My head reeled at seeing my friend. He had not changed much in the five years from when I had seen him last when we left him in the swamp to destroy and purify the Drow's books and bizarre artifacts he had used in the sunken city. There were more lines on his face, but he still wore the yellow painted symbols of his rank on his bald head as a follower of Chan, the mind religion of his monastery in the eastern mountains. Even in the most dank dungeon or dark forests where we suffered hunger and privation, Chai would repaint his symbols. He had told me they represented a mind clear of desire and enlightened. His saffron robes and sturdy boots were travel worn.

He stood up to greet me and my smile matched his own. I grasped his hand, which he sort of flinched when I took it. I had forgotten the Followers of Chan did not usually engage in idle physical contact, but I blundered ahead and vigorously shook it anyways. He relaxed and his smile broadened.

"Why are you here?" I asked him. "Certes, you could not be here by chance."

"Indeed not, Friend Barrim." Chai replied. "The abbot of my monastery has received disturbing visions of a great danger arising and I have been sent here because I was the most familiar with the western lands and I could speak the language. I was told by my abbot to come to this place and wait and I have been waiting here for many days to find you."

I looked around and saw no one near us or even paying attention to us, but I still leaned in to whisper, "The cult we stopped in the sunken city is back and it is in Gensmot. We are on a quest for someone, that will have far reaching consequences, although what those are, are a bit vague. But with you joining us, my hope for success has increased a hundred-fold!"

"Let us hope so," Chai said, "for the Abbot has seen these beings we stand against as being very powerful."

Chai and I returned to our camp on the eastern side of the town and Dimitri was just as surprised and elated at the appearance of our friend as I had been. The rest of our company, at least those that had not already gone to town, caught on to our good mood and greeted Chai warmly, except for Gerrex who merely nodded to him. There was a flicker of some emotion across Chai's face when Brey greeted him warmly as an old friend before leaving us and heading into town.

"Friends," I said to those gathered around us, "Dimitri and I will watch our camp. Please, go into town and enjoy yourselves, it will be a long time before you will get to enjoy another party."

We were soon alone, except for Gerrex who found a comfortable spot in large willow branch that let him see all around, and Charlie who stood by himself on a flat bit of land next to the small river that flowed through the town and near a large willow tree a hundred yards (meters) away. In his hands he wielded the black longsword Lord Malice had given to him. He cut the air doing exercises and drills ceaselessly and even from this distance I could see the sweat staining his shirt down the back and under his arms. He seemed, well, driven to practice and his face was already showing exhaustion, but he kept practicing. The rest of our party left, laughing and talking loudly. When we were alone, Dimitri and I quickly related the nature of our quest to Chai.

"Why does our patron seek this Bloodstone?" He asked.

"He did not give any reason," I replied truthfully, "but he is willing to pay well to get it."

"So you have left your quiet life to pursue danger once more for the mere attainment of gold?"

Chai's question was really an admonition. Chai's order eschews the material things for the spiritual and I could see his point and even though my participation in this quest was not voluntary, I still felt small, and even defensive.

"You can be assured," I replied in dull tone, "that my reasons for leading this quest have nothing to do with acquiring gold. I am here because I must be here for reasons that are my own."

"Of course," Chai said with a smile, "I should not have accused you of such base motivations. You have always been a man, right or wrong, who pursued what he thought he should do."

I nodded back, but I still felt uncomfortable with that little interchange. Partly because I was put off by the accusation and by the fact that I had not been fully truthful with him about Valker and his condition and I probably should have, since I told Dimitri, but Chai was sent by his master, and I could tell him later.

"I was just remembering the time," Chai said distracting me from my reverie, "when we were in that old Varanian fortress and you fell in the well."

Dimitri, who remembered that event as well, started laughing at the memory of that particularly embarrassing situation I found myself in when the rotten boards I was walking on gave out from beneath me.

We spent the next quarter of an hour talking about that day, and many hours reliving old memories of our adventures together, although we never talked about the last one. We explained what had happened to us since leaving Gensmot, and his face showed amazement at our story of meeting two dragons and the Death Knights and Lowen. As I did not carry a staff, which I know is very un-wizardly of me, so I gave the Staff of Striking to Chai, to replace his normal bronze shod staff. The Staff of Striking was capped at either end with silver and it was perfectly smooth and was the color of old ivory. Chai took it with a nod of thanks.

It was late in the evening, almost midnight and the moon was up, full and bright, when our compatriots started coming back in, walking easily by the light of the moon. Charles was sitting by our small campfire, on one of the saddle-like stools Godfrey had bought holding his longsword in his arms and looking strangely protective of it. He said nothing but looked sullenly into the flames of the fire. Gerrex was in his tent and was sleeping as was Dimitri. Chai was meditating and I stood near the ring of lights and looked over the landscape. A slight breeze blew in cool from the west and the crickets and katydids were singing loudly in the grass. The first one back was Karl, I could feel his emotions before I could hear his whistled song. He was dwarf who was content with the world and he greeted me with a friendly salute as he came in, never missing a note of his song. Next came the mercenaries talking amongst themselves in their native tongue and on their heels was Helena. I could feel the heat of her emotions as she approached. She was upset about something and I peeked inside her mind, which I would normally not do as a courtesy, but I was still unsure about this party and I wanted to keep on top of things because the stakes were just too high not to do so. I saw in her mind Brey with a buxom blonde, the type he preferred, as she led him laughing to a little house near the marketplace. Helena had followed and had looked in the through the cracks of the window shutters. I broke contact then, now that I understood what the problem was now.

But I could still feel her heartbreak.

When she came into camp a few minutes later she was walking stiffly with her arms held straight down and her hands clenched into white-knuckled fists. She stomped past me without speaking and trying to hold in her sobs. She went straight to her tent. Godfrey and Amenaruu came behind her and I figured Brey would not be back at all this night. Since he was not needed to guard the camp this night, it was not a problem for the party, only for Helena's piece of mind.

I was relieved by one of the mercenaries and I too went to my tent, but only long enough to take off my linen gambeson and helmet and to grab my bedroll, which I spread out underneath the largest wagon. Charles was still brooding by the fire as I spread my wool cloak over me and I was soon asleep. I must have slept for several hours for when I awoke it was still dark but the moon was almost much touching the tops of the western hills. I heard someone talking, and I reached out with my mind and found that Brey had returned to the camp and had been challenged by the guard. He walked past where I was lying, but I could only see his boots and his legs up to his mid-thigh, but I felt a wave of sadness from him, but I fell back asleep too tired to care about it.

As there was only one more day of the festival, I decided not to leave just yet. If nothing else, it would have looked suspicious. The day had dawned clear and bright and we ate our breakfast in silence. No one needed a magic pendant to know how Helena felt this morning and everyone was cat-footing around her. Brey was still asleep as we ate and we all left the fire as soon as we could. Syzmon and his party were up and we waved to each other as we took our fighting gear away from camp. Soon we were swinging willow branches at each other and enjoying ourselves away from Helena. I felt sorry for her that she did not have another female here to commiserate with her. None of us knew what to do.

"Do you remember what I taught you?" Chai asked me.

"Of course," I replied with feigned hurt.

"Then let us put down the toy weapons and practice as real fighters," Chai said, "like we use to do."

"Very well," I replied drawing my new magical blade. Since both the staff Chai was using was magical as well as my sword, we did not have to worry about damaging either. We stepped out away from the semi-circle of our compatriots. I was not feeling as nearly confident as I sounded since I had not practiced with my sword much until we left Gensmot on this trip. We squared up and took our ready positions and we nodded to each other to tell the other we were ready to begin. Almost immediately, Chai launched his staff into a thrust aimed right at my face. Had it connected, it would have killed me, I think. But I brought my sword down from a hanging guard to an inside guard while turning my shoulder so the staff scraped along my blade and whistling past my left ear. I kept my blade in contact with the staff and tried to advance but Chai was too quick and he disengaged and skipped back.

I knew that with his longer weapon that I had to keep the centerline guarded. I was just able to jump back to avoid a vicious spinning attack aimed at my ankles. Chai used that momentum to spin into a jump and bring the staff down with only my high block, barely in time, blocking the blow. I felt the power of the blow in my arm. Once again, Chai used his agility to dance back, keeping me at the optimal reach of his weapon. He then did a series of fast blows as he kept the end of the staff in a constant blurring motion. Somehow I survived that onslaught, although only the guard on my cutlass saved me from broken fingers a couple of time when my guards were too slow.

"Tsk, tsk," Chai admonished me. "You have not been practicing…"

Chai launched his attack even as he spoke catching me flat-footed, and getting a brazing blow to my left ribs that stung horribly, but was not serious.

"You are too easily distracted for a warrior," Chai admonished me like one his temple's students.

"I am not a warrior," I replied through gritted teeth. "I am a mage."

I had taken off my Girdle of Storm Giant Strength, as it would not have been fair, but I quickly spoke two spells in Arcane. The first was a haste spell and the second was for Tenser's Transformation. Within seconds, I knew the intimidating power of the spell was working because I saw Chai frown. I then launched my own attack, my speed doubled.

Every cut I made was turned aside by Chai's staff, but with each new flurry of blows I inched closer until Chai was no longer using his Long Staff technique, but was holding the staff so that it his hands were about a third of the way in from the ends. Our blows, parries, blocks, and counter-blows fell like flashing rain and magical sparks jumped from each ringing clack the weapons made when they impacted each other. No one, not even someone enchanted with spells, could hold that pace for long and we both lunged away from each other after a good thirty seconds of fury and thunder.

I panted as I stood back out of reach of the staff, and I could see Chai was also winded. I saluted Chai my sword and he returned it with his staff.

"Are your ribs sore?" Chai asked with a serious face.

"They are fine," I replied, "but you had better get that cut looked after."

Chai looked down with surprise at the cut on his right forearm. Such was the fury of our battle he had not noticed it. I was surprised as well, as I had never landed a blow, even a minor one like this one, before on Chai. I grinned at him and he grinned back and gave me another salute.

We were both congratulated by our comrades and I got not a few slaps on my back from the demonstration of my wizardly fighting method.

I sat down in the grass where there was some shade and watched the rest of the fighters engage in practice bouts. None of them were as intense as the one Chai and I had just fought. As I watched and caught my breath I saw Helena walking toward me. Her blue dress swishing around her ankles and collecting the dew that was still on the grass in the shade. Her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Her eyes were puffy and red from crying. I could feel her fighting to keep her spirits up.

Yes, Helena?" I asked.

"I have made up my mind," she said without formalities, "and I want to be your apprentice."

I knew she had come to this decision because she was heartbroken and she was feeling vulnerable. I stared intently at my friends practicing their fighting for several minutes before speaking.

"Ask me again in two weeks," I finally replied, "and if you can cast at least one of the First Level spells I gave you, I will say yes."

That was not the answer she wanted to hear, but she could not fault me for my decision. She really had spent too much time mooning over Brey and had not earned the right to an apprenticeship without some demonstration of her ability to commit to an apprenticeship.

"Very well," she replied stiffly and left.

"I hope you fail," I said under my breath. "You will be a lot of trouble."