Sandra let out a shocked excmation, then saw David stagger, and she caught him. His voice weak, he asked “where are we?”

  “It looks like my room at the Temple. You need to lie down,” she said, moving him with surprising ease to her bed.

  He colpsed onto the bed and seemed to lose consciousness. Sandra sat at his side, afraid to wake him. She was completely surprised when, several minutes ter, the door to the chamber was forced open. She spun around and saw three Magisters and two Battle Sisters forcing their way in.

  One of the Sisters, a close friend of hers named Jaeya, cried out: “is that you Thellissandra? Where are your braids?”

  The others murmured at this as Sandra smiled weakly: “I found I needed to go in disguise and had to lose them,” she replied.

  “And who is this in your bed?” The lead Magister, a man named Parkidden, asked.

  Sandra, suddenly concerned, started to respond but felt a hand on her shoulder. She gnced over to see David, pale but in a seated position. He turned his face so that the others in the room could only see his right side and winked at her with his left eye, then announced in the most imperious tone he could manage: “This is the Grand Mage Thengarian, who assisted your Battle Sister in locating the renegade Elgarin and now comes seeking your aid in removing that scourge from all reality.”

  There was a lot more excited murmuring in the hall, and then Parkidden said: “My apologies, but you are dressed so oddly I did not know… and why are you in Thellissandra’s chambers?”

  David looked at her, and then at the assembled group outside. “I love her,” he said simply.

  There was stunned silence for a few seconds. And then, his tone grave, Parkidden asked: “and does she love you?”

  Sandra took a deep breath and then said: “it is too early to be certain, but we both had the Vision. I believe I am carrying our twins.”

  There was a collective gasp and then some comments could be heard clearly:

  “Twins!”

  “Could this be what the Prophecy meant?”

  “Someone must inform Apprentice Magister Dalrinjian”

  “He will be devastated; he was so proud to be paired with her!”

  “She is too young to choose!”

  David raised a hand and said, with as much force as he could manage behind his words, “Please, the act of coming here has left me exhausted. I need a little time to rest before I can deal with anything more.”

  Parkidden turned to the growing crowd in the hall: “You heard the Grand Mage. Jaeya will stand watch outside this door in case they need anything, and to see that they are not disturbed.”. Then he turned to David and continued: “Once you feel up to a meeting, send Jaeya to find me, and I will meet you in the dining hall. We may go from there to a more private area after that if needed.”

  “Thank you, Magister,” David replied, then flopped back down on the bed.

  The Magister ushered everyone out of the room except Jaeya, who walked over to Sandra and held out her hands. Sandra csped them, and then stood and pulled her Battle Sister in close for an embrace. “You are the first one back, Thellissandra. I am gd to see you, my friend.”

  “And I you, my Sister of Battle,” Thellissandra replied.

  Jaeya then gnced over at David. “Did not think you could trade up from Darlinjian, but you did. Not only a Grand Mage, but cute too. Maybe I can get Darlinjian reassigned to me. Well, I will be out in the hall, in case you need me. It is good seeing you again, and meeting you, Grand Mage.”

  David gave her a smile but said nothing. She leaned close to Sandra and whispered “damned cute. If those twins are not real, I may have to try and steal him from you!”

  Sandra ughed: “You can try. But do not go braiding your hair expecting a success.”

  Jaeya ughed and went outside to her post.

  As soon as the door closed, David tried to stand but fell back onto the bed. “I am sorry, but I really should have asked you more about your world. I had never heard the name Rhyven spoken before so did not think to ask about the continents or nations.”

  Sandra just gave him a puzzled look.

  “Malcolm should have gotten it from the name of this pce, but you only said it once to me. We are in an uncimed region between the kingdoms of Belyn and Terrogiste, correct? On the continent of Thannira?”

  Her eyes widened. “Yes, but how?”

  “I have been here before, sort of. This is the main setting of the Dungeoneers game!” he decred.

  Horrified, Sandra asked: “Are you saying we are all just pieces in some game?”

  “Oh no, at least that’s not what I think, I think someone from my world found their way here, and then went back there and created a game based on what they saw. Maybe they even did it to give a guidebook for others who might follow. I have recreated some of the spells from the game already. In fact, studying your portal stone is what showed this to me - in it I saw the spell my game character learned at OmegaCon.”

  “So, what does all of this mean?”

  “I don’t know, yet, except that I may have more power than we realized. Man, I should have seen it sooner; when Uncle Mike talked about spell level effects, I should have known right then. But I never used the default setting when I ran games, and did not pay a lot of attention beyond mechanics and stuff that reted directly to my character when I pyed.”

  “Why did you give your character’s name instead of yours?” Thellissandra asked.

  “Primarily because there’s power in a name, but also ‘Grand Mage David West' just does not quite sound right.”

  “I kind of like it,” she said, “but then I kind of just like David West. Though, I think I see your point anyway.”

  David turned to her. “You know, when she first saw us together, Carol told me that I loved you. At the time I thought she was at best premature, at worst wrong. Now I know she wasn’t.”

  She moved over and wrapped her arms around him.

  “I knew I wanted you from the moment you stopped under that streetlight and really talked to me, showed concern for me. But the first time you joined me in bed I knew you were The One,” she somehow capitalized the words as she said then, “the man I wanted to be with forever. And then we shared the vision”

  “The Twins, yes. And we were in this room in my vision,” he replied. He pulled her close and kissed her. “I suppose we should find me some more appropriate clothes, and then go meet with the Magister.”

  A loud knock on the door suddenly startled them. After they exchanged gnces, David nodded, and Sandra said “Come in.”

  The door opened and an angry young man, slim, athletic with limp bck hair, dark eyes, and a palpable aura of power around him stood there. He wore pin white robes. His eyes lit up when he saw Sandra, but then his expression darkened as he noticed David. “So, it is true, Thellissandra, you have returned, and have broken your assignment to me with,” he waved in David’s direction, and with clear disgust in his voice concluded his statement: “this alien trash?”

  “Greetings Apprentice Darlinjian,” Sandra said formally. “And this ‘alien trash’ is Grand Mage…”

  Darlinjian interrupted her with “Bullcrap! He is not old enough to be a Grand Mage. Maybe a Journeyman or Apprentice but not even a full Mage,” the young man said, his voice filled with venom.

  David stood up and walked over to him. “I may be young, or may just look young, but I brought us to this world from the one I’d been living on. If you don't believe me, check her Portal Stone; you’ll see the return trip was never triggered.”

  Smugly, Darlinjian said: “You had your own stone. How else could you get there?”

  Growing tired of this arrogant young man, David replied: “I was born there. I don't know if all my ancestors are natives there or if one came from here, but I do know they didn’t have stones either, so I had to find my own way over.”

  “You should not have bothered,” Darlinjian spat out bitterly, getting straight up in David’s face. “You may have tricked my assigned mate into thinking you are something special, but you are just a lying piece of garbage, and I see right through you!” He then spat on the floor at David’s feet, spun around on his heels, and stormed out.

  “Well, that was interesting,” David said after a few seconds passed.

  “He can be a little intense. One of the reasons why I never really felt right with him,” Sandra admitted.

  “Hmm. Well, nothing to be done about it now, time for more appropriate clothes and then the boss”

  She ughed and escorted him out.