So we could do nothing but wait, and wait we did. We wandered the town, found our way back to the historian to get out books back and see if he could offer us anything more. We got the books but no more information, which was okay, because I didn’t figure by this point that anything else we found out would make a huge difference, anyway. I could feel the climax of this story coming, the end of the dream. I think we all could.

Afterwards we headed back to Feldon’s grave at Ann’s whim, to see if anything had changed. At first glance, nothing had, but as we approched, I quickly became aware of a murmuring in the back of my mind. I stopped, not so much alarmed as wary. I’ve gotten disturbingly used to voices in my head. I informed the pair behind me and continued forward, slowly. The murmuring grew louder, though still indistingushable, until I placed my hand on the center rock.

Then I heard, clearly, rest in peace.

I gasped and pulled away, feeling a chill up my spine. It wasn’t fear, exactly; but it certianly
spooked me right the fuck out. Ann apparently was feeling a pulse, nearly a force, that also grew stronger as she neared the center rock. And she quickly became aware of what it was; a heartbeat. She was feeling a heartbeat pulsing from this rock.

It stopped when she touched it.

We decided that my approching with my own half of what we pressumed to be Danel was a good idea. When I did, though, I realized that I no longer heard whispering. Now I heard weeping.

It stopped when I touched the rock.

We glanced at each other, then by mutual agreement pressed our little stones to the rock.
Nothing happened, even though we were all tense, breath held. We were expecting the world to blow up and I think decently surprised when it didn’t.

The only thing that happened occurred when we pulled back, the earth rummbling and shifting back and forth a bit under our feet. We glanced uncertianly at each other and decided it might be a wise idea to head back and leave well enough alone.

As we headed out of the area, though, Ann suddanly stopped, hand at her chest. Before I could ask if she was alright, I felt a fine, sharp pain in my mind, and then, just as fast, it was gone and I was fine.

We glanced at each other again, nervouse and fearful.

The rest of the wait was uneventful once more, until more of our beardless dwarf friends appered at last to tell us it was time to try and fix what had been done to that amulet. We explained to Jhonna- who was with them- what we had done ealier, and she didn’t seem upset by it. We arrived back at Feldon’s grave, and the drawves- close enough, anyway- began doing what they needed to do, Jhonna timidly holding the amulet to allow them access.

Everything was going well, which made me edgy. Things were not this easy, not for us, not ever.

Sure enough, we had all forgotten about two very important things- the child's toy and necklace we'd gotten from Moon Point. We should have known better then to leave them with Jhonna, known better then to expect them to be innocent momentos of something tragic.

Black tendrils started to emerge from the necklace. The phsyonisics around Jhonna went to work trying to stop them, but seemed unable to have much effect; after a moment, in mututal agreement, I went after the pouch on Jhonna's hip in an attempt to hack it off with the toy inside. I dove forward and nearly cut it free, and then Meyone followed up after me. We sliced it almost all the way off before, abruptly, everything stopped as a slender door in the air opened, and once again Sonya stepped through.

She confronted Ann about the jewel, which had been dropped in the chaos and Ann had picked up. nce again, Ann refused to give it to her. Sonya nodded, as if accepting this, and then just- stood back to watch. It was clear to me she was waiting, but for what?

We found out pretty fast. The group began trying to cleanse the nightmare from the amulet once more, and they did it, alright- they brought that old, angry, powerful, trapped nightmare right out into the open. And then they keeled over unconciouse, all of them. And Meyone just- vanished. His jewl hit the earth soundlessly, and it was only Jules, Ann, and I left standing. The nightmare began to walk towards us, slowly, and Jules demanded that Sonya stop it. She told us she couldn't- no one could, now- and slipped away back into her door.

That left us to deal with the nightmare alone, which left us all frozen for a moment. We knew we couldn't fight that thing and win. Not the traditional way, anyway. Ann dove for the amulet, but it was an aborted attempt and she went for her bow instead. Next Jules went for Meyone's crystal and, predicatbly, put himself between the unconciouse Jhonna and the nightmare. He began to fight off the creature, maybe trying to actually beat it, maybe trying to stall, but whatever he was doing was lost to me as I heard a familer voice in my head say now. Now!

I dug into my pack and pulled out what we assumed was the peice of Danel that was logic, and it began to glow, as did Meyone's crystal. And from Meyone crystal, we suddanly got a series of flashbacks; a couple Ann and I were presant for, a couple we weren't. The end scene was one we'd just witnessed; Sonya slipping away into her little exit in the air, telling us there was no way to end this now. But as the scene played out, suddanly, it re-wound and started again in slow motion, and just before the door shut, Sonya winked.

And then the blow-by ended.

We stood for a moment like confused sheep before the action began again, Jules attacking once more and my making my own way over to the amulet, my part of Danel having gone quiet. She was trying to break the stone, it seemed, attacking it with one shot after another, and I bent to pick it up. For a moment, I was terrified to touch it, terrified of what would happen if I picked it up. Then, I felt utterly calm, as logic took over my fear. Fear was just an emotion; it couldn't hurt me, it was no threat to me.

Eerily similar to my earlier thoughts; it was just fear, and it could not control me. I bent and picked up the amulet just as Jules threw Meyone, in his now-amulet form, down the nightmare's throat. Ann shot at the nightmare but it still did nothing, and as holding the two jewls together had no effect I set them both back down and attacked the amulet myself.

Ann's next shot, though, was what tore the thing in two. With the shattering of the amulet the nightmare dissapered, but Sonya reappered. And she wasn't alone. Our part got larger with the reapperance also of the Ghost Lord and Talia, and, with a motion of the man's hand Draughty appered, too, a shifting, oozing mass of black snot that was throwing a fit inside an invisible cage, like a bug caught under a glass.

Some arguing and talking commenced, but what it boiled down to was that Sonya no longer seemed to be under evil's influance, Draughty was pinned like a butterfly, Jhonna and the others were alive and the nightmare was gone. The lord demanded that the dark, shifting form in his invisi-box hand over the third peice we needed, and he gave us the stone eye, which split open to reveal the last peice of Danil.

The mood remained solom and cool as I collected the broken amulet and Sonya approched me. She said, almost gently; 'I can fix that'.

I was getting no cues from Ann, though some part of me trusted Sonya, now. I started to protest, just to see, and Ann stopped me. Sonya herself said she understood my lack of confidence, and she was sorry. I handed over the crystal, after only a moment's more pause. If she'd wanted me dead, she could have killed me when I was out cold. That was a big part of my decision.

She took it, she fixed it; and then she feel, not breathing, not moving. She died. That took me aback rather sigificently; though I think I half expected it. Maybe we all half expected it. But the end result was that the three parts of the whole began to spin once more and again put themselves together, along with what we had stupidly and without checking assumed was the ring of salt around Fera. It wasn't salt- it was little peices of the same item in the amulet, in my pocket, in the stone eye.

And, swiriling, spinning, it began to form a shap. Even Meyone's jewl was tugged into the mess, and then it stopped, revealing the shape of what may have been a man; it had a torsoe, and head with two eyes and a jewl in it's forehead, with legs and arms but no hands or feet, hovering. And, no surprise to Ann or I, it said,

'I have returned- Danel.'

Danel didn't so much as thank us. He started to- hover- off to the west before any of us could think of anything to say, gaping like slack-jawed fools, so utterly stunned by this that words wouldn't come. Finally, the Lord spoke up, demanding to know if 'that was it'. Danel seemed- confused, for a moment, then said yes, we'd put him back togther again, that was it. Ann told him we had a request, and he practically scoffed at us. He told us we and our desires weren't worth his time, pretty much, and that he had much to do. He seemed obsessed with 'keeping the balance'. Dispite Jules's demand that he'd lost his daughter, that we'd gone through hell to bring him back and deserved something for compensation, he refused. He did say he was not without compassion, and turned Sonya into a jem, so that Jules could keep her with him.

I don't know what I said then. I asked him what about the desires of someone more important then us, I remember that, and he said he saw no one. The rest of it I just babbled out, improvising as best I could; I don't remember most of what I said. Something about Ivy needing help keeping the balance and as much as I felt safe revealing about Talron and Nabudel, and the situation. He was quiet for a long time, and at last said that if he felt it did indeed keep the balance, he would become involved. He started to hover away again when Ann asked about returning the Lord of the Land's body to him. Danel said an even trade would be needed; a body for a body. One of us would have to give ours for the Lord of the Land to get his own back. Of course, the answer to that was a 'no'.

Once again, Danel tried to leave, and once again we stopped him. Ann wanted Meyone back. Danel demanded, once again, equal trade; Meyone was a peice of his leg, and he wanted one of her fingers. To my amusment, she put up such a fuss that he changed his mind and offered a truly fair exchange- a peice of her own leg for his. She still fussed and grunted but at last allowed for the trade and then Danel started away again.

Until the Lord of the Land started forward in what almost seemed to be desperation and blurted that he would trade his power for his body.

I hadn't realized how desperate he'd been.

The deal was accepted and the trade was made, and finally Danel made good his escape. I'm not sure why I didn't think to ask about retrviving my memories from him, but then, who knew what he'd want in return for that.

After he left, there was nothing to do but go home. The adventure was over; the journey done. I felt strangly hollow; I was happy to be going home but at the same time bitter-sweet and lost as nothing had ended the way it should have. Draughty- Drauthy had been 'balanced', not killed, apperantly but punished for not keeping the balance; Danel was not how Danel had once been but a broken, flawed version; Sonya was dead, Jules was being hunted, Jhonna was alive but alone, and Fera would be abandoned to re-populate the safer Avendale, which was not safe at all, really. There was a new power in Avendale, a vampiric one, and that....creature....still lived there.

The Lord of the Land and Tallia were going to the elven lands, to try and find what they needed there. Jules and Meyone came with us to our two keeps, and Ann informed Meyone, apperantly, of what she'd done to get him back (yes, he came back, body and all) because suddanly he was her puppy dog. He was always just one step behind her, a devoted companion and bodygaurd.

Oh, this is gonna be fun.

Upon returning to Sholewater, though, we got a rather nasty jolt.

The Citadel's influance was huge here, their colors and flags just about anywhere you turned. I felt my stomach twist into sick knots looking at it, and Ann didn't seem thrilled, either. We disembarked and said our goodbyes, then headed inside. We were instantly assaulted by the same man who handled finacial affairs and such in the castle, who rattled off reports in our ears; then gently and with honesty told us it was good to see us back again.

Ann also got scurried off to see to someone. I didn't know who, really, but apperantly I'd met her once, and she told me to find a way to meet with Ivy. Like I had to 'find a way'. But it did let me slip through to see Talron for a bit, so I wasn't bitching. Jules went to find a place to get a drink, Ann went to take care of her business with Meyone in tow, and I headed through to Befrengaurd.

There was very little if any influance of the citadel here, and I released a relived breath. There was, however, a lot of Talron's influance; his men, his colors, and so on and so forth. Along side of that, there were many, many of his interesting little friends wandering about. Races I'd seen before and some I hadn't. None of them surprised me, really.

I was greeted by the same of Talron's men that usually did so, breifed on everything that had happened, told that the races here were trying to form a sort of peace amoung themselves but needed Talron back. He'd been gone two weeks, meeting with the Empress in the city. No one was sure when he'd return. He did leave me a note, though, that later turned out to be nothing useful, but quiet fun to read none the less. It felt- odd, reciving a letter that was nothing more then mush and affection from him. Now that the attraction was in the open, I wasn't sure what steps to take, and dispite the fact that I was so determined to say I'd made my choice, I could stop thinking how wrong it was. How horrible a person I am.

And yet I couldn't stop smiling as I read his letter.

Before I even opened it, though, I'd been sent to the cathedrial to met with one of Talron's old friends, who was, apperantly, meant to keep an eye on us. And things. He was a cleric, a man named Alaric who was exceedingly formal and stiff; but quite a bit like Talron in a way. He seemed like the kind of man who would call Talron 'friend'; he had a stern sort of gentleness and was mild and polite. He had also, apperantly, met Garnar, and was- concerned- about him.

Had he been anyone else from anywhere else, I may have had reservations about the man, but he was Talron's, and therefore, in my mind, fine. Worth caution for a while, of course, but likely no threat. I greeted him and we spoke for a while, before I leaft and read my letter. Then Ann returned, knocking lightly at my door. I let her in and she explained that that woman who's life she'd saved a while back and who's baby she'd spoken to quietly in elvish had some- troubles- and that the woman would be staying here for a while, protected. I had no idea what she'd done, but whatever it was had drawn some latent elven features out in a child who's mother was apperantly half-elven, and who's father disliked the race.

I brought her to Alaric, who she'd been told about, and the meeting went well. We brought him down to Garninar to assess what damage he'd done, but apperantly he'd only made things better, not worse; and then we decided to bring him with us to met Ivy and King. May as well have him meet them on our watch, rather then by accident.

We brought him into the woods that night (after reciving word from Simon that he was paniced, hiding, angry, and scared, and that he generally hated us and wished he'd never agreed to work for us, summed up) and I guess I really, really wasn't thinking when I dragged a cleric in behind Ann and I to find a werewolf and a vampire. King appered, alright, but he was not a happy puppy, and looked half ready to pounce on and kill our newfound friend then and there.

I still wasn't afraid. King just plan does not scare me; I don't think he ever will. I know, rationally, I should be afraid of him. He could kill me without so much as an effort. But I don't think he will, that's the thing. So I put myself without hesitation between Talron's friend and King, and told King to calm himself right down; it was fine, he was Talron's. King snarled and growled but didn't attack, as I'd guessed he wouldn't. He was not as he usually was though; he barely said two words to us, and was clearly pissed off.

Ivy, too, when we got to her via the same route we'd taken before, was cold and irritated. It only got worse as we'd told her what happened, and soon she was as snipy and grumbly as King. If I'd been less worried over Talron and more frightened of this pair the way I should be, I would have been truely afraid of the shards of ice that seemed to fill the air around her. She bristled and hissed like a wet cat, although she did take better to Talron's companion's pressance then King had.

Usually I would have spoken to King, or spent a moment or two making sure he and Ivy were doing well- at least attempted to- but I highly doubted that was a good idea at the moment. As not afraid as I might be, I'm also not stupid, usually. King dropped us back off in the woods outside of Befrengaurd keep, and went as quickly as he came, anyway. We were headed back to the keep when Ann suddanly went all alert in the way she did when we were being watched, when she'd seen something that wasn't nessicarily supposed to be there.

To our relive, it turned out only to be Dagon. He looked; differant, but good differant. His eyes were gold and his skin carried a faint gold tinge to it. We greeted him and he us with the usual amount of not-quite-warmth Dagon possessed, telling us he'd never really left and informing me that he'd not seen the man in black around at all. He did phrase it as 'that person', though, and was very careful with his wording as I asked him more about it, until it at last came out that he was wary of King. Apperantly my furry friend had been hanging around, and had a disturbing resemblance to the one that had attacked Dagon so many weeks before, sent Dagon off to- wherever he'd gone, or not gone.

I informed him that, to me, anyway, King was nothing to worry about, no enemy of mine. Dagon accepted that, and greeted our newest member easily, though he didn't so much as acknowledge Meyone. After he'd gone and we were heading back, Meyone said it was because Dagon hadn't seen him. There were a number of reasons why that could be, and not knowing exactly what Dagon was, nobody got overly concerned. Everyone else could, apperantly, see Meyone fine, and that meant it was likely just whatever Dagon was that prevented his seeing Ann's not-so-little-shadow.

Who, by the way, had been told to take care of Ann by Ivy..... once again, this will be fun.

And so yet another chapter has been finished. We're home, we're safe-for now- and it seems that while a lot has changed, a lot has stayed exactly the same. We need to rest a while, and then our peace will end once more. Ann's airship crew is here and she will have us flying after Sparrow in no time at all. I wonder how much time will pass this time before we see home again, if in fact we get back alive at all, though dying is not something I like to think about. Besides that, I have my father to try and find, and do any more digging on myself I can. I passed up many opertunites on that island to do so for a few differant reasons, but now that I'm back on familer ground I feel comfortable prying around a little again.

So if this chapter of the book is closed, why do I still have that weird feeling of waiting, like something very big and possibly very bad is just about to happen? Like we're still right in the middle of water too deep to swim in? Maybe 'cause it is, and we are.

Ah, well.

We can't catch a break. Not ever, not once in our entire fucking lives.

Butterflies. Those beautiful little blue butterflies we saw swarming in the woods around Carolyn. But now they were on fire. And how the fuck do you fight off burning butterflies? You don't, that's what, and instead you yell at each other while the skin is scalded off your bones until two of you finally remember that, oh, duh, there's a phsy crystal in Semie's pack, maybe just maybe we should use it on the butterflies that can't be real.

By the time I'd yanked it out and started trying to figure out what to do with it, we were pretty badly burned. So I did the only thing that made sense- I tried to ask it to help us.

Total blank out for I'm guessing a good several minutes. It was that kind of blankness where you know the answer to a question, it's right there on the tip of your tounge-

-and then Meyone touched me, and I jerked out of it. Ann and Meyone both looked a little shell shocked, and it took them a good couple moments to explain everything that had happened. And forget shell shocked, when I heard it I was freaked right the fuck out. Apperantly the butterflies were gone because Feldon had reappered and made them go 'poof', all the while reaching for the thing I held in my fist. Or me. I feel better saying he wanted my pretty shiney rock, though.

He'd done the typical roaring about 'the stone eye', apperantly, but the whole time been fighting off some force that was pulling him back and away; eventually, it apperantly did pull him away. Meyone told us that something had been differant, though he couldn't put his finger on what; something besides the force trying to rip Feldon apart, it seemed.

As Meyone pondered and Ann and I tried to figure out what step two was supposed to be, Carolyn suddanly appered from the woods, looking, again, mostly like a little girl but with that horse very near her still. It watched protectivly as she came running up to us and asked, as any sane person would, what had just happened. She had apperantly 'felt' Feldon come and go, like a ripple in the earth (disturbingly similar to what Drauthy might feel, I assume) and thought she heard Feldon's voice.

Of course, that wasn't the only reason she came. She'd been thinking, apperantly, and reitterated for us that it couldn't have been her nightmare that attacked the town because her nightmare wasn't a real nightmare. After some discussion, we came to the conclusion that the thing in Jhonna's amulet wasn't Catalina- it was a nightmare. A nightmare that had not been defeated by the amulet but instead basically absorbed by it. That nightmare was probably awfully pissed; and incredibly strong, given all this time to gather itself.

It was only after Carolyn leaft that Meyone suddanly barked out that Feldon hadn't said 'find the stone eye'. He'd left out the 'find' part.

We had the thought, at that point, to bring this little shiney to Jhonna and see what, if anything, happened. We had the typical worries; what if Sonya was our enemy, causing all this bad shit to happen, as we'd been concerned about in the past; what happened if we fucked everything up by doing this? We didn't know what could happen or what we might cause.

We decided to do it anyway. We brought this to Jhonna the next day, even though Ann was acting- completly off kilter, the way she had when she'd failed her oath using that damn bow of hers. I poked at her a little, but we didn't have much time before we were approched by gaurds and told that Jhonna was wanting to see us. We were brought back into Jhonna's home, where she stood, looking beautiful and more alive then she had in days. She greeted us warmly enough, only dissapointed that we didn't have more to offer her. I hesitated before telling her otherwise, and Ann finally spoke up, informing us that she had seen it fail i nher dreams.

But she also reminded me that she wasn't supposed to dream.

She left it up to me, in the end, and I handed over our last chance, last hope. She took it from me, and then promptly asked if something was supposed to happen.

How anti-climatic.

At least, until suddanly she informed us that she understood, and apperantly more happened then we were at all knowledgeable of because she told Jules to take off the amulet. After a few assurances from us, he did so, and the tension in the air was palpable. But when he took it off-

-nothing happened. For a second it looked as though that may have been a mistake, but then Jhonna was alright, and rounding on Sonya.

She demanded to know why Sonya had done what she had done, confirming our suspicions that she was a villin in all this mess. Sonya only laughed at and mocked us, then opened that door in the air again to let something else start to come into the room. For a second it seemed nearly everyone was frozen but, amusingly enough, myself. I did all I could think of to do. Mentally and physically, I screamed about now being a good time for some help, and dove forward towards Jules, snatching the amulet from him.

And then a bunch of things happened in very, very quick sucession.

The first was all mental. I could hear voices, thoughts, words, ideas, that weren't at all my own, that soothed me somehow none the less. And for some reason, part of those thoughts seemed- personal, in a way. They said things like, wasn't this how it was supposed to be? That stands out the clearest in my memory.

But also, I could sense that nightmare, feel it, an overpowering, overwhelming pressance in the amulet, holding the woman who'd worn it in the past all prisoner in there. Hundered years plus of power, all held together in this little necklace and all ready to blow.

Damn.

The next thing that happened was rather a blurr, but it ended in the familer, defiant cry of a girl and then Carolyn was there- Carolyn in all her firey old goodness. She caught just about everything on fire, singed us, and chased Sonya and that thing back. It melted the chain of the amulet and the thing hit the ground with a soft chime.

She looked downright embaressed for a second, and turned as if to apoologize as her flames went out again. Then, suddanly, she just- fell. Toppled forward and landed inches from the amulet. She stretched out her hand and whispered for her mother, and then, like that, was gone.

The nightmare was gone, too, after a mournful whinny.

There was a pause, a solom, helpless silence as we all realized just how deep in we'd become. Jhonna had relised my little friend ealier, apperantly, because it was on the floor now, too, and both the amulet and it began to spin madly. We all fell into typical position; some of us taking an instinctive protective stance more in front, others just behind, ready and wary. The two halves of a whole actually lifted into the air and formed a triangle from each other out, but there was clearly a peice missing- the last peice.

You guessed it, sweet, the stone eye. That was our mysteriouse stone eye.

And we thought it was a person.

Jhonna gathered herself after a few moments and we discussed what needed to be done, before Ann, Meyone, Jules and I decided to head for Avendale and see into bringing the stone eye back. Ann instisted on going to our little girl's woods to see if we could perhaps make use of the not- really-so-much-horses we'd used the services of before, but she and her nightmare seemed to be well and truely out of the picture, at least for the moment.

So it was on foot, halfway through the day, that we rather stupidly left. Of course we didn't even make it to the half-way point before night fell, and though we could have pushed on, we decided it was better to rest rather then be exhausted if something happened the next day.

Bad choice.

I can't tell you exactly what happened, as I was asleep for it. But I do know that, not for the first and probably not the last time in my life, I remember pain, lots of it in large quantities, and then.... nothing else for a long time.

Next thing I remember I'm waking up in a clearing of sorts, surrounded by people and stones. I felt better, and apperantly I wasn't the only one that had been knocked for a loop, because Jules was shuffling around beside me, and there was evidence that we'd both been towed here. I wasn't sure what happened, but Ann and Meyone filled me in on the details. Although, amusingly, it was Meyone and not Ann who told me that I'd been dropped some feet from the air in Sonya's hissy fit.

I was irritated but far from surprised. Besides, I understood why Ann had refused to give up the amulet, and I was alive, if bruised. So it was all alright, for the moment. Anyway, I had no time to dwell. Ann seemed to think there was a door to Sanctuary through this place somehow, and wanted help trying to find it. We looked until we growled in frustration, but found not a hint of a door. At last I pulled out my Pretty-Shiny-Danel-Rock and tried, as I'd tried so many times before, to talk to it. I practically begged it to help us, and, to my amazment, it relucatantly agreed. It only really offered yes or no answers, not speaking in very many full sentances expect to express annoyance or to insult me.

It had not been like this before. It had been calm, almost gentle, a mild and paitient voice that spoke up when it chose to. This voice, though, was all attitude, impaitence, rude, annoyed and clipped. It was agressive and bitchy to listen to, and it decided that playing a fake game of hot and cold with me might be funny.

It had me frustrated to the point of tears when Ann suggested I close my eyes and just focuse, think logically about the situation and stop chasing my own tail and berating myself.

The instant I closed my eyes I could see, and the oh well fucking duh hit me hard enough to take the wind out of me.

In the back of my mind, I heard slow, sarcastic applause. Bitchy damn fucking thing.

That coffin. In the coffin in Avendale, I'd had my eyes shut but been able to see perfectly, and completly, in the chaos after, forgotten about it. Now I had the same thing occuring, and could see what I needed to do to open the door.

I walked forward to the obviouse spot in the middle of the area, and place my hand on yet another shiny that was there. A door slid open in the ground a few steps away, and I grinned sheepishly. I felt like an idiot, and said so.

My pretty rock informed me I was not. I was surprised by that, to say the least. It wasn't a total asshole, then.

We went down into the doorway and were greeted by a creature that spoke druidic (for once in my life, I can say, my Kingdom for Illoria!) but soon realized we, y'know, couldn't, and switched over to a rough common. It lead us through a doorway when I told it what we wanted, and we saw to our dismay, once inside-

-one of the same tables we'd seen before, the tables that had a direct link to the portals we used and then some. Ann launched into a barage of questions about it and the portals, answered to the best of these rock creature's abilities- there were two more in there- and I listened and didn't add much. I wasn't sure what Ann was trying to get at with her line of questioning and I wasn't, also, entirely sure I wanted to know.

At last she stopped, and not long after our beardless friends showed up. They told us they couldn't bring us back, as their home had fallen under unwanted attention since the last time, but they did, of course, want to help. We explained we thought that the stone eye might be in their home, and with some quick mental exploring they told us our thoughts were wrong; the stone eye, they'd always assumed, was with Tallia. Yes, it had been part of the culture for a long time. No, they did not have it, and it was not hiding itself with them.

Ann mentioned the nightmare in the stone, and this changed things drastically. No longer was the goal 'get the stones together', it was now, 'cleanse the amulet then get the stones together'. But they needed a way to do so. Ann suggested perhaps requesing help from the Lord of the Land, which did not make the beardless ones very happy, but they had no better ideas. And all we could do was wait and see if he helped. They told us to go back to Fera, which was safest for now, and wait there. They'd get us home, at least. Ann asked, and they provided transportation.

Transportation turned out to be something that looked like a dragon made of air. It was a beautiful creature, not really frightening at all. In fact, it reminded me rather of a very, very large pet. It seemed more then friendly and happy and Jules did not seem surprised or displeased for it to be there. Ann, Meyone and I scrambled aboard- Jules mounted smoothly and with clear ease.

Yeah, he'd done that before.

Our ride home was uneventful; for once, we did not get attacked by anything, nor did we get attacked once we got back. We dismounted and Ann offered the creature a touch in thanks, though her fingers barely connected before it was off again. Jules told us it was called a method.

Apperantly, he'd been around them before.

Jules had also, before we left that underground place, told us he had some concerns that needed addressing once we got back. We were back now, and wanted them addressed. He took a deep breath and launched into it.

He explained more to us about himself and, consequently, his fears about General Kale. The dark rider, remember him? Yeah, you remember him. How could anyone forget?

Anyway, not only was Jules worried about the man returning, but he'd seen those tables before; those tables that connected to the portals. Some people in his army had used them, and not for the best of intintions nessicarily, either. Also, they had used the things and creatures associated with it to make the strange armour- that wasn't really amour but a lot more- that we'd seen Kale wearing. It was what, apperantly, gave him the ability to alter his form, and not, apperantly, fully die. We discussed it at further length, and Jules admited he was fairly certian that the rider was an elf who hated elves. Exiled, perhaps, or some such.

He was, in truth, the least of our worries. Although the table thing purturbed Ann and,to a much lesser degree, myself, we had too much on our plate as it was. There was nothing we could do about the rider, the tables, Jules's past exploits, or our portals- any portals- right now.

We couldn't do anything right now, in fact, but sit tight.

So tight we sat, until the climax of this insane, horrible adventure finally came.