Chapter 45 Circles of Time

Again we bent time to our will. I'm certain our actions will reflect back on us, somehow, sometime.

We used Sean's box to send ourselves back to the pillar room at Kadar Helgad. We had showed up at the back door of the temple, up in the cliffs near the secret door. There was an army of ogres outside. We stayed quiet, and we witnessed the attempted escape of the king, his son, and Ostohar. But the ogres caught them and the king and his son went down. Ostohar tried to help, and then we tried to help as well, against everything we had decided.

I couldn't watch and not to anything. I tried to save the king's son, but Ostohar dragged me away. The king ended up on top of his son, either mourning or attempting to revive him, it was unclear. Things moved quickly, and there was dust everywhere. We know that Mendi, the king's son, became king, and we knew the circumstances were considered suspicious. We had just seen why. And then the ogres surrounded the two, and that was the last we saw of them. Then we fought some of the ogres. Althoug Kyuskay fought extremely well, the others were taking too much damage. Miara saw that this was a lost cause, and she called everyone away. It was time to leave. I helped Sean set up his box, and as soon as it was ready, we left.

We found ourselves, bloody and wounded, in the pillar room. Ashe and Goldrim arrived and fainted immediately. Miara posted the others to watch for tentacles, and I concentrated for several minutes. First I healed Goldrim, then Ashe. When I had finished with Ashe, Goldrim had replaced the Stone of Stone.

We weren't certain of the time we had arrived, but merely hope we did it correctly. Kyuskay has no doubts whatsoever: since the Stone was there for us, this must have worked. Perhaps he is right. Nevertheless, the doomstones and Sean's box are things of chaos.

When we were ready to go, Miara told us to concentrate on the clearing of the battle we had outside Karak Ostohar and we used the bit of leather Bark had made while we were in the city. That way we would arrive outside the city and couldn't interfere with ourselves. We were successful. We stayed there for a few days, to be sure our other selves had left the area. Although the forest was quiet, we all felt a wrongness. But each had a nagging knowledge that *I* am just up that hill. Miara and Kyuskay took turns watching everyone, but none of us were tempted to go up that hill.

Prestley suggested that we use the box to return each stone to the place and time of its creation, thus making its existance circular. Although it sounded neat and tidy, most of us distrusted the idea on that alone. Sean also strongly felt that would should not continue using the box. Miara agreed equally strongly, and there was little disagreement.

Kyuskay paid his respects to the Chin master's grave, and we entered the city, seeing Ostohar again. He appeared well, and said he'd finally had a really good night's sleep. He bade Son to provide refreshments to us all. Beer, of course.

He looked at Kyuskay and said seriously, "I remembered last night what it was you did for my king and his heir." He also gave Goldrim and Ashe appreciative looks. We had, actually, managed to help Ostohar find his way.

"You made it possible for my king to pass on," some dwarvish word I didn't understand, "to his heir." The king dove onto Mendi and gave his life to save his son's. After the ogres stopped guarding, Ostohar came back and retrieved the living Mendi and the dead king's body. The king was buried in a state funeral. It took some time for Mendi to accept his father's death and assume the throne. There was a brief period of time when they hid the death of the king, which left a lot of rumours about how the king died.

"On a lighter note, I had significant success in cleaning out the last of the Grey Mountain Clan. And Karak Ostohar is now completely ours." I think he meant we as in the dwarves, not we as in him and us.

We reported that we had spent a quiet few days. An utter lie, of course. He seemed to think there was more to it then than, but let it lie. He said he would send a message to his king tell him to send a party of colonists. José and Sun prepared a celebratory feast.

Later that night, we set our plans. Return to Kadar Helgad, on feet this time, and retrieve the Stone of Stones. It is now late summer, and it will be winter when we arrive.