After sending the shadow-creen ahead to inform Koshiro that he should expect their return, Rory and Silhouette set off together along the path to see him. Silhouette seems pensive as they travel, and even flatter than usual, just a ripple against the wall of tall grasses, like Rory's own shadow cast there by the morning sun.

Rory frowns as he looks to Silhouette. "Are you having trouble keeping up with me? Do you need to rest?" He pants, and announces, "I know! We need a shadow-parasol. Maybe two. It is a real scorcher out here… "

The girl shadow opens her mouth in a smile, and signs against the grass, I think that would be nice, too. I'm not tired, though. Really. Just … thinking.

Rory nods, grinning at the opportunity to do at least a token nicety for Silhouette. He mutters cantrips to form Shades, fashioning a "parasol" for Silhouette, and a more manly "umbrella" for himself. Not that there's the least bit of difference between the two.

Silhouette twirls hers over her shoulder, and skips forward down the path, then turns and curtsies to Rory, resting the shadow against her neck to free her hands to sign. "Thank you, kind sir. I especially admire the lace on the edge," she adds, mischievous.

Rory's ears blush. "Uhm … you're welcome." He sighs, and continues pacing his way up toward the cave. "Do you think we'll have any more time after this before nightfall? That's when Reece and I will be heading out. I think. Honestly, I'm not so sure it's a bright idea to be heading out when it's dark. Not that I'm afraid of the dark. It's just that we don't have anybody guarding us. I mean, against the critters that might be lurking in the dark, you know. It is a strange land and all."

"Maybe you could summon Mister Nasty back for the return trip," Silhouette signs, sobering as Rory turns serious again. The shadow-creen they sent ahead comes scooting back down the path, coming to a halt in front of Rory, then doing its play at his feet – the familiar outlines of its zooming trip to the cave entrance. This time, at the entrance, it shows a doorway instead of just a cave, and the door opens wide as it arrives. In front of the doorway is a mat, and the Creen shows the outline of a sign upon the mat. Rory recognizes it as a "welcome" sign, although almost as soon as he places it, he finds himself unsure how he knows that.

Rory smiles and nods at the suggestion of conjuring up another Mister Nasty, but then raises his eyebrows at the shadow play. "Koshiro must have done some redecorating! Or maybe Reece warmed him up a bit for us." He smiles, and thanks the little Creen, and goes through his usual routine of conjuring up a feast of shadow bugs and other squirmy things for the Creen to feast on during its return to the Land of Happy Shadow Creens.

After its disappearance, the shadow girl nods. "Maybe. Maybe that's Koshiro's way of showing he is in a good mood. Remember how he treated your first shadow Creen?" Her head droops a little at the thought.

Rory frowns, nodding in remembrance, but then he brightens. "But, right, he must be in a good mood now! And … and that's good for us!" He wipes his brow. "We really could use a good turn. I mean, not that things have been awful or anything. But, you know, it'd be nice to be welcome. And … Oooo! Look at that creature over there!"

The girl whirls about, craning to see beyond the grasses towards what Rory is pointing at. She makes a yuck sign as she spots it, a many-legged bug the length of Rory's forearm, with waving antenna on both anterior and posterior portions.

Rory says, "Wow. It's a Both-Ways Bug! If it starts to go one way and then changes its mind, it doesn't have to waste time turning around!" That thought in mind, he keeps striding along, proud to have named a new creature.

"Ewwww!" Silhouette shudders delicately. "It's probably too stupid to know how to get all of its legs to do something as complicated as turn around, any road." she signs, giving the Both-Ways Bug a wide berth.

The two of them continue in this fashion, with Rory stopping to point out all the interesting sights to Silhouette, many of which she maintains a girlish aloofness towards. Eventually, they reach the cave entrance – and as Rory remembers it, it features neither door nor welcome mat.

Rory hmms at this discrepancy, then snaps his fingers. "I see! Koshiro wanted us to decorate for him!" He starts muttering a spell to conjure up a shadow-door and shadow-welcome-mat.

His companion doesn't seem quite as certain as Rory on this point, but she doesn't try to stop them. Instead, she sits just inside the cooler cave, waiting while he invokes his spell. Her shadow-body almost vanishes into the larger darkness inside.

When the spell completes, Rory shapes the shadows to make a friendly looking "welcome mat" and a door for the cave, as depicted by the shadow-creen's shadow play. Satisfied with the new decorations, he closes the door, and then "knocks" on it, clucking his tongue against the inside of his cheek. "Hellooooooo!" he calls out. "Anybody home?"

"You may enter," a familiar, deep voice-that's-not-a-voice says. "I am here."

Rory smiles, opens the door, and strides on in … then remembers himself and jogs back to carefully close the shadow-door again. Glancing sheepishly to Silhouette, he heads on into the cave, trying to be at least a little quiet so he doesn't overly annoy the shadow-dragon from making too much of a ruckus.

The two reach the depths of the tunnel, to the faintly glowing disc of crystal that Rory remembers, from a visit that was, it seems, both just this morning and a dozen lifetimes ago. The shadows all around him seem vivid and animated by the flicker of the crystal, and for a wild moment Rory finds that he can no longer separate Silhouette out from amongst the rest.

Rory looks around, bewildered. "Silhouette? Are you still with me?"

Koshiro's not-voice answers, "She is here,", though Rory still can't find her.

Then he sees shadow fingers between himself and the glow of the crystal, signing, "I'm here, Rory. It's just … dark."

Rory lets out a loud sigh of relief. "All right. Whew. Sorry about that. Uhm … Oh! Hello, Master Koshiro." He executes a bow toward some randomly determined shadowy spot, hoping that it gives him at least some chance of guessing right. "We explored the house, but we've got some questions, and I really don't think we can find them from anyone but you. Of course, if you can't answer them, I'll understand, but I hope it wouldn't hurt to at least ask."

"I thought I told you everything already," the shadows reply, sounding irritable. "But ask your questions again. Perhaps now you will be ready to listen to the answers."

Rory droops. "I'm sorry … It's just that I've had a really hard time figuring them out." He looks askance to Silhouette. "If I forget anything, be sure and remind me, okay?" He takes a deep breath, then says, "Well, first of all … I'm not quite clear on who I am, and we experienced a bunch of flashbacks at the house, but they didn't really answer that for us. Who … what am I, really? Did you make me? Am I a reincarnation of Corwin, Sylvan … both of them? How about Silhouette? Are Corwin and Sylvan still alive somehow? Is this an alternate future that only exists in a prophetic vision that you gave to Sylvan to let her know about the future and maybe warn her about those raiders who were going to hurt Corwin really bad?"

Rory at last runs out of breath, and has to pause, despite his best efforts to ramble on and shoot out every question in his head at once.

The black-and-white unicorn has enough time to catch his breath and seriously consider spouting out more questions before Koshiro replies. "I thought you were Corwin," it begins, "But now even I must start to wonder. I cannot imagine that Corwin could ever prattle on so, and with such improbable inventiveness."

Rory pauses a moment to digest this, but then beams proudly, deeming it a compliment.

The shadows flicker around Rory. "To my knowledge, this is not a vision, although you are correct that I once attempted a spell to scry the future at Sylvan's behest. I believe vestiges of that spell have been somehow … revived … by your return. It was not my most successful endeavor," the shadow grudgingly admits.

Rory frowns. "Then … Sylvan and Corwin … did they die?"

"No, of course not," Koshiro says, annoyed. "I told you, you are Corwin. You certainly have his stubborn obtuseness."

"Then where's Sylvan?" Rory asks.

"Sylvan brought you to me because you were too badly injured by the raiders for her magic to save you. She begged me to help her. I warned her of the cost, but she persisted. I was able to use her life force to keep you alive, although, obviously, you were not unchanged by the experience. I had thought Sylvan merged with you by it – but it appears she yet manifests as a separate entity." The light from the crystal pulses outwards until it separates Silhouette from the shadows around her. "Albeit not a very substantial one."

Rory's ears perk up. "Is there any way to make her … more substantial?"

"I do not know. Do you want to be more substantial, Sylvan?" Koshiro asks the girl.

The outline of a unicorn jumps at being asked directly. "I … I don't know. I guess so," she signs. "It would make Rory happy."

Rory frowns. "It's … it's not just for me, Silhouette. I want you to be … to be you. Not just tied to me all the time." He looks back in the direction he has supposed Koshiro can be found. "Not that I'm still clear on just who I am. I mean, you told me last time that I wasn't Corwin. And you say I am Corwin. I'm … really confused."

"You are Corwin, as combined with Sylvan, which must somehow have produced your irritating habit of questioning everything I say," Koshiro tries to explain. "The transformation was traumatic for you, and damaged your recall badly, but I believe that your time here has helped to restore that. I thought that would make you act more like the Corwin I remember, though it doesn't seem to have worked. Perhaps that is just as well. Sylvan was a far better person than you. It was a bad bargain, trading her for you."

"No," Silhouette signs, stepping forward suddenly. She raises her hands to the light, and they loom huge, like shadows with the objecting casting them against the light source, and signs again, "NO."

"It was not a bad bargain," she signs, firmly. "It was the best she – I – ever made. Thank you, Koshiro," she continues, dignified.

Rory frowns, looking between Silhouette and where he supposes Koshiro to be. "But … are you saying there's a choice here?"

"There was a choice, long ago. Sylvan was unharmed. She chose to risk herself to prevent Corwin from dying – her choice, though it was through my magic that she was able to make that choice. And I do not know why you are thanking me, Sylvan," the shadows answer.

Rory asks, "But … what happened to Sylvan's body, then? Did that just vanish as part of the spell? Or did her body die?"

The little unicorn winces, realizing that everything he's saying at this point ends with a question mark…

"I merged her substance with yours, when it became clear that what was sufficient to save Corwin would not leave enough to sustain Sylvan. I hoped that, that way, Sylvan might live on inside you. That she has manifested again, as a shadow … surprises me," Koshiro answers, patient for the moment.

Rory frowns. "Well … we had this really nice theory that somehow Corwin and Sylvan left Sinai because you worked up some really neat spell to send them back home, and that in order to make it so that the other shadow-dragons wouldn't know about it, you created me to have the imprints of them on me, so that they wouldn't detect the absence of their life forces from this reality. But … I don't suppose anything you've said leaves room for that theory anymore." He looks back up to Koshiro. "If I'm really Corwin … then … what would it mean if I had a taint that was also a gift? I had a vision of Corwin being captured by a shadow-dragon, who ripped out Corwin's gift … I think. If I had some way of showing you exactly what I saw, I would … except that I don't know if I'd be strong enough to go through it again myself. It was really awful. But … I was wondering … maybe you'd know what he was talking about." The unicorn looks hopefully off into the darkness.

"No, Corwin and Sylvan could no more leave Sinai than any others of us Exiled here. Transformed though you may be, you and your friend are the same people that they were – as much as anyone may say that their past and future selves are still 'them'." The light pulses from the crystal, making the shadows dance. "It is possible that I can help you understand what happened to you, but first you must give me more detail. Describe for me when this incident with Corwin occurred, and exactly what events unfolded."

Rory says, "All right … Uhm … just give me a moment, and I'll get set up." He starts to put together a shadow play … partly to illustrate the events … and partly, not wholly consciously, to give him something more to distract himself with so he's not overwhelmed by the more horrific details of it. He narrates as much of the story of Corwin's time on Aeonia as he can, still insistent upon referring to "Corwin" and "Sylvan" as if they were separate entities from those presently in the chamber … though he still feels some degree of shame at each recount of Corwin's many failures and transgressions.

As Rory relates the conversation between the shadow dragon and Corwin, Koshiro interrupts the story to say, "You were right, when you told the shadow that he could not force you to follow the Path of Shadow. It was not within our power, even on Aeonia, where we were all far greater than we are here, to make a person into something he is not. You were, it seems, then determined upon the Path of Light."

Rory cocks his head sideways. "So, being turned into an emotionless killing machine is part of the Path of Light?"

"Conceivably," the shadow says. "I interrupted you. Finish your story, please."

Rory wrinkles his nose at the notion, then continues on with the rest of his tale, right down to the state that Corwin's friends found him in, to Corwin's presumed quest across Sinai to try to open up a way back to Aeonia (and the presumably false claim on the part of one of the shadow-dragons that led him to believe that killing Koshiro was necessary), up to Rory's presumption that being around Sylvan allowed Corwin to finally stop being such a dull fellow.

"This is impossible," Koshiro says, at length, interrupting Rory as he nears the end. "You cannot be remembering what actually happened to you."

Rory blinks several times. "You lost me."

"You say that the shadow-dragon said he would take the gift, the taint from Corwin. Then a great light drove into him, and it obliterated all of himself save – how did you put it – being an emotionless killing machine? And then, you say, he got better. Do I understand your meaning correctly, child?" Koshiro asks.

Rory shrinks down a little, scuffing a hoof against the floor. "Uhm … I'm … uh … supposing so. I mean … emotionless killing machines don't usually do paintings. And I think Corwin kind of liked Sylvan, which kind of goes against that, too, I guess."

"This is not possible," the shadow-dragon repeats, with even more conviction. "Corwin cannot have been subjected to the spell you described. You must be remembering this incorrectly. You cannot be certain of these details."

Rory looks over to Silhouette for support, but then remembers that she didn't experience that particular flashback. "I'm … I'm sorry. I'm doing the best I can. I don't even know what spell you're talking about. I'm just telling you what I think I experienced. I might be mangling up the details, but … I'm not making it up, honest."

"The spell you describe … it is unlikely that a person – any person – would survive it. What Corwin's people called a 'taint' is what we consider a sign of … vitality. Power. All people have it, in some degree or another, even the so-called 'pure' Aeonians. It may not show as you claim it did with Corwin, but they all manifest it. The spell you describe would be used to purge that vitality from a person." Koshiro stops. "Am I making the least bit of sense to you, boy? Imagine having your soul ripped from your body and your body wanders around afterwards as a mindless husk. That is what it is like."

Rory sticks his tongue out, then says, "Zombified. Uhm … well, what did happen to him, then?"

"I do not know. But it cannot have been that. One does not recover from having the greater part of one's soul yanked from one's body. Souls do not grow back," Koshiro says, with the lofty tones of one conveying a certainty.

Rory flops his sleeves against his sides. "Well … then I guess nobody knows, because there's no way to go back to that dragon and ask him what he did, and he probably wouldn't tell me anyway, if I'm supposed to be Corwin, which, I'm sorry, I have a hard time thinking I really am." He sighs. "In any case, maybe you can't do it, but please tell me, is it even possible to make Silhouette more … uh … substantial?"

"I would not have thought it at all likely that she manifest herself as much as she has," Koshiro muses. "But given that she did accomplish as much, I rather suspect that she is capable of even more. In time, perhaps. With assistance. And if … it is what she wants."

Silhouette perches on an outcrop of stone against one wall while her friend and the shadow dragon speak, and she watches with a quiet, pensive air.

Rory nods, turning to look at Silhouette. "Thank you, Master Koshiro. I suppose … that's got to be enough. I guess we'll be going now, and I'll stop bugging you with all my questions. I guess I'd better close up the house and … well … I guess it'd be up to Sil whether I can borrow a few books." He smiles hopefully to Silhouette. "C'mon, Sil!" And with that, he and his friend leave the darkness of Koshiro's cave.