The Assassin's Tale; The End of an Era, Part Three

Credits; Krell, Rea, Petra, Courtney, Arcania,

Krell raced to Rea's side.  Thanks to Legion's miraculous assistance she was breathing and the wound the other demon had inflicted had been sealed completely.  But something else seemed to have changed about her. 
"Wuh?"
"Sshh.  You nearly, you actually did die."
"I...died?"
"You got hacked by a demon.  There was blood everywhere.  If you weren't dead outright, you'd know it."
"Oh.  Yeah, I suppose so.  Did we win?"
"Yes we did Rea.  We did indeed.  Tala had a plan set up, there was lightning everywhere.  Then she broke Petra's sword and ordered her to retire.  It was kind of cool." 
"Hehe, what was the pass phrase?"
"Chastity McMomProblems, why?"
Rea started laughing.  "Yeah, that sounds like Tala alright."  She stopped and looked around for a moment.  He reached down and helped her up.  She looked him over for a moment.  "Krell, did you shrink?" 
Krell looked at her for a moment.  It took him a moment to realize what had happened.  She'd put him before herself, and then, just like the prophecy had said, she'd been relieved of her curse.  She'd grown nearly two inches and had...well, her leather breastplate was looking a little less loose. 
"And this armor isn't fitting right either, it's too small."  She started trying to adjust it and Krell found himself paralyzed by the sight.  It took a while for Rea to stop and look up.  "Krell?  Are you alright?"
"Rea, uhm, the armor didn't shrink, and neither did I."
"Sure doesn't feel like it; are you sure?"
"Yeah."  He swallowed.  "Rea, you're looking...a bit..."
Courtney walked over and set her hand warmly on Rea's shoulder.  Nao, for all his earlier behavior, didn't even linger on Rea.  "Sweetie, happy birthday."
It took Rea a moment to figure out what she meant, but the moment she did it was inescapably noticeable.  She started crying but her face had lit up like a sun.  She hugged Courtney and Nao and then pushed past them and held on to him for longer than it took for Nao to wander off and bring back lunch and a repair crew.  When she finally loosened her grip he looked down and saw that she wasn't happy anymore. 
"What's the matter?  Is it anything..womanly?"
"No it's just..I promised Tala I'd spend my birthday with her.  When she was still young.  Do you think we could?"
Courtney nodded and gestured.  She and Nao were quiet out of respect.  Whether for Tala's recent post-immortal show of strength or for Rea's sorrow he couldn't tell.  He did notice that the two never let go of each other the whole way.  Tala's grave was on a small platform off of the palace district.  There was a bridge covered with some sort of vine that produced long blue fillaments that hung just over their heads.  He could see why they'd picked it, it was the same shade as Tala's hair.  Her grave sat alone, on a little grassy mound.  The marker showed a storm cloud; he'd seen the same mark around the city, in the palace and outside the palace in the Gothic quarter.  They stood around the marker, Rea still holding herself close against him.  There was a pop and he saw Arcania step up beside them. 
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.  You were right, I should have come, I could have saved her if I'd only come."
"Ello Katherine."
"Courtney."
"We were just paying our respects to the woman who won the battle with Legion.  I don't suppose you could be silent in the presence of the dead and buried?"
Arcania didn't say another word.  None of them did until Petra finally trudged up.  She was still holding her sword hilt.  Her armor had been discarded already, and she waited on the bridge for them to finally turn to leave. 
"I've decided to respect her wishes; all of your wishes.  Courtney, if you would find some suitable place to hang my sword?  I..I don't want to be reminded of today.  I'll go now.  I'm sorry, for everything." 
Krell stretched out a free hand to stop her, but Rea moved a hand over his lips. 
"Leave her be."
Petra let the hilt roll off the back of her hand and walked away, teleporting out midstep.  Courtney motioned and Nao retrieved it for her. 
"Take this, and if the blade remains in the hall of the pantheon have them set together and sent to the palace of Anatolia.  Their steward will know of some use for its power."
Courtney and Nao walked off towards the palace.  Nao waved over his shoulder as they went.  Krell turned towards Rea. 
"So, what now?"
"I think I could go for a vacation.  You in?"
"Yeah."
"You sure?  I'm grown up now, your debt is paid."
"And I think you've still got a ways to go before you're properly grown up.  You still need me around  You have a problem with that young lady?"
Rea smiled and they vanished with a blink.

The Assassin's Tale; The End of an Era, Part Two

Credits; Krell, Rea, Petra, Courtney, ????,

Krell could hear his own heart beat.  He desperately thought of any spell he could use that would let him save her.  No healing would mend the wound, no medicine could stop the bleeding, there was nothing he could do. 
So he turned towards the demon.  He didn't know its name, but he would make sure it didn't matter. 
"Oh, was she your daughter or something?  So sad."
"Her name is Rea, and she's my partner."
"Not any more."  The demon laughed and Krell lost it.  He stretched out his hand and began to draw the demon's power.  "What?"  The demon began to hurl bolts of energy at him, but they all spattered harmlessly against Krell's now vastly more potent wards.  "How is this.  How can you?"
"He's draining your very life force you dumb clod.  We will not mourn your loss."
"Legion!  Save me!"
"Didn't you hear the nice gentleman, nobody will miss your loss."  Petra yelled from behind Legion.  THe two had circled back once more, destroying yet another wall.  Krell was nearly oblivious to their banter, his mind could think only of Rea, and of this demon he would destroy.  He let out a loud war cry and leapt at his foe, gathering all the demon's unabsorbed power and enhancing a single spell to the strength needed to strike down even the most powerful demon.  He slammed his open palm against its bare chest and called out, "Touch of Ash!"
The nameless demon's eyes grew wide as the spell wracked his body.  Cracks shot through his suddenly gray form, revealing the orange glow of embers buried within his core. 

"Not bad.  Petra, may we pause for a moment?  My bretheren will doubtless take an interest in this one and I think it would be ungracious of me to leave him to face them alone."  To the shock of all, Legion stretched out a hand and a white glow seemed to surround him.  "Rise Tressa Stone, witch of Anatolia."  Everyone stared as Rea's wounds sealed and she started breathing again.  Petra was the first to look away and face Legion. 
"What manner of trickery is this?"
"I assure you, the divine joke is on me.  Did you know the first time we met I was pretending to be her mother?"
"You are a complete..."
"Excuse me, it smells like burnt toast in here."  Nao and Courtney stepped through the open door, Nao blew on the end of pistol and stood behind and slightly to the left of the Countess, who was re-attaching her cloak. 
"Yes dear, that would be the burnt demon.  Sorry we're late everybody, lets finish this."  She caught Nao by the collar as he started to charge the demon.  "Not like that my sweet O Positive; Stormguarde Defensive Protocol, confirm access Courtney Yellsdana."
"System confirms.  Run program?"
"Activate Final Protocol Legion T S."
"Confirm pass phrase?"
"My apologies Petra, I didn't set the pass phrase.  System confirm Pass Phrase; Chastity McMomProblems is in danger."
"System confirms, engaging protocol; please stand clear of the demon."
"What is the meaning of this?"
"Voice recording active; Proceeding."  A hologram flickered into existance.  A short, thin blue haired woman hovering several inches off the ground, with wind clearly blowing through the hair.  "Is this on?  It is?  I knew that.  Anyways." 
"No way."
"Petra, this is my last favor, unless you activate any of my other recordings that accompany a favor, in which case suck it up."  Petra muttered something nasty under her breath.  "You probably said something very mean very quiet.  I don't care, I'm dead.  I'll explain the price of this favor after I take care of this."   The hologram mimed snapping and the a peal of thunder accompanied it.  Krell looked up and saw bolts of lightning course from the nebula around them and wrap around Legion's limbs, pulling him off the ground and imobilizing him completely.  "Bet you didn't see that coming did you, Shades?  And don't bother struggling, I'm running this off of the raw natural forces of creation.  ALL of the raw natural forces of creation.  Even you can't fight that.  Although I dearly wish I could watch you try.  Now, Petra, this is the price of my saving your life.  One, you hang up your sword.  Two, you know that other thing, that thing we all always said you needed to do?  You do it.  And you keep at it until you have a daughter of your own.  Then maybe you'll know why your mother dedicated her life to defending the universe.  Until then, well lets just say I don't feel comfortable entrusting the safety of the universe to someone who has nothing at stake in the matter."
"Can we cut to the part where I stab him?"
"Courtney, she is not to return to Stormguard without a baby in hand, or on her back, or wherever one carries babies, I don't really know.  Rea, since I know you're there, you should hang up your blades too.  I won't make you do anything, but I think some time off would help you get your head on straight.  Krell, take care of her."  The recording paused for a while.  Then it flickered and the pause seemed to repeat.  It did so twice before Courtney finally intervened. 
"Petra, you should stab him now, I don't think it's going to continue until you do."
"I hate that woman."
"She has wonderful hair though, doesn't she?"
"Indeed.  I never thought it would end this way."
"I didn't either.  I'll miss this, you know?"
"Not as much as I'll miss it, I promise you that."
"Tell Mom I said hi."
Petra stabbed Legion's heart.  He didn't scream, or yell, or curse, or even whimper.  In fact, if Krell had to describe it he'd have said it was more of a sob.  Petra probably would have started crying too if it weren't for the lightning bolt that blasted her half-way across the room.  She landed next to him, and her swordhilt landed between them. 
"An insurance policy.  To make sure you go along with it.  And don't bother trying to stop me, I got your mother's approval first.  Good to, say things to you all even though I'm dead and can't hear you.  I bet I miss witty banter whenever this is.  Toodles all."
The hologram vanished and left them all standing beside a fading demon's corpse. 

The Assassin's Tale; The End of an Era, Part One

Credits; Krell, Rea, Petra, Courtney,

It took them but a second to arrive on Stormguarde, and they could instantly see evidence of the fight.  Maybe it was just that Rea had dropped them in at the epicenter of the fight.  The hall of the Pantheon lay in ruins.  There were no bodies though, he would have expected the pantheon to have put up a pretty decent fight.  They were all supposed to be demon slayers after all. 
An explosion tore through the walls and they saw Petra flip in mid air and land on her feet in front of them, sword in hand and armor badly dented. 
"Ah, I thought you might try something like this.  Rea, do what you do best and go deal with the Pantheon.  They're warlocks, the lot of them.  I sort of expected it, but you should know it anyways."
"And since I kill immortals you want me to deal with them of course?"
"Or you could go fight the other demon, Legion brought a very dumb one-eyed friend."
Krell remembered the demon Rea had fought a few days prior.  She'd taken its eye out, and it had sworn revenge.  He had a feeling that the two demons were one and the same.  Especially since most demons didn't live against a foe who managed to injure them at all.  It had been rather impressive that he'd escaped. 
"Where's Courtney?"
"There are warlocks all over the city, wanna take a guess?"
"In the bath?"
"Remind me not to hit you so hard next time.  I hate having to chase you down."
Petra brandished her sword and spun around to meet the towering swordsman.  He was clearly her perfect foe, muscle bound, tall, and well armored.  He had only stumps of wings remaining, but they appeared to be an ancient wound.  He carried a sword of his own, a gleaming silvery white mockery of Petra's own black blade.  Were it not for her mythic strength and skill he would have thought the battle lost before it had begun, but even with such factors taken into account he could see why Rea was so worried. 
"D'aww, didja miss me?"
"I will miss these exchanges of ours when I use your sword to scrape your flesh from beneath my fingernails."
"Tsk Tsk,"  Petra rolled over his sword as he swung.  He and Rea were far enough away to be safe from the blade itself, but he could feel the surge of power as it passed by.  "You should be careful with swords, you might hurt yourself."  She sprinted at him, backflipping off his knee just in time to dodge a shadowy bolt that came out of the smoke just beyond one of the gaping holes in the walls. 
"For you my friend, I would sooner suffer a thousand swords than a single kiss."
Petra parried another blow and the stones around her exploded from the force. 
"Now that was just mean spirited."
"So was cutting off my wings."
"Oh dear does it..."  Krell didn't hear the rest of it, Petra and Legion were slowly moving back onto the street.  He wasn't sure which of them was causing more collateral damage, but he had the feeling Legion wasn't actually trying to do any damage.  He wasn't so certain about Petra.  He spotted Rea go into a crouch facing the first hole in the wall.  He pulled his sword from subsace and stood behind her. 
"Waiting for me?"
"What's your name, I don't like killing things I don't know."
"To bad you won't be killing me."
"Oh, why is that?"
"Oh, that would be us."  Krell spun around and saw ten men and women, mostly Nielda, standing in front of the door. 
"Rea?"
"I'll take the demon, you get the pantheon back outside and Courtney will help you deal with them.  I'll hold him off."
"You stabbed him in the eye last time, just kill him."
"Not as easy as it sounds, I have to stab his heart or use the right set of spells."  The demon pulled out a long sword and stabbed at her.  She easily rolled aside.  "And I don't know any of the spells!" 
"Then you fight the warlocks and I'll kill the demon."
Rea dove asid to avoid another thrust of the Demon's sword.  "You think you can kill him?"
"Thalia lent me a book on the subject."
"You'd better know what you're doing Krell."  She teleported in front of him and began to charge the gathered immortals.  Another warlock crashed through the wall and a black fog billowed through it after him.  Courtney reformed and brought her heel down between the man's eyes as she incanted a spell.  Krell then realized he'd never actually seen an immortal kill one of their own other than Rea, who'd clearly had her blades enchanted appropriately.  But Courtney didn't seem to fight armed.  As Rea began carving through the enemy, Courtney seemed to just glide from one to another, more hunting than fighting. 
"Are you going to stand there all day or are you going to actually fight me?"
Krell turned back around to the demon at hand. 
"What's your name?"
"You too?"
"No, I just want to know who to say I beat."
"Beat me first and then I'll tell you."
"As you wish."  Krell planted his sword in the ground and conjured a sphere of flame, which he then hurled at the demon.  The hellish warrior swiped it from the air and unleashed a snaking beam of destruction across the hall.  Krell drew upon his own strength and held it at bay.  He could feel the Demon's strength, and with it a subtle whisper telling him of the things he could have if he swore himself over to hell's service.  He had expected more from a foe of this caliber.  Maybe they were right about the benefits of being an actual priest. 
He channeled a firey torrent of his own, and put his will behind forcing it through the demon's defenses as it was easily caught and held. 
"Is that the best you can do?"  The demon unleashed a dozen more blasts like the first.  Krell released his own spell and struggled to shield himself against the demon's might.  Then he realized that his enemy had used but one hand to do it all.  He had twice the ability to fight that he'd used so far and Krell could barely handle what he'd already had thrown against him.  "Too bad, maybe next time you'll...Oh right, there won't be a next time."
"Krell!"  Krell couldn't turn to see her, but he knew Rea was charging the demon at that very moment.  But he couldn't really do anything to help.  She actually kicked off of his head as she jumped at the demon.  It released its assault on him and struck her out of the air.  At first it seemed like nothing, then he saw the blood.  Rea had taken the sharp side of the blade directly across the stomach.  She was bleeding, and he remembered what Thalia had said about demons.  They could kill anyone, the wounds they inflicted never healed without divine intervention, and their own wounds healed quickly.  If Rea was bleeding than she might...

The Assassin's Tale; Armory

Credits; Krell, Rea,

The palace was just as it had been when they'd left it yesterday morning four thousand years ago.  The mosaics were still intact, every tile still vivid and bright.  He could see that all of the armor and easily destroyed urns had been replaced by flower arrangements and statuary.  It was quite pretty.  Cyssie and Igor looked completely out of place here.  Even at their nicest they didn't look nearly nice enough to live in a palace like this.  Thalia had given her daughter a lot of freedom to be who she wanted to be, but she clearly had made the palace for someone of her sensibilities.  Cyssie and Igor would go back to the lab soon enough, but for today they were the King and Queen of all mad scientists. 
"The armory is up the hall that way.  We're going to tour the palace, it's been a long time since we've been up here.  God be with you both."
"And be careful, if you make it back alive I'm of a good mind to make the two of you the godparents."
"Thank you Cyssie, Igor.  For everything.  Krell?"
Krell waved as Cyssie and Igor walked off up the hall, lead and followed by a regiment of Gravagan courtiers, guards, and officials.  Rea tugged on his sleeve and pointed down the hall.  "We need to hurry, Petra could already be fighting.  All of the male armor is Hal's, take whatever works best for you."
"What about you?"
"I keep some armor here and there.  This is one of those heres'."

It was a long hall, plastered with purple warriors facing off against all manner of fierce monsters and even more fierce bands of heroes and adventurers.  Thalia had always been fairly dramatic, and she'd done a lot of work to make herself seem egotistical.  In fact judging primarily based on the things she kept around and let be written and recorded about her one would think she was insanely self centered.  But even here he could see the things she actually cared about.  There was a mosaic where she towered over an army of Gravagans, but every one of the soldiers had his own face and it was their order that was shown more than her authority.  On another wall she sat at the end of a table, in the center looking over on those gathered.  But he could recognize them by the backs of their heads; there was Tala of course, and across from her was Courtney in her black dress.  Arcania had her head down as she poked at a salad beside Sara, who raised a wing over her head.  And across from them was a sight he had to stop and laugh at.  A dark haired girl facing to her left where a young man in a priest's garb laughed over lasagna.  Thalia had every mosaic done in great detail, and she clearly was doing more than just placing a focus on herself.  It was a perfect record of everything that had happened in her lifetime to her or Gravaga. 

The armory was at the end of the hall.  Hal's armor was all on the left, and Krell quickly picked a composite mail with a particularly impressive pedigree.  Rea had gone off to the right and had presumably found her own armor.  Krell pulled it on and laced it up before looking around for a helmet.  There were far fewer to choose from.  Ultimately he settled on just not using a helmet.  It was too confusing and all of them restricted his vision.  He did however find a very nice set of metal plated boots and a set of mail backed gauntlets.  The set of enchantments all seemed geared towards fighting demons, or at least shades.  Lots of counter shadithic and protective enchantments; the sort of things that would let one resist corruption. 
"You ready yet?"
"Yes.  How about you?"  Krell stood up and spun towards Rea.  She'd switched out for pants and a shirt, with a composite breatplate and a set of greaves.  She still looked good, but in a much more prickly way than usual. 
"Not a chance.  I have no idea how Petra does this so often.  Demons are scary."
"I'm sure between the two of us it'll be fine."
"Krell you ignorant fool, I'd kill for your confidence."

The Assassin's Tale; A Triumphal Procession

Credits; Krell, Rea,

"Morning Shannon."
"Admiral!  It's an honor."
"Thank you Shannon, could you send a message up to the palace for us?"
"Then the day has come at last?  I shall wire the steward at once.  How many will be going?"
"Four of us, Cyssie and Igor of course, then Rea and I as well.  Nothing to exorbitant mind you, just that they know we're coming."
"Of course.  My Mistress is not a formal person.  Perhaps the Creator loved dramatics, but My Mistress is not of the same mind."
"You knew Thalia?"
"Knew?  Oh, yes I suppose I do, did.  Perhaps I have not properly introduced myself; Viscountess General Shannon Krouney of Her Imperial Majesty's Fourth Legion.  I was assigned to My Mistress' protection detail following the war, so that she need not worry about her own safety."
Was anyone normal any more?  Even the receptionist had rank and title these days.  Nao the guide had turned out to be the Spearhead, Rea the cheery fangirl turned out to be a dour and dedicated assassin, Liss the maid would probably turn out to be the lost lady of Anatolia at this rate.  What made it worse is that he actually knew of General Krouney and the Fourth Legion; he'd studied her use of mixed infantry back when he had started playing TacSim, she was regarded as one of the most effective defensive commanders in all Gravaga.  In any normal society she'd be giving lectures and touring bases, not answering phones for the mad scientist who apparently ruled the country.  Krell took a deep breath and continued. 
"It's an honor to finally meet you General; I've studied you quite intensely over the years."
"I am glad to have provided a suitable example to future generations."

Cyssie and Igor stepped out of the elevator.  She was wearing a purple blouse and skirt, and a leather apron covered in burns and sprouting wrenches and screwdrivers and pouches all along the belt, with a holster for some sort of pistol.  Doubtless it did far more, or less, than simply shooting things; after all they were mad scientists.  Igor was wearing a leather jacket and a long black shirt.  He had a whole array of tools and gizmos sticking out of pockets, and he was sure every pocket was far deeper than the jacket was long, and it was quite long.  They looked nice, in their own rather practical sort of way.  And they'd bathed that morning, which had made a very noticeable improvement on their appearances.  Both stepped outside cautiously, and Rea followed up behind.  She had worn a dress.  He'd seen her in a dress before, but he hadn't seen her with quite this little make-up.  What's more her hair had changed color.  The odd thing was that it wasn't dyed or enchanted; apparently she was a natural redhead.  She'd braided it too, presumably to match Cyssie's hair.  She had her gauntlet on, and he saw the amulet he'd given her for Junsrew hanging from her neck.  She looked...well it was just as disturbing as ever really.  She was pretty, and even without trying to look older she did look older than her age, and a lot younger than her true age.  He doubted it would ever stop bothering him that he found her attractive.  She was...a problem.  And one of these days he'd have to face it. 

Despite his requesting that there not be too much fuss, all of Gravaga seemed to have turned out to watch them go up to the palace.  The Steward of the palace had sent a car down to pick them up.  It was rather traditional looking, low flying and open roofed, and the driver was flying purposefully slow.  As they entered the city a guard escort fell in around them and he could see that the streets had been closed off ahead.  It wasn't quite a parade, but it was obvious that the Gravagans would have held one if they'd had another four hours notice.  Confetti was already starting to appear from the windows around them, and he could have sworn he saw sparklers. 
"They're quite excited, aren't they?"
Krell looked back at Rea.  She looked a little bit cramped in the back seat.  Igor and Cyssie were both much taller than she was, and their clothes were rather heavier so it didn't leave her much space. 
"They haven't had a proper ruler in two thousand and a bit years.  Of course they're excited."
"Still, its rather loud isn't it?"
Krell then realized how uncomfortable Rea was.  Not just being crammed in the back seat with much larger people, she was also the focus of attention.  She was in the middle of a cheering crowd, and they weren't just cheering for Cyssie and Igor, they were cheering for him and Rea for bringing them Cyssie and Igor.  And Rea wasn't used to being cheered for.  She lurked in shadows and sat in corners.  She was as much a hero as Tala or Petra was, but she'd never gotten the same sort of attention.  And now that she had it she wasn't sure how to react. 
"Yes, it is.  Bet this doesn't happen to you very often."
"What?  A parade you mean?"
"People cheering for you."
"No.  Usually crowds come after me with torches and pitchforks."  Igor started up at the phrase torches and pitchforks.  Rea got jostled a bit and grimmaced at him.  Krell turned towards the driver. 
"We're on a bit of a schedule here, think you could pick up the pace?"
"I think it is possible."
There was no attempt to speed up.  Krell glanced back and saw that Rea was starting to fidget. 
"Could you speed up, now?"
"Yes."
Still nothing.  Krell took a deep breath. 
"Get us to the palace, now."
"I am."
"Faster."
"Sorry, I can't do that."
"Then get out.  The Mistress and her companions are on a schedule." 
He could recognize Shannon's voice over the radio and saw a Mechanized Armor Suit walking alongside them with a mark of a combined four and an L.  They really weren't sparing anything for this day. 
"But by the command of the Steward..."
"The Mistress' needs come before those of the Steward.  And her need is swift arrival.  Obey or Defy?"
"I obey Viscountess.  For The Mistress."
The car accelerated to three times its prior speed and in mere seconds they arrived at the palace.  Krell looked back as the gates began to shut and saw the Armor suit manage a salute.  He returned it and then went to join the others.  He should have known not to underestimate a receptionist who wore Army boots. 

The Assassin's Tale; Girls

Credits; Krell, Rea,

Krell and Igor sat on the couch watching the girls, it was difficult to call either permanently adolescent Rea or still grease stained Cyssie a lady.  He had managed to come up with a plan to get the equipment stored in the palace without stealing it.  Cyssie and Igor would enter the palace for a tour and public whatsit; as the rulers of Gravaga it was actually rather overdue for them to do so.  He and Rea would accompany them as an entourage.  Cyssie would inform the guards that they were to open the armory for he and Rea, and then he and Rea would take the needed equipment and head directly to Stormguarde via teleport. 
Of course, since they had most of a day to wait before entering the palace, Rea had insisted on helping make Cyssie presentable for her appearance.  Judging by Cyssie's resistance and Rea's sheer pleasure it would be a long time before they would make any progress. 
"When's the last time you two left the lab?"
"The funeral.  Mom's funeral that is.  Her Mom's, my mother in law."
"But that would have been nearly two thousand years ago."
"Its a big lab."
"And you never had to go out and get anything even?"
"Nope.  Everything gets shipped in.  We have teams move anything we need down and we use it when we need it."
"Just the two of you?  You never go to parties, or conventions or anything?"
"We used to, before Mom died.  Cyssie really took it hard, she and Mom were always really close."
"I've noticed.  But its been a long time."
"Really close.  They were business partners, best friends, mother and daughter.  Only Hal and I had as much of their affection as they did for each other."
"And she lost him on the same day as she lost Thalia.  But Two Thousand Years?"
"Kate hasn't exactly helped.  She's so busy trying to apologize she doesn't stop and leave time for the wound to heal.  If she'd just back off for a while maybe Cyssie could move on, but until then..."
"Ah, Maybe if I have a word with her?"
"It wouldn't make any difference.  Kate's too stubborn."
"Maybe if I have a Fist with her?"
"Ah, no that wouldn't help either.  Cyssie's tried that."
"Cyssie actually hit her?" 
Igor laughed and leaned in.  "Didn't even leave a mark."
He looked over and saw that Rea had tied Cyssie's hands down and had her sitting in a chair while she brandished a pair of scisors and a fine comb.  She was snipping bits of singed hair and evening the length in general.  The unfortunate blonde couldn't extract herself from the situation, but was switching between loud objection and spitting out bits of hair. 
"Scary to think that those are some of the most powerful people in the world."
"Yeah.  The capacity to rend mind and body, sunder planets, snuff stars, and lay low armies and here they are fussing about hair."
"If they have to exercise one of their abilities, I'd rather it was haircutting then mind rending."
"Krell, you do realize that I'm every bit as capable as she is, right?"
"Well, yes, but you seem more under control."
"I did my share of mind rending back in the day.  I can raise the dead with minds intact better than any vampire, outrun elves, and I designed the original tesser coil.  I'm the original mad scientist.  I just don't show it the same way she does.  She's much more sane than she acts, a lot of that is just the sort of dramatics Mom always taught." 
They sat quietly as Rea braided Cyssie's hair.  Rea was very good at it, Krell had watched Lewiza braid their daughters' hair before and he could see the difference.  It was a very complicated style, with the braid going around the top of Cyssie's head in a sort of tiara.  It looked rather nice with Cyssie's hair and complexion, like a princess out of a fairy tale.  Rea finished up and conjured a collection of dresses.  Igor snickered as Cyssie began arguing with Rea over whether or not she would need pockets tomorrow.  Krell couldn't help but join in as Rea lost the arguement and retaliated by snapping, vanishing all of Cyssie's pockets and rendering her entire arguement void. 
"She's right you know, pockets really are rather handy."
"And Rea cares why?  Girl would put a spare planet in subspace if she thought she needed it."
"Krell, she DOES keep a planet in subspace."
"What?"
"You have no idea the lengths she's gone to in order to kill targets."
"She's dropped a planet on people?"
"No, she just needed something to launch missles off of.  She's got batteries of surface launched missles set up in case she ever needs to make something extremely dead."  Igor smiled. 
"Now you're just pulling my leg."
"Yeah, she does keep an impressive set of non-lethal hammers, a wardrobe big enough to fill the Palace, and more than her fair share of explosives." 
"Oh, that doesn't surprise me.  Everyone keeps explosives, right?"
"Well yeah, but most people wear clothes more than once too."
Krell could see his point.  He had never seen Rea wear an outfit more than once.  Today she was wearing a plain white shirt with a black apron and pants, it had made her look very professional while she wove Cyssie's hair.  Now she'd managed to get Cyssie into a purple gown of some sort.  It looked nice enough on her, but he could tell that both she and Igor would have liked it better if she was still wearing her usual greasy jumpsuit and stained khaki overalls.  Krell decided it was finally time to intercede and give Cyssie a break. 
"Alright, that's a bit too fancy.  It's a good color, but it's too poofy and and it would look better if it came up a bit higher, maybe if it covered the shoulders?"
"She's going to a palace, not a shop meet.  She should look like it."
"She's going to Her Palace, if she wanted to naked nobody would say a word."
"I would."
"Sorry Igor, but you get the idea?"
Rea sighed.  "Yeah, I just haven't had anyone to dress up in a while."
"You dress yourself every morning.  If you want to wear a dress, wear a dress."
"But I need to be able to run!"
"And she needs to be able to wield a welding torch and conjure massive quantitites of grease."
Rea crossed her arms and threw herself back into one of the chairs.  "Your Mom is right, you two need to have kids so I have someone to dress up again."
Igor and Cyssie exchanged another glance and Krell stared at Cyssie for a moment.  Then he looked over at Igor and decided to ask.  "When's the due date?"
"Twins, Fifth of August.  We were planning on going back to the fifth of August three thousand years ago so that Mom could be there."
"Congratulations, make sure to have the clean diapers on hand before you take the old ones off."  Krell patted Igor on the back and shook his hand.  Rea started bouncing and squealing.  Cyssie smiled and snapped herself back into her jumpsuit.  Krell realized that Thalia probably already knew when she'd yelled through the time gate that morning.

The Assassin's Tale; Futures Both Past and Present

Cast; Krell, Rea, Thalia,

"Are you sure you must leave so soon?"
"I'm afraid so.  We'll be sure to return when we can." 
"Just don't get hurt too bad.  I'm looking forward to..hehe, well you two can find out about that later now can't you?"
"Don't be a tease."  Rea looked over at Krell in surprise.  He didn't blame her, normally he never would have said anything like that.  Thalia was the sort of person who was doing it on purpose though, and Krell was getting quite fed up with the constant hinting that she already knew how it all turned out.  Besides the logic problems involved in someone from the past knowing how their future ended, it was frustrating to have such information dangled over their heads. 
"Oh, is it bothering you?"
"Yes, a lot.  How would you like it if we told you how you die?"
"A Demon enslaves Kate, starts a war, and I break its hold on her at the price of my life.  I've known that since I was sixteen."
"Oh.  And you know about Sara?"
"Axe crazy little Mmnmhm goes and joins her willingly, then gets knocked up by the emperor of Danielland and ultimately dies at the hands of Hariel the fire mage, Earl of Star Haven.  Cyssie is the greatest scientist of all time.  And Koren is a librarian.  Hal dies fighting to create a distraction so that I can die."
"And you just?"
Thalia nodded.  "Petra is horrible at keeping secrets.  But yes, I know how my life ends and I know what happens to everyone I care about, but I live on anyways."
"How do you manage it?"
"Why should it change anything to know how it ends?  I know things other than my death.  I know that Kate never gets over my death, I know that Cyssie has a family one day, I know that Sara gets her comeupance, and that Hal and I never have to live without each other.  I know that I live a full and satisfying life and that much good comes of it.  Krell, Rea; stop worrying about knowing the future.  God knows what will come and what he says will be will be."
"Thank you Thalia.  For dinner, and for everything else."
"Its my pleasure.  Its an honour to know you both."  She curtsied low and both Rea and Krell returned a bow. 
"As it is ours to know you."
Thalia waited and watched as the door opened in space.  They could see the time machine and Cyssie and Igor waiting for them.  They stepped through and turned around to see Thalia waving and smiling. 
"Cyssie, Come visit as soon as you have some grandchildren to bring!"
"MOM!"
The door closed, cutting off Thalia's laughter mid breath.  Cyssie and Igor looked at one another and smiled. 
"Do you two need to go anywhen else?"
"No, we need to go and pick up that armor of your Dad's from the palace."
"Ah yes, its in the armory.  Should be able to walk right in."
"How hard will it be to get out?"
"For you, a cakewalk."
"That hard?"
"Wait, what if we didn't steal it?"  They all looked at him.  He was a little worried at the prospect that no one had actually considered asking for it. 
"Well,"  Said Igor as he began slowly pacing.  "I suppose if we pulled rank.  And technically Cyssie and I do own everything.  I guess if we asked nicely..."
"Wait," Rea interjected, "Since when did you own everything?"
"Oh, it's in Mom's will.  She left me the country."
Krell looked at Rea.  He was surprised at the news, but he was even more surprised that she was surprised.  For that matter, hadn't Rea said that Thalia's will was on the staff? 
"She left you, you, Cyssie Von Gravaga, mad scientist and general, well, irrational little girl, in charge of the most powerful nation in the universe?"
"Who else could she have given it to?"
"True.  Just, you?"
"I think I've done a fairly decent job of it.  I've never lost a war, I've never caused a genocide, and the Gravagans love me."
Krell laughed as he saw Rea slump.  It was true.  Thalia had built a military machine strong enough that it had been able to carve through the Frostbourne hordes with ease, and then even after the destruction of millions of soldiers and entire battle fleets had simply retrained, rebuilt, and then struck back unlead with a fury still un-matched.  And Thalia had put all of that in the hands of Cyssie, strange, cheerful Cyssie.  She was the one person guaranteed to not use it.  And ultimately, Thalia didn't want to rule the world; she just wanted the capacity to rule it.

The Assassin's Tale; Dessert

Credits; Krell, Rea, Tala, Arcania, Courtney, Thalia,

Desert proved much less individualized than dinner had.  Brownies, and in no small quantity either, had been set in the center of the table just about as they finished up their dinners.  Some, like Rea and Tala, had finished earlier than others, but most of the rest of them finished around the same time.  They were very good brownies, and the meals had clearly been portioned to ensure that everyone had room for desert.  It occured to Krell that Thalia must have been using magic to know how much people would eat, not to mention what and that they would all like brownies.  Or maybe, he considered as he helped him self to a second portion of the melty chocolate confection, it was that she'd enchanted the brownie so that everyone would like it.  Or perhaps it was just that everyone did like brownies as a sort of universal law and Thalia just happened to know it and worked out one of the best brownie recipes in all of history so she could exploit it.  There was no way of knowing without asking, and he wasn't sure if it would be polite. 
"Lovely dinner Missus Immersfeld, thank you for having us over."  Courtney was the first one to finish with desert, not surprising considering her apparently miniscule appetite.  She stood to leave and Tala rose with her. 
"Pardon me Thal, I need to speak with miss Yellsdana for a moment.  I'll be back shortly."
"Of course, take your time, I doubt any of us are in any hurry to do anything after such a satisfying meal."
"Thank you."  Tala accompanied Courtney into the next room and closed the door behind them.  Krell could see from Thalia's raised eyebrow that he was not the only one to find it curious that Tala had blocked sound from passing into the room.  But Tala and Courtney were both adults and they were entitled to their privacy, so neither he nor Thalia said anything about the matter. 
"Kate, Sara; could you run along and if you insist on not going to bed then at least occupy yourselves.  Hal, could you put Cyssie down for the night?  I believe Rea and Krell need to speak with me."
Hal nodded and picked Cyssie out of her high chair gently.  The two sisters walked out silently, clearly accustomed to this sort of thing.  No sooner had the two girls left then the table and dishes vanished.  Hal left just as Thalia and Rea stood.  Krell chose to stand as well, and just in time as the chairs joined the table in subspace. 
"So what do you need today?"
"Besides letting Krell meet you?  We need you to show us how to do something."
"Ah that would explain...nevermind.  Continue."
"The time is at hand.  Petra and Legion are preparing to battle.  We only have a couple of days.  We need to know how to sap power from a demon safely."
"There is no such thing as sapping power from a demon safely.  But I could show you how to do it dangerously."
"Then do it.  We need to know."
"No."
"No?"
"No."
"Why not?  Petra's life is at stake."
"Besides not being overly fond of Petra, it's not the sort of technique to be taken lightly.  You have no idea the danger it poses.  I will not teach you."
"But.."
"I will, however, teach your partner.  Krell is..more prudent.  I think he can better judge the appropriate times to use it.  And I believe he will be better able to combat the demon's poisons then you would.  Perhaps if you would choose good over your current system of balance then you could handle it too.  But add demons to the shadow and it would take God himself to bring you back.  Remember the Tome of Zink?"
Rea frowned and crossed her arms.  Thalia wasn't angry, she was more just mentorly and calm.  She'd managed to avoid angering Rea even while denying her what she wanted.  Seemed to be a common trait amongst the powerful people he'd been meeting lately; they all either annoyed her instantly or managed to keep her under control.  In fact, it almost seemed an indicator of an immortal's maturity that they managed to do so. 
"Fine.  I can't make you teach anyone, but if you're willing to teach Krell then its better than nothing." 
"Good.  Thalia smiled.  "Now what else is there I can do to help?  Even sapping his power won't be enough to defeat Legion.  And I doubt he'd be stupid enough to come alone, so you and your fine Father may be too busy to help at all."
"Kate is very powerful in our time.  She recently recovered your staff and believes your will is recorded on it.  Could you do something to try and convince her to help us?"
"Of course.  She won't listen though, she never does."
"I think she'd be much more open in our time."
"Ah.  And unless I'm mistaken Tala has already determined a course of action of her own.  You should be sure that the fight takes place in Stormguarde so her plans can be effective." 
"Yeah, that's a good idea.  How long should the training take?"
"About an hour."
"Only an hour?  Its supposed to be one of the most powerful techniques in all history and you can teach it in an hour?"
"I learned it in about ten minutes, so yeah.  Krell already has most of the prerequisite skills and he has the perfect sort of off-balance for it.  You really neglect the benefits of ordination Rea, you should take the time to go to seminary or a monastary or something at some point.  It's quite worth it."
"Yeah, I'll look into it."  Rea turned and headed out through one of the doors on the side of the room.  Thalia turned towards him. 
"Man, I like her better in the future.  She..right, spoilers.  Shall we get to work?"

The Assassin's Tale; Dinner

Credits; Krell, Rea, Tala, Arcania, Courtney, Thalia,

Thalia spared no effort on dinner.  And it had to be said that way because part of that effort was involved in getting the best of every ingredient for a cost roughly equivalent to a gently worded death threat.  She payed it in money of course, but she got everything wholesale, clearance, and what she refered to as gun point discount but was actually more of an affectionate tribute discount.  The Gravagan's legitametly loved their ruler and creator.  She may have made a show of bullying them around, but when push came to shove she was right in front of them taking shots and swords in their stead.  They knew she was on their side, and so even if for appearances she had to shoot one in the leg now and then, they knew it all came with full-coverage health and dental and Junsrew festivities.  Besides the expenses though, Thalia actually supervised the kitchen staff herself, working directly with the head chef to plan the meals and then cooking dessert herself.  Where she found time to do so much nobody knew, maybe she, like Rea, had the ability to alter the flow of time in order to do more in the time provided.  To the best of his knowledge, no one had managed to figure it out even by his time. 
He glanced around the room as everyone began to take their seats.  There seemed to be no designated seats, but everyone sort of knew where they would best fit in.  He sat between Rea and Hal, Thalia's more heroic husband.  Hal sat next to Thalia at the triangular table, and on her left was Cyssie, recognizable in her high chair only by the tuft of blonde hair and the way she seemed to actually calculate the trajectory of each catapulted spoonful of green mush.  On her left, across from him, was Arcania, who he had been forwarned to call Kate.  She looked nothing like her future self, she had curious brown eyes, and brown curly hair like her father's.  There was none of the boldness, saddness, or mystery she would one day posess, just the same sort of clever fascination that would lead her down the dark path.  Next to her was a fiery redhead, she wore three axes and plate armor.  It must have been Sara, Thalia's second daughter and the future Lych Queen; she would be more the villain of the Frostbourne war then Arcania would, and the Lych she commanded into battle would be a plague on the universe until nearly five hundred years ago when he himself struck down Xanadu on Cariol.  Beside her was Coutney, who looked none to happy with her boisterous neighbor.  She looked much as she did in his time, dark clothes and pale skin.  She didn't even look that much younger, maybe six years at most.  Across from her, beside Rea, was Tala.  She'd tied her blue hair back and was chatting with Rea quietly. 

Suddenly, Thalia tapped on her glass. 
"Ladies, and Hal, Krell, and Sara, Dinner is served."
It was a perfectly coreographed entrance.  Krell suspected that everything in the palace was, but dinner was probably particularly well coreographed on account of its being for the benefit of non-relatives.  Tala and Rea seemed to shrug it off, but he could see Courtney light up as she watched the Gravagan servants glide across the room carrying silver platers so perfectly polished that Krell could make out the individual tiles of the mosaic behind him.  He saw the head chef, a stocky looking Gravagan, step out of the kitchen and proceed directly to Tala.  He waved and the servant removed the cover, revealing a very ordinary looking burger with equally ordinary looking onion rings and a slightly better than ordinary looking dipping sauce to accompany them.  He allowed Tala to inspect the food, making sure she was completely satisfied with it before proceeding to Rea.  She too had a burger, but with fries and rather a large amount of cheese slathered over both the patty and the fries.  Again he inspected it and proceeded directly past him and around to Arcania.  She had a salad, a very nice salad with plenty of caesar and no shortage of croutons.  Apparently her appetite was one of the few things about her that hadn't changed.  Sara had a heaping plate of wings, all soaked in a combination of what he suspected was buffalo sauce and lard that had been poured over a batter that smelled of very strong alcohol.  Courtney looked away and whimpered slightly at the sight.  Her own meal seemed much more appetizing by comparison; a small medium rare steak.  The plate itself was mostly just garnishments and decorations, but Courtney did seem to be the dainty one at the table.  Thalia had a bowl of chicken noodle soup, small basket of garlic bread set between her and Hal, and a side salad.  Hal had the same, but his soup had more chicken while hers was mostly noodle. 
Finally, after Cyssie was introduced to a fresh bowl of applesauce, the head chef approached his place. 
"And for you, Mr Casat, lasagna; twice baked, light on the sauce.  And a side of garlic bread to accompany."
How in the world could they have known?  He hadn't told them, he hadn't even told Rea what his favorite meal was.  And yet here it was exactly the way he liked it.  HE sampled it as the chef watched intently.  It was perfect.  The best sausage he'd ever had, and exactly the right combination of cheese, meat, pasta, and sauce.  And the seasonings complimented every element perfectly.  He'd never had a better meal in his whole life. 
"This is the best lasagna I've ever had!"
Thalia and Hal laughed.  Kate seemed amused, but his reaction seemed to annoy Sara.  Courtney smiled, as did Rea and Tala.  And from the look of pure joy on the chef's face, this was the reaction he'd hoped for. 
"Mr Casat, I thank you for your kind words.  I have spent many years perfecting this recipe, and it brings me great joy that it should bring you such pleasure."
"You should be pleased, this is amazing!"
Thalia laughed again.  "Alright Ended, you've done well.  Go set up for dessert please."  The chef continued beaming as he spun and departed.  "Now, shall we pray?"
Sara dropped her wing uncerimoniously and Arcania rolled her eyes.  But everyone else in the room looked attentively towards Thalia.  Courtney seemed curious more than anything else, but Tala, Rea, and surprisingly Cyssie all seemed fairly reverant.  "Father?  Would you do us the honors?"
Krell looked around and realized that they meant him, rather than the father of three of the room's inhabitants.  He folded his hands and bent over the table. 
"Bless us O Lord, for these Thy gifts, which we're 'bout to recieve from Christ our Lord.  Amen."
"Thank you." 
"Indeed, nicely done." 
Rea patted him on the shoulder and leaned over.  "You did good.  I keep forgetting you're a priest; surprised Thalia remembered.  We must be very different in the future she knows us from.  I ought to ask."  Tala thumped her on the back.  "Fine, I won't.  Still interesting to think about what we'll be like in the future."
Krell nodded.  "Yeah, especially seeing what everyone else was like."

The Assassin's Tale; Old Friends

Credits; Krell, Rea, Tala,

Rea hurried out of the room.  Krell was keeping up rather easily.  Rea was clearly trying to keep from being winded, but there was an eagerness to her gait that was apparent nonetheless.  Krell tried to remember everything he'd learned in school about Tala as they went along through the palace.  The storm mage was legendary for her exploits during the hierarchy wars, and then for her leadership during the frostbourne war, but other than that he only knew of how she'd helped found Seclora.  They were always important stories, but it was history.  He'd loved stories like the Adventures of Spearhead and the Battle of Petra Death's Daughter and the thousand shades, and meeting them he'd found that they were nothing like what they'd seemed.  Thalia, who'd always been portrayed as a villain in both media and history, had proved to be kind and gentle despite her reputation.  What would Tala, a war hero and a great leader prove to be in her off time? 
Fortunately, the one thing the stories had not exagerated was her sky blue hair.  He recognized her the second he saw her fall out of the cabinent ahead.  He heard her curse briefly just before Rea helped her up.  Her face brightened as she saw Rea and the two hugged for what Krell felt was slightly longer than strictly necessary. 
"Rea!  I didn't expect to..Careful with the leg hun, I twisted it jumping out a window the other day..I didn't expect to see you here.  What brings you round these parts?"
"Sorry.  I needed to see Thalia so she could teach us something."  She kind of tilted her head towards Krell as she mentioned him.  He waved and Tala let go of Rea and turned to inspect him. 
"Future Rea, always wanted to meet you.  I always thought you stopped when I..."  She paused and stared off into space for a second before recovering.  "But that's another day, isn't it?  So you're here to learn something?  What would make it worthwhile to come back again?"
"I shouldn't tell you.  It's after your time and I don't want to worry you." 
"We're partners, no secrets, right?"
Rea sighed and waved Krell over.  He stepped over silently, not sure how to greet her.  Tala took three steps back and put out a hand to hold him at that distance. 
"So you're the new guy?  I knew you'd hapen at some point.  Let's see what you are."  She began to circle him slowly as she looked him over.  She made it around twice before stopping next to Rea and pointing at him.  "Well, you've got good taste; he's a handsome young man."  She seemed to block Rea's punch on instinct; if she really had been Rea's partner in the past then she would have had to develop such an instinct.  Tala blocked a second punch and a roundhouse kick before she began to dodge.  "You know I don't mean anything by it hun, I don't do young guys."
Rea stopped and stepped back.  "Sorry, its been a while."
"You've been getting stronger."
They both stared and relaxed.  Krell's mind boggled at the idea of someone actually talking Rea down from a fight, but there it was.  Petra had welcomed the fight and crushed Rea, Arcania had gotten help, but Tala had stood there, defending herself, and just reminded Rea of her better nature.  He was impressed.  He noticed that Tala was facing him again and faced her in return. 
"Clearly Rea's been dressing you, but there's no way she'd give anyone boots, certainly not with that outfit.  So I can assume you're military.  No pistol, so you must be navy.  You're adventerous and apparently immortal, so I'm guessing upper ranks, probably a High Admiral.  You've got a very nice necklace there too, silver cross.  A priest?"  She looked over at Rea.  "Hun I know you've got a lot to atone for but it's not like there's a shortage of priests that you've got to bring your own along with you."  Rea smiled. 
"You're really good at this.  You're Tala then?"
"He calls me by name too; Daniellandish then."
"How does my using your name make a difference?"
"The Seclorans call me Svel.  Tell me, where'd you find this guy?"
"Gasca, in the spaceport."
"And Gascan to boot.  Well then sir, what kind of crazy quest has she dragged you along for?"
Krell looked over at Rea, who sighed and swiveled around and stepped over to be next to him.  "We need Thalia to show us how to drain, absorb, and transmit shadithic power."
Tala was stiff as stone for several minutes.  When she finally resumed breathing she put a hand to her head and pulled a chair up behind her.  "Rea, that's a really powerful technique.  Are you sure you can handle it?"
"You took the entirety of the natural forces of a world and channeled them through yourself; a portion of a demon's power divided between two people is barely..." 
"It is a thousand times more than that!"  Rea stopped and both she and Krell pulled chairs of their own from subspace and listened.  "Rea, you kill immortals.  We're very strong.  But Demons are a lot stronger.  Most immortals are lucky to beat a shade, two if they're good.  You, me, Chastity McMomProblems; we're a rare breed.  Just being able to beat a demon is amazing, taking their power?  Rea, even if it weren't one of the most corruptive things in existance that would be more than anyone could bear."
"By my time it's already been done.  But I don't have time to learn it then, I have two days."
"Then come up with a different plan.  Rea, I won't let you go and die, or worse, just so you can assassinate another stupid warlock."
"This isn't about the book."
"Then why are you doing it?"
"Because..The book's not working.  It's told me to kill the same person for almost six hundred years now.  Last week I did and it just changed it."
"Oh."  Tala reached into her pocket and jotted down a few notes on a small book of her own.  "I'd wondered when that would happen.  Rea, have you considered that maybe its just her time?"
"She doesn't have a time!  I asked her mum ages ago when she was fighting Palaptos.  She shouldn't exsist, so she isn't in the books properly.  She thinks its her time, but it isn't."
"Why?"
"Because she hasn't suffered enough yet!"
They both paused.  Krell hadn't realized how much Rea didn't like Petra.  She wanted to save her life, so that she could suffer?  Suddenly he wasn't sure what side was what any more. 
"She's still all uptight and mommy issues then?"
"Yes!"
"Fine, I'll help.  But I'm dissapointed that even after how many years since I died no one has managed to get through to the stupid girl."  She stood up and banished all three chairs, dropping he and Rea uncerimoniously onto the floor.  "Tell her to take a page from her mother's book, hang up her sword, and listen to what her damn cat's been trying to tell her for the past nine thousand years."  She brushed her hair back in an attempt to calm herself down and started walking towards the dining room.  "Honestly it would do you a lot of good too, hun."
Krell started to follow her and felt Rea's hand on his. 
"Krell, I didn't mean that.  About wanting her to suffer."
"You sure about that?  It seems like everyone hates her.  I don't like her much myself, but that's just awful..."
"Krell, Tala and I used to be, kind of still are, really close.  When we say we want her to suffer, we mean the sort of emotional suffering that the rest of the world takes for granted.  Petra's always aloof and apart from society; we just want to see her deal with normal stuff like sex and breakups and unrequited love and all that kind of stuff.  It's not cruel, mostly.  It kind of is.  But you've met her, don't you think she could use it too?"
He did.  Even if it weren't for the reputation he'd seen how self-righteous and stuck up she was.  But still, the idea that they were only trying to save her so that they could see her weak wasn't right. 

The Assassin's Tale; Thalia's Palace

Credits; Krell, Rea, Thalia,

The Palace of Thalia on Gravaga, as it was properly named, was as elaborate as he remembered it.  High ceilings, stone collumns, mosaics about Thalia's victories and the expansion of the empire.  Gravagan guards and servants went back and forth at their business.  It was like the Imperial palace, only much bigger, better decorated, and if the collection of bad jokes written on every door were any indication, much less serious. 
"Sorry for the lack of mess, I've got a fight planned for this afternoon and Hal likes to be able to maneuver.  Normally I keep some flower arrangements around."  Thalia gestured around the grand hall pointing out the large easily destroyed urns and racks of swords.  She seemed happy to point out, for his benefit Krell expected, all of the things that were not normal and which she did not particularly like.  It was fascinating seeing how very different the so-called Dark Lady was in person as opposed to all of the historical accounts and media depictions.  She was always shown as being cruel and vainglorious, but just listening to her he could see nothing but a woman who put a lot of work into cultivating an image.  An evil image, and she was doing a very good job of it, but still just an image.  He could see the cameras hidden all around every room of the palace as she lead them through.  Her plots and exploits had always been broadcast across the universe, for anyone who wanted to watch at least.  Truth was that she made real life more exciting than anything any team of writers could come up with.  She was methodical, and any given adventure was much like the others, but she had the skill to make them all compelling and exciting at the same time.  If she was anything, it was a master of media.  Not many people could have pulled it all off. 
More interesting was that he could see how little she actually wanted any of it.  It was nothing personal; destroying towns to create new heroes and turning out new villains to fight them.  She didn't like the palace; he remembered Liss having mentioned that when they were on Stormguard.  But he would have been able to tell that by listening to her complain about the upkeep and how impersonal everything was.  She had the servants to wait on her hand and foot, but she demonstrated an illusion that let her slip down to the kitchen to wash the dishes when she finished eating.  She had everything you could ever want, and she wanted none of it. 

"You'll be staying here.  Feel free to watch, just don't get involved.  Dinner is at six, we can talk then."  Thalia waved the door closed behind her.  Rea jumped onto the bed and buried her head in the pillows. 
"Does she know how she dies?"
"Petra accidentally told her while she was still in school.  She took it really well."
"Then she knows about Arcania?"
"Don't let her hear you calling her that.  To her mother, she will always be Kate.  Cyssie's still little right now, Koren's off at school, but Hal, Kate, and Sara will be there."
"Isn't she?"
"Yeah, and she's a slovenly, axe crazy, barbarian.  Luckily she doesn't talk much." 
"Sounds like you and her have some bad blood."
"Oh we got along great at the time; I galavanted around stabbing people and she wished she could galavant around burning and killing.  So I told her stories about it until eventually she just ran away from home and started living the dream, the horrible, bloody dream."
"You created the Lych Queen?"
"No, I just encouraged her a lot, all that violence and wantoness was already there."
Krell sat down on his bed and flicked on the screen.  Thalia and Hal were facing off in the throne room, her guards on either side of her, and the little band of heroes Hal had joined up with on the other.  Rea pointed at one of the heroes.  "I know her."
"Did you kill her?"
"No, you know her too.  That's Courtney!  This was her debut season."
He looked closer and recognized noticed that she was wearing her usual cloak.  A sweeping shot of the heroes showed her face and her realized that it was in fact Courtney Yellsdana. 
"Wasn't she Thalia's steward?"
"Not yet she isn't.  She's working for her Grandfather still; he sent her to investigate a series of vampire attacks on Swindreen and she joined up with Hal and the rest so she could hunt down the pereptrator.  Kept traveling with them for years under a code name before she finally took the job on Stormguard.  She'll stay for dinner tonight, Yuri has already let her in on the whole thing."
"How many people normally stay for dinner on Fridays?"
"Thalia's family, any of Hal's companions that are in the know, Me from time to time, and Tala drops in sometimes when she can."
"And Petra?"
Rea went silent.  Krell didn't push it.  Thalia was a villain after all, and Petra was one of the most self-righteous people in the universe, even if she was legitametly good too.  It didn't suprise him that the two didn't get along.  Thalia was willing to do horrible things in order to rebuild the system from the bottom up for the greater good, and Petra seemed more likely to destroy anything that was so much as tainted in order to make anything left good.  She'd be a menace if she ever ran out of demons to slay.  Thalia was definitely the more practical, and likeable, of the two. 
Rea rolled over and looked across the room at him.  "It's not a ideological thing.  Petra's sore over getting her butt handed to her on a very shiny purple crystal plate, and Thalia thinks, no, outright says that Petra needs to pull the stick out of her rear, find a nice man, and get jiggy with him."
Krell blinked and looked over at Rea.  She was grinning from ear to ear.  He paused and then replied, "She thinks that Petra needs to get laid?"
"She's kinda right too.  It did wonders for Tala and Zink."
"I pity the poor man who get stuck with that responsibility."
Rea laughed and stood up.  "C'mon, I just felt Tala pop into the third floor broom closet.  I need to introduce you two."

The Assassin's Tale; Time-Gate

Credits; Krell, Rea, Thalia,

Cyssie's description of the device lined up pretty well with its appearance.  A sort of arched doorway in the middle of a circular basin; and on the other side of the transparent walls he could see the inner workings of the tesser coil it was hooked into.  It had already been spun up, and he could see that Cyssie and Igor had taken positions in the control room, thanks to the convenient projected feed.  Rea stood on the podium next to the doorway and turned towards the projection. 
"Four thousand years should do nicely.  Don't suppose you can put me down in the palace?"
"This is the biggest tesser coil in the known universe Miss Rea, I can put anything anywhen or where I want."
"Then want to put me in the palace, four thousand years ago." 
Cyssie turned to Igor, turning a knob as she did.  "Mr. Von Gravaga, make it so."
"As you wish Mrs. Von Gravaga." Igor turned as second knob, turning towards his wife and leaning over to kiss her as he did. 

The moment the device was turned on he could feel the difference.  Besides the usual feeling that accompanied a tesser-coil, and the loud pop that came with that he could feel what he could only cognicize as the temporal equivalent of a tesser jump.  And as the gate activated, bridging the gap between them and their destination, he could hear a series of pops like a million teleports a second.  Scientifically, it probably had something to do with the fact that air, light, and whatever was in the air or crawling through the dust were all flowing freely between the two points.  Rea waved for him to join her on the podium.  Krell was hesitant, but stepped up and looked through the door.  If he'd had to guess, he'd say they were about to step into a large closet. 
"I know, Time Travel, right?"
"Rea, its scary enough going going between two points in space with you.  This..."
"Is really scary."  She finished.  "I know.  Believe me I only do this when I have to, time travel really isn't fun at all.  The few people who know it is possible all either know each other or are trying to abuse it for personal gain.  And you've met most of us already."  She counted off on her fingers.  "Me, Petra, Petra's mum, Cyssie and Igor, Thalia, Tala, and a handful of Imperial Guards at a time.  And the guards have their own machine, they don't know about this one.  Thalia, Tala, and Petra's mum are all more or less dead, Thalia and Tala being more dead and Petra's mum having been decidedly dead most of her life and somehow even more so now without being properly gone.  Cyssie and Igor, Petra, and I only use it when we need to talk to one of the other them, and only in dire circumstances.  And since Petra thinks she already knows everything and Cyssie gets yelled at anytime she tries to visit Thalia, that really leaves just me."
"That doesn't change the fact that we're going back in time, to a day before my ancestor's were born."
"I wish I could go back that far, but Cyssie can't get it to go further than the colonisation of Tara without power outages."
"I guess a mere child like me has no place to complain then, huh."
"No, no you really don't.  Not a lot of people get the privelige of consulting with the Dark Lady of Gravaga, the Storm Mage, and Death Herself these days.  I think if you go ahead and weigh the results you'll see that its well worth the wierdness." 
Krell stuck a hand through the doorway experimentally.  He turned it and watched to see if it rotted away or gained a freckle or something.  Nothing changed, the world didn't shatter, his hand didn't turn blue, nothing pulled itself through the gaps in time and space to try and kill them.  He still hovered a moment, wondering whether or not this was the right plan.  Rea finaly gave up and pushed him through, following close behind.  He heard the popping stop almost instantly.  The door had shut behind them, they were trapped in the past.
"Oh God the door's closed."
"Its fine, I can signal a pickup whenever I want."
"How?"
"Post a note with a reminder for exactly when we left with the time I wrote it.  Remember, I rule the internet."
"So what if you wanted to go into the future?"
"You mean jump ahead?  No thanks, I like walking."
"But think of what you could do.  You could plan out whole battles and never lose a fight."
"Only the dead ladies ever fought battles, and I never lose a fight."
"Including last night?"
"That's different; you cheated!"
"All's fair."
"Only in creating and destroying life; and if you're smart you'll make rules for those too."
"You have rules for creating life?"
"Thalia does,"  She opened the door and called out, "Hey Thalia, Mr. Casat would like to hear the rules for creating life."

Before Krell could look out the door it was slammed shut. 
"Rea!  What have I told you about closets?"  Exclaimed a soft voice from the other side of the door. 
"I don't aim this thing."
"Hall closets girl, hall closets.  And never Fridays!"
"Tell your daughter, she's aiming the thing."
"Then you should tell her where she's aiming it.  Sweet little Cyssiekins doesn't have a prudish bone in her dear little body, but I know gosh darned well that you do little miss knives and eyeliner."
Krell looked over at Rea, not sure whether to question the nature of the arguement or who she was arguing with.  "You have a prudish bone in your body?"
"Shush."
The door opened and a tall ginger woman was waiting on the other side with an expression that was as much welcoming as it was mildly perturbed, a combination he had not previously thought possible.  She had a streak of purple in her hair, but it was clearly just dye rather than magical effect.  Her clothes were elegant, black, and looked as though they would be very difficult to put on without help. 
"Well come in.  I'll have Loreleen and 'Stasia set up a room for the two of you.  Seperate beds I assume?"
"You'd be the first to assume it."  Rea muttered.  Krell decided to nip the conversation in the bud and quickly followed up. 
"Yes please, seperate beds would be wonderful."
"'Stasia, two queens, one room, see to it that they have a nice view and be sure to turn off the alarms."  She turned away from the intercom and smiled at them.  Unlike Arcania, there was nothing dissmissive or insidious about the smile.  Whoever she was, she seemed more confident and kind then any other woman he'd ever met.  "You caught us on Friday I'm afraid.  Will you be joining us for dinner again?"
"I have missed your dinners."  Rea blushed slightly.  Krell still wasn't sure, but he suspected that this was...
"Mr. Casat; you haven't met me yet, although I have met you several times in the future.  Ended has been looking forward to your reaction to first trying his cooking."
"I'm sorry, who?"
"Dark Lady, Empress Thalia Immersfeld Von Gravaga, Creator of the Gravagan people, Grand Necromancer of the Pantheon, and true master of the mortal plane.  Although you can just call me Thalia, or Mrs Immersfeld if you insist on being polite."

The Assassin's Tale; Breakfast

Credits; Krell, Rea, 
Based on Petra's admission, they had about two days left, a day and a half if things went down Wednesday morning, a prospect that both Krell and Rea desperately hoped would not be the case.  Krell went and packed their bags after Arcania dissapeared, their was no way of knowing where they'd be by noon and such precautions seemed prudent.  Rea had managed to bully the appliances into making scrambled eggs and french toast for them both. 
"Why do they call it French Toast?"
Rea was stirring her eggs around on her plate absentmindedly.  She looked up at the sound of his voice and he could tell that she'd been thinking uncharacteristically hard. 
"Huh?"
"French Toast, why do they call it that?"
"Beats me, its a human recipe from Earth.  Maybe some guy named French invented it and we've just lost the possessive over the last several thousand years."
"I always figured French referred to a way of cooking things, you know some people call fries French fries?"
"That's just ridiculous.  Fries of all sorts are a very Taran food, clearly not human at all."
"But what if the same guy came up with both?"
"Then he is a god of the kitchen and I would like to shake his hand."
Krell laughed.  It was probably the best part of breakfast.  No matter how serious things were around you, you had to pause and do something utterly normal before you could get started on them.  It also gave him a chance to see what Rea was like when she wasn't killing, adventuring, or yelling at the most powerful and legendary people in the universe.  She was certainly much more bearable when she wasn't under a lot of stress.  If nothing else, she was quiet this way.  And even though she often needed to be loud, especially now with the possible demise of the universe's most powerful guardian looming over them, he liked her a lot better this way. 

"Good morning you two!  Sorry you had to fight over the bed, it completely slipped our minds."
Cyssie and Igor didn't look like they'd slept, and they weren't coming in from the lab, but Krell decided it was just better to not ask their hosts anything overly personal.  Although it was nice to hear from someone who didn't think he and Rea had been sharing the bed for a change.  Nao had made a simmilar comment when they first woke up, and the three of them had been exchanging a combination of awkward and bothered glances since. 
"Just try to remember it next time, ok?"
Cyssie nodded.  Igor just grinned and wiggled his ears a little.  It would take more than the possibility of Demonic rampage to get their spirits down.  And, he thought, it would probably take little more than a sciencey question to get them back up.  He could probably even just make up a word and they'd tell him what it meant and what sort of things they'd made that used the word in its name.  Somehow though, the two of them were happier than anyone he'd ever met.  While it was true Cyssie was repressing a lot of pent up feelings about her Mother's death, she and Igor always seemed to genuinely love and cherish one another.  The only time he saw one of them without the other is if one of them was following the other into or out of a room, or if one of them was behind him. 
"Cyssie, I need you to get me something."  Rea set down her fork lightly and wiped her mouth off.  "Petra's getting ready to fight Legion and I'm going to help.  But to do that I'm going to need a way of cutting off Legion's reinforcements, his power, and I'm going to need some new armor for Krell here."
Cyssie and Igor looked at each other quietly for a moment, studying each other carefully before finally turning back and responding. 
"We have just the thing for the armor.  There's a nice composite set of Dad's up in the palace, you look about the same size as he was.  And we can help you get to someone who can teach you to cut away his power, but we don't know how to do it ourselves."
"And you'd need Arcania to cut off the reinforcements.  Holding the gates of hell closed is a feat to great for even the two of us together." 
"I thought you might say that.  Which will be faster; the armor or the training?"
"The armor in a strictly time-to-result basis, but there's time travel involved in getting the training so that's real-time faster."
"Time travel?"  Krell interceded incredulously. 
"Oh yes, we just hooked up an upgraded tesser coil to a warp-gate and then reprogrammed it to percieve time as linear space so that it would open it.  The paradox is self-resolving thanks to the fate based nature of the universe; if it works at all, it means that you'd already done everything you're about to do, whatever that is."
"Tala and I used to do this all the time, don't worry so much Krell."  Rea poked him gently in the side.  He certainly had his misgivings, and considering the nature of their undertaking he felt like they were quite reasonable.  Time travel was explicitly illegal in the empire, and here it was just being taken casually.  It was so...foreign and strange.  Still, Rea was still fairly comfortable and calm, so it couldn't be too bad. 
"Alright, if you say so."
"Good.  Fire it up Cyssie."

The Assassin's Tale; Unrest

Credits; Krell, Rea, Arcania,

Krell and Rea returned to the living room after sleeping in.  The floor had been a bit uncomfortable, but not nearly as much as the bruises it had taken to prevent her from having to sleep on it. 
"Hello there lovebirds."
They both turned towards the dining room and saw a familiar white haired woman sitting behind a salad. 
"Arcania."
"Good,"  She conjured a gold pocket watch and clicked it open.  "Afternoon apparently, not that it surprises me with all the noise you were making.  Glad to see that you've finally gotten your flesh back Krell, it looks good on you."
"That wasn't what you think it was."
"Nothing to be embarassed about, doesn't surprise me at all that Rea would be like it rough.  She is kind of a violent person after all."
Rea clenched her fists and Krell could feel himself start to turn beet red. 
"We weren't..It wasn't anything like that."
"Sure it wasn't."  Arcania winked and forked at her salad.  He noticed ZeeGee was watching them intently, taking the form of a fox this time.  It was much better than his last form, but then again the tone was different too, this time they weren't trying to kill the Empress of Danielland. 
"We were fighting over the bed."
"Oh."  Arcania took a bite and motioned with her fork for them to continue. 
"There's only the one bed in the room, so we had to decide who would sleep in it."  More fork waving.  "And since we couldn't agree on it, Rea decided to fight me over it."
"Well, I'd say by the way your crooking your neck that she won."
"No, he did."
Arcania's fork clattered as it bounced off of her plate and fell to the floor.  ZeeGee picked it up in his mouth and passed it back up to her. 
"I don't believe that for a second.  Is the bed really that uncomfortable?"
"No, we were fighting to decide which of us would sleep on the bed.  Both of us wanted the other one to have the bed."
"That's just adorable, but you both have to realize that Rea only slept on the floor because she threw the fight, right?"
"I didn't throw anything!"  Rea yelled. 
"Then why did you lose?"
Neither of them replied.  Arcania grinned and she took another stab at her plate.  She took a bite and chewed it without taking her gaze off of them.  It was disconcerting, but neither of them wanted to talk about it.  Arcania finished her meal in silence, neither Krell nor Rea speaking or moving the whole time. 
"Well, since you inisist you didn't do anything; I'll just fill in the blanks myself.  Now, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?"
"Legion is making his move."
Arcania didn't flinch.  Krell saw her grin flicker for a moment but she managed to keep grinning as she replied.  "And?  Petra has been preparing for this her whole life.  It'll be better for all of us if we just stand back and let her do her business."
"She'll die if we don't help."
"As I said, she's been preparing for this her whole life.  Death's daughter, the girl who never should have been, the angel's blade; her fate was always to fight hell and fall before it.  I'm not about to go and throw myself into the middle of a fight like that."
Rea broke the stair and looked up at Krell.  He could see that her anger wasn't like her usual fury, it was something more like dissapointment. 
"Coward."
"What else can a woman who can't kill be?  I can't fight demons, I can't fight fate; I've tried, look at what happened."
"At least the old Arcania tried.  Now you're too scared to stick your neck out of your own little world and help people."
"I can't kill, I can't order anyone to kill, I can barely get away with plotting people's deaths.  How in the world am I supposed to help by going out and fighting?"
"Then don't fight people.  You can still fight demons, and now you actually know how.  Ecthon was an A-Tier demon, even Petra doesn't start fights with them.  You had no idea what you were getting into, but you had the gall to try anyways and you very nearly won.  With everything you know and are now you would win if you had to fight him again."
"And if I lose then I die." 
"You also die if you don't fight, so suck it up." 
"What do you have against trying to be normal?"
"Arcania, we aren't normal.  Trying to be what you aren't is a lie.  I'm a witch, an assassin, and the second most powerful natural force in the universe after gravity.  And I live it."
"You're also a vain child.  And you certainly live that."
Krell caught Rea's hand as she pulled back to swing at Arcania.  She was certainly trying very hard to hit the pale sorceress, but Krell wasn't going to let this devolve into another fight. 
"Rea, nobody wins if we fight each other.  Settle down, go have Nao make you a sandwich or something."  He let go of her and turned to Arcania.  "The choice is pretty clear to me.  Either you help Rea to help Petra, in battle, or Rea's gonna want to come back and kill you.  I won't let her do that, not out of any feeling for you, but because Rea needs to simmer down and stop killing people willy nilly.  If you want to keep living in your sister's home, trying to make ammends for your mother's death, then neither Rea nor I will stop you.  But I think I know enough about your mother to know what your mother would do in these circumstances, and I think she'd expect the same of you."
Krell hoped the words would sting enough to propel her back into the fight.  He didn't expect much though, Rea was right about her.  It was fine for history to have forgotten Rea, she'd actively written herself out of it.  Petra was still in, and hell itself was covering her tracks.  But for a woman who had nearly wiped out all life to simply drop off the radar without so much as a faked execution and then wander from one library to the next hitting every archeological site along the way to vanish was just frustrating.  People would never forgive her, that war had changed too much, and destroyed so much more, for anyone but humanity to forget.  She would never just ride it out, if she wanted to be forgiven she'd need to do something equally good to override it, or at the least do an awful lot of pretty major good things. 
Rea was in the living room stirring a chocolate milkshake a lot faster than was strictly neccesary.  As if her frustration wasn't already quite apparent he could see her knuckles had turned white around the spoon.  He sat down at the counter next to her and watched her quietly for a moment.
"She's not going to help."
"Gah!"  Rea fell off her stool, milkshake spilling across the counter as she let go of it.  Krell conjured a hand and some towels to clean up the mess before spinning around and helping her back up.  "What's wrong with you?  Seriously, don't sneak up on me like that."
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were that focused on the milkshake."
Rea paused and watched the enchanted towels floating around cleaning the milkshake off the counter.  "Neither did I." 
"You need a moment?  You seem really wound up right now."
"I'm," She stopped and turned towards him.  "No, I do need a moment.  I need a lot of moments.  Killing warlocks and veteran heroes is one thing but this is demons we're dealing with.  Its a lot more than I'm used to dealing with.  If it were anyone but Petra I wouldn't even bother, and the moment this is done with I'm taking a few decades off."
"I'll come with, I'm a few centuries over do on a vacation myself.  Downside of being an undead priest, no rest means no point in a day off."
"Very well then, on Thursday we start a tour of my favorite places in the universe.  How's that sound?"
"Like an eternity away."
Rea slumped in her stool and sighed.  "Yeah, it does."

The Assassin's Tale; The Closet

Credits; Krell, Rea,

Cyssie and Igor may have been completely mad, but that didn't keep them from being generous and entertaining hosts.  If anything it helped with the entertaining part, and after Rea returned from the restroom she warned Krell to be wary of the generous part.  Not that Cyssie or Igor would ever intentionally harm anyone, but just because they made a lot of things that did.  In fact, as he returned from the refrigerator, muttering a spell to counteract the frostbite the ice machine had given him, he realized that it was probably wise to be wary of everything in the Von Gravaga home.  How the two of them survived with only negligible experience outside of the lab, even with their experience pooled and exagerated, he decided was best not to know.  Maybe they just didn't get attacked by the appliances, or perhaps it was just that they were used to it and didn't care about the frostbite causing ice machine, black hole toilet, or the fact that even the whisk had a self-destruct button.  He pitied any children that might have the misfortune of being allowed into the house.  Perhaps that would explain why they didn't have any children, even after several thousand years of marriage.  Although, considering their mutual nerdiness, obssession with all things scientific, and the fact that they seemed to have no idea why he and Rea couldn't be an item it did seem possible that they had both just missed certain critical parts of any normal being's education.  And then they must have continued missing it the entire rest of their long lives.  That or they were just really good actors. 
"..And that's why you should never combine a BLT and a Thaumatic Energy Conserver."
Cyssie nodded and laughed.  "Good thing you had the Null Ray Extractor onhand or it might have taken us months to catch them all."
"Where did that go anyways?  Last I remember having it was that time we were trying to get the Gnorine Gas Diffuser to work."
"Have you checked in the closet?"
Igor shrunk, not physically this time.  He looked away and to the side and replied quietly, "I don't like the closet."
"Me neither."  Cyssie seemed to shrink as well and they sort of cowered into each other. 
Rea didn't say anything, but Krell, as the only one in the room with any experience dealing with the horrors of the closet, decided to offer his services. 
"I'll go check the closet.  I'm sure its nothing worse than a jacket that tries to strangle you or a few possesed coat hangers."
Rea grabbed his arm and shook her head.  She wasn't afraid, or not afraid the way Cyssie and Igor were.  Something pretty bad must be in there, but after the last few days he felt like he had to do something to reestablish his position as a useful member of the community.  He stood up and walked out through the kitchen.  Nao seemed to have finally conquered the toaster and was now wrestling the bread box.  He'd never seen anyone work so hard for a sandwich, let alone in a suit and tie.  He kicked Nao's gun back within reach and continued into the hall.  The closet didn't look spooky, or automated, he wasn't sure which was worse around here.  He made it up and had his hand on the door when he heard her. 
"Krell Casat!  Don't you dare."
He opened the door, knowing full well what was on the other side.  He knew her in an instant, greyed hair, simple dress, and her hands on her hips in a gesture of anger he knew all to well. 
"Hello Lewiza."
"Don't 'Hello Lewiza' me!  You've been running all across the universe and you never even sent me a card.  And now I hear you're travelling with a fourteen year old...Tramp!  ANd then you have the nerve to just come back like it was nothing?"
He glanced around.  It was exactly like the door to their room.  The old house was perfect, exactly the way he remembered it.  There was the picture of him and Kvald on their last fishing trip with the sea serpent they'd caught, and over there was one of him, Lewiza, Bette, Lien, and Waten on their trip to the Lady Alicea Imperial Reliquary. 
"Krell!  Pay attention when I'm talking Mister."
"I'm sorry, its just that you got everything right.  The pictures, the hair, you even got the inflection of her voice right." 
"Oh that's fantastic, my husband has gone insane.  Now what am I supposed to do?"
"Nothing, you're not my wife."
"WHAT!  Of course I'm your wife, we got married, we have kids; Krell what's wrong with you?"
"Nothing is.  You just picked the wrong memory.  I'm not afraid, I'm not sad, I'm not even angry.  Although you're improvisation is very good, keep playing the part and see if it makes any difference."
"Krell?  Its me, Lewiza, your wife?  Don't you recognize me?"
"I recognize my wife, its just that she died nearly three hundred years ago.  You really should have found context before picking an image.  Now if you don't mind, Boog, I'm looking for a Null Ray Extractor.  You can help me or you can get out of my way."
The scene faded.  The Boog revealed its true form, a weepy, tearstained white veil hovering in midair. 
"I'm sorry, your item is in another nightmare."
"Don't make me open the door."
How a white veil could grow even more pale took him a moment to figure out.  It was as though it became luminescent in its paleness, rather than merely being white. 
"You wouldn't."
"You saw my dreams; would you be the first of your kind I'd dealt with?"
"Here."  A sort of bulky, shiny gun appeared and was dropped into his hands.  "Please, go.  I'll find somewhere else, just don't open the door."
Krell smiled and turned around.  He was instantly facing the kitchen.  He heard a blast from the kitchen and as he passed through it he saw Nao peeling the deceased bread box open.  Not more than a few minutes had passed then. 
"Found it, it was in the closet."
"You actually?"
"Yeah, it was right inside.  No problem at all."
"But?"
"I don't see what you're all so worried about, its just a closet."  Rea looked at him and tilted her head.  He sat down and leaned back.  "You'll all understand when you're older."