Although the unknown criminal had more than a day's advantage over Lora while heading to the base at Spiritwood, Lora had an even better advantage - she was travelling by ship. Before departing from Minoc, she lay a map of Britannia on a table in the ship and calculated how long it would take for her and Michael each to get to Spiritwood. She concluded that the point of their intersection would be a little east of Dungeon Shame, if she left the ship at the river and met him on land.
Four days later, she arrived at the river leading to Shame. She left the ship there, taking her set of Mystics with her, and walked east to encounter the villain at the planes north of Britain. Night was falling when a stranger finally showed up, with a shining white armour lined in gold. Lora drew her sword and approached him.
"Greetings." she told him, to stop him and catch his attention.
"I have no time; I have important b--" he hesitated when noticing Lora's mystic
armour and sword, "business to attend to."
Lora lifted her sword threateningly. "I'm sure thou hast time for a short
conversation."
The man, young and strong, drew a glittering sword, with a jewelled hilt.
"I see no point in continuing to hide this. Thou art after the Mystics just as
I am. It matters not, because thou wilt soon be dead!" With this, he swung his
sword at Lora, who was quick to parry the blow. He swung again and again, and
Lora, on the defensive, kept parrying.
Finally, when a swing was directed at her neck, she ducked and kicked at his legs, tripping him. He rolled backwards and came back on his feet. This time, she thrust her sword at him, and he was forced to defend. At one point, she brought down her Mystic Sword on his sword with all her might, and the impact broke his blade in two. The residual force of the attack came down on his shoulder, wounding him well enough.
Seeing him at her mercy, Lora placed the tip of her sword at his neck and demanded the mystic armour. He promptly removed the armour and threw it on the ground, to avoid further consequences. She then asked of his identity and those he works for. "That is confidential information." he answered, "But I will tell thee that my name is Michael." Lora tied his arms and bandaged his wound lightly. "If thou wilt not tell me everything," she told him, "then thou wilt have to face the Court of Yew.
She led him onto her ship, taking all Mystic armour with her, and locked him in one of the ship's cabins. Now that she had found the missing armour, she was meant to give the ship back to Trebor. However, she decided to do that later, as the ship was still needed - she needed it to take her to Spiritwood quickly so that she could destroy the criminal base once and for all. With that, she sailed south.
© by Daniel D'Agostino 2002-2025