Well, my greatest contribution to the whole thing was Tevis' martial skill.  That, at least theoretically, was available without me.  I felt about as useful as a tea cozy in a hurricane (And if you're not sure what a tea cozy has to do with a hurricane, you're at least halfway to getting my point).
    Basically, we hiked up to the castle and spent a while messing around.  Fayne turned into a wolf in order to follow scent trails.  He led us to an unconscious Caspian and a paralyzed Merlin.  Since the consensus was that we couldn't haul them around, we stuck them in a room after Brand gave Merlin a start at undoing the paralysis spell.  After that, we kept running into clumps of demons.  Fortunately, they were dumb as rocks.  Intelligent tactics would have wiped us out entirely.
    The sound of explosions led us to the basement and to Bailey.  She looked pretty bad.  Not too surprising.  She'd been fighting demons and chasing Fiona for hours.  Bailey reminded us of the presence of the Hall of Mirrors, so we headed that way.
    The door was open, and things looked pretty weird.  At least half of the shards were glowing black and not reflecting anything at all.  As we moved further in, more and more of the shards looked weird.  Finally, we reached an area where almost all of the shards were non-reflective.  At that point, we heard a voice chanting.
    Fiona was standing over Sarah's unconscious body in front of the one intact mirror in the place.  Fiona held a large mirror shard and appeared to be just on the verge of another murder.  I don't think any of us had the slightest clue what she was trying to accomplish, but I also don't think we were wrong in assuming that it was likely to be something we wouldn't like.
    Mythos fired pretty much immediately.  Her first shot got rid of the shard threatening Sarah, but the second bounced.  Then Brand stepped forward to engage his sister in a sorcerous duel.  Fiona seemed to recognize him.  At that point, the spells started flying, and the rest of us had to duck.
    Jared gave Fayne his sword.  I offered Bailey my strength.  I think Jared was working on a spell.  I was just feeling fairly useless.
    The next bit both stretched on forever and occurred very rapidly.  Mythos dragged Sarah away from the battling siblings while Fayne moved around behind Fiona.  Mariah and Faust got the net up, and Fiona shrieked.  She screamed again when Fayne shoved Jared's sword into her back.  Then she stumbled forward and sideways into Mythos.  The two of them and the sword fell through the mirror.
    Fayne dived through after them.  Jared and I followed more slowly with Tevis and Brand accompanying us.  Everyone else was too confused, too hurt or too tired to follow us.
    The primal Pattern was an impressive sight, but we were more concerned with the trail of blood leading toward a cave that Mythos identified as Dworkin's tomb.  We found a workroom filled with a jumble of things.  The trail led further.  The second room held a bed with two dead men on it.  Jared's sword and Fiona's body lay near each other on the floor.
     Jared performed some sort of magic with a ring as the body before us finally died.  I expect that we all felt some relief as we decided that we could all head for home.  ExceptÖ
    Fayne headed for the Pattern.
    He wasn't acting at all normal, so Mythos shot him in the leg in an attempt to stop him.  We'd all pretty much made the logical leap to realize that we weren't dealing with Fayne, or not just with Fayne, any more.  Now we know why the Fount isn't a popular swimming pool.
    As Fayne stepped onto the Pattern, I stripped off my clothing and started to shift.  Unfortunately, when I took to the air I discovered that flying over the Pattern wasn't at all possible.  An utter waste of time.  I landed and started shifting back.  Jared told me that we had to abandon Tevis and Saul (Brand's ring could come with us) and follow Fiona/Fayne and Mythos on the Pattern.  I certainly agreed although I wasn't at all sure what I could do by following.
    I didn't feel I had time to dress, so I simply snatched the belt with my knives and the gun Mythos had lent me.  At Jared's prompting  Brand/Saul pulled off the ring and gave it to me.  I put it on.  After all, one more personality in my head wouldn't be a big deal.  As I headed for the Pattern, Tevis grabbed me, kissed me and ordered me to come back.  I smiled and told him that I planned to.
    Walking the Pattern was fairly annoying.  Brand helped quite a bit.  His experience with the stupid thing proved useful.  Still I reached the center considerably after Mythos and Fiona had gone on.  I'd thought about things a bit and tried to use the Pattern to go to Fiona.  She was after all the target.  I couldn't think of much I could actually do to her except possibly step aside (so to speak) and let Brand go after her, but she was the target.
    Nothing happened.
    Brand suggested going to Jared, so I did.  We were back in the Hall of Mirrors.  The last mirror had shattered.  Fayne lay on the floor.  Mythos was not there.  Everybody else was.
    At Brand's prompting, I put his ring on Fayne's hand.  Brand's verdict was that Fiona was gone.  I took the ring back and put it on.  I must confess to a certain sympathy for Brand.  He's utterly helpless unless someone's wearing that ring.
    We were too battered to do more than hope that Mythos was all right.  She'd apparently gone through the mirror just as it shattered.  Nobody had any clue what that meant.  All we could do was to head home at last.  It had been a very long day.
    After food and sleep, I started thinking about how to find Tevis and Saul.  Unfortunately, I lacked the skill to do anything on my own and so had to wait for Mariah or Bailey to recover.  I regretted that.  I may not return Tevis' feelings exactly the way he'd like, but I do care about him.  Maybe someday I'll be comfortable with what he wants.  A few weeks simply aren't long enough.
    Jared, Fayne and I gathered together more out of habit than anything else.  Mythos was very much on our minds.  After all, if she'd ended up at the primal Pattern, she'd have been back already.  She wasn't back, soÖ  We had no clue where she might be.
    We'd run out of things to talk about, but none of us had anything else that we felt moved to do.  I suppose that in some way we hoped that by just being together we'd manage to come up with a solution.
    Then Gabriel appeared carrying a very pregnant Mythos.  I think we were all surprised.  Mythos looked terrible.  She was unconscious and visibly dying.
    I ran to fetch Sarah.  She was easy enough to find.  I also looked for Hannah but gave up when I couldn't find her quickly.  I knew that there was nothing I could do, but I still wanted to be there.
    Mythos gave birth to a healthy baby boy and died.  I wish I could give her a proper epitaph, but I don't have the words or even the concepts.  The funeral was a state occasion.  I found myself thinking of the sarcastic comments that Mythos would have made regarding the fuss, but I couldn't think it at all inappropriate.  We all needed some form of comfort.
    I won't say it to either Jared or Sarah.  They might prefer uncertainty with its possibility for hope, butÖ  At least we know.
    I hope Jared's prepared.  That child should be very interesting when he becomes a teenager.

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