A/N: Disclaimer: I don't own anything relating to Vivi or Orko, but Dregan's world and all in it are mine. Please don't use.

Chapter 51: A pleasant Awakening

The four mages dozed off eventually, leaving Natar gliding in his effortless way along the Paths. His senses were getting a strong feeling, one that was so intense he was actually able to pick out individual thought waves. It was as if one being was actually projecting his thoughts outwards, and pulling the others along with him. That thought made the dragon chuckle. Someone projecting their thoughts, indeed.

Suddenly, his nebulae eyes narrowed, the radar-like detection inherent to his kind narrowing to a beam, focused on a diamond. He grinned, and flew to it, breaking through the barrier, to appear high over a mountain chain, on a lovely sunny day. A slight breeze washed over the Bretheren Arcanum, awakening them slowly. Vivi sat up first.

"What - "

"Where are we?" Zentarou asked. Dregan rubbed his eyes, trying to get the sleep out of them, as Orko spotted something amazing.

"Trolly-molly! That city's huge!" All looked, and Dregan grinned. Nearby stretched a city, at least five miles wide and multi-walled, so it resembled a square archery target with five sections. The outer section was a garden with several statues visible at even that height, and the fourth inwards sported eleven large structures.

"It's Ambre!" the Dunedi shouted happily. They quickly pulled out the gate cubes, and Dregan pressed the final side. It flickered, then turned a rich amethyst color, flecked with ruby and gold. Then, the surface of each cube became encased in a filmy shadow. It expanded until it was an inch away from the cube, leaving it suspended within. Finally, the film shattered, the pieces of shadow fading into nothingness and the cubes falling into the mages' palms.

"Is the curse broken?" asked Vivi quietly.

"I - I think so," answered Zentarou.

"Look at that." Dregan pointed to a cluster of done-shaped structures located in a hidden valley in the mountain below. "That's a Sind'ala'nil. And that fortress - " He pointed again. " - is a Sylvani city." Natar looked over his shoulder at them.

: Which way:

"Line up with Ambre, and fly straight east," Dregan announced. Natar readily obeyed, passing low enough over the city of Ambre so he was easily visible. People flooded into the streets, looking and pointing, but it seemed more in curiosity. Dregan watched intently for a moment, then chuckled. "Cedras and Aerderwyn, must be out . Otherwise they'd be out here investigating, or at least sending Adynaeus up here. And believe me, we'd know even before they left the ground." They passed on, fly9ing incredibly fast, and soon passed over a walled keep sporting five distinct towers.

"Is that the Mage Keep?" asked Orko.

"That's Salladium." Below, in the courtyard, two mages were locked in a battle, seemingly, one unleashing fire spells, and the like, and the other using spells that made the earth itself attack his opponent, caving in or surging up in crushing waves.

"Some sort of dispute?" asked Zentarou, seeming a bit alarmed.

"Consider it a sparring match," assured the Dunedi, "between Jaskar Mageweave and Stratix. It's nearly a daily event."

"R - really?"

"They have a sort of 'friendly' rivalry... friendly in that they constantly try to destroy each others towers and humiliate each other in front of the students and their colleagues. Usually Jaskar starts it, burning his full name into the grass of the courtyard of some such." They passed by, and soon neared a large, circular desert, which Natar avoided.

: I do not like the feel of that place: he explained with a shudder.

"It's the Maelstrom Desert," Dregan said. "A place of evil magic. No one goes in willingly, and none fly over it."

: I can understand why.: They were past the desert soon enough, and crossed a second mountain chain.

"What's that?" Vivi asked, pointing to what appeared to be a pile of rocks on a platform in an isolated valley. Walkways extended from the platform into the nearby mountains. It might have caught the Black Mage's attention on it's own, without the red and black stones he could see amidst the pile. Dregan looked over, and gulped slightly.

"That - that is a place I will never return to. It's the ruins of the Sind'ala'nil where I was born, the same as my sister and consort, and the same one Evarion's Elites destroyed. What is left is their handiwork." He turned his eyes away to look forward, and smiled. "There! That forest closest to us. That's the Syndisian Forest, and that lone building near the center - see it in that clearing? - that's my home. Natar, lets land outside the woods, between the mountain and the tree line. I can find my way in from there."

: Very well.: Natar landed, they slid to the ground, and he vanished. Dregan knelt just inside the tree line, to stroke the grass.

"I'm home."