Yes, Joseph was awesome! It was the funnest (yes, funnest) show I've ever done so far! Thanks to all of you who wished me bad luck; it must've really helped. And I'm officially over my Post-Theatre Traumatic Stress Disorder now, so I've managed to type some of this up, although it was getting to long for me to continue to a really good breaking point, so I had to leave it where it is. Which is pretty weird. And if you've thought this story confusing so far, you won't understand this chapter at all. I like it, though. Anyway…

Disclaimer: I never actually created Tortall. It has always been inside my heart…

"How corny," I muttered, reading the last entry in Amanda's story. "Listen to this: 'Speaking in a voice only he could hear, Burchard said, "She knows where he is. Soon, so will I."' It's so cheesy."

Neal made a face and held out his hand. "Can I see that?" Flipping to the section I had just read, he scanned over it. "He's going to hurt Kel!"

"Maybe, but he won't have the chance." Neal gave me a quizzical look. "Really! If we have what Amanda's been writing in with us, she can't write until she gets it back."

Kel ran up the hill by the stables. She had been so upset after her questioning that she had to go out and brush Peachblossom until hi coat was shining. Burchard made her nervous, but seeing Duke Baird so lost and knowing how helpless she herself was made her so frustrated.

Mulling over this, Kel didn't notice the figure behind her. However, she did notice when that figure clouted her on the head and she slipped from consciousness.

Amanda reread the last bit of the fanfiction she was typing up. She liked how the last sentence sounded, just the tiniest bit witty.

Placing her fingers back on the keyboard, she realized she forgot if she had specified which men Burchard had brought with him on his trip to court. But her notebook wasn't in her room, she noticed, after glancing around it. She looked through all the places she thought it would likely be, and discovered that her shoulder bag wasn't in the house either.

"I must have left it in the Starbucks. I hope Mom gets home soon and can drive me back there." Amanda flopped onto the couch and stared up at the newly repainted white ceiling. Then she sat up straight as she remembered who had been sitting in that Starbucks with her. "Crap!"

"This is the place," Corinth broke off his conversation with Joren to point out the one storey house. "2832 Cortez Boulevard."

Although it was a small home, it had a nice feel about it. It was quaint, but happy like a little cottage full of cute animals and a joyful family where everyone got along. Painted a pale pink with white trim, the house had little pink and white flowers growing all the way around the mailbox, empty driveway, and house itself. Trees peeked over the salmon colored tile roof, and the place was firmly established as perfect when I noticed a calico kitty sunning itself by the flowers. Cat people can never be completely horrible.

I couldn't tell if Amanda was home, but I couldn't find any harm with going up and knocking on the door, so I started up the driveway. Yes, I started. I couldn't get more than a few steps before Neal grabbed my elbow.

"What are we planning on doing when we see her anyway?" he asked. "She probably won't like meeting us."

"I'm going to give her piece of my mind, for one." Joren piped up. "Who does she think she is, tearing us away from our lives at the slightest whim!"

"Save it for her," I interrupted his building fury, then added, "And she knows who she is: the author."

"Well, if we can get her to send us back to Tortall, I'd be a lot happier." Joren said firmly.

"No! Er, Taina," Neal tried to get his voice back to respectable level, having just yelled at me. "Please, can I talk to you a minute?"

"Er, sure."

He dragged me over to the mailbox, and glared at me. "How can you consider letting Joren go back? You read the book; you know that he, well, you know…"

It was then I understood why he'd been so silent the whole morning. If he had been up the whole night reading, and if he had discovered the fate of his fellow page… "You read your books! You read the Protector of the Small series and you found out what happens to everyone, you and Kel and Joren, everyone!"

"Not all of them. Just the middle two. I couldn't finish the last one, and I already knew what had happened in the first book." he admitted.

"Neal, I didn't want you reading those because of this, because the whole story and everyone's lives will be messed up if you change things. You just have to trust the author with this kind of stuff."

Amanda ran back up to her room and threw herself into the search for her bag, knowing that it wasn't there the minute she glanced around. After a minute or two of inevitably fruitless searching, she heard voices in the front yard. Peering out the window, she saw three boys and a girl, two of them, her own creations.

And she didn't want them to meet her. Ever. But Taina was holding her bag with her notebook tucked inside. So she'd have to create a distraction.

"It's my life! Or his," Neal told me in a furious whisper. We were both hoping Joren wouldn't get curious and overhear our debate. "I'm not comfortable just sitting back and—''