HIATUS

"This is it?" Aildrin said. He looked around the room and found nothing out of the ordinary. "I got the part that it's somehow empty, but where's the throne? And where's that thief? SleepNot! She's inhuman!"

Silas' eyes crinkled at the corners. "Judging by the blood at the entrance and stairs, you must have taught her quite a lesson," he said. He then returned to his barrel and refilled his flagon.

"Me?" Aildrin glanced outside the room and found SleepNot's lifeless body on the stairs. He then stared at his hands and found blood in them. The pain in his head returned.

"Kain corrupted your soul, young man. It's a good thing you lost that sword. How did it find its way to your hand?"

Aildrin reached for his waist and realized that his belt was missing and he was wearing a fresh set of clothes. A jet-black one-piece leather suit with furry white outlines covered him.

"Who's this Kain? And the flamberge...it just felt familiar that time, and it was the loudest of all the weapons."