Disclaimers, etc. - I think I've made it clear that I don't own these characters, I just like to write about them. I'm really sorry, people, it's taken me way too long to finish this. That'll teach me to start a story without a clear idea where I was going with it. I feel like the plot has gotten kind of complicated and contrived and I'm not entirely happy with it, but hey, you guys deserve an ending. At any rate, it is finished, and I'm putting up the last two chapters at once. To anyone still reading/reviewing, thank you. I appreciate the heck out it.

There - the Crown of Falis, gemstones set glittering against the night sky. It had taken Etoh a long while to find it, but now his fingers traced the lines between the stars. Etoh liked constellations. They were powerful reminders of the divine, but, from a distance, could be cupped in the palm of one's hand. He'd always been good at finding them, and liked to reorient himself every night as they traveled across the country.

So, from the Crown of Falis, it was just a little ways down to Rheanon, the Great White Dragon, long dead but still majestic in the sky, and then to the left was the constellation that teenage boys searched eagerly for, and were ultimately disappointed by - Kendrick and Arion, The Lovers. The star-shapes were far less detailed than the diagrams handed out in class, which had a tendency to be shoved under mattresses and floorboards. Astronomy was one of the few ways that Etoh had found to repay Parn, for his constant "big brother" protection. The young knight looked up at the sky and just saw a disorganized mess of light, so Etoh connected the dots for him. It wasn't much, but it had kept his friend from bringing home failing marks.

It was a peaceful moment, and Etoh was reveling in it. His heart had slowed down, his fingers were no longer twitching nervously - he could almost pretend that he had been sitting there all night, as opposed to opposed to being involved in a surprise attack, a battle, and some really confusing interrogation. Slayn was still sleeping, and Etoh could hear the goblin leader's heavy breath rasping steadily in and out. Woodchuck had decided, without leaving much room for discussion, that he was going to check on the whereabouts of the goblin band, and slipped off into the dark like a cat (a lanky, awkward, clumsy-looking cat - yet still somehow silent and graceful.) That had been a tenses half-hour, but he'd come back to announce that they seemed to be wandering back up into the mountains. He seemed content to sit in silence, watching over the captured leader. Etoh had asked during one bored stretch whether he knew any folk songs. He'd said yes, but they all included the word "knickers." Etoh decided to drop it, and pass the time watching the stars.

Said stars were beginning to blur when Etoh realized he was getting drowsy. He'd already mistaken Balru the Great Ox for Lenolan the Elven King (because horns and pointy ears looked surprisingly similar late at night), and the knowledge of the star patterns were starting to slip away. He was just refilling the gaps in his memory with names like, "Epitus, Lord of the something-or-other", and "That boxy looking thing over there…maybe a duck…" when he heard a sudden break in the thick breathing, and a vague muttering that was more growl than words.

"It's awake," Woodchuck announced, standing over the goblin leader warily even as Etoh looked around.

"It can't escape that rope, can it?" Etoh was wide awake again, and considering the situation.

"Please. Not with the knots I used. Or, at least…it probably can't. Never actually tied up a goblin, before," Wood amended quickly, with the look of one hoping to avoid serious responsibility if his prediction turned out wrong.

"Oh, I trust you," Etoh said with a wide, innocent, not entirely cruel smile. Wood, not one to take compliments at face value, scowled at Etoh as he went past to wake Slayn. Looking down at the still pale mage, Etoh was tempted to just let him lie there. But the goblin leader would be up and vocal soon, and there was no way Slayn could sleep through that.

"It's up?" Slayn asked, when Etoh gently shook him, apparently self-possessed enough not to have to ask the usual, "Where am I?" questions that Etoh had whenever he slept. He couldn't count the number of times he'd woken up along their journey, usually in the dark, dawn hours, and thought for a moment that he was in the field beside his house.

"Yes." Slayn sighed, pointed his staff at the quickly waking goblin, and murmured a few words.

"What…?"

"It's a spell that'll mute his magic power. It's not that difficult, if you're using it on someone who doesn't have shields up. I don't know why he didn't use it on us." Even tired and slightly breathless, Slayn still found the strength to explain things.

"Couldn't you have used that on Devin?"

"Not in a crowd like that. He's got a strange, volatile magic field around him, the same one that was interfering with the search spell earlier. I could break his shields, I think, but I'm afraid to hit that field with strong magic."

"What the hell is this shit?!" A jagged cry interrupted their otherwise civilized conversation. It was the goblin leader, thrashing and tearing at the ropes on it's wrists and ankles (which, thankfully, showed no signs of giving way). "Who the hell do you think you are, tying me up like this?"

"We mean you no harm," Slayn said sincerely. "We just want to ask you a few questions about the situation. I think you'll find us kinder interrogators then you were to us," he added meaningfully.

"You can't do this to me! I'm the leader! I'm in charge!" the leader snapped, its coarse voice coming dangerously close to a whine. "I'll……I'll use magic!"

"Try," Slayn dead-panned.

The leader murmured a few words, then repeated them a little louder. It tried again, rocking back and forth, shouting spells up at the sky, mingled with a few curses. No response. Manna, source of all things was temporarily out of service.

"What did you do to me?!"

"It's a spell. You have not been otherwise harmed. Your magic will return to you in about a day." Slayn was the very picture of reason.

"Please, we're not going to hurt you. You have my word as a Phallis priest," Etoh said. He realized even as he said it that his status as a priest, normally a symbol of honesty, mercy, and nonviolence, wouldn't necessarily mean a damn thing to a goblin.

"Like I know that for sure?" the leader sneered. "You could just be some guy dressed up like a priest. The only thing you look like to me is one of the guys that tied me up. And I ain't telling you shit!" It began a particularly vile string of name-calling, ignoring Slayn's repeated assurances that no one was going to harm it. Woodchuck, who had some experience with tied hostages (on both sides of the fence) took the opportunity to step in. He let the sole of one boot rest on the creature's throat, and carefully increased pressure until it was no longer speaking or moving, just staring up at him defiantly.
"Shut. The fuck. Up," he said, fixing the leader with a cold glare. "We ain't gonna hurt you if you cooperate. But if you keep screaming, I'm just gonna keep doing this."

"Don't…" Etoh felt the need to speak up against obvious torture.

"Hey, if you've got some kind of mute spell that'll shut this guy up, be my guest." Wood gestured towards the tied goblin, as though inviting Etoh to take a turn. "I'm just imposing a little order." He stepped back from the goblin, though, giving it another look that suggested he could do horrible things to it in a heartbeat, regardless of his companions' protests.

"We mean you no harm," Slayn repeated firmly, a trifle exasperated.

The goblin struggled into a sitting position, so as to better lock eyes with the mage.

"Could have fooled me," it said.

"Now if we could just talk like civilized people," Slayn pushed on.

"Oh, does that mean humans? Because of course we goblins aren't capable of being civilized on our own!" the leader snapped.

"That's not what we're saying….we just want to talk to you…" Etoh tried. Already the conversation looked like it was going to pace tired circles, probably all night.

"About what?" the leader's eyes narrowed into suspicious yellow slits.

"What you and your little band are doing here, why you're attacking that village, how you know Devin, how you learned to speak our language…" Slayn ticked off the reasons on well-organized fingers.

"You mean, what my little band and I were doing….I suppose you probably killed the rest of my men," the leader said sullenly.

"We didn't!" Etoh broke in, brimming over with good-natured charity, and hoping to communicate a little of that to the goblin leader. He truly didn't want to kill or hurt the creature, in spite of it's treatment of them. There were reasons, after all, that they were the good guys. "They had a spell on their minds. Slayn removed it, and they went away peacefully." That was making it sound like the goblin band had exchanged pleasantries with the group before going home (perhaps to a neighborhood committee meeting), but it was close enough. The goblins had scattered with no further violence.

The yellow eyes popped open in surprise, and an expression flickered on the leader's face that, on a human, might have been recognizable as gratitude. Then suspicion shut the doors again, before Etoh could be sure of what he had seen.

"You're lying."

"We're not." Slayn seemed to think that answered everything.

"Why the hell should I believe you?!"

"Why would we lie about it?" Etoh found that, despite everything, he wanted the goblin to trust them, not just talk under pressure. He supposed it was just a lingering distaste for cruelty, but really, the situation was getting interesting. The leader's quick, careless comments about Devin during their interrogation made him wonder exactly who had committed the first offense. It seemed obvious that it would have been the goblins, but hell, what if it wasn't? What if they'd just been minding their own business, and Devin, pompous idiot that he seemed to be, had stirred them up for some reason? Who were the bad guys then, huh?

"And once again, wishy-washy Etoh can't do anything but sit on the fence." Ah. Jardin. Etoh had been wondering when the bullying mental voice was going to make another appearance, to pick at him for some personal fault that he was already well aware of. He was beginning to find that ignoring the voice made it go away, and decided to keep it up.

In the meantime, Woodchuck, who seemed to understand suspicion and even respect it, was attempting to use a little logic on the goblin leader.

"Look….you had us at your mercy. Do you really think we could take out your whole band alone?"

"That spell you were casting-" the leader accused.

"Is the same spell that Etoh's talking about. I dunno what it was really-"

"It was a spell for purity of mind. It removed the evil influence on your men," Slayn interjected.

"Oh, please! How do I know you didn't just do that head-exploding thing that you did before?!"

"That was an accident! And it wouldn't have happened if you hadn't interfered with the spell."

"If he'd done the head-exploding thing," Woodchuck offered reasonably, "We'd all be splattered in goblin guts. We're not. Well, Etoh sort of is, but that's from before."

Etoh noticed for the first time, the dried goblin brain still spattered across the back of his robes. He grimaced, and began brushing at it with one hand, then realized that touching the stuff bare-handed was even worse than having it on his clothing. His teacher had given him the robes upon his graduation from the seminary, and he could only imagine what that kindly, meticulous old man would have to say if he could see the state of them now. Well, such was life in the real world.

"You could have changed clothing." The goblin wasn't giving an inch.

"We're wearing the exact same thing that we did before," Wood said, letting aggravation not slip so much as pour into his tone. "If you can't figure that out, you're not fit to be a leader of anything."

"How dare you! Do you have any idea how difficult my position is?!" The goblin looked righteously indignant.

"Do you think I care?"

"We'd know if you'd tell us," Slayn broke in gently. The leader turned it's misshapen head to regard the mage, and was quiet for a moment.

"If you…removed the spell from the minds of my men…" it began slowly, carefully. "Which direction did they go when they left the area?"

"You can't expect us to know-" Slayn began, but Wood interrupted him:

"East, towards the mountains." He pointed a thumb in that vague direction. "I went back and watched. They both stayed here, so they wouldn't know."

"You…could have guessed…" the leader was hesitant, now, sounding like he had at the end of the interrogation. Hopefully this meant that their interrogation would go better, and without resorting to threats and violence. Further threats and violence, that was.

"You're going to have to trust us, eventually," Slayn argued. "At least, trust us enough to explain the situation. We could take you back to where we fought, and show you that there are no bodies, but we can't prove to you that your men are still alive without taking you back to the mountains and finding them."

"And even you wouldn't be so stupid." It was a minor nod of respect from the goblin, as well as an acknowledgement of the situation. He was, for the time being, immobile and under their control.

"If someone's put a spell on the minds of your men," Slayn continued, "then we may have a common enemy." Never mind the fact that they had never wanted to do this in the first place. But Etoh could see the scholarly light flashing in Slayn's eyes, now. Intellectual curiosity was both a help and a hindrance to the mage, and it didn't just seize him when magic was at stake. He loved puzzles of every kind, both in real life and on paper. This was no exception.

"It's not like you have much choice anyway," Wood added glibly, apparently enjoying his position as strong-arm of the group. He had positioned himself between Slayn and the leader, a step back so that the two could actually talk face to face, but close enough that he could separate them immediately if something should happen.

"I…don't suppose I do…" The goblin spared the thief a quick glare, but mostly seemed to be thinking hard. It's acceptance of the situation didn't seem like a cowardly one - it wasn't begging for it's life, or cringing away from torture. What it seemed to be doing, and Etoh had trouble believing it, having seen so little on this ridiculous side-trip, was behaving in a reasonable manner. The thought that they might have a more rational conversation with the goblin leader than they had had with the local sorcerer seemed like another point against human nature. Then again, Etoh could call it a point in favor of goblin nature. He was going to see the bright side of the situation if killed him.

"What I'm particularly interested in hearing," Slayn said, "is how you learned to talk like a human. I'm not trying to insult your species, but I've never met a goblin that could."

The leader pulled one lip down into an ugly sneer, glaring past Slayn at something only it could see. Then it look back up at him, raising one hairy eyebrow.

"I just want to make one thing perfectly clear. It's all Devin's fault. We weren't messing with him before. He was the one looking for the stone, he was the one that cast spells on us - he's just reaping what he sowed at this point."

"That's…an interesting thing to hear," said Slayn. "Especially given the way he treated us."

"Did he really send you guys out forcefully? Like little priest boy here says?"

"Yes, it's just like he said. Devin took our friends, and threatened to keep us there unless we came out after you," Slayn confirmed. He didn't add the part about lying, and claiming to be goblin hunters, but that was probably for the best.

"So…. Seeing as I'm your helpless prisoner and all…do you want to hear about exactly why I can talk, or do you want me to start from the beginning?"

"Both," said Slayn eagerly. The goblin gave him an irritated look, and he corrected himself: "Well, best to start from the beginning."

Etoh stepped back a pace, as the goblin sat up straighter, looking like a story-teller about to begin a particularly long tale. It was time for him to be useful again. There was, as he had said before, a spell that allowed him to detect sincerity in a speaker. There weren't really magic words to be used, it was just a matter of concentration. He stared hard at the goblin, willing himself to see not only around, but through the creature. It's sharp features seemed to become sharper, distinct against a now fuzzy background - and then he felt his eyes shift. Colors sprang out of the air, and flowed around the captive - brown, green, blue, with flashes of red and black. A surprising amount of humanity, for a goblin. But then, he'd never seen one before.

Each person (or creature, for that matter), exuded a certain amount of spiritual energy, an aura, and a trained priest could see the colors when he looked just the right way. It was seeing a private mind opened up - personality, memories, and emotions were all reflected in the swirling, changing colors. Lies were easily detected - as a contradiction between thought and word, they rippled across an aura like a stone dropped in a still pond. Etoh didn't actually like to do it often. Difficulty aside, it was a matter of privacy. He felt like a voyeur, and a sneak, as though he was looking at someone naked. Already he was unintentionally seeing the auras of his two companions ("spying", Jardin was kind enough to provide the word.) Slayn was all blue and silver - dignity and bright, untarnished intelligence. Woodchuck was wrapped in a friendly dark green, stained with black spots and ragged at the edges - like a well-worn traveling cloak. But he felt strangely dishonest to be using this spell on the goblin without informing him. It was already bound and helpless, and it had really no way of knowing whether they were really going to spare it after the interrogation. He felt a nagging need to stand up for honesty, and decided, despite sensible reservations, to follow up on it.

"Um…excuse me.." he stammered. "I'm, uh…I'm casting a spell now, to make sure that you're telling the truth. It won't affect you at all, I just…uh….I thought I'd let you know." He felt like a moron, but he was still a priest. And he had to act like one, no matter how strange the situation got.

Wood looked disgusted, and, to Etoh's surprise, so did the goblin.

"You don't tell him that, Etoh," the thief snapped.

"I can't exactly stop you from casting it, so why are you bothering?" The goblin sounded amused.

"I…I just thought you should know." Etoh was now blushing madly. A hard-boiled mercenary he was not. Somewhere in his head, Jardin was snickering, and Etoh told him, in his best Woodchuck impression, to "Shut the fuck up." The bully laughed it off, which was probably to be expected. Etoh couldn't bring himself to even think the word with any conviction.

"Well, anyway," the goblin went on, ignoring Etoh's announcement. "Here's the deal. When all this mess first got started, we were all pretty much minding our own business up in the mountains. Sometimes we'd eat a traveler or two, but I figure you pretty much get what you deserve if you wanna wander alone up there."

"So, you really do eat people?" Etoh questioned. "Because you didn't seem to actually want to when you captured us." Asking questions was about all he could do while maintaining the spell, which would start to make his eyes water after too long.

The goblin looked uncomfortable, almost a trifle disgusted. It's aura flickered, not with dishonesty, but in the jagged grey lines of self-conflict.

"We…we do. Nothing wrong with it, it's just what goblins do. I mean, we've got to survive somehow…"

"But you don't like it," Etoh pressed.

"Well, of course I don't like it now! Now I can talk to you people! Hell, I'll be you'd be a little less eager to eat venison if deer could talk." The goblin jumped back to the defense he had used last time.

"But deer can't talk-"

"That's what we used to think about people! You think we can make heads or tails of your language? You sound about the same to us as we sound to you. And honestly…" The leader paused, and looked glum. "…I don't really think it'd matter if we did understand. Our social set-up isn't exactly…complex. We sort of go along with our instincts…and a lot of it involves eating."

"I think I understand," Slayn said, scholarly interest not quite keeping the faint disgust off his face. The goblin seemed to notice, and went on the defensive.

"Not like it's a bad way to live! It's just different! I mean, hell, it's not like we usually eat productive members of society, anyway. Just the average idiot who wanders into the woods. And if we're going into a village, which we don't do all that often, by the way, we go after the young ones. You know, the really little ones that aren't really contributing…drag on the whole village, if you want my opinion."

Etoh began to understand, although he really didn't want to. Something cold was eating at his gut.

"You……you eat babies?!" It came out louder then he intended. He lost hold of the spell, and the colors shut off abruptly.

"What? What's wrong with that?! They don't actually do anything! Just sit there and cry. Better off without them, if you ask me."

Etoh opened his mouth for a moral protest, because the righteous indignation was running high. The goblin went on, digging itself in a little deeper.

"And babies are so nice and tender. You know, like veal. They're soft and plump."

"T…Tender? Soft and plump?!" Etoh exploded, horrified. Slayn was wearing the same expression, scholarly interest rapidly draining away. He'd gone even paler, which was difficult to do.

"Now, you see, this is why the species will never get along-" the goblin continued.

"Maybe you'd better just stop trying to explain," Wood cut in. He looked, if anything, grimly amused. "Go back, and tell us what happened while you were hanging out in the mountains."

Ignoring his lurching stomach (because he was not going to throw up twice in one night), Etoh concentrated on casting the spell again. It was better that way. If he could look at the aura, then his eyes wouldn't be straying so often onto the goblin's teeth.

"We were hanging out in the mountains…doing what's perfectly natural for goblins to do, thank you very much!" the leader was clinging to the defensive, but the grey lines were there again, crackling through the aura like lightening. "I mean, we weren't even eating any damn babies. We hadn't done that for awhile!"

"Enough with the babies! We don't care. Well, they do, but I don't." Wood was either being kind, or hoping to speed things up. Probably the latter. "Just tell us what happened."

"Well, then Devin showed up. And he smelled like magic. Not as much as he does now, but - "

"Ah, yes. Goblins can detect magic through scent, can't you?" Slayn was, again, brimming with interest. "I'd heard rumors about that, but…how does it work?" He was leaning towards the goblin, a little too close for comfort. Wood, frowning, grabbed one shoulder and pushed the mage's upper half back out of the captive's reach.

"I don't know! I just know that it smells like burning metal, most of the time. I mean, you humans complain that we smell, but you wouldn't believe the stench that you mages carry around." Slayn didn't appear offended, but he was also very good at keeping his face a calm mask (especially when a certain elf and a certain dwarf were at each other's throats.)

"Anyway. Of course, we didn't know who he was at the time. He had on this long brown shirt and grey pants - "

"That's a student's uniform - from the mage's academy," Slayn interjected.

"Yeah, yeah, I know already, fact man. I got a whole mess of human knowledge squashed into my head, and I understand how your little uniform system works."

"Human knowledge….?" asked Wood.

"Later, later. That's later in the story. Anyway, he came stumbling right into our camp, lost and stupid, like most town humans get in forest. Honestly, you all sound like.." the goblin stopped to fumble for a comparison, "um…you know, big clumsy stumbling things. With huge feet. Anyway, we'd seen him coming from a mile away, but I was holding everyone back. I wanted to see how far he would get without noticing us around him. I mean, you wouldn't believe the looks on people's faces when we step out of the shadows all around them. Really entertaining."

"If you're a goblin, I suppose." Etoh pursed his lips disapprovingly.

"Oh, c'mon, I'm I know humans do it, too. You know what I'm talking about, right, thief?"

"Yeah, it is kind of fun when you grab someone by the throat all of a sudden, and - " Woodchuck, who had dropped his tough guy demeanor to smile in lazy reminiscence, suddenly noticed Etoh glaring at him. "and….and…politely offer to escort them across the street?"

"Nice try," the priest said, shaking his head.

"Can we get back to Devin?" Slayn dragged things back on track. "You were watching him."

"Yeah, we were watching him and I leaped out at him first, because I'm the leader, and nobody gets first blood but me. He jumps back with this girly little shriek, and starts trying to talk to me. Of course, I only know that now…at the time, he was just making funny human-noises. And I wasn't interested at all, but I was taking my time creeping up to him, brandishing the claws and the teeth. I mean, it isn't just that we like being cruel. I don't think we're any worse than you humans are. It's just that somehow fear makes you all taste a lot better. You go kind of salty, and -"

"That's all I really want to know," Etoh interrupted. If not for the aura-spell taking up his concentration, he'd have been dealing with unpleasant mental images. They'd probably come later, the next time he lay awake in the wee hours of the morning.

"Well, that's when he cast the spell. It was…there was this bright white light that exploded through us, and then this fog came down over us….like…like mist. In our heads, sort of. Like our brains turned to jelly."

"Your grasp of our language seems to be breaking up," Wood observed dryly, having gone back to looming over the goblin and trying to look menacing.

"And I'm sure you could come up with a sonnet about it! You've just got literary genius written all over you!" The goblin hadn't missed an opportunity to get an insult in, but it suddenly seemed especially thin-skinned.

"Oh, Falis forbid you should insult an illiterate thief's writing skills. Keep telling your damn story." Wood dead-panned.

"Can't even read, huh? Hell, even I can do that, and I'm -"

"Story! Now, damn it! We're the guys with the weapons."

"Well, it's hard to describe," the goblin relented, now drawing it's shaggy eyebrows together in concentration. " I…look, let me just jump ahead a little and tell you what I know. I'll explain how I know it later. What he used was a spell bomb-"

"Those have been outlawed," Slayn said, looking grim. "I suppose someone who uses magic as sloppily as he does wouldn't care about the dangers, though. The more I hear, the more I think he was kicked out of the academy."

"Oh, he was. So, this spell-bomb-"

"Hey, hey! The stupid layman wants to know what a spell-bomb is," Woodchuck waved a hand between the two. "We can't all be magic geniuses."

Slayn opened his mouth, but was surprised to see the goblin beat him to it.

"A spell bomb is a pre-prepared spell. A mage will do most of the casting work ahead of time, binding the magic around an object to hold it in place. Then when he's ready, he tosses the object down, and says the last word. They're off-limits because unfinished magic that can't dissipate gets unstable. Pressure starts building up, so that when the spell is cast, there's always some kind of explosion. Whether or not it kills anyone depends how long the mage has been waiting around to use it. It's not really hard, just dangerous. I personally can't believe he was using that kind of stuff. Hell, I'm a goblin, and I can do magic, and I know better than to try something like that."

"A good observation. You're…surprisingly well educated," Slayn complimented.

"Hey, not like humans have a monopoly on academics," the goblin preened. Then it thought for a moment, and sagged. "Well, actually, you do. I don't exactly know what I know based on years of study, or anything."

"Hey. Keep up the story. Um. Please," Etoh put in. He was trying to be authoritative, but couldn't stop himself from slapping a "please" on the end, just like he couldn't stop himself from calling a stranger "ma'am," even if she was trying to pull him into a brothel. The aura-spell was beginning to hurt, and he could feel tears running down his cheeks. And he was tired. The goblins-eating-humans-humans-eating-deer kept circling around in his head and coming to no conclusion. He just wanted to sleep on it.

"The spell-bomb was a sleep spell…I guess he was trying to take us all out the fast and sloppy way, rather than thin out the effects over the band…hell, he might not even know how to cast sleep on more than one person, other than the obvious illegal method. While we were out, he cast a spell over our minds to make us go and search for this stone-"

"Like the one you mentioned earlier? You talked about a stone when you were interrogating us," Etoh remembered.

"Yes, yes, like the one I mentioned earlier," the goblin rolled it's eyes heavenward. "I thought that was a given. This would go a lot faster if you'd all stop interrupting me."

"Sorry." Etoh was, he realized a second later, the only one to apologize.

"See, apparently there are rumors tossed around in this area…just sort of back-country bar room talk…that the village of Hamel has some kind of magic stone hidden somewhere. Now, understanding humans the way I've come to, if someone told me about that now, I'd think it was just a ploy to try and draw merchants. You know….our village has the fountain of youth, our village has the Goddess Marfa living in the well, our village has bottomless beer barrel. Bullshit, in other words. But this thing wasn't. Apparently, it's some kind of wishing stone - anyone who holds it has his dreams come true, and all that. No one in Hamel actually believes in it, they just like to use the story when they get into a tall-tale pissing-contest in other villages. Unfortunately, that just leaves morons like Devin to chase after it. He'd been planning to look it up with a location spell, but those things just slip right off it, so instead, he decided to come and abuse us. He cast a spell on us, while the whole tribe was asleep, to make us want the stone, desperately - we cared about that thing more than our own lives. And I'm sure you can guess what happened after that. Village raiding, house burning. The whole bit. We'd never have done it if not for that spell, let me tell you."

The last sentence was not quite, but almost a lie. Etoh caught the flicker.

"Never?" he asked, in what he hoped to be a suspicious, vaguely threatening tone (it wasn't).

"Okay, maybe not never…maybe we would have done it some other time, I don't know. But we hadn't done it before!" The flicker disappeared, and the aura smoothed back into honesty, shining forth from the goblin in all it's hairy, gnarled, misshapen beauty. "Anyway, it wouldn't have happened if he hadn't cast that damn spell on us. I mean, what did he expect, a quiet little search? We're goblins. We tear things up."

"Wouldn't it have been a lot quieter to look for the stone himself? Why'd he even bother with you guys?" Wood pointed out.

"I'm sorry, weren't you listening when I said goblins can smell magic?! He used us like a pack of hunting dogs to sniff out the stone. He thought that if he had a spell like that controlling us, we'd be too brain-washed to get out of control."

"Probably stole the spell from the library," Slayn said, his soft voice not hiding a bitter undertone. "Mind control of that kind is off-limits to students. Probably didn't even properly research it." Although Etoh was trying not to look at either of his two companions with the aura-spell on, he could see Slayn's colors out of the corner of his eye. There was a dark angry red bubbling up from underneath the blue and silver.

"Did you get it?" Wood asked.

The goblin scowled, and slammed its tied hands against its legs in sudden frustration. "No! That's the fucking thing of it….the smell is so strong it fills up the entire village. And goblins have better noses than humans, but we're not hunting dogs. Nobody could pin-point it. Hell, we can't even pin-point it now that Devin's got it."

"Devin's got it?!" Etoh exclaimed, but Slayn drowned him out.

"I knew it! I knew he'd tapped into some kind of illegal power source! How else could such a sloppy spell-caster acquire that much power?!" He was almost yelling, pale face rigid with anger. Slayn was not one to condemn people, however stupid or malicious their actions were. He had forgiven the "Welcome to the village" prank of a pig in his bedroom, and he'd forgiven constant cracks about his lack of a wife. In short, Etoh had never seen Slayn this angry before. But then, this was magic, and magic was his life. And he took it very, very seriously.

"So hey," the goblin cut off its story, looking far too happy. "I imagine that means we are on the same side, right? You hate Devin, I hate Devin. It all works out."

"Ye-" Slayn began, for once the impulsive one.

"No." Woodchuck cut him off.

"You don't understand! That man is a menace! The way he misuses magic-"

"No. We're not agreeing to anything," Wood repeated firmly. He looked pointedly at the goblin. "We still haven't heard the whole story. I wanna know why you can talk, and what this so-called magic stone does. Then we can talk about sides. Oh, and Etoh? You've got that spell thing running, right? This isn't bullshit?"

"No. It's true." It was strange to believe, but it was true. Then again, they had been attacked by trees, and had fought off stone gargoyles, all while on the way to see a sage about a very mysterious witch. Anything was possible. Etoh had been concentrating especially hard on the spell, because it was much easier than trying to figure out the situation. They had to have some side, but neither was looking very palatable at the moment, and neither would completely jibe with his Falis priest morality. Knowing him, he would probably sit back and watch the decision being made over his head, anyway.

"So…somehow, Devin found this stone , and it what, gave him more power?" Slayn took control of the questioning again.

"That's…what I'm guessing. We were only under his control for that first night. When daylight came, we all scattered. And he must have found it during the day somehow, because he came wandering back in the afternoon when we were lazing around. We mostly sleep during the day, you know."

"Fascinating, " Slayn put in impatiently, motioning with one hand for the goblin to keep talking.

"He waved the stone around, telling us that he'd found it, and we were free to go on our merry way. Like we'd do that with the spell he cast still on us. We all jumped at him, and he showed he had at least has half a brain in his head, because he had that sleep spell bomb waiting for us again."

"But he never took off the original spell? Clearly it was still in effect when we encountered you."

"I don't think he really knows how. He never managed it with the others, and he botched it with me. Later, that's later in the story. So, we all woke up, and it was nightfall. And since that damn spell was still in effect, we all went rushing down to the village to try and get it. I know, it was stupid of us not to knock him down right away and search him for it…he's probably got it on him, but we were going by smell again. That second time, he used his new souped-up maaaagic powers," the goblin wiggled it's fingers dramatically, "to drive us away. He made a big show out of it. All the villagers were cheering for him. I don't think he'd planned that scenario when he first put the spell on us, but it sure worked out in his favor. For a couple of weeks, he got to be the big-shot hero of the village."

"So…" Now Slayn was wringing his cloak in white-knuckled hands, almost as if he was picturing someone's throat beneath them, "He meddled in dangerous magic, he pried into power that he had no right to, and he gambled on the safety of the entire village in order to make himself look good?"

"Yeah, that just about sums it up," said the goblin flippantly. "Hey, that vein on your forehead is really starting to swell."

"Can we just get through the rest?" Etoh asked, feeling a little desperate. Tough as he tried to be, the constant use of the aura spell had turned into a pounding head-ache.

"There isn't much left to tell -"

"Except for the part about you talking and casting spells," said Wood.

"I was getting to that. It happened when I finally managed to get close to him one night. I mean, I'm not the leader for nothing, you know. I knocked him over and started clawing at him. I figure that the stone must be on him, because, up close like that, I could smell it underneath his clothing. It was driving me crazy."

The goblin paused, looking suddenly thoughtful.

"This is starting to sound like some kind of sex story, isn't it?"

"You really know a lot about human thought, don't you?" Wood quipped. "Keep talking, and we'll try not to snicker."

"Well, we scuffled for awhile, and he decided that enough was enough. Maybe he would have taken the spell off if he'd understood how to, but I think what he did to me was intended to be another mind control spell. Only he was casting it very quickly. He just sort of slapped a hand on my face, and mumbled some words. And what happened next…nearest I can figure, he put a bunch of his memories in my head. Hell, not just memories. Thoughts, ideas, personality. The works. Near as I can figure, he was trying to use his mind to overpower mine, kind of like possessing me. Only he couldn't quite manage, so he just wound up…sort of…linking himself up to me. So that I know human language, I can think like him-"

"You do sort of act like him," Etoh said absently. The goblin glared, and a frustrated red rippled across it's aura.

"Yeah, I do, don't I?" It said bitterly. "I can't even remember how I used to be before, but I'm damn sure my personality was better than this!" It banged its fists against its legs again.

"Well, not exactly like him…you're a lot more reasonable," Etoh soothed, or attempted to. No sense in upsetting a captive that was rapidly turning into an ally. And there was still no hint of a lie.

"I suppose," it grumbled. "I'm kind of a mish-mash. I've still got…goblin impulses, I guess, but it's all colored with human thought. And most of it is his thought. God, I hate him! You guys just had to talk to the little prick, but he's in my head all day, every day."

"Is this…" Slayn began, "where you got your knowledge of magic? You use it like an amateur, but you…well, you have magic knowledge. Which is more than most humans have."

"Yep. It's all out of Devin's head, which is why I use it so damn sloppy. All the stone really gave him was more magic knowledge, not refined technique."

"Are you connected with him in any way right now? Or was it just a one time thing?"

"One time thing. I haven't a clue what he's thinking about now, although from what I know about his personality, I can hazard a guess." The goblin curled it's fingers and thumb together and made an odd up-down jerking motion that left Etoh mystified. His two companions must have gotten it, because they exchange quick, embarrassed glances, but neither saw fit to clue him in. He made a note to ask Parn about it later.

"I woulda thought that you were connected up to Devin, though," Wood was saying. "How else did you know we were headed out to attack you? Or do you guys just hang out invisible on hill-tops all the time?"

"Oh, of course, the goblin leader can't just be observant and crafty, oh nooo, it's all some mental connection with humans! Ha! Look, you guys are a little stealthier than Devin, but you've got nothing on species that live in the forest all the time. My scouts had their eyes on you from the moment you left the village - even with all the weaving around you did. Good try there, thief."

"Well, at least I made an effort," Wood muttered scowling. "Not like your precious trap wound up working that well."

"I thought it was a damn good trap. And that takes us up to where we are now, I should think. I got this creep's thoughts and memories running around in my head, I've got a band of relatives that wants to raid the village and take a stupid piece of rock - or at least, I did. I guess that problem's solved." It stopped to give Slayn a nod, and this time there was no mistaking the gratitude on it's face. "I don't know where I'm going from here. Of course, I am tied up by three morons…" It scowled again. "I suppose the future is up to you guys. You're the ones with the rope, after all."

"You know - I could probably work to put you back the way you were," Slayn offered hesitantly. "I mean, this is venturing into new ground, magically speaking, but I could try to do something…."

"Don't!" The goblin snapped, then recovered itself. "Don't. I mean, it's not like your kind is better than us…or anything,….but, I mean….aw hell, I don't know. I don't know what to make of all this. I just know that it's easier to think this way, and I'm not giving that up."

"In that case, " Slayn continued. "I think the three of us are going to have a bit of a conference, as to the best way of dealing with this situation. If what you've told us is true -" He looked at Etoh for confirmation. Etoh nodded. "- well, that changes the situation significantly."

"So like I said in the first place, we promise not to kill you," Woodchuck summed up, before letting Slayn pull him and Etoh a few paces aside, where they could whisper mostly out of earshot. Etoh dropped the aura spell with some relief, and began wiping the tears out of his aching eyes.

"I guess the question of the night is, now what?"

"Well, obviously Devin needs to be stopped," Slayn said firmly. People sometimes forgot that the mild-tempered mage was capable of taking a stand, but when he did, he was as immovable as his dwarven friend.

"I suppose…that would be in our best interest," Wood sighed. "I don't think we'll be able to get the others away from him without a fight, anyway. So, scratch what I just said. The question of the night is, how? And do we do it by teaming up with it?" He motioned back at the goblin, who sat staring defiantly straight ahead, as though to show them how very little it cared if they talked about it.

"First of all, I'm thinking…" Slayn said, "That I might have some idea what this magic stone is. And if I'm right, Devin should be carrying it on his person."

"What is it?"

"Have either of you ever heard of the lost treasures of Kastuul?"

"I have," Etoh began, but Woodchuck interrupted him, looking suddenly pale.

"You mean we're dealing with those things?! Geez, I don't want to get near someone using one of those things."

"Wood, is there anything you haven't heard of?" Etoh asked, thinking that the thief seemed to have replaced a formal education with knowledge of every rumor, legend and bit of folklore to grace the island. Like a gossip encyclopedia.

Wood ignored Etoh and rushed on nervously. " Little magic booby-traps scattered all over the island, that's what they are. They look ordinary treasure, but you pick one up, and next thing you know you're invisible or possessed by demons or some shit like that. There are stories all over the guild about those. We thieves avoid that stuff like the plague, and if that's what's involved, I'm not getting within fifty feet of that sorcerer-"

"Let's not panic quite yet," said Slayn, raising a hand. "Most likely it's not a treasure designed to harm, judging by it's affects on Devin-"

"Yeah, right, it's probably just biding it's time to suck his soul out, or-"

"Perhaps I should explain the details here," Slayn asserted.

"Right. They came out of Kastuul during it's destruction, right?" Etoh asked helpfully. He was pretty certain everyone present knew the details, but he always liked to give Slayn some "teaching time".

"Right. When the barbarians overran Kastuul, they carried out a lot of the treasure that they found there, and since the kingdom thrived on sorcery, most of it was enchanted in some way or another. Not powerful enchantments, like the Scepter of Domination, but little things that the magicians used for their convenience. Invisibility cloaks, cauldrons of plenty, things like that. But the barbarians didn't understand how to use them, and after a few accidents, they decided that it was all cursed, and abandoned it. Since then, the treasures have been scattered across the island. The magic school has sent people out to try and gather them back, but no one's turned up much, yet. I suspect a number of them are held by people a little less suspicious than the barbarian tribes, but it doesn't really matter. There's not a huge amount of power stored in them, anyway. We mostly hope to study them in order to understand the secrets that went down with Kastuul."

"You're leaving out the rings that turn people into dogs, or make them explode," Wood put in.

"Well yes, there are a few treasures that were booby-trapped," Slayn admitted. "When the mages saw the barbarians at their gates, a few of them made items like that in hopes of having some little revenge if the kingdom was overthrown. Petty, but perfectly understandable. There aren't very many of the nasty ones left now. We've been working particularly hard at collecting the treasures that were liable to hurt someone - and for some reason, people are a lot more willing to give those up."

"Now see, this is why thieves don't mess around with magic. It never turns out right. There's always some sort of horrible catch."

"That depends on your motivations," said Slayn wryly. "For example, in the Forest of Never Return-"

"Oh, shut up."

"So, let's all think of a plan, shall we?" said Etoh, trying to sound more cheerful than he felt. "Are we going to team up with our…" he searched for a word appropriate for the goblin. Captive was too harsh, but friend wasn't accurate at all. "..acquaintance over there?"

"Well, given what it's told us about the situation…and the fact that it's been truthful about most everything up until this point…" Slayn cast another questioning look at Etoh. Etoh nodded again, glad to be doing something productive. "I'm thinking that including it in our plans would be the best option. Brining the goblin leader in tied up like a captive would be the best way to get close to Devin without him expecting anything."

"But what if it made a jump for the stone as soon as it got close…? No, wait, it doesn't know where the stone is right now. Otherwise it'd probably have it by now," Etoh mused, answering his own question.

"Are you sure that Devin is bound to be wearing it?" Woodchuck asked.

"Or holding it, or carrying it somewhere on his person," Slayn. "The treasure I'm thinking of is called the Fallen Star. It grants whomever holds it a single wish, but only one wish at a time. And once the stone passes out of someone's possession, the spell is over, the wish is reversed. What I think would be best is if a few of us create some kind of distraction, while someone slips in and takes the stone off of Devin. It doesn't really matter which of us grabs the stone…so long as that person happens to be good at rooting around in other people's pockets-"

"Don't you dare look at me like that, Slayn," Wood growled. "Anything coming out of Kastuul scares me to death. You couldn't pay me to-"

"All the better. That way you wouldn't be tempted to use it. And I don't mean that in an insulting way. The Fallen Star is the kind of treasure that's hard to resist," Slayn said.

"And supposing that I fall under it's evil spell and run off to use it for my own nefarious purposes?" Wood argued, forgetting that he'd just claimed it terrified him.

"I'm confident that at least your 'nefarious purposes' would be less dangerous than what Devin is doing. Besides," and here Slayn suddenly smiled in a manner too innocent to be sincere, even for Slayn, "we all trust you." Etoh remembered using the exact same tactic earlier that evening, and decided that he and the mage definitely thought too much alike.

"Oh, fine!" Wood snapped, grimacing. "But I'm wearin' gloves before I snag that thing. God damn, I hate when you all pull that emotional friendship nonsense on me."

"Thank you," Slayn cut him off, face settling back into his usual serious look. "That'll help the situation considerably. What we need now is a distraction that will send most of the villagers away, so we don't have to face a mob like last time. I can handle that. I'm thinking that their odd behavior probably has something to do with Devin's new magic - either it's a spell he cast, or some side effect of the stone's power. Either way, I'm fairly sure that taking the stone will snap them out of it."

"And if not?"

"Then whoever is holding the Fallen Star uses it to hold the crowd off until we make a peaceful exit. Then we put it in a bag so no one can touch it, and I turn it over to King Fahn's court wizard when we get back to Valis."

"But are you sure it's the Fallen Star that he's using?" Etoh asked. "What if it's something else? Something that he can use from a distance?"

"Then I cast the mute spell. What I'm planning should have the crowd cleared away by then, so the only danger will be to Devin and myself. If we take his magic, we can make him talk, and use him as a hostage if the villagers come back."

"Okay…I guess that covers things…" Etoh said slowly.

"Oh no, it doesn't come close to covering everything that could happen," said Slayn, smiling. "But we can't plan for absolutely everything. And things might turn in our favor. By tomorrow, the others should start to wake up, and they can lend us a hand. This is about the best we can do…..right now…." Slayn stopped clap a hand over a yawn.

"Right," Etoh said, wishing he felt an eensy bit more confident.

"It'll be alright. We have," Slayn paused dramtically. "A plan."

"We had a plan last time," Woodchuck felt the need to point out.

"Yes, but now we have," Slayn looked vaguely irritated, but would have his dramatic pause anyway, "a better plan."

"Right, then. Let's explain things to the goblin, and -"

"Save it," the goblin called up to them suddenly. "In case you're interested, goblins have much better hearing than humans. I didn't mean to eavesdrop," it held it's head up almost primly, "but I couldn't really help it." It seemed to be expecting a fight, but it had, in fact, saved time. And no one had much energy left to argue.

"Okay then," Etoh said. "I guess we're all agreed…." He trailed off, struck by a sudden thought. "Say, do you have a name? Do goblins have names?"

"Oh, now you bother to ask!" the goblin scowled. "Yeah, we have names. We have to have some way to tell each other apart. I'm -" And the goblin made a deep noise in it's throat, somewhere between a growl and grunt.

"Ghrol…? Vgrol….?"

The goblin sighed.

"Try V'gol," it said, breaking the name into two syllables, and carefully forming human sounds.

"Viii-gool?"

"Good enough. Hey, sorcerer. I just thought of something. When is my magic going to come back? It could be mighty useful tomorrow."

"Sorry, but the mute spell that I cast lasts for over a day. You'll mostly be acting as our hostage, anyway. I'll handle the magic."

"One last thing," Slayn said, as he stretched himself out and wrapped his cloak around himself. "I'd rather not see any killing tomorrow, if we can help it. The villagers are probably under Devin's control, and not responsible for their actions. And practically speaking, we'll be a lot more likely to retrieve our friends and get out alive tomorrow if we don't give the townspeople reason to hate us."

"That means no eating people, either," Wood said pointedly, as he bound up the goblin's feet, securing it for the night.

"Oh, for Gods sake, I don't even want to eat people anymore. I wouldn't touch one if you fried it up and served it on a platter," V'gol protested. "Even one of the young ones -"

"Let's stop talking about this and get some sleep!" said Etoh desperately. The headache was getting worse, and even the light from the stars seemed too bright.

"Wait, we can't just go to sleep with a hostage here. Someone's gotta -" Woodchuck was interrupted as Slayn thrust an irritable hand towards the goblin and mumbled a few words.

"Hey, what are you - ?" Then V'gol was limp on the ground, snoring softly.

"There. It'll sleep until morning. I suggest you do the same."

"Oh. Okay, that'll do."

Etoh felt as though he'd never get to sleep. The starlight stung his eyes, so he couldn't even turn to constellations for peace, and there was a nervous churning in the pit of his stomach. Falis only knew what could happen the next day. He had to sleep that night, but he'd never manage at this rate. He was so preoccupied with the idea that he barely noticed when he did drop off, slipping easily into dark, dreamless waters.