Edwin tied Wylliam into a tree nearby the monastery, but still not directly at the entrance so that he might have been found. Of course Wylliam Edwin re gagged Wylliam and left him tied down, but before he left he cast a sleep spell upon Wylliam so that he couldn`t even dare to try to escape. Edwin gazed at the old monastery that might just be one of the many buildings that would be destroy by the gods in the future. With a strong push he forced the heavy twin doors open, the hallway that awaited them was dimly lighted and undecorated. Edwin stepped inside and gazed around, then at Ghyreian hoping that she wouldn`t continue her killing spree here.

Edwin took a few steps forward before he was stopped by a monk that had appeared into the other end of the hallway.

"What do you want from here?"

The monk demanded to know with an almost unpleasant tone, which made Edwin look at Ghyreian for an answer. He wasn`t completely sure on how to act upon this, should they mention Markham and perhaps go directly to him or remain cautious by trying to get in with a lie before finding Markham themselves.

_________________

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!

Judging from the monk's tone, they weren't accustomed to receiving visitors in the middle of the night. Still, Ghyreian had always assumed that disciples of the sniveling mantis god would at least display some hospitality. The monk was staring impatiently from the shadows of his copper-hued hood, so she uttered a melodramatic sigh and replied, "We're looking for a Knight of the Crown. His name is Markham. Do you know where we may find him?"

"What business would you have with Markham? He would not enjoy being disturbed in his sleep."

"Our business is our own," she replied sharply. "Tell him Wylliam Hammerhand sent us."

The monk bobbed his head once and departed, his hefty quarterstaff thumping against the stone floor. Five minutes later he returned and beckoned them to follow. He led them down dim corridor, lit only by moonlight shafting through arched windows. He stopped outside a sturdy oak door. His two knocks echoed through the hallway.

The door opened, revealing a man who, if not for his nightshirt, may as well have been decked out in full battle regalia. Bright and alert, moustache bristling and long hair neatly combed, he nodded his gratitude to the monk before turning to his visitors. His forehead knitted in a frown. "Good evening. You seem to have me at a disadvantage."

Her Silvanesti accent was easily detectable by anyone of sophistication, so she didn't bother hiding her elven name. Neither of them existed in this time period anyway. "Ghyreian, and this is my friend Edwin. We came to ask about a certain mirror belonging to a friend of yours."

_________________

(I have no idea where you want to take this, easy way or trouble?)

"Wylliam`s mirror?"

Markham asked suspiciously as he had expected for Wylliam to come take it himself, after all it was an item of great importance to him and this weird duo made Markham wonder.

"Where is Wylliam? He told me that he would come personally to take the mirror back, why did he send you and how have you come to know him?"

Markham asked with an uncertain tone, which made Edwin mutter slightly to himself and couldn`t help coughing as the air of the monastery was quite thick. Edwin scratched his hair with a quirk smile and gazed at Ghyreian.

"We are quite new friends of Wylliam, he sent us because duty calls, they are hunting for magic users. He wouldn`t want mages to get away now would he?"

_________________

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!

[no idea either. we'll see.]

Ghyreian swore she could see the wheels turning in Markham's head. Unless she didn't know any better, she'd say that receiving enigmatic strangers in the middle of the night didn't promote mutual trust. Especially when those enigmatic strangers were hooded and cloaked in a gray that could be concealing gods knew what.

Apparently Markham's thoughts were edging in the same direction, for when he opened his mouth again it was only to say, "I'll have to ask that you remove your cloaks."

She stole a glance both ways down the corridor. The monk of Majere had moved off. The passage was empty.

Evidently Markham was sharper than she thought, for the furtive glances didn't escape his notice. A hiss of metal, and without warning Ghyreian found a steel blade swinging for her head. She ducked just in time. Markham hadn't intended to kill, so the flat of the blade glanced off her temple. The impact nonetheless sent stars spinning in her vision.

By the Dark Queen, how to do this without bringing the entire monastery upon them! She dropped a cone of silence around them, then recovered to dodge again. Her hands fumbled for rose petals for a sleep spell, but the wretched Solamnic simply wouldn't relent.

_________________

Edwin acted quickly as he possibly could after standing aside in order to gain distance to Markham, he couldn`t possibly fend off two mages, but Edwin could only hope that both of them would get out of this alive. Edwin concentrated and in a brief moment Markham`s back was facing the monastery roof as a web tied him down to the ground. He put hard effort into moving and trying to get out of the web, but it was futile as the web was strong as iron or well at least it was supposed to be.

Edwin kicked aside Markham`s blade and grabbed the knight by his hair, lifting his head from the ground.

"Where is the mirror good sir knight?"

Edwin demanded with a patient tone and calm attitude.

_________________

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!

Markham glared back in rigid defiance. "You'll have to find it."

Ghyreian irritably crossed her arms over her chest. All Knights of Solamnia were the same. There was simply no help for them. She tested the cone of silence again and glanced both ways down the corridor. Hopefully they wouldn't be interrupted. She'd had enough goodly forces chasing them around the countryside for one day.

With this in mind, she turned back to the obstinate Markham. She conjured a fireball and began tossing it back and forth between her hands. "Is this pathetic mirror really worth your life, sir knight?"

For all in the world, he actually seemed to consider the tradeoff. He closed his eyes and muttered under his breath, "Est sularus oth mithas." Yes, yes, we get the point, Ghyreian mentally fumed. At last he opened his eyes again to glare at both mages. "In the nightstand drawer."

"You have made an excellent decision today, sir knight," she told him, sweeping past him into the bedchamber. The room was austere but neat. She opened the nightstand drawer and found an all too familiar brass mirror, just as Markham had claimed. My honor is my life, indeed. Picking it up, she found it vibrant to the touch but not warm as it'd been that night in the tower. She tucked the mirror in her cloak and came back into the corridor. "What do you suggest we do with him?" She nodded at the still glaring Markham.

_________________

Edwin grinned at the question and had hopes that she wouldn`t have asked such a question, the simplest solution would have been death, but Edwin wouldn`t do it when he had a chance to avoid killing Markham. Edwin gazed around the hallways and with a smile rose on his face as he realized that the roof was somewhat high. He quickly cast a levitation spell on Markham and the webs, which he tied around Markham and levitated the knight up into the roof. The webs sticked into the wall and the roof leaving Markham effectively hanging there helplessly, the web also gagged Markham at Edwins command so that he could shout for help.

"Well that should keep him there for sometime whilst we take our leave, the webs usually last a day or two before their magical effect wear off. And I don`t mind telling you, it takes an awfully tall being to reach him there so this should buy us sometime even, if the monks notice him up there."

Edwin explained with satisfied and almost proud smirk on his face as he had presented a somewhat peaceful solution that hadn`t included blood spilling. He then walked out of the monastery as their business was concluded and returned to Wylliam, Wylliam had awoken apparently during the short visit yet it was exactly what Edwin had wanted.

"Your friend Markham is alive and well all tough he might have to get used to the thought that he is going to stay up in the roof for a while. Of course we have the mirror and your friend is not hurt in any manner, except for his pride perhaps."

Edwin said before casting yet another sleep spell on Wylliam and putting him back on the horse, this was not the place to start solving their puzzle that they had.

_________________

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 had to chuckle at that - Edwin certainly was creative. If the iron web failed before the monks ever reached him? An even more amusing thought. At least then the blood wouldn't be on her hands, as Edwin kept carping about. Recalling their argument in the abandoned farmhouse, she grimaced. That incident had been revealing, to state it bluntly. She didn't care to repeat it.

She mounted her horse and spurred it on after her companion. As they trotted quietly back down the hill, it occurred to her that this was their first clean escape in... months? Fortune seemed to favor them like that. She reached inside her cloak and extracted the brass mirror. It was obviously enchanted, but it lacked the warm vibrance she remembered. Approaching it in a philosophical sense... could it be that Wylliam Hammerhand's memories only intensified, became more poignant to him, after his egregious transformation?

"The mirror isn't cooperating," she opined flatly. To prove her point, she jabbed her fingers at the glass surface - an action that had her careening backwards in time in the Tower of Losarcum. Nothing happened.

_________________

Edwin uttered a curse into the wind and gazed at Wylliam who laid on the back of his horse. It was clear that the mirror wouldn`t have the power to throw people back in time yet, not after what would happen to Wylliam and perhaps that left a vague option. Let history take it`s course.

"I think we have little options unless we can somehow turn the mirror before Wylliam here turns into a death knight. I fear we should let Wylliam go free with the mirror and let history take it`s course, it would lead to the same conclusion and give the mirror it`s powers back perhaps so that we might use it once more....

Yet going trough the whole meeting with death knight Wylliam wasn`t one of the most pleasant experiences not to mention he would actually recognize us."

Edwin sighed and scratched his hair with a grin on his face.

"Damn... experiencing the cataclysm wasn`t in my plans..."

_________________

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!

Still bound behind Edwin's saddle, Hammerhand twisted around to stare at them both with an expression of alarm. "Death knight? What are you talking about? Are you threatening - "

Ghyreian promptly dropped a cone of silence over his head. His mouth never stopped moving, but at least she didn't have to listen to it. "Are you saying we should simply wait for Hammerhand to turn death knight before trying the mirror again? It could be years! We're not - " She bit herself off and settled into seething silence. What else could they do? No one could help them, and there were no safe havens on all of Ansalon save for... "Wayreth," she muttered, and glanced quickly at Edwin. "Shall we seek help in Wayreth? It holds no guarantee of a solution, but it's a start."

_________________

Edwin sighed and ran his hand across his face as it was obvious that Wayreth was one of the places he wanted to avoid the most at the moment. It would seem suspicious and not to mention absolutely no one knew them at the time because they weren`t supposed to be there. That created an awkward and difficult situation yet they had little choice in the matter. Edwin gazed at Ghyreian quietly as a sign of acceptance and then with at Wylliam, as he was tired of dragging the knight along with them.

"Shall I just drop him and the mirror off right here? He can`t organize any kind of search in a while and we will be long gone by the time he does..."

Edwin said as, if Wylliam was never there or he was an object of no living intelligence.

_________________

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!

They couldn't hear him, but Hammerhand certainly could hear them. Edwin's dismissive tone only served to incense him, though by now he knew that any comment he made would be for the sake of hearing his own voice.

Ghyreian flicked one glance at the knight's glaring, none too happy face, and smirked. "Why not? But before we leave..." She raised her hands and began weaving them in a spell. Rose petals drifted on the wind. When at last they proceeded back on their way, it was to leave a harmlessly snoring Lord of the Rose in their wake.

As they trudged along the bare moonlit path, Ghyreian glanced obliquely at Edwin. "I could have killed him," she commented with a raised eyebrow. "It would have been easier, a guarantee that he won't bother the Orders again. He would have thanked us if he knew his fate. Yet we are but pebbles in the river of time, are we not?" She looked back to the road, as though not expecting an answer. "So what, Edwin, would be your definition of mindless slaughter?"

_________________

Edwin hmhed at the question and gazed at her with a clever glance in his eyes.

"So now your the one making the inquiries dear Ghyreian? Well... mindless slaughter includes killing innocent and defenseless people with no reason or proper cause whatsoever.... all tough some believe that they are a killing for a proper cause, misguided sheep I you might call them....

And what comes to Wylliam? I believe that we had meddled with his life long enough and would it have been justified to save him from his fate? Perhaps, perhaps not because certainly the punishment he will suffer will come because he must have deserved it. He did participate in the killing of many mages I imagine and I see that as a justification to leave him to the fate that awaits him....

You can`t save everyone and you don`t have to even, if you could..."

Edwin said with somewhat careless yet guilty tone as he pondered whether he should have done more for some people so that they might have avoided their fates.

_________________

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 kept staring rigidly ahead, pondering his answer. Justification? She'd never believed in the concept of justice. It, like morality, was in her mind always an illusion, conjured simply to soothe the consciences of the weak. Still... was Edwin weak? Decidedly not.

In reality she really couldn't have cared less about Hammerhand's fate. He deserved the curse in any case. All Solamnics did. The question had been a test of sorts, asked out of curiousity. Now, after his reply, she felt no more enlightened. Quite the contrary. She sneered at herself for asking the question in the first place. Insecurity would avail her nothing.

It promised a long journey to Wayreth.

_________________

'Tis I!

Name: Adellis Distantstar
Race: human
Age: 26
Gender: female
Profession: Apprentice White Robed Mage
Appearance: Dark brown hair, tends to curl loosely but more wavy, held back by a band and loose over her shoulders generally. Brown eyes. Generally unremarkable as far as appearance goes, not especially beautiful. Average height and build.
Abilities: beginning spell-casting skills, nothing remarkable.
Garb: White robes, not decorated especially
History: It's sort of vague...friends and family generally don't approve of her ambitions, and never have. Was betrothed before becoming an apprentice, which was a last resort to escape a marriage she didn't want. Will be more as I go along

_________________

During the rest of they journey Edwin remained relatively quiet, occasionally burning his pipe yet never bothering Ghyreian with question that might have cut her like he had used to. He had no idea whether anything would ever change between them, but at least Edwin felt that he was in peace about their current situation. Should he have died at that moment he wouldn`t have at least had any regrets concerning her or what they had gone trough together. The travel took long as of course it was very long way to Wayreth and they had to remain unnoticed, avoiding roads and other travelers as it was clear that Wayreth was the only safe place for a mage these days.

Yet for the two this visit to Wayreth might become the most awkward one to this day or to be correct to them as in fact they hadn`t been to Wayreth during this time. It would be most weird should there be any elven mages that would remember them in times past when they would revisit Wayreth, that was should they ever make it back to their own time. Upon arriving to the edges of Wayreth Edwin stopped and gazed at their surroundings just to check that one was there. No doubt the mages were on their toes and ready to blast away anyone who dared to attack.

"Wayreth, once more here...."

Edwin muttered into his beard.

"Does have a sense of nostalgia about it, doesn`t it? Time and again we have departed from Wayreth to our travels...."

He inquired from Ghyreian with an amused attitude as this would be one strange visit.

_________________

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!