Dory took them and held them in her hand, just looking at them. I had bought a half-bottle of sparkling white wine to celebrate and poured a glass eac... to celebrate our first home. Now we would have a permanent residence when we married. Perhaps it seemed backwards to some people, but circumstances dictated we do this our way. Neither of us had any regrets.Friday night we ripped up the carpet we planned to replace and threw it out in the back of my pickup for deposit in the landfill in. Keldrin crystals, gems of immense power and very handy to perform rituals or create artefacts, you would think they would store them more safely. I didn't wait for my hearing before the council, those never go well, the old bearded mages on it are too close minded. I knew that I would be expelled and banished (some stupid edict outlawing necromancy dating from a few centuries.), they would also would want to take Gnash apart to retrieve their crystal. Under the cover of the night I escaped, not. We met at a season's end sports awards banquet; I was runner-up defensive player of the year; Reed Billings, a defensive end, won it. We'd only managed 8-4 that year, but at least it wasn't a losing season.Claire was there with other members of the school's band and had bumped into me as I was getting a beer; she'd made me spill it all over her. That led to a lot of stuttering on my part, a lot of giggling on her part, and a lot subsequent dating on both of our parts. We graduated a few months. I was really confused now."Are we having fun yet?" Mike asked and then started laughing. "It is so much fun seeing you not in control." You better be good. I can still whip your ass." Yeah? You and what army?" Mike teased.I noticed the limo was exiting to Highway 14. The driver turned north. That was one of the scenic drives that Tamara and I had taken that led to Santa Fe. I couldn't imagine what was on that portion of the trip that she wanted me to see.We hadn't gone too far when the limo.