Gaertk at aol.com writes: This was good, faster paced and more fun than POTD. I do have to disagree with whoever complained about the choice of stopping point: this was not at all a cliffhanger (no one is in immediate danger), and (unlike POTD) we know where everyone is at that time and more or less what they're doing. I think that the sudden decision by a prominent character quite near the end counts enough as a cliffhanger to me. I should say i was stunned. I even thought to myself, "This is insupportable." For anyone surprised by the actions of certain people at the end of LOCB, all I can say is that you were warned. Specifically, on the first page of chapter 18. (And those of you discussing the Orb/Cycle/Emporer/phoenix would find the rest of that chapter enlightening as well.) I am not certain if you mean Chapter the Eighteenth, or the 18th chapter in LoCB, which would be Chapter the Fifty-second. In either case, i find the first page rather unenlightening in regards to there being a warning for the sudden event, so i'm left wondering what, exactly, you meant. rone -- "I don't even know you. What if you're a psycho?" "Would a psycho waste the last of his triple-sec?" -- RICHH