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| − | [ST] Day comes to the Shadowland known as the Forsaken Green strangely, tentatively. The sky lightens to a less deep shade of gray, and the shrouded disc of the Unconquered Sun appears, as if through a veil. It is still bright compared to daylight in the Underworld.
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| − | [ST] Avir wakes with the sudden awareness of one being watched; Two-Bits is on the floor beside him, turned so that the burned part of her face is pillowed in one palm, watching him. She doesn't blink. She doesn't ever.
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| − | [Avir] Avir does blink, disconcerted. He sits up, yawning, and covers his hesitation by coming through his curls with his fingers to rid himself of bed hair.
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| − | [Avir] He doesn't ask if she had been there all night; he suspected he knew.
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| − | [ST] Selza is asleep, her turn at watch long over. She leans back in a corner that would be full of cobwebs in Creation, but just smells faintly of wet rot here. Her head rests on her curled up knees. Her eyes are closed with a furious intensity.
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| − | [Avir] "Good morning," he says cheerfully enough, when can trust himself to speak steadily. He scratches at the stubble on his jaw; he had given up trying to shave one-handed.
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna snores, a soft rumble coming from the corner. It has been remarkably regular for hours - the old campaigner can sleep anywhere.
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| − | [Avir] Avir leans forward and taps his backside lightly with his foot. "Time we were going, don't you think?"
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| − | [ST] Jek and Rabbit, outside on watch, come back in at the sounds of stirring, pale and exhausted beyond mere sleeplessness. Rabbit's eyes have darker circles than usual. Jek's chuckle sounds a lot more nervous than usual.
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| − | [ST] "Came... right up through the grass..." he says, laughing softly. "This little thing like a lizard with a baby's head. It smelled the stump."
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| − | [ST] Two-Bits continues to lie there, watching all of the Once Dead intently but silently. Most of them are trying very hard to pretend she is not there.
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| − | [Avir] "Thank you for your hospitality," Avir nods to her.
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| − | [ST] She rises at last, without a trace of the stiffness the others feel. Of course - there are no bones in her body to ache any longer. She stretches anyway, in imitation of the others.
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| − | [ST] "So..." she says. "Should we have a dream sharing? Please."
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| − | [Avir] "Sure," he says, though it had been days and days since they last shared their nightmares. He glares at the others in a way that is meant to be interpreted as 'don't screw up by making the ghost angry.'
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna grunts and sits up quickly when one of the company kicks him awake. "Should go," he says, not noticing or caring that he was repeating Avir
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| − | [Miruna] 's earlier advice.
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| − | [ST] "I don't share dreams," Red says evenly. "Bunch of bullshit. Just your mind throwing together all the random shit it collects. You know," She smiles. It is ugly. "Making its own scale of Once Dead."
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| − | [ST] Two-Bits appears not to notice this - she didn't know Red, Obligatory, or Selza while they were alive, and they're little but shadows to her now.
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| − | [Avir] "Miruna?" Avir ignores Red.
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| − | [Miruna] "Nnn," he didn't especially want to, but he respected the Haslanti traditions, unlike Red. "I was killing things. You remember, Avir, where these people moved after,
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| − | [Miruna] " he gestures vaguely at the dead village. It had not been pleasant. This place must corrupt dreams. He had been . . enjoying it, far too much.
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| − | [Avir] Avir nods readily. "I dreamed of wolves, lying dead in the snow. Their fur was full of arrows, and birds were pecking at their eyes." Actually, he had other, sweatier dreams- the kind he had when he slept above the basement- but they didn't need to hear about that.
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| − | [ST] "You know me, Bitsy," Jek says dismissively, sweeping a hand in front of his face as if chasing away sleep. "I never have dreams."
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| − | [ST] "Me either, now," she says. "I used to though. Remember that Dreamseer, Miruna? I dreamed of a cat the color of cream, and he said I wanted a child. That fool. I didn't want a child. Of course, I..." And she stops, gnawing on her lip. "I c-can't have one n-n-now...."
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| − | [Avir] "Well, that's not completely true," Avir corrects her before he can stop himself. "That is...." He coughs, face a little red.
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| − | [ST] "I dreamed I was falling," Rabbit says. "Falling for a long time, and I kept grabbing the side of this cliff to save me, and it wouldn't work, and my fingers broke again and again, and I fell forever." Her voice is strained, even more so than usual. "Now let's get the hell out of here."
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| − | [Miruna] He keeps his face carefully blank. It was disgusting, she was. A pathetic remnant of a comrade that had fought at his side. But it had helped him, and if he offended it, there was no telling what it might start.
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| − | [ST] This statement of intent seems to jar Two-Bits back to some semblance of normality. She squares her shoulders. The pauldrons over them are bright, shiny - Avir realizes she lay next to him all night in her armor and didn't feel a damn bit of discomfort. "The Hekatonchire you disturbed may still be sniffing around the entrance to the Emerald," she says. "But I know another way out."
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| − | [Avir] There was still Selza and Obligatory, but there was no need to remind the ghost of that. Avir nods, rising to his feet. "Two-Bits, it has been a delight to see you again," he says with more gallantry than truth. "If you know a better way, we would be glad if you would show it to us."
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna gets to hit feet as well, glad to be leaving. "Weapons ready, yeah?" He ignoredBits hesitantly drawing her sword. "Which way?"
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| − | [ST] "There's this escape tunnel in the bottom of this well," Two-Bits says. She smiles at Avir's comment as if it were anything more than empty flattery. "I can show you where it is. There are steps down. You follow it, it comes out at the edge of the Shadowland. I stand there sometimes and think about stepping over, but I can't."
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| − | [ST] Avir sees Selza stiffen at the mention of that tunnel. Doubtless she remembers the last time she went through it.
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| − | [Avir] "Thank you, Bits. We'll remember you help." And he'd send money with a caravan to see her remains properly buried again.
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| − | [Miruna] He grunts in a vague way. "Lets move."
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| − | [ST] "Do you need me to follow you through the tunnel?" Two-Bits says. She takes a tentative step forward, unable to quite keep the hungry tone out of her voice. But she tries. That's something.
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| − | [Avir] "No." Avir tries to make his voice gentle. "No, I think we don't need to trouble you with that."
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| − | [ST] "Avir..." Two-Bits swallows. Needlessly, of course, since she's nothing but plasm and air now. "You'll all remember me, right?"
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| − | [Avir] "I think it's safe to say that none of us will ever forget this." But a thought occurs to him, so he takes her hand. "And I'll take you advice about Peach."
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| − | [ST] Her fingers yield strangely in his own - they feel loose, almost rubbery. Cool. Dry. But she smiles even wider. "Good, Avir. Come see me again. So I don't forget."
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| − | [Avir] He nods and lets her go. "Until we meet again."
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| − | [Avir] Strange and affecting and horrifying as Two-Bits had been, he had a policy of avoiding the Underworld that he intended to stick to more strictly in the future.
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| − | [ST] The directions are simple enough. Jek, Rabbit, and the others don't look back as they depart the little hovel. Two-Bits stands in the doorway for a long time, luminous as a glowworm against the darkness of the house, watching them go. Long after they have left, she stands, and looks, and thinks. Jek's always forgetting things. He probably left something behind. He'll come back and get it.
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| − | [ST] Maybe they'll get hungry and come back for lunch. Plenty of time yet.
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| − | [ST] They can cook it on her stove. Avir might have another question about Peach. More advice. He never wanted advice from her before, but now she's different, wiser. Maybe one of them will remember a dream and come back. Maybe.
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| − | [ST] Two days later, Two-Bits stirs from the doorway and returns inside. It turns out Jek left something behind after all - a discarded strip of stained bandages from his stump. She lies down next to it that night, cuddling it against her face like a pillow. No, she thinks, extending a tongue to taste the blood dried there. Not Jek. Avir.
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| − | [ST] By daylight, the Shadowland is almost worse than at night. The sickly nature of the grass and every living (and quasi-living) thing is more readily apparent. Selza, though she must know the way, refuses to take the lead, leaving the others to stumble through the ruins of homes in the search for the well. Here and there, ghosts and ghost-things move about - a woman weeping on a slab, her
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| − | [ST] eyes missing, some more of the awful lizard-things that Jek saw, a rotting bird still on the wing.
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| − | [ST] Nothing seems to harrass the Once Dead.
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| − | [ST] Finally, they reach the well, an impressively large structure almost a yard across. Looking within, one can see a small drop onto a ledge, which opens into a larger chamber and winds away into the darkness. Red peers over the rim experimentally.
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| − | [Miruna] It might have been faster to ask one of them, or go back and ask Bits, but noone suggested it.
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| − | [Miruna] "Who's the best climber?"
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| − | [ST] "It's not bad," Selza says quietly. "It's only a short drop. They lowered me down, but I was... I was only a child. We can make it. There's a staircase, and then a tunnel."
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| − | [Avir] Avir glances at his stump and grimaces.
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| − | [Avir] "Lead the way?" He was in less of a mood to humor her chlidhood trauma.
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| − | [Miruna] He nods. "I'll stay last, to lower people down." Those weak with hunger or lack of sleep. Or those without hands. He glances at Jek. And/or.
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| − | [ST] "Yeah," Rabbit seconds. She looks terrible, her face haggard and haunted. She's watching a bleeding fly buzz around her nose. Maybe she wasn't lying about the dream. "Show us where the hell to go, if you're so smart."
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| − | [ST] Selza looks at Avir for a long moment, searching him, probing, before wordlessly throwing a leg over the rim of the well and dropping within. She lands with a small impact, and calls up. "It's light down here... some kind of glowing moss. Wasn't here before."
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| − | [Avir] "Might be other things too. Don't scout ahead," Avir calls back down.
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| − | [Miruna] He steps to the rium of the well, glancing down. "Red, you next." He offers her a hand, knowing she would think it an insult.
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| − | [ST] "The day I need help doing this is the day I curl up and die," Red says. She throws her legs over the rim of the well, and at the last minute, her hand darts out to grab Obligatory Sunshine by the collar. He's dragged after her with a startled yelp.
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| − | [ST] A moment later, she calls up. "Even this little piggie didn't get hurt. One-Ear over here wasn't lying."
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| − | [Miruna] He leans over the edge and glares down. She hadn't used him to land on had she? "Jek, you next," he growls, not bothering to look out at him. He'd ask for help or not, as pride dictated.
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| − | [ST] "If I were in a better mood, I'd make a joke about jumping headfirst into a hole," Jek says. He uses his good hand to hold his entire formidable weight as he eases down into the well. "But I'm not, so I won't."
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| − | [Avir] "Charming," Avir says. He doesn't disdain to ask for help, and even flashes Miruna a grin as the old warrior lowers him down, muscles straining. The old man's honor would prevent him an unceremonious drop, much as Miruna might despise him.
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| − | [ST] Rabbit waits a long time, even with Miruna's help, to actually let go. She turns her face from him so he can't see it, but he can feel that her hand is slick and sweaty. She drops in behind Avir, leaving Miruna to enter last.
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| − | [Miruna] He never even thought about it, just leaned over the well lip to get the man as close to the bottom as he could before he let go.
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| − | [Miruna] His turn, so he swung over, clinging with both hands to the lip till he was hanging steadily before he let go. IF anyone was below him at that point, it was their fault, not his. And if Red had a knife waiting for him to fall on it, just as easy when she was on watch. He made significantly more clatter than the others, but then he had all his kit.
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| − | [ST] The ledge the group has landed on is barely large enough to hold all of them. At the far end, a flight of stone steps winds downwards into darkness. A phosphorescent mold-like substance glows on the rough-hewn stone walls, but whether it is natural or some thing of the Underworld it is difficult to say.
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| − | [ST] "The passage... is not long," Selza says. It's impossible to make out her face clearly in this gloom, but she sounds quite miserable.
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| − | [Avir] "Then lets get to it." Avir clasps her shoulder and takes pity by moving ahead of her into the gloom. "Tell me if I'm about to walk into a pit trap, will you?"
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| − | [ST] "There aren't any, but-" She stops even as she follows him, biting back the words. "There are going to be a lot of dead people here."
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| − | [ST] "When we came down, they were after us - the wolves, and the things they'd summoned. Screaming, chasing us in the dark, people falling, babies screaming. People falling behind, being overrun, and-"
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| − | [Miruna] He shudders despite himself. Perhaps he should lead. But there was nothing to be done, really, but walk through whatever crowd of them persisted.
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| − | [Avir] "Right." Avir walks a bit more nervously than before and tries not to think about hungry ghosts.
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| − | [ST] "I'm frightened of this place," she whispers softly enough that only Avir can hear it. He's not even sure she meant him to. The others fall in behind, Miruna bringing up the rear.
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| − | [ST] At the bottom of the stairs, the passage widens enough that five could walk abreast. The glowing green stuff covers the ceiling as well as the walls now, casting a sickly, murky pall over the procession.
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| − | [Avir] They should have thought to bring a torch. Avir realizes suddenly that he wasn't even one of those with a scavenged weapon.
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| − | [Avir] He makes a quick sign to Savage Bear Daughter, and bless her heart, she moves up to walk beside him, a crude club fashioned from a tree branch in her hands.
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| − | [ST] From time to time, there is indeed a body. Most are shrivelled to bones or dust by age, but enough of them remains intact to show that they died in violence - crushed skulls, severed limbs, sloppily broken femurs.
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| − | [ST] No ghosts make themselves known, however. There is nothing but the quiet dead, the rough-hewn stone walls of the tunnel, the glowing lichen, and... a light up ahead? Flickering, but not moving. As the Once Dead advance, Avir sees it first. A second passage abutting onto this one, from which a greenish light shines forth into the main tunnel. The contents of the second passage are still out
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| − | [ST] of sight.
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| − | [Avir] They could't letit- whatever it was- sneak up behind him. He stops them with a short, sharp gesture, taps Savage Bear Daughter on the shoulder, and makes the 'quiet walking feet' scouting sign . Perhaps she'd show the same genius for the task that her fellow tribesmen, Elk, did.
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| − | [ST] Savage Bear Daughter moves forward quietly, padding softly towards the passage. She stops, gives a quick signal back: Clear. Then she stands there, staring down the branching passage, her lips working silently and softly. She seems to be looking at something very far away.
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| − | [ST] "This isn't right," Selza says. "The tunnel's straight. There is no other path."
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna waits, patient. He glances behind the party somewhat frequently, but otherwise looks for signals fromt eh front. They would need him if there was a fight. He was the only one properly armed.
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| − | [Avir] Avir frowns. He didn't like this better than the rest. Two-Bits hadn't mentioned another path either. He moves to stand by Bear-Daughter. "What is it?"
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| − | [ST] Avir gazes down the passage that adjoins with the escape tunnel. It is of a different stone than the rough hewn passage the group has been moving through - the stone of the other tunnel is bone white, well cut, its blocks expertly fitted together. Torches of green flame flicker fitfully in sconces down its length. The tunnel is on a short incline, and it seems to slope down, down, down, in
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| − | [ST] to utter blackness.
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| − | [ST] Avir hears something in that darkness. Not movement - or, at least, not an approach. He hears an absence of movement, an absence of feeling, an absence of everything but longing and horrific, eternal pain. He hears a whisper, its words soft and cloying, yet full of screams.
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| − | [ST] It hurts. Make it stop. Betrayers. Murderers. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts forever. Kill us. Kill us.
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| − | [Avir] Avir pales. He grabs on to Savage Bear Daughter with his one arm and forcibly drags her away. "We go," he says hoarsely. "Go, now, we have to get out of here. Don't look down the corridor." Their voices seem to linger in his ears and mouth like too-sweet syrup.
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| − | [ST] Savage Bear Daughter nods, giving the corridor one last defiant glare before she moves away. Obligatory, Jek, Selza, and Red move by, Red taking a minute to give the passage a contemptuous look as well.
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| − | [Miruna] He gives one last glance behind them, and then follows the others, grabbign Jek's arm as he almost passes him near the tunnel mouth.
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| − | [ST] The group continues forward, trying to leave the Whispers of - whatever that place was - behind. The passage continues on, almost refreshingly mundane after that horrible mouth into the unknown. Perhaps a bit too caught up with their relief at being away from it, none of the group sees the ghosts until they round a corner and wind up right on top of them.
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| − | [ST] There are three of them. The first is a ghost naked but for a spare fur loincloth. His plasmic frame is shrunken and starved - what absurdity, that something that doesn't eat can starve - his bones stretching against the flesh to display a level of emaciation that would kill anything actually alive. Avir and Miruna can count the ribs, the knuckles, the bones in the arms and legs. Tattoos
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| − | [ST] winding up the ghost's face clearly mark it as one of the tribes of the Haslanti.
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| − | [ST] It screams piteously, twitching, but it lies flat on the ground as if it has been frozen there. A black collar is around its neck. The leash of black chains is held in the fist of the second ghost, a massive thing wearing the battered armor of a Realm Legionaire. A sword is in its other hand, short, ugly, and dangerous. Another ghost stands beside this one, an ashen-skinned Southlander with
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| − | [ST] eyes like empty black pools who wears nothing but a pair of leather pants. He points a spear at the bound Haslanti.
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| − | [Avir] Avir stops short. Chains..leash...These were true ghosts, surely. He wishes, again, that he had a torch, or salt, or anything.
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| − | [Avir] "What is this?" Avir says, perhaps unwisely.
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| − | [ST] "HELP ME!" the bound ghost screams. "HELP! HELP! HELP!"
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| − | [ST] "'Ey, Snake," the one in Realm armor says, turning casually to face the advancing Once Dead. "We got some live ones."
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| − | [ST] "Don't see many live ones around here," Snake says, turning to look at them with his dark, empty eyes. The spear snaps smartly up to point at Avir's chest.
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| − | [ST] "Should we kill 'em?"
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| − | [Avir] "No!"
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna steps forward, the tableau too much for him to ignore. "Off him." The Haslanti might be dead, might be worth killing when after they saved him, but he wouldn't let that pass.
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| − | [Avir] Avir backs hurriedly away from the tip of the spear.
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| − | [Miruna] He doesn't brandish his knife - he would look stupid threatening with such a small weapon. But he gets it ready, low by his waist, waiting to thrust forward.
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| − | [ST] "Come on, breather," the armored one says. "You ain't none of our concern. Just keep walking, and we won't even ask what the lot of you are doing on Lady Twilight's hunting grounds."
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| − | [ST] "Best listen to Soft Breeze there," Snake says, smacking his lips. "Alive's too much to bother with for the likes of us. We're paid to take the dead, not make them. But we might change our minds. I'd leave before we decide you're worth the trouble."
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| − | [Avir] "Lady Twilight?" Avir asks, having retreated safely behind Miruna.
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| − | [ST] "Nothing to a breather like you," Soft Breezes says. The big ghost is ugly, ungainly, and does not fit his name at all. Maybe that is why he scowls all the time. "She runs the catch trade up this way. She's a big name. Trades slaves all the way down Stygia sometimes, to the Bishop, even to the Lover."
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| − | [Avir] "Hn. And what are a couple of southerners doing up here?"
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| − | [Miruna] There had been too much wierdness, too much horror. These were close enough to things he knew. He wouldn't let the Underworld mock and hunt Haslanti either. For all he knew, they would all be down there soon enough, so he might as well start preparing it now. He steps forward, trusting to the mental inertia of what looked like fool bully boys, and slammed his knife into/at the armpit of spearman. Short didn't matter
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| − | [ST] "Twilight takes 'em from all over the world," Breezes says. He gives the leash a tug. "She also employs em. Now-"
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| − | [Miruna] Short didn't matter if it went home in the right place. In a human anyway. Maybe ghosts remembered having a heart.
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| − | [Avir] As Miruna makes his blow tell, Avir launches himself at the ghost as he staggers, elbowing him sharply in the chin and grabbing for the sword.
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| − | [ST] Miruna's attack catches the ghost completely off guard. His sharp obsidian blade punches deep into Snake's corpus, ripping a ragged gash under his left armpit. Miruna steps back, splattered with cool, purplish ichor. Rubbery flesh writhes and twitches. The upwards blow was so savage it nearly severed the ghost's arm. Any mortal man would be felled and bleeding with a wound like that. Snake
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| − | [ST] barely seems to slow. He spits in Miruna's face, cursing.
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| − | [Miruna] No point in being quiet now. He roars curses right back, stepping in for another blow. The ghost had one arm left, and it was time to fix that. He stabs at the inside of the ghosts ebown as it tried to bring the longer spear around to him.
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| − | [Miruna] It turns its arm, quick as its moniker, and his knife deflects off a brace on its wrist.
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| − | [ST] As Snake slides away from Miruna's attack, Selza darts forward, the broken spar of her spear in hand. She darts her head sharply to the side, the ghost's spear sliding past her cheek, and drives her own into its ribs.
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| − | [ST] Snake stumbles back, corpus smoking from a small hole in its belly.
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| − | [ST] Savage Bear-Daughter moves up behind Avir. As he scrabbles for the ghost's sword, she smashes her club directly into Breeze's head. It smashes against the wall and seems, for a moment, to flatten. His brains should be leaking out his ears. Would be, if he were a living man.
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| − | [ST] Instead, he bounces right back up off the wall, blade flying in a short, flat arc for Bear-Daughter's neck
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| − | [ST] She pivots on one heel, the blade flashing harmlessly past her face.
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| − | [ST] Snake springs at Miruna, seeking to spit his throat on the tip of his spear.
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| − | [Avir] Avir takes a black chunk of rock. It came for a firey mountain, once upon a time. "Surrender!" Avir shouts, stone clenched in his fist and held up for the ghosts to see. "SURRENDER, or I shall weild the power of the Sleeping Owl against you and sending you hurtling into Lethe!"
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| − | [Avir] It wasn't the most convincing of acts. But perhaps he would be lucky, and they would be dumb. Or at least startled.
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| − | [ST] Breeze takes a step backwards, swearing. All that weaving and waving, it sort of reminds him of this exorcist in Cherak once, a real trained Immaculate, who banished him. It hurt like hell, hurt him in ways he didn't even know he could hurt anymore, and he had thought he might not come back.
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| − | [ST] This guy... it doesn't look exact, but maybe, maybe- he staggers back, and the leash slips from an absent hand. The Haslanti ghost hurls himself at Breeze's shins, wrapping him up.
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna catches Snake's spear thrust with his shield, and deflects it down and to the right with a sweep of his arm, following through viciously, half falling on the shield, to pin the ghosts arm there for a strike. He rolled off it fast enough, ready for another attack and now to the ghost's left.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Snake screams, staggering back so viciously that he tears the knife out of Miruna's grasp before the other is able to break away. He claws at the hilt where it emerges from his throat, his dark eyes seeming to yawn wider and wider. His flesh twitches, shivers, and begins to melt, and a moment later, he has dissapated into mist. Miruna's knife clatters to the ground.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Enough!" Breeze shouts. "Mnemon's tits, enough!" He throws his weapon to the floor with a clatter. "You win, you crazy breathers!"
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Savage Bear-Daughter raises her club and takes a threatening step towards him. He cringes back.
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| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He darts to his knife right quick, just the same. Never trust.
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| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir stops his ominous nonsense-chanting. "Very well," he says gravely, much in the way Thunder Wisdom might have. He was beginning to enjoy himself. "Bear Daughter, take his spear."
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Bear Daughter moves forward, snatching up the weapon before retreating, her eyes watching Breeze with an animal's angry suspicion
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| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Will you swear to leave, and never molest the Haslanti dead again?" Avir continues in that pompous, grand way.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Sure, sure, whatever," Breeze grabs the ghost on the ground by the collar and fairly hurls him at Avir. "Just let me outta here."
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| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Then go!"
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] The ghost flees without a glance back, running the way the Once Dead came. Perhaps the conduit to the Labyrinth will take him wherever he wants to go.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] It's hard to believe that they could be more frightening than that possibility, though.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] The Haslanti ghost looks up at Avir and Miruna, eyes darting between them, wordlessly clawing at the collar.
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| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He growls low. "No need to fear these bastards. We died better than they ever did."
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| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir looks immensely satisfied. He crouches down and examines the collar.
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| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "I'm going to be embarassed if it turns out only the one who puts this collar on can take it off," he says idly.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Jek, Red, and Obligatory watch silently, as if ashamed for their inability to participate in the battle. Selza kneels by Avir to look with him.
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| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] "Someone take the sword." He turns away from the procedings and moves a few steps, but pauses there for Avir to finish helping the pathetic thing. Pride for a nation had saved it, but he wanted no part of helping it further.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] The ghost says nothing, his jaws working wordlessly. He seems more mad than most ghosts, but perhaps it stands to reason.
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| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir glances at Selza. It wouldn't endear him to her to wait to choke some answers from the ghost before freeing it. He reaches for the collar and plucks a single pin from it. The collar comes apart in two halves, which Avir sets in the clumsy bag that held in the meet.
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| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He spreads his hands. "There. All better."
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] The ghost gropes tentatively at his neck. He looks at Avir for a moment, expression unreadable, before scurrying off into the darkness on all fours. Selza gives a shuddery breath.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "We're almost at the end," she says. Ragged Red walks past her, picks up the sword that Breeze dropped, and swings it experimentally. "Not bad. Any half decent fighter wouldn't die with a piece of steel like this in hand. Of course, we saw what kind of fighter he was just now." She smirks at Avir derisively.
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| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "I didn't see you rushing to help," Avir says mildly, still too smug with the success of his ruse to take offense. "Lets go. The sooner out, the better."
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Yeah," Jek says quietly. "Let's."
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| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] Miruna moves out, taking the lead this time. He was ready to be gone from the damned place.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] In only a few more moments, the tunnel opens into a ragged hole screened by scrub bush and the roots of a particularly hardy pine. The Once Dead have to duck to slip beneath its dead, dangling form. They stand once more in the sunlight, gray and weak, but ahead, perhaps a few hundred yards, there is a shimmering line on the horizon that marks the veil between this world and Creation.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Jek allows himself a brief laugh, stretching his arms over his head. Savage Bear-Daughter even flashes Miruna a brief, tight smile. Red is already moving down the hill, eager. Obligatory stands at Miruna's elbow.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "What now?" he asks.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Well," Selza begins. "I know where we are now. And I know the closest Emerald."
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| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Real beds," Avir grins.
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| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He nods. "Lead."
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "It's Tanstaad," Selza says tightly, taking a few steps down the side of the hill. She staggers slightly in the snow.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] As Avir and Miruna follow down the hill, Miruna's gaze sweeps over his troops as he is accustomed, something nagging at the back of his mind. There's Obligatory, struggling through the snow, and Red, forging out ahead of him, but stepping carefully now, totally ignorant and expecting a hidden lake in every patch of ice. Selza ahead of them, and Jek behind, and Savage Bear Daughter
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] descending beside him and Avir.
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| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Ah." He exchanges a look with Miruna over Selza's head. He takes her arm. "Well,you can see your family again." What's left of it.
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| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He grimaces. One mising. Had she made it past the hall? He did not remember her falling behind, but with that thing down there pulling, he might have missed her, and she might have fallen. There was no time to go back - The ghost might have found friends behind them, and they had to reach the Emerald as fast as they could, to get news to the Haslanti.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I am not sure that I wish to," Selza says quietly. "It is still several days' journey from here."
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| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Rabbit's missing," Avir says suddenly, glancing back. He thinks back to the Labyrinth, the voices. "The voices got her." He stops and look over his shoulder.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Selza stops walking, as does Obligatory and Bear-Daughter. Jek and Red just keep right on going. Maybe they don't hear; maybe nothing in the world could get them back in that tunnel.
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| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He stops, turning to lok at Avir. "If she went in, she is gone. We can't save her, and we don't waste time trying, yes?"
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| − | | |
| − | [Avir] A little knot of cold hard dread congeals in his stomach, but he is a student of Thunder Wisdom, and he knows what he must do. "We can't leave her there. You didn't -hear them. We have to-." He looks at Miruna's stony face. "I have to go back," he revises. Sure as the stars, Rabbit would return to them like an arrow on a string, otherwise, and she wouldn't be a friend when she did.
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| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Give me your shirt. I'll catch up at the Emerald." Avir didn't let himself believe in the possibility of failing.
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| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He looks at the man, then glares at the others. "Get moving." Avir was a selfish bastard. He'd have a reason, and he wanted to ehar it.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Selza looks at Avir, her eyes full of concern.
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| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir smiles at her. "You heard the man."
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Avir... I would not have you go alone, but-" She turns away. "I must lead the others to the Emerald. Here. Take this." She presses the spear, a half-broken, half-useless weapon, into his hands and turns away without another word.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Thanks," Avir says, staring after her. He turns to Miruna as the others shuffle away after Red and Jek.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He watches them go, and when they are far enough away to give them privacy if neither of them yelled, he turns back to Avir. It was perhaps hopeful. "Why?"
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| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Not to see your hairy chest, I assure you. My tastes run in another direction. I don't have a ball of yarn, but you've let your clothes become threadbare."
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| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He scowls. "I'll give you the damned shirt. But why are you going back for her. She's dead. And you aren't one for gestures. Need a body for your tricks?" He asks, glaring.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir's lips thin. "I wouldn't risk my life for that. Or for Rabbit either, truthfully. But I'm a mage- or at least, I studied with one, and he taught me something of hte workings of fate. The Labyrinth...twists things. If we abandon Rabbit- we'll see her again, but not as she was."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "And when she returns, vengeful, I do not think we could defeat her." He shrugs.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "So I go."
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| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] His eyes narrow, but he begins to shrug off his armor. He could afford to lose his shirt with that to cover him on the last of the trip. And besides, he had needed to hear Avir's reason. So. He hands it over, and turns, shrugging himself back into his dented mantle at he walks away.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir narrows his eyes at Miruna's back and turns back to the Labyrinth. There were two hairs on the collar of the shirt, and these Avir pockets carefully. He unravels the shirt as he walks back to the tunnel.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] The shirt came from Creation; that was good. That was helpful. So he believed.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] When he stands at the Mouth of the Labyrinth looking into the green light, he wished passionately it was a gate to hell instead. Demons he knew. He cups his hands around his mouth. "RABBBIT!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] There is no response.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Well. Avir ties one end of the thread of Miruna's half-unravelled shirt around a jagged chunk of brick in the true tunnel wall. He hesitates again at the gate. He had no gods, so it is his old master's name he mouths, almost planitively, as he steps into madness.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] The thread of creation is taut and true in his hand, leading back to the Underworld.
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