Memory and Memories - Part 3
by Armond
***

"I don't know what to do. Tell me what to do!"

"Talk to her. Iz only way."

"But what shall I say to her? To get through? She won't talk!"

They turned and looked at her; Ashe was tied to the base of the mast, her head slumped over. She'd tried to jump overboard twice since Zinjo fished her from the sea.

"Talk to her about Shea."

"Why? What good will come of that?"

"For once... for once! Take my advice, and do it

Isaura started to say something, and then stopped. Her shoulders slumped, and she nodded. She walked from the stern to the mast, where the girl was bound.

The storm had passed. A lot of magical energy was required to keep one like that going; Isaura could only imagine how exhausted the wizard or wizards on The Havock must be. She supposed they must feel no one followed them now.

After several hours of travelling south, The Havock turned and now sailed due east. Only two kingdoms lay in the direction, the Keoba Dynasty, and their home country, Alari. Isaura had a sick feeling in her stomach about which one they were bound for.

"Are you thirsty?" Isaura asked.

Ashe didn't answer. Isaura watched her face. She'd seen the girl dulled senseless by the Torc, even seen her emptied of all memories. Her expression wasn't like either of those now: full of hurt, anguish, guilt and very much alive.

"My Sheala was such a happy baby. She cried so little, I thought there might be something wrong with her."

Isaura saw Ashe's head raise ever so slightly; she had her attention.

"Shea never knew her father. I'm not sure who he is myself. I celebrated particularly hard one Beltane, and came away pregnant. So it was just the two of us. I dragged her around the world so much that my poor little girl never had many friends. We became each other's best friend. I miss her. Gods and goddesses, my soul hurts for her."

"I'm so sorry," Ashe whispered.

"She and I had a terrible falling out three years ago. I had so hoped we'd reconcile, that I could tell her how much I loved her. You killed her. Ended my Shea's life. Now I'll never have that chance."

"I know! Gods damn it, I know, and you keep stopping me from-"

"-from what, jumping in the sea again? Goddess, what a coward you are."

"What would you have me do!!??" Ashe shouted.

"Accept it! Own it! You didn't mean to, you didn't want to, and tried your hardest not to, but you did it."

"How do I 'own it'?! What does that even fucking mean?"

"It means," Isaura grabbed Ashe's face, “do your duty! Zinjo and I need you."

"Not if it means killing again. I can't! Lay a geas on me to stop me. I'd even wear the Torc thingy again if it stopped me from-"

"-if you ever say something that idiotic again I will slap you silly," Isaura growled. "Your mind is so incredible, and so beautiful! I'm beginning to see how wonderful it is. I almost destroyed it in the Cavern out of revenge. I have to own that."

"And I have to own this? That I did something that cuts against everything I believe?" Ashe asked. "Because that's really fucked up."

"Yes, it is. Fucked up. What of it?”

“WHAT OF IT??? What do you mean, what of it?” Ashe screamed.

“Boo hoo. Poor me. Poor Ashe.” Isaura’s voice was cutting. “You say you are crushed by my daughter’s death at your hand. You say you believe all life is sacred.”

“I-it is!”

PROVE IT!”

“P-prove it?” Ashe’s voice quivered. “How?”

“By not letting her death be in vain. Shea gave her life trying fighting the very thing we now fight. Shall we quit when things get tough? And let loose a plague upon the world the likes of which has never been seen? You know well what suffering this will bring, for you have lost your family to just such a thing…”

“Yes… yes…” Ashe wept softly, “I know…”

“I’m going to untie you now. You can jump off the ship again,” Isaura said. “You can lay down in a ball on the deck and whimper. Or…”

“Or?”

“Finish the mission Aesh of Ogda started, and save lives. Save life. Do you need more time to wallow in self-pity, Ashe of Alaria? Or Are. We. Good?"

"We … we are… I… I'll think about it. But… I promise, I won't try to off myself… for now," Ashe said.

“Good,” Isaura said with relief. For she sensed she had finally gotten through to the stubborn girl whom she now found herself loving so dearly.

"And …could you kind of hurry with the knots? I'm freezing and starving and really, really have to pee."

***

The sun set low, only half above the horizon line, sending orange rays into the winter sky, and orange ripples across the water.

True to her word, Ashe tried no more suicide attempts that day, but now she stood at the very tip of the bow of The Hope of Aana.

"Should we be worried?" Isaura asked Zinjo; both were at the helm and both watched the girl closely.

Ashe turned to look at them, her black hair fluttering in the breeze, with a look of rapture on her face that only a sunset at sea can bring.

"I don't think leetle girl go for any more swims. Your tough love talk - which was not talk Zinjo had in mind - worked. But, is this not other problem, or mystery? Vhat to make of this?"

Isaura knew what the giant meant without asking him to explain; with a smile on her face and the sun setting behind her, the image made Isaura's heart ache.

"Why? Why did Ymra make her look so much like Shea? I have to catch myself from calling her ‘Sheala’ more and more. You're the only living being I know who has been in Ymra's presence. Why did she do this?"

"Ymra was laying waste to mountain range that day and vasn't in talkative mood," Zinjo answered. He held a telescope up to his eye, and then handed it to the sorceress. "Ho! Ve have other problems."

Looking through the telescope, she saw several tri-mast slopes that had appeared on the horizon; their flags were a white outline of an arm, holding a cutlass, against a black background.

"Pirates!" Isaura said. "Are they in league with Captain Angove, or are they-"

"-stealing from him?" Zinjo finished her sentence.

One of the ships fired a warning shot across The Havock's bow.

"That answered that question," Isaura said.

"What's going on?' Ashe said, joining the two at the helm.

"The Havock is under attack," Isaura said. She handed Ashe the telescope. "It seems some of Captain Angove's brethren wish to relieve him of his cargo."

"We can't let that happen!" Ashe said, handing the telescope back to Zinjo. "The ransom has to be delivered so we can follow it to those behind these plagues!"

"Agreed," Isaura said, pulling her wand from her robe. "They'll know we are here if I blast the pirates and-"

"Wait!" Zinjo said. "Something ...bubbles ...next to Havock."

"I just felt a magic burst, too. What are these fools up to?"

The sorceress raised her arms, saying:

"nerlaillirr"

The air in front of them shimmered, forming into a clear disk shape, magnifying the view so they could see what happened with The Havock and the other ships without the need of telescope.

A pool of bubbles formed next to The Havock, growing larger each moment. On The Havock's deck several robe figures pointed wands downward at the pool. Though she couldn't hear their words, Isaura knew what they were saying.

"A summoning! Goddess preserve us, these fools summon something from the depths!"

On cue, two humps broke the surface and began weaving between the ships. Next a massive flippered tail rose and smacked the ocean surface so hard, they heard it clearly on the The Hope of Aana half a league away.

Finally a snake-like head rose, its mouth gaping, showing double rows of sharp jagged teeth. The monster roared.

One of the pirate ships fired a cannonball at the creature, the ball striking near one of the creature's humps.

"Oh! Iz bad move, I think."

"Why?" Ashe whispered. Her eyes had widened when the creature's massive scaly head broke the water's surface.

"Because-"

The serpent roared again, louder, and sent its tail crashing down on the deck of the pirate ship that fired, splintering its railing and knocking down two of its masts.

-because that," Zinjo finished his sentence.

"Just what the wizards wanted," Isaura said.

A second ship fired on the creature, as did the third. Meanwhile, through Isaura's magnified lens, they saw the robed wizards of The Havock point their wands at their sails. Wizard wind snapped the sails taut and The Havock began to skim across the sea's surface.

"Summoning such creatures from the ocean depths is always foolish. It is impossible to control them, so the gamble is to point what you've summoned at your enemies, and run away. Sometimes it works, and sometimes the creature attacks the summoner instead."

The creature's tail smashed down upon the first pirate ship's deck again, this time splitting the vessel in two.

"Iz working this time," Zinjo said.

"I'd better deal with it now, or all those men will perish," Isaura said.

Already they saw through the magnified air lens the encounter had turned bloody and deadly; the serpent swooped down on the second ship with its maw open, snapping up sailors as it did and crushing them in its teeth.

"No! Still too close to Havock. They feel your magic when you do. Call the beast to us, that will draw less attention, yes? I vill take care of snake."

"They are far enough away now they shouldn't sense a summoning," Isaura said.

And indeed, The Havock had nearly disappeared from sight, even through Isaura's magical lens.

"But, are you sure you wish to do this?"

"Has been a while. Good to stretch muscles every so often, witch woman."

With that, Zinjo bounded to the railing and jumped over the side. Isaura hurried to the railing too; she pointed her wand at the creature.

"Suna du na, ssaedisa ull dha naaf"

The gigantic sea snake stopped its attack on the second pirate ship - its hull was already breached and taking on water - and turned toward The Hope of Aana. It roared and began swimming fast to them.

"Isaura! What is he doing?" Ashe said, looking at the spot where Zinjo dove under water. "There is no way he can fight that thing! You'd better do something, even if they feel it on The Havock."

The serpent slithered through the sea at an incredible pace, and within moments it neared The Hope of Aana.

"Um, Ashe, sweetie, there is one more thing I need to tell you about Zinjo. When I call him giant, I don't just mean 'big guy.' You see, he actually is an honest to gods-"

With a woosh, a towering figure burst through the water, in front of the serpent.

"-giant."

Though his legs were below the sea's surface, by Ashe's quick estimate, he stood close to 100 feet tall. He roared at the serpent, and with eyes blazing red, fists clenched, chest arm and abs bulging, the raging colossus looked nothing at all like the gentle friend she had grown to know over the past days. Only his silver beard, wet and blowing in the wind, seemed familiar.

The serpent hissed and lunged at him, and the giant dove to meet it, grabbing it by its throat. The serpent's tail slithered around the giant's torso, and they fell together under the water's surface in an enormous splash. For several anxious minutes, the sea roiled from the thrashing battle, sending waves crashing into The Hope of Aana, tossing the craft to and fro; Ashe gripped the rail tight, while Isaura hung on to the helm wheel.

The sea calmed. The Hope of Aana steadied.

A hand grasped a railing. A normal Zinjo-sized hand. Then another.Zinjo's head appeared, then he swung over and landed on the deck, all eight feet and four hundred pounds of him.

Ashe took one look at him, and scrambled down the hatch to the cabin.

"Iz too much for her," Zinjo looked stricken, as he stood shivering. "I scare her now too?"

"We've been together so many years, it's easy to forget how unusual and miraculous that is," the sorceress said. "But I think you underestimate her ability to-"

The cabin hatch slapped open and Ashe climbed up, carrying blankets. She handed them to the shivering giant.

"You must be freezing!"

Zinjo wrapped one blanket around his waist, and another around his shoulders. A goofy smile - one of relief - was on his face.

"I thought leetle Ashe vould be scared of me now."

She gave him his answer by hugging him.

"I was scared for you. You were underwater for so long. What happened?"

"I didn't want kill beast, not hiz fault nasty wizards call him," Zinjo said stroking her hair. "After we wrestled a bit, we reach agreement, I let go and he swim back to deeper waters."

"Good! I'm glad about that."

"I must go sleep now, leetle one," Zinjo yawned. "When I change like that need much rest."

"I can imagine," Ashe said, stepping back. "Er, that was a figure of speech, I can't actually imagine. That was amazing!"

Zinjo nodded, and stumbled to and down the cabin hatch, the fatigue hitting hard.

"He'll be out for a long while," Isaura said. She turned to look across the sea.

The Havock was long gone. She spoke nerlaillirrre, and the lens appeared before them again. The sea was filled with wreckage, the men clinging to it, and bodies. Shark fins had begun to poke above the surface. Of the three attack ships, only one - listing though it was - appeared intact.

"We'd better go see to the survivors." Isaura said.

"We'd better hurry," Ashe replied, watching the number of shark fins multiply.

"Bra'll"

The sails snapped taut and Isaura steered The Hope of Aana sped toward the helpless sailors.

As they approached, Isaura waved her wand and spoke words that caused the remaining ship to right itself. Ashe wasn't sure exactly what the sorceress had done but if she had to guess it was to add a huge air bubble to the pirate ship's hull. The men began swimming to it and climbing aboard.

They picked up several sailors who had drifted away from the main body; Ashe was tending to some of their injuries using first aid supplies the Fefnoirs had and by using antiseptic potions from her alquimista kit. Neither blood nor injuries troubled her, as her alquimista studies major had been in healing methods.

At the helm, Isaura interrogated the first mate of one of the ships, trying to learn basic information of who they were, and why they attacked The Havock. Was it pure coincidence the pirates attacked the ship carrying the largest known treasure, or did they have prior knowledge? She kept an eye on the sailors Ashe tended to make sure they gave her no trouble.

"So, this arm is broken," Ashe said to one, as she tied a sling off at his shoulder. Then she pulled another bottle from her kit and unstopped it. "Open wide."

"Wha' arre ye givin' me, lass?"

"Something for the pain." She poured a few drops in his mouth. "This will last a few hours. After that..."

She suddenly realized she had no idea what would happen after that.

"Aft that, ye'll be keepin' me nice 'n happy in cot, won't ye, poppet," the man answered, moving closer.

"I bet if ye gave me a peek at yer pretty elf titties, that would ease me pain," said a second as he limped closer to her, crowding her.

"Aye, that would help me pain too!" said the third, his hand reaching out.

Isaura started to raise her wand to intervene when suddenly the three men dropped to the deck, unconscious. Ashe glared at the sleeping men, and slipped a satchel back into her kit. She spun on her heels and marched to the helm.

Isaura could tell a tirade was coming, but the sorceress interrupted just as the girl opened her mouth.

"Sleeping dust?"

"Bergamot, anise, yling yling crystals, salt," Ashe waved her hand dismissively.

Ashe continued to amaze the sorceress! She must have concocted the powder on board using her new kit. Was it only days before that she was disoriented? Scared when the Caphilian soldiers came to their camp? Now she was confident and crafty.

Then Ashe unleashed:

"They entered a ship battle where many would be killed, a terrifying sea serpent rises up and smashes their ships, they swim for their lives while sharks circle, and many are severely injured..."

'uh, oh, here it comes,' Isaura thought.

"And after all that... all that..." She clasped her breasts with her hands. "All they can think about is seeing these? Are all men this stupid?"

Isaura tried so hard to bite her tongue, to not remind the girl, that, until recently, she fit into the 'men' category. But she couldn't remain silent, not with that set up.

"That's a rhetorical question, right?"

What erupted next from the young Alarian's mouth were strings of curses, the sorceress was sure the likes of which had never been heard before on earth or even in the darkest caverns of the hells of the underworld. Isaura wouldn't have repeated what she heard if she could, but even the milder phrases were memorable in their creativity, such as 'bunghole wafflers,' 'retarded asswad fish bait,' and Isaura's personal favorite, 'rectal whale bashers.'

"llsaana"

"W-why did you do that?" Ashe asked, stopping her fiery word tantrum when she realized the first mate was frozen in place, his mouth open.

"Observe. You would agree this man is a sailor, yes?"

Ashe nodded, wondering where this was going.

"Note the coloration of his cheeks. Even tanned and through his scruff, you can clearly see they have flushed red, in a blush."

Ashe only needed a moment to catch on.

"Fine, okay, you win. I made a sailor blush. But his ears aren't bleeding." Then Ashe noticed flakes of dried blood around the mate's left ear. "That blood was already there!"

Isaura laughed and hugged the girl.

"May we get these guys on to their ship now?" Ashe asked, casting another glare at the sleeping men. "They really pissed me off."

"You bet. I've gotten all the information I can from him. They were commissioned by the Keoba Dynasty to 'unofficially' steal back the ransom. Idiots. They risked unleashing the death plague on the kingdoms for coin?"

"What will we do with them?" Ashe asked, looking at the remaining pirate ship, now filled with survivors.

"We'll give them what supplies we can, and send them on their way. We need to be moving too. It is clear now our destination is Alari. But where? We can't let The Havock get too far ahead.”

Isaura thought for a few moments before she continued.

"Go below and fetch my scrying bowl, the pouch with water from the Falls, and also ... the atlas."

Ashe thought about that. She loved Isaura's atlas. You simply ask it a geography question, any question, and a dot appeared on the map. What would Isaura be looking for?

Ashe cleared her throat, "...to find the nearest island to send the pirates to?"

"Exactly," Isaura smiled her approval. It was such a pleasure to deal with an engaging mind.

Isaura unfroze the first mate, and then Ashe and the first mate gathered portions of hard tack, salted meats, water jugs and first aid supplies as they could spare onto the deck. She was afraid she might wake Zinjo as she dragged the supplies on deck, but he was snoring hard in the hammock he'd rigged.

Then things became interesting. Isaura made the first mate stand beside supplies and sleeping men. She pointed her wand at them.

"Reka"

She lifted and then guided the men and supplies to a gentle landing on the deck of the remaining pirate ship; the spot was clear because the men aboard to scrambled to move out of the way. The first mate flailed and moaned a bit in fright, but otherwise the airborne transfer worked well.”.

"Have you found one?" Isaura asked. Ashe had already opened the atlas and was scanning it.

"The Kisk Atoll lies only eight and a half leagues to the southwest," the girl said.

"How do you know about leagues?"

"Oh! We covered various distance measurements in my 'Weights and Measurements' class, my sophomore year at Edefia. I was really good at conversions."

'Of course you were,' mused Isaura.

"How did you query the atlas?"

"I asked for the location of the nearest island with fresh water and edible vegetation."

"Excellent!" Isaura said, as she reached over and affectionately ruffled the girl's hair. "Now, this will be a bit tricky, but I'm going to cast a spell which will push the pirate ship toward the atoll. I need you to position my wand in the precise direction."

"That will be tricky," Ashe said, biting her lower lip. "If we are even slightly off, they'll miss it and end up gods knows where."

"Hence the need for precision."

Ashe grumbled a few colorful phrases, took the tracking compass from the sorceress, and placed it on the atlas page which showed the Kisk Atoll. After orienting it, she stood, faced west, then pointed her arm to the southwest degree she thought was most accurate.

"It lies there."

"Muya ail dhed naisasdaiul" Isaura intoned, pointing first at the ship with her wand, then in the direction Ashe's arm pointed.

The pirate ship creaked and wobbled, slowly turned, then lurched forward in the direction Ashe still pointed. Shouts rose from the men on deck, though whether of thanks or curses was hard to tell.

"I'm worried," Ashe said, as the pirate craft moved further away. "What if I got it wrong?"

"What if we got it wrong you mean, since I cast the spell?" Isaura replied. "I'm worried too. But we can spare no more time. The stakes are too high to escort them."

"But what if they die?"

Isaura could see the girl internally wrestling with the ethics.

"If they die, they die," Isaura answered. "But consider - we diverted the serpent from killing them all. We righted their ship before the sharks devoured them. We've given them food and water and used our best guess to send them to an island where they will be safe. And if we don't stop the anti-life plague, then they, along with every other living creature, will die."

"When you put it like that..." Ashe's words trailed off as she chewed on the issue more. "This is one of those tradeoffs, isn't it?"

"Mmhm. We must own it."

"Well then, what's next?"

***

'Where are you now?'

'The Serene Sea.'

'How in hells ... never mind. You'd better have news, because you've yanked me out of an important meeting with the Arch Duchess, and she gets cranky when I leave her waiting.'

Skry speech always put her sister in a bad mood when she was on the receiving end - until the receiver set up her bowl, all she heard was an annoying buzzing in her ears.

'My apologies, Sister. I'll tell you about a life-killing plague that I think is being kept in Alari when it's more convenient for you.’

'Talk!'

Isaura summarized what they'd learned since she contacted her from Sapphire Falls. di'Sona was quiet as she digested it. Then finally:

'That solves the riddle of what we found in the Qyrc Wilds.'

‘Qyrc Wilds?’

Isaura dredged her mind to recall what her sister had said about it in her flat in Imis.

Only a month ago? It seems like years now ...She mentioned something about a bizarre experiment conducted by Blood Burn in the Qyrc Wilds. It was when he left there to travel to Caphila that they sent Shea... so what was the man doing up in the wilds?

'Does this have to do with The Blood Burn Archanist?' Isaura projected into her scrying bowl. 'What did you find?'

'What is this? ' di'Sona answered. 'The great and all-knowing Isaura Faeyra has no freaking idea? Oooooooo. Let me savor this moment.'

Isaura half raised her eyelids and glanced at Ashe. The girl was busy steering to where the tracking compass pointed, as Zinjo had yet to awaken. She heard their scry exchange.

'What's the matter, sister?' di'Sona scryed, 'cat got your tongue?'

"Try calling her a 'crap-headed nipple rag,'" Ashe offered. "That'll shut her up."

'Sister, you are a crap-headed nipple rag. Now tell me what you found.'

'Wait, I'm a what?'  There was a long silence. 'What does that even mean?'

It was clear di'Sona struggled to interpret words she wasn't used to hearing combined.

'We found nothing.'

'Nothing? So, a dead end-'

'Sort of, the “dead” part of it especially. By nothing, I meant we found a dead zone. No living thing, in a one hundred mile radius around the place where the human ran his experiments.'

"Nooooooo!" Ashe gasped, with panic in her voice. "That means he's already used his reverse chrysopeia process to distill the anti-life serum!"

"Can it be neutralized?" Isaura asked.

"Possibly. That will take research and time. It can be contained; we...- alquimistas I mean - have developed lead containment boxes for compounds that accidentally turn harmful or viral."

'Who are you speaking to?' di'Sona scryed.

Isaura wanted to answer, 'the person whose mind you almost destroyed in your petty evilness. Who now is a key to averting this disaster.' But she knew now was not the time.

'My apprentice, Ashe. Listen closely, sister, we are still a day away from Alari's shores. Deploy our wizards to look for The Havock; she sails laden with ransom from the six other kingdoms under witch wind; your wizards can detect it. The ransom should lead to Blood Burn and she who assists him.'

"The Alquimista Academy in Imis will have alquimistas who can help and will have containment boxes too," Ashe whispered.

Isaura nodded. She knew the university well, and its library. It was only a two-hour ride from Imis.

'Also seek the aid of the alquimistas from their Imis academy, di'Sona. They will be useful and have boxes to safely house the death plague.'

'I detest alquimistas, but I suppose they could be of use, especially since this Blood Burn is one of their own. We must police them more closely if they are devising illnesses which can afflict Alari.'

Isaura was certain her sister meant something far stronger than police.

'Take no action until we arrive, I wish to-'

'My thanks, sister. I will report all you've said to the Arch Duchess, and will take matters from here. You may return to your travels-'

'-don't be a fool! Whoever is behind this is powerful and ruthless. They have already unleashed plagues on all the other kingdoms and but for Shea's sacrifice, would have infected Alari as well. Do not take action until-'

'I speak for the Alarian government and I order you to stay away. I will mobilize all appropriate forces and deal with this. Good day, sister.'

The skry contact abruptly stopped.

"Arrrrgh! She is such a conniving little-"

"-asshole. That's clear enough. Are you sure she isn't working with Blood Burn? From what you've said, I told her about my mission to find the rogue alquimista, and she said she didn't believe me. Yet she already knew of his experiments. Doesn't that seem odd that she wouldn't have connected with that? Maybe everything she did to me - caused my transformation, destroyed my mind with the Torc - was a way to shut me up."

Isaura looked at the girl as she considered her words. At first it concerned her that the girl spoke so clinically of the one who tortured her and destroyed her mind. But then she had to remind herself Ashe had no memory of that, and only knew such as she and Zinjo had told her.

"No, sweetie. If she wanted you out of the way, she would have simply killed you without a thought. She's loyal to Alari, I'm sure. She's also cruel enough to force your change just to be able to use the Torc on you."

"Perhaps so, but what if she thought of Blood Burn's serum as a weapon that would give Alari supremacy over the other kingdoms? If she thought that was in the best interest of Alari?"

Isaura hadn't considered that. "It is time you told me all you know about this Blood Burn and his plague."

"'Plague isn't the best description, unless we think of it as a plague against life. It's a serum that... hmmm. This will take some time to explain, for I'll have to give you a brief summary of the alquimista path first..."

When Isaura gave a 'continue' nod, the girl began. And even though they were alone on the sea, Ashe lowered her voice, in a way people did when they didn't want their voices to broadcast information or secrets.

"The alquimistas’ aim is to purify and perfect," Ashe said. "It is called chrysopeia, the transmutation of base metals into noble ones, like gold."

Isaura nodded. She knew all this; she had even spent a year studying the subject with the famed alquimista Aqynas of Grayscar decades ago. But she didn't want to interrupt Ashe to tell her so; she wanted to hear it in the girl's own words.

'No, scratch that, I love hearing the way she thinks.'

"For me, the true aim of chrysopeia is not the seeking of gold, nor even finding the immortality through the Elixir of Life..."

'Which you now have through your transformation,' Isaura mused, 'though you haven't yet realized.'

"...It's the creation of the purest panaceas, which would cure any disease. So many lives could be saved! Their pains eased..."

A warm smile crept over the sorceress' face as the girl continued her impassioned description of how she wished to serve others. Yes, Ashe's feisty colorful character was endearing, but this, this was where her soul fire was. Preserving life. Helping people.

'She is a true follower and priestess of Aana,' Isaura realized with a start, 'even though she is clueless to this fact as well.'

"Some alquimistas over the years began to grow frustrated with this path, for no matter how many times they applied the transmutation process, always there was imperfection at the end. Each time, smaller and smaller, but always there."

"Breviar - Blood Burn you call him - was one of these. Of course, he wasn't 'Blood Burn' then; he was boring Breviar of Guilon, one of our most highly respected professors at Edefia. Then, at one commencement assembly, he stopped midsentence in his address, looked at us oddly, and said 'we are all fools! Misguided fools'. He left that night; vanished. "

"It was I who discovered his hidden notes in his private library-"

"-What were you doing there?" Isaura interrupted.

"Snooping for tomes and manuscripts, of course," Ashe said, flashing what Isaura now recognized was her standard mischievous grin.

'Snooping for tomes? How many times have I been caught doing that?' Isaura thought. 'Aana, how could I not love this girl?'

"What I found caused an uproar among the alquimistas at the university. Breviar reached the conclusion that life itself was imperfect, was incapable of being - his words - 'purified', and needed to be cleansed.'"

"What is that kind of insane thinking even called?!" Isaura wondered aloud in horror. "Genocidal? Annihilationism?"

"I call it the corroded brain gibberings of a scrotum faced fuckwit," Ashe tilted her head with pixie cuteness, "but hey, that's just me being charitable."

"I like your description better," Isaura said, chuckling. "What else did you find in his notes?"

"It gets far worse," Ashe said, somber again. "He formulated a reverse chrysopeia process, that he theorized would produce what he called anti-alkahest, - anti life - a supremely potent deadly serum."

"Capable of destroying all life in a one hundred mile radius?"

"Yes. A single drop, according to his notes, if made airborne, would. His notes also showed he planned to make way more than a drop. It alarmed the alquimistas so much that we formed teams and fanned out across the Seven Kingdoms searching for him. Master Bexon and I eventually came to Millcrest in the Yaran States, where the soothsayer found us and-"

“-How long has it been doing that?" Isaura asked, when she noticed the needle on the tracking compass swaying back and forth.

"Off and on since I took the helm," Ashe said, looking at the compass. "But it's happening more often. What's it mean?"

"That The Havock is getting out of its range," Isaura frowned. "I could try to coax more witch wind, but I'm not sure how much more stress my makeshift boat will bear. Damn it, we can't lose them, especially if di'Sona is moving ahead without us!"

Isaura concentrated hard as she inventoried all her magical spells and knowledge trying to figure a way to increase their speed.

"Um, Isaura?"

"Not now, love, I'm thinking."

"Oh, sorry. But, uh, I have an idea."

Isaura gave the girl her full attention; she had come to value her opinion.

"What is it?"

"Well, you have a spell that made the boat materials, and those pirates, float in the air. And you have a spell that made their ship move. Couldn't you use both on The Hope of Aana? I mean, couldn't we fly? That surely must be faster."

"I don't think... wait... wait..." Isaura thought hard. "That could work."

"Could?" The hint of a mischievous grin played on her face. "It should be a piece of cake for the Queen of Wands."

"I sense a challenge," Isaura said, whipping out her wand. "Let's test your theory, Ashera, shall we?"

Ashe made an elaborate bow, and made an 'after you' gesture with her arm.

"Reka"

The sorceress made a circling motion with her wand, pointing at the ship. Then she pointed to a spot in the air above.

Ashe felt a lurching, and she ran to the rail to see what was happening. It was working! The choppy surface of the sea fell further away, until at about fifty feet above it, the rising of the ship stopped.

"Point the direction, love."

Ashe held the tracking compass up; though it swung to and fro, it steadied enough to give her the answer. She pointed with her arm.

"That way."

"Muya ail dhed naisasdaiul" Isaura said, pointing first at the ship with her wand, then in the direction Ashe's arm pointed.

The Hope of Aana moved in the direction Ashe pointed, picking up speed.

“We're flying! Holy mother of gods, we're flying through the sky!"

Ashe ran to Isaura without thinking and gave her a bear hug.

"You did it!"

"We did it, Ashera. We."

***

Ashe soon noticed their sail was a hindrance now, actually slowing the ship's forward movement. She scrambled to lower the canvass sail as Zinjo had taught her. She stowed it below, and while there, she grabbed the kettle. Next, she tossed in dried mint and grabbed two mugs from the supplies. She also managed to carry the two crude box stools Zinjo crafted from the supply crate. Casting a quick glance at Zinjo's hammock - still snoring away - she scrambled up the ladder to the deck. She sat on one stool, and Isaura sat upon the other. Out of the water, The Hope of Aana's helm served no purpose, and the ship glided through the air on the course Isaura set.

"Show me what you've learned," Isaura said. Shortly before they encountered the pirates, Isaura had begun teaching Ashe simple spells. With her keen mind, and Alarian magic coursing through her veins, Isaura knew the girl would be a natural.

"May I borrow your wand?"

"Oh, no! Little minnow must learn to swim first."

Ashe stuck her tongue out, and though Isaura knew well her history as Aesh the scholar, she looked nothing more than a petulant elven youth at that moment.

"Haed"

After Ashe spoke the word, she pointed an index finger of her free hand at the kettle. The metal glowed a soft red, forcing the girl to quickly place it on the deck.

"Ow!"

The glow dulled, and steam rose from its spout.

"Hey! Don't arch your eyebrows at me, damn it," Ashe huffed. "I did it, didn't I?"

"Obviously," Isaura answered. "But it's all about intent and control. Had I given you my wand, you would have blown up the kettle."

"Oh. So, next time, I should ...picture in my mind ...the level of heat I want?"

"Exactly. Like anything worth doing, it takes practice."

Ashe nodded; she was just fine with that. Practice, patience, studying - these were characteristics that had defined Aesh in his studies.

Then, her eyes widened as she considered all that Isaura had contended with in creating this boat.

"This is just a simple kettle. How in the world," Ashe's voice held awe now, and she waved her arm in a circle in the direction of the deck "did you do all this?"

"At last, you appreciate my brilliance," Isaura replied with a grin. "Just don't ask Zinjo what happened on my first one hundred attempts."

"Oh I definitely will," Ashe said, smiling back. She poured the mint tea and handed the sorceress her cup. "But still, to give each piece of the thousands used to build her, I'm just, well, floored, Isaura."

"Thanks. You know, even by doing all that, a magical construct such as The Hope of Aana still wouldn't succeed unless you provide it with an overarching intent as well. Hmm. That's not the best way to describe it. It's more like... like..."

"Heart?"

"Yes! You know then?"

Ashe shook her head, and then gazed into her cup

"I... I don't really. Oh, in my head I do, but... would you ...would you mind telling me the 'heart' you gave The Hope of Aana? I'd really appreciate it."

Isaura wasn't sure the girl realized how deeply personal her question was. But she didn't mind. In fact, if she pretended the past few years never happened, because moments like this with the girl were interchangeable with countless past times with Shea. For this instance, Shea was here, as she always used to be. The two together, discussing the mysteries of the universe.

"I love to travel, you know that, right? I crave to be on the open road, journeying to unknown lands. It is a core part of my soul. This I passed to The Hope of Aana when I constructed her. The heart I gave her was a yearning for the vast and endless sea."

"That's ...that's beautiful!' Ashe said, her eyes misting. "I get that."

They grew silent now, sipping their hot drinks, as The Hope of Aana sped through the air. The sun set and the moon and stars filled the sky around them. For once, the Serene Sea lived up to its name and was smooth as glass, reflecting every single twinkling star in the heavens. To Ashe, they now flew through heaven itself.

Her heart clenched from the sight - it was a singularly perfect moment in her life.

"Isaura, no matter what has happened, or what will... this... this... thank you!"

Isaura felt it too, and wrapped her arm around the young girl. When Ashe laid her head on Isaura's shoulder, something passed between them, a familial bonding. They each felt it, but neither said a word. Because, in moments like this, words fail.

Some minutes later, they heard Zinjo bellow as he awoke. Next there came the *thump, thump, thump* as he climbed the ladder. When his head poked through the latch, Ashe and Isaura could tell the giant was only half-awake.

"Zinjo, beware, I lifted The Hope-"

"-Shhh," Ashe put her index finger to her mouth.

"But he doesn't know that we're fl-"

"Shhh," Ashe said again with a mischievous smile.

Zinjo stumbled to the far side of the ship lowered his breeches, leaned over the railing to pee, and...

"Aiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeee!!!!!"

The giant fell back onto the deck and scrambled to the helm on hands and knees.

"Ve in air! Ve ...ve ...ve float!"

Ashe was rolling on the deck, roaring with laughter and clutching her sides. Isaura was bent over too, her eyes tearing from laughter.

"Leetle one thinks this funny?" The giant was indignant.

"Leetle one thinks this is gods damned hilarious," Ashe said, when she managed to stop laughing.

"Zinjo thinks leetle one is being mean."

"I think I'm giving well-deserved payback."

"Payback?" Zinjo was confused. "For which?"

"One," Ashe held a finger, "for when you jumped in the sea when a freakin sea monster was coming. I was worried sick for you."

"Awwwww! As leetle Ashe saw, no need for worry because-"

"- oh yes! Because you can magically become a hundred foot tall raging giant." Ashe held up a second finger. "Number two, you became a hundred foot tall raging giant and scared the living piss out of me! So yeah, payback."

"You must admit, she argues her points well," Isaura said, still smiling wide.

"Ho... ho ho..." It started with a low rumble but picked up speed. "It was ...ho ho ho ...funny ...ho ho ho ...starting to pee and looking down and 'aiiieeeee' ...HO HO HO HO HO HO."

His laughter was infectious, and soon Ashe and Isaura joined back in. Their merriment echoed off the sea as The Hope of Aana sailed through the stars and night.

Chapter 7. 

Homecoming

"It's like a carpet of gold. Shimmering gold."

Looking down from The Hope of Aana, as she sailed above the land they'd reached, that was exactly what it looked like to Ashe. After sailing among the stars, she awakened to this sight at dawn.

"In Alarian," Isaura said, "they are called-"

"-Elf Trees!!!" Ashe squealed.

Every child heard stories of the wondrous Elf Trees, which were never barren, yet followed the seasons too. There was nothing like them in the human kingdoms. Yes, they had deciduous trees that somewhat resembled these, shedding leaves in the fall, of course, and budding new growth in the spring. And there were evergreens, which never shed leaves, but true to their name, remained one hue throughout the seasons.

But Elf Trees - as every child knew - were magical; their leaves turned solid gold in the autumn, but did not fall, remaining on their branches through winter. Only in the spring, when new growth blossomed, did they finally fall.

"Eemen trees, Ashe," Isaura corrected. "Have some pride, love, no self-respecting Alarian would ever call them something as base as Elf Trees."

"Hey, Isaura?"

"Yes, love?"

"Does your ass ever get jealous of the amount of shit that comes out of your mouth?"

"Does my ass ever get..." Isaura tried hard to stifle her laughter; she didn't want to encourage the girl. "Tell me the truth, Aesh the Impious, do you have these saying memorized or are you ad libbing them?"

Before Ashe could answer, a sound distracted her.

Singing.

As the wind rustled the golden Eemen leaves beneath The Hope of Aana, Ashe heard melodies and harmonies. Not voices, exactly, but tones and vibrations. Straining her new Alarian senses, she concentrated, focusing on where the sounds were coming from.

"Isaura," she whispered, the wonder clear in her voice, "the trees are singing!"

"Welcome to Thyli Alari, Ashera Faeyra."

The sorceress smiled; Thyli Alari was a wonder of the Seven Kingdoms, pulsing nature's magic. The immortal Alarians never took their blessed realm for granted, as their deep reverence ever remained. But as decade passed decade, the sense of marvel in an Alarian did dull; what a joy to hear the girl's first impressions!

Even if Ashe possessed her full memories of her visit as Aesh to Imis, it would not equal this. Imis, the fabulous capital of Thyli Alari, was to the world the archetype example of an 'elven city,' filled with dizzying spiraling Alarian architecture.

Yet this was all humans saw of their lands; none were permitted in the lush forests, misty mountains and fertile valleys, the true Alari.

"Do you know vhere ve go?" Zinjo asked. He steered the ship in the direction the tracking compass pointed.

"I'm afraid I do," the sorceress answered. "We are heading straight for Beurl'Aana."

"Beurl'Aana? That's the, um, birthplace of the elves ...I mean Alarians?" Ashe was proud she could remember these facts from her university history classes.

"Yes, it is. And it's also the home of my sister."

"The one who beseeched Ymra to change me so she could torture me and break my mind with..." Ashe struggled to remember what Isaura told her about her earlier trip Imis, "...the Torc?"

"No, that's my younger sister, di'Sona. Beurl'Aana is home to my older sister, Elasha. di'Sona is the nice one."

***

"Well, Kuvras? Speak! We should have received word by now!"

The wizard shuffled forward, resigned. A promotion to The Empress' High Wizard wasn't a promotion at all, unless one considered death a good thing. She set the previous High Wizard Palenor on fire. The one before that exploded. At least he had been able to make out a will and plan for it.

"You are correct, Empress Elasha. Captain Angrove arrived at the coast several hours ago and should arrive by dusk with the monies from the six kingdoms."

"Any troubles?" Elasha asked.

'Where to begin,' Kuvras wondered.

"The Empress should be alerted to several matters," he said. "First, The Havock was attacked by pirate ships - we suspect commissioned by the Keoba Dynasty-"

"-And were dealt with, yes?"

"Yes, the wizards accompanying Angrove and his crew summoned a sea monster, which destroyed the pirates and-"

"Idiots!" Elasha yelled. "The monster could have turned on The Havock and all we'd worked for would have been lost. Have these wizards brought before me when they arrive."Kuvras turned white; he knew several of them well.

"Keoba Dynasty you say?" When Kuvras gave a quick nod, Elasha grew pensive. "They shall receive a second harsher plague then. And the antidote shall cost triple this time."

Which would destroy the economy for the kingdom, she knew, but an example must be made.

"You mentioned several matters, I believe. What other news?"

"We are tracking a large column of Alarian soldiers, who march from Imis. At first they marched to where The Havock made landfall, but they have altered course and are coming directly toward us. They should arrive in several hours’ time, as well."

The wizard braced for the bolt that must surely be flung from that news, but instead he saw Elasha smiled.

"I don't know how my littlest sister finally discovered I am behind the plagues, but, so be it. Summon the Archanist; we must prepare a welcome for them. Once the Arch Duchess sees how easily her finest troops are disposed of, she will comply with anything I demand. Including abdicating power to me."

'And turning over the sniveling di'Sona to me for some real fun.'

"But you mentioned several things, High Wizard Kuvras. Is there something else?"

"Um... uh... you see..."

"Out with it, man! We haven't all day! We have much to do before our guests arrive."

"Another sailboat has been spotted, and is heading toward us as well."

"You mean headed to where Angrove landed?" Elasha asked, slightly confused.

"No, I mean, headed to us. Through the air," Kuvras stammered. "It's ...er ...flying."

Elasha's eyes blazed red once she understood and she whispered one word, dripping with hate:

"Isaura!"

The energy bolt flew from her hand.

***

"Beyond Beurl'Aana, and resting far below the Sacred Grove of Aana, there is a lake - I Hithui Ael - in Alarian. I keep a small rustic villa there. I'll put The Hope of Aana down near it."

"I Hithui Ael." Ashe let it roll off her tongue, making the sorceress smile; their language sounded exquisite when the girl spoke it. Isaura couldn't contain her giggling as she imagined Ashe cursing in Alarian.

"What a beautiful name. What's it mean? And why are you laughing?"

"Nothing; thinking of something funny," Isaura answered. "It means, 'The Misty Lake.' We'll land there."

"Reln"

The sorceress guided The Hope of Aana down with her wand to a point on the lake’s shore where a wooden dock stood next to the shore. The Hope of Aana settled into the water with barely a splash.

Nearby, Isaura's 'rustic villa' looked more like a palace: its walls, ornate columns and roof were constructed of rich green marble, which blended seamlessly with the forest that surrounded it. Ashe heard the splashing of fountains, and based on her visit to Isaura's other lodging she'd visited, Celemiril Manor, she could already envision how sumptuous the place was.

"I don't think the words 'tiny place' and 'rustic villa' mean what you think they mean, Isaura," Ashe said.

"Perhaps, but before you deem my descriptions misapplied," Isaura answered, as the three of them hopped onto the dock. "You must see my palace in the southern province of the Khedel Empire."

"P-palace?" Ashe stuttered, looking to Zinjo for help.

"Iz beeg," he answered, as he finished securing The Hope of Aana to the dock.

"Now who's misapplying words," Isaura said with a huff. "It's huge! You'll especially love the library I've compiled there, easily the largest private one in the Seven Kingdoms."

"Seriously??? I'd love to-"

Before she could explore that gem Isaura had tossed her further, a small bright voice interrupted them.

"Greetings, Mistresses Isaura and Ashera and you, most noble Zinjo. Welcome to Villa bui i Ael."

A small formally dressed Fefnoir man made a deep bow.

"How wonderful to see you, Pipdap," Isaura answered, bowing in return.

Ashe and Zinjo did too, though after she finished her bow, Ashe bit her lower lip, her face showing confusion.

"Er, thank you, ...Pipdap?" Ashe said, "but how you know my name?"

"Oh, Peppenet and Piproos sent word," he said, smiling wide.

When Isaura saw the next logical question forming in the girl's mind, about how that communication was even possible, Isaura shook her head to her, whispering, "Fefnoir magic. Don't even ask. No one understands it."

"Mistress," Pipdap said solemnly, "A full regiment of Alarian soldiers and wizards march to Beurl'Aana, led by your sister di'Sona and the Arch Duchess herself. Also, we have detected a large group of less than savory people making their way to Beurl'Aana from the coast. Based on this and Mistress' unusual form of arrival, we have guessed Mistress is not coming for a relaxing stay. We have taken the liberty of readying mounts for you and Mistress Ashe, and have a Uthain steed for Master Zinjo as well. Have we presumed too much?"

"No, my esteemed friend," Isaura said, "as always, you have presumed perfectly. We ride for Beurl'Aana as well."

***

Myantha stared out of the window of her carriage, watching the forest grow thicker by the mile. Beside her, di'Sona read from a grimoire, her face locked in focus and concentration.

'Memorizing spells for her dual with Elasha,' Myantha thought. And then worried, for Elasha was rumored to be the most powerful sorceress among the Alarians. The Arch Duchess admired di'Sona's courage, whatever misgivings she had about the woman's well-known cruelty.

'At least she is loyal,' Myantha conceded.

Across from her sat Masters Vataz and Ifeus, alquimista professors from their Imis academy.

'This alquimista...such a strange human profession and study,' the Arch Duchess thought. 'And something we must pay attention to, in the future, if one of their own has devised such a terrible disease. Our arrogance blinded us to this danger.'

She listened in on their whispered conversation. Humans rarely understood the reach of Alarian senses. These men were worried, obviously, for they were literally wringing their hands. Myantha had thought that description was only used by obtuse literary hacks, but these men were doing it before her.

"Once we have Blood Burn's compound in a containment box, how will we destroy it?" whispered Vataz. "Would fire do it?"

"No," answered Ifeus, in an equally low whisper, "according to the notes we received, it reacts to fire in the same manner as black powder. It would spread the pathogen exponentially."

"What then, dilution? We haven't the proper protection equipment to risk it in the field," Vataz said.

"No, no, agreed," Ifeus said. "Perhaps cold is the only option, and we let time degrade the components. According to the observations made by the apprentice Aesh-"

"What did you just say?" di'Sona demanded, her full attention now on the men.

"Er, I said cold might be an-"

"No, the name you just spoke, idiot."

"Aesh, from Ogda," Ifeus answered in a shaky voice. He is the brilliant alquimista who uncovered Blood Burn's perverted plans."

"And... where is he now, this Aesh?" A hint of uncertainty had crept into her voice.

"Word came to us he was last seen in Millcrest some months ago, by Master Bexon. He'd found a lead and left alone to track the Archanist. No one has heard from him since. He is feared to be dead."

"Why do you ask of him?" the Arch Duchess asked, curious now. "Is he important? The name does sound familiar..."

"I... uh ...no reason-"

"-Arch Duchess! Mistress di'Sona! News!" an Alarian courier interrupted, riding his steed alongside the moving carriage.

"We have received word that a ...flying ship ... was spotted overhead, landing in I Hithui Ael."

Myantha's head whipped around to di'Sona. "Well, advisor? What the hells does this mean?"

"It could only be ...Isaura ...Arch Duchess."

'The third Faeyra sister, oh peachy,' Myantha thought. 'The Faeyra sister no one knows the measure of because she chooses self-exile from Alari. We face Elasha, our most powerful wizard, who has partnered with a human who has devised a horrific plague, and now a wild card comes flying in - literally.'

"The Faeyra clan," Myantha muttered in disgust. "I now fully appreciate the wisdom of our ancestors who forever barred them from ruling Alari."

***

An hour's hard ride along the banks of I Hithui Ael brought the trio below the forested plateau where the ancestral home of the Alarians stood, the palace of Beurl'Aana. Ashe could just make out its green spires poking above the canopy of thick trees.

They dismounted to give their horses a rest before making the final push.

"You ride well," Isaura said to Ashe. It didn't surprise her, for even when her mind was dulled and broken by the Torc, her competent handling of the tack was automatic; the girl obvious knew her way around a horse. But Ashe rode today like she was born to the saddle.

"Thanks, after my family died, I worked for years as a stable boy at the race track in Edefia to survive," Ashe answered. "I often rode the race horses on off days to give them a workout."

"Ah, ha!" Isaura said, "that is where you learned your colorful language, I bet."

"The basics, maybe, but the creative embellishments are all mine," Ashe answered, then stared up at the distant palace. "So what's our plan?"

"Da, witch woman," Zinjo said, "must have plan more than blast things."

"Honestly, I don't know what to expect. I hope to neutralize Elasha and any other wizards or sorceresses who may follow her. Zinjo will be able to account for soldiers my older sister has..."

"Da," the giant said solemnly, and as the memory of the one hundred foot giant wrestling the sea monster flashed in her head, Ashe would have bet all her money he would win (if she had any).

Isaura held each of Ashe's shoulders and looked down into the girl's eyes.

"I'm counting on you to find Blood Burn and take his anti-life serum, Ashe, for I believe this is your destiny. Your discovery of his notes, the famed Ailana Crow seeking you out and the fortune she read for you, your meeting with Shea - yes, even that - ...your incredible transformation..."

'I still can make no sense of that, Isaura thought, '-why she was goddess-changed, and especially why into a girl- but I know there is purpose behind it!'

"...our journey together ...all leads here."

Isaura watched the girl's eyes darken, and she turned to gaze through the forest and out over the Misty Lake. An Alarian sunset dappled its waters and turned the rising wisps of mist to hues of orange and red. Two great blue herons flew low, skimming the surface, their great wings occasionally slashing wetness on their downward strokes.

"What's wrong, love?" Was it doubt she'd seen in Ashe's eyes? When she gently turned the girl's head to face hers, she saw the tears.

"Iz no shame in being scared, leetle one, but know witch and Zinjo have your back."

"I'm not scared. Well, look, only a fuck faced turd sniffer wouldn't be scared to death by what Breviar has made. It would wipe out all the living wonder that surrounds us. Add in Elasha, who from what Isaura said is wicked powerful, and yeah I'm scared, but that's not it."

"Then what is it, sweetie?" Isaura asked, wiping away a tear rolling down the girl's cheek.

"I-I know this sounds crazy, because it's only been a week or so since I awoke in that cave with you, but I feel like I've known you for much... I mean, I feel like we..."

Ashe stumbled with her words and emotions welling within her that until this moment she hadn't known were so strong.

"I really like you both. No, 'like' doesn't capture it at all... fuck! I'm an idiot..."

Ashe could tell by the perplexed looks of the sorceress and the giant that she had lost them, so she gathered her thoughts and tried again.

"This past week... which has been sooo weird for me..." Ashe rolled her eyes internally at that vast understatement, and didn't bother motioning to her body; she figured they'd know what she meant. "...but leaving all that aside, with the two of you? I felt something I haven't since my family died. I belonged. And...   and..."

Ashe huffed in exasperation; despite her reputation for flamboyant verbage, she'd always struggled to express her deepest feelings.

"Girl iz most right." Zinjo said, coming to her rescue, and giving the top of her head an affectionate rub.  "We love her dearly,"

"Absolutely we do..." Isaura seconded strongly. Then she guessed what the girl was really trying to say, the tip-off being the past tense 'meant' and not 'means'.

"...you don't think we are going to survive, do you?"

"No, it's not a 'world coming to an end' feeling," the girl answered, "though it could. It's just..."

Ashe let out a frustrated sigh, and tried to convey what she meant yet again.

"During this long journey which started for me in that library many months ago, I really died once, I think, killed by the Torc. But coincidentally, an incredibly powerful sorceress found me and managed to resurrect me. Then when I dove into the sea after I learned I'd killed..."

Ashe still couldn't bring herself to say those words, that she killed Shea.

"...after I learned that and jumped, I should have died - I wanted to die - but there just happened to be a magical giant nearby who pulled me from the depths of the sea and saved me again. I've cheated death twice. But the third time's the charm, as they say."

"Do not say such, leetle one," Zinjo said, his worry even thicker than his accent, "iz bad luck."

"I don't fear death. I... I think I'm ready for it," she said, then her eyes turned wet again with fresh tears, and she looked first at Zinjo, then Isaura. "I... just wanted you both to know whatever happens... ...I love you... and I will try my best not to let you down."

They spoke many words after that, all from the heart; Isaura wrapping her arms around the small girl, and Zinjo enveloping them both in his massive arms.

Soon, they mounted and rode, up the winding path to Beurl'Aana. And as they did, Isaura couldn't shake the feeling - she, too, sensed a doom hanging over the girl.

***

Arch Duchess Myantha gazed up at the ancestral palace and heaved a sigh; the wondrous structure was part of an Alarian's soul. Its architecture wove ribbons of white and green granite into patterns that, depending on the time of day, shone brilliantly, or became completely camouflaged by the Alarian forest. It was at its most glorious white now, at dusk. That she was now forced to lay siege to it was tragic.

Beside her, di'Sona and an Alarian regiment of over two thousand soldiers and wizards stood poised, surrounding the ancient palace of Beurl'Aana.

"It's over, Elasha." Myantha's voice echoed clear in the cool evening. "Don't embarrass yourself, and your family, by drawing this out."

Silence was her reply.

"Perhaps they are sleeping," Myantha said as she turned from looking up at the palace barbican to her sorceress. "Wake them."

di'Sona pulled her wand from her purple robes, and flicked it toward the palace.

"kikh"

A force slammed against the palace facade. Invisible, but for the air compression, pushing dust up and flying.

"Knock, knock," di'Sona said.

The doors at the barbican level opened, and a woman walk to the banister, clothed it a pure white silken robe, rich black hair pinned in an updo, a circlet of gold gleaming on her head - there was never mistaking a Faeyra sister when you saw one.

di'Sona whispered, "Elasha," through gritted teeth.

"Some little girls never learn their lesson," Elasha said. She raised a hand that suddenly had a white wand in it and spoke the word dalo.

Fire roared from her wand streaming down toward di'Sona and Myantha. di'Sona spoke a quick ruhuss, inserting an invisible wall in front of them. The fire slammed into it, making it glow red, then white.

Beads of sweat began forming on di'Sona's brow; her sister was pouring everything she had into this test of wills - she'd forgotten how amazingly strong Elasha's magic was - and she wasn't sure how long she could hold it back.

"She means to end this right now," di'Sona said under her breath to Myantha.

"Can you... hold her back?" The Arch Duchess looked to her left and right to see if other wizards could aid her sorceress, but they already were, pouring their energies into the shield.

"Will it be en-"

The Arch Duchess never finished her sentence, for Elasha gave a high yelp and was flung to the stone floor. The stream of fire blinked out.

"And what lesson is that, Sister?" a clear voice rang out.

The Arch Duchess, di'Sona, and the Alarian troops turned to find who had spoken. Far to their left flank, on a small plateau, they spotted, first a giant, then a woman wearing rich green robes holding a dark wand aloft, and beside her, a petite young Alarian woman.

"Isaura, I presume," Myantha said.

Elasha had risen and dashed to the balcony of the barbican.

"How like you to strike a dirty blow rather than face me," Elasha's voice echoed. "As ever, you are incapable of the noble path."

"It's true," Isaura answered, her voice also amplified by Alarian magic. "Releasing plagues upon the Seven Kingdoms and blackmailing them for the cure, that high-minded altruism was always out of my reach."

"You promised to never set foot in Beurl'Aana forever in exchange for the coin I paid you," Elasha hissed. "Yet here you stand; such is the value of your word."

"But surely you read the fine print in our contract, Sister," Isaura called back. "The one which reads 'this contract is null and void if you harbor anyone who creates a serum which will end all life'."

"My only regret was darling Shea emptied her mind of her memories of you before I captured her..." Elasha replied, her voice suddenly, sickeningly sweet. It was the one she used to torment her sisters those many decades ago.

Whenever di'Sona heard it from her oldest sister, she cringed, for she knew some cruelty would soon be inflicted on her. Even now, di'Sona grimaced at the sound of it.

It produced a different reaction those many decades ago in Isaura: cold rage. When she heard it, she lashed out at her sister. That was exactly Elasha's intent, for then her parents would punish Isaura, and the kindest thing anyone could say of Faeyra punishments was they were creative.

"...I would have loved to pull each of those out and twist them round and round. Rest assured she learned true pain before I released her in Imis. I'm sure she would have cried out for you, if only she could have remembered who you were."

Myantha watched Isaura's wand arm shoot up again, but saw the young Alarian girl grab the sorceress' arm. Isaura tilted her head to listen to the girl, and then lowered her arm.

"Have you no reply?" Elasha called. "Or did you care so little for her?"

"My young friend warned me you were trying to enrage me into making a mistake," Isaura said, with frost in her voice. "Her exact words were 'you know, that leg humping sack of shit is trying to bait you, right?'..."

The Alarian troops snickered and chuckled on hearing that, making Elasha face burn hot red.

"...I think she is being charitable. You are pathetic, Elasha. I'm guessing you've even given yourself a vain narcissistic title... wait... wait... I bet it's something like 'Empress.' Do you have a pretty uniform too?"

"You are beneath me!" Elasha called out, and drew herself up to her full height. "While you've been shuffling about the world, I've been building power, consolidating, practicing my craft. You are outmatched in every way. Be gone. Turn and run. Now! Do not stop until you are far, far away. Never show your face to me again."

"I swore to our parents I wouldn't give you the death you so richly deserve," Isaura answered, "it's why I left Alari. Yet for what you did to my daughter, I renounce that vow. I pray to Aana to help me not take pleasure in this, but I fear I will."

"So be i!," Elasha screamed, "You. Die. Now."

"dalo"

***

Ashe resisted the urge to duck as fire blasted toward them. Isaura spoke the word rhaiarn and an invisible shield appeared before them, blocking the fire.

"She does have strength, I'll give her that," Isaura said, but her voice didn't show any strain as far as Ashe could tell. "Did you notice anything different about what I did as opposed to di'Sona?"

Ashe wondered at that; as white hot fire blasted in front of them, Isaura thought it presented a 'teachable moment.' There really must not be much danger from Elasha's attack; a quick glance at Zinjo's face showed an expression more akin to boredom rather than worry. Ashe replayed the last few minutes in her mind.

"di'Sona used a different word than you did to make this... shield?" Ashe said. "She spoke the word-"

"-Don't repeat it," Isaura said, "but yes. Alarians like to use what is called energui ingole, or energy magic. It's blunt, but effective, especially given Alarians’ inborn affinity for magic. I know a few other forms, and created my shield using an ancient dwarvish magic called aranalder, or 'elemental' in the common tongue."

"Um, so, what's the difference?" Ashe asked, trying hard to be as nonchalant as Isaura as a searing stream of fire battered the shield only steps away.

"Ashe! Oh no! Iz just the question witch woman wanted," Zinjo said, "Now we suffer long and stuffy speech on different magics!"

"Funny man," Isaura said. "And no, I won't bore you with a long-winded speech on the differences. I'll show you. For you see, while energui ingole shields simply block, almost as if they were a slab of stone, aranalder magic is more ...pliable. Watch this."

Isaura began manipulating the air with her free hand, and the shield changed its shape as she did, first forming a curved surface, which funneled Elasha's energy stream upward, then curving over, forming a loop through which the fire flowed up and then back ...at Elasha.

With a quick ruhuss, Elasha threw up a shield, to block her own fire.

"Oh dear me, Sister," Isaura called, "how careless; such a beginner's trap to fall in. If you speak 'koaeto' to cease the fire, you'll also remove your shield and will be burned by the flame still in my loop. But if you don't, eventually your shield will fail, and again, crispy Elasha."

Elasha let loose a string of expletives in reply. To which, Isaura raised her eyebrow and looked at Ashe.

"Well?"

"Well what?" Ashe asked, trying to figure out what lesson she was being directed to now.

"Her cursing. I'm sure that as a professional, you have thoughts on its quality."

"I mean, anyone can indiscriminately drop the f-bomb. Fuck this, fuck that, fuck, fuck, fuck. It becomes meaningless. I save mine up and use them sparingly for maximum effect," Ashe said, though her heart wasn't in it.

She worried still about the threat Isaura's sister posed; she sensed they were far from finished, that Elasha was vicious and had other defenses to be wary of. They still needed to enter the palace, find Breviar, secure the serum.

"Please be careful."

Elasha yelled and motioned to someone in the barbican doorway as she struggled to keep her shield in place. A dozen or so robed men and women - wizards and sorceresses, she guessed - filed out, pointing their wands at Isaura, chanting words, and soon, Isaura's shield was under attack from wind, ice, and fire.

Ashe wasn't sure how to read their threat level now; Isaura did seem to be struggling now - and why weren't the Alarian wizards aiding them? - but the sorceress give a quick smile and wink.

"Oh no!" Zinjo said, "Hold hands over ears, leetle one! Witch woman is using Necrosong chants!"

Isaura spoke a string of words that hurt Ashe's ears to hear, sharp guttural and black:

Tuko khlok lak koxail lovk

Over and over, Isaura spoke them, her own voice growing hoarse in the speaking. Dark things appeared in the air around her - Ashe couldn’t decide if they were ravens, bats or some other dark creatures, but once the creatures were a thick flock, Isaura spoke a final word that sounded like a snake's hiss:

Fisis

The dark forms shrieked toward Elasha and her wizards, shredding and devouring all magical energy before them. Emitting a high-pitched buzzing, they swarmed the wizards, swirling around, and then passing through them. Over and over. Elasha and her wizards frantically swatted at the things, twisting and turning to escape, but still the apparitions hunted and fed.

Finally, the black swarm turned, paused as if digesting, then back and raced toward Isaura. Who uttered: derxomk

The swarm vanished.

For a moment, silence, giving Ashe time to wonder 'what the holy wanking hells just happened?'

"What did you do?" Elasha wondered the same. Yet her voice was slight, unamplified by magic. She squealed, "what did you do?!"

"You ...took her magic," Ashe said, holding her palm up. She no longer sensed the tickle of energy from Elasha and her followers.

"As Zinjo said, it is from the Necrosong," Isaura said, her voice recovering. "The Odes of the Daemon. The darkest of magics. I found the tome hidden in his temple ruins in the sunken lands. The cover of the tome ...bleeds black blood. The effect is temporary though; the loss of magic lasts only a few days. But plenty of time for our purposes."

"Wait, what?!" Ashe's head swirled trying to comprehend the sorceress' words, packed full of what surely must be complex and arcane subjects - Daemon? Sunken lands? Bleeding books? - each worthy of years of study.

"Stolen! My magic is gone! You bitch!" Elasha howled. "Launch the gas. Kill them all!"

***

Thumping popping sounds started coming from behind the palace walls. Soon, large clay pots began crashing in front of the Alarian army, releasing seemingly... nothing. Yet the clay pot cannon fire increased exponentially, sending a rain of pots down in front of the soldiers.

Then, one by one, those soldiers closest to the pots fell to the ground, unmoving.

Though Isaura and Ashe could see the effects from their vantage point, the commanders of the Alarian army, including di'Sona and the Arch Duchess, were too far behind their lines to have a clear view.

Sensing disaster, Ashe breathed deeply, using her new senses to the fullest, and detected the faintest smell of rotten eggs.

"Sulfide!" Ashe tugged on Isaura's robe sleeve. "It's bad Dragon's Breath... er... it's bad gas! Get everyone back! It kills instantly!"

Isaura didn't doubt Ashe for a second. She waved her wand and spoke:

"lles rfaec"

*Sister, Elasha is launching poison gas upon your troops. Pull back! One hundred yards at least.*

*Are you certain it's not a trick? I would hate to give up our advantage.*

Dozens of those on the front line had toppled over and now soldiers further back began falling.

*Your men and women are dying! PULL BACK!!!*

Recall was quickly sounded, though not soon enough for the one hundred who already were dead. The firing of the pots soon dwindled to a few crashing down to earth, then none.

Though colorless, the gas from the rain of pots had formed a blurry cloud in front of the palace entrance. The sorceress's mind rifled through dozens of barrier spells, each slightly different; one an ice barrier, another a flame, and so on. But what she didn't know was whether any offer complete protection from the gas. Then Isaura had another idea.

"What may be done about this gas, Ashe?" Isaura said.

"How did you talk with your sister like that?"

"It's called Far Speak. It's only works within a mile or so, but if in range, it’s much easier and clearer than scry speech," the sorceress answered hurriedly. 

"Wow!  Scrying, Far Speech, you magic types have all the cool stuff!  I can't wait to learn it."

"*Ahem!*  Focus Ashe,"  Isaura chided,  "Tell me about the gas. Your thoughts quickly!"

"Oh!  Yes, letting it dissipate would be easiest, but..."

Ashe had a sudden thought, but then shook her head, for what she first conceived would mean everyone in the palace would die. And she would NOT kill. Instead, She eyed the swift moving clouds above.

"Dilution is the solution to pollution," Ashe said.

"And what does that mean?" Isaura asked.

"It means... Zinjo, can you blow the way you did when you sealed The Hope of Aana, but at an angle," Ashe used her arm to show the angle upward she wanted, "and blow the gas upward? It soon would become harmless once the wind sweeps it away into the upper sky."

The giant nodded his understanding, grinned, took a deep, deep, deep breath, and with the sound of whooshing that mimicked a gale wind, blew a concentrated steady wind stream in the elevated angle Ashe's arm pointed.

The steady hurricane force winds sprayed the clay pot fragments everywhere, but also lifted the poisonous stagnant fumes high into the air, where the upper winds grabbed it and took it higher still, spreading and mingling, and carrying it away.

"Thanks Zinjo," Ashe said with awe when the giant stopped blowing. She turned to Isaura and whispered, "I think it's safe now."

"Thank you, Ashe," Isaura said to the young woman, the admiration clear in her voice. She spoke the Far Speak spell again, an addressed her younger sister once more.

"The gas is gone, Sister. Your troops may advance without fear."

"We heard a great wind from near you. Was that your doing? Are you certain it is safe?"

The sorceress looked at Ashe and smiled. "Very."

Soon, a trumpet sounded, and they heard the battle chant of the Alarian regiment as it rushed toward the palace.

The troops encountered no magical resistance either, as Elasha's own wizards suffered the same fate as she - their magic was gone - and quickly the Alarian wizards battered opened the palace doors with their spell.

Elasha's guards weren't disarmed, meeting the Arch Duchess' soldiers with fierce resistance inside the palace. Isaura's heart sank as Alarian blood was spilled - and their immortal lives ended - in the ancient Faeyra hallways. Isaura watched a contingent of Alarian wizards, led by her younger sister, push inside to join the fight.

"We've got to get inside and try to stop this tragedy," she said, turning to Zinjo and Ashe. "I fear for what will happen when di'Sona finds Elasha."

"Way iz clogged with soldiers," the giant answered as he surveyed the mass of men and women trying to squeeze through the palace doors to join the fight. "I fear I hurt many if I try to push through."

"There is another way, a secret entrance to the palace," Isaura said frowning. "Through the Sacred Pool of Aana."

"A secret entrance? Oh why doesn't this surprise me?" Ashe said wryly.

"I'm certain Elasha has more planned than battling this out," Isaura said. “And we have yet to hear from Blood Burn and his death plague."

"You don't think she would unleash that, do you?" Ashe said, alarm filling her voice. "Gods! It would kill her too!"

"If di'Sona traps Elasha... her hatred would blind her to reason; she is capable of anything," the sorceress replied. "I must be there to stop it!"

"Then let's go," Ashe said. "maybe Zinjo can-"

"No!" Isaura answered sternly. "The Pool is hallowed ground for Aana. It is the goddess' most sacred sanctuary. Her pure essence abides there. In the history of the Seven Kingdoms, no man has ever been permitted to approach it."

"Oh, I'd forgotten that," Ashe said, vaguely remembering from her university Seven Kingdoms history class something about the prohibition. "But surely with the stakes so high that rule can be overlooked this once!"

"No! It's not a case of 'suspending rules'!" Isaura said. "Any male setting foot on Aana's grounds is killed, instantly."

"Iz true," Zinjo answered. "Has always been so."

"Well, fuck me running!" Ashe muttered as she shook her head.

"Mount up, Ashe," Isaura said as she ran to her steed. "Zinjo, try to get through as best you can!"

The giant nodded and without another word, he bounded forward in huge leaps toward the palace doors.

Isaura watched as the giant suddenly jumped high into the air, to land on the barbican palace level, where he could enter without running over half the Alarian army.

"Smart," Isaura said with a smile. She turned to Ashe, and saw the girl was mounted. "Ready?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

The sorceress paused briefly to consider something, the one mystery that had troubled her for days - why had the young alquimista been transformed into a woman? Because now, they traveled to the one place in the Seven Kingdoms where Aesh could never come, yet Ashe was free to enter.

'Interesting,' the sorceress thought, then sighed in frustration. 'No time to think through the implication.'

"Follow meeee!" Isaura shouted, and spurred her mount into a gallop.

'Follow me?' Ashe thought, as she urged her own mount to give chase. 'Who's been reading cheesy romance stories now?'

***

The ride was exhilarating and quick, bringing the pair through a wooded path so dense with trees that Ashe felt she rode through a tunnel. They spilled out into a clearing that stood before an arched stone gate. An ancient moss-covered stone wall, six feet high, stretched away on either side for as far as Ashe could see. Above the top of the Arch rested a stone chalice. It looked familiar to her. She puzzled on it for a moment before she realized where she'd seen it before:

'In the reading with Ailana Crow. The goddess card! It's the cup she held!'

Isaura vaulted from her horse and walked quickly through the gate. Ashe dismounted slowly; taking a moment to absorb it: the gate to the goddess' most hallowed place in the Seven Kingdoms, and the surrounding forest and trees. For all the fame of this spot, and the danger that went with it, Ashe thought this entrance to Aana's Sacred Pool seemed pretty low-key.

'Maybe the front door is fancier.'

The young Alarian turned her gaze to the dense thick Eemen trees. To her, the place seemed lush, dense, and primeval.' she thought.

She noticed it then, the oddity: there were no sounds: neither bird song, nor rustling of leaves, only silence. She felt the strangeness, too, or rather it struck her, heavy, thick and all around.

'Anger! Deep seething anger!'

Ashe hurried through the gate to join Isaura.

"The goddess is pissed!"

Isaura started to chide Ashe about her irreverence, but stopped. The girl wasn't wrong - the sorceress had felt the goddess' displeasure growing stronger as they rode, and here Aana's presence was wrathful. This kind of wrath was usually followed by lightning bolts. “Pissed” was as accurate a word as any.

"Very. And there is why," Isaura raised her hand to point. "Where are the priestesses, and why haven't they removed that abomination?"

Ashe's gaze followed to the spot Isaura pointed. As she did, her sight traveled across the surface of a pool of water that was glass smooth; a mirror of gold to the canopy of ancient Eemen trees above.

What Ashe didn't know was that the pool could show so much more than reflecting images. For those trained deeply in the learnings of Aana, it is said that the pool might also show the First Days, the End Time, or even strange other worlds.

What Ashe did know was the thing Isaura pointed to, that which she called 'abomination', was a large cube, sitting at the pool's edge on the far shore. Inlaid with red gold leaf, she estimated its height at five feet.

"An alquimista puzzle box, I think," Ashe squinted, using every bit of her new elven enhanced vision to scan it. "What the hells is it doing here?"

"You think?" Isaura asked, her voice inflecting higher. "I need better! That shouldn't be there! It is a sacrilege beyond reckoning! The priestesses of the pool are missing, and Aana is only barely holding herself back from raining down fire and destruction! I feel it! Elasha has done this! But why?!"

"It sure looks like a puzzle box... it must be one, but-"

"-but what?" Isaura interrupted. "You've tried to open them, yes? Why the uncertainty?"

"There are twelve known puzzle boxes," Ashe said, "I've researched all of them, almost opened two, and know for certain this isn't one of-"

"-we don't have time, Ashe," Isaura grabbed Ashe's hand and started jogging around the pool shores. Once around it, there were stairs that led up to The Temple of Aana, and through that, they would come to the rear entrance of Beurl'Aana.

"My sisters are fighting nearby with their armies. Let's fly to the rear palace entrance and get that serum! We'll deal with this after."

"No, wait, wait!" Ashe said, thinking fast even as she jogged beside Isaura. "This may be important! The existing boxes were patterned after a thirteenth, the original. Theodophilus the Wise designed it; a master work. The Chronicle of Theodophilus claims it is far, far harder to open than the puzzle boxes that followed. The text stated he paid someone named Krornuik Aleminer to build it to Theo's exact specifications."

"Krornuik? Hmm."

That was a name Isaura hadn't heard in over six decades. She stopped running; her interest was sparked.

"My father commissioned several pieces from that old dwarf; his craftsmanship was unsurpassed in the Seven Kingdoms. He only worked with the finest dwarvian gold... red gold... Tell me more, but quickly. Was the original used in the alquimista master's test as the boxes are today?

"No, Theo meant for the box to house the chrysopeia - our “lead to” formula - for safekeeping," Ashe answered. "He designed the inner chamber to explode, if someone tried to break in or failed to answer the puzzle questions correctly."

"And so that’s what it was used for?" Isaura had thought they were on to something, for the large cube looked to her to be the work of Krornuik. But she failed to see what part this played in her sister's plans. And they needed to be moving again, now.

"Ultimately no. The text says - and I'm paraphrasing here - they figured out how incredibly fucking stupid the idea was. When they tested it, the puzzles Theo embedded in the cube were so hard even he couldn't open it. The alquimista masters started worrying-"

"-Okay, Ashe, okay," Isaura said, her patience at an end. She grabbed the girl's hand again. "It shouldn't be here, but we'll sort this out later. C'mon."

"No!" Ashe pulled away. "Don't you see? I'd bet you anything Breviar's serum is right here, locked inside the box!"

"It is?" They had reached the other side of the pool and were much closer to it. Isaura ran her hand gently over the buffer red gold surface. She tried to sense the life-cancelling threat that might rest within.

"Can you open it?"

"I ...doubt it, if Theo couldn't..."

Ashe had already found the knob to activate the first puzzle and her hand rested on it. She was tempted to try the cube, but stopped.

"...I think ...we must unlock it with Krornuik's key. One wrong answer, or the timer expiring and *boom*! Which would ignite the serum..."

"And life everywhere is annihilated," Isaura finished the thought. "This may be why Aana hasn't blasted it. What would happen if I used magic to move it-"

"-No! Any movement or force will trigger it."

"I was afraid of that," Isaura said. She was also afraid of who must possess the key.

'Elasha!'

"Hurry, Ashe," the sorceress said with urgency bordering on panic. She grabbed the girl and yanked her toward the stones steps leading up from the pool to the temple. "We've wasted too much time here!"

***

After Isaura and Ashe raced to Aana's temple, they found it unnecessary to run further to find them. The battle spilled out of the palace and found them.

Though Captain Argrove, his crew, and Elasha's guard fought a fierce defense, without her magic or their poisonous weapons, they were no match for the Alarian regiment. They managed to slow the Alarians enough to allow Elasha and her wizards... to retreat. They hadn't noticed Isaura and Ashe yet, because their heads craned back to the fighting.

As Ashe gazed through the magical looking glass Isaura had again raise, she tried to read Elasha’s expression: her face was so much like Isaura's; the classic Faeyra looks, she knew now, having also looked at di'Sona earlier too: rose red lips, dewy olive skin, and haunting ice blue eyes. But so different, too. Ashe read expressions she'd never seen on Isaura - hate and arrogance etched it in. She saw new ones too, surprise and fear.

"Watch this," Isaura said, raising her arms with wand in hand. "Ruhuss."

Ashe remembered from the magical attacks earlier the word meant 'shield', and also remembered the kind of magic Isaura named it - energui ingole,

"Energy magic," Ashe said, and felt the surge flow from the sorceress. She'd felt the strength of Elasha's energui ingole earlier, and knew instantly Isaura's was far, far stronger. Her 'shield' was an enormous wall. Ashe could see the air shimmering where it stood.

"Wow!"

"Glad you like it," Isaura said, with just the slightest hint of smugness. "Zinjo is always so stingy with the compliments when I do something amazing. They should be reaching it just about..."

A cadre of men and women in colorful full robes - wizards, Ashe assumed - were running toward them full tilt, when suddenly they slammed into something and fell to the ground.

"...now."

Several more cautiously bumped into it and began moving their hands along it to find an opening. More of Elasha's supporters found the wall, and shouted "we're trapped!" or other more panicked expressions.

Elasha herself joined the growing group, recognizing quickly the problem. Ashe watched her raise her wand, point it in the direction Isaura had placed her shield, her mouth moved to utter words, and ...nothing happened.

She screamed and screeched, her shouts growing all the louder when she spotted Isaura.

At that very moment, Captain Argrove - who apparently was not incentivized to “die to the last man” - shouted an order. His troops dropped their swords and held their arms in the air. The Alarian soldiers quickly surrounded them, taking their weapons and herding the prisoners back to the palace to, Ashe guessed, some room or even a dungeon where they could be held.

When Isaura saw Elasha and her advisors had also been surrounded, she lowered her shield.

"Where's Zinjo?" the sorceress scanned the crowd that was building around her older sister.

A chaos of sorts unfolded, then someone - the Alarian soldiers, Ashe presumed - had released the prisoners that were being held, and a large group of priestesses of Aana sprinted toward the sacred pool, pointing at the puzzle box, wailing and pulling their hair.

The mass of soldiers parted, to allow the Arch Duchess, di'Sona, and a half dozen black robed alquimistas to walk through to approach Elasha.Then Zinjo came storming forward, holding a man in his hands the way a child might hold a doll.(You’re not supposed to begin a sentence with “And”, but I will make an exception this time. )(On second thought, I like “Then” better.

"That's Breviar!" Ashe exclaimed. 

"I figured," Isaura answered. "Let's hurry; we need to find the key to the box quickly. I don't think di'Sona or the Arch Duchess has any idea that the real danger still exists."

They elbowed their way to where di'Sona and Elasha stood, expecting to hear Elasha's capitulation. Instead, they heard her demands.

"...will withdraw your troops immediately. Further, you will abdicate all power to me."

"You're insane, sister," di'Sona said. "In what bizarro world do you inhabit where could you possibly think you could bargain with us?"

"And you," Elasha said, ignoring di'Sona as she turned her attention to Isaura, "you will restore my magic to me this instant!"

"Or what?" Isaura answered. "Here's what I think is going to happen. You will give me the key to the alquimista puzzle box now, and maybe, just maybe, we can bury you so deep in a dungeon that Aana's lightning bolts won't reach you."

"Puzzle box," the alquimista Vataz said, "what puzzle box?"

The gaggle of black robed alquimistas echoed similar responses.

"The one desecrating Aana's sacred pool down below her temple," Isaura said, nodding her head toward the marble building behind her. "Now, Elasha, the key please?"

"I underestimated you," Elasha said in a quiet voice. "Your powers have grown far beyond anything I could have ever imagined. In a way, I'm proud of you, Sister. And yet... have you not underestimated me as well? Since when have you ever known me to not have a backup plan, or even a backup plan for my backup plan?"

"Does she still pose a threat?" Myantha asked di'Sona. The two were drawn to where Isaura and Ashe confronted Elasha.

"I fail to see how, your Grace," di'Sona answered with a shrug. "her troops have surrendered, she has been stripped of her magic - nice trick that, Isaura - and all that remains is for us to find this 'potion' the rogue alquimista devised and either destroy it or safely store it. We have all the time in the world for that, and very persuasive tools to use as well."

"Do you?" Elasha said with a small smile. "Have all the time in the world? I suspect not. I think you have just about an hour before Blood Burn's serum is ignited and every living thing for thousands of miles around is destroyed."

"Explain yourself this instant," di'Sona said, "or I will rip the answers from your head."

From beneath her robe, the youngest Faeyra sister produced a rough iron collar.

"The Torc?" Myantha gasped. "But that is never to be used unless the Alarian council has approved and then only in the most dire of circumstances!"

"I'd say the annihilation of all life in the Seven Kingdoms probably qualifies," di'Sona answered smugly, and took a step toward Elasha. "Hold her!"

"No! Get that hideous thing away from me!" Elasha scrambled back, terror showing in her eyes. "I will gladly tell you everything!"

Ashe gave a questioning look to Isaura, to which the sorceress nodded sadly, and whispered:

"Yes, it is what Yoke of Despair tarot symbolized from the reading. And yes, it was used on you."

"You noticed perhaps the priestesses of Aana earlier?" Elasha said, her voice steadying. "It was I who imprisoned them and I who moments ago ordered them released. They seemed quite distraught."

"Of course they were," Isaura answered, her voiced filled with anger. "You defiled Aana's sacred... wait!"

"Oh no, no, no!" Ashe exclaimed, as the implications hit her as well. "They mustn't touch it!"

The two raced to the top of the steps to peer down. What they saw caused Isaura to raise her arm, point her wand and shout "llsaana!"

"Did they activate it?" Isaura turned back to Ashe.

The young Alarian surveyed the scene below - a dozen priestesses, standing statue still, frozen in the act of pushing the red gold box away from the edge of the pool. But the box itself wasn't frozen; even from far above the pool she could hear the whirring sound.

"No! The timer has started and the hour has begun!" Ashe exclaimed to Isaura, her face several shades paler. "We need the key now!"

"What key?" di'Sona asked. She, the Arch Duchess, her troops, Elasha, the other prisoners, and Zinjo, still carrying Blood Burn, had just now caught up. "And what is that box doing by Aana's sacred pool?"

"That box is Theodophilus' puzzle box," Ashe said hurriedly, more to the group than di'Sona. "In it is Professor Breviar's - or Blood Burn as you call him - anti-alkahest, the anti-life serum. If we don't use Krornuik's key to stop the timer, the box will explode, killing all life everywhere."

"Who are you, a woman, to speak thus of the alquimista mysteries?" the Alquimista Ifeus said, his voice tinged with indignation.

"Keep such base opinions to yourself," Vataz added, "and listen to your betters."

"I have no idea who she is," Elasha said, "but every word she spoke is true. Everyone you know will die unless you stop that box from exploding. And I have the key. So let's get back to my demands, shall we?"

"That can't possibly be true!" the Arch Duchess asked di'Sona. "Can it?"

"If the dead zone our agents found in the Qyrc Wilds was caused by what's in that box, then-"

"Oh, no, that's not correct," Blood Burn said, straightening his robes, having finally been released by Zinjo. "That hallowed place you called 'dead zone, was freed of any form of flawed life with but one drop of my anti-alkahest. The Empress was kind enough to provide me with the resources to produce a gallon of the serum that will restore perfection to the Seven Kingdoms. That is what is in Theodophilus' box."

"Hey, Professor Breviar," Ashe, said to the rogue alquimista. "I have a question for you."

"Yes, young woman?" Blood Burn was startled to hear his old title. "What is it?"

"What are you going to do for a face when the baboon takes his butt back?"

"What am I... what?" Blood Burn's mind temporarily stopped its manic fixation on the serum's activation as it tried to make sense of Ashe's insult.

"You fucking idiot!" It was Ashe's turn to have indignation in her voice. "First you pervert the purity of chrysopeia process! Then you devise plagues to inflict on people, the very opposite of everything we alquimistas hold true. Your maggot-infested mind next justifies the creation of a serum to annihilate the world, and finally, you have the gall to desecrate Aana's sacred pool with it!"

"Ashe, please," Isaura said gently. "This isn't helping."

"No! Someone needs to say it, Isaura!" Ashe said, "I hope Aana sends him to the Hell of the Slicing Scissors to cut off the fingers that created his serum, and then next to the Hell of the Tongue Ripping to-"

"-I like the way you think, girl," Elasha interrupted, and the admiration in her voice was sincere. "Yet you are wrong about one thing. It was I who placed the box beside Aana's Pool, and not this insane alquimista. How could he? He's a man."

"But why?" Isaura asked. "Our clan has guarded the sacred pool for millennia. Surely you can feel her anger, her wrath."

"Of course I can! I feast on it! She is powerless. She! A goddess!"

Elasha began pacing about, savoring her big reveal.

'In a way,' Elasha thought, 'winning this way, without my magic, is better, more dramatic.'

"I locked her priestesses away to keep them from causing mischief. I barred any from coming near, and kept the key with me. Only the dreary alquimista might have had a chance of opening it anyway, and if they set foot near the pool, pffffft. Aana herself strikes them down. But if she strikes the box, or moves it, the box explodes, and life, everything she holds dear ...gone."

As Elasha turned to face them she threw back her head.

"The goddess bows before me! And you shall too, or die in less than an hour. Your choice."

"Zis iz insurance I was telling you of, leetle one," Zinjo said, "Though iz stupid insurance, since she die also."

"Is what she said true?" the Arch Duchess asked di'Sona, "any of it?"

"All of it, I' fear" di'Sona said. "Now will you agree to the use of the Torc? We must have that key!"

"Yes, use it! Do all you must to get it!"

"Hold! If you do that, you will never have it in time," Elasha said. "I know not where it is. I gave it to Blood Burn to devise its safekeeping as the battle turned against us."

"That's easy enough to solve," di'Sona said, "we'll use it on-"

"-it won't work on him," Elasha said, "with the geases I've laid on him the Torc will instantly rip his mind asunder."

"Have no fear, my Empress," Blood Burn said with a bow, "I can never be made to show where the key to Theodophilus' box. It is perfectly safe."

"And so you see you must deal with me to..." Elasha stopped; something in the rogue alquimista's answer troubled her. "What do you mean by ‘perfectly safe’?"

"Every hiding place was flawed, for I could be forced to reveal its location. So..." Blood Burn paused, to smile, "I destroyed it with acid."

"You WHAT????" Elasha screamed. "We will all be killed!"

"And perfection will come to the Seven Kingdoms at last.”

"We shall attempt it," Ifeus said. He motioned to Vataz and the other alquimistas. "Together we shall open Theodophilus' box and secure the serum."

"Wait!" Isaura called to the group as they made their way to the stairs leading from Aana's temple to the pool below. "Stop, mortal!! You will be struck down if you put but one foot on a step on Her hallowed ground."

"We haven't time for your superstitions, woman," the alquimista answered as he stepped down the first stone stair. "For we-"

Whatever words Ifeus intended will never be known, for a lightning bolt fell from the heavens and struck him. After it did, only a blackened smoking flesh stump remained. The remaining alquimistas backed up several feet, wailing, and looking to the heavens in fear.

"Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods!" Ashe exclaimed, her face several shades whiter now. It didn't help that Elasha burst into laughter. Or that the smell of burnt flesh filled the air. "She just ...just ...just ...fried him!"

Isaura ignored the chaos erupting around them; she grabbed Ashe's shoulders hard and made the girl look into her eyes.

"Ashe! I know that was horrific but we don't have time for you to fall apart. Now we finally know why you were transformed," she said.

"W-we do?"

"Yes! Focus! Can't you see? It wasn't Ymra, but Aana who did it, so that you can open that box! Everything depends on you. Are you with me?"

Ashe wrenched her eyes away from the charred flesh stump, and willed her stomach to stop roiling. She turned to gaze down the temple steps at the scene below. The impossibly perfect pool, the still priestesses, frozen in mid-wail, and the red gold box. It stood, holding the essence of anti-life within, whirring softly, counting the minutes to release its death on the world.

Ashe's mind began whirring into action.

"You," Ashe said, whipping around to address Vataz the Alquimista, "Have the containment box brought here NOW, and for goddess' sake, be ready!"

"Insolent girl," Vataz said. "Why should I take orders from you?"

"Because if you don't do as I say, you son of a scrotum herder, my friend Zinjo will toss every last one of you creeps into the pool below. Right, Zinjo?"

"Iz most certainly true," Zinjo said, standing to his full height. He moved to tower over the cowering man. "Vould like demonstration?"

"N-no, we will get it," Vataz answered, trying to back away. "Though I predict you will most certainly fail to open Theodophilus' box."

"You can take your predictions and shove ‘em up your ass. Just have the containment box ready!" She turned back to Isaura. "Let's go!"

"That's my girl." Isaura turned to the others gathered behind. "I want no one to accompany us; we have little enough time as it is."

"That's absurd!" di'Sona said. "If you think we will allow your little apprentice to determine whether the rogue's plague is released to destroy the Seven Kingdoms, then you are as insane as Elasha."

"It was not a request," Isaura replied, and then turned to Zinjo. "A little help please?"

Zinjo nodded, popped his neck muscles in a roll of his neck, closed his eyes, and grew. Not only did his muscles, joints and bones make crackling sounds as his frame increased to ten, twenty, forty feet, but the earth groaned under his weight. Within one second a naked one hundred foot giant towered over the Alarians gathered at the steps to the pool. His voice boomed:

"COME. NO. FURTHER!"

The Arch Duchess held her hand high to get her troops attention.

And then did the one act which was wholly out of character for an Alarian leader - she did the sensible thing.

"Stand down. We will let Isaura Faeyra and her apprentice attempt to disarm the thing."

"Her name is Ashera," Isaura called back already racing down the steps with the girl. "You would do well to remember it."

***

"Well?" Isaura asked, after circling the box for a third time. "We've already wasted so much time. Where does it begin?"

"Here I think," Ashe said, running her hand over the face of the box which stood away from the water's edge.

"But there is nothing there! No keyhole or anything which might unlock it!"

Ashe didn't answer, instead popping open the alquimista kit at her side. She first plucked a vial full of powder from the box, and then a horsehair brush. Gingerly she dabbed the brush in the bottle, and then dusted the face of the box in its upper center.

Etched words appeared under her brush, and below the words a small hole became visible:

 

I am free for the taking through all of your life,

Though given but once at birth.

I am less than nothing in weight,

But will fell the strongest of you if held.

 

"What the hells does THAT mean?" Isaura asked.

Ashe didn't answer, but instead pulled a hollow straw from her kit. She placed it into the small hole and blew---

Whirring noises activated, and a large front panel swung open.

"Breath," Ashe said, replacing her items into her kit. "The answer is breath."

"I'll just... stay out of it, love," Isaura said. "You're doing fine."

Ashe looked into the panel to see the next puzzle test and saw a scale. Immediately below it was written:

'What goes in the water red and comes out black?'

"And what the hells..." Isaura stopped herself mid-sentence, and gave a little admonishing headshake. "Shutting up now."

Ashe barely heard her, her fingers were flying around inside her kit until they rested on an ingot. She pulled it out and placed it the scale. It bobbed once and then the whirring noise began again, with another panel opening; revealing a deeper chamber.

"Ohhhhh, iron!" Isaura said, as understanding dawned. "But, how did the scale know it was iron?"

"It's calibrated to the density of the metal," Ashe said, replacing the ingot back in the kit. She paused a moment. "You know, if we actually live to see her again, we'll need to thank Piproos for packing such a complete alquimista kit. Even the iron ingot she included was exactly the standard size."

Isaura nodded, but wondered then, how much of it was due to her little servant's diligence and how much was the goddess' hand at work. When she looked up, Ashe had already moved on the next puzzle.

And so it went, Isaura watched as the girl worked her way through each test, slowly working her way to the box's center. One test required Ashe to prepare an obscure compound and pour it down a chute. Another was a riddle again this time requiring her to arrange blocks to spell the element answer to the riddle. What was clear from the increasing rapid timing mechanism was that it would be very close.

The unimaginably high stakes coupled with the arcane and obscure tests were taking a toll on Ashe; Isaura saw her stress level rising with each spinning tick of the box. Her mutters became saltier with each tick and Isaura saw sweat forming on her brow. She gave such calming words as she could, but knew ultimately, that this was something Ashe faced alone.

"Oh fuck!"

"What?" Isaura asked. "What's wrong?"

"This. The final challenge."

Ashe stood aside so the sorceress could see the challenge. It was actually entitled 'The Final Challenge.'  The first paragraph of it read:

Pushed forward the oxen plowed, plowing a white field, held a white plow, and sowed the wet black seed.'

Below it, a second paragraph:

'It Was A Tradition Long Ago, When The World Was Dark And Full Of Woe When Men Turned Darkness Into Light, By Mixing, Melting And Decanting In The Night, To Seek For Youth And Gold And Riches, Just To Be Burned As Witches.'

Followed by a third:

A house based on a foundation like the skies

A house one has covered with a veil like a secret box

A house set on a base like a goose

One enters it blind

Leaves it seeing.

Finally, below that was a long thin slot. The sorceress heard the fear when Ashe spoke her next words:

"I... have... no... fucking... clue!"

"Don't panic! Take a deep breath." Isaura ran her hand gently through Ashe's hair, moving stray strands out of her face.

"There's no time!" Ashe turned to Isaura. "I think there's not much more than a minute left on the timer! Isaura, I've let you down! I'm so sorry!"

"I will not hear such talk!" Isaura said, after she gave the girl a shake. "Your intent must not be to avoid failure. Shape your intent with heart!"

"Heart? 'kay... okay... the white field could be a... a... female symbol, while the plow a male symbol, and... and... the black seed a reincarnated metallic gold...?"

"And don't overthink it either, leetle one!" Zinjo's voice boomed down from above. "Leetle brains do that."

"Don't over think... riiiight... um... 'plowing a white field' ...paper? The 'white plow' ... a quill? And... and...wet black seed...ink!"

Ashe's hand flew into her kit to grab her paper, quill and an ink bottle.

"What does that mean?" Isaura asked, unable to follow Ashe's thoughts.

"Fucking Theodophilus!" Ashe answered. She quickly unfolded the paper. "He's made the final challenge answer a written one."

"Tradition long ago..." Ashe's eyes danced quickly over the second passage quickly. "...Just To Be Burned As Witches.' That's... alquimistas!"

The box's timer was whirring faster and faster. Isaura raised her wand to cast a containment spell if the box exploded, which she expected at any second.

"Hurry."

"A house based on a foundation like the skies, A house one has covered with a veil like a secret box, A house set on a base like a goose, One enters it blind, Leaves it seeing. That's... that's..." Ashe's mind was racing faster than it had in her life, racing against the timer now. That's a school!!"

"So what's the answer?" Isaura asked.

"It's ...it must be ...the symbol for an alquimista school!"

"It's the Alef symbol then? The 'Hidden Tradition?'" Isaura heard the ignition mechanism clicking in the box attempting to spark. "Hurry! Draw it now!"

Ashe started to do just that, draw the 'N' like symbol, but stopped, her hand quivering. Then with a steady hand, she dipped the quill in the ink, drew a pentacle star surrounded by a circle, and slid the paper into the slot.

Suddenly the clicking and whirring noises ...ceased. After several long moments of eerie silence, the box emitted a large *pop*, as the final chamber opened.

A large jar stood within on a shelf, filled with a green bubbling liquid.

"You did it!!!!!!" Isaura grabbed Ashe and bear hugged her, making the girl oof. "Praise be to Aana! You saved everyone, everywhere!!!! I guess we now know who the Queen of Keys is from the tarot reading."

"W-we do?"

"It's you, silly," Isaura beamed. "You were amazing!"

"Kay, um, peachy, would you please take the serum out, please, before the damn box decides to explode anyway," Ashe whispered. "My hands are shaking."

Isaura nodded, unwrapped her arms from Ashe's body, and reached in to lift the jar. Gingerly, she backed away from the box.

"After all you've been through, I'm so very proud of you!" Isaura said, gazing into the glass jar she held. It mesmerized her, the deadly potential of it, seemingly sparkling with darkness. "Will this glass contain it?"

"I... I don't know. In theory... if it contains no organic matter." Ashe said, looking into the bubbling blackness as well. "Let's not test the theory. We need to get it into a lead containment box fast, and then... then I don't know."

"Agreed. But Ashe, question." When Ashe nodded 'yes' Isaura continued. "Why did you draw a pentacle instead of the Alef?"

"Because in Theodophilus' day, that was the symbol," Ashe answered. "It only was changed to 'Alef' about thirty years ago."

"Oh! But how did the box know what you wrote was the old symbol... the correct symbol?"

"I think that after the paper passes through the slot it lands on a scale," Ashe answered. "And that scale is so finely calibrated that it could weigh the exact amount of ink needed to make the correct symbol. Any amount of ink above or below that ...boom!"

"That's astonishing!" Isaura said.

"Yeah, I suppose," Ashe said. "But I kinda think if Theodophilus sat around thinking up things like this box, then he had waaay too much time on his hands."

Suddenly, with a series of popping and snapping sounds, the puzzle box snapped shut.

"We should move away from it," Ashe said. "I think it just reset and can be triggered again."

"I've got a better idea."

Isaura raised her wand and spoke the words to unfreeze the priestesses. She and Ashe then gathered the confused women and led them away from the pool and box to the bottom stairway leading to the temple.

"But Mistress Isaura," the highest ranking priestess said. "We must remove that thing! This abomination desecrates Aana's hallowed ground! Cannot you feel her displeasure surrounding us?'

"I can and do, Revered Mother. But I rather think now this evil concoction has been removed" - Isaura held up the jar filled with volatile darkness - "the goddess will-"

From the sky, a blinding white bolt of lightning sizzled down, striking the box, obliterating it into smoke and charred rubble.

"-take matters into her own hands," Isaura finished her sentence, casting a reverent smile to the heavens. "You should probably have that mess removed quickly.”

The wide-eyed priestess nodded, and led her fellow priestesses back to the pool to do just that.

***

As the pair reached the final step to the temple, they were met with cheers from the Alarian troops, who banged their swords on their shields, and chanted "woot, woot, woot."

A wail sliced through the cheers, one of bitterness and desperation.

"No! Nooooo!"

Blood Burn ran wildly at the pair, through his guards before they could react to grab him. He neared them, his eyes fixed on the serum Isaura held.

"My serum must be freeeeed!"

Before he could take one more step, a giant hand swatted him, sending high in the air. Blood Burn's flight arc took him down to the pool, where they heard a *kersplash*.

Less than two seconds later, a second energy bolt shot from the sky.

"The one known as Blood Burn is no more," Zinjo's voice boomed over all. "I sent him to Aana for judgement for his crimes. She was most displeased."

"You, Vataz!" Isaura addressed the large group black robed alquimistas. "The containment box, now!"

"Yes, great sorceress, immediately." He and several of his brethren lugged the leaden box to Isaura and opened its door.

Once Ashe heard the *clang* of the door closing to the containment box, she finally -finally - breathed a sigh of relief. She felt even better when Zinjo, reached down and snapped the latch off the door, preventing any from ever opening it again.

"Thank the goddess," Ashe managed to whisper. She was completely, utterly spent. Yet it was a good kind of spent. Yes, she had so many issues ahead of her. Could she be changed back to her old body? Now she knew Aana transformed her, could the goddess be petitioned to change her back? And if not, what would she do?

But at this moment, she didn't worry over those things. Instead, she felt the glow of satisfaction that came from a race well run.

"We did it! We actually did it!" she whispered to Isaura, smiling ear to ear. "If I were to die right now, it would be okay, because, really, who can say they've saved the whole freaking world?"

"Hush, child, don't speak that way," Isaura said. It bothered her to hear that fatalism creeping into Ashe's voice. For she still sensed an impending doom.

"And of course we did it," Isaura smiled,  "With the Queen of Keys working the problem, was there ever any doubt?"

"Well," di'Sona said, "Shall we gloat to Elasha?"

"Not at all," the sorceress said dismissively, and turned to the Arch Duchess. "Your Grace, we must find a way to destroy this serum. Or, if that's not possible, a place to store that will be safe. Like in the deepest depth of the ocean, or at the bottom of the darkest mineshaft."

"Yes, I agree completely," Myantha replied.

It was almost as much of a relief to her that the middle Faeyra sister turned out to be sensible, as it was to secure the rogue's serum. Unlike her feelings for the other Faeyra siblings, Myantha herself started liking the sorceress.

"If you won't gloat, then I will," di'Sona said, and turned to face her oldest sister. "You've lost everything. Once Isaura told of your ships full of ransom for the other kingdoms, we mobilized to end your madness. All your pitiful plans laid low. And now here you stand, bereft of your magic, and at my mercy."

"Arrrrrgh! It was you who has opposed me all along!" Elasha screamed, her finger, quivering with rage, pointed at Isaura. "You have been my true enemy. And I swear to Ymra you will pay."

"I will pay?" Isaura rose to her full height and faced Elasha, rage showing in her eyes now too. "You sent Shea to her death! I am - just barely – controlling my temper from blasting you into nothingness.”

"Oh, yes, Shea. I'd forgotten about her." Elasha's voiced calmed, and a smile crept over her face. "I have a gift for you."

From her robes she pulled a deep red velvet bag. Sensing danger, the Alarian soldiers unsheathed their swords.

"Oh please! As my youngest sister has so eloquently pointed out, I am completely helpless and harmless."

Elasha hummed an old Alarian nursery tune as she carefully pulled a pulsing crystal from the sack by a silver chain. She was very careful not to touch the stone.

"That's a Caxenar memory crystal!" Isaura's eyes grew wide. The sorceress was so stunned Elasha held it that she didn't think to cast a simple freeze spell. "Is it..."

"Shea's? Why, yes. Yes it is."

"Give it to me now!"

"Oh I was, sister, I was. Think of it, all her memories, right here,” Elasha smiled, and held it up to peer at it. "I was certain if I gave it to you, you would eventually touch it and be driven mad, as all who touch another's memory stone are. Would you like it? Or should I drop it, letting it shatter on the ground? Beg me, Isaura. beg for it."

"Please... Elasha... it's all I have left of my daughter... please give it to me..."

"You know, I'm not so sure I should." Elasha held the stone higher. "You somehow managed to find a female alquimista. I bet you'd figure out how to retrieve these memories somehow too. No, I think I've changed my mind. I'll give it-"

Elasha flicked the chain sharply and let go, sending the crystal spinning through the air ...at Ashe.

"-to her."

Pure reaction took over, and Ashe's hand shot up to catch it. The instant she did, the pulsing crystal darkened, her eyes rolled back into her head, and she crumbled to the ground.

"Ashe no!!!!" Isaura rushed to the fallen girl and pulled the stone from her hand. Zinjo - normal sized now - took it from Isaura and crushed it.

"Too late!" Elasha laughed. "You fool! You thought you'd foiled me? I always have one more card to play, Sister. And now I've killed all you hold dear. Hey! I've got an idea! Why don't you bury her next to Shea? They can keep each other company!"

As Elasha's cackling continued, Isaura rose, inventorying all the spells she could cast upon her sister, for all the pain she had inflicted. In the end, she simply punched Elasha as hard as she could, feeling the satisfying crunch of her sister's nose under the blow, and sending her to the ground, unconscious and – thankfully - silenced.

***

"Come, you must rest. I vill watch leetle one."

"No!" Isaura shouted. Then her voice gentled. "No, stay, if you wish, for you give me comfort, old friend, but I will not leave her."

"It's been three days," Zinjo said.

She didn't hear him say 'and her condition hasn't changed,' but the words hung in the air nonetheless.

For three days Ashe had lain in a bed at Beurl'Aana, and the sorceress never left her side.

"But she's not dead," Isaura said, her voice pleading. "She breathes. Her face moves. I've seen it."

The healers admitted they were baffled, for all known instances where someone touched the Caxenar crystal of another, death was instantaneous. But the healers expressed little hope there was anything left of Ashe's mind. The twitches, they reckoned, were involuntary muscle spasms.

"She survived the Torc, and the Cavern of Dearmad. She can survive this too.  Maybe her mind, in this regard, is unique?"

Isaura paused, considering what she'd said, and all the other things Ashe had braved, too. Her transformation. Her quest to stop the madman, and to save lives.

"Why, Zinjo? Why did the goddess, after all Ashe went through... no! After all Aana put her through, why did she allow this?"

"I am sure she have her reasons," Zinjo answered softly. “Yes?”

Isaura shrugged; she wasn't in the mood for a theological debate on the vagaries of the gods.

If she was honest with herself - and now, more than ever in her life Isaura was - she'd admit there was more to this than a re-dredging of her grief for Shea. Yes, of course, this brought that other grieving hot to her emotional surface. But more than that, in the brief time since the girl had awakened in the Cavern, she had stolen Isaura's heart.

"Remember when I'd frozen the Caphilian soldiers, and she pulled the trousers down of that odious corporal?"

"Ho, ho, ho, yes! Or when she start to tell me she vasn't hungry and then she almost dove in stewpot!"

"She was so funny reading from the atlas on the way to Caphilia. She thought I wasn't listening, but I heard every word."

"Or vhen leetle one didn't warn me boat was flying..."

"...and you almost fell into the sea... peeing!"

They laughed again at that, remembering how hard Ashe had laughed when it happened over the Serene Sea. They laughed even harder, as they recalled some of the colorful phrases the girl had uttered.

Isaura put her hand on Ashe's cheek, and stroked it.

"She's ...very special, Zinjo, isn't she?"

"I think, if leetle one's body were same size as her heart, she vould be bigger than Zinjo."

And still the coma lay heavy on the girl.

***

On the fourth day of Ashe's coma, the Arch Duchess summoned Isaura to meet with her. Isaura considered ignoring the summons, but decided she should probably step away for a brief meeting with Myantha. After all, she was the ruler of all Alari.

"Yes, your Grace?" Her voice was sad, heavy with weariness.

"No change, I take it?" After the sorceress shook her head, Myantha placed her hand on Isaura's shoulder.

"I'm very sorry. Zinjo has told me of what she went through ...all she went through ... and she is truly remarkable. And on the heels of Shea's death..."

Myantha felt the tremor in Isaura’s body at the mention of her daughter's name. She backed away from Isaura and bowed her head.

"I want to apologize for sending Shea into harm's way, to ...to her death, really. Had I known of the dangers I would not have sent her."

"Thank you," Isaura answered, struggling to say more. She was torn, wanting to scream 'How could you have done it?!' but also, she now knew Aana's hand was behind so much of what happened. That Shea and Aesh would meet, that di'Sona would turn over the new 'Ashe' to her. Taking a deep breath, Isaura gave a different answer than what first sprang to mind:

"I am honored you chose Shea for the mission, Arch Duchess. My sister said you chose Shea because of the gravity of the mission - that you needed your best agent."

Myantha blinked several time, trying to pick her next words carefully.

"Don't get me wrong, Isaura, I recognized the potential in your daughter, and knew one day she would be our best agent, but she wasn't yet that."

"I don't understand," Isaura said. "di'Sona told me-"

"-What she told me," Myantha interrupted, "was that the mission in Caphilia was simple reconnaissance, low danger."

"She lied," Isaura stated dully; was her purpose to give Shea an opportunity to impress? To succeed? Or was this yet another Faeyra scheme to screw another sister? Isaura was too numb to muster any emotion. Finally she managed a weak, "I suppose I should confront her."

"Not soon I hope, for she is not in favor with me at the moment." When Myantha saw question on Isaura's face, she explained. "Against my explicit orders, she used the Torc on Elasha."

"Oh... goddess..." Isaura said, her hand going to her mouth. "So Elasha's is..."

"Barely there," Myantha nodded. "Vacant eyes, dulled speech, mind gone..."

Isaura's mind tuned out the Arch Duchess for a moment, as images of her childhood flashed and faded. Memories of a time, so long ago, when she and her sisters played in an apple orchard, here at Beurl'Aana. She remembered it well - the first day of the month of Seella, Goddess Of Summer. All the trees were in bloom. Glorious hues of pink and white fleeced the trees; clusters of five buds centered around the central blossom, the King Blossom, fluttering everywhere.

So they ran in between the fragrant trees, carefree little girls, she and di'Sona and Elasha, their long-flowing hair covered in pink and white flowers, screaming, laughing and dreaming of the apples to come.

'Where did it all go wrong?'

And so her oldest sister was just ...gone?

'I should feel something, shouldn't I? A twinge of sadness, or regret... something...'

But she didn't. It was all so anticlimactic, and she was so very numb.

'I wonder... am I dead too?'

"...Oh, she answers all questions put to her." Myantha's voice brought Isaura back to the present. "She has given us every detail of her schemes. We should be able to return the ransoms to the other kingdoms, with assurances the guilty parties have been dealt with, and maybe avoid all-out war. But this was not what I wished. I am now persuaded by your argument that the Torc must never be used again."

"Excellent!" Isaura sighed in relief, at that small bit of good news. "It is pure evil."

Isaura admitted to herself that she cared little that her older sister was, essentially, dead now. Instead she thought of the tragedy she barely averted, of Ashe's mind nearly destroyed by the hideous device. Like the serum, it must be destroyed.

'And yet, in the end, her beautiful mind was destroyed anyway,' Isaura thought. She looked back in the direction of Ashe's room and her eyes grew misty. 'Oh Ashe, I failed you! I didn't protect you!'

"I'm sorry," Myantha said, reaching out to Isaura again. "I didn't come here to tell you this. But, just so you know, I have not ordered the Torc to be destroyed, yet."

"But why? You said it yourself - it must never be used again!"

"And it won't," Myantha said. "This I swear to you. But if I order it removed, Elasha will die. It has been so for all who have worn it."

'All save one,' Isaura mentally amended. 'And if Ashe survived that, couldn't she also survive this?"

"And so I've decreed it shall remain on Elasha until she dies," Myantha said. "And as punishment for di'Sona's disobedience, I have further ordered that she must care for Elasha for as long as she lives. There shall be no torture of Elasha either. My edict is explicit, if she is found abusing Elasha in any way, the Torc shall be removed from Elasha and placed on di'Sona instead."

Isaura's eyes widened as she thought through the implications. For all the hatred her sisters had for each other, and all the suffering caused by it, to have one forced to care for the other for the rest of their lives was a form of justice Isaura found to be...

"Perfect. But ...if telling me this wasn't the reason you summoned me, then what is?"

"I want you to take Blood Burn's serum, and destroy it, if possible, and if not, to hide it so none may ever find it."

"No! I won't leave Ashe's side!" Isaura said. "You must find someone else to do it.

"I can trust no one else!" the Arch Duchess said, her voice filled with passion. "Already word is spreading among the clans of a mysterious all-powerful 'weapon' at Beurl'Aana which could be used as leverage against the clans, or even the other kingdoms!"

"That will surely lead to disaster," Isaura said; she was certain it would. In her experience, anything that is designed as a weapon eventually is used as a weapon. "But you must find someone else. I won't leave Ashe's side."

"There IS no one else who could do this! You are the most powerful sorceress I've ever seen. I now know what you are capable of. You could easily remove me and become ruler of Alari if you wanted."

"But I don't want that," Isaura said. "I've never wanted that!"

"I know, that's why I trust you. So you know, I've been talking with the alquimistas, and the more I understand about what Blood Burn created, the more it scares the living daylights out of me! I've dispatched agents to Edefia to gather and destroy the man's notes. But foremost, his serum must be destroyed!"

"I agree completely," Isaura answered. "But I will. not. leave. Ashe. Got it?"

"Is that what Ashe would have wanted?" Myantha responded. Changing tactics, she added, “She chased the rogue alquimista across the world, endured terrible torture at the hands of di'Sona – yes, I am now aware of that crime as well, of all that occurred - and succeeded in preventing the serum from being unleashed. Would you have her death be in vain?"

"She's not dead!"

"No, but, you know what I mean," Myantha said softly.

And Isaura did know, that every healer who'd seen Ashe walked away shaking her head.

"That's not fair," Isaura said, her eyes stricken with new grief. "Putting it like that..."

"I'm not fair!" Myantha answered. "My foremost concern is for the safety of our people."

It was at that moment Isaura realized the Alarians finally, after centuries of despotic rule, had a just ruler.

She also knew what Ashe would tell her if she could speak - the serum must never, ever, ever be used.

'No, her language would be more colorful than that, but that would be the gist if it.'

She gave a long sigh. She was going to have to do this. She really, really didn't want to, but Ashe would have wanted it.

"You must swear to me while I am gone, Ashe will be taken care of-"

"-of course! The best of our healers shall tend to her night and day until you return."

"Also, I'll need The Hope of Aana brought from Hithui Ael to the coast, and-"

"-That's your ship? How am I supposed to transport a ship across land-"

"-never mind," Isaura interrupted the Arch Duchess. "Zinjo and I will arrange it. Meet me with the serum at..."

Isaura pictured the northern Alarian coast, as she tried to land upon a port town that might not draw too much attention.

"...Ayrith, in two days’ time."

"I will have the entire army accompany me to protect it," Myantha said.

"No! That would draw too much attention! Be discreet. Bring your most trusted soldiers only. And definitely not di'Sona."

"No, I agree completely. I am done with her," Myantha said. "Present company excepted, you Faeyra don't have many redeeming qualities."

"We do make excellent villains," Isaura said, mustering a faint smile.

"Then we have a deal?" the Arch Duchess asked.

"Yes, we do. And now, if you will excuse me, your Grace, I must get back to Ashe."

"Of course. If there is anything else you need, anything... er, other than flying ships," Myantha grabbed Isaura's hand, and squeezed it, "just let me know, and it will happen."

"Thank you," Isaura said, emotion welling in her again, making her throat tighten, and eyes mist once more. "But the only thing I need is for - how would Ashe put it? - the only thing I need, is for her to fucking wake up."

***

Two days later

The 1st day of the month of Iqenta, Goddess Of Beginnings

The port city of Ayrith

Isaura might have been immortal, but she was not all-powerful. Days of standing vigil by Ashe had taken their toll, so when her carriage arrived at The Hope of Aana's berth at the Ayrith docks, she was barely able to keep her eyelids up.

Zinjo arranged for her ship's overland portage. How it happened he never told her, but she assumed in the dark of night, he shifted to his larger aspect and simply carried it.

The giant had hired a dozen of the best Alarian boatswains from the town to add finishing touches to the magically built ship, and was eager to show Isaura what they'd done. But the sorceress was beyond weariness, and seeing the changes would depress her more anyway, for she thought of The Hope of Aana as their ship, the three of them.

It would be at least several hours before the Arch Duchess arrived with the serum, so Isaura managed to climb down from the deck to the cabin, and crawl into her bunk, and instantly collapse into a deep dead slumber...

...where she dreamed...

She was surrounded by darkness. Did she feel something swirling and damp around her? Mist? Perhaps fifteen yards in front of her, she saw a man standing. Or rather, she saw his back, for he faced away from her. He was tallish with brown hair, but they were the only details that she could discern.

"I must choose? Two paths? What are they?" Isaura heard the man ask. Did she recognize that voice? Yes, she did!

'It's Aesh! That's the voice I heard from the memory of the fortune teller, and again, with Shea in Imis!'

Isaura tried to call out, but no sound came from her lips.

She heard someone answer his question. Almost heard. Words were spoken, she was sure, but their meaning slipped away from her. The voice sounded like chimes to her.

Isaura squinted to see whom he had spoken to; he seemed to be staring into a white glowing light. Almost she could make out a figure in the brightness. A woman? She wasn't sure.

Suddenly that changed, instead of the light, there were images of a crowded auditorium, filled with cheering men. In the center, a man stood, wearing the robes of an alquimista master, and with his hood down, she could see his features: He was young, no more than twenty, with brown hair and bright engaging eyes. He spoke:

"I am truly humbled by this honor, comrades. Thank you."

'That's his voice again! Aesh's! I swear it is!'

The images changed again. It looked like a study, perhaps, for in the background were rows and rows of bookshelves, filled with tomes. The spaces on the walls of the study that weren't filled with books, but held pictures, frames of certificates and awards.

In front, a man sat at a rich wooden desk, writing something on parchment with a quill. She knew it was Aesh again, but older, for gray streaks filled his hair, and wrinkles lined his face. He wore different robes now, but ones she recognized still, the robes of a headmaster of a university.

Suddenly the images vanished, and Isaura stood once more behind Aesh, who was, once more, looking into a glowing light.

"And the other path?" she heard him say.

But just as different images were starting to form, something shook her body. A different voice cut through her consciousness.

"Isaura, wake! Iz time! Arch Duchess has come and Zinjo does not want to tell her you are snoring."

Isaura shook her head, trying to throw off the heaviness of her sleep.

'Who was Aesh talking to? Was it Aana?'

She felt it clear that one path offered to Aesh was success and fame as an alquimista, truly something he would have enjoyed. A life he so richly deserved and had earned.

'But what was the second path? And which did he choose in the dream?'

The sorceress mouthed a silent curse, chiding herself for her naive and wishful thinking. By all the healers' accounts, Ashe would never recover from her coma.

Isaura propped herself up on her elbows in her bunk and cleared the sleep from her eyes.

"I'm awake, Zinjo," she called. Then she whispered to herself, 'though I wish to the goddess I wasn't.'

***

Once she'd climbed on deck, Isaura saw the royal Alarian carriage just pulling up to the dock. A squad of twelve of the elite guard, the 'Swift Swords', surrounded the carriage.

The carriage door opened, and a high-heeled stocking clad leg stretched out. A guard reached a hand in, and helped the Arch Duchess out. Myantha wore a royal blue chiffon gown, inlaid with white lace. The gown covered her shoulders, but only just, and was held in place by two spaghetti straps. Its front flowed down into a semi-sweetheart neckline, subtly accentuating her breasts.

Isaura walked down the gang plank to greet the Alarian ruler. She couldn’t keep the snide smile off her face.

"I thought I mentioned 'discreet' in my instructions, Myantha."

"This is discreet. Ugh! I hate wearing this finery! I envy you sorcerers. All you ever need is a simple robe," Myantha replied. "I accepted an invitation to Baron Carvalur's Spring Ball this evening at his nearby estate. This is but a slight detour. I thought the ball was the perfect cover.”

"Carvalur? He's an odious toad," Isaura said.

"Tell me about it," the Arch Duchess replied, as she motioned to her guards.

The men quickly unloaded a wooden crate from the top of the carriage.

Isaura didn't bother to ask, for she knew that the lead containment box was within it. So instead, she asked the question that had been trying to burst from her lips the moment the carriage arrived.

"Ashe... is she ...has there been any change?"

"I will give you a full report in just one moment. But I have something else I must discuss with you."

It troubled her that the Arch Duchess delayed answering her question. A sense of dread crept in.

"Yes? What is it?"

"The alquimistas that accompanied us in the battle with Elasha petitioned me to allow one of them to accompany you on your mission."

"You said no, right?" Isaura asked her.

"I did not. It seems to me an alquimista master might be helpful in figuring out if the serum can be destroyed."

"I will not agree to this!" Isaura's blood pressure spiked fast; she couldn't imagine anyone other than Ashe sailing with her in The Hope of Aana. "This is non-negotiable."

A black robed figure stirred in the carriage, stepping out to stand with Myantha. Since the alquimista's head was fully hooded, Isaura didn’t know who it was.

"I say ‘alquimista master’," Myantha continued, "but technically, as the alquimistas took great pains to assure me, this one is not an alquimista master. Nor even an alquimista."

"I... maybe I'm too tired and depressed," Isaura said, "but I don't understand any of this!"

"Me neither, I mean I opened that gods damned box! That makes ME a master."

Isaura's heart fluttered double fast. She knew that voice!

"I saved their asses big time, and you wanna know why they won't? Because I'm a woman!" Ashe whipped her hood off, flashing her mischievous smile. "The rat bastards. Fuck 'em, I’ll start my own club!"

Isaura lunged forward to wrap the girl in a bear hug, making Ashe say 'oof'. They both 'oofed' when first a loud 'Leetle One!' bellowed in the evening air, followed by huge pounding sounds of feet running down the gang plank, and then massive arms wrapped around them and lifted them into the air.

When Zinjo brought the two back to earth, and they finally unclasped their embrace, Myantha cleared her throat.

"She awoke this morning," Myantha said. "We'd actually just left Beurl'Aana to come here; a messenger hailed us with the news. I returned instantly, of course. She insisted on coming with us. The healers pitched a fit about her needing to stay in bed, but Ashe put her foot down, saying she wanted to go home. Well, that was the gist of it; you know, she has quite a mouth on her.”

Ashe simply smiled and blew the Arch Duchess a kiss.

Isaura stopped herself from asking if Ashe meant 'home to Edefia,' for she read in Ashe's expression that was not what her intent. The girl's bright eyes told Isaura that home, meant 'Isaura.' And Isaura saw something different in her eyes too, something so familiar. Isaura had a sudden thought, and turned to Myantha.

"You told me when we met the other day that you would provide me with anything I needed," Isaura said, her voice tight with emotion.

Myantha nodded her head cautiously. That was a dangerous statement to make for any ruler, but she had said it.

"I want you to alter the birth rolls in the Hall of Archives in Imis. I want the rolls to show that Ashera Faeyra is my daughter. My natural daughter."

"That's...it?"

Isaura looked quickly at Ashe for her reaction. The girl's beaming smile was all the confirmation she needed.

"Yes, there is nothing I want more."

"Done." The Arch Duchess motioned to her guard, and they quickly prepared to leave. "And now I must hurry to my rendezvous with the ever so pleasant Baron Cadaver. Er, I mean Carvalur."

"Thank you," Isaura smiled, and wrapped her arm around Ashe's shoulders. "For everything."

"No, thank you, and you Ashe, and Zinjo," Myantha replied. "The world may never know the debt it owes you, but I do."

"Oh, and Isaura? I know you are not moved by royal decrees, so I have a request," Myantha said as she stepped back into her royal carriage. "I know it is not your way, and that you prefer the life of the road. But would you try to visit Alari more often? Please? I crave your guidance ...and company."

Isaura's smile was genuine when she answered her ruler.

"Deal!"

***

After Zinjo loaded the containment box holding Blood Burn's anti-life serum into the cargo hold, they wasted no time in drawing anchor, raising the sails and sailing away from the lush Alarian coast.

Isaura said little for the first hour they were underway. Between the misty spray of the waves off the bow of The Hope of Aana, the soft red glow of the setting sun, the laughter of Zinjo, and Ashe at the terrible jokes she told to them, everything took on a dreamlike aura.

She didn't want to break the mood either, for part of her worried - the still wounded part - that it was a dream and that when she awoke, Ashe would be gone. She didn't think she could survive that, for the girl was suddenly so much more...

'But why?'

Yet she knew she must break it because they needed a destination. Isaura turned from the helm wheel to the two standing beside her.

"So, where to? Can the serum be destroyed by fire? The Obsidian Peaks are not too many leagues from here, and there are active volcanos in them."

"No!" Ashe answered. "That would be the worst thing we could do. According to his notes, Professor Breviar designed the serum to be exceptionally reactive to flame."

Her answer triggered another thought to Isaura.

"Were his notes widely distributed at Edefia?"

"Actually, no," Ashe said. "After I briefed the masters on them and when they understood the horrors they held, the headmaster ordered them locked away. No one was permitted to read them."

"Good, excellent!" Isaura said with relief. "Myantha dispatched spies to steal the notes and destroy them. Soon the mad professor's notes on how to create the serum will only exist in the beautiful brain of yours."

"Iz all part of leetle one's evil plans," Zinjo said, laughing.

"Buhahaha! Yesssss," Ashe said. "The world shall be mine!"

"You know, your brain is pretty amazing. It survived the Torc, which no one has ever done, it survived my little experiment in the Cavern of Dearmad, and now it’s survived touching the Caxenar memory crystal of another. Again, something no one has ever done!"

"Yes," Ashe said, "my brain is fucking awesome."

"Iz true, it iz your second best trait," Zinjo said, smiling, "humility being your number one."

"Agreed," Ashe giggled. "My humility is super fabulous."

"Ashe, I... I have to ask." The sudden seriousness in Isaura's voice changed the mood. "What, um ...did Shea's... the crystal and memories… I mean, what, uh, did it..."

"Do to me?" Ashe decided to rescue Isaura from her floundering.

"Yes."

Ashe gently pulled Isaura's hands from the helm, taking them in her own. She looked up into Isaura's eyes.

"Do you remember the time we went to that spooky place when I was six?" Ashe said. "We were in some goddess forsaken part of Keoba..."

"Y-you mean the ruins of the Temple of Ender? I took Shea there, yes,"

"It was called something Crypts, Grim, Grime-

"Grimwood Crypts," Isaura confirmed with a whisper.

"That's it... and you were searching for one particular crypt, a wizard's, Crevius I think, because the legend was that he was buried with a magical item, a... fleece."

"The Soul Fleece," Isaura said, mesmerized, now.

"And we ran into this whacky paladin who tried to convert us to follow his god. Since he was immune to glamours, to make him leave us alone, you convinced him I had lunatic goat disease, by putting fizzy powder in my mouth to make it foam and..."

"-So, you have her memories," Isaura interrupted. She was becoming uncomfortable with the way Ashe recalled them as her own.

"No," Ashe said. "These are my memories. Mine!"

"But sweetie, they couldn't be yours-"

Isaura stopped mid-sentence when she saw the tears form in the girl's eyes. She gently wiped one away.

"What's wrong, love?"

"My worst memory, every bit as bad as bad as when my family died, is the day we parted... my last words to you..."

"Ashe don't..."

"I said... I wished you'd never been my mother..."

"No, Ashe..."

"But I didn't mean it! I was lashing out, angry you were treating me like a child..."

"But you are a child... but... I... I should have listened to you, instead of..." Isaura pulled away, suddenly. "But Shea is dead! Answer me this: are you Shea?"

"Isaura... I can't say I'm Shea," Ashe answered slowly. "But mother, I can't say I'm not."

Isaura's eyes turned blurry now with tears too, as she desperately struggled to make sense of this.

"Explain this to me now!" Isaura demanded. "Are you saying Ashe is dead? And you have come back?"

"Not at all. I was given a choice. Two paths," Ashe said. "With the first path, all that was done to me would have been undone, and I would become Aesh again. I would return to Edefia, receive a hero's welcome. And go on to become one of the most famous alquimistas in history."

"My dream," Isaura gasped.

Ashe took Isaura's hands in her own again. "I didn't choose that path."

She almost she grasped what the girl was saying. Almost. She turned to Zinjo. "Do you understand?"

"Iz simple," Zinjo shrugged.

"Enlighten me, oh wise one."

Zinjo clasped his arms behind his back, a huge smile on his face.

"What?" Isaura asked.

"I have waited so many years for you to beg me to give - what you call it? - big reveal. Let Zinjo savor this."

"Out with it," Isaura growled.

"Ha! Patience, witch woman. Very well. Exhibit A, in memory cavern, when we look at Aesh's memory of Shea's death, did not you feel energy enter Aesh, when Shea died? A special kind?"

"Yes." She remembered that. It felt like soul energy. "But that doesn't mean that Shea's-"

"-Shush! This my moment!" Zinjo said. "Exhibit B, goddess could have made Aesh look like any girl. Instead she change her to look so much like-"

"Shea! Okay, yes, that IS true, I grant you, but-"

"You see what I must suffer, leetle one?"

"Mmhm, she can dish it, but can't take it," Ashe said, giggling again.

"You hush," the sorceress ordered. "And you continue."

"Exhibit C. The last tarot card of Aliana Crow's reading was..."

"The Apple Tree of Healing," Isaura said.

"Correct!" Zinjo said. "So I ask witch woman, what has been healed?"(

“That's obvious,” Isaura answered. “The land from the devastation of the serum... but no, that didn't happen, we prevented that. Ashe's mind? That sort of seems right, but not quite. ...I give up, oh wise giant. What?"

"Zinjo has known some gods in his time, and never met one who did something for one puny reason. Da, Aana change Aesh to open puzzle box. Yet I tink she also change Aesh to heal the love between mother and daughter. No, Shea has not come back, but your daughter has. Bah! I tell you nothing you don't already know. After all, you named her."

"I... why does that prove anything?" Isaura recalled how she struggled for hours over that naming, wondering why she'd chosen it. "I picked the name for simplicity, because 'Ashe', sounded so much like 'Aesh.' Look, if you move the 'e' in Aesh to the end, you have 'Ashe'. See? No mysterious goddess purpose."

"And," Zinjo added, "if you move the 'a' in Ashe to the end, you have..."

"Shea!" Oh goddess, why hadn't she seen that?

"For days you've been thinking of her as your daughter subconsciously, calling her Ashera Faeyra, even just an hour ago asking the Arch Duchess to officially name her so."

Not Shea, not Aesh, but together something greater. Ashe. The sorceress looked into the girl's eyes again.

"But why? Why would you choose this over the other path?"

She could have said many things: that she loved traveling with them, the adventure of it. That she craved to learn from the sorceress, to devour the knowledge the Queen of Wands could pass to her. That with their magic and wealth, they could help so many people in need around the world, that they could make a difference, which is what both Aesh and Shea always wanted.

And wanted still.

Yes, she could have said all those reasons because they were true. But Ashe knew real truth, felt it deep in her bones. Only, suddenly her throat grew dry and her eyes grew wet as she tried to tell her truth.

"You see... you must see... my home... my heart... is here with you. And together I want us to make such memories! Beautiful ones, sad ones, joyous and tearful ones... so so many..."

Her voice trailed off softly as her eyes swept from Isaura to Zinjo and back again. Isaura found her voice had deserted her too, managing only a mama bear growl as her arms wrapped themselves fiercely around the girl.

Zinjo's voice hadn't deserted him; he let out booming yell of “IZ GOOOOD” so giant, that it may have echoed halfway across the sea.

***

Some minutes later, Isaura turned to her companions, with a grave expression. “I need you two to stop smiling for a moment. We have an important decision to make.”

Zinjo looked at the sorceress quizzically, but Ashe’s face lit after a moment.

“The how and where problem – how to safely be rid of Breviar’s” Ashe spat after saying the name, “serum and where.”

“Mmhm,” Isaura said, “though Alarian spies will try to remove the memories of those in Edefia who read Breviar’s notes, this secret is too big for us to assume the world will forget about this abomination.”

Isaura picked her atlas from the deck floor and thumbed through it until she came to a map of the Seven Kingdoms.

“I believe you said fire was a no no, so the volcanoes of the Obsidian Peaks are out."

“Absolutely,” Ashe answered.

“And I vould recommend ve not leave at bottom of deepest mine shaft,” Zinjo said, stroking his beard. “Gem grubbing dwarves would find it faster than, as we use to zay in my home country of Vostyae, shapit tek ij drok kor hells ar Ymra na naj-ri'uk hon hels.”

“Er, what?” Ashe said, thoroughly perplexed.

“Hmmm, my Vostyae is a little sketchy, since it’s been a dead language for over a thousand years,” Isaura said, “but I think our giant said, roughly, ‘faster than a demon from hells with Ymra snapping at his heels.”

“Iz what I said,” Zinjo shrugged.

“I agree, the mine shaft idea is too risky,” Isaura said. “So… deepest spot in the ocean it is. Which, if memory serves me, would be off the coast of-”

“-If I may,” Ashe interrupted, pointing on the map to a spot off the southeast tip of the Keoba Dynasty, near the town of Kudarala. “I recommend here. It’s hundreds of feet deep according to the atlas and should be a good place for the serum to rest until it becomes inert through decay.”

“Well, yes, that’s true,” said Isaura, “But the deepest depth is found in the Aramoor Trench, west of the Qyrc Wilds.”

“But that’s the point!” Ashe said. “Whoever comes looking for the serum, I bet they’ll never think to look in the second deepest spot in the sea, only the deepest.”

‘Hmmm, I like your thinking,” Isaura said, and then paused. “The nearest town is Kudarala, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Ashe said, and flashed the slightest of mischievous grins.

Which Isaura caught and then grinned back.

“I agree, then. We sail to the Keoban coast.

“One second if please,” Zinjo said, his great bushy brows furrowing. “Vhat did those looks mean? Vat I miss?”

“Wellllll… it seems our little Ashe pays attention, and recalled that, according to my atlas, the best bizzo in the Seven Kingdoms is served in Kudarala.”

“Oh, is it?” Ashe answered, feigning innocence. “What a coincidence! Mmmmm bizzo, hot n’ cheezy...”

“Wait, wait,” Zinjo said, his massive jaw threatening to drop all the way to the deck floor. “You mean to say you base hiding spot of serum that could destroy all everything on closeness to bizzo place?”

A look that said ‘that has to be the dumbest question ever asked’ passed between the women, and they answered in unison:

“YES!”

Zinjo’s laughter started low, but grew louder and louder with each ‘HO HO HO’. This time the echos traveled even to the farthest shores of the Serene Sea.

Isaura leaned over and kissed the top of Ashe’s head, before pointing at the orange moon rising to starboard. Ashe wrapped her arm around Isuara’s waist and smiled as she looked - another memory made.

And with a brisk wind filling its sails, the Hope of Aana sailed into the night.

End.