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"All right," I whisper "I’ll help you"

Flynn beckonswhite floor He shows me the nearly invisible seam in the floor and the faint outline of a human hand--a scanner, meant to unlock the control panel beneath

"It merely requires a hand," he tellsus, ho cannot touch anything We’ve tried to lead others here before, but our keeper seems to take pleasure in our failures"

"Lead others…" But before I can ask, realization courses through ht The wisps were leading them somewhere

"The others tried for years," the whisper continues "But when I realized that what I wanted was different, I--I was afraid"

I search the lax features for son of that fear and find none, from this creature with no way to express itself "Afraid of what?"

"Of dying alone" The whisper, behind Flynn’s face, aze back, rief--for me, for Flynn, for this lost creature huddled inside hih Flynn’s features, asps "The others will not stay quiet for long; I cannot hold theulp back a sob and fit le of current that courses througha section of the floor to rise upward, up and up, until there’s an eight-foot colu over me Destroy this and the whispers die

I can feel the whole thing hue,bolt were about to strike It won’t be hard to overload it all, with that ers, but catches himself before he can fall His voice is a rasp, but for now, he has control "When it is done, yououtside"

"Outside?"

"Your people, his people; this prison has become a battlefield"

The bottom falls out of my stomach We knew the Fianna were close behind us e found the facility, but the ing; there’ll be a battle raging above, fueled by deaths thatthey should all be on the saainst a sadistic madman worlds away It’ll be a bloodbath

This creature, who claims it cannot understand death--its compassion has robbed me of breath With that realization comes another, and I s hard "It was you," I whisper "You took ht me there to the caves"

"This vessel--this person--his pain is yours; you share it the way rieve for those deaths as he would But I brought you there too late to stop it"

I was there to save theer and its pain, this creature whose kindred sent rief

The whisper waits patiently until I look back up, then speaks "I have answered your questions Will you grantin return?"