I do not own this fandom . . .

Yes, I took a ridiculously long time to update. You're not going to be happy to hear the next one is going to take even longer . . . it's been a long time since I read Wizards At War and I have to do background research.

I'd like to thank the one (!) person who sent a review . . . come awn, guys!

Thankfully, Roshaun emerged into Eternity's closet feet-first. He staggered, regained his footing, and looked around. This was a very different kind of place from Dairine's closet, which he had seen recently – larger, neater, the mostly-black clothes on shelves lining the walls.

He realized that he no longer needed to consciously remind himself of his identity, and that his body felt completely substantial and under his control. He was officially out of the light-world – but how? Who was this girl who called herself Eternity? Questions began to swirl around in Roshaun's mind, but were interrupted when something tugged rather hard on his hair. He uttered a mild curse word in Wellakhit and reached behind him. The girl's hand was still entangled in his hair, and she was sagging forward, unconscious. He extended an arm to support her. Of course – she'd expended a lot of power. She would probably be out for a while.

Cautiously, aware that this place was completely unknown to him, Roshaun slid open the closet door. It opened onto a girl's bedroom, hopefully Eternity's, decorated in red and black and silver. The only other door was closed, and it and all the windows bore spells in need of renewal. Roshaun carried Eternity to the ridiculously large bed and carefully laid her down. The necklace she'd used to transit was hanging open around her neck, and he shut it, just in case. He could see her chest rising and falling rhythmically, so he assumed she was just exhausted. He'd seen wizards burn out before, and this wasn't what it looked like.

He wandered around the room absently. Was she a normal wizard, this Eternity? Or did she have some kind of special power? It was impossible to tell anything about her from her room, especially considering the amount of contact Roshaun had had with human girls – next to none. He sat back down on the bed beside Eternity. Asleep, she looked much more vulnerable, certainly nothing like someone who could defeat something as powerful as whatever had been holding him prisoner – was it the Lone One? Or one of the other, benign Powers? Had he been rescued or stolen? Wake up, he ordered her silently, I need answers. His gaze fell on her hand, lying at her side. There was glint of familiar-looking metal there. Unaware of what he was doing, Roshaun picked up Eternity's hand to examine the ring she wore. It was a Wellakhit ring, of an unmistakably Wellakhit style and metal, but the dark blue stone was one that Roshaun was fairly confident did not exist on Wellakh.

The mystery around this girl was deepening every second, but it looked like some of Roshaun's questions were going to be answered. Eternity was waking up.

I remembered landing in my closet, and then nothing else, so I must have passed out. For a second I was worried – I mean, any amount of magic that makes you faint can't be healthy. But I didn't feel any horrible side effects, besides the normal level of fuzzy-headed-ness, so I decided it had been totally worth it.

Then I realized someone was holding my hand. Eek! I opened my eyes and got my first real look at the person I'd done all this for. He looked completely recovered from his time in the light (please – interpret that literally). Lucky bastard. And yes, he was holding my hand.

"Hey!"

"What?"

I pulled my hand out of his grip. We looked at each other awkwardly for a second. Finally I scrambled into a sitting position and introduced myself. "Eternity Silkwood, wizard. At your service."

"How is it, Eternity Silkwood, that you came to possess a Wellakhit ring?"

Wha-huh? For a second the words just sounded like nonsense. Then I realized, Ring. Jewelry. As in, the one I'm wearing. I looked at the aforementioned ring, which was on my middle finger. It was made of white gold and set with a midnight sapphire. I'd had it for years – ever since I first became a wizard. As far as I knew, it was just an ordinary ring. "But – I've never been to Wellakh," I stuttered.

Roshaun's eyebrows drew together. "This is definitely Wellakhit craftsmanship. And look – these are Wellakhit characters, though very embellished and archaic."

Okay, the archaic-ness of the characters was really not the issue here. "What do they say?"

Roshaun and I both bent over my ring, so close our heads nearly touched. He had taken hold of my hand again. It was a little unsettling. I mean, he didn't even ask first. But I guess if you're a prince, you can do these things. "This one here means absolute good, and this one means absolute evil," he explained. "They're sometimes used to denote the Hesper and the Lone One."

"Then why are they intertwined?" I asked.

"I do not know." He drew back and stared at me for a second. "This ring – how did you get it?"

O-kay, this conversation was about to get a little strange. "I, um. Kind of, um, stole it. For my Ordeal."

"Your Ordeal . . . was to steal a ring," Roshaun repeated in a tone of incredulity.

"Well, I mean, it was in this weird alternate universe, and all these people kept trying to stop me and I had to go through all these traps and stuff . . ." I should shut up now, I thought somewhat hazily. So I did.

To his credit, Roshaun chose to let the Ordeal thing go – temporarily, anyway. After all, the two of us had bigger stuff to deal with. "So, uh," I began, "you can go home now, or somewhere else, I guess, if you want too." I had just fully realized that this situation was

incredibly awkward. I wasn't really sure how to proceed. Would Roshaun just up and leave, or what?

Roshaun stood up, but made no move to go anywhere. It hadn't occurred to me before, but this had to be even more awkward for him than it was for me. I at least knew something about him. He knew absolutely nothing about me.

"Before I return home, I must know – what happened to me? Why did you come to my aid? Who are you?"

"I already told you, my name is Eternity. I'm a wizard from Earth. I don't know what happened to you, but I dreamed that you asked me for help, so I started searching for you." I wondered how I was going manage to avoid mentioning the part of my search involving Dairine

and the mind-meld. I mean, vague answers were all good right now, but sooner or later I was going to have to tell the full story, right?

Roshaun shook his head in wonder. "Amazing."

"Yeah," I agreed. "How on earth did you send such a powerful message to a total stranger?"

"I haven't got the faintest idea, actually. I was thinking about being rescued rather a lot, so it's possible my subconscious could have somehow – ugh. This is too weird."

I grinned on the inside. Roshaun had never said anything as undignified as "Ugh, this is too weird" in Dairine's memories.

Suddenly I felt unbelievably tired – all my recent spell-work was catching up with me. "Look, let's talk in the morning, okay? We should probably both rest." Thank God tomorrow (or today, I guess) was Saturday. I really couldn't handle another school day knowing this amazing adventure was waiting for me.

I half-expected Roshaun to demand that we get going right now, but he didn't protest. Hey, maybe I can do a commanding tone after all! How cool is that? was my unbelievably random thought.

But the more likely explanation was probably that he was just as tired as I was.

I offered to let Roshaun have my bed and me sleep on my love-seat . . . or floor . . . or something, even though I really didn't like the thought of my bed being commandeered by a strange guy. But, to my surprise, he declined. "Just stay there. Tomorrow we will return to Wellakh."

Just hold on a second. "We?"

"Of course, you are going to accompany me." I could only stare in confusion. "My parents will want to know the story of my return and thank the one who saved me."

Okay, judging from what Dairine, and thus me, remembered, Roshaun's parents were not exactly the most approachable people in the world. The thought of having to explain my dream and everything to them made me quail.

But I didn't know how much Roshaun thought I knew about his parents. Therefore, I didn't know what he'd expect my reaction to be. So I just settled for, "Um, alright, I guess I could do that." I didn't have school, after all, and I could easily evade my parents for one day.

I chucked my coat and bag on the floor next to my bed. In the unlikely event that I forgot about my mission, I'd certainly remember when I tripped over them in the morning. Worrying kept me awake for a little while. But very soon I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

The next morning, I took my first trip to Wellakh.

Next chapter -- Eternity meets Roshaun's parents! But not unless I see some reviews . . .