Matt put on his best smile, slapped R.D. heartily on the shoulder. "Hey, no problem. Come on, I'll show you how to spit as far as a whole yard."

"Says the guy who can't even get it past his shirt," R.D. remarked. Overhead, for a brief moment, moonlight managed to pierce through the black and silver shroud overhead.

===

Morning came early, and with it, the renewal of their journey.

"Just how long were you two up last night?" Alasea asked as she gathered up her belongings.

Matt zipped up his pack, slung it over his shoulder. "We went for a good while. Shot the shit, had some brews. You know, like real men do."

"You know what I'm going to say that, so I won't say it," said Hugo.

Alasea frowned disapprovingly. "While it was nice enough for you to let the rest of us get a full night's sleep for once, we don't need you and R.D. tired because you stayed up all night," she scolded. "You know how bad things get around here."

"We'll be fine," R.D. said. "Lumiya's managed to restore my stamina already, and I'm feeling well enough to fight again."

"Are you sure?" Ileyna asked from where she sat, next to Hugo.

"Physically I'm fine," R.D. said, despite being unsure of the changes that were still present in him. His eyes' new feature couldn't be seen with it brighter out, and without his using Lumiya, his skin wasn't showing off, either.

"If you say so," Alasea said, sounding entirely unconvinced and somewhat unsure.

"Where to now?" Helena asked.

"I don't know," Ileyna said with a shrug. "I still haven't detected anything."

"What about you, R.D.?" Alasea asked, causing him to look up from his packing. "You said you wanted to find your sister. Maybe that's part of the reason we're here."

R.D., surprisingly enough to the girls, shook his head.

"Mesia is dead," he said flatly. "Re-Tuul killed her."

Some of Helena's scaly hackles flared. "What? Really?"

"He revealed it when we fought," R.D. said quietly, looking off to the side. Remembering. "He spoke the words and I knew them to be true. I remembered him and his foul brethren swarming her. That's why this started for me."

The girls all had horrified and sympathetic expressions on their faces.

"That's why I can't stop until the last of them are dead," R.D. said firmly, as if convincing himself. "This won't end until Re-Tuul lies dead at my feet, for the last time."

Matt shot Hugo a look, who returned it. Definitely heavy stuff. "But why did he kill her?" Matt asked. "Is it because he's a douchebag, or did he give you a reason? Was it to get to you?"

"The original nine Khaglessi attacked her, and I destroyed all but Re-Tuul in retaliation," R.D. said. "What does it matter? It won't end until he's dead. One of us has to die... and it sure as hell won't be me."

"We're help you take him down once and for all," Hugo said. "As soon as we find a way."

R.D. nodded, smiling slightly. He knew they would help if they had the chance--the problem was, how could they kill Re-Tuul? They had to bring him to a death netherworld such as Hell. But how could they do that? It would be nearly impossible to accomplish.

But he had to find a way. He had to, else Mesia's memory would never be laid to rest.

"Anyway, since Ileyna hasn't detected anything else, I propose we ramble around and hopefully find what we're lookin' for," Matt said.

"That'd be dangerous," R.D. said. "Ziatoch had more than just me and Omega at His disposal. He's been... creating something. Trying to create something."

Now Hugo's attention was grabbed. "Like what? And how can we destroy it?"

He shook his head. "I couldn't say," R.D. said. "Only snippets I can glean from the demons inbetween torture sessions."

Alasea frowned. Since when could R.D. understand the demonic tongue. "How is that even possible?" she asked.

R.D. lowered his head, in thought for a brief moment. "Shayol Ghul is... so much more than just a twisted construct," he said. "You stay in the shadows for too long, and the shadows begin to stay in you. It leaves it's mark on you. After a while, it seemed as if I could understand the lower creatures Ziatoch had at His command. Like alien words that was just barely within reach of understanding."

Matt made a face, like he was sucking on a tart lemon. "Let's try not to bring the whole party down...what else can you tell me about this Shayol Ghul thing?"

"Beyond that, not much," R.D. said, shrugging. "Whatever Ziatoch's doing, it's in preparation for a final showdown with NightShade. Whatever Daemonus had planned for me wasn't enough for His reassurance, so he started some other creation. I wasn't really in any position to find out."

"Does it have anything to do with the Essence?" Ileyna asked, wringing her hands.

"I don't think so. Even if they had any of the Essence, they know they wouldn't be able to keep it. They managed to get that much out of me."

"Well, that's helpful," Matt muttered. "Maybe there's none here? You know we end up stumbling across it eventually...maybe there wasn't anything to stumble onto this time."

"Lately the Scale hasn't been putting us near the Essence, but always something or someone who we need to accomplish our goal," R.D. pointed out. "I don't think it was ever meant to seek out the Essence itself. Besides, there wasn't any Essence's in Hugo's world. Sent us there anyway."

"Yeah," Matt said, rubbing his chin. "You got a point."

"So you're saying the Scale is like..." Helena pouted. "How do I put this...like it can predict the future, and points us towards it?"

"It's possible," Alasea said, closing her eyes briefly and rubbing her temples. "I'd have to check with a higher being, though, legends of the Great Serpent are vague at best."

"If anything, it takes us where we're needed. And takes us to what we need," R.D. said. "We're lucky it does that on it's own. It's more helpful than anything else the Chronomancer's given or told us."

Hugo scoffed. "That's for sure. We haven't gotten a single tipoff ever since this began."

"Well, when this over, we can bug the fuck out of him for answers," Matt said. "In the meantime, if there isn't any Essence to find here, I say we book. Maybe we can swing back later, if the Scale's really guiding things here."

"We'll be ready soon. I need to prepare something so my power isn't useless in the next world we travel to," Alasea said, standing up and dusting off her capri pants. "I'd hate to be caught off-guard again. Once was enough."

And they'd been caught off-guard too many times as of late. R.D. nodded. "Don't take too long," he said.

"I won't."

"Are you feeling well enough to travel?" Helena asked R.D.. "We could rest a bit more if you want."

"Won't really matter if I'm well enough to travel, we can't stay here anyway," R.D. said as Alasea left the room, headed outside. "I'll be fine."

"What are you going to do about this?" Ileyna asked, holding up the Chaos Emerald that Matt had pried away from the remnants of the device that had been attached to him. "Didn't you say you needed seven of them?"

"Yeah," R.D. said quietly, plucking the gemstone out of her hands. "And this makes seven..."

"You'd better not flash rainbow colors when you use all of those or something," Matt said. "That'd be stupid."

"Yeah, you're one to talk," R.D. remarked, remembering the Master Elemental form Matt had used against Draco. "I'm not even sure what'll happen if I tried using all of them at once. Probably something bad."

He held up the violet Chaos Emerald to the light, letting it refract onto the floor. "I don't even know why Ondal wanted me to collect all of them. He never did give me an exact reason."

"Give you an exact reason for what?" Alasea asked as she stepped back from outside. She looked as if she had ran a long distance with her heavy breathing, but she also sported a new necklace of some kind, with five glowing crystals wrapped in thin wire hanging off of the chain.

Matt decided to ignore Alasea's question and pointed at the necklace. "Where'd you accesorize that from?"

She brought her hand up to touch one of the crystals. "I crystalized some of the Pillar of Dawn's power," she explained. "That way I can use more of my power off-world if the need arises. It won't last long and I could only crystalize so much of it, though."