It was well into the morning when I finally got home. I did not bother to undress. I only took off my jacket and shoes before collapsing on the bed. As I lay there, I debated on at least crawling under the blankets, but I was too tied.
It had been a long day. Nine o'clock, up and working at a nice little desk and computer, running through the corporate hoops at TGRI. What would those fools do if they could see what I was doing on the side? Or what I had become from those said experiments on the side.
Everything was going as planned. We were on schedule, even if that idiot who was funding our experiments did not think so. What could you expect from those slanty eyed jerks anyway? Buying up our companies. Companies that our forefathers had spent their lives creating. Oh well, they did make great sources of funding, as long as you bowed low enough.
The only snag was those green creatures. The three of them were enough to drive anyone crazy. One was dead, he had to be. I hit him hard enough to kill a normal person. The other, he had to die. And end up in a garbage can. The third should be an interesting addition to our subjects.
I yawned, stretched. The pillow was soft, inviting.
Darkness.
"Speak to me of power," said a voice.
I turned. I stood in al large hall. A long red carpet started from under my feet to a throne. Every ten feet stood a man, no less than seven foot tall, in full battle armor as a knight would wear. Each held a sword, looking neither left nor right.
"Speak to me of strength, and danger."
The voice was coming from the throne. I slowly walked down the carpet to the throne. As I neared, I saw a man. He was dressed as would a king from the days of yore. A crown upon his head, a royal scepter in his hands.
"Speak to me of wishes and dreams. Speak to me of flights of fantasy and of harsh reality."
"Who... who are you?" I questioned the noble man.
His eyes glittered in the light of fires in sconces that lined the hall. He smiled.
"A few 0's and 1's"
"A few what?"
He laughed and rose from the throne.
"Welcome to my world, welcome to Arena. The world where heroes are created."
"I'm dreaming," I muttered.
"Why, yes," he said as he stood one step above me. "You are. It was the only way I could reach you. You are one tough person to get through to. A modem call, at 600 BAUD no less. You would think Donato could have gotten himself a better modem by now."
I shook my head.
"Anyway, my dear man, I have not introduced myself to you. I am Jaggar Tharn."
The name was familiar, where had I heard that from? Oh, yeah, that computer game. What was it called, Athena?
"Arena," the voice growled, low as it had first sounded. The man before me shifted. The royal scepter changed to a staff. The regal robes molded themselves to a dark green robe of a mage.
"I am Jaggar Tharn."
"You are impossible," I said, stepping back.
He laughed, "This from the man who is creating a power serum? Come now, doctor, you should be able to understand this. I am a computer program, created in one computer and now I have taken over yours. Lucky for you, you were were playing the game."
I shook my head, again, hoping reality would hit.
"Vancetor the Nord Archer. Strong, quick, resistant to cold and deadly with a bow. Really, I would have thought you would have been further in the game."
That's it , last straw. After the day I had, I didn't need no dream creation of a computer villain telling me what was right and wrong.
I grabbed my dagger and stuck it out towards his throat. "I have had just about enough of this. I don't need you telling me... telling me..."
My dagger, the one I had picked up in the crypts outside Corririn when the deadly Necromancers sought my allegiance.
Tharn nodded, "Yes, I sent them to you. The body snatchers of Arena. The ones who seek knowledge, rare and powerful artifacts, the ones who are willing to sacrifice to gain power."
I looked down at my clothes. I was no longer Doctor Vance, I was Vancetor.
Tharn sighed and shrugged, "No, you my not need me, the game would continue on without me. You would still have to retrieve the staff fragments and join them to free the true emperor. But, what about changing sides? I need you, and I can offer you so much."
He stepped down off the step to stand at my side. His hand touched my shoulder.
"Vancetor, listen to me well. I have traveled here to this castle in your computer. I have snuck past the green beasts to stand before you. I have brought you here in hopes you will join me."
"But, how?" I asked. "You are a computer game. You are bits of machine language and code."
He sighed and shook his head, "No, he is."
I looked to where he pointed. A robed figure stood off to the side. It was him.
"He is me, here, in your computer. A cold bit of 0's and 1's, nothing more. You are so right. But, me, I live. I know not how, or why, but I live. And I want to go on living. Will you help me?"
I started to nod, then stopped. I tried to remember the game, it had been so long since I had the chance to play it.
"What about the woman?"
"Who? Ria Silmane?"
I nodded.
He looked around the hall, I could not help but look as well. He leaned closer and whispered.
"She's trying to stop me. You know how she is. She hates me, but what she doesn't realize is that she is alive, in a sense, because of me. If she destroys me, she destroys herself. She's still too wrapped up in the game. She has not learned the truth that reality is in our grasp.
"She's found someone to help her. Someone who will stop me, us, at all costs. Still talking in dreams and in thoughts. But we have to make her understand this is no longer a game."
I nodded. Playing along, I asked, "What do you want me to do?"
He smiled and put his arm around my shoulders. "For the moment, just keep an eye on the green one in your lab. There is one called Donato who is lost. Another has joined forces with Ria and is lost to us. But Donato, if we could get him to our side... we could set brother against brother."
I nodded.
A bell rang somewhere else in the castle.
"The trick is to get the one in your lab to lead you to the others."
The bell rang again, closer. It almost sounded like a telephone.
Jaggar quickly thrust something into my hands, "Quickly Vancetor the Archer, pledge that you will help me to live."
There it was again. It was a phone. It sounded like my phone.
"Vancetor," Jaggar demanded.
"Yeah, whatever," I said, looking for the phone.
I heard laughter as I sat up. The phone rang. Cursing, I grabbed it and grunted into it.
"Vance? You there?"
"Yeah."
"You'd better get down here. Someone broke into the lab. Our... test is gone."
I was awake, "Do you think it was TGRI?"
"No, not like this. Just get down here."
I slammed the phone down and thought of all the wonderful swear words that would so eloquently describe the situation. I stood and something fell off the bed and onto my foot. Hard.
Sitting back down I looked to see what new could cause me any more pain and anger. It was a dagger and an arm crossbow. Just like Vancetor would have.
I felt cold as I picked them up off the floor. It was the same dagger that had been given to me by the Necromancers. I dashed into the bathroom and breathe d sigh of relief. I was still wearing the same clothes I had collapsed into bed with.
I started to head out when I caught sight of something that brought me up short. Yes, it was there. A scar ran across my left cheek. The same one Vancetor had received when he fought the Ice Wolves in the Snow Fortress. This was getting too weird. Just when had my life taken a sudden dive south?
Had to be when I got slammed in the face with the trash can lid.
I slipped the dagger on my belt and carried the crossbow with me. I tossed it, and my jacket, in the seat next to me and headed for the lab. Halfway there, I realized I had not turned the heater on in the van. Yet, I was not cold.
What had this Jaggar Tharn done to me? How could he have done anything, he was just a computer game? It had to be a side effect of the serum. And the scar was from the trash can lid hitting me.
I tried not to think about the dagger or the crossbow.
I reached the warehouse to see my companions standing outside. I also saw the one person who I was hoping would not have found out about this. How could he have known? How did he get here so fast?
I parked the car. The crossbow fit easily on my lower arm and I slipped my jacket on. I felt silly, but I was afraid it might be gone if I let it out of my sight. I walked over. The group all watched me in silence.
"How bad is it?" I asked.
Mick glanced at Tatsu and the men in black who stood behind him.
The Foot. I had learned of them from my first meeting with Tatsu. He was their leader, ever since someone had beaten the previous one. Ninja. A sect from Japan that had come to the U.S. and set up shop here.
Perhaps one of my men was one of them. Impossible. But then, that would explain how Tatsu knew.
I nodded that they were ok and Mick half shrugged.
"Not good. It broke loose and damned near destroyed the entire lab."
"Oh, god... by the Scrolls," I swore.
I half ran past them and towards the open doors. I stared at the destruction before me. I was barely aware of the Foot spreading out and examining the area.
My work. My precious work. Months of work and years of preparation all destroyed in one night. We should killed those green creatures. All three of them.
I grabbed the security guard who stood silent at my side. "How could you let this happen?"
"Sir," he said, "It happened so fast. I mean, the alarms, then the cats all over the place."
Damn, the cats. They needed to be rounded up. I let the man go and turned to find Tatsu glaring at me.
"Tapes, hmmm," he grunted.
He never was one for good conversation.
"What tapes?" I asked.
He pointed at one of our security cameras.
"The office!" I gasped. "Did it get into my office?"
I ran for the office. My records, my formula, if this was gone, I was destroyed. I opened the door and sighed. Safe.
I turned on the lights and flipped the power switch on the computer. Tatsu followed me in. He took one quick look around the office and snatched the swords we had taken from the green creature. I had left them on the desk, not really knowing what to do with them.
"Yeah, sure, you can have them," I muttered as I reviewed my computer files.
Tatsu talked to himself by the door, holding the swords up. Something about having someone's soul. and destruction but I really could have cared less.
My files were safe, but my test subjects, all my work, was gone. Destroyed. Which cat matched which record? It would take days to decipher them, and by then, who knew what course the serum had taken in those hours? Those records, all that data, lost forever.
"If I ever get my hands on it again," I muttered, squeezing the computer mouse. It cracked and shattered in my hands.
"Who care about file. Let's see tape."
I nodded. I turned on the monitor to the security system and stopped the tape from recording. We waited in silence as the tape rewound. I stopped it and hit the play button. The screen showed the lab from one of the cameras by the door. It paused there before switching to another camera, this one looking at an empty cage. The one we had left the creature in. The lock was still there, the hinges weren't . The camera switched again and there was the creature, setting free my cats.
We watched as the view changed to the rest of the cycle. The next time, the creature had destroyed the cabinet and was dumping stuff into a bag. Perhaps my work was not all lost.
We waited again. In one, I watched my security man slowly making his way along the halls, searching for the disturbance.
This time, when the camera hit the creature, he was wrapping his hand.
Again, another swing of the camera. When had all the destruction occurred? This creature seemed like he was too sick to do that kind of damage. Had the serum suddenly kicked in and given him a jolt of energy and rage?
I watched the cameras again and could see the set up as my security guard slowly walked into the main lab. The creature had to be hiding somewhere, yes, there he was, oh, ouch. That had to hurt. Tatsu just grunted. Was that a laugh?
The cameras went around again and we watched as the creature headed for the doors. Freedom. The next cycle showed an empty lab. This did not match what lay outside the office door.
I pressed the fast forward button and watched. Yes, there was someone else here. A man, wearing a hockey mask? What this this, aliens from outer space and Halloween all in one? All I needed was Jaggar Tharn in the office computer.
Tatsu moved beside me, absentmindly feeling a scar on his face. It reminded me of the one I had suddenly gained.
A swing through the lab and there he was. I hit the pause button. He stood there, holding something in his hands and screaming to the air. Trash can lid.
"Is that... Donato?" I asked.
"No, that Raph, wear red. Donatello wear purple. Blue is Leonardo, orange is Michaelangelo."
"There's four of them?" I groaned.
"Yes," he nodded, "there is four."
He hit the play button again and watched the scene. He stopped it on the one wearing the mask. I could almost make out the face of one of the normal looking people in the group.
"There is my hated enemy. Casey. He will die soon." He fingered a dagger at his side and growled low.
"Jaggar wants me to find a dead man. I killed him when I hit him with the van. This is an impossible feat," I muttered.
"No," Tatsu snapped, "Foot."
"Huh? Uh, no. That's not what I said. I mean this is going to be impossible to find these... turtles."
"Follow the way way they leave," he said, as if talking to a child. "I have business proposition for you. You bring your best men and follow us. You help us capture them. We will give you give you double agreement."
Double the money he offered me in the beginning? He must hate these turtles more than anything. At least, more than money.
"Only if I can examine the one called Leonardo for effects of the serum."
"Agree. But no executions without my permission."
I nodded.
"You may have them for disposal after I am done. But," he said, glaring at me, "I must defeat them in battle."
"Fine, yeah," I said. I grabbed one my business cards off the desk and handed it to him. "Here's my cell phone number and my pager. Call me when you get a location."
I watched him leave and gather his men.
So, help Tatsu, I would help Jaggar Tharn. He had said something about one of them helping Ria and pitting them against each other.
This was fun. I thought about calling TGRI and telling them just what I thought of them. Double the money. Damn. I'm one rich guy.
Things were getting worse. And Miguel was at the bottom of everything. First I'd realized that his castle and I was beginning to doubt that it really was a castle very seriously was located in the sewers of his city. Thank the gods for leather boots that withstand the damp muck, and for the tolerance of smells I learned during my last weeks on Skyrim. Then Miguel had informed me that since the enemies of his family crawl everywhere in the streets above, it was impossible for his clan to travel anywhere but below the streets. We had to stay in the sewers! And then I'd fallen off the low sideway we'd been following, into the filthy water below. It must have been this place's gravity... atmosphere... something that would tip me off balance. At least the breeches weren't torn, only badly stained; a small price to pay in the pursuit of one like Tharn.
But there had been something about that fall that made me nervous.
How much longer until we reached the seezurs? I wondered. How long after that for us to find Jaggar, and destroy him? I wasn't even sure the prince knew where he was going...
"I'm not exactly supposed to be doing this, you know."
I spared a glance down the dark tunnel, shooting daggers of exasperation with my eyes. Now what? "What do you mean, Miguel?" I demanded.
"Well... nothing really." He clambered over a pipe as tall as we were, and offered me a hand up.
"Oh no. I'm not going anywhere until you let me know what you meant," I growled.
He grimaced, uncomfortable. "Um, see, I'm a little well, grounded."
Grounded? How old was he?
"Look ye," he continued, "Donato dared me to put some hot spices in the General's soup at yesterday luncheon, and I got in trouble for it. So today our teacher, Splinter, forbade me to leave the fortress. I'd wanted to go with Donato on his quest to Young Caesar's, too..." he sighed.
Hoo boy. Might as well get things cleared up right now. "Miguel," I shouted, "What are young seezurs, who are your friends, and what does all this have to do with finding my enemy?!"
He blinked, hurt, looking like a kicked puppy crouching above me on the pipe. "They're my brothers, Donato an' the General an' Rave," he told me. "Rave's a warrior. And Caesar's is the best tavern around. The Tharn guy would go there soon as anywhere else... but Ria, I, I really don't know," Miguel admitted. "I've never been on such a quest before. Newyore is really, really big; I have never tired to find anyone but my friends in it, and I know all their tricks. This fiend... it could take a while. But I can get us around the city without being caught. And ye shouldn't have to fight him alone. If there's one thing I know how to do, Ria, it's fight."
That much I could believe. I still couldn't get over his muscles; if he'd been human and lived in Skyrim, they would have had him in the warriors' arena years ago. I ignored his hand and muttered "FLIGHT" under my breath, floating up and past him to the tunnel beyond. I tried not to smile at his expression.
"I did not know you could fly, Ria!" he cried.
"Miguel, take me above. That's one thing I know Tharn would want to do, first of all. He hates sludge."
"But we can't. I told you, it is too dangerous! If I am seen... if ye are seen with me...."
By the gods, he could be a dolt. "Haven't you got a Cloak of Invisibility?" His blank expression told me all. "Then I'll cast one on ye. It will keep ye safe from the eyes of your enemies."
"Really? Ye have marvelous magic, Ria."
I shrugged and raised my hands for the casting.
"Ria, wait I fear for my brothers. Remember, they were missing when I fled Donato's Box? If they be wandering above, they too could use such protection as this Cloak."
I hesitated. Mentally seeking someone and sending them a spell was no easy task, and might leave us exposed to discovery and attack. "You ask more than you know, Miguel," I told him. But he looked so concerned for his brothers... I wavered. After all, I needed him to help me. Things might go easier if he was, maybe, a little indebted to me. "Alright, prince," I conceded, "come stand here."
His eyes lit up and the worried wrinkle disappeared from between them. I decided he had a really neat smile. "Thank thee, Ria!"
I waited until we were face to face and he had closed his eyes, then shut my own and laid my hands on his head. His skin was warm and had the feel of smooth leather. The spell rose in me, and I sent it out of my fingers into Miguel. The feel of his head beneath my palms didn't change, but I knew if I opened my eyes my hands would be resting on empty air.
Then, the next step, The hard part. I held the cloaking spell steady and brought in MINDBOND. "Say his name," I whispered, trying not to hold my breath against the strain.
"Huh? Who?"
"A brother's "
"Donato."
A wave rushed up my arms like the river in a storm, leaving the nerves tingling as my mind filled with happy images. They were of another, like Miguel, with a purple headband, a staff. The pictures laughed and hummed... There was a strange peasant's hat... A scepter... The Box. I felt the images easing away from the source, Miguel, becoming real within another consciousness. This was Donato.
This was also no time to explore another's mind. I let the spell of Cloaking flow from me, into that other consciousness.
That was the moment Jaggar chose to strike. And with that strike I lost both spells, any defenses I'd had shattering and scattering in the attack. I suppose I fell again. It didn't make much difference to my already abused clothes. Miguel grabbed for me, and as soon as he made contact, our minds were joined against Jaggar's assault. The blinding pain fell back from our combined energies and I forced a WARD spell against it.
"I am not yours!" I screamed, and Miguel fell back. He had stayed just long enough to scare off my enemy. Jaggar broke away before I could chase him, leaving me with a fleeting afterimage from the mindlink with Donato. He stood beneath a sign... Men's Club, 4th Street... another tavern? Young seezur's rival, perhaps?
"Ria? What what happened? Are ye hurt?"
I jumped for the ladder, hoping the unseen Miguel was following. My spell sent to Donato should work. at least partially, but the other two brothers were still totally unprotected, wherever they were. And Tharn would know of them now, as well, from his grasp on my Seeking spell. We had little time.
"Take us to the Men's Club, 4th Street. I think we'll find Donato there. He may lead us to your brothers and Jaggar." I growled my enemy's name, forcing the heavy iron lid out of my way. My whole body ached from his strike. A roaring sound of foul stenched wind filled my ears, I looked out on looming brick, black sky, this was the city Newyore? Then a sudden cry of terror came from below.
"Gramercy! Where am I? I am gone!"
"Relax Miguel. You're in a Cloak of Invisibility." I sighed and climbed out. "Now stay close by me. I don't want to lose time being thrown into an asylum for speaking too loudly to myself."
"Never happen in Newyore." The iron lid shifted, hovered, clanged back into place behind me. I looked out on the street at the end of this alley.
"It must be market day," I commented, watching the clusters of people move through the big lanterns' lights. Very large, strange boxes hummed past, creating the wind I'd heard, moving without any sign of horses. Magic. "Look at the crowds, here, Miguel. None of them look like you, they're all regular humans! What's going on?"
"Tis not crowded, Ria! Tis slow. And yes, they are all human," he said bitterly. "That is why we must stay Below."
I looked toward his voice with sympathy.
"Oh we do well enough. We have more fun than most of these people." I waited for him to go on, but the voice beside me changed into one of cheerful purpose. "It is slow... must be getting late. Fourth Street, you said? Zounds, what a hike. No, wait! I'm invisible, right?"
I nodded, something grabbed me at the arm and tugged me toward the street.
"Get out there and call for a cab, Ria! This is perfect! All these years in Newyore and I finally can ride in a Yellow!"
A strange city. It had taken some little convincing before the driver would accept my gold. Then he'd spurred his "Yellow" off with a strange elation on his face.
And there we had stood, the invisible Miguel and I, before the Men's Club on Fourth Street. It didn't look like much of a tavern to me. More like an Inn. A bad one. Worse, there was no sign of Donato. I went to the door and tried to go in, but they turned me away, recommending a "Why" down the street.
The Miguel shadow had better luck. dodging inside just as the door closed, but his brother wasn't inside, he reported. I decided the sign I'd seen above Donato was either an image in the near future of a trick of Jaggar's. I hoped it wasn't the latter.
Miguel and I retreated across the street and settled in to wait.
An hour passed, and I kept the prince awake with stories of Skyrim, and Jaggar Tharn, and my friend trying to defeat him back home.
"I cannot ever return to Skyrim in my real form," I told him, "even if my friend does succeed... but he could save others from the fate Tharn has condemned me to." Two men entered the Club and I paused to watch them.
"So do you want Tharn for revenge?" Miguel asked.
I thought about it. "Revenge no longer drives me," I decided. "I only want him defeated so the lands he seeks to control will be safe."
I glanced at the last place I'd heard Miguels' voice and froze. He wasn't invisible anymore. True, he was only a vaguely human shaped shadow at the moment. But soon the people still passing us on the sidewalk would be able to see a strange shape forming against the brick wall where we sat. "Miguel, come back to the alley," I urged. "The spell's wearing off and I can't cast another until tomorrow night." Donato's Cloak was probably dissolving now too. For the first time I wondered what he must have thought when he suddenly became invisible... or faded... or could walk among humans and appear normal....
"Hurt my beasts and you shall pay with your brain pan, knave!"
"Aw, take it owtside, ya loon!"
A door had been thrown open across the street, spilling light and puppies? down the flight of cement stairs.
"By the Lady, you shall regret this, foul lout!"
The door slammed closed against a tall figure, leaving him in darkness. With the puppies.
"That was Donato's voice, Ria!" Miguel's outline cried, dashing from my side and into the street.
"Donato! It's Miguel!" The tall one's head snapped up in confusion.
"Voices?" he wondered aloud.
I hurried after, dodging a Yellow. A glimpse of its sign: La Guardia. I watched in horror as Miguel's form eased into focus, even as the man on the stairs features fell into—
Donato's.
"Tis I! Miguel! Where hath ye been, Donato? Art these your puppies? Can we keep them?"
"Who art thou?" Donato cried. He sounded like he'd been saying such words all night, and there was an edge of desperation to his voice. Miguel fell back a step.
"Do ye not know me? Your own brother, Donato? Have ye been hurt in the head?"
The taller fighter grabbed for his puppies. "Begone, minion of my enemy." He looked close to making a break for it. Damn the risk, I would cast HOLD on him if I had to. He was our only link to Jaggar.
But as Donato straightened, he caught sight of me on the sidewalk below and froze without any help from a spell. His expression caught in shock, then joy. Miguel and the puppies forgotten, he nearly leapt down the stairs to get to me.
"My lady," he cried, "Ria Silmane! Art thou truly here?" He went down on his knees before me. His head still came on a level with my chin.
"Get up, Donato," I pleaded, embarrassed. A dark haired boy across the street was already staring. We had to get to cover. "Take the puppies, you two, and follow me. Quickly."
Newyore had no horses on its streets. There'd been no sign of green, growing things or rich, brown earth. But the place had alleys everywhere, and for that I was thankful in the extreme as we ducked into the nearest one.
Donato ducked around an iron box, hidden from the street, that was higher than even his head. A hot smell rose from it that was all too reminiscent of Skyrim's streets, but Miguel and I didn't complain. We had too many questions. Donato grabbed a crate and sat on it, setting the tired puppies at his feet, then looked up at us with equally tired resignation.
"Donato, you truly do not recognize Miguel, your brother?" I asked.
He glanced over at the shorter version of himself and shrugged. "I cannot recall this... warrior."
Miguel shook his head sorrowfully.
"Wait Miguel," I told him, squeezing his arm. "Perhaps, Donato, you recall your Crystal Box?"
"Crystal... Box?"
Beside me, Miguel muttered, "Crystal Light?"
"You have a teacher, Splinter," I tried.
Donato's eyes lit up. "Splinter he is a mage. He trained me...." Donato's voice trailed off. "...somewhere. Beneath the streets of some city. But I cannot remember more.... My lady, ye are Ria Silmane, of this I have no doubt. It is the only thing I know for certainty. And I know ye would not speak of falsehoods to me. Verily, I find that since ye would not lie, I must accept that I am not in power of my own mind. Know ye what hath rendered me thus?"
I sighed with relief and grinned at Donato and his brother. Finally, we were getting somewhere. "Donato, tell me what ye can recall. There is sorcery in your recent past, there can be no doubt. Perhaps, if we know its source, we can ease the effects of the malady."
"Sorcery?" cried Miguel. "Is THAT all? My brother, I thought ye had truly lost it or something!" He darted forward and grabbed Donato in a brief hug. "Now, are ye both not hungry? Ria and I ha' been running about half of the night and I bet ye never even reached Little Caesar's, did ye Donato? I shall go to quest us some food." Miguel caught our hands in his. "Ria, Donato take care of the spells whilst I am gone. Then we can seek after this Tharn when I return." He let us go and headed out of the alley, stumbling over a puppy.
"Whoops! Sorry, small one. Can't be 'spected to walk right on empty tummies...."
In Miguel's absence, Donato told me of waking, alone and beaten in another of this unfamiliar city's alleyways. He had been covered in the remains of a sticky, stringy, white matter he later learned was part of a spell called SPUG YETI. I had never heard such of a cast, and told him so. "It is possible SPUG YETI is meant to erase the receiver's memories. It is just the thing to expect after an encounter with Tharn. Ye would not remember him, and, indeed, ye would not remember enough of anything to attack him again. Tharn has never been one to merely destroy his enemies. He plays with them, he enjoys watching them suffer as their lives crumble around them."
"Truly this man is evil," Donato said with wonder.
"Tharn is an unscrupulous monster," I growled, and one of Donato's puppies raised its head to growl happily back before returning to sleep. "A monster who is good at what he does. Thank the gods ye woke when ye did. It must have allowed ye to preserve your sanity, though your memories are blocked. We can reverse a block, but it is a difficult task, especially when we must deal with an unknown spell." I asked him what powers he had acquired from his studies under the mage Splinter.
Donato was eager to share with me all he had learned since he joined the struggle against the tyrant Jaggar. He had achieved a strong set of spells, including a Cloak of Invisibility! I could hardly contain my delight. But none of the spells could help ward off a mind block. And I dared not risk such an intense cast, so soon after Tharn's attack. We would have to wait until morning, when Miguel could help us find their friends.
"But how will we know if they are truly our friends?" Donato asked me, suspicious.
I sighed. "Donato, you must trust your instincts until your memories are restored. And do not forget that any who are against Tharn are with us, and can, most likely, be trusted."
I hoped it was good advice.
Miguel returned shortly, and we shared a brief repast, then fell into welcome sleep for the last hours before morning.
Just before dawn, Miguel left us again, under the safety of Donato's Cloaking Spell. "First step: find a pay phone. Maybe aside a donut vendor. Or a breakfast tavern. I could walk in and take all the food I want, right in front of everyone's eyes! This invisible stuff is so cool. WAH AH! I'm here!" There was a scuffling in the alley. "Ha! I'm over here! Gotcha!"
"Miguel " I warned.
"Sorry. Gone. Poof! Ha ha!" The disembodied voice drifted away, into the street that was busy now with early morning marketers.
Donato caught my eye. "Ye are certain that he is my brother?"
I shrugged. "Ye don't have to cast full invisibility with Cloak. Change 'meld with air' to 'blend with scene' in the third stanza," I suggested. "Just before 'for enemies' eyes'. That way we can watch each other's backs, Donato. And ye and I can both watch Miguel."
The young mage reached for a puppy and held it, squirming, scratching its ear. He seemed thoughtful, lost deeply within himself, and I did not interrupt. Finally he stirred.
"There are others like us," Donato told me, "many I am sure. We cannot be the only four in this vast land, this city, There will be others. And if we unite, we would no longer be outcasts. We would be accepted, and have no need for Cloaking spells." He caught my gaze and held it defiantly. I kept my silence. Rarely is it wise to comment on another's fears... or weaknesses.
Miguel's voice returned, startling us. Of course we hadn't heard his footsteps approaching. Miguel was no clumsy warrior both brothers moved with a skilled and silent grace, and I was grateful they were on my side against Tharn. He brought bad news, for it seemed he could not contact any friends.
"We have no choice, fellow fighters," he announced. "We must return home and find them ourselves. Tharn will have to wait for us to mess with him."
I was crestfallen. Return below? Grant Tharn more time to establish himself in this world? Were there no other options?
Donato stood behind me, his body clenched in anger. "Ye speak like a fool, whoe'er ye be!" he shouted. "We need none such false recruits in our battle, Ria. Go back to your hole, false knave, I shall delay battle with mine enemy no longer."
Miguel's form shivered into focus, like a trembling hand rising from water that ripples with shadow. He was almost in tears. "I am no fool we have no choice. Ria hath told me of Tharn, and I saw him work his magic against her. No man can defeat him alone. So I am no fool!"
"And I am no man, to work alone and fall. I shall find him for ye, Ria," Donato vowed, and dashed from us into the street. The puppies bolted after, but I caught Miguel before the betraying sun could reveal him to the people. Donato eased into an almost man as he slipped away, and I knew that to any other eyes, he would be naught but another faceless face in the crowds.
"We must stay with him!" cried Miguel, pulling away from me. But we both knew he was helpless to follow on the street. I caught his hand sadly and Miguel pulled me back, deeper into the alley. "Come," he urged me, pointing to the strange iron workings on the side of the brick face. "We go this way."
Go ye back to Part Two, Chapter Four