He was able to cut down on a lot of the walking by casting a ryuka spell as soon as he emerged from the valley, bypassing the rocky mountains and the town of Zosa by spiriting himself straight to Tyler. There seemed to be a tight sense of urgency within him now, bunched together inside his chest and growing tighter as every minute passed him by. So many new people, a great rising in the pool of souls borne within the Algo solar system. Their star system was so incredibly fragile already, there simply was no way that Algo would be able to cope with such a rise in population. It would cause Motavia and Dezoris, already half barren in themselves, to fall apart.

The esper materialized on the outskirts of the Palman colony in a brief shimmer of motion, drawing back his cloak as he came into being. His head swam for a moment as his mind raced to catch up with his body and then his vision cleared, allowing him to stride off towards the direction of the spaceport. The skies were completely cloudy now and there was a definite deep chill in the air, but all in all it was rather a lovely day for Dezoris. Rune could concentrate on his thoughts without worrying about where he was going, he could already see the thin grey line on the horizon that signified the roof of his destination.

How could so many souls be called into existence so suddenly? He knew that they had not been present in Algo yesterday, or the day before that. If that had been so Rune would have been called out here much earlier. Even more puzzling than that, neither Motavia nor Dezoris cried out in the support of extra lives, straining under a new and great burden. The two planets were silent. The solution must lie in deep space, and if not a solution, then at least a clue to this mystery. Rune didn't really have anywhere left to turn to, so despite the esper's aversion to asking people for help he decided he would forget about it, just this one time.

The sight that Rune saw moments later, however, was something that he wasn't likely to forget.

There was something vaguely surreal about watching a bishop in nearly full regalia throwing a temper tantrum in a snowfield. Rune slowed his step until he was just standing there, staring, unsure whether to laugh or to cringe. He did the former shortly, then the latter, and then started down the gentle slope that he was standing on to see what on Dezoris was wrong with his old friend. He left slight trails in the snow as he half-walked, half-slid down the hill.

Rune had not expected to see Raja out alone in the fields of Tyler, of all places. Last he had heard the old dezorian had been promoted to the rank of bishop and led off to the heartland of the planet to help rebuild and sanctify the destroyed Gumbious temple. Raja had complained about that busy, bustling place and having to return to it again, but he also declared that if the world needed fixing he was the most qualified old coot around to do the job. Not very holy words, but true words nonetheless.

The words that Raja was muttering in the here and now weren't very holy either. The dezorian was rolling balls of snow scooped from the ground with his long-fingered hands and flinging them at the closed doors of the spaceport, cursing mildly as he did so. He nearly jumped out of his skin when Rune crept up behind him and planted a gloved hand on his shoulder, dropping the perfectly formed snowball that had been locked and loaded at his feet. He made sort of an; "Aiy!" sound, if it was a dezorian word Rune didn't know of it, and then the esper recalled something about the priest that was vitally important. He was almost as quick with a stave as Rune was.

He remembered just in time and swiftly ducked, half a second away from being smacked over the head by a silver staff. Before Raja could figure out who it was he was trying to hit his arms swung up for a second strike again, but Rune shot out a hand and stopped Raja's wrist firmly in its tracks. The bishop finally saw the esper and stared at him in a bewildered and confused way, the unmistakable look of utter senility.

Rune knew better, though. Raja's expression seemed to clear, it turned unmistakably sunny and he dropped his staff on the ground, embracing Rune in a friendly hug as he shouted "Esper!" into Rune's neck. Well, it seemed like Raja had not forgotten him. That was good. But the hugging… that was a little much for Rune's personal space.

"What are you doing here?" Rune asked as he frowned and pried the old man away from him. The years had not seemed to have changed Raja much. He was sporting a few more wrinkles than before but that was about it. They were extra laugh lines and deepening crows feet at the corners of Raja's slitted eyes. Rune knelt and picked up the silver staff that the bishop had dropped when Rune tried to disarm him. He handed the weapon back to his grinning friend. "You planning on chartering a spaceship somewhere?" He added jokingly, but unwittingly he had hit the nail squarely on the head. That was exactly what Raja had been trying to do, in his own strange way.

Raja accepted his stave gratefully and leant on it a little, regarding his friend cheerfully yet evenly. Rune was still Rune. Well, maybe his hair was a bit longer and his face seemed grimmer, but Raja didn't care about that. Why had Rune asked him what he was doing here? Didn't the esper know already? Why else would the magician have traveled all the way out here just to meet with him? "Weren't you expecting me? I came because I was called here. Didn't you hear the call as well?" The dezorian retorted.

This surprised Rune, but it wasn't really as mystifying as it seemed. Espers were not the only ones with a spiritual side. Raja had been able to sense the negative energy of the Garuberk Tower long ago when he and the Chaz Ashley company had journeyed across the world and saved the Algo solar system. It made sense that a dezorian bishop would be able to see the vast increase in souls just as Rune did. He just hadn't really expected Raja to take an active role in something so deeply serious once more. Rune nodded his head solemnly to his friend. "Something strange has happened up in space. I'm sure of it." He said.

"Yeah, that's why I'm here." Raja agreed as he strolled back to the locked entrance of the spaceport. He rapped his knuckles against the thick metal lightly, hardly making a noise. "Algo sings, you know, Rune? We priests hear its song as we slumber, like intermissions in our dreams. Most of the time it's something that we can easily ignore, so we can focus on our dreams, but last night as I slept the volume exploded as another choir stepped into the tune. Their song is different to ours but they speak the language of Algo. Isn't that weird?"

The way that Raja described it seemed vastly different to the way that Rune had experienced it, but he still found the different insight quite valuable. At least he and Myau were not the only ones sensing this. A different song, but the same voice? What on Dezoris could that mean? Rune didn't know. "That is pretty weird. Were you trying to get in to go to Zelan? You need an access code to open the doors. Don't you remember it?"

The bishop suddenly looked rather sheepish. "I had written it down somewhere but I guess I must have lost it. A lot of my stuff got misplaced when I moved back to Jut. Why does it have to be something as hard to remember as a long number anyway? What's wrong with a word like 'open sesame?'" He complained, gesticulating with his hands. He wasn't very adamant to tell Rune about how bad his memory had become lately, from forgetting the number to forgetting where he had written the number as well.

"Because this thing only has a number pad attached to it." Rune answered, activating the device with a touch of his fingertips. "I remember the password. I'll let you in." Raja harrumphed and folded his arms like a difficult child, hugging his silver stave. Rune's spirits rose a little. He liked being in charge, especially if he was leading somebody as powerful and as influential as a dezorian bishop. Not that he could ever picture Raja having influence over anything, save for the flow of stupid jokes coming in and out of Jut. The magician entered in the code. "One oh six five four six." He muttered under his breath as he pressed the buttons.

The metal doors to the spaceport slid open with a sighing concealed hiss. Lights were on inside. It was good to know that there hadn't been a power outage or something. Rune and Raja wouldn't have known what to do if there were. The two friends hurried on inside, eager to get out of the snow. It wasn't much warmer inside of the spaceport but at least it was drier. Raja still seemed to be fascinated by the flashing lights. For somebody whose culture was so backward and rigid the dezorian loved the technological wonders of the distant age. Raja would have taken a spaceship and gone sightseeing all over the cosmos if he could.

Rune searched for one of the computer units that would have an up-link into Zelan. The esper was pretty much in the dark as to how he would use it; that certainly was not his area of expertise. He turned a monitor on and began to fiddle with the keys and dials, trying to make it do what he wanted. Why did these damn things have to be so complicated? His distant memories from two millennia ago regarding computers were the only guidelines that he had. "So what do you think all this means?" He haphazardly asked the bishop standing behind him as he worked.

"I think I don't want to guess until I see it with my own eyes. That way I'll be able to accept everything when we find out about it." Wow. That actually sounded rather wise. Perhaps Raja had really grown a serious side in Jut. Rune smiled in relief when he thought he had found the right program that he needed. Raja continued, slyly. "Maybe it's an alien race from far away wanting to chuck a party? I wouldn't mind that. Hey, maybe Zelan is party central right now!" The dezorian laughed.

That sounded unlikely. Rune groaned at Raja's blithering optimism. Some things just never changed. It looked like Rune was going to have to drag the bishop along with him as well. It could be like the old times all over again. No, not really. It just wouldn't be the same without Chaz and Rika. The magician's train of thought halted when the up-link screen popped onto the desktop. That had been fast. He had expected that it would take much longer than that. "Uh, hello?" He greeted the screen hesitantly, waiting for something to happen.

He heard a fumbling sound, but nobody chose to appear upon the screen. Rune could see a bit of Zelan, dim lights flashing in the background, but that was it. The satellite appeared to be deserted from his vantage point. Rune's shoulders slumped a little. Was nobody at home? As soon as he thought this Wren's voice filtered through the speakers. He sounded distant, and distracted. "Hello Rune, I will be with you in a minute. Please hold."

The up-link died. Rune and Raja just stood there staring at the empty screen. "Did he just… put us on hold?" Rune said out loud to nobody in particular. That was cold. Either Wren had forgotten how to be civil to people or something was going on up there that was terribly urgent. They hadn't seen their friends in over three years and Rune had at least expected a decent greeting. Beside him Raja just grinned and repeated what he had said about party central. He declared that Wren brushing their communication off so quickly strengthened his silly theory.

It did not take a minute for Wren to get back to them. It took twelve minutes. The two holy men of Dezoris were growing understandably impatient, not just from the waiting but also from not quite knowing what was going on. Rune and Raja were not used to being kept in the dark. The latter seemed to have an irritating habit of tapping his stave against the echoing floor while he waited. After ten minutes of this Rune touched his right temple lightly, as if he were developing a headache. How annoying.

Before Rune had an opportunity to snap at his old companion the up-link reconnected itself and Wren appeared on the screen. The android was as they remembered him to be, as tall and as broad as a giant, but as dull as a stone. It didn't seem like he showed much pleasure in seeing Rune and Raja either. "I apologise for the wait," he droned, "but I was in the middle of something. Hello Rune, Raja. I have been expecting your transmission all morning."

Raja jumped at what Wren had said. He wasn't quite sure how the metal contraption was sending their message to Zelan so he shouted in the machine's general direction. "What? So does this mean you woke up with that strange feeling as well? It's not just Rune and I? Does that mean everybody else is getting this feeling too? Hey, what do you know about this?" He demanded.

Wren did not seem to be disturbed by the five different questions that he could not answer. He did not even look confused. "Insufficient data. I do not know what you are talking about. I do not understand this 'feeling' that you are referencing, but I have received an earlier transmission from Rika that bore similar connotations. That is why I was expecting a call from Dezoris very soon." The android paused, looking off-screen for several moments. He then continued with a greater sense of purpose. "Zelan is experiencing a problem. I would appreciate it if you would come here and analyze it. This is a subject leaning out of my jurisdiction."

The mention of Rika was intriguing. It gave substance to Raja's idea that all the Protectors of Algo had felt the disturbance. Everybody except for the androids, it seemed. It felt like they were all still loosely connected, even after three years, by strong invisible strands that were like a spider's web. It was only the morning and Rune had already been reintroduced to Raja and Wren, and now the idea of Rika was coming back into the picture. The numan girl. Their hope for the future. "Is Chaz still with Rika?" Rune asked their link to Zelan and all the other planets. He was going off topic but he was honestly interested by this.

"As far as I know they have been engaged for a year. This I have learned from Demi." Wren replied softly, tacking his servant's name on the end as if he had no interest in keeping track of this information himself. He had more important things to concern himself with, like Zelan's rather dire problem. "Can we please get back to the situation at hand? I hope I am not being too forward in requesting your presence here, Reverent Fifth."

"No, that's why Raja and I came to this spaceport in the first place. We can't ignore a call like this. I don't think any Protector can." Rune placed his hand to his chin in thought. Since when did Wren have any respect for the office of the Lutz outside of common cultural and religious courtesy? He would only request the presence of the Lutz if he thought that Rune might be able to help him in a way that no other esper could. The magician had a feeling that this had more to do with his accumulated memories than his special skills. "Can you tell us what this is all about right now?" He pried.

Wren considered Rune's proposal carefully, then he declined it. "Negative. It would be best for you to come here and see the disturbance for yourself. You may understand it better than I can. I will have a status report ready for you by the time that you reach Zelan."

This was becoming curiouser and curiouser. Rune started to wonder vaguely if he was just having a very strange or confusing dream. Beside him Raja looked totally lost, but he was trying not to show that he was lost. "How are we going to get to your station?" Rune questioned Wren seriously. "This spaceport is empty."

The android was beginning to look distracted again. No, not distracted. Impatient, like he had a dozen different jobs that were piling up as he talked casually with his two distant friends. "I will have Demi pick you up with one of Zelan's spare pods. She is currently en-route to rendezvous with Chaz, Rika and Hahn, so her arrival on Dezoris may take some time. I would gladly come and get you myself but for now I am unable to leave my post. I apologize."

Sounded like Zelan's resources were wearing rather thin. Of course, it only had two members staffing the facility that had to monitor the entire Algo system. Wren had managed it solo in pre-Dark Force times. Maybe he was beginning to rely on Demi too much for assistance. Well, he and Raja could wait. There wasn't anything else they could do. "We're not going anywhere. Tell Demi to get her butt in gear next time you talk to her." Rune smirked. "See you in a little while. Over and out." He closed the up-link and the screen grew dark. They had contacted Zelan and they still knew next to nothing about what was going on. Great.

Raja, who had been silent since his last outburst suddenly spun into cackling laughter. Rune looked at the dezorian like he had flipped his lid. "Ha! I never thought I'd get to see space again! The gods can't keep me out of retirement for very long!" Raja slapped his thigh in a way that reminded Rune of his grandfather, who used to do that a long time ago. It calmed the bishop down some. "Mr. Droid seemed like the epitome of warmth today, didn't he?" He finished, sarcastically.

It was hard to be warm when one seemed so… nervous. That was the closest word Rune could pin to Wren right now. It made Rune feel better to know that he was not the only nervous one. Even Raja was nervous too, though he managed to cover it up with laughter. The esper thought that even though Wren had denied such a 'feeling' that the two religious men felt, the android must sense it anyway to come off as nervous as he was. There wasn't really much of a difference between Rune, Raja and Wren anyway. They were all shepherds, guardians of their particular flock.

"Looks like we wait." Rune sighed. Raja groaned.

†††

Wren had not been lying when he had said that it would take some time. Close to five hours passed on Dezoris before the tiny indistinct grey shape of the spaceship appeared in the cloudy sky, ripping through it like a bullet that was slowing down. Rune was standing in the middle of the snowfield watching its descent with a hand over his brow to block out the very weak glare. It was a welcoming symbol, a sight that Rune had not seen in over three years and hadn't realised that he had missed it until now. During the Great War their ship had been the closest thing to home. He smiled sentimentally at it, wondering if anything would ever serve them in that manner all over again.

In the five hours until the ship had appeared Raja had wanted to take a break and head back to Ryuon for a drink and a warm hearth, but Rune had talked him into sticking around and waiting for the ship in person. It would be very impolite to the androids if they turned up and he and Raja weren't there. Raja kind of wished that he had kept his own counsel. After five hours of waiting in the wilderness and inside the cold metal spaceport everything beyond his knees and elbows had gone completely numb. He could have run down to Ryuon, had a few, and then come back with plenty of time to spare.

Filling up several hours of waiting with worthwhile things to do is exceedingly hard. Rune coped pretty well by diving into his usual training and meditation schedule despite the time of day, not even a mystery of galactic proportions could sway him from his discipline. That made him feel pretty good about himself, it kept him focussed and directed towards his goals. If meditating in the middle of an icy cold snowfield and feeling one's butt slowly growing numb wasn't an enlightening trial, then nothing was.

Raja frequently interrupted and bothered him with his own fun and games. For Raja he was only as young as he felt. The dezorian priest killed time by slowly building an array of various snowmen, similar to one another and yet somehow unique. He named them all, introduced them to one another, then used his priestly powers to wed most of them together, regardless of age, gender or shape of each snowman. When he tired of that he tried to make snow angels which turned out pretty well, yet that was also only a temporary thing and eventually he sat down beside Rune, sharing in his silence. To the esper it had not been a moment too soon, for if Raja had started up on the snowballs again he would have had a war on his hands.

The esper and the Dezorian priest stood up when they saw the spaceship in the sky. Raja's slitted eyes squinted even further as he mentally traced its shape. "It's about bloody time!" He crowed cheerily as he patted the fallen snow off his body, looking at Rune expectantly. "I guess she had to take a stop to refuel the 'ol space sled, that or we interrupted them while they were wallpaperin' their station. Maybe they want to show us their interior decorating? Hey, is your butt as numb as mine is? Wowee!"

"You never change, do you old man? Come on and let's see what this problem is. Then we can all sleep easier tonight." Provided it was something they could help with, of course. Raja grinned and nodded, walking back to his snowman community and taking back his staff that he had given to one of his creations. He bid them all farewell, individually, by name. When he was finally prepared to leave he followed a very impatient Rune to the spaceport, the blue-haired magician unlocking the doors in the same manner as before. The spaceport was lit up and active, awaiting its first extraterrestrial visitors in over three years.

The spaceship docked smoothly and skillfully on Dezoris without any problems, the two spiritual leaders of the ice planet finding themselves waiting outside the ship's cooling outer hull a safe distance away, steam rising from the metal surface after a burning entry into the planet's atmosphere.

Somehow, it made all the boring tedious waiting worthwhile as Rune and Raja entered the spaceport from one end, and Demi from the other. The small service android looked at the two figures that seemed monstrously tall to her, curiously, but then she cried out in delight and ran towards them like a scene out of a cheesy movie. Rune held out his arms to her but was also slightly afraid that Demi would be too strong for him and knock him over. She was short, but she was powerful too.

"Rune! Mr. Raja!" She cried and struck the magician with more of a restrained force than he had originally anticipated. Demi grabbed him around his middle and gave him a great big hug. This was the happy greeting that they had neglected to receive from Wren. Rune patted Demi on the head fondly and she let go of him, offering her hand to Raja for a handshake. She was still beaming as the bishop shook hands with her awkwardly. "It's been too long. I've missed all of you." She announced.

Demi seemed to have become even more vivacious since last they had met her. It may have been because of her promotion to a Zelan service android, but more than likely it could have been because she had to make enough commotion for two people now. Zelan must be quite a boring place. "So what's the problem?" Rune asked sneakily, hoping that if he couldn't get the information out of Wren he might be able to squeeze the secret out of Demi. They had a great many pieces of the puzzle in their hands, they just needed to see the picture on the box before they could start assembling them together.

The green-haired girl smiled and shook her head. "Master told me not to tell you until we get back to Zelan. He also told me to 'get my butt in gear' when I dropped Chaz, Rika and Hahn off there but I didn't really understand what he meant by that." Raja started to laugh again and even Rune managed a little snicker. Demi seemed a bit perplexed. "In any case, the sooner we can get to Zelan the sooner we can figure out this problem. I know I should be worried over all of this but honestly I find it rather exciting. Please come with me."

That was indeed true, so they allowed Demi to herd them into the space pod, which was certainly no Landale but it looked skyworthy. It didn't seem to have a name, but Demi called it 'Buggy', which did match its unique shape. Rune had not left Dezoris in over three years. It felt weird to be saying goodbye to the old iceball all over again. He wondered how long it would be before he got to go home again, but reminded himself that it was not the way that an adventurer should think.

It was a bit of a tight fit inside. It must have felt right at home to Demi, who eagerly hopped into the small pilot's seat and plugged herself into the ship's computer. Rune and Raja felt a little claustrophobic though, and only really felt comfortable when they sat down and buckled up. Demi insisted that she would not leave until everybody had their seatbelts on. Rune was tempted to say something about women drivers but decided not to, being cooped up with said woman driver and somebody who probably wouldn't even get the joke.

The ship sped down the runway smoothly and gave only a little lurch when it got up into the air. For something as ugly as it outwardly appeared it seemed to be a good spaceship. Raja had his face smooshed up against the window on his side, watching the land becoming covered by the clouds, and then seeing the clouds themselves dropping away from their view. In a couple of minutes the bishop would be able to see the curvature of Dezoris as they entered the mesosphere. It was amusing and a little scary that a huge place like Dezoris could become so tiny, just a blue ball floating in space.

Rune was not really interested in the scenery right now. He was watching Demi who was smiling so happily from meeting her friends again. Chaz and company must have put her in a really good mood. Yet Rune felt in the back of his head and the telemental part of his mind a sort of foreboding about the android girl, that was why he couldn't take his eyes off her. Even the Lutz could not predict the future, but they could have slight inklings all the same. Rune just couldn't stand up to Demi and pronounce 'You are in grave peril…' in a stupid fortune teller voice, but he wanted to do something to help.

"Hey Demi, what does that red mark on your forehead mean?" Rune asked, and then wanted to slap a black-gloved hand over his face. Why the hell had he asked something like that? That had been the very last thing on his mind!

The girl turned to him, looked surprised but then smiled again. This minute distraction from the ship's control panel would not put them in any danger. If danger occurred Demi would be notified of it prematurely. It was safe to talk, and nobody had ever asked her about that before. "Well, I was just created with it on my face. There used to be an honored family living on Palma who wore marks like these. I guess I was just modeled after one of them. I don't know why, I never really bothered to ask." Demi touched the mark with two of her fingertips. "Why do you want to know?"

"No reason really, just curious." Rune replied, then dropped the subject. He needed to take these strange matters one step at a time. Two hours passed. Raja fell asleep with his face against the window. He didn't snore, which was certainly a good thing. Outside the ship space was lovely and beautiful as usual, a hundred million different stars a backdrop to their celestial journey.

Rune had his eyes closed and was zoning out a bit, resting his chin against his curled hand when Demi suddenly addressed him again. Perhaps she had spoken too loudly, for the Lutz flinched in reaction to her voice. He looked at her questioningly, trying to cover up his previous action. "Rune, we are almost there. We will be docking in ten minutes time. My Master told me not to mention anything until we got to Zelan, but he didn't say anything about me showing it to you instead. Look out your window and tell me what you see."

She was going to get in trouble for doing this but Rune was dying to know and didn't care. He glanced out his window eagerly. It was most interesting to watch Rune's face at that moment. At first it looked like he didn't see anything at all, just Zelan orbiting their distant star. Then he saw the forest amidst the trees. He saw the second satellite. Surprised wasn't a strong enough word to describe how Rune looked. It was utter bewilderment. Incredulity, then a bit of fear. Rune had not just seen one ghost, he had seen fifty thousand of them.

"That’s-" he stuttered and jerked back from the window, savagely elbowing Raja in the side to wake him up. The bishop squawked, swatting at invisible enemies sleepily. Rune didn't seem to notice. "That’s…" he continued, unable to get the rest of the sentence out.

For the first time that day Demi looked somber. "Master was sure that you would recognise it." She said.

"Th-that's a freaking Worldship!" Rune cried, and he was correct.