Sergeant Kronus moved quickly, running in the opposite direction Ginny and Alton had taken earlier. This way was dark, the walls close on either side. Their pounding footsteps echoed eerily against the walls. After a short race down the hall, they turned in to an even narrower passage. Alton seemed familiar with the route. Ginny kept her mouth shut and her feet in motion, but she’d never been so thankful for all the miles she was used to jogging or the hours she’d spent at the gym.

Finally they slipped out through a narrow tunnel that appeared to be nothing more than a crack in the walls between two passages. The sergeant looked both ways and then stepped aside. Alton tugged Ginny through the opening. “Thank you, my friend. Can you come with me? We could use a warrior like you.”

Roland shook his head. “My wife and child are here. I can’t leave them, but I want to know our world and their future are safe from demonkind. If I can help from here, I will. I know what I saw today was true. You did not fool me with sleight of hand—I heard your sword speak and I believe the warning. Good luck to you.” He turned to Ginny. “And to you as well. My grandmother fought in the DemonWars before she disappeared. Her brave story is part of our family’s lore and Lemuria’s shame. Daria the Crone was a great and powerful warrior. The council can deny our history all they want, but the truth is known to the common people. I wish you well.”

He turned and slipped back through the opening. Alton’s eyes were shining when he grabbed Ginny’s hand once more and tugged her across the passageway, down another and another until she heard the roar of the golden veil and knew they were close to the vortex.

Alton drew his sword and used HellFire’s glow to light the way along the dark tunnel they entered. This one took them perpendicular to the main passage with the golden wall marking the boundary between Lemuria and the energy vortex where the portals were located.

They popped out beside the curtain of gold. Alton held his finger to his lips. Ginny looked back toward Lemuria and saw the same man who had helped them just moments ago, marching into place with his troops. He studiously ignored their hiding place and set his men to look back along the tunnel, toward Lemuria.

Alton grabbed Ginny and the two of them slipped into the shimmering gold. Within seconds they were through, but something felt wrong. Ginny glanced over her shoulder at Alton. He was slipping HellFire into his scabbard.

She pulled DarkFire out of hers.

“What’s wrong?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know.” She wished she could explain the strange sense of danger that seemed to wrap her body in cold chills. “Something’s wrong. Can you smell sulfur?”

“A little.” Alton sniffed the air. “Okay. A lot.” He drew HellFire once more. Ginny stood back, scanning the space around them as he used the glow to check the nooks and crannies around the cavern. The various portals glowed as they should. There were no dark wraiths, no sign of demon mist.

This cavern was different than the one they’d entered from Bell Rock. Ginny followed Alton into the main part where sections of rock pulsed and swirled around them. “Where are we?”

Alton pointed toward a shimmering area along one wall. “These are all dimensional portals, powered by the Mount Shasta vortex. If we go toward the back of the cavern, we’ll be able to take the same one I traveled before to Bell Rock. We’re literally at a crossroads, here. The choice is yours—back to Sedona or home to Evergreen?”

Ginny flashed him a grin. “I’ve still got a week of vacation. I choose Sedona.”

“Fighting demons is not necessarily my idea of a vacation, but I highly approve of your choice. Thank you.” Alton adjusted the pack on his shoulder and held his sword high for light. Ginny followed him down the tunnel. She almost ran into his back as Alton skidded to a stop.

The portal was there, glowing in reds and golds, but it was almost lost, buried beneath the swirling black mist pouring through from Sedona. Not just one demon, but what looked like an entire cloud bank of demon mist gathered in front of the portal.

Cursing softly under his breath, Alton stepped directly into the mist.

Ginny held her sword in a white-knuckled grasp and stared at the pulsing cloud of demons. DarkFire shimmered, brilliant purple flashed. Beneath her dark light, demons suddenly glowed in fluorescent brilliance. The shapeless black wraiths took on details not visible before—incandescent eyes and phosphorescent teeth glimmered in grossly malformed faces. Twisted arms and legs protruded from misshapen bodies with scales and fangs and protruding spurs of bone.

Hideous creatures, ugly beyond belief, yet they flowed almost gracefully in their mist form, without true substance, light as air yet charged with corruption.

Ginny saw them truly for the first time and recognized evil in its purest form. Then she sucked in one terrified breath, clasped DarkFire tightly in her hand, and plunged into her first-ever fight against demonkind.

He’d not seen the likes of this before—such vast numbers of demonkind pouring through the gateway from Sedona. Their thick, sulfuric stench was suffocating. The naturally cool air in the cavern dropped several more degrees as demon after demon spilled out of the portal, bringing the chill of evil with them.

Had they come directly from Abyss, merely using a previously undiscovered portal around Sedona as their gateway, or was Sedona entirely overrun with the bastards? Was something driving them out? Or even worse, was something luring them here?

Had the demon king reappeared near Evergreen?

He’d have to worry about the details later. The sense of malevolence surrounding the massing demons made his skin crawl. Alton stepped directly into the black cloud and slashed HellFire through the thick collection of demonic souls.

Sparks flew. The ear-shattering screams as several creatures exploded beneath the crystal blade made his head spin. His eyes watered from the disgusting stench while his sword twisted and danced through the roiling black mist, but he swung with care—he sensed Ginny beside him, but he couldn’t see her through the thick wall of demon mist.

“Ginny? Are you okay?”

“I’m great,” she said.

Damn if she wasn’t laughing!

He glanced to his right. The dark flash of her unusual crystal blade and the horrific screams told him DarkFire had cut through more of the demon wraiths. The air began to clear, enough that Alton could finally see Ginny as he destroyed the demons surrounding him.

She moved with the grace of a dancer, reaching high for demons trying to escape overhead, twisting and diving for the ones that slipped out along the ground. But it wasn’t Ginny’s beauty that caught Alton’s eye. Not this time.

Caught in the fluorescent glow of Ginny’s sword, the demon wraiths had come to life. Where he saw only black mist as formless clouds, DarkFire illuminated their true nature. They might be wraiths without true substance, but beneath her dark glow, demonkind showed their true form—and they were hideous, inherently evil, and ugly beyond belief.

Yet Ginny didn’t hesitate. She danced and swung her amethyst blade and the demons fell, one by one, screeching as their lost souls exploded in bursts of dark purple sparks.

Alton clenched his jaw. He had to concentrate on his own battle as more of the filthy creatures flowed through the portal, but it was different now that their image was so firmly planted in his mind. They had to be stopped, but how? He couldn’t close this portal or he and Ginny would lose their route back to Sedona, but he had to know—where in the nine hells were the bastards coming from?

“Behind you!”

He spun around. A tower of black wraiths hovered at his back, pulsing with a sense of evil. Not one demon, but many, connected within their swirling black consciousness, coming together to attack.

Taking on form and substance even to his eyes—a head, arms, legs. Even a thick body floating in and out of sight.

Ginny swept DarkFire over the massed wraiths and their true nature glowed in all its incandescent fury, a monstrous blend of many creatures into one.

Alton struck the middle with HellFire and watched the roiling mass collapse as the ones in the center burst into stinking sparks. Immediately, the demons reformed, billowing up and out and taking shape once more. A thick, oily cloud rippled and flowed, coming together again in what seemed to be an unprecedented, organized attack.

Demons in this dimension, limited by their mist form, were generally nothing more than wraiths. He’d never known them to function outside of Abyss without an avatar. Away from their world, they existed as formless, mindless beings of energy that appeared as black, stinking mist until they’d commandeered something to animate—or they looked that way to anyone without a sword like DarkFire.

Was that something new, that demon shape within the mist? Had DarkFire evolved because the demons were changing? So many questions without answers, but one thing had always been consistent—the demons’ need for an avatar. In the past it had been something of the earth—stone or ceramic or various metals. In Sedona, they’d graduated to living creatures, though he’d not heard of them taking on a human host.

In Evergreen, they’d taken on plastic, but at least none of their avatars, so far, had given them the natural weapons that kept them alive and able to fight on Abyss.

On their own world, they were massive, multi-limbed creatures with scales and claws, huge fangs, and armored hides. Poisonous and powerful on Abyss, it took them time to gain strength in Earth’s dimension, to function as corporeal beings.

Before, they’d needed a borrowed body of some kind—an avatar. Something to give them form and function, to house their wraithlike souls before they could begin the slow evolution from mindless demon mist to living, functioning creatures.

At least that was the way things had been. These already appeared to show intelligence while still in their mist form. Under DarkFire’s light their demon shapes appeared. Had they always held that form in Earth’s dimension, or was it something new? A more powerful aspect of evil?

They were obviously evolving, beginning to work together. There was a pattern to their fight. Instead of trying to get away, they were actually mounting an attack. They’d managed to cooperate in a rudimentary fashion last week in Evergreen, but he and Dax had thought maybe the demon king was directing them for his own purpose.

There was no sign of the demon king here, yet the towering creature began to reform. Demons working together. Showing intelligence. Merely using the Sedona portal to reach the portal in Mount Shasta should have been beyond them, at least in the beginning.

Dax had explained it, how demons crossing from one dimension to another lost what little intelligence they had. It took time and experience in Earth’s dimension before they could begin to act with true cognitive thought. Only the demon king had shown actual intelligence, the ability to plot and plan.

Demonkind was changing. Evolving almost before their eyes.

Alton swung HellFire through the demon wraiths that formed the legs. Sparks flew, demons screeched, and the stench of sulfur burned his nostrils.

The entire creature collapsed.

Just as quickly, it reformed. New demons flowed into position to build a new set of legs. This time, when Alton swung his sword, the creature of mist opened its black jaws wide. It screeched in defiance—the sound of many voices working as one—and twisted out of the way.

Alton leapt forward and slashed HellFire through the body of the beast. More wraiths exploded and disappeared, but this made no sense. What in the nine hells was it trying to do? As mist, it had no real weapons. A beast of cloud, no matter how foul, had no way to cause damage.

There was so much they didn’t know, and as soon as they thought they’d figured something out about demonkind, the damned creatures appeared to evolve into something different, breaking their own rules.

At least they still died beneath HellFire’s fury. Alton swung his sword and watched with great satisfaction as the demons he touched with the crystal blade exploded on contact.

He heard Ginny’s grunts and soft curses. The screech and howl of dying demons added its discordant song. Yet still they came. Even more wraiths poured through the gateway from Sedona, but why here? What drew them and where were they going? Were they headed for Evergreen or Lemuria?

Either choice was bad. Somehow he had to stop the demons’ access. He’d closed off their gateway from Bell Rock to Abyss. Were all these demons already in Sedona? Were they using the power of the vortex to move from one part of Earth’s dimension to another, or were they somehow new demons, fresh from Abyss, coming in through an undiscovered portal?

Alton slashed through the last of the demons and the beast disappeared in a puff of stinking black smoke. Alton coughed and his eyes watered. He stepped back, took a deep breath, and turned to check on Ginny.

The only thing left in the cavern was the stench of sulfur. He raised HellFire. The brilliant glow of crystal illuminated the entire cavern. There was no sign of Ginny. The only sound he heard was the blood pounding in his ears, the harsh intake of one breath after another. A chill raced along his spine. “Ginny?” he shouted. “Ginny! Where are you?”

Panic ripped through him. He searched for her thoughts, for any sense of her. Breathing hard enough to hyperventilate, Alton forced himself to find calm, to take slow, even breaths and narrow his searching mind to Ginny and only Ginny.

He listened for her thoughts. They really needed to work on their newly discovered telepathy. He could barely pick her up when she was next to him, but…

There! In the next room, the main cavern they’d just left. He glanced once more toward the Sedona portal. It was clear of demon mist for the moment. He spun around and raced through the tunnel, skidding as he rounded the turn into the main cavern.

Ginny had her back to the Lemurian portal. Framed in its golden glow, she fought a gathering of demons. Beneath DarkFire’s purple glow they snarled with shining teeth and struck with shimmering claws, though they were still only harmless mist. DarkFire flashed through the insubstantial wraiths with unbelievable speed and blinding grace. With a flick of her wrist, Ginny caught one of the demons as it launched itself in her direction.

It exploded in a burst of flames and sulfuric stench.

She fought like an expert swordsman—feet dancing, her bandaged left hand raised behind her, DarkFire grasped firmly in her right as she twisted the blade through demon after demon.

Mesmerized by her grace and beauty, Alton stood in the entrance to the cavern and stared.

“You just gonna stand there watching, or you gonna help?” Ginny flashed him a bright grin and lunged for yet another snarling wraith.

Alton joined her. Standing shoulder to shoulder, the two of them blocked the portal to Lemuria and protected Alton’s world with their crystal swords. They found a perfect rhythm, swinging right and left, slicing through the dark wraiths—visible now as malignant demons in DarkFire’s purple fluorescence, black, smoky ghosts under HellFire’s blue light—and watching the bursts of sulfuric flame with growing satisfaction.

“Who goes there?”

With sword upraised, Alton spun about as four Lemurian guards stepped through the portal. “Roland! Have you come to help us?” Alton quickly turned his back on the four and slashed through yet another wraith.

“Hey, Roland!” Ginny waved her bandaged hand and leapt forward. With a feral grin on her face, she caught two wraiths with her dark crystal blade and watched the demons explode.

“What are these things?” Roland stepped up beside Alton and slashed his steel sword through a dark ghost. The black smoke merely divided along the blade and reformed on either side. “My sword doesn’t stop them!”

Alton cut through another demon. Sparks flashed and it disappeared. “I was afraid of that. Only crystal seems to kill them.” He lunged forward once more. Another demon died. “Why are you here? I didn’t think the guard ever left Lemuria.”

“Right after your escape, orders came down for your arrest. I’m sorry, Alton, but they were directly from Artigos. He truly has disowned you. I was told to bring you back for trial, even if it meant finding you in Earth’s dimension.”

Ginny spun around with her sword raised high. Roland took a quick step back.

“You’ve got to be frickin’ kidding me!” she said. “We’re out here protecting Lemuria from a demon invasion and you’re going to arrest us?”

Her voice rose on the last word. Alton glanced her way, caught her eye, and winked. She glared at him in return.

“To your left! Quickly!” Roland pointed and Alton caught yet another demon. “Those are my orders.” He glanced over his shoulder at the other men. They stared wide-eyed at the battle going on in front of them and didn’t say a word. Roland turned back to Ginny. “I didn’t say I intended to follow them.”

“What? You’re going to ignore the chancellor’s direct orders?” Alton faced Roland and stopped dead in his tracks, ignoring the billowing cloud of demonic mist beginning to take shape and form behind him. “Then what do you intend?”

Roland dipped his head. “I intend to do as my Lord Taron asked—warn you not to return to Lemuria until he brings the council around to his way of thinking. Already favor is turning against your father. He has angered many by his disavowal of your birthright as much as his denunciation of the Crone. She is a much beloved figure among the common people. He has publicly denied her sacrifice and called it nothing more than show.”

“What?” Ginny’s sword flashed and DarkFire spoke. “Who in the nine hells does he think he is?”

Roland blinked. Then he suddenly dropped to one knee. “Lady Daria.” He looked up at Ginny. “I recognize her voice. I knew this wasn’t some kind of trick.”

“Of course it’s not a trick.” The sword glowed with each word. “Stand, Roland of Kronus. I remember your grandmother. She was a brave warrior and true to her people. As are you.”

Roland stood up. It was only then that Alton realized the other three soldiers with him had gone to their knees as well.

“Alton!”

Ginny’s cry spun him around. A massive black beast towered over them, so tall its head touched the ceiling and the span of its arms could have gathered all six of them at once.

Ginny held her sword high and dark light illuminated the beast. Beneath DarkFire’s light, it was a horrifying blend of many demons, a monster writhing with dozens of foul creatures melded together.

Ginny lunged toward the abomination. DarkFire slid through the middle, leaving flames and sparks in her path. This creature appeared to have more substance than any they’d seen before and all its many parts were screeching and howling, creating a horrifying cacophony that echoed within the cavern.

Alton slashed through the neck, expecting the head to tumble, but in spite of the flames from the demons he killed, the mist reformed and the beast remained intact.

It shrieked and circled on thick legs. Members of the guard spread out around it, but their steel swords had no effect. Slashing through the roiling mist, they passed through harmlessly without doing any damage.

Alton and Ginny fought on, cutting and jabbing, attacking and retreating and yet the creature remained upright, its many voices undiminished. When Ginny withdrew, it appeared as nothing more than roiling mist in the shape of a beast, but when she slashed out with DarkFire, the purple light illuminated the many foul demons still forming the arms and legs, the thick body and huge head.

They continued to fight, tiring now but driven to beat this thing before it crossed into Lemuria. Each crystalline strike brought forth howls and shrieks and flashing sparks. As more and more demons were destroyed, the beast grew smaller, though the wraiths remained connected, changing within the fluid structure to take the places of those Ginny or Alton killed.

Finally, it was no more than waist high when Alton’s sword slashed from top to bottom and Ginny cut from right to left. Fire flashed and the last wraith disappeared.

Panting, Ginny leaned against the wall with DarkFire hanging loosely in her grasp. Her body trembled as she sucked in great, deep breaths. The four soldiers of the guard stood in stunned silence while Alton walked back along the tunnel and searched for more demonkind, but the trail was clear and there were none to be seen.

He hurried back to the main cavern. “I don’t get it. The demons were trying to go through the portal into Lemuria. What could they possibly do in mist form?”

“Creatures such as these would cause terrible panic among our people.” Roland glanced at the sword in his hand and shook his head. “My weapon was useless against them. Those who carry crystal have forgotten how to fight. They don’t have the balls to defend our world.” He glanced at Alton and blushed a deep red. “Present company excepted, sir.”

DarkFire glowed once again. Ginny turned to Roland. “Hold your sword out, Roland.”

He frowned, but he did as she said. Ginny touched the crystal point of her sword to Roland’s steel. His began to glow as the other three soldiers gathered close. Within seconds, it was too bright to look directly at the blade.

Then, with a sound as clear as a bell, the blades rang as if they’d come together in battle. Ginny stepped back. Roland gasped and held his sword high. The crystal facets glowed in the reflected light of the surrounding portals, but where Ginny’s sword was dark, Roland’s blade glowed with crystalline purity.

Once again DarkFire pulsed with light. “Your blade carries the spirit of Hesta, your grandmother. She cannot speak, not yet, but she will.”

Roland stared at DarkFire as if neither Ginny nor Alton existed. “Only the aristocracy may carry crystal.” His words faded on a sigh of wonder. He held the sword high, turning and twisting it so that light cascaded from the facets.

DarkFire flashed and her voice echoed off the cavern’s walls. “That is the council’s law. Do you serve the Council of Nine, or do you serve Lemuria?”

With that final question, DarkFire’s glow faded. Ginny stared at her sword until the blade no longer cast its own dark light. She carefully stuck it inside her scabbard. When she looked at Roland, her golden eyes were shining. “Well, Roland? How do you answer DarkFire’s question?”

Roland’s dark eyes flashed from Ginny to Alton. Open-mouthed, he gaped at his stunned and speechless men. They watched the crystal sword he clutched in his hand with wonder and obvious envy. “I serve Lemuria,” he said. His voice was barely above a whisper.

Alton’s eyes burned with unshed tears. He was flooded with a sense of loyalty and pride for his world he’d not felt for hundreds of years. This was the spirit of Lemuria. These were Lemurian soldiers. He cleared his throat and quietly asked, “Who do you serve?”

Roland held his sword aloft and repeated his vow, stronger this time. “I serve Lemuria.” He glanced at his men. They held their blades aloft, steel to his crystal. All of them, this time together, said it again. Loudly and with great pride.

“We serve Lemuria.”

Light burst from Roland’s crystal sword. One of the men gasped as cold fire traveled from the linked blades along each man’s powerful sword arm, then back up to the points. The light flashed again, every color of the rainbow. This time, everyone in the cavern gasped.

Four perfect crystal blades shimmered. Light from the golden portal into Lemuria reflected from their many facets.

Alton stared at the crystal, almost mesmerized by the light. Then he shook himself and stepped forward. He held his hand out to Roland. The Sergeant of the Guard stared at Alton’s hand for a moment and then clasped it in his.

“I am not Lemuria’s ruler,” Alton said, well aware his heart was pounding in his chest and sweat trickled down his spine. He’d never seen anything like this. Never heard of common soldiers bearing crystal, but then he’d not known of the women warriors of Lemuria, either. Times were changing and the threat against his people grew by the hour. With the power of the swords, maybe they did have a chance against demonkind. He looked into Roland’s clear gaze. “I have no authority other than that as a citizen of Lemuria, but I would ask you to return to Lemuria with your story. Show the councilmen your swords. Explain the threat as only an honest soldier can.”

Ginny grabbed Roland’s arm. “You have to make them understand, Roland. Imprisoning Alton serves demonkind, not Lemuria. Once you convince them, come back. Join us. You’re armed with crystal now and we need you on our side.”

Alton stepped aside and left the path to the portal clear. “Go to Taron. He’ll help you. We need soldiers who carry crystal. That’s the only way we’re going to win this fight.”

Roland glanced at his soldiers. The others held their swords proudly, ready to follow whatever orders he gave. Without exchanging a word, Roland turned to Alton. “They have to believe us. We carry crystal. Everyone knows if you’re not meant to wield a crystal sword, it will turn on you.”

He stared at the beautiful sword in his hand, slowly shook his head, and spoke with great reverence. “I carry crystal with Hesta’s spirit still locked inside. We’ll go to Taron, but first we’re going to the barracks. Once the men see what’s happened, we’ll have the entire guard on our side.”

They marched through the portal to Lemuria. Alton watched them go with a powerful sense of pride. Common soldiers, yet common no longer. They’d shed millennia of dust from their sandals with their decision. Old ideas, tired philosophies, and eons of inaction.

Their army was growing. One brave soldier at a time.

Ginny shook her head and wondered if she’d ever experience anything even close to normal again. “Do you think they’ll be okay? I have a feeling your father’s out for blood.”

Alton turned away from the portal and threw an arm over her shoulders. His casual hug felt so good and she was absolutely beat. All she wanted to do was lean against him and just let Alton carry her burdens…for a little while, at least.

“Roland’s decision to go to the other men first is a good one,” Alton said. His fingers idly stroked her arm. Ginny wondered if he had any idea what his touch did to her.

Obviously not. He was all business.

“If Roland has the guard behind him,” he said, “the council will at least have to hear him out. The fact he now bears crystal will carry a lot of weight with the other members, even if my father refuses to acknowledge its importance.”

He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “I’m just glad you’re safe. When I realized you were gone, I panicked.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t meant to frighten you, but I missed a couple in the other room and followed them in here. I thought they’d be heading out through the portal to Mount Shasta, but they were gathered together in the middle of the cavern. There were more than I expected. They’d already formed a huge creature all morphed together, and they were headed straight for the Lemurian gate. I didn’t have time to call for help.”

“You did really well, Ginny. Your first fight, and it was a big one. How did you know what to do?”

His praise had her heart pounding in her chest and a lump forming in her throat. All of a sudden, the enormity of the past hour’s battle, the meeting with Roland, and the changes in her life hit her at once. It took her a minute before she felt she could speak. Then she merely reached over her shoulder and stroked the hilt of her sword. “DarkFire,” she said. “She was in my head, telling me how to swing, what to do. I never once felt like I was on my own.”

“You never were,” Alton said. He tilted her chin up and stared into her eyes. Ginny was almost positive he was going to kiss her, and it wouldn’t be just a quick little peck to the lips. She ran her tongue over her lower lip. Alton’s focus shifted and he stared at her mouth. “I was with you, too, Ginny. I’ll always be beside you.”

He leaned closer. She felt the clench of muscles deep in her belly. Her eyes drifted closed.

A dog barked. Blinking, Ginny spun around. What was a dog doing inside the vortex? It barked again, closer this time, and then a flurry of blond curls scrambled out of the darkness. “Bumper? Isn’t she Eddy’s mutt? What are you doing here?” The curly blond dog raced past her and leapt at Alton, all wiggles and yips and wet doggy kisses.

Alton! Alton! You’re here! What are you doing here?

The dog was talking? Ginny slapped a hand to her forehead, where the voice seemed to echo in her mind. She stared at the silly-looking mutt as Alton slipped his arm from Ginny’s waist and dropped to his knees, laughing and hugging the frantic dog.

“That’s Willow you hear,” he said, dodging doggy kisses. “Remember? I told you she’s inside Bumper now.”

Feeling as if she’d been hit with maybe one too many impossible things, Ginny glanced up as Eddy and Dax stepped out of the shadows. Finally—someone familiar! Arms wide, Ginny raced across the cavern. “I don’t believe this. Eddy! What are you doing here?” She grabbed her best friend in a hug, but her eyes were on Dax.

“Me?” Eddy laughed and hugged her tight. “What are you doing here?”

College buddy, my eye! Ginny hugged her best friend ever, but her mind was absolutely seething with questions. She wasn’t about to let go of the one with all the answers.