Her hands folded, her hair falling in cascades around her
shoulders, her eyes squeezed closed, she prayed.
        Please...please, save me from this doom I have brought on
myself.  Please don't let my single selfish act destroy everything
I've ever cared about.  Please don't let it all come to an end...
        Please...
        Corwin reached towards the shadowed figure, but his hand
passed clean through, and then the cracks appeared in the sphere all
around him, and he stared up as the swords started to come pouring in.
        Emerald eyes opened, shining in the shadows, fixed on him.
        Please...


                I have a message from another time...

                       Dragon Mage Enterprises
                         in association with
                     Eyrie Productions, Unlimited
                               presents

                UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES FUTURE IMPERFECT
                   - SYMPHONY OF THE SWORD No. 2 -

                           Fifth Movement:
                 Knights of the Tenth World Part Two:
                         Pawns to Promotion

                             Anne Cross
                        Benjamin D. Hutchins

                (c) 2002 Eyrie Productions, Unlimited

        When Corwin came to, it came in stages.  First he became aware
that he was not cold.  Then it occurred to him that he was not wet.
Third came the awareness that he did not hurt.  Fourth he realized
that all was quiet; though he could still hear the howling wind, it
was muted, at a distance, its threat taken away.
        Then, as an admittedly tangential thought, he decided that he
was really getting tired of the swords dream.
        He cracked his eyes open and looked around.
        A face was looking down at him: wide, concerned green eyes
behind biggish eyeglasses, good skin, nice cheekbones, all framed with
a shoulder-length fall of honey-gold hair that curled in a bit at the
bottom.  Not a bad face at all.  Quite lovely, actually.  Corwin
enjoyed looking at beautiful things, especially after the kind of day
he'd had, so the sight of this particular one made him smile.  She was
even familiar-looking, but he wasn't really quite conscious yet, so
that fact momentarily eluded him.
        "I didn't know angels wore glasses," he said.
        "Oh!" the face's owner said, her cheeks pinkening a little.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Corwin, but I'm no angel," she said after a moment's
consternation.  "Don't you recognize me?"
        Corwin sat slowly up and rubbed at the back of his head,
stretching and feeling his back cracking with some satisfaction.
"What a disappointment," he remarked, his awakening mind still running
on its own private little track.  "I was sure I'd died and gone back
to Valhalla."
        The blonde girl blinked at him, but did not reply - only
looked worried.  Corwin took the opportunity to get a better look at
her.  She was about Corwin's own age, maybe thirteen or fourteen
(assuming she was human), and dressed about as oddly as Corwin could
recall having seen a girl of that age: low white leather boots, a
short pleated green skirt, and a metal cuirass and single pauldron
over what appeared for all the world to be a matching green blazer.
If Corwin hadn't known better, he could have sworn she was wearing her
armor over a -school uniform-.
        Then, as he at last came fully awake, it hit him that he knew
-which- school uniform, and furthermore, he knew her face.
        "Oh," he said, feeling rather stupid.  "Hi, Fuu.  What the
hell are -you- doing here?"
        "I was just about to ask you the same thing.  Are you sure
you're all right?  You gave me quite a scare, not recognizing me."
        "I recognized you," Corwin said.  "I just couldn't remember
that I did, for a second.  Probably that clunk on the head I took.
What -hit- me?"
        Fuu looked embarrassed.  "Um, that would have been Miss
Uum'y."
        "Miss Umi?" Corwin repeated.
        "Yes, one of my traveling companions.  She looked outside to
see what was making all the noise, and opened the door somewhat
more...  er, energetically than was strictly necessary."
        Corwin frowned and reached up to touch the cut on his
forehead, only to find it gone.  This reminded him that he was not, in
fact, in pain, which was kind of odd.
        But that could wait, he decided as a fresh wave of exhaustion
rolled over him.  Something was nagging at him - he had a powerful
sensation that he was forgetting something important - but as he
struggled to bring it to mind, it just got hazier and hazier, until
sleep overtook him again.
        Fuu Hououji sat back on her heels and regarded him
thoughtfully.  She was still extremely surprised to see him here, of
all places.  She was still getting used to the idea that -she- was
here; besides which, Corwin's appearance after the -last- unexpected
encounter was giving recent events a curiously connected flavor that
worried at Fuu's analytical mind.  She shuffled the pieces of
information together, then mentally dealt them out like a tarot deck
and considered them.
        Fact: Kyouichi Saionji, a classmate of Corwin's sister
Kaitlyn, was here in Cephiro.  Fuu didn't know what he was doing here,
and he had warned her not to recognize him, so she had no particular
opportunity to find out.  But he was here, anyway, and seemed to know
his way around.
        Fact: Saionji was from the same world as Kaitlyn's roommate
Utena Tenjou, a young woman to whom Corwin was very close, and several
other students at the Deedlit Satori Mandeville Memorial Institute.
They all claimed to be from an Outer Rim settlement destroyed by
raiders two years previously, where, until the colony's fall, they
attended a preparatory school called Ohtori Academy.
        Fact: There was an Ohtori Academy in Cephiro.  Fuu had seen
it on a railway timetable in Vaaria.
        Supposition: Saionji, Utena, and the others were Cephirean.
The story about the Outer Rim was a fiction invented to avoid the
awkwardness of explaining their extradimensional origins.
        Questions: How did Saionji get back?  Why did he not want Fuu
to let on that she knew him?
        Supposition: Someone here was observing him, or he thought
they might be, and he didn't want them to know that he had been to
another world.
        Probability that this was in some way related to the
still-nebulous task which the Rune Knights had come to Cephiro to
perform: Pretty high, Fuu suspected.
        Question: What was -Corwin- doing here?
        Hypothesis: None so far.
        She sat down in seiza and sighed.  If there was one thing that
could outright annoy the usually temperate Fuu Hououji, it was trying
to work with insufficient data.  She regarded Corwin again, wondering
if he would be able to fill in any of the gaps when he woke.  He
certainly didn't -look- like he would be very informative.
        But then, it had to be admitted that Corwin wasn't looking his
best.  He was many days unshaven; his thick black hair, still wet from
the melted snow and ice, was unkempt and starting to look a little
shaggy.  He was wearing rugged traveling clothes of no particular
distinction: a tunic of a rough, dull brown material over a blue denim
shirt, blue jeans, hiking boots.  He'd had on a multisectional Mycean
hunter's cloak over that.
        When Fuu and her companions had dragged him inside, they'd put
the boots near the door, and the cloak was now draped on a hook
nearby, dripping on the floor.  His battered, almost shapeless outback
hat had fallen from his head when he'd been knocked down by the door,
but they'd found it near him and brought it inside as well.  He'd had
a beat-up brown leather pack slung over one shoulder, and a heavy
wooden staff lay near his outstretched hand.  Both of those had been
brought in as well, and lay near the end of the bed.
        Fuu watched him sleep for a few moments, but his sleep was
uneasy.  He tossed his head a couple of times, muttering, as something
swam up to him in a dream that he hadn't been able to think of while
conscious.  Suddenly he sat bolt upright, making her jump a little,
and looked around, eyes wide with alarm.
        "Nall!" he blurted.  "If I'm not dead, where's Nall?"
        Fuu blinked, raising her fingertips to her mouth in dismay.
"Mr. Nall is -with- you?  When we found you, you were alone."
        "Oh, -no-," said Corwin, his voice filled with dread.
        "Try not to worry," Fuu said, trying to sound as soothing as
possible, for her own benefit as well as Corwin's.  "My friends are
out looking around, to see if there are any more monsters lurking
outside... maybe they've found him."
        "In this weather they'd never see him," Corwin replied, his
tone becoming more worried.  He grabbed a boot and started shoving his
foot into it, realized it was the wrong one, and switched.  "How long
have I been here?"
        "Um... about an hour."  Fuu stood up, readying herself to go
with him and look.  Nall was her friend too; the three of them had all
been lab partners together (along with Buttercup Utonium, whose
superhuman powers, Fuu reflected, would have been useful on this
little junket) for the last two school years.  If he were out there in
that storm somewhere...
        "Slag!" snarled Corwin.  He got to his feet, hunting for his
other boot; then he paused, bent over, with a thoughtful look on his
face.  He raised a hand and felt around his chest, then suddenly
yanked his tunic off over his head, unbuttoned the top two buttons of
his denim shirt, plunged in a hand, and hauled out a dead cat.
        Or at least, that's what Nall looked like: a bedraggled little
lump of white fur with black feet and a gold ruff, all streaked with
red cooling to brown, limp in Corwin's hands.  Fuu gasped audibily at
the sight of the little creature (who always claimed smugly that he
was a dragon) brought to such straits.
        Stricken, Corwin dropped back to the floor on his knees.  "Oh,
no, no," he murmured, gently laying the inert creature on the floor
and bending over it.  "C'mon, Nall, buddy, don't check out on me
-now-... "
        Fuu knelt down opposite Corwin, concern written across her
face, and gently touched Nall's blood-matted fur.  He was a mess,
disheveled and dirty, but of more immediate note were the injuries.
There was a bloody cut on his head and another on his side, one of his
little legs looked broken, and his tail was oddly angled.  He was cool
to the touch, but still breathing, slowly.
        The tone of Corwin's voice left Fuu little doubt that he was
cursing, though she couldn't recognize the language, as he rummaged
again through his pack.  She touched Nall's head, smoothing back the
matted fur from the cut.  He winced languorously, still comatose, at
her touch.  Fuu made a worried tsking sound, then sat back on her
heels.
        "I think I can help him," she told Corwin.  "You were also
quite badly injured, but I was able to heal your wounds.  I should be
able to help Mr. Nall the same way."
        Corwin looked at her, the sudden intensity in his eyes
startling her a little.  He didn't bother asking how she, who had
always been an ordinary (if brilliant) girl in his experience,
proposed to do such a thing.  He spoke only two words in a hard,
percussive tone of voice:
        "Do it."
        Fuu nodded, closed her eyes, and concentrated.
        A gentle wind suddenly swirled around the three of them,
ruffling fur, hair and clothes, and the green gemstones that studded
Fuu's armor glowed gently as she closed her eyes, spread her hands
over the limp form of Nall, and murmured under her breath.  Corwin's
eyebrows rose.  As a citizen of Asgard, he could quite readily
identify what she was doing as sorcery, and sorcery of a high order,
at that.  The spell she was pronouncing was one he himself knew of,
but couldn't cast.
        As she finished the incantation, the wind picked up, tugging
at Corwin's half-buttoned shirt and Fuu's hair, and then the little
cyclone collapsed around Nall, enveloping him briefly in a swirling
green mist.
        Then it subsided, and he lay still as before - but the blood
was gone, the cuts were healed, the broken bits were now aligned
correctly, and his breathing was much stronger and more regular.
        Fuu settled a bit where she sat and gave a relieved sigh.  "I
wasn't sure that would work on him," she said.  "He'll sleep for a
while, but it looks like he'll be all right.  I healed your injuries
the same way.  I hope you don't mind."
        Corwin smiled, scooped the creature up in his big hands, and
deposited him on the end of the nearby bed, where he curled up into a
more natural sleeping position with a satisfied little purring noise.
        "Mind?" he said with a grin.  "O amazing girl!  Where in the
galaxy did you learn that trick?  I could kiss you."
        Fuu looked like she didn't quite know what to make of that
pronouncement, and leaned hesitantly back a little.  "Anyway," Corwin
said, getting to his feet, utterly unaware of the discomfiture he'd
visited on the poor girl, "what in the world are you doing here?
Shouldn't you be in New Avalon finishing up freshman year without us?"
        He looked her curious costume over more closely and shook his
head, then started looking for his things.  "And in that weird armor,
too," he remarked.  He reached out suddenly and rapped smartly upon
her breastplate with a knuckle, then looked thoughtful.  "Is that
mithril?" he wondered, more to himself than to her; then he shook his
head.  "Lousy coverage, though.  You don't actually expect it to
-protect- you from anything, do you?"
        "Um... excuse me, but you shouldn't move around so much.  You
were seriously injured.  You really ought to rest."
        "I'd love to," Corwin admitted, picking up his bag, "but I'm
afraid I haven't got a lot of time.  As soon as Nall wakes up, we'll
get out of your hair."
        He stopped then, as though just noticing his surroundings, and
whistled.  They were in a circular room about forty feet in diameter,
its one continuous wall arching up to a peaked dome as though they
were inside a giant egg.  From the peak of the dome hung a chandelier,
its bulbs turned low.  Round portholes set around the wall showed
nothing but flickering darkness as snow blew past them in the night.
Almost half of the room was taken up by the bed he'd put Nall on,
which he now realized was a -giant- bed with three sets of pillows
arranged along its carved headboard; the rest of the place was a
pleasant little sitting room, complete with a dinner table and chairs,
a group of armchairs, and a nice rug, on which he had been lying until
a few minutes ago with one of the pillows from the bed under his head.
        "Nice place," he remarked.  "When you go camping, you don't
mess around.  You said 'companions'.  How many of you are there?"
        "Three," she said.  "Are you really sure you have to leave?
The weather is still very bad.  Miss Uum'y and Miss Hikaru went out to
make sure there were no more monsters lurking about, but they should
be back soon, and then we'll have dinner.  You're... you're welcome to
join us."
        Corwin paused in the process of lacing up the one boot he'd
managed to put on before and considered that.  As if to punctuate the
reasons why he shouldn't be so hasty to go, the door, not far from
him, swung open to admit a howling blast of frosty air and a flurry of
snow.  Two girls, a redhead and one with long light blue hair, and a
large snowball hurried inside.  The blue-haired girl wrestled the door
shut, cutting out the shrieking gale, and then leaned her back against
it and let out a sigh of relief.
        The tiny redhead stomped snow off her knee-high boots and said
cheerfully, "Hi, Fuu!  No more monsters out there that -we- could
find.  Maybe they all froze!  WOW it's cold out!"  She brushed melting
snow off her hair and caught sight of Corwin standing not far away,
with one of his boots on and a puzzled look on his face.
        "Oh, hi!" she said.  "I see our guest is awake," she added to
Fuu.  "Does he remember who he is?"
        "Hikaru," the blue-haired girl said testily as she took off
thick knit mittens, "that much is obvious.  He's an -idiot-."  She
forcefully tugged off a watch cap to punctuate the statement, and the
long, pointed ears of a Hyelian sprang out from their confinement.
"Who -else- would be wandering around out there in this weather?"
        "We just were," Hikaru pointed out.
        "I rest my case!" the Hyelian girl said exasperatedly as she
shrugged out of her parka and hung it on a hook next to the door.
        The large snowball bounced once, twice, then shook itself
violently, scattering snow in all directions.  This did little to
reduce its resemblance to a large snowball, but did reveal that it
was, in fact, some kind of animal.  At the very least, it seemed to
have a face of sorts, and pointed, fuzzy ears.  It struck Corwin as
the sort of thing you'd get if you crossed a rabbit with a
basketball.
        "Ack!" cried the blue-haired girl as the snow spray caught
her.  "MOKONA!!"
        "Puu!" declared the rabbitball.  It seemed to draw some
satisfaction from that, for it repeated the declaration several times,
hopping around on vestigial feet and gleefully chanting its single
syllable as it eluded the Hyelian girl's best attempts to capture it,
until finally she gave up and subsided into muted grumbling.
        Corwin let this byplay run its course, then took off the one
boot he'd put on, stood up, collected his ruffled dignity the best he
could, and bowed.  "Corwin Ravenhair, at your service, dear ladies... "
He looked down at the rabbitball, which had come to rest next to his
right foot, and added, "... and yours too, whatever you are."
        "Puu!" the creature announced, and jumped up into Corwin's
arms.  "Puu-puu pupupu puuuuu!"
        "Um, sure," Corwin replied, petting it absently.  "Whatever
you say, Chief."
        "Hi!" bubbled the redhead.  "I'm Hikaru Shidou!  I'm in the
ninth grade at Rich Parker Memorial High School in New Avalon, in the
Zeta Cygni Dyson Sphere!  That's Mokona."
        The Hyelian girl rolled her eyes and muttered, "Next you'll
tell him your star sign and blood type."  Then, turning her attention
to Corwin, she said, "My name is Uum'y R'yuu-z'ky; I'm pleased to meet
you."  She didn't seem as if she were, particularly, but at least she
was polite about it.
        "Umi Ryuuzaki?" Corwin replied.  "That's an odd name for a
Hyelian." 
        She sighed with an air of tested patience.  "No: Uum'y
R'yuu-z'ky."
        "That's what I said," Corwin said, puzzled.
        "No it isn't," Uum'y replied testily, "but you may as well
just go on calling me Umi, everybody -else- does.  Savages," she added
under her breath.  "Fuu, before Hikaru dragged me out the door, did I
hear you say you knew who he was?"
        Fuu nodded.  "Once I got the blood cleaned off his face, it
was obvious.  Mr. Corwin is a classmate of mine.  We're both in
Division 9C, Mr. Fujisawa's homeroom, and have most of our classes
together.  We're even lab partners in Physical Science."
        Umi goggled at her.  "WHAAAAT?!"  She turned to Corwin.  "How
did you get here?  More importantly, how are you getting back?  Take
me with you!  Let's go back right now!"
        "Umi!" Hikaru cried, shocked.  "How can you say that?  You
know we can't go home until we've completed our mission!  We have to
become Rune Knights and save Cephiro!"
        "Don't tell me what to do!" Umi barked, scowling at Hikaru.
"Maybe you believed that nutty little guy, but I didn't.  I want to go
home."
        "Nutty little guy?" Corwin wondered.
        Umi made a disgusted gesture and walked away.  "This whole
thing is insane," she said.  She plopped into an annoyed sitting slump
on the edge of the bed, pulled off one of her high boots, and dumped
water out of it.  Given how high up those boots went, Corwin shivered
a little at the thought of the drift she must have stepped in.  "Look,
can you get me home or not?  I have a very important fencing tournament 
coming up."
        Corwin spread his hands.  "I'd love to help you out, but I'm
stuck here too.  I've got a job to do, and my ride isn't picking me up
until I'm done with it."
        Umi scowled.  "Perfect.  Well, it looks like Fuu's managed to
patch up your wounds, so if you can't make yourself useful, then you
might as well move along.  Nice meeting you and all that."
        Hikaru stared at her.  "Umi!  You can't expect him to go back
out into -that-!"
        Umi glowered back at the little redhead.  "Why not?  It didn't
seem to bother you any.  You didn't even put on a coat!"
        "That's different," Hikaru insisted.  "I'm Kumbari, this kind
of weather is nothing for me.  Corwin's only human, he'll freeze in
that storm.  Sending him out there... it would be -murder-!"
        "I - " Corwin started.
        "I must agree with Miss Hikaru," said Fuu, not contentious but
still firm.  "Mr. Corwin's injuries are healed, but he is still weak.
He should not be made to travel right away, especially under
conditions such as these."
        "Look, I don't want to cause a - " Corwin started.
        Umi scowled.  "Well, it's not proper for him to be here,
unsupervised, with the three of us.  What if he's some kind of
-pervert- or something?"
        "Hey, now wait just a - " Corwin started.
        "Miss Uum'y, that's simply not fair," said Fuu, a touch of
admonitory scorn in her voice now.  "Mr. Corwin is my friend and
classmate."  Ticking off points on her fingers, she went on rather
primly, "He is the secretary of our class division at Fritz Koopman
Memorial High School and is well-known as a conscientious and kind
person.  His father is a pillar of the community.  His brother is our
class vice-president and co-captain of the Kendo Club (which made it
to the tri-sector finals this year, but was eliminated by the
MegaTokyo Central team on a -very- controversial point by MegaTokyo
captain Kyodai).  To harbor such suspicions against him without any
grounds for them is irrational, not to mention a little bit cruel!"
        "Well, excuse me!" replied Umi, as soon as she'd recovered
from Fuu's somewhat elliptical discourse.  "How should I know he was
some kind of a saint?  I've never heard of him before."
        "Ladies - " Corwin started.
        "You could have asked Fuu," Hikaru declared.  "She -said- he
goes to her school.  I say he stays, at least until the storm is
over."
        "Why don't I just - " Corwin started.
        "Puu!" Mokona declared, wriggling free from Corwin to hop
agitatedly about the room.  "Puu pupuu PUU puu, puu!"
        "You keep out of this, Mokona!" barked Umi.
        "HEY!" Corwin shouted.
        Everybody (except Nall) jumped, startled by his sudden bellow,
and looked at him.  He let them hold that pose while he put on his
boots, then elaborated a little.
        "I don't want to cause a fight," he said, shouldering his
pack.  "If Umi wants me to go, I'll go.  I'm feeling better now that
I'm not bleeding anymore.  I'll be fine."
        "No, Mr. Corwin," said Fuu.  "I have already invited you to
stay for dinner.  It would be unforgivably rude of me to go back on
that invitation now."  She shifted her green gaze to Umi and said in a
tone that did not invite debate, "All right?"
        Umi looked petulant for a moment, then said grudgingly, "All
right."  She drained her other boot, then put them both back on and
added, "But if he can't behave himself, I expect -you- to handle it.
You're the one who invited him."
        Corwin turned to Fuu.  "Look, thanks for the invitation, but
for the sake of you and your companions' peace, maybe I'd better just
move along."
        "I won't hear of it," she replied flatly.  Her back was up
now, and she wasn't going to have him running off after she'd fought
for him to be allowed to stay.  "You need to eat something, at least,
before you go back out into that storm."
        Corwin knew when he was cornered, so he smiled graciously.
"It shall be as you say, my angel," he said, sketching out a courtly
bow.  Fuu's cheeks went a little pink as she turned away from him and
set about setting the table.  Umi rolled her eyes.
        Corwin, sensing that ignoring her would be the safest course
of action for all concerned, did that thing, going over to one of the
portholes and gazing thoughtfully into the whirling darkness beyond
it.  After a few moments, Umi - Umi? - announced that the table was
ready, and he turned and took a seat, eyes widening in appreciation.
        The table was not only set, it was loaded, almost groaning
under the weight of a spread like Corwin hadn't seen since... well,
OK, since the last time he'd been over to his Aunt Belldandy's for
dinner.  He wondered where all the food had -come- from; he hadn't
noticed any kitchen facilities or anything.
        Deciding there was no sense in arguing with good fortune, he
briefly bowed his head, gave thanks to his ancestors, waited for the
girls to start, then dug in.
        They ate in silence for a few minutes; then Hikaru looked
across the table at him and said, "So you're from New Avalon too,
huh?"
        "Yup," said Corwin.  "Well, part of the time, anyway.  My
father lives there, I go to school there, but Mom lives on Tomodachi."
        "Oh.  They split up?" she said, looking sad.
        "Nah," said Corwin.  "They were never really together in any
formal sense.  They're great friends, but their lives don't overlap
much.  It's kind of hard to explain."
        "Sounds it.  What are you doing here?"
        "I... "  He paused, considering his words carefully.  There
was really no proscription against just blurting out, "I'm a god, or
at least I'm bucking for the job," but a) she probably wouldn't
believe him and b) Umi definitely wouldn't, and he didn't want to
start another problem.  "My mother's people have some legends about
this place," he finally said.  "I'm here as kind of a rite of
passage.  I'm supposed to figure out what's gone wrong around here,
and whether it's going to screw up anything -outside- of this place."
        "Oh, I see," said Hikaru.  "We were summoned here to save the
world.  Maybe we should work together!"
        Umi put a palm to her forehead.  "Hikaru... "
        "Well, that's what Master Mage Clef said," Hikaru went on
doggedly.  "He said we had been summoned from the mortal world to
Cephiro by Princess Emeraude, the Pillar of Cephiro, because the world
is facing great danger.  We're supposed to gather up magic weapons and
Rune Gods and things in order to become the legendary Rune Knights and
save the world."  She thumped the table with a fist, her eyes sparkling, 
and said, "And that's just what we're gonna do!"
        Umi concentrated as hard as she could on winding spaghetti
onto her fork, muttering darkly.
        Corwin, who had heard of the Pillar and Master Mage, but not
any of this "Rune Knights" legend - neither in his official briefings,
nor in any of the stories of Cephiro he'd heard from the friends of
his who were born here - looked puzzled, then filed it away for later.
Whatever the case, it was obvious that Hikaru herself believed it
wholeheartedly, so there was no point in questioning her on it.
        Her enthusiasm, like her energy, was palpable.  She reminded
Corwin of his half-brother Leonard's mother; Kei Morgan wore her own
red hair in much the same way, a shaggy wolf cut with a long, thick
braid trailing from the nape of her neck, and carried herself with a
lot of the same unhesitating confidence.  There was nothing hesitant
or tentative about Hikaru Shidou.
        She had big dark red eyes fringed with impossibly heavy
lashes, and big cream-furred humanized-Salusian primary ears jutting
from her mop of scarlet hair, and everything else about her was tiny,
trim and athletic.  The detail work on her armor was mostly red too;
so was the school uniform underneath, except for her black skirt,
which had only a narrow red stripe around it.
        Corwin found himself quite liking her.
        "Well, I wish you luck," he said, grinning.  "In fact, I wish
I could stick around and help you out, but... "
        "You'd only be in our way," Umi declared.
        "You're -awfully- cranky today, Umi," Hikaru observed.
        "Who wouldn't be, trapped in this small room by this filthy
weather?" asked Umi peevishly.
        "I'm not," Hikaru replied cheerily.  "Neither is Fuu.  Or
Corwin.  It looks like it's just you."
        Umi looked at the redhead, then down at her plate, and heaved
a large sigh.  Rude as she was being to him, Corwin had to admit she
had good reason to be upset.  After all, it sounded as though the
three of them had been yanked willy-nilly out of normal lives and
dumped unceremoniously on the most messed-up planet in the universe,
right smack in the middle of a major planetary crisis.
        Corwin kept silent and looked her over, thinking.  She was
indeed Hyelian, of the same effective age as her two companions, which
would make her something like eighty Standard years old, for the elves
of Hyeruul are a very long-lived people.  She was well-scrubbed and
well-nourished, trim and slender as are almost all of her race, with
long, well-tended sea-blue hair, eyes to match, and long, delicately
pointed, highly mobile ears.  Under her blue-trimmed silvery-white
armor she wore the uniform of one of New Avalon's most exclusive
girls' schools, Fontainebleu Academy ("Le Chateau Snootee", according
to many in Corwin's circle, most of whom had little patience for the
place or its students).
        A child of privilege, then, accustomed to the leisurely and
undemanding pace of a Hyelian childhood.  Probably an only child,
since almost all Hyelian children are.  The lifespan of its people
keeps the nuclear families of Hyeruul small, the extended families
large and close-knit - but since expatriates are rare, that extended
family was probably still back on Hyeruul.  Corwin could only think,
off the top of his head, of two Hyelian expats: one was Mayl Popp'fl,
the other Tom Dani's-Husband (or so Corwin thought of him, to keep
from having to try and remember his surname), and they were both
certified weirdos if ever there were a certification standard.  Umi's
parents must be similarly odd, by Hyelian standards, to have moved to
a place like New Avalon, far from the pastoral calm of Hyeruul.
        With all that established in his mind, Corwin no longer felt
irritation at her hostility toward him - he realized suddenly that it
was a mask for the huge disappointment he must embody for her.  A
stranger to this world himself, someone verifiably from the world, the
-city-, that she knew and longed to return to, and he couldn't help
her.  He must seem the very pinnacle of uselessness to her.
        ... Well, OK, maybe the thought still gave him -some-
irritation.
        She realized then that he was looking at her, blinked, and
reddened slightly, her ears flicking back like an annoyed horse's.
        "What are -you- staring at?" she demanded.
        "Sorry," Corwin replied, returning his attention to his food.
"I was lost in thought."
        "I'll -bet-," Umi muttered.  What an irritating fellow!  If
she hadn't wanted the snowstorm to stop with all her heart -before-,
she certainly did now, so she could be rid of him.  Fuu seemed to like
him, but then he was a schoolmate of hers and apparently some kind of
leader, so that kind of thing was to be expected.  Hikaru seemed to
like him, but then Hikaru had no common sense, so she liked everybody.
Mokona seemed to like him, but then Mokona was a creature without, so
far as Umi had yet been able to determine, any sort of value
whatsoever, so who -cared- what it thought of him?
        "Anyway, isn't it awfully -convenient- that you should be
related to someone who once explored this planet, when no one back in
the Known Galaxy seems to have ever heard of it?  As stories go,
that's pretty weak."
        Before Corwin could reply, a high-pitched, somewhat blurry
voice addressed Umi from the bed.
        "Lady," it piped, "I've got a headache out of all proportion
to my cute little skull, and your voice is at -exactly- the wrong
pitch.  So couldja do me a big favor and -shut up-?"
        Umi flushed and looked around.  "What?!  Who said that?"
        Corwin dropped his forehead into his palm.
        "-I- did," the voice replied indignantly, and everyone but
Corwin turned to look toward the bed.
        Corwin's cat was awake, sitting up in a sort of sphinx
position and looking at Umi with an expression very much like a human
scowl.  Umi blinked at him, astonished.
        "Awww!" said Hikaru.  She jumped up, sat on the end of the
bed, and scooped the creature into her arms, scratching him on the
head.  "Aren't you the cutest thing?  Where did you come from,
kittycat?"
        "That's sort of a long story," Nall replied, unsuccessfully
trying to move his head out of range, "and wouldja knock it off?  I
said I've got a headache!"
        Hikaru didn't seem at all fazed by the fact that the cat had
just answered her rhetorical question; she just hugged him a little
tighter and admonished him, "If you'd stop moving around you'd feel
better."
        "All right, all right," Nall grumbled, subsiding and letting
himself be petted.  After a few moments he stretched, settling in a
bit better, and made a low purring sound.  "I guess this isn't so bad
after all," he allowed.
        "Did that animal just tell me to shut up?" Umi demanded.
        "Yeah," he said sleepily, "I did.  Your voice.  It grates."
        Umi rounded on Corwin.  "Is that -your- incredibly rude
talking cat?"
        "Um... well, yes and no," said Corwin.  "His name is Nall.
He's not a cat, and he's not really 'mine', since he's a sentient
lifeform... but I'll grant you he is incredibly rude.  After the day
we've had, though, I'd say he has a right to be a little cranky."
        "Yeah," Nall added, a slightly dreamy tone stealing into his
voice.  "Although... I gotta say... my day's... improving.  The only
thing... that could make it better... is... "  With this he seemed to
reawaken fully, his ears pricking up as he raised his head from the
crook of Hikaru's elbow to look around at the table.  "Food," he
finished with a pointy-fanged grin.
        "Help yourself," said Hikaru, "we've got plenty."  Getting
into the spirit of things with a smile, Fuu started setting a place at
the end of the table and portioning food onto a plate.
        "Ha-ha!" said Nall triumphantly.  He coiled himself, suddenly
all action, and sprang from Hikaru's arms toward the table.  It was a
good ten feet, and she didn't think he'd be able to make it... 
        ... until, at the apogee of his leap, he unfurled wings from
his back, and with a single wingbeat, cleared the distance easily.
        "Wow!" Hikaru declared.  "A -flying- cat!"
        "Since you were so nice to me," Nall declared as he alighted
at the end of the table, "I'll let that one slide, honey - but I'm not
a cat."
        "Oh?  Well, what are you, then?"
        Nall drew himself up grandly and declared, "I, my dear, am a
Great Alfheim Cat Dragon."
        Umi snickered nastily.  "'Great' in comparison to -what-?"
        Nall scowled at her.  "Cut me some slack, I'm only 14.  Could
you talk this well when you were 14, long-ears?"
        Umi blushed furiously and turned away with an irritated sniff.
The rest of the meal passed in a somewhat uncomfortable silence.  When
they had finished, Corwin pushed back his chair, got to his feet, and
bowed, one hand across his middle, the other folded behind his back.
        "I thank you, good ladies, for your help and hospitality this
day," he said.  "I fear we can impose upon you no longer."
        "Oh, no!" said Hikaru.  "Are you really going back out in
-that-?"
        "Yeah, what -she- said," Nall protested.  "I like storms and
all, but there's such a thing as too much."
        Corwin looked out one of the portholes.  "It looks like the
snow's letting up some," he lied, picked up his bag, and slung it
over one shoulder.  Then he found his hat, picked up his staff, and
went to the door.  "Good luck with your quest, girls.  When you get
back to New Avalon, look me up - I hope we all make it back."
        "Are you sure you have to go, Mr. Corwin?" asked Fuu,
concerned.  "I don't think the weather has improved as much as you
seem to believe... "
        He nodded.  "My real problem was the beating I took from... 
well, whatever those were... before the storm started.  Anyhow, like I
said - good luck!  Maybe I'll see you around again.  C'mon, Nall,
let's go."
        For a moment, Nall looked as though he might put up a fight
over it, but he saw something in Corwin's eyes and acquiesced,
permitting himself to be stuffed back into the relative protection of
Corwin's overshirt and tunic.  Once he was sure his partner was
secure, Corwin opened the door, wincing into the howling wind, and
struggled outside, then turned around, waved, and forced the door
shut.
        "OK," said Nall from inside his shirt, "I came quietly - now
you want to explain why we had to leave?"
        "You're the one's been complaining that I need to stay
focused," Corwin replied testily.  "I get caught up in their quest, I
lose track of my own, and then where are we?"
        Nall sighed.  "Couldn't you have stayed the night and then
stayed focused in the -morning-?"  Corwin didn't answer.  After a few
seconds, the dragon sighed again and said, "OK, fine.  Wake me up when
we freeze to death."
        Silent, Corwin turned and trudged away into the storm.

        Once the storm passed, the Knights emerged from their egg and
continued onwards toward Shalhara.  Even before the sun came out, the
snow melted and the mercury climbed rapidly to warm, late-spring
temperatures, all of which the Knights accepted as normal in this
extremely strange place where they found themselves.
        The sun came out mid-morning, and the rest of the day was
clear and sunny as the three would-be Rune Knights made their way
westward, through an area of sandy spaces, bluffs and sandstone cliffs
that would have reminded them of Arizona, had any of them known what
Arizona was.
        The events of the previous several days had been sobering
ones, and the Knights did not make much conversation as they walked,
each absorbed with her private thoughts.  
        Umi wondered bleakly if she would ever see her home again, or
if she were doomed to spend the rest of her life in this
incomprehensible wilderness.
        Hikaru missed her brothers and her dog, and wondered off and
on about the fate of the dark-haired stranger and his talking cat who
had vanished into the storm that very strange night.  
        Fuu found herself frustratingly unable to direct her thoughts
to productive matters.  Instead she kept dwelling on a single unuseful
thought: Corwin's appearance had reminded her of the even more
mysterious appearance of Mr. Saionji.
        Why was Saionji here?  How had he come to be here?  And why
didn't he want Fuu to show that she knew him already?  It was all most
puzzling.  He seemed to be looking over his shoulder, metaphorically
speaking, and Fuu couldn't help but feel a sense of ominous foreboding
thinking of his presence.  Not for her sake; in all the times she'd
met him, here and back home, he was never anything but kind and
courteous, and after all he -was- Corwin's elder sister's student in
the family kenjutsu form.
        No, the worry Fuu felt was on -his- account, she realized.
There was an air of danger hanging over his head, and Fuu couldn't
shake the feeling that it was all tied to the reason she and the other
Knights were here.  There was something else going on, something
hidden just below the surface, and Fuu Hououji did not like feeling
that she didn't know what was really going on.  It preoccupied her,
and since Kyouichi Saionji carried with him an almost palpable air of
the overarching mystery, -he- therefore preoccupied her.
        However, the sight of a cluster of houses with low growing
vegetable gardens around them forced her to put her preoccupations
away.  Umi stopped too, and Hikaru squared her shoulders.
        "Maybe we should go around," Umi suggested.
        Fuu nibbled on her lip while Hikaru stared at the village.
"Is that a shrine in there?" she said finally, bouncing up on her toes
to try and get a better look.
        Fuu squinted through her glasses, and nodded.  "It would seem
so," she said finally.  "Miss Uum'y, I know the townsfolk seem to be
somewhat nervous in our presence, but perhaps it would be wise to ask
at this shrine to make certain we are heading in the correct direction."
        Umi sighed.  "Oh, all right, let's get this over with," she
said, and they all headed for the village, Umi trudging, Fuu walking,
and Hikaru skipping slightly nervously, Mokona bouncing at her heels.
        They headed for the shrine.  Some of the townsfolk watched
them nervously from their vegetable gardens, not saying anything.  Umi
could -not- get her ears to stop twitching; being stared at so warily
made her feel like there was something perched on her shoulders making
faces at everybody, and she -hated- it.
        Fuu put on her politest face, but she was no more comfortable
inwardly than Umi.  The fact that the townsfolk regarded them with
such wary caution seemed to indicate that many things were not right
in Cephiro, but she didn't have enough information to figure out where
things had started going wrong.
        Hikaru was determined not to feel ashamed or nervous about
what she was supposed to be doing.  She was going to save their world!
The least they could do was look supportive.  They didn't actually
have to -do- anything, but it would be nice if they didn't give her
the Evil Eye.
        She bounded up the flagstone path to the shrine... and skidded
to a halt.  Draped artistically over the three stone steps that led
into the little shrine was a woman with long white hair, dressed in a
black catsuit and thigh-high boots.  She was reading something that
looked like a paperback novel, and set at her side was a staff with a
white-purple crystal orb in it.
        She looked up at Hikaru with bored violet eyes, and Hikaru
suddenly noticed that the woman wore gems - and a Lens - like their
own.  "Oh... ah... um... " she began, not at all sure how to deal with
the first person she'd met besides Master Smith Presea and Master Mage
Clef who obviously wielded magic.  The woman sighed.
        "Yes, what is it?  I've had enough fruit juice to drink, and
your sweets are quite dull really.  Unless you have something useful
to tell me, I've been interrupted by you villagers enough this
morning."
        "But - " Hikaru began, but the woman had already turned back
to her book.
        "Run along now, there's a good little girl," she said in a
bored tone of voice, "and leave those of us who make sure the world's
safe for people like you alone."
        Hikaru stared at her, ears drooping and an unhappy expression
growing on her face, and from behind her, she heard Umi say acidly,
"Apparently, people who make the world safe are old hags or midgets
with no fashion sense, and I'm -glad- I'm not one of them.  C'mon,
Hikaru, her head's so swelled it'd take a spear a mile long to get it
down to a size where she could say anything -useful-."
        Hikaru started to turn away from the white-haired woman,
greatful look on her face for Umi standing up for her.  "Yeah, you're
ri - OW!" she yelped, as a long fingered hand came down on her
shoulder, pressing in hard enough to -hurt-.
        "-No one- speaks to me that way!" the woman hissed, using
Hikaru as an anchor to stand up with.  She collected her orb on the
way up, and pointed it at Umi, who was glaring right back while Hikaru
grabbed for the woman's wrist.
        "Let -GO-!" Hikaru yelled, digging her fingers into the
tendons she could feel and prying the clawlike hand off her shoulder.
The minute she was free, she backed away warily, her right hand
hovering open to grab for her sword if she needed it.
        Fuu had her hand on Umi's shoulder, to stop her from pushing
forward.  "Are you all right, Miss Hikaru?" she asked.
        "I'm fine," Hikaru answered, not taking her eyes off the
woman, who was looking between the three girls with a frowning
expression, as if considering something.
        "Yeah, well, no old hag tells me I'm an ignorant peasant
either," Umi snapped, sounding like she was about ready to spit.
        That apparently tipped the balance, because the woman raised
her orb.  "Face the wrath of Alcyione, mage of Cold, -girl-," she
cried scornfully, and pointed the orb at Umi.  >ICE DAGGER!<
        Hikaru was ready for such an attack, but Umi wasn't.  Held by
Fuu, who had been trying to keep her from charging forward and
slapping the woman, she couldn't dodge fast enough.
        So Hikaru dove into the path of the icy missile, shouting,
"Run, get out of range - "  She choked off as the entire left side of
her body became a burning, icy cold.  She couldn't seem to breathe.
        Umi stared in horror as Hikaru choked on her words, landing on
her hands and knees almost in slow motion, and then opened her mouth
and vomited blood on the ground.  Then the elf stared up at the woman
with the icy-colored hair, wordlessly drew her sword, and charged.
        Fuu also charged, but it was mostly to see if she could pry
the icy shard out of Hikaru's side so that she could work her healing
spell on the Salusian - who was still trying to get up, even though it
was clear she was in such pain she couldn't see straight.
        "Gotta... help... " she wheezed as Fuu tried to get the icy
shard, slick with blood, to come out.
        "Lie still!" Fuu ordered, finding her grip tharted by Hikaru's
persistant desire to get up and help Umi.  She heard Umi scream as
something hit her, and then the sound of the sorceress shrieking as
Umi apparently scored a hit.
        Then, there was a flash of green and white in the edge of
Fuu's vision, and a roar of, "-WHAT- do you think you're -DOING!?-"
        Fuu looked up to see the white-and-green figure of Kyuoichi
Saionji having pinned Alcyione to the wall of the shrine.  Saionji was
unarmed - well, unless you counted that stick he'd been carrying last
time, which some of those boars would certainly agree was a weapon -
but that didn't seem to bother him as he held the woman against the
shrine wall with one ramrod-straight arm and used the other to hold
her staff at bay with the stick.  She was ranting furiously, berating
him for stopping her, demanding Umi's head on a spike, while Umi had
drawn back uncertainly and was standing protectively betweeen the Ice
Mage and Fuu and Hikaru.
        "You were ordered to -protect- them, you stupid fool, not
nearly kill them!" Saionji roared, his eyes blazing.  He glanced over
his shoulder, then back at the sorceress.  "If you've left the Knight
of the Flame too badly wounded to carry on, Lord Akio will have your
-head-!"
        That got the witch's attention; she paused in her ranting,
her eyes contracting to pinpoints of fear, then shrilled, "No, no!"
        Saionji looked back over his shoulder again, his face grim.
"Get her out of here," he ordered, locking gazes with Fuu.  "Now!"
        "Miss Uum'y, help me!" Fuu gasped, trying to slide her hands
under Hikaru's shoulders and lift.
        "But... " Umi hesitated.
        "Go!" Saionji roared, as Alcyione's voice spiraled up into
something like the beginnings of a curse.
        Umi snarled something under her breath, dismissed her sword,
and picked up the other end of Hikaru.
        As they hustled out of the village, they saw that there wasn't
a single townsman to be seen anywhere.

        Corwin was feeling distinctly out of sorts when he reached
Shalhara in late morning.  He wasn't ill; his training in Jotunheim
had given him plenty of practice surviving the miserable cold that
sometimes blew out of Niflheim.  Thanks to that, he had passed the
remainder of the night without freezing, Nall's sarcastic comments
aside - but it hadn't been -comfortable- by any stretch of the
imagination.  Breakfast had also eluded him, as he had found himself
-completely- unable to stomach the trail rations in his satchel.
        What was really weighing on him were more cerebral concerns.
What little information Fuu and her two companions had been able to
give him about their 'mission' here in Cephiro filled him with unease.
The thought nagged at him that he had been too hasty to separate
himself from their company; but the thought -also- nagged at him that
their presence represented a threat to his own mission.  Aside from
all that, he was worried about them.  Fuu was his friend, and aside
from her skill at archery, she hadn't much background to recommend her
as a mystic questor as far as he had ever been able to determine.
        What little of his mind wasn't taken up with -those- concerns
was battered by the thought that Nall had been right all along - he
should have brought Utena with him instead of the little dragon.  But
how was he supposed to know that he'd be sent to Cephiro?  The place
had been terra incognita in Asgard for centuries, and suddenly they're
sending an investigator as a Trial - not something he thought he could
reasonably have been expected to predict.  Nall had been good about
not mentioning it again, but Corwin was berating himself enough to
make up for that.
        Utena.  He had a promise to keep to her, and now he was in the
very world where he'd have to be in order to keep it - and his
obligation to the Council prevented him from trying, at least at
first.  It chafed at him to be inactive, to be a passive observer in
this obviously troubled land.  Nothing he saw here looked promising
from an Asgardian standpoint, and what would he do if he submitted his
final report and, on its basis, Frey successfully lobbied for the
destruction of Cephiro?  He'd never be able to face the girl he loved
again with that on his conscience.  But could he lie to the Council?
Or did another solution wait, just outside his field of view?
        All this went around and around in his head, flavored by
wholly irrelevant tangents like the occasional reminiscence of the new
and improved Vigdis Brightblade, as she had appeared to him just
before he left on his Trial.  That thought always annoyed him when it
came around again, because it was so irrelevant to everything that he
was trying to do here, and yet it kept recurring.  It was like having
a song stuck in his head.
        So the rapidly rising temperatures and threatenings of a
bright, sunshiny day were making him even more grumpy by the time he
stumped into the main marketplace of Shalhara.
        Nall, who knew better than to try and say -anything- to his
friend while he was in this sort of mood, was simply riding along
quietly, occasionally getting off to walk or stretch his wings.
        Thus it was that he wasn't expecting to be snatched out of the
air by a dark hand that deftly seized him by the scruff of the neck.
He let out an indignant squawk, and Corwin spun just in time to see
his friend being carried down a shadowed alley by a figure swathed
entirely in dark purple robes.
        "Hey!" he yelled, and charged down the alley after the figure.
        It always seemed to be just ahead of him, no matter how many
corners he turned, and he was getting winded when he finally rounded
the last corner and found himself in a shadowed nook at the edge of
town, looking out over the desert.
        Nall was sitting on a table, looking upwards at the thing that
was causing the shadow - it looked to be a floating island.  The
figure was sitting behind the table, still swathed from head to foot
in those purple robes, but when Corwin angrily met its eyes, he found
himself unable to say anything.
        Green eyes... why do I know these eyes?
        The figure itself was hidden, its face veiled, but Corwin was
sure the eyes were those of a woman.  As he realized this, she spoke
in a soft, husky voice.
        "They will need your help.  If you leave them now, they will
find their victory to be nothing but ashes and death."
        Corwin swallowed.  "It's not what I'm here for," he answered a
bit lamely.  "They can take care of themselves."
        The woman didn't react, didn't even seem to have heard him,
because she continued, "But if you help them, then those ashes may
have in them the seed of the rose that is to come."
        Corwin slammed his hand down.  "I can't do that yet!" he
shouted.  "And if I get involved in this, I'm going to be doing it
backwards!"
        Green eyes bored into blue.  "Your own victory will be ashes
too, if you do not follow the truth you are running from."
        "I've had enough of prophecies," he growled, and reached up.
Seizing the edge of the veil that covered the figure's face, he tore
downwards.
        Fabric unraveled until all he held was a square of dark
purple in his hands, and there was nothing there.  No one inside the
robes that he had been staring at, no eyes, no face, no hands.
        Nall turned around, and looked up at Corwin.  "She said we'd
find them up there, Corwin," he said, pointing with his nose to the
floating island.  Then, with a wry, slightly shaken little grin, he
added, "Now you get to think of a way to get your butt up there.
After we figure out how to get breakfast."
        Corwin stared at the violet fabric in his hands, then clenched
them into fists and took a deep breath.  He let it out slowly, and
then said, very slowly, as if he were biting the words off, "Nall, I
need ten minutes to myself."
        "Well, as it happens, there's a big desert out there," the
dragon answered, pointing with his nose again.  "Just don't take too
long."
        Corwin half nodded, and then went out into the desert to find
a cactus that needed to be taught a lesson.

        Their altercation with the ice sorceress had cost the Rune
Knights a half day's traveling, for though Fuu had been able to heal
Hikaru's wound, the effort involved had left her too weak to travel.
It was by far the hardest bit of healing she'd ever had to do, much
more difficult than even the patch-up job on Mr. Corwin, whose wounds
had been nasty-looking but not too severe.  Hikaru's had been worse -
potentially mortal, Fuu thought, though she tried not to think about
it too hard.  After a blow like that, even intrepid Hikaru wasn't
feeling particularly like spending the rest of the day tramping the
dusty roads of the scrublands either; so they'd gotten what they felt
was a reasonably safe distance from the village and camped for the
rest of the day.
        Now they were making good time again, restored by a good
night's sleep and the peculiar resilience of the 'tweenage girl (only
Fuu, after all, was technically a teenager).  Hikaru was as chipper as
ever, her brush with mortality completely blotted out by her natural
optimism, and she chattered cheerily to Mokona as the three of them
crossed the ever-thinning scrublands toward the Great Desert of
Shalhara.    Even Umi looked pleased and relieved, walking along not
far from Hikaru with an unusual spring in her stride.
        Fuu came along a little behind, smiling her quiet, satisfied
smile, though behind it, her mind was worrying furiously at the
ever-more-confusing knot of Mr. Saionji's role on all this.  Who, she
wondered, was this "Lord Akio" person he had mentioned to the
sorceress who had tried to kill them?  What did he know of their
mission, that he would send people to support the Rune Knights?  And
why did Saionji work for him?  Curiouser and curiouser... 
        She was preoccupied enough by these thoughts that she didn't
really notice it was coming they left the scrublands behind them and
suddenly, dramatically entered the Great Desert as if crossing a line
on a map.  As they entered the desert itself, Mokona's occasional
comments of "puu" became -much- more enthusiastic.  As they walked
along the hard track to the city of Shalhara, shimmering like a mirage
on the distant horizon, the creature began wriggling so hard that
Hikaru had to let go of it.
        It began hopping up and down, practically shouting, "Puu!
Puu!  Puupuupuupuu!!" and looking upwards.
        All three Knights looked up, and Hikaru let out a soft whistle.
"So -this- is where those floating islands we saw were!"
        "Mad, absolutely mad," Umi muttered, but her heart didn't seem
to be in it.
        When Fuu didn't say anything, they both looked away from the
island and at her.  Her eyes were closed, but she was facing upward.
        Then she slowly opened her eyes, and the other two Knights
gasped; her pupils were gone - not just contracted down to points,
GONE - and her irises had acquired a soft, subtle iridescence.  Her
hands opened at her sides, and she murmured something softly, under
her breath.
        And then she began to float upwards, wreathed in a faint
shimmer of the softest green.
        "Hey!  Wait!" Hikaru yelped, and made a lunge for her friend,
only to be stopped by Mokona.
        "Puu!" it exclaimed, shaking its rabbity ears in an emphatic
No.
        "But...Mokona, we can't just let her go up there -alone-!"
Hikaru protested.  "What if something bad happens?"
        "PuUUuuu... " the rabbitball considered.
        "Please, Mokona?" Hikaru entreated, while Umi stood off to one
side, her arms folded as she considered the futility of Hikaru's
pleading.
        "Puu!" Mokona seemed to decide, and then focused its eyes on a
patch of sand a short distance away.  Red light played over the sand
from the gem on its forehead, and then a huge bowl with wings appeared
on the sand.
        "All -RIGHT-!" Hikaru yelled, and ran for the bowl.
        Umi threw her hands up in the air and followed.
        The bowl began flapping its wings, and then rose into the
air.  The view over the desert was spectacular, but even Umi only
spared a glance for it; they were all looking up at the tiny speck
that was Fuu.
        As they rose higher, they began to catch up to her, and then
the bowl slid forward onto a flat paved area in front of a huge pair
of double doors.  Crystal spires rose out of the top of the island,
catching the sunlight and reflecting it off into rainbows all around
them, and the paving stones were white.  The doors were gold and green
and white, and Fuu was in the act of floating up to them.
        Hikaru glanced at Mokona.  "We're not supposed to touch her?"
she asked tentatively.
        "Puu!" Mokona agreed, nodding vigorously.
        "OK... " Hikaru said tentatively, and hopped out of the bowl
to have a look around.
        Then the doors opened, and Fuu floated across the threshold.
Suddenly, there was a soft chiming noise, as if wind chimes everywhere
were chorusing in a breeze.  It got louder and louder the further in
she went, and then in a swirl of light, they couldn't see her anymore.
        Every hair on the back of Umi's neck stood up, and her ears
twitched nervously.  "It feels like there's a storm coming," she
muttered, and then glared at Hikaru when the other girl turned to look
at her in amazement.
        Hikaru made a batting gesture, and nodded.  "Like a big
thunderstorm," she agreed.  
        "Maybe we should go inside?" Umi asked, making no move
whatsoever towards the towering edifice.
        "I dunno," Hikaru answered dubiously.  "Mokona didn't seem to
want us to go in there - "
        She cut off abruptly as Umi let out a shrill, pained scream.
The Hyelian pitched forward onto her knees, then to her hands and
knees, and Hikaru saw the shard of ice piercing the back of her armor.
        Then she heard the mocking laughter, and Alcyione hove into
view, mounted on a glittering frost-colored winged unicorn.  Its eyes
were amethyst purple and shimmered like a mirage.  The laughing Ice
Mage raised her orb.
        "That is for her insulting words earlier," she said, gesturing
at Umi.  "But you... I will have your heart, fire-girl," she snarled,
her face contorting for an instant, "for destroying my Lord Akio's
love for me.  And then I will bring it to him, and he will smile upon
me again!"
        White light flashed from her orb, struck the ground near Umi's
head, and Hikaru swallowed.  Two huge wolves, enormous beasts with
bristly, ice-coated fur, began stalking toward them.
        Hikaru drew her sword from her Lens in a swift burning flash,
then raised her free hand.
        >Fire Arrow!< she screamed, and flung her hand forward.  The
burning shafts sprang into being and launched themselves at Alcyione.
        >Ice Dagger!< Alcyione countered, and the icy shards, smaller
than the one that had embedded itself in Umi but just as razor sharp,
screamed toward Hikaru.

        "Oh, no sir," said the tenth sky captain Corwin had talked to
that morning.  "You don't want to go to -that- island."
        Corwin was getting tired of people telling him what he did and
did not want.
        "No," he said, "-you- don't want to go to that island.  In
fact, -nobody- here wants to go to that island, which makes it all the
more interesting to me.  You don't want to go?  All right, fine."  He
reached into his satchel, rummaged around, and then came out with a
large, gleaming gemstone in his hand.  "This is worth twenty pounds of
gold.  Sell me a boat and I'll fly up there myself."
        "I couldn't do that," the captain said, folding his arms.
Corwin felt quite convinced that he -could-, but that, for whatever
reason - perhaps the simple perversity of the rural mind - he
-wouldn't-.
        Corwin didn't have a lot of patience to spare today.
        The Shalharan sky captain, not having much experience with
Midgardian weaponry, had never seen a Mauser C/96 before, but he knew
a gun when somebody pointed one at him.
        He remarked to himself, as he walked slowly away from the spot
where one of his dinghies had been docked, that it was the first time
he had ever heard of anybody -giving- someone money at gunpoint.

        Fuu walked forward, dimly conscious of the sound of windchimes
echoing off the walls and into her ears.  The vaulted ceiling seemed
immensely far away, the doors an eternity behind her.  Only the circle
of floating crystals in the great hall before her, the brilliant light
coming from the larger crystal in the center, had any meaning to her now.
        She crossed between two of the six crystals; the chiming
got louder, more insistant.  A wind began to howl, circling around the
perimeter of the circle, and she put her hands against the glowing
central crystal.
        >Greetings, Rune Knight,< a voice blew into her mind.
        I know this voice, Fuu thought distractedly, and looked down
as the stones she stood on began to glow.  Lines of light connected
the floating crystals, creating a six-pointed star that contained both
her and a glowing point of light.
        Fuu backed slightly away from the light, her hand going to her
Lens and covering it, then drawing the Heart of the Storm from it.
        With both hands closed lightly around her sword, she regarded
the glowing crystal.
        >Show me that you are she who is meant to bear me,< the voice
rustled, like feathers in the wind.  >Unseal my strength and set it
free.<
        Fuu stared into the light, then transferred her sword to her
left hand.  Raising her right hand over her head, she chanted, >Tumult
of sound, rising of the clouds, green-black of the sky.  Harness my
strength and heed my call: EMERALD TORNADO!<
        As she finished, she brought her hand down over the point of
light, her palm toward the floor beneath.  The air surged out of the
stone, screaming its delight as much as the maelstrom outside the
crystals, and Fuu leapt.
        At the apex of her jump, she wrapped her hands around her
sword again, and then she descended with a screaming of wings and a
roar of green power, striking the glowing center crystal and cleaving
it in two with her blade.
        The crystal shattered, light flooded the chamber, and Fuu
landed, kneeling, with her blade stretched out before her.
        The sigil on the floor blazed to life, and she had just an
instant to make out the sign of the Phoenix before the winds wrapped
around her, lifted her upright, and set her gently on her feet again.
        They cleared, and a pair of wings that had contained both her
and the maelstrom drew back from her.  Fuu Hououji stared up into the
raptorial face of a great, green Phoenix.
        >I am Windam,< the voice declared.  >And I am Unbound by my
Rune Knight.<
        Fuu stared, then lapsed into her native tongue, murmuring
reverently, "Freaky-deak word, -Capital- G!"  (Roughly, "My, you're a
big one, aren't you?")
        >Thus will you bear me until the time comes that I reveal my
battle form,< he answered her, and the wings drew back, then closed
around her again.  She felt both warmth and coolness in an instant...
        And then he was gone, as was the ring of crystals and the
wind, and she could hear the sounds of battle outside.
        With the green strength still pounding in her veins, her armor
feeling as if it were both harder and lighter, she spun on her heel
and raced back the way she had come.

        Navigating the little flying sailboat turned out to be
trickier than it looked.  Corwin and Nall reached the edge not of the
Temple Island but of its nearest neighbor, perhaps fifty yards
distant, just in time to see Hikaru take an ice dagger to the shoulder
and go skidding back across the paved courtyard in front of Windam's
Temple.
        Nall let out a furious yowl and took to his wings as Alcyione
raised her orb and began whispering words in her cold, clipped Norse.
Corwin considered trying to follow him, but he'd barely managed to
moor the boat -here- without wrecking it, and he didn't really feel
like pressing his luck.  He started riffling through the ancient
sorceries in his mind.  He thought he might know an airwalking spell
that could get him this last little distance, if he could just
remember how it went.
        The wolves, seeing easy meat, slunk towards Umi, their ears
pressed flat to their heads, making them look more weasel-like.
        Corwin heard the furious screaming song of an enraged dragon
just before Nall came down on the wolves like a ton of glacial ice:
<< NOBODY!  MISUSES!  MY ELEMENT! >>  The Draconic scream of rage
nearly shattered everyone's eardrums and erased whatever Corwin had
been trying to think of clear from his mind, and then went on, << By
my right as Lord of the Winter Skies, I banish you from my sight! >>
        For an instant, as Hikaru staggered to her feet and looked
impressed, the shadow of a huge, sinous white-scaled being occupied a
good portion of the courtyard, coiled protectively around the prone
blue-haired girl.  Then the wolves gave howls of terrified recognition
and plunged over the edge of the island, vanishing midair in puffs of
frost before they hit the ground.
        Alcyione herself nearly fled after them, but then the demented
look in her eyes seemed to indicate that whatever self-preservation
instinct she'd once had, it was rapidly sublimating into madness.  She
stared, stunned, as the vision faded, and she was faced with a
spitting, furious cat hovering between her and the two Rune Knights.
Then, with a snarl of primal rage, she raised her orb and opened her
mouth to chant.
        The orb shattered.  The echoing clap of thunder that followed
a gunshot echoed across the space between the two islands.
        Alcyione's head jerked around to stare across the distance as
Corwin leveled his antique Mauser at her, aimed, and pulled the
trigger again.  She jerked, and blood began to seep down the front of
her catsuit.
        "No... " she whispered, and raised her empty-socketed staff
again, trying to muster her concentration.
        Winging her in the shoulder having failed to stop her,
Corwin's next shot punctured a lung, but he still could make out the
sharp, crystalline quality of the Norse as she turned and made as if
to fling one last spell at Hikaru.  >ICE - <
        Corwin didn't hesitate further.  Gritting his teeth, he let
fly twice more.  One shot hit her low in the side, one in the throat,
cutting off her incantation with an awful noise.  Alcyione fell
instantly, twitching, to the ground, her prematurely white hair mixing
with the blood of her ruined body on the paving stones of the
courtyard.
        Fuu Hououji slammed through the shimmering curtain of light at
just that moment and looked around frantically, her huge sword ready
in her hands.  Hikaru Shidou dropped to her knees, staring at her
fallen enemy, and chose that moment to pass out.

        Fuu took in the situation with a glance; once she'd assured
herself that Hikaru, at least, was not dying, she turned her
attention to Umi, who looked very pale.
        Nall walked over, sniffed at the fallen ice mage, gave the
cat-shaped equivalent of a shrug, and then came back to sniff at Umi's
hair as Fuu knelt next to her.
        "She gonna be OK, Fuu?" he asked, apparently more worried
about the elf than the enemy lying in her own blood on the platform.
        Fuu wasn't paying attention to the little dragon; she put a
hand gently on the front of Umi's breastplate, and Nall watched in
amazement as the elf's armor shimmered and reshaped itself, acquiring
a second set of pauldrons, upper arm guards, and in general a more
protective shape.
        >Healing Wind,< Fuu murmured, and green light spread from her
fingers to envelope Umi in its embrace, lifting her from the stones
for an instant and then setting her gently back down.
        "What--!" Umi let out with a gasp, sitting up right all at
once and drawing her rapier from her Lens in a flash.
        "It's over, Miss Uum'y," Fuu said, composedly.  "I must see to
Miss Hikaru now."  And she got to her feet and moved to Hikaru.
        Nall and Umi watched in amazement as Hikaru's armor underwent
a similar alteration, and the dragon realized that Fuu's armor already
had altered itself; it had been that same new shape from the time she
emerged from the Temple.
        The winds enveloped Hikaru, and then set her down, whole
again.  She came charging over to scoop up Nall and scruffle him
between the ears.  "That was so cool, what language was that?  What
did you say to those wolves?  And how'd you look so big?  You totally
saved our bacon there, thanks!"
        Umi stared at Nall, then over her shoulder at the fallen Ice
Mage.  "Um, Hikaru, quick reality check here - what HAPPENED?!"
        Fuu followed Hikaru at a more sedate pace, but nodded at Umi's
question.  "I admit to some curiosity myself," she pointed out.
        Hikaru's pigtail swung excitedly behind her and her primary
ears twitched in time with her recital as she bounced up and down and
explained: 
        "Well, that Ice Witch skewered you, and I didn't have time to
get Fuu so I used Fire Arrow on her, but she was totally out of her
mind, and then Nall showed up and got about a hundred times bigger
than he is now and shouted something at the Ice Wolves that were about
to take a big chunk out of your face, Umi, and they threw themselves
over the edge, and then somebody -shot- her and she fell over and Fuu
came out in neat new armor and I kinda figured it was OK to kinda pass
out then and now you're OK and you have neat armor too!"
        "Um, helloooo," came the cry, and all four of them looked over
to see Corwin waving his arms.  "Are you guys OK?" he shouted through
the bullhorn of his cupped hands.
        Umi glanced down at the unmoving shape of Alcyione and turned
a little green, but all she said was, "Uh, well, doesn't look like she's
going to hurt us again anytime soon," while Hikaru shouted,
        "You rock!  -THANK YOU-!"
        "Somebody want to bring him over here?" Nall asked wryly,
scrambling out of Hikaru's arms to perch on her shoulder.
        "Oh, how silly of me," Fuu said, and held up one hand.  Green
light flashed across the intervening distance, and a swirl of winds
wrapped around Corwin and swiftly transported him to the flagstones of
Windam's Temple.
        As Corwin landed, he looked over the three Knights, then
glanced at Alcyione and nodded.  "Glad to see she didn't do anything
-permanent-," he said, and gave Umi a crooked smile.  "Sorry, I got
here a little late."
        Umi blushed faintly, and tried to scowl.  "Well, better late
than never, I guess," she began, but Hikaru suddenly gave a little
gasp and moan.
        The others turned to see her kneeling next to Alcyione.
"Dau'kar," she whispered; then she pinned Corwin with her horrified,
angry gaze.  "You... she's -dead-!  I mean, actually, really DEAD!"
        Corwin looked again, then nodded.  His face held no
satisfaction, but it didn't have much in the way of remorse either.
        "That's what these things do," he said quietly, drawing his
sidearm.  Then, seating himself on the ground, he pumped the remaining
rounds from the mostly-spent magazine, then set about replenishing it
with deft, quick movements of his hands.
        Hikaru gazed down at him, her face a mask of dismay.  "Why did
you do that?" she demanded.
        Corwin paused, then looked up at her.
        "She was trying to kill you," he said.  "For all I knew, she
already -had- killed Umi."
        "But you could have -warned- her!" Hikaru insisted.  "Told her
to stop, only wounded her, done -something-.  Once you kill somebody,
that's... that's forever!"
        "Usually," Corwin replied.  "Anyway, I -did- wound her first.
She didn't stop.  She was crazy, I think.  She knew I'd kill her if
she kept trying to cast that spell.  She kept trying to cast the
spell.  I killed her."  He shoved the fresh charge into the Mauser,
pulled the charging clip back out, closed the bolt, made sure the
safety was set, and holstered the weapon, then stood up and brushed
dust from his pants.
        "Listen," he said to Hikaru, who was standing there
dumbfounded by his bald-faced declaration.  "I didn't -want- to kill
her, OK?  I take no joy in it.  But I had a choice to make.  In that
moment, I had her life in my hands, and I had yours, and I could only
keep one.  I had to choose who lived and who died."  He folded his
arms and gave her a steady, calm, rather sad look.  "That's what it
means to be a Chooser of the Slain."
        Hikaru stared at him, her lingering indignation and amazement
slowly melting into something more like awe.  He held her eyes with
his for a moment, then turned and walked away - away from the girl who
had accused him, and from the still, silent corpse of the first person
he'd ever killed.
        Hikaru watched him go for a few moments, then said haltingly,
"W... wait a minute."  She hesitated, then trotted after him.  "I'm
sorry, I didn't understand... "
        Corwin stared over the edge of the island, down at the dunes
of Shalhara spreading out below them, and said nothing.
        Hikaru swallowed.  "I guess... I guess I didn't think it
through.  It's so much like a story... I mean, I knew we were going to
have to fight, we got weapons and everything.  But...I didn't think
we'd have to kill anybody."  
        She gave him a brief, hopeful smile as he turned to look at
her.  "Kumbarlyn's more of a dueling thing, I sometimes forget it
evolved from killing people.  It's not... " she looked back at
Alcyione's cooling form.  "It's not like the practice hall, is it."
        Corwin shook his head, and finally put a hand on her
shoulder.  "No," he answered, his voice breaking a bit.  "Not really."
        She took a deep breath, and then let it out slowly.  She
looked up at him.  "Will you spar with me, then?" she asked.  "So that
I can get good enough that next time, nobody will have to pick one
life over another?  Every chance I can practice, maybe it means
somebody won't die next time."
        Corwin managed a smile.  "As soon as we get down, sure."

        They got down in the same giant flying bowl that had carried
the Rune Knights to the island in the first place.  Mokona burbled his
pleasure the whole way down, Fuu recounted as much as she understood
of what had happened in the Temple, and then the bowl settled to the
ground and dissolved gently, leaving the Knights and Corwin standing
on the dunes.
        "OK, Mokona!" Hikaru declared enthusiastically.  "Camping
time!"
        Mokona planted his big rabbity feet, declaimed, "Puuuuuuuu!"
and red light flashed from the gem on his forehead.  The beam played
over the sands before them, and the egg-shaped dwelling that Corwin
had earlier clobbered himself on sprang into being.
        Umi flipped her hair over her shoulder, and -Looked- at
Hikaru, who linked her hands behind her back and said, "Whaaaaat?  -I'm-
going to be outside sparring."
        "Good!" Umi declared, and then turned the Look on Mokona.
"And I guess there'd -better- be fish in there this time."
        "Puu!" declared Mokona, unconcerned.
        Umi gave him a skeptical look, but went up the side of the
egg.
        Corwin and Nall looked at each other, and Nall licked his
lips.  "Mmmmm," Nall said, and bunched himself for launch from
Corwin's shoulder.
        "It would perhaps be advisable to leave Miss Uum'y alone," Fuu
said, putting a gentle hand on Nall's back.
        "Yeah," Hikaru put in.  "She gets awfully fussy about the
kitchen while she's cooking."
        "The egg doesn't have a kitchen," Corwin protested.
        "It does right now," Hikaru replied with a shrug.
        Nall sighed.  "OK... then you can skritch my ears, Fuu, since
Hikaru's gonna be busy."
        Fuu smiled her gentle little smile and obligingly skritched,
while Corwin drew Stick, Hikaru drew her sword, and they went at it.
        After a few minutes of this, Nall remarked between purrs,
"That's a pretty impressive sword she's got."
        Fuu nodded, sitting down with Nall in her lap to watch.  "Our
swords have changed since Master Smith Presea gave them to us - just
as she told us they would.  Mine has grown longer, Miss Hikaru's has
gained the ornamentation on the hilt that you see, and Miss Uum'y's
has acquired a wing in place of the original guard over her hand.  Our
armor has also become more substantial.  I will be interested to see
what shape it finally chooses when we are invested as full Rune
Knights."
        Nall was purring so hard by the time she finished that he
was beyond bothering to answer.
        Approximately half an hour later, just when Corwin was
starting to get slightly winded (although Hikaru's energy, like that
of some other fighting girls he could name, seemed boundless), Umi
stuck her head out of the egg and said, "All right, you can come in
now."
        Nall shook off his lethargy with an amazing speed and beat
even Hikaru through the door, to find that a place had been set for
him at the table, and a -whole salmon-, neatly filleted, was waiting
at his place.  There were various other dishes at the places, and in
the center, a -huge- bundt cake, smelling faintly of sherry and more
strongly of nutmeg.
        Corwin and Nall hadn't realized the last time they had been
fed that they were eating Umi's cooking, and within a few bites they
had both slowed down to appreciate it.
        Umi, who knew a compliment to her cooking when she saw one and
who knew a pair of chow-hounds when she saw them, didn't say anything,
but smiled a little smile and continued eating without any comment at
all.

        Immediately after dinner, Nall took off with the salmon he had
been too full to eat between his paws while Mokona and Hikaru did the
dishes.  He flew to the far side of the sand dune from their tent-egg,
and there settled down.  After Corwin made sure that Hikaru didn't want
to keep sparring on a full stomach (thank Zarquon), he went in search
of his friend.
        He found the dragon curled up, with about half the salmon
eaten, rumbling softly to himself in dragon song.
        "Are you OK?" Corwin asked, hunkering down next to the
somewhat flattened Nall.  The little white dragon looked up into his
friend's face, and for a moment, Corwin saw naked and bewildered
confusion in Nall's face.
        Then the dragon jumped to Corwin's shoulder and butted his
friend with his head.  "Yeah, I'm fine.  I was just a little tired.
Damn, she can cook - that cake just about filled me up after dinner,
and that salmon... mwah!"
        He paused, then switched back to the previous thread of the
conversation and continued, "But I was just so damn mad... I mean,
that... thrice-damned n'kranda was using -my element- to hurt that
stupid girl... I mean, she can act like such a pig, but it's not -her-
fault she's here, and to get killed with -my- element for just being
in the way... I lost my temper."
        "I noticed," Corwin said dryly.  "But did you notice what
happened?"
        "Which part?" Nall asked, and then, "Can you pass me the rest
of that salmon, I'm hungry again."
        Corwin obligingly picked up the salmon and held it while Nall
wolfed it down.  "You manifested," he pointed out.  "Great White
Dragon and everything - an aura superimposition, not a full change,
but pretty darn powerful."
        Nall paused between bites, got a thoughtful look on his face,
and then finished the salmon.  Burping softly, he nodded.  "I guess
Frey was right, this place really -does- amplify magical power.
'Cause I shouldn't be able to do that until -after- we finish this
whole ordeal."
        Corwin picked his friend off his shoulder and flopped back on
the sand, staring up at the sky.  "Yeah.  I'd figured."  He paused,
then smiled wryly.  "Thanks, Nall."
        Nall blinked, then cocked his head at Corwin curiously.  "What
for?"
        "For being here and not ragging on me today when we rescued
the girls.  And for -helping-."  He propped himself up on one elbow
and grinned at the little dragon.  "Thank you, O Great Dragon Nall,
for saving Umi Ryuuzaki's bacon."
        Nall grinned.  "Don't mention it, Rocket Boy," he said
teasingly, and then curled up next to his friend in a little hollow in
the sand.
        There was companionable silence for a little while, and then
Nall muttered, "D'you think they'd give us a bed if we asked nicely?"
        "No," Corwin answered.  "But they might give us a blanket.
Anyway, it's a nice night out."
        "Mmm," Nall answered.
        And the two of them fell asleep on the dune.

        The next morning, they were woken by the sun, peeping over the
horizon, and by the realization that during the night, they had both
got sand in their mouths.
        "Ppppthh," Nall declared, spitting.  "I -told- you we
should've asked for a bed."
        "And I told you they wouldn't've given us one."
        "Bleh, well, they'd -better- give us breakfast then," Nall
spat, shaking the sand out of his wing feathers.
        Corwin sat down and poured the collected sand out of his
boots.  "You're sure we should stick with them?" he asked
tentatively.  "And not just for the food?"
        Nall stopped hissing and spitting abruptly, and sat down.
After a little while, he nodded.  "Yeah, I am.  They said the Pillar
summoned them here to 'save Cephiro and become Magic Knights.'  Utena
didn't mention -anything- about that and neither did anybody else, but
I'm guessing they'll lead us straight to whatever the imbalance Hildy
was talking about is.  And since we're supposed to categorize what
effect this'll have on the Nine Worlds, I think we should put in that
the Pillar summoned -outsiders- to save her world."
        Corwin grinned.  "OK.  Just making sure it wasn't -only- your
stomach talking, furball," he agreed.  "Let's go find the girls."
        The sound of an argument came to their ears as soon as they
came in sight of the tent-egg.
        "Ah, the mellifluous tones of Umi in a bad mood," Corwin mused.
        "Good word," Nall answered wearily.  "Maybe we shouldn't stick
around with them, after all."
        "Oh, come on, where's your sense of adventure, dragon?" Corwin
teased as he walked up to the egg.
        "RIGHT!" Umi said, spinning and waving a finger in their
direction.  "You sweet-talked your way out of it last night, but this
time we want some answers, and we want 'em straight."
        "('We'?)" Hikaru mouthed.
        Fuu poked her head out the door of the egg, sighed, and sat
down on the step, looking as if the commotion had woken her up.  She
still wore her green nightdress, and her honey-blonde hair was
mussed; she put on her glasses and blinked tiredly at the obstreperous
Hyelian.
        "When didn't I give you straight answers?" Corwin asked,
puzzled.  "Last night?  Or the first time we met and you made it clear
I wasn't wanted?"
        "Yeah," agreed Nall.  "It's not like he's followed you around
making cryptic remarks for weeks at a time."
        "I don't care!  Everything about this place is weird, and I've
got to get a straight answer out of -something- or I'll go completely
nuts!"  She grabbed a handful of his Mycean cloak, yanked him nose to
nose with her, and growled, "Now you tell me who you really are, and
where you're really from, and what you're really doing here, or...
or... or I'll make you wish you had!"
        Corwin stared back at her across the negligible gap separating
them for a moment, resisted a sudden wild urge to kiss her just to see
what she would do, then threw back his head and guffawed.  "OK, you
win," he said, extricating himself.  "How can I resist such a
compelling ultimatum before breakfast?"
        Nall choked back a giggle.
        Corwin squared himself up, cleared his throat, looked from
girl to girl to poofy white thing to girl, and said as seriously and
formally as he could manage,
        "My name, as I have told you, and as Fuu already knew, is
Corwin Ravenhair.  I am the son of Gryphon, the Midgard-Knight, and
Skuld Ravenhair, Norn of the Future, Goddess of Technology.  I split
my time between my father's place in New Avalon, Mom's house on
Tomodachi, and a small apartment on the Street of the Eternal Heroes
in Asgard, the Golden City of the Gods.  Why I'm here is just like I
told you - to find out what's going wrong in Cephiro, and figure out
if it's going to take Creation with it if it falls completely apart.
If I manage to come back with enough information to make my grandfather 
and the other gods happy, I ascend to full godhood and get a big heap
of gold and a place in the pantheon.  If I blow it, I'll probably die."
        Four pairs of eyes stared back at him in utter silence for
several seconds.
        Then:
        "My, that's impressive," murmured Fuu, only to be drowned out by:
        "Puu!" said Mokona.
        "WOW!" said Hikaru.  "That's awesome!"
        "Hi-KA-ru!!" Umi fumed, barely restraining herself from
bashing the diminuitive Salusian on the top of the head.  "Tryyj'ttat,
you don't BELIEVE him?!  Goddess of Technology!  -Asgard-!
T'ch'nn-k'luongo!"  She threw up her hands.
        Corwin shrugged.  "Hey, it's not my problem if you don't want
to believe me."  
        "I think her problems are everybody's problems," Nall
observed, still amused.
        "ARGH!" Umi exploded, and dove for Nall, who let out a little
squeak and took off, flying away.  Umi charged after him, still
ranting.
        Corwin looked at the other two girls and the fluffy rabbit
thing.
        "Hey," observed Hikaru, picking up Mokona.  "At least she's
not chasing -you- this time."
        "Puu," Mokona answered.
        "What brought this on?" Corwin wondered.  "She was sane enough
last night."
        "Bad dream," Hikaru supplied.
        Corwin blinked, and Fuu expanded, "There is a fencing
tournament Miss Uum'y was planning to compete in taking place in less
than two weeks.  She is quite terrified that she will let her
teammates down and be unable to return home in time for it."
        "Oh," Corwin said, and looked back at Umi, who had ceased
screaming and was trudging back toward them, fuming.  Nall was
hovering erratically, laughing so hard that he was having trouble
staying aloft. 
        I guess that makes sense," Corwin allowed thoughtfully.
        "Ok, fine, since you're -not- going to give me a straight
answer," Umi growled, as soon as she was back in grabbing distance of
Corwin, "then you can at least help us get this -chore- out of the way
as fast as possible.  Right?"
        Corwin smiled gamely at her.
        "Oh GREAT!" Hikaru laughed, and hugged Corwin.  "But do we get
breakfast first?" she added, looking hopefully at Umi.
        Corwin expected another outburst, but instead all they got was
a sigh.  "Oh, sure...fine, whatever.  But the flying cat doesn't get
salmon.  He doesn't deserve it this morning."
        A glance at Nall, who was wobbling midflight because he had
the hiccups, made Corwin smile.  "No, I don't suppose he does," he
said equably.

        After breakfast, Mokona demolished the tent, and then created
by the same means the flying bowl that had carried them down from
Windam's Temple.  The six of them piled into the bowl, Hikaru at the
front with Mokona perched on the rim next to her, and the thing took
off.
        It moved much more quickly than Corwin had expected, and was
certainly more comfortable than walking.  Nall curled up at the back
and cat-napped, while Hikaru explained to her brand-new captive
audience who she was (a Salusian expatriate now living in New Avalon),
how she'd gotten there (her brother ran a Salusian kendo dojo and had
come to New Avalon to get the rank of Master), and how cool this whole
thing was (very).
        Corwin had to admit that even after her shock yesterday, she
was certainly resiliant.  She wasn't letting it get her down.
However, there wasn't room to spar inside the bowl, so the two of them
talked about the various martial arts styles they'd seen, and the
merits of each.
        Umi sat near the front and fumed.
        Fuu stayed out of the conversation, and Corwin wondered idly
why she wasn't contributing - 
        - until her hand was suddenly at her Lens, then drawing back
to her ear the string of a bow she hadn't been holding a moment before.
        (Funny thing, some unattached part of his mind noted, about
the Lenses.  Another one of the weird parallels between Cephiro and
Midgard, he supposed, an artifact of the way the Tenth World was a
sort of warped reflection of Midgard in the mirror of Svartalfheim.)
        The other Knights were on their feet in a flash as Fuu planted
a shot in the eye of a huge black monstrous bird that was diving
toward them.  The bird screamed and went from a dive to a plummet.
        Corwin gaped, but Hikaru and Umi drew their swords and waited,
one on each side of the egg in positions that had obviously been
discussed beforehand.
        Their caution was warranted as the bird, suddenly closer,
huge - the thing had a beak over a foot long - and blind in one eye,
surged upward on Umi's side of the bowl, and darted its head forward
to snap at her.
        Her rapier neatly skewered the thing in its other eye, and
then Hikaru was next to her, smashing her heavier blade down on its
beak, driving it closed and drawing a huge gash in the top of it.
        This time the bird's plummet was a more controlled, keening
spiral, and Hikaru snarled something in Salusian.  Then she glanced at
Corwin.  "Better get your staff out," she told him, and braced herself.
        Beneath them, out of the forest, a black cloud began to boil.
"Nall!" Corwin yelled as he summoned Stick.
        Nall woke up. "Huh?"
        "Battle," Corwin answered grimly.
        Nall didn't bother wasting breath; he sprang to the lip of the
bowl, and dug in his claws.
        Fuu had the time to fire two shots into the black cloud before
she exchanged her bow for her sword, and then they were engulfed by
the mass of birds, black as ravens, with glowing red eyes and fiery
breaths.
        The three swords flashed, Stick swung, and ice fogged the air
around Nall, and the battle was joined.  The girls quickly went back
to back, defending each other, while Corwin whirled around them, Stick
spinning like a blender around him.
        He silently thanked each and every one of his Valkyrie weapons
teachers who had yelled "FASTER!" at him, because he was going at top
speed now and he was -still- feeling impacts of beaks in his shoulders
and back.
        Then, with a rush, the bowl emerged from the cloud, leaving
the birds behind them, and Mokona declared, "Puu!"
        The boat went faster.
        Nall sank to the floor of the boat, panting and looking
wilted.  Corwin put his hand to his face; it came away speckled in
blood.  He let Stick lapse back to immateriality and started hunting
through his pack for his first-aid supplies.
        The girls were all somewhat pecked, but much less than the two
adventurers.  "That wasn't so bad," Hikaru said, smiling.
        "Yeah, right," Umi snarled, but her heart wasn't really in
it.  "OK, I guess we -have- had worse, but it still wasn't any fun."
        "You're telling me," Nall panted, and resumed licking at his
bloody and broken tail.
        Fuu went over to Nall, gently picked him up, and whispered
over him, >Healing Wind.<
        Green light swirled, and the tail straightened itself with an
audible crack, and then Nall let out a sigh of relief.  "Wow, that's
good stuff," he mumbled, and butted her hand with his head to show his
appreciaton.
        Fuu turned to the others, but Corwin and Hikaru each waved her
off.  "Save it for when it's really important," Corwin answered, when
Fuu started to object.  "These'll all heal on their own, it's nothing
serious."
        After a moment, Fuu nodded, and subsided.
        Hikaru and Corwin patched each other up with his medkit; then,
for several hours, there was quiet and tired silence in the bowl.

        Travel with the Rune Knights proved to Corwin that the larger
the group, the more hazards you run into, but the more capably you can
deal with them.  The next day, when they were ambushed just after
setting out, Corwin made it into the triangle of Knights to form a
square, and Nall laired inside the foursome, keeping things from
dropping on them.
        Another monster, a large tentacular... -plant- thing... with
several nasty-looking mouths inside its flowers, was dispatched by
surrounding it and beating it until it withdrew into its floating
island, although the midair islands were few and far between by this
point.
        As the sun was just beginning to touch the horizon of the
ocean before them, Umi stood up, her eyes a glittering flat blue, and
whispered something in her native language that none of the others
understood.
        Mokona directed the bowl-boat above the sea, and Umi moved to
the edge of it.  Then there was a great bubbling below the waves, and
everyone ran to the edge next to her.
        A huge, scaly sea-serpent creature reared up out of the waves,
opened a huge mouth full of jagged teeth, and roared.
        Umi seemed -completely- unaware of it as she hopped lightly up
to the edge of the boat.
        "Now, Leviathan!" they all heard from the shore - well, all
but Umi, anyway.  Corwin glanced over his shoulder and saw a small boy
with brown hair covering his eyes and the glittering green gems of a
mage on his garments.
        The monster gave another roar; then Leviathan heaved itself
further out of the water and surged for the boat.
        Umi launched herself in a perfect dive into the water, and
Hikaru and Fuu and Corwin all drew.  "Abandon ship!" Hikaru yelled, a
laugh sort of stuck somewhere in her throat, as she caught Mokona in
one arm and jumped, cannonball style, into the ocean.  The others
followed suit with more or less elegance just before the Leviathan's
jaws closed around the bowl-boat.
        The sea monster amused itself by ripping the boat apart as the
three remaining occupants swam to shore, Mokona perched atop Hikaru's
head.  Nall hovered above them, casting nervous glances between the
Leviathan and the boy on the shore.
        As soon as they were out of the water, Hikaru and Fuu spun
and began to chant.
        Green light and red fire raced from their hands to strike at
the Leviathan, which howled in pain, while Nall and Corwin advanced on
the boy.
        His huge floppy hat nearly covered the green gem set on its
own band, and his bangs did entirely obscure his eyes, but it was
fairly obvious just from looking at him that he was a powerful mage,
even if he were only still a child.
        He wore the same style of Lens that the three Knights sported
on their left hands.
        As the Leviathan screamed in pain and struck back at the two
Knights on shore with torrents of water and waves thrown up from its
huge flippers, Corwin called Stick to his hand and stepped forward.
"I don't know what you think you're playing at, kid," he said, "but
it's -not- funny."
        The boy glared at him. "Of -course- it's not funny," he said,
in an un-childlike voice.  "I know why they're here, and I -have- to
stop them.  I don't want anyone to get hurt, but if you're going to
help them, well, I don't have any choice."
        "What they're here for?" Corwin asked, blinking.  "They're
here to save Cephiro!"
        That bought an unhappy laugh from the boy, who swung his hand
out and towards the sandy dunes that rose away from the sea.  "Not
really," he answered grimly.  >Summon monster!<
        The dune face only a few dozen yards ahead, to their left,
suddenly exploded in a great outburst of redstone rubble, blowing up a
huge cloud of red-brown dust.
        Corwin blinked, then grabbed for Stick, took a couple of
smooth steps back, and braced himself, waiting.  A moment later what
he was waiting for showed itself, as something that looked rather like
a lobster the size of a Volkswagen minibus lunged out of the hole in
the dune and made for him with a giant pincer.
        "This'd be funny," Nall observed, "if it wasn't so damn
dangerous."
        "Life's like that," Corwin replied philosophically.  "Ask
Utena sometime."

        Umi had never thought of herself as a particularly good
swimmer, but the instant she dove from the edge of the boat into the
water, some instinct that had lain dormant in her mind woke and took
over.
        She hit the water with barely a splash, dimly noting that
there was a sea monster nearby and avoiding its thrashing limbs
beneath the waves.
        When she was thirty feet down, the momentum from her dive and
the sunlight were almost gone, but she swam as if she could see
exactly where she was going.  In the back of her mind, the quiet,
rational part of her that stood apart from everything that was going
on observed idly that she was acting just as weird as the other two
Knights.
        But the call, low and rumbling, that was leading her forward
was much too strong and certain of itself to be even remotely bothered
by the fact that her behavior in heeding it could be considered odd.
        She swam forward and down, finally reaching the dark temple,
with its huge doors in front of her, and then reached forward,
touching one hand to the crack in the doors.
        There was a sound like some huge bell tolling once, a long way
off, and dim, flickering light washed out from her hand to illuminate
the doors in muted pearly tones.
        She had just enough time to see the six-pointed star inscribed
on the surface, and then they swung open.
        Darkness met her gaze for an instant, and then the pillars
that ran the length of the hall each lit up, one after another, with
the same pearly light.  She swam forward, her hair swirling behind her
in the eddies.
        At the end of the hall, six steps led up to a huge mural
painting of a dragon, blue as the sea, with vast wings, a saurian head
and a serpentine neck and tail.  She reached the steps and stopped,
floating a foot or so above the first one, hair in an aurora around
the back of her head.
        >Greetings, Rune Knight.<  The voice was like the sea, sighing
and deep and full of secrets.
        She bowed her head once in reverence; Hyeruul was well
acquainted with dragons, and its people accorded them the respect they
deserved.
        She looked back up with glittering blue eyes.  {Hail, Father
of the Sea,} she answered in her own tongue.
        >Show me that you are she who is meant to bear me,< the voice
boomed, like the waves of a storm.  >Unseal my strength and set it
free.<
        Without hesitation, Umi drew her rapier from her lens,
pointed it at the wall, and began to chant:
        >Birth of life, strength unending, to which all return in the
end, strengthen my arm!  BLADE OF THE WAVE!<
        She brought back her arm, and then lunged forward in a perfect
fencing thrust, no matter that she was floating in the ocean, striking
just below the jaws of the giant dragon.
        Her rapier hit something that was -not- the wall; it felt like
glass.  For an instant, everything was still and then she was through,
and light radiated out in cracks, from the point of her blade,
shattering both the barrier and the mural behind it.
        As the dust flooded the water and blew her backwards, she felt
the force that had called her emerge from the wall, wings and all, and
gazed up into the face of a giant blue Dragon.
        >I am Celes,< he declared, raising his head to trumpet.  >And
I am Unbound by my Rune Knight.<  
        Umi said nothing; for once, there was nothing she felt the
need to say.
        Celes lowered his head, and touched the tip of his snout to
Umi's hand.  >Thus will you bear me until the time comes that I reveal
my battle form,< he declared, and the waves roared around her for an
instant.
        When they cleared, he was gone.  Umi had the distinct feeling
of -need- elsewhere and a new strength surging in her armor.  Not
bothering to dismiss her blade, she pointed upward and felt the Sea
answer her need.  A jet of water surged beneath her, propelling her
towards the surface.

        Corwin jumped straight up in the air; the pincer clapped shut
beneath him with a force that could have cut him in half.  In midair
he whirled the staff and brandished it high, then brought it down as
he fell, driving the full weight of his body behind its metal-shod tip
as it struck the creature's left forelimb just back of the pincer.
There was a wet, splintering crunch, and the staff sank through the
limb, causing the pincer to snap spasmodically before falling limp.
        Corwin landed, feet planted on the thing's claw on either side
of the point of impact, and heaved his weapon out of the monster's
limb as it writhed, its good claw snapping.
        Hikaru and Fuu, who had finally finished with the Leviathan,
arrived in time to see the other pincer lunge at him with unexpected
speed; he turned to meet it, but too late, and for a second it looked
like he was going to be crushed.
        Then Nall dove, shouting something, and the monster's claw was
suddenly encrusted with some glittering crystalline material that
stopped its lunge for an instant.  The next instant, the material had
shattered, freeing the creature to resume its lunge, but the moment of
delay had bought Corwin all the time he needed.
        He took a step back, then sprang into another leap,
backflipping away from the monster to land on a large rock.  Then he
used his landing on that rock as a winding crouch for -another- leap,
this one straight back at the monster, his staff set like a lance for
the charge.
        Sunlight glinted from the metal ferrule at the staff's end,
and for just an instant, Fuu Hououji could have sworn she saw it
change shape, elongating into a wicked, pointed blade.  Then it was
gone from her sight, plunged into the monster's body again, this time
right through the front of the carapace, in between its beady black
stalk-mounted eyes.  It writhed again, but the staff-wielding menace was
in between its "arms" now, inside the arc of its deadly pincers.  It
couldn't reach him, and in a moment that no longer mattered: it gave a
great heave, then collapsed, slain.
        "Damn," Nall observed, hovering over the dead monster.  "What
a shame we don't have a big pot and about 20 pounds of butter."
        Corwin didn't spare the energy for a chuckle; he wrenched his
weapon free and spun, staring down at the boy from atop the fallen
corpse.  "You," he panted, "are -so- asking for it."
        The boy stared up at him insolently, and then held out the
hand with his Lens on it, palm up.  >Warmth from within, companionship
without: Bond of Friendship!< and turned his hand over, so that the
palm faced both Corwin and the others behind him.
        Nall let out a sort of strangled yelp as the six-pointed star
formed around him, and then the yelp transformed into a ghostly roar.
The draconic ghost he had 'worn' while he defended Umi against
Alcyione surged into being around him, and it turned its glowing red
eyes on the boy.
        >Stop them,< the boy commanded.
        The giant head bowed once, and then swung around to face
Corwin, who was staring, stunned.
        The ghostly dragon's jaws gaped, and a blizzard poured out to
envelop them all.

        Umi shot out of the sea like an arrow from Fuu's bow and
took in the situation in one sweeping glance.
        A little boy with heavy bangs was standing on the shore with
Nall - NALL?! - hovering protectively over him.  A ghostly white form
of a huge white dragon surrounded him, and he was snapping at her
friends and Corwin, who were staggering backwards, covered with frost
and obviously chilled near to freezing.
        He drew in a breath and let loose with a gust of chilling air
that put a rime of ice on the shore, and the others stumbled back
further, screaming for him to come to his senses.
        Umi landed gently atop the waves and lost her temper at exactly 
the same instant.  She had been in this place for over a week now,
she'd just started getting used to who was on which side, and this
punk came along and tried to change the rules?  No.  Uum'y R'yuu-z'ky
had had -enough-.
        >Wave of the Ocean, raging fury of the Rune God,< she chanted,
flipping her sword to her left hand and pointing it at the little boy.
A wave, unseen but felt, began to build behind her.  >Cresting power
from leagues away, hear my voice and answer: DRAGON TIDE!<
        She brought her hand forward over her head, and the wave
crested past her, gaining form as it washed her hair past her face and
blew the soft panels of her skirt forward in the gush.
        Nall's ghostly avatar swung its head around and was caught
square between the eyes by the white foam head of the tidal wave that
was also a dragon.  It crashed through the wraith, dissipating it, and
slammed down on top of the boy, dashing him to the sands and
splattering the other Knights and Corwin.  Where it passed the
Knights, their armor melted and flowed, becoming similar in shape to
the Knight of the Sea's own altered armor.
        For a instant, everything was quiet as the waters of the wave
washed back out into the ocean, and then the draconic song split the
air:
        << How... -DARE-... YOU!? >>
        With an earsplitting roar that seemed quite impossible coming
from his little form, a wet and furious Nall launched himself from the
sands, leaping toward the boy.  At the peak of his leap, he -changed-,
assuming truly the shape of the ghost that had surrounded him before.
Huge white wings spread towards the sky; neck, body and tail lengthened 
from the housecat shape into the classic sinuous Western-dragon form.
His face remained catlike, though, as did the taloned paws at the ends
of his mighty legs.  His golden ruff rippled in the wind and ruby eyes
blazed under tufted brows as his snout lengthened and he assumed the
full and true form of a Great Alfheim Cat Dragon.
        Now the size of a small house, Nall slammed down on the beach,
his talons digging into the sand, and roared down at the sorcerer who
had dared bewitch him.  Part of Corwin's mind noted with disappointment 
that the boy's clothes and hair didn't whip in the slipstream of the
dragon's enraged bellow, cartoon-style.  Maybe then they could have
seen his eyes...
        The brown-haired boy stared up at this thing that he had
enraged as Uum'y raced across the waters on light feet and came to
stand next to the dragon, sword pointed at the boy, hair blowing and
tangling with draconic fur.  Her eyes were a flat, furious blue.
        The boy backed up, scrambling to his feet, and flung his hand
out in front of him.  >Summon monster!< he screamed, and a six-pointed
star sketched itself in the air between them.
        From the side facing him sprang a huge griffin, which the boy
seized by the fur and scrambled up onto.  From the other came a winged
serpent with nine heads that coiled protectively between the child
mage and the furious Rune Knight and dragon.
        "Go!" the boy screamed to the griffin, and it fled with a
defiant cry.
        Nall spread his wings to follow, but the heads lunged towards
him the instant he did so, and only Umi's quick blade on their noses
stopped him from having shredded wings.
        With a roar of rage, the dragon tackled the winged hydra, and
the two of them had at it.  Umi scrambled back out of the way, and
the other Knights came up next to her, Corwin trailing after.
        They watched in silence for a moment as Nall finished off the
hydra, trumpeted his triumph to the skies, and then dropped to the
sand, softly growling.
        After a moment, Corwin walked up to him, cautiously, and put
a hand on his flank.  Nall roused enough to growl, and then he saw who
it was.  With a slow precision, he lowered his head back to the ground
wearily.  He breathed quietly in Corwin's direction for a second, and
then rumbled, "You've got good taste in spells, long-ears."
        Umi stared at him, and then slowly smiled.  "I think we're
even now, cat."
        Nall managed a rumbling laugh, though his eyes were visibly
closing.  "I... think we are... " he rumbled.  And then he was asleep.
        Corwin turned away, smiling weakly.  "I think we'd better camp
here," he said, a bit shakily.  "'Cause Nall's about worn out and
right now, he's too big to carry."
        "Camp sounds good," Hikaru said, tentatively.  "Mokona?"
        "Puu," the rabbitball agreed, and made camp.
        While he was doing so, Fuu observed, "When he wakes up, I
shall have to ask him most politely not to devour me."
        This shattered Corwin utterly for some reason, but by the time
Umi finished preparing dinner and let them inside, he had calmed
down enough to even help her set the table.

        That evening, Corwin sat outside, his back propped against
Nall's sleeping bulk, and cleaned his staff of the lobster-thing's
ichor with an old Holiday Inn towel.  As he worked at it, the
egg-tent's door opened and Hikaru Shidou came out, still dressed in
her Parker Memorial uniform but with her armor removed.  She trotted
over and stood watching him work for a moment, not speaking, as if
waiting for permission.
        Slightly amused by this, he gave it: "What's up, Hikaru?"
        "Oh, uh... well, we took a vote," she said, seeming slightly
embarrassed that they'd had to resort to raw democracy, "and we
decided it was OK if you wanted to sleep inside tonight."
        Corwin grinned.  "That's awful nice of you," he said, "but I'm
afraid if I went inside and left the furball out here," he added,
angling his head back at the sleeping dragon, "he'd never let me hear
the end of it."  He sighed.  "Big doof couldn't bother to go back to
his -normal- form before falling asleep, nooooooo... "
        Hikaru plunked down alongside Corwin, leaned back against
Nall, and said with a grin, "Even Umi has to believe he's really a
dragon now.  How'd you end up with a dragon for a traveling companion
anyway?"
        Corwin laughed.  "The answer to that question goes back a
long, long way.  See, most of the Great Dragons live in Alfheim.
They're really minor divinities in their own right, like the Vanir.
It's even possible for people from Alfheim - dragons, elves, even
dwarves - to be made Aesir, though it almost never happens.  Anyway,
the elves and dwarves of Alfheim have always been Asgard's friends,
but until fairly recently, things weren't so cozy with the dragons.
They were suspicious of Asgard's power, and the gods were suspicious
of theirs.  There was even a war, a long time ago, but for the most
part it's just been mutual suspicion and coldness.  For a long time
there was only one dragon in Asgard - one of the Valkyrie - and she
was an outcast among her people for joining us.
        "Well, fifteen years ago, along came the Ragnarok, and the
fact that Asgard permitted outside help from Midgard, of all places,
averted it.  The dragons took notice of that, and sent an ambassador
to the victory celebrations to open warmer relations between Odin's
government and the court of the Dragon King."
        He paused, here, to make sure he still had his audience, but
he needn't have worried about that; Hikaru was paying rapt attention,
her deep red eyes fixed on him, an eager smile on her face.  He
chuckled and continued,
        "A few months later, when it was announced that my mother was
pregnant with me... well, it was never any secret that my father was
the Midgard Knight, and that I'd been conceived on the eve of the
Final Battle.  It was taken as some kind of defiant gesture, life out
of death and all that, but Mom and Dad claim they were just cold and
scared, and did what comes naturally... "  He reddened, realizing the
direction he'd taken (though Hikaru didn't seem to mind - Salusians,
he remembered, tended to have different views of that sort of thing
than most human cultures), and cleared his throat.
        "Uh, anyway, the Dragon King sent an emissary to the Golden
City with a gesture of goodwill: the egg of his brother's firstborn
son.  Nall hatched the day I was born... we've been together ever
since."
        "Wow," said Hikaru.  "That's cool."
        Corwin grinned.  "It's had its moments," he allowed.  "His
being raised alongside me is supposed to be a gesture of our kingdoms'
new solidarity.  Not that we care about it much," he added, patting
the furry slope behind him absently.  "Most of the time we're too busy
having fun.  Still, being a sort of emissary to the dragons has its
advantages.  I'm welcome pretty much anywhere in Alfheim... they've
even taught me some of their sorceries, and their weapons."
        Hikaru looked puzzled.  "Dragons use weapons?"
        "Sure," Corwin said.  He hefted Stick, now clean and gleaming
once more.  "This is a Draconic warstaff - dragon soldiers use them
when they walk among men.  Most dragons like to hide their full
capabilities when they travel."
        "Is that why Nall pretends to be a cat?"
        "Well, no, not really.  That's his hatchling form.  Dragons
don't assume their full form - like this - until maturity.  And even
then, some of them prefer to stay small most of the time; it uses less
energy.  Full-grown dragons sleep most of the time if they stay in
their true forms."
        "Oh.  Will Nall be able to wake up tomorrow if he stays like
this?  Mokona's going to want us to keep moving.  I don't even have my
Rune God yet... and I keep feeling like time is running out."
        Corwin nodded; he knew the feeling.
        "We'll get him up," he said, "one way or another.  If we have
to we'll just get Umi out here to yell at him," he added with a grin,
and Hikaru laughed.
        "I've got a dog," Hikaru observed after a few minutes.  "I
hope he remembers me when I get home from this place," she added,
smiling.
        Corwin grinned, leaned back against Nall with his hands behind
his head, and said, "What kind?"
        "I'm not sure," Hikaru replied.  "He was an orphan stray when
I found him.  He looks like a husky, but my brothers think he's a
wolf.  I don't think there are wolves in Avalon, though."
        "You might be surprised," said Corwin.  "Dad's got a strange
sense of humor sometimes.  His own dog's a lot lower-key, though."
        "Your father has a dog?"
        "Yeah.  What's so weird about that?"
        "Nothing, I guess... it's just kind of strange to think of.
When does he have time to take care of a dog?"
        "Wolfgang's pretty low-maintenance," Corwin observed with a
smile.  "Give him a square meal every day and he's happy."
        "What kind of dog is he?"
        "Beagle."
        "Awww!" said Hikaru, a silly grin spreading across her face.
Then she looked a little puzzled and said, "Wait... a beagle named
'Wolfgang'?"
        "I think he's supposed to be named after Mozart."
        "Oh... "
        Umi stuck her head out of the egg.  "Are you going to stay out
there all night?" she asked, for once sounding honestly curious rather
than irritated.
        "The dragon's too big to bring indoors," Corwin called back.
"I'm gonna stay here and keep him company."
        "Oh."  There was a pause, and then, "Hikaru, are -you- coming
in?"
        "Uh..."  The Salusian girl glanced at Corwin, then grinned a
bit at him and said, "I'll get you a blanket, 'kay?"  She then trotted
back to the egg.
        Corwin snuggled up against the bulk of his best friend and
thought perhaps Kate had the right idea about sharing her bed with
something big and furry.  The big lug certainly cut down on the wind
from that side. 
        He was half asleep when Hikaru tucked the blanket around his
shoulders, but he mumbled his thanks anyway, and then dropped off to
sleep.

        The next morning, he was woken by somebody breathing on his
face.  When he opened his eyes, he found his vision completely filled
with a giant snout.
        "Yah!" he yelled, rolling over and coming to his feet,
adrenaline surging in his veins, before he realized it was just Nall.
-JUST- Nall, yeah RIGHT...
        "See if I bring -you- any breakfast, dragon!" Corwin gasped.
        Nall rumbled laughter deep in his throat, and then said, "So
what's the plan for today?"
        "Well, if you can be bothered to move," Corwin said, still
trying to get over his shock, "I think the plan was to find Hikaru's
Rune God.  But I'm beginning to wonder exactly what's -in- this
Prophecy they're part of, and how much we figure into it, if at all."
        "Mmm, good point," Nall rumbled back.  "Well, if we're going
to be running around today, I think I'm going back to being cat-sized.
While the idea of getting Uum'y to make enough food to feed me while
I'm in this shape sounds -tasty-, it'd probably take too long."
        Corwin grinned.  "Probably."
        Nall shrugged his huge bulk to his feet, then spread his wings
out in the sun for a second.  Then, with a soft phwupt! his bulk
shimmered and contracted inward, to coalesce into the winged-cat shape
in which he'd been hatched.
        Then he landed and had a good scratch behind one of his ears.
When he was done, he looked up at Corwin.  "Y'know," he said
conversationally, "this feels -really- weird.  I have all this
-energy- all of a sudden."
        His voice had changed, Corwin noticed; it wasn't the basso
rumble of his full self, but neither was it the rather comical squeak
he had had through kittenhood.  It sounded almost like the voice of a
man now, incongruous from so small and fuzzy a creature.  Corwin
grinned at the notion of those who had known Nall before this trip
discovering this change when they returned.
        He laughed.  "Let's see if the girls are awake yet, and see
whether you can apply that energy to breakfast."
        It turned out that the girls were already awake and donning
their armor.  When Corwin politely knocked, Hikaru opened the door and
said, "Oh good, you're both awake.  C'mon and eat, we want to get
moving quickly today."
        The table had the remains of breakfast on it, but there were
two places set for Corwin and Nall, each with Belgian waffles and an
assortment of toppings.  As they ate, the Hikaru said, "The first
place we asked directions at said Rayearth's Shrine's at a city called
Hidama, somewhere in the Mountains of Burne, but we're not sure how
far away that is.  Since the boat got toasted by that monster
yesterday, we're probably going to have to walk again."
        Umi sighed.
        Corwin finished his bite and said, "Well, have you thought
about talking to the High Priest?  He might be able to give you a
better idea of what this Prophecy is that you're supposed to be
fulfilling, and if he's got any kind of magic, he might be able to
transport you straight to Rayearth's Shrine."
        "High Priest?" Fuu said.  "I don't believe we knew there was
such a person."
        "Mm," Nall said, swallowing.  "There is."  The Knights blinked
at his new voice, but said nothing as he went on, "He's supposed to be
the Pillar's chief defender - the Pillar's the person who keeps this
world in existence.  But you knew that part," he reminded himself,
shaking his head in exasperation with himself.  It was always so hard
to concentrate during breakfast.
        "That sounds promising," Fuu said, after a moment, and Umi
nodded.  "Miss Hikaru," Fuu continued, "I know it means a bit of a
trip out of our way, but if it will give us a better idea of what we
are meant to be doing, do you think it might be worth it?"
        Hikaru sighed.  "I feel a little left behind," she admitted.
"You guys have your Rune Gods already.  But you've got a point.  And
if we're lucky, it won't be out of our way at all," she concluded,
brightening.  "Let's get there as fast as we can!"
        Corwin and Nall hurriedly finished their breakfasts, though
Nall lamented that waffles that good should -not- have been rushed,
and Mokona struck the tent.  The five of them made their way to Sania
to ask for directions to the High Priest's, and were told that there
was a train leaving for Tenchuu shortly.
        Corwin reported back and found himself met with some small
hesitation on the Knights' part.  "We don't like to travel by train,"
Hikaru said finally.  "The one time we even tried, people kept seeing
us and either pretending we weren't there at all or getting these
frightened looks on their faces and backing away."
        Corwin frowned, and then said, "Well... if you took your armor
off and put it in knapsacks, and pulled your sleeves -over- your
Lenses, you might be a little less obvious.  You're still wearing your
school uniforms under there, I know - " he got a dirty look from Umi
for that one, but continued, " - and I've seen -other- schoolgirls in
uniforms not -that- much different from yours.  There's not much you
can do about the boots, but people might not notice them."
        "No knapsacks," Umi put in.
        "I can get you some," Corwin said.  "-And- I can buy the
tickets, so all we have to do is get on the train together.  This was
my idea, so it's only fair I pay for it, right?" he added, when it
looked like Fuu was going to protest.
        There was a pause, and the Knights exchanged looks.  Mokona
gave a dubious sort of "Puu," but the Knights finally nodded.
        "I guess it's the fastest way," Hikaru said.  "Thanks,
Corwin."

        Half an hour later, they all piled into the high-speed train
for Tenchuu, along with a group of businessmen from Sania, and,
amusingly enough, a school outing that was going to Tenchuu to visit
the museums.  Mixed in with them, and out of their armor, the Knights
-weren't- that obvious, and Corwin noticed that they relaxed almost
immediately when surrounded by other girls.
        The train ride was uneventful; only one person noticed their
gemstones.  He raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything and, after a
moment's thought, appeared to nod to himself before going on his way.
        Umi, of all people, knew how to play poker, and taught them
during the four hour ride with the battered pack of playing cards that
Corwin had in his knapsack.  She and Nall ended up vying for the final
cleaning out of the pot, such as it was, and being the more experienced 
player, she beat him.
        "Cooks and plays poker well.  Where -do- you learn these
things, long-ears?" Nall demanded (which made her turn pink, much to
Corwin and Hikaru's amusement).
        "Hyeruul's is a proud and ancient culture, steeped in timeless
lore and mysteries," she answered him, as soon as she got her blush
under control.
        "Yeah?"
        "Mm-hmm.  But it doesn't hurt that you can't bluff worth a
toeclaw, cat."
        "Yeah, yeah.  Talk is cheap.  Anyway, Tiny Robo could kick
your blue butt."
        "I should hope Fontainebleu Academy's clothiers would use
a more colorfast dye than that," Fuu put in, making everyone laugh.
        After that, they all took turns sleeping with one of them on
watch - except for Mokona, who was deemed too cowardly to be trusted
with such an important duty.  They got to Tenchuu just after the lunch
hour was over, and Corwin bought them sandwiches at the train station's 
cafeteria.
        While the girls ate, Corwin asked around for directions to the
High Priest's Tower, and came back looking perplexed.  "Problems?"
Hikaru asked, finishing her sandwich and looking like she was ready to
get up and help.
        "Not exactly," Corwin said, sitting down and watching with
some amusement while Nall consumed a piece of mozarella the size of
his head.  "I got directions easily enough, but everybody I talked to
said the High Priest doesn't live there anymore.  But nobody could
tell me where he -does- live."
        Fuu hmmed softly, and then shook her head.  "It seems unlikely
that we will learn anything sitting here speculating," she pointed
out.  "Though it might be amusing."
        "Right," Hikaru said, "then, let's go."
        "Coming, furball?" 
        "Right, right," Nall said, swallowing and hopping up on Umi's
shoulder.  "Now, explain to me again how not to look smug?" he asked,
and the group started walking.

        "My God," Corwin whispered as they came out of the forest and
into the clearing where they'd been told the High Priest's Tower had
been.  The desolation that greeted them made it very clear -exactly-
what the people of Tenchuu had meant when they said, "The High Priest
doesn't live there anymore."
        Whoever the High Priest was, he'd had a visitor who hadn't
liked his Tower at all.
        "I... I don't think we're going to find any answers here,
Corwin," Hikaru said, a little shaken, as they walked slowly forward
and looked at the ruins of what had obviously been something beautiful
and filled with grace once.
        There were rose vines tangled over fallen white stones, but
their stems were all twisted in on themselves, as if they had grown
contorted without anyone to look after them.  The courtyard paving
flags were white in places, and solidly blackened in others, as if
something had exploded on them.  Umi knelt and lifted one stone,
finding the sooty explosion pattern radiating out on the flag beneath
it.  Corwin dropped into a catcher's crouch next to one of the rose
vines, cupped a white blossom in his hand, and sniffed at it, a deeply
thoughtful look on his face.
        "This would seem to confirm what we have observed before," Fuu
said, her voice calm, although her expression showed that she was as
shaken as the others.  "Something is very wrong with Cephiro."
        "If the High Priest was supposed to be the Pillar's guardian,"
Nall answered, alighting on a partially demolished garden box and
looking around, "it sure looks like something decided to take him
out."
        "Of course!" Hikaru said, slamming her hand against the stone
she was examining, and incidentally cracking it in two with the force
of her blow.  "We're here to save the world; something must be
threatening the Pillar, and decided to kill her protector -first- to
make it easier."
        Fuu considered this, as Umi continued to poke around
half-heartedly, and Corwin stuck his head through partially demolished
archways in search of a book - or anything -like- a book - that might
give them answers.
        Finally, she said, "That does not explain why it was necessary
to summon -us- from another world, but otherwise, it does make sense."
        "Maybe because there's nobody powerful enough to destroy it in
this world?" Hikaru said hopefully.
        "Maybe because whatever it is can't be harmed by things -of-
this world," Umi said, turning around.
        "'For none of woman born shall harm Macbeth?'" Hikaru asked.
        Umi blinked, but Fuu nodded.  "That would make sense," she
said, and then noting Umi's puzzled expression, she added, "Miss
Hikaru is quoting an old Earth play about a king who may not be slain
by anyone born of a woman."
        Umi opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by Corwin's
extremely puzzled: "-What- the... ?" 
        They turned to see him squatting down, almost out of sight, in
between pieces of rubble.  The Rune Knights scrambled over the bits
and pieces to find he was examining an untouched circlet of what
appeared to be still-living roses: one green-purple, one that appeared
to be burning from within, one of what looked to be steel, one that
shifted colors as if there were waves within its petals, one almost
perfectly clear, and one shining white with just the hint of pink at
the edge of its petals.
        Umi whispered, >Rose of the Sea!<
        At the same instant, Fuu murmured, >Rose of the Storm... <
        They stared at each other, and then back down at the circlet.
Nall looked at the two of them and remarked, "That was weird."
        Hikaru hunkered down next to Corwin, and put one hand out to
touch the fiery rose.  As her finger touched it, her hair crackled
briefly, and then she drew away.  "It's got fire in it," she said.
"What're the other three?"
        "I don't know," Corwin said.  "It's sitting here, untouched by
the destruction, and it's some kind of powerful magical artifact.  I
have no idea what it's for."
        "Bring it with you," Nall suggested.  "If it's the only thing
that survived whatever schracked this place, it might be useful later."
        Corwin sighed and nodded.  "I guess we're not going to find
anything else here," he admitted reluctantly, and scooped up the
crown.
        There was a brief noise, there and gone too fast to be
identified, and Corwin froze.  Light flickered dimly on his forehead,
as if his brand were glowing, and then it was gone and he was -very-
carefully wrapping the crown away.
        "What was -that-?" Hikaru demanded.
        "That was me getting told that I should -definitely- not put
it on," Corwin said.  "Not that I intended to.  Let's get out of here,
this place is giving me the serious creeps."
        The sound of boots on stone made them all jump, and they
turned to see two men walking towards them.  One was tall and built
like a brick, with long blond hair falling in a ponytail behind him.
Golden hoops glittered in his ears, and his blue cape billowed
dramatically.  And he had four red triangles marked on his face, which
made Corwin inhale sharply; they were -almost- demonic.  His eyes were
a flat, dangerous blue.
        The other man was Kyouichi Saionji.
        "Saionji?" Corwin blurted, amazed.
        Simultaneously, Saionji stopped and blinked and gasped,
"-Corwin-?!"
        The blond man drew his huge sword and continued to walk
forward, completely ignoring the byplay.  When he was seven feet from
Corwin and the girls, he stopped.
        For a moment, there was silence, and everyone heard Saionji
curse under his breath.  And then the blond man lunged straight for
Corwin.
        "LAFARGA!" Saionji yelled, lunging after him, complete
surprise written on his lean face.
        It was fortunate for Corwin at that instant that the Valkyrie
had not always played fair with him in practice duels.  His reaction
was not to grab for a weapon that he knew he couldn't get out in time;
it was to dive in a controlled fall past the sword and out of the way,
as the Rune Knights scatttered around him.
        When he came up out of his dive, the giant sword was coming
for him again, and he saw a great deal of pain in his immediate future.
        CRACK!
        The familiar length of Kotetsu no Sasayaki, still encased in
its length of wood, interposed itself between the sword and Corwin.
Corwin glanced up to see Saionji, sweating with the effort, standing
over him.
        "MOVE!" the green-haired Duelist ordered, as the blond man's
eyes flicked to Saionji's face, and then back down to Corwin.  Corwin
rolled backwards and came to his feet, Stick manifesting in his hand
as Lafarga raised his weapon again and moved to attack Saionji.
        >FIRE ARROW!<
        Hikaru's hand flashed forward, and the blaze of light that
had ruined so many creatures' days burned through the air, struck the
blond man with a sizzle, and vanished.
        He didn't even react as he brought his sword around in a
wickedly fast attack; Corwin had to admire the man's strength and
finesse.  With a sword that size, he should have been moving much
slower than he was.
        Saionji brought the zatoichi up in a parry that left the air
humming behind it, and another chip of wood was carved from the
scabbard.  "Doesn't work!" he gasped, backing as he continued to parry
frantically.  "Only swords!"
        Corwin, who had figured out pretty much the same thing in that
instant, charged in with Stick.  He caught the blow that was heading
for Saionji's side, giving the green-haired man a second to catch his
breath.
        Then Corwin found he'd let himself in for a little more than
he'd bargained for.
        His opponent was, perhaps, the -strongest- swordsman he'd ever
faced, and none of his strength was slowing him down.  Lafarga was
heavily muscled, but he'd lost none of his flexibility or finesse in
the process.
        His sword crashed into Stick with so much strength that
Corwin's hands went numb and his left hand lost its grip on Stick
entirely.  "Gah!" Corwin gasped, backing and trying to wrap a hand
that had no feeling in it around Stick so that he could even try to
parry.
        Fuu's greatsword was suddenly there, blocking the attack; he
hadn't even seen her draw, he'd been so wrapped up in the duel.
        The blond man's gaze flickered to Fuu, reacted briefly, and
then with a sweeping blow he swatted her sword from her hands, sending
it flying a good fifteen feet.  Then he advanced on Corwin, his eyes
narrowing, and ignored Fuu altogether.
        Corwin still had no feeling in his left hand, but he was
grimly hanging on to Stick with his right hand, in spite of the pins
and needles feeling.  Maybe if I can find something to brace against -
        A battle yell from Hikaru broke his train of thought as she
charged Lafarga, her sword raised high.  The swordsman pivoted and, as
she brought her sword down, caught her square in the stomach with a
perfectly placed kick.  Her momentum drove her forward onto his leg,
and he ignored the cut she'd given him as he shook her loose.
        Hikaru lay on the ground, trying to get the wind back in her
lungs, her sword a few inches out of her grip.
        Corwin got Stick into a position where he could block one-
handed - he hoped - and waited.  Nall dove, yelling and scratching.
He managed to get a few claw strikes in on the man's face, drawing
blood, before he was seized and flung straight into Umi, who was just
moving to attack position.
        He didn't even have to look! Corwin thought, swallowing.  And
then Saionji stepped between him and Lafarga again.  Corwin could see
the tense set of the Duelist's shoulders, but nothing else about his
posture gave away anything.
        The blond man made a sort of discontented rumbling deep in his
throat, then moved to attack.

           /*  The Ramones  "Blitzkrieg Bop"  _Ramones_  */

        As a Duelist, Kyouichi Saionji truthfully didn't have a very
impressive record.  He'd won one, his first; that was how he'd come
to have possession of the Rose Bride when Utena Tenjou came along and
involved herself in the Grand Tournament.  Since then he'd done little
but lose, and always when the stakes were high.
        They were certainly high now, and as he very carefully
maneuvered around Lafarga, Saionji once again cursed Akio Ohtori.
"I'm sending Lafarga out to assist you," in a pig's eye!  He'd found
out about the mysterious young man who seemed to be accompanying the
Rune Knights and sent this brainwashed thug out here to remove the
variable from the equation, and Saionji, like the idiot he was, had
led the mindless killing machine that had once been the Pillar's
Bodyguard right to the spot.
        And what in the hell was Corwin Ravenhair doing here?!  Sure,
Saionji knew that the young man's mother claimed to be a goddess, and
he'd seen enough of her and her sisters to suspect that the claim
might be true, but still - wasn't he supposed to be facing some kind
of ordeal of passage right now?  Wasn't that what Tenjou had gone off
with him for what should've been Finals Week to help him prepare for?
        Realization struck him as Lafarga's blade nearly did.  Saionji
darted aside, narrowly avoiding a blow that split one of the Tower's
fallen stones in his stead, as his mind reeled with sudden
comprehension: -This- was Corwin's Trial.  Coming here, aiding the
Rune Knights in their quest.  And given his closeness to Tenjou, he
would almost certainly find himself embroiled in everything Saionji
had spent the last two weeks investigating.
        That meant that not only was it Saionji's responsibility to
defeat the assassin he'd led to Corwin, it was also incumbent upon him
to survive, so that he could pass along to the young demigod what he'd
learned.
        Well, that was all right.  Saionji would prefer to stay alive
-anyway-.  For the first time in his life, he had friends to go back
to.
        Lafarga's blank expression had shifted slightly when Saionji
had suddenly prevented him from accomplishing his mission.  The
Bodyguard was incapable of real thought right now, but nevertheless,
it penetrated the ensorcelled fog of his mind that Saionji's behavior
was peculiar - so just the faintest hint of quizzicality crept onto
his slack visage as he pressed home his attack.
        That's it, Lafarga, thought Saionji.  Lock in on me.  Ignore
your real target.  Just pay attention to the traitor.
        He feinted to the left, then dove to the right to avoid
another one of those bone-shattering blows.  The shockwave from
Lafarga's sword stroke lashed a furrow in the ground, cracking
flagstones, and shattered another of the fallen tower stones a dozen
yards away, far beyond the reach of the blade itself.  Saionji could
hear the Rune Knights and Corwin exclaiming in astonishment at that
feat, but it was as though they were some distance away, like
spectators in the stands at a kendo tournament.
        Recently, thanks to his training with Kaitlyn-sensei, Saionji
had discovered that he possessed the ability to adjust and exploit his
tendency toward monomania, to make this defect of his character into
a virtue.  Now he tuned his focus and concentration on Lafarga,
shutting out everything else in the world - permitting the landscape
and such around him to filter into his peripheral consciousness, but
blotting out the other people, the longer-term implications of
everything that was happening, the past and the future.
        All that mattered now was the blond-headed swordsman and his
blade - and, more importantly, the gleaming scarlet gem attached by a
chain to the clasp at his uniform tunic's throat.  The only truth in
all the world was in the wood and steel that Saionji held in his hands
and the pounding of blood in his ears.  Under the throbbing of his own
pulse, he fancied for a moment that he could faintly hear the voice of
his teacher, harsh and autocratic as she tended to be in the dojo:
        "BEGIN!"

        Corwin leaned against one of the ruined arches, massaging his
stinging left wrist, and watched the battle with amazement.  The Rune
Knights (and Nall, still somewhat stunned on Umi's shoulder) ranged
around the battlefield, doing mainly the same.  They had all seen
Saionji fight before; Corwin and Nall had even seen the green-haired
Duelist take on human opponents.  None of them had ever seen him fight
like this.
        Saionji and Lafarga fought like men possessed - Lafarga by a
mechanical spirit, pressing his attack with expressionless dispassion,
and Saionji by a silent fury that was frightening in its intensity.
The bigger man's eyes were flat, blank and blue, like the glass eyes
of a doll.  The Duelist's were pits of rage, implacable hatred, not
necessarily of Lafarga himself, but of that for which the big man
fought.  There wasn't a sound from either but the controlled hiss of
Saionji's breath through his teeth and the occasional grunt of effort;
all else was environmental noise, the crunch of shattered stone, the
splintering WHACK of Lafarga's blade against Saionji's much-abused and
now very shabby stick.  Fuu, ever the observant, thought she saw a
glint of metal through one of the many deep cracks in the wood, and
suddenly she understood.  She'd seen that weapon before, in the hands
of Saionji's teacher.
        It seemed to be taking Lafarga aback somewhat that Saionji was
standing up to him.  After all, the green-haired fighter was
considerably smaller than he, didn't hit anywhere near as hard, and
was armed only with an increasingly bedraggled stick.  The blond
warrior started showing a bit of animation as he tried harder to trap
and destroy the darting white-and-green figure that opposed him.  He
bore in with a tremendous side-to-side chop of his tremendous blade.
Saionji jumped up onto a large, jagged piece of rubble, and then, as
his perch disintegrated under the force of Lafarga's blow, he dove
forward, lunging past the Bodyguard on the left and slamming the butt
end of his stick into the back of Lafarga's skull on his way past.
        Lafarga reeled, staggered slightly by the blow to his head,
and then turned, actual -anger- starting to filter through the dull
idiocy on his face.  Saionji hit the ground in a decent landing - 
        - which was spoiled by a piece of rubble under his right foot
which abruptly squirted out from under his shoe, ruining his balance
and spilling him forward.  He hit the ground rolling, came up on one
knee and whirled to face his opponent - 
        Lafarga -smiled- slightly and unleashed another one of those
shockwaves, secure in the knowledge that there was no way the traitor
would be able to dodge from that position.  Game over.
        Saionji whirled the stick across his body like a blade
parrying an overhand chop.  The shockwave plowed into him, shattering
the wood and sending it flying everywhere, and the Rune Knights gasped
and turned away from the inevitable, gory result.
        Instead of the awful 'sputch' of rending flesh, though, what
they heard was a high, bright, keening sound, like a blade striking
another, then a grunt of genuine consternation from Lafarga and a
triumphant "Hah!" from Corwin.  Nall took his head out of Umi's hair
and looked.
        Kyouichi Saionji's white jacket was in tatters, the collar and
sleeve cuffs about the only parts of it that weren't shredded.  His
wavy green hair was blown into disarray as if by a gale wind and a
trickle of blood was running from his nose, but he seemed otherwise
unharmed.  He knelt on the stones, twin furrows in the dust showing
how he'd been shoved back a good ten feet by the blow, and in his
hands, proudly upraised, was a glittering steel sword, its straight
blade cuffed in brass where it vanished into the grip which was all
that remained of its dark wood covering.
        Saionji's eyes narrowed.  He rocked back slightly from a
kneeling position to a crouch, raising his knee from the stone, and
drew his arms back, angling the blade in a wicked arc above his head.
        "Asagiri Katsujinkenryuu!" he snarled, and before Lafarga
could move, the green-haired Duelist surged up from his crouch like a
runner coming out of the blocks, the gleaming length of Kotetsu no
Sasayaki extended before him like an accusing finger.  The powerful
words boiled up out of him, splitting the stunned silence that had
followed Lafarga's failure to destroy him:
        "HYAKKEN NO ARASHI!"
        Lafarga screamed.  Umi, watching in awe, decided she'd
probably scream too if a hundred swords suddenly surrounded her,
slashing her bloody from head to toe, where a moment before she'd only
expected to defend herself against one.  The big blond warrior's sword
clanged to the stones as he stumbled backward, arms flung up to
protect his face.  Saionji flowed out of the Hundred-Blade Storm
perfectly, then reversed his follow-through and slashed up and across,
the point of his blade aimed squarely for Lafarga's neck, a perfect
killing blow -
        - but no more of the Bodyguard's blood followed this strike;
only the sharp SNAP of the clasp that held the gem at his throat.  The
gem traced a glittering arc through the air, struck the paved ground,
and shattered.  As it did so, the scarlet marks vanished from
Lafarga's face, but his eyes remained clouded.
        The bloodied warrior, his uniform all but destroyed, staggered
back one more step, then seemed to regroup himself.  Saionji, on the
other hand, looked like his bold assault had cost him more than he
could pay.  Sweat stood out on his forehead and his normally pale face
was downright pasty.  His slender chest heaved under the tattered
remains of his uniform tunic.  He took a step back, trying to regroup,
and stumbled on another piece of loose debris.  In the instant that he
had to look away from Lafarga in order to regain his balance, the
green-haired Duelist left himself open to a counterattack - and that's
just what Lafarga did, snatching up his sword with that awful
deceptive speed of his and boring in for the kill.
        Of the observers, only Hikaru Shidou could have made it to the
center of the battlefield in time to stop him with a sword, and she
hesitated, failing to do so.  The memory of Alcyione's dead eyes
haunted her as she gathered herself for the leap, and she cringed away
from the thought of ending this man's life; and then the moment was
lost and she couldn't have made it in time.  Even though she knew it
was futile, she threw her hand forward in the ancient casting gesture
instead, crying out,
        >FIRE ARROW!<
        At the same instant, Nall, without the time or the energy to
manifest his full form again, unleashed the reduced power of his small
form's breath weapon - which would be just as useless, since it was
also magic and the man seemed to be immune to magic - and the other
two Rune Knights did the same futile thing as their redheaded
comrade.
        Only this time, the spells didn't disappear when they reached
Lafarga.  Instead they engulfed him simultaneously, Fire Arrow, Dragon
Tide and Emerald Typhoon combining to swallow the unfortunate warrior
up in a seething, swirling tornado of superheated steam, impossibly
laced with razor shards of sorcerous ice.  The scream that this
elicited was quite beyond the mere yelp of discomfort his lashing from
the Hundred-Blade Storm had produced.  It was the kind of sound a
stunned Uum'y R'yuu-z'ky expected a man plunged into the depths of
Ghan'uul would make.
        The white maelstrom spat its scorched, barely-conscious victim
bloodily out after a few seconds, dumping him to the flagstones on his
face.  For half a second, the Rune Knights thought it was over.
        Then Lafarga stirred and, incredibly, raised himself, shaking
his head.  His hand closed once more around the grip of his sword, and
as he heaved himself to his feet - 
        The metal-shod end of Stick smacked solidly into his right
temple.
        Paradoxically, his already-glazed eyes -cleared- as a result
of this blow, regaining their pupils and looking nothing more than
utterly confused.
        Then they rolled up in his head and closed.  Lafarga collapsed
forward like a poleaxed redwood and lay perfectly still.
        Corwin lowered his weapon and leaned heavily against it,
grinning wanly.  "Nice move, Saionji," he said.  "Reminds me of
something I saw somebody else do once - "
        Kyouichi Saionji wasn't listening.  He'd settled down into
something like seiza on the stones, a few feet from his adversary, and
was looking at the blade of Kotetsu no Sasayaki with wide, worried
eyes.
        A bright crack appeared in the blade about halfway down, and
then half the blade fell away and clattered hollowly on the stone.
        "Damn," said Saionji as if to himself; then blood trickled
from the corner of his mouth, and he pitched forward onto his face and
lay there in a slowly growing pool of crimson.
        "What the - ?!" Hikaru cried, darting to his side.  "He was
fine a second ago!"
        "No," said Corwin, who had been trained in battlefield
medicine by Kijana Whitestaff, the Valkyrior's Northern Dragon medic.
"He was just too busy to keel over."  He crouched beside Saionji,
feeling for the Duelist's pulse.  "He's still alive, but to be
bleeding like that from his mouth, he must have massive internal
injuries.  I guess he didn't weather that shockwave as well as we
thought."  He glanced up at Fuu as she and Umi crossed the
battlefield.  "Can you do anything for him, angel?"
        "I can try," Fuu replied.  Her sword sparkled and vanished;
she knelt down next to Saionji.  Gently, she turned him over, then
tore away what remained of his uniform tunic and spread her slim hands
across his chest and abdomen.  Closing her eyes, she began to murmur
in the familiar cadences of Old Norse.
        She wasn't certain it would work; she was tired, nowhere near
her full strength, and his injuries were extensive - she could feel
that through the spell as it began to form around them both.  He was
even more badly injured than Hikaru had been by Alcyione's dagger of
ice in their first encounter, and Fuu had been exhausted by the effort
of saving her.  Still, there was nothing she could do but her best.
She concentrated harder, pouring her strength into the sorcery,
feeling Saionji's hold on life weakening under her hands.
        A hand closed on the nape of her neck, almost surprising her
out of the rhythm of the spell, but Fuu's intellect was too powerful
and too focused for that.  The warmth of the contact spread through
her, and beside her, she could hear a low, deep voice chanting.  Not
the spell she was casting, not one she recognized, but she knew it for
an ancient sorcery all the same - and suddenly, through that warmth
flowed strength.  It filled her, buoyed her, and gave her voice more
power as she finished the chant.
        The emerald winds swept across the shattered stone battlefield, 
lifting the prostrate Duelist's form up, swirling around him, and then
gently depositing him back on the ground.  Fuu wavered on her knees,
then slumped to the side, suddenly conscious of nothing but a deep and
overriding exhaustion.  She hoped she wouldn't hit her head painfully
on the stones as she fell, but she knew there wasn't anything she
could do about it -
         - and then she felt a warm strength enclose her and hold her
up, and the softness of well-worn wool against her face.  A hand
gently removed her glasses, and she felt her face smiling contentedly
before her consciousness winked out altogether.
        Umi, Hikaru and Nall stood and looked with something like awe
on their faces at their compatriot, who slept with a peaceful smile
in the enfolding arms of a gently grinning Corwin Ravenhair.
        "Wh... what'd you do?" asked Hikaru softly.
        Corwin looked up at her, still smiling.  "I loaned her my
strength; it's an ancient technique," he said.  "Unfortunately, I
don't know the spell she was using.  If I did, I could've cast it
along with her and lent my power that way.  As it was, all the energy
was channeled through her, so she was able to heal him, but now she's
as tired as if she'd done it all herself - she was basically casting
for both of us."
        He sat back a little more comfortably on his heels, the Knight
of the Storm still nestled against his chest.  He hung her glasses in
the V of his tunic under his cloak, and then said wryly, "We've got to
get these three into town.  I don't suppose Mokona has a wheelbarrow."

        They managed it somehow.  Hikaru's Salusian strength helped -
she carried the unconscious Saionji on her back like a sack of oats,
refusing to switch for Corwin's lighter burden because, she cheerfully
noted, "I'm probably at least twice as strong as you anyway."  Nall's
knowledge of a simple levitation spell was also of use; it negated
most of Lafarga's weight, allowing the dragon and Umi to drag the
swordsman along without undue difficulty.
        They were certainly an outlandish-looking group as they walked
through the streets of Tenchuu in the gathering gloom of twilight,
though: the black-haired young man with the green-clad blonde cradled
in his arms; the little redhead with the lanky fellow on her back,
his limp arms flung over her shoulders; and the flying cat with the big
blond man's collar clamped in his jaws, hauling him along while a
blue-haired elf girl carried his feet and a fluffy white rabbity thing
hopped along behind them.
        "Never a cop around when you need one," mused Nall through his
clenched teeth as he dragged Lafarga along the sidewalk under the
startled eyes of passers-by.
        "Don't tempt fate, cat," Umi grumbled.
        Under the circumstances, Corwin impressed the evening manager
at the Tenchuu Royal Arms Hotel by marching up to the front desk as if
people came into grand hotels with sleeping girls in their arms all
the time, waited patiently while his flying cat fished his wallet out
of his satchel, then announced blithely,
        "Seven and one pet for one night, though two of us may be
staying longer.  We'll need adjoining rooms.  Non-smoking would be
good.  A big bathtub in one of them would be magnificent.  And do you
know if there's a drugstore around here that's open?"

        Saionji woke up.  That in itself was a major surprise; when
he'd lost consciousness, feeling things sliding around inside him
where nothing should ever move, he had hardly expected to.  Carefully
he took stock of himself, finally raising a hand to feel experimentally 
around.  Everything seemed to be where it belonged, and solidly in
place.  He was very sore - he felt as if he'd been dragged behind a
truck for a few blocks - but he appeared to be essentially whole.
        He sat up, groaning, and raked his tangled green hair back
away from his face.
        "Morning," said a familiar voice from nearby.  He turned to
see Corwin Ravenhair sitting backward in a straight-backed chair by a
desk, his arms crossed over the top of the back and his chin resting
on them, regarding what appeared to be a floral crown made of roses
which sat on the desk blotter in front of him.
        "Corwin," said Saionji, surprised.  "What... what are you
doing here?  For that matter, where -is- here?"
        "Tenchuu Royal Arms," Corwin replied.  "As for what I'm doing
here, would you believe I'm not sure anymore?"
        Saionji smiled ironically.  "In this world?  That's par for
the course.  Ask Tenjou."
        Corwin chuckled.  "Yeah," he said.  "I hear you."
        "What is that?" Saionji wondered.  He checked to make sure he
was still wearing his pants, then got unsteadily out of bed and
crossed the room to stand by the desk, looking more closely at the
crown.
        "I dunno exactly," replied Corwin.  "Elemental artifact of
some kind.  Cephirean magic seems to have a preoccupation with roses,"
he noted wryly.
        "Mm," said Saionji noncommittally.  Looking at the crown, he
had his own ideas as to where it had come from, and they explained its
motif perfectly.  "What happened to Lafarga?"
        Corwin angled a thumb.  Saionji turned around and saw the big
swordsman stretched out in the room's other bed, on the far side of
his own.  What was visible of him - his arms, upper chest, neck and
head - was largely swathed in bandages, but he seemed to be sleeping
peacefully enough.
        "I'm going to take a wild guess here," said Corwin.  "You tell
me if I'm right.  Laughing Boy there was Minionized for Our Protection, 
wasn't he?"
        Saionji nodded.  "He had been shown the End of the World.  Now
that he's been defeated, he should be himself again when he wakes."
        "Mm.  I figured.  That's why he's not tied up," Corwin
explained.  "You want to tell me what the hell's going on around
here?"
        "Nothing would give me greater pleasure," said Saionji wryly.
        Corwin listened to everything Saionji had been able to glean
by keeping his ears open and playing crazed and stupid since his
arrival at Ohtori Academy.  He only interrupted once.  When Saionji
got to the part about his first meeting with Anthy, the black-haired
young god's eyebrows angled toward each other, his whole face
darkening.
        "She's -there-?  He has her again?"
        Saionji nodded gravely.  "I'm afraid so."
        "And you -left- her there?!" Corwin demanded.
        "We could not have escaped," Saionji said reasonably, not
getting defensive, just explaining his reasoning.  "Not with both
Kiryuus, Lafarga, Alcyione, Takatsuki, and Ohtori himself on guard.
All an attempt would have accomplished would have been to get me
killed and rouse his anger against Anthy again."
        Corwin rolled that around in his head.  "Mm," he said finally,
nodding.  "I guess I can see that."  Then he shook his head.  "Man.
Must've been tough."
        "The hardest thing I've ever done," Saionji readily agreed.
"But she agreed, and we played the game.  When Akio sent me away to
follow the Knights, I would have balked, but Anthy convinced me to
come.  She thinks their mission is important for some reason, though
I'm not sure what it is, and she could never speak freely enough to
tell me."
        "Dammit," Corwin growled.  "But I'll bet that bastard Akio
knows.  And if it's something that he wants to happen, it -can't- be
good.  Dammit!" he repeated, pounding a fist against his thigh.  "I
-knew- there was something wrong about all this.  I've had a funny
feeling ever since I -met- them that the Magic Midget didn't give them
the whole story.  This -stinks-, everything about it -stinks-!"
        Saionji nodded.  "Yes."  A pause.  "So what will you do?"
        "Only thing I can do," Corwin replied.  "Stick with the girls
and play it by ear.  This is turning out to be a hell of a Trial," he
added wryly.  "The Council's going to have some apologizing to do when
I get done giving my report.  Fact-finding mission my -ass-."  He
gently gathered up the crown of roses again, wrapped it in a towel,
and tucked it into his satchel for safekeeping.  "You hungry?"
        Saionji, who hadn't thought about it until asked, consulted
his internal diagnostics.  "Ravenous," he finally reported.
        "Let's get some room service, then," said Corwin, picking up
the phone.  "Nall's sacked out with the girls, the faithless jerk, so
it's just you and me.  I don't think Lafarga's going to be waking up
anytime soon."
        "It seems doubtful."

        The next day, the Knights, Nall and Corwin left Saionji and
the still-unconscious Lafarga at the Royal Arms.  Saionji felt it very
likely that Akio Ohtori had been watching their exploit somehow, and
thus knew that Saionji had betrayed him; he was banking on whatever
scrying device the false Priest was using having been disconnected
when his thrall over the Bodyguard was broken, and that Akio wouldn't
have the time to come seeking revenge just now.
        "After all," the green-haired Duelist observed dryly, "he'll
have plenty of time to settle accounts after whatever his plan is has
come to fruition.  You will make sure that doesn't happen, yes?"
        Corwin nodded.  "I'll do my best," he said.
        "One other thing," said Saionji.
        "Yeah?"
        "We both agree that the Rune Knights' mission is converging
with Akio's master plan, whatever it happens to be.  And we both agree
that whatever it's all about, the end is coming soon.  Yes?"
        "Yes."
        "In which case - look out for Himemiya.  With me out of
commission - " (For Saionji was still very weak and sore, still badly
hurt though no longer in danger) " - you're the only one to do it.
Don't let that miserable bastard carry out whatever horrible plan he
has for her.  Bring her safely through.  Not for me... "
        Corwin nodded again, understanding.  "For Utena," he said.
        "Yes," Saionji agreed.  "For Utena."
        "I'll do my best," Corwin repeated.  "I've already sworn to
see Ohtori's life ended one day."  He reached inside his cloak and
touched the butt of his Mauser.  "It would be a distinct pleasure to
have that day come sooner rather than later."
        Saionji smiled and shook Corwin's hand.
        "Good luck, Ravenhair," he said.
        "Keep your head down, Saionji," Corwin replied; then he
clapped the Duelist on the shoulder, turned, and disappeared down the
hall to join the others, who waited in the lobby.
        From the hotel, the five and Mokona went straight to the
Tenchuu train station.  As before, the Knights stripped off their
armor and packed it carefully into the tan knapsacks that Corwin had
found for them.  As before, Corwin bought the tickets, although this
time he paid for sleeping car accommodations, given that Hidama was
some distance from Tenchuu and he knew the girls were used to sleeping
in beds.
        Then, mission accomplished, he stopped off at one of the
stores that had caught his eye on the way to the train station (The
Compleat Strategist) and bought a couple of portable games and a chess
set.  Thus equipped, he reported back to the girls, finding that Fuu
had picked up a newspaper left behind by someone and Hikaru was
feeding crumbs to the birds.  Umi had pillowed her head on her arms
and appeared to be taking a nap.
        "Ok, we're set," he said, setting the paper shopping bag down
next to the table that they had claimed at a cafe.  "I got sleeping
car accomodations, since the train leaves this afternoon and gets into
Hidama two hours after dawn day after tomorrow.  I got these too," he
added, nudging the bag with his toe.  "Have I forgotten anything?"
        "Food, maybe?  Mokona, will you be able to make us lunch on
the train?"  Hikaru asked, turning to look over her shoulder.  "Oh,
cool, games!"
        "Puu," Mokona answered, nodding cheerfully.  "Puuu pupupupuuu."
        Fuu looked up over her glasses and the top of the paper, and
smiled.  "I don't believe there's anything else we need, if Mokona can
provide such things on the train as well as he has in the wilderness."
        "Earplugs," Umi said sleepily.  "In case the other passengers
snore.  Or make too much noise."
        "Puu."
        "Oh, you're a -fine- one to talk," Nall laughed.
        "Earplugs, check," Corwin answered her, grinning.  Umi made a
discontented grumbling noise and went back to napping.
        "The train's not 'til 6, and it's... " (he glanced at his
watch) "... 4 now," he said, sitting down next to Hikaru.  "Want to
try one of these games out?  The chess set was the only thing I
recognized, but the guy at the store said the other things have the
rules inside them."
        "Sure!" Hikaru said, plopping down opposite him at the table
and emptying out one of the games, which appeared to consist mainly of
a box of translucent plastic pyramids.  She looked at the colored
pyramids curiously and began sorting them, by size and color, into
neat rows along the edge of the table.  "What comes first?"

        Just before they got on the train, Corwin stopped off at the
local drug store and bought a box of cheap foam earplugs, just to
tease Umi.  It turned out to be a good thing he had, as several of the
other nearby occupants of the sleeping car had rather loud snores.
        The next day, they took over one of the tables in the dining
car, spread out the game that Hikaru and Corwin had started the day
before, and resumed play.
        It was a strategy game involving a deck of cards that reminded
Corwin strongly of a Tarot deck and a set of colored pyramids as
marker pieces.  It played slowly, in spite of the fact that Hikaru had
a tendency to look at the board from all sides for about a minute and
then make an interestingly -random- move, "Just to see what would
happen."
        It took them most of the rest of the morning to finish off, by
which time Umi and Fuu were both interested enough to ask to be shown
how to play.  (Fuu, by this time, had finished the newspaper she'd
found the day before -and- the newspaper someone had left on the table
they'd appropriated that morning.)
        Umi turned out to be not nearly as good at the game as Hikaru
was, much to her disgust, while Fuu proceeded to stare at the board
for perhaps two minutes every move, make a carefully-thought-out move,
and beat the pants off all of them.  Just before dinnertime, when she
was about to finish the game off, Nall leaned over and whispered
something in Umi's ear.
        Umi's face lit up.  She placed a new pyramid, and Fuu stopped
dead, stared at it, looked up at Nall, and tsked softly.  "Two on one,
now that's not very sporting of you, Mr. Nall."
        "What can I say?" Nall said innocently.  "I hate to see a good
cook lose."
        Corwin laughed, and Hikaru said, "Why don't we call this one a
draw and have dinner?"
        "Sure, sure, declare it a draw as soon as I stop -losing-,"
Umi grumbled, but her heart didn't seem to be in it.  "Can you play
any -other- games with these pieces, Corwin?"
        "Sure, there's a whole book of them," he said, tossing it to
her.  "But I'm for dinner too."
        And with that, he swept the table clean.  Hikaru picked up the
sleepy Mokona, stared into its face, and said, "Dinner?"
        "Puu," the rabbitball mumbled, staring at the table, and it
was instantly covered with food.  Mokona then went back to sleep, if
it can be said to have been actually awake.
        The hungry fivesome dug in.  As they were eating, Fuu said,
"If what I read in the paper this morning is correct, Hidama's
apparently been evacuated."
        "What?!" Hikaru gasped, sitting up from her soup and staring.
        "Apparently the volcano above the city is giving strong
indications that it is likely to erupt soon," Fuu said, sipping at her
juice.  "We may not be able to take the train all the way there."
        "Walking again, great," Umi muttered.
        "Mmm," Corwin said.  "They didn't mention that at the station
when I bought the tickets."
        "The news may not have reached them when you were there,"
Fuu pointed out equably.  "However, I suspect we will find out
shortly, as I believe the next town is the last stop on the line
before Hidama."
        "Great," Umi said again, then returned her attention to her
food.
        "Hey, at least we got a day to rest," Hikaru pointed out.
        "Yeah," Umi sighed, "but I just wish this were -over-.  The
whole thing feels like it's going to come crashing down really soon
now, and it's making my ears itch."
        "You got that feeling too, huh?" Corwin asked.  "I wish I
could get a look at this prophecy... I know the High Priest turned out
to be a bust, but there's got to be -somebody- who knows what it's
supposed to be."
        "The Master Mage must," Fuu put in quietly, "but we have only
seen him as a vision, and there doesn't seem to be any way to find
him."
        "Maybe Presea would?" Hikaru asked.  "She's the Master Smith,"
she added, explaining to Corwin.
        "She certainly knew what sort of weaponry we'd need," Umi
said, considering the problem.  "But she's also the one who gave us
Mokona."
        "Oh come on, Umi, we'd've been -sunk- without him," Hikaru put
in, exasperated.
        "Where -is- the Master Smith?" Corwin asked.  "I haven't seen
her in the traveling I did."
        "Outside Gathan," Fuu said instantly, as the other two looked
at her, "In the Forest of Silence.  Gathan is -also- in the Mountains
of Burne, it turns out, so I'm not sure why she didn't send us to
Rayearth's Shrine at the start... but I'm sure she must have had a
reason."
        "Well, if it's close enough to Hidama, maybe we could go there
and ask her afterwards," Hikaru said, bouncing back to her cheerful
self.
        At that moment, the train slowed, then stopped.  The intercom
clicked on and the slightly scratchy voice of one of the conductors
rustled through the car.  "Nakahodo will be the final stop for this
train; the tracks to Hidama have been blocked by significant ash fall,
and all travelers to Hidama are advised that the city has been
evacuated.  All passengers to Hidama may stay on the train to return
to their points of origins.  All passengers to Nakahodo will please
debark now."
        The intercom droned on, repeating the announcement, and the
Rune Knights looked at Corwin and Nall.
        "Walking," Umi said glumly.
        "Let's get off this train and get back in our armor," Hikaru
said firmly.  "I don't want to go walking around in the dark without
it."

        They didn't converse much as they walked through the gloomy,
sooty Mountains of Burne.  For one thing, that was inviting the ash
and soot blowing on the wind to come into one's mouth.  For another,
the overall oppressiveness of the scenery didn't lend itself to
feelings of camaraderie.  The Rune Knights, Corwin and Nall mainly
occupied themselves with their own private thoughts.  In Nall's case,
that mainly centered around disliking immensely how dirty he was
getting.
        Near the top of one of the interminable hills, though, Hikaru
trotted up to where Corwin walked alone on point and fell into step
with him.  For a few minutes they walked along in silence, cresting
the hill and starting down the other side, remarking silently to
themselves the desolate, post-apocalyptic feeling that a deserted
highway under this kind of sky evoked.
        Then Hikaru said quietly, "Hey, Corwin?"
        "Mm?" Corwin replied.
        "That thing you did with Fuu yesterday... how'd you know to do
it?"
        Corwin chuckled.  "The ancient sorcery?  I've been trained in
some of the techniques.  My mother is the weaponsmith of Asgard, and a
lot of modern Asgardian weapons have ancient sorcerous techniques
bound up in them.  Want an example?"
        Hikaru nodded, her eyes bright.
        "Well, take that spell you use, Fire Arrow.  That's very
similar to a old Asgardian combat spell called Flare Arrow.  Nobody
ever casts the old combat magics raw, though, anymore; it takes too
much time to train combat sorcerers, and often detracts from their
other abilities as soldiers.  Not everybody is as exceptional a
candidate as you and Umi and Fuu - but don't tell Umi I said that or
she'll get smug," he added, making her giggle.
        "Anyway," he went on, "in the modern day, what we do is use
techno-sorcerous fusion to build weapons that basically cast the old
attack spells -for- you.  One of the standard weapons of the Asgardian
Army is called the Pyrodyne - it's a rifle-type weapon that has Flare
Arrow and another fire spell, Fireball, bound into its mechanism.
Pull the trigger, out comes a Flare Arrow.  No muss, no fuss, no
sorcerous ability required."
        "Huh.  Seems like cheating somehow," said Hikaru thoughtfully.
        Corwin laughed lightly.  "I guess it is, in a way," he said.
"Anyway, the -soldier- doesn't have to know how to cast the spell -
but the person who makes the Pyrodyne does.  Weaponsmiths like Mom and
me are about the only people left, besides some of the older gods,
who can cast the ancient magic raw... not that we ever -do-," he
added.  "There's not much need for it.  But some of the underlying
techniques, like basic spellcraft and sorcerous theory, come in handy
sometimes."
        "Like when you had to help Fuu."
        "Like when I had to help Fuu."
        Hikaru nodded.  "Lucky for Saionji," she said, grinning.
        "Mm."
        "Can you teach me about that stuff sometime?" Hikaru
wondered.  "Master Mage Clef sort of -gave- us our magic powers, but
he didn't explain them.  I don't know anything about the theory or
history behind it... all I can do is cast Fire Arrow."
        Corwin smiled.  "I doubt that's -all- you can do... it's just
all you've discovered so far.  Umi and Fuu both have developed several
spells at this point - I'm sure you will too.  But if you want to,
sure, I can show you a few things.  I'm pretty rusty when it comes to
actual spellcasting, but I can teach you some of the theory.  Once
this is all over and we're back home, if you're still interested, let
me know."
        Hikaru nodded vigorously.  "I will!"  She lingered in step
with him for a while longer, but their conversation was more or less
over.  After a while she gave him a smile and fell back to rejoin her
comrades and Nall.

        Hidama was a city nestled in the valley between three volcanic
mountains.  It was nearing dusk when the Rune Knights and Corwin and
Nall came over the last of the foothills and stared down at the city,
and then at the mountains above.
        It was plain, just from looking, why the trains had stopped
running to Hidama.  The entire city was absolutely -covered- in ash,
and the mountain that towered directly above the valley was spouting
fire and ash even as they watched.
        "Pppth," Umi said, blowing grit out of her mouth, and wiping
her hand across her grimy face.  The ash had been blowing on the wind
all day, and now it was clear where it was coming from.  "This place
is a -wreck-."
        Hikaru was staring up at the mountain with a faraway
expression on her face, and Corwin gently put a hand on her shoulder
as Mokona (who was looking a bit grey and smudgy, but undaunted)
burbled in her arms.
        "Hikaru?"
        She blinked, like one waking from a daydream abruptly, and
then looked up at Corwin, her primary ears twitching.  "There's...
he's waiting.  He's impatient."  She scratched unconsciously at the
back of her neck, and her ears twitched some more.  "Do we have to
stop?" she asked, a bit plaintively.
        The two Rune Knights glanced at each other, and Fuu asked,
after a moment, "Do you think it is likely that the volcano will erupt
if you go closer, Miss Hikaru?  Miss Uum'y and I do not share your
immunity to fire."
        Umi fidgeted with her Lens.  Nall gave her a tiny, sympathetic
smile.  The proximity of this much fire - the antithesis of their
elements - was making the fur on the back of -his- neck stand up, and
he imagined it was doing the same thing to her.  This place reminded
him of films he'd seen of the Muspelheim headlands, and that was a
place he had -no- desire to visit.
        Her response was to try to put on a haughty expression, but it
got mixed up somewhere between being a frown and a superior smile and
became merely a muddled, worried look.
        Hikaru's expression went distant again, and then she shook her
head.  "He's waiting... it won't blow until he's not waiting anymore."
        "Then maybe y'all want'a wait until it's not so dark, huh?" said
a new voice.
        The group spun, and they found that a dark-skinned woman with
dressed in a bikini and a loose light robe draped over her arms had
come up behind them while they were looking at the mountain.  She had
pink hair piled on top of her head in a bushy ponytail - Corwin
swallowed at the thought that she was sort of a combination of Anthy
and Utena, then remarked to himself that the resemblance was only
superficial.
        Boy, he thought, I -have- to get out of this place soon.
        She wore rose-colored gems that gave off a soft chiming, like
bells, as she moved, and she smiled disarmingly at the Knights.
        "Who are -you-?" Umi demanded suspiciously.
        "Name's Caldina," the woman said cheerfully.  "You three must
be the Rune Knights," she said, nodding to them.  "Can't said I know
who y'all're supposed to be," she added, nodding to Corwin and Nall,
"but I'm glad t'meet you just the same."
        "Uh-huh," Nall said, non-plussed.
        The woman shrugged.  "I s'pose you could go on up there," she
added, "s'no skin off my nose.  But it's sure a mess.  There's lava
flows that haven't turned solid yet, and ash and sinkholes everywhere.  
You'd probably get a lot less hurt if you waited until daybreak."  As
she talked, she gestured, up at the mountain, spun, waved at the
setting sun, pointed out over the valley at the darkened city.
        Caldina had a funny way of moving; everything she did had a
certain calculated cadence to it, as though her every movement were
part of an elaborate dance.  Even pointing at the abandoned city of
Hidama was like part of a choreographed routine.
        "Everybody's run away," she said, smiling over her shoulder at
the Knights and making her earrings jingle.  "They're all afraid of
what'll happen when the Knights come and wake up Rayearth.  You could
always let them get a little further away from the blast."
        Her movements were so graceful, her smile so cheerful and
friendly, the Knights found themselves nodding as one.  "Why... why
don't we make camp?" Umi said slowly.
        "That seems... entirely reasonable," Fuu added, looking over
at Hikaru.
        "R-right," Hikaru said, just as slowly as Umi, and put Mokona
down.  "Mokona, make camp?"
        The rabbitball stared up at Hikaru, then shrugged its ears
and created the tent.  The three Knights, still looking dazed, walked
into the egg, but left the door open behind them.
        Caldina slid up behind Corwin, wrapped an arm around his
shoulders, and rubbed Nall behind the ears.  "So who're y'all two?"
she asked, purring in Corwin's ear.  The bells and the smell of her
perfume wrapped around him, making him feel a little dizzy.  "Can't
say I'd ever heard of the Knights needing any help from a big strong
man like you, but I'm sure glad you're here."
        Corwin found himself inside the tent-egg and closing the door
behind him almost before he knew it, with Nall nearly asleep on his
shoulder.
        Something in the back of his mind whispered sleepily that
something didn't seem quite right about this whole thing, but he was
so tired... it had been an -awfully- long walk, and he didn't want
anything more than to sleep.
        He noted the Knights were already asleep in bed, so he pulled
off his boots and lay down on the floor, put his head on a pillow, and
was almost instantly asleep.

        Hikaru woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of the
earth rumbling under her ears, and a low voice growling something she
couldn't quite make out.
        She slipped out of bed - Umi and Fuu were still completely
sacked out - and stepped lightly over Corwin's sleeping form on the
floor.  The door slid open silently at her touch, and she stared out
into the night, lit a dull red by the continuing spouts from the
volcano.
        There was a silent call in her mind: >Come.<
        She slid the door shut, and in the near-blackness of the tent,
she began to prepare.
        Methodically, she stripped out of the nightgown she didn't
even remember putting on, and got back into her school uniform and her
armor.  Ignoring the fact that her braid was partially shredded, she
pulled on her boots.  
        Then she leened over her two friends on the bed and whispered,
"I'll be back," then tiptoed back to the door.
        The night air was full of choking fumes, sulfur and other
things that smelled even less pleasant, and ash coated her hair and
got in her ears and mouth almost the minute she stepped out of the
sheltering lee of the tent.
        She ignored it and began to walk, keeping the burning light
from the mountain directly in front of her.  The ash muffled her
footsteps, and so she passed like a ghost directly past the small bulk
of the two sleeping figures nestled in the lee of a large boulder,
without waking them.

        Corwin woke up slowly, feeling rather like someone had dipped
his brain in sugar taffy and then rolled it in shredded styrofoam.
"What... hit me?" he mumbled, pushing himself up on one elbow and
rubbing his eyes.  Nall mumbled in his sleep, and rolled over.
        Corwin glanced around the tent, and blinked.  By the light
coming in through the windows, it was -well- after dawn, and they'd
slept for far longer than intended.  His stomach rumbled loudly, and
he began to feel more clear-headed as he stood up.
        The basin where the Knights brushed their teeth offered the
closest source of water, so he cupped his hands under the faucet and
rinsed his mouth out with the lukewarm water.  Splashing some on his
face got him even further awake, and finally freed of the shackles of
sleep, his subconscious smacked him in the face.
        "A -dancer- mage!" he exploded, spinning to face the bed.  Umi
and Fuu slept on, unaware, but Hikaru was gone.  "Oh -hell-!"  He
darted forward, grabbing Fuu by the shoulders and giving her a gentle
shake.  "C'mon, wake up, both of you, we've been -had-."

        There were wolves on the mountain, Hikaru realized when she
was halfway up.  Starving, hungry, -dangerous- wolves.  There were
five of them, and they were shadowing her.
        She mostly ignored them as she scrambled over rocks and
sinkholes, scraping her knees and hands up something fierce as she
made her way towards the light at the top of the mountain.
        By the time she was halfway to the top, the wolf pack had
grown in size to ten members, two of them much bigger than the
others.  When she heard one of them growl close enough that she knew
it had decided she was prey, she turned, eyes burning, and met its
gaze.
        The wolf snarled, and Hikaru put one hand - the hand with her
Lens - out towards it.  "Be -still-," she ordered in a low, firm voice.
        Her burning gaze bored into the wolf's, and for a moment,
everything was still.  Then the world turned over inside Hikaru's
head, and the earth shook under her feet, and the wolves were running
off down the mountain.
        The call in her mind was strong enough now that Hikaru found
herself desperately wishing she could fly as she turned and resumed
her scramble upwards.

        Among the many cosmic truths with which Corwin Ravenhair was
well acquainted, one was front and center in his mind right now:
        Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed, or up off the
floor, depending.
        This thought kept crossing his mind as he applied himself to
the pressing task of preventing himself from being converted into
sashimi by two of the three Rune Knights.  He had, at least, managed
to get out of the egg when Fuu, upon awakening, had gone all
blank-eyed and attacked him.  That gave him room to maneuver, which
was important to a fighter whose main weapon was a six-foot staff.
Unfortunately, it also gave the Knights room to maneuver, and they
were using it.
        "You know, guys, this is getting really old," he remarked as
he dove behind a boulder.
        Fuu Hououji's only response was to shatter that boulder with a
nicely percussive bit of wind magic Corwin hadn't realized she knew.
        Corwin hated it when his cover up and disappeared.  He
scrambled to his feet, turned, and nearly found himself skewered on
Umi Ryuuzaki's narrow blade.  He batted it aside, jumped back, then
obeyed some whispering instinct and got Stick in position above his
head in time to prevent Fuu from dividing him neatly in half.
        "God DAMMIT!" Corwin snarled.  He didn't want to hurt them -
personal fondness for the Knights aside, he'd been raised a
gentleman.  There were -limits-, though, dammit, and if they insisted
on trying to kill him this way... 
        A flicker of white struck the corner of his eye; he turned to
see Nall making his sleepy way out of the door to the egg.
        "Nall!" he cried.  "Thank Grand-dad.  Gimme a hand here,
willya?  The girls are - "
        Nall blinked, then lunged forward, unleashing a blast of his
icy breath - 
        - straight at Corwin, who barely threw himself out of the way.
        "... Great," Corwin grumbled.
        As he dodged, parried and searched his mental Rolodex for a
way out of this mess, he scanned the area for the cause of this
problem.  Visibility was bad - he tried not to think about the
condition of his lungs, fighting a battle in this crud, though he
didn't feel too bad yet - but he finally spotted her, lounging
insouciantly against a boulder off to one side.  Caldina seemed to
find all this terribly amusing; despite the soot and ash in the air,
fouling her abundantly displayed skin and what there was of her
costume, she was smiling broadly, entertained by the show.
        She noticed Corwin watching her and gave him a little wave;
even that small gesture twanged a string someplace in the back of his
head.  He snarled, looked away, and searched his mind (while his body,
left to its own devices, continued endeavoring not to get killed) for
anything he knew about dancer mages and how to counter them.

        Hikaru made it to the top of the mountain without breaking
anything, a feat she would later be somewhat amazed by.  The
environment was the harshest she'd ever had to deal with, and her
lungs felt like they were on fire with the gases and hot ash in the
air.
        As she stared down into the shifting lights of the caldera,
the heat burned up into her face, and she found herself (not for the
first time) missing her white fur, both reflective and insulating.
        >Rune Knight,< the voice called into her mind.
        >Rayearth,< Hikaru answered, her voice lost in the roar of the
fires below, but her answer audible just the same.
        >Show me that you are she who is meant to bear me.  Unbind my
strength and set it free.<
        Hikaru stared at the flames below, not sure what to do at
all.  "How?" she whispered, feeling as if she'd jolted awake suddenly
from a dream.
        >There is strength in you,< the voice answered, like the roar
of a burning house.  >Add it to mine and break the chains that bind me
here.<
        Hikaru stared down at the complex dance of burning stone and
fire consuming everything, wondering how her small strength could
-possibly- mean anything to a creature as vast as this volcano.
Still, she hadn't come this far by wondering what use she could be;
undaunted, she raised her hand and called up the runes for Fire Arrow
in her mind.
        The light seemed to bend them, twisting them into new shapes,
and her mouth spoke words she did not recognize and yet she still
knew.
        >Fire at the soul of the world, light ever burning,< she
called.  >Heart of stars, answer my cry and shake the roots of the
world: TOWER OF FIRE!<
        As she chanted, she felt the rumbles through the soles of her
boots, deep in the earth below, and the heat made shimmering visions
before her eyes, but she couldn't stop it any more than a mouse could
stop an oncoming train.
        The last words exploded out of her mouth as the volcano
erupted over her and she was engulfed in flames.

        As the two Rune Knights and Nall (who, thankfully, didn't seem
inclined to assume his full form) crept ever closer to overwhelming
him, Corwin resigned himself to doing something he really didn't want
to do.
        Then he evaded Fuu's next assault, pivoted sideways, released
Stick with one hand, and grabbed a handful of Umi's ash-stained aqua
hair.
        "I'm really sorry about this," he told her uncomprehendingly
blank expression, and then took his other hand, with the hard core of
Stick in it, and slugged her.
        She tumbled backward as he released her hair, somehow
maintaining her grip on her enchanted rapier, and Corwin dove forward,
catching her around the waist as an emerald gale slashed through the
space where they both had just been, shattering stone.  They crashed
to the ground in the lee of another of the many large rocks in the
area with a loud clatter of armor, Umi almost entirely covered by the
rather dubious shelter of Corwin's unarmored body.
        He had intended to deposit her there behind the rock,
scramble to his feet, and then lead the fight away from her, so that
she'd be safe while he tried to work himself into position to do
something similar, however much the thought revolted him, to Fuu; but
as he gathered his concussion-jarred wits and started working on
getting up, she stirred beneath him and he realized that she was still
conscious.
        Or perhaps "newly conscious" is more accurate, he thought as
he noticed her eyes actually -focusing- on him, bewilderment,
indignation and puzzled pain mingling in her gaze.
        "Corwin!" she flared, misinterpreting the situation entirely.
T'ch'nn-klu'ach ta?!  Tzol'ynn, r'tyl daa r'kt!"
        (Corwin's knowledge of Elven, a language serviceably close to
Hyelian, was rusty, and he lacked the Hyelian cultural background to
get all of it, but he thought it came out roughly, "What the hell do
you think you're doing?!  Get the hell off me, you - " Well, he didn't
know what a Tzol'ynn was, but the way she said it, he figured it
couldn't be complimentary.  He'd have found the way she rolled her r's
in her native tongue rather distracting, if he hadn't been so busy
trying not to get killed.)
        "Whoa, easy," said Corwin, scrambling off and into a kneeling
crouch beside her.  "Not what it looks like, Blue.  We've got an
emergency going on here - do you remember anything?"
        "I remember going to -bed-," she replied hotly, "and then
waking up with - why does my face hurt?!"  She raised a hand to touch
the corner of her jaw, where, Corwin was startled to notice, she had
the Ohtori Academy Rose Seal neatly embossed in the middle of a red
welt.
        "Never -mind- that right now," he said quickly.  "We've - "
        The rock they were sheltered behind exploded in a blaze of
green, showering them with fragments.
        "... J'ttata!" said Umi as she caught first sight of the
blank-eyed and implacable Fuu bearing down on them, Nall hunched like
a malevolent little gargoyle on her shoulder.
        Behind Fuu, the cone of the looming, smoking volcano suddenly
blew off, vanishing in the glare of a towering spurt of fire and lava
which reached to and burned a hole in the clouds.
        "... -Whoa-," said Corwin.
        "Was that... where's Hikaru?" Umi wondered.
        "Up there... I think," Corwin replied with a heavy heart.
        Fuu and Nall didn't seem to notice at all.  They just kept
advancing, their eyes sightless and yet locked on their targets.
        Umi and Corwin looked at each other, then back at their
approaching friends-turned-enemies.

        Hikaru Shidou had never felt anything like this.  She was
suspended, weightless, in the middle of a surging sea of flame and
molten rock.  Intellectually, she knew that she should have been
reduced to a whiff of carbon-tainted water vapor in an instant, bathed
in this hellish torrent - but it felt good, warm and comforting, as
the flames and magma licked at her skin.  Her armor melted, the school
uniform under it burning away, and she stood naked on nothing in the
midst of the inferno.
        Ancient words came uncalled into her mind.  She spoke them
softly, but her voice rang out over the roar of the firestorm
nonetheless:

        >I am Fire.
         I am a warm glow.  
         I am a ravenous inferno.  
         I am soothing light and comforting heat.  
         I am destruction and renewal.  
         I am all these things and more.  
         I am the Rune Knight of the Flame.<

        The fire pressed in around her; she could feel it coalescing
against her, forming new raiments to replace the old.  Her feet, clad
in new boots, touched the ground again.  She opened her eyes and found
she was staring into the roaring red eyes of a giant lion-wolf, gold
and red and burning, facing her over the lip of the volcano.
        >I am Rayearth,< he rumbled, and the earth shook beneath her
at the sound of his voice, >And I am unbound by my Rune Knight.<
        Hikaru put a hand forward, brushed gently against the fiery
fur of the huge Rune God, and whispered, "Yes, you -are-... "
        >You are the last of the Three,< he rumbled, >but the Prophecy
does not speak of what goes on below.<  He looked past her, and Hikaru
turned, with him at her elbow, to see the flashes of some sort of
battle on the field below.
        "Is... are my friends -fighting- each other?" Hikaru gasped,
outraged, recognizing the colors of magic.
        >They are enchanted,< Rayearth answered, matter-of-factly.
        "By -WHO-?" Hikaru demanded, her hair beginning to snap with
flames.
        She felt the amused approval in his voice, like the warmth of
the sun in springtime.  >Thus will you bear me until the time comes
that I reveal my battle form,< he answered her.  >Go and save your
friends.<
        Warmth and anger swirled around her both together, and she
felt something inside her change, but she was much too angry to stop
and think.
        She charged, enraged, down the mountain, almost completely
unaware of the fiery lava flow following in her tracks, and made for
the battlefield.

        "Fuu, what are you -doing-?" Umi demanded as the Knight of the
Storm and her dragon companion backed the Knight of the Sea and Corwin
further into the corner of the stone-scattered impromptu battlefield.
The Hyelian had to shout to be heard over the ever-increasing
freight-train roar of the still-erupting volcano above them, but Fuu
might as well have been a post for all that she seemed to hear her
friend's entreaty.
        "Forget it!" Corwin bawled in Umi's ear.  "I've already tried
it!  The only thing we can do is fight!"
        "I can't fight Fuu!" Umi replied.  "Not after everything we've
been through!  She's my friend!"
        "I don't think we have a choice!" Corwin roared.
        "Y'all could decide t'give up," came the taunting, musical
voice of Caldina, which seemed to float over the noise rather than
pushing through it.
        Umi's eyes darted toward the source of the voice, narrowing
with annoyance, and then began to glaze.  Corwin yanked her around by
the shoulder and slapped her, clearing that glaze away in an instant.
Umi yanked her shoulder free of his grasp and seemed about to
counterattack, until she realized what he'd done and blinked in
horror.
        "Don't look at the bitch!" yelled Corwin.  "She's a dancer
mage - she casts spells with her movements!"
        Umi blinked again, then nodded and returned her attention to
Fuu.
        "'Bitch'?  Now that's plain unfriendly," said Caldina.  "I'm
only doin' this for your own good, boy.  You ain't even in the
Prophecy, why're you stickin' around?  My fight's with the Rune
Knights, not y'all."
        Corwin forced himself not to look at her as he took up his
ready stance and replied, "Forget it!  The Knights are my friends and
I promised to stick with them!  You'll never - ACK!  Thppppt!  Bleh!"
        This last was elicited not by the situation itself, but by the
fact that Umi's long, somewhat ashy hair had just been flung into his
face by a sudden hot gust of wind from up on the mountain, and some of
it had gone into his defiantly declaiming mouth.
        "Oh, -that- was heroic," Umi remarked under Caldina's high,
hilarious laughter.
        "Well, it would've been, if the -wind- hadn't shifted!" Corwin
replied.  "Why don't you get a haircut, Ryuuzaki?"
        Umi opened her mouth to inform the savage that her name was
damned well NOT "Ryuuzaki", but she didn't get the chance, for it was
at about that moment that a red-orange comet of fire streaked into the
clearing from the path leading up the formerly-towering volcano.  For
a moment, Umi and Corwin thought it was a fireball cast off by the
eruption above; only after it came to a halt in the center of clearing
did enough detail resolve for them to realize that it was -Hikaru-.
They stood and stared in amazement; even Nall and Fuu, still in
thrall, turned to look, then drew back in muted alarm.
        The Knight of the Flame wasn't wearing the rather-nice-looking
breastplate-and-pauldrons-and-skirt combo that had been the last stage
of her armor.  A small golden coronet held flanges above her forehead,
with a small burning red gem centered over her forehead.  A red cape
billowed out from under black and red pauldrons in the thermal created
by the flames encircling her.  Her skirt was fuller, gusting in the
same heated air that twitched at her bangs.  Her breastplate was red
and white and gold, and another scarlet gem centered over her heart.
Her Lens glittered with a burning light.
        "YOU!" she cried, pointing at Caldina.  "RELEASE MY FRIENDS
THIS -INSTANT-!"
        Caldina stared wide-eyed at the fiery apparition.  The part of
her mind which remained rational and detached throughout remarked with
disappointment that the little redhead had shrugged off her suggestion
and gone up the mountain anyway, slipping past her; the rest was
almost blank with terror at what the little redhead had become.
        There was a tug at her cape.  She glanced down to see Ascot
looking up at her, his face pleading.
        "Caldina, let's go!" he cried.  "It's too late, we've lost!
There's nothing we can do now."
        Caldina opened her mouth as if to protest, then looked back at
the furious, implacable scowl of the Knight of the Flame and knew that
he was right.  Her shoulders slumped dejectedly.
        "All right," she said softly, her voice almost inaudible.
"Let's go, Ascot."

        Hikaru stared at the fleeing forms of Caldina and the boy -
Ascot - on the griffin's back.  Still furious but starting to calm
down a little with her enemies' retreat, she stood breathing in and
out slowly.  Her hair was ablaze with flames, and when she turned, her
eyes were flickering, as if fires burned behind them.
        Umi and Fuu, her eyes clearing into a look of great surprise,
each took a step back, involuntarily, while Corwin swallowed hard.
        A moment later the lava flow arrived, thundering down the
pathway Hikaru had emerged from.  The other Knights, Corwin and Nall
(who still looked a bit confused and blurry-eyed as he jumped from
Fuu's shoulder to Corwin's) all drew back with gasps of dismay - 
        - but without looking at it, Hikaru raised her left hand, palm
outward, toward it.  Her Lens flared with a brighter light.  The lava
flow diverted around the five of them like a stream around a rock,
roaring past on either side and whipping their hair and clothes in the
scorching wind of its passage - there and gone in a few moments,
terrifyingly fast, and leaving behind it a glittering ring of obsidian
surrounding them.
        Then Hikaru stretched her hands - empty - out toward Umi and
Fuu, and the other two girls stiffened.
        Corwin opened his mouth, and then closed it, as tongues of red
flame stretched from her hands to the other two girls, encircled them,
and then shifted in color from red to blue and red to green.
        Umi's hair swirled around her as the light shifted, behaving
almost like water.  A blue cloak billowed from her shoulders, as if
caught by the waves, and her skirt divided and became almost like the
tails of an aqua and black long coat, bound at her waist by a blue
breastplate with a gently glowing sapphire gem and white scale mail
beneath.  Her gloves lengthened up her arms, to stop just beneath the
pauldrons of her new armor, and a silver coronet with a huge blue gem
centered itself directly above her bangs.
        Umi's voice had the hush of the waves on a beach in it, and
yet it was still as loud as the ocean's roar.

        >I am Water. 
         I am a cool stream.  
         I am a tsunami.  
         I am the stuff of life and indispensible.  
         I am a devastating flood.  
         I am all these things and more.  
         I am the Rune Knight of the Sea.<

        Fuu's golden curls gusted in the sudden upsurge of air that
billowed around her, drawing a great green cloak from the pauldrons
and white epaulets of her armor.  Wings, each with a green gem for a
clasp, whispered into being behind her ears, and a green silk band
kept her curls from obscuring her face.  Her breastplate shimmered and
then faded into a green and white bodice, held tight at her waist with
a gold belt.  Her short skirt and petticoat billowed in the breeze for
a second.  Her glasses vanished in a brief dazzle of light.
        Fuu's voice rang like a windchime, with harmonies as if a
dozen voices were speaking with her all at once.

        >I am Wind.
         I am a gentle breeze.  
         I am a howling gale.  
         I am the breath of life.
         I am the crushing hammer of Nature.  
         I am all these things and more.  
         I am the Rune Knight of the Storm.<

        And then all three Knights opened their eyes and cried, >So
are we Invested!<
        In a swirl of color and light, the glory vanished, and they
were back to wearing the colored breastplates and skirts of their
final-stage armor, less elaborate but much more functional.
        There was a long, slightly awkward silence.
        "-Whoa-," said Nall.
        "That's easy for you to say," replied Corwin sourly.  "Can't I
take you -anywhere- without you get bewitched and start trying to kill
me?  You're right, I -should- have brought Utena.  She wouldn't have
fallen for that crap -twice-... "
        "I didn't!" Nall protested, then looked around in confusion.
"Uh... did I?"
        "I'm afraid we both did, Mr. Nall," said Fuu sadly.  "And Miss
Uum'y, too."
        Nall looked around, annoyed.  "Where's the mug that did it?
I've had about enough of this crap.  Was it that -kid- again?  I'm
really gonna show him what for."
        "Don't worry about it, Nall," said Corwin, sighing.  "It's all
over now.  They ran off."
        Nall growled, irritated.  Then, muttering to himself, he took
flight to do his version of pacing.
        Hikaru, looking a bit fretful, made sure everyone was all
right, then coaxed Mokona down from the top of the very tall rock atop
which it had taken refuge.  With the now-very-sooty rabbitball in her
arms, she crossed back to the others and looked at Corwin.
        "I... think we've got time to go talk to Presea now," she
said.  "Rayearth isn't... pushing the way he was before."
        Corwin picked up his wits from where they were scattered on
the ground and said, "Ah... that's good.  Got... any suggestions on
how to get there?"

        They picked their way out of the erupting inferno of the
Mountains of Burne, wincing at the sight of the conflagration that had
been Hidama.  The signposts were gone, but they found their way onto
the abandoned highroad that led through the Kaspar Pass to Gathan.
        Nightfall found them arriving, bedraggled, filthy and weary,
in that city.  It was far enough from Hidama, or where Hidama had
been, that the people had not fled, though they were certainly
inconvenienced by the ash that fell upon their city like snow.  The
inns and hotels were still open, for the most part, but the Knights
didn't stop.  They pressed on, past the city, down the foothills, and
into the Forest of Silence.
        Corwin had missed the Forest of Silence the first time the
Knights had visited it, since he hadn't met them yet.  He was struck
by its peculiar combination of peacefulness and creepiness.  There was
a fine line, and the Forest walked it.
        They arrived without incident at the doorstep of the Master
Smith's Forge at ten o'clock in the evening, by Corwin's watch.  The
door was locked to them this time.  Corwin, without ceremony, summoned
Stick and pounded against the portal with its metal-shod end, making a
raucous noise that shattered the silence of the Forest and resounded
throughout the structure.
        A few moments later, there was a click; then the door swung
back a bit and a sleep-blurred, indignant voice inquired, "What the
hell do you want?  Do you have any idea what -time- it - "
        "Puu!" Mokona announced delightedly.  It catapulted itself
into the arms of the nonplussed Master Smith, in the process
thoroughly besmirching her face, arms and white nightdress with soot
from its filthy coat.
        "ACK!" Presea blurted, staggering back in disgust.  "MOKONA!!"
        "That's what I always say," said Umi with weary amusement.
        Presea, her face masked in black by the filthy rabbitball's
enthusiastic greeting, blinked in amazement at the motley group on her
doorstep: the three Rune Knights, the unknown young man, and the
rather grouchy-looking black cat on his shoulder, all of them looking
road-weary, utterly befouled by the ashy effluent of the Mountains of
Burne, and deeply troubled.
        "May we come in, Lady Presea?" asked Fuu.  "We have a matter
of great importance to discuss with you."
        "And we could use a bath if you've got one," Nall remarked.

        Anthy Himemiya couldn't sleep.  Not that she'd ever slept
particularly -well- since her return to Ohtori Academy; who could
sleep soundly with the twisted wreckage of Nanami Kiryuu prowling
silently around the bedroom?  Tonight, though, even the fitful,
restless, nightmare-studded sleep of recent weeks eluded her.  She sat
wide awake on the edge of her bed, her heart filled with an
unspeakable dread.
        Finally she got up, opened the French doors, and went outside
onto the balcony, hissing softly at the chill of the stone under her
bare feet.  The night wind fluttered Utena's pajamas around Anthy as
she put her hands on the cold iron rail and looked up at the moon.
        The end was near; she could feel it, down deep inside her.
Emeraude's endurance was spent, her grief for Zagato overwhelming even
her legendary ability to bear up.  Far away to the south, a sullen red
glow lit the evening sky, and Anthy knew exactly what it was.
        "Hidama is burning," she whispered.
        "So it is," said a soft voice beside her, and Anthy clenched
her fists on the iron rail, forcing herself not to jump and scream.
How Akio had come to be standing next to her she didn't know - she
hadn't heard the elevator, and he never came to her at night anymore,
not since she had shown him that if he wanted anything from her, he
would have to take it by force.  But here he was, dressed in the white
and scarlet uniform that was a mockery of the one Dios had worn as the
Prince of Cephiro, his white jacket and hair almost glowing in the
blue-white light of the moon.
        "So it is," Akio repeated softly, gazing off southward.  "And
that means the end is very nearly at hand."  Then he smiled and turned
to Anthy.  "Does that please you, dear sister?"
        Anthy made herself meet his eyes and said coldly, "If it
brings your end with it, I am delighted."
        He slapped her, but it was perfunctory - more a matter of form
than anything else.  Then he turned negligently away and went back
into the tower, pausing just inside the doorway to turn back and face
her with his sardonic smile in place.
        "Get dressed," he told her.  "Your big moment is almost here."
        Anthy released the rail, turned, and said with a calmness that
she didn't feel, "And if I refuse?"
        "Then I'll take you in your fool of a Rose Knight's pajamas,"
Akio replied offhandedly.  "It matters little to me if you meet your
destiny with dignity; I just thought, out of some lingering fondness
no doubt, to offer you the chance."  He crossed the room, paused
briefly by the bed, then went to the elevator, called it, and entered
the car.  Nanami appeared from somewhere and warily fell in beside
him, standing as far away from him as she could and still be in the
same elevator with him.
        "If you're not downstairs in ten minutes," Akio told Anthy
flatly, "I'll send Touga up to drag you down."
        Then he was gone, and Nanami with him.
        Anthy considered her options for a moment, then sighed, went
to her closet, and got dressed.
        Not yet.
        There was still time.
        But not much of it...
        She was just fastening the brooch of her Rose Bride's gown at
her throat when she heard the first explosion.

        Corwin had insisted that the Knights take their baths before
him.  He and Presea (who had gone first to scrub the soot of Mokona
from her face and change into her usual working tunic) sat in an
uncomfortable silence in the Master Smith's living room while, one by
one, the Rune Knights went and cleaned the filth of the last couple of
days from their bodies, hair and clothing.  Their armor seemed almost
to care for itself, vanishing into their Lenses when the stepped into
the water and then reappearing clean and whole once they emerged and
dried themselves.
        Corwin wasn't so lucky; when he'd entered the pool, he'd
resigned himself to somehow forcing his clean body back into his
filthy clothes when he emerged.  Still, it was nice to get clean, if
only for a while, and his hair would at least stay that way.
        He emerged after only a few minutes, propelled by the need to
move on to the next phase, their real purpose in coming to see the
Master Smith.  He dried himself on one of Presea's fluffy yellow
towels and then, snugging it around his waist, went into the changing
room.
        His clothes were on the little bench there, next to his
satchel - clean, dry and neatly folded.
        "How 'bout that," he remarked to himself.  Then he dressed,
checked his Mauser, and, scrubbing his damp hair into a slightly less
wild disarray, went back into Presea's living room.
        From the looks on the Rune Knights' faces, they'd started
without him, asking Presea to tell them what she knew about the
prophecy that had brought them to this world - and she wasn't coming
across with anything useful.  Corwin had expected this; if the
information they all felt they were missing was -good-, Presea would
have shared it with them when she'd first met them.
        He decided to open politely, see if he could make his own
inroad, and only get tough if he had to.  He hated to get pushy with
women, especially women as handsome and nice-seeming as the Master
Smith - it was obvious to him that she was troubled by keeping silent
to the Knights - but the situation didn't call for delicacy now.  The
wrongness Corwin could feel below his heart was too profound and
alarming for that.
        "My thanks to whoever did my dry cleaning," he remarked,
"and... "  He trailed off, noticing that the Master Smith was staring
wide-eyed at him.  "... What?"
        Presea was thunderstruck.  When the young man had arrived with
the Rune Knights, she hadn't thought much of it; adventurers often
gathered traveling companions to them, whether they really intended to
or not, and why should the Knights be any different?  She'd taken him
for a local knockabout, perhaps a swordsman or junior sorcerer trying
to earn his spurs or a young would-be Lothario who had attached
himself to this group of young girls in hopes of getting to know one
of them better.  Under the circumstances, it was a little odd that
someone like that would still be sticking with them, but hope springs
eternal, as the poet said.  Presea had regarded him with a sort of
amused detachment, as a young man who clearly had no idea what he was
involving himself in.
        That, though, was before he'd washed all the soot and ash off
his face and she'd gotten a look at his markings.
        "Who... who are you?" she asked him, her voice hushed.
        Corwin drew himself up as best he could in his condition,
clicked his heels together in the Valkyrie manner, and bowed.
        "I am Corwin Ravenhair of Avalon and Asgard," he said
solemnly, "and I am at the Master Smith's service."
        Presea drew back, fingertips to her mouth.  "Asgard!" she
whispered.
        She knew, of course, of Asgard.  All the Masters did.  She'd
learned the story from her predecessor as Master Smith, and gotten
more of its details from Master Mage Clef: How the powerful visitors
from another world had been attacked in misunderstanding, centuries
ago, by the High Priestess Sabra; how one of them had nearly been
slain; how the others had taken their fallen comrade and left, the
tall, blond one vowing vengeance.  The vengeance never came, but the
powerful in Cephiro kept with them the knowledge that one day it
might.  Was this young man here to exact it?  He didn't look like much
- but then, neither did the Rune Knights, neither did the Master Mage.
        Presea stared at him with a mixture of shock, awe, and just a
hint of fear, and wondered what he would do next.
        Well, this could be useful, Corwin remarked to himself.  He
left the damp towel hanging around his neck, sat down on the sofa next
to Fuu, leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, and told the
visibly rattled Master Smith,
        "That's right."
        "Why are you here?" Presea wanted to know.
        Corwin smiled.  "That's what we're trying to get you to tell
us," he told her.  "Tell us about the Prophecy.  Tell us about the
Rune Knights."
        "I... "  Presea cast her eyes down, not meeting his.  "I
can't," she told him.
        "Lady Presea," said Fuu gently, "we have risked our lives and
overcome many obstacles to become that which you and the Master Mage
asked us to become.  I think we deserve to know the truth.  Why are we
here?  What have we truly been brought here to do?"
        "Where -is- the Pillar, and what does she need to be saved
from?" asked Hikaru.  "That's what it all comes down to, doesn't it,
rescuing the Pillar?  We can't do that if we don't know where she is
and who's holding her."
        Presea looked up at the redheaded Knight, clearly struggling
with herself.  Mokona, clean and fluffy again, burbled happily and
hopped into the Master Smith's lap.  Absently, she petted it, a
creature she professed to dislike intensely, as she searched Hikaru
Shidou's face for... she wasn't really sure what.
        "It... not exactly," she said softly.
        "'Not exactly'?" Umi demanded.  She stopped scratching Nall's
ears and leaned forward a little.  "I missed my fencing tournament for
this quest, and now you're telling me we're -not- here to - "
        "I - " said Presea.
        "Let her - " said Corwin.
        >RUNE KNIGHTS!< bellowed a tremendous tripartite voice that
nearly stunned everyone in the room.  Nall flattened his ears to his
skull and yowled, huddling against Umi's leg.  >THERE IS NO MORE TIME
FOR SEARCHING AND QUESTIONING!< the voices went on.  >YOU ARE NEEDED.
YOUR MOMENT IS AT HAND!  WE MUST GO!<
        All three Knights jerked to their feet for a moment, as if
they'd all sat on tacks.  Their armor began to glow, light shooting
through the big window out into the darkness of the Forest of Secrets,
where three huge forms began to take shape.
        Hikaru's voice was faint in the roaring noise of the Rune
Gods' appearance.  "Rayearth?  What is it, what's wrong?"
        >NO TIME!< the voices repeated.  >WE GO!<
        And then the three Knights were enveloped in spheres of light
and vanished, and so did the figures in the Forest.
        There was an instant of stunned silence, and Corwin abruptly
realized Nall had gone with them.  He turned to look at Presea, who
was staring out the window with an expression of mingled horror and
regret.
        "I think," he told her quietly, "you had better tell me."
        So she told him.
        All of it.
        It took her ten minutes, ten eternal chafing minutes, during
which Corwin paced and fretted and listened.
        Then he turned angrily to the Master Smith and said, "You
should have told them."
        Presea shook her head.  "I couldn't," she answered him
miserably.  "Do you think I didn't want to?  But how could I reveal
the truth of the Prophecy of the Pillar's Dilemma?  If she does not
die at the hands of the Rune Knights, she will take -all- of Cephiro
with her!  The Prophecy is very specific about the doom that awaits
this world if the Pillar ever despairs, and that is what she has done.
That is why there -are- Rune Gods and Rune Knights; to save the world
when its own soul becomes tainted."
        She got up, began to pace.  "Do you think they would have done
what they've done if they had the knowledge of their true purpose
ringing in their minds?  Those three kind, brave, compassionate girls?
This was the only way to ensure that they would carry it through.  I
-hate- it, but there is -no- -other- -way-!"
        Corwin stared at her, naked astonishment on his face.  "Carry
it through!" he finally said, with a mirthless exploding laugh.  "You
and the Magic Midget are about to make 'those three kind, brave,
compassionate girls' into -murderers-, if you haven't already!"
        Presea had tears leaking down her cheeks, but she met his gaze
anyway.  "Is it murder to free someone of endless torment from which
she -cannot- free herself?"
        Corwin snarled at her, but he couldn't bring himself to curse
her; it was possible she was right.  "Where are they?" he demanded.
        Presea hesitated.
        "I - "
        "WHERE?" Corwin roared, his face dark with rage.  The Master
Smith - a woman considerably taller than he and with all the strength
her title implied, who was not given to intimidation by any man or
beast - drew back a bit in the face of the young god's wrath, then
hung her head and said softly,
        "I expect... the center of the world."
        "The center of the world?" Corwin repeated, puzzlement leaking
through the tight anger in his voice.
        Presea raised her eyes to his.
        "Ohtori Academy," she replied.
        Corwin blinked, then nodded.
        "Of course," he said softly.
        Then he drew his Mauser, and for a moment, Presea had the wild
notion that he was going to shoot her; but he only drew back the bolt
slightly, sighed, and let it fall again.
        "I don't suppose you have any 7.63mm Mauser ammunition," he
said wryly.  "I've used mine up, it's been a very busy couple of
weeks.  Only one shell left."
        Presea fought down a hysterical urge to giggle and replied,
"No... sorry.  Guns aren't really my field, except artillery."
        "That might be useful... "  Corwin sighed, holstering the
pistol, and said as if to himself, "Ah well.  Save it for a rainy
day."  Then he squared himself, called Stick to his hand, then walked
across the room to the big picture window that looked out upon the
Forest of Silence.
        He raised his left hand, palm toward the window, and held it
there, a few inches away from the glass.  Then he closed his eyes and
began to concentrate.
        Presea opened her mouth to tell him that magic didn't work
inside the Forest of Secrets (except, apparently, the power of the
Rune Gods) - 
        - but the brand on his forehead flashed with a high-pitched
keening sound, and a ring of power jumped from his hand to the window,
rippling outward on the suddenly coruscant surface of the glass like
the rings spreading from a rock dropped in a pond.
        Without a word to the Master Smith, he stepped forward and
vanished through the window; it rippled in his wake, then snapped back
to its normal conformation and became once again transparent.
        Presea took a step back and slumped into the couch, hugging
Mokona to her chest.
        "I guess it's just you and me now, Mokona," she whispered.
        "Puu," replied the creature disconsolately, its ears drooping.

        Kozue Kaoru knew, without the faintest hint of doubt, that the
world had gone mad.  She believed, firmly and surprisingly without
fear, that there was at least a 50% chance she was going to die today.
        She stood at the top of the stairs which led down into the old
shelter at the east end of campus.  Legend had it the underground
facility had been built decades before as a shelter for the students
in case of an emergency in the Sorcerous Arts department - but there
hadn't been a Sorcerous Arts department at Ohtori Academy since crazy
Professor Nemuro had burned down the Sorcery building, something like
twenty years ago.  Or so the story went, anyway.  Kozue was a bit
dubious about the idea that the school had even -had- a Sorcery
department once, but the burned-out building was still there, and the
story of how it had got there was part of the school's culture.
        Anyway, so the story went, that was what the bunker was for;
and when the building had burned and the Sorcery department had
disbanded, the emergency drills had stopped and the bunker had lain
abandoned.  Now it was one of the curious little anachronisms of the
campus, known only to the Student Council (who also had what little
there was of its story) and a few of the more adventurous explorers
among the student body (who did not).
        Ironically, Kozue knew about it because she was one of the
latter; she'd known about it for years before becoming a Student
Councilor.  The old bunker wasn't exactly comfortable, but it was
private, and one of Kozue's hobbies in those days had called for as
much privacy as possible.
        She tried to put that out of her mind as she stood at the top
of the stairs, directing traffic, herding her fellow students down
into the dubious safety of the underground shelter.
        "Come on, come on, keep moving!  Don't stand there gawking
unless you want that to be the last thing you ever see!  Move it!
MOVE IT!" she cried, slapping shoulders and pushing backs as the mint
and white river flowed into the ground in front of her.  Back along
the steadily moving line of frightened youths, she could see Tsuwabuki
and Keiko in their places, making sure everything went smoothly.  She
was proud of them, proud of herself, for the way they were handling
this crisis.
        A lesser Student Council would have been shocked into
immobility by the sudden appearance of what seemed to be a gigantic
woman-shaped robot at the south gates of the campus, rampaging through
the mystic defense curtain that ringed the school's perimeter - to say
nothing of the hideous, spindly, vaguely-man-shaped monsters that had
risen from the ground to combat it.  This sort of chaos erupting on
the grounds of the Academy had never happened before, even back in the
Wild Age.  Kozue hadn't even known the place -had- a mystic defense
curtain.  She supposed, in the still-rational part of her mind, that
it was a good indication the stories about a Sorcerous Arts department
were true.
        Anyway, she hadn't paid much attention in history class, but
Miki had, and he'd made sure she knew enough to pass the tests, even
if she'd hated him for it at the time.
        The thought of her brother, even in the midst of this
panic-soaked madness, made Kozue's heart hurt - but at least he wasn't
here.  Wherever he was, perhaps he would survive, assuming the whole
-world- didn't come to an end before it was all over.
        Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a group of people
moving in the opposite direction, their clothes of different colors
than the usual mint-green and white of the Ohtori student body.  She
blinked, focusing on them, identified them, and left her post briefly
to run to them and block their path.
        "Hold it!" she snarled at the tall, redheaded figure of Touga
Kiryuu, who was walking in the van of this strange little formation.
"Where the hell do you think you're going, Mr. Former President?  How
about a little help with the evacuation?"  She looked past him at the
faintly amused face of Akio Ohtori.  "Or are you planning to hustle
the Deputy Chairman away from campus?  How about it, Mr. Chairman?
Abandoning your students to their fate?"
        One of the huge, gangly monsters stumbled back from an
onslaught of what looked like cannon fire from the giant she-robot,
its huge foot slamming down a mere ten feet or so behind Kozue, but
she never flinched.  Her blue eyes bored accusingly into Akio's green
ones as she put her hands on her hips and declared,
        "You are without a doubt the worst excuse for an administrator
any school has ever had!  You spineless, gutless coward - you're
running away!  Running away and leaving us all here to die!"
        "Well," said Akio with dangerous calmness, "you're half right,
anyway."
        Suddenly, there was a crack like thunder, and the sky blazed
with light.  Kozue looked up, shielding her eyes with her hand, and
saw still -more- gigantic... -things- arriving.  These were different,
though, from the attacking machine or the monstrous creatures that had
appeared to battle it.  Three of them seemed to be machines as well,
but they were of a different style: each vaguely man-shaped, but with
overtones of other beings.  One was red, with the claws and aspect of
a wolf and wings of orange-gold fire on its back; one was blue and
vaguely draconian, with batlike wings; and one was green and avian,
with talons and a golden beak helmet, its wings feathered with armor.
        Kozue's eyes widened as she recognized them.  She had never
seen them in person and never expected to, but she had seen paintings
of them in one of Miki's old books, a huge leatherbound volume of
ancient stories and legends that her brother had enchanted her with
when they were children, reading the tales of the Old Days in his
soft, sweet voice, under the covers with a flashlight when they were
both supposed to be asleep...
        "The Rune Gods!" she cried.
        Akio Ohtori smiled.  "Right on time."  Then he turned his
cold, sardonic eyes on Kozue, who still stood rooted to the spot,
staring up with astonished eyes as the glittering armored figures
swept over their heads to engage the school's attacker.  In their wake
flew a great serpentine figure, shining white from wingtip to wingtip
and snout to tail - a dragon, surely, though not one as great as the
Rune God Celes.
        "Touga," said Akio, gesturing to Kozue.  "Get her out of our
way.  If she resists, kill her."
        Kozue blinked, outrage snapping her out of her reverie, and
scowled at Akio.  "You miserable son of a bitch!" she snarled.  Then
she stepped sideways out of the group's path and spat at his feet.  "I
wouldn't try to stop you anyway.  We never -have- needed you here, why
should we start now?  Go on, get out of here!  Save your own worthless
hide."  She looked from Akio back, noting Anthy Himemiya's presence
for the first time, and spared her one look of mild surprise before
going on to Shiori Takatsuki.
        "Going with him, are you?" she demanded as the party passed
her.  "Well, to hell with you too, then!  We're not going to -need- a
treasurer with the fucking SCHOOL DESTROYED!"
        It seemed slightly odd to Kozue - ha! slightly odd! with the
world ending and giant monsters rampaging through the campus, SLIGHTLY
ODD! - that Shiori utterly failed to react to this berating; but
before she really had time to reflect on it, the last member of the
party addressed her.
        Nanami Kiryuu, bringing up the rear, turned and smiled
jaggedly at the ranting Student Councilor.  The look on the blonde's
face startled Kozue out of her angry fugue - it wanted to be a smile,
but it couldn't, because the spirit behind Nanami's glassy grey eyes
couldn't feel what a person had to feel to -wear- a smile.  The sight
of it touched Kozue's heart with a finger of ice, and she took an
involuntary step back.  Even with the world gone mad, it was a
horrible shock to see someone she -knew-, marked with the obvious
stain of individual madness.
        "Why don't you come with us, Kozue?" asked Nanami in a
disturbing sing-song voice.  "Touga's always had kind of a soft spot
for you.  Not that I'd let you have him, you understand, because he's
mine - ALL MINE - understand?  But you could come along, anyway.  You
wanna?"
        "Good God," Kozue murmured.  Without answering Nanami's
question, she backed away, then turned and ran back to her place by
the entrance to the shelter.  She fought with all her strength against
the urge to look up and watch the Rune Gods and their draconic ally
battle the giants that were themselves fighting over the doomed bones
of Ohtori Academy.
        The world had gone entirely mad, but Kozue still had a job to
do.  It was her responsibility as the President of the Student Council
to do all in her power to safeguard the lives of her fellow students.
        She only hoped that, somehow, word of all this would get back
to Miki, and he would be proud of her.

        Corwin had never traveled under his own power by mystic
gateway before.  His mother and her sisters all did it with great
regularity; it was their standard way of getting around the
inconvenient distances involved in living among the mortals of Midgard
with their sprawling galactic civilization; and it had been generally
assumed that, in time, he would develop his own ability to travel that
way, being by blood and inclination an Aes.  The speculators were
evenly divided on whether he would learn to do so before or after his
Trial; his mother had done so before, his Aunt Bell after, and Aunt
Urd wasn't telling.
        Each of the three Norns had a special medium they'd tailored
their gate ability to use, in order to simplify the process and make
the casting easier and shorter.  Belldandy specialized in mirrors,
Skuld in pools of water, and Urd in display devices.  Those who knew
Corwin best figured his ability would manifest itself in something
like digital archive crystals.
        Instead, he'd apparently latched onto windows, which, as he
transited his first gate, he decided wasn't bad.  There were certainly
a lot more windows than datacrystals in the world.
        He emerged, dropped ten feet to what looked like a tiled
patio, and then rose from his landing crouch to get his bearings.
Behind him was an arched doorway above which was a stained-glass
window in the shape of the Rose Seal he wore on his left ring finger;
it was this window that had been the local end of his first gate.  And
so where he was standing wasn't a patio at all - it was a balcony,
high on a tower overlooking a familiar place.
        Not personally familiar, no - he had never been here before,
never looked with his own eyes on the layout of the school campus
below him, the keyhole shape, the white-stone-paved Quad, the long
marble staircase leading up the hill to the gates of the Secret
Forest.  Nevertheless, he had seen it before.  Not in person, but in
dreams.  Not his own memory, but another's.  There weren't that many
people he was that close to, that he could see their memories in his
dreams, but there was one among them to whom this place was as
familiar as his mother's house on Tomodachi was to him.
        Now it was a battleground, its buildings crushed, the
beautiful green campus shredded, cratered and pitted.  The corpses of
guardian golems, tall and hideously malproportioned things of flesh
and colored armor, lay scattered like broken toys.  Nall, in his full
draconic form, was locked in battle with another of them, keeping it
from attacking the Rune Knights' flank.
        For there was little doubt that the three towering war
machines, one scarlet, one emerald, one azure, were the Rune Gods, and
the Rune Knights were within them.  Which meant that the stylized
woman-shaped machine facing off against them must belong to... 
        He gritted his teeth and screamed at the top of his lungs:
"HIKARU!  UMI!  FUU!  NALL!  -STOP!-"
        They didn't hear him.  How could they?  And his request was
ridiculous anyway - how could they stop?  If they did, the guardians
and their opponent would rend them.  This battle was joined, it
couldn't be abandoned.  They were all committed to their path.
        Corwin's brand spiked as he followed that path through the
mists of speculation to its inevitable conclusion.
        Light surrounded the three Rune Gods, blotting them from view;
Corwin turned away, crying out and shielding his eyes, and when he
turned back, one giant stood where three had been.  A tremendous
thing, breathtakingly worked, it combined the aspects of all three,
Rayearth, Windam and Celes, into a single titan of unimaginable grace,
beauty, and power.  The mecha designer in Corwin's heart sang to see
it, even as the rest of him froze with dread at what its coming
heralded.
        Scrambling onto the railing, he leaped into space.

              /*  Feeder  "Buck Rogers"  _Echo Park_  */

Dragon Mage Enterprises                 He's got a brand new car
in association with                     Looks like a Jaguar
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited            It's got leather seats
presented                               It's got a CD player
UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES
FUTURE IMPERFECT                        But I don't want to talk about
 - Symphony of the Sword No. 2 -          it any more
Fifth Movement:
Knights of the Tenth World Part Two:    I think we're gonna make it
Pawns to Promotion                      I think we're gonna save it yet
                                        So don't you try and fake it
The Cast                                Any more
(in order of appearance)                Any more
Anthy Himemiya
Corwin Ravenhair                        We'll start over again
Fuu Hououji                             Grow ourselves new skin
Nall Silverclaw                         Get a house in Devon
Hikaru Shidou                           Drink cider from a lemon
Uum'y R'yuu-z'ky
Mokona                                  But I don't want to talk about
Alcyione                                  it any more
Kyouichi Saionji
Captain Amaal Kroykhin                  I think we're gonna make it
Windam, Rune God of the Storm           I think we're gonna save it yet
Leviathan                               So don't you try and fake it
Ascot                                   Any more
Lob-Storr                               Any more
Celes, Rune God of the Sea
Toraneko                                I think we're gonna make it
Hydra                                   I think we're gonna save it yet
Lafarga                                 So don't you try and fake it
Caldina                                 Any more
Rayearth, Rune God of the Flame         Any more
Master Smith Presea
Akio Ohtori                             He's got a brand new car
Nanami Kiryuu                           He's got a brand new car
Kozue Kaoru                             A brand new car
Mitsuru Tsuwabuki                       A brand new car
Keiko Sonoda                            A brand new car
Touga Kiryuu    
Shiori Takatsuki                        I think we're gonna make it
                                        I think we're gonna save it yet
Architect                               So don't you try and fake it
Anne Cross                              Any more
                                        Any more
Structural Engineer
Benjamin D. Hutchins                    I think we're gonna make it
                                        I think we're gonna save it yet
Hyelian Linguistics                     So don't you try and fake it
Martin Rose                             Any more
                                        Any more

                    Befuddled Non-Rayearth-Watcher
                            John Trussell

                       Ohtori Academy Research
                           Philip J. Moyer

                         Suspicious Behavior
                          The Usual Suspects

                       MKR characters by Clamp

                   RGU characters by Saito/Hasegawa

                        You know, like always.

        Knights of the Tenth World will return with "Endgame"