What is death?  Can a ghost die?  Do the undead ever truly perish?

Two weeks went by as everyone was trying to find a way out of Arkess.  Jude and Ellie studied the teleportation circle, Krinn and Nellie took to exploring the city, and Wen dragged Cairfray along the outskirts.

Jude found the idea of teleportation quite appealing and also figured it would be their only way to escape.  The surface structure of the circle was already very complicated, but that was only the tip of the iceberg.  The more he delved into the teleportation array the great its complexity rose.  It was like trying to read gallifrayan.*

But the major problem everyone faced was the sense of dread still prevailed the city.  It made it hard to focus on any task and made you think that there was an enemy around every corner.  No one ever ventured off alone.

The storm itself blocked most of the light and only at mid-day was there relief from all feelings of oppression, for it was the only time the sun could shine directly onto the city.

Fortunately, they had plenty of supplies, and now that Ellie was able to provide Jude with a full stock of brushes again, water wasn’t an issue.  But these things were the least of Jude’s worries.

He wondered if by killing this ghost he had created a bigger problem than before.  Maybe they should have just fled from the Resentment and its minions rather than fight them head on.  But then how would they have escaped the storm?  There were just too many if’s and variables for Jude to see the whole picture.

A powerful wind blew over the city sending chills down Jude’s spine.  Mid-day was over; this was always the sign.

Jude’s thoughts turned dark once again as he continued to work on the never-ending complexity of teleportation.  He realized that it would probably take him years to understand the structure of this device, but that wasn’t what he was after.  All he needed was to get it to work once.

Then something caught his eye.  Most of the time he examined the array with or to get a better understanding of its structure.  But just then he had been distracted by the wind and returned to his normal vision.  He looked, and he saw a crack.  Not that this was strange by itself, there were many cracks along the array.  But this one crack split in two and formed back, creating a shard in the middle.

At first examination, the shard and cracks seemed like all the others, but as Jude looked at it more, he realized that it wasn’t a naturally formed crack.  There was purpose to this crack and purpose to this shard.  He looked at it again with but saw nothing out of the ordinary.  Then he used on the array and focused on that spot, but was shocked to find it empty.  It was like the crack and shard did not exist.

Then he bent down and put his hand on the shard.  The first thing he noticed was the amount of sand that stuck to it.  Much like particles adhering to static, so did sand stick to this shard making it blend in with all the other parts of the array.  But once he picked up the shard and rubbed off the sand, he found an incredibly beautiful crystal. 

It was an odd thing.  Before he picked it up, not a shred of power or life could be felt from the array or anything nearby besides himself and Ellie.  But once he had it in his hand, he could feel it pulsing with power.  Just to test he put it back down on the ground and again he could not feel the power from it.  It was only when he physically touched the thing that he was able to feel its energy.

It was like it was shielded.

This made Jude excited.  One of his biggest problems had been a way to power up the array.  Yes, it was damaged, but it didn’t stop the array from teleporting at least one or two people.  If he could send everyone out by twos, it was just as good as sending them all out at once.  Fixing the array would take far too long, even if Ellie had managed to patch a few parts.

Ellie was a genius in her own right.  She didn’t understand some of the more complexities of spatial travel, but she did understand how some of the structures of the array were built.  This was something Jude didn’t understand.  Ellie had already repaired some of the structural elements that supported the array and made it function properly.

Jude handed Ellie the shard, “Take a look at this.”

“What is this?” Ellie asked just as surprised as Jude had been.

“I think it might be a shielded power source.  It gathered the surrounding sand to blend in with the arrays stone surface.” Jude told her. “Help me see if there are more.”

They looked for some time around the array with little results, and after a while, Ellie started examining the .  Jude found several other crevices where a shard could be, but they were missing.

“If the array has at least one stone,” Ellie said to Jude, “Then it would make sense that the has something similar, right?”

“I guess that makes sense. It’s part of the array.” Jude replied. “But when the was alive, it should have more than enough power on its own to operate without external power.”

“I guess that’s true,” Ellie said as she was still absorbed with her examination of the . “But it could be for that resonance thing you are always talking about.  You know with items skills.”

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Jude hadn’t thought of that. Perhaps there was another crystal in the .  He continued to let her search, working out her own ideas and he went back to what he was doing.  It was good that they didn’t agree all the time, this way they could come up with different solutions and find possibilities that would be broader.

He examined the shard he had more closely and used .  The first thing he saw were the properties, all of them read .  He tried to see if it had any circuitry embedded into it but was blocked.  He was starting to think that this stone wasn’t man made, but some sort of naturally created wonder.

Jude then when back to the spots that were missing their crystals and cleaned them out.  Each spot was a perfect fit for the shard that he had.  He began to wonder if this crystal was a one of a kind thing and each slot in the array was used to fine tune the teleportation or teleport to places or... maybe continents.

Just as Jude was pondering this Ellie exclaimed, “Ah, I actually did find one!”

Jude got up and rushed over to see a shard in her hands as well.

“And it’s much bigger than yours,” she said with a smirk.

It was true; his shard fit into the palm of his hand while the shard Ellie found was the size of a banana.  They were different colors too; Jude’s was so clear that it almost seemed like it emitted light while Ellie’s was dark and clouded.  On closer examination, you could even see the dark clouds move inside.

“May I?” Jude asked as he held out his hand so that he could examine it.

“You really are jealous?!” she said with a fake shocked expression.

“Ha ha, very funny,” Jude said in a monotone voice, “but enough jokes, let me see it.”

“No,” Ellie said as her face twisted, “I found it.  It’s mine.”

Jude was beginning to have a bad feeling about this newest shard.  “I’ll give it back.  I just want to examine it and see how it is different from the first one we found.”

“After all, I’ve done for you; you want to take this away from me?” Ellie asked as her voice started to become shrill.

“Ellie, I think something is wrong with that shard.  You should put it down.” Jude said.

“No! This is mine,” Ellie said as she pulled out her hammer in her other hand while desperately clutching the shard to her chest.

Jude had to act quickly before dropped out of the party and literally did start fighting with him.  He unleashed a dozen blades of leaving no escape for the shard.  And Jude was right, Ellie was just about to drop from the party and start attacking, but the interfered with the shards control over her.

The black clouds from inside the shard burst out to protect itself, but there was no way for it to protect itself and retain control over Ellie.  After she had regained just the tiniest bit of control, she released the shard, and it fell to the ground.

She ran over to Jude’s side with a sick expression on her face.

“Jude I’m so sorry!” she told him.

“It’s okay, that shard was controlling you,” Jude said as he prepared to fight what was about to come.

“That’s just it. I wasn’t being controlled.  I really had those thoughts…”

“Then you were being manipulated.  Don’t think too much about it.”

Now that the shard didn’t have a host, it was visibly weakened.  The dark cloud shrank down to a tiny sized humanoid figure.  Jude immediately recognized the tattered robes and crown of sin on its head.

“You’re that ghost, Resentment?!” Jude was shocked to find out that it was still alive.

Resentment replied, “You think you can kill me so easily?  I have hidden here for two weeks watching you and the others.  You have some power, and you are very similar to that Archmage, the Wizard King.”

“So what are you?” Jude asked.

The spirit laughed, “Who am I?  I am death!”

The dark cloud burst out like an arrow and Jude retaliated with a blade made of .  But the blade went right through the cloud, and the ghost’s attack on Jude struck him directly in the chest.  Even his was no use to protect him against the assault.  But then, it didn’t do any damage.

The cloud tried to burrow into him, into his thoughts, and into his soul.  The dark cloud enveloped his entire body seeking to control everything about him.  But while it was doing that, a bright light burst out of Jude’s hand.  It was the crystal shard he found earlier, the very crystal that led to the discovery of the second crystal.

“That crystal?!” Resentment sounded in shock, “How can it be THAT crystal?!  It should have been one of the copies!  How is the original still here!?”

Light poured out of the crystal clearing Jude’s mind and body of the dark cloud.  It shrank back in fear and screeched in agony.

Jude was quite pleased with the situation, “It seems you are destined never to complete your plans.  Now tell me, who are you?”

Resentment sighed, “I am the . Or was. Sort of. I was the original Switch of this stone, but when that traitorous ‘hero’ killed me, the absorbed that last bit of my mind.”

Finally, Jude was going to get some answers, “What is this crystal shard? What do you mean it is the original?”

Resentment started explaining in great detail about the shard and what it was used for.  But Jude began to pick up that a lot of what he was saying was nonsense. 

“Do you think I’m an idiot?” Jude asked. “I’ve spent a great deal of time studying this array, and I know gonn thad** when I hear it.”

The spirit paused for a moment before answering.  Then he looked Jude straight in the eyes and said, “Because that crystal is the only thing that can harm me and I needed time to distract you.”

At that moment the teleportation array blazed to light.  Jude felt the power of space folding and beginning to tear open a whole.

Resentment said, “Without that control shard in place you be teleported at random.  And with no focus, you might end up in the sky or well underneath the earth.  Either way, this is your death.”

The way space was now bending made it incredibly hard to move.  Even with the shard in hand, he wouldn’t make it in time to place it back into one of the slots.  This was when he unleashed once again.

Like a blade, it cut through the spatial lock and allowed Jude to bend down and insert the crystal into the stone floor.  Then with another sweep of , he made his way towards the dark crystal.  He wasn’t strong enough to stop the teleportation, so if he had to leave, he didn’t want to leave behind this dangerous crystal.

Shock again appeared on the ghost’s face, “What?! How are you doing this?”

“You’ve experienced my more than once, and you still don’t know what it is?” Jude asked.  But then he realized that this magic was different than other magics.  Only Jude could see the disruption blade.   When Resentment had blocked the attack earlier, it had been out of reflex to danger.

“Nooo!” Resentment yelled at Jude as he picked up the crystal.

He was concerned it would possess him like it did Ellie, but the risk was worth it when he thought about his friends.  He was just in time too.  The teleportation activated just as he grabbed the shard.

The power had built up, and a bright light was shining all around.  Then the beam of light shot into the sky as they were teleported away to lands unknown.