Michael sat, staring at the bag of pajamas on the table. He definitely was no longer in the tan room with the bars on the windows. The floors, walls, ...nd even the ceilings appeared to be a polished dark gray stone with a satin finish. Commander Kennedy sat down and had two burgers on his plate with the fries. He also placed a pitcher between them and took a sip of his drink."They always said if we ever escaped they would hunt us down." Michael looked up, pleading into his giant protector's. "Yes, 'Julie'?" 'Life goes on.' That's what Robert Frost said. He said that's all he really was sure of, 'Life goes on.' Get past your anger, justified as it may have been, with my husband. He has suffered enough." The quality of mercy is not strained, take it into your heart, not for our sake alone, but for yours, it will ease your bitterness. Others have given in and left, but I never shall -- I would not breathe the same air as those who would not die for Bashful; any who leave, I give. .. am I Yren? Am I a blacksmith? Or am I a warrior? A faceless, nameless killer who burns his enemies with blue fire and two black swords? Or am I a mage, who can pull magic steel directly from under the ground?”“Who do you think you are?” The woman asked carefully. She had thought the steel tombstone for her beloved husband had been Deia’s doing but she found she wasn’t altogether surprised to hear it was Yren’s accomplishment. He was trained as a blacksmith, after all.The silence stretched. Even though I had a fleeing affair with the summer breezes, the tower had always stood tall and unyielding, always ready and waiting for my return. Slowly, I began to fully understand his ways. His ways were quiet, not flamboyant like the summer. In the stony gray of his fortress were hidden the hues of the rainbow. The warmth his hearth provided burned longer and hotter than any rays from the summer sun, it was never fleeting or brief. The foundation was buried in the depths of the earth. He.