The town meeting scattered, the citizens disgruntled and unsatisfied with the desperate situation in PaxOku. Sarberius approached a dark, deathly figure lurking in a corner atop the Mage Tower. Words were exchanged, a gate was cast...

Sarberius and the Death Knight Daine stood side-by-side, looking deep into a ruined well... The Shadow stood behind them, watching. Sarberius was the first to take her life and enter the well.

And then the Shadow asked Lady Daine, 'Why do you wish to enter the Well of Souls?'

At first the Death Knight said nothing, as though struggling with two parts of herself for an answer. And then, a swirling breeze, cold as death, emitted from her helm, and she spoke:

Power.

I am dead already, and should be able to return from the Well... differently.

If I do not return, that is only fewer days of torment for me.

I am only alive because the Dark Lord of Gehenna seeks to use me for his evil.

The light within me is small.

If I can get to the bottom of the Well, perhaps I can overcome that light, which the Dark Lord uses against me, and be free from him, and more powerful.

If not, that light will merely be extinguished on its own, and the good part of me may rest in peace at last, and no longer will I torment.

Now to die...

The dark figure then entered the well, the Shadow looking on, saying, 'Their deaths are just the beginning!'

+ + + + +

Sputtering and splashing in a wet, tangled white sheet, a beautiful woman with long black hair pulled herself away from a giant stone well, and, shivering, terrified, tried to take in her foreign surroundings. In a soft and quavering voice, she asked... 'Where am I?'