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She understood... a bit more, but a bit less than she did before. It forced her to rethink how she saw the world, sure she knew there were dangerous things, but so dangerous that the Ranch might not be able to look after itself?

Though to say Aragost would be hard pressed certainly told her something about strength.

"Why..." she finally asked, "I mean... it sounds like it would destroy anything, but why is that?"

Moor cats at least she could understand, they hunted, they needed to eat, human and drawf slavers, okay she couldn't understand but she knew they were driven by greed, or need... or whatever what might be even if it was really stupid.

Sir Valdemar shook his head in the darkness.

"We are very nearly there," he told Lin quietly, "and then you will learn as much as I dare tell you. But first, tell me ... what do you know of Melkor?"

He stopped with his hand on a wall and looked seriously down at Lin.



Atalya laughed. "I can well imagine," she said in amusement, her eyes twinkling brightly. "Though one might argue that it could be expected ... there seems to be twins in every generation, nearly. And identical twins, at that."

"Except ours," Reave pointed out. "You were an only child."

Atalya nodded at her husband. "Though that just might have something to do with the fact that my mother died minutes after my birth," she reminded him, "and my father was murdered when I was young."

"It might," the king smiled softly.

Lin paused and thought about it, she hadn't heard of Melkor since she was a Surprise and for once she found her memory to be a bit hazy, but it wasn't like that was a topic of conversation she actively pursued, not when the two main people she hung around were there when it all happened.

"That's...." she replied uncertainly, "The one who created the demons right? And that tree, the one that looks like a willow or wistra tree, but you can't touch it because it's posionous?"

Sir Valdemar pushed the wall gently, and it swung open to reveal a dark room filled with books and papers.

"That is correct," he said quietly as the musky smell of age escaped the room and filled the air. "But that is but a vague beginning of what he is."

He motioned for Lin to follow him inside the room, then closed the door behind both of them. The torch in his hand flickered and threatened to go out, dying in the oxygen-deprived air - but Sir Valdemar muttered a few dark words and suddenly the air became clear and the torch burned bright.



"Wonderful, indeed," Atalya smiled warmly at Lore. "Children are always a blessing."

She clapped her hands suddenly and changed the subject. "So how long will you be able to stay?" she asked eagerly. "Surely for longer than a day or two ..."

The girl blinked owlishly a few times, she wondered if Sir Valdemar ever felt trapped whenever he had to be here (though she had no clue when was the last time he had been here). The smell of the books was the first thing that caught her attention, she was use to book smells but this was a bit much.

"You mean besides making pretty trees that hurt people and demons that are actually mean?"

She blinked up at him, demons of her world of course weren't necessarily mean, which was why she found it curious. Well that and why would anyone want to make things like that?

"Lin," the ancient historian said softly, "if that were the extent of the damage he has caused, we would count ourselves lucky."

He placed the torch in a bracket that hung on the wall, then headed across the room to search the ancient tomes on the shelves for the one that he was looking for. He muttered quietly to himself, reading the titles of each one, until at last he found the one he was looking for. Like the book of Manwe, it was large and black and obviously as old, but somehow the feel of it was different - evil, instead of pleasant, and filled with fear and trepidation. He brought it over to the desk beneath the torch and lay it down carefully, so as not to disturb the layer of dust that seemed to cover just about everything.

"You remember what our world was once like," he said quietly, glancing at Lin over his shoulder, "as I once showed you with the book of the beginning."




The queen's eyes grew even brighter. "Then we shall have lots of time to get reacquainted with what has happened during your absence," she said happily. "And of course to spend time with our newest great-grandchildren."

Reave chuckled. "Perhaps we should take them to their room," he suggested to his wife, "so that they can get rid of their bag?"

For a moment, it seemed as though Atalya was going to agree without hesitation - but then she shook her head.

"I cannot," she said softly. "Though you may. I must wait here for Sir Valdemar ... whenever Lin brings him back here. I cannot delay this talk with him any longer."

"I remember...." Lin murmured.

She felt like there was something crawling up her arm, it was so strange she had thought to herself. Lin was well aware she had grown desensitized to magic as the result of being here so much, but one would have to be blind magically speaking to not feel this.

"I mean... it was... the first set of many questions I ended up asking."

It was how she got to know Sir Valdemar so well, it was why she continued to learn. It was one of those happy childhood experiences. She edged closer to him, curious and yet wary, but she couldn't quite figure out why.

Sir Valdemar lay one hand reluctantly on the cover of the enormous tome.

"Then you will understand," he murmured, "what I am about to show you. What it meant. What it still means. And what it will mean ... after I tell you of the Creature."

His fingertips trembled as he slowly pried the book open. He did not want to have to go through this ... he could not go through this alone ... but Lin needed to know, and with her near him he did not have to fear being overwhelmed by the evil that he was about to show her.

Before the cover had lifted more than a few inches, it whipped itself out of his hands, slamming violently open against the desk, and the pages fluttered in a sudden wind that whirled them this way and that. A terrible roaring filled the room, and large though it was it created a suffocating effect, and several loose sheets of paper that had been on the desk, the floor, and on shelves scattered about the room and landed all over the place. And the room, as hot as it had been when they had first entered, became suddenly cold, so cold that goosebumps rose on Sir Valdemar's skin.




Reave rose and put one hand on each of his wife's shoulders, rubbing them gently.

"Why don't you stay here," he murmured, "and I will take Lore and Elnara to their room and explain what is going on ..."

Atalya nodded and squeezed his hands lightly with her own. "That will be fine," she murmured, offering him a brave smile. "I will be here when you return."

Reave nodded, then turned his attention to Lore and Elnara and the twins. "Come, I will carry your bag for you," he offered with a warm smile. "You might as well get settled, and then there will be one less thing for you to worry about later."