Identical hall after identical hall, Vardinn wanders through the castle. Clearly abandoned. The walls are dirty, worn, and covered in cobwebs. In a few rooms, the furniture is torn apart and thrown about. Whoever lived here left in a hurry. The Harvestman must have laid claim to it after. “I wonder if it was from before the Unknown.”

After searching floor by floor for an exit, Vardinns hand begins to vibrate. Picking up on an energy from deeper with the floor he is currently on, the same energy as that crystal, he ventures deeper.

He continues for quite some time until he comes across a set of doors to a larger room. At first he has a hard time opening them and after finally gaining access, he sees that someone placed a bookcase in front of it.

Looking for some light source, he finds a few fire spell candles and lights them easily enough. Now with more light, he sees the source of the energy. An elven woman in a chair. “Oh odd” he thought to himself. “Has she been here since before the Unknown?”

After a moment or too of searching her form and surroundings for clues, she speaks. “Is it custom now for elven men to enter a room unannounced or are you just an ass.”

“Oh my! I’m sorry! I’ll be honest, I didn’t think you were alive. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Loc Vardinn.”

“Really? I do not remember you.”

“To be fair madam, I think you have been here for a long time and it is not common for people to know all of the royal family.”

“No but seeing as my name is Maram Vardinn, I should probably know you.” 

“I knew I remembered you! I saw your picture every day when I passed the hall of ancestors. How could you be alive? You went missing twelve hundred years ago.”

“If you are really my family then you must surely know my curse.” She says as she cracks her joints loudly.

“If I remember correctly, you were or rather, Are a dual soul. It happens when an elf is a twin but only one gains a body.”

“Hmm. okay, I believe you.”

“Why are you here? How are you here?” Vardinn asks as he grabs a chair and sits in front of her.

“I lived here. This is my room but if you mean as to why I am Still here, it is because of that thing. The creature with the horrible metal face. He coats the whole castle in shadow that I cannot escape from. Speaking of which, how did you find me?”

“This is gonna sound crazy but a being called The Protector asked me to find you.”

“Ah. That sounds like him. I am a chosen of the Devourer and my sister is the chosen of his twin, the Forge. The Protector is the guardian of all cosmic planers and usually steps in when there is an issue between two of their kind.”

“Okay, we definitely need to talk about this more but for now, I think we should leave.” Vardinn says as he extends his hand to Maram.

“I would love to but I cannot. The cosmic energy from my sister and I are colliding with each other and it takes all of my effort to keep it at bay. My sister has to remain asleep because of it.”

“Why don’t you two just separate then?” Vardinn looks at her with a genuinely puzzled look.

“Oh dear, if we could do something like that then I would!”

“Oh wow! I guess you never find out on account of you being gone so long. We figured it out ages ago. It’s a simple body double spell where your sister takes the new body instead of a copy of you. Dual souls aren’t really a thing anymore because of it.”

“Can you perform this spell!?” She says as she darts from her chair, grabbing his face.

“Yes I can.” he says through smushed lips. “But I will need a magic artifact to use as an outside power source.”

Her face dropping again, she sits back down. “As you can probably tell, there’s nothing like that here anymore.”

Vardinn looks down at his hip. He pulls his gun from its holster and says, “we’ll use this. I will have to repay Porter later but that’s alright.” 

He scans the room until he lands on a desk with papers and ink on it. He quietly recites a spell to give life back to the ink and grabs a quill. Knelling down and taking her hand, he inscribes a mystical circle on it and with the other. He helps her to her feet and leads her to the center of the room.

“This part will not be pleasant but it will be quick. It will feel like you are being ripped in two. Do not fight it. Just release and in a moment you will be two.”

Vardinn takes the pistol and after a few quiet chants strings of energy come pouring out of the gun and begin forming a circle the same as the ones on her hands before separating in two. Ropes of pure light wrap around her arms and begin separating the pair. After a moment of pain, tears, and difficulty, the two collapse, now separated but worn out.

“I know you are both very tired but we need to move.” Vardinn says as he reaches for Maram.

“Thank you, Loc, but we cannot go with you. Now that we are separated, we will be able to leave once our strength is returned. We will find you when the time comes. Until then, you must go. There is a gateway in the basement of this castle. Go there.” 

She grabs his hand and with the most sincere look she can manage, she says, “you tell The Protector thank you as well, now go child, before he returns.”

Uneasy about leaving but honoring her request, he leaves the room and heads to the basement. It takes a while to reach, it is as if the entire castle was designed to be as complex and time consuming as possible.

He finds the gate and like before, with a woosh and a brilliant display of lights and wind, the portal opens. Vardinn steps through and finds himself right back where he started, at the forests’ edge. There he finds another familiar face but as unexpected as the first.

“Porter? What are you doing here”

Eyes widened then a look that says that he wasted so much time here, he yells back, “I was helping get you back but I see they worried for nothing. You will have to tell me the tale later but you should probably head back”

Porter walks over and opens a doorway to Jacksville, sends a small fire sprite through, and motions for him to walk through.

“I thought only Jack could do that?”

“Special permissions.” he shrugs then walks away until a gust of wind picks up and he is gone.

Vardinn enters the doorway, this time being much easier to walk through. Darker, colder, and less inviting then his first time, he knew that The Harvestman was here. He walks back up to the hall, swings the door open and is met with a suffocating embrace from Saga.

“You absolute idiot. We were worried sick.” She says, refusing to let go.

“See!? There he is. Safe and sound. Can you release me now?”

Vardinn peers over her shoulder and see The Harvestman chained to the floor. “Aren’t you curious how I escaped the void?”

“Honestly? No. I just want to go home.”

Letting Vardinn go, Saga grabs the staff and hands it to him. She then grabs the box and presses the center again and the chains release and the box returns to its dormant state. “A deals a deal. Next time, just wait before acting and you won’t get chained to the floor.” She says with bitterness and a shrug.

“I was right in the end.” he looks over at Vardinn and with a creepy chuckle, he says “I will be seeing you again. I can’t wait.”

Sinking into the floor, all the shadows recede and the light returns.