"Sir," said the small, dwarf-like figure timidly as he cautiously approached the young man who was seated at a large table in an otherwise empty room, his chin resting in one hand, the fingers of his other hand drumming the tabletop in a bored manner; an open book lay on the table before him though he had hardly looked at it since opening it. "I have some, uh, news..."
"News?" the young man replied harshly. "What kind of news?"
"Well, uh, bad news sir."
"You know I hate bad news. Absolutely deplore it."
"I know sir." The small figure bowed it's head fearfully.
"Well, what is it?" demanded the young man impatiently. "I haven't got all day."
"Well sir, it's, uh, about your father..." The small figure cowered before the young man, fearing his reaction to the upcoming bad news. "Uh, y'see sir, he's...dead."
There was a lengthy pause before, "Dead? Is that all?" The small creature could have sworn that he heard a hint of amusement in the young man's voice, but he didn't have the chance to ponder the implications. Within seconds the young man had stood and easily punted the small figure across the room before heading quickly for the room's only exit--he certainly had no love lost for these creatures. "I can't stand bad news," he uttered as he strode from the room, heading down the wide, dark hall, followed closely by a number of dwarf-like creatures similar to the one who had delivered the 'news'; some of them had animal features while others were grotesquely deformed. "Find out who's responsible for my father's death," he commanded the small figures without even a sideways glance in their direction. "And do it now!" Some of the followers scurried off to do as told and others quickly took their places behind the angry young man.
It wasn't long before a small figure was bowing lowly before the perturbing young man who was standing at a window, gazing out over the empty landscape with arms folded across his chest. "Sir," the creature said, "Zeiben wishes to see you. He has news of your father's death." "Very well," replied the young man without turning. "Send him in." The dwarf-like figure rushed off to do as told and soon enough a man walked into the room, pausing at the entrance with head bowed slightly. The man was unexceptional in one way only, and that was a clawed, reptilian-like hand. Glancing briefly at the other man's relection in the window the young man spoke up. "Zeiben, what's the news?"
The man, Zeiben, looked up. "We've found them Traehnogard." Zeiben was now the only one whom the young man allowed to call him by his name. Traehnogard had known Zeiben for all of his twenty some years of life and though he was truly close to no one, he had been closer only to his father, now deceased. Reluctantly Zeiben added, "All but one..."
"Which one?" Traehnogard demanded, finally turning his gaze from the window. Learning the circumstances of his father's death had incensed him; he didn't want any of the ones responsible--those who had survived the fight--to escape punishment.
Zeiben lowered his head slightly under Traehnogard's stare. "The one," he replied apprehensively. "The one the sorcerer claims struck the killing blow. She's vanished."
"What do you mean she's vanished?!" Traehnogard exclaimed angrily, advancing a step towards Zeiben.
The other man winced inwardly at Traehnogard's tone of voice. "We can't find any trace of her sir," he answered quickly, head bowed humbly. "We'll keep looking."
"Of course you will," Traehnogard replied disparagingly.
"We will find her." Zeiben sounded hopeful, not certain. "I'll have the sorcerer redouble his efforts..." He paused briefly, glancing up uncertainly. "But in the meanwhile you do have the others...That could prove quite entertaining."
"Hn. Perhaps..."
For a long while Traehnogard went undisturbed by further news and had as of yet made no move to set any plans for revenge into motion, but the quietude was not meant to last as Zeiben strode into the room in which Traehnogard sat. "We have new evidence as to the whereabouts of the missing girl." For Zeiben the past few hours had proven most fruitful and now he approached the younger man with far more assurance than before. "The sorcerer has found evidence that she may have had an...unfortunate accident. There's a hole in one of the alleys of Naiviv that her friends have gone through great pains to seal up; flowers adorn the lid that has been fashioned to cover the hole."
"So she's dead."
"That's what we assumed...However, upon uncovering the hole and taking a closer look we discovered something rather interesting. It seems the hole into which she fell was no ordinary hole--it's bottomless. That is to say there's no solid bottom. We've found a wormhole of some sort--a portal to another, unknown world. It's into that portal that the girl fell, and chances are that, wherever she is, she's alive. At this moment the sorcerer is scouring the land on the other side of the portal in order to find her, and as soon as he does..."
"As soon as he does," Traehnogard finished, "I will pay her a visit."

One week...
Effie repeated the words in her head over again, letting them sink in. It had been exactly one week since she had fallen into that hole in Liagaba. Somewhere between there and earth she had lost consciousness; upon awakening she had been surprised to discover that she wasn't dead, but instead laying on the hard ground of a familiar park back in her earthen hometown, cold and completely alone. It had been a short and dazed walk to the apartment that she, Nadi and Ari had been renting--an eviction notice hung on the door to greet her--they had missed the rent and the landlord had no tolerance for such things. They were to be out in ten days. Effie could only guess how long ago the notice had been posted as she tore it from the door and entered the empty apartment, glad for the first time that Ari always forgot to lock the door--Effie no longer had a key on her.
For one week now she had been living on the leftovers in the fridge and running on very little sleep. The image that greeted her in the mirror looked horrible so she took the mirror down. It had been after the first few days that she had begun to ignore the phone calls--concerned friends and family, having finally gotten ahold of her, scolded her for disappearing on some frivolous trip without telling them when she wouldn't explain where she had been. Ari's and Nadi's parents had phoned as well-- she didn't know what to tell them, so she had finally disconnected the phone. The door was locked to avoid unwanted company--all company was unwanted. Effie sighed as she stared up at the ceiling from where she lay on her unmade bed. She hadn't been out in days and after a week of what she could only define as 'hell', even she had the sense to worry about herself. More than anything she missed Liagaba and the friends that she had left there, but she was beginning to finally convince herself that there was nothing she could do about what had happened and her present attitude was doing nothing but making things worse for herself; however, she couldn't quite bring herself to the point of cheering up.
She was beginning to think that maybe she should go out...Moping around outdoors couldn't be any worse than moping around indoors. With another sigh she practically crawled out of the bed and made her way to the window, opening it wide to get her first breath of fresh air in a week. To her surprise she noticed a huge dog sitting just outside the apartment, staring into the ground floor window that Effie was standing at. At least, at first she took it to be a large dog, but the longer she stared at the creature the more certain she became that it wasn't just a dog, and somehow it looked familiar...Pale fur, tawny eyes, no dog, but a wolf...Effie's brow creased in confusion. A wolf? No, the wolf... Hopeful for the first time in too long Effie could find no words but a simple exclamation of, "Wolf!"
Almost immediately she noticed the wolf tense up, stand, and prepare for a jump--a jump aimed directly at the open window at which she stood. Quickly Effie moved aside just in time as the wolf leapt in through the open window, claws raking the window frame as it passed into the room. Unconsciously Effie had closed her eyes, half-expecting some sort of crash landing as the wolf leapt into the small, somewhat crowded room, but the crash never came and when Effie finally opened her eyes it wasn't a wolf that stood before her, but a recognizable and most welcome figure.
"Kel!" Effie exclaimed, immediately and without thinking dashing forward and throwing her arms around his neck in a hug, the force of which sent him stumbling backwards into the wall. "I'm not sure what's going on, but am I ever glad to see you!" she added, releasing the surprised Kel and smiling up at him; however, the look on his face was not so cheerful. Effie frowned, seeing the uncertainty on his face. "What is it? Is something wrong? What happened? Is Yar..." She trailed off, fearing the worst.
"Yar's dead," Kel responded quickly. Then, with some reluctance, "As is Daul..." He trailed off, surprised at how quickly the tears had formed in Effie's eyes at the news. "Everyone else has survived though," he added, hoping the good news might outweigh the bad. But then, with the news that he had yet to tell her, he doubted that any good news could outweigh the bad. "But I'm afraid there's more...You're in terrible danger!"
"Me? But..."
"Yar's son isn't pleased with his father's demise."
Effie paled visibly. "Yar had a son?"
Kel nodded. "It gets worse...I'm afraid he believes that it was you who killed his father."
"Me?" Effie squeaked. Things just got worse and worse. "What about the others?"
"They're all in danger."
All signs of her previous exuberance gone Effie sat down dismally on the bed behind her. There was a long pause as Kel allowed Effie the time to let everything sink in. However, he knew he couldn't remain there for long, so he was glad when Effie spoke up, though her words were not what he had wanted to hear. "Take me back to Liagaba."
There was a long pause before Kel could bring himself to reply. "No."
"What?" Effie asked, shocked at the simple refusal.
With a weary sigh Kel replied, "If you go back now you will only be in more danger, and putting your friends at risk as well. If you suddenly show up in Liagaba after your absence there's little doubt that Yar's son will be spurred to action. It's better if you remain here. I, however, will return to Liagaba--" He stopped mid sentence, hand raised to stop Effie's impending argument. "I will return and send your friends to you here. Here one's powers, unless incredibly strong, are useless. With all of you together and his powers severely weakened if not gone all together Yar's son will not risk confronting you. Trust me, it will be safe."
Reluctantly Effie nodded her agreement and before she could get another word in Kel was gone, having slipped quickly out the window. Effie frowned slightly. "I have a front door you know," she muttered to the empty air.