From: Mike Sander <344LWKC@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
Date: Friday, 28 Aug 1992 12:07:00 EDT
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [DQ] Kadrys returns to the Inn and sees a (possibly?) familiar face

[ADMIN: ...and this is for Andrea, who is busy "moving house" (direct quote
 there) this week. My own post SHOULD be soon...]

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Kadrys re-enters the quiet firelit warmth of the Inn, taking his usual seat,
the other questers also resuming their places around the same table. He
reaches under his chair and dons the black cloak, hiding the worst of the
slashes in his attire.
Serene sets food and drink before the others and they start in. Kadrys grins
in sarcastic gratitude for the Unholy Word that released him from the hunting
he would otherwise certainly have needed this night. Lancos picks at his food,
looking preoccupied, and Valgar tucks in, heeding 'Raelf's overheard advice to
ShockWave, eating to confirm the healing process. 'Raelf heads upstairs for a
while, leaving Kadrys to teach ShockWave the basics of eating. The vampire
grins quietly at the irony of the situation: for him, normal eating is nothing
but an ancient memory. 'Still, I'm not the forgetful kind...' he thinks as he
helps ShockWave through his meal.

During a quiet moment, Kadrys' glance crosses that of the elder 'Raelf. The
vampire's eyes narrow in thought as the Traveller deliberately looks away.
'What's the matter? Afraid I'll try a gaze to get you to tell me what
happened?' Kadrys wonders, frowning uneasily as he reflects that any such
attempt may well fail, with unpredictable results. 'Unpredictable... That's
the heart of the problem, of course. Is your past and our future the same?' he
muses, still studying the elder mage, before shaking his head in impatience at
the futility of his speculations.

Then 'Raelf the younger reappears, buoyant with renewed vitality. He gives
enchanted weapons of his own making to Valgar, and hands out damage-absorbing
stones to all of the questers. The stone feels strangely warm to Kadrys'
touch, and he turns it over in his hand, before pocketing it.

'Raelf flashscorches a chequerboard in the tabletop, and sets out glasses in
a drinking game he calls Toblero di Gucci, playing against Valgar. The game is
one of those alcoholic contests which rapidly attract a crowd of spectators,
noisily praising the activity in their eagerness for free drinks. Kadrys
unobtrusively backs his chair away from the table as the area surrounding it
becomes crammed with onlookers, preferring to watch from a short distance
away, in relative quiet.

ShockWave, having finished coming to terms with eating, is eager to try this
new activity of drinking. Very eager. Soon he is slurring his words, and his
eyes have the crossed misfocus of the profoundly plastered. Kadrys might be
grinning slightly at the spectacle of the staggering giant, but then it might
simply be a trick of the shadows. When it seems that ShockWave is on the point
of sliding off his chair, Lancos asks Valgar to help him get the giant to bed.
At that moment, a tonal ringing sound comes from the party's table, and at the
same time some piece of magical gadgetry on 'Raelf the elder makes a quiet
piping, and he mutters something to himself, so low that only Kadrys hears it
"Here she comes, right on time..."

Kadrys wonders about the elder mage's remark, even as he answers SunStorm's
query about the alarm: "That's 'Raelf's astrolabe, it's finished its analysis!"

'Raelf practically jumps. "Finally!" He moves toward the delicate instrument,
just as a new patron... a very good looking one, and strange looking one,
enters the inn.

A woman. Her skin is weirdly coloured: a bright sky blue, contrasting violently
with masses of red hair. She smiles like a siren, and slinks like a snake.

"Hello, boys! Recognize me? I'm sure you don't!" She laughs lightly, the sound
carrying an innonence belied by her walk. Kadrys frowns at the sound of that
laugh. 'Familiar... From where?...' he wonders. His eyes go momentarily blank
as he retreats inside a storehouse of memories vast and dark enough to rival
even the Great Library. He remains wrapped in thought while the woman puts a
patron of the Inn in his place. Physically.

He surfaces from an exhaustive search of his memories. The frown has deepened.
For the first time in many years, he feels the faint stirrings of uncertainty.
It is _not_ like him to forget. Not anything, not anyone. Particularly not
anyone as distinctive as this woman. Yet he has been quite unable to remember
anything about her. And despite his lack of memory, the strange certainty that
he has met her before remains unaltered. The implications are worrying. 'Either
I am mistaken and I do not know her, or I have met her and have forgotten...'

ShockWave, already less than steady on his borrowed feet, steps toward the
woman. The greyish flush on his face deepens as she jears at him like a child
then pushes him over. He falls like a tin soldier and lies flat on the floor,
out cold. Probably from the drink.

The woman prattles on about a childhood drinking binge, before throwing some
brash come-on lines at both Valgar and Lancos. 'Either she's a featherheaded
little trollop, or she's a very good actress...' Kadrys thinks, still uneasy
about the gap between his recall and his instincts.

She then smiles and walks toward the elder 'Raelf. She stops in front of him.
"So, you ain't gonna say hi to an old friend? Well, I'll do it for you."
She immediately kisses him. Quickly and lightly, right on the nose.
"See, that was easy. No problem, I like you anyway... Huh can't you smile,
my dear? Hah, don't fear. After all, I don't carry YOUR baby!"

Kadrys blinks at this. 'Old friend?' he wonders, seeing 'Raelf direct a sudden
flash of real malice at the woman; an expression the mage had not previously
shown, even in the thick of the recent battle. 'As for carrying 'Raelf's baby,
she'd have to be far stranger than she looks...' Kadrys adds.

She then goes on to tease the younger 'Raelf about his box of tricks, before
bending close to him and muttering in his ear: something probably meant to
be a secret, but she was not far away and Kadrys' ears were sharp enough to
catch "He's good looking, but, well, I like you better anyway... and remember,
there aren't many girls who know where you're going!"

Kadrys thinks 'Another turn in the maze. She claims to know 'Raelf's elder
self, she claims to know where we are going...'

And then she whirls suddenly to face Kadrys. Almost as if she had been saving
him for the last. Something mimicking seriousness appears for the first time
in her expression.

"So, Kadrys, don't tell me you don't recognize me! It's true that for you it
must have been like ages. What's it been, how many hundred... or is it
thousand... years already? Don't ask me to tell you, I've only live through a
tiny fraction of it. A little after I last saw you I got tangled in that
sordid white circle affair, and a mage trapped us on a spelljamming trip. You
know how I like to travel, well anyway the fool got us near a black start and
we zoomed past it so fast that time itself nearly froze for us. When we
finally managed to kick him out and come back, I don't know how many centuries
have passed but home wasn't home anymore. Well, when I heard you were in
Generica I just couldn't pass the opportunity to go meet one of the few beings
from my era still alive after all that time. So, how are you doing these days?
You don't seem to have changed a bit, I mean physically... Well, you know I
judge only from the *surface* now, but anyway... what has changed may me more
profound than that, eh? I mean, hanging in an inn, you, Kadrys? The great
bloodsucker himself? Back then, you couldn't manage with nothing less than a
royal castle and the kingdom that goes with it. Ha, I'm glad anyway. I never
really liked that evil worshipping sect of yours..."

She trails off as if giving him a chance to reply, but he remains utterly
silent, his eyes as unreadable as chips of obsidian. Tension thrums among the
watchers. You can almost hear the vague doubts rising: memories of the
prophecy ("a thief", "Beware the Vampyre",)... His cold expressionlessness
seems to the onlookers to hint of just the sort of regal, evil arrogance of
which the woman has spoken. She smiles at the reactions she has caused and
moves to stand right before him. "I don't care if you don't remember me. I'm
sure... it will all come back... when..." She leans forward for a long deep
kiss...

Kadrys' normally inscrutable demeanor totally breaks down. He rocks back in his
chair and stares at the woman, eyes wide, lips parted as he draws a long slow
intake of breath. But the precise emotion behind this sudden expressiveness is
still difficult to pinpoint. Shock? Admiration? Lust? Fear? The watchers puzzle
over this while the long moment of stillness lasts. Then, the stasis breaks as
Kadrys throws back his head and laughs, fangs bared in a burst of mordant
amusement, shattering his previous silent astonishment at the woman's literally
_breathtaking_ display of gall.

'Ahhh, that's the trouble with liars...' Kadrys thinks, 'They never quite know
when to stop. If only she'd left her story about halfway, she'd have really had
me wondering. The bit about home not being home anymore gave it all a
particularly fine ring of authenticity. But then, to go on to give ME a castle?
And to top that off with a whole kingdome? Not to mention a sect of followers?'
He continues to chuckle quietly for a short while, shaking his head, then in
the next instant he sobers abruptly, snapping at her, "You may know my name,
but that's _all_ you know of me."

And at that same moment 'Raelf finally looks at the flashing runic display
on the astrolabe, deciphering its meaning.
"By the Great Void!", he shouts. It isn't often he is surprised like that.
Everybody turns towards him, even Alita.

'Raelf taps a key on the case and the image blooms into life. Before them,
a dark cave, a figure engulfed in shadows, staring with black-glowing eyes
down at a bank of machines, covered with strange dials and lights and
switches, and fastened by heavy cables to a huge glowing structure, shifting
in space yet remaining still, clearly some kind of a big brother to the
PyraCubic Diamond they had seen earlier.

And embedded in the center like a fly in amber, like a butterfly pinned to a
display board, the image of SunStorm, surrounded by facets of his life, and
screaming in mortal agony.

Kadrys hisses quietly through clenched teeth at the terrible sight, thinking
that SunStorm will need to be a remarkably stable soul to survive such an
ordeal with anything resembling sanity. He fears that already the questers
may just be too late to be of real help...

Andrea Todkill andrea@cm.deakin.OZ.AU
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Michael Sander 344lwkc@cmuvm.csv.cmich.edu