The group, with Yuri in tow, made their way from the shore of the lake back into the Wells of Lurue. The other hagspawn was rather nice to have around, Adahni thought. He was perpetually happy, almost like a child. He never ran out of energy, capering over the hills, sometimes sprinting on ahead so that he could be the first to see what lay over a rise, then careening back down to hill to enthusiastically report what he'd seen. Despite themselves, his joie de vivre rubbed off on them. He seemed to have some kind of power akin to Adahni's own. He didn't truly change anything, but for his very aura made the berries taste sweeter, the water clearer. By the second day of their journey, he had all of them skipping gaily along the track, belting out a children's song that was common, evidently, to both Thay and the Sword Coast.

AAAAAAND on that twig there was a leaf, a rare leaf, a rattlin' leaf

Leaf on the twig and the twig on the branch and the branch on the tree andthetreeintheholeandtheholeinthebog

And the bog down in the Valley-O!

Their voices, drunk with glee, were interrupted by a sharp, warning bark. At first, Addie though Okku had seen something. It wasn't Old King Bear, though, it was another familiar being of the animal persuasion. He moved like a little black cloud covered in burrs out of the trees to the side of the path. He bowled right into Addie, nearly knocking her over, failing to do so but satisfied with standing on his hind feet, his hot breath on her face and two enormous paws on either shoulder.

"Davey!" Addie explained. She went to scratch him behind the ears, but he was positively caked with dirt, "You're disgusting. Sit!"

The black wolf-dog sat, obligingly, his floppy (for a wolf) ears pricked forward, waiting for the bit of dried meat he was sure was coming. He settled for a scratch under his comparatively clean chin, and was soon up again, greeting each of her companions with vigorously wagging tail. Only Yuri did not seem confused by this behavior, patting him on the head despite the dried mud and burrs and probably weeks worth of dead ticks stuck there.

"Oh hi doggy!" Yuri exclaimed. He got down on all fours like the dog, and the two proceeded to caper about.

"What a strange creature," Safiya mused.

"Which one?" asked Gann.

"Take your pick," she replied, "I take it you're acquainted with the black furry one?"

"Yes," she said, "That would be the ship's dog. Blackjack Davy, he's called. Last time I saw him he was keeping my head above water in the Sea of Fallen Stars. Gods only knows how long it took him to get up here. Or how he found me."

"Explains why he smells so… interesting," Gann said.

"Are you a smelly doggy? Yes you're a smelly doggy!" Yuri babbled. He stood up and ran. Davy did a play bow, and followed him. With a flying leap, the hagspawn jumped into a deep pool in the stream that made up the Wells, splashing the rest of the companions with frigid water. The dog followed him in - causing a second wave - and the two of them continued their cavorting in the cool water.

Addie looked up, locking eyes with Gann. She didn't want Safiya to hear this part. He never leaves his side, Addie said, So it's true. I had hoped it was a dream. Or a cruel trick of the hags.

Gann didn't respond with words, but she got the sensation of an arm about her shoulders.

"I suppose I'm glad they're bathing," she said, "And speaking of bathing, isn't there a stark raving lunatic of a girl who sorely needs one, not too far from here?" She pointed vaguely up the road, not really remembering where exactly Janik and Anya's homestead lay. "Gann, can you tell me how we do this?" asked Addie.

"Fortunately, dreamwalking does not require proximity," Gann replied, "Or even, needing to face the poor thing's dad again. She's stuck in a dream, we can follow her in there. We needn't even have come all this way..."

"You two traipsing off into dreamland again?" Safiya commented, raising her eyebrows, "People will talk."

"What people? You?" Addie countered, "I can't help it, handsome men just stick to me, wherever I go."

"Like venereal disease," Safiya concluded.

"Yeah, pretty much," the bard replied and they both chuckled, "You see that Gann? That is called the ability to laugh at oneself. It's important."

"Venereal disease is funny?" Gann asked, his nose wrinkling in disgust.

"I agree with you, brother," Yuri added, having leapt out of the water like a bloody great dolphin and appearing back at Gann's side, "Nothing funny about… that." He slung one sopping, tree-trunk sized arm over Gann's shoulders. The expression did not leave Gann's face as he reached up and brushed his fellow hagspawn's hand off. Yuri never stopped grinning, evidently just pleased to have some kind of physical contact with another corporeal being.

"So what is it you do, anyway?" Gann asked, "You're not a dreamwalker."

"Nah, my mother was an Ice Hag," Yuri said.

"A b… bh…" Adahni said, determined to pronounce it correctly.

"Bheur," Gann corrected, and she cursed inwardly. "What did she do to anger the Coven?" he asked, the annoyance gone from his voice.

"I don't know!" Yuri said, throwing up his hands, "That is why I returned, to find out, to ask the Coven. But I became my fucked up stunted self again, I could barely get out. Say, you, bard, you know how that works?"

"Haven't the slightest," Adahni said. Her companions stared at her. Okku grunted. "What?!" she asked. They were quiet longer. "Fine, OK, yes, I'm a know-it-all. But I really don't have any theories on this one."

More silence.

"OK, fine. I think it was part of the punishment for your mother," she said, "What do hags want for their halfbreed spawn? They want strength, they want their sons as their protectors. When your mother did what she did with a … human?"

"Ice giant," Yuri said, "Human men and bheur don't mix well… things get frostbite. Evidently my mother advised my father on a proper strategy to take over his tribe, for he wanted to oust the current Jarl. That was the price of a night in his bed, and a strong son to take care of her in her dotage. Of course, she held up her end of the bargain when she should have killed him according to hag law."

"Lovely," Adahni muttered, "So this is a hagspawn born of love and you, born of…"

"A night of wild icy rogering," Yuri said, "I find it as disturbing as you, trust me. I don't know why I'm not pugfaced. Perhaps because my conception was a bargain between equals, not predator and prey."

"You're very clever, aren't you," Adahni observed.

"I've had long to think on it," Yuri said, "But you, brother, you are a dreamwalker," he announced, pinching Gann's cheek between two grayish fingers, "That is much more interesting. Tell us of the things you have seen!"

Gann blushed a deeper blue than he already was as he pushed his fellow hagspawn away for a second time. She could see his feelings towards the unfortunate Yuri softening. He thought a long moment, his thoughts no words but a slow parade of images. "I see the world in the way people wish it were," Gann said finally, "That's something I hadn't realized until recently. I thought I was seeing the world as it is through the eyes of others, but I was seeing nothing but their own desires and fears. I fear I have years of correction ahead of me."

She looked at him in shock, not anticipating this bit of self-awareness. She was glad that he seemed to be softening to others and realizing the reality of what his experience thus far had been. She had wondered on the off hand sometimes, what he would do when she left him to… to do what? Return to her ship? Die? And what if she succeeded in saving herself, but not Bishop? What then? Would it be so strange to…

She killed that line of thought before it could finish and changed the subject abruptly, "Come on, let's not let Anya suffer any longer that needs be."

"I will guard you with my life!" Yuri announced dramatically, saluting them.

She gripped the gem that had been Gul'kaush's eye in her fist. She didn't know quite how the hag magic worked, or if it was even necessary that she touch it, but she did, and shut her eyes, and found herself in a place that was at once familiar and alien. The sky was brilliantly, almost unnaturally blue, the clouds puffy and perfect. They stood at the bottom of a hill on a finely cobbled street. The road wound up and up towards where they could see a castle in the distance, its turrets sparkling in the sunshine.

"It's almost like an illustration," Gann said, "No true land is this… perfect."

"That's exactly what it's like," she agreed, "The last page of a storybook, when the maiden lays down her adventures and marries her brave knight for another fifty years of boredom and babies."

"Oh, Addie, you cynic," he said, "I thought you believed in love."

"I do," she said, "But your life doesn't end when you fall in love. It's not "the end" when you run away together. It keeps going. That's problem why she's driven herself batshit crazy, she's spent her whole life fantasizing about getting her man and marrying him but had absolutely no clue what came after that…"

"And what does come after that?" he asked.

"Same thing as came before. You still struggle for survival, you still pay your creditors and your landlord," she said, "Anyway, some of the greatest love stories of all time happen after you're married." Mine did. If you can call it that.

Gann eyed her sideways, "Perhaps you are the best one to snap her out of this."

"How much control do you have in this dream?" she asked.

"Why?"

"It would be much more expedient to mount that hill on horseback than foot," she suggested.

"Easier still to fly, don't you think?" Gann said, grinning crookedly. He gave a shrill whistle. At first Adahni thought that it had had no effect. In a few seconds though, she heard the beating of wings as two magnificent hippogriffs descended from the sky and hit the ground at a gallop. They both wheeled around in opposite directions, thundering across the meadows and stopping at the sides of the dreamwalkers. She just chuckled as he gallantly gave her a leg up and climbed aboard his own mount.

"I have never understood how these things can move," she said.

"It's magic, Addie," Gann sighed in exasperation, "Some things are just magic and you'd do yourself better enjoying it than worrying so much about how they work!"

The hippogriffs appeared to be obeying some unheard commands - probably from Gann, and began galloping, gathering speed at an alarming rate. Adahni could do nothing but put her arms around her mount's broad neck and hang on for dear life as the unnaturally green trees faded into a blur as they faster and faster still. Eventually, she realized that her bottom was no longer being bounced on the hippogriff's back, and she looked down and nearly vomited to see that they had left the ground and were travelling in a spiral up and away from it. She screamed, half in fright, half in exhilaration as they climbed into the sky, and up to the level of the mountain that the castle was situated on. She barely had time to catch her breath before she felt her mount's hooves make rough contact with the cobblestoned pathway out front of the castle. She bounced forward, smacking her nose on the hippogriff's neck.

"Good Gods," she swore, tumbling from the back, "It was a good idea, Gann, but the execution…"

Gann had recovered from his flight already. He was standing in the middle of the path before a full length mirror of perfect glass that he had clearly conjured for the purpose of preening. He had pulled his greyish hair back and given himself a splendid three-cornered hat. His rugged armor was replaced by a fine leather coat that covered him to the tops of his silvertoed boots.

"Is that really necessary?" she asked.

"Oh come on, Addie," he said, grabbing her by the elbow and pulling her beside him, "It's magic. Have some fun." He set her in front of him where they both could examine her reflection. With his mind, he gave her longer hair, braided intricately and piled atop her head, a silver circlet atop them and matching earrings. Instead of armor, she wore a silken green dress, low cut, her cleavage all but spilling over the top of it. She blushed, and imagined herself a cashmere shawl to cover the worst of it.

"You have an eye for fashion, much more than I ever did," she said.

"You didn't have any sisters?" he asked, "Funny, I thought I'd seen a sister in your dreams. An older sister with very light brown eyes, who used to braid your hair for you."

"I did," she replied, thinking about Kyla, who did derive some relaxation braiding her hair for her. Your hair is so much finer than mine! Such little strands… Adahni started as she saw her in the reflection behind her. Still twenty-four, still alive…. She all but jumped out of her skin, and the vision disappeared.

"Who's she?" asked Gann.

"The closest thing I ever had to a sister," she said, "She does haunt my dreams sometimes. I should be more careful."

"Why?" Gann asked, "She's lovely."

She felt the hagspawn tense besides her as Kyla reappeared in the mirror, this time as Addie had last seen her, white as a sheet, her neck broken and her head resting with her left cheek on her shoulder, eyes white and staring, for the river fish had eaten away her eyelids...

"Maybe you ought to stay out here while I talk to Anya," he said, stepping back from the mirror and the apparition, "We'll be faced with an army of ghouls if we let your mind run rampant…"

But Adahni had already flounced off, the silk skirts swishing around her bare legs. Gann caught up with her as she jogged up the castle steps where two dashing, handsome knights stood guarding the door.

"Halt!" one of them called, "Who invited you here?"

"Anya," Adahni said.

"Anya didn't invite any maidens to the ball," the knight said.

Adahni's mind raced for a second. Her mandolin appeared in her hand and she grinned, "I'm with the band."

Gann caught up with her then and they proceeded through a grand hallway. They followed the strains of music down the corridor to a grand ballroom. The massive oaken doors opened with a pronounced creak, and the two stepped forward into an empty room.

Almost empty. The music came from nowhere. There were two people, waltzing around and around at the center of a room which would have comfortable held a thousand. One of them was quite plainly Anya, though she was taller than she was - or perhaps just taller than she looked hunched over with her arms around her knees - with long, honey-colored hair piled in careful curls atop her head. The other's face was concealed by a hat he wore, not unlike the one Gann was wearing.

"This is…"

"Almost as creepy as the dead girl in the mirror," Gann said and then shouted for the girl's attention, "Anya!"

"Oh lovely!" the girl gushed, breaking from her partner's arms and turning to greet her guests. They rushed down the stairs, Addie careful to keep hold her skirts out of the way of her feet. She ran towards her, kissed Addie on both cheeks as though they had been bosom friends for years. She turned to Gann, then stopped. "I don't understand."

Her lover had caught up to her and Addie raised her eyebrow to see that this man was the spit and image of Gann himself, but his coloring was… off. Well, it wasn't off, it was normal, for a human, not for a hagspawn. He was creamy of skin and yellow of hair. He probably would have been handsome, but she was so used to the hagspawn's bluish coloring that seeing his face on this strange being was unsettling to say the least.

"My love, stray not with these strangers, these intruders!" he commanded. His voice, too, was different than Gann's. It was deeper, a little older, and commanding, with a slight Thayan accent.

"Oh, but my dear, sweet Sir Gannayev," she said, "We have visitors! It's been ever so long since we had a visitor."

Sir Gannayev shook his tawny head severely. He reached for her, and folded her back into his arms, and the two of them began again to dance to the disembodied music.

"It's worse than I thought,"Gann said, "She's driven herself mad. That's not even me, it's a memory of me, and imagination of me. She's trapped by her own mind, no spell of mine."

"Well, how do we get her out?" asked Adahni, "I don't think my nonsense song will work, not in here."

"I suppose I could try to seduce her away from him," he said.

"You're going to get her away from a better version of him she's imagined for herself?" Adahni said.

"Better," scoffed Gann, "And I suppose you could do so much better at seducing the girl?"

Adahni raised her eyebrows.

"No…"

"I'm very good at seducing people," she said.

"But…"

"Do you think only men ply their trade on the Sea of Swords and ache for a warm bed at the end of a long voyage?" she chuckled, "But no, that's not what I was talking about. I used to be a farm girl, you know. And what I longed for then was love, but it was more than that. Keep your doppelganger occupied, will you?"

"Anya!" she called, "Could you show me to the ladies' facilities?"

The girl again broke away from her lover, excusing herself with a smile. She took Adahni by the arm and led her out into the hall. Once they were far down a corridor, she turned to face her guest, "Who are you? And why is Gannayev with you?"

"We're here to save you," Addie replied.

"You're the woman from the farm!" Anya exclaimed, her eyes going wide in shock. Adahni flinched, hoping she wasn't about to be on the wrong end of a hairpin. But the girl regained her composure, the shock fading from her face, replaced by confusion, and then she spoke up again, "

"A man I thought was Sir Gannayev rode under my window and I followed him through the whole world… it was as though we rode faster than the wind. And I was in a village I did not know, but there he was, and a child… and you were there. You were his wife. But the minute I tried to wake you up, here I was back in my castle, Sir Gannayev was wondering where I'd been and why I thought he'd been unfaithful."

"Anya, think very hard for a moment," Adahni said, "Does any of that make any sense? Do you remember where you came from?"

"I have always lived in this castle," Anya said, "I think."

"Don't you have parents?"

"I don't think so."

"Don't be silly," Adie said, "Everyone has parents. Mine were named Esmerelle and Farishta, but I never met them."

Anya looked around her slowly. Adahni set her mind on manipulating the dream. She changed the view out from the window before them from the unnaturally green hills that surrounded this fantasy castle to the farm that lay outside Janiik's door, the cabbages and beans, even managed to conjure the gurgling of the Wells.

"I know that place!" Anya said.

"It's your home. Where your dad is waiting for you to wake up."

"My… dad. My dad!" Anya burst into tears, "Where is my daddy? I asked Sir Gannayev, he says I have no father..."

"He's all right, he just wants you to return to him. You're sleeping and we've come in after you," said Adahni, "You've been lost inside your own head for so long. That thing you've conjured, that bastardization of Gann, he's keeping you here. It's why he didn't want you talking to us."

"I don't understand, how do I…"

"You've got to get rid of him," Adahni said, "He's not real. He's a nasty part of your brain that's kept you captive up here."

"But if you're wrong…" Anya said, "He's my only company here."

"This is not reality," Adahni said. Come, look, see what's happening to you while you tarry here." She concentrated again, and conjured a vision of the last time she'd laid eyes on her in the real world. Lice, cockroaches, and all.

Anya recoiled in horror. "He lied to me. He said it was better if I stayed here, that nothing bad would happen if I just … stayed in the castle. With him. For always"

Adahni imagined herself the sort of dagger she herself would have chosen for the task at hand. It was sharp and silver and ten inches long, its hilt carved with a rose. She handed it to Anya, who nodded.

"I don't want you to see this."

Adahni reached out to Gann in her mind and call him to her. He came to her as Anya left to do what she must.

"So how will we know?"

The ground rumbled and shook, sending them both sprawling.

"I guess that would be it," Gann said, "So, do you think the dream will end before, or after this castle collapses on us?"

"I don't think I'm going to stick around to find out," Adahni said, "Shall we?" she motioned to the window.

Gann whistled, and the beating of wings told them their mounts had arrived under the window. They jumped out, one after the other.

Their mounts wheeled as their wings beat the air. "I'll race you to the horizon!" Adahni shouted.

And, as the dream crumbled around them, they flew.