[Aylwen Dreamsong]

The large, wooden, double-doors that loomed at the end of the hallway were easy to open for Angalos. Anuion carried Arethin in his strong arms, while Jack helped Jadae walk towards the door. Angalos did not walk into the chamber that the doors opened to, and waited for his companions to get to the door too. When everyone was present, the group carefully inched into the chamber, watching for some sort of trap.

The chamber was rounded off, like a sphere of sorts. Towards the ‘floor’ of the chamber, protruding cylinders lined the wall in a row. Angalos went to investigate those, and when he put a finger to the end, he withdrew it quickly and mumbled something about ‘sharp’. In the middle of the room was a pedestal, and the table of the pedestal was circular. The edge of the table was lined with candles. In the middle of the pedestal was an old weathered book. The spine of the book was soft leather, and on the cover was written something in Elvish script that shone gold against the brown of the cover. Everybody’s eyes widened, except for Arethin’s, for they had found the Wanaparma.

Anuion gently put Arethin onto the floor of the room, and lightly stepped over to the pedestal.

"Don't try to walk," Jack warned Jadae before leaving the girl propped against the wall. He and Angalos went to join Anuion, and they examined the book for a time, though none of them touched it. Jack ran two fingers along the gold writing, and turned to Anuion.

"Can you read it?" Jack asked, and Anuion nodded simply. The Elf did not explain what it said, and no one asked him.

"Open it..." Jadae suggested, a look of anticipation growing on her face. Jack nodded, and lifted the cover of the Wanaparma gently and only half-way. Jack's gentleness was not returned, however. Without warning and to everyone's suprise, the book blew itself open to a page nearer to the middle of the book. A bright, white light shot from the Wanaparma, blowing a force that sent Angalos, Jack, and Anuion flying backward in the same fashion the book had.

Anuion was slammed into a space just between two of the wall-spears, and had to land akwardly on his side to avoid landing on and crushing Arethin.

Jack scarcely missed squashing Jadae into one of the teeth-like spears; the event was luckily avoided as an alarmed Jadae scrambled and ducked to the right. Jack had escaped one catastrophe only to face another as Angalos came flying at him from his spot near the pedestal and into Jack.

The open Wanaparma still produced a ray of shining, disonant aura in the middle of the chamber. As the group began to recover, the light began to swirl upwards into a billowing cloud of mist and light. The light grew greater and greater, and Jadae felt she might be blinded as the mist began to take on a shape.

This shape eventually took form, outlining the body of a person...a human. Jadae was awed at the intricacy and detail of the shape. It swirled and created arms and a head, with creases in the face to shape a nose and even eyes. Jadae could see strands of hair begin to show on the head, and take on a style that looked messily put together.

As if with a mind of it's own, the shape surged over to Arethin, and a mist-hand was lifted, touching the man's face. Like he had been called, Arethin opened his eyes groggily, the brown orbs hazy and glazed over. Just as he had opened his eyes, they were closed again, and the cloud withdrew it's hand lightning-fast. The only remnant of the contact was a few droplets of water from the mist. The mist-being lingered though, and no wake person in the room breathed. They were scared. Some were afraid of scaring the beautiful thing away, others feared for Arethin and what the unknown thing would do to him.

The shape returned to the center of the chamber, and swirled into a few new beings in very little time. A tall, slender being followed Arethin's spirit. This one drew an imaginary bow pointed towards Anuion. Just as it was about to act out the letting loose of an arrow, it transformed into another tall and skinny being, this time with long mist-hair flowing. It held up a circular object in it's hand, and looked to Jack before dissipating into thin air. After the mist had gone, the book slammed itself shut. All was silent for a few moments.

"Is everyone alright?" Angalos asked, breaking the stunning silence that had overcome the group. Jadae shook her head in disbelief, and closed her eyes for the first time since the mist had vaporized in front of them.

"Did you all see it?" Jadae wondered, still shocked, amazed, and horrified at the same time. Tears slid silently down her eyes as the sting from the light wore off. Everyone readjusted to the light change, and nodded in reply to Jadae's question.

And here I thought I had been seeing things...Jadae thought, as she watched Angalos stand and let Jack free.

Jadae beckoned Jack over to her, and smiling slung her arm over his shoulder. He held in his hand a bracelet, but he said naught about it. The guardsman helped Jadae over to the book. Jadae reached for the book once, touched it, and then quickly withdrew her hand. Hoping everything was safe, Jadae grasped the book in her hands and held it up.

"Now all we have to do is wake Arethin up and get out of here..." Jadae squeaked, overjoyed to have the book, the Wanaparma, in her hands.

[ May 02, 2003: Message edited by: Aylwen Dreamsong ]