Liana spoke aloud as she entered the small chamber.“We will be landing shortly. Tell the girls to prepare their things for departure. Then do the sa...e for yourself. We do not want to arouse even the hint of suspicion at this stage of the game.”“Yes Mistress,” she replied confidently. “The girls have not expressed any doubt that I will not be staying with them that I have observed”“Good. We will depart the vessel separately. So as not to confuse the situation,” Liana continued.“Yes, Mistress,”. "If we had hands, I would agree with you. Well, I do agree with you, but-"Yeah, yeah. We physically don't have hands. Quit reminding me."Since you're literally just Dialogue personified, I don't see how you could forget that fact."Oh, well sor-ry. Not all of us are uber-coherent Narrators."Coherent? Huh... I think that's the closest thing to a compliment that I've ever gotten from you."Oops, I misspoke. What I meant to say was: Go fuck yourself."That's better."So, what are we doing here?"More. He wished he didn't have to go to school, like his sister Kat. It was her 19th birthday today. Dan didn't get her a present, of course. He never did. It wasn't like she ever got him one! But this morning, his parents didn't get on his back for it; because Kat had recieved a very big present from her parents. Dan had her his mom say something about "all the girls in the family get this on their 19th birthday", and it being "something you have to keep secret". Dan had made a remark about it being. We’ll meet again, on the endless dawn, where the water spans a curtain to the sun.” “Wait!” The woman’s form began to shimmer, but Holly’s fingers gripped her wrist. “What -- who are you? What does it mean?” “Haven’t you guessed? You call us elves, or hidden people. We call ourselves the wardens of the land, preservers of the fire and ice and keepers of the balance. I am Hekla.” “Hekla, as in…” “...the volcano that is my home. But I must go.”**** In an eye’s blink, Hekla faded from her sight,.