lycos per Astra i Catrin dux

She had begun the trek to the Northern Caves, weeks turned and then she was a prisoner of the Dragon-Mage.... she was freed by the Lord from Allaria, Frederigo D'Honaire, and then propelled to an arid wasteland.... together they found the Tower of Doctor Vincent....Fred died and was reborn, then she was propelled to a strange place....

These images, their smell and feel was just as they always had been. Then two images simultaneously erupted within her. She found herself faced with a keeper of time, a grandfather's clock...she found herself faced with a passage and a strange sigil....two realities, both valid, both true. More images came, additional feelings, odors, sounds...the melody turned to blaring noise, the ferris wheel into a great roller coaster; her body swooned as her mind flexed, her heart groaned as her fingers tensed, her nostrils flared as her ears nearly bled. The images, the memories, the recollections, the whole of two lives shoved painfully into one person. And then it was over.

When Astra awoke, she found a clothe on her head, it was drenched in sweat. She was too weak to rise from the cot. The mage Myrddin was near, however.

"Well, my pretty, you've awaken," he kindly said.

The warrior-woman looked at the man with new eyes, she was not the same. She looked at the man for a long while, as if studying him. Then she said, "You are Myrddin." It almost came out like a question.

"Yes, my dear," he said.

"I am...I am Catrin Astrae Aqualarai."

"Yes, my dear," he said.

"I am not unstuck."

"Not anymore, not anymore," he confirmed.

"Then I am alone."

Myrddin looked long and hard at Catrin Astrae. Then he nodded and said, "Yes, my good Cat, you are alone."

The two sat there for a long time. They said nothing, for nothing was there to say. The magic had succeeded; the woman was no longer unstuck. Yet now she understood the horrible consequence of being reborn; she truly was a newcomer to this world. She saw with a mind twisted together with two thoughts, she felt the world with fingers that had trained with two mistresses. She was no longer Astra, neither the one nor the other. She had no family then, in this world. She had no people. She had no one. She was alone.

After a few days recuperating the warrior-woman was ready to ask the mage a few things that had been bothering her a great deal. She approached him at their evening meal. "Am I a monster?"

The mage did not look at her, he simply sipped at his soup.

"Answer me," she said.

"Monster," said the man. "They are a difficult breed to categorize. What is monster to one is slave to another, what is slave to one is laborer to another, what is laborer can be friend and what is friend can be companion."

Catrin Astrae had heard too many of the mage's backwards talk before. She was not ready to fight him word for word. "Tell me then," she said. "Will I turn to a wolf?"

"Yes, my dear, you will. When one is cursed, the only cure is yet another curse. I am sorry, but that is the way of things."

Catrin thought long in silence as the man continued to drink his soup. Then she sat up straight and asked, "Is Fred dead in this world?"

The mage smiled and sipped his soup. "He breathes and walks and speaks."

"You misunderstand," said Catrin Astrae. "He was a fiend in my world. He died and was reborn, he died again and came back a monster. Is he a monster?"

Myrrdin looked at the woman and felt pity for her. The last moments of her lives had seen this man Fred and it seemed that even in this new life her path would twine back into his. "Yes, girl. He is Toa'aboath, he is the Breaker, the Liar, the Quickener."

"I must help, before he hurts them."

"Must you?" said Myrddin. "My life is planted in the very soil of time, yours is yet full of various freedoms. Take care what you seek."

"My life is forfiet," she said. "It has been since I was born again. Life serves life and death serves death. I will choose life even if it kills me!"

"How will you start?" asked the mage.

"I remember Aqualaria and I remember the east of Allaria. I am sure I can find the Fell One."

"And then?"

"With Belboz, perhaps I can stop the friend of Hell."

"Well said, woman," said Myrddin. "Now, drink your soup before it gets cold. You can't start a new life on an empty stomach!"

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