April, Emma and Derek stop to rest a half-hour's travel from the Vixen Temple. "How's your arm?" April asks. "It's a little itchy," Emma replies, touching the bandage of cloth torn from April's pants. "But nothing to worry about. Katerina will make it better again. How's your wrist, Derek?" Derek sits on a rock, clutching his similarly-bandaged wrist tightly to his chest. "Well..." he begins, finding breath between ongoing waves of nausea, "I'm glad I never bothered learning the piano." April smiles and takes a knee beside him. "Derek, who were those men?" "Arcanorian warriors," he explains. "They're from Arcanor, funnily enough. Lucistra told her mother about the help I've been giving you and Emma. Sinistra went mad. She called upon Alana, the Goddess of Lust. Next thing we knew, Arcanorian warriors were swarming into the Temple. They locked me in the dungeon, and banished my men into the wasteland. Today though...my men came back...so loyal..." He starts to get emotional. "I'm sorry about your men," April says. She touches his neck soothingly. Derek nods and fights back the tears. "The Arcanorians are dark and deadly. Sinistra is mad to be making deals with them; she doesn't realise what she's getting herself into." "What is this Arcanor?" April asks. "Where is it?" "It is the world of the Goddesses. The warriors were bred and trained there to serve the Goddesses. But as they grew in skill, and as the Goddesses fell in number, they became haughty and restless. Honour and duty were replaced by a lust for power. They became mercenaries." "I've heard of Arcanor," April says, looking dreamily down into the valley below. "I dreamt about it. I was lying before a great stone palace set at the mouth of a beautiful green valley, and it was crumbling right in front of me." "The Palace of Valor," Derek says, absent-mindedly touching the tourniquet tied around his arm. "It lies in ruins now." "Valor?" April asks, shocked. "The Goddess of Valor spoke to me in my dream! She said the time has come for me to remember." "Yes," Derek says, wincing as a fresh bolt of pain races up his arm from his severed wrist. "The time has come. I need to tell you a story..." Credits: Arizona by Dark_Whisper Outlander from DAZ MCFS from DAZ Jeff by Spectre3 Landscape generated using TerraGen Characters posed in Poser Rendered in Vue