Dageron takes up the rearguard. This is a place of legends, and never in his life did he think he would enter it. A sense of awe, reverence, and foreboding creep into his mind. 

Orin follows

" The eyes of the dragon said, they are telling the truth. " Atoh whispers to her friends. " Never had such a clear message from the eyes. Both ladies are sincere about their identity and motivation. I think we can trust them and enter the Castle. " " That means… We will get into the Castle through the mouth of a giant skull, Awesome! "  The little dragon looks up at the Castle Grayskull with starry eyes. Aoth shocks her head and asks the Sorceress. " Lady… ah… Sorceress? Can I take my mount into your home? Nana is smaller than the horses and very well behaved. I promise you she will not dirty your floor. " 

"Nana is welcome, as Cringer has been so many times before."  The Sorceress replies to Atoh as she motions her in with her Mastiff.  The party files in, with Melisandre keeping a respectful distance behind them as she looks around the interior of the castle.  

The inner sanctum of Castle Grayskull is vaulted and vast as the Sorceress leads the Order of the Phoenix inside.  Stone architecture that predates a huge part of history rises up all around them, and they file into the center of the great hall to the midst of many stone carved kings standing around a pulsating blue ring in the floor.

The Sorceress stops inside the ring.  Blue light bathes the hall. 

"What do you seek, travelers?"  

Brevon glances at the party before nodding and following the Sorceress inside.  The castle is impressive, but no more than the soaring majesty of the Ivory Tower.  He wonders who would build a castle with a giant skull a door, and for what, here in the midst of the desert.  Inside, he admires the architectural features and stonework, perplexed at the identity of the many kings.

He pauses outside of the circle.  Cast in the blue light rising up from the floor, he acquires a sort of ghoulish appearance.

"Sorceress, have you a name or title by which you should be called?  As I said, I am Brevon, and these are my companions."  He gestures to his band, leaving it to them to introduce themselves.  "We have just come upon the Lady Melisandre, the Red Priestess, outside of your castle.  She claims to have been waiting for us after a message from the Lady of Light."

"We are sent by the Childlike Empress in search of artifacts of legend, whose power is needed to correct the imbalance wrought by the agents of darkness.  Our foe seeks to cast the world into a state of eternal night, a realm of blackness unknown since the dawn of creation, and one which threatens to destroy life as it is known.  Our Lady of Light has spoken to me, bringing me into the service of the Empress and to the mouth of your castle.  Melisandre, too.  The unicorn stallion has been slain, his alicorn stolen.  Vader moves deeper into the Shem, and closer to your castle.  And we have heard of the Nothing, a great, black storm, that consumes all that it touches.  We come to you, Sorceress, for your wisdom, counsel, and help.  Tell us, what do you make of all of this?"

"Sorceress shall suffice."  She says to answer Brevon's question.  She regards the band as they steps into the glowing circle, mostly at Brevon's behest.  "I can attest that she has been waiting out there for a few days now.  She has been quite patient though, to be sure, I don't know how she survived the desert.  She brought most of nothing along with her."  

"The Lo...Lady of Light did maintain me."  Melisandre says.  

"I am aware of these portensions."  The Sorceress says.  Blue energy drips up out of the floor and begins to shape into a scrying orb before her.  Her hands reach out, caressing over its surface.  "As the defender of the Power and Castle Grayskull, it is my duty to be aware of the threats from the outside world.  For this reason, I have watched the development of these events.  As disconcerting as the Unicorn crisis is, I have personally watched Vader's aspirations closer.  It won't be long before he captures Grayskull for himself as he works to capture everything in Fantasia for himself.  It is important to note that his master's tower, that is, the Eye of Sauron, has been erased by this Nothing that you speak of."

The scrying orb fully forms, and the Sorceress stands there regarding it for a long moment.  

"This is all a part of the cycle of things."   She continues.  "Hyboria is oft in turmoil near the time of a Great Conjunction.  It is an essential part of our fabric.  It just happens that this time things are more intricate, complicated, than during the previous two conjunctions.  The degradation of the Dark Crystal is responsible for this cosmic imbalance, no doubt.  Tell me, though, what has brought you here, brave Hyborians?  How may the Sorceress of Grayskull help you in your journey?"

Jek looks at the Red Lady amazed. She survived the Shem with nothing. Not many can boast about that. Perhaps the Bright Lady does look favorably on her. 

As the sorcerous speaks Jek is once again shocked and very worried. He starts to pace back and forth. "What? The Sauron's tower fell to the Nothing? That means... The darkness has spread to the edges of the Black Crag Mountains....How far has it spread..... Wait, can you show us? Do you know how far the Nothing has spread? .... Oh, also, I mean, we probably don't want Vader to take Grayskull, wouldn't that be bad? Is there anything we can do to help you? "

When they speak of Melisandre surviving in the desert for a few days with nothing, Chuba absent-mindedly takes a swig of water from her waterskin.

"It would seem so."  The Sorceress says to Jek.  An image begins to take shape that all of the Order of the Phoenix can see; the western tip of the Black Crags begin to take shape, and there, in the midst, between the western coast and the volcanic region, there is a great nothing.  There's not a hole, not darkness, not rubble or destruction, no, that would be something.  There is literally an absence of anything.  "The Nothing doesn't seem to spread.  Not like a fire, I don't suppose.  It seems, from what I can tell here from the Castle, to...I would say appear somewhere but...how does nothing appear?  It happens at random, I think.  I could occur anywhere in the world with no prior warning."  

She continued to show the image just a little longer before fading it away.  

"If Lord Vader gained the Power, and called upon it, yes.  It could be very bad.  He would be nigh unstoppable.  However, I remain as the lone guardian of the Power of Grayskull.  There are much graver issues in the world, and I will be here to do what I can until the Champion returns.  Your path takes you elsewhere; Castle Grayskull is not your concern."  

Dageron quietly whispers to Brevon. "Ask here, what does she believe motivates Vader? What is his endgame?" 

Brevon reels from these revelations.  So many questions...

"But why has the Nothing come?" he asks.  "What has caused it?  Can it be stopped?"

"And what of these Conjunctions?  Has the world been, hmmm, devoured  by the Nothing before?"

Brevon tilts his head toward Dageron and, nodding, relays his question to the Sorceress.  "Sorceress, what do you believe motivates Vader?  What is his endgame?  With his master presumably destroyed by the Nothing, what does Vader want?" 

"And, who is this Champion you are waiting for?"

The Sorceresses hands caress the scrying orb as Brevon speaks, and slowly she lowers herself to the floor, hands on either side of the orb as she guides it down with her.  Blue energy drips from above, splashing into the orb, increasing its size, as she works to keep it molded into its shape.  Then she reaches out, beginning to touch the hands of those near her and guide them to kneel before the orb.  

"Hyboria is very old."  She explains.  The room dims around them so that all they see is now before them, bathed in the blue light.  "We mark the passage of time in trine, sometimes called years, and these trine stretch back millennia; our current age, the age before the last great conjunction, and the unnamed eons before the first great conjunction, these are all periods of Hyboria's development.  Periods that have led us here, to where we are now."  

Her hands mold the orb and slowly images begin to take shape that the whole party can see.  Three suns in the sky that slowly begin to line up.  An intense light shooting into or, perhaps, out of the Palace of the Crystal.  Thra, the Dead Continent, once lush and green and covered in life.  

"With all respect to those gathered here..."  She says, reaching out to gently squeeze Brevon's hand for emphasis, "...there is a time, in those untold eons, when it is thought that the divinities, be them who or whatever you believe in, may have used the Nothing as a great cleanser, a cosmic equalizer that brought forth the world that you know today.  This is certainly not the first or last of Hyboria's great cataclysms.  We know the conjunctions began with the coming of the urSkeks to our world from wherever they came.  The first great conjunction signaled the separation of the urSkeks into the urRu and the Skeksis.  The second marked the damage sustained by the Crystal of Truth from the Skeksis that split it into the Dark Crystal and the Shard of Division.  This third conjunction...who only knows what it may bring."

The focus shifted in the orb and the Black Crag Mountains began to take shape.  At first it seemed like a storm forming high above Sauron's Tower, a pillowy, quick rolling sheet of clouds developing into a billowing bruise in the heavens.  Then there was a great storm, and a terrible tumult as the Tower and everything around it was torn asunder and drawn into the center of the storm where it just...ceased to exist.  

"I can't be sure, but I think the Nothing has come this time because the incomplete Crystal is dying, and it's taking Hyboria with it.  The Nothing has some portance to it, some...equalization aspect...I don't know though.  To be certain of why it is here, you'd have to ask Mother Aughra or, better yet, Morla the Ancient One.  But if I'm correct, and my thinking aligns with many of Hyboria's great minds, then the reconstitution of the Crystal would put a stop to the Nothing."  

Another image began to take shape as she spoke, though it was quick, fleeting, only a glance.  There was a warrior there, enshrouded in the arms of night, a black cape blowing behind black armor, a full faced helmet akin to those you may see worn by the Samurai of King's Landing...but not the same...and then it was gone.  

"I don't pretend to know Lord Vader's motivations or objectives.  But I know that Castle Grayskull is geographically positioned to be a prime target for him, or for anyone that would be wishing to obtain great power.  The Champion I speak of would be the one chosen to wield the Power of Grayskull by the power itself.  Someone pure of heart and motivation, someone who could be a defender of all Hyboria.  Someone who could possibly stand against Lord Vader or any of the other malicious forces who now threaten from the darkness.  There hasn't been a Champion since before the last great conjunction.  I don't even know if such a thing is possible now." 

Chuba clears her throat and asks, "How will you identify the Champion?"

Brevon, already kneeling next to the Sorceress, staggers to his hands under the weight of these pronouncements.  The image of the great tower being swallowed into the sky, alone, was horrific enough.  "Light preserve us," he whispers.

"Sorceress, if what you say is true, the world is far older than I ever imagined.  And each of these... Conjunctions... has somehow shaped the world as we know it.  Or, in the case of the Nothing... is erasing it.  But the prior Conjunctions did not result in the world being erased this way, isn't that so?  There were important changes, yes, but nothing like what we face now."

Brevon offers these thoughts aloud, but his true question lurks in the recesses of his brain, worming its way through his skull.  He cannot form the question into words, for the answer may not be something that he is willing, or even capable, of accepting.  If the Nothing is tool of the Lady, then perhaps it is her will that the Nothing now comes.  Perhaps it isn't even possible for them to succeed.  Worse, perhaps he has become his Lady's tool in bringing about the world's destruction.  

The mere thought is blasphemous, and he banishes it away, locking it tight into the iron prison of the darkest part of his mind.  There, where the other darkness dwells.  There, where dwell the secrets that Brevon himself is unable to face, even as he prays to the Light. And so he buries them there, in an unmarked grave shaded by the penumbra of his soul.

These thoughts weigh on the holy man as Chuba asks her question.

Dageron, uncharacteristically out-of-turn, speaks almost involuntarily, in awe of what is shown. "Fitting. Existence itself is locked in an endless war with non-existence, and neither side ever prevails. A cycle that renews meaning eternally... how beautiful." Then, as if realizing out loud the implications. "Sorceress, if this is a natural cycle... why... why would we stop it? Should it not simply be allowed to do as it must?"

" Atoh, is that … "  The little dragon whispers to his partner. The Halfling girl stares at the vision which the Sorceress shows them and shocks her head. " No… it is not like my dream. The Nothing, it is not the Darkness "  In the vision, the Nothing looks no similar to the blackness in her dream. It is a storm of emptiness and void while the Darkness is full of malice and hostility. Then… What is it? And why…

Atoh makes up her mind. She raises her face and speaks to the Sorceress. " Lady Sorceress, I have a question for you. I had nightmares during our journey.  They visited my sleep every night. They have many faces yet have only one true form. The Darkness. It repeatedly showed me how it hates us, wants to hurt us and kill us all. Wise lady, do you know what is it? And why I was chosen to receive such messages? "

The Sorceress regards Chuba for a moment before answering.  

"I don't know."  She admits.  "I was told by my predecessor, who was told by the Sorceress before her, that we will know when it happens."  

Her focus shifts to Brevon.

"That is correct.  The conjunctions have some connection to great events, but nothing of apocalyptic desolation.  At least, the previous ones.  They mark something big.  What that is, I do not know.  But I think the Nothing coming at the time of a conjunction is a coincidence.  When the third Brother appears in the sky...perhaps we shall be closer to knowing the answer."  

When the Hobgoblin asks his question, the Sorceress pauses and averts her eyes from the Order to the scrying orb.  Both hands settle gently on its surface as she inhales, formulating her response.

"I...think....it is my belief...that your journey...fail or succeed...it is part of the process.  That is the only way I know to answer your question." 

Hearing the Halfling speak, the Sorceress reaches out, places a palm on Atoh's hand, and another palm on the scrying orb so that all may see into the young nomad's nightmares.  The horrors play out before the eyes of the entire band now, the terrible things that have plagued the young woman for many, many nights since having left the Ivory Tower.  The beasts in the tall grass.  The unnatural darkness.  The consuming beast from beyond sight.  The thing takes shape, an awful bastardization of what could be called a wolf only in the simplest terms.  It is huge, big enough to go toe to toe with Chuba, and grinning like the purest evil itself from an inky black that is impenetrable.

"That is the Gmork."  The Sorceress says with dreadful recognition.  Her hands squeezes Atoh's hard.  The Sorceress's arm prickles with gooseflesh and she becomes markedly pallid, like she has seen a ghost.  "It serves the Nothing, or heralds it, however you choose to look at it."  

The scrying orb fades from displaying the nightmare images to something deep in the bowels of Hyboria; a mass of writhing black night rising from a creature moving inhumanely fast through the darkness of the underworld.  It huffs, snarls, charges forward with unnatural endurance through the caverns of a realm far beneath their feet.  

"It hunts you."  The Sorceress says.  "It hunts all of you."  

She swallows.

"And it absolutely will not stop until you are all dead.  It means to stop you from whatever you intend to do, and it means to do it in the cruelest, vilest way possible.  It revels in death and suffering and cruelty.  I am afraid that your nightmare is real."  

"Do you know how to defeat the Gmork, Sorceress? What are its weaknesses?" Dageron asks. 

Brevon takes a step back.  "Atoh!  I know the nightmare was terrible for you, but words do not do justice to the likes of this abomination!  Sorceress, why does it show itself to Atoh?  Wouldn't its...task...be better achieved by surprise?"

"I don't know much about it."  The Sorceress admits to Dageron.  "I do know that Atreyu was able to defeat its previous incarnation but...I think it may have been weakened already."

He focus shifts to Brevon.

"I don't think it's showing itself to her.  I suppose it could be trying to impose some sort of psychological disadvantage but I'm not sure that's the case.  Maybe she's just more sensitive to whatever is trying to warn you."