"Damn it we have to do something!"

"H'nry what can we do?  We don't know where she is and with the distance a
dragon can teleport, there's far too much area for us to search effectively,"
Ophelia said.  She'd gotten a ride to the scene of the encounter with the
Shadow with R'chien on Lofflossit and was now discussing the situation with
H'nry.

"I don't know what to do either.  All I know is that it was my responsibility
to bring her back safely, and I failed."

"You said the Shadow promised to return her safely?" H'nry nodded in response
to Ophelia's question, "Then we can only hope that he keeps his word.

"He's gone," M'rtin said walking up to the pair.

"Who's gone?" Ophelia asked.

"Evart, the heardsman," H'nry responded, "I sent M'rtin off to look for him.
 I had a few questions I wanted to ask him."

"In private," M'rtin added helpfully.

"Now wait a minute," Ophelia said, "I can understand how you are feeling, but
you don't know that Evart is anything but an innocent victim in this dredful
incident.  If you find him, you will not harm him in any way.  Is that clear?"

"Yes, it is," H'nry said defensively, "I just want to hear his side of the
story again."

"Good.  I'm glad you understand," Ophelia said before walking off.  Despite
her insistance to H'nry that searching for Lyonnia would be pointless, she
wanted to speak to Sandor about spreading his riders out a bit.  That way when
Lyonnia contacted them, they could respond quickly.

H'nry watched Ophelia walk away, and then turned to look at M'rtin.  He was
surprised by his friend's grin.  "What are you smiling about?"

"Ophelia made you promise not to rough Evart up, but she didn't make me
promise, did she?"

"No I suppose she didn't, but we don't know where he is."

"Don't worry, Sabrina and I will find him," M'rting said walking off.

H'nry was alone for a few minutes before R'chien came over to look at his arm.

"It's nothing," H'nry assured the healer.

"I'll be the judge of that," R'chien said seriously.

The healer poked and prodded a bit before putting a salve and bandage around
H'nry's arm over the expanding purple mark.  "I think you got lucky enough to
just have a nasty bruise, but I want you to rest your arm as much as you can,
and come see me tomorrow."

H'nry nodded and was again alone with himself.  Then Dalanth was there in his
head.

<It wasn't your fault.  The Shadow had a plan in place and you just walked
into it.  It could have happened to anyone.>

*Damn it, I know I ran into a trap that I had no way of forseeing, that
doesn't make it any easier.  How's Dianthus?*

<She's a bit calmer.  Kay and Sabbith are here now helping with her.>

*Good, I'll join you.*

H'nry did join them, and was there Lyonnia contacted Dianthus.  Di anthus was
ready to launch herself into the air at that instant.

"Kay," H'nry said facing the other, "You have to keep her here.  She might not
make it if she were to try to teleport to Lyonnia."

NRPG:

Kris: Please embellish on Kay keeping Dianthus cool.

Sarah: Feel free to write the reunion between H'nry and Lyonnia.  He's got a
fatherly embrace (perhaps not so fatherly, depending on the mood you're in)
for her.   I was thinking of writing it, but a) I don't want to skip over too
much time, and b) I'm out of steam.

Lyn: Hope I handled Ophelia Ok.  I paired M'rtin and Sabrina since they were
H'nry and Danielle's partners (I thought about pairing M'rtin with a newbie,
but none of the NPC newbie's were in Beta wing), hope this is Ok.

Evart will be found, and perhaps we'll get his side of the story.

Anyway, next time you have something big planned and I could screw it up, at
least tell me what I shouldn't do.  My wife does that and has found that it
works very well.

                            Respectfully submitted,
                                H'nry - Dalanth
                                 Telnor Warren
                                  Alton Reich



-- 
                                Alton J. Reich
                                areich@gdeb.com

		   "I may walk slowly, but I never walk back"
			       --Abraham Lincoln