Kianne's Journal - Archive

<<Previous	Main	Next>>

---

[2/12/2004]

Today I received an invitation from Lord British. He'd been very busy lately with getting the kingdom back into order after his disappearance, but he had some free time now and asked us if we would like to meet him in his study. He wanted to hear about the tales of the Avatar, he said.

But I knew there would be more to the story than that.

So Andrella and I went together to the castle and finally had time to sit down and tell him the whole, long, sad story.

He was interested in how I had become Avatar here, but by my conscience I had to begin further back, at the time when Soth had returned after the opening of the Black Gate. I told him without trying to hide any truth how we had attempted to work with Soth rather than fighting him, since he claimed he only wanted to return home to Krynn. Andrella and Lord British interrupted very little, so I spoke in mostly a monologue as I went through the events.

When I got to the point of Blackthorn's meeting with Mondain, Lord British said something interesting. He commented that he suspected that Blackthorn had already known that I was the Avatar, and was simply faking it for Mondain's benefit. After all, Lord British is convinced that Blackthorn had his own plans that even Mondain knew nothing of. And there has always been the question as to how Blackthorn knew to specify my blood for the opening of the Black Gate.

But, reflecting back, I wonder if it may be something more simple. Blackthorn had seemed very surprised and dismayed to learn I was the Avatar, and I'm not sure he could have acted that. Yet he surely knew that I had been the Avatar on another Britannia, as Dupré apparently talked about it all the time.

So what if Blackthorn simply specified my blood as a matter of convenience, without really knowing I would become the Avatar here on this land? You know, "any Avatar will do."

It is, as Lord British commented, probably an answer we will never know.

So I went on to tell more of Blackthorn's return. This was the part that I was dreading, but it was also the most important.

"We learned where Soth was being held," I said, and took a deep breath to steady myself. "And...decided we'd try to free him."

Lord British coughed. "I must say, I had hoped that wasn't true..."

Seeing the disappointment in his face was one of the worst things I've ever experienced, but I could only think that it was still better than a false respect.

Miserably I looked down at my hands. "I had to tell you. I can't let anything about what we did be a secret."

"The decision wasn't made by Kianne alone though," Andrella spoke up from where she had mostly been sitting in silence.

"Nevertheless, I still agreed to it," I was quick to point out.

"And so did I," Andrella chimed in.

I lifted my head. "I long decided, Lord British, that I will accept whatever punishment you decide." I let those words hang on the air for a moment, then sighed quietly. "But first, I want to tell you the entire story."

Lord British nodded without comment.

My throat was tight, but I was trying to ignore that. Lord British had gotten up and was gazing out of the window. "I must admit, that was the most despairing news that came to us while in Pagan."

"I imagine Blackthorn gloated about Navien's agreement?" I asked ruefully.

"It was his most glorified achievement."

I sighed. "The worst of it is... Soth wasn't even in the least bit grateful."

"Once you think about it though, it wasn't a surprise," Andrella muttered.

"No, I should have known," I agreed. "I just had higher hopes than I should have. Hopes that at least a common enemy might allow us to work together."

"We all should have known, Kianne," Andrella pointed out.

I barely heard her. "I should have known--but the depth of the evils he committed surprised me anyway. The Gargoyles and the Ophidians... He brought them all down..."

"And that is one reason I fear that man is the most evil force that ever stepped into this land," Lord British agreed.

"I never imagined he'd turn out to be worse than Mondain. Worse than the Guardian." I shook my head dismally. "It was a horrible miscalculation. I will never be able to make it up to...all of the people he slaughtered..."

Andrella shook her head silently. Lord British sighed. I raised a hand to wipe my eyes.

"Even the Guardian despised him," Lord British murmured. "Even Blackthorn... There is no one who escaped Soth's consequence. And that blame I rested on Blackthorn's shoulders." He shook his head.

I kept my gaze on my hands fisted in my lap.

Lord British finally took a deep breath and changed the subject. "That is enough speak of the dread lord. Continue with your quest."

I did so, but with difficulty. I think I skipped more details than I had been planning, but I'm pretty sure I covered all of the significant parts. "Soth told us that Shamino had an Orb of the Moons." I paused. "No, I credit him too much. We would have found out eventually. Because Shalilissta was ready to release Shamino to the Avatar."

Andrella nodded in agreement.

When I got to the point of Soth returning to Krynn, Lord British surprised me a little by saying, "And just in time. I know the Guardian was on his way to Krynn. I am sure the two met in battle, for the Guardian did not return."

"I don't suppose they finished each other off?" I couldn't help but comment.

"We can only hope it would be that easy," Lord British replied, and I agreed with him.

I finished up the tale, then paused to glance at Andrella. "Did I miss anything?"

She thought back. "I'm pretty sure you covered everything."

I sighed a little at the memories. "Well, we are further along now, but... It was at such a cost, I'm sorry."

"It was a price we all paid," Lord British reminded me. "All have taken great losses in this struggle for survival. Including Mondain and the Guardian."

I shook my head. "I just...made so many misjudgments."

"Your presence, your strength and determination, is the only thing that has kept this land from succumbing to the dark powers," Lord British stated. "Do not underestimate how much you have helped this land."

I was silent while he spoke. "I did what I could, but, sometimes, it seems..." I couldn't figure out how to finish.

"It is good to know the truth," Lord British mentioned. "The truth is what separates us from the evil against us. Though mistakes are made, you confront them. You could have attempted to justify your actions, to justify the pain Soth brought to the land. But instead, you acknowledged the mistake."

I was looking back at my hands.

"I hope you feel better with the understanding that I am truly grateful you have told me about this," Lord British finished.

I nodded my head. I'd had to tell him. "Whatever you decide now..." I began, but couldn't bring myself to finish the sentence.

Lord British stood. "I have decided."

His words brought me to my feet. I knew Lord British was not one to take long to make up his mind. I steadied myself for whatever he would say, knowing now it would be just.

Lord British looked at me, and as if he was giving a command, said, "You will forgive yourself. And you will strive to uphold the Virtues you represent. For the people find their strength in the Avatar. Your regrets will only lead to doubts."

Lack of confidence...

"Be confident and stand strong," he requested. "For all of us. And for yourself."

I stared at him. "Thank you," is all I could think of to say.

Lord British smiled. "Thank you for your tale."

We bade him farewell and retired for the night. I know I will sleep better now.

---

[2/13/2004]

We went--again--to the telescope today to see if Gorjez was done yet. The change was obvious the instant we exited the moongate. The entire telescope had been plated in silver. It was an awesome sight.

We found Gorjez scurrying around amid a mess of books, papers, boards, rolls of silver wire, and such. When we got his attention, he said his usual. "Oh, this is terrible. This is horrible."

"The comet?" I asked, getting used to this by now.

"What comet?" Gorjez responded. "This is bad. I am out of ink."

I smacked my forehead. "I'll go buy you some. Be right back."

"Hurry!" he urged.

I went to Occlo, where I always buy my ink, and visited the scribes there. I bought him two bottles just to be on the safe side. When I returned, he took one and immediately began scribbling on some paper.

"Oh my," he moaned finally. "This is terrible."

This was getting old. "What?" we demanded.

He wrung his hands. "I have misplaced the identity number!"

I sighed and pulled out my notes. "I have it right here. x12hj."

Gorjez was only listening with half an ear, because he was still sorting through his papers. "Is that a capital X, or a variable?"

How in blazes would I know? "It was spoken to me, I don't know," I told him. "All he said was X-twelve-H-J."

"Twelve!" Gorjez repeated suddenly, coming to a halt. "I thought you said the letter L!"

I blinked. "Huh?"

Gorjez lifted his hand, holding a sheet of paper. He had found his own copy, where he had written down the number before. "X-L-two-H-J!" he read from the page, adding emphasis on each letter.

I scratched my head. "I wrote a one I think..."

"Well, it looks like an L!" He put his hands on his hips. "Well, this changes things certainly!"

I looked at Andrella. "Do you remember? Didn't he say twelve?"

She shrugged. "I thought it was X-twelve-H-J."

Gorjez scribbled on his page. "Well, I can calculate for both, but let me tell you one thing: Gorjez cannot be responsible for what you do with these coordinates."

We nodded. "I think it was twelve, so do that one first. Just make sure you tell us which one is which!" I chuckled.

Gorjez went to the telescope, which, apparently, was in fact functional, despite the mess. After gazing through the lens for a moment, he wrote something on his page. He looked through the lens again, then glanced down at the paper. Then the lens, then the paper. He began alternating between the two until finally Andrella interrupted him.

"What are you doing?" she demanded when she had his attention.

He looked at her. "I hope it was not the letter L and the X is not a variable!"

"Oh? Why?" I asked.

"Otherwise," he said breathlessly, "you might just end summoning the Dread Lord Soth!"

I blinked. "What!?" There's no way the Time Lord would have sent us to Soth. "How do you figure that?"

"Well, you see," the star sage explained, "if the lowest common factor is divisible by the sum of the variable, then it would lead to a negative identity. And that negative identity would be none other then the Dread Lord Soth! No doubt!"

I sighed a little. What were the odds? "Well, do twelve then, not L. We definitely don't want Soth so I know that's not it."

He nodded slightly. "You are saying the X is not a variable?"

"I don't know what X is, but try twelve," I told him.

"Well, then." He scribbled some more numbers down on a blank piece of parchment, calculating on his fingers, then went back to the telescope.

"And this one better not be negative," I muttered.

"Ummm," Gorjez spoke up after a moment. "This isn't much better."

"Uh oh," I sighed. "Now what?"

"The identity number is of a gold knight!" Gorjez announced.

Gold knight? Now where have I heard that before? I wanted to bang my head on something.

But then Gorjez took me by surprise. "Jarred?" he asked before any of us could say the name.

"I thought we were getting coordinates here, not identity numbers," I spoke up.

"The identity number leads to people!" he said.

"And you can tell their name?" I asked in surprise.

"By the numbers, yes. That is half of the miracle of the Twin Moon theorem!" He grinned for a moment, and then noticed our expressions. "He's not who you want?"

I shook my head. "No... But you're getting closer. Try if X isn't a variable."

Gorjez went back to scribbling on his papers. Andrella glanced at me. "Jarred can't be Kilmas..."

I shook my head. "No, I don't see how that could be. But he is getting close to Kilmas."

Gorjez was gazing through the telescope again. "This is, uh..." He hesitated, as if he wasn't quite sure how to phrase it.

"Now who?" I asked almost in exasperation.

"Well, the number leads to someone named Kilmas, I think," Gorjez began, but I drowned him out with a cheer.

"Yeah! Bulls' eye!" I grinned.

But Gorjez wasn't finished. "But, uh... By these calculations, he is, uh..." The sage scratched his head. "Not alive."

I blinked. "Uh!?"

Andrella smacked her forehead. Gorjez began double-checking some books. I frowned. "But how can you tell, since his location and status is always changing?" I wanted to know.

"The twin moons would change to correspond to status changes," Gorjez assured me. He went to a clock and began adjusting its hands, evidently doing more calculations.

"Don't tell me he died within the past week or so," I sighed.

Gorjez wasn't paying attention. "How to say it? His location is...the future."

"In the future?" I repeated. "So he's not dead yet?"

"He certainly can't be alive," Gorjez responded, punctuating his words by tapping sharply on his page. "After all, he would be over two hundred years old."

I laughed in relief. "Oh, that's nothing." I think Iolo is older than that by now.

Gorjez spun to look at me. "Two hundred!" he repeated as if I was deaf, but I was waving my hand in dismissal.

"So, just give us his coordinates," I requested.

"You want me to tell you the coordinates to a dead man?" Gorjez gasped.

"Aye," Andrella and I said at once.

Gorjez stared at us. "Are you serious?" When he saw us nod our heads, he sighed a little and grabbed up some books. "Well, I will then. But you must know..."

"Gorjez cannot be held responsible..." Andrella broke in, and I finished for her, "...for what we do with these coordinates." Then we both added at once, "Yes, we know."

Gorjez gaped. "Wow. Okay then..." He fumbled through books and pages and started for the telescope, when suddenly everything slipped out of his hands and scattered onto the grass. The wind caught the loose papers and soon they were flying everywhere.

We all scrambled to catch the pages, grabbing up what we could and returning them to him, but Gorjez began wailing, "Out of order! They're out of order!! It took me all week to get this together! Ahhh!"

"Don't they have page numbers?" Andrella asked in exasperation.

"No, they don't have numbers! If they are in order they don't need numbers!" he snapped in irritation, moaning. He began sorting the stacks of pages we had given him, while I stood downwind from him, just in case.

"This is terrible!" he sobbed. "Maybe that's why the Lycaeum has walls!"

"I guess this means no coordinates?" Andrella sighed.

"I'm sorry..." he moaned, then paused and blinked as his eyes fell on a page. "Wait! Here they are!"

He quickly separated several pages from the rest, then frowned. "Hmm. But the corresponding pages are not intact..." He sighed. "Well, I have some good news and bad news. It looks like I can't calculate any more coordinates from the Twin Moon theorem like this! I need to collect all my papers!"

And some of the papers had blown off into the sea...

"And the good news?" we asked.

He stood up with several pages held tightly in his hand. "Well, I have these coordinates you wanted, at least."

I let out a breath in relief and quickly pulled out my own parchment and quill to copy them down.

"Here they are," he said, and began reading. "kzba,kg237,24..."

As I copied it down, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of number that was supposed to be. Then again, I guess it's no more strange than x12hj.

"And b7926,423," he went on, flipping pages. "And, 0rz." He frowned. "Hmm. Orz."

"How many numbers are there?" I asked in confusion.

Gorjez looked up from the pages. "Well, I calculated for three people, right?"

I stared at him. "Which one is which?"

"How would I know!?" Gorjez threw up his arms. "They are out of order now!"

"Argh!" I groaned. "We can't take a chance at hitting the wrong one!" I looked down at my paper. "Which one do you remember calculating first?"

"I don't know," Gorjez sighed. "There are so many numbers and variables involved. I couldn't remember one from the next."

"Well, maybe you could start over?" Andrella suggested. "Just start with the number X-twelve-H-J. With X not being a variable."

Gorjez looked at her. "You think I can just start over and plug in some numbers when my lifetime of work just blew away? And then these pages are not even in order. Thousands of pages of work!"

We sighed. It looked like there was nothing more we could do. "Well, thanks anyway," I told him as we prepared to leave.

Gorjez was silent for a moment. "I didn't have time to thank you before," he spoke finally in a more calm voice. "But thanks for all the work you did to help with the telescope."

We nodded. "It's beautiful."

"I can still calculate land-based coordinates anytime you need them," he offered. We nodded and thanked him, then returned to the keep.

Ayla departed to go decorate her new house, leaving Andrella and I to sit at the table in the keep and ponder the possibilities. We were stuck with three sets of coordinates, two too many, and neither of us had any desire to see Soth return. So what were we to do now?

"Maybe the Time Lord would know?" Andrella suggested, and I nodded my head. I was thinking the same thing. Perhaps there would be another way to get Kilmas. And at any rate, we hadn't spoken with the Time Lord in over two weeks, so he would be able to spare us five minutes I was sure.

I took out the enchanted hourglass and held it before me to summon the Time Lord.

After a moment, his ambient voice filled the room. "Salutations, Kianne. Our time has begun."

I didn't waste a moment. "Hail, Time Lord. I'm sorry to bother you, but we've run into a bit of a snag getting those coordinates. And he says that Kilmas is dead?" I added, turning the statement into a question.

"That is not true at all," the Time Lord assured us. "Kilmas is alive, though danger surrounds him."

Whew. "Well, we have three coordinates, but we don't know which set is for Kilmas," I explained. "One's for Soth and one's for Jarred, so we'd rather not miss."

"I wouldn't want to bring Soth back into this land," Andrella agreed.

"Do you know of another way we can find Kilmas?" I asked the air.

"You have always trusted your feelings, Avatar," the Time Lord's incorporeal voice reminded me. "I cannot alter or change your destiny. You must decide what path will lead Kilmas to you."

I hate it when he does this. "But one of these is Soth," I found myself saying before I could stop myself. Great, now I sound like I'm whining.

"Trust yourself," he repeated firmly. "You must try. Kilmas is depending on you."

Andrella and I looked at each other.

"Do not step through the gate," the Time Lord warned us, "but be prepared for what will come."

I sighed a little. Andrella muttered, "Ugh."

"Our time is up," the Time Lord announced. "Farewell."

"Farewell," I murmured as the hourglass grew silent once more. "Thank you. I think."

"Well, that was no help."

Andrella sighed. "So... What now?"

I contemplated the paper while chewing on some ribs. Eating doesn't really help me to think, but at least it kept my stomach from gnawing on itself. "Well, okay, if I had to guess, I'd say that Orz is Soth. His was negative and that one is very different." I offered her some ribs as well.

"So, if we assume Soth is Orz," I went on while she dug in, "that leaves kzba,kg237,24 and b7926,423." I considered them. "One of them is full of ks, but that's got to be coincidence."

"Orz was negative?" Andrella asked.

"We don't know that for sure," I pointed out, "but look how different it is. And the other two were positive. Or they should have been, since Gorjez didn't say they weren't. He seemed certain the negative number would lead to Soth. I assume it'd also lead to really zany coordinates." Andrella nodded at the logic, but I chuckled at myself. "But what do I know?"

Andrella wisely didn't answer that. "So your instincts tell you the kzba one?" she asked instead.

I really wasn't sure. I tapped my finger on the table thoughtfully. Rather than answering her directly, I mused, "I think we can chance missing and hitting Jarred instead, if he doesn't bring the Guardian with him."

"If Jarred comes here he will want to take over," Andrella pointed out darkly. "He could cause mass destruction."

But I shook my head and responded simply, "He won't. We will kill him on the way out of the gate."

Andrella looked surprised, then delighted. "Really!?"

I laughed at her reaction. "Or, should I say: You will kill him, and I will show you lots of Compassion."

Andrella laughed and grinned widely.

I chuckled. "Look, I'm not trying to be cruel here, but an enemy is an enemy. I fully believe you when you say he'd be destructive. So..."

"I didn't even argue with you one bit," Andrella smirked. "I was glad to hear you say that."

I smiled grimly at her. "So, I think you could defeat Jarred. Provided he doesn't come with an army or something."

"Then, shall we try?" Andrella asked.

I looked at the paper again. Three numbers. It really was like playing a roulette--and such a deadly one, at that. Logic had eliminated one, but which of the remaining two numbers should we choose? I stared at the one with the ks in it, remembering the words of the Time Lord. Fate. Destiny. I closed my eyes, then clenched the paper in my hand and stood up.

"Let's do it."

I stopped by my house to drop off some things and pick up others. "Say. Do you think Nystul would have any idea?" I asked suddenly.

"We could go ask," Andrella agreed. "Of course, you will have to forgive me if I snap." She chuckled.

I smirked, then realized, "Then again, he might have you cast another Time spell." We both shuddered at once. I put the lid down on a chest with a sound of finality. "Maybe we should avoid him."

I gave her my glass sword, since she had used hers on Shevilia, and I figured she would be more in a position to use it than I.

"The Time Lord mentioned my destiny," I murmured as we were about to leave. "I hate fate."

Andrella nodded in agreement. I paused, standing on my porch, to look down at the Orb of the Moons resting in my palm. Roulette. If we hit Soth...

I was quietly speaking before I even realized I was voicing the thoughts out loud. "Am I fated to bring in this world's destruction?"

But Andrella shook her head. "No. You're too good of a person to have a fate such as that. Your fate is to bring peace to this land." She smiled.

I wished I could believe her. "Well," I sighed. "Let's go meet fate."

And I opened a moongate to the Yew Crypts.

The Forbidden Crypts of Yew. No Entry.

The wooden signs spoke mute testimony of the horrors that had taken place here. But today the grounds around the entrance to the Crypts were still and empty. I walked silently up to door and opened it, disregarding the ominous placards.

I thought at first that the inside was also empty. However just as I walked through the door, a spectre materialized out of nowhere right in front of me.

With a cry of surprise, I dodged to the side. Andrella immediately slashed it with her sword, but her blade went right through the creature. Yet, totally ignoring its own incorporeal nature, the ghost retaliated with a piercingly sharp blast that Andrella was just barely able to deflect with her shield.

I knew then the truth. This wasn't a spectre at all. "A poltergeist!" I identified. "I hate those things!"

"They're fast," Andrella agreed.

I quickly grabbed the reagents for Fireball, since that was a spell I could remember off the top of my head. "Vas Flam!" The fireball hit, but barely make a mark. It wasn't strong enough.

"And immune to everything but magic," I sighed. Even the arrows from my bow, though magical in nature, pass right through it.

"I will try to hold him off as you cast," Andrella told me.

I pulled out my spellbook with a slight grimace. Lately I have let my mastery of Britannian magic slide, since for the first time in a long time, I haven't been the primary spellcaster in the party. Besides which, the spells here just aren't as useful as the ones I had once known, as most of the truly powerful ones have been barred from use. To be honest, the only reason I kept up my practice as much as I did was to be able to cast Gate Travel without a runebook...and even that has been unnecessary now ever since obtaining the Orb.

I paged through looking for Energy Bolt and came across Lightning. I decided to give it a try since it is a lower circle, and, thus, easier to cast. The thunderbolt did cause the poltergeist's form to waver briefly, doing more damage than the fireball, but it still wasn't enough.

Flipping pages, I came to the spell I wanted. I managed to get an Energy Bolt off without fizzling, and the poltergeist flickered wildly for a moment before regaining its form. Finally, that one hurt it.

But by then I was out of mana, and of course I never carry mana potions on me. I sighed.

Andrella skillfully used her shield as a barrier, preventing the poltergeist from reaching me while I waited for enough mana to cast again. It felt like forever, but we finally dissipated the evil apparition.

I thanked Andrella for holding it off, but she just grinned and teased, "You saved me!" And I chuckled.

We ventured deeper into the Yew Crypts, encountering nothing but another poltergeist, which we dispatched in the same way as the first. Finally, we were left in peace at the pentagram of blood.

I considered the circle silently for a moment. We both knew I would be left vulnerable when the gate opened. "I'll be counting on you," I murmured to Andrella.

"I will do my best to protect you," she smiled with grim determination.

I took a moment to steady myself before stepping into the circle. At least this was a journey I had taken once before. I pulled out the paper with the coordinates and gazed at the numbers I had chosen, reading and rereading them until I had them committed to memory. kzba,kg237,24. Let this be right.

I closed my eyes and took some time to relax and concentrate. I rather expected to see the starry void that my mind had conjured up before. It didn't happen that way this time, though. The experience was much more similar to using the Orb normally, and far removed from that strange journey I took to get Soth to Krynn. Perhaps because now I wasn't focusing on a place, but rather on coordinates.

Nevertheless, I felt strengthened in this place, the Orb pulsing with a power it does not normally possess. And I knew for certain this moongate could only be formed here, at the Crypts.

kzba,kg237,24...

Focused, I raised the Orb and opened the gate. The bright red light that sprang up within the circle was visible even through my closed eyelids. Opening my eyes, I stepped back away from the moongate warily, feeling weary again. Fumbling a little, I reached for my bow.

A beholder appeared.

Andrella intercepted it instantly, leaving me time to wonder where in blazes the moongate led. What was a beholder doing here? I knew my arrows would not do much good against it, so quickly I snatched up the Stone of Compassion and charged my bow, firing its yellow arrows of healing at Andrella.

As we were dealing with that, a couple of hobgoblins and an imp emerged from the gate. I was starting to feel desperation now. Wherever I had sent the gate was obviously not pleasant, and there was no way to close it. Why hadn't we put more thought into this?

Then, without warning, a man bolted from the moongate. He took one look at the monsters and just as quickly darted out of the room. My eyes widened. I'd gotten a good enough look at him to see that I didn't recognize him. "It's not Jarred...!" I breathed. And it most certainly wasn't Soth. Could it be...?

Andrella and I finished off the monsters and sheathed our weapons even as we ran from the room in pursuit of the man. We rounded the corner just in time to see him dashing down the stairs. His hair was white and he had a long white beard. That was all I saw before he disappeared into the next level down.

"Hey! Wait!" I yelled, racing after him. Downstairs, I saw him again. He was wearing dusky blue clothing and no armor. I called to him again, but he didn't heed me; he continued to run away from us as if we were monsters. Yet, halfway down the hallway, we caught up to him. He was leaning against the wall, huffing, too winded to run any farther.

"Who are you?" I asked him as I stopped at what I hoped was an unthreatening distance away from him.

He gazed back at us with a frightened look. "I don't want any trouble. Don't hurt an old man...!"

Andrella came to a halt beside me and immediately pulled off her helmet. "We won't harm you," she tried to reassure him.

At least, not if he turns out to be...

The man showed no sign of recognition upon seeing her face, so I finally tossed caution to the wind. "Are you Kilmas?" I blurted out.

The fear in his eyes was slowly replaced with curiosity. "Who are you?"

"I'm Kianne; this is Andrella," I spoke rapidly, sure now.

He blinked. "Andrella... Valence?"

She nodded. "Aye."

The old man smiled in relief. "I'm Kilmas Valence."

"We did it!" I cheered, relieved beyond measure.

Andrella broke into a grin. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

"And you," Kilmas responded. "It is an honor."

I was so excited I began to babble. "At last! But what were all those creatures? And--oh no! The gate was still open!"

Abruptly I spun on my heel and raced back the way we had come. I heard Andrella and Kilmas following. I arrived at the circle of blood to see that the red moongate I had formed was still hovering in the center.

More hobgoblins had come through. Andrella engaged them immediately while I fired with my bow. "How do we close it!?" I cried in dismay over the din of the battle.

"You are asking me?" Kilmas returned just as loudly.

I stopped firing for a moment to chant a Dispel spell. Nothing happened, as I had expected. "Dispel doesn't work!"

I was almost frantic when suddenly the moongate vanished, taking its eerie red light with it.

"Whew."

I pulled out the Orb of the Moons. "Great, let's get out of here," I commented, and formed a gate to the Shadow Keep. "Don't worry," I smiled at Kilmas. "This gate leads to a much better place!"

"I'm so glad we reached you."

I smiled at our visitor as we stood on the grassy lawn in front of the keep.

Kilmas put a hand over his eyes as he gazed at the sky, looking around himself in awe. "It's been months since I've seen the sun shine! Where are we?"

"We are in the Shadowland," Andrella told him.

"Wow," he smiled like a little kid. "This is great. I was supposed to find you, Andrella. Some guy called Hawkwind told me to."

Hawkwind! Of course...¹

We went inside to sit down, but Kilmas was too antsy to stay seated. He kept jumping up from time to time to look at this or that in the keep with childlike curiosity.

"So, why were you looking for me?" Andrella asked him, resuming the conversation from outside.

"I don't know," he responded.

I blinked. "You...don't know?"

Kilmas shrugged. "I thought you did." When he saw our blank expressions, he added, "Hawkwind said for me to go. He saved me."

"Where were you?" Andrella inquired.

"Valence was in a great earthquake," he explained. "The entire land was crumbling beneath our feet. All I can remember is smoke and dust, and people screaming..." Kilmas shook his head a little. "Then somehow, I woke up in a white place. And a guy in a white robe was looking at me. He said he was Hawkwind, and he said I would be okay."

"He would know," I couldn't help but chuckle ruefully.

"He said to find Andrella Valence and the Avatar," Kilmas finished. "They could help me."

Andrella smiled. "Well, you have found us."

"I didn't even know how I found you!" he laughed. "I was just walking through a dungeon, and a gate appeared in front of me!"

"Well, actually, we found you," Andrella grinned.

"And all those monsters jumped through ahead of you?" I chuckled wryly.

Kilmas nodded slightly. "Well, the light was bright. I jumped back and they jumped right over me." He shook his head at the memory. "I almost didn't go through, but something made me do it. I don't even know what!"

"I'm glad you did," I chuckled. "But I'm really curious. You're related to Andrella?"

We learned then what we had suspected--that Kilmas is the son of Xavier, and thus related to Andrella's father Alexander.

"But I don't listen to him," he added in reference to Xavier, engrossed at gazing into a snow globe of the town of Terfin. "Wow, it's like almost real in there..!"

"He's like a little kid!" I chuckled privately to Andrella, and, having been thinking the exact same thing, Andrella asked out loud, "How old are you, Kilmas?"

He turned back to face us. "Well, my spell age is 247. Maybe more. I lost count." He laughed cheerfully.

No wonder Gorjez was confused...

"My birth age is 11," Kilmas finished. I blinked in surprise. I hadn't expected him to be so young! But Andrella didn't look surprised at all. It made sense to her, since Kilmas had not yet been born when she had left Valence, so that meant he'd had to be fairly young.

But...eleven? What was an eleven-year-old doing running around in dungeons without a scrap of armor? And doesn't he think about the years he is throwing away by casting Time magic?

"My father had me cast a lot of spells for him before I found out what it was doing to me," Kilmas shrugged. He didn't seem overly concerned, but Andrella looked furious, and I grimaced.

"I'm sorry to hear that," I offered.

"Don't worry about it. Hey, is there any good food around here?"

His youthful enthusiasm was so strange coming from the face of a withered old man. But we immediately offered him food and drink; he ate some of it and stuffed the rest in his pockets for later.

"When did you leave home?" Andrella asked conversationally while he ate.

"I didn't really leave," Kilmas replied between bites. "The entire kingdom was destroyed. There's nothing left of it."

Andrella nodded. "That's right. But where was your father?"

"Oh." Kilmas understood then what she was getting at. "He's with the Guardian now."

Andrella coughed.

"Um. What do you know of the Guardian?" I couldn't help but break in.

Kilmas looked suddenly fiery. "I know he isn't the guardian of anything!"

Right answer!

"He promised to watch over us," Kilmas grumbled. "Over all the land. Then, slowly, the life was bled out of the kingdom." He shook his head. "It was bad. People used to worship the Guardian. They all wanted him to come."

I grumbled. "Just like he tried to do on Britannia..."

"Is this what you needed help with?" Andrella asked him.

"I don't know what I needed help with," Kilmas responded. "Hawkwind just said to find you."

Oh great. So the Time Lord saves this overgrown kid and then sends him wandering the universe searching for us, and none of us know what it is he did all this for? And now we can't even ask the Time Lord until a week has passed...

"Was anything ever...mentioned...about my father?" Andrella wanted to know.

Kilmas nodded. "That Alexander and you died in a fire. But I know the truth now. They said Alexander killed himself--but I know it was Jarred, the Knight Captain."

I was quite impressed that Kilmas had been able to break away, despite his upbringing, and see the truth in these people.

Andrella nodded, having already suspected the truth. Kilmas went on, "I heard him talking about it one night, to my dad. And my dad knew about it too. He knew about it the whole time." He shook his head. "I'm sorry and all. But I want you to know I don't like the things my father did."

"Nothing for you to be sorry about," Andrella smiled faintly. She had told us that she'd been saved from the fire by Bain, thus escaping a death that should have taken her with her father.

There was a moment of silence, which Kilmas broke with a cheerful, "Well! So here we are."

I couldn't help but chuckle. "Aye. But I think we'll have to wait a week to find out why."

"A week?" he echoed.

I nodded. "Aye, we have to get something enchanted first."

"Enchanted? I can enchant stuff. I can earn my keep." He smiled.

For a brief moment I was surprised. Then I considered it. And I realized I didn't want him to be enchanting things if that would take more years off his life. Nystul could do it and he doesn't have to sacrifice anything for it...

With his youthful energy, Kilmas was already going on, "I have these! Check them out!"

He pulled out two magic rings, handing one to Andrella and one to me. They were small golden bands with intricate designs of leaves. No, feathers. I squinted at the tiny detailing. Were they...wings?

"They're fairy rings," Kilmas explained. "They have little magic fairies that will come out when you are close to dead, and give you life!"

I slid the ring onto my finger. This sounds useful.

"I found them while I was looking for you," he went on. "And then after a few uses I found out how to make 'em."

Andrella blinked. "You can...make them?"

Kilmas's head bobbed up and down. "Yeah, they only cost about three months."

I fell forward onto the table. Kilmas, Kilmas...

"Cost three months?" Andrella echoed. "Wow...you have it down to a science, don't you?"

He shrugged a little. "Life points, we call 'em. I would have keeled over long ago if not for Hawkwind. He said I could have all the time I needed to fulfill a destiny. But he didn't tell me what it was."

He laughed, but I stared at him. This explained why he was so carefree. Did he think he was invincible, that he would never die until a preordained event occurred? But what then? Had he thought past that?

We engaged in a little more small talk; Andrella offered that Kilmas could stay at the keep for as long as he needed, and we discussed her Knights for a bit. Finally, my thoughts turning back to his purpose for being here, I changed the subject. I wasn't sure why Kilmas was sent here, but there was only one thing I could think of that fit. Mondain had said that Kilmas must not reach us, and Minax had been sure we would never find the "true secrets" of the Tome.

"Kilmas," I spoke up, seriously now. "Do you know of the Tome of Stars?"

"Sure," he responded easily. "It has some of the best time and star spells in it. Even spells on how to live forever."

Live forever...

I frowned slightly. "Is there a difference between time and star spells?"

Kilmas shrugged. "They are close really, not really different. After you get really good at star magic, you get to be a time mage. But most can't live that long." He laughed cheerfully.

The Avatar and the Time Mage...

I glanced briefly at Andrella. Silently, we decided we could trust Kilmas at least this far. He hadn't shown any suspicious signs yet. "I have the Tome of Stars," I told him seriously.

He stared at me for a moment, as if trying to figure out how he could parse those words into something that made more sense. "You...have it?"

I drew it from my pack and showed it to him. "But we don't know how to use it. It's mostly empty pages."

I let him take it, and he stared at it in breathless wonder. "Wow, this is the real deal. This is it. The real tome." He shook his head in awe. "This is what Mondain was looking for."

"Well, he's not getting it," I blurted out before I could change my mind.

Luckily, Kilmas seemed unperturbed. "Only a time mage could read this. I'm almost a time mage," he glowed.

"So they are spells?" I asked him.

He nodded. "Must be. They are invisible."

The pages were blank to him as well, but he said he knew how to read them. Andrella spoke up then, "If you're a time mage, does that mean you can use this?"

She produced Minax's Staff of Time, which I had completely forgotten about. I think Kilmas almost dropped the tome in surprise.

"That's Minax's staff!" he gushed. "How in the world did you get it!?"

Andrella smirked. "Umm... Minax met her end and I relieved her of her duties."

That's one way to put it.

While Andrella handed the staff to Kilmas, I found myself asking, "Is it used to open time gates?"

He nodded. "Yes, for very advanced users. But this is..."

Kilmas laid the Tome of Stars on the floor, stepping back and holding out the staff before him. I blinked.

"Don't tell me it's the link!" I groaned.²

Kilmas was already touching the end of the Staff of Time to the cover of the Tome. The blue cover glowed brightly for a moment in instant response.

"Why...didn't we ever think of that?" Andrella murmured. It was a good question. It could have been anything in the Star Chamber...but admittedly I had forgotten all about finding the link once we'd obtained the coordinates for Pagan.

Kilmas picked up the tome and slowly flipped through its pages. We started to ask him if they were visible when suddenly he aged a few more years right before our eyes.

I cried out in alarm, and Andrella gasped, "Kilmas, are you all right?"

He nodded slightly. "I'm okay. I'm fine." He seemed much more interested in the tome. "This is it. The staff shows the spells."

"They are all visible now?" I asked.

Kilmas shook his head with a sigh. "Only Slow."

"Slow," I repeated. "As in, to slow time? Or slow a creature?" The former made more sense, but it would be an extremely powerful spell...

"An Tym?" he read from the tome, as if a little unsure.

I started. "Negate Time!?" That was another one of those spells that had been banned from use for more years than I could count. I had used it only once, ages ago, and its effects were near frightening. As if, for a brief span, everyone else was frozen in time, but you and your friends could move normally.

Kilmas shrugged. "Maybe. I need to study it for a while." He lifted his head to look at us. "Maybe I was supposed to do this for you? Hawkwind said I had to do my destiny. And he said it would happen without me trying. Destiny happens."

He's right, I thought with a frown, but it's not something I happen to think is a terribly good feature of the universe. "But all those years lost..." I found myself murmuring. All in search of destiny?

"But here I am with this staff," Kilmas pointed out with a childlike grin. "And the tome. For years, Mondain looked for this tome, and my father was going to help him. And now it just landed in my lap! It just happened, like destiny." He looked from myself to Andrella. "Will you let me hold the book for a while?"

By this point I was having misgivings. If Mondain wants this tome so badly, I don't want to let it out of my sight. I couldn't say this was likely to be some sort of trap--for if it was, it was certainly an elaborate one, as it would have meant Mondain would have had to have faked the Time Lord as well. But at the same time, what if Kilmas lost the tome in another way, such as through his youthful naïvete, or if Mondain simply attacked him directly?

Then again, he'd managed to get this far alone, or mostly alone...

Andrella was getting a bad feeling about this as well, as she told me privately. Between the two of us we finally decided to allow him to hold the tome, but we would make sure that one of us stayed with him at all times. We told Kilmas that we were going to watch over him and protect him since he is now a deadly target, holding both the staff and the tome. He accepted this logic without argument, although he didn't want to stay cooped up in the Keep all the time, but we told him it would be safer than standing out where someone could see him.

At one point in the discussion, Kilmas actually offered to trade us his magic carpet for the tome and the staff. Just temporarily, so that we would know he wasn't going to fly off on us. I didn't feel like trying to explain that his magic carpet was the least of our problems, but I did want to see it. I hadn't seen a magic carpet since...well, ages, at any rate, and only on the Britannia that I had known.

So we went outside briefly to where there was some space, and Kilmas unrolled a gray carpet. It wasn't, in fact, the one I had used years ago, but it operated in the same way. We stood on the carpet together and Kilmas demonstrated how it could fly, hovering about an arm's length above the ground, and it could even pass over water.

"That is amazing..." Andrella murmured as he landed the carpet back where we'd started, and we all got off.

Kilmas rolled it up and handed it to her. "Then is it a deal?"

I sighed silently. "If you hold them both, you will be a prime target," I reminded him.

He nodded. "But then why is it I feel important now?"

Because you're holding two objects Mondain wants? I thought, but I didn't speak the words out loud.

"Like this is what I am supposed to do?" Kilmas was going on without taking a breath. "He said I would feel it."

"But we fear for your safety too," I reminded him.

"As Kianne said, prime target for Mondain," Andrella agreed.

"Well, maybe this is why he said you will help me, and I will help you," Kilmas reasoned with a grin.

As I said, we eventually agreed, and went back into the keep, where Andrella had a bed prepared for Kilmas. I fetched a spare bed that I had at my house and set it up at the top of the stairs where Kilmas would emerge when he left his bedroom. I will give him his privacy, but I want to remain within earshot of him...and I want to know if he comes up, or anyone else goes down...

So I am sitting here now, writing by the lamplight. All is quiet, but I think Kilmas went immediately to sleep. He will have some time to study, I suppose, but I can't imagine that things will remain too quiet here for long...

---

[2/24/2004]

What a week this has been. Kilmas has turned out to be a handful. When he's quiet in his room, watching over him has been simple. But it seems like every time he opens his mouth, Andrella wants to whap him, and I have to keep reminding myself that despite his looks and his reputation, he's still only a kid.

We gave him a Britannian spellbook, which perhaps was a bad idea, because he began trying out spells and causing a little bit of havoc. He also took great interest in my bow, and my armor, and my ethereal mount, and just about everything else; he keeps asking me for my bow, in fact.

When he said he wanted some armor, Andrella provided him with a full set of platemail, since that is what he requested (he claimed he was such an expert mage that armor would prove to be no hindrance to his casting). But he couldn't even lift it all, much less put it on. Kilmas seems to be a lot of hot air, because he has a hard time backing up what he says.

I wonder, sometimes, if the Time Lord was just glad to be rid of him.

At any rate, I've been staying at the Keep this entire time, letting Andrella get some work done with her knights. After a while I was starting to feel couped up, so finally Andrella and I decided we would visit Sygil's house. We had little choice but to take Kilmas with us. I didn't think it would be a problem, since Sygil's house is out away from civilization, and we could gate directly there.

I hadn't seen Sygil for weeks, or Navien, come to think of it. I'd thought that Sygil just needed time to work with the Black Sword, but it is strange that he hasn't come by even briefly. We decided to go to him and find out what he was up to. Ayla joined us as we were leaving, making it a foursome.

I formed a moongate to his house and we went up to the door. Kilmas opened it right off--it's rarely locked--and walked right in. Andrella shook her head in disgust. I followed Kilmas in, calling for Sygil.

We spread out in the single room on the lower floor, looking around. The place was empty. Andrella sprinted up the stairs to see if Sygil was up there. Absently I ran my fingers over a desk. Why was it so dusty?

A shout from Andrella drew me up the stairs with the others following behind. I jogged through the open door to the bedroom and skidded to a halt.

Andrella was standing inside waiting for us, facing the large golden rock that was resting in the middle of the bedroom floor.

"What's this doing in plain sight!?" she demanded.

I blinked in surprise. "This wasn't here before!"

Andrella hefted the golden rock off the floor and tucked it safely away into her bag. While she was doing that, my eyes had spotted something else. The Black Sword was lying, unsheathed, on Sygil's bed, alone and glittering.

"What's that?" Kilmas asked curiously, catching sight of it at the same time. He walked innocently toward it.

"The Black Sword!?" I gasped in surprise. Acting on reflex, my arm shot forth and snatched Kilmas, stopping him in his tracks.

"Can I see it?" he asked.

"No," we responded almost in unison. "Don't touch it!"

The four of us formed a confused semicircle around the bed, staring at the Black Sword. What could this mean? Where was Sygil?

"Take me, Kilmas. Come take me," floated a cheerful yet menacing voice from the gem in the sword.

"No!" Andrella repeated, and I grabbed Kilmas again as he stepped forward. With a firm jerk, I pulled him back and planted myself in front of him, arms outstretched, to bar him from walking forward.

"It talked to me," Kilmas protested. "I heard it."

"Ignore it, it's evil," Andrella told him.

"Arcadion!" I snapped at the sword. Certainly the daemon in the hilt of the sword would know. "What happened here!?"

"Curses to you, Avatar," Arcadion grumbled.

My eyes narrowed. "Did Sygil manage to ditch you somehow?"

The Black Sword laughed. "You could say that. Why don't you let Kilmas hold me? I'll show you what happened to that fool Sygil. He thought he could master me! Ha ha ha!"

"Let me hold it," Kilmas begged.

"No, Kilmas," Andrella said firmly, and I kept a hold of his cloak, preventing him from moving.

"You will be possessed," Ayla agreed.

"Sygil's no fool," I shot at Arcadion, ignoring Kilmas except for the tightening of my fingers.

"Sygil is fool enough to attempt to master my power," Arcadion responded dryly. "And his friend Navien. You don't have to worry about ever seeing them again." He laughed again, a dark sort of laughter that sends chills up your spine.

Kilmas was peering over my shoulder. "It sounds evil," he spoke up.

I nearly fell over. "That's what we've been trying to tell you!"

"I was just agreeing. Geeze," Kilmas muttered.

I turned my attention back on the sword. "What did you do, Arcadion?"

The gem twinkled. "He who seeks to master the darkness is a fool. Do you think you have what it takes, Avatar?"

I knew better than to answer a question like that.

At any rate, Arcadion only paused to chuckle before moving on. "Sygil failed. His fragile body couldn't handle my power. He found himself careening down a path he had no control over."

I eyed the sword. "I don't believe that. He was strong enough for that."

"Do you think so?" Arcadion sounded amused. "That is what he thought. Do you think I am some power to be controlled? That you can master me? Control me?"

Something wasn't right here. "You're saying you vaporized him without even leaving a trace?" I asked dubiously.

"Even better," Arcadion replied. "I sent him and that fool Navien...away."

I blinked in surprise. So Arcadion hadn't had the power enough to destroy them outright. Otherwise, he surely would have said so. "Away? Where?"

"Does it matter now? You can't rescue them."

I looked at the sword with a grim smile. "Wanna bet?"

"I'll tell you what, little ones," Arcadion offered. "I can send you to where they are. Just give me more mana."

"No, I don't think so," I responded without hesitation. "We'll find them without your help, thanks."

"By all my power, mark my words," the sword growled, "you will never find them."

I glared at it. I think Andrella was doing the same, and at least Kilmas was no longer trying to wiggle free from my grasp.

Arcadion probably would have been smirking had he still a face. "Now, take me in your hand if you are so bold. I will show you the true power of Arcadion."

"Forget it." I turned my back to it, my cape billowing out behind me at the movement. "You can sit there for all eternity for all I care. Let's go," I told the others.

Arcadion chuckled. "Your very soul trembles at the knowledge that I have no master now. One of you will take me today."

"Let me have it," Kilmas begged as I tried to hustle him out the door. "I can handle this."

I couldn't believe he could say something like that after seeing for himself that Arcadion is so evil. "Kilmas, the last thing we need is to have to kill you, okay?" I snapped at him in irritation.

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized I had phrased my thoughts in entirely the wrong way. But it was too late to take them back. Kilmas jerked himself from my grip and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

"Uh..." I sighed, and, ignoring Arcadion on the bed, we followed Kilmas out of the room. I was the last one out, and I closed the bedroom door behind me, standing directly in front of it, with the boards of the door against my back.

Kilmas was in the hall, sulking.

"Look, the sword possesses people," I tried to explain to him. "That's all I meant. If you were to be possessed, we would have no choice but to kill you. The risk was the same with Sygil too. And we don't want that."

"I can handle things like that," Kilmas insisted. "I'm pretty powerful, you know."

"Like you handled the scorpion you summoned?" Andrella retorted. (He had run away from it.) "Like you ran down the hallway at Yew Crypts? You don't even know how to hold a sword yet!"

Kilmas huffed and crossed his arms. "Whatever."

I sighed, changing the subject. "The wisest thing would be to leave it here. Find some way of sealing this place so no one can get it."

But even as I said it, I knew it wasn't an option. We still need to destroy Erethian, and right now, the only way we know to do that is to use the Black Sword. As Arcadion had said, somebody is going to have to pick it up.

But not today.

We walked out of the house, locking all of the doors, and returned to the Keep, leaving the sword where it laid.

Behind us, the Black Sword's gem continued to twinkle merrily off into the night.

We decided to report to Lord British what we had learned. But we couldn't take Kilmas with us--Britain is too public of a location. So we finally left him under the watchful eye of Sophie, as Ayla wanted to come with us.

But before we left, I asked Kilmas if he'd made any headway with the Tome of Stars.

He shrugged a little. "The tome details a lot about Virtues and vices."

Not surprising, I guess, considering its author.

"It has some pretty interesting things to say about one who can master the Virtues," he went on. "About upholding virtues for hundreds of years."

I blinked. "Michael wrote that?" Michael had been the original Avatar, but I had heard nothing about him being such an advanced age.

"It's written by more then one person, from the looks of it," Kilmas responded.

"It is?" Now that is interesting...

"If you could point me to a library or something like it, I could find out more," Kilmas suggested.

I was still worried about him being seen out in the open. Then I remembered the hourglass and the fact that we were about to go to Lord British's castle. "Let's speak with Hawkwind first," I suggested. "Then we might have more of an idea what to do next."

He agreed. "Can I talk to him?"

I nodded. "We'll do it when we get back. We need to visit the castle first."

"Oh, I don't want to visit another castle for all my life," Kilmas returned flippantly, surprising us all.

"Why?" we asked.

"My father's castle was the greatest castle of all time," he explained. "Anytime we went to visit another realm with another castle, we all used to laugh."

Andrella scowled. "That's rude."

Kilmas shrugged. "Well, I hate faking respect. But then the kings and queens all say I'm rude."

"And now you don't want to go to another castle?" I asked him.

"If I do, I'd probably get in trouble." He seemed more irritated than disturbed by the possibility.

So, as I said, we left him behind with Sophie. "She's a blacksmith, so don't let her muscles scare you," as Andrella put it, smirking.

At the castle, we were heading up the front stairs when I heard Dupré call my name. He was just coming up from a side road. We immediately turned back and met him in the courtyard.

"What brings you all here?" Dupré asked as we got past the pleasantries.

"Well, we have a problem," I laughed sheepishly.

"I should have known," Dupré chuckled.

Andrella grinned. "Aye, Kianne's always in trouble."

"Hey," I protested good-naturedly, and laughed.

"So we were just on our way to speak with Lord British," I finished.

We asked about Nystul, since we needed to get the hourglass enchanted as well. "Nystul is more than likely getting his rest so he can raise cain tonight when everyone else turns in," Dupré responded with a chuckle.

"Well, maybe we can occupy him with the hourglass instead," I winked. "It needs another charge."

"Oh, he would like that. It's better than what he has been doing."

"What has he been doing?" I asked.

"I'm scared to know," Andrella snickered.

Dupré chuckled and replied, "Catching things on fire, screaming for help, the usual."

We laughed some more. Dupré dusted off his hands. "Well, I can take him the hourglass and take it to you as soon as he's done with it."

"That'd be great, thanks," I responded, handing it over.

Dupré reminisced with a smile, "Nystul keeps asking, how old is Andrella now? He said you had spells that age you, and he's waiting for you to be around 79 to 83," he explained to Andrella with a rueful shake of his head. "That's in his words."

We snickered. "You want to see a real scary sight?" Andrella spoke up. "I can introduce you to a 247 eleven-year-old."

Dupré looked confused. "Come by the Keep later," I offered with a grin. "You can meet him then."

"Should I be worried?" he asked, and we laughed.

When we were about to go our separate ways, I commented to him, "Dupré, the Black Sword is loose."

He stared in surprise. "On the loose? What in the world happened to Sygil?"

I sighed with a grimace. "'In the world' may be right. Somehow, the Black Sword sent him and Navien...somewhere else."

Dupré considered that. "So they aren't...?" he began, but didn't seem to want to voice the finish of the sentence.

"We don't think they are," Andrella replied, understanding what he meant.

I agreed, "I think if they were dead, Arcadion would have gloated about it." And anyway, I don't know enough about Navien, but Sygil at least is very hard to kill. Particularly permanently. I have to believe they are alive, out there somewhere...

Dupré frowned. "Well, I wonder how many people would love to get a hold of that blade... Its evil calls to any who listen."

I grimaced. "I know. So we have to seal it off somehow. Which is, of course, why we're here." I chuckled without humor.

"And for the hourglass?" Dupré smiled, holding it up. "Which reminds me, I'd better get to work on that." He gave me a little wave of his hand, and we parted company.

Andrella, Ayla, and I continued on into the castle. We entered the throne room and walked up the red carpet to the throne, but Lord British was nowhere in sight. Andrella and I smiled in amusement at each other, having anticipated this--Lord British is almost never actually on his throne--and we turned to walk back out and explore the rest of the castle.

But we encountered Lord British at the entrance to the throne room. He was just on his way in. "Hail!" we greeted him, and bowed briefly, as is our custom.

"Good evening," he smiled. "I thought I saw you walk by."

We've been missing everyone this evening. I cut straight to the chase. "I'm afraid we have somewhat bad news."

Lord British nodded his head in understanding and gestured for us to follow him. We left the public throne room and went into a small side room, empty save for some benches and an ankh. We closed the door behind us and were left with privacy.

I explained to Lord British about our visit to Sygil's house, finding the Black Sword there, and what Arcadion had told us about sending Sygil and Navien away.

"Where is the sword now?" he asked us, disturbed.

"It's in Sygil's house, on his bed," I explained. "We didn't touch it." I mentioned my earlier thought about finding a way to seal off the room so that no one could wander in and pick up the sword.

"I will send Caton and his best men right now," Lord British responded. "They will guard it until you decide what is best."

I nodded in relief. "Thank you." I grimaced a little. "I wish we had a lot of time, but I don't know how long Erethian's gem will hold."

"There is no way of knowing," Lord British agreed. "But it is best to battle only when you are ready."

I nodded slowly. "We will consider it more."

Lord British looked thoughtful. "Yet you held the Black Sword before, did you not?"

It was an obvious enough point, and one that had run through my mind a number of times. I nodded easily. "Aye. But the Arcadion I knew was nowhere near as deadly." In fact, the Arcadion I had known had been almost docile in comparison. He had even gone so far as to say, once, that perhaps someday he could call me 'friend' as well as 'master'...

"Perhaps," Lord British said thoughtfully, "but you have certainly proved a powerful Avatar. The likes of which this land has never seen, and many more for that matter I am sure."

Andrella nodded her head in vigorous agreement.

I felt myself begin to flush. "I am not afraid to try," I responded truthfully. "However, should I fail..." I grimaced. I am still immortal, and if Arcadion gained hold of my form...would the others even be able to do away with him? It was a possibility I'm not sure I could risk.

"Only you can decide, of course," Lord British said. "And it best to be certain rather then foolish."

I nodded in agreement. "We will not take too long to decide," I assured him.

Lord British changed the topic slightly. "I hope Sygil and Navien are safe."

I agreed. "Aye, I as well. But Sygil can take care of himself." I gave a faint smile. I have to trust that he's okay, and I know someday we will find him again, or he will find us.

"The portals out of this world are active," Lord British commented. "However, to gain entrance, I am sure, is nearly impossible."

I blinked. "So it may have been fairly easy for Arcadion to have sent them from here?"

He nodded. "He could have sent them almost anywhere."

I frowned as a new thought dawned. "How can we prevent him from doing the same to the rest of us?"

Lord British shifted. "That is to hope the next person to hold the blade would be prepared to take on the power of the daemon."

My brow furrowed. But Sygil had been successful for so long. What had changed? "Do you think Arcadion perhaps tricked them somehow?"

Lord British nodded. "I would almost be certain of it."

It made sense to me, for the alternative would mean that Arcadion's power was really that great...

We said farewell to him then, letting him get back to his duties, and we to ours.

Back at the Keep, we ate a little, discussing the Black Sword a bit more, then Ayla left to take care of her own business. I shook my head at myself finally. "Though I wish a perfect solution would reveal itself, I think we may have to go with the inevitable."

Andrella nodded. "Aye, unfortunately."

I offered her a small smile. "Which makes me wonder sometimes why I am putting it off." I laughed at myself.

"To give yourself more time to think," she responded instantly. "You can't rush decisions like these."

I sighed a little. "True..." If thinking will even help, given the lack of choices that we have. I shook my head. "Well, shelving that for now, there's something else I need to talk to you about..."

Our conversation was interrupted when Kilmas came down the stairs, complaining that Sophie made too much noise beating on metal at the forge. He also wanted more reagents. Andrella went upstairs to see what she could dig up, and I offered to head to a town and purchase some (supplying Nystul has left me low on my own stock). Walking over to the door, I flung it open...and found myself face-to-face with Dupré, who was standing just outside with his hand poised in midair to knock.

We laughed, and I invited him inside. "Oh, Dupré, this is Kilmas. The one we were telling you about." I winked at him.

"Nice to meet you, Kilmas," Dupré greeted without showing any sign of noticing anything unusual.

Kilmas nodded his head a little. "Why do you have a chalice on your chest?"

I snickered behind a hand. Leave it to Kilmas.

"It's the symbol of the Honor Virtue," Dupré explained easily.

Kilmas considered that for a moment. "It's nice," he decided finally.

"Thank you," Dupré responded. Then he turned to me. "I have the hourglass."

My face brightened. "Great, that was fast." I gazed into its golden depths as he passed it to me. "Perfect timing..."

Kilmas watched with interest. "Wow. Can I see it?"

He asks that about every magical or unique item he sees. I think sometimes that he just wants to have cool items, even if they aren't helpful to him.

"We'll use it a little later," I told him, evading his question. "When Andrella returns."

"You seem to have your hands full already," Dupré chuckled to Kilmas. Kilmas always carries the Staff of Time in his hand, everywhere he goes, and lately he's been holding his Britannian spellbook a lot too.

"Aye, a bit," I agreed before Kilmas could say anything. Andrella and I have our hands full too, in another way...

Andrella came back down the stairs then, but Dupré couldn't stay. "I must be off, my apologies." He started for the door, then paused. "Oh, and Andrella, a few more recruits are on their way."

Andrella and I both beamed. "Wonderful!" she responded.

"You should really get the mages guild to make a gate to the mainland," Dupré chuckled. "Recall is not my specialty."

"Aye, I keep forgetting," she laughed ruefully.

We told him farewell and he made his leave. Andrella gave Kilmas the reagents she had found, and he nearly fell over from the weight of the bag. "It's heavy," he complained.

"My goodness." Andrella shook her head. "We need to toughen you up."

Kilmas apparently wasn't listening, because he was peering into the pouch he had given her. "Nice. Thanks, Andrella."

He pulled out some reagents, and before either of us could stop him, he'd chanted a Paralyze spell, stopping me dead in the middle of a sentence.

"Hey!" Andrella protested. "Don't attack your friends."

"Well, that is..." Kilmas started, but his words trailed off in surprise when I freed myself from the paralysis. "What!?"

"Let's not waste reagents, okay?" I chuckled slightly, dusting myself off.

"How'd you do that?" he wanted to know.

"It's a little trick Andrella taught me." I winked.

Kilmas looked me up and down. "That was a smooth move."

I gestured a hand toward the table, changing the subject deliberately. "Let's speak with Hawkwind, what say?"

That got his attention. "Yeah!"

We took seats around the table. "Now, we'll only have five minutes," I reminded Kilmas.

"He said I have as much time as I need," he responded.

I bit back a sigh. "I mean, he can only speak through this for five minutes."

"Can I talk to him? He probably wants to talk to me."

I nodded my head. "Let me greet him and then you can speak."

Kilmas agreed, and I held out the hourglass, activating its magic.

After a moment, the Time Lord responded to the summons. "Greetings, Avatar. Our time has begun."

Before I could even take a breath to speak, Kilmas was gushing forth. "Hawkwind, is that you!? It's me, Kilmas! Kilmas Valence! What's going on, old buddy?"

I couldn't help but chuckle with a shake of my head. "Hail, we've found Kilmas, as you can hear," I told the Time Lord wryly.

The Time Lord's voice was deadpan. "I am glad you arrived safely, Kilmas."

"Yeah, I'm great. How are you?" Kilmas babbled in an almost endless stream of chatter.

I kicked him under the table.

"Ouch! Kianne kicked me!" Kilmas whined. I raised my voice and tried my best to drown him out, while simultaneously making hushing motions at him.

"Kilmas is here, but he's not sure what he needs to be doing?" I said to the Time Lord, turning the statement into a question.

"Of course." I have no way to be sure, of course, but I think the Time Lord was probably smiling in amusement. "Take your time and enjoy the pleasures of Britannia, Kilmas."

I wanted to fall onto the table. What a great non-answer.

"Nystul's barrier will protect you all very well," the Time Lord went on, and abruptly I wondered if that was the reason why he had wanted Kilmas to be here. Had it nothing to do with anything that Kilmas was supposed to do here? "Mondain will not risk another mergance with the Shadowland as long as you hold the core of immortality."

I let out a breath of relief. "Good."

Kilmas had been surprised into silence by the Time Lord's words. "Where is it?" he spoke up then, looking at me.

"Patience, Kilmas," the Time Lord responded before I could try to hush Kilmas again. Then he addressed me. "Avatar, teach Kilmas the way of the Virtues."

"What!?" exploded from my mouth before I could stop it. I coughed in embarrassment at my outburst.

The Time Lord did not sound perturbed. "Allow him to be blessed by the Virtues. He has much to learn before his destiny will reveal itself."

I let out a sigh. Kilmas demanded almost plaintively, "What is my destiny?"

"In time, Kilmas. In time."

Kilmas seemed to pout. "What are you up to?"

But the Time Lord did not answer. "Our time is up for now. Farewell."

"Bye, Hawkwind," Kilmas responded with a gusty sigh of disappointment, sounding very much like a child.

I sat staring at the silent hourglass in my hands.

Andrella broke the stillness. "Well. That was interesting."

That's not quite the word I would put to it.

"Kilmas," she instructed. "You have to remember that Kianne is the leader here. She asks the questions. And if you have any concerns you address them to her or myself."

"He wants me to do something," Kilmas insisted. "Like I am important, more than you."

I fell forward onto the table. This was impossible. Absolutely hopeless. How in the world were we supposed to teach him of the Virtues?

"I wouldn't go that far," Andrella said dryly. "You have a destiny just like everyone else. Everyone has their own path to follow, and arrogance in most cases will get you killed."

"Yeah, you should watch that," Kilmas agreed instantly.

Andrella's only outward reaction was a tightening of her lips. "Okay, here's the thing," she spoke in a completely controlled and even voice. "You upset me, you will be punished. It begins now."

Kilmas gulped.

"Your punishment will be 40 backslashes to the dummies outside. And that's just for the first offense."

Kilmas managed a smile. "You're joking...right?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?" She stared at him. "This is your only and final warning."

Kilmas backed down. "Okay, okay. I will listen to you. And Kianne is the leader." Under his breath, he muttered, "...of dumbness."

He'd probably thought he was speaking too softly to hear, but the words didn't escape Andrella's sharp ears. "Okay, you think I'm kidding," she responded in a sort of cooly-cheerful tone. She marched over to a rack of weapons and plucked off a katana, holding it forth until he reluctantly took it.

I crossed my arms, watching without interfering. "Well, look on the bright side," I chuckled. "You will get out of the Keep." Based on what the Time Lord had said, I had decided that it is probably safe for Kilmas to venture forth and visit more of Britannia. "But first you can go visit the training dummies."

Kilmas was holding the sword hesitantly in one hand, the Staff of Time in the other. "Put the staff away," Andrella demanded.

"Why?" he asked instantly.

"Because I said." Andrella didn't back down. "You will break it, so put it away."

Kilmas hesitated, then finally strapped it carefully across his back.

"Let's go," Andrella commanded, and she led the way outside and around toward the training dummies. Kilmas took a swing at her backside as we walked. He missed her entirely, but Andrella noticed and spun around, grabbing the wrist of his sword hand in midair. He blinked and sputtered at her speed.

"I missed," he pointed out.

"You're lucky," she smirked. "Do it again and you will hurt."

"Joking," Kilmas protested with a gulp. "Only joking."

Andrella released him and we resumed our trip, arriving at the training fields in short order. I stood off to the side while Andrella took Kilmas to the nearest training dummy. "Now," she instructed. "Stand in front of it, and face it. Turn around."

He sighed and did as she told. "It's easy," he declared. "Doesn't even move."

"Let's see." She stepped back, out of his range, and crossed her arms.

Kilmas swung, and missed. He cleared his throat in embarrassment, apparently hoping we hadn't seen that. He swung again, more viciously, and this time the blade sank with a solid thunk into the supporting pole holding up the training dummy.

Andrella tapped her foot as Kilmas jerked on the blade, but he couldn't get it out.

"Oops," he chuckled. Andrella finally walked over and plucked the blade free, passing it back to him. "Looks like I need a little practice," he giggled.

"Oh, you're getting it," I smirked.

"I'll practice tomorrow," Kilmas suggested.

"You get 40 lashes of practice right now," Andrella reminded him. "Turn around and practice. This minute. Now!"

Kilmas groaned and finally turned back to face the dummy. This time his swing connected with it, and the dummy shuddered a little from the blow.

"I hit it!" he cheered.

"Great. 39 more to go," Andrella told him with an amused grin.

She stepped away as he went back to it with a little bit more enthusiasm. "This is kind of fun." He began to punctuate his swings with insults. "Take that! Punk! You think you can tumble with Kilmas? Wrong!" His blows were moving faster and faster as he got himself worked up.

What a character.

Finally he stopped, huffing and puffing. "Uh oh," I teased. "I lost count."

"I think...that was...45..." Kilmas panted.

"30 more to go," Andrella smirked. "Nice try."

Kilmas looked like he was about to faint, so she added, "Kilmas, take a break. This is your first attempt. Maybe I'll let you go with 25 instead." She snickered.

"You sure?" he huffed. "I can do it. I could do 50."

Wow, his ego will never stop, even for his own good.

"Okay, but pace yourself," Andrella responded. "Kianne and I will be standing here talking. You just do your hits."

I was leaning against the wall of the keep, watching with my arms crossed. "Kilmas," I decided, "the first thing I will be telling you about is Magincia." I chuckled.

He only nodded, leaning on the staff.

Andrella walked over to join me. We stood within sight of Kilmas, but far enough away that our words would not carry to him.

"Now, what was it you wanted to tell me?"

I understood immediately that she was offering to get back to the conversation that had been interrupted earlier. I took a breath and let it out in a sigh. "I'm afraid that even though I made a big mistake, I'm going to have to go through with it." I sighed again. "But I don't have a lot of options..."

Kilmas was back at it, counting off his hits. "23...24...49...50! 50!" he shouted again in a louder tone, stepping back with a look of triumph.

"Kilmas, get over there," Andrella called to him. "That was not 50."

Reluctantly, he went back to it.

"What mistake?" she asked me without missing a beat.

I sighed a third time. "I shouldn't have joined the Following. I'm not sure it's going to be of much use. If Batlin truly is with the Guardian, then he knows what I am up to. And if he isn't, then his organization is probably benign."

"I don't think it's a mistake," Andrella reasoned. "Somebody has to find out what he's up to. Shamino can't figure it out by watching him. We need the inside track." She smiled. "That's you."

I tried to summon up a smile in response. "Well, I hate to say it, but I think I'll need you to join the Following too. I'm really out of options."

To my surprise, she didn't even stage a joke of a protest. As if she had already been long expecting it, she simply said, "I will do my best to be good."

"I don't feel right in asking you, but..."

"Kianne," Andrella interrupted, straightening up. "Avatar." She smiled. I chuckled. Andrella continued in a serious tone, "I humbly request that you accept me and my sword for whatever use you may find. I give an oath of loyalty and protection to you."

I blinked in surprise, rendered near speechless. "I..I've always been grateful for you, you realize that."

She smiled. "I just want you to know that whatever favor or task you may have, I will forever stand by your side."

"Thank you." It was a moment or two before I could speak, so much was I overcome. "Your loyalty means a lot to me. As does your friendship." And that gave me a thought. "Just be sure," I added in a more cheerful tone, "that you always call me 'friend.' Not 'boss,' not 'leader,' not whatever." I grinned.

Andrella giggled. "Queen?"

I teased, "No, that's you."

"Blech," she responded, and we giggled.

"I was going to ask Dupré as well, but I didn't get a chance when he was here," I mused thoughtfully, getting back on topic.

"And Sami," Andrella guessed brightly.

I lifted my head and looked at her. "Sami... Andrella, can you help me look over her?"

"Absolutely."

"I know you have a lot to look out for already..."

"I'm concerned for her too," Andrella agreed. "She is very impressionable, but she adores you, so perhaps that will be her saving grace."

I chuckled slightly. "I really don't like doing this. If anything happens to her, I'll hold myself personally responsible."

"I understand, Kianne," Andrella assured me. "I will do my best to help."

"I'm going to gate her to and from Empath Abbey," I mentioned. "At least that way I have an excuse to be there. And it's safer for her."

"That's a good idea," Andrella nodded.

I sighed a little. "I just hope this isn't an even bigger mistake..."

Andrella paused to shout to Kilmas, "Kilmas, the staff!!" because he was holding it again, leaning on it while he whacked halfheartedly at the training dummy. Muttering at her for noticing, he put the staff away.

I chuckled as I watched. "The Time Lord told me to teach him the Virtues," I mused to Andrella. "And here I am joining the Following." I shook my head. "What an example I am."

"Just because you are part of the Following, it doesn't mean you have to follow their beliefs," Andrella pointed out logically.

"But I have to pretend I am," I smirked.

"Aye, but only when witnesses are around," she responded with a laugh.

"Well, I should go talk to Sami, I guess," I finished. "We could bring Kilmas to the Lycaeum. He wanted to see a library. And there is no finer than the Lycaeum."

Andrella opened her mouth to speak, but Kilmas suddenly began shouting. "Help! Help me!"

He was being chased by his own katana. It had been enchanted, just like what Minax had done. Andrella and I sprung into action, attacking the sword from two sides and beating it away from Kilmas. After a few good whacks from her blade and my arrows, the sword finally tumbled to the grass, severely battered but motionless once more.

I stood gazing down at the katana. "Okay, who enchanted that?" I asked rhetorically, since the answer was obvious.

"I'm sorry!" Kilmas replied instantly. "I was just trying to make it easier!"

Andrella couldn't help but laugh. "When using a weapon, you must count on your own strength and skill. Cheating doesn't make it easier. And you almost got yourself killed."

Kilmas looked down at his sliced up clothes and had to agree. "That was a powerful katana. Nearly took my head off."

"'Was' being the operative word," Andrella snickered.

"So you're not mad?" he asked hopefully.

Andrella didn't answer that directly. "Kianne and I were just discussing going to a library."

"Ohh," Kilmas responded instantly, eager. "I love libraries."

We walked a short distance away from the training field where I pulled out the Orb.

"It's interesting how you made the sword do that," Andrella commented conversationally. "Did you cast an enchantment spell?"

Kilmas bobbed his head up and down. "I'm not very good at them." He gave a nervous chuckle.

"It seemed to work just fine to me," Andrella smirked.

Kilmas pointed out, "It was supposed to hit the dummy..."

We snickered.

I formed a moongate to the Lycaeum, and we showed him its various interesting features while searching for Sami. I pointed out the Book of Truth, and we showed him the Books of Ages and Sami's awards. He seemed to be quite impressed with Sami and was eager to meet her. Unfortunately, we also had to relieve him of several books he tried to sneak off the shelves along the way.

A couple of times we directly spotted him taking the books, catching him red-handed; once, Andrella noticed that Kilmas was looking nervously at the guards, so she searched him and discovered a book hidden in the folds of his cloak. This after he assured her that he had taken nothing.

"Kilmas," I sighed, trying to make him understand, "if we can only trust you half of the time, we can't trust you any of the time."

"If this is how you behave," Andrella agreed, "you will stay in the Keep until your destiny is fulfilled."

He grumbled at us as we resumed our way.

As luck would have it, we had just happened to circle around such that Sami was in the last room in the Lycaeum. As we entered the only room we hadn't yet searched, we finally came across her sitting at a table surrounded by piles of books and papers and such. Some of the material looked a little waterlogged and wrinkled.

"Greetings, Sami," I spoke.

She looked up and jumped to her feet. "Kianne!"

I smiled and introduced her to Kilmas. Then I glanced at her table. "You have quite a lot of work here."

She laughed and nodded. "I'm helping a star sage!"

"A star sage?" We knew of only one...

"Master Gorjez," she confirmed.

I grinned. "That's a great help!"

Sami commented, "I know it looks like I am unorganized! But I'm not! I am straightening out his mess!"

We laughed. "You should have seen it yesterday," she giggled, gesturing at the pile of books and papers.

"I believe it!" I laughed. "We saw a sampling of his mess."

"I thought so!" she beamed. "He had your name written on a few pages. And I asked him why. He said you discovered something incredible! But he didn't know what it was!"

Andrella and I laughed at that quite a bit. Gorjez seems to be turning into another Nystul for sure.

"He's forgotten already?" I snickered.

"He said he doesn't like to waste his time remembering things when he can write them down," Sami nodded.

"And lose them," Andrella mumbled with a smirk.

"In the sea," I finished for her.

"Did he?" Sami laughed.

I smiled. "But I'm glad you're helping him."

"Me too!" she agreed.

"We were just showing Kilmas around," I commented, giving Andrella a wink.

She took the hint beautifully. "Kilmas, want to go look at some books?" Andrella asked.

Kilmas nodded without comment. He had been very quiet. I think he was fearing bringing down Andrella's wrath by opening his mouth. I say this because, as he and Andrella were leaving the room, I heard him hiss quietly, "She's a peasant..."And Andrella whapped him around the ears.

Once we were alone, I turned back to Sami. She was gazing after Kilmas, appearing amused. "What's his problem?"

I laughed. "Well, uh, it's a long story."

"I would love to hear it!" she grinned.

"Let's just say he isn't as old as he looks."

"Oh, he's not 500?"

I laughed. "Exactly!" Then I grew more serious. "You know, I had something to ask you about. But you are so busy now..."

Sami made a motion of dropping everything that she was doing. "I'm not busy now!" she grinned.

Andrella had been right. Sami's cheerful attitude made it easy for me to keep a genuine smile on my face despite the circumstances. "It's just something I thought you might be interested in," I began, the words flowing easily. "Have you heard of Batlin's Following?"

Sami nodded, and I found I wasn't very surprised that she was familiar with it, even despite the fact that she doesn't leave the Lycaeum often. "The druids' rise."

"I only heard of it recently, and I went to learn of it," I explained carefully. "It's really quite interesting, and I'm trying to become a member."

"You are going to join!?" she gasped. "It's an extreme religion I hear; not many can handle it. But I bet you can make it easy!"

Religion. This isn't sounding good.

"Well, I'm trying," I chuckled.

"Do you need some books?" Sami asked. "Druid books are few and far between."

"I'll let you know," I assured her. "But actually I bring this up because I was wondering if you were interested in joining, yourself. If you have time, that is."

She blinked. "Me? Oh, I would, but I doubt I have what it takes..."

"I don't know about that," I responded. "I thought of you almost right away. But I was thinking, you were too busy." I giggled.

"I'm not too busy!" Sami assured me. "But, what if he won't let me join? I heard there are tests."

I nodded. "There are. But it won't hurt to try, right?" I smiled encouragingly. "And tell Batlin that I sent you. I'm sure that would help."

Sami gave me a hopeful look. "You think I could do it?"

"Aye, I think so," I replied truthfully.

She clapped her hands in excitement. "I'd love to! We could be Following buddies!"

I grinned a little ruefully. "And you can help me study!"

"I will!" Sami agreed. "So what do I do?"

"You just need to speak to Batlin at Empath Abbey," I explained. "I can take you there, if you'd like. And a moongate back as well."

"Let me talk with my dad," she told me. "You can take me?"

I nodded. "Just let me know when."

Sami beamed. "I'm sure he'll say yes!"

She told me she would leave a note with Shamino, and I said farewell to her for now.

There is no turning back now. The only path is forward.

I found Kilmas and Andrella in one of the other rooms. "Can we go back to the Keep...please?" Andrella asked as soon as she saw me, and I snickered.

I formed a moongate outside. Kilmas was grumbling about the scribes the entire way back to the Keep. "Don't touch, they keep saying. You have to stay there to read! Why don't they let you take books?"

"If everyone took books, there would be none left to read," I pointed out logically.

"Not everyone then, just me."

I chuckled. "No exceptions."

Kilmas huffed. "I'll have you know: Everyone in Valence made exceptions for me and my father."

"This isn't Valence though," I noted.

He gave a gusty sigh. "Whatever."

"Kilmas," Andrella spoke up in that dangerous calm again. "You need to understand something. You are a visitor here and a stranger. No one knows or cares about Valence or its people. Not because they are rude and selfish, but because Valence is nowhere near here."

"That's your fault," he countered. "You should have built a bigger island, and made more knights. Taken over the throne!"

She snatched him by the arm. "I'm not going to listen to your mouth any more!"

"Joking," he protested weakly. "Joke..."

"You are not joking! And you are not getting away with that behavior. Go to your room." She let go of him and pushed him toward the doors to the keep.

Kilmas was instantly contrite. "I'm sorry. Please. Can we go to Magincia?"

I was a little surprised, but ever since I'd mentioned Magincia in reference to his arrogance, he'd expressed interest in visiting there. I wasn't sure he'd enjoy it as much as he thought he would, particularly once he found out the lesson of the story...

"No. Go to your room now," Andrella ordered.

He was extremely reluctant, so we accompanied him there just to make sure he would go. Finally, he stood by his bed, avoiding Andrella's gaze and shifting from foot to foot.

I remained in the entryway to the room, staying out of the way and just observing.

"I am the elder Valence here," Andrella explained to him. "So from now on, you treat me with respect. And you treat Kianne with respect. And if you disobey I will give you a harsh punishment. And I will not be so nice next time."

"This wasn't nice," Kilmas muttered.

"Exactly my point," she agreed.

"Can we go to Magincia?"

"Why should I let you?"

"Because I am your cousin," he said. "You and me, it's blood."

"That doesn't matter," she reminded him. "Just because you are blood it doesn't mean you get special privileges. You have to earn them."

He had said something similar earlier, when he had implied that only those with royal bloodline should sit on a throne--and that those who did have royal blood, such as himself and Andrella, should always be on thrones somewhere. Not wanting to roughen the waters, I hadn't pointed it out to him, but I'm pretty sure Lord British has no royal blood, as he is from Earth. Yet he is an excellent ruler...

"And if I don't like your attitude," Andrella was finishing, "then you get nothing. You are too arrogant and spoiled. It's time for some real Valence boot camp." She snickered and cracked her knuckles.

Kilmas gulped again. "Kianne..." he pleaded plaintively.

I couldn't help but chuckle a little. "Sorry, but she has the right of it."

He looked from my face to Andrella's. "Magincia?" he asked.

"Not tonight," Andrella said. "You are being punished."

Kilmas went into full-fledged apology mode. "Please? I am sorry. I am. It's just been so long that I've been on my own. I had to steal to make my way. I know it's bad, but..."

"You're not on your own," Andrella reminded him. "We are here to help."

"I just want nice things like I had in my room at my castle," he pouted. "I had hundreds of books. All mine. I had everything I ever wanted."

"Then you have to earn them," Andrella told him. She paused. "Tell you what. I will buy you some books. But you have to agree to work with us, and to stop lying."

"I will," Kilmas agreed immediately. "I will never turn my back on you. Thick and thin. My own father turned his back on me," he sniffed. "And I turned my back on him. And then he tried to kill me...and lied to me...and betrayed me..."

Andrella stepped forward silently and enfolded him in a hug, and for that moment, he didn't look at all like an old man, but instead, like a very sad little boy being comforted by an older sister.

"I'm not like him," Kilmas sobbed into her tunic. "Never. Valence is worth everything."

Andrella smiled faintly at those words. "You do have much pride in you. You just need to know when to hold back your arrogance."

He nodded and sniffed.

"Now," she said, pulling back slightly. "Are you ready to change?"

Kilmas nodded his head again. "I am going to try my best."

"Then if Kianne wishes, we may continue to Magincia. Though I must warn you," she added, "you will be told stories which hold true morals to them, and you must listen."

"I will," he agreed.

Andrella turned. "Kianne?"

I was already holding the Orb in my hand. "Let's go outside then," I smiled.

Kilmas looked around in excitement at the rose marble buildings and streets of Magincia. The Orb's gate had placed us right near the bank. We took the opportunity to open him up a bank box as well, while we were at it.

Kilmas was definitely on his best behavior. He even thanked the bankers.

"Welcome to Magincia," I said.

I led the way down the street in a random direction, just letting him soak in the sights of the city. We passed a carefully planted and walled garden containing jungle plants and even a little bricked pond. Down the next street was a very large magic shop that interested Kilmas greatly. He even politely asked about their prices on potions, and commented to us that he would need to return once he had earned some gold.

But then Kilmas tried to strike up a conversation with one of the scribes visiting the magic shop. Unfortunately the man was in a rush and simply hurried on his way.

"Did you see the way he ignored me?" Kilmas asked us as we walked back outside.

"Aye," Andrella said. "Some people are like that."

Kilmas sighed. "I know. It's just hard. People used to bow at my feet."

"I didn't live like royalty, so it wasn't so hard for me," Andrella pointed out.

"You should have," Kilmas said. "It's fun."

Andrella glanced at him. "My father was meant for the throne, you know. Until Xavier..." She paused as something occurred to her. "Do you know what your father did?"

Kilmas shook his head, not understanding what she was getting at. So she told him. "He purposely paralyzed himself so that he would have to take the throne rather than the knights. Or so that's what I was told."

I joined Kilmas in looking at her in surprise. This was a detail even I hadn't known. "He did it?" Kilmas asked. "I thought...your father tried to kill him?"

"No!" Andrella rejected that idea immediately. "My father had more honor than that."

"What?" he gasped, then sighed dejectedly, as if all of the wind had gone from his sails. The pain was clear on his face.

Andrella stepped forward. "Kilmas, it isn't your fault."

Kilmas gazed at her. "It isn't my fault that I once thought my father was the greatest guy in the world?"

But Andrella said gently, "No, it's not. When children see their parents, they always cherish them. Love them. Adore them. It's the parent's fault for distorting that. For ruining something so innocent."

Kilmas looked sad. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Sure," Andrella agreed with a smile. "Kianne?"

"Actually, I was going to talk of the city," I chuckled. "You've seen it, all of its splendor."

He nodded. "She is a wonderful bard," Andrella grinned. I laughed.

"Oh," Kilmas said. "Do you sing? Or dance? I like dancing."

"No, no, no," I giggled.

"Kilmas," Andrella joined in. "Let's try listening."

I smirked. "I tell stories. You know, like 'once upon a time...'"

"I know that one," he broke in immediately. "It's about a dragon."

I smiled patiently. "But do you know this one?" I asked him. "Once upon a time, this great city, and all that you see..." I held out a hand, gesturing at the streets and buildings. "It was all reduced to rubble--the entire thing a swamp and wasteland."

Kilmas blinked, looking around in curious disbelief. I smiled faintly at his reaction. "It's hard to believe, isn't it? It took a while to find out what brought the city down." I shook my head at the memory. "It was the people's pride."

"How could pride be bad?" Kilmas wanted to know.

"Pride focuses on the self. In a way, it's self-defeating," I explained. "Just as how all of those people were too proud to see the truth...and the daemons which eventually destroyed their city."

"Is it wrong to be proud, then?"

I shook my head. "No, there is nothing wrong with self-worth. But it must be truthful. And that is really the key. Loving yourself, deceiving yourself, and resting all courage in yourself. Pride encapsulates all. Taken to the wrong extremes is when it is deadly." I paused. "Just remember that Pride has an opposite. Which is taking those qualities in the right balance."

"What is the opposite?" Kilmas asked.

I smiled. "Humility."

It had been an interesting lesson to learn during the Quest of the Avatar--trying to find that eighth Virtue. I knew that Magincia was the city, but everyone I talked to only discussed its people's pride. And I couldn't see how pride was a Virtue...

Of course, the real lightbulb was in the reversing of the mantra. In fact, it seemed so obvious that afterward I didn't know why it hadn't occurred to me sooner.

Kilmas seemed to be seriously considering my words. "So, for me to be humble all I have to do is talk to peasants?"

I tried to explain. "It's an attitude..." But Kilmas was already walking up to the nearest passerby. "Hail, I am Kilmas," he introduced himself.

"Hello," the man greeted in return.

"Of Valence," Kilmas added, but the townsman simply blinked without comprehension. "Valence!" Kilmas repeated, sounding irritated. "V-a-l..."

"Kilmas." I laid a hand on his shoulder.

"It was nice speaking to you, Kilmas, but I must be on my way." The man took his opportunity and hurried off.

"See?" Kilmas grumbled at me. "Like I am the peasant!"

"We are all citizens here," I said gently.

"You? You are the Avatar," he shot back.

I gave a little shrug. "I am here to help the land."

Kilmas spun to face me. "I am unclear to why you do not take pride in being the Avatar."

I scratched my head. "How to explain this..."

"If I was the Avatar..." Kilmas began, but he trailed off without completing the thought. It's just as well, because I was having a difficult time picturing him as an Avatar.

"To me, it is important that I am able to help others," I explained. "You said yourself, you have a task that you must do. I do as well. We all have something to contribute."

"Hawkwind said there is a powerful gate preventing anyone from getting in here," Kilmas stated. "But you broke right through that like it was nothing."

I blinked in surprise.

"You don't think you are better then these mages here?" he wanted to know.

I shook my head. "No. I'm not a dedicated mage."

"But you are more powerful than they are," he argued. "You have to be."

I giggled. "You should see me try to cast eighth circle." Before he could protest, I went on, "But, you see, that's really what I meant. If you know your weaknesses, you also know your strengths. You can't be truly strong until you know where you are weak."

Kilmas surprised me by considering my words seriously. "That makes some sense..."

"You might be able to get away with deceiving others," I explained. "But until you can admit the truth to yourself, you are setting yourself up for a fall. Just as did Magincia."

"Do you think I am doing that?" Kilmas asked. "Like Hawkwind said... Why did he say teach me?"

I looked at him sadly. "You were forced to grow up too early. You never really had a childhood. So now," I smiled faintly, "everything is a crash course."

"I can learn fast," he assured me.

I nodded. "There's nothing wrong with recognizing what you are good at. Just be sure you know how to defend those parts that are vulnerable. And you can't do that until you know what they are." I smiled at him.

Kilmas considered that. "So what am I weak against?"

"Well," I suggested, "you are a good mage, but not necessarily a good swordsman."

"But I can be."

I nodded in agreement. "Aye, train hard. Andrella will be happy to teach you if you really wish to learn."

"Then that will defeat my weakness?" he asked eagerly.

I chuckled a little. "It's...more complex than that. For now, let's just practice being honest with yourself."

Andrella nodded in agreement. "Start small."

I smiled. "Ask yourself, 'can I honestly do this, or am I just fooling myself?' And if you can't... Try, and try again," I grinned.

Kilmas agreed. "Like the peasants. If they rebuilt this town..."

"Like the what?" Andrella prompted. "You mean citizens, right?"

"Right," he agreed instantly.

I chuckled. "Aye, they did. And you know, a shepherd survived the destruction of the city."

"One shepherd?" Kilmas asked in surprise.

I nodded my head. "One survivor."

"How could a shepherd survive...? What about the fighters? The strong ones like the one who just walked by?"

"Their pride got the best of them," Andrella explained.

I nodded in agreement. "That is exactly the point."

"Wow," Kilmas breathed. "A shepherd..."

I smiled, then glanced at the night sky. "But perhaps that is enough for tonight. Shall we head back?"

I formed a moongate for us, but Kilmas paused to take one last look at the city before walking through.

I did as well. Welcome, I found myself thinking, to New Magincia.

Perhaps there is hope for Kilmas yet...

---

¹ Hawkwind is the Time Lord. In Ultima 4 he acts as Lord British's seer during the Quest of the Avatar, and few know his true identity. He crops up under this name in other games as well.

² See archive 11, entry 11/22/2003.

---

<<Previous	Main	Next>>