Editing Around the Dinner Table (section)

===Second Dinner===
Dinner was roasted duck in a citrus crust, boiled grains, and wilted leafy greens in olive oil and garlic.

"I kinda miss the spider legs," Brecca mumbled once.

Everyone else ignored her as they concentrated on the food.

"So different from the Halfling Brigade," Brecca muttered again. "Always talk, talk, talk."

Everyone else ignored her as they concentrated on the food.

Once Herman came in with the staff and cleared the table did the conversation resume.

"Now what?" Mae asked.

Wyncit pour himself a cognac and leaned back into his chair. He swirled the amber liquor around the glass before taking a small sip. "One name kept coming up with the Raven Queen: the Lady of Pain."

Brecca frowned. "Some sort of goddess of torture?"

Wyncit shrugged. "She isn't on any list of deities or powers of Syra that I've seen."

"She's not a goddess and she's not on Syra," Mae replied while sipping a white wine.

Wyncit raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You know who she is?"

"No one really knows who she is," Mae replied with a smile.

"I've heard of her, too," Tony added beaming.

Wyncit turned to Tony in surprise.

"Ha!" Brecca laughed, pointing at Wyncit. "They know something you don't."

Wyncit rolled his eyes, but had to grin at Brecca. She had him and she knew it.

Turning back to Mae and Tony, Wyncit asked, "So who is she?"

Mae nodded to Tony to speak.

Tony smiled at Mae and turned to Wyncit. "The Lady of Pain is the ruler of the City of Doors."

Wyncit searched his memory. "The City of Doors is... Sigil? It's mentioned just once in an elven scroll written in the early Fifth Age about something that happened during the Fourth Age, but the scroll is so degraded most of it can't be read, and it's in a dead elven language that is difficult to translate."

"I've never been there and don't know how to get there, but it is a real place," Mae said. "I could ask around the Summer Court."

"I may know how to get there," Tony said thoughtfully. Everyone looked at him. Tony sighed. "Let's just say that it would be a safe assumption that not everyone who comes here to eat is from Syra."

Brecca perked up. "Like who?"

Tony became solemn and shook his head. "We try to keep a high level of privacy for our clientelle so that's about all I can say about that."

Brecca stared hard at Tony. "I won't tell. Is it a celestial? A devil? One of those pirate people that are supposed to sail the Astral Plane?"

Wyncit raised his eyebrows in shock. "What have you been reading?"

Brecca turned to Wyncit. "There is this neat book series where the heroine travels the different planes looking for riches and fame. It's almost as popular as your series. And I still haven't forgiven you."

Wyncit winced. "I told you, I didn't write those books and I don't want to talk about it."

"Which books did you not write?" asked Mae.

Brecca intoned, "The Death Curse Chronicles: Expedition to Palmheart, The Tombs of Omu, and The Death Curse."

Tony nodded. "Those are good books. Not really what happened to us, but well-written with great characters, and very exciting. I have them if you want to read them, Mae."

Mae smiled. "Yes please."

Tony turned to Wyncit. "I thought you wrote them, too."

Wyncit blushed. "I did not."

Mae grinned, "You're blushing, Wyncit." Wyncit turned away, blushing harder.

Mae turned to Tony with a raised eyebrow. Tony laughed and grinned. "There are a few steamy romances with the main character, W____ and the beautiful paladin, B____..."

"With me!" an angry Brecca exclaimed.

Tony laughed, again. "And another one with the tiger woman, A____."

"Twycit," mumbled an irritated Wyncit.

"What?" asked Mae.

"Tyncit wrote them, I think," Wyncit said, louder.

There was a collective "Oh" from the group.

"He's a really good writer," Tony said.

"You didn't know?" Mae asked.

Wyncit shook his head. "The link doesn't work both ways."

"Do you know how it works?" Mae asked. 

Wyncit turned back to the group and rested his arms on the table. "We experimented. I can't link with Twyncit, the connection is one way. The link doesn't appear to be magical. Priam Adenis thinks the link is psionic. And there is a time delay between when I experience something and when Tyncit can 'remember' it. The best analogy is that I am a book of memories that Twyncit has to go searching through; that is, events that have happened in my life but not my thoughts and feelings of those events. Which is why he was tortured by those hags. They wanted to know what we were GOING to do and all he could tell them was what we HAD done. So, if I want to send him a message, I need to write it out and read it. Then he needs to be looking for that memory to see me write it so he can read it."

Mae nodded. "So, not as all-encompassing as once feared and gives you the privacy of your thoughts."

Wyncit shrugged and frowned. "I am now a character in a book series."

"And on that note," Tony said, getting up and walking to the door, "I shall see about that Gate."

As the door closed, Brecca frowned. "He didn't tell me who he was going to ask."