A Return...

[Alais d Nitesong]

He looked at her, really looked at her. Then, he sighed. "There are darker, more powerful things than what you have seen."

"I do not doubt that Tass, but you tell me I see only the blade and it's hunger, if you see more, perhaps it would be a good time to enlighten me before I do something that is not required of me." She had once taken Daemonbane up, and that brief time had changed her forever. If she did so again, she knew there would be no retrieval by Morrin this time.

He let her go and turned, walking a little bit away. "You have seen three worlds, three 'people', if you will, in the war. Those from here... those few from Rhydin... my kin..." He stopped and took another breath. "There was a fourth that was not seen, at least not in the sense of those people."

"Whom or what was the fourth?"

He stopped and turned, looking at her. "Tell me. Where is Malchor?"

She glanced around the Mausoleum, but her senses were much farther flung. "He he is not here." She had not sought out that one since she had come. She needed a rest from the exertions of Matlal, and she needed answers about the shadows in I’ Taurn. She had expected that all had been returned, but if he was not here, then he could only be still in the world of the living, and that meant that there were 2 with Annaran ties that remained behind. It would explain why Daemonbane remained in both worlds.

He nodded. He knew this already. "If he is not here, then where is he?" He paused before continuing, “...and how did he avoid the return?"

"He is Annaran;, he should not have been able to avoid the return." There had been no mistake in the spells.

He nodded. "But he did. The reason of that was the fourth."

"He must be returned Tass. That is not negotiable, and it would explain why Daemonbane is between both worlds right now." She glanced at the blade and it shifted, as though moving closer to her hand.

He gave her a final glance. "That fourth, hun, is the reason for the hunger."

"All the more reason for the balance Daemonbane would bring." She saw Daemonbane as powerful enough to confront the blade Khirsah carried, but not herself as Khirsah’s equal.

He turned and looked toward the exit, but didn't move. "What balance would it be? Good to the Elder's evil?... or Evil to his Good?"?.." He trailed off. He would not ask her what would happen if it was the later.

She watched him head for the stairs that led to the Mausoleum doorway, and she slowly surveyed the room where all of Annara's kings now lay. "Do any of us know that outcome Tass?" She certainly wished she had the gift of foresight right now.

His voice was soft. He knew she had already made her mind up, and his words were little more than the play of his heart. "Yes..." Then he too stepped up the steps.

She watched him go, leaving her alone in the room with the dead kings of old, and a blade that now existed in the world of the living, and the world of the dead.