(Author's Note: Lyrics to follow are all Tiger Army.)

Poor Glanhelmion Tasartir. He was the official appointed bodyguard to Tara and Viki, and boy, did he have his hands full these days.

Viki was the Beacon, attracting both friend and foe alike. Lately, it was pretty much all foe. We can count them, if you want. Here: Howe (Snakeskin), Gabriel (Name-Like-Bells), the Farseer Uruviel (the one with the too-big eyes eating up everything), and Lucy and Alex Ravenlock, and Lain (the Doll), after she had involved herself with the attempt on Jewell Ravenlock's life.

Poor Glanhelmion Tasartir. He sent shadow sentinels to watch after her and her lover Domikai when they departed for Unhome. Unfortunately, Domikai was a desertman, a creature of shadow too, and usually Glanhelmion's shadow sentinels were eaten alive by Domikai's own.

Poor Glanhelmion Tasartir. It made his job all the more difficult, but he neglected to tell the Sandman of his mission, and the Sandman neglected to tell the seer about the shadow sentinels.

And shadows neglect to scream when they die.

So we'll open to one night in particular, with Glanhelmion battling the Farseer. It is only appropriate for what comes later. You'll see.

A thousand miles we are apart So tightly wrapped in thorns my heart My song is heard in owls' cries And through the darkness my love shines

Red Dragon Inn: That Night in Particular, about a half hour later.

She tried to explain the situation on the porch to Lady Belial, but it came out something like this:

"This lady with the too-big eyes outside tried to fit herself into my head and maybe you should go see because Glanhelmion is still out there though I believe he lopped her hand off." Then, with a small lopsided smile, she added, "Paint all over."

Ayreg didn't do much better with his explanation:

"Just some elf I barely remember and some person I didn't know having it out."

Belial excused herself and stepped out onto the porch to investigate. Viki took this all in with some quiet amusement, despite the fact that Glanhelmion was covered in blood and body parts just a few feet away. Other things were coming to light here, secret exchanges between beings both near and far. Her fingers twirled into her mismatched hair, catching locks of white and chestnut, tangling them all the moreso as she peered up at Ayreg in quiet study.

"Smoke?" He asked her quietly, reaching for a pouch latched to his belt. It wasn't the first time he offered her his pipe, and it wasn't the first time she accepted it, but it might've been the last.

"Oh! Xas, thank you." She tried to tone down the enthusiasm as she popped back into his view, onto his right side, with an upturned head and eyes in search of his pipe.

"You're a strange little thing, you know that, right' C'mon." He wrapped an arm around her and escorted her to the couch. "So how did that start, anyway?"

"Well...The door spoke first and I hissed at it and she appeared."

"Hissed at it' Doesn't seem suitable, I think, for you." He presented her with his pipe and fished for his matches. It smelled of tabacco and old air.

With a twitch of her nose, the pipe was taken between delicate fingers and pressed into her mouth. "I can hiss now. I learned how." The words were spoken through a bobbing pipe.

"And I have learned a long time ago how to snake a soul from someone's body without a touch. But that doesn't mean that I should, understand?" He lit the pipe for her and instructed her on how to properly smoke it.

"Yes but you made that lady melt that one time...." She flicked the pipe back and forth for a while, then did as he instructed, watching the smoke billow forth, up and out, and she squinted to watch for shapes.

"Yes....well.." He finished the thought with some signature Ayreg incomprehensible grumbling.

In the flames of candles in your room In the smallest sliver of a waning winter moon Electric like a neon sign Yes, through the darkness my love shines

Red Dragon Inn: That Night in Particular, in sync.

The inanimate speak:

Look at how she presses closer to you. It is as if you both feed off of each other. She, who smells of distant universes, of newborn stars....You, on the other hand, are a raging electrical storm. So, we beg to ask, is the universe ordered or disordered" Does she match your chaos or does she kill it' We understand your attraction to each other far better than either of you. Watch.

Now. Yes. Now. Watch.

Now she will speak the words she wishes to speak.

She asks you about the unrealities, about the planes you travel to within and without. She wants to be in-between like you. She asks about the Sun. Is the Sun real" Is the Moon real" Does the Moon birth the Sun" We cannot make much sense of what she says and yet you nod your pretty little mismatched head as if you do.

She asks you to take her there. She wants to walk the paths you walk. Your mate walks them, but look at the price he has paid, at the price you both have paid. She needs you, and we know why. Her mate is still wondering what you are. Your mate wonders the same thing.

We can tell you what you are, but we don't think you'll understand. It is the other part, not of Dark Elf or Human. But even now, you are puzzled by what you hear.

Her mate is there listening, as is the Dark One, the one who calls you Daughter on the inside. Neither of them understand, but they might want to follow. Fate has other plans for the latter. Perhaps Manon's mate can follow, but we think he'll just get Lost, and Lost, though a popular destination, is not a pleasant one.

Are you listening"

Are you.."

And in the darkest hour of night Moments before sleep comes and dreams come into sight Just know that you are on my mind And through the darkness my love shines

Red Dragon Inn: And Several Nights After That

The air smelled of electrical storms and sweet wines. It would certainly announce her arrival. Small slippered feet were all pitter-patter on the cobblestone path. She wore a smile on her face and levity on her shoulders. Her delicate fingers were tangled with the lover's as they made their way along, with her singing some song she pieced together, snippets of languages both known and foreign to her. Perhaps at one point, it told a story. Now, it was just one big melodic ramble as they drew closer to the porch.

Domikai the Sandman, Victoria the seer, together tonight.

"Little song bird..." He remarked between a pause in her song and a pause in his smoking. His strides were slowed to match her own as they walked.

Her off-blue eyes rolled into her lover's and caught that new term of endearment with a small laugh. It broke a big fat hole in her song, and unfortunately, the little seer couldn't piece it back together. No matter. Onto other things, other thoughts. Soon, her eyes were chasing his clove smoke, watching for shapes.

"I see song birds there.." She said with a wrinkled nose and a free hand which turned about all the clean air, reaching higher to upset the trailing cloud of smoke.

His eyes drifted from hers unexpectedly and moved to the awaiting porch.

"Not quite little birds, like nights not quite empty of eyes.." She saw his ears twitch, in search of sound. Her lover was alerted by something which lurked quite near.

But the Sight pushed through.

"I see.." Higher and higher, her hand climbed, reaching to touch what wasn't there at all, but there was something else too. It fell sharply to her side, and she increased the speed of her gait, with him in tow of course. "..their wings," said the girl.

"We hear bells." The sandman said, easily adjusting his stride to meet her new speed. Soon, he untangled his hand from her grip and slipped behind her, but rested a palm on her shoulder.

She played the leader, with her feet approaching the stairwell, and her hand on the edge of the railing. "Bells," she whispered, and shot a look to him from over her shoulder, happy to be wearing his hand, but loathe to walk up the steps first. "Or...like bells," she finished.

"Or like watching shadows..." Domikai commented, removing her hand from the railing with a lover's tender care. Then, drifting in front of her, he ascended the stairs.

She was happy to trail behind him, with half steps at first, and great care to keep her hands at her sides. She abandoned the railing like it wore the taint of a trap. Up one-two-three, and for a moment her eyes flickered to the space beneath the porch, and a memory washed over her from a time not too long ago.

Where things go to die. Where you cried and cried when he first told you what he had done, what he let happen. And you keep his secret even now as he lays in bed in the in-between.

"Good evening Seer. I was hoping to catch you out tonight," said a voice from the deepest shadows at the far end of the porch. Gabriel caught her off guard. She had been wrapped up in a memory before he announced himself.

She lifted her head, and a temporary terror took hold of her.

"Name-Like-Bells," she whispered.

Domikai stood agitated from behind her and pulled her close by the shoulder. His shadow was unfocused on the floor and began to take on life, on shape, and rise up, pouring over her legs. Soon, those parts of the seer were completely covered, lost in the dark, in the protective shadow covering.

"Thief of eyes?" The Sandman's dark eyes were blank as they took in Gabriel, but the seer felt his violence from below.

Gabriel only moved closer, recklessly perhaps, and intent on getting his point across. The seer only pressed her spine to the Sandman's chest and begged the shadows to hurry, and swallow her up before, before"

"Ah, little seer, I have been watching you. You have been very bad. Stealing." Gabriel's voice was a soft, soothing thing, the type one would use to attract, to fold in, to lure.

"Little deaf harpies." The Sandman's reply was a strange reference, one perhaps only the seer understood. As if on command, his shadow did rise, and Viki saw her waistline disappear beneath the murky shield.

The seer, the creature of in-betweens, was now in-between the two. With a rustle of patchwork fabric, shifting feet moved to sink deeper against the lover, and, if possible, melt.

"Nau," she spoke to Gabriel. Her confusion was clear, and fear apparent, but all of it started to disappear as the shadows climbed ever higher. Finally, though she was there, she was hidden, beneath a wall of black.

"I am coming for you, little one. Hide now for it will not stop me from the seeking. I know what you took, seer. It taints you even now. You can't hide from me forever." The seraph's soft words would haunt her much later. Perhaps that was his intention.

Though his words penetrated the shadow, thankfully Gabriel did not " could not. Power hummed electric in the air, rolling off the shrouded seer, who was quivering, unseen.

"Did naut take..." She stuttered, and black was eating everything, even the faint glow of light clinging to her flesh.

"Thief calling thieves lacks merit. She is not yours to have." Domikai's voice had increased in volume and bore teeth.

Then, Alma appeared on the porch steps, wearing her signature tweed. Her eyes took in the trio as if in passing, but her held a certain tension as she spoke. Unfortunately, Viki couldn't see.

"Is there a problem here, creature" Perhaps I might be of assistance?"

Before any of them could react, Gabriel had hopped from the porch to settle on the roof of the building across the street. He was quick in his retreat. We'll give him that.

Viki's fingers gathered a handful of fabric at either end of a skirt when her anxiety reached a definite climax. Gabriel's presence, felt so close, even between this wall of shadow, was a nightmare. Teeth sunk into her lower lip, an attempt to stop her quivering, but, just as suddenly as he appeared, he was gone! Not sensed, not smelled...well, really, do his kind smell" Manon smelled of multiuniverses, of stardust...She blinked and tugged on the lover's shirt.

But he covets and he waits. Beware.

Alma uttered a bored sigh. "I do grow weary of men who assume they can prey upon women here." She followed it up with a bit of laughter and shook her head. "I will help the girl in need; there is nothing in it of you..."

Alma's honey-combed voice was heard, near, and then, far-off too. Confusion was ever-present, and that tug on his shirt became increasingly furious. "Where is he?"

"It will call stolen that which cannot be taken." Domikai's hand still gripped her shoulder, even beneath the blanket of shadow, which he soon allowed to recede.

"Above," he said in reply.

"Name-Like-Bells. Run if he kisses them at you.." Her hands quickly released the fabric at her sides and fingers were displayed before his eyes. "Them. These."

"Kiss of the never living. We see..." His simple words were trailing them as he led her to the door, and consequently, within.

"Manon says...he'll take you.." But she was still rambling as her feet crossed the threshold, and though the Inn was a sanctuary of sorts, she knew it was not truly safe.

"Some things cannot be caught by little nooses, accepted or non..." The Sandman drew the door shut, as if he could lock out the pair of eyes still watching from across the street. Upon entrance, the pair was received with the usual chatter and occasional friendly wave, the offering of drinks and the familiar service of the Red Dragon Inn. The scene here was very different than what the porch had promised them, but the seer could not shake her distress so easily.

Beware!