Stone Cold

[03.29.01] » by Asa Sanderson

The barbed, un-symmetric silhouette of Carrotville soaked into the blue night sky like black ink on a silkscreen. It was a boring, unproductive town; home to everybody and anybody with no ambition whatsoever. While it was rich in artifacts and history, this collective lack of motivation, and its lack of eventfulness, was what had interested archeologist Kiyoshi Taro the most. He did not like change. He never had.

That was why, when he saw the battered blonde woman lying on the beach, he seriously considered leaving her there. He didn't know who she was, he didn't know how to take care of her, and the last thing he wanted his gossipy neighbors to see was him dragging a half-naked, beat-up woman into his house.

The sea foam licked her wounds like some great white dog, removing some of the blood and seaweed. She seemed to be hugging a piece of old, warped wood to her chest. Oh, so that was it. She'd been shipwrecked. Well, if she wasn't dead, she soon would be, and Taro doubted that there was anything he could do about that. He was no medic. He made to step over her, but another wave stopped him.

When the ocean licked at her again, it dislodged the hair on her face. Taro nearly tripped when he saw her ears. Instead of rounding off, like a human's ears, they stuck out and tapered to a sharp point, like a bat's ears. An elf. That woman was an elf. Or more appropriately, that woman was Elna.

Instantly forgetting his reservations, Taro excitedly scooped the Elna woman into his arms and dashed back into town.

It was a decision he would come to regret.

***

Part One: Son of Silence

Though Aria snapped out of sleep instantly, her eyesight was still a bit groggy. She was seeing nothing but a giant yellow, red, and gray smear, and it was taking its bloody time coming into focus. She closed her eyes (they felt as if they'd been sanded) and massaged her temples. Every inch of her body ached. It felt like her arm was chronically bruised, perhaps even broken. She groaned.

"Drink this."

What startled Aria about the voice wasn't its depth, though that was impressive. It was the cold apathy that seemed to permeate it. If a cavern could talk, that was how it would sound. It shocked her so much that she almost choked on the water that was pressed to her lips.

"I think you inhaled enough water in the ocean. Now will you try drinking some?"

Aria opened her eyes, and this time she could make out most everything. She was half-sitting in an ornately-carved wooden bed. There were some candles and a lantern on a dresser across from her bed, and a rather garish, old-looking marble statue beside the dresser. To her right, there was a door leading to a cluttered study, and to her left, there was a man in a wicker chair.

With his unruly shocks of dark hair and his narrow face, the man sitting beside her bed was very handsome. However, his beauty was marred by his expression. He looked as if he constantly had a nasty taste in his mouth. "Do you remember your name?"

"Aria," She said. "You?"

"Call me Taro. Do you remember the date?"

"It's Tuesday. The third day of Lumineste. A week before Varuna celebrates Independence, if I'm not mistaken."

"For someone who nearly swam all the way to Magyscar, you're surprisingly articulate."

"Where am I now?"

"You're in Carrotville. Area: nobody cares. Population: nobody cares. Town Motto: 'Nobody cares'."

Aria laughed. "Sounds captivating. Say, can you tell me how far it is from here to Puerto Medusa?"

"Care to tell me how you ended up here, first?"

Aria propped herself on her elbows. "I'm a doctor from Paco village. Certainly you've heard about the Pirate Queen?"

"I don't hear much of anything around here," Taro said, refilling the water cup and placing it in Aria's hands.

"Ruby, Queen of the Pirates, hasn't woken up for a week now. Her body temperature is steadily dropping, and she's screaming and struggling in her sleep. Her brothers sent letters to all the finest specialists in the land, offering a million gilder to anyone who's able to diagnose and cure this sleeping sickness."

"And you happen to be one of the finest specialists in the land."

"Actually," Aria blushed, "Nobody outside of Paco knows who I am. One of Ruby's brothers, Flint, studies swordsmanship with me. Right before he left for Medusa, he asked me if I'd come see if I could help."

"I take it he knows you're capable of reading a sleeping woman's mind."

"Only if traditional medicine doesn't work." Aria brushed her hair over her pointy ears and sipped her water. "Barely an hour after my ship left port, we hit a typhoon. The ship started to break up. The sailors were frantic; they'd never seen a storm that bad, they said. And that's about all I remember of it." She pouted. "How did you know I was a Dream Walker?"

"All Elna are."

"How do you know what an Elna is? There aren't many of us elves around these days; as far as I know, I'm the only one that still goes by that name."

"I'm an archeologist, since you obviously missed that." He nodded to the old statue.

"You dig that up here?"

"Yes."

"What is it?"

"Melzas."

"What's a Melzas?"

For the first time since she'd woken up in his bed, Aria thought she saw a flicker of a smile on Taro's face. "An ancient deity. The so-called Nightmare King. King Snow allegedly forced his subjects to worship the man, and put up statues like this all over the world."

"Are there a lot of them?"

"No. It seems the old King had a bit of a mood swing, decided he didn't like Melzas, and had all the statues he'd commissioned destroyed. Finding one intact is nigh-unheard of. And one of this kind, too!" Taro stood and caressed the statue's face. "His eyes are closed. These were rare, even when images of Melzas were abundant."

"What did he do? Keep nightmares away?"

"The myths say he caused them."

"A bunch of nutters were worshiping a guy because he gave them nightmares?"

"Essentially. They say he implanted seeds in people- Soul Leeches, they were called- and as their souls were devoured by the seeds, their nightmares became worse, and harder to wake from. In the end, they simply... couldn't wake up. Oh, yes, this was one terrible fellow."

Aria looked from the statue, to the gaping Taro, then back to the statue again. "Should I leave you two alone?"

Taro's brow furrowed. "Um... why?"

"Never mind. It was a joke."

"Oh. My apologies." He shook his head. "Yes, I've excavated some good artifacts here. I think I'm close to a major discovery. And to answer your question, we're approximately seven miles off the coast of Puerto Medusa. You could probably get a ship three-fourths the way there, then make the rest by rowboat."

"Great!" Aria tried to stand up. "Do you know where I could get one?"

"Ahem."

"What?"

"Do you think it wise, doctor, to attempt something so strenuous after your near-fatal accident?"

"I'd like to get there before my patient dies."

"Even if it kills you?"

"I'm stronger than I look, you know." Aria tried to stand and tumbled to the floor. "I'm sure this is nothing a good night's sleep won't cure."

Looking more sour than ever, Taro scooped her up and shoved her back into bed. "I am not as sure. The rowing alone would probably kill you."

"Oh, you are? Thank you."

"Excuse me?"

"That is, you're volunteering to row me to Puerto Medusa, right?"

"Actually, I wasn't."

"I was teasing."

"No, you weren't."

"Yes I was."

"No, you weren't."

"Yes, I- oh, confound it. Whatever this silly argument is about, you win."

"No, I don't."

"Yes you-" Aria narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. "I'm going to sleep now."

"Admit it. You're interested in my work."

"I'm interested in your work," Aria said drearily.

"And my mythological take on pattern nightmares fascinates you."

"Your mythological take on pattern nightmares fascinates me."

"And that is really why you wanted me to go to Ruby's lair with you. You think she's suffering from a pattern nightmare, and you find my insight invaluable."

"Ditto."

Taro clamped his hands together. "I never could resist such an earnest plea. I'd be glad to accompany you."

"You'll go? Really?"

"I can bring all of my books on the subject... though I've written most of them, to tell you the truth... they'll still be informative, I'm sure. And I can take this, and one of these might come in handy, oh, and here's an ice wand, you never know when you'll need one of those!"

Aria had to wonder why Taro had gone from being cold and distant to eager and hyper in a split second, but she didn't have much time to. Sitting up in bed, drinking water, and talking had put more strain on her than she'd thought, and she soon found herself drifting to sleep. Even as she did, however, she could hear him chattering in the background.

"...and some herbs... and some explosives... let's just get this over with as soon as we can, all right? I don't want to be away from home any longer than I have to..."

***

Aria had heard that the weather in Puerto Medusa never went bad. She didn't know how true that was, but it was pleasantly balmy when she and Taro pulled into the docks. With its swaying palm trees, sparkling white tile, and stretching beaches, it looked less like a pirate refuge and more like a ritzy resort. Ruby's home certainly didn't detract from that image. Its hilltop location only made its hanging tropical gardens and ivory bricks look even more exclusive. It impressed Taro far more than Aria.

"I haven't seen anything this beautiful in a long time."

"You lead a sheltered life, friend." Aria shifted her heavy backpack (which Taro had kindly prepared for her) and knocked on the rich oaken door.

The door opened, and two people emerged. One, a strapping redhead, Aria knew. That was Flint. The tall pirate with the glasses must be Albert.

"Aria?" He asked, sounding desperate.

Flint nodded. "That's her, all right. But who're you?"

Aria looked over her shoulder at Taro, who looked as if he'd just been force-fed a rancid grapefruit. "This is the... alternative medicine specialist... Kiyoshi Taro."

"I'm Albert, Ruby's brother? I cannot express my effusive gladness at your timely arrival; when I'd heard the fate of your vessel, I'd virtually relinquished hope!"

Aria scratched her head.

"I was worried, too," Flint said.

"Ruby's chambers are this way," Albert grabbed her hand.

Aria and Taro were led through vast, sweeping hallways of marble, up winding staircases, and through rooms draped in lavish velvet. Albert talked nervously the whole way there, though, so neither of them were able to get a good look at any of it.

"The whole episode started three weeks ago. Ruby had been falling asleep sporadically for about two weeks before that, and one day, she just... dropped. Right at the end of dinner. She fell asleep in the sugar plum pudding. It was horrifying." He threw his skinny arms in the air. "Since then, physicians from as far as Fire Mountain have been in and out of here. So far, none of them has been able to even diagnose, much less cure, Ruby's condition. I'm going insane." He turned and grabbed Aria's collar. "I don't want to lose my sister like this!"

Flint pulled Aria's shirt free. "If she has anything to say about it, we're not going to."

Albert led them into another velvet-clad room. This one's centerpiece was a humongous construction that wasn't so much a bed as a body-sized feather pillow. It was also draped in expensive cloths, and laying on it was Ruby. When they entered the room, as if on cue, she let out an earsplitting shriek and began jabbing into the air in front of her.

"She's gotten worse," Albert mumbled, collapsing into a nearby chair.

Flint collapsed into the chair beside him while Aria examined Ruby. She checked her pulse. Dangerously low, just like her blood pressure and temperature. She checked her breathing. It sounded very shallow. Worst of all, during the course of her examination, Aria found no physical reason for Ruby to be displaying those symptoms. She put the tools Albert had furnished her with away and took a step back.

Taro leaned over her shoulder. "Well, child? What do you think?

Child? He couldn't be a year older than Aria! She grit her teeth. "I can't be sure."

Taro snapped his fingers. "You think it's a sentient nightmare!"

"There's only one way to be sure."

Flint stood from his chair. "You're going to-"

"Anything, so long as it works!" Albert moaned.

"My... er... assistant will explain the details to you while I'm doing this. I'll need to concentrate."

"I'm not your assistant," Taro snapped. Then his face softened. "Regardless, you will relate what you see there?"

"If it'll help you write another book, you bet I will."

"Pretentious smart ass."

"You've got a lot of nerve calling me pretentious."

Aria took Ruby's hand and began to feel for her pulse.

"What she's doing," Taro explained, "Is timing Ruby's heartbeat. She'll need to do the same for the breathing. Aria has to try and breath at the same time Ruby does."

Aria started counting backwards from ten.

"Now she's putting herself to sleep. Excuse me, I'll probably have to stand behind her so she doesn't fall over."

Five... four... three... two...

One second later, Aria was no longer in Ruby's beautiful house in the temperate Puerto Medusa. She saw a flash of light, and a tunnel of green, and then she was in a frigid, tangled labyrinth of mirrors, broken ships, and endless waters.

Aria was in Ruby's nightmare.

***

Though Ruby's nightmare looked like a tangled labyrinth, it was fairly straightforward. Ruby didn't seem to be an analytical person, as a lot of the icons in her dreams- ships sailing on the undersides of mirrors, animate hairbrushes crawling along the ground like insects- defied logic. That was why Aria was so shocked when she ran into a robot. It wasn't part of the nightmare. When it saw Aria coming, it turned and ran, vanishing into a mirror.

Aria turned one more corner and nearly had a heart attack.

She was standing on the deck of a ghost ship; its planks were translucent beneath her feet. A few feet in front of Aria, Ruby lay face down, her thick golden streams of hair completely obscuring her face and most of her back. A few feet in front of Ruby, a rotting, maggot-pasty torso flexed its long claws and opened the gaping maw on its chest.

Aria leapt over Ruby. The monster would try to swallow Ruby's soul, but as long as Aria was standing in front of her, it wouldn't be able to. Feeling in her backpack, Aria fished out a pack of explosives without taking her eyes off the monster. Aria had only seen one of these creatures once before, but she remembered how to defeat it- three blasts of this explosive would blast it back to Magyscar.

The maw on the creature's chest opened again, and this time, it began to draw in its surroundings. Aria lit the first explosive and threw it. It hit home. The creature roared, closed its mouth, and sat to examine the new intruder.

Aria drew the second explosive and waited. If the last one she'd fought were typical, these brutes were ugly, but not too bright. Sure enough, after a few minutes of thought, the monster opened its mouth and again tried to swallow Ruby. Aria held her back and tossed the second explosive.

She didn't wait for it to close its mouth. Leaving Ruby, Aria charged the monster, sticking her hand halfway down its throat and depositing the explosive. She ran back and threw herself over Ruby. Again, she only had one other experience to go by, but the last monster she'd faced had tried to take her out with it.

This one did, too. It tried to suck her and Ruby in before the bomb went off. Aria held onto Ruby, trying to keep hold on the vaporous deck at the same time. Just when she thought she wouldn't be able to hold on any longer, the monster exploded.

There was another tunnel of green, and Aria was jerked violently out of Ruby's nightmare.

***

"I first came across them in Paco," Aria said, poking at the meat on her plate with her silver fork.

Ruby sat across from Aria, looking bleary-eyed but happy. Albert sat beside Ruby, while Flint and Taro sat on either side of Aria. Taro wasn't eating anything; he'd sworn he wasn't hungry. That struck Aria as odd. She hadn't seen him take a bite of anything vaguely resembling food since she'd met him.

Flint nodded. "I should say so. The damn thing was inside of me."

Ruby choked. "There was one of those icky things in you, too? Why didn't you say something?"

"I must agree with Ruby; a little information would have been much appreciated," Albert said.

Flint waved the question away. "I've been studying with Master Jeehan, as you know. Aria there is another one of his students. I passed out during one of our sessions, and she entered my dream to see what was wrong. She saved my life; it's how I found out she could Dream Walk."

"Saved your life? I nearly killed you, and me, too!"

"What exactly happened?" Taro asked.

"In my dream, I was trapped inside of a great machine. There was a monster there; it kept trying to eat me. Aria tried stabbing it, but her sword didn't do any damage. She couldn't wound its chest or its head. In the end, she fed it some of Jeehan's firecrackers. That's what finally killed it."

"I saw the same monster in Ruby's dream."

Taro leaned on his elbow. "Can you describe this monster for me?"

"It was big- about as big as this house, in fact. It was white. It had an old man's face and torso, but no legs, and a giant mouth in its chest."

Taro's reaction frightened Aria. He stood angrily and thumped the table; for a minute, Aria thought he'd overturn it. "Impossible! Utterly absurd!"

Flint stood and tried to stare him down. "Are you saying that Aria's lying?"

"I saw it, too," Ruby said. "It looked exactly like Aria said."

"You don't seem to be hearing me." Taro crossed his arms. "Aria is describing a mythological creature!"

This time, Aria stood. "That's lovely. Now sit down!"

Taro's grimace dissolved into a look of confusion. He obeyed. In a minute, he was scowling again.

"Now, Taro," Aria said. "I was under the impression that you wanted to come because you believed that there was some truth to those myths. Was my impression wrong?"

Taro mumbled like a scolded child. "No."

"Then why do you think I'm lying?"

"I don't think you're lying, any of you. It's just that..." He shook his head, and for a second, he just gawked at the tablecloth as if he expected it to come to life and strangle him. "If you really saw what you say you did, we are in more danger than you could possibly comprehend."

Flint tried to say something, but Aria silenced him with a quick hand motion. "Why?"

"Because what you're describing," Taro got a rather sadistic smile on his face, "Is a Soul Leech!"

***

The Soul Leech may have been important business, but Flint seemed to think he had even more important business. The next morning, when the sun had barely began to soak through the sky, he shook Aria awake.

"I'm going down to the beach to mail this." He shook a very boring looking brown package. "It's great in the morning; you should come."

"Can I bring Taro?"

"I don't see why you'd want to."

"He may be a bit grouchy, but he did save my life."

"Yes, but do you want to be the one who wakes him up?"

Aria thought about it and decided that she didn't.

The beach was indeed lovely in the morning. The sun reflected in the sky and the water, and a perfumed breeze cooled the sand. After a quick stop in town (Aria wanted to use some of her reward to buy her own things so she could return Taro's), they spent a good half-hour walking on the coast. Flint occupied his time by tossing the brown package into the air and catching it again. Aria followed its arc from Flint's hands, into the air, then back into his hands again. "I hope that's not fragile," She said.

"What, this? It's half an artifact from the Puerto Medusa ruins. Roswell, the Sage of Gwaba, wants to take a look at it. We hired a delivery girl to take it."

"You're only sending him half the artifact?"

"We can't find the other half."

Flint waved to a child on the beach. She stood, brushed the sand off her skirt, and approached him.

"You have the package?" She asked.

Aria looked at the girl, examining her pleated skirt, plain white shirt, and flouncing beret. She couldn't be over thirteen years old. "You're a delivery girl?"

"My name is Chelsea," She said.

Flint tossed Chelsea the package. She caught it and immediately turned to leave. "Hey!" Flint called after her.

"What?"

"Be careful with that. It's fragile."

She nodded. Her dark hair swished with the nod, and banked as she turned and ran down the beach.

"Such a pretty girl."

Aria swung around and found herself face-to-face with a tall, slender woman with violet hair and a low-cut, blood red dress. She looked out of place in Puerto Medusa; then again, as pallid as she was, she'd look out of place on any beach.

"Yeah," Aria said. "Real cute."

"I didn't mean the delivery girl," The woman said, "I meant you."

Aria and Flint exchanged glances.

"It's a shame that you won't live to see your next birthday. Not if HE has his way."

"'He'."

"Why, Melzas, of course." She gave a slight smile. "He never did like your kind. He fancies the realm of the subconscious his personal grounds, and you are an unwelcome intruder. He'll do anything to evict you. Kill you. Kill your friends. And don't think he can't. He even killed the immortal Zolist Nava."

"Melzas didn't kill Nava."

A shadow fell over the woman. She, Aria, and Flint turned to see Taro coming up the beach, looking as if someone had just called his mother a plethora of vulgar names.

The woman frowned. "I beg to differ. When he found out that Nava was aiding the Elna, he killed him."

"Melzas never laid a finger on Nava." Taro crossed his arms. "An incubus called Zorgia killed Nava. Any idiot with an anthology of myths could tell you that."

The woman flushed, but soon regained her bearings. "And I suppose you're an expert?"

"I happen to be."

"Then you of all people should know that the recent string of nightmares can only be one thing. You know that it once before happened in the small village of Inoa; that Melzas destroyed the townspeople one by one, even felling a powerful telepath, until the Elna heroes Meia and Alundra took his life!"

"Melzas didn't kill that 'powerful telepath'- whose name is Nadia, by the way- either. One of Melzas's underlings, a succubus, fell in love with Nadia's lover, Bonaire. When he wouldn't submit to her out of love for Nadia, the succubus killed her in a jealous rage. You do, however, have one thing right, Madam: Meia and Alundra killed Melzas. As in, he's dead. Never coming back."

She tossed her hair. "My name is Eva. And I suppose that you have a perfectly rational explanation for the reappearance of the Soul Leeches!"

Taro's eyes flashed. "You know about that, eh? Word travels that fast in this town?"

"It isn't just this town, good sir. From Paco to Varuna, people are falling victim to sentient nightmares. This curse can only herald the return of the Nightmare Lord!"

"Hem. I believe he was called the Nightmare King." Taro brushed past Eva, intentionally jostling her, and stood besides Aria. "I suggest you read up a bit before trying to further spread this garbage. I'll even point you to a library."

Eva stamped her high-heeled foot on the sand, then turned and stomped off.

Flint glared. "You didn't have to be so rude."

Aria watched Eva retreating. "Why were you so critical of her?"

Taro snorted. "Come now, dear, that woman didn't know half the myths she was trying to spout. She's trying to cause a panic, plain and simple."

"Why?"

"Well, isn't it obvious? Melzas, the great Nightmare... hem... Lord, is returning to gobble up your children. And of course, Eva will just happen to have charms and spells to keep him away, which she would be happy to charitably share for five or six hundred gilder. The woman's a bigger leech than the monster you chased out of Ruby's dream. That's all there is to it."

"I'm not saying Eva believes that Melzas is coming back from the dead." Aria shook her head. "I'm saying she might be right about it anyway."

"Perhaps, perhaps. But let's not let her stir up a riot until we're sure, all right?"

Flint again tried to stare Taro down. It wasn't working. No matter how hard Flint tried, he couldn't contort his friendly face to match Taro's menacing glare.

Aria looked from one to the other. "I'm going to the diner to get some coffee. Do either of you want any?"

"Caffeine is bad for your liver, doctor."

"That's one no. How about you, Flint?"

He tossed Taro one last dirty look. "Bring me a triple espresso."

Taro smirked. "You'll be up all night."

"That's the idea."

"Afraid of Melzas?"

"Suspicious of you is more like it."

"Lay your suspicions to rest. I mean you no harm."

"And you talk funny."

"So does your brother."

"Yes, but I like him."

Aria looked from on to the other again, than sighed. "Maybe I should skip the coffee and bring us all brandy," She said.

Just at that time, Albert came dashing onto the beach. "Flint, have you mailed the artifact yet?"

Flint grinned and nodded. "Just did!"

Albert slapped his forehead. "Oh, no! What horrid luck!"

"Huh?"

"The artifact's missing fragment has just been located." Albert pulled a misshapen, wrapped-up bulge from his jacket. "We could have sent the Sage the entire thing!"

Flint groaned. "Aw, man..."

Aria tugged Taro's sleeve. "Gwaba isn't too far from Carrotville, is it?"

Taro narrowed his eyes. "If you think I'm going to go out of my way for this pathetic child-"

"No, not at all! I just wanted to accompany you back to Carrotville, help you clean up the mess I made in your house. I could stop by Gwaba and drop the rest of the artifact off before returning to Paco."

Flint grabbed Aria's hand. "Oh, would you?"

"Sure!"

Taro frowned. "I'm not going with you."

"That's all right. I didn't ask you to."

"You were going to."

"No I-" Aria clamped her mouth shut, remembering how much her protests had accomplished last time. She took the wrapped-up item from Albert. "Taro, you don't have to come if you don't want to."

"That's good. Because I'm not going to."

***

The road actually seemed to get brighter as Aria left the dingy huts of Carrotville and moved onto the sparkling green plains. She'd shoved the artifact piece in her new backpack, right next to a sack of herbs and a golden bottle of Wonder Essence. Though the package rubbed against her shoulder and felt warm, she had no desire to open it and see what it contained.

Taro was a different story. He spent the first three miles complaining, and every mile after that trying to talk her into opening the package and seeing what it was.

"It's none of our business," Aria said. "If Flint and Albert had wanted us to know what this was, they wouldn't have wrapped it up."

"What they don't know won't hurt them."

"Yes it will. Flint's a good friend of mine. I'd hate myself if I looked."

"He never specifically told you not to."

"You're right. He didn't."

"So what are you waiting for?"

"For the Sage in Gwaba village to unwrap it."

"Aw, come on!"

"No."

"You're stubborn as an ass."

"You've got a lot of nerve calling me stubborn."

Taro rolled his eyes.

Aria surveyed a small clearing beside a boulder. There was a small stream running, and she could see fish swimming in it. "This looks like an ideal place to stop for lunch. Want to help me stoke the fire?"

"We could use that wrapping to light it."

"No."

Once the fire was roaring, Aria caught and steamed some fish. She thickened the broth, seasoned the meat, and begin to cut up vegetables. All the while, Taro read from one of the many books he'd brought along, casting the occasional glance at Aria's backpack. When she pulled out two bowls and started to fill them, Taro shook his head.

"I'm not-"

"Hungry? I don't see how you couldn't be. You haven't had anything to eat for three days."

"I don't eat much."

Aria raised an eyebrow. "What do you think of yourself?"

"Why the sudden change of subject?"

"I'm not changing the subject. What do you think of yourself?"

Taro scratched his head. "To be perfectly honest, I think I'm an asshole. It can't be an inaccurate assumption, either, since most people seem to agree."

"Hmm. Interesting. Do you like the way you look?"

"Ugh, not at all. I can't stand the way I look nowadays- wait a minute. Are you insinuating that I'm-"

"Anorexic."

"I'm not anorexic!"

"You're displaying most of the major symptoms."

"But I'm not!" Taro blushed heavily. "I mean... I can't be anorexic. I'm a man!"

"I'm not even going to comment on the idiocy of that statement."

"But-"

"But nothing. You're going to eat at a bowl of this. I wouldn't advise any more than that, though, not as long as you've been fasting."

And with that, Aria shoved a bowl of stew into Taro's hands.

"Honestly," He mumbled. "Of all the lousy luck, getting stranded with a doctor."

"Hey, you chose to come."

"Did I?"

"YES!"

Taro gingerly raised his bowl to his lips.

"And I don't want to catch you throwing that up, either."

"I don't throw up on purpose, if that's what you're suggesting. I'm not anorexic, I'm honestly not hungry!" He tasted a bit of the stew. "And I'll tell you something else, child, I don't appreciate-" He swallowed. "What is this?"

"What do you mean, what is it? It's trout chowder. You just watched me cook it."

"Trout chowder, eh? It's... good."

"I'm sure it is."

He finished the stew and re-filled his bowl.

"Hey, you don't want to overdo it. You'll make yourself sick."

"Right. Don't overdo it." He finished the second bowl and got a third.

"No, seriously. You can hurt yourself."

"Really, now. You ask me to eat, then you scold me when I do? That's the problem with people! You do what they want, and they still get mad at you!"

"I'm just trying to help."

"Well, so am I!"

Aria scratched her head. "And I appreciate it."

"You do?"

"Granted, you're a little weird- scratch that, you're very weird- but you do know a lot that I don't. Hell, you probably know more about the Elna than I do, and I'm Elna."

"History. That's all I know, and all I care to."

"Admirable. If you know the mistakes of the past, you won't be doomed to repeat them, to paraphrase a popular saying."

"That saying is wrong. Knowing the inevitable does not change its inevitability."

"You a fatalist?"

"I wasn't always."

Aria stared at him. For the first time, Taro's perpetual grimace had completely melted. His pretty face was thoughtful and resigned, perhaps even a little sad.

"Taro?"

He shook himself. His face resumed its natural disposition. "If it's history you want, you have come to the right person." He picked up the book beside him and tossed it to Aria. "The legend of Alundra's epic battle with Melzas. If you're interested in the Elna, I'd start with that."

Aria caught the book. "Thank you."

"If I were you," Taro said. "I would pay particularly close attention to last chapter of it."

"What's in the last chapter?"

"Alundra fails to rescue Nava, charges straight into Melzas's castle."

"Why should I pay close attention to that?"

Taro's wicked grin returned. "So you won't repeat Alundra's mistake."

Taro stood, dusted off his slacks, got a fourth bowl of chowder, and refused to say another word about it.

***

The town of Gwaba was huge. With its miles of tall stucco buildings, bustling open market, and crowds of busy citizens, it was bordering on cityhood. What it didn't have was Puerto Medusa's nice weather. Aria and Taro walked the circumference of the town in a downpour of rain, knocking on just about every office door they saw. In the end, Aria stormed into the town hall and slammed her wet hand on the Information Desk.

The tired-looking woman behind the desk stared blankly.

"I'm looking for Roswell."

"I don't know where that is."

"It's not a place, it's a person!"

The lady pulled a fat white book out, flipped to the back, read downward a ways, then looked up. "There's no Roswell in Gwaba."

"There has to be!"

"But there isn't."

"He's a Sage. I have a package for him."

"Lady, here's the register of everyone who lives in this township. There's no Roswell on it."

"But he lives here."

"You obviously have the wrong address."

"I'm pretty sure Flint said he lived in Gwaba."

"Well, Flint was wrong."

Aria shook her head. "He couldn't have been-"

Taro grabbed Aria's shoulder. "All right, ma'am, thank you for your time." He steered Aria out of the building an into the alley. "You're asking the wrong person."

"What?"

Taro steered Aria inside of the grocer's. An old man was stooped behind the counter, digging through some wooden crates. Taro clapped to get his attention.

"Pardon my interruption, sir. I was wondering if someone named... what was it, Aria? ...Roswell ever came in here."

The old man grinned. "Why, he's in here like clockwork every Sunday! Always buys himself a sack of barley, a dozen eggs, and a box o' candy. All that candy, at his age."

"Then you know where he lives?"

"Why, sure! There's a bridge separating this township from Varuna, you must have crossed it on your way in."

Aria nodded. "I know the one."

"He lives in a cave underneath it. On Varuna's side."

Aria smacked her forehead. "So that's why he wasn't in the register!"

"Thank you very much, sir." Taro forced his face into a genial smile and bowed. It looked painful.

"Don't mention it, sonny! See you around!"

Nodding, Taro turned to the door as quickly as he could so the old man couldn't see the scowl creeping back onto his face.

"Yeah, thanks!" Aria followed him out.

The old man shrugged as Aria was leaving. "Amazing." She heard him say. "That's the second person to ask for Roswell in one day. Old man must be bogged down with business."

***

The rain was still pouring when they left. In fact, it kept raining right up to the moment that Aria knocked on the Sage's door. A croaking voice answered.

"Delivery?"

"Um, yeah." Aria thought it odd that Chelsea hadn't arrived yet, with the head start she'd had. "My name's Aria. I'm here to drop off a package. It's from Flint."

The door creaked as it opened. An old, dark man with thick glasses peeked out. "You the delivery girl? You look a lot older than the usual."

Aria explained what had happened in Puerto Medusa.

"Oh. Well, in that case, come on in, out of the rain."

Aria and Taro entered. Taro had to duck to get through the Sage's small door.

Roswell limped to a very cluttered table and began throwing papers and books all over the place. "Pardon the mess, I'm a busy man. What, with all the sleeping problems going on lately, I've been swamped with people looking for remedies. I don't know any, of course, but I tell 'em all kinds of stuff. Chicken soup with extra garlic and whatnot. Makes 'em feel better, and gets 'em out of my house. You just set the puppy right down here, okay?"

Aria dropped her soaked backpack on the floor and began to dig into it. Roswell must have been looking at the contents over her shoulder. He pulled a book from his shelf.

"Ah, the Book of Alundra! I got a copy myself, right here."

"Taro gave it to me," Aria said, not looking up from her search, "He studies that kind of stuff."

"My, my, my!" Roswell shook Taro's hand. "I'm so pleased to meet you, mister Taro. Or... have I met you before? I'll be darned if you don't look familiar."

"Maybe you've read some of my books. I've noticed several on your shelves."

"Oh, you're Kiyoshi Taro!" Roswell nodded. "Must say, your books are informative, if not blatantly controversial at times."

Aria finally located the package. She deposited it on Roswell's desk. "Controversial? How could a myth be controversial?"

Roswell smiled. "Your friend here is a bit lenient towards the Nightmare King. I've heard people accuse him of being a follower."

Taro sank into a chair. "Hmpf. Just because I acknowledge that several deaths and crimes accredited to Melzas actually had nothing to do with him, and that the oldest, least-tainted myths will document that, I'm a follower? Rubbish. I'm as angry with him as anyone else."

Aria remembered the way Taro had been almost lustfully looking at his statue of Melzas, and decided that she had her doubts about that.

"He also seems to think that King Snow, famous for his productive rule and ingenious political system, was an absolute bastard."

"Just because I don't think he was as saintly as some of the myths make him out to be doesn't mean that I think he was an absolute bastard. A bastard, maybe, but not an ABSOLUTE bastard."

"But that's not what incenses his critics the most. His most incendiary theory, and a theory I happen to share, is the theory that Alundra did not kill Melzas."

"What?"

"Many of the myths say that it was Alundra who set Melzas ablaze with his fire wand." Taro folded his hands. "I am one of the rare who believe that, in the original mythology, it was Alundra's fellow Dream Walker, Meia, who struck the mortal blow."

"Why does it matter wether it was Alundra or Meia?"

"Ah," Roswell settled behind his desk and smiled, "Now there's a mystery. All of the existing versions of the Alundra myth agree that Meia had originally agreed to stay out of Alundra's fight with Melzas. She felt Melzas responsible for the death of her mother-"

"One of many murders Melzas was accredited with that he did not actually commit," Taro added.

"-and she knew that, with that anger clouding her mind, she could not defeat Melzas in battle. So when Alundra went to the Lake Shrine to fight Melzas, Meia wisely promised to stay behind to protect the villagers. And here is where the story begins to split. Some versions of the myth say that Meia stayed with the villagers the whole time Alundra fought with Melzas."

"While other versions of the myth say that she broke her promise at the last minute, charged into the Lake Shrine, and killed Melzas herself." Taro raised his hand. "I have always believed those myths to be the originals."

"I still don't see why it matters which version you pick. He's equally dead either way."

"Therein lies the paradox," Taro said, sounding as superior as he ever had. "In the old myths, the ones where both Alundra and Meia confronted Melzas, there was an hour's gap between the time Meia left the Lake Shrine and the time Alundra left. No one has come across any myths that document what happened in that hour's time. Since the paradox does not exist in the later versions of the myth, there is no mystery in them."

"So, can't you just find this Lake Shrine and look around it?"

"Supposedly, seven magical gemstone seals held the Lake Shrine above the water. Alundra removed them after he left, sinking the place. Nobody knows where it is any more."

"Ditto for Inoa," Roswell sighed. "It dried up and blew away, and now nobody knows where to find it. Some say it none of it ever existed; that the Shrine and the town of Inoa are as mythological as the stories about them."

"Neither of you seem to think so."

"Every myth has some basis in fact," Roswell said.

"That artifact," Taro said. "What is it?"

Roswell unwrapped the package and held up a bit of twisted metal. "It isn't something you'd be interested in, given your era. It's half a cog from Mephisto the Mad's early bio-robotic work."

Taro's face fell. "Oh. Is that all?"

"I'm afraid so. The second half should be here any minute now. Tarnation, where is that thing?"

"When the rain started, she probably stopped and found a place to-"

A long, shrill scream ripped through the air.

Roswell, Aria, and Taro tumbled over each other trying to get to the door of the Sage's tiny living room. They also tried to exit the door at the same time. In the end, they all but squeezed through it together and dashed to the top of the bridge (Aria had to help Roswell climb the stairs). They crossed it. The screaming kept going; it was coming from the marketplace. Roswell got there first, and whatever he saw caused him to skid to a jarring halt. Aria crashed into him, and Taro crashed into Aria.

"What is it?"

"I don't believe it!"

Chelsea was laying in a tangled market flag. Her dark hair, soaked from the rain, hung in little curls, and her cute little beret lay a few feet away from her outstretched hand. Flint's package sat, drenched but otherwise unmolested, at her feet.

A woman was standing beside her, screaming her lungs out. Roswell pushed right past her, to Chelsea, and began to choke. "I can't feel a pulse, it doesn't look like she's breathing-"

Aria pushed past Roswell and began to examine the girl. At first, Aria spotted no injury; it was as if she'd decided to lay down and take a nap in the middle of the street. When she got to Chelsea's head, however, she saw a large, bleeding wound, nearly concealed by her dark hair. A simple hit to the head, even on Gwaba's stone streets, would not have caused a wound this deep. Aria felt for her pulse. She put her ear to her chest.

"Roswell-"

"This can't be!"

"Roswell, someone bludgeoned her, but she's alive. Barely." She turned to the sobbing woman. "You! Is there a hospital near?"

The woman stopped yelling, but she didn't speak. She just simpered.

"We don't have time for this!" Aria snapped off another market's canopy and made a makeshift carrier. She carefully transferred Chelsea to it. "Roswell, direct us to a hospital. Taro, get over here and help me with this. You too, ma'am!"

Taro calmly obeyed. The woman took a bit longer to process what Aria had said, but soon came over and helped Aria and Taro lift Chelsea off the ground.

The woman shivered. "You- you say someone hit her?"

Aria nodded.

"Who'd do that to a child?"

"Someone desperate." Taro eyed Chelsea's face with an analytical scowl. "Someone very desperate."

***

"Why did they attack her, if it wasn't for the package?" Taro said.

Aria, Taro, Roswell, and the woman that had found Chelsea were all in the hospital's sterile lobby. All but Taro had been sitting in uncomfortable chairs for the past hour. Taro had been pacing the whole time, incoherently mumbling to himself. He was starting to make Aria nervous.

A man in a white coat approached them. "Are any of you relatives of Chelsea Quinn?"

They shook their heads. "She's a delivery girl," Roswell said. "I've got the name of her company, maybe you can contact them."

"That would be great. May I talk to you?"

He led Roswell off, talking in a hushed voice all the way down the hall.

The woman was still shaking when she finally turned to Aria. "You're a doctor, right? Is... is that little girl going to live?"

Aria took a deep breath. She didn't want to say that she didn't think Chelsea would make it through the night. "It's too early to tell."

The woman looked down. "How will we ever find the monster that did this?"

"I don't know," Aria said.

Taro jerked. "Aria. Aria, would you come here for a second."

When Aria approached Taro, he leaned over to her and whispered. "Can you enter that girl's mind?"

"Only if she's dreaming or reminiscing. Comatose people don't dream, and they don't have the brain activity to remember anything."

"But is she in a coma?"

"I didn't have a lot of time to make a diagnosis. Why?"

"If you entered her dream, you might be able to get access to her memories. You might be able to see her attacker's face."

Aria grasped Taro's hand. He looked so pale and shaken. Of course, under the given circumstances, anyone with half a heart would, but it was so uncharacteristic of him that she couldn't help but feel sympathy. "She's not allowed visitors, and she probably won't be until tomorrow. By then, I daresay it'll be too late."

"Can't you sneak in? They've done all their tests; nobody's in the room right now."

"They'll be checking on her all night. Besides, I wouldn't get as far as the door."

"Why?"

Aria nodded to the woman, who was staring blankly at her and Taro.

"Do you suppose I could distract her?"

"How?"

"Take her to the cafeteria or something?"

Aria approached the woman, who had fallen back into sobbing. "Ma'am, what's your name?"

"L-Lucille."

"Hello, Lucille. They're not going to let us see Chelsea tonight. My friend's going to get some coffee; why don't you go with him?"

Lucille nodded.

Taro passed Aria on his way downstairs. "Good luck."

"Thanks. I'll need it."

Easing the door open, Aria slipped into Chelsea's room.

***

Chelsea was laying in a white cot, breathing unevenly. The wound on her head had been bandaged, but blood was soaking through. The wound was worse than Aria had first thought. Even if Chelsea survived, she wouldn't be the same. Entire sections of her personality would be gone. Aria clenched her teeth.

Aria set everything up. She pulled a chair from the wall, sat it beside Chelsea's bed, and opened the Book of Alundra on it. If anyone did walk in during this, it would look as if Aria had fallen asleep reading to Chelsea. She'd still be in trouble, but she was willing to risk it to catch whoever had done this.

She laid her head on the book, making a pillow of it. She took Chelsea's wrist.

Five...

Her eyes blurred the words on the page. She thought she could make out several of them. Melzas, Alundra...

Four...

Aria suddenly panicked. Irrational thoughts were flooding her. What if, on entering Chelsea's mind, she did see Chelsea's attacker? What if that attacker wasn't human? What if it was a hideous monster straight from one of these fairy tales?

Three...

What if she were confronted by the Nightmare King himself, in all his grotesque, immortal glory?

Two...

What if she saw nothing? What if Chelsea's mind was a black, dreamless void?

One...

What if Chelsea died while Aria was in her mind?

***

The rain clouds were just starting to form overhead when Aria saw Chelsea running down Gwaba's dock. "I shouldn't have stopped to talk to that lady; now I'll never get there before the storm starts!"

Aria dashed after her.

After a long run, Chelsea came to a halt in the market, and with good reason. Perched on top of a canopy like queen on her throne, dressed in her seductive red dress and delicate high heels, was Eva. She seemed to be toying with a bit of ribbon.

"You again?" Chelsea put her hands on hips. "How did you get ahead of me?"

Eva shuddered, then descended the canopy with a swish. "You're Chelsea Quinn, right? You're headed to Roswell's house?"

"Yes and, I'm in a hurry. I want to get there before it starts raining."

Eva came close to Chelsea, gaping at her as if she'd started glowing green. "Little girl. Can you tell me if you've had any nightmares lately?"

"Actually, I haven't." Chelsea shrugged. "My mother was attacked by one. It's what killed her. My best friend, too. But I haven't had any."

"Of course... it must be protecting you."

"Protecting me? No, I just think I have a boring mind, s' all."

"Boring? Oh, dear. Your mind is anything but boring. It's so special that you couldn't possibly imagine."

"Lady, you're starting to scare me."

"It's not me you should be afraid of, little girl. Do you know what you hold in your dreams? Do you? A gemstone. One of the seven that so long ago supported Melzas in his shrine-like tomb."

"That's nice. I have to go now."

Chelsea turned; right into a heavy blow from a wooden plank. It knocked her back, into the canopy. Holding it was-

"Eva, dearest."

Eva shook as she watched the thing approach her.

"You shouldn't be here. This kind of grisly work will likely upset you."

Was it Melzas? Aria didn't know. He didn't look like Taro's statue of Melzas. First of all, Melzas didn't have huge bat wings, and this thing did. Second, despite his soft blue flesh, long, bright red hair, and impossibly tiny waist, the thing had an air of obscene humanity.

"You didn't have to hit her so hard," Eva mumbled.

"Really?"

The thing shouldered the plank and hit Chelsea again. Eva covered her eyes. "Valsen!"

Valsen laughed. "For such a dangerous woman, you're awfully squeamish." He smacked Chelsea a third time, just for emphasis, then knelt beside her body.

Aria covered her mouth when she saw what he did next. Using one of his sharp nails, Valsen began to dig into the wound in Chelsea's head. Eva was looking sick, too.

"Oh, come now. You shouldn't be here, as I said. You know what your job is. You convince everyone that the great Melzas has returned from the grave to wreak vengeance upon them, so that by the time the people figure out what's really going on, it'll be too late for them to do anything about it. I find the carriers and steal the crests from their dreams. Is that so difficult for you to comprehend?"

"I comprehend it fine, thank you." Eva narrowed her eyes. "I simply came to see that you didn't abuse her any more than is necessary."

"A fine job you did, too." He mocked. "Did you find the last one that disturbing?"

"I'll be glad when this whole sordid ordeal is over, that's for certain."

"This sordid ordeal isn't ever going to end. It's just beginning. Three more crests, that's all I need." Valsen pulled something yellow and shiny from Chelsea's wound and grinned wickedly. "You know who has the next one."

Eva frowned. "You won't kill her. You're not going to kill the Baron's daughter."

"I can't promise anything. Incubi kill. It's what we do."

Eva slapped him. He seemed to think it was funny.

"Ha! You should be happy. Can you imagine how susceptible people will be to your stories, once they find their beloved baroness so brutally... injured... during their holiday celebrations? Can you imagine the panic we'll cause? You ought to love it."

"Well, I don't."

Suddenly, the memory started to fade. The figures of Valsen and Eva began to darken and flicker, like candles. The scene was going black.

Chelsea was dying.

As quickly as she could, Aria pulled back out of the little girl's dream.

***

Aria stood from her chair, threw the Book of Alundra onto it, and started to revive Chelsea. She screamed for the nurses as she tried to resuscitate the girl. Nurses and doctors flooded the room, and three of them pushed her away and took over her job. She slumped into the chair, too tired to care that she was sitting on Taro's book.

***

"The Baron's daughter. That's what Eva said," Aria said weakly.

Aria was now in a hospital bed. Taro was at her bedside. Aria hadn't come out very good. Because she'd waited so long to pull out of Chelsea's dying mind, she'd lost a lot of energy. She'd expended the little she'd had left trying to keep Chelsea alive. Now she was laying flat on her back in the same hospital she'd carried Chelsea to, feeling worse than she had upon waking up from her shipwreck. That hadn't stopped Taro from pumping her for every detail of Chelsea's dream. She'd just finished recounting it for the second time.

Taro was clenching and unclenching his fist. "I knew that woman was trouble. I knew it when I first laid eyes on her."

"Her partner's a lot more trouble than she is."

"Tell me about this partner of hers again."

"He was blue, he had red hair, he had wings, his name was Valsen. He said he was an incubus."

"Zorgia was an incubus, and he was never that base."

Aria shot straight up in bed and grabbed Taro's collar. "This isn't Zorgia we're dealing with, Taro! This isn't a fairy tale! This is a real live monster, and he's going to attack the Baron's daughter and dig a hole in her head looking for some gemstone!" Aria laid back and thought. "I wonder if he means Varuna's deposed Baron, Diaz."

"Does he have a daughter?"

"One. Her name is Natasha. You know, come to think of it, he mentioned attacking 'over the holidays'. Varuna's celebrating Independence in three days!" Aria brushed her hair back. "We've got to warn her."

"Warning her won't do any good. Varuna will be crowded. Even if the security were adequate, and in Varuna it typically isn't, Valsen could take Natasha, get lost in the crowd, and kill her before anybody could locate him. In fact, I'm willing to bet that's exactly what he plans to do."

"He's a blue, bat-winged monster! How could he not stand out?"

"For one thing, incubi can shape-shift. For another, don't you know anything about Varuna? Everyone dresses up for the celebration! Even if he does walk around in public in his natural form, they'll just think he's wearing a particularly clever costume!"

Aria tossed her hands up, wrinkling her covers. "All right, then, we'll find her and follow her around. When Valsen attacks her, we'll be right there."

"What excuse would a country doctor and a controversial archaeologist have to follow around the Baron's daughter, may I ask?"

"None. That's why we're going to do it stealthily. You just said Varuna has bad security. Maybe we can use that to our advantage."

"Aria, we'll get lost in the crowd! We'll never be able to keep track of her!"

"We're going to have to think of something," Aria said. She laid back on her pillow, but sat right back up again. "I've got it!"

"What?"

"Eva!" Aria punched her palm. "She'll be making a spectacle of herself, trying to convince people that Melzas is causing their nightmares. But she'll also tail Valsen. She's trying to convince him to let Natasha live. All we have to do is find and follow her, and since she'll be doing anything she can to draw attention to herself, that should be no problem!"

"That sounds like a lot of problems," Taro sighed, "But I can't do any better. All right, I suppose I can live with it."

"You're going?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"You always have a choice."

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do."

"No, I don't."

"And just why not?"

"Because I have to know what Valsen wants the seven crests for!"

"Still trying to write your book, eh? Stir up more controversy in the popular and disputatious field of Elna mythology?"

"I was right before. You're a smart ass."

"Aren't I?"

Taro looked as if he'd do something he hadn't done since Aria met him: laugh heartily. He blushed and turned away. "Heavens, what am I thinking?"

"I don't know. I'm not in your mind right now."

Taro blushed even more, and this time, he looked panicked. "Er, Aria, old buddy! You'd never do that to me, would you? Go digging around in my mind while I'm asleep?"

"Not unless I had no other choice. Why?"

"I suspect it's treacherous territory."

He was making that sad face again. "By that, do you mean it's incredibly vast, or just a deserted wasteland?"

Taro fell off his chair. When he managed to pull himself back onto it, he was redder than ever, and snickering uncontrollably. "That is... my dreams... they're..." He covered his face. "I don't dream."

"Sure you do. Everybody does."

"Not me."

"What you mean is that you don't remember your dreams after you wake up."

"No," Taro looked up. "No, I mean I don't dream. At all."

"You don't think you dream."

"I don't dream."

"Okay. Whatever you say."

"You're patronizing me."

"Anything to shut you up."

Taro was shocked at first, but after a few minutes, he began to laugh. Aria smiled. It sounded like it had been a long time since he'd laughed un-cynically, and it did wonders for his appearance. He straightened up, and for the first time since Aria had met him, looked relaxed.

"Say, Taro. Can I ask you a favor?"

"What kind of favor?"

"Would you get in my backpack, grab the Book of Alundra, and start reading it to me?"

"I've about got it memorized, but all right."

Aria closed her eyes. She heard Taro rustling around for a few minutes, then the chair screeched as he sat back down.

"It was said that, back in the days of magic, there was a young Elna named Alundra. He spent most of his days traveling the country, looking for new adventures, as he hated staying in one place for too long..."

***

Half of the day was gone before Aria was finally released. At that rate, Aria thought they needed to make good time to get to Varuna before the celebration started. Which was why she could have kicked Taro for what he did in town.

It wasn't raining when Aria and Taro left the hospital. They were picking their way through town, heading towards the bridge, when it happened. When they got to the marketplace, Taro took one look at the wrecked stands where they'd found Chelsea, turned, yanked open the door of the first building he saw, slipped in, and slammed it behind him.

Aria followed him. It was unusually dark in the building he'd picked, so she didn't see Taro leaning against the wall until she'd almost bumped into him. "Hey. You okay?"

"Do I look okay?"

A misty voice emerged from the darkness. "Is there a problem? One I could help you with, perhaps?"

Following her voice, a misty woman emerged from the darkness. She was dressed in pastel blue from head to toe. Literally. Both her hair and her toenails had been colored to match.

Taro looked at her outfit in consternation. "Who are you?"

She folded her hands. "I am Omega, fortune teller. You have stumbled upon my shop."

"A fortune teller? Oh, of all the lousy luck."

Aria snorted. "I don't suppose you could tell us what's going to happen to us in Varuna."

Omega shrugged. "I'm a fortune teller, not a psychic. However, I could tell you who your true love will be."

"I don't think we've got the time for something like that." Aria gestured to Taro. "Once my friend here is feeling better-"

"How long will it take?"

"It never takes me over fifteen minutes to read a person."

Taro's face worked back into it's sadistic half-smile, half grimace. "All right, then. Tell me who my true love is."

Aria raised an eyebrow. "Taro? Do you think maybe this is fifteen minutes we don't have?"

Omega sat down in a puffy chair and motioned for Taro to do the same. "I will need to ask you a few questions first. You must answer them as quickly as you can- don't think, just answer."

"Right, then."

"First. You are sitting at a table. There is an object in front of you. What is it?"

"A gilded leaf."

That answer didn't make any sense to Aria, but then, neither did the question, or Taro's bizarre actions, for that matter.

"Hmm. How unusual. Next question. With no regard to time, expense, or practicality, would you rather go sailing, flying, or walking?"

"With no regard to time, expense, or practicality, I'd rather not move at all."

Omega raised her penciled eyebrows. "Ah. Interesting. You stand beside a crystal stream. Do you follow it, take a drink, or jump into it?"

"Take a drink."

"Final question." Omega folded her hands in her lap. "You stand before your deadliest enemy. Who do you stand before?"

Taro was silent.

"No thinking. Who is it?"

"Meia."

"Of course, of course." Omega nodded, stood, and theatrically raised her arms. "This has never happened before. I see three women in your future."

"That many, eh."

"As you are quiet and more in tune to nature than any man I've ever met, the first woman will be a tender of trees and gardens; a woman who will share and understand your love of the wilderness."

"She sounds positively charming."

With a perfectly straight face and even voice, Omega said, "As you are also an arrogant, spoiled brat who always thinks that you are right but can't seem to make your own decisions, the next woman will be a stern woman with strong, almost obsessive ambition; a woman who can direct you and keep you in line at the same time."

"Can we leave now?" Aria asked.

"I suspect I've already met that one."

"Oh, you have. You have."

"Smashing. So who's the third?"

Omega tilted her head and smiled. As innocent as her tiny smile looked, there was something decidedly sinister about it. "The third," She said, "is a country doctor named Aria."

***

"You confound me, Taro, you really do!"

Aria was marching across the bridge. They'd have to turn at the next fork to get to Varuna, but Taro was lingering behind, lost in thought.

"I mean, when you first met me, you tried to tell me that Ruby was being victimized by a Soul Leech. When I entered her dream and confirmed that she was, you didn't believe me. Next, you swore up and down that you didn't want to get involved in anything, and that you hated being with me, then you followed me of your own accord! And now, after tearing me and Flint to shreds for being superstitious, you're brooding over something a fortune teller told you!"

"Obsessive ambition? I don't know anybody who has obsessive ambition. When Omega said that, I thought she was talking about you."

Aria threw her arms in the air. "See what I mean?"

"At any rate, getting to Varuna and finding Natasha is our highest priority."

"Which is what I've been saying; it's about bloody time it sunk in!"

"Do you think I can't make my own decisions?"

Aria shrieked and pulled her hair.

"She knew your name and occupation."

Aria sighed. "And, admittedly, it was a little strange that she mentioned me specifically after giving nebulous descriptions of the others. What I'm saying is this. You're a fatalist, right?"

"I wasn't always."

"So you believe that you're controlled by destiny, and that nothing you do will make any kind of difference?"

"Essentially."

"So why is your fortune bugging you so much? If it's supposed to happen, it will, and if it's not, it won't, right?"

Taro bowed his head. "I suppose you're right."

"Great. Let's hurry up, then. We've got a fair weather advantage; we may still make it to Varuna in time to do some searching in spite of all the time you spent with that woman."

"I'm sorry, all right?"

"There's one thing that's really irking me about the whole ordeal, too."

"Really."

Aria turned to Taro and scratched her head. "What was up with the gilded leaf?"

***

Once in Varuna, Aria spent her remaining day trying to locate Natasha. What she found did not bode well for their plans. Every year after the Independence day parade, the Queen of Varuna gave a speech about Varuna's glorious triumph over the mad scientist and second-rate dictator, Mephisto the Mad. This year, the Queen had contracted laryngitis, so Natasha was making the speech in her stead. She'd be on a giant stage, surrounded by performers, and maybe a paltry handful of guards.

"Valsen won't follow her on stage," Aria said. "So she'll be safe as long as she's on it. She'll also be safe to and from the castle; she'll have a full escort. If Valsen doesn't want to been seen, he'll have to attack her either right before or after her speech. We'll have to watch her carefully then."

That night, Taro came into Aria's room at the inn, carrying a huge package.

"What's that?" Aria asked as he unceremoniously dumped it on her bed and began to unwrap it.

"Your costume."

"You got me a costume? Why?"

"For one thing, you'll stand out if you're not wearing one." He pulled out a bit of folded lavender cloth. "For another, I simply must see you in this outfit."

Aria went into the bathroom and changed into it. She didn't know why Taro had gotten her this; the purple leather dress was hideously short, the large fur cloak too warm for the weather, the high-heeled boots too cumbersome for the kind of work they'd be doing, and the headband made her pointy ears painfully obvious. She came out of the bathroom with a disgruntled look on her face. "Okay. Here I am."

Taro fell on his backside. "U-uncanny!"

"What? Who am I supposed to be?"

Taro stood back up and ran to his backpack. He fished around, then pulled out a faintly glowing blue scepter. "Ice wand, but close enough. Here, hold this forward menacingly."

He shoved the glowing stick into Aria's hands.

"Come on, hold it forward menacingly!"

Looking extremely bored, Aria threw out her arm.

"Good, good! Now... look angry!"

Aria had no trouble doing that.

"Amazing! You look exactly like her!"

"Exactly like who?"

"The famous Dream Walker, Meia!"

"Oh!" Aria looked down at her clothing and stifled a giggle. "I should have known you were dressing me up as some mythological figure. So who are you going as, huh? Alundra? Melzas?"

Taro looked at his feet. "I got a nondescript masquerade costume. ONE of us has to look inconspicuous."

However, when Aria went to pick Taro up the next morning, she thought his costume was anything but nondescript and inconspicuous. The intricately painted skull-mask, silk plumed hat, and black brocade cape were not only gaudy, they stopped just short of being royal. Crikey, he was even carrying a real, razor-sharp scythe!

"You're right. That's not going to attract any attention at all. I don't think anybody's going to give you a second glance."

"Of course they won't," Taro said in his haughtiest voice, "I'll be standing next to a beautiful woman in a short skirt."

Ironically, Taro was right. There were throngs of people, young and old, in costumes; some plain, homemade ones made from leftover barley sacks, and some bright, colorful ones that looked hand-tailored to their wearers. Even though Aria's costume wasn't near as colorful or intricate as some of these, she got more stares than she appreciated. None of them were directed at her face. Men would nearly fall over trying to watch her walk down the street. She was tempted to zap them with Taro's ice wand.

"Did Meia really dress like this?"

"I daresay she did. I've got pictures."

"I'm sure you do."

Taro's brow furrowed. He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. "Pardon?"

"It was a joke."

"Oh. My apologies. Say, look! There's a terrace on that building. I'll bet we can see the entire square from up there; it'll make it easier to find Eva and Natasha."

Once on the terrace, Aria could see exactly how big the crowds in Varuna were. They were monstrous. People crowded the streets like water crowded the ocean, flowing around makeshift stands full of exotic wares. The only place the crowd wasn't standing was the middle of the street, where the parade was in full swing, heading towards a large wooden stage. Though the stage was huge- at least as big as the foundation of a two-story house- it was far from crowded. At one end, a troupe of dancers banked and twirled, their every move echoed by yellow satin streamers, while a band of clowns juggled balls, pans, and fruit on the other.

Aria couldn't take it all in at once. "Don't suppose you see Valsen?"

"No, but I've spotted Eva. She's near the side of the stage, preaching to a handful of nobles. I hope they're not foolish enough to believe her."

"So do I, for what it's worth." Aria squinted, trying to see. "There's Natasha."

"Where?"

"On the front float. The dark-haired girl in the long pink gown."

"Yes, I see her now."

The parade came to a halt before the stage.

"Hush, she's going on stage. I want to hear what she says."

Taro quieted down, and both of them leaned over the edge of the terrace.

"Though it has only been ten years since the defeat of Mephisto the Mad by the joint effort of Varuna and the Pirates, it seems like it has been forever. It seems like an eternity since the time that the citizens of Varuna were afraid to leave their homes for fear of the bio-mechanical troops that lined its streets. It seems like an aeon since his great ship, the Star Key, hovered in the sky as a constant reminder of his tyranny. It seems like an age since he turned my father, Baron Diaz, into a giant mechanical grasshopper."

There was a murmuring laughter in the crowd.

"It seems like such a long time because of the prosperity that has come upon the nation during these following years. A prosperity that we have all earned with our hard work and dedication; a prosperity we must continue to work for in all the years to come."

"It's a prosperity that won't last if the Nightmare King gets his way!"

Aria had known that Eva was going to do stupid things to get people's attention, but she hadn't expected her to climb onto the stage, push Natasha away from the podium, and start screaming into the microphone. That was exactly what she'd just done. "I don't believe it," Aria muttered.

"At least she got his name right this time."

Natasha wasn't going to take the usurpation of her microphone lightly, however. She dusted her gown off and marched up to Eva. "What are you talking about, you... you... oddball?"

"Do you deny it?" Eva pointed her red-nailed finger in Natasha's face. "Do you deny that your people have been suffering from crippling nightmares? Do you deny that those nightmares are killing people? Do you deny that no science can explain them?" Eva turned her finger to the crowd. "Friends, I tell you, I can explain them! Thousands of years ago, there was a monster that fed from people's souls, a monster called Melzas! You have denied his existence for centuries, and his wrath shall fall upon you for it!"

Taro scowled deeply. Then he pulled a stunt that was, arguably, even stupider than Eva's. He picked Aria up, stood on the terrace, and leapt from it onto the stage. He landed gracefully, which surprised Aria, as nobody should be able to make a jump like that without breaking something. He set Aria down behind him and addressed the crowd.

"Ladies and Gentleman, you have nothing to fear from Melzas!" He dramatically walked to the edge of the stage and spread his arms. "As you may have noticed, I am the Grim Reaper, come from the depths of Magyscar, and I'm very pleased to meet the lot of you." He tipped his hat and waved his scythe theatrically. The crowd became littered with uneasy laughter.

Eva marched up to him. "Do you think this is a joke!"

Taro hammily clutched his chest, as if Eva had insulted him. "Certainly not, madam! In fact, I believe your stories of Melzas's return! That is why I am here!" He turned to the audience. "You know the story of Melzas's defeat at the hands of the Elna; you've read it to your children at bedtime, told it to your friends on Hallow's Eve, perhaps even curled up with it beside a roaring fire. Well, I have brought you all a gift: the legendary Elna heroine, Meia! Reputed to have been at Alundra's side during his battle with the fiend, and possibly the very person to strike him down, she will smite your foe with her mighty wand of fire!"

Taro shoved Aria in front of him and held her wand-holding hand up. She glared at him over her shoulder and whispered: "Any idiot can see this is an ice wand."

"Just go along with it."

The laughter was still uneasy, but there was quite a bit more of it this time.

"Now," Taro waved his hand dismissevly, "I'm typically a very hard critic of this whole 'undead' thing, so I don't want you thinking I'm going to make a habit of bringing people back to life. I make an exception in this case because I remember what Magyscar was like the last time Melzas was in power. New dead folks were checking in all the time; we couldn't get a minute's peace! I can't have him packing you all in left and right again. I'm a working stiff just like you, if you'll pardon my bad pun, and I need free time!"

The audience didn't seem to think Taro's pun was bad; they roared.

Eva again interrupted his performance. "Do you mock these people's hardship?"

"Not at all. I'm simply trying to eliminate their fear. Is that not what death does best?"

The audience began to whistle and clap. It finally dawned on Aria what Taro was doing; he was making Eva's speech seem like part of a thought-out play.

The last act came as a total surprise to Aria.

"The Reaper's words are wise. Dreams, goblins, and other fanciful products of your empty brains can't harm you." A short, red-caped figure appeared in a flash of fire. "But I can!"

Someone in the audience screamed. The people in the crowd began to run.

He removed his red hood. Underneath it was the strangest looking little man Aria had ever seen. He was Elna- his long, pointed ears marked him as such- but he was as green as a frog, and covered with colorful henna markings. "That's right. In life, you cowered before me. Cower in death, as well."

The people weren't 'cowering', they were stampeding as far away from the stage as they could. The performers were crawling off the stage and scampering to safety as quickly as they could. All except for one left; one juggler seemed frozen in utter fear.

"M-M-Mephisto! It's you!" Natasha started shaking.

"Of course it is! Did you really think your worthless armies and a handful of pirates could kill a sorcerer of my caliber?" He crossed his arms. "Well, you were right, but don't get used to it."

"You do realize I was reading off cue cards, don't you?"

"And you did a fine job." He marched over to Natasha and ceased her by the wrist.

"You stay away from her!" Eva shrieked.

Mephisto turned his milky, luminescent saucer-eyes to Eva. "No."

There was a loud thud behind Mephisto. The juggler had dropped all of his pots, and was now trembling all over. His skin turned blue, his hair lengthened, and two great, leathery wings extended from his back. It was Valsen. He flexed his claws. "I'd release the girl if I were you, old man."

Mephisto turned to faced Valsen. "You're not me. You'd have more class if you were."

"Your Elna sorcery won't even dent me, fool. Release Natasha, or I'll make you!"

"You're not in the position to make me do anything."

"You're a cocky little elf, aren't you? No matter. I'd be happy to impale you on your own femur."

"You'll have to follow us to do that, boy."

Eva clenched her fists. "Where are you taking her, you monster?"

"The Land of the Dead. Magyscar." He fixed his creepy stare on Aria. "Nice costume."

He vanished in the same burst of flame that he'd appeared in, taking Natasha with him, and leaving Eva, Valsen, Taro, and Aria standing on an empty stage.

Eva began to pull her hair. "No... how could this happen?"

Valsen gave Eva a tainted smirk. "If he's gone to Magyscar, I can't follow. The murdered dead can be spiteful. I'd never make it out."

"Then we're not following him? We've got four crests and we're just going to give up?"

"I said I wasn't following them. I never said you weren't." Before anyone had seen him move, Valsen had leapt the length of the stage and snapped Eva's neck. He dropped her with a sickening thud and turned to Taro. "Wonderful performance, by the way. I've always had a taste for Grand Guignol. But you do know how Grand Guignol goes. Everyone has to die at the end."

Taro pulled Aria behind him, as if someone as skinny as he was could ward off an attack from a powerful incubus.

"Come now. I'm just going to eliminate your fear."

"Kind as your gesture is, you'd be wasting it on me."

"Oh? Do you enjoy being afraid?"

Taro jumped forward and slammed Valsen with his scythe. "No, I simply don't find you frightening." The blade sunk deep into his blue flesh. The incubus staggered backwards.

"Damn!" Valsen scowled, clamping his claw over his wound. "I suppose I'll have to teach you to fear me, Reaper Man."

"After all the work I've done for you, you wound me so, friend? You ought to be more polite to the Reaper." Even though it was partially hidden under his skull mask, the face Taro made was downright creepy. "The Reaper knows things. I know what you did to the little girl, and when I get ahold of you, I'll make it look like an affectionate handshake."

"How did you-" Valsen gasped. His eyes fell on Aria as if he were seeing her for the first time. "That woman... she's really Elna! She's read Chelsea's mind, hasn't she! But that doesn't tell me who you are, 'friend'."

"Death. Your death."

Valsen must have agreed. Giving Taro an icy look, he spread his great wings and flew away.

***

Paco was a village in every sense of the word. While not near as boring as Carrotville, it was about as small, if not smaller. The buildings were all modest, one-story constructions of wood, the gardens were small, one-family plots of vegetables, and the people were mostly cattle farmers. In fact, the cattle outnumbered the people. Unlike its bullfighting sister town of El Toro, Paco's cows were mild-mannered. That was a good thing, as Aria's guests weren't used to them.

"Man, it's great to be home," Aria said, stretching. "How do you guys like the country air?"

Albert and Ruby were holding their noses and shooing. Flint was laughing at them.

"And I thought fish smelled," Ruby said.

Aria scanned the smattering of people going about the grassy plains. She looked behind her, and noticed someone was missing. "Guys, where's Taro?"

Albert pointed. Taro was kneeling by an old brown cow, examining its short white snout.

"Stop it, city folks, you're embarrassing me."

The cow mooed, and Taro gave a start, ran away from it, and hid behind Aria. "What IS that thing? Is it a monster?"

"It's beef. You ever have beef?"

"Can't say that I have."

"That's right, I forgot. You're anorexic."

"I am NOT!" He looked back at the cow. "I don't think these 'beef' like me."

"They like you just fine. They like everybody."

"They're friendly, then? All right. I'm going to go look at the beef some more."

"Just don't get behind it."

Ruby watched Taro leave. "Gosh, that guy's dumb. He doesn't know what a cow is. Even I know what a cow is."

"I'm beginning to think my friend Taro is more sheltered than I'd first thought. He's got a kind of boyish charm, though, doesn't he?"

"If you're into the conceited type."

Albert, on the other hand, had lowered his thick glasses and was staring after Taro with a judicious, calculating look. "Aria, where did you say you picked that guy up again?"

"He lives in Carrotville. Why?"

"For someone who lives across the ocean, he sure seems to know his way around. I mean, it was Taro who told us that the corporeal entrance to Magyscar was in the mesa north of this town. He was even able to trace the path to it on a world map."

"So, he's an archaeologist and a historian! He should know his way around! And it's a good thing somebody knew, because we never would have found it on our own!"

"But he doesn't know the indigenous life forms of the area."

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Aria put her hands on her hips. "Taro's worked harder towards Natasha's rescue than anybody else, including us! We're going to march into Magyscar, get her back, and march right back out, but it was Taro who did all the legwork! So what if he's a bit naive? So what if he's kind of arrogant? So what if he's a little ghoulish?"

"A little ghoulish?" Albert said.

"Okay, he's very ghoulish! So what?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Aria, but you did say Taro was anorexic?"

"I have to literally shove food down the man's throat, I think that qualifies him."

"Hmm."

"Oh, come on! An eating disorder doesn't make him untrustworthy!"

"I don't think Taro's untrustworthy."

"I do," Flint said.

Albert was still watching Taro, who was now peeking into the cow's ears. "I don't think he's in this to save Natasha, though, or even to stop Valsen. I'm going to go talk to him, all right?"

"Don't be mean."

"Of course not." Albert strolled over to Taro and his new pet cow.

"Hey, Flint! While we're here, we should go see Master Jeehan. He's probably worried sick about the both of us."

Flint sighed. "I never thought of that, but you're right. Last he's heard, my sister was dying and you were in a shipwreck. We need to let him know what all's happened."

Flint, Ruby, and Aria picked their way up the side of the mountain to Jeehan's house. The house used to belong to an old man named Prunwell, but he'd died a long time ago. Jeehan had been a good friend of Prunwell's, so he'd left him the house. Though Jeehan was an expert swordsman and could have been captain of Varuna's guard, he'd moved in out of respect for his old friend's wishes.

Flint knocked on the door. "Hey, old man! You in there?"

The door opened and Flint was dragged inside. There was a loud thud. Aria and Ruby rushed in after him.

Jeehan, a wizened, white-haired man, was sitting on top of Flint, twisting his arm behind his back.

"That'll teach you to call me old man, boy!"

Despite his painful position, Flint was laughing.

Jeehan stood. "Oh, Aria! Is that you? I'd heard all kinds of rumors about your death."

"Nope, I'm fine. Ruby's fine, too. Here she is."

Ruby waved.

"Oh, is that the Pirate Queen?" Jeehan studied her with a critical eye. "I thought she'd be taller. Or at least a little older."

Ruby tossed her hair. "Hmpf!"

"So, you finally come home for good?"

"I'm afraid not." Aria explained Valsen, the crests, and Natasha's kidnaping to Jeehan.

Jeehan sighed. "Well, then, I suppose I've got no excuse to keep this from you any longer."

Going to the back of his house, Jeehan pulled a huge chest from under his bed. He carried it to the front room and dumped it in front of Aria.

"I wanted to wait until you and Flint had more training, but if you're really fighting fabled monsters, you'll need them." Jeehan opened the chest and pulled out two white-bladed katanas. "You all know the legendary King Snow was a renowned swordsmith. These weapons were forged by him; they're called the Twin Hummingbirds, though heaven only knows why he gave them such a silly name. Each of you take one."

Aria picked up one of the white swords, and Flint took the other.

"These swords ought to be able to stand up to anything you run into in Magyscar. They should be more than a match for Mephisto and this Eva woman."

Even though Aria had always been the more responsible of the two, she still felt like a kid with a new toy. "Wow, Jeehan! Thanks, I love this!"

Flint nodded and sheathed his Hummingbird next to his father's sword.

"Let's go find Taro and Albert," Flint said. "I've got a score to settle with Mephisto."

***

Past the wasted earth behind Paco, surrounded by dead trees, and flanked on either side by tattered red flags, the entrance to Magyscar looked as if it hadn't been disturbed in centuries. Considering that the number of modern explorers willing to cross the monster-infested mesa behind Paco was limited, it likely hadn't. Flint inched up to the tiny, gaping fissure in the rock, looked back at the others, then inched away from it.

Aria looked around inside. It was too dark to see anything. "Who's got the lantern?" She asked.

"I gave it to Taro," Albert said. "He'll be leading the way."

Flint scowled as Taro passed him. "Say, Taro, you haven't killed anybody, have you? They say the ghosts in here are really vengeful."

Taro smirked. "I command a certain amount of respect in this place." He squeezed through the fissure. Flint followed him, looking more sour than ever. It was as if Taro's perpetual grimace were wearing off on him.

Aria thought. "'I command a certain amount of respect in this place?' I wonder what he meant?"

Albert blinked. "You've spent all this time with him, and it isn't obvious?"

"What isn't obvious?"

Albert shook his head, then vanished through the fissure, leaving Aria to wonder what was supposed to be so obvious.

***

If the wasteland outside of Magyscar was deadly, it was nothing compared to the fields of spikes, labyrinth-like tunnels, and hordes of ghosts inside. Aria and Flint chased away the ghosts with their shining swords, while Taro and Albert led the way through the treacherous landscape. It wasn't easy. Doors had been placed atop floating bits of rock, levitating above pits of flame, surrounded by spikes, and Taro and Albert had to figure out how to get five people to and through them. One thing was certain: Magyscar had not been built to convenience the living.

"This is stupid," Ruby said. "This place is huge, we're going in circles, and the humidity is giving me the frizzies! How are we supposed to find Natasha in here?"

"Though many of the rooms overlap to appear so, we are not going in circles," Albert said. "As for how we're supposed to find Natasha... I guess we just keep looking."

"Did you see that?" Ruby shrieked.

"See what?"

"There was a thing!"

"A thing?"

"Yes, a thing!"

"Could you be more specific?"

"No, it was wearing a tablecloth on its head!"

"Ah... huh?"

"It was; it had this big, black cloth draped over it."

Flint shook his head. "Let's not worry about it."

"Not worry about it?" Taro scoffed. "Do you know where we are, child? Worry about everything, no matter how harmless it seems!"

"I don't know; if it attacks us, we could throw you to it and run."

"Boy, I'm probably the only reason it hasn't attacked us."

Aria stamped her foot. "That doesn't mean it won't. So we'll keep moving, but we'll be more careful. Can we all live with that?"

Flint and Taro had one last exchange of nasty looks, then Flint moved ahead. "Let's hope so."

Aria slipped to Taro's side. "Taro. Have you been here before?"

"I don't like Magyscar. It's scary as hell, if you'll pardon my bad pun. But I did come here looking for something once."

"Looking for something?"

"As much as I'd heard about the ghosts attacking the living that wandered to far in, and as much as I'd heard about the traps around the place, I came here searching. Despite that the ghosts were afraid of me, and didn't give me any trouble, and despite how thoroughly I looked, I didn't find what I was looking for."

"The ghosts are afraid of you?"

"Most of them."

"Why?"

"... I haven't a clue."

Taro's tone told Aria that a) he knew perfectly well why the ghosts were scared of him, and b) that he wasn't planning on telling her. So she brushed it off. "I bet they're afraid you'll give them a boring lecture about the dining customs of the pre-historic Elna tribes."

He smiled. "That's probably it."

"By the way, you should stop."

"Stop what?"

"Pardoning your bad puns. You should be proud of them!"

Aria skipped ahead with Flint, leaving Taro gaping at her in amazement.

After a few more hours, however, Aria began to think Ruby was right. After climbing another jagged cliff, carrying a fragile fire urn over a booby-trapped floor and under a leaking ceiling in order to light a torch and burn the rope that held the door shut, and swinging across a bottomless pit, they found themselves at Magyscar's entrance.

Ruby twirled her hair. "Oh, yeah. This is progress. I'm never gonna get out of here! I'm going to be stuck in this wet, dark, muddy hole until I lose my tan and look like some kind of pasty grub!"

"Hey, I found a door in the wall," Albert said.

Flint stared at it. "I wonder how we missed that the first time."

"We missed it the first time because it wasn't here the first time." Albert began fiddling with the door. "You know, I'm really starting to understand the preference Mephisto had for technology. This magical stuff is way too unpredictable for my liking. Ah. Here we go."

The door sprung open.

"So who's going first?"

"I will," Flint volunteered.

No sooner had Flint placed himself near the door than a sharp shard of glass rocketed towards him.

***

Rolling out of the glass's way, Flint managed to knock Taro over. Aria wondered if he didn't do it on purpose. She jumped over both of them and peered through the door. What she saw wasn't good. There was Eva, standing defiantly before Mephisto, while Natasha cowered behind him. The glass had come from a jar, which Natasha must have hurled at Eva. From the way the glass laid about, it looked as if Eva had hit it mid-air- and shattered it.

"I don't want to hurt the girl. I just want the crest. The sooner you allow me to extract it, the sooner I leave you both in peace."

"Then you've got a long wait ahead of you."

"Fool! Do you have any idea what you're up against?"

"One irresolute succubus, from where I'm standing."

"Just leave me alone, you weird woman!" Natasha yelled.

"I'll leave you alone, if you allow me to take the crest from your dreams."

"Don't listen to her, Natasha. She's a liar by nature."

Natasha wrapped her arms around her knees. "Aren't you a liar, too?"

"Not by nature."

Aria drew her Hummingbird. She saw Flint, who was now back on his feet, do the same. She nodded, and they both burst into the room.

Flint brandished his. "Mephisto! Let her go, or I'll cut you into a few even pieces."

"Stay out of this, boy. This is a fight your puny sword and even punier brain couldn't handle."

"Maybe you should remember that us pirates sent you here!"

"Maybe you should remember what you're doing here."

"I came here to save Natasha!"

"And you can do that best by staying out of my way!"

"YOU'D better stay out of MY way!"

"Incompetent idiot! As you obviously can't see, I've put up a Water Shield. If I 'stayed out of your way,' Natasha would be outside of it and, therefore, open to attack!"

"As if I'd believe you were trying to help her."

"I am!"

"Why would you do that?"

"That's my own business, brat."

"One thing's obvious to me," Aria said. "The three of us aren't going to have open communication lines until Eva's out of the picture!"

"Finally, the voice of reason." Mephisto looked back at Aria. "And, unsurprisingly, it's an Elna voice."

"'Out of the picture'? Do you think it'll be that easy?" Eva snarled, and she began to change. Her milky skin turned coarse and vomit-brown. Her delicate face shifted, growing out into a snapping dragon's maw. Her carefully-manicured hands hooked into claws, two umbrella-like wings grew from her back, and a gaping mouth with a long, tendril-like tongue opened on her stomach. "You should have listened to my warning. Then you'd all be safely ignorant, instead of on the bitter edge of death!"

In a cloud of black energy, Eva vanished. She reappeared behind Flint, who managed to turn and strike her just in time to avoid getting skewered on her long claws. She shrieked and jumped backwards- Flint's Hummingbird left quite a mark- then vanished in another black cloud.

For a few tense seconds, nobody moved. The air crackled with electricity. The ceiling leaked droplets of water onto the floor. Aria's breath seemed preternaturally loud to her. Then, something snapped around her ankle and pulled her to the ground. She looked down to see that it was Eva's long tendril-tongue. Eva reappeared and began to drag Aria towards her mouth.

Aria knew she could easily escape by severing Eva's tongue. The Hummingbird was more than capable of cutting the succubus's tough skin. But then she'd disappear, and who knew when and where she'd reappear? That kind of surprise could lose them the fight. No, Aria had to take Eva out while she was still visible. Which meant right now. So Aria motioned for Flint to call off his attack, and allowed Eva to pull her forward.

Just as Eva was about to swallow Aria whole, Aria threw her Hummingbird at Eva. The sword spun, then landed right in Eva's chest. Aria felt the tendril on her leg relax. She bent down and untangled her foot, and not a moment too soon. Eva toppled over.

Flint turned. "And now, Mephisto, it's your turn!"

"Spare me the melodrama. I don't intend to hurt Natasha, or any of you, if you don't cross me." To prove it, he dropped his magical shield and stepped away from Natasha.

Flint rushed to Natasha and lifted her off the ground. "Are you all right?"

"No, I'm not!" She pouted and crossed her arms.

Aria retrieved her sword from Eva's chest. "It's all right, it's dead now." She went back to the door. "Albert, Ruby, Taro! It's okay to come in now!"

The three filed into the room. Ruby covered her mouth when she saw the dead monster on the floor. "What is that icky thing!"

Taro examined it. "A succubus. A very low-level dream-eater. I'm surprised it took you so long to kill it. Or was Flint holding you back?"

Mephisto snorted, while Flint fumed.

"So, that's good, right?" Ruby said. "The monster's dead, and we can all go home now, right?"

"I don't think it would be wise for Natasha to leave just yet."

Flint brandished his sword. "I knew you were up to no good!"

"There's still the incubus to worry about. Valsen. As long as Natasha's in Magyscar, he can't touch her."

"Like I said, I don't believe you! For all I know, you want this crest thing Natasha is carrying for you own sinister purposes!"

"And maybe I do, but any 'sinister purposes' I might harbor couldn't even compare to Valsen's."

"Do you know what Valsen's plans are?" Aria asked.

"You've heard of the Lake Shrine, have you not? The castle that served as both monument and prison to the Nightmare King, Melzas? Do you know what that castle contained?"

Taro's eyes widened. "The Tree of Chimera."

"It's nice to know that someone here knows what he's talking about. Yes, I mean the Tree of Chimera. It is said that long ago, a meteor fell from a distant star and hit the earth. It burrowed into the ground and grew into a tree; the Tree of Chimera. After it had grown, whenever an evil person's tainted mind bore a malicious thought, the tree bore fruit. Succubi and Soul Leeches were the most common sentient nightmares the Tree brought forth; it kicked out the occasional incubus for a particularly horrid thought. You could say that the tree is the source of all bad dreams."

"But bad dreams weren't all it was capable of producing," Taro said.

Mephisto nodded. "Once, and only once, the tree brought forth a monster so terrible that it could not even be classed with the usual dream-eaters. This monster became known as Melzas, the Nightmare King. Melzas was born from the evil ambition of a line of Inoan kings, each king more corrupt than his predecessor. This line crested in King Snow, a ruthless ruler who wanted nothing less than total control over the minds and souls of his subjects. It was he who set Melzas up as an idol. He hoped to use the Nightmare King's powers, and his control of the Tree's lesser children, to get what he wanted."

"Which explains why King Snow set up all those statues of Melzas," Aria said. "But why did he have them destroyed?"

Mephisto chuckled. "In order for King Snow to use Melzas, he had to spend time with him. And in Melzas, King Snow saw something horrible; something that frightened him more than anything he'd ever seen before."

Taro smiled. "His own dreams."

"Correct! His own dreams, untempered by his biased mind! He saw the planet bathed in his subjects' blood; their backs and spirits broken by his unjust and selfish rule! These were not the desires of Melzas, as the fairy tales will lead you to believe, but the desires of Snow himself!" Mephisto laughed. "I guess you could say that seeing himself in such a light frightened Snow into redemption. He had all his statues of Melzas destroyed, and all worship of the Nightmare King outlawed."

"And he had Melzas imprisoned in his own shrine. The Lake Shrine. There he stayed, until Alundra and Meia went in and murdered him."

Mephisto tilted his head. "Such an odd choice of words you use. After Alundra and Meia... ah... killed the Nightmare King, they took the crests that levitated his castle. They knew that the crests possessed powers that others might want, so they magically hid them in the only place they knew no one could find them- people's dreams. The crests were passed to these people's children when they died, and so they were safe. Buried far away from the sunlight, the Chimera Tree remained dormant until-"

"Until what?"

"Until MY malicious thoughts caused it to create Eva. Eva was able to tend to the Tree, and slowly but surely, it began bearing nightmares again."

Albert waved. "Woah, hold up. You say that your dreams caused the Tree of Chimera to create that?" He jerked his head towards Eva's body.

"I'm afraid so."

"Your 'malicious thoughts' were, if I am not mistaken, to use your bio-robotics to turn this planet and all its inhabitants into a giant machine that would be totally under your command."

"That's about it."

"So wouldn't you say you wanted control of the minds and souls of the people of this planet?"

"That is what I was aiming for."

"So why did the Tree of Chimera create Melzas for the Inoan royal family, and a low-level succubus for you, when you both had the exact same bad thought?"

"That's what I was getting to." Mephisto folded his arms. "Without sunlight, and without Melzas to support it, the Tree of Chimera's been weakened. It no longer has the power to create the atrocities that it once could. Soon, it will have no power at all, and it will stop bearing fruit. Sentient nightmares will be extinct. This incubus... this Valsen. He doesn't want that."

"He wants to raise Melzas's Lake Shrine so that the tree can get light?" Aria asked.

"The Lake Shrine's buried; he couldn't raise it if he wanted to. He wants to use the magical crests themselves to replenish the Tree's energy, so that it can once again produce the deadly nightmares that it used to."

Aria scratched her head. "How do you know all this?"

"I've been in Magyscar for ten years. You hear things down here."

"How did you 'hear' that Natasha had a crest with her?"

A fluffy ghost walked through the wall, her pale beret perched jauntily atop her blue hair. "I told him."

"Chelsea!"

"I was awake the whole time Valsen and Eva were talking. Mephisto was the only person here who could get out of Magyscar and do something about it, so when I came here, I told him. I wanted that big winged bully to pay for what he did to me." She defiantly put her translucent hands on her hips. "And since he seemed to want Natasha's crest more than anything, I decided that I wasn't going to let him have it!"

"He'll have it despite your efforts!"

Everyone turned just in time to see a fleshy pink tendril burrow into Natasha's head. It instantaneously pulled out, bringing something slick and crystalline with it. Eva, still laying on the ground, drew the tendril back into her stomach, swallowing the gemstone. "I've sent the crest to him... and he'll have the next before you fools escape Magyscar. I'll die in peace with that knowledge!"

Taro's fists were clenched so hard that Aria thought he might pierce his skin with his fingernails. "I've got something to tell you before you go, Eva."

Taro leaned over Eva's body and whispered something. Whatever it was, it wasn't good, because she let out a deafening shriek.

"It can't be!"

Taro backed away from Eva slowly. "It can be, madam, and it is. Good night."

Eva shuddered, then fell still.

Mephisto and Flint were both leaning over Natasha, who appeared to be all right, if not a bit dazed. She slowly pulled herself up to a sitting position.

"Great, Valsen's one crest closer to getting what he wants!" Ruby slapped her forehead. "We've got to get out of here and stop him from getting any more!"

"Natasha's coming with us, too," Flint said. "Now that her crest is gone, you've got no excuse to keep her here."

"That I don't. Miss Diaz, you are free to go."

Natasha stood and dusted off her gown.

"But don't be a stranger."

"Now that I know where to find you, I certainly won't." She followed Albert and Ruby out of the room. "I always did think he was kind of sweet, for a megalomaniac..."

Flint stormed out of the room after them. Taro started to follow him, but Aria called him back.

"Taro?"

"What?"

"What did you say to Eva that frightened her so much?"

Taro shrugged. "I told her that I was coming to Magyscar for a long, boring lecture on the dining customs of the pre-historic Elna tribes, and that she was on the top of my guest list."

***

On the way back to Paco, Taro was broadsided by a speeding cow.

"I thought you said those things didn't attack!"

Aria laughed. "It wasn't attacking you."

"Then what was it doing?"

"I think something scared it. It was running."

"What frightened it that badly?"

Albert frowned. "Probably the same thing that frightened all of THOSE."

He pointed. Ruby and Natasha screamed, while everyone else stared vacantly at the rumbling cloud of dust heading towards them. The cows of Paco were stampeding, and they were heading right in their direction.

"Back up the cliff!" Aria yelled.

Everyone scrambled back up the side of the mesa just in time for the stampeding cows to pass underneath them.

"Do they always do that?" Taro asked.

Aria shuddered. "No. That's really unusual. We've got to get to Paco!"

Since they'd already passed most of the wasteland, it wasn't a long way to Paco. They ran the whole way. When they got there, they saw a large crowd of people gathered on top of the hill in the middle of town. There, by the ruins, was Master Jeehan, leaning against the wall and panting.

Aria grabbed one of the bystanders. "What happened?"

"A monster attacked Jeehan while he was walking. It hit him in the head, but he chased it away." The man grinned. "That Jeehan; he's some kind of swordsman!"

Flint helped Aria bully through the crowd to get to Jeehan. "Are you all right?" She asked.

"That the monster you were talking about?" Jeehan asked.

"What did it look like? Was it blue?"

"I'm just going to take a little nap. I'll tell you all about it when I wake up, all right?"

"No, you need to stay awake."

Flint and Aria carried him back to his house and put him in bed. Aria started examining him.

"Is he okay?"

"I don't see any injuries. He doesn't have a concussion."

"Not even his head? The man said he was hit in the head."

"Isn't it obvious?" Aria tossed her hands up. "Jeehan had a crest! While we were in Magyscar, trying to stop Eva, Valsen attacked him and stole it! I'm willing to bet that Jeehan's swordsmanship is the only thing that kept Valsen from killing him!"

Jeehan nodded. "The coward panicked when I wounded him. I don't have a concussion, so I can go to sleep, right? I'm afraid I'm not as young as I once was."

"I'm still not sure that's a good idea-"

Aria hadn't even gotten the words out when she heard Jeehan snoring.

***

The next day, everyone in town went to round up the stray cattle. Even though he had no experience, Taro wanted to go, and Albert, who seemed to have developed some kind of fascination with Taro, went with him. That left Natasha, Ruby, Flint, and Aria to watch Jeehan. It wasn't difficult work. Jeehan was still asleep. For the majority of the time, the four of them played poker. They didn't play for keeps, and it was a good thing, because Natasha would have owned every last one of them if they had been.

"Oh, my! What luck!" She grinned, throwing down yet another full house. "I swear I've never played it before... well, maybe once or twice with Nunugi, daddy's old martial artist friend... but he always beat me."

"I can't believe this," Ruby moaned. "I'm Queen of the Pirates, and I'm losing all these games to daddy's little princess."

"You don't have to be such a sore sport," Natasha said, tossing her silky hair.

"You know what bothers me about all this?" Flint said.

"Do we care?" Ruby asked.

"No, I don't mean about the game, I mean about Mephisto's story with the Tree of Chimera and all that. If Mephisto's wanting to take over the world only made Eva, what kind of heinous thought would it take to make Valsen?"

There was silence.

"You know what worries me?" Natasha was now shuffling the cards with expert form. "Mephisto said that the tree's weak. So, what happens if Valsen gets the crests and he makes it even stronger than it was in King Snow's time? What if a Nightmare King is born every time a little boy thinks about stealing candy or hiding his sister's dolly?" She began to deal. "A lot of decent, innocent people have horrible thoughts that they'd never carry out. What if all of those thoughts manifest? What kind of world would we be living in?"

"A world with more monsters than people," Flint said. "And just think. If all that happens, and whoever made Valsen is still out there, then what happens if he has another bad thought? Another Melzas? An army of Melzas? Something even worse?"

Ruby peered at her cards. "If 'he' has another bad thought? Don't be sexist. The person who thought up Valsen could be a woman, you know."

"Oh, you know what I meant."

"Yes, I know what you meant! You meant you didn't think a girl could be depraved enough to think up an incubus!"

"I didn't say-"

"Well, what about Eva? She looked pretty depraved to me!"

"She was a ghoul!"

"So what? She was still a girl."

"Oh, boy! Oh, boy!" Natasha laid her cards down. "I got a Royal Flush! Isn't this incredible?"

"And might I add that a girl is seriously kicking your ass at cards?"

"She's kicking yours, too, Ruby."

Aria looked around. "Guys, it's getting dark."

"Yeah. We'd better light a lantern so we can all see our pathetic hands better."

"Aren't any of you worried that Jeehan hasn't woken up yet?" Aria threw her cards down. "I fold. I want to go check on him."

"I don't think you'll miss much."

Aria peeked into Jeehan's bedroom. The old man was sleeping peacefully, clutching his favorite stuffed turtle. Aria stifled a laugh, then slipped back to the poker table just in time to see Albert steal her spot at the table.

"They said you quit."

"I did. You get all the cows back?"

"Most of them. A few are still missing. Taro's out playing with them, if you want to speak to him."

Aria motioned Albert over. He put his cards face down and went to the door.

"All right. What do you know about Taro that you're not telling the rest of us?"

"I can't say."

"Why not?"

"He told me not to." Albert shrugged. "You could ask him. He'll deny it, though, unless you corner him."

"Could you give me something to corner him with?"

"Not off the top of my head."

"Is he dangerous?"

Albert shrugged. "I don't know. He might be. That depends."

"On what?"

"On him. Like anybody else, he's as dangerous as he wants to be."

Sitting back down at the poker table, Albert scooped up his cards.

"As dangerous as he wants to be?" Aria scratched her head. "How dangerous does he want to be?"

When Aria found Taro, however, she didn't see anything even remotely harmful in his demeanor. He was sitting on the edge of the pen, petting the cows as if they were big brown dogs. She lifted herself onto the pen next to him.

"How's it going, cowpoke?"

"I didn't poke any of them!" He said defensively.

Aria covered her mouth. "Sometimes you're adorable."

"Adorable? Me? Oh, sure, YOU'D think so."

"I don't mean cute like a handsome guy. You're cute like a frickin' puppy."

"Comparing me to a cur, are you? Now you've gone too far. For this, you shall feel my terrible wrath."

"Feel your terrible wrath? What are you going to do, feed me to the cows?"

"I'm going to make you feed them."

"That does look like a lot of work."

"It is. I just finished."

"You're all right, city boy." Aria looked up. "Sun's setting."

Taro stared into the draining sky, a sad, longing look on his face. "How beautiful."

"Okay. I know this is going to sound like a pick-up line, but I swear it isn't."

He laughed. "Bad news first, eh?"

"Why did you rescue me?"

Taro nearly fell off the fence. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"No. Like I said, it's not a line. I want to know. Are you really the reluctant hero you seem to be? Did you really want to save me? Or is it because I'm Elna? A walking artifact? I won't be mad if that is the only reason," She hastily added.

"A friend of mine had this saying. 'Destiny is a bitch best not kept waiting.'" Taro exhaled. "If you want to know, very well. I rescued you for one stupid reason."

"What is it?"

"I brought you home because you look like Meia."

"You've got a real fixation on this dead woman."

"You don't know the half of it."

"What's the half of it?"

"I was afraid of you."

"Because I look like Meia?"

"I didn't rescue you because I'm a friendly chap who just goes around doing that sort of thing for recreation. I saved you because I didn't trust you. I wasn't afraid you'd die if I left you, I was afraid you wouldn't, and then I wouldn't know where you were and what you were doing." He looked up. His face was ghostly. "But... you realize that it's not like that any more? That I trust you now? That you're one of the best friends I've ever had?"

Aria gaped. "Taro, I like you, too. A lot. And you are a nice guy."

"Bah. I'm nice like a rabid incubus."

"Hey. Don't say that."

"Why not? You don't know me!"

"Yes I do, you fool!"

"You're right. You know me better than just about anybody." He propped his elbows on his knees. "Perhaps I ought to tell you."

"Tell me what?"

"You likely wouldn't believe me."

"I'll believe you. Now what do you want to tell me?"

"That I'm-"

Taro's face became thoughtful.

"-on fire."

With that, he jumped off the fence and threw himself in the water trough. Aria dropped from the fence and swung around, and she nearly tipped a cow when she saw what was there. Standing a few feet away was a black-robed figure. It was holding forward a smoking fire wand.

"Who's there?" Aria yelled.

The robed person's arm fell to its side listlessly. It stepped into the night shadows.

A second later, Albert came running through the door. "Aria! ARIA! We could really use your assistance curbing a little fluctuation in Master Jeehan's condition."

"What's wrong with him?"

"Flint touched his face. He's cold as proverbial ice, and sweating." Albert's hand started to shake. "He's having a Nightmare!"

***

It didn't take long for Aria to run into the house and enter Jeehan's dream. When she got into the dream, however, she was at a loss as to what to do. She found herself in a tiny room, barely eight by ten feet. Its only decorations were a quintain by the wall and several glued-together puzzles on the ceiling. It was empty save for those things, and there was only one door.

When Aria went through that door, she found herself in the exact same room. She examined the quintain, but it didn't do anything but spin. She tried to stand on the quintain and reach the puzzles, but the only thing she managed to do was fall off and bruise her butt. She walked the (very small) perimeter of the room, but there was nothing but that solitary door. She charged through it a second time, and found herself in the same room.

Aria put her hands on her hips. What kind of nightmare was this? Neither the Nightmare nor Jeehan were anywhere in sight. It was just the same small room, endlessly repeating. Aria searched even more thoroughly, spinning the quintain in random patterns, trying and failing again to reach the puzzles, checking the room for hidden doors and switches. There were no windows to break, no stairs to climb, and only one door that inevitably lead back to the exact same room.

Exasperated, Aria threw herself against the back wall. She went right through it, and landed in the middle of some kind of bio-mechanical factory. Aria was reminded of the robot in Ruby's dream and the machine in Flint's. Mephisto seemed to influence a great deal of nightmares.

Well, she wasn't going to get anywhere by laying here! Aria picked herself up and looked around the factory. Gears turned, operated by robots and cyborgs, and the entire place was filled with a lot of steam. But despite the room's vastness, there was again only one door. Aria charged through it, half-expecting to find herself in a carbon-copy of the room she'd just come from. She didn't. She found herself in some kind of arena. It was made entirely of stone, and enclosed with great barbed spikes that stuck from the ground like teeth from a shark's gums. Jeehan was standing with his sword ready, fighting with- not a Soul Leech- but a giant, half-mechanical, half-organic dragon.

Jeehan looked back and saw Aria. "Get out of here! It's you he's trying to kill with this thing!"

The door shut behind Aria, then vanished. She pulled her Hummingbird and shrugged. "I can't."

"Then get up here and help! The sooner we kill it, the sooner you're out of danger!"

Aria went to help Jeehan with the dragon. It snapped at her with its mechanical maw. She parried the blow with her Hummingbird, then struck at the fleshy part of its body. She was rewarded with a spray of blood.

"What do you mean, it's me he's trying to kill?"

"I think Valsen wants to get rid of you- and any other Elna he can find- because of your Dream Walking abilities."

"Why do you think that?"

"He was asking about you. He asked where your parents were, if you had any brothers or sisters. As if I'd tell him."

"It would have been safe to."

"I didn't tell him that."

"And if you hadn't been such a good swordsman, he probably would have killed you for it. HA!" Aria slashed at one of the dragon's claws, while Jeehan chopped off its tail.

"He'll kill you for it, if you're not careful. Be careful, girl."

"I'm always careful. But Jeehan, tell me-" (Aria dodged a stream of fire that shot from the dragon's mouth), "Did he mention his next target? Think, did he say anything that would point us in the right direction?"

Jeehan thought as he ducked out of the way of a swiping mechanical claw. "As a matter of fact, he said something about going to the shrine. That's all he said, though."

"He must mean the Lake Shrine! I have to tell Taro!"

Aria dodged another stream of fire and rammed her sword deep into the dragon's claw.

"Aria?"

"What?"

"I'm going to distract the dragon. When I do, you need to cut its head off."

"Why do I have to cut its head off?"

"It's head is attached by metal. Your Hummingbird will cut that and my sword won't!"

"But how are you going to distract it?"

Jeehan climbed on the dragon's back, dug his sword into a bit of flesh, and proceeded to ride it like a bucking horse. "Now, Aria!"

Aria jumped and slashed, digging her Hummingbird into the dragon's metal neck. Her sword slid through effortlessly. The metal head came crashing to the ground.

There was a green flash of light as Aria left Jeehan's dream.

***

"The Lake Shrine," Aria said. "He's headed there. He must have gotten the last two crests while we were in Magyscar."

Aria stared at the grimy exterior of Carrotville through Taro's equally grimy window. Flint, Albert, and Ruby had left Carrotville almost two days ago; they were escorting Natasha back to Varuna. Aria and Taro had stayed behind, mostly because Aria wanted Taro's insight, and he seemed to clam up around everyone but her and Albert.

Taro stroked his chin. "So he's going there, eh?"

"Yeah." Aria fell on the sofa. "You know what this means, don't you? We lost. Valsen's going to heal the Tree of Chimera. Deadly nightmares will be just as prevalent as they were in your myths. Maybe we'll see another Nightmare King."

"You'll never see another Nightmare King," Taro said. "Melzas was the only Nightmare worthy of that title. And Valsen hasn't won yet."

"Mephisto said that we couldn't get to the Lake Shrine. What can we do?"

"Mephisto didn't say that we couldn't get to the Lake Shrine. He said that Valsen couldn't raise it. And he can't. It's buried under the mountains. But there was a back door."

Aria sat straight up. "A back door?"

"A magical transport from Inoa village to the Lake Shrine. Alundra used it to get past the gate, or so the myths say. If we go to Inoa, we'll be able to use that transport to get inside the Lake Shrine."

"We'd have to go to Inoa, and Roswell said that nobody knew where it was!"

Taro's eyes drifted from Aria to his statue of Melzas. "Roswell was mistaken."

"Huh?"

"Remember when I said that I was on the verge of a major discovery here in Carrotville?"

"Yes?"

Taro stood, blinking, his eyes still on Melzas's image. "Follow me."

***

Aria stared at the submerged buildings with a sense of awe. Some were half-buried; some were entirely submerged; most were still standing. If it hadn't been for the miles of thick forest surrounding it, the town would have been found long ago. "Is this Inoa?"

"A quarter of a mile west of Carrotville; buried in the thick of the forest. Here's the old swordsmith's place; my, his sign is still intact. And here! Here's the mayor's manor!" Taro charged up to it and pointed.

Aria examined the statue in front of the Mayor's manor. In front of it, there was a sculpture on a pedestal. It was a statue of a young Elna man, his right arm raised, his left motioning to the side. She bent down and read the plaque. "In loving tribute to Alundra and Meia, who lifted the scourge of Inoa." She looked at the statue again. It may have been dedicated to Alundra and Meia, but it only featured Alundra. Aria wondered if the mayor hadn't wanted to publicly display Meia's attire in all its body-hugging, cleavage-revealing glory.

"Over here's the shop, and here's the old fortune teller's place- her sign is gone now-"

Standing, Aria ran after Taro. "How long have you known about this?"

"The transport is in the fortune-teller's well. Come on." Taro took three long strides, the halted as if he'd run into an invisible wall. He was staring, mesmerized, at a dilapidated little cottage on top of a hill. He frowned when he noticed Aria watching. "That was Sybill's home."

"Sybill?"

"A nine year old child. She was able to see the future. Someone didn't like what she saw in his future, so he..." Taro's grimace grew deeper, and he covered his mouth. "It's the one murder I can't clear Melzas of. And the one I can never forgive him for." Taro threw the canopy off of the well, revealing a ladder. "I don't care if it was destiny." He motioned to the ladder. "Ladies and smart ass doctors first."

The bottom of the well, which was pitch black, dissolved before Aria's eyes. In an instant, she was no longer in Inoa village, a quarter of a mile away from Carrotville. She was somewhere ethereal; surrounded by marble so white it glowed, lush vines and delicately twisted trees; lacelike steel fences, and, behind them, a miniature hedge labyrinth. The glowing marble was trimmed in gold; the rich wood of the doors were set off by the dragon statues on either side of it. The beauty of the place was like a punch in the face; Aria recoiled from it as if it were.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Taro sighed. "Breathtaking. A beautiful prison for King Snow to lock his ambitions in. This is what Ruby's house in Puerto Medusa reminded me of, when I first saw it."

Aria sighed. "Okay, Taro, you're making it painfully obvious that you've been here before. Are you going to fill me in on the specifics?"

"We don't have time right now. We're after an incubus, remember? Incubi work fast, and so must we." He placed his hands on the shining wooden doors. They yawned under his touch, and opened into a lavish anteroom. The floor was decorated with tiles of black and bright green; everything seemed to be made of marble, gold, or dark red wood. There was a door directly across from them, a huge door like the one they'd just come through. On either side of it were winding stairs, leading to the second floor. Smaller doors were scattered all over. The place was so vast that it made Aria's head hurt.

"You've been here before, right?"

"Yes."

"I hope you know where the Tree of Chimera is, then, because we'll waste a lot of time if we have to search for it."

"The Tree of Chimera is right through this door." He motioned to the huge door right across from them. "Let us make haste."

"Like your friend said. Destiny is a bitch best not kept waiting."

Taro closed his eyes, smiled, and kicked the large wooden doors open.

***

Gilded leaves. That was the first thing Aria noticed. The Tree of Chimera's roots dug into the black soil beneath the floor, its branches swept the ceiling, and it was covered in tiny golden buds and smattered with gilded leaves. The leaves were scant. It was as if the tree had come out of a very long winter, and was just now beginning to bud. It was the first Aria saw of the room. And the last.

The second she'd stepped over the threshold, a blue claw plummeted into her chest like a battering ram. Valsen was standing in front of her, his claw buried to the elbow in her chest. Taro jumped on Valsen's back and tried to pull him off. It didn't work. Valsen pulled; Aria felt as if her chest were exploding. His claw emerged from her chest, and in it was a blood red stone.

Taro glanced at the stone, but didn't bother with it. He grabbed hold of Aria and cradled her.

Without intending to, Aria slid into Taro's mind.

***

The first thing Aria felt was rage. Murderous intent. It consumed her so fully that she was literally seeing red. Then she realized that the red color came from the wall of fire she was surrounded by.

The burning red flames seemed to consume the town. They licked the walls of the buildings, stretched into the sky, and left one corner of the room shrouded in utter darkness. Two men in white shrouds stood before this darkness, talking.

"The Elna woman is dead." The first hooded man bowed his head. "But the little girl... her daughter. Meia. She's made it out of town. Should we deploy a search?"

A cold, empty voice came from the darkness before them. "How old is she?"

"Eleven or twelve. Why?"

"Don't bother."

"But she could be-"

"The Releaser? I doubt it. Providing the Releaser even exists, and providing that Meia is the Releaser, she's not going to be killing anybody any time soon."

"But Lord Melzas said-"

"Melzas trusts my judgement." Hideous blue claws shot from the shadows and grabbed the man by his throat. "Don't you?"

"O-of course!"

"Because you realize that I'd kill you, just for questioning me? Or, for that matter, that I'd kill you just for the fun of it? Incubi kill. It's what we do. I am not as ashamed of that as some of my brethren. I fought in the wars of the Gazeck; I was capable of holding my own in fights against those nigh-indestructible stone giants. I was even able to kill a few. Do you think I'm inclined to show mercy to a fragile little corpse like you?"

"I have not earned it, Lord Zorgia!"

"Bah." The blue claw released the hooded man. "I'm not typically a cruel man... oh, who am I kidding? Yes I am. But the fact remains that Melzas would kill me if I went about slaughtering his followers for no reason."

The two hooded men retreated from the darkness and left the building.

"I daresay these humans think as much of you as you think of yourself, Melzas." An exasperated sigh escaped the shadows. "But they're bloodthirsty little things, aren't they? 'Eleven or twelve'... how nauseating."

The incubus emerged from the shadows with all the grace of a viper. It's squashed bat face, glowing red eyes, scythe-like claws, protruding ribs, and fleshy blue wings made it, hands down, the most revolting thing Aria had ever seen. It flexed its great wings, then took flight, smashing through the roof as if it were tissue paper.

"Zorgia?" Aria repeated.

The incubus?

***

With his green flesh shrouded in tattered cloth and his stern face partially obscured by his straight white hair, Melzas the Nightmare King was even more imposing in the flesh than he was carved in stone. He stood with his arms crossed and his back to the Tree of Chimera. The light from its lush, golden branches cast an eerie halo around him and almost completely blackened out his features.

"The humans? Destroying you?" Zorgia shook his head. "They LOVE you, though I couldn't pretend to know why."

"They're afraid of me. That's all."

"But to kill you? They couldn't, Elna or no. They couldn't even kill a lowlife succubus. They couldn't get close enough to lay a finger on me. How could they hope to destroy a Nightmare of your caliber?"

"If the Releaser reveals himself..."

"Releaser! You set so much store in the idle nightmare of a disturbed little girl?"

"You ought to have more respect for it. Destiny is a bitch best not kept waiting."

"You ought to stop thinking like a witless human. THEY are the ones who allow others to tell them how to think, how to act, how to live, how to die. That's what separates them from Nightmares. I'm afraid that you've been playing off their superstitions for so long that you're starting to believe them!"

Melzas laughed. "Only you were ever so bold, Zorgia."

"ONE of us has to be."

"Still. I wonder... what the girl will dream about tonight. I wonder."

"You're going to drive yourself insane if you keep invading Sybill's dreams. Not that you weren't insane to begin with."

"Are you calling the rightful ruler of Inoa mad?"

"That was the gist."

"You don't call a king 'mad'. You call a king 'idiosyncratic'."

"Idiosyncratic like King Snow, eh?"

"Don't you even compare me to that deluded child. I'll have to smite you."

"'Deluded child'? It takes one to know one."

"That's it. Consider yourself smitten."

"Bastard."

Melzas laughed again.

***

The incubus could only stare at the grave. The cracked, grey stone seemed some kind of portent... but then, Zorgia didn't believe in portents. He didn't believe what he read on the grave, either: Sybill. Nine years of age. May all your dreams be happy. Zorgia had put enough people in this place in his time. But never one so young.

"It wasn't... really his fault." He put his deadly claws behind his back. "He ordered the werewolves... they were the ones who..." There was a long silence. "Who am I kidding? Werewolves can't act on their own; they don't have the wit for it! I'm the one who's supposed to give them orders, not you. Why did you have to sully your hand with such damning blood? Because she saw you do it in her dream? Because she saw Alundra clear the way for Meia? For your death?"

He stood.

"I'll show you your destiny, Melzas. I'll stop Meia from getting to you. I'll kill Alundra. I'll kill the both of them! Then you'll know... then you'll know what you've done!" He fell to his knees before the grave. "What have you done?"

***

On a sandy beach, the body of an old man lay. A red-headed Elna boy stared down at him, his face a mask of rage and disbelief. A few feet away, Zorgia lay in a pool of his own blood. He wasn't dead. He tried to sit up, but only managed to bring himself up enough to see the boy.

"Alundra." He laughed, bringing up spurts of blood. "What incredible irony. By coming here to take your life, I've sentenced myself to death."

"No you haven't." Alundra turned away, his red ponytail flailing as he did.

"Are you fool enough to stay the deathblow?"

Alundra turned back to Zorgia and stared down at Nava's body. "I want you to know what it feels like."

"What do you mean by that?"

"After all the people you and Melzas murdered... Meia's mother... Nadia... Sybill... and now Nava..." Alundra clenched his fists and began to yell. "You don't have to bury this old man! You didn't have to watch Bonaire repeatedly go through his pictures of Nadia, or hear him choke her name with his final breath! You didn't have to try and comfort Sybill's mother, who died nearly catatonic with grief! And you... you don't have to watch Meia break down and cry when she thinks nobody's looking!" Alundra was shaking all over. "I want you to live to see Melzas die. Death without mercy, isn't that what you said? Sinful bloodshed? Release? Let's see how much you like it when it's someone YOU love!"

Alundra picked up Nava's body and walked away.

"Understand this," Zorgia hissed at the retreating figure, "You've just made a mistake. The biggest mistake of your life."

***

Zorgia passed Meia on his way into the Lake Shrine, but he didn't give her much thought. He didn't have time to.

The Tree of Chimera stood tall, its golden leaves glistening in the sunlight pouring through the skylight. The light also highlighted the sanctuary's delicate tile work, which was stained in blood. Stained in blood, and shimmering with the reflection of the fire. Melzas had been burned. Alundra stood, holding his fire wand. He was mesmerized by the blaze, so much so that Zorgia was able to steal his ice wand and put the flames out.

Alundra didn't try to stop the incubus when he shoved past him and cradled the Nightmare King's corpse. Melzas's face was eerily placid, as if he'd just gone to sleep. Aria was sickeningly reminded of Chelsea, even though she knew there was no comparison between that innocent girl and this... monster.

"Went through with it, did you? Did you, Releaser? Hypocrite. Rationalizing sadist. Just like me."

Alundra shook his head. "I couldn't do it."

"What do you mean you couldn't... Meia? It was her? After all you did, coming in here and battling Melzas, following Nava's stupid commands, she was the Releaser after all?" Zorgia looked down. "No. If I'd just told them to look for her... if I'd commanded them to kill her on sight... if I hadn't been so damned squeamish!"

"Nothing would have changed."

"She was right. Sybill saw you two murder him, and she was right."

"We put a stop to his killing, Zorgia! Nobody brought this on Melzas but Melzas himself! And if you still don't understand that, if you still want to kill me and Meia for our blasphemy, then go ahead and try! Come on!"

Zorgia started to laugh.

"What?

"It's not your fault."

That was not the answer Alundra had expected. He straightened up. "Excuse me?"

"This was destiny, and I was a fool for fighting it." Zorgia picked up the dead Nightmare King. "The blame isn't on you, Meia, or Melzas himself... it rests solely on me."

From high atop the Tree of Chimera, one gilded leaf fell. It landed at Zorgia's feet.

***

Melzas stood, a gray effigy in stone, eyes closed peacefully. Taro's fingers swept his sleeping visage. "His eyes are closed. These were rare, even when images of Melzas were abundant."

That's what he looked like when he died.

"What did he do? Keep nightmares away?"

"The myths say he caused them."

"A bunch of nutters were worshiping a guy because he gave them nightmares?"

They wanted a frightful idol, and that's what they got.

"Essentially. They say he implanted seeds in people- Soul Leeches, they were called- and as their souls were devoured by the seeds, their nightmares became worse, and harder to wake from. In the end, they simply... couldn't wake up. Oh, yes, this was one terrible fellow."

One terribly arrogant fellow. Did he deserve to die for that?

Aria was looking between Taro and his statue, looking at the concentration on his face, as if he could make it open its eyes by the strength of his will. "Should I leave you two alone?"

Everybody else left him. Why not you?

***

Aria opened her eyes to find Taro staring down at her, pallid and shaking.

"Aria?"

She looked down to see that her feet and calves had turned to stone, and the cracked, rough gray was creeping slowly up her legs. "What the-"

"No. Not you, too! I can't take this again! How many people have to die in my arms before Fate decides I've learned my lesson?"

"Taro, you- you're an... an..."

His face was frightened and resigned.

The stone had worked its way to Aria's chest. Before it made its way to her arms, she put her hand on Taro's forehead. "...asshole."

Part Two: Song of Solitude

Aria didn't die like Melzas. Instead of gradually losing warmth, her stone body went cold instantaneously. Taro could only stare at the statue that had once been Aria. Aria, who had defended him to her oldest, closest friends. Aria, whose insulting but good-natured jokes had made him laugh so hard that he'd fallen off his chair. Aria, who'd snapped at him for wasting time with Omega. He regretted saving Aria's life. She'd be just as dead now, but it wouldn't be hurting him so much.

He looked over his shoulder at Valsen, who was examining the glistening red thing he'd pulled out of Aria's chest. Taro wanted to jump on the little weakling and tear him limb from limb, but if he tried to do that right now, he'd lose his element of surprise. As far as Valsen knew, Taro was a skinny human archaeologist. He'd show the child. He'd show the child what a full-grown, un-weakened incubus could do to a flesh-and-blood creature. But not until he understood what Valsen was capable of.

He tried desperately to keep his voice level. "I've... never seen a spell like that before. Petrification? How did you do it?"

"I take it you're the Reaper Man? You're quite unimpressive without your mask." Valsen tossed the red thing into the air with one hand and caught it with the other. "It wasn't a spell. I didn't turn her to stone. She was stone to begin with. THIS brought her to life." He showed Taro the thing he was holding. It was a perfectly smooth, polished red stone. "You know what this is?"

"The crest of the wise man Lars. The ruby crest. The most powerful magical object ever created." Taro looked at the stone Aria. "She had it?"

"Yes, and I have you to thank for finding it, Reaper Man."

"What do you mean?"

"Surely you know the story. Thinking that the Tree of Chimera was destroyed beyond repair, Meia and Alundra hid these crests in people's dreams so that power-hungry humans like Snow couldn't use them for evil. That is, they hid all of them except one." Valsen clutched the ruby crest. "The ruby crest was so powerful that they didn't even think it safe in the realm of the subconscious. Not for lack of effort, Eva and I could not find it anywhere. I'd just about given up hope. Until I saw your friend in Varuna."

Valsen placed the ruby crest next to the Tree of Chimera, beside the other six gemstones. "I thought she'd have to have family; brothers, sisters, parents, perhaps even grandparents. A single, well-trained Elna can wipe out an entire tribe of weak nightmares, so naturally, I wanted to find out just how many elves I was dealing with. I followed you to Paco, and heard Aria say that it was her home, but I found no remnants of her family there. Again, not for lack of effort. I dug through the archives in Paco's court, trying to trace her. You won't believe what I found."

"She had no family?"

"Actually, I found Aria's 'mother' Melody, who I traced to Varuna. I went back there and, again, found no one but one supposedly deceased female relative named Carmen, who had supposedly been Melody's aunt. I found this pattern many times, until I finally traced an Elna woman named Serenade to Inoa. You know what I found there?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing but a suspiciously missing statue of Meia. Then I remembered how closely your friend resembled Meia, and it all sort of... came together." Valsen laughed. "Don't you see? Alundra kept the ruby crest with him for nearly a hundred years. Then, when he was about to die, he hid it in the statue of Meia, and it came to life and became Serenade, who became Carmen, who became Melody, who became ARIA! Only the ruby crest would have had the power to do that!" Valsen smirked. "Sadly, removing the crest seems to have caused her to revert to her... stonier state of being."

"So you're saying," Taro narrowed his eyes, "That if I put the crest back in her chest, it would bring her back?"

"Of course it would, but I'm not going to let you do that. If it bothers you so much, I suppose I could send you after her. If you beg."

"May you be dragged to Magyscar and crushed under the weight of your own viscera."

Valsen raised his deadly claw. "I never could resist such an earnest plea."

Taro began to shake.

"Did I finally teach you fear, Reaper Man?"

"I'm not afraid," Taro said.

"Of course you're not." Valsen's claws shot towards Taro in a blue blur.

A larger, deadlier claw caught Valsen's and twisted it back. "I just haven't shed my disguise in so long that it took more effort than usual."

He watched Valsen's face change from a twisted smile to a look of pure shock and horror as he himself changed from the pretty human scientist, Taro, into the brutal winged beast, Zorgia.

"I was wrong about you, Reaper Man. You're quite impressive without your mask."

He twisted Valsen's claw back until he heard it snap. "Please, call me Zorgia. I'd like to think that we're on friendly terms."

"Oh, of course. I don't hold grudges." Valsen punched Zorgia in the stomach, then served him an uppercut when he doubled over, sending him flying backwards.

Zorgia stood back up. "What a saint you are. I suspected you'd hold a rather large grudge, after I nearly cut you in half with a scythe."

"Now, why would a compassionate man like me be angry about something like that?" Valsen tried to get Zorgia in a choke hold. He caught Valsen's hands and grappled with him.

"You're... really Zorgia, then?"

"Yes."

"I figured you must be. Nobody else would last a second in a fight with me. But why are we fighting? You were the right hand of the Nightmare King, and you could be again. Instead, you side with the humans. The same way you sided with Melzas against the Zolists and the Gazeck. Are you utterly without loyalties? A perpetual traitor?"

Zorgia kicked Valsen backwards, "In a word? Yes. In more than one word? Those I were loyal to are dead."

"If you speak of Melzas, you could do his memory more honor by joining me and reviving his kingdom."

"Melzas's kingdom died with him, an any attempts to revive it will result in the creation of a pale imitation, likely for the gain of a young, self-important incubus."

"Then do yourself some honor. You're a killer by nature."

"Believe what you will, nobody is evil by nature." Zorgia said. "You and I simply have practice."

"You have more practice than I do, pious one."

"Which is exactly why you don't deserve my allegiance."

"It's sad. All this time, our kind saw you as a saint." Valsen pulled back his claw. "I hate to be the one to martyr you."

"Then I'll relieve you of that burden!" Zorgia extended his claw. No sooner had he done this than the room begin to burn bright red.

"W- what are you doing?"

"Showing you."

"Showing me what?"

"Showing you how I killed Nava and the Gazeck. I hope you have no regrets, child. FLARE!"

There was a flash of a screeching red skull, then flame. Valsen threw his arms up to block it. And though his arms singed black with the heat, Valsen did something no one other than Alundra had ever done: he took Zorgia's most powerful spell head on and lived.

"You're stronger than you look, boy."

Valsen laughed, trying to shake the black off his arms. "Should I consider that a compliment?"

In response, Zorgia threw another Flare at Valsen. And another. Valsen must have been too stupid to get out of the way, because he kept blocking the spells with his arms and chest, both of which were getting considerably burnt. But he was still standing; amidst the flame, he was still standing!

Zorgia stopped firing and watched as Valsen brushed the soot off his arms and chest, then spread his arms.

"You were the second hand of the Nightmare King? Perhaps he wasn't as great as everyone said."

Valsen stood, cocky and unguarded. Now was his chance. With a furious shriek, Zorgia threw one final flare. It hit Valsen square in the chest, and spread over the rest of his body.

Zorgia watched him crumple like a burning leaf, then tore his eyes from the corpse and looked instead at the Tree of Chimera. "You." He looked from the tree, back to Valsen. "How dare you."

He raised his sharp blue claw. "FLARE."

***

Aria woke instantly, though her vision was blurry, as usual. Had she dreamt all that? Would she find herself in her rickety old bed in Paco? She felt a twinge of disappointment at the thought; though it would mean that there was no rampaging incubus trying to revive the nightmare kingdom, no undead bio-robotic sorcerer with the skill to escape Magyscar, and no murdered thirteen-year-old delivery girl, it would also mean that there was no disgruntled archaeologist named Kiyoshi Taro.

"Are you awake yet?"

No, that was unmistakably Taro's voice.

"Not completely. Taro? Is that you?"

There was silence.

Aria waited for her eyesight to come into focus. The first thing she saw was an expanse of gold ceiling. She sat up, and found herself in a backwards-bent kneeling position that ought to defy anatomy. She straightened out, and strangely enough, felt no stiffness in her joints. Struggling to her feet, Aria looked up and nearly fell back over.

The Chimera Tree was in flames, and there was a white-haired incubus standing in front of it. He turned. It was the same one she'd seen in Taro's mind.

"NOW are you awake?"

"I wasn't hallucinating. You really are an..."

"Asshole? I told you so."

"Where's Valsen?"

Zorgia drew his gnarled finger across his throat and grinned maliciously, showing every one of his huge fangs. "He couldn't take the heat. If you'll pardon my bad pun."

"I told you not to do that."

"I had to. That one was exceptionally bad."

"You have a point." Aria looked around. "So... er, Zorgia?"

"You did read my mind."

"It was an accident. I didn't mean to."

"I suppose it was mostly my fault, as emotional as I got back there. Such bad form for a Nightmare of my caliber."

"Yeah. But Valsen's dead, right? So, we can take the crests and get out of here, right?"

He smirked and didn't say anything.

"What? I'm not planning on staying. Nice as the decor is, I don't want to stay here any longer than I have to."

"You almost took up permanent residence. Do you realize that?"

"You bet I do. When Valsen shoved his arm through my chest, I thought I was taking an extended vacation to Magyscar."

"I thought about using the ruby crest for something else."

Aria scratched her head. What was he talking about?

"I considered using the ruby crest to animate my statue of Melzas instead of to bring you back."

"Are you serious? I almost spent the rest of my life as a statue?"

"You ARE a statue."

"So what? I can't believe you even considered that!" Aria stamped, but soon calmed down. "Why didn't you?"

He folded his spiked, scaley arms. "You were brought into being from a statue of Meia. Are you Meia?"

"I certainly don't have the same taste in clothing."

"Then, by using the crest on a statue of Melzas, I would have created a monster with all of Melzas's powers and none of his personality. A cheap imitation, just like Valsen. But by using the crest on you, I knew I'd get... you."

Aria put her hands on her hips. "Are you saying I'm a cheap imitation of Meia?"

"Yes, but I prefer you to her."

"Well, in that case, I suppose it's all right. Can we go?"

"Do you remember what I told you about the last chapter of the Book of Alundra?"

"Alundra fails to save Nava, charges into Melzas's castle. Or something like that."

"The part about Alundra's mistake."

"You told me not to repeat his mistake."

"Letting me live was Alundra's mistake." Zorgia flexed his giant wings, shading himself and Aria from the light and heat of the burning tree. "Valsen was right. Look at me. Look at my ultimate act of betrayal. I am devoid of honor. If you neglect to recognize that, you will only end up hurting yourself. I don't want to you hurt yourself. Alundra's is a mistake I will not allow you to repeat."

"Tar- Zorgia, you're not making any sense."

"Kill me, Elna."

"Kill you? You saved my life twice, neither time out of necessity; wether you want to admit it or not, you've just saved the world, and you want me to repay you by killing you?"

"You don't seem to understand me. I didn't save your life out of compassion either time, and I've bloody well told you as much! I didn't save the world, either. I helped to cut out the slandering tongues of a few renegade Nightmares who thought themselves greater than their deceased king. I am by no stretch of the imagination a 'nice guy'."

"You're suicidal, that's what you are. I don't promote doctor-assisted suicide."

"Then I'll simply have to be more persuasive." He flexed his claws and began to advance. "Defend yourself, or die."

Aria retreated with his advance, resisting the urge to draw her Hummingbird and do exactly what Zorgia told her to. "Do you really think I could defeat the oldest, strongest Nightmare in existence, even if I were willing to try?"

"Lay your fear aside, child. I'm the walking dead, and I have been for years. The proud heir to the Nightmare King, and his faith, died with an infant psychic. Ridding the world of what is left of him should not be beyond your capabilities. This is my fate, and yours."

"Just how in the hell do you know?" Aria still did not draw her sword, even though Zorgia's deadly claws (which made Valsen's look like can openers) were mere inches away from her face. "How do you know what your fate is? Omega didn't tell you that I was going to KILL you!"

"I just know."

"Just know? Taro, you don't even know what a COW is! What makes you think you know the future?"

For a second, he stopped his attack. "My name... is not Taro."

"What makes you think that you're not defying fate by forcing me to attack you, huh?"

"Don't try to best me, child. I've been in this game millennia longer than you have."

"Yet you think I have any kind of chance against you?"

"If I'm lenient."

"But I won't fight back if I know you're not going to kill me."

"I didn't say I wasn't going to attack to kill." He threw his claw out, and the red fires of his Flare spell began to dance. "I simply said I'd be lenient."

Aria drew her Hummingbird.

"Finally. You're a stubborn one."

She held it by the blade. "You don't know the half of it." Holding the sword, blade first, over her head, Aria threw it as hard as she could into the flaming Chimera Tree.

Zorgia stopped casting the spell. "You're foolish if you think I won't attack an unarmed woman. I've done it before."

"So has Mephisto! He's a megalomaniac, but when push came to shove, he was capable of being every bit as heroic as Alundra!"

"I'm not heroic. You're insulting me by insinuating it."

"Was Melzas? Was Melzas so much of a hero that you're willing to follow him into the grave, after everything he did? After everything he made you do?"

"He wasn't... he was no deity. But he wasn't..."

"And you are?"

Zorgia turned away from Aria. "You're too damned pushy."

"You've got a lot of nerve calling me pushy."

"Smart ass."

"Aren't I?"

Aria walked up to him and, after (carefully) laying her hand on his spiky shoulder, scooped up the crests. "Now comes the million gilder question. What do we do with these? I don't want to hide them in dreams again; that'll just needlessly endanger a lot of innocent people."

"We could destroy them."

"How?"

"Good question."

"All right, all right. We put them in separate bags with big rocks, sail to the deepest parts of the world's oceans, and dump them each in a different one."

"So that they'll wash right up on the beach where any idiot can pick them up."

"Dammit."

"Why don't we just give them to that Mephisto fellow?"

"Like Flint said, he's a psycho conquistador who's both smart and magically inclined; you want to hand him seven ridiculously powerful magical objects that he could use to revive himself and take over the world?"

"Well, they'd be off our hands..."

"Very funny."

"I was only half-joking."

"I think..." A high-pitched female voice from behind them said, "...that you had best give those to me."

When Aria looked to see who had spoken, she had half a mind to throw herself in front of Zorgia, just in case. It was the black-robed person, and she was aiming her fire wand at them.

***

"So let me get this straight," Albert said, kicking up a pile of sand, "After you got knocked out and Taro killed Valsen, the ghost of Meia came and took the crests from you at wand-point?"

"She said," Aria was toying with a seashell, "That she and Alundra were going to take them somewhere that evil thoughts could never touch."

Taro sighed. "At least now I know who that obsessive woman was."

"Huh?"

"Long story," Aria said. "Flint's left for Paco already?"

"Mm, hmm. Wants to try his Hummingbird against Jeehan."

"Jeehan will win. A fancy sword doesn't make a difference with him," Aria said. "So, Albert, I just have to ask... how long did you know that Taro was Zorgia?"

"I didn't know Taro was Zorgia," Albert said. "But I knew he was unnaturally old because of the cows. He knew his way around Paco- much to well to have just read about it- but he'd never seen a cow before. I figured that was because cows have only been introduced onto this continent in the past few centuries. I figured he wasn't human because of all the... well... super-human things he was able to do. I found out he was an incubus by asking him."

"You're intelligent. I've always admired intelligence." Taro smirked. Now that she knew what to look for, Aria could see traces of his monstrous true form in his pretty disguise.

"Does it take effort to hold that disguise?"

"Not really. Changing is what takes effort."

"Why don't you just-"

"Not change? Do you have any idea what the gossipy morons in Carrotville would say if a great purple bat moved in next to them?"

"You're going back there, then?"

"Where else would I go? I don't like change. Where else is so boring?"

"You ran into me in Carrotville."

"And I'm sure there will be tons of lovely rumors circulating about it, too."

"Write me and tell me all about them."

"There's a law against sending profanity in the mail."

"Just black out all the bad stuff with a marker."

"You won't get much in the way of words, then."

"Send pictures."

"Very funny."

"I'll send you some pictures."

"Of what?"

"Cows."

"Smashing; I'll get an album."

Albert stood from the beach. "Well, I'm going to go see what Ruby's up to. You two both have boats to catch, so you'd better hurry yourselves."

He stood and walked away.

"He's right, you know. We do both have boats to catch."

"Heading in opposite directions." Aria tried to skip her seashell. It didn't work.

"Don't lull yourself into a false sense of security, Dream Walker. You will see me again. It doesn't matter if you come of your own free will, or if you get shipwrecked on my beach. You will see me again."

"I suppose that's fate?"

"Indeed it is. And Destiny is a bitch best not kept waiting."

"Then let's not keep her- or our ship captains- waiting any longer." Aria stood. "Onward, to meet our destinies!"

Aria charged off through the sand, leaving Taro to stare after her in bewilderment.