> > Slowly J'layah stopped, and as she looked at Heeram Thule, the man who had
> > taken her sister and haunted her thoughts, she realized that he was dead.
> -------------------
>
>
> [slash]
>
> Meanwhile, Twilight had noticed the mirage-like shimmer heralding the
> others' arrival nearby, and she moved swiftly to meet them.  Balefire;
> sword drawn, appeared ready for anything, but he was looking around in
> alarm.  "Mea!  Mea is not with us!  What has transpired here...?"
> Indeed, the lovely elf was nowhere to be seen.  They conducted a quick
> but futile search of the surrounding area, before Twilight led the party
> to Thule's corpse, describing his final, cryptic words as they walked.
> J'layah had lain him on his back with arms crossed over his chest,
> replaced his dusty eye patch and was still kneeling over the body,
> apparently deep in thought.  She jumped at Twilight's gentle shoulder
>

Balefire's visage had gone from anger to concern to thoughtful frown, as he
listened to Twilight's description of the one-eyed Thule's last moments.  His
frown deepened as he watched J'layah's odd behavior.  Snarling in frustration at
the area's resistance to magic, he gave over his futile attempts to read
J'layah's mental state.  Magically dead zone or not, there was something about
that corpse that was not quite right.  It almost felt like the presence of a
zombie or lich, but it wasn't really either of those.  Though clearly dead,
something about Thule's corpse struck warning bells in the veteran warmage's
mind.  Decades of suspicion and alertness to dangers both seen and unseen had
honed his senses to inhuman sharpness, and some sense, magical or not, told the
the big Dark Elf that Thule's remains bore closer investigation.  He didn't like
J'layah's bemusement, either...it struck him as unnatural coming so soon after
the outburst of which Twilight had spoken.

> tap. "Wha...?  Oh, I was just...preparing him for burial.  He has
> certainly suffered aplenty, and is no longer of any threat to us."  She
> looked up at her companions and frowned. "Where is Mea?"

Twilight's raised eyebrow mimicked Balefire's as their gazes met upon hearing
J'layah's comment.  Something about the young woman was not quite right.
"Suffered aplenty", indeed!  With an unobtrusive mercenary hand signal, the
warmage warned Twilight to be silent and observe.  Impassively, the Dark Elf
mercenary spoke to J'layah.

"I can bear that scum's demise with equanimity, J'layah, and his burial can wait
a bit.  As for Mea, I fear she has become separarted from our party during the
teleport.  I'm not sure, but it seemed just at the last moment as if she was
reaching out to touch *your* hand in my scrying picture, instead of that of one
of us.  I sensed her presence when the teleportation spell initiated, though, so
my best guess is that she may have materialized some distance away.  A matter of
no more than a few leagues, I would think, or I would have felt it.  Curse this
anti-magic zone!  If not for it, 'twould be a simple matter to locate her."

He sighed heavily, and started to pace, slowly drawing closer to the corpse of
the one-eyed man as if by accident.  "Tell me, J'layah, what do you make of this
talk of your sister being in two places at once, and what action do you
counsel?  I have heard and read of separating souls from living bodies; 'tis a
foul sorcery sometimes used to force the victims to perform some action they
would ordinarily refuse, or sometimes as a form of extortion for the victim's
friends or relatives.  The soulless body grows weaker in time, waxing listless
and forgetful, and eventually dies.  The soul, without a body to return to, is
then trapped forever.  Some theorists have proposed that if set free of their
material prison -- usually a gem -- they may become wraiths, but if any have
proved such, it has not been written of."  He wandered closer to Thule's corpse
as he spoke.

Twilight turned her head, avoiding the eye-searing reflection of the pitiless
sun off Balefire's Daedric armor.  She had quietly gathered her muscles into
spring-like tension, ready to pounce should J'layah do anything strange.  In
even, calm tones, she spoke to her.  "Ordinarily, I would counsel going
immediately to protect your sister's body, while some of us sought her soul.  It
seems  a teleport from here is out of the question, though, so it behooves us to
seek the gem first.  I like not this mystery of "feeding the Heart", and I think
'twould be best if you returned Balefire's ring to him."

J'layah's "No!" rang out as her hands flew to protect the ringand she gathered
herself to run.  Twilight sprang to restrain her from escape, her black-mailed
arms encircling J'layah like bands of steel. At the same instant, Balefire's
claymore flashed in the sun, its point coming to rest at the throat of the
one-eyed man's corpse.  "Something lives here still, albeit not Thule," he
bellowed, "'tis a  presence of some kind inhabits this dead meat, and I will
swear that it listens to us."  Bizzarely, his sword steady at its throat, the
scarred warmage mercenary began to shout at the sun-blasted corpse. "Speak, or
manifest yourself, whatever or whoever you be!  By Arkay, if you do not make
yourself known, I will take this envelope of flesh you wear and slice it into
gobbets so small a worm will snub them!  Show yourself, I say!"