It is an old truism that you can choose your friends, but not your relatives.
Since being visited by the Spirit of Fancying and Yagel Pen Swift, and running into the murdered Guardian of Mortal Struggle, I had been searching for a middle sister of the long dead Spirit of True Love.
I need not have bothered
Back in the Justice building of the Mystical Realms, in the grand hall of the now diseased Arch Orc, here she was, and clearly in charge.
She was the Spirit of Lust
As I looked at her, the family resemblance was clear, I could see elements of The Spirit of True Love and the Guardian of Mortal Struggle.
"Why" I asked
The Spirit of Lust looked down at me, her eyes were pools of pure evil and cruelty.
"When we reigned the world of mortals, I looked after their privative indulgences. Every time they denied themselves nothing I felt so good. They only have one life so grab everything at once" She started
"they all built alters to me, for success in sexual conquests, for maximum carnage in battle, for copious amounts of food"
"So" I interjected, "You were the Lust of the Flesh"
She was startled that anyone had dared to interrupt her, and then she grinned.
"And the Lust of the Eye as well"
"So who was the Pride of life" I asked, remembering this threesome as by tradition were involved in the corruption of man in the Garden of Eden
"My other brother" she replied, then tilting her head, "not that he is still around"
"Did you kill him too"
At this the Spirit of Lust rose up into the air in a rage "he was murdered in battle, by my other so called brother"
"So you killed the Guardian of Mortal Struggle for revenge" I responded"
"No - he did not slay my brother in lust, it was the Spirit of Contentment who slew him, he convinced the world of men to be content with their lot, showed them that they could be happy with their lot and even got a mortal to tell them"
"Which mortal would that be?" I was confused, as far as I was concerned I was the first mortal to come into contact with this mystical realm, formed by the collective unconsciousness of humanity"
"It was that infidel Howard McMillan" she screeched
"What him of you've never..." I started
"Silence" She screamed, "I never want to hear that phrase again. "After that, The Pride of Life fell ill and died, murdered by a spirit, and on his deathbed I promised to avenge him against the virtuous spirits, and so I bided my time"
"So why am I here" I asked changing the subject rapidly
"To tie up a few loose ends"
"I have no intention of revealing where your niece is" I told her as defiantly as I could
"Oh yes, the so called Spirit of Fancying"
"So called?"
"Yes, so called, it is rather tragic really"
"I don't understand" I said, until this point things had almost been making sense. Maybe this was what the message from Atropos, the Greek fate had meant, the message given by a human Romany which had cost her her life.
"The Spirit of Fancying is an imposter?" I asked
The Spirit of Lust gave another cruel Smile, "When my kid Sister, the Spirit of True Love gave birth to twins, one would be the Spirit of Fancying and the other the Spirit of Fidelity, the elements of true love, except I arranged for my servant to switch their name bands in the maternity ward, so neither would realise their true powers."
So that explained why the Prince Low Troll had not detected the Spirit of Fancying, sorry Spirit of Fidelity's attempts to get Amanda and Brian together on Big Brother 8, her power did not work that way. This meant that even though she was not who she thought she was, she was still genuine, if that made any sense, it also meant that Amanda and Brian were genuine without any interference from former Greek deities, which hopefully would mean they would have a better chance than Helen and Paul, brought together by enchantment, but only time would tell on that. It also explained why Sam was so upset a Carol's crass comments about the
Camera's her and Liam. Sam had shown the utmost faithfulness to her Richard, maybe that was the role of the Spirit of Fidelity.
"But enough of this mortal" The Spirit of Lust said as she snapped her fingers. At this an orc came forward to grab me, in his other hand he had a rather nasty and blood battle axe.
"Take this mortal out and decapitate him" She ordered the Orc.
I looked at this excuse for a spirit, "Spirit of Lust" I shouted, "Were you responsible for Chiggy and Lamey"
She chuckled "Why of course, Chiggy was my special creation, a relationship based entirely on sexual lust, as was Lamey, when that Chanelle daned to throw a hissy fit"
"But now they are out in the real world" She added, "They seem to be making my job a lot easier "
At this the Orc dragged me towards the door.
Suddenly, the main door exploded, as the Hobgoblin Gruewold blasted it open with a large mace.
Behind him, carrying my bags was the Prince Low Troll with a crossbow
[img=150x100]http://eq2.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/NON-SOGA/NON_SOGA_Female_Troll.jpg[/img]
The Troll fired the crossbow at the orc, who dropped instantly, I ran past the Hobgoblin and grabbed at my bags. Sadly for Gruewold, he erupted into a fireball that had been thrown by the Spirit of Lust.
The Troll handed me the Dimension Jump Orb, and yelled, "we need to go now"
The only place I could think of was where the lass who thought she was the Spirit of Fancying was, the virtual world of the World of Warcraft, a sort of home from home for folks from the Mystical Realms.
Instantly we had crossed over, into this pseudo medieval world.
"I'm sorry about Gruewold" I told the Prince Low Troll
The Troll looked down at a babbling stream, and then looked up, with a tear in his eye. "He was my mentor and friend" he said quietly.
"How did you find me" I asked
"When they opened the dimension door to send through the two doppelgängers, my locator of dimension jump orbs went mad, plus those creatures emit the same field so tracking them was easy. When the human's horseless carriage was sent through, there was so much mystical energy, that it was easy to piggy back a ride"
"Why come back for me I asked"
"Because I owed you a life debt for warning of that assassin's arrow"
I remembered back to that other day at the Thames Embankment"
"So what now?" I asked
"We need to get allies to fight the Arch Orc"
"He's dead" I told the troll
"What???" He yelled "I wanted that honour"
"Who dispatched him" he asked, looking me in a menacing manner, thinking I had robbed him of the chance for revenge"
"It was his advisor, the Spirit of Lust, she was pulling the strings all along"
The Troll was visibly shocked, he had been expecting another Orcs V Trolls war, like so many in the past. A Spirit of anything, threw this whole affair wide open"
My mind went back to the world of Mortals, and this was a troll after all, so I needed to make sure that Ziggy and Chanelle were never bothered by the troll or his friends ever again, like they hgad tried so many years ago with Helen and Paul.
"This Spirit of Lust" I told him, "She was coughed up to Lamey"
The Troll grinned, "And Chiggy I bet"
I said nothing.
"Never mind, Chiggy will implode once we defeat her"
"I need to find the Spirit of True Love's Niece" I ventured, "She is hiding out here
"Why, another meddling Spirit"
"She may be the only one to help defeat the Spirit of Lust"
"OK" agreed the troll
We walked for what seemed like miles before we came across the settlement. We had to hide anumber of times from the players, who might want to attack the troll for experience points, not realising that greater things were at risk than a monthly subscription and player rankings.
We made our way to the tavern and went in.
Sure enough, there was the Spirit of Fidelity (Although she did not know her true name) with Yagel Pen Swift.
"You!" Exclaimed the Troll
Suddenly a missile of force hurled at the troll from Yagel
I looked at him, but now his complexion had changed
Yagel was not really an elven lawyer
Yagel Pen Swift was a Drow
"I had heard you were coming from my queen" he sneered
"Yagel?" Asked the young Spirit
"Silence" he yelled at her and using his mind pushed her to the floor
"Now my queen and I shall rule, not only the Mystical Realms, but the realms of Mortals" he laughed
To be concluded...