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Things were really bad.  I couldn't tell what it was, but my first family, the shadows I had come to this world with, they were troubled.  There were signs, though we didn't know what they meant.  The city spirit had come awake from the threat.

I asked Mom and Dad about it and they only said that this was my burden to take care of.  I'm only twelve!  I could tell that whatever it was (and they weren't sure, just that it was my story, not theirs), that if I failed, Mom would end the matter.

I talked to my friend Ariel.  I know that things like this are supposed to be held privately, but we are really close and it seemed right.  She didn't have much to tell me, but she offered me a piece of rock and told me to take it to the gathering and maybe it might help.

I got to the gathering and my sidefather recognized the rock.  As he looked into it, he realized that it contained mountain magic, oread magic, something we are close to now and that resonates for us.  It had a gift of prophecy.

We used it and discovered the shape of our peril.

There was a shadow caster, one of the Couranth who betrayed the norns.  He was seeking the talisman of my people, long lost.  Our talisman was one of the great ones, and losing it was one of the things that started our decline.  Anyone who had it had something bound to us, that could drain us.

Only one of our sept could touch it without using twisted magics tainted with chaos.  So it had to be one of us.  Only one of us could leave the city -- me.  My father was right when he told me that whatever it was, it was mine to do.

Of course he was there to help, to strengthen the weave and to open a portal for us so I could return to seek the talisman before the other.  My mother gave me a feather, burning with dark fire, that would guide me, and they both told me to look within for the link that connects our sept, even with the changes, to our talisman.  The sept gave me four sticks, warding sticks, one of the remaining magic items that we had from home, to guard me if I needed to rest. If only I had the time to rest.

It worked.  I could sense the talisman and I was drawn to it as fast as I could flow through shadow.

It wasn't that easy, though.  As I first stepped through the gate I was beset by wind wraiths.  My power was stronger than theirs and I banished them (if I had had the binding glyph I could have bound them to my sword and used their power).

Then I faced a shadow vampire, one of those like I had been, only this one was given over to eating others.  I had a talisman of the master builder, the four angles of his cross, and that balked the vampire, while the fire magics I carry destroyed him.

Finally I came to the rock of the broken mountain.  My powers failed me of passing through it and I had to climb, in a waste that confused my magic (no wonder none of our people had been able to regain the talisman).  But my mother's feather guided me.

At last I reached the talisman, only to discover that the Couranth was there.  It had waited, seeking one of my kind to bridge the gap to the exact location so it could grasp the talisman.

It wailed a cry of triumph and unleashed its most powerful secret magic -- a blaze of light.  The starcalled power shielded me from blindness, and I'm no longer the type of shadow creature that is dissolved by light.  Its secret trumph was wasted on me.  Instead of dissolving, I struck with my sword and cut through its neck.  Then I poured fire into its head before it could recover and heal itself.  The body I quartered and left with the sign of the master builder barring the quarters from reuniting.

I grabbed the talisman and fled for the gate.

That flash of light had drawn attention.  Most fled, but some came towards me.  The greatest, one of the ancient shadow drakes, dark and potent with dragonish bile, gave cry.  The other pursuers veered off.  It was took powerful for them.

My heart almost failed me, but I made the gate before it did, mostly because it laid its will on the gate to keep it open.

I staggered through into my mother's arms.  The dragon came almost face to face with my father.

You know, my mother scared me when I first met her.  She has scared me many times since, even when she loves me.  My dad always made me feel so loved I never feared him.  But the power and the light -- the dragon's heart broke with fear and the gateway closed.  For just a moment I saw, somewhat, what the dragon had seen.  I couldn't quite hold it, guess I couldn't keep that vision and still love my dad the way I do.  But I understand why some fear him far more than my mom, especially if they have reason to fear judgment.

I looked at the warding sticks.  I hadn't used them, but I had used the little girl's magic and hadn't given her anything in return.  It had been freely given, but I thought the sticks would make a fair trade.  My mom agreed.  Oread prophecy's are rare and powerful.  We might never see one again and it had saved us all.

As for the talisman, it was a torque, made from green gold and blue gold and a strange, light, grayish metal (titanium my dad said, pretty useless for swords, but with interesting magical properties).  He severed the magic that connected it to us.  No use leaving it as a dangerous back door.  I asked if the severing could be unmade and my Mom laughed at me.  She showed me how to look and the connection was really gone -- and we were now all really and completely of this world and not the other.

The torque (or torc) was pretty.  It was woven metal, woven around 33 small black diamonds, hematite, with two fire opals at the ends.  With the magic severed, it was more of a pretty thing, but it stored magical energy and could store magic or serve as a binding.  It also worked to protect the wearer slightly.

Everyone agreed it was mine, now that it wasn't "ours" -- it was more a pretty jewel than anything else.

I love it, though the memory is something -- especially that Couranth and his secret magic that he was so confident would undo me.  He planned to use us as a cloak of shadows to consume enemy magic, spending our lives in his defense and as a shield for him.  It would have doomed us all to destruction and slavery in an evil cause.  Now we are truly free.