"Who?" Tass whispered as he looked up at Sai Jon with a strange guarded expression.

"You certainly go straight to the hard questions don't you? I am called Sai Jon here and now. We came, myself and my friend Jacob here, to find Giles. He is a friend we thought lost to us. Now I am told that you are responsible for us meeting at all so I feel that we both stand very much in your debt."

"How...how did you come here? The barriers should have prevented anyone not of my kind."

"Even dragons dream. We travel through the realm of dreams that hold all worlds together. Only dead worlds are denied to us." Sai Jon paused for a moment, "If you would not begrudge us lodging I would happily tell you all about it, but not now. You will need much sleep in the days to come as you recover."

"Yes... Giles see that they are provided for. The are my guests."

Giles smiled his first real smile in weeks. "Yes Master Momus. Gentlemen, if you would follow me."

Jacob and Sai Jon followed Giles out of the room as Jacob began to chatter merrily, "Imagine, becoming a butler when you go on vacation, Giles you really need to loosen up." The door closed quietly. The voices trailed off as they moved down the hall and Tass smiled wearily. He could feel something new moving. Something coming to oppose the growing darkness. It might just be enough.

He had not wanted to leave that place where life boomed, but he knew he had to. The call which had brought was a unique one, one which he had felt only once. Yet the voice that gave the call was different. He knew the words which were spoken, and the force that had requested him back.

It was time.

Those words which were spoken were enough to heal the critical damage that was done to his body. They healed enough that he could return in order to heal himself.

But there were other reasons which he needed to return.

Alais had returned to and from Riverbend, it what appeared an unscathed fashion. But there was something dark that flowed around her. The Bloodspeaker was moving again and striking out at any she could. The General had his plate full and seemed to be becoming bogged down with all that troubled him. The Queen had finally been rescued, but she would need tending too, physically, mentally, and emotionally. And the Elder?

The Elder was completely silent. That was what was troubling the most. He did not look forward to making the trip Home, but he knew that he would have to if the Elder did not make some of his presence known.

It was time?.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

His eyes fluttered open, weakly, and he looked to a face that he did not know. It was a face that should not be here. That was what frightened him the most. He knew the boarders were closed to all but the dragon kin.

Sai Jon knocked quitely on the door to Tasslehofl's chamber. He felt like he'd been run through a meat grinder after his talk with Tass the night before. Not only did he not normally talk about his past but he had been feeding power into Tass through his stories in order to speed his recovery. After he knocked a second time he pushed the door gently and it swung open silently. The room was empty. Sai Jon sighed and walked over to the chairs in front of the fireplace and greatfully sunk into one. He would wait for Tass to come back and continue, the story seemed to be pushing on his insides struggling to get out. He would wait. He was asleep in moments.

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Sai Jon stood on the edge of darkness. On his right stood Rainne still young and untouched. On his left was an older man in black and grey camoflage with obvious cybernetics covering the right side of his face, both legs, and his right hand. His eyes narrowed as he stared into the pulsating darkness. Sai Jon looked to either side slowly. "Rainne...Kor Jon...why are you here?"

"Someone calls to us. To all of us." Rainne whispered.

"But the darkness is faster." Kor Jon rasped "The darkness is here."

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Sai Jon awoke with a start and found himself tied to the chair he had fallen asleep in. Across from him sat an elven woman who looked like she badly needed some sleep. He looked down at the ropes holding him. "Should I assume you are a friend of Master Momus or should I stand up shooting?"

"My name is Sai Jon and I am a guest of Master Momus. I have been aiding in his recovery but when I came to visit this evening he was not here. I sat down to wait and must have fallen asleep." Sai Jon extended the monofilament claws on his mechanical right hand and slashed apart the ropes that were binding him but made no move to stand.

Sai Jon endured the flood of questions and waited until he was sure she was done, "Master Momus was in no condition to leave here so I hope it wasn't far but the mere fact that he survived the injuries says something of his power. As for being summoned, no one summoned me. I discovered that a friend of mine I thought was dead was still alive so I followed his dreams to this place."

Sai Jon stopped talking as the door opened to reveal Giles and Jacob. Jacob was talking animatedly as Giles merely smiled quietly, "So then the snake priest takes out this glowing red knife and I..." Jacob's voice trailed off as he took in the scene before him.

Giles moved forward to stand before Alais. "Mistress d'Nitesong, a pleasure as always. Garl told me you had arrived. Master Momus is currently off the Isles but I see you've met his guest and a personal friend of mine. Would you care for some tea while you interrogate?" The corner of Giles' mouth twitched as if he was restraining a smile and Sai Jon just scowled.

Sai Jon leaned back and allowed himself to relax, he never had liked being imprisoned but he was trying restraint regardless of how foreign the concept had become over the years. For the first time he stopped and studied his short time jailor and he noticed something strange about her energies...she was a realm runner, someone who travelled between worlds, and she had been hurt. Well Tass was gone but someone else who needed help had appeared, the Lord definitely moved in mysterious ways.

"Miss Alais, will you allow me to help you?" he asked quietly.

"You've been hurt, and pretty badly from what I can tell. You're not from this world or wherever you were when you got hurt. The energies are too different," Sai Jon's face darkened, "almost cold if that's possible. But, if you'll let me, I can help." He motioned Jacob to move away from her. She was obviously a friend to Tass and that made her worth helping but just as obviously she held no trust for him or Jacob.

Giles turned to Sai Jon as Garl dissapeared into the night sky. "Something you said sir?" Giles asked with a smile.

"Shut up Giles," Sai Jon shot back, "and quit with the sir stuff already."

"Of course sir." Jacob and Giles smiled at each other as Sai Jon growled under his breath.

"Ok, something is wrong here. Tass is still gone, something got to that lady and the energy was the same as whatever hurt Tass. Both of them have considerable powers. Something big is going on and it doesn't seem like a good thing.," he looked up at his two friends with a humorless smile, "so much for our vacation."

Jacob sighed, "I'll grab the gear," on the way out the door he turned back, "what level you thinking?"

"What do we have short of total war?"

"That would be nothing."

"Sounds about right. I'll be here when you're ready."

Giles look back and forth between his two friends and felt a strong wave of nostalgia. It had been a while but it felt like old times. "I'll put the staff on alert and join you. Neither of you have ever been able to stay out of trouble for more than five minutes without me there."

Sai Jon broke into a real smile, "Gear up then, I'll see if I can find out anything before we go." Giles and Jacob left to prepare and Sai Jon slipped into his own mind, it was time to figure out what was going on here.

The darkness was waiting for him when he returned to the blasted waste of his mind so were Rainne and Kor Jon. "Why have you two returned?" Sai Jon asked, fearing the answer.

"We never left," Rainne and Kor Jon spoke in unison, their voices combining and they sounded like Sai Jon's own voice, a fact that disturbed him greatly. "When we forgave you became the outside. We became the inside. We watch and wait for you to need us. You need us now so we have come." As one, they pointed into the darkness, "Someone calls. Someone calls us all."

"Who?" Sai Jon asked forcing his voice not to tremble.

"The old one," they both reached out and each took hold of one of Sai Jon's arms, "He is in a bad place but we are here. We are one. We will protect you from the darkness and bring you home."

The darkness rippled and Sai Jon flew forward into the abyss screaming.

Sai Jon and Tass walked through the tents unseen and unnoticed. They were ghosts in the memory that surrounded them. Sai Jon talked quietly none the less, this was the last place and time that he wished to be but something told him that he needed Tass to see, to understand. He didn't know why. They stopped in front of a unremarkable tent near the edge of the encampment.

"I left Kor Hold when I was seventeen. I wanted to see the world outside of the mile long canyon that had been my peoples home for so long and my father wanted me to stay and become a priest like him. Alynne came with me. Actually she kept me alive for the first couple of weeks. I was...well let's just say clueless would be a complement. I knew nothing about surviving in the wild and she taught me and protected me. We'd always been friends but I started to see her differently then. We reached civilization after almost two weeks of hard travelling and that's when the problems started. We were both of age and were immediately pressed into service in the military. Half a year later found us here, two children barely trained in how to fight on the eve of the first engagement of what we were told would be the beginning of the push to retake our world from the demons. It didn't go quite as they planned."

Sai Jon paused and pointed towards the eastern horizon where the sun was edging over the horizon. Black winged shapes showed up faintly against the rising sun and alarms began to sound across the camp. Rainne burst out of the tent pulling on his shirt as he scanned the horizon. Alynne followed him out of the tent and quickly pointed out the approaching shapes before they were drowned out as the sun continued it's inexorable rise. They both gathered their weapons and broke down the tent quickly. Six months of intense training had shaped them both. Any trace of fat was gone, replaced by wiry toned muscles and an efficient grace that they never imagined before. Sai Jon watched his memories with a sinking feeling. He knew what had come next.

The human army formed up into ranks, and began to prepare for the approaching flyers but coming over the horizon was a mass of darkness. The shear numbers were beginning to black out the sky. Alynne reached forward and gripped Rainne's arm, "By the Lord, it's a swarm." In times of danger the demons would put aside their clan differences and join under one leader to swarm. It hadn't happened in two hundred years but they were coming.

Several people tried to turn and run but were cut down by the officers in the back of the formation. Rainne looked down at his hands, they were shaking. He hefted his rifle and began to aim. The first shot would be easy, just shoot into the darkness. Each minute seemed to slow and the moment before the two forces clashed seemed to stretch into eternity but as much as he wished it wouldn't, the moment ended.

Lasers lanced up into the oncoming swarm and were returned. And then the demons were among the humans. Lasers continued to flash and the light glinted off the claws and swords of the two armies. The world dimmed into a haze of red.

They stood in the darkness again but it was empty now. Tass' form was sharper and easier to see now. Sai Jon stood before him trembling. Go, warn my people. I will return when I am able. The voice rolled through his bones and he was flung backwards into the darkness again.

Suddenly he was back in Tass' bedroom. Sweat rolled down his face and his hand involuntarily reached up to the faded scar. He leaned back in the seat and waited for Giles and Jacob to return. Things were worse than he had feared.

The three companions touched down in front of the house and were greeted by Garl, looking imposing as always. Without talking he gestured for them to follow and he led them into the building. When they reached the ladies quarters they found the door open and Sai Jon yelled as he spotted the shape of a crumpled form on the balcony. He ran forward dropping to his knees beside Alais' unconscious form. He kneeled beside her but when his hand touched her forehead a spark shot through him and then darkness overcame him.

Giles and Jacob just looked at each other, "Not again," they said together.

The images shifted, bringing into focus a great stone keep built at the curve of a river. Tall curtain walls surrounded a square tower, and around the inner side of the curtain wall, near a bend in a broad river stood a black smith shop, and within a Dwarf muttering and cursing.

A tall, elven woman stood there, with a warrior at her side, and the pieces of a broken blade lay upon the table. "It be missing a shard, see here?" The Dwarf was indicating a missing section of the blade. "You'll have to find it, or I can't reforge it."

At that moment, a large man dressed from hat to boot in black, rode up to the entry of the smithy, dismounting swiftly from a great black destrier, that pranced and snorted as the mage dismounted. Hadrian's ears were flat against his head as he was so close to other people. While the rider's back was turned toward them, the image of the Annaran blade rippled along the man's back, rustling the heavy black cloak. Here was Morrin. Arch Mage, and unmistakably King of Annara.

The mage and the Eldarie sorceress had met for the first time. His grey eyes met her silver gaze, and in that moment was forged a century of partnership. Oh, it was not of the romantic sort. The two were a perfect fit in terms of sorcery. They were absolute compliments, and in that instant, Morrin had recognized that while he never took students, he would take this elf as his pupil. Something he had never done in all his years.

They worked together for a century. The culmination of that partnership was unthinkable.

Two mages stood upon isolated hills, with a city between them. The day dawned clouded and sullen. Icy rain threatened to coat everything in glistening cocoons, but the mages stood ready. One dressed in black from hat to boot heel, the other in shimmering silver and blue.

They were too far apart to hear one another, but they'd rehearsed this plan thousands of times. Today would be no rehearsal. Today was the Day of Reckoning for the Annaran people, even though only their king, and one sorceress knew it.

At the appointed time, they began.

Book One was enacted by the pair. Human death in all its forms began inside the city walls. People began dying by the hundreds of every malady known to Morrin. Some deaths were mercifully swift. Some were not. Then the spell began to work on those Annaran's not within the city walls. It took most of the morning to destroy the humanity within the city's walls, as well as those not currently in residence.

Book Two was enacted next. The destruction of the land, the animals, the plants, the air, the water, all of it was laid to ruin. It was all forever stricken of ability to support any form of life. Not an insect remained. Nothing moved.

Book Three was the last to be enacted. It was the one the elven mage struggled to perform. Elves revere life. Beauty. Yet this book would see the casting of what had once been a living people and land into the 6th level of Hell. Forever would an entire civilization and place be consigned to dwell in the place reserved for Heretics.

She wept as the final words were spoken, and the mage upon the hill across from her faded from sight. They were gone. All of them. Every trace of Annara had been erased from this plane. Every person of Annaran ancestry destroyed. Every bit of Annaran possessions removed.

Gone. Completely and irrevocably gone.

She left her hill as the winter sun crept toward the horizon to stand one last time where her beloved mentor had stood. Nothing remained. No shred of the man she'd come to respect above all others. Nothing.

She left that place where Annara had once been, returning to her home in RhyDin, but as she entered the Great Room, she was faced with something she'd never expected.... Daemonbane hung from the fireplace, just above the mantle piece, where her own family's coat of arms had been. Below the blade, laid in a neat pile upon the hearth stone were the 3 books. Four items had survived their effort to forever remove all of Annara from this realm.

Now, Daemonbane hung there as her heritage, her history, and one day, her demise.

Brilliant solar flare erupts and the world changes.

Three books lay upon a table in a world with twin suns. A woman''s hand caresses the bold black sigils of the books as an owl shaped automaton named Ozymandias floats nearby. As her hand passes over each sigil, they shift and change form, a blending of sigils, and the new one is a dark metallic charcoal in color, softened by the elven influence on the Annaran boldness, but the elven sigil is lost forever. It has been incorporated into the Annaran realm, no longer distinguishable as uniquely Eldarie. As well, the Annaran sigil is lost, softened for all time by the elven influence.

Only two of the books have undergone this alteration. The third, a small black leather book remains uniquely Morrin''s.

Deep sadness pervades departure from this twin sun world, a sorrow that goes deeper than even her loss of Morrin, but the images for this sorrow remain locked away. Untouchable.

A stone walled library, three books, long shadows cast from a flickering fire as a green cloaked dragon takes possession of the books and departs.

Lost!

Pain. Sharp, biting pain. Iron tipped whip biting into pale flesh. Black haired demoness wielding the whip, words that make no sense?. "I want to hear you scream and I won't stop until you do," Shakira says through gritted teeth as she continues the punishment. The elf continues to deny that small pleasure to the demoness. Each lash cuts through elven skin, leaving bloody welts. Alais knows her strength is fading, she is weaker from the loss of blood. How many has it been? Ten? Twenty? She's lost count. Again the pain, and again, and again. Finally the pain becomes unbearable, there's nothing she can do but scream and the elven woman feels hot tears roll down her cheeks.

Shakira walks near her, a hand grabs her hair and pulls her head back. "That's a good girl," she croons. She takes the whip and licks the blood off the leather. "That will be it for today. I suggest you rest." As if this had been a command, darkness envelopes the elf into a dreamless sleep.

Lost!

The dragon has taken the unaltered book. Only two return to the Annaran''s hand when summoned. The third remains lost. Gone with the dragon, back to the beginning. Back to the Primordial Dark!

The woman turned slowly, "we are at a cross roads, a place of blending. This is where two parts come together to form a whole."

She stood looking out over the deserted wasteland beyond the stones.

"A sad thing to become, is it not?"

She turned argentine eyes on him. "You came to heal Tass, but can you heal this kind of ruin? For it is this kind of damage he suffers, though how I cannot say. Daemonbane remains untouched."

There is no surprise in her features, as though he should be there within the standing stones. She remained motionless as she stared into the place without life.

"Yes, memories of things gone before. Happens when I've reached my limits, dreaming."

She did not look at him, "Blending opposites can also destroy." In a very soft thread of sound, "has destroyed."

"Why are you here, in this place, healer? Why did you come?"

She slowly turned away from the desolation to the west of them, "you cannot help me healer. I have part of my existence in the elven world, and part of my existence in a dead one. Those are incompatible things. Were you to touch me, you would still feel the unnatural chill of the dead, but I will warm with time, only to touch the realm of the dead again. It is Tass your energies should be spent on. Tass''s lands and people who are most at risk right now and need him back, whole and healed." There are lines of strain on her elven features, exhaustion and pain reside in her eyes.

She swept her hand in the direction of the wasteland, "what you see out there represents a part of one of the things I regret the most in my life. But the aspect of that regret may surprise you." Her words were carefully chosen. Regret.

Giving him a mirthless smile, "You saw what I helped Morrin do. But, what you did not see were the reasons he had to complete such a task. There are many who believe there could be no reason to justify the banishment." She paused for long moments. Then continued very softly, almost too softly to hear, "but they are wrong. Morrin and I did the only thing we could to prevent Daemonbane''s continued growth."

"Regret is a wasted emotion. It is too easy, and too relied upon. But I do regret the casting of the Annaran''s into the Hells. I regret deserting my children and leaving them for Xenograg to mentor. I regret the loss of my closest friend to a madness she could not overcome, I regret losing my daughter to that damned Temple, I regret losing Morrin probably most of all." There is a pause, closing her eyes tightly, shoving back memories that flit as images just beyond the stones of a twin sun world, a tall man dressed in purple adamantine armor, an automaton in the shape of an owl; then just as suddenly they are gone, and she resumes walking. "I regret bringing Tass into contact with the Annaran artifacts, had I not sought his help with the books, he would not have given me space here for their sequestering, and Daemonbane would not have followed me here, and I know I will regret the changes the third book is making on Khirsah. I have brought into Tass'' world a curse that should have gone with Morrin into Hell. Neither of us expected these four items to remain behind. They should have followed Morrin, unless?" her thoughts trailed into silence.

Wrapping both arms around herself, "did you know Healer, that in Riverbend, there is no acute pain, no sharp memories? It is as if you are an outsider, looking in, a detached spectator viewing events. Tass brought me back from that state. Brought me back here to protect the books from the rest of RhyDin, and in so doing, opened the tear that now threatens his lands? Do you know what frightens me the most?" Frowning, she keeps walking, but no more does she give voice to her thoughts.

She moved then, slowly from standing stone to standing stone, never looking directly at him, "You asked me if there was anything for which I could not forgive myself, the answer is yes. But it is none of these things that you have seen."

Turning toward him abruptly, "tell me about Tobias and Anne please? What happened to them? Why does that vista not bring horror to your features?" as she indicated the dead land beyond the stones. Her attention now riveted on the man rather than the surrounding juncture of two incompatible worlds.

Sai Jon and Alais stood alone before a stone altar. The surrounding landscape was scarred and pitted with bomb craters but a few ragged shrubs struggled to survive. In the distance two figures were struggling across the wastes towards them.

"That's my brother and I coming. I ran away from home when I was 17 and ended up in the military. 3 years later I came home broken and afraid I was losing my humanity. Alynne saved me. She made me remember what I had left behind at home and she showed me how to care again. We fell in love and were married. I went back to my studies and at the age of 28 I finished my studies with my father and was going to become a priest like him. I had a wife and two children who I loved with all of my heart, a calling in life, and a home that I never wanted to ever leave. I was happy." Sai Jon's smile was small and sad. "I was coming here to the shrine to pray the night before I was to be ordained."

The two advancing figures finally reached the two watchers. Alais recognized a much younger version of Sai Jon but the other one was not remotely human. A demon strode up the rise to the altar, keeping pace effortlessly. Its skin was a mottled grey and two amber eyes glowed in its skull. Bat-like wings wrapped around its shoulders like a cape and while its clawed hands were empty it was carrying a small arsenal of blades and firearms. The younger version of Sai Jon spoke as they reached the altar, "You ok Saltera, that last hill seemed to take the wind out of you," a mischievous grin crossed his face.

"Don't worry about me little brother," Saltera rasped, "You're the out of shape one." Thunder rolled across the sky causing both of them to jump. "Well get to it Rainne. I'll do the watching, you do the praying."

Sai Jon kneeled and clasped his hands in front of him. No sooner had his knees touched the ground when shadows lept up all around them. Demons, cybernetically enhanced to the point that they were more machine than creature, appeared out of thin air surrounding the two. The largest stood on top of the altar looking down on the kneeling human. Rainne scrambled to his feet and backed away until he stood beside his brother.

"I wouldn't have believed it. A demon living with humans, and calling one 'brother' this will not be." The large demon hissed as it hopped down off of the altar. Saltera's hands began to creep towards his weapons. "Don't young one. You will provide me much entertainment but much less if you are dead. Take them." Lightning flashed from above and from the weapons of their attackers and the world faded.

Sai Jon and Alais stood alone in the darkness again. "It would have been kinder if I hadn't woken up."

Rainne was still fighting hopelessly when he was met by the first sentry. His cybernetic right hand lashed out and claws extended slicing the throat of a man he had known for more than two decades and blood splattered across his chest disappearing in the red light cast by the setting sun. The guard at the top of the stairs leading down into the canyon met a similar fate when Rainne silenced him with a blow to the throat and launched him off into empty space. The poor soul was dead beofre he hit the ground 300 some feet below. Rainne crossed Kor Hold again and again as he walked from house to house always silent, always killing. His clothes were drenched in blood and inside he was screaming the endless scream of the damned.

He entered his own home last, blood still running down his face after ripping his father's throat out with his teeth. He passed through the front room and slipped into his children's bedroom. With one hand he reached into the crib that held his two year old daughter and he twisted her head until it snapped loudly.

His son Tobias opened his eyes, "Daddy?" he asked sleepily. Rainne's arm shot out and buried itself in his childs chest. His hand clenched crushing the still beating heart.

"Rainne?" a womans voice asked.

Rainne spun his clawed hand lashing out cutting a red gash under her chin from ear to ear. Blood welled out as she clutched her neck. Her eyes were wide with disbelief as she fell to her knees and toppled over at his feet. Suddenly the voice was gone and he could move again. Rainne dropped down next to his dead wife and he found his voice at last.

He screamed.

In that moment Rainne died and Kor Jon was born. Kor Jon, the death of peace.

The elven woman studied the instant reaction to her question, 'tell me about Tobias and Anne please.' He'd nearly dropped to his knees, and she knew she'd found the thing he'd thought he could have no forgiveness for in his life. His utter shock at her finding his thoughts and pain registered briefly in his features. He regained his composure and partially responded to the questions before approaching her.

"Alais, you've shown me your nightmare, welcome to mine," and with that he reached for her arms and pulled her into a different world and time. A place nearly as bleak as the dead planes of Annara.

The place he called his home, damaged by warfare. A life laid to ruin by the actions of a demon. Her thoughts flitted to Shakira a moment, and her control of those who get too close, and an involuntary shudder rippled down her spine. The interaction between demons and others usually resulted in horrors unspeakable.

The images of his family were the most horrifying. The confusion and shock in his children's and wife's eyes was not something she'd had to witness when Morrin and she had consigned Annara into hell. The Annarans died at distance, not up close and personal.

The standing stones of her world reformed around them. He looked at the ground as he told her he'd lost himself that day. Describing what he'd become afterwards. "That is why I believe that no one is beyond forgiveness, because I wasn't. Will you let me help you?" he asked her as he finally looked up into her face.

"How did you find your forgiveness Sai Jon? My crime is not yet come to pass, and for that I do not yet know if there is any peace to be had." She studied his face long moments, and here in this place she could look fully at the cybernetic repairs he'd undergone without consternation. "You see, I cannot be certain that even if I were to do the unthinkable in terms of my elven heritage, there is no guarantee that the bane of this plane would follow. By everything imaginable, it should, but what if it did not? Who then would remain to protect the realm from them? Who could keep Daemonbane from destroying further? Do you truly think that you can help?"

She woke with a start at the touch to her forehead, silver eyes locking on Sai Jon, seeking answers to the questions she'd posed in a place only they had been.

I felt a surge of power race through my body as Sai Jon said, "I don't know if I can help you, but I am going to try."

He helped me to my feet, and as I glanced around the balcony, only Garl, Giles, and Jacob stood there. Kor Jon and Rainne were gone.

There was no need to ask how they had found me. Garl as my guardian no doubt led them here. Trying to regain a bit of composure, I invited them to sit. The balcony shone silvery beneath the moon, and the soft sound of the surf below was soothing.

I looked for long moments at the cloaked form of Sai Jon, "How did you know?"

There are a thousand questions I want to ask, but for the moment, it was up to Sai Jon. He was the one who would need answers if he were going to heal Tass.

As I sat gingerly back into the chair, I was pleased to discover that where once there had been stabbing pain, there was now no remnant of it. I curled comfortably into the chair waiting for his questions to begin.

"Tass has been aflicted with a curse that looks and acts like the one Daemonbane confers on anyone foolish enough to touch it. The only people who can are the rightful Annaran Kings. All others suffer as Tass is, with the exception that Tass yet lives. Daemonbane's victims have all died." There was no point in hesitating, Sai Jon needed answers, and I did have certain pieces of information.

"I cannot believe that Tass has touched Daemonbane. He knows the blade too well, and Daemonbane remains laying upon the stone where it first appeared. I am the only one who can touch that blade, and yet I dare not, for the price of wielding the sword of Annaran Kings is too high. Once I touch that blade, whether by sorcery or physically, I shall be bound to it, and it to me once the bond is made, my fate is sealed."

I paused for some moments , then summoned hot tea for all, which formed on the table before them. Garl just smiled as he poured himself a cup of the elven woman's favorite flavor.

"The tear you speak of Sai Jon originates in Riverbend. It shimmers within the mausoleum where I believe you saw Morrin's effigy in my dreams. It is the place Tass reached when he came after me in Riverbend. The tear exits high atop The Pearl."

Garl gasped in surprise. "How do you know? No one but Lord Tasslehofl, and perhaps Lord Khirsah can go there!"

I smiled at him, "because I too have been there Garl, with Lord Tasslehofl. We returned from Riverbend together, and since I was coming from a place nearly as cold as The Pearl, I could survive the cold for a short time atop the mountain."

I watched Sai Jon for some moments.

"The dead will come through that tear. They will be led by a General named Rael. The 'Others' of Riverbend spoke to me of their goals and aspirations. They've been promised freedom Sai Jon. Do you realize how much of a lure this would be to an entire race that has been banished? They will come. They will come en masse to gain their place in this plane again. And, one of them will seek to take up Daemonbane, the symbol of Annaran Kingship. They can feel the artifacts just as I can. They know they are here. Tass' world is in great danger from this army of dead preparing to come here."

"There are many things not right in Annara right now. I went to seek answers to the growing power I feel in Annaran sorceries. This is a dead world Sai Jon, and yet, the very source of my power is growing. It should not be! Morrin's world is dead. Annaran influence should die with time, not grow."

"These four artifacts are part of the reason that the dead are coming, freedom is the other reason. And, no, I do not have the answer to your questions, 'how do we stop this.'"

Well, I'd delivered a great deal of information to him in a short time, and I sat back to let him digest it.

Sipping the tea thoughtfully, "the sword didst condem th' Annarans once, tae take 't up nae wouldst be mine lass r'sort, an' those comin' through th' tear cannae take 't up. Daemonbane wouldst slay anna who dare. Ah'm th' oonla soul tha' mayst take 't up. An, Ah willnae dae tha'." A shudder ripples through her at the thought.

"The books, two're well 'idden, th' third ist wi' Khirsah, 'n we cannae reach 'im." I cannot imagine a worse thing to do than taking up Daemonbane. I know what that sword demands of any who wield it. I am not willing to surrender my life to that dark blade.

"We're 'ere, 't least from wha' Garl tells me, th' wards 're closed."

Sai Jon leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes and sighed. He'd been in plenty of seemingly hopeless situations in his time but he rarely was called on to plan. Back when he had been deep in the fighting his skills had leaned more towards shooting everything that wasn't one of his friends, an undoubtedly target rich environment, and blowing up anything that didn't immediately respond to laser fire. That was long ago though, he'd been at least mostly retired for years, teaching people how to fight the darkness instead of doing it himself. He looked around at the people around him. Two dragons and an elf who all radiated power the like of which he hadn't seen in years. It had been a long time since he felt weak around others and he was pretty sure he didn't care for it. It didn't help that what was coming scared even them. He sighed again and Giles looked over at him with a look of concern. Sai Jon smiled slowly as he finally reached a decision, if this was the end then someone was going to pay in blood to end it. He stood suddenly, "Alright then, time to go find some options. How about we go see what's coming for us?"

Giles sipped his tea and repressed a shudder. From the smile on Sai Jon's face it looked like Kor Jon was back and that could only mean death was coming.

"Take me there sorceress. I've been dead before so the world of the dead should be like going home." Sai Jon looked to Giles, "prepare the people for what's coming, they'll need all the time they can get."

Giles frowned, "I'll do it Jon, but don't get to comfortable in the world of the dead, I don't want to have to come there and kick your dead ass back to life."

Sai Jon smiled but it never quite reached his eyes, "I wouldn't want to put you out old man." He turned back to Alais, "let's go, we need to know what's going on out there."

The cold bit into body and the look on her face chilled his soul but something about this place had stirred a long forgotten part of Sai Jon. He could feel the old rage rising in him and it was like coming home even as part of his mind screamed that they had to flee this place. He walked around the room once slowly and came to a stop back in front of Alais.

"Now the army, let's go see who's is coming to the party."

Alais led him out of the mausoleum and up on to the curtain wall. A vast plain lay spread out before them and he stopped, fear nipped at him but it went back into the hole in his mind as the rage built even more. Spread across the plain were figures of madness. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of nightmare shapes, humans, half-humans demons and others that threatened insanity to all who looked upon them. They moved like a rippling sea of bodies and they were chanting the same two words again and again, "freedom awaits."

Sai Jon turned and led the way back into the mausoleum. "We will need help on this. Lots of help and lots of explosives." He turned and caught Alias' eyes, "we need Tass. I can reach him but I don't know these worlds. I'm going to try and reach out to him but I need you to come with me to identify where he is. Will you help?"

"When I use my powers to heal it creates a link between me and the one who I lend my powers to. The more power I pass to them, the stronger the link. Twice now I've shared with Tass, I can follow the link. He's trapped in his own mind fighting someone or something but we should be able to break through and see through his eyes. That's where I'll need you, I'll need to know where he is." Sai Jon stopped for a moment, "The only problem is that we will have to enter Tass' mind and leave ours, we'll be defenseless while we search." Sai Jon sat in the center of the room crosslegged and held out his hands, "You still want to help?"

For most people, night mares remain in the dark watch of the sunless hours in a mundane world. But my nightmares do not confine themselves to the restlessness of dreams. My nightmares walk the world of banished Annara.

If Morrin's work is undone, the world will learn a harsh lesson about why Morrin had no choice but to condemn his own people.

It is a lesson I pray the world need never learn.

Sai Jon's hands were cold. Nearly as cold as her own. She could only imagine the pain he endured as the cold of the grave saturated his living body. She never had touched those of the living world after she'd been to Annara because she knew to do so brought the pain of death and dying to those she would touch. Only Sylus was unafraid to touch her after a trip to this realm. But, for the moment, she had to focus on Sai Jon and finding Tass.

Sai Jon's method of searching was unusual. She felt him follow a mere thread of a connection with his mind, and abruptly found herself standing before a figure that looked very much like Tass, but they were in the burned out rubble of Jake's brewery.

Everything was charred and blackened, including Sai Jon, who no longer wore Priestly robes, but black and grey military camouflage that was tattered and ragged, as though he'd seen hellacious battle already in those clothes.

Her own robes were sooty grey as they stood there a moment before Sai Jon spoke, "Nice place. You do the decorating yourself, or did you have someone come in?"

She looked around the charred room. There was no mistake. This was the Red Orc Brewery; the second floor was a loss. The roof had only a few rafters remaining. They lifted into the night sky like ribs of a dead creature. The image made her shudder. She hoped most fervently that this place was an image, an alternate reality, and not the actual RhyDin she'd left behind. For if this was her world, something terrible was already happening here, and the pending invasion of the Emerald Isle's would mean battle on two fronts.

Dismissed they once again floated in the in-between. Sai Jon felt for the way back but nothing felt right, the way was not where it should have been. He was lost again. He smiled, like the Forest of Knowledge. He was lost and he would never find his way home. Was that so bad? The sudden expulsion had torn what power and concentration he had left from him and even the rage was fading. All he wanted to do was sleep. Yes, simply sleep, and he'd wake up back in Alynne's arms. The thought was seductive, warm. He could just let go and he'd be home at last. No more fighting impossible odds. No more killing. No more memory. And maybe when he awoke everything would be better.

Someone was calling to him but he didn't want to hear it, he was happy here. He'd just laid the children down to sleep and Alynne was snoring quietly. She would never admit to it though. Whoever it was could come back later, he didn't want to get up now. Nothing was as important as this moment. The rest of the world could wait, it was time to sleep. He closed his eyes and prayed as he did every night. He prayed not to dream.

Alais forced herself in to Sai Jon's thoughts and found herself standing at the foot of his bed, "Sai Jon, this is not real. You are not in this place. We need to go, Tass needs you, and I need you to get us out of here." she said urgently.

"It's funny how the longer we live the more certain events seem to happen," a calm voice spoke beside her startling her. Beside her stood Sai Jon as he had appeared in Tass' mind dressed as a warrior. "This moment for instance has occured twice before. Our life tends to move in threes though so maybe we can finally be done with it. We have yet to be introduced thoug. The name's Kor Jon, Rainne's in the bed and Sai Jon, well he's off dying somewhere." Kor Jon didn't seem to concerned about this. "The first time it was Saltera, it was time for the ceremony."

A demon opened the door slowly and stuck it's head into the room. It smiled a toothy smile that seemed fond and definitely out of place on such a fearsome creature. "Rainne, we need to go. Your father needs you, and we need get out of here." The image of the demon faded, Rainne never stirred.

"And we all know how well that went. I came into being the next day. Of course he doesn't want to wake up. And then the second time."

Jacob appeared beside Alais looking frantic, "Kor Jon, this is not real. You are not in this place. We need to go, Giles needs you, and we need to get out of here." Rainne mumbled something and shooed away the image. Jacob slowly faded away.

"I started remembering then. Four years of blocking all of this from my mind. As far as I was concerned I lived to kill demons, I didn't care why I didn't care how. I could have died and peacefully gone to the hell I deserve if it wasn't for those blasted elves and their damn forest. Had to show us our past to allow us to step into our futures. I liked my future very much thank you. A quick, painless, and probably extremely messy deathwith none of this memory stuff. None of this pain." Kor Jon turned to Alais, "So what horror awaits us if we come back this time. What more can you people do to us and why can't you just let us sleep?!" Kor Jon said the last screaming and Alais flew backwards and into somewhere else.

It was a child's bedroom. The small bed was made and a teddy bear had been tucked under the covers as if asleep. Flashes of light and crashing sounds came from under the doorway. Alais pulled open the doorand stepped out into a small hallway. She walked silently towards the dining room. It was as if she was remembering this place, though she didn't think she'd ever been there. The dining room was in a shambles. A man lay pinned to the table by a sword stabbed through his back it looked as if something had been eating him from the chunks of flesh missing from his shoulders. Younger versions of Giles, Kor Jon, and Jacob were in the room all of them hold ing guns. What was left of a woman lay on the floor, Alais recognized necromantic symbols on her face, she had been a zombie. That must of been what had been eating the man. Jacob carefully stepped over to the man and touched his head. The man screamed, he was still alive! All three jumped back, "KILL ME!!" The man screamed, Kor Jon stepped forward and ripped the sword out of his back. The man spasmed and lay still. Two words gasped forth as the life fled from him, "...the children..." Kor Jon shot him in the head ending it.

"Search the place, see if this thing left any clues this time. We've got to figure out how to kill it!" Kor Jon said, his voice cold and business like. Giles moved up and closed the dead man's eyes. They had known each other. Kor Jon started towards Alais but stopped. His eyes grew wide with terror...and perhaps understanding. Alais looked down as two figures caming stepping through her as if she were a ghost. They were young children, boy and girl, and most definitely dead. Kor Jon dropped to his knees as the two advanced on him. Their tiny mouths gaped open in malicious sharp toothed grins as they saw easy prey. Jacob stepped up behind Kor Jon and shot them each in turn, their heads exploding into a fine red mist. Kor Jon watched and cried.

"To sleep? Perchance to dream. Aye there's the rub." The older Kor Jon was next to her again, he looked down on his younger self with a look that was close to compassion. "That was the first time we remembered. We'd dreamt of it but that was the first flash of memory. Why won't you let us sleep?" His voice was tired now. For the first time Alais realized exactly how old Sai Jon was, elves were made to live for hundreds of years, humans were not.

Alais pushed deeper into his mind trying to find something to bring him back to the world he wished to forsake. Images came into focus and blurred again all around her. "More and more things repeat." Kor Jon's voice whispered and the world focused.

Alais stood on a circular plateau alone in the darkness. The disk was divided in half. One side was made up of jagged black rocks, the other was metal covered in circuitry and lights. On the rock stood Kor Jon, he looked beaten and tired but defiant. Opposite him stood a demon that Alais had seen many times in the memories she had glimpsed. Between them was a translucent image of Kor Jon kneeling and firing a pistol at something she could see. In his other hand he held a small box with a button prominent on it.

"No Thratchen, not this time. I won't let you." The solid version of Kor Jon hissed, the pure hate in his voice of evident. The demon named Thratchen just laughed and the image between them moved his finger towards the button on the box. "NOOO!" Kor Jon screamed and the image threw the box into the air shooting it. The image disappeared and Kor Jon collapsed to his hands and knees.

Thratchen laughed coldly, "You're getting stronger monkey. Good, perhaps there's fun to be had with you yet. Another time then. The demon melted away leaving Alais alone with Kor Jon.

He looked up at her, "He came again to control me. I almost killed my friends and hundreds of innocent people that time. I fought him off. I had learned how to control my mind you see. He had thought I was dead, once he knew I still lived he wanted to play with me, torture me some more. He was good at what he did. Are you going to try too? Are you here to try and control me?" The madness in his eyes was growing, and the world blurred again.

The memories of Sai Jon were brutal. They would long ago have crushed a lesser man, and my appreciation for the inner strength of Tass' friend grew, but in those fleeting moments of realization, I was pulled into another series of memories, and with each shift of remembrance, I became more tightly interwoven with the Priest and his past. The harder I fought to retain my own distinct thoughts, the more I realized that in this place, we were inextricably bound one to the other.

The demon Thratchen had discovered that Kor Jon lived, and the dreaming; nay, the nightmares, intensified.

I found myself alone on the disc from the previous memory, alone in silence and never ending darkness. A darkness that held the feel of death waiting. Poised just beyond my ability to see, death clung, and waited. It was not the death of demons and hell, but of natural death that has simply not yet claimed what belongs to it. As I turned at the slightest of sounds in that unnatural place, I was startled to find Sai Jon slowly sitting up. He had aged markedly, looking like a human who had lived far beyond what his body could endure. Feeble and care-worn, the image rose, "You've come a long way to visit a dying man. Do you really think you can save me from this? From myself?"

I watched him in silence before he continued, "I've been ready to die so many times, and yet you people keep dragging me back from the edge." He meant his words. He was ready to let go and that worried me.

I pondered his words for long minutes, or so it seemed. Time has little meaning in 'the in-between'. The "you people" he referred to must have been the elves who'd forced him to face the past in the forest. He and Kor Jon had no love for the elves they'd dealt with. And perhaps there lingers a mistrust or mislike for elves in general. It was hard to tell.

In the blink of an eye, I was standing in a library, and the sensation of sinking into another's life assailed me. Self preservation rose suddenly and a moment of panic ensued, threatening to spill over me as I heard Sai Jon's voice within my mind say, "Quiet now, it's only a story," and I ceased to fight the oddly disorienting feeling to experience this vision as though it were me and not Sai Jon. I became Kor Jon here, and the touch of my fingers to the cybernetic replacements was me. The self loathing of what I'd become, half man, half machine brought pain into my elven heart.

The child, Jasmine, and Giles with his perfect blend of concern, understanding, and irreverence touched me as I watched the scene unfold in the library. My emotions were reacting as if their presence and words were for me.

The fatefilled evening when I'd left them after realizing that Thratchen could never pay for the loss of my wife, my children, my family, my friends. There was no recompense - and neither could Kor Jon make amends. Kor Jon could never regain his love, nor undo the suffering. My need for vengeance against the demon could never bring any of them back. Giles had brought that realization to us when he'd tossed the diamond ring into our hand and asked, "how can he pay? Can he bring back your family?" The ring cut into my hand, bringing a spot of blood, and I quickly wiped the ring off and tossed it back to Giles. He'd never had the chance to ask her.

The memories shifted to the main chamber of a church where all of the bodies of his victims lay, and finally we carried Alynne there, laying her between her children. He arranged her hair about her, noting that she never wore it down, but the scene changed again as we were surrounded by the animated bodies of the slain, all of them accusing him, "you did this" and no matter which direction we turned, they were all there, all bleeding, all accusing. Over it all, the hateful laughter of Thratchen echoed in my head. I wanted to leave, to pull away from those memories, but found myself bound tightly to Sai Jon. To try to pull away would tear one of our minds beyond repair. I was trapped if I cared what happened to him. Bound to a man who's life has been something so unimaginable. Unable to tear away, and unwilling to continue on.

As Kor Jon left his friends in the early morning hours, I was once again looking at Sai Jon, "See, Jacob would have started in the middle, this is how it should be told."

Sai Jon wanted to die. He had wanted to die for a very long time, but no matter my understanding his feelings, no matter that I had just relived the man's pain in detail I never expected was possible, I also know I cannot let him remain here - lost in the pleasant dreams of a life that never was. We had to go back to Riverbend, and then on to RhyDin. I would have to shatter those dreams and drag him back to a pending invastion, and the pain and suffering we would all face when the dead moved out of Hell and into the Emerald Isles.

For long moments I warred with myself. Was I a selfish monster to drag him from here and a peaceful death in the between? Was I? What harm was there in letting him die with these pleasant dreams? Why must I drag him from this fiction into the stark reality that faced us at home?

It was false! That's what harm there was! This was not the end for this man. His life deserved to end in reality and not in false visions. He'd earned that much respect, and I would not permit him to be lost here in falsehood.

I looked long moments at Sai Jon, "You asked me if I can save you from yourself, and I believe that I can, but that means we must leave here together. You and I do not belong here, in the 'between'. We belong to another place and time. I've travelled a long way to find not a dying man, but the key to returning to whence we DO belong. Come, we need to go."

I reached for the old man's hand, and when we touched, I dragged him into my memories.

Sai Jon felt the world shift around him but he could not seem to care. He was tired, so very tired of caring, of fighting again and again only to see evil rise up again somewhere else. The world focused around him and he was standing in a hall he had never seen before. He glanced at Alais, this must be of of hers he thought absently. The thought skittered across his mind like a pebble on a frozen pond. It didn't matter. Nothing did. The people that came next changed that. Sai Jon had lived for centuries on battlegrounds and in the dens of monsters but these were men. The procession of prisonners reminded him of the demons and their pain gardens...but these were men. The men, then the women came in and were herded and used like animals for the pleasure of the guests and Sai Jon could feel anger and disgust rising within him. But evil like this comes again and again, I can do nothing.

Then the children were brought forward. Sai Jon could feel the bile rise in his throat. He could not look away, he could not flee, he could not fight back. It was like being trapped in his body watching the death of his Hold all over again. It didn't matter that these were strangers, demons at least did not hunt their own. These were people, families, children and the nobles simply laughed and played as if they were untouchable. This would not stand! Sai Jon felt the power rise inside him, fed by both sides of him. He was whole again and they would pay. Then the king came and suddenly they were in the grey again.

Alais wouldn't look at him, "Sai Jon, we cannot stay here to hide amidst pleasant fantasies when we know what is coming. When we alone can warn the innocent." The power inside him lashed out and they were back in Riverbend in an instant.

"That...abomination is what awaits outside isn't it? The army that is about to pour out on Tass' world is made of those things that you and the king banished isn't it?" Alais' answer was apparent as she still would not meet his eyes. "I wanted to give up out there, and you pulled me back. I won't thank you for that but there's work to do. Those people of yours got off easy last time. Lead the way."

He looked at me with a pent up fury that spoke volumes. He would wreak vengeance upon those who got in his way. There was a lethal feel to the very air around him.

"Come on, we need to leave this place. We cannot get back to Matlal, but we can go to RhyDin. We can use my home as a base for seeking out the Baroness and the Queen."

I studied the tear for long moments, and gave a long, slow look around the mausoleum before resting my gaze on Morrin's effigy. In a whisper even elves would have trouble hearing, "Morrin, I will not let them succeed, you have my promise."

Turning toward Sai Jon, "Please, take hold of the staff, we need to go."

As he grasped the white wood, she whispered the Annaran words and they were transported into the grounds of I' Taurn House. The emerald lawns stretched before him as the mithril dragon gates closed off the street.

She walked toward the white ashlar structure that lifted 4 stories into the air, reaching the front doors, pausing beneath the Rouwan Tree before stepping through the white oaken doors into the pristine interior.

The front doors closed behind them as she moved into the Great Room. The blue granite floors and fireplace were in stark contrast to the all white entry foyer.

Her voice was nearly inaudible, "this is where I found Daemonbane and the books after ....."

I was about to take Sai Jon into the Great Hall where I'd found Daemonbane after Morrin and I had exiled his people, but before I could finish the sentence, a tear rent the air in the foyer, followed by three heavily armed figures.

First came Jacob, whom I'd thankfully already met as my hands had already reflexively curled around my staff in preparation to defend my home.

Jacob swung the firearm in a three-sixty circle around the room as though expecting to be attacked my some unseen horde.

The second creature through the rip nearly stopped my heart. He was huge! A demon is bad enough, but with the cybernetic enhancements and twirling swords, I found myself taking another step back. It took a moment to recognize Saltera from Sai Jon's memories, but there is little doubt that is who Jacob's backup is.

Then a young man of about 20 summers stepped through. His resemblance to Sai Jon was amazing, but Sai Jon had slain his son.

Laughter broke the tension in the air, and all three of them looked at Sai Jon with puzzlement. "Problems?" Sai Jon queried as the newcomers all realized there was no enemy they needed to vanquish here.

Jacob answered for the trio as I stood in the doorway until Sai Jon introduced me to the three unexpected arrivals. He introduced the young man as Tobias. He must have found an alternate time when his son had survived.

Jacob was already scoping out the entry hall, standing and inspecting the finely carven oak dragon doors leading to the Great Hall. After recovering a bit from the entrance of the three armed warriors in so dramatic a fashion, I took them into the Great Hall. I gave Jacob a quick smile in response to his question, and told him that the mortgage was paid over 1500 years ago.

The central portion of the fireplace was empty as I swept my hand toward the conspicuous vacancy. "This is where I found Daemonbane after the Banishment. It had replaced my own family coat of arms, hanging here, as though saying to me, 'you are the last Annaran'." My gaze flickered over the cybernetically enhanced demon as I spoke the name of the black Annaran blade. "The three books lay upon the hearthstone. All four artifacts survived the Banishment, and were here waiting when I returned."

The Nitesong coat of arms and familial blade Morvinyon hung upon the fireplace still, but it was clear they were not the central focus. That item now lay on the foundation stone of the house on Matlal.

"If you will come with me gentlemen? We will house here while we are in RhyDin, and I will show you to your rooms. From there, we need to go find Baroness Topaz and Queen Teleperien. The Baroness should be in residence at Dragon's Gate. Queen Teleperien will either be in RhyDin, or Eldicor. If she is in Eldicor, we'll need permission to cross her borders."

After showing them to rooms on the third floor, I took them to the fourth floor to discuss next steps. I provided them with a map of the city, showing them where Dragon's Gate was, and where the dueling forums were, since these are the most likely places to find both women. I also showed Sai Jon where the burned brewery could be found, since it was where we'd encountered Tass' mind.

Tobias seemed very quiet and almost pensive as the men studied the maps and grew familiar with the streets of RhyDin.

(cross posted in Streets/Quiet Return)

It had been a terribly long day. Sai Jon and his companions had made a spectacular impact on the few household staff still at I' Taurn, and I am not completely convinced that having a cybernetically enhanced demon in the house is something they will quickly adjust to. Saltera is very reasonable, but elves and demons do not usually spend amiable time together. Especially when the demon is armed to the teeth.

I had shown Sai Jon to the second floor where they could practice swords, magic, and hand to hand combat. The room was not designed for firearms or laser weapons, but I told Sai Jon I could ward it for such if he so desired. The room contains a multitude of swords, edged weapons, and if they dig deeply enough, some of Ulysses laser weapons are still there.

I left them to do whatever recon they felt would be useful, and headed to Twilight Isle in search of Rhaine. Once again, I kept to the trees as I searched the rings and spectators areas. Sylus was volunteering, but he caught sight of me among the trees, and a whisper soft mind touch told me I looked tired, which meant I looked as I felt.

I told him I was seeking Rhaine, but that I was going back to I' Taurn. He wondered if our guests were settled, and I told him that I thought so. I hadn't had an opportunity to introduce him to Sai Jon and the others, but he knew of their arrival.

It was late as I sat in the library. A small fire crackled in the fireplace. I had not seen Topaz or Teleperien, and somehow I suspect that Sai Jon and crew are not particularly body guard sorts. As I considered how to go about protecting Topaz and the Queen, I felt a tear open across the table from me. The dark rift shimmered in the mostly darkened room, and I felt a familiar presence, "Rhaine?"

Her voice drifted from the tear, "want to come or would prefer me hopping in?"

I smiled. The woman could come through my wards like they did not exist, and yet, she maintains the courtesy of asking before doing. She is unusual in this realm. "Please, do come join me lass."

She stepped through the rift, but her form was almost translucent, at first I thought it was just a trick of the light, but as she seated herself on the floor, I could see she was not entirely solid.

"Good evening lass, the Liquid Fire is on the table."

She nodded, telling me that she thought it best not to delay talking. It seems things have been changing in RhyDin as well during my absence. It's too dangerous to wait. Vanion has become more active. I fear he will be trying to get the Key of Earth from Artemus. He kidnapped your Queen, and we had to run to the Temple of Myr'Khul."

I had heard that Vanion was once again stirring, but I had not heard he'd taken Teleperien.

She continued, telling me that "Myr'Khulians are masters of torment," and that Teleperien was in bad condition when she was found. She passed her hand through the bottle of Liquid Fire, "I'm still regenerating after the encounter with Vanion."

When I asked her what had happened to her, she shrugged, "I was just dragging Artemus out of another problem, and got my body annihilated, nothing too scarey."

I blinked at her, "that's not scarey?"

She smirked, "it is not important. And I kept Artemus from feeling my pain. In any case, the regeneration is almost complete, so don't pay attention." She gave me a most serious look before continuing. "The bloodspeakers, and your dragon friend, and what you told me - that is trouble, not some regenerating monster."

I frowned inwardly. She is no monster, and as my friend, it concerns me that she could have been lost to me, and in defense of Artemus! The man simply makes my blood boil. He is Sylus' younger brother, but I cannot harbor warmth for the man in any shape or form.

Rhaine sighed, "anything about that demonic being, that Rael?"

I shook my head, "the 'Others' do say he's from the 9th level, and that he is amassing a huge host, at least 200,000 now in the rivers flood plain in Annara."

She smirked a bit, "such hosts are not uncommon for Baator, but 9th level?! How could a half Tanar'ri come there?"

I had no answer for her, but the story remains the same from all of the banished Annarans.

She told me that in Clandestine, it had been a being from the 9th level that had deceived Tenebris, and stole his soul, and plotted lethargy for them all, the Asmodeans. She was worried.

I thought a moment. "If Rael brings them through, the Annarans would be free to take up their old lives."

She bit her lip, "and there it is."

We both understand the threat Rael poses to us all. I closed my eyes, "Rhaine, I had to show Sai Jon the depravity of the Annaran world." The pain of remembering still bit deeply into my soul, but I knew Rhaine would understand what it had cost me to show that to anyone.

She glanced up at me, "Sai Jon? Who is he?" She was in deep thought as she manipulated cyan sparks on her fingers.

"Sai Jon is an old friend of Giles, he's come to help Tass. He is a priest, and has come to try to heal Tass from the wasting malady."

Her old animosity toward Tass was still there, and I have resolved that my two friends cannot be friends. It happens, no more than I could expect to take Saltera to Legend and expect them to get along.

Rhaine chuckled, "I see, so Tass needs some healing and a Priest to bash some common sense into his head?"

I laughed quietly, "Mayhap that too."

We spoke at length about Vanion, and her concerns that the vampiric elf would go after Artemus' Key since it is the only one Vanion has not been able to touch with the crystal. "So, the only logical guess is that Art should beware."

Frowning slightly, "I have no love for the man lass, none."

She chuckled, "Art may be a silly shifter, but he isn't half as bad as Vanion. Hopefully Shan will teach him to be more serious."

I growled, "aye, well, he has made an enemy of this elf."

She grew more serious, "Vanion is not the only concern, I don't like what's going on with Vincent. His doubles, they appear too often."

I muttered some elven imprecations. "That damned Temple does corrupt all that it touches."

She nodded, but added, "I would not try to enter it, the Grim Lord would not approve. And Vitus, he's here and I am happy to see him. All of us considered him dead after certain events involving his father."

I asked if that was the Arioch they'd spoken about.

She said Arioch was Vitus' father, and a demon who loved to make mindless drones out of everyone.

I closed my eyes, "Rhaine? I've met two demons today, and now you're talking about a third!" No elf in her right mind willingly associated with such creatures!

She grinned, "remember our talk about fabric on a frame? New marbles are falling."

I opened my eyes and studied her a moment, "yes, they are."

She rested her forehead on her hands, "and the visions, visions the Lord has sent me, they predict another marble."

I sat up a bit more, "what visions?" She hadn't mentioned previous instances where the Grim Lord had spoken to her.

She looked up, "for a long time He has not spoken to me, but now he has. He has shown me a rift - rift and four figures walking out of it."

We spoke at length about her vision and what it could portent, but in the end, we agreed not to discuss it. For now, it would remain just between us.

I teased her then, telling her that Vitus and Saltera should meet. She blinked and wanted to know why. When I explained that Saltera was 100% demon, and currently in I' Taurn, she chuckled, "This guy Tanar'ri?"

I explained what little I knew about Saltera, that Tharkold was his home. She nodded, "not one of the Baatezu, that is for sure." Then she asked me why they should not meet, and I laughed, "the irony of having two demons about." It was so un-elven, have I come so far from my heritage? The thought is sobering. Have I become so influenced by the Annarans?

She broke my reverie, "Trouble is guaranteed. I will talk to my brother, and will get to talk to you again. I think we will need your help. Something should be done about Arioch."

I nodded and told her she could count on my help.

The imp in her surfaced as she said, "even if that means helping a half demon?"

I winked back as she opened a rift, "only because he's your brother."

((Cross posted in Streets/Quiet Return))

Jacob flew through the clouds, skimming below them from time to time. He had volunteered to go scouting for two reasons and both were bringing a grin to his face at this moment. First he loved to fly. It had been more than two centuries since he had the cybernetic wings installed and he had yet to even begin to become tired of feeling the wind rushing past him and watching the ground flow by like a tiny model. Second, he had recently shown Tobias a new trick with his telekinesis and Jacob had enough survival instincts left to know that he'd better not be there when it got tried out for the first time. Besides Tobias would tell him about the look on Sai Jon's face later and the stories were often more fun anyways.

A flash of blue caught his eye as he dipped below the cloud cover again and he spun in that direction. He hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary all day and he was getting bored. Getting bored was not a good thing with Jacob, he tended to seek out problems when that happened. Luckily no one is around to talk any sense into me. Jacob thought to himself with a grin.

As he popped out of the cloud cover a huge blue dragon blew by him, it's passage blew him backwards head over heels into the cloud bank. Jacob flew upwards again, slightly more cautiously this time. The dragon had turned and was hovering in front of him with ponderous flaps of it's batlike wings. Jacob hovered opposite the dragon and for just a moment a voice in the back of his mind (that sounded suspiciously like Saltera) screamed for him to run but he shut the voice up with disturbing efficiency.

Jacob grinned and yelled out in a loud voice, "You wouldn't happen to have seen a dragon named Tass around here have you?"

((Cross posted to The Streets/Searching))

Saltera had sent the others to prepare. With two more dragons out there he knew there would be trouble and Jacob would undoubtably find it. He waited at the practice room and suddenly a huge dog came bounding around the corner and squared off in front of him growling menacingly. Saltera could sense that it thought him to be a threat so he dropped to his knees, and bent his head to the left exposing his throat and letting out a low whine. The dog stopped growling and cocked his head to the side. Myr inched forward slowly and sniffed Saltera's outstretched hand which he then tentatively licked.

Alais came racing around the corner to find Saltera kneeling in front the dog that was now barking at him playfully. She laughed at the scene and called Myr to her.

Saltera shook his head and waited for the others impatiently. It was past time to be going, Jacob could be up to anything by now.

((Cross Posted to The Streets/The Quiet Return))

The dragon slammed Jacob into a few more tons of stone before finally landing in a park and snapping its teeth at him, "I enjoy lizards for appetizers. You have a death wish?" The tail snapped again and Jacob's response was knocked out of him with his breath. The tail stopped for a moment and he looked up into the dragons blazing eyes. The thought once again occurred to him that this might not have been such a good idea but again he dismissed it as sheer foolishness.

He gasped in his breath as the dragon glowered at him waiting for a response, "Well not a death wish as such, but you didn't answer my question and I thought that was a bit rude but then i figured that as you are a fellow reptile that you must not have heard me since you would never be rude like that being a fellow reptile so I figured I'd tag along just in case you could answer my question and then you took me on that great ride I've never had one like it before it was so cool and now since you've stopped I can ask the question that you obviously failed to hear before," he sucked in a quick breath and continued before the dragon could respond, "So, you wouldn't happen to have seen a dragon named Tass around here have you?" Jacob waited panting for an answer still maintaining a death grip on the tail.

((Cross Posted to The Street/Searching))

beginning to realize that this dragon really was quite a rude person. He grunted slightly as the dragon dug its talon into his chest, "You DO have a death wish. WHY are you looking for Lord Momus?" the dragon rumbled at him.

He had tried to be polite but the dragon was starting to piss him off. "If you would listen you would realize that I already told you that I'm a friend of his and me and my friends are trying to heal him because he's been hurt!" Jacob moved forward until their snouts were almost touching and he stared into the dragon's eyes, "now if you would stop being rude and answer the blasted question I can get back to trying to help your liege lord. Or do you REALLY want to have a go with me while he's out there hurt?!"

((Cross Posted to The Streets/Searching))

Jacob dropped to the ground eagerly and scrambled up the dragon's tail and back and sat down quickly just forward of the wings. He barely restrained himself from boucing up and down in his excitement. He'd never ridden on a dragon's back before and he was all set to go. As it leaped into the air he grabbed on with his legs and let out a whoop of joy. The wind roared past him and after several inneffectual attempts at conversation he reached out tentatively with his mind, Can you hear me? Her response to the affirmative was laced with suspicion. He realized that the dragon was female and he searched his mind for the times Sai Jon and Saltera had struggled to teach him manners, it was difficult. I'm sorry Miss Dragon Lady, I forgot to introduce myself before I grabbed your tail. My name is Jacob. I used to have a longer name but it got to be a bother to remember all the names after I got to twenty-seven so I shortened it again. Impatience and confusion washed over him so he continued quickly. Here, this should explain. He pushed all of the memories he had since he had arrived on the Emerald Isle into her mind in an instant. And that's why I'm looking for Tass.

((Cross Posted to The Streets/Searching))

Easing my grasp, the lizard leaped to the ground, taking a route up my back to settle just before the wing joints, and with a leap, we rose into the air. Smoke was spreading, and people were running to watch the goings on, and I was busy seeking movement that might tell me where the elder might be found.

The tentative touch of psionic surprised me, and I could not help being suspicious, but I'd told him he could come along and explain it to me. He started talking about his names, but that was not why I'd told him he could come along, he needed to get to the point.

The images he shared were convincing. He was a verbose creature, but his tale rang true. A small group of non-dragons had come in search of Lord Momus. Further, the rumors that he was afflicted with a wasting malady were also true.

We circled around the source of the column of smoke before slowly widening the circling search area. Nothing. No familiar sensation of kindred dragons nearby.

A small group of goblins stood in front of the remains of the Red Orc brewery, pointing up, but they were of no consequence.

Nothing.

I perched atop the local church steeple. *Not here, he's not here* My mind shared with Jacob almost unconsciously.

A group of militia moved through the streets, armed with various weapons, including cross bows, long bows, and javelins.

Turning to study him a moment. *Smell him?*

He seemed certain, and as I looked over the city streets, there was nothing that stood out for me.

He was so certain, *hold on* as I spread my wings, we swooped low over the streets in a north easterly direction.

People glanced up as my shadow slid along the rooftops and streets. The Militia was out in force, and still there was no trace I could sense of Lord Momus.

I flew slowly, letting Jacob search. He'd said he could smell him, but I could not. Lazy circles as we moved the direction he'd indicated.

He'd hopped off and I rose to land on the outter wall of the brewery. The second floor was gutted, but it looked as though the first floor was fairly intact. The goblins were scurrying to and fro, and my presence seemed to upset them greatly.

On a whim, spreading my wings wide to catch the last of the sun's rays.

Squeaking words drifted up to me, "fire starter", "dragon fire" and so forth. The rumors were true then. People believed that Lord Momus was the one setting all of the fires. But why? Why would he do this?

Jacob was following a scent only he could pick up, and I watched him as he moved below.

(Cross posted Streets/Searching)

He took off running, moving quickly up the street after getting through the goblins. There was a cloaked figure moving slowly, using a staff that he was closing on, and I flew in a low glide path to intercept it.

People scurried out of my way, but the cloaked figure kept moving, seemingly uncaring that a lizard and dragon were closing it in. It appeared completely unafraid of my glide straight at it.


(Cross posted in Streets / Searching )

Jacob read his prey's intent as the figure turned. He threw up a psychic shield just as the shuriken darted at his face. The shield held barely, there was powerful magic backing the tiny missles. He watched as Tass' body turned and transformed into his dragon form and attacked the lady dragon with blasts of flame. The lady dragon veered off trying to protect herself and Tass' dragon form began to fly away quickly. Jacob hesitated for a moment but then launched himself into the air in the direction of the lady dragon as his three companions flashed overhead in pursuit of Tass.

He flew in the direction he had last seen the lady dragon going and felt her questing presence, I'm ok. Are you hurt Miss Dragon Lady?

((Cross Posted to The Streets/Searching))

I swept out of the water. Blisters were forming on the thinner tissue of the wing. *oh, bother!*

The dracolich-like creature was weak. Had Lord Momus wanted to, he could have blasted me into naught but a few scales and teeth. Something was horribly amiss. I would have understood a demand for submission, but what had just happened was not dragon-like at all.

I'd just risen high enough to go in search of Jacob when his thoughts reached me, *I'm OK. Are you hurt Miss Dragon Lady?* And there, below me flew the lizard.

Landing atop a tiled roof to await him, *I am a little broiled in places, but otherwise I'm ok.*

I studied his wings a moment. They were artificial. Technology seems to be doing the impossible. I wonder what's next.

In the distance, there were 3 figures using the artificial wings, *your friends?*

He nodded.

*Let us join them, hurry, get on, I am faster.* We headed straight for his friends. *they won't take a pot shot at me, will they?*


(Cross posted Streets / Searching)

Jacob and the lady dragon caught up with the others as they landed outside the door Tass had retreated into. Sai Jon hit the door running and bounced back as he discovered it had been locked from the other side. "We don't have time for this!" he growled, "Tobi. Salt. Get in the air and make sure he doesn't come out another door. Jacob...dragon, stand back." Sai Jon pulled a handfull of something that looked like grey clay out of a compartment that openned in his leg.

"Oh damn, Miss Dragon Lady we really need to move." Jacob said and lifted into the air landing on the roof of the opposite building. The lady dragon lifted off, puzzled but if the lizard that stood up to her didn't want to be somewhere there might just be a good reason. Sai Jon rolled the clay into a long thin strip and ran it around the edges of the door then ran down the alley at a full sprint. Suddenly there was a flash and a roar that almost startled her into flight. She looked over at Jacob who was grinning broadly, "Jon never did learn how much of that stuff was too much." he said before he dropped off the ledge, floating to the ground.

Sai Jon and Jacob entered the building weapons drawn and came back out a few moments later. Sai Jon took off again and was joined by the other two as they headed back towards New Haven. Jacob landed next to the lady dragon and sighed, "he teleported, the scent leads just inside the door and vanishes. I'm going to have to start again. You still up for a little flying?"

((Cross Posted to The Streets/Searching))

Jacob thought for a moment, "Not really but I'm not going to pick up anything here. My friends are heading back to the house to try and figure out a way to find Tass through supernatural means. I prefer the old fashioned way so I'll start here and circle outwards. If he's in the city I'll pick him up eventually." Jacob stopped and cocked his head to the side as if listening to something then he grinned and reached out poking the lady dragon in the shoulder with one of his fingers, "Tag, you're it." Jacob hurled himself off the rooftop picking up speed as he swooped through the alley and climbing into the clouds overhead laughing loudly the entire time.

((Cross Posted to Streets/Searching))

The city was falling rapidly behind, and the orange flames reached skyward from the outlying home, but Jacob was headed in a different direction.

Whirling around, I scanned the skies for him. Now where did that little lizard go?

*Jacob? Where are you going?* The mind touch was direct. He'd said his friends would go for answers, but that he wanted to search.

I spotted him flying toward Seaside, and thus I left the outlaying fire in favor of the new smoke plumes near the construction.

Was he out of his lizard mind???

I winged with all haste toward the plume of smoke and the form that circled ahead of me. It radiated dragon fear as though it was drunk or high on something. This was not Lord Momus. This was something else entirely.

As I got closer, I could see that the thing I'd thought was a dracolich was not precisely that. It was as though the scales and flesh have been peeled from the body, leaving the underlying muscle and skeletal structure visible for study. Something humans did to study their 'medicine'. But this anatomy project was still alive, and it was killing.

Closing fast, I set a collision path with the thing. *Jacob, get out of here! Taking on a dragon is not the smartest thing in the world. Use this diversion to GO!*

Not the smartest thing. Wow. She really hasn't known me for very long Jacob thought as he increased his speed. Now he just needed Sai Jon. Concentration was never his strongest suit and concentration while on a high speed collision course with a dragon that didn't like you very much is probably even harder but Jacob pushed his thoughts out. He had to reach Sai Jon and bring him here. They wouldn't get another chance at this. He called out, ignoring the smoke and the dying screams he called out to his friend. He needed him here now.

Jacob flew like never before. The wind ripped past him, he had gotten his message out, now he was the bait. He raced the lady dragon to Tass knowing that this time he had a better chance. He tucked his wings close and flew into the burning wreckage bursting out through a hole where the roof had collapsed directly under the dragon. He weaved upwards still moving faster than he ever had before. Weaving like a maniac, he threaded past Tass whooping wildly and as he passed the growling snout he reached out and slapped his nose screaming with insane pleasure, "YOU'RE IT!" before diving down into the streets below. He was smaller and faster, he would weave where Tass couldn't fly and act as bait. Besides, he'd never had this much fun in his life.

Oblivious to the development behind him, Psly redlined the engine heading for the city proper. A prearranged signal cleared the gate as he shot through it in a blur, one eye on the road, the other on the telemetry screen in front of him displaying the circling forms around the construction site.

Weaving through the streets as he neared the river, he considered his plans. Unfortunately, the construction tower was the tallest building in the immediate area. He needed to be somewhere higher.

An upended trailer provided resolution to a sudden dead-end street problem, catapulting the bike into another high ballistic arc over the river, providing the elf with a wonderful but macabre view of the desolation. Halfway over the river, an idea dawned upon him.

A couple of pistol potshots sent in the general direction of the dragon battle was all he had time for before gravity reasserted herself and he had to retain control of the speeding vehicle. But he had a destination in mind once more.

For almost nothing in Rhy'Din City proper was taller than the bluffs on the northern edge. . .

((Cross posted in From The Ashes))

She hit the ground, bouncing twice, than twisted the throttle as far as it would go. The recoil was more than when she shot out of the mass driver, pressing her against the seat...


"Hooooollllyyyy......"

She noticed that the bike was helping to steer itself, and allowed herself a sigh of relief.

Shard looked at the computer touchscreen in front of her. She hit the navigation bar, and noticed an option for "Tracking".

Shard hit it.

On the screen, she saw several lights, but only one of them was blinking...

"That's got to be him......"

So, using his own tracking device, she started to follow him.

((Cross posted in The Streets: From the Ashes))

Jacob glanced over his shoulder as the two dragons collided in mid air, claws raking at each other. Jacob! Get away from him!! I do not want to watch you get eaten! The lady dragon's thoughts screamed through him.

He arched backwards completing a spinning u-turn in moments. A ball of flame shot by him deflecting off a hastily errected mental shield and leaving him a little singed. I don't want to watch myself get eaten either. It would ruin my vacation plans, and after THIS vacation I'm definitely taking another one far from insane dragon lords but this dragon is MINE. Keep clear before you get hurt. He charged again screaming at the top of his lungs. If nothing else, this ought to be interesting, he thought to himself.

The sudden roar surprised him. Psly didn't think he'd come anywhere near hitting either dragon, but apparently, luck landed on him like he'd landed on that patch of dry road before. . .

But navigating the twisting turns of the path up the bluffs was no easy task, and he bent all his concentration towards it.

Finally, he'd judged himself high enough and slewed the motorcycle to a halt, engaging the recoil pylons once its motion ceased and extending the weapon from its compartment along the bike.

Like a good deal of his creations, the rifle was sleek, but in its own way, highly threatening. Snaking a cord from the rounded box atop the weapon, he winced as he inserted the plug into the receptacle behind his ear, engaging the sighting program.

Then he braced himself and lined up for the shot, attempting to calm his breathing as he looked through the enhanced optics at the battling dragons.

The only thought he had then was, which one to take down first?

The two dragons collided over head and Jacob charged again as Sai Jon launched into the air. He flew directly at the wrestling dragons, he'd only get one shot at this. Tass was so distracted he never noticed the human missile until Sai Jon collided with him slamming into his neck. Sai Jon wrapped his legs around the neck and grabbed the sides of the dragon's head. God, help this work. Sometimes the simple prayers were the best. Sai Jon openned himself to the power and poured it into Tass' body.

The sky lit up with a pure white light that enveloped the two figures. Muscles reknit themselves across Tass' frame. The rips in his wings mended and skin grew. On Tass' back the figure of Sai Jon was transformed. His skin had lost the scars and no cybernetics were visible, even his wings had taken on the appearance of snow white feathers. The light around them grew brighter until it was almost blinding. So this is what dying feels like, Sai Jon thought to himself as the corruption was leeched from Tass and into himself. The energies ate into him like acid for the soul. He dismissed thought, dismissed pain, dismissed survival and pulled the Annaran energies out of Tass. The healing accelerated again and again. And it was done. Sai Jon returned to himself. He fell from Tass' back like the last leaf of autumn. Just before he blacked out he wondered if he'd feel the ground when he hit.

The light that flared in his mind was blinding. The light that illuminated the night sky was nothing compared to that which shot through his thoughts.

He could feel the body? his body? stitching itself together? growing. So, Sai Jon had given himself to the power and healed him. This was a twist he was not expecting. It was a price he knew that would cost greatly. A price that would be paid in full.

He felt the excitement grow in the bloodspeaker as she felt each fiber grow and expand. She knew the time had finally come for her to touch the power of the dragon. It was a power she would not soon forget.

His eyes watched for but a moment, and he felt time slow to a near stop. Life was flooding into his body, and yet, before his eyes, he watched as a young blue had her life snuffed out by a shrieking bullet. He knew that those below knew nothing of what was going on, but it was a fight that they had not yet brought. Now they had, and in so doing, had mortally wounded one of his own?

Rage consumed him, then. The power that the bloodspeaker wanted was there. It had always been there, but now the floodgates had been opened. She would rue this day for the rest of hers.

Breaking all barriers that he had erected within his mind, he roared free, barreling though the outstretched hand which the bloodskeaker extended for the power. He drew on every ounce of the power that had laid dormant over the past few months, waiting for this one time to ignite and roar to life freely. His body erupted in white flames, dancing wildly and passionately over each newly formed scale.

He felt, no longer saw, the shock that the bloodspeaker showed as the power flooded over her. It was nothing that she had expected. It was what she sought. The power was too much to handle all at once.

Taking control of his body for the first time in ages, he twisted with the speed and grace of an eagle, and dove hard towards the ground. He would not let Sai Jon fall to his death. He still had a debt to pay, and he was damned if he was going to go find Sai Jon in some afterlife to pay it.

As he reached the ground, he let his wings expand, tearing into the buildings that surrouned him. The stone that passed around was nothing more than biting flies, used to help slow his decent. It was the sudden catch of the wind that broke the downward fall and brought him parallel with ground. He caught the falling body upon his shoulders, and caught up one of the many bodies which the bloodspeaker had discarded earlier.

With a powerful sweep of his wings, he sought altitude. His powerful beat brought him straight to the little lizard which had accompanied the one on his back, and he pulled his left wing in, pulling a barrel roll, and sending Sai Jon into Jacob''s arms. He stayed for just a second to make sure that Sai Jon had been caught and was secured before he once more took to the night sky, gaining height with each powerful beat of his wings.

He would be where none other would get hurt for what was to take place next?

She had slowed down, in preparation to head up the bluffs, when the explosion happened. A lightning bolt seemed to hit the place where Psly and his bike stood. Shard watched in horror as the bike exploded. She covered her eyes a moment against the glare, but quickly looked up again,
her natural night vision adjusting in time to see what appeared to be Psly becoming a shooting star.... into Battlefield Park.

Stopping the bike, she unharness herself, and took off at a dead run. Dodging trees at a good 30 miles per hour, she tracked Psly''s falling form, until it hit the trees.

She found him as fast as she could, his body laying practically curled around a tree, where he had landed. She knelt beside him, turning him over. The pixies on her chest ran about her flesh in a furor, crying, and tearing at their hair.

"Psly! Answer me! Please!"

He groaned, eyes flickering.

"Dammit!"

She examined him for cursory injuries, making sure that nothing major was broken, before lifting him easily, and slinging him over one shoulder. She started to run again, this time back into town, and towards Psly''s garage.

She burst through the garage door, and ran up the stairs, towards Psly''s bedroom, tripping over dirty clothes, and other assorted piled objects. She laid him carefully on his bed, and made for the bathroom, knocking everything out of his medicine cabinet as she looked for any sort of first aid kit. She found some grubby towels, and wet them down, and headed back into the bedroom.

Shard started to tenderly clean Psly up, dabbing at the blood to get a true indication of his wounds. As she was tending to a scratch behind his ear, she noticed that the area around his data jack was scorched.

Not good.

Jacob saw Sai Jon just before he collided with Tass and it was too late to do anything but watch as he grabbed on and the light dazzled him. He averted his eyes just in time to see something hit the lady dragon hard. She shuddered in mid-air and began to fall towards the streets below. A single cry shivered through his mind Jacob! The world seemed to move too slowly for him suddenly. He dropped out of the sky trying desperately to stop her fall, stop the ground from rising towards her.

She hit the street with a wet crunch and Jacob landed moments later. Someone had shot her and the impact had caused its own wounds. Blood pooled around her, he could feel the life flickering inside her and he reached out trying to keep her here. Sai Jon could help her, he had to. He had to hurry but if Jacob could just keep her here that long. It was like trying to restrain the tides with his hands. She was dying and he couldn't stop it. As she slipped away a single whisper hung in his mind, Byzannce........... my............. name......... was............... Byzannce. Jacob felt her go and the tears rolled down his scaled face.

When he thought about it later Jacob decided that he had only stood there for a few moments before the light suddenly snuffed out, it seemed much longer at the time. He looked up and saw Sai Jon falling, mimicing Byzannce. "NO!" Jacob screamed and launched into the air to save him but a healed a healed Tass swooped down catching Sai Jon on his back. He swept by Jacob rolling Sai Jon off and into Jacob's waiting arms and then continued off into the night.

Jacob slowly circled to the ground landing near his dead friend, Byzannce, her name was Byzannce. He thought to himself, Why did she go and die just when she stopped being rude? He sat down with a thud. The strength in his body was gone and he didn't know if it would ever come back. One friend dead. One friend dying. He could smell the Annaran corruption racing through Sai Jon's body. The dragon lord had better have been worth it. He lifted his head and screamed into the night sky. There were no words in the scream only loss and sorrow.

At that moment in I'Taurn, Saltera and Tobias looked up from their spell preparations. Something had happened. Something bad.

Righteous...

Death...

Silence...

am i dead?

Not yet but you seem determined to end our agreement.

muse?

Of course. Who else would vist you here. Even your dreams don't reach you here. You know you have to go back, you're not done yet.

i never wanted this. i just wanted to live out a normal life. in all the worlds though i've never seen that. i'm doomed to...what was that thing giles used to say...i'm doomed to live in interesting times...all of me. they're all me aren't they. all dead or dying. all silent. all death.

All Righteous. Though you never believe me when I tell you that. But you're stalling. You have to go back. The Dragon will need your help. The Nameless is using these invaders like so many before them. If they succeed there it will be almost impossible to stop them later. You know this. I know you will go back, just as you do. You can't do anything else no matter how much you like to think you could.

but i'm dying.

Always the excuses.

goodbye.

Never. Only until we next meet.

Death came with unexpected peace. Jacob had come, and then the blackness cloaked everything. Not so bad, really.

But just as blissful sleep came, lightening arced from the dragon''s body, back along the rockets contrail. Blue-white, it sizzled across the sky, exploding into a strange looking motorcycle, blowing it to smithereens. The ''elf'' that had been jacked into the vehicle was thrown high into the air.

Disorientation.

Shock.

ANGER!

All of these things were experienced, and then came the psionic cry of loss and sorrow from Jacob. That scream into the ether brought realization into focus.

This ''elf'' was the one who''d shot me!

Anger flared hotly in what remains of me. I could see my old body in a pool of blood with Jacob sitting beside me, holding Sai Jon, his friend, both of them coated in my blood as it pooled beneath my inert corpse, but here I was, locked into a foreign body, hurling through the air.

Realization that I was about to die again if we landed in Battlefield Park woke survival instincts, and in the ''elf''s'' mind I raged at him, talons digging into his body.

"BASTARD!"

He was as shocked as I. We are locked here together.

We hit hard around a tree, and I could hear a crowd gathering where Jacob and his friend were sitting. Then a shot gun blast ripped into the night.

Shortely thereafter, the oddest sensation was coupled with a brilliant blue glow where I had fallen. There was no pain, but a feeling of loss, diminishment ? and then soft words carried on a breeze ? "May the lord have mercy on your soul, friend dragon. May you rest and abide with him until time ends."

My broken body was gone.

Ashes upon the wind.

I retreated from the elf''s consciousness. Turning inward. What was I to do now?

JACOB!


The softest whisper, "I'm hungry for lamb... not that stuff you eat.... red blood, warm and fresh", the thought rippled through the elf's mind.

He growled back at my thoughts, "You got food just last fraggin' night!!
Do you got any fraggin' idea how hard it is t'sneak pas' someone sleepin' in yer doss??"

This reply was puzzling, "why sneak? We're hungry and need to eat". For me it is simple, I hunger, I eat.

He answered with a touch of impatience, "Because walkin' inta someone's field an' sayin' "'Ey, mind if'n Ah take a nice chomp outta one'a them thar walkin' lawnmowers'a yers?" Don' work."

Dismissive air to the thought, "who asks? Swoop in and take it."

He let his exasperation show, "Ah cain' fly!!!"

"Of course you can, I know someone who had artificial wings added to his physiology, wonderful things for dropping in for a midnight snack."

My thoughts and memories of my new found friend brought a hint of sadness ......

A long keening cry ripped through Pslyder's mind... "JACOB!"

I' Taurn seemed quiet and a bit subdued when I returned. I was told my guests had returned and had been asking for my presence upon arrival, but I'd already seen that from my time with Khirsah.

I headed for the third floor where my guests were housed, knocking lightly at Sai Jon's door. It was opened by the demon. "g'e'en Saltera, mayst Ah coome 'n?"

Saltera is a formidable creature, and having a demon in my home is a reminder of what awaits us in Tass' world. I am thankful this one is on our side.

He admitted me into the rooms, taking me to Sai Jon's side. He lay quietly, but they told me he had bouts of extreme restlessness. They had not been able to keep him lucid, and I could feel the curse seeking to destroy him, and it would given enough time. What I felt though, was not pure Annaran. The curse had been modified. Lethal, but modified.

I summoned my staff to me, the Annaran words bringing the Rouwanwood staff into my hands, but also triggering the onset of the restlessness. The curse had responded to my link to the dead Annaran legacy, and as I reached out to touch Sai Jon, images of deep pain, suffering, flooded into my thoughts.

I'd come to try to save the Guardian at Khirsah's direction - but this man held so many secrets, I may not be able to do as I was bidden by the Eldest.

Focus.

Focus on summoning the curse to me. The Annaran summons riffled into the night as my hand rested against Sai Jon's chest....

He continued to watch quietly. For a dragon his size, even transformed into that of the human form, he moved quietly and efficiently. He had watched as the young blue had been torn from the sky, and then as her body was sent to the winds.

Yet, something bothered him. He could still sense her.

He watched the man who had launched the projectile that had taken down the blue for days. He was changing? and one could not say that it would be for the better.

He would need to find the Lord and convey this information? if he could get past the rage that he felt within the Lord?

Alais felt the curse stir within Sai Jon. She felt his mind wandering in places she could only guess at, and she felt the lethal actions of the altered curse.

He'd changed it. Modified it, but it was still essentially the Annaran curse. It was burying deeply into the man, and would in time destroy him.

She called to the curse. It shifted, resisted.

She called more strongly. It resisted more strongly.

Gauging the resistance in slow increments, she let it go. She could force it to come to her, but it would tear the man to bits doing so, and she was not sent to kill Sai Jon. She'd been sent to heal him.

She lifted her hand from his chest, turning toward Saltera, "If I remove the curse, I will kill him. I cannot do that. We need him conscious though."

Kor Jon looked down into the canyon that used to be his home. He marveled at how little had changed in the two years he had been gone. The houses still seemed to be in good repair despite the fact that they looked to have become quite overgrown. He had expected more damage from the elements now that there was no one here to fix roofs and repair the walls and windows. Home, he thought to himself, I''ve finally come home. He looked out over the village and his eye was drawn to the large building in the center of the marketplace. The church still stood. His home still stood. Remember, a voice said in his head and then he dreamed.

He stands at the top of the canyon looking down at the busy streets. Children run down the stone paths that connect the houses and other buildings in a spiral that takes you slowly inward to the center of the town. The church stands there, the doors stand wide open and the sun reflects off of the steel cross that stands at the apex of the dome that tops the circular building. He watches the children play and knows that this may be the last time he looks down on his home. He had said his goodbyes to his father, his father had said nothing, and now he only waits for Alynne to come.

Blood so red. It splashes his face. Dripping.

Darkness. We can''t stop them. The pain, oh the pain.

His hand stops halfway to his face and he looks around confused. Then a pair of hands slip around his waist and he feels Alynne hug him close her body armor pressing against his back as she rests her chin on his shoulder. "Have you said your goodbyes Jon?" she asks quietly.

"Yes though father still doesn''t want me to go and Saltera can think of nothing but coming with me." He answers, he voice betraying his bitterness at his father''s refusal to give his blessing, "He says that I should stay here and continue my training with him."

"You will be the priest of our hold someday Rainne," she says quietly.

NOT MY NAME!

He shakes away the voice, "But how will I know what the warriors face if I do not see it for myself. I''m tired of staying at home to learn words when others go out to find glory in battle." He says vehemently.

Alynne''s face twists at the mention of glory in battle but she says nothing. After a moment she moves around in front of him, taking his hands in hers. "You are set on this course?" She asks, her face showing her concern.

Rainne almost gives in then but something in him rebels against the safe path, he always takes the safe path. "I need to do this Alynne. I need to see." She just looks at him for a second and then gives in. Come on then, the muster is in three days and it''s a long march. They turn and head out into the waste.

He''s floating in darkness. "I don''t want to see this!" He screams into the emptiness around him.

"Why not?" A voice asks. His father stands before him again. "It is your past Rainne."

"That''s not my name!" he shouts defiantly.

His father just smiles gently and asks, "Why do you fear it so Rainne?"

"That''s not my name father!"

"You have many names, and that is but one of them."

"Rainne is not my name. I am no longer Righteous. My name is Jon. My name is Death."

"And so you choose again, beware the third time." His father says quietly.

"I didn''t choose this life. I didn''t choose this pain. It was chosen for me by my God." He shoots back, but his father is gone.

"Those are dangerous words my friend" the voice of Giles says quietly. He spins around to see Giles sitting quietly at a small table. There is a second seat across from him in which sits Kor Rainne. Giles looks to Rainne, "If you wouldn''t mind sir, I''m slightly rusty." He says in a soft voice.

Rainne reaches out and takes a small roll from the table and holds it up in front of him and breaks it in half and then begins to speak, "On the night in which he was betrayed he took the bread and having blessed it he gave it to his disciples saying take and eat for this is my body given to you for the forgiveness of sins. As often as you eat it do so in remembrance of me." Rainne puts the bread down and picks up the china teapot. Rainne pours some into the teacup in front of him.

He finds himself speaking along as Rainne begins again, "After the supper he took the cup, and after blessing it, gave it to his disciples saying, take and drink for this is my blood shed for you and all people for the forgiveness of sins, do so as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." They speak the words together but only one voice is heard.

He shakes his head violently. "No! I am not going to honor a God that would do this to me! That would take my family from me. He didn''t listen then and he''s not listening now!"

Giles looks at him with the same expression that his father wore, "Then again you have chosen Death."

"I choose nothing. It was forced on me!" but again he is talking to empty air.

"The choice made there is still more to see." Rainne''s voice says from behind him. "Remember Death. Remember the canyon.

His screams are swallowed by the darkness.

Kor Jon stood half way down the stairs that had been cut into the wall of the canyon that held his home. He realized he had been walking as his mind was elsewhere, as if his body had just gone on autopilot taking him somewhere his conscious mind wasn''t aware of. The thought of his subconscious leading him anywhere sent a chill down his spine. He continued the walk down. The terraced walls of the canyons had been overrun with two years worth of unchecked plant growth and the roads looked a little overgrown as he got closer to the canyon floor. The canyon walls were a slightly off white color streaked with gray bars that ran horizontally around the canyon''s rim. The sun had risen far enough that it was just peaking over the top of the sheer wall that stood next to him. Step after step he made his way down, memories of happy days filling his mind. He could see Hall''s house, the roof of which he''d fallen off of when he was six years old, pretending he was a biker scout, his hoverbike had been a wooden stick with a carved control panel tied to the front. Hours upon hours he had spent playing on these streets as a child. Hidden from the kolds, hidden from the Way''s inquisitors too. Always in the back of his mind though lurked the memories of madness, of blood and pain as death wearing his face had stalked the streets of his home. I walked these stairs that day too. He didn''t want to remember.

As he stepped off the stairs he came alert, there was something coming towards him through the tall grass that now stood on either side of the path from the stairs to the center of town. Jon watched as the things wake moved through the grass steadily approaching him. He drew his pistols slowly, trying to move as little as possible before he knew what whatever was stalking him was. Just then the creature moved forward at a blinding pace, a white streak shot out hitting him full on before he could bring up his guard. He slammed backwards onto the ground knocking the breath from his lungs. He raced to bring his weapons to bear but suddenly stopped as he recognized the creature that was on his chest licking his face repeatedly.

Lying quite happily on top of his chest was a massive white great dane, its pink tongue lolling out to the side between slobbering strokes that set Jon to laughing despite himself. It was his dog, Angel. He had found Angel the same year that Tobias had been born. When he found him, the dog had been half dead on the wastes standing guard over his recently deceased master. It had taken four days before the dog had let him come close and then another two before he had been able to bury the soldier and say the required prayers. The dog had followed him home just in time for the birth of his son. He had named him Angel because he stood as a guardian over his master, a habit he had continued for Jon''s family. Tears rolled down from Jon''s eye as he ruffled Angel''s hair and scratched behind his ears. The dog responded by laying his head down on Jon''s chest and looking at him with his huge green eyes that looked so out of place on the dog.

"Good boy," Jon said as he gave the dog a big hug, "now get off me you walking flea circus." He rolled side ways dropping the dog on his side causing a mad scramble until Angel had regained his feet. The dog looked at him reproachfully. "Oh come on, I came here for a reason. I never thought I''d find you." He stroked Angel''s head slowly as he sat next to him.

A chill passed through him and Angel whimpered quietly as he stood. For a second he had felt a presence in his mind, as if someone was calling him. He shook it off and suddenly it felt like an icy hand had gripped the scruff of his neck. Remember. A now familiar voice said, and he dreamed.

He stands on the edge of a great cliff. He can hear a soft rhythmic beat on the wind. It sounds again and again getting closer, it is a gentle friendly sound but still he feels fear. He can feel beads of cold sweat rolling down the center of his back as he readies his rifle. The army is dug in around the canyon and they have to stop the swarm here.

Blood spatters from her throat. He carries her through the tunnels.

He glances next to him, checking on Alynne. She is breathing slowly, her eyes closed as she prepares herself for the coming conflict. He''s seen her fight like an avenging angel straight out of one his father''s stories. Her hair is pulled back and tucked into a tight bun at the back of her head and a collapsed force lance rests in her lap. She exudes an air of calm assurance that he knows he''ll never be able to match and he marvels at her. He says a quick prayer for their safety.

"Where is your God?"

Was that a voice? Great, now he is imagining things. He checks his rifle and crouches next to Alynne, staring into her face, memorizing every detail. As he stares her eyes open slowly and a grin appears on her face. "I love you." She whispers, and rises to her feet, extending her force lance to it''s full six foot length.

Suddenly a yell goes down the line. The rhythmic beat has grown louder and as one the army of Than looks out and sees the dark line cross the horizon. A line of Tharkoldu winging itself slowly, almost lazily, in their direction. Death on wings of pain, Rainne murmurs. Alynne looks to him with a worried expression on her face, "By the Lord, it's a swarm."

The first beams of light lance out from the defending forces, piercing the oncoming night, and the oncoming horde with the same efficiency and permanence. As soon as the light falls away another figure moves into the place in the advancing swarm of the creature that was felled. Then with a guttural cry the flying formation breaks and races at the defenders. As one again they open fire and suddenly the coming night is lit with the flares of lasers and the screams of the dead and dying. Several times demons land near him only to be dispatched by Alynne with cool efficiency that is almost frightening. In a sea of enraged fighters battling ferocious demons, she stands alone, motionless until the very last moment when she strikes out, crushing ribs, smashing arms and legs, and launching demons into each other as her lance, wielded as a staff spins in a deadly arc defending both herself and him. He prays quietly and from his hand a beam of pure white light flares forth disintegrating the nearest demon, he offers a quick prayer for its soul as he fires his rifle again and again.

The fighting goes on. Hour follows hour as wave after wave of the swarm smashes into the defenders, each time taking a few more. The dead lay among them, their wounds terrible to behold but there is no time to tend to them. "Let the dead tend to the dead." The passage flits through his face as he takes a moment to rest during a break in the assault. The soldiers are being pushed apart, broken into small groups so the demons can face them in single combat. He can see up and down the line of faces by the flashing lasers. We have to regroup. We have to get back before they pick us apart one at a time. The line moves backwards, lasers flashing through the predawn sky as the line of cyghouls advance. A light flashes and a searing pain shoots through his face. He drops into darkness again.

"Your God was there Rainne?where is he now?" His father''s voice rises out of the blackness that surrounds him.

"Why do you do this father, I''ve told you I can no longer be Rainne! I am Jon. My fate is sealed."

"Do you claim to know the mind of God Rainne?"

"I know what I have done, I know who I have become. I am Death."

"You have many names, and Rainne is but one of them. Do you choose this? Do you choose Death?"

Silence.

"I don''t want to."

"Then find your God."

Then he is somewhere new. In front of him is a mirror, he walks up to it and examines the surface. It doesn''t reflect anything though. What is this? Why can''t I see myself? He reaches out slowly and touches it. Spreading outward from where his finger touched, ripples like on a perfectly still lake move out revealing a young man in a long gray robe. He reaches up and touches his face and the image follows suit. He feels where his cybernetics are and he touches smooth skin.

When Kor Jon came back to himself his body was shaking uncontrollably. He reached up and felt the side of his face, the metal was still there; it was just another dream. A low whine came from his feet and Angel was laying there, his head cocked to the side. He forced a grin and she stood up and licked his face. "Shhh Angel, I'm ok. A few seconds again...it seemed like a lot longer." Another shudder went through his body. "I must be going nuts...but not yet, you'll keep me sane won't you boy? Just long enough to finish...just long enough to finish." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Lets finish this boy. I came back to say goodbye and I have a few more stops before the end...and not much time it seems." Kor Jon stood up slowly and looked around. He was standing at the bottom of a large canyon. There were houses towards the center of the canyon and a small forest farther down. The plants had run wild around the houses, ivy and other creepers had grown up the sides of the buildings that had fallen into disrepair.

Home.

Sai Jon sat up slowly and with Saltera's help, and managed to sit on the edge of the bed unsteadily. He was weak and hungrier than he could eve remember feeling but he was alive and he would be able to fight a little longer. "Where's Tass?" he asked as he steadied himself.

"Gone," Saltera rumbled, "he left as soon as you healed him and we haven't seen him since."

"We've got to find him and get moving. That army was almost ready to move and it's been weeks. Who knows what's been going since we've been gone." He looked up at Alais who was hovering near the door, "Good to see you not abducted by a possessed dragon. Anybody got something to eat? I'm starving."

Saltera smiled and headed for the door, "I'll see what I can scare up...I am speaking figuratively milady." He added as he passed Alais.

Sai Jon took a long slow breath and then stood unsteadily, "Are the wards still up? We need to get back and find out what's going on as quickly as we can. And where the hell is Tass?"

Saltera walked back in with a platter piled high with food. It looked like he had emptied the kitchens of anything that could remotely be labeled as food. Sai Jon grinned and sat down with the platter, immediately beginning to eat everything in sight. Saltera watched him for a moment smiling and then turned back to Alais. "Yes milady, what do you need?"

He stepped into the hallway, though the portal he had torn open, as Alais began her discussion with the tecno-demon. He stood there quietly listening to what she had to say. So, what I have been feeling is true. The war has begun. He continued to watch them a moment, though his thoughts were elsewhere. If the war has begun, at least the Manor will be safe, and thus Spike and Indigo.

He snapped out of his revive. He would be there soon enough to make sure for himself. He had been gone too long,? as Lord, as Protector? as husband and father.

He stepped away from the portal and sealed it tight. He had learned to check to make sure the portals were closed after the incident that had started all this. It would be a mistake that he would not make again.

He laid a hand on the door handle that lead to Sai Jon''s room. "He needs to know everything. He is now family."

With those words, he opened the door and walked in to the room, leaving Salterra and Alais gaping in the hall.

Sai Jon looked up from the half finished meal and was on his feet, pistol drawn, before he even thought about it. He moved towards the door slowly with his weapon raised. Something was coming, something powerful and filled with rage. He steadied himself for a moment and jerked the door open, his pistol training on the closest target. He stood there for a moment with the weapon sight framing an intense lavender eye and then slowly lowered the gun as he recognized the body attached to the eye. "Tass?"

His eyes never blinked as the weapon was leveled at them. The rage that roared within them would not allow it. Let him shoot. It would only enrage him more. He had seen the damage that such a weapon could do, many times. It was the first he had ever seen of one that could take down a dragon.

Finally, the weapon was lowered, but the rage that ran unchecked through his body was not.

"Tass?"

It was a question born of uncertainty. It was a just question. He had not been himself when Sai Jon had first come, nor had he been the previous times he has seen him. He was now.

"Yes, it is me. It is the true me. And it''s time we all had a talk. The war has begun."

He watched as Sai Jon staggered, and he too felt the pull of what was within him. He studied the man before him for a bit longer, then a crooked smile passed over his lips.

"Welcome to the family."

Then, he turned to Saltera. "No, the wards are not down, nor will I release them. If anything, I have made them stronger. But that does not stop me from entering, and with me, you."

His his gaze shifted then to rest on Alais, boring his lavender eyes into her. After a few moments, he had found what he was looking for. "You worry for my brother. Do not. I will deal with him when the time comes for it. Right now, he is doing what he needs to do. That is enough. Now, if you would, kindly explain to us what he has shown you so that the rest may know."

Sai Jon listened to Alais as she laid out the extent of the destruction that had befallen Tass' home. He tried to imagine the power it must have taken to subjugate an entire world of dragons and failed.

No matter where I go death follows.

Alais finished speaking but no one responded. It was as if to speak would make the horror real. He looked around the room at each of the others and let out a long sigh, "Salt, get Tobias and Jacob started gathering our gear. If there's anything else we need, go out and grab it quick." Saltera nodded and he turned to Tass, "Tass, how soon can you take us back to the Isles?"

"As soon as you are prepared and ready." Tass responded.

"Good, we'll be ready within the hour." Sai Jon said and Saltera moved out quickly. Sai Jon stepped over in front of Alais, "Sorrow comes later milady. You didn't do this, they did. Right now you need to remember that and find the anger that comes with it. You'll need it." He reached out and squeezed her shoulder and began to gather up his weapons and gear. His vacation was officially over.

Sai Jon looked at his family as strange as it was. They had all gathered and were waiting for Tass and Alais in the entrance hall of I'Taurn. Jacob had come in from somewhere in a rush, he wouldn't say what he'd been doing. He had been disappearing to somewhere all week but he wouldn't say where. He would tell Jon what was going on when it became necessary. Saltera was standing quietly and Tobias was sitting at the bottom of the stairs both lost in their own thoughts.

Sai Jon had seen this before on many worlds. They would spend years preparing worlds to defend themselves from invading high lords but more often than not it all ended in battle. They would walk into a hopeless situation and so far they had all walked, or at least limped, out again. But for how much longer? The Muse protected them all from time but the odds kept getting worse. Was this the last time he'd stand here?

He felt Tass before he saw him. Sai Jon felt a wave of nausea in his gut and pain lanced through his biological hand. He looked down as what appeared to be black scales faded back into his skin. This was getting to be very weird and he'd had way too much weird in his life. He looked back at Tass who regarded him with a knowing half-smile. Before he could question Tass, Alais came gliding down the stairs and suddenly he realized it was time.

Jacob, Saltera and Tobias gathered around him, armed and waiting. Sai Jon sighed. Once more into the breach. He looked up at Tass, "Master Momus, take us to war."

He finally turned his attention away from Sai Jon. He could feel it as well. The time would come when they would need to discuss what was happening, and the implications of it. But now was not the time.

His gaze came to rest upon Alais as she descended the stairs with her automation. His eyes scanned her quickly, and found the gun which she clutched tightly. She would need all the help which she could muster. Including Ulysses.

His gaze shifted around the group that has assembled. There was still one missing which he knew to be crucial in this war, but he would come in his own time.

"Mr. Momus, take us to war."

Sai Jon had no idea.

Carefully, he wove the pattern that was needed to bend the reality to him, first protruding the barrier that encompassed the entire set of Isle''s, then the one that encompassed his home. Then, turning, he nodded, and stepped through, leading them to the Manor.

Once through, he quickly and tightly sealed and tied off each barrier; first the Manor''s then the Isle''s. He would not allow another in or out of this world. What ever was to happen, it would stop here.

It was only a matter of moments of his arrival that Phal, his wife''s dragon, found him and began to flash the images through his mind. As the small dragon continued, and finally finished, Tass''s face grew paler and calmer with each passing moment.

Then the world around him exploded. Rage ripped through him. His body tore apart, leaving the tattered remains of his clothing behind as his dragon-side emerged. Each shining and brandished green scale dimmed, and the golden wings blackened with his rage.

It was Sai Jon who recovered first. His question came softly. He knew this kind of pain. "What has happened?"

Tass'' voice was soft and pain filled. It, too, was laced with rage and insanity. "They have taken them."


(Cross posted and thread continuing in the EI: War of Ages)