As the Company crossed the cavern that squelched magic, Cirend and Jeremi talked about what Callin, the imprisoned celestial being, had said: He had not heard of �ton. Jeremi found this troubling � �ton was the Creator of All, including the Heavens. The angelic Callin should have known Who �ton is.
After resting overnight, the Company set out for the chamber with the glass floor where the slumbering lizard lie dormant. Si�lara morphed into a dire eagle and flew up to the tarnished silver throne levitating nearly three stories above the smoky glass; it bore the image of a dragon-like creature on its underside. Jeremi prayed to �ton and learned that the slumbering beast was not evil. Calling upon his knowledge of things arcane and mechanical, Uso deduced that the glass would dissolve magically if properly triggered and surmised that the buttons in the adjoining room were likely the trigger. Uso experimented with them, by pushing silver buttons, but was repeatedly shocked. In his typical bold fashion, Cirend started from the bottom row, pushing silver buttons, until a sizzling sound from the main chamber indicated that the glass had dissolved.
Moments later, the slumbering beast began to stir, raising its head and then, one by one, peeled back wings from its spiny, silver body. Craning its neck and stretching its long-dormant wings, the creature flapped its wings and ascended from the chamber beneath the throne room. Its eyes burned with anger. There, before the Company, flew a dragon � a real, live, out-of-faerie-tale-book dragon. They all shuttered at its awesome power and grace. Without any pause, the silver dragon motioned with its talon and Si�lara, Logan and Sebastian were flung upwards toward the ceiling, where they were battered harshly. Cirend and Jeremi attempted to reason with the dragon, and, moments later, its stance softened and it regarded the Company with more aplomb.
Cirend and Jeremi explained that the Company sought only to free him, and to seal the Vaults from the outside world. The dragon introduced himself as Saggarintys, the Silver King, one of the last few dragons left to the World of Samoth to teach Danar the secrets of more powerful magicks to be used to seal the evil Banes away from the world forever. Saggarintys told of how Danar was too weak to resist the seduction of the Banes, and how Danar had turned against his former comrades, corrupting many of them and imprisoning Saggarintys. Saggarintys also confirmed that the Company would need to seal the Vaults using the Sealing Rod, and that he would welcome the assistance � however feeble � of Gerasimos to aid in repairing what the Company crudely called the �warding generators.� Jeremi was troubled to learn that Saggarintys had also not heard of �ton, although the dragon condescendingly told Jeremi that his kind did not concern themselves with the deities of mere mortals. Rather, his kind had retreated to a pocket dimension to protect from the world a power that mortals could not be trusted to wield. Satisfied that the Company intended to aid him in his task of sealing the Vaults, the silver dragon flew away to oversee the repair of the generators.
With the dragon freed, the Company returned to the hallway where the paralyzing dust continued to fall. Being heartier, Cirend braved the magical trap to open up a remaining, unexplored room. As he did, a creature with a giant mouth atop its squat, bulbous body hunkered forward, its three, evenly-spaced arms flailing wildly. Cirend laid the Company�s trap and returned to the Company, but not before the creature burrowed into the ground with no difficulty. Moments later, it appeared in the room, near Sebastian and his gem-laden bag. The creature gestured toward Sebastian�s bag, making motions to indicate that it wanted the bag. Uso called upon his vast knowledge to recall that elemental-type creatures such as these are typically not wicked or malevolent; however, this particular creature bore the taint of evil. The Company set upon the creature, which felled both Sebastian and Avi before Cirend, with the aid of Si�lara, Jeremi and Uso, took it down.
Without much pause, the Company continued toward the chamber where they had located an icy pit of stone. Along the way, a magical globe surrounded Sebastian�s rapier and spirited it away. In an abandoned, destroyed room, Sebastian found a scroll that contained an ancient parchment that appeared to be from Danar himself and specified that a portion of this level of the Vaults was converted to be used as a prison, with �Valacor� to be the warden. The Company surmised that the undead creature they had slain in the torture chamber had been this warden Valacor. Sebastian also found a box containing several brass keys, which he took.
Continuing on, the Company crossed the room where the Betrayed had been slain over the broken altar and found an inky, unnatural darkness at the far end of the chamber. Jeremi held aloft the staff he had acquired from the fallen wizard, shouted, �Ferablan,� and a searing light pierced the darkness to reveal the black-skinned woman and her two wolven companions. One of the wolf-men carried an axe that pulsed with evil and literally bled fresh blood. The Company engaged the trio in battle, as Si�lara surrounded the adversaries with a wall of thorns, trapping them near the party. Uso unleased explosive cascades of raw magic Jeremi pierced skin with his mace and his magic missiles, Cirend landed blow after blow on the axe-wielding werewolf and on the black-skinned woman, and Si�lara, wildshaped into the form of a great bear, slashed with ferocity with her claws. Seeing she was surrounded, the woman attempted to touch her headband, like Thannali had over a month before, but was slain
