May 13, 2002

Ciandra sat across from him, still stunned by his sudden appearance. She studied his features with amazed eyes and felt like a giddy young girl watching her grandfather mix his wondrous concoctions. The old man flipped through the assembled tomes quickly, imperceptibly reading and drinking the knowledge that the Arcanum had collected. She waited in silence until he looked at her and offered a gentle smile.

"Incredible work you have been doing. Incredible." He closed one tome and brushed the cover gently with his hand. "But there are some key points that you have missed. I'd have expected nothing more, you are still learning the foundation of the magic here." He stood without effort and snatched the book from the table and placed it upon the shelf against the wall. He turned to the alchemist. "If you'd like my help that is. . ."

Ciandra nodded.

"I am truly sorry for Nuhmudira's disappearance and imprisonment. If there were anything that I could have done I would have. . ."

Ciandra struggled to find words to speak to the old mage but mustered only another nod. This made him smile.

"You are certainly more accepting of my appearance than your counterpart Hiro. Though less talkative than Bahb." He sat back in the chair and opened another volume of writings. "As I was saying these books are thorough, containing much information about the times when my people lived upon this world, but your interpretations in some instances are incorrect. Let us move into discussion of what I can do to help you."

Ciandra finally broke her silence, "Asheron? Why did you wait so long?"

Asheron furrowed his brow and pulled a hand through his beard. "I have. . . had obligations that I needed to attend to, dear child. Those obligations have since been eclipsed by something that menaces us all." Asheron sighed. "Now, on to what I shall do. An emissary will be sent. . ."

__________

As the final blow fell against the Ursuin, the warrior smiled. Ursuin hides were fetching a much better price these days, and by the looks of the wounds that he had inflicted, the hide of this kill was unmarred. He carefully set to skinning the beast and set out to find someone with whom to trade.

__________

The roar of the flames thundered through the hallways. He surveyed the materials smelted within these furnaces and smiled. Such excellent works as these were beyond understanding of such feeble minds.

He walked along the hallways and marveled at the naivete of Nuhmudira. It was simple to make her believe what he had wanted. It took no words to blast her against the wall, and break her bones to squeeze her to within an inch of her existence. Now, he left the decision to her own people, to those she had meant to save. A sick smile crept across his face.

Martyred, by her "people." A division in the populace, unrest, discord. The thought of it warmed his heart.

He ran his hand along the smooth surface of a bronze behemoth. "Be my eyes and ears, my children, destroy them all, teach them the meaning of pain. Warn the old man that I am coming for him." A grim laughter grew within him, filling the hallways and overpowering the sound of the flames.

__________

She sat in the darkness. Below she could hear the stirrings of people scurrying to and fro. At times she would feel the jolt of energy enter her; the pain lasted longer but her life was reinforced. Every time the pain came she knew it was not only in her mind. It was the physical effects of losing her abilities with magic. Other times she felt the sickening chill run down her spine, as her skin grew taut and a new memory was forced into her mind. Not her memory but a memory from a forgotten age. Memories taken from somewhere else and supplanted into her own.

And then there was the sobbing. The sobbing would not end--was that her voice? Could it be her voice? She thought by now it would be worn raw and useless, but still the sobbing went on.

She found a new enemy there on the slab where she was now kept prisoner. Time. Time allowed her to reflect on everything that she had done, every action that she had taken and all that she had lost. Her hands had healed from where she had scrawled her notes and forced her last spell upon the world. But the power that was once hers to command drained away like water on a sunny day. As did her life.

And then the voices began. Ringing in her head. Singing to her. Calling to her. But were they calling her?

She once thought that she had shed all of her tears, she thought there was none left to give, none left to offer the world. But there in the darkness, alone and forgotten she wept. And she felt the tears roll into the basin that would one day harvest her blood.

__________

"You say they are in league?" Martine rolled a pyreal along the back of his fingers.

"Yes, Master. The research facility that they established has been rife with activity in the past few days. If you wish--"

"Wish? Wish! I wish for my home, my wife, my child! Her! Do not ask me what I wish for, unless you have the capacity to grant me my wishes. My patience with you is at its end. You are treading dangerously close to feeling what an unspeakable agony life can truly be." Martine twitched. The flesh on his head rippled beneath the surface.

"I have imparted what you wanted to know, Master."

"Yes, you have done that haven't you, apprentice," Martine snapped.

The man nodded, calmly and quietly.

Martine grunted and turned his attention to the wall. His apprentice bowed his head and move to the far side of the antechamber.

"Send a force there. See they do not fail. Use everything at your disposal to disrupt whatever it is that they are working on." Martine stared at the pyreal, and rose to his feet. "I need some fresh air."

__________

Elysa looked out over the verdant landscape. She was waiting for him. He said he would come and though she had doubted so much in recent weeks, she knew that he would arrive. The only question was when.

She had commissioned her Royal Guard to assist in the clearing of the Arcanum Storehouse. There they cleared the entry vestibule of the Sclavus menace but had been called away shortly after to help with the building of a new library of sorts near Xarabydun. The Arcanum wanted her help now that Nuhmudira was gone. She obliged; this was not a time to hold petty grudges. Her people needed her and she needed him.

"How quickly things change," she said into the wind.

"Indeed they do, Elly." Asheron smiled behind her.

"You took your time in getting here," she quipped.

"I told you once that I wouldn't be there, Elly."

"I know."

"But something has changed that."

Elysa arched a brow and studied her old friend. Asheron motioned to a set of seats that she had prepared. As they sat she noticed how distant his eyes seemed, like he was there but somewhere else.

"What is it, Ash?"

"I have made a difficult decision. Nothing more." He mustered a weak smile.

__________

The screams were maddening. Quivering with fear he tried to clear them from his mind long enough to read the letters that he had found scattered on the floor. Something about the levers, and a choice. He looked about and felt the pull toward the plain lever against the wall. He found himself inching toward it, reaching for it, grasping it and pulling down. His body was ripped violently into portal space, and shunted out again unceremoniously.

"My master has readied his reward, friend. It is time to reap the benefits of your actions." Kai smiled at him and as the enchanter spoke a chill ran down his spine. What had he done?