Onestar was up before first light. He ate a small repast, drank little water, and prepared his swords. These were the Swords of the Samurai, a gift from the Lord Monitor when they last met. A matched pair, they were balanced specifically for the warrior.
The blades were Cobalt Blue, and naturally enchanted. Lord Monitor had a liking of magical things, and enjoyed creating magical items even more. Onestar rarely used these magical blades, preferring to take them on ceremonial events only.
The samurai began the move inland. Carefully, he entered the jungle-like growth of trees, shrubs and plant life. He moved with grace and stealth, avoiding traps laid the previous day.
He made his way toward the center of the island. Strange, the samurai thought, that there were no guards surrounding the encampment. It was a trap, Onestar knew, but one he must enter.
Making his way through the last of the trees, Onestar entered a clearing and stopped dead in his tracks.
"No."
Onestar looked around him and was amazed. The clearing was huge, larger than the island itself should have been. Ahead of him, approximately 100 yards in front of him was a decaying fortress-temple to a god that did not exist within this sphere. For that matter, the god was forgotten a thousand years past in Omnispace.
"The temple of Sirinx," Onestar spoke aloud. "Impossible."
"With magic, all things are possible samurai."
Onestar drew both blades in one swoop. Something exited the temple doors and moved toward him. It was huge, with the rough shape of a man, but had a beast's head and an ass' hindquarters. The bare chest was human, but more muscular than was physically possible. The voice, Onestar knew, was unmistakable.
"Scillabba."
"Ah, you remember me," Scillabba replied, his voice more of a deep, guttural moan but one the samurai knew. A slight bow was made as the creature walked forward. "I see you came alone. Foolish. I warned you that your honor would be the death of you long ago."
"At least I am still a man," Onestar countered, entering a defensive stance. The creature stopped.
"Yes," Scillabba replied. "I am no longer a man. Karnass took me that day and cursed me to look like this. He wanted that armor of yours, samurai. He knew of it's potential, of its abilities and could unlock them far better than either of us. If I had retrieved it for him, Omni would have been mine."
Scillabba began walking, slowly, forward again. "But I failed to deliver, so he cursed me and disowned me. I made my way back to Omni, but several years passed. Times were different now. That bastard Lord Monitor was gone on some foolish mission, you were nowhere to be found, and Colicor was in power. He recognized me and offered me a job, believe it or not. All those years we were against him, and he offers me a job."
"Perhaps he recognized an ass when he saw one."
"HAH! Very funny, little samurai. Very funny!" Scillabba was now in front of Onestar. "Yes, I could see you finding humor in my plight. I planned and dreamed of the day I'd meet you again. Then the quest for artifacts arose. Colicor wants to control magic. He's a fool, but he pays well."
"I told him of your armor, and he was more than interested. He hooked me up with Vlasic and some of his new pirate pals, and we decided to start looking for you. We would have got you back on The Spectre, were it not for those damn Arcane."
Scillabba waved his arm around to the temple behind him. "Did I mention that Karnass and I made up, little samurai? Yes, he no longer seeks the armor... your spirit has tainted it... but is willing to help me slay you to take it. Which I plan to do right now. Do you have any questions before you die?"
Onestar's gaze shifted away from his opponent, to the building behind him.
"Ah, the temple? You're wondering why fight here?"
"How did you construct this temple in this small of a space?"
"HAH HAH HAH HAH!!!" Scillabba threw his head back in laughter. "Foolish samurai! You never were too swift when it came to magic! You're no longer on some tiny little island on Krynn! We didn't build a new temple!"
"This is Omni! This is the original Temple of Sirinx! There will be no one to save you, Onestar! Your friends are in another sphere!"
Onestar's eyes widened slightly in shock and anger. He had returned to the one planet he never wished to see again. He had returned to Omnispace.
Hall was headed up to the command deck to relieve Blaise. Belieth was several steps behind him, trying to continue a conversation he refused to acknowledge. As usual, he was on the losing end and didn't want to admit it.
"...So you just let him go off on his own and now you feel miserable," Belieth said.
Hall just shook his head when he reached the command chair. Blaise stood to his full height, and looked in wonder at Belieth. Her recovery was coming along wonderfully, and he knew that she had a streak of fire within her. The Arcane never knew that it could be directed at her husband.
"I relieve you, Blaise," Hall said very matter-of-factly, sitting right down.
"I stand...relieved?" Pascal replied, unsure of what's going on. "Is there a problem I should know about?"
"Nothing. How'd the watch go?" Hall asked, still not looking toward Belieth.
"Nothing!" Belieth yelled. "You just left the only man you could ever call brother down on that planet and you didn't do a thing to stop him!"
"His code of honor," Hall started, knowing that it was the wrong thing to say.
"Code of Honor," Belieth said. "If I hear you say one more thing about a code of honor, I swear I'll go through the roof."
"Might I assume," Blaise started, trying to stay as neutral as possible, "that you are still discussing Onestar's actions?"
"'Discussing' isn't the best of terms, Blaise. Getting chewed out is. Belieth thinks that I shouldn't have let him go alone."
"Going alone is going to have him end up getting killed!" Belieth cried. "We should just land the Wanderer in the bay, open up every ballistae we have, and level the place!"
Blaise's eyebrows arched up at the thought.
"Onestar would probably kill himself if we did that," Hall replied, turning to face her for the first time. "He's a big boy. He can take care of himself."
"Oh, really. Well, let me remind you what happened when you decided to take on Jamian all alone..."
Belieth's point was interrupted when Zebart came running into the bridge.
"BLAISEHALLTHEYCAN'TFINDHERANYWHERE! SHE'SGONEFROMTHESHIP ANDTHEYDON'TKNOWWHERESHEIS!"
"Zebart, calm down." Tinker Gnomes do have a tendency to talk quite fast, Blaise thought, but this one is ridiculous.
"What happened, Zebart. And keep it down to tactical speed, okay?"
"Yes, sir, Mister Hall, sir. The singer. She's gone. Poof. Vanished. No one knows wheresheisandshemissedher watchschedulesothehelmwon't workwithouther butI'dstilllove toseehowitworks NowthatOnestarisn't hereBlaisecanItake alookatit..."
"ZEBART!"
"Sorry. It's Crystal! She's not onboard the ship! No one can find her!"
"Damn!" Belieth yelled. "This has gone on long enough!"
"I think you're right," Hall replied. "Is it ready, Blaise?"
"Affirmative," Blaise said, reaching into his robes and removing a strange device, about the size of a human hand.
"What is that?"
"Remember when I said I was going to work on the nextasy helm again? I used some of the parts and attached it to the planetary locator. I've been able to narrow its field width down to people on planetary surfaces. We should be able to locate Onestar."
"Activate it," Hall ordered. "This has gone on long enough."
Blaise turned a few knobs and flipped a switch. The rose crystal glowed, and the image of Krynn formed within. For a brief second, a blip appeared on a small island near the equator.
"THERE HE IS!" Zebart yelled. Soon as he did, the blip faded from sight.
"What happened? Did the server fail?" Belieth asked.
"All systems are working fine," Blaise replied.
"Could he have died?" Hall asked, almost afraid of the answer.
"We'd pick up an afterimage. This... this looks like he's just disappeared from the planet!"
As the Eternal Wanderer was making its way to the island where Onestar had disappeared from, Hall left Blaise in charge of the ship and asked Belieth to follow him to a private "ready room" off to one side of the main shell. Belieth walked in, followed by Hall, who closed the door behind him.
"This had better be good, big guy," Belieth said, seating herself on the couch. She was still furious over Hall's decision to leave Onestar alone on the planet, despite the fact that he and Blaise appeared to be working up a solution.
Hall sat down on the couch beside Belieth and sighed heavily, looking for the right way to start.
"Would you ever go to the top of the ship and tell everyone about Tabatha?" Hall asked.
"What the hell does that have to do with this?!?" Belieth thundered. "And no, I wouldn't."
"Why would you keep Tabatha's life a secret?" Hall asked, still staying as calm as he could.
Belieth has exasperated. "Because her secrecy is what makes her so effective. If that were lost, she wouldn't be able to do what she was trained to do, which would make her miserable, and I still don't see what this has to do with Onestar."
Hall paused, re-gathering his wits. He hated arguing with Belieth, but then married life isn't always pure bliss.
"Tabatha's code is what she lives by, and Onestar has one of his own which is just as important. The code of the samurai places great emphasis on self-discipline and self-denial, which allow the samurai to focus on the way of the warrior, and become the best warrior he can be. Scillabba challenged Onestar, and Onestar believed he had the ability to defeat him. If Onestar started to fight Sclliabba and eventually died, then at least he will have met death on his terms, in fair combat. If on the other hand, he was loosing the battle and only survived because a bunch of us appeared to tip the scales, then he would have to admit that he couldn't meet the challenge."
"There is no shame in asking for help!" Belieth countered.
"For you and I, no, but for Onestar, asking for help would be admitting weakness, and that is unacceptable. He has tried all his life to become the best warrior alive. He has lost his home and much of his memory, which are also sources of a samurai's strength. His goal, his desire to be the best warrior, is the only driving force he has left. If I took that away from him, his spirit would be broken." Hall paused, taking in his own words. "I understand his code of honor, but I don't accept it. I could save his life, yes, but I would also destroy what little dignity he has left! He wouldn't be a man any longer. I can't accept that either."
Hall paused again.
"It would be Gordon and Prymalias all over again," Hall whispered.
At the mention of those two names, the anger in Belieth's face suddenly ran out, replaced by the pain of memory. Gordon Yarnof was once the leader of the Silver Osprey party. A paladin, he was strong, proud, and one of the finest warriors in Cartania's history. One day, a blue dragon came to destroy Maplegrove, and her name was Prymalias. Gordon went to fight the dragon alone. The battle was fierce, and in the end both combatants were badly wounded. A few days later Gordon set forth into the mountains to fight her again, despite Hall's insistence that he not go alone. Gordon would hear nothing of it, for his honor as a knight required him to go alone. He went into the mountains, but Hall and three other members of the party followed him in secret. When Prymalias had Gordon near death and prepared the final killing blow, Hall, Belieth, Bagath and Tiegorus suddenly appeared and killed the wyrm. Gordon survived, but without the help of others he would not have. He never showed blame or anger at those who saved him, but as time wore on he became more and more distraught. When Hall and Belieth had last seen him, before that fateful battle in Krynnspace, he was no longer Sir Gordon Yarnof, but an empty shell of a man who lived only to lead his crew, for he had no desire to live for himself.
Hall hated the prospect that he might have to do that again.
Belieth looked at the ceiling for a moment...
"But... Sclliabba isn't a dragon or regular monster. Whoever he is he has the power to move Onestar anywhere he wants," she said quietly.
"He... isn't playing fair," she finished.
"I know," Hall said, remembering what had happened to the image on the planetary locator. "I'm hoping that Onestar knows that too, especially if he does need help. There is no honor in fighting a foe you can't defeat, even by his standards. Whatever the case, we have to proceed with caution."
Hall stood up and offered his hand to Belieth. She took it and stood up as well.
"Love," she whispered, "I'm sorry I yelled at you."
"And I'm sorry I angered you," Hall answered, "but don't hesitate to yell at me again the next time I act like a damn fool."
Belieth smiled and kissed him gently.
"That's from one damn fool to another, now lets go untangle this mess," she said.
At that the pair started back for the bridge.
