"Attention! Attention please," the woman at the podium shouted over the angry buzz that filled the hall.

"Ladies, I will have your attention!" Silence gradually descended over the room as we focused on our leader.

Her black hair fell in a dark, angry cloud around her pale face. We all sat down and prepared to listen.

"This argument is patently ridiculous and is tearing our order apart. We are the Sisterhood, is that not enough?"

"That's what you'd expect from a Mystic. And it is why we Technos should lead," Andromeda snarled loudly.

"You are out of order, Andromeda. When my seven years are over, the Technos will hold the seat of power. Until then it is our turn. Furthermore, the Mystics are just as curious as you are about our beginning." She paused for breath.

Andromeda hissed.

"Shara, please remove Andromeda from the hall. If she does not learn the proper behavior for a sister, she will be asked to leave our family."

Shara nodded and removed Andromeda who was wildly struggling. Proper respect for our Mother was always demanded of us, whether we agreed with her or not.

"If the Sisterhood falls apart, so does society. We have been the glue that holds it together, ever since the Great War. Our argument does not only affect us, it affects our world. This must stop. For that reason I have asked the Technos to build us a machine."

Alara raised her hand, and waited for permission to speak.

"Yes, Alara?"

"Forgive me, Reverence, but what good will a machine do in solving this disagreement?" Alara asked. The Technos burst into an angry muttering.

"No forgiveness is needed, Alara," our Mother said quietly and soothingly. Mystics have never claimed to understand technology. We have always been interested in the spiritual, while our Sisters have preferred the technological. However, both sides of our Sisterhood seem to forget that we need the other half to survive." The Technos fell silent, and we all looked slightly ashamed. Her Reverence was right; we did forget that. "This machine travels through time. I do not understand how it works, but I have been assured that it does."

"Thank you, Reverence," Alara murmured.

"I have chosen one Mystic and one Techno to go back in time. Crystal and Adriana, please come forth."

I stood and looked at my Sister in surprise. We left the circle and approached her Reverence.

"Go to the meditation chamber, my Daughters. I will join you there to explain your mission."

"Yes, your Reverence," we chorused, and left the hall. Behind us a loud hum broke out, and her Reverence waited patiently for it to die away.

The meditation room was dark and still. We entered and I slowly moved clockwise around the room to light the large white tapers that graced it. Adriana moved counterclockwise to light the incense. We knelt and began to meditate as the ritual demanded.

After a while her Reverence entered with Shara. They knelt and began to meditate with us.

"Memento Mei," she murmured, signaling an end to our deliberations. "I suppose you girls are wondering why you were chosen to go on this mission."

"Yes, your Reverence," I replied.

"We are the youngest after all. It would be more practical and logical to send two of our elder Sisters," Adriana said. "I mean no disrespect, your Reverence."

Our Mother laughed slightly. "No disrespect was taken, Adriana. You are simply being logical, as you have always been. That is why you became a Techno and Crystal did not. You were chosen because you are the only two here who are Sisters in birth, yet belong to opposite branches of our family. You are able to disagree without letting it separate you." She sighed. "None of the other Sisters have learned this, and because of it they would not be able to function as a unit in the past."

"I do not understand, Reverence," I said softly.

"You both fight as only children who are family and have grown up together do. You know each other too well to let petty disagreements get in the way when something needs to be done. You have grown up having to do that. Because of this the two of you will be able to go into the past and see how we began without letting the theories that are dividing the Sisterhood split you. That is why you were chosen. You represent both sides of the soul that we are, two halves of what society needs, and you can find the answer that we must have."

"Thank you, Reverence," I replied.

"You are welcome, my Daughter. I am going to retire now. Shara will give you your instructions for this journey. Listen well to her, your safety could very well depend on what she says." With that our Mother left us.

Adriana and I stood in front of the time machine. I looked at its smooth gray sides and shuddered. I knew technology was necessary and in fact I liked most of it, but I did not understand this machine. It seemed too perfect to like. For those reasons I did not trust it.

Adriana, on the other hand, was absolutely ecstatic. She asked a million questions about how it was made, how it worked, and what would happen if she did this, that, or the other thing.

Shara laughed and answered all of her questions, and more. Adriana drank it all in and in a relatively short time understood everything there was to know about the machine.

I did not listen to the explanations. Adria would tell me everything I needed to know later. I used the time to read the cards and to meditate on our mission.

"Crystal," Adriana called. "It's time to go!" She sounded as excited as she had the day we went into the order.

"Coming," I replied as I gathered up the cards and wrapped them in silk. I slipped them into my pocket as I approached the machine.

"Be careful," Shara told us sternly. "The controls are all set. Go back and find out what we need to know, then return immediately."

"Yes, Shara," we answered as we stepped into the machine and the door closed behind us.

"What did the cards say?" my sister asked as the machine faded silently away from our own time.

"They weren't exactly clear, Adria. They were hinting at surprises in our future, massive change, and well I don't want to talk about the last message."

"Why?"

"I need to meditate on it some more. I really don't understand it, and you know how I am�" I trailed off. Adriana smiled.

"Oh yes, I know. Until you understand something nothing will cross your lips. About the change though�" she paused thinking.

"Yes?"

"Was it a good or bad?"

"I don't know. The cards just weren't clear. Maybe I didn't ask the right question, or there are too many variables for the cards to answer clearly, or maybe they won't allow themselves to answer the question," I said miserably.

"You always ask the right questions, sister mine, which means it can only be one of the last two reasons. I don't like this."

"We have no choice though. Our Mother has sent us and we must obey. We can, however, be extremely careful."

"Amen to that, Crystal. Did you want to know anything about the machine?" she asked.

"No," I replied. "You understand it, and that's good enough for me. I don't trust technology." Adria made a sound in the back of her throat and almost started glaring. I rushed on.

"I know I can't live without it, but I can't comprehend it. That's one of the reasons I didn't become a Techno, that and because the cards called me the day we arrived. Technology is needed, we couldn't get on without it, but I don't want to know how it works. It is simply not in me to understand it, any more than it is in you to truly understand the cards." Adria thought about that for several minutes.

"You have a point. I don't want to know how the cards work, frankly they scare me, probably in the same way that technology scares you. I know we can't get by without your predictions, anymore than we could get by without the technology that we've become used to. So, we'll leave it at that."

"You know, Adria, we've just said something that the entire Sisterhood needs to understand." We laughed.

"You do realize that this is why our Mother sent us back," Adria said. "This is what she was trying to tell us back there."

I nodded. "Now we truly know what she was saying, and not just pretending it," I agreed. The machine shuddered slightly.

"We're landing," Adria observed.

The doors silently opened and we stepped out onto a cold, snow covered mountain.

"Where did this mountain come from?" Adria muttered. "There shouldn't be a mountain here. The Sisterhoods' headquarters should be."

"How far back did we come?"

"Four thousand years, or so."

"Well, that's before the Great War and a lot of things change in that amount of time."

"I suppose we should look around." I nodded in agreement and we left to explore our immediate surroundings.

We didn't find much except for trees, snow, and a spectacular view from a pass at the mountain's peak.

We looked down from the pass. The snow went all the way down the mountain side and into the valleys far below us. The tree line started just below our time machine, and also extended into the valleys. So far as we could tell no one lived in the valleys. The surrounding mountain chain cowered below the one we stood upon.

"I don't understand. There's supposed to be a town here. For as long as the Sisterhood has existed there's been a town," Adria protested a few hours later as we sat there shivering. The sun was going down and the day had not been warm to start with.

"Only according to legends," I replied. "And what if we came back too far?"

"Don't say that!"

"Who are you? Why do you invade our territory?" a harsh voice broke out from no where. We swung in opposite directions hunting for the speaker.

We were surrounded by women dressed in rags. Their clothing may have been awful but their weapons were anything but. All of them were armed to the teeth and the knowledge of how to use the weaponry was imprinted in their souls. We could see it in their eyes.

"Answer me!" one of them shouted. She had silver blond hair and blue eyes that had all the warmth of ice on a cloudy winter's day.

"We're lost," I said, truthfully, as I had very little idea of where we were and no idea whatsoever how to get home.

"Shara gave us horrible directions," Adria added.

"You're going to stay lost, for all of eternity," the woman hissed. She lifted the bow she held in her hands and nocked an arrow.

"Sanara," another woman hastily interrupted. The bow swung towards her. "They are of an age to join our union. We need people and they are no good to anyone if they are dead."

"You go too far, Azlir," Sanara rasped. She lowered the bow after considering Azlir's words for a few moments. "They are your responsibility. Train them yourself and keep them out of my sight." She stalked off, the other women at her heels.

Azlir watched them go and then looked at us. We returned her steady gaze. She spoke.

"Welcome to the Elysians. Stay away from Sanara, she would like nothing better than to kill us all."

"Why?" Adria asked.

"She's paranoid. She came out here and found a communal society. Sanara felt that they would kill her, so she killed the leaders first and took over. Instead of feeling safe she now thinks we all want to kill her, and that any new comers will do what she did."

"I see," I replied, thinking of the cards. I looked at Adriana. "Are you sure Shara gave you the right time frame?"

"Yes. She set the coordinates."

"She did not do a good job at all."

"Shara tried, though," Adria protested.

"What are the two of you talking about?" Azlir demanded.

"How we ended up on this mountain top," I replied crossly.

"Well discuss it later. No one but a mad man would ever spend the night out on this mountain. Come along," she ordered. We trailed dismally after her, wondering where we could go to get off of this mountain.

Azlir led us to the peak and behind an outcropping of rock. A dark opening lay before us and with misgivings we entered.

Inside the entrance we made a sharp left turn and then another one. Torches appeared on the walls giving off a faint, flickering light.

We went deep into the mountain using a series of tunnels and caves. Eventually we reached the space where they lived. It was a huge central cavern with a series of joined buildings in it.

Adriana and I lived with Azlir for weeks and learned many things.

"Azlir," I asked on one occasion, "why are there no men here?"

"And where is the village?" Adri chimed in.

"There used to be a village here," Azlir said, "and there were men in it. Then one day Sanara came. She slipped in and slowly took over the village. She had all the men killed. Any woman who tried to leave was also murdered. That was the beginning of our order. Now any woman who comes through this pass is either killed, or is forced to join it as you were."

Adria and I exchanged a look. "Why are they killed?" I asked.

"Remember what I told you on the mountain?"

"Yes," we replied.

"That's why. If we want to carry on after she's gone, we have to have someone there to talk sense into Sanara. Sometimes those people don't survive either. We were lucky."

When we were allowed out of Azlir's rooms we made it a point to avoid Sanara even as we observed the rest of the group.

Predominantly they concentrated on survival, but they were divided into three separate groups. One group followed Sanara. They were obsessed with protecting themselves and their lifestyle no matter the cost. A second group, the one Azlir belonged to, wanted to protect themselves with technology. They were branching out and inventing weaponry and only just beginning to study things we took for granted. The third group was more concerned with protecting their spirits, even at the expense of their bodies. This third group rarely left the caves.

Sanara barely tolerated her own group but she hated the other two with a passion, and the her feelings were returned. She ruled with an iron hand and everyone feared her. The spiritual group spent vast amounts of time away from the main caves as did the technological group. None of them ever helped any of the other three. We could not see how they survived at all.

Neither of us got along with Sanara's people. We drifted into the groups we associated with in our own time. The spiritualists prayed all day long and tried to tell fortunes with unpolished rocks. Not runes, just rocks. If they'd had a sheep I'm sure they would have been playing with its entrails. Adria had as many problems with the "Tinkerers" as she called them.

I sat in the spiritualists' cave and laid out the cards. Change was even more evident in this reading, in fact they spelled out catastrophic change. I flinched from the reading as Sanara stormed in.

I continued to ponder the cards. "Are you an imbecile, girl?" Sanara screamed at me. "Staring at blank cards does nothing!"

"They aren't blank," I protested.

"They're gorgeous," another spiritualist whispered. She was no older than I. The other members approached and looked at the cards in front of me. Some saw the pictures and agreed that they were lovely others did not.

Sanara looked as though she thought we were all mad. "You have not the gift," was all I said. Sanara kicked them, breaking the pattern.

Everyone in the room looked surprised when the cards didn't break. They appeared to be flimsy paper, but they could not be harmed. I gathered them together and put them away.

Sanara flung herself out of the cave cursing us all.

"What do you mean, 'she has not the gift'? There was nothing on your cards," one of the lead spiritualists demanded.

"I meant exactly what I said. She does not have the gift to read the cards. Only those who do have it will see the pictures on them. Then if they make their own cards they will be able to foretell the future with them. That is how it has always been," I replied.

"How do you make the cards?" the young spiritualist asked.

"Do you have Javan wood and pure water?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll teach you," I said, "and anyone else who wants to learn." All of the people who were called to the cards came with me. Once they were discovered, their call was irresistible. I also pointed out the value of Runes and following ones dreams. I left all of the spiritualists feeling very thoughtful.

"Hello, sister," Adria greeted me.

"Hello, I'm making progress. Some of them are called to the cards. They won't be throwing rocks at the wall anymore. Sanara didn't appreciate them though."

"What did the cards say?"

"They still call for catastrophic change," I replied.

"Oh dear." Adria obviously did not like that thought.

"How's you're group going," I asked, trying to distract her.

It worked. "I'm making progress too," Adriana said suddenly looking cheerful.

"Oh?"

"Yes, they almost know how to make cross bows."

"Adri, do we really want them to know how to use weapons that are deadlier than the ones they've already got?"

"Well, I was thinking about that. What if we didn't overshoot the Sisterhood by much? I mean all the spiritualists need is a little push to become Mystics and the Tinkerers to become Technos. We're supplying that push. If we get them together well, they will be the Sisterhood."

"And then we'd have formed our own order?" I sounded aghast.

"Well yes. I know it sounds bad, but remember what our Mother said before we left. That's what these people need. What they don't need is Sanara and the Elysians�"

"True," I agreed. "Well, let's see what we can do. If we aren't meant to start the Sisterhood I'm sure something will stop us."

"Indeed. Let's finish corrupting our people. Let's try to leave dear, sweet Sanara clueless, though." Adriana laughed and I joined her. We had work to do.

Over the next several weeks I taught the spiritualists how to make cards and everything else I knew about the other aspects of Mysticism. It wasn't much, but it was enough for them to grasp the idea and begin to expand on it. The card readers learned almost everything I knew. I couldn't tell them everything because there are parts of the art that only you can teach yourself.

Adriana was just as busy teaching the Tinkerers the basics of scientific method. They learned surprisingly quickly. Well, it seemed surprising to me at any rate. Adri just seemed pleased.

We also began to teach them to think of each other as siblings. They didn't have to agree on everything but that they needed each other.

I'm not sure where our plan fell apart. Maybe one of Sanara's spies overheard us planning. Or maybe the Spiritualists and the Tinkerers defended each other a little too obviously. At any rate Sanara got suspicious and started watching us closer than ever.

All of the card readers were getting readings that frightened them. They got dark readings that led to catastrophic change and enslavement. We didn't like it, but they had already become interdependent with the Tinkerers. The ends of the readings hinted at good things to come in time, but the cards are never clear about how long things like that are. So we worried.

Just as Adriana's group finished the weapon Sanara struck.

The battle horrified us. We had been sheltered all of our lives. The screams of the dead and dying scared us. The Spiritualists, who were coming closer to true Mysticism every day, fared the worst. They did not know how to defend themselves. The Tinkerers could defend themselves, but they had not been prepared for a fight.

It wasn't even really a battle. It was a massacre. We fled from the caves any way we could. Adria and I came out of the entrance closest to our machine, an entrance nobody had used since before we had been found. We fled into the tree line and hid, as did all the other Tinkerers and Spiritualists. After that point it became a deadly battle of hide and seek, with a lot of ambushes tossed in for good measure.

The sky overhead was dark with clouds. It looked like our Mother's hair. We could see it through the gaps in the trees and we worried.

We ran into Azlir and Elria, who was one of the lead Spiritualists. Together we crept through the woods.

We almost tripped over Sanara.

"Kill the two new ones, the ones who started this rebellion. As for the rest of them, take prisoners. They will be our slaves," she snarled.

I looked at Adria and we all crept back the way we came. When we were far enough away, and well hidden, we had a small conference.

"Well," I said. "This certainly does cover catastrophic change and darkness."

"Crystal, read the cards," Adria demanded.

I pulled them out and paused, waiting for the question to come. I closed my eyes and shuffled them. I spread them out in the familiar pattern and read them.

"Darkness will reign for a time, but when blood is next shed the wheel will turn," I read.

"What?" Azlir demanded.

I looked up. "There's nothing we can do to stop this. Sanara will have her way. You'll be enslaved by her for some time, that is the darkness. I can't tell for how long. The cards have a funny sense of time you see. Some day another war will start and when it happens, when the blood is next shed, you will have your freedom. Your groups will lead together. I do not know what will happen to Sanara's faction. Prepare for that day, Azlir. Do not let this happen again. Bind the groups together, make them as sisters, that is the only way you will survive." My face was serious and my tone fierce.

"Yes," Adriana agreed.

"Can you two leave the way you came?" Elria asked.

"I think so," my sister said.

"Then you must leave."

We slunk through the woods towards the machine.

We were almost there when the Elysians found us. "Kill them!" someone shouted. At that point we gave up on stealth and crashed our way through.

Overhead thunder rumbled ominously.

"Oh no," Adria gasped. "Lightning would not be good right now." I had to agree with her. Lightning never meant anything good.

We plunged out of the woods. Sanara hadn't yet found the machine. We stumbled towards it, tripping over rocks that had been revealed by the melting snow.

We entered the machine and as the door closed behind us Sanara's puppets exited the woods. They shouted curses as they saw us escaping their grasp.

Adria set the coordinates, and just as she hit the switch a bolt of lightning struck the machine. As we faded out the wiring went insane.

I screamed.

We clung to each other. We prayed to the Goddess that we would live.

And then we arrived.

Adria began to look around.

"Can you fix it?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied. "But I need some spare parts."

"Oh no," I whimpered.

"Oh yes, we have to leave the machine," she said grimly.

We forced the door open and stepped out into chaos. A battle raged below us. The fields ran with blood.

We stood on what was left of the once monstrous mountain. The ground in all directions was completely flat around the mountain. Pieces of the mountain itself scattered the landscape. They were hard to recognize because they too were coated with both fresh and old, dried blood.

Dead bodies, severed body parts, and people's guts dotted the ground. Almost no place was free of them. I swallowed harshly while Adri wretched.

The combatants ignored the carnage around them and charged at each other suicidally. Swords flashed in the fading light, and loud booms echoed in the distance.

"Goddess above," I gasped. Something moved into our line of sight. We flinched back, and stopped.

A girl stood in front of us, her jaw opened.

"Blessed be," she whispered, "the cards were right."

"Excuse me?" Adria asked.

"The cards said you would return and when you did the war would soon be over," the girl explained ecstatically.

"Who are you?" I asked suspiciously.

"Calyrra," she said. "I belong to the Mystics. Now come, you must meet the rest of our Sisterhood of Slaves. Soon we will be free of the Elysian yoke." She led us into a cave at the foot of the mountain.

"Andra, they've arrived in the silver machine," Calyrra shrieked in joy as she ran into the headquarters of the rebelling slaves.

"Who Calyrra?" a woman asked, wearily brushing her fiery red hair out of her eyes.

"Our founders of course," she snapped as though the answer should have been obvious. "The war will be over soon."

"Remember, Calyrra, time is relative in the cards. Soon for them is not soon for us always," another woman said stepping out of the shadows. She could have been our Mother's twin. "Who are you?" she demanded.

"I'm Crystal and this is my sister Adriana," I replied. "If you don't mind my asking but what is going on here?"

"We're fighting our war of independence from Elysian rule, girl," Andra said.

"Oh, the blood is flowing to end the darkness then?" I asked.

"Yes," the dark haired woman said, "after 1,500 years we will finally be free." Adria and I looked at each other.

"The Great War," we breathed.

"We can find out how this started," Adria gasped.

"We can get in trouble for not returning immediately," I said dryly.

"Lightning isn't our fault. And speaking of lightning, do you happen to have�." Adriana rattled off a list of things she needed to fix our machine. They meant nothing to me.

The dark haired woman led me aside. "I am Janela, why did you come here?"

"It was something of an accident. Adri and I were trying to get away from Sanara and lightning hit the machine, and the next thing we know we're here in the middle of a war zone with Calyrra telling us to come along."

"I see," she said.

"If you don't mind my asking," I began, "how did this war start?" I noticed Adria going with Andra out the door. "Adri?"

"They have what I need, I'll be back Crystal," she called. I relaxed slightly.

"The war? It started when you formed our group, child. Our fight with the Elysians never really ended although they believed it did. We never told them exactly what the prophecies told us, and our Sisters hid some of their experiments in technology in preparation for this day," Janela's tone was cold.

"Well, yes," I said. "Obviously that war never really ended, but how did the fighting actually start this time?"

"Ah. It's a war of succession actually." Janela looked embarrassed.

"Oh?"

"Yes. The last Elysian empress, as they have all liked to be called, was murdered. She never picked a successor so all of the Elysians started fighting. To us Mystics and to the Technos it seemed like a good idea to rebel. The countryside somehow got involved and then the lands rulers. That was twenty-five years ago."

"That's a long time for a revolution," I remarked. "How do you know about Adria and me?"

"Why the records, my child. You and your sister are described very clearly in them. You are our founders."

"They haven't been destroyed?" I asked in alarm.

"No, child. They have been hidden since before the wars so that the Elysian oppressors could not corrupt them."

"Oh no," I said.

"What?" Janela asked.

"Janela, the only reason Adri and I founded the order was because those records were destroyed. If they exist we won't go back to find out how the Sisterhood was formed, this won't happen, and we won't exist. It's the paradox of all paradoxes."

"Are you saying that you and Adriana are from the future?"

"Yes, we are. From a long ways in the future. We don't know how this war started there, we have no records of the order before the Great War, this war, and we know nothing of the founding or the Elysians. Janela, those records have to be destroyed!"

"I can see that," she said softly, thoughtfully. "I also know that none of us will do it. Those records are sacred to us. You will have to do it, Crystal of the cards. It is obviously your destiny."

I sighed and nodded. "Before we go though, can you tell me one other thing?"

Janela looked at me, waiting for the question. "It's two things actually. What happened to the mountain, and how was the town formed?"

"I will tell you as we walk," she said. Janela led me through the tunnels, deeper and deeper into the dark earth. "The mountain was partially worn down by time, and the rest of it was destroyed by a bomb that the Elysians took from the Technos. It was a rather inferior bomb. The design for a better one is in the records, but we decided to never build it. It would be too destructive. As for the town, well it came into being after Sanara, cursed be her name, died.

"Her successor decided that it would be easier to keep the Sisterhood going if we had breeding stock. So anyone who came through the pass became enslaved. When the rulers of the land to our east and to our west began to expand our borders the Sisterhood was sufficiently powerful enough to control them as well. That was how the Elysians became 'Empresses'. And the people hate them as much as we do. That is why they revolted with us."

Eventually we reached a softly lighted room where a case sat on a table. It held only one book, the records of the founding of the order and the intervening history.

I entered the room and smelled the incense on the air. "This is just like the meditation chamber at the Sisterhood," I breathed.

With a shudder I sat down on the stool in front of the table and opened the case. I gently lifted the book out and opened it up.

"Janela, hand me that candle, please." She gave it to me and I set it on the table.

I opened the book up, ripped out the first page, and burnt it in the candle's flame.

I did that with each and every page.

It took hours and when Janela and I returned to the main cavern Adri had our time machine fixed.

"Ready Crystal?" my sister asked me. I nodded in exhaustion. "Remember what I told you, Andra. Fighting that way is suicide. You have the brain for the technology, use it. Bye everyone."

Adria stepped into the machine. I waved and followed her.

"What were you and Janela doing?" she asked me as the doors closed.

"Burning the records," I answered as she plugged in the coordinates.

"What?"

"You heard me. I had to do it. If the records weren't destroyed we would never have gone back. We never would have started the order. It had to be done.

"You do realize we're never going to be able to go home now. We know too much," I said. "There are some things better left forgotten, and the Elysians are one of them. Just think of what Andromeda would do with the information of their existence."

Adria thought for a moment and looked at me. Consternation crossed her face as she reached for the controls.

"Right," she said.

The Mother's seven years were almost up. On the morrow Shara would take control of the Sisterhood. It would be a relief. Andromeda had built up a faction that was trying to take control of the order. The arguments that had caused her to send the children back in time had only gotten worse. They had never come back, and the decision had been made in council not to try it again.

She walked to her desk, her feet dragging. As she sat down she heard a knock on the door. "Enter," the Mother called.

Shara walked into the room. "Good evening, Mother," she said.

"Shara, are you ready to take up this burden?" the Mother asked.

"I think I am," Shara replied. "I know that you are more than ready to set it aside."

"Yes." She turned around and stared at a sheaf of papers that had not been there earlier. The Mother picked them up and began to read.

"Goddess above," she gasped.

"Mother?"

"The children are alive. They're alive. Listen to what this says.

"Dear Mother and your successor, Adri and I are both well. We could not come back. We can not come back. We know too much and our return would destroy the order, and order that we love. An order that we founded. We realize that this is a shock, but someone must know part of what we learned, and who better than our Mother? Please destroy this document when you are done with it, and may only the future Mother's know what you have learned by oral tradition. Whatever you do, don't let Andromeda stay on the path she was on when we left. The Elysians must not be allowed to return. May the Goddess protect us all.

~Finis

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