So, we're safly on the airship. We're all breathing a little hard, we're all a little freaked out at the sheer numbers we almost had to face. And then Meyone rounds on me. This isn't unusual, frankly, and I listen with a sneer as he rants. Then I take my turn; this is how it is between us, this hot back-and-forth bickering. I apprecaite Meyone, really, I do. He is clearly good for Ann; I've never seen her so level headed, so calm, so elven, so utterly balanced since he came into her life. And frankly, he's fun; he gives me someone to irriate and annoy, someone I can pick at and on. I don't dislike Meyone, I just like annoying him. And sometimes, yes, we get incredibly on one another's nerves. I snarled at him about playing people like fiddles, and he snarled at me about using my brains and not even considering doing something as foul as turning someone. Then he went below deck to sketch some of the Were he said he'd seen.

The rest of us stood around discussing what to do next. We decided that we needed to talk to the gravekeeper, and see if perhaps he and his ghosts had any answers for us; also, the tall man and Mogli might be able to point us in the right direction, too. Also, Ann and Alaric decided they needed to 'test' on a were, any Were, to see if we could discover what their new weaknesses were. Are. Even being Were, the thought of torturing someone makes my stomach get a little queasy, but so long as I didn't have to watch.

Ann went down after Meyone, to see if she recognized any of his sketches; I have a feeling it was a bit more then that, too, after my artificer friend has wanted to buy Meyone. Reffered to him as an 'it'.

She came back a few moments later and talk continued; then she wanted to send me down there, too, to check out the drawings. My immediate response was a flat out 'no'; I didn't want to deal with Meyone one on one- whenever that happens, one of us usually ends up ready to kill the other. But she pressed, and she had a good point.

Besides, she said, I could tell Meyone about her and Alaric's little plan. I know she caught my grin.

So down I went. I knocked, checked the drawings and saw no one I knew. I told him about Ann and Alaric's plan, and was halfway pleasently surprised when he seemed okay with the idea of testing variouse things on a Were. I guess his thought patterns were similar to mine, and that, more then anything, sparked what came out of my fool mouth next.

He asked if that was all, and I told him Ann had probably said most of it all for both of us. He smiled but kept watching me, and I kept talking. Because I wanted to make sure that the picking and irritating and such was light hearted irritation on both sides, and that he wasn't going to like, blow up on me one day or something. I have the feeling Meyone is going to be sticking around for a long time, or at least I hope so, for Ann's sake if nothing else. We're going to have to find neutral ground with each other. So I didn't appologize, but I did tell him that I considered him very much a person and not an 'it', and that despite everything I respected him as a companion. I told him we might never be 'freinds', but I didn't mean it. I can easily see he and I being friends.

Apperantly so he could he, because he said he thought I was wrong; we could be, and that we had the same mind set. We both wanted what was good to win, even if we had very differant thoughts and ways of going about it. And you know, he's right.

I headed back up on deck, and we moved back into the citadel, the group of us, leaving the airship waiting once more. We headed through right to the grave keeper, and Ann asked if I wanted to check out my grave; so we could see if Damen was back. He was supposed to get in contact with me when he got back safly, but as far as I knew no word had been sent. I was surprised when Ann voulentarily let me go inspect the grave site. Unfortunatly, that meant Alaric and Meyone got to come see my little secret too. I explained to them my- um, unique situation in as few words and as understandably as it was possible for me to do, while Ann kept watch on the surrounding area to make sure that no prying ears were listening. The two, of course, felt the need to make guesses at to what could have happened and what I could be. We yammered at each other until Ann finally called time on the whole mess and went went to inspect the Delcova grave while we were here; and we got a surprise. Not only where there flowers on my grave- not unexpected- but there were flowers (fresh ones, none the less) on that one, as well.

Well, that's my heart dropping to my ankles, kiddies. I think Ann's, too. We inspected the area, looking for anything else out of place; we found nothing, but there was a raven watching us. Filthy fucking birds, even I know enough to know that. Ann and I were either very jumpy or very right, because we left the moment we noticed that bird.

We found the gravekeeper at his home, and he greeted us warmly, his attention rather on me; I think I, as a dead person who was not dead, rather interested him. He's one of the few people who's direct attention doesn't bother me; and we asked him if he knew any spirits who had been killed or knew anything of Were. He said yes, but told us recent spirits were.....unpleasent....to speak to. But he took us to some that he said could help us, and from them, we got a name; Monsay. We tried to get more information on where the Were might be keeping our girls, but got nothing more from them. We thanked everyone for their help via our gravekeeper, and left. When we got back to the citadel, we found out very quickly who Monsay was- directer of security. We got in to talk with him only becuase Mandrel gave us a note to give to those surrounding him informing him that he was to see us right away.

We met with him and discussed the girls, the were, and half a dozen other things. Somehow the conversation went from information gathering to being asked information. And we were promptly told that we had gotten involved too much already, and that we were to sit down and shut up. At least for the next twenty four hours.


It was as we left that we ran into problems.

Lots of little were-ratty problems, to be excat. It didn't take us long at all to dispatch the wererats and capture one, less then a minute, in fact. We loaded it up onto the ship and Ann and Alaric commenced their job, while I stayed busy and made sure Meyone did, too. When those two came back, we had a new lead, and a new destination. Some lands father from anywhere any of us had gone then before. Okay, great. We tie up our new friend- who is supposedly going to lead us there- and as we settle in for the night, Ann discovers a little trinket on the post of my bed.....hammock.....thing.

A bell.

We're sitting there trying to puzzle out what to do, but ann has recently picekd up on my usually bad habit of 'if you don't know what it is, poke it. If you poke it and it bites, it's usually best to kill it.'

She rang the bell, it shattered, and suddanly, a form blurred into illusionary life. A man, young, scared (do I want to know why in the hell is it that everyone from my past seems to be male? Strange, that.), hunted, desperate. He addressed me by name, told me that he needed to see me and where I could find him. (He used cryptic terminology, but I knew instantly, as did Ann, where he meant; the Crow's Nest.) He said that the girl we were so desperate to protect wasn't the key to it all after all.

And then the thing popped away.

As per usual, I was prety emotional over this, and Ann and I got in a snarling, growling debate about weather or not we should go and met this man; as Ann had felt the need to inform others-which I understood, I supposed- Alaric chimed in, and Meyonne. They, of course, were in agreement with Ann about not going- and I understood why. The entire thing reeked of trap, but I had to know. I have to, rather, as when we finally got there- after arguing more, going to bed, getting back to Befrengaurd, dropping people off, picking people up- the man was dead.

And his body was massivly protected by magical traps. Calm in the face of my frustrated, impotant rage, Alaric summoned a little wind elemental- a tiny, adorable whirlwind not even taller then Ann or myself- that dragged the body within speaking range.

And then he asked it questions. We only got to ask five, and so we picked our words carefully.

His name was Corbin Bailey Brice, and he was, in fact, the one trying to contact me. He told us, just as he had in the message to me, that our little girl, Toby's little girl, was the key, not the door, with odd inflections on both words. That someone or something called the 'Azen' had killed him. That I was to look for Razzen Delcova next.

Delcova.

As in the, as in the group that had been attempting to replace the deiety of pestilance with a man made varation, using a perfume that killed anyone of a specific bloodline. As in the family we had spent weeks researching, investigating. As in a twisted, generally fucked up line of people who could trace their roots back to a horrible, tyranical lord, and at least one illegetimite child.

Sometimes, I hate my life.

Meanwhile, our little wererat friend had promised to take us somewhere to get answers about the girls and the necromancers, which seemed to be involved in the werewolf's suddan mutation. We loaded up on the ship after destorying the body, and headed in the direction he told us to go to get to where we'd get our answers.

Which, of course, you know, being us? Ended up being a swamp.

We stopped the airship as close and low as the captian could get it, and then Meyonne, Ann, Alaric, our rat-friend, Jules, Garener-whom Ann had brought along- and myself all disembarked. We made our way through this desolated, dead place, and I made the best of it by teasing the elf mercilessly about not wanting to hike through a swamp. I didn't want to hike through a swamp. None of us did. It stank, it was eerie, we were being followed, rat-boy had taken off first chance he got, we were something like lost, and the death around us was completly unnatural. Also, bugs. Bugs.

So I teased her, and she bitched at me for it, but it kept my spirits slightly higher, for I am just mean that way. We uncovered a few things that we all wished, in retospect, we hadn't seen (like the dead-tree thing that had been what was following us, that ran and hide when Garenar revealed it) and, in time, came upon what seemed to be an old temple.

We went in preparing to fight, particuarly when the skeletons of were at each door rose up and came to 'life' at our approch. But all they did was open the doors for us.

Creepy? Oh, you bet your ass. But, it seemed, non agressive. For now. With us, things don't say non agressive too long, typically. We do something to piss someone off, or we just look like a tasty challange.

We stepped into the spider's lair, becokoned in by the dead and hoping we wouldn't be the dead.

But there was no threat in this place. There was only a man. Well, something like a man. Something that had maybe once been a man. Something that I can honestly say I don't think was a man anymore, though it was certianly male.

It told Ann that it could sense (or smell, I forget which, now) Toby's touch on her. and then he said the same to me. And the others, though he could tell they'd been in less direct contact for a shorter time. Ann explained why we were here and what we were after, and one long conversation later, we were guided to a basin of water by this male creature, and told to look in.

We found out a lot about the war- and Toby- that we had distantly suspected, and a lot we'd never imagined. We saw the massive battle between the two sides in a war fought years before even Ann's time (yes Ann, darling, if you see this, you are old. Heh.) and the union of two- and now here I guess I have to say it- diety. Toby, the diety of pestilance, and the one we'd seen only one time before, who we assumed was a diety of life.

What a mix, hu? And these two dieties, they had a kid, a little girl, and you know the rest. We all know the rest.

When we pulled back, the strange man-thing informed us that we'd been followed, that danger waited for us outside. How he knew, I'm unsure, but he was right.

When we stepped outside, there were necromancers and were both waiting for us, and it didn't take long at all before we were thrown into the first full blown battle I can say we ever ran away from. Ann and I have both fled from one on one type skermishes before, but when it comes to group battles, we usually stick it out until the end.

Now, though, we were outgunned, out numbered, in over our heads so throughly that even Garenar buffing us only helped so far. Meyone and I, for all our bickering, make an exillent team, and it's become almost second nature for us to pair off when we can. Which is odd, becuse I'm so used to teaming up with Ann; it's nice, though, to have someone else in up-in-your-face combat with me, particuarly someone who is skilled as Meyone is. True to form, he called for me to follow him as he darted off into the swamp. I followed him barely a heartbeat later, and we fell into combat with familer ease. We don't get in each other's way nearly as much as Ann and I usually do. I could distantly hear the others going head to head with weres, the spells being cast, the yells of battle- Alaric and some other wizard were heckling each other just off to my right. I was close enough to grab a few words, and if I hadn't been beating off a pissed off were, I may have gotten more out of the conversation; as it was, I can't remember what was said. Hell, I can't remember what Meyonne and I threw back and forth, and that was imporatant. At the time, anyway.

We put down the were- amazingly, somehow, we put down the were, and moved to help Ann and the others. We were holding our own, but we were outnumbered and outgunned. Alaric had to run out of magic eventually, and we were all beat to hell. We recognized this as what it was- a desperate situation. Normally the numbers wouldn't bother me, but these were not men who were could handle being outnumbered by. These were Were, and mutated ones at that. We sat back and scratched maybe two to death. And we could hear more. Lots more. And there were still the Necromancers. Plural, on that one.

We were all kind fucked, here. But as we were gathering ourselves and trying to figure out what to do, the Were attacking Alaric suddanly had a change of heart in a big way. When faced with death or becoming a traitor, it informed us that it hadn't signed up on this trip to be killed, and suddanly we had a Were on our side or something, I don't even know. Those bastards are confusing as fuck, and one is more then hard enough to deal with.

As it was, Were-traitor or no Were-traitor, we still couldn't stand and fight much longer. So like I said, for the first time in the history of being a group, we turned and ran from a big battle. Garanar took us right through a tree, true Druid style, and the little guy poped us up nice and far from the battle.

Sadly, he also popped us up nice and far from the airship, too. Which meant we got to walk through the Were infested forest to try and find where our ship was. Luckily, we made it without much indicent; but when we got to the place our ride home was supposed to be, it wasn't in sight, and instead we knew the enemy's ship hovered like a bird of prey, just waiting for us. But we didn't have much choice; we had been neatly herded and now we were stuck.

Who's idea was this whole fucking trip again? Ann, you no longer have any right to tell me I might be walking into a trap. At least my dead body didn't try to eat us!

Meanwhile, said stubborn elf had taken off into the clearing before any real decision could be settled on. Muttering curses, I sprinted after her, as did everyone else.

Sure enough, there was the ship- the wrong ship. For one heart-pounding moment, I thought we were sorta finished, because what the fuck were we supposed to do now, we had almost nothing left-

And then another, larger ship came roaring in like the fucking calvery. Okay, so not roaring, and not very calvery like, but it was big and impressive enough to scare away the necromancer's ship, and when it got close enough, we could see that it was a citadel ship.

Oh, hell, I'd rather get a ride from the necromancers!

We all braced ourselves for trouble, and when the ship finally let us up, Kaedwyn Monsay was the first to greet us, looking torn between annoyance and amusment. "I think I asked for twenty four hours?" He asked, and didn't sound pissed off as maybe he should.

Now, don't get me wrong; he sounded plenty pissed off.

We immediataly launched into our defenses, all of us speaking in turn in our own protection until we were basically told 'shut up and sit down, all of you.'

We did. And we watched and listened in amazment as the Were we assumed had betrayed the necromancers turned out to ne a spy, put there in the first place. Never one the necromancer's side at all.

Of course.

Kaedwyn then approched us, his expression stern. Ann, beside me, lowered her eyes and head, cowed, and I wrapped an arm around myself, clutching my elbow, and also, respectfully bowed my head. We were in for some major trouble, and we deserved every bit of it.

We're better, I think, at dealing with life or death situations.