From: hutch@ibeam.intel.com (Steve Hutchison)
Subject: [P8] Pieces of Eight, part 6: Reunions
Organization: Intel Corp., Hillsboro, Oregon
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 02:48:24 GMT


Three of the most perilous women in the Known Lands were conferring
in a dark corner of the Dragons' Inn.  One was a warrior, in gleaming
plate, a white wolf at her side.  One was an enchantress, in the robes
of an adept, companied by a fair of tiny multicolored dragonets.

The last was a woman who somehow left nothing to the imagination, or maybe
it was that she made you imagine everything.  She had been poured into a
chinese-red silk sheath dress, slit up one side to the hip, and her matching
eyeshade and lipstick were thrown into stark contrast by the jet black color
of her hair, and the white of her skin was not so wholesome as that of milk.
Her eyes, though, were an amber that made the unwary think of a cat or a
serpent.  She was alone at the table, her two mountainous thugs waiting
uncomfortably at the next table.

Their conversation was subdued, inaudible to the other patrons, and
a blank silence met anyone who tried to eavesdrop via magic or the
arcane arts of telepathy.

The warrior spoke first.  "I understand the concern, but I don't see how we
can do anything about it, if the others have failed already."

"That's fine for you," the enchantress retorted.  "You've established some
independent reality here.  I've yet to convince one of those fools at the
Mage's Guild to sponsor me in, and I can't do magic for hire without that
membership."

"Well, dahling, if you'd just work for me," the dragon-lady replied,
"I've got NO qualms about that sort of thing.  I'd even hire our butch
sister here."  She gestured languidly at the warrior.  Her wolf growled.

"No.  I will not give you that kind of a hold over me."  The enchantress
picked up one of her dragonets, and began stroking its head.

"Too bad."  The dragon-lady took a delicate sip from her long-stemmed ivory
pipe, exhaling a sweet narcotic smoke.  "We'd make a good team."

"Enough of this.  You both wanted MY help," the warrior interrupted.
"You both think we'll be attacked, taken like the others.  I will take
my chances.  I've got my surprises, and no mage can take me without the
advantage of surprise.  And no warrior can take me, period."

"Well, then," the enchantress smiled, "You need us to keep you from being
 surprised."

"That is why I've bothered to speak with you so far."

"This is getting us nowhere,"  the dragon-lady said, showing the faintest hint
of impatience in her voice.  "We need to make a plan that will include all
our strengths.  We can then be protected on all fronts."

"Not quite."  They turned, surprised, at the voice.

A young man in travel-worn leather armor stepped across the ward-circle
which protected them from interruptions.  It didn't even spark.

"Name's Kachin.  My boss sent me to talk to you.  He won't come into the
town, says it's too full of worldly distractions.  Must have meant you
three.  Anyway, he's invited you to meet with him at the travellers' rest
just south of town.  He says tell you Howard sent me."

The women exchanged glances, the enchantress' fingers weaving subtle signs
in the air.  She stopped, puzzled.

"He's new.  Howard just added him.  That's not supposed to be possible."

The dragon-lady smiled a wicked, secretive smile.

"What now?" The warrior asked.  "Leah, do you foresee any danger in going
 to this meeting?"

"Even if you do, I'll consider it," the dragon-lady replied.  The enchantress
hummed a short, eerie tune, and tossed a pair of curious polyhedral dice.

"So far, no hazard.  Let me do a tableaux."  She laid out six cards from a
deck she had somehow concealed in her bodice (where, nobody could say).

"Fallen tower, that's our significator.  Page of cups, our messenger here.
Emperor of Cups, our prospective host.  The Fool, inverted, his intention
towards us.  The Changeling, our present danger.  The Emperor of Swords,
our future situation."  She thought, for a moment.

"This suggests we will go to war together, after our meeting."

The dragon lady caressed Kachin's face.  "Dear boy.  Go back to your master
and tell him we will join him tonight.  Hmm, a brave fellow.  Errol would have
learned much from you.  Too bad he's been devoured."

Kachin tore his eyes from the three, and left the Inn.

========

Father Howard sat outside the small chapel, patiently meditating while his
acolyte was returning.  He opened his eyes at the faint sound of air being
displaced by something that wasn't the wind.

A young man stood before him, middling tall, blonde, athletic in appearance.
He wore only a short pair of trews, patterned in a wild conflagration.
His eyes were piercing, a fiery red color.

Father Howard stared for a moment, disbelief evident on his face.  After
a few minutes, he spoke, in a language from the dawn of time.

"Rafe?  This is impossible.  You know the rules, we can't meet in this life."

"That's right.  But think," the surfer sat down beside him.  "You got yourself
killed.  And I died, too.  But I got over it, and all we have to do is get
you a life," he grinned, "and then we can try for the happily-ever-after,
and to hell with the adjudicators."

"So that was their judgement?"

"Yeah, no contact between us while we both lived."

"It stopped the feud."

"It was too harsh.  They took the house-price out of us, instead of having
it paid by the general funds."

"But that was the law, didn't you know?  House-price for any new clan comes
out of the founding clans."

"Just one of those things they changed while I was off wandering around?"

"That's the hazard in Travelling."

"Do you remember anything about how you bought it?"

"Not really.  My counterpart knew more."

"I know.  I've already found her."

"Oh.  How much baggage ARE you carrying around right now?"

"Four.  The less adaptable parts."

"You found Sister El'n less adaptable?"

"Her requirements are higher - she really needs a whole convent to support
her functioning.  She hadn't established any reality of her own.  You have."

"Well, perhaps it's easier for me; as you say, she's tied to the structure,
and I'm a more solitary type."

"Unfortunately, Errol was too solitary.  He forgot to establish his network,
and ended up on the bottom of the bay."

"Oh dear.  Did you reach him in time?"

"Of course.  Time is very responsive around this place."

"The others will be here in a few hours."

"Way cool."

"`Way cool?'  What HAVE you been up to while we've been apart?"

"Oh, just hangin'.  Went to a nice little place, enough mana to keep
functional, good people, civilized.  I've imported some of their
cultural icons."

"Oh, like the surfboard?  Your family's latest line?"

"Yeah, that's mine.  Are they still selling well?"

"The ones you made.  The licensee doesn't have the feel for them, from
the reviews.  They're too heavy, too unresponsive."

"Probably the mandatory safety features."

"I like the new look.  I got very tired of you being an elf all the time."

"Yeah, Miro did get to be kind of repetitive.  But I didn't want to start
going around like a ghoul from deathbed to deathbed, and I never did like to
eat things that aren't at least friends of mine."

"You're a romantic, Rafe."

"Well, so were you."

"I don't really recall.  I think the thief has those memories."

"Errol had some of them.  But Sister El'n had the rest."

"Really?  I would never expect it of the old prune."

They were interrupted as Kachin came over the crest of the hill.  Father
Howard waved at him, and he came into the campsite.

"Kachin.  Come here.  I want you to meet someone."

"Sure.  Hey, I saw you yesterday outside the Dragon's Inn."  Kachin scratched
at his newly-tonsured head.  "I think."

"Not quite.  Well, sort of.  That's the part of me that succeeded
in a venture, and he's going after the part that failed.  In a few
days he's going to have gotten himself together, and then I'm going
to go from place to place picking up after a very dear friend."

Kachin looked questioningly at Father Howard.

"You'll understand in time, son.  Now, let's start preparing a meal
for the others when they arrive."

Near sunset, a carriage pulled up to the traveller's rest.  It was driven
by a wiry, sleazy looking man who acted like he'd as soon slit your throat
as give the time of day.  His counterpart was a thug of the type one would
expect to see mugging his grandmother.  The thug hopped down from the high
seat, and opened the door to the carriage.

The dragon-lady stepped out, clad this time in a shiny black leather one piece
that hid all her skin but nothing of her lithe, curvaceous body.  She walked,
or undulated, over to where Father Howard had set up a small fire and a table
of simple fare.

"How droll.  Leave it to you, old priest, and we'd all be very very holy,
and very very hungry.  Have you ever heard of `spices'?"

"Lady Ale.  Welcome.  Are the others coming?"

"I believe the witch should be here momentarily, and A'ree had to resign from
her position as a caravan guard."

As she spoke, a fair of miniature dragons, each the size of a kitten, and
all colors of the rainbow, spiralled down from the sky, whirling down into
a dizzying mass that settled, leaving behind the tall, extravagantly curved
figure of the enchantress.  The dragonets peeped inquisitively, and began
chasing grasshoppers in the weeds near the road.

"Ale, dear, I think the term `witch' is inappropriate for what I do.
 Although I understand something similar sounding applies to you."

She walked over to the table.  "Ah!  Lovely.  Scrounged it yourself?"

Father Howard smiled to himself.  "No, Kachin did it.  He learns quickly."

Meanwhile, the armored form of A'ree rode over the crest of the hill, her
white battle-charger covering the miles effortlessly.  She dismounted with
the grace of a gymnast (a perfect flare-to-kip-to-backflip) and strode over
to where Leah was picking at the food.

"Ah, good.  I was getting tired of that rich food.  Nothing like nuts, roots,
and berries to harden one for battle."

Father Howard looked pained.  The warrior turned to him, mouth full, and
saluted, sword to helm.

"Well, old stick-in-the-mud, what did you have to say?"

"I have to say that you three are wasting time."

The women adopted varying expressions of annoyance and surprise.

"You've been frantically trying to establish yourselves, to assume
some vestige of reality.  Lady Ale, you've all but violated the Oath,
taking sustenance from living sentients, and it's only fear for your
personal safety that's kept you from taking enough to kill."

He waited for her inevitable denial, and cut her off, turning to the
warrior.  "You, A'ree, scrabbling for any job you can get.  You didn't
care who the task was for, what it was you guarded, you just took the pay."

The warrior nodded.  "So?  That's what a mercenary does."

He scowled.  "You should be better than that.  You should be able to
choose your jobs.  What happened to 'only working for a just cause?'"

The enchantress gathered her dragonets to her, preparing to leave.

"Don't go so quickly, Leah.  You've been using power too readily,
too much wild surging.  You can do it in that town, it's full of magic,
but your pets get sated too quickly, and you'll be wearing thin any
time now."

"It's better to go now, than to grow old and weak and then fade."

"What if you don't have to fade?  You three have been tying yourselves
to your own kind of life, but in doing that, you're tied to aging and
death.  We have a year, at the	most, before our common bond erodes
beyond retrieval, and you sit in a bar scheming about how to avoid the
only thing that can help you."

"And what would that be," Leah replied, bitterly.  "A renegade or a
conjuror, capturing and enslaving the others before they could even
call for help."

"Not exactly," the priest replied.  "A friend."  He gestured, and the
blond man stepped out of the wayhouse.

The fair of dragonets swirled up, disturbed.  Kachin stepped out of the
way, and brushed against the white horse.  Its deep blue eyes met his.
A voice spoke in his head.  <Well, this is an interesting turn of events.>

Kachin sighed.  So he'd joined with a stranger group than he'd thought.

"Why's that?" he asked the horse.  "Do you know him?"

<After a fashion.  When we were alive and in one piece, he was our
bondmate.  Never thought to see him again.>

"Now what?"

<Now I think we go find us a murderer.>  The horse winked its blue eye
and blurred, becoming a white hawk, black-marked on brow and pinions.
It flew to the table where the food had been set out and began picking
at the bits of smoked rabbit that A'ree had left.

Kachin shrugged, and joined it.