The Rainbow Ocean, Hearthworld Region
Elnamerrna, heading outward
Firstsummer 6th, 2461
The Elnamerrna tore through the flowriver back toward Listraeespace. The Silver Triop made excellent time, courtesy of Alzja's Elendran artifacts, the Regalia of the Gonn.
Powering the spelljammer helm, Chalizon felt the gaseous murk of the phlogiston curl around the air envelope, as he would expect, but it also pressed against the aft end of the ship's atmosphere more than a little. The extra speed of the ship's progress thrilled him, even though Alzja had warned him of it before she'd left the bridge for a moment at Tyfelian's call.
"It took us only four days to get from Listraeespace to Hearthspace, and now, only four days back," the Listraeean thought as he saw the flow-fork ahead that could take the ship to Listraeespace. "This ship's speed in the flow is incredible... any other ship would have taken weeks, to do the same. By Eelistraee, I like this ship and—" the warrior-wizard blinked as he realized what he was thinking, but then his face set into a thoughtful, firm expression.
"I think I'll sign on with Tyfelian permanently even if Sildara and the others don't," he decided, easing back into the helm as he made his decision.
The ache in his heart spiked up, but then settled down again—lower than before, even—as the Elnamerrna soared past the flow-fork and made way back whence she had come before he'd even known of this ship or its crew.
Shortly after that flow-fork slipped by, he felt the Elnamerrna slow down to the normal speed for long-range flow travel. Even as the speed dropped, Lygalliz hurried into the bridge from the starboard door.
"Pay it no mind, helm," the hurwaet told the drow. "The command crew are checking something out with their magical items in the crew quarters."
Chalizon's eyebrow went up, but he made no comment.
"What's all this about, Jaclyn?" Kiran asked mildly. "First, Tyfelian and the Elnamerrna, now you and the artifacts."
The paladin held the Septahedron and the Octahedron in his hands, but he was not the only artifact bearer holding his artifact. Tyfelian stood nearby on the grass, looking at Jaclyn with a quizzical expression, because he held the Dridercomp by its collar. Alzja held the Regalia of the Gonn, and Trula held the Bracers of the Ebon Rogue, one in either hand.
Tash stood with them, her artifact, the Adamantine Wand of Evin'shay, in her hand. The archmage looked vaguely impatient. This meeting had pulled her away from her planning of a way that the Elnamerrna could speak with the crew at will, so she watched Jaclyn closely with a pensive expression.
Sildara and Menlina stood with them. Tyfelian had invited them as interested observers. The whole group stood in the largest open area of the starboard crew quarters area.
Jaclyn herself had removed the Psychotralex of Ibinon and now addressed them.
"I believe I know why the Elnamerrna has become sentient," she explained. "I think that Trizfastell and the others were up to something at the time they were killed, something Trizfastell didn't tell us. They were trying to escape."
"That is hardly a revelation, or even a surprise, to hear," Kiran said, not sarcastically, but to prod Jaclyn onward.
"No, but it's how they were trying to escape that's of interest. I believe they were trying to build a ship... in a way."
"Come 'gain?" Trula said.
"These artifacts—except for Kiran's—weren't made to be just what they are. I think Trizfastell and his chums wanted to use them to turn themselves into a ship."
"That's cr-" Trula blurted, but then she reconsidered. "Crazy..." she said very softly. "But then again, maybe it isn't."
"They didn't have a ship, did they?" Tyfelian asked Sildara.
"No. They intended to hijack one and travel to Listraeespace at some point, but it seems, from Ibinon's journal, their hideout was discovered before they could leave."
Tyfelian felt baffled by the lack of more complete historical data, but he changed his angle of attack. He raised a finger to quiet his companions, and then reached out with his heart for the Dridercomp in his hands. When it reached back for him, he thought of Trizfastell, Ibinon, Eckrelde, Evin'shay, and Yilonzdel, surrounded by their enemies.
He looked up, toward the center of the rough circle formed by himself and his friends. He saw nothing, but he felt as though something should have been there.
"Don or boldly present your items," he said to the others, his eyes glazing over as he slipped the Dridercomp back over his head.
He moved to the center of the circle of people. He pointed to Tash, and indicated that she should stand behind him. He beckoned Trula to stand before him, and Kiran to kneel in front of him, facing away.
"Alzja, embrace me from behind," he said to the lady drow.
More than a little confused and embarrassed, the others did. Alzja gingerly wrapped Tyfelian up from behind him, and whispered to his ear.
"I'm glad Fing isn't here," she noted. "I might have to fight her."
That comment might have irked Tyfelian at any other time, but he was now too caught up in Jaclyn's theory to care. He did, however, almost hear Alzja's smirk in his ear without needing to see it.
As soon as all of them had taken their positions, though, all embarrassment fled.
Soft blue radiance flowed from Kiran's hands, exuded by the Septahedron. The Octahedron did not seem to react in any way, but no one felt any surprise at that. The five drow renegades had not had the seventh artifact those many centuries ago.
The radiance enveloped them all.
Sildara and Menlina watched, entranced.
The blue glow, identical to the appearance of the Elnamerrna's spiritual force discovered by Jaclyn, issued outward suddenly. It filled the crew quarters with a ghostly image of a ship.
"A wolfspider ship!" Menlina exclaimed.
The glow of Kiran's artifact changed color, and his hands opened. His radiance merged with Tyfelian's and moved outward from them, then solidified into an adamantite hull.
Alzja's cloak expanded into a suggestion of a starship's rigging, and her scepter began to glow brightly. She knew it represented a spelljammer helm, for it strongly resembled the appearance of the Elnamerrna's helm under detect magic. Then it was a helm, a fine, sturdy chair emblazoned with the magical runes of the Septahedron and the Octahedron.
Trula's fingers, within the Bracers of the Ebon Rogue, lengthened enormously, and they formed the eight legs of the wolfspider ship. She hooked her thumbs together to hold them steady, and the legs planted firmly into the soil of the crew quarters.
Tash's wand merged with her hands, and these formed the fangs of the wolfspider. Tyfelian's Dridercomp expanded to become the abdomen of the spider-shaped ship.
With the transformation complete, the wolfspider settled down on all eight legs. Sildara and Menlina hurried under it, glancing uneasily at the cottages in the quarters deck. They had been most fortunate that the formation of this ship had not crushed or knocked over a building or two in the area. Even as it was, several off-duty watchdogs ran away from it, growling until Kiran told them to sit.
Sildara levitated up to the hatch in the ship's belly and opened it. She then pulled herself up and into the vessel. Though she had not seen one since childhood, she knew the layout of a wolfspider, and hurried to the bridge.
Tyfelian and company stood there, without their artifacts but quite unharmed. The bridge looked plain and functional; Alzja sat on the helm.
Sildara looked around, wondering what had become of Jaclyn's Psychotralex. She thought that the planetary locator beside the helm looked like it might have been the Psychotralex, but she wasn't positive.
"So this is what those artifacts were originally for," she whispered.
"As I remember it, I think that maybe they were caught in the act," Tyfelian murmured, though in the nearly empty bridge it sounded fairly loud. "They tried... but then they got jumped. They were murdered," he said sadly, "and their artifacts were left behind."
"Not all of them," Sildara noted. "Trizfastell lived longer... he set that programmed illusion in place to talk to anyone who came in there."
"Yeeeessss," Tyfelian said softly, thinking.
"So sad," Sildara said. "They made your devices to escape... and never did."
"Ah, but they did escape... when Tyfelian removed their bones and brought them to Listraeespace," Menlina pointed out.
"That's right," Jaclyn smiled triumphantly. "And their spirits are now at eternal rest, but we didn't leave their life forces behind when buried them in Listraeespace. Some of their power is still here—in the artifacts, and in the Elnamerrna, now."
"The Elnamerrna became sentient because these artifacts were originally designed to make a ship—but when we took them, we already had a ship..." Tyfelian marveled.
"And the traces of their life forces in these items merged... into that ship," Jaclyn finished. "The life force of the Elnamerrna comes from Trizfastell and maybe his friends... but her personality comes from us. All six of us."
Tyfelian smiled, but then his voice went serious. "There will be no discussion of this with the ship's company," he ordered. "Kiran, write a full report on this and give it to the crew, to keep false rumors from spreading. Make it true, but don't talk about this to them until they already know what really happened. You know how gossip is, especially on a ship."
Kiran nodded, speechless.
"One thing, though," Alzja said.
Tyfelian looked at her.
"How is it that these artifacts just sat there for three hundred years and more? And why did the Elendrans leave them behind in the first place?"
Tyfelian had no answers.
"It seems to me like they were left there to be found," Alzja stated. "I'd guess that they were taken by the Elendrans... but then put back."
"Bait?" Tyfelian snarled, angry anew with the Elendrans.
"The Elendrans couldn't find Listraeespace on their own... so they left the artifacts there so that someday, someone would get them..." Tash theorized.
"And wind up in Listraeespace eventually... followed by a scout ship—ironically enough, a wolfspider," Tyfelian said, grimacing. "They sure never give up. I mean... what's so important about Listraeespace that they went to all that trouble?"
"The Elendrans excel at obsession, Tyfelian," Sildara said. "It was revenge, essentially, for the loss of eight hundred gypsy moths... and it really wasn't that long ago, not by drow standards. Not even one generation."
Tyfelian nodded, satisfied, at least in part. "Yes... that sounds likely... now, how do we reverse the process and get this scout ship out of our starboard crew quarters?"
The others thought, but then the problem was solved for them. Evidently, they had only to will the reversal, for they felt a short drop back to the grass as the wolfspider dissolved away and the artifacts once more adorned the command crew or rested easily in their hands.
"An interesting ability," Tash commented. "Useful, certainly."
Tyfelian raised his eyebrows in agreement, but waved the lot of them out of the crew quarters.
"Yes, this is all very interesting, but couldn't it have waited?" Alzja asked Jaclyn.
Jaclyn seemed at a loss to answer that, but Tyfelian intervened.
"I'm glad we found out about it," he said, "because we're on a quest and we don't want to be distracted every few hours by learning what these artifacts can or can't do. I'm sure Jaclyn would have postponed if we hadn't had the time right now."
"I assure you of that," the human smiled at Alzja.
"Still, you're right, Alzja," the half-drow mollified her. "We're looking forward to getting to Krynn and finding our missing friends," he reminded. "That's our priority right now."
No one was about to disagree with that, so the group of eight broke up to return to their stations or to leisure activities.
Jaclyn, however, in a rare moment of mischief, couldn't resist a line at Tyfelian's expense.
"Don't worry," she whispered to him as they finished enlarging themselves back to normal size and left the crew quarters. "I won't tell Fing that Alzja gave you a hug. Your secret is safe with me." She snickered.
"Tell her," Tyfelian jabbed right back. "Tell her Alzja's my girlfriend. She'll believe it in a second," he finished with a wolfish smile plastered all over his face.
"I won't lie to her, Ty," Jaclyn said, suddenly serious.
"Who is to say it'd be a lie?" Tyfelian said, mild-eyed. "I do rather like Alzja, despite her quirks."
"You could've fooled me," Jaclyn said. "I remember that time you slapped her—shame on you for that, by the way."
"Yeah, I've got her fooled, too," the half-drow said quietly as he turned to head for his quarters. "But I never kicked her in the butt like you did," he pointed out over his shoulder.
Jaclyn watched him go, laughing very softly.
"Someone else might've taken that as a counter-joke," she thought, "but I've known you too long for that, longer than anyone alive. You were serious."
"So... you have feelings for Alzja..." Jaclyn marveled. "Even after thirteen years, you still surprise me every now and then, Tyfelian," she whispered aloud to her old friend's back.
Shaking her head with amusement, the psion went on her way.
Chalizon felt the Elnamerrna speed up again. A moment later, the outeye showed the churning phlogiston of the Hearthspace region slipping away rapidly, and the vessel entered the Causeway Reaches—the trackless, mostly unexplored areas of the Rainbow Ocean between the Hearthspace area and the Inner Prime.
Chalizon smiled with the return of the vessel's fantastic sailing ability, and he hoped that the command crew had found out what they wanted.
Sure enough, Alzja came back to the bridge minutes later. The presence of a small smile on her face, instead of her usual smirk, told Chalizon that the experiment had gone at least moderately well, whatever it had been.
"It went all right?" he asked her.
"Quite nicely, but nothing important right now, as far as I know. Kiran will have a full report for the crew. It'll explain a few things that we didn't know for sure," Alzja advised him briefly as she took over command from a crewman who had spelled her while she was busy.
"All right," Chalizon replied and returned his full attention to the helm. The Elnamerrna would reach the general area of the rogue shell the next day, and he wanted to get close. Not there, but not far from it—so he could get some sleep and break his link to the helm before they visited the dead moon.
The Elnamerrna command crew were not the only ones who felt a strong interest in that place.
The Rainbow Ocean near the Hearthspace Region
Elnamerrna, searching for the rogue crystal shell
Firstsummer 7th, 2461
"Right here," Alzja called.
"Alzja, plot a spiral search pattern course away from this location. Did Tash record the movements of the rogue when we saw it before?"
"Yes, but it has random movements. I believe that it orbits the entire Hearthworld area, but never the same orbit twice."
"What would hold it in orbit—even a random orbit?" Kiran frowned, puzzled. "Crystal shells have no gravity."
"I'm sure I have no idea, but that's what it was doing," Alzja replied. "It looked almost like it floats along flowrivers like a bubble, but that makes me wonder what it was doing on this flowriver—or in the Causeway Reaches, either one," she added, naming the only known "direct" flowriver route from the Hearthworld region to the Inner Prime and back again.
"What about this flowriver?" Melanerra asked, curious. "And the Causeway?"
"They lead out," Alzja explained, "as well as in. Away from Hearthspace... this one leads out in the general direction of the Unhuman Reaches, if our bearing from it is any indication. It comes out of that flowcreek near Smilospace's flowshell," she noted, waving off the source of the river as unimportant, "but no one knew about this flowriver before we found it, so I don't know where it goes. But that's beside the point. I don't understand why that rogue shell would be floating along this flowriver when it leads out."
"And why was it in the Causeway when we passed by?" Tyfelian added. "There goes at least one coincidence too many for me."
"You don't really think that Abyssal Lord can control the movements of a crystal shell, do you?" Alzja asked. "That's impossible as far as I know. I'm not certain even the gods could do that."
"I think that we shouldn't assume anything's impossible," Tyfelian noted, "not after seeing that artifact in the rogue shell—which reminds me," he trailed off and picked up the voice horn.
"Crow's nest, bridge."
"Crow's nest, Trula," the lookout replied.
"Trula, I'm getting a little tired of referring to that rogue crystal shell as "that rogue crystal shell." Now, by Embimuran tradition, the one who discovers a heavenly body has the privilege of naming it. As you search for it, think up a name, please. You saw it first."
"'All right," she agreed. "What about 'Jumpspace?'"
Tyfelian laughed and shut off the horn.
Menlina, sitting at the table at Kiran's left elbow, looked over at the two men.
"Speaking of rogue crystal shells, what is a rogue shell?" she asked curiously. "I think I understand, but what does it mean when you say it?"
Kiran shrugged.
"It's a crystal shell that's not attached to any flowrivers. You'll find them in the Hearthspace Cluster from time to time," he explained. "Usually, getting to them is hard because your navigation can't be off even by a blink of an eye. This one will be worse, because it moves randomly—or at least, Alzja seems to think so. But I'm sure they can find it again," he assured her confidently.
Menlina looked at the outeye, hoping he was right.
The quest for 'Jumpspace' took two days. The Elnamerrna cruised in a spiral fashion away from the flowriver, occasionally passing back through it, and they found Jumpspace again a considerable distance from the river.
Trula called down her sighting.
"Rogue crystal shell to portside," she told Tyfelian. "I believe it's Jumpspace, but we'll have to check. Possible flowshell ahead, very distant—I believe that would be Smilospace." The lookout paused. "Frenela is here to relieve me," she said.
"Thank you—come to the bridge, Trula. Where are we, Alzja?" the half-drow asked as he shut off the voice horn.
"Close to where the chart ends," she noted, looking at the elven map of the Hearthspace region nearest the Inner Prime. "We're closer to a different flowriver now—one that goes from Smilospace to unknown reaches."
Tyfelian curled his lip. The Hearthworld region was just so big... only the Elven Imperial Navy would have any chance to map it, and he remembered his talk with Trula about how even they had called it quits.
"The elves mapped out only the face toward the Inner Prime, is that not so?" Tyfelian asked.
"That's right, why?" Alzja replied.
Tyfelian stood up with a thoughtful expression and crossed over to navigation. He opened the drawer in the desk and rifled through the maps. He glanced up once as Trula entered the bridge, but then he found the map he wanted.
"We were here when we first encountered Jumpspace," he said, pulling out a new map of the Rainbow Ocean that he himself had drawn, with some help from the navigators on board.
Tyfelian's map, largely blank, showed the mostly unknown block of the Rainbow Ocean between the Inner Prime and the Hearthworld region, using Winterspace in the Inner Prime, and Smilospace and Elbraspace in the Hearthworld area, as references for borders.
"In the river between Drakspace and Elbraspace," Tyfelian's fingertip pointed out. "After we got our memories wiped out, we were here," he stated, pointing at a different flowriver. "Isn't that how Tash and Menlina plotted the location?"
"Yes," Alzja said, already seeing where Tyfelian was going. She had not reviewed that aspect of it, though the thought had been in the back of her mind.
"Without flowspeed, that's a mighty long ways, wouldn't you say?"
"I hadn't really thought of it, because navigating in our region is always such a bear," she noted, "but yes, you're right."
"And now it's here—another long jump. You picked a good name for that sphere," he said to Trula. "Someone's controlling its movements. Gotta be," Tyfelian stated. "I wonder how anyone could do that..." he trailed off, and then addressed the helm.
"Melanerra, take us there," he commanded.
"We need to know more than how," Fing said, coming away from the low wall below the railings of the command area. "We need to know who and why, or we're in big trouble, I think."
Tyfelian only nodded, not wanting to let on to the smitten kender that she had her moments of wisdom.
Kiran spared him, though.
"Fing is right. Something really strange is happening, and I think it's because something's really wrong here. If we don't find out, it'll happen again."
"And again, and again... until whoever is behind it all manages to kill us," Fing whispered. "I think he or she wanted for us to die in Listraeespace, or maybe get stranded there forever."
"It would've been a good place to get rid of someone," Alzja agreed, "after Nauthe'hressishtel was destroyed. No one would have found us, ever. I practically guarantee it."
"And that someone didn't care about Lolth," Fing added, her eyes hard. "Or the Elendrans, or the Listraeeans. Just used them, to get us where he or she wanted us."
"Why us, specifically?" Melanerra called from the helm. "What's so important about us that this person would go do all that to get us killed?"
Fing shook her head, mystified, but Tyfelian answered her.
"We're in someone's way, or we will be, or might be," he stated. "I don't understand what it's all about, but the only reason someone would do this to us would be to get us out of the way."
"Then," Trula said slowly, "what do we stand in front of? Another war?"
"I suppose it could be," Tyfelian replied thoughtfully, "but I don't see one coming so soon. Also, this power vacuum is tempting for illithids, beholders, neogi and a few others... but they wouldn't try to destroy us the way it happened. They'd just send out a fleet or two to track us down and take us out."
"Everything seems to go back to that Abyssal Lord," Jalaysa pointed out. "I wish I could remember what it looked like."
"I've already made a painting from memory and given it to Tash, but she's busy with the Elnamerrna right now," Tyfelian said, frustrated. "She's the expert on extraplanar matters... or as close to an expert as we've got."
"Mind if I try to find out who it is?" Jalaysa asked.
"Go ahead," Tyfelian told her. "It won't hurt, not while Tash is occupied. My painting should be in the library."
Jalaysa hurried out of the bridge.
Kiran pursed his lips.
"I may not know much about tanar'ri, but I do know that they don't have much to do with people in space," he said to Tyfelian. "Have you any idea why it'd see us as a threat to its plans?"
"No," the half-drow admitted frankly. "And I'm not too keen on going to the Abyss just to ask it."
"Nor I, but I thought that perhaps it isn't about some grand plan. What about a personal grudge?"
"I'd say that's nearly impossible," Tyfelian replied, "unless someone on board has met that thing before and didn't say so when they signed on. As I think on it, he looks vaguely familiar to me, but I'm sure I've never fought him before." He paused. "Maybe it has something to do with Trizfastell. Maybe they fought him."
He paused, thinking.
"The motives of fiends are almost beyond mortal understanding," he stated. "It might be simple, or not. We'll find out what it is, but first, we need to find our crewmen."
Jumpspace
Elnamerrna
Firstsummer 7th, 2461
The Elnamerrna eased through a portal into the rogue shell.
Tyfelian knew immediately that his navigators had done it again—this was Jumpspace, all right. No one who had seen it before could have mistaken that strange primary. He held his reserve, but he was deeply impressed. Rogue shells were exactly that—hard to find, their movements barely predictable, and potentially dangerous to enter. If one stayed inside one for too long, one could return to the Rainbow Ocean with no clear idea of location.
Fortunately, Tyfelian did not intend to remain for long. He leaned forward intently.
"Melanerra, Alzja, take us to the moon of the third planet. Melanerra, steer clear of those clouds or whatever they are."
Melanerra moved the ship. Presently, they closed upon the dead moon.
Tyfelian's face went hard and impassive as they neared that place... again. He hated what had happened here before and he had never wanted to see the place again. Nevertheless, command duties, military or civilian, did not always allow a leader his or her preference. Tyfelian resigned himself to the necessity of trying to use the artifact.
As they neared the location of the ruins, Tyfelian spotted the pile of debris that he had used as a somewhat discreet landing site the first time.
"Put us down behind that debris over to the right, Melanerra," he told the helmsman. "That's where we went the first time."
Melanerra did. She gently put the Silver Triop down in roughly the same spot that Tash had, weeks before.
Tyfelian gave the order for all hands to leave, and then Tash cast her spell to shrink the Elnamerrna. Jaclyn bit her lip at the sight when Kreg closed and latched the deadbox. The Elnamerrna might not like it; she would be unable to sense anything beyond the box, but there was no other way, so she made no comment.
Tyfelian called out to the crew as Kreg finished.
"All hands, scatter and look for the Elendran wolfspider. Don't try to enter it—come back to me when you find it. Stay in groups."
"Command crew, follow me," he ordered, and they set off toward the mushroom artifact.
Tyfelian looked around with interest. The vision of the past had been mostly accurate—entirely so, in fact, as far as he'd been able to tell from space or from the air above the ruins.
Now, though—seeing the ruins up close—he could notice that some details had been lost.
The mushroom-shaped artifact stood a bit taller and wider than he remembered it, and the arches, like the artifact, had magical symbols inscribed all over their surfaces. Those had not been present in the vision, so Tyfelian had to wonder whether there might have been other slight inaccuracies.
"Those runic inscriptions weren't there in our vision, were they?" he asked Jaclyn.
"No," she replied. "Not on the arches. And the cone-shaped things were all grayish... they actually have some color. Faded, though." She glanced upward. "The sky looked different, too."
Tyfelian followed her gaze with his own. He remembered a yellowish overcast from the vision, but the real thing was just black with the heat-lightning flashes, and the rogue shell's eyesore of a primary to top it all off.
Tyfelian blinked the moon's swirling dust out of his eyes, then spotted another inaccuracy.
The half-drow moved over to, by Kiran's eyes, an unremarkable lump in the ground beside one of the arches, but he quickly revised his thought when Tyfelian turned over a corpse.
"Elendran," Tyfelian said. "In the vision, all of the Elendrans came with us."
"The real battle must have been a little different," Kiran noted. Now that his eyes knew what to look for, he spotted other corpses. "There must be half a dozen of them here. But with all that dust covering them, they're sure hard to see."
"Try eighteen," Trula said, finishing a count. "I had wondered how twenty Elendrans could've done that to us. They didn't. There were almost forty of them, all warrior-wizards, I'm sure."
Tyfelian set the crew about the task of looting the fallen Elendrans. As they checked the bodies, he talked with Sildara.
"We've encountered a large number of Elendrans who are both warriors and wizards, and it seems that they were common in your society, too. Can you tell me more?"
Sildara sighed.
"The Elendrans live with a caste system that's a little different from the House rankings of most drow," she explained. "The lower ranked families compete for power with the higher ranks, but only too often, the lower ones have no possible chance of destroying a higher ranked family. 'Entrenched,'" Sildara emphasized by raising her eyebrows, "isn't a strong enough word for the higher-up families. For that reason, all of the families keep their defenses strong by training their soldiers in both the fighting and magical arts. Since they live in space, they need the extra wizards for spelljamming and ship defense, anyway.
"In my civilization, we abandoned that practice—except in the military. Our naval forces train soldiers in both arts for the same, practical, reasons that the Elendrans do."
Kiran looked at her thoughtfully.
"But... you're not a wizard... are you?" he asked tentatively.
Tyfelian also listened intently to her answer, remembering the strange magic missile spells that had seemed to come from Sildara during the fight in the Elnamerrna's upper weapon deck in Listraeespace.
"No. I went to command training right from the start," Sildara told him with a smile.
Tyfelian stared all about thoughtfully. He turned a complete circle, looking, and then faced his friends again. He seemed about to speak, but then something caught his eye.
"What's this?"
"Scroll tube," Kiran murmured, stating the obvious, "tied to the artifact with a rope," he said with puzzlement. "I know that wasn't here before."
Tyfelian picked it up carefully and slipped it from the knotted rope that held it. He looked at Jalaysa, and the elf lady cast a spell.
"It shows no magic," she assured him.
Tyfelian examined it closely, but found nothing in the way of traps, magical or otherwise.
He slowly uncapped the case and looked inside. He saw a sheet of parchment, but he let Jalaysa look at it again, with her spell still in effect.
The elf lady shook her head, telling Tyfelian that she still detected no magic.
"Nothing at all," she told him.
Tyfelian moved next to Alzja in case the scroll hurt him, but nothing happened as he slid the parchment out of the case.
"Papyrus," he murmured. "Odd grade of it, though."
"I've never seen papyrus exactly like that, either," Alzja commented, "except in Elendraspace."
Tyfelian cautiously unrolled the papyrus.
"It's a note!" he exclaimed. The half-drow glanced at the by-line. "From Anna!"
Tyfelian swiveled away from Alzja and faced all of them to read it aloud.
To whoever may find this,
Please take this note to Lady Mayor Kreeahlka of Quatha Vellar Shipyard in Hearthspace, or to Tyfelian of Embimura, commanding the starship Elnamerrna, if he is still alive.
There were twenty of us from the crew of the Elnamerrna abducted and thrown by force through one of this artifact's magical archways. The interlopers were drow, almost certainly from Elendraspace. They used magic or magical devices to impersonate us and infiltrate the Elnamerrna for some unknown reason. We do not know what became of the Elnamerrna and the others, for they were gone by the time we awakened on the planet Krynn, in the Khur Desert by our kender cleric's words.
We cannot remain on this moon, since we found no food or water. We did find the Elendran ship—it is nearby, hidden behind some trees that have been turned to stone—and we fully stocked up from its larder, but we will now go to the Khur Desert on Krynn. From there, we will try to find a way off-world and meet up with Tyfelian at Quatha Vellar. From Khur, we will go to Kendermore and from there to Palanthas or Mount Nevermind, in our search for a way off the planet.
Should you follow, beware of the artifact. It is weakening fast, and may even now be unusable. I am no authority on magic, but I venture to guess that it may not work for more than one more use of its portals. It is so very old, it's amazing that it still works at all. We seriously wonder whether it will let us go to Krynn to escape, but we are going to try. If our bones are not here, it let us go back to Krynn or killed us in the attempt.
If it allows you to come, I've given you our agenda. If not, please come for us on Krynn. We will leave an obvious trail for you to follow if possible.
Tyfelian—if somehow it is you who finds this, it wasn't your fault. I do not know what became of you, but if you got away somehow, come find us. We'll be watching. May we meet again, Fearless Leader.
Best regards to any rescuer,
Anna Lyselntri of Talgethia, late of the starship Elnamerrna of Hearthspace
Rainmonth 14th, 2461 E. Y.
Tyfelian rolled the letter up, put it back, put the scroll tube in his pocket, and then sprang into action.
"Tash, Alzja—get this thing working," he told them. "They're weeks ahead of us, but they're on foot. We'll have the ship."
The two drow ladies hurriedly set to work. Presently, they had the artifact activated, but its magic had diminished, that seemed clear. The golden column sluggishly fell from the "cap" of the device, and the answering outlines of light in the arches looked rather dim. The outline in one of them brightened at a very slow rate, though, so Tyfelian eyed it hopefully.
The crew approached as they watched.
"We found the Elendran ship," Sildara said to Tyfelian.
"Can you shrink it, Alzja?" Kiran asked.
"Yes," she replied. Her smirk widened a bit as she moved away from them. "I'll get it."
"Sildara, take your group and go with her," Tyfelian ordered. "No one is to be alone on this rock."
"Seems quiet to me," Alzja argued.
"Unknown dangers might still lurk," Sildara pointed out for her benefit. "Dangers that have nothing to do with the Elendrans."
Alzja could not but agree, so they set off together.
Tyfelian kept watch on the arch. The brightness of the radiances in the other arches had diminished to almost nothing, but in this one—the same one that Jalaysa had accidentally used to see the demon lord but which Fing had reset to show Krynn's Khur Desert—the luminescence kept getting brighter, back toward the intensity Tyfelian remembered.
He hoped that this one arch had withstood the eons better and would operate just one last time.
"Come on, work..." Tyfelian said to it. "It would be nice if it let us come back, also," he commented to Kiran, "but I'd sail for three months out of the Inner Prime for a chance to get our people back."
Kiran nodded agreement.
Alzja and Sildara's team came back only minutes later. Alzja carried the shrunken Elendran wolfspider with her. Tyfelian and the others noted their approach but said nothing, tensely waiting for the arch to stabilize, if it would.
"Bright enough?" Tyfelian asked Tash.
"I'd say so," she said. "Try it."
"Krynnspace, Krynn, Ansalon, Khur Desert," Tyfelian said to the device.
The view shifted obediently, but it didn't look right.
"Not much color," Alzja observed. "All washed out."
Tash's eyes narrowed as she appraised the appearance, but Tyfelian had another thought. He looked around until he found a good throwing rock. This he threw into the arch with all of his strength.
The rock shimmered through the magical gateway and flew a short distance into the Khur Desert, then clattered down to land softly—and unharmed.
"I'll go first," Tyfelian told them as he pulled a coil of rope from his backpack. "If I keep walking away, it means I'm all right. If not, drag me back," he finished. He tied the rope around his chest like a harness and handed the other end to Kiran.
The paladin paid out the rope steadily as Tyfelian bravely walked through the arch. It shimmered and flickered with his passage but did not threaten to collapse.
Then he stood in the Khur Desert. Disoriented, he swayed, and Kiran nearly pulled on the rope to yank him back, but then he rallied and walked forward with a firm step. He walked past the rock he had thrown from another world and beckoned them through.
"In case this thing can cast an illusion that he's all right, take this," Kiran said to Sildara as he gave her the rope. "Watch me."
Kiran stepped through the arch, with the same results as Tyfelian. The remaining crewmen saw them exchange tentative smiles. Then, they saw the ones on the other side wave them on through the arch.
Sildara went next, followed by Menlina, then several of the general crew. The five Listraeean warrior-wizards went next, then more of the crew.
Finally, only one crewman still stood amid the ruins of someone's ancient dream. Lazzanuz, one of the six hurwaeti, stood alone there, holding Tyfelian's rope in her hands. On the other side, Chalizon waggled a finger at her.
"May the gods watch over us," Lazzanuz murmured as she walked into the archway.
Krynn, Ansalon, city of Sanction
Twenty Elnamerrna crewmen and one Silvanesti elf ambassador, imprisoned
Firstsummer 7th, 2461 EY or Fifthmonth 23rd, 357 AC
Anna's elbow whirled around and crunched hard into the jaw of the man who would have taken her against her will, but who now bitterly regretted trying it. Anna was good—he felt stunned, hurt, and his mouth and nose bled freely.
He was far from finished, though, and his heavy fist swung out to slug Anna. The human lady ducked, then her fist rammed his belly.
"Oof," the would-be mauler gasped, but then Anna grabbed his arms and pinned him to the wall, where she proceeded to beat him to death.
This weighed on her conscience horribly. Every moral fiber in her heart twanged a false note at her actions as her hands and feet literally pounded the life out of the man, but she knew that it was he, or she.
Not both.
Either.
She would have been merciful and stabbed him through the heart, but, cautious due to the outcomes of previous attempts on Anna that he had seen, he had entered her cell unarmed.
When the foul business was complete, Anna dragged the corpse to the door and yelled to the guards outside.
"Guards! Take him away," she snarled. She was angry at both the treatment and her being coerced into killing men. She hated it, but there was no other way for her to defend her honor. The jail rules under Gagangis held that she had to kill him for his unwanted advances, for if she did not, he could call for her execution for striking him.
Even worse, this man was the third in one day to have tried it.
Anna clenched her teeth with rage. She did not believe that rapists should face a death penalty (though she did believe that their proper punishments should be very harsh), so it infuriated her that she had to kill these men.
The guards opened the door—with weapons drawn, for they felt leery of Anna's unarmed combat skills—and dragged the body out of her cell.
"What will it take to make the point?" Anna muttered angrily. "For the gods' sakes, Gagangis, declare us off-limits. That man and the two before him won't be the last, and the others can hold their own, too!"
She sat down on the bare floor to take what rest she could before her next assailant barged into the cell. A short time later, she found that she would have no such luck as to be declared off-limits, for her next attacker opened the door.
Anna looked up, ready to defend herself, but it was Gagangis himself, not one of his men.
Still on guard, Anna watched him.
"Hello," the guard master said with a friendly smile. "I hear you've been fighting off your suitors quite well."
Anna made no response to the degrading statement.
"I can't let you keep killing my guards," Gagangis said, "so I'm here to strike a deal with you."
"Oh?" Anna feigned interest. "Like what?"
"May I sit with you?" he asked with transparent, false politeness.
Anna nearly laughed. He ran the whole place, so he had no need to ask.
"No," she replied, just to irk him.
"I won't touch you, I promise," Gagangis said with sarcastic sincerity, sitting down despite her refusal. Anna turned and moved away from him, watching his every move carefully.
Gagangis looked upon her thoughtfully.
"I need to tell you something before I make my offer," he said. "You and your friends are to be sacrificed to The Master in a few days."
"You said we'd be set free in time—"
"A change of plans," Gagangis waved it off with an irritated expression. "New orders. Never mind that, though. I'm attracted to you in particular, Anna. If you would let me be with you without a fight, I'll let you and your friends go when I'm allowed to, and cancel the sacrifice."
Anna shook her head.
"I cannot trust you to honor your word," she noted. Though she would have made that sacrifice to save her friends, she refused because she truly didn't believe a word he said.
"Fair enough," he murmured. "How about if I let your friends go, on your word that you will come back to me after you see them outside Sanction?"
"No," she replied. "An illusion could make it look like they've left when they haven't."
That surprised Gagangis, clearly showing that he hadn't thought of it.
"You're not overly imaginative," Anna thought to him.
Gagangis mused for a moment, then he stood and moved over to the other side of her cell. There, he removed his weapons belt and armor, and stood before Anna naked, though he still held a dagger.
"On your word that you will honor our agreement, you may hold this dagger while we're together, and I'll be your hostage for your friends' release until you are all outside Sanction."
He held the dagger out to Anna, hilt first, but she did not take the weapon.
"Same problem," she stated. "Illusions can make me think I'm seeing anything."
Gagangis grunted with disappointment. Anna's observation had been right on the mark—he wasn't especially creative, and he had run out of ideas.
"Very well, then—you die," he told her, absently starting to play with the dagger. "However, if you would let me hold you and kiss you for a few minutes, I'll make sure that you all die fast and without pain."
He held out the dagger again, and Anna took it this time.
"All right," Anna granted. She did not believe him, but it was worth trying.
Gagangis embraced Anna. She grimaced with revulsion, but then she eased down when the evil man didn't do anything more than what he'd said. He even kissed her fairly gently, evidently wanting to make her enjoy it.
She didn't.
His lips left hers slowly, then he took the dagger away from her and hugged her again briefly. Then he redressed, turned on his heel and left her cell.
Anna felt puzzled by what he had done, but then it dawned on her what it all meant. She had enough experience with men to recognize a crush. Gagangis liked her and wanted to be with her with her consent, not by force—but he was not above trying for her consent by coercion or bribery. It had merely been his twisted version of gentleness.
No doubt, he thought he loved her, but Anna knew better. The type of person Gagangis was could not be capable of true love... though infatuation could happen, even so.
She snorted softly. Some evil people had a measure of humanity in them after all...
... but she never would have believed it if she hadn't seen it, and felt the man's longing kisses for herself. Evil people just didn't normally act that way, as far as she knew.
"Live and learn," she whispered to herself, but then her expression soured. It would, she realized, be the last object lesson in the behavior of villains she would ever learn.
"Damn it all," Anna cursed very softly. "Tyfelian, this would be a good time. Come through that door, Fearless Leader. Get us out!"
Krynn, the Khur Desert
Elnamerrna crew
Firstsummer 7th, 2461 EY or Fifthmonth 23rd, 357 AC
Lazzanuz gingerly walked through the portal to Krynn.
Dizziness washed over her, but it passed quickly and she recovered her wits standing on the bizarre, sandy rock desert of Khur. Lazzanuz looked around, intrigued despite considerable experience with alien landscapes.
After he saw his last crewman safely through the passage, Tyfelian, looked around quickly. Seeing nothing of note beyond the very unusual lands all around, he called to Kreg.
"Kreg, Tash—the Elnamerrna, quickly," he told them. He had little hope that he could track the missing crewmen, for the ground was too rocky and the ever-shifting sand offered no clues, but he knew from Anna's note where they had gone.
Kendermore.
Tash expanded the ship and Tyfelian hurried them aboard. He told Alzja to take a quick side-trip to the cargo bay to drop off the shrunken wolfspider, but he went to the bridge with alacrity.
He turned the helm's voice horn to Shipwide.
"All hands, take your positions," he told them. He drew forth a rolled-up map, unrolled it, and handed it to Tash at navigation.
It was a map of Ansalon, drawn years before by Tyfelian's hand, while looking at the continent from far above in a dwarven citadel.
"We're here, give or take," he said, pointing out the Khur Desert. "Take us to Kendermore."
Tash began to plot the course.
"Helm?" Tyfelian called.
"Helm's coming back up," Jalaysa responded.
"Launch as soon as the sail crews are ready."
"East, helm," Tash cued. "Just south of due, within heavy forest."
Jalaysa felt the sails firm up as the crewmen took hold of the bars that controlled them, then the helm filled her with the Elnamerrna's presence.
The Silver Triop rose from Khur.
"Climbing," Jalaysa noted. "Charting course for Kendermore."
Tyfelian eased the outeye downward a bit. He watched as they overflew the land that his absent friends had walked—had to have, if they'd made it as far as the kender homeland.
Khur looked very strange from above, with massive curls of coral reef formations—they couldn't be anything else, Tyfelian felt sure—rising from rough, broken rock covered lightly with sand. Tyfelian shook his head, figuring that he was looking at one result of the Cataclysm, that world-shaking event that had afflicted Krynn several centuries earlier.
The Elnamerrna shot eastward like a silver dragon in the light of Krynn's sun. She blazed across Balifor and crossed into the air above Goodlund, where lay Kendermore.
"Could they have made it to Kendermore by now?" Tyfelian asked Kiran.
"Yes," Kiran replied. "In fact, they probably got there weeks ago, but I doubt they stayed put. They're long gone, but it's a good place to start asking questions."
Reassured on his agenda by independent reasoning, Tyfelian watched the outeye. The tremendous forests of Goodlund seemed to stretch on forever, even from the air, but then he spotted a large cleared area that could only be Kendermore.
"Put us down near the city, but not in it," Tyfelian told Jalaysa. "I'll take a small group into Kendermore and ask around, to see what we come up with here."
Jalaysa nodded and called cues to the steering crew for a starboard turn. The Elnamerrna gracefully arced around Kendermore at a discreet distance, then Jalaysa found a landing spot that suited her—a large clearing within Goodlund's dense woods. She settled the ship down on the far side of the clearing, away from Kendermore.
"Bridge, crow's nest," Lygalliz called down.
"Bridge, Tyfelian."
"I can't see Kendermore now, but by my last sighting, we're sitting about two thousand yards southwest of the outskirts of town."
"All right," Tyfelian said. "Can you see any kenders? We shouldn't let them spot us, or we'll never be able to leave, I'm afraid," he laughed.
Lygalliz did not answer immediately, but Tyfelian could imagine the hurwaet putting the spyglass to his eye and checking the woods.
"No, I see no one at all, but that won't last."
"Then we'll hurry." Tyfelian clicked the voice horn off. "Kiran, get the command crew together and—" his confidence faded a little—"bring Fing along to guide us."
Kiran fought back an amused smile at Tyfelian's expense, and then left the bridge.
Tyfelian gazed at the outeye thoughtfully for a moment, then he left as well, with Tash and Alzja in tow.
"Let's go find out what the kenders know," he said.
A short time afterward, Tyfelian, Kiran, Alzja, Tash, Trula, Jaclyn, Sildara, and an extremely eager Fing strolled into Kendermore.
Tyfelian checked his weapons and kept a firm grip on them. He had brought no money, not into a kender city. The others likewise kept close watch on their belongings and walked forward with confidence.
Tyfelian did slow down once, though, after glancing at his psion defense officer.
"Jaclyn, something wrong?" he asked her. "Your eyes look a little glassy."
"It's nothing," she shrugged. "Just a bit of a headache."
The half-drow looked her over curiously.
"You let me know if it gets any worse," he said, unquestionably an order.
They walked on and soon found one of Kendermore's winding streets.
Tyfelian steeled himself for the usual reaction to a party that included drow—that is to say, panic. To his surprise, he and his team walked down their first street in Kendermore without any incidents more menacing than a hearty smile from a kender backed by a puzzled look—the kind of look that screams out that the person isn't sure exactly what he or she is seeing.
"I'd expect them to run away from us full-tilt," Kiran said to him.
"I don't understand, eith-... oh, I remember now," Tyfelian laughed. "We're in luck—there are no drow on Krynn, if I remember right."
"There aren't," Fing smiled widely, "as far as I know. The ancient elf wars here were good elves against good elves..." she paused and her smile slipped badly. "I know that sounds dreadful, but it's true. Anyway, if there really are Krynnish drow, they've never come up to the surface. Maybe they slave for Reorx at the world's core."
The entire party got a laugh out of that.
"That's a blessing to this world, actually," Kiran said as he stopped laughing. "No offense," he added to Tyfelian, Tash, Sildara, and Alzja.
"None taken," Tyfelian laughed. His expression went serious quickly, though.
"I wonder what Krynn drow would be like, if there are any," he commented.
"They'd have to be living thousands of miles underground," Tash said, "at least here on Ansalon." The blond drow began to laugh again. "Fing's joke about the world's core isn't far off the mark, I'm afraid."
"Good," Tyfelian smiled back. "This world can do without one more force for evil," he commented, remembering Fing's stories. "Besides, kenders don't know fear," he told Kiran softly. "Even if they knew all about drow, they'd be fascinated, not scared."
The paladin just chuckled.
Then he put the line of thought out of his mind, for they had pressing business here. The half-drow started looking for kenders to question. He found a likely prospect in the person of an older kender man ambling down the street in their direction, leading a child kender. To Tyfelian, the man looked ancient, but he recalled that kenders developed pronounced wrinkles at relatively young ages.
"Fing, let's talk to that one," he called to his admirer, pointing the man out to her.
Fing nodded and skipped gaily over to the man. He looked up at her and waved, though by his expression he did not know her.
"Pardon me, good sir," Fing said, her tone warm but not intimate. Tyfelian reflected that this was one of Fing's most endearing qualities, compared to other kenders he'd met. Her voice was not shrill. It was smooth, rolling, low-pitched for a woman—and that constituted one of the few ways that the kender cleric did not drive Tyfelian stark raving mad.
When the kender man looked at her, Fing went on.
"We're looking for some friends of ours. There are twenty of them, mostly human, and all of them wear armor and have swords. Have you by any chance seen them about?"
Tyfelian frowned with puzzlement. He had asked Fing to talk to the man because she was a kender—and the only crewmember that could speak Kenderspeak. Still, she had spoken to the man in Embimuran.
Even more confusing, it seemed that he understood. Tyfelian reacted to this with such intrigue and surprise that he almost missed the exact content of his answer.
The language that the kender used in response also didn't help matters any.
"Why yes, I did," the kender man replied, in fine Embimuran. "They passed through here just a week or so ago, and talked to Kronin while he was here, and I heard Kronin talking about them later. He thought it was strange that they talked to him in really good Kenderspeak. They even talked to each other in our language. Isn't that funny?" He giggled. "Learned it from you, did they?"
"Sure," Fing said unconvincingly, confused—for as far as she knew, only she, among the Silver Triop's crew, knew Kenderspeak. She did know for certain that she had not taught her first language to any of them.
She let the question lie, though, for she hadn't yet reached her point.
"Do you know where they went?"
"They flew off on griffons with the elf," the kender told her. "I heard tell they were going to Palanthas."
Fing's eyebrows arched and she smiled. "Thanks, fellow," she murmured to the man as she turned away from him politely.
As she came back to him, she noted the love of her life looking after the kender man thoughtfully. The others also looked curious about something.
"What's wrong?" she asked the half-drow, slipping her hand into his.
Tyfelian let her hold his hand, too distracted to notice.
"Why did you talk with him in Embimuran, Fing?" he asked curiously.
"I didn't," she replied with confusion. "I spoke Kenderspeak, and so did he."
"I heard Stellar Common," Jalaysa said, struggling to figure it out.
"No, they spoke Drowic," Alzja cut into the conversation.
"I heard Embimuran, too, for sure," Trula stated.
Alzja raised an eyebrow. "I heard you two talking together in Drowic earlier," she said to Kiran and Tyfelian, "but I thought maybe you wanted to learn it," she said to Kiran.
"No," the human replied. "I don't know Drowic. Just a little of the sign language."
"You just now spoke it," Alzja said in Drowic, "and I'm speaking Drowic."
"Not to my ears," Jaclyn said. She had started talking rather suddenly, as though coming out of a daydream. "You just spoke Embimuran, and I don't see the bad lip timing of a translation spell. If I hadn't heard that kender speaking Embimuran, I'd think you were pulling a joke on us."
Alzja blinked.
"No. That's Fing's specialty," she replied, and the kender giggled.
"It must have something to do with that artifact on the dead moon," Tash interjected.
"Indeed," Tyfelian said. "So much for language barriers, at least for a while." He said it distractedly, for he was looking at Jaclyn with concern. She seemed to be having trouble keeping her mind on the matters at hand.
"If all goes well, we won't be here long," Kiran said hopefully. "Not so long for the effect to wear off."
"Yes," Tyfelian said softly. He wanted to question Jaclyn again, but he suddenly realized that he was holding hands with his kender cleric admirer, because several team members—including unlikely ones like Sildara and Kiran—were trying hard not to look at them.
They were also trying to suppress or hide looks of great amusement, rather unsuccessfully, and this was what had tipped off distracted Tyfelian.
More annoyed than embarrassed, Tyfelian tried to tug his hand out of Fing's, but she resisted his withdrawal successfully and looked up at him.
Again distracted—this time by the intense look in her eyes—he didn't immediately try again to disengage his hand, for she had something to say.
"We're getting somewhere here," she said encouragingly. "Keep trying... you'll find them."
Before he could think better of it, he nodded slightly and smiled in a comradely way at her—a mistake, for it thrilled the lady kender like mad and her heart poured out of her eyes to him.
"Palanthas," Tyfelian thought out loud, yanking his hand from hers with more determination, trying to get her to stop. "Palanthas..." he pulled out one of the few items he had brought along, a scroll tube containing his map of Ansalon.
After looking it over for a moment, he said, "It's a long way from here, but they've probably made it there by now."
He tried to guess their flight path, but he could not—his map, though beautiful and very detailed, was purely topographical. His limited knowledge of Ansalon's politics and recent history hardly clued him in on what places they might change course to avoid. He knew only that, not many years back, this continent had resisted an effort by an army of evil—with dragons!—to take it over entirely. Even that knowledge largely came from Fing's stories, half of which Tyfelian didn't believe.
The half-drow realized, to his chagrin, that he had only one resource to turn to for answers about their path.
Fing herself.
He sighed and waved to her for her attention.
"Yes?" Fing asked eagerly as he showed her his map.
"In a flight from Kendermore to Palanthas, what path would they fly?"
Fing peered at the map for a moment, and then her tiny first finger traced a route starting at Kendermore. It began as a straight beeline toward Palanthas—roughly northwest—but then her finger swerved northeast against the map.
"They'd not fly over the Khalkist Mountains," she said. "Sanction and Neraka are there."
Tyfelian started to ask her what those places were, but he held his tongue. She would talk for an hour or more, relating stories she had tucked away in her fine memory, and worse, Tyfelian and the entire team would enjoy it. Fing was a master storyteller and her soothing, entrancing voice could probably mesmerize anybody but a rampaging tanar'ri.
"And maybe even one of those fiends," Tyfelian thought. He would not have placed a large wager against it.
"They'd fly north of the Khalkists, then across the Dargaard Mountains, and then steady on to Palanthas," Fing went on, shrugging. "I figure they've made it there, and they're trying to find a way off-world."
"Let's hope they haven't found a starship there," Tyfelian said. "If they haven't, we'll catch them."
Fing rolled up the map, slicked it back into its tube, and then started to stuff it into one of her belt pouches.
Tyfelian cleared his throat noisily, reaching for the map.
"Mm!" Fing murmured, handing the map back without apology. Tyfelian glared at her but made no comment.
He raised his voice. "We found out what we came here for," he said. "Let's get back to the ship." He guessed Fing's reaction before she even said a word, though he noticed her crestfallen expression.
"We can come back here so you can visit your homeland later on. Right now, we have work to do," he said to her more quietly as he led his team back whence they had come.
"Okay," the kender cleric replied, her mood brightening. She fell into step beside the half-drow and Kiran.
