'We picked up the wizard out in Tibet somewhere. This was shortly after I came on board, and before I had really known what I was getting into. At the time the ship seemed impressive, and the Captain was persuasive. The coercion... that came later.'

'So, the wizard, he was a small fellow, but powerful. And intelligent, but I guess you'd figure that, since we call him the wizard. His name was Chogyam, never really found out his last name. He was a recluse, even on board. He worked with us, but he never got into the banter. Kept to himself. I suppose it's a wizard thing. The Captain does it too.'

'The Captain brings him on board, after going out into the town to inquire after him, and then is gone for quite a few hours. Sometimes it happens, it can take more convincing for some people. He tends to try and get you on board first, he has ways of keeping you here. And really, who wouldn't want to stay on board Missy, here.'

'Well, it went okay for a while. Chogyam, the wizard, he talked little, but showed off sometimes. Light shows, small creations, making shapes in the clouds. But I don't think he really knew what the Captain was doing with all of us. The Captain, he really isn't up front with anyone. Just wants to get you on board. Look what he did to you.'

'Anyway, first time the Captain comes to the wizard, and asks him to go do something for him... Chogyam asks why. Bad question to ask the Captain. He doesn't answer 'why', just not his style. He's got some purpose, most of us think it's sinister at some level, but no one has figured it out. He's not a big hinter, and doesn't mix well, but I suppose you know that by now.'

'Now, there isn't a shouting match. Chogyam, you might imagine, is not a loud guy, he isn't big on demonstrating stuff. The shows, shapes, that was just a little entertainment, and he didn't do it often. I think it was mostly for Ria, most of us have a soft spot for her.'

'No, this was quiet, but forceful. And everyone who was on deck when they started staring at each other moved off fast! Those of us who didn't know yet, well, Ria and the others, they pulled us away. They knew what was coming, and none of them wanted to be around.'

'The Captain, he doesn't like challenges. Not one bit. He will put up with them, if he thinks he's in control. With most of us, he is. Not so with Chogyam, the wizard was something of a match for his power, and I think the Captain had to share something of his wants with the small man.'

'And everyone else knew that he would not be happy with the rest of us for hearing it.'

'There were no thunderclaps, no powerful 'magic' going back and forth, but there was a static in the air, a charge. I felt it, don't think anyone could have missed it. It hung over us. In our rooms, the galley, everywhere. And it hung for hours.'

'Eventually though, it did fade, and the Captain got what he wanted. I don't even recall what it was, that first time.'

'But that was before the Dark Place. It took a couple years before we went there. Mostly Chogyam was fine, kept to himself a lot, but was pleasant enough to be around. But when the Captain asked him for anything... we all left. It got to the point where the Captain would actually invite him to his cabin. We'd still feel it, and he was the only one I ever saw go into the Captain's cabin, but we'd be able to move around the ship.'

'Everyone walked carefully when it happened, me included. The forces at play there seemed immense, even for me. And you know what I can take.'

'So, one day, the Captain tells me that I'm going with Chogyam into a place, to retrieve something for him. I shrug, because I've gotten used to the idea of doing things for him, and I'm not worried about it. You know why. But later Chogyam knocks on my door. He'd never visited me, or anyone else that I was aware of.'

'What could I do but let him in. He had this quiet way about him that made you respect him. It was like he showed everyone respect, and you almost felt you owed it to him in kind.'

'He told me then what the Captain really wanted him to do, and the place we were going, as much as he knew about it.'

'And he told me he would not return.'

***

'Why are you going at night?' Ria asked.

Santiago looked at the young woman. Her dark eyes sparkled in the light of the ship's luminescent globes. Smooth and flawless skin, a hallmark of her constant youth, showed out in the glow cast across the deck of the ship they stood on. Eagerness and curiosity emanated from her, now as most times.

'No particular reason,' Santiago replied. 'But that's what Chogyam decided.'

'Huh.'

Silence descended as Santiago turned to look out from the Lady Everywhere's rails, between the globes that rose from the sides of the ship. No mist surrounded them, and he felt only a portion of the usual motion of the Lady they rode upon. Her hull had ground upon the shore earlier that day, and the Captain apparently felt no need to conceal them.

Ria's intake of breath heralded more words, but the sudden feeling that washed over them both made her pause.

'That's enough, Ria,' Santiago said quietly. 'Time for us to go.' The shudder, slight within him, warned him of the presence of some type of power, some magic, unknown and strong enough to make him respond. It woke his own ability, the reason he was on this ship, the reason the Captain had chosen him. He felt it within himself, the building, the changes, something awakened in him, in answer to the power that washed over him.

'Why don't the rest of us come?' Ria asked, ignoring his words.

'Too dangerous for you all,' he replied shortly.

'You'll be coming back, though?' she asked, her voice suddenly smaller.

Santiago looked over at her, seeing the slight form of the wizard approaching slowly from behind her. 'I'll come back, don't you worry.'

She darted forward, and gave him a quick embrace. For all that he'd only known her a few years, she loved people quickly, and everyone on the ship came to care for her as well. Youth did tend to charm.

Then she dashed off to the stairs that led below deck. Santiago watched the slow progress of Chogyam, the mage who would be going with him to this place, the dangerous place the Captain sent them to. He thought back to what Chogyam told him a week ago, about what they would find there, and what he was after. Chogyam needed him to accomplish the task, and so here he was.

'Greetings to you, Santiago of the majestic spirit,' the short man's voice had a strange accent to it, and he spoke oddly much of the time. He hadn't considered it much, but now he wondered if it was another part of the distance the man kept.

'Hi, Chogyam.'

'Ready?'

'As ever.'

'The young woman? She wished you well?'

Santiago nodded. Then said, 'You keep to yourself too much. She would have done the same to you.'

Chogyam looked keenly up at him. Neither of them were tall men, although of the two Chogyam was both shorter, and slighter. Santiago knew his broad frame, stout and strong, was not something the other man envied in the least.

'She may be sad, after I am gone,' Chogyam replied. 'But not as much as she would have, should I have been better known.'

Santiago nodded. He thought back to their conversation again. He'd been going back to it many times over the week since.

'You are doing this to strengthen me?' His question to the smaller man was not strictly necessary, his adaptive abilities had not yet failed him.

'They are stronger than I thought,' Chogyam replied.

Santiago nodded, then let go of the rope ladder that he had held furled on the side of the railing. It descended, and he climbed over the side.

'No one else to see us off,' he commented as he descended.

'Better that way,' Chogyam replied, descending slowly after him.

They set off as soon as they were on the ground, pausing a short distance away for Santiago to hide a small pack he'd brought with him at Chogyam's request. The small man's power continued to wash over him, and he felt his body responding, a charge building deep within him and then radiating out to suffuse his whole body. He had grown used to most of the changes that came over him, but this one was new. Most of the time he grew stronger and tougher. Instead, he felt like he was becoming different, somehow. Awash with some sort of eldritch power.

'What are you doing to me?' he asked, after they had been walking in the jungle for some time.

'Making you more like them,' the wizard replied.

'How much longer?'

'A while,' Chogyam said. 'Be ready, not all are contained within. But that is where the strong ones are.'

Which are the ones we are after, Santiago thought. He did not speak it aloud.

***

They walked for perhaps an hour before the jungle gave way into wide, barren plains. Now they passed through the open landscape. What little scrub brush existed, scratched and clung to the dirt upon which it grew. In the daytime, this land would be hot, dry and miserable, now it was chill in the night.

Chogyam still seemed at ease, but power continued to wash over Santiago. The bigger man felt like a thunderstorm filled him, all energy and pent up action just waiting to find something to release his fury upon. He looked around constantly, partially because he knew his role, but partially because he wanted something to rage against.

Stubby trees were rare, and he could not take in any tracks in the gloom. The clear, dark sky held the vaguest hint of a moon, a sliver of distant brightness that seemed to leave the land darker than if nothing at all shone down. Santiago asked the question about having a light to show the way, but Chogyam replied, 'It will just attract them.'

Enigmatic, the little man was.

As he continued to look around, peering hard into the gloom, Santiago wondered if his eyes would ever adjust. Without any danger, or pain, he felt that he would exist in the folds of the world's cloak for the rest of the journey.

He almost ached for a struggle, something that would force him to adapt to survive. Mostly though, he wanted to know what 'they' were. Chogyam had been vague on the topic, alternately referring to them as demons, spirits, and monstrosities. He wondered if there were just a lot of possible beings around here to choose from, but if so, he still had yet to see any.

'Are we close now?' he asked, but quietly.

'Yes,' Chogyam replied. 'Closer, at least.'

Santiago sensed it before he actually heard it. He felt a charge like being awash in lightning throughout his skin, goosebumps erupting all over his body at once. A memory of a wind witch rose in his mind, and the storm that she had struck him with. This intensity held no burning fire though, as her lightning had. Then he heard the heavy tread, and broken crunches of vegetation, and he turned to stare toward it. Chogyam stopped as well, and they both watched the darkness.

'You will have your opportunity for strength, it seems,' the wizard commented.

Santiago smiled briefly, thinking of his gift, both a blessing and a curse. He grew strong, but it hurt. Sometimes it hurt badly.

A snort, pushing the air out towards them, and then the footsteps quickened until they pounded a fast rhythm upon the earth. As it crescendoed, the earth shook under him. Out of the shroud of darkness, a huge black mass seemed to swell.

Santiago asked, 'Do you need one of these?' Then the massive thing hit him, hard.

He blinked as he sailed through the air, and the darkness shifted into sharper focus. The impact hurt, but he shot back to his feet, feeling his body hardening. The thing that struck him was four legged, with huge, heavy legs, and a body at least the size of an adult elephant. Instead of a long trunk and wavy ears, it looked like a massive face was embedded between the shoulders, where he might have expected a head would be. He had no time for a clearer picture, as the huge beast bore down on him again.

Timing its approach, he crouched, poised to leap aside. Before he willed his legs to finish the movement, the creature seemed to surge forward impossibly fast for something of its mass. Santiago had no time to think as the creature's shoulder struck him hard again.

His reflexes turned it into a glancing blow. Instead of flying away, he fell to the side. The creature's rear leg descended with the finality of a fine piston.

Sheer agony welled up through his body, pure and molten. Bones snapped, flesh tore open, and blood gushed from the torture of his leg. The beast did not slow, but kept churning forward. Santiago did not see it. Barely aware of anything but the glorious pain within him, he felt the familiar, loved, and dreaded prickles of his own power flooding through him. In moments awareness returned, seconds passed and his head spun to mark the massive creature. As it followed a wide arc, he knew he must get up before it came back, or it would crush him to a bloody pulp.

The prickles came. When they were in his skin, it was fine. When they were in his muscles, he could barely keep from twitching. But inside of the bones, they came close to driving him mad. Movement was the only respite from the pin-prick sensations deep in places he could never scratch. Movement that dragged his shredded skin and mending bones so that they screamed their defiance throughout his mind. His leg only jerked as he willed it to respond to his wishes. Pain, both his ally and his constant nemesis, brought his mind a little clarity. The worst of it seemed over as the beast oriented itself at him again, picking up speed. His leg flexed and lifted, bones, muscles, and skin all feeling like they were rolling over a bed of iron nails. He gasped through the sensations. His eyes opened and he saw the creature almost upon him. The creature's previous surge of speed rang through his mind, and he rolled away as fast as he could.

Blinding, crunching agony gripped him mercilessly. Throughout the fog of sensations, he opened his eyes to track the path of the creature. His other leg, and a hand flooded with the needles, and he countered it by bunching up the first crushed leg so he could put its foot upon the ground and try to push himself to standing.

The bones in that leg were harder, and the pinpricks were manageable, or would have been by themselves. Santiago pounded his good hand on the ground, then stopped and put weight upon the leg.

It held, and he could feel the muscle fibers weaving together, the bone denser than before. It felt larger now, tougher, stronger. Pushing himself off the ground, he almost stood. Almost, and then balance failed and he crashed down upon the other leg. Pain shot through him again.

He breathed it in, and needles of sensation covered him, suffused him. Eyes that were nearly blind before could now mark the enormous form that had nearly completed the wide, fast arc to charge back at him.

Rolling over brought more fire searing through his muscles and bones, but he managed to get onto the good leg, and he crouched and leaped just as the beast bore down upon him. It was merely breathing room, but it was enough, so that when he landed off balance, he dropped into a roll and came back up on both legs, searching quickly for the beast.

The inner needling only a vague memory, he set his legs as he looked at the creature, seeing the thick hide, and the strange wide face set between the front of its shoulders. He wondered briefly what to do about this massive creature. Then he called out, 'Do I just kill it?'

'Yes,' Chogyam's voice responded from the darkness. Santiago could not see the little man. The answer did not surprise him though.

He smiled, for while it would hurt, he did not doubt he could kill the creature. Being able to see made things so much easier.

Santiago pulled back a fist, waited, but he mistimed his strike. His corresponding leap was not executed perfectly, though he kept from being trampled again. This time he landed on both feet, and they supported him.

His body grew stronger from any injury, and healed faster the more he hurt. Landing almost gracefully, he turned quickly and ran at the beast during its wide turn. Shooting himself forward, his fist smashed into the side of its head, but it did not even seem to notice.

Chogyam's voice sounded nearby, 'We have not time for this. Finish it.'

Santiago sighed, but turned and charged after the creature. He ran as fast as he could muster, and as it angled for another run at him, he leaped powerfully onto its back. As he landed, he grasped hold of its skin, and felt an electric charge jolt down his body.

Folds of skin bunched up in his grip and he pulled himself forward along the creature's back, feeling the charge building as he went. Under him, the beast slowed, and then stopped. Santiago felt the muscles shift under him and decided to try and cripple the beast before it rolled over on him. He was used to pain, as it was how his ability worked, but he'd never gotten to the point of enjoying it.

He pulled a dagger from his belt and attempted to plunge it into the creature's spine, hoping that what he felt along its back was vertebrate. The blade skidded off the creature's hide and he almost lost his grip with the one hand.

'Feedback,' Chogyam's voice came out of the air. 'Use the energy I have provided.'

Santiago stopped struggling and tried to say, 'What do you-'

Before he was able to formulate the question, the rear half of the beast lowered down to the ground, and Santiago instinctively leaped away as the creature rolled over onto its back. He could only imagine the pain of all of its weight on him.

'Use the energy to strike it,' Chogyam's voice came again.

'That's not something I usually do,' Santiago grunted back.

'Immaterial,' Chogyam replied. 'That is how you may defeat it.'

Wonderful, Santiago thought to himself. He had no idea how to do anything like that.

As the beast struggled back to his feet, Santiago dashed to its side. He pulled back and punched it, as hard as he could. The impact made it shudder, but otherwise nothing happened.

'Grip it first,' Chogyam's voice sounded. 'Then tap it, very quickly.'

The beast was nearly to it's enormous feet. Santiago grabbed another fistful of flesh, and felt the charge sweep through him. He executed a quick jab, barely smacking the skin of the creature. A sharp snap echoed across the night, and then a flare erupted from the point of impact. The light wrapped him as thunder echoed through his body, throwing him back. He landed hard on the earth.

Santiago shook his head to clear his eyes, where sunspots played havoc with his vision. When he got back to his feet, he looked at the place where the beast had been. Only four smoking holes existed, where he imagined its feet had been.

'There you go,' Chogyam seemed to step out of empty space between Santiago and the holes. Santiago could see him nearly perfectly now, and he looked around.

'Is that going to draw more of them?' he asked.

'Assuredly,' the small man said. 'But now you know what to do with that sort.'

'There are other sorts then?'

Chogyam smiled, but did not reply.

'You feel inclined to tell me more about them before we meet them?'

Chogyam turned and began walking again. 'Maybe later, for now we must search, to find the entrance.'

'Right, no time for talking then.'

***

'I have not seen the full extent of your ability,' Chogyam commented after the third such creature had exploded and he stepped out of the air. 'The Captain was right to have sent you.'

'Thanks,' Santiago commented wryly. 'I see what you meant about not bringing anything along.'

'I did try to tell you,' the wizard said.

The broad man clutched at the remains of his clothing. While he knew Chogyam cared nothing about his upcoming nudity, Santiago did feel a little self-conscious about the circumstance.

The wizard tsked, then said, 'Come, we waste time.'

Santiago followed as the wizard walked according to whatever inner compass he followed. The fighter had no idea how to get to where they were going, nor how he would get back.

When he voiced the question, Chogyam ignored him.

Finally, after avoiding another of the charged beasts, Chogyam slowed. Then he said quietly, 'We are close.'

Santiago looked around, but even with his perfect night vision, he could see nothing that stood out in this bleak land.

'How can you tell?'

Chogyam ignored that question as well. He moved slowly now, his head cocked to the side as if listening. Santiago heard nothing, not even the wind blowing.

'You are an annoying little man,' Santiago said, after he had waited a few more minutes.

Surprisingly, Chogyam did reply to that. 'Takes one to know one,' he said.

The childishness of the statement made Santiago frown. He opened his mouth to say more, but at that moment, the ground to their left opened wide, sand, bushes, and earth all seeming to fall away into a pit of emptiness. Santiago looked into the void before him, but his eyes revealed nothing of substance within it.

Chogyam regarded him intently, waiting for something.

'So, you found it,' Santiago said. 'What now?'

'We jump,' the little man said.

'And how do we get back?'

The wizard raised an eyebrow, then shook his head slightly.

'So, what's in there?' Santiago tried a different tact.

Chogyam shrugged this time.

'Are you going to tell me anything?' he asked.

'You first,' Chogyam replied pleasantly.

'Fine,' Santiago said. Then he gathered himself, and leaped into the darkness.

***

The struggles against the beasts and the explosions had toughened him enough so that the landing, when he did land, only felt like a lightning bolt to his legs. He fell forward at the sudden stop, and lay still for a minute, as his legs rested, healed and grew even stronger.

He took the moment to glance at his arms. Thick muscles rippled under heavy skin. He shrugged shoulders that felt way too big for his body. He'd never been this powerful before, that much he knew to be true.

Rising to his feet, he habitually dusted himself off, then glanced around. The world slid through a mix of colors and shadows. Some moments, the world appeared through a clear lens of tinted glass, brown, red, faintly yellow. Other moments, he seemed to be surrounded by smoke from a great brush-fire, puffs of white cloud, or gray mist, or dark nothingness cutting off actual vision.

He felt something in the air, then he heard Chogyam's voice.

'And here we are. You won the race!'

A high pitched giggle sounded through the air, and then everything seemed to shudder.

'Oh dear!' Chogyam said happily. 'We've been discovered!'

Santiago tried to look around, to see what might be rushing at them, but Chogyam only laughed again. The flow of colors, tints, and smoke defeated Santiago's ability to discern anything real in this place.

'Wizard,' he growled. 'What the hell is this place?'

'This,' Chogyam said, impressively, as if revealing the view of a magnificent palace, 'is the Dark Place!'

'Why the hell do you call it that?' Santiago said. 'It's not dark.'

Chogyam's voice came out of a wisp of deep black fog that rolled around Santiago. 'Oh, but it is. You will see!' That mad giggle came from him again and he added, 'Or, you won't!'

'Will you please make sense!'

'Can't!' Chogyam said, cheerily.

Feeling useless and angry, Santiago started peering through the swirling fogs, trying to grasp those images he saw in the crisp colors when they appeared. He finally caught a glimpse of what he thought could be Chogyam's form, and he reached out to it.

The first attempt failed, as his large hands passed easily through a wisp of smoke. On the second attempt though, he snatched something that felt like cloth, and he tried to pull it closer.

The cloth wrapped around him, enfolding his head, ears, nose and then his mouth. It drew closer, and the feeling of asphyxiation suddenly overwhelmed him. He tried to draw a breath, and the fibers pulled tight, letting but a trickle of precious air through.

Terror wracked him. All thoughts of strength, and why he had been chosen to accompany Chogyam to this most dangerous of places, fled.

Then he remembered, he'd done this before. He'd been in the bottom of the ocean, where one could not breath. But he'd grown gills, and survived that. He'd been buried alive a couple times, but even that hadn't troubled him too much. As the air stopped flowing, something must have changed within him, because he'd survived them as well.

Calm, he told himself. Think. His mind clouded as he failed to draw a breath through the fibers around him. Sense faded for a moment, greyness clawing up into his mind.

Briefly, darkness surrounded him. Then it clouded over with gray. Then something changed inside of him, and he found his need to breathe eased.

The blackness returned, then his eyes registered a color, and then another. The strange distortions of vision returned. Slowly, carefully, he reached up to the cloth he felt but could not see around his head, and when it seemed his hands had the right thing, he tried to pull it away.

Something came away. He felt it shift, held the slight weight of it in his hands. When he looked at them through his lens warped sight, he found nothing in them. The feeling of breath, and the distortions around Chogyam, or the form he thought of as the small wizard, tortured his eyes. He closed them as his gorge rose and he called out, 'What's going on?!'

The wizard's maddening cackle sounded again. There was a pause, and a wind of noise rose around him, blowing fiercely. He briefly opened his eyes again, attempted to look at the wizard and then felt things shift under his feet.

Finally, he heard Chogyam call to him, 'Wait! Just wait!' His voice was more sane than Santiago had heard in a while. He decided to do as the wizard instructed, and hoped for something more definite in this place.

The world tilted underneath him, and he fell to the ground. With his toughened form, he merely grunted, and then lay still. He reached out with his other senses, as his eyes did not seem to be helping him much.

He heard noises, but nothing that he could identify, other than as fast movement. It smelled of fire, and something rank that didn't do anything to relieve the nausea from his last vision. He'd smelled plenty of coarse scents in his time on the ship, but this one seemed to actively revolt him, as none of the others had.

Just as suddenly as he thought it, though, the scent changed, and a feeling of euphoria swept through him. The intensity of it caused him to shudder against the ground, moving slightly underneath him.

Finally, Chogyam's voice broke through his ears and the whistling noise that surrounded him. 'These one's are not very strong yet.'

'What ones?' Santiago asked.

'The demons assaulting us,' the wizard responded.

Santiago opened his eyes again, and the shapes, colors and fluctuations invaded his consciousness again. 'Where are they?' he grunted. 'I see nothing.'

'These lack substantive form,' the wizard answered. He seemed infinitely calmer now, a development that Santiago found both relieving and frustrating.

'What, they are... wraiths? Ghosts?'

'Similar in concept,' Chogyam replied. 'Though neither appellation is correct.'

Santiago considered this, looking at the varying clouds and shadows and sharpened forms that wavered in his vision. He felt the suffocating feeling again, but this time he forced his body to breath deeply and it responded. He reached out, still laying on the floor that seemed to conform slightly to his body. The euphoric feeling continued to course through him, a wonderful scent filling his nose.

For whatever reason, his body didn't seem to be compensating for the smell, and he found himself relaxing. His arms felt languid as they parted the thick air around him. In spite of the roiling of his stomach as he looked around, he felt a stupor drawing over him, and his eyes started to ease shut, not from pain, but from ease.

'Santiago!' Chogyam's voice pierced through him with an almost painful sharpness.

But it only briefly parted the languor he felt as he relaxed into the comforting embrace of the earth. The smell, before euphoric, and now softly teasing his taste buds, combined with the gentle noise around him to lull him asleep.

A sharp jolt shot through him, and he felt electrified for a moment. Needles permeated his body and the euphoria fled.

'Santiago!' Chogyam's voice called again. 'Do not succumb to them!'

He rose to his elbows, and felt the soporific effects coming back over him. He struggled to overcome and resist the sensations rising over him.

Another jolt of fire seared him and he shook his head to clear it. He panted now with the pain of the shock.

'It seems we have found your vulnerability,' Chogyam said, and Santiago felt light hands grabbing his arm and tugging him to his feet.

'Amazing how easy it is to incapacitate the strongest man, with just a little pleasure.'

'What about you?' Santiago grunted as he complied to raise himself back up from the soft earth. Another jolt shot through him. He grunted and said, 'You can stop doing that.'

'When I deem it safe,' Chogyam replied cryptically.

Santiago's vision cleared briefly, and he saw Chogyam bring his hands together after sweeping them through the air near Santiago's head. A slight flash lightened the suddenly dark world and he caught a brief glimpse of rock walls, and strange formations around them before the dark took hold and he could see nothing.

'Damn it,' he muttered softly. 'I thought I'd gotten the night vision.'

'You did,' Chogyam responded quietly. 'We are now in the absence of light. There is a difference.'

Santiago sighed.

He felt the wizard's hand on his arm and the absolute blackness lightened slightly. He could barely make out shapes around him.

'What next?' he asked the smaller man.

'We hunt,' Chogyam replied.

***

He followed as Chogyam lead him through a strange passage that he could barely see. The wizard rarely paused, and seemed unperturbed by the encounter they'd had upon landing. When Santiago asked him about the creatures that had troubled them Chogyam replied cryptically.

'They were very weak, and you will need to start injuring yourself should more of them learn how to stop you.'

'Injuring myself?' he asked.

'Yes, so that your adaptive nature will keep you strong, and focused. Do not let anything in here lull you again.'

Yes, sir, he thought quietly to himself.

They encountered more of the weak spirits. The next time Santiago felt himself falling and before he knew it, Chogyam had disentangled himself from the larger man. He felt himself soaring downward, and picking up speed. He looked around and saw everything around him as if it was all far away. He felt tiny, careening around the cavern that he had been in. His vision flowed through changes as before, sometimes cloudy, sometimes sharp.

Chogyam again brought him out, and finally Santiago felt himself stable, kneeling upon the earth, and clutching his head.

'At least you are helpful against the physical ones,' the wizard remarked wryly.

Chogyam hauled him to his feet and they started forward. Minutes passed before Santiago thought to ask, 'There are physical ones in here? They can't be like the ones outside.'

'No, they are more dangerous,' the wizard agreed. 'But smaller. That is good, yes?'

'That's wonderful,' Santiago commented back. 'Do I defeat them the same way?'

'Maybe,' Chogyam replied, unhelpfully.

More walking the innumerable caverns and paths, relying upon Chogyam's guidance, and more strange attacks upon his senses. It felt worse to have these things, whatever they were, preying upon his mind. He felt what it might be like to be normal, at the mercy of other things, other powerful beings.

He did not like those feelings.

Give him a fight, even against the electrically charged elephants outside. He'd grow stronger and stronger, healing fast, until he could overpower whoever he fought. This helplessness, this reliance upon the little wizard, bothered him. Especially when he thought about how he would leave this place.

When they finally encountered something physical, Santiago felt relieved.

Chogyam stopped suddenly, then said, 'Your turn.' His hand vanished from Santiago's arm, and the blindness of utter darkness claimed him.

'Chogyam?' Santiago called.

'Noise does attract them,' the wizard said from a distance, unhelpfully.

Santiago waited, fuming. Wishing he could adapt to the mental assaults they were encountering, he could do nothing more until whatever Chogyam sensed arrived.

It didn't take long until he heard the movement, rasping against the rocky floor. He called out, 'Know anything about this one?'

Silence answered him.

Knowing that he needed to hurt to grow stronger, he moved in the direction of the noise. Wondering if his vision could, or would, adapt to the utter blackness if he hurt himself, he wanted to bring on the pain, and get the process going.

He bumped into something, felt it collapse under his weight, but it didn't hurt. When he fell forward and caught himself on rocks that tore his hands open, then he felt the pain. As much as it hurt, he almost relished it. He had to put weight on one hand, driving it further down so he could lift the other free of its spikes. As gently as he could, he found an open place and removed his other extremity from the impaling it suffered.

As he sat back on his feet, shaking his hands while the wounds closed, the creature struck.

Twin blossoms of pain fountained in his chest. The beast lifted him off of his feet and he slid further down upon whatever impaled him. He groaned with the last bit of air as his lungs collapsed. Ribs shattered within his chest and he could feel something like teeth upon his right leg.

Breathing hurt, moving hurt, but that pain told him he still lived. He could feel every movement rubbing his shattered bones against each other. Shards tore at his lungs as he tried to take a breath. Air failed to respond, and he could see glimmers of light that were spots in his lack of vision.

He reached behind him, pain flooding throughout his entire being. His arm flailed until he found something solid erupting from his back. He managed to get his hand around the thing and pulled, trying to break it off.

Even with all the strength he had developed earlier, it would not budge. He kept pulling, every movement suffusing pain throughout him, and the attempt to break the thing that supported him only made it worse.

Suddenly he recalled the strike that had destroyed the monstrous creatures outside. He stopped pulling with the one hand, pulled back the other one and managed a sharp slap against where he expected the creature was.

Noise rocked him, and he felt like he'd exploded as he flew through the air, landing hard on sharp rocks that must litter the floor. Agony suffused him, and spots darted across the blackness before his open eyes.

He waited as the agony of bathing in molten rock took away consciousness.

***

Santiago felt the sharp slaps against his cheek. With consciousness, awareness returned and then pain invaded his mind.

'Exploding something while it is inside you is not advisable,' Chogyam's voice hovered over him.

He opened his eyes, and could see a vague outline of the wizard.

'Worked,' he whispered.

'Well, get up,' Chogyam said. 'We need to go or others will find us soon.'

Groaning, he extracted himself from more of the small, sharp rocks littering the ground as he sat up. His chest felt tender still, and he knew he had not been unconscious long. The feeling of pain, all along his body still remained in his memory.

'Come!' the wizard said. Santiago eased himself to his feet and began walking after the smaller man. His feet constantly pressed hard onto the sharp points lining the cave. As he turned his gaze down, he saw nothing that looked like the spikes he had felt himself laying on, tearing into his body.

Echoes of pain still within his body, he could feel himself growing stronger and tougher. His chest bones felt heavy, and the rest of him seemed surprisingly slow. He felt like he was lumbering along.

'How much longer?' he asked Chogyam.

'For what?' the wizard responded.

'To get what the Captain wants you to get,' Santiago responded.

'Oh that,' Chogyam replied dismissively. 'Relax and enjoy the trip.'

'Right,' Santiago replied, 'Between the explosions tearing me apart and the things playing in my mind, it'll be like a day at the beach.'

'You are alive, are you not? You are still here, are you not? What are you complaining about? Don't you like adventure?'

Santiago rubbed his chest, still feeling the explosion in his mind. 'This has been more intense than other times.'

'Don't worry, it will get better.'

'Define better,' Santiago said as Chogyam disappeared again.

'Another fighter comes,' the wizard's voice floated to him from somewhere nearby.

***

'Santiago?' the boy asked carefully.

The older man startled back to wakefulness. 'Sorry, Jaden,' he said quickly. 'The memories take me back. Where were we?'

'You had landed in the dark place, and the wizard, Chogyam was giggling?'

'Right, well, he managed to get control of himself. There was something strange there, some sort of otherworldly presence. I couldn't even see it, but he managed to do something to it. Was a good thing too, I had no idea what to do against something like that. Couldn't hit 'em, they didn't explode like the things outside.'

'It was a good thing that little man was there. Course he had me deal with the physical ones, and they were tough, let me tell you. But eventually we got moving again. I was huge by that time, and my eyes eventually adapted. It was pitch black in there. Couldn't see a thing at first, but eventually I came to see enough.'

'I always do...' Santiago said quietly, thinking about the words of the wizard. He had never shared them, not with anyone. He didn't think he needed to ever give that information out. But he knew it, in his heart, he knew, he might be indestructible, but he was still vulnerable.

***

More fights, with creatures he could barely see. His eyes had changed, but only a little. He barely saw a differentiation of shadowy shapes now. Their forms were like nothing he had encountered before, having portions of many different beasts all mismatched together. None of them were as big as the massive elephantine monstrosities outside, but they were easily as dangerous.

Most of them he was able to explode, and he was tough enough now that the explosions barely caused him discomfort. His skin was thick and scaly and he felt like a walking bulldozer.

They encountered more of the mind-dwellers, and he managed to suffer them until Chogyam did whatever he did to get rid of them. He used the pain trick a lot, finding that the ground obliged him whenever he fell on it. Finally though, his hands grew tough enough to no longer be hurt by the spikes, so he started landing on his arms, and shoulders.

But the pain worked. Even when they tried the euphoria, pain always cut through it. He wished he could do something to them, but he had no idea how to even find them. They were ephemeral, and mysterious, something would be enveloping him one second, and the next he was falling off of the earth into the sky.

It took all of his willpower to resist the tricks they were playing on him. But they were only tricks, and he just had to endure them long enough until Chogyam did his.

Finally though, the wizard spoke after another set of mind-dwellers were dispatched.

'You haven't figured out how to deal with them yet?'

Santiago frowned. 'Don't need to, you're here.'

The little man sighed. 'Do you recall our conversation on the Lady?' he asked.

Santiago thought back, and then he did remember something.

'You said you were not going to come back?'

'Yes, so if you want to make it out of here, you will need to learn how to deal with them as well.'

'But I can't even see the damn things!'

'And when you were blind? Did you have to see the things to fight, and defeat them?'

'It helped,' Santiago muttered.

'Simpletons,' Chogyam muttered in response.

'What?'

'Simpletons,' Chogyam repeated, simply.

'Since I'm the only other human here, I'm assuming you mean me.'

'Correct.'

'I'm a simpleton because I don't know how to fight something I can't see, hear, or touch?'

'You are a simpleton, because you are not using your mind to figure out how to deal with these creatures. Anyone can strike something into submission if they are strong enough, but to best something within your own mind. That takes force of will. Determination.'

'Meaning I don't have it?'

'Santiago,' Chogyam's voice was even throughout the exchange. 'You survive everything that has been thrown at you in the world. Physically. You are incredibly tough, and strong, and you are an ideal companion in this place to deal with the very strong forms of demonic substance that inhabit it. But that very ability has crippled your ability to inhabit your own mind.'

'Really?' Santiago asked wryly.

'Yes.'

And that was all Chogyam said, for a long time.

***

They walked on through shades of the earth. Santiago's still changing sight allowed him to see the forms of the rock around him, enough to walk now without bumping against them. Everything existed in shadow, even Chogyam was just another shade in the gloom.

He noticed movement though, and the wizard's form drew his attention constantly until he finally asked to go ahead.

'No,' Chogyam said in response.

'Why not? You are driving me to distraction.'

'Because you do not know the way.'

Santiago found that an odd comment, since he hadn't seen any branches from the tunnel they were in. It curved around a great deal, twisting many different ways, and constantly went up and down. But he hadn't seen anything that implied choices to be made as they went.

'There's just forward. We haven't had to turn.'

'That's what you think. And so, I lead,' the little man said.

Santiago followed, looking around more and more often, but not finding anything worthwhile to see. Rock, and more rock, shadowed, like everything in this place. The creatures, they emanated a sort of inner glow. He could not see their forms even, just a sort of outline as they struck at him. They were indistinct in his vision, but powerful as they attacked.

He often met them as equals, but sometimes as the master. His resilience and power of recovery and adaptation still worked to his advantage. Some even required him to tear them apart with his bare hands. Apparently not all of them were charged with the energy that Chogyam had imbued him with to fight. He wished he had clothes, but he'd accepted that Chogyam didn't care, and there was no one else around to look at him anyway.

Just the demons, as the wizard described them.

'Why are these things here?' he asked.

'It is their home.'

'But why?'

'They were born here.'

'I'm asking for more.'

'I know.'

Santiago waited for a few minutes before continuing to say, 'You aren't going to tell me.'

The wizard did not respond.

Santiago thought about the way Chogyam carried himself on board the ship, the Lady Everywhere. He was polite, always respectful, even when others weren't. Volatile only with the Captain, who was reclusive himself. Maybe those types just don't mix well with each other, he thought.

The wizard never seemed to be angry. Even with the Captain, he was forceful, but always in control. It was unnerving. Where Santiago had grown up, people were always hot tempered, talking loudly and trying to get their point across. He was used to that, he supposed. At least he had been before he'd left that life. Still, it was his childhood, he thought, and doesn't our youth stay with us?

The large man walked on, thinking back to what Chogyam had told him that night, weeks ago. About the dark place, and what they would find in it.

***

Knock, knock.

Santiago looked up from his workbench, putting down the rock blanket he'd stopped polishing a piece of quartz with. It was a small bench, his room not being that big, but he could work on it, a little at a time. Having things to do helped. He could not fight all the time.

It was a different life from the one he'd left, being able to stop and think, to practice a hobby. Not being constantly moving across the land. Not having to take some level of responsibility for anyone else. Anyone lesser, anyone normal.

Knock, knock.

Getting up from the bench, he went to the door, and cracked it open.

'Santiago,' Chogyam said. 'We must talk.'

The appearance of the short wizard at his door startled him. But he shrugged, then opened the door wider. When he made to step out though, Chogyam's hand on his chest stopped him.

'In your room, if you would,' the man said.

'Why?' Santiago asked. No one on the ship invited people into their room often, they all required a certain amount of privacy, being more than a little different from each other. Added to that fact, none of them got too much shore leave.

'A private discussion.'

'Why not your room?'

'Because we are here.'

Santiago relented, if only because he knew very little about the enigmatic man. Not that he really cared about him, but this man was the only one he'd seen come close to challenging the Captain, and curiosity got the better of him.

'Fine,' he said, and stepped back from the door.

Chogyam entered, looked around and settled himself down on the floor.

'What's this about?' Santiago asked as he closed the door, then went back to sit on the stool at his workbench.

'A request. I would like you to accompany me on an expedition the Captain wishes me to take.'

'Why should I come? Something dangerous?'

'Many things, and yes, that is the main part of the reason.'

'Why isn't the Captain telling me about this?'

'Because I do not force people, Santiago. This is an arrangement between me and the Captain. Part of it is that I determine the how, not him.'

'He seems quite happy to tell everyone else what to do.'

'Yes. But that does not work between us.'

'I've noticed,' Santiago muttered.

Chogyam regarded him casually, the wizened eyes resting on him, and not moving.

'What?' Santiago asked.

'This will be quite different than most other trips you have been on,' Chogyam finally replied.

'It's dangerous, right?'

'Yes, in many ways, not just physically.'

'I deal with magic pretty well.'

'So I have heard. This will be beyond that which you have experienced.'

'How so?'

'These will challenge your mind. You may learn new things, you may not. Regardless, though, are you willing?'

Santiago considered the diminutive man sitting on his floor. The Captain always told him what he wanted and who was going. He answered only a limited amount of questions, but he expected to be obeyed.

And the man had ways, to make sure the crew did what he wanted. Santiago hadn't experienced them himself, but he'd heard about them.

Someone asking though, that was new since he'd been here.

'What should I bring?'

'Nothing. And wear something you don't mind losing.'

'What, should I go naked?'

'It would probably be better, but the send off might get awkward.'

Santiago looked curiously at the little man. He could have sworn the little man had cracked a joke, but if so, he'd delivered it straight.

'What about coming back, won't that cause a stir?'

'Bring a change of clothes, we will store it nearby once we leave the Lady.'

'Where are we going, then?'

'To a dark place, a home of demons.'

Santiago laughed. He'd fought many things, but none of them had been spiritual in nature. 'Like of angels and demons?'

'Like of things that can suck out your soul demons. The religiousness of their origin could be debated endlessly.'

'Suck out your soul?' The smaller man's seriousness was starting to get to him.

'Can your adaptation recover from that?'

The question gave him pause. He had never wondered about it, because his adaptation seemed largely physical in nature. Then again, it had proved somewhat effective against some magics. But that possibility he'd never considered.

And yet, maybe he should? Chogyam asking him to come to a place where the man said that demons lived who could do it.

'Why should I go?' he asked, now hesitant.

'Because you are the only one who could possibly return from this trip.'

'Other than you, of course.'

'I will not be returning.'

The finality of the statement hit him, as did the casual way Chogyam said it.

'You are getting off?'

'Perhaps. But, not the way you are asking.'

'So what are you doing?'

'I will remain there. I do not see myself leaving that place.'

'What?' Santiago burst out, staring at the small man.

'Please, keep this between us. I have looked hard at the possible endings of this journey, and to accomplish what he wants, will require me to accomplish something near to beyond my abilities. I will be able to do this task, but that is it.'

'Why in the world did you agree to it then?'

'That is my choice, and my reasoning. Suffice it to say, the Captain has agreed to certain of my requests, and shared certain information with me about what he is after. I have lived a long time, and this cage aboard this amazing ship is not what I am for. Instead, I will remain in the dark place, the hole into which we venture.'

Santiago shook his head, not quite believing what Chogyam was saying.

'Keep this to yourself. At the end, you will learn a little more as to why.'

'Why not tell me now?'

'Because there are good times for such things, and bad times. Now would be a bad time.'

'Alright, why should I go, if you aren't planning on returning, and you aren't planning on escaping? You think I like leaving someone behind?'

'You may be leaving me, but it is my choice to make. As for why you should come, I give you this. Because without you there, I cannot get the man what he has requested. Someone must bring it back. You are the only other one here who could accomplish that. So, I am here. Asking you to do me this one favor.'

Santiago thought for a while, in silence. He wondered what sort of things had passed between the Captain and this diminutive, yet powerful man. Chogyam held out the possibility of learning some of those secrets to try and get him to come. Secrets were not the type of thing that ordinarily interested him.

However, he had heard stories from the rest of the crew, and given how closed the Captain was, this might be the best opportunity to learn more. Besides, probably Chogyam had said more to him now that he had to anyone else in all his time on board the Lady. He wouldn't say he liked the little man, but he did respect him. Not just because of his power.

'All right,' he said at last. 'If I've got to go to find out this stuff, and to help you do what you have agreed to, I will. Like you said, I can survive it, and I wouldn't want anyone else put in danger.'

Chogyam stood. 'Please keep our discussion to yourself. We are heading there now, but it will take a few weeks to arrive. The less talk about this, the better. And do not insinuate I will be leaving. As far as the others know, nothing interesting is going on.'

'I'll keep it under my hat.'

'Thank you, Santiago.'

Chogyam left as simply as he had entered.

***

'You never did say much about what was in here.' Santiago commented as they walked on. 'How much farther do we have to go?'

'It is a ways still,' Chogyam replied. 'They are stronger, but not nearly enough for my needs.'

'What are your needs?'

Silence was all he got for an answer. They walked on.

More mind-dwellers came upon them, but the next time some beast approached, Chogyam said, 'I don't think this one will succumb to the strike.'

Santiago looked curiously at him, as no other creatures had prompted this revelation.

'Keep its hide intact, please.'

'I'll try. All of it?'

'A significant amount will suffice.'

The battles were sometimes difficult with the ones that he could not explode. This one was tough, but he was tougher. In the end he managed to break it without tearing the skin.

When he regained his feet and stepped back, Chogyam appeared with a small knife and began deftly cutting through the thick hide. Santiago stifled his questions as the small wizard cut out a number of pieces, then started to fuse them together with heat from the knife blade. The blade of the knife radiated red that glowed fiercely in the gloom of Santiago's vision, and he looked away, finding spots dancing within the dark around him.

A short time later, Chogyam presented him with the results of his work.

'Pants?' Santiago said wryly.

'I am not interested in seeing your naked wrestling matches anymore.' Chogyam still said everything as if it were nothing more concerning than a discussion about where to walk next.

The little man slung a satchel across his shoulders as well. Even in the murky depths, Santiago could tell he had not had it before. He made no comment, and while a part of him felt dirty wearing the hide, he did appreciate no longer being nude.

***

In a span of moments, the gloom surrounding them changed. It was not the strange visions of the mind-dwellers, instead the one tunnel exploded into a cavern, and Santiago could see myriad other paths through the darkly covered floor.

'What happened?' he asked at once.

'Nothing,' Chogyam replied, with his lazy indifference.

'Something changed.'

'Doubtless how you perceive it. It looks the same to me.'

'What is it about this place that makes it behave so strangely?'

Chogyam kept walking, and for a while, Santiago thought he was going to be treated to another of the little man's long silences. Strangely enough, Chogyam began talking instead.

'It is near to the heart of the world, and in so being, it is also near to the heart of reactions.'

'Reactions? What-'

'Don't interrupt. It is hard enough to try to put this into words without adding more complications to it. Imagine that there are myriad people on the ship. Better, imagine the ship is teeming with ants, bugs, insects. Perhaps that will give you more perspective. All of these tiny things are bumping into each other, constantly. And the result of those actions, millions of them, every second, are that some of them die, and some combine. Sometimes they form new insects. All of those reactions form the story, or the reality, of what it means to be on that ship.'

The wizard paused, and Santiago held his tongue to see if any more was forthcoming.

'Those reactions are occurring all the time in the world, but they are strongest where more and more of those little insects are packed tighter together. When they are packed so tightly that it is almost impossible to see them, then the reactions become nearly impossible to even begin to comprehend.'

The wizard motioned around them.

'Everything is very, very tightly compressed around here. And so the reactions are very, very strong.'

Santiago shook his head. 'So, where are we going then, with all these... reactions... around us.'

'Deeper in. Closer to the heart.'

'I thought you said we were close now.'

'We need to be closer.'

'For what?'

'To capture one.'

'What? One of the demons?'

'One of the reactions.'

'How in the world do we do that?!'

'We don't. I do.'

'How do you do that?'

'If I could tell you, I wouldn't have needed to come.'

Santiago couldn't think of any more reply to that, so he stopped talking. Looking around more still didn't reveal any more light. The shadowy gloom surrounded them, it just didn't seem as close now. As the edges faded, and gloom became blackness, he had a sense of space, of distance.

***

'At last.'

That Chogyam had broken the silence first this time surprised Santiago

'What?'

'A candidate approaches. Do not destroy this one.'

'So what? Just keep it occupied?'

'Yes.'

When the beast approached, Santiago did his best to keep its attention, but not destroy it. In fact, he managed it surprisingly easily. With all of his strength and hardening over the numerous fights since they had set out, he found himself the equal to the most recent fighters.

It took time, but he had nothing else notable to do. So he waited until Chogyam finally managed to do whatever he was trying to accomplish.

Eventually, the creature stopped struggling against his hold. Then it began writhing, with faint wisps of dark vapor rising from its body, as it started to collapse upon itself. Santiago stepped back, and watched as it compacted further and further. The process looked incredibly painful, and even after all of his own pain at the limbs of these creatures, he felt a little sympathy for it.

When the process completed, a small bowl sat on the ground in the place of where the monstrous snake-dog-bird thing had crouched in pain when the process had begun. Chogyam reappeared, crossed quickly to the bowl and scooped it up. He straightened and examined it thoroughly, inside and out, running his hands over the entirety.

'What was that? What is that?'

'A vessel,' Chogam replied.

'For what?'

'For one of the spirits.'

'Oh, so we capture one of them next?'

Chogyam looked at him, and he could see a smile upon the smaller man's face through the gloom.

'Yes, we do.'

***

After more battles, with the mind-dwellers, and the beasts, Chogyam finally announced, 'One comes.'

'Is this the mind-dweller you are after?'

'Mind-dweller?'

'It's how I think of them.'

'An interesting description. Yes.'

'And after that we can leave?'

'No. I need a few such.'

Santiago sighed. He no longer felt the excitement of the challenges that he did at the start. At least he had some clothing now.

'This one will doubtless be more intense,' Chogyam said. 'If you have learned anything about how to resist them, you should attempt to apply it.'

***

'Santiago?' Jaden again spoke after the man had been silent for a little while. When the man shook his head quickly and looked again at the boy, he continued, 'If it's too intense, I could try to help?'

'No, Jaden,' Santiago replied shortly. 'I don't need anything of your power for this. It was quite an experience, and I hope you don't mind if I don't recount all of it back for you.'

'No, no!' Jaden was quick to respond. 'Thank you for telling me what you have.'

'Well, there's a little more, but give me a minute or so to decide. There were some things that he told me there that I haven't spoken of to anyone, and I'm not sure I'm ready to now.'

'Sure, I'll wait.'

'You're a good kid. Thanks.'

***

He was back aboard the Lady Everywhere. One minute he had been in the dark place, the next he stood aboard the ship. She rested on the beach, an odd night sky dark above her. He did not know the day, but he'd left with Chogyam during the evening.

No one else stood on deck, looking at the sky or just enjoying the breeze from over the waters. He took in a deep breath, feeling good about things. Santiago enjoyed being on the ship. He had since the Captain had found him a few years ago, and offered him a place on board.

That had been an interesting time in his life. He'd been a guide, helped people cross the high desert, sometimes because they wanted adventure, sometimes because they needed to get away from something. Life had been simpler then, back before everything, and everyone, changed into something strange. He lived almost normally, and kept his gift largely hidden from those he traveled with.

'It was quite a find,' the Captain said. 'The day I found you.'

The tall, thin, well dressed man stood next to him, leaning against the rail of the ship.

Santiago suspected another trick of the mind-dwellers. He recalled what Chogyam had said. All the same, it looked real, sounded real. The air of the ocean had the correct smell to it, he knew that smell. The Captain... leaned the right way. Talked the right way.

'It has been an interesting journey,' Santiago replied. He considered briefly what he should do.

'How was the expedition with Chogyam?'

'Interesting.'

'Did you bring back what I was looking for?'

Santiago thought about an appropriate response. Was this real, was it the Captain he was talking to? Or was this some elaborate set up of a mind-dweller? Until now, they had been fairly easy to recognize, and relatively simple, playing on his feelings and fragmenting his senses, so that even though he felt them, he had a hard time doing anything to them.

This was different, radically so.

'I'm waiting, Santiago.'

'I'm not sure how to answer that question,' he said. 'Because I'm not sure I'm back.'

The Captain looked at him carefully, standing up straight from where he had been leaning against the rail. After a brief pause, he smiled. Then he grinned, and finally he laughed, loud and hard.

When he stopped, he wiped fingers in his eyes and said, 'Damn it man, I think it has been years since I laughed like that.'

Santiago watched him, trying to pick up any clues from the man, or the situation, to cue him into the truth. The Captain seemed to have no end of good clothes in his own wardrobe, so that didn't give any key. He didn't remember any intervening time between Chogyam's last comment and being suddenly aboard the Lady, but given the other strangeness that occurred, anything might be possible.

He didn't believe it though. In spite of everything his senses were telling him, he felt certain this was just another mind-dweller, a particularly adept one, playing in his brain. He gritted his teeth against the Captain's next question.

'You are serious?' the taller man asked.

'Quite,' Santiago answered. Given the perfection of the cage, he didn't see much point to trying to hide his frustration. 'There are things there, I think of them as mind-dwellers. They can affect my senses, make me see things differently, feel them too.'

The Captain remained silent as he looked at Santiago. Santiago matched his gaze. He didn't often do that with the Captain. The man kept himself apart from the rest of the crew for the most part, not the first among many, no. He was the lord, and they his servants. Santiago had no illusions about that.

And he saw that in this Captain's eyes. But he could not trust that as truth, as validation of an actual reality. If these demons could work his thoughts enough to make him feel everything he had previously, why not see enough inside him to recreate all of these things... how he perceived the Captain, the ship, Ria, Red, Chogyam. How hard was that to do for creatures that entered his mind, had no appreciable substance, and floated through the ether around them?

'Well then,' the Captain said. 'When you decide that you are here, maybe then you will tell me that you have what I am after.'

The man turned and stalked away. 'I'll give you some time to get your head back on your shoulders, Santiago. I can only imagine what it was like down there, so take some time. But when I next ask you, I will want an answer!'

Santiago considered where he should go, what he should do. Previously, he had some tiny consideration of feeling his body as separate from what his mind was experiencing. With that distinction, he had been able to hurt himself, and that helped to break their hold on him.

That gap did not exist this time. If they had him, their control was absolute. He could not sense something else that he might be able to affect. Therefore if pain could wake him, help him in any manner, it would have to be pain here. On board the Lady.

He headed for the weapons hold next to the stairs below decks. He'd spent enough time in here to know where to find all kinds of tools. Ria's armor was there too, but he never needed armor. Not for himself, for his protection. He had all the protection he'd need within his body, but sometimes he did bring gear.

He picked up a sharp knife. A foot long, it was a very good blade. He poised it over his forearm, noticing now that he still wore the hide that Chogyam had fashioned for him. He considered that briefly, but then decided it made no difference. Not that he wore it, nor that the Captain made no notice of it.

He considered the hide, the skin that Chogyam had fashioned. The knife he'd used had glowed faintly red in the gloom of the dark place. Had the wizard done something to it that would allow it to cut the skin of those creatures? Would ordinary metal be able to do so?

Then again, would it make any difference? If the creatures were in his brain, they knew everything he did. Any attempt to try to disprove his surroundings they would know, and they could make him see and feel whatever he would think would seem right. It was the perfect catch twenty-two.

Instead of bothering with the hide, he drew the knife blade over the curve of his arm. But the blade did nothing to damage his skin.

'Damn!'

His own too tough skin, after withstanding all the explosions, and teeth, claws, horns that it had been exposed to in the dark place, had grown way too tough to be affected by such a small ordinary blade.

Probably everything in here was useless. Nothing would be strong enough to hurt him, and if he kept trying he'd probably end up blunting all the weapons. Sort of comedic, in a way. The one time his survival turned into a curse?

Other than the living hell it had made his existence at times. With a wry grin he considered that sometimes it would be a relief to be able to die. He hadn't yet gotten tired of living, but there had been times he'd wished he'd been able to get away from all the pain. In fact, one of those times had been when he had exploded the creature while he was impaled upon it.

But now, if the mind-dweller had him in thrall, especially a very strong one, he needed to feel pain. To try to regain his mind from the thing. And in the strangest way, the one that most crippled him, the one that he only just learned about, he could not feel pain any more. His one recourse in his life, the one thing he operated by more than any other. The light that defined him: pain.

And they have taken it from me.

***

He jumped from the lady's rails, but the fall to the earth didn't hurt in the least. He dropped like a rock, and impacted as he had expected. Climbing from the depression, he looked up as Ria called down to him.

'We have a ladder, you know?'

He looked back up at the young woman. 'Yup, I'm aware. Why don't you throw it down so I can climb back up?'

'Why'd you jump if you just wanted to come back aboard?'

'Felt like it,' he said. Then he smiled wryly to himself, thinking he sounded a little like Chogyam. He hoped the little man could free him from the trap of this particular mind dweller. He had no inclination to remain in the dark place forever.

Which brought on another thought: how did the mind-dwellers feed? What did they feed on? Were they alive in the same way that humans were?

Too many questions. He climbed up when Ria unrolled the rope ladder for him. When he got back on deck, Ria looked him up and down.

'New duds?' she asked.

'The old ones weren't much use.'

'Why?'

'Too many explosions. Tore 'em to shreds.'

'Wow! You going to tell me about it?'

'Maybe later kid. I'm still trying to get out of it myself.'

She tilted her slim face and looked curiously at him.

'You know you look like a bird when you do that,' he said.

'You've mentioned. I can't help it.'

'Well, why don't you go not help it somewhere else?'

She pulled back a little. 'There's no need to be mean!' she said.

'I know, and if this turns out to be real, I'll offer my apologies.'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'Never you mind. Any ideas how I can hurt myself?' he asked.

'You are truly the strangest person I've ever met! Most people avoid pain whenever they can.'

'We both know I'm not like most people.' He sighed, then turned to go down to his own cabin. 'If you have any ideas, let me know.'

'Will do, big guy!' Ria responded with her characteristic pleasantness.

***

Santiago paced in his room, considering his options. He kept hoping that Chogyam would suddenly pull him out of this.

He did not like that feeling. Normally, he did the pulling.

When his frustration started rising after all his thoughts kept spiraling down into the same back and forth of how to trick something that knows everything about you, he left the room. He didn't want to let out that frustration on Missy, even if she was just a figment of the mind-dweller's captivation.

Instead he went to see Red, and ask if he had any ideas. It would be interesting to see what the mind-dweller could do about Red's powers. After he'd thought about it more, it seemed likely that Red could probably hurt him.

The resident fury was not in his room. Nor could Santiago find him in the Galley, nor on deck. He considered asking Ria, or the Captain, but decided that if the mind dweller was thwarting him by keeping him away from Red, neither would be able to help him.

It seemed the obvious answer: now that he had thought about it as a solution, the mind dweller could respond by removing it.

Suddenly fury swept through Santiago! His fists clenched and he barely managed to keep hold of himself before slamming them against the wall. Instead he ran, up stairs and along corridors until he was able to get on deck. Then he ran to the edge and launched himself into the air.

He aimed for a big, sharp looking rock he had briefly spied from the deck of the Lady before he leaped. Regardless though, he was off the ship, and would no longer hurt little Missy.

His aim sufficed, and he did strike the rock. But instead of the hoped for crunch and breaking of bones, with a sharp crack, it splintered as he crashed into it. He picked himself up from the debris and dusted himself off.

He had very few options, so with nothing else coming to mind, he decided. He'd have to return to his body. Only there were the things that could hurt him at this point.

He picked the best direction he could, and started running.

***

He ran, and ran.

As fast as he could, he pushed himself hard. He still felt like he lumbered more than really sprinted, but he knew how his body worked, how his adaptation worked. He needed to feel the pain that would trigger the change. Sharpness of breath. That would make him go faster and longer.

He ran, trying to find the edge, the place where his body would complain. The pain that would trigger a change. But it wouldn't come. He felt himself getting faster, the landscape flying by faster and faster. But no pain, or at least none that he could use.

By now though, he knew they had him. This mind dweller must be particularly strong. But he knew it. Still, that certainty did nothing to help him. It wouldn't, if he could not get free of it. All the realizations in the world paled in the face of that cage. So far, he had found no exit. And he needed it.

What if Chogyam could not beat this mind-dweller? What if they were both trapped? The wizard had told him that the little man would not be returning, would be leaving the Lady. Santiago however, always planned to return. He had no wish to remain in that strange set of caverns, laying still and doing nothing. Ria would miss him.

He would miss her too, surprisingly. And Red, even Chogyam, now that he'd spent more time with the little, enigmatic, man. The Captain as well.

All the things he'd heard about the Captain, all the sinister things about how he kept people on board. Coerced them, used them. Didn't care about them. Santiago had watched, he'd been around enough families to have seen the covert glances, the tiny non-smiles, the hidden ones that those who didn't know how to express themselves used when something pleased them, but they couldn't talk about it.

When he'd led them across dangerous lands, and a father wanted desperately to protect his family, but had no idea how to let them close. It surprised him that he even thought about this right now, when he needed to get free of a demon's control on his mind. But he had seen it on the Captain's face when he looked at Ria. The man might use his crew, what person would not use their resources? But he did care for them, at some level.

Maybe not as much as he should. But who was Santiago to judge that. He had no family any more, he'd been cast away when his father saw what he was. Called him demon, and cut him loose. He'd never seen his father, or the rest of his family, since then.

Why had it even happened, this strange occurrence, this power he had? He'd been with the Captain long enough to know there were others who had abilities far beyond that of normal people, but they were rare.

As he ran, he thought, and his thoughts roiled, perhaps for the first time in many years. Before, he'd been content to do what he was doing. Leading people, helping them. Then, after the Captain had recruited him, helping him to do whatever he needed to.

What was it the Captain had said to him when he was convincing him to take up with the man? Something about a unique opportunity, and it was certainly that. But something more, something about assisting him with a matter, a personal one, in fact. And he could well use Santiago's abilities. He had not been very clear about it.

The personal matter though, he'd forgotten that. He had not thought to ask, nor had the Captain shared. But why should he have agreed to come just because the Captain needed help?

It didn't help, going over things in his head. Neither did the running. But he moved now, almost flying over the land with long strides and even longer leaps. He crossed the uneven terrain with surety, his feet landing on anything and crushing it under him if it was not rock or hard earth.

He did not recognize it though. The way he had come with Chogyam. Lost in the wayward steps of his mind. He was lost, and as he wandered he knew the grand plan to return to his body had failed him. He would not be able to wake himself using the pains of the dark place.

***

Santiago stopped.

He looked up at the sky, pitch black and without stars or moon. He peered hard, trying to identify clouds covering the world, holding back the light of the clear night sky that bathed the world with a half light.

He could not see them. He could not see anything above him. But still, that did not help him free of the prison of his mind. Of the mind-dweller.

Unlike every actual prison he had ever been in, knowing it held him did nothing to help him escape this one.

He sat on the ground, then lay back, and watched the pure darkness above him. No lights broke through that barrier.

How did he escape his mind when something actively kept him there?

***

The darkness when he opened his eyes was no longer absolute. The gloom enshrouded him, and he had never been happier to see it.

'Chogyam?' he asked quietly.

'Yes. I have one.'

This caused Santiago to sit up and he watched a small bowl in the wizard's hands. It shimmered with a dull light in the gloom. More light, not much, but more, seemed to emanate from within the bowl.

'What's in there?' he asked.

'One of your mind dwellers.'

Santiago got to his feet and approached the wizard curiously. The substance within the bowl seemed to contain every color shifting quickly over its surface. None of them were very bright, but every now and then a tiny glimmer of something profoundly pure seemed to shine out from the bowl.

'It doesn't look very... demonic,' he ventured.

'Reactions,' the wizard said. 'I told you before.'

'Right, reactions.'

Chogyam extended the bowl to Santiago. 'Here.'

'I thought this was for the Captain? Besides, how am I going to fight with this in my hands. I'll spill it all over.'

The wizard shook his head. 'No. Try to spill it.'

Santiago took the bowl gingerly, but it seemed perfectly ordinary in his hands. He tipped it enough for the liquid to creep over the edge, but instead of spilling, it seemed to curve around the hemisphere above the bowl.

'That's... not right.'

'If no one sees it, there will be no questions.'

'What do you mean? Why do you want me to have this?'

The wizard came close to Santiago and spoke carefully. 'This is for you. Do not reveal it to the Captain, do not reveal it to anyone. Not until you have found the next mage. Learn from it. Learn about the reactions. They will help you to see what the Captain is, and what must be done.'

'What 'next mage'?'

'You will learn more, when you start finding the reactions.'

'Why don't you just tell me now, damn it!'

'Because no one can force you to learn. Teachers can only create the space for a student to learn, the student must always discover knowledge for themselves. Always it has been so.'

'You are trying to teach me?'

'Is it so hard to believe?'

Santiago considered everything he had encountered on this trip, and all the experiences with the mind-dwellers.

'Will this send me on one of those mind-trips that the dwellers put me through?'

'No.'

'Fine then. I'll keep your damn bowl.'

'Good, now we seek the rest.'

'How many do we need to get?'

Chogyam turned and began walking again.

***

So they hunted. Santiago could deal with the beasts even with the bowl in one of his hands. Chogyam dealt with the weak mind dwellers.

They kept on for some time until Chogyam stopped suddenly. He gave a quick motion for silence, then turned and stepped off of the trail they had been on. A quick hiss brought Santiago after him.

After that, it was a game of chase, Chogyam leading, and Santiago following a step after. If he paused even a moment too long, another hiss followed until he caught up with the wizard.

After a span of such chasing, Chogyam finally stopped, his head up, his breathing steady.

'We must find another vessel.'

'What was that about?' Santiago asked.

'That was a strong dweller, but I have no vessel to hold it. We need to find another vessel.'

'How do we do that?'

'We travel, as aways.'

Santiago stopped asking questions, he thought he had the process figured out enough. So he just needed to keep on with the wizard until they had found the vessels to contain enough of the strong dwellers to satisfy the Captain.

'Give me your vessel.'

Santiago passed over the small bowl. He wanted to ask what Chogyam intended, but thought better of it. The little man, while not being unfriendly, didn't seem to respond well to his questions.

The small man pored over the bowl for some time before finally turning and setting off in a different direction.

After a number of turnings and more time walking after the wizard who seemed to be only looking at the bowl, he finally asked, 'What are you looking at?'

'Possibilities.'

He figured he should have expected something like that for an answer.

They found another of the creatures, and Santiago restrained it while Chogyam formed it into another of the vessels he sought. As before, while it was writhing and shrinking, Santiago almost felt sorry for it.

When Chogyam finished, and picked up the bowl from the floor, Santiago said, 'Do you think it hurts them?'

Chogyam shrugged. Then he said, 'Since they would kill me without a thought, I do not care.'

Santiago nodded. Chogyam tucked the bowl into his satchel, then he looked down into the bowl again. He gave it a half turn. Then he handed the bowl back to Santiago.

'Here, the reaction comes. You may find this useful.'

'How?'

***

There was no answer to his question.

Above him, the night sky was too dark.

But around him, this time, was the village that his father had exiled him from when he was twelve. That day, so long ago, when he had been trapped, and should have died. Instead he had suffered, for hours and hours, and days. Pierced and crushed, then dehydrated, left under the crush of cast-off debris in the junk yard.

Nothing remained for him here, and he wondered why the mind-dweller had picked this place to bring him back to. It held nothing of power for him, nothing of his family. His father had seen to that.

He looked down, and saw the bowl in his hands. The surface shimmered and flowed and changed. Reactions, Chogyam had called them. What the heck did that mean? How could one capture reactions in a bowl? It was some wizard thing, he certainly had no idea about it.

Instead of looking around the mental reconstruction the dweller had made for him, he kept staring into the bowl. Shapes were forming inside the liquid, coalescing from the variety of colors.

As he watched them, a scene, vivid yet cloudy formed within the bowl. He had to look carefully at it to make out the figures in the scene.

He thought he recognized Missy's deck, and himself, but the other person he did not know. She was a tall, impressive woman and they fought hard on the deck. She held a massive spear, and struck him often. As he watched, he realized she was fast, strong, powerful. If she had been brought on board the Lady, she would have to have some sort of power.

He watched, impressed with the large woman. He smiled as he realized he had still not struck her. She seemed to respond instinctively in reaction to his movements.

As he tried to look closer, the image faded back into the swirling colors he had first seen.

Who was she? Why were they fighting? He considered this vision from the depths of the 'reactions' as Chogyam had deemed them. He still thought of them as mind-dwellers. But this could not have come from his mind. It couldn't be, as he had never met her.

Reactions, what did that mean? What were reactions? People reacted to various things. As did animals, even plants reacted to their environment. So what did it mean to say that a bowl contained reactions, or that they were near to the heart of reactions?

Santiago had never thought his mind hurt as much as it did right now, contemplating Chogyam's bowl and the information he'd been given about it.

Then there were the admonitions. Don't tell anyone about it. Not until the next mage came on board. He supposed he would recognize when another mage came on board, but would it be the right one? The little man was annoying.

He looked around, and the world had shifted. Inwardly, he shrugged. The cage existed, whatever form it took, and apparently the dweller recognized it as well.

He stood on sand, and high walls surrounded him. Though he still seemed shrouded in a subtle night, he recognized the setup as an arena. He still wore the same hide garments Chogyam had fashioned for him. Part of him wished he had some weapons. He didn't really need them, he just wanted them if he would be fighting. And from the look of the environment the dweller had put him in, he expected a fight.

He thought back to the running, and how he'd not felt the pain from it. If it attacked him, he would have plenty of opportunities to get hurt. Wondering if the dweller had decided it would not matter in terms of its grip on his mind, he looked around to see what would come next.

He still held the bowl. Briefly, he considered putting it down, but he worried what the dweller might be able to do if he did. The convolutions of his mind as he tried to reason through it only ended up making him more confused. He hoped it might help him to get loose from the dweller's mind-cage, and he refused to give up that possibility.

Doors across the sandy floor opened, revealing darkness behind them. Oddly, the darkness seemed deeper than the relative gloom around him. He could see well enough, though. Given the way these creatures lived, he wondered if they even conceived of light.

A beast of enormous size crawled out from the darkness behind the doors. It had numerous limbs, dragging itself forward with the leading ones. It was covered in patches of both scales and ragged fur. The long, wide face had no eyes that he could see. Instead a gaping, circular mouth filled most of the space where a face would be. That mouth did not actually close, but ragged, gripping fangs seemed to ripple around the circumference of the dangerous area.

He watched it crawl towards him, wondering what he should do to it. It moved ponderously, its massive bulk shifting slowly towards him. He suspected striking it would do nothing.

More to the point, the thing was just an image in his mind. And one not created by him. He'd never seen anything like it. So this was something created by the dweller.

He briefly considered just letting the beast eat him. To see what the dweller would do to him inside the creature's stomach. All of this happened in his mind, so he would not actually be hurt.

Suddenly he wondered if he might communicate with the mind-dweller? After all, one of them had spoken to him through both the Captain's form and Ria's as well.

'I know this is not actually happening,' Santiago announced boldly. 'I could destroy everything you put in my way, or I could let it consume me. It matters not to me, because I'm just waiting for you to be finished. This is not worth my time.'

He crossed his arms, the bowl in one hand making the action a little awkward, but he did it anyway. The beast kept crawling toward him. No indication that the dweller was going to respond came.

The creature got close enough to strike him and he knocked away its limbs, backing up as he did until he finally tired of the whole endeavor.

He let himself be grabbed and closed his eyes as the beast lifted him to its rippling maw. Teeth pierced him as he was ingested whole through the gaping orifice. It's limbs kept pushing him until he'd been fully consumed. He held his breath as long as he could.

He felt stings all over his exposed flesh. It did not bother him much, he had experienced all kinds of pain. So much that he had difficulty communicating the varieties to other people. Briefly he had considered creating new words for different types and intensities of the sensation, but ultimately no one else would appreciate it as he did, and he never went further.

Now it became painful, and as he tried to breath, he inhaled some burning liquid and thoughts failed as his world dissolved in agony.

***

Santiago woke with the memory of the agony seeping through him. He breathed in deep, savoring the taste of clean air. Opening his eyes, he looked over to see Chogyam standing very still, his eyes closed.

Watching the wizard carefully, he wondered if he had actually broken free of the dweller on his own. He glanced down to the bowl in his hand. It hung there, tipped on its side, and the changing liquid in it gently swayed half in, half out of the bowl. The half outside hung suspended in the air as if another invisible bowl covered it.

He righted the bowl and sat up. A small motion from Chogyam caught his attention. The wizard moved his right hand slowly through the air, like he gripped something. The hand contracted slowly, and he watched it pull down to the bowl the little man held. As it reached the bowl, a tiny squirt of substance fell into the bowl.

Santiago watched the process repeat itself, with minutes elapsing between the filling of the bowl and reaching out again. He wondered how Chogyam accomplished it, but expected that he should not interrupt him.

Instead, after watching for a few passes, he looked down into his own bowl. The colors swirled quickly and he wondered if he might see something else in its depths.

He peered into the colors for many minutes, but nothing seemed to come out of it. Wondering if the vision he'd seen indicated some connection between the reactions of one dweller and another that inhabited his mind.

That thought suddenly made him feel unclean. He didn't want these other things within his mind. It felt like a violation.

Suddenly a light flared in the depths of his bowl. He glanced back down to catch it and inside the liquid, he suddenly glimpsed Chogyam.

The wizard stood calmly in the center of a sparkling cage that illuminated him. The light from the thin bars of the cage barely radiated outward. The wizard remained quite still, yet he looked calm, untroubled.

Swirling around the depths, Santiago could almost make out forms passing near to the cage and the light from the bars would waver and dim as the forms passed close. He watched the wizard's face as close as he could, studying it. He had a difficult time focusing on the image in the bowl.

Then Chogyam's eyes opened, and he seemed to look out from the bowl directly into Santiago's own. The large man had the eerie feeling that Chogyam in the image knew he was watched. From out of the ghostly depths of the bowl, a single word wafted up to Santiago's ears.

'Patience.'

Then the wizard's eyes closed in the bowl, and the image itself dissolved back into the swirling colors.

Santiago sat back down, and thought hard.

***

'So, how did you get separated?' Jaden asked hopefully.

Santiago realized he had been quiet for too long, lost in the depths of memory of that most intense of all encounters he'd had in his life. Then he shook himself off to answer the boy.

'Well, we'd managed to get the things the Captain wanted. Chogyam had. I was just there for protection, after all...'

***

Chogyam had just finished stowing a second bowl in his satchel when everything shook around them. Santiago widened his stance immediately, and Chogyam seemed to waver like he was in a breeze.

'We have been discovered,' the wizard said.

'I thought we'd been discovered quite often since we arrived.'

'Not by the small ones. By the big one.'

'I thought you were gathering the big ones.'

'I was gathering the bigger ones. Not the big one.'

'Time to go then?'

Chogyam turned to him. The smaller man took off the satchel from over his shoulder and held it out to Santiago.

'You have been a help, Santiago. But it is time for you to do what you came to do.'

'You mean, leave you here.'

'Yes. I will stay.'

'Is this some noble thing to make sure I get out alive? You do know I was able to escape one of them earlier.'

'One, yes. Once. Everyone is bound to get lucky.'

The wizard looked around, even the gloom seemed to reverberate with force.

'You should go. Even now might not give you enough distance.'

Santiago felt torn between what Chogyam had told him before, his knowledge of the mind-dwellers, and even a bit of terror that something came which would force him to remain.

'Santiago, go. I choose this. You should not. You have a task.'

'Right, the bowls.'

'Yes. Keep yours. The others go to the Captain. Remember my instructions.'

Santiago turned, made to go back the way they had come, then realized he had no idea which way was back.

'How do I-'

But his voice stopped. Chogyam screamed as the world vanished.

***

He awoke with light glittering around him this time, instead of being dark and gloomy like all the other times had been. He searched for the source of the light, and found a sparkling dome that spanned the cavern he lay in. The rock formations and irregular walls indicated he remained in some sort of cave system. This time though, he could fully see it.

He saw huge overlapping walls circling the cave around him. As he studied them, he realized that patterns repeated along them. Finally he recognized them for coils that ran around the cavern, huge, thick lengths of snake coils that overlapped and curled and sometimes they contracted a bit and other times they seemed to relax. He could make no ending nor beginning to the coils as he traced them around the room.

From behind the coils, to his left, a soft voice, thick and deep came out to him.

'You are strong.'

He looked for the source of the voice, but saw nothing apparent to him.

No more words came, so he continued watching. This did not come from his memory, so the mind-dweller had created it. He couldn't stop thinking though, and comparing this to the arena he had been in last time.

'A fighter,' the voice came out again. This time though, a head rose from behind the many coils and he was able to look at the creature. It looked like a large snake, but the mouth did not move as it spoke. Vivid red eyes smoked as it watched him.

'But I cannot just eat you and be done. Strange.'

Deciding that he risked very little by talking to this dweller, he said, 'I'm inconvenient that way.'

The snake wavered, before extending to him. It lowered down, and the tongue came out of its mouth, flicking all around him.

'You have them.'

He assumed it referred to the bowls, the reactions. He chose not to answer.

The snake's mouth opened again and it made to gently close upon the satchel made by Chogyam. Santiago reached up and pushed the head away.

'They are mine,' he said.

A loud hiss echoed in his mind, though the snake outwardly appeared calm.

'No.'

'Well, you can't have them back,' he said.

The snake's eyes blinked, and he stared up into them. Then the head withdrew behind the coils again.

'Waste away, mortal,' the voice came echoing back.

Santiago's eyes narrowed, knowing he had no real recourse to being trapped in this cage forever until his body died. Even he could not live forever. At least, he didn't think so. Mortal, and the snake even intoned it with such casual indifference to his existence.

He had to admire the thing. It had the perfect position, it had no need to kill him. While perhaps it wanted the things freed, it probably also knew that if they were released years from now when his adaptive abilities finally failed to keep him alive, it would then be able to do whatever it wanted with them.

The problem of time was his. The mortal problem of what to do with the time he had. Of how to not waste it. This snake creature did not need to worry about that, apparently.

The light seemed strange though... why the sparkling light here, but nowhere else in this place? But then he remembered, all of this, the cave, the snake, it existed fully and solely in his mind. It was here for his benefit, to trap him. This mind dweller, the king or queen perhaps, could do whatever it wanted to. Also, if it had lived that long, maybe it had existed for a time outside of this dark place it lived in now. Maybe it just preferred the dark.

Nothing of this helped him to escape though. He wondered about Chogyam. What was the dweller doing to him? He knew that he should be more concerned about himself though. About how he would get away. The only time he had succeeded on his own, he'd been swallowed in the scene, digested.

But doubtless this one knew that, and so would not make the same mistake. He was well, and truly, trapped.

***

He first tried to get over the coils that surrounded the room. For some reason, escaping from the jail he could see always made him feel like he would escape from the dweller. So far it had never proved true, but what other option did he have?

The attempt failed though. The coils were far too heavy even for him. And too tough, when he tried to strike them, or dig into them.

Then he stepped back and started laughing at himself. This creature was a mind-dweller! It could make itself too large, too tough, too strong for him to even compete with, since it affected his thoughts. How could he possibly escape such a perfect trap?

He sat on the ground and looked into the bowl, the one Chogyam had given to him. The liquid swirled as always, and he stared into its depths.

The lights within the bowl coalesced into the snake he had spoken with briefly. He grimaced at its indifference to his plight, but he watched the scene in the bowl.

The head of the snake lifted up, and it motioned up with its head. Into view before it came one of the monstrous creatures that Santiago had fought with. It stood awkwardly, then the snake locked gazes with it and the creature froze. Slowly, the snake opened its mouth until it was gaping hugely. Then it lowered over the beast, and closed down. A lump below its jaw attested to the feeding. Then the head extended forward and the lump passed back into the snake's neck. The creature shook itself, then settled back down, and it's eyes closed.

Santiago frowned, wondering about the immortality of a creature that had to eat. Yet the snake did not seem the least perturbed to have to wait while he died, however long that might take.

He shook the bowl and the liquid moved fast around, erasing the scene. He continued to watch the light within the bowl, hoping for something that would reveal to him an idea of how he might escape.

***

He thought he'd been staring into the bowl for hours, even though it was impossible to keep track of time in this place.

He'd seen some strange things in the bowl. A shark of some kind, but with two vestigial limbs dangling behind it as it swam. A small boat with two people, a man and a teenage boy in a vast expanse of water. A young woman with one hand, the other arm ending shortly below the elbow, walking with her eyes closed.

There had been some familiar images as well. A small family he had helped to travel through a war torn, hostile country. A man he had killed when the man discovered his power, before the Captain had found him.

The Captain, and others on board the Lady he'd seen a couple times, but he could make nothing from the scenes.

Now the liquid coalesced again. He peered closely into the depths.

At last, he saw Chogyam. The wizard waited within the shimmering cage, the same as he had been last time. This time though, he could hear something speaking from within the bowl. He could barely make it out, but then he saw the snake's head circle behind the wizard and he strained to his utmost to hear what was said.

'... you are responsible...' that was in the snake's voice.

'... done is done...' a snatch of Chogyam's reply.

'... dangerous for a mortal...' again the snake, but he caught more this time, '... you be birthed?'

The wizard looked out, and again Santiago felt that he stared out of the bowl and could see Santiago watching the scene.

Then the wizard's voice came to him directly, 'Santiago. Reach into the reactions. Become one with them. Use them against the dweller within you. Leave. There will be no more opportunities for talk.'

He watched the snake open its jaw. Then it lowered over the cage containing the wizard, and when it closed, Santiago knew that the little man was gone.

Reach into the reactions, that was what Chogyam had said. He peered down into the depths of the scene, the liquid with the bowl. Taking a breath, he touched one finger to the stuff within the bowl.

The world contracted, and the bowl expanded. Where before he had held the bowl, suddenly it held him. In his hands, all around him, the reactions swirled, and then they too winked out of existence. He found himself within the liquid, colors and shapes forming around him. It burned, and he could not help but closing his eyes as waves of pain swept over him.

***

When he opened his eyes, the dark and gloom surrounded him. His hand clutched the bowl, and the other confirmed the satchel was still with him.

The world growled complaint as he rose quickly and started walking. He didn't know where he headed to, but he picked a direction and started moving, suddenly fearful of the wrath of the mind dweller that must be somewhere nearby.

It had swallowed Chogyam. The wizard had told him that he would not be returning. Santiago wondered how the man knew, and how he had the courage to face such a fate.

He looked down into the bowl, the thing that Chogyam had made for him. To use, but for what precise purpose, he had no idea. It seemed such a strange thing, yet he carried it, knowing that the wizard had given his life for Santiago to get free. He could not waste this chance. And he did not trust the stuff to get him free again.

As he stumbled along, trying to pick up the pace, he noticed something in the bowl. Lights tended to gather in a particular side of the bowl. As he turned, they turned the opposite direction.

He stopped and turned back towards the lights, they returned to face forward. Once he had centered them, he started on. Shortly they began turning again. It required concentration to focus on their movements, and he could do nothing more than walk. So, instead of trying to make good time, he started following the path the lights in the bowl were leading him.

He had no idea where these 'reactions' were leading him, but it was something definite at this point. They had gotten him out of the mind-dwellers hold, Chogyam had given them to him, and told him to use them. Since he could trust nothing else in here, he put what trust he had into them.

On his own, he knew, he was at the mercy of the mind-dwellers.

***

The lights finally centered in the bowl. No matter which way he turned they still remained there. So he had arrived, although he had no knowledge of where here was. This is where they brought him.

Looking up, he thought he saw a small pin-prick of light above him. He could not be certain though. Even if it was there, he had no idea how he could get to it, or get out from it.

To that end, Chogyam had gotten them in here, he had just been along for the ride.

How could he get out then? He looked down at the bowl and the 'reactions'. Chogyam seemed to have been constantly directing him to use them. He decided he'd have to try again.

He positioned a finger over the slightly shifting light in the middle of the bowl, thought about getting out of the caverns, and pushed down into the bowl.

He felt as though some massive force compressed him, pushing him against the fabric of the world. By now though, he'd accepted far more strange things. He kept pushing, closing his eyes as it seemed the world grew around him and he felt more and more pressure.

In another moment, his finger felt the bottom of the bowl. The pressure eased and he opened his eyes. The world around him glittered in the sunlight, which seemed abnormally bright. He winced as pain shot through his brain.

Then he relaxed. Pain. He needed it. The mind dwellers had denied it to him in the dark place most of the time. But he was free of them. Chogyam had seen to that, and gave him the tool to get free.

He looked down into the bowl, and the shifting liquid within it. He tipped it just enough to the side to see the viscous stuff creep up out of the bowl, held over the top by some unseen force. It had not just been some trick inside the dark place.

Santiago cradled the bowl against his chest. Some things were worth too much to risk losing. This one had cost a dear price.

***

He made his way back out of the wastelands without encountering any more of the elephantine monsters. Then he finally managed to find a shore and followed it until he could see Missy, the Lady Everywhere, perched on the shoreline. It had deepened to evening, but he wanted to wait until the depths of the night so he could come on board without encountering anyone.

The bowl sat in his lap, though he'd stopped looking into it. The images he'd seen swam in his brain, and he wondered about how time flowed within these reactions, as Chogyam named them. The stash of clothes had been precisely where he'd left them, and though they barely fit him when first he tried to put them on, by now he'd shrank enough to make them mostly comfortable. The pants that Chogyam had made from the hide of the beast lay folded up on the ground next to him.

They had left the ladder hanging down for him, although he had no idea how long he'd been gone. His stomach had been grumbling for some time. He'd ignored it in the dark place, since there were more important things going on. But now that he was close to food, he found he wanted it.

It was torturous to wait.

But not nearly as much as watching the snake swallow Chogyam.

He shook his head to clear it. Then he set down to wait for the depths of night.

***

Santiago quietly climbed the ladder. No moon shone down under the heavy clouds, and he had to move very carefully to be as quiet as possible. He encountered no one as he stole to his room, and went inside.

Here he looked around, and finally opened his dresser. He pulled out some socks, then gently withdrew the bowl from inside the bundle of rough, hairy pants Chogyam had made. He placed it respectfully to the back of the drawer, then arranged the clothes back in front of it.

He suddenly felt cold when he finally relinquished contact with the bowl. Part of him wanted to pull it back out, but he resisted the urge.

He had the others to deliver, and he needed that done.

He quickly changed into his regular clothes, picked up the satchel that Chogyam had given him, and went out from his room. He passed quickly up the stairs, and strode directly to the Captain's room. He knocked on the door loudly.

He quietly fumed, thinking about what Chogyam had given up to get the Captain these two objects. He waited, then knocked again.

This time he heard noise from inside the Captain's room. He waited until the man pulled open the door. At first the man looked annoyed, but then he recognized Santiago and his face closed at once.

'How did it go?' the Captain asked. 'Where's Chogyam?'

'He's exactly where he said he would be,' Santiago replied evenly.

The taller man's face grew cold and he asked, 'What did he tell you?'

'That he wasn't going to return. He told me to give you these.'

Santiago lifted the satchel from his shoulders and handed it to the Captain.

The Captain grabbed the satchel and reached inside. His eyes grew wide, although he did not pull either of the bowls from inside the satchel. Then he withdrew his hand.

'Thank you.'

'You should thank Chogyam,' Santiago said.

Then he turned and walked away, heading back to his room.

***

'And so, I came back, and gave them to the Captain.'

Jaden took in the story, the parts Santiago had told him, then asked, 'You never found out what the Captain wanted them for?'

Santiago shook his head.

He watched Jaden as the boy left, the tale finished. He wondered how much of it he should have told the boy. So far, no such wizard had come on board since Chogyam left, and he had not told anyone about the extra bowl. He hadn't told Jaden about it either, nor had he shared his weakness that Chogyam had found. He trusted Jaden, but giving anyone that information was risky, even if they couldn't necessarily use it. But Chogyam had given him the reactions, and the instructions. And for whatever reason, he trusted the small man.

He wondered if the Captain suspected, or if the man merely got what he'd wanted and assumed everything had gone according to plan. They'd not discussed the expedition any further than that brief exchange.

***

Santiago pulled the bowl out from the box he kept it in. He had moved it from his dresser soon after he'd returned and they made a stop in a town to make some purchases. Given the importance of the object, it just didn't feel right keeping it tucked away in the back of a dresser.

The wooden box felt good, right, and he kept it locked. He did not keep the key with him. In fact, he'd thrown it away years ago. Whenever he wanted the box to open, it did. Whenever he didn't want it to, it didn't. He'd checked. He'd learned more about the 'reactions' over the years he had kept the gift from Chogyam.

He certainly couldn't say he understood the few things he learned, but he knew them all the same.

He'd recognized some of the images shown to him by the reactions while he had been in the dark place, and in the clutches of the mind-dwellers. He knew Iara. She had been the first surprise, and as soon as he saw the Captain bring her aboard, he'd made the necessary introductions and then retreated to his room to look at the bowl for a long, long time.

It had shown him the future.

He took a long time coming to terms with that.

When he saw Jaden the first time, he'd recognized him as well. The visions from the reactions were etched in his memory, and when he saw those involved, he knew immediately. There was something instinctual involved, some sort of visceral... reaction. He'd learned a lot from the bowl, in a way from Chogyam, over the years, even though he'd rarely touched it again.

The wizard knew what he was doing when he gave the bowl to Santiago and told him about learning and teachers. For all that he had known the small, reclusive man only during their time in the dark place, he found he wished that he had been there to talk to while he shared space with the reactions.

So, when Jaden asked him about the wizard who had been lost, he thought about the vision of the boy with a man on a boat. The reactions had shown that to him. He understood enough about them now that he needed to say something about it to the boy.

So he did. But while he was talking to him, he relived the journey to the dark place. He knew the recollections came so powerfully because of the reactions. They were powerful, but he did not understand them. He only knew a few things when he knew them.

He still didn't know what many of the other images were. No more had come to him since he'd climbed back aboard the ship. More than likely, it was because he no longer held the bowl, and looked deeply into the liquid within. He kept it apart from his daily life. He knew he would need it someday. Even apart from finding the 'next mage' that Chogyam had spoken of.

He didn't know why he knew, but the knowledge came from the reactions, and they came from Chogyam. And so he trusted them.

In the intervening years, he'd seen what the Captain was. More clearly than he had back then. He'd watched the man send him and others on the crew into harm's way many times. Especially Jaden on that first expedition into the Library. In spite of the fact that the kid being there had saved the other's lives, the Captain's manner and callousness frustrated him.

He'd even felt the Captain's influence at times, and he thought back to that one mind dweller who tried to show him the Captain, and he was no longer surprised that it had not tried to force him the same way the Captain did.

He hadn't known what the Captain did. He expected that the mind-dweller had been unsure of itself. It only knew how to coerce by the traps it could make.

It was funny to think back at his time there and consider what the mind dwellers did. They certainly were effective against him, even if the mental imagery they created wasn't perfect.

In the intervening years, he'd thought sometimes about Chogyam, wondering what sort of agony he'd endured, being digested by that gigantic snake. He'd recalled the torment of trying to breath in digestive fluids, and that was just in his own dream.

***

Another knock on his door interrupted his reverie. He called out, 'Who is it?'

'Me,' Iara's strong voice came back, as he'd known it would.

He finished closing the box, then he stood and went to the door.

Opening it he asked, 'What warrants the occasion?'

'I saw Jaden coming out from your room a little while ago,' the big woman started.

'He asked me about the wizard, yes.'

'Sorry about that, he'd been worried about Ria after you were lost.'

Santiago nodded. 'He told me the why.'

'Just hope you weren't bothered.'

'Not at all. I've developed something of a fondness for the kid.'

Iara nodded. 'Care to discuss over a drink?'

'Sure, why not?'

Santiago closed the door behind him, and they both headed down to the Galley.

'What'd you tell him?' Iara asked as they walked.

'Enough. But not everything.'

***

Within Santiago's room, the reactions reached out to the forces of the world, sampling the flows of time, energy and power. It submerged into the being of the world, seeking out things of importance to the one who kept it.

It found the being once called Chogyam, and watched its progress as it changed. Slowly, atom by atom.

The process was known to it, as much as it had knowledge. Knowing and being were one to the reactions. What it knew was, and what was, it knew. When its knowledge changed, so did what was. When what was changed, so did its knowledge.

The universe was constantly varying, and nothing stayed static. Not even the reactions. Sooner or later, it too would change, again. It had changed for eternity, sometimes stable for centuries, sometimes changing many times within the short time frame the thing that kept it would call a year.

The reactions felt the pull and push of the one known as the Captain. It felt when he looked into its kin, and it saw what he saw. The one who kept it wanted to know such things, and it was available to him, but he was hesitant.

This was its existence. It had known others, but this was now, and it had to be now, even if it saw the extent of its future and past as clearly as if they were also its now. For time held no bounds to the reactions.

They followed time backwards and forwards as a human might read a book, going back to read something from earlier, or flipping ahead to know what happened later.

All those moments were part of the same expanse of time and causation, and the reactions knew this. There was no need to explain this knowledge, because the reactions were. They did not specifically do. Doing required intent, and the intent had been siphoned out of them.

They saw as their siblings showed the Captain places and objects, and peoples that he wished to look for. They gave no answers, just revealed things.

They could make things happen, as the one who kept them had discovered, but the other one, the Captain, had never figured that out. He watched, and so did they.

But they felt him struggling to piece together those strings of information into knowledge.

The reactions were there as Santiago spoke with Iara. They saw his guards against saying too much, and they saw her curiosity. She was formidable, but she was not the mage the being who had been Chogyam had spoken of. That one had not yet come. But they knew where she was. Where the Captain had hidden her away.

The boy called Jaden suspected something of this, but like most of these creatures, he lacked the ability to follow the flow. But the reactions could follow the flow.

They saw, everything.

***