Grey stood over the bodies of the two Uruks he had killed, but three more were circling him, jabbing their swords at his head and chest and looking for an opening. He fought desperately to avoid giving them one. This was absolutely not what he had planned to show Kelly. Kelly! He swung his sword in a wide arc that caused the three Uruk to back away and as they did he turned to see Kelly deftly striking the arms and hands of a stunned Uruk with multiple quick flicks of her wrist. The Uruk dropped its weapon a split second before Kelly thrust her rapier into its throat. She seemed to know what she was doing.

Stonefist was down to one Uruk, the remainder piled dead or dying around him. “Yer gettin slow in yer old age aren’t ye?” he called, gesturing at the size of his Uruk pile and the size of Grey’s.

Grey ducked in time to let an Uruk blade just swing over the top of his head, squatting low to regain his balance. He thrust upwards at the Uruk’s midsection and drove the sword between two belly plates while sweeping the Uruk’s legs with his own. “If you’re so fast, you could hurry up and get over here,” Grey suggested, “you might notice I’m not wearing any armor.”

“And whose fault is that Mr. I-made-this-place-and-everything-in-it?” Stonefist emphasized the word everything as he levered his axe out of the Uruk’s body. “I don’t know why you ever made these things in the first place,” he added, moving with no great speed to assist Grey.

Of course! Grey couldn’t believe how foolish he was being. He had created this race. He had given them their strength, their cunning, their fearsome appearance. He had also given them a sense of self-preservation. If he couldn’t control these two through his magical will, perhaps he could exploit their natural inclinations. Grey stood quickly to face the two remaining Uruk and took several quick steps backwards as he called to them in their native tongue. Gresznak gur! Shuzbren gur stisgrak! (literally - Flee you! Otherwise you will die!)

The Uruk paused and looked at each other in surprise. Neither of them had ever heard a softskin speak Uruk. They looked back at Grey and at the Dwarf who was calmly walking towards them over the bodies of more than a dozen of their tribe. They didn’t advance, but they didn’t lower their swords either. Grey took a deep breath and lifted both arms in the air staring into the eyes of the Uruk as he did so. “Ge rustul ma!” (I am a shaman!), he called to them. Their eyes widened as a silvery breastplate materialized over his chest, buckling itself to straps that appeared over his shoulders.

Grey raised his empty hand and pointed at the Uruk closest to him, mumbling nonsense words under his breath. He couldn’t risk an offensive spell because he didn’t know if it would work, but he was still able to conjure objects. Grey took another deep breath and willed a crooked stick into his hand. It looked exactly like the wands used by powerful Uruk shamans. The two warriors didn’t wait to see if the wand was real. They both turned and fled as quickly as their legs would carry them. Grey exhaled his relief.

“Why’d ye let them go?” Stonefist asked. “They’ll just go and get others. They always do. Shoulda killed em both.”

“I want them to spread the word that we are dangerous,” Grey said, “otherwise we might be doing this several times a day.”

“Ye need the practice if ye ask me,” Stonefist said.

“I didn’t ask you,” Grey replied, turning to search for Kelly. She was kneeling over one of the Uruks she had killed running her hand over its skin. The rapier was still clutched in her other hand but she looked at the Uruk in wonderment.

“You okay Kelly?” Grey asked, realizing it was a pretty stupid question. Of course she wasn’t okay. Her entire worldview must be shattered. Talk about paradigm shifts.
“I’m fantastic!” she said standing to face him. “You really made these things?” She was beaming as she pointed down at the Uruk. Grey was stunned at her reaction. He had been trained to recognize post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, it must be manifesting in her now, though it seemed too soon if he remembered his training correctly.

“I uh…” Grey began.

“And you made this little guy too?” she asked, running over to squeeze Stonefist on the cheek. The dwarf’s eyes widened in shock then his cheeks began to redden.

“I wouldn’t…” Grey cautioned, “he can be a bit…caustic.”

“Speak for yerself yer mightiness, if the girl wants to pinch my cheek, who am I to nay say her? And such a pretty thing too.” Stonefist beamed back at Kelly.

“Oh brother,” Grey replied. “I think I’m getting a headache. Doesn’t this unsettle you at all?”

“Of course it does. Beautiful women don’t just pop out of thin air and save your life every day you know,” Stonefist replied.

“I was talking to Kelly,” Grey said.

“Oh is that the lady’s name?” Stonefist chided. “Makes the whole world but has no manners,” he said to her while holding out his hand. “Name’s Stonefist. Very pleased to make yer acquaintance miss.”

“Likewise,” Kelly replied with a half curtsy and a nod of her head.

“Don’t mind him miss Kelly, he’s in a bit of a lather what with all his powers goin on the blink and all,” Stonefist said. “Have you considered retirement?” he asked turning to Grey.

“No, I haven’t considered retirement,” he replied, “at least not in my world. But if I don’t get things sorted out soon I may have to.” He stepped towards Kelly and looked in her eyes for signs of shock.

“Really,” Grey asked, “are you okay?”

“I’m fine! I’ve never felt so alive,” she said. Grey stared at her. “Really! This is just amazing!” Grey wasn’t convinced. “Look, either you slipped me some incredible hallucinogenic when I first came into your office, or this is real. Either way there is nothing I can do about it now, so I might as well enjoy the ride.”

Grey closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. He really was getting a headache. “There is no ride,” he said. “I said I’d prove it, and I did, so now we go back.”

Kelly’s smile vanished and Grey felt a moment of inexplicable disappointment. He didn’t mean to ruin her moment. “I’m not trying to be difficult Kelly, but I have to sort this out before things really start to unravel, and I can’t do it if you are here in Thraveon with me.”

“Why not?” she asked. Grey looked at her but had no ready answer.

“Why not?” Stonefist asked expectantly. Grey turned to him and sighed.

“Why not,” he said resignedly. “I suppose two heads are better than one.”

Stonefist cleared his throat. “Fine, three heads,” Grey said, “but we’ve got to go back and make sure you weren’t missed. I seem to come and go without anyone noticing my absences, but I don’t know how it will work for you. I don’t seem to know much of anything anymore.”

He conjured a cloth to wipe their blades clean then handed her a new scabbard for her rapier. “May as well take it back since we know it works for you. Let’s just try to keep it hidden, we know what happened the last time someone noticed a sword in my office.” She laughed.

Grey moved back to the area where he had first come through the nexus and waved his arm around in the air in front of him. After just a few moments, he felt the strands at the edge of the portal and pulled the fabric open.

“It isn’t supposed to be like this,” he told Kelly. “I just close my eyes and enter Thraveon in the same way that you would revisit a favorite place in your mind. When I make changes to the reality here, I remember them, so the world on this side evolves under my direction and stays the same until I return.”

“And that’s not happening now?” Kelly asked stepping through the nexus into Grey’s office.

“Not in the same way,” he replied. “I never actually walked through a portal before. And I certainly never came here when I wasn’t meaning to. Of course there was the odd bored moment when my mind would wander here, but it wasn’t like I just appeared here with no control over anything.”

“You normally have complete control?” she asked, stepping into Grey’s outer office.

“Yes. Everything in that world is my creation and bends to my will, or it did. Now I find that the beings there have free will and my powers are limited, though I’ve yet to determine how limited. I keep returning here without intending to.”

“So what do we do now?” she asked.

“Well, first we figure out how long we’ve been gone and if you were missed, then I guess we try to come up with a plan for sorting this out. I have to admit I’m more than just a little concerned.”

He held up his sword. “This isn’t real. It shouldn’t be here.” He opened a metal wall locker against one wall and placed the sword inside. “But objects from Thraveon have been showing up at odd times and odd places. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around an imaginary world being real, let alone objects moving from one world to the other. In any case, I don’t think that it can be good for our reality if imaginary things start appearing here at random. It might upset some cosmic balance or something.”

Grey took the rapier from Kelly and put it in the wall locker beside his sword.

“I see what you mean,” she said, looking past Grey with a slight smile on her face. He turned to see what had caught her attention.

“Did ye want to put mine in there too, or should I hold on to it?” the dwarf asked, clutching his bloody axe to his chest. “Only I don’t want to drip on yer nice soft floor here,” he said plainly to Grey’s disbelieving stare.

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