-------------- Tales of the Silver Gryphon - Vhaelik gul'Kurahk

With the two little monstrosities destroyed, they reached the fallen humanoid and turned him over. From a distance, in the dark he might have been mistaken for a man. But moving closer they saw he was wearing strange armor, something similar to Caerrian plate, but apparently made of astral steel. Its style was alien but familiar. Strapped to his back, a huge sword of strange design, with curves sweeping this way and that, and a handle too organic in design to be from any weaponsmith on Arrallon. His helmet covered his face and seemed to be sealed with some kind of paratechnical means. After several minutes of fiddling with it to get it open, the faceplate finally popped up and swung away under its own power. Rowan gasped. Never had she even dreamed of such a creature. His skin was pallid, almost deathly gray, but highlighted with swirls of tan and brown and darker spots around the edges. His skin was rugged, but drawn against tight, corded muscles. The flesh was so sunken against his oversized skull he almost looked like some kind of undead.

Rowan held her hand to her face. "By all the Gods, what is it?"

After her initial shock subsided, Savra narrowed her eyes and focused her thoughts. The thing before her was either very well defended, or it had no mind to contact. Casting a quick spell, she could sense no evil from it. She knew this race, and she knew what they had become in the last century since their revolution. But she still wasn't sure they could trust him.

"Its called a Githyanki. They're an ancient and powerful race. Fortunately, they're currently allied with several nations of Arrallon."

"You mean they're not from this world?"

"Its complicated. They live on some worlds across the universe, but their real home is The Void. They drift through Voidspace in great starships, planetoid sized floating fortresses, and dead worlds. Some say they make their homes on the bones of dead Gods."

Rowan shuddered. The very sight of thing terrified her.

"But don't worry. They aren't typically hostile, unless you steel their things, or the things of their dead. Which brings me to my first question. Githyanki never travel alone. They're a military race. They live, eat, breath, and always travel in units."

Kaylynn sneered, "What? Like hobgoblins?"

Savra smiled back her. It was the first time they'd really seen her smile.

"Yeah, sure. Like a Polaran snow dog puppy is like a Hound of Thrym. The Githyanki have magics, psionics and technology that span the existence of the multiverse. Humans on Arrallon go back some eighteen thousand years. Githyanki have been sailing the darkness between the stars for ten million years."

Brandon huffed. "This one doesn't appear to be particularly advanced, technologically or genetically."

Savra glared at him, "You should know time doesn't flow in the Void the same way it does in the mortal realm."

Rowan finally overcame her revulsion and chimed in. "If you'd be liking a good example of that, Mr Leprechaun, I could pray that you spend some time in Avalon. Time's not passin' there neither."

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