We both had a good meal and a good night's sleep. The storage room was full of various kinds of food... so full in fact that I don't think that Murray could have eaten it all at once. As I thought this, I was struck by fear and sadness... the fear that Murray might be dead, and the sadness that so many people had died. The only thing that could have made it worse would have been if I'd managed to get my hands on the box and opened it myself back when I had tried to steal it from that estate. It was probably gone as well now. "At least the wards seem to have held up, as has the door." "If they hadn't, we'd be dead already."

I turned to see my companion, who had just woken up. "How are you feeling, pal?" "Somewhat better, considering the current circumstances." "Yeah, and as much as we'd probably both like to stay here for a while, this place won't be safe forever." "That's correct, but I didn't have any plans of sticking around here much longer." "What's the big rush? I don't think you're going to get a date with a hot girl anytime soon." "That is definitely NOT the reason I want to get moving." "So why do you want to get moving?" "Let's tell each other a bit about ourselves, and then I'll tell you why I want to get moving."

That was fine by me. I started by telling him some of the stuff he already knew, and added some stuff that he didn't. I talked about my pals Bentley and Murray, about the Inspector and a few of the encounters we'd had with one another... and finished up with what I would have done with the box if I'd gotten my hands on it, not knowing what I knew now. "Selling that box... I can't blame you for saying that's what you WOULD have done not knowing about the terrible power contained within... but who would you have sold it to?" I was about to reply casually that I'd just have sold it on "CNet" when I stopped and realized what could have happened if I HAD done that. The problem is that neither the buyer or the seller meet each other in person when you do that, so I could have ended up putting in the hands of a major criminal organization or some psychopath. "You don't need to answer that... it doesn't really matter now, does it?" "No, it doesn't... well, I've told you a bit more about myself, and now it's your turn."

My companion started to tell his story, very little of which I had already known. He said that he'd been born into a family that knew very well what power that box contained... but his parents hadn't taken it seriously. To start with, it seemed that his father hadn't manifested the powers that my companion had to start with, and neither had his grandfather. However, his grandfather had warned his father when my companion's powers emerged that the box was in danger of being rediscovered and opened. He was completely ignored by everybody except my companion. That was 10 years ago, and his grandfather had died 4 years ago, leaving behind a set of books to my companion that seemed like complete gibberish to his parents, but his parents decided to give my companion the books anyway... and I'm glad they did. Apparently the books had some sort of protective magic to prevent those that were unwary, untalented in magic, or malevolent in nature from being able to see them as being full of anything but that. In reality, they were what my companion taught himself much of his knowledge of runes from, and also taught him a lot of other things, that had been written in case something like "this" (and it was obvious what he meant) were to happen. A year ago, his parents had died in a car crash, and a few months later my companion had a nightmare about the box. Without having read those books, he would have probably dismissed it as a mere nightmare instead of a warning.

"It's not your fault that this happened... you tried to stop this from happening." "Yes, I TRIED to stop it from happening and failed. Which leads me to the reason why I want to leave soon. Having failed to prevent this from happening, I am required to make sure that there is a chance that the damage can be reversed. The problem is that it will take far longer than our lifetimes... and will require far more people than just the two of us." My companion turned and walked over to a shelf that held packs of seeds, the kind that you'd use to plant a small vegetable garden with. "What are you taking those for?" "The future, my friend... the future." I wondered what he meant for a moment, and then kicked myself (figuratively speaking) for being so stupid. "The future... as in the future of the world, right? All that destruction out there... many of the plants and such wouldn't have been spared either!" "Precisely... besides providing food and being beautiful when their flowers bloom, the plants will also help to purify the land of any remnants of hatred that taint it." "You lost me at the "being beautiful" part."

My companion just looked at me for a moment, and then repeated what he had just said, minus the "being beautiful" part. "Purify the land of hatred? So you're saying that some of that hatred from inside the box is still around?" "ALL of it is still around... it just isn't in the concentrated form that it was when it was first released. Think of the initial incident being like a toxic waste spill; there are immediate effects that are drastically apparent, and then there are long-term effects if steps aren't taken to contain the spill that don't show up immediately. It's like that with the hatred... if steps aren't taken to contain AND reverse the effects, this will only be the beginning." "THIS is only the BEGINNING? Things are bad enough already, and you're saying that they could get worse?" "That is precisely what I am saying. and that is all the more reason for us to get moving as soon as possible."

However, we did end up sticking around a little longer for several reasons. The first reason was that I pointed out that if we wanted to bring some of this food with us, we'd need to find something to hold the food, and anything else that we might come across that would be useful. "So you want to search the ruins of this city some more? Just as long as we don't end up spending TOO much longer here..." "Well, we don't exactly have anyplace better to go right now... and our clothing has seen better days. Actually, that's an understatement. Our clothes are starting to look like the kind of thing you'd clean tables with!" "You're right... I'm embarrassed to say I haven't really been paying much attention to that..." "Well, you strike me as somebody who's obsessed with penguin suits and such. I'm not too obsessed with clothing myself... I just don't think that what we currently have is going to last much longer." Needless to say, our clothing was another reason we stuck around a bit longer.

It took several hours (and a few skirmishes with several groups of creatures) to find what we were looking for. "Well, this store looks pretty intact, so why don't we go in and take a look around?" I was about to enter the store when my companion tackled me to the ground. "What's the big idea? There's no reason for you to have done that!" "Nothing is certain... except a foolish move like that is an invitation to disaster. What if there are creatures inside waiting for us? There might not be time for me to save you before your neck got snapped, you were stabbed in the guts..." "OK, OK... I get the idea. I'll be on my guard." My companion's fears turned out to be unfounded, but I was only slightly annoyed by that. What annoyed me more was the fact that there was very little inside the store that didn't appear to be damaged to the point of being unusable.

"You find anything, pal? I haven't had much luck here." "What are you talking about? This is still usable... I just need a little time to repair the damage." "Hold on... you can fix these torn-up excuses for dustrags into something that we can use? How are you going to... Oh yeah, your runic magic. I almost forgot about that." "It'll take me a few moments, but they should be as good as new afterwards." He wasn't kidding about that... and then I realized something. "Wait a minute... you could have just repaired the clothing we're wearing right now! Why didn't you do that instead?" "You never know when some extra clothing may come in handy... and while I can repair clothing with my magic, I can't clean the clothing with it." "You do have a point there. Still, how about repairing the clothing we're wearing right now?" "We're going to have to take off our clothing for me to do that. Otherwise we'll run the risk of the magic sealing our various body openings shut." "That's a pretty picture..." "By using magic, I can do certain things quicker and better than you can yourself... but this is one of the cases where magic has its limitations. Magic does what it is specifically designed to do. Nothing more than that, nothing less than that... even if in the end, the result is not what the caster had in mind." "In other words, if somebody screws up casting a spell, the results aren't pretty." "That's another way of putting it."

A day later, we were getting ready to leave the ruined city. I was packing up some food in a knapsack I'd found in the ruins after quite a bit of searching, and my companion was doing the same. "Well, that seems to be everything, pal." "Yes, that seems to be the case. Time to start traveling again." However, things turned out to not be that simple. As both of us were about to leave the city, we both heard a loud scream... and it didn't sound like one of those creatures! My companion shot off in the direction of the scream, and I followed quickly. We were both about to discover who had made that scream...