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The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
The Halls of Man
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick

Keiko, Tomomi, Emmi and Dominic

From the dam Keiko, Dommi, Emmi and Tomomi made a west by northwestern course, heading away from the arched bridge and towards the Keep itself. They did not have a Rat, so they had to paddle quietly, slowly, marking their time patiently. Luckily their path was less distant than Cesare’s.

With the failing light the long arched bridge vanished into the darkness and for a while they were in a black bubble, seeing only water whichever way they looked. Sometimes, glancing to their left, they were able to catch a glimpse of Cesare’s boats, heading to their own, separate destination.

The Keep and a set of twin mill towers had just faded into vision ahead of them when a loud horn echoed across the lake, a deep bawooom, a call to arms and alarms.

The horn itself was unexpected but also not surprising. It also meant that Pietro’s group had been discovered. But that was what a diversion was for, wasn’t it? At the same time, far from them, one set of mill gates away, lights appeared along the walls. Not torches, but something more akin to the crystal shrouded lamps found at Home.

Once reaching the smooth keep wall between Mice and ropes they were able to make to the parapet. The boat, left by itself, drifted slowly away.

If things went well, they would not be needing it.

From the parapet they came across a door. They had no Mice that had been here before so it was Dominic that had to slip its latch. When he did so, using a strange set of tools, he looked back to Keiko with a smirk.

“Hey. I am a rapscallion, remember?”

He slowly pulled the door open.

“Besides, this is how I got in the first time. The Dwarves, of course, suspected magic. Who was I to dissuade them?”

The tower he had chosen was different than Cesare’s. Inside the first door there was a spiral passage, a set of stairs leading down. And this is the route he took, moving light and as silent as a mouse. Not a Mouse, but the smaller ones, usually found in fields and churches. Quickly they moved. Tomomi was shivering and took strength by holding on to a bit of Keiko’s skirt.

One circle, two, circles and then three and they saw their first door. It was the second door that Dominic led them out, to a balcony with stairs leading off in two directions.

It opened to a hall.

It opened to a space grander than Talantal’s great room, almost as tall but definitely longer than the vaults of Khorall Larsen’s citadel.

It followed the curve of the shaft. The inner side, it was a clear and simple wall, but one streaked by lance windows taller than those found in any cathedral and filled with tiny panes of stained glass. As it was night, the patterns were but dark swirls, come morning and this space would be lit by a hundred rainbows. To the right was a chaos of order – balconies, stairways, windows, doors and halls. The vaulted space was so high, so deep that the top and bottom were lost in darkness. The vastness betrayed its purpose – this indeed, contained within the thick walls of the shaft, was the manor of an Imperial Prince and one that could only be made from foreign craftsmanship, by a people at one with the earth. The homes that rose along the shaft’s outer circumference were like those found in Talantal’s richest quarters, of a scale and eloquence to rival the towers of Kh’lhy’ra, all stacked close together and one atop each other.

Of course the tallest, the proudest, the most Noble – no, the most Imperial – would be the highest, those that looked down upon their neighbors. These were the Halls of Man.

The hierarchy would be reversed below. For the Dwarven halls, the deeper homes and shops would be the more important.

Looking to the right there was a bustle of activity, shadows moving along the stairs and walks, rising higher until they vanished into a passage – probably one very similar to the one they had just stepped from.

To the left, there was another, closer, occurrence.

For the moment, the four of them were unseen, tucked into the shadows of a recessed doorway. Two forms, two stairs and two short balconies away, had vanished into one of the taller buildings. In fact this one, this home, reached as high as they could see.

A handful of heartbeats only one returned.

A tall figure, gaunt, with a frame so light it could only be called skeletal. This man’s pace was regal, slow an rolling, as if he owned the world and his word set it to its order. His face was framed in hair snow white but streaked with grey, his countenance sculpted narrow and as sharp as ice. There was an oddness to him. There was a dark shadow to his features, as if his face was stained. If there was more illumination they could have told for sure what manner of blemish this was.

There were, however, three facts that were much more important.

First, he was heading their way and it appeared that his path would cross their doorway.

Second, he was garbed fine and regal, in colors blue and white.

Last, his companion, the one left behind in the room, was not the same. That one looked frail, slender, graceful and mist importantly, very pretty and barely dressed, indeed, without a skirt to hide a long and slender tail.

Keiko

The sight of Lyric in armor had been a surprise but not truly a shock to Keiko. Her friend had hinted at a part of herself that she had wished to deny. The Warrior Lyric was kin to the Minstrel Lyric and, therefore, also the Friend Lyric. The how and the why of the matter might take many days to puzzle through, and they certainly didn’t have time for Keiko to ponder any of that at the moment.

She had said it earlier — Lyric is Lyric is Lyric. And clearly, her friend was even more complicated than she might have imagined. Still, it did not detract from the truth of what was.

Lyric was her friend. Keiko knew it to be Truth now. The currents might allow them to walk the paths of the World together for a while; Keiko was beginning to understand just how fascinating such a Journey could be.

But as the rescuers crossed the lake in small boats of different designs, the Rhoni brought her attention back to the moment of Now and the place of Here.

The boat slid through a darkness that Keiko found oddly comforting. Memories and stories did not serve her well in a place from which few stories had emerged. There was only Now. Lady’s package of treasures was tucked safely in her pack; climbing was something she was moderately good at, although she hadn’t played any rope climbing games lately.

Keiko rolled her eyes at Dommi’s smirk.

“How could I forget? And I know lockpicks when I see them. I’m a Rhoni, remember?” She grinned at him as she said the last bit, but once they passed through the doorway, all levity disappeared. The currents were deep and treacherous; she rode a dangerous wave that was sure to break into smaller and smaller waves to rejoin the currents.

She was Rhoni. She was a Waverider. This is what she did — she lived now, she searched now, she attempted a rescue now.

Keiko followed Dominic because he had been here before and because this wave felt appropriate. She had known before he passed the first door that it was not the one they wanted. It wasn’t something she could explain, other than to say the currents did not go in that direction. It was not something many Gaija would or could understand.

And yet, she suspected that the Young Master might be one who would understand, for he was a Friend to the Rhoni — a rumor that was made more credible by the stories of enmity between Khorall and son, between Heir and brother.

As much as possible, Keiko remained in contact with her forever friend — a hand resting lightly on her shoulder or between pink rounded ear, fingers lacing momentarily as the curvature of the stairway allowed. She could never understand the fear of the Forest Folk, but she tried her best. She was proud of Tomomi for her strength of will to continue moving in her fear.

As they exited the tight spiral staircase, the short passage from the door to the balcony did nothing to prepare her for the sight she came on when they stepped onto the balcony. Had Dominic tried to describe this, she would not have believed him — and, in any event, she doubted anyone had the words to adequately convey the enormity of the place.

Looking out over the vast chasm at the night-tinted wall across from them, Keiko shuddered and held Tomomi’s hand. They probably both needed the same amount of reassurance, although possibly for different reasons. The well of this strange space was deeper than any mountain canyon Keiko had ever seen.

And there were too many people here, despite the number of residences that looked empty and abandoned. Too many unknowns. Dommi hadn’t mentioned just how many men there were living in the keep with the Dwarven miners. Not that anyone had asked, of course, and perhaps — given the circumstances of his previous visits — he would not have known. Keiko had expected to find some humans here, yes. But this many? No. Fortunately, most of them were either off to the right or still safely ensconced in their strangely stacked homes. Perhaps those on the move were heading for whatever disturbances the small group’s compatriots were creating.

Up. They were heading up so it wouldn’t be Lyric and the Pack who would need to be concerned with them. Surely they and the Dama Korie were already lower in the structure; Broke had said that the Pack moved fast. So, up and to the right — she nodded to herself. That must be the Imperial pair, Squire Pietro and Lady Bekkah. The Lost Rhoni had gone to the left with his small group, and Broke’s group were even farther to the left.

Well, the distraction seemed to be working.

That merely left the slight problem of the blue and white clad Imperial heading their way. For the moment, they were hidden in the shadow of the passageway. But the Hastur was moving in their direction — that wasn’t good — and he was between them and the Forest Kin they had come to rescue. Hopefully rescue.

“Hide,” she whispered to her companions. “You and Emmi can go, well, somewhere safer if he turns in here.” Keiko squeezed Tomomi’s hand for reassurance before looking at Dommi. “I must assume you know how to hide,” she said without a smile this time. “I know you can flee.”

She nodded to the three of them as she retreated back toward the stairs.

“I can’t escape as quickly as you if it comes to that,” she said softly, “but I’m really good at hiding. And...” She considered the repertoire of her Rhoni magics. “And I might be able to convince him that the disturbance above is more interesting.”

It would take some precise timing — something that seemed a hallmark of this mission — and careful observation on her part of the Hastur.

On the one hand, if he did indeed decide to use these stairs — a possibility, but was it likely with all the ruckus going on even further sunward on the inner balconies? — she could attempt to divert his attention toward the commotion. [1] If that didn’t work...

She briefly wondered just how powerful a three or more generations old Hastur would be and whether or not his unnatural preservation of life would weaken the power that his once appropriately living self had possessed. Like the Forest Folk, she had no particular love of Imperials, just a healthy respect of their power. But that brought her back to the contingency of just hiding. [2]

Her philosophy of fighting was close enough to that of Arilys’ followers: don’t. They were craftier and more cunning in their baiting of predators, but basically, it came down to the same thing: don’t fight. Oh, and if you must fight, it’s perfectly acceptable to cheat.

“Emmi,” she murmured to the Priestess of Krysta, “your Lady isn’t content with this situation, is She? If not, perhaps you can use that to our advantage. And do they even still have souls? Lady Bekkah said she noted the lack before her Lady blessed all of you.”

If Keiko had a god to whom she could pray, she might have prayed for the resolve to do what was necessary. She could feel Tomomi trembling beside her and squeezed her friend’s hand again. Leaning over a bit, so her lips very nearly touched the Mouse’s rounded ear, the Rhoni barely breathed, “Remain with Emmi if you can. Stay safe, my friend.”

Now, she waited and felt the currents moving. She waited for the right wave to ride. She waited for the Hastur to choose his current.


[1] Over There!
[2] Hide in Plain Sight

The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
The Halls of Man
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick

Keiko, Tomomi and Dominic

Hide.

It was something all four of them specialized in. There were few places a Mouse could not go, if they put their mind to it. Thus, as the Hastur Lord made his way towards the path there was that soft dual whumf of air filling the place where a Mouse was. Which left just her and Dominic, as they listened to the footsteps come closer and closer.

His pace was even and crisp, it was the pace of a strong man, sure of himself. If the method used to extend his life took a toll, it was nothing that could be perceived in his walk. Indeed, it was not, perhaps, that he had been made immortal, but that instead, he had just put off dying indefinitely.

Which meant he has been in service to his Lord for generations. Others may be concerned about his length of service, but the one he served was probably well satisfied by his servant’s dedication.

There was light from the windows, casting half their corridor in rainbow colors and the other half in darkness. It was looking into that darkness that Keiko realized she was alone. It was an odd sort of loneliness, it was one she had asked for, and while she was alone she knew she wasn’t.

She had worked hard to build her relationships.

She could trust Dominic Korie. She could trust Emerald Mouse. Trusting Tomomi went without saying. They had left but she had not been abandoned.

Which was important, as the Hastur reached their shelter and turned towards the stair.

As Clever Rat had said it was all a matter of timing.

The Imperial Priest paused, he turned and looked down the hall – in fact it seemed he gazed right into Keiko’s eyes before she waved him off. With a pause, a shake of his head, he then turned to continue along the line of balconies and up the stairs, heading towards the mill tower next to the Keep’s main gatehouse.

Once he was a set of stairs away the shadows moved and Dominic slipped out of them. He peeked around the corner and then looked back to Keiko.

“Cor. So that’s why I always ended up outside the caravan camp.”

A heartbeat later and there was a tug on Keiko’s skirt. Tomomi had returned. She had a simple wooden cup of cool water in her small hand and offered to her forever friend. Her whiskers twitched as she smiled. She must have gone Home.

It was a little bit longer before Emerald Mouse returned.

Her expression was still. She held her two cruel curved daggers in her hands. But they were clean, unused.

“They still have their lives, they still have their souls.”

She looked over her shoulder, in the direction the Hastur had vanished. What was most important, however, was that Emmi has seen him.

“I do not believe she is happy. On the other hand, I know she is patient. Everyone comes to her eventually. But I get the feeling she is getting very tired of waiting.”

Green eyes looked up to the Rhoni.

“Should I? I also have a feeling that she would not be angry if I reminded them they are not immortal, just long lived.”

They had made the Forest Folk. Caught them, tortured them, ill treated them, used them, killed them and murdered them. Yet Emmi paused.

“But aren’t we supposed to be better than them?’

The Hastur was one way. A girl was another.

It was a simple question, wasn’t it?

Keiko

Keiko nodded. “Very likely, m’lord. If you walk right up and announce yourself, you’ll undoubtedly be welcomed.”

Taking the cup of water from Tomomi, she returned the smile. A smile accompanied by twitching whiskers was a perfect smile. “Thank you.”

She had finished the water — sharing with Dommi and Tomomi if they were thirsty — before Emmi returned.

Keiko listened with a heavy heart full of pain as Emerald spoke. She turned her back to them, teeth clenched and eyes burning from unshed tears. It was a simple question, wasn’t it?

No, it wasn’t. Not really. In the common room of Home, it was all an abstract concept. There were awful people who did awful things and if they weren’t stopped, they would continue doing those things forever. Seeing real people — no matter how unnatural, no matter how evil — took away the abstract nature of their mission.

There was no doubt that they needed to ensure the complete destruction of the mines and total annihilation of the dwarves. She understood that the dwarves could always rebuild anything that was destroyed for that was the nature of the dwarves. But what of the men?

“Yes.” Her voice was hardly more than a hoarse whisper, and they could head her emotions through the tightness of her throat; they could see them in her rounded shoulders and bowed head.

“Maybe. I don’t know, Emmi.” With arms wrapped around her waist, Keiko laid a hand over the Cards tucked deep inside her tunics. What should I do? What should I say? She didn’t dare ask such an impertinent question of them.

Besides, wasn’t the answer always a variation on the theme of “Ride the Waves, child”?

There was one absolute that would come from this day — it would leave a scar on her soul. Only the most protected and innocent of folks could hope to live without such scars.

The Rhoni took a deep breath and turned back to her companions, looking each of them in their eyes before she spoke.

“What will happen when they are denied access to the sap of the Tree? Will they linger and grow weaker and ultimately die? Will it be horrifying to them? Will they suffer? Will they cry out, begging their gods and Krysta for mercy?

“Or will it be sudden and painless and more like a natural death? Others have died. We can see the number of empty homes.

“If the former is their fate, then killing him now would be merciful. If not...” She trailed off, trying to find her way in the currents and make sense of everything. Finally, she shook her head.

“There will be unimaginable death and destruction today if we are successful.

“I’ve been told that an Atteran can stand toe-to-toe with a Hastur and not flinch. I believe Lady Bekkah is up to the task of holding him at least in a stand-off. I trust her. She is formidable.”

Keiko took a deep breath and handed the cup back to Tomomi. “In case you need something to throw.” Then, looking at Emmi for several heartbeats and the Young Master for several more, she said, “Let’s save the girl.”

The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
The Halls of Man
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick

Keiko, Tomomi and Dominic

“What will happen …”

Emerald stood in Dominic’s shadow, considering the Hastur and the length of his life. It was a conundrum, at the least. It was unnatural, something very important to those who prospered in the Second Age. It was simply an extension of the natural laws of life to those who arose in the Third.

“I suspect that they would be dancing in Krysta’s arms before long. What is keeping them alive will no longer be there to keep them alive. They should fall prey to whatever would naturally take them.”

The two Mice looked at each other. They both nodded, once. Tomomi spoke next.

“We have never seen a young Old Master.”

Emerald agreed.

“All the Old masters that I served, were very very very old.”

Tomomi looked at the cup when it was handed back.

“I’m not very good at throwing things. But I can jump high and drop things real well.”

Dominic chuckled as he peeked around the corner, looking don the path the Hastur had taken.

“Who wants to live forever? And we should be going. There is one thing really bothersome about the Imperial Priests. They are usually accompanied by a herd of squires and brothers. Knights are a problem enough, but a Lawgiver?

“Lady, strike me down if I speak wrong. They will talk you to death.”

He looked about a bit after that and when nothing happened he nodded to the left, from where the priest had come from. That was up a flight of stairs, around a balcony to stop before a finely appointed door. It was made out of metal, not wood. In fact they had seen very little made out of wood in the Halls of Men. Harvesting the Dirkwood was not a task done lightly and might explain why this place was not fully occupied.

They may belong lived but the Forest was unforgiving.

There were no locks and the door pulled easily open. The room itself was a grand main hall, lit now – as it was night after all – by crystal lamps burning oil. If darksteel was dragon’s blood did the get their oil by rendering own dragons flesh?

Tomomi very carefully shut the outside door behind them. Here there were signs of opulence. A wood table, some driftwood trim acting as a chair rail. To one side a door lead to a further, private balcony for private reflections. There were two more doors leading deeper into keep. One was very ornate and colored in blue and white, bearing a large stylized icon of an open book.

“Lawgiver.”

The other door was like the entry and the one to the balcony. It was finely appointed but not extravagant. There were noises beyond that door. Shuffling and mumblings could be heard, but not enough to discern if something indecent or innocent was happening beyond.

Keiko

Emmi’s opinion about the end of these unnaturally long-lived men’s lives made enough sense that the Rhoni merely shrugged. Death was part of life — in that much, the Rhoni assuredly agreed with the Coveners. And if his death was to be a fairly natural one, she was content to have allowed him that small mercy.

Keiko grinned at Tomomi’s comment. “Jumping high and dropping things is good, too.”

She wondered about Dommi’s distinctions regarding the Imperials. In Trundle, there was the Prince. And there was the Justice. Pretty much everything else just found a way to coexist in that dynamic. The Nobles weren’t particularly noble and the Imperial Guard — those knights and squires of whom he spoke — were frightening.

A lawgiver was someone who talked even more than the Young Master? Well, that almost made her want to listen to one of them talk. Were they and their stories as interesting as Dommi and his stories? Probably not. He had some excellent stories. But who knew what kinds of stories a lawgiver might have? Hmm. Perhaps they would just be dry and all about the laws. That could get deathly dull.

Right. Who wanted to live forever? She certainly didn’t, although maybe living long enough to marry Michi and have a couple of children would be nice. Watching the children grow up to have children of their own would be lovely, too. But the currents would take her where they took her.

And right now, that would be a very fancy dwelling of a lawgiver. A priest of Hastur? That seemed right. Or right enough, at any rate. Maybe it meant Justice, too. Well, whoever this lawgiver might be, no matter how old he was, he was not Erika Koromov-Deynnekko. That made him slightly less terrifying, sight unseen.

Keiko looked at her companions and the various doors. Another balcony didn’t seem to be a wise choice. What could very well be a chapel to Hastur behind the very ornate door appeared to be an even worse idea for a heathen. She looked at the final door and sighed.

“Well, I guess bold and direct it probably the best option at this point, right? We have one goal, then we get back to relative safety, and finally let Emmi check on the others. It seems more sensible inside my head, and not so sensible speaking it. But it’s all I’ve got.”

She took a deep breath. She was terrified. Her friends were with her. She could trust her friends. They might need to go hide somewhere, but she could trust them not to leave her all alone.

One thing was certain: she was going to wind up talking her way through this current. Sometimes, it seemed like the waves themselves were made up of words. Every Card Reader learned how to surreptitiously replace one Card with another in a Reading that was particularly bad. Keiko preferred not to resort to such drastic measures — if she couldn’t find some measure of good or hope in a Reading, she didn’t deserve the title of Card Reader. Not that she planned on Reading the Cards here in this strange place; she was merely prepared to be a Storyteller in the way the Young Master was... or as close as she could come, at any rate.

Keiko walked up to the closed door behind which they had heard some sounds. After debating with herself for a heartbeat, she simply opened the door slightly, as quietly as possible, and peeked in. She wanted to get a sense of the room’s layout first, and secondarily to identify the source of the mumbling and shuffling. Or vice versa — it probably depended on the occupant or occupants and their location.

The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
The Halls of Man
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick

Keiko, Tomomi and Dominic

“You are making me late!”

That and the sound of something hard hitting something soft was what was heard when the door slipped open, just that littlest amount to allow a peek inside. Though on their side of the door there was a similar in level but very different in concern amount of discontent.

Dominic’s eyes narrowed and for a moment he looked angrier than Toshi when he was telling the story of the Bear and Honey Tree. He wasn’t called Toshi the Ham for nothing, well besides that he, in general, was as fat and kind of shaped like one too. No one could over act a death scene better than her Uncle Toshi.

At least Dommi remembered to be silent as he stormed up behind Keiko, first moving his head left then right then left again and then finally ducking down to peek through narrow slot of open door just below Keiko’s arm.

He wanted to look too!

Tomomi tucked herself in lowest, eyes wide and curious, three heads now one above the other in a nice neat column, to sneak a peek for herself.

Miss Emerald Mouse just blinked and raised her small hands, placing her face into her palms.

“You would think you’ve never seen armor before, Girl.”

Inside there was a man, tall proud and ancient, who looked even older than the sap-preserved Imperial they had seen before. He stood precisely, as if law defined even his stance. He stood perfectly straight and arms out to his sides, perfectly level with the floor.

He was being attended to by a young woman.

She was beautiful.

Lithe in frame, her figure sculpted by a true artist, soft curves barely hidden by the fall of finest blue samite. Blue and silver the cloth was, embroidered with scenes nautical, with odd looking boats and seas scattered with islands. It was also a somewhat transparent, not so light it was indecent – that would have been improper – but just enough to identify her role as something to be used.

She was drawing herself back up, perhaps she had just been struck down. She awkwardly held a piece of dark leather armor, what looked to be a vambrace. Tentatively she reached upwards, trying her best to set it in place.

“No. Buckles up. Stupid Girl.”

Just below Keiko, Dominic whispered a single word. Happily it was very soft and the Imperial was too focused upon his current task to have noticed.

“Ooops.”

It was simple admission of an error. He had not fully realized just how long folks had been living here in the keep. The Imperial they had barely avoided on the stairs?

He had been the Brother.

This was the Lawgiver. The High Priest of Hastur.

A Justice.

Keiko

She had no plan. She had no idea what she was doing, only that she had a goal: save the girl.

And to save the girl, Keiko would have to ride this enormous and very frightening wave.

But she had her friends, and her friends were formidable. Tomomi could jump really high and drop things. Both she and Emmi were brave and smart and quite talented Mice. With the way they could move from place to place, they could probably confuse almost anyone. Maybe even absolutely anyone.

And a Shadowlord? Well, she still didn’t understand all the possible tricks Dommi hid in his cloak. She was pretty sure the cloak itself was alive. Or something like alive. And it liked Emmi, which wasn’t supposed to be possible?

Oh, now she was getting herself confused! That would never do.

She leaned down to whisper in Dommi’s ear.

“Confuse and confound, and all I have are my words for that.”

Wasn’t it interesting that she had just been thinking about Uncle Toshi? And his daughter, cousin Noriko? They were both so much fun — absolutely the best storytellers she knew. Both could tell tales that left the Gaija enthralled and utterly confused.

“You can all do that in your own ways, yes? No idea what I’m doing, Dommi. Just riding the waves.”

Keiko paused to eye the Justice. He did not seem like a nice man. But Emmi had not wanted to send the other Hastur to her Lady, so perhaps she would feel the same for this man. Yet... perhaps she would not.

“He’s not nice,” she continued her whisper to the Young Master, “but maybe it’s better to just get him out of here. You and Emmi know best, though. I think. Maybe just a thousand cuts. Tiny ones like bee stings. Where armor isn’t, and weaken the armor maybe? The buckle bits, I mean. Cut, sneak, cut, sneak, cut, sneak, armor falls off, oops. Could be possible for sneaky folks, right?”

She had to trust them. And she was glad that it had become so easy to trust them. It was so nice to have friends, even knowing that she would certainly part ways with Dommi and Emmi. The currents were never certain, though, and their Paths might cross again.

The young Rhoni took a deep breath, pushed the door open just the tiniest bit more so she could whisper oh so softly to her forever friend.

“Follow Dommi’s lead. Confusion. Be safe, friend.”

Shrugging off her pack, she set it outside the door — out of the way, out of sight of anyone exiting the room. Unless they were to look, of course, which didn’t seem like something a very powerful, not very nice man would do if he were in a hurry. And he did appear to be in a hurry. Then she adjusted her belt so her knives could not be so easily seen. True, they would not be so readily available — but if Dancing were to be done this day, it would be the Dance of Storm and not Daggers. Hopefully, it would not come to that and be a day of Storytelling.

Then she pushed the door open even further — not quite all the way, but certainly far enough for an ordinary person who was on an ordinary errand to do some ordinary thing to have the space to enter the room. And so enter the room she did.

This might be one of the largest waves she had ever ridden; balance was essential. The way of being and not-being, thinking and not-thinking, just being in the World and of the World.

Keiko smiled brightly as she entered the room.

“Oh! Oh, my goodness! Oh, dear... I knew I was lost, but I’m very much more lost than I thought. But look at how bold and majestic you are! Oh, favored Lord, I have never seen armor myself, no, not up close like this. But perhaps, since I’m so lost and turned around and utterly confused, I might be of some small bit of help. It could even be that I have become so turned around just for this opportunity to be of service!

“Why, do you think it’s possible? Wouldn’t that be marvelous?

“I can buckle buckles, yes, indeed, my Lord! I’m good at it because I have very small hands, which is a good thing since I am a very small person. So without a stool, I can’t help your girl in her pretty dress with your arm bits. But you have leg bits to attach, too, don’t you, my Lord? I’ve seen armored men from afar, and they all seemed to have body armor parts and arm armor parts and leg armor parts. Oh, and the marvelous weapons that are so very, very frightening! Swords and magnificent bows and such. Oh, my Lord, this is such a great honor!

“Please, where are the legging bits so that I might help, good Sir?”

With wide eyes and diminutive stature, Keiko looked younger than her nineteen years. Bouncing on her toes and clapping her hands softly made her look younger still — not much more than two handfuls of years, certainly less than three handfuls. She appeared to be exactly what she was: a talkative, friendly youngster lost in a strange place surrounded by beautiful things the likes of which she had never seen up close, enthusiastic and eager to help.

The Lord of Hastur would not find an untruth from looking at this Waverider, for she truly did want to help the man get out of this room as quickly as possible.

The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
The Halls of Man
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick

Keiko, Tomomi and Dominic

“See! Stupid Girl! Your lack of accomplishments have only resulted in the summoning of additional servants to come to your aid, a most shameful lack of competency.

“You!

“There!

“You said you can do buckles. Instruct this Girl!”

The fox-lass blinked and looked down to the floor, all shamed and embarrassed and scared. Not performing well meant you got punished and punishments hurt. Not that what she did didn’t get hurt most nights, it was just a different kind of hurt. Of course they wouldn’t mar or scar her, but that didn’t mean there were other ways of reminding one of one’s failures.

As for the Hastur, he was a creature of the Law. If he deserved to have additional servants prepare him, of course that would be the most natural thing to accept. Obviously his presence had been missed and someone below him had decided to send him aid.

It was very probable, of course. Much more probable than there being a stranger in his rooms and significantly more probable than there being a helpful stranger in his room. So of course he looked forward, perfectly proper and still, because that was how one stood when one was having their armor applied.

“I knew I should have asked for a Squire to serve me. But no. Those foolish Followers of Lord Rames forget who writes the Laws they follow and refused to give up a single one of them. When would I need to wear my armor, they asked me and they just laughed.

“Well, look who is laughing now!

“Ha.

“Ha.

“Ha.”

The Fox Girl, however, was not as susceptible to the rigors of Law and propriety. But when she looked at Keiko she could not also help but look past the Rhoni lass and at then it was her turn to blink, her turn for her eyes to go wide and then, even a bit more awkwardly, return to her attempts to armor her Master.

The waves were always easiest to ride when they found a proper current and this one was a wild and unexpected ride. Hauberk, found and attached. Greaves, found and buckled into place. Vambraces, well once Keiko showed the Vixen how to get one on Girl had more success with the other. Then it was his blue and white mantling and his leather and darksteel helm held up so he could take it and tuck it beneath his arm before being hustled out of the room.

Which he did with a proud, arrogant and Imperial stride.

It was only when he turned around to shut the door behind him that he looked back in shock.

“Wait! You! Helpful Girl! Where are your whiskers? Where is your caudal appendage? Where are your rotating ears?

“This can only mean one thing!

“You are not a Mouse!”

Behind her there was a sudden panic. The fox girl squeaked in surprise. But Keiko recognized the faint whumf, the telltale sound of air being displayed by the arrival of a Mouse. Then another.

“She sure ain’t …”

That was Dominic, now standing in the door’s shadow, who leaned against it to push it closed. He immediately slammed the latch home and rested against the heavy, darksteel reinforced leaf. It was a bedroom door after all and was designed to be locked from this side.

From the other side of the door came a hard, very hard rapping.

“Unhelpful Girl! I demand you open this door at once!”

Behind them the fox-girl had very quickly retreated into a corner. The dangers of her Old Masters were something known.

Three strangers who she had never seen before was quite a different matter.

Dommi just raised his brow.

“Apologies… it’s just …”

He bit back a laugh.

“It didn’t look like you needed any help.”

Keiko

This Justice of Hastur was certainly one incredibly rude individual. Well... but was he really any more impolite and insulting than some of the Gaija the Caravans met on their travels? It was a close thing, that much was clear.

“Oh, yes, of course, my Lord! You certainly should have a grand squire instead of two girls who don’t know much about armor. That would only be proper, or so it would seem to someone as small and ignorant about such things as I am. But don’t you fret any, my Lord. We’re here to help you. Yes, my Lord, you certainly can laugh at them now if that would be your wish, sir.”

Getting the Imperial Lord into his fancy armor and looking all magnificently Imperial wasn’t especially difficult. It actually made some sense the way things were assembled — a bit like the way all the bridles and halters and leather bits were attached to the horses so they could pull the wagons. Once she could see how it all looked on the haughty Imperial, it was just a little bit impressive. It wasn’t anything that Keiko had seen close up, so it was an impressive sight.

Of course, it wasn’t one she really ever needed to see again. Oh, absolutely not.

When the Justice declared that she was not a Mouse, she was prepared with an appropriate answer. Instead, Tomomi and Emmi appeared behind her. And then Dommi was in the doorway.

Dommi was pushing the door closed.

Dommi was locking the Imperial out of his own bedroom!

Keiko just rested her face in her palm for a couple of breaths before she looked up at the Young Master and harrumphed.

“Of course, I didn’t! I could have even told him, you know, that I’m clearly not a Mouse! The Mice are not as tall as me, even though I’m not very tall. And of course I don’t have whiskers because whiskers tickle and I’m a girl and wouldn’t know what to do with whiskers anyway except to tickle Tomomi right back. And of course I don’t have rotating ears because my ears are shaped differently than Tomomi’s and Emmi’s and attached to my head differently, too. Really, it should all be so obvious. And of course I don’t have a caudal appendage because I don’t even know what a caudal appendage is! I know the names of all my appendages — arms and legs and head. Does he mean a tail? What a silly man! Can’t he just say ‘tail’?

“Really, Dommi. What were you thinking? I hope you at least have my pack with you.”

She walked over to him, stopping half a step back. She looked up at him and put her hands on her hips.

The Rhoni lass did look just ever so slightly annoyed at that moment.

Then she kicked the Shadowlord’s shin. Oh, not really all that hard. In fact, it was no more forceful than she would have kicked her own brother, whom she loved dearly. It was more of a love tap to remind the Young Master that he had a head that was half filled with air instead of completely filled with brains.

“Ninny! We are supposed to go from here to where we were. What is now between here and where we need to be? Why... could it possibly be an Imperial Justice?” She reached out with one finger and poked him in the chest. “I’ll bet it is! Is your Lady laughing? I hope she’s laughing because somebody ought to be happy about this, Lord Ninny Tone-Deaf.”

She then crossed her arms and tapped her foot precisely three times — simply because three was the most significant of all numbers.

“Yes. Sometimes I have a sharp tongue. Now, would you like me to repeat all of that in Eastern just to annoy you? No? Very well, then.”

Keiko dropped her arms and curtsied quite gracefully.

“Now, then, my Lord, since you created the problem of the Imperial Scary Blue and Silver Man, perhaps you should like to solve the problem while I have a chat with the poor girl you managed to terrify.”

She spun on her heel and walked slowly to the attractive Fox girl.

“I’m sure Dommi didn’t actually mean to frighten you,” she said softly, soothingly as she leaned against the wall near the girl. “He’s kind of a silly bit himself, and I think it’s probably just second nature for him to go around being as flighty as possible. He won’t hurt you, though. He’s a good man, a very good and kind man. Do you know any Mice? I know a bunch of Mice. Emerald and Tomomi...” She pointed to each in turn. “...are the only two who came with us. Others went with Cesare and Lady Bekkah, I think. And some stayed at Home. I brought lots of ribbons for the Mice here, because it seems like Mice really like ribbons. But I bet I have one that might match your dress. It’s a really beautiful dress. I’ve only ever see material like that in the Khy’Lhy’Ra markets. I don’t even think they send it to Trundle. And the embroidery is exquisite.”

Keiko paused and shrugged. She was silent for a moment before sighing.

“I guess it would be kind of rude to just drag you off with us, so I have to ask if you’d like to go Home with us. Oh, my. I’m being rude again! I’m Keiko. That’s my name. I know you don’t really have a name, so do you mind if I just call you Pretty Girl until we can figure out what sort of name suits you? I called Tomomi Delicate Lacy Sleeves until I knew what named fitted her best. It’s a very long name because I know Colonial and Eastern and think Eastern names are so lovely, but then so are Rhoni names. They both tell you about a person but in different ways. Tomomi means ‘beautiful friend.’”

She had to trust that the others would do the jobs they needed to do — that Lyric and Dama Kadri and Broke and the Pack would free all the Forest Kin in the mines; that Squire Pietro would hold the bridge and that Lady would heal anyone who needed healing; that Cesare would figure out how to open the floodgates. He did have a lot of Rats with him. Rats were very smart and could move things efficiently. Looking over at Emmi, she bit her lower lip.

After a handful of heartbeats, Keiko said, “Maybe you could check the others and see how they’re doing. Where is the door all the Forest Folk will need to come through? Is that something Broke and the Pack will handle? Oh, I hope so because I’m definitely not very strong. It’s probably best to wait until Imperial Eerie Man gets wherever he’s going before slicing at his buckles. Or, well, I don’t know. That’s thinking too far ahead maybe.”

She blinked as another thought occurred to her and she looked at the Fox girl again.

“You could stay here if you really want. I’m pretty sure everyone who stays is going to wind up dead. The dwarves are awful, terrible mean things and I don’t feel too badly about hoping they get to see Lady Krysta sooner rather than later. The same for all the creepy old men like that Hastur priest. Tomomi said it was hard to be at Home at first, but everyone is very kind. And if it would help, I’d sing for you. Maybe my friend Lyric would sing one or two of her cheerful songs. Her voice is lovely. And I think she might even know more songs than I do! Well, since she’s a minstrel, it would make sense that she does. Tomomi found her worth by bringing me all sorts of gorgeous pigments, and she’s still learning how to be a friend. But here’s the truth: she’s already an excellent friend. And I think Lady would do her best to help you. She’s... well, she’s simply one of the kindest and most generous people I know. And I think I know a lot of people. She was worried that you might be here, like a younger sister. That probably doesn’t make sense to you, huh? Well, it’s okay. There was a lot about the world that didn’t make sense to me when I was younger, and then when I left my family, and even meeting the Forest Folk. I think she will understand your hurts and would know better than me how to help you heal from them.”

Keiko sighed again. “Sometimes, I worry about Lady, you know... that not all her hurts are healed yet. But some hurts last for a long, long time. Lady Bekkah can heal a person’s body, but if there’s a heart-hurt that just won’t heal, well, I don’t think she can do anything about that. Tomomi was Lost, in a heart-hurt kind of place, and because she’s my friend I had to just tell her how much she meant to me. I’m a Rhoni, and that means that we don’t really have friends in our lives forever. And that’s okay because it’s the Rhoni way. We understand that people meet and people part. But Dommi said when you have a Mouse for a friend, you have a forever friend. See? That’s something really new and different for me! I really like it.

“I know you’re scared. I’m a little scared, too. I was much more scared earlier. Maybe because now we’re here in the keep and we have jobs to do, and I don’t have time to be scared, I had to push some of my fear away. It doesn’t do any good to fear the currents and the waves, either. That’s a Rhoni saying. And I’m probably confusing you again. Sorry.”

The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
The Halls of Man
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick

Keiko, Tomomi and Dominic

“Hey!”

Dominic’s eyes went wide as his shin was bopped, looking both surprised and more than a little put upon! However, he didn’t stop Keiko nor did he strike back

“Cor! I can’t win for losing here!”

First, he reached down and from next to the door, lifted up Keiko’s pack and thrust it into her arms.

“Sheesh. You’d think I was some Imperial flunky or something. Forget your pack? Would I do that?”

His nose wrinkled and both Emerald and Tomomi giggled.

“Wait. Don’t answer that!”

The young lord humfed, in a very un-lordly manner. He then crossed his arms, looked across to Keiko and tapped his foot.

“And you! Look around. You got two Mice, two of the best Mice. And me. Even me. Do you really, really think we can actually be trapped?

“Why doesn’t anyone trust me – wait – uhm – don’t answer that either.”

From behind them came a renewed pounding.

“You in there! Stop arguing and open this door! Right Now! I command you!”

Dominic just rolled his eyes and looked back to Keiko.

“Let me deal with this one. You take care of our very confused damsel in that dress, ja?”

This left Keiko to deal with the fox-girl. Girl was probably her name, with the so-called honorifics whatever her Masters decided to yell at her by. It took a while for her to be able to focus; between Keiko’s words and Dominic’s somewhat mystical appearance and yes the loss of her Lord had definitely thrown her off balance. The loss of her Lord in that, at the least, there used to be order in her world. An order that was just shattered by the impossible appearance of two mice, a Rhoni and a very strange man.

Behind her, Dominic pounded back on the door. Knock, knock, knock …

“Whooooooooooo’s there?”

“I’m here, High Justice of the Imperial Court and The Bankorpool Em … Em … Em … wait a moment! That is MY room. Who are you!”

The first words out of the fox-girls were quiet and shaky, still huddled in the corner.

“I … I … I don’t want to die.”

She then looked even more scared, biting her lower lip until it turned white.

“Lady? Lady? The Lady? Master, master said she was a bad bad bad bad Lady and that because she was so bad she got eaten by the Forest in punishment. I’ve been good. Really. I am quiet, I do my tasks, I don’t cry where folks can see me. Please, please, don’t throw me away and so the Forest would eat me.”

Who me? You mean you don’t know who I am? How could you not! Are you so ignorant you have not heard of the Noble Counselor of The Colonial Mainland, The Grand Vizer Ohwaa Tahgoo from Shy’Am?”

For a moment there was silence behind the door.

“Who?”

“The Grand Vizer Ohwaa Tahgoo from Shy’Am!”

“The grand vizier Okra Taboo from Shimmy?”

Dominic theatrically sighed.

“You don’t get out much, do you? Listen. Carefully. Ooooooooohwaaaaaaaaaaa – Taaaaaaahgoooooo – from Shhhiiiiiiiiiiiiii-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmm.”

That was when Emmi decided to leave, which caused Girl to jump. A Mouse was here and then the Mouse was gone.

“She really was a Mouse …”

Girl whispered, as if actually seeing a Mouse was something that was rare for her. Which could be the case – these fine houses were not a place where the Forest Folk were often found.

“What kind of critter is a Rhoni?”

”Let me in!”

“How can I! You can’t even say my name right! And how improper is that? I should open the door to someone who can’t even say my name? Never! I will not open this door until you get it right!”

There was silence from he other side of the door. Then, finally, a resigned response.

“Fine. Ohhhhhwhaaa Tuuuhgo … from Shy’im.”

“Better. You almost got it. Try it again. Try it a little bit faster. It should flow off your tongue like melted butter!”

“And how come he isn’t old? He … he shouldn’t argue with the Master. He’ll blame me and I’ll get punished for it. Or they will take him down to the Forges and throw him away.

“What’s forever?

“And what’s a friend?”

Amost! One more time, one more time! You can do it! I know you can! Of course you can! How can an Imperial not!”

“Ohwa-Tagoo-shy’am!”

“One more time!”

“Ohwhat-Tagoos-I-am! “

“JA!”

“Now let me in!”

“No! You think I told you the truth? Oh you really are a silly …”

Oh-what-a-goose …

“ARRRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

The scream of frustration and anger on the other side of the door caused two triangular ears to suddenly perk straight up. Girl’s eyes went wide and she hugged herself tight, looking between the door and Dominic.

“I’ve never heard him that angry.

“Ever.

“I – I – I – don’t think its going to be good staying here. Can I go now?”

Keiko

She had just smiled as she took her pack. “Thank you, m’Lord,” she said sweetly.

When one danced with a Shadowlord, it was a very different — and silly — sort of dance. And that suited Keiko just fine at the moment.

She sighed with relief at the girl’s first words.

“That’s a comfort, you know, to hear to say you don’t want to die. Not many folks do, and it can be hard to know when to let them go or stop them when they start actively looking for Krysta. Unless they want to serve Krysta and keep on living. I’m still trying to figure out people’s relationships to their Gods and Goddesses.”

Keiko blinked at the girl. Twice. Thrice.

She really, really didn’t like these old men who treated folks so poorly.

“Um, no. No, the Forest didn’t eat Lady, absolutely not. And if I understand what she and Renyard and Broke were saying, I don’t think the Forest can even see them. Or you. Goodness! No one here wants to throw you away, and I’m sure you’ve been the very best sort of good you knew how to be, which would be the kind of good those Old Masters expected and still peculiar to me, but my point is that nobody wants to hurt you. Well, maybe that old guy. But we sure don’t.”

Then the Rhoni looked over at Dommi and stifled a giggle.

“I’ve heard others play that game. Dommi is pretty good at it. But he should meet my Uncle Toshi. He’s even better, but that might just be because he’s old, I think. More practice.”

She and the girl listened to Dommi and the Old Master for a moment before Emmi disappeared.

“Hmm? Oh. Oh, yes. Emmi is really a Mouse. She’s a very sweet Mouse. Well, I think all the Mice I’ve met have been ever so kind. Did you see her pretty green eyes? They look like emeralds; I guess that’s why Dommi gave her ‘Emerald’ as her gift of a name.

“A Rhoni is a human critter. We travel all over the mainland. Usually, we travel in wagons that are pulled by horses, and a group of wagons that travels together is called a Caravan. But sometimes we’ll wander the world on our own. That’s what I’ve been doing. Well, I guess I’m not technically alone because Cesare is one of the Lost Rhoni, but I haven’t gotten to know him very well. And maybe when we go back to Home and then the Village, he and his friends will decide to keep traveling. Or maybe I’ll decide to go looking for Lady Bekkah’s sister, who is a fearsome warrior. But is also a lovely person. You can tell when you look at Lady Bekkah’s face when she talks about her sister. She loves her a lot and is very proud of her.”

Keiko paused and nodded.

“There are all kinds of human critters. Dommi isn’t a Rhoni. He’s a Noble.

“And he’s not old because he isn’t from this keep. He’s from Talantal so he doesn’t take baths in the forever juice. Or do your Old Masters drink it? Well, either way, only the men and the dwarves here can get it. People from outside can’t. And shouldn’t really because it’s the sap of the One Tree. Gosh, I sure hope we can stop them from tapping the Tree. It might help the Forest, well, just a little bit. It can’t make the Forest all better because one of the Gods went a bit crazy hundreds of years ago and cursed it. It’s really a sad story. And looking at the Forest makes Lyric sad. She tries not to show it, but she grew up around trees that weren’t cursed so I think maybe she’d like these trees to be just as happy.

“Hmm. Well, I guess I don’t know that the trees where she grew up are actually happy trees. But I think they’re probably more content than the Forest’s trees. And it makes me a little sad, too, to see the cursed trees. They’re still beautiful in their own way, but...”

Keiko sighed and shrugged.

“Well, I don’t think your Old Masters are going to be able to take Dommi anywhere he doesn’t want to go. He’s tricksy. And we’d really like to bust up the forges because everyone says they’re really terrible and awful and... and...”

She swallowed hard.

“Well, the very worst kind of nasty I’ve ever heard of. Probably even worse than the Eastern Princes and they aren’t known for being nice.”

She worried at her lower lip for a heartbeat or two.

“Forever is hard to explain. It’s related to Time, which was one of Dayala’s gift to... to the Firstborn? The stories about the beginning of everything sometimes talk about the Firstborn and sometimes the Secondborn, and some of the elders say the Firstborn is really Horse and the Secondborn are the Unicorns, except other stories say that the Unicorns and the Dragons aren’t from the World at all but came from Beyond. Even I don’t understand, and I’m supposed to be learning all the stories!

“But forever is going forward in time until the end. Well, you’d think it would be the end of Time, which would only happen if Dayala got bored with taking care of Time, but most people I know think of it as just forward until the end of life. So Tomomi will be my forever friend because we’ll be friends until it’s time for one of us, or both of us, to dance with Krysta. It’s special because Rhoni human critters don’t always stay friends until the end of life. Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. Either way is fine. Human critters who aren’t Rhoni tend to expect friendships to keep going forward in time until someone dies. Rhoni don’t.

“And a friend?”

Keiko smiled softly as she looked at Tomomi.

“Someone you care about, who cares about you, who likes you just exactly for who you are. A friend is a really complicated thing, and it’s so simple, too.”

She looked at the Fox Girl. “I’ll bet you and Tomomi and I could have some interesting conversations about it. But, um, not right now.”

The Old Master had finally figured out that Dommi was playing with him.

“I think we should all go, Pretty Girl. Uh, Dommi? I think you can stop playing with him now. I don’t believe he likes the game as much as the rest of us do.”

Keiko looked around but didn’t see another way out. The Fox Girl didn’t seem particularly thrilled with the idea of facing her angry Old Master, and yet it looked like that’s exactly what she was going to do.

Keiko did not like that idea one little bit.

“Okay, then. Dommi, would you take Pretty Girl and me to Home, please? Maybe near Tomomi’s little nook? And you’ll meet us there, Tomomi? Maybe with something to eat and drink for our new Girl?”

She hefted her pack onto her shoulders, took one of the Girl’s hands and looked into her eyes.

“I promise you on my honor that I won’t let Dommi hurt you. Not that he would, of course. We don’t want these old men to hurt you anymore. You shouldn’t have to cry because someone hurt you because no one should be hurting you. You’ll be safe at home. Come with us. I didn’t get a chance to even open the packet of ribbons, but if you like them — I know Mice like ribbons quite a bit — we can see if there might be one you like more than the others.

“Don’t worry about the Old Master. He’s supposed to be with the Knights and Squires, and any moment now he’s going to remember and hurry off to... well, I have no idea what he’s supposed to be doing with them. Swinging his sword around, probably. There’s no need for us to watch that.

“I know you’re scared. We’re going to do a new thing, and I won’t pretend I’m a little nervous about it myself. But we’ll be fine.”

Keiko looked at Dommi. “Right? We’ll be just fine. Of course, if it turns out that traveling with you is like being drunk, I should warn you that I’m not much of a drinker and I can’t promise I won’t lose what’s left of my dinner on your boots. I’ll, um, try not to do that, though.”

She focused again on the Fox Girl. “This is the best way to leave, I think, so that none of us dies. None of us wants to die, so we should go. With Dommi. Who’s really quite safe because Emmi would bop him if he weren't a proper gentleman.”

The Rhoni rested her other hand on top of the Girl’s and smiled. “You have soft hands.” Then, glancing at Dommi and Tomomi, she nodded.

The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
The Halls of Man
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick

Keiko, Tomomi, Dominic and Girl

“Tomomi has to go first.”

Dominic nodded, leaving the door and returning his attention to Keiko, Tomomi and the very confused Girl.

“But there is no other way out of …”

Girl protested, a bit and very weakly. There was just too much going on and for her it was as if the world had suddenly gone all topsy turvy. Tomomi nodded and then she was gone. Her disappearance caused Girl to jump again. Dominic interrupted, however, snaring the Vixen’s attention almost theatrically.

From around his neck and from beneath his tunic he fished out a pendant. This he draped over Girl’s shoulders and brought her hand up to clasp it. The decoration itself was a rather crude wooden carving of a critters head that vaguely resembled a fox, obviously done by someone without much woodcarving skill.

“Listen closely. This is a magical pendant. Hold it tight. Now this is very very important. No matter what happens, no matter how scared you are, if you get scared just hold on. The Pendant is powerful and it will keep you safe. Understand?”

Girl wallowed and just nodded.

Dominic smiled.

And then, without giving anyone a chance to think he spun. It was a very dramatic move, which allowed him to sweep his flat black cloak over Keiko and Girl in turn.

They were enveloped in shadow.

It was dark and the darkness growled. It was like being caught in a river and being tossed like barrel over the rapids, fast and completely out f control, until the wave threatened to drown.

And then the wave crashed upon the shore.

Except this shore was the warm wooden floor of Home.

Girl tumbled out too. They all tumbled out of Tomomi’s shadow.

That was why she had to go first.

“Here …”

Lady stood there, next to Tomomi. And what she did was wrap Girl up in a warm and heavy blanket. Girl looked shocked and confused, holding on to the very non-magical necklace with all her might.

“I’m ... not … hurt?”

Lady smiled.

“Not ever again. Well, not unless you do something like stumble down the stairs. I promise.”

Girl looked around, completely lost.

“Where am I? Who are you?”

Lady sat down on the floor, graceful and beautiful.

“You are Home. And I am your sister.”

“I have a sister?”

“Yes. From this day forth.”

Keiko

The Rhoni lass tumbled out of Tomomi’s shadow with Girl and Dommi after the wild ride through the shadows. She was giggling. She looked at her friend and then at Dominic.

“That was fun! It’s like riding a sled down a really steep mountainside squeezed in between my brother and cousin to make sure I didn’t fall off. Well, except for the growling. Brothers and cousins and sleds and mountains don’t usually do that.”

She rose to see that Lady was taking care of Girl. Then she hugged Tomomi. “Thank you! You helped rescue Lady’s sister!”

When she turned to Dommi, she just grinned, stood on tiptoes, and kissed his cheek. “I’d hug you, too, but I don’t want your growly cloak to bite me. Thank you, Dommi. You’re...” She paused with lips pressed together for several heartbeats then just shook her head. “Well, thank you. If Michi has a heart even half as noble as yours, then I will be more than just content to marry him. Whenever I get to go back to the Caravans again, that is.”

Keiko spun on her heel and floomphed down near Lady, pulling her pack into her lap. She could do dignity and grace; today she chose joyful silliness. She patted the floor beside her, opposite Lady. “Come, sit with us, Pretty Girl.

“I’m going to just make a quick sisters’ gift for you,” she said as she looked through all the ribbons Lady had given her. “Then we should see about rescuing more folks. But sisters who just found each other ought to have something special.”

She smiled at Girl and Lady, before pulling out several ribbons that complimented Fox-colored hair. Fur? Whatever. And then she began braiding, folding the the ribbons lengthwise in some places and leaving them flat in others. Her hands moved quickly — it wasn’t really anything like Tomomi’s beautiful lace; it was much more akin to the wreaths of flowers and ribbons she had woven for her sisters.

When she finished the weaving, she reached for a dagger to slice the piece in half — having left a portion of unwoven ribbons in the middle — only to discovered they were still tucked too far back.

“Glarg... uhn... nnnnnnyah!”

She made a mental note that daggers always needed to be returned to their rightful places immediately should she ever have the need to shift them backward again. Also, that trying to twist the belts back in place while seated, and with her cloak on, was just plain dumb. And probably looked silly, too. She was pretty sure she heard Tomomi giggling; she suspected the Young Master was trying not to laugh.

And it was perfectly fine.

Carefully separating the two braids, she set them in her lap as she tucked the dagger away again. Then, with one in each hand, she held them out to Lady and Girl.

“They’re long enough, I think, to be worn as a short necklace. Or they could be a bracelet. Or really anything your imaginations can think of for colorful braided ribbons.

“Now, Dommi’s magic pendant might be a powerful talisman of safe travel magic,” she said to Girl, “but these? These have a very special kind of magic in them. It’s the magic of Family. You’re sisters. You’re Family.”

Keiko smiled. “You can always trust a Rhoni human critter to know the Truth about the magic of Family. Family makes us who we are, it defines our place among all the Rhoni people. Even when we have nothing else, we always have Family. Even when all of our family is gone — as Cesare’s seems to be — a Rhoni still has Family, for all Rhoni are Family.”

She glanced back at Tomomi and Dommi for a heartbeat before continuing. “Friends are important, too. Friends can teach us new things and make our journeys so much richer and more interesting.”

She nodded... to herself, mostly. “Short-time friends and long-time friends and forever friends.

“Girl, you are Home. I know you are scared and confused now. That’s okay. Lady will help you. All the Folk at Home will help you. Well, if we succeed tonight, there will be many Forest Folk who will also be scared and confused. But also many Folk who just want to help, ja?”

While is was possible that Keiko had more to say, it was also possible that more would be too much. The Fates would guide the rescued Girl, with help from Lady and the other inhabitants of Home.

She did rise gracefully, however. Looking at Tomomi and Dommi as she clutched her pack to her chest and worried at her lip, Keiko looked less sure of herself.

“I think...” She paused, trying to find the right current. There was so much chaos, too much confusion, but as she tilted her head and looked at Tomomi, a memory resurfaced.

And as thoughts followed memories that followed roiling currents, the Rhoni sighed and settled her pack once more on her back.

“The mines. I don’t want to go there, yet I think that’s where we need to go. The distraction led by Squire Pietro should have drawn off the Men, ja? And the Pack will perhaps have drawn away any Dwarves, ja? I hope so, anyway.

“So there are only the Forest Folk there. And in their rooms. Is all of that together?” she asked Tomomi. “The rooms where Forest Folk sleep when they are not doing the mining, I mean.

“They will be... I don’t know. Confused? Or would they even know someone is coming to rescue them? No. How could they? Emmi must have stopped to help one of the groups.” She looked at Dommi. “That would make sense, what with her not being here, wouldn’t it?”

Keiko took a deep breath, looked again at the currents and made a decision.

“If neither of you thinks it’s a terrible idea,” she said to Noble and Mouse, “then that’s what we should do. Let folks know they’re being rescued.”

She exhaled a weak chuckle. “Two bobsled rides in one day. Oh, what fun!”

The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
From Home to the Mines
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick

Keiko, Tomomi, Dominic … and for a bit, Lady, Girl and the Littlest One


Girl didn’t know what to do, so she just sat as directed. She settled down, but kept a space between herself and everyone else. In fact, as she watched Keiko hug Tomomi and kiss Dominic’s cheek her ears flattened a bit. Lady noticed it and thus, when the small black braids were handed out she made sure that Keiko placed Girl’s o the floor in front of her rather than given directly.

“Like this.”

Lady carefully tied her long hair into a ponytail using the new gift. It was a subtle change, one that ensured that Keiko’s heartfelt gift remained so. A hair tie would never be accidentally mistaken for a collar or manacle.

“Danks.”

Lady gratefully accepted Keiko’s gift; though Girl simply held the braid in her lap. That was fine. She had never been given a gift before, just told to wear things that made her look pretty. A bit of patience was probably necessary considering her world had just been turned upside down.

Someone else, however, had absolutely no patience. A small Mouse suddenly ran past. She had come from the stairs above, passed by the window seat and continued down the next set of stairs maintaining her breakneck pace. She was indeed the smallest Mouse Keiko had seen, wearing an oversized travel cloak that trailed behind her like a cape.

“ … bow … arrows … bow … arrows … bow … arrows …”

She was obviously on a mission, not even pausing to say hello. Just as quickly as she had arrived she had then vanished. Girl just sat there completely perplexed, eyes wide. The Mouse’s departure signaled that it was also time for Keiko, Tomomi and Dominic to leave. Behind them now, as Keiko spoke to Dominc and her forever friend, Girl continued her conversation with Lady.

“But you are supposed to be …”

Girl just looked at Lady, eyes wide.

“I know. They say I am dead. But that is the first thing you will learn and it’s the hardest. Just because people say something does not make it true. Trust yourself first and then trusting others will come.”

Girl just blinked again.

“Am I a bad tool now too?”

Lady tilted her head, before offering a kindest smile.

“Ja, we are all very bad tools. That is because our time being a tool, my time, your time, is over. Never again.”

The elder Vixen’s voice drew so very very quiet.

“You don’t have to do that ever again.”

Girl swallowed.

“N-n-n-n-never again?”

Lady slowly nodded. Girl was silent for a long set of heartbeats. And then she started to cry. Cry her heart out.

“Thank you.”

Fade to black. Because that was when Dominic swooped his cloak over Keiko, to take the dark, cold, drowning route from here to Tomomi’s shadow.

The first thing she felt was hot, so very hot. And the humidity, soaking one’s tunics, soaking one’s hair, worst than a summers day in the jungle foot hills of Kh’lhy’ra. It wasn’t dark, no. On the walls were hammered, with cruel black spikes, little crystal lamp. They were similar to those that lit the Halls of Man but here they were a necessity instead of a vanity. One could not mine in the dark now, could they.

The unexpected thing was not that everything was red.



The unexpected thing was just how red everything was. The color of blood before it dried. In huge arching sinews, hinted with ivory – ivory as in real bones – the vaulted space they were in was huge. The mine was taller than the inside of a cathedral except that cathedrals were made of stone. And in fact it pulsed. Not fast, but very slowly, as one might expect from an amazingly huge creature in slumber, a slumber so deep it was just this side of death.

But this dragon, definitely, was not quite dead.

They were not alone, either.

There was a stone channel, made of individual pieces and braced with metal and wood but mostly bone fragments, which ran the length of this hall, appearing from one disappearing down on the other. Deer in rags wrestled with it, to make sure it stayed in place. They were currently adding a branch to it while the rare Horse pulled more stone sections into the work area. The purpose of the channels was obvious. Spigots – tended by Raccoon kin – were stuck into the living walls dumped blood into the channels.

Raw Darksteel.

In the direction of the branch the Rats worked. That as a sight to behold; it was a dance in the air of huge Darksteel beams and huge chisels, slamming into dragon muscle and tissues, to pry them apart and create a new passage leading deeper into the foundations of the Heartwood.

Mice managed the crystal lamps, showing the Rats where to dig. They also had the dangerous task of marking where the cuts should be made. A mistake that cut into a vein would drown them in blazing dragon’s blood or have them crushed by a badly aimed chisel.

The Forest Folk moved like corpses, like things, because that was the only thing they knew.

And everything came to a sudden and complete stop.

If a Person had to come into the mines something certainly had to be wrong. And these were two of the strangest people they had ever seen; they were neither Dwarves nor Men. Fine. One was a Man, but wasn’t tall enough and there had never been a Man-Dwarf, mostly because there had never been girl-Men before.

And then there was the best dressed Mouse in the whole world. At least the best-dressed Mouse they had ever seen. One of them, one of the Horses, spoke up, falling to the moist ground, bowing deep enough for his head to touch the ground.

“But ... but … but … we’ve been good”

They didn’t know what had just happened. But, of course, it couldn’t be good. They were all scared.

Keiko

She nodded her understanding at Lady’s unspoken instructions to her, to Girl. To think that a simple bit of braided ribbon could be seen as something terrible...

Well, Keiko decided she liked the Men and the Dwarves of the Keep even less than she had before she started braiding the Sister Gifts.

Littlest Mouse distracted her for a moment. Bow and arrows? Had the Pack’s Archer decided that the space he found himself in was no longer too closed in for their use? And was that a good thing... or not?

One thing Keiko knew for certain — that Lady would care for Girl, would help her heal. It would take time. Healing always took time when it was a hurt that even a great Lady of Attera couldn’t heal.

The suddenly begun trip through the darkness seemed somewhat less tumultuous this time. Perhaps bringing only one person through the shadows made the Shadow Cloak less cranky. The Rhoni wasn’t going to bother contemplating that right now.

Because the mines were...

They were...

Keiko could barely breathe, and it wasn’t the heat or the humidity that was the problem. Or rather, they weren’t the biggest problem.

It was the horror of the place, although perhaps ‘horror’ might have been the wrong word. And perhaps it was only the first of many words that could be used here. The stark knowledge that they stood within the body of a Dragon, the sight of the heinous wounds inflicted at the behest of Dwarves so evil that even the Eastern Princes seemed kind by comparison, cut her soul. Each pounding on the great chisels was like a fist slamming into her chest. The mindless movements of the Forest Folk were sharp slaps to her face.

It was almost a relief when the Horse spoke, for it forced her to breathe again. And when he bowed so deeply and spoke with such fear, it nearly crushed her heart. Wrapping her arms around herself, feeling the touchstone of her Cards beneath her tunics, she wanted to fall to the floor — except that it wasn’t a floor — and cry out her grief.

The currents were completely still. She was in a pool with no direction but that which her heart and mind and soul gave her.

She had no God or Goddess to call her own. She could only hope that the Divine beings could hear those who walked the World and rode the Waves.

“Lady Dayala, First of All, One who stands for Order,” she whispered, “help me remember Your Light in this darkness and do my small deeds to defend the Great Old Ones.”

If nothing else, believing that the Goddess that began time itself and thus the ordering of the world could hear a Rhoni’s faint call gave Keiko the will to set aside enough of her grief to act.

Keiko of the Family Nakano took those few painful steps to the Horse. She didn’t have the luxury of falling to her knees to weep in agony, and she couldn’t stop the silent tears from streaming down her cheeks. She cleared her throat before speaking.

“Of course, you have been good in following the orders of those who told you to do this. Yes. There is no cause for alarm. I have no doubt the Old Masters would find no fault with any of you.”

She swallowed and looked around at the Mice and the Rats and the Deer and the Raccoons.

“All of you have been most meticulous in following those orders. It is just that we — my friends, Dommi and Tomomi, and I — have, well, come to rescue you, to bring you new duties. I suppose that’s a good way of putting it.

“It’s a bit of a story, so if you’d all just stop your work for a while as I tell it and gather close, that would be quite helpful. No, no, don’t worry that the Old Masters will be unhappy or think you’ve been bad. Goodness, would we be here if telling you this story, if pausing in your work to hear it wasn’t the right thing to do?

“Of course not.”

Keiko nodded and relaxed enough to gesture for all the Forest Folk to draw closer.

“Now, I’ll admit that I’m not the best storyteller because I’m still learning. Uncle Toshi and Dommi here have taught me a few things, though. Still, having you all come close makes it easier to tell the story for my voice cannot fill this... this space.”

Again, the young Rhoni girl swallowed hard. She would wait for them because it was polite and proper and she really couldn’t speak loudly enough for her voice to reach the farthest of them. Part of the difficulty was the tears trying to force her throat closed; part of it was simply where they stood.

Tearing at the bodies of the Old Ones, hurting the Great Dragons simply for... For what? Personal avarice? A compulsion to mine and dig and mine even more? Keiko understood many emotions, but today might have been the day she was introduced to hatred. She didn’t like feeling it. She wanted to not hate.

It was so hard to find a balance. In fact, it was very nearly impossible until a small Mouse hand slipped into hers and squeezed slightly. Looking down at Tomomi’s face — at the red eyes that had cried crystal tears when she had been Lost, at the whiskers that tickled when her friend’s face came close to hers, and the soft spikes of yellow hair that would eventually grow long enough to braid again — Keiko somehow found that balance. She managed a brief smile for Tomomi before wiping away tears that could very well start flowing again without warning.

When the Forest Folk were close enough, when they had stopped their previous tasks and accepted that listening was their new task, she took a deep breath — not necessarily the most brilliant idea when she stood literally in the belly of the beast, or muscles or some part of the Dragon at any rate.

“The tale starts with Mice who were afraid of an Imperial Lady who serves the Goddess Attera. Those Mice had been every bit as fearful as you are. And perhaps they were even more afraid, for when has an Imperial person ever done good deeds for any of you? But the Lady saw the Mice, she saw only that they needed help. They needed healing.

“It was not a thing I could see, for I am just a young person. I believed that the Mice and the Foxes and Wuffs who came to our market were just a different kind of person I had never met before because I did not know they were Mice and Foxes and Wuffs.

“The Lady, though, she could see that all of the people who wore cloaks to hide their appears from the eyes of Men did not have souls. And so she begged her Goddess Attera to give all the Forest Folk that gift.”

She paused and glanced at Dommi, who just nodded. He didn’t seem to like this place any more than she did.

“It is a challenging gift to have, but now you all have this gift. You are persons and not tools, and I know these are strange words for you to hear. To the Old Masters, it does not matter if you are a person or a tool. You are still someone who belongs to them.”

She bit her lip as she looked at the Forest Folk around them.

“The Goddess gave her Lady a task in exchange for healing all Forest Folk, for granting all of you and all those you have been rescued before and all those who have escaped this place — and yes, there are others who are free, like Tomomi here. Many others. The Lady was given the task of freeing the Forest Folks from the Old Masters, to stop the Old Masters from their cruel practice of fleshsmithing. And I...”

She closed her eyes and tried to find a wave, a current, anything... but there was only Tomomi’s hand in hers.

“And I wanted to stop their torture of the Dragons.”

Had that been hubris on her part? No, she couldn’t allow herself to believe that for then she would undoubtedly fail. She carried the Dragon Card, the First Card. She had to believe that was a portent.

Opening her eyes again, she looked from Mouse to Deer to Raccoon to Horse to Rat and around to each of them she could see.

“We have come to free you from the Old Masters and take you from this place. Will it be easy? I don’t think so, but it could very well be easier than what you are tasked with doing now. Will it be frightening? Oh, yes. I am so very terrified right now. I won’t lie about that.

“We must find the door to the levels above. We must trust that our friends will have cleared the way for us and will have opened the door. We must trust that we can leave the keep before our friends flood it.

“And what can I offer you? For now, only words. Or colorful and fanciful ribbons. Or a tiny bit of music.

“I could tell you so many things about Home but how could you know what I am saying if you have never known anything but... but this?” Keiko gestured around the Dragon cavern.

“All we can do is offer you something the Old Masters have never allowed you to have: choice. Come with us and face your fears, come with us learn what freedom is.

“Or remain here. Before coming here, I might have said that choice would make me sad. But if you stay here and die here, you will at least be among the Dragons that hold the World up, and your souls will dance with Krysta.

“I have said many words, and perhaps you can’t understand everything. But I tell you that you are now free of your obligation to the Old Masters. You may choose your own Fate.”

The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
The Halls of Man
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick

Keiko, Tomomi, Dominic … and the Forest Folk

The Horse listed to the Rhoni’s words. So did the rest of the Forest Folk still and quiet, slowly, so slowly gathering around the Rhoni as she spoke her words.

“… market … cloaks … forest … free … choice … “

Certain words were whispered back, as if they were strange, as if they were spoken in some foreign language that was beyond their comprehension. Yet they listened, yet they still gathered around. When Keiko looked up the scale of her task finally hit her.

There were more Forest Folk here than she had ever seen in all the halls and stairs of Home.

When she finished speaking there was silence.

Just silence.

“I don’t understand.”

That is what the Horse spoke in return. Just three simple words in return of all of hers. How could they be tempted by freedom when they had no idea what it meant?

There was silence, the bloodied hall felt heavy, here in the belly of a Dragon. Time moved slower than its sleepy heartbeats.

Then.

Motion.

It was a Rat, a Rat in threadbare linen, what was left of a surcoat tied around his waist by a length of frayed rope. His beady eyes seemed dead, dead and empty, as if his own fate was something already written in stone.

But he didn’t come alone.

His arm was stretched backwards as he drew a frail looking Mouse behind him. She tried to not come, but it was hard to tell why. Was she confused, was she scared, was she just far too lost and not understanding what was going on? The Rat stopped a pace away from Keiko and then pulled the smaller Forest Kin to stand in front of him, facing the Rhoni. The Mouse had no choice, as her feet were not touching the ground until he set her still.

Then he spoke.

“Take her.”

The Mouse blinked and squeaked. The Rat shook his head and continued.

“Take her. Mouse is kind. She gives up her water when others have dropped theirs. She always smiles when we are hurting, she cries for us when we cannot. But she is too good at being a Mouse and will be used up. Please take her. Take Mouse away from Here. Please.”

The Mouse opened her mouth, but no words came out. In a daze she let Tomomi reach out, snare her paw, draw her to their side of the hall and wrap a bright colored ribbon around her wrist. Only then did Mouse turn around and look back, eyes so wide.

“NO!”

The Mouse called out desperately.

“No … no … no … I … can’t ... I won’t go …

“… without you.”

What choice did the Rat have then? He let Tomomi wrap a ribbon around his wrist too.

It became like stone tiles falling.

“He is a good Horse. Please.”

"Take this raccoon child. So she can grow up."

One became two. Another one. And another. Two by two were followed by another and another. It became a chain. A chain bound by something stronger than darksteel, a chain stronger than any dark magic.

All they ever had was each other.

In the end, Keiko realized they had a very real problem.

They truly might not have enough ribbons.

Keiko

She nodded to the Horse, to all of them.

“I know. Understanding is a journey. I would like to show you the beginnings of the journey.” And then she paused. “Ah, well, unless ‘journey’ is also something you don’t understand. But that is only going from one place to another. Ja?

“From here...” She pointed to her feet. “...to there.” She gestured to the far end of the space.

“That is a journey. Or from here to the rooms above. Or from the rooms above to... anywhere.”

She wasn’t sure she could explain any better if they didn’t have a frame of reference. She didn’t understand their existence and so couldn’t describe her life and the World in the context of a Dragon’s living body that they mined for the avarice of undying Men and Dwarves.

At the Rat’s words, at the Mouse’s weak protest, Keiko bit her lip and listened with her ears and her heart to them.

And she listened to the Horse and Raccoon and Deer; she listened to many Rats and Mice and Horses and Raccoons and Deer.

After tying a pretty yellow ribbon on the arm of yet another Mouse, she glanced at the strands of ribbons Tomomi had draped over her shoulder and then at the ribbons at the bottom of the package Lady had given her.

“Oh, Dommi!” she said sweetly, in a way that would have made her brother immediately suspicious. But Dominic wasn’t her brother.

“Would you do me the most gracious and wondrous favor of fetching more ribbons?” She looked out over the Forest Folk who still wait for their scrap of fabric, then turned to look at the Young Master.

“Surely even a village as small as yours must have a tiny shop in which to procure ribbons, ja? Perhaps there are merchants outside your small village, too! Oh, it would be such a help, Dommi! I know you could find just the right places and just the right ribbons.”

She added a wink and the sort of smile that would get her a good jab from Emerald if she was the least bit sincere about what the smile implied.

Well, she was a Rhoni and she did know how to tease the Gaija.

Turning back to the Forest Folk, she once more put her trust in Dominic Korie. It became easier each time she did so. He would find a way to obtain enough ribbons for all the Forest Folk still waiting — in a way that would be most amusing to his Lady, of course, and least detrimental to the folks of Grand Talantal who couldn’t spare the loss.

The bonds these people had with one another were the bonds of Family. Ribbons or no ribbons, she was not going to leave anyone behind. But the ribbons were a symbol for them, something tangible in a world where abstracts were still too foreign.

Dommi would not let them down.

Leaning over, Keiko asked Tomomi, “Do you know how to get out of here? To find the door that the others will open for us?”

The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
The Halls of Man
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick

Keiko, Tomomi, Dominic … and the Forest Folk

Dommi might not have been Keiko’s bother.

But he did have a sister.

“Oh no. Oh no-no-no-no-no.”

He paused, and proved that he did indeed have a sister, truly.

“Ja.”

The Forest Folk gasped as the young Korie lord fell backwards, his cloak wrapping about him like a wave of midnight as he vanished into Keiko’s shadow. A heartbeat after he had been gone, two things happened. First, Keiko realized – as Dominic must have – that at this time, in Talantal or anywhere, the shops would have closed and locked up at sunset. Well, perhaps the young Korie knew of other places to find ribbons.

The second thing that happened was the whispers.

“Could The Story be true?”

“Was that her?”

“That was her. The Executioner.”

“It couldn’t be. We were told she was a bad tool and was broken.”

Listening to the whispers sift through the Forest Folk was like watching gossip during laundry day, at the second farthest spot down the riverbank. Where, Mothers and Daughters and Grandmothers would chain thoughts together to come to a conclusion. Though usually it was about who was courting whom.

“It seems not to be the case.”

It was a Rat who spoke that last. It was another Rat who followed with the next, so important question. Rats were always clever, especially when it came to trickery and subterfuge it seems; just like normal forest dwelling rats.

“How many other things are not the case?”

That Rat looked down upon his wrist, as Keiko tied a pretty blue strand around his wrist.

“But this …”

Beady eyes met Keio’s violet ones.

“This is real.”

Tomomi smiled back and nodded.

“It is real. It is yours. It looks good. If nothing else happens tonight, this is true, just for you. Everyone deserves a ribbon. It reminds us, that someone cared enough to gift us something. We have worth from the strongest horse to the smallest Mouse.

“I am a very shy and small Mouse. If I can have a Friend, so can you.”

The Mouse with the pretty scalloped sleeves upon her travel cloak looked back over her shoulder and nodded to her forever friend.

“See the built river? Carrying the molten ore … the hot dragon’s blood? Follow it. It always lead to the – the – the – squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak - Door.”

The squeak was because something that looked like – no indeed it was – a small wooden stool suddenly sailed up from behind the Rhoni lass, arcing high into the vault before landing in the middle of the Forest Folk. They all then turned to Keiko, as if this was a new and yet to be explained component of their journey or an example of inscrutable magic.

The explanation followed.

A very rushed and panicked Dominic subsequently tumbled out of Keiko’s shadow, with a confetti-strewn explosion of ribbons plus the ones he desperately held close. On one hand he had returned with more than enough for the rest of the Forest Folk miners. On the other hand he looked more than a little rattled and disheveled. His hair was tousled, his cloak was somehow sitting askance, he was missing a boot and his face had a very suspicious smear of makeup across his cheek.

“Fine. Felicia, she never liked me much from the start. Betsy tried to throw her chamber pot at me, which is understandable because it is the middle of the night after all and she is a bit grumpy when surprised. And Ami likes me far, far too much.”

However, what was much more telling was his very large and quickly darkening black eye.

“But nobody ever told me Jazminka got married!”

The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
The Halls of Man
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick

Keiko, Tomomi, Dominic … and the Forest Folk ... and Croga

Not long after Dominic's arrival that their preparations were interrupted.

It started with a low, ominous klanging, like an alarm bell. This shocked the Forest Folk, but oddly they looked much more confused than scared.

At the edge of vision there was a flicker, like something coming into being and then suddenly not and then even more suddenly there was a whumf and next to Keiko a Mouse arrived. It was a small Mouse in a travel cloak, in fact it was the very same small Mouse that had run through Home looking for bows and arrows.

"Hello. You are supposed to Rally! What ever Rally means."

She then looked back over her shoulder, towards the direction of the unseen bell.

"Oh.

"The Door's open."

Keiko

She listened to the whispers spread and circle around the group. It was familiar. In fact, it was so familiar that she smiled at the Rat when he spoke.

“So many things are not as accurate as you’ve been told they are.”

Tomomi conveyed their new reality to the Forest Folk far better than Keiko could. She understood what it had been like to be just a tool. Now she knew what it meant to have worth and to have a friend.

The Rhoni’s eyes widened as a stool soared toward a group of folks, who fortunately scattered away from it. No one had been hurt.

The sight of the Shadowlord tumbling from her shadow, on the other hand, very nearly caused Keiko to burst out giggling. That he was babbling about various women didn’t surprise her in the least — the whole of the Heartwood must know of his reputation by now. She bent down and took the ribbons from him and handed them to Tomomi.

“Please, be sure everyone has their own ribbon, ja? I’ll see if our rattled friend remembered to bring his senses back with him.”

Turning back to Dommi and crouching down, she wiped the makeup off his face with the hem of her tunic, clucking like a mother wiping dirt from a child’s face.

“Well, annoying people in the middle of the night does tend to make most of them irritable. I’m sorry to hear your sister isn’t fond of you. That’s too bad. But you do have real friends to make up for it. And this is Ami’s doing, I take it? Mmm hmm.

“Well, Dommi, surely you would have known about Jazminka and her husband if you spent more time in your tiny village, ja? Or listened to the gossip more carefully when you were there. Does that hurt? It’s going to turn some truly beautiful colors over the next few days.”

She looked up at the sound of Littlest Mouse’s arrival.

“Rally! Oh, it means we should get moving. Thank you, dear.”

She stood and held a hand out to Dommi — to help him up if he was still so rattled that he needed help, or to just clasp his hand in friendship and thanks for a moment.

“I hope your other boot is tucked in that grumpy, growly cloak of yours somewhere. If not, we might be able to impose upon one of these generous Horses to carry you.

“Tomomi? I’ll take the ribbons, my friend, thank you.” She looked around for the Horse who had seemed most sturdy in mind, the least confused of them — Keiko had no doubt they were all powerful of body. He was not too far away, and she motioned him closer.

“Will you lead your Family from here to the Door? Tomomi knows the way. If she might sit on your back, you and she can lead from the front.”

Keiko smiled at her friend. “Dommi and I will lead from behind and make sure no one is left in this place. And that they all have their own ribbon.”

She hugged her friend and whispered, “You are the bravest Mouse.”

Taking a deep breath, she immediately realized what a mistake it was, as the smell of blood filled her head.

“Littlest? Let them know we are coming.”

She paused and bit her lip. She wanted to ask about Lyric and the Pack. Were they well? Did they all still live? But that was knowledge that should come at the appropriate time after all the Forest Folk had been escorted from this horrible place.

“And tell them... thank you.”

Looking out over the fullhand after fullhand of Forest Folk, she spoke to them once more.

“Those who have received their gift of a ribbon, follow Tomomi Mouse and Mister Horse. This is your journey now. It begins.

“And those who have not received a ribbon yet...” She smiled at the group remaining. “Well, our clever friend Dommi has risked his safety and bravely accepted a jab in the eye to bring more. There is enough for everyone.”

She chattered on as she continued to give out ribbons, not caring that they wouldn’t understand most of her words. To ride this wave meant just speaking; it was the soothing and calm litany of sounds — familiar or not — that was important. It was storytelling.

“We will be able to thank him later, you know. How? Well, here’s a Truth that many people have already learned: our friend Dommi is an exceptional storyteller. Oh, he tells tales so unbelievable that even I have a hard time believing them. And I have seen many things and been many places. Have you found your boot yet, Dommi?

“I think some of his stories come from drinking too much beer...

“What is beer? It’s something to drink. Some beer is made well and has an excellent flavor. Some beer is terrible and is no better than drinking mud. Mud? Well, that’s a different story. But beer makes most people’s heads get fuzzy on the inside, and they often act quite silly. Mud does not.

“Of course, in Dommi’s case, it might be hard to tell because he is so often silly. Yes, that stool was a bit of his silliness. Oh, would one of you bring it along? One never knows when a good stool will come in handy. Perhaps we will bring it all the way to Home and Girl will have her very own place to sit beside Lady. Or perhaps it will be necessary for a Rat to drop on someone’s head. Who knows? But stools are always nice to have.

“Why, I certainly can tie a ribbon around your arm while you hold it! There! Easily done, and a stool solidly held.”

Eventually, the last of the Forest Folk had received a ribbon and was in the long line of Family that journeyed to freedom. There were even some ribbons left, all of which she tucked into her pack. Keiko looked at the ribbons on the... Well, around the spot where Dommi had fallen out of her shadow.

“One more thing I need to do,” she whispered, perhaps to herself or possibly to Dominic who had stayed with her.

Gathering the scattered ribbons, she arranged them in the shape of the Dragon rune. They weren’t all the same color, and few of them were the right color, but...

She swallowed as she set the last one in place, kneeling in place for a moment.

The rune was right and true. She put both hands on the flesh of the Dragon, feeling her heart trying to tear itself from her chest in sorrow.

“Old One, we will stop this pain that disturbs your slumber, or we will die in our attempt. I swear this by the Card that I carry.”

A single tear fell, almost as a punctuation to the outline of the Dragon rune.

“Sleep in peace.” It was said in a whisper so soft that even the sharpest ears could not have heard from a single pace away.

Keiko kha'Chiyo kha'Masuyo kha'Tsukiko kha'Chouko khal'Nakano Hoshiko stood and smiled wanly at Lord Dominic Dominie Korie as she slung her pack over her shoulders, beneath her cloak.

“We should get moving.”

The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
The Halls of Man
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick

Keiko, Tomomi, Dominic … and the Forest Folk … and temporarily Croga Mouse

“Uhm …”

Dominic looked a bit sheepish. Which was fine. When it came to wolves and sheep, wolves were the predators and went by names like One Fang and Wrath while sheep were not and went by names like Lunch and Midnight Snack.

“It was either lose my boot or bring Ami along.

“And Ami has a very very big brother.”

He did, however, shrug his shoulders philosophically.

“She didn’t get my sock.”

There were worse things in the world, perhaps. And all things considered walking socked inside a dragon was probably less disturbing to the dragon than boots; in fact most of the Forest Folk were either hoofed or walking upon bare feet.

By the time the discussions of footwear had concluded the two Home Mice had their tasks. The Littlest Mouse vanished with a pop and the scalloped sleeved one was leading a horse by the hand. As Tomomi has said, following the sluice was the proper route. In an odd line, often two by two, they had thrown their trust in with a Rhoni lass and a Mouse.

Not that there was any blood running through it anymore. Looking back, one of the last too leave was a raccoon lad; small and slender, he now looked now exhausted. He had made small movements over the shorn wall like fine knitting, except it was sinew and flesh that was stitched back together.

He was one of the last to receive their ribbon and then it was Dominic and Keiko’s turn.

Dominic smiled.

“I’ll get a head start.”

That way there was no one to hear Keiko’s words. Did the Dragon hear? That wasn’t known. Does one her the sound of blood moving through one’s own body?

But the Dragon did not stir.

It was an odd moment in time, like when dreaming faded away into a deep, restful sleep.

Keiko [pronounced KAY-ko]

It’s been another week of near-debilitating depression (thank you, United States Congress in general and Mitch McConnell specifically, you diseased rhinoceros pizzle) in which no creative writing managed to get done. However, after a conversation with the GM (which I interpreted as a threat despite his insistence that it was not a threat #depressionlies), I feel it is in my best interest to at least provide the bullet points of Keiko’s intended actions. I grok that this is a roleplaying game and that involves writing a story. I am not in the headspace for telling stories. However, I often write bullet points of items to address in a particular post. Here they are:

1. Have Dominic fetch Bekkah so she can heal the injured Wuffs and Lyric.
2. Once Lyric and the Pack are disengaged and separated from the Dwarves, have Croga close the two gates in the living area, as determined by Dominic’s assessment of the appropriate levers (if necessary, leave one of the Rats to help).
3. Get the Forest Folks moving up the stairs with Tomomi and Mr. Horse (for the moment) in the lead. (Mr. Horse would have a name by now if Super OCD Woman wasn’t currently obsessing over (a) the household budgets and (b) the First Nations of both the US and Canada. Again.)
4. Check the rooms in the corridor between current location and stairs.
5. Worry about Lyric and the Pack.