[Holbrook]

Back the forces of Malliss fall. They tumble out of the gate of the lower realm, torn; bleeding, cursed by officers and beaten with flats of swords as again they are driven back into the hell.

George watches from a distance, a small smile creases his lips. But it is short lived. Uca is back, her small sides heaving with the effort of racing across the rock of High Peak.

"News?" George asks the question from habit more than need. If the words are put out in the air, no false intent or assumption can or is made.

“You must quicken the pace, my people are under attack. Already Malliss has forces in the tunnels. Small like us; sniffing and seeking. Others dig down exposing our world to the sky.”

“We go as fast as we can, we engage the enemy swiftly, chewing at his rear.” George remarks, as his eyes are drawn to a large predator looping across the torn battle field. The beast is ignoring the carrion all around it, it seems bent on some other purpose than feeding. For in its mouth, between locked teeth it carries something. It dodges out of George’s range of vision and he forgets the creature as Uca’s voice assaults his ears.

“You neither bite hard enough nor chew thoroughly. Your people tread too carefully; do they know not what they fight for?” Uca cries in anger.

George sighs, he is tempted to curse the small woman, give like answer to her question. His people know, of course they do. In their blood in their bones they know. For they were drawn up here to this place to fight.

“Patience, we will win.” George eventually says.

“But will there be any of my kind left at the end?” Uca speaks the words George fears... To lose one race would be a defeat, yet how can he break the enemy’s spirit. for many fight for Malliss as true to the evil as his, George's own troops fight for him.

Uca hisses and vanishes, her weight appearing on George’s shoulder. “Do you again seek to hold a blade to my neck?” He asks.

“Nay, I seek not to be a titbit for a monster.” Uca answers her small hand pointing behind George. He turns and there is the beast. It drops its burden and looks hard into George’s eyes with its bright green ones, then backs away as if its job is done.

[Hereford Eye]

Under High Peak, the last of the snowfields still gave cover to the last of the Koldred now gathered together in a huddled mass. Warriors ringed the assembly watching and waiting for the tiny murderers Malliss has unleashed.
The worms have been spent so a small mercy exists. Malliss’ tiny warriors must find the tunnels in the snow to find the Koldred. The enemy’s more massive troops were marching back and forth attempting to tramples the tunnels and warrens but without the eyes of the small troops to seek them out, the Koldred were comparatively safe.
The Keepers remained in their room looking out over the Koldred hundreds now gathered at their door. They patiently answered questions, gave advice sought or unsought, acted the roles they had assumed for themselves.
“Do not despair,” the High Keeper repeated, the words forming his latest mantra. “There is always hope. Uca reports the big people are trying to reach us. Ufri thought he’d heard there are spirit blades on the move and that fits the prophecies we talked about just a short time ago with Tara and Tuli. Just a short time ago but it seems like an eternity ago.
Do not despair!”
* * *
The area around Malliss was curiously deserted, not one of his captains willing to bear the brunt of the foul one’s humor now that word came the spirit blades were still unaccounted for. It was to the lifeless hulk of Anna’s body hung from by a rope under shoulders holding the carcass in mid-air to which Malliss talked. His words did not carry to the distanced captains but his appearance spoke volumes.
“Hiding in the blade? How could you do that, you who are always so meticulous in your honor-bound duties? You deserted your body, an act I would have wagered….an act I did wager would never occur to you in seven ages of this world.
"The Gnarled Folk’s Earl carries the other blade as well. Not so powerful as your blade, Anna, but powerful enough to turn my army even if I, personally, can withstand its force.
“Again, in this cycle, things come to a head, a balancing point, you and I. Again, in this cycle the outcome remains undecided yet some things must happen. You must return to your body to remove me from the board. Certainly you can rally the armies of George and the Earl and all their other sniveling allies but only you can defeat me. I gave you the weapon but you must wield it and I don’t think you can.
“No, my love, you and I are destined, one over the other, for eternity.
“Come to me, Anna, when you choose. There is no hurry. I can erase the Koldred while I wait and maybe that many of the Gnarled Folk and the George’s people as to make their survival a question to be answered.”
* * *
The beast trots a few paces away, turns and considers George and his small companion.
“How do you learn, Uca? How is knowledge passed from generation to generation of Koldred?”
The young Koldred is taken aback by the unexpected question. From her perch on his shoulder, her disbelief is quickly poured into his ear. “Are you serious? In the midst of a battle with a great beast considering whether we are a meal or a light snack to tide it over the next few hours, you want to discuss education?”
“For my people,” George begins, ignoring Uca’s apparent frustration with the topic, “there are several modes to transmit knowledge. Parents teach children, guild master teach apprentices, schools teach students. But what is to be taught in these schools, eh? A small society who call themselves “students” have a college in a secluded dale on the far side of our country. These students go about our world looking, asking questions, learning what can be learned. What they learn is returned to the college where our folk may go to study what they have discovered.
“There are many rumors about these ‘students’. One such relates they are shape shifters of some talent. It seems some forms are easier to travel about in than this ungainly body that I carry around. Some eyes are keener, some ears sharper. Learning from inside such a body is more thorough, they say, or at least different enough to make it worthwhile.”
“And your point would be?” Uca asks.
“A great beast that delivers packages to leaders of an army in the midst of a battle strikes me as odd. That the great beast watches to see what we do with its present strikes me as even more odd.”
“Well, then…”Uca leaps from George’s shoulder. “You watch the beast and I’ll see what’s in these rags.”
As the Koldred begins to do as she said she would, George follows the beast’s eyes as it turns to consider someone else approaching. If beasts can smile, then George believes this one does, evidently recognizing Wally returning from his self-appointed scouting mission. Wally waves; the beast bows; then turns and scampers off into the hills.
Wally arrives in a storm of hugs and words, “Ho, little brother, the path is clear. Move your army quickly. I’ll lead the way.” But, then the hugs stop and Wally’s words are cut off. Uca has uncovered the blade.
“Can you hear it, George?” Wally asks.
“Hear what?” George responds.
“The Blade.”
“Come on, Wally, blades don’t talk….well, spirit blades talk….wait! You can hear this blade?”
“This Spirit Blade! Yes, little brother, I can.”
“Me, too,” Uca adds.
“But, I cannot?”
“Sorry, little brother.” Wally picks up the blade, run his fingers down the cutting edge, whispering words as a lover might, words George cannot hear. In time, Wally looks up.
“I ‘spect you’ll be following us, little brother. But you’d better move quickly. Anna says we are needed at High Peak, that we are needed very soon.”
George knows enough of spirit blades to not ask who Anna might be, has enough sense of self to wish it were he and not his brother who beasts talk to and spirit blades select as beast of burden. George also has enough sense of self to realize his duty and his responsibility. He turns looking for his captains to give the orders, to infuse with a sense of urgency.
Wally moves off down his own back trail, joined by the four Koldred messengers turned scouts.

[Holbrook]

Day turns into dusk, dusk into night; but the battle continues. Malliss paces round his "captive" the light of the moons trickles across his face as he speaks, first to the body hung before him, then to his captains.

"It will not stop now, for night, nor for men to eat and drink or rest. The dice is cast and you will face me and be with me. This time you shall take the place you should have done in the beginning." The body sways slightly as if it denied the words and there meaning.

"Send messengers, I want the Koldred trampled into the stone in which they hide"

~~~~~~~

George's forces are hounding the heels of the enemy, cutting deep, drawing off regiment after regiment. Wally wields the blade, a beacon, which shines in the night. Wally might hear the voice clear, but George knows he and the others hear part of the call in their hearts and dreams of what can be, must be and done.

~~~~~~~

Beneath the gate others gather. The Earl stands his hand on the hilt of the small blade that held his daughter's spirit. Is she still there he wonders, does she stand by my side, does he, the small Koldred warrior that used the blade.

The Earl waits for full dark, for the setting of the moons, when both armies will see poorly, their way lit by the flare of torches. This will be the time for his people to fight on the mountain, for they know the dark well. It is their companion in the tunnels, their friend. The Knarled ones do not fear the dark. But this night Malliss' army will fear the ones that make their home in the dark.

Forward, trotting fast the Earl raises the small blade it is a rallying point for his people. They do not roar or bellow, the mere clank of arms and the hiss of their breath follow them as they take to the field.

The Earl has one spot on this battlefield as his target. In the flare of torches a body swings too and fro and a figure prowls round it. As the earl ,guided by his battling Lords and captains nears the figure it turns and the torch light touches Malliss' face. The Earl is stunned, driven to knees. He knows this man. He screams his daughter's name; comes to his feet and charges.

[Hereford Eye]

Under a darkening sky, Wally trudges forward following the trail broken by his four comrades and himself. The clouds filling the heavens mirror the cloud filling his soul and his conversation with the women in the blade. Wally speaks aloud, uncomfortable thinking that the women know his thoughts as they occur to him but fully aware their responses do not reach his consciousness through his ears, they spring fully developed in his mind.
“You ladies know this is not the kind of man I am. Why did you not speak to George? He knows this work, does it well.”
“Yes, he does,” the voice of Tara agrees.
“Yes, that’s why he leads and will lead long after we conclude our business with Lucas,” Anna says.
“Well, there you go. That much seems obvious. So, why am I carrying this blade.”
“Because of who you are,” Anna says and there seems to be a smile, a sad, rueful smile, but one of encouragement as well.
“Who I am,” the disbelief undeniable in the mere utterance of the phrase. George’s frustration comes through as an accusation leveled at the women. “I am a soldier in the ranks. I take orders, follow orders, do my duty. I support George and all his bunch by doing what I can do.
“These four Koldred lured me from the ranks, made me the only entry on their duty roster, manipulated me into taking them to George and then to volunteering to break trail to their home. That’s not me! “I don’t volunteer.
I’m a follower and a good one. I have not the imagination nor the strength to lead. When it comes down to it, I have not the courage. I need to be in the ranks with others like me and know that good men lead and we good men follow.”
“But, you can carry us,” Tara answers.
“Carry? Yes, I can carry. Wield is another matter, you know. I have not the skill to be taking you into battle. If it’s beast of burden then I am your man. Good choice, that. But, any kind of solitary swordsmen is not a role for which I am suited.”
“Fear not, Wally. No man can carry a Spirit Blade into battle and expect more from it than his own ordinary blade. This blade you carry, I must wield.”
Wally lets that thought sink in, taking some measure of relief from it realizing they are not asking him to do something for which he is not equipped. But Wally is not dense and the implications of Anna’s thought eventually force new questions into the open.
”How are you going to do that, Anna? Wield the Spirit Blade? Don’t you need a body?”
“She has a body,” Tara answers.
“Yes, but she isn’t wearing it,” Wally says.
“Yes, Wally, I need a body. It must be my body, all mine. Somewhere, that body exists, waiting for me.”
“You just don’t know where?”
“I suspect Lucas – the one you know as Malliss – has taken possession of it. That body attracts him….”
“Truth,” Tara breaks in. “Only truth will do here. Lucas is attracted to you, Anna. Your body is simply of a focus in the world.”
“Yes, Tara, that is true.”
“So, I’m supposed to get you near to your body so you can fill it again?”
“It is what we hope.”
“Beast of burden, eh. I can do that.”
“But, you may be asked to do more,” Tara says.
“Like what?”
Anna’s reply is surprisingly gentle. “I may need your body, Wally. If I cannot make it to my own, I may need yours.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means she will become you but not you. She will take on your body, infuse it with who she is, become herself again but herself in your body.”
“And me? What happens to me?”
“You will be gone, Wally. Two people cannot inhabit one body.”
“Gone? Dead you mean.”
“Yes, Wally, dead, no longer aware, no longer part of this world.”
“So, I’m to die in this war after all?”
“Perhaps. We will not know till we get there.”
“I have no choice in this matter? I am so unimportant a soldier that you will simply remove me from the field of battle as your necessity dictates?”
“Isn’t that how battles go? What decides which solider survives, which dies?”
“But, this is a stretch from a battle, isn’t it? You chose to talk to me, not to George, not to some other soldier. The beast carried you to George but you selected me.”
There is a space of silence as Wally’s accusation hangs there for consideration. The voice that breaks the silence is Wally’s: “Just as easy to say I selected you, isn’t it? I could have walked away. There was no need for me to go barging into George’s camp and tell him what was happening. I chose, didn’t I?”
“Yes, Wally, you chose.”
“Chose, yes! But I didn’t know the stakes…….no use lying to myself, is there? I’ve known the stakes since I joined ole George’s army. Always knew I might not be going home when it was all said and done.”
“Just another hero, Wally.” Tara grins and Wally wonders how he knows she is grinning.
“Ain’t no hero, ma’am. Just another soldier.”
“You are the same as we two,” Anna argues, “a person who sees what must be done, then does it.”
“That’s all we foot soldiers are good for, ma’am. Doing what’s gotta be done.”
Tara’s voice is filled with humor as she laughs in Wally’s head: “Let’s get to the doing, then.”
From the other side of Malliss’ force, from the ever darker heavens, a rumble of thunder laughs along.

[Holbrook]

The Earl, his honour guard around him pounds forward. He will have this creature's heart. Malliss, Lucas the thought near blinds the Earl. The man that took his daughter and locked her in a blade. Reason? Why? Each time the Earl's axe bites into flesh the questions pound.

Know the enemy, live with the enemy and understand them, but that works two ways. Anna knew, she must have. A risk then for her. But Harsh? His child. Did she need too? "Yes" a soft voice tumbles into his mind and answers and his hand strays to the small spirit blade in his belt. So Lucas knew the blades could destory him destroy and the presence, which was a threat to all at that point. The the blades must be useful to both sides. A link a, a cusp. Items that tip the scales one way or another.

Lucas had no way of knowing whose soul, despite legends and tales. The Earl as he fights forward thinks on his daughter, on Tuli, the small man. Both were strong in spirit well beyond their size.

The Earl sees Luca's face again in the thick of battle. The man is mocking the attack as it is thown back. He believes even if I close with him he will come to no harm. He is wrong my daughter can harm him, Tuli can harm him. They know him for the sword was forged by Lucas' hands. They might not kill him but harm him they can and will.

As the Earl and his forces are driven back into the stormy night, the Lord of the Knarled folk pulls the small blade from his belt and throws it, "Be true to yourself daughter and you Tuli, guard and guide her well."

~~~

The lightening flashes cutting the sky. A demon's dance covers the mountain slopes. Men of all kinds, lock in the waltz of battle. The flash of light shimmers down the thrown blade. Lucas' spies it and laughs, his hand out to stop it. But no magic can deflect this steel. It rungs off the turning blade like water. Lucas no longer laughs so loud as the blade hits, cutting deep into Lucas' shoulder. He staggers back, cursing. He reaches up to pull the blade free. His hand slips off. Comes away slick with blood. He tries again, using magic, but the blade holds firm. It is Harsh, it is Tuli, both know how to hold firm. The magic seals the blade into Lucas' flesh. It is a thorn buried deep, festering the flesh it means to destory, awaiting the touch of another blade.

Lucas shrugs this off, waving his officers away. He knows that if he holds the other blade the smaller one can not complete what it has started. One can dig the other out. He turns to tell the empty shell of Anna only to find the rope swinging free. The body has gone and the air smells of hunter, a wild creature of the night.

[Hereford Eye]

Under High Peak, the last of the Koldred, not more than two thousand strong and almost half of that number children too young to commit to battle, listened to the words of the High Keeper. He was more strained than ever, the last few wisps of hair so white they blended in completely with the snow behind him making the outline of his head appear to shimmer.
“We Keepers must remain. All the Koldred are and can be will be lost if we do not remain. It is not a choice lightly made, believe us. Our hearts long to join you in the last defense of the Koldred yet our memories seem to lock us in this cell.”
A woman arises from the crowd, looks around her as if seeking answers in the faces of her kindred but, finding none, she turns to the Keepers. “I am not convinced your memories are that advantageous to our young. They lock us in to who we were. Without them the children have a chance to become something different, maybe something better.”
Her words produce a storm of reaction, hoots of derision and yells of encouragement. The High Keeper raises his arm and achieves the quiet he desires. He nods at the woman to continue.
“What have your memories done for us? They have brought us to this edge where we must leap into the unknown. Without them, where might we be instead?”
Another woman rises, across the hall from the first. Her words carry no animosity. They are a wondering as if musing after a dream on the meaning of what she has just heard.
“Oox is outside our door, no longer a goblin to frighten children into obedience but a live, horrible threat to our existence. Oox whom the big folk call Malliss, whom we hear is called Lucas by the Gnarled Folk. Oox back from our history that only the Keeper memories recognized as a threat and only the Keeper memories provided a stratagem for dealing with the threat. Is this not the case?”
The first woman, Uga, accepts the criticism and the wave of support that accompanies it but is not convinced. “Perhaps,” she says, “it was the sending of Tara and Tuli to the Lower Realm that brought Oox’ attention to Koldred.”
Another wave of support accompanies Uga’s words. Teba, her debating partner, merely shakes her head. “The worms were on their way – directed by Oox. That’s what sent Tara and Tuli to the Gnarled Folk. We needed help.”
Another voice chimes in with “and we got that help.”
Uga is not finished, though. “Yes, we got that help. We also got the return of Spirit Blades at the cost of Tara and Tuli, something the Keepers knew but told neither they or us.”
The High Keeper responds to this accusation with sadness and regret: “We suspected something would happen to them but we did not remember the specifics. We did not remember the Spirit Blades. If we had, then we would have known Oox would be in the Lower Realm and, perhaps, we would have advised a different course of action.
“Perhaps. But also perhaps we would have remembered that only a Spirit Blade can defeat Oox. Perhaps we would have remembered that is why the Koldred moved to High Peak. Because the last time we met Oox, we had no such blade. Lacking the weapon, we slowed Oox down but did not defeat him. This time, we shall defeat Oox.”
“Last time,” Uga continues, “you kept the knowledge to yourselves, doling out when and if you saw fit.”
“Yes, we did. After so many years, our stories – our memories - became unimportant in your lives. You had better things to do then listen to old Koldred relay things they remember that had no relevance to your daily lives. All knew our purpose but few took advantage of it. Our failing or yours?”
“A failing, no matter whose,” Uga says. “Do wish to repeat that failing?”
“What is the alternative?”
“Whoever guards the children becomes the teachers of all they must know. What happened here and why and what it means for their future. Do these children need to know the early days of High Peak or do they need to know the ending days?”
The High Keeper responds they children need to know both and his words echo around the chamber but there is enough dissent to allow the argument to rage. Another young Koldred, Voli, just now a warrior, manages to gain attention by stomping on the floor, those of his age copying his action till the room quiets.
“On the other hand, Old Man, it is we, the younger generations, who must fight the war the old have decreed must be fought. Perhaps, if the old must fight, committing our forces might not be so attractive.”
The High Keeper’s head bows in acknowledgement. “We did not call for Oox to come at this time,” he says, “but we knew what must be done to defend the Koldred. We committed you to battle.”
“We are not arguing, Keeper. We are pointing out that when you committed us, you committed US.” Voli’s arms sweep around the room including all the Koldred might.
“We will join the battle,” the High Keeper says building another commotion of agreement and disagreement.
Finally, Uga regains the floor. “Who are we Koldred? What are we? What are we to become? That is the purpose of my argument, not to shame the Keepers. We cannot stand as a people if we cannot accept who we are. The Keepers are part of us, a necessary part or an unnecessary part, I do not know. But, today they are a part and I will not support their denigration.
”I want to know the future of the Koldred, our children’s future, because who we choose to guard them will determine that future. We can choose the Keepers as their guardians and that will be one future, very similar to our past. We can choose others and that will be a different future.
“Who guards our children?”
The argument rages for hours, back and forth, till at least the High Keeper stands to demand a decision, a vote. The danger is near and must be countered. There is no time for more debate.
The vote is closer than many like but it goes to the Keepers. They have served and served well. They are asked to continue to serve. They agree.
A hundred Keepers stand guard over several hundred children, watching as the last Koldred army goes into action.

[Holbrook]

They were inside him. In his body and more importantly in his head. He could hear them. Nagging, taunting. Harsh told him he would fail because he was not "right" He was like a half burned lump of charcoal in the forge, clincker, clogging up the world.

She and Tuli would throw him away. Anna and Tari would throw him away. Rubbish not needed.

Lucas snarled at the voice, cursing the young girl/woman.He sought to drive her out of his mind. His fingers picked at the scar on his shoulder, ripping open the flesh. probing deep.

Tuli then attacked with all the skill of a warrior of his kind. The spirit of the Koldred dashed in, slashing. retreated, then attacked again.

"Harsh is right, you are not wanted here in this world. There is evil enough without it walking on two legs seeking to control. You want a chance to prove your view of things is right. Over every body of my people will be the only way. Over every body of George's people, over every body of the Knarled ones. All that death. You won't have any to rule, your crown will be empty just like your heart."

"Yes empty, " Harsh repeats.

"No...."Lucas hisses in pain as his fingers find the small length of steel in his flesh, they slip his magic can not grip the steel in borrows deeper, plunging into his chest. He screams.

"Yes.. You say you love, but you only wish to control, to have power over..." Tuli adds as he feels the steel that hold his spirit plunge towards its target. As the steel closes it waits. It hangs in Luca's body wait for another length of steel to join it.

~~~~~~

As dawn comes Geroge's hard pressed forces have new allies. Small, unseen the dart in and out of the enemy, cutting throats and ham stringing legs. Wally uncovers the sword and holds it high. A ray of the morning sun hits the steel. A myriad of small reflected rays burst across the battle field, touching all. All that have their hearts open to the future. A future where each man takes his own decisions, is responsible for himself and his, doing unto others as he would have others act and do to him.

[Hereford Eye]

In Wally’s mind, it was a forgone conclusion. When it came to expendables, he was right up there at the top of the list, most available, least necessary. His brother, George, might object on the basis of kinship but would certainly make no objection on the basis of strategy, grand or otherwise. It made sense that he do what he was best at, following orders.
Carrying the two women’s spirits was no chore, actually, even with the probability of the whole thing coming to a very abrupt bad ending for himself. When you consider that, for the first time in his life, two women were paying attention to him, asking what he thought, telling him what they thought as opposed to what they thought he ought to know. Certainly a good deal of this came about because of their spirit nature and the necessity to talk to him from inside his head. Inside his head, they could not ignore his thoughts, opinions, and feelings.
In time, Wally came to believe Anna would have treated him the same if she was outside his head. She was a good woman. And Tuil, too, was a good woman. All the necessary parts were already instilled in both when she became part of the Spirit Blade; they simply honed each other's skills.
The two laughed a lot at Wally and his thinking. It wasn’t a harsh judgemental laughter; it was an appreciative act for the things he discovered along their way. He was fascinated by the logic and motivation that brought the women to their destinies, their simple acceptance of necessity and the courage to see it through. Initially, Wally looked at what they had done, voluntarily, and shook his head, knowing that he might never have acted as they had.
That brought a fresh burst of laughter, truly genuine amusement. “What do you think you are doing?” Tuli asked. That startled him. It was true; he was carrying the Spirit Blade just as they had become the Spirit Blade, an act of necessity because someone had to do it; he was capable and available so he was doing it. “How is that different from our decision?” Anna asked and Wally could not deny the truth in her question.
Then, as they journeyed to Malliss, Wally realized the women still loved life as much as he did. He listened to their memories, to their observations of the passing scenery and the things they wished to do, hoped to do together. Even as he knew he might not make it out of this mess, they knew it as well yet they dreamed and planned and carried on. In doing so, they drew him into their world, took him along as a favoured guest, a co-equal and that - more than anything in the world - brought him to tears.
“You are a good man, Wally. Why does that surprise you?”
“Never believed a woman as fine as yourself could think so,” he said.
And she laughed. “You just never looked, Wally.” To which Tuli added “Because you let your own judgment of yourself affect your expectations of other’s judgment of you.”
“How else do you deal with people?” he asked, genuinely interested in their answer.
“You let them deal with you. Watch their actions, Wally. Pay less attention to what they say then you do to what they do.”
In the midst of this conversation, the rain broke, a driving downpour that chased most soldiers into cover. Wally kept moving. Weather could not delay their confrontation with Malliss. It could complicate the matter but it could not stop the event.
Of a sudden, Anna asked Wally to stop, to wait, suggesting to him something had changed in the world. “In the world?” he asked realizing he no idea of what she was talking about.
“Hush,” Tuli said. “Let us concentrate.”
A minute, then two, the rain beating on his helm, his face, his shoulders, the water draining down his frame into a puddle around his feet already swollen with rain that bypassed his frame opting for the direct route to ground level. “It’s good to have good boots,” he thought. “Keep your feet fairly dry despite what the weather does.”
His thoughts did not disturb the women’s concentration as his words had so he continued his silent regard of the world around him. More than six feet out, his eyes could discern little detail. The mass of water descending on this patch of earth limited perception to the area immediately surrounding him and the area immediately surrounding him consisted of four elements: himself, the rain, the ground, and the water they all wore in common.
But the women sensed something other than the rain.
“Again?” Tuli asked.
“Yes,” Anna responded, both displaying astonishment at their joint assessment.
“Has it happened before? I recall nothing in Koldred lore – at least what I know of Koldred lore.”
“Never. The Students have never involved themselves in other than their studies.”
“Yet, this one does?”
“This one does.”
Wally, at last, caught the indistinct shape of movement. Something very large moved through the rain, approaching him.
“On it’s back?” Tuli asked.
“Yes,” Anna agreed
At last, Wally recognized the newcomer. “The beast!” he thought. “The beast who delivered the Sword to George.”
“The Student,” Anna corrected. “A beast at this moment by choice, not necessity.”
“A student?” Wally thought. “I’ve never seen one.”
Tuli responded with “This one delivers you from a destiny you did not seek.”
“How so?”
Wally could never describe to his own satisfaction the rupture in his mind. One moment, two women were leaning forward, his mind felt their anticipation. The next, he was alone again, his head holding his personality, his consciousness, and no other. A loneliness swellled within him, not new or and not strange, familiar. He had know this lonelieness all his life.
His eyes watched the woman’s body animate, lift itself from the beast’s back, stand. The Spirit Blade flashed in the woman’s right hand, an exercise to test dexterity, range, strength. Satisfied, the woman, turned and turned, feeling the joy of unrestricted movement.
At last, she stopped, faced the beast, and bowed. “Thank you, kind sir,” her voice weaved its way through the pouring rain. The beast bowed in return, turned, and loped off into the mist.
Now, the woman, Anna, turned to Wally. “And thank you, kind sir. Now, your destiny can return to its natural course. Tuli and I are restored to ourselves and are ready to confront Malliss.”
“And what do I do?” Wally asked.
“Whatever your heart desires.”
Wally thought on this answer, weighed it, judged it, turned it round and round. In the end, he laughed as the women had laughed.
“Let’s get to it,” he said. “You lead; I follow. It’s what I’m good at.”

[Holbrook]

All things join. All things are linked. All things stand and fall as the actions of each affect one another.

George's forces are hard pressed, they seek to prevent the destruction of a race so small it has been forgotten by others. The clash of steel and the screaming of the dying form a layer on the ground under which the Koldred live. Yet he has hope, messengers tell him of a woman with a sword, of his brother following, both striking hard, the sword a beacon and symbol. A rallying point a weapon that kills with a mere gentle touch of the blade.

The Koldred spring from the ground. Blurs that are there then gone, leaving death in their place. Only caught by change or when exhaustion causes them to stay still long enough to be seen. The pirce paid is high, both for the enemy and the small race that darts between the legs of the destroyers.

The Knarled ones thought to retreat back to their tunnels once daylight broke. For they, eyes used to the dark, are of no use in the bright of day. But the heavens have darkened, the light dull as if it were late evening. The storm rattling above mirroring the conflict below. So the Earl stays with his men, fights while the darkened skies hold sway. This the enemy has not counted on and many fall to the bite of knarled ones' axes.

As for Malliss he fights now with magic and blade eyes on the woman, Anna. George sees the evil and his guard plunge forward. George and his own chosen followers charge after.

But Wally is there; knocking men down, guarding Anna's back. Side blow, back blow, lunge and crack heads. Wally does what he does best, follows orders. He stands between Malliss and Anna...

Mallis moves forward, a ball of fire forming in his hand. The heat of the forge, the flame of his heart

[Hereford Eye]

The battle raged in the rain and then it didn’t. As if whatever gods there were desired a better view, the rain suddenly ceased, an eerie light replacing the downpour, light punctuated by a steady lightning display and the thunderous applause that accompanied it. With the sudden clearness in the air, the sounds of battle drifted after the disappearing rain, the willingness of the combatants to continue the carnage somehow focused on the slight tor standing in the midst of the scene. Attention was drawn away from the foe at hand to the foe standing defiant on the hill where the lowered clouds seemed to be just above the mass of curls blowing in the slight wind. In that one's hand a ball of flame shone brightly, sputtered and then fizzled as if the last two drops of drain were accurate beyond belief descending upon the flame at at just the right spot, in just the right conecntration, to douse it.
Up the hill, through the still running drain off, the still sloppy hillside, trudged a pair of large folk, one male anxiously guarding their back trail, the other female steadily regarding the being before them. It looked much one of the large folk, one of Wally’s own, but Anna knew better.
“I remember now,” she said and the softness became amplified by the lowered clouds and the dampened air and valley walls. The conversation now beginning carried without effort to all on hand.
“You remember?” Malliss replied, curious.
“All the times before this time…..and this time.”
“What do you remember, Anna?”
The couple arrived at the tor’s crest allowing Anna and Malliss the opportunity to see what had become of them. “You look tired, now Lucas…”
“Lucas!” Tari’s voice hissed from the blade. “Lucas!” a shock wave spreading across the battle field. “Oox?” from the few hundred Koldred still in the conflict. On the far side, watching the tor while watching the thing he had recently been fighting, Uca had the irreverent thought the Keepers sure blew that one and giggled quietly.
“Your lover,” Lucas agreed, a tenderness out of place in the Malliss’ character momentarily escaping from
the being.
“Always my lover,” Anna continued. “Every time.”
“Every time. We are bound together by fate or the gods or by ourselves.”
“I am a power, then?” Anna asked.
“You have the power, Anna, which is the same and not the same as being a power.”
“It’s coming to me, Lucas, but slowly.”
Lucas peered intently into Anna’s eyes willing the answer forth. “Who are you, Anna? You said you remembered.”
“I am your lover, Lucas.”
“That’s all you remember?” Malliss voice cackles. “That’s it? All these dramatics and all you remember is that you are my lover?”
“No, Lucas, not all.” Anna’s face registers the power of her next words, the recognition of the import these words must carry. “I make you possible.”
Malliss replies with scorn and dismissal: “You make me possible? Come, woman. I thought we were serious here.”
“Every time, Lucas, you need me to become you.”
The Lucas side responds that “yes, I need you and the reverse is also true.”
“Yes, without you I merely another woman walking the earth. With you I am more, so much more.”
“I define you, Anna.” Lucas says but there is no victory in his words because he knows what her response must be and the truth her words will carry. “And I you, Lucas, my love”
“So, we continue?” Lucas asks.
“Not this time, Lucas. This time we end it I think.”
“It never ends,” Malliss hisses.
“I agree, Lucas. It never ends but you and I can. We have played this part for too long. It is no longer abstract, you and I contesting for dominance. It is real and personal. It Wally standing behind me, the Earl standing to the south; it is George over to the west and the Koldred and the Keepers and the Students. It is all these who we know.”
“We have known many before, Anna. Each time we have known many. Each time we have contested and drawn and went away to begin again. What’s different this time, my love?”
“I am different,” Tari said.
“You gave me Tari, Lucas. That is different.”
“It’s just a blade, Anna, just like the one hanging in my shoulder.”
“No blade has ever hung in your shoulder, Lucas.”
“True,” Malliss answered, “but this one cannot harm me.”
“It already has,” Anna said. “You are less – much less – than you were. You have made me much more than I have ever been. I think you want it to end, Lucas. As do I.”
“As do I,” Tari added.
From somewhere far away the sounds of Harsh and Tuli join in the chorus. “as do I” they say, each affirmation sending spasms through the Malliss/Lucas body.
“But, you love me,” Lucas protests.
“Yes, Lucas. I love you. This time, I love others as well.”
“You cannot do it, Anna. As before, as all the times before, you can diminish me, send me back to a beginning but you cannot end me.”
“You are right, Lucas. I cannot. But, it is not just me any more.”
“And I can,” Tari declares.