoughts of what Taleth still had to go through in life was quite disturbing. “I’m sorry I’m late,” came a voice. Taleth and Dayane turned and looked at where the voice came from. A young man with a blue mantle wrapped around him stepped into the light at the far edge of the warehouse. He was only a touch younger then Taleth, if that. He stood at the edge of the light in the warehouse giving Taleth all the time the assassin needed. Taleth watched the man for a moment and then nodded his head at him. The other man walked over to Taleth, stopping a few feet from her. “Don’t be sorry, sorcerer’s apprentice,” Taleth said. “And don’t be late. While you are the one paying me, Hall, we’re working with my time tables right now.” “I know, I know,” the man named Hall replied. “I had to avoid any suspicion from my master. It’s a delicate business you know.” “Sure it is.” Taleth stood up from his seat and walked over to Hall. “Where you able to get your master to accompany the scroll tomorrow?” “Yes,” Hall replied. “The scroll will be in my master’s hands tomorrow.” Dayane watched the sorcerer’s apprentice curiously. Something about him did not sit right with her. “Good,” Taleth said. Hall held out his hand to Taleth. “Well, good luck,” Hall said. Taleth looked suspiciously at the hand for a second but then reached out his hand and took hold of Hall’s. Lightning flared everywhere as Taleth fell victim to a lightning spell. Taleth howled in pain and his other hand went to his dagger. Taleth’s was able to get the dagger a foot from Hall’s neck before a strand of lightning wrapped around his wrist and held it still. “Because you definitely need some luck,” Hall laughed. “That went beautifully, Hall,” came a female voice. Dayane watched as a woman in black stepped out from the shadows behind Hall. Dayane realized that the woman seemed to materialize out of the shadows more then step from them. The woman’s skin was extremely white, yet Dayane did not know if that was because of the contrast between her skin and the raven black hair and cloak or because she was just that fair-skinned. Her eyes had no color to them, they where only black and white. Even her lips where black. Dayane wondered if this woman had any color on her at all. “Thank you, Master,” Hall replied, releasing Taleth’s hand. The lightning vanished but some unseen force immediately picked up Taleth. His hands opened wide and the dagger he had been holding fell to the ground. “Well, well, well,” the woman said. “The great Taleth the Black, caught so easily.” Taleth glared down at the woman with a deep-seated hatred in his eyes. “Rachel,” Taleth said through grinded teeth. “You just can’t let the dead lie, can you?” “Letting the dead lie?” Rachel said. Whips of violet lashed out from in front of Rachel and wrapped around Taleth’s arms and legs. “My master is DEAD because of YOU!” The violet whips suddenly flared up in brightness and Taleth let out a roar of pain. “I’m letting the dead lie, Taleth the Black, but I’m taking my revenge on you.” Rachel’s high-pitched laughter sounded everywhere as the world was flooded with a blinding violet light. Dayane turned her head away to shield her eyes but then the world quickly went black. There was nothing but Dayane and Rysabella anymore. “Where are we?” Dayane asked. “Unconscious,” Rysabella replied. “It’ll take a moment…” As if on cue the world came back and Dayane saw Taleth, his arms suspended in the air by chains, kneeling in a pool of dried blood. Standing over him was Rachel. The harem girls earlier had worn more then the sorceress standing before Dayane. The black dress she wore barely covered her chest and legs and did nothing to cover the rest of her body. Dayane felt a little uncomfortable. “I see you’re finally awake,” Rachel said to Taleth. Dayane watched Taleth’s head come up slightly, though not enough for Dayane to see his eyes. “You know, when you cold bloodedly assassinated my former master, I was angry. But now that I can look back on it, I’m not angry that you killed my master. I’m infuriated that you murdered my lover. I spent my life to find and learn from him, and then some fool comes in one night and jams a dagger into the back of his head and ruins everything.” “Lover?” Taleth laughed though it turned into hacking up some blood halfway through. “I watched him like a mother hen watches her chicks and he was less in love with you then I am.” A black leather handle appeared in Rachel’s hand. The sorceress gripped it tightly and whips of violet poured out of one end. Dayane watched as Rachel struck Taleth with the wicked cat-o-nine-tails, every whip striking home on a vital part of him. Taleth did not scream but he let out a loud grunt every time the tips struck him. “You lie, assassin,” Rachel said, glaring down on Taleth. “You’re a liar and a simple tool. People just use you for what they want.” Taleth laughed again which earned him another few strikes with the whips. “We were both tools, you stupid woman, you just didn’t get paid anything for it,” Taleth said. He rose up his head and looked at Rachel directly in the eyes and gave her an evil smile. Rachel became infuriated and went into a flurry of strikes against Taleth. The assassin grit his teeth and writhed in pain trying his best not to cry out. Dayane soon became ill after the first few days of Taleth’s memories. The days went fast since Taleth was unconscious for most of the time. The few hours he was awake where filled with Rachel’s sadistic torture. Rachel took pleasure in every little cut and bruise she made on Taleth’s body. The evil sorceress was relentless in her attacks on Taleth. Some days Rachel would be alone, and some days Hall would be with her. Regardless of which day it was, Taleth would kneel there and take all the punishment. Sometimes he would egg her on and get her angry. This proved not to be the insanity Dayane had thought it would be. Whenever Rachel became angry she would put too much into her strikes and tired herself out quicker. Taleth used that fact to his advantage. “I don’t know how much more I can take of this,” Dayane said as turned away her face and put a hand up before her eyes. “I know,” Rysabella said turning from her scrutinizing of the memory. The queen looked at Taleth with sad eyes and then turned to Dayane. “Taleth had seen a lot of pain in his lifetime. More then any body should. I have walked though his life enough to wish I could change it all, and let him have a happy life.” Dayane sighed and peeked back at Rachel and Taleth. Dayane was caught off guard as Rachel was staring right at her. Dayane blinked and then she saw Rachel with her attention focused back on Taleth. Dayane shook her head and blinked a few more times, trying to clear her thoughts. She thought the memories where getting the best of her. “How much longer do we have to deal with this?” Dayane asked in a pained voice. Rysabella sighed. “Not too much longer,” Rysabella said. True to the queen’s word, a few days later it ended. Hall was with Rachel this time standing off to the side, slightly behind Rachel. Dayane watched as Taleth reacted to one of Rachel’s strikes by kneeling upright. Taleth held himself up and looked at Rachel and then Hall. He then he started laughing. Rachel stopped and stared down at Taleth. “What the hell are you laughing at?” Rachel said. “ Have you finally lost control of your senses?” “No, you stupid bitch,” Taleth said though his laughs. “You’ve lost control of your pet.” Rachel paused a moment before a blue lance appeared from nowhere and pierced her heart from the back. The cat-o-nine-tails lost its whips and fell from Rachel’s hand. Rachel gripped the part of the lance that stuck out from her chest and turned to Hall. Hall’s hand glowed the same blue as the lance as he held it up before him. Rachel mouthed a “why” to Hall. “Why?” Hall said. “You have a head here that is worth an unbelievable amount of gold, and all you’re doing is sitting here and toying with it day after day. Now I’m not a greedy man, but Taleth the Black is worth more to me then you are, so I’m just taking him. So sorry.” Hall had an evil smile on his face as he lowered his hand and let the blue glow faded away. The lance in Rachel’s chest vanished and she fell to the ground in a heap. Taleth continued his laughing. “Laugh while you can, I’m sure the royal guard have worse planned for you.” “The funny thing is,” Taleth laughed. “You forgot that it was her magic that was keeping me here.” Before Hall could react, Taleth pulled his arms down with a roar. The chains ripped the pins right out from the wall and Taleth sent them sailing towards Hall. The chains crossed over in front of Hall’s neck and then Taleth spread his arms wide apart, causing the chains to snap back and wrap themselves around Hall’s neck. In a fluid movement, Taleth pulled hard and Hall came soaring at him. Taleth sprung up at Hall as he came soaring and struck him under the chin with the palms of his hands. The snap was loud and final. Hall fell to the ground and dead. “My god,” Dayane said. Taleth stood and detached the restraints from his wrists. Taleth looked down on the two bodies on the ground now and shook his head. Without sparing another moment Taleth was out the door. The world became gray again as things sped by once more. “Taleth doesn’t trust anyone anymore, especially his clients,” Rysabella said. Dayane could not blame Taleth for that either. Rysabella sighed again. “We’re running out of memories where the Mind Wyrm could be.” “What do you mean? Don’t we have about a hundred fifty more years to go?” Dayane asked. “We do, but the Mind Wyrm needs a certain kind of memory to fester, and Taleth has few to none of those in his later life.” Rysabella looked Dayane in the face once again. “Where now then?” Dayane asked. “A time I know you’re interested in. My death.”

I swear...it's like letting a three year old dress themselves with these titles

Dayane and Rysabella stood outside the cabin door, beneath the massive tree. Taleth stood in his doorway, wiping his hands on his apron. Dayane could not tell if he was doing this out of habit or nervousness. “Are you sure you can’t come with us?” Rysabella asked. “Sorry. Bella,” Taleth responded. “I think the only reason that the Mind Wyrm didn’t hide in the trunk was because I was here. I want to make sure that it doesn’t get in there.” Rysabella nodded and turned to Dayane. “Well, now comes the time where we go into Taleth’s memories.” Rysabella’s voice took on an ominous tone. “What we’re going to do now is to live through Taleth’s life. On the positive side, the Mind Wyrm will try to set itself in some unhappy place in Taleth’s memories, which narrows down the memories we need to look through to the ones in his later life.” “He had a happy childhood then?” Dayane asked. The thought made Dayane feel somewhat better. She did not fully understand why. “Most of it,” Rysabella said. Dayane suddenly realized that Rysabella had most likely gone through all of Taleth memories several times. She remembered hearing Taleth and Mellara talking once and they referred to “someone looking around” for something that Taleth knew. Rysabella was obviously who they where talking about. “How many times have you gone through Taleth’s memories?” Dayane asked. “Hundreds,” Rysabella said. “Possibly thousands, I have honestly lost count. Sometimes I don’t look through all of them, I just look through for what I’m interested in.” Dayane wondered how interesting the same memories could be over and over again. “And also the Taleth here is an invaluable source of information. He’s very good at recalling most everything that Taleth has experienced.” Rysabella smiled at Taleth and he smiled back at her. “Praise from the queen is always welcome,” he said with a bow. “So we’re just going to look through the memories that are unhappy? That’s not a pleasant thought,” Dayane stated. “You knew that this was not going to be easy…I wondered why Mellara left out how unpleasant it would be, also.” Rysabella took a look up into the impossibly blue sky above and then closed her eyes and sighed. “Taleth has not lived a wonderful life. This is going to be very apparent very quickly. I can offer you precious few answers to the many questions that you will soon be assaulting me with as we skim over his memories. All I can offer you is the fact that Taleth himself knows all the answers, and that he has arrived at some sort of peace with it all.” “Time, ladies,” Taleth said. “You can talk more as you walk through memories.” “You’re right,” Rysabella agreed. “Time?” Dayane wondered. “Won’t this take a long time to go through Taleth’s life? I mean…it’s nearly two hundred years.” “Time passes differently in the mind. You can remember experiences and understand them fully in an instant sometimes, correct? Going through Taleth’s memories will be about the same. While we will go through and see things in the time that they happened, in the real world very little to no time shall pass. To Mellara you might go under and instantly come back.” “Does the Mind Wyrm work under this time also?” Dayane asked. “Yes, but it takes the Wyrm a long time to set itself into a person’s mind, and we do need to get going. All time is precious, regardless of how it passes.” Rysabella turned to Taleth. “We will find it, and we will get rid of it, I promise you that. This is my home, too.” “I know,” Taleth said with another of his uncharacteristic smiles. “Now get going, you have a long life ahead of you.” Rysabella nodded to him and she took hold of Dayane’s hand. The world around them suddenly ran together like water on an oil canvas. * * * When things reformed, Dayane stood in the room of the same cabin that she was in a moment before. In this cabin, things where different then before. A pregnant lady sat in one of the chairs knitting. Sitting on the floor, staring at the fire that was in the fireplace was a small boy. He looked a little over ten years of age, with dark hair that was tousled and unkempt. He watched fascinated by the flames of the fire that crackled and popped. Every once and a while the pregnant woman would look up at the child, smile, and then go back to her knitting. “Are we were I think we are?” Dayane asked Rysabella. “Yes, this is Taleth’s childhood, and more specifically, this is Taleth.” Rysabella walked over to the child and placed her hand on his head. He did not react to it at all. The child shifted his weight and sat up further, passing his head right through her hand. “As you might assume, you can’t interact with memories. We’re just observers right now.” “Why are we here then?” Dayane asked. “Because…” Rysabella started. The door opened almost as in answer to her sentence. In walked a tall man with long brown hair, he was wearing a heavy leather smock and had remnants of soot still on his arms and hair as if he just stepped out from a forge. He walked into the room and collapsed into a chair with a loud sigh. “Welcome home, dear,” the pregnant woman said without looking up from her knitting. The young Taleth turned around and looked at the man who just sat down. “Welcome home, Pa,” he said to the man who just walked into the room. “Oh, am I exhausted!” the man said. “The council meeting went on for far to long.” “What did you end up deciding?” the woman asked. “Nothing, Jes. Nothing at all. We’re still where we’ve been for the past week. They want to kill him. I can sometimes persuade members over to my side, but as quickly as I get one, I lose another. They can’t get it in their heads that it’s wrong to kill another. No one has the right to take another’s life. Just because he killed his wife, it does not make it right for us to take his life in response, it never is.” “You’re preaching to the converted again, dear,” Jes, the pregnant woman, responded. “I know, I know, but it just makes me mad. Even Prothan’s son was in on the blood thirst. The boy and his friends threw rocks at the cell the other day. I’ll be damned if I let Taleth grow up like that.” The sound of his name obviously caught the boy’s attention and he turned around. “Hm, dad?” the young Taleth said, turning his attention away from the fire. “Taleth, what have I taught you about harming another?” the father said. “You said ‘no son of mine will ever be privy to the murder of another!’” the young Taleth said, making an apparent impression of his father. “Interesting childhood for a man who is a world renowned assassin,” Dayane noted. “We’re all raised as our parents want us to be raised. Sometimes life takes us down another path that we’re unfamiliar with. This is particularly true with Taleth.” Rysabella never took her eyes off of the young Taleth. “What do you mean by-” Dayane began. “Taleth! Taleth are you in there?” came an interrupting voice from outside. The young Taleth stood up eagerly and looked to his parents. “That’s Aylin, can I go play with her, please?” he pleaded. His mother looked up from her knitting to scrutinize the boy. “Are you all done with your chores?” she asked him. “Yes, ma’am,” he assured her. She pondered something for a moment and then she turned to her husband. The blacksmith turned and looked down on his son. “Will you stay away from Prothan’s boy, and his crowd?” he asked his son. “Yes, sir,” Taleth replied. His father waited a moment before giving him a pat on the shoulder that sent him stumbling towards the door. “Yeah then, get going.” “Thank you,” came Taleth’s voice as he ran out the door. The world began shifting again. Everything turned to a cloudy gray color and began flying. Dayane caught sight of outlines of some individuals but could make out little beyond that. The sensation ceased after a short moment. “What was that?” Dayane asked. “A way to rush through some parts of Taleth’s memories,” Rysabella explained. “It’s somewhat like living a long period in an instant. It’ll make it easier to skim through Taleth’s memories and find the parts that the Mind Wyrm would go after.” “About the bad parts,” Dayane began. “That didn’t seem like it was very bad to me. Why did we start there?” “While it may not seem painful to you or I, Taleth puts a lot of stock into that memory.” “Okay, count to twenty,” came a voice from behind Dayane. She turned around and she Taleth standing across from a little girl about his own age. The girl had long blonde hair and was wearing a plain brown dress. Her feet where grass-stained and fit in with the green that surrounded Dayane now. The girl had a big smile on her face as she started creeping away from Taleth. “Fine, fine,” Taleth responded. “Then start hiding, Aylin.” Taleth turned to the tree that he was next to and started counting. The little girl, Aylin, took off into the forest. “8…9…10…” Taleth peeked out from the tree and noticed that Aylin was gone. “11…20! Here I come.” With that he was off into the forest after the little girl. The world moved around Dayane and Rysabella without them having to do anything. The women where being taken along with the memory. Taleth moved well through the forest. Dayane assumed he was familiar with the forest since he seemed to know where limbs were hanging and when to step over out sticking roots. Taleth gave out little laughs as he ran through the forest. He was obviously enjoying himself greatly, until he heard a scream. Taleth stopped, as did Dayane and Rysabella with him. He turned around in a circle a few times while the intermittent screaming sounded around him. Dayane tried to make out what she could but the voice was too far away. All she was able to make out was a scream for Taleth. Taleth also heard his name. “Aylin!” Taleth said in a quiet voice. He closed his eyes and listened to the screams, turning slowly in a circle. Suddenly his eyes shot open and the bolted off into the forest. The screams began to get louder with each stride that Taleth took. More voices where beginning to be heard. Dayane could hear lower voices, men’s voices, along with the continual screams. Taleth was running up the side of a hill now, breathing heavily as he went. The screams where very clear now and Dayane recognized them as Aylin’s. Taleth reached the top of a hill and the forest around him began to thin out. He stopped and stepped behind a tree, leaning around it to look down the hill. In the clearing at the bottom of the hill Aylin struggled against a burly man who held on to her arm. In his other hand was a large sword, which he continually threatened Aylin with. “What’s this?” Dayane asked. “Slave traders,” Rysabella responded, pointing down the hill to a horse drawn wagon that had a large cage on the back. In the cage where over half a dozen woman, ragged and weary looking. Around the cage where four armed slavers and a fat man dressed in gaudy silks with a whip at his side drove the wagon. “Put her in the cage with the others, she might get something at the auction,” the fat man said to the fifth guard. The man who held Aylin’s arm brought her to the cage while another guard opened it up. With a slight grunt he lifted Aylin up and tossed her into the cage, locking it after her. Aylin immediately went at the bars, struggling to break free. One of the guards rapped his sword hilt across her knuckles and she felt back crying. None of the other women in the cage did anything to help her. “Let’s get moving, it’s nearing nightfall,” one of the guards said. The fat man nodded his head and snapped the reins of the horses to start the wagon moving. Dayane watched Taleth as he gripped the tree he was leaning against so hard the bark tore right off. Taleth glared as the wagon slowly began moving away. Taleth took one last look around and then took off on a path through the trees that was parallel to the wagon’s path. Once again the world blurred by in a cloudy gray. Dayane and Rysabella suddenly stood in the middle of the slaver’s campsite. The embers of their fire had grown dim and most of them where asleep right now. Dayane counted five asleep, which meant that one, more then likely, was out patrolling. Dayane heard a click and then spun around to see Taleth stalking almost silently towards the cage that held Aylin and the other women. One of the women was awake and her eyes widened when she caught sight of Taleth approaching. Taleth lifted his finger to his lips to indicate that she should stay silent. Whether it was out of fear or hope, she remained silent. Taleth looked around at the guards, searching for something. After a moment he reached into his tunic and pulled out a small length of metal, and went about picking the lock. Two more women woke up as he was doing this. They remained silent but Dayane could feel their anticipation. “Where did he get a lock pick?” Dayane suddenly wondered out loud. Rysabella let go a small smile at Dayane. “You think the son of a blacksmith wouldn’t have miscellaneous pieces of metal on him?” the queen said. Dayane thought that made sense. Aylin came awake enough to see Taleth and she rushed over to the door to the cage where Taleth was working on the lock. “Taleth…” Aylin whispered. Taleth stopped her from saying anything more with a soft hushing noise. Dayane watched as the tears began to well up in Aylin’s eyes. She knew that Taleth could see them as well but he focused himself on his task. Moments passed by. Tense moments. With a small click the lock snapped open. Taleth quickly unhooked it and opened the cage. Aylin jumped into his arms and he quickly pulled her out of the cage. The women started to follow, one of them pausing to wake the others who where still asleep. Taleth helped the last woman out of the cage and then turned to the group who where huddled around him. “What the?! They’re ESCAPIN’!” Taleth spun around. One of the guards woke up and was leaning up in his bedroll. His shouts woke all the other slavers in the camp. His shouts also scared the women, and like frightened rabbits they scattered. A few went one way, and a few went the other way. Taleth grabbed a hold of Aylin’s hand and dragged her after one of the women who bolted into the forest. The three of them got as far as a few steps into the forest when one of the guards caught up to them. With his sword in one had, he reached out his other hand and grabbed Aylin by the arm. Aylin let out a scream. The woman who was ahead of Aylin did not even spare a second thought and kept on running. Taleth changed his heading and ran hard into the guard. Aylin was wriggled free from his grasp and stumbled to the ground. “RUN!” Taleth shouted at her. Aylin appeared to be thinking hard for a moment while the guard fought with Taleth to regain his footing and the sword that was knocked from his hand. Taleth urged Aylin with his eyes as he continued to try to keep the soldier from recovering. Aylin looked around, stood up, and the hurried over to a tree. She picked up a large log and rushed back to where Taleth and the guard struggled. She promptly struck the guard hard on his head and then took off running. This did not knock the guard out, but it did daze him enough so Taleth was able to escape and start to chase after Aylin. He moved one step in her direction and was suddenly frozen, helpless. The guard who had been out on patrol appeared from nowhere like a materializing shadow and, as suddenly as he appeared, ran Aylin through. Dayane gasped and her hands went to her mouth. She had wanted to yell out a warning but she realized how foolish that would have been. Aylin went limp immediately. Rysabella sighed but her eyes never blinked as she continually scanned everything around her, always looking for something. “Aylin…” Taleth stammered, apparently too shocked to yell. He was frozen as the guard let Aylin slide off his sword. “Eh, she was not in the contract anyway,” the guard said blandly. He turned to Taleth and let go a wicked smile. Taleth let out a loud scream and grabbed the dagger from the belt of the guard he was just wrestling with. He ran at the other guard with the dagger held high and slashed down. The guard grinned and stepped aside easily avoiding the wild blow. The guard turned to face Taleth again but was instead treated to the dagger into his eye. Taleth had spun mid-stride and amazingly kept his full balance. The guard thought the wild strike was an actual attack, but looking into the hated on Taleth’s face, Dayane knew otherwise. The guard fell back screaming for a moment before Taleth wrenched the dagger free and brought it back around to cut the guard’s throat. It was a gruesome scene and Dayane felt herself becoming sick. Taleth barely paused at the sight but moved with a vengeance at the other guard who was now getting up. A solid strike across the belly and dagger into the chin later, the guard was dead. Taleth stood there for several moments, breathing in labored gasps. He had blood over his face, hands and clothes. His breathing slowed down and his eyes and hands began to stop shaking. His battle high was slowly wearing off. Taleth looked over to Aylin’s body. A red pool of blood had formed around her. There was no doubt that she was dead. Taleth’s eyes welled up, and then he fell to the ground. Wrapping his arms around his knees he began sobbing. “Dear gods…” was all Dayane had to offer at that moment. She watched the young Taleth sobbing and crying and then scream out as if something was hurting him. Through the sobs she heard him mutter the same thing over and over again. “I can never go home, I can never go home, I can never go home.” “What the hell?!” came a voice from behind Dayane. Before she could turn around a slaver stepped right through her and looked at the corpse-laden ground. Another slaver, this one holding a woman in each hand, stepped beside his companion. “What happened to them?” the new guard asked his companion. “I think I know,” said the other as he looked down at Taleth, crying on the ground. The guard took out his sword and reached down to Taleth. He lifted the boy up by the collar of his tunic and held him aloft before him. “You little brat. Those where my friends!” The guard raised his sword so it was level with Taleth’s crying eyes. “Step back,” Rysabella warned, pulling Dayane back by her hand. Dayane turned to look at Rysabella to ask her why she would need to step back when she felt a blast of heat. She turned back to see Taleth falling back to the ground and a pile of ash where the guard used to be. Another searing ball of fire came from the trees and struck dead center in to the other guard, reducing him to ash in an instant. The two women he was holding onto fell to the ground in shock. “I felt that,” Dayane whispered, awed. “Magic of that caliber is real no matter where you experience it,” Rysabella said. “Magic of what caliber?” Dayane asked. “A wonderful night walk ruined by crying and dying. I can’t win,” came a voice from the forest. Out from behind one of the trees came a man in a deep black robe. He was a large man, both in girth and height, and he had a bushy reddish-brown beard across his face. Dayane had seen this man once before, a long time ago. “Ryaxlan, the Mage Lord,” Rysabella said. “The oldest and most powerful sorcerer in the entire world. He’s lived as long as a hundred sorcerers, and has had his hand in the development and fall of nation after nation. Sorcerers around the world would give their very soul to be able to train under him, for he has produced legendary warriors as simply as a weaponsmith produces a sword. Yet he rarely troubles in the world anymore, and he is even more rarely seen.” “What is he doing here?” Dayane asked. “As far as I was able to tell, he was taking a stroll in the night,” Rysabella explained. “I made my way through life being able to read people by how they act and what they say, but I have never made any rhyme or reason out of Ryaxlan.” The slave women, after a previous moment of shock, took off running away from the sorcerer. Ryaxlan looked after them and snorted. “Not even a shred of gratitude. People in this day and age, I guess.” The Mage Lord’s eyes went down to Taleth who was once again curled up and crying on the ground. “You know, you don’t have to cry anymore.” Taleth’s crying stopped immediately, as if the Mage Lord’s words where an order. “I can never go home,” Taleth said through the choked back tears. Ryaxlan stared at Taleth for a moment, his eyes searching. After a moment he sighed. “No, I see you can’t. Unfortunately, you have no magic in you, at all. You’re especially devoid of the gift, so I can not train you,” the Mage Lord said. Dayane gasped. “Taleth was almost accepted by Ryaxlan?!” Dayane shouted. “Almost…” Rysabella said. “But,” Ryaxlan began. “I do know someone who can take care of you, if you would like. He is old and stogy and will work you to death and beyond, but it is better then the road that you plan to take now.” The Mage Lord reached out his hand to Taleth. The boy looked up at the sorcerer and watched the side of his mouth arch up in a little smile. “What have you got to lose, boy?” Taleth slowly reached out his hand and took the Mage Lord’s. Will a slight tug, Ryaxlan lifted Taleth to his feet. When the boy stood up the blood washed off of his face and body, and his clothes changed to a black tunic and pants. Ryaxlan held the boys hand and started walking off into the forest. After a few steps the Mage Lord turned his head back and looked directly at Rysabella and nodded slowly. Rysabella sighed in relief. “I thought you said that the memories couldn’t interact with us,” Dayane said. “I told you before, nothing is impossible for magic of his caliber.” The world became gray as things started to speed by. “He assured me that Taleth’s memories for the next seven year are protected. Not even a thousand Mind Wyrms would be able to break his magic.” “So what happens during then?” Dayane asked, curious at all the memories that she was no skipping. “Taleth gets trained under Ryaxlan’s closest companion, Kilka, for seven years. After that he is let back into the world to do as he sees fit. There is little more then that during those years. “Then where are we going now?” Dayane asked. “Taleth’s return.”

Dayane stood there stunned. She was well aware of the fact that her jaw was hanging wide open, but she was unable to do anything about that. Right now, nothing made sense to her. She could not think of anything to say. She was dumbfounded, something that seemed to have started when Taleth stepped into her life. Rysabella, possibly the greatest ruler ever, stood a few feet from Dayane, and she looked far from dead. “What?” Dayane managed to ask. One word was more then Dayane thought she would have been able to manage. Rysabella smiled, and for a moment everything seemed right with the world. Her smile was warm, like a mother’s smile. She felt warm and secure where she was. She felt nothing could harm her here. “It is because of where you are,” Rysabella said. Dayane looked at her odd. “The secure feeling you just got. It is because you’re in Taleth’s mind.” “How did you know that I was feeling secure?” Dayane asked. “Your body posture change, the lack of tension in the air again, the fact that you shut that dropped jaw of yours,” Rysabella listed off. “Mostly, though, I know how I feel every time I’m here, it’s easy to assume anyone else would feel like that. Would you mind following me?” With that she started walking away. After a moment pause Dayane hurried after her. “Wait a minute,” Dayane said to Rysabella’s back. “You’re really Rysabella? The Rysabella?” Rysabella laughed. “I don’t know what you mean by ‘The Rysabella.’ I am only myself.” “I mean…are you Queen Rysabella? The Rysabella that Taleth killed?” Dayane asked. “I was, and no,” she replied. Dayane stumbled but then caught her feet. “But if you where Queen Rysabella, then Taleth must have been the one that killed you.” “If I was dead how would I be here?” Rysabella asked. Dayane found she could not answer that. “My body can no longer support life, but as you can clearly see, I am far from dead. I live, even if it is with the help of another.” “So your body is dead but you still are alive inside of Taleth’s mind?” Dayane asked. The question seemed very strange. “In a sense,” Rysabella said. She was being oddly mysterious about everything so far and the little smile she wore never seemed to waver. “Now, no more questions until after we go visit someone.” “There’s more people here? Who?” Dayane asked automatically. “No questions,” Rysabella said. Dayane said no more. She followed Rysabella through the tall grass, not sure of the destination, nor of whoever they were going to meet. They walked for a while, the scenery not really changing at all, until they walked over a small hill and Dayane noticed a large tree that appeared from nowhere. Under the shade of this massive tree was a fair size log cabin. Smoke was puffing out of the stone chimney. Dayane stopped and stared. Rysabella slowed when she realized that Dayane had stopped. “It’s a house,” Dayane stated, more to herself then anyone else. Rysabella smiled warmly at her again. “At least that wasn’t a question.” Rysabella turned around and started walking towards the house again. Dayane continued to follow. As they neared the house the front door opened. Out from that door, wearing an apron covered in flour, was Taleth. While seeing Taleth in his own mind was something Dayane had somewhat prepared herself for, what was before her was quite unexpected. True, it was Taleth, but it was not the Taleth that Dayane knew. This Taleth looked physically younger, and his eyes seemed to have more youth to them. He looked like he was in his early twenties. His short hair also had remnants of flour in them, and he was wiping his hands on a towel as he stepped out of the door. He then did something that astonished Dayane. He smiled. “’Bout time you two showed up. I thought you went straight into the memories,” Taleth said. He leaned over and kissed Rysabella on the cheek. He then took her by the elbow and helped her through the doorway, though she needed no help. Taleth then turned to Dayane, who was again standing awkwardly, staring at Taleth. Taleth smiled at her and held out his hand to her. She cautiously took it, a little shocked at how soft his skin was despite the flour, and, though she told herself otherwise, was surprised to find that it was a real touch. “What? Did you think I was just a figment of your imagination?” Taleth laughed at his own joke. “C’mon in.” He grasped her hand and walked into the house with her in tow. The inside of the house was plain. They walked into a large room that had a few chairs that had stuffed pillows on them. A blazing fire was raging in the fireplace and a cauldron of a wonderful smelling something was cooking by its heat. The windows where all open and a soft breeze came through. Rysabella sat herself down in one of the chairs. Dayane followed suit. “I just got done putting another loaf of bread together, the ones I did earlier should be done by now, let me go check to make sure. As always Bella,” Taleth said to Rysabella. “My home is your home...literally.” He gave a wink to the ladies and vanished into another room, most likely a kitchen. Dayane immediately leaned over to Rysabella. “Who is that?!” she whispered fairly loudly. Rysabella, her smile never fading, gave a silvery chuckle. “That’s Taleth, dear,” Rysabella said. “Who else would it be? He does have a distinctive set of gorgeous eyes you know.” Dayane realized that Rysabella was playing with her. “That,” Dayane said with a lot of stress on the word. “Is not Taleth. Taleth is a blunt, arrogant, cold and calculating killer. That man is a kind homemaker who women would fall over each other to try to marry.” “What did you want to be when you where growing up?” Rysabella suddenly asked. Dayane, caught off guard, responded without thinking. “A princess, but what does that-” Dayane was cut off. “Do you think that in your mind you still would like to have been a princess? Do you think that maybe there’s a little Dayane in there who wears pretty dresses and fancy jewelry and is catered on like a princess should be?” Rysabella asked. “Well…maybe…I guess…” Dayane said, still wondering about everything. “Then how hard is it to believe that he is Taleth also?” “Taleth wanted to be a homemaker when he was young?” Dayane started to question her own sanity, as well as the sanity of the place she was in right now. “No, but what you wanted to be when you where young is not the only way you imagine yourself sometimes, is it?” “What else is there?” “How about what you don’t want to become?” Taleth said. Dayane looked up to see Taleth walking into the room with a plate of sliced bread and butter. He sat down on one of the chairs that was opposite the two women and placed the plate between the three of them. “Please, eat.” “So you’re what Taleth doesn’t want to become?” Dayane asked Taleth. “Who knows really?” Taleth shrugged. “I am here, that’s really all there is to it after all.” He leaned forward and picked up a piece of bread and started gnawing on it. “You said you assumed we would go straight into memories? Can I take that to mean you’ve looked everywhere else for it?” Rysabella asked, focusing the conversation. Dayane found it easier to focus on this new conversation then it was to dwell on the Taleth who sat before her. Taleth nodded. “Yeah, I looked everywhere I can tolerate going…and a few places I can’t,” Taleth said. His voice dropped when he finished the last sentence. He did obviously not enjoy something that he had done. Rysabella nodded. “What do you know of the Mind Wyrm?” Rysabella asked. Taleth leaned back in his chair and stopped eating for a moment. He closed his eyes and was silent. Dayane thought that maybe Rysabella had hit a touchy subject but Taleth’s eyes shot open and he looked quite focused. “The last book I remember seeing any information about a Mind Wyrm was a long time ago, Bella. I only got a glance, but I can see the passage where it says something along the lines of ‘it always goes for the most unhappiest of places, where it can cause the most damage and where you are the weakest.’ More than that I can’t remember seeing. There was a crude drawing, though. Ugly things those were.” Taleth turned to Dayane who was watching him intently. “One benefit of Taleth is his ability to remember everything he sees, no matter how small a detail.” Then, in a soft voice that Dayane barely caught he added, “Blessing and a curse.” “Well then do you think that-” Rysabella started. “No, I checked.” Taleth’s voice held a hard note of finality and Rysabella did not question that any further. “It’s in my…our…his memories,” Taleth said. He then looked like he heard something. “Ah, another loaf is ready.” Taleth stood up and went off to the kitchen. “I’ll help,” Rysabella offered, and stood up to follow him. It was obvious that she either wanted to apologize to him, or to talk to him in private. Dayane did not concern herself with which. She instead turned her eyes on the room. Everything seemed to fit perfectly. The chairs where positioned to get both fresh air from the windows but also get heat from the fire. There was a bookshelf on one wall. Dayane stood up and walked over to the bookshelf and took a look at the books. She found out quickly that she had no idea what language they where written in. She then heard a thump, and looked down to the side of the bookshelf. Sitting next to the bookshelf was a large wooden trunk. There was a lock on the trunk but it was undone and the latch was in the open position, though the trunk was closed. Dayane reached down her hand and felt the top of the chest. It was smooth, and warm to the touch. Kneeling before it she wedged her fingers under the lid and lifted it up, curious to know what it held. A blast of wind knocked her back from the trunk as the lid snapped all the way open. Suddenly everything went black. Dayane became horribly frightened for some inexplicable reason. Then she saw a face, a young man, probably just over thirty. Then she watched him die. The sight was horrid. Then another face appeared. This time it was an older man, fat and greedy. He died too. Another face came. This time a young woman in the arms of a lover. Someone who was not her husband. They both died. More faces appeared. This time it was a noble family. They all died, including a child barely over ten. Dayane’s hands went to her ears to try and cover out the cries, but she could still hear everything. She tried to cover her eyes so she would not see the blood, but she could still see it all. Another face appeared. And then another. One after another they started coming at her, faster and faster. Tears where streaming down her face. She was howling in pain and fury. SLAM! Dayane stopped. Her tears stopped, her howls stopped, her fear stopped. She was back in the house and was staring right at Taleth’s back. His hands where holding down the cover of the trunk that she had opened. Then Rysabella was there, wrapping her arms around Dayane’s head. All of it came back to Dayane, and she cried. All the pain, all the emotion, all of it came back to her. “Wh-what was that?!” Dayane managed to say in between her sobs into Rysabella’s gown. Taleth locked the case again. “That…is everyone I’ve, Taleth’s, killed…or seen killed….or heard being killed.” Taleth said in a soft voice. “It’s the other side of having a flawless memory. I normally keep it locked tight, but with this Mind Wyrm, I had to go looking. Thankfully, it was not in there.” Taleth turned back to Rysabella and Dayane. Dayane saw a sadness beyond description in his eyes. This man before her was not the Taleth that Taleth wanted to be. This man was the Taleth that Taleth had to be. This man was two hundred years of attempting to stay sane. This was the true Taleth. “Hush, just rest,” Rysabella said. Dayane saw and heard nothing after that.

Taleth and Dayane loitered about in front of the Foaming Ale, a seedy bar despite its proximity to the Royal Castle walls. It was well past midnight and the bar was beginning to toss out the remaining drunks and close for the night. Taleth and Dayane seemed to just be another pair of those drunks. Dayane walked over to where Taleth was leaning against a warehouse. “When are supposed to go again?” she asked him, her voice low. Taleth glanced up once at the half moon that barely lit the night sky. “The four guards on this part of the wall will soon be called away, or at least waned down to just one or two,” Taleth explained. “When that happens then we’ll make our move.” Dayane let out an impatient sigh. She did not enjoy the waiting game at all. Taleth, on the other hand, made no indication of any impatience. Dayane only became more impatient because of that. “I don’t like waiting and doing nothing while others are risking their lives,” Dayane said, mostly to herself. “I can’t say anything for any of your people,” Taleth said. “But you can put your faith in Mel. She’ll get her part done easily.” Dayane nodded, but she was still unsure. Fortunately, though, she was now too excited to be nervous. * * * “Excellent, Ippiden,” Vestat congratulated his student. “Did this man say where he came across this information?” Ippiden stuttered for a moment and thought fast but was unable to offer an answer. Vestat gave him an angry look. “Let me guess, you forgot to ask him?” Vestat growled to himself and turned away from Ippiden without bothering to look at him again to see if he was right in his assumption. Still, it was good news. “Bring the man into the interrogation chamber and rip the name from his mind if you have to, I have work to be done.” “Yes, sir,” Ippiden said as he turned and nearly ran out the door. Vestat paused for a moment and then quickly went over to his bookshelf and grabbed a dusty tome from the top shelf. He began paging though the book, looking for something specific. He was feeling giddy right now. So giddy, in fact, that he started laughing to himself as he paged faster and faster through the book. His laughter reverberated off the walls in his chambers. It was a hideous sound, indeed. * * * KKZZZZAAATTTTT! A bolt of pure white lightning sizzled over the ground and slammed into the armory building. The bolt shattered the stone of one of the walls, opening up a man size hole. Mellara strolled across the ground, following the path of her bolt of lightning. She glanced through the hole she just created and met eyes with a soldier who had apparently been thrown against the other wall of the armory. He looked dazed and quite shocked. Mellara smiled at him, a gesture of politeness that was unfortunately made a thousand times more frightening by the fact that it was illuminated by the dancing ball of blue flame atop her staff. “Knock, knock,” Mellara said and waved her staff at the building. Stone caught on fire and began to burn. The soldier, who was previously frozen, suddenly found his feet again and bolted out a door by him, running fast towards the other side of the inner castle. Mellara let herself laugh a little. Everything was going according to plan. She was taken from her pause by a whizzing arrow that crossed a few feet over her head. She turned to the castle wall that she had previously blasted her way though and saw a handful of archers taking aim at her. “Tut, tut, boys,” Mellara said, shaking her finger at them. “Didn’t you ever learn not to be rude to a lady?” A couple arrows found their aim true, yet they where burned to nothing when they where an arms-length in front of Mellara. Shouts of alarm began to rise up all over the area. Mellara set up a few more barriers around her just to be sure of herself, and then turned her attention on the archers’ bows. “I wonder how well you shoot with snakes as bows,” she said. * * * Pole sat at a table in the mess hall of the barracks. He was exhausted. He had angered his commanding office and because of that had to work a double duty. Pole’s only thoughts where of his bed and his pillow. Those thoughts where rudely interrupted when Alvarn burst through the doors. “Pole!” he shouted painfully loud. “What are you doing just sitting there?” “What do you mean what am I doing?” Pole shot back, the anger in his voice apparent. He rubbed his eyes with his fists. “Well you should be moving like everyone else! The armory is on fire!” “What does that have to do with us, Al? We’re guards, not the local firefighters.” “Are you daft?” Pole looked up at Alvarn, an exasperated expression on his face. “The armory is built out of stone, you dolt! We’re under attack!” Pole was snapped out of his sleepiness in an instant to stare at Alvarn to make sure his fellow soldier was not lying to him. “Who the hell would attack the capital city? Much less the most guarded part of that city?” Pole asked no one in particular. “Hell if I know, but Marn said it was some sorceress,” Alvarn replied. Pole grunted as he stood up again. “You are pretty eager for someone going to fight a sorceress who can set fire to stone,” Pole noted. “Eh, I figure that she has a hell of a lot of other targets to go for,” Al said with a grin. “They called out everyone but the skeleton guards.” Pole silently wondered if that was a good thing or not. * * * Rilav shivered once, and then twice, and then a few more times for good measure. He was cold and wet and just a little disgruntled. He had spent five hours today with Mellara trying to master the spell to turn himself into a fish. He had been able to master the spell, but not well enough to keep him warm during the morph. Now he was treading water with one hand and using his staff in the other hand to keep himself in place. The end of the staff was jammed far into the bank of the raging river, Forgotten, and the staff’s magic was the only thing keeping Rilav from being washed away and drowned by the rivers undertow. On the bright side, Rilav thought to himself as he listened to the stampeding soldiers crossing the bridge above him, It’s too loud to hear my teeth chattering. Rilav shivered to himself for a little while longer, until the stamping and shouting died down to an occasional yell and a few footsteps. When he felt like the steady stream of soldiers had passed, he pushed off from the bank of the river and unleashed a bolt of air directly at the underside of the bridge. The bolt struck the bridge and exploded it into oblivion, sending stone everywhere. The undertow grabbed hold of Rilav and dragged him under. He formed a bubble around him to shield him from the water and let him breath. He enjoyed this mode of water transport much better then becoming a fish. “Too bad I couldn’t float upstream in this,” he said to himself. “This is a helluva lot drier then being a fish.” He watched the last remnants of the northern river bridge fall into the water as the currents took him along down the river to the only other bridge in the inner castle. One down, one to go. * * * Mellara was not even paying attention to the soldiers who where trying to attack her right now. She had no problem fending off arrows. She had more then enough shields up right now to stop even enchanted arrowheads. Anytime any soldier got close to her on the ground he would either be blow away by the whirlwind that was gusting all around her, or would find themselves stuck in place. It was because of these shields that when the first of Vestat’s wizards began filtering into the battle that Mellara was able to properly gauge how good of a teacher Vestat had become. Her conclusion was that he had no idea how to teach anyone. The first pet wizard that showed up on the field threw a massive fireball at her that had less power behind it then a light spell. She was not impressed by the rest of the wizards who started showing up either. Even combined they still lacked any semblance of power. She sighed as yet another fire bolt slammed into her shield and ricocheted into the castle wall. Mellara raised her staff and surrounded the archers atop that wall in a shield and caught the two who fell in an air net. She realized she needed to take out the wizards now or they would cause more deaths then she would. Mellara stopped for a second and concentrated. She raised her staff high into the air and it burst into flame that jumped from the staff and took the form of a soaring phoenix. The phoenix went high into the air and spread its wings wide before soaring back down and slamming into the ground around the wizards. Most where able to raise shields in time, but even they where slammed to the ground under the earthquakes that followed. Mellara sighed and turned her attention to more falling archers. For all the pretense of exasperation she wore, she had to admit to herself, she was having fun. “Damn you, Taleth,” Mellara said with a smile. * * * “There’s the signal,” Jor said, pointing up at the phoenix that brightened the night sky. Ioran grinned to himself and reached into the sack at his side. He pulled out the orb that Mellara had given him before they left. The orb was about the side of his fist and was a smooth metal sphere that felt warm to the touch. He turned to the resistance members behind him. There were five with him and another score hiding in the basement of the warehouse they where standing by. “Are you all ready?” Ioran asked without need. Four eager faces answered his question. Jor reached over and opened the door to the warehouse. Ioran started walking towards the side gate nearest to the barracks. As he walked, the resistance members started filing out from the warehouse and following him. All of them where armed and anxious. As Ioran neared the gate a few arrows started to fly at them, yet they where tons less then if all the soldiers had been there. With a roar, Ioran launched the orb at the gate. With a deafening blast, the door exploded, rocking the entire part of town. * * * “Stupid officers need to make up their mind!” Pole said as he stood on the other side of the gate. He and Al where halfway over the bridge when some officer ordered them back to protect the barracks. Protect the barracks, bah, Pole had said to himself, like they need any protecting. He was about to give another sigh when the gate exploded, sending him flying. He rolled on the ground for a little bit before he was able to stop. With a loud grunt he was able to stand himself up and turn to the gate. The last thing he saw was the arrowhead aimed at his head. * * * Taleth and Dayane watched as the guards panicked and ran towards the other side of the central castle, leaving the way in wide open. With a grappling hook, Taleth and Dayane had scaled the side wall and dropped themselves onto the ground on the other side before anyone noticed anything. Moving swiftly, they ran freely across the open field, wide open in the semi-lit night. The torch on the top of the Tower of Rysabella glowed eternally. When Taleth reached the door he turned back to Dayane. “There will be guards in here,” Taleth explained. “One of the last commands that Mellara made was that there always be a station of guards here in case of… well, thieves like us. They would not be called out to fight Mel like the other soldiers would be.” Dayane nodded. “Is this why I was to go with you? Because you needed help with soldiers?” Dayane asked, noting that the very idea seemed insane. “Of course not,” Taleth said instantly. “You’re here because of that necklace that Mellara gave you. The door to the crown room is magically sealed. We need that necklace to get through.” “Why don’t you wear it and go alone then?” Dayane asked more out of curiosity then a lack of desire to go get the crown. In truth she wanted desperately to get the crown, but she could not figure out why Mellara and Taleth wanted her to go with the assassin. “It clashes with my cloak,” Taleth said blandly. The lie was so blatant that, coming from Taleth’s mouth, she was almost tempted to believe it. But she did not. She just kept her mouth closed for now. There was obviously some reason for her to be here, but she would just have to wait and find out what that was. “Are you ready?” Dayane nodded as she pulled out her leif-sword. “Good.” Taleth spun and smashed his fist into the door to the tower. It required nothing more then that as it shattered in on itself. Taleth jumped through the open doorway and started running at his full speed. Dayane fought hard to try and keep up, but Taleth was quickly outpacing her. The assassin disappeared around a corner and it was a few seconds later that Dayane rounded that same corner. There were three bodies lying around on the ground. Dayane caught sight of Taleth’s cloak as he ran up a flight of stairs. Dayane hurried after him, curious about the fact that none of the bodies had a trace of blood on them. Her answer came when she got to the top of the stairs. One of the guards lay on the ground, yet two more where on Taleth. One of the two was a woman with flowing red hair. She moved like a snake with her two daggers in hand. Her movements looked familiar to Dayane and it took a moment for her to realize that the woman was moving like Silest. She must have been one of the Uri-van also. The other soldier was a lean man with a slender sword. Taleth’s broadsword was dancing back and forth to block all of the furious blows that the woman was launching at him while his dagger in his other hand was deflecting the man’s sword. Dayane was too astounded to do anything other then watch. They three danced around evenly, none of them opening up any hole in their defenses. The woman made the first mistake when she thought she had caught Taleth’s sword arm in a down thrust. One of her daggers arced around, aiming for his underarm. Taleth bent his knee a little, bringing his shoulder down to accept the blow. The dagger hit and deflected downward, not hurting Taleth in the slightest. The deflection knocked the woman off balance and she leaned forward too far, forcing her to place a foot before her so she would prevent herself from falling. That was what Taleth was waiting for as he sent his sword back up, turning it sideways. The blunt side of the sword smacked hard against the woman’s stomach and she was knocked back, her daggers sent flying in other directions. Her companion foolishly paused to watch this in amazement. He saw nothing more as Taleth’s knee came up into his chest and, doubling over, Taleth’s elbow dropped hard on the back of his neck. The soldier dropped in a heap. “Why aren’t you killing them?” Dayane asked. Taleth sheathed his dagger and started walking to the next flight of stairs. “Mel asked me not to,” Taleth explained. “Besides, being a crown guard means that you’re among the elite of the soldiers in the city. I have no reason to kill people who are this good at their job just because I’m immortal and they’re not.” Dayane stood for a moment wondering about that. As far as Dayane knew, it was the first time that Taleth had ever referred to his own immortality. Dayane was unable to ask him anything more as he took off up another set of stairs. Taleth had no problem with the rest of the tower, and before Dayane knew it, they where up to the top of the tower. Before them was a large door made of stone. Taleth turned to Dayane. “Just walk at it,” he said to her. Dayane looked at him with a curious glance, but did as he told her. Dayane cautiously walked over to the doors, and as she neared them, they swung inward. Dayane looked into the room that it opened into, and saw the Crown of Life, placed atop a pillow that was itself atop a pedestal in the middle of the room. The crown itself emitted enough light to keep the room illuminated. Dayane took another step towards the door when Taleth spoke up. “Stop,” he ordered her. She froze still. Taleth did nothing for a few moments. “What is it?” Dayane whispered. Taleth remained silent and Dayane turned a bit to see him surveying the room. His eyes seemed distant though. Dayane turned back and looked into the room again. “Something doesn’t feel right,” Taleth said. Dayane looked around inside. Nothing seemed to feel wrong to her. “What do you mean?” she asked him. “I don’t know for sure,” he replied. “It just seems like something’s amiss.” Dayane got one of her trademark bouts of bravery and boldly walked through the door into the room. She braced herself for anything but received nothing in response. She turned back to Taleth and shrugged. “It seems fine to me,” she said. Taleth still looked wary. After a moment he sighed softly and took a step into the room. When he stepped over the threshold, the room exploded in magic. Lightning surged across the ground from everywhere and went right at Taleth. The assassin’s body writhed in agony and Dayane watched in horror as the magic completely ignored her and coursed only through Taleth’s body. The roar of pain that Taleth emitted froze Dayane. It echoed all over the room, drowning out almost everything else. Dayane did hear one other thing in that instant. Along with Taleth’s roar of pain came a high-pitched voice that Dayane felt she recognized, though it’s words where hauntingly foreboding. “TALETH! LOOK OUT!” * * * Mellara de-clothed one of the wizards and dropped him across the street with a thought. She was thoroughly enjoying herself now, but she was not oblivious enough to miss the lightning cage spell that was emitted from the top of the tower. She realized at once that something was wrong. She sent a blue dragon of flame into the air to signify the retreat signal, and summoned all her power to herself. The tower had a tampering field that prevented opening a gate directly into it, but Mellara did not have the time to worry. She slammed her staff into the ground, knocking most of the soldiers and some of the wizards to the ground. In an instant Mellara was though the gate that she had created and in a blink, the gate was gone. * * * Vestat, the Royal Sorcerer, stood in front of the pedestal that held the Crown of Life. He looked down on Dayane condescendingly as she cradled Taleth’s head in her lap. She had watched in horror as Taleth crumpled into a heap after she heard the high-pitched voice, a woman’s voice, scream a warning to him. She had rushed over to him to see if he was alright, but she could find nothing to indicate that he was even alive. She did not know if it was because he was, dead or if it was because of his immortality. She had no time to think it through because Vestat appeared right before her. “So much for immortality,” Vestat said as he looked at Taleth, a sneer across his face. “You should have taken the job I offered you instead of keeping your loyalties with her.” Vestat indicated Dayane with his head. Dayane’s mind was too much in a state of panic to wonder what Vestat meant by that. The panic increased tenfold when she felt herself suddenly unable to move. Vestat looked straight down on her. “And you’re the little bitch who thinks she can usurp my hard-earned power,” he said to her. He let out a loud laugh. “Well a fat load of good that did for you now. I’d normally take pleasure in killing you over a period of days, but I’ve learned that it’s best to sometimes just make people dead.” Vestat raised his hand and aimed it at Dayane. Dayane tried desperately to do anything to get out of the way, but her muscles where frozen. She was helpless. She could not even close her eyes. Vestat was suddenly slammed sideways by some unseen force. He hit the side of the room hard and fell into a heap on the ground. Dayane found herself able to move again and, instinctively, grabbed Taleth’s body and began to drag him out of the room. As she pulled him out of the room she saw why Vestat was just violently thrown against the side of the room. Mellara stood there, almost glowing in power. Her hair was floating around her heard of it’s own accord, and her dress followed suit. Her staff was leveled directly at Vestat. She looked as frighteningly powerful as anyone Dayane had ever seen in her life. “Is he alright?” Mellara asked Dayane without taking her eyes off of Vestat’s still form. Dayane looked from the sorceress back down to Taleth. “I...I don’t know…” Dayane stammered out. Mellara risked a glance down to Taleth. Dayane heard a grunt from Vestat and as she turned she saw the sorcerer extend his hand at the both of them. Mellara yelled in defiance and took a step towards the sorcerer, still holding the staff before her. Dayane found herself almost being blown back into the wall of the hallway she had just dragged Taleth into. The force released by the two sorcerer’s spells when they met one another was truly awesome. When Dayane was able to see again, Vestat was on his feet and his hands where in front of him, palms facing out. Mellara gripped her staff in both hands and placed her feet shoulder-width apart, bracing herself. “You always where at the bottom of the magic ladder, Vestat,” Mellara said. Vestat grinned a sickening grin. “You’ll always be a dead queen’s aging legacy, Mellara,” Vestat replied. Black flame shot from the sorcerer’s hands and slammed into an invisible wall in front of Mellara. The sorceress yelled in another tongue and the black fire was dissipated. She then began chanting rapidly in the same tongue. Vestat’s eyes widened for a moment. Dayane guessed that he must have realized what Mellara was doing because he closed his eyes and began chanting in a similar tongue. Mellara finished and slammed her staff to the ground. A flaming pentagram appeared directly before her, and through the pentagram came a being of pure fire. The creature rose up to eight feet tall and had long, clawed hands that where made entirely up of flame. Fiery wings sprouted from its back and it roared, a sound like the crackling bonfire, and then took off at Vestat. In response to the pentagram of fire, a pentagram of water appeared before Vestat. The two sorcerers had summoned elementals to aid them in battle. From Vestat’s pentagram stepped a water elemental. The being was, by obvious inspection, in the form of a woman with an amazing amount of flowing water cascading from her head for her hair. Her body was made up of a lighter blue water, and her eyes where pure white. The water elemental and the fire elemental hit head on and steam suddenly filled the entire room. Dayane felt a hand on her shoulder and then suddenly she was being pushed into something that felt very cold. And then she saw, and felt, nothing. * * * Dayane sat in the conference room of the resistance headquarters. She was not alone. Orthar, Silest, Ioran and several others where with her. The mood was extremely somber. No one had spoken for many minutes. They all waited anxiously for Mellara to come back in. Mellara had successfully rescued Dayane and Taleth by taking a gate back to her library. The sorceress had tried, to no avail, to discern what was wrong with Taleth. After a while she had brought both him and Dayane back to the headquarters and then immediately brought Taleth to his room, shutting everyone else out. She told them all to wait in the conference room, where they were now. The plan had worked almost flawlessly, until Taleth was attacked. Ioran’s group had minor injuries but only one death. Rilav had succeeded in destroying both of the Royal Castle’s river bridges. Until those were rebuilt, traffic from one side of the Forgotten to the other would have to go along the top of the castle wall, or outside of the castle all together. Right now, however, it was little cause for celebration. No one knew what happened to Taleth, and Mellara had not spoken a word since she went into the room with him. Dayane watched the flames of the fire dance their eternal dance. Orthar placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, yet she did not even bother to look up at his calm, reassuring face. Dayane was piling the blame on herself for the attack on Taleth. She just kept playing everything over in her mind. She kept hearing herself saying that the room was fine, and then Taleth stepping over the threshold, and the agony in his voice. And then hearing the woman’s scream. She wanted to ask someone about the voice she heard, but she was too scared now. She was also too busy wallowing in self-pity. The door opened and Dayane was snapped from her wallowing long enough to see Mellara walk in. The sorceress walked over to Orthar’s chair and the older man pulled it out for her to sit. She gave him a smile and sat down, letting out a deep sigh. “He’s not dead,” Mellara said. The room defused an enormous amount. “But I’m sure he wishes he was right now. He has a Mind Wyrm in his head.” The only person to react was Rilav, who sat, wide-eyed in horror, and let out a long string of curses. Mellara nodded at Rilav. “I agree.” She turned back to the others. “A Mind Wyrm is like a parasite…a virus,” she began explaining. “It goes into your mind and settles somewhere, and then begins to rapidly destroy your mind, eventually killing you. It’s true that Taleth is immortal, but no one can have an invulnerable mind, sans maybe the gods. The Mind Wyrm will destroy his mind unless we can find it and destroy it.” “How do we do that?” Silest asked. “I can easily destroy a Mind Wyrm,” Mellara said. “However, I need to be able to find the Wyrm, and I can not find the thing in the utter vastness of Taleth’s mind. Searching for a Mind Wyrm in a normal mortal’s mind is a challenge itself, but Taleth has been around for nearly two centuries. He has too many memories for the thing to hide in. It would take me far too long to search through all his mind to find the Wyrm.” “What are our options then?” Orthar asked. Mellara took a deep breath and leveled a deadly serious gaze on the room. “Someone has to go into Taleth’s mind and find the Wyrm,” Mellara said. She received more then one blank look. “Human minds are vast places where we store everything and anything that has, is, and will ever happen in our lives. Everything we learn, everything we experience, everything we imagine, all of it is kept in the vast recesses of our minds. There are people out there, called psionics, who have the ability to dive into other people’s minds. I know enough of their magic to be able to send myself, or someone else, in to another’s mind. “Once inside, you’d have to go through their memories, their thoughts, their hopes and dreams to be able to find a Mind Wyrm. But the mind is an inconsistent place. Everyone has a different ideal of what they are, and that is reflected in their mind. Sorting through Taleth’s mind would be extremely difficult, but I can see no other option.” “Can’t you just go in yourself?” Silest asked. “You need an anchor in the actual world if you want to enter someone’s mind,” Mellara explained. “If you don’t have one then you have little to no chance of ever returning from the person’s mind. You would be trapped in there for all eternity. I can serve as an anchor for someone, but I dare not go in alone.” “I will go,” Dayane said. Everyone turned and looked at her. Orthar looked as if he was about to say something, but Mellara spoke up first. “There is a chance that everything will go wrong and you will lose yourself in Taleth’s mind. I cannot guarantee anything, and I was not going to force anyone to do this. I would not willingly risk anyone’s life to save Taleth’s. I have enough faith in Taleth to believe he would agree with me. “I have to go,” Dayane said in a self-pitying voice. “I’m the reason that he’s in this predicament in the first place.” Mellara looked long and hard at her and then she nodded. “Very well then, come with me,” she said as she stood back up. Dayane stood up and started after her. Orthar stopped her. “I will not let my only granddaughter go through this unless you are sure that this is the correct course of action,” he said. Dayane looked up at him. She could feel tears brimming in her. In the old man’s eyes she had always been just his little granddaughter, but right now he looked at her like an adult, like she was his equal. “I am sure,” Dayane said. Orthar let her go and started walking with Mellara. “Then let us get this done with,” the old man said. * * * Taleth lay in his bed and Dayane lay in a cot that was placed next to the bed. Mellara sat between the two. She placed her staff across her lap and had one end set on Taleth’s chest and the other on Dayane’s. “You will feel a long moment of disorientation and then you’ll black out. When you come to, you’ll be in Taleth’s mind. I cannot monitor your process, but when you say ‘Al’repilan’la’hiath’ I will be able to locate and remove you immediately. Say that when you find the Mind Wyrm.” “Where am I supposed to start looking?” Dayane asked. “Don’t worry about that,” Mellara said with a gentle smile. “You’ll have a guide.” “But I thought you said you couldn’t monitor my progress?” Dayane said, confused. “I’m not your guide,” Mellara said as she closed her eyes. “Then who?” “Hush,” Mellara said. “I need to concentrate. You will be fine, I promised.” Dayane did as she was told but she still wondered what Mellara was talking about. That wondering stopped when she suddenly felt like she was spinning in circles, and then there was nothing. * * * Dayane woke up to the smell of grass. Her eyes shot open and she found herself face down in some tall grass. She shook out her head and then managed to get herself to a kneeling position despite the urge to retch. After a few moments she found herself on her feet and looking around. She was awestruck by what she saw. She stood in the middle of an endless green field. Knee-high green grass was as far as the eye could see, and it was slowly rippling in some unfelt wind. The sky was a cloudless and impossible blue. Everything about this place seemed too perfect to be real. It was at that moment that Dayane realized that it was not real. She came to remember why she was here in the first place, and more importantly, where ‘here’ was. She was in Taleth’s mind. “Mellara…?” Dayane said softly, hoping the sorceress would be able to hear her somehow. Nothing responded. Dayane stood for many more moments. “Mellara already explained that she cannot help you, Dayane,” a voice from behind her said. Dayane spun around, her hand going unconsciously to the sword that was not at her side. Before her stood the most radiant woman Dayane had ever seen in her life. She easily rivaled Mellara’s looks. Dayane looked her up and down once. The woman was wearing a simple white gown, almost like a sleeping gown. However, this sleeping gown looked like it was fit for royalty. It was made of an amazing lace material and had long sleeves that ended in small frills. It was tapered to her waist and flowed down to the ground, just above her bare feet. Truly it was more of a ballroom dress then a sleeping gown. The woman herself was the epitome of beauty. She had full brown hair that fell just beyond her shoulders, and framed her perfectly chiseled face. Two eyes of the same impossible blue that made up the sky split her face. Those eyes made Dayane feel instantly warm and loved. The woman smiled at her and Dayane, despite the fact she had no idea who this woman was, smiled back. “I am the one Mellara promised would be your guide,” the woman said. Her voice was melodious, and it was also very familiar. When Dayane first met Taleth she had heard what she thought was her own thoughts talking, but she realized now that the voice had actually been this woman’s. She also recognized the voice as the same voice that screamed the warning to Taleth earlier that night. Dayane fought to ask any of the million things that where floating around in her mind. “What are you doing here?” Dayane blurted out. “The same thing I have been doing for the past one hundred and sixty two years that I have been here,” the woman replied. “Wondering why I am here.” Dayane became visibly confused. “Well…who are you?” Dayane asked. “I though that would be obvious, Dayane,” the woman said, using Dayane’s name again, and quite familiarly. “My name,” she said, smiling, “Is Rysabella.”

Mellara’s help was as much a boon as Taleth’s was. Everyone in the resistance was shocked at the vast amount of wisdom and skills that Mellara possessed. Even Rilav, the resistance’s lead sorcerer, was too amazed to be jealous of this new sorceress. It was because of this that when both Taleth and Mellara vanished for periods of over a day, no one would bat an eye. It was one of these days that Vestat received a visitor. * * * Vestat watched in his divining pool as the man who claimed to be Taleth walked into the king’s meeting chamber. The two elite guard tensed up when the stranger slammed the door behind him. Vestat had the king send away all his advisors except for Jonal, his intelligence advisor. The man who claimed to be Taleth walked into the center of the room and stood, eyes fixed on the king. He wore a black cloak that was folded tight around his upper body, hiding his arms and hands from view. He had short black hair and cold blue eyes. He did not bow. “What do you want?” he said without bothering to honey up his speech. Vestat began to think that he could easily get to like this man, regardless of who he really was. “I want to know a few things, and I believe I have the right,” the king said. “This is my city after all.” The man made no reaction. “You can ask all you like,” the man said. Jonal cleared his throat. “You would do well to address him as ‘your majesty’ and treat him with the proper respect he deserves,” Jonal said. As in response, the guards hidden throughout the room loaded their crossbows with audible clicks. Once again there was no reaction. “Ask, or I leave,” the man reiterated. Jonal was about to say something when the man emitted a “mewing” sound. Vestat’s eyebrows came up, and the king mimicked in kind. The man reached under his cloak and pulled out a tiny, ragged kitten. The thing looked like it had not eaten for a week, and its coat was wet with rain. The man set down the kitten by his feet and the thing immediately walked a few feet in front of him and sat down, looking around nervously. “And this is…?” Vestat asked through the king. “Something I found on the way in,” the man said. “Your time grows short and my patience grows thin. Ask.” “Fine,” the king said, dismissing Jonal’s protests with a wave of his hand. “Are you Taleth the Black?” Vestat could see that this man was not going play along with any word games so he decided to skip all the pleasantries. “Yes,” the man said. “It’s an easy thing to claim that when you can offer no proof to back it up,” Jonal said. A crossbow bolt was fired from the back of the room, aiming straight at Taleth. The kitten meowed and Taleth’s hand came up behind him to strike the bolt away. The bolt ricocheted off his palm and went directly into the neck of one of the elite guards that flanked the door. The guard crumbled in a heap. The other elite jumped into action but was stopped by the Taleth’s cold stare. Vestat, and thus the king, laughed heartily at this show of strength. “You’re lucky I didn’t have a better angle to hit it with,” Taleth said, turning back to the king. Vestat was not fazed at all by this. Of course killing the king would not do anything to hurt Vestat’s rule. “Yes, yes,” the king began. “Threats from both sides get us nowhere. After that display I can only say one thing: Will you work for me?” “I’m already on a job,” Taleth said. “Afterwards you are free to find me.” “Bah!” the king said. “The resistance offered you what? A Hundred? Two Hundred?” The old king laughed aloud, a slightly sickening sound. “I can offer you tens of thousands.” “So?” Taleth said. “So!” the king said repeating Vestat’s words. “So I’m offering you an obscene amount of gold, and all you need to do is end your contract with the resistance!” “That’s poor business,” Taleth said, his face still cold. “But it’s worth the money!” Vestat said. This was what the sorcerer had feared. Taleth was loyal to money but he also seemed to have some misguided loyalty to his current employer. Vestat became irritated when Taleth did not respond to him this time. His mind began filtering through the ways he could get Taleth to go back on his contract. His thoughts where interrupted by the meowing of the kitten. Vestat’s eyes instinctively drifted across his divining pool to the kitten. His mouth dropped agape when he saw that the kitten was sitting still, its head tilted so its eyes were looking directly at Vestat. Vestat’s eyes glowed blue as his shifted his gaze to the spectrum of magic. The kitten was no ordinary feline. It gave off a blindingly white aura. This was a sorcerer of immense power. “Breaking a contact is a sign of weakness, Vestat,” Taleth said. Vestat’s gaze shifted swiftly and now Taleth was also looking up at him through the divining pool. In contrast to the blindingly white light, Taleth was the deepest black. A color that Vestat had never encountered before. “If that’s all then I’ll be off. I have things I need to do.” Vestat watched as Taleth bent over and picked up the kitten and turned to walk out the door. The kitten’s eyes never left Vestat. Vestat quickly looked for possibilities. He began to gather magic up to strike against Taleth, but was stopped short when the kitten’s eyes began to glow red in the magic spectrum. Vestat was not going to take a risk against any sorcerer who could turn red in the magic spectrum. Demonic power was not something everyone could handle. Vestat had attempted to once and it nearly cost him his life. Vestat let his power go as he watched Taleth walk out the door. Vestat flicked his wrist and sent out a magic alert to his students. They where to report to him immediately. Something had to be done about this Taleth. And it had to be done soon. * * * “Well played,” Mellara congratulated Taleth as they stepped out onto the street. Rain was coming down hard now and Taleth put the little kitten into his cloak once again. “Yet it still smells in here. Take a bath.” “Yes, Ma’am,” Taleth replied with no vehemence. * * * Dayane was unable to get much sleep. She was torn between anxiousness and doubt as she lay staring up at the ceiling. It was just past noon but tonight was the night when they where going to try for the Crown of Life. Taleth and Mellara had laid out their plan a few days ago. When they returned from one of their disappearances they gathered most of the resistance together to explain how they where going to steal the crown. Dayane thought the plan was a little too dependent on Taleth’s and Mellara’s parts, yet she did think the plan could work. However, that did not make it any easier to sleep this afternoon. She had sent all the members who where going to be involved to bed to get some rest before tonight. Too bad she was unable to take her own advice. Dayane sat up in bed and resolved that she was not going to get to bed any time soon. She pulled on her robe and decided to take a walk to see if she would be able to clear her head. She walked out the door and proceeded down the hall, her feet making no noise on the cool floor. Halfway down the hall she stopped suddenly, hearing voices coming from a room on her left. A room Taleth occasionally used. Good sense was overruled by curiosity. “Is that what you think or is it what she thinks?” Dayane heard Mellara say. The voice was far from a whisper but was hard to make out through the thick door. Dayane pressed her ear hard against the door to hear more clearly. “It’s what I think,” Taleth responded. “I’d rather just kill Vestat outright and go from there.” Dayane heard a short laugh. “You would solve everything by a murder,” Mellara responded. “Assassination,” Taleth corrected. “Murder is what it’s called when you kill for the pleasure of it.” Dayane listened to a few moments of silence and then listened as a glass or something was set back on a table. “I don’t think people put as much difference between them as you do, Taleth,” Mellara said. Dayane heard some muffled whispering, probably Taleth speaking under his breath. Dayane strained to try and make it out but Mellara’s voice overpowered it again. “I know your aversion to it, Taleth. You haven’t exactly had the best experience with it, yet that’s not a viable reason to toss out a perfectly workable plan.” “I know, Mel. You have no idea how much I’ve heard about this plan ever since she caught wind of the resistance.” Once again Dayane wondered about this person that Taleth and Mellara talk about so familiarly. Taleth sighed loudly. “I should have cut that drunks throat before he blurted out about the resistance. Ignorance, not knowledge, is more often accompanied by bliss.” Dayane knew that saying. It was something that Orthar used to say to her. It was his explanation about why the people of Anlise never rose up against the oppressive king. After hearing that for her younger years she was set upon doing something to stop all the oppression. However, from Taleth’s mouth, the adage had an ominous tone. “If you would just explain to me why you’re so against it, I’m sure we could figure out how to alleviate your fears.” Mellara seemed to be fishing in the conversation for something. Dayane was curious to know if Taleth would bite or not. “You’ve been trying the past hundred fifty years to whittle information about that night from me, Mel. One would expect you to understand that I won’t tell you who hired me.” Taleth sounded exasperated. “And for the next hundred fifty I will continue to ask you until I find out,” Mellara replied stubbornly. “I have a lot of patience, Taleth. I will find out who it was and they will pay for what they did.” Now it was Taleth’s turn to laugh. “She’s been rooting around for over one hundred and fifty years and she hasn’t been able to find out who it was, do you think you have any chance?” Taleth said. “Yes, I do,” Mellara said back. “Suit yourself, but by the time I tell you, I can assure you they’ll be dead or dying,” Taleth said. Dayane listened uncomfortably to the silence that filled the next few moments. Taleth spoke up again to break the stillness. “I do what I’m paid because that’s why I’m paid, Mel. I have no reason to be loyal to anyone beyond the job.” “Then why are you doing this now? I’ve know you to ignore her for years on end,” Mellara asked. Dayane noted the mysterious “she” popping up again. “Even evil needs a vacation now and then,” Taleth replied. His voice had no mirth in it, though. There was a quiet moment and then some shuffling. Dayane pressed herself against the door to see if she could hear more. When she thought she heard something, part of the door exploded out at her. Dayane pulled herself backwards, raising her arms to try and shield her face, bracing herself for a barrage of splinters and shards of wood that never came. Dayane stumbled back and fell down undignified onto her rump. She peeked cautiously over her forearms and saw half of the door exploded away. All the shards and slivers from the door where floating in mid-air. They where not moving at all. Beyond the door in the room Mellara stood, her eyes focused on Dayane’s. “Eavesdropping is something that childhood should have droned out of you, little girl,” Taleth said as he stepped through the broken door. The splinters and shards all suddenly went up in a puff of flame as did the rest of the door. They disintegrated into nothing. Taleth stepped across the hall and pulled out his dagger that was stuck blade deep into the stone wall. The same dagger he just threw through the solid wood door. He turned on his heel and stalked down the hallway before Dayane could say anything. “He’s really a people person,” Mellara said with a mysterious smile. “You just need to get to know him more.” Mellara offered her hand to help Dayane up. “Now go to bed, you need to be awake tonight for this to work.” Dayane found she did not have the voice to argue.

Vestat, Royal Sorcerer of Aline, sat upon his magic throne staring into the divining pool before him. His moustache was neatly trimmed and his hair was combed back behind his ears. The tiny gemstones in his royal robes sparkled in the light emitted from the pool. Vestat’s cold eyes sparkled like the gemstones of his robe. He watched his puppet king atop his own throne as advisors surrounded him. The king was more then half dead. Vestat had long been destroying his mind and his body to the point where he would be child’s play to control. As it was now, Vestat’s magic was all that kept the king upright. Pulling the king’s strings, Vestat caused the old body to yawn and reflect the sorcerer’s boredom. Vestat was not really paying attention to the conversations that the advisors where having with the king. Because of this, Vestat jumped when he head an unexpected name. “…say Taleth the Black is one of the men, Your Majesty! Will you not do anything about this?” Kaern demanded of the king. Vestat pulled his magic with him when he sprung up to look more attentively into the divining pool. His puppet was caught in the same magic and leapt to his feet, causing a moment of alarm with all the advisors. “What do you mean Taleth the Black is one of the resistance?” demanded Vestat through the king. Kaern grit his teeth, biting back whatever was his immediate rebuke. “As I have said, Your Majesty, my guards have reported that none other then Taleth could be the one working with the resistance,” Kaern said. Jonal, the king’s intelligence advisor, gave Kaern an exasperated look. “I think you’ve been taken in by this rumor that the resistance is cycling around. Taleth the Black would not show up all of a sudden. And I assure you that I’d know about it if it was him.” Jonal enjoyed looking down on the young military advisor, Kaern. Kaern level his gaze at the fat old man. “Perhaps you would know, but it so happens the two spies you where trying to infiltrate into the resistance turned up dead on the banks of the great river,” Kaern said with an edge. “Dead spies tell no tales.” Jonal growled. “And I know my men, Jonal. They’ve defended this city against enough threats to know if someone is not a usual nobody.” Kaern turned back to the king. “Your Majesty, I’ve had reports from a dozen separate guards. They report that swords bounce off of this man, he can deflect arrows and bolts without a worry and has killed more men single-handedly then the entire resistance has in the past year. I stake my job on this. Taleth the Black is working for the resistance.” Vestat’s mind churned quickly as he formulated how to use this to his advantage. Regardless of whether this man was the Taleth the Black he claimed to be, he could be a great asset. The stories all told that Taleth the Black worked for the greatest power, money. Vestat laughed to himself and sent the king about the job of having Jonal set up a meeting with this Taleth the Black. * * * The room that Mellara lead them to was amazing. They had walked for several minutes down many stairs before coming to a large oak door. Raising her staff, Mellara tapped the golden serpent against the door. It responded to her push by opening on its own. Mellara ushered them all into the room beyond and touched her staff to the door again, closing it. Dayane stared at where she had just come through. She knew she had walked down stairs, yet the door was sticking up from the ground, as if they had just walked up. Dayane decided not to ask about that and instead turned her attention to the room they just entered. Shelves of tomes, jars and various other tools of the occult lined the high walls. Tables of different sizes and shapes where all about the floor. Mellara lead them through the tables to another door on the far side of the room. The door opened itself before they reached it and they blindly followed Mellara through. The door shut after Taleth, who was taking up the rear, had stepped through. Everything was plunged into darkness. After a moment two lightstones illuminated the place where the group was standing. Three winged-back chairs stood facing a fourth. Mellara sat in the fourth, legs crossed, hands folded in her lap. Her staff was leaning against the side of the chair. Dayane looked around the room and saw nothing. It was as if nothing existed beyond the chairs and the lightstones. Everything was black. “Sit,” Mellara urged, indicating the three chairs she was facing. Taleth sat in one, and after a moment of hesitation, Dayane and Ioran followed suit. As Dayane sat, Mellara’s eyes focused in on her. Dayane stayed uncomfortably still as Mellara regarded her for several moments. “So you’re the thorn in Vestat’s side,” Mellara said, breaking the silence. “Yes, I am,” Dayane said feeling defiant. Mellara smiled softly. “It’s funny to see Vestat get so unbalanced over one little girl.” Dayane silently grit her teeth. She did not like the trend of calling her a “little girl” lately. “Are you friends with Vestat?” Dayane asked with edge in her voice. Mellara’s expression remained the same. “I apologize, child, maybe ‘see’ was not the proper word. Any sorcerer with half a mind can feel when Vestat goes off on one of his tantrums. Spells can be felt easily when one uses them in anger.” Mellara let out a gentle laugh. “The resistance causes Vestat much anger. I think what gets him the most is that you’re a woman as well. He’s not much for equality among the sexes. It’s why my appointment angered him so long ago.” “Oh,” Dayane said, not really sure how to react now. She was saved from making an immediate decision because Mellara shifted her gaze to Taleth. The assassin locked eyes with the sorceress. “Well?” Taleth asked. Mellara sighed after a moment. “Nothing,” Mellara replied. Taleth gave off no reaction. “I assumed as much.” Taleth glanced at Dayane who was staring at the assassin with a questioning look. “You seemed filled with questions to which you have few answers,” Mellara stated. Dayane turned back to Mellara was who once again watching her, a soft smile across her face. “You may ask and I will answer what I can.” Dayane felt like her tongue was suddenly freed from its prison and questions came to her from everywhere. “Why are you here? And why are you so civil with Taleth? Everyone knows that you went after him when he killed Rysabella. For that, why are you sill alive? Why is Taleth? If you know what’s going on in the city why do you stay secluded here rather then help out?” The last one Dayane surprised herself on and almost apologized for it, but Mellara’s smile did not falter at all, in fact, it became a grin. “I see I was right. You where full of questions.” Mellara’s smile faded and she took on a more serious expression. “Very well, I will answer what I can. What I am doing here is the last command Rysabella ever gave me. I am civil with Taleth because, aside from his poor attitude, I have no strong reason to dislike him.” Mellara held up a hand to stay Dayane’s tongue. “Yes, I am aware of what history has to say of him, yet do you get angry at the arrow that strikes you down, or do you put that anger where it rightfully belongs, on the one that shot the arrow. Taleth simply did what he was hired to do. While I do not like what he did, I know better than to hold a grudge against him for it. “After that fateful night so many years ago, I did find Taleth yet I found no reason to punish him anymore then he was already punished. I will say no more then that. As to my life, the forces of magic give extended life to those who respect it. I am far from immortal, yet time does not affect me like it does the rest of you. Taleth on the other hand, is…special.” Mellara seemed to be grouping for words to describe what she was going for. Dayane found this less then enthusiastic from someone who has probably lived many more years then her own short lifespan. “It’s difficult to explain really. Taleth cannot be killed by any mundane means. Much more then that, I so not know.” Mellara paused. “Now as to your last question, I said I was down here as per the Queen’s last command. However, there is also the fact that there is nothing I can do on my own. The world of politics works with a completely different magic then the kind I possess. Undermining certain factions, bribing, assassinations, and manipulation. These are all fine things, yet they’re not something I possess an affinity for. And while I am quite formidable in battle, I alone cannot take on all of Vestat’s apprentices. And if I did win, what would I do then? I don’t want to rule.” Mellara let out a sigh and leaned back into her chair. “However, since you’re here,” Mellara said glancing at Taleth. “I assume there is a plan in motion and I am apart of this plan.” Taleth chuckled once, lightly. It was one of the few moments of true amusement that Dayane had seen in Taleth. “Good to see the years spent down here haven’t dulled your wits, Mel,” Taleth replied. “You have a plan?” Dayane asked Taleth. The assassin turned in his chair and leaned forward so he could see her. “Of course I do,” he answered the question as if Dayane was foolish for assuming anything otherwise. Dayane became angry. “Why didn’t you tell me you had one when I asked?” “The plan was useless without Mel. Once I made sure she was still around I’d let you in on it,” Taleth explained. “I have little choice?” Mellara asked Taleth. “She said you’d do it,” Taleth shrugged. She who? thought Dayane. “Ah, of course,” Mellara nodded as she spoke. “I assumed you had her help with the plan. Now that I think about it those strikes that where made where far too meticulous for you.” “I’m hurt,” Taleth said in his flat, unemotional tone. “Who are you talking about?” Dayane asked, finally speaking up. “A brilliant strategist that Taleth has an interesting relationship with,” Mellara said. Dayane could tell the sorceress was holding back something aside from just the individual’s name. She was about to try and pry the name out of Mellara when Taleth spoke up. “She suggests the Crown of Life,” Taleth said, freezing Dayane’s tongue and causing Ioran to almost fall out of his chair. “I thought she might,” Mellara said, her smile spreading across her lips again. Dayane stared at her, jaw half open. The Crown of Life. The magical crown that granted the wearer the ability to rule over all the land. Dayane’s mind started dancing over the possibilities of what could be done with the crown. Starting a revolution against Vestat and his puppet king would be simple if she had the Crown of Life as her rally flag. Nearly every citizen in Aline would answer the call of the possessor of the crown. However, the crown was magically sealed in the Tower of Rysabella and no one has been able to touch it since it was placed there. “She has some things that she needs to speak to you about though,” Taleth said to Mellara. Mellara thought for a moment and nodded to him. She turned to Dayane and Ioran. “Would you two be so kind as to wait outside for a moment?” Mellara asked in a voice that sounded less like a question and more like an order. Dayane wondered why she could not meet this “strategist” that Taleth knew so well. A thousand probabilities went through Dayane’s mind at this point, yet Mellara’s voice had left little room for anything other then obedience. Dayane and Ioran stood up and the door they came in magically appeared. After the two of them had walked through the portal, the door closed behind them. “Something seems a bit too secretive,” Ioran said. Ioran, as Dayane had found out many times, was overly cautious. “I don’t like plans being formed without me that involve me. Are you sure you know where his loyalties lie?” Dayane knew he referred to Taleth. “His loyalty is to himself first, Ioran,” Dayane said, taking the free moment to walk around and let her eyes take in the wondrous things in the massive room. “Then it’s to the money I’m paying him. I didn’t trust him at first but Orthar put my fears to rest. I may not trust Taleth completely, but I trust Orthar.” Dayane said this to Ioran, but she was having her own doubts about this plan Taleth was following. Mellara had made mention that the attacks seemed to show something more then just simple attacks. Dayane wondered if Taleth had this planned all along and his act thus far was all a façade. Everything seemed so out of her hands right now. Dayane did not like that feeling. “Hmph…” Ioran muttered, in a non-committal way. Dayane silently agreed.

Orlan, Elder of things that are difficult to remember right now, laid in bed, sleeping, soundly. The Elder took his breaths one by one, wrapped in a blanket of the thickest down. Commotion was spreading, chaos was reigning....yet Orlan simply slept on. Because it was LATE.....and he was TIRED....and damn kids these days turn the damn AC up all the way, sending the bills through the roof and causing him to break into his Mutual Funds to take out the money to pay for the rat bastards. But still....Orlan snoozed on. It's good to be the Sexy Sexy Elder...

Gotta watch where you toss around "we" and "christians" Not everyone is of the same religious page.

Dayane woke early the next day. At least she believed that it was early. The main downside about being the leader of the resistance was the fact that her name and appearance was know to every guard and soldier in the city. She was forced to spend all her free time in the underground network of caves that served as the headquarters for the resistance. She figured in the end it was a small price to pay, but she still was not enthused about it all. Dayane rubbed her eyes and stared up at the lightstone that was placed in the middle of the ceiling of her room. She sat up in her large bed. She was able to reason to herself and others that even though she has to live out of sight, there was no need to live in poverty. As such, her room was lavishly decorated. Her weapon, the leif-sword, was hanging off of the edge of the large mirror she kept in her room. She got herself up, dressed and checked herself out in the mirror. When she was as she liked herself, she belted the sword to her hip and left the room. After a few steps her stomach growled. Breakfast was as it always was. Pilfered from the kitchen upstairs when no one was looking. Although it did happen to be left aside by the head cook, Orik, it hurt nobody to think that she stole it on her own accord. She wolfed down the bits of food. She realized that she was quite hungry, though she figured it was in part due to the giddiness of last night. Taleth the Black! She still could not believe her luck. Sure, the stories painted him as a horrible killer, completely oblivious to any honor other then what one could buy, but he was on their side. Dayane let her mind wander over what she was going to use Taleth for first. She really wanted to get back at Milsan for making a fool of her, but she also knew other places that need to be hit to cause more damage for the king. She was still lost in her thoughts as she moved to open the door to the hearth. To her surprise, the door opened itself before she got there. She was caught off guard as Taleth strode by. The immortal killer gave off an aura of intense power, enough to frighten Dayane into silence. Taleth did not even look at her as he moved down the hall. Dayane regained herself a moment later. “Hey!” Dayane shouted after Taleth. He gave her no response and was quickly swallowed up by the darkness. Dayane looked into the hearth where her grandfather sat looking straight at her. “Where’s he off to?” “We decided to hit Davin’s Armory with a fire,” Orthar explained. “Taleth is going now to stake out the place and look where to set the fires.” “You just decided this without me?” Dayane said. Her voice gave away how shocked she was. She had though she would be able to tell Taleth what to do, not have him making his own decisions. “Taleth made a good argument,” Orthar shrugged. “I’m sure he would have made an excellent merchant,” Orthar added as an afterthought. Dayane did not hear it, though. She was gone from the doorway and in pursuit of Taleth. She figured that she would decide on the way whether to watch Taleth or confront him and give him a lecture of the difference between employer and employee. Only when she grabbed her cloak and started for the back door did she realize that Taleth was right. Savin’s Armory would be the best place to hit. * * * Rain was falling. It was not, by any means, a downpour, but it was enough to keep people in their homes and outdoor vendors to skip a day of work. Dayane enjoyed the rain since it meant she was able to go out into the city and not be immediately arrested or followed. When it rained, everyone looked the same. Dayane had not seen any trace of Taleth. She had not been looking very intensely for him, but she thought she might have seen him somewhere. There were only so many ways to get to Savin’s Armory. She assumed she beat Taleth to the armory when she came to where it was located and the street was empty. Dayane slowed her pace. She strode by the armory, peering though the large glass display window. She glanced around nonchalantly attempting to see if she could spot Taleth anywhere. Unfortunately, he was nowhere to be found. Then the hair on the back of her neck suddenly stood on end. “They have third rate wares,” Taleth said. Dayane’s head spun to her side sharply and saw Taleth’s face being shaded by his cloak. Dayane opened her mouth to say something. “Keep your eyes forward,” Taleth ordered. Dayane did so. She was able to watch Taleth’s reflection in the window. He glided behind her, not seeming to bounce with any steps. There was a dog curled up under an overhang, trying to keep itself dry. Taleth kneeled down next to the dog and reached out and scratched the scraggy dog behind the ears. The dog did not seem to dislike it. “Whisper,” Taleth spoke softly, yet Dayane could still hear what he was saying clearly. “Were you trying to follow me for a reason or is this just a general check up?” Dayane grit her teeth to hold back a snide remark and to keep from speaking aloud. “You don’t seem to understand that you’re being paid by me,” Dayane whispered barely moving her lips. “You work for me, so I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t just go off by yourself without saying anything.” Taleth continued petting the dog. “I work for money, not people,” Taleth told her. He stood up and glanced down the street. “You agreed to pay me for my help. This makes me more then just a hired goon that you can order around.” Taleth turned his head and looked directly into Dayane’s eyes. “I’ve been around for a bit longer then you have. I’ve seen things that you couldn’t begin to fathom. If you wish to be successful in what you hired me for, you will listen to what I tell you and take heed in it. If you’re looking for hired muscle, go look for it, I’ll be up and gone.” Dayane meet Taleth’s gaze straight on. His eyes seemed almost vacant right now. They showed no emotion. Dayane narrowed her own eyes as a response to him. “Fine,” she said. “However, I am still your employer, and if you don’t do what I like I will sever the contract and you will not get paid.” Taleth’s eyes glanced over Dayane’s shoulder for a moment and then back at her eyes. “Agreed,” Taleth said. “Now turn around and walk home. I work best alone.” Dayane hesitated a moment but then started walking back. She glanced behind her once to see Taleth give the dog a final scratch and then step into the building. * * * Dayane swore to herself as she nearly slipped on the cobblestone. The plans had gone flawlessly for the past two weeks. As much as she hated to admit it, though she never did, Taleth’s plans went perfectly. Two weeks had passed since Taleth was hired and seven separate jobs had all gone flawlessly. Unfortunately, something went wrong this night. Dayane and Ioran were following close behind Taleth, trying hard to keep up. The assassin moved swiftly in front of them making sharp turns around hairpin corners, dodging behind shops and avoiding the few people who were out tonight. Yet, he was obviously not using his full speed since both Dayane and Ioran where able to keep up, as were the guards that where following them. They where starting to pull away from the guards when Taleth took a sharp turn into a house, breaking down the door with his shoulder. Dayane did not hesitate and took off after Taleth, crashing into the house. Dayane launched herself through the door to the house with Ioran a step or two behind. Dayane’s hair was blown back as something whizzed by her face. She spun in time to see one of Taleth’s daggers slice through a leg of the cabinet that was by the door. The cabinet teetered and then fell down right after Dayane, blocking the door somewhat. Taleth crashed his way through another door and out into street on the other side of the house. Dayane caught sight of a guard slamming his knees into the cabinet and tripping over it, crashing into the ground hard. She looked ahead of her in time to avoid running into Ioran’s back. Dayane steadied herself and looked around. Taleth was walking toward a large metal gate that was at one end of the street. The gate towered over the street. It was made of black metal but seemed unable to reflect light back. On the other side of the gate stood a large and looming house. There was candlelight flickering in one of the top windows but other than that, the only light being cast was from the torches that lined the street. Dayane had a sudden aversion to this place. She could think of other places where they could have run. She watched Taleth walk up to the gate and unlatch the lock, breaking a chain that was strewn across the bars. Taleth pushed open the gate and took a step in turning back to the others. “Let’s go,” he said, more of an order then anything else. Dayane looked from Taleth to the house behind the gate and shook her head. “Why are we going here?” she asked. “There has to be better place to go. The guards still aren’t too far behind us, we should use this time to gain a greater lead on them, not hide in some witch’s house.” Taleth’s eyes went sharp. “What do you mean by ‘witch’s house’?” Taleth said. Dayane did not know what she meant, but her lips seemed to move of their own accord. “The people just say this old house belongs to some witch. They stay away from it, that’s all. I just think we should get a greater distance from the guards since we have the time.” “If it’s kept empty by old wives’ tales of a witch then the guards won’t look for us in here,” Taleth said. Dayane just shook her head. She did not know why, but she certainly did not want to go in this house. “I’m NOT going in there, and that’s final,” Dayane said. “Now lets get going before the guards catch up to us.” Taleth glanced to his left at nothing and then turned to look back at the gate. He said something to himself and glanced at Ioran. “Do you feel the same way?” Taleth asked the big man. Ioran nodded. Taleth started walking away from the gate. He stopped in front of Dayane turning his head a bit in her direction. Dayane did not see Taleth’s hand until after she was struck across the face. The backhand slap was solid, but, as Dayane had witnessed several times before, it was not Taleth’s full strength. Dayane’s jaw dropped and her hand went to the side of her face. She stood there gawking at Taleth. Ioran roared and leapt at Taleth, most likely without thinking about the consequences. Taleth had already turned and was walking back at the gate. Ioran went to grab Taleth but completely missed him when the assassin vanished and appeared an arms length to the left. Taleth reached out a hand and hit Ioran on the back when he was off balance. The big man continued forward and stumbled into, and then through the wrought iron opening. Taleth strode calmly behind him. It took a moment but Dayane regain composure enough to be nearly enraged at Taleth and stormed after him, forgetting all aversion she had to the witch’s house. Taleth had reached the old rotted door to the house when Dayane caught up with him. Ioran was standing beside Taleth fuming, yet to unsure of himself to do anything. Dayane grabbed Taleth’s shoulder and attempted to turn him to face her. Taleth did not move until he turned himself. “What was THAT for?!” Dayane yelled at the assassin. Taleth glanced at the gate and then locked eyes with Dayane. “Why didn’t you want to go through the gate?” Taleth asked. Dayane snapped back from her anger and spun around to look at the gate. Nothing had changed with the gate, but Dayane no longer felt any aversion to this wrought iron gate. In fact, Dayane had no idea where the witch story came from. She had never heard it before, even though she knew the story. She spun back at Taleth but he was already moving through the doorway. Ioran glanced at Dayane for instructions. Dayane rubbed her cheek and shrugged and stepped in after Taleth. Ioran followed. The house was as dilapidated from the inside as it was from the outside. The front door opened out into a hallway that ran from left to right. Taleth started walking to the right and pointed his hand to the left, indicating that Dayane and Ioran should go that way. Dayane drew out her sword and crept along the battered hallway. The building looked like it had been unused for a hundred years. She stepped over a skittering spider and winced as the floorboard she stepped on creaked loudly. Ioran poked his head into a room and looked around as Dayane took a step around a corner right into a candle. Dayane stopped herself from colliding with the old woman who was right before her, holding the candle. The old woman let out a yell and suddenly her staff came down on Dayane’s forehead. “Who are you!? Get out! Get out!” she yelled as she brandished her staff before her. Dayane nearly fell back into Ioran, who steadied her with his hand. Dayane shook off her shock and stared at the old woman. The disheveled old woman looked like she was the witch that was ripped right out of a child’s story. She had a long crooked nose and her skin was old and withered. Her bony hands clung to a wood staff and her black robes were wrapped loosely around her. “Hey! We’re not here for any ill purpose…” Ioran began. The old woman’s staff came around wildly again and Dayane and Ioran ducked to avoid the end. “No ill purpose! HA!” the old woman cried out. “Come-to-steal-my-gold purpose is more like it!” With that she swung her staff wildly again. Once again the pair ducked to avoid it. “Hold it, old woman, we don’t want any trouble,” Dayane said, sheathing her sword and raising her hands. The old woman seemed not to acknowledge the gesture of peace. “Trouble?! I’ll show you trouble when I turn you into a frog!” The old woman went to swing her staff again but it failed to move like it had gotten caught on something. That something was Taleth, who stood a step behind the old woman with his hand on the staff. “We both know you can’t do that,” he said to the old woman. Her hands let go of the staff instantly, as if it was suddenly on fire. She spun to Taleth and took two steps back from everyone, her eyes suddenly moving decisively over the room. “Taleth,” said the old woman. Yet when she spoke this time, her voice was not that of the crazy old woman who just tried to bludgeon Dayane and Ioran to death with her staff. This time her voice was younger, and more vibrant, even commanding. “You are not someone I would have thought I’d see again so soon.” Dayane watched the old woman stand herself up straight. She did not look like an old witch anymore right now. “Time passes, Mellara,” Taleth said, tossing back the staff. The old woman caught it deftly. “You seem oblivious to it as usual.” Dayane stared at Taleth first and then the old woman. Taleth called her Mellara. Mellara was the name of the Royal Sorcerer when Rysabella was Queen. When Taleth killed Rysabella, Mellara vanished soon after and many thought that she had gone after Taleth herself for revenge, for the Queen was her friend as well as her ruler. They seemed, at least to Dayane, to know each other well enough to have spoken before. Maybe the stories where true and Mellara did catch up with Taleth. “Time will continue to flow whether or not I pay it any heed, Taleth,” the old woman responded. “You should know that since we’ve both stepped from its flow.” The old woman took a step forward. When she moved, everything around her seemed to wash away like she was standing under a waterfall. The black cloth she wore wavered into nothing, and her face seemed to vanish. In the old woman’s place stood a woman who looked like she had seen her thirtieth year just yesterday. Her face looked flawless, with her dark eyes focused on Taleth. She had thick brown hair down to her knees, with a gold ring holding it back at the nape of her neck. She had a dark violet dress on that looked nearly black with the midnight black cloak she wore over it. The staff that once looked like a gnarled piece of discarded tree had morphed into a sleek staff of silver with a golden serpent wrapped around the top end. “Why are you here Taleth?” “Seemed a logical place to hide. Your wards are still up, I see.” Taleth folded his arms over his chest and returned Mellara’s gaze. Mellara closed her eyes for a moment and then turned to Dayane and Ioran. She lingered on Dayane for a moment. “I see you’re still crafty enough to get around them, I assume you were the one who slapped her,” Mellara said to Taleth. The assassin nodded back. Mellara sighed and then suddenly Dayane’s cheek felt much better. In fact, all the pain in her body seemed to subside. Ioran’s surprised grunt confirmed that he too felt better. “I ask again, Taleth. Why are you here?” “I’m on the job, Mellara,” Taleth said with a glance at Dayane. Mellara turned again to Dayane, this time giving her a longer look. “This little girl hired you?” Mellara asked. Dayane was getting irritated at everyone calling her a “little girl.” “Among others, yes. It was not fully my decision. You know how she gets when she comes home.” Taleth’s voice was subdued and soft. Dayane wondered what Taleth meant by her coming home. Mellara apparently understood since she nodded her head and glanced around. “Well, since you’re all here anyway, let’s go downstairs to someplace quiet. The guards that were just repelled by the wards…I assume they were after you?” Mellara asked. Taleth nodded. “Well they’re gone now. Follow me.” With a flourish of her dress and hair, she turned and started walking away. Taleth followed and, after a glance back at Dayane and Ioran, they followed too.

[You didn't think I forgot....did you? ] Tralla and Canid made note to ask for more things next time when Tzimfemme visits Orlan. According to Mitsune, Orlan gave affirmative "YES"s to all of thier requests. She said even Tzimfemme agreed with the requests. This was a turn for the better for Tralla and Canid. Orlan covered the bill for thier plane trip back, a car rental in New Jersey, and a four star hotel. It was a life the two girls could get used to. As the two of them blasted down the famous New Jersey Roadwherethecarsgoon, they took time to drink in the sights. That took about 6.42 seconds. Aside from that they listened to the CDs they had and tried not to make contact with any natives. After about twenty minutes of driving, they came upon the first of tens of thousands of toll booths. A big black phallic truck was right in front of them at the toll booth and the driver was shouting obscenities out left and right and shaking his hand at the man in the toll booth. Canid noticed that the booth attendant that was getting the earful was none other then the most sickening polite ancient of the pen, Peredhil. Peredhil had a smile across his face and was noding his head politely again and again as he was verbally abused with obsceneties about his mother and some goats and other various farming equipment. The man in the black truck finally drove off and Peredhil gave a nice wave after him as Tralla pulled up the car. "Tralla! Canid!" Peredhil said, delighted. "You two are a wonderful surprise! How are you? How are your mothers? Would you like some caramels? I snack on them now and then during the day, but I always share." Tralla gave the bowl of caramel a skeptical look and shook her head. "Thanks Peredhil, but we're actually trying to find where Wyvern is, do you know where he might be?" Tralla said. Canid reached over and grabbed a handful of caramel and started munching. Peredhil put a finger politely to his lips and pondered. "Hmm...if I remember correctly, with your say-so of course, just to be polite..." Peredhil paused until Tralla nodded. "I think he was running on the rails from New York after a fiasco in the subways. Something about three-card monte gone haywire. I believe that Zool might have helped him out, since he's usually in the boxcars at this time of year." Tralla sighed. "So then Zool might know where he went?" Canid asked, her mouth full. Peredhil nodded. "If I know my Zool, and I do, I'd say he's at the 6th station on the outskirts of NibbleOnWenchVille up by New York. He should be around the Hobo town." Peredhil said, politely. Tralla mused a second. "I think I know where that is, it's a couple hour drive..." "You can come stay the night and I can have my wife drive you girls if you don't want to worry about it. That's the polite thing to, anyway," Peredhil said politely. Tralla gave the I-hope-he-gives-up-on-this smile to Peredhil and again shook her head as the people behind them started honking their horns and giving gestures that involved one finger. "That's alright, Peredhil, we'll just be off now," Tralla said as she put the car into gear and started driving off. "Well, be careful!" Tralla said as she took off. Peredhil leaned out the window behind her and waved to them as they drove out, shouting whatever could be considered the opposite of obscenities. * * * "BEWARE! THE CHICKEN FORTELLS DOOM!" Several homeless people and hobos and rail-riders sat near an old abandoned boxcar listening to a sermon from a rubber chicken. They didn’t seem to be listening to intently, though. “Is that Zool?” Canid asked Tralla. Tralla squinted at the dirty man with a long black beard and wild eyes who was brandishing the rubber chicken like it was the lost scrolls of Nanotoknonnen. “Unfortunately,” Tralla replied. Zool was waving his hands in the air, making his tangled, bushy hair fly around chaotically. Zool was visibly agitated, and seemed quite off his rocker. He was preaching about things that made no sense, and shoving the chicken into people’s faces. It was then that his insane eyes caught sight of Tralla and Canid. He immediately rushed over to them both, holding the chicken out in front of him. “The chicken says beware! The chicken thinks your quest is perilous and bad! The chicken fortells!!!” Zool cried out to the girls. Canid stepped behind Tralla and peeked out over her shoulder. Tralla held her hands up in a non-threatening manner. “Zool…Zool it’s me, Tralla.” Zool seemed not to hear her and began shaking the chicken at them, spouting off sentences in various languages including gibberish. “Zool! Zool! We’re looking for Wyvern! ZOOL!” Tralla shouted at him. Zool was oblivious. “Doom! DOOM! The chicken sees the future in the past! Chicken is never wrong! BEWARE!!” Zool yelled. Tralla laughed a bit nervously and her face took on a pained expression. Then Zool stiffened and fell into Tralla. Tralla was caught off guard and fell backwards onto Canid and then the ground. “Ouch! … Zool?!” Tralla shook Zool lightly. Zool stirred and looked up at Tralla, the insanity gone from his eyes. “Wyvern, train to Vegas, Riviera,” Zool managed to say, and then passed out. Tralla looked up to see four men in white coats approaching. One had a tranquilizer rifle with him. “I told you you needed enough tranquilizer for a large elephant,” said one of the men to his companions. Two of them reached down and took Zool and strated draggin him off. Tralla could only think of “They’re coming to take me away, HAHA!” At least she knew where Wyvern was.

How about offering the people who dislike the ranking system to drop thier ranks and just be "Member". This allows anyone to choose thier OWN path. If they don't like titles they don't have to have one. If they want a title they can continue on in our ranking system. This would leave the choice up to the individual, instead of one person deciding that Ranks are bad or Ranks are good. This is a suggestion to everyone.

...Feelin' Groovy...

This is the reason I bought the school. It's easier when you only have to answer to your sleep addiction.

"Well that was a pleasant change," Tralla said as she walked off the plane. Canid nodded her agreement. It was a large change going from the forests of northern Canada to a first class plane ride over the Pacific Ocean to sunny Hawaii, then a private jet to Tokyo Narita International Airport. Tralla and Canid walked from the plane, following the stunningly gorgeous stewardess that had flown with them. She told them that thier luggage would be taken care of and that they didn't have to worry. The two followed the stewardess through the underside of the large airport to a pick-up exit. There, the two girls where escorted to a black stretch limo that was parked at the curb. With wide-eyed wonder and girlish giddyness the two filed into the limo, making themselves comfortable. The driver, an elderly japanese man with a big smile on his face said something to the girls in japanese and with a nod he rolled up the divider between him and the back and the limo started moving. "This is awesome!" Canid said as she looked about the limo. There was a tv, radio, phone, and even a small fridge. Tralla popped open the fridge and took out a bottle of the famous "Legendary Happy Fun Time Lala Spring" water and hugged it. "I LOVE this stuff. You can't get it in the states ever since it costs far too much. Orlan sure knows how the hell to live!" Almost as if on cue, the doors to the limo locked themselves and the lights all went out. Tralla and Canid became panicked as suddenly the sir was filled with a fizzing sound, like air being pumped in. "Tralla?" Canid voiced in the dark. "Yeah, I'm here," Tralla answered groping around. "Ow! That's my foot!" Canid said. Tralla began coughing. "Canid, are you breathing alright?" Tralla said between coughs. Canid answered her by entering into a fit of coughing. It was then that Tralla realized that the entire limo had been filled with some sort of gas. Tralla heard a *thud* as Canid hit the limo floor beside her. Tralla fought as much she could but after so long, she too lost it and fell to the ground, out cold. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Low voices brought Tralla back awake. She realized as she came too that her hands where bound to the back of the chair that she was presently sitting in. A black hood was over her face right now and was blocking out most of what was probably coherent speech. Tralla suddenly grabbed at her wrist, making sure that the briefcase was still attached to her, and after feeling the handcuff, realized the weight on her lap was probably the briefcase. "Hello?" Tralla called out, the sound muffled by the hood. The conversation that was taking place was silenced and Tralla heard footsteps. She felt a face pull up to hers and say something in japanese. Tralla knew four words in japanese and this person just used none of them. "I...I don't speak japanese...why did you do this?" Tralla asked. The person in front of her sighed and said something, probably as an aside to his companion, and began speaking again. This time he spoke in english with a heavy accent. "Why you here?" he asked. "We're here to see Orlan," Tralla said. Silence followed and she heard Canid give a fightened squeak from beside her. At least Canid was awake now. "Why Orlan want talk to you, eh?" the man asked. "Jechum sent us to update him on what's been happening," Tralla said. There was a pause and then some rapid spoken japanese dialouge. "Names?" the man asked. "Tralla," Tralla said. "Canid." Tralla felt someone grab the top of her head and yank off the hood. Her eyes where assualted by the vibrance of reds and blacks in the office they found themselves in. The design was vast and extremely oriental in feel. "Nice office, eh?" asked a voice in an accentless english. Tralla honed in on the voice and saw Orlan sitting behind a large black desk. The entire decor of the desk was black, from the pencils and pens to the computer. Orlan himself was wearing a stunningly good looking black suit with black tie and shirt. He was leaning back in his chair and smiling at the two girls. His smile was half covered by the hand it was leaning on, but they soon saw it all as he snapped his fingers at the other man in the room. The japanese man slipped behind the girls and cut the ropes that bound thier hands. Tralla began rubbing her wrists. "Sorry about the rough treatment. Some old Yakuza habits are hard to break," Orlan said with a smile. "When I took over the Yakuza is was like trying to merge two cultures into one. I've had corporate takeovers that where less hassle then this was. But I think I've found a happy medium." Orlan stood up and walked over to the side of the room and poured him a glass of something from a glass decanter. He held out the glass to Tralla and Canid. "No thank you, I don't drink," Tralla said politely. Orlan looked curiously at the glass. "Neither do I," he said. "This is Coke." Orlan grinned. Tralla and Canid both declined again. Orlan shrugged and took a drink. He then turned to someone behind them and spoke in japanese. Tralla turned around in time to see a japanese woman in black slacks and a sports coat bow her head and walk out the door. She returned a moment later with another japanese woman with long black hair in a black buisness suit/skirt. The new one walked over to a chair that was beside the two girls and sat down, opening up the laptop she carried with her. "What..?" Canid began. Orlan smiled again. "Better then a court stenographer, Mitsune has very talented fingers." Orlan gave a wink. "Now then," he said as he began walking over to his big leather chair again. "What's up with Jechum?" Tralla and Canid began telling Orlan all that they needed to be, pausing to unhook the briefcase from Tralla's wrist and set it on the desk before Orlan. Tralla then went on telling Orlan what happened with the plane to Tzimfemme's island, and then the trip to Canada and Gwaihir's giant iguana. Orlan kept a curious face through the whole speech. When they where done, Orlan opened the case before him and his body was bathed in the same golden glow as the other two elders before him. He stared into the case and let out a "hmmm". He reached in, hit something, and then shut the case handing it back to Tralla. "Was that it?" Orlan asked. Canid remembered something. She dug into her pocket and took out the cube that Tzimfemme had given them for Orlan. Canid put the cube on the desk. Orlan gave it a strange look. "Curious..." Orlan said as he reached over the desk. The moment he touched the cube, it shot into the air above the desk. A ripping sound accompanied a large white square that appeared in the room, right above Orlan's desk. The woman who was typing on the laptop immediately knocked over her chair and rolled over, coming up with gun in her hand, raised at the square. The woman who was at the door took a defensive kempo stance, shiriuken between her fingers. The other man had his gun raised and pointed at the square. Orlan had his kodachi out against his raised forearm. A flash of white leapt from the square and crashed into Orlan, sending him back rolling. The three yakuza where immediate in thier switch of targets as they held thier guns pointed at their leader. Tralla watched as Orlan rolled for a moment, eventually coming to a rest on his back. Sitting on his stomach was Tzimfemme, her hair mussed and her labcoat half off, revealing a lack of anything beneath it. "Tzimfemme?! What the hell?!" Orlan yelled out. Tzimfemme was rubbing her cheek against Orlan and mewing and purring like a happy kitten. Orlan waved his yakuza down and, a little reluctantly, they put away thier weapons. Orlan took Tzimfemme by the shoulders and held her face to face with him for a second. "I say again, what the hell?" "Simple Universal Transmogrificational Lucitational Relocalationmation," Tzimfemme said with a smile. "Okay, Rydia! You can close it!" Tzimfemme cried out to the white square. Rydia's head popped out of the square as she looked around. "Gotcha, Boss! Have fun!" Rydia's head disappeared and the white square vanished. Orlan looked once at Tzimfemme, and then, in an amazing feet of agility, spun up to his feet with Tzimfemme over his shoulder, an arm holding her feet from flopping around. "Okay, Misato, take care of things in my absence, I'll be busy for a week or so." Orlan turned to Tralla and Canid. "Wyvern floats around alot, you should ask Peredhil where he might be, Misato and Mitsune can help you out. Take care of things for me ladies!" Orlan turned and walked out the back door of the office, Tzimfemme was waving to them as with a delerious smile on her face and her eyes shut. Tralla and Canid let out exhasperated sighs when the door behind Orlan shut. Finding Wyvern was not going to be fun. At least...not fun like what Orlan was probably about to get.

Snifzles sniffed around the ground, spinning itself in circles. Canid stood by, swatting at gnats every time they bit at her skin. Tralla squat down and was watching Snifzles spin faster and faster, making herself dizzy in the process. Canid swatted at another gnat that bit her. Snifzles suddenly stood up and took off further into the forest. "Quick, after it!" Tralla cried as she sprang up and started running through the forest, clutching the briefcase close to her as she tried to keep the furball in her sights. She heard Canid's slaps and whines of bugs behind her in the forest. Canid hated the forest. After the plane had dropped them off at the airport in northern canada, they hitched a ride with a medic helicopter to the middle of one of the forests up here where they where prompty dropped off and abandoned. Now they where following a fist size furball through the depths of the forest trying to find any clue of where the hell Gwaihir set up his camp. Tralla saw Snifzles whiz through a clump of bushes and she jumped through the bushes after it. This was a wonderful mistake as Tralla plummeted down the side of a short cliff into a pool of clear water below. A moment later she heard Canid's splash and felt the water move as she hit the pool. Tralla was able to strugle herself to the surface, lugging the briefcase with her. Canid was already treading water when she broke the surface. "Where's Snifzles?" Tralla suddenly asked looking around. "On your head," Canid said. Tralla become aware of the furball on her head. She noted that the thing was indeed fluffy. Tralla turned her gaze around and looked at her surroundings. The pool was a perfectly crystal clear blue allowing them to see all the way to the bottom. The surrounding foliage was astounding. Green floura surrounded every piece of the cliff. Multicolored flowers where intermixed here and there. At one side of the pool was a white sandy beach. Tralla began wading over to there when Snifzles started boucing up and down on her head anxiously. "What's your problem, furball?" Tralla asked annoyed at the bouncing. Snifzles suddenly bit her hair somehow and then started skittering across the pool. Tralla had enough time to grab Canid's hand and the two of them where zipped to the sandy beach at one end of the pool. When Snifzles let go of Tralla the group was on the beach in the soft sand. Tralla immediately tried to smash Snifzles with the briefcase, which the little thing was able to easily avoid. Tralla was getting ready to smack the little bugger again. "Tralla!" Canid screamed out. Tralla froze her hands and turned her head to Canid. Canid was staring in wide-eyed horror as, from out of the pool, an iguana the size of an elephant rose out. The iguana leaned in on the three and turned it's massive head sizeways to look at them with one eye. Nobody moved as the thing looked over them and blinked a few times. "'Ello, Bob! What'd'ya find out there?" The massive iguana turned it's head back to the source of the sound. Staning atop the cliff stood the Elder of Lists and Poetry, Gwaihir. Gwaihir grabbed hold of a tree branch and leaned himself well over the edge of the cliff, trying to get a better look. He shrugged and then let go of the branch, falling in a perfect no-splash dive. A moment later Gwaihir strode out of the pool onto the beach. A duo of squirrels sat on a rock near the pool and held up a sign each. One held up a "10" the other held up a "01" until the other squirrel jabbed him to turn it right side up. Gwaihir shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Idiots," he said to himself. He turned to the giant iguana. "Well what did ya find, Bob?" Gwaihir gave the iguana an affectionate pat on the head and turned to Tralla and Canid. "Tralla? And Canid?" Gwaihir sounded surprised. "What are you two doing here?" This question launched Tralla and Canid into a bawling retelling of thier trip so far. Gwaihir was quick enough to bring them with him to his place, a completely handmade loghouse. Gwaihir sat them down and gave them blankets and bowls of steaming hot stew he had been making when Bob, the iguana the size of a Ford Explorer, had called out. The girls then began telling Gwaihir about the news that Jechum had sent out. Gwaihir then took the briefcase from Tralla and walked over to his bear-skin couch and set it on his coffee table and popped it open and he was bathed in a golden glow and his eyes widened. Gwaihir reached in and pushed something and then shut and re-locked the briefcase. "You two have another plane to catch?" Gwaihir asked. Tralla nodded. "Well it's hard to get through here without a guide, but I have a foal who's going to give birth later that I need to attend to. Bob can give you a ride." "You mean the giant iguana? We ride the giant iguana?" Canid asked, astounded. "You betcha, he's a good guy, no need to worry. Once you fall off twice he'll keep you on for the rest of the way." Gwaihir smiled. Canid and Tralla turned to each other, and then promptly groaned and put thier faces in thier hands. It was going to be a long trip.

[i hit a wall with the other things I was writing...time to fill the void with temporary smack....mmm smack, anyway, this is why Elders are so slow to make decisions] Jechum, Dean of Students at a small, midwestern university, grumbled at the files he had piled up on his desk. Paperwork was all he seemingly did anymore. Paperwork on contracts. Paperwork on students. Paperwork on the paperwork that he forgot to send in so that he could order more paper for his paperwork. The cycle was never-ending. And atop the pile was the newest, and probably most interesting, of the paperwork his stepping down to Ancient and the appointment of Ozymandias into his old position. Jechum internally groaned about this, though. With a decision of this size, he'd have to go tell all the Elders in person. He didn't want to. He didn't have the time either. He needed to think of something he could do so he wouldn't have to set one foot on the quest to get the Elders' attentions. Just then his intercom buzzed. Jechum leaned forward and pressed the "Answer" button. "Sir, Tralla and Canid are here to see you," came Melba's voice over the intercom. A light went on in Jechum's head. "Excellent! Send them in," Jechum said happily. He just remembered that Tralla and Canid both had an appointment with him about the fact that they where both failing a class. Jechum had a great plan for this. The door creaked open and Tralla came in followed by Canid. Both girls immediately went to the chairs before Jechum's desk and sat down, managing to mimic each other's look of abashment. Jechum leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, wearing his best "Holier then thou" look. "Well ladies, it seems you're both failing 'Annoyance 101', and that means letters home to the parents," Jechum began. Tralla spoke up. "But it's not our fault!" she cried. "Joat is an idiot!" "Yes he is," Jechum agreed. "But he's the only teacher who would work for copies of Seph's pornos, so you'll have to lump it." "C'mon, Jechum," Canid pleaded. "You know we know what we're doing, but he's just a bad teacher." "I'm sorry," Jechum said, laying out his trap. "My hands are tied." "Please! We'll do extra credit work to get rid of it!" Tralla said. Hook, Line and Sinker, thought Jechum. "Really?" Jechum said. "Yes really!" Canid agreed. Jechum put his elbows on his desk and rested his chin on his folded hands. He looked at the two pleading looks he was recieving. "Hmmm...alright then. I need you to go inform the Elders of the Pen about a new occurance, and also to get thier vote on something. If you do that for me, then I'll can Joat's class, agreed?" Canid and Tralla looked at each other and thought about it for a moment. "What about the costs of all this, the Elders aren't exactly close by..." Jechum held up a hand with a smile. "Never fear, The Pen has supplied all costs for all the trips. It'll cost you nothing but your time." Tralla and Canid spoke quietly with one another for a moment and then turned back to Jechum. "We'll do it!" they said. Jechum's smile turned into a scheming grin. "Wonderful..." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I WANNA GO HOME!!!!!" Tralla wailed. She had her eyes shut tight and had her arms around the briefcase, which Jechum said held top-secret information, that was handcuffed to her wrist. Canid sat next to her on the freight plane that they where flying in to Tzimfemme's Island in the Atlantic. Canid would have been wailing with Tralla if she was not staring ashen faced at the crud-eating cow who was staring back at her. Jechum's 'Pre-paid Travel' was a feight plane loaded with random farm animals, prescription drugs, shiny things and chocolates loaded in a voice-print-locked case. They'd been in the plane for 8 hours so far and had not even been offered a bag of peanuts. It was begining to seem crazy. Tralla's continuous wail was cut short as the plane bumped twice, and then jumped as it landed on tarmac. Tralla sniffled once and stared ahead as everything came to a slow stop. The cow mooed at Canid as the back of the plane opened up. Canid and Tralla bolted out of the back of the plane and inhaled deeply the air of freedom. As they where gasping thier breath, they hear a voice from the side of the plane. "Tralla! You've grown! But you've let your skin go, dearie. You look so leatherly, hon, you MUST use aloe from now on." Tralla and Canid looked to each other and then leaned over and peeked around the corner. The side of the plane was open and the cow that had plagued Canid's trip was hanging half out of the door. Staring right at it was a green-haired lady in a green lab jacket. She had six piercings along the edge of her ear and a shiny green gem in the side of her nose. He long green hair was wrapped around on top of her head and held in place with shiny silver chopsticks. Tralla recognized her immediately. "Uh, Rydia. I'm over here," Tralla said. Rydia stopped and turned to Tralla and Canid. She squinted tightly, trying to see something. She then apprently gave in and brought down the shiny-rimmed glasses that where on her head. Her eyes widened as the world apparently came into focus. She looked over Tralla and Canid and then turned back to the cow. "EEEK!" she shouted as realization came over her. She shook her hand at the cow. "Don't you impersonate Pen members again, alright?! Sheesh." Rydia turned and walked over to Tralla and Canid. "There, now that we got that mix up taken care of, Jechum mentioned you'd be stopping by. Let's go see, Tzimfemme, eh?" With that she walked off towards a shiny green jeep that was parked at the side of the tarmac. The drive to Tzimfemme's compound was a scenic one. Tzimfemme was a six time Nobel Prize wining Geneticist. She had bought a large island off the cost of somewhere a while ago with her vast fortunes and set up one of the largest genetic research facilities in the world. The trip there with Rydia was scenic when not bumpy. The two girls saw an amalgam of amalgams of creatures. they stared in wide-eyed facination as the giant fuzzy squid waved a tentacle at them when they drove by. Rydia blew a kiss to the squid and waved back. They reached the large white colony of buldings that served as the reasearch labratory and pulled into and underground parking garage. Rydia lead the girls to a large elevator and filed them in. Rydia took out a card that hung on a shiny chain around her neck and slide the card into the slot on the elevator and pressed a few buttons. The elevator moved up, down, to the side, and at one point, Tralla swore it spun around in circles. They disembarked into what looked like ground control for a nuclear launch facility. People in white lab coats where running around and fiddling with knobs and buttons while a few with clipboards where staring through a set of large windows at one end of the room. "What's going on?" Canid asked. Rydia took out a shiny case that housed her favorite green lipstick and applied a layer to her lips. "Tzim's experimenting with the Whatzamahoszit today. C'mon, let's whatch." Rydia began walking to the windows. Tralla looked at Canid before they started to follow. "What's a Whatzama....whatever it's called?" The answer to that question was in the form of a large rhino. This rhino was asleep with it's back to the windows. About fifteen feet away from it was Dr. Tzimfemme. She wore a tight lab jacket that looked more like a cocktail dress buttoned up then a lab coat. Her hair was clipped above the nape of her neck and she was staring intently at the clipboard she held in one hand. In the other hand she had a small buzzer. Dr. Tzimfemme looked up at the window and nodded her head, and then turned to the rhino. She pressed the button on the buzzer. It was then that the animal perked up it's head and looked at Tzimfemme. Tralla and Canid gasped out loud. The thing had the body of a rhino but it's head was a long pink neck with a mouth and one large eye at the end. The two girls gasps got louder when then thing, showing amazing agility, sprung to it's feet and charge at Tzimfemme. Tralla was abhored that nobody reacted to it, but her fears where shown to be unfounded as Tzimfemme swung her long leg around and struck the heel of her pump into the thing's head. The creature dropped like a tank. Tzimfemme let out a sigh and walked over to an intercom on the side. zzZZzttZz...The thing's still responding as any other animal. ZzzzttzZZz...We need to add more Betaribosucleiczim to the next batch. SKIzzzKt Tzimfemme's voice came over the intercom. Rydia leaned over and pressed the button on an intercom on her side. "Tzimmy, Tralla and Canid are here to see if you you wanna finish playing." she said into the speaker. ZZzkzzktkkstzzz Ooooooohhhh! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- "So Jechum's finally done with it, eh?" Tzimfemme asked mainly herself. She was fiddling with the lock on the briefcase that was attached to Tralla's wrist. They had retired to Tzimfemme's comfortable office, which was plastered with alternating printouts of 86-helix multicarbon conglulants, and pictures of Orlan. Tzimfemme's six Nobel Prizes where lined up behind her desk and, oddly enough, an emmy for "Best Supporting Actress" was next to the nobels. "Took him a while though," Rydia said as she blew a green bubble with her gum. "Yes, well..." a click sounded. "Aha! Gotcha ya little bugger!" Tzimfemme took the briefcase from Tralla and walked behind her desk and sat in her fuzzy warm chair. Tralla and Canid watched as Tzimfemme set the briefcase down on the desk and opened it to her. The doctor's eyes went wide as her body was light up with the golden glow that emanated from the briefcase. "Ooo....hmm...." Tzimfemme reached in and pushed something and then quickly shut the case and re-locked it. She then slapped the cuffs back on Tralla. "The thing says Gwaihir is next." "Gwaihir?" Canid whined. "He's in the middle of nowhere, isn't he? How are we supposed to find him?" Tzimfemme pursed her lips. "Rydia, go get Snifzles." Rydia nodded her agreement and walked off out the door. A moment later she returned and presented to Tralla and Canid a small furball. The thing looked like a mass of hair that congrerated after someone showered. Rydia put the thing down on the desk and Tralla watched in amazement as the thing began skittering and sniffing everything around. "Snifzles is a wonderful little thing I created that can find anything you ask it for. Watch. Snifzles! Find Auntie Tzim!" The Snifzles sniffed a few times and then immediately scurried over to Tzimfemme and jumped on her chest and started purring...loudly. "See?" "Your plane should be ready by now too...." Rydia said. "No cows this time." Rydia grinned. "Ooh, you have to see Orlan, right? Good here, give him this when you get to see him for me will you?" Tzimfemme handed them the Snifzles and a small metal cube. "He'll know what to do with it." "Alrighty then, we should get goin'n the doctor has more creatures to invent," Rydia said as she lead the two out the door as Tzimfemme began to giggle softly to herself. It was slightly frightening.

If you where really cool it'da been: NyyarkCoolFactor++; Yah...

Nonono, my young friend. Pirate-ness is always a plus. Have you ever seen a movie/story/show that wouldn't benefit from an infusion of pirates. Look at the Hymn to Dionysus...Pure Greek Gold there, and it's all due to the pirates. I have yet to encounter anything that couldn't possibly be bettered with the infusion of pirates. Arrrrr....

Orlan looked into the sun. It was not as bright as it would have been had he not been wearing the TMoT Shades. He turned back down and looked at Elrohir. "I still don't see what this has to do with me." Orlanwaved Rapier back to her blanket and went back to lying on his. Elrohir moved a little closer to the Sexy Sexy Man. "But, if Zool is your Biach Boy, shouldn't you get involved if Zool is involved?" Orlan took off his shades and gave Elrohir a look that made the half-elf want to find a very deep hole and hibernate. "Lemme ask you this, is your father involved in ever little nuance that you are involved in?" Orlan said adding to the question by shaking his shades at the half-elf. "Wel no, but-" Elrohir began. "No buts. Any answer and any logic you go to at this time is both irrevelent and unexamined. Not to mention ill-informed..." Orlan said the last with a slight sigh. "What do you mean ill-informed?" Elrohir said, realizing too late that Orlan was becoming irritated. The Sexy Sexy Man came to his feet with a grunt. With the slope of the roof as it was, Orlan towered over Elrohir. Not only that, but there seemed to be an aura seeping out of the edges of The Sexy Sexy Man. Orlan leaned down at Elrohir. "Ill-informed. In possession of less then adequate information. Not awarre of everything. Kept in the dark. Unknowing. The IRS about my taxes. Take your pick. You seem to Miss Information's prize pupil right now..." "But-" Elrohir began. "But, but, but, but, but, but! Enough buts. You came here because you are trying to find out about the thefts. If you want to know about them, inform yourself about!" Orlan's voice was slightly harsh. "But-" Elrohir began once again. "No more buts! Are you 3 or 3 thousand?!" Orlan almost shouted. "But-" Elrohir said completely as a reactionary thought. A very bad thought. The light suddenly vanished. There was nothing but a cold darkness in that instant. The same instant brought successive bolts of lightning down before Elrohir. His entire body screamed at the pure and unrelenting evil that flowed around him right now. Orlan was drowning him in that evil. "NO BUTS! NOW GO!" Orlan said this time. He did not yell it persay, but his voice was magnified over on itself millions of millions of times. Elrohir fled at full speed. The moment he was off the roof the sunlight came back and Orlan let out a sputter of annoyance. "We I come from we call that excessive," Rapier said without looking up from her book, "The common cure for insomnia" by Kendricke the White. Orlan shook his head and gazed off after where the half-elf ran. "Eh sometimes I need to remind the Pen that Evil Incarnate dosen't like constant annoyances." Orlan said. "Besides the climax is almost at it's peak. This'll end soon, everyone will be shocked and surprised. Things will go on and on and on. However..." Orlan said, avoiding the use of the word 'but'. The Sexy Sexy Man walked back to his towel and lay back down. "My tanning time dosen't come around often enough." "No rest for the wicked, Sir?" Rapier asked. "Not really. More like no uninterrupted tanning for the True Evil Incarnate." Orlan sighed. "Ah well...it could be worse. I could be..." Orlan shuddered, "...good."