Part 6 of RIfts Steampunk campaign timeline....enjoy

[Emerald MoonSilver]

This is part six of my campaign which this time around is mainly a story with a preview of a new race that I am working on. I hope you all enjoy it.

1852 A.D. Continued:

The walk to school was a quite one as Tomas seemed a lot less talkative than he normally was, especially around Shannon. Darin also noticed that for some reason Tomas seemed to pay a lot attention to his book bag, as if he expected something to fly out of it at him.

Looking at Tomas and Shannon walking arm and arm, perhaps there was another reason. Darin had noticed that his friend seemed quite tired as of late, like he was not getting enough sleep. Perhaps Tomas and Shannon were a lot closer than he thought and they were engaging in, shall we say, certain “nighttime activities”.

Tomas was indeed quite out of it at the moment due to a recurring dream that he had been having for a while. The latest being the night before. Said dreams may or may not have been caused by an annoying small ball of light that made its presence known this very morning.

For the next two days the little light ball behaved itself by staying out of sight when others were around. By the third day though, a problem occurred.

As he was walking to school, he noticed that the little light ball was not in his book bag. He was sure it was there when he left the manor, but now it’s gone.

“This can’t end well.” He thought to himself as he and the others approached the school.

As the three teens continued to walk to their school Darin and Shannon lost track of how many times Tomas had yawned.

“Are we really that boring?” Shannon asked.

“I haven’t been able to sleep well lately, too many stupid dreams.” Tomas said.

“Oh, what about? Was there a girl involved?”Darin asked.

“There was.” Tomas said now attracting the attention of Shannon.

“Was it Shannon?” Darin said with interest.

“No it wasn’t Shannon.” Tomas said without thinking.

“I think I want to know more about this as well.” Shannon said with an impish expression on her face.

As Tomas was deciding how to tell the others about his dreams several shouts and loud giggling was heard up ahead where their school was.

As they ran up to the school they were surprised to see several students running around the yard with butterfly nets trying to catch a small ball of light that kept dodging said nets.

Even more interesting was their dear vice principal running around and firing off a small spark spell at the light ball. Said light ball not only let itself be hit by the spells, but it grew a little larger each time it was “zapped”.

“I think I need a vacation. I wonder how Paris is this time of the year.” Tomas sighed to himself.

A few spark spells later, the little light ball was now the size of a grapefruit and couldn’t seem to get any larger. What it was doing was beginning to glow brighter and brighter as sparks began to dance around it. A few seconds later a large bolt of lightning shot out from it and slammed into the vice principal into the ground, knocking her unconscious.

After it fired off the lightning the little ball shrunk back down to its normal small size and upon seeing Tomas it made a beeline towards his book bag and settled within. A couple seconds later snoring could be heard from within.

“Yep I was right this can’t end well.” Tomas mumbled as everyone in the school yard was now staring at him.

In the situation that he was in Tomas thought of two possible course of actions; he could either try to explain what happened to everyone present or he could pretend nothing happened and hurry off to class as fast as he could.

He managed to take about three steps before he felt a hand on each of his shoulders.

“I didn’t think that would work, but it was worth a try.” He thought to himself.

A few seconds later he noticed members of the local police entering the school grounds.

“Now how would they know about this little ‘incident’ so quickly.” he mumbled out loud.

As it turned out they were not here for him but for the still unconscious vice principal for reasons that would soon become clear.

Now the vice principal thought of herself as an intelligent woman, but like most thieves what she actually was, was stupid and greedy. It never dawned on her that the student who became her “spy” after Jezebel left, may have had an agenda of her own.

In this case the spy in question, a young teen girl named Mary, had earlier watched one of her best friends almost have nervous breakdown because Jezebel had threatened to let the girl’s parents know that their daughter was dating a gnome.

The poor girl’s parents had a very low opinion of non-humans and humans who dated them. The girl feared she might be thrown out of her home if her parents found out.

When Jezebel left Mary now found the perfect opportunity to deal with the vice-principal who had the fortunate habit of keeping complete records of those students she had Jezebel blackmail.

Mary was able to make copies of these records thanks to a very useful cantrip spell then she sent them to the principal’s home.

When the principal finally returned and read these documents he was not a happy man to say the least and summoned the vice-principal to his office after school was over the previous day.

She was fired on the spot and was told the police would be called if she did not pay back all the money she stole and personally apologized to the parents of the children who were harmed.

The vice principal’s response to this was to come back the next morning completely drunk and threatening all those in the school’s office. Not the actions of a smart woman indeed.

After she was dragged off the property the students went to their classrooms and were informed by their teachers what had just happened to the vice principal.

As for the little light ball, well that was up to certain half orc to explain to his friends at lunch.

At lunch Tomas sat with his friends while a certain little light ball was now buzzing around them and seeming quite amused by the present situation.
“So, I suppose you want to know what has been going on with the dreams I spoke about earlier.” Tomas said.

“That and this thing as well.” Darin said as he pointed to the little pest, I mean light ball.

“I wonder if they are related.” Shannon said as the little ball was now bobbing up and down.

“I’ll start off with the dream then go from there.” Tomas said.

“It starts out with me standing in a grey and white mist covered region. I cannot hear anything and I’m not ever sure if I am walking or floating as the mists move around me. Something does not feel right, like there is something or someone waiting out in the fog for me. I don’t know why, but I definitely feel nervous. This is where I wake up the first night I had this dream.” Tomas said.

“The second night, I am back in the mists but this time I feel myself walking on the ground. My footsteps make a sort of wet and squishing noise as if I am walking on wet grass. Besides this noise I also begin to hear the wind blow. Parts of the mist also now seem to be lighter than others, as if there was a lantern of torch just out of sight. This dream ends when I hear a young girl’s high pitch scream. I woke up covered in sweat after this.” Tomas said.

“This is getting creepy.” Darin said as Shannon nodded along.

“On the third night just after I hear the girl’s scream there is a bright flash of light and I now found myself on a large chalk covered cliff like the cliffs of Dover back home. I could hear the sounds of waves crashing against the cliff and off in the distance I could barely make out to figures.

Their faces were nothing but a blur, but one was a tall man dressed in what looked like a Roman Toga. The shorter figure was young girl about half the man’s height and also dressed in what appeared to be a toga. I found myself running towards them as the man then grabbed onto the girl and leapt off the cliff, with the girl calling out for me to help her as she and man disappeared on the edge.” Tomas said.

The little light ball circled Tomas several times as he spoke before settling down on Shannon’s shoulder and started to make a sound similar to that of a purring cat.

“I wonder who that scoundrel and the girl are.” Darin thought out loud.

“On the fourth night I found myself now standing within about 20 feet from the man and the young girl who now appeared to be my age. Their faces were no longer a blur but I did not recognize either of them. The young girl began to glow slightly and the older man said that I should think very carefully before I did anything else.” Tomas said.

“The man once again began to pick the girl up and move towards the edge of the cliff. Without thinking I ran as fast as I could and managed to take the girl away from the man. Seeing his arms now empty the man turned towards me and saluted before jumping off the cliff on his own. I could see him smiling at me as he fell towards the water before vanishing in mid air.” Tomas said.

“As I set the girl down on the ground she threw her arms around me and kissed me on lips before backing away.” Tomas said.

“Now things are getting interesting.” Darin said with a smirk on his face.

“I look forward to spending my new life with you my dear partner.” The girl said as things began to fade to black and a very strange song began to play.

“When I woke up I wrote out as much as I could remember.” Tomas said as he handed his notes to Shannon.

“What an odd song, I do not believe I have ever seen it before.” Shannon said as she began to recite the lyrics.

“Come take my hand
You should know me
I’ve always been in your mind
You know I will be kind
I’ll be guiding you.”

“Building your dream
Has to start now
There’s no other road to take
You won’t make a mistake
I’ll be guiding you.”

“You have to believe we are magic
Nothing can stand in our way
You have to believe we are magic
Don’t let you aim ever stray
And if all your hopes survive
Destiny will arrive
I’ll bring all your dreams alive
For you”

“I’ll bring all your dreams alive
For you”

“I have never heard the song before, but Miss Shannon does have a rather lovely singing voice I might add. Wouldn’t you agree Tomas?” Darin said.

“What…. Oh yes of course.” Tomas managed to get the words out as the little light ball made a noise that sounded a lot like snickering.

“Were there any more dreams?” Shannon asked.

“No that was it. The only other strange thing that happened was this little pest showing up right after my last dream.” Tomas said as he pointed to the little light ball.
The little light ball made a rather rude noise in response to Tomas’s remark.

“I believe I know what the dreams mean. The girl in the dream is obviously the spirit of a princess that is under some sort of spell or curse and it is up to Tomas to help free the girl so that her spirit may rest in peace.” Shannon said, while causing the light ball to snort in amusement.

“I do not think that is quite it.” Darin said.

Over the next couple of days everyone got used to the little light ball at school and mainly ignored it. The little ball spent most of it’s time “sleeping” in Tomas’s bag anyway.

The most curious reaction came from Lady O’Shea when she saw the little ball for the first time.

She walked up to Tomas put her arms around him while kissing him on the cheek and saying that she was so proud of him.

This led to a very confused Tomas and Elana, who had witnessed the hug, wondering what had just happened.

A few days later Tomas woke up in the middle of the night due to the little light ball repeatedly smacking him in the face.

He was about to smack it right back when he heard a voice in his head say, “Wake up, wake up blond elf girl is in trouble.”

“I can hear your voice in my head.” Tomas said in shock.

The little ball didn’t respond back, but instead bumped into the window, opening it, then flew outside into the courtyard where it bobbed up in down rapidly as if waiting for him to follow.

Jumping down from his balcony, Tomas followed the little light ball as it passed through the gate and down the street, stopping every so often, so Tomas could keep up.

About 4 blocks from where they had started the little light ball stopped by the corner of a building and Tomas heard a voice in his head telling him to stay low and keep quiet.

There was a park across the street and Tomas could barely make out some figures moving through it. Their outlines did not appear to be human.

Pulling out his aura crystal Tomas looked at the figures and the crystal showed them to have an aura that was almost pure black with small streaks of green in it.

“Great they are psychotic and greedy. This is going to be fun.” Tomas thought to himself.

A glint of metal off to the side caught Tomas’s attention and he saw Shannon’s father hiding in the shadow of a large cherry blossom tree. He was carrying a rather large and ornate crossbow.

“And things get even more interesting” Tomas thought as the man motioned for him to come over.

As Tomas was about move he felt something hit him in the back. Turning around he saw a small dart laying on the ground. As he bent down two more darts hit him and promptly bounced off.

Picking up the darts he now saw who threw them. It was a goblin, an unseele goblin, with a stupefied expression on his face.

Authors’s Note: This version of a goblin is based on those form the movie Legend, an excellent fantasy film starring Tim Curry, Mia Sara and some other guy whose name I can’t recall. (Evil Grin)

“You know this lovely green skin of mine, besides looking pretty acts as a light form of armor. I’m also quite immune to poison.” Tomas said as he threw the three darts back at the goblin.

Tomas then watch as the goblin began to foam at the mouth, the seconds later black foul smelling blood began to flow from the creature’s mouth and eyes. The goblin began to convulse on the ground before turning to dust which then blew away, leaving all his gear behind.

“Now then how did that little creature manage to sneak up on me and you.” Tomas said to his light ball companion, who seemed quite annoyed at not noticing the former assassin.

Looking over the goblin’s gear Tomas noticed that several pieces had a definite magical aura to them. Casting a quick cantrip ID spell Tomas found out that the little creature had been wearing both boots of stealth and an invisibility cloak.

“Now how would such a creature afford such rare items.” Tomas thought to himself.

It was then that he noticed a small note laying on the ground.

Picking up the note, Tomas quickly read it and found it disturbing.
The note read as such, “Gratz, you are my finest assassin and I am depending on you to succeed. My foolish son has decided that he will broker a peace by capturing my “dear wife’s” daughter. This will not be tolerated. Only the complete destruction of her forces and kin will satisfy me.”

“To this end, I am ordering you to not only kill off the worthless girl, buy my foolish son as well. Succeed and you shall be rewarded, fail and well you will most likely be quite dead and I will have to find other means to accomplish my plans.

Signed, Lord “O”.
Reading over his shoulder, the little light ball made a growling noise. Evidently, it did not care for this Lord “O”.

Tossing the former assassin’s body in a nearby shrub Tomas made his way over to Shannon’s father and settled down beside him.

The man pointed to something in a nearby clearing. Tomas resisted gasping as he saw what the man was pointing at and he did not like it one bit.

Laying in the center of the clearing was Shannon, in her true form, covered by a glowing silver colored net. Nearby lay a large glowing golden bow, which had been put to good use judging by the half dozen dead goblins around her.
She was overwhelmed though as Tomas saw at least two dozen goblins moving about the clearing as well as six unseele fae and several ogres as well.

Two more figures were just beyond his sight at the far edge of the clearing.

Tomas could see one very interesting figure though, and that was of a young unseele noble male wearing slightly glowing chain mail armor and holding a glowing mace in his hand.

“I wonder if he was the one the note was referring to.” Tomas thought to himself.

Prince Allehandro, the third son of King Oberon of the unseele, was reaching the end of his patience. The princess had been captured and his little scheme to end the conflict between his realm and Queen Titania’s should be proceeding. But for some reason all of his so-called followers were just standing around as if they were waiting for something to happen.

“What is this delay!” the prince yelled out, scaring a goblin that was nearby.

Nearby Shannon’s father had just noticed Tomas pulling a cloak over his head and disappearing as he began to move towards the clearing.

“Oh no, Tomas do not be so foolish.” The man thought to himself.

“I will ask again, why are we still here? Pick up the princess and let us depart.” The prince yelled at his second in command, a rather ugly excuse of an Oni.

“They are waiting for the assassin your father hired to kill you. Fortunately, that is not going to happen as he is now quite dead” a voice seemed to say from out of nowhere, causing much murmuring amongst the goblins.

“Who said that?” the prince said while looking around wildly.

“That would be me.” Tomas said reappearing three feet in front of the prince.

Acting out in shock, the prince threw two small throwing knives at Tomas, who did not have time to react. Both knives bounced of his skin like the goblin’s darts did earlier.

“Now it that a nice thing to do to someone who just saved your life.” Tomas said with a smirk on his face as he held out a note towards the prince.

“Ah you must be the dear princess’s paramour I heard about.” the prince said.

“Shannon is a noble, but a princess……That would mean….” Tomas said somewhat confused.

“Oh now this is amusing. You were unaware that your lady love was in fact Princess Shandra of the Selee, daughter of Queen Titania.” The prince said almost laughing.

“Now then what is this nonsense about my dear old father trying to assassinate my humble self.” The prince said in a skeptical voice.

“It is in this note from the assassin Gratz that I killed.” Tomas said setting off more hushed conversations among the goblins.

“This is obviously a cheap trick.” The prince said.

“Is it? Read the signature and examine the aura surrounding it. An unseele noble should be able to tell quite easily if this note is a falsehood.” Tomas said.

Examining the note, the prince first concentrated on it, then frowned before concentrating again. He then gave off a small growl, crumpled the note and threw it to the ground.

“Damn you father! What foolishness are you trying now? How many more of our people must die in this foolish conflict for the sake of your pathetic pride?” The prince said as he waved his hand and levitated the magical net off of Shannon.

“Your highness, what are you doing?” a rather large figure said as it rapidly approached the prince. The figure in question was a rare Japanese Oni of all things.

“I don’t believe I have ever seen one of those before.” Tomas thought to himself.

“Since my dear father no longer wishes my help I am, as the humans like to say, ‘Washing my hands of the matter.’

“I am afraid I can not allow that happen my dear brother.” A rather annoying and foppish voice said as tall and lanky figure approached.

“I knew that I had detected a rather foul odor as of late. Tell me my dear ‘Chaunsey’ are you still being the obedient lapdog for father? Prince Allehandro said is dry tone of voice.

“My name is Prince Chaunere’Erman’De’Volet” the annoying lanky fellow stated.

“Ah but Chaunsey fits you so much better.” Prince Allehandro said as his brother began to twitch.

“Have your little jests for the moment for you shall not be leaving this place alive, and neither shall your would be savior.” Chaunsey said to Tomas as he turned towards him.

“(YAWN), How pathetic you sound like a typical villain from a dime novel. All you need is a mustache that you can twirl.” Tomas said he noticed the second prince begin to twitch again.

“You will pay for that comment. I have never been shown such disrespect.” Chaunsey said.

“I find that hard to believe.” Tomas said.

Growling and turning away Chaunsey called over the Oni that Tomas had noticed earlier.

“Now why would an Oni lower himself to serve a dark Fae?” Tomas mused aloud.

“You will take care of this insect and do what I require.” Chaunsey said to the Oni, who looked like he was now imagining slicing the annoying prince into small pieces.

“I will serve out my debt to your father as I am honor bound to do, but do not for a second think that I am a servant to order around Chaunsey.” The Oni said to Chaunsey, who was now turning a fascinating shade of purple.

“I take no pleasure in this.” The Oni said to Tomas before firing off a bolt of lightning at him, causing to fly backwards and slam into a large tree.

“Oh, that did not feel very good. Let’s not do that again.” Tomas said slightly glassy eyed.

As Chaunsey moved towards Shannon he stopped dead when he heard multiple shouts and cries of pain coming from behind him.

Turning towards the noise he saw four of the dark fae elves being held aloft by a giant shadowy clawed hand, which then began to emit a large electrical arc through it.

To add to the confusion, a loud shriek was heard above everyone and Tomas saw what appeared to be a young Asian girl wearing the school uniform from Sister Mary’s school rapidly falling towards Chaunsey, and carrying what appeared to be a very large wooden mallet.

(Author’s Note): Don’t laugh, this little school girl was ‘mega-hero’ class character one of our gaming group’s member enjoyed playing. Many villains learned to fear the mallet.

The girl landed right beside the surprised prince, looked at him with a expression of anger and disgust, before bringing the mallet around and striking him right between the eyes, sending the prince flying back almost 30 feet. His landing did not appear to be comfortable one.

The young girl gave a shrill whistle and 2 portals opened up each discharging several more girls, each wearing the same uniform as the young Asian lass.

That is where the similarities ended. Some of the girls appeared to be mages, other had obvious special abilities including one who turned herself into a living ice sculpture and another who had large dragon like wings and was now firing off bolts of plasma from above.

Tomas could only stare in shock at the massive melee now taking place in front of him.

“Goblins, ogres, and schoolgirls oh my.” Tomas said out loud.

Nearby a very familiar short silver-haired girl with large red eyes popped out of the shadows near Shannon and poured a small glass of yellow liquid down Shannon’s throat.

“Great she’s even prettier in this form” Jezebel said in an obviously ‘not jealous’ tone of voice.

Shannon coughed twice and began to awaken. She tried to stand up and failed miserably, almost falling on top Jezebel, who she now noticed sitting next to her in her school uniform.

“What are you doing here?”asked a still groggy Shannon.

“Your little fairy friends came to Sister Mary’s school not too long ago and told us that you had been kidnapped by unseele. Sister Mary allowed myself and a few other to help rescue you.” Jezebel said as Shannon now noticed the melee going on between the goblins and the school girls.

“There was supposed to be one other coming here, but Sister Mary was having trouble contacting here. Stupid drunk idiot.” Jezebel mumbled the last part to herself.

“So do you and Tomas get to have fun with both your forms.” Jezebel teased Shannon who blushed in response.

“We haven’t had time for……..Oh that’s going to be a problem.” Shannon said as several more portals opened and many rather large and heavily armed goblins came out.

A little while earlier as Jezebel was helping out Shannon, Chaunsey who was peeling himself off the ground decided that he would not stand for this “indignity” to continue any longer and reached into his tunic to pull out a small amulet.

Pressing a center stud on the amulet caused a high pinched whine to echo forth and a few seconds later the aforementioned portals opened up and began to discharge quite a large number of goblins.

“Damn, it is father’s royal guard. We must retreat for now. The guard will not listen to anything I have to say and they will kill anything that gets in the way of their mission.” Prince Allehandro said in a somber tone of voice.

Nearby Tomas had managed to finally stand back up, looking quite bruised and battered.

“I can help, I can help. Say my name, say my name.” the little light ball buzzing around him said.

“What…what’s…..I don’t know your name.” Tomas managed to say.

“It’s in the dream. Remember the dream. Do so quickly or you will all die.” The little light ball said in a frantic tone of voice.

Tomas concentrated on remembering the dream, which was difficult as his head was still a little foggy. He saw several of the now armored goblin-like things approaching Shannon and Jezebel tried to shield her as best she could. The other school girls were beginning to retreat, with one appearing to have been killed.

“Remember the dream……Wait….. it was..Lil… Lili…. Lilith, that’s was it. Your name is Lilith.” Tomas almost shouted

“Name accepted, physical transfer commencing. See you quite soon lover.” The little light ball said as it then exploded in to a warm and bright shower of light that began to rise above the battle field.

“This feels like sunlight.” Tomas said.

Tomas didn’t know how right he was. The former little light ball was now putting out sunlight for lack of a better term, and it was having quite of an effect on the unseele.

The unseele elves and the ogres appeared to be slightly smoldering and look very uncomfortable. The greatest affect was on the goblins, both the originals and the newly arriving shock troops.

Tomas was both surprised and quite disgusted as the goblins began to melt as if their flesh was made of wax, exposing their muscles and causing blood to pour forth out of them, before exploding into dust.

*Author’s note: Think of the ending scene to the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

With the goblins out of commission, the students from the school concentrated their attacks on the remaining elves and ogres, who were now in complete disarray.

Tomas was now standing up and thinking of joining the fight, when he noticed the light cloud begin to compress and a form began to take place in the center of the cloud.

In another two minutes a quite unusual….individual stepped out of the cloud. It resembled a female sprite mostly. Most sprites are not almost six feet tall though. The sprite had light green skin, which large crystal wings, almost identical to the ones on Shannon’s true form. She also had long red hair and bright greens eyes, like Elana had. Her curvy figure though reminded Tomas of Jezebel’s figure.
Finally the ‘sprite’ was wearing a light green sun dress that left very little to the imagination.

“A dream wraith.” Prince Allehandro said from nearby in a mix or shock and a little fear.

“I’ll deal with the likes of you later, but first I have something else to attend to.” Lilith the dream wraith said in a sultry voice laced with menace.

Lilith then saw the ogre mage who dared attack her partner earlier and fired off a bolt of energy that flattened the ogre but did not kill him.

“I’ll give you one chance to atone for your sins later.” Lilith hissed as the ogre mage fell unconscious while wondering when his life had begun to go wrong.

“Now for the one responsible for this mess.” Lilith said as she turned to face Chauncey, whose felling were now quite past fear into outright panic.

“You can’t be here, father destroyed your miserable race. You are all supposed to be dead.” The prince shrieked.

“Silly little prince surely you know that you cannot kill a dream. Now look at me.” Lilith said as her eyes began to glow.

“No, sta….sta…stay back!”, the prince yelled while now finding it impossible to move.

Lilith approached Chauncey, put a single finger on his forehead and in a tone of voice that caused everyone to shiver she said, “I know what you’re afraid of.”

Poor Chauncey began to grow quite pale and began to shiver, a little at first, but this quickly increased. He began to mumble softly then to began to speak louder and louder.

“No get them away! Stay back! Leave me alone!” he yelled before collapsing on the ground, eventually growing still with his eyes staring blankly as a thin line of drool ran out of his open mouth.

Prince Allehandro, seeing his second in command unconscious and his brother possibly dead, decided that running away would now be a very good idea. He got quite a ways outside of the park before remembering that he teleport.

With the leaders now gone the portals slammed shut and the remaining troops were dealt with just as the city guards and mages finally made it onto the scene.

Lilith gave Chauncey’s prone form a hard kick before walking over to Tomas with an almost “hungry” expression on her face.

Reaching Tomas, she put her arms around his neck and gave a kiss that almost caused his hair to stick straight out. This of course was noticed by both Shannon and Jezebel.

“I’m glad to finally be here with you lover.” Lilith said as she began to sway on her feet.

“I believe I should not have used that ability so soon after my rebirth.” Lilith said as she collapsed into Tomas’s arms and quickly fell asleep.

“Hmm……She’s a lot lighter than she looks.” Tomas thought to himself, before tensing up as a new portal opened up.

“Stepping out of the portal was Emerald, in her human form as well as Sister Mary.”

“Oh great, now they show up. Would have been nice if they had been here earlier.” Jezebel said in an annoyed tone of voice.

Tomas saw Emerald and Sister Mary stepping out of the portal, and immediately wondered why Lady Kathryn and her husband had not shown up. Surely they would have also detected the large amount of magic that was being thrown around the park.

“I’ll just have to ask Elana later. Hopefully she will be in a better mood in the morning than she was today.” Tomas thought to himself.

Shannon’s father stepped out of the bushes, from where he was stationed and shouldered the large crossbow that he had used earlier.

“I am very disappointed in you Tomas, you could have easier killed yourself with that foolish stunt that you pulled.” Shannon’s father said as he approached the boy.

“Yes, I would have also been very…….annoyed if you were hurt or….. killed.” Jezebel said while trying to sound unemotional as she stepped up to the boy with a somewhat groggy Shannon in tow.

The city police and their support mages finally made it to the park and arrested the few remaining ogres and one unseele elf, who had not died during the conflict.

The girls from Sister Mary’s school were very efficient during the battle.

The young Asian girl with the large mallet introduced herself to Tomas. Her name was Saeko Honamura, and for some reason she seemed to get it into her head that he and Jezebel were lovers. At least Tomas thought that she was saying. The girl spoke quite rapidly and her accent made it hard for Tomas to be sure.

When Jezebel heard the young girl babbling on she turned bright red and did her best to get Saeko to be quiet.

Eventually, Sister Mary, Saeko, and the rest of the girls returned to their school, with everyone else, including Shannon’s father going to the O’Shea residence which seemed like the best place to stay in case something else happened.

As they approached the O’Shea estate, Lilith was now snoring loudly and for some reason Tomas felt quite hungry, as if he had not eaten in a day.

Upon entering the main house Tomas was relieved that no one was awake and aware of his little “adventure”.

His relief did not last long as noticed Elana coming out of the kitchen in her nightgown, then stopping in surprise as the sight of everyone in her home so late at night.

She seemed particularly interested in a certain oversized green “Fae” that Tomas was holding.

“And now the games begin.” Jezebel said softly with a smirk on her face.

“What is everyone doing here and what is that thing you are holding Tomas?” Elana said in an annoyed voice.

Before Tomas could answer a soft hum was heard in the room and a portal opened up with Lady O’Shea stepping out, her clothes splattered with blood that hopefully wasn’t her own.

“Damn Deer Horn Tribes men. The multiverse would be better off without them. At least there are a hundred less now.” Lady O’Shea said to herself before noticing how crowded her entry hall seemed to be this late at night.

Casting a quick “clean” cantrip spell to remove the blood from herself and her outfit, she then began to speak to the odd little group before her.

The potion that Jezebel gave Shannon earlier had greatly improved the health of the formerly quite bruised half-Fae. Shannon was not able to return to her human disguise yet, which made her nervous. She knew that no one here would harm her, but from past experience she also knew that humans tended to react unpredictably when they met a true Fae, or even a half blood Fae such as herself.

Upon sighting the former ball of light in Tomas’s arm Lady O’Shea ushered everyone into the parlor for what she was sure would be another convoluted mess the kids got themselves involved in. Of course it could be worse the kids could have been like her when she was younger. Now that would have been poetic justice for all the trouble she put her poor adoptive parents through all those centuries ago.

Tomas’s parents were woken up and brought down to the parlor. No sense in them missing out on the fun sure to follow. Now if she could only figure out where her wandering husband had gone to this time. He teleported away from their crystal mine down south after all those damn Deer Horn Tribes men were blown into little pieces.

Tomas put Lilith down on a nearby chair as his arms were finally getting tired of holding onto the hundred pound “fairy”.

Shannon was the first to speak about what had just happened at the park. She was out for a walk and lost track of time. Because of this her disguise spell had run out for the day. When this happened the unseele were able to detect her presence and swarmed in towards her. She barely had the chance to send her fairy assistants away in the hopes that they could get help.

She was obviously ashamed at what happened and blamed herself for endangering everyone and especially disgusted and angry at herself for one of her school girl rescuers dying during the battle.

Tomas began to tell what happened from his point of view and was not surprised when most of the others echoed Shannon’s father’s earlier complaint about how reckless he was.

Tomas agreed that he was impulsive but he did not want to risk anything happening to Shannon as he was not aware of anyone else knowing that Shannon had been captured. He admitted that he was very lucky that Lilith had managed to show up when she did. Tomas was not aware that in order for her to be released he had to in a state of some distress.

Lilith began to wake up but still seemed somewhat dazed. When Tomas asked her what he could do he was surprised when Lilith said that he needed to eat a lot of food, right now.

“Ah so that part of the legend is true.” Lady O’Shea said as she then summoned a message globe, spoke a few words into it, then dispelled it.

When asked what she meant Lady O’Shea was first going to let Lilith answer, but since the girl did seem up to answering questions, Lady O’ Shea began to tell what Lilith was talking about. It seemed that dream wraiths do not need to eat or drink as most beings do. Instead they get some of their energy from ley lines, but most comes from their “partner”, namely Tomas. This means that she must drain a small part of his life force to remain in this dimension.

The small amount drained is compensated by Tomas or any other dream wraith partner needing to eat two or three times more than they usually do. The more the dream wraith uses their abilities the more their partner must eat.

There was no danger of any permanent harm to Tomas. A dream wraith would discorporate itself before letting anything happen to their partner as far as Lady O’Shea knew.

This still made several of those present rather nervous, with Elana being particularly vocal in her dislike of this situation.

A short time later a delivery arrived from the local “We Has Da Meats”, and everyone found out that Lady O’Shea was not exaggerating when she said that the partner of a dream wraith had to eat a lot as Tomas easily finished off enough food to feed three people normally.

Of course she ordered food for everyone else. It would have been rude not to after all.

With everyone, especially Tomas, now quite well fed Lilith began to stir and was soon quite wide awake and surprised Lady O’Shea by bowing towards her and saying that she was surprised that a ”mirror walker” was in this world.

She also caused Shannon to blush and look somewhat guilty when Lilith said that some of this mess could have been avoided if Shannon had not kept who her mother was a secret from everyone.

Lilith herself was the main subject of conversation obviously. One of the first questions that she was asked she could not really answer. Lilith was asked by Lady O’ Shea how her people first came to being the dream wraiths seemed to be the only inhabitants of this dimensions version of the dream stream.

As far as any dream wraith knew their race just appeared there roughly 20000 years ago. There were rumors amongst their people that they made have had human like shapes when they first arrived but eventually became balls of energy and thought as time went by.

The only way they could have a corporeal form was by crossing over onto one of the “prime” planes of existence with the permission of a willing partner and those were rare it seemed.

Those chosen had to meet certain ethical qualifications and were willing to share the rest of their lives with their new “soul mate”. This declaration brought all sorts of questions, especially from the girls present.

It seems that unless something happened to Tomas or the link endangered his life, the relationship between Tomas and Lilith would last for his lifetime.

Their bond would at first allow then to sense each other’s emotions as well as Tomas now being resistant to any form of mental control as their minds were now linked. The most unique shared ability concerned any skills and talents that Tomas may acquire of his life time. A he gained in knowledge so would Lilith and not only that but Lilith would “lend” some of her knowledge to Tomas increasing his skills.

(In game terms being partnered with a dream wraith adds a +15% bonus to all of the player’s OCC skills when they are working next to each other.)

(Tomas and Lilith would also gain new abilities as they worked and adventured together. As for the dream wraith itself in game terms they are immune to any and all forms of mind control, possession and any dream manipulation. Those who try and control a dream wraith suffer the effects as if they were hit by a neural mace with a -6 to save for the effects.)

Author’s Note: I am keeping the exact skills and abilities of the dream wraith and their partner somewhat vague for now as I am working out the “bugs” so to speak of the character class. I promise you have all the stats and the history of the dream wraith in my next chapter.

“Are all dream wraiths a person’s lover?” Jezebel asked while looking somewhat uncomfortable.

“Not at all, some can be teachers, parents, siblings and friends as well. It depends on what our partners want most when we first come across them in the dream stream.” Lilith said.

“I first noticed Tomas before he met our little fairy princess here.” Lilith said as she pointed towards Shannon.

“At that time he was lonely and wanted someone to be with. I imprinted on that. This is not to say that I would ever force myself on anyone. I certainly would not complain if we physically became lovers.” Lilith said as Elana seemed particularly shocked how blunt Lilith was.
“Besides my own wants though, I also try my best for Tomas to find a mate, since most people seem to want children at sometimes in their lives according to all the dreams I’ve seen over the years.” Lilith said.

“Why don’t you and Tomas have children?” Jezebel asks as Elana gives her a “dirty look”.

“My race cannot have children. If our partner wants children they must find a mate. So far I have 2 maybe 3 possible candidates in mind.” Lilith said while looking at each of the three girls in succession.

“If Tomas ever had a child with myself for example and you were his lover before we became lovers ourselves would you then end that part of your relationship?” Shannon asked.

“Well if he or his chosen mate wanted me too, I would, but I see no reason why the three of us could not be together. Such things were quite common in the past, and it can be quite fun to experiment with each other. At least that is what other members of my people have told me.” Lilith said.

(THUD)

Everyone was now looking at Jezebel who was now unconscious on the floor with a silly grin on her face. She was soon scooped up off the ground and placed on a nearby couch by Lilith.

“Well there is one candidate who doesn’t mind sharing.” Lilith said as Lady O’Shea was trying to hold back from laughing.

Shannon seemed nonplused by the entire thing and Elana’s expression seemed to change with each passing moment so it was unclear how the girl felt about this bit of information.

This was so far going better than Tomas had hoped. One thing did bother him though, so far his parents have not said a word. This would not be unusual for his father, but his mother seemed to always to “add her two cents in” as the expression goes. The neutral expression she has had on her face for the entire time both Shannon and Lilith had been speaking also seemed out of place.

As Tomas was mulling this situation over he noticed his mother whisper something to his father who then began to look nervous. His mother next went over to Lady O’Shea and whispered something to her. She nodded to his mother then both women looked directly at him and grinned.

Tomas then felt a shiver run down his spine and wondered what his mother was planning as she then left the room with Lady O’Shea.

(Author’s note again: Yes I know I am being very silly with this part. Trust me if you just had the month I went through you would want a little silliness in your life to lighten the mood. Don’t expect me to too serious though, I never liked “dark” stories.

Shannon, her father, and Jezebel were given rooms in the guest house, with several fae keeping an eye on the house in case any unseele tried to get onto the grounds, which wasn’t likely.

Lilith was given a room in the main house, right near Tomas’s. It was of course merely a “coincidence” a room near him was freshly made up. Isn’t it funny how things like happen to some people?

Tomas tried to get some form of sleep during what was left of the night, but he spent most of the time staring at the ceiling, which is why he noticed his door open a figure rapidly enter his and lay down next to him. It wasn’t hard to figure out who this was.

Tomas was about to object until he saw the contented expression on Lilith’s face. She also tended to mumble in her sleep about finally not being alone anymore.
Oh well this wasn’t a problem as Tomas thought that this would be a onetime occurrence. Lilith had other ideas, as he would soon find out. Still, having a very cute girl sleeping next to you wasn’t exactly a bad thing.

The rest of the night was quiet and past without any problems. The next morning though Elana came to Tomas’s room to wake him up as he had overslept by two hours. Seeing a half naked Lilith sleeping next to Tomas was a shock and she expressed herself in a very loud fashion. This is a story for another time though.