Faith

Spider’s Lair

	“Ryan, wake up,” Scott said, shaking Ryan out of his slumber.  
“She’s coming to.”
	Ryan, groggy for a moment, sprang to attention upon hearing 
the news he had been waiting for for three full days.  He hadn’t 
spoken to anyone, opting to remain in the Astral Plane as much as 
he could, in order to be with the recovering Sandy.  He only came 
out to eat, which was done in silent contemplation, and to sleep.
	Spider, on the other hand, was getting fed up with having so 
many people in her trove.  Sean and Scott were fine, since Sean 
was her boyfriend and Scott was tending to both Sandy and Ryan, 
who was neglecting himself.  Ayre, who had earned her respect 
during their mission, was losing it inch by inch.  He complained 
constantly about boredom and wanting to go home.  Apparently the 
boy was only level headed when there was a need; he certainly 
wasn’t very useful any other time.
	Jack was not only annoying Spider, he was also putting his 
life in jeopardy.  Upon seeing the treasure Spider had amassed, 
he had been trying to sneak handfuls of it into his bag, his 
shoes, his pockets, and several other places Spider was getting 
tired of searching.  For the oldest one in the room, he was 
surely the most childish.
	It went without saying that Philip was in mortal danger.  The 
man was impossible to deal with.  Every time Spider said 
anything, he second-guessed it.  If she gave an order, he had a 
“better” one, which he used to countermand hers.  She couldn’t 
believe this guy was even related to Ryan, much less the one Ryan 
was now supporting for the throne.  Ryan was much more qualified, 
not to mention more humane.  Several times, Philip had suggested 
that they strike Sandy down while she was incapacitated so she 
would no longer be a threat to the kingdom.  He only stopped when 
Spider told him, on no uncertain terms, that anything that 
happened to Sandy would happen to him.  Spider eagerly 
anticipated Sandy’s awakening almost more so she could get those 
three out of her home than to have her back to normal.
	Now Sandy was coming back to them.
	“Remind me never to use that much magic again,” she said 
weakly.
	“How are you feeling?” Spider asked.
	“Like I’ve run three marathons, all uphill,” Sandy replied.  
Spider smiled warmly at her, and Sandy returned it with one just 
as sincere.
	“What can we do to help bring your power back?” Scott asked, 
still sitting at the side of the bed.
	“My personal energy will come back on its own as my strength 
returns.  My staff will take time.  I was feeding it a little bit 
of energy from each person I gave a massage to, just enough to 
make them relax.  It didn’t bring in very much power, but there 
were so many it added up.”
	“And she spent everything she had collected for the past six 
months all on you,” Spider scolded Philip.
	“A small sacrifice,” Sandy said.  “One I would make again if 
Ryan asked.”  Ryan’s embrace tightened a bit at that.
	“And here you wanted to kill her,” Spider said.
	“There is still a danger that she is working for a malignant 
force and is only pretending to be on our side,” Philip said.
	Sandy looked over to Philip as if he were crazy.
	“Just as much of a chance as you being evil,” Sean retorted.  
“People are defined by the way they act.  We can’t know what 
motivates them, only what they do.  On that basis alone, Sandy is 
a better human being than you.  We have faith that Sandy is good 
from what we know about her, and you should too.”
	Everyone’s eyes were locked on Philip.  “Then she has you all 
fooled too,” he said, walking into the main room of the trove and 
shutting the door behind him.  Spider suppressed a scream of 
frustration, as well as the desire to run him through with any 
and all sharp objects she could find.
	“I am sorry for my brother’s...” Ryan began.
	“No,” Spider said, “I won’t have you apologizing for that.  I 
know you have to stick up for him, but you don’t have to take the 
blame for his actions.”
	“Before this erupts into anything,” Scott said, “perhaps we 
should think of the patient.”
	“Right,” Sean said.  “Sandy, is there any way we can speed up 
your recovery?  You know more about magic than all of us.”
	“I could drain your energy,” she joked.
	“You know,” Spider said, “that isn’t a bad idea.”  They all 
stared at her, dumbfounded.  “Not a lot, just enough to get her 
back on her feet.  Would a negligible amount from each of us 
help?”
	“Enough to allow me to function like the rest of you,” she 
said without any sign of trying to degrade them.
	“I’ll do it,” Ayre said.
	“Ryan first,” Scott said.  “And take enough to make him 
sleep.  He hasn’t been doing enough of that lately.”
	“No,” Ryan said.  “I want to stay awake with Sandy.  She may 
need me.”
	“Overruled, Firefly,” Sandy said sweetly as Ryan fell 
backward, asleep.  She stood up and stretched her muscles.  “That 
was plenty.  I don’t need any more.”
	“On the contrary,” Scott said.  “There is something going on 
at the palace, and we’re going to need you at full strength.  Do 
the same to the rest of us as you did to Ryan, and build up your 
staff’s energy.”

	“Is that what you all want?” Sandy asked.  They all nodded, 
and one by one, they were all asleep in a line on the cots Spider 
had set up.
	The silence brought Philip back into the room.
	“What have you done, you monster?” he demanded.
	“Nothing, Philip,” Sandy said.  “They gave me their energy 
voluntarily.  They will be awake after they have gotten a full 
night’s rest, and they will be as good as new.”
	“Liar!  I will make you pay for what you have done to my 
brother, you witch!”
	Philip ran at Sandy, but she merely raised her hand and 
pointed, and Philip fell to the floor in the same state as the 
others.
	That felt good, morally and magically.  Anger tended to bring 
out hidden reserves of energy, which she tapped into and drained.  
When he awoke, he wouldn’t be able to feel anger for at least a 
week.
	She decided that Ayre had had enough, and that his parents 
were probably frantic by now.  Spider was certainly ready to be 
rid of him by what Ryan had told her in the Astral Plane.  She 
opened a portal directly to his bedroom and placed him on his own 
bed, then knocked something over to make a loud crash to alert 
his parents before she left.  She also opened a portal to Jack’s 
Electronics and placed Jack on the cot in his back room.  Next to 
him were two of the cots Spider had rigged, containing Scott and 
Sean.
	Now that everyone was gone who didn’t have to be there, Sandy 
could relax.  She turned on the news network, which was doing a 
story of Philip’s life, assuming he was dead.  If only they knew 
that he was safer now than he had been in the palace.  
	Her boredom was intensifying.  All of the energy in her was 
making her hyperactive and restless.  She decided that the best 
thing to do with all of the extra energy in her body was to add 
it to her staff.  She concentrated and funneled her own power 
into it, making sure to stop the flow just before she passed out 
on the bed.

	Ryan awoke just in time to see his brother sit up.  Had his 
brother volunteered his energy as well?  Philip looked to Sandy’s 
prone form on the bed and sighed.
	“What’s wrong, brother,” Ryan whispered so he wouldn’t wake 
up Spider or Sandy, the only others in the room.
	“I went after her when I saw you all knocked out, but she 
took my energy too,” Philip replied with a surprising lack of 
emotion.  “I don’t know why, but I don’t feel like tearing her to 
shreds for it.”
	“Maybe you’re beginning to have faith in her.”
	“No, she still should be locked away.  I just don’t feel like 
doing it right now.”
	“How are you feeling physically?”
	“Fine,” Philip replied.  “Refreshed in fact.”
	Ryan looked at his watch.  “Not surprising,” he said.  “We’ve 
been asleep for nearly a day.”
	“Sounds like mother,” Philip said.
	“Mother has been sleeping a lot?”
	“She is sick,” Philip told him, still without emotion.  “She 
has been sleeping whole days at a time, sometimes more.  She is 
thin as a rail and a bit green.  She is also eating very little.”
	“What do the doctors say?”
	“They have no idea what is happening to her, or if she will 
get better.  She slips a little bit farther every day, but is 
still holding on pretty well.  The priest said that it was her 
soul that was sick from losing you.”
	“The priest says it’s all in her head?”
	“Yes, and he has been with her every day, trying to help her 
through her pain.”
	“Do you really think her sickness is because of me?” Ryan 
asked, truly concerned that that might be the case.
	“I did at first,” Philip said with the same low energy he had 
been using since he awoke, “but this is too severe.”
	“What is?” came Sandy’s voice from the bed.  She was just now 
stretching her arms and opening her eyes, looking quite 
refreshed.
	“Mother is sick,” Ryan told her.  “Highly.”
	“Go to her,” she said.
	“We cannot, the palace is swarming with guards,” Ryan 
reminded her.
	“Now that there are no prisoners left,” Sandy said, “the 
guards should be fewer.  Also, this time, you know exactly where 
to go, and I can place you in a more central room since I have 
been there.”
	“It is too risky right now,” Philip said, and for once, Ryan 
agreed.
	“She is your mother,” Sandy reprimanded Philip.  “If there is 
anything you can do to help her, you must do it.  And you will 
not know if you do not go there and find out.  Now, are you going 
to go to her willingly, or am I going to have to open a portal 
under your feet and make you fall into the palace?”
	Ryan didn’t have to hear any more.  He knew that Sandy was 
right and that their mother needed them, no matter the risk.
	“We will go,” Ryan said.
	Philip pulled Ryan to the side.  “It is a trap,” he hissed, 
which seemed like a struggle for him to do in his present state.  
Just what had Sandy done to him while the rest of them were 
asleep?  “She is going to send us into the palace so we can be 
easily caught and then executed.”  Philip seemed to lose his 
balance a bit as he brought out his negativity, but his 
equilibrium returned once he was through.
	“I trust her implicitly,” Ryan said.  “As my brother, you 
should as well, if you value my opinion at all.”
	Philip strained, but was unable to bring out any more 
hostility, of which Ryan was pleased.  Sandy opened a portal and 
peered through it to check for inhabitation.  When she pulled 
back and told them that it was clear, Ryan pulled Philip through 
and Sandy closed the portal so the Crown Prince couldn’t run 
back.
	“Where are we?” Philip asked.
	Ryan opened the door a crack and saw that the hallway was 
just as deserted as the room where they stood.  Stepping out, he 
recognized the Main Hall for what it was, and told his brother as 
much.  Silently and carefully, the two royal brothers made their 
way quietly and carefully to the Queen’s room, ducking into a 
vacant room whenever they caught the sound of footsteps.  No one 
in the palace was to be trusted at this point.
	Ryan once again opened the door to the Queen’s antechamber, 
only wide enough that he could see who was inside, but there was 
no one in the room.  He and his brother entered quietly and 
closed the door, trying to soften even the small click made by 
the catch by turning the handle slowly.
	With that completed, Ryan gave a soundless sigh of relief and 
walked to the curtains that separated the antechamber from the 
bed chamber.  Pulling them slightly, he peered in to see his 
mother’s gaunt frame on top of the covers of her bed.  Next to 
her, her priest was reading softly to her, though it was obvious, 
even at this distance, that he was reading to a woman asleep.
	“May we enter?” Ryan asked, peeking his head through the 
curtains.
	“By all means,” the priest said, not looking up from the 
pages of the book.  Ryan and Philip stepped into the room.  “You 
may place her tray over there,” he continued, absently gesturing 
to a corner of the room.  “She isn’t up to eating at the moment, 
but she will be hungry when she awakes.”
	“You have us mistaken,” Ryan said gently.  “We are here to 
visit our mother.”
	The priest looked up in alarm.  “You!  Both of you!  I won’t 
let you harm her,” he exclaimed, standing between them and their 
mother.
	“I am afraid the reports of the danger we pose have been 
greatly exaggerated,” Ryan said, still calmly.  Surprisingly, 
Philip was remaining silent through the whole exchange.
	“I understand,” the priest said, lowering his hands.  “The 
King has been acting strangely as of late.  As loyal to his 
majesty as I am, I am a priest, and my daughter here needs you 
too much for me to turn you in, my sons.”
	“Thank you,” Ryan said with open gratitude.
	He kneeled by the side of the bed and put his hands around 
hers.  “Mother,” he whispered.  “It is me, Ryan, your son.”
	There was no response.
	“I’m afraid she has just recently fallen asleep,” the priest 
told him.  “She was extremely tired from her trip to the 
greenhouse.”
	“She was up then?”
	“No, unfortunately.  One of her maids took her in her 
wheelchair earlier.  The warm air and abundant life brought up 
her mood quite a bit, but she was not strong enough to stay long.  
Hopefully her trip made her dreams a little more peaceful.”
	Ryan looked at her ashen face.  Despite the pale greenish 
tint of her skin, her expression did have a certain tranquil 
quality to it.
	“Do you have any idea what it is?”
	“I wish I did,” the priest said.  “The doctors can’t find 
anything besides symptoms, and those don’t match anything they 
have seen before.  I had thought that she was suffering from the 
loss of you, Ryan, but even a sickness of spirit wouldn’t take 
her this far.  It is as if something is leeching the life from 
her.”
	“Has father been in to see her?”
	“Not once,” the priest said with a bit of anger in his voice.  
Ryan guessed that his father’s lack of sympathy was a factor in 
why the priest had let them stay.
	Ryan tried to think of anything that could do this to his 
mother, through his mind and Saggitarius’ memories.  But the 
memories of his power source were severely limited to the astral 
plane, the twelve Senshi powers, and battle tactics.  As little 
help Saggitarius’ memories were, his own were less helpful.  He 
had never dealt with anything out of the ordinary until he met 
the Lights in the spirit plane.
	“I am afraid I am as stumped as you are about this,” Ryan 
said.  He turned to his brother.  “What do you think, Philip?”
	His brother had been silent and was staring blankly forward.  
What had Sandy done to him?  He should have argued every point 
and word with Ryan, but instead he was a zombie.
	“What’s wrong with him?” the priest asked.
	“I do not know, but I intend to find out when we return to 
our hiding place,” Ryan said.
	Philip seemed to strain against something for a moment, but 
whatever it was that was doing this to him, it won.  “I am fine,” 
Philip said hollowly.
	“He is fighting something inside of himself,” the priest 
said.
	“How do you know this?”
	“I have seen it before, a compulsion.  Hypnotists use them to 
keep their patients from reverting to harmful behaviors.  Was he 
under hypnosis lately?”
	“He very well may have,” Ryan said, then laughed.  “No wonder 
he is being so civil.  She turned his nastiness off.  Is this 
what is left when he doesn’t have his hostility?”
	“He is mean?” the priest asked.
	“Closer to pragmatic and heartless,” Ryan said.  “But under 
our present circumstances, that translates into mean easily 
enough.”
	The priest walked up to Philip and addressed him directly.  
“You don’t have to be the way you are.  You could take in the 
light of Siprethea and start yourself on the path to cleansing 
right now.  If you consent, I will bless you.”
	Ryan was shocked.  He knew only priests were allowed to 
invoke the highest name of their goddess, but even that was only 
in extreme circumstances.  
	The priest, however, seemed to be reading Ryan’s mind, and 
answered his misgivings.  “If the King continues as he is, Philip 
here may be forced onto the throne sooner than either of you had 
expected.  If the Crown Prince is only a capable ruler, without 
being a good and pious man, the Kingdom will be no better than it 
is now.  This is an extreme circumstance, I would say.”
	The priest was pretty convincing, but Ryan still couldn’t 
help but feel that this was a bit sacrilegious.  But this was a 
priest, and had much more authority on the subject than Ryan, so 
he would take the man’s word on it.
	Philip nodded slightly and kneeled in front of the priest, 
something the normal Philip would never concede to do, not even 
for the clergy.  The priest’s hand rested on Philip’s forehead as 
he chanted in the ancient language - Latin, Ryan remembered it 
was called - which no one but the priests knew now.
	There was a small glow where the priest’s hand touched his 
brother’s head.  Magic?  Ryan was taken completely off guard.  He 
had never suspected that the priests of Sipre - the common name 
of their goddess - had any magical powers.  They had never done 
anything even remotely miraculous before, and their voices were 
trusted to utter the words of the Goddess simply on faith.
	The whitish glow spread and filled Philip, and retracted at 
the same speed the moment it enveloped the Crown Prince.  As soon 
as the light had been drawn back into the priest, a blue light 
was sent in.  Instead of retreating back into the priest as the 
white had, the blue took hold and sunk in once it filled Philip.  
Once it had faded completely, the priest removed his hand and 
Philip opened his eyes.
	“Thank you,” Philip said to the priest.  His voice was back 
to its full strength, but instead of the open hostility it had 
had before, it was now filled with love and compassion.
	“I have never seen anything like that before,” Ryan stammered 
in amazement.
	“I can do the same for you,” the priest told him.  “You are a 
protector of the kingdom, and the blessing of the Goddess could 
help you as well.”
	“I thank you,” Ryan said, “but I would not respect myself if 
I took a blessing I did not earn or need.”
	“That is understandable,” the priest said with a hint of 
regret.  “I don’t mean to sound rude, but you two should leave 
very soon,” he said, changing the subject.  “The maids I had 
mistaken you for when you arrived should be here shortly, and 
they might not be as hospitable as I.”
	“You are right,” Ryan said.  “Pardon me while I contact our 
‘ride’.”  Ryan and Sandy had come up with a system where he would 
concentrate on her and give her a mental ‘tug’ through the Astral 
Plane if he needed to talk to her when they were apart.  She 
would then open herself up for him to pull her into what they 
called their Astral Plain.  That was, according to Sandy, enough 
contact to a place for her to open a portal to it.  They had gone 
over it many times while Sandy was in her power coma, and they 
couldn’t find any reason why it shouldn’t work.  In theory, that 
was.
	“If you don’t mind,” the priest said, “I would rather you not 
use any foreign magic in here, just in case it would affect your 
mother negatively.”
	“Of course,” Ryan said, as he and Philip, now quite pleasant, 
walked through the curtain into the antechamber.  They went to 
the door and Ryan leaned against it, focusing, reaching for 
Sandy.

	Sandy stared at Philip, wondering just what the priest had 
done to him to make him so...she couldn’t think of a good word to 
describe what he was like.  Maybe tolerable.  
	Her shock at finding him like this had quickly eclipsed the 
shock she had had that the plan she and Ryan had thought out had 
actually worked.  Innovations is magic almost never worked, 
especially not on the first try.  She was going to have to 
conspire with Ryan more to see what else they could come up with.
	Philip was a different story.  He had come back with a serene 
smile on his face and a peaceful demeanor which, frankly, gave 
her the creeps.  She had seen, even performed, magical 
compulsions before, but those always played on a part of the 
subject’s own personality.  Like if someone had a bit of anger 
toward another, she could (and had) made them think that it was 
overwhelming and unforgivable, to the point where they would kill 
that person.  What had happened to Philip was like a total 
personality overhaul, something she had never seen before this.  
At least, not happening in less than a minute, as Ryan had told 
her.  A total mind wipe and new personality addition took days, 
even weeks in some cases, not seconds.  This had to be the work 
of something powerful, maybe even a goddess, as the priest had 
claimed, but Sandy was not going to accept that without further 
proof.
	Spider brought out a platter of sandwiches: grilled goat 
cheese, which Sandy was quite used to now after weeks of eating 
it.  She set it on the golden table they had all strained to 
bring in from her trove.  Sandy wondered how Spider had been able 
to steal that.  Perhaps Spider would tell the story to her 
someday, it had to be humorous.  Sean followed Spider with a 
platter of his own, this one carrying a chilled bottle of 
expensive wine and several ornate goblets.  Spider had stolen so 
many bottles, she had had to build her own wine cellar, and was 
finally able to use some of it up now that she had company.  
Sandy was far from complaining.  Scott had the last load: a stack 
of fine china.  If they hadn’t been dining like this for weeks, 
Sandy would have thought this was too fancy for them, royalty or 
not.  The truth was, the finery was all Spider had.  Why would 
she have wanted to steal anything less?
	They each sat down around the table in a veritable throne and 
began eating their sandwiches, the only aspect of the meal that 
wasn’t elaborate.  Ryan and Sandy sat next to each other on one 
side, and Sean and Spider across from them, respectively.  Scott 
and Philip sat on the ends.  The two thieves and Scott each ate 
in record time, practically inhaling their food, while the three 
royals ate with the manners that had been ingrained into their 
upbringing.  Sandy could understand, though, that Scott and Sean 
were young men, and young men didn’t have manners unless they 
were forced to, and that Spider’s profession required her to eat 
quickly so she could be on her guard again as soon as possible.
	Their meal was spent in silence.  Ryan, Sandy knew, was 
thinking about what he would do next, and most likely Scott was 
also trying to figure out what Ryan’s next move should be.  Scott 
had been surprisingly helpful in helping Ryan strategize in the 
three days since Ryan and Philip paid the visit to their ailing 
mother.  Sean had been trying, but was distracted too easily, and 
usually went off to change channels, not watching any of them.  
Sandy would never put him on a planning team, but when it came to 
action, he was the man to have.  He thought well on his feet, 
nearly as fast as Ayre, and almost never second guessed his 
moves.  Spider was the opposite.  She would follow a plan to the 
letter... and abort the mission if anything went awry.  Sandy 
wondered how full this trove would be if Spider had followed 
through on every theft.  Sandy knew her own strengths and 
weaknesses, which only left Philip.
	She looked over to see the Crown Prince slumped over in his 
chair, gripping his stomach.  “Philip,” Sandy called out, “are 
you all right?”  She stood and went to him.
	“Stay back,” Philip commanded.  “For all I know, you are the 
one making me sick.”  His face was pale when he looked up at her, 
and he was dripping sweat.
	Sandy stood back and let the others help Philip to the bed.  
They laid him down and he remained unmoving.  Sandy went to fetch 
her staff, just in case there was anything she could heal 
magically.
	“Keep her away from me,” Philip practically screamed.
	“She only wants to help you,” Ryan said
	“She is hurting me.”
	“I will stay back,” Sandy said.  “I can check for spells 
better from back here anyway.”  She raised her staff high and 
began a chant.
	Philip’s eyes became wide.  “Kill her before she blasts me!”
	“Calm down!” Spider shouted over him.  “Sandy is your friend, 
you should know that by now.”
	Philip’s yelling died down to a fearful whimper as he lay 
helpless on the bed.  Sandy’s staff began to glow, and she saw a 
strange aura around the Crown Prince.  It was a dull, lifeless 
gray and there was a tendril coming off of it, reaching to a spot 
near the edge of the room, where it vanished.  What was it, and 
what was it doing to him?
	“He is bespelled,” Sandy told them.
	“Can you break it?” Scott asked.
	“Not without knowing what it is and who cast it,” she 
replied.
	“Anyone have any ideas?” Spider asked as Philip wailed in 
agony once again.
	“Nothing I’ve seen before,” Sean said.  “Is it just me or is 
he turning green?”
	“Mother!” Ryan exclaimed.
	“What are you talking about?” Spider said.
	“His skin looks like mother’s.  Oh goddess, please don’t let 
him have the same thing,” Ryan said.
	“Did he touch her while he was there?” Sean asked.
	“Not once,” Ryan said.  “Besides, I was closer to her the 
whole time and I am fine.”
	Sandy growled.  “The priest,” she spat.  “I knew there was 
something about that blessing that seemed wrong magically.”
	“Not the priest,” Ryan said.  “He was so nice.”
	“Don’t listen to her,” Philip groaned.  “She just wants us to 
keep us off of her scent.”
	“Sandy, please,” Spider said, “do you have anything to back 
it up?”
	“The spell, it vanishes where I opened the portal to bring 
Ryan and Philip back,” she said, “though I didn’t connect it when 
I first saw it.  If I am right, all I have to do is send a little 
blast....”  She focused a small pulse of energy at the place 
where the line of power vanished, and the air was ripped from the 
ceiling to floor.  The gash it left showed a clear picture of the 
Queen’s antechamber.
	“I’m convinced,” Spider said.
	“We have to bring your mother here so he can’t harm her any 
more,” Scott said to Ryan.
	“What if he’s there with her?” Sean said.
	“Ryan and Sandy will go in first and make sure it’s safe,” 
Scott said.
	“Take me,” Philip said.  “If she does anything to mother, 
I’ll...” he broke off in another groan of agony.
	“Fine,” Spider snapped, “Sean and Scott will help you through 
behind them.  Now you’ll see that Sandy is on our side, idiot.”  
The last word she muttered under her breath.
	“Let’s go,” Ryan said, taking the lead again.  “Saggitarius 
Power, Make-Up!” he yelled.  There was a roll of thunder as a 
ball of lightning lowered from nowhere over Ryan, surrounding him 
and blocking out all view of him.  Sandy couldn’t tell what was 
happening inside the ball, but when it subsided, Ryan had become 
Senshi Saggitarius.  He stormed through the hole in the room and 
into the antechamber.  Sandy followed with a bit more caution.
	Ryan was already at the curtain when Sandy entered the room, 
and was suddenly blasted backward to hit the wall over ten feet 
behind him with a crack.
	“Ryan!” Sandy yelled as she ran to him.  Looking in the 
direction of the Queen’s bedroom, she saw no one except the Queen 
lying on her bed.  She noticed Ryan’s chest moving and breathed a 
sigh of relief.  He would be all right, but what had hit him?
	“What did you do to him?” Philip demanded as he and the 
others came through the rip.
	“She didn’t do anything,” Spider said bitterly.
	“No,” came a voice from the curtains, “I did.”  Another blast 
of energy fired through the curtains and would have hit Sandy had 
she not jumped out of the way with Ryan in her arms to protect 
him.
	From the Queen’s bed chamber stepped a large creature, shaped 
like a lean man but red in color.  He had small protruding fangs 
and finger length horns on his forehead.  He wore no shirt, so 
the two rows of horns coming up his torso, over his shoulders, 
and down his back were visible.  Sandy was grateful the creature 
was wearing pants.  “Would you like another blessing, your 
majesty?” he asked sarcastically.
	“You are the one killing my mother, you beast,” Philip spat.  
“And you used Sipre’s full name in vain.”
	“Nice touch, if I do say so myself,” the creature said.
	“What are you?” Sean asked.
	“I am a denizen of the Blasted Plane,” he said.  “Your people 
would call me a demon.”
	“You won’t get away with this,” Scott said.  “Good will 
always triumph over evil.”
	“Who said anything about evil?” the demon said.  “All I am is 
hungry.  Do the goats and sheep call you evil when you eat them?”
	“We’re more advanced than goats and sheep,” Scott replied.
	“As much advanced as I am over you,” the demon stated.
	“We won’t let you eat us,” Spider said, “or the Queen.”
	“Who is going to stop me?” the demon asked.  “None of you 
have any power, and that white haired one is barely strong enough 
to scratch me.  The only one of you who would even be worth the 
effort of a fight would be the one I blasted.  Now if you don’t 
mind, I’d like to get back to my dinner before the last bit slips 
away.
	“NO!” Philip yelled, somehow finding enough strength to run 
at the demon.  He stumbled forward only to get himself knocked 
flat onto the ground, without any energy left to get back up.
	“Just so you three don’t get in my way...” the demon began.  
He waved his hand toward Spider, Sean, and Scott, knocking them 
back through the rip.  “I’ll put you back in your playpen.”  He 
sent a small pulse of light and sealed the rip.
	Sandy raised her staff and fired an energy wave at the demon, 
but he just absorbed it.  “No fair tickling me,” he told her.
	She tried another tactic.  She focused and sent a searing 
white light not for the demon, but for the energy siphon he had 
on the Crown Prince.  This time, the attack wasn’t absorbed.  It 
severed the tentacle of energy and sent it snapping back at the 
demon like a rubber band.  
	The demon jumped.  “That stung, you puny gnat.  Let’s see how 
you like being snapped at.”  He raised his hand and Sandy felt as 
if she were being shot at by hundreds of rubber bands at once.  
Each one stung a little more than the one before, and they were 
beginning to leave welts.  She put up a small force shield, which 
seemed to be enough to repel the demon’s minor attack.
	A vase hit the demon in the back of the head and he spun 
around to see Philip slumping back down after expending the 
energy to throw it.  “Little punk,” the demon said.  He raised 
his hand and a ball of light grew in his palm, ready to roast the 
prince.
	Sandy threw herself over the prince’s body and threw up the 
strongest shield she could manage, and imbuing it with her best 
attempt at a reflection spell.  The ball of light hit her shield 
and she felt the pressure immediately.  She tried to push against 
it, but her shield was snapped and the demon’s attack landed 
square on her back.  She yelled out in pain as she felt her flesh 
searing away.  The small part of her mind that wasn’t completely 
occupied with pain was slightly surprised that the demon was also 
screaming in pain.  Apparently, her reflection spell worked to an 
extent, and some of the attack had hit the demon.  She wanted to 
turn around and see how badly he was hurt, but she found that she 
couldn’t move.
	“For that, you will die.  Now!” the demon screamed.  Sandy 
braced herself for the end of her life.
	“Saggitarius...” she heard from the other side of the 
antechamber.  Her heart lifted - it was Ryan’s voice.
	“Lightning Arrow,” her love finished.
	She heard a snap, followed by the most frightening sound she 
had ever heard in her life.  It sounded like a bird of prey had 
grown to a monstrous size and was giving a battle call, mixed 
with a woman’s scream of terror and a wolf’s howl.  She then felt 
as if someone were sprinkling some sort of powder on her, and out 
of the corner of her eye, she could see a cascade of glittering 
red dust.
	Sandy relaxed now that the demon was gone, and set to work 
healing herself.  She took a small amount of power and made a 
bridge across the damaged nerve in her spine, making a new 
pathway.  It would easily hold until she had enough power to 
repair the damage - she had done this enough times to know that 
for sure.  She was quite pleased that she knew how to do so much 
with the relatively small power she could control, unlike Ryan’s 
ultra-powerful, yet unchangeable, lightning arrow.
	She stood carefully and turned to Ryan.  “Thank you,” she 
said, putting her arms around him and kissing him.
	When it ended, he replied, “no, thank you.  You saved my 
brother even though he has been nothing but mean to you.”
	“I did not even think of it,” Sandy said.  “He is on our 
side.  ‘A soldier does not desert his fellows, not matter what 
they think of him.’”
	“I...” came Philip’s voice from behind her.  He was standing 
now, much to Sandy’s surprise.  She changed her sight to look at 
the magic around him and saw little tendrils of energy flowing 
from the demon’s dust into the Crown Prince.  “I thank you, 
again, Lady Stardust.  I have treated you horridly, which was 
unfair to you when you have been helping me all along.  I will 
not hide behind the Kingdom for this as I did before.  You saved 
my life, and now I, personally, am indebted to you.  I beg of 
you, will you forgive me?”
	Sandy couldn’t believe what she had just heard.  Philip, 
under no coercion, magically or otherwise, was truly apologizing 
to her.  “Y...Yes,” she stammered, “of course I forgive you.”
	“Come here,” Ryan said to Philip.  Philip came to him and 
Ryan took him into his arms, embracing his brother.
	“I can not promise that I will change,” Philip told them when 
he and his brother separated.  “In fact, it is best for the 
kingdom if I do not.  However, now I am truly convinced that 
Stardust...Sandy, is not a liability.  She is an asset to the 
Kingdom...and to our family.”
	Sandy felt a tear in her eye and let it fall.  Once again she 
was taken by surprise at what the Prince was telling her, and 
this time she had no intention of holding back her joy.  It was 
now her turn to embrace Philip, crying with happiness.  When she 
let go, she found herself with her back against Ryan and his arms 
enfolding her, giving her a chill of pure bliss.  She couldn’t 
remember a time when she was happier, or more in love.

	Ryan held his love without thinking about it first.  It was 
his natural reaction to seeing her so happy that he would want to 
share it with her.  He closed his eyes, taking is her scent, her 
rhythm, her very essence.
	Then he remembered why they were there in the first place.
	“I think we should look in on Mother now,” he told them.
	Without speaking, they filed into the room where the Queen 
lay staring at them, a weak smile on her face.
	“I heard everything,” she told them.  “You two, my sons, are 
becoming the men I had always hoped you would be.  Philip, you 
are strong and dignified, putting the needs of your people over 
your own needs.  Ryan, you are caring and loving.  Your courage 
and heart surpass those of most people.  You two could learn a 
lot from each other.”  She didn’t have to say what their 
shortcomings were, they both knew the unspoken.
	“Sandy dear,” the Queen said.  “I could not have asked for a 
better woman for my son.  Not only are you making him more 
responsible, you are making Philip care a little, neither of 
which is an easy task.  You have my complete blessing to marry 
Ryan.”
	“Thank you, my Queen,” Sandy said humbly, curtsying.
	“I wish I could stay and watch you all grow, but I feel my 
life slipping away as we speak.”  Ryan’s heart sunk.  “Before I 
let it happen, though, you have to know that the priest was not 
the only demon here.  Behind the throne is a secret door.  
Through it is the room where the pure of heart have been 
vanishing.  I would have been sent to the Head Demon in there, if 
I hadn’t been given as a snack to the demon priest, its disciple.  
Your father is working for the Head Demon,” she said in little 
more than a light whisper.  Ryan was shaking in fear and sorrow 
at what was happening before his eyes.  “I do not know why he 
would do this, but he...has...to...be...stopped.”  Each word 
looked as if it were a struggle.
	“Hold on, Your Majesty,” Sandy said.  “I am going to give you 
more energy.”
	“Don’t,” the Queen rasped.  “It is my time.  I love you... 
all,” were her last words as she closed her eyes.  Ryan wailed 
and Philip fell to his knees.  Being the least close to the 
Queen, Sandy was forced to work through her sorrow and bring them 
all back to Spider’s lair.  She had the portal facing the bed so 
the others could see why they were so upset and not ask 
questions.
	Philip was helped to one of the cots as Sandy and Ryan 
supported each other to the bed.  Sean and Spider sat by the 
Crown prince and did their best to comfort him, and Scott pulled 
the blankets onto Ryan and Sandy, who were possessively holding 
each other and weeping.  
	They would be long mourning the death of Queen Dorana.

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