"Out! I-Want-Out!" Maeve shouted, and for the tenth time threw a fireball.It flew over a small patch of sea and detonated harmlessly against an invisible wall. It was a barrier much like the one the Vorgon had created around the vanishing village. This barrier kept her and Master Dim-Dim trapped inside a small and ever-changing dimension.

In frustration, Maeve sank to the ground. At least the dimension wasn't completely malevolent. Cairpra had made sure of that, Maeve had recently discovered. She had not been able to prevent her husband from being sent away, but her interference deflected him from the living hell Admir would have sent him to, and transported him to a dimension where things went right some of the time. Still, Maeve wished Cairpra had known how to avoid the curse altogether.

They lived in two small huts, the apprentice and her teacher. Those two buildings and all contained within them never seemed to change. The landscape outside them did. Somedays Dim-Dim and Maeve awoke to a desert, other times to a forest, and still other times to a seascape, which Maeve liked best, for she would stand staring out to sea, wistfully longing for Sinbad, the man who haunted her dreams. In fact, lately the dreams had been getting intimate,causing Maeve to awake blushing. Last night, she had dreamed she was pregnant with his child. Not that long ago, she would have balked at the idea of carrying any man's baby.

"I pray they come true someday," she murmured to herself. She was a fool to have ever pretended she didn't love Sinbad. If she ever got back to the real world, things would be different. Maeve didn't think of herself as a girl who made the same mistake twice.

She missed Sinbad. She missed his crew. The only human companion she had here was an old man. True, she loved him as though he was her father, but she also needed many other people to interact with. She needed friendship; she needed..yes, romance. There were other people-once-a tribe of people from whom she and Dim-Dim has managed to receive cloth, blankets, and other goods.This was when the dimension was in the shape of an island. The next day, the island and the villagers were gone, replaced by a deserted clearing. Maeve hoped they would come across people again soon.

She missed Dermott. There were birds in this dimension at least. Birds and bugs. The bugs were needed to feed the birds. Dim-Dim had shown a reluctant Maeve that the bugs were there for them to eat as well. Now that she was used to them, Maeve found bugs crunchy with a nutty flavor. Most days, thankfully, there were fruit trees to supply their nutritional needs.She looked up to see the "would-be peacocks", as she had dubbed them. They were built more like ibises than peacocks, but they had royal blue feathers with rainbow-hued tips. Maeve was keeping a record of the birds she saw in this dimension, and she found she wasn't a bad artist when it came to sketching them. Thank goodness for the birds; birdwatching, Dim-Dim's practical jokes, and scrying were the only forms of entertainment around here, and without them, Maeve was sure she would have gone insane.

Yes, there were plenty of birds…and then there was Chatter. Chatter was substituting for Dermott. Like Dermott, he could carry on a conversation, albeit a rather limited one. For Chatter was just a bird, not a human transformed into one. He was a macaw, like the kind Vincenzo employed.Vincenzo had blue and gold macaws; Maeve had a purple and peach macaw, a color combination she was sure didn't exist outside this dimension.

As though he knew she was thinking about him, Chatter flew down by her side. "Hello, Maeve," he said.

"Hello, Chatter. Who's a pretty bird?"

"Hello, Chatter," the bird repeated simply.

Dim-Dim walked up behind them. "No luck with the fireballs again?" "No," Maeve replied, pouting a little. "We're never going to get out of this gilded prison!"

"Someday when your powers are greater, you may be able to break out on your own."

"I'm not leaving you behind!"

"If you find a way to break out of our little prison, I'm sure it will be because you'll have enough powers to get all of us out. Or at least come back and get me. And Sinbad's always searching for us. Maybe it will be he who will find the way."

"It's not going to happen," Maeve interrupted tiredly. "Sinbad's never gonna find us. We don't even exist in his world!" Dim-Dim appeared to beabout to make an enlightened statement, but Maeve continued on. "And even if he does find us, or I break us out of here, it's going to be such a long time from now he'll probably be married. He'll be so close to Bryn he'll barely have time to even say hello to me."

"You care for him deeply, don't you?" Dim-Dim asked, a twinkle in his eyes.

Maeve was so cranky she didn't want to admit to it at the moment, even though she had just been thinking of how much she did care. "Who says I care for him? Mister Kissyface; I've-Got-a-Girl-in-Every-Port! And I had begun to think he was different than the rest!" She knew of his recent escapades, through Master Dim-Dim's scrying pool.

"You so much as said you cared for him," Dim-Dim reprimanded her gently.

She sighed. "Oh, you're right, as always!" she admitted reluctantly, turning away but still addressing him. "It's just that I wish I never fell of that ship, or that you at least let me fight the raging waters on my own, rather than dragging me here to this place."

"You might have died."

She could have pointed out she WAS dying, watching Sinbad from a distance and being unable to touch him. Instead she asked, "Are you sure about that?" For deep down, Maeve sensed her mentor was hiding something from her.

He was quiet for a moment; Maeve could tell he was doing some heavy thinking. Then he made up his mind. "Come," he said to her, and they walked to the scrying pool. "I make no claims of being a great prophet, but I was granted a vision shortly before I brought you here. A vision of two futures. Listen child, it was revealed to me the alternate course history might have taken if you hadn't been brought into this dimension to protect you from Rumina."

Maeve saw the Nomad, and the storm that had taken her away. She fell overboard, struggling in the churning waters. Sinbad jumped after her. After a few desperate minutes, he found her. Anxiously, Doubar, Firouz, and Rongar helped them back on board. The Nomad sailed on. It did not even stop at a land not far away where a young girl named Bryn fought for her life. And so, Bryn perished, the victim of a human sacrifice.

Dim-Dim acted as commentator of the vision. "Without Bryn, your own powers would be weakened."

"How so, Master Dim-Dim?" Maeve asked sincerely.

"You and her could have combined forces to withstand Rumina…But as it is-or could have been…"

Maeve saw adventures similar to the ones Sinbad had faced shortly after her disappearance. The only major difference was that she was the one who fought by Sinbad's side, and not Bryn. Some of the fights played out a little differently, but Sinbad being as resourceful as he was, he managed to save the day even with slightly different odds. He remained smooth and clean-cut. He barely even noticed the girls he came in contact with, girls Maeve had seen him kiss in history's true course. Not even Shirez could turn his head.

Then, Rumina misted on to the scene. "What's she doing there?" Maeve asked."She didn't show up around that time in the true history."

"Rumina was specifically looking for you," Dim-Dim explained simply. Thinking it eerie, Maeve watched her image combat Rumina. For a while, they held each other off, their powers exploding against each other. Then Rumina shot red lightning from her fingertips. It enveloped Maeve, who screamed. As Sinbad watched helplessly, the flesh melted off his beloved sorceress.Then her bones themselves turned to ash, and the ash blew away, leaving nothing to bury or to offer to the funeral pyre.

The real Maeve shuddered at the sight. In the vision, Rumina misted away, smiling in grim satisfaction. Sinbad lunged at her fading image, then sunk to his knees, devastated. He had never told Maeve how he felt…

And he never recovered from seeing Maeve die a horrible, tortured death.He retreated into himself; he gave up sailing and took up a solitary existence. Doubar sailed sometimes, on other's ships, but became a slave to drink, so worried over his brother was he. Firouz moved to a village where he was regarded as a crackpot, and without the acceptance that Sinbad had given him, he sunk into depression. Rongar joined a carnival, where he threw his dirks around a scantily clad woman, but he felt he had once used his talents for a greater purpose. And Dermott…Dermott was forced to take up the life of a true bird, always on the lookout for rodents or smaller birds upon which to prey. Villains and monsters that Sinbad would have fought and conquered remained victorious, their evil unchecked. Innocent lives were lost, there being no hero to save the day.

"How awful," Maeve murmured. Chatter squawked angrily.

"Sinbad may have lost you for now, Maeve," Dim-Dim commented, standing behind her. "But at least he still has hope. He has become darker, fiercer, but the Sinbad you know and love still exists deep within him."

"And he's still helping others," Maeve realized. "Not just sulking to himself. Do you really think he'll rescue us before I'm old enough to be a grandmother but without any grandchildren to show for it?"

"He will; he has Bryn to help him."

Maeve was silent for a moment. Bryn…She felt her blood boil. I let her have my brother, why must she take my love as well? Careful, lass, she reprimanded herself. Bryn is a good woman. A kind woman. She doesn't deserve your hatred or your jealousy. Maeve even smiled a little as she realized that sometimes she even felt sorry for Bryn. Like the time Sinbad had kissed her during a crisis, but then, at the end of that adventure, had kissed another girl right in front of her.

Grimly, Maeve asked, "And what about him and Bryn?"

"I have a feeling that as Bryn recovers her past, she may recall a lost love.But even if she doesn't, in the meantime, I suspect some of Sinbad's crew have a crush on her." As Maeve stood and prepared to leave the scrying pool, her mentor continued, "Your time away has given Sinbad the chance to realize his true feelings for you, as you yourself have realized your feelings for him. But as soon as you return, Rumina will confront you, and you will need Bryn by your side. Make sure to make her your friend."

Darkness came once again to the isolated dimension. Maeve felt a little better, a little more content as she lay down on her mat that night. Tomorrow she would practice her skills, and perhaps get around to satisfying her curiosity by asking Dim-Dim about why he and his wife Cairpra had rarely lived together.

Chatter took the blanket in his beak and, walking backwards, pulled it over her. "Thank you, Chatter."

"Night night, Chatter," the bird said nonsensically.

In her mind, Maeve saw Sinbad, and she blew him a kiss. "Good night, Sinbad,wherever you are." She giggled to herself. He was probably in trouble right now, that's where he was. She remembered a bit of an old Irish blessing. " 'May the wind be ever at your back. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.' Good night, Sinbad, and remember, make sure a kiss is all you give to Bryn and those girls in every port."