The characters herein belong mostly to Rumiko Takahashi-sama and Viz.
I do not own them.  This is a work of fan fiction for fun and may be
archived freely.

I would like to thank Matthew Campbell, Freemage, The Eternal Lost
Lurker, and Dragonbard without whose pre-reading efforts, this fan
fiction effort would have fallen flat on its face.  I'd also like to
thank those who have commented.  It has really been useful to me.

Comments are always appreciated.  You can always get previous chapters
by emailing me.  Or by going to http://idt.net/~phongb9/

Notes:  
	"" is for verbal speech,
	'' is for internal thought,
	<> is used for general telepathic thought,
	:::: is used for master to familiar thought

What has happened before:  Ranma and his friends have been living in a
magical world for the last ten years, having been de-aged to
six-year-olds initially.  The entire crew have grown up living with
the curses and Ranma (now known as Raeni) is a well-adjusted, powerful
teenager.  He/she search for his friends to gather them for a future
confrontation.

Last time:  The partially recovered orc revealed that Daved (not the
demon) can be found within the mysterious fissure.  Daved is the key,
perhaps, to their salvation.  Outside, Uerris continued to battle with
the demon and takes a fatal blow.  Will they win in time?

Sword and Sorcery
Chapter 20

by D.Fire
phongb9@idt.net

	Miri entered the clearing just in time to see Uerris use an
odd stick of some sort as support as she limped over to a tree.  Upon
reaching it, the girl collapsed at its base.  

	The apparition was still slightly disoriented from being
pulled into the area so quickly.  It wasn't translocation per se but
something akin to it.  She had heard her student's cry of pain and in
that moment knew that something more serious than simple injury was
afoot.  At that same moment, she had felt the link between her and her
prot�g� weakening.

	Not even death could have broken that bond, Miri's own death
being the proof.  Therefore, something was wrong on a much deeper
level, and she had to find out what.

	Incredibly concerned, she moved to the girl's side to see
exactly what had happened.  At first glance, Uerris didn't seemed that
bad off.  Sure, the three gashes across her front were pretty awful,
but not in the least life-threatening.  However, the girl seemed
unbalanced, reeling from something unknown.  It couldn't have been
that she had run out of strength.  Endurance, Miri recalled, was one
of Uerris' fortes.

	The other being, the girl's attacker, was in the middle of
some sort of transformation, or to put it more correctly, some sort of
separation. Something was quickly forming from the outgrowth on the
dark elf's body.  Some... creature that Miri didn't recognize at all.
Either it was distracted by its own metamorphosis or it couldn't
detect her.

	The girl didn't seem to see her either.  Uerris seemed to have
eyes only for the change in her enemy.  She seemed to be in great pain
and her eyes flickered wildly, only coming from time to time into
focus.

	The young ranger's eyes finally rolled up into her head as she
lost consciousness.  A frightened Miri worriedly caressed her cheek.
The link wasn't quite gone, but it was disintegrating with alarming
alacrity.  She didn't know what to do, or if her small magics could
even help.

	Quickly looking over the girl, she saw no wounds other than
the terrible gashes, but they still looked normal.  Frustrated, she
switched over to her spirit-sight.  The inhabitants of the realm of
spirit sense the world in a different way than normal mortals.
Because Miri herself wasn't quite dead, not fully crossed over, she
had access to both worlds.

	She could perceive the world as a mortal would, with color,
light, and sound, although the sensations were somewhat muted.  The
extremes of her perception moved toward the middle ground.  For
example, Azure had appeared to her a dull purple.  By the same method,
the bright artificial sunlight of the light spell cast on the forest
only brightened her view a little.

	Her other type of vision differed greatly.  She still saw
things in colors, but the colors didn't match with what she knew.  For
the most part, the world around her was some variant of green.  Even
the rocks were a dull green in her eyes.  There wasn't much of a
difference between night and day.  Only that during the day, the trees
had seemed to glow just a little brighter.

	People and other intelligent beings showed up as various
shades of blue.  Although not many people had ever come to the place
of her death, the handful that had stumbled within range of her vision
had been invariably of the blue type.  Although blue was the primary
core, other colors could halo them.  One had carried a tinge of green;
another had a touch of yellow.

	Looking at Uerris with her othersight, Mirianus gasped.  At
the girl's core was the blue seemingly common to everyone.  A solid
aura of green filled in the rest of her shape, with one glaring
exception.  Where Uerris had been gashed, a steady, solid black was
spreading.

	A suspicion blossoming in her mind, Miri turned her head to
look at the assailant.  By this time, it had fully formed and to her
othersight, it was made up entirely of that selfsame black.  The
unmoving body that lay a short distance beyond the black body wasn't
blue nor black, being a neutral gray.  She recalled never seeing
anything of a gray shade before.

	Had she not known that this creature was the aggressor, she
would still have known that it didn't belong in this world.  It
radiated a sense of wrongness, a sense of being totally otherworldly.

	Whatever it was doing to Uerris, she could tell it was taking
its time.  It didn't seemed concerned at all, with good reason.  The
only danger, seemingly, had been neutralized.

	Turning back to Uerris, Miri knew she had to do something.  If
the spread was not reversed, it would soon encompass the whole of the
girl, and that couldn't be a good thing.  Placing her hand near the
gaping blackness, she cautiously felt the 'wound'.  The ghost jerked
her hand back in surprise at contact.  Whatever it was, it had hurt
her!  On the other hand, the black also reacted in response.

	For just a moment, the black mass had stopped growing.   Miri
could feel a drain of energy, but she didn't expect the extreme
tiredness that accompanied the drain.  That didn't make sense.  Then
she noticed the difference.  She wasn't receiving any outside energy!
She no longer felt the slight recharge that had fed her when she had
awoken in Witch's Doom!

	Whatever she had done, it had worked for a time.  She had to
try again!  Stubbornly touching the draining blackness, Miri allowed
her essence to diffuse into the girl, trying to stave off the
encroaching 'disease.'  As before, the growth halted, but it hurt.  It
burned, almost as badly as the memory of her own death.

	Her outline fuzzed randomly, but she couldn't abandon the
girl.  She held on until the pain became too much, and she was finally
forced back.  Panting silently, she almost collapsed into a formless
puddle.  The pain had been incredible.  As she looked over to Uerris,
Miri saw that her effort had been well rewarded.  A solid block of
green held the black in place.  The danger was contained... for now.

	The black beast, by now, had full control of its new body and
from the way  it acted, she knew that it knew something had just
thwarted its insidious attack.  Miri got a good look at her fully
formed opponent, and what she saw wasn't pretty at all.  There was
something canine in its nature, a feral intensity in its cold,
coal-black eyes.  Intending to reopen the 'wound' with its razor edged
claws and its gaping, fang-toothed maw, it loped over to Uerris.

	'No!  I can't let the beast get near her!' Miri frantically
thought.  She knew not what to do.  She didn't have a physical body.
She couldn't manipulate anything in the real world.  Desperate, she
threw herself bodily in its way.  To her surprise, the beast rammed
into her and she partially phased with it.

	Some odd energy was released from their contact, throwing both
apart, the beast back to where its host body lay and Miri over to near
Uerris.  The creature stood up, shaking the daze from its head.  Miri
wasn't feeling any better than it appeared to be.  If anything, that
little encounter had sapped her energy further.  It was becoming
harder and harder to retain her shape.

	The creature sniffed the air and it once more approached the
girl.  Once again, she interposed herself between it and its prey.
When it reached her this time, it stopped short of actually running
into her.  Its empty eyes narrowed and tiny pinpoints of red appeared
in them.

	For the first time in this encounter, it *saw* her.  A slimy
thought touched her mind, <Out of the way, spirit!  This is none of
your affair.>

	Taken aback initially, she shot back, <No!  Spawn of evil!
Leave the girl be!>  To her surprise, the beast laughed.  At least
that's what Miri thought it was doing.  The sound was nothing like a
human chuckle, but the humor was unmistakable.

	<Or you'll do what?> it sneered at her.  Ignoring her
incorporeal form, the beast swerved around her, only to be blocked.
Turning quickly, it dodged to one side, trying once more to pass her,
but again she managed to stay its advance.

	'This isn't working!' she thought frantically.  Although it
wasn't anywhere near Uerris, the creature was getting closer.  She
couldn't block it forever, at least not this way.  She thought
furiously and in her distraction it almost got past her.

	It suddenly came to her.  She had been thinking too much like
a mortal, she chided herself.  Charging the beast, she drove it back
two steps and having some breathing space, she concentrated.  A moment
later, she exploded, her manifestation spilling over into the real
world.  Fierce winds kept the creature at bay while she reassembled
herself... in the shape of a bubble of fog.  Flowing swiftly, she
moved into position around the prone girl, a sphere of fog two paces
diameter settling in place.

	She didn't know how long she could hold this form, but at
least the creature couldn't get past her this way.

	Its eyes flashed in anger.  It leapt at the barrier, trying to
tear its way through.  It bounced off, but not without some damage to
herself.  The same energy discharge occurring before happened again.

	The bubble wobbled unsteadily, flickering a little as the
densities changed.  After a moment, the sphere stabilized, but
protective shield looked less solid than before.

	Frustrated, the beast threw itself at her time and time again,
trying to breach the barrier, but through willpower and her love for
the girl, she held on.  She dimly realized, if this kept up, the
creature could, if not kill her, then put her in state very much
resembling death.  But if it defeated Miri, then Uerris would be next.
'And that wouldn't, couldn't happen!' she vowed.  Her only hope was to
hold out as long as possible, and that, she realized, wasn't much of a
hope at all.

	***

	Aarun and Raeni perched atop the lip of a crack that extended
beyond their vision, and according to the ranger, ran for quite some
length, at least half a league further on.  There wasn't much to see
in the dim, ambient light.  Below her was a drop of about ten paces,
or so she guessed.  Raeni couldn't be sure of anything because of the
inky blackness before her, and she feared to use magic to illuminate
the bottom of the ravine.  It might attract some of the golem
creatures to their position, and attention was the last thing the pair
needed right now.

	Stealth was the key.  When the older man had led Raeni to the
entrance of the ravine, a fair distance now behind them, she had been
tempted to enter it that way.  Something held her back, some instinct
for magic that had more than once prevented severe injury in her
self-experiments.  She likened it to the innate sense for dodging
unseen blows some martial artists developed after a time.  She could
easily compare the two since she had a decent amount of both.  Master
Hariule once commented that she had a natural aptitude for magic,
which was surprisingly rare in a world that boasted one magician in
every thousand people.  Most people could learn small magics, or even
with some dedication, some of the larger works.  Those without the
natural sense for magic would never be able to rival those that did,
however, and in some, that sense was naturally highly developed.  She
fell within that small bracket.

	That danger sense had rang clearly in her head as she had
approached the entrance.  It looked innocuous at first and she had
almost dismissed the feeling, but something wasn't quite right.  Four
golems had stood guard at the ramp leading downward, four of the
largest of the creatures she had seen to date.  When Raeni had
switched to her magic sight with a bit of concentration, she still
hadn't seen any apparent danger.  That's when she finally noticed it.

	A wavery blackness had stood in the area between the four
guardians, securely blocking the way into the ravine.  Normal sight
would never have revealed the trap, and the magical sight had barely
shown it to exist.  The floating negative energy had undulated
slightly, a blackness almost indistinguishable from the darkness
surrounding it.  At first, she had thought it to be her tired eyes at
fault, but soon after she realized that magic sight didn't rely on her
eyes at all.  What she had seen had to be whatever had tripped her
internal alarm.

	After some urgent tugging, Raeni had pulled Aarun away,
leading him around the entrance and into the darkness, following the
edge of the ravine.  After she had secured some distance between them
and the golems guarding the opening, she had quietly explained what
she had seen.  The two had walked a little further in hopes of finding
some other way down.

	After a short time, Raeni sighed, "Well, I guess there's no
help for it."  She moved to the edge with determination in her eyes
and gazed into the unyielding blackness.  It didn't look hopeful at
all.  Reaching her hand down, she felt the inside of the canyon.  She
frowned as she realized that the walls were glassy smooth, made of the
same material as the rest of the 'world'.  Even worse, it sloped
slightly inward and the mage guessed that the base of the ravine would
be slightly wider than the top.

	Aarun watched her actions without commenting.  Only when the
mage had stepped back slightly did he speak.  "We can't climb down,
Raeni," he said, stating the obvious.  "I checked when I first
explored around here.  It was smooth like that everywhere I checked.
It isn't natural."

	A small bark of laughter of answered him.  "Of course not!"
Waving a hand around, she added, "None of this is natural.  And
whoever created this canyon made it hard to get down on purpose."  A
small gleam formed in her eye as she contemplated the challenge.  She
mused, "Too bad we don't have a rope."  For not first time since this
little trip had begun, she regretted not carrying some basic equipment
rather than hiding it in her not-space.  It was a real pain when in
situations like now, where access to stored goods had been completely
cut off.  Half of her flexibility came from the knowledge that
somewhere in her magic space, there was a tool that would help.  She
felt so naked without that ability.

	Sighing once more, she said, "I need to find out how deep it
is right here."  Looking at Aarun, hope in her voice, she asked, "Do
you happen to have two daggers?"

	Puzzled, the ranger reached down to his boots and pulled the
requested items from their concealed locations.  Passing them over to
the red-haired mage, he asked, "Here they are, but what are you going
to do with them?"

	Turning away and toward the ravine, she walked to the edge
saying nonchalantly, "I'm going down."

	***

	For a moment, Aarun stood stunned.  But sense regained, he
marched up to the girl and demanded quietly, "What are you talking
about?  There's no way down!"  Thinking that perhaps the mage had some
magic in mind, he urgently added, "I thought we didn't want to use
magic until we confronted the assassin.  Weren't you afraid that it
would alert him somehow?"

	Turning to face him, she assured him, "No magic.  But I am
still going down."  Looking down at the daggers in her hand, she
muttered, "I hope these things are strong."  Without any further
preamble, she got to her knees and stabbed downward and inward.  A
slight "snikt" answered her effort.  Smirking, she said, "Not as hard
as I thought."  Without a backward glance, she was over the edge in a
flash, startling the ranger nearly out of his skin.  For a moment, he
thought that she had *jumped*.

	Aarun rushed to the edge.  In the dim light, he could see
Raeni hanging from one arm from the wall.  Incredulous at first, he
finally realized what she had done.  Similar to when she had carved a
gouge in the wall of the safe haven, Raeni had just stabbed into the
face of the wall with one of the daggers.  He watched as she embedded
the second dagger a quarter body length beneath the position of the
original one.

	After resting most of her weight from the second dagger, she
jerked the first from its hold on the wall.  He nearly had a heart
attack when the girl almost lost her hold from pulling too hard on the
first.  A tension-filled moment later, her grip solidified, and both
breathed a sigh of relief.

	Looking upward, Raeni grinned as she said, "I'm okay.  Don't
go anywhere.  I'll be back as soon as I figure out how far down this
goes."  Turning her attention away from him, she continued downward,
following the pattern of before.

	As the sounds of her efforts receded into the darkness and she
moved further from him, Aarun sank to his knees in stunned disbelief.
'This girl's too much,' he thought.  'I don't know how I'm getting
down, though.  Those daggers can't hold both our weights and I
certainly can't do what she did.'  Certainly, he wouldn't let her go
and confront Daved alone.  Without a doubt, the girl was a power, but
from the short time he'd known her, the ranger could tell it was an
untempered power.  She was bold and rash and admittedly a little
arrogant, all the qualities of youth.

	But most of all, she had luck.  And that was the scariest
thought of them all.  That most of the things she had proposed worked
was a miracle, and one day, maybe soon, her luck would run out.  He
only hoped that there would be someone there to pick up the pieces and
help her move on.  'At least,' he vowed silently, 'that day won't be
today.  I won't let you face the assassin alone, child.'

	***

	Aarun had been waiting long enough that some of his calf
muscles were cramping from his motionless vigil.  The ranger was so
preoccupied with searching the unyielding darkness for any sign of the
young mage that he missed the lumbering shadow behind him. Only when
it came within five paces of him did he finally realize the danger.
The soft tread of the golem betrayed its presence.  Although the sound
was masked incredibly well, the slight vibration in the earth alerted
the ranger.  A lifetime in the woods, well, half a lifetime, had
imbued him the skills of tracking and skulking, enough so that Aarun
knew he was being stalked.

	He whirled around in time to see the golem, its arms held
before it, an attack in the making.  He had almost enough time to
curse himself for his stupid laxness before he had to duck one of
those sweeping arms.

 	The things moved faster than appearances decreed.  Doing a
tuck and roll, the ranger spun out of danger, moving perpendicular to
the creature's attack.  To his dismay, he misjudged the landing,
almost sending himself over the edge to follow Raeni downward.  As he
scrambled to keep from going over, his legs dangling precariously over
the yawning gap, he caught the charge of the golem out of the corner
of his eye.  The thing showed no emotion as it moved to continue the
relentless attack.

	There seemed no way out.  Aarun doubted that he'd have enough
time to regain his footing before it reached him, but he couldn't
simply let go.  He watched stubbornly as his doom came closer and
closer, and the ranger glared at his enemy so venomously that if looks
could destroy, the golem would have been shattered and long gone in
the span of those few seconds.  As it neared, so close that he
imagined its breath on his face although it had none, Aarun couldn't
even close his eyes to await the end.

	A blur of red saved him.

	One moment, the golem loomed closer than life, and the next it
was flying ungracefully through the air, propelled by the kick Raeni
had landed on its back.  Aarun sighed in relief as he resumed his
previous task, scrambling bodily out of the trench.

	Rather than help him, what Raeni did next shocked him.
Grabbing his arms near where they joined his body, the girl who had
once more played the savior pushed them both off and into the void.
In the short seconds that they fell, the ranger felt the girl twisting
her body in mid-air, positioning herself below him.

 	He expected the pain of broken legs, broken arms, or even a
broken head when they finally reached the ground.  That none of that
had happened was even more shocking than the flight off the edge.  He
had never experienced freefall in the dark before, and unsurprisingly,
he didn't like it and hoped he would never experience it again.  Aarun
whirled on Raeni to confront her, anger foremost in his mind.

	Barely remembering that secrecy was their goal, he almost lost
it and shouted.  Instead, he vehemently whispered, "What in God's name
did you think you were doing?"  The shock of his near-capture and the
means of escape finally caught up to him as he slowly sank to the
ground, wobbly knees no longer supporting him.  He also felt a little
ill from the whole escapade, but he promised himself he wouldn't go so
far as that.

	Raeni could only look on in sympathy as she gave him time to
recover.  She knew that this time, she really upset him.  Finally, she
spoke.

	"I'm really sorry 'bout that Aarun.  I didn't have any time ta
warn ya.  That creature was just too close, and I couldn't afford ta
fight it up there.  No way ta beat it without a big light show."

	For the first time, Aarun noticed the marked change in the
girl's speech.  She seemed truly repentant.  It seemed that in times
of stress, the girl relapsed into rough speech.  'Or was it even a
relapse?' he wondered.  He didn't know her well enough to judge.

	After a moment, he regained his composure and the shaking
stopped.  When he looked up, he could even see the line marking the
lip of the ravine.  He looked back at Raeni, the silent question in
his eyes.

	Understanding his query, she answered, "About fifty paces,
Aarun.  We're pretty far down.  I was nearly back ta the top when I
heard scufflin'."  Shaking her head humorously, a wry smile on her
face, she added, "Shame on you, Aarun.  Lettin' it sneak up on ya like
that."

	At that, the ranger bristled and was about to protest, when it
finally struck him.  How in the world could she have known that it had
caught him by surprise?  Surely, she had not seen it, otherwise, she
would have moved to prevent it.  Angered once more, he asked
menacingly, "If you saw it, why didn't you help me?"

	For a moment, Raeni was totally flabbergasted.  Then she broke
into a laugh.  "I didn't see it, Aarun.  I guessed it from what little
I saw."

	A new respect for the girl welled up in Aarun.  "You knew
that, from the scant moments you were up there?"  Whistling in
appreciation, he added, "That's amazing."

	At his comment, the mage stopped chuckling.  Still smiling,
she said, "I've been in more battles than ya think.  Just 'cause I
look young don't mean I am."

	The statement puzzled him.  Young, but not young?  She was
physically and, in most aspects, mentally a teenager.  It was true
that she had power beyond her years, an unexplainable strength and
wisdom, but still... if she had been in many fights, surely something
would show.  The mage didn't have the battle hardness of many of the
weathered adventurers he had met in his lifetime.  There still
remained an air of innocence about her.  And... surely some scars
would show.  Mage duels often left their mark on the combatants and it
was not rare to see the victor limping away from the battle circle to
lick his or her wounds.  Unless she really was that good.  Aarun
couldn't bring himself to believe her statement despite the amazing
things he had seen.  Although they had fallen from a considerable
height, here they stood with no injuries to show for it.  Even with
the evidence before his eyes and on his body, he still couldn't
believe.	

	Bringing his thoughts back on track, he asked the mage
worriedly, "But how are we going to get back up?"

	Raeni considered before answering, "If we need to leave, we
will.  At that point, I can use magic freely and I'll fly us both up.
Worse comes ta worse, I'll climb up the same way I climbed down."
Walking over to the face of the wall, she beckoned him to approach.

 	In the near-blackness of ravine, he barely made out small
grooves in the face, only realizing a moment later where they had come
from.  He voiced his concern.  "I'm not sure I can climb with the
daggers like that, Raeni.  Besides, I only have two daggers.  We'd
still need four."

	In an exasperated tone, she told him, "You worry too much!  I
can carry ya if ya can't get up by yourself.  I won't even need ta use
the daggers!"  Without a word of warning, she started scrambling up
the wall face.  Using the regularly-spaced grooves as handholds, Raeni
was up a fair distance in a blink of an eye.  Ten paces up, she pushed
off from the wall and dropped back to earth.

	Below the falling mage, Aarun was running around frantically
to catch her, or at least try to cushion her descent, but Raeni would
have none of that.  As she reached the point just above his height,
she once more pushed off the wall, moving beyond his reach, and landed
like a cat.  Turning to him, she hissed, "What the hell do you think
you were doing?"

	It was his turn to be angry.  "I was trying to catch you, you
dolt!  That's what decent people do when they see someone falling!"

	Pointing to emphasize her next statement, she said, "If I fell
from there," indicating the top of the ravine, "and I landed here,"
pointing at their landing spot, "with you," pointing at Aarun, "don't
you think I can handle something smaller?"

	The ranger opened his mouth to retort, but common sense
reasserted itself.  In truth, if she could handle a greater fall while
being burdened with his weight, he couldn't see how a lesser fall
could hurt her.  In fact, his useless scurrying made him look
incompetent.  An embarrassed silence followed.  Still, it was hard not
to react when he saw someone close to his own daughter's age fall like
that and not try to stop it.  'Although Uerris could probably survive
it, still...'

	Raeni broke the impasse by simply shrugging and saying, "Let's
go."  She headed off into the darkness.

	A moment later, Aarun caught up to the mage and tugged lightly
on her arm.  Slightly grinning, he said, "Not that way.  You're
heading back to the entrance."

	Raeni flushed in her own embarrassment but obediently turned
to follow the ranger back in the right direction.

	***

	Only silence accompanied Raeni and Aarun as they followed the
ravine to its destination.  Although both had expected something to be
guarding this passageway, for the past candlemark, no opposition had
shown, a fact that had Raeni just a bit worried.  She estimated that
they hadn't gone more than a quarter of a league in that time, since
caution was the goal.

	For a moment, the mage wondered if for some reason a spell of
silence had been cast on the bottom of the crevasse.  Paranoia got the
best of her as she deliberately scuffed her foot on the ground,
causing the ranger in front of her to whirl in the darkness.  With an
apologetic wave of her hand, she indicated that the noise was
accidental.  Accepting her statement at face value, he turned and
continued leading, although the glance he threw her way just before
doing so told volumes.

	As they moved past solid, gray walls, both kept alert for
possible ambushes, but none ever materialized.  It was either complete
arrogance, or complete idiocy.  Could it be that the demon had
absolute faith in its own guardians at the gate and no surprises
lurked within?  Or was it that what waited at the end of their journey
would be enough to defeat all comers?  Raeni was pondering these
questions when she heard it.

	At first, a little untrusting of her ears, she tugged lightly
on Aarun's arm, getting his attention.  The look he gave her confirmed
it.  He heard it, too.  At first, the mage thought it was the wind.
The low wail sounded very much like wind in the night, but one thing
pointed otherwise.  She could feel no breeze.  No, that wasn't quite
right.  She *could* feel a breeze.  It barely registered, but it was
there.  Ever since she had come into this gloomy place, no hint of
normal weather had shown.  This couldn't be natural.

	They moved a little farther, and the wind steadily increased.
Rather than blowing within to without, the breeze pushed at their
backs.  She would have thought it would be otherwise.  After all, if
this were indeed a measure of defense, then it should be pushing them
away, or at the very least making it hard for them to advance.

	Well, whatever it was, it didn't seem harmful.  As they moved
further within, the wailing became more pronounced and
distinguishable.  Although some element of it was the passage of air
through a narrow space, not all of it was.  It tugged a little at her
soul, it seemed.  Something was in pain, and lots of it.  Raeni paused
in consternation.  Where had *that* come from?  After a moment's
consideration, she couldn't deny it.  Something in the wind cried its
pain.  She caught up to the ranger, him being none the wiser of her
slight pause.

	At this point, the wind had increased to being equivalent to a
breezy day.  It was strong enough to push them forward if they weren't
careful, but no danger otherwise.  They had only moved a little
farther when hell broke loose.  Without warning, the gentle gusts
which had herded them forward picked up strength about ten-fold.
Neither the fighter nor the mage expected this, and both lost their
footings.

	Raeni and Aarun scrambled on the ground, trying to right their
legs, but it was to no avail.  The ground and the walls were smooth
like they were along the entire path they had passed, so there was no
way to stop the forward movement.  The wind picked up enough strength
to pull them into the air, and they flew with increasing speed down
the ravine.

	Abruptly, their flight ended as they slammed into something,
or more precisely, two somethings.  Unfortunately, the termination was
in the arms of two hulking golems.  Aarun was slightly stunned from
his impact with the creature which held its arms around him in a
deceptively loving embrace.  Raeni, however, began to struggle
immediately.  Not that it did her much good.  As she squirmed in an
attempt at escape, she could feel the obscene touch of its 'flesh'
upon hers.  Everywhere that its body touched hers, she felt the drain
of her life force.  Worse still, the obsidian chips that made up the
creatures were shifting, moving to engulf her.

	With rising panic, she doubled her efforts to get away.
However, as in the case of quicksand, her struggle only added to the
speed in which it consumed her.  The ranger, once he'd shaken off the
shock, looked on in horror as the mage was drawn into the body of the
creature and as he lost view of her face, abject fear replacing the
determination which just a moment earlier had been clearly evident.
He felt despair.  'Damn,' he cursed, 'we shouldn't have come here.'
What choice was there?  They had to try something.  For once, it
seemed that the girl's incredible luck had run out, and as the case
usually was, once was enough. He couldn't blame her.  Neither of them
could have expected this.

	He continued fighting against the creature that held him.
Just as it had been with Raeni, the more he struggled, the faster it
enveloped him.  He could feel lethargy settling into his body, and he
was about give in to the hopeless situation when something incredible
happened.  The air around the golem that held Raeni sparkled with a
mysterious light.  Aarun stilled, and he watched with amazement as, a
few scant seconds later, the creature exploded.  He felt chips of
stone bouncing from his arms and face, the only parts of him still
exposed to the air.

	When the light from the explosion died, there, in place of the
obsidian golem, stood Raeni, a piece of amber held in her hand.  When
she turned to face him, he almost quailed under the intense gaze
leveled in his direction.  Crushing the amber stone with ease, she
bounded over to where his captor stood, her hair flaring and shifting
seemingly with a wild life of its own.  An unnatural yellow light
shone in her eyes, and the same energy limned her body with a yellow,
flickering aura.

	He almost yelled out in surprise as she began attacking him.
A heart-stuttering moment later, he belatedly realized it wasn't him
exactly that was being hit.  Aarun watched as she rained an incredible
number of blows upon the golem that surrounded him.  She didn't hit
it, not precisely, or at least her blows didn't physically land.  It
could have been his eyes, but Aarun could have sworn that the strikes
stopped just short of impacting on the obsidian body, yet they did
damage.  And further puzzling, the light that surrounded her hand
seemed to extend outward into... claws?  

 	Soon his chest was exposed, and then his trunk, and finally
his legs.  He almost flinched when she grabbed his arm, the wildness
in her eyes and demeanor seemingly more dangerous than the engulfing
morass that held him.  The first pull was met with extreme resistance.
The golem was unwilling to yield its prey.  With one more mighty tug,
he was pulled free, coming loose with loud popping noise.

	Aarun sprawled bonelessly as he landed on the ground.  Barely
having the energy to roll over, he did so just in time to watch as the
mage decimated the enemy.  'Was that a growl?' he wondered.  Raeni
started from the top and quickly made her way to the bottom.  Where
she struck, which was pretty much everywhere, the creature seemed to
disintegrate.  Her hands blurred with speed as the golem, once
standing two paces tall, was quickly reduced to mere rubble.  

 	When she finished, the girl collapsed to her knees, breathing
heavily.  Not even as much as a single piece of the previously golem
even twitched around her.  Raeni turned to look at him, and in that
moment, Aarun feared once more for his life.  Then the moment was
past, and he watched as her stance shifted from predatory to simply
weary.  The aura around her and the light in her eyes faded, and soon,
it was as though they never were.  Shaking her head slightly, she
slowly got to her feet and, seemingly in a daze, unsteadily shuffled
over to where he lay.  Only when she reached him, did she seem to
shake out of her stupor.  Gazing around her with uncertain eyes, she
slurred, "Wha- wha' happ'ned?"

	The only answer she received was an incredulous stare.

	***

	Aarun wanted to laugh, but he didn't know how the mage would
take it.  Had he let loose, he was sure the chuckle would be edged
with hysteria.  How close had they come to ending it?  He was sure
that if it hadn't been for this mysterious girl, his death, or at
least his cessation of life, would have occurred just moments before.
What power had she pulled from the unknown depths of her soul?  What
the hell had that *been*?

	If Raeni didn't know, then how could he explain what had
happened?  'A beserker,' one part of him whispered.  Another part
protested, 'But she's just a girl.  And a mage, too!'  The first
responded with, 'So?'  So, indeed.  If that little display didn't
prove it, what did?  Even in the battle he previously witnessed, she
seemed more a warrior than a mage.  It wasn't unusual to find such,
but humans usually weren't both, at least not at the same time and not
at that young an age.  Not for the first time, Aarun wondered what
kind of past had this girl had, and a small part even wondered if she
was human at all.

	He was about to attempt an explanation, when his thoughts were
interrupted. 

	"Bravo!  Bravo!  Truly marvelous!"  The praise came from right
beside him, jerking him out of his reverie as he glanced around for
its source.  Nothing was immediately close, though.

	For the first time, the pair of adventurers noticed what they
had entered.  It was an imperfectly oval room, stretching more than a
hundred paces over its length.  In the center, or roughly the center,
a tall pile of obsidian rose from the ground, thirty paces away from
where the two crouched.  It stood about ten meters high, yet its base
only measured about three paces.  It tapered off, cone-like, and at
the very top, a figure crouched.  Random patches of the same
luminescent moss the orcs used to light their shelter provided some
visibility, but by no means did it provide full illumination.  

 	As for the walls themselves, Raeni and Aarun could finally see
the depth at which they were.  Both had known that they had been
steadily heading downward as they moved forward, but it surprised them
to know how deep they had gone.  A quick visual comparison to the
obsidian pile led them to estimate the 
walls' height to be over three hundred meters.

	The figure giggled as it asked, "Can you do it again?  I've
never seen anybody do that before."  

 	Although there was limited light in the room, it was not
enough for Aarun to clearly see the figure, but his voice was
recognizable.  The mage and the ranger exchanged glances which said
the same thing.  A single word, or more correctly, a single name.
Daved.  It couldn't be anyone but him.  They moved closer, keeping
watch for any further attacks.  

	"Yes, come closer.  It's been a while since I had visitors.
Don't worry about *them*.  No one's ever made it past them."

	That was something nice to know, but neither he nor she spoke
nor did they lower their guard.  Daved could be lying after all.  He
had no reason to tell the truth.  During the short trip to the base of
the tower of stones, thankfully, no other menace showed itself.  At
this distance, it was easier to see the figure, but the sight that
greeted them shocked them both.

	Daved, was simply, for lack of another word, cadaverous.  He
looked like death warmed over, and only that barely.  Taut, pasty gray
skin stretched over protruding bones.  His wild, unkempt hair dangled
limply behind him, its length longer than his body.  What they had
taken for a figure crouching in the distance proved otherwise when
close up.  Daved was buried hip-deep within the obsidian.  Upon closer
inspection, the rocks upon which he perched showed themselves to be
obsidian skulls.

	Noticing their revulsion at the composition of the tower,
Daved cackled, saying, "Lovely aren't they?  They are my victims.  All
the ones I killed in life, before 'it' came."  Lovingly, he picked one
skull from those nearest him.  "Ah, my dear Amerest."  What was said
next was lost in mumbling as Daved rubbed his cheek against the cold
stone.  Suddenly, the elf sobbed as he threw the skull downward, away
from him.  Before it had even gone a pace, an inverted funnel of black
lightning materialized around the tower and tore the skull to pieces,
raining obsidian sand on those below.

	Aarun and Raeni both took a step back at the display of
volatile magic.  This barrier was trouble and both knew it.  Raeni
whispered to her friend, "What do you think?"  The ranger shrugged in
reply.  They didn't seem to be in any immediate danger, but whatever
that needed to be done undoubtedly would be dangerous.  They simply
didn't have enough information.

	"No!" screamed Daved as he saw them conferring.  "Talk to me!
Don't talk to him!  Talk to me!"  Taking another skull, he threw it
downward, this time targeted at Raeni.  Just like the previous one, it
was shredded by the field of lightning that sprang up.  

 	Clearly, Daved had lost it.  "Oookay," said Raeni as she tried
to placate him.  Although he seemed like a child throwing a tantrum,
perhaps the drow could still give them some information.  "What do you
want to talk about?"  Aarun remained silent, since the mage seemed to
be doing well enough on her own.  Instead, he kept watch just in case
something decided to try to sneak up on them, however unlikely it
seemed.

	The drow cocked his head a moment in thought.  Then he looked
back down and said, "You know, I wish there was a moon in here.  At
least I could howl at it."  Looking upwards, he cupped his hands to
his face and began doing just that.  The howl that he emitted would
have done a real wolf proud.  After a minute or so, he stopped and
shrugged.  "Nope.  Not the same at all without one."

	No doubt about it.  Daved was loopy.  Still, Raeni thought she
had an opening.  "You know, Daved-- you are Daved, aren't you?  I
mean, it's okay to call you that, right?" she asked soothingly.

	"Of course, I'm Daved!" he crowed.  "A Founder of the Order of
Night, Daved Urenraellus.  That's me!"  Glancing furtively to his left
and to his right, he bent down a little and whispered, "Don't tell
anyone, 'kay?  It's a secret!"  Again, his voice carried through the
winds, still recognizable as a whisper.

	This was going to be easier than she thought.  It was a shock
to find out that the elf before them was one of the founders of so
notorious a group such as the Order of Night.  Although the common
people knew little of them, the Order and its members were well-noted
in the annals of history.  That would mean that Daved was hundreds of
years old, which wasn't that surprising for an elf.  Raeni supposed he
could 
be lying, but she couldn't see any reason for him to do so   Given
that he seemed to have the mentality of a four-year-old only added to
the likelihood that it was the truth.  Before she could ask another
question, Daved beat her to the mark.

	"You know," he said conversationally, "I was the best.  Until
He came.  I didn't enjoy it, but it was what I was good at.  'Build a
guild, pass on your skills'  That's what He said."  The rest of what
the drow said trailed off into unintelligibility.

	This sounded important.  Could it be of the demon Daved spoke?
Gently trying to guide the exchange back to this particular topic, she
asked, "He?  Who is *he*?  Is it the demon?"

	The drow clutched his head in agony.  "He.  Yes, He.  No, I
can't tell you of Him.  But the demon.  Do I know any demons?"
Distracted by one particular skull, he picked it up and began tossing
it up and down like a ball.  He began reciting what seemed to be a
child's song, in time to his playing.  "Don't play with the fire, said
the fa-ther.  Fire, pits, gates.  Dark.  Dark.  Dark.  In-vite the man
in.  Oh, Ha-des.  What shall I do?  Come with-in.  Kill one thou-sand
souls and be happy for-e-ver."

	He stopped suddenly, the skull in his hand dropping down.
Once more, black lightning flashed, and once more, Raeni and Aarun
were peppered with obsidian sand.  As though shielding himself from
something, Daved covered his head with his arms.  He screamed, "No!
Shadowbeast!  Leave me alone!"  He cowered as he whimpered once more,
"Leave me alone."

	Hades.  That sounded very familiar to Raeni.  Her thoughts
whirled as she tried to recall from where she had heard it, but she'd
have to look it up when she got out of here, if she got out of here.
No, she *would* get out of here, and if that thing had hurt Ucchan,
then not even Hell would be enough for it to return to.

	The sobbing and cowering didn't last long.  Peeking out from
behind his arms, Daved smiled and asked, "You want to know how to get
out?"

	Her full attention returned to the elf in his tower.  Maybe he
wasn't as nutty as she had thought.

	"I want to come down and play!" he demanded.  "Maybe I'll tell
you then."

	Raeni glanced over at Aarun.  She wasn't too keen on letting
Daved loose just quite yet.  The mage was not totally convinced of the
elf's sincerity.  For all she knew, it could be an invitation to trip
some insidious trap.  She moved over to consult with the ranger.  They
conferred as Daved watched from his exalted position.

	"What do you think, Aarun?"  The question was asked in the
lowest voice possible.

	Pulling on his chin, the ranger answered, "I'm not too sure,
Raeni."  After a glance upward confirmed their 'captor's' gaze upon
them, he continued, "Do you really think he can help?  Or that he
would want to help?"

	That was a good question.  So far, the drow had been harmless.
That soon changed.  Even as they consulted with each other, a movement
from the corner of her eye caught Raeni's attention.  Her battle
instincts screaming at her, Raeni roughly shoved Aarun away,
propelling herself in the opposite direction.

	They both landed lightly and eyed the sudden danger.  Where
they had stood just moments before, a giant hand made of the same
material as the rest of the area rose.  The hand was held in a tight
fist and had either of them been grabbed, it would have been the end
of that person.  Raeni snapped her head back to Daved, only to be
greeted with a maniacal grin and another telltale rumble from under
her feet.  She jumped and somersaulted through the air to land five
paces away.  Sure enough, another hand emerged from where she had
stood.

	Aarun wasn't having as much luck.  Being less mobile than the
mage, he had trouble avoiding the protuberance from the ground.  The
second arm was aimed at him and had clipped him as he tried to dodge.
It hurt like the dickens but he was now alert for further attacks.  He
called out, "Raeni!  Do something!  I can't avoid these forever!"

	"I'm thinking!  I'm thinking!" came the frantic reply.  Daved
focused more of his attention on the mage, having seen her to be the
greater threat.  'No wonder there aren't any more traps!  That bastard
*is* the final trap!'  She had forgotten that craziness could be
dangerous, just like ignorance.  People under the sway of both were
unpredictable, and they didn't *know* that something couldn't be done.

	She had felt no magic, no tingling that betrayed magic's use.
It was simply not possible that the ground attacked them, yet it still
happened.  Channeling her frustration into concentration, she formed a
ball of energy and launched it at a hand still rising from the ground
while yelling, "Mouko Takabisha!"  The blast of chi struck perfectly
and, to her amazement, it dissolved whatever it touched.
Unfortunately, although she destroyed a part of the arm, the rest now
hanging suspended in midair tumbled down, nearly crushing her with its
descent.

 	Nonetheless, it was progress.  Crowing triumphantly, she
looked back at Daved planning to gloat while she had the chance.  She
had cured the symptom but not the cause, but as she saw the assassin,
it was obvious she had done something that hurt him.

	The elf clutched his right arm in pain, and as he moved it,
she saw the problem.  The arm flopped awkwardly, an extra joint where
there shouldn't be one.  Her attack had broken his arm!  The attack on
both Aarun and Raeni ceased while Daved crooned in pain.

	The assassin seemed to suddenly move past his pain and fury
replaced hurt.  His eyes blazed blood-red as he ignored the broken arm
and focused his attack on Raeni exclusively.

	Expecting another arm to rise out of the ground, the mage
didn't dodge the next attack.  Just a step to her right, the ground
exploded.  For a panicked moment, she had thought that Ryouga had
wandered in here somehow and attacked her.

	Although it took her by surprise, she still managed to dodge
it and avoid most of the damage.  The force of what little had hit her
threw her into the air.  Stunned from the impact, she landed badly,
almost twisting an ankle.  Knowing that another attack was on its way,
she forced herself to her feet and stumbled away, just as a fountain
of rocks erupted behind her.

	'Screw this!' she cursed.  She turned and shouted, "LATI
ORUM!"  In a burst of magic, she flew up into the air.  The speed and
her own injuries disorientated her for a moment.  Shaking her head
clear, the mage looked down.  She hovered about twenty paces up.
Beneath the sorceress, another fountain of rock exploded, but none of
the projectiles even managed to reach halfway up.  Turning, she blew a
raspberry at Daved, saying, "Nyahh!  You can't reach me!  Ha!"  The
assassin almost frothed at the mouth in anger at her words and
actions.

	Suddenly remembering, the sorceress realized Aarun was still
on the ground.  Gathering some energy, she faced him quickly chanted,
"Lati Oreem."  A blue spark jumped from her outstretched finger to
land on the man, sinking into his body, and he looked around wildly
for source of that tingling.

	"Up here!" she called.  "Hurry!  Think up!" she frantically
directed him.

	He didn't understand at first, but caught on quickly enough
and just in time, too.  Even as the ranger's feet left the ground,
Daved's landmine attack erupted beneath him.  He rocketed up and past
Raeni, and as he receded into the sky, she called out some last minute
advice, "Try thinking stop!"

	After several more attacks, landmine style, Daved saw they
were useless.  After considering it for awhile, the assassin tried
another attack.  Reverting to his original attack, he tried to slam
her with hands bursting from the ground.

	The mage was too agile for him.  She dodged each thrust with
ease, taunting him with her mobility.  She hoped that an angry
opponent would be easier to deal with.  Daved, however, learned fast
from his frustration, too fast.

	For long moments, the barrage ceased, but without warning, it
started up again, but this time with a twist. Rather than reaching all
the way to her height, Daved's 'hand' seemed to stop about halfway.
Curious, she drifted down closer for a look, ready to dodge at a
moment's notice.

	That battle edge saved her life.  A thin spear of rock missed
her head by inches as it rushed past her.  The assassin used his
attack to throw javelins at her!  Yelping in surprise, she dodged in
quick succession three more spears.

	Deciding on a direct assault, she flew toward the tower of
rock that held Daved.  'Damn.  He's getting better!'  Even in the
short time that it took her to fly there, the assassin's aim improved.
He learned how to target ahead of her, requiring frantic dodging and
sudden rollovers on her part to keep from being impaled.

	With relief, she realized she was in range.  Concentrating,
she focused her energy once more, firing off her trademark attack.
"Mouko Takabisha!"  The ball of energy spiraled down to impact with
the base of the tower of skulls, flashing wildly upon hitting.  When
the light faded, Raeni saw, to her dismay, absolutely no damage.

	Daved cackled maniacally.  Showing more presence of mind than
before, he returned her earlier favor and gestured obscenely in
defiance.

	Anger can be a two-way street, for those angering can be
angered.  Raeni was pissed.  Taking her anger, she pulled together
another ball of energy.  Rather than firing it off immediately, she
allowed the energy to gather for a longer period of time, just seconds
more, but it made a visible difference as the ball swelled to double
its previous size.  This time, she yelled, "Oru Mouko Takabisha!" and
sent it down.  It followed the previous strike's path, but this time
in a tighter spiral.  This attack differed not only in size but in
color as well.  Whereas the previous ball had been yellow, this one
was wreathed in angry red flames, turning orange at its core.

	The impact caused light to flare once more, but this time,
Raeni saw something unusual.  Last time, the light had died without
any visible damage.  This time, the fire spell combined with her chi
strike to make something new, and while the chi had dissipated upon
impact, the spell had lingered.  Before her eyes, red flame warred
with black lightning all around the elf.

	The black lightning eventually won, but it revealed what had
blocked her previous attack.  She had forgotten completely about that,
and she cursed her memory.  He had even shown its existence earlier.
How could she forget something so vital?

	Aiming at the pillar, she quickly launched a fire ball.
"Oru!"  The little sphere that emerged from her finger quickly
expanded to a diameter wider than she was tall and rammed into the
shield, exploding on contact.  Again, flame attacked lightning, and
again, lightning won.  But not without revealing another secret.  This
time, the lightning seemed weaker to start with but slowly grew in
strength.  Her last attack had an effect, seeming to drain the field's
energy, and that gave her an idea..

	Raeni didn't really have many sustained attacks and it seemed
that her single attacks only damaged it temporarily.  The sorceress
concentrated and hoped that she could pull off the next offensive.
Swiftly flying around the tower in a tight spiral, she pulled in all
the anger she could feel, at the same time cooling her own emotions.
At some indeterminate point, she felt the contact.  She was ready.
Throwing open her arms, she shouted, "Hiryu Shoten Ha!"

	Energy blazed around the mage and a sympathetic gathering of
energy formed beneath the tower.  It shot upwards, a blue column of
light, as moving air swirled around the tower.  Intensifying to
dangerous speeds, the air quickly formed a vortex that yanked her
inward.  With a burst of energy, she pulled away to a position where
that the winds wouldn't threaten her.

	The mage watched, fascinated, as her creation danced within
the field of lightning, causing it to flare intermittently.  To her
dismay, she realized although her attack was overpowering and eating
away the lightning, it wouldn't last long enough to completely erode
the defensive barrier.  Then inspiration struck.

	It would be chancy, but she needed to be near the ground.
Raeni hoped that Daved would be too distracted to notice the inviting
target at his feet.  She flew down to near the base.  Cupping her
hands, she cast one last spell.  "Lairu!"

	Winds burst from her hands, rushing upward and joining with
the dying maelstrom, reinvigorating and re-energizing the weakening
cyclone.  The extra power was enough to sustain the eroding winds,
overpowering the last flickerings of lightning.  Indeed, the hurricane
had picked up strength and continued to whirl, even gaining a little
speed.

	As the last of the black energy dissipated, Raeni considered
her next move.  Daved, it seemed, was dazed and battered atop his
tower of skulls and was in no shape to fight back.  She was not fool
enough to let him recover.  

 	From the ground, she lifted herself into the air and pulled
back a little.  Diving at the base of the tower, she released her
spell of flight as she neared her maximum velocity.  When she reached
the ground, using the momentum of her released spell, she bounded
upwards at a thirty degree angle, corkscrewing her body.  Only at the
last moment did she consider that this little stunt might hurt.  She
only had enough time for, 'Oh shit!' before she collided with the
tower near the base.  Her forward momentum was too much to stop, even
by stone several paces wide.

	Raeni burst through the other side feeling only slightly
dazed.  Her force of her attack carried her far beyond the tower and
she hung back to shake off her slight disorientation.  As she
recovered her senses, she thought her ears were ringing.  It wasn't
her ears.  The high-pitched sound came from Daved, a terrible wail.
She watched in horrid fascination as his tower of skulls tumbled from
beneath him and, for a moment, he seemed suspended in midair and then
he fell, to the hard, cruel earth.