It was morning when the trio - Verial, Aursra and Kyrian - finally headed away from the Villa in search of Aursra's Sire. Her father wanted to be found. The man wanted Aursra to return to his clutches, so Verial had no doubt that sooner or later (most likely sooner) they would come across him. However, his assumptions had wavered after about fifteen or sixteen days of travel later. They had ridden for many hours, leading the horses by both gallop and walk depending on the animal's exhaustion, and still there was no sign of Aursra's Sire.

Verial didn't even know what he was looking for. He left that up to Aursra, because she said she would be able to find him without a problem. After touching her father's assassin, Aursra had made some connection with her Sire again, although unwillingly, and this link was supposed to get them to their destination. For most of the journey, Verial let her lead the way or point in the direction that she felt was best. So, Verial and Kyrian followed Aursra's guidance - over rocky terrain, rivers, and fields. They had covered quite a bit of ground, but so far had no luck.

Nevertheless, their journey did not go completely unnoticed. They were forced into several situations where they had to defend themselves from monsters or bandits along the trail. Verial wondered if these might have been more foes sent from Aursra's Sire, but in the end they seemed like just wayward beings with no other purpose than to pick a fight. Verial had hoped to squeeze something out of them, but unfortunately they had no answers he was looking for.

At the end of their seventeenth day, the group found a clearing in a forest and camped as usual. While Aursra and Kyrian would unpack things and start to set up, Verial went to go wash his face at a small nearby stream and gather some firewood. Kneeling down next to the stream, he cupped his hands to scoop up of some of the water and rubbed his face as clean as he could. Travelling this long had left them all somewhat dirty, despite doing what they could to maintain some cleanliness.

Verial wiped away some of the water that had been dripping from his face and allowed himself to have a moment to his thoughts. Until now, he had not seen fit to question Aursra's judgment, but he began to wonder if she was losing the link to her Sire or if maybe, something subconsciously was holding her back from finding her birth father? Verial didn't blame her, but if he didn't speak up sooner or later, they might run out of provisions while travelling and be forced to turn back or who knew what else.

He listened as the stream slowly trickled by, accompanied by the sound of crickets that started as night fell. Verial allowed himself sometime alone in this solitude before heading back. Despite all things, the evening was nice; the snow had melted and traces of winter weather started to fade into spring. They were able to sleep on the ground without getting too damp and find natural herbs and other provisions that usually suffered during the winter season.

A feeling of anxiousness, however, certainly haunted Verial. He had many hesitations about this whole trip and it started with bringing Kyrian along and what would come of his son's fate. Verial felt terrible having to hand the young teenager a sword, but on the other hand he was very proud to give Kyrian something which otherwise symbolized his growth into adulthood.

Meeting Aursra's father was also a dual-edged sword. Verial cared nothing more than to finish this mission and help rescue Aursra's missing child, but part of him wanted to turn right around and go home. There was some selfish part of his being that didn't want Aursra to discover this child, and maybe it was because he had a notion the whole thing wasn't true at all. That idea of pain and downright trickery was something he did not want Aursra to have to go through if possible.

Verial also anticipated returning back to the Villa. Before he had left, his mother had mentioned searching for Angelus and perhaps bringing his white winged brother back to Aursra. Normally, this would have made Verial content but thoughts nagged him about a reunion between Angelus and Aursra. He couldn't even imagine how that would turn out, but all he did know was of an ever lingering jealousy that plagued him.

As he stood away from the stream finally and pushed himself off the ground, Verial looked around for a close spot to get some firewood. He found some not far off and gathered it into his arms heading back to the camp with the bundle. He was silent for a while when he returned to Aursra and Kyrian, tending to start the fire. It would have been much easier to simply ask Aursra if she could start the fire with her magic, but he held himself back from asking. There were certain times when one needed normalcy in their life when everything else seemed chaotic.

After the fire flickered and gave off warmth, Verial turned his odd colored eyes towards Aursra. He pushed raven colored hair behind his pointed ears and opened his mouth to speak. In any other time or place, Verial would have probably been fine with the duration their trip had been taking. His mother had once said of him, "Verial would rather walk around the mountain than use his wings to fly over it." This time, he took the shorter way around the mountain and just asked.

"I was wondering," Verial said to Aursra, "are we still on the right track? Or is there something I should be concerned about that you're not telling me?"

Aursra knew that they were on the right path. The nearer they got, the harder it got to control her powers. She could feel it pulsing and writhing like some living thing. She'd been afraid to sleep, but she wasn't so sure that they weren't already trapped in some sleepless dream. Her Sire was a master illusionist, making seamless recreations of places and even people.

The path was not an easy one, but she'd warned them both that none of this would prove easy. There was rocky terrain and swift moving rivers. It all seemed vaguely familiar, but she hadn't exactly been in a sane state of mind when she'd honed in on Verial as if he had been some lighthouse in the midst of a raging storm that fateful night so many weeks ago now.

There was still that doubt. She couldn't be sure that this child wasn't another illusion conjured to her mind as a ploy to get her back into vile clutches, but what self respecting person could not further explore the option if there was even a sliver of possibility? Not Aursra. That was sure.

She was doing her part of setting up camp for the evening by putting up the modest tent that shielded the three from the worst of the elements. Stakes were driven into the ground by using a rock as a mallet. It wasn't easy work, and she probably could have used her magick, but she felt as if there was some sort of... anticipation in the air to see how long before she used it. Understandingly, this was a bit disconcerting.

Eyes shifted toward Verial as she saw him returning, and she blushed at how her breath caught in her throat at the mere sight of him. She liked to think that if Sorvynia found Angelus, she would welcome her husband back with open arms... and she would. But would she welcome him with her whole heart? That, she was ashamed to admit (even if only to herself), was less certain.

The fire was built up, and she went to rifle through their dwindling food supplies to see what she could seek out. It looked like it would be simple beans for tonight. With a sigh, she returned, emptying the beans and water into the pot set up over the fire. Then, she dropped onto a log, her arms on her knees and chin in her hands.

She flinched when Verial spoke. She knew the question was coming, and while part of her was offended that he didn't have more faith, the rest of her just couldn't blame him. "Tomorrow. We'll continue East, and it will all change tomorrow." She sounded sure, ominous, almost as if someone else were speaking through her lips... or as if she'd at least had a lot of time to mull over this in silence.

For the first time in the last two weeks, Verial had heard some assurance in Aursra's voice. Mostly the journey had started out rather chatty, but as the days and hours drug onward, things had gotten quiet and uncertain. Verial sighed almost with relief, poking at the fire with a stick. Despite her resolution that they would finally meet her father some time tomorrow, Verial felt somewhat at ease now. Part of him hated waiting. It could be said of Verial that he was often an impatient and stubborn person and the thought of not knowing when or where her Sire was going to turn up drove him a little crazy.

Verial pushed his fingers through his raven hair and massaged his temples briefly when his fingertips met his forehead. Afterwards, he looked back up towards Aursra and met her hazel colored eyes across the opposite side of the fire. Watching her start to prepare what rations they had into a make-shift dinner, he wondered what tomorrow would bring for all of them.

"That's good to hear," Verial said. After he said those words however, he questioned himself how anything like this could be considered good. Well, he thought, if they did find Aursra's child... at least that would be something to be happy about.

Something to be happy about... Verial had been looking at Aursra for a while now, almost to the point where it could have been considered staring. His mind was mulling over his thoughts; would Aursra really be content with her child if there was indeed one? Sure there was at this time a feeling of loss between mother and child - a link that had been severed by her Sire. But what if when the child was returned to its mother, it was not what it once was? What if the young one had already been corrupted by the hand of Aursra's birth father.

Verial finally pulled his odd colored eyes away from her and looked over towards Kyrian who was still setting up camp, then off to the East where a canopy of thick trees covered a path. Beyond the trees and the night's darkness, Verial could not see much that lay ahead. But thanks to Aursra's confirmation, there was something indeed waiting for them - he could feel it.

"So, East then," Verial said in half a whisper, "and to find a child."

((Summarized and continued from a chat session on 3/25/2011))

The questing trio had traveled East the following morning, and things had seemed pretty uneventful. Aursra worried that her companions would be looking for some overt attack, but she warned them that things would likely be more subtle... at least to start out. After a while, however, the terrain became more and more difficult for them to travel, and a rocky mountain rose before them.

It would be impossible to take the horses with them. So they dismounted, and it was decided that it might be best for Verial to scout ahead to see what might be lie beyond. With his wings, it would only take a matter of minutes was the reasoning. Surely Aursra and Kyrian would be fine for that long without him.

Little did they know that they would be playing right into the hands of her Sire, who had decided that the best tactic would be to divide and conquer... and they were making it so easy. Moments later, an embarrassed Kyrian announced that he had a need to relieve himself, and Aursra helpfully pointed him to a copse of trees where he could have a bit of privacy.

That is when things began to get interesting.

Atop the mountain, Verial was greeted with the sight that might very well have seemed like a ghost after so much time. A winged male form, not so unlike his own, save the fairness of hair and wings, made approach. Angelus Psalm. Brother to Verial and husband to Aursra. The man claimed that he had come as quickly as his wings could carry him after finding out from their mother that Aursra, Kyrian, and Verial had left to recover his child.

Verial, wise to distrust, informed this apparent brother of his that wife and daughter were safe, that he was the father of a girl-child... and that they were on the opposite side of the mountain than where Verial had left Aursra and Kyrian.

Kyrian, meanwhile, was finishing his business when a weakened yet all too familiar voice found its way to his ears. Itarilde. Surely, she hadn't followed, but how could the young lad not go investigate when the voice of his best friend was so pleading... when it seemed to be fading fast? He eventually would discover her, snared in a giant spider's web.

That's when the land started to quake. The mountain all but collapsed, but Verial and Angelus would both find themselves unscathed. The landscape was different, but eerily familiar. Oneiro, in complete ruins, but not so much that certain sites were unidentifiable. Everything seemed to focus most strongly on what remained of what would once have been the cozy cottage that Aursra and Angelus had moved into after being wed... her House O` Dreams, she'd always called it.

Inside, Aursra could hear a babe's cry, and she was drawn to it in a way she never could have explained, beginning to move like one entranced toward the facade of the ruins of what she'd once called home.

The Dreamer Brothers, one real... the other... well, it was hard to tell, wasn't it? They both seemed eager to get to Aursra's aid. The supposed Angelus focused a stormy gaze on Verial, "You told me that they were safe. Just what else have you been lying about, Brother?" The spear he held had been knocked from his hand, and Verial had words that were just as accusatory.

"What are you trying to do? I'm going to protect her. You left too remember?"

"To find her... my wife. Or have you had so much fun playing house while I've been away that you've forgotten that fact?" A hand extended, the spear returning to it as if it had never left. His eyes were like blue fire; expression suddenly cold.

That voice. Aursra turned to take in the sight... to see Verial standing there, facing off with a form that she knew better than anyone else's. Her knees went weak. This couldn't be happening. She'd heard his words... words she'd feared hearing upon her husband's return. It left her visibly torn between continuing toward the house and going to get a closer look at Angelus...

Kyrian, meanwhile, had managed to free his false Ita, the both of them now covered in sticky spider's webbing, which made his movements difficult. The boy had caught his friend up into his arms to prevent her from falling, and at this close range, there was something definitely... not quite right about the fae. It was nothing that, say, Aursra who did not know the faerie girl all that well would be likely to notice... the lack of glitter, perhaps? Something not quite right about her eyes? Aursra's Sire had a better connection to the memories and imaginings of the young woman (and it was, indeed, exactly that which was fueling these illusions), likely because she was his flesh and blood, and because she'd spent so much time already in his keeping. Kyrian, though, had been an unexpected addition to this quest, and had been harder to... study up on than his father, who had been more prevalent in Aursra's thoughts and dreams.

The cries of the baby rose, and things continued to collapse into chaos...

Verial's odd colored eyes were just as bitter as Angelus' spear came back almost on command, the white winged brother once again armed and intent on reaching his goal – his beloved. At this point, whether or not it was actually Angelus didn't seem to matter to Verial. If it was Aursra's Sire, he was going to go through Verial for her; if it was Angelus, he was going to go through Verial for her. However, despite this apparent threat, Verial kept his sword held in his hand raised in defense and his feet planted firmly on the ground.

The fact that Angelus' spear had been drawn in the first place at his older brother did not help the situation and for a moment, Verial abandoned the possibility that this might be an illusion. There was something Verial had wanted to say for the longest time. Just like Aursra having lost the memory of her child until her Sire's assassin was sent, he had forgotten until Angelus mentioned something about Aursra's status as his wife.

"She is not your wife!" Verial shouted perhaps more loudly than he needed to. "You went to Vita's damn priests back in Mystra Amor and had yourself divorced because of abandonment. So, please, don't talk to me about lying."

There the two brothers stood opposite each other on the ruined grounds of Oneiro. Behind Verial was the House O' Dreams which was about to fall into Nightmares where Aursra stood by watching with weakened knees already. Verial did not realize that Aursra was so close by when he spoke, or else he would have been more careful with his words, but the bitter truth fell from his lips too soon.

"Or perhaps you don't know that because Aursra doesn't know that?" Verial said his brow rising just slightly. "Just whose memories are you using?"

Then, something else had happened. The cries of the baby, which had grown substantially, got louder and louder until Verial could no longer ignore it. Once he could no longer concentrate and pretend that the sound wasn't there, it became more than a small child's cry. The others might not have been as affected as Verial since his father was a Drow and his hearing sensitive. The cries turned into a high pitched ring in his ears that otherwise paralyzed Verial where he had no choice with his next actions. His sword dropped and tumbled across the ground as Verial tightly wrapped his hands around his pointed ears. Still, this did not keep the noise from pulsating in his head and he found himself falling to his knees unable to move.

What's happening...?

"She is not your wife! You went to Vita’s damn priests back in Mystra Amor and had yourself divorced because of abandonment. So, please, don't talk to me about lying."

Dumbstruck.

That was the only word that could describe how Aursra was feeling in that moment. The words that had so carelessly left Verial's mouth played over and over again in her mind, but for the life of her, she couldn't seem to make any sense of them.

"No." She finally moved, careless of sprear and sword. She placed herself practically between then, and the hurt and disbelief fond in the gaze that she turned on Verial was heartrending. She felt... betrayed. "That can't be true. Were that true, someone surely would have told me before now that I was pining for a husband no longer mine."

She was trembling violently, and there were magical energies that crackled around her. The Angelus imposter had been looking furious, but at the change in the air surrounding Aursra, he looked suddenly... hungry.

That was the first indication, and it was very brief… just a change in expression before returning back to indignant and concerned. He tried to recover with, "Who are you going to believe, My Love? As much as we both care for Verial, he doesn't know the love we share. You know me better than anyone..."
She wanted to believe it, but she shook her head. "Angelus never would ask me to believe him over his brother. He'd never have to." She swallowed, tears of anger and inner turmoil burning in her eyes. Magic was still building up, readying to boil over like a volcano.

But then those cries were rising behind them in the dilapidated remains of that falsified House O' Dreams.

Her child.

She turned, hazel eyes on the door that was hanging only half on its hinges, but the movement of Verial dropping to his knees had her turning back to him.

The white winged figure seemed to waver, changing form as a new voice was heard. It started with a cold, derisive chortling of laughter... She was no longer faced with the handsome, winged man she’d loved for so long. The man standing before her now was angular and thin with pallid skin and cracked, black tinged lips.

"Which will it be, Daughter? Your child or this man newly featured in so many of your thoughts..."

"I am not your daughter:"

Anger consumed her. She wanted to release a lethal blast of the accumulated magical energies right at him, but she worried that this was what he wanted... that he'd be able to use her as a conduit of sorts.

Instead, she forced herself to focus. as she extended a hand toward the house. It was no blast. This was more delicate work, and she didn't think she'd be able to do it, but it was all she could think of to do. A bubble, of sorts, shimmered into existence, settling around the house, and the sound, of shrieking wails died to nothingness. Instead of a blast, she’d worked the magic into an energy field.

Funny thing is that with this done, Oneiro began to fade. Soon, they were standing in a clearing amongst forested lands much like what they’d been traveling through the last several days. So much of the illusion had been tied up in that crying. Was it possible that Aursra wasn’t the only person he’d been leeching power off of? Was the babe another conduit? Had the energy force surrounding the babe by the woman seeking to keep all of her loved ones safe been two-fold, and succeeded to cut him off from whatever was fueling the illusions? These were all in the back of her mind, but they were not active thoughts. She was too preoccupied with the tasks at hand to think about it all over much.

"Verial?" Eyes were back on her Sire, who was looking suddenly more gaunt and pale... and oddly worried. A hand extended to Verial’s shoulder though, hoping she had offered some temporary reprieve, at least, because she didn’t know how to do this without him.

Betrayed as she felt, she couldn't let that come into play now. Her Sire and the child were what mattered most just now.

Before Verial had collapsed to his knees, he didn't have a clue what to say to Aursra. The words he said perhaps weren't the best, ones that were exclaimed due to anger, but they were certainly true. The divorce had happened and Verial would have explained this to her much more gently weeks ago had he remembered himself. But he had no recollection of it until, of course, now.

Aursra had placed herself between two drawn weapons, but soon she would find herself only in front of Angelus' spear as Verial's sword had fallen from his hand. Verial wrapped dark feathered wings around his sides and hugged his ears with his hands to drown out the ringing sound which was driving him to the point of insanity. He was dimly aware that Aursra and Angelus were talking, but he had no idea what they were saying.

He was not so much struggling to hear what they were saying or to get up and help protect Aursra, but he wondered what the consequences of his words might bring. What would Aursra do? He recalled a long time ago, during one of Necia's bouts of abandonment, Verial had at long last divorced her. When he went to her and she found out, she threw herself off one of Oneiro's cliffs. The dragon opted not to fly that time and killed herself. Part of Verial had thought it was hasty and desperate (stupid almost) and he was hoping in this moment that Aursra would not entertain the same notion. In distress, she might choose to throw herself onto Angelus' drawn spear or give herself willingly to her father. After all, to those hazel colored eyes, Verial had betrayed her by not giving the truth sooner.

However, his thoughts were cut off when a familiar hand was extended to his shoulder. Verial considered that this action was a nudge that it was safe to get up again and so he lowered his hands from his ears. He placed a hand on Aursra's for a brief moment then dropped his hand and started to stand again. The sound that had pierced his eardrums had kept him weak in the knees, but he reached for his sword and pushing it into the dirt, he used the blade to lever himself to a standing position. He noticed that Oneiro had disappeared from around them and that they were once again at the same spot near the mountain path. Verial did not bother to look behind himself to see if the cottage was still there or not.

When he finally came to, wings stretching away from his sides briefly, he looked to Aursra with concerned eyes and nodded to her. "I will explain everything later," Verial started and then turned his head towards the ashen and hallowed face that stood in front of the two of them, "but for now, your Sire..."

She felt the warmth of Verial's hand atop her own, and she pulled quickly away, even before he had the chance to drop it to retrieve his sword. The young woman was being as calm as she could manage because she knew she'd be no good to herself or anyone if she turned into the blubbering, inconsolable shell of a woman that she very much felt like on the inside just now. Nor would raging at Verial, now, with danger so imminent solve anything. That didn't mean he was forgiven. It by no means meant she was okay. She was just barely managing to stuff those raw, painful emotions behind some makeshift wall that was sure to come crumbling down if she started poking at it.

While Aursra might have felt like she was dying about now, after those weeks that followed the miscarrying her first child, when she'd not eaten or slept... when she'd nearly died from her grief, she had realized what a selfish thing suicide was. She had long ago vowed that she'd never let her get to that place again. So, it was unlikely that she'd make such a dramatic attempt on her life. That didn't mean any of the aftermath would be pretty though.

The dark-winged man fixed those odd eyes of his on her with concern, but she cut her eyes away, not even wanting to look at him just then. At this point, his supposed betrayal was too fresh in her heart. She blinked, swiping a hand furiously across her eyes before focusing her ire on the leather clad form of her Sire. The back of her hand was wet with the tears she'd not let fall.

The spear that the false Angelus had been holding was now a tall, blackened staff now that it was in the possession of her sire. There was a crystal within that one would have expected to be burning bright with power, but it flickered and barely glowed. Aursra looked suddenly... amused. Before, he had seemed all powerful. He had terrified her. Now, he suddenly seemed.. old... feeble... magically impotent.

"Why, you're nothing but a... a leech..." Maybe it was relief, or maybe the emotional strain was finally just enough to have her snap, but she found herself laughing. How could she ever have been so frightened of him?

That was when, in a fit of rage, the man lowered his staff and charged toward Aursra's stomach, obviously gathering what little power he had left to him to make the blow a lethal one. She didn't have time to move fully out of the way, as he'd been at an incredibly close range, and she was no fighter. She cried out. It was a blunt object. It shouldn't have been able to cut her, she would later remember thinking as she made an attempt to twist away, but it ripped into the flesh of her side all the same, as if it had been spear again instead of staff.

For an instant, the sound of the baby's wailing could be heard again.. faintly, the magic around the House O' Dreams, the only illusion apparently remaining, threaten to dissipate as Aursra was consumed with her pain. She gritted her teeth though, stumbling toward it as she renewed her will. If her Sire got to the babe, somehow, before she did all could still be lost.

Aursra would barely look at Verial and he did not blame her. However, for a few moments he kept his eyes fixed on her though her attention was focused on her Sire. The way her face was set - marked by lines of internal struggle - told Verial she was trying to keep herself together. There was no doubt that getting rid of Aursra's Sire was the most important thing they had to face, but what caused her more pain was the bitter truth of Angelus' divorce. And though it was Angelus who had done it long ago, it was as if Verial had taken his own sword and ran Aursra through with it.

Verial only pulled his eyes away from Aursra when she started to laugh, an almost insane sort of sound considering the situation. He tried to follow her line of vision and saw that she had her gaze turned towards her Sire's staff which had previously been a finely sharpened spear due to one of his illusions. However, the blackened staff appeared way less threatening now as if it had been fashioned from a burnt stick. The crystal held within the staff's length was also dim, giving off a glow no bigger than a firefly, weak and fluttering. This clearly was not a man who was in his prime and one who might have been crazy to draw Aursra and her companions to him. Verial didn't try to bet on the outcome, but currently the situation did not look good for Aursra's Sire.

Then, before Verial could even realize, the feeble old man had lunged forward. The action was faster than either Verial or Aursra had anticipated. Aursra's Sire went straight for her and made contact; what Verial had thought was a decrepit staff tore through Aursra's side and left a sizable wound across the woman's body.

Verial blinked and suddenly time came back to him. Though Aursra's Sire had gotten some pleasure and revenge out of hurting her, this had also brought the man closer to Verial. In counterattack, Verial lifted his sword and thrust it into the old man's stomach, the blade easily slicing through thin and wrinkled skin. As the old man gasped and stumbled backwards trying to catch his footing, Verial yanked his sword out of the man and let him drop to the ground. Reaching down, Verial grabbed the blackened staff and quickly broke the thing across his knee, the weapon shattering like a burnt stick just as he had imagined it to be earlier. There was a brief flicker of thought in Verial's mind and he wondered how the staff had ever hurt Aursra in the first place.

Content her Sire would not be getting up anytime soon, Verial looked back towards Aursra who was crawling across the grass towards the House O' Dreams which stood out of place in their current surroundings. It was then that Verial realized the little cottage was nothing more than an illusion as well and he couldn't figure out if it was Aursra who had created it or if it was Aursra who was still trying to hold on to it. Verial dropped down on the grass next to her, put his sword aside and before she could get any further, he placed a raven feathered wing in front of her vision, as if the House O' Dreams had been on a stage and a black curtain closed down over it.

Verial wrapped his arms around her trying to keep her still lest she disturb the wound by trying to crawl towards something which was most likely fake. Verial couldn't tell any longer; sure the cottage looked real, but as it had proved in the last few hours, appearances can be deceiving. While Verial held her in his arms, careful not to touch the open wound, he looked down to inspect it. A portion of the dress she had been wearing was frayed off - he thought some of it looked burnt even - and blood soaked the torn edges. The flesh was practically gone where her Sire had hit and blood was flowing eagerly onto the rest of Aursra's skin and clothing.

Odd colored eyes desperately searched the area. "Kyrian?!" Verial called out loudly. This was not a wound Verial could even attempt to heal if he had wanted to. Now was the young boy's moment to shine. Unfortunately, Verial had no idea his son was currently detained and trying to saving a false Itarilde. "Hurry!"

He looked back towards Aursra's birth father as he groaned and pulled himself across the ground in the opposite direction, blood pooling around his body. No, Verial had not delivered a death wound to the man, because it wasn't his place to decide to kill Aursra's father, but if the old man did not seek help (from whatever friends he did have if any), he would die soon.

Verial's mind was swarming with thoughts about what to do for Aursra and the only thing he could think of was a lullaby. He leaned forward and hummed into her ear the song Sorvynia used to sing to Angelus and Verial when they were younger. Aursra might even recall it. In any case, it was the only thing Verial could think of to calm her at the moment and hopefully get her mind off the cottage ahead that flickered between a line of reality and dreams.