At 11:30 PM, Reuben and Renee create food for the band, and they leave the shadow-chantry to follow the black tendril that is attached to the soul of Walks All Paths. They walk through Raleigh, seeing it look less and less like the area they know as they approach the outskirts of town. As they take a break near Wade Avenue, they see a man-shaped figure watching in the distance. Kasee tries to approach him, but he only recedes as she draws near.

As they group walks west out of the city, they find a desert. Continuing westward, the man continues to follow them, drawing closer, yet shrinking. Soon he shrinks to a shape only one foot tall, with wings, then disappears entirely, only to reappear before the group as they see huge, white-walled city in the distance, in the middle of the desert. Walks All Paths addresses the creature with respect, saying he is an avatar of the Owl Spirit. Renee notes that the garou has grown wings.

They ask the avatar what the city is before them, and he replies that it is the city of Stygia, and points out that the black tendril goes to the center of the city, then straight up. He then tells Walks All Paths that there is a wraith within the city named Lord Balthazar who will help us if the garou shows him his gift. The avatar then wanders off back into the desert.

The group continues to the gates of the city. There are other caravans approaching by various modes of transportation - camel, covered wagon, and trucks. Walks All Paths explains that Stygia is the City of the Dead, presided over by the Death Lords of the Hierarchy. They are constantly vigilant for dissidents. Kevin trades a few pennies for some rings from a man in a covered wagon; he finds that his pennies, and indeed any metal that they have with them, are treated with awe and respect.

The group reaches the gates of the city, and are accosted by a bureaucrat, who asks them to state their business. He laughs when they say that they seek Lord Balthazar, but demands that they leave all of their metal, as well as their weapons (which he calls "Soulbiters") at the gate. Mary whispers to Walks All Paths that he won't return the things he takes. The garou agrees, and Mary gives him a shy grin, as if she might be up to something. After much debate, the group agrees to split up - Eric, Kasee, and Renee volunteer to remain outside of the city and guard the group's possessions, while Walks All Paths, Cab, Kevin, Reuben, Mary, and Dog will go into the city to seek Lord Balthazar.

They enter the city, and find a street urchin who agrees to show them to Lord Balthazar's in exchange for one of Kevin's newly-acquired rings (he also laughs when he hears who they seek. Not a good sign). They walk through the city, observing that as they approach the center of the city, the architecture styles progress backwards in time, until they reach the "Lord's Quarter," which has Roman architecture. The boy points out a garishly painted house and says it is Balthazar's, then leaves. Cab points out that the black tendril goes right through Balthazar's house, then skywards from there.

They are admitted to the house by Balthazar's servant, and taken to meet the Death Lord, who, it becomes readily apparent, is a raving loon. He hops from subject to subject, always taking time to tell Mary what a nice stick she has (she huddles around it protectively). Suddenly he stops, and peers at Kevin and says, "Do you know you have a soul?" They explain to him about the tendril, and he walks out to his foyer, where the tendril snakes through. He pulls out a stick with a carabiner on one end. He looks through it and spots the tendril. He rears back and snags the carabiner on the tendril...and is immediately sucked through the wall.

Meanwhile, the members of the party who elected to remain outside of Stygia are having an adventure of their own. They move away from the gate and off the road to wait for their comrades return. They don't wait long before they are approached and surrounded by a group of armed guards dressed in uniforms from a variety of times and places. Their leader is a Cossack who informs Eric, Renee, and Kasee that Lady Ashen requests their presence.

He repeats this, more insistently each time as the party members stall and try to find out what is going on. Clearly, he expects that Lady Ashen's will should be obeyed without question. The guards confiscate their packs and visible weapons, though they do not search them. The guards escort Eric, Renee, and Kasee to a section of the city wall of Stygia. The Cossack has a key which he uses to draw a door and then open it. The guards usher the party through the doorway, which shuts behind them.

They find themselves in a cell, in total darkness. They explore the cell and discover that it has two walls of cinder block and two of iron bars. They also discover they can't break out. After a while, they hear footsteps, and fluorescent lights turn on to light the room outside the cell. A lady with pale gray skin enters the room and questions the three about why they were here and how did they get here. She says she knows what they are. Their answers to her questions are, predictably, somewhat confused, thanks to Kasee's input.

Before any more questions can be asked, there is a commotion outside the door by which Lady Ashen entered. A guard comes flying backwards through the door, not under his own power. Lady Ashen rises and walks through the cinder block wall, away from the conflict. There are more sounds of fighting, and then three men dressed in musketeer uniforms enter the room and inform Eric, Renee, and Kasee that they have come to rescue them.

One of the musketeers reaches through the bars and asks Kasee to touch his hand. She first refuses, then tentatively touches him. He enters her body through her and, and she walks through the bars of the cell. The other musketeers urge Eric and Renee to take their hands, and all three black out.

When they awake, they are in a room, and the musketeers are tiredly leaning against the wall. The musketeers leave, and the mages hear the sound of a bar being placed across the door. Kasee tests the door and finds that, with difficulty, she can pass through it, like walking sideways. She unbars the door, and the mages escape into the city.

Meanwhile, back at Lord Balthazar's house, Reuben, Cab, Kevin, Walks All Paths, Mary, and Dog run along the tendril through the house trying to find where Balthazar went. After tracing it through many twists and turns and arrive in the courtyard of the house to see Balthazar screaming at the top of his lungs, holding a tree with one hand and the carabiner with the other. Walks All Paths tests his wings and flies out to save the Deathlord, telling him to let go of the carabiner. Balthazar says, "Oh. I didn't think of that." He then nearly drops to the ground. He and Walks All Paths gingerly climb down the tree.

Once back on the ground, the mages and garou must once again reintroduce themselves to Balthazar and finally get him to consider their plight. Balthazar muses that if he had a garou soul at his disposal, he could break the wall between the Shadowlands and the Earthly plane. Reuben and Walks All Paths exchange horrified looks and press Balthazar for details on what they must do to retrieve the garou's soul. They gain no new information, but Balthazar agrees to help them try to find the other mages. He sends his butler, Jeeves, to the walls of the city, where they left Eric, Kasee, and Renee.

Meanwhile, those three mages are trying to find their own way to Balthazar's house. After narrowly escaping a drive-by shooting, they hire a street urchin to guide them, unwisely giving him a penny - a real penny. He guides them into an alley, where they are surrounded by a gang of toughs. There is a skirmish, in which Renee takes out one of the toughs, but Kasee accidentally stabs Renee in the back. The fight is broken up by a man in a suit, who chases off the gang. He looks at the mages disgustedly and gives them directions to Balthazar's. They make their way to the Deathlord's house without further incident, amazingly enough. The two groups of mages are reunited; Jeeves walks in not long after, saying, "Found them for you, sir."

Balthazar calls Lady Ashen on the telephone, and after a difficult conversation, forces her to return the possessions taken from the mages. All is returned, with a few small exceptions. The group questions Balthazar on a way to leave the Shadowlands. Since the tendril they are following goes up from here, they need some form of flight. Renee suggests a balloon. Jeeves leads them out to a huge garage - more like a hangar - and they find among various other modes of transportation (including, 'way in the back, a Boeing 707), a fully-inflated balloon. Jeeves mentions he thought it might be necessary. Kevin asks Balthazar if they may take the balloon, and the Jeeves replies that they may, but they must promise to aid the Deathlord at some future time, and give of themselves (their quintessence) to seal the bargain. Reluctantly, the mages agree.

Soon they are in the air, with Eric piloting. They follow the tendril directly upwards, noting that as they look at the desert, it seems to be moving in waves, like the ocean. they see caravans and darker things moving below them. As they break through the perpetual clouds of the Shadowlands, they see a ceiling above them, extending in all directions. The garou flies out to explore it, touches it, and is sucked through it. As the balloon rises slowly upwards, each mage is sucked through as well.

Continued in Chapter Two, Part Three: If There Were Four…

© 1997 by Tom Brady and Beth Miller