They returned to an almost hero's welcome. There was considerable confusion, and anger at Eber's return.

"If you guys weren't here, they would most assuredly try to kill me." Eber stated.

"They'll just have to deal with it. Just be glad not many know of the fight in Fujima.

There would've been a mob waiting for you." Romel replied.

"The man makes a point" added Red as they headed inside.

Oddi spoke up. "I can't help but get the feeling I'm missin' somethin' here."

"Not much. Just a fight to the death between Sol, Red, and myself, versus Eber". Romel answered him.

"But a fight to the death implies, you know, well… death. You're all standing here alive and well, unless my eyes deceive me."

"Oh no, you see us all here alright, but it really was a fight to the death." Red answered him.

"You're not makin' sense lass."

Red leaned over and whispered in the dwarf's ear "Solaris has died once since you last saw him".

The wee-man collapsed upon hearing this. He looked up at them all "What?! How can he…"
Pinzu covered the dwarf's mouth with his hand. He quickly moved it however as he was bitten. "Ouch, what in the world is wrong with you?!"

"I don't like bein' interrupted ya know."

Solaris finally decided to speak, "Let's leave this conversation for a time when fewer people are around. This is a sensitive topic… especially for me, and if others around town were to find out what happened... let's just say we'd have a bad time."

They made their way to the doors of the Manor when Romel spoke up. "Uhm, guys, remember the mob I mentioned earlier? I think this is just slightly worse…" He tilted his head towards a random wall.

They look around at the tops of the walls around them. In the short moments that they'd been there, about 3 dozen armed guards had managed to surround them, and were all aiming at Eber. They turned and looked ahead and saw Neil standing at the doors, waiting to give some sort of command, the likes of which he seemed unsure of.

"Well, I have to give you credit Neil, you sure can get the troops together quickly." Romel stated.

"We were doing practice exercises and were already armed. This is also nearly standard procedure when an airship arrives here. The bows are drawn because of one of the people with you. I assume I need not explain the reasoning behind this. If for some reason, you've taken him prisoner, I could easily give the order to have him executed right now. However, I feel that is not the case."

"No, actually, Eber has joined us, and saved us on a few occasions already. I'll admit he's still being watched quite closely, but he is in fact an ally until he does something that proves otherwise." Romel replied.

"Very well then." Neil turned to the guards and gave them the order to stand down. "I'll be frank: I'm not a fan of this, but if it is your wish, and he causes no trouble, then he shall be allowed here."

Eber stepped forward and looked Neil in the eyes. "I don't blame you for that, nor for the actions taken here" he said as he looked around the courtyard.

They all felt the tension in the air this sight. Solaris decided to speak. "He is permitted to stay here, he has helped us enough, despite the issues he's caused earlier. I hope you have no problems with this."

"If this is your wish, then it shall be so. I assume there is no need to show him around the place." Neil replied.

"Just tell me which room I'll be in" Eber replied.

Neil lead them inside, downstairs into the dungeon. He pointed to the cells "You room is here" he said with a sly grin.

They all raised an eyebrow, and Romel couldn't help but snicker a bit. Neil said with a laugh "I'm kidding, though, not gonna lie, it would be amusing,"

"If you have a legitimate room for me, I'll take it, and, just for the sake of penance, I shall spend at least 1 night here, as Romel and Solaris did. I do however expect to be released. If I have to break out of here, we're going to have ourselves a bad time." Eber replied.

They all repeated the action of raising an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that?" Pinzu asked. Eber merely nodded.

"Neil, could you show Oddi and Pinzu to their rooms please?" Neil nodded and took them upstairs.

"I guess I'll help out with dinner" Red said and also headed upstairs.

"Red, you do realize this place has cooks, right?" Eber asked her.

"Yes, and who's cooking do you like more?" she said as she turned around.

"Is this a trick question" Romel replied, "and by the way, I like your cooking a bit more than the cooks here."

"Well, thanks hun, and no, its not a trick question." She replied.

Eber nodded in her direction. "Yours honestly."

"Anyways, dinner should be ready soon enough, find some way to amuse yourselves and stay out of trouble until then." Red spoke as she continued to the kitchen.

Red left the jail, leaving Romel, Eber, and Solaris. This was the first time it had been only the 3 of them had been together. There was a noticeable awkwardness in the air, which they handled surprisingly well.

"So, you feel guilty for the things you've done I see." Romel pointed out to Eber.

"Just a bit," Eber replied sarcastically. "Actually, far more than I could ever actually express."

"Well, you've done well thus far in trying to make up for it, with saving our lives and all." Solaris said with a bit of a smile.

"Are you always this happy and optimistic?" Eber asked.

"Actually no, he used to be a much different person, not that this is bad, its actually a nice change of pace. Just far different than the Solaris I first met." Romel replied.

"What caused…." Eber stopped mid-sentence "Oh, never mind"

They sat around the jail, outside of the cells and made small talk. Red returned a short while later to inform them that dinner was ready. At this point, they were all quite hungry and made haste to the dining hall where yet another delicious meal was served.

They retired for the night soon after dinner, except Neil, who had to get the satisfaction of seeing Eber sleeping in a jail cell, while he got even more satisfaction by standing guard that night, even if it really wasn't needed.

Eber woke up the next morning with a sore back, and Neil woke up from his short nap wearing a large grin.

Eber sat up in the cell. "You really did enjoy yourself didn't you?"

"Oh, very much so" Neil replied. "It's quite fulfilling having guard duty of the man who once gave me orders and imprisoned me."

"I hate to rain on your parade, but this was a self-imposed punishment. You could not hold me here if I truly wanted to escape. As a matter of fact, had Solaris remembered everything he once knew, I wouldn't have been able to hold him captive here either."

"You don't say…" Neil replied, seeming quite interested.

"I see you are curious. Let's just say that the things you've seen him do are merely a fragment of the things he is truly capable of. Once he regains his memories, he shall truly be a force to be reckoned with. Now, you gonna let me outta this box, or do I have to make my own way out? I'm hungry, and very much dislike being kept from breakfast. You should know this."

"Some things never change I guess." Neil unlocked the cell and Eber was "permitted" to leave. He met everyone else in the dining hall for breakfast, or, almost everyone, he thought.

"Where's Oddi?" Eber asked from across the table.

"Haha, very funny" a voice could be heard from a seat which appeared to be empty. "Why does this table have to be so big?" A moment later a butler brought some large books for the dwarf to sit on.

"Why wasn't this a problem yesterday?" Eber asked.

"He found the higher chair" Pinzu answer, pointing to red, who was sitting higher than most of them.

"You should trade Red. You don't exactly need a high chair" Romel laughed.

"We should get him a bib too!" Red said with an excited and devious grin.

Oddi turned red, though no one could tell if it was from anger, embarrassment, or some odd combination of the 2.

"So, Azidon seems to be fine. What do we do now?" Pinzu questioned between bites.

"Well, we did have some questions to ask Quasar, after that I guess we'll be off to Algarost." Solaris responded.

"Sounds good to me." Red nodded in agreement. No one seemed to object.

"Next question," Romel jumped in "Any idea where Siralos is?"

Everyone paused, then turned and looked at Solaris. He looked around the table and met eyes with everyone. "Right, I'm the guy who can sense his presence aren't I?"

"Why can't Eber? That creature does exist because of the darkness in Eber, does he not?"

Romel pondered this thought for a moment, only to get an explanation from Pinzu.

"Well, it would seem that whatever even happened caused Eber to be separated from his previous darker self. I wouldn't know as I've never met this 'evil' Eber."

"I'll go with that explanation. It's simple and makes sense." Romel seemed quite content with the answer.

"So basically, the darkness that I somehow absorbed over however long was expelled during that last battle? Sounds interesting, I won't ask." Eber looked down and continued eating breakfast.

"I think Sol's energy has the ability to dispel darkness related to the blight, or, any dark entity. I've only seen evidence of this once though, back when we had to rescue Elli."

"So, about Siralos, since no one has actually answered the question…" red said in a serious tone.

"Well, he seems close by actually, though I'm unable to tell which direction. I actually have to focus quite a bit to sense his presence."

"Well, if he's after us, and by 'us' I mean 'you', then we should probably get out of here relatively soon." Pinzu said with a mouthful of bacon.

"You should know better than to talk with your mouth full" Red scolded him.

"Ma'am, you do realize I'm old enough to be your great-great-great-grandfather, right?" the old man replied after washing down the bacon with some orange juice.

"And…? That's no excuse for bad manners!" she glared at him.

"Watch out, nanny Red's gonna pull out a ruler!" Eber teased.

"I won't, but I still may smack you none-the-less" she stuck out her tongue.

"Anyways, we should head to the ruins and speak to Quasar, and then we can head to the Elven capital. It'll take Siralos a while to actually get to us there." said Romel.

Neil was passing by. "The airship is being stocked with additional supplies and is being inspected by the crew. They told me it'll be ready for departure tomorrow morning. And in case you're wondering, they've been staying in the guest house here on the manor grounds."

"Ok, so then we'll ride out to Razanden this afternoon, we can make it back by tonight or early tomorrow" suggested Red. "We should be quick, since we don't want Siralos around this area."

"Sounds good to me, Neil, can everyone be ready to leave in the next 2 hours?" Solaris questioned.

Everyone nodded in agreement. And they made ready after their breakfast had settled. The 6 of them headed out towards the ruins on horseback, using about half of the horses in the stables.

They arrived at the ruins and Solaris lead the way in. They made their way into the inner chamber and Romel spoke up "Whatever you do Oddi, don't freak out…"

Oddi turned around a looked up at him. "Sir, I am a dwarven warrior and master smith, I do not 'freak out'!"

Romel merely grinned "Then hand me your hammer"

"Fine!" the dwarf said and turned the hammer over to Romel, now Red and Sol were grinning.

"I don't like this, why did you need my hammer, and why is everyone grinning like that?"

"We'd like you to meet Quasar" Romel said as he motioned for Oddi to turn around. Oddi did so, and Quasar was floating with his face level to Oddi's and mere inches away.

"…..Hi" the dragon greeted him in a needlessly evil tone. Oddi's eyes widened and he turned pale from fright. He stood motionless for a moment.

"What's that smell" Quasar asked, sniffing the air.

Solaris took a sniff too. "I think its urine."

"Eh?" Red asked, seemingly confused.

"It's pee Red. The air smells like pee. I think the short man just wet himself" Romel answered her.

They all looked in Oddi's direction. "Qua….sar?"

"Boo!" the dragon bellowed.

The short man fell to the ground, flat on his back, with an expression of complete and utter shock about him. He did in fact have a newly acquired stain on the front of his pants.

"Wow, he really did lose it. So much for the dwarven warrior not freaking out." Romel said as he set the hammer down next to Oddi.

"So, I have a question for you Quasar" Solaris ignored the situation at hand. "Exactly how old am I? I don't exactly remember."

Quasar moved away from the terrified dwarf. "You friend Eber here doesn't remember? You are, or were 18, though you weren't far from 19."

"Yeah, I didn't remember. Let's just say you missed a lot." Eber replied.

"You didn't come all the way just to ask me that did you?" The dragon questioned.

"Well, I'm sure we didn't, we were just in the area and thought we'd drop by. Eber wanted to say hi. Either way, Oddi's reaction was quite worth the trip." Romel replied.

"Oddi finally recovered from his fright. "I think I'll be taking my leave now. I saw a creek on the way here; I'm going to go wash my pants." He took his hammer and then his leave, only to be heard a moment later, after he walked outside. "It's quite a bit darker out here than it was when we arrived. This doesn't seem normal. "He mounted his horse and rode off into the woods.

They walked outside, leaving Quasar in the citadel. Pinzu looked around with suspicion. "This is indeed unnatural, and I must say, slightly familiar."

Solaris's eyes began to glow, Romel quickly took notice. "You OK Sol?"

"He's here" Sol said calmly. He had his hand ready on his sword.

"Wait, you mean…" Red was interrupted by Oddi's yell, which was also stopped before completion.

"What is happening here?" Eber asked as he summoned his frost swords.

"Your worse half is here" Red replied.

"As much as you yell and hit me, I find this hard to believe." Eber said with a grin.

"Siralos is no joke. You of all people should know this" she said while drawing her bow.
An oddly shaped figure could be seen in the distance, appearing human with a lump near one of the shoulders. As the figure neared them, it was made aware that it was a person carrying another person.

The figure reached the edge of the clearing. "I missed you guys, well, some of you. As for this guy, I didn't really have much time to get to know him." Siralos said with an evil grin as he dropped the unconscious Oddi to his side, broken hammer included. A dark aura appeared around him and began to expand. "Now, where were we last time….?"