by L. Itram and Ben Yackley Main * Story * Setting * Cast * Illustrations * About * Comment

Chapter 3: Showdown on Shattered Hill (Posted on 8/25/02 )

Kinto covered his head with his arms and curled up tighter in the corner of the cell. It isn't enough to dump us in this hole, now they have to keep us from sleeping too. He didn't care about the latest happenings in guard-land, he'd been sitting in jail all day, alternately bored out of his wits and frustrated at his helplessness and all he wanted was for tomorrow to come so...so at least something else would be happening.

The night shift had come straight from a party which was liable to continue until morning and had spent the past hour making up for what they were missing by recounting witty lines from earlier in the evening.

"So then I says to her -- hey, man, what time is it?"

"Huh? Nearly midnight, I guess."

"Nearly time for Nodi's band."

"Yep."

"Man...we're missin' out on some good music here."

"You just got a thing for their lute player."

"What? C'mon, she's hot!"

"Yeah, yeah."

Blissful silence. Kinto peeked over his shoulder at the others who had somehow managed to sleep through the din. Well, they have been up since dawn, he thought, but so've I.

There was a faint jingling of armor and a shadow passed in front of the tiny grate in the door.

One of the guards - the one with the thing for the lutist - said in a low voice, "I think they're asleep."

"Of course they are. It's practically midnight."

"I wouldn't be able t'sleep if my life was bein' decided in th'mornin'."

"Yer not gonna sleep anyway, y'clodpate."

"Don't you call me that!"

"Hey, I can call you whatever I want, I've known you for ten years."

Another pause.

"We're really missin' some fun here..." offered the clodpate, trying to start up the conversation again.

"Yep."

"Still asleep."

"That's somethin'."

"Bet they don't even know we're here."

"Not if they're asleep."

"Not like they could escape even if they woke up. Not with all that magicked stuff on 'em. We're just a bunch o' nobodies doin' nothin'."

"Hey, man, yer not thinkin' what I think yer thinkin', are ya?"

"Me? I don't think, you said so yerself."

Pause.

"Didn't even get a chance at th'food," said the one who apparently did think.

"Bet it's past midnight by now. Bet it's nearly one."

Pause.

"Think they'll be doin' that one song? The one that goes 'daaa nyeeeeeee dummmmm' and starts into the bagpipe solo?"

"Bet they will. That's a real popular one."

"And here we are, just a pair o' nobodies like you said."

"Yep."

"Just a bunch o' nobodies doin' a pointless job at two in th'mornin'."

"Yep."

"Bet they wouldn't even notice us if we left for, oh, half an hour."

"Nope."

"Just enough time to catch some dinner and the last couple songs."

"And maybe say hi to th'lutist."

"That's what you say every performance."

"Yeah, maybe this time I'll actually do it."

Silence, broken by the faint jingling of armor. Then more silence. Kinto stuck an eye to the grate in the door and scanned the empty lobby.

"Guys, wake up!" he hissed, "They've gone."

"Ye think I was sleeping wit' all the racket?"

"At least it was better than listening to you snore."

"Snore? I do not snore, Luen!"

"Well somebody was snoring up a storm in the next room last night."

"Shut up!!"

They shut.

"That's better," said Kinto. "Now, listen. Now's our chance!"

"Ta do what? They're right, Kinto, we can't escape. Not 'less ye've been weightliftin' the past day."

"Well we gotta think of somethin'. May not have a chance like this -- huh?"

There was a faint scratching at the door. Then a voice whispered, "Shhh. Uh, I mean, keep quiet!"

They heard the movement of the tumblers in the locks and the cell door swung open.

* * *

"So just why should we be trustin' ye?" asked Viola once they were in the main lobby of the guardpost.

"Can we, uh, talk about this somewhere else?" responded Pico in a hoarse whisper. "Hold this." He handed her a ring of keys and opened the brown satchel hanging by his side beneath his cloak. "You may have nothing to lose but I don't want to land in, uh, prison myself." Out of the satchel came two more cloaks. "Disguises. You're very, uh, distinctive."

Viola put the smaller one on and wrapped it around herself, hiding her extra arms.

"Hey, what about me?" asked Luen.

"You're sharing. He's, uh, funny-shaped," nodding at Kinto, who glared back, "But if I, uh, wrap it around you both you might pass for, uh, a Ç:otani"

"A who?" asked Luen, but Kinto just nodded. "Guess yer right."

"Course. Now could you put the, uh, keys back?" he asked Viola. "Just drop them by the, uh, door. The, uh, guard will think he left them behind."

She eyed him skeptically. "Why don't you --"

"Questions later. Hurry."

* * *

"Well?" she asked. The four of them were crowded into Pico's sitting room, their luggage piled in a corner.

"Uh, what was the question again?"

Viola repeated it. Slowly.

"I, uh, well...I was wrong."

"Huh?" asked Kinto.

"You must admit you were the, uh, obvious suspects. But I found some, uh, some evidence which proves your innocence."

"Great!" exclaimed Luen. "So why the jailbreak, huh? Not that I'm not grateful, mind you, but why not just tell the authorities to let us go so we don't have to sneak around like a band of criminals?"

"I can't...." "Yes you can. Just walk up to the guard station and say, 'Hey, I found some new evidence that -'" "No," interrupted Pico, "I, uh, it's evidence I can't give them. You know there was only one, uh, set of bootprints inside the room, right?"

"They werenae forthcoming about the details," said Viola dryly.

"Footprints? Well that proves my innocence, anyway," Luen smirked.

"An' I can't wear boots," added Kinto, lifting up a large foot for inspection.

They both looked at Viola. "Well, Pico. What's yer evidence?" she asked impatiently.

"Uh, right. Well, let me start from the, uh, beginning."

When the morning librarian checked the room, Pico explained, she discovered that not only was the Shard missing but all of the protective wards had disappeared as well. The thief had not slipped past the spells, he or she had nullified them. This clearly pointed to someone with magical training since the average person could not recognize one ward from another, let alone deactivate them. The only other evidence as to the identity of the criminal was a single set of bootprints in the dust, leading from the door to the Shard and back. The prints could have been made by any Manaqi - or Levendish, for that matter - with medium-sized feet.

"So you'll understand why you were the, uh, prime suspects. The lady would have walked in -"

"I would have teleported," responded Viola. "None o' this footprint business for me."

"- with the other two of you as, uh, backup for nullifying the spells."

"But obviously something has changed your mind since then," prodded Luen. "What was it?"

"I'm, uh, not certain I should be telling you this. It's not, uh, common knowledge."

"Ye might as well. We certainly have nae intention o' breakin' into the Library now."

"True. Well, in addition to the, uh, protective wards, there were also several, uh, devices. I suppose you would call them 'identifying wards'. They react depending on the, uh, color of any ambient magi -- uh, magic components?"

"Maginaria," corrected Luen. "Little magic beasties that keep spells running. Go on."

"Maginaria, then. Normally they're a, uh, faint white because of the spells which seal the doors. This morning, though, they were, uh, well, they were black."

"Black dissolves stuff," said Kinto. "Y'remember that hair removal spell, Viola?"

"All too well, Kinto. That's what got us into this mess, if ye recall."

"Not to switch sides or anything but plenty of mages can cast black counterspells."

"Yes, but they were, uh, all black. And only black. Well, except for, uh, traces of the old sealing spells. And, well, I recalled when we originally tried to install them at the, uh, front entrance. But our Ç:otani patrons kept turning them yellow."

"Ye keep usin' that term. What is it?"

"Means the people who live on Shattered Hill," interrupted Kinto. "Th'area there is soaked through with yellow magic."

"Yes, from the, uh, Great War. How did you know that?"

"Been here b'fore." Kinto's expression suggested he wasn't going to elaborate.

"Yes, well, anyway. They're not, uh, Instilled, but I've been told it's something similar. So I did some, uh, research. Librarians are good at research," he added with a faint smile. Nobody laughed at the joke and he continued. "The, uh, detectors should have reacted to you, Miss. But they didn't."

"Because I wasnae there, o' course. So why did ye not tell the authorities?"

"They would have started asking questions. They would have asked about, uh, anyone suspicious."

"And...?" she prompted.

"And...the, uh, Library closes its doors to visitors at sundown. But some, uh, trusted patrons are allowed in after-hours. There are always a few, uh, researchers along with the night librarians."

"And....?" asked Luen.

"And...I, uh, ran into -- you remember the young lady who accompanied us on our, uh, tour?"

"Owly or somethin' like that, right?" asked Kinto.

"Auli, yes. She was in the, uh, library last night. At the time, I assumed she'd been given a, uh, pass, but the guard won't be as lenient. They'll start asking, uh, questions about her and her, uh, family. Auli is very poor, she has been studying to gain a good, uh, position to support her family. I, uh, think she would make an excellent librarian, personally. Her family has also lived on Shattered Hill for, uh, several generations. Suspicion would naturally fall on her."

"Just as it did on us for bein' outsiders, huh?" said Kinto.

"Uh, yes. Which is why I can't, uh, let them know she was there."

"If yer goin' t'hide information anyway, why don't ye just not tell them ye saw her?"

"Because I'm sure someone else did. She must have gone by the, uh, front desk. Her name will be in the books.

"This way," he concluded, "it works out for everyone. Leave now and there will be no, uh, trial at all and you will not be punished. Additionally, the city guard won't go looking for other, uh, suspects if they think you're responsible, so Auli's, uh, reputation will be safe."

Viola eyed him warily. "Ye spring us out o' jail on account o' yer moral dilemma, yet ye have no interest in seein' yer precious shard returned or findin' the true criminal? Sounds suspicious to me."

"Auli and I should be able to figure things out together. She has as much, uh, reason to clear this up as I do. Once we know who did it and where, then we can tell the guard, thus preventing any, uh, taint of suspicion from hurting her family."

"Sounds to me like this Auli did it," responded Luen. "It's always the quiet ones."

"No! You don't know her like I do; she would never do such a thing!"

"Anyway," he continued, ignoring Pico's outburst, "there's no way that those guards are going to just give up the chase once we're outside the city walls. We have to get to the bottom of this first. So get your gear and let's get cracking." He swept a suitcase onto the table and clicked the latches open.

"What is that?" asked Pico, leaning over to see inside, "An oversized, uh, drinking goblet?"

"No," responded Luen, slightly miffed. The pride of being able to show his gear off won out over his annoyance, however, and he held up the odd device for inspection. It did indeed look like an oversized drinking goblet with a thick stem and a hand-sized ring on the bottom where the base would normally be. Luen held it by the ring, pointing it sideways for inspection - at that angle the "bowl" of the goblet appeared to be a backwards shield. "This, Pico, is a two-iliahu calibre, double-action, trapper's capture chalice." Noticing blank looks all 'round, he translated. "A gun. When you slot chroma crystals into these compartments here, it fires the energy to weaken or disable an opponent. And when fitted with one of these - " he reached into the smaller of the two bags which were tucked into a corner of the suitcase and pulled out a clear crystal about the size of a plum " - I can capture maginaria."

He strapped the two bags onto a shoulder-harness and fitted the gun onto his arm, then looked around the room. "Well, what're you waiting for?"

Kinto pulled his staff from the pile of luggage and flourished it, narrowly missing Pico's china cabinet. "I'm ready."

"And I am always ready," responded Viola, gracefully unfolding herself from her chair. "Shall we go?"

"And precisely, uh, where are you going?" asked Pico.

There was a sudden silence filled with blank expressions.

* * *

"They wouldn't have gone to the trouble of stealing the Shard unless they already had a buyer," argued Luen as they made their way through what Pico had considered to be the most run-down and dangerous region of Almanaque. Needless to say, the librarian had chosen not to accompany them.

"You got any better ideas?" retorted Kinto. "Everythin' ends up on th' black market sooner or later. Where d'you think they found th' buyer in the first place?"

Viola was silent, looking about at the town-within-a-city which the locals called Shattered Hill. The name was a reference to its origins which, as far as she could figure out from Kinto's rather sketchy knowledge of local history, traced back to a local skirmish during the Great War where General Dias - the so-called Golden Dragon of the Kashendan army - allied himself with the Tximisti against the Levendish colony of Almanaque. "Tricked us into workin' for him" was Kinto's rather biased depiction of the events. It was near the end of the battle, with the colonists refusing to surrender even though they knew they had little chance of winning, that Dias ordered the final coup de grace: to have his mages lift a nearby hill off its foundations and upend it on the Levendish city. Unfortunately, his plan backfired as the Tximisti "got hit in th'head with th'fact that he didn't care any more about preservin' th'land than the Manaqi did" and promptly switched sides to the lesser of the two evils.

It was all myth and rumor as far as Viola was concerned. She didn't believe for a moment that the brilliant - though admittedly misunderstood and vilified - General could have made such a stupid and costly mistake. Looking around, though, she had to admit that the events themselves might have been close to the truth. The landscape - what she could see if it between the buildings - was rocky and uneven and they'd passed through one street so steep that steps had been cut into it. And evidence of some sort of magical fallout was obvious: the residents here were the usual tawny orange, or sometimes a bright yellow, but many of the adults had three or four legs - the outward sign of yellow-chroma Instilling - and some of the children who clambered up and down the streets had as many as eight, on bodies that put one in mind of fuzzy amber caterpillars with tails. Looking at the run-down neighborhood, she wondered if this had anything to do with Pico's ill-concealed dislike of mages or with his refusal to join the trio in their search.

"Guess this is why they don't like mages," Luen echoed her thoughts. "All their Instilled are from the slums."

"Don't call 'em that," said Kinto, "'specially not where they can hear ya."

"What, slums?"

"No, Instilled. They don't like it." Kinto waved his free hand, trying to explain. "'T makes it sound like they did it voluntarily."

The threesome passed a statue in a plaza, depicting Xapatil and Rosalio, two heroes from that same historic time that was responsible for Shattered Hill's state. They were the continent's first ambassadors - one Tximisti, one Levendish colonist - and, if you believed the play that had been written about them, deeply in love with one another. Over time, however, the statue had been badly defaced - Xapatil's tail was half-broken off, and her marble hide bore six generations of graffiti. Rosalio fared little better, with obscene pictures plastered across his chest and back, and an outreached arm that once held a carved replica of the treaty was now no more than a jagged stump.

Kinto gestured the others over. "Let's ask that guy."

* * *

"I'm willing give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that grabbing him by the collar was a Manaqi gesture of friendship, but don't you think singing his beard was a bit unnecessary?" asked Luen as they followed the directions provided by one of the local merchants.

"'Ey, I got the info, right? Why didn'ya do it yerself if you don't like my method?"

"We thought you would be the best choice as the only local expert in the group."

"Quit complainin'. Let's go."

After several dead ends, they had found one person who - with Kinto's gentle persuasion - remembered seeing a shady individual who had dropped a few hints about a Shard the night before. When his memory recovered further, he was able to tell them that the individual was female and that she had been seen in the vicinity of the Marble Block Inn earlier that night.

"Hush," hissed Luen, stepping back and throwing out an arm as they were about to turn a corner. "That's her!" he whispered.

Kinto stopped short and let out an oof as Viola bumped into him. "How can ye tell?" she whispered back.

"She's dressed like the man said." He leaned around the corner to examine the cloaked figure. "And she's acting awfully suspicious. Who else would be sneaking about like that in the middle of the night?"

"Considerin' we're in the shadiest part of th' bad side of town..." remarked Kinto, but didn't get much of a chance to finish his lecture as Luen slithered after the person in question, who promptly vanished around another corner, cape swirling.

"On the other hand," said Viola over Kinto's shoulder, "There cannae be many women in this city who wear pants o' that shade o' green and gold. And she must be the only two-legged person on this hill under the age o' fifty."

Kinto looked at his companion, then back at the empty street corner. They both broke into a run.

* * *

Kinto raced after the caped figure, struggling not to lose her in the maze of alleyways. The other two were behind him but there was no way they'd catch up. Once again, he was running through winding streets and up stairs. At least this time he was the pursuer and there was no giant flying ... dragon ... wait a minute ...

"Hoi, Viola!" he hollered back into the darkness. "The roof!"

"Aye, Kinto!" came an answer from above. "Yer a slow thinker!" she added as he passed beneath her.

* * *

Luen slithered along as fast as he could. Kinto had raced past him a few moments earlier and since then he'd lost sight of both the Tximisti and the thief. Even Viola must be somewhere ahead, he thought. I just hope I catch up to them before that girl beats the stuffing out of 'em. Anyone who can get past that library's security is packing something heavy.

A gust of wind from above nearly knocked him off his tail. He spun around, chalice at the ready, only to see a four-armed shadow waving at him from a rooftop at the end of the street. She pointed frantically.

"Now where'd she learn that?" mumbled Luen. He tossed off a salute with his free hand and headed in the direction Viola had indicated.

* * *

Since Kinto was keeping up - though just barely - Viola concentrated on leading Luen around to intercept their quarry. After she'd knocked him over a couple of times, she settled on sending him little signposts, arrows of smoke directing his moves. Flitting from one rooftop to another, she could see the whole neighborhood laid out like a map upon which she directed her two-man army, orchestrating their moves so they acted in perfect synchrony. If only I had been born a couple centuries ago, she thought, I could have commanded armies in the Great War. My talents are wasted in this day and age.

* * *

Left. Right. Up the street. Down the alley. Across the square. Familiar buildings blurred past her, their gaudy graffiti dim in the darkness. But no matter which way she turned, the Tximisti was still on her tail. And he wasn't the only one. Turning a corner, she had caught a glimpse of a four-armed shadow on a rooftop, gesturing as though casting a spell. No sign of the eel-man yet, but she was still outnumbered two to one. And it was going so perfectly, too. How the heck did they escape?

Until she couldn't run anymore. A shadow stepped out in front of her, pointing an oversized cup in her direction. Another appeared on the balcony above her, stepping out of thin air. She turned to go back, only to see her pursuer blocking her retreat, twirling a quarterstaff. He stood it upright and the tip blazed with light, illuminating the whole scene.

"You!" cried three voices at once.

* * *

"Yes, me," responded Auli. "Who were you expecting, the Crown Princess?"

"I knew it!" exclaimed Luen, "I told you it was always the quiet ones!"

Viola swung herself off the balcony and stepped toward the girl. "Yer caught now, dear," she said gently. "Give the Shard back an' we'll see that they go easy on ye."

Auli wilted. "You don't understand," she said quietly, so the others had to strain to hear. "My family...you've seen what happens to the people who live here but you still don't understand," she turned to Viola, gesturing at the other woman - her lavender coloring, her extra arms - "You're important and respected and - and special. But here..." She turned to Kinto. "Here, if you're rich, they'll have to respect you. But if you're poor and different, then you're the lowest of the low!"

Kinto nodded. "Ain't that th'truth."

Luen frowned, obviously trying to predict Auli's next move. Viola took a step back, blocking any escape via the balcony, and folded her arms. "Dunna try it, girl. Yer surrounded."

Auli straightened, realizing the sob-story routine wasn't going to work this time. She leapt back away from Viola, cape swirling. Kinto readied his staff, expecting her to turn around and attack, but she ignored him. "That's what you think!" she exclaimed, reaching for the belt of tarnished silver links which hung over her green tunic. The large onyx in the buckle glowed briefly, then Auli was surrounded by swirling black tendrils of something which might have been smoke but probably wasn't.

"Ye won't escape us that easily!" cried Viola racing toward the other woman.

"Viola, that's not --" called Luen.

"Nhaal, attack!" shouted Auli, barreling past Luen as the smoke coalesced and raced for the nearest person. Viola had a brief glimpse of a large quadruped bearing down on her, then a sudden blinding burst of light. "Thanks, Kinto."

"Any time," grunted Kinto, holding up his staff to block the beast, who was apparently unharmed by the lightning bolt. It looked like a completely black wolf with a single gaping tunnel where its eyes would be. A dark, gleaming ring ran through that hole and around the top of its head.

Luen fired a burst of green chroma at the beast, who changed direction at the new distraction. "Auli's gone!" he shouted. "You two, after her! This one's mine!"

"By yerself?!"

"I can handle it," he responded, bending at a crazy angle as the creature sailed over his head. He grabbed a triple round and reloaded without looking. "Just get that Shard back!"

Luen spun around, aiming his gun at the black beast as it turned for another attack, sniffing in his direction. "Nhaal, huh?" He narrowed his eyes. "Well, I've got what you're lookin' for, Nhaal. Come and get it."

* * *

Auli ran as if her life depended on it; which, in a sense, it did. Kinto loped after her, looking like he could run forever. Viola followed, occasionally using her natural teleportation abilities to warp her a few feet ahead of Kinto when it looked like she was lagging too far behind. Running, as she had realized before, was not her strong suit; but the quarry was tiring as well so she shouldn't have to run much longer.

* * *

A black maginaria, thought Luen, That would explain the missing protection wards. It must've just eaten the spells... But where did she find a beauty like this? He fired off a burst of white chroma. The beast leapt at him, not realizing until it was too late that this hunter used no ordinary bullets. The chroma hit its shoulder and crystallized into a solid patch.

"That's right," muttered Luen, dodging out of the way. "White magic: protection, preservation ... and stasis. Want some more?" With the maginaria moving around so quickly, he didn't even try for precise aim. Getting enough chroma on the creature to slow it down, that was his strategy. He fired twice more, hitting it on the flank. It staggered and Luen took the opportunity to reload. But instead of backing away as he'd expected, the creature charged him from the side, grabbing his tail in its jaws before he had a chance to react.

* * *

Can't keep this up much longer, fretted Auli. If I don't lose them soon, I'm done for. But safety lay ahead in the form of a rickety staircase running along the outside of a multi-story building. She scrambled up it with Kinto only seconds behind. That wall - if I can just jump across...there! Sparing only a glance back at Kinto - who had slowed down to navigate the steps and was now watching her incredulously as though he couldn't believe he'd have to imitate that stunt - Auli pulled herself up by her fingertips and somersaulted over the garden wall into safety.

Or so she thought.

Actually, she fell straight into Viola's arms.

* * *

Luen thrashed his tail, but creatures of pure magic are a lot heavier than one might expect from just seeing them float around and Nhaal had the mass of a large wolf. Luen's vision started to blur as the maginaria drained the energy from him. I can't die with a headache, dammit! he thought, collapsing onto the ground. Have to get this thing off -- ahah! Lifting a heavy arm he reached into his ammo-pouch and grabbed a handful of crystals. "Here. Lunch." He tossed them as far as he could which, admittedly, wasn't far at all, but they did the trick. The maginaria immediately lifted its head at the smell of more appetizing food and pounced on the crystals. Luen had just enough time to finish reloading before it finished the appetizer and came back for more -

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

- only to meet a full magazine of white chroma head on.

"Playtime's over," remarked Luen, slotting one of the larger clear crystals into his gun. He aimed the dish at the frozen maginaria and flipped the switch in the opposite direction. With a faint sucking sound, the magical beast was drawn inexorably into the dish of the chalice. It growled in protest, but the draw was too strong for the weakened Nhaal, and its shape contorted and stretched as it was finally absorbed and captured. Luen held the crystal up to the faint moonlight, admiring its obsidian-black facets and trying to puzzle out the glyph which had appeared on the surface. There wasn't quite enough light to make it out, however, and he wearily headed off in the direction the others had gone. Not like I'll be able to find them this late in the game, he thought.

Finding them turned out to be much easier than he'd anticipated. He just had to follow the stomp of the city guard's boots.

* * *

"So, ye see," explained Viola to the uniformed guard, "twasnae us at all. An' now ye have the real culprit."

Auli squirmed in Kinto's grasp, but even she realized the folly of attempting another escape with two dozen guards surrounding the trio.

"Hoy, Luen! What took ya so long?"

"The dog wanted to play," Luen's face was still strained and tired from the fight but he'd regained his annoying grin.

"And should ye search her, I'm certain ye'll find some evidence of her crime." But Kinto was already doing just that.

"Hey, don't grab me there!"

"Sorry, didn't mean t--ow! Don't kick me! I said 'm sorry!" He pulled a wadded cloth out of her tunic pocket. The wrappings fell away to reveal the craggy surface of the Shard, seeming to glow the same shade as the predawn sky.

The officer Viola had buttonholed to tell her story to looked from the artifact to Auli and then to the ex-criminals. "Guess that proves somethin', though I'm not certain I oughtn't arrest you for escaping from prison anyway -- along with whoever helped you." Two of the younger-looking guards tried to look inconspicuous.

"That won't be, uh, necessary, will it?" asked a familiar voice, pushing its way through the throng of guards. "I heard you caught the real thief, is that true? The, uh, Royal Library has no need to punish these, uh, um, innocents. In fact, I, uh, took the liberty of letting them out last night so that justice could be -- be --" Pico had pushed his way past the last of the guards and bystanders by now and was staring openmouthed at Auli.

She gave him a weak smile. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Y-you? Th-there must be a mistake! Who put you up to this?!"

Auli slipped out of Kinto's grasp and crossed the empty circle. "I'm really sorry, Pico. I mean, I'm sorry I got caught, obviously, since there are plenty better places to spend an early retirement than prison." She paused to let him recover. He blinked at her. "But I'm also sorry you had to find out this way. You're a wonderful person, Pico; you're patient and I know you tried to be unprejudiced for me. And - and if you broke those three mages out of prison then you're a lot more moral than most. So -- well...."

"Auli, it must be a mistake! We'll work together to, uh, well, to get to the bottom of everything. Just tell me who made you, uh, do - do - this!" He waved his hand vaguely at the scene.

"You don't get it, do you? I knew something that valuable would attract a buyer and -- you don't really know me at all, Pico. You're a wonderful person but you're nothing but a librarian. And I'm nothing but trouble." She turned to the officer in charge. "Can we get on with it please?"

At his nod and gesture, two guards stepped to either side of her.

"Do you want me to give a, uh, message to your sister?" called Pico as she was led away. "I'll visit you!"

"My sister already knows," said Auli over her shoulder, "and visiting is a bad idea. Keep away from me, Pico, for your own good."

Pico watched her go, realizing that he'd never see the quiet, studious, beautiful woman again...because she hadn't really existed. Around him, guards were heading back to their posts or to breakfast and someone was giving the mages an official pardon.

* * *

"I don' remember orderin' breakfast," grumbled Kinto as he staggered out of bed, woken by a thumping at his door. Luen's blanket was rumpled but he was nowhere to be seen.

"Wake up, ye sleepyhead. We've a visitor, an' one who's not here t'arrest us." Kinto wandered out to the main room to see just what was going on - Luen and Viola were there already, accompanying the visitor, who turned out to be Pico.

"I'm, uh, very sorry for this whole thing. And, uh, well -- here." He handed them a package.

The three pounced on the parcel but Viola got there first. "Many thanks, we -- oh." For within the wrapping was not the Shard, as she had expected, but a map.

"This is the, uh, translated copy you requested," explained Pico. "It's, uh, poor repayment for rescuing our Shard but we are a library and not a, uh, treasury. I suspect the, uh, senior librarians are just eager to put this all behind them." He sighed and added softly, "I certainly am."

"Thank you," said Luen, "We're as eager to get out of here as you are to get rid of us."

"Oh, there's, uh, one more thing." He pulled out another, smaller, parcel. "This was given to me to deliver. It's for, uh, you." He handed it over to Kinto.

"I don't know anyone here who'd wanna give me a present." Kinto pressed his head to the package. "Not makin' any funny noises, at least. Guess it's safe." He opened it and stared at the contents, the smile falling off his face.

"A tooth?" asked Viola. "What an odd gift."

"Not a gift," mumbled Kinto. "A message."

"So what does it mean?" asked Luen.

"Means -- means you lemme see that map," Kinto grabbed it out of Viola's hands and tossed it on the table, then turned it right side up. "Means we go there next," he said, stabbing one of the shard-sites with a finger.

"That's in the plains of Tximist. Probably weeks away from civilization."

"Nope, there's civilization right there. And that's where we're goin'."