The Tale of X

One
In Which a Place Of Spiritual Importance Is Revealed

X tossed the worthless chunk of rock onto the floor and stood up. "This is the wrong place."
"How can it be the wrong place?" asked Sinthia, holding up the worn sheet of vellum they'd been following for a fortnight. "It's got all the markings. It's at the end of the map."
X shook his head and dropped his face into his hands. "It's the wrong place," he mumbled into his palms.
"No, it can't be." She stepped up onto some boulders. "Look, there's the sword and over there is the shield." She pointed at carvings etched into the cave wall, just visible by the light of their torches. Behind her was the path up to the entrance and the evening sky.
He picked up the torch he'd set down. "It's not a sword, it's a stile. It's a bundle of rods with a handle. The Artheans used them to signify who had what level of authority in their society." X walked across the uneven ground towards the other symbol. "And that's not a shield. It's a brazier. See the points around the edges? It was used for burnt offerings in hopes that the gods would be pleased with the proceedings here."
Sinthia looked back and forth; she couldn't form words in her frustration. "But the map." She looked down and fumbled with the vellum in her hands, trying to clumsily clutch her torch and hold out the faded map at the same time.
"This isn't a stronghold. It's a Feral Court." He pointed further down into the darkness. "A little ways down and we'll find the Judgement Pit." He sat heavily on a large rock next to him. Sighing and raising a hand, he shouted, "And may the gods find favor in our ways!" There was only the slightest echo from the dark. X looked over and saw Sinthia waiting for him to explain, as she always did. "Ancient ritual. People in power using the threat of godly disapproval to justify their own decisions."
She frowned. "Mock the gods all you want, but stay clear of me when you do it."
X looked up and all around, then back towards the entrance. "I think we're safe from lightning bolts all the way in here."
Sinthia said nothing else but just sat and tried to make sense of the map. They were quiet for a while.
X stood. He used his free hand to brush off the seat of his trousers. With a couple light kicks he knocked some pebbles out of his boot soles. Without looking up, he said, "I'm not saying this isn't an important find. It's just won't have what you need."
Sinthia laid the map on the floor and was rolling it up. Quietly: "We don't have a lot of time left."
X nodded, knowing full well that she meant she didn't have a lot of time left. "Let's climb back down and see what we can do before we lose all our light."
Sinthia turned away from him and started walking back up towards the entrance.


Two
In Which An Event Changes Geography

The walk back down to their quick camp left them out of breath in the high air. They hadn't said anything as they picked their way through the scarp and lichen covered rocks. Without coordinating verbally, they split out into their tasks for the evening. X threw on a heavy jacket and picked up a sack of books and scrolls. He'd go back through the notes and references that led them here and see what he could have overlooked or misinterpreted. Sinthia sat and drank a few sips of starberry juice. She shook the waterskin a little, judging how much she had left. Then she unrolled the map and brought out another set of rolled up charts. The wind wasn't as bad as it had been on the way up, but she still had to weigh everything down with fist sized rocks.
The mountainside was stark. The tree line was far below them and they barely had but some grass and fungus to keep them company. They'd brought a bundle of wood but that would be gone before midnight and then they'd shiver through the wee hours. Sinthia laid out all her materials with quick efficiency. The stars were not yet appearing. She glanced over at X but he was using his fingers to keep his place as he read two books at once.
The Scar of Artheaus shined with the light of the sun as it kissed the horizon. Reaching from one edge of the world to the other like a curved saber of firelight, the massive waterway could easily be seen across at this elevation. A hazy land of shadow and dust stretched out away from them across the water before being lost to the curve of Tellaria. The rest of the mountains thrust up into the darkening sky, forming a fence of old stone that separated the lands to the south and east. Slowly, the lands below her sprouted pinpricks of light, like fireflies that could no longer dance, as the hamlets and villages lit their nightly lanterns.
The Scar had been caused by the death of a jealous god. Or it had been caused by an ancient war of sorcery and hatred. Or it was the remains of an Eldar'ai portal that fell from Eldara itself when the world was first formed. Or even Sinthia's favorite; the handiwork of the Artful Creator who'd drank too much one night and mistakenly set down a sloppy pot of paint that formed the ring across the land. Upon waking and seeing His mistake, the Artful Creator vowed never to drink again. And, even to this day, everything else He creates is Perfect.
She looked up and saw the stars appearing. Picking up her charts and measuring tools, Sinthia went to work.


Three
About How the Crime Boss Enters

The trek down the mountainside took longer than they thought. Rocks and brambles leapt at their ankles and they soon wished they had taken the same way down that they had taken up. But the recalculation of the coordinates, with Sinthia providing new star locations and X using an alternate starting point, led them further west.
They were sitting on a fallen log and stretching their legs, packs sitting on the ground next to them. X was rubbing his calves and watching the woods around them. The foothills were mostly tamed but an occasional threat would infiltrate and all he had was a camp knife and a protective spell Sinthia had given him. He looked over at her. "How are you feeling?"
She smiled at him. "Better than you, apparently," she said, gracefully stretching one of her legs whle leaning back against a stubby branch like it was a lounge chair.
X nodded and shrugged. He was about to tick off the days it would take to get to the new location when the ring on his right forefinger started to tingle. He sighed. "Oh, come on..."
Sinthia looked down at his ring. She bit at her lower lip but didn't say anything.
X sat up straight and put both hands on his knees. He breathed in and concentrated on his ring. A yellow gemstone in it glowed with a sickly pale light.
Out in front of the two of them was a small clear area before the rest of the forest crowded in.  The form of a slender woman in yellow and orange robes appeared. She had platinum blonde hair with a rust red streak in it running down from her forehead to the tips below her shoulder. She smiled, like a cat acknowledging a pair of trapped mice. Her image trailed off below the waist but she appeared to be standing wherever she was. She looked back and forth at both of them and then off to her side, "They're here, love."
She stepped out of view and a vile looking man, a bit shorter but stout and muscular, stepped in. He wore a black shirt; silk, tight fitting, a black and gold hat of the latest style, and a golden chain around his neck. The chain had an oak leaf emblem of alabaster and red gems. It was probably worth more than X earned in a year as a scholar at Cassalo University.
The man raised a tea cup and took a sip from it. "Exeter," he said with a nod.
X nodded back. "Ivander."
Ivander set the tea cup down out of sight. "I won't drone on for hours. Do you have my rune yet?"
X shrugged. "No."
Ivander sighed. "You're running out of time." He glanced over at Sinthia who sat patiently and quietly. "In more ways than one."
X stood up. "I'm well aware of that. You'll have it in time. Now go back to your gallery and fence some more fine prints. We have work to do."
Ivander shook his head and motioned off to the side. "Fine. Just don't make me send sweet Elle after you." A deliciously gleeful laugh came from the other side of the room he was in. His image faded out and was gone.
X watched Sinthia's unmoving face. He'd become used to her stoicism in the quiet times of their journey but he could tell when her emotions were getting too close to a thin place. He reached down and picked up his pack. She remained unmoving, staring off at the sunlight on the side of the mountain range. X tried to think of something to say but couldn't come up with anything wise or comforting. "You'll have it in time."
She turned and smiled a quick smile, being polite but clearly having doubts.
X couldn't admit that he had them too.


Four
In Which a High Altitude City is Visited

The Gates of Calvin Garrison had collapsed centuries ago but they were still blocking the entrance and the climb would not be fun. The garrison had begun as a way station for the ancient order of the Dragon's Wing. Simple and efficient. But as their power and influence grew across all of what would later become Northmark, the garrison grew until it was a full fledged city. Built around, over, and within the highest peak of the Dormroth Mountains, Calvin Garrison had been an instrumental staging base for the war between the Dragon Lords and the Artheans.
Now it was wreckage and dust, windstorms and memories.
Sinthia watched X poke around at the top of the rubble pile. The Gates were a fifty foot tall jumble of broken stone and wind blown dirt, broken down by a mage bolt fired from the base of the mountains nearly ten miles away. It had been the beginning of the end for the Dragon Lords.
X called down, "I see a spot! We can get in from here. Give me a moment." He dropped out of sight and Sinthia drew the cloak around herself tighter. The wind never stopped in this place.
The whole mountainside was littered with the remains of the city. Dessicated wood and shattered rocks were everywhere, some still in a ghostly form of its previous life and some strewn about like bones thrown by a drunken giant. The heart of the garrison was in front of them, drilled back into the mountain by dragon claw and dragon breath. Inside was the rune they had spent so long looking for. At least, that was the best guess they could make between their two disciplines.
X was best at history, at the written word and the mysteries it could reveal and conceal. She knew the stars and the grand slow motions of the universe. Their partnership in this endeavor had started so promising. But all endeavors were promising when they had enough time in front of them. Now, all she saw was a lit fuse burning inevitably towards her. They just had to get the rune before the fuse reached the oil keg they were dancing on.
X reappeared at the top of the rubble. He waved. "We're in! Let me come help you."
"I can make it just fine!" she called out, but after pulling and picking herself up past just a few boulders she knew she wouldn't refuse him when he grabbed her elbow in that hesitantly chivalric way of his.



Five
The Myth of the Night Sky

They were both breathing heavy when they reached the end of the rocky passageway leading into the forward bailey. Torches couldn't give proper respect to the immensity of the garrison and they both walked out in awe.
Nearly one hundred feet high with vaulted ceilings they could barely see, the bailey stretched back into the dark. All along the edges of the room were man-sized doors where most of the dragon riders would have spent their time. X was amazed at how pristine it was. Neither the Arthean mages nor time itself had seemed to touch this space. The altitude protected it both in preserving the woods and reeds and in preventing most tomb raiders from venturing up here. They could even read a long abandoned sign with only the letters CAL and GARRI visible.
After a minute to catch their breath, X pointed off to the right. "That's where we need to go."
"Will the rune be right there? We're barely past the entrance."
"No, if it's here, the rune will be in a deeper chamber." X started walking and reminding himself not to slip into professor-speak. "This will be the chart house. The entire night sky will be carved into the ceilings of four domed rooms, one for each season."
Sinthia kept up with his pace despite the weariness in her legs. "The four seasons are a myth, you know."
X looked back.  Her face was glowing and radiant in the torchlight. "More conspiracies?"
She smiled. "It's not a conspiracy, it's an ancient Astral Sage truth. We just don't tell it to outsiders."
He turned back as they entered a smaller passageway. Not an outsider anymore, he thought to himself. Good and bad, I suppose. "Well I won't tell anyone."
They walked through a broken doorway. X turned each way, holding his torch up and shielding his eyes. He pointed to continue straight. Sinthia waved some dust out of her face, coughing. "There are more truths I suppose I can tell you now. The night sky is said to be always changing. But it doesn't change. We change."
"Right, the sun orbit theory. I've heard of it. Might be true."
"It is. Not only that, but the stars in the sky are very far away from us. Impossibly far away. Not like the sun or Eldara or any of the other Realms."
"If they're so far away, how can we see them? They'd be like candles across the ocean."
"Because they're incredibly large, just like our sun."
"Hmmm." X didn't believe most of the unproven theories about the realities of stars but didn't want to start an argument. "Well, be that as it may, here we are."
They came out into a large chamber with a vaulted ceiling and openings at the corners leading into other rooms like a four leaf clover. X turned around with his arms outstretched and waved his torch about. "So choose, venerable Sage! Choose the falsity you'd like to explore first!"
Sinthia giggled a bit and pointed to her left.


Six
The Discovery of an Unusual Weapon

Sinthia was laying on her back staring up at the domed ceiling. She had her sketch book out was was drawing all the markings above her. She smiled as X came over and laid down with his head next to hers and his feet out towards the opposite wall. They kept a comfortable silence for a while.
Finally she whispered, "Thank you for all this."
"You're welcome," he whispered back, not meeting her gaze.
She kept sketching. The diagrams were quite complete and after just a moment of study she'd had to admit she was impressed. Whoever had designed this room had known what they were doing. The Major and Minor Stars. The Three Nebulae. The Empty Patch. They even had the The Grand Circle and the Path of the Eldritch Constellations. What was most fascinating was that they were not quite correct in their measurements but as Sinthia drew them she realized they were all incorrect in the same way. She was pondering that while she sketched.
She also knew that none of this would help her with her sickness. It also wouldn't help X pay his debt. He was giving her time to indulge and she was thankful.
After a few minutes she came to the lower images and noticed a small square shape carved into the wall near the floor by the door. "What do you suppose that is?" she whispered, pointing.
"Why are you whispering?" he whispered.
"Feels like the right thing to do."
X nodded and rolled over to look right into her face. "If I'm right, it's why we're here."
"What?" she raised her voice, surprised. "That's the rune? Why didn't you tell me?"
He laughed a bit. "It's not going anywhere. And no, that's not the rune but it's the recess that the rune is placed into. Like a key for this whole room." He started to get up just when she wanted him to stay closer.
She closed her sketch book and wrapped the closure back around it. It and her stylus went into her pack. She realized she was flushing a bit at the thought of him laying close to her and kept her face turned away. "What kind of key? I thought the rune would just be laying out somewhere."
He was by the door, kneeling and looking at the recess. "Astral Sages often tied a rune to a room like this. It's a way to draw power down from the heavens and turn these places into weapons."
"I know that, but this isn't an Astral Sage temple. It's a Dragonlord map room, right?" She picked herself up and stepped over to get the torch that was laying on the floor across from the door.
"No and yes." He grabbed his torch from the holder on the wall. "The Dragonlords had their own version of Astral Sages but not many people know that. And not many Sage orders teach it." He waited for her to walk over to him. "We've got to go down further into the caverns. The rune will be there."
They walked out of the set of rooms and back down the passageway leading to the entrance. She followed him, frustrated and not hiding it. "I know I'm not the most experienced Astral Sage but one would think I'd have been told this before setting off on this quest."
"That's a question we can only speculate on now. Your circle may not have known. Or they may not have put the connection between you and the rune together like I did. Knowledge across Tellaria isn't perfect. And what's more, there's probably not much they could have done even if they did know about it. The shape of the rune is still a mystery."
"Someone still would have had to go questing..."
"Right," he said, looking back over his shoulder with a smile. "And I'm kinda glad it's us."
She was glad too. More than she could ever tell him.


Seven
In Which a Small Event Begins a Conflict

"But I just don't understand, sir. This is such a small thing. Barely worth the time and trouble." Ivander stood in a shadowy room, Elle behind him.
The shadows in front of them darkened and vibrated slightly as a voice spoke, hollow and distant but with a depth and power that made Ivander's bones tingle. "The rune may be trivial but the weapon it unlocks is not."
"I have my best agents working to retrieve it. They're highly motivated."
"You have three days before Death visits your house. Have the rune by then."
Ivander shrugged helplessly. "It will take longer than that just for them to return. They should have it today or tomorrow. Trust me, milord, these two are the best. There's no one more qualified. There's just no way to get it to you faster."
The darkness and the voice seemed to recede. "Three days and the rune must be in my hand. Anything else is your complete destruction."
"Milord, please. I've been compliant. I've been loyal. I'm your best--" But the light level in the room had returned to its normal dimness.
Elle stepped over to the table and the bowl holding her probability gems. Her boots click-clacked on the stone as she walked with slow precision. She scooped up the gems. "He's going to kill us either way, darling."
Ivander's demeanor instantly changed from groveling to domineering. "Of course he is! I knew that when we got into this."
Elle drew a heavy curtain from the window beside her. The small study was brightened by a setting sun. The light caught her platinum hair and the tiny crystals laced around her forehead, sparkly bits of shine spraying around the walls. "Well, it seems that everyone's time in this little tale is running out. I can change a lot of things," she rolled her gems around in the palm of her hand, watching as they too caught the light. "But I can't cheat Death."


Eight
In Which an Academy of Soldiers is Found

X reached up and helped Sinthia down to the floor. The problem with dragon steps is that they were not easy for people to use.
Above them in the torchlight was another huge cavern, also burned and scratched out of the mountain's innards. But unlike the other caverns, this one was for dragons alone. The claw strikes on the floor, the ancient stained rock, the melt marks of fire on the walls, they all pointed to a massive training room. Here is where dragons learned to fight and kill and use all their cunning to defeat the enemy.
X pointed further down as they walked. "We've passed the nesting caves so this should be the last room. The rune will have been kept in a smaller chamber down this way."
"How would the dragons have used it?" asked Sinthia. "I haven't been able to figure that part out."
"Dragon Astral Sages aren't something anyone really wants to think about." As he walked he tried again to remember not to slip into professor mode. He was only marginally successful. "Dragons have always had a raw elemental power. The Dragonlords recognized this and used both breeding and magical enhancements to bring that out. They turned heat into fire breath, static snapcharges into lightning strikes, gales of ice, clouds of poison, all that. But their real success was in increasing a dragon's animalistic cunning into actual intelligence."
He glanced back at Sinthia and she wasn't giving him a disapproving stare yet so he continued. "After that, the Dragonlords ruled half of this continent by simply directing their dragons to attack this and that. No one could stand against them."
"What happened then? I've never found a history book that does more than barely mention this."
"The dragons started thinking of their own needs and stopped listening to their masters. Then there were two rebellions, one to throw off their chains and ruin the Dragonlords, and then the second rebellion amongst themselves as they disagreed over their hard won future." He looked back. "Turns out, in all of history it doesn't matter if you're human, elf, or dragon. There are always two rebellions."
They continued to cross the open space in silence. Shortly, before X could resume his lecture, the gloom cleared and they saw a wall in front of them. A large passageway led further into the mountain, just about the size of a dragon.
X stood next to Sinthia and looked down at her face, wondering if it was the poor light or if she was actually a bit paler than she had been yesterday. "Here we are."
Sinthia nodded, didn't say anything, and stepped into the tunnel.


Nine
In Which Smuggled Goods are Smuggled

Ivander closed the lid on the crate and picked up a hammer. He took one of the nails out of his mouth, postioned it, and started pounding it into the pine.
Elle stood back away from him. She was under a stone archway, one of several that lined the old dock, rolling some of her gems around in her palm. Water lapped against the stonework and a light drizzle of rain fell. She sighed and looked out across the river. They were at an old warehouse beyond the edge of town, boarded up and unused. At least, unused for legitimate purposes. "Do we really have to do this?"
Ivander's rough clothing showed a pattern of raindrops on his shoulders. He kept nailing down the lid and mumbled 'yes' around the rest of the nails.
"I liked it better when you had people doing this work for you."
Ivander hammered in the last nail. "People talk. And they cost money."
"But we are rich. You don't have to do this."
He looked up at her. "I am rich. You have temporary glamours that fade like the beauty of youth."
She glared at him and pointedly stopped twirling her probability stones, holding them for a moment as if she were about to roll them. Ivander stared back, wondering is she'd dare do it this time.
She did not. She closed her fist and put the gems back in her pocket.
Ivander tossed the hammer into a leather tool bag and picked it up. "We need cash. The permanent kind. Now let's go."
She looked puzzled. "Wait, we're just leaving it here? No shady transaction?"
"No. It'll be picked up shortly. We're going to pick up my money elsewhere. Then we're going to get my rune." He slung the tool bag over his shoulder and smiled up at her. "And once I have that, you can enjoy yourself by making the most improbable things happen to those disappointments I hired."


Ten
In Which a Flying Creature Appears

"Well, that's kind of disappointing," said Sinthia. A small table sat next to her at the edge of a larger room. On it were three clay tablets about the size of a teacup saucer. An Astral Rune was carved into each of them. "That's just it?"
X was pulling out some rags and a burlap sack from his pack. "What did you expect? A giant hovering rune of gold and obsidian floating in the air?"
She glared at him while he turned away, smiling. Then she watched as he simply picked up the clay tablets and wrapped each one in a cloth and stuffed them in the sack, rolling the sack up after that and putting it in his pack.
X shouldered his pack on and said, "All right, let's go."
Sinthia rolled her eyes and grabbed her own pack. She only had one strap shouldered when a low rumbling came from somewhere back towards the surface. She stopped as a crashing of rock followed. "What was that?"
"That could have been very bad or maybe just a little bit bad."
"But bad, right?" She finished pulling her pack on and tied it across her chest. He was walking out of the room and she followed.
They walked quickly up the inclined passageway. It was about thirty feet in diameter and had a smoother finish to it. Their torchlight reached out in front as they walked around a bend. They got to the massive training room and it seemed unchanged; still and hauntingly quiet.
It was a few minutes later, when they were passing through the honeycombs of smaller passages and nesting caves that X started to smell freshly disturbed dust in the air. "Cave in," he said. "So it's only a little bit bad."
"Wait," said Sinthia. "How is getting trapped in here only a little bit bad?"
They came up to the main hall near the entrance. They couldn't see across it but they could both see the dust hanging in the air that hadn't been there before. X held up a hand sharply and stopped.
The silence was broken by a heavy, repetitive clacking sound. Hollow and echoey, from out across the dark cavern.
X looked helplessly at the lit torches they carried. He whispered, "Because whatever caused the cave in is the very bad part."
About a hundred feet away in the gloom they saw two large eyes open and rise up.


Eleven
In Which Traditional Dark Magics Are Used

Elle had enjoyed the shopping. New jewelry, a silk blouse, a carriage with fine upholstery. Everything they needed to travel. Ivander waited impatiently through the whole thing, knowing that the final result would get him what he wanted.
The were outside of town, past the farms and orchards, and a little way off the road. Next to the carriage was a tall oak tree that Elle said would be perfect. She was now walking around the tree in sunwise circles and silently regretting the impossible high heels she'd just purchased. In her left hand was a silver bowl filled with goat's blood. The goat was laying further into the forest and Ivander was cleaning his knife.
She dipped the fingertips of her right hand into the bowl an flicked some blood onto the ground every few steps. As she did that, she watched the sun setting in the hills to the west. The timing would be everything here.
She completed her third circle around the oak just as the sun sank below the horizon. She set the bowl down and smiled over at Ivander while pulling two spindley gems out of her pocket. Elle drew in a deep breath and shook the gems in her hand. She cast them onto the ground at her feet and knelt to read them.
"Uh-oh," she said. "That was a bad roll."


Twelve
In Which an Order of Warriors is Described

X grabbed Sinthia's arm and turned her towards the side of the cavern. "Run!"
She was already running and pulled away from him quickly. X tossed his torch off to the side as far as he could. With huge pounding steps the dragon came out into the light. It's scales shifted from bright red to blood red to brown. It had two horns sweeping back from its forehead. The teeth were many and the claws were sharp.
"The smaller door," shouted X.
The dragon ignored the torch on the ground and kept walking forward. It lowered its head and closed in.
X and Sinthia had only fifty feet to cover but it seemed like a mile. The hammering of the dragon's feet and the rasping of its breath seemed like it was directly behind them. They got to the open doorway and ran through, barely seeing a room beyond it.
Sinthia skidded to a halt, turning. "No," she gasped. The room was about twenty feet across and had no other exits.
X piled in behind her and saw what they had run into. He grabbed the door to close it but it came apart at his touch and fell into pieces. The dragon was bearing down on them.
Without saying anything more, X and Sinthia backed into a corner and waited to die.
The dragon pushed his snout inside the room and sniffed. Then it pulled back and roared. The sound was deafening in the tight confines. X and Sinthia covered their ears.
Then the roar faded into a hacking cough and wheezing. The could just see through the doors that the dragon had turned slightly and was coughing violently, its whole body shaking. It looked like it was mostly ignoring them. "Do we run for the exit?" asked Sinthia.
Just then a series of words in a strange language formed in their heads. A harsh language with impossible consonents. Loud and reverberating. X thought it had to be the dragon, there had been stories of them using telepathy to communicate. Outside the door, the dragon thumped to the ground and started roaring again. This time it seemed frustrated. "Yeah, come on," said X.
They edged out of the door while the dragon's head was turned. After a few quiet steps into the open, they started to run. The dragon turned back and saw them. More words formed in their heads. The dragon's tail whipped around in the dark at them. X and Sinthia both dodged and ducked under it. They started running faster.
The dragon wheeled around and took a step towards them but seemed to pull back on its leg and let out a howling roar. It lowered its head while hobbling forward slowly, now clearly walking in pain. The wings stretched out wide and the dragon let out another howling roar.
Sinthia dropped back while looking over her shoulder. The dragon rolled over on its side and curled its wings in. "X, wait."
"What?" He turned and saw her stopping. "What are you doing?"
In a mixture of torchlight and the light coming from the top of the rubble pile covering the exit they could both see a spear lodged into the dragon's back near the base of a wing. The point had worked itself between two scales and a thin stream of blood was running out. More words came into their heads, different than before, almost sounding like pleading.
"Sin, if its wounded we can escape." X kept moving to the rubble pile, but slower and mindful of the growing distance between them.
Sinthia walked towards the dragon with determined steps. Its back was rolled over towards her and it was twisting its neck so that it could just get a look at them. She got to its curled wing. The spear was still well above her. She patted the dragon's back and said, "I've got to climb up on your wing. Is that all right?"
The dragon snorted and another quick word formed in their heads. This word sounded even more different than before. X thought he knew what it was; there was a familiarity to it that he couldn't place.
Sinthia leaned forward and climbed up the dragon's wing until she could place her feet steadily next to the spear. She grasped it and the dragon twitched. Another word shouted in their minds. "Well," she said, grabbing the spear again, "of course this is going to hurt a bit. Just sit still."
The dragon harrumphed and aquiesced.
X walked up in complete disbelief. The dragons of Calvin Garrison were the fiercest warriors of their brand. They terrified the entire reach of the North Marches for over five hundred years. Their Dragonlord masters were unrelenting and cruel. Wait, X suddenly thought, listening. Was this thing purring?
Sinthia heaved back on the spear and it slipped free. She cast it aside and it clattered on the stone. "There. Better?"
Yes
The dragon rolled upright and Sinthia slipped down into a riding position between its shoulder blades. She leaned forward and grabbed at its rough scales. The dragon got all four feet under it and stretched out its wings. Sinthia looked down at X while patting the space behind her. "Want a ride?"


Thirteen
In Which Revenge is Discussed

X had to admit that the wind was exhilarating. His short hair ruffled and the sleeves of his shirt billowed and flapped. He also had to admit it was very cold.
He'd stood dumbfounded for several seconds when Sinthia had tamed the dragon. The beast had turned its head around to look at him and nodded. The words forming in his head changed again. Ride, yes. Fly.
Now he understood. The dragon had been using telepathy but speaking in draconic. Then it had said something in Olde Common that X had recognized but couldn't translate. Now it had somehow picked up the fact that Sinthia and X spoke Common. He was wondering, as the dragon started spiraling down to the forest below, if it would pick up on Sinthia's Received Pronunciation.
The dragon flared its wings and dropped softly down into a meadow. The sun was setting and there was a cool darkness amongst the trees. X and Sinthia slid off of the seats they had found. The quick conversation in a side room while the dragon had clawed away at the cave in had been short and pointed. X thought the whole idea of trusting the dragon was crazy. Sinthia was adamant that it was the right thing to do. They had lashed the seats to the dragon's back and quickly launched into the mountain sky.
"So," said X. "Thanks for bringing us down. Appreciate it."
Good fly.
Sinthia giggled a bit. "Yes it was." She paused for a bit and glanced over at X. "Yes, he is."
It was then that X realized that they were having a whole side conversation without him. "Hold on, what is it saying?"
Sinthia raised an eyebrow. "Karom says you seem like a good sort but are a little uptight."
X unslung his pack and dropped it. "It's name is Karom?"
Karomstantisviathal of the Third Watch.
"And he's a he," finished Sinthia.
X shrugged a bit, bewildered. "This is unbelievable." He looked over at Sinthia as she hauled her pack and set it down next to a fallen log. "Anything else I should know about?"
My sisters and brothers are long dead and I have been left behind in disgrace. I have nothing here in your world except fear and loathing. There is just one thing I need to accomplish now, and that is to kill the last of the Oppressors in Dormroth Temple.
"Oh." X looked over at Sinthia. She nodded. "Well, that's where we're going. Not sure about the Oppressors but there are a lot of Astral Sages there now."
I don't have quarrel with any of the Astral Sages. But the Oppressors would be down far below the Temple. They will be tethered to the Well of Souls.
X looked back and forth between the two. "Not sure I've heard of that one."
This time, Karom looked down at Sinthia and she nodded again. It would seem that the best way to guard a secret is to let it fade from history and be forgotten. The Well of Souls is a puncture in the Astral Aura and the Oppressors are bound to it.
"Oppressors?" asked X.
My kin that sought to replace the cruelty of the Dragonlords with their own oppressive version.
"Fine," said X, knowing that there was a lot implied in the dragon's statement that could also be not fine. "But before you rip up the Temple to get at the Oppressors, we have some business there. The rune we found in the garrison are the key to saving both of our lives."
Karom thought for a moment. X was wondering what he'd do if the dragon said no. How do you politely disagree with a dragon? The runes are meaningless to me now that the Dragon Wars are over and there are no victors. You may use them as you please.
X nodded. "All right then." He saw Sinthia sit next to her pack. She was smiling a bright and fuller of life than he'd seen in months.
It must be good to know you're not going to die.



Fourteen
Regarding a War The Lasted Generations

Elle looked up from her roll and saw Ivan coming over to her. "I'm sorry."
"Where are we," he growled.
She stood up, slightly taller than him, and looked around. The oak tree was the same and their immediate surroundings hadn't changed but the mountains and hills beyond the trees were gone. The sun was now setting behind a broad forest that hadn't been there before the roll. "I'm not sure yet."
Elle turned and saw that the road they'd departed from wasn't there either. She walked purposefully towards where it had been, more to get herself away from Ivan than anything else. The ground rose a bit and she kept going. Then, through the trees, she saw the distinctive bright blue waters of the Scar of Artheus. "Here," she said. "I think we're to the north of the Scar."
Ivan knew better than to start an argument. Probability was what probability was; it didn't always roll in your favor. "Let's get moving and find a way to cross."
The horses for the carriage had been blissfully eating grass and clover, completely unaware that they'd been teleported five hundred leagues north. They responded as horses do, with general complacency, and the carriage rolled across some uneven ground for about a mile before they came to a cart path and followed that south. In a half hour they came down to flat farmland and the Scar stretched out to their right and left like a bright blue ocean.
The landscape around them had seen many lifetimes and many more conflicts. The Dragon Wars from long ago had not only been mostly forgotten, they were actively repressed by the new rulers of Northmark. The best way to solidify a power base was to ensure the ruled that nothing was more powerful than the ruler. Worked every time.
Despite some of the longer lived races having tales of their previous generations fighting and dying as the dragons clawed away at each other, the official record was that it never really happened. All physical evidence was gathered up and disposed of by the Royal Archeaological Society and the offcial story, over the years, became the only story.
But occasionally a piece of truth would work its way through the fabric of lies. That is what Ivander has found. In the simplest of places, the hidden margins of a painting he'd stolen, was the clue to a lost rune. It was a rune left over from the great Dragon Wars that, in the hands of a compliant Astral Sage, would bring Ivan the riches he deserved. And Elle, of course.
So he'd needed a compliant Astral Sage to use the rune and a compliant historian/adventurer to find it. He had both in Sinthia and X. Now, he had to get to the Dormroth Temple before they did. Because there is where they would try to betray him and he needed to betray them first.


Fifteen
In Which a Magical Game is Played and Lost

After explaining to Karom that they needed to sleep before storming off to right all wrongs, the dragon agreed and flew off to hunt. They tried to suggest that he avoid livestock, or civilization at all for that matter, but then realized that the dragon was going to do whatever he wanted to do. He was also the fastest way to get to Dormroth Temple before their time ran out. So X and Sinthia agreed to just ignore any morally grey areas and think of the greater good.
The night had been cold but their blankets were up to the task and after a quick breakfast of nuts and berries at dawn, they were once again riding Karom as he flew low over the forest.
X had been thinking, now that the shock of an awakened dragon was over, and he was formulating a plan for getting into the Temple. Their problem was threefold. First, the Astral Sage order that resided in the Temple was one of the more mysterious and exclusive. They would not just welcome them in and allow use of their runefield. Second, Sinthia would need some time and maybe even some training on how to use the rune. Third, even after using the rune she wouldn't know its effects until things might be too late.
None of these things actually became easier with a dragon on your side.
"We have to make a stop first," he shouted over the wind.
Sinthia looked back over her shoulder. "Didn't you take care of that before we left?"
"No, not that. I've been thinking. We can't just fly into the middle of the Temple without causing a ruckus that won't be helpful."
There are very few things that can't be solved with violence.
Great. "Oh, I'm sure there will be a need for violence but I don't want to lead with that. The central runefield will be located in the main part of the temple and we'd rather be invited in than force our way in. I figure that the Well of Souls might be under all that so after we use the rune we can find a way down. And I think the whole thing will be easier if we make this stop."
Very well. The Oppressors aren't going anywhere.
X and Sinthia shared a look and a shrug. X continued while pointing off to the right. "Over that way will be an old ruined castle, maybe beyond those small hills. That's where we find our invitation."
"What do you mean?"
"There's supposed to be a crazy old hermit of an Astral Knight there. He guards an amulet that grants the wearer access to the Temple."
Sinthia looked perplexed. "It's that easy? Why didn't we just do that to begin with?"
"Because getting the amulet isn't that easy. But now with three of us, we might have a chance."
Karom turned and flew in the direction given. While X continued to tell them what he knew about it, they covered the distance and soon saw a ruined castle complex spread across the hills. X pointed at a section that still looked somewhat intact and Karom flew down and landed in the courtyard.
X slid off the seat and down to the ground. Sinthia remained up on Karom's back.
The grounds hadn't received any sunlight yet for the day and a chill held the stones and dirt frimly in its grasp. X walked forward slowly. A shadowy opening in the side of the bailey, that looked like it had once held a mighty portcullis, was in front of him. Before he crossed halfway a human figure walked out. Cloaked, dark armored leggings and arms, an astral steel longsword at his side, the Astral Knight stepped down onto the gravel. "I've seen you coming," he said in a raspy voice. "You wish to play?"
"We do."
The Knight laughed. "You fools. I've seen more than you think. You've already played the game. You've already played and lost."


Sixteen
In Which a Hidden Location is Revealed

Sinthia dismounted and stood out away from Karom by a few feet. "We do wish to play." X looked back at her and she waved him to stand a little to the side. As he moved she continued, "But we play by our rules."
Karom leaned forward, opened his mouth, and blasted the Knight with dragonfire. The whole courtyard lit up with yellow and orange as X dove to one side, rolling across the gravel. Sinthia leaned away, surprised by the heat even though she'd expected it. The stream of fire incinerated the Knight and blasted his ashes back into the doorway to the bailey. Fire rushed up through the building and streamed out of windows, jetted out of cracks. After a few seconds most of the bailey's walls began to collapse inward.
Karom started coughing loudly, the dragonfire spurting out around his teeth. The bailey kept falling in on itself and tumbled down into a pile of blackened, smoking rocks. The only thing left of the Knight was his armored greaves, pauldrons, and his longsword with the leather wrapping on the hilt vaporized. Astral steel was indestructible, even from dragonfire.
X was sitting on his backside after pushing himself away from the falling debris. "What the hell are you doing? You just killed an Astral Knight!"
Karom cleared his throat and looked down at him. No, I just killed a lich pretending to be a knight. You couldn't smell that?
X thought for a second. "No. Well, sort of. But I was being polite." He got up and dusted himself off. Sinthia was suppressing a laugh. X looked at her, slightly annoyed. "You knew he was going to do that." It wasn't a question.
"Barely. Karom gave me the warning as I was getting down."
"So where's the Knight?"
The body was in a lower chamber, being slowly devoured by mummy rot. Now it is part of the ash falling around us.
X involuntarily took another couple steps away from the ruins.
Sinthia looked up at Karom. "Did you know where the amulet is?"
The dragon whipped its tail at a small ruined guardhouse, smashing it into pieces. Under the right cornerstone.
X looked askance at the two of them while walking over to the wreckage. "Well, I suppose this went a little faster than I planned."


Seventeen
In Which a Material Valued For its Strength is Discussed

The cornerstone was loosened well enough and X was able to work it out of position. Under it was a metal box, a little rusty, that he dragged up onto the ground. It had a simple latch and opened with creaky hinges to reveal a nice velvet interior with a lot of water damage. Sitting in the middle of it was a tarnished medallion that looked to be made of silver and amethyst. "Doesn't look like anyone ever really bothered to take care of this thing."
"This was never meant to be a challenge." said Sinthia. "It was a hiding place that a myth must have rose up around."
X picked up the amulet and started rubbing it with the edge of his sleeve. "Now we have our ticket to enter the Temple. But our cover story of simple researchers is going to be a little difficult to pull off considering..." He waved a hand at Karom.
The dragon growled, deep and rattling.
"Yes," said Sinthia, as she walked over to the bit of Astral Steel on the ground. "They will be very impressed and frightened, you needn't worry about that. How about we just explain what happened here and say we're returning these to the Order? That and the amulet should get us in."
"So basically tell the truth?"
"Yes. It works sometimes."
X thought for a second and then shrugged. "Can't think of anything better. I guess it's the truth, sort of."
Sinthia was kneeling over and tapping the sword with her fingertips. It had cooled down much faster than she thought it would. Her and X gathered the pieces and rolled them in the last remaining burlap sacks they had. Karom waited patiently while they tied the bundle to the side of their saddles. Then they mounted and the dragon leapt into the air, beating downwards with powerful wings. In a few seconds they were aloft and soaring low over the landscape.
I'm hungry again.


Eighteen
Regarding an Unlikely Duo

Greigor watched as the ferry sailed away from the dock. This winds were decent and the crossing wouldn't take more than the day. The passengers were light for this passage and his sons wouldn't have too much trouble. The last two to board, however, well they were an unlikely duo.
She was tall with shoulder length platinum hair, beautiful and composed. Dressed in the latest fashion, or at least what Greigor assumed was the latest fashion, she had the intensity of a jungle cat as it slowly stalked its prey.
He was shorter with a muscular build, dressed roughly in black and red. He drove the carriage horses like someone who was used to manual labor but his gold chain or other bits of jewelry suggested that he had far more money than his look would suggest.
Greigor shrugged. They had paid more than needed and the ferryman got the hint. He was very good at forgetting people.


Nineteen
In Which a Unique Domesticated Creature is Briefly Discussed

They watched as Karom pounced from rock goat to rock goat like a cat with too many toys to play with. Except, unlike a cat, he swallowed his prey in one gulp. Which Sinthia appreciated. Less blood.
X raised his eyebrows after the fourth goat. "I really hope no one owns these things."
Sinthia looked behind them at the barren moors. Not a hamlet or house for as far as the eye could see. "I think we'll be fine."
"How are you feeling? You look better."
She smiled. "Still weak. In fact, I should sit down." Sinthia turned and reached back for the large boulder they stood next to. She sat and let out a small sigh.
X watched her and thought she did indeed look good for how much the withering disease had advanced. Soon she would find it difficult to stand straight. Then she'd have trouble walking. After that, confined to a chair and then a bed, she'd just fade away into sleep and eventually the grave.
Karom settled into a comfortable position across the hillface, rear legs curled under him and front legs stretched out. His neck curved up like a swan's and he closed his eyes, facing into the sun. The rock goats had scattered, bounding and jumping for their lives.
Sinthia pushed a lock of hair out of her eyes and shouted, "Better now?"
She tilted her head and smiled a bit, giggling to herself. "Yeah," she muttered.
X glanced between the two of them. "How many conversations do you two have that I'm not included in?"
She looked up, slightly surprised. "Oh, I didn't know you weren't included in that. I can't tell when he's talking to me or to both of us. Does it bother you?"
"No," said X, but it did. "I'm just adjusting to the fact that we have a dragon companion and he's mostly yours."
"Well, it's not like he's a pet or anything. He can do as he wishes."
"I know that, I've just... I've just never dealt with a dragon before."
"I'm pretty sure no one alive has," said Sinthia. "But you're the history professor. If anyone can relate to it, it's you."
X shrugged and sat down next to her. "You know, when we get to the Temple there's a decent chance that they won't agree to the ritual. We've been pushing that thought away for all this time but it's a real possibility."
"I know. I've been thinking about what I'll do if that happens. About what I can do." She smiled at him. "We just have to hope for the best."
He started to shake his head, not thinking she was taking this seriously enough. Then he noticed the set in her jaw as she spoke again.
"And besides, I'm thinking that a dragon can be very persuasive when it wants to be."


Twenty
In Which the Largest Sea Creature is Seen

The crossing would take most of the day. The waters of the Scar of Artheus were not turbulent and the winds were constant and easily manageable. The ferry leaned into its two masts and cut through the waves without any trouble.
Elle had played some dice with the crew but quit when she started winning too much. Ivan was in the carriage and working on his forgery kit for his next big art theft, whenever that would be. Elle sat across from him, munching on some maple sugar pralines. "Do you think X suspects you're just going to kill him when he hands over the rune?"
"Of course he does," snapped Ivan. "I don't hire idiots."
"So how is he going to try to stop you?"
"Badly." Ivan put some brushes back in their neat container. "Why should I care how he does it? That's what you're for. Just stop him."
"This is how I stop him, darling. By getting to know him. You've always been the one that's worked with him directly."
Ivan sensed the tone in her voice. He set aside what he was working on and put his attention on her. "He'll try some kind of trickery. He thinks he's much smarter than he is. There will be misdirection and attempts at confusion. Then he'll slip away with the goods while everything falls apart around us. He's tailor made for you. Just make sure nothing he tries to do works."
Elle looked out of the carriage window at the forward mast. All around it was the carving of a Relician Great Squid, it's many tentacles wrapping up around the mast until it ran out of sight in the sails. She knew that somewhere up near the top would be a red whale trapped in its grip. Sailors around the world were a very superstitious lot. She thought about he probability gems reaching up and wrapping around events in the future and crushing them the same way. Her power always brought a smile to her face.
"What about her," she asked. "What will she do?"
"With any luck, she'll be dead by then," said Ivan with a self satisfied look.
"Mmmmmm, luck is what I do best," she purred.  "I'll see if I can help that along."


Twenty One
Regarding a Monarch Without Land

They flew fast and low. Karom avoided towns and homesteads when he could but as they got closer to Dormroth Temple it became impossible. The countryside behind them was abuzz with sightings and rumors of a great winged beast soaring towards the seat of power in the region. X was certain that eventually a wizard or sage of high enough rank would see them and send a clairvoyant report ahead. It was also likely that some kind of force would be sent to stop them. In the final analysis, they might just have to use some brute force here.
X pointed at a long escarpment that rose out of the ground in the west. "There! We'll find a cave to hole up in and approach at night."
A few minutes of flying showed them what they needed. A deep cave recessed back into the cliffs and Karom coasted into it with wide flaring wings. They'd been flying for a few hours and everyone welcomed the break.
Sinthia and X got their packs down and got out some oatcakes. X ate his absently while walking back further into the cave. He noticed the carvings on the walls right when Sinthia came up and asked about them.
"More Arthean remains," he said. "Like the Feral Court we found but this was more of a community holding. They really liked their caves. Cultural thing. They felt safe in the ground, like the Rith of Stonemark."
"So this was like a small village?"
X nodded, looking around at the carvings. "Yes, but I think it was more than that. There are royal markings over there. This might have been a Kinghold."
"So a royal hole in the wall?" Sinthia stepped up to some of the carvings and ran her hand over them.
X hopped over a line of boulders, back further in the dim cave. "No, maybe not. These markings over here would suggest that this was a Usurper Lord's hall." He pointed at what looked like spikes and circles carved into the wall.
"Weren't the Usurper's just minor kings with no land holdings?"
X nodded. "Most of them didn't rule anything beyond a good spear throw. But they lived long lives and coexisted with the communities around them."
"Not like Usurpers now then."
"No, not like Usurpers now." He looked around some more and didn't see any further markings. He smiled. "The good old days."
Back at the front of the cave they heard Karom get up to standing. The dragon lifted his head and sniffed the air.
We have trouble.



Twenty Two
The Oldest Known Story is Told

In the Time Before was nothing but Darkness. It was vast and impenetrable and unchanging. Darkness was complete.
Then a thought began. It was improbable but not impossible.
And it was the First Thought. And it separated the Time Before from the Time After.
For many markers of Time there was only the First Thought. Alone. Drifting in the Darkness. Always the Same.
When the Second Thought was begun, it bounded the universe and defined the laws of probability because it was Different.
And the First Thought wanted to kill it.
Two thoughts now ruled the Darkness. Two thoughts struggled and fought and soon discovered that they were equal. That's when the Third Thought occured.
The First and Second Thoughts realized that they could either coexist or destroy the world right in front of them. Tempting, but if the world was destroyed they would have nowhere to struggle. Their realization became the Third Thought and it grew to rule everything.
The Third Thought had immense power over the Same and the Different. It could balance and imbalance probability wherever and whenever it wanted. From it formed the first lands and the first oceans, the first plants and the first animals and even the first peoples.
The various things all conspired with the First and Second Thoughts to carry on their struggle.  The struggle between the Same and the Different. But the Third Thought would not be undone. It seeded the lands and the oceans and the plants and the animals and the people with a desire to switch between the Same and the Different. And none of them would know which is which.
And so things continued.  Forever and ever.
Elle loved that story. At the end of all Thoughts there was simply probability.
She rolled her brightly colored gems around in her hand. Ivan was up at the carriage board with the reins. The horses pulled them off the ferry and they drove off without a wave.
The Strake Road was laid out ahead of them. It was long and paved with hard stone, cutting through forest and hill all the way to the edge of Dormroth Temple. Travelling it was normally faster than other paths, as one would expect. But there were also many travellers using it and mile after mile of housing and farming and industry. So travelling at great speed was very, very improbable.
Elle smiled, warned Ivan to hold on tight, and threw probability into a fit.


Twenty Three
In Which a Rare Magical Condition Asserts Itself

Sinthia suddenly bent over and vomited all over the floor of the cave. X instinctively swung his leg back to avoid the stream of bile and oatcake. Karom glanced back. There are three beasts coming this way. They move quickly and with purpose. We have been discovered and we are opposed.
X helped Sinthia sit. She hadn't had a nausea spell in weeks. "What brought that on?" he asked.
She sat heavilly and held her stomach. "I don't know. It was like something suddenly grabbed my stomach and turned it inside out like a leather sack. Wait." She held up a hand and threw up again.
X looked up from her at the dragon. "We can't fight like this. Can you get us out of here?"
There is no time. They are here. With that, Karom launched himself into the air with a thunderous roar and dropped out of sight down the face of the cliff.
"Can you walk? If I get you to the mouth of the cave can you help him?"
Sinthia nodded and pulled herself to standing with his help. She immediately let out a yelp of pain and hunched over. "My back."
Karom's roar continued and then blended into a blast of dragonfire. X could see the bright glow of the flames light up the roof of the cave. He panicked and placed his hands on her shoulder and lower back but then didn't know what he was supposed to do. "What do you need?"
"I don't know!" she snapped. "Just..." She waved him off and tried to right herself, wincing in pain as she did. They both heard the howling screech of something big. Not a dragon. Not anything they remembered hearing before. A second one joined in and Karom roared again.
Sinthia started shuffling forward. She pulled on X as she did and he offered a hand and an arm to steady her. She took her steps gingerly, moaning and huffling with pain as she did. Out in front of them they saw the edge of a wing and the tip of Karom's tail whip past the opening.
"Something's wrong," she muttered. "This isn't right." Sinthia lowered herself to her knees.
"Sin?" X was worried and his voice was faltering. "Sin, what's wrong? What can I do?" He followed her until she was laying down and he was kneeling next to her. He reached out with a shaking hand and brushed her hair back from her sweaty forehead as Karom roared again. The back of the head of a large, hairy beast smacked against the lip of the cave, spraying blood. It fell away from view and Karom's neck rose up like a striking snake, plunging back down to where the beast had dropped.
Sinthia pulled herself into a fetal position. Her jawline was quivering and she had trouble breathing, sucking air in huge sobbing gulps. "Exeter," she whispered. "I think I'm dying."
"No, Sin. No." He was crying now, tears running down to fall on her arms. "No, not yet. We still have time. We're supposed to still have time." She slowly closed her eyes and her breathing slowed. "Sinthia! No, no, no, no... SINTHIA!"
She stopped moving and went limp.


Twenty Four
In Which a Strange Musical Instrument Plays

Ivan and Elle moved with improbable speed. They rolled down the Strake Road much faster than the horses could have pulled them. That is, much faster than they likely could have pulled them. It was also extremely improbable that they could avoid all the traffic and people along the road without smashing into something and causing a complete disaster.
Yet, probability had no control over them now. Quite the other way around, actually. What was improbable was now easy.
Ivan knew enough to keep his hands on the reins. Even control of the possible had its limits. He was a bit saddened by the fact that the horses would probably not survive. But still, they had a role to play as they galloped improbably fast.
The Strake Road flashed by in a whirl. People and carts and buildings all appeared and vanished before the mind could really register what they were. They would have some explaining to do when they showed up a Dormroth Temple with a smoking carriage and dead horses, but at least they would be where they needed to be.
Just when Ivan thought they were nearing the end of the road, which he could only surmise by the increase in buildings and people, he began to hear the mournful wail of a set of pipes. Sounds were something that also flashed by with improbable irregularity so he was immediately concerned. He looked back at Elle.
She heard it too. A look of fear was blossoming on her face as she realized what it was. They'd been discovered by a Chime Wizard and were about to be dropped back into the Most Probable Course of Action. That would be bad.
The music built all around them. The wail of pipes, the rattle of sambassas, and the ping of wind chimes all mixed and intensified. Elle grabbed frantically for her velvet bag of probability stones. She pulled out three shining golden cubes and shook them as the thrum of a horn blast rolled through the carriage.
"Hurry up!" shouted Ivan.
She rolled the gems across the floor of the carriage. They faced up with exactly the combination she needed. The world around them grew fuzzy and distorted. The musical notes went into severe discordination. They both felt the carriage slowing and just when it started to break apart around them, everything stopped.
Elle winced at the pain shooting through her head. She was using too much power too quickly and she was going to pay for it. "Get out!"
Ivan jumped off the carriage board, moving at a normal speed compared to everything else crawling around him. Part of his seat shattered very slowly. One of the splinters brushed lightly against his hip and opened a gash with a splash of blood and flesh.
Elle grabbed the sides of the open window. It was starting to deform and break into pieces. She only had a few seconds to push herself through, burning her hands on the wisps of fabric that she forced out of her way. She leapt through the window. The frame broke into a thousand pieces and one of them knocked the heel off her very expensive left shoe.
They both rolled against the ground as the carriage, and sadly the horses, shattered into a rain of bits and blasted away from them like a hurricane.
Ivan came up from his roll with both of his knives out. He staggered as his weight came down on his bad hip but he kept himself upright. Elle rolled to sitting and shook her head, trying to focus her vision enough to see the Chime Wizard.
They were on the gravel beside the Strake Road. A large building of stone and timber was looming directly over them. The Chime Wizard was in the doorway, a man of middle years with bright blue and green robes. All around him was his Chime Set, a glowing cacophony of musical instruments. They were all dissolving away and he was screaming.
Ivan limped towards him as quickly as he could. The wizard looked up and saw the muscular man with knives and evil intent. As he pulled out a tuning fork, Ivan stepped in and slashed.
The blade cut deep into the wizard's wrist. He involuntarily dropped the U shaped instrument and squealed in pain.
Elle was about to reach for another gem but decided that Ivan would most probably gut the wizard in two strokes.
It took three.


Twenty Five
In Which a Powerful Piece of Jewelry is Destroyed
X was about to shout Sinthia's name again when he was rocked by a loud thump and blast of wind. Karom had dropped onto the rock just inside the cavern. He was bleeding from several slashes in his sides and belly. His left wing was hanging oddly and dragging along the ground. Smoke was trilling up from his mouth as he breathed in heavy gasps.
What has happened?
"I don't know," said X. His tears hadn't stopped. "She's sick but this isn't how things are supposed to happen. We're supposed to have more time."
Karom took a couple weak steps forward. He sniffed at Sinthia's body. This is not natural. There is magic involved. Get her pack.
"What? Why would--"
Get her pack! X clambered over the rough stones to get at Sinthia's pack. "What am I looking for?"
Her Astral Runes. Get them all out.
X took one look into her pack and saw no organization. He turned it over and shook all the contents onto the floor.
Quickly! Before she walks behind the Veil.
X found the wrapping of embroidered fabric that held her Astral Runes. There were only three of them but they were her prized possessions. He shook the wrapping free and they spilled out, clattering on the rock.
Astral Runes were a connection to the very beginnings of the universe. The oldest of the Astral Sage orders told tales of how the world was created by a group of beings called the Eldar'ai. They had a strong connection to the creative powers of the early world and were able to shape the Primordial Deep into the Realms of Eldara.
They existed now in a variety of hidden places. Their shapes were exacting and their purpose specific. When arranged in particular orders and aligned with certain astrological formations, they could do wonderous things.
The runes Sinthia had aquired were simple; circular metal rings with breaks in them and points protruding from the openings. She could work some divination magic and, if the sun was in the right place, a fire bolt spell.
Karom reached out with a claw and hooked one of them, sliding it across the floor of the cave. He moved another one into alignment with it and looked over his shoulder at the sky beyond. I need something personal, something very important to her.
X picked up a small silver knife in a fine leather scabbard. "She's had this for a year or so. Uses it for herbs. She loves it."
Karom knocked the third rune aside, apparently not needing it. Place it at her feet.
X did as the dragon asked, hoping that it knew what it was doing. He understood that dragons had been intimately tied to various magicks but had never heard of one using Astral Runes like one of the Sages.  But then, the dragons of Calvin Garrison had been known for amazing things.
Karom positioned himself in line with the two runes on the floor and knelt like a cat about to pounce. His tail was even flicking back and forth. His breathing had returned to normal and X also noticed that his bleeding had stopped. The dragon lowered it's head and concentrated.
X wasn't sure how long this would take. Sinthia's spells happened very quickly but he'd heard of Astral Sage rituals taking hours or even days. He got his answer when the runes began to glow with a golden light, like honey swirling around them. The golden glow burst from the knife and it seemed to unravel and disappear.
Sinthia lay there, still as the grave.
Karom looked up. She's gone farther than I hoped. I need something more precious to her than that knife.
X felt a panic coming over him. Then he noticed the gold chain peeking out from under her collar. "Her pendant! Her mother gave it to her before she died." He ripped at the chain hard and broke it from behind her neck. The pendant was a jade stone wrapped in gold wire. X put it down at her feet where the knife had been.
Karom closed his eyes and concentrated again. This time X could see that the dragon was straining and trembling slightly. The runes glowed with bright gold light. The pendant started glowing with gold and green light.
The pendant suddenly exploded with radiant force, knocking X on his back. The gold and jade had been completely consumed; X brought his hand to his face, expecting shrapnel to have cut into him, but there was nothing. He blinked his eyes, momentarily blinded by the flash.
Sinthia was looking up at the two of them and started moving her arms to push herself to sitting. "I'm sorry," she said, with some embarassment. "I must have passed out for a second there."


Twenty Six
Regarding a Unique but Common Transportation
Ivan stood with his knives dripping. He looked around at the devastation of the disintegrated carriage; a small buliding, three vendor's carts, and about a dozen people had been ripped apart by the sudden deceleration and forcible shattering. "We have to steal some horses and get out of here."
Elle picked herself up off the ground. She looked arouind at the smoke, dust, and shocked wailing of people in the market. No one seemed to be looking at them. She shook her head to clear it and pulled an odd shaped gem out of the pouch on her belt. With a whispered spell, she tossed it on the ground and ran to catch up with Ivan.
Later, when the Market Guild investigated, no one would quite remember two people picking themselves up from the epicenter of the devastation and running around behind a building.
Behind that building, Ivan kicked in a door in a stone wall. It led to a courtyard with a long gardening shed on one side and a small stables on the other. No one was around and Ivan could hear a commotion out front by the street; he figured everyone had run to the sound of their carriage blasting the marketplace and that suited him just fine.
They dodged into the stables and walked quickly down the row of skitterish horses. A great magic had just pushed itself into the surrounding reality and the horses didn't like it. Ivan picked to nut brown mares at the end of the row and patted their noses. He had always been better with animals than with people.
Saddles and tack were hanging beside the stalls. Quick moves laid blankets on their backs and cinched down the saddles. Bits were inserted and harnesses were pulled past ears. Within two minutes of entering the stables, Ivan and Elle were guiding the horses out the back gate and down an alley between the very nice mansions in this part of town.
They came out of the alley onto a major side road. Ahead of them were the outer walls of the Dormroth Temple, and just visible beyond them was the Great Dome itself. They were almost there.
Shortly he would get his rune and his revenge all in one action.


Twenty-Seven
In Which a Set of Ruins Challenges History

Dormroth Temple was a massive complex of buildings and shrines and memorial gardens and libraries and observatories. It was both a place of study and magical research and a seat of political power for the lands within the Scar of Artheus. For centuries it had been many things to many people and it had juggled those competing desires well because at its heart was an ancient wharren of terrible power with three massive Astral Runes under the Great Dome.
Legend said they were the runes used in the Creation of Tellaria by the Eldar'ai gods themselves. It was said in hushed whispers that they had sundered the lands around the temple in the Ancient of Days and created the Scar or Artheus. The Astral Sages who worked in the inner temple under the Great Dome guarded the many secrets that surrounded these runes.
Only a very special cadre of Astral Sages were allowed in the Great Dome. It helped build the Dormroth Temple's mystery into a wall taller and stronger than any of the actual walls in the complex.
So when Karom dove out of the clouds, wings folded and legs tucked in, X and Sinthia were full of hope and fear. They held on to the straps of the saddles and leaned back so far that neither of them could see the rapidly approaching ground. It was better that way.
At the last second, the dragon unfurled his wings like the sails of a ship. They caught the wind as he turned himself level, extending his legs. X and Sinthia rocked forward and hunched down.  Then Karom hit the paving stones of the inner courtyard with all four feet and pushed back up with legs and wings. He stretched his wings wide and thrust his head upwards with a bellowing roar.
There were two Astral Sages standing guard outside of the huge doors to the Great Dome; the doors that had not been opened in over a century. They stood, shocked and amazed at what they couldn't believe. A dragon, that everyone was certain didn't exist, had just slammed itself into the courtyard grounds and was roaring a challenge. One of the sages raised his hands to cast a spell. The other sage soiled himself and ran for a small side building at the wall of the courtyard.
Suddenly a loud voice blasted their brains. I am Karomstantisviathal of the Third Watch! Guardian of the Lost Rune! Lance of the Great One! I am the Wind that tears the world open and the Fire that melts the stars! None of you can stand against me!
The sage's force bolt went wide and missed. Then he soiled himself and ran for the same door.
I am here by the ancient rights. I will have my revenge on the Oppressors. I claim the key to the Well of Souls and I will not be denied!
Karom leaned forward. X and Sinthia held on tighter. The dragon opened his mouth with a roar that swelled into a stream of fire aimed directly at the doors. The heat was blistering and the light was brighter than the sun at midday. The doors collapsed into dust and molten bits of rock. Karom stalked forward and growled at no one in particular while walking through the ruined opening.
About a mile away, Ivan and Elle were riding through a side gate that had improbably been left ajar. Ivan looked back over his shoulder at her and pointed at the smoke rising from the side of the Great Dome. "That would be where we need to go."



Twenty Eight
In Which an Arcane Weapon Blows a Hole in the World

Karom stomped through a precept chamber that was bigger than most cathedrals, crushing the burning bits of doorway under his claws. Almost a hundred feet wide with walls of arches and pillars, the chamber rose over his head by another dragonlength. X and Sinthia rode in their saddles, tightly strapped down and still trying to recover from the rapid descent and thunderous landing. A few more Astral Sages ran for side doors in the chamber. They shouted and yelled instructions that just seemed to add to the confusion.
They quickly came out into the Great Dome itself. A massive stonework of exquisitly crafted blocks rose above them at least three hundred feet high. The dome was made from light and dark blocks that formed a checkerboard pattern all the way to the top. Each piece individually measured and cut and placed with a precision that was impossible to fathom; the span covered by the perfect half circle dome had not been matched before or since. Sinthia looked up in awe and quickly found herself unable to grasp the math involved in its construction.
Out in the enormous room were three huge astral runes carved from pure quartz, each of them about thirty feet across and floating in the air out in the middle of the expanse.
Karom knelt and let X and Sinthia slide off his back. Just then an Astral Sage walked out of a small doorway off to the side. He had the stride and posture of someone who was in command. "What are you doing?" he shouted. "What is this desecration?"
The dragon turned and opened his mouth. Sinthia raised a hand and the dragon stopped whatever he was about to do. "I am Sinthia True of the Starline Circle. I've been infected by a Bone Witherer and I need power from beyond this world. My guide here," she motioned back at X. "Has determined that these runes are the only ones that have enough power. We'll be using them."
The Astral Sage looked them over quickly. He shook his head in disbelief. "You can't use them."
X stepped up next to Sinthia. "We thought you'd say that. We brought some items to trade.  Discovered an astral steel longsword on our journeys.  Also an Amulet of the Temple."  X held up the bundle tied in burlap.  "We also brought him." X motioned back at Karom, who lowered his head with menacing eyes and made threatening hollow clicking sounds deep in his throat.
The Sage shrugged helplessly. "No, you don't understand. You can't use them because they have no power. Haven't had for over a century."
"What?"
"I'm sorry milady, but all this destruction was unnecessary. There's nothing here for us to defend. You could bring a hundred dragons into the Dome and you'd still only have some pretty rocks suspended by nostalgic trickery."
Sinthia stood there with a mountain of fury and no place to put it. "That... That can't be." She looked back at X.
He had a completely defeated look on his face, like a man standing on a beach and watching a tidal wave approaching. X looked at her and tears welled up in his eyes. His mouth was slightly open, lips quivering. "I'm sorry. I... I thought it would..."
A knife flew out of the doorway behind the Sage and improbably skewered the back of his head with the point coming out between his eyes.
Before his body hit the floor, Sinthia felt her spine crack and she screamed in pain. She dropped to her knees and X knelt next to her.
Ivan and Elle stepped out of the darkness. He was about to say something that he thought sounded clever but Sinthia raised a hand a cast a simple pushing spell. Ghostly runic shapes flew from her outstretched palm and punched into both Ivan and Elle. They went flying back through the doorway they'd just walked through.
Sinthia was gasping in pain, hunched over like an old woman. She shouted, "I know! Do it!" and tossed something behind her. X saw that it was one of the clay tablets with the secret rune they had found at Calvin Garrison. Karom scooped it up with his lips and launched himself at the floating quartz runes.
Sinthia looked up at X and grunted through her pain. "You have to stop her. She's the only one who can ruin this."
"Ruin what? What the hell is he doing?"
"The runes aren't broken, they're just missing a piece."
Karom landed at the center of the room and slid the clay tablet out onto the floor, equally distant from the three runes hovering above him. He hadn't had enough time to tell Sinthia everything but she understood the gist of it. The sun was now overhead. He'd seen the Fury Star last night and knew it was in perfect conjunction with the tail of the Scorpion. If he was going to open the Well of Souls it had to be now.
When Karom had claimed he was the Lance of the Great One, he'd been telling the truth. Part of his training had been to work the magicks of Astral Runes and pull power from the Deep Sky. He did this now.
The floating runes suddenly blazed with white light, brilliant and fierce. The entire expanse of the Dome was dazzled with a cool white fire. Karom stepped back and used his ancient knowledge to pull fury and fire and the lightning fast flick of a stinger directly down into the floor beneath the runes. With a flash and a booming thunder, the floor burst downward and a hole appeared. Karom glanced back at them and X could swear he saw the dragon smile.
Then Karom jumped forward and disappeared into the blazing white light.


Twenty Nine
Regarding a God of War

Ivan rolled over onto his side. "You have to do something! Stop this!"
Elle got up and reached into her belt pouch. Blood was forming droplets on her lips where she had bitten herself in the tumble through the door. "Glady," she growled.
She took a single flat gemstone and kissed it. Then she flipped it in the air like a coin.
Out in the Great Dome the blazing brilliance of the Astral Runes continued to bathe the entire expanse with light so bright it washed the colors out of everything. Everywhere X looked he only saw shades of white and less white. Sinthia was screaming in pain, on her knees with both hands flat in front of her.
X got to his feet. He was helpless in the face of whatever magic was flowing through the room. There was only one thing he knew he could do. Kill Ivan and Elle.
He drew his camp knife and started towards the doorway they'd been blown into.
The dark rectangular shape in front of him was unnaturally black. It seemed to be resisting the very light that should be shining into it and revealing everything beyond. It hurt his eyes to even look at it; his eyes tried to adjust to the dark in front of them but were still getting bombarded with brilliance all around it. He stepped past the dead Astral Sage, now with white robes and a less white pool of blood under his head.
Ivan walked out of the room with two knives drawn. He was immediately blinded by the shockingly bright light and raised a hand while squinting, surprised, as if he didn't expect the light to be so strong. His hat had come off when he'd been thrown into the room and his hair was a mess. His black shirt and pants were now a washed out less white.
X knew he couldn't take him in a fair fight. The art thief was just too good with a blade. So X leapt forward to take advantage of Ivan's blindness and while he did, he cast the one spell that Sinthia had prepared for him. With his off hand in a pocket he clutched a small mirror and whispered the incantation to release it. Suddenly he shimmered and there were three images of him, all moving slightly independently. He closed quickly and struck.
Ivan was a very clever man. When he glimpsed the three images coming at him he naturally wanted to strike the one in the middle. But he also knew that X would be expecting that. He quickly chose the image on his left and lashed out.
X did a side to side move and the other images copied it at their own pace and rythym. The spell was an advanced form of mirror image and worked with supple confusion. The images didn't just mimic the caster, they moved with their own will. That way, the caster could stay safely in the middle and not be suspected.
Ivan swung both blades and they each went deep through the image on the left. It blinked out.
X came in and thrust his knife into Ivan's exposed side. The blade slid through the rib cage and lacerated Ivan's lung, just missing his heart by the barest of fractions.
Even when mortally struck, Ivan was a dangerous foe. He swung one of his knives in a backhand slash and caught a shoulder. X stumbled back, clutching his bleeding arm. Ivan turned on him and tried to step forward but wavered and coughed up a spray of blood. He stopped, his face very white except for the spittle of less white on his chin. "This could have been so simple, Exeter," said Ivan past frothy lips. He dropped to his knees. "Just an exchange of value. Service for service." He let go of both knives.
X started to walk past him, no interest in a long conversation with a dead man. "You've damaged too many people, Ivander. Eventually the bill comes due."
Ivan fell forward, flat on his face, and died.
X kept pressing in on his shoulder but it didn't seem to stop the bleeding. He looked over at Sinthia, still posed on her hands and knees with her back arched. He could only imagine the pain as her bones began breaking.
But now he had to kill a sorceress.
X hurried to the improbably dark doorway. He knew that when he stepped inside, he'd be blinded just like Ivan had been. The smart course of action would be to lure her out but X didn't have the time. He stood off to the side of the door and closed his eyes, thinking he'd wait a few seconds to give himself a beter chance. Then he heard Sinthia scream again. He also heard Elle laughing.
His anger overtook his caution and he jumped into the room, opened his eyes, and dashed off to one side even though he couldn't see a thing.
He could hear Elle laughing quietly. "Oh, X my friend, glad to see you're finally here. We've been waiting for you."
X could now sense the movements of something else in the room. Something big. There was a darkness against darkness and a swirl like a cloak whirling in the wind. A pale red light shone as the darkness parted. It took X a second to realize it was a glowing pendant around Elle's neck.
"Ivan's dead," he said.
She laughed again. "That was always the most probable outcome. So was all your trickery and flashy magic out there."
X kept moving along a wall he'd found. The doorway was to his left, not nearly as bright as he thought it should be. It shone no beam of light on the floor nor illuminated the opposite wall. It was just a milky rectangle of light that he had trouble seeing through.
Elle continued. "But in the end you did as asked. You brought the lost rune to us."
"Us? Did you not hear me? Ivan's dead."
"He wasn't the us I was talking about." Her red pendant grew stronger and filled the room with bloody light. Standing right behind her was a hulking dark form, vaguely humanoid, like a great evil knight in the old stories, cloaked and shadowy. The eyes within it's helmet glowed with red malice.
"What the hell?" X began, but his voice trailed off as the figure grew like a shadow stretching out against the wall.
"Meet Arem, one of the new gods." Elle waved a hand up over her shoulder with an elegant twist, like she was showing off a jewlery set to prospective buyers. "He has a war to start against all Astral Sages. And he's so glad you activated this old mockery of a temple."
X stood there, awash in red light, blood running down his arm and pooling up in a synonymous reflection, and couldn't find words. It was like his mind had just shut off.
"I know, darling," said Elle. "What are the odds of him being right here, right now? So unlikely." She made a shooing motion with her raised hand. "All right, sweetie, go kill everyone and claim your weapon." The huge form moved along the wall as if walking but X still couldn't see any solid form.
"How--" X stuttered.
"Chance and I get along very well. Like right now." She took out two of her oddly shaped gemstones and shook them in her hand. "You're probably going to die." She dropped them down at her feet and smiled as they came to a rest. "Oh, that's a very good roll."
Outside the room, the shadow god stepped into the blazing white light. The darkness around him immediately flowed back like a cloak in the wind. The edges of it dissolved like fog in sunlight but kept being replaced as more darkness peeled off his form.
Arem was fully visible now. A huge, broad man armored in black full plate. Somehow the armor shone with darkness, fully matte black even in the white fire of the runes. Darkness radiated off of him and he stepped forward like he was pushing through a rushing river.
Sinthia waited, barely able to see past her own hair hanging in her face. She waited, feeling the promise that the dragon had made begin to build in her. She waited, for the shadow creature to step just a little bit closer.
What she had been waiting for, through many many waves of wracking pain, was the healing rune that Karom had carved into the stone with his talon before jumping into the Well of Souls. Its slowness told her that he hadn't gotten the dimensions and angles quite right and that she'd have a longer time than hoped before it took effect. But the dragon wasn't there to complain to and the shadow thing's steps were getting closer.
She had to move now.  She hoped she didn't end up paralyzed.
The shadow reached down for her with a blurry gauntlet. She pushed hard with her legs and rolled out of its grasp, feeling some ribs break as she did.
But not all of them.
Sinthia rolled again as the shadow beast turned to follow. She ended up right next to the Astral Sage laying bloody on the stones.
Arem, God of Shadow, God of War, whirled and jumped after her, reaching out with both hands like the talons of a raven. Sinthia, in one smooth move, pulled Ivan's knife out of the sage's head and thrust it up into Arem's chest.
She burst with pure white radiance and screamed as the power filled her, fused her bones together like hot steel, and flowed through her arm as she cast a focus spell on the knife. Bright white cracks shot out from the blade and Arem broke apart like candied sugar brittle. All the pieces of him were blown back, dissolving like smoke as they went.
Inside the room, X had watched Arem leave and saw Elle drop her gems. Then he felt his heart start to palpitate and sieze up. Pain shot down his left arm.
"Oh, my. How unfortunate," teased Elle. "The old ticker winding down to its last tok?"
X tried to move forward but his legs sizzled with pain and he staggered to his knees. He tried to suck in air but wasn't sure if his lungs were working. The room got darker around him but he didn't think it was from any arcane magic.
He was dying.
As his vision closed in, he saw Elle suddenly look to one side and shout, "No!"
She was blasted by a wave of oily darkness, covered head to toe with the soot of pure evil. Arem's remains flushed into the room like bile rushing out of the throat of a demon.
X heard a slight metallic tinkling. He looked down at the space near the door and saw Ivan's knife. It was glowing bright white and spinning impossibly slowly. He jumped for it.
Landing in a crouch, X scooped it up in his right hand, covered in his own blood. His legs felt like rubber but he pushed off again. He missed Elle on the first try but saw the wall at the last second and bounded off it, leaping back toward the Probability Sorceress who was standing in smoking, demonic, dust of death with her mouth agape in revulsion.
He swung with everything he had left. The point of the knife came down on the top of Elle's head and sank in all the way to the hilt.
Elle couldn't even scream because the glowing white blade had come out the top of her mouth and pierced her tongue. White light burst out of her mouth, her eyeballs exploded into misty white goo, and she crumpled into a mound of bewilderment and hate.
The darkness vanished and the room became an ordinary antechamber. Upholstered furniture, sideboards with tea service, paintings, ruined rugs, and the smoldering remains of a demon god.
X couldn't breathe.  He was about to drop and die next to Elle when he heard Sinthia shout his name.  He turned. A bright white light was in front of him and he could see Sinthia standing in it, glowing like an angel of the old tales. She reached out a hand and shouted something else but he couldn't make it out. He took a step forward. The end had come and it would be best to join Sinthia in the light.
He staggered out into the Great Dome and suddenly stood straight, breathing in deeply. Life from the healing rune rushed into every corner of his body. Everything tingled like fire and he felt both wonderful and terrified at the same time. He wasn't sure how long he was standing there but then Sinthia was at his side and the light in the room was returning to normal.
Sinthia steadied him and he could make out her words again. "Are you all right?" she asked.
He blinked a few times and felt for his chest. Then he realized that his shoulder was healed. "I feel great."
Sinthia was looking back into the room at Elle's body and the knife sticking out of her head. "Wow."
"Oh. Yeah. Well I had to improvise."
"Nicely done."
X looked around as the last of the white light faded from the massive floating runes. "What happened out here?"
"Karom knew a healing rune and etched it--" She stopped as they both looked at the center of the Great Dome.
The entire floor had melted back together like cooling lava and Karom was nowhere in sight.


Thirty
In Which X and Sinthia Sit Outside a Shop for Adventurers

The day was warm and cloudy, certain to rain later. X and Sinthia sat on a bench looking out at a mostly empty fountain square. They were sipping on mugs of hot tea that they'd purchased from Floating Mountain Traders, a popular marketplace for those seeking fortune and glory.
Sinthia cupped her mug in both hands. "Everything all right with the University?"
X nodded. "Everything back to normal. Just an unplanned sabbatical like I hoped."
They sat quietly for a moment. Then she said, "Oh, I heard from Mentivil. He sent a nice note. No hard feelings."
X chuckled and set his mug down on a small table in front of them. "Well that's good of him. I can't imagine what it was like to be resurrected with a knife still sticking out of your skull. Did he mention Ivan?"
"Handed over to local authorities. Death penalty. Probably carried out by now."
"Hmmm. Fitting. One death wasn't enough for him."
After another quiet moment, Sinthia leaned forward and set her mug on the table as well. She sat back, still looking out onto the square. "There are still two things I don't understand." She looked over at X. "Why did you do all this for me? You never told me about that."
X leaned back and clasped his hands across his stomach.  He looked down at the ground and thought for a moment. "I made a promise to your husband. And a deathbed promise is something I take seriously."
Tears welled up in her eyes. "Thank you," she whispered.
X reached out and grabbed his mug. "What's the second thing?"
She cleared her eyes and turned to him. "Why haven't you kissed me yet?"
X froze in mid sip. "Uhhh. Well--" He looked over at her and saw her expectant smile, her soft brown eyes, the curve of her neck, the slightly rosy cheeks that were probably flushing from embarassment just like his were.
He could tell her he'd loved her for years. He could tell her that he'd been torn apart when she married his friend. He could tell her that he wanted to be with her for the rest of their lives and that she was the most amazing, strongest, brightest, and most beautiful woman he'd ever met.
Or he could just kiss her. That seemed like the best course of action. He smiled and leaned towards her as she tilted up her face.
The scream out in the square was quickly followed by another. X jerked his head around to see people fleeing. A shadow appeared overhead.
Karom unfurled his wings like the sails of a ship and slammed down into the square, just missing the fountain by a foot or two. He arched his head high and let out a bellowing roar that shook the timbers and windows of all the nearby buildings.
But in a second or two he suddenly spasmed into a coughing fit and splayed his legs out to keep steady.
Sinthia giggled and jumped up off the bench. The dragon kept wheezing and hacking, slowly getting control of himself. She waved an enthusiastic greeting and spun around to stand right in front of him. "Ladies and gentlemen!" she shouted, waving her hands and arms like a carnival showman. "This is Karomstantisviathal of the Third Watch! Guardian of the Lost Rune! Lance of the Great One! Vengeance of the Oppressed! He is the Wind that tears the world open and the Fire that melts the stars!" She looked back up at the dragon's slightly bemused face. "And he is my very very good friend."
X was walking out into the square in shocked disbelief. The townsfolk had stopped running and were cowering in doorways. "Where did you come from?"
The Oppressors were already dead. Very anticlimactic. I found another way out.
Sinthia ran and jumped up on his leg, vaulting off his knee and pulling herself up into the saddle that was still there. She looked down at X who was just beginning to smile. "Want a ride back to your office?"
He laughed. "It's four blocks from here."
She held out a hand. "We'll take the long way."


THE END