Kruag knew where he'd find his wife. He walked down the long air-bridge in the midst of one of the least traveled corridors of the ancient fortress of Shalmiraine to the 'Elemental' room, as Vree had named it. A wall had opened seamlessly about a year before, revealing the enigmatic room for examination. Shalmiraine was over four million years old and no one knew of the builders or purpose of the mysterious fortress that had haunted the inhabitants of the planet Balaam. Vree sat on the very edge of the air-bridge, adjacent to the glowing green 'Earth' symbol. She knew better than to touch it. All who were foolish enough to touch it burned their hands with terrible pain that left no marks on the hands. He sighed her name softly,"Vree." Her muffled reply was blunt, "He IS NOT dead." She clambered to her feet and wheel to face him. She strode up and stood beside him. She turned and stared at him defiantly. Kruag blinked back tears, and said hoarsely, "Wife--you have to be reasonable about.." She almost screamed as she shouted, "MY SON IS NOT DEAD! DAMMIT, I WOULD KNOW! I'D FEEL IT! I'd.......feel it." She stared at his face and almost laughed out, "What did you do to your face? What's next? Clown make-up?" He stroked his mustache and said, "I thought that I'd go back to my original hairy look or bear and mustache. Vree....I'm thinking of stepping down. Even if our son, Kugar, is alive--this is just to hard to do any more." Vree made a slashing move with her right hand and asked sarcastically, "What in HELL will you do after being King of the Scavs? Sell carpets door to door? Do like my father and grow vegetables?" She came up and put a hand on his arm and then fell against his muscular chest. She said quietly,"Your people need you to be strong. I need you to be strong." He almost sobbed as he stroked her hair, "It's so hard. Kugar was...IS to be king when I step down. ....But NOW....all that's just ashes in the wind. I just want him back with us alive. All that other stuff is just not important." She nodded. After a moment she muttered, "The 'Fire' symbol flashed bright enough to blind me at noon and then the glow went off of it. I don't know what that means." Kruag said softly, "You shouldn't worry about those things." Vree shrugged and pushed away and glared at him and said,"Martya has the 'Band of Winds' or such. When she had that incident last year, this room opened up! Now we..." She broke off to stare at the 'Elemental' diagram. Kruag turned and stared as the 'Air' symbol was glowing brighter and brighter like a flood-light. He took a step back and asked,"What in the world?" Vree stepped up to her husband and sought refuge in his strong arms. She may not have noticed that he was shaking as much as she was. --TO BE CONTINUED!-- media is same things as last time.