“So I guess you know him,” Tiffany giggled slightly, while gently stroking Mongo’s face while he groaned fitfully in his sleep.

“Mik’Hail?” Le’Nara asked, raising an eyebrow towards Tiffany. “We’re old friends. After all, he is my business partner in Heartstone Enterprises.”

“I’m sorry that we don’t know what happened to him,” Tiffany replied, sounding a little downfallen. “He saved us from a horrible fate, and we don’t even know what happened to him. We’re going to have to go back and search for him once Crystal and Ghost wakes up.”

“Don’t bother,” Le’Nara muttered moodily, shaking her head. “The jackass has done something completely unthinkable and then up and died. I’m going to kill him, just as soon as I restore him,” she whispered coolly.

“Kill him? Restore him? I don’t understand,” Tiffany puzzled.

“He’s dead,” Le’Nara stated calmly and coldly. “I’m certain of that now, after spending some time here. The jackass’s soul is here with us, half stuck in that damnable sword and half stuck in her.” Flicking a finger, she pointed to Crystal.

“It’s why she’s not waking. A body isn’t built to contain one and a half spirits; hers is trying to somehow adjust to the problem Mik’Hail’s spirit is causing inside it. That inner turmoil is what is keeping her from waking.”

“That sounds bad,” Tiffany murmured, chewing on her nails. “Is there anything that can be done for her? For him?”

“Not with my talents,” Le’Nara ruefully answered, shaking her head sadly from side to side. “His best chance is for us to return him to his mother for now and see if she can be of any assistance. I have learned enough to see the problem, but have nowhere near the confidence or recklessness to try and fix the problem. No one would be that stupidly reckless.”

“Michael would!” Tiffany burst out giggling madly. “I bet he’d do something to fix the problem!”

“And do it all wrong to boot,” Le’Nara added, sounding disgusted. “The reckless fool has never studied the first thing about healing, nor souls, and yet he went and somehow tried to merge spirits together! Death herself would reap him, if she knew of what he’s done. Some things man isn’t supposed to meddle with!”

“But I’m happy he did it,” Tiffany pouted, pooching her lower lip out slightly. “After all, thanks to him, I’m happily married now and going to have babies with a knight.”

“Tell me of this knighting,” Le’Nara said, abruptly changing the subject.

“Sure!” Tiffany half bounced and Mongo groaned a few times. As his eyes fluttered a few times and tried to open, Tiffany waved a hand across them and a slight glow of white magic settled gentle across his face. Soon, he was peacefully sleeping again. “He’s modest and doesn’t want anyone to brag on him,” she explained, giggling gently.

“I see,” Le’Nara said, cocking an eyebrow up slightly. “I suppose whatever you say will simply be between us girls then.”

“Uh huh! I like girly talk!” Stroking his hair gently once again, Tiffany leaned down and lightly kissed Mongo on the forehead. “He’s a good guy you know. He blames himself for what happened to our group, but it’s not his fault. Honestly, I think it was all that merchant’s fault.”

“Merchant? What merchant,” Le’Nara asked, feeling the cold starting to build back up inside her. Doves didn’t assign guilt or place blame. For one to even mention that someone was at fault for something was a red flag all by itself.

“I don’t know,” Tiffany said, pouting lightly. “David -- one of our friends who went with us and didn’t come back – David said that a merchant had given him a map of the location of a graveyard up north. That some hunter had stumbled across the place and reported it to him. He took that to his counselor and the school assigned the task to him. He didn’t want to lead it though, so he asked for it to be given to Mongo instead.

“I never thought about it at the time,” Tiffany mused, “but looking back on it, something seemed off even back then. Why didn’t the hunter report the problem himself? Why didn’t we get to talk to the merchant? Why did David turn the task over to someone else, without leading it himself? Looking back, I think something fishy was going on even from the beginning.”

“Like what?” Le’Nara prompted.

“I don’t know.” Shrugging her shoulders slightly, Tiffany chewed her lower lip gingerly. “All I can be certain about now is that David changed really fast once we got to the graveyard, but none of the rest of us did. Michael thought that the graveyard was corrupting us through our magic. The thing is, David didn’t have any real magics.”

“And yet, he was the first to be corrupted,” Le’Nara mused.

“He was,” Tiffany confirmed, before admitting with a whisper, “I think he might have been exposed to the corruption or weakened to it somehow, before we ever even got there. It was like bathing a pig in barbeque sauce even before you kill it. I think someone had picked him out and set him up from the very beginning.”

“That’s troublesome,” Le’Nara muttered as she started to twirl her fingers through her own long hair in absent distraction. “I’ll have to speak to Puss-puss later about the possibility.” Coughing loudly, she cleared her throat and raised her voice, “But, that’s for later as well. Go on and tell me about your man and his knighting, dear.”

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“Okies!” Ruffling his hair, Tiffany looked down and smiled broadly towards Mongo. “Mongo took the task from the school and helped gather all of us together. David, Mongo, Skeet, Me, Ghost, and Megan – that was the members of our group. Mongo led us up the road, through the forest, and we found the area which David claimed was what we were looking for. It was a little spooky up there, but nothing too bad at first. Just not a lot of life or animals.

“And then, we started digging up some of the hillsides. David was looking for something and he convinced Mongo that we needed to gather samples to take back to the school so they could figure out how old the graves were and such. I didn’t think that was bad,” Tiffany giggled. “Why would the dead complain over the living collecting pieces of them? They’re dead and dancing with the angels already. They shouldn’t mind.”

“They shouldn’t,” Le’Nara agreed, before adding warningly, “but sometimes they do.”

“Uh huh,” Tiffany nodded. “But those are probably all mean souls and down in the Hells anyway. None of the dead complained to us anyway about gathering samples,” she added, laughing slightly.

“Not many would. Not to you, I don’t think,” Le’Nara agreed, smiling slightly. “So what happened next?” Taking a deep breath, Le’Nara ordered herself to be patient. All she was curious about at the moment was the knighting, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell Tiffany that and take a chance that it might harm the smile on her face as she rambled on about her man.

“After that, things get a little hard for me to sort out,” Tiffany admitted, frowning slightly. “David started having nightmares. And then we found our way down into the tunnels. Or wait…” Pausing, Tiffany tried to sort it out in her head. “Maybe we found the tunnels and then David started having the nightmares? I’m not certain now.”

Frowning, she was silent for several long moments, biting her lower lip so hard it began to bleed. “I just can’t sort it all out. Things get all hazy and confused at that point. Something happened with David and he ran off with Ghost, and I just can’t put the pieces back together. I just don’t know. I got sick myself around that point and my memories are all muddled up.”

“Honestly, I don’t even remember how Michael fixed us. Things get all hazy and then the next thing I know I’m feeling a whole lot better and I can find Mongo wrapped all around me and holding me tight. Even when he’s not with me, I can still feel his strong arms wrapped around me and always holding me tight and keeping me safe.” Beaming brightly, she leaned down and kissed Mongo several times on his forehead before looking back up. “It was after that, that Michael knighted Mongo. I guess he saw how special and great he is, as he knighted him.”

Nodding slightly, Le’Nara sat up to pay closer attention. “Tell me exactly what he said and how he knighted him.”

“It was a funny ceremony,” Tiffany said, giggling slightly. “Michael made Mongo kneel and then he tapped him on one shoulder with his sword and then the other, and finally on the first shoulder again. It was lovely! He told Mongo, ‘Mongo, you have been judged! You have been judged. Judged and found worthy!”

Giggling lightly, Tiffany coughed and cleared her throat. In her deepest girly voice, she tried to imitate Michael. “By my authority, as Young Lord Mik’hail of the House of Dancing Flames; High Champion of The First Daughter of Andor, Protector and Guardian of the Heir to the Throne of the Shining Star; do hereby dub thee Sir Mongo, Knight Protector of The People!”

“And that was that! Mongo became Sir Mongo!”

Laughing ruefully, Le’Nara slowly rubbed her face. “That poor jackass.”

“Who?” Tiffany asked, curious.

“Both of them – Mik’Hail and Mongo,” Le’Nara answered, smirking slightly. “I don’t think either of them understands what Mik’Hail did. He invoked the name and authority of Andor when he knighted Sir Mongo. He’s an Andorian Knight now; the first chosen and named by the Heir’s Champion – and probably without knowing a single thing about Andorian law, customs, and responsibilities.”

Slowly, Le’Nara shook her head from side to side before grinning broadly. “He’s going to have to head to Andor and introduce himself to the Queen and the Heir. That should be something interesting to watch,” Le’Nara laughed, not bothering to hide her mirth. “Mo etiquette, no knowledge of the ways and proper procedures of his position! Lords above, that should be one interesting day at court.”

“We’re going to see the Queen and meet the court of Andor?” Tiffany couldn’t contain her excitement and bounced up. THUD! Mongo’s head fell from her lap and thumped the floor hard enough to make him sit up and rub it. Blinking his eyes in confusion, he wearily asked, “What’s going on?”

“We’re going to Andor so you can meet the Queen and Heir!” Squealing in excitement, Tiffany tugged him up and hugged him tightly.

Trying to blink past his confusion, Mongo asked, “Right now?”, which caused Tiffany to just giggle and snuggle even more tightly into his arms.