"I still think we should just get the stone," Cephalus argued.

"It was hard enough to get up here in the first place having to go through you first Aileen, and now we just have to go back down again."

Aileen rolled her eyes sad down on one of the stone tables, straightening her simple crown.

"Cephalus, if you want the stone the vote has to be unanimous but it isn't...Please just listen to reason. Why take the risk when we have a better chance winning back the positions lost to Berglund and others?"

Dagon and Diomedes glanced at each other nervously and subconsciously put one hand to their throat, thinking of what would happen if they went back. They thought they had done it unnoticed but, still sulking in her corner, Adrastea saw the exchange and began to think again (Something she usually did with malicious intent). Her suspicions were always very high but after the whole hanging incident she had kind of forgotten about it. 

"What do you mean 'better chance'?" Cephalus asked skeptically.

"Who knows if the stone even works? Nobody. It's a definite risk. However, if we get our positions back it will be a good foothold to stop all the rogue parties from burning every village they come through," Aileen explained.

"I think it's worth a shot," Chandra put her two cents in.

Marcy nodded as well. It seemed better than the whole world coming to an end. At least that world.

"Cephalus she's right," Weland said quietly.

"What about those of us who don't want to go back to royal life?" Cephalus told them in a hushed tone.

Marcy looked around the room confused. Who would not want to go back to royal life? It sounded pretty good to her. 

"It's dodging responsibility. I'm sure they will come to their senses eventually," Aileen answered calmly.

Off against the wall Dagon and Diomedes had begun to discuss things in quiet voices, making it impossible for anyone to hear, even Adrastea.

"We can't go back there," Dagon said to his brother.

"They're right Dagon. If we can get Berglund off the throne it will be a whole lot better for everyone."

"Dio, they want to hang us. How much are you willing to bet that Falcon is still in town, hmm?"

"What if he isn't?" Diomedes persisted. 

He always had an urge to take action and do good while Dagon always felt too responsible for his younger brother (By a couple minutes) to do anything drastic. 

"If only you would had left them alone," Dagon wished.

"How could I? They were stealing from innocent people!" Diomedes argued.

Dagon did not answer. There really was no way to get out of going to Rubin Soth without having to reveal to Cephalus and the others the incident with the thieves grape vine. It would all together be too risky.

"It wasn't what you did but how you did it," Dagon hissed.

            Adrastea watched the two brothers whisper amongst themselves with a observant eye. Obviously Dagon was upset about something but she was too far away to figure out what. From what Adrastea had seen of the twins she figured that Diomedes was definitely the one who acted on an impulse, while Dagon always thought everything through. One quality, she had to admit, that was a great virtue. 

Quietly Adrastea casually sauntered closer to the two, wondering if they would notice. They did not.

"How could I? They were stealing from innocent people!" Diomedes argued.

Ah, Adrastea thought to herself. So there is something up.     

"It wasn't what you did but how you did it," Dagon hissed.

"Going with them really wasn't the best thing you could have done."

"Never mind about that. We can discuss that later. What about Rubin Soth?" Diomedes asked quietly.

"We're going."

"What?"

"We have to! If we don't they'll know something is going on."

Adrastea calmly went back to her previous spot, seeing that their conversation was coming to an end. So they don't want to go to Rubin Soth, she thought. That explains a lot.

             "Alright, we'll go," Cephalus finally gave in.

Aileen, Chandra, and Marcy were all visibly relieved by this news and had already started making their way towards the exit when suddenly voices started to echo through the tunnel saying, "I told you it was this way!"

"You already said that, now can't you just let it go?"

Adrastea leapt to her feet and nearly fell over in the process. They can't be here, she thought. How did they find out?

A few seconds later three young adult figures appeared, one lady and two men...Although they were not really acting like it when they came in. 

"Sylvia! What on earth are you doing here?" Adrastea called, swiftly making her way across the room.

Dagon was almost completely dumbfounded. Yet another secret she had been keeping.

"Well we made an educated guess where you might be," she answered, pushing a stray strand of hair away from her face.

"And that educated guess would be mine," Silas muttered in the background.

"How did you come to the conclusion that I would be here?"

"Actually we didn't. We just wanted to make sure that all was well around here...Which clearly it isn't," Sylvia told her, looking around at all the interesting expressions.

"You're not thinking of taking the stone out are you?"

The thought suddenly just occurred to her and it was really actually quite frightening. 

"We were just leaving, to tell you the truth," Aileen beamed.

She was extremely pleased over having won the argument and led the way out of the room through the intended entrance.

"THE SUN! EARTH! GLORIOUS, GLORIOUS GRASS!" Marcy leaped for joy, dropping to the ground and kissing the damp grass.

"You'd think we were down there for days," Dagon muttered to his brother.

Diomedes just shrugged his shoulders grinning and laughing. 

"Marcy don't you think you're over reacting?" Fennel asked, raising one eyebrow.

"Are you kidding? I was made for the SUN!"

Chandra giggled for a minute then suddenly become quite sober.

"Is something wrong?" Diomedes asked, noticing her uncharacteristic reaction.

"I just realized...Our horses, they're on the other side."

"Is that all?"

"What do you mean is that all? I'm an elf not a mountain goat," Chandra argued.

Diomedes raised his hands in the air and gave up arguing. That really was not the time for it anyway. 

"We have horses but I'm afraid three will not be enough to carry everyone," Sylvia spoke up.

"No no, you go back to Salitask. Don't get yourself mixed up in this," Adrastea told her, coming out of the tunnel after everyone else.

"We're not going back and that's final."

"And why not?"

"Berglund is enough trouble for me as it is. If we have a chance to get back at him I'd like to be part of it," Sylvia explained.

Adrastea noticed once more that at the mention of Berglund's name Dagon and Diomedes looked up with nervous glances at each other.

"I didn't know you had anything to do with him?"

"Neither did I, but apparently he's angry at us...I think he wants the crown room," Sylvia answered, lowering her voice towards the end of the sentence.

"Who wouldn't? Everything in there is worth a fortune."

Sylvia searched Adrastea's jade eyes to try and find some inkling that said she knew what Sylvia was getting at, but that mask was always so hard to penetrate. One never knew exactly what Adrastea was thinking and Sylvia had the feeling that it was one of the reasons she was so...Well so grumpy, to put it in simple words.

The others had already started round the mountain to where their horses were left which was a walking trip that would probably take several hours. However it was definitely better than walking in a dark tunnel, at least to Marcy's way of thinking. 

"Who are they?" her voice cut through the quiet after several minutes of walking.

Marcy was pointing at a couple of wooden wagons with painted walls and curved roofs. There were children in colorful clothes hopping around like grasshoppers and playing with what appeared to be some kind of shabby dog. The wagons were slowly moving down the mountain and at the reins were men with dark hair and bandannas, a couple of them wearing earrings.

"Those are gypsies," Adrianna explained.

"Seriously? You have gypsies here?"

Marcy could hear Chandra giggling in the background and once again felt completely out of place.

"Yes we do," Adrianna said patiently.

"Although most people stay clear of them. They believe that if you don't pay attention or take care of something than you don't deserve it...Which usually leads to them stealing it. However no one really knows how many actually do that. Personally I think they're quite fascinating."

Marcy watched the dark haired children and could hear their laughter very faintly on the wind. Marcy liked kids. She felt she could always relate to them with their fantasy worlds and make belief.

      It was just about sunset when they made it back to the horses who were calmly munching on grass in a way that actually made it look quite tasty.

"We'll camp here for the night," Cephalus called out, walking over to his horse and giving it a nice pat on the head.

"Oh good," Marcy breathed heavily, sitting down on the soft grass and stretching her arms.

"That has got to be the longest hike I have ever been on."

"Really?" Chandra seemed surprised.

"Well to be honest I've only ever been hiking once before...And it was up twenty flights of stairs in a skyscraper."

"A what?"

"Skyscraper. It's a really tall rectangular building with lots of windows. Cities are built mostly of them."

Chandra made a disgusted face and scrunched up her nose, causing Marcy to explain further that she was not in league with the construction manager.

"I never said I liked them. I was just explaining to you what they were."

"So that's what those were called," Weland said in wonder.

He had been genuinely confused by the box buildings and wondered why anyone would build something so ugly. When he brought the subject up Marcy said that it was because they could fit more people.

"Explain to me again why you live there?" Chandra asked her.

"Well that was the only place I could find a job. You see, my talents are very limited to writing articles, taking pictures, and selling peanuts. So that's what I do."

"Oh yes, you're a...A reporter, right?" Weland tried jogging his memory.

"That's me."

"What's a reporter?" Chandra inquired.

"It's someone who goes around town finding interesting happenings and writing them down in articles for everyone to read."

"Huh...I don't think I'd like to do that very much."

"Well you get use to people yelling at you all the time," Marcy laughed. 

"Do you like reporting?" Weland asked, seemingly intrigued by the direction their conversation had taken.

"Eh, sort of. What I would really like to do is write my own book someday."

"Really? What would it be about?"

Chandra had always liked the idea of developing stories but never really thought about writing herself. Not to mention it could get to be quite expensive.

"Now that is where the fun part is. I can write about anything I want to. The possibilities are endless...Hah, I would probably end up writing about my crazy adventures in another world."

"No one would believe it," Chandra giggled, playing along.

"Oh I don't know. Some people can be pretty impressionable," Marcy told her.

Although her tone was serious her eyes were laughing.

"You're kidding?" Chandra said wide eyed, picking up the line Marcy seemed to use quite often.

Adrastea watched the three of them joke around a bit envious of their good moods. She was rarely in a good mood. Sylvia had noticed this one characteristic enhance itself over the years and began to worry. Sometimes she thought her friend was drastically close to...Well that's bit over the top, Sylvia thought. Still she felt that something must be done.

Getting up Sylvia walked over to the twins who were arguing over how to properly fold a horse blanket and she politely coughed, trying to get their attention. Dagon was the first one to look at her with raised eyebrows saying, "Yes?"

"Could I talk to you for a minute...Alone?" 

Diomedes was a bit taken aback but obediently left, seeing that Sylvia was serious. Dagon noticed the package she was carrying and nodded towards it.

"What's that?" he asked quietly.

Sylvia walked into the trees out of sight of anyone and Dagon followed, intrigued by the mystery.

"So?"

Sylvia did not say anything but quickly unwrapped the package, revealing a silver circlet of flowers with pearls placed in the center of each blossom. It was skillfully made, the metal twisted and formed by loving hands into the beautiful creation that it was, sparkling in the moonlight.

"Where did you get that?" Dagon asked in wonder.

"It's been down in my families crown ever since my twelve birthday...It's Adrastea's."