"Did you know that sound travels four times faster in water than in air?" Dr. LaRue conspiratorially to Azkadellia as she sat across from him.

She prayed this worked. They had relocated to the kitchen and Connalee had pulled two of the chairs from the table, placing them facing each other. Cain and Connalee were standing behind LaRue and Ambrose right beside Azkadellia. It was now or never.

She took a deep breath, ordering her heart to stop beating so hard. If it went any faster, she was going to pass out. Gently, she reached up and placed her palms on either side of LaRue's head.

He shivered. "Cold hands."

"Just sit still, please?" Azkadellia begged. "It will only take a minute."

The light began to flow through her as she searched for the magical dams that blocked the neural pathways of the doctor's brain. It took only a few seconds for her to find them. There were four.

"Okay, we do this one at a time. Nice and slow."

The first barrier fell easily as did the second. On the third, the haze lifted from the man's blue eyes and there was more intelligence behind them.

When she went for the fourth, those eyes rolled up into his skull and he began to keel over.

Azkadellia went to the floor with him, knowing that if her hands left him, he would surely die. The old man began to seizure under her touch and it was all she could do to keep the connection.

In the next instant, Cain was there, holding the man's shoulders to the floor and Ambrose was beside her, pinning his legs. Cain looked at her. "C'mon, Princess, you can do this."

His words steadied her and she went back to the fourth dam site. There were ruptured blood vessels there. She could feel his body's energy as it worked frantically to heal itself. She took control of that energy, focusing it to get the blood to clot and the vessels to heal.

LaRue shuddered once and then lay still.

"Oh, no. I killed him."

Ambrose's fingers went to the man's neck. "There's a pulse. He's alive."

Cain backed up when the man began to stir and Ambrose made room for Connalee as she moved closer to take her father's hand. "Father?"

His eyes opened. "Connalee?"

She could only nod.

"Oh, my daughter." LaRue reached up to touch her face. "At last, I can speak with you."

Cain was smiling. "Told you you could do it, Princess."

The shock of her accomplishment was wearing off. "I'm glad one of us knew."

Dr. LaRue looked around at the strangers in the room with him. When his eyes settled on Azkadellia, he leapt up and began to crawl backwards across the floor. "Get back, Witch!"

"Father!" Connalee yelled over his ranting. "Father, it is the Princess Azkadellia you see before you! Her possession has ended."

The man sat still against his daughter for a moment before he relaxed and bowed his head. "Forgive me, Your Highness."

She saw looks of disbelief on Ambrose and Cain's faces that she knew matched her own.

The man smiled, looking mystified. "Has the royal greeting changed since my capture?"

"What? No." Azkadellia replied. "It's just that usually possession is not an excuse people are willing to accept."

"My dear, I studied the science of magic for many years." LaRue said in a dignified tone. "I knew your mother, the Queen Orianah, and I knew you as a child. I also knew possession when I saw it."

With Cain's help, Connalee managed to get her father back into the chair. "How do you feel?"

"Better than I've felt in five years." He patted his daughter's hand tiredly. "I thank you, Princess."

"You're welcome." Without thinking, she blurted out the question. "How did you escape?"

He smiled at her as he rubbed his forehead. "The Long Coats charged with returning me to the Witch's Tower did not consider me much of a threat as a prisoner. They fell asleep one night and I wandered off. Happy luck got me to Connalee's doorstep from there."

He looked at Ambrose. "I know you."

"Yes, sir." Ambrose looked nervous and thrilled all at the same time. "You and I met at the Academy of Magical Sciences Annual Conference."

"Ah, yes." The memory clicked for LaRue. "Ambrose Grant. As I recall, you had some rather unique ideas about magical energy and its use in extending the growing season."

"I'm honored that you remember, sir."

LaRue's blue eyes turned to Cain next. "I'm afraid that you have me at a disadvantage, good sir."

"Wyatt Cain."

At the name, LaRue dropped back in his chair, an air of sadness about him. "My condolences on the loss of your wife."

Cain went rigid beside Ambrose, who looked at him in a confused panic. Since the Tin Man's jaw was clenched tight, it was Ambrose that spoke. "How do you know she's dead?"

LaRue's blue eyes never left Cain. There was sympathy there, as if he understood the other man's loss. "I know she is dead because it is not Adora that stands before me. Instead, by some strange chance of Fate, it is her husband."

Cain was looking hard at the floor now. LaRue spoke softly. "She was a good woman, Mr. Cain. I am sorry for your loss."

His voice was hard and bitter as he looked at LaRue. "How did you know Adora?"

"Though my professorship at Central University gave me the appearance of being loyal to the Witch, I was actually a spy for the Resistance. When I offered my services to the movement, it was to Adora Cain that I spoke."

Azkadellia felt another repressed memory surfacing as a fresh wave of guilt washed over her. "She led the Resistance to the south. Until Zero killed her."

"I began correspondence with her before she became a leader. The fact that she spoke Tridic made it easy for me to code the letters so that she would be able to understand, but if the letters were intercepted, they could not be read by just anyone." La Rue sighed. "And she was more than willing to learn a little of the Ancients' language in case I needed to code more sensitive information."

"The Resistance was constantly on the move." Cain said. "How did you get these correspondences to her?"

"Bren." LaRue replied as the bird cawed loudly from the other room. "He was trained to always find Adora and deliver messages to her."

"My son, Jeb, received the last one."

LaRue contemplated this for a moment. "Perhaps, Adora took him into her confidence?"

"Not according to him. He had no clue who was sending the letters."

"Then, Adora honored my wishes to the letter. She never revealed my identity, keeping it only to herself. Perhaps when Bren was unable to locate her, he chose to deliver the messages to someone he saw her with often."

Azkadellia looked at Cain again and felt her heart go out to the man. DG had told her that he didn't talk about his late wife and it was a subject all of the friends agreed not to broach, choosing instead to let Cain work through it in whatever way he saw fit. Now, the subject was being thrust upon him and there wasn't much he was able to do about it.

She veered the conversation from that vein a bit. "I'm surprised after the Addling you were able to write such coherent letters."

"I am glad they were of use, Highness." LaRue looked relieved to be drawn away from such a painful subject for the time being. "I wasn't sure how coherent they would actually be."

"It took some doing, but we translated them." Ambrose was standing near Cain, his eyes still darting to his wounded friend at regular intervals.

"There were brief instances where I could put enough of a thought together to put it to paper. When those moments would come, I would send Bren and hope for the best."

"What about Heavens Gate?" Cain asked.

Connalee looked at him sharply. "We passed by that formation on the way to Rigmar. We spent a night there."

"And I took advantage of it." LaRue smiled. "I was quite busy that evening."

Ambrose goggled. "One evening?"

"It's amazing how insanity can bring out the creative streak in you." LaRue's eyes turned to Azkadellia. "And so you have been to Heavens Gate, Princess?"

"Yes."

"Then you know what you're facing."

"For the most part." Azkadellia replied. "But whatever you can tell us would be helpful. What are the Suket?"

"A race of beings that evolved to thrive in colder climates." LaRue replied.

"Are they all magic casters?" Glitch asked.

"No. A majority of them are not. Those with more pronounced skill rule over those that lack magical talent. Their leader, Stribog, is most powerful among them." The old man smiled at Azkadellia, "Though his talent pales in comparison to the Light of the House of Gayle."

Cain spoke up. "What about this machine they're building?"

"The machine, codenamed Tempest, lies in the north, in the Unnamed Mountains that mark the border between the O.Z. and the Impassable Desert." LaRue said. "The Moritanium core is designed to omit a powerful endothermic reaction when magical energy is coursed through it. Its purpose is to bring eternal winter to the O.Z. to create a habitable environment for the Suket to breed and expand their population."

"They need a machine to do that?" Ambrose asked. "It's not like they had a machine the first time around."

LaRue nodded. "In Dorothy's time, the Suket numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Today, their numbers have dwindled to the hundreds. After the Witch possessed you, Your Highness and your younger sister was apparently killed, the time was ripe for the Suket to make a bid for the control of the O.Z. again."

"Since Dorothy's Light was no longer present."

"Precisely," LaRue affirmed. "The only problem was that there were not enough Suketians to take over the land."

"How do you mean?" Ambrose asked.

"There is strength in numbers, my friend. Only a huge population of Suketians would be able to bring eternal winter to a land the size of the O.Z. using magic alone. And since they're defeat, the population of the Suket has fallen. They simply didn't have the numbers."

"Which is why they need a machine to do that for them." Azkadellia said.

"I'm afraid the Sun Seater was only the first phase of larger plan." LaRue informed them. "The Witch agreed to bring darkness down on the O.Z, thereby making it easier for the Suket to move more freely.

"But since the Sun Seater has been destroyed, the plan has been altered." La Rue continued. "Initially, it would have only taken a being with minimal magical ability to spread winter if the world were covered in darkness. Now, the Suket will need a magical source much stronger."

"That's why Zero and that Ice Witch were after DG." Azkadellia spoke up. "They need her light for the machine."

"They don't just need the light, Your Highness." LaRue stared at her. "They need the bearer as well."

Azkadellia's stomach twisted. "They were going to take her."

"Or you." Ambrose said softly.

"What'll we do?" Azkadellia looked to both of the men she had traveled with.

"Head back to Finaqua." Cain said firmly. "Inform your mother of what's going on and go from there."