"Well . . . what now?" Marcella crossed her arms and craned her neck to inspect the sheer rock wall which stood in their path. "Should we find a way around?"

"Unacceptable!" Cora sounded forceful as she spoke, her right hand raised and shifted into its strange, energy weapon form. "Circumnavigating this obstacle will add excess time to this journey, it is advisable to resolve this issue in a timely manner or I will be forced to reevaluate my methods."

"What's that mean?" Marcella asked.

"It means she's only cooperating because her orders are time sensitive," Grelchin said, most of his hair was pin straight and jet black now, the wrinkles in his face were vanishing and his tattoos now moved like they were alive. "If we add much time to our journey, she will return to her original course of action."

"Well . . . I suppose we start climbing then?"

"This unforeseen variable has complicated my equations." Cora seemed to be speaking to Raphael more than anyone. "I will be forced to reevaluate my methods."

"Yeah, we heard you the first time." Marcella looked at Guhg and smiled. "Hey, Guhg, can you reach the top of this cliff?"

Guhg smiled and bounced on the balls of his feet. He reached his spiney arm high and his fingers just tickled the top of the wall of rock.

"Perfect! Guhg can just lift us up then!"

Grelchin smiled and nodded. "Everything has its place in the big picture. You are becoming quite adept at deciphering the ways of things."

"Yeah, yeah, less talk more go." Marcella looked at the group. "I say the little guys go first?" She squatted to speak to the rodents. "You guys can do this, right? Guhg will be gentle, right Guhg?"

"Gen-tull." Guhg struggled with the multi-syllabic word and nodded very enthusiastically.

"I will go first." Cora pushed the others away from her as her feet began to change. "I will be able to make this activity more efficient by aiding from the top of this precipice."

Cora's feet clunked and transformed into miniature rockets, which shuttered and clunked again.

"Is there anything you can't do, Cora?" Marcella marvelled at the mechanical woman's endless uses.

"Negative." Cora said with a blink. Flames erupted from the bottom of her rocket feet, sending her precariously up through the air.

"Making friends is probably one thing." Marcella rolled her eyes as Guhg began lifting their party up after Cora. First the rodents, then the other small animals, followed by Silva, which left Marcella and Grelchin alone.

"I'm beginning to recognize you, you know." Marcella said without looking at the man.

"Yes, I expected you would. Had I wanted to remain a mystery to you, I would never have shown myself to begin with."

"Why were you old? When you came to me in my grandmother's cellar you were young . . . and burning with colors. Why are you old and frail now?"

"On a mortal plane, I can appear however I wish. Here in Lemuria, my physical appearance is tied very closely to the health and well being of the realm."

"So . . . the closer I get to saving Lemuria . . . the younger and healthier you get?"

"As I've told you, m'lady, experience is knowledge. Would you have accepted such an explanation so readily if I had simply told you? You figured it out on your own, does that not help you appreciate the knowledge?"

"Why did my grandmother want me to stay away from you."

Grelchin smiled as Guhg bent over to scoop him up. "Oh, family politics." Was all the man said as he was lifted away from Marcella.

Finally, Guhg bent over to help Marcella. Mustering more gentleness than she ever would have assumed possible from something so big, the giant lifted her up and Cora's hands met her at the top of the cliff. Hesitating only for a second, Marcella's fingers wrapped around Cora's and she was lifted up towards the others.

Marcella stepped closer to the opposite edge of the cliff, the lip of a crater, a crater filled with all the life and wonder that Lemuria seemed to be missing.

"What is this?" Marcella asked as she took in the sight of trees with massive leaves. There were puddles pluming with purple smoke and mineral growths which flashed with electric lights. A flock of four winged birds lifted from a patch of misty forest and dove back into the foliage.

"This is the meeting place." Grelchin laughed and stepped behind Marcella's shoulder. "Here, the ways of things mingle harmoniously."

"The ways of things." Marcella chewed on the statement, she tasted it and familiarized herself with it. "I've heard those words quite a lot lately."

"Of course you have, and what do you think of when you hear them?"

"I think of . . . I think of nature."

Grelchin clapped his hands, Marcella could feel his excitement brewing. "What else?"

"Science . . . I think of science."

"And?"

Marcella surveyed the crater again. She watched blue flames dancing through the air over head and smiled. "Magic."

Grelchin laughed louder than before, then began to dance. Marcella turned to see that he had nearly returned to the youthful vision of a man she'd seen at her grandmother's cabin. He waved his hands in the air and his snaking tattoos moved and danced with him.

The mice at his feet tumbled and rolled together, the bugs and hawks spun around his head and he laughed and laughed. "Marcella, my dear!" He called out. "You are coming closer and closer to fitting together the last few pieces of your puzzle."

"So then . . . the citadel?"

"Is there, in the center, the apex of the ways." Grelchin didn't stop dancing as he spoke. Marcella turned back and inspected the crater more closely. It didn't take long before she noticed the spires.

There were three of them, covered in crawling vines, glittering ores and vaporous emanations of unexplainable origin. Each spire was crowned with a huge, glistening gem, one orange, one purple, one green.

"Look up!" Grelchin said and Marcella did.

"One of those weird stars! It moved!" The green star which Grelchin had pointed out the day before was now hovering directly over the crater, nearly aligned with its similarly colored, terrestrial counterpart--the green spire of the citadel.

"So, this is it? All I need to do is get down to that building and everything will be good again?"

"Hah!" Grelchin laughed. "Good, evil, light, dark? What do any of them truly mean? Silly mortal concepts which you need to deal with, not me."

"Oh." Marcella didn't appreciate Grelchin's tone. It seemed as though the younger he got, the less respectful he acted.

Just as Marcella was about to ask about getting down into the crater, the ground shook and Guhg cried. Marcella returned to see the giant, still on the solid ground from which he'd lifted his friends.

"Guhg not reach! Guhg not reach!" He hopped and gripped the cliff, but the rock crumbled under his weight.

"Whoa!" Grelchin stopped dancing and held out his hands. "You can't do that! This crater is the only thing that's keeping all this energy contained. If it breaks apart, there will be nothing to save us. The life will disperse and die, then we'll be doomed to rot."

Guhg cried some more and Marcella made soothing sounds. "Don't worry Guhg! I'll come back for you. We won't be long."

Marcella turned back around and leapt in shock. Grelchin had aged again, his hair was fraying, his skin folded and brittle looking. "Oh dear," he said as he looked at the spots forming on his hands.

"Why did you get old again?"

"I'd say something has gotten in our way."

"But what?" Marcella felt a jolt of pain as an iron grip wrapped around her elbow. Cora pulled her close as Raphael tweeted westward.

Silva leapt for Marcella, but the mechanical woman raised into the air, the flames from her feet nearly singeing the wolf.

"With the giant named Guhg removed from the equation," Cora said as she fired at the diving hawks. "I have reevaluated my methods."

Marcella and Cora blasted through the air after Raphael. Marcella could hear screaming hawks and a crying giant as the dead lands of Lemuria passed underneath her and she screamed along with them.