(Four)
    It was dark, and Amber was tired.  So she was moving, and she was thinking.  She kept looking toward the mountains every time she got the chance - they seemed a great deal more ominous than they had before.  It helped that she was on edge, at least that way she wouldn't fall asleep.  So she walked around the campsite, looking for any movement at all.  In the hour that passed, she spotted Jace twice, and signaled to him that all was well.  It seemed that the night was going to be uneventful.
    Then she started hearing noises.  Coming from the direction of the forest - every so often, she heard what sounded like a person whispering.  She thought to mention it to Jace, but he seemed edgy enough without having to worry about what was most likely just her hearing things.  So she kept quiet, and tried to ignore it.  And so it was after half an hour of hearing the noises that she finally spotted the source.
    A young woman, not quite Amber's age, was standing a distance of five yards away from her.  Garbed in a long white dress, Amber found herself wondering why she hadn't spotted her before.  Carefully, the cadet raised her crossbow toward the newcomer.
    "Don't move." she ordered, looking at the woman warily.
    The woman didn't move, though it wasn't clear if she had actually heard Amber or not.  Her face only slowly began to turn toward her, and only then did the apparition seem to notice Amber's presence.
    "My name is Shila..." she began, speaking quietly but clearly.  "I need your help." she took a tentative step forward.
    Amber nearly shot her there, out of reflex.  Instead, she managed to control herself, and shouted "I said don't move!".
    Noise of footsteps preceded the arrival of Jace, who had presumably heard Amber shouting.  "Amber, what's going on here!?"
    Amber didn't take her eyes off of Shila.  "I've found someone." she said, looking at the newcomer, but speaking to Jace.
    "There's nobody there Shila." Jace, at her side, said.
    Shila was noticeably disturbed.  She whispered, "I need your help" once more, and followed with a more urgent command - "find me in the forest."
    Amber only half-listened to her speech.  She was too busy trying to figure out why Jace couldn't see the newcomer.  "Jace, she's right there!" Amber shouted, looking at Jace for explanation.
    Jace didn't say anything, he just looked back at her.  Amber sighed and angrily turned to where Shila had been just a moment ago.  The newcomer was nowhere to be seen.
    "I believe you."  Jace said, still not looking toward her.  "We're too close to the unexplored areas to discount anything.  But Amber, if you think you're getting tired, let me know."  It was clear that Jace wasn't disregarding her story out of hand, but still had questions as to its validity.
    Amber wasn't in the mood to argue the point.  "Yes sir" she said, without much enthusiasm, and returned to her rounds.  What had that been?  She asked herself the question over and over again.  Yes, she was tired, but she didn't think that she had hallucinated the thing.  It had been there!  It had spoken to her!  It had asked her for her help, and she had turned it down....
    But what had it been?  Why hadn't Jace seen it?  The questions were too numerous.  Nothing that Jace had told her, and nothing in her memories of the tales she was told as a child answered any of them.  Unless, of course, Shila was a spirit.
    Of course!  Amber nearly hit herself on the head.  She had seen a ghost!  After a moment, she realized that knowing didn't make her feel any better.  In fact, she was now filled with a sensation of dread.  Why would a ghost come to see her and ask her help?  It couldn't be good.  Maybe the scouts had been killed by that very spirit.  But no, that didn't make any sense - the ghost had the chance to kill her - Amber had been alone when Shila had appeared - and had not done so.
    Amber looked to the forest, considering.  The spirit had wanted her to go to the forest.  Perhaps the scouts were still there... or perhaps something more sinister.  Part of her mind wanted to go - to help the spirit, and to find the scouts.  The more rational part demanded she stay here and obey her orders.  But, as had happened in the past, instinct won out over reason.
    Making sure that Jace was nowhere in sight, Amber began walking toward the forest.

    (Five)
    "Thank you..." Shila whispered.  Up close, it was clear that Shila was not corporeal.  For one thing, it was possible to see through her.  Her form shimmered slightly, as though at any moment it might disband altogether.  And her voice, while clear and understandable, was ethereal and quiet.  Before, Amber had been too unnerved by the prospect of an intruder to notice these things, now she was looking for them.  They did little to settle her mind.
    "Why did you come to me?"  Amber tried to whisper, but it came out as more of a hiss.
    "Because I need your help...." Shila trailed off, looking a little surprised at Amber's demand.
    "Do you know where the scouts are?"  Amber asked, trying to sound more reasonable.  When the spirit replied with only a confused look, she elaborated.  "Two people came into this forest earlier today, and did not return.  Do you know where they are?"
    "Yes."  Shila answered, not looking at her.  "It is there that I must take you."
    "Good."  Amber said, a little confused at the answer.  "Then do that."
    Shila started walking through the forest, following some path that seemed visible to only her.  Amber had brought only her crossbow, which did little good against foliage.  But she managed to keep up, and after a while she felt the land rising and the undergrowth thinning.  Shila didn't attempt to speak during the journey.  Amber began feeling herself grow tired, but fought it off and continued through the forest after the spirit.  It was late, but she couldn't afford herself the luxury of sleep.
    "Here."  the apparition had stopped outside the entrance to a cave, set inside a high wall of rock that extended as far up as Amber could see.  There might have been runes carved in the rock near the entrance - though it was too dark to tell absolutely.  What was clear was that this was not a natural cave entrance - the hole seemed as though it had been carved out of the rock by someone rather than having naturally occurred.
    "My friends are in here?" Amber asked, looking at the spirit.  The spirit just nodded, looking at the ground.  There was something about this that she wasn't telling Amber, and it made her nervous.
    Shrugging the nervousness aside, Amber entered the cavern, and nearly fell down the stairs that had been concealed inside.  Shila followed after her, keeping silent.  Slowly, feeling along the walls and carefully taking each step, Amber descended into the mountain.  She wondered to herself why this obvious opening into a stockpile hadn't been explored by groups such as Jace's, and didn't like any of the explanations that she could come up with.  So she stopped concentrating on that, and began concentrating on finding her way through the dark and avoiding falling down the stairs.
    After a time, the darkness began to ease, and she could see a light source of some kind further below.  Amber couldn't think of any source of light that would have lasted since the fall of the wizards, but the fact that there was light eased her burden quite a bit.  She journeyed further down, her eyes slowly adjusting.  Then the stairs ended, and she was faced with a hallway.  The source of the light now illuminating it seemed to be small bluish orbs inset every three feet or so into the stone ceiling.  She began walking down the hallway with a growing feeling of trepidation.  Shila was silent behind her.  After some time, the hallway widened into a circular room.  Exits, at irregular intervals, lined the walls.  Books, that until recently had done nothing but collect dust, lie strewn around the room.  And in the center, heaped atop each other, were the blood-stained corpses of Helen and Rymerez.
    Amber turned away, involuntarily falling to her knees.  Her stomach wrenched and she had to exert all the control she could not to be sick.  She glared up at Shila, her horror shifting quickly to rage.  "Why did you bring me here!?"  She demanded.  "Why didn't you just say that they were dead!?" she struggled to get to her feet, but could not find the strength.
    Shila was obviously disturbed.  The spirit was trying to explain, but couldn't seem to find the words.  "I- it was the only way you'd come!"  she objected, shaking.  Ethereal tears trailed down her face.  "I had to bring you here because - because -" she broke down into incoherent sobs.
    Amber was shaking her head, trying to gather together some strength, when the answer occurred to her.  She looked back up at the spirit.  "Is ... is that thing ... that did this... still here?" she said, in between shaky breaths.
    Shila had quieted, and was nodding silently.  "Yes - it's why I brought you here."
    Amber climbed to her feet carefully, making sure that her legs would hold before trusting them fully.  Recovering her crossbow, her mind focused on one purpose.  "Where is it?"  she demanded.
    "You can't destroy it."  Shila whispered, her gaze focused on the bodies in the center of the room.  "Nobody can.  Your friends tried, but they couldn't stop him.  I couldn't stop him.  He's free now, and searching."
    "Searching for what?" Amber demanded angrily.
    "A way out!" her voice was raised in anguish.  "We had been trapped in the jewel since the fall of the wizards... Norens locked us in, along with all the others...."
    "You're a demon?" Amber hissed, holding onto her crossbow tightly.
    "No."  she was starting to sob again.  "I'm the one who created him."  She walked over to the center of the room, avoiding the two bodies lying there, and picked up a small green stone.  "This emerald is the stone that contains him.  Whoever holds it can order him to do anything...."  she turned back to Amber, looking plaintively.  "except return to the stone.  Mere contact with the stone is enough to return the demon to its confines, and anyone who should rightfully control the demon should know that... so - so anyone..." she was shaking her head " anyone who orders it back isn't the master!" she screamed and threw the emerald at the floor violently, then collapsed.  Amber watched the scene, detached.  Slowly, she approached the spirit.
    Shila was covering her eyes with her hands.  "I forgot... oh so long ago, I forgot.  Norens, the high wizard, ordered us to imprison the demons."  she was shaking her head back and forth.  "They had rebelled, apparently - broken free of our hold.  And so I went to Oriskanl and - and - and I ordered him into the stone!"  she stopped there, seemingly aware now of the fact that she had been babbling.
    "Oriskanl killed me." Shila explained, looking back at Amber.  "And then Norens' spell took effect.  The master wizard bound everything to the jewels, and my spirit had not escaped in time.
    "When we were released, I couldn't stop him... I tried, but my powers are lost in death.  I could do nothing."  Shila looked down.  "Nothing."
    Amber didn't interrupt.  "I've done all I can."  the spirit said, getting to her feet.  She turned to Amber, looking directly into the cadet's eyes.  "The books can help you, but you don't have a great deal of time.  Oriskanl feeds on the light of day, and he will reach your friends at dawn.  I wish that I could help you more...."  with that, she turned away from Amber and looked down at the emerald in the palm of her hand.  "If you entrap the demon in this jewel, do not touch it.  Pick it up using something, but do not let your skin come into contact with it, or it will be freed again.  Then... dispose of the emerald."
    Amber noticed the use of the word 'if'.  "You don't think I can do it."  she accused.
    "I was next to become high wizard."  Shila said, her back to Amber.  "I had unimaginable power.  And I could not stop Oriskanl.  I know not if you can do it, but I do know one thing for certain:  If you do not stop him then thousands will die.  An army might be able to stop him after he escapes, but nothing less.  And if he should awaken his slumbering brethren... then your people are doomed."
    There was a moment of silence, during which Shila continued to stare down at the emerald.
    "And that's it.  I have to go up against an unstoppable demon, and you can't do a thing to help." Amber was less than pleased.
    Shila nodded.  "The books can help you" she repeated.  "And I can do no more."  With that, she took a step forward, sighed deeply, and vanished.  The emerald clattered to the floor loudly, and Amber was alone.
    Making sure not to look at the bodies of the scouts, she walked forward and retrieved the stone, examining it closely.  It was smaller than the one Jace had described - but still rather large - and seemed like just an ordinary emerald.  Shivering slightly, she surveyed the room, being careful once again to keep her gaze away from her friends.  Her stomach still had not settled, and occasionally her legs felt signs of weakness.  The sooner she left here, the better she would be.  Remembering Shila's comments about the books, she turned to the disarrayed pile heaped over in one side of the room.  There were at least twenty books in various states of disrepair, none of which had titles on their covers.  About half of them looked as though they had suffered water damage, while the others looked as though they had been burnt.  There was only one that seemed presentable.  Carefully, she touched it with one hand, holding the crossbow with the other.  No demons jumped out at her.  Not relaxing her guard, she picked up the book tentatively.  Still, nothing happened.  Setting it on one of the pedestals, she was about to start flipping through the pages when the book opened itself and its own pages began turning rapidly.  Amber nearly shot it with the crossbow, but it stopped suddenly before she could get her weapon ready.  Cautiously she approached the book, which seemed to have reverted to its usual docile state.  As she examined the book, she found that she couldn't understand a word on the page.
    Frustrated, she tried to make out the meanings of the symbols on the page, only to find out that they had somehow shifted when she wasn't looking at them.  "What kind of book is this?" she asked of nobody in particular.  The fact that she was both exhausted and in shock didn't help her concentration at all.  Gathering her wits, she turned her attention back to the book to find that the page had shifted yet again. It didn't surprise her.  She stood there and stared at it, as though daring the page to chance one more.  Eventually, she thought she saw a change on one of the pages.  Hoping it wasn't her mind playing tricks on her, she continued to watch the paper.  Slowly at first, but picking up speed quickly, the patterns on the page started to change.  At first, they changed into other symbols just as cryptic as the ones before.  Then, they swirled into various colors, and into one final pattern that glowed out of the page.  It still meant nothing to Amber, it only gave her a vague impression of imprisonment.  Then the pattern seemed to lift up out of the page, and Amber felt the very air around her change.  Suddenly frightened, she tore her gaze from the book and looked at her hand in an effort to reassert reality.  The pattern was still centered in her sight, and was now hovering directly above her hand.  Before she could do anything, the swirling lines of color seeped into her hand.
    Amber jumped away quickly, but whatever she had done had already happened.  She lost all feeling in her hand - the one grasping her crossbow was the same hand that the pattern had seeped into.  Frantically, she tried to pull her hand away, only to discover that it would not obey her commands.  What had she done?  What had the book done to her?  What had she used the book to do?  She was too confused to even sort out what had caused this.
    After a few moments of constantly trying to force her hand do so something, she was rewarded by a slight movement in her forefinger.  More concentration, and the spell was broken.  Feeling rushed back into her hand, and it was once again a part of her body.  She asked the question again - what had she done?  She had just concentrated on the patterns in the book....
    And then it made sense.  There had been magic users before - just minutes ago, she had been speaking with the spirit of one.  And in the stockpiles, at least the ones that Jace had mentioned to her, there had been books - much like the books here.  What if the wizards of the legends had recorded their magic?  And what if she had stumbled upon one of their books?  The realization swept over her - she had casted a spell!  Some sort of imprisoning spell - she had read it right out of the book!
    More questions followed this realization.  Could she cast the spell again?  Would she need the book to do it?  She decided to test this theory.  Closing her eyes, she imagined the pattern that she had seen.  No - that wasn't quite it.  She remembered the symbols that had originally been on the page, and the way that they had changed.  That's what she had to do.  Shutting her eyes against the light, she concentrated on the way the pattern had formed.
   The air changed as it had before, and suddenly her eyes were open, and the swirling colors that made up the familiar pattern was there before her once more.  She had done it again!  She looked over toward the wall, and the spell dissipated harmlessly.  At least she didn't have to cast it on her hand again to make it go away.
    Amber walked toward the book that had given her this spell, to investigate whether it held anything else of use.  Flipping the pages, she found no symbols.  Each page was the same as the one before it - blank.
    Reconciling herself to her one spell, Amber looked into the palm of her hand at the emerald, gave one last look at the scouts, and headed back the way she came.

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