Jessi: Wow! Has it really been over a month since I updated? All I can say is: thank God for Easter holidays. Thank you Sharkbite for reminding me!

Chel stumbled along, the chains and manacles around his ankles making him clumsy. He barely noticed as he was lead along by a pair of lizardmen. He was not even fully aware of the pain in his hand anymore.

His new mistress, it still stung to say that word, had broken every slender finger on his left hand for trying to flee her attentions.

Now all that was Chel had retreated, everything that could be hurt had been drawn in. It was technique that had served him well in his unnaturally long life... Not everyone had been so kind as Vale... No one had ever been so kind as Vale.

Deep within himself the pale elf screamed at what he had lost.

"And how is my favourite whore today?" the Dark Lady stepped down elegantly from a black carriage. When Chel didn't answer she slapped him roughly about the face. The pale elf dragged his head up, noticing for the first time his surroundings.

They were in a huge cavern, filled with lizardmen, enough for a large army. All were armed in the same way as the lizardmen that had attacked them- chain mail armour, helmet and a long sword.

"Do you see my forces?" the Dark Lady lead him by the chain, up into the carriage, "We're going on a little trip," she purred into his ear, "And at the end I will have the power that was rightfully mine... After so long I will be...," she paused,"Now that would be telling now wouldn't it?"

She abruptly shoved the pale elf onto the floor, his head meeting the wall with a dull thud. As Chel shakily touched his head to check for injuries she leant closer,

"Know this, however. When I get my body back, this pathetic little dirt-ball of a world will be the first thing to go."

With that grim portent she turned and swept out of the carriage, closing the door behind.

Vale carefully extended her mind forward to touch at the walls of her prison. Just as before her consciousness was repelled, resulting in a growing pain.

Since her guardian was linked to her telepathically he had taught how to manipulate that link. She could move her mind closer to his, so she could feel whispers of his emotions and thoughts- though she did not do this without permission, out of respect for his privacy. She could mesh with Chel's mind as well, a technique similar to that of moving her mind, but with a much higher sense of both their thoughts and feelings. And, of course, they could talk between themselves with telepathy.

Now she could not sense Chel at all. However, distressing as that was to the young cleric, it had to wait.

She was cut off from her own body by another mind: she had been possessed as her spirit had left her body.

Vale's body was slowly growing numb, her spirit departing to whatever awaited her in the next life. As she shed her mortal body she was suddenly struck by how beautiful the world looked with different eyes.

Abruptly pain took her and she screamed. Deep within her broken body, her sorceress' power began to move. Something else began to manipulate it, sending it to the gaping hole in her stomach. The pain increased as the wound began to close, held together by raw magic.

When the pain died away, the young elf's body began to move, but not under Vale's control.

Vale curled up within the prison of her own mind. Again she wondered why this possessing force was taking her to Mount Waterdeep.

Chel... Please come back.