David West felt a sudden, near crippling moment of vertigo and tumbled off of his bed. He was surprised to find extra weight on top of him, but his senses cleared quickly, and he realized that somehow he and Detective Audrey Ross were now both in his chambers at the Temple.

  “I think I’m going to hurl,” Audrey said weakly.

  “Then please roll off of me,” David managed to say. “There is a flush toilet in the side room. Have to put water into it but…”

  She pushed away from him, crawled a short distance away, then shifted to a sitting position. David also turned over and sat up.

  “What the Hell just happened?” Audrey asked, the sense of nausea passing and her strength returning slowly.

  “Somehow you not only followed my Astral Projection back to my room here in the Temple, but forced me to, ah, snap back as well,” he replied. “Here, let me help you up.”

  He had risen to a standing position and extended a hand to her.

  She hesitated, but then accepted the hand and rose, slightly unsteadily, to her feet. As soon as she was standing, a wave of vertigo hit, and she fell forward. David caught her - just as the door to his chambers burst open and a voice that he was getting all too familiar with hearing called out: “See? Again he brings intruders to our Temple - he probably brought the Betrayer himself! And not only that, he cims to have feelings for my woman yet has another little girl in his arms! The imposter must be turned out at once!”

  Audrey pushed away from David and faced Dalrinjian: “I have no idea who you are, but you are wrong on so many points. He did not bring me here - I brought him back here. And I was only ‘in his arms’ because my sense of bance is off at the moment. But I have just fought a wereboar and some kind of weasel or ferret thing, dealt with a guy who seemed possessed by a dagger, and am a fully trained cop, with a gun and handcuffs. If you want to try my patience, by all means continue your bther, but don’t be surprised if this ‘little girl’ gives you the thrashing it sounds like you richly deserve…” her eyes fred at him and, to the surprise of almost everyone present (possibly even including Dalrinjian himself) he took a step backwards and fell silent.

  An older man in the group from the hallway pushed past him: “Excuse us miss, but your arrival set off arms and we rushed to investigate. Apprentice Dalrinjian has a, ah, well, a dispute with Mage Thengarian so, well we must take his statements with a grain of salt. However, we were attacked hours ago by others entering the Temple in a manner simir to yours, so we are at high alert. I am High Magister Parkidden. You are?”

  “Detective Audrey Ross. Accidental tourist,” she replied with a wry smile. Then she turned to David and asked: “Apprentice Dalrinjian? That would be the annoying ex that Malcolm mentioned?”

  “I am Thellissandra’s assigned mate. He is a pretender!” She heard an outraged voice call out from the hallway.

  Quietly David said: “I think he just answered for me?”

  She turned back to Parkidden: “Da…, er Mage Thengarian and I need to work out some stuff, and quickly, as I was in the middle of something important back home. I need to get back there.”

  “Understood. I sense a power in you far rger than your slight frame suggests, Detective Audrey Ross. And if I were about twenty years younger, I would ask if you were attached, but I am not and do not believe Thengarian would be as tempted as I would have been in my youth,” he smiled at her as he said this, a friendly, almost fatherly look. “I will leave a guard outside this door, who will come in if you call for her, or who can run and get me if you need assistance. Otherwise, I trust you and the Mage either do or will soon have things in order. Beltira, you will stay here and the rest of us will return to our duties. May the gods smile upon you.” This st was directed back at Audrey.

  A powerfully built blonde woman with a single Warrior Braid standing off from the right of her head took up a position beside the door as the Magister closed it and they heard the group in the hall move off.

  “Well, Dalrinjian seems… like the kind of person who needs to be spped in handcuffs, except he would probably enjoy it,” Audrey said.

  After a few seconds, David ughed, “I had never thought of it that way, but you may be right. It is nice seeing you in the flesh, Detective Ross.”

  She chuckled lightly: “Audrey, please. Hate to admit it but I barely remember you from high school.”

  “Same. But we traveled in different circles and Malcolm was the only thing we had in common. This may be rude to ask, but do you wear contacts?” He suddenly asked.

  “No; sometimes I use ‘cheaters’ when my allergies act up but otherwise my vision is near perfect, why?”

  “Malcolm is not one to get details like that wrong, but he always talked about how pretty your blue eyes were,” he answered.

  “He did? Aww!”

  “Yeah, except your eyes are green.”

  “What!” She cried out in shock.

  David studied her for a moment: “There is a mirror in the bathroom over there if you want to see for yourself. The fact that you are surprised though, suggests to me that you are, well, a World Walker.”

  “That sounds strangely familiar,” she commented, while heading into the indicated room.

  “Wow, they are green. Kind of a bright, pretty green, but I miss the blue,” he heard from the other room.

  She came back out, clearly deep in thought. David waited patiently for her to make the next move so as to not disrupt her concentration. He had not noticed the injury to her arm before and made a note to get a Healer in as soon as possible. She had a round, pretty face framed by cascading auburn curls, and a slight, almost boyish figure, but a very sweet smile and eyes that, regardless of color, shone with both intelligence and an impressive ferociousness that he knew would make her a great ally or terrible enemy.

  She suddenly remembered where she had heard the term before: “Ah, yes, the new, um, what are they called, professions?”

  “Csses,” David offered.

  “Yes, that sounds right. That was in the first of those modules I think, and Trickster in the second. I think the st one mentioned ‘Children of Destiny' but that seemed like a trait of some sort. Then again, I only really read the back copy on each.”

  David then asked: “You are referring to the modules that Malcolm mentioned, the trilogy that Garrison and Hendrix wrote before one was ousted from the company they built?”

  “Sounds right but that really is not my thing. We met Hendrix, though, or I guess his name is Darvik Henax,” she added.

  “Woah! I bet Malcolm was in heaven. Henax. Name sounds familiar but…”

  “Mal said he was the missing son of Guildmaster Henax of Sulbrod, whatever that means.”

  A memory came to David, and he smiled: “Ah yes, the city supplement he owns. Wow. Anyway, as nice as it is to chat, we should probably see about getting you home and maybe we can all compare notes then. What exactly did you do before we wound up back here?”

  “It looked to me like you were standing on a path of silver cobblestones. When I touched it, there was some kind of force triggered that brought us here.”

  David thought for a moment. “Do you see that path now?”

  “No, not a trace of it.”

  David sat on his bed and closed his eyes. His Astral form stepped out of his body.

  “I see a circle of pearl-like stones now that connect you and your, ah, outline,” she commented, a touch of surprise in her voice.

  He stepped back inside his body. “It was not silver this time, though?”

  “Every color including metals,” she answered.

  “Huh. Like a Prismatic Gate. Have to log that for future research. Okay, now I want you to see if you can follow me without touching the path. If you lose sight of me, count to three and then touch it, Okay?”

  She shook her head, making her hair bounce wildly, and said “Sure. No clue what we are doing but sure.“

  David again stepped out of his body. This time he moved to a destination he had not visited before, despite considering it several times. He reached his destination almost instantly. Three seconds ter, he “snapped” out and was physically standing, with Audrey leaning against his shoulder, in Thellissandra’s room. Thellissandra and another Battle Sister had been sitting at the small table in the room discussing something when they suddenly appeared.

  The other woman knocked over her chair, assumed a defensive stance and drew her sword from a gem on her bracelet. Thellissandra stood up and stepped back before recognizing “David!”

  “Hi Sandra. Sorry for the sudden appearance. This is Audrey Ross from my world.”

  Seeing Thellissandra rex the other Battle Sister returned her sword back to the bracelet but remained wary. She was shorter than Sandra, but with a figure that made Sandra’s trim, athletic form look absolutely ft and boyish by comparison; her hair sported a dozen Warrior Braids, each a slightly different color, three of which hung down, representing failed missions with the rest were fixed out to the side to show successes. Her voice was deep, almost masculine as she asked: “Sandra? David? Why do you call each other by such strange names?”

  “Sandra is short for Thellissandra and David is, ah, her pet name for me,” David quickly expined.

  Audrey said: “Sandra? Wow, I can see why everyone talks about how beautiful you are, you are gorgeous! So is your friend but, wow!”

  Sandra flushed slightly. “You have magnificent hair, Audrey Ross, and beautiful eyes.”

  It was Audrey’s turn to blush. “I have had the hair all my life, but the eyes are new. Thank you.”

  “Now, I apologize for being rude and I will expin it all ter, at least as much as I understand,” David interjected. “I promise, but now, Audrey, do you see a path back to my room?”

  “No, oh wait, yes! Yes, but it is very faint and there are other fainter trails crossing it,” she responded.

  “See if you can follow it back, and then return here, Okay?”

  Instead of answering, she just reached out and vanished into a green radiance.

  “I’m Byanara, by the way,” the other woman in Thellissandra’s room said.

  David turned to her: “I am so sorry to have ignored you, Byanara. I am Thengarian. It is an honor to meet you." He bowed in her direction as he said this.

  She turned to Thellissandra and said “He’s pretty. Give him a full beard, and I would be fighting you for him.”

  “And losing,” Sandra answered, a slight smile on her lips.

  Byanara looked over at him and then back at Sandra. “Maybe, but it would be worth it.”

  “Hey! I am standing right here,” David said, trying hard not to ugh.

  “Silence, man, this is girl talk!” Byanara snapped at him, then turned to Sandra and said: “You really need to teach him some manners, Thel.”

  A burst of green radiance announced Audrey’s return and saved David from more of this conversation. “You are not in your room. In case you were wondering,” she announced.

  David ughed. “I had not been wondering that, but maybe I should have…. Anyway, we really should see if we can get you back home. I suspect, in time, you will not need an open path to cross but right now I probably need to set an Astral Path for you.”

  David sat down on Sandra's bed, and once more Audrey saw a silver outline step out of his body. She gnced over and saw that neither of the other two women seemed to see it. “Hope this works,” she said to them. “Regardless it was a pleasure meeting you, and you are both so very beautiful!” With that she reached over and touched the path David’s silver outline was now standing on.

  Thellissandra and Byanara saw David sit down, heard her comment, and then saw both Audrey and David vanish in a bright green light.

  “She was pretty,” Byanara commented. “And very polite. I like her “

  “Yes, she was,” Sandra replied.

  “And your mage, I’ll bet he has a nice tight little butt under that robe?”

  “Byanara!” Sandra replied in faux shock, “you have a very dirty mind!” After a slight pause, she added with a sly grin: “But you are not wrong.”