The Mat-Zemlya Companion, Part 8

    "See, you little lovebirds? It wasn't that hard, was it?"

    The Tomnacks stare at the person in front of them. Was it a person? The vaguely humanoid shape seemed to suggest that. The greying skin did not. The black suit made the person look human. The black pools for eyes did not.

    "To be frank, I shouldn't really be thanking either of you. It was -oh, I forget their names. The druid and the bugbear. Or was it the gnomes? Regardless, neither of you actually did the labor that was asked of you. Your underlings did."

    "How were we supposed to know these adventurers would do that?" The husband shouts, "You told me to kill that damned Time Walker!"

    "And you told me nothing!" The wife cries, "How was I supposed to know my daughter-?"

    The person shifts. Gains fleshy skin and an aura of humanity. Loses composure. "No, no. That one was not your daughter. Only a vessel. Just like that dragon. Except the dragon is a better bait."

    "Bait, Dr. Mellan?" The wife asks. 

    "Yes. Bait. Afterall, isn't the dragon not hungry for revenge and revelry? To take out the ones who hurt and protect the ones who helped? And what better place to sift than here?"

    "Then why the Time Walker?" The husband wonders.

    "Even bait must be baited." The person shifts back to its stranger form. "And Lord Spymaster Ulric Faulkenroth cannot be baited to join his wife here. So what better than the Time Walker's original Guardian? Seems fitting, I think."

    "Then what about us? And the father and son? And Amethyst?" The wife continues.

    "Well, Amethyst is my bride. MY Time Walker. Or, well, the best part of her. She will stay here with me and help me." The person flies, dark-feathered and beady-eyed. "As for you two, you may watch the entanglement. Then I'll send you home, or at least away from here. Somewhere that will make both of you happy." The bird hops down and rises in a shadowy form. Dark pools of an even vaguer human shape. "As for father and son... I am not sure. But I can figure out some chaotic goodness regardless." The form stares into their souls. "Enough questions. Wander so I may think."