K and K 50

Through Jenny, they talked the Elf down to the deck that was still open and had rope she could use when she was ready to try it with or without them. Aletha had seen them use the elevator several times and told them how it worked before she climbed down the rope they let her use.

Aletha had also told them that all of the Gnomes had said a certain word "Xentarich" before any of them went upstairs as she was taken up to the next level where she was raped. "I hope you kill him!" she spat out with pure venom. "Oh he dies, trust me, he dies," Kate assured her.

Kate and Kevin went up first and found themselves in a large open space that had stairs on one side along with four bronze doors that likely went into individual rooms. However it was the stairs that had her interest. Kate motioned Kevin over knowing that he could see her. "What is that?" Kate pointed to the top of the stairs. It looked a lot like the Stone Golem they had at home except this one was made out of metal. "Golem most likely," was Kevin's response. "Meaning we need a code word to get past it without having to fight it, just like home." Kate understood.

One room turned out to be a bathroom that actually had hot and cold running water while the discharge water was piped out of the Colossus. Another room turned out to be someone's bedroom. "There's an invisible book under the table," Kevin mentioned then picked it up and handed it to Rick who put it in his backpack for later.

"This door's locked," Kevin informed them and then shot his hands up in the air when he managed to solve the lock. He opened it then Kate quickly went inside with Jenny and her Staff right behind her.

This room, however, was not what they were expecting. There was a huge ruby, as big as any of the Gnomes, hovering in the center of the room. It gave off a red light that was actually pulsating. It was truly difficult to stay in the room for long as both of them soon found that their eyes were hurting. They went back outside to the others. "It's like a beating heart," Jenny said. Kate looked at her, a little surprised since she thought so too. "Is this what powers the Giant?" Rick asked.

"Hard to tell. It was difficult to see anything in that room. A ruby that eats diamonds for power though?" Kate questioned. The others had never heard of anything like it either. "How do we stop it from beating? I don't think we have anything that can even scratch it." Kate deflated since destroying the gem sounded like a way to stop this thing. "We go up I guess?" Kevin mentioned and reminded everyone of the code word, "Xentarich."

Each said the word before they even stepped a foot on the stairs loud enough for it to hear before Kevin went up slowly looking for any movement. Upstairs he found a hemispherical room set into the lower half of the head. Banks of controls appear to allow manipulation and control of the Colossus. There was also a large periscope in the center hanging from the ceiling. There were several chairs along the side in front of the controls with a single chair in the center. Each chair had a Gnome sitting in it. The one in the center was giving orders while the other Gnomes manned the controls.

They silently moved up onto the floor save for Rick and Lanie who were still on the stairs. Kevin and Javi saw that Kate was ready as she had her dagger poised to plunge it directly into the throat of the Gnome in the center.

Kevin, Javi, and Jenny each had an Elemental Gem out. Letting Jenny try and charm the Gnome in the center was compelling but Kate really wanted them all dead because they only had one more level to go. The three of them threw their Gems and got three Fire Elementals, which instantly attacked the Gnomes working the controls just as Kate plunged her dagger into the throat of the Gnome in the center. Kate followed up by yanking her dagger out diagonally ripping his throat open and watched as he literally choked on his own blood.

All of them were dead in seconds and the sound the Colossus gave off ceased. "The bracers on his arms are magic, as is his ring, the bag at his belt, as well as the cape over his shoulders. He has two magical potions, a magic wand, and a spell scroll," Kevin pointed out and mentioned the others carried nothing magical.

That left just one more level for them to explore. Rick made Jenny invisible again while Kate and Kevin reactivated their Rings. Kevin went up first followed closely by Kate. Everyone else, including the Elementals, stayed downstairs.

Here they found another hemispherical chamber made of walls of metal. Two great windows were softly glowing with a red crystal in the centers. However it was the... whatever it was, in the center strapped to a chair that was forced to look directly into the red crystals. Whatever it was was dressed in extremely fine clothes with a hood over its head. However it was the multiple snakes peeking out beneath the hood that had their attention. Kate made a face of disgust. Red crystals like pupils in an eye?

Kate was about to question something when suddenly there there red lights glowing everywhere along with a throbbing sound that had their attention. Both of them hurried back downstairs. "There was something strapped to a chair that had snakes in its hair," Kevin mentioned. "A Medusa, of course!" Rick smacked his head in annoyance with himself. "It's said that her gaze can turn living flesh into stone..." Kate interrupted him. "And she has snakes for hair. A creature like that actually exists?" To her it was just a myth, something in books or movies.

"We need to get out of here. The lights and sound tell me this thing's counting down to an explosion. It's about to blow itself to pieces with us in it, at least that's how it works in the movies back home." Kate warned them. "Let's move!" she shouted and started pushing. The only thing that slowed them down was the elevator and the stairs. "We're likely still in the river," Kevin pointed out since he was out front again. "The glider launching room!" Kate yelled.

When Kevin reached the room he found Althea throwing rope over the side, getting ready to get wet. Kevin and Kate took their rings off which shocked her and had her hand over her chest willing her heart to slow down. "Can we use our scrolls while in this room?" Kate questioned and they all heard a disembodied voice respond, "Yes."

"Start reading, everyone knows where we're going," Kate said and soon multiple voices said words until they finished reading their scrolls. Four semi-there horses instantly appeared as they mounted them and out the opening they went.

"Go Kev, I'll take her with me," Kate told him. They each pulled out their scrolls and began reading. Kate reached out a hand and helped Althea up after watching Kevin's horse launch out the opening. She pulled Althea's arms around her waist then hurried her horse out the opening.

Kate and the others were amazed at just how fast these things were. Trees, rocks...nothing slowed them down. Even running upstream against the river meant nothing to them. It was only when they got them to go around the waterfall that they even slowed down a little. Aletha closed her eyes and buried her head into Kate's back since she couldn't handle how fast everything went past them and hugged Kate a little tighter.

They blew past people in town and didn't stop until they reached the mirror that was still in the middle of the trees in the center of town. Kate urged everyone through the mirror as Rick actually pulled the female Elf along behind him. Kate took out an Earth Elemental Gem and crushed it. The Earth Elemental showed up instantly. "Destroy this mirror after I go through. Once you do that you are released." Then she turned and stepped through.

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They all watched as the view through their mirror ended and the mirror simply became a mirror reflecting their images. In moments three Cloud Giants entered and escorted all of them to Yuri since Guri was in Silverymoon doing her job.

Yuri promised to find a home for Aletha so they left her with the Cloud Giants. "Thank you!" Aletha mimed to each of them. Anything, even being on a different world was better than being raped repeatedly.

They were back home in no time and started going through everything they had after taking a shower and paying the blacksmith's two sons for their hard work. The Bracers of Armor were better than the ones Jenny was using so she replaced hers with those. The headband was a Headband of Intellect, the same as Rick's, so they left it for now to decide if anyone wanted it instead of selling it. The cape was another Cape of Mountebank just like the one Kate was wearing and had yet to use. The potions were Cure Moderate Wounds and Gaseous Form. The wand was a Wand of Magic Missile with 26 charges left. The bag was yet another Bag of Holding. And a scroll of Summon Monster IV.

They got off of the Drow a Wand of Web that had 21 charges left. The staff was a Staff of Pain with 32 charges left. The potions were Haste, Rage,and Tongues.

The vast amount of books that they brought home had indeed been too much for their library shelves and a good number of them were on the floor stacked one on top of the other. And then there were the magical books that he had to ID. One was a Tome of Ancient Lore (It contained every spell ever created, you simply had to read it using Read Magic Spell and transfer it to your spell book) and Tome of Books (each of its 250 pages can magically hold the entire contents of a single book. You simply place the book on the page and speak a word. Conversely you can open the book and speak the word to have the book that was stored come out for you to read.).

They also had 55,000 gold pieces of gold and platinum and one giant-sized emerald that they would find out was 40 carats. Kate had 32 diamonds of various sizes to go along with the first one she had dug out for 33 total. The first one was the largest of the lot, still they were all worth a good deal.

They sold the Drow armor and weapons, Staff of Pain, and Jenny's old Bracers of Armor. The Headband of Intellect was still up for discussion as was the Cape of Mountebank. Still at the end of the day they each had another 32,336 gold pieces to their names.

Kate now had just over 60,000 gold pieces to spend, while all the others had somewhere between 40,000 gold pieces and 50,000 gold pieces total plus what each of them still had from before. And every one of them had eyes on an item that they still couldn't afford. Respectively they needed another 30,000 gold pieces or more. Except for a few Elemental Gems each, all the gold pieces they spent was on their room at the inn and another delivery of food, hay, and oats. Though Kate did spend 1,000 gold pieces on bottle after bottle of the really good wine and stuffed them into her backpack.

She woke the next morning with Rick's naked body next to hers. They had made love to each other till they couldn't think straight anymore. Kate stroked a finger over his arm as he slept. "Please!" Kate buried her face into his shoulder. It wasn't her body, it was Katherine's and even when she was older it would still be Katherine's body, not hers.

She could only hope that Katherine was capable of getting pregnant or that Rick could get her pregnant.

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Katherine and Alexis had looked at three different apartments so far and needed to make a choice. They had flown there and gotten a hotel room then told Simon he could go where he pleased. "You can stay here if you wish and I'll get you a hotel room or you can go back to New York. I won't need you till the end of summer at the earliest. If that changes I'll call you," Katherine had told him. He had elected to take a hotel room for a week so he could spend some time in Copenhagen and then flew back to New York to spend time with Dina.

"Let's go over them one by one. The last one was literally on the Nyhavn Canal," Alexis stated. "It had those fake hardwood floors, three large windows, the kitchen was tiny, and the oven wasn't even IN the kitchen! It was around the corner almost in the living room." Katherine wasn't impressed. Alexis removed it from the list.

Alexis looked at the next one on her list and said, "The next one is also on the Nyhavn Canal and is on the third floor with no elevator." Katherine gave her opinion of that apartment. "It had real hardwood floors though they were really light with a sort of whitewashed look. The second bedroom was tiny. Even the twin bed that was in the corner barely fit. The kitchen was nice and had an American style refrigerator/freezer. It also had a small table in the kitchen to eat on." Alexis asked, "Keep it on the list?" and watched Katherine nod.

"The last one is a little off the same canal so it doesn't have as good a view," Alexis pointed out. "That one had the same fake floors as the first one though they were darker in color. The kitchen in that one was the tiniest of the three. Almost no counter space and minimal cabinets. The dining room was bigger than we need since it seated eight," Katherine mentioned.

"Are we thinking the same one?" Alexis asked. "If you mean the second one, then yes, we're thinking the same one," Katherine told her as Alexis hugged her. "We're going to get a workout going up and down three flights of stairs sometimes loaded down with groceries," Katherine pointed out. "Let's go get it before someone else takes it," Alexis urged, and moments later they had a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment for US$ 2,282 a month with a 3 month lease.

Next came the search for scooters. Alexis loved the electric one except she didn't know how she was going to plug it in to charge it when they lived on the third floor.

TaoTao Powermax-150 150cc Moped Scooter - It even had a little case to put stuff in on the back. One came in red and one came in green. US$839.95 each.

Some of the furniture that came with the apartment wasn't really to either of their tastes so they went shopping to replace it. Just the sofa and the master bedroom bed, everything else could stay. After that they went shopping for art to put up on the empty white walls.

The first task after moving in with their scooters was to go grocery shopping and since they had limited space they both went. They chose the closest grocery they could find. They had a lot to learn.

They had been in Copenhagen for a week in their new home and had spent several days getting around on their scooters as they learned the city. They quickly found that their area was all residential. The closest restaurant was called Tony's on Havnegade facing a larger canal.

Everything seemed to be on the other side of of the 02. Several shopping places- Females, Dermalogica, Magasin-Du Nord, and a little further on was Fona. They also found the National Bank of Denmark was close. They had even found the Metro station called Kong's Nytorv. "I'll let you try it and tell me what you think," Katherine told her since she didn't like the New York Subway. It was something Alexis had figured she would say.

Then they found two, no three really large park areas, two of which actually had large ponds or small lakes in them. Kongens Have and Botanisk Have. It was only later that they found out what they thought was a third park was simply the continuation of Botanisk Have. It simply had a large road cutting through it called Solvgade. They found out it was populated with museums. Statens Museum for Kunst which was a Danish and International Art Museum. Geological Museum. However what really had their attention and they had already spent more than one day at was Rosenborg Castle, a 17th century palace and royal museum. The towers were five stories tall while the main building was four stories tall.

They sat down to rest and drank from the bottles of water they had brought with them in their city backpacks. "Have you talked to your father yet?" Katherine didn't want bad blood between them. However the look Alexis gave her told her it was still a very sore subject.

"Lex honey, he's your father and he loves you. You were broken when he died and so happy when he came back. You can't stay angry with him forever. There's too much love between you. You really need to call him." Katherine was hurting from this, too.

"As much of a mistake Pi was, Dad was an ass when it came to him. He wasn't willing to let me make my own choices and I thought we had gotten past that. Apparently I'm wrong," Alexis stated and had no intention of calling him.

"This is my fault," Katherine said. "How could you think that? I love you. Even Grams has figured that out," Alexis fought back. "Your father obviously disapproves of you being with me," Katherine remarked quietly. "You mean because you're a woman instead of a guy. Well, I've got news for you. Dad taught me not to judge people and not be a bigot about who loves whom."

"Why can't he live by his own teachings? I'm not ashamed that I love you and I'll tell anyone who'll listen and not care what they think," Alexis stated heatedly. "And yet what your father thinks does matter. What's the difference Lex? What makes you run from him instead of fighting back? Shove his own teachings down his throat. Stand up for yourself Lex. Show your dad that you're not a child anymore." Katherine tried something else.

Alexis stared at her and knew how much she loved her and her father. She took out her cell phone. "Dad, we need to talk. I'm still incredibly angry with you. You taught me not to be a bigot and then you turn around and don't practice what you preach. Call me when you're ready, or don't ever talk to me again. Your choice." Then Alexis hung up.

"Happy now?" Alexis's fury was just under the surface again. "It'll do for now," Katherine commented, not wanting to piss her off even more. "1105?" Katherine asked and Alexis smiled. "Drown my mood in alcohol?" Alexis teased. "We can only drink a single one and we both know it. And to be honest I want to have another Norseman Sour." Katherine had found a drink that she loved.

"Fine, let's go feed your addiction. I could use the people and noise to drown out my sour mood." Alexis got up and started walking to their scooters which were locked up a ways away since they had done a fair amount of walking. "You can join me in a sour drink for your sour mood." Katherine bumped her getting her to chuckle. And almost instantly the Alexis she loved so much was back.

Katherine knew Alexis still needed to talk with her father. She hadn't even said a word about her dad's new girlfriend. Martha was keeping them up to date on Rachel, since she had surprised them by going out to the Hamptons yesterday. Martha had shared everything she had seen and thought she knew about. She had even sent a picture of Rachel that she had tried to be sneaky about taking along with one where both of them were being close.

"Is he still writing Grams?" Alexis may be pissed as hell but she still cared. "Richard says she gives him inspiration and that she tells him some of the wildest tales of cases she worked on that aren't classified anymore," Martha told them.

"What do you think Martha?" Katherine asked her point blank. Martha was silent for a time. "She's a serious lady who seems to be warming up to Richard's antics just a little. They're so different from each other. She's serious and Richard is anything but. She puts him in his place and doesn't take his crap while Richard is growing up to reach her. I just hope he doesn't screw this up." Martha was sure he was going to either do something stupid or surprise her with one of his stupid stunts. Though either way it would be bad.

"Just keep your eyes on him and call if there's a problem. I'll have Simon come get us if you need help," Katherine offered. "How is Alexis?" Martha was worried about those two yet again. "Still angry, but I'm working on it," Katherine answered her.

"Those two have so much love to give. How they can do this to each other..." Martha trailed off. "They're both stubborn. Each has their opinion and won't give in to the other. Does Rachel know about Alexis and their fracture?" Maybe Rachel could help.

"She knows he has a daughter and has seen pictures of her. Richard has told her stories of when she was little," Martha told her. "Little, not the woman that she is now? What about me?"

"Nothing dear. I'm sorry," she apologized for her son. "I'll work on him, you just keep Alexis happy and Richard will come around." Martha was very disappointed in her son. "My offer still stands Martha. Simon's in New York so if need be it could possibly happen that same day or at least the day after." Katherine ended the call and wondered if she should put Simon on standby.

For now she went out into their living room to sit with Alexis and hold onto her and be there for her.