1979 - Part III Dream--05/04/79 - 2nd Dream
The tableau is frozen - mob faces us in anger. The portal through which Keep disappeared is closed. Anatana clings to the top of the lectern/throne, exhausted, while Roderick slowly stands. I "hear" Breane urging, "You must not remain there." I link with Roderick and her words strike him, too. "Anatana cannot be her now - we send her back first." "But we go on," I say. He nods, but Breane breaking in, suggests an exchange - that she will travel with us. All of this happens in a split second. A shimmering occurs around Anatana and suddenly her body glows and is replaced by Breane's. In her home element, she appears majestic. Her hair almost black, skin bluegreen - but the odd thing is that her eyes have star-shaped pupils. She mutters, "Llir unveil, weir revel, orne lasken - nusoffim!" and a barrier constructs between our attackers and ourselves. "Open the Portal," Breane is SPEAKING - her voice deep and powerful, a ruler's voice. Roderick obliges - before us the blackness with the pinpoints of only a few stars. "Before we enter, you should know - your powers in this place are in effect - but - they will be in a primitive form, and unless strong control is exerted, your powers will avail you not." "Anatana?" from Roderick. "She will be with us shortly - she is resting." We step into the Netherverse - perspective warps - it is an almost hallucinating effect. Faces seem to form in the ether, and Breane recognizes that we are nearly at the limits of this massive psychic reconstruction. She motions, and the swirling effect seems to lessen. We set down on a land that seems to glow weirdly, blacklight effect with no source. "What is this place?" calls out Roderick, his voice hollow. "This is the land of endings, the opposite of Dilalevida." She telepaths two different images of the structure of the universes. One is reminiscent of a human brain, with the universe of Transport or Space a sphere in the center; wrapping around the top half it, one atop the other in inverted crescents, are the universes of Time, the Light, then Sound - with the Lost Confusion a thin inverted crescent along the top edge. A single large crescent around the bottom half of Space, as large as all the ones on top combined, is the Netherverse. Suddenly there is crackling sound - and a body tumbles through the sky. It is bluegreen, cartwheeling. Our first thought is Adrionna Keep - the we see a silver sword fall out of its sheath. "My god," cries Roderick, "Victoria!" Breane prepares a net that barely restrains her fall. She tumbles amidst a rock outcropping, and we dash to her. She is alive but bloodily unconscious. Roderick stands. "They will pay for this indignity," as the dream ends.
Dream--05/13/79
We sit on boulders watching Breane tend to Victoria - she has been unconscious since her landing. Roderick walks to her. "Her status?" his voice is modulated, controlled. I sense a ferocity in my brother and wonder why I don't feel it myself. "Her pelvis is crushed; she was unconscious when she fell, she is still -" There is a shimmering and Anatana appears, touching Roderick's hand. "What has taken so long? You have been gone for nearly six weeks." I raise my eyebrows at that - we have been here less than a day. Roderick explains of Victoria. Anatana is swollen, near with child. She is a bit more nervous than previous; she comes to me. "Shardow, Bartholomew has asked for you twice - he asked me to deliver a message: 'The circle grows eerie, an arc slips away and madness fills its place.'" I am nonplussed, but my instincts are at work. "You must go back - with Breane and Victoria - and you must send Bartholomew back with Breane." She nods. Roderick kisses her lightly and the connection is made and the three are gone. "What? -" "A hunch - that Keep's abduction is part of a plan - of which Bartholomew is aware on a subliminal level." "A subliminal level - hmmm..." I walk to the edge of an embankment. If Space were inside out, then Time must be also. In the sky unlike sky there is a humming. Roderick hastens to where I stand - his sword is drawn - and blood appears suddenly on its tip. "What were you thinking of?" I demand of him. The blood covers the finery in the blade til it is all of crimson. "Vengence for Fleece - for Victoria." Suddenly out of the blackness of sky hurtles three forms - Jowennes, Berella and Morganna. They land lightly and turn to face us. They have coals for eyes and they are mute. Roderick parries eyeblasts with Entrancer, and I am in a crouch, defensive posture - one arm extended, the other by my throat. Part of me says this cannot be, as another part takes note of a boulder being hit by Berella's beams, sending a sliver into my hand - which bleeds. Roderick suddenly stiffens and is still. I see the three forms take careful aim and erupt at Roderick. I cry, "No!" then see their blasts pass harmlessly through him. I am perplexed. Roderick turns to me: "They are not - t'is illusion." I look at my hand - it is whole, as is the boulder. Instantly, Berella, Morganna and Jowennes vanish. My respect for whoever constructed the illusion is increased. "We can manipulate it for ourselves," comes Roderick's voice. "How?" Suddenly Breane and Bartholomew appear. "Sorry to be so long - the way was not - easy." She is out of breath - she motions to Roderick. "M'Lord Roderick," her voice is formal and ceremonial, "Your lady has given birth" - he starts - "to a daughter - she asks approval of the name Cymynal." Roderick is full of questions. Breane produces a holograph - it shows a tiny red-haired girl with elfin ears and eyes that are blue within blue. Bartholomew comes to me. "I have been here before - when I was young, just before first passing." He stops; beside a rock insert, he reaches his hand in and removes a rolled paper. It is written in many languages, and shifts to our home languages as we all read it. It is inscribed, and Roderick reads that inscription. "There are only beginnings and endings," and the title is 'The Death Verse of Alberan Kenet.' As he begins to read, the sky above seems to give way to his words, structuring them to form movement. Then, from behind us, a silver finger of flame leaps toward the book. Roderick caches it in Bartholomew's hands and orders us to send him back. The three of us link energies and do so. The moment that that takes is enough - when we turn to face the beings who had shot that flame, all of us know that we now face the Pentacle Choir as the dream ends.
Dream--05/17/79
Before us stand the Pentacle Choir - four people, two feminine, two masculine, all robed in green with gold trim. All possess golden eyes and reddish-blonde hair. There is a tugging at my mind, of memory. Roderick confronts that memory, with "They are familiar, in a way." Then the first aural assault batters us; it is like sound was both knocking you about and assulting you from within. Breane murmurs a thing unheard, and a gemlike shape encloses us. The waves of sound bounce off but the four of them surge together in concentration. Their configuration in the ether is odd, as tho they were drawing upon something in their center. Roderick blips a narrow precise beam of light - or rather ultralight - at the center of the Pentacle Choir, and an awesome ruby appears in the center, pulsing. Again there is a tug at my mind. Breane is worried, a crack has appeared in her jewel. I look at Roderick - he is furrowed in concentration. I beam support to Breane and question Roderick. "What?" "They want Jarane - they arewithout him." I ask how he knows. "Look at their poses - they are of Danielle," his voice hisses the words. "Impossible - they are of Kerlan." "Yes, but they are children of Danielle - it is why we are evenly matched so long as Jarane is with us." Breane shifts to speech, "But then you are all related." Roderick says, "Yes, but they'll kill us if we do not give up Jarane." "Yeah, and they'll rule all if we do."The gem holds yet -Breane's body is glowing - projecting great qualtities of energy. She is also intaking - I do not know the term - the "awareness" of this Netherverse. Roderick is motionless, is in despair. Suddenly Breane speaks with Corolis' voice, "So - it is - the Pentacle Choir was created by Kerlan, in concept - and executed by he and Kraft jointly. Jarane, the first grandson of both of them to contain the powers of every universe was the Key to which the Choir acts. Beware, for he is mad - to give him up could destroy all," and Breane slumps to the ground. Suddenly, there is a shimmering and Danielle in her Leahan aspect appears. She is not quite to full power - we sense it, and we also know that Breane had been reponsible for this. Her gem is dissipating and the fury rages outside. Danielle: "So - you know." We are silent; she waves an arm and the gem is solid and impenetrable once again. "I fell in love with Virling Kerlan - and we spent some considerable time," she pauses, "with our family. I helped him train our sons, Brigand and Soroco, and he gave his strengths to Viena and Lyri." "But he is your -" I chop Roderick off with a thought: "She doesn't know!" His eyes widen - he motions with his hand, and she is banished from this sphere. Simultaneously, the shield vanishes and we face our half-siblings in all out war. Brigand-Soroco use a type of billiard attack, richoceting their beams off each other into us - but the feeling I get is that we are inherently stronger. We easily block the attacks - and perhaps begin to feel oveconfident - when a massive feeling of weighlessness hits us from our sisters. We sense the four of them searching thru dimensions toward Jarane and the others as the dreamends.
Dream--05/28/79
One by one we've come here. First Breane, then Roderick , then myself - to Aliana-Beveth. Before us, Anatana kneels before Jarane, Roderick hastens towards them. There is a burst of sound and a chunk of beach is torn upward into the sky. Bartholomew cries out - two members of the Choir hold him encased in a rainbow coloured cage. Viena and Brigand have ripped the chunk of ground into the air and Roderick soars after it. Jarane is dangerously near the edge, and Anatana is engaging Viena. Breane and I follow. Behind us is a crackling sound then, and the fabric of reality seems to shift. Breane and I are drawn into it, back into the Netherverse as my world winks away from us. From out of nowhere comes a black whip, slashing through the air. Breane is struck on the arm and welts rise. An invisible being wields it. She looks at me - apparently she can "see" the being, and she cries for me to strike - but I'm frozen in the tableau. The whip suddenly is made of fire, crackling as it strikes her again. Suddenly I sense Danielle there, and she tries to breach this strange lethargy in me - to no avail. She appears then, "You are allowing your love to die." I am motionless. A double helix appears in the air beside her. "You must strike - the Hidden Hand will destroy all." I am impassive. Suddenly, she projects Aliana-Beveth. There, Roderick is engaging all four of the Pentacle Choir, and Anatana is shielding Jarane and Bartholomew - and then she is not, as I see the firelash reach through dimensions to cut her down. Roderick is distracted, and in that moment he is caged by the Choir. "You must act, or all is lost!" Roderick reaches to my mind, but I cannot move. I see the flamewhip lash toward Breane again - her telepathy is fainter. In my mind's eye, Jarane moves to shield Roderick, leaving himself exposed to the lash in the other dimension - he fires a burst of flame at - me! I am jolted out of trance. Breane is very weak. I reach out with my mind and 'port to where the lash is about to strike. I grip it and feel power surging - it is burning - I yank on it, and popping into my vision is Octolin Berella. Breane urges a warning, but too late as a beam from someone behind me knocks me away as the dream ends.
Dream--06/24/79
Lightning flashes off the bars of my unholy cage. There is never any sun here, I surmise - just cloudness and black, punctuated by the pink and gold lightning. How long - mind tries to focus - many days? I do not know - hints of contact, only, with the others. Roderick calm, but at great cost; Breane creased with worry. Two wakings ago, I'd had a feel of dread - there was a battle. My hands are bound and there is a mirror effect (field?) around my head - invisible and invincible. The bars are shiny and strong. As I pace the cage, I can feel small pebbles beneath my boots - long enough time here that my soles wear out. I am aware of a pun, then, and smile just as a flash of lightning illumines my cell - and an idea births. My beams from my eyes are not bound by the sky; the mirrored cylinder is around but not over me. I check an angle with a narrow eyeburst, then aim a ricochet eyeblast at my bonds. In a few seconds they crumple and I am free. I remove the mirror cylinder field. I clothe myself appropriately and a pair of discs are beneath my feet. They negate any gravity, and I fly into the night. There is only darkness and then there is a very narrow band of light. I burst through it. I am in a hallway - black and white marble with a design, the three headed serpent, on it. I recognize this place, the castle of Alberan Kenet. "Yes." I turn and he is there. "Your - uh - escape was ingenious." I am impassive, suspecting a trap. He reads it "No trap." He motions me to a table. He sits, a big man, much taller than my 6'2" and much heavier - beard gray and green, eyes merry and blue. "You are perplexed." I turn away from him. "I do not know what it," sweep my hand, encompassing the scene, "this, means." "That I live?" "Yes." "No matter." His fingers drum this table in a pattern; he looks at me, begins to speak - but not so much in words as in images. I am certain I did not understand it all, but the parts where I am there fall true. Adrionna Keep is now dead; that is the first image sent. I "voice" a query, but he pauses, returns to speech mode. "Hold your questions until I finish." He shows me - history - much of it that we knew, much is new - it ends. "You are the last, then." He averts his face - I wait - he turns back and his face is aged to a horrible degree, a mockery of life. "Why do you suppose that you are the sole element whose power has not been strengthened by their precursor? How can Time not be the last to give way?" He pitches forward and I catch him, kneel beside him. "When Kraft died, Roderick moved forward, when Kerlan died, Gala had her turn. Keep's death fulfills Breane." It dawns, then _ Kenet had not captured me. "No, you are arrayed against -" The curtains part - a figure - Kenet speaks as his time ends. "Berella, Bevev -" A bolt of fire crisps Kenet's body. I turn and feel the sense of Time fill me - I am stronger. Before me stands a man(?), androgynous in appearance - but powerful. His eyes are white with black diamonds without and within. He is dressed in black and blue armor. I know him from - my mind blinks - a medallion, a locket. I then have no time at all. "I am Lei Keirus, High Priest for this realm," and octagonal planes veer out of his hands as the dream ends.
Dream--06/27/79
Time blurs - I feel myself fitting into its seams, like smoke filters through a screen. Octagonal shapes fade away and Keirus is indistinct. There is blinking sensation, and Danielle is there. She reaches a hand to me silently. I hesitate - and sense a duration feeling, as tho all existence had slowed to a crawl. I could reach out and feel each moment of Time. Bursting into the scene in a series of blips is Roderick - and I realize that that is how teleportation occurs, through a rapid pulsing from one place to another. Roderick speaks and I am thrust into his mode. "A disaster awaits - I need you now." I nod, and he seems to recognize an alteration in me. "Breane?" I ask. "She commands our force while I am here." He telepaths information to me: the Pentacle Choir attacked, they seemed to win the 1st round - but Jarane, acting out of some impulse perhaps, prevented them by transferring them to Sanctuary's Mirror. There, Roderick called forth a host of energies from the Mirror and Breane agreed to lead them. Anatana , Cymynal and Bartholomew are on Arthur's world, but Anatana is on her way back. Victoria and Jarane, bloodcousins, are at the Volcano. We are to be the vanguard, Anatanan, Roderick and myself, against Keirus. "What you learned when you learned it, flooded to us - he is the Hidden Hand." I stare into space - I move something in my mind. "And he can destroy all unless we stop him." Roderick pauses and looks around; I have brought us to Aliana-Beveth - and something strikes me about Roderick. His sister holds sway in the Volcano of Life and yet the world within the Mirror is isolate and desolate. I mention that to him; he motions and asks if I am judging. I shake my head and he says, "Life needs Death, and vice versa. I command one yet need the other." "I am sorry my brother." I place a hand on his shoulder. Anatana blips into the scene. She is garbed in silver with green gloves, collar and a black belt. Her sword is golden, named Moodoom. Her voice is pitched challengingly - her hair is swept by the wind against the silver of her helmetmask. "shall we best challenge our foes - those slime!!" and for an instant we are united in laughter before facing the Hidden Hand as the dream ends.
Dream--06/28/79
There is a reflected glimmer off Anatana's armour - I hear Breane soothing in my mind, although half a universe away she leads a pride of sorrel beings. Roderick is conversing with Danielle: "No, I will not do that," he says. She is urging in a low voice. Anatana walks up to them and Danielle is eerily silent. Anatana seems to overshadow Danielle now - as tho some shift in the personal reality had left Anatana in a stronger position. Her newly won blade glows - its name is amazing - contains much strength. "Who fears here?" she demands of Danielle. "You've not needed our aid before, why do you request it now? Because no one else may stop the process?" Roderick holds up a hand, but Anatana brushes it away. "He is mine now and shall remain?" I am not hearing that entirely right - but I have no time to ponder. Jarane sends a numbing wave of communication. "Gods, control him a little, won't you?" I say, and Roderick calms his son with pulsing energies. The waves are ruddy in dusk - and replica the waves rushing in to the shore. Breane's voice behind me - she entered this frame so silently on a quiet night. "Are you well?" I nod, and turn to her. I note her skin colour has lightened perceptibly, her hair is dark, shining. Her wrists wear circlets of stars, and she is garbed in white - sort of like a jungle outfit. Her eyes search mine. "You sense it too, that there is a shift?" I cock my head at her. "A nasty suspicion?" the voice is Bartholomew's, as he steps forth from shadow. "No, a remembrance.' A silver bird arcs into the air, a bird the colour of black within white within black sweeps after it - and my skin prickles. Behind us on a dune stands Lei Keirus; he gestures and the black in white in black bird annihilates the silver bird. He roars, "I leave you with two riddles: what is the future of mind? Be the first - the second, "All know what links the Triple Star - one be false, the other far, and tho she fought to save her own, still will burn the serpent's crown." With that he is gone, and we are literally thrust into a crystal labyrinth, tumbling and falling. There is a silkiness to the light - and suddenly in slow motion blips, there appears Aliana. She is different than before, substantial and very human seeming - and, she is shocked to see us. Her eyes are huge and demanding. "Wh-who are you?" and Breane looks at me. I hear my voice saying, "I come from a seam in time," and Aliana's eyes explode into tears. She crumples into my arms and I find Breane's eyes with mine as the dream ends.
Dream--07/04/79
The perspective does not change - Aliana- flesh and blood, is in my arms. I sit her down and look to Breane. I blink my eyes; its like cleaning some fog or dust out of them. Roderick and Anatana are both here in the crystal labyrinth, and also in my mind. They are alone and it feels like a future time. Roderick says, "The unchanging Abyss awaits me." Anatana is staring at his hand, which is bandaged in green light to heal some suffered wound. "You denied her aid." "But - that does not mean that what she wanted done should not be done.." His voice is imperious. He turns to face my perspective on the scene. His face is Roderick's, but Aradi's - demoneyes are his. The mist returns, and Aliana is watching me. Breane is in shadow, conversing with Roderick and Anatana and Bartholomew. Danielle is there, solemn, watching. "How is it it you live?" My words sound tight - sound does not carry well here. "My time is not yours." She uses a word describing a medium of existence supplemental to our own; my impression is of a state encompassing life/death existence at once. "I am here because you called upon me through my mother." I am confused; she senses this, floods my mind with her awareness. I understand part of it only. To try to save the soul of the quadratwins, what I'd done in incorporating them in myself was to change both my pattern and my medium, so that there was a duplicate of Shardow in Aliana's place. Her "place" is a land of mist, borne of Time - towering peaks and a great green sun called Tyweyr; her city takes its name from the sun. I had drawn part of her soul into our medium, because her oversoul is a descendant of my own. The crystal maze is a contact point, as is the five-sided Mirror and the Mountain Shorn - too much information. I draw back from her. "Thank you," she says, "for naming your world after me." Roderick breaks in, "Who is Lei Keirus?" and Aliana looks shocked. "How do you know - ?" "Who is he?" Roderick demands again. "He is my husband in Tyweyr." She produces an insignia on her inner sleeve bearing a coat of arms: a knight stands bloodied on a battleground with the words "The World Cries" under it; the knight is Lei Keirus. There is a rise in tension/heat in the maze, and coming down a mirrored corridor is Exes Hurat, Jarane's demonself - he has an arm missing, tho. He speaks directly to Roderick. "Mortals and death, none will live who remain." Roderick envelops us all with a bubble as the maze explodes around us. He takes us into a limbo as the dream ends.
Dream--07/04/79 - 2nd Dream
I have sought Aliana-Beveth, out of limbo - seated, looking out at the night - a twig breaks. I light the area with my hand. Breane stands there in diaphanous blue. She says nothing, but her mind reaches out, bringing soothing - and yet a bit of sympathy comes across as well. "Roderick?" I ask. "They await you - he is upset that you chose to come here." "And you?" "No, I know you needed this place." I am tired of speech and lapse into telepathy of feelings, sorted for greens and blues - a tear falls upon my cheek. I do not know why Aliana has returned - I do not know why Lei Keirus seeks our deaths. Silently, love is made on red sands and we two are hardly aware of anything else. Comes a call from Anatana, directed at Breane. I walk along the shore; suddenly, my wolves are there, silently padding beside me. I recognize them as a protective measure taken by part of my mind - we are vulnerable here, is my thought. Danielle strides out of night. "You chose this refuge over all?" "No." "Your daughter is informing Roderick of all she knows." I nod. Breane is in my mind, a querulous note - time drifts. "You were always silent, e'en as a child - you appear wise." "Perhaps there was nothing worth comment." Roderick enters with silver accompaniment, afterimage of where he had been. He gets to the point, saying the Keirus commands Time and that I must vanguard our group because of my affinity for Time. "You must deal with his attentions while we overcome..." "No," I say. "For now I am out of it - until a sign is given.' "But.." "I will not seek to destroy the husband of my daughter, without much contemplation." Roderick produces a skull from mid-air. "This is the skull of Kraft - look at it." Inside the skull there is a vertigo effect, showing a galactic lightshow, and at its end, a rainbow of all colours - and there stands Roderick as Aradi as the dream ends.
Dream--07/11/79
Straining to reach through a brittle existence. I stand on an exalted plane - there is all green light around - viewing through misted glass. Danielle is there too - and suddenly, Roderick, Anatana and Breane - and another. My impression is Larry. Roderick says, "Malkus has joined this gathering - Neirus has gone til insanity reigns." He is a double being, very supportive. Danielle questions us as to Lei Keirus. All respond negatively, save myself. "I shall not battle until lines are drawn." Roderick is exasperated. "Lines have been drawn," and Anatana quiets him with a gesture. "after our travels together, you abandon us - why?" "Not abandon - is it abandonment to refuse commitment of energies to a project that is so vague?" Breane looks at me - her eyes are demanding. "You wish answers where there are none, Shardow." I am sorry, but I do not say that. "Why are we meeting here?" I ask. "This is the plane of Leahan," says Roderick. I look at Danielle. "Malkus rules here - a reserve of strength." Anatana sharply disagrees (or doesn't wholly agree) "Or a reservoir of danger." Malkus sits silent. "Malkus is a dual soul - so long as he is here, he'll fend aid - if he leaves this plane, he is immediate threat to us -he calls himself Nerus." I look at Breane. "I'm going to Aliana-Beveth - you must choose now," and vanish into the corridors. I alight upon my world and an instant behind me is Breane.. I turn to kiss her, and out of a corner of my eye I see a nagative image of Malkus leap at me. I nudge us a heartbeat from his leap and he contacts air. I draw Breane to me then, and anger rages free. "I shall not subject my world to thee," and hurl him totally into the void. My mind is rent with anger and hurt, and I close contact with all save Breane as the dream ends.
Dream--08/06/79
I am garbed all in black, only silver wristlets breaking the darkness. Something has bothered me all along - why is it Aliana lives. I have returned to Srour to the house of Kenet. Walking up a spiral stair, mirrors set up ahead - I slow. It is dark and grim. In the room where Beveth showed me the book with the circle of stars, my memory washes back. There is no dust in the room; I hear soft footsteps and melt into the shadows. A being is outside, turns on the hallway light, and I hear him/her tuning an instrument - stringed - I know its sound a lampere, a winged lyre with criss-cross strings. I open the door slightly. The figure is in black, blue and red - it is Lei Keirus. He tunes each striing, and as he does so the aura around him changes. I sense he is tuning Time. My wristlets pulse, and I sense Roderick trying to reach me. I stride into the hallway: "Keirus." He whirls - and smiles. "It could only be you." The lights flood the hallway; snakes crawl along it and twine about my ankles. They are unlike any reptiles I've ever seen; each snake has three heads and is a deep, deep blue. "The snakes are called Sirae - among the deadliest in all Creation; they steal your years, Shardow, and wrap their souls through mine." I activate my anklets - bolts of changling force ripple, and the Sirae reel back. I am silent. Keirus roars at me in anger, and I dive along the railing of the balcony. Liquid fire races behind me. Suddenly in front of me is a picture of Beveth and I hesitate. "She is dead, dead, dead, Shardow," and Keirus' power leaps to the image and crisps it. I turn, deep anger coursing, and power leaps out of my hand and crumples the balcony beneath Keirus. As he falls, I sense Roderick coming into this frame. I pay no mind and follow up with the attack. Ras is alive and arrows flow from our bow, pinning Keirus' cuffs to the wall. He snarls. "Your time flows in reverse, Shardow." I am puzzled - then a blow from behind me staggers - I turn. It is Bevev and her eyes are mad. Roderick is caught on the stairs. She collapses the stairway and debris from the ceiling signals a larger catastrophe. Anatana then is there, silver sword slashing at debris, her hair is free and long. I turn back to Keirus. He unleashes bolts of darkness at us; I absorb them and turn them on Bevev - she screams and vanishes. Keirus, tho, is free. He wraps the Sirae around Anatana's waist and draws her breath from her. Roderick, coming out of debris, seizes Anatana's sword, then drops it as some force whips through it. He looks at it puzzled, then draws his dagger in one motion and throws at Keirus. It hits him above the belt and he roars again. There is an interphasing effect as a different nature of being flows within Keirus - pure darkness in outline. It struggles with Roderick's mystic dagger, and Roderick surges energies into it. Suddenly Keirus' voice comes out of the being greatly amplified. "Now you reap vengence." I sense explosive forces gathering; I flash this to Roderick and as all hell breaks loose, he forms a catscradle of protective energies as the dream ends.