- Chapter 10: Imprisoned Soul -

"Hey," Jane said, knocking right as she entered the room. "How are you doin'?"

"Okay," Deanna answered, bobbing a fiercely bawling Carla in his arms. He put on an embarrassed grimace. "She won't stop crying."

"Yeah, I heard."

"I think she's hungry."

"You sure?"

"Pretty sure." Carla wasn't particularly given to crying for no apparent reason, and when she did, her cries had a somewhat different ring that he'd learned to recognize. But he wasn't going to spend the time explaining that to Jane. Though he was keeping his tone polite, he didn't really understand why Jane was in their room and wished that she would leave. Even if she was a close friend of Natasha's, he didn't know her well enough to feel comfortable around her, and besides that, being alone with another woman while his wife was occupied elsewhere didn't look good. Natasha would never suspect him of an affair, at least not with so little evidence as that, but Deanna still didn't like the appearance of it.

Come to think of it, didn't Natasha mention that Jane just got married? I'll bet her husband wouldn't like this.

"Well, if she's hungry, why don't you get Natasha to feed her?"

"She's casting that spell for May."

"Still?"

He nodded. "I thought... it's been a while, too. I wanted to go and... see what's up, but..." He shrugged, feeling more awkward by the moment. "...I can't bring Carla near there, and I can't leave her here by herself."

"So let me watch her, silly," Jane smiled.

"But..."

"It'll take you just a couple minutes to get her. If I can't take care of a baby that long, then my little one is in serious trouble."

Deanna hesitated, but only for the moment it took him to remember that though he didn't know Jane very well, Natasha did. "...Okay," he said, and handed Carla over to Jane with greater care than he would give to a crystal vase.

He stepped out into the hall, closing the door behind him.

It was a short walk to the room where May was being cured, and he encountered no one in the halls save a guard who, curiously enough, was asleep at his post. Unusual as this was, however, Deanna quickly pushed it from his mind.

His first knock at the door went unanswered. The second, which was less timid than the first, also went unanswered. At least, that's what Deanna thought at first. As he was about to knock a third time, however, he thought he heard King Nicholas's voice. Something about that voice made his warrior's instincts kick in, and he shoved the door open without a second thought, knowing that Natasha was most likely inside.

The scene within startled him into momentary inaction.

"Deanna," Nick groaned, "...can you get Gyan off of me, please?"

But the king rated only second priority. Deanna rushed to Natasha's side and lightly slapped her face to revive her.

Her eyelids fluttered. "Deanna...?"

"Thank Iom." He let out a massive breath of air. "You're okay?"

"Yeah... she just stunned me..." Natasha managed to sit up, though her eyes were still bleary. "Where did she go?"

"You mean May?"

"May in Liam's body," King Nicholas corrected. "And she's after the heir to Cypress's throne! I swear by the Light itself, if you two don't do something to stop her right now -"

"Your Majesty, Gyan is still alive," Deanna pointed out, though this was quite obvious to anyone with ears; the beastman's snores were like those of a wild boar. "Try waking him up."

"It takes a great deal to render Gyan senseless, but once done, nothing can rouse him for the better part of a day. And you two have no time left to waste on me. Hurry!"

"Natasha's in no shape to go anywhere," Deanna returned. "And I'm not leaving her alone. I don't know what happened, but May's body is still here, and if -"

"Wait," Natasha said, with the sound of a light of illumination waking her up. "Wait, that's it! The body we prepared for May didn't accept a soul, either hers or Liam's. So Liam's soul must be in May's body!"

"Obviously," the king snapped. "Your point?"

Even in the midst of this crisis, Nicholas's short temper struck Deanna as shockingly out of character. Then again, it is his son that's in danger. Even someone like King Nicholas must have something that can drive him to the breaking point.

"The point is, from what the others explained to me, Liam should still have a link to his own body. I don't think a person's soul is really at home in someone else's body. So maybe I can stop Liam's body from here!"

"You have the training to do that?" Nicholas said, his voice very deliberately layered with doubt.

"It's our best chance! Don't you think May is prepared for someone like Deanna to show up and rouse the whole castle against her? Even if she's gambling against that happening, a battle like that would probably kill both May and Liam!" She scurried over to where May's body still lay, leaving the king looking rather abashed.

Deanna followed her, and caught her arm as she reached out to touch May. "Do you have any idea what you're doing?" he whispered.

"A little," she answered.

"Natasha, you can't do this. If you die, Carla -"

"I love Carla more than my life. But I can't give up doing the right thing any time there's even a slight chance of my dying." She grasped his hand. "I need you to be with me on this, Deanna. They're all depending on us: May, Liam, Mayfair's son Eli."

Her plea confused him. "How can I help with this?"

"Just believe in me. If you don't believe in me, that I can do it, then I won't be able to believe it either." She looked deep and earnest into his eyes.

He felt weak. "I know... you can do almost anything. But I don't know what it is that you're doing with May."

"You don't need to." She tightened her grip on his hand, and reached down to touch May with her other hand.

Then she blacked out. Still on her feet, but staring blankly into space. Before Deanna could react, the same happened to him.

They awoke on a bed of burning hot rocks. They were not lying on them, but standing, as they were when they blacked out. Which was fortunate, because the rocks were hot enough that they could feel it through their shoes.

"Oh no," Natasha said, her face going pale.

"What happened?" Deanna asked, looking up at the purple-orange sky in confusion.

"I thought I'd be able to reach Liam's body just by sending my magic into his soul... like stopping an army by casting Blaze on the bridge they mean to use. I mean, in the sense that you don't need to touch either the army or the bridge to stop the army. But we've been drawn into May's mind instead."

"So... we're as good as dead? Is that what you're saying?"

She shook her head. "No, not at all. This is a much more dangerous way of stopping May than I was thinking of, but it can work. Still..." She nibbled on the edge of one of her fingers. "It'll be hard even getting started unless we find a guide. This wasteland we're standing in looks like it goes on forever. Just an illusion of May's mind, of course, but we don't know how her mind works, so -"

"Hi!" a voice like a high-pitched meow sounded.

Startled, Natasha whirled around to see a catchild in a pristine white dress standing to her right. I could have sworn there was no one there a second ago... and maybe there wasn't.

"You're new here, right? You don't look anything like any of the other variations."

"Actually, we're visitors," Natasha said. "I'm Natasha, and this is Deanna. We're looking for May - you're her, aren't you? You're her as a child."

The little girl shook her head. "Uh uh. I'm one of May's variations."

"Variations?"

"You know, different aspects of her personality." She grinned brightly. "May comes in all shapes and sizes, like just flowers and trees!"

Natasha's face fell in an at once puzzled and worried expression, one she could feel Deanna shared. "You don't act like any May I've ever met."

"Oh, but I'd like to. It's just that the others never let me out," she pouted. "I don't see why May has to hide this side of herself. I'm more fun than all the others put together!" She looked up at the two of them and beamed. "So, are you two variations, too?"

Natasha shook her head. "No... I'm pretty sure we're both complete persons."

"Yeah, that makes sense. It's probably not normal to have all your variations so obviously split up like this." Little May put one hand on her elbow and the other on her chin, pondering. "I mean, really, probably the only reason May is so scattered like this is because of Iom bringing her back to life. It really conflicted us, you know?"

"Um... Excuse me, but would you mind taking us to your other variations? We have sort of an urgent problem that we need to talk to them about."

"Oh, yeah... You're probably here about the awful things we're doing with Liam and Prince Eli. Except they're doing it, not me. I'd never do anything so nefarious." She began walking, giving an imperious gesture for the two of them to follow. "C'mon. All we gotta do is follow the trails of their subconscious thought lines, and we'll find 'em in no time!"

The two of them followed, though not without some bewilderment. "What a strange child," Natasha remarked to Deanna. "She has so much exuberance that it seems almost unreal, but her vocabulary..."

"She's not a child," Deanna reminded her. "She's a part of May that takes the form of a child."

"Oh. Right." She blushed; it was an unimportant mistake, but not one that someone with her knowledge should be making.

"Do you really understand... how all this works?" he pressed her. "How May's mind is arranged in this... world of burning rocks and variations, and how we can stop her?"

"Only what Liam and Yeesha taught me the past couple of days," she admitted. "This sort of thing isn't my field, I... I just wanted to help May." She felt Deanna's hand on her shoulder. "But we have a chance at pulling this off. I know we do."

They walked on, even as the heat from the rocks numbed their feet, until all they could feel was a sensation of steaming mist around their toes. At least, that's what Natasha thought until she glanced down.

"The rocks are gone," she observed. "And what's this strange mist?"

"We're in the domain of another of May's variations," the child-May answered. "Kinda nice that we can set up our own little spot any way we like, huh?" Natasha didn't know what to say to that, and unsurprisingly, neither did Deanna. The girl giggled a moment later. "Just kidding! The landscape just naturally reflects the persona of whoever is at home in that spot!"

"Then, those burning rocks back there...?"

"Oh, those are from the part of May that showed up when Iom resurrected her. I think they kinda look like Iom's home. My domain is pretty small. It's gotten smaller and smaller ever since they stopped letting me out."

"That is as it should be," a new voice interrupted. "As a person grows and matures, they must put away childish impulses such as those you represent. Otherwise, how can they hope to attain enlightenment?"

The source of the voice stepped out from the mists, almost like a spirit. This one was an adult May, but dressed in long, colorful wool clothes, like a shaman's apprentice of some sort. "Figures it'd be her," child-May grumbled. "Let's go. Stupid waste of time; she's a bit figure, just like me."

"But, who...?" Natasha pressed, puzzled.

Deanna put his hand on her arm. "I think we should do what she says. May... wouldn't want us prying into parts of her brain that we don't need to."

"But she might be -"

"It's alright," spirit-May addressed them. "The most shameful side of myself is the one you met first. I am May's spiritual side, the one trying to become in touch with the world and the life forces flowing through it."

"In other words, coo-coo pumpkin head," child-May said. "All the important variations of May worship the gods. Even I know the gods are what's real! I just don't see why we have to do so many boring rituals for them."

"May!" another voice interrupted. "You're being rude in front of our guests!"

This one was dressed in robes that wouldn't have looked unusual on the real May, except that they were incredibly stiff, forming sharp points at her shoulders. Her fur was trimmed short, and in her hand she bore May's familiar cane.

"I wasn't saying anything rude to them," child-May protested.

"You insulted someone in front of them, no doubt making them highly uncomfortable." The stiff-robed May turned to face Deanna and Natasha. "Please, forgive our rudeness. As you no doubt have guessed, I am one of May's variations. Since I hold a larger portion of her psyche than either of these two, I much more closely resemble the May you know. Is there anything that I can help you with?"

"We're here to help you, actually," Natasha said. "We need to free you from Iom's power before Liam hurts... King Nicholas and Queen Mayfair's son."

"I see." She grimaced. "I regret having to inform you of this, but you are too late."

"Huh?" child-May burst out. "But they just got here! Everyone knows that time in this plane is perceived as flowing slower than it is in the physical plane!"

"You don't understand. You two variations are so subdued in May's consciousness that you don't even know what her full plan was. You assumed that May's mind is in control of Liam's body. In fact, Liam is still fully in control. The problem is that he believes himself to be May."

"Then..." Her mind racing, Natasha pondered aloud, "How do we stop Liam?"

"You can't, not from here. Even if you completely obliterate May's Iom-worshiping variation, like a toy that has already been wound, Liam will still proceed with his evil task."

Randolf and Halron were standing guard outside the room where Prince Eli was. Though at present there were no major forces within Cypress who would threaten the royal family, the monarchs did not believe in being careless. Randolf strongly shared the sentiment - after all, he'd fought in the heart of the Cypress civil war - and from what conversation he'd had with his young companion, he felt the same.

Thus, his suspicions were aroused the moment he saw Liam heading in their direction. He was acquainted with the mage, and to date had seen no reason to distrust him, but men who have power often seek more of it. And there was no imaginable reason why he would visit this room that did not involve treachery.

The old knight murmured to Halron, "Accost him, lad, and send him on his way. I'll have my spear at the ready if he tries anything."

The youth looked surprised at Randolf's suspicion, but shared just enough of his instinct to obey without objection. He strode forward and stopped Liam.

"Where do you think you're going?" he demanded.

Liam gave a bow of his head. "Their Majesties sent me to fetch their son."

Halron snorted. "That's a likely story. We were assigned to the boy, so we'll bring him to Their Majesties."

The mage shook his head, then with with disciplined swiftness raised his hand and shouted "Blaze level 4!"

Even as Halron roared in pain, white-hot flames tearing into his hide, Randolf flung his spear. His aim was true, and only swift reflexes saved Liam from being pierced through the heart, the spearhead lodging in his arm instead. Liam screamed, fell to his knees, and Randolf galloped forward to finished the job.

In the handful of seconds it took him to reach his target, however, Liam managed to gather himself enough to extend his hand and cast a Freeze spell. The spell not only bit into Randolf's flesh, but formed a polished layer of ice over the floor. With the speed of his charge, the knight slid into a wall, and came crashing to the floor.

"Can't let... you stop me... for the good... of Iom..." Liam panted, and pulled the heavy spear from his arm, drawing forth another scream.

Even with the removal of the spear, the arm was only slightly better than useless. Fortunately, he needed only the one arm to do what had to be done. He moved on, ignoring Halron's cries of pain at the flames burning his fur, and pulled open the door to Eli's room.

"I don't understand," Deanna said. "What do you mean when you say Liam thinks he's May?"

"Just what I said," the stiff-robed May answered. "The soul and mind are different things, and the spell you constructed only transferred May's soul. But unlike May, Liam was not prepared for the transfer. To put it in simple terms, his mind naturally assumes that the soul occupying his body is his own, so when May's soul took that role, he assumed himself to be May."

"But... then what about the real May? If she was ready for this, and her mind is still in her own body, why was she unconscious after Liam and the others cast the spell?"

"Truthfully, I don't know. As I'm sure you can guess, May was very conflicted about working this horrible treachery on you all, and if she were in danger of turning against Iom, it's not unlikely that enough of his power would fade from her body to render her unconscious. But I don't think we were that successful in our battle against May's Iom-worshiping variation."

Natasha clutched at her husband's arm. "Deanna? What's wrong? You look worried."

"I think... it's a trap," he managed. "May was strapped to a bed, her magic dispelled. She couldn't do anything if she were conscious. But by luring us into her mind..."

"Deanna! May would never -"

"I'm afraid she would," the spirit-May interrupted. "Behold, the sickness which would make her do so approaches."

They turned, and saw that the realm behind them had turned to a ravenous darkness. It encroached towards them, swallowing all light. And at its head walked a foxling dressed in crimson robes, tears running in well-worn paths down her face.

Nick groaned and once more slumped to the floor, unable to lift Gyan's massive weight off of him.

This was worse than humiliating, worse than degrading, though it certainly was both of those things. It was frustrating. Frustrating that his child, the future of Cypress, was in grave peril, and he was incapacitated by nothing more than the body weight of his protector. Cypress would survive if Eli was killed - he and Mayfair could sire another child - but such a blow was nonetheless not to be taken lightly. It should not be happening, not under his watch. He had never suffered a failure like this, never.

He steeled himself, tensing his body again, even though he already felt thoroughly exhausted from his efforts. This time, he felt Gyan's body slide a hair to his left. It might have been his imagination, but he had nothing to lose, so he changed his approach to trying to push Gyan off his left side.

Persuading Gyan's mammoth body to even budge was like persuading the king of Sharland to give exclusive trading rights. But the life of his heir and his dignity as king didn't depend on him accomplishing the latter.

Nick planted his wrists on the floor beneath him, summoned every ounce of will he had left, and pushed until every last muscle in his arm was screaming. His chest burned, and it hit him that lifting a weight like Gyan's was very likely to cause him injury, even with his having kept himself as physically fit as he had. He shoved this thought down; his good health was trivial compared with what was at stake. Another voice inside reminded him that even if he succeeded in getting Gyan off of him, it was almost certainly too late for him to do anything that would make a difference. He shoved that thought down as well.

And pushed.

His efforts reached the necessary threshold, and Gyan's body shot up an inch. At the same instant, a blinding pain bolted through Nick's arm into his head, and only instinct led him to roll away in the tiny gap he'd made before his strength gave out.

He checked himself as he got to his feet, and found his arm to be badly sprained but intact. He afforded a quick glance at Deanna and Natasha, who were still slumped unconscious next to May's body, but gave them no further consideration. Even if he thought he could help them (and given his relatively limited understanding of this field of magic, anything he tried was more likely to harm as help), he had a more urgent concern.

It was now his legs' turn to strain to the breaking point as he ran off towards the room where his son rested.

All six limbs trembling, Randolf staggered to his feet, eyes fixed upon the elf mage entering Eli's room. He didn't know why Liam had so easily counted him out; Randolf was not at all egotistical, but he couldn't help but be familiar with his own reputation. And he certainly knew his own strength and will enough to know that it would take a great deal more than a headlong crash into a wall to keep him from protecting the heir to the throne.

He intended to make Liam regret his mistake as quickly as possible. Though he loathed abandoning the boy, Halron was a secondary concern, especially as he was beginning to put out his own fire by rolling on the ground. Wasting no time on stealth, since the clopping of centaur hooves can simply never be as quiet as human or dwarven feet, Randolf galloped straight at Liam.

The mage spun around at the sound and, just as Randolf was upon him, fired off a Blast spell. It was a wiser choice than the veteran knight had expected; rather than just injuring him, which would have done no good with his momentum as it was, the spell actually pushed him back. But of course, it was only enough to slow him a bit, and could not stop one of his front hooves from slamming into Liam's chest.

With a painful cry, Liam fell to the floor. He gritted his teeth, Randolf approaching to finish him, and let loose with Demon Breath.

Randolf barely even grunted as the spell hit him. "You will not... harm... Cypress's prince... traitor!"

At that, he kicked at Liam, his hoof catching a glancing blow to his head that knocked him senseless. It was a crude means of victory, Randolf supposed, but there hadn't been time to retrieve his spear. Even now, he couldn't risk turning away from Liam to fetch it; he might be playing possum. Instead, he raised his hoof over Liam's head so as to crush his skull.

"Randolf, no!"

The knight froze at the command of his king. "Your Majesty?"

"My son... is he..." Nick managed, out of breath.

"He's perfectly safe. But Halron -"

"Understood," Nick answered. Unquestionably he must have spotted the flaming beastman already, and with his child's safety assured, he sprinted to the water pitcher set in the room, seized it, and ran back to douse Halron with it.

Randolf continued to keep a wary eye on Liam until the king returned. He immediately went to his son's crib, looking inside to assure himself that the boy was crying only because the combatant's cries of pain had upset him, not because any harm had come to him. "Thank the gods," King Nicholas gasped with relief.

Randolf cleared his throat. "Your Majesty... Liam..."

"...is no traitor," the king explained. "He is under the control of May. There is little time to explain. We need to find a priest and bring him to the room where May is. Unless I miss my guess, the Dispell magic on her will be wearing off soon, which means right now, it's up to Deanna and Natasha to stop her."

"You can stop this," Natasha appealed to the crimson-robed May.

She shook her head. "No one can stop this. Only three variations gathered against me, with only one of them a significant player in my identity? No, that will not stop me. In the real world, perhaps they still have a chance to kill me, but here you can do nothing."

"Wrong!" the child-May contradicted, her face beaming with a gleeful optimism. "It's not us variations who are going to stop you. These two here aren't just memory fragments; they're the real Deanna and Natasha! They'll put an end to you!"

The Iom worshiper's face fell into confusion. "What? You weren't supposed to actually enter... Not this part of the realm, I had a place prepared to hold you two..."

"Listen," Natasha said, as though trying to calm a drunkard. "It's obvious that you don't really want to hurt Prince Nick and General Mayfair's son. Even this variation of yourself is conflicted; I can see you've been crying."

"You're wrong. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but every one of these tears was shed for Iom. Since the day he restored my life, I have wept for his loneliness, for his endless hunger. To fill his desire, there is nothing I would not do."

Natasha was taken aback, almost dumbstruck. I never thought... never believed that May really felt that way about Iom. They told me Iom's power is keeping her alive, but could that power have taken control of her mind? The May I know would never give such devotion to Iom willingly, but...

She was startled out of her train of thought by Deanna speaking in a strong and confident voice. "I understand." He stepped forward, coming within an arm's reach of the crimson-robed May. "Iom spoke to me, too, in the shrine where we fought King Warderer. I understand how you feel for him."

May's face twisted with rage. "If you understand... then how can you defy him? How can you deprive him of the sustenance he yearns for!"

"May!" the stiff-robed May interjected. "Watch your tone with Deanna! He's your friend, and he only wants to help you."

"More important..." Deanna hesitated a moment, then said, "You don't know what you're talking about. I have made sacrifices to him. I've served him... in every way that my conscience would allow me to.

"But, May... we can't do things like you're doing for him. We can't hurt and kill people for him. Natasha showed me how important that is. People's lives are precious. We can't destroy them just for someone's personal desires."

"Iom isn't just 'someone'! He is our god!"

"Yes..." Deanna looked down. "...but he's not a good god. He needs us to make sacrifices for him. A good and noble god wouldn't need anything but our loyalty." His voice dropped a note for a moment, sounding weak. "He tried to take Natasha, May. And he did take Hindel. If Iom didn't know how noble and precious the two of them are, then he's not a worthy god. And if he knew, but subjected Hindel to that horrible fate anyway, then he's not even close to being a worthy god!"

She looked guilty at Deanna's words, hiding her eyes from his gaze. "I'm sorry for your suffering, Deanna... and that I must add to it. But -"

"I know. You've always been like that, May... You throw yourself in harm's way... because you don't want other people to suffer. It's... how you ended up under Iom's power in the first place. I've become the same way, sort of. I serve Iom only because I don't want him to suffer, not because he's at all a worthy god. But to hurt people for him... That's going against what you're all about, May."

"He's right." Natasha looked up, startled, to see a half dozen more variations of May coming out of the sky. The shroud of darkness that accompanied the Iom-worshiping May was broken and then dissolved before the descending angels.

The child-May began jumping with exhilaration. "It's raining down May! Woooo!"

"What's going on?" the crimson robed May cried in alarm.

"Deanna's words reminded us of our many scattered parts," said a May bedecked with deep wounds and festering disease. "They ended the blindness that Iom's power gave us, opened May up to the fact that all these wounds are being inflicted not just on her, but on her friends. May is too strong to let such a thing continue."

Deanna retreated back to Natasha's side, and the two of them looked on in wonder and just a bit of confusion as the newly arrived Mays descended in a surrounding circle about the crimson-robed May. They were joined by the three Mays who had accompanied them in their search.

"You can't destroy me - not even all of you together!" Iom's May almost screamed in defiance.

"We don't intend to. We just want to stop you from being so aggressive."

"To put an end to your inappropriate and extremely rude behavior."

"To end the suffering you're bringing to others."

"By far the most sensible way of doing that, by my estimate, is to unify all of us variations back into one whole."

"Yeah! It's time to take all the scattered pieces of May and stick them together!"

"To unify the spirit and move one step closer to enlightenment."

"To find peace with our self."

They all reached out and grasped Iom's May, firmly but not forcefully. She tried one last protest, "But our soul is still trapped in Liam's body!"

"Assuming our friends do not solve that problem, it is better to live as a soul adrift than to enslave ourself to Iom's whim."

The Mays began glowing brighter and brighter, until they shone with a resonance stronger than gold under the sun. And as swiftly as raindrops running together, they melted and merged into one.

"We're...out?" Deanna gasped, snapping back from May's prone body. He looked around to find Natasha recovering beside him.

"I think so," she said, and put a hand to May. "...Yes. I can feel her in there; I couldn't do that if this was just an illusion." She turned to him with a proud smile. "You did it. You managed to reach through to her. I couldn't even understand why she feels the way she does, but you -"

"We wouldn't have even gotten inside her head if it weren't for you," he countered. "You came up with the idea, you had the courage, and it was your knowledge... that got us in there. Don't... don't criticize yourself just because you needed someone else to help save a few lives. You know better."

"...Thank you," she blushed, realizing she'd slipped into her old habit of complimenting her comrades' performance after a battle.

They were brought back to the present by King Nicholas bursting into the room, Randolf and a priest right behind him. "Natasha!" he called. "It's a relief to see you and Deanna are well. What's happened to May?"

"She's alive and has broken free of Iom, Your Majesty," Natasha replied. "But her soul is still - Oh! Oh, gods! I forgot that Liam is acting independently of May! Did you stop him before -"

"No harm has befallen my son." He turned to the priest. "Check the fallen and treat any injuries they may have, starting with my queen." Without losing step, he turned back to Natasha and said, "Now, what is this about Liam acting independently?"

Once May regained consciousness, she was so effusive with her apologies that Natasha fancied even Nick looked a bit embarrassed.

"The problem remains," the king said, as though trying to shake off the emotion of the moment. "You have Liam's soul for the moment. And so long as he has yours, Liam cannot control himself."

"I think I might be able to solve that problem, Your Majesty," Yeesha spoke up. "It would be a whole lot easier if we had Liam to guide us, but... I did a little extra study in the field while we were working on May's problem. I don't know enough to transfer someone's soul into another body - Liam was the only one of us who could actually lead a casting of that spell - but if it's just a matter of putting everyone's soul back where it belongs, I think I can pull that off." She turned to Natasha. "With your help, of course."

"...What are the risks?"

She quirked an eyebrow. "There shouldn't be any. Even the first spell we tried only went wrong because May tampered with the body. Don't you have faith in me, Your Majesty?"

"Naturally I do, but -"

"Then leave it to me, okay?"

The king frowned. "Yeesha, as I've told you before, you will address your sovereign with respect. You -" He stopped there, then turned away with a sigh. "Never mind. I'm too relieved at how things have turned out to lecture you."

"Hmm," Yeesha murmured as she watched Nick go to Mayfair, who was holding their son. "I'm surprised he's not more upset about this all. His son was almost killed."

"He always puts on a bold face for his people," Natasha said, smiling.

Lieutenant Jengh marched down the stone steps into the dungeon. For once, he was making an unsolicited visit to Brehen. He strutted down the hall to his prison cell, humming a tune.

Finding Brehen napping on the floor, the lieutenant rapped his knuckles on the bars. "It's early afternoon, false prophet. You can stop working on your prophetic dreams now."

Brehen's eyes perked open. "What is it?" he groaned.

"I thought you'd be interested to know that we've received word that Deanna and Natasha are returning from their trip to Cypress. The diplomatic party went fine. They saw some old friends." He paused, smirking in anticipation of the master stroke. "Oh, and a wizard of Iom caused some mishaps. No doubt that was what you saw in your dream? Then you'll be interested to know that they stopped her before she could harm the heir to the Cypress throne. Prophecy averted." He leaned in close to the bars and hissed, "You assssaulted Lady Natasha for nothing."

"The failed attempt to kill Prince Eli wasn't the important part," Brehen muttered.

"What?"

"I said, the attempt to kill Prince Eli wasn't the important part." Brehen sat up and leaned towards Jengh. "I've heard about that part in my dreams. I even saw it happen in one of them. But that's not the important part. The vital part was what happened to Deanna and Natasha's child."

"A child who doessssn't exist yet!" Jengh returned. "Or have you changed your mind again and decided it could be their daughter Carla after all?"

"He does exist. You just don't know it yet."

"Oh, I see. Riddles. I should expect nothing better from you."

"I'm not riddling!" Brehen snapped, gripping the bars of his cell with sudden rage, sticking his head out as far as he could. "The answer is perfectly obvious, but you're too much of a fool to understand! It's begun now, and if you don't kill Natasha's son, he'll -"

Jengh delivered a punch to Brehen's jaw that sent him sprawling across the floor, spitting out blood and a pair of teeth.

It was a lot gentler than what Jengh would have liked to do to him, but it would satisfy him for the moment. He made his way back up the prison hall, humming a new tune.