Lestat sighed."Oh please may I stay? I do so love your little rituals.. And I can lend you some power..I have plenty to spare love."He said with a wide grin. Rumble just shook his head, and walked out."I'm going to check the girl."

"Alright" Feara said nodding to Lestat before turning to Damin. "You out. Stand outside the door and make sure n one comes in until I am done." Damin nodded and left taking a guard position in front of the door. Once Damin had left Feara walked over picking up the bowel of water from the table and moved it to the center of the room, setting it on the ground. "I am going to scry an evil mage." She said looking at LEstat.

Lestat sat on the floor across from her, watching her intently."And why is that?"He asked, genuinely interested.

"Becasue Mea told me not to." Feara replied smiling as she set wards and spells on the room. Some where the normal wards, if someone tried to enter they would know, no one would be able to cast magic at them, however, she also added a scry spell where her identity was protected while she scried.

Lestat nodded, flipping his hair over his left shoulder."Of course..it makes sense now."He gave a wry smile, as his skin prickled with the magic in the air.

"Yes." Feara said giving Lestat one of her evil smirks before placing her left hand on the bowel as she dropped Mea's hair that she had gotten off of the sheet fairly easily into the bowel before adding her right hand to the rim and chanting the words to the spell. Within seconds the image stared to take form.

Lestat stared at the image, as it slowly began to take form."Should you really be doing this?" He asked, looking into Fearas face, the concentration was obvious, and he thought he might be able to see a little concern.

Feara nodded replying softly "yes, if not we will all be in store for a hellish ride. I want to know what we are up against." She looked back down at the bowel letting her concentration wave through her as she looked at the demon.

---

"Come in."Zzeey said, in response to the loud know on the other side of the door."S'me..how ya doin' li'l one?" he asked, nodding at Zzeey.

"Good!" Talla said smiling up at the dwarf.

Wonderful, wonderful..so..ya feelin' up to whipin' Zzeey some more?" he asked, his eyes shinning. it was truly good to see the small child up and about.

"I could try." Talla said swinging her legs over the bed and standing up but as she did she fell forward.

Zzeey was there in an instant."Woah..maybe tomorrow huh?" he said helping her back to the bed.

"Bah..hows she suppossed to get better if she dont try?"Rumble asked, placing his hands on his hips.

"See. What Mr. Rumble said." Talla said whinely against Zzeey.

Zzeey shook his head with a small chuckle."If you say so little one, just dont push your self too hard."

Talla smiled triuphently but felt something was missing, she felt off balance. "Zzeey, where is my staff?"

Zzeey stood, and looked to the corner near the door. Her staff leaned against it, untouched since they came here."Shall I fetch it for you?"

Talla looked at Zzeey nodding a confused looking crossing her face. "Yes please."

Zzeey stood and retreived the staff."Here little.. but take it easy."He said in a concerned voice, handing the satff to her.

Talla took the staff and was immieately filled with strength and energy. She carefuly leaned back off the bed and on to her feet once more finding she could stand. Smiling she looked at Zzeey. "See."

Zzeey smiled."Yes i see." He looked to rumble who smiled as well.

Talla walked to the window using the staff as a walking stick bu tnot heavely. "I feel better." She said smiling. She felt a surge of energy, something unnatural, yet good. "Why do I feel so good?"

---

Mea smiled, glancing over at the glass that sat at the opposite side of the table."Looks refreshing." She said, grinning at Jace. "Think I should buy a pint?"

Jace poured her a glass of the wine."No need,if we get through this one then ill buy the next round."He smiled widely, setting his instrument on the table."So..how did you sleep?"

Mea took the glass of wine and nodded graciously. "I haven't slept in a bed for a while. It was very refreshing." She laughed, holding the glass between her hands. "I almost didn't want to leave the warmth of it this morning."

Jace laughed and took a sip of his wine."I bet it was..So what other instruments do you play?" He asked with a smile.

Mea, not really used to drinking wine, took a large gulp, but seeing Jace take a small sip, slowly lowered the glass. "Eh...heh.' She blushed and looked down at her glass, swirling the liquid around. "I really don't play anything other than my lute." She shrugged, raising the glass to her lips and sipping it, imitating the way Jace drank. "I did try playing a couple of other instruments. Ok, a little bit more than a couple. Because of my type of employment, you always have to stay on top of the trends. I've been asked by my employers to play any and everything at least once. The dulcimer, hurdy-gurdy, hirtenschalmei, kortholt, rebec, harp, pan flute. You name it, I've probably played it."

Jace's eyes grew wide."I..I can play only this.."he said waving a hand over the mandolin."That's a very impressive list you have there, i think Zzeey can play the flute..and the harp..something about drow and their nimble fingers."He gave a shrug and sipped his wine again."And so...i suppose this is your stop then?"he asked flatly.

"M...My stop?" She asked confused. "I-i.... I don't.... know... what you're...."

Jace rolled his eyes."Lestat told you you can travel with us to the next town..but your more than welcome to stay.. we're heading north.." He smiled across the table at her. "Ten towns, in the icewind dale. Well more accurately an abandoned dwarven mine in the dale..but meh.."He said, shrugging.

The silence was thick as Mea debated her future. She had forgotten the deal she'd made with Lestat, regarding her safe passage to the next town, but she'd lost her will to continue with her old life the way she had. She had friends now. People she cared about, in ways that she hadn't felt in years. It wasn't until she unwillingly started traveling with this group that she realized how much she missed friendship. "I don't.... this town is kinda small." She said glancing around the empty room. "Chances are that I wouldn't be able to make enough money to finance my stay here anyways."

Jace nodded happily."Well then, you are most welcome to join us, until you find a town of your liking of course." He said, holding up his glass."To new friends?"

She smiled, raising her glass, and nodded to her new friend. "To our friends. To our family. To our future."

Jace smiled and clinked his glass with hers."Well said."He said after taking a sip."So..would you like to take a walk, in a bit after we've had a drink of course."He said nodding to the pitcher on the table.

Mea grinned, pulling her cloak tightly around her, shivering, as she held the glass. The room was a bit chilly and her small frame grew cold easily. "I would most definitely love to go for a stroll after we... partake in our little indulgence." She giggled, swirling the wine around the glass in her hand.

"Good then."He smiled some more, and took another sip."Maybe we can stop by an weapons smith and get you something better than the small stiletto..."He said with a smile."Something better for close range combat."

She blushed, looking down at the table in front of her. " I'm afraid that I'm not particularly skillful with any sort of weapon. I'm kind of a klutz." Her hands slipped into her lap, wringing her dress, as she explained herself.

"Zzeey can teach you..He's really good at close quarters combat.."Jace said, draining his cup, and refilling it."Refill?"

Mea nodded her head and scooted her glass forward with her hands. "Yes please." She waited for him to pour her another glass. "I'm not very good with weapons. I'm a bit of a pacifist."

Jace nodded, still smiling."Yes, but there is a need for fighting, if nothing else but to defend your self." He filled her glass up, the pitcher now half full."Fighting doesn't mean killing you know."

She hung her head. "I guess I can understand where you're coming from. I'd hate for something bad to happen to Talla again because I freeze up. That would be most dreadful." She sipped her beverage slowly, contemplating his words.

He sighed."That's not your fault, it could have happened to any one." he said sipping from his cup.

"still..." She mumbled as she covered her mouth with the cup, feeling worse about the situation than before.

"We'll think of that some other time."He said, sipping some more of his wine."Ready for that walk?" He asked, draining his cup.

"Yeah, as ready as I'll ever be." She gave him a smile smile and pushed her glass away, standing up and gliding over to the door.

Jace smiled, and followed."After you m'lady."he said, pushing the door open, holding out an arm."Left ,right?"He asked, looking down the streets.To their left the streets grew dirty the further down the way, the houses and buildings grew closer together, and to the right, things seemed only slightly better.

Mea smiled up at Jace, and moseyed out the door. She looked down both pathways, not seeing much difference between the two of them. "Ummm..." She mumbled, finger tapping her lip as she pondered the decision. "How about we go down that way," she grinned, pointing to their left, "and we can always go to the right on the way back."

"Sounds fair to me."Jace said, heading off to the left."so how did you end up among our motley group?" He asked, kicking a half eaten apple out of the road. the moon hung low, the night was young yet, and the road soon became more lively as they took another left, leading them further into the town.

"Let's just say I chose the wrong dwarf to try to pick pocket." She smirked, watching the apple roll off. "All of a sudden, I'm being given money by some big bald guy like some sort of common whore, being dragged off by someone half my height, and chased by guards."

Jace laughed, and gave a sigh."Liam's not the brightest torch in the alley.."He said running a hand through his hair."I'm sorry about that..he's practiced in sword not intelligence."

Mea snorted with laughter. " So I see." She smiled and, looking down at the ground, kicked a large clod of dirt so that it skittered down the alley way in front of them, where it clattered to a stop and waited for her to catch up and kick it again.

"Rumble means well.. he likes to pick up strays..no matter how much he says other wise." Jace said laughing. "He used to own a tavern..thats where we all met.." Jace sighed, thoughts of what rumble had told him about the tavern ran through his head. His one home burned to the ground. "its gone
now.. burned to ashes..but we will do as we always have... endure.."


_________________________________


Those words still haunted him.
Endure.
That's what they had done.
Through that adventure. When they lost Liam.
And the next. And the next when they lost Lestat.

Somewhere along the way they had separated. Too much loss to bare. Too much pain. Jace, Zzeey , and rumble went home. Rich from their adventure, but broken and soul weary.

Zzeey left them one evening, fading into the dark. Without a word, or a warning. Gone in the early hours of the morning.

That had been nearly a century ago.

Rumble had the tavern rebuilt. By the lake, but across from it's old site. It still received travelers. But not nearly as frequently.

But that was fine by Jace. It hadn't been built to make money. It hadn't been built to serve customers. Truth be told, there where times before the fire that it had sat cold and dusty for years at a time.

It had been built for Rumbledowns first Retirement. And rebuilt for his second.
Jace had decided to join him in ,what would be his own first, retirement.

And so there they spent their days. Rumble behind the bar, Jace at his favorite table in the back. Both seemingly content in retirement.