Merrin felt the weight descend again when cold hands grasped her arms to pull her away, and almost beseechingly she reached out to cling to him - but it was too late. The moment was gone.

Still remembering the feel of his arms about her gave her some small measure of comfort as again she was forced to behold their bleak surroundings. I'm here, she could still hear him saying, in a voice she could never remember before, and Merrin teetered on the edge of a thought - was her perception that he could not love her wrong? Don't leave me! she longed to say, longed to tell him she had never felt as safe as she did in his embrace...

But it was thrust out of her mind as unfriendly hands pushed her forward, through the portal, and Merrin scanned the sudden change of surroundings. She stiffened.

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(are Semri and Garthag being led to the same place as Merrin and Kendreth?)

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Made by Lembas

[no]

Kendath warily moved off to the side, keeping his eyes darting around the open-air chamber but frequently falling upon the massive prism dominating all attention. His hand instinctively went for his falchion but found the sheath empty. He cursed.

The Shadowers who'd escorted them in phlegmatically scattered to form a circle around the ivory depression in the floor. The half dozen necromancers who'd already been present likewise surrounded the destitute Celestial Eye.

"Greetings, Merrin Dragonrider," the Shadower Lord Kvanoes taunted, stepping forward. "You have been brought here to witness the humiliation and downfall of the gods."

---------

The steep mountain slopes were both perilous and vertiginous, but Captain Eur'ielan Sunblade and his band of ten traversed the terrain with nimble ease. Playing point position for his party, Sunblade scaled the next bluff and shaded his eyes against the sun glistening on the fresh layer of snow. His keen elven eyes narrowed.

To his east sloped a ridge-like arete. To his west was a glimmer of gold that could only be the high temple. His brow furrowed. Common legend dictated that a beam of sunlight pierced the temple's dome, funneling divine energy to the prism beneath. Instead, a shadow seemed to fall upon that very peak...

He leaped onto the arete to claim a better vantage. As he did, he noticed that the ridge actually sloped downwards, ending in small cave carved into the mountain face. He normally would have dismissed this curiousity as a natural montane feature, if not for the wafts of insalubrious cold emanating from the aperture, permeating his marrow even as he stood a full twenty feet away.

His hand instinctively closed around the jeweled hilt of his sabre. He signaled his men. Quarry found.

The elven mages came forth to surround the tunnel opening and divine for any wards the Shadowers had placed to defend against this very intrusion. At length they withdrew and shook their heads. "Someone is inside," the mage explained. "But it is not a Shadower."

Sunblade nocked an arrow to his bow and, pressing himself against the wall, moved into the tunnel. Three more rangers filed in after him. Their booted steps padded silently on the thinly layered snow that quickly melted to stone. Presently the tunnel opened to reveal a small cavern and -

"I know you," he opined, relaxing his grip on his bow but not lowering it.

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(than what in all seven levals of hell are my group doing?)

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Made by Lembas

"You know nothing of what you speak," was Merrin's vehement reply. One would have thought she was unafraid but for her fists clenched at her sides, so tight her nails dug into her palms. "The gods cannot be destroyed by the petty plots of some dabbling mage."

Still she found her gaze drawn to the prism a moment before forcing it back to meet the chilling gaze of the Shadower Lord. For a moment she groped for words, but none came and she was forced to drop her eyes, swallowing in sudden trepidation.

_________________

Adanil froze as the Shadowers briefly re-entered the room, but when they led Merrin and Kendath through a portal, he breathed easier again. He resumed his attempt at slipping a hand out of his bonds, wincing occasionally--the bonds were tight, and he kept cutting off the circulation in his hands.

He almost had one hand free when he heard a whisper of movement in the corridor. He stiffened, trying to look like he hadn't been straining his arms trying to escape, and watched. What emerged was not what he was expecting. He felt as though his eyes were about to drop out of his head. The Elves were working with the Shadowers? No, wait--the way they were armed, and glancing around suspiciously--they must be here to 'bother' the Shadowers.

"Yes, you do know me," Adanil said, squirming a little under the not-entirely-warm look in the Elf's eyes. He was about to be rescued by the those who had been the last ones to capture him before.

He twisted slightly to show his hands. "Could you get me loose?" he asked uncertainly.

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The other rangers filed in behind him, fanning out to secure the cavern. Captain Sunblade lowered his bow slightly, though he didn't budge an inch. His gaze roamed over to the weapons on the ground and the ghostly tendrils dancing about them. The human couldn't own all three. But where were the others?

At length he replaced his bow and arrow and strode forward to inspect the greenish coils around Adanil's wrists and ankles. Frowning, he warily reached out for the wrists.

And the coil lashed out with the fangs that it wasn't supposed to have.

Lightning reflexes alone saved Eur'ielan Sunblade from the vindictive poison of the newly morphed viper. He beat a hasty retreat even as the viper morphed back into an innocuous strand of rope. Straightening with as much composure as he could muster, he nodded towards one of the his mages. The coils glowed scarlet for a split second before they crumbled to charred ashes. Another mage set to work freeing the weapons.

"Take them all," Sunblade instructed tersely, as he had a vivid idea of where the Shadowers had departed to, dragonriders in tow. "The other humans will need their weapons." He whipped back around to level a piercing green glare on the human. "Coming?" Without waiting for a response, he strode from the cavern, his men methodically falling into position behind him.

----------

"Then perhaps I shall have to prove you wrong," was the Shadower Lord's only response. He leveled a finger at Merrin and Kendath, and columns of darkness shot forth, penning them both against the wall. Precautions taken, he raised his arms in spellchant.

Darkness crept in among them like a plague, mantling the temple in velvety night. Thunder incarnate in the necromancers' voices as they raised a chilling mantra swept through the circular chamber. Kendath felt his eyes inexorably riveted upon a single object in the center of it all.

The Celestial Eye, the hallowed prism of the gods, flamed crimson as though from some unholy flame. Hellfire lanced from each facet, shattering it into infinitesimal pieces that seemed to devour the darkness. Yet magic held the broken shards intact as the Shadowers' uncanny mantra elevated towards a cataclysmic climax.

"Behold!" Kvanoes intoned, his robes whipping about him from some howling netherplane wind. "The humiliation of the gods!" Surges of egregious power undulated outward with every thunderous step as he advanced slowly upon the shattered prism. Deliberately, he reached forward and seized a single shard, harsh syllables of magic rasping from his throat. The shard broke loose to rest lifeless in his palm.

Crying out in triumph, he leveled the full gravity of his glare upon Merrin. "And now," he spoke in a sibilant hiss, his voice alone carrying over the tempest, "you die."

Kendath barely registered his own scream of denial, lost in the din of howling wind and thunderous spellcasters. He struggled futilely against the restraints still penning him to the wall. His eyes reflected his own horror - the Shadower Lord at the height of his unholy power, advancing upon the one person in the world he cared about most.

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Merrin shrank back, feeling her pinioned limbs strain to escape their bonds. His eyes pierced through her, as if to shrivel her very soul, and an agonized cry tore from her lips as he advanced. It sounded very much like a name.

The Shadower Lord drew nearer and again Merrin cried out in pain and fear. "Kendath!" The darkness descended stiflingly, shutting out everything but the terrible form of Kvanoes poised to strike her down. A single desperate shaft of sunlight pierced the fog with futile hope.

And something seemed to snap within her, or within the divine power she embodied. A blinding explosion of white light burst outward from her slender form. Bathed in ethereal power, for a split second Merrin rose off the floor as lightning crackled about her.

Blazing white surrounded her and it was all Merrin saw for an instant before all faded to grey - and then blackness, and nothing.

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Adanil stared after the Elf, the pallor of his face having gone to a sickly grey. His bonds had been alive. He had no doubt that should he have managed to free his hand, they would have killed him. Putting out a hand to brace himself against the wall, he climbed to his feet, waiting a long moment until he was sure his legs would support him. He could practically hear his heart pounding in his chest.

Crossing the room on shaky legs, he accepted his scimitar that one of the elves held out to him, but held it drawn in his hand instead of sheathing it. He certainly didn't want to face one of the Shadowers without a drawn blade, even though he had doubts of what he could do with it against them.

He followed Sunblade back down the passageway, extremely conscious of the elves at his back. An odd sound behind him caused him to turn around. In the center of the room, the portal was opening again. The elves had noticed it too, and moved with startling speed--they were already surrounding the portal. Rushing back, himself, Adanil lashed out at the dark-robed figure that emerged from the mirky hole. Several elvish arrows hit it at the same time, and the Shadower crumpled, the piercing cry that emanated from him filling the cavern. Ignoring it, Adanil leapt through, hoping the elves were right behind him.

The sight that greeted him was not what he expected. In the center of a circular marble dais, the Shadowers were in a rough circle around a large crystal, which for a moment captivated Adanil's sight. Only for a moment, though. Of more pressing concern was the fact that the Shadower's attention seemed riveted on him and the Elves. One of them--from his posture, he seemed to be the same one who captured them in the first place--was spinning away from Merrin and Kendath. Merrin was lying facedown on the ground; whether she was unconscious or dead, Adanil didn't know. Kendath, however, seemed to be all fury--his expression was one of pure rage.

All of that flashed through Adanil's mind in an instant, and then he was rushing forward, striking out at the Shadowers. It did not matter which one, to him, because he did not know which was responsible for the destruction of his village. Maybe all of them were. They were all going to die, though.

While the choice didn't matter to him, it looked as though it mattered very much to Kendath. Adanil chose their Capturer to lash out at, slashing down with his scimitar in the form known as The Boulder Falls. Most swordmasters taught their craft through the use of forms, but the names did change from place to place, person to person. What they were called, though, made no difference in a battle. Adanil attacked, barely noticing as the Shadower dropped the shard of crystal he was holding. What worried him more was the fact that the Shadower dropped the crystal shard to stretch his hands towards Adanil, and begin incanting. If the farmer's luck held, the Shadower wouldn't have a protective spell of some sort that would keep Adanil's sword from taking off his hands, like he was about to do.

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The blinding flash of divine power lashed out, taking the Shadower Lord off his guard. He staggered back in more rage than pain, losing his concentration. The crimson flames licking the Celestial Eye abated if only for a bit. The other necromancers snapped from their fervent trance, and the tempest subsided. And then a swordsman was upon him, working a scimitar with all the fury of a windstorm. Such was the sheer ferocity of the assault that Kvanoes felt himself hastily backpedaling. An elf? No, not even that! A human! He looked into the man's eyes and saw his own death etched in stone. Another scimitar strike took off his left hand at the wrist.

But the archmage had lived far too long, had ascended far too high, to let any melee fighter defeat him. Pride in tatters, he mustered the last vestiges of his dignity and barked out a spell. He vanished in a swirl of black robes to reappear on the temple's far side, where he furiously began spellcasting to turn the tide.

What a tide it was, for the elven warriors were skilled, and boosted from the back ranks by the powerful elven mages, they were lethal. The more numerous Shadowers should have been prevailing, but the asset of surprise was on their adversary's side. Any magic-user was always most vulnerable when caught in the throes of a spell.

The Shadower Lord's lapse in concentration had freed both dragonriders' restraints, though each had a markedly contrasting effect. No longer pinned to the wall, Merrin slumped face-down to the marble floor. Kendath burst from his bounds with a primal cry of outrage, dagger hand pumping as he fought through the din towards Merrin's inert form.

"To me, Death's Disciples!" Kvanoes bellowed, his one functioning hand weaving an intricate pattern in the air before him. A portal, blood red in hue, shimmered into being. The surviving Shadowers rapidly retreated, vanishing into the swirling doorway. A shield of darkness protecting him, Kvanoes was the last to leave. He curled his fingers at the shard on the ground where he'd dropped it, which compliantly flew into his waiting grasp. With one last glance over his shoulder that could freeze a hot spring, he stepped through the portal.

No longer held intact by unholy magic, the Celestial Eye trembled. It became a cynosure, a vortex, for the magical waves that sucked inward into the rift created in the absence of the missing shard. The prism began to expand as though bloated.

For a great cataclysm shook the land, destroying all in its vindictive path...

Great torrents of magic were sweeping towards the prism now. A tremor ripped through not only the temple but the entire mountain peak.

None survived.

"Through the portal! It is our only chance!" Commander Eur'ielan Sunblade was shouting, gesturing furiously. The elven ranger bled freely from a dozen wounds.

Bracing one hand under her knees and another under her arms, Kendath scooped Merrin up. Pain erupted in his leg as soon as he took the first step, courtesy of a broken ankle he just then noticed. "Adanil!" he called out as soon as he spotted the young man. "Are you all right?"

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The last vestiges of divine rage had exhausted themselves within Merrin. Or rather, the young dragonrider's strength was so sapped by the power coursing through her that her frame, already slender, was light and limp in Kendath's arms. The gods knew their business - a burst of power only marginally larger could have killed their none-too-hale emissary.

The air coursed with magic, dark and light. Had Merrin been conscious she would have cried out in horror at the deadly wave only beginning to sweep the battlefield below. But she was not, and even dreaming she was spared the sight.

Even the temple shook, columns trembling under this magical assault.

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Adanil felt a brief surge of surprise when his scimitar cut through the Shadower's wrist--the blood that sprayed out briefly was cold, like water in an icy mountain spring. His surprise, however, vanished in the face of the gargantuan rage that he quivered with.

The Shadower vanished in a cloud of wispy smoke, and Adanil turned, searching for his target--there. On the other side of the ring, the now-familiar Black Robe stood, calling out to the others. A crimson portal appeared beside him, and the Shadowers fled. As the shard of Crystal shot past him, Adanil reached out his hand to grab it. If the Shadowers wanted it, then keeping it from them would disrupt their plans.

He was a half-second too slow, though, and missed it. The Black Robe disappeared into the portal, and something happened. Adanil didn't know what happened, only that something, obvious even to him with his farmer's background, was not right. The place they were in was shaking, the ground quaking as though in anger.

Hearing Sunblade's cry, Adanil was about to head towards the portal when he heard Kendath. He spun on his heel, knowing that they had to get out of there fast--whatever was making the ground quake with anger, it wasn't good to be by.

Kendath was limping towards the portal, carrying Merrin in his arms. Adanil sprinted towards them, calling for someone--even an elf--to help him. He had, in the haze of combat, forgotten about his unease with them. At any rate, he certainly couldn't carry both Kendath and Merrin, and neither was going anywhere at that pace. Taking Merrin from Kendath's arms, Adanil ran to the portal, noticing in the back of his mind that Sunblade was pacing him with Kendath over his shoulder. The Dragonrider looked almost as angry as old Dayl had when Nelly had shoved him in the lake just after the Thaw.

The other Elves were already going through the portal--Sunblade was the only one left on this side. The Elf was outpacing him, now--he was just about at the portal. He and Kendath seemed to go right through the blood-red portal, as though if Adanil were to go behind it, they would be there, but he knew that they had gone to wherever it opened up. Adanil himself was at the portal now. He leapt, and let the crimson swirls swallow him.

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Garthag nodded quietly, he prepared to blast anything that came in his way with great anxiety in his heart. He peeked around the corner quietly, the cavern that opened up was empty. It couldn`t be! Kalma was supposed to have been `chained` there and his bretheren`s equipment should have been there too. Yet he saw nothing indicating that they would have been there in a while, he gazed around quietly before slipping into the cavern.

Funny that he did not sense it to be a trap nor were there any magical traps laying around as he checked, it was eeriely quiet and Garthag grinned his teeth.

"Kalma was supposed to be here... this can`t be... history wasn`t supposed to change..."

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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!

"Unless Kalma changed it." said Semri specutavly. "He controled you all those years, how can you be sure he didn't change his own past?"

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Made by Lembas

"And have you ever been keeping track of things? He never got to use the crystal!"

Garthag snapped at Semri in frustration.

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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!

"Yes but how much do we know of his powers? Are the crystals the only power that can be used for time travel? What about the other crystal you mentioned...how do we know he hasn't got hold of that somehow and changed his past? How for that matter did Merrin and Kendreth get here? They must have used a crystal or something...why shouldn't Kalma be with them?" she parried quickly, her eyes slits at his apparent incompetance.

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Made by Lembas