When they got to the room, Lara immediately demanded of Kain, "What's with giving the idea out that we're a ménage à trois?"

He chuckled softly. "You said yourself that you didn't want people constantly 'hitting on you' as you so delicately put it. Think of it, woman. We're in the middle of a human village and you're probably the first new woman these human males have seen in a long time. And your appearance tells everyone you're foreign, and that would only add to the attraction. How many of them do you think will dare try to sleep with you if they think you have two able-bodied lovers who will fight for your honor at any moment?"

Lara fell silent, wishing she could find some quick retort, but knowing she wouldn't be able to. What he said did have merit, and was quite considerate of him, too. Of course, he was probably just trying to avoid any . . . unsightly mishaps, but the thought was still there.

"So, what are we going to do?"

"You," Kain stressed, "are going to go rest. We're stopping here only for you."

Lara glared at him at the reminder that she was human and, as such, more fragile than he. He continued.

"Raziel and I will be staying in here for the night to keep up appearances. However, we'll need to feed, but not for a while."

Lara shrugged, threw her bag on the foot of the bed, and pulled her weapons off her legs. She headed into the bathroom and filled up the bath with warm water. She needed a long warm bath. Actually, she'd kill for a shower, but holding someone, especially here on Nosgoth, at gunpoint and demanding a shower seemed a tad . . . rude.

After about an hour, she pulled herself from the embrace of the water with a sigh. It had started to get cold, otherwise she might have been in there all night. She dried off, changed, and walked out into the room to find both Kain and Raziel sitting across from each other at a table. They had been speaking softly, but when she stepped out, they fell silent. Guess it had been about her they had been conversing. She ignored them completely and curled up in bed, fully intending to go to sleep. Sleep, on the other hand, had taken one look at her company and run the other direction. She could feel an obvious tension between her two male companions, and the not-overtly hostile environment was keeping her quite awake. She stood suddenly, grabbed something from her bag, and pulled up a seat next to them. In her hands was a stack of white pieces of parchment, each about a palm wide. She shuffled the cards, then dealt them expertly.

"What are these?" Raziel asked softly. She chuckled.

"They're cards. And I am going to teach you some card games."

"Why?"

She smiled. "You would be surprised how entertaining cards are on long, sleepless nights."

Both men held their reservations about playing a game with parchment until she started teaching them games. The quickly mastered bridge, old maid, gin, presidents, and blackjack. It took them a bit longer to pick up on ERF, bullshit, and spoons.

"Why do I want one of these spoons?" Kain demanded as she taught him the rules to the game with the same title. He held up one of the fore mentioned utensils.

"It's just part of the rules," she responded. "I didn't make the game. I just play it."

Once they had those games down, she taught them poker and played a few games. She then explained the rules of strip poker, though she refused to play (not for lack of trying on Kain's part— Raziel wisely did not get involved). There was, of course, the old favorite, go fish. Then she taught them slapjack.

"So the point of this one is to hit this card called a jack," Raziel clarified as he held up the card, "so that one can get the cards underneath?"

"Yes. And the point is to get all the cards at the end of the game."

"I like the kind of game that ends with you holding the entire deck," Kain murmured to himself.

"As long as it's you that holds them, and not your opponent," Lara commented with a laugh. He nodded.

"Of course. And I'll make sure they're in my hands by the end."

Raziel nodded in agreement, and Lara began to feel that she was missing something important, that it was some sort of code that passed between the two. They often made references to holding the cards, especially in the matter of one's life. She just didn't know what they were hinting at.

She began to deal out for a game of slapjack, then took a good look at her opponents. Both had the speed of vampires, as well as the strength, hated to lose, and had hands adorned with three long claws wider than three of her fingers rolled together. She quickly grabbed the cards and reshuffled.

"On second thought, I'll let you boys play that later. I just looked at my adversaries and realized what a mistake I would make in playing that with you."

She could feel sleep beginning to gnaw at the edge of her mind, so she quickly taught them a two person game to entertain themselves with. She taught them speed.

"Now keep it down until I fall asleep, please, boys," she told them. "Oh, and I have one last game to teach you." She raised the cards in her hand, then sent them flying in an arch of cascading cards. "Fifty-two pick-up." She headed over to her bed, curled in it, and was asleep before she heard the first slam of claws and cards indicating the victor of the first of many games to come in the night.

She woke slowly to the loud sound of, "Again!" She yawned and rubbed her eyes, allowing herself to wake up gradually. She usually never let herself do so. When she woke up, she was wide-awake. But she had a master vampire and a Soul Reaver in her room with her, and if they hadn't done anything to her yet, they weren't going to. And even though she didn't know them very well, she was willing to trust them to guard her as she slept because she knew they would. Somewhere along the line, somewhere in the trip, 'necessary companion' had turned into 'friend,' and they all knew it.

Lara grimaced vaguely as she stood and moved over to the table to watch Kain and Raziel play. She recognized the game as speed, but had never seen anyone play it so fast before. Their hands looked more suited to maiming and killing, but they both held and dealt cards with the precision and delicacy that only the most trained dealers gain. She watched them play game after game in a series of minutes. Surveying the speed at which their hands moved, she remarked, "I am very glad now that I did not play slapjack with you."

"Why is that?" Both Raziel and Kain looked up at her, their hands finishing the final moves before settling down over the deck like butterflies just alighting on a petal. She mentally frowned at the analogy; neither of these men really reminded her of butterflies in any way, shape, or form.

She blinked at them a moment. "If you don't know the answer to your own question, I'm ashamed of you." She glanced around the room, picked up her clothes, and stepped into the bathroom to change. She came out again to see them finishing a game.

"One more," Kain answered to her silent query. Cards were dealt, then slammed on the table with remarkable agility and speed. A single sound of claws hitting wood sounded as both put their last card down. They both looked at the cards for a long moment.

"I win," Kain stated softly.

"I disagree," was the sharp retort. Both males glared at each other for a long moment, then turned to look at Lara for help. She held her hands up like they had pulled a gun on her.

"Oh no! I am not getting into this."

"Come on, Lara," Raziel called to her as she started to walk away to pack. "We need a judge and a tiebreaker."

"As far as I could see," she answered over her shoulder, "you both ended at the same time. So I'm no good to ask."

Raziel looked at Kain. "Draw?"

"Draw."

Kain took the cards and shuffled them together. They shared a look and nodded. Raziel stood and headed for the door while Kain paused.

"Oh, Lara? One thing before we leave."

"Yes?" She turned to look at him. He had the cards up in the air in a bent angle in his hand. He sent them out in a spray of cards to fall around her face and body in a snow of white, red, and black.

"It's your turn to play fifty-two pick-up." He walked out the door with Lara glaring at him. If looks could kill, Kain might have found himself dead. Again. But after the door was firmly shut, the glare melted off her face to be replaced by an amused twitch of her mouth. After a moment of struggling against the smile, Lara gave up and chuckled quietly to herself. She packed up her things (including the cards), strapped her guns onto her legs and sat on the edge of the bed and waited. After about half an hour, "Kain" leaned in and asked if she was ready to go. He had replaced the illusion about his form and she guessed so too had Raziel. She stood and followed him out into the open.

Humans wandered everywhere in the town, all looking like they had somewhere to go, or something to do, though a few of them looked like wandering was what they had to do. Many pairs of eyes were turned toward her, most male and appraising. She glared back at them, but they didn't seem to get the hint. One or two of them even moved in toward her, but decided against it when Kain pulled back next to her and Raziel put his arm around her waist. That caught her off-guard, and that was putting it mildly. Though they had been parading as her two lovers, she hadn't really paused to think that it might entail some touching between them. Oh well. Shame on her for not having thought of it before.

Raziel gave the men who dared try to get to Lara a look that promised a slow and painful death. For most men, to see her with his arm around her was enough, but for those dense enough, the look was certainly perfect to get them to swallow nervously and step away. He kept his arm around her even when they got to the end of the village. He told himself it was because he was afraid some man might come out of any one of the houses, but something buried deeply within him whispered that wasn't the case. When in doubt about what that voice said, he did what he always did; he ignored it.

Suddenly, something got his attention, a feel of something familiar. There was a small cathedral at the end of the town. He released Lara and climbed the steps into it. Light fell through colored mosaics of glass to land on the rock floor. He followed his instincts, and in one of the side room found a statue of a winged humanoid image. Neither the feet nor the hands could be seen, the hands enveloped in the folds of the robe, and the feet covered, but Raziel recognized the work. It was an image of one of the winged race. The humans must have thought it was an angel because there was nothing to give away it wasn't. He felt the call resonate in the statue. Kain quickly shut the door and let the illusion over him bleed away. Raziel did the same. He pulled his arm back and released a telekinetic bolt, smashing the face of the sculpture. He felt a moment of regret for having to do it, but shook his head and got rid of it. Inside the statue was a flicker of green light. He walked over to it and pulled out another restoration crystal. The crystal dissolved in his hands, flowing down across his chest to his torso. When the mist dissipated, he found a full torso complete with flesh and organs to finish off the changes the crystals had wrought. It was the final crystal for him to be complete. Kain looked mostly unimpressed. Lara, on the other hand, had an arm over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. The crystal really had restored everything, and recently he had never found the need to wear anything. She wanted to laugh because it amused her that he had need of pants again and that he hadn't seen such an situation coming. She raised an eyebrow, bit her lip to get control of herself, and when she was calm, said, "Big boy, aren't you?" She turned and walked out of the room, barely managing to contain her laughter.

She sat on the stairs outside, waiting for them to come out. A few minutes later, the two walked out with the illusions back in place. Even through the illusion, she could see Raziel was wearing something now. He ignored her as she walked past, and she didn't blame him. She had to fight to keep a straight face. Kain offered her his hand. She took it and stood up, nodding that she was reading to go on. The three continued out into the forest, away from the village. When they were a few miles away, the illusion spells on both Raziel and Kain bled away.

"Enough of that form," Kain grumbled to himself quietly. Lara looked at him a moment, then shook her head and turned away. She found Raziel standing in front of her. His chest was still bare (short of the tabard, of course), but he now wore smooth black pants. She wondered where he had gotten them from, but decided she really didn't want to know. As she looked up at him, she realized he looked intensely familiar. Her eyebrows knit together as she thought, then realized what it was. He had the same facial structure and expression that human in the mural had in the Sarafan temple when she had first arrived. Her eyes widened as Raziel cocked his head to the side.

"What is it?"

"Nothing," she replied quickly. "I just put two and two together."

"And made five," Kain added from where he stood. She glanced back at him.

"How much further?"

"Not too far," was the response. "It's up ahead, though we'll have to go through one more pass, but there shouldn't be anyone there."

She nodded and didn't say anything, waiting for one of the two men to take the lead. She STILL didn't like not going first, but she still wasn't in a place she knew.

Again, the trip down the path was uneventful. Kain continued to stay with them and said nothing as to when he was leaving. Not that him not saying anything surprised Raziel. Kain had a tendency of disappearing and reappearing when he found it necessary, not when anyone else did. Lara followed silently after Kain, her hands resting on her pistols.

"How long do you think it will take for us to reach the fortress?" Raziel asked from behind her.

"Are we there yet?" Lara added in. Both men looked down at her with a strange expression, and she gave them her best angelic smile.

"I'm assuming you are attempting to imitate a little child when you said that," Kain clarified.

"If you can't figure it out," Lara responded, "I'm not going to tell you."

Kain looked like he might argue, then glanced across at Raziel, and decided against it. Not here and now, anyway. But there was always time later.

After an hour of walking, the path suddenly gave way to a huge clearing in the mountains. Against the far right side was a huge fortress. There weren't any doors, but instead there was a gigantic gate with a silver-blue crystal above it. Other than that, the place was empty, devoid of life. At least, as far as they could see.

"Why aren't there any Sarafan warriors?" Lara asked in an undertone to Raziel. He shook his head.

"I was trying to figure that out myself. I would think this place would be crawling with them, but apparently not."

With cautious glances around, the trio made their way to the huge gate. On the metal were select runes and both Raziel and Kain recognized them.

"Hm," Kain murmured to himself. "The runes are wards, and would keep you out, even in the Spectral Realm," he commented quietly, his eyes resting on Raziel. "The gate is bolted shut and covered with so many wards that I don't think even I could get in there."

"So you're saying," Lara drawled from behind him, "is that the crystal up there is our only lead on how to get in?"

"Yes."

Raziel indicated the crystal as he told her, "Moebius has always favored colored crystals with various magical properties. There's always a way in. It's just a matter of finding it."

"So how do we find it?"

"We look."

He glanced around and spotted another path at the other side of the small valley. She followed his gaze and sighed. Another path they would have to go down. Didn't this place have anything other than paths? Well, it was better than a beaten trail.