text: [Themes: sci-fi, science fiction]
  
  "If that's the case," you say, "will you help us find her?"
  
  "Je is not here," the magistrate says, pacing in agitation while its peers remain poised. "That is all one needs to know."
  
  The Folvan stops, turning to regard each member of your team with its black eyes. "We cannot tolerate the off-world presence on our grazing grounds any longer. But our law is also clear that we cannot pass judgment on anyone not born of this world, because who among us dare claim sovereignty over those who descend from the heavens? Can the People of the Prairie be so audacious as to impose terrestrial law on celestial beings? What if you were gods?
  
  "We do not believe you are gods," the magistrate continues, "but nevertheless the law is the law. We will defer our judgment to those who may impose justice on other off-worlders, and whose judgment we trust. We will remit your case to the Elders of Emar."
  
  With a loud whoop from the magistrate, the soldiers lead you and your companions back into the marketplace. All nine magistrates follow, making this a rather conspicuous and somber procession through the underground city.
  
  Your situation is getting weirder and weirder—and as far as you can tell, more and more desperate. You have no idea where you're being led, or who these Elders of Emar are. However, you are being led single-file now and are no longer flanked by soldiers, so it is possible you could escape into the crowds of this great Folvan marketplace.
  
  That idea seems like it would be an act of desperation, though. Maybe you're just better off following the magistrates.
  
  > If you follow the magistrates and take your chances with the Elders of Emar, turn to page 161.
  If you ran, where would you go? You'd still be in this underground city with no known allies and no way to contact the Orion. So you stay in line, hoping that these Elders of Emar, whoever they are, turn out to be reasonable people.
  
  The magistrates and the soldiers lead you through the great marketplace, and then down another passageway to another chamber. As you enter this new chamber, you are surprised to see another Anywhere Device. Three of the soldiers step through first, armed with their pikes. Everyone else stands by and watches through the portal.
  
  It appears that the other end of this wormhole is located near a wall of rock, with no landscape of grass to be seen. It is raining hard there, and everything is wet, including the soldiers who just stepped through. Three heads attached to long, craning necks poke up from behind a rock, and one opens its beak-like mouth to let out a loud KWAA!
  
  The creatures stand up, and you see their emu-like bodies and their short, spiky tails. They look fierce, but they sniff the Folvan soldiers like curious pets. The soldiers, however, shoo them away with their pikes while the beasts communicate their displeasure with loud squawks. One starts to strut its way toward the portal, so the soldiers are forced to herd it somewhere to the side, out of your field of vision.
  
  And then when the way is clear, the soldiers behind you shove you and your friends through the sphere.
  
  > Page 162
  Now you are standing on a mountain ledge overlooking a broad valley, with a lake on the horizon. Everyone is getting soaked from the downpour, but the Folvans don't seem to care. There is not enough room for the entire procession on this ledge, which is littered with hundreds of bleached bones that the soldiers kick away in disdain.
  
  You are shoved into a narrow slot in the mountain, through which you must walk single-file. Wreaths made of twigs line the passageway, and a moment later you enter a hidden chamber where you find yet another Anywhere Device. This one points to a dark, snowy landscape, and the cold from that location fills the chamber; since you are all wet from the rain, your bodies quickly start to succumb to the cold air.
  
  When all five humans are standing around the portal, the chief magistrate enters the chamber. The narrow passageway is so full of Folvans that there is no possible avenue of escape in that direction; above you, the walls are sheer rock, the first truly vertical surface you've seen since arriving on the planet.
  
  Your team members—Dansmith, Hun-Spruk, Wildon, and Quabiss—all look gravely concerned; everyone realizes that this is no joke, that the Folvans mean business, whatever it is they're up to. Are they banishing you to this wintry scene, making sure that you are first drenched from the heavy rain?
  
  > Page 163
  The magistrate begins to speak again, still with the assistance of the soldier holding the WristComp.
  
  "As we, the Guardians of Justice and the Imposers of Retribution, lack the authority to pass judgment on those not born of this world, in accordance with the Fifteenth Writ of Salallil, we remit this case to the Elders of Emar, who were also born off-world, and whose wisdom and sobriety were made evident to Stajark the Keen-Minded."
  
  With that, all of the Folvans step back from the sphere, and a moment later the scene within the portal changes again.
  
  But there is no chance to study this new landscape, because a sudden gust of wind blows you through the Anywhere Device as forcefully as if you were being blown through an open airlock. The five of you come to rest in the middle of a forest. The air in your lungs escapes through your mouth, and as you gasp for breath you realize there is insufficient air pressue in this place to inhale. You cannot possibly be on Folvan any longer, because as you writhe around you are shocked at how light you suddenly feel; the spasmatic scissor kicks and heaving of your gasping body send you bouncing for meters across the forest floor. You are not in a vacuum, but the gravity on this planet—wherever it is—must be so light that it can only retain the thinnest of atmospheres.
  
  You flop onto your back in a desperate bid to orient yourself, seeing your companions suffocating in agony as well. But what a beautiful place; in the seconds before you pass out, you see the giant umbrella-shaped trees above you and the lacy blue plants standing so impossibly fragile all around.
  
  Whoever the Elders of Emar are, their mercy is nowhere to be found.