Interlude One:
The Hardest Path to Walk
The gathering of the Gods was held in the Dome of Creation that was a mere room in the massive halls of Heaven itself. But, even though it was in Heaven which was long the bastion of what was Good in Krynn, and would be long after this gathering ended, the Gods of Evil and of Neutrality still made an appearance.

This time, however, there was one among them that held no place in their celestial senate as He was one that did not belong to just Krynn anymore but all worlds, and all timelines within the River of Time.

This one chose to remain in the appearance of what he had been the entirety of his mortal life. It was familiar, comfortable even, in the arena where the beautiful and strange met– A picture of normalcy.

Needless to say there was quite a few surprised Gods in attendance...

"What is he doing here?" murmured Sargonnas to Takhisis, who only hushed him.

"Whatever the reason," she replied silkily. "I want to be able to hear it."

Sargonnas was not the only one with misgivings. The question was being asked all around. Finally Gilean held up his hand, and since he was an elder God of Krynn, one of three, silence reigned in the Dome. "I can hear our brethren asking why you are here," he began. "Indeed, I must ask the same. I was under the impression that you sacrificed yourself to counter Chaos."

"Ionthas was countered– and I did sacrifice myself," answered Raistlin Majere. "I sacrificed my mortal body for you all know that a mortal could never dare to Godhood in their mortal form. But... unlike the last time I aspired," at this point he looked at Takhisis, "I know what I am."

Of course, the Gods didn't like this much, especially those of evil. "So, now where do you fit in, Majere?"

"Excuse me!" came the God of Monks and Order, whom Raistlin's surname had been taken from, Majere.

"I think Majere himself would prefer that you call me Raistlin, or even Miiro, as that is far more accurate," said Raistlin deferentially.

Considering whom this deference was coming from, needless to say, the Gods were skeptical. "Now, you remember all that!" he exclaimed. "You know what I did, how I did it. Why I did it– does it not stand to reason that with the death of my mortal body, and since I was a Demigod, that once I took the Blue Star and bonded with it, I would be a full God? In fact, you can sense my power. You know what I can do, and what I am here for– my purpose. Is it really any surprise?"

The Gods of Neutrality, one in particular, hid a smile behind her hand. Oh, she had known what he was capable of, and even nurtured that. It had been her doing during his Test that called his armor to protect him from the fireball that the dark elf had cast to kill him. While Fistandantilus had increased his spell power she had protected him.

And she had, all these years, even after he in fulfilling his word to the lich had turned to the Black Robes and Nuitari. Her cousin in magic had always been less than pleased that he couldn't claim the archmage to himself.

Now he only proved what Lunitari had believed all along.

He was the best that had ever been.

Her champion.

Well, if you could call the Eldest of All Gods her champion. With his potential realized he now outshone even her father, Gilean. Raistlin was one of the three Gods that out ranked them all. It filled her with shivers to know that even Takhisis was jealous of such a standing among them.

"So why come before us now?" asked Mishakel.

"Because," he began. "You all have a representative on Krynn, an avatar if you will, even I do. But I need to find them and begin gathering them all together. I can sense them, sometimes see glimpses of what they see, what they feel. Someone here is blocking me."

The Gods began to look around at one another, and Shinare, the Goddess of Commerce and a God of Neutrality, "Do you know who?"

"No, not yet," answered Raistlin. "I came only to tell them that I know that they are, and I will stop them. Don't think me a God like the rest of you– that with no worshipers I have no power. Elder Gods do not need them. Remember my brother, Ionthas, whom you know as Chaos, he could have destroyed you all. He had no worshipers either. That is my warning– do not interfere with what you do not understand."

With that Raistlin disappeared and Hiddukel huffed, "Who does he think he is? He was a mortal! Sure, he was the most powerful archmage to walk Krynn, but does that give him the right to push us around?"

"What you seem to forget is that he has been around longer than any of us," said Paladine. "He was the Sundered God, the Shattered and the God of the Greater Balance and he has been reborn and is the Greater Balance again. 'Good' or 'Evil' has no bearing on his doings nor should they. He is outside of that, outside of us."

"Raistlin– the Miiro– is like the legend of the Phoenix," continued Zivilyn. "When a mortal he was Raistlin. As a God Raistlin is the unawakened aspect of his personality. The Miiro is all that exists."

Nuitari, who sighed, "So, who's blocking him from his goal? Who has the most to gain if he doesn't come to full power."

Almost in unison the Gods looked at Takhisis. "Ordinarily, yes, I would have the most to gain," she said. "But as my brother said, he is neither Good, Evil, or even Neutral in the Good and Evil sense. So... I have little to gain. Not enough to warrant that much effort, anyway. Look at someone else!"

Raistlin opened his eyes in the Tomb of the Last Heroes, and immediately began to choke on the dust in the air. Sitting up and gently moving aside the funeral shroud he looked around at the bodies in the tomb. His bier was a central one and, judging by the dried remains of the roses, the one most people visited.

He shook his head to clear the sleepy feeling and struggled to remember why he had felt it necessary to walk Krynn himself. Finding himself unable to, and knowing that the reason lie in the fact that if he even tried to call on more than a tiny fragment of his power he would be a corpse laying on the bier again with his body– his avatar he realized with a tiny smile– laying in state.

"There has to a better way of doing this," he muttered. "How did that fool old man do it all the time?"

Meaning Fizban, of course. Raistlin sighed, figuring that the ability to call on the avatar took more practice than he had time for. Standing, he suddenly leaned on the bier as his legs threatened to give out from lack of use. It was like waking up after an extremely long sleep and having over-relaxed muscled that refused to co-operate.

The sleep cleared out his head he smoothed out the robes, which he realized were only his best set and a little bit more than over embroidered for looks more than any practical use, he sighed and walked unaided to the doors that served as the entrance to the tomb itself.

He laid a hand on the door and wondered for a moment how to exit.

With another smile, he closed his eyes a moment, then reopened them and walked through the door as if it wasn't even there. There was a Knight of the Crown guarding the tomb and he turned as he realized that he wasn't the only one standing there anymore. His eyes widened in shock. "By the Gods!"

"Ast tasarak sinuralin krynawi," Raistlin chanted as he brought up one hand that held the sand and threw it up so that it made a fine dust.

The Knight, given Raistlin's skill, never really had a chance to fight the sleep spell before his knees buckled and he fell forward as Raistlin struggled to ease him to the ground to lessen the noise of a hundred pounds of steel from hitting the ground.

Given that the young man was at least two hundred pounds and the armor another fifty, Raistlin nearly fell with him, but he managed to recover and little to no noise was made.

Looking down once at the sleeping Knight, Raistlin then swept by and walked down the road.

A/N: From this point on, the story will be a bit more complex, a bit more subtle. Raistlin's return heralds something very, very important about to happen that was only hinted at in "Summer Flame"...