"How do you suppose I got here?" Ghyreian demanded, cursing the mage for a fool. She whistled, and a huge black stallion came galloping from the pasture. "Nightshadow," she said softly as she swung herself onto the stallion's broad back.

She wheeled her steed around to face the lizardmen that were fast approaching. Thank the gods these were not the magic-users. She murmured a word of magic, and one immediately caught fire. Her victim gave a strangled scream as he fell writhing to the rain-soaked ground.

"Give my regards to Lord Verminaard!" she mocked, and spurred Nightshadow forward. She heard the pounding of hooves behind her and saw the Red Robe urging his own mount faster.

Suddenly Nightshadow balked and trumpeted. Ghyreian whirled around to find the lizardmen mages standing in the vallenwood trees, casting fireballs at them as they ran. She gasped in pain as one struck her in the arm. The stench of burning flesh filled her nostrils and she looked to see all the skin on her arm seared off to reveal the bone beneath. She clenched her teeth against the agony.

Her strength was scarce. She racked her mind for spells but none came. Nightshadow's jarring gallop and her own exhaustion shoved the spells out of her mind. Apparently the Red Robe, after casting his necromancy spell, was having similar difficulties.

_________________

Edwin`s horse galloped after the black robe and he cursed his bad luck when they were both almost out of spells, but now it seemed that he would have to improvise to destroy these lizardmages, that threw fireballs at them. He let the black robe ride forwards reaching the treeline and turned at the chasing lizardmen exaushted, but almost falled from his horse and got back up. Panic was running through him and adrenaline boosted making the reality difficult, but it was more difficult to cast a spell and he hoped that he would have enough power for one firebolt to get them time to escape from the lizardmen. He raised his hands in exhaustion and began to mumble pointing at the branch of one of the huge tree`s and nothing happened until he went deeper sending a whirling bolt of fire at the branch, which came crashing down in flames as the tree caught fire creating an obstacle and a new problem for the lizardmen. Edwin looked silent and the hurried his horse to gallop after the black robe, he almost falled from the sattle and was left leaning on his horses neck as they rode away from the Inn. The best thing now to do was to hide away until they would regain their strenght, but could he trust this black robed elf?

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Ghyreian experienced some satisfaction at seeing the burning tree topple right into the lizardmen's scaly faces. Perhaps the Red Robe was good for something after all.

She sniffed the air, observed the direction of the wind. Though she was now a dark elf to her people, one whose name could not be spoken on pain of death, her elven eyesight and instincts remained. The whispers of the forest still sang in her blood, the murmurings of the earth still beat to the same rhythm as her heart. Despite that the sun was obscured by omninous clouds, she deemed their direction to be north. It was just as well. She would have dreaded a meeting with her Qualinesti cousins to the south.

She veered her horse off the main road and plunged into the forest, attempting to lose herself in the thick underbrush. Her breath burned in her lungs, her muscles ached. Fear and resolve were now the only things driving her on. Those, and her pride which permitted no weakness in front of this human, albeit that this human had earned her grudging respect.

Dismounting and tearing aside some low hanging branches, she located a cave large enough for the two of them and their horses. She crept through the underbrush silently, then hard a crash behind her. Whirling around, she expected nothing less than an army of goblins. As it was, it was the human, making a show of typical human clumsiness. If she had strength she would have uttered a derisive snort. Unfortunately for her, she now no longer had the strength to even stand. She collapsed against the wall, clutching her wounded arm and trying to catch her breath. The low hanging branches snapped back over the cave entrance, effectively hiding them.

Ghyreian watched the human carefully out of the corner of her eye. He had made no threatening gesture. In fact he had probably just saved their wretched lives. Blast it all. Now she was in debt. Summoning enough strength for four words, she said through clenched teeth, "What is your name?"

_________________

They entered the cave and Edwin stumbled in getting a angry look from the elf, but he couldn`t do anything than smile cause the elf had been wounded and he was unharmed. Alltough as a fellow mage he couldn`t leave her to die out here alltough she worshipped the black moon, he looked out of the cave and thanked lunitari once more then turned at the elf. She looked hurt, but her pride was propably too big that she would accept it and Edwin had only few chances of helping.

He tapped the horse on it´s head and scrathed it`s neck thankfully for carrying him out of there, but he was disrupted by the elf`s words and turned at her.

"What is your name?" She asked getting the words hardly out.

Edwin had turned slightly amused by the elf and smiled at her, he sat down and took a pipe, then he lighted it and rolled the wine bottle to the elf across the floor so, that it would at least help her pain. Edwin blew a small smoke cloud in the air looking out in his toughts and then turned at the elf.

"My name is Edwin...I was on my way to the Wayreth tower to discover the deeper depths of some talents.."Edwin took his medallion and ran his fingers across it`s green crystal with an empty smile on his face"...And what is your name black sister?"

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Ghyreian took the bottle but did not open it. For all she knew it could be poisoned. "Ghyreian," she replied bluntly. With a shuddering breath she added, "I have just left Wayreth. I am now going to Palanthas. My reasons are my own."

Nightshadow nuzzled her as he folded his legs beneath him. At last Ghyreian surrendered to the exhaustion that had already taken over her mind. She sank to the cold stone floor, leaning against her horse's warm flank. She cradled her wounded arm, an arm she could no longer feel.

Without a word she rose wearily again to her feet and stumbled outside. The rain was falling again, drenching her through. Shaking with cold, she went scouting for herbs.

A moment later she returned to the cave, pale and soaked but determined not to show it. Wearing her customary mask of icy indifference, she treated her wound, wrapping it in strips torn from her own robes. That done, she assisted the Red Robe, Edwin, in building a fire. The thick underbrush masked the flames and smoke from prying eyes.

The silence stretched on, neither of them willing to break it. At length Ghyreian decided to speak. She needed answers. "This Highlord Verminaard and his scaly minions. Have you ever heard of them?"

_________________

They built a fire together and Edwin looked at the fire in his toughts only to be once more talked to by Ghyreian, but he was actually to have company because the latest months alone had been drving him crazy, but most of all nosy about others people`s business.

"This Highlord Verminaard and his scaly minions. Have you ever heard of them?" Ghyreian asked from Edwin as he sorted the wood with a small stick.

Edwin looked at the fire with a small glance in his eyes and takes the pipe out of his mouth turning to look at Ghyreian.

"I have heard of massive armies gathering in the north, dragons flying in the sky, the gods...returning...an inevetable doom approaching from, which you of course are safe from and ironicly I am not...." Edwin sighed "Didn`t you look at the sky tonight? something strange perhaps? By the way..."

Edwin took his medallion from his neck and looked it with a glance, then he spoke to himself looking from the fire to the medallion and then at Ghyreian."Should I?" He whispered and then he shaked his head.

"It`s too risky..." Edwin coughed "Anyway..."He continued like, that had never happened "You are a black robe and your god will take care of you, if this world is covered in darkness and I will imprisoned or killed" Edwin said mysteriously looking at the fire and put the pipe back in his mouth.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Ghyreian eyed the medallion warily. A strange one for a Red Robe to wear. She could feel its evil spreading in waves from it. Her guard rose a few notches.

"You are a black robe and your god will take care of you, if this world is covered in darkness and I will imprisoned or killed" Edwin said mysteriously looking at the fire and put the pipe back in his mouth.

Ghyreian made a disdainful nose. "My god will take care of me," she mocked bitterly. "Takhisis is a fool. And no, I do not fear saying that of my goddess. How many times has she grasped victory but was unable to keep it? I do not fear the wrath of the goddess. It is Nuitari's protection that I bear." She paused musingly. "I intend to find out more of this Verminaard. If it is true that the ancient gods have returned, Krynn must prepare for war. At daybreak I will leave. I do not expect you to accompany me." In fact I intend for you not to, she added to herself silently.

Suddenly there were shouts outside the cave and boots pounding in the wet soil. They had been discovered. "Douse the fire," Ghyreian hissed, moving to peer out the branches. She gasped in relief. The figures outside were not the dark, shadowy forms of the lizardmen. They were humans. The wind blew back one's cloak, and she started. They wore silver armor, armor of the Knights of Solamnia. Yet what were these knights doing so far in the south?

_________________

Edwin dosed the fire smiling and was quiet, then he looked at the fire with fear and cursed, but to their luck the fire didn`t give them up to the knights and he looked at the wound of Ghyreian. She couldn`t defend herself, if they knights found them and they would be killed surely in their places. He sighed and looked up at the red moon.

Edwin looked up with a sad smile"please forgive me dear LUnitari, if I defy your will, but this has to be done..." Edwin then turned at the elf approaching her.

"Trust me now Ghyreian and you will be up soon enough..."

He kneeled next to her and ripped her wrapping away without asking her, then he quickly took his amulet and placed it against the wound he concentrated in the light of lunitari, that just flooded into the cave and whispered the words out while sweating. He know, that if she interrupted him there would be terrible concecuonses and no body wanted that. He medallion glowed and released it`s power, the souls and their lives were now turned into necromantiv heling energy. Edwin sighed taking steps back from the elf and collapse to sit looking at the unwounded hand of Ghryeian. Edwin spitted blood out of his mouth and laied down waiting no words or no thanks, but inside he was datisfied at what he had done.

(OOC:if that latest spell thing bothers you then rp like it never happened...but it is only a limited spell, so it will heal your chars hand for some days at least and so on if it bothers you of course)

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

**a few notes: after you get back from Europe, keyo, remember that you have ME to thank for introducing you to Dragonlance in the first place. YOU didn't want to read it but I made you.

also, Ghyreian is pronounced GUY ree an

Ghyreian whipped around as she heard a sound behind her. She glimpsed a flash of red and the gleam of Edwin's medallion. She reached immediately with her good hand for her spells, and was about to recite the killer spell that would blast the treachorous Red Robe into the wall and impale his body upon the stone....

She felt the power of her magic receding. She groped frantically for the thin strands she knew were there, but they eluded her grasp like fine silk threads. Slowly she felt her consciousness ebbing. She made a last frantic lunge, shoving the Red Robe back and knocking the wind out of him.

But the spell could not be undone. She sank, deeper, deeper, into everlasting darkness....



Derrin walked at the front of his group of half a dozen knights. Fool's errand, he had called the mission when his commander had presented it to him. Now he knew better.

Derrin and his troop were marching to Haven to find out more about the Seeker gods and their religion. If the Seekers' beliefs opposed those of Kiri-Jollith (spelling?) and Paladine, he was to report directly back to his commander to elliminate them.

As it was, the messages that had been coming regularly from his superior had stopped. He had sent his own messenger to ask what was wrong but had received no answer. This combined with the appearance of the mysterious lizards called draconians and the disappearance of the constellations thoroughly unnerved his men. He believed that something was brewing in Solamnia, something that tore apart their contact.

Derrin ached to return north and help fight this new evil. But he had his orders. And he could not, on his honor and the Measure, retreat. He would continue to Haven. After his mission was complete, he would lead his men north.

The rain fell heavily, splattering on the knights' silver armor. Spirits were low. The men constantly complained that they were missing out on important battles. Derrin would have punished them, had he not been feeling the same way himself.

Was was that? A rustle in the underbrush? "There's someone watching us," Derrin murmured to his second-in-command. He jerked his head at the cave.

The knights crept stealthily towards it, jerking aside the low hanging branches over the cave's entrance. They stopped in surprise. "I think you better come look at this, Commander," one said.

Derrin swore under his breath. What could it possibly be this time? He peered inside the cave, only to sport the exact same reaction. Inside was a thin, dark-haired Red Robed mage, either unconscious or too weak to move. Blood trickled from his mouth. Beside the Red Robe was another mage, this time Black Robed. She lay, pale as a corpse and definitely unconscious, on the cold floor. Her hood was drawn back to reveal an elaborate design of silver braids and - Derrin sucked in his breath - pointed ears. A Red Robed mage in the company of a dark elf.

Derrin took a breath, calmed himself. If anything, the Red Robe needed treatment. He didn't know about the Black Robe, but he couldn't leave her here to die. Evil or not, she was a lady in need. Swiftly regaining his composure, he commanded, "Take them captive. Do not harm them. And make sure they don't try any spells."

_________________

Edwin layed on the ground too weak to move his legs, arms or even fingers neither toes. Paralyzed by the weakness he stared at the roof alltough the knight approached him, someone chechked him and other one talked, but Edwin was too tired. He was too tired to try hearing the knight, but knew that he would be in deep trouble and he would propably have his head cutted of for moving around with a black mage. He didn`t care, he didn`t want to see nor hear what would happen around him, he was too tired to think and he was too tired to spit blood out of mouth or even keep his eyes open. He closed them and rested breathing heavily, but he was quite happy because the elf would have propably died and she was in pain anyway. Edwin wanted to do one good thing in his hole wretched life, he lost his innocence almost 8 years ago and the past still had kept hauting him, but now he had some light to find in his life. The innocence of childhood was long gone and nothing had replaced, that not even his family who would propably be killed by Verminaad`s hordes one day. Edwin faded away from being awake...

He was too tired...it had been too long since he had been able to sleep peacefully...

-----

The Knights took the mages with them and took away their magical items, they based a camp in a deepening in a cliff and their fire was hidden well and they had their thin meal. The mages were placed in the far corner, the knights kept guard for the mages and for Draconians. Edwin slowly woke up and whispered with his lungs dry to the guard.

"May I have some water?" Edwn got out and spat blood at the ground.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

"May I have some water?" Out the haze of pain and unconsciousness Ghyreian heard those words. Water. Sweet water.... Fresh, clean rainwater that washes down your throat like a caress... washes away blood and fire and....

Blood. Fire. Rain. Medallions.... With a cry she leapt up, the words of a spell on her lips, taking her captors completely by surprise. Her spell pouches came to her immediately - they had been enchanted to return to their mistress when needed.

Then she remembered. Traitor! She aimed her spell at the Red Robe. Edwin, though weary to the bone, acted out of sheer panic. With a strength borne of adrenaline and desperation, he rolled out of the way. The blast hit mere centimeters from his face, singeing his skin but otherwise doing no great harm. A chunk of the cliff face broke off and toppled to the ground hundreds of feet below.

Moments later the knights had her surrounded. One jerked back her head and pressed a blade to her throat.

She glared at him, grimly defiant. "Don't touch me," she said quietly. The knight hesitated before his sword fell with a clatter and, cursing, he wrung his burnt hand. She managed an exultant smile. Once again, her strength was waning. The first spell she had cast had taxed her greatly.

The knights gagged her, bound her, and shoved her back beside Edwin. Evening descended. A night watch was set. The knights posted someone to guard the mages, then settled spread their bedrolls and settled down to sleep.

_________________

Edwin leaned on the rocky wall and looked at the stars with his eyes looking empty, the red moon rose up to the sky threatening and somewhat sad. Edwin sat still without caring about the guards close to him, he was allowed to not be gagged, but one spell and he would be gagged too. Edwin looked at the knight on guard, who was a young boy and appearred to belong to the brotherhood of the crown.(the lowest if I`m correct) He looked at the mages in hesitation and scared, the boy had been scared the hell out with stories of evil mages and spellcasters. Edwin smiled and looked at the boy who tried to stay calm looking at the sky, but from time to time at the mages.

Edwin coughed " So...how`s the knighthood working out for you boy?"

The boy almost jumped out of his armor hearing Edwin dry voice and Edwin laughed an empty laugh, but suddenly had to spit blood and it gloomed in the light of the red moon. Edwin looked at it for a while and whispered something to himself, the looked at the moon.

The knight, began touching his mustache or the beginning of it nervously " That`s none of your business you mage filth.. "

Edwin smiled " Filth eh? Is that what we are? You must have heard too much pond fire stories about us eh? And this is your first mission and you can`t betray your family`s trust?" Edwin smiled " Beatiful isn`t it?" Edwin changed the subject and looked at the red moon. "That`s my gods moon up there...Do you believe in them boy?"

The Knight got furious and nervous, but looked at Edwin.

"I don`t know and it`s none of your business you and I don`t care about your god or her moon."

Edwin muttered and falled asleep soon " Oh really? You will care when the true gods show themselves... " Edwin`s eyes narrowed.

-----

The morning came and the Knights woke up without being disturbed, they prepared to leave and their leaders disgussed what to do with the mages...

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

"Kill them." Derrin's second-in-command said brusquely. "We certainly can't take them to Haven."

One of the commanders coughed. "That's a bit harsh..."

Derrin silenced both of them with a hand. "They have done nothing wrong. The Black Robe, of course, must be burned at the stake for witchcraft. Release the Red Robe."

The knights gaped. "Burn her? All of Takhisis and Nuitari doom us!"

"You don't believe in that foolery do you?"

Derrin flared. "Silence!" They immediately fell quiet. "We don't have all day. We must reach Haven by nightfall. I will have my orders carried out." He looked back to where the mages had been sitting. He blinked, gasped in consternation. They had vanished.



Ghyreian eyed the young guard. He was a nervous one. Touchy, too. She released the thong that held her silver dagger in place. One stab in the back. All it would take.



Derrin returned to the spot. The mages were gone. The young guard he had posted lay unmoving on the grass, blood pooling by his still figure. The knights murmured their shock and dismay. Derrin regarded the corpse gravely. He could not spare men to chase after the murduress. His men were dwindling already. With a sigh, he ordered the body to be burned and a funeral prepared.

_________________

The fled trough the forest on their horses, that the knights had taken with them, but they were in need of food and water. They arrived at a river, Edwin jumped down and let his horse drink after he had carefully escorted it to the side of the river. Edwin himself washed his face and hands reliefed for the water, then he sat down leaning on a tree and looked at his amulet. The amulet had a scar on it, but it was still useable alltough it had lost it souls and power. Edwin observed Ghyreian and coughed.

"You thought, that I tried to kill you there in that cave? You got scared, that I would suck your soul in my amulet and you would have to drift in a green fog for the rest of eternity unless someone released you?" Edwin said and then quieted down.

Edwin prepared for any vengeance actions and was ready to take his dagger from his sleave.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Ghyreian regarded him disdainfully. "I owe you no debts, human. I didn't even ask you to come with me. You best explain yourself and quickly, or you may find my dagger sticking out of your back as well."

_________________

Edwin laughed at the elf openly and loud.

"Ghyreian are you a fool or what?" Edwin made fun of the elf suddenly. "I don`t have to explain myself to anyone, but of course I will tell you about the spell... "´Edwin added the last words cunningly "It was a spell, which I and few other one`s call a soulbandage, it`s quite simple actually and doesn`t actually heal your hand, but kinda fills it and in time a day it will wear off actually slightly morphing the body so, that place in your hand is a day older than the others in away, but still it change the actual time itself."

Edwin went trough his pockets and takes a dryed fruit beginning to eat it.

"So..are you going to continue to palanthas now?"

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!