Log Date: 7/17/96, 7/23
Log Cast:
	Rayek, Mender
Log Intro:
	Tilia has lifted her ban on Rayek's presence in the Palace, much to
the latter's shock. Almost shyly for the airwalker, he has ventured back
into the Palace's halls, and shared a measure of wonder over his renewed
link to it with Ktai. But another of the Palace's visitors comes looking
for him....

----------
Mender pads quietly up the stairway, running his hand along the wall.
Second Level
This wide corridor sports myriad tiny ripples and swirls in its walls and 
  floor, as if once it might have been rife with damage; now, these patterns 
  seem only to add to the ethereal feel of the place, giving your surroundings 
  a flowing, airy look. The air is full of a barely palpable tingle, a sense 
  of welcome, a stronger sense of magic.
At one end of the corridor you can see the stairs that wind back down into the 
  lower level of this place; at the opposite end, a tall doorway that glimmers 
  golden in the faint light.
Contents:
Mender
Obvious exits:
Scroll Chamber  Winding Stairway  

Rayek, on his way into the Scroll Chamber, pauses, and blinks.

Mender spies you, tries not to look surprised, and offers a small smile 
  instead. "Well, greetings Rayek."

Rayek inclines his head, once. "Mender." He blinks his amber eyes a time or 
  two, perhaps rapidly considering what to say. He pauses there at the great 
  doorway into the Scroll room, one brown hand on the frame.
Rayek adds, then, "You are... I did not expect that you'd still be here."

Mender studies you for a moment, a wry smirk on his face as he considers what 
  most appropriate to say before answering with a soft laugh. "I was worried 
  about.. Ktai. I wanted to make sure she was well." His eyes flicker across 
  you quickly as he speaks.

Rayek has gotten thin again, slightly worn around the edges, but at least to a 
  healer's quick glance, there seems to be nothing amiss with him. At the 
  mention of Ktai, he exhales softly, and says in a bemused tone, "Ktai has 
  grown strong again..."

Mender nods and takes the final step up the stairs. "And how are you doing?"

Rayek blinks somewhat at the question, as if startled to hear it. Then his 
  mouth quirks, in a not-quite-smile. "I am..." His voice lingers 
  consideringly over the thought, and he finishes, "Improving."

Mender furrows his brows ever so slightly and purses his lips at the answer. 
  He studies you with gently narrowed eyes. "Well, I suppose being in the 
  palace again helps... how are you physically? Do you hurt? Are you hungry? 
  How about mentally?"

Rayek's black eyebrows go up. This, apparently, is the best humor he's been in 
  in years, for he says quietly, even kindly, "You're sounding like Ekuar."

Mender blinks first, then smiles and laughs. "Perhaps," he says softly, "but 
  I'm concerned nonetheless."

Rayek half-smiles, and slisp into the Scroll room.

You step through the tall doorway, and into the...
Scroll Chamber
This smallish chamber is sparsely furnished, bearing only a single empty chair 
  which faces a platform; on this platform are the holders for the two halves 
  of the Scroll of Colors. Around you, the pale walls seem to ripple in 
  places, but perhaps that is a physical sensation, a trick of the light; what 
  cannot be a light-trick is the sense of *presence* in the chamber, of 
  welcome, and of magic.
Contents:
Petalwing(#3061Zpq)
Scroll of Colors
Obvious exits:
Out  

Mender arrives from the corridor outside.
Mender has arrived.

Petalwing oooooohs! /Hello hello highthings!/

Rayek says to Mender over his shoulder, "Thank you for coming to heal Ktai. I 
  should have said."

Mender nods once to the preserver in greeting, making a point of trying to 
  ignore it after that. He turns his attention back to Rayek to help in this 
  process. "I could do no less. I had to come when called."

Rayek smiles a bit, perhaps distractedly, as he lifts his gaze to the 
  quiescent Scroll -- no, not quite quiescent, since it can be felt to shimmer 
  a little, just on the edge of one's senses. He gives a single nod in 
  acknowledgement of the younger elf's words.

Mender lifts his gaze to the scrolls, as perhaps any elf would get drawn to in 
  here. "Does if feel good to be here again?"

Rayek says softly, "It it Home." His brown face introspective, he gazes 
  quietly at the Scrolls, one hand raised slightly, as if he might move to 
  float the Scroll, or turn it.

Mender nods once in understand, still quietly studying the scrolls.

"It is Home," Rayek says again, then goes on, "... my only one." With that, he 
  does gesture to the Scrolls, slightly; his fingers glitter. The Scrolls 
  rise, turn, slowly.

Mender tilts his head slightly as the scrolls rise. "Something that's confused 
  me, Rayek... Why have you let Tilia control the Palace?"

The airwalker's yellow gaze flicks sideways a moment, to the healer, then he 
  answers gravely, "It was either that, or fight her, and I will not profane 
  these halls with battle."

Mender nods his quiet understanding and agreement to that. "That is noble."

Rayek's mouth quirks, in a hint of sarcasm rather more characteristic than 
  this meditative mood of his. "No... it was contrition." The Scroll rises a 
  little higher before him, images swirling between the two halves, casting 
  ethereal lights on the planes of his face. Behind him, the Preserver oohs.

Mender lifts his head to again take in the sites the scroll offers. "Why do 
  you let her stay?"

Rayek does not comment on whether it's his decision to make to bar any elf 
  from the palace; instead, he simply makes a gesture at the Scrolls, and 
  sends, ** Perhaps you'll see, here... **

Mender frowns somewhat in confusion but turns his attention to the scrolls.

The Scrolls begin to turn... and between them, etched in light and color, 
  swirl images of Rayek, of Leetah, of a younger and less fierce-looking 
  Tilia... a Go-Back who, despite her tribal blood, seemed to hear the voices 
  of the High Ones.

Mender folds his arms across his chest while watching, eyes narrowed slightly 
  in observance.

The Rayek in the Scroll-images makes an offer to Tilia... to take her through 
  space and time, to _show_ her the elves whose voices she feels she hears. 
  And, shortly after her Recognition with the ancient Wolfrider Wolfrunner, 
  Rayek transports the Palace, with Tilia... and with Leetah... inside.

Mender frowns softly and shoots a glance at the real Rayek, a glint of 
  suspicion in his eyes.

The Palace returns to a time shortly after its original arrival on this harsh 
  two-mooned world... and it is hidden, safely, from its older self. But 
  something goes amiss -- for Rayek cannot summon the power to bring the 
  Palace home.

Mender blinks! and instinctively widens his eyes, jumping up to his full 
  height. He's obviously now well-engrossed in the images.

Try as he might, Rayek cannot summon up the power to bring the Palace home. 
  Neither Tilia nor Leetah can aid him -- or at any rate, he doesn't allow 
  them to try. The trio has no choice but to settle in in their hidden Palace, 
  while the airwalker struggles to make it listen to his will once more....

The Rayek of now stands before the Scroll, face impassive, save for his eyes. 
  His amber gaze is oddly liquid, as he wills the story to play itself out for 
  the younger elf.

Mender watches intently with stern, focused eyes. Any joviality he may have 
  had have been lost.

In the Scroll images, Tilia's child, by her Recognition, is born -- and as 
  days begin to pass, they lengthen into months. Rayek becomes obsessed with 
  bringing their Palace home again, while Tilia and Leetah are left to raise 
  the child, Vale....

Mender watches silently, patiently, waiting for the thankfully inevitable 
  outcome.

Months lengthen into years. Vale grows up in the Palace, touched by it in a 
  way no other elf-child currently alive has been, for he was born within it. 
  But the refugees of the older Palace are beginning to flee out into the 
  world... and, fearing the sacrifice of Timmain, they fear Vale in turn when 
  they find the wolf-blooded youngster. Fear him enough to attack him.
In the hidden Palace, Tilia senses her son's plight -- and demands of Rayek 
  that he take the Palace to Vale. Rayek, raw-edged, desperate, insists that 
  he cannot. Petalwing is sent, ordered to find Vale and keep him safe -- but 
  the Preserver interprets this order by wrapstuffing the young elf in a 
  remote cave.

Mender does naught but watch and think quietly to himself, not daring to yet 
  disturb Rayek's personal method of story-telling.

Tilia and Rayek argue, hotly, fiercely -- and at last, Tilia takes matters 
  into her own hands. She, too, has grown sensitive to the Palace in the 
  twenty years the four have spent hidden and stranded. She melds her spirit 
  with the Palace's heart, and begs it to find her son.

Mender takes in a long, deep, slow breath as he begins coming to realizations 
  about why some elves are like they are.

But again, something goes wrong... and the Palace begins to race forward in 
  time, much to Rayek and Leetah's astonishment. Rayek strives to wrest 
  control from the Go-Back... but to no avail save to badly shake the Palace's 
  passage, badly enough that it nearly crashes -- and loses Leetah somewhere 
  in the cold north, six years after the Palace had originally left the 
  present. Frantic now, Rayek seizes upon a final desperate plan and orders 
  the Palace to land in the first place and time in which it senses Leetah and 
  Vale together. The forward plunge runs for another year, a half... and the 
  Palace touches down at Grove Holt.

Mender shakes his head very softly, almost unnoticeably, in near disbelief.

There, at Grove, are the ones lost from the Palace. Leetah has been rescued by 
  Cutter -- who is furious now, with Rayek; Vale has been found and unwrapped, 
  but the measureless span of time which he spent, awake, in wrapstuff has 
  changed him profoundly. And Wolfrunner, Tilia's Recognized, is there, as 
  well... and when Rayek and the Palace are discovered, Wolfrunner nearly 
  kills him when it is discovered that Tilia's spirit cannot return to her 
  body, so tightly meshed has it become with the Palace's heart.

Mender lets out a soft whistle and re-folds his arms across his chest.

The images blur a little. Somehow, tensions are settled, though Rayek does not 
  dare to go near Leetah or Cutter again. Somehow, he is left with the Palace, 
  but not without cost; he no longer has the companionship of Ekuar, and no 
  elf among Cutter's Wolfriders trusts him. Despondent, the airwalker immerses 
  himself in the Palace once more, trying to find some way to resurrect his 
  ability to make it soar... and he discovers that by tapping Tilia's spirit, 
  he can. Her power makes it move... but his tells it where to go....

Rayek of now has not changed his stance; the flow of floating magic out of him 
  remains steady.

Mender shifts his eyes to Rayek-of-the-now, eyes a cross between sympathy and 
  slight anger.

In the Scroll images, Rayek makes a new and grand plan, to save the elves 
  stranded on the two-mooned world by taking the Palace forward in time to 
  meet the High Ones before they crash. Hoping to win the trust of the elves 
  of all the tribes, he taps Tilia's spirit to take the Palace from Holt to 
  Holt, seeking magic-makers who could add their power to his. None will go 
  with him; even Winnowill, intrigued as she seems by Rayek's bringing the 
  Palace to Blue Mountain, does not accept his plan....
And at last, Rayek returns the Palace for a time to the Go-Backs. But they, 
  too, have smoldered in anger at him, and at last, disgusted, he wings the 
  Palace off to a sheltered place in the southern mountains, hoping to at last 
  remaster the Palace so that he might not need to use Tilia's soul to do it. 
  Now, only Petalwing is with him...

Rayek abruptly shifts, then, moving his brown hand, settling the Scrolls. 
  "Have you seen enough?" he asks, quietly.

Mender nods once, slowly. "I have," he repeats in a quiet tone.

Rayek, his eyes still glimmering with that odd liquid look, inclines his 
  head... and then his eyes close, once, before he turns away from the Scrolls 
  and the fair-haired healer.

Mender studies Rayek a moment longer, still in quietness. He murmurs s 
  something quietly to himself, then just shakes his head.

Rayek concludes, "That is why Tilia now is the guardian of the Palace." His 
  voice, echoing in faint ringing whispers in this chamber, bears a slightly 
  husky edge.

Mender nods once, now understand much more than before. "It must have been 
  hard," he murmurs.

"I have finally learned what it did to her," remarks Rayek, by way of reply. 
  He still has not looked back at you.

Mender looks at Rayek's back with carefully narrowed eyes. "Perhaps that has 
  been healing enough."

At that, Rayek does look over his shoulder, with one corner of his mouth 
  slightly quirked, slightly surprised.

Mender gently inclines his head toward the veteran magic-user. "I am no longer 
  needed here, it seems. Unless you think otherwise, I will begin making 
  preparations to go home."

Rayek blinks, once -- then he makes a short gesture with one hand, 
  dismissively, though it is softened by the still-lingering look of surprise 
  on his dark face. "I am not Master here; not any more. I cannot order you to 
  stay."

Mender nods again, neither refuting nor arguing nor, surprising, laughing. "I 
  will be on my way shortly, then," and he turns to leave. "Thank you for 
  sharing that with me." His voice is perhaps surprisingly calm and 
  emotionless.

Perhaps what he has shown, then, explains the slightly haunted, slightly 
  vulnerable look of the elf who's been known to fling light-bolts at things 
  that get in his way. He looks somewhat distractedly at Mender for a moment, 
  then nods, once. "Shade and sweet water," he says, softly.

Mender nods on his way out, not looking back. ** And Shade to you, Rayek. **
Mender has left.

[End log.]