Tagan wondered how much longer it would take to find this Rean Le person, the mysterious person from Quanna Eresse who would be able to help him find the Amber Eye. He wished they would hurry up already.
They had been trudging through the dreary morning mist for what seemed like forever. It didn't matter how far they walked, the fog didn't dissipate. His feet hurt from walking and his stomach wasn't far behind from the lone meager meal they had enjoyed after waking. His stomach grumbled and he remembered with fondness the last good meal he had enjoyed. It had been in the guardhouse the morning after he, Braulor, Stonjsin, Drebos and Crenoah re-entered the cave at Vjeinka Rise. Tagan awoke to the smell of bacon sizzling and popping in a cast iron pan over the fire. Everybody else was already up and around. Tagan rolled out of the comfort of his bed with all the vigor of a turtle. The first bed he had slept in since he was a member of the Citadel. Crenoah handed him a plate laden with bacon, cheese and a half a loaf of bread. The bread was going stale but Tagan didn’t care. It had been so long since he had such a hearty breakfast, everything tasted great. Even the water he washed it all down with was delicious. His stomach full, Tagan looked around, noticing for the first time that Braulor wasn’t there. “Where is Braulor?” He yawned as the rich breakfast settled in his belly making him feel tired anew.
“He went to do some scouting around.” Drebos looked like he hadn’t slept a wink during the night.
Tagan took another sip of water feeling out of place without Braulor around. The other men were going about their business in a matter of fact manner and Tagan didn’t know what he should be doing, if anything. He was inclined to go back to bed now that his stomach was satisfied but knew that would not impress the others.
The door to the guardhouse opened and everybody stiffened, reaching for their weapons. They relaxed when Braulor came bounding in and shut the door behind him. “You’re up Tagan, good.” And came over to where they were lounging and took a seat.
Crenoah leaned over and passed Braulor a plate, the same as the one he had given Tagan.
Braulor put the black staff down beside him and devoured the food. He had gone off scouting before breakfast and was famished.
Tagan couldn’t help but notice that Braulor kept looking to the staff as he ate, like he was afraid it would disappear if he didn’t keep constant tabs on it. When Braulor was done, he handed the empty plate back to Crenoah and took hold of the staff once more.
“Did you find anything, Braulor?”
Braulor shook his head. “No, Stonjsin. Everywhere I looked just more and more bodies.”
Stonjsin, Drebos and Crenoah hung their heads.
Braulor had been thinking of what they should do now. He was desperate to find out how the Greejon clan members on the other side of the Crazzank had fared. From Stonjsin’s account, it seemed to Braulor that the safety offered by the Crazzank didn’t apply here. The attackers could appear and disappear anywhere they wanted at will. A pile of rocks wouldn’t be able to stop them. For all they knew there was an equally grisly scene awaiting them on the other side of the Crazzank. He shuddered to think such thoughts. They had to be alive. He could almost feel it.
“So what now?”
“I’m not sure, Tagan. I think everybody needs to make up their own mind about where they want to go from here.”
Stonjsin, Drebos and Crenoah lifted their heads, looked at Braulor and then at one another, none of them sure what to say.
“I want to find who did this and make them pay.” Drebos felt motivated to avenge his father’s death.
Crenoah couldn’t believe his ears. “Did you see those… those… things? I don’t even know what to call them. There’s no way we can catch them and even if we did, how would we kill them?”
“What about the rest of the clan?” Stonjsin threw out.
Everybody fell silent, lost in their own thoughts.
Braulor broke the silence. “Tagan, I think we have to tell them what we know.”
Tagan’s sleepiness was cured as if someone had doused him with cold water. He sat up straight, the fork from his plate clattering onto the floor. “Are you sure? I don’t know if we should.”
“You can trust them to keep what we tell them between us. If they are going to make a decision on what they want to do, they need to know everything.”
The other three men were all ears, watching Braulor and Tagan’s exchange like it was a tennis rally, wondering what in the world they were talking about.
“If you think it’s the right thing to do.” Tagan was unsure but trusted Braulor. “Where do we start?”
“I’ll start with what I know and you can jump in when you’re ready.”
The room went dead quiet as the men listened. Braulor went all the way back to when he first found out that he had come to Tyran’s family by way of an unknown woman who could no longer care for him. That Tyran’s parents had taken him and raised him as their own. He spoke of how he went in search of the Amber Eye and that is where he met Alrei Yqu, the strange man that had saved his life and continued to give Braulor knowledge of things that hadn’t yet come to pass. When he reached the point of the meeting with Alrei Yqu where Braulor had been told that he had to rescue Tagan from the Citadel, Tagan piped up and helped fill in holes in the story where he could.
Tagan told them of his ability to see into another world and how the Citadel had inducted him to keep him away from people. They feared Tagan would use his power to discover how life in this world should be and what would happen if he were allowed to share that knowledge. Braulor and Tagan both talked of how they met in the Citadel prison and their high profile escape. Braulor took over the story line again and told of how they got to where camp should be and it was gone. How they had found Grawton and Grawton told a tale of torture and ambush and the clan packed up and left after an attack.
Crenoah, Stonjsin and Drebos sat quiet as children in church, their eyes swiveling back and forth from narrator to narrator. They had the look of people who were having trouble believing what they were hearing, especially the part about Grawton escaping Draax’s body.
“And then you guys tackled us. The rest you know.” Braulor exhaled with a shrug.
Tagan didn’t have anything more to say and lapsed into silence.
“So you say this Grawton person busted his way out of Draax’s body?” Stonjsin couldn’t envision what this would entail.
“That’s the best way to describe it.” Braulor had difficulty explaining the full impact of what it looked like when it happened.
“What happened after that again?” Drebos was lost as well.
Tagan answered this time and described how Grawton was trying to break free from the rope he and Braulor had bound him with. He focused on Grawton’s contorted face and how his voice sounded otherworldly. “And then the body split apart and a form ascended from it.”
“What did this form look like?” Crenoah thought it sounded like those that had attacked the cave.
“Well, it was black. I don’t know how else to describe it really.” Braulor tried to verbalize the image. “It looked like a nasty storm cloud or something like that.”
“That sounds like the things that attacked us in the cave. They would pop up, kill and be gone before you could react.”
“After Grawton, or the shadow keeper as he called himself, left Draax’s body he said he would see us again very soon and then disappeared. I didn’t know what he meant at the time but I guess this was it.” Braulor pointed to the door and the carnage that lay beyond.
“The ‘shadow keeper’?” Crenoah wanted to make sure he’d heard correctly. He was familiar with the myth.
“That’s what he said.”
“So Jolon was torturing the shadow keeper? He is supposed to be really powerful.” Crenoah was starting to feel doubtful.
“The shadow keeper only inhabited Draax’s body. Jolon was doing something with Draax and somehow the shadow keeper got involved.”
“And you thin
k that caused the shadow keeper to attack us at the cave?”
“I don’t know what happened exactly but the similarities between how the things that attacked you here and the shadow keeper, are too hard to dismiss. There has to be a connection.”
Silence set in as they each turned the information over in their minds trying to find a way to piece it all together but nothing fit into a context any of them had. It was all too new, to strange.
“You mentioned the Amber Eye. How does that come in to all this?” Stonjsin wanted to ferret out every detail he could.
Tagan reiterated how all humans are supposed to be a part of Quanna Eresse and by obtaining the Amber Eye and returning it to the Lefirte will restore their connection with that world.
“And you didn’t see any of these dark creatures in this other world?”
“No. Everything there is beautiful and magical. I don’t think anything dark could live there.”
“Am I the only one who finds it strange that these dark creatures start showing up right around the same time that Tagan is told to find the Amber Eye?” Crenoah looked around at everyone.
“I was thinking the same thing Crenoah.” Braulor said.
“Thinking what?” Drebos didn’t follow.
“I don’t think that it is a coincidence that all this started happening around the same time but I also don’t think there is a connection between the two.”
“What does that mean? It makes no sense.” Stonjsin was growing confused once more.
“We can all agree, after the things we have seen, that there is more to this world that what we see. Am I right?”
Everybody nodded.
“I think this world as we know it is about to change, whether we like it not. Our only choice now is what we can do to make sure it changes in the direction that is good for us, good for humans.”
“How do we make sure of something like that? Whatever is going to happen is going to happen. We don’t have any control over it.”
“But we have one option, Stonjsin. The Amber Eye.”
The silence disappeared in a flash as Stonjsin, Drebos and Crenoah all chimed in with their thoughts about the Amber Eye. They were all aware of the legend and voiced strong opinions.
“What about the rest of the clan? Do we just abandon them?”
“We don’t abandon them, Drebos but you saw those things that attacked. If they come back again, what are we going to be able to do against them? It will be another slaughter and this time they will wipe all of us out. If we can find the Amber Eye and return it, maybe we gain a way to beat them.”
“Braulor, the Amber eye is… well, it’s crazy. Even if it is real, it hasn’t been seen in countless ages. You’re going to follow some boy you hardly know to find it?” Stonjsin pointed a long finger at Tagan.
Braulor sighed. “Look, Alrei Yqu told me to get Tagan out of the Citadel. Get him out so the information he was going to learn could be used for the good of all mankind. Alrei Yqu has never been wrong about anything he told me; I can’t think that he is wrong here. Tagan was told to find the eye and I was told to get Tagan. I am going with him to find it. I think it is our only hope to protect the clan.”
Stonjsin looked at Crenoah who looked at Drebos.
“I got no family here to worry about and if there is a way to protect the clan, then I am all for it. I’ll go with you.” Stonjsin sat back, glad to have his mind made up.
“I agree. I want to do what’s right for the clan. It’s all I have,” Crenoah said.
Drebos looked at both of them, and then shrugged his shoulders like he didn’t have a choice in the matter. “Count me in, Braulor.”
“Where do we start? We have a long way to go to find Rean Le.”
“I’ve been thinking about that. This part of the cave is like a staging area or storage area. It’s where we first congregate when we come back here in the winter months. The living quarters and main stores are actually farther in. The Crazzank’s job was to keep attackers stuck here and not be able to get into the main area. The idea was that if the Crazzank came down, any attackers would just cut their losses rather than make the journey all the way around to the others entrances.”
Stonjsin was nodding his head in agreement. “It looks like the Crazzank worked like it was supposed to.”
“Do you mean we have to go all the way around to the other entrance?”
“When the Crazzank was built, it was decided that there needed to be an escape route for anybody who survived an attack but was trapped behind it. A tunnel was made that would bring you out on the east side of the mountains, way north of that entrance. It’s a rough go and it may not even be passable but it’s our only choice.”
“And that would bring us out in Dwenar Gliv.” Stonjsin worked out the geography.
“It’s there that we can find Rean Le,” Braulor said.
With a plan cobbled together they got to work. They went around the cavern, sealing off what they could and gathering what supplies they might need. They would be going on foot so they had to be choosy about what they took. Once they were set Braulor led Stonjsin, Drebos and Crenoah in a tearful goodbye to the cave that had done so much for them over the years, consigned to the fact they may never see it again, and they set out. Braulor took them across the cave to the north side. He trailed along the north wall looking for the entrance to the tunnel. As it was meant only for people of the clan to use, it had been hidden and wasn’t even on ground level. Braulor stopped when found the first of the handholds that had been carved into the wall. If you didn’t know what they were, you would think they were just fissures that had formed in the rock. The handholds were slight and laid out in a haphazard way so only those who knew the proper progression would be able to scale them.
“This is it. We go up about thirty feet and then there will be a ledge. Make our way along the ledge to the tunnel entrance, hidden in that abutment.” Braulor pointed up in to the darkness.
Having never used the handholds before, it took Braulor a while to remember how to traverse it. With some trial and error he figured it out and they made their way to the ledge, if you could call it that. It was a line of rock less than a foot width wide. This was the most harrowing part of the climb as they shimmied along this tiny lip. Each of them had a moment where they thought they would fall but in the end, hands and toes aching from the climb, they made it to the abutment.
At the front of the line, Braulor had stopped and was feeling around in the darkness.
Tagan was desperately trying not to look down as sweat dripped from his face into the darkness below. A grinding noise followed by an echoing thud that shook the line of them.
“What was that?” Stonjsin’s fingernails were the only thing keeping him from falling to the ground and find out first hand.
“The door to the tunnel. I found the entrance.”
“Let’s move it then.” Drebos’ tone warned he was about to fall.
A few seconds later and a torch flared to life revealing Braulor crouched in a low tunnel. “C’mon.” He motioned for them to join him.
One by one they inched their way along the lip, Braulor dragging them into the tunnel where they each collapsed, certain their fingers would never be able to grip anything ever again.
Drebos came last and was reaching for Braulor’s outstretched hand when he slipped. Braulor caught his hand but the force of Drebos falling dragged him to his knees. “Stonjsin.” Braulor’s free hand was scrabbling for a hold on the smooth rock face of the tunnel. Stonjsin sprang from where he was and grabbed Braulor’s belt and fell back, pulling Braulor with him.
Drebos screamed as something in his elbow popped.
Crenoah dropped the torch he was holding and flopped down at the tunnel entrance, grabbing Drebos’ sleeve, heaving with all his might.
Drebos came out of the murky darkness like a fish out of a lake, landing on top of Braulor and Stonjsin then rolled to the floor, still screaming, cradling his arm.
St
onjsin and Braulor scrambled up and tended to Drebos, putting his arm in a sling.
Drebos had stopped yelling but you could see the agony etched in lines on his face and he spoke through gritted teeth. “What made that thud? That’s what loosened my grip.”
“It was the door to the tunnel. It was supposed to fall inward when it’s released. I guess the rumbling from the Crazzank affected it and it fell out.”
“We might as well get moving,” Crenoah was sympathetic to Drebos but he didn’t like creeping around in this tunnel any longer than he had to.
They got organized, each of them taking some of Drebos’ belongings and followed Braulor into the tunnel.
Braulor hadn’t been kidding when he said it would be a rough go. It was treacherous and narrow and had many points where they had to crawl under stone or climb a rock wall. Drebos’ injured arm added an extra level of effort as they had to help him through all of these obstacles.
Tagan had never been so happy when the sun hit his face at the other end, stopping to inhale deeply and rid his lungs of the stale, dank air of the tunnel.
It all seemed so long ago now.
Tagan turned to share this thought with Crenoah when the group froze. Tagan had to stop short to keep from walking right into Drebos. Everybody stared in the same direction and Tagan could tell from the amazed gasps that Rean Le must have revealed herself to them. Standing on his tiptoes to get a look over Drebos' broad shoulders Tagan’s’ breath was taken away.
Rean Le stood as still as the trees she had sprang forth from, her expression neutral as she surveyed the party. Her sparkling blue eyes were all that moved as she gazed at one, then another of the group, looking only for a second a two before shifting her gaze, hand clenching the hilt of her sword.
Tagan's heart pounded into his throat as she looked at him. Back home he spent so much time on the farm helping his dad that he had never given girls a second thought. But Rean Le was different. He didn't know what he had expected from Meyu Kwi’s description but this was not it. She was beautiful and her demeanor was commanding, yet feminine. He thought he was going to pass out and briefly thought about throwing himself on the ground behind Drebos so she couldn't see him anymore. Those few seconds felt like an eternity and when Rean Le's gaze shifted to Crenoah, Tagan felt relieved she was no longer looking at him.
"I have been watching you approach for some time now." Rean Le declared, satisfied with her examination of the group. Her voice was sweet and melodic and set everybody at ease.
"And we have been searching for you, lady." Stonjsin bowed his head.
Rean Le's melodic voice was enough to quell Tagan's discomfort and he stepped out from behind Drebos. Rean Le tensed for a moment, her hand squeezed the hilt of her sword, relaxing when she saw it was Tagan.
Tagan's feelings only intensified now that he could fully see Rean Le. She was wearing a forest green tunic that came down over her waist, covering a portion of the green leggings she wore. Her strong right hand clung to her sword. A bow was slung over her shoulder, along with a quiver of arrows. Blond hair, as fine as silk and shiny as gold, hung straight to her shoulders, kept out of her face with a woven headband.
"Why is it that you are seeking me?”
"We seek your guidance for a journey.” Braulor changed his stance to project a stoic confidence.
Rean Le bristled at the mention of a journey but said nothing.
"We were told that you have explored the Ildwe Dale."
Rean Le winced as if something painful had struck her. "That was many years ago. Much has changed since then and I’m afraid that I would be of no use to you."
"You are the only person that has returned from the Ildwe Dale, the only one that can help us."
Rean Le stared at Braulor but her eyes seemed vacant and distant, as if she were reliving some long suppressed memory. "You seek the Amber Eye." She said it as fact and not question.
"Yes, we seek it." Braulor knew that deceiving Rean Le would serve only to anger her and ruin any hope of her helping them.
"You are wasting your time." Rean Le turned and started to walk back into the forest.
They stood there in stunned silence.
"Rean Le." a voice called out.
Everybody spun around. A large man with sallow skin was walking toward them. He had no weapon drawn but he was followed by a group of armed men that were ready for an attack.
Rean Le stopped dead in her tracks and turned around like she was on a rotisserie. "Kyriu.” Her tone dripped with disbelief.
"All hail, Rean Le. You remember me. I’m honored." Kyriu bowed his head in mock respect.
"What brings you out of your hidey hole?" Rean Le’s voice hadn't changed, she didn’t even seem surprised by his sudden appearance, but her eyes were cold with malice.
"Well, at first we came for the boy." Kyriu gestured with a scaly, clawed hand at Tagan.
Tagan wished he could disappear as everybody’s gaze fell on him. He recognized Kyriu from the night he and Braulor escaped from the Citadel. How was he involved in this and how did he know Rean Le?
Braulor stepped in front of Tagan a defiant look on his face.
"But once I learned that he was coming to find you, well, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see an old friend."
"The honor is all mine." It was hard to ignore Rean Le’s raw sarcasm and she stared at Tagan with renewed interest.
"Who are you?" Braulor demanded. He recognized Kyriu as well.
Kyriu eyed Braulor with disdain. "My name is irrelevant to you but I suppose I should thank you. If you hadn't escaped the Citadel with Tagan here, I would have never looked any deeper and I wouldn’t have found Rean Le. So, my thanks for your help but now you are going to die."
"Not by your hand." Braulor whipped the staff from under his cloak with a flourish. He had been practicing with it as they journeyed, deciding that it would be his preferred weapon.
Kyriu actually gasped as he froze, staring at the staff, his eyes wide and a shocked looked.
Rean Le was equally stunned but realized that this was her chance. Seizing the moment she sheathed her sword and whipped around her bow, fitting an arrow as she did. As she loosed the arrow, a black cloud formed beside her, a pair of red eyes glistening from within it, causing her aim to shift. Rean Le’s arrow missed Kyriu and buried itself deep in Lozan's stomach.
Lozan, who had been trying to stay out of everybody's way was as surprised as anyone when the arrow hit him. He stood stunned for a moment looking at Rean Le. His hand drifted slowly up and found the shaft of the arrow and then his eyes drifted down to find the same thing. He fell forward on his knees, eyes wide with panic and fear, gasping for a breath. Then he lurched forward, his body twitching as he slumped onto his side.
For a second or two the whole scene came to a complete stop. Nobody moved or did anything. Nobody knew what to do. Heads turned this way and that looking for some sort of direction.
One of Lozan's guards jumped over his prone body and ran screaming at Rean Le, a mace held high over his head, ready to avenge Lozan's death. His scream broke the spell and everybody came to their senses, reacting all at once.
Crenoah, Stonjsin and Drebos drew their swords and rushed the remainder of Lozan's guard. With the one guard attacking Rean Le that left three others. An even match and they were equal to the challenge, showing no fear as the men of the Greejon clan collapsed in on them.
Rean Le hit the guard charging her with an arrow. It sunk into his leg and he staggered but his momentum carried him into her and they tumbled to the ground. She could feel his full weight on her as they rolled and she timed it so that as she rolled onto her back she kicked hard with her legs, forcing him off as the roll continued and he flipped a couple more times as he tumbled away. Rean Le sprung to her feet and yanked out her sword and charged the guard as he stood up. Out of sheer instinct he parried her sword and punched her hard in the temple. She staggered back from the blow, her legs wobbling. She was disoriented
and couldn't focus. Everything was a blur. She held her sword out in front of her as her head swam, trying to shake the cobwebs out. Where was he?
The guard circled Rean Le as quiet as a cat sneaking up on a bird, forcing the pain shooting from his leg aside. She had her back to him, shoulders heaving with her breaths, and he stepped toward her, coiling up to attack. He was almost on top of her when Tagan tackled him and dragged him to the ground. Tagan hadn't even drawn a weapon in his fervor to defend Rean Le and he and the guard wrestled, each trying to best the other. Tagan was swinging his fists with everything he could muster, trying to hit any part of the guard that he could. His punches were mostly ineffective but it was all he could think to do. He had never been in real fight before in his life. He was operating on pure adrenalin.
The guard had his legs around Tagan’s ribs and squeezed, blood oozing from around the shaft of the arrow sticking from his leg, while he hammer fisted Tagan's head.
Tagan felt like his head was going to split open and he flailed around with his hands trying to protect himself from the rain of blows. His hand landed on the shaft of the arrow. Seizing the arrow, he wrenched on it as hard as he could making the guard stop his punches as he screamed in agony. The legs squeezing Tagan went limp for a brief second but it was all the time Tagan needed and he escaped the man's legs and rolled to the side. His hands fell on something metal and grabbed it with both hands and jumped up. The guard was trying to get to his own feet but was woozy, blood loss starting to take its toll. Tagan brought the shield he had picked up down hard on the guards head and with a loud gong the man collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Kyriu had darted aside to avoid Crenoah, Stonjsin and Drebos. He could hear the grunts and clanging of swords as they and Lozan’s remaining forces fought hand to hand somewhere behind him. Kyriu was exhilarated. He loved every minute of this. He could taste the fear in the air. He could smell it oozing from the bodies around him and it excited him. He wanted to allow himself to go crazy with it and bathe in the blood he could smell. But he had to calm down.
The staff. Where did the staff come from? How did Braulor come to have it? He didn't know but he would get it and find out. His wish was answered almost immediately as Braulor brought the staff down on Kyriu's head with a great crack. Braulor had noticed Kyriu hesitate and he attacked.
Kyriu staggered but the truth was he wasn't hurt at all. An idea formed in his head and he went with it, falling to one knee and letting his head droop like he had been dazed.
Braulor fell for it and closed the distance between them, swinging the staff again; a sidelong strike with both hands like he was swinging an axe at a tree trunk. With casual ease Kyriu caught the staff in his muscular hand and stood up, pulling Braulor closer. And closer still, until they were close enough to look into each other's eyes; smell each other’s stale breath.
Braulor didn't want to give the staff up and he gave Kyriu no quarter. Even if it meant his death, he would not give up the staff. Braulor tugged and yanked on it, spitting in Kyriu's face, trying anything to make him let go.
Kyriu stood as still as a statue. This human was strong, but no match for his strength. He stared into Braulor's eyes and reached out with his mind. Sinews of malice thought traced their way along the staff and up Braulor's arm, seeking a foothold in his brain.
Braulor had no defense for this mind attack and stopped trying to free the staff and stood there, hypnotized. He had never felt anything like this before. It felt like his brain was being tickled at first then stabbing pain shot through him but he still did not relinquish the staff.
Deeper and deeper Kyriu probed and Braulor's pain grew more and more intense. Images were popping up here and there but not what Kyriu was looking for and he cast them aside even as the same images were long repressed memories that Braulor longed to see.
The black cloud descended on the two of them.
Braulor started as its eyes fixed on him. "I told you we would meet again Braulor. Did you enjoy the little scene I left for you at the cave?"
It was the shadow keeper.
"You!" For the first time in a long time, Kyriu felt genuine fear.
"I thought you would be happy to see me Kyriu." The runes on the staff lit up; blazing to life in a white glow that you could see over the light of the sun. It didn’t burn but felt more like it was attaching to them, gluing their hands to the staff.
The shadow keeper was forcing his way into both of their minds with glee. It had been long since he had enjoyed himself like this.
Kyriu was trying desperately to let go of the staff, to break the connection but he couldn't. His hand felt like it had become part of the staff. He shut his eyes and tried to close down his mind but like the shadow that he was, the shadow keeper seeped in anyway. Going anywhere he wanted at will, sifting through the horrible memories that resided there.
In a last ditch effort to get away Kyriu called up the first words that came to mind and cast a blasting spell, hoping to break the connection to the staff.
Tagan and Rean Le stood watching the events unfold. Sounds of battle carried on around them but they didn't pay any attention. They were so rapt with the struggle between Braulor and Kyriu and now the black cloud that had descended on them both, enveloping them, that everything else was inconsequential. They watched in shock as the runes of the staff flared to life. Their shock turned to horror seconds later as Braulor, Kyriu and the cloud disappeared without a sound, as if they had never been there at all.
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