The planet was like thousands of others. It was not modern though. It was almost totally agrarian and lightly populated. There were a few hamlets which provided what I supposed were vital services to the surrounding farms. We were not met when we landed and those who saw us expressed little interest in what we were doing. Lady Silver consulted her rod and then looked up turning as she did to face a hill some distance away on which sat a ruined tower. She shrugged and led us off across some pasturage being grazed by some kind of ruminants who ignored us or ambled slowly out of our way as we proceeded. As we moved through the warm breeze and the softly bending grass I began to feel somewhat strange. I would sense a rearing tower rising to scrape the very sky just out of the range of my vision. When I turned to see it there would be nothing there. I told myself to stop imagining things, shook my head and moved up to be with the others. As we got closer to the ruin it was becoming obvious that nothing intruded on it. There were no trails, no indication that the herbage was grazed. There were only some kind of insects buzzing about small blossoms that peeked up out of the long grass. Finally we reached the ruin and stood looking at it. It was not impressive. I got the feeling that it was only a few hundred years old. There was my sense that there had been things here massively older and far grander than what we were looking at right now. I glanced at Lady Silver who smiled wryly and shook her head. "No, Captain, this is not what we seek. It is another step to it and I must find out how to read the path from this place." She turned back to contemplating the ruin. I glanced over at Sally and found her talking quietly with the Iskar. "Ah! She said you were coming but I wasn't so sure." It was a female voice. Young and high pitched. It took us a few moments to find the source of the voice. Sitting up in the ruins was a child. Water dripped from her dampening what little clothing she wore. She leaned forward to see us better and then waved a hand at us in a gesture taking us all in. "Who said we were coming?" asked Lady Silver. "The River Wytch, of course, silly." She looked us over and shook her head. "Of course I have no idea why she would want to see the likes of you four." She pointed as she continued, "The broken, cast aside, and incomplete one." The Iskar just looked back at the girl with her enigmatic smile. The hand gestured now at Sally. "The pathetic one who finds love and comfort only in her machines." Sally blushed. "The ignorant and lost one who thinks he knows so well his place in this universe." As her hand pointed at me I had a sense of something happening. A void opening around me and filling with a bluish glow. The girl waved her hand and the universe was as it should be again. "And one of the abominations who destroy everything in their greed and lusts," she said as her hand ended at Lady Silver. The Lady blanched but held her head high. "One who has forsaken those ways and would have things as they once were," she said quietly. "As well you know or you would attempt to destroy me where I stand." The little girl giggled and rocked back and forth on the edge she perched upon. "Perhaps, but I have been instructed to show you the path to the River Wytch which constrains me." She smiled and showed cute little dimples. "Or perhaps we would have had a go of it." She laughed like tinkling bells and clapped her hands together kicking her feet exuberantly. A twinkle of light sprang up engulfing the little girl and she was gone. Her laughter rang out as the light began to shrink into nothingness. "Seek, for now you know the way. May your courage be enough to take the steps that must be taken." We all looked at each other and Lady Silver released a breath I hadn't realized she was holding. "That could have ended very badly." She said. "Shall we go now?" To be continued.....