Part: The Ninth

Broken Paradox

After Kilmas's funeral, Andrella was attacked by Fehzullaba and killed while alone in the keep. Aelias and Kianne arrived too late to save her, but then the Time Lord appeared in transparent, ghost-like form. He called Andrella's spirit to them and they were able to restore her to life.

And then the truth came out.

As it turned out, Andrella had been holding K'mosh in her body deliberately. It was all part of a plan she and the Time Lord had worked out and decided upon long ago.

Working together, the two of them had gone into the future, while leaving behind their past selves. (The Time Lord's past self had died to Mondain, leaving his present form without a body. Andrella's past self had just now died to Fehzullaba, but Andrella had been able to recover her body at least.)

That plan was to destroy K'mosh by first allowing his rebirth. When he was reformed in Andrella's body, they were going to have Kianne destroy the Gem of Immortality at that same moment, thereby killing both Andrella and the Kill. Normally, Andrella's death would be permanent; this is why the Time Lord helped her to create a future self that would have, had the plan worked as intended, allowed her to be restored to life after the Kill was dead.

But Fehzullaba had just now ruined the plan by stealing K'mosh from her. And that was why Andrella could now, finally, tell the others what she'd been plotting. (Otherwise, K'mosh would have overheard and been alerted to the plan.)

During the discussions, Rakiah arrived to announce that her master, Master Unlight, had failed in his mission. He'd been pretending to be an ally to the Guardian, but his cover had been blown by Fehzullaba, who seemed to have ruined everything.

The Time Lord warned them that VayViktus would try to kill Kianne now, because he could no longer get the Dividre. The Guardian had been planning to use the rebirth of the Kill to drive the Dividre from Kianne. But now that the Kill was no longer in Andrella's body, this was no longer possible, and the Guardian's plans had been spoiled as well.

And so, with that warning, the three packed up their essentials and abandoned their homes, fleeing to New Virtue where the Guardian's daemons could not, yet, find them.

New Plans

Andrella, Kianne, and Aelias visited Pearl, who had changed her mind and now agreed that Kianne should dominate the Ether. The Dividre had been killed long ago by Onos, she said, and had become something of a myth or legend. But now that Kianne was the Dividre, it was possible that she could dominate all of the Ethers at once.

Pearl also apologized to Andrella for doubting her.

To dominate the Ethers, Pearl explained, they must free the Ether Lords, then release and defeat the Pagan Lords. They would need two sets of stones and runes to do that, because Onos had worked it so that releasing any of them would shatter the stone and rune that were used to do it.

Pearl also mentioned that Kianne, as the Dividre, has the power to separate the Elements, the Virtues, light and darkness...though Kianne didn't really understand it.

The Ether Lords

The three went to Dawn and encountered Onos--or, rather, Eromonolith. He explained to them bitterly that he had killed the Dividre once before because he didn't want her to dominate. The elements were like gods to the elves, and for any one being to dominate all of the Ethers at once, it would be like denouncing the gods of the elves, and that would upset them greatly.

But he didn't try to kill this second Dividre. Saying he had no place in this world, Eromonlith finally jumped into the fire in the middle of the shrine and was consumed. His parting words a message to Abella: "Al'wasShev'eer."

After he died, moongates leading to the seven remaining Ethers opened. The three entered each one in turn and freed the Ether Lords using the tainted stones and runes they'd obtained from the daemons. Strangely, these stones and runes were not destroyed in the process, so it seemed possible that they would not need to sacrifice the Stones and Runes of Virtue after all.

Once that was done, they returned to the Wind Gardens to speak with the freed Ether Lords...who told them ruefully they wouldn't be Ether Lords once Kianne dominated the Ethers.

Pearl reminded Kianne that she had already dominated Dark and Light by defeating Onos, and told her to go to the Light Ether and see for herself...

Light and Dark

On their way to the Ether of Light, they encountered Rakiah, who warned them of some new developments. Fehzullaba wanted to kill Viktor; aware of the danger, the Guardian planned to take himself, his daemons, and his human followers to Pagan. But doing so would require a Black Gate. To open one, the Guardian intended to sacrifice Gwenno (the dark Avatar) and use her blood.

Meanwhile, Batlin appeared to have constructed an elemental bomb of some sort to use as a "parting gift" to destroy Britannia after they fled to Pagan.

Rakiah told them that when Fehzullaba left to kill Viktor, Rakiah would take the opportunity to kill Mondain, who was presently being guarded by Fehzullaba. Fehzullaba in fact was trying to revive Mondain, knowing he had knowledge of how to revive Exodus. Rakiah asked for the Gargoyle blades to use to kill Mondain. This would pin the blame on Andrella, who could handle Fehzullaba's wrath better than Rakiah. To help her with this, Rakiah gave Andrella back the Gem of Immortality which would protect her even if Fehzullaba managed to surprise her a second time.

Before leaving, Rakiah said she felt that Fehzullaba would go after Viktor while he was in the middle of killing Gwenno, as that would be the time when he'd be the most vulnerable.

Andrella, Kianne, and Aelias visited Dawn briefly to go through the moongate leading to the Ether of Light, but they ended up in Kianne's house. So they went back to Wind to ask Pearl, who explained that because Kianne had dominated the combined Ether of Light and Dark, it would exist wherever she chose to rest. Meaning Kianne could create the Ether wherever she pleased.

Pearl also warned them that the Pagan Lords have companions. And as an ally of Pyros stood Arcadion.

Shattered Mirror

Lita, Starfire, and Aelias traveled to Yew disguised as druids to try to learn about Batlin and his bomb. But they were waylaid by a high-ranking druid, who gave them a package to deliver to KnockJaw, a pirate in Buccaneer's Den.

Through this they discovered that what KnockJaw really wanted was a ninja. So, naturally, the three disguised themselves as ninja and visited the pirate, pretending to have been sent by the druids. KnockJaw explained their mission: to retrieve the shards of the mirror of Erethian. But, as these things go...Soth has them. KnockJaw said that Soth was in "old" Britain city and that there was a portal to it behind the pub, north of the brown blade of grass.

Moving on, the spies tried Britain next, trying to discover information about Viktor. They encountered a druid named Thaddeus waiting near the castle. Starfire attempted to pretend to be interested in The Fellowship, and though they got the druid to talk a lot about how the Guardian was going to lead them all to paradise, the only thing of substance they learned was that both Viktor and Batlin were "busy" and could not see visitors.

Eventually, they were imprisoned for seeking "idols." Aelias helped the other two escape, and they regrouped in Yew.

Since that avenue had gotten them nowhere, they tried going back to Ardonis, who had given them the quest to KnockJaw. The druid didn't seem to recognize them as the same druids as he'd met before, and this time he gave them some fruit and wine to take to Gwenno. This was much better because it enabled them to learn her location. Of course, Kianne should have guessed it, because Iolo's wife was in the house the two of them had once shared.

In their druid disguises, Lita, Starfire, and Aelias visited the house just to see what kind of protections it had. They found it surrounded by daemons and defiler elementalists, to no huge surprise. They were able to get inside without event, and once in the house, they were alone except for Iolo's wife.

Gwenno seemed almost weary and resigned to her expected duties. She was not openly hostile to them, but she told them shortly that she was too tired to do anything for them, and she went into the bedroom to lie down.

Aelias marked a rune in the corner so that Kianne could use the orb to open a gate there later, and the three left.

Unwilling Avatar

No one knew what to expect upon meeting Gwenno. After all, she was now the dark Avatar. Had the Guardian accomplished this by taking control of her mind somehow? Hypnotized her? Would they face her now as an enemy instead of a friend?

No matter what, though, they knew they had to save her from the Guardian, one way or another. They finally decided to get a Gem of Entrapment from Nystul, so they could use it on Gwenno as a last resort.

With that in hand, the three opened a moongate to the location Aelias had marked in Gwenno's house and found her resting in her bedroom. To their surprise but relief, Gwenno was not under any sort of mind control. But she'd been forced to cooperate and had been transformed into a defiler against her will.

And even now, she refused to escape with the others because she was worried about her husband Iolo. Fehzullaba had threatened to kill Iolo if Gwenno left. Apparently, Fehzullaba wanted Gwenno to be sacrificed so that Fehzullaba could make use of the distraction to get at the Guardian. Andrella declared that this was the last straw and decided the best use for their Gem of Entrapment would be to trap Fehzullaba.

The three pleaded with Gwenno to go with them anyway, but still she refused. Both for Iolo's safety, and because of shame over having become a defiler. She knew she would be rejected and possibly even hunted by the elves, and even if she escaped that, she could cause inadvertent harm in other ways. In fact, Kianne suffered pain and weakness just being near her, though luckily, unlike with her meeting with Era in the past, this time she came out of the situation with her own powers still intact.

In the end, the most they could do was reach a compromise. Andrella would guard Iolo against Fehzullaba while Aelias and Kianne tried to find a way to reverse Gwenno from a defiler back into a normal elementalist. If Fehzullaba came to kill Iolo, Andrella would trap her in the gem, and perhaps then Gwenno would agree to save herself.

With that, they left immediately and returned to Iolo.

Dealing with Evil

Andrella decided that rather than waiting for Fehzullaba to come to them, they would take the issue to her. They traveled to Bizonth's throne room, where Marveshika--and, presumably, Fehzullaba--would be.

When Fehzullaba appeared, she explained that all she wanted was her opportunity--her opening to kill the Guardian. If they could find some other way of granting that to her without involving Gwenno, all fine and good, but otherwise, Fehzullaba said she would stick with her original plan.

She suggested that Andrella and Anniosha could combine their armies and attack the Guardian flat out and provide a distract that way, but Andrella wasn't yet ready to commit to something like that.

They left without making any promises, and visited Soth in Felucca next. The first person they encountered (aside from his mindless undead minions) was Aisis. The former knight was friendly enough to them, but still loyal to Soth. Speaking of Soth, he was his usual condescending self, and, perhaps not surprisingly, he refused to simply give them the mirror (which he claimed he had repaired). But he offered to trade it for Kilmas's body.

Knowing Soth would use the body to raise Kilmas as undead or worse, they normally wouldn't have given such an offer even a second thought. But through Aelias, they had a means of speaking with Kilmas's spirit beyond the grave. So Andrella decided to ask Kilmas directly what he would want done.

Shattered Peace

Andrella wasn't quite ready to talk to Kilmas yet, so they decided to ask Pearl more about how to fight the Pagan Lords. But when they arrived in Wind, they were in for a rude shock. The gardens were filled with daemons and defilers, and the Ether Lords were nowhere to be found.

After they escaped, Kianne suggested they visit the Shrine of Spirituality--because it was Pearl's element, and because Aisis had mentioned it.

There was nothing unusual at the shrine, but Kianne successfully contacted Pearl. The voice was faint and faded away almost immediately, saying “Batlin has us...”

Untrusted Allies

Rather annoying her, the Guardian spoke to Kianne telepathically again, asking her to meet him briefly at the entrance to Despise. He added, “Ask Aelias if it's safe.” She did just that, though more because she trusted Aelias's judgement than because she trusted anything that the Guardian said.

Aelias said that Radium figured she'd be safe talking to the Guardian this time, but then suddenly warned her urgently not to face the Pagan Lords, or even to enter any of the Ethers, or else she would be in extreme danger. Unfortunately, he was unable or unwilling to clarify further.

So with that possibility taken off the table, the three of them went to Despise, where they found the Guardian alone.

He said he was there to give them something, because he no longer trusted one of his allies. Then he clarified that he was freeing Gwenno. He asked them to open a gate to her location. Aelias did, thereby confirming that they knew where she was. Nevertheless, the Guardian freed her as he'd promised, and allowed her to leave with them.

But Kianne was wary to bring her to New Virtue, worried that the Guardian had planted some sort of trap somehow. As it was, Gwenno herself refused to stay with them, saying she was going to go see Anniosha. She left by herself, and disappeared into the forest.

New Form

With the Pagan Lords taken off the table, there was little more they could do at the moment. So, finally, Andrella used the Staff of Time to give them passage to the Chamber of Time.

Aelias was able to summon Kilmas's spirit, but Kilmas was visible only to Aelias (which was a paradox in and of itself). Andrella and Kianne could not see him. Andrella kept asking Kilmas to come out of hiding, but Kilmas cried, saying he didn't want them to see him. He urged them to let him deal with his own troubles.

But the news that he was dead came as a surprise to Kilmas, because he told them that's not what had happened at all. He said that he hadn't meant for everyone to think he was dead, and asked them to help Zomus, whom Kilmas had sent to the hedge maze.

When pressed, Kilmas finally admitted that he was now in daemon form (which was something they'd guessed already). He explained that his daemon form was still in Valencia, which the Guardian had destroyed. The way Kilmas put it, he'd “captured” a daemon, but while he was in human form, he couldn't control it. It didn't make a lot of sense to Kianne, and Andrella and Aelias kept their thoughts to themselves.

But then Andrella started verging toward asking if Kilmas was one of the sealed daemons, and that was when Kilmas abruptly left them. Though his parting words hung in the air long after he'd left.

“I'll always be Kilmas to you, I promise.”

Unleashed Evil (Again)

Following Kilmas's request, they traveled to the Hedge Maze to find Zomus. There was nothing in the center of the maze, so they explored the outer boundaries. Finally they discovered Zomus tangled in a web of some terror spiders.

They released him and Aelias revived him. Zomus explained he was looking for the “wand of carnage” from the spiders. He now suspected the wand was in the Terath lairs. But he refused their help, insisting that he go alone. In fact, he asked Aelias to wound him so that it wouldn't be obvious that Aelias had healed him. For some reason, it was important to Zomus that he not be seen as working with the others.

When they pressed him on the issue, he finally mentioned that Valence had fallen to the Miser. (And not the Guardian as they had first heard?) Zomus said he did not want the Miser--a rival of VayViktus--to think of him as an ally of Aelias and Andrella.

Leaving Zomus to his task, the three went next to visit Abella. She warned them that Viktor had given up Gwenno knowing that Anniosha would kill her. This, then, was his plan; he would still get the death of the Avatar as he needed, without having to open himself up to Abella's attack.

Abella also told them that she'd caught Rakiah trying to assassinate Mondain. She promised to release Rakiah if Aelias awakened Mondain for her (he was in a coffin nearby).

Instead, Aelias gave the message from Eromonolith to her, and she stopped dead and trembled. “At last I am free,” she breathed.

But she still insisted that they awaken Mondain, because only Mondain could release her son Exodus's soul. Then, Abella said, she could join Eromonolith and her son.

Abella removed Mondain from the coffin and used Rakiah's dagger on him, and Aelias healed him. The others surrounded the two as Abella demanded that Mondain free her son. Mondain, presumably weakened from having been in a coma, attempted to summon beasts to come to his aid, but they defeated them with little difficulty.

Abella retaliated by stabbing him, but before she could do anything further, Marveshika appeared with a small army of Virge. She grabbed Abella, upset at the Virge mother's defiance even as Abella declared that she was no longer in Marvek's service.

In all of the confusion, Mondain escaped with a Recall spell.

Marveshika demanded that they leave; Abella went with them to a small clearing in a forest. Once the four were alone, Abella asked Aelias if he was the Time Lord. Aelias said it was down to either himself, Batlin, or Mondain. One of the three would get the title.

Abella promised to free Rakiah, but said she didn't have much time left. She left them, and Rakiah came to them shortly thereafter.

Rakiah apologized that their plan hadn't gone as intended. She returned Andrella's gargoyle swords and also told Andrella to keep the dagger that they'd used to awaken Mondain. She warned them that Marveshika had taken all of the other daggers, but Rakiah said she would deal with Marvek and left to do so.

In the meantime, the other three left to go to the coordinates of the elves that Abella had left with them.

Anniosha Animosity

At dawn, Anniosha agreed to meet with them, but the conversation was not friendly. Anniosha did not seem very friendly toward them, and she was at odds with Andrella and Aelias the entire meeting, while Kianne struggled unsuccessfully to mediate between them.

Anniosha's opinion seemed to be that the daemons were not the elves' problem this time around. She made it plain that she would never respect the fact that Kianne had inherited her powers instead of learning them through study.

Anniosha did ask them if the would obtain two spirit orbs so that she could contact Vhanderfall and Erimani, two fallen elves. She was clear that there would be no reward offered and that she wouldn't even allow the others to be present during the contact. Andrella and Aelias wanted to know why they should bother helping her if she wouldn't help them. But Kianne was hoping that Vhanderfall and Erimani might be able to help them, plus she just wanted to do the task for Anniosha to try to forge a bridge of understanding between the two of them.

At any rate, Anniosha said the orbs might be with the wizards in Hythloth, or perhaps in the towers of Shame. Or most certainly, Soth would have them. But Kianne certainly didn't want to have to go back to Soth if they could at all avoid it.

During the conversation, Andrella also brought up the Miser. Anniosha told them that his true name was Lialik Vron. He was of elven flesh, but daemon blood. She warned them that if they ever did meet him, their opinions of him would vary greatly. Then, almost as an aside, she mentioned that the Miser had once nearly killed Vhanderfall, the elves' greatest warrior.

Later on, they met Gwenno near the Trinsic moongate. She told them her plan: she'd go to the Spire in Dawn and wait for them. She could summon the Pagan Lords out of the Ether so that they could defeat them in the Spire, where the elemental lords would be more vulnerable. For each summoning, she said she would need mana potions and materia matching the Pagan Lord to be summoned.

Gwenno also warned them that the Pagan Lords would probably only be able to be harmed by their opposite element, their weakness. And they had the power to drain auras and weapon enhancements, which would take several possibilities out of Kianne's bag of tricks.

Before they parted ways, Andrella asked Gwenno about the Miser. Gwenno said he had a hand in the first sealing the daemons...as well as in defeating Valence, as they'd already heard.

Spirit Orbs

They went to Shame and discovered a Wight with one of the spirit orbs. Then they traveled to Hythloth, and after much exploration and one or two close calls, they came across a room of wizards, one of which held an orb.

Just as they were finishing that battle, an old man wearing brown robes appeared, coughing and wheezing. He turned away from them without speaking, walked up to a wall, and vanished.

Andrella thought he might be the Miser.

Misery

The three went to Anniosha to give her the orbs. They found her talking with that same brown-robed man, but he disappeared as soon as they arrived.

Anniosha verified Andrella's suspicions that he was the Miser, but she did not tell them much of him. She said he wanted to talk to them, and that he was mostly interested in Andrella. Anniosha warned that the Miser did not like questions.

While they were there, Kianne asked Anniosha if she would teach her in the elements if Kianne swore off using them until she was properly trained. But Anniosha refused, saying Kianne didn't understand--she'd already surpassed the elves and their “divines.”

Anniosha left them after promising to tell them if she learned anything helpful from Erimani regarding their situation.

The three left and went to a forest where they discussed matters. The Miser showed up and summoned a few daemons while invisible; once they were dispatched, he showed himself. The Miser asked Andrella to take them to the castle because they should surrender to Viktor. When the others protested, the Miser commented that if all they were going to do was sit there and talk, they may as well surrender.

When they were ready to win, he said, then he would return. With those words hanging over their heads, he left them.

Lithos and Earth

It was time to take on a Pagan Lord. Kianne decided, somewhat arbitrarily, to challenge Earth first.

Once they were prepared, the three traveled to the Spire, where they met up with Gwenno. She explained that she would need to position herself in a place where she could see the action but could not be harmed, because she needed concentration in order to maintain the enchantment. Once Lithos realized she'd summoned them, he would probably go after her.

So they found her a tower with a window that she could see out of. The rest of them positioned themselves outside, just below the tower.

Lithos appeared with an ogre mage and some sort of human spellcaster. The battle was lengthy, but thanks mostly to Aelias, the three companions came out victorious in the end.

Gwenno told Kianne that she must now go to the Ether of Earth but warned her to rest first. As they were talking, the Miser appeared again. He mentioned that he wanted Andrella's key, the Key to Valence that her father had entrusted her with. She refused to give it to him, of course, though she mostly wanted to know why it was that he wanted it. He left without revealing the answer to that question.

Earth Ether

The next morning, Rakiah appeared to report that Marvek had been slain by Fehzullaba and that the crystal daggers were now missing. Rakiah claimed that Fehzullaba committed suicide after doing this. After delivering her news, Rakiah left to hunt down the daggers.

The others went to the Earth Ether. The Elementals there were passive and did not attack. But the Miser showed up just as they were approaching the crystal of Lithos.

Although Kianne hardly wanted an audience, there was nothing she could do but go forward. She used the stone and the rune and claimed the power of Earth. As with Dark, she was unable to contain it and was forced to seal it away with Aelias's help. This time she chose to seal it into her sense of pain, joking earlier that she hardly needed it anyway.

At the same time, the Miser asked Andrella for her key again. It seemed to be the only thing he wanted.

But Kianne was barely aware of him. Disgusted with herself for being too weak to handle the power, she took the now-powerless crystal and they left.

Electos - First Attempt

By the next day, Kianne had discovered, much to her puzzlement, that she could still feel pain despite having sealed Earth into that sense. Yet she was unable to taste after having sealed away Dark in a similar manner.

Without knowing what else to do, they planned to take on Electos next. Gwenno warned that he could move very fast. Kianne tried to root him using vines, but between Electos and his helpers, they were unable to keep him contained, and the Elemental Lord went after Gwenno. She was forced to unsummon him in self-defense.

Afterward, Gwenno pointed out something odd. She said she could only summon and unsummon the Pagan Lords themselves. Their helpers were being summoned by the Lords. Yet when she unsummoned Electos, his companions disappeared first.

The Miser came along shortly thereafter, asking again for the key. Out of irritation she finally gave it to him. But, surprisingly, all he did was pull out a necklace stringed with many other similar keys. He looked at it for a moment, then put the necklace away and returned Andrella's key to her.

The Miser said they'd learned all they needed to know about each other, and that they should have a meeting at their “favorite dungeon hunting grounds.” Then he left.

Hunting Down a Meeting

They didn't know which dungeon the Miser meant, so they tried a couple of likely possibilities. First up was Deceit, where they ran into Soth of all people. He was accompanied by a mage wearing full platemail and a long beard.

Soth complained to them, saying that Aisis had stolen his mirror and tried to give it to Andrella and the others, but that she'd been captured at the shrine by Viktor--and now he had the mirror as well. This was news to the others, who hadn't realized Aisis's plans.

Leaving Deceit, they traveled next to Hythloth. Ironically, this time they encountered Goarla, who had been hunting there with some of his orcs, honing their fighting skills. He was now on his way out, so after exchanging some words, they went their separate ways.

They finally found the Miser in Hythloth. He left them outside where they could talk without being swarmed.

First off, the Miser commented to Andrella that her gargoyle blades “weaken” her, but she said she likes the disadvantage. The Miser also mentioned that their weapons won't help against VayViktus, though he didn't clarify on exactly which weapons he meant.

Finally, the Miser told them that they needed a “1500 point army” in order to advance against Viktor's army. The Valence Knights, he said, were worth 200 points total. Andrella, Aelias, and Kianne were good for 5 points each, but that left quite a few points still to gather.

Before leaving, the Miser warned them that if the Guardian succeeded in opening his gate, his army would become 15,000 points strong and he would be unbeatable. But, he pointed out, Viktor would need the blood of the Avatar or the mirror to open the gate. When they informed him that Viktor already had the mirror, the Miser simply coughed.

---

<<Previous	Main	Next>>