A serial tale of a hero/ine whose Manifestation offers hope to an entire mythical species, and gives promise to many awakenings in a sleeping world very much like our own.

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Sorry for the delay, again. Nothing I can really say about that...except that I hope to fail less in the future. And so, without further ado, here is your fix!

-Arianrhod.
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The next couple of days passed relatively uneventfully. Aryllia remained disturbingly quiet within my mind, but my growing unease regarding her absence was tempered by the fact that we didn't get attacked again.

Llew had settled in to the guest room comfortably, and was recovering smoothly. I hadn't heard word from any of the other Sidhe as yet, but I assumed that they were doing well also...wherever they were holed up.

For the rest of my family, life continued normally. School for my sister and work for my parents occupied the bulk of conversation...apparently my novelty was beginning to wear off. That was just fine by me, as it let me lay plans with Llew. Plans regarding issues that mere humans were better off staying out of.

We agreed upon several courses of action that needed immediate consideration right off. The first and foremost of these was finishing the problem of my untimely demise, and Llew had an unusual suggestion.

We were sitting on the floor of the guest room, papers and notebooks scattered around us to record our ideas as we generated them. It was just after lunch, and we were nibbling on a pizza that we had thrown in the oven.

"A gholem," Llew suddenly exclaimed out of nowhere...with a half a bite of pizza still present in her mouth.

"A what?" I asked, and scratched at the scales on my hand absently. I had begun spending almost all of my time in my human-ish form, only shifting to full human when I needed to leave the house. I hadn't gone dragon since the battle against Maoten, more for fear that I was somehow trackable when I was in my full form than any other reason.

"A gholem," Llew repeated. "It's something that bridges the gap between magic and science. Usually they're like stone statues that are carved out and then animated as guardians, stuff like that." She paused, as if listening to somebody that only she could hear. I absently wondered if I was the only one who had an elder being inside my head, but let the notion go.

"Hrulder is a specialist at something that we call spellsmithing. I don't know if he's ever tried to make a gholem or not, but it should be something that would be within the realm of possibility. He usually just makes weapons that are imbued with magical capabilities...like Rauthor's sword, for example."

"So you're suggesting that Hrulder could essentially make a body that looks like what I used, and then we could arrange for it to die in some suitably random and horrible fashion?" I mused.

"Essentially, yeah. The trick would be destroying it without letting anyone poke at it too much...but still making sure that they realized that it was physically you," she replied. We pondered that conundrum for a bit, continuing to devour the pizza.

"What if I killed myself?" I said suddenly. At Llew's look, I chuckled. "Not like that. What if the gholem were in a specific location...and someone just happened to tip off the police that the guy they're looking for is there. Then suppose a certain black dragon that everyone has seen but nobody has really seen shows up and blasts the hell out of aforementioned guy."

Llew paused, obviously thinking it over. "It could work. The biggest issue that I see with that plan is that you'll be a confirmed manslayer in the eyes of the public. I'm talking visions of dark age mobs with torches and pitchforks here."

I nodded. "True, but it would definitely pull the attention away from my family, and by extent, us. The townsfolk that you're worried about would assume that the dangerous monster has a lair somewhere in the mountains, because that's what all of the lore that has come down to modernity says a dragon would do. They'll comb the mountainsides for weeks, which will give us all the time we need to set up the next couple steps of our plan."

Llew shrugged, and went for another slice of pizza. "At the end of the day, it's your call. I just think it might not have quite the effect that you think it will."

There was another aspect of my plan that I wasn't telling her, though. In order to thoroughly divert all attention away from us, I was going to arrange for a certain group of thugs to be seen beating my double to a pulp.

I grinned savagely to myself, and grabbed the last slice of pizza.

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Looking across at the dangerously beautiful dragon-girl, I felt a brief, nagging worry. I didn't think that she was telling me everything of her plan, but decided that I didn't really care, as long as there was no interference with my own plans.

Abbie my mentor called softly.

Yes? I replied.

She is not the same as when you first met her. Use caution.

I was just thinking that myself. Thanks for confirming it, though.

Also, Rauthor wants to see you as soon as possible.

I wasn't sure what was going on, but in the months since becoming one of the Sidhe, I had learned quickly that when Rauthor wanted to see you, you dropped everything.

"Excuse me, Annie. Something's come up with the other Sidhe...I need to go see them for a bit. I'll be back later," I said.

"Is everything alright? Do you need my help?" she asked uneasily. I knew that her lack of fighting prowess was a sore spot with the young dragon.

I shook my head as I stood up. "Nah, it isn't a fighting something. More of a bureaucratic something. I'll be fine," I smiled, and teleported away before she had a chance to say anything else.

The falling sensations and silver-blue lights had freaked me out for a while after I'd learned how to teleport, but by now it was almost welcoming in a weird sort of way.

I emerged in another quiet forest glade several miles from the scarred remains of the wood in which Aryllia and Maoten had clashed. I quickly spotted Hrulder keeping watch over a cave entrance.

"Hrulder," I greeted him.

"Llew," he replied diffidently.

"I may have a job for you soon. I think you'll find it quite challenging," I added, and he perked up a little.

"You'll have to tell me later," he said. "Rauthor's inside with Kaldon and Promely." The Council, and they want to see me. Ugh.

"Well, I won't keep them waiting," I answered, and went into the cave looking much calmer than I felt. The three Sidhe that made up the Council were seated in a torchlit cavern not far in from the opening.

"Llew," they intoned formally. "We wanted to discuss the matter of Aryllia with you," Rauthor began.

"It's not Aryllia that worries me," I interrupted. At their mildly affronted looks, I continued. "It's Annie herself. She's not acting in the same manner as when I first introduced herself to me. It's subtle, but it's definitely there. Druantia agrees, and is urging caution."

"I should hope so," Kaldon said dryly. "We're talking about a draconic Origin here. With as much power as they've all accrued throughout the millenia -- even Aryllia -- we're like twigs to be crunched underfoot by comparison."

"We just think that you should be paying a little more attention to matters that pertain to our survival, as opposed to spending all of your time with the dragon," Promely added.

I looked at each of them, and I could tell that they didn't want to be saying this any more than I wanted to hear it.

"Look," I said calmly. "You made me your Queen because you thought that I could revive the Sidhe race somehow. I've got this voice in my head that's apparently an echo of one your best and brightest. I think that Aryllia is crucial to our survival, and Druantia agrees. We cannot simply scurry about hither and yon without a care to the troubles of the rest of the world. We cannot live like vagabonds any more, as you have done for so long. The Time of Renewal is close, and who can say that it won't bring merely terror and destruction, but hope also?"

"I hope you're right, Llew," Rauthor said tightly. I knew I had struck a nerve with him, so I backed off a bit and took a different approach.

"Aryllia could well be the best ally that we could possibly hope for. The other ur-dragons are consumed with their power and their hatred for man, but Aryllia has stayed the sanest of all of them -- ironic considering the predicament that she was placed in. And as you said yourselves, Origins possess tremendous power. I would rather see that power used on our behalf instead of against us, is all."

"But allying with Aryllia means that the others will thus be set against us. Maoten may have been defeated this time, but you can be assured that he will return...and that's just the reds. I'm certain that if the other dragon clans are not yet stirring, they soon will be. Even with our help, Aryllia cannot stand before their united might. This alliance is foolish," Kaldon said harshly.

"Then let us be fools," I replied coldly, and teleported away.

---------

With no idea of when Llew would be returning, I decided that the best thing to do would be to set some of my plans in motion. I knew the names of several of the low-class scum that had hung out with Will and participated in my near-torture. One of them, Arthur Jackson, was the gentleman who aligned his beliefs with neo-Nazism, and it was to him that I paid my first visit.

I definitely was not comfortable walking out in public as a full human female yet, but I grit my teeth and did it anyway. The too-detailed black dragon tattoo on my left shoulder blade was aching for some reason, but I ignored it.

Jackson was something of a pathetic human being, his personal beliefs notwithstanding. It was common knowledge at the school that he habitually crashed at the local pool hall as soon as classes were finished. Nobody really knew anything about his family, but he either didn't care about them in the slightest or purposefully avoided them...either way, he preferred to hang out with the bikers and skinheads that called Gunny's Billiards home away from home.

Nestled away in a quiet corner of the town, the pool hall was almost always open, but was also usually vacant except for the owner, a morose middle-aged gentleman whose parents, in a moment of twisted humor, had named their child Gunther. When I was younger, I'd once had a birthday party at his shop, and he'd seemed like a nice enough guy.

Regardless of Gunther's own ideals, however, I had business to attend to. Opening the door underneath the gaudily painted sign, I walked in and was not surprised to discover that Gunny was the only one occupying the building, unless you wanted to count the rats that my enhanced senses picked up as running underneath the floorboards.

"Gunny, I presume?" I asked, knowing full well it was him.

"Aye," he answered morosely. "What do you want, girl? I'm guessin' that it's not a table for you an your friends."

"You'd be correct in that. Arthur Jackson likes to hang out here later in the day, doesn't he?"

Gunny nodded, and I continued, "Would you please give him a message for me?"

He didn't say anything, so I put a five dollar bill on the desk in front of him. "Well, I reckon that I could relay some words after all," he said as he grabbed for the bill greedily.

"Good, I'm glad we could come to an understanding. Tell him that Roger Nebel will be at the high school a week from today, and that he's got a grudge to settle with Jackson and the rest of Will Langton's thugs."

Gunny eyed me appraisingly. "An who should I tell him gave me the message? I don't remember seein' you around these parts before."

"Just say that it was a friend of Roger's sister." In a weird way that isn't even a lie I thought.

I turned without another word and left the pool hall. The message was sent, now all that remained was the waiting. I smiled with grim satisfaction, and walked home.

Llew was there waiting for me. She had a troubled look in her silver-grey eyes, but she was smiling nonetheless. "Where've you been?" she asked curiously.

"Just setting the trap," I smiled back. "Did you talk to Hrulder about that gholem yet?"

"No, I didn't have a chance. Was busy trying to avoid smashing the heads of the Council against a stone wall," she said, pulling a tragically annoyed face. "You manage to get in touch with Aryllia yet?"

"Negative. Everything is eerily quiet. The scales balancing my human and draconic aspects are still in the mental corridor, but Aryllia isn't lying at their base anymore. It's like she's just disappeared," I said worriedly.

"I'm sure she'll be back," Llew said soothingly. "Aryllia is an ur-dragon, it would take a hell of a lot more that what she went through against Maoten to actually kill her."

Having been one with Aryllia throughout that fight and feeling her pain -- both physical and emotional -- I rather doubted that, but I was wise enough to keep my mouth shut.

"At any rate," Llew continued, "I think it's time we actually talked about the Time of Renewal."