p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="CENTER"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"strongThe Twilight Realm II: A Softer Dream/strong/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="CENTER" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="CENTER"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"by/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="CENTER"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Daniel Thomas Andrew Daly/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="CENTER"a href=" "span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" span/span/span/span/span/a/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="CENTER"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Copyright 6178 6182 SC/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="CENTER" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="CENTER" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="CENTER"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"strongChapter One/strong/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Lucy Kinnersley. Paging Lucy Kinnersley.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Lucy, sitting in the Heathrow airport waiting lounge, didn't hear the voice over the intercom. She was lost. Lost in her own little world./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Paul was returning on the next flight, which was always good enough reason for a celebration, but tonight they were reaching the climax of their mission. The Centriforge of Madrimar. Justin always did have a good imagination./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Lucy was a matured woman, around 50 years of age, lived life to the fullest in many ways, faithful wife to Paul Kinnersley, owner of a slowly growing international chain of fantasy adventure toy stores. Paul was always away on business, to this or that store throughout Europe, especially in France were the chain was doing well. But also America and, the recent visit, Canberra in Australia. Yet, in all this adventuring, he never once missed 'Games Night'. Down in a dingy basement, with a dingy lightglobe which seemed to have lasted forever, Lucy had been roped in on a group of 4 hardened adventurers and one nasty Domain Master in her old friend Justin. And then Alexander had joined, the smart mouthed Bradlock, who was as enigmatic as he was internationally famous. Or, at least, his father anyway./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Guess who?'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Lucy, having found two hands suddenly placed over her eyes, said 'Who?'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Paul Kinnersly came around and sat down next to his wife, and smiled./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Good business again?' asked Lucy, in her skirt and shirt, looking very professional and business-like./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Aw, you know. Same as always. Met that namesake of yours Alexander is always going on about.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'The Potter girl,' queried Lucy./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Yep. Lucy Potter. She has a cousin here in England. Harry. Apparently a world-class wizard of great repute.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'You hardly believe in magic, Paul Kinnersley,' she said, still looking over the airport magazine she had purchased from the newsagency./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Yeh. Hardly,' he responded./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Lucy Kinnersley was from a world which denied the magical as nothing more than the fantastic imaginations of kooky dark age feminists on a thrill seeking ride with the devil. Nothing terribly more fascinating than that. Yet, for her husband Paul Kinnersley, a far more different dream had once occurred. Oh, he'd hinted at his adventure once or twice to his wife, and spoken dreams of this world to their two children, Benjamin and Alice, but he never wanted the Twilight Realm, as the group of friends who'd had their adventure now called it, to ever become more real than what it had been./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"He'd had years now, thinking it over. The Twilight Realm. Another place, another fantasy, another world. But he knew, now, what it had been all along. Delusion. The Dark Magic, which Alexander spoke to him about, taking him and his friends aside, and placing a hold on their minds as the demons of Twilight ran among in their thoughts, leading them through a fantastic quest. That was magic, after all. The dark side of magic. Serving the power of darkness, and giving you a fantasy of your self which was never really real in the first place. What you wanted to be. What you hoped to be. But then, preyed upon, by an unsuspecting Ivor Kinnersley, who had opened the door to the dark side after the death of his wife./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"The Twilight Realm had not been real - it had been a delusion of Satan – and Paul now accepted that, and, further, that magic was really the stuff of darkness old clerics whispered prayers against since the foundational centuries of his nation./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"The group had discussed this for a long time now – magic and religion – and even, in the end, Justin acknowledged the point. They had not been in a real world – it had been darkness. It had been delusion. And they had each committed to church because of it, each going to an Anglican assembly each Sunday, were they met up afterwards, had lunch, and lived in the grace of Almighty God./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"But still they adventured, more sensibly now, more aware now, and far less likely to allow the power of the dark magic to enter their world again./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"So they thought./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Do you think Alexander will really save you again tonight?' asked Lucy, as their BMW took off from Heathrow, headed for home./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Somehow he does that,' said Paul in response to his wife's question. 'It is like he has this uncanny sense of what is happening in our games, and knows exactly the right things to do at the right time. Like he knows the Twilight Realm better than us in many ways.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Or he's just lucky,' said Lucy, taking a left./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Yeh, sure. That must be it,' responded Paul./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Well, the kids are ok. Alice dropped around last night. She's still seeing that singer. The one you don't like.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'I would always have assumed it would have been Benjamin to go into heavy metal. Looks like he was born a goth, practically. But, no. Prefers Mozart to Motorhead. But Alice? Turns 9 and all she wants is not the Spice Girls, no way – nothing but hard rock. And now she never stops listening to that Amy Lee band.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Evanescence,' said Lucy, eyes focused on the road./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'That's the one,' said Paul./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Her style of music. The goth metal,' said Lucy. 'No, forgive me. Emo metal.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'She is sensitive about it,' said Paul, smirking, over the fussiness their daughter maintained in what she called quality music./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Anyway, she certainly doesn't get it from me,' said Paul./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"They drove in silence for a while, passing through the streets of London./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Paul?' The question seemed to come out of the blue. And it seemed, laced with something./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Yeh,' he said, staring out the window. It had started raining, and the sky was a typical miserable London grey./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Paul. Are we good? I mean, is everything right between us?'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Paul turned instantly to his wife. 'What do you mean? Everything is fine, isn't it?'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"She touched his hand for a second, saying, 'Sure.' Then, 'I mean, it is, isn't it. We have been doing this thing a while now. The family scene. Just going through the flow since the wedding, it seems. One adventure after another – literally. But it's like I haven't had chance to breathe. To take it all in. Do you know what I mean?'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'But everything is fine, isn't it?' asked Paul,' his gaze returned to his side window./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"She glanced over at him briefly. 'Yeh. Sure.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"They didn't speak again. They just drove home in silence, but Paul was thinking on Lucy's words./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Justin, you are an arrogant know-it-all.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Sure sis,' replied Justin to his sister Lucy Kinnersley./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'I don't think its wise, either, Jus. To go on and on about Alexander and his world. To claim you know the Bradlock Empire like the back of your hand.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'It's this USB,' replied Jason. 'He left it here a few weeks back. It has AMAZING shit on it.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Watch your language,' scolded Kate to Justin, and took the USB from him. She twiddled it in her fingers for a while and looked at her old boyfriend. 'What's on it then?'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'You two are dreadful,' said Theresa. 'Alexander would be so embarrassed.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'I think its a long process of him rubbing off his superlative arrogance on her,' said Willie. 'And I don't think Kate mind's one little bit either. You know, they are seeing each other again. After Kate's divorce, she has been off on interludes with Justin all over the West End.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Kate kicked Willie under the table. 'Mind your own business. What happens between Justin and myself is our own affair.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'And I am sure the reverend won't mind your shenanigans one little bit,' smirked Willie, which made Justin grin a little./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Oh, Willie. Shut up,' said Kate, frustrated, which bought gentle laughter from the group of old friends./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"They were seated around the adventure table in Ivor Kinnersley's apartment, the old man snoring upstairs, quite old now, but still hanging in there. Later, Paul and Lucy would go up with a late night supper, and sit and tell him of their night's adventure, which he adored hearing about. And he would ask questions about how Justin and Alexander had been developing Xhandarre, the Twilight Realm, which he seemed to always be curious about. Ever since their first encounter with that strange mystery world. Whenever Paul queried Ivor closely on the happenings of that night, he never really got the answers he wanted, just a glazed look coming over Ivor's eyes, and a strange, but soft, sense of humour playing on in the mind beneath. Like he was having a conversation with somebody or someone in his mind./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'So what does the Domain Master have in store for us tonight?' asked Lucy casually to her brother./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Just you wait and see. Besides, its a joint thing tonight. Alexander is always wanting to be Domain Master as well these days, and we've been planning the final part of Madrimar Quest XVIII for months now. I doubt you'll survive so easily this time.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"The Madrimar Quest series was one of the more popular titles Justin enjoyed using in his 'The Twilight Realm – Adventures in Xhandarre' series of adventures he had been crafting out for many years now. In a way, they were guinea pigs, Paul often thought to himself in consideration. Because while it was all original to them, the gaming experiences and the world they quested through, Paul had sought out partnership with Justin years ago, and all of them were now partners of sorts in 'Xadonemmetry Games – The Twilight Realm Series'. Yes, it was a series of Role Playing Game manuals with various adventures updated regularly, which came out from Xadonemmetry Games, the company they had all eventually formed together. Working from his Uncle's store initially, Paul had taken it over, renamed it 'Xadonemmetry Games', and it had become the primary vehicle for the selling of the main company line product. 'The Twilight Realm Gaming Universe'. Games Workshop liked them, liked them a lot, and designed figurines for their games now, in an exclusive contract they had with them. They regularly appeared in 'Dragon' magazine and their figures appeared all the time in 'White Dwarf' magazine, were their new manuals were reviewed. It was all, now, a growing and thriving business. Justin did the lions share of the design of the games, but in recent times Alexander had joined in a lot, who had fronted up a lot of the cash to get the project rolling. He had actually gone to university not too far from them growing up, and they had run into each other a few times in their youth. Of course, now, the main connection was the local Anglican Church were Alexander attended once a month. He was an ecumenist, after all, like his father, who seemed to have a grand vision for the reuniting of Christianity. A rather admirable vision, Paul some times felt. Paul was involved with a lot of things like package design, which Kate's artistic skills were often put to work on, and Willie, who in younger years had had trouble finding work, ran the postage and handling department for international orders of their products from the warehouse in a local business district. Theresa was mostly a silent partner, but had invested 20 thousand pounds initially into the project, and reaped well when regular dividends were paid. But she had her opinions also on how the company should be run, and was not afraid to offer them./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"And now things were actually starting to take off a bit. Xadonemmetry was a growing world of RPGing, and the next big project, finally, was Video Games. Something Alexander promised he would handle for them. They'd taken ages getting around to it, but the timing was never quite right, nor the finances. But everything was set to go now, and it looked likely they would turn some of their earlier adventures into their first video game./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Success. Life had turned out alright for Paul Kinnersley. Life had turned out alright./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Of course, if the ogre 'Balstiki' finds you,' said Alexander to Theresa. 'He'll extract your food and gold, and leave you naked on the floor of the mill. He'll burn your clothes in the fire, as ogres are pretty nasty. So do you risk it?'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Therese looked at the Domain Master, and shivered. That glee in Alexander's eyes always sent shivers down her spine. Like there was an otherworldly thing at work – some great and dramatic evil, really, which took on all challenges and mocked their feeble attempts at conquest./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'The scroll of Daranok had 3 spells which I haven't used yet,' said Therese. 'One of them is temptation. I choose to use the spell of temptation over my peanuts. I have a bag full.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Roll the dice,' said Alexander./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Therese rolled. The results were good./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'I place the peanuts all around the door of the mill,' said Theresa. 'On the outside of the door.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Alexander nodded, and looked at his notes./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"A little later.../span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'The ogre of course will finish those peanuts in a few minutes,' said Alexander./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'I'll go out through the upper window, and slide down the mill. You said it was slanted a bit,' replied Theresa./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'That should be fine,' said Alexander. 'I'll dock you three health points for naturally sustained bruisings.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"And the game went on and Therese joined the rest of the questers back at the location she had left them in the game./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"They sat there, later, drinking cofee and eating biscuits. The rain was terrible that night, and the wind was howling. And there was this odd howl, almost like a wolf or something, practically a ghoul according to Kate./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"And then he appeared. And he had a gleam, and Paul recognized the gleam in Ivor's eyes. He'd seen it before./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'It's darker than before. But softer also,' said Ivor. 'They are less angry and violent. But very moody. Sullen really. Like a vampire I think.' He looked in the distance, and smiled for no apparent reason./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"And he pointed at the mirror. And they noticed the gleam. And one by one, as if under compulsion, they knew in their hearts what was transpiring, and Lucy Kinnersley knew that, if this was not a spell she was under, she was about to encounter the weird, the wonderful and the sheer dreaded mystery of the Twilight Realm. And so one by one the stepped through, and it all went dark./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="CENTER" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="CENTER"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"by/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="CENTER"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Daniel Thomas Andrew Daly/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="CENTER"a href=" "span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" span/span/span/span/span/a/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="CENTER"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Copyright 6178 6182 SC/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="CENTER" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="CENTER" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="CENTER"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"strongChapter One/strong/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Lucy Kinnersley. Paging Lucy Kinnersley.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Lucy, sitting in the Heathrow airport waiting lounge, didn't hear the voice over the intercom. She was lost. Lost in her own little world./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Paul was returning on the next flight, which was always good enough reason for a celebration, but tonight they were reaching the climax of their mission. The Centriforge of Madrimar. Justin always did have a good imagination./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Lucy was a matured woman, around 50 years of age, lived life to the fullest in many ways, faithful wife to Paul Kinnersley, owner of a slowly growing international chain of fantasy adventure toy stores. Paul was always away on business, to this or that store throughout Europe, especially in France were the chain was doing well. But also America and, the recent visit, Canberra in Australia. Yet, in all this adventuring, he never once missed 'Games Night'. Down in a dingy basement, with a dingy lightglobe which seemed to have lasted forever, Lucy had been roped in on a group of 4 hardened adventurers and one nasty Domain Master in her old friend Justin. And then Alexander had joined, the smart mouthed Bradlock, who was as enigmatic as he was internationally famous. Or, at least, his father anyway./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Guess who?'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Lucy, having found two hands suddenly placed over her eyes, said 'Who?'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Paul Kinnersly came around and sat down next to his wife, and smiled./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Good business again?' asked Lucy, in her skirt and shirt, looking very professional and business-like./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Aw, you know. Same as always. Met that namesake of yours Alexander is always going on about.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'The Potter girl,' queried Lucy./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Yep. Lucy Potter. She has a cousin here in England. Harry. Apparently a world-class wizard of great repute.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'You hardly believe in magic, Paul Kinnersley,' she said, still looking over the airport magazine she had purchased from the newsagency./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Yeh. Hardly,' he responded./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Lucy Kinnersley was from a world which denied the magical as nothing more than the fantastic imaginations of kooky dark age feminists on a thrill seeking ride with the devil. Nothing terribly more fascinating than that. Yet, for her husband Paul Kinnersley, a far more different dream had once occurred. Oh, he'd hinted at his adventure once or twice to his wife, and spoken dreams of this world to their two children, Benjamin and Alice, but he never wanted the Twilight Realm, as the group of friends who'd had their adventure now called it, to ever become more real than what it had been./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"He'd had years now, thinking it over. The Twilight Realm. Another place, another fantasy, another world. But he knew, now, what it had been all along. Delusion. The Dark Magic, which Alexander spoke to him about, taking him and his friends aside, and placing a hold on their minds as the demons of Twilight ran among in their thoughts, leading them through a fantastic quest. That was magic, after all. The dark side of magic. Serving the power of darkness, and giving you a fantasy of your self which was never really real in the first place. What you wanted to be. What you hoped to be. But then, preyed upon, by an unsuspecting Ivor Kinnersley, who had opened the door to the dark side after the death of his wife./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"The Twilight Realm had not been real - it had been a delusion of Satan – and Paul now accepted that, and, further, that magic was really the stuff of darkness old clerics whispered prayers against since the foundational centuries of his nation./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"The group had discussed this for a long time now – magic and religion – and even, in the end, Justin acknowledged the point. They had not been in a real world – it had been darkness. It had been delusion. And they had each committed to church because of it, each going to an Anglican assembly each Sunday, were they met up afterwards, had lunch, and lived in the grace of Almighty God./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"But still they adventured, more sensibly now, more aware now, and far less likely to allow the power of the dark magic to enter their world again./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"So they thought./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Do you think Alexander will really save you again tonight?' asked Lucy, as their BMW took off from Heathrow, headed for home./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Somehow he does that,' said Paul in response to his wife's question. 'It is like he has this uncanny sense of what is happening in our games, and knows exactly the right things to do at the right time. Like he knows the Twilight Realm better than us in many ways.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Or he's just lucky,' said Lucy, taking a left./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Yeh, sure. That must be it,' responded Paul./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Well, the kids are ok. Alice dropped around last night. She's still seeing that singer. The one you don't like.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'I would always have assumed it would have been Benjamin to go into heavy metal. Looks like he was born a goth, practically. But, no. Prefers Mozart to Motorhead. But Alice? Turns 9 and all she wants is not the Spice Girls, no way – nothing but hard rock. And now she never stops listening to that Amy Lee band.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Evanescence,' said Lucy, eyes focused on the road./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'That's the one,' said Paul./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Her style of music. The goth metal,' said Lucy. 'No, forgive me. Emo metal.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'She is sensitive about it,' said Paul, smirking, over the fussiness their daughter maintained in what she called quality music./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Anyway, she certainly doesn't get it from me,' said Paul./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"They drove in silence for a while, passing through the streets of London./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Paul?' The question seemed to come out of the blue. And it seemed, laced with something./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Yeh,' he said, staring out the window. It had started raining, and the sky was a typical miserable London grey./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Paul. Are we good? I mean, is everything right between us?'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Paul turned instantly to his wife. 'What do you mean? Everything is fine, isn't it?'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"She touched his hand for a second, saying, 'Sure.' Then, 'I mean, it is, isn't it. We have been doing this thing a while now. The family scene. Just going through the flow since the wedding, it seems. One adventure after another – literally. But it's like I haven't had chance to breathe. To take it all in. Do you know what I mean?'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'But everything is fine, isn't it?' asked Paul,' his gaze returned to his side window./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"She glanced over at him briefly. 'Yeh. Sure.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"They didn't speak again. They just drove home in silence, but Paul was thinking on Lucy's words./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Justin, you are an arrogant know-it-all.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Sure sis,' replied Justin to his sister Lucy Kinnersley./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'I don't think its wise, either, Jus. To go on and on about Alexander and his world. To claim you know the Bradlock Empire like the back of your hand.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'It's this USB,' replied Jason. 'He left it here a few weeks back. It has AMAZING shit on it.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Watch your language,' scolded Kate to Justin, and took the USB from him. She twiddled it in her fingers for a while and looked at her old boyfriend. 'What's on it then?'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'You two are dreadful,' said Theresa. 'Alexander would be so embarrassed.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'I think its a long process of him rubbing off his superlative arrogance on her,' said Willie. 'And I don't think Kate mind's one little bit either. You know, they are seeing each other again. After Kate's divorce, she has been off on interludes with Justin all over the West End.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Kate kicked Willie under the table. 'Mind your own business. What happens between Justin and myself is our own affair.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'And I am sure the reverend won't mind your shenanigans one little bit,' smirked Willie, which made Justin grin a little./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Oh, Willie. Shut up,' said Kate, frustrated, which bought gentle laughter from the group of old friends./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"They were seated around the adventure table in Ivor Kinnersley's apartment, the old man snoring upstairs, quite old now, but still hanging in there. Later, Paul and Lucy would go up with a late night supper, and sit and tell him of their night's adventure, which he adored hearing about. And he would ask questions about how Justin and Alexander had been developing Xhandarre, the Twilight Realm, which he seemed to always be curious about. Ever since their first encounter with that strange mystery world. Whenever Paul queried Ivor closely on the happenings of that night, he never really got the answers he wanted, just a glazed look coming over Ivor's eyes, and a strange, but soft, sense of humour playing on in the mind beneath. Like he was having a conversation with somebody or someone in his mind./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'So what does the Domain Master have in store for us tonight?' asked Lucy casually to her brother./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Just you wait and see. Besides, its a joint thing tonight. Alexander is always wanting to be Domain Master as well these days, and we've been planning the final part of Madrimar Quest XVIII for months now. I doubt you'll survive so easily this time.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"The Madrimar Quest series was one of the more popular titles Justin enjoyed using in his 'The Twilight Realm – Adventures in Xhandarre' series of adventures he had been crafting out for many years now. In a way, they were guinea pigs, Paul often thought to himself in consideration. Because while it was all original to them, the gaming experiences and the world they quested through, Paul had sought out partnership with Justin years ago, and all of them were now partners of sorts in 'Xadonemmetry Games – The Twilight Realm Series'. Yes, it was a series of Role Playing Game manuals with various adventures updated regularly, which came out from Xadonemmetry Games, the company they had all eventually formed together. Working from his Uncle's store initially, Paul had taken it over, renamed it 'Xadonemmetry Games', and it had become the primary vehicle for the selling of the main company line product. 'The Twilight Realm Gaming Universe'. Games Workshop liked them, liked them a lot, and designed figurines for their games now, in an exclusive contract they had with them. They regularly appeared in 'Dragon' magazine and their figures appeared all the time in 'White Dwarf' magazine, were their new manuals were reviewed. It was all, now, a growing and thriving business. Justin did the lions share of the design of the games, but in recent times Alexander had joined in a lot, who had fronted up a lot of the cash to get the project rolling. He had actually gone to university not too far from them growing up, and they had run into each other a few times in their youth. Of course, now, the main connection was the local Anglican Church were Alexander attended once a month. He was an ecumenist, after all, like his father, who seemed to have a grand vision for the reuniting of Christianity. A rather admirable vision, Paul some times felt. Paul was involved with a lot of things like package design, which Kate's artistic skills were often put to work on, and Willie, who in younger years had had trouble finding work, ran the postage and handling department for international orders of their products from the warehouse in a local business district. Theresa was mostly a silent partner, but had invested 20 thousand pounds initially into the project, and reaped well when regular dividends were paid. But she had her opinions also on how the company should be run, and was not afraid to offer them./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"And now things were actually starting to take off a bit. Xadonemmetry was a growing world of RPGing, and the next big project, finally, was Video Games. Something Alexander promised he would handle for them. They'd taken ages getting around to it, but the timing was never quite right, nor the finances. But everything was set to go now, and it looked likely they would turn some of their earlier adventures into their first video game./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Success. Life had turned out alright for Paul Kinnersley. Life had turned out alright./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Of course, if the ogre 'Balstiki' finds you,' said Alexander to Theresa. 'He'll extract your food and gold, and leave you naked on the floor of the mill. He'll burn your clothes in the fire, as ogres are pretty nasty. So do you risk it?'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Therese looked at the Domain Master, and shivered. That glee in Alexander's eyes always sent shivers down her spine. Like there was an otherworldly thing at work – some great and dramatic evil, really, which took on all challenges and mocked their feeble attempts at conquest./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'The scroll of Daranok had 3 spells which I haven't used yet,' said Therese. 'One of them is temptation. I choose to use the spell of temptation over my peanuts. I have a bag full.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'Roll the dice,' said Alexander./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Therese rolled. The results were good./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'I place the peanuts all around the door of the mill,' said Theresa. 'On the outside of the door.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"Alexander nodded, and looked at his notes./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"A little later.../span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'The ogre of course will finish those peanuts in a few minutes,' said Alexander./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'I'll go out through the upper window, and slide down the mill. You said it was slanted a bit,' replied Theresa./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'That should be fine,' said Alexander. 'I'll dock you three health points for naturally sustained bruisings.'/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"And the game went on and Therese joined the rest of the questers back at the location she had left them in the game./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"They sat there, later, drinking cofee and eating biscuits. The rain was terrible that night, and the wind was howling. And there was this odd howl, almost like a wolf or something, practically a ghoul according to Kate./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"And then he appeared. And he had a gleam, and Paul recognized the gleam in Ivor's eyes. He'd seen it before./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"'It's darker than before. But softer also,' said Ivor. 'They are less angry and violent. But very moody. Sullen really. Like a vampire I think.' He looked in the distance, and smiled for no apparent reason./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT"span style="color: #003300;"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: xx-large;"And he pointed at the mirror. And they noticed the gleam. And one by one, as if under compulsion, they knew in their hearts what was transpiring, and Lucy Kinnersley knew that, if this was not a spell she was under, she was about to encounter the weird, the wonderful and the sheer dreaded mystery of the Twilight Realm. And so one by one the stepped through, and it all went dark./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="LEFT" /p