Ummm, this may be bugged now, but when I died in Firemyst I was able to click on the zone line and an option to retrieve my shard came up.
Can't remember if it was right-click or double-click or what.
I was also ungrouped at the time I did that (wee, Antonica crashes), so maybe you'll need to be solo in order to get the option. Try it out and let us know the results. =)
PS. I'd do it myself, but just got the game and still on the island lol
Edit add: Oh yeah, to answer the second question. Certain instanced zones in EQ2 have time limits and group size limits for entering them. Firemyst requires a group of 3-6 and you can only enter once every 8 hours, at least in beta.
Edited, Sun Nov 14 02:54:42 2004 by terdap