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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Laurel" data-source="post: 1778421" data-attributes="member: 17067">Chapter One- "Shadows of the Past"Day Seven- Monastery of the Sacred Heart I though the night was over as we set–up camp, everything was quieting down. Miagi’s people had clustered round small fires trying to comfort each other. Archonus had gone off into the woods, making it clear that we were to stay away. And so we sat as every other night… but not. As much as I disliked Brad his… death was felt by us all. Selura the most though. We had each tried to talk to her, but she had instead taken the jeweled dagger from her belt twisting and twirling it between her fingers and hand. She looked like stone, but for those fingers moving ever faster, till “The monastery is under attack! People are hurt and need assistance! Please come! Help!” In a flash Selura runs to her horse and without a word rides it toward the hobbling screaming monk on the road way. In a quick move of surprising strength for her small body, she reaches down and pulls the larger human up behind her. As we all race for our horses, I hear Justice yelling back to Mr. Miagi that we must follow, with an almost eerie patience he calmly states that he understands and it seems a worthy task. In the back of my mind it vaguely registers that Arhconus is not in the party, but with more horses behind us and Mr. Miagi knowing where we have gone he should catch up fast… if he chooses to come.We come across Selura’s horse, rider less. The dead leaves soak the blood from the gaping wound in it’s throat. Though I slow to take a look it seems the horse lost its footing in a hole and completely broke its leg. Though the final cause of death would be the slit across it’s throat. There is no time to stop, as ahead is the resounding clank of metal on metal and Selura’s screams of anger and rage. As we clear the woods, I see all have slowed. We see a square building with few adornments. There are sweeping gardens surrounding it, and by the doorway two poles with large round red balls atop them. Selura and the monk stand to our left facing the tall grass not the building. I almost reach Edriss’ side, when I feel a stabbing pain in my back. I hear a scream and see the soft grass moving swiftly toward me. As I hit the ground, I know it was my scream. I struggle to get my right arm under me, the muscles of my left shoulder useless. Before I can do more then shift my weight, I see a shadow dart around me. I struggle to turn, to protect myself, but only feel the cold of a blade severing the skin and muscles along my left side. My hand shoots downward trying to stop the pain, as I feebly try to stand. It seems my legs will not work. As I reach to try and at least get my Kukri out, I see bloods covers my hand and arm, my own blood. So this is the end of my path, I see the world graying, and strangely Archonus leaping from the woods. He came- blackness. A slowly brightening light and a chanting voice seeming to be pull me, but to where? I feel the pain of the wounds slowly ebbing… is this the end of my mortality. If it is, one would think they would have someone with a better voice to greet you. The voice calling to me seems shaky with fear and way out of tune. I slowly open my eyes to see the human monk above me. Dirt and blood are streaked across his face, and fear glaring out from his eyes. His hands wave slowly around my head as his chanting continues...he’s a wizard. But all wizards are of the Bluestar. Evil Magic, no, Michael taught me better- This man has saved me, so not death for me yet it seems. I try to rise hearing the others speaking of more danger to come. I know I am not up to great feats, but with my bow I should be able to help from the back… thought that is were I was- another time. No time for regrets or futile what if’s now. I am thrown two healing potions from the Paladin, told to drink one and then follow. I use my staff lying next to me to push myself up slowly and drink the potion. With screams still echoing from the monastery walls, everyone turns and readies for far worse.Brad and Selura run into the monastery first; then Arfin and Justice follow them with Edriss at their back. Archonus hangs back, hopefully for his own reasons and not because he sees me as the weak link. He stays just in front of me, as I hurry to the doorway. We meet the others just inside the doorway, and I gag as an acrid odor defiles my nose. A large Minotaur sprawls bleeding on the ground with Arfin slowly working his axe out of the beasts gullet. A bright blue star is crudely painted high above the alter wall, and slowly it registers that the acrid smell is pee that has de-sanctified the alter and tapestries. Justice motions for Selura to follow her down another hallway, as Arfin and Edriss head down the other hallway. I follow Arfin and Edriss trying to follow the way of the screams, but with the stone reflecting every sound, it is hard to place where they are coming from exactly. I pass two doors without hearing anything stirring inside, but after I pass hear Arfin and Edriss breaking those very doors in. At the third door, I turn as there is some unusual noise within. With bow ready and a dwarf at my back we kick in the door. There seems to be a large purple beast, with one eye and multiple tentacles on the table eating I know not what and a creature holding its leash looking through the pantry. As the dwarf runs at the tall figure, I shot the purple beast. It’s tentacles slash and wiggle around through the air occasionally snaking out like a whip. As I try to aim for the second shot, the beast shifts… I can’t focus and get a clear shot off.Arfin falls hitting the floor hard, though his hand still tightly holds his hammer he remains unmoving. Archonus runs past me into the room. As the creature with the leash moves to strike Arfin’s form Arhconus’ long sword halts it’s advance. In a quick series, they start to spare with Arfin still lying between Arhconus feet with him weakening. Still near the door, I yell for help, not knowing where the rest of the party is. After a few moments, Edriss stands beside me quickly assessing the room. He skirts the wall dragging Arfin out of range from either beast. Then pouring one of those healing potions down his throat. Both join Archonus in attacking the troll. I continue firing at where the displacer beast seems to be located. Seeing the thicker cross bow bolts following my arrows to it’s target. Finally the troll warbles then falls over the butter churn barrel, dead. The purple beast thumps to rest on the table filled with arrows and cross-bow bolts shortly thereafter. After taking a quick look around the room for anyone or anything else, we collectively run out and into a large foyer area with two staircase leading up to a balcony. “Up!” Archonus orders, and so Arhconus and I quickly mount the steps on the right, while we see Selura and Justice racing up the stairs on the left. I hear the dwarf behind and with a glance below see Edriss coming out from below the stairs headed our way. Selura is running wildly toward the door to our right, also a point of tortured screams. Wanting to give aid, yet temper the recklessness of Selura we follow her in. As we enter we first spy a large table with a nicely embroidered table cloth and some candle sticks. But in the middle of the table lays an older woman wrapped in the robes declaring her abbess. She has blood covering her face, arms and legs secured to the table. A man in rich dark clothing stands over her. He has just placed another dagger into her body, upping the total to 8 blades. This last one goes directly inter her heart and with a fading scream she dies. At out entrance, he turns to us in surprise. The man says with a cold smile, “You should not interfere in what you don’t understand.” Jumping from the table he tips his hat running into a room in the back. The sound of a window breaking reaches us as Selura, Brad, and Edriss all give chase. As they run by two large creatures dragging their knuckles come out of the opposite back room. A tall blonde human orders the two trolls to stand down. Justice goes to try and heal the Priestess on the table, but she is too far gone. The creatures continue to move forward not heading the strangers command. At the same moment the dwarf charges toward the creature near the fireplace, I fire an arrow over his short head. After seeing the horrible slaying of an innocent woman together we kill the two evil creatures fairly quickly. We turn to the stranger again as Kareth moves quickly to stop the new guy from running out the door. For a very long moment no one says anything, then the man lifts his hand, “What are you doing here?” Archonus lifts his hand showing the tattoo that has become clean, “I am a talon for the king.” The stranger silently shows an exact mirror tattoo on his palm. “I am here under the king’s order’s, but this I never agreed to this. I was told we would be looking for something something hidden, but not this” he looks around disgusted. Kareth releases his hold on Farathier’s uniform, “Screams. Must help.”Kareth again shows the way, we leave Farathier to his fate as he did try to help us. We step out the door hearing more movement in the room directly to our right. Arfin and Arhonus put shoulder to door ripping it from the hinges. Farathier runs to the next door hand reached out to turn the knob, as I see a man dart from the third and last door in the hallway. As he runs down the hallway I yell “Stop!”, and give chase. I hear one of my companions behind me moving much faster then me, and shortly the large green form of Kareth move swiftly past me. Before I can fire the monk has pinned and knocked the figure unconscious. Keeping my bow knocked and pointed at the trolls head I ask the monk if he has everything under control, and get a quick “yes” thrown over his shoulder. Hearing whimpering to my right I reach out to open the door. Looking back I see Archonus headed straight towards me, he will be but steps behind me. I throw open the door with bow drawn, then stop horrified as I see a Minotaur blood splattered on the front of his great hairy chest and his huge axe. The walls look as if it had been raining blood for hours. In the midst of a pile of bloodied robes on the bed a slight movement catches my eye, and the whimpering gains in volume. A body wrapped only in her own blood lays trying to struggle beneath the great hand encasing her throat ever tighter. I raise my bow aiming at the smiling minators lower regions. The punishment will fit the crime.I get only one arrow off before Archonus flashes by me along the wall. The paladin swinging her sword comes in close on his heels. I grab a sheet carelessly tossed aside and relatively clean, and move to the bed. Grabbing the woman’s arms and pulling her toward me. I throw the sheet over her, telling her to stay hidden. From the corner I continue to fire while Justice and Arhconus slash away at the evil monster.The Minotaur hits the ground hard and as we turn to leave I hear the shouts of fire. Justice and Arhconus hearing the sounds of battle race that way, while I racing into a series of rooms. I round a doorway and see Arfin relieving himself a blanket and Kareth rummaging for I hope a water skin. Arfin uses his now wet blanket while Kareth and I use our water skins to put out the fire. As the flames die to charred remains and smoke Arfin hoarsely shouts, “Where be th’ others?” “I don’t know, but…” I am cut short by a yell, and a scream, and as one all three of us quickly turn and race toward the sounds.Skidding around corners we find a door thick timbers splintered in a thousand places, and a demon surrounded by the new guy, Farathier, Justice, and Archonus. She glows with an unholy light and spewing curses and evil magic disappears into nothingness. “What?” Kareth looks around all of us expecting her to appear behind us. Instead we hear the garbled voice of the man who killed the priestess and the voice of a woman who just attacked Farathier arguing. Archonus and I remember the people that are still huddled in rooms around the monastery, so we all agree to split up and search for survivors and then meet back up in the basement. The one area we have not searched yet.Most of the room are empty or only hold dead priests and priestesses… defenseless, these were people taught to love not fight. Why attack them, there was no challenge, no honor… nothing to gain… I enter the basement room and see everyone already there.Archonus again takes the lead down the ladder into the cellar. It looks to be a small storage room, but Arhconus quickly moves a few boxes from against the wall finding a trap door under the floorboards. “There maybe others down there, and it may be another way out. We have to secure this whole area,” Justice reasons. So with Arhconus leading, then me, Justice, Kareth, Arfin and Farathier we slowly climb down the ladder and enter a dark hallway. The hallway leads us into a large open chamber. Opposite where we stand there is a raised dais on which a large life-like statue stands. It is a masterfully crafted figure of a half-elven female draped with revealing cloth and with partially folded wings. “The Amastatia, this must be for her. The temple above is hers as well, so it would make sense, but why the secred door?” I ponder aloud. On the ground by the statue it is written in elfish “In the shadow I morn my loss, in the shadow I avenge.” As I move closer to the statue, I feel that there is some presence watching the statue of the Anastatia, yet Archonus is walking around the statue unharmed. Archonus sees nothing unordinary and then tells us of the other trap doors he saw on the way down. We all agree to investigate this temple further. Arfin and Archonus burst into the first room yelling back for us to stay out. Looking into the room we see two of both the human and the dwarf. I hear the crashing of glass, and can only assume they are trying to break the mirrors. The human says another message is on the wall and relayed it to us, “I descended into shadow but found only soulnessness there, and there I nearly became the monster I hunted.” We all decided to go into the door across the hall. It looked to be a hallway that went a few feet the turned. With Archonus reading aloud the passage on the wall, “I held those things left to me close, the weapons fate left in my hands. Two blades, a product of my enemy’s mind and my only living child.” There is a statue at the end of the hallway of what looks to be a dark gray hooded humanoid with only two specs of color, gold and silver, on the hilts of his sheathed sword.As Archonus got to the end of the passage, two blades came out of the wall and cut Justices arm down to the bone. Given forewarning with her holler of pain, Arhconus leaps enough so it simply grazed his shoulder. We stop and look for a way around the trap, but Archonus is too eager to wait and so shouts, “There is a door at the end here.” Then without further concern for us, Archonus disappears inside the door. We stay on our side of the trap and look at the secret doors the paladin has pointed out to the rest of us. The dwarf rushes to the door closest the entrance, after the turn. Though as he charges the door open, he quickly reappears with a burst of flame singing his clothing.I look around and just see the shadow of Justice running toward the entrance. The monk enters the flame room, while the dwarf hurtles the next door open. Chaos it seems has taken hold of them all. I simply move up and down the hallway looking in the open doorways gathering the messages in each room. The first room has four pillars in each corner and an alter in the center. The torches cause something to shimmer on the alter top, as I get closer I see the elven script at the base of the alter. I saw aloud “Though the flame of magic burns hot within my blood, I sought its end.” I stand at its base and see the same hilts from the statue in the hallway one silver and one gold. They are laid out as drawn from their scabbards then laid down. Since we know the trigger, I must make it over the tile in the ground. Yet with the wounds I already have sustained, I must ask with a smile if Kareth would throw me over the tile. However, in the process of throwing me he hits the tile, and though it gives me a few more wounds to look at later it seems the flames do not faze him at all. As the dwarf, Arfin, comes barreling down the hallway obviously trying to enter the other door, I grab his arm. His red face darts to look at my hand, and though I know he is upset I just say, “If you wait one second, I may be able to trigger the tile and then we have one less thing to worry about.” He grudgingly agrees, and waits as I push my staff on the tile. The blades come out and wiz over my head, and then come to a halt as they did before. The dwarf enters the room and yells, “Yet magic was her gift no less then love, and to extinguish it disgraced her memory.” That must be the message from this room. Suddenly the fire in the braises glows brighter and the dwarf falls back out onto the tile as two fire elementals rise from the flames and roam the room. The elementals rush the door, but their magic seems contained to the room alone. My arms start to shake with the strain of holding the tile, “We have to use something else here.” Arfin gets the good idea to push the statue over the tile in the hallway. Kareth and Arfin get it to lean on one wall so it lays across the tile and the doorway with the elementals. Disappearing frantically into the doorway Arhconus was last seen entering, Arfin’s call can be heard. As Kareth and I reach the doorway Arhconus and Arfin reappear, though Archonus looks as if he had thrown his clothes in a shredder. His dark eyes flashing with excitement he rushes to tells us, “A platform that seemed to go nowhere and a message on the floor that read, “But one can see into the light from deepest darkness, and there, in my pain I finally saw the pain of others.” At the end he hit a wall suddenly and had something try to throw a spell of blindness at him. He then entered a room with a statue of an elf with two swords one short that seemed to be holding the roof up and one long in it’s scabbard. The statue had a red stone in its eye that seemed to be a ruby gem. As he entered he saw another message at the back and so went to read it “I gather you to watch and to punish.” With a grinding of stone against stone the statue then seemed to come alive, and though he made it out, was not sure what to do. Looking around me, trying to put the pieces together, “It’s Link. Link Woodshadow, he suffered blindness, saw in a different- did you try to close your-“ but Archonus had already turned on his heels and was racing back toward the door at the end of the hall. We followed behind and heard his command to keep our eyes closed, so with that Kareth reached out. I grabbed hold of Arfin’s hand, while he reached up letting his hand be engulfed by Kareth’s large fist. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes trusting those before me.There was the scratching of steel against steel and then a light breeze seemed to move around me. I knew it was the statue weaving the swords Archonus warned us of, but with a scary sense of accuracy the statue never quite touched us. Kareth must have found the next doorway for he told Arfin and I to duck. Still in darkness we slowly entered another secret room. I felt the door close behind me, and before we could ask anything more Archonus’ reassuring voice reached out to us. “You can open your eyes.” Even with our eyes open, I seem to be encased in darkness. Then slowly a flickering light on the stone seems to get brighter, and on the wall was written, “The shadow must be your home but you must not loose yourself to it, or you shall become your enemy.” That was when I knew, this was a test and puzzle, but the reason for why still alluded us. We decided to go back to see if we could find the others and make sure we had all the pieces leading up to this point. So back we went to the first two doors we had passed over. Archonus entered the first door on the right. He shouted from within the room “Only from beyond the light can you love its warmth.” As he exited he described the room as having four braises in the corners that spewed flame at the middle of the room when entered. As Arfin eagerly moved toward the door on the left, I moved to lean against the corner of the hallway, since they seemed to have placed me in charge of remembering all the pieces. Archonus exited another room and walking towards me told me the next part, “Half my sight was taken, but my blindness was complacency for me.” He also told me that this room had four columns with a statue of who we now knew to be the Woodshadow behind one column looking over a statue of his bride a young Pendara the Amastatia. Kareth and Arfin soon reappeared, and of all things the dwarf looked happy to be in this place. It must be the stone, the darkness, the adventure, the thrill… how strange since I longed for nothing more then to feel the night air again. To complete the puzzle we agreed to re-enter the mirror room, and sure enough found a hidden door there. This lead into a room that held two statues facing each other. “The hero’s of the last war, Quarion and the Tain Apecto,” I said into the quietness of the room. Quarion the Great a friend of both Pendara and Link made the great wall to the north forever imprisoning the Evil Bluestar. The other the Apecto founded the church of the light and with his blade banished the Bluestar to his northern prison. These were legends all children were taught, but why here. Everything up to this point had been about the Woodshadow and the Amastia, those these two were friends of theirs it still doesn’t…..“Lost to the light I wondered and my former companions were blind to me” I slowly read the words scrolled in the stone floor. This is a story none had written of, a story forgotten. I saw Kareth and Arfin’s backs huddled in the next doorway, but then pushed back as Arhconus leapt out slamming the door behind him. Looking again at me, “I aim you at the heart of evil. Fight, and die if you must, immolating evil in the flames of righteousness.” I remained where I was, slowly locking the story into place. Selura could have made a great song of this sad story, I shall have to tell her of it when we see her again. With that happier thought I advance as Arhconus quickly turns to the next set of doors instead of telling us what was in the room. They advance slowly with me right behind into another statuary room. Again only two statues facing each other. The statue across the room is of a dwarf encased in ice, and so must be Gawyn Thunderheart. Ice? Across from it is a black stone statue of a true alder, but this one eludes my understanding. As I glance around looking for the message the stone crumbles and moves. I try to shoot the stone dwarf in front of me, while Arhconus and Kareth attack the elf statue quickly shattering it completely. The dwarf seems to not sustain damage, but with some trigger returns to its original position. Kareth points to the wall behind him, and from beside him Arhconus reads, “Our vengeance must not be confined to the cause of our loss, but to that which endangers the people to which I once swore protection and allegiance.” The Bluestar. The dark lichlord in the North. I remain a few feet into the room, watching as the others search for another entrance or exit. This can not be the end. Arfin suddenly pipes up from behind the dwarven statue, “’Ere’s a door!” Kareth and Arhconus quickly go over and help him move the statue away. Light fills the dark chamber as they open the door. I remain in the room to study the message. Vengeance for his wife and child no doubt, and his friends these other great legends… but what other dangers… there are so many, and why the riddle? But who would put it together and why?I see the outline of Archonus’ figure in the doorway as he looks back into the room, “Here is another message ‘You are now the hidden warriors a secret force for my vengeance, for good, the Blades of the Woodshadow.” At Arfins laugh of delight, Arhconus leaves he doorway. “Look a’ all the weapons! Masterful!” I start to take a step towards my friends a smile lighting my face, a simple puzzle. No big- the smile vanishes as I feel a tap on my shoulder. Turning my head I am surprised to see the top of a finely crafted bow inches off my shoulder. A light female voice asks me, “Why are you here?” I turn my head further to face this new comer. I only see a slender tall hooded figure possibly female, an arrow tip gently nudges me in my back the finely crafted bow pulled tight. I raise my arms and at first can not say anything knowing my companions are too far away and engrossed in the weapons… I also feel no animosity from her, and since she easily could have killed me but has chosen to not. There is a chance she knows something, and I the others can still get out. She asks me to turn around and to step into the light, as I do I drop my bow to hopefully get the attention of my companions. I know my bow is useless against her, and in my weakened state I would not last long. As I step into the light the door behind me swing shuts, and though still not scared I am unsure why she has me and who she is. She pulls back her hood and I see a very old stately beautiful elf, though not entirely a full elf. She reminds me significantly of the statue we saw in the first big room, but obviously not the same one…as she lowers the bow releasing the tension the folds of her cloak shift and I see she has feathery wings folded beneath. So she is a descendant, possibly even the daughter, of the Amastatia. I tell her that we- that I am searching for survivors or injured people from the monastery above. She knows I am tell at least a partial truth and asks me again to answer her questions with the full truth. I tell her that we where coming to the aid of a priest who told us this monastery was under attack, and one of my companions was raised and schooled here. Once here we saw the people being killed and the monastery defiled, we knew we had to help them. We then looked for survivors…..” She cuts me off to say “That is still not an explanation as to why you are here and why you completed the task.” There seems no reason to keep the truth from her, and let her know that curiosity took hold once we made it to the corridor. Companions she knows they are there, are they injured? She asks if I learned anything and I can only say, “Yes, but I am too anxious with my companions on the other side of a door with no idea what is happening to them.” She tells me they will be alright and asks if I will come with her, that we must speak and that I am to see her father. Through this talk I have noticed that she not only looks like the statue of the Anastati, but she also looks very vaguely like….. Me.I told her my name, and why I was there again. She was intent upon my words of the happenings in the monastery above, and asked as if fearing the answer if the abbess and abbot still lived. I knew the lady abbess had been slain but the king’s man and by Selura’s crying scream gathered the old man whose head we saw on the pike out front was the Abbots. She leaned wearily against the stone and uttered “At least our secret is still safe.” We both tense and turn toward a creaking noise coming around the corner, but she relaxes as a hunched over figure appears in the midst of a coughing fit. She seems unconcerned though the coughs seem to be racking his frail body. Though her face is full of concern and love, her words seem harsh, “I thought I told you to stay in the hall” “And stay I did” came the tart reply. It seems they know each other well, is this her father? His skin weathered through the thousands of years he had lived, though his warrior training still evident in his gnarled hands. Hating to see one in pain, I asked if he has need of anything. This got his attention as he looks towards me a dull red flash from his left eye socket. “I need a chair and my sight, but neither of these I think can you provide,” he answers, a smile cracking his lips showing the devilishly good looks he once held. Hoping to give him some humor, “Though I may not be able to help, I have a dwarf companion that may fashion a chair for you, though it may not be grand it would be suitable for sitting. He smiles and chuckles, then as his daughter did, asks why I am here. I shift uneasily feeling my strength slowly ebbing through the multiple small wounds I have sustained. I can feel even in their age they wield great power and seem at ease with the shadows and with the weapons each carries. They have fought battles and been through a lot in their long lives, and have knowledge that maybe we can use. The woman however is less at ease, and seems a little on edge with this new comer. As I finish the last story I had told the daughter, She walks away from me never turning her back. Grabbing his arm and steering him into the hallway behind them I am left alone.I look around the room and back at the door behind me. I put my hand on the door and attempt to push it open. So muttering to the door, “I can only hope you are all well, but you are safer together I am sure.” I leave it alone. As the elves enter again, the female asks if I have time for a story, and I can only reply, “You have assured me that my friends will be safe and I can not leave without your permission. So I am up for a story.” She assures me again that my friends will be fine and then launches into her tale: “Long ago a warrior alder and a half alder meet and feel dearly in love with each other. They fought side-by-side and eventually came to bear a child. The rejoiced at the childs birth and they taught her the ways of both parents, yet too soon the father and child where called to a far off mission. The mother carrying another child waited protected by powerful friends and allies. Later when the husband and child returned they found one of the friends entrusted to swearing the wife and unborn child had been slain.” She looks at me then and quietly says, “but maybe those friends lied.”I look from one to the other, and ask if I could assume that she is speaking of them, that he is Link Woodshadow and she is his daughter and only heir? The woman glances to the man as he rises to full height and pushes back his cloak. I see for the first time not a frail old man, but an ancient elderly elf covered in armor only seen in old texts. Instead of eyes he has a vacant white ball in one side and in the other there is a red stone. It seems to glitter and flash with fire and life, yet within the blink of an eye become just a dead stone again. Even before he tells me I know I am right, he is the legendary Link Woodshadow. Friend and Hero himself of the last great war, husband of the Amastaia, Punisher of the Alder race, slayer of Blue Mages. Motioning proudly to the woman, “She is my daughter.” She asks if I have family, and I answer again that there are none still alive. As my mother died giving me life, and my father just a scant year ago. She asks if I have anything from them, and I tell her from my father my kukri, and arm guards. My father had always told me to hide it, but that just because it would remind him of the wife he lost. I slowly pull it from my shirt, saying, “From my mother only this.” She stares at it then asks if she can see it closer. She sees my hesitation and tells me to trust her. I pull it from around my neck. As she takes it, she rips a cord from her throat and throws it to me. I catch it and as my fingers graze the surface I know without looking it is the same as the one I wore for the last thirty years. Not daring to believe, I open my hand rolling the claw and leave over and over.From my surprised study of the amulet I hear her tell him that it is as they thought and looks to me saying ‘so the child must have lived.’ She turns to me and throws me my amulet and motions for hers. After the exchange, the Woodshadow turns his head toward me and says that they have been in shadow and must remain there to fight, as the hour of their arrival is not yet at hand. He has an offer for all of us, but wants to know what I would say first, and I think of the stranger who is presently apart of the party. I tell them of my fear, not knowing if I doom my companions, but he simply nods. Their lives are at stake, I will tell the others as soon as I can. He then tells me of the single table full of treasure that they can have for completing the trial, and whatever else lies around that they give fair price for. In return they can not speak of this place. When he is done, she asks if I know where I will be heading. I can only tell her my destination is Thanesport so long as nothing else happens. Neither seem to want to just leave.Link tells me of the others, the other temples such as this and the other warriors to their cause. They all have tattoos of the amulet on their neck or on the inside elbow of their arm. If they do not have these markings then they are not who they say they are. If I need to get a message to them I must find one of these temples. There I am to leave a message; the shadows will know me and will know where Link and his daughter may be found. He turns and leave no good-bye, she at least pauses turning to utter, “Now we must go. Good-bye….. Niece.” The stone closes behind them.I feel the air move as the door behind me opens, and there stand my companions. They seem surprised to see me. Archonus stands in the doorway, as our eyes meet he gives me a quick questioning look handing me my bow. As I take it the dwarf says, “Where were ye?” “I was…” I can not lie to them, pointing to the table at the front, “Everything on that table is given freely to us as reward for completing the trial.”Arfin pushes for more, but I tell him I gave a promise that should be enough. After they put the gifts into the bag of holding, I see the dwarf start to touch the other objects. I tell them they are free to take what they want if they will but give equal price for it in return. Noticing I had gone missing, they had gone searching apparently finding Justice on the way. Soon I hear their happy chatter from the various rooms. I see a compound shortbow in the main room and after giving my price; I walk to a plain chain shirt in a corner and put that on as well.I then stand sentry at the doorway not knowing what do for the rest of the promise.Justice and Archonus are the first that approach as if to leave. I stop and ask them to not speak of this place though I can not say why. Justice bows at the waist and flourishes her sword out and somehow it is laid at my feet she says “I give this my word of your secret safe and these memories shall remain locked in my mind forever.” Archonus looks askance at Justice and says simply, “I give you my word, but all haste is needed now.” Justice tells me that they are off to Thainesport to save Jane who is actually of the dragon blood and should be ruling this kingdom, so much for my thoughts of trust. She trusted this Talon, but not us. I will not stop them, and just hope when next we meet it will be under a good star. Maybe I made the right choice… too many secrets. I do not have to wait long, since Arfin, Kareth, and Farathier come from differing directions into the entry room. I stand easily blocking the door. Looking to Kareth and Arfin I ask if they will agree to say not a word of this place nor of what they have seen here today to anyone. Arfin is hesitant, but gives his word, as does Kareth. Next I turn to Farathier, and ask if he will give me his oath not to speak of what he has seen or of the knowledge of this place. He tells me he will not say anything, and I can only hope that he will keep his word. He tossed in with us as an outcast above in the monastery, and he did explain some things to us. I move to the side and gesture them to leave. As I re-enter the hallway I look back into the shadows and say a small good-bye with a well wishing for what is now possibly my family. So many things, so much treachery, it could all come to mean nothing, or be a mistake. So many generations and blood to be told by an amulet alone… Once up stairs, I push a barrel of wine and try to cover our tracks down there as best I can. I then go up the ladder and am almost pushed back down as a bucket is thrown towards me. I easily pluck the bucket from the air and look around to utter chaos as Mr. Miagi’s people seem to have infiltrated the monastery. Weaving my way around the chaos to the doors outside I see they are setting up what looks to be a small makeshift camp. I stop some of the monastery priests and ask who would be in charge and trying not to wince ask about a healer. Upstairs, is the general agreement. Some seem to recognize us as helpers, warriors, but most are still too shocked to do more then busily work. Gradually I narrow down the new leader and which room he is in. It is a larger room forms laying about, the smell of blood, vomit, and medicine clouding the air. I ask if I can help, but looking me up and down says he has everything under control there and that I should go rest as he does not have the strength to heal me if I should keel over. I ask if my two companions, the paladin and the talon were able to get away okay. He says only the man went, the other is with the new people. I leave the room asking as I go for Justice, since she tend to stick out in a crowd everyone remembers her. I slowly walk across the balcony, looking down stairs watching Arfin and Kareth help the people below. I cross to the abbesses room, slowly pushing open the door. The body has been removed, but the blood and the damage remains. Outside the back room I am stopped by a little man who imitates a sleeping motion. Not sure what is happening but understanding the need for sleep I simply curl on the floor in front of the door, and hope he will not bother me.</blockquote>

Verification