The mysterious boy led them past the entrance to the area that was called "Pirate's Cove". He led them along a path that led to a dead end. He turned around as he came up to the wall. He scanned the five people that were following with his eyes and looked towards Oric. "Word of this place is not to be given to ANYONE," the boy said coldly. The boy then turned around and walked on. He went straigt through the wall.

Master Ace followed wordlessly. When he passed through the wall he was surprised to see Skeleton and Zombies wandering about on either side of the path. There were no undead on the path. The boy leading them seemed to pay them no mind. "A precautionary measure?" Master Ace thought to himself. He hoped the others wouldn't freak out.

As Verling followed behind he stopped for a few seconds at the wall and placed his hand on it. When he was sattisfied that the wall was somehow not even there he walked thruogh a little startled to see the zombies. Hidden under his cape Verling placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and continued walking behind the others. As he walked along he thought to himself "These are pretty extreme precoutions. Even for a pirate. I wonder what is going on here?"

Kli's eyes followed to the zombies and skeletons. Her eyes widened, her hand on her hilt under her cloak. She bit her lip and didn't make a sound other than her soft breathing. 'Why in earth would they be here? And why do they dare not touch the path? Oh well, I guess we will see, no?' She thought.

It had been wuite some time before Oric had said anything. He had been soeechless ever since the boy had spoken to him. Oric did nopt know where the boy was taking them, but was ieger to find. Once they walked through the seemingly dead end things seemed to be making a bit more since about storys of things he had heard in the past. He thought to himself. " Is this the actualy pirates cove? The one that is said to be gaurded by fierce waters nd blistering winds? After all we did go through hell to get here, it would make sence." Oric then laughed silently to himself. He continued thinking. " well i just always assumed the Pirates Cove was somewhere else." Finaly Oric spoke up. " Boy, how do you know who i am, and just what the hell is this place?"

Lilith stared blankly at the wall. She had seen the others walk easily through it, but Lilith still wasn't sure. Finally, she closed her eyes and rushed through. She bumped into something on the other side and landed sprawled out on the floor. She snapped open her eyes and stared up into the hollow eye socket of a skeleton.She screamed soundlessly, her mouth open in a silent O. She just laid there completely stunned.

The boy turned his head slightly and replied, "All of your questions will be answered in due time, Oric. " He seemed to chuckle as he made his reply.

Master Ace turned around and saw Lilith. She seemed paralyzed in fear as she stared at the skull of a skeleton. He quickly jogged to her and helped her up. They continued on along the path for several minutes, but with the consant stares from the undead creatures roaming about it seemed as though they had been walking for hours. finally they exited the long hallway and came to an area with a large dock. There was one gigantic Sailboat in the dock. They were still in the cove. The only exit from the dock was down a long tunnel which seemed to split off in the distance. It was too dark to see most of the ship. Lanterns lit the path to the ship. The boy led the up a wooden ramp and opened a door on the ship. "The Captain is waiting for you," The boy said as he watched them all go inside. The room was grand. There were many golden objects decorating the walls. There was a large wooden desk with a golden glow. Behind the Desk sat a female elf with regal clothes and a featered hat. Her chair seemed as more like a throne. Behind her was a large mirror with occupied almost all of the space on that wall. "I've been waiting for you. Please sit down. Lilith why don't you tell me about yourself first. I know you are here to help your friends but is there anything special I can do for you personaly," She said with a smile as the pointed at the five splendid handcrafted chairs before her. Master Ace sat down as he was told and waited to see what would happen next. "How does she know our names?" Master Ace thought as he waited for Lilith to reply.

Oric decided it might be best to just go along with everything. He didn't want to accidently say or do something he wasn't supposed to, and then end up dead. He shrugged his shouldars and followed. For some reason though, he wasn't very surprised when they had reached the captain. In fact he was a bit releaved it wasn't some evil skeleton king. Oric decided to just stand and waite till he was spoken to.

Lilith stared at the odd woman and looked to the others for help. Sensing she was on her own, she began to talk. "I'm not sure how you know of my name, Captain, or what we all are doing here.How did you come to hear of us and what is it excatly that you want from us? If you want me to tell you of myself then I insist that you answer my questions first." Lilith wasn't used to talking so sharply, but something about the woman was just..odd. Lilith had a sense of recognition, but quickly shook that from her mind. After all she couldn't possibly know this stranger right? Lilith looked about and sat in one of the beautiful chairs.

"Dear me! Where are my manners? My name is Sybil. You may call me by that instead of Captain. I know none of you personally, but all of that will be explained after I learn a little more about you. All of you are with Ace who has been told by some one close to him to come here and meet me, although Alorous wasn't too blunt intelling him the details," She smiled as she fingered the rings on her own fingers.

"Is this why Alorous told me to come here? How does she know Alorous as well?" questions swamped Master Ace's mind.

Oric felt a bit releaved after the woman gave them a much wamrer welcome, however he waws still a bit uneasy about the fact that the living dead were roaming around.

Lilith allowed her muscles to relax as she looked at the woman. "It's okay we're just a wee bit jumpy considering your...company outside." She looked uneasily at the door that contained non living things just on the other side. "Anyways it is a pleasure to meet you Sybil. There isn't much to tell about me, I'm just your average faerie who's an earth mage. But I don't want to take up your time rambling about myself." She turned and glared at the others waiting for them to take over. She wasn't too happy about being put on the spot first.

"Well I suppose that will do. I'm sorry about the undead and of course the Ghost ship you met earlier. If you can think of anything I can do for you, Lilith, let me know," she replied to Lilith. She turned her attention to oric and said with a smile, "Now we move to Oric. Tell me about yourself. I'm sure you have plenty of questions for me." She took off her hat and revealed her short brown hair.

As the woman moved on to Oric, he became very nervous. Trying not to studder, but not doing a very good job he said. " Uh, well, what do you want to, uh, know about me?"A short pause went by before he quickly intereupted with. " UH, Ms. Sybil."Oric didn't think this was the best way to start things off and so became even more nervous. A few beads od swet made there way down his face. Quickly he wiped them away.

She smiled, but seemed slightly annoyed his response. "Come now. Is the brave and resourceful pirate of talking with a lady? I know your mind is pouring with questions, but it that's the best I can get out of you I suppose we can move on. Give it another try, please. Without the Uhs this time," She smiled.

Ace was surprised to see Oric get so nervous. He wondered who would be next after Oric.

Oric didn't know what had come over him, normally he would have answered with a confident voice. He had no more time for this odd way of which he was acting. Oric cleared his throat and began again. This time in a calm and forcfull voice he said. " As you know i am a pirate, however, i am tired of having to put up with a crew ands split the treasure. Don't consider me your average pirate. Not onley do i use a sword, but magic as well. I have come to learn the significance of magic and the advantage it gives me over other pirates. Soon enough i shall have my own ship. One that can handle it self. I shall Pirate the seas with a dragon and together we shall live rich." Orics tone began grow with exitment as he spoke of his plans for the future.fortunetly he was able to catch himself before he got to carried away. He calmed down before continueing. " Although i am a pirate i am also a good man, well as good as a pirate can be anyways." He smiled as he relised this last remark must have sounded a bit hipicritical as he does go around stealing from other ships. " Basicly i just steal from the rich and give to myself."

She laughed at his last sentence. After taking a few moments to calm herself she said, "You do remind me of myself in more ways than one. Are you sure you have no questions for me? This may be the only chance you have to ask. A lady like myself is often on the move." She waited to see if any questions came out of his mouth.

Oric thought for a moment. He did have a few questions as to what all of this was about. He replyed. " Well actualy i was wondering, what is all of this about?" He paused a second before continueing. " Oh and does this shirt make me look fat, i was kind of thinking it did. No i'm just kidding, but seriously what is all of this?"

"Ah, The question I was waiting for you to ask, but that is one I will answer in due time," She replied with a wide grin. She turned her attention to Kli and camly said, "Hello princess. Tell me about yourself. Is there anything the wanderer has to ask of me?" Sybil began to rap her fine finger on the desk as she waited for Kli's reply.

As Verling followed along he was very cotious of the things around him. He did not make a single sound as he walked along, listenting to every sound around him. As soon as the Sybil told them her name he took his hand off the hilt of his sword and wached her talk with Oric. As he listened he was no longer worried about the things around him. He thought that if she knew Ace she could not be all that bad.

"You've been doing your homework haven't you?" She said with a smirk. "But, please, my name is not princess.. So I do believe you have got your resources mixed up.." She said, walking around. "Your name is again..?" She said. She didn't feel so astonished anymore.. The place was simple as were these people, to her anyway. "Or did you even say that? And why must we be here? Why must the tide change?" She said. She was answering her question by loading her down with many questions all at once.

She smiled as she noticed Kli had been tooken her words too literally. "Once agian, My name is Sybil. You know throughly what I mean by princess, Kli. I suppose that is the best I can draw from her royal highness. I'll try to answer what questions are relavent in due time. You will soon learn that You, Verling, and Ace have something in common that you would propably not want to know, but this will not be learnt here," she replied to Kli. She the turned her head to Verrling, "And now we come to the man without a past. But I'm sure you have something to tell me about yourself. And I might might be able to help you with your own reasons for coming here," She said to Verling maintaing her mischevious smile.

"We already know we have something in common.. We are all friends..." She said to herself but outloud. She looked around, then to Sybil and then to Verling and then to Master Ace. 'But she seems to have something else about her that says she knows a little more about them than she said outloud... She seems like Mith.. One of those 'wizard types' that doesn't say outright what they know...' Kli used to do that as a child, never say anything she knew outright, but things had changed.

Verling was a getting a little impatient now and said in an annoyed tone "I was told by an old man that there was an ancient artifact here that could help me with my past. I believe he said it was a sword with my name inscribed on it. Or was it a shield? Any way, might you know what I am talking about?"

"Rumor mills have been created and have been ... altering the truth. I know of no sword or peice of equipment to help you, although I do have an artifact which might help," She smiled as she stood up. "Avantel," She called out as she turned slightly towards the mirror. A misted face appeared over the reflected images. It seemed human-like, but it's features were vague and changing.

The misted face replied, "Yes, My Lady."

Sybil turned back towards Verling and the others. " This is Avantel. I used he to scry on you. I used him to foresee this advent. I used him to look into some of your pasts. I occasionally use him to find the past of paticular items and sometimes people we look into the past of Sailors I have intrest in for my own reasons," She Explained before turning to back to thee mirror.
"My Lady, his past is misted. I can not look into it, but I see that the near future holds many answers," Avantel said softly.

"And I HATE it when he does that. He always does that when things start getting good. now that we have all of the introductions out of the way I shall begin on why you are all here. centuries ago I was off raiding drow city," She began and the mist face vanished. The Mirror no longer reflected their images. Instead it showed the story as it happened from her point of veiw. Sybil continued," It was there that I saw a drow boy. He was young and seemed talented with magic. If he were to stay ther he would only suffer horribly. I din't want thst to happen so .... I took him with me. My comrades thought of me as crazy, but knew better than to question my judgement. We escaped and I raised the young boy as if he were my own." She paused and as she did so the mirror did like wise. (that's a mouth full)

As he wached the mirror Verling whispered sofly to himself "So the sword is not here after all is it? I guess I was a bit foolish believing an old man's tale. But then how did he know of my name without my telling him? Maybe the item which I seek is hidden, or maybe forgotten?" When he was finished thinking he focused more on the mirror and when she paused her story he said "So this drow has something to do with old caver? Or does he have something to do with us?"

Master ace was curious as to why she did not ask him the same question that she had asked the other, but said nothing of it. The drow looked familar to he because he knew the drow. "The Drow has something to do with us. He is Alorous, or am I mistaken?" Ace said to answer Verling's question.

"No, Ace you are not mistaken. I gave him that name and taught him many things. Now where was I?" Sybil said to answer Ace's question.

She cotinued with her story and the mirror followed her with images of the past," I stopped most of my pirating when I was raising him. I wanted a better life for him, though it meant I would have to inconvience my own. Many years Later I found Avantel and one night he fore told me of the fate of the world resting in my hands. He said that I had to release Alorous of my care. I did so, but I was not happy about it and neither was he, but he was old enough to live on his own and I had trained him well. I told him if he ever needed something done for him, to come here and see me. That is why you are here. Alorous wished for me to use Avantel to find Ace's parents. We have found his mother, but not the father." when Sybil had finished the misted face once again appeared over the reflections of the mirror. "Here, Ace. He sent this to me to give to you," she smiled as she handed Ace a Cloak of spiderkind. He silently took the cloak and tried to old back his tears.

Seeing Master Ace's reaction Verling walked up and silently placed his hand on Master Ace's shoulder. As he stood there he looked around to see how many trails there where.

Lilith just sat there in astonishment. The whole mirror thing was a very curious thing indeed. When she had handed Ace the cloak, his eyes had misted over and Lilith had the maturnal urge to run up and comfort him. But she chose not to considering he might find it offensive. She waited to see what would happen next. Everything was beginning to get a little odd. But what was normal in Imythess?

"I will now do my part. Oric shall remain here with me, but you four will venture together and find Ace's mother. I need to ask a favor of you first. One of my ships has recently succumed to a ... rat infestation. I need you to clean the rats out. I was going to have my men do it but most are unavailable and the others fear anything out of the ordinary. Then I will unload and freshin up the ship while you have a comfortable sleep on this ship. Alice shall lead the way," She smiled a tears slowly seemed to form in her eyes. As prompted Alice opened the door. The boy who had led them inside was no boy afterall. Alice tugged at her scarf and waited for the foursome to bid Sybil farewell.

Without a word Verling took his hand off of Master Ace's shoulder and began towards Alice. When he was a few feet behind Verling said "Lead the way, I rid the ship of your rat's." He was still a little surprised that the artifact was not here. He still belevied that it was somewhere in the area and that they where either unwilling to give it to him or truly had no memory of it.

Lilith wondered why the woman was tearing up. *Hm maybe I haven't paid close enough attention. Too much is happening at once though.* "Sybil, it twas a pleasure to meet you. You're a fine woman." Lilith curtesied to the woman and got in line behind Verling.

Everything had happened so fast, she didn't quite know what to think. They went on this quest to clean out a rat problem? No, no.. That's not it.. She just couldn't think straight at all. She looked to Master Ace quietly. Would they find his mother? She then looked to Verling. Will he ever find his past? She didn't know this at all, if this was going somewhere or not. She simply knew that she might as well help with the rat problem. "I guess I could help in some way..."

Master Ace dried his tears and put on the cloak. Changing his wings as he did so, soo that he could fit his fings through the small holes in the back. "Well, Let's get it out of the way," he said as he walked up to Alice. Alice led them back to area that was crawling with undead. A new path had seemingly appeared. As with the first no Undead came close to this path. She led them down it and and stoped when they reached an old wooden door. "I am told to take you no further," Alice said with little emotion. "The heart of the problem lies below the deck. Or so I am told. Come back here when you are done. I'll be waiting," She said as she opened the door.

Behind the door was a large docking area. It could hold many large ships, but only one ship was in sight. Ace, Lilith, Verling, and Kli walked onto the ship. The floor of the ship was littered with many skeleons which seemed o be rat skeletons. The ship had svereal scratches on the lower parts, but looked otherwise in good shape. "Hehe maybe the problem solved itself," Ace chuckeled nervously. Open the hatch to the dark hull underneath. "Want to go in first?" he said looking up at Verling.

Kli looked to the hatch and the dark, she was quiet as she stared before looking to Master Ace. "I don't think anyone really wants to go first..." She said quiety. "We don't have a plan in the world to actually kill the rats without killing the ship as well... My mind is so filled with clutter that I can no longer come up with the 'ellaborate' plans that I used to.. So, whoever wants to go in first don't hesitate.. I'd go in first, but only if no one else wishes too. Although, I don't care to know the reason why anyone would.."

Verling looked around at the skeletons and thought to himself "The only way there could be skeletons here is if they decayed over time or something ate them. I dought it would have taken them this long to kill a few rats." He drew his sword ,wanting to be ready for anything, bgan to descend slowly to the bottom. He could not see clearly in the tunnel and stopped a little way's down to let his eyes adjust to the lack of light.

The torches the along the wall of the hull and on the deck sparked into life with a purple light and illuminated the area. The hull was also filled with several skeletons. In the back of the hull seemed to be a large brown chest. The bones clanked togehter as they slowly came to life. the skeletal rats quickly came to their feet and charged at the group.

Ace casted a quckened halt undead as he saw the rats charge at them. Some rats stoped dead in their tracks, but others kept own going. Ace used his tail to attempt to keep the rats from sneaking up behind him.

As the rat's came forward Velring used Halt undead aswell. Once again only a few stopped in their tracks while the others came head on. He killed some more with his sword then jumped back and after sheathing his sword pulled out his bow and began using it to kill the rats. He looked up and said sarcastically to Kli and Lilith saying "You can stay up there if you want however your help down here would be greatly appreciated."

"Very well then.." Kli said, holding her sword and following them into the hatch. She could see though the dark thanks to her shadowdancer training.. But she still was freaked out for some reason. It's funny how the only thing that gave her the willy's were skeletons that weren't moving.. I guess you could say that she thought that anything that wasn't moving, was going to attack once she turned her back. She started to try to kill the rats, swiftly cutting them into peices. She didn't stop to see if they were put back together again, she didn't want to either.

A thought was tugging at the back of Lilith's mind. -Something's not right here. It's almost as if this is a..* She tired to finish her thought but her mind was hazy. She jumped from where she was standing onto the deck below. She pulled out her lightning sword and tried to cast lightning upon the rats. But nothing happened. "What the..." Rats flew at her from different sides. She cast flame and set as many as she could on fire. But they kept moving towards her. "Uh oh" They tackled her. She tripped backwards and fell head first on the deck. "Ow!" She yelled. She threw the rats off one by one. She cast telekineses and lifted all the rats off her. She flung them, with her mind, into the nearest wall. They crumpled into a heap of bones.

As he continued to fight with his bow Verling realized he had forgotten to rearm himself before coming and was therefore running out of arrows. When he had fired the last one he put his bow up and drew his angelic sword once more. Before going forward he casted halt undead once more and again only a few of them stopped. The rest rushed forward forcing him to kill them with his sword.