Well this is it. The final chapter of book one of my trilogy. Of course, book two is finally going to start at long last! Please leave a review, as I most certainly love to hear what everybody has to say!

Thanks do much!

D*W*Cooper

~~~~~

Chapter 62 -- The Final Battle

We reached the false doorway that led back into the castle much sooner than I had expected. While I wanted to finally complete our mission, I didn't envy going up against so many evil ones. I only hoped that Atomea had a really good plan.

Atomea stopped us at the false doorway while he went in and checked the castle. He soon came back, closed the doors to the entrance of the great armory room, and then told us to come in. He stood at the center as we all gathered around him and listened as he explained his plan.

"Castle Ulmgorn, where we are standing right now, usually has very few of my men, the uh... evil ones as you call them, stationed here. Almost all of them are out in the city or on the city walls. I have just ordered the remaining ones to leave the castle saying I want to be alone with the Princess as I show her around her new castle.

"Except for a small guard that will wait in the courtyard in case I have need of anything, the castle will soon be completely empty of all my men. Thus, with little effort we have already taken the castle. From here, we can launch our attack on the city and if need be, we can retreat here and defend ourselves.

"However, taking the city won't be easy. My men outnumber you at least ten to one and they could simply lay siege to the castle and wait you out. This would take some time as I have many supplies here, but they have lived here for thousands of years, so they can easily endure for many more years.

"Thus, we need to take the battle to them. The best way will be to take the walls of the city first and then we'll have the advantage of being able to shoot down on them. Normally, the walls are filled with my men, so I will call a great assembly in the city's main square to celebrate my soon coming marriage to the Princess.

"They have waited very long for this, and if I offer them generous amounts of wine, most will come and hopefully many of them will soon be too drunk to put up much of a fight."

Atomea turned to me speaking softer and showing me respect.

"However, to do this believably, I'll have to have the Princess with me. But I leave it up to her whether she wants to join me or not as I don't want to force her to put her own life at risk. It is possible that the spies or someone else will betray me and all will be lost. I leave it to the Princess to decide then. Will you go with me to celebrate our marriage together?"

I hadn't thought I would play such a central role in Atomea's plan, and I also didn't care to pretend to be married to him. He was still quite ugly even if he no longer smelled so bad. But how could I refuse? The plan made perfect sense and I had volunteered for this mission in the first place. I might as well finish it.

"Yes Atomea, I will go with you... and celebrate our 'marriage' together."

"Great!" Atomea said looking more pleased than I liked at my acceptance. "Elcorn will direct the battle from here at the castle and I have asked him to pick two men to lead the battle out onto the walls from each side of the castle. Elcorn, have you chosen your men?"

"Yes. I've chosen my two strongest and bravest men, Armeth and Resondo!"

A cheer went up for Armeth and Resondo, and while that commotion was going on, Doc crawled up to my ear and said he would stay with me when I went with Atomea.

Missy saw Doc talking to me and came over to listen.

"I want to go with you too!" Missy said.

"Missy! Please! It's too dangerous! Besides, we're supposed to be celebrating our 'marriage'. It will look funny to have you there too!"

"You just want to have all the fun -- a big party, maybe lots of presents for your wedding, and then you get to be right in the thick of the biggest battle we've ever seen!" Missy said.

"I'll probably be killed! And I doubt that it's going to be a party. Do you really want to be surrounded by thousands of evil ones when a huge battle breaks out?"

"Better there than sitting here in the castle!"

"Why don't you help out Armeth or Resondo then?"

"But I promised I would stay with you!"

"No. Not this time Missy. This is too big, and I don't want to lose both of us. This is something I have to face alone."

"But what about Doc? He gets to go with you doesn't he?"

"Well sure, but..."

"He's just a mouse!" Missy interrupted me. "How nice! A mouse gets to join you but your best friend doesn't!"

"But... I..."

"No, you go ahead this time without me. I'll stay here with Elcorn and watch the castle grow older for a few hours."

"Missy! Please! I don't want you to die!"

"And I don't want you to die either! That's why I promised to stay with you in the first place."

"I'm sorry Missy, but there's something different this time. I just don't feel right with you going. I really think God wants me to do this one alone. I don't know why, but I'd feel much better if you don't go along."

"Right." Missy said looking dejected. "Well, take care and don't get your self killed. Okay?"

"Sure Missy, and I am sorry."

"Yeah... well... I got to talk to Elcorn, so I'll see you."

"Missy. Please. I'm sorry."

"Just go on and don't get yourself killed. Alright?" Missy said almost crying and then walked off.

"Don't worry Princess," Doc said softly to me. "She'll be okay, and I'll make sure to take care of you."

"Thanks Doc, but I just wish it didn't have to be this way. I really hate to hurt her like this."

"You have to do what you feel is right."

"But that's so hard..."

"You're learning what it's really like to be a Princess. Things are not always that easy."

"You got that right. I just never knew..."

Atomea finished up some last minute details with Elcorn and then turned to me.

"Are you ready Princess?"

"Yeah... sure. Can I keep my sword this time?"

"I don't see why not," Atomea answered. "I'll just say that you have willingly accepted to marry me in exchange for half of my kingdom. My men will certainly appreciate that and will expect you to show your power and authority."

I smiled in response, but I didn't like how much Atomea was getting into this marriage stuff, but if it helped us defeat the evil ones, then I suppose I could go along with it. But he had better drop all the stuff after the battle is over.

Dorfen came up to Atomea looking very nervous.

"King... I mean Atomea. The Princess shouldn't go out for a celebration with her armor looking like that! I need a few minutes to clean it up."

"She looks fine to me!" Atomea said looking at me up and down which made me quite uncomfortable. "None of my men would even notice."

"That may well be," Dorfen said indignantly, "but it just isn't proper for a Princess who is supposed to be marrying you to look this way!"

"Fine. But hurry it up, will you?"

Dorfen went to work polishing my armor and fixing my hair that flowed out from under my helmet and soon I was shining very brightly and looked much better than I had. Elcorn, Armeth and nearly everyone else said I really looked like a queen now, but I didn't care to be called that. I just wanted this battle to be over.

I tried to say goodbye to my friends, but Atomea insisted we hurry and soon he was escorting me out of castle Ulmgorn. He commanded the remaining guard in the castle's courtyard to join us, and after we got out the front gate of the castle wall and locked it behind us, he bellowed for his top commanders to come at once.

They arrived fairly quickly, a testament once again to the fear Atomea had over everyone. Atomea stood up on a step and spoke to them

"I have very good news!" Atomea announced to them proudly. "The enemy was defeated today by my elite demonic force and now the Princess has decided to abandoned those pathetic losers she has been with and join me instead. And in exchange for ruling over half my kingdom, she has agreed to marry me!"

The evil ones cheered at this and shouted how the prophecies really were lies all along. They complimented their king for doing such a great job and even suggested that he should celebrate his victory. But they were careful not to push him too far.

"Yes! I think you're on to something there. We should celebrate our victory over the enemy, over the stupid prophecies and even more, to the Princess' acceptance to marry me and be my queen. What do you say?"

The evil ones let out a great roar of approval that didn't sound so much like a cheer as a guttural roar of their enthusiasm.

"And to make this a proper celebration of our victory and my marriage to the Princess, I think we should open the wine storehouses and let all drink their fill! What do you say?"

This really undid them. They started shouting and dancing and smacking each other with tremendous enthusiasm, so much so that they already looked quite drunk knocking each other over.

"Then it's decided!" Atomea shouted. "Call all the men to the great square of the city, open the wine storehouses, and let's celebrate our eternal rule, the power of my great kingdom, the defeat of the prophecies, and my new queen who shines like the sun for us all!"

The evil ones seemed actually happy for once, and ran off to call all the men under them to the huge celebration. It didn't take much persuasion and soon thousands of evil ones were gathering around the huge square in the center of the dark city cheering Atomea.

Seeing the evil ones stream off of the walls was very encouraging. Atomea's plan really seemed to be working.

Great barrels of wine were rolled out and fights soon broke out among the evil ones trying to get as much wine as they could. They drank copious quantities and made lots of noise. They even kept trying to get me to drink but I would just turn and shine the light of my armor in their faces and they would turn away.

Atomea climbed up on the edge of a large fountain that was in the center of the square and started goading them on to celebrate even more.

"Come on men! We have plenty of wine! Don't let it all go to waste! This is the greatest day we've seen in ten thousand years!"

I didn't think that Atomea needed to encourage them. They were already fighting over getting as much as they could. One of the storehouses was literally torn to pieces in their pursuit to get more wine.

"Men!" shouted Atomea above the racket. "Drink to our great victory! Drink to the defeat of the prophecies! Drink to my new queen!"

The evil ones began to work themselves into a frenzy and I wondered why I even needed to be there. They didn't seem to care about anything except celebrating more and more.

"Do you call this a celebration?" Atomea bellowed to them. "Where's the dancing? Where are the shouts of victory? Where's the lovely fighting to show who's the best?"

Evil ones everywhere danced like they were on fire while they made all kinds of noises and fought anyone who got in their way. Great brawls broke out and soon many evil ones were laying on the ground scattered all over the square.

If this keeps up, I thought, our army won't even need to attack them -- they'll all kill themselves!

But then I saw it. There was a different type of disturbance at the corner of the square closest to the main gate. Some of the evil ones had stopped dancing and fighting and looked like they were talking.

I could just make out what had to be one of the spies. Somehow he had made it back and was telling the evil ones what had really happened outside the city. I could see it spread. Whatever he had told them was being passed from one evil one to the next and each time it did it caused the celebration in that part to die down.

Our time had clearly run out, but I didn't know what to do about it. I tapped on Atomea's arm, who lowered his head to let me speak into his ear, and I told him what was happening.

"It's time to get out of here Princess. But first we must signal Elcorn to deploy his men on the walls."

Atomea grabbed a blanket that was on the ground and threw it over me, pulled it off and did it again. I must have flashed liked a lighthouse spotlight, and I knew Elcorn would see the signal. Our men would soon be taking the walls and we would have the advantage.

Atomea grabbed my arm and started walking briskly in the direction away from where the spy had come in. He had to shove many evil ones aside, but they seemed to think it was part of the celebration. Even so, it slowed us down and I worried we wouldn't get away in time.

Like quickly spreading yeast, the spy's words spread through the celebrating evil ones at an accelerating rate. And soon I heard shouts that the king had betrayed them.

We were nearing the edge of the square but I could see it was too late. Large evil ones were running around the outside perimeter to head us off. I put my hand on my sword ready to fight.

And right then, right in the middle of evil ones still drinking and celebrating, right in the middle of being dragged by Atomea as quickly as he could shove his way through, right in the middle of the enemy having found us out and trying to cut us off, God showed me a vision.

The real world became a dream while the vision became more real than life. I saw myself surrounded by thousands of evil ones on all sides as I was strapped to a pole, and wood was thrown around its base and lit on fire. But then I saw a great light shine so bright that evil ones were hurled for dozens of feet back because of the force of it. And I saw the crumpled mass of Atomea lying at my feet in a pool of blood.

And then the vision ended and I looked up and saw we were surrounded by many very large evil ones.

"Where do you think you're going... king?" One of them asked dragging out the word 'king' sarcastically and sounding like he had just caught a traitor.

Just then the evil ones spotted our army pouring out onto the walls of the dark city. All celebrating came to an abrupt end and I heard a strange murmuring sound emanate from the evil ones that sounded like a great gnashing of their rotting teeth.

"Isn't it obvious?" an evil one shouted. "The king has betrayed us to the enemy. He's on their side now!"

"Is this true?" another one demanded poking Atomea with his bony finger and a scowl on his face.

"Of course it's true!" one of Atomea's commanders said loudly. "He claimed the enemy was killed by his demons, and yet there they are right now on the walls of our city! I never thought I'd say it, but the king has deliberately lied to us and sold us out to the enemy!"

"What do you think they offered him to sell us out?" another asked.

"Offered him?" the commander asked incredulously. "They didn't have to offer him anything. They lured him with this wretched Princess that he has always adored!"

I felt the hatred in the way he spit out the word 'princess'. It was clear that they didn't share Atomea's obsession with me.

"So she's a white witch then!" an evil one shouted looking at me with eyes I knew wanted to kill me.

"A witch of the worse sort!" the commander yelled. "She's beguiled him for thousands of years. Why else would he be so taken with marrying her?"

"Then she needs to be burned at the stake!" someone screamed.

"Do witches even burn in fire?" another asked.

"If she doesn't burn, then we'll hack her to pieces with our swords!" another answered.

"Men!" Atomea spoke up. "You are getting too hasty here. There are explanations for what I have done. Do you think it was going to be easy to defeat the Princess? I have arranged this whole ruse just to lure her to marry me and break the prophecies! And now you have ruined everything!"

There was a pause as the evil ones stopped to think that this was all somehow a great deception that the king had planned in order to defeat me. But how can you trust the word of someone claiming to have lied?

"You're trying to trick us! We can see the enemy on our walls even now. No ruse is worth that!"

"Fools!" Atomea shouted. "Do you think it is easy to break the prophecies? Do you really think their pitiful army can defeat us? We outnumber them more than ten to one! If you want to kill the Princess, that's fine by me, but don't say I have betrayed you. I have brought the Princess right here to you!"

I didn't like all of Atomea's lies. I couldn't help but wonder if he was really telling the truth now or not.

At the same time I felt Doc climb down my leg and then I saw him climb up the on the commander. I knew what was coming and I was ready.

"Even if the king has planned this," the commander shouted, "he still betrayed us all to let the enemy into the city. We can no longer trust him! We need a new king!"

Many evil ones made noises to express their approval, but it was obvious to me that the commander simply saw this as his opportunity to usurp the king and get power for himself.

But then I saw Doc start to speak into the commander's ear. His eyes got very big and his face turned several colors, and then he screamed the most hideous scream I have ever heard! It sounded like a giant frog being squashed.

The other evil ones looked at him in terror wondering what was going on, but they just didn't think that the mouse sitting on the commander's shoulder could possibly have anything to do with it.

"It's the white witch!" someone shouted. "She's trying to possess the commander!"

I pulled my sword out as they looked like they were about to attack me, but then Atomea grabbed my arm and pulled my sword out of my hand. I tried to shake myself lose from his grip, but he was much too strong.

"Here is your witch!" Atomea shouted. "Do with her as you please!"

But the evil ones didn't really hear Atomea as the commander started swinging his sword and chopping arms and heads off of the other evil ones around him. The evil ones didn't know what to do at first, or who was really on their side and soon a huge fight broke out with evil ones attacking one another.

Atomea quickly yanked me away as he tried to make it for the edge of the square, but it was no use. While many evil ones were confused and fighting each other, other ones, especially the larger ones knew he was trying to escape and kept blocking his way.

The fighting died down around us and the evil ones closed in until all at once they pounced on Atomea. I was knocked to the side and on the ground and then I heard this huge rumbling and saw Atomea throw all of the evil ones off of him in one mighty move. But he had lost his sword and the evil ones saw he was defenseless and jumped him again with even greater ferocity and numbers.

This time Atomea was unable to throw them off and I knew they had him. But I saw my sword lying on the ground and grabbed it in the chaos.

Then I saw Doc on the shoulder of another evil one who came running right past where I was. I jumped up and ran behind him as he cut a path through the evil ones.

There was great chaos and confusion all over the square as evil ones were fighting each other and I saw arrows raining down on them from our army's position on the walls of the city, but the arrows only reached so far and didn't really do that much.

As I followed Doc and swung at evil ones that passed by me, I heard a different commotion coming from the direction of the castle. I glanced in that direction and saw Missy in her bright armor come running out of the castle gate with Elcorn beside her and others following behind. The evil ones were so busy fighting each other that they were caught by surprise. Even still, they far outnumbered our army and I prayed God would protect them.

But an evil one struck the one Doc was on causing him to tumble over and sending Doc flying. He flew through the air and landed right on the eye of another evil one. That evil one was soon screaming and went running through the chaos. But I tripped over the evil one that Doc had been on and when I picked myself up I found I was surrounded by a large number of evil ones who were quite obviously intent on getting me.

I looked for where Doc was, but he was nowhere in sight. I looked for where Missy and Elcorn were, but they had made very little progress against the horde of evil ones. I looked for Atomea, but he was surely a goner by now.

I was alone and way outnumbered, and I knew they wanted to burn me at the stake. I prayed to God to help me, and then I started swinging my sword as if I had been trained as a great ninja fighter all my life. I didn't really know what I was doing, but it didn't seem to matter. There were so many evil ones around that I just couldn't miss.

I made sounds like in a Bruce Lee movie and the evil ones actually looked terrified. I guess they hadn't seen the movies.

I spun and twisted and used the techniques I had learned in my ballet classes, although my teacher would have been shocked at my performance of chopping heads and body parts off.

Everything became a blur. I stopped thinking about each individual move and simply began to feel it. I sensed the evil ones behind me and at my side and swung at just the right time to get them before they got me.

My armor saved me many times as their swords simply couldn't penetrate it and the light from it often blinded them at extremely inconvenient times that I gladly took great advantage of.

But in the end, it was no use. There were simply too many of them and it became hard to move with bodies all around me. Worse, the bodies would reach out and grab onto my legs and I would have to waste time making them real bodies again.

And then it happened. I spun around to hit an evil one behind me, spun too far and tripped over a body. The evil ones immediately pounced on me and took my sword. They had me and I was at their mercy.

They dragged me to the center of the square where they quickly set up a large pole and tied me up to it. Evil ones started throwing wood all around me and other ones carried Atomea's bleeding body and threw it at my feet.

I looked up and saw that Missy and Elcorn were being driven back towards the castle. It looked like they were simply overwhelmed and would have to retreat to the protection of the castle. Other evil ones were rushing the city walls trying to take them back and that didn't look to be going well for us either.

It didn't take long for the evil ones to pile wood all around me and then they lit it on fire. Just like that! I couldn't believe how quickly they did it. They didn't even give me a chance to say a last word or anything. They were in too much of a hurry for such niceties and I suppose they didn't care about them anyway.

A huge cheer went up when they saw the flames licking at my body, and I knew I only had seconds left to live.

"God," I prayed, "you gave me that vision just minutes ago. I don't understand it, but I pray that you would send the great light of your glory right now!"

Nothing happened and I saw the flames grow quickly, and yet, somehow I felt at peace. As chaotic as everything was. As close to death as I was. I felt assured that God would save me.

He hadn't given me that vision for nothing.

I saw Doc on the shoulders of still another evil one come running in the direction of the crowd of evil ones that were standing around me waiting to see me burn. They didn't see Doc who ran right through them and right towards me. The evil one he was on ran into the burning sticks of wood causing him to fall over and sending Doc flying right at me.

Doc grabbed my hair as he sailed by and ended up on my shoulder.

"Are you ready Princess?" Doc said as if it was the most perfectly normal thing in the world to do what he was doing. "Close your eyes and hold on tight!"

Hold on to what, I thought? I'm tied to a burning stake!

"Now God!" was the last thing I heard Doc say.

I felt a huge wind blow down from right on top of me and felt a great heat. I felt like I was in the middle of a giant tornado that had descended from heaven right on top of my head.

I heard the screams of many evil ones and felt Doc holding onto my hair that felt like it would be pulled out.

The wind came and went in just seconds and when I opened my eyes, the scene before me was entirely different from what I had last seen. There was no longer burning wood around me or evil ones for that matter. They had been blown back over a hundred feet and looked extremely terrified.

The ropes that had bound me were now severed and smoking. I looked up and saw our army descending down from the city walls as the enemy was clearly panicking. Missy and Elcorn reemerged from the castle and started making incredible progress with Elcorn leading the way.

But no evil one dared come near me. They had seen the power of God and they thought I was the cause of it.

I saw Atomea's crumpled body far away but not as far as the evil ones had been blown, so I ran over to check on him. He had many deep cuts all over his body and was almost dead, and yet I heard him try to say something.

I lowered my head down to his mouth so I could listen better as he whispered his last words to me.

"You... saved me... Elissa. Thank you."

Atomea paused and I thought he had died, but then he went on.

"Ever since I saw the painting of you... I wanted to marry you... It was not just to break the prophecy..."

I felt awkward that he should tell me this as he lay dying, but I didn't want to stop him from saying what he wanted.

"But you must promise me..."

Atomea coughed, spitting up blood and I wondered what he wanted me to promise.

"You must promise me... I have started a great evil... it must be stopped... you must promise me..."

"What Atomea? What do you want me to promise?"

But his voice had gotten almost imperceptible and I could barely hear him.

"The Spire... you must destroy... promise me..."

"You want me to destroy the spire? Yes, I promise you I will do it Atomea, but why? What great evil is there?"

"...must destroy it... all will be undone if you don't..."

"But how..." I started to ask but stopped as I saw the life go out of his eyes.

Atomea, the great evil king that had turned to good, was gone. I don't know why it hit me so strongly, but I couldn't help but cry for him. I forgot all about the battle that was still raging and just cried for all Atomea had gone through in his life and how short his time was after his heart was finally healed of its pain.

I don't know how long I laid there crying over him, but the next thing I felt was a tapping on my shoulder.

"Elissa!, Elissa! Get up, we need your help!"

I looked up and saw it was Missy and smiled weakly.

"We could really use you!" Missy said. "The evil ones won't come near you after what happened, and we can use that to trap them."

I only half heard what Missy said. I was still feeling what all Atomea had gone through and I didn't want to leave him, but Missy was insistent, so I allowed Missy to help me up and guide me where she wanted me to go.

"We found your sword way back there," Missy said pointing while she handed me my sword. "I didn't think you would make it when I saw them light that fire. What happened?"

"It was Doc. I think it was his angel Arcadriel that showed up again, but I don't know. Where is Doc anyway?"

"Doc? Who knows? I saw him flying by a minute ago on another evil one, but I don't know where he is now. He sure has killed a lot of evil ones though!"

I smiled and let Missy lead me toward where our army had cornered a large number of evil ones.

"He said we have to destroy the Spire," I said as she led me along.

"Who said?"

"Atomea said. He made me promise to destroy it and I did."

"You mean even after we kill these evil ones, we're still not done?" Missy said looking at me like she couldn't believe it. "Well, you may have promised Atomea, but I didn't and I can't wait to get home! I'm sick of this place!"

"You can go home if you want Missy. I'll take care of that Spire thing."

"Oh yeah! Like you want to have all the fun? Just like you did back there? No way am I going to let you do anything all alone again!"

"But your parents! Your family!"

"Well, maybe I'll go visit them."

"They'll never let you back."

"Well... I don't know, but I'll think of something!"

The evil ones panicked when they saw me and tried to run away so much that they ended up falling over each other and creating a big pileup. Our army closed in and quickly dispatched most of them in just a few minutes.

At that point, we were clearly winning and it didn't look like the evil ones would be able to put up much more of a fight.

"Princess!" Elcorn shouted and broke away from the battle to see me. "You have no idea how worried I was for you."

"Well, I think I might have an idea..."

"Especially when I saw them tie you to that stake! I really tried to fight our way over and rescue you, but it was just impossible. I'm really glad God sent that whirlwind of light. I couldn't believe it!"

"It was light?"

"Sure! Didn't you see it? It was amazing! It plunged right out of the sky and literally lit up the entire cave that the city sits in. I think half of the evil ones were blinded by that light. At least, they fought much worse after the light than they did before it."

Just then Doc went flying by on the shoulders of another evil one.

"How does he do that?" Elcorn asked shaking his head in disbelief. "I'll never get over it!"

"I don't know," I said, "but it was Doc who saved the day. It was his angel that came when he asked God to send him. I'm just glad he's on our side and he's my friend!"

"You can say that again!" Missy said as we watched Doc go sailing by again catching evil ones as they tried to escape.

It took some time to flush out every last pocket of evil ones. They seemed to be hiding everywhere and would even stage attacks on us when they thought they had a chance. But in the end, the battle was a foregone conclusion.

Missy and I eventually retired back to castle Ulmgorn, and rested as we were so completely tired out, but Elcorn, Armeth, Resondo, Doc and many others continued on for some time after that tracking every last evil one down and setting Adoran totally free of their presence.

Slowly, our army returned to the castle and as we waited word that no more evil ones could be found, the freed prisoners, the animals and the hidden ones began their long hoped for celebration.

Elcorn sent out a party that found and retrieved all the wounded ones including Abason that we had left outside the city, and soon everyone was cheering every time another member of our army, wounded or not, came through the castle door.

The last one to show up was Doc who got the biggest cheer of all! He claimed to have killed over five thousand evil ones by himself, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if he was actually being modest.

I hugged him and then held him high, saying, "Three cheers for the greatest champion of all Adoran!"

Everyone cheered and then Elcorn took my hand and raised it high.

"Three cheers for Princess Elissa who has fulfilled the prophecies this very day!"

Missy came and hugged me and I raised her hand and everyone cheered for her too.

Even Abason let out a roar and I was so glad to hear it, even if it was weaker than normal.

"Well Princess," Elcorn said still holding onto my hand, "it looks like your mission is complete. Maybe I could show you around Adoran. I know of many beautiful places."

"Maybe another day Elcorn," I said. "Right now I want to know everything you know about the Spire. I have a new mission and I have a feeling it will be much more difficult than this one was."

Elcorn looked at me for a moment, just sizing up what I had said, and then replied.

"Whatever you want Princess. Whatever you want."