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"Fortune telling used to be an art in itself." Ivshnu added,"You told the fortune of anyone who paid, and if it didn't look good than you either became a misfortune teller, or lied. Tarot's slightly different, some one like her is going to get the truth and nought else.The only thing that would break her record was if she was overly scared of her surroundings, and the cards would reflect that in her."

"So you mean she drew Death for herself because she believes she is going to die?"

"Exactly.Now she's certain, because she believes the cards, so any more drawings will have the same effect. It takes magical skill to draw it for others, it takes a lot of bravery to draw for yourself."

"Or terror."

"You can be both." Artemis replied," She is scared of all of you, and scared of us, because she is an evil sorceress. But she is surprisngly courageous, because she has lived with you and not committed suicide or antagonized you into doing so. I'm just thinking what she will do now, with her cards saying what she believes."

"Well, she's not carrying a knife or something, and she can't kill herself with her magic with the limitor on.Unless she's planning to beat herself to death with her staff, I can't see it happening." Draco replied.

"Casdey, killing herself?" I echoed," Impossible.She loves life too much for that. But she might try and stir up us or someone else against her, so we do the deed.Wham, self fulfilling prophecy."

"Go over that for me again, what do you mean self fulfilling?"

"O.K., what's an example. Right, imagine you are in the middle of a drunken group of people. They are doing slightly dumb things, like breaking bottles on the street, scribbling dumb things on cars, right?"

"I don't know where this is heading,but alright."

"Then the police turn up, with batons and riot shields.I've seen this in a movie, they cordon the area.The drunken see the arm of the law, and decide they're here for trouble. The police are here for trouble, but it's their presence that starts it.Next thing you know, it's fighting. That's a self fulfilling prophecy."

"So what you're saying is that Casdey thinks she is going to die, and will rile someone into killing her, so she actually will.And it's self fulfilling because she brought it on herself."

"Not quite along those lines, but yes." I nodded.

I went back outside. Casdey was no where to be seen. I found Carission.

"Have you seen Casdey anywhere?"

"The one that carries a staff everywhere? She went up the ridge, maybe two minutes ago." he pointed, and I looked up towards where we had arrived on the ridge. Casdey was nimbly climbing rocks to the top.

I sprinted towards the ridge as fast as I could. This was mostly mental habit, I had no purchase on the ground unless I thought, and I was not keen to try to fly. Same with the hill, I had unlimited stamina, but it was mentally taxing ordering your spirit to climb. Casdey had long since got to the top, and I had no idea what she was doing. I got to the ridge after ten minutes, and ran along the path. I speckled into invisibility, and continued running breathlessly. I stopped when I reached a barely noticeable fork.

"What is she doing?" I asked myself under my breath. I was lost, I had lost my quarry, and I couldn't contact Draco or any of the others.

I stayed completely silent, thinking on which way she could have gone. I turned around several times on the spot, and dashed along the right hand passage.

This ran down the other side, and I caught sight of Casdey. She was setting out across the desert. What madness posessed her to do that?

As a way of catching up, I ran off the edge of the rocky face, and allowed gravity to catch up with me. I fell, barely noticeable, and stopped two feet above the bottom of the hill. Casdey was about four hundred metres ahead of me, walking into the desert with all the decisiveness of a battleship. She didn't even look behind her, this was a squirrel with her mind made up. I ran after her, and caught up after two minutes. She hadn't heard me coming, and I relaxed my invisibility.

I was even more transparent under the hot bright landscape, she didn't notice my appearance until I spoke.

"Now where do you think you're going, Casdey?"

Casdey turned, and saw me. She scowled.

"Go away, Alduin. I will have nothing to do with you." she turned back and continued walking over the hot sand.

"Casdey, you are committing suicide, walking into the middle of a desert!"

"It's suicide to stay." she shot back.

"If it was, why am I chasing you? If our intention was to get rid of you, I wouldn't be trying to persuade you not to leave. Can you see water or food here?"

"The darkness will provide." Casdey replied, continuing onwards heedless.

"Never did for you before.It will provide no cover, no sustainance, just endless miles of barren waste." I suggested.

"You don't know where to look." Casdey said sullenly.

"You don't know where to look." I repeated with emphasis.

I over took and stood in front of her. She stopped, rather than walk through me. We stared at one another.

"You are not leaving, Casdey. You would die trying, and I wil stop you."

"How? You are not entering me,I will make sure of it."

She tried to raise a hand in the traditional spell position, and then stopped. I had done exactly the same, and my hand was locked against hers.This was my mental power, and she whitened and tried to pull away.

"Let go!" she demanded.

If I had been alive, our hands would have been touching, and I concentrated hard. Casdey snarled and I felt a surge of magical power flood through her. Her hand began to glow with an unearthly black, while mine glowed in a bright red.

The two globes touched, and immediately flung themselves at one another. Shafts of bright light, pure white, began spiralling into the ground and sky, like a reverse lightning bolt. The shafts of white went many thousands of feet.

Casdey growled, feeling the power of my concentration against hers. She was keeping me even, and I was tiring mentally. Casdey pointed her staff at me, over her head, and my hand came up to block the blast of power. We looked at one another between our magical arm wrestle.

"I talked to Ivishnu, your Tarot is wrong."

"You would say something like that. I have never been wrong at Tarot, I am not starting now." she replied, sweating.

"It's your own fear of us reflected in the cards."

"Tarot is not a mind reader, it is a fortune teller."

"But it draws it's magic from the teller's mind, and your mind is filled with fear for your safety. I can see it squirm in terror from our band.You think you are dead, so the cards agree."

"You lie." Casdey snarled viciously.

"Those two words come too easily to people's mouths. Is it because it's the truth, or is it because you fear the truth?"

Casdey wavered, but fought back, her power flowing down her arms like snakes, I could see the energy.

"I don't fear the truth, death holds no fear for me."

"You do fear the truth, because it means it's wrong.The only way you will die is if you walk into that desert."

She scowled, as her power faded. My own was weakening, we were knocking each other out with this.

"Will you two knock it off?You're frightening the elves." Eagaliz appeared right next to us, hands on hips. He had cast a short range teleportation spell.

"Bully to the elves." Casdey briefly looked at Eagaliz.

"It's not my fault, she's the one trying to kill herself by walking into the desert." I panted.

"If you don't stop, I will get involved." he said pleasantly.

"Touch the human, you deal with me." Draco arrived with his customary bang. He placed a scanner and soon ther others landed. Landon walked straight up to me and Casdey.

"Alduin, is this entirely necessary?"

"Alright, you tell her not to go out there." I said, not breaking eye contact with the squirrel.

"Casdey? What are you doing?"

"I am not staying with you, I am walking out of here." she hissed. Landon sighed.

"Casdey, that is a desert, you are a squirrel with no provisions. What can you possibly expect but death."

"What can I expect except death from you?"

A large bolt of pent up magic arched into the sky, and Eagaliz started chanting. With a heave I broke out of the arm lock with Casdey, and pointed at Eagaliz. He made eye contact, and he quivered.

"You dare!"

"I do, this has nothing to do with you."

Eagaliz scowled, and lowered his hands. Javid and Salbar began conversing with the eagle/ lizard human blend, while I turned back to Casdey. She was weakened, and she breathed deeply, scowling at me.

"You claim to be good, let me leave."

"I am not good, and I certainly won't."

Casdey looked at Landon, and threw her staff down, crying. She sat down and looked at the ground in frustration. I breathed out. Draco rolled his eyes, and walked over. He sat down next to Casdey.

"I think you've had too much exploring for one day, Casdey." he said gently,"I'll take you back to Central."

He gently placed his left hand on her staff arm, expecting Casdey to try something.But no, she just shivered at the dragon's touch.

"I think I've had enough for one day too." I added, directing an annoyed look at Eagaliz. He directed one back suggesting I was clearly insensible. I returned one saying equally clearly that he was poking his nose into matters where it did not belong. He rolled his eyes and vanished.

Casdey's breakdown meant I was not stupid enough to ask her to let me in, so Simba gallantly allowed me to posess him for the trip back to Central. As soon as I had taken his body over, I pressed the telport button, and after 37 seconds arrived back on Central.

Draco arrived next to me holding Casdey. He was holding her staff in one hand, and the silently sobbing squirrel in the other. I looked at Draco, and mimed him taking her back to her quarters. He nodded, and gently picked her up.

"Come on you, you need rest, I'll take you to your bunk. Here's your staff."

Casdey took the staff in one limp hand, and Draco carried her in both arms like a child. I left Simba as soon as he had gone around the corner.

"Thank you Simba, sorry about the nausea."

He doubled up, and managed a smile." Yeah, that was not a pleasant feeling." he said some what out of breath. He got his body back together, and the two of us walked towards the food store.

"Alduin, you know your plan about using Casdey as an extra body so you don't have to frequently use one of us?" he said.

"I know, I know, it's not going well."

"I think other wise. True she's having trouble accepting things, and she's not exactly favourite, but god knows we need you in the flesh when ever we adventure some where."

"I should have posessed some one else. Casdey is handy, but she makes it worse by her attitude to us."

"I know. Still, we are exceedingly patient, she's going to accept we mean her no harm, however long it takes."

"Hah, it probably won't be until we let her down on her own planet." I laughed suddenly and rather sharply. Simba smiled.

"You are right, of course.But I dare say even the glowers are finding this interesting. With Drason, we didn't spend much time around him, but Casdey,well, have you watched everyone when she's nearby?"

"When I haven't been in charge of her body?"

"Even when you have. They are being taught to be cautious, but equally respectful. Casdey would enjoy having knowledge about us that we didn't know, and she is bad tempered and cruel, so everyone's watching their words. It's good practice."

"Yes, I remember the discussions to some we've visited on planets, watching what you say can be exceptionally important. Banehallow for example."

"Those harpy creatures, don't forget them." Simba added," And with Casdey near, everyone's thinking automatically "Should I say this in front of someone like her?", they're actually going through each sentence in advance, being careful. Runo and Grant are the most noticeable when she's in the room, you can see them thinking that very question to themselves."

"I had noticed Abigail is quite quiet whenever she's in the room."

"Abigail works with all our technology, and thus all her pet projects, and current technology. If Casdey knew this, she might take wing to her office, and the last thing we want is Casdey with a blaster and a teleporter."

"That's a stunningly good point, Simba."

"I try, Alduin."

"Has anyone gotten hold of a teleporter and been like Casdey?"

"Only once. The person in question was long before you, and his good intentions masked the bad. We spent four days tracking him on a planet, and eventually a glower had to get involved."

"What did he do?"

"You might not be aware, but they can shut down a teleporter, in fact they can shut down anything. The blasters, cars, planes, absolutely anything can be switched off instantly, and permanently if the glower tries to do so. This glower turned the teleporter off end of argument, and we caught him. Said individual was dumped on his home planet, and the teleporter had to be melted down, as it was worthless."

"Wow." I was impressed. I never knew the glower's had that sort of intervention on our equipment.

We arrived at the almost deserted food store, it was deserted because everyone was on planet visits. Even my own, dear Ryan Lewis was off with Doran, Orion and Felicia.Iris and Khamsina were there, with Silverine. Alecto was not a planet fall sort of person, he was there, with Gareth. Tufty was in his office apparently.Winslo was in there, for some reason. Arachno and Drason were in their rooms, supposedly working on their hell brews. Marksman would doubtless be nailing perfects with his pistol.

Draco informed Simba across his head set that Casdey was safe in her room, and that he was rejoining the rest on the planet with Eagaliz and Carission. The latter had apparently gone off to talk to the real leader of the little elves, and as for Eagaliz and his three friends they were discussing various topics with Landon, Salbar and Javid.

I greeted everyone warmly. Iris was breast feeding the baby dragon, but the dragon decided the faintly glowing creature warranted her attention, and with a interested growl, blew a small jet of flame at me. Khamsina was pretty good with her flame, it went maybe a metre or so, and wasn't seriously hot, but it would have still made someone stop and think, had they not been dead.

"Hello Khamsina." I said, emerging from the fire untouched," How are you today?" I squatted down next to the smiling elf.

Khamsina found this more interesting.Apparently her fire had no effect on this thing what so ever. Iris and Draco were the only two she would not flame at, and everyone had half seriously taken to carrying balm in case someone got burnt by the curious fledgeling. It gave a pitiable cough, and tried to touch me.

"No, that won't work either, Khamsina, give it another couple of weeks."

Khamsina gurgled, and her fire washed straight through me again. Apparently I was quite interesting enough for her, now go away.

Meanwhile Simba was explaining the events to Silverine.I turned to Iris as the elf gently coaxed the dragon back to feeding time.

"How are you?" I asked Iris.

"Perfectly fine. She hasn't started biting, so her teeth aren't fully developed." the elf replied, as Khamsina started feeding again.

"That's good to hear, for the moment. Have you considered using a bottle?"

"Not just yet. She's still too young to work out how to drink from one." the elf explained, and I nodded sagely.

Winslo was listening in on both conversations, and he spoke to Silverine.

"If you want, Simba, I could join Eagaliz, we're a much better pairing."

"Thanks for the offer." Simba nodded," I'm staying here with Alduin, so we could use another down there.How long til you will be ready?"

There was a bang, and Winslo vanished.

"I guess he already was." Silverine translated freely.