Two days after the incident at the bar, Tahlith rose early to pack. They had finally talked her into returning to Crossroads Keep, so Tahlith immediately had set down a couple of rules: no Bishop-bashing, no Ammon-bashing, and keep up the pace or else. Tahlith had also set their start time ridiculously early in the morning compared to usual, but she knew the others were getting lazy just sitting around West Harbor. The sooner we're out of here the better, especially if there are going to still be these awkward silences between us all. There had definitely been an increase in hostility between factions of the group. Now that there was no King of Shadows or spirit-eater curse to destroy, it was hard to keep people from arguing or getting off-topic. People were being divided in so many ways that even Tahlith, someone who normally called herself a good judge of these things, was having trouble keeping count.

As Tahlith picked up her newly-packed bag and adjusted the new basic leather tunic that Daeghun had provided her with (the previous one having been lost in the journey to Rashemen), Ellanne stirred and nudged Safira. The wizard woke up and did the same to Shandra, then got up to get ready to go. No one wanted to be left behind; Tahlith was in a mood, and they all knew what that meant: don't be late.

Tahlith went downstairs to find that Bishop and Ammon were already up and nearly ready to go. Casavir looked to be about halfway through his morning routine, and both Gann and Khelgar were still asleep. Bishop grinned as he watched Tahlith. The bard grabbed a roll of bread off the counter for breakfast, kicked Gann in the side to wake him, and then stuck an apple in Khelgar's open mouth to force him awake. The dwarf snorted and sat up suddenly, surprised to find his breakfast already in his mouth. Gann, on the other hand, rolled over and went back to sleep. Tahlith rolled her eyes and motioned to Bishop and Ammon, as if to say ''Have fun getting him up.'' Bishop looked like he intended to.

With her breakfast and pack in hand, Tahlith went outside to check on Okku. She found the bear god sitting next to Daeghun, who had a pack at his feet. Tahlith looked at him curiously. "What's the pack for? Going somewhere?"

Daeghun nodded. "The Mere has changed since you last were here. If it is alright with you, I will accompany you to your Keep to make sure you are safe. Besides, they might need my services as a scout again."

The elf found himself suddenly engulfed in a huge hug from Tahlith. "Thank you!" She exclaimed. The idea that Daeghun was coming with them was worth a hundred words of caution and praise from him. "You don't know how much this means to me."

Daeghun looked a bit surprised at her reaction, but hugged her back. "I'm just glad to have you back."

After a moment, Okku gave a small noise to get their attention. "Should we call the others out?"

Tahlith released her foster-father and got the largest smile on her face that anyone had seen in a while. "Oh, this is gonna be good. Gann only got up two minutes or so ago."

Taking a deep breath, Tahlith gave a shrill whistle directed towards the house, then called out "Come on, guys! Let's get moving!"

With a good deal of grumbling, the inhabitants of the Farlong house piled out onto the front yard, breakfasts in their hands and their packs in various states of disarray. Gann was in the rear, sticking a hat over his head to hide his messy hair, which was surprisingly wet. He kept glaring at Bishop and Ammon, so Tahlith made a mental note to thank them later.

As soon as everyone was ready, Tahlith grinned. "Good morning, everyone. Did you all sleep well?"

Khelgar looked about ready to say something vulgar, but Tahlith was two steps ahead of him, pulling a canteen full of cider out and tossing it to him as a peace offering. The dwarf sniffed it and grinned at the tiefling.

"Okay, so here's the plan," Tahlith told them. "Daeghun is coming with us, an unexpected bonus, so that means our group is even larger than we expected. This means that if we're caught in a fight, we'll be pretty well off," (Bishop gave a laugh at this) "so no one worry too much about that. It also means watches are going to be short, and some of us will get to sleep through the night each time we make camp." (Gann looked very happy about this.) "It does mean, however, that we need to make sure we have everyone together when moving out, though. I don't want anyone getting lost in the shuffle."

Shandra spoke up. "Are we going straight through to the Keep, or are we going to take any side trips to places like Fort Locke?"

Tahlith's eyes lit up. "Yes! That reminds me…"

It wasn't too often that anyone actually saw Tahlith summoning up her shadow using her shadowdancer abilities. Usually it just appeared next to them in the middle of battle, or it was dark and no one could see it anyway. This time, though, in the half-light of the rising sun, it looked downright eerie to see the summoning occur. It was like the shadows were converging upon her for a moment before Tahlith's very shadow split in two and separated. One stayed attached to Tahlith, slightly dimmer than before, while the other was strengthened by the converging shadows and stood up. Tahlith smiled at her summon and pulled a note out of her bag. "I need you to take this note to Crossroads Keep. Hand it over only to Neeshka, Sand, or any other of my former companions. Do not give it to Kana. I trust you to get there well before we do, got it?"

The shadow nodded and took the note before slipping off into the woods. Casavir frowned, "How can it get there before us?"

Tahlith smiled. "Well, for one, we have to sleep. And for another, those shadows move like the wind when inside other shadows, like those of the wood. The note will slow it down a bit, but it should be fine."

Her companions all looked at her like she was the tiniest bit nuts, but Tahlith didn't care. Grabbing up her pack, she announced, "Alright, people! Time to move out!"

-Break-

For Sand, the fact that he was once again spending the evening alone was a good thing. Sand never enjoyed the interruptions that frequently occurred at the Keep, especially because they most often came from Aldanon and his only half comprehensible ramblings. Sand had to admit, though, the Keep's library was not only better than the public ones in Neverwinter, partially due to his own efforts and influences, but it was also easier to access. In Neverwinter, it was near impossible for Sand to find and check out a book he wanted, due to those Academy wizards taking all the good books. Here in the Keep, however, Sand had first dibs. After the Knight Captain, of course.

However, no one had seen or heard from Tahlith since those three creatures had carried her off during the cave-in at the King of Shadows's lair. Things at the Keep were balancing on thin ice without her. Kana had been able to, with Nevalle's help, postpone the naming of a new Knight Captain of Crossroads Keep for a year to give Tahlith a chance to come back. Nevalle was holding the fort (literally, in some ways) until that time. There were lizardling troubles (the scaly beasts had become less open to cooperation after Tahlith went missing), reconstruction efforts (the entire Gate operating mechanism had needed to be replaced thanks to Bishop), and prejudice-based disputes to deal with (the drow merchant had eventually given up on being accepted and left). It seemed like everything Tahlith had made look easy had suddenly become nearly impossible to handle.

If anyone had gone up to Sand and asked him if he missed the Knight Captain, he would have answered no. After all, he would go on to explain, he had been friends with Tahlith the bard who had charmed her way into impressing him on that first day they'd met, not with the 'Knight Captain' Tahlith became every time the duties of owning a Keep of Neverwinter were thrust to her foremost attention. He'd merely accepted her then, knowing that sooner or later Tahlith would find time to be herself. Maybe, Sand often pondered alone, that was why he had always done so much of the work for her, just so that she would have more time to be herself.

On this particular evening, Tahlith's name once again popped into Sand's head, causing him to stop reading his book. He hadn't thought about her once that day, a peculiar occurrence, since Neeshka, Grobnar, and Bevil were all nearly obsessed with trying to find her and often asked for Sand's help. Not that Sand didn't want her back; knowing Tahlith, though, she'd come back on her own.

The name didn't stay in Sand's head for long, because an unusual shuffling noise drew his attention to a particularly dark corner of the room. Presuming it was the most likely culprit due to the faintest of faint smell of brimstone, Sand sighed, "Neeshka, really, if you want to talk to me, you don't have to sneak up on me. Surely by now you realize that my superior senses are more than a match for your stealth skills."

There was no noise from the corner behind him, other than a bit more shuffling from the intruder. This made Sand a bit annoyed. "Just waiting for me to go back to my reading is not going to work, Neeshka. I am fully aware now that you are in the room, and I'm not going to fall for any of your tricks, so get out of the corner and tell me why you are here."

If anything, the shuffling noise only got louder. Sand sighed again, taking a deep breath in the process. This time, it was not only the smell of brimstone that assaulted his super-sensitive nose. The scent of woodlands and marshes was mixed in with the brimstone, which gave the overall composition of the scent an interesting, almost contradictory point. Such a scent Sand could have attributed to Neeshka if she'd spent a week in the Mere, but seeing as this was not the case, only one other person who could and would have that scent came to mind. An added undertones of extra-planar travel was there too, a point that confused Sand a bit, but did not deter him from turning around in his chair, fully expecting to see Tahlith standing behind him.

It wasn't Tahlith, but the sight of the shadow not only gave Sand a small hope that the Knight Captain was not lost, but also explained the extra-planar undertones. It wasn't the strongest of shadows, Sand noticed, and it lacked a definite body shape, unlike Tahlith's usual shadow sendings, but the scent coming from it confirmed that it was definitely one of Tahlith's. She probably was casting in a hurry, or didn't feel like exerting the energy on this particular summoning. Usually, Tahlith would give her shadows a form of some sort, giving each one more personality to its appearance than most people bothered with. Sand had to admit, the appearances did seem to make the shadows a tad bit less intimidating, but all the more impressive, especially in battle.

The shadow before him stuck a hand into its own torso, about where its stomach would have been, and pulled out a scroll. Sand immediately recognized the seal on it as Tahlith's and stuck out his hand to take the document. As he grabbed a hold of the scroll, however, the shadow's 'arm' shifted, sending some of its own self out over Sand's arm. Sand instinctively recoiled, but then remembered what Tahlith had once told him about summoned shadows.

They had stopped to make camp after a long day of adventuring. Earlier that day, Tahlith had used her shadowdancer powers for the first time in battle, which had thoroughly impressed everyone in the group, whether they'd said so or not. Tahlith's shadow friend had yet to return to its home, so it was following Tahlith everywhere, as usual. However, it kept stopping whenever it passed one of the members of the party to look at them. It would then turn back to Tahlith, cock its head to the side as if asking a question, then resume following her. When it did this regarding Shandra, the former farm girl finally spoke up. "Tahlith, your shadow here is giving me the creeps. Why does it keep looking at us so weirdly?"

Tahlith had laughed in response, that beautifully clear laugh that everyone would miss so much when she was gone. "It's just curious as to what you taste like."

"Taste like?" Shandra looked horrified. "It… it won't eat anyone, will it?" The other members of the party were sharing similar looks of shock and horror.

Again, their tiefling leader laughed. "No, no. Shadows don't actually eat… they just like to taste people's… I guess you'd say auras. Just watch!" Tahlith gave a small whistling noise and the shadow immediately was at her side. Murmuring in a strange language, Tahlith encouraged the shadow as she held out her hand for it to 'taste.' The shadow took the hand, its form quickly moving like liquid over her hand and arm to cover it. After a moment or two, the shadow withdrew, then took a shape very similar to Tahlith's, as if in recognition of whom it had just 'tasted.' Tahlith grinned at Shandra. "See? No harm done. It's just curious, you know?"

Tahlith's shadows had 'tasted' Sand before, but this one seemed to be concentrating on it more than usual. Abruptly it stopped and retreated, leaving the scroll in Sand's hand. Immediately the shadow took on Sand's shape before settling into the corner, as if waiting. Probably wants a response… Sand thought as he turned away from the shadow to read the message.

Dear Neeshka, Sand, Grobnar, and Construct (not that he'll be reading this),

Greetings from swampy West Harbor! Yes, I'm back in this lovely town; don't go questioning how just yet because it's a LONG story. Khelgar and Ellanne found me a few days ago and, under threat of being dragged the entire way, was told I'd better come back to Crossroads Keep. So, I'm headed towards the great Keep (hope it's still standing!).

DON'T TELL KANA OR ANYONE! Let me have my fun and make an entrance. However, if you want to see me before I have the chance to get on your nerves, make your way to Fort Locke. We're making our way there first. Oh, and please bring me some of my things. I'm not sure if you located my pack from the ruins, but it certainly didn't come to Rashemen with me and I miss some of my items.

Say hi to Kistrel for me!

Yours truly,

Tahlith Auvreaneldth

Bard, Red Dragon Disciple, and Shadow-dancer

Just seeing Tahlith's signature was enough to make the normally reserved wizard grin. Trying to compose himself, he grabbed a piece of parchment and wrote hurriedly upon it.

Tahlith-

I'll inform the others this letter was addressed to of your travel plans and we'll meet you at Fort Locke.

Sincerely,

Sand

Turning back to the shadow, which still was keeping his appearance, Sand handed it the note. The shadow put its hand onto the note and absorbed it into the shadow-stuff it was comprised of. The shadow bowed once before walking away through a wall.

It took Sand a moment to get himself to think straight. Even when he was fully composed, it took all of Sand's self control not to run all the way to find Neeshka.

-Break-

Swords clashed. Tahlith grinned. "Nice to see death hasn't ruined your footwork."

Bishop rolled his eyes. "Fortunately, your previous eating habits haven't ruined yours either." He moved to attack again as Tahlith laughed and parried.

36 hours into their trip, the huge adventuring party stopped for the second night in a clearing in the Mere. Tahlith had immediately deemed it the perfect sparring time. Gann had already gone up against Safiya, staff against speak, in a good-humored way. Khelgar and Casavir had gone next, and both of them were now alert as they watched Tahlith going against Bishop. Safiya sat down next to them. "Why is it that Tahlith loves sparring so much?"

"Who doesn't?" Khelgar laughed. "Getting to try your fists against another… or blades, as the case may be… it's the thrill of the challenge!"

Casavir supplemented Khelgar's answer with his own. "She sees it as training and a way to learn what we all know. By this point, she could probably tell you each of our combat moves and how to counter them."

"So it isn't just magics of all sorts that she sticks her nose into," Gann interjected. "A bard of all trades indeed."

They returned to watching the fight. Bishop was forcing Tahlith back, but she looked unconcerned. Bishop grinned at her. "Ready to give up yet?"

Tahlith grinned back. "Since when have I ever given up?" In an instant she leapt over him, landing steady on her feet, and half-turned just in time to block Bishop's swords coming at her side. The clang reverberated around the clearing.

Shandra winced from where she was stirring the cookpot, which was filled with that evening's dinner. "I really wish they wouldn't spar with real weapons."

Ellanne just shook her head. "Knowing Tahlith, she wouldn't have it any other way. Remember how closely the Sword of Gith is tied to her?"

"Not so much anymore…" Ammon commented. He was sitting near the two women, taking advantage of Casavir's distraction to spend time near his granddaughter. "The blade is whole again, and Tahlith no longer has the shard in her chest. Before, she was a part of the blade; now the blade merely has accepted her as its owner."

"Does it really make that much of a difference?" Shandra asked.

Ammon nodded. "And she knows it too."

Bishop tried to sweep Tahlith's legs from underneath her, only to find her leaping over his leg. Her laugh sounded out around the clearing, only to be cut off short. Everyone was on their feet in an instant; Bishop had rammed into Tahlith while she was still in mid-air to beat her. Now Tahlith was sprawled out on the ground, trying to catch the wind that had been knocked out of her. Daeghun was at her side in an instant. Bishop, realizing his mistake, stayed put, all too aware of Casavir's murderous gaze on him. Ammon Jerro got up and walked over to Bishop, both to keep him from slipping off and to keep the others from trying to kill the ranger.

Tahlith caught her breath and began laughing breathlessly. "Well, you certainly won that round, Bishop. Good job. I'll have to keep that move in mind."

Daeghun breathed a small sigh of relief. Tahlith got to her feet and walked over to Bishop. Grinning, she ruffled his hair, like she would Karnwyr's. "Don't look so worried. Yeesh, if I can face down gods, I think I can handle a blow like that."

It became clear in an instant that the statement was not so much addressed to Bishop, but to everyone around them. Bishop smiled a bit and grabbed Tahlith's wrist, stopping it from messing with his hair. "Hmm… what does it mean if I beat someone who challenged a god's actions?"

"It means that you are either very lucky or a damn good fighter," Tahlith replied, not missing the way Casavir's eyes narrowed, "or possibly both. But seeing as you can't even handle me messing with your hair, I'd say the first one."

Bishop released her hand, grinning. "Oh, so is that it?" He would have made a move to kiss her right then, just to spite everyone who was watching, except someone just had to interrupt them.

"Dinner's ready, everyone!" Shandra called out, obviously trying to end the tension. Tahlith laughed, gave Bishop's hair one more ruffle for good measure, and sprinted over to claim a seat next to Shandra. As everyone else slowly made their way over to the fire and food, Bishop just sighed and watched.

Karnwyr padded over to his side. Pup feel like lone wolf again. Why not others let she-pup choose own mate? She-pup be alpha-wolf, right?

Karnwyr's comments struck Bishop as both overly perceptive and a bit too wolfish at the same time. Bishop sighed and muttered his reply. "Tahlith may lead, but even she has to keep her pack's favor to stay in command. Not all packs take in dangerous outsiders."

Pup be stupid before, but pup growing. Karnwyr nudged Bishop's leg. Pup talk to alpha-male. He be smart. He know what to do.

" 'Alpha-male'?" Who would that be? Casavir?" Bishop asked.

Karnwyr shook his head and walked off. Bishop watched him go, then frowned as he saw Karnwyr stand next to Daeghun. The elf was watching Tahlith from a short distance away, unnoticed by the eating company. As Karnwyr sat beside him, Daegun scratched him behind the ears. Karnwyr wagged his tail happily and looked back at Bishop. Alpha-male.