conversations.from: human
conversations.value: a plot for a book about Skan, Urtho, Winterhart entitled The Black Gryphon
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Black Gryphon: As the book begins, Skandranon Rashkae, the Black Gryphon, creeps into an enemy encampment.\nA Seer has warned Urtho of a new, magical weapon that has caused the capture of one of Urtho\'s key garrisons.\nSkan grabs one of the weapons and leaves, hotly pursued by makaar, creatures created by Kiyamvir Ma\'ar to match Urtho\'s gryphons.\nAfter a long chase, Skan crash-lands in friendly territory.\nMeanwhile, in Urtho\'s camp, Kestra\'chern Amberdrake and Gesten, a hertasi, are waiting for the return of their friend Skan.\nDrake is sitting in the surgery tent in the area where the Healers live and work, when a seriously injured Skan is carried in.\nWhile Skan is recovering in the Healer\'s tent, Urtho makes a visit to his friend and "son".\nHe tells Skan that the weapon has been analyzed and that a counter to this weapon is already being created.\nUrtho then offers to give Skan a reward for his work, his choice in a mate and the ability to make offspring.\nSkan tells him that he will think on this matter.\nDuring Urtho\'s visit, a commanding officer of Urtho\'s army appears and asks for a moment of Urtho\'s time.\nHe would like Urtho to reward another gryphon for her ability to take on three makaar, single-handedly.\nSkan is immediately interested in meeting this female and demands that she be brought to the tent.\nThe commander brings in a timid and shy gryphon named Zhaneel.\nAfter her account of the battle with the makaar, Urtho rewards her with a coin that can be traded for any service around the area.\nSkan suggests that she use her coin for the services of Amberdrake, because Skan believes that Drake is the only one that can help her get past her shyness.\nSkan is also furious with the trondi\'irn, person that takes care and heals the non-human creatures fighting for Urtho, that takes care of Zhaneel for letting her get so bad in the first place.\nMeanwhile, Amberdrake is dealing with his own problems with a particular client.\nConn Levas, a mage mercenary, is using some of his built up coins to pay for Drake\'s service.\nThe real reason that Conn Levas is visiting a kestra\'chern is to make his lover, Winterhart, jealous.\nAmberdrake being the skilled kestra\'chern that he is does not say anything to Levas, but secretly is very upset with this mage for using him in such a way.\nAlso, he wonders about this Winterhart, because of her relationship with this man in the begin with.\nWhile Skan is still recuperating, another gryphon is brought in to be healed.\nAubri is an old gryphon from the sixth wing, the same wing as Zhaneel.\nAubri did some scouting while on leave because Shaiknam refused to believe or double check a report of a fire flinger.\nHe comes out of the skirmish badly burned.\nAt first the hertasi, lizard-like creatures used to forage and help with certain problems, are helping to heal Aubri, but the trondi\'irn for the sixth wing, Winterhart, walks in and tells them that Shaiknam and Garber have ordered them to work only with uninjured personnel.\nThe treatment of the hertasi, leads to Gesten getting involved and fixing the problem.\nWinterhart\'s appearance is not a welcome sight, especially for Skan.\nSkan does not know who this is, but he knows she is the trondi\'irn is the same for Zhaneel.\nAlso, he does not like the way she completely ignored him as though he were just some brainless animal.\nCinnabar and Tamsin are the only things that stop Skan from physically harming Winterhart.\nWinterhart is callous, but she also knows how to heal a fallen gryphon.\nZhaneel\'s visit with Amberdrake did not go according to Drake\'s plans.\nDrake assumed a female gryphon would want a feather painting session in order to make herself more desirable to a male gryphon.\nAfter meeting Zhaneel, Drake realizes that this "gryfalcon," would need a boost in confidence.\nHe suggested that she take her "flaws" and use them as advantages.\nHe encourages her to use her hands for things that a human usually would.\nShe takes his advice and creates her own training course.\nWith the help of Gesten, Amberdrake\'s hertasi, and Vikteren, a mage, she develops a training course with many traps and dangers.\nAs Zhaneel continues her training, many of the other gryphons, humans, and non-humans begin showing up to watch her.\nAt the same time, Garber, the second in command of the sixth wing, has learned of Zhaneel\'s training and has decided that Winterhart needs to go put a stop to it.\nWinterhart confronts Zhaneel stating, "You (Zhaneel) had no orders and no permission", but Winterhart is caught off guard when the normally quiet Zhaneel stands up and shrills, "Orders.\nI am on leave time.\nThese who help me are off-duty.\nWhat need have we of orders, of permissions.\nAre we to request leave to piss now.\n" After Zhaneel\'s attack on Winterhart, Skan joins the attack as well, before Winterhart is finally asked by Zhaneel to speak in private.\nMeanwhile, Shaiknam and Garber have really messed up their positions.\nWhile in battle, many of the mages of the sixth wing used so much magic that they were put into a coma.\nThe only way for them to come out of the coma alive was to be sent to a healer, unfortunately, Shaiknam said they were just being lazy and left them to die where they lay.\nDue to Shaiknam\'s callousness, the mages called for a meeting with Urtho.\nThey demanded that either Shaiknam went, or they would.\nDuring this time, Vikteren declares that he is a Master Mage and that he would have a vote in the matter.\nAlso, the reason that most gryphons continued to fight was because Urtho controlled their ability to mate and have children.\nUpon learning of this, Vikteren, Amberdrake, Tamsin, Cinnabar and Skan decide that the gryphon\'s should make those decisions for themselves.\nVikteren gives Amberdrake a set of "mage keys" that will unlock any mage locking spells.\nWhile Urtho is away dealing with the mages, Amberdrake, Cinnabar, Tamsin, and Skandranon, go up into Urtho\'s tower and seek out the formula for gryphon mating.\nWhile Skandranon is in the library, he senses another gryphon.\nDue to Skan\'s curious nature he uses the key to unlock a door protected by a special mage lock.\nBehind the door, Skan discovers models of all the different types of gryphons floating in the air.\nThen he senses another gryphon in the room.\nKechara a "misborn" gryphon is kept in the room because of her deformities.\nShe is childish in nature, and has wings that are too large for her body.\nShe attacks Skan at first, but after a while they start talking and Skan learns a lot about her and she recognizes his form among the models in the sky.\nSkan realizes he must leave, but promises Kechara that he will return some day.\nAfter the confrontation with Zhaneel, Winterhart is sent to see Amberdrake.\nAmberdrake heals a back injury she sustained while helping an injured gryphon some time ago.\nWhile he is helping with her physical injuries, he is learning of the new feelings that she is experiencing due to Zhaneel\'s outspokenness.\nWinterhart had set herself up to believe that just because they were animals, gryphons were unintelligent and only good for taking orders.\nShe also starts questioning her relationship with Conn Levas, and her allegiance to Shaiknam and Garber.\nCinnabar and Tamsin begin working on the understanding of the gryphon mating process.\nWhen Skan arrives they inform him that they had figured out how gryphons could have children and it did not even need magic.\nThe females would have to fast for two days and then gorge themselves on food the day before the mating flight.\nThe male gryphons would need to spend two days in a very cold climate in order for their seed to become active.\nSkan is at first angry at Urtho for keeping this hidden from the gryphons, because he believes Urtho only did it to control the gryphons.\nThe real reason that Urtho gave in his book: "Too often have I seen human parents who were too young, too unstable, or otherwise unfit or unready for children produce child after doomed, mistreated child.\nI will have none of this for these, my gryphons.\nBy watching them, and then training others what to watch for, I can discover which pairings are loving and stable, which would-be parents have the patience and understanding to \'be\' parents.\nAnd in this way, perhaps my creations will have a happier start in life than most of the humans around them.\nWhile I may not be an expert in such things, I have at least learned how to observe the actions of others, and experience may give me an edge in judging which couples are ready for little ones.\nThose who desire children must not bring them into our dangerous world out of a wish for a replica of themselves, a creature to mold and control, a way to achieve what they could not, or the need for something that will offer unconditional love.\nFor that, they must look elsewhere and most likely into themselves".\nSkan begins spreading the information that has been obtained of the mating formula.\nHe also begins training on Zhaneel\'s training course, another attempt to get close to the interesting gryfalcon.\nWith the information gathered by Skan on his trip at the beginning, Urtho has created a box that can diffuse the weapons of Ma\'ar.\nWith her special hands, Zhaneel is chosen to fly this box into the battle.\nAmberdrake plans a "victory" feast for Zhaneel\'s return from her first mission.\nHe invites Skan and Zhaneel, but doesn\'t tell either of them that the other was invited.\nAfter the celebration, Skan talks with Zhaneel and they learn of their mutual feeling for one another.\nThere is a huge battle, and many are injured.\nHealers and trondi\'irns are rushing around trying to heal hundreds of injured creatures and humans.\nAmberdrake is brought into the healing also and ends up over-exerting himself in the healing.\nCinnabar at one point helps Winterhart to heal a gryphon.\nCinnabar tells her that all in all she is starting to look much better, and that all she lacked now was to get rid of Conn Levas.\nCinnabar then calls Winterhart, Reanna.\nReanna was at one time a lady of the High King\'s palace.\nCinnabar suggests that Winterhart tell Amberdrake of her true name and history.\nAfter their talk, Winterhart is laying in her tent relaxing after the hours of healing.\nConn Levas comes by and Winterhart pretends to sleep so that he\'ll go away without getting what he really wanted from her.\nAfter his departure, she sees a shadow around her tent and recognizes it as Amberdrake.\nShe calls him inside and they relax together.\nWinterhart confesses to her true name and why she had been hiding the entire time.\nAmberdrake reveals to Winterhart that Ma\'ar had implanted a device that threw off negative energy causing those without shields to have a large amount of fear.\nIt was too late for the king because he was already dead, but Urtho sent Skan to retrieve the device and destroy it.\nThis revelation of the events caused by Ma\'ar, helps Winterhart to understand that it is not her fault that she deserted the palace in its time of greatest need.\nDuring this time, more battles are fought and the general consensus is that Urtho is losing.\nConn confronts Winterhart and says some demeaning things about her.\nShe later goes to Amberdrake to talk and he finally confesses his feelings to her.\nShaiknam and Garber are put back into command of the Sixth Wing because of the assassination of the commander that replaced them.\nAfter they are put back into position, the gryphons decide that they will revolt and Skan is left with the task of telling Urtho.\nTo Skan\'s surprise, Urtho already knows of the gryphon revolt.\nUrtho still believes that he can control the gryphons because he is the only one holding the secret to their mating abilities.\nSkan surprises him by telling him that the gryphons have learned how to have their own children, but it\'s out of respect and love to him that keeps them in his services.\nAfter the revelation that the gryphons knew how to reproduce, Skan explains the reason for revolting against Shaiknam and Garber.\nAfter looking at the map, Urtho determines that Shaiknam is a fool, and Urtho will split the non-humans among the other commanders.\nUrtho also surprises Skan by assigning Skan to be the commander of the gryphons and to report to Urtho.\nUrtho reveals to Skan the plan to evacuate the area, as a matter of fact some families have already been evacuated from the city.\nSkan also tells Urtho that he saw the models and met Kechara.\nWe find out that Kechara was being kept in the tower because she is a very powerful Mindspeaker.\nSkan requests that Urtho give Kechara to Zhaneel and himself.\nAll noncombatants were evacuated along with several of Urtho\'s artifacts and books.\nOn the last day, there is a battle.\nAubri is circling the field heading back to his position when he notices the people of the Sixth Wing backing out and allowing Ma\'ar\'s forces into the land.\nAubri sees the tent that Shaiknam and Garber use, and he listens into a conversation between Shaiknam, Garber, and an unknown person, who later turns out to be Conn Levas.\nAubri is captured and given to Ma\'ar\'s forces.\nConn Levas goes to the tower to have a meeting with Urtho.\nConn Levas walks in and throws Miranda thorns, a very deadly device created by Ma\'ar.\nSkan and Vikteren are fetched by a hertasi and Skan complains to the hertasi as to why he left Urtho alone with Conn Levas.\nWhen the doors are opened, Skan sees the shape that Urtho is in and using a single talon he rips Conn Levas\' throat open and on the backhand of the original slash sends Conn across the room snapping his spine on a table.\nVikteren rushes over to Urtho and tries to help as much as he could until Tamsin and Cinnabar come in to help.\nUrtho tells Skan of a device he has created that will kill Ma\'ar.\nSkan takes the device and leaves.\nSkan goes to Snowstar, an old mage, and has him open a gate into a safe place in the palace.\nSnowstar tells him that he has a good idea of a place that would have no guards directly in it.\nSkan goes through and ends up in a stable.\nWhen he exits from the room he was gated into, he finds Kechara, who was kidnapped by Conn Levas, and a bag containing Aubri.\nThey all go through a secret passage into the palace.\nMeanwhile, Urtho has decided that he will try to convince Ma\'ar to attack him in the tower.\nUrtho knew he was dying and that if he died and Ma\'ar happened to be there then he\'d die as well.\nUrtho opens a gate and starts taunting Ma\'ar enticing him to come fight.\nWhile Urtho is doing this, Kechara, Skan, and Aubri come into the room from the secret passage surprising Ma\'ar.\nSkan sets the device and Kechara flies towards Urtho, with Aubri and Skan right behind her.\nAubri gets stuck in the gate until Skan pushes him through.\nUrtho closes the gate and asks "why they went to Ma\'ar like that".\nSkan just blushes and Urtho tells them that they don\'t have much time.\nSkan asks him if he can open a gate into the land where they were to evacuate to, and Urtho says he will try.\nThe people who have evacuated see an explosion in the distance, signaling the death of Urtho.\nAt the same time, a gate opens and Kechara and Aubri pop out.\nThe gate begins collapsing on itself and Aubri tells them that Skan is still inside.\nVikteren holds the gate open long enough for Skan to make through, but he does not appear as the once Black Gryphon, but as the White Gryphon.\nAfter the collapse of the gate, the mages have to put up shields to protect the people because of the mage storm created due to the death of both Ma\'ar and Urtho.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Swap the first and the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: \nAfter the collapse of the gate, the mages have to put up shields to protect the people because of the mage storm created due to the death of both Ma\'ar and Urtho.\nA Seer has warned Urtho of a new, magical weapon that has caused the capture of one of Urtho\'s key garrisons.\nSkan grabs one of the weapons and leaves, hotly pursued by makaar, creatures created by Kiyamvir Ma\'ar to match Urtho\'s gryphons.\nAfter a long chase, Skan crash-lands in friendly territory.\nMeanwhile, in Urtho\'s camp, Kestra\'chern Amberdrake and Gesten, a hertasi, are waiting for the return of their friend Skan.\nDrake is sitting in the surgery tent in the area where the Healers live and work, when a seriously injured Skan is carried in.\nWhile Skan is recovering in the Healer\'s tent, Urtho makes a visit to his friend and "son".\nHe tells Skan that the weapon has been analyzed and that a counter to this weapon is already being created.\nUrtho then offers to give Skan a reward for his work, his choice in a mate and the ability to make offspring.\nSkan tells him that he will think on this matter.\nDuring Urtho\'s visit, a commanding officer of Urtho\'s army appears and asks for a moment of Urtho\'s time.\nHe would like Urtho to reward another gryphon for her ability to take on three makaar, single-handedly.\nSkan is immediately interested in meeting this female and demands that she be brought to the tent.\nThe commander brings in a timid and shy gryphon named Zhaneel.\nAfter her account of the battle with the makaar, Urtho rewards her with a coin that can be traded for any service around the area.\nSkan suggests that she use her coin for the services of Amberdrake, because Skan believes that Drake is the only one that can help her get past her shyness.\nSkan is also furious with the trondi\'irn, person that takes care and heals the non-human creatures fighting for Urtho, that takes care of Zhaneel for letting her get so bad in the first place.\nMeanwhile, Amberdrake is dealing with his own problems with a particular client.\nConn Levas, a mage mercenary, is using some of his built up coins to pay for Drake\'s service.\nThe real reason that Conn Levas is visiting a kestra\'chern is to make his lover, Winterhart, jealous.\nAmberdrake being the skilled kestra\'chern that he is does not say anything to Levas, but secretly is very upset with this mage for using him in such a way.\nAlso, he wonders about this Winterhart, because of her relationship with this man in the begin with.\nWhile Skan is still recuperating, another gryphon is brought in to be healed.\nAubri is an old gryphon from the sixth wing, the same wing as Zhaneel.\nAubri did some scouting while on leave because Shaiknam refused to believe or double check a report of a fire flinger.\nHe comes out of the skirmish badly burned.\nAt first the hertasi, lizard-like creatures used to forage and help with certain problems, are helping to heal Aubri, but the trondi\'irn for the sixth wing, Winterhart, walks in and tells them that Shaiknam and Garber have ordered them to work only with uninjured personnel.\nThe treatment of the hertasi, leads to Gesten getting involved and fixing the problem.\nWinterhart\'s appearance is not a welcome sight, especially for Skan.\nSkan does not know who this is, but he knows she is the trondi\'irn is the same for Zhaneel.\nAlso, he does not like the way she completely ignored him as though he were just some brainless animal.\nCinnabar and Tamsin are the only things that stop Skan from physically harming Winterhart.\nWinterhart is callous, but she also knows how to heal a fallen gryphon.\nZhaneel\'s visit with Amberdrake did not go according to Drake\'s plans.\nDrake assumed a female gryphon would want a feather painting session in order to make herself more desirable to a male gryphon.\nAfter meeting Zhaneel, Drake realizes that this "gryfalcon," would need a boost in confidence.\nHe suggested that she take her "flaws" and use them as advantages.\nHe encourages her to use her hands for things that a human usually would.\nShe takes his advice and creates her own training course.\nWith the help of Gesten, Amberdrake\'s hertasi, and Vikteren, a mage, she develops a training course with many traps and dangers.\nAs Zhaneel continues her training, many of the other gryphons, humans, and non-humans begin showing up to watch her.\nAt the same time, Garber, the second in command of the sixth wing, has learned of Zhaneel\'s training and has decided that Winterhart needs to go put a stop to it.\nWinterhart confronts Zhaneel stating, "You (Zhaneel) had no orders and no permission", but Winterhart is caught off guard when the normally quiet Zhaneel stands up and shrills, "Orders.\nI am on leave time.\nThese who help me are off-duty.\nWhat need have we of orders, of permissions.\nAre we to request leave to piss now.\n" After Zhaneel\'s attack on Winterhart, Skan joins the attack as well, before Winterhart is finally asked by Zhaneel to speak in private.\nMeanwhile, Shaiknam and Garber have really messed up their positions.\nWhile in battle, many of the mages of the sixth wing used so much magic that they were put into a coma.\nThe only way for them to come out of the coma alive was to be sent to a healer, unfortunately, Shaiknam said they were just being lazy and left them to die where they lay.\nDue to Shaiknam\'s callousness, the mages called for a meeting with Urtho.\nThey demanded that either Shaiknam went, or they would.\nDuring this time, Vikteren declares that he is a Master Mage and that he would have a vote in the matter.\nAlso, the reason that most gryphons continued to fight was because Urtho controlled their ability to mate and have children.\nUpon learning of this, Vikteren, Amberdrake, Tamsin, Cinnabar and Skan decide that the gryphon\'s should make those decisions for themselves.\nVikteren gives Amberdrake a set of "mage keys" that will unlock any mage locking spells.\nWhile Urtho is away dealing with the mages, Amberdrake, Cinnabar, Tamsin, and Skandranon, go up into Urtho\'s tower and seek out the formula for gryphon mating.\nWhile Skandranon is in the library, he senses another gryphon.\nDue to Skan\'s curious nature he uses the key to unlock a door protected by a special mage lock.\nBehind the door, Skan discovers models of all the different types of gryphons floating in the air.\nThen he senses another gryphon in the room.\nKechara a "misborn" gryphon is kept in the room because of her deformities.\nShe is childish in nature, and has wings that are too large for her body.\nShe attacks Skan at first, but after a while they start talking and Skan learns a lot about her and she recognizes his form among the models in the sky.\nSkan realizes he must leave, but promises Kechara that he will return some day.\nAfter the confrontation with Zhaneel, Winterhart is sent to see Amberdrake.\nAmberdrake heals a back injury she sustained while helping an injured gryphon some time ago.\nWhile he is helping with her physical injuries, he is learning of the new feelings that she is experiencing due to Zhaneel\'s outspokenness.\nWinterhart had set herself up to believe that just because they were animals, gryphons were unintelligent and only good for taking orders.\nShe also starts questioning her relationship with Conn Levas, and her allegiance to Shaiknam and Garber.\nCinnabar and Tamsin begin working on the understanding of the gryphon mating process.\nWhen Skan arrives they inform him that they had figured out how gryphons could have children and it did not even need magic.\nThe females would have to fast for two days and then gorge themselves on food the day before the mating flight.\nThe male gryphons would need to spend two days in a very cold climate in order for their seed to become active.\nSkan is at first angry at Urtho for keeping this hidden from the gryphons, because he believes Urtho only did it to control the gryphons.\nThe real reason that Urtho gave in his book: "Too often have I seen human parents who were too young, too unstable, or otherwise unfit or unready for children produce child after doomed, mistreated child.\nI will have none of this for these, my gryphons.\nBy watching them, and then training others what to watch for, I can discover which pairings are loving and stable, which would-be parents have the patience and understanding to \'be\' parents.\nAnd in this way, perhaps my creations will have a happier start in life than most of the humans around them.\nWhile I may not be an expert in such things, I have at least learned how to observe the actions of others, and experience may give me an edge in judging which couples are ready for little ones.\nThose who desire children must not bring them into our dangerous world out of a wish for a replica of themselves, a creature to mold and control, a way to achieve what they could not, or the need for something that will offer unconditional love.\nFor that, they must look elsewhere and most likely into themselves".\nSkan begins spreading the information that has been obtained of the mating formula.\nHe also begins training on Zhaneel\'s training course, another attempt to get close to the interesting gryfalcon.\nWith the information gathered by Skan on his trip at the beginning, Urtho has created a box that can diffuse the weapons of Ma\'ar.\nWith her special hands, Zhaneel is chosen to fly this box into the battle.\nAmberdrake plans a "victory" feast for Zhaneel\'s return from her first mission.\nHe invites Skan and Zhaneel, but doesn\'t tell either of them that the other was invited.\nAfter the celebration, Skan talks with Zhaneel and they learn of their mutual feeling for one another.\nThere is a huge battle, and many are injured.\nHealers and trondi\'irns are rushing around trying to heal hundreds of injured creatures and humans.\nAmberdrake is brought into the healing also and ends up over-exerting himself in the healing.\nCinnabar at one point helps Winterhart to heal a gryphon.\nCinnabar tells her that all in all she is starting to look much better, and that all she lacked now was to get rid of Conn Levas.\nCinnabar then calls Winterhart, Reanna.\nReanna was at one time a lady of the High King\'s palace.\nCinnabar suggests that Winterhart tell Amberdrake of her true name and history.\nAfter their talk, Winterhart is laying in her tent relaxing after the hours of healing.\nConn Levas comes by and Winterhart pretends to sleep so that he\'ll go away without getting what he really wanted from her.\nAfter his departure, she sees a shadow around her tent and recognizes it as Amberdrake.\nShe calls him inside and they relax together.\nWinterhart confesses to her true name and why she had been hiding the entire time.\nAmberdrake reveals to Winterhart that Ma\'ar had implanted a device that threw off negative energy causing those without shields to have a large amount of fear.\nIt was too late for the king because he was already dead, but Urtho sent Skan to retrieve the device and destroy it.\nThis revelation of the events caused by Ma\'ar, helps Winterhart to understand that it is not her fault that she deserted the palace in its time of greatest need.\nDuring this time, more battles are fought and the general consensus is that Urtho is losing.\nConn confronts Winterhart and says some demeaning things about her.\nShe later goes to Amberdrake to talk and he finally confesses his feelings to her.\nShaiknam and Garber are put back into command of the Sixth Wing because of the assassination of the commander that replaced them.\nAfter they are put back into position, the gryphons decide that they will revolt and Skan is left with the task of telling Urtho.\nTo Skan\'s surprise, Urtho already knows of the gryphon revolt.\nUrtho still believes that he can control the gryphons because he is the only one holding the secret to their mating abilities.\nSkan surprises him by telling him that the gryphons have learned how to have their own children, but it\'s out of respect and love to him that keeps them in his services.\nAfter the revelation that the gryphons knew how to reproduce, Skan explains the reason for revolting against Shaiknam and Garber.\nAfter looking at the map, Urtho determines that Shaiknam is a fool, and Urtho will split the non-humans among the other commanders.\nUrtho also surprises Skan by assigning Skan to be the commander of the gryphons and to report to Urtho.\nUrtho reveals to Skan the plan to evacuate the area, as a matter of fact some families have already been evacuated from the city.\nSkan also tells Urtho that he saw the models and met Kechara.\nWe find out that Kechara was being kept in the tower because she is a very powerful Mindspeaker.\nSkan requests that Urtho give Kechara to Zhaneel and himself.\nAll noncombatants were evacuated along with several of Urtho\'s artifacts and books.\nOn the last day, there is a battle.\nAubri is circling the field heading back to his position when he notices the people of the Sixth Wing backing out and allowing Ma\'ar\'s forces into the land.\nAubri sees the tent that Shaiknam and Garber use, and he listens into a conversation between Shaiknam, Garber, and an unknown person, who later turns out to be Conn Levas.\nAubri is captured and given to Ma\'ar\'s forces.\nConn Levas goes to the tower to have a meeting with Urtho.\nConn Levas walks in and throws Miranda thorns, a very deadly device created by Ma\'ar.\nSkan and Vikteren are fetched by a hertasi and Skan complains to the hertasi as to why he left Urtho alone with Conn Levas.\nWhen the doors are opened, Skan sees the shape that Urtho is in and using a single talon he rips Conn Levas\' throat open and on the backhand of the original slash sends Conn across the room snapping his spine on a table.\nVikteren rushes over to Urtho and tries to help as much as he could until Tamsin and Cinnabar come in to help.\nUrtho tells Skan of a device he has created that will kill Ma\'ar.\nSkan takes the device and leaves.\nSkan goes to Snowstar, an old mage, and has him open a gate into a safe place in the palace.\nSnowstar tells him that he has a good idea of a place that would have no guards directly in it.\nSkan goes through and ends up in a stable.\nWhen he exits from the room he was gated into, he finds Kechara, who was kidnapped by Conn Levas, and a bag containing Aubri.\nThey all go through a secret passage into the palace.\nMeanwhile, Urtho has decided that he will try to convince Ma\'ar to attack him in the tower.\nUrtho knew he was dying and that if he died and Ma\'ar happened to be there then he\'d die as well.\nUrtho opens a gate and starts taunting Ma\'ar enticing him to come fight.\nWhile Urtho is doing this, Kechara, Skan, and Aubri come into the room from the secret passage surprising Ma\'ar.\nSkan sets the device and Kechara flies towards Urtho, with Aubri and Skan right behind her.\nAubri gets stuck in the gate until Skan pushes him through.\nUrtho closes the gate and asks "why they went to Ma\'ar like that".\nSkan just blushes and Urtho tells them that they don\'t have much time.\nSkan asks him if he can open a gate into the land where they were to evacuate to, and Urtho says he will try.\nThe people who have evacuated see an explosion in the distance, signaling the death of Urtho.\nAt the same time, a gate opens and Kechara and Aubri pop out.\nThe gate begins collapsing on itself and Aubri tells them that Skan is still inside.\nVikteren holds the gate open long enough for Skan to make through, but he does not appear as the once Black Gryphon, but as the White Gryphon.The Black Gryphon: As the book begins, Skandranon Rashkae, the Black Gryphon, creeps into an enemy encampment.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: the first four paragraphs for this book. End with the sentence ' She bade Aubri and Skan a polite farewell, instructed Calla and Rio to stay with Tamsin to review the rest of the patients from Shaiknam's command, and only then stalked off.'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Black Gryphon
  Skan laughed aloud at that. "I would say that Shaiknam is living proof that intelligence can skip entire generations."
  Cinnabar's lips twitched, and her eyes gleamed with amusement. "Well, as proof that the so-observant Skandranon is right, this is the latest of Shaiknam's orders—that 'hertasi of convalescing personnel are to be immediately reassigned to tasks of more immediate importance.' That is why I brought Calla and Rio; right, little friends?"
  She looked down fondly on the two hertasi, who gave her toothy grins. "Let some fool from Sixth Wing East come in here and try ordering us about," said Rio who, like his fellow, was clearly clad in the personal colors of Lady Cinnabar's retinue. "We'll send him out of here with boxed ears."
  But she never, ever, forgot courtesy, even when most angry. She bade Aubri and Skan a polite farewell, instructed Calla and Rio to stay with Tamsin to review the rest of the patients from Shaiknam's command, and only then stalked off.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: four more paragraphs
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: He watched them for a moment, trying to pick out a smart one, then chose a clever little fellow whose colors of red and black with vivid blue streaks in his hackles made him easy to see at a distance. He whistled to it and leaned down to extend his hand, sending it a little tendril of comforting thought to attract it. The bird hopped onto his outstretched hand with no sign of fear and waited for his orders, cocking its head sideways to look at him.
  That last was a fairly common order, when someone wanted to know what was going on in another part of the camp. The birds could recall and repeat several sentences, and the odds were good that at least one of those sentences would give some idea of what was happening at a distant location. And if it didn't—well you could send the bird back to eavesdrop some more.
  The bird flew off, lumbering away rather like a beetle. They weren't strong flyers, and they were fairly noisy about it; their wings whirred with the effort of keeping their plump little bodies aloft, and they usually chirped or screeched as they flew. So if you didn't want anyone to know what you were about, you had plenty of warning before you actually saw a messenger-bird arrive to snoop. But many people made pets of specific birds, as much for their engaging personalities and clownish antics as for their usefulness, so you had to really go to an extraordinary amount of effort to avoid them.
  There would, without a doubt, be hundreds of birds waiting at the gryphons' landing field. Although it was supposed to be something of a secret that the Sixth Wing was going to try to retake Stelvi Pass, enough people knew that the area would look as if the birds had learned of a major sunseed spill there. That was the discreet way of learning about something the outcome of which was supposed to be a secret; send a bird to watch, rather than looking around yourself.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: the last five paragraphs. End with the sentence ' And forever, in the hearts of all the Clans, there would be Urtho—and for his memory, a moment of silence.'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Amberdrake's vision cleared after much blinking and eye-rubbing, and lying before them was Skandranon—shocked senseless, and no longer as he—was. The elegant black form they had known was thinner and bleached to snow-white, but it was unmistakably Skandranon.
  Then there was no time to think of anything, as the Eastern horizon erupted with fire—again. And for some reason Amberdrake could not understand, he could feel the death, far away, of the Mage of Silence, content that his people, including those he loved most, were safe at last.
  They had just enough time—barely—to establish their shields before the double mage-storm hit. The worst effects lasted from before dawn to sunset. But their preparations held, and they all emerged from shelter to find a blood-red sun sinking over a deceptively normal landscape.
  Normal—until you noticed the places where trees had been flattened; where strange little energy-fields danced over warped and twisted cairns of half-melted rocks. Normal—until night fell, and did not bring darkness, but an odd half-light, full of wisps of glowing fog and dancing balls of luminescence.
  Amberdrake smiled and held his beloved. No matter what tears were shed or what trials were faced, some things would stay the same. There would always be day and night, stars and sky, hope and rest. There would always be love, always compassion, and there would always be Skandranon. And forever, in the hearts of all the Clans, there would be Urtho—and for his memory, a moment of silence.