Through dark, winding caverns, a mysterious figure moved onward. Onward and onward the figure strode, past ancient cavern walls that, though light from the outside could not possibly reach this far down, still seemed possessed with some strange ethereal glow. Just enough light to see one's direction, but not enough for anything else. Like life, just enough light was provided for the path to be seen, but not yet for full illumination.

The figure bypassed massive nooks and hidden chambers, going deeper, deeper, ever deeper into the very earth. It seemed as though this figure would go ever onward, even to the very center of the Earth itself, for there seemed to be no end to the twists and turns of this ancient tunnel system, which just seemed to move forward forever no matter how far one went.

But then, just like that, out of darkness, there appeared a wall. A large wall made of sandstone, yellow once in its prime but now greyed completely by the union of time and night which these caverns produced. Now, to most, this would seem to be the end of the journey, or at least the end of this particular pathway. But this one knew better. Slowly, this figure stepped forward and placed a paw gently upon the stone, in just the right place.

With a blast of air like a trumpet, the mid-part of the wall slid down to reveal something else. Not a room, not yet, but there was a pedestal, and on this pedestal, cast in bronze, was a head. Though its face was still covered in darkness, it was not difficult to make out the thin and sharp Egyptian features or the long, curled beard which flowed down like a waterfall. Of the face itself, the only feature that could be made out was the two eyes, burning red through the gloom, for they were both rubies. The head was topped and surrounded by a large helm like a pharaonic crown that seemed to stretch upwards forever into the impenetrable blackness above.

And then, out of nowhere, a voice was heard. A voice coming from the head itself. "All who seek access into this chamber must answer this question: What makes the fool cry but makes the sage laugh?"

"The impermanence of things," answered Ambrose's strong, wise voice.

As soon as it was said, the statue was gone and the wall fell away to reveal a huge chamber, bathed in the ancient light of torches which were still aglow despite having been lit before recorded memory. The whole room itself was gold, gold in every particular, from the floor to the walls. Everywhere one looked, they would see gold, gold, and precious jewels of all sorts glittering in the walls of this chamber, which seemed either to be of eight or of nine sides, depending on the direction from which one looked.

The only place that seemed not totally dominated by the gleam of gold was the high-vaulted ceiling above, seeming to be as far from the floor as the sky from the earth, which was painted a dark midnight-blue. And on the ceiling were figures of all the stars and planets in gold and silver and in precious gems of all sorts, moving around and around, crossing the mercury-stained Milky Way as they mimicked eternally their models' movements in the heavens, tracing out the ancient course until that time when all planets and stars return to their original positions, completing the Great Year and turning the wheel of the ages once more.

There were on each side of this room two giant pillars of sandstone. Both rose almost to the ceiling above, where one was topped by a golden sun and the other by a silver moon. And along them ran hieroglyphs carved by Egyptian hands long, long ago, when their meaning was still known to mankind. And this golden sun and this silver moon were the forms around which all the gleaming stars and planets turned, as though they were the king and the queen of the whole of the heavens.

And there was something else upon the pillars. From the sun spiraled down a line of golden-red roses carved into the sandstone and painted, crossing through and separating the lines of hieroglyphs until they reached the very base, where it was seen that the pillar was mounted on a giant red-painted rose. Similarly, from the moon a spiral of silver-white lilies danced their way down across countless Egyptian word-figures until they too reached their base, where was found the pillar's support; a giant white lily.

And in the very back of the room, on an ornate golden pedestal was a giant tablet, fashioned out of pure, jeweled emerald itself. And on this tablet these words appear, "It is true, without falsehood, certain and truest, what is below is as what is above, and what is above is as what is below, all to perform the marvels of the one thing. For as all was created from One, by the meditation of One, thus all things are born from this one thing, by adaptation…." and so on as those famous lines run.

But the centerpiece of this whole place was, fittingly, in the very center of the room. There, on another pedestal that was equal parts gold and silver, and in fact the gold and silver rolled together like two snakes intertwining into a single thing. And upon this pedestal was a jeweled stone, ruby red in color and shimmering powerfully in the golden light.

It was not a very large thing and you might have expected more, but Ambrose knew to respect what he saw. He approached it slowly and reverently, delicately grasping it in his paws and finding, as always, that like wisdom, it weighed much more than it looked. And as he touched it, a golden glow flowed through it and golden and silver sparks found their way out of its cracks.

"The Philosopher's Stone," he said. "I vowed once that I'd never use this again. But now, there is no other way."*

Then he looked up, looking to the Pillars of Wisdom on either side of him. "If the union of the red Rose and the white Lily is to be achieved in our time, there is no other way."

Tarquin looked out over his dominion as the sun slowly disappeared behind into the west and the whole valley was bathed in an orange glow. Tarquin should have been, for all intents and purposes, very happy. He had managed to finally take everything from Kate that he thought needed to be taken, and he was certain that she had taken care of her own life for him by now. He had won, just as he always did. He had won. It was a day for celebrating, and he should have been happy. But he was not happy, not at all.

Whenever Tarquin thought back over all he had done and said to hurt Kate, to take everything from her, to destroy her, the image he wanted of her – of that broken, torn apart, weak little she-wolf that she finally revealed herself to be and he always had known she was underneath – never appeared. In fact, it was never Kate's image that appeared.

Rather, it was those lavender eyes and that white fur. For some reason, the look on that Omega's face as she plunged into the clouds would never leave Tarquin's mind. Though he told himself that Lilly was weak, spineless, and better off dead, somehow he could not get his mind not to think about her.

Lilly? He even remembered her name? What is wrong with me? Tarquin thought.

Tarquin silently berated himself. So many had died by his orders already, why should this one wolf make any difference? Tarquin knew that she should not. And yet….

He sighed. He knew why.

"You were just like me," he muttered to the wind. "Lilly, why couldn't you see it? We two were exactly alike, we two were both wronged by Kate, and we two both had what it took to make the world pay for it."

A look of sadness flashed across his face. "So why? Why didn't you listen to me? Why didn't you join me so that we could bring her down together? You were the one person who could have understood, who could have aided me in my endeavor to become the ruler of this whole little world. So, why did you choose to die? When I would have prevented your death, why did you have to prevent me from sparing your life?"

"Well…. I never thought I'd hear you weeping over her!" came a voice behind him, a broken, crackling voice.

Tarquin perned around to find Mallt, dark witch of the dark caverns, standing directly behind him.

Mallt grinned maliciously. "Just a girl, was she? Nothing special about her at all, eh? Then why do you care so much?"

"Who says I care at all?" Tarquin snapped. "It was just a momentary fluttering of a thought, nothing more. I was just thinking she could have been great, had she joined me, because that is what I do."

"Oh, really?"

Tarquin nodded, avoiding Mallt's wicked glare. "Yes. I make people great. That's what I do. I turned Justin into a great leader, didn't I? And I even gave that cockroach Benny a chance to be something decent for a change! But Lilly wouldn't have any of it, and so she deserved to die!"

"Someone still thinks highly of themselves, even after everything…." Mallt waved her paw menacingly at Tarquin, not to use it, but just as a mockery to make him fear.

"Oh, be quiet, hag!" Tarquin said as he walked past her.

At which point, he felt the air-passages in his throat begin to close around him. And then, somehow, without his making any motion at all, he began to turn slowly around. There was Mallt, foul witch of the dark caverns, smirking sinisterly at him.

"Don't you forget, Tarquin the Proud, that I can see into the depths of your very soul. I can see the pathetic regret you have there for this one action, you who were never shamed by anything in your whole life!"

Tarquin then felt himself thrown to the ground. He lay there for a moment, embarrassed by once again having been so easily dispatched by a fail old female. He had nothing to do, there was nothing he could say, that would reverse it. But he knew he needed to force himself up and hide his humiliation. So he did, but as he did so, Mallt said, in a sinister kind of casual voice, "But you have no need to feel so bad. The white wolf lives."

"What? She lives?" Tarquin said with a start, finding that he could speak once more.

"She lives, but does she live?" Mallt said. "Yes, she lives. Though not for very long, because I still intend to have my price and my prize."

"But how?" Tarquin gasped. "How could she still be alive? She fell from the cliff there, right from the top of the mountain…. How could she ever survive that?"

Mallt growled, though luckily for Tarquin, it seemed not to be directed at him this time. Or at least, he hoped it was not.

"It was that shaman…." Mallt said. "That shaman used his parlor-tricks to save her!"

"What? The shaman…. So that explains it," Tarquin said, his eyes glimmering with dark understanding. But when he looked back to Mallt, a new question had filled his eyes. "Wait, so this means Lilly… has joined the rebels? Those filthy rebels and bandits who deserve to be impaled on incredibly large and painful spikes?"

"Yes, joined…." Mallt said, in barely above a whisper.

Tarquin was on his feet and pacing. He did not even bother to pick up his jeweled scepter.

"Ooh, those rebels, those accursed rebels!" he yelped. "They insist on trying to take everything from me! But I tell you this, hag! If those rebels think I'm going to let them team up with a Jasper wolf, especially her, they have another thing coming! As far as I'm concerned, with Lilly betraying me like this, I intend to show her no more mercy! When I capture her, I'll have her tied to stampeding caribou and torn apart!"

And then, his pacing stopped dead, for he felt the ghostly hand of chill air close around his throat again. "Ah-ah-ah," Mallt said. "She's mine, remember?"

As soon as Tarquin felt himself able to breathe again, he turned on Mallt. "Why should I give her to you? What good have you done me? You just come in here, insult me, destroy my den, and then insist you should get your half of the bargain! Well, what have you ever done for me that I should let you have her?"

"As I said once before," Mallt responded darkly. "I wasn't making a bargain. I will have her soul whether you agree to it or not…."

Tarquin braced himself as he prepared for Mallt to once more do something painful and potentially deadly to him. But to his surprise, she did nothing.

Nothing but smile. "Very well," she said in a harsh whisper. "But if you want something in return, very well. It suits me to give it to you. For I know where the shaman and his forces are, and I could bring you to them."

Tarquin raised a wolf-brow. "But… why? Why do you need me for that? You're the one who's always going on about how you don't actually need me for anything."

"I don't need you," Mallt said. "But you could be useful to me. If you lead your forces to assault their camp, it would distract the shaman long enough that I could get Lilly without having to fight for her…."

"I thought you'd have no problem defeating that 'fake shaman'" Tarquin retorted.

"I wouldn't…." Mallt said. If she was annoyed by this, she did not show it. Rather, she acted with the smug superiority of a great mind trying to explain an advanced concept to a much simpler one and viewing the simpler's failure to understand merely as proof of her own genius.

"But why shouldn't I do something that would save me the hassle of it in the first place?"

Tarquin cocked his head and considered this. "That actually… makes complete sense."

"And it would give you a chance to destroy two enemies at the same time," Mallt added.

"Yes…." Tarquin said as he looked down, thinking. "I'll have to consider it."

"There is no consideration," Mallt responded. "I am telling you that you will serve as a distraction, not asking it."

Tarquin now caught sight of his scepter and grabbed it, lifted it up, studied it. "Oh, really?"

He turned on Mallt again. "And just what makes you think you can order the Emperor of All Wolves around like this?"

Mallt lifted up her paws to place another hex on his head, but Tarquin waved his scepter as though he thought it contained some power that would counter her magic.

"May I remind you that you aren't the only one with immense and terrible power?" he snapped.

Mallt seemed to chuckle, a fierce chuckling which sent shivers down Tarquin's spine. But he wasn't about to back down now.

"Just who do you think you are, anyway?" she said.

"Well, you should know it, if you're so all-knowing," Tarquin said with a sneer. "But I'll explain it to you if you can't possibly figure out something so obvious."

"Go ahead," Mallt said, with the tone of 'I'll give you just enough rope so that I can hang you later.'

Tarquin cast his eyes upward as he cast his mind into the past. "I remember when I was just a pup, of about three months or so," he reminisced. "Even then, I wanted to be the best there was. My mom and dad used to tell me I could be the greatest pack leader in the whole of the Yukon. But I always knew that I was meant for more than that. I was always meant for something bigger and better than all that. Don't you understand, crone? I was meant for more!

"And then, one day, I was wandering through the forest just outside of the valley when I came upon a monk. Now I know what you're thinking; how can a wolf be a monk? But he lived in a monastery, so there you are. And I came across him one day and he immediately was a amazed. Practically fell at my feet, took me by the paw, and told me this:

"He told me that I was destined to be more than just a pack leader. He said I was destined to be the last great Emperor of the whole world, born to bring in universal peace, born to never die. He told me that there is a new age coming but that every age needs a leader to bring it about. And he said that leader was me, but that I had to be willing to do whatever was necessary to fulfill my destiny. That I had to stop at nothing until all was mine beneath the changing heavens.

"And from that day to this, I haven't let anything come between me and my destiny. I have done everything necessary to make myself ruler of the whole world, just as he said I someday would be and which I know I someday must be. Which is why, crone, you have to respect me and recognize me as Emperor and not just boss me around!"

When Tarquin finished his rant, he realizing something. Mallt had disappeared right out from under him while he was absorbed in talking. But in the biting wind, he heard the whispers of her voice.

"Believe whatever you want, for it does not matter anyway. But be ready, when I come for you. Be ready to lead your forces against the rebels…. Tomorrow night."

Tarquin looked upon into the darkening sky, vainly searching for some answer amongst the stars that were just beginning to shine through the orange-blue haze. But at last, he had to give up.

As he turned away, he muttered, "Witches, shamans, the whole lot of them are no good. I think I'll issue an edict banning them all when this is all over."

What he did not know was that Mallt was still watching him from another peak, though not one nearly as tall. Yet, somehow, her blind eyes saw him just as well here as if she had still been standing right before him. And so did the eyes of her companion.

The companion was a slender grey and white wolf who hid her face under a large black cloak. It was not surprising that she did this, either, as the long and frightful scars running down her snout surely gave a reliable indication of what was underneath the hood. Perhaps it was this which caused one so young and otherwise so beautiful to turn to such ancient and ugly works as those of the witches of the dark caverns.

"Sister, I don't know if we should be telling the gold wolf all of our secrets…." she protested.

"Nonsense, child," Mallt snapped, with a voice practically daring the younger wolf to argue. "You are still too young and have too much to learn. Tarquin is playing along just as I want him to, and one like him could never be wiser even if I gave him all the knowledge I myself possess! He shall follow through as we want him to and he shall learn not to question our orders."

"I meant no disrespect, sister, but it just seems like we could capture Lilly much more easily if we didn't resort to all these schemes!"

Mallt turned her evil eyes upon the young adept, who did her absolute best not to shutter and shiver and shake under them and almost succeeded. "Do you wish to question my judgment!" the old witch scolded. "Do you wish to dare challenge me? Do you want me to do the things to you that I've done to everyone who has ever crossed me? Well, girl?"

"No," the adept said quietly, clearly defeated.

"Good," Mallt said as she turned her gaze back on Tarquin. After a few moments, she added, "Everything is coming along nicely and it won't be long now before Lilly is all ours!"

And, just like shadows disappearing into the night, they were gone. Gone from that high place and back to the deep, foul caverns from whence they had come.

Hutch and Can-do sat together in the cavernous den which now seemed as empty as a vacant tomb since nearly all of its original occupants had gone. They had not moved from their places in hours, and both seemed too stunned to move. Their pack was falling apart, and they did not know what to do about it. They were Betas, trained to serve as seconds-in-command and uphold the pack. But putting a shattered pack together again – well, that was another whole area of expertise, one which they did not train you for in the Beta program.

Hutch knew he should go try to find Kate, but he did not know how his presence could help matters at all. Humphrey was out there and Hutch suspected that only Humphrey could save Kate from herself. Hutch may not have understood why such a forceful Alpha like Kate could be moved only by a casual and easy-going Omega like Humphrey, but he knew that it was so. So, for the good of the pack – or what was going to be left of the pack – he hoped that Humphrey would get through to her again.

And besides, Hutch thought, he could not leave Can-do alone. The little wolf was such a loose cannon that he always needed someone by his side, just keep him from going completely off the rails. Hutch suspected that Can-do probably had an even shorter fuse than usual, given all that had just occurred, and might use any chance he had to do something that would only harm the Jasper wolves more than they had already been harmed.

So Hutch decided that keeping an eye on Can-do was his first priority. And Can-do would be easier to keep an eye on as long as they both stayed in one spot.

"So…." Can-do said slowly to break the long silence. "Do you want to…."

"For the last time, Can-do, we are not eating bitter berries again!" Hutch snapped.

Then realizing what he had done (though Can-do seemed largely oblivious), Hutch said, "I'm sorry, Can-do. Things just have me on edge. Especially worrying about Kate."

Can-do nodded. "Do you think she'll be okay?" he asked, speaking more softly and with more concern than Hutch had ever thought him capable of.

"I wish I knew, Can-do, I wish I knew," Hutch said, shaking his head. "I'm just so worried about her."

"Well, don't worry. I'm just fine."

Hutch and Can-do's heads both flew toward the entryway to the cave. And there was Kate. She was being supported by Humphrey and her legs still looked a little weak but otherwise, she looked different than when she had left. Something had changed in her, the two Betas could tell. Gone was the defeated look, the pale eyes, the sickly fur. Now, before them once more was the strong, fearless Alpha they had always known, her bright hazel eyes burning with the flame of determination, matching the brilliant orange of the twilight sky behind her. She was the same now as she once had been.

But not completely the same. In her eyes, there was something new. Not just determination and pride, but something else and something more. Her eyes had become calmer and clearer. They were perhaps sadder than in earlier days but they also contained something else that no amount of sadness could erase – a sense of peace which no wolf had ever seen there before. These were the eyes of wisdom.

"Kate, are you–" Hutch began.

Kate nodded slowly and slightly. "Yes, Hutch, I'm fine," she said in a quiet but firm voice.

"All thanks to me," Humphrey added as he helped Kate walk into the cave.

"Yes, Humphrey, that's true," Kate said as she slowly and carefully sat down beside Hutch and Can-do, Humphrey supporting her all the while.

"But, ma'am, if I may ask, what happened?" Can-do said, still keeping his uncharacteristically quiet tone of voice.

"Humphrey saved my life; that's what happened," Kate said. "He saved my life… in more ways than one."

Hutch and even Can-do both turned their eyes gratefully toward Humphrey, who just waved it off. "It was nothing, really," he said.

"Now, Humphrey, it wasn't nothing and you know it," Kate said. "I wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for you. In fact, without you, I don't think our pack would have survived the journey all the way up here. You saved our pack." A moment later, she added, as though it was the most natural thing in the world, "And now it's time to save our pack again."

"But how do we do that, after everything that's happened?" Hutch asked.

"When is the next challenge, Edgar's challenge?" Kate asked.

"Tomorrow," Hutch answered.

"But it's an eastern pack affair now, and we won't be having any more to do with them!" Can-do said in response to Kate's pleased look, his old characteristic temper returning on the last few notes.

"I know why Garth said that, and he is technically right," Kate said, "but we can't just let the United Pack dissolve like that. We'll be there to support the Easterners in whatever way we can. Anything we can do to frustrate Tarquin and help Edgar win is more than enough."

Hutch, Can-do, and Humphrey exchanged looks that conveyed something between annoyance and embarrassment.

"What?" Kate said, smiling a little at their response. Now she knew how Humphrey felt just before being told about Alpha School electives. Oh well, she thought, it's probably my turn to soak up some embarrassment in return.

"Well, Kate, not to sound critical or anything…" Humphrey said, "but you had us up to the part about helping Edgar."

Hutch and Can-do swiftly nodded their agreement.

Kate chuckled and rolled her eyes playfully. "Oh, you guys, I know you don't like Edgar. Neither do I. But, as far as I'm concerned, he's still a pack member and we're still a United Pack. So we have to help each other through thick and through thin, no matter what."

"She's changed," Hutch whispered to Humphrey. "That doesn't sound like the Kate I know."

Humphrey just smiled. "What can I say? Brand-new Kate… almost…."

Kate's ears had picked up on the conversation, and this gave her another thing to smile about. "I'm not the Kate you knew before. I don't want to be that Kate anymore. I let my need to be the best control me, and that's not something I want to endanger my pack anymore. Instead of focusing on being the best over everyone else, now's the time that I need to start focusing on being the best in myself."

"You have changed!" Can-do said. "I bet Tarquin's going to be furious when he realizes what's happened with you."

"Of course he will," Kate said, "and the sooner he knows that he can't break us, the better. Which is also why we have to be there for the Garth and Edgar tomorrow."

"When you put it that way, ma'am, I don't think we can argue," Hutch said. "We still need to stop Tarquin and save our pack. And I for one am glad to see you feeling so much better."

"As am I!" Can-do quickly affirmed.

"Hey, don't forget about me!" Humphrey said playfully. "I'm pretty glad myself!"

"What can I say?" Kate responded, sending a thankful glance Humphrey's way. "I may not be totally a brand-new Kate, but it is a brand-new day. And we've got to start making the most of it!"

It was just after nightfall as Ficino wandered down the dark caverns that led into the rich earth beneath Mount Teufelsdröckh. He was not looking for anything in particular, but since everyone had retired to whatever they preferred to do in the evenings, he was now looking for some way to spend his own time. His poultry experiments had been less than a success today, and he felt the need for comradeship and companionship to cheer himself up.

Yet, Ficino did not seem to wander into anyone he particularly cared to be around. The first room he came to, in fact, was quite a place he would rather not be. For in this room it seemed that the whole of the Saint-Simon Pack had gathered. And at their head was Leon, waving a little red book in his hand and rambling almost as wildly as Ficino had come to expect from Savvy himself. Marianne was by his side, but was otherwise not doing anything. She was letting Leon have his moment in the spotlight and listening the most raptly of any of the assembled company.

"Don't you understand, comrades?" he said, bouncing his paw on the book for emphasis. "These other so-called 'rebels' against Tarquin's authority are all class-traitors, all just as hungry for power as he is! They don't care about you, they don't care about the revolution, and like so many capitalist money-grubbing pigs before them, they must be toppled if the proletariat is ever to take its rightful place in society!"

However, for being communists, the rest of the pack seemed decidedly unimpressed.

"Well, what are you looking at?" Leon snapped. "Don't you understand the truth? They're just imperialist pigs looking to get fat by oppressing the workers. It's the same story as all of history. Do you really believe we should follow them? Isn't it time we overthrew all oppressors and brought in the new era of peace and prosperity for all of the common people?"

Now, one of the wolves in the pack spoke up. "But that's what Savvy's promising to do! You heard him – 'Quickly and soon!' he says, the new age will come when war will be no more and there will be peace in the Yukon forever. And there will be no pain or suffering or death any more. Isn't that the same thing you're talking about?"

Leon's eyes grew furious and he began to wave his little book around rapidly. "No, the two of us are completely different, as different as a profiteering mercenary and a hero of the revolution!"

"You're right, you're completely different," said an older wolf in the back.

"Thank you," Leon said.

"When Savvy says something," the older wolf continued, "it actually happens."

Leon stamped his back left foot on the ground and let out a loud growl. "Can't you people see anything? This phony preacher doesn't offer you freedom, just more slavery! All he's saying about his goddess, it's the opiate of the masses! It's just designed to keep you people from recognizing that you're all being oppressed!"

"I don't feel oppressed," the young wolf in the front said. "Savvy has said that if we follow him and Rienzi, we'll all finally be free!"

"Listen, you," Leon barked, "that's the whole point of it! You don't need to follow any leaders! Leaders just want to make themselves the new kings and aristocrats and don't care about you at all! We're fighting so that there won't be any leaders any more, just a universal brotherhood of wolves."

"Then what are you?" the old wolf asked.

Leon looked with concern to Marianne, who returned his look with an equally baffled one of her own, before continuing, "I am not here to oppress you or to lead you straight off of a cliff. Everything I do, I do for the good of you people, so that you won't live broken lives anymore, that you won't have to be controlled by anyone anymore. So, shut up and just do what I tell you!"

"Somebody really thinks highly of themselves," said the old wolf.

Leon gritted his teeth as more and more wolves shook their heads and voiced their agreement with the older one. Ficino could clearly see that he knew he was losing control of the situation.

To regain it, Leon threw up a fist and shouted, "Omegas of the world, unite!"

"I thought you were an Alpha!" said the young wolf to general applause, causing Leon to start bashing his head against his little red book.

Ficino could not help but chuckle at this display. "And who says you need to be intellectual to be a communist?" he said. Seeing that Leon was just losing more and more control of the meeting and feeling cheered up immensely by it, Ficino decided to continue on and find more genial company.

He wandered further for some ways, passing through the tunnels which miners had made in the long-gone old days of the last great Gold Rush and which had now been occupied by wolves for their dens. But he found no one he particularly wanted to talk to. That is until he reached a den somewhat far down the Saint-Marc side of the tunnels. There, standing before him, was the maroon and white form of Rienzi. Though his leader was usually alert to anything, Ficino noted that Rienzi did not seem to notice him walking up. Rather, all the Tribune's senses were completely focused on what was in the small cave in front of him.

As Ficino walked up beside him, he saw that in that cave, that den, was Lilly. She was laying gently and delicately curved into a ball, her eyes closed and her mouth curved into the placid smile of a sunny dream. Beside and just above her, Arnold was sitting in a little nook and also seemed to be fast asleep.

"I'm not disturbing anything, am I, sir?" Ficino asked politely.

However polite it might have been, it still gave Rienzi something of a start, though he managed to maintain his composure well enough. He turned to Ficino.

"No, you're not," he said. "I was just sitting here and thinking."

"Thinking about her, yes?" Ficino said with a knowing smile.

"Yes," Rienzi said.

"I knew it! I knew it!" Ficino proclaimed smugly. "You see, I've got a scholar's brain. I'm trained to analyze things in depth like this and discover things that the normal person wouldn't see. Things like that."

Rienzi looked from Lilly to Ficino and back again with in bemusement. If Ficino had been a bit more observant, he might have realized that Rienzi was trying to figure out how the grey wolf believed a normal person could not be able to figure that out.

But Rienzi was quick to get past this and to speak. "Yes, I was thinking of her. It just seems like such a shame. She's so young, so inexperienced, so–"

"I think the term you're looking for is naïve, sir," Ficino responded. "The French also have a word for it; naïve."

"Yes, Ficino, I know," Rienzi responded. "But I just can't stop thinking that she doesn't belong here, not with us. She has a life ahead of her, a family and a pack to call her own. She's not like us, who have lost everything."

"But the prophet says that she's the messenger of the goddess Aurora. So she was sent to us with a purpose, for a reason."

Rienzi sighed. "Now who's being naïve?" he said under his breath.

"I'm sorry?" Ficino said, being a little hard of hearing.

"Nothing," Rienzi answered. "But tell me, do you know where Savvy is now?"

Ficino nodded. "He's gone with Dominic and Silvester down into the caves to contact the goddess again. He says that we have to move against Tarquin soon, that it's time to step up the raids, and he wants the goddess' directions on that. Since they were going into a very unstable section, Pico sent Bruno down with them, despite Savvy's being quite unhappy about it. I really don't see the need; the goddess will protect the prophet, no matter what."

"Well, at least he's not outside doing who-knows-what he does out there," Rienzi said. "As long as he's doing it in here, he'll be easier to keep a hold of so that he doesn't get us into more trouble. Not that he's ever particularly easy to keep a hold of, mind."

What neither Rienzi nor Ficino noticed as they were talking was that a signle lavender eye had become visible inside of the den. Lilly quickly closed it again with a furtive smile as Rienzi turned back to look at her once more.

But quickly, Rienzi turned back to Ficino. "Tell me, Ficino," he said, "you're 'a gentleman and a scholar,' why do you think everybody is just so willing to believe everything Savvy says?"

"Don't you believe him?" Ficino asked with some surprise.

"I don't know," Rienzi answered. "Some days I believe him. Some days I believe he's leading us all into some giant catastrophe. But some days…."

"Everything he has foretold so far has come to pass," Ficino pointed out.

"Not everything," Rienzi countered. "Not the fire in the sky that he has been going on and on about forever."

"No, not yet," Ficino said, "but he did predict that you would come, the White Knight. And he predicted that a white wolf would come to us from the sky."

Rienzi shook his head in disgust. "Her! Why did he have to drag her into this, Ficino? Me, fine, I'll play his game. I've already lost Rosaline and everything, so what do I care?"

Ficino's eyes narrowed. "Who's Rosaline?"

But Rienzi did not have the inclination to answer and was too preoccupied with their main topic to digress. "But why does he have to get this innocent pup involved in something that she can't possibly understand?"

"Who says she can't understand?" Ficino responded. "'Out of the mouths of babes,'** and all that…."

Rienzi just shook his head again.

"He did say you two were destined, prophesized, long-awaited," Ficino said.

"I know, I know!" Rienzi snapped back. "He's twisted just about every prophecy he can think of to fit us in all snug and tight! I wouldn't be surprised if he's started telling people one of us is the Veiled One returned from out of the mists of time!"

"Well, actually…."

"Oh, Ficino, I just don't want to hear it!"

"I was just saying, that with all the signs, that prophecy would not be such a leap, either."

Rienzi nodded a little. "Certainly, it's the one everybody already knew."

Ficino's features suddenly brightened, shining with the light of something just remembered. "Oh, and he is saying it. So there's that."

Rienzi sighed. "He never gives up, does he? He's going to get us all killed one of these days. I mean, when he can do anything because 'the prophecy says it', what's to stop him from leading us all into utter destruction?"

"But what if you really are children of destiny?" Ficino asked as he moved closer to Rienzi. "Then it wouldn't matter, because nothing could stand against you!"

"That's an awfully big 'if'," Rienzi responded. "And it's not the type of thing that I want to be banking everything on. You can't just trust in that to save you when everything else is against you. We need to save ourselves, too."

Rienzi turned around as he heard Ficino chuckle. He saw that the older wolf was now staring at him with a very smug look, as a tutor might look when explaining something difficult to his newest pupil.

"Now see, this is where it pays to know history," Ficino said, pointing up into the air and being the very model of a history professor. "For I think this will show you how wrong that sort of thinking is. You see, I seem to remember that there was once a King of Portugal."***

Rienzi rolled his eyes as he realized Ficino was intent on giving another lecture.

Ficino continued, "You see, for about a century beforehand, the Portuguese people had been awaiting a great king to come and restore their nation to its former glory. All the greatest teachers and prophets of the time had long predicted his coming, and everybody knew that when he became king, nothing could stand between him and making Portugal the greatest and most powerful nation on Earth. They were so certain that they were able to predict exactly the moment of his birth. And when he was born, there was much rejoicing throughout the land, for people knew that he was their long-awaited savior.

"He was the king prophesized to defeat all of Portugal's enemies, and he knew it. So once he became king, he raised a mighty army to cross over the sea and destroy the nation's greatest enemy once and for all. Sure, another, a lesser king might have worried about the fact that his army was still far out-numbered, that it was far from home with no supply lines or support, and no real idea of how to survive, but not this King! No, he knew that he was Portugal's prophesized savior, that he was destined to lead them to a new age, and that no one and nothing could stand between him and that great destiny laid out for him long ago. And so he led his army into battle anyway."

"And what happened?" Rienzi asked skeptically as Ficino seemed to congratulate himself on what he considered another superb history lesson.

"They were wiped out almost to a man and the king was never seen again," Ficino answered, "but I hardly see how that's relevant."

"Don't see how that's relevant, don't see how that's relevant?" Rienzi said. "They all got killed! How does that not prove my point?"

"Because," Ficino said, with that annoying air as though he had been expecting this question all along, "once the king was gone, the people started saying that someday he would return, and then he would complete his destiny and restore Portugal to glory. And so he's still expected to this day."

"So, what you're saying…." Rienzi said, quickly piecing this all together in his head. "Is that it didn't matter at all that this man ever lived, since the prophecies just kept on going without him. To think, raised to be a figure of prophecy, and it doesn't even matter then if you win or lose, live or die because it's the prophecy and not the man people care about! You can just disappear off the face of the earth and nobody will care at all, because the prophecy was all that people really wanted or needed, not a real person!"

"Precisely," Ficino said with a smug nod. But then he hurriedly began shaking his head. "I mean, no! No, that's not what I meant at all!"

"Then what do you mean?" Rienzi asked, putting a paw to his head in frustration. "All this scholarly talk is too hard to understand!"

Ficino shook his head some more and then tried to calm down. Once he was calm, he spoke again, "What I was trying to say is, that a prophecy is a powerful force because people believe in it, whether it's true or not. And if enough people believe in it, isn't it as good as true? If it's the thing that moves everybody, that guides their lives, that leads them to act in a way that was different than how they ever would have acted before… isn't real, somehow, to do all that? At that point, doesn't it become true?"

Ficino received no response. When he looked to see why, he found that Rienzi was staring at Lilly once more.

"But now, may I ask you something?" Ficino said to break the silence.

"Nothing's ever stopped you before," Rienzi answered.

"If you don't believe in Savvy, why do you listen to him? Why are you even here, leading this alliance, when it's completely based around his prophecies and his ideas?"

Rienzi sighed and was once again silent for a moment. And then he answered. "There is something… something about our time, isn't there?"

"I'm not sure I follow," Ficino responded.

"Come on, you must sense it," Rienzi said. "You must have sensed it while just wandering through here. You must have thought that you could do the same things you do every night, with the same people, in the same way, and everything could just be the same as it always is, or that you could do something… something else…."

"Something else?"

"Something more. That's the whole point of it, isn't it? That there's something more out there."

"More, like what?"

Rienzi held his paw to his mouth. "I don't know. But… it feels like… something. Something other than this life we've always known. Something other than being born into the pack, finding your rank in the pack, finding a mate and producing pups to do it all over again, and then just dying so that it's like you never lived and you won't be remembered even by your grandchildren, much less their grandchildren."

After a pause, Rienzi added, "We've seen what that life leads to. Isn't it about time we started to wonder if there's anything better? Better than just doing the same thing over and over, day after day, with no point and no purpose? Isn't there anything that isn't a half-life, dead-life, but that is actually worth searching for?"

"That's what Savvy promises," Ficino noted solemnly.

Rienzi nodded with a small, sad, smile. He had been waiting for this response, and now was his turn to act like the triumphant teacher leading his student to truth. "Yes, and that is why we're all here, whether we believe his promises or not. Because we want to believe – we want to believe that there is something more for us than life as usual. Something more in us, too."

"Yes, I suppose that's true," Ficino reflected. "Even Leon wants something like that, no matter how much he refuses to accept the prophet's vision."

"Now, if Savvy could stick to that instead of trying to prop up a messiah every five minutes, that's a message that could move mountains," Rienzi said.

They were silent for a few moments as both took things in. And then Ficino spoke, "But you can't really feel that way. I admit, the rest of us, we've got nothing, but look at you! You're always doing something important for the alliance, something heroic and something which will make all Yukon wolves speak of you for a thou–"

A stern look from Rienzi made Ficino stop what he was saying and back up. "I mean, they'll speak for you for a long time. So why worry about it?"

Rienzi looked back to Lilly, though he was only half-looking at her now. "True, I am become a name. And yet…."

"Yet?"

"'All experience is but an arch wherethro' gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades for ever and for ever when I move.'"****

"Ulysses said that," Rienzi said after a few moments silence.

"Oh, Ulysses S. Grant?" asked Ficino, trying to sound knowledgeable.

A somber "no" was all Rienzi responded.

And Ficino felt his skin burning red beneath the grey fur on his face. As the resident scholar of the alliance, he could not help but feel embarrassed at getting something historical wrong. And feeling embarrassed, he could think of nothing that seemed better than getting out of his leader's company as fast as he could.

"Okay, well, I think all be going now," he said.

He got no response; Rienzi did not bother to stop him.

Once Ficino was gone, Rienzi continued to stare at Lilly.

"Were you the lucky one, Rosaline, that you didn't have to deal with these feelings?" he whispered. "Or are you the unlucky one, dying before they could reach fulfillment? Your life was not my life and I was fine with that once."

As he turned away and began to move, he added, "But not anymore. What Nicholas could have always been, Rienzi can never be. I must keep going, keep searching, until I find that thing which makes life worth living. I must continue on without resting until, somehow or other, I find that untraveled world."

When he was gone, Lilly's eyes fluttered open and she pushed herself up into a sitting position.

"Arnold, are you awake?" she whispered gently as she tapped him equally-gently on the shoulder.

"Well, I am now," responded the bird. "Thank you so much for that."

"Oh, sorry," Lilly responded with a look of true regret. "I didn't want to wake you or anything, but I needed someone to talk to."

"And what am I, then? Your diary?" Arnold sniped back.

"You know," Lilly said, continuing unabated, "I just want someone to take me seriously for once. All my problems at home were because mom and dad and Kate and Humphrey and even Garth, none of them ever took me seriously. They all treated me like a child, even though I'm not a child anymore."

"You still whine like one, so I'm going to say that it was an easy mistake to make," Arnold responded.

"But here, I thought things would be different. I thought, since nobody had known me as the baby of the family, that people would think of me differently. That I could actually be appreciated and trusted, rather than just being pushed off to the side when the important things come up. But now look at how Rienzi talks about me!"

"Again, I was sleeping. If he's been talking about you in the last hour, I wouldn't have heard it." After a pause, Arnold added, "Not that I'd have noticed anyway. I'm getting rather good at tuning you wolves out."

Lilly shook her head. "I guess he doesn't think any more about me than Garth did."

Arnold rolled his eyes in the kind of impressive circular motion that would come naturally to an owl. "Oh, get over yourself! Look, the rest of the wolves think of you as a goddess. Who really cares if one or two of them don't? You've got it good enough, so why complain."

Lilly considered this for a moment. "I guess you're right," said she. "I just wish… somehow…"

She felt like she could not speak any more. But she did. "I just wish the world would let me be more than the cursed wolf or the Omega or some goddess for once. I wish they'd just stop trying to make me what they want and let me be what I want to be for a change."

Arnold raised his owl-brows in a manner meant to suggest how unimpressed he was, but perhaps suggesting just the opposite. "And what is that, pray tell?"

Lilly was caught off-guard, despite the logical nature of the response, and her face went blank. In mouth curved into a little "o" as her bright eyes filled with a mixture of confusion and anxiety.

As Arnold was about to say something, she finally began to speak. "Well, um, I… I guess I don't really know what I want to be. But no one ever let me decide before. And I just feel like there must be something for me out there other than what everybody's trying to make me be. There must be something…."

"More?" Arnold asked, supplying the word Lilly herself had hesitated to say.

"Yeah," Lilly answered, her eyes looking down to her right, displaying the hesitation she felt in using the exact words she had just heard Rienzi using. Now she felt like she understood him better than he ever had, even if she also still felt like he refused to understand her.

And then she jumped a bit.

"Did you see that?" she asked.

"See what?" Arnold responded grumpily.

"There was something there," Lilly said. "I saw it out of the corner of my eye. It looked like a miner."

"Then you need that white head of yours examined, because I didn't see nothing," Arnold responded. "And with eyes this big, I should be able to catch anything that goes on. And trust me, if there were any humans around – the only animal worse than a wolf, you know – I would be the first one squawking about it."

"Okay, I guess you're right," Lilly said, not wanting to argue the point. And she knew that Arnold probably was right. If he had seen a human, he would start crying and moaning, just as he did when the other wolves had found him.

But Lilly knew that she had seen something. She didn't know what it was, but it had been there. And if Arnold could not see it, Lilly knew that could only mean one thing. Lilith's unintentional gift of second sight had come into play once again. Something was down here with her, and she did not know what to make of it. Was it good or evil, here to help or hinder? She did not know.

But there was one thing Lilly did know; something big was happening, and it was happening quickly.

"Quickly and soon!" she thought she heard Savvy's voice echo from somewhere much deeper in the caverns. "Quickly and soon!"

* Remember from "A Jasper Ghost Story"?

** The Eighth Psalm

*** Sebastian, King of Portugal and the Algarves, (reigned 1557 – 1578 ), known as "The Desired One."

**** This line, and Rienzi's previous, from "Ulysses" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Shall the alliance survive, or shall Mallt and Tarquin have their victory?

Shall Edgar win his challenge?

And what is it that Lilly saw?

Read on.