It was late morning when Presto and Sheila finally made their way down the grounds of Zenghai once more. They had not stopped their sexual acrobatics until nearly sunrise, or at least what passed for sunrise in the mist shrouded castle anyway. When they finally did wake, there had been an uncomfortable silence at first. Then, Sheila made a joke about the myriad of sex toys still scattered across the floor and the tension was broken.

They emerged from the castle, Sheila’s hand tucked firmly into Presto’s arm, and they set off past the hedge and the more populated areas of the grounds. The magician told her what she might see in the pool, and what she might not.

By the time they reached the moss-covered pathway which led to the Reflecting Pool, a light rain had begun to fall, soaking them both. However, they had crossed over into the paradise world without realizing it so the rain was warm and relaxing, rather than the bone chilling damp that surrounded Zenghai. As they approached the small clearing where the pool lay, Sheila turned to look at Presto, he blue eyes shining.

"Please come with me," she begged. "I don’t know if I can do this by myself."

"I can’t," he shook his head. "Whatever you see in that pool is meant for you only, not for me. It’s unique to each person. But if you get in trouble, call me. I’ll be right out here."

The magician seated himself on a bench and shooed her in the direction of the pond. She stood up straight and walked towards the leafy curtain hiding the Reflecting Pool from sight.

Passing through the soft vines was like stepping into another world. The rain still fell, but the place was alive with color and motion. Exotic plants and animals dotted the glade, each one more vibrant than the next. Cautiously she approached the pool and knelt down beside it. All she saw was her own reflection.

She began to cry, not finding her much hoped for answers in the bottom of the pond as she had believed she would. One of her tears splashed into the water sending ripples out from the center. A form began to take shape in the water and Sheila leaned in for a closer look.

The thief saw herself as a child, playing jacks and skipping rope on the sidewalk outside her home. She saw Bobby running through a field on a vacation to New England, her 10-year-old self chasing after him and yelling for him to be careful. The sunny field morphed into the high school football stadium, ablaze under lights on a fall night, her baton spinning high in the air. Hank looking on in his football uniform, preparing to take the field. There were also visions of proms she never went to and boys she never dated.

More tears fell into the water and the scenes changed. She saw herself pregnant at 18 beside Hank’s grave and her own face badly bruised and cut. A few feet away from Hank’s grave, she could see two more head stones, one bearing Eric’s name and the other Diana’s. A beam of light cut across the water and she saw her body floating in the river that divided the town, police milling around the bridge she had jumped from. She let out a gasp and the images changed again.

Now, she saw her friends resting in their camp in the mountains near the Mirrored Lakes, waiting for her and Presto to return. Hank stood apart from the others, looking skyward into the starry night. She also saw Venger putting the final touches on his palace and realized that Eric and Hank must have destroyed at least part of it before they left the day of her rescue. What touched her heart most, however, was the image of Venger looking out over the Fire-Lit Mountains from his bedroom balcony. He wore a wistful expression, one she would almost call longing. Somehow, she knew he was wishing for her return.

She reached out to touch the illusion and the waters shifted again, this time a brilliant red hue encircling the images.

She was holding a baby boy, nursing him in her suite in Venger’s Palace. The dark lord was beside her, waiting to take the child. Sheila had no idea where he was going to take the boy, but she was filled with fear and anger at that thought. The Venger-image swirled and was replaced by an even darker one.

Here, she stood beside Venger, a crown of gold and gems set upon her head. Rows of Orcs bowed before them as a young man approached them. She saw blood glisten on the fangs that now sprouted from her mouth. Instantly, she knew the young man was her son, but not the one she had just lost. This was a second son, born to her and the dark lord. Evil glinted in his eyes and she knew there was none of his father’s goodness left in him.

Sheila swished her hand in the water to erase the vision, but another one simply rose in its place. She saw them all in what she somehow knew was Ramoud's palace. Even Terry and Varla were with the little group. They were all dressed in the fine robes of royalty, crowns adorning their heads. Ramoud was smiling and laughing, his arms open wide. People were applauding and Aiesha hugging each of them in turn.

Again she reached out to touch the water and the beautiful image vanished. Now, she saw herself cowering before a tall winged figure that wasn’t Venger. Her hands and feet were bound and she was leaning against the stone alter from the Hall of Sorrow, crumbling ceilings and walls surrounding her. She was naked, covered in blood and dried semen, her body marked in the same sexual wounds Venger used to leave on her. Varla lay in a heap to the side of the alter, her body still and lifeless.

Suddenly, the pool went dark and Sheila looked up, blinking several times. It took her a few moments to realize where she was. She was still seating by the side of the Reflecting Pool, the warm rain still falling in the tropical paradise.

"What troubles you, Thief?" a deep hiss broke the silence of the humid air.

She whirled to see a Healer approaching her from behind a tree. Sheila knew this had to be Leader since Presto had told her he was the only one of the Healers who spoke.

"How… How much of that was real?" her voice cracked as she looked at the Healer in horror.

"Only that which you remember from the past and what is the present. The pasts you do not remember are things that will never be. They are the results of choices you did not make in this life."

"And everything else?" she closed her eyes, already knowing the answer.

"Any of the future images you saw may yet be. The future is an uncertain vision. It depends on choices you have not yet made. Some of those things may occur and none of them may occur."

The scarlet cloaked figure paused for her to catch her breath, which was still coming in gasps.

"Much of what you saw was disturbing, no?"

"Yeah," she replied. "Those ones with me and Venger." She shuddered. "Is that what I'd end up like if I went back to him?"

"Perhaps," the Healer regarded her for a moment. "Perhaps not. I cannot say. But if you have seen it in the Pool, it is then possible."

"And my son, the one I… lost?" she was barely able to ask the question, it was so painful. "I didn't see him anywhere."

The Healer pulled back his hood and allowed Sheila to finally see his birdlike face. His ebony eyes regarded her calmly.

"Thief, there are certain events which are inevitable, once we choose a path in life. Your son with Venger was one of them."

"I don't understand," her tears flowed freely once more.

"Once you entered the Realm, the path you would have followed back on Earth ended. Those were some of the alternate paths you saw in the pool.

"Here in the Realm, you have chosen many times over, and each of those choices help determine the future. However, once you began down this path of life in the Realm, certain events became inevitable. No matter what else you chose before or will choose in the future, those specific events were destined to occur."

Sheila sniffed. "So you mean this child was going to die, no matter what?"

The Healer nodded. "There are events in your life which are immovable. No matter what you did before the day at the Mirrored Lakes, Venger would still have captured you. You would have still become pregnant, and the child still would have died. The specifics may have changed, but those events were set.

"Your friends have the similar events, as well. The magician was destined to meet Varla the Illusionist, for instance. Your acrobat friend would have met the Child of the Stargazer no matter what path she took, once she entered the Realm."

"So we have no choice in our lives?" Sheila screamed, angry now. "You mean nothing we do matters? It's gonna come out the same no matter what?"

The Healer reached out his claw and placed it on her shoulder.

"No, Thief," he whispered. "You do have choices. Certain events may be set but how you get there and what you do afterwards is up to you. In truth, there are very few of these set events. However, those that do exist are not small by any means.

"You have just lived through such an event. How you deal with it will determine your future. You have seen several choices and in your heart, you know what you must do. I have healed your body, Thief. It is now the way it existed before the Day of Sorrow. All Venger has done to your physical self has been undone. You cannot bear his child unless you undergo another transformation.

"You have seen the shadows within you and asked yourself the questions which rose from that discovery. Now you must find the answers. Look in the silence of your mind and soul. Only there will you discover what you seek."

With that, Leader turned and vanished back into the bush. Sheila sniffled and wiped at her eyes, but the tears would not stop. She ached deep inside, the pain of losing her child fully setting in.

She heard footsteps and turned to see Presto running through the clearing.

"I heard the Leader," he panted. "What happened?"

Her lower lip trembled and she rushed to Presto, flinging her arms around his neck. In great gulping sobs, she told her friend everything she had seen in Reflecting Pool. She also told him what the Healer had told her about her baby and the unchangeable events in their lives.

"He never had a chance," she pulled back from Presto's shoulder as she finished telling him her story. "He was going to die, no matter what I did."

"Sheila, I'm so sorry," he whispered. "I wish I knew how to make it better. I'd change everything if I could."

"I know," she looked the magician directly in the eye. "But you can't. So we have to go on. I need to deal with this, and to decide what I do when we get back. I know that now."

"What do you need from me?" he asked. "I'll do whatever I can, you know that."

"First, I need you to help me keep a promise," she motioned for him to take off his hat. "Can I have the jewelry box please."

Without a word he pulled his hat off his head and produced the jeweled box she had brought with her from Venger's palace. She walked to the edge of the pond and looked down into the clear water.

"I've got to set them free. I promised. I don't know how else to do it," she told her friend.

Slowly, she emptied the contents of the box into the pond, letting each glittering piece fall to the pink stones at the bottom of the pond. At first, nothing happened. Then, the jewels began to shimmer and Sheila saw the ghostly images of Venger's past queens rise from the depths of the pool.

The image of Rianna stopped as it broke the surface, while the others simply rose up and out of sight.

"Thank you, Queen Sheila," Rianna bowed to her. "You have broken Venger's spell by allowing us to feel the healing powers of Zenghai. An ancient wrong has been righted. You will be remembered for this.

"Look in the silence and shadow for your own freedom, Sheila. Allow your friends to help you discover the way. I promise you, you will find what you seek."

Then Rianna was gone in a wisp of smoke.

"Can you do it?" Presto asked Sheila as she stared into the pond. "Can you break free of Venger? The love issue aside?"

Sheila sighed as she bent down to fish the jewels out of the pond and returned them to the box. They still glittered, but not quite as brilliantly as they had only moments ago.

"I don't know. I think I can," she said as she handed him the box. Presto returned it to his hat without comment.

"I do know I still have a long way to go. The loss still hurts. The desire for Venger is still there, knowing what I do. But I think I can do it. If you all help me."

"Name it," his voiced trembled as he saw the glint in her eye.

The thief looked at him with longing in her eyes. "Just once more, Presto. Please. Love me."

He started to protest, but she held a finger to his lips. "Maybe this is wrong, but if we don't do it here, I don't think it'll ever happen again.

"When we get back, I don't know what will happen. Hank might not want me or maybe he will. But he probably won't change the way he deals with me. He'll probably never tell me he loves me. And I'm scared I won't ever feel this again, this feeling of being good enough for someone to love."

"Are you sure?" Presto asked her.

She drew his face to hers and slid her tongue into his mouth in response. Their bodies, slick with the rain, seemed to meld into one, each drawn to the other by the power and promise of healing.

Dungeon Master sighed and darkened the viewing orb once more. He knew what was coming, and just like the night before, he knew he could not stop them, much as he might want to. Oh, and he did want to.

He hoped back up on his bed to rest. The Young Ones would come to him when they had finished their exploits, he knew. What he did not know was how this might upset the balance of the prophecy. He supposed he had to trust the Healers. If these were truly the Promised Ones, nothing as small as this would change the outcome of their time in the Realm.

As Dungeon Master, he had power and knowledge over most things in the Realm. Zenghai, however, existed in many dimensions and worlds at once. To prevent conflict, they lived by a set of Holy Laws that were not part of any world they existed in. In the past, this had been a minor annoyance. Now, it was angering him.

He shook his head and began to meditate. There was no use worrying or allowing his anger to get the better of him. What would be, would be. He would do damage control later on, if necessary, once he was far from the confines of this place.

He didn't know how long he spent meditating until a knock at his door brought him back to reality. When he opened the door, he saw the thief and the magician standing in front of him. They were both soaking wet, but each wore a content expression, as if they had found a measure of peace.

"We're ready to go back, Dungeon Master," she informed him. "We know what we have to do."

Dungeon Master nodded. "As you wish. We shall prepare to journey home."