Once again, Rasmus found himself surrounded by the Grey. His legs had already been chewed off by his Doppelganger and he felt his heart stabbed with a knife. He should have died but he forced himself to drag himself by his hands, to an unknown point in the horizon that beckoned him.

A man with the same features as Rasmus barred his path. He looked identical, his Doppelganger, save he was slightly shorter and wore a much finer black robe. He looked strong and domineering except he had chest wound that bled through his robes in the same spot Rasmus had. Rasmus stared at his twin, and saw he was constructed like a jigsaw puzzle, except most of the smaller pieces were on the bottom and the larger pieces were up top. Somehow Rasmus knew that he would become one of the pieces.

"Give up Rasmus," said the Doppelganger with a voice that echoed throughout this Grey realm. His twin looked just like him, except he was complete while Rasmus was broken. "Just release your magic, then you will become me and I you."

Rasmus refused, he wasn't a fool. All around this Grey plane he could see various bits and pieces of other apprentices that had been eaten and discarded. This creature took what he wanted and threw away the rest. Rasmus would not become a victim like them.

"You struggle so much," taunted the Doppelganger again as he pointed towards the point in the horizon that Rasmus was crawling to. "You are so close to escape, but it will be in vain."

"I'll get away, I won't let you win," gasped Rasmus as he pulled himself across the Grey with his blistered hands.

"You can't win," laughed the Doppelganger."I made the rules, and they say that I will win. It might take a while but I always win. "

.

.

.

Rasmus coughed and hacked. He wanted to clutch his chest but he was too weak to move his arms. His body felt crippled, he had trouble breathing, and pain wracked his senses. Despite this, Rasmus managed a smile, his Doppelganger hadn't won yet. Also, his head was resting on Sylgja's lap and somehow that made it better.

"What happened? " gasped Rasmus. "Is..is …..gods I can't remember her name."

Sylgja turned to Reinhardt who shook his head.

"What can you remember?" asked the Pale man.

Rasmus closed his eyes. He recalled a curse, that drained his vitality and his memory. Summoning the Pale man with the Cacodaemon scroll. Rescuing the Paladin Sylgja. Those two were friends and allies. There was also an old guard, , a pair of maids, an old small woman …..

"Bits and pieces, my mind is shot, the curse or something is destroying me," said Rasmus solemnly. Perhaps the Doppelganger was correct, he could not win. "I remember being trapped in the tower, summoning you, rescuing her, and that's about it. I remember maids, one …I can't remember the pretty one, but I remember the fiendish one was called Vetta. There was an old Halfling woman, or was she a gnome, I don't recall. She was beckoning me to her."

"The bitch stabbed you through the heart," spat Sylgja. "I gave her a good swift kick though."

"Is she alright?" asked Rasmus in disbelief. The old woman was a friend, wasn't she?

"Didn't you hear me. She stabbed you through the heart. Thought she was going to release your soul to Master Leroung. I'm still not sure how you survived though."

"What happened to her?"

"Her name was Misa. One of your maids ate her," shrugged Reinhardt. "We were going to fight her, but Sylgja bribed her with some old clothes she stole."

Rasmus closed his eyes, attempting to block out this madness, this nightmare. "Am I going to live?"

"Perhaps. We are close to the exit, if we could get you there we can get you away from the curse, or at least find someone that can remove it. Still, this tower is full of misdirection, we could be a few rooms away or maybe weeks of journeying randomly floor by floor," said Reinhardt.

"But we have Rasmus again," said Sylgja. "He could shape our path, or whatever he did to get the hot spring and the walk in closet room. "

Rasmus nodded. Despite his shattered memory, he felt he could do that.

Sylgja slowly stood up, lifting the mage with her as he leaned against her. After a few minutes of support Rasmus pushed off, despite her protests, but found himself barely standing under his own strength.

"I'll be alright, I just need to…stretch," said Rasmus.

Reinhardt cleared one of the shelves, before shattering it. From the wreckage, he retrieved a sturdy plank which he shaped with his magic until it took the form of a wide walking stick. He gave it to Rasmus, who quickly found his footing and balance with it.

"Thanks…"

Reinhardt simply nodded. Rasmus studied the Pale man. Even though this wasn't his true form, he grew to trust this creature. Which was odd considering it was a fiend and had already threatened not only to bite his head off but to steal his soul.

"I'm flattered by your faith in me, but we should get moving," said Reinhardt.

While still the weakest, Rasmus lead the way, one small step at a time. Sylgja offered to support his weight again, but he refused. Rasmus felt these may be his last steps, and he wanted to take them with his own strength.

Their path took slowly them to another fog filled corridor. Sylgja and Reinhardt prepared to venture through and bumble through it again but amazingly Rasmus dispelled it with a wave of his hand. The Paladin gawked at him in surprise at his growing mastery of the tower, but that was soon cut short as shouts filled the corridor ahead of them.

Rasmus could see men, men in dark heavy armour locking shields far up in front of them. Hellknights. The elite military arm of Cheliax. None of them were stationed at the tower, but there was a Hallknight keep roughly the next fiefdom away. Did this mean they were at the entrance? Would they have to fight them? Rasmus knew they would be on Leroung's side but perhaps he could bluff them.

Reinhardt read Rasmus' mind, and produced a large white handkerchief. There was already enough blood on Rasmus, so he simply dabbed a bit of it on it and handed it to Sylgja.

"What's this for?" she asked as she drew her blade and readied her shield.

"Cover your Symbol with this. Since you know this land better than I, and Rasmus has a bit of a memory problem, you'll do the talking," explained Reinhardt. "I'll be your personal scribe. You are a knight errant or whatever is the equivalent in this land. Our story will be we saw there was trouble at the tower and stormed it. We managed to rescue one apprentice, but we had to beat a hasty retreat due to the wards and guardians. Fill in the rest as you please."

Sylgja was shocked. "You want me to lie about my faith? "

"Please Sylgja. We can't fight this…I can't fight this…" pleaded Rasmus in a weak voice.

"But be prepared in case we need to cross weapons with them," warned Reinhardt.

The Paladin sighed and draped the bloodied cloth over her starburst sword symbol like a crude tabard. The trio then advanced towards the armed Hellknights. Instead of meeting them at the door they were allowed to enter the main chamber where about a dozen warriors surrounded them in a semicircle of blades and shields.

"Thank the pit we made it out of there," gasped Sylgja. "We managed to save this apprentice but he's been badly hurt. Do you have a cleric?"

"Who are you?" demanded one of the front knights.

"I'm Sy..vandis. Sylvandis of Kintargo, and this is my scribe Reinhardt. I don't know who this apprentice is, he's been hurt bad. A blade to the chest. It's a miracle he's survived this long, but I don't know how much longer he has. He needs medical …."

While Sylgja sounded convincing to Rasmus, a tall thin knight with lavishly ornate dark armour pushed his way through the semi circle. Besides his obvious wealth and rank, the man was distinghished because he had a single glowing red eye that shined through his helmet. Next to him was a robed man with a heavy chain wrapped around his waist, arms, and crisscrossed over his chest.

"Enough of this, I know her . She's Sylgja of Vyre, a traitor of our order and a Knight of the Reclamation,"said Redeye.

Sylgja let out a long breath as she readied her sword and shield again. "Fall back to the corridor; we can hold them there where there numbers won't count."

Reinhardt ignored her command as he simply stepped up towards the man in the chain wrapped robes who did the same. The pair paused a second before embracing each other in a hug.

"Reinhardt, didn't think I'd see you slumming it in thrice damned Cheliax. What's the great Tactician of Stygia doing in a place like this," said the man in the chained wrapped robes.

"Krystaz, good to see you. I didn't think you'd survive the last Reckoning. Heard there was some nasty business in the Iron City, and as for why I'm here I got called by Cacodaemon of all things."

"Cacodaemon? Do they still use that magic here? Man, these backwater planes have the weirdest shit. As for the Iron City, yeah things got crazy there. I barely made it out of Dis, and I've been keeping a low profile ever since. "

Redeye glared at the the man named Krystaz.

"Look like work calls. I'll catch up to you later if both of us survive," said Krystaz as he begun to unravel the chains wrapped around his arms.

"Likewise," said Reinhardt as he readied his spear, and fell back with Sylgja.

"What was that about," asked Rasmus as the Hellknights closed in on them.

"As you can guess, Krystaz is an old friend. We met back in Avernus when the Dragon Queen still ruled there," said Reinhardt.

"Avernus, Dragon Queen?" asked Rasmus. He vaguely recalled Avernus was the first plane of the Great Pit, but the only Dragon Queen he remembered was the five headed dragon Tiamat. He wasn't sure how those things connected, but quickly forgot them when two iron chains streaked towards his head.