Chapter One
Winds of Change

Palin Majere was nervous. He wouldn't lie about either if asked. The fact that his Test was going to be held outside of the Tower of Wayreth and instead in the Tower of High Sorcery in Palanthus was enough to make any mage balk. No Test was ever conducted outside of Wayreth; except, of course, his. Dalamar stopped as they reached the topmost room in the Tower.

The lab.

His Uncle Raistlin's lab.

Palin would have swallowed in nervousness if it was not a sign of fear. Granted, he was afraid, but he was not about to show it. His father, Caramon Majere, said to Dalamar, "Are you daft? I even know that it is locked against all but my brother."

"Ah, but his Test is here, Caramon," answered Dalamar.

Palin stepped up to the door and was surprised when no guardian stopped him. Then again, so was Dalamar and his father. "Shouldn't there be a guardian or something?" he asked as he turned.

He only had enough to see his father and Dalamar, in mid motion, look as if they were going to jump the last four steps to the door when he felt a breeze where there should have been none. He turned back to the door to see that it was open. In puzzlement he stepped through the door. Moments later it clanged shut behind him. His father could be heard pounding on the door. Seconds later all went silent.

It was dark in the lab. The windows that rested high up were curtained shut and Palin pulled on one to open and allow some light in. The moonlight dimly illuminated the lab. A thick coating of dust covered everything and Palin trailed his hand on the central table. Looking at the dust covered palm Palin turned to take everything in.

Nothing had changed in over twenty five years since Raistlin had been in it last. In a way, this was a bit depressing. Raistlin's lab or no, it was meant to be used. Magic was meant to be worked, spells discovered or improved. Potions made... Secrets uncovered and more made. What had his Uncle discovered in the long hours of working here? So much to read and learn.

His gaze then came upon the curtained Portal. Lights seemed to spill out from beneath the shroud and Palin walked over to it. It fairly dwarfed him, and he pulled the shroud down. The heads of the dragons were alit in multi coloured flame. The view through the Portal was of a abyssal plain. Palin hovered on the doorstep, then stepped through....

Dalamar looked at Caramon, who in response stared dispondantly into the fire. After the absent Guardian returned, Caramon had been forced away from the door to the lab. Forced to leave his youngest son to whatever fate held within. He looked from the fireplace and at Dalamar, "Where had that blasted Guardian been when my son entered?"

"I don't know," Dalamar, for once, was being honest. "This was not part of the Test. He was never to enter, only to be at the entrance, to be tempted. This... changes things."

"Like what?"

"Well, if he returns, he will be inducted into the Order of whatever color of robes suits him," answered Dalamar. "What color, now, that remains to be seen..."

"You think Raistlin had something to do with this?" asked Caramon, a thin thread of hope in his voice.

A snort was his answer. "No, Raistlin is dead. I think your vision from the Gods was truth, and speaking of the Gods... I think it far more likely to be their doing," Dalamar tilted his head in thought. "That your son attracted such attention only leads to his suitiblity as a full wizard."

"So now what?"

"We wait."

Palin had indeed attracted the attention of the Gods. One in particular, but it was not a good thing to be the center of her attention. All five of her heads smiled in anticipation. What a perfect opportunity to lure him out of hiding. He would have to protect his nephew out of some misplaced feeling of loyalty.

The minute he did Takhisis would be all over him.

Well, right after she devoured the nephew, anyway. And what a fine specimen of humanity he was. Well formed and handsome. Perhaps she could play with him for a bit if Raistlin did not come out of hiding.

Palin was aware of the shadow far too late.

Claws held him pinned, and when he looked up into all of her eyes, he realized he was doomed. But he was also Caramon's son and would not give in to fear. He was still alive and therefore there was still hope. A corner of his mind wondered, What part of the Test was this?

"Ah, mortal," she chortled. "How easily you fell into my trap. This is not part of your Test at all. I interrupted it for a little game of cat and mouse, with you as the bait in the mousetrap."

"What? Who could possibly be here that would be lured by me?" he blurted out.

"Your Uncle," she answered evenly as she grasped him and flew off towards the deepest part of the Abyss.

Palin suddenly realized that the Test had gone suddenly very, very wrong.

He wasn't the only one. As to her plans, this had attracted some dismayed attention. First and foremost was her own son, Nuitari. Nuitari told Lunitari, and Lunitari told Solinari. The three Gods of Magic met in a neutral place to them all. Nuitari relayed what his Mother had done.

"She's gone too far," said Solinari.

"The Test is sacred," agreed Lunitari. "Any disruption will ruin the accuracy. The true and accurate result of Palin Majere's Test is now uncertain."

"Perhaps I can offer a solution," came a fourth voice.

The three turned, a slight bow to the woman who entered. "Miiro," greeted Lunitari. "Your wisdom here is welcome."

"You don't owe me that kind of respect, Lunitari," said the semi-mortal human woman. "But since you have entered the Realm of the Greater Balance, which I serve, I feel I must make a suggestion. You need someone to rescue Palin. Someone who can... balance the situation."

The three looked at each other, "And that would be you?"

"No, I no longer carry the Blue Star. That responsibility has passed to another. Let that be redemption as a Miiro," she offered before disappearing into the ethers.

The three Gods looked at each other, but it was Nuitari who asked in confusion, "What is she talking about?"

Solinari shrugged, but Lunitari had the grace to look a bit uncomfortable. Solinari asked, "Sister, you don't seriously know anything about this, do you?"

"I might..."

Even when he had been alive, sleep had been a hard thing to get. Well, at least peaceful sleep. Now was no different. He had the distinct feeling that time had passed, more so than a night's sleep would have afforded him. Then three moons came to him in a dream, telling him to awaken again. He opened his eyes to the dead sky of a realm between the afterlife and of life. Looking around as he sat up on the ornate slab, he noticed that the ring on his hand glowed blue, and the stone seemed to pulsate. In fact, the glow surrounded him and lit up the chamber in which he lay.

A woman stood by his alter, inside his tomb. He knew this woman although it had been a long time since he had ever worshipped her. "Lady Lunitari," he said in even tones. "What makes you disturb my final rest?"

"You don't have a final rest," she said. "Your responsibility was never taken from you. And now you are called to it."

"I see," he said as he stood, somehow not surprised to find that his health was exactly as he left it.

The glow dissipated and he stood there in the Black Robes as he had in the life he had known before falling into the God-induced slumber. His 'reward' for his sacrifice, he remembered them telling him shortly before the all consuming blackness of it had swept away all former knowledge of his life. But now he was awakened.

Raistlin Majere crossed his slender arms, "What 'responsibility'?"

"That of the Miiro, which you are, and your Guardianship of the Blue Star," she answered. "You failed in your last attempt, fell to your temptations, but the title was never stripped from you. Now you will have a chance to redeem yourself. If you want that chance."

He lifted an eyebrow, "How?"

"The Dark Queen has tipped the Greater Balance," she answered.

He leaned back and laughed. After he regained control, "Again? How this time?"

"She kidnapped Palin Majere in the middle of his Test."

Raistlin stopped dead in the middle of his laugh, and he turned to stare at the God in wordless shock. It was rare that he was surprised enough to not have an off color comment, but learning that enough time had passed that his brother had a son old enough for the Test at the tower was a shock to him. "Where? How?" he asked as he took stock of what he had.

"The Wizards of High Sorcery devised a Test in which Palin would be tempted with your history of power, to see if he would follow in his infamous Uncle's footsteps," she answered. "They took him to the doorway of your old lab in Palanthus. The door opened, and he went in. He was never to actually enter, but She altered the Test. Altered it even that he would enter the Abyss, which he did, thinking he was going to find you, and then captured him. She searches for you and did it to lure you out of hiding."

"Well, it certainly worked, didn't it?" his voice held every bit of the bite he was infamous for. "So, now you're going to throw me to her? Maybe get my nephew back in the process? What if he's already dead?"

She shook her head, "Nuitari watches them. She hasn't killed him... yet."

"No, She waits for me," said Raistlin, his voice somber and his eyebrows knitting in thought. "I have a feeling She will wait until I arrive to kill him in front of me. Maybe hurt me, cause me to become emotionally involved... lose control."

He turned to her, "I have everything but my Staff."

"You will have to make do," she and then the Chamber disappeared.

Palin was strapped to the alter and Takhisis, in her seductress form, paced. While it was amusing to watch a Goddess, and a Greater one at that, pace in frustration, it was also unsettling. "I take it my Uncle isn't coming to my rescue?"

She turned to him, the black depths of her eyes endless, but still held the perplexed expression of someone who just didn't understand why something that was supposed to happen just was not. "If he was in the Abyss, like he should be, he would have been here by now. I would have sensed it. But I sense nothing."

"In other words: he's not even in the Abyss?" Palin ventured to guess.

Well, at least if he survived this he would have some good news for his father. Even though they were sure that Uncle Raistlin had been granted eternal rest for his sacrifice, the rumors had a way of getting to everyone. It was like if you heard something often enough, then just maybe it might be true. In this way, Palin had the truth straight from the very frustrated source...

...If he lived to tell anyone about it.

Suddenly she turned to the door, "I knew you would come."

The doors opened at a snap of her hand and his Uncle, in his black robes, walked in and regarded the scene cooly.

Palin had the very eerie feeling of looking into a mirror. Raistlin Majere, his uncle, looked exactly like him. The only differences was that his hair was a little darker and without the red highlights that Palin had inherited from his mother, his eyes were ice blue where Palin's were soft hazel. He was also a bit thinner and paler.

It was then that Palin realized one thing: His Uncle was without his curse. His eyes were normal, and so was his skin.

His Uncle looked at Palin and evenly said, "I will endeavor to fix this mess the Dark Queen has brought you into, Nephew."

"How touching," she said as she walked to Raistlin. "This from the man who killed his brother during his own Test, all because he had magic you were supposed to have? Had the one thing that made you special?"

If this angered Raistlin at all he was doing a really good job at hiding it, but Palin could see the tenseness in the slender fingers that hadn't been there before, the set of his jaw. It was an interesting cross of how Palin showed his own anger, and of his father Caramon. "I learned my lessons, my Dark Queen. Have you?"

Her eyes flashed and dry thunder boomed across the entirety of the Abyss. "I have learned that to rule I have to remove any stumbling blocks. You are one of them..."

With one push, Raistlin flew across the room to land in a heap of robes. As he struggled to stand, he saw the Dark Queen walk to the alter where Palin was bound. "Don't you touch him!" he shouted. "I'm the one you want! I'm the threat, not he!"

"Oh, but he has the potential and your blood in his veins, Miiro," she said as she brought up her sword over Palin's heart. To Palin she said. "Look around well, for it is the last you will ever see."

"Uncle!" he shouted moments before the sword ran him through.

One convulsive jerk up, then the hazel eyes blanked as he died. Raistlin screamed in denial as something within him surged and the Blue Star responded. Before Palin's soul could be claimed by Takhisis, a force far more powerful swept her aside. Raistlin was dimly aware of a swelling sensation not unlike the first orgasm he had ever felt, then nothing.

The Dark Queen regarded the transformed man in shock. Where Raistlin had stood was a luminous being made of blue light that was sexless, ageless, and contained six wings like a pure white and blue eagle. A kilt of blue light clothed it, and while she tried to contain her shock, the soul of Palin Majere escaped her grasp and into the ethers, and to the afterlife it deserved for a short and innocent existence.

She transformed into her five headed dragon, but the being seemed to engulf her as all the inhabitants of the Abyss turned away from the brightness.

She then recognized the coalescence of the Miiro, the brother of Chaos and of Law, a far greater God than she, of which Raistlin had been a fragment. With that realization she pulled back. Had been? No, was. Raistlin had never died...

When she pulled back the light disappeared.

She cast about, looking for the avatar of Miiro in the form of Raistlin Majere. But he was gone from the Abyss again. She cursed loudly, but returned to her lair. At least she had inflicted a wound upon him. She could be satisfied with that.

The sound of dripping water woke him and he shook the cobwebs from his thoughts. The Dark Queen! Palin! Raistlin sat bolt upright and immediately regretted it as the dizziness threatened to overwhelm him. He looked around. He wasn't in the Abyss, and definitely not in the Tomb. Looking around he realized he was back on Krynn, and of all places, in his lab in the Tower of High Sorcery in Palanthus.

He groaned as he stood up, trying to remember how he had got here. All he could remember was Palin dying at the hands of Takhisis. He closed in eyes in pain. He had not known the boy for even an hour, but the bravery he had shown in that situation was impressive. He would have made an excellent and gifted wizard. That loss hurt just as much as the thought of having to tell his brother that Palin was dead due to Takhisis wanting to hurt him. Raistlin wasn't even sure on how to say it...

He stumbled over to his lab table, unsteady on his feet. He felt terrible! Like he had drank too much and was just at the point of returning soberness and of a really, really bad hangover. He slid down to sit on the floor again and rubbed his hands over his face and eyes.

The problem still remained on how he had returned to the Prime Material Plane. He didn't remember doing it, nor even how he had escaped the Dark Queen. Raistlin yawned and reflected on the irony of being so very tired even though he had just awoken...

Leaning his head on his white robes... white? Since when did he wear white?... he fell into a deep, dreamless, and restful slumber.

Dalamar cocked his head as if listening, when a spectral guardian entered. "Master Dalamar, he has returned. You can retrieve him in the lab."

Caramon and Dalamar looked at each other. Dalamar waved his hand over his head once and disappeared. Caramon ran up the stairs to the open lab and walked in. Dalamar was holding two fingers to Palin's neck. "Is he?" Caramon was too afraid to finish his question.

"No, he's still alive. Exhausted from his ordeal, but alive," answered Dalamar.

Caramon lifted his son's sleeping form, and not for the first time marvelled at how he could look so much like Raist that it sometimes was really hard to tell the difference. Dalamar offered, "There is a guest room..."

"I'd really rather not..." said Caramon. "I would be grateful if you do that teleportation thing and just send us home."

Dalamar sighed, then looked at the black mark on Palin's robe. There was a thin hemline, as if woven into the very fabric of Palin's white robe, of black... He smiled, knowing that in the Test Palin had been tempted, but stood up and turned away from the temptation. That he still lived told Dalamar that he had passed and was now a full member of the Order of the White Robes. "Your son passed, Caramon, there is still the induction ceremony," said Dalamar.

"Which he's clearly too tired to attend. Home, please?" Caramon sighed, then relented. "Look, after he's recovered he can attend."

Dalamar nodded once then with one motion over his head, Caramon and Palin disappeared from sight. He walked from the lab and the door slammed shut again. Shrugging, he walked back down to the study.

When Raistlin awoke again, he was in a soft bed. Sunlight spilled in the windows. In an almost uncharacteristic hedonism, he snuggled in deeper and closed his eyes. A sudden thud and the additional weight on one corner, and his left leg, caused both eyes to spring open to regard two young girls. "You're awake!" said the elder and the younger giggled. "Dad told us to tell him when you woke up."

"Somehow I don't think he meant to wake me," grumbled Raistlin... why did these two seem so familiar?

"Oh come on, Palin," the younger said. "Don't be such a grouch. Just because you're a wizard now doesn't make you..."

She didn't get to finish because she was sitting on the floor as he was sitting upright in the bed. Palin? They think I'm Palin? ran through his mind.

"Dad!" called the elder. "Palin's up!"

Caramon and Tika walked in, and Tika sat on the edge of his bed and kissed him on the cheek. "You look better for your sleep, honey. Are you hungry?"

He blinked in incomprehension. "Wha...? Uh, no..." he finally stammered.

Caramon laughed easily, "He's out for two days and he's not hungry! Come on Palin, you'll be hungry once you smell breakfast."

"Wait!" Raistlin held up his hand and Caramon and Tika looked at him in concern.

"What is it?" asked Tika in concern.

For a moment, if not for the look of love and concern in their faces, Raistlin would have told them the truth. But he couldn't bring himself to. Caramon looked at him with pride and love, and respect, and Tika held the same look. Raistlin swallowed. "I don't know how to put this..."

Caramon walked over and patted him on the leg, "Don't worry, son. Dalamar explained the black line on your robes. We understand you were tempted, but you didn't fall."

Tika put her hand on his hair and kissed the top of his head, "And we're so proud of you. I bet even your Uncle would have been proud of you if he was watching.

Oh, you really, really have no idea, he thought. But now what in the Abyss am I going to say? He took a breath and released it in a sigh. Looking at his hands which his nephew had inherited, but never really got to see what they could be capable of, he looked up at them.

They didn't have to know.

Oh, they would still be proud of Palin, but he didn't want to see them mourn. He didn't want to see those little girls cry... He opened his mouth, the terrible truth on them, but instead he said, "Mother, Father, I hope I continue to make you proud of me."

They smiled at him, and Tika said, "That's all we ask. Now, why don't you get dressed in your new robes and see how you look as a full fledged wizard for your brothers and sisters?"

Oh Gods above, what had he just got himself into?

TBC....

A/N (Miiro): Okay, everyone at the PPC, hopefully I haven't just sent the MS test flying over the top. This was a sick little plot bunny that needed feeding, er, killing (whatever, lol). If you hate it, you'll never see it again. Either way it gets finished, lol. I just hope everyone likes it...

A/N (Terrence): In other words, she's a review/feedback slut, lol....