I froze. At first, because the hand was unexpected, and then because a creeping dread curled its way down my spine as I slowly turned my head to see the thing towering over me. Bones and shade did not belong in a shape like this except in nightmares - even without my memories, I knew this was certain.

And yet... My shield was gone, my desperate attempts to make myself useful had failed, and I had no reason to fight. All of a sudden, even though I was free of that empty space I'd been lost in earlier, I was not free of my fears. And to those, no skeletal creature could compare. So far I was unnoticed, stripped of purpose (had I any to begin with?) and unable to do so much as help console a pair of children.

But this thing, whatever it was,[i] knew I was there.[/i] And the dread began to fall away.

I studied its skeletal face and the gleaming points of light that made up its eyes, took a deep breath... and now that I was able, I thought clearly about what it had said.

[b]"I don't want to be consumed. To be gone."[/b] The words came easily, though my voice shook. [b]"But they're children. They need someone. What can I do-?"[/b]

Before I could finish, my eyes caught a new shape just beyond the roiling blackness of this thing's ghastly cloak. I tilted my head, leaned a little, and stared.

There was some strange familiarity there. I didn't dare to move, not with this creature's hand steadying my shoulder, but I raised my arm in the hesitant beginnings of a greeting. I wasn't afraid. As long as this thing knew me, or seemed to know me, I'd stand firm.