Kat and Mark instantly began checking their possessions, making sure they had everything. Kat pulled the pouch she'd taken from Michael's body and emptied the contents onto her palm. Jade's rings sparkled in the late-afternoon sunlight filtering through the trees, and Kat counted them, before returning them to the pouch and adding the 3 Jade wolves - after re-wrapping them.

Jade was standing under a tree, in the shadows, in her green dress. Kat jingled the pouch at Jade, silently asking if she wanted her rings back. Jade had handed them all to Kat just before they activated the wolves, asking her to put them in the pouch. Jade shook her head sadly, then stepped out into the sunlight. The first thing Kat noticed was that Jade had no shadow. The second was that she could see right through her. Jade was a ghost.

Kat howled in frustration, and beat her fists on the nearest tree.
"Stop her," commanded Jade, and Mark wrapped his arms around her and dragged her forcibly away from the tree.
Kat struggled for a moment, then stopped and glared at Jade.
"You knew!" she accused.
Jade nodded.
Kat elbowed Mark in the ribs and he let her go, upon which she turned and stalked towards the town.

***

Kat had calmed down by the time the sun went down, and Mark had joined her in Jade's room. Jade floated through the door, and settled cross-legged in mid-air.
"That's quite disturbing, you know," commented Mark.
"Yes," Jade replied calmly. "But it's fun."
Mark shook his head, stood up, stripped naked, and then stepped into the bath full of warm, soapy water. Jade was rather shocked, but Kat seemed to be paying no attention. Kat was putting Jade's rings onto her fingers, seeing if she could remember the correct fingers, which she did. Then she opened Jade's chest, and placed the wolves back in, and shut it again. Then she left the room to organise transport back to the manor, leaving Jade alone with Mark. Jade blushed, and focused out the window. Mark chuckled, and continued his bath.

***

With transportation organised, Kat and Mark set about organising their departure. Kat settled the outstanding debts, and Mark packed their things into the carriage. Jade wandered about the town, enjoying walking through walls and looking at things that interested her without being seen or heard, until everything was ready. The three began the long trip home. They stopped in the wood of the dryads to inform Laryssa of Jade's demise, and to fulfil Jade's promise to the dryad queen, opening the gate to the underworld a second time.

This time, when the gate was opened the trees seemed to lean in towards the gate, and a dryad emerged from the gate. She walked directly to Laryssa, and embraced her.
"Dear sister," she said with a smile. "It has been too long."
"More than five hundred years," Laryssa replied with tears in her eyes.
"Have you seen Rowena?"
"Yes, our sister joined me 20 years ago. Such a short time... She'll be through shortly."
"I have missed you."
"And I you."
The two stood in silence for a while, not needing to speak. Mark, Kat and Jade stood silently a few metres away, not wishing to intrude. A second dryad emerged from the gate, and moved to Laryssa and her sister.
"My sisters," she said in a rich voice. "Laryssa, Annaleis. How nice it is to be together again."
The three joined hands, and looked at each other. The three sisters were vastly different in appearance, having only one feature in common - deep, brightly blue eyes.
"So," said Rowena finally. "The wolves are together again."
"Indeed," replied Laryssa.
"I suppose that means the boys will be along soon," said Annaleis with a smile.
"Undoubtably," replied Laryssa. "Have you decided?"
"How can one decide? They are three parts of one person, divided. If you will help me, I will combine them, ending this torment."
"Surely," Rowena smiled. "For my sister, anything."

The three dryad sisters were smiling at each other when three identical males emerged from the gate and approached them. The triplets could not take their eyes off Annaleis, and said nothing as the three sisters linked hands around them. Each sister produced a single acorn, which planted itself in the ground in the center of the circle via the power of the sister's minds. The trees then began to grow, twining around themselves, forming a single tree. As this happened, light spilled from the wolves and twined in an identical manner. The three men also began to converge. They screamed silently for the 20 seconds it took for the acorns to grow into a mature tree. As the tree stopped growing, the last of the light spilled from the wolves, and the three brothers were one. The single man reached out one hand, looked at it, and then smiled and turned to Annaleis.
"My beloved," he said in a deep voice, which somehow contained elements of each brother.
"My beloved," she replied with a smile as he took her into his arms.
Laryssa and Rowena smiled as they saw their sister, finally happy.
"Laryssa," said Annaleis. "Who found the other wolves?"
Laryssa smiled. "Do you remember Jade?"
"Indeed," replied Annaleis. "Although I never met her in person, I met her in spirit not that long ago, when she joined us in the underworld."
"It was she who found the wolves. Well - with help."
"Of whom?"
"Why, those two you see standing by her over there."

The two dryads from the underworld suddenly noticed the three standing by the tree, and turned to face them.
"Ah," said Annaleis. "Now I understand. I thank you," she said formally, bowing to them, "for you have ended a 500 year long suffering. For this I give you gratitude."
She glanced at the gate. "The power is dispersing, the gate is closing, soon we must go."
Rowena was looking at the three in sorrow.
"How he looks like my beloved!" she exclaimed. "Would that I could see him again. Although I know it is not his time to join me, I long to be with him."
Laryssa placed a hand over her sister's in silent compassion.
"But, my darling sister, see how fares thy daughter?"
Rowena smiled.
"Indeed, it is hard to believe that the woman I see before me is she. Jade, I thank you for taking her in - you have done a far better job than I ever could have done. In this you have been the mother you always longed to be." Tears slowly rolled down Jade's cheeks as Rowena's words healed a vacancy she had never completely realised was there. Kat was staring in abject astonishment at the figure she had just realised was her mother.
"My daughter," said Rowena with a smile. "I am so proud."
"Rowena," said Annaleis from by the gate. "It is time."
"My permission," said Rowena to Mark, then moved to Laryssa, kissed her, and moved to the closing gate.
"I will look for you in the pool," Laryssa said to her sisters.
"And we you," they replied, before stepping back into the underworld, and letting the gate close behind them.

In the wood of the dryads, Laryssa stood with Mark, Kat, and the ghost of Jade in the company of the new huge oak tree, and the three wolves, which were now little more then pretty figurines. Kat broke the stasis they had seemed to be in, by moving forward and collecting the wolves and returning them to the pouch. Laryssa turned to Kat.
"I suppose you have some questions?"
"No, not really," replied Kat. "Just knowing who she was and that she is proud of me is enough. Like she said, Jade was a better mother than she was anyway."
"Thank you for coming," said Laryssa. "You have set my soul at rest. I would bid you farewell, but I feel that I'll be seeing you again shortly, my niece. So, until we meet again; Jade, Mark."
And with that Laryssa turned and melted back into the trees.

***

Upon arriving at the manor house, Kat and Mark walked in and informed the household of Jade's death, but assured them that their positions were all secure, as Jade had left detailed instructions with Kat, which would be followed out over the next year or two. Kat and Jade had spoken in great length on the way home, determining the best way to deal with Jade's assets. Jade had left everything to Kat, and together they had decided to turn the house into a sort of orphanage where children could work fairly, without being exploited, which would always have places for Kyticin children.

Kat and Mark made a trip to the underdark with Marc, to allow him to make magickal copies of the Kyticin tablets, which they then duplicated and placed around the manor grounds for all to read. Marc, after studying the tablets and one of the 13 Kyticin talismans that Kat had taken from Michael for a couple of months, devised the nature of the talismans, and began to understand the nature of the biological curse the Kyticin were affected by. Another six months later, Marc developed a potion that would allow a pregnant female to carry the child to term, and live herself. Unfortunately, the potion was extremely expensive to manufacture, and Kat and Mark sold a fair amount of Jade's antiques somewhat ruthlessly in order to cover the costs of setting up a base supply of potions.

The household staff was retained, and Kat and Mark ruled the manor, with Mark taking over the business side of the antique business, and soon gaining a reputation of being just as sneakily ruthless as Jade at her best, and Kat running the manor-orphanage, preparing everything for the arrival of the orphans. Kat sent word to the Kyticin villages, and after about a year, both pregnant Kyticin females, and orphaned children started arriving. Every arrival received a room, and whilst some children had to share, nobody minded much. As the months passed, Kyticin children were born, and given either one of the amulets taken from Michael, or one that Marc had manufactured. The mothers stayed on as they nursed their children, and then started a sort of creche in a separate building, finding work in the village or in the manor. As the original staff retired, Kyticin mothers, and sometimes men who came to join their wives, replaced them. As the Kyticin people found employment, they began to pay board, which went towards the production of Marc's miraculous potion.

Once the manor-orphanage was established, which had taken about 18 months, Kat and Mark began organising their wedding. The wedding was a strange affair, held in the grounds of the manor, with a combination of ghosts, drow, dryads, Kyticin and human people in attendance. The ceremony was a combination of styles, and was spectacular, if rather strange. Kat's father was in attendance, and he attested to the fact that Kat had killed her 10 men. This raised some eyebrows amongst the humans, but the drow, and strangely enough, the dryads as well, all seemed satisfied.

A couple of nights after the wedding, Kat was sitting in what used to be Jade's study and library, but was now Kat's base of operations - it was partly from here that she ran the household. She wasn't doing that this night though; she was talking to Jade.
"I suppose you'll be going soon," said Kat sadly.
"You don't need me here any more," Jade replied, "and I should be getting back to Darryl. It hurts to be parted from him still."
"I understand. How much longer will you be staying?"
"I'll be gone tomorrow. But you know how you can contact me. You have become quite good a summoning."
"Yes, I know that I can contact you, but it won't be the same. I've been working my way through your books though. I will make you proud of me." "I'm already proud of you, dear."
"Thank you, Mother," said Kat, as Jade faded away to rejoin Darryl in the underworld.

Mark entered the room shortly afterwards, to find Kat standing by the window, watching as the Kyticin children returned to the manor from town. How far they had come already, she mused silently, wondering how often Jade had stood in this exact spot, watching for her. Mark approached her silently, and wrapped his arms around her.
"Jade?"
"Gone."
Mark sighed, and tightened his arms around her.
"She is proud of you."
Kat turned and smiled at him.
"I know. And she is never far away."
Mark smiled back.
"Let's go to bed."

***

In the underworld, Darryl and Jade embraced, knowing that they would never be parted again.