“Sable – no!”
Savrin gasped, as he crawled to his friend’s side, and then held the ferret’s
head in his lap.  “Sable….”

Zephyr lay almost unconscious, having worn the
worst of the effects, and Diane and Abbalion were still only just recovering,
when Savrin gently lay Sable’s head on the ground, and rose, the look of
pure hate in his eyes revealing that which gave him strength, as he stomped
over to where Yuira lay, the Weasel clutching the mortal injury in her
chest.

 “I’m going…to kill…you.” Savrin snarled,
his hands clutching her throat as he squeezed.

 “Hah – ” Rasped Yuira.  “Too late –
pup….  Your pet ferret – already has…I’m dying – and you won’t get…the
pleasure of my death….”

 

Savrin gasped and shuddered, as he reeled back
from Yuira, clutching a three bladed dagger that had seemingly grown from
his stomach.  Yuira giggled, blood foaming on her muzzle, as she convulsed
and gasped, that last act nearly completely draining her strength.

 “You…bitch….” Savrin gurgled, as his hands
grasped the dagger, and he crumpled to knees.

 “See you…in hell…pup.” Yuira’s choking gurgle
came.

 “No – ” Came a low, croaking gasp. 
“You won’t Yuira – “

 

With the strength borne from desperation, Coral’mi
rose on her shaking legs and stumbled over to Savrin’s side, then pressed
her paws against his head.  Savrin screamed feebly, then went limp,
as Coral’mi gritted her teeth and tore the dagger free – using some hidden
reserves of strength to seal the wound and save the hybrid’s life. Yuira
groaned feebly, using her hate to keep herself alive, but even that took
more strength than she had – Sable’s attack had been a two pronged one
– and had severed her powers as easily as it had flesh and fur.

 Coral’mi hobbled to Yuira’s side, then knelt
and the tears ran down her muzzle, as she placed her furred paws on Yuira’s
stomach, then gasped, as the empathic link between healer and patient transferred
every ounce of Yuira’s pain into the already grievously injured Coral’mi. 
Biting her tongue, Coral’mi fought down the agony, and drawing once again
on the hidden reserves, she began to pour her magicks into Yuira’s belly…

 “You…waste your…energies…” Gasped
Yuira.  “I’m dying – you can’t…save me.”

 Coral’mi blinked away her tears, as she
stared down at Yuira.  “I’m not crying because of you – I will not
save you Yuira – you brought this on yourself – I am saving something far
more precious than you….  It is that – that I cry for.”

Yuira summoned all her hate, and lashed out at
Coral’mi, who visibly flinched and then reeled away, clutching her belly
and gasping in sudden agony, Yuira’s final blood-choked gurgle ringing
forth.

 “You – failed water horse!”

 Coral’mi shuddered and rubbed her stomach,
trying to stop the agony that blazed through her body, accompanied by the
sickening nausea.  With the last reserves draining like her blood
from her injured throat, Coral’mi hobbled away, then paused

and looked back over her shoulder at the dying
Yuira, watching her final moments, the tears sliding down her cheeks.

 “No – I succeeded – it is you – who have
failed.”  Coral’mi spoke softly.

With that, Coral’mi turned away, and heard Yuira’s
last – tortured breath escape her mortal body….

 Days later, the sky filled with the twinkling
of stars that glittered in the firmament like diamonds scattered over the
darkest velvet, the friends gathered in a small grove, as Diane stood beside
the openly weeping Coral’mi, who finished the rituals and bowed her head,
letting her tears streak down her equine snout and drip on to the ground.
They had buried Sable’s body in this grove, the freshly dug earth still
wafting with the smell, Sable’s sword buried point first in the ground
at the head of the grave – a fitting grave marker for a proud, noble warrior. 
One by one, they made their way from the grove – leaving only Savrin behind,
who dropped to his knees at the edge of the grave, then pressed his head
against the soil, his grief inconsolable.

 “Sable – forgive me – ” Savrin wept bitterly,
as his voice cracked with the emotion he tried to suppress.  “You
were…like a brother to me – I owe you…my life.”

 As a gentle rain started to fall, Savrin
looked up, feeling the cooling rain on his face, and he watched through
eyes filled with tears, as a falling star shot across the heavens, leaving
a gleaming sparkle in its wake, that slowly faded away.  Distantly,
there was the low rumble of thunder, as if Sable’s spectre was laughing….

 Wearily, Savrin climbed to his feet, just
as Coral’mi came back in to the grove, and touched his shoulder.

 “Savrin – its time to go home.”  Coral’mi
whispered.

 “Home?” Savrin wept, as he felt Coral’mi’s
paw on his shoulder.  “I have no home…”

 Coral’mi sighed softly, then gently pulled
the sobbing hybrid against her chest and held him, as she stroked his head
tenderly, feeling the grief that was tearing him apart.

 “Yes you do – ” Coral’mi whickered quietly,
as she hugged him tight.  “Its time to go home – back to our true
time…its over Savrin.  Yuira is dead – you know that now – “

 “Give me a moment – ” Savrin’s feeble cry
croaked.  “Please?”

 

Coral’mi nodded, then stepped back to join the
others, and began chanting quietly, weaving the powerful spell that would
open a portal between the past and the future. Savrin turned back to the
grave, and then he knelt on one knee and pressed his hands to the earth,
sinking his fingers into the loam.

“Sable – may you…find peace…in the afterlife. 
I…love…you…my brother.”

A faint ripple ran through him, as Savrin felt
the portal form behind him.  Rising slowly to his feet, he bowed again,
then turned and walked back to his friends – and together – they stepped
through the emerald green portal – and vanished….

 Savrin grunted and stumbled over Abbalion,
who had tumbled through the portal and tripped when he had entered the
portal, back in the past.  Untangling themselves, they stood and looked
around the dark summoning chambers – that were at once familiar – but also…unlike
anything they had ever seen.  Where once it had been a bright, friendly
place, it was now dark and lit by flickering torches, and Coral’mi gasped
in horror, her paws flying to her muzzle as the others turned to look at
her – then down at the blood inscribed pentagram that surrounded them.

 “Oh no – ” Coral’mi gasped.

 Zephyr growled, as he tore his cloak off
– revealing a Tai’far wrist-talon on his belt.  Quickly, he slid his
hand into it, and then went seething across the summoning chamber – screaming
in rage as he ripped open the door and fled beyond it.

 “Zephyr – wait!” Coral’mi shrieked.

Savrin growled and unsheathed his katana, then
Diane produced a pair of daggers, and Abbalion produced a slender rapier. 
Coral’mi remained unarmed, as she abhorred violence.  From outside
came horrible screams and the sound of battle, and the three friends wasted
no time, and roared like demons across the summoning chamber, Abbalion
and Savrin breaking down the door, which sent them spilling out into the
corridor.  They found a hallway seething with black robed figures,
who wielded a variety of knives, swords, maces and other weapons – as at
the far end of the hall, with open doorways flanking her to the left and
right, stood a badly wounded Mother Celestine – her ears pasted flat as
the sweat stung her eyes, but she laid about her with her staff, numerous
opponents laying motionless.  With a roar like a dragon, Zephyr threw
himself into the fray, the wrist-talons ripping the black robed anthro’s
and humans apart, as Zephyr’s rage grew with each and every kill – his
dewlaps pulled back in feral, bloodthirsty rage…as he headed directly for
Celestine.

 “Zephyr – no!” Savrin screamed, his face
going white as he realised what Zephyr was going to do.

Savrin suddenly convulsed then screamed, as against
his will, his body became the vessel for a power far stronger – and his
arm came up – then threw the katana like a javelin…

 “Arrrgh….” Zephyr grunted – as the Katana
flew straight, then punched through his back, erupting from the other side. 
He staggered onwards, the wrist-talons held ready, but each step grew slower
and more heavy – as the Katana began to glow with a brilliant silvery light
– a light that started to burn through Zephyr’s body, spreading faster
and faster.

 “I’ll…kill you….” Zephyr grunted as he dragged
himself another step closer to the battling Celestine.  “You…die…now….
You…urk….”

Zephyr convulsed and dropped to his knees, then
slumped forwards, only the blade keeping his body from completely falling
flat to the floor.  As Zephyr collapsed, a shadowy form materialised
from his body – a shadow that had the form and evil intent – that they
knew well…

 It was Yuira –

 Solidifying, the ghostly Yuira leapt onto
Mother Celestine, then it hissed and buried its spectral jaws into her
neck, as its paws pressed in against her chest.  Mother Celestine’s
mouth flew open, as the spirit bucked against her, then grunted as it bucked
again – and sucked Celestine’s life force and her powers. Letting the dried,
desiccated corpse collapse, Yuira turned and wiped her muzzle with a ghostly
paw – then threw back her head and screamed in triumph as she stared at
the horrified Savrin, Diane, Abbalion and Coral’mi.

 “Hahahahahaha – ” Yuira’s shade cackled
threateningly.  “I promised I would return…”

 With a sharp grunt, Zephyr pulled himself
from the katana, and then lunged – the bloodied blade driving itself through
Yuira’s shadowy heart and lodging itself in the wall behind her.

 “Urk – ” Yuira grunted, then clutched the
blade in her paws, her eyes going wide in terror, as she looked up into
the muzzle of the Firewolf who had run her through.

 “No Yuira – you’re going…” Zephyr gurgled,
as he pushed the blade deeper.  “Too hell – and I’m going to take…you
there…personally!  Kira – now!”

 “Noooo!” Screamed Yuira’s shade…

 In the explosion that ensued, knocking Abbalion,
Diane and Coral’mi unconscious, they were not witness to the sacrifice
of Zephyr, who twisted the blade and then snapped it – and freed Kira’s
soul….

 Days afterwards, Abbalion and Savrin were
sitting alone in the dining room, talking quietly of their combined grief
for the noble sacrifices of Sable.  Also the death of Zephyr – with
his selfless sacrifice – and Kira’s destruction.  Savrin had taken
the death of his brother hard – but he acknowledged why Zephyr had done
what he did – as none of them had realised that Yuira had fled to the Firewolf
– only Kira had known, and she had driven Yuira free of him – and given
him the strength to do what had to be done – sacrificing her own existence
in the process….

 Abbalion put down his coffee, and he toyed
with it for a moment, and then looked at Savrin meaningfully.  “Savrin
– did you know – Yuira was…with child?”

 “She was what?” Savrin gasped, his empty
cup falling from his nerveless paws.

 Abbalion rubbed his aching eyes and nodded
slowly.  “Its true – Yuira was with child – I wonder if Coral’mi knew?”

 Savrin shuddered, and then pushed away his
half-eaten meal, his stomach knotting in horror.  “Oh Great Mother
– do you think she knew?

Abbilion looked down at his trembling paws. 
“I…I do not think so – she was so weak – after what Yuira had done to her
– her powers nearly completely drained…I do not think she knew – it’d be
best that she didn’t – mother Coral’mi has suffered – enough – don’t you
think?

 Outside the dining room, on her way past,
Coral’mi had heard their voices and her curiosity aroused, she had paused,
her long ears twitching back and forth as she overheard them, then she
gasped, slumping back against the wall, as she squeezed her sea-green eyes
tightly closed.  Coral’mi then turned and fled up the hallway, bolting
past Diane, tears streaking down her face.

 “Mother – what – ” Diane called out to her.

 Coral’mi fled the college, then down the
stairs, blinded by her tears.  Outside, Coral’mi ran until her lungs
nearly bust, and she collapsed under a tree, sobbing and beating the earth,
clawing at it as the hot tears streak down her muzzle.

 “Oh Great Sea’s – what have I done….”
Coral’mi wept, as she rubbed her webbed paws over her slightly bulging
belly, her inner senses reaching out and caressing the small life that
grew within her. “What…have…I…done?”