Chapter 7

The Forsaken Chapel

A slow and steady rain drummed on the rooftops of Sturben all through the night. By morning, the heavy droplets had become a haze of drizzle. A deep gray canopy blanketed the sky for as far as the eye could see. It showed no signs of yielding to the sun. The hard packed road in front of The Golden Mushroom had been transformed into a lane of slick muck. Weamar, Marinae and Lynn, along with the two Anchorites, Eliza and Petrov, were gathered under the roof of the stable. Jake, Lucius, James and Gillian had come to see them off and bid them luck.

Lynn had barely managed to drag herself out of bed. She didn't want to go anywhere. The rain and the cold bit into her skin through her robe. All that she could think about was how warm and soft her bed had been. It seemed like miles away now. Worse still, her awful feelings had returned, and today they were stronger than they’d been in weeks. She had overdone it last night. That’s how it always seemed to start. When she would let herself go and enjoy herself too much the mornings after were always bad. But she could never stop herself when she was feeling good. She enjoyed singing and she just couldn’t bring herself to hold back. Today she had to face the music.

Lynn stepped slowly through the mud. Her hood was pulled down completely over her face. Inside she was wishing that she was somewhere else. Somewhere warm and dry. Somewhere where she could be alone.

Marinae wasn’t enjoying the weather either. Underneath several quilts she muttered, “Elves don't do cold weather.”

Petrov looked over the assembled people and stroked his horse. "Is everyone ready?"

“I'm ready.”, Marinae answered promptly. She didn’t want Petrov to think that she wasn’t up to the challenge of a little bad weather

Lynn was the only one without a horse. Weamar noticed her dilemma and offered her a hand, "Would you rather ride behind me, or our Elven friend?"

"Or walk?", he added when he didn’t get an answer.

Petrov helped Eliza onto her horse. Then he climbed atop his own mount and looked down at the hooded Lynn. "This is no day to be walking. She'll only slow us down if she does."

"Lynn? Are you alright?", Eliza asked, concerned about her new friend’s silence.

Lynn responded to the sound of Eliza's voice. She turned her head towards her and nodded ever so slightly.

Petrov was growing impatient, "Come on, woman. I would like to get to Levkarest sometime today."

Marinae stared at Petrov, "Be nice.", then she grinned, "Or I'll make change from your ears."

Eliza frowned and moved her horse closer to Lynn. She extended a hand to her. Lynn slowly walked over to Eliza's horse and reached up. Eliza grasped her hand and tried to help pull her up while Lynn pulled on Eliza’s arm and clumsily climbed up onto her horse. It seemed to take forever. The gathered townsfolk looked perplexed by the whole display.

Finally Jake stepped forward to bid them all farewell, "Safe travels to you all. I hope you figure out what all is going on."

The group bid him goodbye and soon they were traveling down the southern road. Weamar nudged his horse towards the front of the group while Cujia kept pace beside them. Eliza and Lynn brought up the rear. Lynn clung to Eliza, wrapping her arms tightly around Eliza’s waist, and sharing her warmth. She rested her head against Eliza's shoulder and thought about being anywhere but where she was.

The drizzle continued to dampen everyone's mood. Mud smacked and slopped about the horses' hooves. Weamar stayed close enough to the front so that he could see any fresh tracks in the mud and keep an eye on the surrounding countryside. In almost complete silence the group journeyed through the dreary landscape. Rumbles of thunder rolled across the sky. The rain changed from a drizzle to light droplets. The day stretched on. The rain continued unabated.

Eliza decided that she’d had enough quiet. She moved up along side Marinae. "You, umm. You're an elf?"

"Half-Elf.", Marinae answered.

"What was life like with them?", Eliza seemed genuinely curious.

"Boring.”, Marinae said and pursed her lips. “Elves can be quite full of themselves, especially the Royals."

"Not so different from some humans.", Eliza countered.

"I suppose not,” Marinae conceded. “though most of the humans I've seen were minstrels and Bards playing in Court for their supper. They seemed nice enough, and not nearly as full of themselves as the Elves.”

Then Marinae’s attitude returned, “If I never spend another day in Court, I will be happy."

"Well, hope you never meet any of our rulers. Lady Boritsi, for example." Eliza looked around as though afraid that she might be overheard. "She rules this land without mercy. They call her the black widow."

Eliza lowered her voice even more, "Rumors say that countless young men have followed her to her bed. They are never seen again"

Petrov glanced back at Eliza for a moment before pulling his cloak tightly around him and looking back to the road. Marinae raised an eyebrow.

Eliza kept talking, "Her cousin, Lord Dilisnya leads her enforcers. They collect extremely high taxes. The people sometimes have hardly enough food to survive."

"Perhaps if I'd had such a reputation in Court, Mother would have stopped throwing all the eligible young men in the Kingdom my way.", Marinae smiled sarcastically, "Mind you, to the full-blooded Elves, that's about all I'm good for."

Marinae’s tone took a downward turn. "Which is why I'm riding around in the woods, verily, many a league from hearth and home, as the bards would say."

"That's terrible.", Eliza said sympathetically.

Marinae shrugged, "I made my choices. I ended up...”

A bolt of lightning streaked out of the sky and split a nearby tree. The roar of thunder echoed around the hills. It was so loud that Marinae almost fell out of her saddle. The ground shook as Eliza held the reigns of her horse tightly. Even Petrov and Weamar were startled, but Lynn didn’t react at all. Her mind was far away. They all paused for a moment to gather their senses and then they continued on.

The storm picked up with renewed ferocity, reaching a crescendo as the group crested an open hill. The chill wind cut through the heaviest of their clothing and became so strong that they had to lean forward against their horses. A heavy gust rose and knocked Petrov from his mount. The animal reared tall at the worst moment as another bolt of lightning streaked from the sky. Lynn held Eliza closely. Everything that followed was a blur...

The rumble of thunder was complimented by the sound of grinding rock as the hill began to shift. The ground gave beneath them, sending them falling into the earth. Mud, water and stone cascaded about. When the chaos finally came to an end, all was darkness.

Eliza's soft voice echoed in the black and a light glowed from her pendant. Lynn was still clinging tightly to her as she held up her pendant. With the aid of Eliza’s light, Weamar saw that they were in a natural cavern. Cujia and Petrov's horse were here, but Maelstrom, Dry and Eliza's horse were nowhere to be seen. Cujia staggered to her feet and seemed uninjured. Then Weamar heard Petrov groan and saw that he was trapped beneath his horse. The smell of burnt flesh hit him as he saw smoke rising from the horse’s body where the lightning had struck it.

"What happened?", Petrov said through clenched teeth.

"The road must have been built over a cavern, we fell in.", Weamar said looking all about.

"Fate.", Lynn said softly as she put a gloved hand over Eliza's. Lynn had a strong feeling that they had been brought here on purpose. She felt that she knew who it was. She listened for the voice of the man in between. But instead there was silence.

Petrov tried to move but couldn’t. He gasped in pain. The horse’s body was crushing his legs. Eliza looked at Lynn and was about to say something but then she heard Petrov’s moans. She disentangled herself and rushed to his side. She pushed at the horse’s body hopelessly. Lynn slowly rose to her feet and listened closely. The cave was silent. All that she could hear was the storm raging far above.

Weamar looked up. There was a hole about 15 feet above him in the ceiling of the cave. It didn't go straight up, but rather, it hooked about a corner. That was the only reason he or any of them were still alive. A straight fall onto the stone floor would have done them all in.

Weamar called Cujia over, "Find Dry, girl."

Cujia started sniffing about, circling the immediate area. Then she came up to Weamar and sat, pointing her head towards to hole above.

"Good girl.", Weamar said, frowning. He had no idea how to get back up to the surface. He only hoped that Dry would stay put until he could find a way out.

Eliza cradled Petrov's head. She looked at Weamar. "Can you get him loose?"

"I think were gonna have to cut the horse off him.”, Weamar said as Eliza blanched at the thought, “We don't have the equipment to lift it off, and dragging it is likely to injure him more. Maybe we can get enough leverage to be able to slide him out."

With a few rocks and a few staves they managed to get Petrov free. Once he was clear Eliza let go of her staff and dropped to her knees besides him. She checked his injuries and began her healing incantations.

"Save yourself some energy if you can.", Marinae advised Eliza, hoping that she wouldn’t drain herself as she had done the day they had first met.

Marinae cast a spell and her staff lit up. Weamar started looking around for a way out. Eliza healed Petrov’s worst injuries and then helped him to his feet. To the north, there was an opening in the wall, wide enough for two people to walk abreast.

"So much for getting to Levkarest by nightfall.", Petrov said leaning on Eliza and looking up at the hole. "It doesn't look like we'll be going back the way we came.”

“There has to been another exit somewhere, though." Petrov added, pointing to the gap in the wall. "Shall we?"

"If you're up to travelling.”, Weamar replied.

"I'll manage."

Petrov stood on his own and drew his mace. Weamar led the way as they made their way through the tunnel. The gloom was pushed back by the magical glow from Eliza’s pendant and Marinae’s staff. The walls were smooth from ages of erosion and the air was stuffy. The corridor twisted and turned. Petrov walked at the back and continually looked over his shoulder. Eliza walked close to Lynn, holding her pendant up so that she could see better. Only the sounds of their own footsteps echoed through against the rock walls. Eventually they came to a fork in the passage.

"Which way?", asked Eliza as Weamar marked the direction they came in the floor with an arrow.

Lynn took a deep breath and smelled the air. The air was musty, but the air to the north it was a little fresher.

"North.", Lynn whispered.

As they walked down the north passage, Marinae heard the rapid shuffling of small feet from behind her.

"Something's coming up behind us!", she said in a stage whisper.

Marinae pushed past Petrov and cast a spell. An invisible barrier formed in front of her. The light of her staff illuminated the corridor, but she couldn’t see anything and the sound had stopped. Next to her Cujia stood growling with her nose pointing into the blackness beyond the light. Marinae looked closer. In the dim light she saw a small figure peeking around the corner of the fork. Before she could make out much about it, it vanished back around the rock.

“There.”, she said, pointing towards the rock. “Something moved. Something small.”

Weamar drew his sword. Lynn reached under her robe to her katana, but then pulled her hand away from it. The thought of killing again turned her stomach. Eliza's breathing was swift and shallow, Petrov gripped his mace tightly. He kept an eye on the north end of the tunnel. Weamar moved back to the north end looking for any sign of recent movement.

"Wait, give me a rock.", Marinae held out her hand but no one put anything in it. Trying not to take her eyes off of the corridor she knelt down and picked up a small rock.

"I think we should keep moving.", advised Weamar.

"Good idea, but I want to try something.", Marinae answered.

Marinae cast a spell on the rock and it began to glow like her staff. She threw it underhanded towards the corner. The glowing stone skittered across the floor into the intersection. A shriek rang throughout the corridor and the sound of several sets of small feet echoed away into the distance.

"Not exactly what I wanted, but that'll do.", Marinae said as she retrieved the rock, "Waste not, want not."

She handed the glowing stone to Weamar, "Don't say I never gave you anything.”, she said with a smile, “But now we know they run from light, so you can keep rolling it ahead of us."

"It won't last terribly long, and I don't have much more of that to spare for the day.", Marinae explained.

"Let's move on then.", Petrov advised in a commanding tone.

The debris became denser the further north they went. Weamar saw that there had been recent foot traffic in the direction that they were going. The center of the tunnel was clear with all the stones having been pushed to one side or the other. Occasionally there was enough dust so that Weamar could make out the remains of a bare foot print. He didn't recognize the species but he could see that it was small and bipedal.

The tunnel took a slight turn to the right and came to an opening in the wall. It appeared to have been knocked in from the side that they were on. Beyond the opening Weamar could see masonry walls. Standing before the breach Lynn felt a slight warmth emanating from her ring. The feeling pulled her out of her gloom.

"It's never done that before.", Lynn thought to herself. She wondered if it was the man in between calling to her. A feeling of dread came over her, but the warm feeling from her ring was stronger. It began to move her to action.

Weamar peered through the hole. It looked as though the gouges in the rock face had been made by metal tools. The floor and walls of the hallway were made from high quality worked stone. The hall beyond led off to the north and the south. Lynn took a step towards the hole and felt her ring grow warmer as she did so. She felt drawn to the warmth. With her hood pulled down and her blindfold on she couldn’t see anything, but she walked ahead anyway, feeling along the walls to guide her.

Weamar watched Lynn walk past him through the hole and followed her. She moved slowly to the north. With each step the warmth grew and the ring seemed to tug her along. Lynn kept going. Eliza looked worried and followed with Marinae and Petrov bringing up the rear.

Weamar caught up with Lynn, "Why are you suddenly so keen to rush ahead?", he asked.

"Someone is calling to me.", Lynn whispered.

The hall split, north and east. Lynn followed the eastern path.

"That's not a good reason.", Weamar told her, emphasizing the word ‘not’.

"It's fate.", she explained.

"Whoever or whatever it is can wait a few minutes.", Weamar advised, uncomfortable with his new surroundings. He was at home in the forest and the confines of a cave gave him a sense of being trapped. He didn’t like it, and Lynn’s answers were making him even more uncomfortable.

Another hall branched to the south. It ended in a plain wooden door. Lynn kept walking east, walking past the door. Weamar hastily marked the passage and caught back up to Lynn. Soon they came to the end of the hallway. Before them was a large set of ornate double doors. Their surfaces were gouged, charred and battered. Some of the lighter scratches looked recent but the majority were quite old. Weamar looked for hinges but he didn’t see any. He figured that they must be on the other side. Lynn put her hands on the doors and pushed. The doors resisted. They almost seemed to push back.

Lynn felt a depression above the handle. She took off one of her gloves and felt the depression. What she felt surprised her. It was an image of two lovers. It was a negative of the ring on her finger. Lynn put her hand to the door and pressed her ring into the negative. The metal was cold, abnormally so. It stung her fingers as she touched it. Then there was a barely audible click. Lynn paused, the she pushed on the doors. Weamar readied himself for whatever was going to happen next.

The doors swung open effortlessly. Lynn entered.

Within was a quaint chapel. It would have been almost pleasant if not for the skeletal human remains that lay upon the burnt and cracked altar. Weamar looked around him. The only exit that he could see was the doors that they had entered through. The ceiling was arched, extending well above his head but no so far as to be beyond his light. Weamar walked over to the corpse. Grasped in the hand on the corpse was a chisel. Weamar saw that the man had been carving something before his untimely death. He read it aloud.

"We are damned. The holy ones have forsaken us because, in our pride, we have forsaken them. It is right that this accursed place will be buried. No mortal must ever know the truth. Let the earth swallow us and hide our sin from the world. Heaven forgive us."

That didn’t make Weamar feel any better. The others were taken with an urge to leave. All except for Lynn. The tug of the ring had pulled her behind the altar to the far wall. The warning on the alter hadn’t discouraged her. She had been feeling damned all day long and she felt that a little more wouldn’t change anything. Two statues were standing to either side of a bare section of wall that appeared to have once been covered by a tapestry. Each statue had one hand extended towards its partner and the other towards the pews of the chapel. The faces of the figures had been shattered.

Lynn put her glove back on and then put her hands against the wall. As she felt over the wall, the others gained an uneasy sense, as though the air had suddenly become very heavy. Lynn thought that there might be a passage behind the wall. She tried moving parts of the statues to open it and she found that the arms which the statues' extended towards the pews could pivot. She moved them so that the statues appeared to be reaching towards one another. Then she heard a dull thump and the wall slid down into the floor revealing a stone spiral staircase.

Lynn took a step, hesitated, and then descended the staircase. Eliza and Petrov were deathly silent. The whole situation was disturbing them deeply. Weamar switched his sword to his left hand and followed Lynn down the stairs. Reluctantly, the rest of the group followed. The stairs wound around and around deeper into the earth. At the bottom they come to another wooden door. Lynn searched the door and found a door knob. She turned the knob and the door opened. Then she stepped into the dark chamber beyond. Weamar, Petrov and Eliza watched Lynn disappear into the darkness. Marinae could see that Lynn was approaching a dais a few yards ahead. She could see in the dark better than the others. It was her Elven blood.

Weamar followed, alert. His heart was racing. As he crossed the threshold of the room the magical light he held dimmed. He didn’t like that at all. He didn’t like anything that was happening in the least. He could barely make out the dais Lynn was approaching. On it was a pedestal bearing an open book. He’d heard bad things about books in evil temples. He planned to tackle Lynn if she looked like she was going to touch or read from the book.

“There's a dais ahead, about 10 feet.”, Marinae said for Eliza’s and Petrov’s benefit.

Lynn’s ring seemed to pulse and throb. It wasn't pulling in any direction anymore, so Lynn stopped moving.

"There's a book on a pedestal.", Marinae announced.

Eliza and Petrov simultaneously whispered, “Ezra protect us.”

"Is it magical?", Weamar asked.

Marinae muttered a prayer in Elvish. She looked around and saw the room erupt in color. The book was wreathed in bright violet flames. Beyond the dais she saw a pentagram set into the floor. It pulsed a dull crimson. Both bore the traces of Conjuration and Necromancy.

"Necromancy!", Marinae gasped and she described what she saw to the others.

Petrov swore in a language that only Eliza understood. She looked at him with wide open eyes.

"The book. What does it say?", Lynn said quietly.

"I don't think we really want to know.", Weamar said hoping that this time someone would listen to him.

"I have to know what it says.", Lynn said quietly but earnestly.

"I really don't think that's a good idea.", Weamar said, almost pleading.

"I must.", Lynn whispered.

Lynn had thought that her ring was just something that stopped her from getting pregnant or catching a disease. Now she knew that there was something more to it and she had to know what it was. Then she felt a wave of nausea pass through her. She felt repulsed by the ring. She had a strong urge to throw it onto the floor and to run up the stairs. She wanted to be rid of the ring forever. But she fought the feeling and it began to pass. She knew that she had to be strong. She knew that she had to know the secret of the ring. She couldn’t give in to fear or doubt.

Marinae poked at the book with her staff. She didn’t want to get near it. But it didn't budge. It was set into a depression in the pedestal. Marinae cursed under her breath.

"I don't think we're equipped to deal with this sort of thing.", Weamar protested futilely, "Let's see if leaving calms things down again, and perhaps come back here better equipped."

Lynn ignored him and felt her way towards the dais. She took off her gloves.

"No!.", Weamar shouted.

As Lynn stepped up on the raised platform, four sconces on each corner ignited in violet flames. They illuminated most of the room, and cast shifting and unsettling shadows in the corners. Weamar leaped onto the dais and tried to grab Lynn, but in the dark he misjudged her and only got one handful of her robe. Lynn pulled away from him sharply and reached for the book. The book was open and the pages were smooth and dry. Lynn could feel the ink raised off of the pages, it tingled.

"Oh, hell. I can't believe I'm doing this.", Marinae moaned as she walked over next to Lynn. She looked over her shoulder at the book.

Lynn reached up to mark the page with the bookmark. Then she closed the book just as Weamar recovered his balance and gripped her by the arms. He looked over her shoulder at the cover of the book and was stunned by what he saw. Emblazoned on the leather was a pentagram like the one set into the floor. At each point of the star was a round blue gem. In the center of the star was a large yellow-green eye, a vertical iris black as pitch stared out at him. He watched Lynn lift the book off the pedestal. As she did so a slight wind began to blow. Weamar turned around to see Eliza and Petrov standing back at the door. They were terrified.

Then Eliza called out, "Look! The shadows are moving!"

On the far side of the room, one of the shifting patches of darkness was discordant from the others. It moved differently. A manlike form composed of hazing shadow glided forward from it into the eerie light. Startled, Lynn put the book back on the pedestal. As she did so the shadows returned to their normal flickering patterns except for the one that had stepped from the wall. Lynn opened the book to the marked page.

Weamar shouted back to Eliza, "I don't need to see your Sentire now, this is my dream."

Seeing the shadow form into man spurred Petrov into action. Quickly he moved with purpose and put himself between everyone else and the shadow. He gripped his mace tightly. Weamar moved in on the other side of the shadow, making sure to stay outside the circle around pentagram.

Lynn lifted her hood and blindfold and looked at the book. In the dim light she could see that the words were in no language that she’d ever seen. There were dizzying symbols and words scrawled across the page, but yet the more she looked into the book the more they made sense to her.

Marinae stood next to Lynn and looked at the writings within. It was a corrupted form of Elvish, but she could still read it. She read it aloud, careful not to invoke the magic as she did so.

“Hear me Masters of the Far Realm.” Marinae spoke in a lightly mocking tone, “Accept these sacrifices and grant to your humble servants the glory which you have promised since the days of our father's fathers. On this night of power shall the Land of Mists be remade and your kingdom become manifest.”

She stopped. The rest was rambling incantations. She didn’t feel comfortable reading any more.

Marinae looked up and saw Petrov and Weamar squaring off against the shadow man. "Ever seen one of those?", she asked. She didn’t know if her staff or her magic could harm it. She was hoping that they could.

Petrov advanced swiftly upon the form, raising his mace high. With a scream a white light erupted around the weapon as it connected. The shadowy figure let out a surprised shriek. Tendrils of light streaked across its surface from where Petrov’s mace had landed.

Lynn began reading from the book. The words began to lose conscious meaning and she became quite dizzy. The sounds of the battle started to fade.

Marinae pointed her finger at the shadow and uttered a few magic words. A bolt of energy shot forth from her hand and slammed into the shadow. Ripples flowed through the shadow like a once still pond disturbed by a stone. Weamar stepped forward and took a mighty swing at the shadow, but his blade passed through the shadow harmlessly. Weamar stumbled a little and then backed away quickly.

The shadow man recovered from the shock of Petrov’s blow and reached out to retaliate. Its dark hand passed through Petrov’s breastplate and took hold of his heart. The young man convulsed at the creature’s fowl touch, and stumbled backwards grasping his chest.

As Lynn read more from the tome, the pentagram on the floor began to glow red.

Weamar put his sword away and pulled out William’s silver dagger. He took a swing at the shadow but missed terribly and stumbled. He looked down in horror. One of his feet had landed inside the now glowing symbol. The creature reached out its impossibly thin hand towards Weamar but was repulsed by an arc of red light leaping up from the pentagram. It recoiled and let out an airy hiss. Weamar watched in stunned silence.

Marinae unleashed another bolt of energy. It slammed into the shadow's side. Once again ripples of force echoed across the creature but this time they clashed and grew. With a terrifying howl the thing was ripped to tatters of ether which swiftly dissipated. Marinae let out a happy cheer.

A soothing voice was speaking to Lynn. It was neither male nor female and its words were incomprehensible. She felt a phantom hand take hers. Her ring pulsed and throbbed stronger. Lynn's lips began to move and the circle grew brighter. Eliza was still standing stupefied at the entrance to the room and Petrov lay on the floor gasping for breath. Weamar quickly pulled his foot out of the circle and walked over to check on Petrov.

Lynn let the hand lead her, but the soothing voice did not bring her any peace. She felt that something terrible was going to happen, but she knew that she had to face it. The hand guided her to the symbol on the floor. She entered the pentagram and arcs of red light flowed up her body. Time lost all meaning. Lynn surrendered to the feeling. Her past was disappearing and it was taking her awful feelings with it. Lynn began to wonder if she had finally found the peace that she sought so desperately.

A curtain of light erupted from the perimeter of the symbol. Weamar spun around and saw Lynn inside. He reached into the circle to grab her but as his hand touched the barrier a flash of pain flowed into his arm and threw him backwards onto the floor.

The shadows along the wall began to whisper. "He has found her. We will be free."

"Get ready to grab her. I'm going to try to destroy the book!", Marinae shouted.

Something inside Eliza snapped and she rushed forwards towards the circle. She reached out to grab Lynn but as she reached the barrier her body slammed into it and she was thrown back hard onto the dais. With a loud crack she landed back first against the sharp stone edge and lay motionless. Petrov’s eyes widened as he watched and he let out a loud scream. He crawled towards her praying that she wasn’t dead.

Inside the circle Lynn could hear the screams. A voice implored her to ignore what was going on outside but she turned to look anyway. When she saw Eliza lying unconscious on the dais the spell over her was broken. The blissful feeling of timeless comfort faded and she was overcome with the desire to help Eliza. Lynn tried to leave the circle but when she touched the barrier pain streaked from the ring and went up her arm. Then she tried to pull the ring off but it had tightened about her finger and refused to budge. Excruciating pain was flowing into her but all she that could think about was Eliza. She had to get out. She had to escape.

As Lynn struggled against the power of the circle, the eye on the book flared brightly. Marinae fired a blot of magic at the book but it fizzled and dissipated. Then Marinae pulled out her dagger, and stabbed it into the eye of the book. The blade bounced off the surface. Marinae threw it aside in disgust.

In all the confusion Weamar had an odd moment of clarity. A vision of the owl over the eye from his dream came to him. He saw that the blood on William's knife was evaporating and that the blade was growing very hot. Weamar leaped up onto the dais and took aim at the eye on the book. Marinae reached up and grabbed the dagger as well. Gripping the weapon together they drove it into the unblinking eye. What they thought was a gemstone yielded like flesh. In an instant the entire room went dark, save for the weakening light coming from Eliza's amulet.

Lynn’s pain was gone. The barrier vanished.  A deep sense of relief washed over her. She felt soft lips on hers. The feeling was wonderful. She kissed back and then collapsed in a heap on the floor. A faint and menacing voice echoed across the chamber.

"Soon.", it said.

Deep black blood oozed from the book, again staining the silver blade. Marinae pulled her hands away from it.

"I think we need to leave, now.", Marinae said.

"Not yet.”, Weamar replied, “We need to check on injuries first."

Marinae and Weamar walked around the dais to check on Eliza and Petrov. Petrov knelt over the unconscious Eliza, praying fervently. Tears were streaming down his face. Eliza lay half on the dais, half off. Her back was at an angle that it should not be able to attain.

"Don't move her!", Marinae called out.

"I tried to heal her, but she was always better at that." Petrov sobbed. He touched his head to hers and whispered, "Please don't die."

Lynn slowly rose to her knees. She looked around and saw Eliza. She lowered her head. Her awful feelings were returning. She wanted to cry but the tears wouldn't come. She had done all this. She had caused all this pain and suffering. She had put herself first again and hurt the ones that she loved. She crawled over to Eliza and took her hand.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.”, she moaned, “It's all my fault. All my fault."