Pavanne for an (Almost) Dead Princess

Pugsy looks around in wonder at the elegant library hall, transformed by decoration into a celebration of books. The beautiful costumes of the revelers are festooned with books themselves or otherwise reflect favorite characters.

A soft voice murmurs near her ear. "Do you know that there is a Cinderella tale in virtually every country and civilization?"

She whirls to see a vaguely familiar figure, quite definitely Varkar, with the rotating antenna resembling a second set of ears signaling nobility.

Her wide-eyed expression evokes a soft smile in the Varkar, and he bows. "Forgive my rudeness, fair one. I should have introduced myself. I am Behli Akaryi, the Head Librarian of Ellak City."

"Pugnose Abernathy, Main Mechanic at Abernathys in Wolfenhague, but most everyone just calls me Pugsy."

"I know we Varkars were scattered after the fall of our homeland, but I had no idea there were some in Crystania."

"Quite a thriving community. In fact, one of our leaders, Maxim Darvan, is a Council Captain for all of Crystania. He also has the sensors, but not as large. We consider ourselves fully Crystanian."

Behli seems either surprised or taken aback by this, but he quickly recovers with a wide smile. "Fascinating, but not more so than you. May I have the honor of a dance, Ms. Abernathy?"

Pugsy blushes and holds out her hand. "Just call me Pugsy. Everyone does."

"Who's with Pugsy?" Nancy asks Izzy. "They've been dancing together most of the night, and they both look extremely happy."

"He's the librarian here--Behli something or other. Supposedly he's from some defunct empire and he has 'nobility sensors' which I guess are a big deal."

"Ah, that's what they are. I thought he was malformed and had four ears."

"Shh! He might be listening," jokes Izzy, and she Nancy burst into laughter.

Larianne is properly dressed and polite to her flock of dance partners, but her heart isn't in it. She misses one partner, the one she dismissed, with every fiber of her being.

And if he returns now, he may not even realize that I had to go. I had to go, because so much depends on this, and I couldn't let my loved ones...

The impact of her thought's meaning hits her, and she whispers aloud, "Oh, Tan, I'm so sorry."

"I forgive you," whispers a voice from the shadows, and a figure costumed as Zorro appears to pull Larianne into his arms. "Missed you too, Girlie!"

When she can breathe again, Larianne asks how he found her.

"Never lost you. We had a lot of help from Master, but we were able to locate all of you, wait for you in Bordertown, and we've been with you ever since."

"The figures in black?"

"Just us: Junu, Lucien, Jack, Djoni, Thorson. You didn't think we'd let anything happen to any of you, did you? Master told us about the library and was able to manage a temporary portal. Evidently, there's also a tunnel, but the Ellak Underground was able to seal it although some of the other forces have been getting through."

"The ones in the tunnel here," Larianne states.

Tanaka nods. "Yes, but it means they don't have the shards, and maybe still don't know what they're looking for and think it's a whole book. We're ahead a bit, at least for now."

"But not for long," Yippina announces, coming up to them. "If you two can manage to wriggle out of each others' arms, we have a crisis!"

When all have quickly assembled in a large alcove and the doors have been sealed, Yippina fills them in on the situation in Sinhae.

"Evidently, the opposing forces found a way to tunnel into the Sinhae library. Princess knew they couldn't hold out against a direct attack, and hid the books she thought would have meaning in a specially sealed nook. Her assistants tried to get her out quickly, but she was badly wounded and could only share a small clue before she lapsed into unconsciousness. She's being kept in an induced coma by the Sinhae healers. We could reach the secret room if we could figure out the code, but Princess is one of the brightest breeds, so she was very cryptic.

"She said: 'alien section...poster...pushpins...Lucy, dog, suede, violet, heaven.' Then she stopped and the healers wouldn't allow us to ask more.

"We believe we have a copy of an alien poster, which we got from Squirrely McGee's 'otherworlds' collection. He took the print as payment for a bar tab. We think it might work since Princess is such a lover of otherworld music. We have to try. We can't let them get their hand on the last shard!"

Yippina rolls out the poster next to a large book entitled Popular Songs of Other Planets: Terra, Volume 78.

"Using these two resources you may be able to decode what she meant. I hope you can!."

, here. this is next

(, have you had a chance to put this up on our thread yet?)