Ghyreian, the spell placed upon her broken, staggered to her feet.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the others doing the same. One last spell to avenge herself. One last spell, then she could sink back down and let darkness claim her.

The warriors lunged for Verminaard.

The mages prepared their spells.

Verminaard's hands closed over his helm, readying to rip it off his head.

At that moment the Ghyreian, Edwin, and Raistlin released their magic.

Verminaard was flung backward as the ancient blade of Kith-Kanan pierced his body. He gave a bloodcurdling scream, then fell limp.

Above them, Metafleur saw her chance. She would avenge her children. With a shriek of rage, she struck Pyros against the mountain like a spear hurled by the gods. Both dragons slammed into the mountain. The mountain itself shuddered at the impact.

The Dragon Highlord Verminaard was defeated.

_________________

Soon the families regrouped as the dragon lords armies began marching bak to Pax Tharkas, the human`s fled to the mountains along with the unusual companions. So did Edwin and Ghyreian because they would have never made it to the valley or anywhere. Flint led the people to a nice valley where they could hide for months without the Fragon armies finding them not to forget that the gully dwarwes dealyed the armies at Pax Tharkas that had given the people time to disapper.

_________________

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 and Edwin were at the wedding feast. Most people gave Ghyreian a fairly wide berth after one look at the color of her robes, but she didn't mind that. In fact, she took a broad pleasure at their discomfort. It wasn't long before they received a message from Par-Salian.

----------------------

Ghyreian stood at the courtyard of Wayreth Tower. She leaned against Nightshadow's flank - the Qualinesti had given her horse back as a "gift" - and looked up at the huge tower of black obsidian. She looked back down at Edwin who stood beside her.

"Where will you be going?" she asked him.

_________________

Edwn really enjoyed himself at the wedding feast because it was a long time he had been in a wedding or a feast, non the less he knew that he would depart ways with the group and Ghyreian soon.

--------

Edwin stood on the courtyard of the Wayreth tower looking at it and looked at Ghyreian as she spoke.

"Where will you be going?" she asked him.

Edwin smiled and took a step forwards.

"I`m going to...." Edwin swalloed hard "To get rid of something and deserve my punishment that I thought I could run for my life, but Pax Tharkas made me understand that what I leave behind I will find someday before me....then... I`ll go where the road leads me...."

Edwin took his medallion in his hand and walked into the tower, he found Ladonna from a room with Par Salian, Edwin walked to her without a word he put the Medallion to her hand. Soon enough Edwin lost his left hand from the wrist, he cryed in pain and happiness that he had the courage to meet his punishment at long last. an hour he returned to the courtyard without knowing if Ghyreian was there and left the tower, to where he did not know.

_________________

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!

hmm is that the end? can we go ahead and start another one?

_________________

yes we will start the winter night dragons.... ElwynSilverleaf.... your char can meet our chars when we have met

_________________

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!

got it

_________________

**anyway I'll go ahead and start. your char Fox can "bump" into us in Palanthas. it's going to be VERY interesting with two kenders around... once Tas joins us sometime later....

The dark elf stumbled through the underbrush. The night was cold, and she was shivering uncontrollably. One factor was the wintry temperature. The other was her fast arising fever. She stopped to lean against a tree, clutching at her wounds and breathing hard. Curse it, she couldn't stop now! She had already been going on for a day and a night. She couldn't let her loss of blood let it be all in vain. By sunrise she would be at the gates of the lordcity Palanthas. If I don't die on the way getting there, she amended with rueful sarcasm.

A day and a night. A day and a night after which she and her horse had been ambushed by a band of draconian warriors. Her horse was dead, and she had barely escaped with her life. A day and a night in which she had stumbled alone through pain-hazed agony to reach her destination. It was nobody's fault but her own. Her spells had been prepared. She would have escaped injury had she noticed the ambush two seconds before it happened! By the Dark Queen, if she had been just a little more careful...!

She felt her feet giving out beneath her. This was it. Without herbs and treatment she wouldn't last the night.

That was when she saw the smoke drifting out from the treetops and a red-lined figure showing up in her elvensight. The firelight came from the direction of the road, which she made a point since the ambush to stay off of. Further examination showed the traveler to be a mage, a Red Robe. He was hooded and cloaked, hunched over a fire.

A fleeting thought passed her mind that this man was somehow familiar... But one look at the man's hands brushed the thought away. The mage's left hand had been severed from his wrist.

Ghyreian's lip would have curled into a sneer if her mind had not been preoccupied with her own pain. She would sooner die than depend on a Red Robe for help - despite that the Red Robe would soon be dead in a matter of minutes. Common sense ruled out the thought. Was her own wretched pride more valuable than her life?

Fighting a wave of dizziness and nausea - though nothing came out of the nausea as her stomach had already been purged of all contents - she drew herself forward with all the stealth she could muster, her knife in her hand. Coming up behind the man, she crept toward his turned back, fully intending to slit her fellow mage's throat.

_________________

Edwin sat quietly by the fire trying to warm his cold limbs, he had spent the last days in miserable conditions and cold, he wasn`t really gotten used to it all tough he had travelled his hole life. He was on his way to palanthas to meet his family that now live there thanks to Par Salian, they had a nice house and worked as merhants as they had been earlier.

Edwin brushed the horse for a while with his right hand because his left hand was lost from the wrist, but at least he was able to smile when he saw his goddesses moon above glowing familiar red light. Edwin looked at his horse, which seemed to be uncalmn and threw it`s head back slightly, then Edwn realised a slightly sound as if the wind had touched the grass. Edwin pulled his dagger in his right hand and suddenly jumped up turning to face the creeper, to his he saw a black robed figure who was a black mage undoutable. he or she was badly hurt and bleeded, the blood glitered in the light of the red moon.

"You aren`t going to sneak up on me black one..."

Edwin spoke with a calm tone with some spell in his mind to make this intruder harmless.

_________________

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 saw the man turn around. Now or never. She lunged and plunged her dagger into where the mage's chest had been one millisecond before. As ill luck had it, the mage stepped out of the way at exactly the moment her dagger rushed forward.

Staggering, she lost her balance and attempted to right herself, only the lunge had proved too much for her. The last recollection she had was of falling... falling into a darkness that completely enveloped her....

_________________

Edwin saw the black mage fall and looked at her with caution thiking this to be a trick and quickly jumped towards putting his dagger on the attackers throat. The black one had passed out and... Edwin fell completely silent and drew the hood out of her face. Edwin almost fell on the ground from amazement. He looked at the wound grinning and he knew that she needed help, he took out his medical supplies and bandaged the wound the best he could.

Then he placed her on his horse, destroyed the fire and galloped away with the elf on his horse uncounsious. He rode to Palanthas not knowing id he would make it, but still would try and rode faster, he reached the gates of Palanthas and rode in after a conversation with the guard. A little magic persuaded the guard to let them pass, then he went to his family`s house who were slightly stunned by the rush in of Edwin. Edwin called a proper healer that Palanthas had and she was taken care of well, Edwin sat every moment watching her and burned his pipe.

Edwin waited for her to wake up and got news that she would be all right soon enough, but needed rest for such a wound and shouldn`t exhaust herself. The ordinary talks of the healers, Edwin smiled and waited for her to wake up with his hood on and burning his pipe.

_________________

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 regained herself to find an ominous silence. Out of instinct she kept her eyes tightly closed, feigning to be unconscious. There was something soft pressed against her side. Her first impression was that she should be dead. How? Why? She felt faintly clammy, as she she were recovering from the aftereffects of a fever....

Her memory jolted back like a lightning bolt. She leapt to sitting position, ignoring the pain as her wounds threatened to open again, her hand shooting for her dagger - only to find that it wasn't there. She turned in fury to her enemy - only to find that he wasn't where he was supposed to be. Speaking of which, she wasn't where she was supposed to be either.

Where was she?

She was on a bed of clean white quilts. A bowl of lavender sat on her bedside table. The sweet fragrance as it entered her nostrils calmed her slightly, though not enough to make her lower her guard. Sunlight filtered in through the open window. The sound of the bustling Palanthas marketplace reached her ears with clarity.

And sitting calmly on a chair, smoking his pipe, sat a Red Robe. Her enemy. His hood was drawn so that it obscured his features, but she nevertheless had the distinct impression that he was smiling. Again, there was the fleeting thought that he was vaguely familiar, that she knew him. Perhaps it was his demeanor, or the way he sat there smoking his pipe. Smoking his pipe.... He had had a pipe....

But then there was the matter that he was one-handed. Ah, by Nuitari. At the moment she was too weary and bewildered to dive more deeply into the issue and organize her disorganized memories.

What in the name of the Abyss and every dark god she could think of was going on?

Her former victim sat quite plainly in view, making no move to attack her. In fact, he seemed quite amused by her consternation.

Thus she asked the first question that popped in her mind. "Who in the Abyss are you?"

_________________

Edwin smiled as she got up and continued burning his pipe, she popped out the obvious question.

"Who in the Abyss are you?"

Edwin smiled and got up, he brought her a small dis of foof and placed it on a small table next to her.

"Eat if you can... and I will answer your questions later, but now you need to rest and recover your strength...you were almost dead when I got here...miss Ghyreian..."

Edwin left the room because he was tired and went to sleep knowing that she couldn`t move an inch from that bed and wanted to play mysterious for a while because the opportunity was offered.

_________________

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 gave the food on the table one disparaging glance. For all she knew it was enchanted, nevermind that if her supposed captor had wanted to kill her he would have done so by now. Perhaps he wanted her alive.

She then tried getting up but failed immensely before having to sink back down. She toyed with the consideration of a teleport spell, but discarded the notion. A spell such as that would require her full strength and attention, neither of which she could spare at the moment.

What was most unsettling was that the Red Robe had not seemed to fear for his own safety. Here she was, all cozy in a bed when she should be in a dungeon or worse.

She searched the room for a weapon, and her gaze alighted on the bowl of lavender. She scowled. Inadequate, but she would have to make the best of it. She cracked a jagged piece off the bowl and tested it on her finger. The glass drew blood. Satisfied for now, she sank back down to feign sleep and await her captor's return.

_________________

After some hours of resting Edwin returned to her and opened to door quietly, He walked to the chair and looked at her with his pipe in hand and smiled at her.

"How are we doing here miss Nightsong?"

Edwin asked and sat down burning his pipe.

"So.. might I ask how did you get there? wounded, trying to stab me in the back and dying to your own stupidity?"

Edwin smiled at her with an intrested glance in his eyes.

_________________

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!

Without warning she leapt up. She hadn't gotten far when she fell to the ground, but she managed to drag the Red Robe down with her. Her makeshift dagger flashed in her hand. She put it to the man's exposed throat.

She tried drawing back her opponent's hood with her free hand, but feared that if she did she might lose her balance and land on her face. As it was, it was taking all of her strength to remain poised above him.

"Tell me what I need to know," she threatened, and inched her dagger against the man's flesh.

_________________