She could barely make out the form of someone sitting on a bench behind the statue. The wind made a sighing sound...almost a moan...through the trees that were all around, blocking out the moonlight, making the darkness darker. Tripping over a root, she fell forward, her downward motion only stopped by the sudden, rough grip of strong fingers on her arm.

*********

"Heckuva lota going to the bathroom lately," commented Ute as she tried to keep the soy sauce from dripping off her Saltine.

"I know," responded Buggie who had tried, with little success, to convince Bieben Hood that ketchup had lycopene in it and was, therefore, much better for him than roasted pig. The Prince of Thieves was, however, quite hungry and expressed little present interest in prostate health.

Ute watched as both Maximus and Terry made their way quickly to the rear of the restaurant. "They seem to be in a hurry," she added.

"Strange," remarked Buggie as she noticed the untouched water glasses of both men sitting near their napkins.

"Hurry!" Maximus urged as they turned a corner and dashed through the kitchen, "she has gotten too far ahead."

The alleyway was pitch black. Shoulder to shoulder the two men made their way as rapidly as possible around the building to Carlton Street. "Which way did she go?" Terry asked, turning his head back and forth for some sign of Joimus.

"Could you read NOTHING on the ring?" Maximus asked, his voice sharp with concern.

"No," Terry replied, "the language was just too... unusual."

The General sighed, then walked quickly to a tattered old man, sitting on the sidewalk, his back against a fire hydrant, a bottle in a paper sack clutched in one dirty hand. At the approach of our duo, he looked up, blinking at the sight of the man in full camo and the man in full armor. His mouth went all slack and a bit of drool dripped down his chin.

Maximus, fists planted on his hips, cape blowing in the night breeze, looked down at him. "Have you seen a 33 year old woman with long pale hair, wearing a shredded yellow gossamer gown and carrying a heavy backpack pass by in the last few minutes?"

The man began shaking uncontrollably.

"HAVE you?" Maximus repeated.

Slowly, almost imperceptibly, a trembling forefinger pointed to the west.

With a swirling cape snap, Maximus took off down the sidewalk, Terry close on his heels. One block. Two blocks. No sign of Joimus anywhere. They passed the Police Museum and kept going, arriving at a place where the sidewalk curved off to the right and they could see a darkened area of parkland, bisected by a large building. Maximus paused on the corner, then headed across the street for the park.

"Why here, Maximus?" Terry asked.

"It is a ...feeling...I have," the General replied. He walked past the big, central building to the larger section of park behind it, slowing his pace just a bit as his eyes darted here and there. There were too many trees! His brow creased deeply. He could see almost nothing in the park.

Terry, however, unzipped a large pocket and pulled out a pair of night-goggles, offering them to his cohort. "Try these," he said, explaining briefly what they were. Maximus slipped them on, amazed at the ability they gave him to discern forms in the blackness. Now he moved forward more rapidly again, Terry following in his footsteps. Sidewalks angled here and there throughout the heavily-treed park. There were scattered benches, water fountains, and a large, central statue of a man mounted on a horse. They made their way toward the statue, set atop a mound of grassy earth.

Something about the statue had caught Maximus' goggled eye. He made his way up the steep slope of the tall mound, pausing near the front of the statue, then stood still, staring at the thing that was hanging from the raised leg of the bronze steed. Joimus' yellow backpack swayed in the breeze, little gossamer frays hanging down from it like fringe.

There were no trees immediately around the statue and so the full moon illuminated it in soft, white light. Maximus removed the goggles, reaching out and running one finger down the curving side of the fabric pouch. "Joimus," he whispered, his jaw working. His strong fingers sank deeply into the gossamer as he pulled it off the statue's leg, then tugged apart the velcro with little rasping sounds. Pressing his lips tightly together, he felt around inside the backpack. The ring was gone. Of course the ring was gone. His shoulders sagged a bit and he sat down in the grass, rubbing the pad of his thumb back and forth across the roughness of the velcro strip.

Terry had taken the goggles and was scanning the park. He thought he saw something dark in a high tree crotch, but when he checked, found only a squirrel's nest. "I don't think she's still in the park, Maximus," he said.

Ah, if only he had known that she stood even then at the base of the mound, looking up at the General, great longing writ across her face. Then anger mingled with the yearning and the two contrasting emotions did a strange dance across her features. She turned, looking to her side. "Please?" she asked.

"Two minutes," Sid replied, "then you must go with me."

His satisfied laughter scraped its way up her spine as she climbed the mound and knelt before the General of the Armies of the North. "I don't know where else to look," Maximus was saying tiredly. "Something in me just...knew...that she was here." He hung his head. "I don't understand."

"I AM here, my Love," she said, reaching out her hand toward his chest, then pulling it back without touching him. She turned her head, looking back and down at the smug Sid. Such a terrible, terrible price he had asked of her in exchange for sparing the General's mind.

Maximus lifted his head, tilting his chin up and to the side. "You know, Terry," he said, a catch in his throat, "it's almost like I can feel her close, feel her presence."

"Love does that," Terry replied. "I know."

Joimus studied the moon's soft highlighting of the beloved features and could in no way keep her fingers from cupping his cheek. His hand reached up to the spot, resting there a brief moment. "What is it?" Terry asked.

"Just a moth," Maximus replied, "just a moth."

Tears made cool pathways down her face in the night breeze and she buried it, as was her habit, in the fur drape of his cape above his left shoulder. He grimaced slightly and quickly lay his right palm there.

"Are you hurt?" Terry asked, noticing his pained expression.

"It is the...old...wound," he murmured. He looked at Terry. "Sometimes it aches still." He stared then at his own hand, running his thumb across strangely wet fingertips. "The dew is falling," he said. "Let us go back to the restaurant and see if she left any clues there." The two men stood then, and, wrapping his cape closely about himself, Maximus led the way out of the park.

Joimus sat there alone, watching them go, watching the beloved sway of the General's cape as he walked, listening to the sounds of their boots on the pavement. When they had turned the far corner, she felt a great sharpness rending her being and lay forward onto the grass where HE had sat... waiting while her heart cracked in two.

"Oh, COME now!" Sid called up from below. "Get UP!"

But she lay there a while longer, the grass still warm from his body. It was all she had left of him and she curled her fingers into it, holding onto the blades fiercely. She thought of the wildflower meadow back in Droogheeda and how, after Jewelie's ewe cart had crashed, she had lain much like this, her fingers digging into the meadow. Then she had wanted only to get as far from Maximus as she could. How had the world tilted so? Now, when all she wanted was to merge herself, cell for cell into his being, he was walking away in the darkness.

"NOW!" Sid ordered.

She stood, blindly making her way down the steep mound, losing one of her slippers on the way.

Terry and Maximus came in the front doors of the restaurant. Ute and Buggie looked at one another. "Didn't they go to the mens' room in the back?" Ute asked.

"Well, they were taking so long I sorta figured they'd come down with the Toronto Trots from all the ketchup...but I have no idea how they got around to the front."

"Maximus, where...." Phyllis began, but the look on the General's face and a sharp shake of Terry's head, cut her words off.

Annsmac, who had been aware of Terry and Maximus' plan to follow Joimus, came up beside the K&R agent and asked quietly, "What of Joimus?"

Terry looked down at her, his brows pulled way down to the sides. "We lost her," he replied.

Berti heard. "WHAT?" she said loudly, "You LOST Joimus!"

Buggie was puzzled. "They lost her in the mens' room? What was Joimus DOING in the MENS' room?"

"None of us ever went to the restrooms, Buggie," Terry explained patiently.

Berti, who though she liked to keep track of the Pittsburgher's little foibles was, nonetheless, quite fond of her, raised her voice even more. "WHERE did you lose her?"

"We didn't see her again after she left this room," Terry said.

Maximus seemed distracted. "In the park," he murmured. "We lost her in the park."

"The PARK?" Berti bellowed. "Why were you in a park? WHICH park? Where? When?"

"I don't know the name of it," Terry admitted. "It's west of here several blocks."

"Can you find it again?" Berti asked.

Annsmac just looked at the woman. "Can he FIND it again?? BERTI!!! He's a K&R agent, for Pete's sake!!!"

"Oh, yeah! Berti shrugged. She examined the General closely, a not unpleasant task. His lids were at half mast and he kept brushing his cheek with his fingertips. Even for him, he was acting a bit strange. "Did you encounter Sid?" she asked Terry, but he just shook his head, then walked over to where Joimus had sat earlier. A spoonful of peanutbutter lay, tragically untouched, atop her napkin. He looked under the table. A crumpled piece of paper lay under a scattering of Saltine crumbs. Picking it up, he smoothed it on the tabletop. Berti leaned over his shoulder, also not an unpleasant task. "Pittsburgh!" Berti cried.

Indeed, it WAS a map of Joimus' city.

"Maximus, LOOK!" Terry called. Maximus leaned down toward the map.

"It's the uninterpretable language!" Terry stated. "The same one that is on the ring!"

"Ring?" asked Berti. "Is there now a ring in this epi? I didn't see a ring!" Alas, she had forgotten "other" situations in her current absorption and had spoken too loudly.

Budo rushed up, gripping her forearms tightly. "The ring is MINE!" he shrieked. "MINE!"

"No, no, Budo," Berti said, patting him on his cheek, also not an unpleasant task.

"HEY!" Ando interrupted as though on cue. "Why does SHE get all the not unpleasant tasks? I want a not unpleasant task, TOO!"

Don Juan de Hando swished up beside her, grinning devilishly. "I, myself, will take you to the next table and do many not unpleasant things all over you."

"Really?" Ando asked, her interest captured.

Berti frowned at the former Welshwoman. "ANDO!" she remonstrated. "Joimus has disappeared, a strange ring has been introduced into epilife, the peanutbutter was not eaten, and all YOU can think about is...is... um....oh....ok...." Her voice trailed away. "Where was I?" Berti continued as Ando and de Hando moved...um...out of the way. "Oh, yes....Budo! THIS ring is not THAT ring. THAT ring was the ONE ring and THIS ring is..is...is...," she looked at Terry. "How many of these rings are there?"

"One," Terry intoned seriously.

"Aieee!" cried Budo. "The EYE!"

"NO, Budo! THAT ring had strange writing on it and THIS ring has...." Her eyes widened as she looked again at Terry. "It doesn't...does it?"

He nodded, "Didn't I say that in a not-all-that-long-past line of dialogue?"

Indeed, he had. Had Berti not been so distracted by her not unpleasant tasks, she would have remembered. Finally, connections connected for her. "The map of Pittsburgh!" she cried, enlightened. "You said it had the same writing as on the ring!"

"I did," agreed Terry.

"Let me see that map again," she asked, excitedly. She studied the strange writing. It WAS the most uninterpretable form of communication imaginable. Even though there was no way Berti could read the stuff, she was a smart cookie and announced, "The writing on the ring was for Joimus. It was specifically for HER!"

"Why?" Terry asked.

"Sid." Berti stated. "He was telling her something...a message he didn't want anybody else to know."

"It's how he got her to go to the park," Terry added.

"DID she go to the park?" Berti asked.

"I don't...know," Terry admitted. "We didn't see her."

For the first time in a while, Maximus spoke. "She was there. I...felt...her there."

"I think he means he sensed that she had been there before we got there," Terry tried to explain. Maximus' eye twitched, but he said nothing more.

As they had not really ordered anything from the menu, the waitress let them leave without presenting a bill...not even for the uneaten spoonful of peanut butter. The cast gathered outside the restaurant, looking across Carlton at the dark and quiet Maple Leaf Gardens. Jewelie wiped away a tear. "Jim," she said softly.

"What?" asked Wanda.

"Jim...he's supposed to film fight scenes here," she explained wistfully. Phyllis, too, stared at the yellow brick edifice. She knew that meant Himself would have been there as well. A seagull sat on the blue marquee, gazing back at her. The tattered man leaning against the fire hydrant screamed wildly.

Everyone turned to look. The man was staring up in absolute terror at the Captain, in full Napoleonic naval uniform, who had been speaking to him in soft, perfect Jack Blackese. "What did you SAY to the poor man?" Juditha asked, concerned.

"I merely inquired if he were ready to...go." Jack replied, smiling benignly. "It's what I do, you know," he continued. "It's why I've come." His seagreen eye fell on de Hando. "Do you intend to go to the...beach... anytime soon?" he asked. "I will accompany you, should you...do so."

Ando glared at the Captain, then looked at Juditha. "You just keep that character of yours in line, Missy!" she growled. "And keep him far away from Hando...er...de Hando!"

Eryn quickly pushed her character to the back of the group. No way would she ever let Colin near THIS guy!

They somehow managed to make it all the way to the park without attracting TOO much untoward attention to themselves. It's being the wee hours of the morning probably was a plus factor there. Franki noticed the park was in the middle of the university district and breathed a sigh of relief. At least they would blend right in come dawn. "There," Terry said, pointing to the mounded horse statue in the pale light beginning to streak the sky. "That's where we found her backpack...hanging from the horse's leg."

"Well, at least he didn't hang it from the other end," Ando remarked.

"Wait here," Maximus commanded as he ascended the mound alone. For what seemed like a long time...especially to Ando...he stood silently in the same spot where he had sat earlier. He no longer felt that sense of her presence as he had before...only a strange sadness that seemed to be lingering in the air. He lay a palm on his chest, pressing tightly, as though his heart needed to be held together physically. "Joimus," he whispered, closing his eyes. Jaw working with emotion, he finally made his way down the front of the mound. Right at its bottom, he stumbled a little.

"You OK?" Terry asked quickly.

Maximus, however, had stooped and was feeling the ground. "I know there was something here," he said puzzledly, "I felt it through my boot's sole." How could it ever be explained that it had been through his soul and not his sole at all that the feeling had come? Epilife was getting more complicated by the second. The General had placed his large boot directly atop Joimus' lost slipper. He crouched lower, and inadvertently lay his palm completely through the small piece of feminine footwear. He gasped sharply. His palm was pressed firmly to empty ground...and...yet. What WAS it? What was he feeling? What was it that was there, and yet...not there?

"Maximus?" Terry asked.

The General looked up, a strange expression of longing...and hope...in his eyes. "Something...." he murmured. "Something...is...," he turned to look down at his hand, "here."

"Can you pick it up?" Berti wanted to know.

His fingers curled. "No," he said, regretfully.

"Can you tell what it is?" she then asked. "Only that it is... hers," he murmured. "Only that."

"Hmmmm?" Terry pondered, looking back and forth from Maximus' hand to the top of the mound.

"Let us presume, then, that she has gone in this direction." He pointed north. Within moments our crew was walking up the left-hand side of Avenue Road...or was it Road Avenue? "I think it's Street Lane," piped in Ando helpfully. As it had taken the former Welshwoman 16 years and 4 days to find her way out of the last coal mine she had entered, no one really paid much directional attention to her any more. Still, she had a point...and not just the one on the top of her head, either. If the Torontoians wanted folks to find their way, they could jolly well name their roads things other than Avenue.

They had almost passed completely by the museum when Anna called out, "Look!" There, lying on the bottom step of the flight leading up to the museum's doors, was a seagull feather. She looked at Franki. "Do you think it's an invitation...or a warning?" she asked.

"I think we need to find out!" Berti announced. Budo, though, was looking up at the large doors as though they were the Black Gates of Mordor. "Boy," Berti said under her breath, "is he EVER gonna break a lotta chairs when he finds out who Sid turned him into!"

Indeed, between sleeping against white rhinos, watching his ladylove lust after "croutons" and now THIS...the poor cop was in dire need of some not unpleasant epitime. (Epiwriter memo to self: be nice to Bud) Jack Black peeked over the writer's shoulder and commented with catacomb humor, "Will that niceness be in this life...or the next?"

"Now STOP that!" both Berti and Juditha hollered in unison.

"Come," Sid urged Joimus, whose leg muscles ached from hobbling in one shoe. Finally she took off the shoe and threw it heedlessly over her shoulder, not caring where it landed. It would make no difference anyway, now would it? She had lost her other shoe a good ways back, probably somewhere in the park, she thought. She hadn't really paid much attention to where they were going. Everything seemed so different to her now... in every way things CAN be different...even time...and distance. Was she still even in Toronto any more? How far was Sid taking her from Maximus?

The air seemed all... all...ripply around her. She moved her hand in an arc in front of her and left a trail of lavender ripples.

"That's pretty," she thought, doing it again. This time the ripples broke into bubbles, shading from mauve to palest blue. She poked a bubble, breaking it, watching as a gardenia dropped out. Strains of Brahms' floated by as the gardenia grew wings and flew towards the sun. "Where IS this place?" she wondered aloud.

Harsh cackles, like spines, stuck in the air, impaling her bubbles. "Welcome to MY world!" Sid laughed. "Welcome...home."