Edwin took a mouth full of water from the river and washed his face, but had to catch a hold for support as Ghyreian revealed her mad idea. Edwin looked at Ghyreian quietly with a disbelief written all over his face. One thought managed to run trough his mind. Who the hell have you become Ghyreian Nightsong?, but Edwin corrected his face as he stood up and couldn`t help smirking at her idea. It was indeed mad, dangerous, but undeniably had a chance and a seed of truth in it, wonderful, just like the rest of their plans thus far.

"Now why does that sound like something that I would have come up with?"

Edwin inquired teasingly with his eyebrow raised, all tough there were no guarantee`s that the knights wouldn`t kill them right where they stood, no guarantee that they would actually give food to their mage prisoners or for a fact keep them around too long for them to somehow meet this Wylliam Hammerhand. Ghyreian was getting suicidal as Edwin, a good or a bad sign? One could only guess.

_________________

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 did glean some satisfaction from Edwin's expression, but it was short-lived. Not entirely happy about the next comment, she narrowed her eyes. Perhaps Edwin was rubbing off on her. Ah, curse that. And him.

-----

Four campfires, shadowed by dense underbrush, flickered in the darkness. Around the campfires one could audibly discern quiet banter and the tell-tale rattling of armor. An army of dwarves would make less noise. At least an army of dwarves wore brown instead of silver.

Ghyreian crouched behind a bush. This particular group of Solamnics were just finishing their supper. Their squires were beginning to help them remove their armor. She peered around the bush, past the campfire, to where their horses were tethered a little ways off from camp. She retreated back to Edwin's hiding spot.

"I'll distract them. You take their horses," she hissed. "With any luck we can do this without getting captured."

A roundabout route took Ghyreian the closest she could manage without being seen. She flattened herself against a tree trunk. The campfire cast moving shadows on the trees opposite her. Watching the shadows, she waited for the opportunity.

"... will be mighty displeased."

"Bah, he's the Kingpriest! Chosen of Paladine! Those elven nobles can whine as much as they like, but the Kingpriest'll be bringing a new era to Ansalon whether they like it or not."

"But that mage lurking in his court... what was his name?" A pause, followed by a snapping of fingers. "Fistandantilus."

"Speak of mages and the devil! Those two that escaped today..."

Ghyreian shifted slightly. A twig snapped beneath her boot. She froze.

"Quiet! What was that?"

On the tree opposite, a single shadow loomed larger. One of the knights was drawing near. Sucking in her breath, she dropped a hand to her dagger.

Suddenly she leaped out from her cover, unleasing a vicious lightning bolt. The electricity grazed the knight's cheek, momentarily blinding him. One arm wrapped around the knight's neck. The other pressed a dagger to his jugular, right above his breastplate. Caught off balance, the Solamnic almost sent both of them toppling to the ground. Ghyreian found her balance at the last second and turned to face the other knights.

_________________

Edwin made it quickly, but quietly to the horses and found the knights saddle bags more than well packed. They seemed to have everything they needed for patrol or a mage hunt, at least there wouldn`t be a trouble of food, if they would manage to pull this one off. Edwin grabbed two of the horses, but was suddenly met by one of the knights. Edwin with a quick wrist move took his dagger at hand and the knight seemed amused by this move. Edwin did have a short moment and cast a small blinding light that made the knight stumble backwards, swinging his sword effortlessly.

Edwin hmhed and cut the rest of the horses free in order to send them running about freely, all for the sake of time, but it seemed that Ghyreian needed his help. By now the knight had realized what was happening and it would all come down to who would take down who first.

_________________

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!

The other knights started forward. Four others had supped around this campfire. As the alarm went around, reinforcements clanked in - twenty knights in all. Ghyreian gave ground, holding the dagger with a steady hand to her captive's throat. "One move and he dies," she warned, the coldness in her voice a blatant indication of her solemnity.

Steel hissed from scabbards. The knights muttered of the cursed elven witch. Nonetheless, they'd stopped advancing.

A swift glance over one Solamnic's shoulder told her the horses had been freed. So far, so good. She turned her attention back to the Solamnics. "I'm looking for someone. A certain Wylliam Hammerhand. Are any of you familiar with this name?"

One of the knights, a burly one who'd already stripped off his armor, stepped forward. "What business would you have with Wylliam Hammerhand?"

"That's none of your concern," Ghyreian shot back. Her captive struggled but her dagger only inched closer, drawing a thin line of blood down his neck. She glared at the knight who'd spoken up. "Do you know the imbecile or not?"

To the burly Solamnic's credit, his face remained perfectly impassive. "I am Wylliam Hammerhand. What business have you with me?"

And Ghyreian nearly toppled over in surprise.

_________________

Edwin stopped in his tracks as he heard that one of their pursuers was actually the one they had been looking for. This wasn`t good, they had lost the chance of pretending to be commoners in order to find out about this knight. The question was what next? Should they try to imprison the knight and try to get away so that they could interrogate him later on? Because it seemed clear that he wasn`t too willing to talk in to the mages unless he had to.

Edwin concentrated and decided to quickly disarm the knights, he conjured a ball of web that whirled over the knights and exploded, effectively nailing them to the ground. Edwin hmhed at Ghyreian with a shrug, the rest of the knights wouldn`t have to be free, just Wylliam since it was because of him that they were there.

"Well first of all we need these horses and the equipment along with them... secondly well... we need to have a chat"

Edwin said as he walked up to the tied up knights.

_________________

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!

The web caught Ghyreian by surprise. She released the knight and dove to the side as the spell went hurtling over her head, pinning their enemies to the ground. Something shiny flashed over her head. Eyes widening, she rolled away as the broadsword came down where she'd been lying a millisecond before. Her former captive, now liberated, was now taking full advantage of his freedom.

Ghyreian muttered a spell and melted into the shadows. Her vanishing act caught her foe off guard. The knight warily shifted into defensive stance. A lightning bolt blasted him from behind and sent him toppling. Her dagger found the nape of his neck. Stubborn to the end, the Solamnic mustered his last vestige of strength and slashed upwards. His blade tip gashed her hip. Hissing in pain, she leaped back. She took some satisfaction from his last death throes.

Ghyreian straightened and put a hand to her hip. A superficial wound, more harmful to her pride than anything else. She drew level with Edwin and eyed the helpless knights, most of which were glaring at their captors in baleful fury. If looks could kill, both mages would be dead twenty times over. "We should release Hammerhand and kill the rest," she said, then thought better of it. "On second thought, leave a few alive."

_________________

"I have no objections to that"

Edwin retorted as the dagger in his hand flashed, he cast a simple sleeping spell on Hammerhand, but wasn`t successful before Wylliam was able to spit in his face or at least at him. Edwin cut Wylliam free, then tied his hands and legs tightly with the magical web before, with great struggle, loaded Wylliam on the back of the other horse. He didn`t look towards Ghyreian or the dirty work she was doing, dead or not, either was fine with him. He didn`t like killing, but then again he had no true compassion for these knights as he could only imagine in what deeds they might have been apart of.

Edwin swung himself onto the horse on, which Wylliam already was fast asleep. Edwin tied Wylliam to the back of the saddle so that he wouldn`t fall off during the ride and gazed at Ghyreian, offering the reins of the other horse expecting her work to be done.

_________________

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 dozen or so fireballs finished off the rest, with the exception of one unfortunate survivor. Figuring to simply let the pompous hypocrites rot in the dirt, Ghyreian left them there and went over to confront the survivor - their insurance policy if Hammerhand decided not to cooperate. At the point of a dagger, the glaring knight relinquished his sword and heavy armor. She marched him over to her horse. Once he'd mounted, he was promptly knocked unconscious and tied up.

Ghyreian mounted in front of him, spending more time than she preferred yanking the reins of the spirited charger. A consultation with the map revealed the main road a few miles south of their position. Best to ride as far as possible, keeping parallel with the road but maintaining their distance. Unless the commoners were dimmer than she thought, two unconscious Solamnics slumped over their horses would arouse questions.

"We didn't get captured," Ghyreian commented lightly.

_________________

"Yet"

Edwin added pessimistically as he didn`t want to believe that this one was all over, there would be more knights, many more and they wouldn`t probably be taken so easily as these ones. Yet at least they had secured their main objective, thus far and were well on their way with horses. Edwin rallied the horse into a calm gallop out of the woods from where on they would have to continue traveling in the open or well at least away from the road, but still it was quite open terrain. Edwin gazed at Ghyreian quietly, there seemed to be no remorse about killing the knights and that was good, he had already gotten worried that he had done something to make her act unlike a black robe should. All tough Edwin wouldn`t have minded her changing her order to red, but that was never going to happen, she was too prideful and stubborn.

Edwin gazed at their prisoners and then at Ghyreian.

"What do you think we are here for? Obviously the mirror was bound to this knight and this knight is in for a nasty faith as we saw, are we here to help him, to destroy him or otherwise because it is clear that the mirror sent us here for a purpose.... unless it`s just some mindless trap made in order to fool unsuspecting people to be thrown into the past..."

Edwin pondered and shared some of his thoughts that had obviously gone trough Ghyreians head, but had not been said outloud.

_________________

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!

As they cantered out of the forest, it struck Ghyreian just how powerful she'd become - they'd both become. Edwin's web had ensnared over a dozen fully armed knights. In the business that followed, she'd conjured successive fireballs without tiring. Just two years ago, a spellcasting bout like that would have had her panting. Yes, both she and Edwin were gaining in power. Not only that, but they were learning to complement each other's moves, to work effectively as a team.

The two of them had just dispatched twenty Knights of Solamnia. Twenty. With all his talk of entwined destinies, Par-Salian would gloat if he could see them now.

Edwin's voice penetrated Ghyreian's introspection. Indeed, those troubling thoughts had all scrolled through her mind before. And to be perfectly honest, she had no idea.

"I remember something Astinus once said," she mused aloud. "Time is a river. Throwing in a few pebbles cannot disrupt its flow." She recalled the surge of memories upon touching the mirror's surface. "I believe the mirror is an emotional link to the death knight's past - a strong enough link to suck us both in. In any case, Hammerhand should still have it now. We could persuade him to hand it over."

She heard a groan from an inert form on the back of Edwin's charger. Hammerhand was stirring. "Quickly. In there." She nudged her steed towards a derelict farmhouse a small distance away.

_________________

Edwin nodded and rallied his horse into a gallop for the farmhouse, it was better, if they were not met by anyone as they had knights on their horses backs and shouting or whatever the hell they would do, if they woke up. The derelict seemed like a place that was open to all sorts of outcasts and renegades, which they supposedly were in this time. All tough hardly had the mages treatment changed to their present, but at least there was no more violence like in these old days or it was at least hidden. Edwin stopped his horse by the barn and opened the door before leading his horse in.

Wylliam didn`t seem all too happy when he next time awoke, being thrown to the ground farmhouse floor by a levitation spell by Edwin. He muttered something and cursed the mages as Edwin meanwhile found himself a chair, he had taken some food from the saddlebag of his horse to tease the knight with. Not that knights would be so weak, but Edwn thought that he might as well get comfortable for a while as there was hardly going to be a moment in the near future for that.

_________________

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!

Held in place by another spell, the gallant Wylliam Hammerhand flailed uselessly on the floor. It didn't take long for him to realize the futility. At length he held still, staring at his captors with eyes as cool and calm as a turquoise sea. "What did you do to my men?"

"Dead," came Ghyreian's curt response, "as this one soon will be if you don't cooperate." She levitated the other unconscious knight onto the hay-strewn floor. A pale shaft of moonlight from a cracked window in the rafters illuminated the glittering dagger she held poised to his throat.

Ephemeral anguish flitted across Hammerhand's face. For the most part, he displayed an impressive faculty for control. He closed his eyes and asked wearily, "What do you want of me?"

"You helped sack the Tower of Losarcum, did you not?"

"I followed orders. I played my part in eradicating evil."

"Evil," Ghyreian sneered, disdain dripping like venom from her voice. "But we'll debate philosophy later, shall we? Tell me what you know of your mirror. The one you gave your wife."

Hammerhand's face registered confusion. "Mirror? What's there to know about it?"

_________________

Edwin took a bite out of an apple as Ghyreian began the interrogation with Wylliam, he was clearly defiant to the very end, but the last question threw him confused as it was one he could not expect. Perhaps some threats towards his wife might even bend this man`s will and make him reveal what they needed to know. Edwin began tossing the apple into the air, back and forth, up and down over again as he stepped to Wylliam.

"Everything, good sir knight and that is why we are here. To learn a few things, but we are not here to hurt you or well not when we have a choice to make you co-operate. So....... was this particular mirror that you gave her some family trinket or did you just buy it for her? It is obviously of great emotional value to to her or you somehow."

Wylliams eye`s widened with even more confusion, it was clear that could not anticipate such questions to begin with and how the mages had come to possession of the information. Yet in the end he returned to normal guessing the the mages had their `heretical` ways of finding out.

"What is it that you are after mages? How can the mirror be of such great interest to you? If you dare even plan on touching my wife then I swear by Paladine your deaths won`t be fast."

He threatened with stern defiance.

_________________

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!

"We have no interest in your wife, believe me," Ghyreian returned icily. She drew a thin sliver on blood on the unconscious knight's throat. "You should hardly be the one making threats. Answer my friend's question."

A frown line creased Hammerhand's brow, but he nonetheless complied with, "A gift on our wedding anniversary, yes. I asked a monk of Majere to enchant it with a... a telepathy link of sorts." He glanced warily at his captors and fell silent.

Ghyreian drew another crimson line on the knight's neck.

Hammerhand sighed in resignation and rubbed a weary hand over his face. "It was, in essence, a diary. In it I could pour images, emotions, thoughts... Then, every year, I would have a messenger dispatch it back to my wife in Solamnia. Elayne would 'read' it, then send it back."

Ghyreian's mind was reeling with possibilities. She looked from Edwin to their captive. "Where is the mirror now?"

The Lord of the Rose hesitated. "I was on my way home when you encountered us," he said slowly. "I had no more need of the mirror. I handed it over to a dear friend of mine for safekeeping. Do not ask where he is now, for I do not know."

_________________

"You knight have just made our work ten times harder... but it is only reasonable that you now tell us about this dear friend of yours whose name or identity you still keep in the shadows. Now then who is he? Remember she is the one drawing blood, not me and knowing her, a black robe that she is... well she can have a bad temper."

Edwin said before biting into the apple once more, but gazed at Ghyreian amusedly as he did so. He knew that the reminder was ineffective, but Edwin couldn`t help annoying Ghyreian at that moment, just a little tease thats all. She wasn`t actually the most hilarious travelling partner, she hardly laughed and her rare humor was rather dry, actually very dry. Edwin reckoned she would be made happy by his remarks, but in anycase they now had to go trough the trouble of finding this friend.

And Edwin had a very bad feeling about this `friend` because there was no doubt that this `friend` was behind the transformation that Wylliam would undertake.

"... and in addition we require information about his whereabouts.... well you know what I am trying to get at... tell us who and where he is so that we might be on our jolly devil spawned way..."

Edwin said with a touch of self irony as it was clear how mages were treated in this time.

_________________

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 caught the remark, though it took a bit longer to catch the amused look. Her only response was a none too gracious glare. Bad temper? She'd show him bad temper. A pity this happened to be a moment in time when she actually needed Edwin healthily alive. Entertaining that thought for now, she turned back to Hammerhand. "You lie," she hissed venomously. "You're trying to protect your precious wife."

Hammerhand shrugged. "So what if I am?"

"Was that admission?"

"That, my lady, was an unhelpful answer." The mockery in his voice was perspicuous.

"Then your knight dies and so does your wife," Ghyreian retorted. "What do we gain by killing her? We were planning on taking the mirror and sparing her, even. But if you insist - "

"Very well!" Hammerhand's turquoise optics darkened to gray. His voice issued in a low growl. "It wasn't for safekeeping. I would never have parted from it, anyway. The enchantment was wearing off. I handed it to my friend, who lives near the monastery of Majere, to get it fixed. His name is Markham. Knight of the Crown. I'll take you to him - but only if you convince me that you don't intend him harm."

_________________