Prologue:Logging in.

Jiggling the key in the old lock to his apartment door, Nathan could barely contain his excitement as he slipped into his rather drab apartment. He was greeted by the sight of an old used sofa and kitchen table that he had reclaimed from his parent's garage. A mix match of plates, cups, and other odds and ends lay scattered about in piles. It wasn’t much in the way of style but it served his needs; besides the life of tier two IT tech support monkey really couldn’t support much more.

Just thinking about work immediately soured his mood. The day had been an odd mix of boredom and hell. The boredom was due to the IT gods deeming today was the day nothing would go wrong. Which left him in what seemed like perpetual anticipation with nothing but his favorite gaming news websites to keep him entertained. The hellish part was that his boss didn’t quite understand the concept of downtime, and had driven the office crazy by nagging everyone on the floor to keep busy so the metrics looked good. Despite there being very literally nothing to do.

“Rana... He’s toying with you...” In spite of the noise of the dead girl’s screams and the chaos of the fight, Greta’s raspy, sick-sounding voice rang clear in Rana’s ears. She couldn’t see very well, with her eyes teared up from the pain and shock of the blow to her face, but from her voice Rana was sure Greta was barely clinging to life.

Tears rolled unchecked down her cheeks. Looking him deep into his eyes, she whispered to Rall. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you.” Then she finally broke down into heartwrenching sobs, completely devoid of hope.

She felt her legs turning to lead and her side ache as if pierced by a sharp knife. She knew her limit had been reached but kept going anyway. Even so it surprised her when the ground jumped up and hit her in the face.

Smiling at him she offered her elegant hand as if to pull him up from the water. “Come,” she said, “Dance with me on the waters and lie with me on the sand.”

“When the fae come out to play the mortals dance and swing and sway..."

Cale’s waiting paid off an hour after dusk. The lights on the third floor flicker out in the adjacent inn. Soon the two girls would be fast asleep; a few drops of crushed night weed and the two would never awaken. A painless death, it was the least he could do.

“The road!” Greta whooped in glee as she jumped up and down excitedly. Rall joined her in excitement when he first saw the hard-packed wide road from Gaerbron to Lussax. He didn’t recognize where they were along the road because he hadn’t paid much attention the first time along it, and it hardly mattered anyway because they weren’t lost in the woods anymore!

“So we’re lost?” Rall asked, hoping somehow it wouldn’t be true.