Sage Advisor crashed forcefully to the ground. Wincing, he stood and brushed dirt off his legs, arms, and...breasts? That was certainly different. He didn't see Aerlin anywhere, but he did see a body laying on the ground a short distance from him. Kneeling, he felt his equilibrium go out of balance due to the change in body structure. He was already guessing what damage his spell had wrought.

The body was quite familiar to him. He could tell by the clothes that it was his own. Rolling the body onto its back, his fears were confirmed. He was dead, his face pulled into a rictus of surprise. Sage Advisor brushed back hair that fell in front of his eyes.

This was an unexpected development. He had hoped to share his knowledge and power with Aerlin, so that they could face Shadow, but now it seemed the worst had happened instead. They had switched bodies, and she was dead, killed by the advanced age of his old body and the potency of the spell it had wrought. Now he would have to forge new plans.

Apparently, his powers had remained intact, and were actually furthered by the mana burning furiously in Aerlin's blood. Ancients! She had such power! He sensed something he hadn't before, either because he was exhausted by the escape from Shadow, or because he was too preoccupied with testing Aerlin.

It was a surge in the normal pulsing of mana, an outwelling not far from him which could not be more than a few miles. The enigma begged for investigation. He considered what to do for only a few moments, then stripped his body of a few artifacts, before covering it with what rocks Aerlin's slight frame could lift. It was all so different, so wrong.

She had known a man's touch now, he discovered. Her memories flitted into his own briefly before fading away, like a cogizance interference field. Fuer Grisse ost Drauka had seduced her, and Sage's inability to recognize this in his desperatiion had proved his undoing. Now he knew the other secret she carried: Aerlin was pregnant with Fuer's child. For whatever reason, its development was slow, but he could feel it in the pit of his belly.

Dwelling in his failure no longer, he set out in search of the disturbance. He wandered for three days in its direction, feeling it wash over him as a wave tosses an inexperienced swimmer. With each passing day, more and more of Aerlin's mind awoke to him. He knew Siran Drauka as a mother - distant though she had been. Aerlin had cared for her often. He knew Aerlin's love for her twin brother, and Gandalf, her father. He mourned the loss of innocence that had occurred when she had been thrust out into the cruel world alone.

At last, he stood before the circular black void that had drawn his attention. It was at the same time placid and yet boiling with power.

"Don't make me go in, Sage. Please."

It was Aerlin's voice, echoing in his own mind. How could that be? But she said no more, and he passed it off as another of her recollections resurfacing inside him. This portal was not malicious, but it shouldn't be so stable. Something was maintaining it, but for what purpose, he could not figure out. He could sense no destination, neither time nor place.

Shrugging, he decided that he could do no further harm. From the portal he sensed hope. Hope for the future, hope for his home. Hope to stop Shadow. He jumped in...

...and Aerlin screamed.