Heather the Necromancer

The three women stared in unison as Umtha looked down, unable to hold their gaze. She dragged a bare foot across the polished floor, waiting for some kind of response.

“It can’t be,” Breanne said as she dared to step closer.

“How did she get so big?” Quinny asked.

“She must have evolved,” Legeis said. “She’s hobgoblin or something similar now.”

“Right,” Quinny said. “I have evolved once already too.”

“So she’s like the goblins outside the door,” Heather said and stepped close enough to touch the woman. She reached out and lifted the woman’s chin to see a tear roll down her cheek. “Umtha?”

“Why are you so surprised?” the woman said.

“Why am I surprised?” Heather laughed. “A day ago, you were a short green goblin with a long pointed nose. Now you're practically human and taller than I am.”

“I will never be human,” the woman replied as she looked away. “And I am tired of being here.”

“Ok,” Heather said as she got control of her senses. “You have a lot of explaining to do. We know you are a player, and we know you have an agenda. No more of your games where you talk in circles. How did you suddenly evolve into this?”

“You gave me the points to do it,” Umtha replied. “When you accepted my crown.”

“The crown,” Heather said and held it up. “So this was a trigger for some kind of points?”

“It allowed me to evolve and finally break the limitations put on me,” Umtha said. “I hoped you would understand how important this was to me, but you don’t seem to care.”

“Wait a moment,” Breanne jumped in. “None of us has any idea what you are talking about. I hate to be the one who tells you this, but you have a terrible habit of not explaining anything.”

“Yeah, you can't be upset with Heather for not understanding when you didn't explain what you wanted,” Quinny added.

“They are right,” Legeis said with an accusatory finger. “I have tried to get you to explain yourself a dozen times. Instead, all you do is jabber about the same three or four topics, repeating yourself until my head hurts.”

“I couldn’t help myself,” Umtha countered with a hint of pain in her voice. “It was hell trying to fight the curse of babble.”

“The curse of babble?” Heather repeated and waved a hand. “Just, for once in your life, explain this so we can understand it.”

“I was cursed,” Umtha said. “Locked in that goblin body and tongue tied so I couldn't explain things. I knew what I wanted to say, but the harder I tried to say it, the more convoluted it became.”

“So all of that wasn’t an act?” Quinny asked.

“Who would have put a curse on you?” Breanne asked.

“It happened a long time ago,” Umtha said as she looked off as if staring out a window into the past. “We goblins were marching to war, desperate to salvage the promised salvation. This king, Kevin, was destroying everything Hathlisora had built to bring about our escape. Unfortunately, he broke the one thing that kept her sane, and she flew into a madness like never before. We goblins were helpless to save her, but one of our greatest engineers devised a plan. He started building a device he called the engine of mending. He was convinced he could repair the broken object and restore her sanity. The problem is Kevin had one half, and the other was taken beyond our reach. So we launched a massive campaign to retrieve the half we could get, hoping it would be enough to rouse Hathlisora from her madness.”

“Where was this other piece taken?” Quinny asked.

“Abbadon,” Umtha replied. “A place only Hathlisora can open a doorway to. Without her help, there is no way to retrieve the missing part.”

“And she was insane?” Heather asked.

“I don't know the full details of what was broken, but it was so important to her that she forgot who she was,” Umtha said. “She was my dearest friend and ally. Perhaps the closest person I had come to love since coming here.”

“I am still confused,” Breanne said as she shook her head. “So, when did you get cursed?”

“Our plan failed,” Umtha said. “We were losing the war, and Kevin discovered the location of the engine. He learned of our plan and acted to prevent it, so all the goblins hurried to defend the machine and prayed we could keep it safe. We failed, and it exploded in a catastrophic blast that turned the red sands to glass.”

“That’s what created the glass sea?” Legeis balked.

“Right, because we already knew the goblins retreated there during the war,” Heather said. “That explains why they fled into the desert and why Kevin was so intent on destroying it. We were told the goblins were there when the event that made the glass happened.”

“I was reset in the blast,” Umtha said. “I came back to life far to the north and had to make my way south while your kind hunted goblins mercilessly. I started south with a pack of twenty-one of my brethren, but we quickly ran into your kind, and our numbers dwindled. Soon I was all that was left, fleeing to the sands and hoping I would find her there.”

“Wait,” Heather said as she began to understand. “You were the goblin Lydia’s hunt master helped escape.”

“Yes,” Umtha replied. “Finneous understood what was at stake and escorted me all the way to the glass.”

“That was Finneous?” Breanne said in alarm.

“I told you I saw his picture on the wall in the castle,” Heather replied. “Now it's all starting to make more sense, but I still don't know how you got cursed.”

“The visitors cursed me,” Umtha said as the group looked on in shock. “You don't know who they are or what they are after. You assume they came to your word and started this project to learn about you. What you don't know is your world is one of many, and we goblins don't call your world our home.”

“Wait, does that mean your aliens?” Quinny asked.

“Prisoners,” Umtha corrected. “Taken from a world we call Seenmal.”

“You’re from another world,” Heather said as she felt dizzy. “And you learned our language over time.”

“No, I still don't know your language,” Umtha replied. “The magic of this world is translating what I say so you understand it. But that only works once we do what you call evolving. Until then, we are hindered where the magic only interprets some of our words. So it comes out broken and missing subtext. We goblins call it the curse of babble, and it frustrates us so.”

“Hey, wait a minute,” Legeis interjected. “I am goblin, and I can speak this language just fine.”

“You are not from our world,” Umtha pointed out. “So long as you come from your world, you can understand and speak your language. But all the goblins from our world are hampered by this terrible magic.”

“This is awful,” Heather said and looked to the others. “All this time, she was trying to tell us the truth, and the system wouldn't let her.”

“We are jumping around,” Breanne said in frustration. “Why did Finneous help her? Why was she trying to get back to the sands? Why was she supposedly hoping to find Hathlisora?”

“Finneous is one of the thousands of your kind who did not share Kevin's hatred of us. But even more, I knew him from long before when he lived in the woods to the north. Many of your monster players also took our side and were punished for their poor choice,” Umtha explained. “I went to the sands because I knew the key would survive, and I wanted to ensure it was recovered so we could try again. Unfortunately, when I got there, it was being looted by those you call dragon knights, and there was nothing I could do to stop them.”

“And now the dragon knights make their appearance,” Heather said. “Why were they involved in this?”

“Because of who Hathlisora was and what was used to make the key,” Umtha said. “Even now, you carry it north to deliver it to where the goblins have been building a new engine of mending.”

“I am carrying it north?” Heather repeated. “Do you mean the egg?”

“A dragon egg,” Umtha said with a nod. “Magically altered so it can survive the intense heat generated when the repair process begins.”

“But you lost the egg,” Heather said. “How did it get in that cave?”

“The dragon knights flew off, and I lay in the sand crying at all we had lost,” Umtha said. “But then she arrived, raging with anger like the sun. I told her what had happened and she went after them. There was a terrible battle in the sky where she recovered the egg but was terribly wounded in the process. She fell to the ground, so weak she could barely walk. Other goblins arrived, and we worked together to carry her and the egg to safety. We went south because she said she had friends hidden in a swamp. They could help and carry the project forward.”

“This is what you showed us on that magic sheet thing,” Heather said.

“Yes,” Umtha said. “As we fled south, we encountered remnants of the necromancers. They were shattered and their kinds all slain. These few were low-level but working on a plan to salvage their goals as well. They and Hathlisora had been working together for years and hatched a plan to save her if she suffered what they called the last death.”

“That must be what they call a player who stops respawning,” Breanne remarked.

“I took her to the goblins in the swamp, but we were followed. Paladins were closing in, and soon all of our plans would be lost. She told her friends to flee and gave her egg to the goblins in the swamp. She then gave her crown to the remaining necromancers and told them to hide it near her spawn point. Finally, she gave the bracelet and the dress to me and told me I needed to flee.”

“Then what happened?” Heather asked.

“She led them into some kind of trap,” Umtha said. “I wasn't there to see it. I went with the necromancers who created the statue in the temple and the magic door they hid your crown behind. There was a wild goblin village at the base of the hills, and they told me to take it over and wait for you to return. When I asked how I would know, they said you would open that door and reclaim your crown.”

“Didn’t those necromancers lead paladins away too?” Quinny said.

“Yes,” Umtha said with a nod. “There were paladin hunting teams all over the south. The necromancers didn't want to risk them finding the statue, so they made the paladins aware of their presence and fled east, taking several groups with them.”

“This is too much to believe,” Heather said as she felt dizzy. “It’s all connected.”

“It hasn’t all come true,” Umtha said. “Hathlisora gave me my magic dress because she said she would recognize me by it. You had no idea who I am.”

“That’s because I am not Hathlisora,” Heather countered.

“You're wrong,” Umtha said and stepped up to Heather. “Only Hathlisora and her twin sister from Abbadon can wear that crown. You have to be one of them.”

“I know that’s what you need to believe, but I have no memory of any of this. I even have a letter from Hathlisora calling me Heather by name.”

“You wrote that letter to yourself,” Umtha insisted. “You knew you were going to forget, and you set in motion a chain of events to help you remember.”

“And now I am sorry I came here,” Heather sighed.

“I am still calling bs on this story,” Legeis jumped in. “You claim to love this Hathlisora, but you hardly knew her.”

“That's where you're wrong,” Umtha countered with a trembling lip as the pain was evident on her face. “Hathlisora spent over a year in the northern wilds, working with the goblins and necromancers. We spent most of those days together, talking about escaping and sharing our fears. It was because of her we became so friendly with the necromancers, and we started to lend our aid to their projects.”

“Necromancers and goblin engineers working together,” Quinny said with a shiver. “That had to be terrifying.”

“I met Hathlisora while I looked like this, and we got along very well,” Umtha continued. “I had never met a being so driven to escape this world, and we found a kindred spirit in her heart. It was during this period she learned how to open doorways to the other worlds and began to refine the process, believing she could eventually open a door home for all of us.”

Heather had to blink a dozen times as she tried to fit all the fragments into place. Hathlisora was once a companion of king Kevin, but they had a falling out that turned into hostile bitterness. She joined the necromancers to work on a project that involved her opening doors to other worlds. This was all part of a much larger goal of allowing herself to escape. During this process, she meets and befriends the goblins and decides that she is going to help them escape too. Heather wasn't certain, but she was willing to guess that there were more than the goblins trying to get out. Kevin begins his crusade against the necromancers, and Hathlisora tries to stop him. At some point, Kevin breaks something important to Hathlisora and sends her into a mad rage. His ally dragon is killed in the fighting and reanimated as an undead that he personally and permanently kills. He discovers the goblin's plan to restore what was broken and obliterates that, resetting Umtha and starting the death spiral of Hathlisora. She is last seen leading paladins away from the swamp where her friends had been working, one of which was supposedly Heather. It was a fascinating story but still full of holes that didn't explain any of the driving motivations. Why did she and Kevin have such a violent falling out? Why did he work so hard to stop her from escaping? Wouldn't he have been better off letting her go? And now that she thought about it wasn't she told a rumor that the necromancers were originally working for him? Their kingdom had become a massive hub of research for King Kevin. What made that all go wrong?

“Do you know how Hathlisora was doing it?” Heather asked.

“Opening the doors? No,” Umtha admitted. “It had something to do with a secret she kept from even me. But, whatever it was, it pained her terribly. She used to cry about it when she thought she was alone.”

“Alright, but does anybody know?” Heather pressed. “Did you meet anyone she was working with that might know more?”

“The necromancer kings,” Umtha said. “They were deeply involved in her projects.”

“And that’s a dead end,” Heather sighed.

“Wait, are you seriously considering trying to pick up her research?” Breanne asked.

“Why not?” Heather replied. “If the goblins want to go home that badly, I want to help them.”

“See!” Umtha shouted and pointed at Heather. “You are her!”

“I am not!” Heather countered. “I just like to help my friends.”

“Try telling that to Frank,” Breanne said with a firm tone. “Tell him you want to devote a massive amount of time and energy into opening a door to escape through.”

“Oh,” Heather said as she considered how that might affect poor Frank. They had been married a single day, and already she was planning to embark on a new escape plan. She promised him she was going to stay, and this was surely going to wound him.

“I think Frank will take that badly,” Quinny said.

“Of course, he will,” Heather sighed. “He loves me, and he wants me to stay. But you know what, so do I. I want to stay and be with the people I love.”

“Aw, she admitted she loves us again,” Quinny teased.

“What we should be focusing on right now is what to do with Umtha,” Breanne corrected while ignoring Quinny’s comment.

“What is there to do with her?” Heather said as she looked at the crown in her hands. “Why exactly did this crown give you the points you needed?”

“Normally, we evolve based on levels,” Umtha said as she looked to the crown. “But some of us are now held back by special rules. Somehow Kevin is affecting those who stood against him, and I needed both the levels and a special circumstance.”

“Kevin put a limitation on you?” Heather said, unwilling to believe it.

“It's on all goblins from my world. So long as you are from another world and playing as a goblin, you're fine. But in our case, we can't evolve to this state unless we have social status,” Umtha explained and looked down. “I hope you won't be mad at me. I really do love you, and I did what I did out of a desire to help you.”

“You did what?” Breanne asked as she looked at the crown. “What did Heather accepting that crown signify in your culture?”

“It signified something?” Heather asked as she held it up.

“Please don’t be angry,” Umtha begged.

“I will decide that after you tell me what it means,” Heather quipped as she turned a stern gaze on Umtha.

Umtha then did something that stunned them all as she revealed a magic tattoo of a blue rose on her arm. She rubbed it and brought her panel to life as the group looked on in shock.

“She’s a chosen!” Quinny said with her jaw hanging open.

“This explains so much,” Breanne added.

“Of course, she's a chosen,” Heather groaned. “She was abducted into this world. I bet that means a lot of the goblins are chosen.”

“Many of us are,” Umtha agreed. “It is why we gave Kevin such a hard time and why he put his limitations on us.” She turned her panel for the group to see and swiped open her social information.

“One thing you need to understand is the world was not like this when we first arrived. They adapted it to suit your world and what you call games. These character sheets didn’t exist when I first got here,” Umtha explained and opened the tab that said relationships.

“Oh, you're married,” Heather said as she looked closer and then felt faint.

“She’s married to you!” Breanne choked as Quinny went silent.

“What?” Heather remarked as she saw both her name and Frank’s listed as spouses.

“Please, you have to understand. We were very close before. You even told me several times that we should get married. You loved me, and you wanted access to goblin powers,” Umtha pleaded.

“So you tricked me into marrying you?” Heather asked as she turned the crown over in her hands. “How does that even work? All I did was accept a wedding gift.”

“That is a goblin crown of rulership,” Umtha said. “As a queen, if I give it willingly to anyone and they accept it, it binds us together to rule in unison.”

“You mean over the goblins?” Legeis asked.

“Yes,” Umtha replied. “Heather is now the goblin queen, and not just over my one tribe. All the various tribes that could be reached put their blessing on that crown. She is the high queen over all the goblins, and all the other kings and queens will bow to her.”

“I was wrong. I do still want to escape,” Heather said. “I don't think I can handle this madness.”

“Open your panel,” Breanne insisted as she took the crown from Heather. “Let’s see if she is telling the truth.”

Heather agreed and opened her panel, pulling open her list of titles. She was listed as a wife twice, both to Frank and Umtha, and she was a princess of Ellowshire, Champion of the unicorn knights, and Dutches of unknown. However, right below that, it said High Goblin Queen in golden letters.

“It’s true then,” Breanne said in shock.

“Ha, now you have to build a maze with a goblin city in the middle,” Quinny teased.

“I saw that movie,” Legeis chimed in. “We already have a bog.”

“Ha, the bog of eternal stench!” Quinny laughed.

“Should we start calling frank the goblin king?” Legeis asked.

“Will you two be serious for a minute?” Heather complained and turned on Umtha. “Take that crown back. I can’t be your wife, and I am certainly not letting Frank be your husband.”

“I can’t take it back,” Umtha argued. “I am already a lesser queen, and you can’t just throw the title away.”

“Oh, I bet I can find a way to do it,” Heather said with anger in her eyes. “Rules and I don't exactly get along.”

“I didn't do this to hurt you,” Umtha insisted. “I did it because you will need the goblin's help soon. You need to be able to call us to war to fight for you. I made you our queen so you could rouse the goblins like never before. We will gain some measure of power from you as well, and Kevin will be taken by surprise when we meet again.”

Heather wanted to argue the point, but Umtha started to cry, turning her face away as she hid it in her hands.

“You were supposed to remember,” Umtha sobbed. “You promised me you would remember that dress, and our love would return. But you don’t remember anything, and I have to accept that. Just go away. Keep the crown and the title, but leave me to cry in peace.”

“Umtha,” Heather said as she raised a hand. “Umtha, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. It's just I honestly don't think I am Hathlisora. I don't have any memory of anything prior to my abduction a few months ago.”

“You are her,” Umtha sobbed. “But you were supposed to remember. I needed you to remember. I thought since the dress failed, maybe the crown would trigger your memory, but that failed too.”

“Is that why you're hiding in here?” Heather asked. “I didn't remember, and it hurt.”

“It tears me to shreds,” Umtha sobbed. “I realize that I can't be a part of your life the way I wanted, and I have to let go. I waited so long for you to come back. I guarded that temple and the things hidden inside of it, praying every day you would return. I was about to give up hope, and then there you were, as beautiful as you were before. We were all excited but had to play along, pretending we were just these NPC goblins. Then the dragon knights came, and you unlocked the door. I couldn't believe it when you came out wearing the crown. I thought it was only a matter of time now, Soon, you would remember, and I could tell you how much I had missed you.”

“Hey,” Heather said and rubbed her shoulder. “Look, I don't know what's going on, but I do know you have always acted in my best interest. I guess now I understand why, but what if you’re wrong about me?”

“I’m not,” Umtha replied. “But if it makes you feel better, I will call you Heather or Hannah from now on.”

“I would appreciate that,” Heather said as Umtha started to cry profusely.

“Well, this is awkward,” Quinny whispered. “She marries Heather hoping it will bring back her memories, but it didn't, and now Heather doesn't want to be married to her.”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” Breanne quipped. “She was sneaky about it, and her reasons are based on a false belief, not to mention how this will affect Frank.”

“Yeah, the big guy is going to be upset,” Quinny agreed as Heather comforted Umtha and sat on a bench with her. “But now they are King and Queen. Does that mean they can found an entire kingdom?”

“I don't know,” Breanne replied as she grew tense. “But this is going to have lasting effects. Heather was just about to embrace the idea of having a wider relationship with us. Suddenly she is in one with Umtha, and we may find her willingness to consider us gone.”

“I don't think that will happen,” Quinny whispered. “Heather will work through this like she works through all her problems. Sooner or later, she will come up with a good way to handle it, and it will all come together.”

“I hope so,” Breanne replied and took Quinny’s hand. “I honestly hope for the best.”

They stood and watched silently with Legeis and Webster as Heather did her best to comfort the crying woman. Heather eventually pulled her into an embrace, apologizing for not remembering. She promised Umtha that she would do anything she could to bring back the memories and was willing to let Umtha try to trigger them.

“You will?” Umtha asked with a sniffle.

“If it means that much to you, I will try anything,” Heather said. “Who knows, maybe where we are going will help trigger them.”

“I don't know that it will,” Umtha sighed. “You have never been to this place before. It was built after you passed, and I was well to the south. I know roughly where we are going, but I honestly have no idea what to expect.”

“Then we will find out together,” Heather said with a smile. “I am glad you can give me straight answers for a change. I would go crazy if I had a curse like that on me.”

“You have no idea how many times I wanted to tell you everything, but I knew it would come out as nonsense,” Umtha said and wiped her eyes. “I just wanted to scream in frustration.”

“You poor thing,” Heather said and hugged her tight. “Well, it's out in the open now, and I will have to take some time to consider what you have told me. I also need to tell Frank and Blackbast about this to see what they think and get any advice they have. In the meantime, why don't you try to think of anything else I might recognize or remember. A place, a painting, some other object that was mine, anything.”

“I will try,” Umtha said and looked up to meet Heather's eyes. “You were always so kind. You cared about everyone, and that's why I think you and him fell out.”

“You mean Kevin and I?” Heather asked to be clear.

“Yes,” Umtha said with a nod. “I am told he was a hero in the beginning, but as time went on, he grew increasingly concerned with maintaining order and establishing control. He began to see monster players as an annoyance and eventually fostered a sense of disgust for them. I am sure you would have been very angry at him for his change of attitude. You never had a cruel bone in your body.”

“Well, thank you,” Heather said as she took one of the woman's hands. “I appreciate how you see me, even if I don't believe that's me.”

“It is you,” Umtha insisted. “Look around you, and see what that kind heart has wrought again. You can’t help but come to people’s aid, and your caring nature makes them love you. Now you are a queen, a princess, and a wife, all while surrounded by people who have deep respect and love for you. You do that everywhere you go, always rising to every challenge though sometimes you go a little too far.”

Heather could think of a few times where she went too far and had to agree with her assessment. She patted the woman’s hand as she got up to leave, promising to return soon so they could talk. She then collected the others and headed out, waiting until they were clear of the goblin fortress before pulling open her panel.

“Does any of this make any sense to you?” she asked Legeis as she held the interface where he could see it.

“You got a bunch of goblin powers,” Legeis said as he scratched his chin. “Well, their not really powers so much as special choices you could make as a goblin queen.”

“I can build a goblin city,” Heather sighed. “But it says I already have one called Maddracky Ulk Uthar?”

“Yeah, it does,” Legeis said as he leaned in closer. “Population just over ten thousand.”

“Does that name mean anything?” Breanne asked.

“Oh, yeah, Maddracky Ulk Uthar would be Deep home under the mountain,” Legeis said. “Goblins don't say things the way we do, so it doesn't translate well.”

“Darn, now she can’t build her maze,” Quinny said.

“You know I happen to have seen that movie too,” Heather said and turned her glare on Quinny. “I would rather be the princess running through the maze to save her brother.”

“But you’re the queen,” Quinny insisted. “You gotta play the part.”

“I can’t believe those goblins are from another world,” Legeis said. “How can that be possible? New Eden didn’t exist until the visitors came to our word, right?”

“Well, Umtha did say the world changed,” Heather replied. “She said it was very different when they arrived and changed to suit our games.”

“So they are traveling between worlds,” Breanne said. “Collecting samples or specimens for a sort of magical zoo?”

“Way to take the excitement out of being here,” Quinny teased.

“I am just being practical,” Breanne insisted. “If there are beings from other worlds here, then the visitors have a much greater plan than simply learning about us.”

“You're right,” Heather said as she tried to ponder it. They eventually arrived at the portals and stepped across to discover Frank had stopped running and was sitting quietly beside the road with Blackbast. The girls climbed out and helped remove the magical door so that Legeis could bring his armor through easily. Then they approached Frank and Blackbast, looking so nervous the two noticed.

“Well, out with it,” Blackbast said. “Something went wrong, and you are here to tell us about it.”

“Why are we stopped?” Heather asked, avoiding the question.

“We ran back to where we first turned off course,” Frank said. “We needed your bracelet to show us the direction, so we had to stop and wait.”

“Oh,” Heather said and felt silly. “I suppose I should explain why I was so long.” She told them everything, going over all the details and even suggesting Frank open his character sheet. Sure enough, he was married to Umtha too and bore the title of the goblin king. Blackbast was enraged, suggesting that Umtha was deceiving them somehow.

“I have a bunch of goblin-related powers now,” Frank said as he tapped through his listing.

“I was thinking about that,” Heather said and began to pace. “Frank, you know the mechanics better than any of us. So how was it we could add goblin NPCs eons ago?”

Frank scratched at the ground with his claws as he considered the question, even pointing out that Gwen could add them now as well. He reminded Heather of what she said about having options for undead and goblins in her NPC listings.

“This is my point,” Heather said. “We had no relationship to Umtha, yet we were already sharing in some of her powers. You even put goblins in your lower tunnels to create a sort of adventure.”

“Yeah,” Frank replied. “I thought that was weird, but I couldn't explain it, and I still can't. I assumed that you had some connection to them through this Hathlisora business, and I was reaping the reward somehow.”

“But we all know that isn’t true,” Blackbast cut in. “You don’t just gain abilities because you are good friends with someone. You must form a binding like marriage in order for that to happen. Somehow you were bound to the goblins long before this, and Umtha is a part of that mystery.”

“And both you had to be,” Breanne put in. “Because you both had access to it. Then when you became Gwen's daughter, she inherited some of that connection as well.”

“Which probably means Finneous has it as well,” Heather said as she pondered an idea.

“I do not like this mystery that circles about you,” Blackbast said. “I am sure Umtha can tell you more.”

“What she told me put a lot of the pieces together,” Heather insisted. “What really makes me wonder is that she isn’t from earth. Umtha and a bunch of her goblins are beings from another world.”

“And were here even before this was called New Eden,” Quinny said.

“It sounds too fantastic to believe,” Blackbast replied as she began to pace. “But that explains her strange mannerisms. She isn’t born to human concepts or ideas.”

“You should see her now that she’s evolved,” Quinny said. “She’s taller than Heather and pretty as can be.”

“That doesn't change what she is,” Blackbast said. “She is a chosen from another world who still wants to go home. She is hoping Heather is this missing Hathlisora and will pick up the project to send them home from where it left off. Even this trip to return the egg is part of her plan to put Heather on the track to escape this world.”

Heather hated to hear it said so precisely and knew every word had to be harming Frank. She turned to him and went to his arms, wrapping him in as tight a hug as his broad frame would allow.

“I promise you I am not leaving,” Heather said. “I want to be here, where you are.”

“But you wanted to get out for so long,” Frank said as he awkwardly tried to hug her with his overly long ghoul arms. “If you do figure out how to open that door, are you going to regret not going?”

“Never,” Heather promised. “My life is here with you, Quinny, and Breanne,” Heather replied. “I could never leave you behind.”

“I believe you,” Frank said as he tried to hold her tight. “But what do we do now?”

“We deliver the egg,” Heather said and stepped back. “If Umtha is right, we're looking for some kind of goblin machine that the egg is the key for. Maybe it will shed some more light on what is going on. Maybe it won't. But let's get this task done so we can go home. Everything else can worry about itself until then.”

“A sound and reasonable idea,” Blackbast agreed.

“I also have a ton of books yet to read, plus all those necromancer spells hidden in the back pages yet to learn,” Heather said. “I really need some time to stay put so I can focus on my tasks.”

“And what about your new wife?” Breanne pressed.

“Umtha is going to have to wait as well,” Heather said. “Maybe I will remember something, and it will make more sense later, but until then, she is just a friend.”

“You don’t honestly think you will remember something?” Frank asked.

“Frank,” Heather said with a laugh. “I am not Hathlisora. If anything, I am the Heather she wrote the letter to, but even that doesn't make any sense.”

“Umtha said you wrote that letter to yourself,” Quinny said. “Which means you knew you were going to lose your memories, and you didn't want yourself to remember who you were right away.”

“I am not Hathlisora,” Heather reiterated.

“Let us not be too hasty to say who or what we are,” Blackbast said. “Let's first consider what we know. Umtha claims that only Hathlisora or that woman from Abbadon would wear the crown. You spawned where she was supposed to spawn and then opened the door only she could open. The staff Hathlisora left was attuned for you, which means you must be the Heather mentioned in the letter.”

“She has a point,” Frank said. “If the crown and staff are attuned to you, then nobody else could use them.”

“But the crown is attuned to Hathlisora while the staff is attuned to me,” Heather pointed out. “How can I be both of them at once?”

Quinny and Breanne exchanged nervous glances as the obvious answer hung in the air.

“Because Heather and Hathlisora are the same person,” Heather said with a sigh. “Just what Umtha said.”

“It does seem the only possible explanation,” Blackbast replied.

“I just want to live a happy life with Frank, Quinny, and Breanne,” Heather said as she suddenly looked tired. “I don't want any part of this previous nonsense.”

Frank put a massive hand around her waist and held her up as she looked about to wilt. He carefully pulled her to his chest and used his palm to rub her back.

“I have been denying that you were Hathlisora for a long time,” he said softly. “And I still don't want to believe it. But you are right about the goblin powers. We had access to them from almost the day you saved Umtha. Somehow you are regaining lost powers as you trigger important events. That's probably why you keep finding new things on your character sheet you swear wasn't there before.”

“So now you think I might be Hathlisora?” Heather asked.

“I don't know, and I don't care,” Frank replied. “All that matters to me is you're my wife, and I want to see you happy.”

“Oh, Frank, what am I going to do?” Heather asked. “I feel like a terrible storm follows me wherever I go, and if I don't keep searching for answers, it will catch up and destroy me.”

“We do what you just said,” Frank replied. “We deliver the egg and see if it gives us anything new to go on.”

“Then let us not waste any more time,” Blackbast urged. “Point the direction so we can get underway.”

Heather held up her arm, wearing the bracelet made for Hathlisora. It was another undeniable truth that it worked for her and pointed the way to key locations where past secrets lay waiting to be discovered. She asked it to show her where the egg needed to go, and a single stone began to shine and point the way. The others climbed into the palanquin as Legeis finally arrived with his armor. Blackbast took her usual place on his back, and Heather decided to ride on Frank's shoulder, needing to be close to her husband. They set off at a quick pace, heading north into the trees and the wilds beyond the spawn ring. Distant mountains framed the horizon, and Heather knew that someplace in those peaks was the engine of mending and perhaps the secret she was missing.