[color:"#a0a0ff"]AND MORE OF THE PILLAR IN SOMEWHERE

This time I hugged the pillar with my body, my crystal heart shard took up the humming pulsing rhythm and I felt a connection. Pressing my forehead against it, I concentrated and focussed on the word: MUTA... Out of the swirling mass of bodies and sounds one creature slowly separated and stood motionless there. I focussed harder on it and the creature seemed to float towards me - still in its crystal world - as if glass would separate us. She was a... nymph. She floated up to the boundaries of her side and held her hands against the pillar - her face was sad, very sad - - then she raised one finger against her lips.

"Polgara," I whispered, "who is she? Why is she so sad?"

"That's MUTA - As you can see, she's been muted. She is the essence of MUTABAR and has the same fate as her ancestor, who was too talkative and then silenced forever by a God in Ancient times."

"Why? Who could be so cruel?" I couldn't keep from staring at this wonderful fragile nymph.

"Well, Kiya - it's time for me to share my knowledge with you: There are 7 powerful wizards in the world out there - and in order to keep and enlarge these powers, they have made 7 races to their allies, thus causing them to break the bond. Their methods varied: Some became allies by greed, some surrendered to promises, others were forced. And MUTA... sad story... one of those wizards stole her voice. She died of sorrow, but her voice is still trapped - and in order to free all other nymphs, who are now forced to sing for him and defeat enemies - one has to find and retrieve her voice."

I looked at the nymph behind the crystal frontier and gave her my silent vow to find her voice and retrieve it for her. She looked back at me for a long time, nodded and waved one hand timidly. Then - step by step - she floated back and vanished into the swirling mass of the other essences.[/color]