Aidan almost expected to have uneasy dreams, given what he had just learned, but he slept the deep sleep of the exhausted, and had to be shaken awake by Flame at sunrise. He dressed, and made sure he had everything he would need. He had his two obvious belt daggers, and a half dozen hidden knives, from the easily found boot dagger to the tiny blade cleverly built into his belt. Two sets of lock picks, also hidden, completed his inventory. He was ready.

Flame carried nothing but one small belt dagger. She did not fight with weapons, her firecat's claws were far more effective than any sword would have been in her hands.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Ready as I'll get," she said, looking sober and worried.

The left their rooms, and went out into the central courtyard. The other five were there already, with Jordanis.

"A few words before you go," the canine mage said. "I've fixed a return spell on you. All of you will be pulled back here, along with the shard, as soon as any one of you touches it. I'll be trying to set you down close to it, but this is an imprecise art, so I'm not completely certain where you'll end up. And... just a warning. Most of the worlds that are 'near' to Aretha share her habit of changing any who visit them. Some are more aggressive about it than others, so you may find nothing happens, or you may find yourselves altered considerably. Whatever the changes are, if there are any, they'll be undone as soon as you return, so don't worry too much about them.

"I've done all I can to help you succeed, the rest is up to you." He turned then, and faced an empty archway. It had been built with ordinary traveling portals in mind, and made it that much easier to cast one. It would serve just as well for a portal between worlds. And Jordanis was an expert portal mage. He had prepared his spell well, and had it cast within only a few minutes. The arch filled with a rainbow shimmer, whatever might lie beyond it obscured behind the swirling colors. One by one they filed through, vanishing into it.

When Aidan stepped through for an instant he was surrounded by nothing but color. He felt a twisting, pulling, spinning sensation. It was disorienting, and he felt a little sick, but it cleared away almost immediately, leaving him standing again on solid ground.

He looked around. Flame came through right on his heels and the glow of the portal behind them vanished. They stood on a cobblestoned street. It was night, the sky overhead obscured by clouds, the street below dark except for a dim glow that spilled from a nearby building.

The glow increased as somebody opened a door and came out. It was a human man, and he took one look at the group standing there and let out a yelp of shock. "Monsters! Help!"

Aidan looked at the others. They didn't look that much different, except for something about Lon... but he didn't have time to think about it, because people were flooding out of the building, a sudden mob advancing on their small group.

"Scatter and run!" shouted Brianna, and the night erupted into chaos as the seven scattered, and the mob went after them.

Aidan knew that Flame could take care of herself, so he escaped the best way he knew, straight up. With a leap and a flurry of wingbeats he was aloft. He gained altitude as quickly as he could, and soon he could see the town laid out below him. It wasn't large, but it seemed that half the population was roused now. Men with torches streamed up and down the streets, searching. But he didn't see any sign that they had caught anybody. The others seemed to have escaped easily enough in the darkness. He circled higher, looking for some sign of them. After quite some time he made out a flicker of light on a hill a mile or so outside of town. The hill was backed by a thick forest, and no roads led to it. Aidan hoped that it was his friends, and he winged his way towards it.

As he approached he could hear familiar voices. Brianna and Lavasida were speaking together, though he couldn't quite make out the words. But at this distance he could only have heard them if they were speaking quite loudly. Why weren't they keeping their voices down? Did they want to get found by the townspeople? He soared in closer, and landed a little ways away from the light, just in case. He paused to catch his breath... and realized that he didn't need to. That's odd, he thought. I've been flying for well over an hour. I should be at least a little winded, but I'm not. What kind of world makes it so you don't need to breathe? And... he surveyed himself with a bit of surprise, finding that though he didn't seem to look any different, his clothing had been rather drastically altered. What kind of world puts you in evening wear? He quickly checked his belt, but found that his daggers were still there, though they didn't exactly match his outfit.

He shrugged the strangeness off and walked towards the firelight where he could hear his friend's voices far too loudly. He could see five people standing around the fire, and as he drew closer he recognized his friends of the Queen's Own. But... changed. Lavasida looked much as he always had, though he too had acquired formal wear. Seymore seemed completely unchanged, not even his clothing was different. Lon was the most obviously altered. He was a were-wolf, of course, but now he looked it. He was in the were form, halfway between wolf and human, that he never wore ordinarily. Brianna looked somewhat like herself, but her skin was pale and slightly greenish, and her clothing, far from being formal, was ragged and tattered. Her expression was pained, she didn't seem happy with whatever change had been made to her. Flame Song was there also. She seemed to be human still, and was dressed in a brightly colored dress with several layers of skirts.

"What happened?" he said as he approached. The sound came out louder than he had expected, and he had a sudden suspicion that Brianna and Lavasida hadn't been talking loudly after all. It was his own hearing that had changed, becoming more sensitive.

"Aidan!" Flame got up and went to him, taking his hand. A puzzled look crossed her face as she did, but Brianna spoke before Flame could say anything.

"We're all here then."

Aidan looked around the hilltop again, but saw no sign of the seventh member of their group. "What about Belak?" he asked.

"I'm right here, lad." Aidan jumped. The voice had come from thin air just ahead of him. "It seems I've become invisible. Jordanis was right. We've been somewhat changed, yourself included, lad."