"Why isn't he waking up?" asked Adahni, waving her hand in front of Ammon's face.

"He doesn't have a soul," said Safiya.

"So how do we get his soul back? They don't just disappear, right? They have to go somewhere."

"Why would you want to put his soul back in his body, exactly?" asked Safiya, "If you've worked with him, you know very well how dangerous he is."

"He's more reasonable than any of the lunatics I've encountered within these walls," Adahni countered, bristling at a Red Wizard of all people accusing her judgment of being bad, "And he knows more about necromancy than any I've ever met."

"I'm choosing to trust you," said Safiya after looking at her a long moment. She went to a large bookcase along the wall. She started picking up and examining a series of glassine spheres of various colors, polishing and squinting at each before shaking her head and replacing it. "These are all empty. They must have just made a deposit in the repository."

"So we go there," said Adahni, "Right?"

"There's a ledger here," Kaelyn offered, "I can't read it. I think it's in code." She pulled a dusty home a midheight shelf and brought it to Safiya.

"No," Safi said, blowing the dust off and taking a look, "It's Master Poruset's handwriting. It looks like his soul should be somewhere in my mother's tower."

"Why would she want it for herself?" asked Gann.

"She probably wanted information from him," Safiya said, "That he would not give. If she takes his soul, she can peek into every crevasse, every thought he ever had. She's got some apparatus up there to examine souls in detail, I bet it's there!"

They trudged back up to the tower, where Safiya began rooting around again, but this time with purpose. Under what looked like a bunch of old sheets, was a peculiar machine. It looked a bit like a fount like they had in temples, but instead of water within, there was a stand on which stood one of the glassine spheres like Safiya had seen in the Soulless Ward. This one, rather than being clear, was lit from within with an orange glow.

"It's still stuck on the part she last saw, looks like she looked at it over and over," said Safiya. She pulled a lever on the side. An image rose from the sphere, to be projected on the far wall by unearthly light. It was an odd feeling, she often imagined such pictures in order to bring them to life for an audience, but the sensation of viewing them was clearly within ones mind. This was real, tangible, real as any other picture one could see in a book.

She was looking at the world through Ammon's eyes. She was looking at herself, two years ago, and Khelgar, and Neeshka and… Casavir. Seeing him through Ammon's eyes, he wasn't so tall. To Addie he'd always been a symbol of stability, steady as a mountain, strong as an ox. Now, his image projected through Ammon's soul, he was a frightened boy playing at being a knight. Adahni had always seen herself as an opportunist, someone who'd been in the right place at the right time, but this picture of her was one of strength and capability. She was a little flattered, for she was sure that the picture of her on the wall was twice the woman she actually was.

"The fight must have been too much for the structure," Ammon's voice issued from the machine, though it sounded as though he were speaking through a gale force wind, "Quickly! Out before it falls in on top of us!"

Silently she watched herself push Neeshka in front of her and be whisked away by Casavir. Ammon did not follow them. He grunted an incantation, and in a flash of fire, the scene had changed. He was on a farm, staring at a gravestone. The epitaph read She's gone for a soldier.

He went to his granddaughter's grave, she thought. At the end, when he thought things were over, that's where his portal had taken him. Shandra...

"He was with you when it happened," Kaelyn said gravely, "He rescued himself, but he did not save you or your companions. Does that not change your mind?"

Adahni thought for a moment. What was the worst he would do if he woke and were displeased? He wasn't in his Haven. He had no fiends around him. He was in the stronghold of a very powerful set of enemies he'd made somehow, and if she were to rescue him from this state, she had no doubt he would repay her in kind. "No," she said, "I trust that he will not harm me. If the rest of you would prefer to wait outside, I do not blame you."

"You'll forgive me if I look the other way," Safiya said, "I'd prefer not to be implicated in this. In any case, there are other things to do. I will attempt to decipher my mother's notes, see if we can find the other three souls we seek."

"I know him by reputation," said Okku, "I would also prefer to wait here."

"As would I," said Kaelyn, "I don't deal well with the infernal. It is not in my nature. Neither, I imagine, is it in yours, if you are touched by the celestial."

"He's only a man," said Adahni, "Gann?"

"I'm the only one who's absolutely fascinated by this, I suppose. I'd like to witness whatever necromancy this fellow can play with," said Gann, "It'll be good to know, when I get older and my looks start to fade."

"Take this with you," Safiya said, handing her the orange sphere, "Crack it like you would an egg. Since it's his soul, it has a natural affinity for his body, so they should join quite well on their own without any interventions."

Alone with Gann, Adahni took the long trip back down the winding stairs to the professors' quarters. Halfway down, the hagspawn stopped her with a hand on her elbow. .

"When were you going to tell me about the baby?" asked Gann. All the arrogance had gone out of his voice, he sounded genuinely concerned, and hurt.

Adahni's pulse quickened, "I asked you to stay out of my head."

"That's an important secret, Addie," he said.

"What good would you knowing be?" she asked, "It changes nothing about the quest that you and I are on right now, and beyond that, it's not much of your concern."

"I'm not just a mercenary you picked up for a handful of gold," Gann said, "Please, you've seen much deeper into my soul than any have before, stop acting like this is just… a business relationship."

"Gann, I'm sorry," she said, "But this really is a bad place and time to be discussing it, don't you think?"

"Fine," he said, "But we are going to discuss it."

"We can do it at any time," said Adahni, "After all, we seem to be able to communicate without speech, over all sorts of distances."

"Some things are better with words. All I can get from your head is that you're absolutely petrified."

She nodded, "But my fear does nothing for me. We just need to deal with the task at hand."

She turned her back so he would not see her eyes fill, and went on down the stairs to Ammon Jerro's bedside. She took the sphere from her pocket, where she'd put it, and, following Safiya's instructions, she smashed it against the woodpaneled wall. It broke open, but not like glass, more like a soap bubble popping, whatever substance that made up the casing fading away into nothing, and the orange light spilling forth, moving like a fog blown by wind up and over the old man's head, where he breathed it in.

He took a sharp, gasping breath, and sat straight up in his cot. "Gods damn it all, what in the hells is going on here?!"

"Hello to you too, Jerro," Adahni said.

"Ha!" he said, his stone gray eyes focusing on her face, "You again. I always thought you might have survived." He looked her up and down, "You look a little worse for wear."

"It's been several years," she said, "Do I want to know what you did to get you on the bad side of the Red Wizards?"

"I became too powerful," he said, "I thank you for tracking down this soul of mine, it would have been quite embarrassing to die in such an… ignominious way. What in the seven hells are you doing in Thay?"

"It's generally accepted that when one fakes ones own death and runs away with a wanted man, one must leave the region one is running from," said Adahni.

"Good on you," he said, "Never really saw you as the queen of the castle type anyway. Not that you were bad at it, just… didn't really fit you. What's… that?"

"I is Gannayev-of-Dreams," Gann said indignantly, "And you're very rude."

"I didn't realize it could talk," Ammon said, "My apologies, Mr…. Of-Dreams?"

"Gann will do."

"Very well," Ammon said, "So, can I ask what has brought you so fortuitously to my bedside? I can understand what you're doing in Thay - it's about as far as you can get from the Sword Coast in a couple of years - but why here?"

Adahni sat down at the end of the cot, suddenly cognizant of how much her ankles hurt. She took a deep breath, and started the whole ridiculous story. The storm, waking up in Okku's barrow, the journeys through Ashenwood and the Sunken City. Ammon's eyes lit up with interest at her description of the hags' dreams and of the witch Dalenka shouting the forest into submission.

"And so here I am, looking to speak with a Dead God. And I saw you here on my way to looking for four souls to open a mysterious locked door in the headmistress's tower, so I thought I'd do you a solid," she said.

"What do you need in return?" he asked.

"What, you don't believe it's out of the kindness of my heart?"

"Not for a second," he replied.

"Fine, you caught me," she said, "Remember that time, back at Crossroad, that you took me with you to a place you called the Sea of Souls?"

"I do," he said, "And I showed you how to summon a shade."

"I need to go back there. Like I said, I need four souls, it's in some ridiculous riddle lock on a door in the tower. I need to get through there to talk to Myrkul, the dead god, like I told you."

Ammon Jerro looked at her blankly for a moment, "So you want me to help you get these souls?"

"Yes, from those that are already dead, I don't have any intention of severing the souls of the living like they do here," she said.

"Why don't you just go to the repository?" he asked, "I think I still have my professors' credentials, I should be able to write you a note to take more than is in the regulations…"

"No, I need a particular soul to bargain with the Pit Fiends," she said, "They'll sell me the one I need, but they've asked me for something pretty ridiculous. Thing is, I think I know whom I can use. And she's already dead. I just need to find her."

"Do you have something of hers?" asked Ammon.

"I have something that belonged to her for some time," she said. She took the silver snake ring from her hand and gave it to him. He pressed it into his palm and closed his eyes, reading the object.

"I see four owners. An old woman, she had it made. A middle aged woman who died in despair. A young woman who was murdered. Then another middle aged woman… say, I've seen her before, haven't I?"

Adahni nodded. "Also, there's the bit where I was the one to ruin her life and drive her to suicide," she said blithely.

Gann looked at her curiously.

"Oh yeah, I never told you about that," she said, "She deserved it. Don't worry too much." She went over to the shelf where Safiya had found the box of empty soul casings. She took one, examining it more closely that she had dared look at the one containing her companion's soul. It was much like a soap bubble, but tougher, more rubbery. She could force two of her thumbs into the surface and pry open a hole, which would close on its own when she left it.

"I don't have most of my equipment here," said Ammon.

"We're in an academy of wizardry, surely we'll be able to find what you need around here somewhere," said Adahni, "Oh, also this academy is currently in a bit of a shitstorm wherein the headmistress was deposed and has disappeared, so nobody's here guarding anyone's things. Anyway, wasn't it just a matter of aconite and some dried toads or some shit?"

"Yes, or some shit," said Ammon, rolling his eyes, "A delicate magical process, and you've got it all down to 'some shit.'" He rose, at first unsteady on his feet, but regained strength with each step, "You're lucky I'm amused by you."

He led them around the corner into a locker room. With a wave of his hand, all forty something lockers popped open, "Ha, here we go," he said, "Thank you, Mistress… Rham." He dumped the contents of a large sack on the floor. "Mugwort, aconite… this will do nicely."

"Are you just going to light them on fire here?" asked Gann, he asked as Ammon began drawing flames from his fingers.

"Why not?" he asked, "Do you want to take the time of light a brazier and risk getting caught before we've come out of the trance?"

"You're certainly in a hurry," said Adahni.

"The severing of my soul was a punishment for becoming too powerful," Ammon said, "I don't like to think about what they'll do to you for releasing me, much less me for embarrassing them."

"Fine," she said. Like she had before in the tower at Crossroad Keep, she grasped the old necromancer's gnarled hand, but this time, with her other, she took hold of Gann's cool, callused one.

For the first time in years, she found herself somewhere familiar. Familiar, and yet still unearthly.

"Walking in a lucid dream, now this is new," said Gann. He stooped to pick up a handful of pebbles from the beach. They echoed hollowly as he let them run through his fingers back onto the shore. He rose to behold Ammon's sea of souls, as it stretched into infinity under an ominous gray-blue sky. Each wave was a tapestry of contorted faces. "And creepy."

Adahni said nothing, just followed the necromancer as he walked the well trodden path to the stone jetty. They walked along the path out to the end, where the ocean lay on four sides of them, the narrow wharf their only path back to shore.

"Would you like to try it this time?" asked Ammon.

"I just call her name, right?" asked Adahni, "Can I put her in one of those spheres here, or do I have to summon her back on our plane?"

"You could do it here," said Ammon, "Just pry it open with your thumbs, it's been magicked to suck up the nearest soul. And unless her body is somewhere around here and still working, the soul will be most attracted to the sphere."

"That's very clever," she said, "Well good, if I can get this out of the way without bleeding myself to write out the runes, all the better."

"I'm beginning to regret following you on this particular jaunt," Gann remarked.

"I'm full of surprises," said the bard, "Even to one who claims to be in my head." She turned away from her companions and faced the pounding surf. "Torio Claven!" she bellowed, "I summon you!"

A great maelstrom began to form in front of her. Out of it, as though belched forth from the depths of this ocean, the mangled shape that Torio Claven had last occupied was thrown onto the jetty before them.

"Who summons me?" she asked. She looked up to see who had called her name.

"I thought I was done with you," Addie said, "But I changed my mind."

"You're a cruel woman," the shade hissed.

"Takes one to know one," the bard replied. She opened the sphere as Ammon had instructed her, and the shade faded before her as its essence was drawn into it. She nodded to Ammon, who brought them back to the locker room in the depths of the Academy of Shapers and Binders.

"OK, I have a lot of questions," Gann said, "But I think the first is, how does she embody all these characteristics? They asked for someone who was brought up in wretched, deplorable conditions but forsook all for love of another, and yet someone who was rich, and sunk to the depths of depravity."

"She was raised poor, the daughter of a seamstress. She either fell in love with the lord of the manor, or she saw him as a way to power. Either way, she did everything she could in order to have him. And once she had him, she drove herself mad with jealousy. She had several of his mistresses murdered. She forsook everything for love - including common human decency."

"How do you know she had them killed?"

"She told me," said Adahni, "She admitted it, with pride. You see, she believed to the end that she was righteous, that she was a good person for doing what she did, and it's what any person would have done in her circumstances."

"You're a contradictory bunch, humans," said Gann.

"I'm glad you're getting to see that," the bard replied, "Don't warn any demons, right? I need a few loopholes if I'm going to keep running into them."

She turned to the necromancer, who was rummaging through the rest of the lockers, tucking this and that into the pockets of his voluminous robes.

"So where are you headed next?" she asked.

"I thought I would come back here to return to my studies," he said, "Clearly that was a mistake."

"You never know," Adahni said, "While the school is certainly in the middle of a shitstorm now, it's possible the regime might change again."

"I don't think so," Ammon replied, "I'm getting too old for all this nonsense. No, I think I'll be retiring, perhaps back to the Sword Coast. People left me alone there, after all. And there's some fallow land outside Highcliff Village that needs some tending."

"That's quite a drastic career change," said Adahni.

"I think it's high time for a change," said the necromancer, "I admit, that particular trip to that particular part of my subconscious was taxing. No, no, I think pushing a plow for a few years might do me some good. Or, that is, summoning a couple of Ba'atezu to do it for me."

"Well, I wish you luck. Perhaps our paths may cross again," she said.

"Perhaps they will. And now, our scores are settled, we are even, and I will bid you adieu," said Ammon. He pulled a wand off a hook in one of the lockers, frowned at it, and then pointed it at himself. He vanished in a puff of fire and brimstone, leaving a scorch mark on the inlaid wood floor of the room.

"You know a lot of dangerous people," said Gann, "And that's saying something, coming from me."

"I suppose it is," Adahni agreed, "All right, let's go rejoin the others. I hope they've also made some progress." She took Torio Claven's soul out of her pocket. In the normal light and color of their own plane, it certainly was different from the other souls she had come across in their casings. It couldn't decide what color it was, shifting from purple to yellow, back to purple again, pausing at a muddy brown in between the two. "I hope you like it in the lower realms," she said, knocking on the orb with one fingernail, "Can't think of a more fitting place."