"Guardian? Hey, I'm just a hired hand. The Lady has a mission and I'll see to it that she gets the chance to accomplish it if that is within my power," I replied to her question. The childlike entity smiled with the abandon of a child. "So you say. But it seems that she truly has turned from the path of her kind." Her eyes glanced once more to the prostrate Lady Silver. "Rise, beast. You shall have your opportunity if you wish. You must pass the test to acquire the key. I cannot simply give it over into your hands." Lady Silver rose just as gracefully as she had been when prostrating herself before this entity. "What mean you, Wytch?" "Even if commanded by an Elder I would have to present them with the test. The key cannot be simply handed over. I have powers, tis true and I have broken free from the constraints of my earlier creation by those of your kind in their unrestrained orgy of taking what they wanted. But in this much they were successful. I cannot break this without destroying myself and a significant portion of the sidereal universe." She rose from her chair and faced us spreading her hands palm up before her. "I offer you the test if you wish, beast. But...." She smiled cruelly, "you must know that if you fail the test you and these with you will perish and your dreams will come to naught. The choice is yours, beast." The Lady stood with a grim look on her face. "Then I have no choice, Wytch. I must see this through to the end. What is this test?" Now the entity's smile reflected a measure of pity. "It is the Test of True Sight. Something that your kind is sadly lacking in. I will present you with choices and you must see truly for a false choice will end you." I was shaking my head trying to get rid of the sensation of blueness which was encroaching on me. Still I found myself curious enough to interrupt and ask a question. "Before you do that, Wytch, will you tell me why you say you were 'created' and why you call it," I pointed to the Iskar, "broken?" "When these creatures," she pointed to Lady Silver, "broke their own restraints they went into an orgy of self attainment. Some, fearing their peers, created my kind to guard them. They created imperfectly. We were deemed an intolerable threat because they could not fully control us. So they, at great peril to themselves, destroyed us. I am the last for I was created first to hide what they feared. In much later times they sought once again to create guards and so brought that one," she pointed to the Iskar, "and those like it into being. But again their ambitions were imperfect and though their creation has much in the way of powers it has no will to use them other than in minor self-defensive roles. So, being broken in their sight, they discarded them." I glanced at the Iskar, who impassively listened. I realized now why Lady Silver could call an Iskar by a name. The Iskar met my gaze and then nodded in acknowledgment. I turned back to look once more at the Wytch. "Thanks. I was afraid you wouldn't answer." "Enough!" Lady Silver said. "I am ready to face your test, Wytch!" The childlike creature smiled, "For once, I truly hope that one of your kind is ready to face the test of true sight. But I also doubt it. Prepare to make your choice." The sense of menace was back with a vengeance but I was being nagged more and more by that sense of blueness. Not only within myself this time but from some other source in the room. Then everything changed...... To be continued....