Episode 1

Getting herself together after the rough foreign language interchange with Rutcranna, Rhone approaches Kray and speaks quietly to him while the other chaos and noise reigns throughout the echoing chamber.

Thorn's strikes with Urdav's greatsword are devastating.

Doirind eyes Bryn as he asks the question. She moves closer to the Throne and stands before Rutcranna, still 15 feet or so away.

After studying Rutcranna for a time, Dorind speaks, "Rutcranna? What is next? Those fish are still dangerous. Can the door be opened? Can we get Boann, Muirne, and Aisling free?"

Rutcranna turns and glares at Doirind. Her face is menacing.

Kray addressed Doirind. "Perhaps it is not safe to open the door yet." He gestured toward the battle all around. "No doubt her attention must be, at the very least, distracted."

Standing directly opposite Rutcranna now, Kray observed for a few moments then spoke, almost calling to the witch on the throne. "Rutcranna..." At that he stopped, silent, his gaze fixed directly on Rutcranna's eyes.


NOTE UNLOCKED
Kray had surmised at this point that the Witch on the Throne might be able to hear his thoughts, as it had seemed on Old Island when she 'heard' him saying the name Ithaqua repeatedly. As such, he strove to have a more private 'conversation' with her.

"Rutcranna... I know you can hear me. If the time is right... I'll assume you are able... open the door. Together we've gotten this far..."

He stopped for a moment. Lost in thought. Then some sort of instinct seemed to take hold.

"We have a deal. One where we spoke plainly. I said my men and I would help you get here. We also spoke of your daughter's safety, and the crossroads in time that is the present... where we would decide together to continue as ally or foe... whether I would deliver Sorcha to Nemes, or not."

One last moment of reflection and forethought before he continued.

"Rutcranna. Open the door and you have my word, on the souls of every living and dead Mercon, that Sorcha Rhone will not be delivered to Nemes Zaituc."

NOTE UNLOCKED.

Kray moves next to Doirind, standing before the Throne on the lower ground level. He only says Rutcranna's name and then stops.

Rutcranna, previously glaring at Doirind, snaps her attention over to Kray. She conveys to him the same scowl at first.

But then...her stern face seems to melt. For a moment, Rutcranna looks at Kray as if she is surprised, or is seeing someone unexpected. Then she drops her gaze down, and to the left, and breathes deeply. It seems that she is thinking something over.

She looks back at Kray. Straight into his eyes. Then she looks calmly over her shoulder, very slightly. And then back down. She seems lost in thought now. Confused? Exhausted? It is not clear.

In the background, the battle is completely over now.

The Deep Ones all stand enthralled. They whisper for a bit, but then stop gradually. Now there is only silence from them, and little motion at all.

They look at the Throne, waiting perhaps for some action from the woman who sits upon it.

As Maeriks walks outward toward the south end of the room. The Ulathi stare at him also. All of them move out of his path and watch him. They seem in wonder of him as well.

Rutcranna looks back up at Kray. Her eyes, do they betray that she is close to saying something to him?

....

When Maeriks speaks the foreign language to the Ulathi who hold the women as captives, the creatures seem shocked. They drop their hold on the ropes almost immediately. They hold their weapons limply at their sides and back away, staring at Maeriks with their black bulging eyes. Though their expressions are hard to read because of their nature and deformity, it is clear that they are dumbfounded.

Boann quickly jerks free from the Ulathi even as it withdraws voluntarily.

"Maeriks!" she says, looking at him wide-eyed as she takes the rope off of her neck without delay. Muirne and Aisling look around cautiously as the Ulathi back away from them.

Then Maeriks speaks aloud in Dannein to Boann, loud enough for others in the room to hear, ...
Boann's initial elation changes quickly to confusion. As Maeriks continues to speak, the expression on her face changes to shock, anger,... and fear.

Boann gives Maeriks a terrible stare, one of betrayal. And then she tears away from him, moving quickly but fearfully through the Ultahi to join with the others in the center of the room. "Come along, girls. Now!" she yells back to Muirne and Aisling.

Aisling quickly follows Boann, running quickly behind her.

Muirne does not make any move to follow them. She stays there with Maeriks. She walks up to him. Quietly, with a shaking voice, "Will we have a place to stay? Somewhere safe?"


....

Rutcranna's body tenses again. She stands up.

She looks at Kray. Looks out across the room at Maeriks. Then she closes her eyes, tilts her head to the side and down.

The sound of grinding and rumbling carries through the entire room. The sound of heavy stone scraping against heavy stone. It is coming from the north passage - the hall that leads to the Cube Door. A slow scraping loud grind.

Rutcranna opens her eyes and looks back to Kray. A soft blank look.

Then her face hardens again. She glares at him and Doirind.

Then she looks outward to Maeriks again. A proud and defiant look sets in on her face. Her body languages changes again. No longer indecisive, she settles into a stance of might and certainty.

With a bold voice that carries, she speaks out in the foreign language...

Then she turns again to scan the crowd close to her: Kray, Doirind, Rhone and the other girls nearby, Bryn off to the side.

Doirind is already edgy, and hearing Maeriks speak from a distance, seeing Boann and Aisling run in, she looks back and forth with increasing worry. She grips her drusus in hand and it is clear that she is raising it up as a guard.

"What did he say?!" she shouts out to Boann in a confused voice.

Boann's expression shows that she shares the fear, "He's gone mad," is all she says as she comes in to take hold of the other girls gathered together.

"Ivor!" Doirind shouts out. "Set, you bull!" "This is the language that you speak, is it not?," Rutcranna asks in Dannein, speaking to the close crowd, but mainly looking at Doirind and Kray. She is still standing with the Throne behind her.

"Understand this then, when I say ... To threaten me is TO DIE!!"

Doirind is thrown backwards, lifted in the air off of her feet, and then slammed into the stone floor. She lets out a heave of pain as she crashes down hard, the wind knocked from her lungs. He head hits the floor hard.

No one is around her. She was thrown by an invisible force.

"NOOOOO!!!!" Rhone yells. The little girl tears away from the others and runs to Doirind lying on the ground.

Kray feels his body snatched up in an unseen force. It is like bands of leather are strapping around him all at once. He cannot move. His arms involuntarily extend out to his sides. He is lifted into the air. The others see him floating about a foot off of the ground. Paralyzed.

Kneeling on the ground next to Doirind, Rhone looks back to see what is happening to Kray.

"MOTHER, STOP!! STOP IT!!"

The slow grinding rumble from the north hallway continues.

NOTE UNLOCKED.

The image fills Kray's mind. It is real. He can see it. Mayenel. His wife.
And behind her - Ithaqua.

She has been running. The Ancient One, The Windwalker is close to claiming her now though. She has evaded for years. Hiding. Moving. Running.

She is exhausted though.

She cannot last much longer.

But she dodges again. Barely this time. Narrowly escapes his claws. She runs through the forest, back to the hiding place. Come daughter, we must flee again now.

The girl is exhausted too. Even more so. She has almost nothing left. She has run for 10 years. There is nothing left.

Without a second thought, Mayenel picks up her daughter in her arms. The girl is only a shell now, so emaciated. But to Mayenel, she is heavy.

But that cannot matter. She runs all the same. Through the forest. Now through the rock lands.

The Beast is behind her. She can smell it.

She cannot move fast enough. Her legs are like stone blocks. This is the end, she thinks.

If she can only endure long enough. Lucreides may be able to escape. The Beast wants to devour him, but if Mayenel can evade, then Lucreides can keep fighting and not be harvested in the wind. Someday maybe he will be able to find them and save them.

She makes a turn around a rock, into a cave. She is in a hallway now. She has not seen this place before. Maybe they can hide here.

The hall opens into a circular room.

There is a bright light in the middle. Shining like stars. As they dim, she sees a Throne.

There is a woman sitting there in the great chair. A dark-haired woman.

"Go on," the woman says. "You must keep going, but not for much longer. You can rest soon."

Mayenel looks back. She finds it hard to believe, but she is so tired now. Could there be rest?

"Who are you?" she asks the woman on the Throne.

With no answer forthcoming from the woman, Mayenel takes a deep breath, and looks back over her shoulder again. "There is a Beast. An Ancient One..."

"I know your husband. I will help you and your family."

Mayenel smiles. She cannot help it. She starts to cry.

"You have seen him?!" She cannot hide her elation. Cautiously, meekly she asks, "Does he remember us?"

The woman does not answer. "I will only speak with him once more. What would you ask him?"

Mayenel smiles. She does not have to think long before answering. "I have called her Cera in these times," She looks down to the girl in her arms. "But what name would he give his daughter?"


NOTE UNLOCKED