Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 03:38:15 GMT
From: LHW . <ensstyenlc@hotmail.com>
Subject: The BSB NSYNC Chronicles Chapter 15

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This story is entirely fictional and does not imply anything about anyone
featured in the story, whether they be celebrities, friends of mine,
fictional characters or Greek gods. Any characters from TV shows, books,
comics or movies are copyrighted to their respective companies and/or
creators. Also, if you are under 18, you should be FAR FAR FAR away from
this story. Comments, questions and feedback can be sent to
ensstyenlc@hotmail.com
___________________________________________________________________________
|The BSB NSYNC Chronicles - Chapter Fifteen|
Howie sat at the table in the academy cafeteria, playing with his food as
usual while Iolaus gobbled everything down hungrily. He sensed something in
the air, a sort of calm before the storm. He glanced at Hercules who was
also playing with his food. Jason, Chris and Lilith were totally ignoring
their bowls of stew and were talking among themselves with Chris flirting
with Lilith while Jason teased them both. Howie noticed Hercules frowning.

"What's wrong?" Howie asked Hercules. Hercules shook his head. "Huh? No
there's nothing wrong with me."

"You feel like something's gonna happen?" Howie asked Hercules. Hercules
nodded grimly. "You can feel that too?"

Howie nodded grimly. There was somehow tension in the air that only Hercules
and he could feel. Something was somehow wrong with the world.

As if suddenly feeling their grimness, Lilith, Jason and Chris fell silent,
as did the entire cafeteria. Even Iolaus stopped eating.

"Okay, something is definitely wrong," Chris said. "It's like there going to
be a blast of lightning..."

A blast of lightning blasted the cafeteria doors open. The cadets backed
away from the broken door, wary of what might happen.

"Remind me to shut my mouth," Chris mumbled. A figure of a woman stormed
into the academy. Darkness seemed to follow her around. She raised her right
hand in front of her and a swarm of zombies and skeletons filed into the
room. Several of the cadets shouted. Those with weapons began to defend
themselves and their friends from the undead. Their weapons were not very
useful, however. The woman stood at the door and laughed a maniacal laugh.
Hercules punched a skeleton's chest and gave it two swift kicks to the
chest. The skeleton crumbled to the floor. Hercules rushed to the woman and
tried to punch her. She was hardly thrown back and she began to fight with
Hercules bare-handed.

"So, the favoured son of Zeus presumes he can attack Hecate, does he?" she
sneered, kicking Hercules in the stomach, causing him to fly backwards about
five or so feet.

"Hecate?" Chris thought for a moment, blocking a zombie's fist. "Howie,
isn't Hecate the goddess of Darkness and of the terrors of the night?"

Howie spin-kicked a zombie so hard that the zombie's head fell of, it's body
collapsing onto the ground. "Yeah she is," he replied, smashing a pitcher of
water on a skeleton's head.

"Hercules!" Chris shouted. "We need help from you family!"

"Who do I call?" Hercules asked, blocking a punch from Hecate.

"Anyone that uses light," Chris replied, headbutting a skeleton, crumbling
it to dust. "OW! THAT HURTS MUCH MORE THAN IT LOOKS!"

Iolaus backflipped over a zombie trying to punch him and grabbed a chair. He
smashed the chair on the zombie's rotting head. All it did was to cause the
flesh to fall off, leaving the zombie's skull exposed. Iolaus backflipped
onto a table and gave the zombie's head a hard kick. The zombie's head shot
off its body, knocking itself into two skeletons and smashing them.

"APOLLO!" Hercules shouted, wondering if his half-brother would hear him. A
bright silver arrow streaked through the room, destroying any undead that it
touched. The arrow hit the wall, just under Jason's groin.

"Woah! Watch it!" Jason said, turning off to fight another advancing
skeleton.

Apollo shot another arrow through a crowd of zombies and skeletons trying to
get to a bunch of cadets who had barricaded themselves behind toppled
tables. The skeletons and zombies crumbled to the ground. Apollo threw his
bow and quiver to Lilith who was standing near him. "Use those carefully."

Lilith nodded and began to shoot Apollo's silver arrows into the massess of
zombies and skeletons. Apollo rushed towards Hecate, bright light streaming
from his body. He tackled into her, pinning her to the floor. The two gods
wrestled and fought, light against darkness. Hercules, seperated from his
attacker, slumped onto the floor, his energy drained by the dark goddess.
Apollo finished Hecate off, and she fled, her minions crumbling to the
ground. The cadets would have cheered if it had not been for the fact that
most of them were mortally injured. Apollo quickly went around the room,
healing everyone that needed healing. Finally he came to Hercules. He placed
his hands on Hercules' chest and a bright beam of blue light streamed into
Hercules, energising him.

"What's going on?" Hercules asked Apollo.

"There's a war among the gods, a war that has somehow spilled over into the
mortal world," Apollo explained. "You have to warn the Faeries. Warn
everybody, but stay away from the priests and clerics of the gods. They
already know which side their gods are on, and they may lie about it, so
spread the word quickly. Say Apollo sent you."

"But they'll think it's a hoax!" Chris panted, standing next to Apollo.

"Don't worry," Apollo said. "Nemesis is doing that right now, trying to get
people into safe places to hide to escape the coming war. She can back up
your story."

"But why don't you help us more directly?" Howie asked.

"We can't, we do not get involved so directly," Apollo said. "At least we
keep to the rules."

Before they could ask anymore questions, Apollo disappeared in a flash of
light. Hercules looked over at the other cadets. He looked at Jason and told
him to take charge.

Jason immediately split the cadets into pairs. "Ok, Eustace and Philip, you
go to Corinth and tell them what's happened. Paul and Delvin, you go to the
amazons. You two, go to Athens..."

When all the cadets had left in pairs to go to the respective cities, Jason
turned to Lilith and Iolaus. "You two go and warn the Amazons."

"But Jason," Lilith began to argue.

"Just go. They'll believe you because you're a girl and you used to live
with them," Jason finished firmly. Lilith was not happy about being
seperated from her friends, but saw the logic in Jason's statement and
turned to go, Iolaus following closely behind her. Jason turned to Chris,
Howie and Hercules. "We're going to warn the Faerie."

"Why four of us?" Chris asked.

"Because the Faeries live deep in the forest, and there are many monsters
living there as well, so we need to be in greater numbers to chase them
away," Jason replied, walking towards the room where their weapons were
stored. He grabbed four swords and told Howie to go and grab some food from
the nearby inn. Hercules and Chris quickly ran to grab some extra clothes
for travelling. The four of them were ready in an hour, and they stood at
the edge of the forest, reluctant to enter the domain of monsters.

"Here goes nothing," Chris muttered under his breath. He stepped into the
dark forest, followed closely by Hercules and Howie, with Jason bringing up
the rear. They began to make their way to Caeranos, following the directions
Justin had given Chris and Howie in case they ever wanted to meet up with
their other friends who were there.



Estel awoke with a throbbing in his head, which was strange since Faeries
did not get sick. There were a few diseases that could affect them, all of
them fatal, but the signs were physically visible, or else something obvious
like coughing. He glanced around the campsite where he and five of his six
siblings, and three humans lay around sleeping. He glanced up at the sky,
wondering what had driven all of them to sleep in the middle of the
afternoon. The sun was now setting. He woke his companions, telling them of
the strange encounters, wondering what any of them thought of the strange
feeling in the air. At Estel's observations, Larel drew a large
leather-bound tome out of his backpack. He began to flip the pages, looking
for something.

"What are you looking for?" Justin asked Larel, who seemed to be frantically
flipping the pages, almost tearing them out. Larel ignored him and flipped
to a page. He stopped, glanced over the page and read out, "The Chosen One
will be followed by the Key. The Key will be used in the war, and can cause
the victory or defeat of the Powers of the World. At some times, the Key can
be found on the Chosen One, whose arrival will cause the natural powers of
the Weave to tear, causing death and destruction all around.

The effect of the Key depends on a man, holy to all, with an elven wife. The
man will be the only one able to use the Key for victory."

"Is that it?" Kevin asked. Larel shook his head and continued to read.
"During this time, the Silvers will rise, bringing power to the Faeries. The
Silvers will each rise to power and be the greatest of their paths. The
Silvers will be led by the Star and divided into physical and emotion. The
physical are of Water, Light and Life, and the emotions are of Hope, Sorrow
and Mirth. Together, they will defeat the Hand."

"Now this is confusing," Joey said, scratching his head. "Is there anything
less cryptic?"

Larel closed the book, his finger in between the pages to mark the section
he had just read. He pointed to the title on the front of the book, which
read 'The Prophecies Explained in Simplicity".

"I guess not," Justin said, frowning. "Do we know anything at all about what
this means?"

"I'm the Chosen One, that much I know," Joey said, peering at the reopened
book. "I don't know what the Key is."

"Wait," Gil said, pointing to a part in the passage. "It says that the Key
can sometimes be found on the Chosen One. Search yourself and pour out
anything that you may have that slightly resembles a key."

Joey quickly emptied his pockets, dropping an apple core, a small
multicoloured rock ("Mignyl Chort," Estel snorted, kicking the rock into the
bushes,) and a bright red Superman facecloth.

"That's all I've got," Joey said. "Nothing else."

"Okay, that doesn't solve anything," Kevin snorted. He looked at Joey's
neck. "Wait, you've got a chain around your neck. What's hanging on it?"

"A cross," Joey replied, taking the chain off with the silver cross that he
had bought from the medieval store a long time ago (or is it later?) and
passed it to Nirnaeth, who began to hum a soft tune.

"There's no magic on this at all," she said, passing the cross back to Joey,
who hung it around his neck again.

"Let's forget about the Key for the moment," Kevin said. "What about the
Silvers? What or who are they?"

"That one is really simple," Justin said confidently. "The Silvers are the
Narelens."

"The who?" Kevin asked.

"Their family," Justin said, pointing to the elves. "Silvers is centaur
slang for seven. And centaurs are usually the ones who translate or reveal
prophecies."

"But led by the stars?" Estel questioned. "Wait...our mother always said
that when we were born, only the constellation Orion was in the sky. Orion
has seven stars, and she named Gil after them."

"That means Gil is our leader, because his name means Star," Alegifu said.
"But who is who?"

"That's easy enough," Stile replied, glancing again at the tome to get the
names. "The emotions are Estel, Nirnaeth and Lalaith. Their names mean Hope,
Tears and Laughter, or Sorrow and Mirth. The physicals are Larel, you and I,
because Larel is Brilliance, I am River and you are Rabbit."

"What does a rabbit have to do with life?" Joey asked.

"The rabbit is the symbol of survival and life to our people, especially
since they breed quickly and provide food for our people. They are also
adaptable and have great survival skills," Gil explained. "But don't ask me
what the Hand is."

"Is there anything more on the Hand?" Estel asked Larel. Larel flipped the
page and read, "The Hand comprises of Fear, Rout, War, Strife and Discord."

"Oh, that really clears things up now," Justin said sarcastically.

"Yeah, it does," Estel said. "The Hand are Phobos, Deimos, Ares, Strife and
Eris, the five Valar of offensive war."

"Oh great, now we have to fight the gods?" Kevin groaned. "Simply great. And
none of us knows what the hell the Key is!"

"We'll have to find out," Larel said, closing the book and replacing it in
his backpack. "We'll need to do more research back in Caeranos. Can Chaemus
help us?"

"Yes he can," Estel replied. "He knows the entire library like the back of
his hand. He'll help us speed things up."

"But how do we get to Caeranos?" Justin asked. "We're weeks away from it."

"Actually, we're two miles north of it," Kevin replied. "The giants brought
you to a different location and we were teleported to the Academy by Estel,
which saved us four days of walking. Now we're two miles north of the
northern gate."

"How would you know, you've never been there," Justin said, ticked off at
guessing wrongly.

"Gil told me the approximate location and I've gauged from there," Kevin
replied. Gil nodded in agreement.

"Ok, we head for Caeranos now," Stile said.



Nick glanced at the woman of tremendous beauty in front of him. He knew how
he was supposed to act and he did it to perfection.

"Yes, of course, noble Aphrodite," he said, sneering inwardly. "I would be
honoured to join your army as your general."

"Thank you for your assistance," Aphrodite said, fluttering her eyelashes.
She got up and kiss Nick on the lips before disappearing in a flash of
light.

"Well done," Shareela said, revealing herself from behind a white curtain.
"She never suspected a thing."

Nick smiled an evil smile, anticipating the coming battle. He had been
trained long and hard for this day, and he was determined to make up for his
failure to kill Joey by destroying as many of the foul Faeries as he could.
As though she could read his mind, Shareela smiled and patted Nick's
shoulder. "Do no worry, my dear. You will kill Joey soon enough. Now you
must go and prepare 'Aphrodite's' troops."



Howie cursed as another branch hit his face. Chris was busy clearing a path
through the dense undergrowth for the party of four to make their way to the
Faerie village of Caeranos. Suddenly Chris stopped. "Do you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?" Howie asked, straining his ears.

"It sounds like people screaming," Hercules said.

The four men walked closer to the source of the sound when they smelled the
scent of something burning. The men rushed forward towards the sound and
discovered a large valley. The valley was covered with smoke, as if from a
large fire. A large sign lay on the ground next to Chris' leg, smouldering.
Chris bent down and discovered some words written in a strange language. He
looked underneath the words and found (to his relief) some letters written
in Latin, the letters similar to English letters. He glanced at the sign and
read, "Caeranos."

"Damn!" Jason swore, plunging his sword into the sign, breaking the
smouldering wood. He ran down the slope into the valley, his friends
trailing him. They carefully walked over a smashed gate carved from many
pearls, walking through the trees. They saw many trees with houses made of
wood burning, and men with fiery arrows were shooting more houses. The
peaceful Faerie were putting out the fires instead of fighting the men. All
over the village, men were shooting fiery arrows into the wooden houses of
the Faerie. Some had even managed to climb onto the higher platforms and
there could have easily been over four million men. Other men that were not
shooting fiery arrows were grabbing Faeries of all sorts and placing some
strange manacles on them. The party noticed that any Faerie that had been
using magic and had been placed in manacles could no longer use their magic.
The entire village was in confusion, and here and there a child was crying
out for his or her parents.

A hand grabbed Chris from behind, and he was placed in manacles. Before
Hercules, Jason or Howie could react, they too were manacled.

"Let me go!" Hercules shouted. "Or my father will come after you."

"Oh, and who's your father?" the man who was dressed in black metal armour
who had caught them sneered. "Zeus?"

"Yes, he is," Hercules said, struggling through his manacles.

"Yeah right!" The man laughed. He pointed at Jason. "Right! And he's the
prince of Corinth."

"I am the prince of Corinth!" Jason shouted at the man. The man looked
uncertain for a moment, then laughed. "Right! Next you're going to tell me
that these two are travellers from the future!"

"But we are!" Howie and Chris said at the same time. The man looked at them,
rolled his eyes and then said. "You're all crazy!"



Brian and Lalaith stood at the large double doors of the temple of Eru and
waited for the fighting to reach it. Since the temple was the highest spot
in Caeranos, they waited for about half an hour before the men began to
reach near enough to shoot their fiery arrows, if they had any left.
Caeranos may have been a small population, but it was one of the more
spacious villages, and the men had run out of arrows long ago. As four of
them reached to the temple doors, Lalaith and Brian stopped them.

"We will come with you, good sirs," Lalaith spoke in her silvery musical
voice, "if you will promise not to desecrate our temple."

"You may enter the temple, but leave your weapons outside," Brian invited,
stepping to the side as though letting the men in. One of the men sneered.
"Foolish people! What do we care about your stupid temple?"

He spit on the floor, just inside the doors. Immediately Lalaith's demeanor
changed. She became menacing and cold.

"You will leave this place," she said coldly and commandingly. "You will
desecrate the temple of Eru Iluvatar no more."

Most of the men backed away from the angry priestess, but the man who had
spit laughed again. He drew his sword and scratched an 'x' on one of the
temple doors.

"What are you going to do about that?" he taunted Lalaith. Lalaith closed
her eyes and prayed, "Forgive them, Lord, just as you forgave those who
wronged your Son, for they know not what they do."

"Har! You can't do anything to us," one of the other men spoke, gathering
courage from Lalaith's failure to do anything. "You're just pathetic, you
and your god."

"May Eru help me control myself," Brian said. He closed his eyes and
concentrated. When he opened them again, his eyes were filled with fury.
"Leave this place now, or you will die!"

"Ha! You are just cowards for not doing anything," another man said. Brian
and Lalaith closed their eyes and joined hands. A wind began to blow, slowly
and gently at first, but began to build up. It became more and more
powerful, causing the men to lose their balance. One of the men, who had not
laughed with the others, staggered up to Lalaith and knelt before her.

"Please, priestess," he pleaded. "I have no disrespect towards your God, and
I will not desecrate His temple."

Lalaith opened her eyes and smiled at the soldier. She closed them again and
the wind grew stronger, but the soldier that had stepped forward was no
longer affected by it. The other three men struggled against the gale that
was blowing against them, but finally, they lost their balance and fell to
the forest floor four hundred feet below. The wind slowly died down and
stopped. Brian and Lalaith opened their eyes and smiled at the remaining
soldier.

"Please, I don't want to hurt either of you," he began, but Lalaith stopped
him. She smiled at him and said, "I see that your heart is pure, and that
you are only in this because you need the money for your family."

"How did you know that?" the man asked.

"I was told, Stephen," Lalaith said. Stephen opened his eyes wider with
surprise since he never told her his name.

"I would just be happy to desert this murdering party, but if I do, my
family and I will be hunted down forever as traitors, and we would not be
able to survive," Stephen explained.

"Do not worry," Brian said, holding his hands in front of him to be
manacled. "Our place is with the captured Faerie, and we will allow you to
capture us, so that you will not need to explain why you have had no
prisoners."

Stephen suddenly began to cry. "How can you people be so kind and
understanding towards us? I saw my people slaughter yours, men, women and
children alike. We captured even more to sell into slavery or to use a
sacrifices that our gods demanded, and yet none of your people even lifted a
finger to fight us."

"It's because we are a peaceful people," Lalaith said, kneeling down to face
the sobbing man. "We are the children of Eru Iluvatar. We know when it's
time to fight, and we will wait until then."

"I would like to know your God...Eru...better," Stephen said softly. "I want
Him to know me, too"

"He already knows you," Brian said to Stephen. "He knew you before you were
even born."

"How can I get to know Him better?" Stephen asked. "I won't be able to learn
from you since you will be taken away."

"One day, you will find someone who will be able to teach you about God,"
Brian answered. "I believe his name will be Paul. Just stay around Corinth
or Thessaly and wait. Pray to God and one day you will find your way to him.
Now go ahead and manacle us before anyone think you've gone missing."

Stephen grinned and placed manacles around Lalaith's and Brian's hands.

"Thank you," he whispered. He was about to lead the two clerics down the
long way when Lalaith stopped him. She pointed to the edge of the platform
and said, "This way is faster."

Stephen had doubts on what she was going to do, but stepped of the platform
with the two of them in tow. Instead of crashing towards the ground, all
three of them drifted down slowly like feather's. In five minutes, they had
reached the bottom and Stephen had handed them over to another man who put
them into a caged wagon with some other inhabitants of Caeranos.

Inside the caged wagon, Lalaith reached into a pouch hidden under her robe
and drew out two silver necklaces with a strange haert-shaped sapphires
about the size of buttons hanging from them. She placed one about her neck
and gave the other to Brian.

"What's this?" Brian asked, putting the necklace on.

"It's a Heartspeaker," Lalaith replied. "They are given to people who are
engaged."

"What do they do?" Brian asked, holding the necklace up to see it more
clearly.

"If the two lovers are seperated, it connects one to the other. Through it,
I can sense when you are happy or when you are sad. You can maybe sense that
I am well, and have no worries," Lalaith explained. "It allows us to
communicate with each other purely by emotions. It never be stolen but it
can break. If one breaks, the other breaks as well. They will only break if
one of the wearers dies."

"So I know that you are dead if the Heartspeaker breaks?" Brian asked.
Lalaith nodded and kissed Brian. The two snuggled up in a corner of the
wagon and held each other close.



"We're too late!" Larel said, seeing wifts of smoke coming from the library.
"All that knowledge is lost forever."

"Not all," Nirnaeth comforted her brother. "We also have a lot of stories
and legends passed down from Bard to Bard by word of mouth."

"But do you have anything about this particular prophecy?" Larel asked.
Nirnaeth faked a pout and shook her head. Larel smirked.

"Where's everyone anyway?" Joey asked. "Have they all been captured?"

"Not all," Gil said, studying some tracks. "Some children got away. Either
that or they're kender or pixies."

"But why were they taken? And where?" Kevin asked.

"We could follow the wagon trails and find out," Gil suggested.

"But what if they have rearguards to see if they're being followed?" Larel
asked.

"Rearguards?" Gil asked.

"Yeah, all armies have rearguards and scouts," Larel explained. "I'm an
archer, remember? I know these things."

"I could follow them," Stile said. "I can shapeshift into an eagle of
something and follow them."

"Ok, that's a good idea," Alegifu said. "Don't get caught and bring back
some information for us or something."

Stile nodded and began to transform. He began to shrink, his mouth becoming
harder and feathers growing from his arms, which later became wings. In a
few seconds, Stile had become a beautiful red-tailed hawk. He spread his
wings and flew towards the direction the wagons had left.

"Come one, Justin," Estel said. "Let's get some things from our house if
it's not burnt down by now. We could use some more supplies or clothes and
get a bath while we're at it, since we're likely to be on the road for a
while more."

"Okay," Justin agreed. "Come with us, Joey."

As Estel, Justin and Joey left to go back to their house, Alegifu sat on the
ground, her back to a tree. She listened to the sounds around her. She heard
a soft snapping sound, as though someone had stepped on a twig. She
immediately got up and turned around, ready to attack anyone who appeared.
Six men came out of the forest in front of her.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Alegifu asked, catching the attention of
Gil, Kevin, Larel and Nirnaeth. The four of them walked up to Alegifu and
stood behind her.

"Oh, all we wanted to do is see how many of your people would come back to
this village after everyone else had been captured," one of the men said.
"We're here to catch you as well."

The six men lunged forward and the five friends entered their fighting
stances. Before they could defend themselves, they felt a heavy net being
thrown on them.

"What the..." Kevin said, struggling to untangle himself. Unfortunately,
everyone else tried to untangle themselves as well, causing them to become
even more trapped. Before they knew it, their hands had been manacled. The
manacles were connected together and the chain linking the five manacles was
hitched onto the saddle of a horse. One of the men mounted the horse and
began to follow the trail left behind by the wagons.

"Damn, this is embarrassing," Alegifu complained. "Best thief ever known,
successfully running the nation's top thieves guild and I've been capture
twice!"

"Add the best Bard, archer and Ranger in the list and you have a major
embarrassment for our family," Gil said gloomily. "This is terrible for our
reputation."



Estel leafed through one of the books in his personal library. He flipped a
few more pages before closing the book. He looked over at Justin, who was
standing at the window, looking towards the floor below him. Estel
considered himself fortunate that his house had not been burned down. He
grabbed another book of the shelf and began to browse through it as well.

"Your family has been captured as well," Justin announced, moving away from
the window.

"We have no time to save them yet," Estel said, closing the book and
grabbing a third from the shelf.

"What are you looking for?" Joey asked from behind Estel. Estel looked up
from the page he had been reading. He pointed at a passage. "I've been
looking for this."

Justin and Joey peered over Estel's shoulder and glanced at the passage.

"Joey, move over a bit," Justin complained. "I can't see."

"I'll read it out," Joey said, ignoring Justin's efforts to pull him aside.
"It says 'The Chosen One will also be known by various other names. He will
be the Rescuer of those trapped by the evil power of the Medusae. His other
names include the Initiator, the Destroyer and the Finisher, and war will
not cease until the Key has been used, whether for good or for evil.'"

"How did the other names come about, besides Chosen One," Joey asked Estel,
looking up from the book. Estel grabbed another book off the shelf. He
opened the book and flipped to another page.

"I've read this countless times, but have never understood it until now,"
Estel said. "It reads 'The Initiator will start the clock backwards, the
Destroyer will cause discord among the Powers, the Rescuer will free those
trapped in the prisons of the mind and body, and the Finisher will complete
the cycle.' I still don't understand parts of it."

"I do," Justin said. "Joey was the one who cast the spell to bring us back
in time, thus the Initiator."

"You come from the future?" Estel asked, surprised. "You never told me. That
is a dangerous spell. It affects the Weave, which could be disastrous."

"The Weave?" Justin asked. "What's that?"

"The Weave is what causes the powers of this world to function," Estel
explained. "If the Weave goes awry, unnatural thngs occur. Which is why we
are careful about casting powerful spells as it may damage the weave. Magic
is drawn from the Weave, and we use it's power to affect things around us.
The Weave adapts and changes its pattern and creates a new design, but
powerful spells may cause it to tear, ending magic as we know it and
spelling the death of all the 'magical' races, such as the Faerie, Medusae
or Dragons, for example."

"Woah...that sounds dangerous to mess with," Joey said, alarmed. "And maybe
that's why all this strange things are happening, like your people getting
carried off for slavers to make money, when it's never been done before."

"Possibly," Estel said. "But it was expected, that's why we have a prophecy.
So don't worry about it."

"Then what about the Finisher?" Justin asked. "What does that mean?"

"I think no one will understand that until the Key had been used," Estel
said. "We need to find the Key before the Medusae or Valar do, so that we
can use it before they do."

Justin glanced again at the passage. "Are there any elves that have human
spouses?"

"No," Estel replied. "Such a thing has not happened for over six centuries."

"Okay then, we're in trouble," Justin frowned. "It says here that the Key
can only be used by the ruler of the Medusae, or by the spouse of an elf."

"This is getting worse and worse," Joey complained. He opened his mouth to
add more but was interrupted by the arrival of a magnificent red-tailed
hawk. The hawk landed on the floor and began to transform into Stile.

"I saw the place the slavers have brought our people," Stile said. "It is a
large citadel, surrounded by a wall about fifty feet wide which encircles
the entire citadel. Guards patrol the area, guarding the citadel from
intruders. I also saw our siblings and friends being brought by a horse that
was travelling like the wind placed into the citadel. Other Faerie from
other villages and clusters have been brought in as well."

"Okay, now we need to get to the citadel and rescue the others," Justin
said, slamming his fist into his palm.

"But how do we get there?" Joey asked. "The horse was obviously enchanted
with speed, and we won't reach there by foot. Also, there is a thirty foot
think wall around the citadel."

"Fifty feet isn't very wide," Estel commented. Justin and Joey looked at him
with shock.

"Are you kidding me?" Justin said, his eyes bulging with shock. "Fifty feet
is really wide."

"Not to us," Estel said, extending his small foot. "Our feet are much
smaller than yours."

"That still doesn't solve the problem of us reaching there before all your
people are sold into slavery," Joey said. Suddenly, Stile looked up at
Estel. "Are the Strutter bays still intact?"

"What the hell are those?" Justin asked.



Justin and Joey looked around the cave's interior at all the large animals
that they saw. They were all robots made in the shape of different animals.

"Cool!" Justin and Joey said in unison. "This is so Mechwarrior!"

"Or maybe Cyberstorm," Joey added.

"No, Star Wars," Justin argued.

"Transformers," Joey added, looking at a huge Strutter shaped like a
scorpion.

"I don't know if what you are saying are compliments or insults," Estel
said, walking over to a Strutter shaped like an ostrich. "But this is hardly
the best we can offer. All our Flutters are needed in Wildspace right now."

"Flutters?" Joey asked.

"Wildspace?" Justin asked at the same time.

"Wildspace is outside the atmosphere of the Earth, and Flutters are our
flying Clockworks," Stile said, climbing up a ladder protruding through the
belly of the ostrich Strutter.

"How do these work?" Justin asked, climbing up the ladder after Stile. "How
are they powered?"

"Sunstones," Stile said, producing a pouch seemingly out of thin air. "They
can provide power for a few days before they wear out, but they can be
recharged."

Stile held his hand out to help Justin climb up the ladder. Joey came in
next followed by Estel. As soon as all four of them stepped in, Estel placed
his hand on a pad next to the trapdoor. The pad glowed blue and the ladder
began to withdraw into the Strutter. The trapdoor closed, sealing the four
inside the Strutter. Justin looked around the room, which contained
cupboards for food and even one with various Faerie games.

"How do you drive this thing?" he asked, not noticing anything that looked
like a cockpit.

"Oh, this is a family Strutter, and it's made for families on holiday,"
Stile said. "There are no weapons at all on this Strutter, but it's one of
the fastest. The driver sits at the head."

He pointed to another ladder, this one leading up a tube that could only be
the neck. Estel and Stile began to climb up the ladder. Stile motioned to
Joey and Justin to follow, which they did. At the top, there were four
seats, two for each eye of the ostrich. Estel took one eye and Stile took
the other. They both plugged in large yellow sunstones into two brackets.
Joey sat next to Stile and Justin sat next to Estel. Estel pressed a few
buttons and pulled a lever. The Strutter jolted and began to walk forwards.

"What's the purpose of having two main seats of only one person drives?"
Justin asked.

"I'm supposed to monitor the speed and power level," Stile said. "If this
wasn't a luxury Strutter, I'd be controlling the weapons."

The Strutter strutted out of the cave with large steps. They did not jolt
one bit, and the Strutter walked smoothly. Estel reached out and pressed a
few more buttons and pushed another lever, causing the Strutter to break
into a run. Justin estimated the Strutter to be running at a speed of
seventy miles an hour, and it kept accelerating. Justin looked over at
Estel. His face was etched with anger and her kept on making the strutter
accelerate.

"Woah, slow down there, guy," Joey said, gripping to the armrests of his
seat in fear. Suddenly, Estel stopped the Strutter with a jolt. He pressed a
few buttons and a clinking sound could be heard from the sitting room of the
Strutter.

"Get out," Estel said to Joey.

"Sorry if I offended you or anything," Joey quickly apologised, wondering
what he had done.

"You didn't offend me," Estel said. "You and Stile get off here. You have to
go to the Medusae Castle to free the other Faeries trapped there. We need
them later. Justin and I will rescue the others. Stile can drive the
Skimmer."

"Oh," Joey said. He and Stile got off their seats and began to climb down.

"Good hunting, you both," Estel said as Stile and Joey disappeared down the
shaft. A minute or so later, Stile and Joey sat in the Skimmer and floated
in front of the Strutter and waved good luck to Justin and Estel. The
trapdoor closed and Estel began to drive again. Justin moved over to Stile's
former seat. The Strutter broke into a run, its long powerful legs
stretching them over far distances at fast speeds. Justin looked out the eye
of the Strutter with interest.

"Look out for the tree!" he shouted to Estel as they began to head for a
large tree.

"What tree?" Estel shouted back to Justin. The tree jumped away from the
Strutter's path and shook one of its branches at the Strutter before moving
back to its original spot. Justin sighed with relief when he noticed
something else.

"Look out for that rock!" he shouted, spotting a large rock about the size
of a bus blocking their path.

"What rock?" Estel asked, the rock suddenly crumbling to dust. Justin shook
his head and moaned. He spotted the citadel in the distance. Before he could
say anything, he spotted some guards in their path.

"Watch the guards!" he shouted.

"What guards?" Estel replied as the confused guards flew thirty feet either
to the left or right of the strutter. He sped the Strutter to even greater
speeds. Justin slumped into his seat and began to feel sick.

"Look out for the wall," he said weakly.

"What wall?" Estel said. Justin looked out at the wall of the citadel. To
his surprise, the wall was nothing more than a large pile of rose petals. He
smiled weakly at Estel, wondering how powerful his teacher actually was.
Suddenly, a loud beeping noise that sounded like an alarm began to beep
loudly. Justin glanced at a meter gauge and groaned.

"We've got to get out!" he shouted, leaping for the shaft. "The thing's
overheating."

Estel quickly got up and grabbed both sunstones from their brackets and
followed Justin down the shaft. Justing placed his hand on the pad near the
hatch to open it. They quickly climbed down the ladder and ran away from the
Strutter. The Strutter began to flod its legs under it and lay on the ground
looking like a large sleeping metal ostrich. A small explosion ensued from
the overworked Strutter, ensuring that it would not run again without
repairs but not big enough to cause damage to anything else.

Estel and Justin began to walk towards the citadel, wondering how to get in.
They spotted a large set of double doors and were so busy wondering how to
get them open that they did not notice a large group of guards walking
behind them. Estel suddenly felt a hand tap his shoulder. He turned around
to find himself facing a large, barrel-chested man with a long curly black
mustache wearing black armour. Behind him stood another six more men wearing
identical armour suit, except that they wore helmets.

"Eh, what have we here, boys?" the leader laughed. "We have a couragous elf
trying to save his people. And a human traitor helping him."

"Aw, kill 'em and get it over with," one of the soldiers said. "We got no
shackles left."

"Aye," the other soldiers agreed. The leader looked at Estel and Justin with
an large, evil grin on his face.

"Naw," he said, his grinning becoming even wider. "I want a go on these two
first. Humiliate them before I kill them."

He walked forward and began to remove his chainamil armoured shirt when he
was stopped by a loud howl of pain. A side door that neither of the
Bladesingers noticed opened suddenly and a man with nothing but a loincloth
waddled out, clutching his crotch.

"Damn bitch!" he cursed, wincing. "Stupid elf won't stay still."

"What happened?" the leader of the guards asked. "Who did that?"

"This elf was recently brought in," the soldier explained. "Beautiful
raven-haired lass with a spitfire temper and breasts the size of small
melons."

Estel blanced and turned red with anger. One of the guards noticed him and
taunted, "What's the matter, Longears? Not interested in women?"

"No, it's just that we are polite and refined enough to say nothing of the
sort," Estel said. "Unlike you barbarians."

"Barbarians, eh?" the guard clutching his crotch said through gritted teeth.
"Do you want to know the name of the slut that kicked me? Then her
reputation will be spoilt."

Estel said nothing but glared angrily at the now-recovering man. The man
looked at Estel and said, "Her name is Rabbit."

It was like as though an explosion had taken place in Estel's head. "YOU
ATTEMPTED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MY OWN SISTER?!?! DAMN YOU, HUMAN SCUM!"

"Y-your s-ister," the guard replied while the rest of the men sniggered at
his sudden agitation. "I-I didn't know."

Estel closed his eyes and began to hum a loud tune. He began to shiver as he
drew more and more strength from himself. The other guards began to look
worried and began to step slowly backwards. Estel continued to sing his song
when suddenly he gave a loud shout. A bright flash of light emitted from the
enraged elf, engulfing all the soldiers. Justin closed his eyes and covered
tehm with his hands but he could still see the light through them. A great
roaring sound was heard and Justin clutched his ears with agony. Finally the
light and sound ceased and Justin opened his eyes. All that was left of the
guards were seven lumps of partially melted armour and a smouldering pile of
dust from where the soldier had been standing. Estel stood there, hardly
looking drained, the anger gone from his face. He walked over to the pile of
dust and spit on it.

"Fear not the Faerie for they are slow to anger," Estel quoted. "But beware
their wrath should you be at the wrong end of it."

Then he turned away without another word.



Joey blinked his eyes to clear the spots from his vision. The bright light
in the far distance was so bright that he and Stile had seen it when they
turned around.

"What could produce that much power," Joey asked Stile, who was
concentrating on controlling the cockroach-shaped skimmer.

"I saw something like that once before," Stile said. "The first time was
when Estel had heard that my father had been killed by Hera. He was so
furious that when Hera appeared before us to gloat at our mother, he blasted
off with such anger and power that Hera was injured badly, and was almost
killed. She fled from him in fear and rage. Up until now, none of us dare to
make Estel that angry. If he could almost kill a very powerful Valar when he
was four hundred and twenty, imagine what he could do at four hundred and
fifty."

"You're all four hundred and fifty?" Joey was shocked. "But you hardly look
older than me! How old could Graelynia or Crewellan be?"

"You met Graelynia and Crewellan?" It was Stile's turn to be shocked.
"They've been missing for a long time. Graelynia would be about seven
hundred and twenty-three now and Crewellan is the same age as me."

"Wow, you guys live for a long time, and you never age," Joey said. "I
supposed diseases are more fatal, then, to make up for this near
immortality?"

"No," Stile replied. "We cannot get sick, except with Elfbane, which is
Fatal and very contagious to elves. Each Faerie race has their own Bane
disease."

"Woah," Joey said. "Wow..." His voice trailed off, then he pointed in front
of them. "There's the castle. I'll be glad to get off this cockroach's back.
The seats are comfortable but I just feel slightly sickened to sit on a
cockroach."

Stile laughed and pushed up the speed of the Skimmer. He stopped the skimmer
three feet over the snow in the garden where the first statues Joey had seen
were. Joey and Stile got of the Skimmer and trudged through the snow. Or
rather Joey trudged through the snow. Stile somehow walked on the top of the
knee deep snow, without even leaving so much as a footprint. Joey walked
over to the statue he had seen of a pointy eared creature with a strange
large spear/slingshot in his hands, a silly grin plastered on his face. Joey
was about to touch the creature when Stile grabbed his shoulder. Stile
pointed at the pegasus and said, "That one first."

"Why not this guy?" Joey said, patting the ridiculous topknot on the three
foot statue. Stile looked at the statue and shuddered. "There aren't any
more of those here, are there?"

"Not that I know of, no," Joey said. "Why?"

"That's a kender," Stile said. "And don't ask me to explain how they are
like because you will get to know it once you free him. Just do him last to
give the rest of us time to prepare."

Joey shrugged and walked to the pegasus. He touched the ice statue and
concentrated. Nothing happened. Joey concentrated for a while, and he let
out a sigh of frustration. "I can't do it."

He began to walk back to Stile when he realised that the elf was staring
wide-eyed at the pegasus. He turned around to see that the bird-winged
pegasus was glowing a warm pink on the spot where he had sighed on. The pink
spread throughout the whole creature and then faded. The pegasus struck the
ground hard and snorted. He looked at Joey and smiled.

"Thank you, Rescuer," the pegasus bowed in respect and gratitude. "I prayed
that you would come. I am Starwing, at your service."

Joey blushed pinker than the warm light that had surrounded the pegasus
earlier. He had no idea what to say so he mumbled a 'You're welcome' and
walked towards another statue, this one of a centaur with a bow, also made
of ice. Joey breathed on the statue and a pink glow spread throughout the
creature, just as with the pegasus. The centaur was suddenly free and he
reared as though an enemy was there. He almost crashed down on Joey and
apologised profusely, confused as to where his actual target had
disappeared. Joey smiled and moved on to a burly irda and breathed on it. He
did not wait for it to be freed but instead moved over to a grinning satyr,
then to a grim looking red-eye, to a mischievous, tiny pixie. He breathed on
the kender last. He instantly regretted it as the curious fellow continually
talked and talked and asked questions like a little child. When he was
finally escorted away so that Joey could open the doors of the castle, Joey
realised that his cross was missing, as was one of his boots. A few seconds
later, the kender returned and said that Joey had given him his boot by
mistake and that he had a cross given to him by his uncle that looked
exactly like Joey's. When Joey told the kender that the cross he had was
missing, the kind kender took of his own cross and gave it to Joey and
walked away, this time with a ring from Joey's finger and his other boot.

"I told you so," Stile whispered to Joey. The crowd of freed creatures and
Faeries stood in front of the door, wondering how to get the giant-sized
doors open. Finally, the irda and the centaur pushed as hard as they could
until the heard the lock inside crack and the door swung open with a very
prominent creaking noise. The troupe of ten or so people walked into the
large hall in the castle and began to walk towards the staircase where more
statues stood. The kender had disappeared, and returned five minutes later
saying that he had seen a horde of Medusae warriors leaving the castle. Joey
thanked the kender and checked his pockets to find that some of his apples
and trinkets were missing from them. The cross was gone once again. Joey
walked through the corridors, followed by increasing numbers of smiling
brownies, cheerful centaurs, elves who wre hugging and shaking hands with
Stile, including some with black skin and pure white hair, and others with
blue or green skin and hair, their hands and feet slightly webbed.
Fluttering in the air were the angel-winged fairies, butterfly-winged
sprites, dragonfly-winged minimites, moth-winged pixies, bee-winged atomies
and the wingless elvins that just levitated at will. Quicklings and kender
darted through the crowds, the kender with their quick slight of hand and
the quicklings with their fast running. Grinning satyrs trotted next to
solemn wemics and wild-eyed felinaurs while driders ran along the walls. The
ant-bodied xoroa and cricket-bodied grigs stayed near the back, chattering
in their tiny voices. Shy woodlings talked with regal unicorns and majestic
pegasi of both the Avian and Faerie species. Here and there a stoic, silent
irda stepped quietly on the icy floor, griffons next to them. Many other
wonderous creatures like phoenixes, rocs and hippogriffs also added to the
myriad of singing and talking creatures. They were joined by handsome and
beautiful nymphs, sylphs, dryads and nereids, the spirits of the four
elements fire, air, earth and water respectively. Almost a thousand
creatures walked behind Joey as he wandered through every corridor and
dungeon, room and corner, looking for more creatures to be freed. He reached
to the room where he used to train in and was embarrassed by the hugs that
Graelynia and Crewellan gave him when he freed them. Finally, he came to the
last room, Shareela's private room. There was only one statue made of stone
in there. Even though she had left, Shareela's intimidating demeanor still
filled the entire room. An uneasy hush fell on the creatures, except for the
few mischievious kender who seemed totally fearless. Joey walked up to the
statue and breathed on it. The kneeling elven woman's colour was brought
back to her as she was turned back into flesh and blood. Her beauty was
dazzling, and many of the rescued bowed to her. She looked up with her pale
blue eyes and creamy skin, her golden brown locks hanging over the shoulders
of her perfectly sculpted body. She seemed to glow with warmth which chased
away the dark feeling hanging over everyone's heads. Graelynia uttered a
startled gasp.

"Queen Celandra!" Graelynia said. "The High Queen of the Faeries!"

Celandra looked up at the suddenly awed crowd, when a strangled cry emitted
from Stile.

"Mother!" he cried, rushing into her arms, hugging her with all his might,
tears streaming down his chiseled face. "We thought you were dead! I've
missed you so much!"

Several kender, who also seemed to have extreme emotions, began sniffing at
the touching scene, followed by a lot of tear wiping from those gathered as
mother was reunited with son. Even the stoic irdas shed a tear or two before
becoming stoic once again. Starwing stepped forward and bowed to Celandra.

"My Queen," he said politely. "If you would kindly get on my back, I will be
honoured to carry you and your son away from this dreadful place."

Celandra smiled and patted Starwing's forehead. "I'd love to."



Estel and Justin sneaked through the hallways, searching for the dungeons.
Justin walked in the corner shadows while Estel crawled on the ceiling like
Spiderman. At first Justin had thought that it was a spell, but Estel
reminded him that every Faerie had some racial power or ability, like
fairies could fly, irda had stronger magic and physical strngth, and elves
had the ability to climb almost any surface, allowing them to do amazing
acrobatics and swinging without blistering their hands or knees. A scream
emitted from a nearby dungeon and Justin and Estel quickened their pace
until they came to a small grill on the floor at the edge of the corridor.
They looked down and saw a young fairy leaning over the bleeding body of a
much older fairy. The older fairy was bleeding from his chest and face, cuts
and whip marks over his stomach and chest. The youth was sobbing over his
father's body, screaming for somebody to help, while the trapped Faeries
looked on helplessly, their power blocked by the magical shackles around
their wrists. Justin closed his eyes and vomited. The laughing guards in
that particular cell heard the sound and quickly left to investigate. Estel
looked sadly on as the fairy boy held his father's body close, crying
softly, while other Faeries tried to comfort him. Finally, he stopped crying
and sang a soft song of mourning. Then he stood up again and walked to the
wall to join his people.

"How can he be so calm now?" Justin asked Estel. "His father just died."

"There's a time for mourning and a time to move on," Estel said. "To the
Faeries, we move on as quickly as possible because we know that only two
things besides death at the hands of others or accidents can kill us. Time
and sorrow."

"Time? Not age?" Justin asked. Estel shook his head and said, "Time. We do
not age but over time, we will ultimately die. Many reasons come with that
one particular word, time."

"So how do we rescue your people?" Justin asked. Estel was about to answer
when he stopped short. He put his finger to his mouth to tell Justin to be
quiet. Estel creeped down the dark hallway, sticking to one of the walls. He
stopped and turned, this time running on the wall in a normal running
position except that his body was horizontal.

"Move," he said, running the opposite direction. Justin followed him and the
two of them ran, hearing shouts of alarm and many footsteps running their
direction. The two Bladesingers raced through the dark, curving corridor,
with Estel occasionally switching walls from left to right with magnificent
leaps so that he could run on whichever was the inner wall at the time. They
ran into deeper and deeper darkness that neither of them noticed a fork in
the corridor. Soon, both of them stopped, panting and exhausted. It was then
that they realised that they were not together anymore.



Nick sat on the large nightmare, the shimmering black evil horse-like demon
trotting at the head of the evil army. Behind Nick and the nightmare called
Shades was an army that the world had never seen before. Ogres, orcs,
giants, scros, gnolls and countless other species of Dark Faeries marched
behind the shimmering, snow white Medusae. Nick sat proudly at the head,
being the commander of the entire army. Shareela rode next to him on a
nightmare as well. Aphrodite had gloated at the thought that Shareela had no
choice but to do her will, though in actual fact it was Aphrodite herself
that was playing into Shareela's and Hera's hands. In front of Nick and
Shareela were packs or winterwolfs, dire wolves and worgs, some with goblin
riders. The evil wolf-like creatures howled with bloodcurdling ability that
even the trees trembled at their coming. Nick smiled in sadistic glee as the
army he commanded headed towards the empty plains where the final battle was
to be held, not too far from the citadel where the Faerie Folk were
imprisoned.



JC and Lance huddled near the corner of the dungeon. The cold, damp air
caused them to shudder and the amazing Faerie ability to withstand extreme
temperatures made it seem even colder to the two humans. JC placed his head
on Lance's shoulder.

"Lance?" JC asked his blonde lover.

"Hmm?" Lance replied, resting his head on JC's head.

"I want to break up," JC said softly. Lance jerked away from JC and shoved
the dark-haired lad off his shoulder.

"What?" he hissed, managing to keep his voice low. He did not want the
guards to come around attracted by the noise.

"I said I want to break up," JC said again. "It's not that I don't love you,
it's just that..."

"That...?" Lance prompted, holding back his tears hoping that he would not
need them.

"It's just that I love you in a different way now," JC said, holding Lance
close to him. "We've been through training of all sorts together and now I
feel that you deserve someone who can trust you better."

"Huh?" Lance said, confused at JC's strange words. "What do you mean 'trust
you better'?"

"I mean, whenever you and Paxon had private training, I felt jealous of
that," JC said. "Which is weird since Paxon doesn't even have the slightest
attraction to you and vice versa. But I think I'm beginning to become a
little possessive, even if you haven't noticed. I feel like I'm beginning to
treat you like a child. I can't love you that way."

Lance let the words sink in for a moment, then hugged JC. "Thanks for
telling me that. This is probably the weirdest breakup in history,
especially since it doesn't hurt at all. I mean, it's not that I didn't love
you, but I understand what you mean and I'm glad that you've been thoughtful
enough to make this decision."

"Thanks for being so understanding and supporting," JC whispered back. The
two men cuddled until the sound of the portcullis holding them in their cell
opened with a scraping sound. A large guard entered, wearing the typical
black chainmail armour. He pointed at JC and Lance.

"You two!" he shouted at them. "Get over here, we're changing your cells."

JC and Lance exchanged looks and got up. They followed the guard to another
cell about ten minutes away. As the portcullis opened, the guard shoved them
into another of the bare cells found throughout the entire basement. The
portcullis slammed behind them. JC and Lance looked around the room and
smiled s they noticed AJ, Brian and Lalaith in a corner. There were no other
prisoners in the cell, making them sure that more would come soon. Sure
enough, a few minutes later, Hercules, Jason, Lilith and Chris were herded
into the cell as well.

"Chris!" JC, Lance, Brian and AJ shouted at once, drawing the attention of
the guard. They hushed their excitement and began to talk to Chris, telling
him of their adventures and him telling of his own. Chris introduced
Hercules, Jason and Lilith to the others and they talked for a while. Soon,
they heard a scuffling noise as someone struggled against the guards. The
portcullis opened and a familiar curly-haired youth in leather armour was
pushed into the cell.

"Damn you!" Justin shouted, shaking his fist at the laughing guard. "Give me
back my Starswords!"

The guard laughed and ignored Justin, keeping the magnificent bejeweled
weapons for himself. He placed the no-longer glowing Starswords into his own
scabbards, throwing his old swords to the ground. Before Justin could reach
it, the guard slammed the portcullis in Justin's face. He picked up the
swords, plunged them into the ground and broke their blades. Justin seethed
with anger and turned around to face his friends.

"Justin, what are you doing here?" Lalaith asked.

"Estel and I tried to rescue some of you guys," Justin said. "We got
seperated and now I'm the one that needs to be rescued. And that guard had
better not harm my Starswords or I'll kill him!"



Gil sat in the dreary cell, watching the blank walls. He was unsure of what
to do to get them out of their predicament and was not his usual cheerful
self. Kevin played with a small mouse that was in the cell while Alegifu
stared angrily at the portcullis that seperated her from freedom. Larel sat
with his eyes closed, repeating the prophecy of the Chosen One again and
again. Nirnaeth managed to somehow fall asleep on the cold, hard floor of
the cell. The portcullis opened again and another four elves were escorted
roughly in. The elves hardly looked like Gil, Larel, Nirnaeth or Alegifu.
Two of them had blue skin and bluish-green hair with webbed hands and feet.
The other two were pitch dark with contrasting silver-white hair. Both pairs
contained one male and one female.

"Sea-elves?" Gil exclaimed. "And dark-elves too?"

"Yes, brother light-elf," the male sea-elf responded. "The war has spread
very far, even under the sea battle rages. Our kin, the merfolk and eelfolk
and sea-sprites continually fight with the monstrous merrows and sea-trolls.
The calm waters of the Aegean Sea effectively hide the underwater battles,
and the only winners are the sharks."

"Deep underground, humans venture to lure us out," commented the female
dark-elf sourly. "In search of gold, they said. In search of exotic slaves,
more like."

The dark-elf that spoke moved over and sat on the floor next to Kevin, her
silver hair shining. Kevin glanced at her and moved a few feet away,
carrying the rat with her.

"What's wrong with the human?" the dark-elf asked. "Is he here for some
crime?"

"Nothing's wrong with me, witch," Kevin said. "I'd prefer to stay away from
creatures of evil."

The female sea-elf raised her eyebrow in slight amusement, but did not
comment. The dark-elf shrugged and sat next to Alegifu. Kevin wondered how
Alegifu, a light-elf by birth, could stand to sit next to a dark-elf. He
remembered some fictional stories he had read about dark-elves being evil
and ruthless. Gil walked over to Kevin and sat down.

"Why are you acting so strangely?" Gil asked. "And why did you think the
dark-elves were evil?"

"Where I come from, dark-elves are reputed to be the most evil creatures the
world has ever seen," Kevin replied, still eyeing the two dark-elves
distrustfully. Gil nodded sagely and then asked, "But have you ever seen any
dark-elves in your country?"

As Gil expected, Kevin shook his head. Gil smiled and patted Kevin's
shoulder. "You know what you should do," he said before leaving to talk to
the male sea-elf and dark-elf.



Estel struggled against the manacles holding him, trying to use his magic.
Unlike what he had first thought, the manacles did not suppress magic.
Instead, they gave an enormous shock to the caster should they try to cast a
spell. A large, burly guard dragged Estel through the dark, damp corridors.
The guard rolled a pulley and raised the portcullis and pushed Estel in. He
followed Estel in and stood, sneering at the helpless elf. Estel glanced
around the cell and saw Justin. He realised what a foolish plan they had
planned, since they had no idea how to rescue the others. Estel frowned,
realising that he had only one card left to play, even though it was a
dangerous risk.

"Let me go," Estel said, struggling against the shackles made by Hephaestus.
"Why are you doing this? My people have done nothing to yours."

"Really?" the guard sneered. "I don't think so, since the priests of our
gods ordered the enslavement or death of your people."

"They're only doing that because they fear us," Estel snapped boldly. "We
are just as powerful as them, if not more."

"Prove it, then," the guard said. Estel just glared at him and proudly shook
his head. He planned to infuriate the guard into attacking him. The guard,
suspecting Estel's plan, grabbed a dagger from his belt and flung it as hard
as he could at the nearest person, turning the tables on Estel. The dagger
raced through the air and caught Justin in the throat. Justin gurgled and
collapsed.

"Justin!" Estel shouted, rushing to his lover's side. He held Justin in his
arms, watching helplessly as the youth bled to death. Estel turned to the
cackling guard with fury in his eyes. He quickly enacted a spell, and got
shocked. Instead of affecting him, however, the shock was absorbed into the
spell, increasing its power. As its power increased, the magical manacles
shocked Estel again, but the spell just absorbed the power again. This cycle
repeated itself until Estel was so charged with magical energy that
lightning crackled through his eyes, flames ignited at his fingertips, and
his breath caused minor whirlwinds. The guard backed away from the
terrifying elf, his face contorted in sheer terror at the powerful being
before him. The manacles around Estel exploded with a bright white light,
temporarely blinding all those in the cell as well. When the light faded,
Estel lay on the floor, exhausted and panting, sweat streaming down his pale
face.

"Looks like you wasted all your strength on getting free that you forgot
about me," the guard sneered. He drew his sword and swung it towards Estel
with all his strength.

"NO!" Jason screamed, rushing forwards, trying to block the sword from
hitting Estel. The sword stabbed straight into Jason's heart and out the
other side. Jason clutched his chest and slid off the sword, blood spilling
onto the stone floor of the citadel. He collapsed lifeless on the floor
while Lalaith, Brian, Chris, Hercules, Lilith, Estel, JC, Lance, AJ and the
guard looked on, stunned.

"You fool!" a voice from the open portcullis scolded. "That is Prince Jason
of Corinth, whose blood stains your sword!"

The guard turned around to see a man clad in the better quality armour of a
captain of the guards.

"I'm sorry, sir," the guard apologised. "I didn't know."

The captain glared down at the guard. "And how do you propose we tell the
people of Corinth that their prince lies dead on the floor of a dungeon?"

The guard looked down at his feet in shame. Before anyone could stop him, he
grabbed his sword and impaled himself on it. He fell forwards onto the
floor, shame written all over his face.

"Thank Eru that's over," the captain said. He uttered a few words and the
light around him shimmered. When it cleared, a familiar looking black-haired
man stood before them.

"Paxon!" Lance smiled. "Quick, help us."

"What about Jason and Justin?" Hercules asked, tears streaming down his
eyes. Lalaith walked up to him and hugged him while he cried all over her
tattered robes. Paxon walked over to Lalaith and took out a set of
lockpicks. Picking the lock on her shackles, he walked over to Brian and did
the same.

"Go do your thing," Paxon smiled as he rescued the others. Lalaith and Brian
walked over to Jason first. They stood on opposite sides of him and reached
out their hands towards each other, forming an acrh. They closed their eyes
and began to pray. White light engulfed the cold cell, but unlike Estel's
power surge, the light was not overbearing and blinding. In fact, it
comforted the eyes. The light surged in pulses into Jason's lifeless body,
the wound in his chest healing instantly. There was one more pulse of light
and then the light faded. Jason groaned and stood up, rubbing a dull ache in
his chest.

"Ooh, what happened?" Jason asked, groaning a little. "Last I remembered,
the guy stabbed me."

Hercules and Lilith answered his question by giving him monster hugs. Jason
looked at Estel and smiled, "I saved your life, you owe me one."

"And my sister saved yours," Estel replied. "We are even."

"Huh?" Jason asked as Lalaith and Brian walked over to repeat the
resurrection ritual with Justin again.

"In Faerie tradition, if you save my life, me and my family are indebted to
you," Estel said. "By resurrecting you, my sister has paid the due for me,
and now we are even."

By this time, Justin had be resurrected for the second time in his life and
was hugging Estel, causing Jason's reply to go unheard. The group looked
over at Paxon for an escape plan. He grinned at them and tossed them two
swirling, blue discs about the size of a quarter each.

"What are these?" Justin asked, looking at his discs.

"Extradimensional portals?!" Estel exclaimed to a grinning Paxon. "Where'd
you get these? And there are so many of them!"

"What are extradisectable portholes?" JC asked, staring at his
extradimensional portals curiously. "What do they do?"

"Extradimensional portals," Estel said excitedly. "They can carry thousands
of items inside them without weighing you down, and you can extract the
items by thinking about it, or you can remove everything inside at one shot!
These are rare and powerful, and very, very useful."

Paxon grinned. "I managed to get these portals from a shop in Stittle Woad,
without the owner's knowledge, no doubt. They each have about thirty
thousand swords and bows, with fifty arrows to a bow as well."

"All right!" AJ cheered. "Let's go rescue the others now."

"Wait!" Justin said. "Estel and I need our Starswords. We need to get them
back."

"Oh, don't worry," Estel said cheerfully. "We can just summon them back."

"But they won't be able to fly all the way back," Justin said. Estel looked
at Justin quizically.

"Were you withing sight range when you first called back your Starswords?"
Estel asked. Justin nodded slightly. "Well, then, you should know that  when
they're no longer withing your sight, you can just summon them and they will
materialise instead of come to you."

Estel placed both his hands in front of him and his Starswords appeared in
his hands suddenly. Justin copied Estel's gestures and focused on calling
his Starswords. He was so startled by their sudden appearance that he
dropped them on the floor. He quickly picked them up and placed them in
their scabbards. He nodded towards the others, signalling that he was ready.
They split up into pairs and began to spread throughout the citadel, handing
out swords and bows to the other prisoners after freeing them.

An hour later, battles raged inside the citadel as guards poured in to stop
the escaping Faeries, but the Faeries had had enough of being trapped and
they fought back with a ferocity unusual to their peaceful natures. The
guards had a hard time fighting the increasing numbers of escapees, many of
whose families had been butchered or raped by the guards. Finally, the
decreasing morale of the citadel guards reached rock bottom, and the
remaining guards fled, only to be ruthlessly shot down by the unerring shots
of the keen-eyed Faeries and their powerful bows. When the last guard had
been slain, the Faeries walked out of the citadel and into the sunshine.
Nirnaeth began a song of courage and glory, and the other Faeries joined in,
putting the intense music of Les Miserables to shame. The Bards acted as one
as they united every Faerie's voice with the voices of the others, drawing
magical power from them, not only increasing the morale of the freed
Faeries, but also draining power from the citadel. As the Faerie walked
away, the citadel crumbled into dust, leaving no trace.

The Faeries began to march home in the typical battle formation, with
Bladesingers in the front, followed by staff-holders and archers,
battlemages, wizards and clerics, then by mounted cavalry and Unicorn
Riders. Behind them marched the swordsmen and swordswomen, and the air
stirred with the flapping of giant eagles, pegasi, hippogriffs, griffons,
phoenixes, thunderbirds, rocs and dragons of metallic scales. The united
army of the Faeries marched towards freedom when they stopped at the cry of
an air-mounted archer on the back of a griffon.

"Army ahead!" he cried in a clear voice. "Medusae and Dark Faeries!"

The entire army of Faeries stopped and waited for the dark army to approach
them. Slowly in the distance, they could see chromatic dragons flying about,
breathing their terrible breaths, with countless other magical creatures of
evil. Hydras slithered around, their heads reared and ready to strike.
Cockatrices and pyrolisks flew overhead, their deadly gazes avoided by
everyone. The dark army stopped at the other end of the battlefield.

"What's going on?" Chris said, trying to crane his neck to see. A lone
figure, dressed in all white riding on a dark, black horse moved forward,
his blonde hair flashing in the sun.

"Nick?" Brian whispered under his breath as he recognised his friend. Nick
rode forward on his nightmare and drew out a skeletal horn. He blew hard on
it, its discordant blaring resonating throughout the battlefield. At that
signal, the hordes rushed in towards the Faeries. The archers shot volleys
of arrows into the dark army that was so packed together that even a poorly
aimed arrow hit a target. Flashes of magic lit the sky as the magicians of
both sides blasted various spells at each other. Music flooded the air as
well, the light, beautiful singing of the Faerie, and the discordant wails
and shrieks of the Dark Faerie Howlers. Kender attacked kobolds with
hoopaks, urds with bat-like wings slashing at the nimble fairies. Centaurs
flailed at manticores while the evil lamias scratched at the panther-bodied
felinaurs and lion-bodied wemics. Behirs slithered throughout the
battlefield, biting at the Faeries. Flinds shot brown blasts of energy from
their eyes and were bombarded with the red beams from the red-eyes. The
antlered giant birds perytons swooped at giant eagles and their riders while
phoenixes shot flames at the fiery pyrolisks. Everywhere was surrounded by
chaotic fighting and the blood of Faeries and Dark Faeries alike flowed
freely. Every now and then someone was turned to stone or ice by a Medusae,
while the basilisks retaliated for the side of the Faeries, turning orcs and
ogres into stone.

Kevin swung his sword at an orc, severing her head from her neck. He
recoiled from the sudden blow and almost sliced of his own neck. He used his
sword to block more often than hit. As he blocked another blow with his
sword, he raised his shield hand and bashed the solid metal buckler onto the
offending doragor's head, smashing his skull. He fought with his new found
attack style, developing shield-bashing into an art form, to the disdain of
his teacher, Gil.

Nirnaeth sang as loud as she could, her music soaring above the noise. She
lent her magic to whoever needed it, and those within hearing range of her
music found that the swords of their enemies missed them by inches, or that
their enemies would suddenly trip for no good reason. Nirnaeth raised her
voice to new heights, lending courage and morale to the Faeries. Suddenly,
she felt a sharp pain in her chest. She ignored the pain and continued
singing even more. Another thud could be felt in her chest, and another, and
another. Still Nirnaeth continued singing, her voice never faltering. She
gave her all as she sang, her melodic, clear voice ringing out and drowning
the sounds of the Howlers. She suddenly let out a loud finishing note, and a
thunderclap sounded, stunning the soldiers of the dark army that were
withing hearing range. Nirnaeth collapsed to the floor, her voice still
ringing over the battle though her body lay dead, fifteen arrows protruding
out of her chest.

Justin sliced the head off another gark, a goblin-like creature almost seven
feet tall. He looked around for another target when he decided to try
something new. He began to sing, "You're all I ever wanted,
You're all I ever needed,
So tell me what to do now that I want you back."

The luring effect of the song drew enemies towards him. Giants, medusas,
maedars, orcs, trolls and ogres alike were drawn towards Justin, dropping
their guards to anything else, which the Faeries made use of by cutting them
down before they reached Justin. There was a very large group drawn towards
Justin, and the Faeries could not prevent all of them from reaching Justin.
As the large crowds drew nearer, Justin screamed, "GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!"
The effect was startling as all the male dark army soldiers withing hearing
range clutched their crotches, fire engulfing their pants. The stunned
females were finished by the Faerie warriors.



The Faerie army followed the tracks of the Medusae army, Stile, Joey and
Celandra leading the way. The thousands of Faeries followed the Chosen One
willingly into battle. Their happiness allowed them to move faster because
of their light and joyous steps. Soon, they could hear the sounds of battle
in the distance and they quickened their pace. They rushed down into the
back of the dark army, cutting through them like a vice. A cheer went up
from the Faeries already fighting and they fought harder with the arrival of
the new warriors.

Chris fought back to back with Howie, the two of them learning teamwork
fighting in the Academy. The reinforcements arrived just in time for them,
and the two of them took a break for a while, keeping an alert lookout in
case any enemies managed to slip through the thick wall of fresh warriors.
Chris sat on the ground and immediately stood up again, yelping in slight
pain. He reached into a pouch at his waist, wondering what could have caused
the pain. He drew out the piece of quartz he had bought from the medieval
shop. Howie looked at Chris in concern.

"No, I just sat on the quartz," Chris said, placing the quartz into a
different pouch. Howie stopped Chris' hand and grabbed the quartz. He
reached into a pouch of his own and drew out the piece of quartz he had
bought as well.

"What?" Chris asked Howie. Howie placed the two pieces of quartz together.

"Look, they have such funny shapes," Howie observed, furrowing his brow in
deep thought. Chris looked at him with an expression that said 'so?'. Howie
thought for a moment and placed the quartzs in opposite directions than they
previously were. He pushed the stones together and looked at the result.

"This looks like some kind of keyhole," Howie remarked. Chris looked at
Howie disdainfully and reached out to touch his piece of quartz. As his hand
touched the stone, however, a bright light emitted from both stones and they
melded together to from a keyhole. They expanded a little more, becoming
about the size of a CD.

"What the..." Chris exclaimed in shock. Suddenly, a medusa attracted by the
flash of light headed towards the duo. Chris and Howie picked up their
swords and tried to slash at the medusa, but she managed to dodge both their
sword attacks. She opened her mouth to breathe on their faces, but then fell
forward, her mouth still open. Joey stood behind her, a sword stuck through
her back.

"You guys alright?" Joey asked, smiling at his long-lost friends. Then he
noticed the keyhole shaped quartzs. He snatched the stones from Howie's hand
and stared at it in surprise. He slowly thought through the puzzle of the
prophecy.

"For the Key," he said. He quickly walked away, leaving Chris and Howie
staring at each other with confused looks.

Joey thought through the prophecy about the key. He mumbled parts of it to
himself, when the idea struck him. Nick was the Key! It was so simple, the
Chosen One was followed by death which was Nick when he tried to kill Joey.
The Key sometimes being found on the Chosen One was refering to the numerous
times Nick had pinned Joey to the ground while training in the Medusae
castle. That's it, thought Joey. Nick is the key. So who is the controller
of the key? He spotted Brian in the distance and decided to ask if Brian
knew anything about the prophecy of the Chosen One. As Joey drew nearer, he
found that Medusae were constantly trying to reach for the quartzs. Joey
rushed towards Brian and found himself asking him if he was engaged or
married to an elf. Brian just looked shocked and nodded. Joey pressed the
keyhole to Brian and said, "Nick is the Key."

Brian, who had read the prophecy of the Chosen One for the fun of it
understood what Joey meant and he brought up the keyhole quartzs to his eye.
He began to scan throughout the area for Nick. As soon as he found Nick, he
pulled the hole away from his eye so that only Nick could be seen through
the hole. Brian suddenly shouted, "Expelliarmus!" the words coming to his
mind. A black cloud appeared around Nick, and Nick suddenly felt
lightheaded.

"Brian?" Nick asked, finding Brian standing there. "Oh God, what have I
done?"

Nick glanced over at Shareela, who was standing nearby. He suddenly felt the
bewitching power she held over him break loose. Nick was suddenly filled
with rage for what she had done, and he let loose a blast of black energy
that drew its power from Shareela's enchantment. As the last drop of
enchantment left Nick's body, he flung the hideous mass of evil magic
towards Shareela. The blast caught her in the stomach, and she screamed in
pain and agony. Then Shareela exploded and was no more. The remnants of her
powerful army witnessed her defeat and fled as quickly as they could, but
this time, the Faeries did not give chase. The armies of light uttered a
cheer of victory as the remnants of the dark army had fled. Their victory
was shortlived, however, as five bright flashes of light appeared and formed
themselves into the five gods Ares, Eris, Deimos, Phobos and Strife. Estel,
Gil, Lalaith, Alegifu, Stile, Larel and Celandra made their way to the
Valar. Without a word, they began to fight furiously, swords flashing as
they fought each other, neither side leaving an opening for attack. The
battle happened at such a high speed that no one could see who was fighting
who, as the remaining Silvers and their mother fought the Hand. After a
quick battle, Estel had his Starswords pointed at Ares' throat and heart,
Gil's sword at Eris' head, Stile's and Alegifu's daggers pointed at Strife's
belly and neck, Larel's shortsword at Deimos' heart, Lalaith's staff ready
to pound Phobos' head in. Celandra stood panting away from her children.

"We have won you," Estel stated to Ares. Ares looked at him and snarled.
"Have you really?"

Bright flashes of light signified the departure of the defeated gods. Ares'
voice was heard just after they left saying, "Until the next time."



The boys of Nsync and the Backstreet Boys sat in a circle around a campfire,
Lalaith sitting next to Brian and Estel sitting next to Justin. The twelve
friends were chatting up on their adventures, or talking about Brian and
Lalaith's spectacular wedding, which was held a few days after the memorial
services of the Faeries that had been slain in the terrible battle, which
was named Nirnaeth Arnodied, which means 'Tears Uncounted' and signified
Nirnaeth's absence from the list of survivors, after the heroine who had
given her life for her people.

"So what happens now?" Kevin asked when the chatter died down. He had been
feeling a little empty inside for a few days, and after checking up with the
other guys, they were also feeling the same way.

"I don't know," Justin sighed. "I really don't know what to do. I'm not sure
where I want to be, here or the future."

"Well, a time for everything and everything in its time, as the elves say,"
Joey quoted. As soon as he finished his sentance, he felt a slight tugging
behind him. He turned around, expecting to find a small child wanting to
talk to the 'Hero' but saw no one. Justin turned around suddenly as well,
then looked back, confused.

"What happened, Justin?" JC asked. Justin shrugged and replied, "I don't
know...I felt something or someone tug me."

"You too?" everyone replied, except Estel and Lalaith. The boys looked at
each other as the tugs came again, this time more violently.

"Joey, you said the spell words to bring us back!" Justin shouted as a great
roaring noise was suddenly heard. Brian immediately grabbed onto Lalaith as
the tugging and pulling sensation threatened to seperate man from wife.
Lalaith grabbed on tightly to Brian as a large swirling vortex opened up and
began to suck only the Backstreet Boys and Nsyncers into its gaping swirls.
Justin screamed as he was pulled into the vortex, disappearing from view.
Soon, all the boys were sucked into the vortex except Brian who was still
grasping onto his wife. Finally, the pull was so strong that it yanked Brian
out of Lalaith's strong grip. Brian and Lalaith both cried bitterly as they
were seperated from each other. Brian disappeared into the portal and the
vortex closed, leaving Lalaith and Estel with tears in their eyes as they
were seperated from those they loved.



"OUCH!" Joey cried as something heavy fell onto his foot. He opened his eyes
and found himself back in the hotel room where they had been before they
were brought back in time. The others appeared in the room as well, all of
them with mixed feelings about the whole encounter. Justin and Brian were
sobbing their hearts out. Joey picked up the spellbook and opened it to its
centre. There he found a perfect watercolour picture of the ten of them, and
underneath it written in Quenya were the words 'I'kainen kalloi en'Nirnaeth
Arnodied';The ten heroes of Tears Uncounted.



Brian sat on his bed in his room, fondling the Heartspeaker sadly. He
remembered the happy times he shared with Lalaith and felt himself beginning
to cry. Immediately, a wave of comfort washed over him, causing him to
wonder why. He remembered Lalaith saying that the Heartspeaker would only
break if the other owner was killed. Brian examined his Heartspeaker for any
cracks and found none. A flicker of light shone in the sapphire in the
centre. Brian clutched the Heartspeaker close to him and whispered, "She's
alive."

--------End of Part One (You didn't think I was gonna stop, did you?)-------

Phew, this one is so long that I'm two days behind schedule in writing
it...How in the world can people stand to write stories this long? Well,
I've finally finished it and any questions, feedback and reviews are welcome
at ensstyenlc@hotmail.com
I'd put the usual endings and stuff, but I figured that this chapter was
long enough already, so you'll have a break from them this time around.
Thanks to all who emailed me with their feedback and comments, I appreciate
it! Thanks for reading!
LHW