<div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/99/de/80/99de80dd4fb18a5a2b5229f5fe73ae72.jpg)</div><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 24pt;"><strong><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: impact;">Twin Oxenbridge</span></strong></span><br/>Human Wizard X<br/><hr/><br/>"They must not be so rare, then," Ithaka said, "to carry them about with no clasps, no pouch."<br/><br/>To the wizard, Ithaka's statement sounded like a question, but it was more like an observation.  An incorrect observation.  The stones were incredibly rare and old, but they had not traveled through time in the normal sense, had they?  Indeed, at that exact moment, the stones had yet to be created.  In a couple of hours, Princess Aishah and her companion, the archer named Tamaa, would create the stones because they<em>objected</em>to his help.  That stubborn girl.<br/><br/>"The stones<em>are</em>rare," the wizard admitted, looking at his stone with a small smile.   "The mark<em>is not.</em>I ascribe it freely on the palms of all those who wish to come and go from Tide Pool.  There is some wisdom in placing a mark on a stone.  In this land, it is sometimes easier to lose a hand than it is to lose a rock."<br/><br/>With a shrug, the two held the stones up and said the magic words: "Eager beaver."<br/><br/>And a hole in the barrier opened.  The wizard deftly pushed the Phantom Steed through, and then the pair closed the hole in the barrier in much the same way that they opened it.  And quickly, the pair raced across the sea and to the delta of a river.