Easy Does It

GD held out his left hand, palm up.

"I haven't much, but I can offer enough to fill the palm of your hand. You may use it as you use any incense, burn a bit of it for the desired effect. Frankensence has a strong, sweet smell and offers positive effect if inhaled."

He paused for a moment, lowering his hand. "It has...other uses and benifits, but if you do not know them then it would require a lesson which is not a part of this bargan at this time."

"I consider this a very valuable substance with significant enviromental, physical and spiritual properties. What would you be willing to offer for this in whole or in part?"

Wraith nodded, thinking through what she could offer him. She straightened her legs out to one side and leaned over onto her wrist. Cocking her head to the side she pursed her lips and thought very hard.

"It would depend what you insist would be valuable. I guess - would you accept gems, or precious stones and jewellery? Or food, or supplies or even services?" Being the Lady of the Vale would come in handy, it seemed.

Again, GoldenDrakon settled himself onto the ground, sitting lotus position, he motioned his hand across from him, offering a place for Wraith to join him.

"Many things have value to me, just as they would to you or any Valian. Gems and jewelry would be accepted, but quality craftmanship also holds value to me, be it music compositions, artistry or silken lace. Likewise literature, history and lore are acceptable so long as I deem them valuable to me."

"I do not need food unless it be something I could not come by, something like bottled wine or some such thing. services might be considered, but what tallent do you have that you could offer? Or wold you ask another to craft something in your place?"

Wraith shook her head, "I wouldn't impose on someone else as this is a private transaction." She leaned a little closer to him and shuffled around to sit closer too. "As for quality craftsman ship... " she pursed her lips. "I have some skill with the written word... but..." she blushed and looked away. Yes a vampire can blush (she'd just eaten). "But i am not sure you would agree."

As she was talking, a shadow fell across them and she looked up. A hulking, shirtless fellow in long pants stood near them. He seemed to be waiting to catch her attention.

Wraith opened her palm and he placed three objects in it. As she inspected the objects he fidgeted with his fingers and then she gave him a nod. He bowed back and paused for a second. Wraith laughed and shook her head. Then he walked away, leaving the objects with her.

"Sorry - Terrin can get a little shy. Here are the samples of the coins I spoke of." She turned her palm over and showed him three circular pieces. One gold, one coppery and one silver. "They don't seem to have the same properties as those we knew back on earth - even I have to touch the silver one to see if it really is silver."

GD examined the three coins as Wraith held them. He accepted the coins once offered them for inspection, turning them over several times as he judged size, weight and design.

"Interesting." he began. " But given your nature, how do you determne the quality of the silver? Can you touch or manipulate it?"

He offered the coins back to the woman, letting the coins fall from his hand to hers with soft clinks of metal.

Wraith gave a light laugh. "That was my point earlier. We have craftsmen that know the properties of this silvery metal on sight. But I had to see if the colour affected us as Vampires. Fortunately, it doesn't."

She shook her head, her mind filling with possibilities of how people could take advantage of that and then grunted when her she realised where her mind was taking her. She was far too suspicious these days, it seemed.

"There are others that can determine just how good the silver..." she broke off, "I perhaps have to think of another name for the precious metal. What do you think I could call it?"

"So then either it is not silver or it is so diluted with impurities that it cannot harm you?" He shrugged. "It will do. If there is a need and desire, then anything will hold value. Call it 'Valeite' if you so choose. Perhaps 'low silver' or something similar."

"I have ever only once come across any reference of a true silver mine in all my searching. I doubt what you have comes from the same source. Is this new coin from another source that you purposfully diluted or is this another example of the Vale reacting to what you wish there to be?"

She gave a delicate shrug. "Sometimes the Vale provides what I need most - more often of late, what the Vale needs most." Flipping the coin over and over onto her hand, she seemed to weigh it both with her palm and with her eyes. "Silvite. That sounds reasonable. And yes, I know of a Silver producing node hereabouts too. Its toxic to us, of course - so I keep its where abouts hidden. It may or may not be the same source you're speaking of."

She sighed and stopped flipping the coin. "Though it looks like silver, and acts like silver enough to smelted, it is essentially missing a component that makes it silver. Hence, my being able to handle it."

Perhaps she should have just said that in the first place.

Then she shook her head, "So, the Vale reacts to you as well?"

"No." he said, shaking his head slowly.

"At least, not that I can determine. Still it is a possibility that the Vale reacts to me subtly to shape our surroundings. My mountainous home seems more than just a little convenient I must say, but that only leads me to wonder if it was created by you, me or the Vale itself in anticipation of my arrival."

He pondered this in silence for a second or two, although secretly, this was one of Illuision Vale's most precious secrets and one that GD had long reflected on.

"I do seem to have a knack for finding things, although I suspect my own skill and senses for that. The Vale is one of the most resource rich and fertile places I have ever known. There are even secrets and treasures to be found in the Wastelands I would wager."

He offered Wraith a thin smile. "Whatever the circumstances, only you are 'tuned into' the Vale. You are still the Caretaker of Illusion Vale it seems."

She laughed and nodded, "Believe me, my friend, its not as .... plush... as you make it seem. My job here - I'm still not sure how much of it was self imposed - is far harder than I first thought it would be. But once I started, I could never go back."

She shrugged, once again delicately, "I have found that the Vale sometimes gives me what I need... but in the most important way... it remains silent."

She of course was talking of a way to go home. Not that she believed there was a home for her anymore, but still, there were others.

"Of course - ah!" she suddenly clasped her head and growled, her fangs extending as she hissed through her teeth. Shaking her head, she took her fingers from their grip in her hair and calmly placed them on her lap.

"Another person just entered the Vale: To the east, it seems. Perhaps I should have Blade look into it. He is quite reliable." She seemed to be musing to herself.

She groaned and swayed in her seated position slightly before shaking her head out again. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

GD's head tilted slightly, watching, studying. Still, something Wraith had said was rolling around in the back of his skull......

"Nothing." he said when Wraith had regained her composure. "It was not important." The dragon paused for a moment, his head still tilted.

"What is it like?" he asked. "What do you see when another comes into the Vale? Do you always know?"

Wraith sighed and swayed slightly as she took her time to answer. Her brow furrowed as she tracked her thoughts and tried to form words, but for the moment they seemed to have escaped her. Staring silently at Golden Drakon, she slowly shook her head. Then words came to her and her eyes cleared of their misty glow, "Sometimes... sometimes it hurts. And sometimes...." she groaned, "Sometimes it's bliss so good that it hurts."

Her hand came up to her head to gently cradle it, "I think... I think it depends on the person. On what their... destiny... is."

Blinking she looked up and stared at him again, "This one will cause strife. I know it."

Groggily she stood up, wavering on wobbly legs, "I have to.. I have to.. Blade can't handle this one... he's not strong... ugh..."

Her claws extended and then she straightened, her fangs distended and her eyes that voidal black. The menace ever present in her voice was harder and her aura seemed to pulse, "I have to take care of this."

Then she walked away, straight backed and held up only by the power she had accumulated over the last three hundred years and the only sign of her pain or distress was the way her fingers jerked by her side.

GD watched her go. While he did not wish ill on Wraith or anything of the sort, what she had said was rolling around in hie head again, whispering seductively. This time however, it was not passion or lust which rose up, but curiosity...and a slight tingling chill he could not account for....


"I have found that the Vale sometimes gives me what I need... but in the most important way... it remains silent."

**What did that mean.....**

"Sometimes... sometimes it hurts. And sometimes....Sometimes it's bliss so good that it hurts."

**There is something here...something...**

His eyes narrowed, focusing in on Wraith's shrinking back. The questions were starting to form in his mind, starting to click to gether with other, fragments of information and knowledge to create other questions and perhaps, the beginings of theories. Still for all his reason, all his intelect, he felt that the anwser he was looking for was just out of reach....but the chill kept creeping up his back.

Golden Drakon suddenly turned and strode quickly back towards the fighting pit. He had a sudden desire to hit something.