Date:         Wed, 23 Jul 1997 10:45:42 -0000
From: RainiMadden <rainim@CONCENTRIC.NET>
Subject:      INT: Return to the Keep

"Time to do some snooping around," Raini told Norgoth as she got dressed
for dinner. (Of course, the gnoll averted his eyes while his mystress
donned the outfit she had picked out.)

"Who can we talk to?" he asked as he handed her the white silk shirt
while shielding his eyes with gnarled fingers that had open spaces to
look through.

Raini sighed and sat on the bed as she finished buttoning her shirt. "I
don't know, Norgoth. Everyone seems to be different here." Then, she got
a glint in her eye and said, "Merlin!"

A swirling cloud of sparkling dust filled the room causing Norgoth to
start coughing. The swirling stopped but the sparklers continued to hang
suspended in the air and glitter all around Raini. She smiled. It was her
favorite of all of his entrances.

"Yes, my lady," the old man said as he stepped from the glitter and
stooped to kiss her hand. Raini could still see the handsome face of
Drammon, even though everyone else only saw the wrinkled Merlin, which
happened when Drammon helped Christian escape from the kracken.

"Merlin, do you know who I am?" she asked expectantly.

"Of...uh...well...you are the lovely new guest of the Master and his
Mystress-to-be, Syrilyn," he answered. "I came to your summons
to...um...welcome you here."

A single tear ran down Raini's cheek. "I see," she whispered.

"Well, gotta go!" Merlin said. He became a cloud and whisked under the
door.

Norgoth got a frown on his face as he watched Merlin's cloud slip away.
"Mystress, I think..." the gnoll began as he turned to face her. But,
what he saw made him forget what he was going to say. Raini had lain on
the bed and was sobbing into a pillow...something he had *never* seen her
do before. She was always so happy.

"Mystress!"

"Give me a few minutes alone, Nor-Nor-Norgoth," she said.

He tried to stammer words to comfort her, but nothing came to him. "I'll
b-b-be just outside your door, Mystress," he finally said.

As he turned toward the door, he noticed that a note had been slipped
under it. He picked it up and thought to give it to Raini, but then he
decided that since he was her aide...and that she had spent all that time
teaching him how to read...he would read it.

The note said...

You are cordially invited to attend a masquerade ball tomorrow night to
celebrate the joining of Christian, Master of the Keep, and Syrilyn,
Mystress of the Keep, in matrimony. The ball will culminate in the
wedding of the happy couple. *Everyone* will be there!

Just as Norgoth finished reading the last word, he heard the unmistakable
sound of a giant lion growling on the other side of Raini's door.

----{--{@
rainim@concentric.net

"A dreamer lives for eternity."
                   --Anonymous