Silence met Timmolin's words for a moment. The others looked shocked, but Nathan was just trying to find the right question to ask first.

"What do you mean he brought us here? And who is Mounvasunei?" He asked quietly. The steward had said the name with the same sort of reverence that Nathan heard when his grandmother talked about Jesus. Suddenly he couldn't make light of the whole ordeal anymore. He remembered the touch of the light presence, he could hear the devotion in Timmolin's voice. This was something serious.

"It will make more sense if I tell the story from the beginning, even if it is a long tale.

"They were born when everything was yet young, Mounvasunei and his twin Paortsunazei. I do not know from where they came or how, only that they are older than anything else in this world. They are the balance, light and dark, chaos and order. Always Mounvasunei preserves order. Always Paortsunazei seeks to dissolve it. They are in constant struggle, and should either win the whole of the universe would cease to exist. For how can there be life without death? How can there be shadow without light? How can there be order without the chaos from which it was made?

"Ever since they were created they have traveled between worlds, staying for a time on one, then moving to the next. Always one of them seeks to drive out the other, but once one is gone from a world the other must follow, or the balance is lost and that world will be forever destroyed. Paortsunazei does not see the need for balance, that is too much like order for him to grasp. Mounvasunei sees it all too well, and can think of little else. And on and on like that they struggle. For now, they are here. They have been in this world since beyond living memory, and until now the balance was held.

"Lately Paortsunazei has gathered, coerced, corrupted, and manipulated many beings of this world to fight alongside him. They are his instruments of chaos, always seeking to reduce everything to nothing, to break down the order. These things come and go in cycles. Only a few years ago, there was peace. But at this wave of chaos we are hard pressed to prevail. Our army is stretched thin, trying desperately to hold our borders. Mounvasunei has determined that it is time for his twin to be driven from this world before it becomes yet another casualty in their battle."

"That's why we're here." Colter cut in. His green orb lay in the palm of his hand reflecting the flickering light of the fire. "You said you needed these. Is it to drive this Paort-whatever guy out?"

"Yes." Timmolin didn't look happy at the interruption, but continued with his story. "While in this world Mounvasunei and his twin take on a body that must obey this world's laws and axioms. With five colored orbs a barrier can be made that will force Paortsunazei out of his form, and thus out of this world. In truth it can be done with a single orb, but more will strengthen it to where Paortsunazei cannot resist it.

"Mounvasunei has long tried to contact you." Here the steward looked directly at Nathan. "In the hopes that you would come of your own will."

Nathan just stared at Timmolin in shock. "The visions... but why me?"

"I do not know. Mounvasunei has many senses that I do not, and cannot understand. We had hoped not to be forced to bring you here against your knowledge or will, but it could not be helped. Paortsunazei had noticed our interest in you, and he always covets anything his twin has that he does not. When Paortsunazei began to lay claim to you Mounvasunei had to withdraw to keep you from falling to the darkness, or simply being torn apart in their struggle."

At that Colter, Paul and Joe all looked pointedly to Nathan. He knew they were thinking of his vision in trigonometry class. For himself Nathan was just starting to realize how in over their heads they all were. He remembered the touch of the darkness all too well. They were going to be up against that? Strange as the story was, he remembered the visions too well to be able to discount it. He could well believe that oily darkness that had grabbed hold of him in trig was a primal and chaotic being. Nathan shuddered, how was he supposed to be able to do anything against something like that?

"It seems I have answered some of your questions at least." Timmolin looked grim as he saw them all exchanging glances.

"So when just calling for me failed, you pulled us here." It wasn't really a question, Nathan had a feeling he knew where this was going.

"No, we did not decide that until the unthinkable happened." Timmolin's voice was harsh and bleak. "We thought that as long as Mounvasunei stayed away from you Paortsunazei would lose interest, but we were wrong. He went after you again, but not, as we thought, to bring you here."

Nathan took in a deep breath and released it slowly. He could feel his friends staring at him. He hadn't told any of them about this. He'd been too shaken, hell, too scared to say anything. "A couple days before we were going to go to camp I had a nightmare. Well, I guess it wasn't just a normal nightmare. All I could see was black, and all I could feel was that dark presence around me. There was nothing else, I was just lost in dark nothingness. Then the presence just seemed to overwhelm me and everything dissolved into fire and death. I...I wasn't sure I was going to wake up." Nathan didn't realize he'd clenched his fists until Pauly bumped his shoulder companionably.

Timmolin nodded gravely. "We assumed wrong. Paortsunazei wasn't trying to bring you here, well not fully anyway. He caught hold of you while you slept and brought you just far enough that your orb began to form. With you unconscious and in his grasp he could use it's power for his own ends."

Julia was the only one to find her voice after hearing that. "What did he do with it?"

"Come with me." Timmolin stood in one fluid motion. "You will see for yourselves, and I have told as much of this tale as it is my place to tell."

Slowly all of them stood and Timmolin lead the way out of the sitting room grimly. Nathan was the last to leave. Suddenly he dreaded knowing the answers. Something in him had always known there was a purpose behind his visions, but he'd never imagined something like this. It was all just too much. Colter's reassuring hand on his shoulder got him moving again. Timmolin lead them silently through the stone halls. Julia was right behind him, conferring with Joe and Paul in whispers. Nathan still lagged behind with Colter. He just wasn't sure he was ready to face whatever it was.

The steward took them through a large arched door back outside, but it wasn't the same open courtyard that had been at the top of the east stairs. They had emerged from the back of the white palace. Directly in front of them the mountains loomed craggy and now covered. Behind them the bulk of the white stone palace blocked the wind. The white stone floor of this rear courtyard extended perhaps the size of a baseball diamond before giving way to rough brown rock. The steward beckoned them to join him at the far edge. Nathan heard his friends all gasp and made the mistake of looking down when he reached the end of the white stone.

The ground fell away sharply only a foot or so from the edge of the courtyard. A huge bowl of a valley, like a giant crater, opened up right at their feet. The far wall of the bowl was the foot of the nearest mountain. Glacier carved ridges swept down from the peak and formed the sides of the valley before continuing down the slope to either side of the white city. Huge piles of debris had gathered at the bottom from a massive rock slide that had streaked the far wall of the bowl. A wide swath of broken and unweathered rock face carved down the right side of the mountain and showed clearly that the slide was recent. Nathan had to force himself not to take a step back away from the edge. He had never been scared of heights, but he'd never climb alive out of there if he fell in.

Nathan wasn't sure what Timmonlin had brought them there to see. Was he saying that the darkness, Paortsunazei, had caused this crater by using his orb? No way, the valley was much too weathered to have been made only a week ago. Then what? The rockslide? It was impressive for sure, but hardly worrying. If that was all the damage, then this Paortsunazei was going to have to learn to aim better. Nathan was about to turn and ask the steward when something on the face of the mountain moved.

Nathan felt his jaw dropping. He heard his friends gasping or whispering in awe. His own voice was long since lost. With a low rumble and a shower of rocks--boulders really, at that distance they had to be huge--an enormous eye opened on the mountainside. It was level in height to where they stood, level with the start of the rock slide on the other half of the mountain's slope. Though surrounded by brownish rock, they eye itself was entirely a silver grey color, without white, pupil or iris. But deep in the center of the grey there seemed to be a light, like a distant star, twinkling and spinning. Then the spin changed, as if the eye was focusing on them, and Nathan felt the overwhelming presence of the light being from his visions.

All of a sudden it snapped. Nathan knew what he was looking at, or rather who. With the gaze of that immense silver eye on him, he could see it clearly. It was like an optical illusion suddenly becoming obvious. The slope of the mountainside formed around the eye a pointed and serpent-like face. The snout rested on the bottom of the valley, amongst the piles of rock. The peak of the mountain rose like a crest above the face, a crown almost, or like a lizard's leathery ruff. The ridge of mountains beyond, stretching far to the distance were a ridged spine, snaking across the landscape. The backbone of the world. Suddenly Nathan recalled the mythology they'd studied in school, and the serpent at the center of the world.

"Mounvasunei," Timmolin said reverently. "These are the five you called."

Nathan tore his gaze away from the silver eye to look at the steward. Timmolin spoke with his head bowed in respect, and one hand wrapped around the orb on his belt. Still in shock and awe Nathan turned back, waiting for an answer from the giant serpent. There was no way Timmolin's thin voice could have been heard across that distance, but Nathan knew somehow that physics and normal reality no longer mattered. Suddenly another low rumble, larger than the first and more felt than heard, emanated from the mountain side. There was another cascade of boulders, and Nathan somehow just knew the face had shifted imperceptibly. And with that came another revelation. He could see the true magnitude of that rockslide. He could see the marred remains of a second eye in that carved out swath of reddish brown rock. He could see the raw flesh beneath, stripped of it's stone coating, that he had mistaken for freshly broken rock. He could almost feel the pain of the gaping wound through the thick presence of the light in his mind.

Nathan sagged bonelessly to his knees as the knowledge pressed on him. The darkness had used him to do that? The power of his little red sphere had done that? What if he had that dream again? Would the darkness be able to grab hold of him a second time? How could a presence as immense as Mounvasunei be so gravely hurt? How was he supposed to hold up against a force that was capable of that?

I am sorry. The voice was deep, and incredibly ancient. It sounded thick in Nathan's mind, and was wrapped intricately in the light. The sound made Nathan's heart pound and nearly brought tears to his eyes with the sorrow and pain it carried. I did not wish to force you to this.

"Mounvasunei, they are not accustomed to you." Timmolin spoke gently and Nathan could feel his furry hand as a comforting weight on his shoulder.

My deepest apologies. And just like that the weight of the light presence was gone. The voice in his head carried none of the raw anquish it had held before. Nathan shakily made it back to his feet and looked to his friends. They too seemed to be recovering from the overwhelming pressure of Mounvasunei's presence.

"I explained the situation to them, but I thought it time they met you. It is time for us to decide what actions to take." Though Timmolin spoke of 'us' Nathan thought he knew whose decision it would be.

"Wait." Nathan startled at the sound of Pauly's voice. "No one's said how we're supposed to get home again."

Just as I brought you here, I can send you back. The spinning light in Mounvasunei's great silver eye swept over them. Paortsunazei's attack has left me much weakened, but I have strength enough to send you back now if you wish it. The choice must be yours.

"Well what are you waiting for?!" Pauly nearly cried.

"Pauly..." Joe tried to calm his brother, but Paul was having none of it.

Nathan decided it was time he stepped in before Pauly did something stupid. And before Mounvasunei could apologize again. It made Nathan incredibly uncomfortable to have a being that immense saying 'sorry' to him. "Mounvasunei, sir? Can you send just them back?"

"What?!"

As he'd expected, that got his friend's attention. "Timmolin said one orb could do it, right? Well it might as well be me. I'm the one you wanted in the first place. So can you send them home? I'll do what needs doing here, and you'll be able to send me back after that, won't you?"

"No way!" Paul erupted before Mounvasunei had a chance to respond. Nathan allowed himself a small smirk, all was going according to plan. "I am not just getting shipped home while you get to play hero!"

"Me either!" Juila chipped in indignantly.

"I go where you go, man." Colter squared his shoulder's stubbornly. "Don't even try to leave me behind."

Only Joe was silent, he had caught on to Nathan's scheme. They exchanged knowing looks, and Nathan took heart from his placid friend. Nathan didn't know what the others thought about it all, but he for one couldn't just leave this place without doing something. Not after seeing Mounvasunei and feeling his anguish, after feeling Paortsunazei's grasping darkness, after finally finding the true source behind the visions that had affected so much of his life. And he knew he could never do it alone.

"Well, it's settled then." Joe turned almost casually to Timmolin. "What do we need to do?"

Timmolin opened his mouth to answer, but Mounvasunei's deep voice rang through their minds before the steward could speak. We have some time to prepare. Paortsunazei does not yet know of your arrival. The barrier must be made on his side of the balance, but do not fear. You shall not go alone, and I will help you all I can. When the time comes you will know what to do.

"Yeah, that's reassuring." Pauly grumbled, but didn't make any further protest. It seemed that the prospect of being left behind was enough to squash his objections. Nathan was glad the others felt the same.

Paortsunezei will seek to stop you at every turn, but he has followers that will fight for him. He will only face you himself when all else has failed. I shall distract him as long as I can to keep you from his sight.

"You and our army shall do that." Timmolin stood straight, looking more regal than Nathan had yet seen him.

Then let us begin preparing. We have much to do. Mounvasunei seemed almost to sigh, then the great silver eye turned and pinned Nathan with it's spinning gaze. Beware, Paortsunazei does not readily relinquish anything he has had in his grasp.

Nathan managed a shaky nod. Did that mean the darkness was going to try and get ahold of him while he slept again?

Timmolin, see that he is given a cadalshen. It will help him to fend off the darkness.

The steward looked a little startled by the request, but nonetheless nodded gravely. Nathan didn't know what they were talking about, but if it would help keep the darkness away, he'd take it.

Timmolin bowed low towards Mounvasunei, then turned back to his palace. "Come then, there is much to be done."

Nathan wasn't quite sure what to do, so he simply nodded respectfully to Mounvasunei and made to follow the steward and his friends inside. At the door he turned back, but the giant silver eye had closed once again. If he had not known what to look for, he would only see a bare mountainside instead of the serpent circling the center of the world.