Carlose: The guards threw Tissle and I down on our knees before Sullion, or rather King Sullion, as he was now titled. It'd been three days since he'd assumed the throne, and, for some reason, he felt the need to have Tissle and I tracked down despite our enforced cooperation. Matthias had escaped into hiding. "Where did you send her?" Sullion demanded, referring to Isabelle. "What is she going to do?" Tissle reasoned with him, "She can't come back without the tickeece, and it's here on Starline." "The portal can open without the tickeece, as you well know," Sullion snapped, "And she will produce heirs. Now I need that tickeece!" he yelled. "We don't have it!" Tissle yelled back. "Well, who does?!" he demanded. With silence, he heaved a sigh irritably. "I'll ask you one more time," he began, "Where did you send Isabelle?" "Somewhere safe," Tissle replied sternly. "Safe for who?" Sullion asked, referring to himself as the alternative. "You are a traitor, Sullion," I raged, "And forget about Isabelle. She's the least of your worries." "Oh, really?" Sullion asked. "You will never be safe as long I breathe. I swear it on the grave of our father." Sullion snorted. "You're threatening me over the grave of my own father?" he asked, "Seriously?" "Not your father!" I corrected, "OUR father," I nodded toward Tissle, then continued, "You . . .are no brother of mine." Sullion's eyes flared with anger, and he drew his sword abruptly. "Where is the tikeece?!" "Not telling!" I replied, not even flinching at the sight of the steel blade. "Then you will join your father in his grave," he seethed, then swung the blade. I jumped to my feet, knocking him down. Tissle jumped through the window, and I followed him. We ran into the night, escaping Sullion's wrath. As far as the people were concerned, I, the rightful heir to Iscrane, was dead, along with Tissle, the second heir, and Matthias. All of known Starline was plunged into a dark, harsh age, ruled by Sullion. Yet I would keep my vow and see to it that Sullion's reign of terror would end. And so it did, twenty-six years later, albeit with death of Matthias, at which point Tissle and I spent the next ten years keeping Sullion too busy saving his own skin to even consider another world-domination scheme. Unfortunately, Sullion got smart and went into hiding, and we lost track of him. The countries soon began to divide, as did the course of my life. It divided between Starline and Earth. Tissle and I failed to recover the tickeece, but we found a portal to Earth through an ivy-covered wall on the southern border of Morda. There I met it . . . the world's hope; the curse of glorious sensibility . . . the bane of my existence - Tom.
