Zanzibar glanced down yet again at the small white talisman on his chest. It was a rune, in the language of the Faders. Sharrakamov had given it to him to call the Fader when needed ... and it would come in handy.
Briefly he envied Sharrakamov's ability to vanish and materialize at will. It would be very useful at the moment, considering the predicament he was in. Or, to be precise, the prison he was in.
He was, at that moment, confined inside four featureless, slick, lusterless steel walls on the Yelantra Sentry. His future, at the moment, was a bleak one.
Foolish, foolish, foolish! Curse this reckless curiousity, curse this inability to keep to my own business! Curse these Deathless Ones and their reasons for keeping me here! Aah, Coppertop, Wild Angel, Claw, I need you! Ducky, Kovu - all my companions - hear me! I cannot exist many more hours between these four walls without going insane!
Zanzibar mentally cursed and berated himself and the Deathless Ones as he paced the short eight steps it took to cross his cell. His hand found the rune and he looked down again, wondering ...
- But what would one Fader do against a ship swarming with Deathless Ones? Even Sharrakamov's fury and hate couldn't sustain him for long. No.
But by all the Faders on Firen and by all the denizens of the deep, there had to be a way! And he would find it.
An inexplicable heaviness entered his limbs, making him drowsy. Wearily the cat found the cot in the corner and collapsed upon it as the rune worked its magic on him. Sleep came, half welcomed as fatigue forced him to stay down.
Zanzibar slept, his hand still on the rune ...

... Another also slept, one whose dreams were not easy. Wild Angel was once more being tormented in that Place by the Deathless Ones.
It was better. Ducky was with her, and because the Deathless Ones were numerous, Shinyso was on the way. For some reason, the Deathless Ones feared him as much as Kroys had. Perhaps it was that golden jewel, once tarnished and sooty, that he now possessed - that jewel that had almost brought Kroys' downfall on its' own, the jewel with the name Belaine etched faintly on it, now set in a plain steel band, that he always had with him as a reminder, he said, of how someone so good and honest had been corrupted by power. "It keeps me humble," he'd said on more than one occasion.
Or perhaps it was simply that quiet aura that always surrounded him - that aura of danger, and controlled power; not magic, but more physical.
Whatever it was, the Deathless Ones walked softly around him. No less deadly, but more softly.
Angel had built up a kind of mental fortress to which she retreated when they pressed her too badly. It worked - when someone else was there as well. Sometimes it was Shinyso, sometimes Ducky, and on rare occasion, Claw graced her with his presence.
There was another presence there today (or tonight); one that Angel had not felt before. It was in the flickering in the mist shrouded trees, in the soft, almost unheard footsteps through the for, in the white curtains that swirled and fluttered in the silent, unseen passage of somebody. It was in the restlessness of Wild Angel, and in the unease in the Deathless Ones without.
It was there.
Materializing of misty moonlight, a translucent figure wavered into existance. It flickered uncertainly as it told its' message.
"Foolish, foolish, foolish! Curse this reckless curiousity, curse this inability to keep to my own business! Curse these Deathless Ones and their reasons for keeping me here! Aah, Coppertop, Wild Angel, Claw, I need you! Ducky, Kovu - all my companions - hear me! I cannot exist many more hours between these four walls without going insane! Help me!" It wavered again, vanished. Angel wished fervently that Shinyso was there.
"Yes, Angel?"
"Shinyso!"
"Trouble, sorceress?" Shinyso asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly.
"Not trouble yet. But something has just happened ..." and she told him of the apparation that had appeared. He listened calmly.
"It may be that this was a warning - or a plea for help. Either way, I think -" he was cut off as the figure reappeared, its' haunted eyes now solid and fixed on Angel desperately, one hand on something hanging from an invisible thread around its' neck, the other hand reaching out to steady it, reassuringly real.
"Zanzibar! What happened - ?" Shinyso stared at the cat. Zanzibar laughed bitterly.
"My cursed curiousity could not keep away. I got too close. Angel! Help me. I'm trapped; there's no way out. Even Sharrakamov could not help me now. It's infested - swarming with Deathless Ones. They haven't touched me; They don't dare, now that They've seen the Talisman. But that doesn't keep me from needing food and water. I'm going insane, I swear. If I don't get out of here soon, I may die, and not from starvation, either. They're going to break me, I know it. And the worst thing about it is I can't do anything about it.
"They want us - I don't know why, but I think They're afraid of us. They're coming after you next, if they haven't already - and this time They're determined not to fail. Deathwreaker - Beren - he controls the Kronans. He controlled Kroys before you slew him. He fears you and your unpredictability, and he fears your abilities and determination. Kroys was a nice prelude to what he's planning. You're a threat to him and his Empire, and he wants you out of the picture ASAP.
Warn Copper. Warn Emerald Dragon, and the rest of their friends. Warn Claw if you haven't already. Tell the assassin - Nightshade. Anybody who participated. They want you - all of you - dead. Dead rabbits, after all, tell no tales.
"Don't say you haven't been warned. Get me out of here! They can just forget me and let me rot, and They'll do it, too. Help me, please. I have allies, powerful allies, but they can't help me here. Not even Sharrakamov.
"Beware; this place is worse than Kroys' prison ships, than his shipmines. There you did something. Don't get caught, whatever you do - it may just be the last thing you do. They have no mercy - It has no mercy! There's no peace of mind until I leave, I know that. It's got me, and It wants to keep me. I hate this - I almost wish I was back in the prison ships, it's that bad.
"I've got to go - They know I'm here, and They don't like it. Just help me, and warn the others. Soon." He vanished, leaving Angel muddled and shocked.
"Back to reality, Shinyso, wake me up. Somebody! I need to talk about this!"
The dream state receded, and Angel awoke, trembling, with more questions from that meeting than answers.