Rayann looked up at Nol and gave him a soft smile.

~Thank you, Nol. I just wish the news could be all joy and nothing of the sadness. And I know how you feel about Kali. I also know this will not be easy for you either. Know you are not alone in any of this. Just as we are not alone.~

Rayann watched Nol and Kali exchange looks and saw the love between them. If nothing else, Rayann knew Kali had learned to love the way she would have been taught right from the beginning and it was that Rayann could cling to when the darkest of times were upon them.

Looking back at Myth, she turned and wrapped her arms around his torso after he thanked Nol, laying her head on his chest listening to his steady heartbeat and inhaling his scent deeply. Together. That was the only way they would get through the coming days. It was the only way.

Myth mind was still processing the gruesome imagery that lay hidden in the family portrait as well as focus on the fact that Rayann was now with child. He felt a heavy weight settle upon his heart as Kali talked of ending her own adult future, but he could not fault her reasoning. The balance of the world would simply not allow for such a thing to occur and Myth fully believed Rorie was aware of this.

The mere thought of that man's name roiled a seething hatred deep within Myth's soul. However for the moment he weathered the storm and forced a smile to enjoy the happy yet sad moment knowing that Kali's life had been sparked. With a thank you to Nol Myth focused his thoughts on the woman in his arms. Her capacity for caring was endless and the pain he felt in her because of her own blood caused him no small amount of discomfort.

With a sigh he shook his head "Thankfully the future is not yet set in stone... we shall endure this test as we have others.
Sadly I must excuse myself for a short while. I have to collect my thoughts..."

He slipped his arms away from Rayann smiling as he kissed her forehead seeing that look of concern cross her face. The control on his thoughts was shredding and Myth knew it was time to excuse himself before his thoughts flowed like a flooding river. He was ever mindful of his thoughts and Rayann and Kali's ability to pick up on things through their bond. For the moment both knew that his anger was as evident as his sorrow and his mind was already racing through scenarios and plans. They were catching a brief glimpse of the way his mind truly worked and also why he sought so diligently to keep it under wraps when he was with them lest he overload their senses.

She could only chuckle at Fifth's words and smile "My dear Fifth... when am I not ready to bring destruction to the lands?"

It was of course a rhetorical question more than anything else. Piramay was always eager to unleash her special brand of magic. However her willingness to burn anything and everything in between her and her goal ensured that she was only ever fielded when total destruction was the goal. The mage of flame had a reputation for burning allies if she felt they were getting in her way both literally and figuratively. She was just as dangerous to the enemy as she was her own allies.

planting her staff into the earth she took a moment to reach skyward stretching. A soft sky escaped her lips as he arms slipped back down to her sides. "I'll let the devil handle the details of the soul extraction. Numbers mean little to me in the grand scheme. I simply care about whether you need more or have enough. You point me to the crop with which you wish to harvest and consider the place reaped of life. Though is there is a small contingent of knights in the area why not simpley start with them and save ourselves the trouble of possibly dealing with them. I would rather remove the head of a potential problem as opposed to letting it rear it's head."

In this case if the knights would be a possible nuisance why not remove it. It was her blunt force approach to triage rearing it ugly head. Of all the mages in the employ of the queen Piramay was likely to be the most unsubtle one in all the dark court. She spoke clearly making her opinions known whether someone wanted them or not. She was also more likely to flay someone in the presence of their peers just to make a point.

Fifth looked at Piramay as she mentioned hitting the Knights of Solamnia and could not help but smile, “My, the naughty little minx has never lost her touch now has she?” He walked over and she could feel the magic being gathered around him as he prepared to transport them to their destiny. Reaching forward he touched the hem of her robes, enough contact to include her in the spell, “Hold on to your stomach…”

Like a comet their feet left the ground and together a streak of black and red fired across the sky, landing on a tall outcropping of rocks above Northkeep Fifth lightly brushed off his robes and turned his head to look at Piramay, “Well now, isn’t this a ‘shocker’. Ummm, Piramay if you wouldn’t mind tilting your head to the side a little, yes, thank you.” The two of them had worked together many times, it was in fact their bond on the battlefield that had forged the deep trust and respect they had for one another. Unlike many of the other generals and higher up’s in the Queen’s army they didn’t squabble with each other over position and power, perhaps it was a ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’ or that they both simply had the unspoken understanding to let the others eliminate themselves so they could strike out at the best opportunity, but whatever it was, Piramay was one of the very few individuals on all of Krynn that Fifth didn’t simply see as a means to an end. She was someone he truly saw as a valuable ally, and as such she was brought into this plan not because he wanted to keep her closer or because he wanted to prove something to her, but purely because he knew he could trust her to not lash back at him in the end.

His hand came up as she tilted her head giving him a wicked smile knowing exactly what he was about to do. The shadow skull spell left his palm and hit the poor slob of a Knight that happened to pull look out duty on this cliff. He didn’t even have time to scream as the spell ripped through his armor and tore a hole in his chest large enough to stick a human head through. Fifth smiled and turned back to look at Piramay, “Well, unfortunately we won’t have his soul in the well, but alas, such is the way of war, you have to move with the environment.” He looked at her and his eyes flashed brilliantly, “By chance, do you still have the soul well in your possession?”

Kali watched as her Father dismissed himself. She could feel him suppressing his thoughts, and she understood. Often times her mind would race in much the same manner, constantly shifting the puzzle, moving the pieces, creating scenarios and playing them out in her head. It was a never ending dance of tactics and results, a dance that often left you sleepless and mentally exhausted. It was in fact one of her greatest assets when she was in the Dark Queen’s employ. Consistently she was asked to give battle scenarios before the troops went to war and she was one of the most highly regarded tacticians in the Queen’s army.

She let go of Nol and walked over to Rayann, whispering to her as she hugged her, “I do not want to die Mother… I want you to know that, but I will accept it if that is my fate, that is all I am trying to say.” She reached down and placed her hand on Rayann’s abdomen, pushing gently inward, “I am alive, in you, no matter what.” As Rayann looked up at her Kali smiled, “I live in the end.”

Nol smiled sadly and nodded as he began to make an exit, “I require my daily meditations and training, like your father, it is the only way to clear my head. Tonight, after my training I plan to start casting wardings around the property, I tell you so when you feel the pull of magic you will know why.” He bowed respectfully to Rayann and gave a half wink to Kali as he turned and exited the room. Kali helped her mother to a seat and then sat down beside her, “Rorie is too smart to not alter his plan, but in my visions of the future, when I have seen the deed unfolding, there are certain things that he must do. First, he has to be here, he has to come and do the deed himself. In light of all that has happened we know this to be true. My suspicion is that this act, this kidnapping will be the one final chance he has to please Tahkisis.” Rayann looked at her, slightly curious but Kali could see she was also understanding what was being said, “Mother, Rorie has failed her twice, the attack on Silvanost was a disaster from the Dark Queen’s point of view. I was supposed to raze the place to the ground, that was why I was there, to weave the ambient and the divine and basically blast the place to hell while the troops poured through the portals and kept the defensive forces busy. That was the reason for blasting the gate, the wall had to be breached. Obviously, we know how that ended. Then he came to Glen Durel, and we routed him yet again. I guarantee that he spent some time in punishment for that blunder. Tahkisis is cruel and wicked, but she also is smart and she won’t have executed Rorie yet, especially since she has the foreknowledge of the successful kidnapping that is yet to come. The difference now is that since the timeline is split will Rorie execute the plan as originally drawn or while he alter it to throw us off? It is hard to say, but I suspect he has no idea I am seeing visions of what is to come. I still don’t know why I am seeing them, but somehow I think Papa might be involved. He is still connected to this place, obviously, and he is trying to give us information to aid us. For now I say we trust him, and move forward as the clues come to us.”

Rayann could feel the hold Myth had on his thoughts slowly slipping away. She knew he required time to meditate and get his mind under control and she knew he withheld a lot of his thoughts when he felt as though they would be too much for her. On the rare occasions when he had forgotten to shield things from her she felt almost overwhelmed by the sheer volume and velocity in which his thoughts moved through his mind. As she watched his retreating back, she knew he needed this time knowing he would come back to her when he felt he could control his thoughts once more.

As Kali hugged her, Rayann felt the calmness Kali had wash over her. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to let it out slowly, she nodded then pulled back to glance down at Kali’s hand pressing against her abdomen. Lifting her gaze to Kali’s, she smiled sadly and reached out to touch Kali’s cheek.

~I know, Kali. I know.~

Nodding to Nol as he explained what he was going to do, she smiled at the Silver Dragon when he told her and Kali of his leave. As they sat down and Kali talked to Rayann about the failures Rorie was responsible for, Rayann began to view things in a broader view. Her mind was already working and as Kali revealed more to her, Rayann knew Kali was right. All the way around. But to hear Lachlan was somehow guiding his granddaughter made a lump form in Rayann’s throat and she swallowed hard to make it go away.

~Knowing Rorie, he will do all he can to throw us off. Knowing his life will now depend on his success, he will find a way to reach us, here. While it will be interesting to see how he will do that with Nol’s wardings, I’m sure he has something up his sleeve for just such an event. We may have caught him by surprise twice, but I highly doubt we would be able to do that a third time. Of course we have something he isn’t counting on either.~

When Kali looked at her mother, Rayann smiled lovingly.

~Papa.~

Kali smiled as Rayann spoke and she nodded in agreement, “Who knows the son better than the Father?” Kali looked at Rayann and she would see the twinkle in her daughter’s eye. “So how far along are you?” She smiled warmly as she was gripping the idea of her growing in her mother’s womb. It amazed her that she was in this unique position, a place that nobody on all of Krynn had ever been. Talking to her mother about being pregnant WITH HER, she couldn’t help but feel giddy about the whole idea.

Rayann and Kali spent a good part of the afternoon sitting in the upper room of the tower. They were there so long that Kali lost track of the time and suddenly realized it was dark. She shoke her head and started laughing, “My goodness mother, how time flies.” She stood and extended a hand to Rayann to help her up, “We need to get you, and me, and … me something to eat.” She laughed at her own wit and pulled Rayann to her feet. “I think both of me would like some pancakes, breakfast for dinner is simply the best!” She smiled again and screamed with excitement all of a sudden, turning to the large table and waving her had, the pancakes and syrups appearing from thin air, “I wish I could conjure food like that when I wasn’t in the tower!”

Rayann couldn’t help but laugh softly at her daughter’s enthusiasm. When she asked her mother how far along she was, Rayann did some quick calculations and guessed it to be about a month and a half to two months.

As they talked, Rayann spoke about the fears she had at carrying a child within her and the delivery, of course. She confessed it was now she really missed her own mother and wished Deidre were with her now to at least let her know what she might expect in the coming months. From everything she had picked up on from her mother, the birth of Rorie and herself wasn’t all that difficult, even though Deidre was giving birth to twins. Rayann hoped things would go just as smoothly for her as well.

Rayann also confessed to Kali that she wanted to give Myth a son some day. While she knew neither Kali nor any future children, male or female, would inherit the throne of the Elven nation, she still wanted to give Myth a son.

By the time Kali realized it was dark outside and she was quite hungry, Rayann felt her own ravenous appetite rear its ugly head. Kali’s suggestion of breakfast for dinner seemed to be exactly what Rayann was craving and as the food appeared on the table, Rayann laughed again as Kali’s excitement seemed to light up the whole floor they occupied.

~You and me both, Kali. Maybe we should work on that and figure out a way to do that.~

Turning Piramay knelt down next to the corpse of the dead knight with a smile. She reached into the pocket of her cloak fishing for the soul well with her right hand as her left carved a series of runes into the flesh of the fallen knight. Finding the soul well she stood offering the small black object to Fifth with a grin. As he took it from her hand she shifted her attention to the body of the knight once more. The temperature around her began to rise for a few moments as her power gathered.

"Indeed such is the way of war... As pathetic as the solomnic knights are they are still a well drilled military unit. This soldiers death will go unnoticed for the moment..."

She snapped her finger and the runes in the body glowed for but a moment before the body turned to ash and began to blow away with the cliff winds. The disposal of the body was one of her trademark tricks. The ability to turn a body to ash in moments was somethign she could only do to the dead. Not for a lack of trying on her part though, the living had a habit of resisting the effects of the spell carved into the flesh by sheer will or by simply wiggling around to much causing an error in the spells carving.

She slipped her hand into the ash letting it fall from her hand into the wind with a smile. "It is hard to know that something is amiss with no body."

It felt good to be out in the open for the first time in months. Piramay's last outing did not bode well for one of the queen's higher generals and as a result she had not been allowed to take part inany of the recent battles. One did not off a consort of the queen and walk away unpunished in most cases. The fact she was here with Fifth told her that whatever reason he gave the queen for this campaign must have been a damn good one.

Fifth watched with delight as Piramay practiced her art with heat and flame, it was always a thrill to watch her weave her unique abilities, many of which she was the sole person capable. “Looks like that is that.”

He held the Soul Well in his hand and brought his hand above it, hissing ancient words of magic. His words however were laced with a darkness much more sinister, the art of Necromancy was a delicate and highly specialized magic that most wizards dared not practice, for the stigma was isolationist, and rightfully so. Few would trust a Necromancer for fear that their energy or life would be used to perform his or her next endeavor. As he finished the incantation the top of the soul well slowly popped up from the main body of the device and opened like a lily, and long shard of metal ‘growing’ from the center and it too opened up revealing three prongs. “The well will harvest the souls as they leave the bodies, as I said, you just do what you do and pay no regard to the time it takes me to harvest the energy. If we try to do this one at a time it will take us years, so when you start the slaughter I will gather as many as I am able.”

He looked down at the town of Northkeep. The walls were high and formidable, as one would expect given that the Knights of Solamnia were stationed there. This was their center of operations for the whole region, and knew that there was most likely many highly ranked officers within, Fifth watched the walls for a few minutes before speaking to Piramay. “The flag of the high council is set on the mast.” Fifth pointed to the main keep, smiling as he turned to Piramay, “You know what that means, The heads of the order of the sword, crown and rose are in the keep.” He turned his gaze back to the main keep. “This could prove to be much more fun than I originally thought.”