When It All Comes Together, from Fen's Memoirs

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After being well cared for by the entire court, I was ready to return to the side of my beloved for better or worse. I expected to knock on the tower door and resume where we left off. Roarke had other intentions. With my body, mind and soul in such disarray, I didn't care about his intentions and I banged on the door and screeched at him until I heard the latch lifted on the other side.

I slowly opened the door myself and walked into the dark tower, lit only by one solitary candle on one of the tables. Roarke shuffled back to corner he was using for a bed. I went to the table and sat down. "Thank you." I said firmly. There was no reply. Judging from the scrolls before me, Roarke had been following a lead to the whereabouts of the missing stone--right into the grave of a Belauriian Queen some two thousand years before the entrapment. Knowing that a sacred burial site would be off limits even to him, he was again in despair.

"What was it, Roarke? A necklace?"

"A ring."

"You're sure it was a ring?"

"I saw a drawing of Queen Abernathy with the ring in the '7th Book of Knowledge'." Roarke muttered.

"Where is that?"

"Over there."

"Were in a large, dark room. Do you think you could be more helpful."

"Third bookshelf to the right of the central window, halfway down, large --"

"You know they all look alike. I'm trying to help you here, Roarke." I scolded him.

He got up and went straight to the book and placed it on the table next to the open scroll. In a few moments he had found the picture with the details of the jeweler who designed the ring for her and had already started to walk away.

I studied the drawing carefully then smiled. "You won't find it in her grave."

"I know I won't. There's no way to have her exhumed. She's buried in sacred soil in Belaurii."

"You don't need to exhume anyone. That ring wasn't buried with her."

"Of course it was. It says so..."

"Do you believe everything you read? I'm telling you I know where that ring is." I tried to wait it out to get back some of his enthusiasm.

"Where is it?" He didn't believe me for a moment.

"With my former mistress. It's her most prized possession."

"And how did Dophe get it?"

"How should I know? But she has it. I've seen it dozens of times. She used to stare at while she was losing at cards. You couldn't miss it. Now how do we get our hands on it... I have an idea. We could get D'Hir--"

"Absolutely not."

"You didn't even hear me out."

"D'Hir must have nothing to do with this!" He snapped.

"You've become an insufferable kranch."

"And you've exhausted your welcome. Goodbye, Fen."

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