Tired and worried, the woman said, "Keita, my heart, your father comes. I know you"ll want him to give you hugs and candy right away but you must stay quiet and out of sight until mommy gives him special hugs, alright?"

The girl remembered being confused because she had never had to wait before. She wondered if it was because of the man with the bad eyes that made her mother give him special hugs so he wouldn"t tell on her father. She wondered why she had to pretend she didn"t know who her father was, why it was bad. She didn"t understand a lot of things then.

She didn"t know how she could do it but hiding and being forgotten wasn"t that hard for her even though everything else was, especially learning things. It felt like her head was already so full, it was hard to make things fit in it. It was those things her head was full of that let her know that she could "fade". It"s what also let her know what she had to do if she didn"t want to die that night.

She hid while her father, drunk and angry, stabbed her mother to death. She "faded" and followed him around as he looked for her. When her father sat on the floor and started crying, she told him about how her mom had given the bad eyed man special hugs so he wouldn"t tell her father"s boss about her. When her father hugged her and started apologizing, she wondered why she didn"t hate him. All she could feel was sadness and confusion over why the things that filled her head didn"t show her how to save her mother too.

For a long time things were fuzzy but she remembered that there were a lot of happy days and sad nights during the time that her father had a small house by the ocean and she pretended to be his maid when other people were around. She remembered being confused when they had to leave and her father tried really hard to explain that he had a "big opportunity" but they would have to go where her mother came from. It wasn"t a good place.

The place was so bad that it made her father bad. And, in time, it made her bad too because she had to do bad things with her father so she could eat and have a place to stay. She remembered a man named Hammy that hurt her and made her keep it a secret from her father but she remembered a nice boy-man her father called Country who was really nice to her. She liked him but she was afraid if she started liking him the way her mother liked her father, maybe one day Country would have to stab her to death too.

During the bad times, some good things happened. She thought about her mother so hard and so many times that a piece of her mother came to live with her inside. It made her happy because her mom would come out to do the bad things for her so she didn"t have to anymore and Hammy got too scared to come hurt her anymore too. Because she could fade and her mother came to live with her, when she pretended to be a boy who helped her father do bad things, people called her Spook. For a little while, she liked that because making people scared of her made her feel strong.

It didn"t take long for her to get tired of it and then sad because even Country was a little scared of her. Her father was tired in different ways but it didn"t take her long to understand that either because she started feeling tired that way too. She didn"t understand why it was so hard to live. If it was so hard, then she just wanted to sleep and not wake up anymore. When she told her father that, he hugged her. For the second and last time, she saw her father cry.

Then came the day of a hundred gold. Her father pretended to be happy and they went to the fishing village where she stayed, having a big meal. Her father said it was a good thing because even though they would have to do something bad, they wouldn"t have to do more bad things for a long time. Neither one of them believed that but they pretended they did.

Right before they went to the place where they"d do the bad thing, her father gave her a locket that her mother had once wore but now it was engraved with a special message for her. She pretended to be happy but she wasn"t. She was sad and angry because the things in her head were showing her what she needed to do to live but she would have to kill a boy, not even a boy-man like Country.

She didn"t want to live anymore, not that way. She wanted a different life. She didn"t hate her father but she didn"t love him either. All the bad things had finally made him bad inside. The only one she wanted to save was Country. He was good and her father was going to make him do something so bad that Country might become bad inside like her father if she did what she had to in order to live.

So instead of doing what she needed to live, she looked and looked again until she saw a way for Country to live without having to do anything bad. She had never made all the things in her head show her different ways before and she could tell that she hadn"t seen it as clearly as the "best" way that she didn"t want. The way it twisted and hid things made her uneasy but it still showed her what she wanted and that was good enough.

While they were setting up the ambush, she switched places with Country and then stood a little closer to the spot than she was supposed to. When it was almost time and her father was no longer focused on her, she tied her hair and flipped her hood back up so that the boy wouldn"t notice that she was a girl or be able to see her eyes. He couldn"t delay trying to kill her in any way or the bad man who came a little later would kill all of them.

It was hard to hold back the reflex to call out her mother when the boy tried to hit her with a horse and put the golem in front of her. It made her heart hurt to hear Country cry out from getting hit by an arrow but she knew he"d be alright. She had never really known much pain outside of the way Hammy hurt her. So when the golem formed around her, breaking bones, her instincts made her start fading. She "faded" so hard that she barely even felt the golem step on her, ending her life.

The last thing she remembered about the "bad" life was the piece of her mother that had came back to her, wrapping around her tightly, protecting her from the darkness that wanted to eat her. By the time the piece of her mother that protected her had been eaten by the darkness, she had faded enough that it didn"t know she was there. She stayed like that for awhile, sleeping and becoming distant from the her that died.

Something disturbed her from the fading. She was being pulled into a sea of power and potential. At least, that"s the way it felt to the small and insignificant soul she had become. Since it didn"t feel wrong, she didn"t fight against it. She expanded, embraced and merged with the potential, waiting. Her past life had become something distant, faded, as she had been before becoming a part of this new thing.

Then, in what only felt like an instant later, she had a name and a form. She was the Danann Key. Her purpose was to unlock, free, awaken. She could do the opposite as well but such things didn"t appeal to her as much. The boy she had spared with her actions, in turn, had given her a new life and purpose.

She was grateful and accepting of this new life but that didn"t mean she was free of grudge or the desire to find closure for unexpressed feelings. Until she could dispel that lingering darkness, she thought to keep her distance, though she wouldn"t ignore her maker"s needs. Until that day came, she intended to lose herself to wandering and answering the calls that suited her.

Having shaken off her mortal coil and the presence that had been both boon and plague to her, there was nothing to stop her from learning and understanding the world and people around her. It was just as well that the first call she answered was a grandmother who had a son and granddaughter that reminded her somewhat of her old life but in a brighter and more loving setting. It saddened her when she parted ways with the son but he had begun to lean on her abilities too much, at great cost to himself. Lingering any longer would have been a bad thing for both of them.

She saw the struggles and toils of her maker, that he was a creature not quite good or bad but caring deeply for those who he shared a connection with. She witnessed the lengths he would go through to give them even just a little better chance at happiness. It awakened a need, a desire in her as well.

His sudden disconnection from her was disconcerting but all would be as it would be. She would remain vigilant for his call and continue to carry on her own path. If there was anything positive to take from her addled past self, it was the benefit in rejecting the futility of worrying over things that one had no control over.

Eventually he did reach to her and she answered as quickly as she could. It was somewhat startling to discover that only a few months had pa.s.sed for him while it had been a couple of years for her but it was of no great concern. What surprised her is that he didn"t try to keep her by his side but released her back with a simple delivery. Connection closed once again, she was free to follow her own devices once more but there was a small discontent.

The minor grievance was quickly forgotten in the face of events within Amoril. She could feel a great convergence occurring for some time but it had reached a hovering peak. Inspired by the mood, she threw herself into the hands of a Domain leader who predictably began abusing the power she commanded almost immediately. As the elf reached a crux of triumph, she abandoned him, taking the great sacrifice of personal resources she had siphoned from him with her.

As the nine day, elf slave empire crumbled before it could reach its influence outward, the final convergence completed. Every creature across the face of the entire world felt that something of great importance had happened. Only ent.i.ties sensitive to changes in the deeper structures of reality could understand what had happened, however. The Danann Key could be counted among them, even if her understanding was fairly basic.

The entire reality and everything within it was experiencing a secret baptism as Amoril rose from the lower dimensions into the rank of fully realized ones in the middle dimensions. While this occurred, the Danann Key felt a faint and delicate connection with her maker. Following the trace, she found herself in Morrel"s hand.

The wood elf looked down at the key in surprise that turned into a mellow sadness tinged with guilt. "I know not why you come at this time but I do not feel completely certain if my sacrifice will be enough for my son, little much his friends as well. If there is some force you might exert to your maker"s aid, then feel at ease to do so. I only ask that you do not harm the success of my child"s arrival."

The words and actions of the wood elf were a complete mystery to the Danann Key but some of that mystery unfolded before her as soon as he was done speaking. She felt the essence of Morrel"s being stretch out to grasp on to some distant beacon, a seed he had left planted within Rithus. Though it unraveled him to do so, Morrel had pulled his son through boundaries and a major dimensional divide so that Rithus could be enriched by the power of existence that welled through every portion of Amoril.

The Key was clueless how such a thing could be done. And even if she did, it didn"t seem that beneficial to her. Sure, there may be many untold dangers and chances for failure that were completely avoided but so too were the chances for growth and experience. Still, she was moved by the immensity of this man"s love for his child.

Before Morrel"s soul moved on to other journeys, it diverted what was of use to Rithus into the stunned and currently reeling man while the remainder seeped into and fortified Droya. Now that the elf was dead, the Danann Key could see what she desired of Morrel"s mysteries but refrained due to other ideas. It would be foolish to move from her world to Orison"s side but she could take some less suicidal inspiration from Morrel"s actions to funnel a little help to her maker that was still trapped on that decidedly inferior realm.

What she had in mind didn"t exactly play out as the key had envisioned it would, however. Yes, she had made contact and was able to divert a little power of existence to him but the concentrated miasma that Orison"s sub-mind had shoved into her cubbyhole within the young mage had caused her to blank out for a moment as it joined her. What Morrel had done to himself to bring his son here, the Danann Key had almost done to Orison in reverse order, pulling his inner s.p.a.ce, soul and spiritual blood across a great metaphorical distance.

Fortunately, with the miasma at her disposal, there were many options available to her in order to fix her nearly fatal mistake. After exercising her power to protect his spaghetti noodle of supernatural innards from dispersing, she set it on a slow course back to the physical sh.e.l.l it had almost completely detached from. Shuffling through available choices, she found a way that would let her get something she didn"t even know she could have and help her maker in a way he didn"t even know he needed yet.

Taking some liberties with her miasma fueled abilities and mild power over Orison"s existence, she used his current physical vessel as a coc.o.o.n for a metamorphosis. It would take nearly a month on his side for his "stuffing" to go back inside him so she sent a message to Gan using the faint presence of tribal fey spiritual blood within the scout. So that Gan wouldn"t have to be mentally scarred from staring at the eerily empty husk Orison currently was, she gathered up some of the naturalizing miasma infused essence in her maker"s surroundings to create a more appealing crystalline coc.o.o.n.

After absorbing some of Morrel"s dissipating impressions, the key realized that Amoril"s will would be occupied with outward focused matters for quite some time. The boldness that had instilled within the deceased wood elf was a little infectious. To celebrate it, she arrested Rithus" return into becoming a Mashlander and expressed his form as a powerful man with elven features, allowing his acquired dragon heritage its expression in a more desirable way. Knowing what she did of Rithus and where his interests lay, she knew he"d be fairly ambivalent about the meddling as long as he had his tail.

Seeing that Rithus was becoming aware and already losing himself to grief, the key took on a vanity indulgent elven form and said, "There is no need to mourn his loss because he need not be."

Misty eyed, Rithus adopted a wary respect. "What will it cost me?"

The woman nodded in appreciation of his quick mind and sharp intuition. "That depends on how much you ask for but I"m not interested in negotiating. Tell me what you need to absolve your guilt and stave grief. What I need from you isn"t much but I will exchange equal to your need."

Rithus considered carefully and then replied, "I would like for him to have a new life with what useful knowledge he might. It would be best were he not burdened by the sadness and trials of this one."

Reaching out to Morrel"s nearby soul, she sealed a small portion of this life"s knowledge and experiences that would serve him well enough before flinging him to a nearby realm with a more tolerant will. For a short moment, she fantasized about how wonderful it would be if she could have an endless supply of miasma. As fanciful delusions of grandeur danced behind her mostly decorative eyes, she turned to a cold sweating Rithus.

Curious and more than a little fearful, Rithus asked, "What could you possibly need from me when you are capable of such things?"

She smiled in self mockery, "Almost everything about me that you have seen today is temporary or conditional in some way that would be nearly impossible any other time than here, now and with what I currently possess. To be more direct, what I need from you isn"t much different than what most women eventually want from a man, for much the same purpose in function if not form."