"Still there." The bariaur dosed his eyes and hit himself.

"What are you doing?"

The bariaur struck another blow against his brow, this time without opening his eyes.

"Stop! You'll hurt yourself."

The bariaur brought the shaft down once for each word, at the same time muttering, "He must go away. Must go away."

Realizing that speaking would only make matters worse, the Amnesian Hero shoved his sword into its scabbard and clumped forward to restrain the mad bariaur. After suffering an inadvertent blow as the club hit him on a backstroke, the Thrasson caught hold of the shaft and wrenched it from the old fellow's grasp.

"I'll hold this for you." The last thing the Amnesian Hero wanted was for the bariaur to knock himself senseless – at least until the old fellow led the way to where he had found his end of the golden thread. "Beating yourself will not make me vanish."

The bariaur slapped his hands over his ears and, without opening his eyes, spun toward the side corridor, where Jayk and Tessali were just emerging from the fog. Both had their daggers in hand.

"Don't harm him!" the Amnesian Hero warned.

The pair stopped two paces short of the bariaur, who continued to cover his ears and keep his eyes closed.

"What are you doing here?" asked the Thrasson. "I didn't call for you."

"We hear yelling." Jayk flicked a hand skyward. "With all this noise, we think it is you, yes?"

"It wasn't me; it was our monster." The Amnesian Hero gestured at the bariaur. "I think he's what you call barmy. The old fellow keeps beating himself and saying that I must go away."

Tessali raised an eyebrow, then turned his gaze upon the cowering bariaur. After a moment, the elf pursed his lips and nodded grimly.

The Thrasson retrieved the severed lance and displayed the golden thread wrapped around its shaft. "If you convince him to show us where he started collecting this, we can find the exit."

The elf held his finger to his lips, then sheathed his dagger. The three companions waited silently in the battering hail. At last the bariaur took his hands from his ears and looked up. When he saw Tessali and Jayk standing before him, the old fellow wailed in despair and dropped to his foreknees.

"Silverwind, you old fool!" he cried.

Silverwind began to slap himself between the horns again. The Amnesian Hero moved to restrain him, but Tessali motioned the Thrasson back.

"You were almost out, and now you've lost control again," Silverwind complained.

He ran his rheumy gaze over the unexpected company, then he pitched forward into the fog. There was a sharp crack, then the bariaur's head rose briefly into view and disappeared again. Another crack followed, then another, and the Thrasson realized Silverwind was butting his horns against the ground. So powerful were the blows that pieces of brick began to fly whenever the old fellow raised his head. Still, Tessali refused to let the Amnesian Hero intervene. Finally, after the flying brick shards had given way to powder, the old fellow stopped. He left his head beneath the fog and, despite the smell of singed fur beginning to fill the air around his forequarters, made no move to return to his feet.

Tessali squatted on his haunches and waited patiently. When Silverwind finally looked up, the elf touched his fingertips to his own chest. "I am Tessali." He gestured at Jayk, then the Thrasson. "My friends-"

"Do not presume!" hissed Jayk. "I am no friend of yours."

The elf accepted the interruption without changing expressions, then continued, "My… companions are Jayk the Snake, and the Amnesian Hero." He extended a hand to the bariaur. "Why don't you stand? Your fur is beginning to scorch."

Silverwind glanced toward his knees, then allowed the elf to help him up.

"You were saying that we must go away," Tessali said. "Why is that?"

"Because I don't want you here." Silverwind's reply was meek. "You're in my way."

"In the way of what?" Tessali asked.

Silverwind turned half away, regarding the elf out of the comer of his eye. "They're not here." He closed his baggy eyelids. "Be strong, Silverwind."

"You can keep your eyes closed as long as you like, Silverwind. We'll still be here when you open them."

Silverwind covered his ears again.

Realizing that this might take some time, the Thrasson began to twine the thread off his arm onto the head of the bariaur's spear. If he wanted to avoid cutting it, working the golden strand onto its proper spool was going to be a major task.

After a moment, Tessali reached up and gently pulled one of the bariaur's hands down. Silverwind gasped and recoiled from the touch, then stared at Tessali as though the elf were a pit fiend.

"You see?" said Tessali. "We're still here. You can't make us go away."

With astonishing quickness for a bariaur his age, Silverwind dropped his head and butted Tessali in the chest. The blow drove the elf straight to the ground, where he landed with a loud groan. The Amnesian Hero rushed to restrain the bariaur, but, with his brick foot, he was not nearly so quick as Jayk. Before the Thrasson had taken his second step, the tiefling was at Silverwind's side, pushing her dagger up toward the bariaur's throat.

"Jayk, no!"

The tiefling stopped, her arm half-extended above her head and the tip of her knife pressing against the ropy outline of the bariaur's jugular. Her fangs were folded down and her pupils were shaped like diamonds. Silverwind stood motionless as a statue, his astonished gaze fixed upon the top of her head.

"But he attacked us, Zoombee!" Jayk complained.

The Amnesian Hero knew better than to appeal to her compassion. He raised the lance head, displaying the spool of thread the bariaur had gathered.

"We don't know where Silverwind started this. If you advance him to the next stage, how will we find the exit? How will you avenge yourself on Trevant?"

Jayk rolled her dark eyes. "You don't need to sweet talk me, Zoombee. If you say don't cut him, I don't cut him."

"Then be good enough to step back." Tessali rose, rubbing his chest but otherwise looking little worse for wear. "I'm sure Silverwind realizes by now that he won't be rid of us by attacking."

Jayk ignored Tessali and did not step away until the Amnesian Hero nodded. Once the knife was pulled away from Silverwind's throat, the bariaur closed his eyes and shook his head sadly.

"You were so close. So close."

"So close to what?" asked Tessali. "Tell me, Silverwind."

The bariaur opened his eyes and glared at the elf. He looked past Tessali at Jayk, then he turned to stare at the Amnesian Hero. "Why did you have to imagine them, old fool? You were so near escape; you had the golden thread. You would have made the exit soon."

"Wonderful," Jayk growled. "A Signer."

"Signer?" the Amnesian Hero echoed.

"Sign of One." Tessali rubbed his chin, continuing to focus on Silverwind. "They consider themselves to be the center of the multiverse and claim to create everything in it through the power of their minds. Silverwind's isolation seems to have convinced him that he is the only real being in the maze – or even in the entire multiverse."

Silverwind snatched the head of his severed lance from the hands of the Amnesian Hero, then turned to walk away. Tessali shook his head sharply, then pointed at the bariaur's arm and cupped his hand as though grasping something. The Thrasson nodded and grabbed the old fellow's shoulders.

"Silverwind, you should know better," said Tessali. "You cannot walk away from the creations of your own mind, anymore than you can walk away from this hailstorm you imagined. If you want to be rid of us, you must treat with us first."

The bariaur's shoulders sagged. "I suppose I must." He turned to face them. "Very well. Tell me your names again."