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[Jon Potter]

"Great... swallowed by a cloud!!" Noxin grumbled as he turned in a circle, greathammer at the ready, searching the area all around for some clue as to what was happening. There was little to see apart from the clouds rolling ever closer.

"Perhaps the sword knows something?" Saelus suggested and Morier raised the sabre in his hand. It was just a sword now, he sensed; whatever spark of life it had possessed before freeing the Heart had been spent in the process leaving just unthinking metal behind.

"No," he said, his eyes never leaving the floating gemstone as he absently dropped the weapon at his side. "Its intelligence is gone."

"Well we sure started somethin' here," Noxin said, anxiously. "Let's grab the gem and start thinkin' about finding a way out before we get swallowed up!" He started for the glowing ruby, but Morier was closer and the albino stepped forward and clutched it in two hands before the half-giant could take a second step.

Time then seemed to stop for the eldritch warrior. The instant of contact with the gem stretched out impossibly, and in that dilated moment, every second that had passed since he'd entered the Grove of Renewal was played out before him in the heart of the stone. It was like he had been born that day, as if nothing he had done before then was important.

What had previously seemed a random set of encounters with a constantly chaging cast of characters suddenly became a clear picture. Every second organized, planned, and carried out with meticulous efficiency. Madness was replaced with clarity. Every soul had been sent to do his or her part, each marking a moment that allowed the next step to be taken. The roles could well have been reversed. It could just as easily have been he who had sacrificed to put someone else in this moment... at this place and this time.

Images of people from the past streamed across the stone's roseate surface now, some nameless faces, some far more familiar. Even those that seemed strangers at first were quickly connected now to names he had heard spoken; Kirnoth, Finian, Soriah... all had passed on before he joined the group, but somehow they all looked familiar and provided him a somewhat unexpected sense of comfort at this moment. Transient faces like Windstryder, Bisayo, and Grisham who had been with the group for what seemed like an instant before disappearing, now smiled and greeted him like old friends. Vade, Feln, Lela, Ixin... none of this would have happened, he knew, without their sacrifice.

Ledare now stood before him and he lowered his head in reverence. It was her devotion to this cause that had made him come along with the group in the first place. Their paths had intersected more than once in this lifetime, maybe for a reason. He lifted his head and her image was at once replaced by the figures of Shamalin, Ayremac, and Karak. They had been among the tiny handful of people he would have called friends. Then the old Ahlear that he remembered from Hillville Junction appeared... not the strange, petrified, cloth wrapped stranger that he seemed to have become in the end... and that image faded just as quickly. Huzair then turned to face him, cigar jutting from his clenched teeth. His was the only image to speak.

"I was always going to be the hero, my friend. You knew that, didn't you? Come on, it was inevitable," the wizard chuckled. "Nominate me for sainthood or something, would ya? It's the least you could do. And, hey, remember me fondly to the old man next time you see him. Tell him I did good."

And then they vanished. He felt small... physically... emotionally... spiritually.

"I am with you," a woman said and time lurched back into motion.

The gem was gone!

But at the same time, it wasn't. Morier touched his chest, feeling the shape of the gemstone beneath his chain shirt... half-embedded in his chest. Oddly, this did not bring any feeling of alarm to the albino. In fact it brought him a sense of comfort and warmth - "I am with you" - that he couldn't quite explain.

"Come on, Morier!" Noxin urged. "This place is goin' fast!"

Morier looked around and saw that the clouds were closing in on all sides. The three of them stood in the middle of a circle that was maybe fifty feet across and shrinking fast. This didn't really concern him too much.

"Don't worry," the eldritch warrior said, grinning slightly as the clouds closed in.

"Don't worry!?" Noxin yelled, brandishing his hammer as if he might smite the clouds into retreat. "I'd say this was a damned fine time to start worryin'!"

"If you're going to pull a miracle out of the air, now would be a good time to do so," the Colonel admitted, sparing a glance at Morier.

The elf just smiled as the clouds closed in.



And then they were floating in a void.

No... not quite a void, there were monumental cloud formations in the silvery distance and multi-colored lights twinkled here and there like stars. But it was quite empty nonetheless.

"What the-?" Noxin said, dumbfounded. Colonel Saelus looked around and made an assessment.

"We're on the Astral Plane," he said.