Varyssa: Not asking yourself "What would Moebius do," is perfectly acceptable, don't feel bad. (grin) Her backpack is based off of a bag that's been around for at least twenty years. The difference between hers and mine is that mine never has anything that I don't remember putting into it, as opposed to my winter coat, which constantly surprises me with what I find in the pockets.

I'm not really happy with this section. You can probably skip it until you get confused, unless you get bored.

20050713 Disclaimer: I'm not taking responsibility for any of this.

The horizon once again was blank, the cliff that shielded Nosgoth from the meadow was gone. A large concrete block was the only feature of this grassy but desolate place.

Janos was exhausted from his ordeal, so we decided to sit around and let him sleep. I set up a heavy canopy to provide some shade. Vorador and Kain agreed to set aside their differences for another day; they were deeply engrossed in a game of chess.

Raziel was currently occupying his time by quizzing me on what was likely to happen. By some of the strange situations, I imagine that he was spouting off every weird idea that entered his head.

"What about restoring my appearance?" Raziel finally asked.

I sighed and said, "I have a feeling that we'll find a way to give you an appearance you can be comfortable with, but it won't be easy."

"Do you know how?" Raziel pressed.

I winced and shook my head. "I know that there are several possibilities, but my brain goes all fuzzy when I try to focus in on them."

Raziel slashed at the ground, leaving deep gouges in the sod and scattering dirt.

The clattering of scattered chess pieces drew my attention. I couldn't tell if it was Kain or Vorador that had knocked the board away, but their truce was definitely over.

"I expect that you want me to stop them again," Raziel commented wearily.

"Don't bother," I muttered. "Maybe they'll knock some sense into each other."

Janos emerged from the tent with a yawn. He seemed to have regained much of his strength, though his hair and feathers were tousled. He frowned as he watched Kain and Vorador alternate between casting spells and physically attacking one another.

"Vorador never reacts well to loss," Janos sighed sadly, speaking of Umah. "Still, I fear he may now be outmatched."

As Janos stepped forward to break up the fight, Raziel lunged to help him. Vorador grudgingly submitted as soon as Janos' talons grabbed his shoulders, but Kain still struggled even as Raziel pinned his arms from behind.

"You've no right to interfere," Kain snarled.

In a fit of rage, he broke Raziel's hold and slammed his fist into the wraith's temple. Raziel hit the ground hard, but was on his feet again in a second. It didn't matter, Kain's fit of temper was over.

Raziel glared angrily and said suddenly, "I'm tired of this." He raised his arms and dissolved into a cloud of luminous blue ash.

"Oh dear," I muttered ardently.

"What's wrong?" Kain asked, picking up on the intensity of my words.

"I usually try to keep him out of the spectral realm," I fretted. "I don't think I planned for him to go there without a reason."

All three vampires stared at me blankly. "I don't think that he can get out," I explained. "I'll go get him."

With a complete lack of dramatic gestures, I phased into the spectral realm. The nearby block twisted at a disturbing angle, but the rest of the meadow seemed unchanged. Raziel looked at me in surprise. From his perspective, several minutes would have passed.

"How did you get here?" Raziel asked in surprise.

"Authoress powers," I shrugged. "I can do what's necessary when the time comes."

Raziel's expression cycled through a moment of confusion before he remarked. "There aren't any corpses that I can see, or portals for that matter."

"That's going to be a problem," I said as I grabbed Raziel's arm. The world righted itself as the light warmed. I buried my head against Raziel's shoulder as I was overcome with a wave of vertigo.

"What's wrong?" Raziel asked, neither pushing me away or offering additional support.

"Dizzy," I muttered. "I don't belong there." I clutched at Raziel's scarf as I fought a surge of nausea.

Finally, he brought his claws up to embrace my shoulders in an awkward gesture of comfort. I don't think he realized quite how sick I was. I simply leaned against his shoulder until my discomfort abated.

"Where were you?" Janos asked eventually.

Raziel waffled uncomfortably, but I sighed, "We were always right here, you just couldn't see us." Raziel simply shrugged as Janos looked to him for confirmation.

"Hillary?" Raziel asked. When I didn't respond, he repeated himself.

"Huh?" I finally asked.

"You don't respond to your own name," Raziel observed.

"I haven't had it long. The author wouldn't let me share the real one." I said shamefully. "It sounds too convenient and strange not to be made up."

"Why Hillary, then?" Raziel asked.

"It's from a movie," I explained. "There was a guy that lived in a place that was emptier than this," I explained, gesturing as the monotonus grasses. "His name was Jeremy Hillary Boob Phd. He believed that he was a master of everything, but he was barely good at anything. There was only one person who believed in him, the rest just called him 'Boob.'"

"Are you like that?" Raziel questioned.

"I like to believe that I'm not so pathetic. I admit that I'm not especially good at any one thing, and may spread my talents a bit too thin, but I do care about refining a few of my better skills." I shook myself out of the depressing reverie and offered a hand. "Smoke Z. Dimensia, at your service."

"What I wanted to talk to you about," Raziel told me, ignoring my hand. "I don't want to become trapped again."

I hummed musingly as I pulled a folded piece of paper out of my pocket. It contained all the cheat codes from Soul Reaver. I tapped at the "shift at will" ability as I thought about how to give it to Raziel.

"Do you ever think about anything but sex and violence?" I suddenly yelled at Vorador.

"Stay out of my head, witch," Vorador sneered angrily.

"I can't help it," I muttered.

"But you can refrain from saying anything," Janos pointed out diplomatically.

I sighed as I folded up the cheat codes and stuck them back in my pocket. "Well, Raziel, I don't have an immediate answer to this problem. I don't want you to get trapped, so you probably won't be, but just try to stay out of the spectral realm for now."

"I thought you could do whatever you needed to," Raziel argued.

"I'm not the author, just an avatar. It's the author that ultimately decides what happens to us." I dejectedly rested my head in my hands. "It has something to do with those blocks. I can't tell if they're the source of my power, or a seal that keeps me from having full status. It doesn't matter, they'll always be one close by."

Raziel critically eyed the block. After a moment, he stabbed his claws through the cement and tried to move it. The block wouldn't give at first, it was too firmly embedded in the sod, but then Raziel managed to flip it onto its side. A large spiny tenticle burst out of the ground and slapped Raziel down before withdrawing again.

"They're dangerous," I warned, just realizing that fact myself.