Explanations all around and Introductions abound!

Artizza 2

When they have closed to within talking range, one of the Artizzas (who seems to have recently had a not very expert haircut) says: "Hello! We may be doing a very silly thing in approaching you."

"Maybe," I say cautiously myself, still wary as much as they are until I examine my heart and feel a somewhat familiar (and very welcome) flood of emotion within. "Then again, if my Heart is telling me true, probably not."

It's always the acid test, the Doppleganger effect. If not instant hate, then instant sisterly (or "brotherly" in the case of Lueoth) love. Being that it hinges upon the character of the soul/heart, this bodes well for us.

"You might have trouble believing this," I begin slowly, to ease into the next phase. "Then again, considering your twins, not as much trouble as you would have otherwise. My name is 'Artizza 2 Thessamer' and this is my husband to be, Fertal 2 D'Honaire and we are . . . 'analogs' of you and. . . ."

I pause, taking the plunge and hoping that somehow in all of today's insanity and bad luck we have somehow stumbled upon the very object of our Quest!

Ia'idoire

"By any chance are one of you Fertal 3 and Artizza 3?" Artizza 2 asks our rescuers. "We've been . . . Tasked . . . to find you. NOT in the same manner as that scum at our feet, by the way!"

She gestures at the dead corpse of the overgrown elf who'd ambushed us, adding an emphatic curse in her Dark Elfin tongue before continuing.

Or rather begins to continue . . .

"You see," she explains. "Well, to be blunt we are Champions of the Rules and Agents and if one of you ARE . . . ."

"You are the ones who were supposed to have found my brother and her love?!" one of the Fertal's gasp. "These Champions they told us of? It was so vague, the stuff they told us about how their very lives depended upon Champions finding them."

"We had thought you were the Champions who needed to be successful so our lives were spared the Demons," The Artizza with the rather ill cut hair says softly to her companions. "But we . . ."

Turns out that there is a LOT of confusion going about here on what is up, as it were.

"Okay," I say bluntly and forcefully. "Let us just start from the top by introducing each other and we'll move on from there."

We learn that these others are indeed named Artizza and Fertal (3 and 4 to be exact) and that gives credence to a feeling of hope I am having within my breast. Once introductions are done, we DO learn that indeed beyond a shadow of a doubt that these ARE the Fertal and Artizza couple (Artizza 3 and Fertal 3) my Dark Elfin brother, Fertal 2 (and his love) had been Tasked to find.

How do we know this? Well, we Champions are not babes in the woods, but when Agent 1 himself comes down and congratulates us Champions on a job well done (as well as welcoming Fertal 3 and Artizza 3 into the fold as Champions, an offer they gladly take considering the alternatives) it kind of something I'm inclined on believing.

Hey, if you ever realy met a Celestrial in the metaphysical flesh, you'd know why we believe what they say! They're just too. . . .awesome (for want of a better word) in power and presence to NOT believe them. Beyond that, I cannot explain why it is for us. It just is that way with us.

Fertal 4 and Artizza 4, meanwhile, are looking a bit . . . sad when it's almost all over, until....

"Here is a map to the Maelstorm Bridge to Core Earth," Agent 1 says, giving a map from out of thin air. "As told earlier (if only in phsyic passing), we Rules and Agents are not teleporting you directly back to Terra Prime. A TARDIS will be there when you set foot on Core Earth to instead take you home, and not before. But worry not."

The Agent smiles a small, thin smile at the next and I can imagine that some Demons, somewhere, are grinding their teeth but are powerless to stop it (because they must abide by the rules of this Quest that somehow got tangled up in a Challenge). Feel that somehow the Demons had been betting (and expecting) that Fertal 4's group would have done a argueably more safe and sane (if not brave) course by "bugging out", for fear of traps.

That's just a guess, though.

1. "Take your time to decide what to do next . . . and with who to do it next with," he adds pointedly, glancing over at Fertal 4 and Artizza 4 before vanishing. "Either way,the Rules and Agents will not interfere."

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