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[12/26/2003] Shamino came to the Keep today. We hadn't yet had a chance to tell him the good news, but Andrella hushed us when she saw him coming and instructed us not to say anything. She then proceeded to send Shamino off to Jaana's without telling him that Lord British and the others were free. We laughed a lot after Shamino had left. I wish I could have seen his face.  Before he left Shamino gave us sad news, however. He had found out that Iolo cannot leave Dawn. He hadn't wanted to tell us, as it turns out, but because he had spent so much time there, he would age greatly if he were to leave now. But Shamino had brought us Christmas gifts that Iolo had crafted. They were wooden statues, much like the one he had made of Guthnor. He had crafted one for each of us: Shevilia for Navien, Goarla for Sygil, a Sin captain for Ayla, Gratagmalem for Andrella, and Shalilissta for myself. As usual for Iolo, the workmanship was superb. Dupré arrived a little while later, having heard from Shamino that we were going to have a Christmas party. As soon as he walked through the door he gave us incredulous looks. "You sent Shamino to Cove without telling him we were there?" We burst out laughing. "It was Andrella's idea," I snickered. We broke out the ale and decided on how we were going to do the celebration. We visited each person's house in order, spending some time chatting at each and deciding where to place our new statues. I hadn't had time to prepare gifts for everyone, but I managed to dig up some items that seemed appropriate for each of them. I gave Dupré the war hammer I had gotten off Soth so long ago. I had, erm, forgotten to return it to him, so now Dupré has it. Finally, Dupré mentioned that he had snuck out and met with Caton. "With Caton's help," he grinned, "we had a few surprises delivered to Blackthorn." We snickered, knowing already that this was going to be good. Dupré couldn't--or wouldn't--tell us what Blackthorn's "gifts" were, but he said they had been delivered to Lord British's throne room. We immediately decided to head over and see for ourselves. Dupré remained behind, as he would be instantly recognized by the guards. "Tell me what they look like!" he called after us with a smile before we left. "And Kianne," he chuckled, "stay out of trouble." We laughed. "I've been telling her that for a long time," Andrella snickered. "You know me!" I winked. Dupré nodded. "That's why I said it!" Navien had to stay behind as well, since he is still wanted by Blackthorn. The rest of us went outside, where I pulled out my notes. My list of coordinates has gotten long and unorganized. I need to clean it up sometime. "Let's try this," I decided, pulling out the Orb. "'Try'?" Andrella repeated with a chuckle. "Oh boy." "Well, I don't know where exactly it goes," I winked. "And this is why Dupré said to stay out of trouble," Andrella snickered. I formed a gate with the Orb, putting us just outside the drawbridge. We wandered into the throne room, undisturbed by the guards, and saw the new additions immediately. They were marble statues, a good twelve feet in height. There were four of them, and each was accompanied by a golden plaque. Dedicated to Navien Trailwind read one. Another was dedicated to Andrella Valence, and one to Sygil Oakenstaff, and one to me. I burst out into uncontrollable laughter. "Oh, he's going to hate this! Andrella, Sygil, and even Navien!" "And the Avatar," Andrella grinned. Blackthorn appeared on the balcony overlooking the throne room. "Andrella!" he called. "I've been waiting to see you!" "Okay, it's time to go," Andrella quipped, and formed a moongate from her rune book. We jumped through before Blackthorn could say more, and for good measure I turned around and cast Dispel at the gate once we were through. We rejoined Dupré and Navien and told them what we had seen through fits of laughter. It makes me wonder if Blackthorn will destroy the statues when he notices what they are. But I suppose he wouldn't get away with that in the view of the guards. Overall, we had a good Christmas celebration, throwing magical snowballs at each other (since it hadn't deigned to snow for real), drinking and eating, and enjoying ourselves. Dupré put my mind at ease by saying that they had overheard Minax mention that we'd stopped her chance at reviving Exodus. "It was nice to be able to prevent an evil plot for once," I chuckled wryly. Dupré laughed. "From the way Blackthorn whines, you stopped every single one!" "Well, good!" I grinned. "I actually heard him begging the Guardian to get anyone else to deal with other then Kianne," Dupré chuckled. He shook his head a little, smiling. "I have to say, that kept all of us hanging on, to constantly hear about you foiling their plans." I smiled in return. "The Guardian would boast about all the bad things happening," he reminisced. "And then Blackthorn would talk, and start whining about 'that darned Avatar'..." We snickered. "And the Guardian would call him incompetent?" I guessed. Dupré nodded. "And Blackthorn would say, 'Then you deal with her!'" I smirked. It was good to hear, at least, that we had made progress. After all, in my book, irritating your enemies means you are making progress. Finally, since everyone was together, I mentioned, "I think I know where we need to go for Erethian..." "I knew it!" Andrella let out. "I knew she couldn't last an evening without bringing it up." I laughed sheepishly. "Well, I hope I can join you when you go," Dupré smiled. I smiled back. "I do too." We parted for the evening finally, going our separate ways to spend the night in relative peace. Tomorrow will be soon enough... [1/2/2004] I spent the day today dungeon-crawling, looking for wands for Nystul. I have about 300 of each reagent in my bank, and I know between us we will easily have enough reagents. However I'm not so sure on the wands; I don't tend to keep them, so I only have a few stashed away at my house. So I gathered up some summoning scrolls and headed out to various dungeons, looking for liches and other magical beings that tend to carry wands. I must have visited four or five different dungeons that day, and even then I didn't have much luck; I came back with only about five wands for my trouble, although I was quite weighted down with gold. When I must venture into dungeons alone, I have gotten into the habit of summoning creatures to help me along. Of course, I like to summon elementals. Fire and Air, Water and Earth; I had scrolls for each. With my magical companions, I at least didn't have any troubles staying alive, although the poltergeists were still being annoying, I avoided the wights altogether, and I didn't bother trying to go too far into the depths of any of the dungeons. The most ironic thing that happened was when I took down a liche and discovered he was carrying mytheril ingots. I couldn't have planned that if I had tried. So I took the ore back to the Keep and had Sophie use it to make armor. Andrella had suggested that maybe mytheril armor would help protect us against Erethian as surely as mytheril weapons would harm him, so we decided to give it a try. Sygil dug out his stash of wands--he must have been hoarding them or something because he had dozens of them. Ayla contributed the wands that she had, and then Navien and I pooled all of our wands and sorted through them, organizing them by spell circle. We selected four of each circle, just to be safe, even though Nystul had only asked for three. Then we split the leftovers between us. Finally we gathered at the Keep, equipping ourselves in mytheril and preparing our things. Dupré arrived, saying he felt good as new, and we fixed him up with some mytheril too. I chatted with the others while sorting out my reagents. But I was having trouble stuffing it all into my bag. "Hoy. I am carrying way too much," I laughed. "Uh oh," Dupré teased. I looked at him. "Dupré....!" I drawled in my best pleading voice, but I couldn't hold the face and the word dissolved into giggles. Dupré held out a bag. "Fill it up," he chuckled. I handed him the large pouch I had been using to gather all of the reagents and wands. "I'm still filling it," I explained, and Dupré patiently put up with me through the sorting and counting process. Navien contributed the rest of the reagents, bringing us up to 500 each. I chatted about the dungeons I'd visited. "Darn poltergeists were making mincemeat out of my elementals," I complained cheerfully. "Wow, really?" Dupré commented. "They can only be hurt by magic." I shrugged. "Not my strong suit right now." "So I hear," Dupré nodded. "It's kind of sad when you think about it." I could only shrug and offer him a wan smile. "I'm getting around it." "The Guardian actually wanted to trap you here," he pointed out. "Like this land is some kind of prison." It made me wonder if there is something about Britannia that makes me unable to use the magic. There must be, but what could it be? "I've never seen you use element magic. That's why I was surprised." "I haven't been able to here." I shrugged again. "Honestly, it never occurred to me to tell you, since it's irrelevant here." I frowned suddenly. "Funny, though, that the Guardian knows." How did he find out...? "It's just too bad you can't reach your full potential here," Dupré said. "Like this land is holding you back." "Every world has its rules of magic, I guess," I murmured. "That's true, and a good reason magic is no fun," he chuckled. "I mean look at this." He indicated the heavy bag that I was piling with wands and reagents. I laughed. "That's one thing I never liked about Britannian spells," I winked. During the chatter that accompanied our preparations, Andrella took me aside. "Kianne, can I see you a moment?" I followed her outside, where the sounds of the cheerful conversations were much more quiet. "I'm not quite sure how to say this, but..." she began, looking more sheepish than I think I have ever seen her. For some reason, it made me worried. "Can you take the Tome back?" she asked me finally. "I wouldn't ask, but, I can feel it draining my energy. I've been getting gray hairs too," she giggled in a good-natured way, while I stared at her in shock. "I'm sorry, I didn't know!" I gasped out, holding out my hands instantly. She dug out the Tome of Stars and handed it to me, and I quickly buried it in my pack, still concerned. "I hope it hasn't done any permanent damage..!" "Of course you wouldn't know," she assured me with that patient smile. "And I actually feel better already." "Whew," I breathed in relief. "Thank you, and I'm sorry I couldn't hold it for you." "Don't be sorry," I assured her. "As long as you are all right." She nodded. "I didn't know either. But since you are immortal..." I checked briefly for gray hairs. She laughed. "But didn't Michael carry it too?" I frowned. Andrella nodded again. "I thought Michael carried it as well. I'm not sure why it's affecting me the way it has." "Maybe because he knew its secrets, it didn't harm him?" "I don't know," she agreed. "That's a possibility." "I just thought maybe you could learn something." I shook my head a little. "We need to know more." Andrella nodded in agreement. "But that's not a pressing issue at the moment either," she winked. I couldn't argue there. We went back inside to rejoin the others. Dupré told us that Shamino had taken Lord British and Nystul to the Crossroads guard post to visit Caton, going the scenic route that avoided roads and other places where they might be seen. So we put off giving Nystul the items we had collected, stashing them in the Keep instead. Outside, I opened a moongate to the passage I had marked. Earlier I had done some exploring to try to find the tunnel where Erethian is holed up. Based on the information we had been given, I was pretty sure I had pinpointed the correct place, but I hadn't been able to fully explore it because it was filled with daemons and hell spawn and other nasty creations. We went in as a group, with Navien and I staying back while the others formed the fore of our attack. We were ambushed by daemons several times, where we were going through tunnels that seemed empty only to be surrounded in the next moment. However, we worked together well this time, and experienced few troubles. At one point I looked down at the Orb and noticed its glow was waning. This had happened in Pagan too. I took a moment to try summoning up its magic just to see if it would respond, and it did. It was still functioning, at least. The others were frowning at me in confusion, so I put the Orb away and rejoined them. After taking a wrong turn, we finally came across a tunnel that wound deep into the earth. Following this brought us eventually to Erethian. Although we recognized him by his blackrock armor, he was a curious daemon indeed; his form kept changing from one monstrosity to another. Rather ironically, he turned out to not be our chief problem; he seemed to prefer to let his minions do his attacking for him, so we ended up having more troubles with the beholders and other beasts. Erethian never spoke, and for a while it appeared that we weren't even making a dent, even with our mytheril weapons. We could tell they were having an effect, though. I gave Andrella my mytheril long sword since she had only her garish blades, and I tried to distract Erethian with arrows, help Navien heal, and focused on taking out the small fry that kept trying to interrupt us. At last Erethian began to weaken. I pulled myself away from the conflict and fished out the gem of entrapment. With bated breath I waited while the others continued to press the attack. Finally, just as Erethian seemed about to keel over, I activated the magic. The light that swirled from the gem was about as neon green as the gem's new color. The others jumped back out of the way as Erethian was engulfed and swallowed into the gem. The hard facets began to glow a wicked red. We let out a collective sigh, huffing. "Let's get out of here," Andrella said. "Aye," I agreed, "but first, we should check his blackrock." We made our way to the forge area that we had seen absently while dealing with Erethian. There hadn't been time then to study the area, but now we cleared out the remaining daemons and examined it. Next to a river of lava, blackrock ore lined one wall of the cavern. Nearby, the beginnings of a blackrock structure rose like an ominous pillar. "I don't suppose we can destroy it," I sighed as we stood and looked at it. "Be careful, Kianne," Dupré warned. "The last time you destroyed this kind of thing..."1 I nodded. "But that was because the Black Gate was open, and I blew it up with a wand." "Still." We considered the setup. "Do we dare leave it here for someone else to find?" Andrella asked. It was a good point. We tried whacking the blackrock with our mytheril weapons, or shoving the entire thing into the lava, but nothing we tried had any effect. Finally we had to admit defeat, but we marked a rune first so that we could more easily return. I pulled out the Orb. This time the magic pulsed only faintly, to no effect. "Someone else is going to have to Gate," I said sheepishly. Navien cast Gate Travel, and we returned to the Keep. I was so preoccupied with the Orb that at first I didn't notice the change. Then I heard Dupré comment, "Look at the grass." And then Andrella was shouting, "The trees!!" The land was green again, as if the curse had never existed. The grass was fresh and green, and there were leaves on the trees and flowers blooming in what looked like every dabble of sunlight. Elated, we spent some time just running all through the beauty, admiring it all. As the fervor began to calm down, I absently took out the Orb again. I thought for sure that now that we were away from Erethian's place, it would work again, but its glow was as faint as before. "I don't get it..." I murmured. "What's wrong?" Dupré asked. I frowned. "The Orb isn't responding anymore." Andrella blinked. "What?" "It was like this in Pagan too." I shrugged. "I thought maybe Erethian had some sort of protection..." And then it hit me. "Oh. Maybe it's because I'm carrying Erethian with me. Perhaps he's disrupting the Orb?" Andrella offered to try holding the gem and taking it away from the Orb. While we were doing this, Dupré said he would ride out to the Crossroads and see if Lord British and the others had arrived yet. He declined using a moongate to go there; he wanted to ride through the restored nature. When he was gone, Andrella took the gem of entrapment and hopped on her ethereal mount, riding into the forest. But it seemed no matter how far she went, the Orb still refused to respond. I joked that maybe I had to shake it and yell at it, as I had done in Pagan. It occurred to me that maybe it had been my sheer force of will that had activated the Orb in Pagan, since magic is dependant on the will of its user. I tried the same here, but I just couldn't seem to manage it. Maybe it's because I could not quite dredge up the same emotions that had been raging through me then. Dupré returned before we could split the loot from the trip, and said that Lord British and Nystul were enjoying the view from atop one of the towers at Crossroads. Shamino and Caton had gone for a walk. Dupré had brought back a marked rune, so we were able to take the quick way there. We joined Lord British on the roof and told him our success with Erethian. We also gave Nystul the bag of reagents and wands, which pleased him greatly. "So Erethian is defeated," Lord British mused. "Trapped," I corrected, showing them the gem. "I have a bad habit of carrying around evil things in my backpack." I chuckled. We described the blackrock setup that Erethian had. "We weren't able to do anything with it." "So you just left it there?" Nystul sputtered incredulously. We asked him if there was any way to destroy the blackrock. Characteristically, it took him a while to actually get around to answering the question. Finally, he suggested, "Well, what about that hammer Dupré told us about?" I blinked, since that hadn't occurred to me. Quickly I fetched the hammer and returned with it to show them. Lord British murmured the moment he saw it, "Michael's hammer..." I stared at him. "Michael's!?" They nodded. "You got this from Minax?" Lord British asked, and when I nodded my head, he frowned. "It looks like it came from his home," he said finally. I was startled again. "He must have enchanted it here. We don't have magic like that on Earth." Lord British turned to us. "This hammer broke the gold rocks?" We explained that we were only assuming so, since we had found the hammer sitting near to the shattered pieces of golden rock. "I could try it on the blackrock," I suggested. "Or get Andie to do it...she's stronger." I winked. Lord British nodded. "Then you should try. The blackrock cubes must be destroyed." We agreed. "We will try then." Before we left, I asked Lord British if his orb was still working. He removed it from a pouch and checked it. "It seems to be all right," he said finally. "Is something wrong?" I frowned, digging into my pouch. Michael's Orb's glow was still faint. "It's just this one then..." "Don't get those orbs close to blackrock!" Nystul blurted out suddenly. "Or was it mytheril?" He scratched his head. We stared at him. "What?" Nystul looked at me. "Don't tell me you put that orb in with mytheril?" "Um...I'm wearing mytheril," I pointed out to him. "Well, there is your problem." Nystul sounded like he had just wrapped up a court case. I was startled. "Is it permanent?" "Probably." He shrugged. "Or not." Lord British sighed. "Let us hope it is not permanent." I agreed and got out of the mytheril right away, going back to my pretty amethyst armor. For a while the Orb still wasn't responding, but after a while the glow finally returned to it. So I will be sure to keep it away from mytheril from now on. "I have work to do," Nystul spoke up. "I have to enchant this hourglass." We were more than happy to let him go do that. "And we need to discuss Blackthorn," Lord British added. "I have decided against confrontation. I would not like to humiliate him. I would rather you take care of him as you must." This surprised me a little. I had been intending to simply go along with whatever Lord British suggested. I hadn't been expecting him to leave it up to us. Andrella reminded us that the Ophidians had demanded that Blackthorn be turned over to them. "But what if he attacks the Ophidians?" I countered. "Or if the Guardian frees him? I worry for their safety too..." She nodded in agreement. We discussed a few more possibilities. Finally, though reluctantly, I pointed out that even the Avatar had killed Mondain for his dark deeds. And Blackthorn is proving to be just as evil as Mondain, even if he is not as powerful and is more of a coward. Andrella noted, "But then we deny the Ophidians--and war will begin." "Must it, though?" I asked. There had to be another way. It was at this point that someone asked if the Ophidians had specified that Blackthorn be delivered to them alive. It was such a simple solution that it had never occurred to me. Talk about light bulb moments. "Then I will punish him and send what's left to the Ophidians," Andrella stated decisively. She always did have a way with words. The discussion ended there, but later Navien asked me about it privately. "To live is a worse punishment than death," he pointed out to me. I nodded. "It is, but in this case Mondain or the Guardian might free him, and we'd end up right back where we started." He shook his head. "Killing someone just doesn't seem right...it doesn't seem like justice to me." I sighed a little, not at him, but at the entire situation. "I know, but I don't think there is any other choice." "We should freeze him," Navien suggested. "If Blackthorn can freeze someone, Nystul could, I would think." I considered that. "We could ask." He nodded. "Anything is better than death." I smiled at him suddenly. "That is what is so unusual about you." Navien looked taken aback. "Ehh?" "You are a necromancer, and yet you say that." My smile was friendly, and contagious, because he smiled in return. "I know too much of death, and I know the value of life." I nodded my head. "And that is why you are not evil." After we left Lord British, we returned to Erethian's 'workshop' in the tunnels near Trinsic. "Cover me," I requested of the others while I took out the magic hammer and approached the blackrock. My friends fought off the daemons and other creatures in the area, leaving me in peace and giving me the opportunity I needed. I raised the hammer, then paused, remembering Dupré's words. "Everyone stand back," I chuckled. They did so. I brought the hammer down on the top of the pillar of blackrock that Erethian had been constructing. The top portion that I had struck shattered, the shards cascading down to vanish into nothing. Encouraged, I swung repeatedly at the structure until there was nothing left. I then turned my attention to the ore lining the wall. Working my way slowly, I beat at the wall with the hammer, breaking away the blackrock. It was then that I realized that the shattered pieces were not simply vanishing--they were being absorbed into the hammer itself! After a while, the wall was bare of blackrock. I finished up by smashing the pieces of blackrock that were lying on the floor, allowing the hammer to suck them away as well. "Whew!" I gasped when I was finished, wiping my brow. All of the blackrock had been eliminated. The hammer was growing hot in my hand, but I didn't really notice until the burning became so fierce that I couldn't hold onto it anymore. With a yelp I dropped it into my backpack, where I watched it apprehensively, hoping it wouldn't burn a hole into the bag. "Maybe we should go before it decides to blow up," I chuckled. We returned to the Keep, where I pulled out the hammer and placed it on the grass. "Wow!" I gasped. Its color had turned deep black, like the rock which it had absorbed. "It's a blackrock hammer now," Andrella commented. Tentatively I picked it back up, but its surface was cool for now. I placed it in my bank box in case we need it again. Then I turned. "Sygil. You need to destroy this gem when you are ready." Andrella asked him, "Do you think you are ready for it?" Sygil took a deep breath. "I can try, right?" We went out to an open area near the Keep, where I placed the gem of entrapment containing Erethian on the grass. Sygil unwrapped the Black Sword and carefully took it into his hand. His eyes flashed red the instant the sword was in his grasp, but as always they returned to their usual color. "You can do it, Sygil," I smiled encouragingly. We watched in a circle around Sygil and the gem as he approached it and raised the sword over his head. He strained, but the sword refused to strike. Worriedly we witnessed the contest of wills as he struggled to bring the Black Sword down on the gem. Finally he lowered it with a huff, closed his eyes briefly in concentration, then opened them and gave it another try. His eyes flared red so brightly that I nearly panicked. "Enough for now!" I called out, jumping forward. Andrella reached out as well, grasping his arm. "Sygil! Put the sword away!" she urged. The tip of the sword blade dropped to the grass, and the glow in his eyes faded. "Okay?" I asked him worriedly. He nodded slowly. "Foolish Sygil..." hissed a voice from the Black Sword. "Release me..." I grimaced. "We will try again later," Andrella stated. Sygil nodded again, wrapping the Black Sword and returning it to his pack. "I will bend the daemon to my control." By this point it was already late at night, so we did not return to Lord British this evening, not wishing to wake him if he had already retired for the night. We went our separate ways to sleep, but I remained by Sygil, watching him worriedly. "Tis nothing," he assured me with a smile. "I will be fine." "If you say so, but Arcadion sounds mad." "I will silence him, in time." I nodded slowly. "I would like to take the sword to Deceit some time," Sygil mentioned. "Show it who is master." He gave me a grim smile. "All right," I agreed. "Let me know, and I will come with you." He waved. And I returned to my house to guard the gem that is Erethian. [1/16/2004] With Erethian at least temporarily out of the way, we turned our attention on unseating Blackthorn from the throne. There was quite a bit of discussion on how exactly to handle it. Andrella came up with the idea to use another gem of entrapment enhanced by Nystul to be powerful enough to trap even a human. We decided it was worth it as long as we could be sure that Blackthorn would be unable to be freed by even Mondain or the Guardian.  Of course, this required discussing the issue with Nystul. We found Dupré and Nystul at the Hedge Maze. Turns out that Nystul wanted a place to study and work on his magic experiments without interruption, and the Hedge Maze has been abandoned since Soth's departure...except for a few leftover undead, that Dupré was dispatching in between keeping an eye on Nystul. Nystul came out of the tower and ended up standing on the roof of a building where we couldn't access because we still can't cast magic there. So we just talked to him from the ground. "Hello!" he greeted, waving. "What are you doing down there? I fixed the hourglass!" I grew excited immediately. "It's enchanted now?" "Fixed being past tense." Nystul shrugged. "The Lord of Tan told me he couldn't talk long." I stared. "You talked to the Time Lord??" "Of course!" Nystul beamed. "What did he say?" we demanded. "'Hello!' Or was it 'hail'?" Nystul scratched his head. "Or 'salutations'...?" Of course, we didn't care about that. "What else did he say?" "That he couldn't talk long." "What else?" "That if he talked any longer... umm." Nystul looked like he was trying to remember. "Killed by Mondale?" "Mondain?" Andrella prompted. "Ugh," I muttered. "Those two are still at it?" "He said, 'Where is the Avatar, Nystul?'" the mage went on. "But he said like he was mad. What a jerk." I'd really wanted to talk with him. At least we know for sure he is okay. "Did he say more?" "He said his time was limited to five minutes per earth week." Only five minutes? Well, we would make do with that. "Is the hourglass still working?" I asked. Another week would be coming soon. "Sure!" Nystul responded. "But not now." "A week from now?" I asked with more patience than I'd thought I could muster. Nystul ran his fingers through his beard. "He said for me to enchant it every week for the Avatar. Just a few hundred of each reagent." Oh well, at least that wasn't so bad. I had depleted my stash of reagents for the last batch I'd given him, but I knew I'd be able to buy more. We left the subject of the hourglass and tried to ask him about our idea regarding the gem of entrapment. As usual, it took us quite a while to work the answer to our question from Nystul. However, finally Nystul agreed that it would be easy to create a gem which would not only trap Blackthorn, but would be thereafter unable to be opened, even by Nystul himself. "It's easy!" he assured us. "I just need a sword of nine lives... a forge..." He paused, trying to remember, while counting off on his fingers. We looked at each other. I had two swords of nine lives--one given to me by Andrella for Christmas--and Andrella's keep had a forge. "A couple hundred reagents," Nystul finished, "and a leg of lamb, well done." He nodded his head in satisfaction. We laughed. I had to go buy some reagents, since I'd given almost all of my stash to Nystul the last time. Luckily, between the mage and alchemy shops in Moonglow, I was easily able to find everything we needed. We met back at the Shadow Keep, where I gave Nystul one of my swords of nine lives stealing and the reagents, and Ayla supplied the leg of lamb. "But I need a gem of entrapment!" Nystul informed us, a little after the fact. I had been kind of hoping he could make do without. "We don't have any empty ones..." I pointed out. Nystul didn't see any problem with that. "Well, let's empty one!" We all looked at the gem on Andrella's table. "Oh no," Dupré muttered as he realized it was the gem holding the wailing beast. "Not him..." I reached into my pack and pulled out my other sword of nine lives stealing. "Let's try out this sucker." "You might still take a hit," Dupré noted. "Those beasts are killers, Kianne." I nodded. "I know. We fought one in Jhelom. But that's why I have a backup plan!" I dug out my glass sword and handed it to Andrella. "Here, Andrella." "I'll try not to break it," she smiled. We gathered up Nystul and trooped outside for the battle. "Didn't we do this before?" Nystul asked, and for a few minutes we were going back over the reason we needed the gem with the absent-minded mage. "You free it and run away and we'll kill the beast," I told him simply. "Are you nuts?" he countered. I shrugged. "We don't have another gem, so this is the only way." We calmed Nystul down and he agreed to our plan. He paused to eat his leg of lamb, then cast Invisibility on himself. "Now there's an idea," I chuckled. The rest of us were decked out in our armor and weapons, ready and waiting. As usual, Nystul had a few false starts; he conjured up a Fire Field first, then we had to pause to get rid of it. While we were doing that, the wailing beast suddenly appeared, taking us by surprise. The beast lunged at Ayla, but Andrella was there to intercept it, preventing Ayla from being seriously wounded. I hefted the large sword of nine lives stealing and went after the wailing beast with it. There was no way I could hold a shield at the same time, so I would just have to hope I didn't get hit. Having never used a sword of nine lives stealing before, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I thought that simply striking the beast with it would be enough to activate its magic, but nothing happened when I did so. Even so, together we surrounded the wailing beast and were doing enough damage to it that we brought it down without casualties. And I still had nine lives on my sword. "Did the sword work?" Dupré asked me as he watched me heft the sword across my shoulder. "Nope, darn thing," I chuckled. "But Andrella's sure did!" She laughed. "Aye, I almost hit Ayla with them." Dupré glanced at the doors to the keep. "Nystul sure can move fast when he wants to." As it turned out, Nystul had run inside while we were fighting the beast. We went inside to see what he was doing. We found Nystul at the forge, busy with the sword I had given him. "I am working! Don't bother me!" he yelled when we approached, so we thought it best to retreat to the common area and wait for him. We chatted for a little while, but having heard nothing from Nystul, we wondered if he'd fallen asleep at the forge. So Ayla went up to check on him. "I am busy!" we heard him yell from all the way downstairs. Ayla came back. "'I am busy!'" she repeated in a perfect impression of Nystul that got us laughing. Nystul came downstairs finally. "Has anyone seen my leg of lamb?" "You ate it," Andrella told him. "Where is this 'You'?" Nystul demanded with a stomp of his foot. "That was my lamb!" We didn't have any left, so I Recalled off to a tavern and purchased a new leg of lamb, nicely well-done...and then on second thought I bought five of them, just to be safe. I returned to the keep, where Nystul munched happily on lamb while we tried to ask him if he was done yet. Of course, he danced around the issue some ("the hourglass needs more enchantment") but finally he remembered the gem of imprisonment stuck into a pocket on his robe. The gem he had created was glowing all colors of the rainbow in a rather garish way, very similar in effect to the cloak of invisibility Nystul had recharged for me. "Be careful," he warned. "Whoever you use that on will never be able to get out. They will be forced to live their life in the gem. I mean, they will even die in it." That was basically what we wanted. A way for Blackthorn to live out his natural life without being able to cause problems. But something Nystul had said caught my curiosity. "They can see what's going on?" "Sure they can," Nystul nodded. "There is a little house in that one. My special addition." He giggled. We looked closely, and sure enough, we could see the little house inside the gem. "Do you like the pink roof?" Nystul grinned, pleased with himself. "That's purple!" Andrella countered. Nystul shrugged. "Same difference!" "Ki's favorite color," Ayla grinned. "Exactly why it's funny," Andrella snickered. Nystul pulled out another leg of lamb. Since he'd already eaten the ones I'd given him, I had to smack my forehead. He must have been carrying it around all this time. Dealing with Nystul was making me hungry, so I started eating one of the remaining legs of lamb that I had purchased. Nystul spotted me instantly. "Hey!" he protested, jumping to his feet. "Care to share?" I had to laugh, and with a small smirk I passed him some of the pieces of meat. I gave the rest to Dupré--I had a feeling he'd need it. Before Nystul left I showed him the hammer that had absorbed all of the blackrock. "That's the kind of hammer Minax used to create Exodus!" he let out immediately. I blinked. "It is?" "Yikes," Dupré agreed. I wondered what that would mean. Would we still be able to use it to break the golden rocks? Well, at least we didn't have to do that immediately. Mondain can't get the Gem of Immortality while we hold all of the pieces. Nystul wanted to return to the Hedge Maze so he could get back to enchanting the hourglass. "And the next time," he said to me, "You talk to the tan lord. He doesn't want to talk to me. He's a jerk," Nystul sniffed. "And I told him that!" I snickered under my breath. I'm not sure I'd want to talk to Nystul either if I was the Time Lord. Nystul left by Recalling off a rune he'd marked to the Hedge Maze, so we offered a gate for Dupré "I'm going to eat some lamb now," the paladin chuckled. We laughed. "Don't do that in front of Nystul!" I snickered. Dupré chuckled. "I can't wait until he gets to stay at the castle again." "How do you deal with him on a regular basis?" Andrella asked him. Dupré showed us a bunch of empty ale bottles. We snickered. And here I've been feeling bad about leaving Soth alive and free... I think I will still need to discuss that with Lord British, but it seems bad timing to do it now. I don't know. At any rate, in the letter Dupré had suggested that we have Lord British come with us when we freed Blackthorn. So that's why we went to the Crossroads, to broach the subject with him. At first Lord British tried to refuse politely. We kept up the cheerful enthusiasm and told him we really thought he should go, so finally he agreed. I gave him one of my cloaks of invisibility--the normal one, rather than the tuity-fruity one--so that he could sneak in behind us without anyone seeing him too soon. We explained that he would have to hit someone to release the invisibility. Andrella, of course, suggested he hit Blackthorn, but it could have been any of us, since it doesn't have to be a very strong blow. "I know a little trick about these capes," Lord British responded. "Nystul told me." He didn't explain what that trick was, instead going on to say, "So are you certain you want to do this?" We nodded. "How do you feel about trapping Blackthorn into the gem yourself?" Andrella asked him. Lord British smiled faintly. "I thought that should be reserved for those who truly freed the land." "To us, he betrayed you, our king." Andrella shrugged a little. "And though I would like nothing more than to rip his head off--er, kick him..." she chuckled. "Seeing you back is reward enough for us," I chimed in with a smile. Lord British finally nodded. "I will do as you ask." And I handed him the gem of imprisonment. "Just don't say anything around the gem you don't want him to hear," I commented as we started for the doors. "Aye," Andrella agreed. "He will be able to see and hear all." Lord British looked at the gem in his hand. "Nystul made this?" When we nodded, he murmured, "Impressive." We said farewell to Shamino, who had stood by listening mostly in silence. Lord British paused as we were leaving to have a few words with the ranger. The rest of us went outside to make the moongate to the castle. Lord British came back outside and swept the cloak of invisibility over his shoulders, vanishing from our sight. As soon as he was ready I opened a gate using the Orb and we walked into the Castle of Britannia. We passed the room that Blackthorn had turned into the tax collection center, and I paused to take a peek inside. Shamino had said that Blackthorn had been scared and was taxing the people less, but the room seemed to be intact, with the shelves still piled full of tax books and the collection box still sitting on the table. "Disgraceful," I heard Lord British's voice murmur quietly. I nodded my head silently in agreement. We walked on into the throne room. Blackthorn sat alone with only two guards. He was napping on the throne again. Andrella put her hands on her hips. "Is that the way a king sits?" Blackthorn blinked open his eyes. "What is it now...?" He broke off when he saw who his visitors were. "Andrella! ...Kianne." He gritted his teeth. We lined up at the top of the stairs. I had no idea where Lord British was standing, but I knew he would be watching and listening. Blackthorn forced his mouth into a fake smile. "I am so glad you came. Welcome, welcome." I think he was speaking mostly to Andrella, and no surprise there. But Andrella turned her gaze pointedly toward the statues (Blackthorn hadn't in fact destroyed them). "Aww Blackthorn," she teased. "You do really love us!" She looked at the statue dedicated to me, which happened to be positioned right by the foot of the stairs. "I see that Kianne is close to your heart." I wasn't sure whether I should fall over or smack her. Blackthorn looked confused. "Excuse me? My heart?" Andrella turned her head to look at the statue on the other side of the stairs. "And I am at your right hand." That brought a snicker out of me. Blackthorn still looked bewildered, so Andrella added pointedly, "How is it that you have placed our statues so close to you?" "Oh, the statues." Blackthorn grumbled. "You know all about the statues do you?" "Well, they have little plaques on them," I pointed out sarcastically. Andrella crossed her arms. "I would have known a lot sooner had I been Regent as it was intended." He scowled. "How many hours I have slaved at this throne?" Snored on it, he meant. "Blackthorn, I've had enough of your idiocy," Andrella snapped. "Sit down." "On second thought," I broke in, "Don't sit down, not on the throne." "It's your throne now," Blackthorn retorted, again targeting mostly Andrella with his words. "Get it off my hands." Andrella raised an eyebrow. "Take it from you? I thought you always wanted it." "Always wanted whining peasants?" Blackthorn looked disgusted. "People who complain about paying taxes?" "You have your kingdom to rule," Andrella pointed out. "What's your problem now?" "My problem!" he repeated. "I have been locked in here for weeks!" I snickered under my breath. "Every time I get a chance to myself, another whining peasant comes up the rug." "Do kings not love their people?" Andrella asked. "Love..." Blackthorn spoke as if the very word disgusted him. "You can be the king. Or whatever." "Why the change of heart?" I spoke up. "She was regent before you stormed in. Why didn't you leave it that way?" Blackthorn glared at me. "No matter what I do it's not good enough for this scum. It's always whine, complain. "'When is the king coming back?' Do you know how many times I've heard that? It sickens me." "They ask that because you're not the king," Andrella pointed out dryly. "Lord British is gone," Blackthorn snapped. "You need to accept that." I think we were all taken aback by his sudden about-face...after all, previously he'd been pretended to be trying to help. However, that was nothing compared to what he said next. "I have lost all contact with Pagan." "You had it to begin with?" I gasped out. Blackthorn gave a sly chuckle. Andrella narrowed her eyes. "Do tell," she urged. But instead, Blackthorn said, "You had the Tome of Stars, and still you didn't save them. You had everything, and yet you dallied along." I wanted to say, want to bet? But if course I wasn't going to spoil the surprise. I was, however, struck with a bit of surprise and no small portion of irony that Blackthorn wasn't yet aware that Lord British and the others had been saved. Apparently, the Guardian has not yet returned from Krynn, and no one else has come around to inform Blackthorn of the recent events in Pagan. "You dallied because the Ophidians want my head," Blackthorn grumbled. "When it is your fault Soth was freed and allowed to slaughter the Ophidians." I sighed. Were we back on this? "You brought Soth here," Andrella countered. "And you freed him." "This is the same thing Navien tried." Blackthorn made a show of looking bored. "I have the contract." He waved away our protests. "So take the throne, Andrella. Take the responsibility of this dirtbag kingdom. Let the Ophidians take you." I almost laughed out loud at that. As if just handing Andrella the throne would cause the Ophidians to change their minds. "I have worked too long and hard here for nothing," Blackthorn lamented. "No, not for nothing," I snickered. "Long and hard?" Andrella repeated. "Taxing people to death..." "You think taxes hurt people?" Blackthorn countered. "They owe me their lives." "They owe you nothing!" Andrella snapped. "You are the ones who refuse to pay," he went on. "You walk around like you own the place, never paying taxes..." "No, we walk around like we care for it," Andrella glared. "So care for the throne!" Blackthorn growled at her. "Take it!" She doesn't need to take it, I chuckled privately, thinking of Lord British. But again, I did not speak the words out loud. "You want it, Blackthorn!" Andrella reminded him. "You basically killed your king for it! You are a betrayer!" She was practically spitting at his feet. "Oh, is this what this is all coming down to?" Blackthorn asked. "You are mad because British died." I nearly choked. "Died?" Blackthorn simply laughed with a sly look on his face. "Now you have contact with Pagan again?" I asked in disbelief. Blackthorn's deception would have really bothered me if I hadn't known that Lord British was safe and sound and standing right here with us. As it was, I was able to just be flabbergasted by Blackthorn's gall. Blackthorn rubbed his hands together a little. "Oh yes, he is dead." He sounded so proud of the idea in the statement that Andrella got disgusted and stepped forward, knocking Blackthorn to the floor with a swipe of her arm. "What the heck!?" he bellowed as he went down. "You are a fool, just like I have always said," she growled down at him, standing over him. "You want to have your throne taken? You want to give it up? Here, then!" Lord British suddenly became visible a few steps away (and without hitting someone--I need to learn this trick). "Don't think we haven't seen through your lies," I murmured to Blackthorn as I saw Lord British out of the corner of my eye. Everyone in the room except for Blackthorn turned immediately and bowed at their true king. And I mean everyone. Andrella and Ayla and I, and even the two guards who had been previously standing impassively at the foot of the stairs, as if they hadn't even been listening. It was a marvelous sight, all of us bowing in unison. "Hail Lord British!" Blackthorn stumbled to his feet, sputtering, completely speechless. "I am not dead, Blackthorn," Lord British spoke in a dangerously quiet voice. I jumped forward and grabbed one of the sleeves on Blackthorn's robe to keep him from fleeing. Andrella took hold of his other arm. "You have made a mockery of this land, Blackthorn." Lord British went on. "I heard your every word." "B-British..." Blackthorn stammered. "When did y...you get here? H-h..how?" Lord British turned his back on Blackthorn, ignoring him. "British!" Blackthorn cried in despair. "It's over," I said quietly. "Your time is up here," Andrella agreed. We saw Lord British slowly remove the gem of imprisonment from the folds of his cloak, contemplating it silently for a moment. "Welcome to your new home," Andrella added. "My king...!" Blackthorn let out, panicking. Lord British turned around. "No more lies," he stated in a soft voice. And he lifted the crystal. "Val Ex Cor Tri Ort!" The voice of the king seemed to thunder through the hall. Andrella and I let go of Blackthorn as the light exploded from seemingly everywhere. Blackthorn didn't even have time to scream. Like a wind, or a flood of water, the light swept him up and pulled him into the gem of imprisonment held forth in Lord British's hands. "It is done." Lord British stood before the throne. "Welcome," he greeted us as we approached the throne. We gathered in a customary line before him, at the foot of the stairs. "It is a grand day indeed," Lord British smiled. Whispers of excitement could be heard from the crowd, but the people were quiet enough that the king could be heard. "We have all suffered for too long. A new day dawns upon the land. Prosperity and happiness await, at the price of those who have fought long and hard, never giving into the struggles before them." He turned to face us. "Kianne, Andrella, Ayla. The people of the land cannot thank you enough. I cannot thank you enough. This is but a token of our eternal gratitude. All hail the heroes of Britannia!" A cheer rose up from the crowd. I stood in a bit of awe, realizing in that moment that I never before really been able to stay behind to celebrate a job well done. In my previous visits to Britannia, the Britannia that I knew, I was usually swept away from that world upon completion of my Quest, and never saw the aftermath. But those days were behind me. "Andrella, please come forward," Lord British requested. I grinned as she did so. Lord British proceeded to essentially knight her right then and there. I was most impressed. "For your unending strength and valor, I bestow upon you this day the title of High Knight. The highest honor any can achieve in the Shadowland." He handed her a shield of the Knights of Valor. "Thank you. I am greatly honored," she replied, but even standing as close to her as I was, I could barely hear her over the cheers from the crowd. "Hail the High Knight!" they cried. Ayla and I grinned and clapped. "And Ayla," Lord British smiled as Andrella returned to her place. Ayla stepped forward, and I grinned more. "For your unending devotion to your friends and allies," the king went on, "I bestow to you a rose, to symbolize my personal thanks to you." "Awww!" I cheered along with the crowd. How special to have a whispering rose from Lord British! "Oh, thank you milord," she blushed. "I am honored." "It is a pleasure to have loyal friends," Lord British smiled, "who do not turn their backs through the hardest times." "And Kianne Cassidy," he finished, looking at me. I'm not sure if I commanded them or if my legs moved on their own, but I stepped forward. "The Avatar," Lord British added with a smile. "You have brought light to a land of darkness. None of this would be possible without you. There is no honor I can bestow upon the Avatar--the embodiment of Virtues of which we all strive to attain." I wanted to say that seeing him before me was reward enough, but I knew better than to interrupt the king. He lifted his hands, a gold chain dangling between them. "I give to you an ankh, that once belonged to Michael." I blinked in astonishment. "It is yours now," Lord British told me, and held it out to me. I took it with reverence, touching the smooth golden surface of the ankh on the end of the chain with the fingers of one hand. I had missed my ankh, ever since I had lost it along with most of the rest of my items at the Black Gate. "Thank you, Lord British," I responded finally, bowing my head before him. After a moment of hesitation I lifted the chain and dropped it over my head, letting the ankh settle on my chest. The crowd was whooping; I think I heard Sami trying to make her shouts heard above the din. When the noise began to die down, Lord British spoke again to us all. "And so we begin a new age. You each have before you a deep personal quest. Your trials are only beginning. But know that Britannia will always be here for you." I smiled. And we for it. "Your friends, no matter what obstacles lie ahead, we will always be here for you." The crowd erupted into cheers. The noise was thundering. We grinned. Then suddenly Nystul was dashing forward. "Excuse me!" he said to Lord British, and then he thrust the hourglass into my hands. "The tan lord is calling! Hurry! He has five minutes!" I blinked in surprise, looking down at the hourglass. Nystul made shooing motions. "No way you can hear him here with all this noise!" I nodded, and we excused ourselves from Lord British and the others. The crowd was whispering amongst themselves excitedly as we dashed down the hall and out of the throne room. I ducked into what had been the tax collection center (it had been cleaned out by now) because it was empty and quiet. Andrella and Ayla joined me. Holding out the hourglass, I tried to summon the Time Lord, although I wasn't sure if it would even be necessary if he was indeed calling us. This time there was no ghost-like image of the Time Lord, but his voice suddenly sounded, ambient as if it was filling the entire room. "Kianne Cassidy. It is a pleasure to speak to you again." I broke out into a smile of relief. "You're all right!" I let out, which later I thought was a stupid thing to say. Luckily the Time Lord didn't focus on it. "Before we begin, you know that I can speak only for five minutes per seven days," he reminded us. I nodded, then remembered he probably couldn't see my head move. "Aye, Nystul mentioned it." "Any longer," he explained, "and I will be in danger of Mondain finding my location." I grimaced. "We saw him go off searching for you..." "He is scouring the multiverse now," the Time Lord agreed. "He can detect the traces of this link. Mondain is the most powerful adversary you will face. But you will not worry of that now." I nodded my head slowly, waiting for him to say more. "It is not possible for you to face him at this time. You must help the man known as Kilmas find Andrella. He cannot find her alone." "Kilmas!" I repeated, growing excited again. "Do you know where he is?" "He is on his journey there now," the Time Lord answered. "But without an inter-dimensional gate he will not be able to find her." "How do we help?" I asked instantly, knowing he would provide us a way. "Open a gate to his location using the magic of the Yew Crypts." I pulled out my parchment. "What location am I aiming for?" "His coordinates can be calculated by the 'Twin Moon theorem,'" the Time Lord replied. I looked up from my paper. Andrella smiled slightly. "Gorjez," she whispered. I nodded slightly. "We better hope so!" The Time Lord was still speaking. "His identity number is x12hj." Quickly I wrote that down. Before I could say more, the Time Lord added suddenly, "Our time is up." And the hourglass fell silent. "Thank you, Time Lord," I murmured. "Kilmas..." Andrella murmured. "I wish I knew who he was." I chuckled. "I suppose we will find out shortly." We nodded with faint smiles, then moved to rejoin the party in the throne room. I paused to glance at the hourglass again. Good ol' Time Lord. I knew he wouldn't lose to someone like Mondain. Turning, I walked out of the room. [1/17/2004] We went to Dawn today to tell Iolo about Lord British's return, since he hadn't been able to come back for the celebration. When we arrived we spotted Gwenno sitting in front of the tent. "Hail!" we greeted with friendly smiles. She lifted her head in surprise. "Avatar," she smiled in return, getting to her feet and bowing. "I am honored to meet you at last." I put a hand on her shoulder. "We are all friends here," I assured her pleasantly. There was no need for the formality. Gwenno smiled as she looked at our faces. We didn't even need to do introductions. "I've heard so much about you. I feel like I know you all already." We chatted for a little bit; then Gwenno led the way to a nearby lake, where Iolo was practicing his lute before a music stand. We passed greetings around and told Iolo the good news. When we explained about putting Blackthorn in a gem of imprisonment, Andrella snickered, "Darn, I should have brought him." I looked at her. "You did stash him away, right?" She nodded with a grin. "Aye, he's in a box." "So how did it happen?" Iolo asked eagerly. "Was there a fight!?" "Well, I didn't get to hit him much," Andrella snickered. "Not as much as she wanted to," I piped up. Between the three of us we told the story to a captive audience. At one point, Iolo commented, "It's a great place, here in Dawn. But I long for the wind of the forest. The sound of the city. The bustle of Britannia." I sighed a little. "I would bring you if you could come..." He just chuckled. "Oh bother, listen to me. I don't mean to sound like a depressed old man." "Maybe one day we can bring it to you," Andrella suggested with a wink. "Bring an entire city?" I laughed. "No," she said, "bring Dupré and give him some ale. That should do it." I laughed harder. "I bet Dupré is having a good time," Iolo chuckled. "He wasn't having much fun when Jaana was taking care of him," Andrella snickered. "Oh, Jaana." Iolo shook his head a little wistfully. "I should have listened to her. She told me not to come here..." "Maybe we will find a solution," I tried to reassure him. "Sure, you can loan me a few years," he laughed. I chuckled a little, but didn't remind him that I might not soon have that many left to give away. As if reading my mind, Iolo finished, "Don't take it so seriously. I am fine here. Just a little grumpy sometimes." "Sometimes?" Gwenno chuckled. "That's not unusual," I chimed in with a wink. Andrella showed Iolo the shield of the Knight of Valor she had been given. "There has been no High Knight since Geoffrey," Iolo marveled. "What an honor." I smiled. "Geoffrey was a good fighter, but not very talkative." I thought back over the years and could only shake my head at the memories. "He led the Order Guards against the first wave of serpents here," Iolo agreed with a sober expression. We got off that topic and moved on to Kilmas. Iolo sang a bit of a song relating to the Star Mages. Changing the past, righting the wrongs of the past, lost in the past... "As you can see, I forgot some of the words," Iolo chuckled when he finished. "Right the wrongs of the past, huh?" I mused thoughtfully. Iolo nodded. "'Mistakes once made, are forgotten. The past is no longer.' This Kilmas must be a very powerful person if the songs are to be believed." "Aye, I imagine he is," I nodded. We said our farewells shortly after, but promised to visit again. Iolo said he would try to dig up the rest of the words to the song about Star Mages. I wonder if it would hold any secrets...? [1/23/2004] Dupré came today and discussed Batlin with us. It would seem that Batlin has not done anything suspicious in this Britannia--the whole thing with the Fellowship and the Guardian never happened here. On top of that, Batlin wants to buy Blackthorn's old castle. I was wary at this news. I do not like to judge a person prematurely, but all of the other alternate versions of people I have met here have proven to be very much identical. It's as if, even though they are alternate versions of themselves, their personalities remain the same from one version to the next. As such, I can't be sure that Batlin isn't up to something that's not good. Dupré shared a lot of my same feelings and already warned Lord British of it. It's just that Batlin was willing to pay one and a half million gold pieces, and not only that, but Lord British doesn't really want to see Chaos Castle be abandoned and become a ruin. "Why doesn't he give it to Nystul?" I chuckled. Nevertheless, I agreed to discuss the issue with Lord British and try to explain more of it from my point of view. We found Lord British in his study. I was reminded immediately of Blackthorn, because of the entrance to his castle that he had hidden in the study. So we started out talking about Blackthorn. As it turns out, Lord British had not only spotted the tile, but he had also had found Blackthorn's secret chambers. "There was a piece of old moldy cheese there," he commented, and shook his head. Andrella and I snickered. Then Lord British changed the subject. "There is something I have been meaning to let you know. Nystul made a great discovery. We have deciphered the magic locking the inter-dimensional gates." I was startled. "So it wasn't just the disappearance of Northwind..." He nodded his head, his face somehow grave despite the good news. "Of course, my appreciation for your help in these lands is unending. But I want you to know I do not want you to feel tied to Britannia." I blinked, not sure what to say. As it was, it didn't matter, because Lord British continued, "Britannia is not a prison, and I was offended to know the Guardian used it as one." "Dupré had mentioned something about the Guardian trying to trap us here..." I murmured as understanding began to dawn. Again, Lord British nodded. "Just to be safe, we have decided to leave the gates locked for the time being. The last thing we need right now is the Valencian knights marching against us, as is their plan." Andrella made some grumbling noises. "However," the king went on, "Nystul created these." He opened a belt pouch and drew forth several white stones, handing one to each of us. As soon as I touched mine I was instantly reminded of the Orb of the Moons. But these were white instead of black. I held the stone gingerly, knowing already that it was powerful. Lord British explained, "By using the stone, you may leave to a destination of your choice. However, you will not be able to return." Upon hearing those words, my mind discarded using the stone as a possibility immediately. However, I later reflected that, perhaps some day, when my work is done here, I may wish to leave. But where would I go? I have yet to decide. "I mean it when I say you are not trapped here," Lord British told us in a serious tone. "While I appreciate having you here, I will not force anyone to stay." I closed my hand around the stone and looked up. "Thank you, Lord British. However, I wish to remain here." Andrella nodded her head in agreement. "Aye, me too." He smiled faintly. "Now that you have the stones, every time I see you I will know it is your choice to be here. But if you decide to leave, there are no hard feelings." We nodded in understanding. "I harken to thoughts of Michael," Lord British mused. "While he enjoyed his time here, he never wished to stay. And I am glad he was able to make that choice." "He wanted to be home..." I murmured quietly, touching my fingers to the ankh. I haven't been home since the Guardian stuck his face out of my computer screen. I haven't really put a lot of thought into it. I wonder what Earth is like these days. Is there anything left of home to go home to? Lord British finished, "Just as I chose to live here, Michael chose Earth." I lifted my head. I had momentarily forgotten that Lord British was originally from Earth. Like me, he had left his homeland behind. Did he ever wonder about Earth? "I am glad at least that the Guardian can no longer block gates," I spoke up, pushing my mind onto less thought-intensive topics. Without looking at it, I slipped the white stone into my pack. Lord British nodded. "We learned a lot while in the Guardian's dungeon." I grimaced, then smiled. "Well, we have much to accomplish here." "I know," Lord British responded. "And I want you to know: even though the Guardian believes you are incapable of attaining your full powers, I have reason to believe otherwise." I looked at him with a startled expression. Before I could even begin to contemplate a reply to that, Lord British was looking at Andrella. "And you as well, Andrella." "I have to face those Valencian Knights first, milord," she smiled grimly. "The trials ahead will test even the greatest of friendships," Lord British agreed. His phrasing caught my attention. I have many friends I can depend on. Andrella, Dupré, Shamino, Iolo... Surely he doesn't think any will turn on us? Or is it a reference to something else? I wasn't sure, and I didn't want to ask. "I will help in any way that I possibly can," Lord British assured us. I was struck by sudden memories of gating into Lord British's throne room at odd hours of the day with half-dead party members asking for healing. A smile, half wry, sprung up on my face. "Thank you," I said, for past deeds as well as present. We made arrangements to sit down someday soon and tell Lord British the entire story. It will take a long time, but it needs to be done. I don't want him to get the impression that we are trying to hide from him. "I missed so much. When I left to Pagan," Lord British chuckled to me, "you were only an archer in my eyes. Of course, a friend of Dupré's...but, the things I learned..." I felt my face growing hot in embarrassment. "My surprise to find out you were the immortal Avatar," Lord British smiled. "And Andrella," he went on. "A time mage. I would have never guessed." "Though she won't admit it yet," I snickered. Quite predictably, Andrella chimed in with a smirk, "I'm still uncertain of that." We brought up Batlin, and I explained that I was wary of him because he had once been one of the Guardian's top officials. Lord British did not dismiss my worries. Rather, he suggested that I speak with Batlin myself and see if I can get a better understanding of him that way. He said Batlin could probably be found in Empath Abbey, or West Yew. It seems that Batlin wants to use Chaos Castle to start a council for the Druids--that is, if he can be believed. "The Druids of Justice are often secluded," Lord British pointed out. "So their presence here would be a boon to the Virtues." I agreed to go speak with Batlin, and to not judge him until I had more information. When I mentioned Hook, Lord British said the assassin had a high bounty on his head. So it seems that Hook hasn't managed to be discreet with his murders. "If Batlin has any association with him," the king added, "there will be no mercy granted either of them." I nodded my head. "We will find out." "I have a grand dislike of those who deceive me," Lord British murmured darkly. "If not for my trust of Blackthorn..." I didn't want to go there, so I asked about Nystul. We needed to get the hourglass enchanted again in case the Time Lord wishes to contact us again. Lord British took the hourglass and assured us he would get it to the mage. "By the way," he added. "I examined Blackthorn's castle and there is nothing there that I would like anyone else to have. Rather then destroy it, why don't you take it?" Ooo, permission to loot Blackthorn's place. I must admit I'm rather curious as to what is there. I wonder if he's added anything since I last saw the place...? "He has a book dealing with the Guardian," Lord British said in disgust. "I would not like for anyone else to read such obscenities." I agreed wholeheartedly. "We can use that for a bonfire," I grinned. Then I shook my head. "He was trying to make something out of clay there once too..." "A green ball, wasn't it?" Andrella asked. I nodded. "Aye, he was painting them green. But I have no idea what he was trying to do." "I do think he had more up sleeve then even the Guardian knew," Lord British stated. "He was no mere lackey." "At least he is no longer a threat," I chuckled with a smile. "But I wonder sometimes what he was up to." Lord British shook his head. "We may never know." We found him staring through the lens, oblivious to our presence as usual. I stopped and waited for Andrella to clap her hands. Gorjez didn't jump as high this time, so I guess he's getting used to it. "Greetings ladies," he smiled. "I apologize for my weariness. There have been some tremendous happenings lately." "Oh?" we asked. "Yes!" he smiled in excitement. "There is a comet passing by. A comet!" I blinked and started to ask him if it was hovering near any planets.2 I thought better of it, but when he offered to let me take a look, I accepted and stepped up to the lens anxiously. I didn't see any planets, just the comet that the telescope was already trained upon. It looked like a pretty large comet to me, but that could have just been the magnification. It was a blood red in color. "Does it mean anything?" I asked as I stepped back. "Everything!" Gorjez grinned. "What's everything?" I winked. "I don't know the words for it," he admitted. "But it is amazing!" I supposed it was just a normal comet after all. Andrella took a turn at the telescope. "Are they always red?" I asked conversationally, having never really seen a real comet before. "Red?" Gorjez frowned. "It's white! Comets are made of ice!" I frowned. "It looked red to me." "Ooo, pretty!" Andrella commented from the telescope. "It's sparkling!" "Sparkling?" Gorjez and I repeated. "Let me see," Gorjez insisted, bumping Andrella away from the telescope so that he could look through its lens. "You didn't have to push," she muttered as she stepped back. "What color was it?" I asked her while Gorjez was absorbed at the telescope. "It was red then white." "Red then white?" "It flashed red, then white," she described. "What!?" Gorjez protested from the telescope. "That would explain why I saw red and he saw white," I mused. "It's white!" Gorjez insisted. "No, it gives a flash of red," Andrella tried to explain. "Then it turns white. Let Ayla see." Reluctantly now, he relinquished the telescope to Ayla, who took a turn. "What color?" I asked as soon as she was done. "Red and white," she replied. "I didn't look long enough I guess..." I murmured. "I only saw red." But my words were drowned out by Gorjez. "What!?" he was bellowing again, jumping back in front of the telescope. "There must be a mistake. It could not possibly be red. A comet is not red..." "It was both," Andrella reminded him. "I have been watching it for days!" he insisted. "It is clearly a white object made of ice and stone." "Maybe it only recently started flashing red?" I suggested. "Red, pah," he scoffed. "May we see again?" Andrella asked. When he told her to wait, she stomped her foot and made a joking comment about how he had pushed her from the telescope. Finally Gorjez stepped back. "It is white," he insisted with finality. Andrella took a look. "What!?" she cried as soon as she had focused through the lens. "It wasn't white a minute ago!" She sighed and moved away. I took my turn and peered into the lens. I saw the same thing this time as I had the last time. A blood red comet. "Ah, there, it's red!" I noted, continuing to watch and wait for it to turn back to white. "What!?" Gorjez cried, shoving me away from the telescope so that he could take a look. "So rude," Andrella chuckled. "Hey!" Gorjez stared. "It's spinning!" That was a new one. "Spinning?" Suddenly he noticed one of the wandering healers in the area had gotten too close to the giant telescope. "Carrol, off the controls!" he protested, then sighed. "Now it will take hours to realign it! Oh bother!" "Well that's not good," Andrella sighed. "We needed your help for coordinates." "Coordinates?" he repeated. He waited a beat, then started, "You know, Gorjez cannot be responsible for..." "Aye, yes Gorjez, we have been read the waiver ten thousand times," Andrella snickered. I was digging out my notes. "I have the instructions..." He looked at me. This was a new one. "Instructions?" I nodded my head. "Aye, it's a little strange. Ah, here we are. He said the coordinates can be calculated by the 'twin moon theorem.'" I looked up from the paper. "Does that mean anything to you?" "Twin moons theorem... Twin moons theorem!" he echoed. I raised an eyebrow. "Yes? No?" I chuckled. "Oh yes! Every star sage knows that!" Gorjez assured us. "The most complicated... integral... convoluted... calculation of all time." "Ho boy," I chuckled. "But you can do it?" He grinned. "Of course I can do it! But! There is a integer missing that makes it impossible to complete by any star sage." "The identity number?" I asked him, and he stared at me with an expression of total astonishment. "How did you know!?" he gasped. "Well," I chuckled, because we always seem to stumble into these things in the oddest ways. "We're looking for Kilmas. We were told his identity number." I looked down on my paper again. "x12hj." Gorjez's jaw dropped. "x12hj! x12hj! x12hj!" he began repeating over and over as he dug into his pockets frantically, scrambling to find a quill. "I'll carve it with a knife into my arm if I have to!" "Don't do that!" I handed him my quill, and he quickly scribbled down the number. I had been taken by surprise, since I hadn't realized this would be such a tremendous task. Gorjez was beside himself with excitement. "No one has ever finished the equation!" "Then you will be the first!" I smiled. He turned. "Well, we can't calculate it with this telescope! We have to upgrade it!" "Upgrade?" we repeated. He began walking all around the telescope, muttering things about gyromatiers and fiscal efiblotiaors. "I will handle all the technical issues," he offered, "if you gather the supplies." We agreed and asked him what he would need. He started listing resources, but I interrupted to tell him I needed my quill back so I could write them all down. "Okay, then a quill is one of the things I need," he told me as he handed it back. I giggled. "Let's see," he began from the beginning. "I will have to find some cheap foreign labor, so 5000 gold for expenses." He muttered some more, going over the telescope. "Need some ingots for that... 800 should do... Oh, but only pure silver!" Eight hundred ingots?? I poked my quill through my paper. Andrella put a hand to the back of her head. "Well, uh, that might take a while..." Gorjez was already moving on. "And about 900 logs." "I'll take care of the logs," I said without looking up as I rewrote my list. "And I'll get Dupré to carry for me," I teased. "And some leather to string it together," Gorjez finished. "Maybe 200 leather. Oh!" he added as a new thought hit him. "And I have to review some of the ancient writings. I need about 50 of those." He paused to consider the telescope some more. "That sounds like it would work." We told him we would gather the supplies as quickly as we could. But the whole thing about the red comet still disturbed me for a reason I couldn't put a finger on. So, as we were leaving, I asked casually, "So the comet wasn't really red?" "Comet is not red," Gorjez assured us. "No way." "It was just the telescope then?" I probed. "It must have been you," Gorjez stated. "The telescope is perfect." "Me?" I repeated with a laugh. "I can't make comets turn red just by looking at them!" We chuckled. "Well, you found out the identity number!" Gorjez pointed out, as if that makes up for it. "I'll start modifying what I can, but I'll need those supplies to really get started." We nodded and said farewell. He needed to start realigning the telescope, and we needed to start gathering resources. "The twin moons theorem!" I heard him marvel as we were leaving. "This will be amazing...!" 1 In the events of Ultima 7, Kianne blew up the Black Gate (which was made of blackrock) using a wand which happened to react to blackrock. When used, the wand would cause blackrock to explode. It seemed like a good solution at the time, but the explosion is what sent Kianne to another universe, and Dupré and Iolo to the Shadowland. (Consequently, Kianne never faced the events of Ultima 8 and beyond, although other Avatars on other Britannias may have.) 2 In Ultima 5 you can discover which town a Shadowlord is occupying by seeing which comets in the sky are near which planets.
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