To Regain What Has Been Lost.

[Artemus Kurgen]

"Daddy daddy! Ca' we go an' visit da butt'rfly lady? She smell like vanilla!"

Artemus could only laugh at his daughters enthusiasm towards being visited by Meilikkei once more. The encounter had only been a brief one, but it seemed his gaurdian deity had made a lasting impression. As she always did.

"I am afraid it doesn't work like that sweetling, the Lady chooses when she wants to be seen. You'll just have to be patient."

And then came that pout. Lower lip quivering just a touch, those bluish-green getting big and sad.

"Don't even try it. I have soft-spot immunity to the doe-eyes."

A wicked grin flashed across his face as Artemus pounced. Fingers ticked and pinched causing an eruption of squealing giggles to resound through the Tower of Earth. Little feet kicked and dainty hands flailed as little Amaris fought off her father's playful tortue.

"Stoppit, stoppit!" She screamed amid torrents of laughter and squirming muscles trying to get away. " Stoppit or I bite chu!"

"Oh no! The dreaded...Bite Attack!"

Rolling away from her in mock terror, Artemus moved into a crouch pretending to be afraid. Letting his eyes dart from side to side as if looking for a way out of the situation. Then came the subtle brush of power in the air. A warm electricity that flowed along his skin, raising the hairs at the back of his neck.

He looked to his daughter and could only smile softly to himself as he watched her eyes fade to black pools and her long blond hair grew longer into a white covering. The Bear in her was coming out to play. This also made things dangerous as her tender age made changing back that much more difficult.

Coming to his feet, Artemus watched as Amaris finished the change and pawed the air playfull with a few test swipes of her claws to finish adjusting to the new state. A warm smile played along the druid's lips as he gazed on the white bear that had been his daughter only a moment ago.

"My snow-flake..."

It was after this statement that Artemus felt a warm hand on his shoulder applying a light squeeze followed by whispered words She's beautiful mellon nin

That voice made his breath catch. It couln't be!

[Sylus Kurgen]

Fires burned all around him in the smokey haze of the Keep's forge. Soot ans ash left his bare chest with a spattering of red burns and made his eyes burn. Once more he turned to look at the four jars containing elements from the place called Twilight Isle and a vicious smile slid to his lips.

"Only a matter of time..."

Turning back to the white-hot metal before him, he took up a heavy prong and returned to twisting the clamped piece of elongated moonsilver, strengthening it. Once done, his hand found its way unerringly in the dark to the sixty pound hammer and began pounding the metal casting a rainfall of sparks into the murky air around him.

"Only a matter of time..."

Once more Sylus repeated those words as he followed the forging instructions from Chimara to twist this pure metal into a suitable weapon. Watch its energys warp and become perverted, just what would be needed to cut through those mystical chains.

Sylus closed his eyes a moment and fought down a memory that threatened to surface, he couldn't afford a distraction now, he only knew it had something to do with Moonsilver and her. Such thoughts simply wouldn't do. Growling in anger, the older Kurgen hammered down the metal, pouring his negative emotions into it, filling the twisted metal with power as it was forged.

"Do not let the past control your future..."

His hammer stroke faultered at the unknown voice whispering through his mind, missing, he felt the hot metal press into his skin, feeling the anger and metal burn him.

"F****!"

Falling back, hammer dropping to the ground, Sylus growled in anger and pain as he rushed to the bucket of fresh water and dropped his arm in to take care of the burn, he'd deal with the damaged flesh later. Stop the burn first. Eyes flitting around the darkened cavern, he moved back towards the forge and his fallen hammer.

"F***in spirits messin with my duties"

His foot pushing onto the belows under the forge, Sylus heated the coals back up and went on with his work, but still that voice nagged at him. It seemed familiar, but he couldn't place where. It was an old voice, that much was true.