A few days passed while I came to grips with Kineta\u2019s sudden departure.\u00a0 I was pretty sure I understood what it all meant, but as I didn\u2019t really have any answers I just decided to abide by her decision and hope that I would indeed see her again.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
During that time, people of all sorts started to arrive at Addaweyr\u2019s camp.\u00a0 Even a couple I recognized \u2013 Shalvar, captain of the Waves of Grass,<\/em> cropped up the day after Lion\u2019s Lunge <\/em>vanished.\u00a0 (Ha-ha, get it? Grass?\u00a0 Cropped? Forgive me the need for a little levity.)\u00a0 He seemed outwardly pleased to see me, which I hoped meant inwardly too.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why he would have been traveling away from his wife, but he wouldn\u2019t give me the details, just reassurance that we\u2019d all discuss it later.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He arrived in the company of a particularly tall Fey woman, who wile appearing Eladrin, was far too tall to be a member of that race.\u00a0 She was probably eight feed if she was an inch, all slender and graceful.\u00a0 Her face constantly shone, as though sunlight kept its eye trained on her wherever she went.\u00a0 Even at night, she had some sort of glow to her.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nemmy was right \u2013 a few days after I arrived, the rest of Fellbane stumbled in our of the darkness.\u00a0 One of Addaweyr\u2019s number retrieved me after their arrival, and brought me to them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As it turned out, the prophecy of their trial was true \u2013 which didn\u2019t convince me that prophecies are a good thing, ironic as that sounds.\u00a0 Sered had fallen to an onslaught of undead things in the strange temple they had been in, but Morin\u2019s ritual abilities had granted him a reprieve and returned him to the Middle World.\u00a0 He was still a bit ragged from the scrape with death, but seemed relatively himself in spite of it.\u00a0 He seemed the most changed of all of them, something about him seemed more driven, somehow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dayereth Dust had turned.\u00a0 The rogue Morvreyan had, at the last, thrown his lot in with the demon Princess that exerted ownership of that place, rather than provoke a fight between her and the rest of the group.\u00a0 From what they told me, it was his action \u2013 motivated by self-interest and a license for power, as much as anything \u2013 that saved them all.\u00a0 Strange that he, who had forsaken the College of Morvrey and its brutality, should sign on with a creature of raw destruction.\u00a0 But then, perhaps in doing so he demonstrated himself more truly a student of their teachings than any of them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The rest were about as I expected them \u2013 Deimos, Karac, Dray, Morin, they each had new scars, but by and large they were still the companions I knew.\u00a0 We spent the first evening with me listening to their story of fighting their way to the Dark Crucible beneath the Earth\u2019s Boil.\u00a0 Chasing the Preserver as he barreled head-long into the dark, and discovering at the end that not only had he failed to claim the prize he sought, but had himself become an undead slave of the spirit beneath the place.\u00a0 In return, I gave a recounting of my adventures with Lion\u2019s Lunge<\/em>, our trip to the City of Brass and the Overspill Market, and my almost-rescue of them a few days past.\u00a0 Theirs seemed somehow the less comfortable road, though I would be hard-pressed to objectively gauge one as inherently more difficult than the other.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The day following their return, a few of us consulted Vizrith, ruler of Spiderwatch, sending a missive down the tunnels that formerly belonged to Veyd\u2019s trolls to reach the small dunkel community beneath Shard Keep.\u00a0 Vizrith still ruled the place, which in my book demonstrated a cunning that took the usual deep-elf paranoia to a completely different level.\u00a0 Either he had eyes in the back of his head, or he was completely prescient.\u00a0 I may be slightly prejudiced, but I can\u2019t imagine a dunkel town with the same leader for longer than a year.\u00a0 Too many ways to attract the wrong kind of attention, and with that, it\u2019d all be over.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yet he continued to survive.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Within hours of our sending the message on, the response came back to meet him at a small broken farmhouse, one we\u2019d used before as a meeting point \u2013 well, one that they<\/em> had used before, as it predated my arrival.\u00a0 Fellbane had used this house when Veyd still ruled the city, and they required a clandestine place to rest.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We found ourselves at the place well after dark.\u00a0 Of course there were no lights beyond what we carried for ourselves \u2013 I hadn\u2019t really discussed my lack of a need for light with the rest of Fellbane yet, but I\u2019m sure sooner or later it\u2019d come up.\u00a0 Meanwhile, it didn\u2019t hurt me to have them carry light sources, so I didn\u2019t complain.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We waited for perhaps five minutes, before the dunkel rose up out of the grasses surrounding the house.\u00a0 Like shades rising from disturbed graves they appeared from the darkness, standing up slow and gracefully.\u00a0 We had probably walked past at least two of them, and I was mildly surprised that we hadn\u2019t simply tripped over one or more.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Regardless, Vizrith was at their head.\u00a0 He did not approach closer, but instead addressed us from where he stood.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou sought to find me?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sered chose to take the lead on this one.\u00a0 \u201cYes, we did.\u201d\u00a0 He coughed a little.\u00a0 \u201cWe wish to know how our presence will be received in Shard Keep if we make ourselves known.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHow should I know?\u00a0 I only trade with your surface-dwellers.\u00a0 I do not \u2018chum around\u2019 with them.\u201d\u00a0 A few of his comrades laughed with the sibilant hisses that the dunkel use.\u00a0 I suppose it must be a cultural phenomenon.\u00a0 Elves of a normal sort laugh, albeit softly, but the elves of the deep places put no voice into it, letting the air escape them in the same manner that steam escapes a pot.\u00a0 Perhaps they emulate the spiders they worship, whose breath is expressed through a voiceless throat attached to a lung that resembles nothing so much as a book.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ah well, another fact I was likely never to learn.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou may not speak with them, but I have never known you to be uninformed of the goings-on above as well as beneath your lands.\u201d\u00a0 Sered left the barb unsaid \u2013 if Visrith continued to deny knowledge, he would be ignorant of important intelligence regarding a potential threat to his budding nation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And ignorance of any sort in a dunkel community often led to a death sentence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOf course I have information, blue-skin.\u00a0 But did you think I would offer it freely when it obviously has value to you, however intangible?\u00a0 Never give away what can be sold, as my mother used to say.\u201d\u00a0 He grinned widely, the white teeth showing brightly in his ashen face.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBut did she ever tell you that a gift once given returns tenfold?\u201d\u00a0 Sered completed the rhyme.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cShe must have died before she had a chance to tell me that part, my friend.\u201d\u00a0 More hissing laughter around.\u00a0 \u201cFor all our caution, sometimes our people can be prone to fatal accidents.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThen perhaps this will loosen the strings on your wallet of information,\u201d Sered tossed over a small flickering object.\u00a0 A gem of some sort, I was fairly sure.\u00a0 It vanished a short distance away from Visrith, who flicked his hand out to retrieve it from the air.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAh yes, it is all coming back to me now,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cIn answer to the question you want to ask but haven\u2019t the courage, no, they won\u2019t kill you.\u00a0 However, there are eyes up there that aren\u2019t mine, and questions asked that say you might be wiser to keep your visiting time limited.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAnd what of Dark Fellbane?\u00a0 How do they fare?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhy not ask them yourselves, since you seem to be intent on paying a visit?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBecause you are here, and they are not.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cVery well.\u00a0 They are lighter by two members, recently.\u00a0 I have not had the concern to pay attention to which ones or under what circumstances.\u00a0 They returned from an expedition, heavily laden with treasures, but with two of their number gone.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI see.\u00a0 Thank you, Visrith, for the exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYour coin, and other goods, are always welcome,\u201d he bowed.\u00a0 When he stood, the others of his party had already vanished, disappearing before I realized I hadn\u2019t been paying attention to them.\u00a0 I really needed a dog or something, that kind of inattention was likely to get me killed one day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sered bowed in return, and stood, coughing slightly again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou want a cane, or a crutch, there?\u201d\u00a0 I asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cUp yours,\u201d came the reply.\u00a0 I did see Morin crack a smile, though, so my humor wasn\u2019t completely lost.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On the evening of the second day from their return, Addaweyr called everyone together in the clearing for a joint council.\u00a0 A wide variety of individuals were present \u2013 most of the remaining Jessil Kerith, representatives of the Sestus Wyr, and the Al-Kabeth among them \u2013 as well as the members of Fellbane.\u00a0 There were not so many this time, perhaps eight others besides us, so I assumed this meet was at least semi-private.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I saw the strange fey Lady again, standing in the back against the trees, flanked by two people who might have passed as trees themselves.\u00a0 But where she was a full oak, these two almost appeared as small saplings, their remarkably-thin limbs moving at unnatural angles.\u00a0 Bright eyes \u2013 not glowing, but reflecting the firelight \u2013 shone out from the two, observing everyone with something like caution.\u00a0 I have to admit it was hard to tell\u2026reading emotions on Lotonna\u2019s furry face was hard enough; I didn\u2019t even know if animate vegetation had<\/em> feelings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Addaweyr started the meeting after turning back to everyone from the Lady.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cCourtesy of our friends of Fellbane,\u201d he began, \u201cwe have the completed Gaulus Prophecies in our possession.\u00a0 The originals have been stored, and in many cases committed to memory.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He looked up to us, eyes scanning our rank.\u00a0 \u201cWe have divined and interpreted a good deal of them, but we know such actions are imprecise.\u00a0 That said, we find out original suspicions of the circumstances playing out around us further confirmed.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n His eyes fell to an older man, who nodded and withdrew a dual-pinned scroll from his robes.\u00a0 He pulled the right pin to the side, unrolling the scroll from the left.\u00a0 This man spoke, and a weariness played out in his voice that betrayed a great many sleepless nights spent poring over tomes and scrolls that had gone unread for centuries.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe lands of the Middle World are a battlefield,\u201d he intoned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTell me something I don\u2019t know,\u201d Karac muttered.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The old man didn\u2019t look up, just continued.\u00a0 \u201cAnd they are also farmland.\u00a0 The powers we call gods, entities of the Astral Sea\u2019s boundless tides, ages ago saw the value of the peoples here.\u00a0 When the Primordials created these lands and scattered the living upon them, the gods drew power from the attentions of them.\u00a0 What we call worship, or reverence, has material value to a god.\u00a0 So it was with selfish intent that the gods began and eventually won the Dawn War.\u00a0 Rather than let the Primordials destroy the Middle World, they instead seized it for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOver the ages, the gods settled into their roles, creating mantles for themselves to capture more worship \u2013 and to refine it, enhance its quality.\u00a0 Thus did they take on aspects of love, death, war, and so on. These things, which call for our reverence, they now to a greater or lesser extent, control and manipulate.\u201d\u00a0 He rolled a bit of the document across from one pin to another.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOkay, didn\u2019t know that.\u201d\u00a0 Karac sounded peeved.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe Primordials, on the other hand, are beings of living element \u2013 and they lost a great measure of their power when the gods took it from them.\u00a0 They were stopped from taking it back into themselves by the Dawn War.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhere\u2019s he going with this?\u201d\u00a0 Deimos asked quietly.\u00a0 I shrugged.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSince then, a rough status quo has existed, one the gods encourage and one the Primordials must abide.\u00a0 Some Primordials, corrupted by the evil nature of the Abyss, and known to us as demons, have learned not only to live with the status quo, but to thrive in it.\u00a0 One such plague is Orcus, demon prince of the undead.\u00a0 He strives to assume godhead, to place himself at the end of all that lives and capture every living soul \u2013 and its worship \u2013 for himself.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPleasant thought,\u201d Karac continued.\u00a0 Sered made shushing motions with his hand, to which Karac responded with an affirmative.\u00a0 Of course, that affirmation came in the form of a raised middle finger, so it was difficult to determine the level of sincerity behind it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAs well, one god, who ironically demonstrated that Orcus\u2019 plan had merit \u2013 that a creature not of the gods could join their number \u2013 has a similar plan, one to eventually eclipse all other gods, and to dominate the Elemental Chaos as well.\u00a0 Asmodeus, Lord of the Ruby Rod, Crown Prince of Nessus, and King of the Hells, sets himself upon a course that competes with Orcus.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFor thousands of generations, Asmodeus focused his intent upon the Elemental Chaos, having led his armies to victory in the Dawn War.\u00a0 He assumed that without the Primordials free to roam and defend their home plane, he could defeat the occupants and install himself as the de facto<\/em> King of the Elements.\u00a0 This would seal for him the entirety of creation by harnessing that which is creation itself.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He rolled more of the scroll out.\u00a0 \u201cThat plan, it seems, has failed.\u00a0 What we know as the Blood War<\/em> has either paused or halted entirely with the withdrawal of Hell\u2019s forces towards the end of the First Age.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe has since re-focused his goals.\u00a0 As the Ruby Lord is denied the option to visit war upon the Middle World directly, his fiends and infernals are sent to our world at the invite of members of the living.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Karac glared at me. \u201cWhat?\u201d I asked.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t look at me, I didn\u2019t call them here.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMaybe not, but you look like you did,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAnd you look like you dropped out of the ass end of a horse, but I don\u2019t spread you on crops,\u201d I countered.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWould you two please just shut up?!?\u201d Sered hissed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The old man continued, seemingly oblivious to our exchange.\u00a0 \u201cOnce here, they corrupt those dealing with them, turning them into puppets, and inviting more of their kind.\u00a0 So long as they are invited, they may act freely within the bounds of their invitation.\u00a0 The world has always been infested with them, but since the Blood War drew to a halt, many of those who come have a new intent.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOrcus follows a similar course \u2013 he offers power, and ultimately corrupts those who receive it.\u00a0 Each one, infernal and demon, sees the Middle World as a field of resources to be won and owned.\u00a0 The worship of the living to enhance their power, and the souls of the dead to feed Orcus and his minions, or to serve Asmodeus and ultimately be consumed by his infernal engines , which will remanufacture the Lattice of Heaven in a structure that serves him.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe two have fought across this ground for ages.\u00a0 The empires of Bael Turath, Bael Nerath, and others as far back in time as there is history, have all been corrupted to serve the Ruby Lord.\u00a0 The fall of these empires, the Morrigu Invasion, the legend of the Plague of Spellfire, these were times dominated by the demons.\u00a0 We, the living, have eternally been pawns of the two forces.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat of the other gods?\u00a0 Surely they played some role in all of this,\u201d Sered asked him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTo the best of our knowledge,\u201d the old man responded, \u201cNone of the gods had the military wherewithal or the determination to field an army upon the surface of this world.\u00a0 Their worship remains largely unchanged regardless of which of the two wins, so there is little incentive for them to intervene.\u00a0 Only in the greatest of trial, which is almost invariably when the demons possess too much of an upper hand, do they step in \u2013 and then it is to assist Asmodeus against his enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWell, this is all quite uplifting,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cWhen can I get off the wheel, please?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The old man held up a hand.\u00a0 \u201cAll these things have gone before, and without action, they will come again.\u00a0 Until recently.\u00a0 The Gaulus Prophecies throw this eternal conflict into a new light.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHow so?\u201d\u00a0 Sered asked cautiously.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Addaweyr stood.\u00a0 \u201cWe believe that there is a chance to end this cycle, to break the conflict here in the Middle World, and that the Gaulus Prophecies show us the way.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Was there any part of my life that was not<\/em> subject to some form of prophecy?\u00a0 I tried to avoid thinking about it, since that only led me down a path to depression.\u00a0 Bad enough that Kineta was gone, I didn\u2019t need to add to my misery with yet another problem.\u00a0 Particularly one as nebulous as a prophecy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOh, so we\u2019d be taking the word of a drugged-up medium trying to impress us with his command of the nothings and zilches?\u201d\u00a0 Karac didn\u2019t mutter this one.\u00a0 I had to agree, in spite of myself.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d came a voice from behind.\u00a0 The lady had spoken, but I hadn\u2019t seen her move.\u00a0 \u201cYou don\u2019t take anyone\u2019s word with prophecy.\u00a0 Prophecy is a guidestone, not a manual of instruction.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Addaweyr half turned, making a presenting motion with his arm and bowing slightly.\u00a0 \u201cAllow me to introduce the Lady Syntira, of the Court of Stars.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat brings you to this gathering, Lady?\u201d\u00a0 I asked.\u00a0 \u201cThe Court rarely shares an interest in the affairs of the Middle World.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe land of the Fey is a mirror of your Middle World.\u00a0 What transpires here is reflected there, and often the reverse is true.\u00a0 Would we invite the dominance of an Infernal or demonic ruler to color our lands with its taint?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Can\u2019t fault that logic.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAs a result of the finding and interpretation of the Gaulus Prophecy, we felt it was time to take the situation a little more\u2026gravely,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cAnd to what extent that involvement shall take, remains to be seen.\u00a0 As a start, my arrival tonight and the assistance I am prepared to deliver is an appropriate beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Addaweyr nodded.\u00a0 \u201cPerhaps it\u2019s time we went over the prophecy,\u201d he offered.\u00a0 \u201cIt would be good to get everyone at least aware of where we have drawn our conclusions, and solicit additional input.\u00a0 Fellbane may very well have insights into this that we do not.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At that moment, through the brush, the sound of harsh swearing came out of the darkness behind me.\u00a0 Several of us turned, and the conversation paused while the source of the noise revealed itself.\u00a0 After a moment of crashing brush, Morin stumbled into the clearing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He brushed various thorns and thistles off his coat, and gave the tree beside him a good kick.\u00a0 \u201cOkay, next time someone put up a sign or some damn thing.\u00a0 Stone and bone, at least underground we put up freaking signs.\u201d\u00a0 He looked up and saw most of us watching him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWell, get on with the damn thing, whatever it is.\u00a0 I\u2019m fine.\u00a0 Signs.\u00a0 You people need signs.\u00a0 Blasted trees.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lady Syntira bowed her head slightly, then turned to the old seer.\u00a0 \u201cTherous, please grace us with the text,\u201d she said quietly.\u00a0 \u201cOne verse at a time, please,\u201d she added.\u00a0 The old man \u2013 Therous, I supposed \u2013 put away his scroll and drew out another.\u00a0 Addaweyr offered him a cup, from which he drank a little, quietly thanking him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He began, his voice slightly stronger.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWrack & Game\u2019s ruin<\/p>\n Lit by Hell\u2019s spiral flame<\/p>\n Carved souls of petty Knights<\/p>\n Jousting the Ruby Rod\u2019s game\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Addaweyr waved about the circle.\u00a0 \u201cWe believe this to mean the nature of the conflict that continues across the lands, Wrack and ruin being the demonic outcomes, of course Hell\u2019s spiral flame and Ruby Rod referring to Asmodeus and his part in all this.\u00a0 Carved souls of petty Knights would simply be his pawns.\u00a0 But jousting?\u00a0 We don\u2019t know why that\u2019s referred to, or what the spiral flame is, if anything.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He motioned to Therous.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPinions of feathers spin on golden rings<\/p>\n Holding red eyes high aloft<\/p>\n Black Pawns and fell\u2019s dark bane<\/p>\n and treason\u2019s twice cost\u201d\u00a0 Therous sipped at his cup.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lady Syntira held up her hand, palm up.\u00a0 \u201cPinions of feathers we believe refers to Glasya and the rings being the Rings of Akharot her agents have collected.\u00a0 Black pawns, we cannot be sure, but it perhaps refers to Seven\u2019s Ring, and fell\u2019s dark bane we assume means all of you,\u201d she pointed across at us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOr\u2026\u201d I mused, \u201c\u2026perhaps it means our counterparts, who call themselves Dark Fellbane, who have recently slain two of their own for harboring secret allegiance to the College of Morvrey.\u00a0 That would seem to fit.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Addaweyr looked sharply over at us.\u00a0 \u201cWe weren\u2019t aware they called themselves this.\u00a0 We thought you were all Fellbane,\u201d he looked over at Lady Syntira, who expressed a tiny shred of surprise \u2013 the first emotion I\u2019d seen to date.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sered didn\u2019t even look at me.\u00a0 \u201cIt might also mean Dark Fellbane will betray us, and there will be two costs to us.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPoint to you, sir,\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Therous waited a moment, then continued.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cA checked King\u2019s lost hope<\/p>\n Set sail o\u2019er a sea of poisoned bone<\/p>\n The Rook & the iron circle<\/p>\n Binding a wolf cub to an empty throne.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lady Syntira spoke out.\u00a0 \u201cThis is the first reference to what is our future, we think, and it is why we chose to become involved here.\u00a0 A checked king would refer to the Grand King of Banner, sending his brother to us, though we aren\u2019t sure what the sea of poisoned bone is.\u00a0 In any case, we are almost certain that Carifal Rath is the reference here.\u00a0 The Rook refers to the one you know by that name \u2013 perhaps the only individual referenced by a specific name here \u2013 who serves as advisor to the Andelyn household.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She then looked back at Addaweyr.\u00a0 \u201cThe iron circle we think refers to the College of Morvrey, with their iron collars.\u00a0 The wolf cub would be Hesrith Andelyn himself, whose house animal is a wolf \u2013 and who, interestingly enough, was vaulted to the head of household by you.\u201d\u00a0 With that she pointed at Sered.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMe?\u00a0 How so?\u201d\u00a0 He was taken aback at the sudden sense of accusation.\u00a0 \u201cI had nothing to do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOn the contrary, Deva, you and yours slew his father, who had turned from good to become a Blackguard, some years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOhh, we did kill an Andelyn back then,\u201d he pondered.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNice to know a follower of justice recalls his slayings,\u201d I tossed the jibe casually.\u00a0 I could tell it stung a bit, he eyed me levelly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201c\u2019Nuff said.\u00a0 Bad enough I have to listen to all this tripe, I don\u2019t need you two sniping at each other to add to the misery.\u201d\u00a0 Morin groaned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cA dead star\u2019s timely breath<\/p>\n Blowing white on a coming cold<\/p>\n Is the horn for smoke & scales<\/p>\n Written in water on the flag\u2019s fold.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Addaweyr picked up here. \u201cThe dead star is Acamar, whose light shines only every so often \u2013 the next instance of which is about six months from now.\u00a0 We think this to be the time when the armies of the various sides are prepared and launch on their business of conquering these lands.\u00a0 Smoke and scales, unfortunately, refers to your former compatriot, Azrael, it refers to Kaenig and his Shadrim army.\u00a0 They, we believe, will storm Banner by crossing the lake, the same way the Morrigu did when they first felled the city.\u00a0 Acamar was also shining on that night.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I really didn\u2019t like being referred to in the same breath as Kaenig.\u00a0 While I felt sympathy for his plight, he was still a traitor to the Empire.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cA black Crow & a grayed Troll<\/p>\n All carved by a skull\u2019s jeweled glare<\/p>\n Make a quiver for a dreaming archer<\/p>\n Retrieved from \u2018neath a red prison\u2019s stair.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe feel\u00a0 these refer to Xirago, the priest of the Raven Queen, and J\u2019Tiel, the\u2026changed\u2026Goliath with the skull tattoo upon his face and the jewel in his eye socket.\u201d\u00a0 Lady Syntira paused to take a breath.\u00a0 \u201cThey will be the hosts for which the armies of Al\u2019Veydra march at the behest of the dreaming archer \u2013 Carifal Rath \u2013 who shall be retrieved from Carceri, the Red Prison, to which he gained access from the stair which opened from our realm.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThus burn and blaze to light a Devil\u2019s smile<\/p>\n With a Demon\u2019s brand and stake<\/p>\n A desert wind blows rot and dead<\/p>\n While souls gleam as future\u2019s fate.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe battle focuses around Asmodeus and his forces, Orcus and the undead army of Tarsis, all fighting over the harvest of souls upon this world,\u201d Lady Syntira\u2019s voice was utterly flat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTwo Queens, the dark Dream, on a bloodied Board<\/p>\n Warring for Rods of ruin & rule<\/p>\n Could kneel under a King\u2019s hand-sewn cloth<\/p>\n Crowned only by pages & some lost Bishops\u2019 jewels.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis would be the Princess Glasya and the adopted daughter of Orcus, Gracel.\u00a0 As well, Shan Doresh enters the picture here \u2013 we do not know how he enters the scene or what role he is to play.\u00a0 Rods of ruin and rule refer to their ultimate goals \u2013 the infernals to rule, the demonic to destroy.\u00a0 The rest\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Addaweyr was interrupted by a snore that might have come from a pack-mule, which was interrupted quickly into stuttering gasps.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Karac sat up, shaking his head.\u00a0 \u201cOh, still talking about all that stuff then?\u00a0 Alright.\u201d\u00a0 He laid back on the grass, and promptly began softly snoring again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The half-eladrin continued, somewhat perturbed.\u00a0 \u201cThe rest we don\u2019t know.\u00a0 We just can\u2019t piece anything to it at this time.\u00a0 Azrael, have you had any word from the Lord of Nightmare?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNot at present, no \u2013 I sent an agent to inquire, but it has not yet returned.\u00a0 I shall inform you as soon as possible when it does.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cA spark, a stone, a horn, & a bone<\/p>\n Led by a thousand lives before<\/p>\n Might Knight their Pawn in fell\u2019s dark flame<\/p>\n Never knowing who this King rules for.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Addaweyr pointed to each of us in turn.\u00a0 \u201cSpark would be you ,\u201d he pointed to Deimos, \u201ca stone we think refers to either your sleeping comrade, the horn would be Azrael, and a bone we would think refers to Morin.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cA bone?\u00a0 Why do I get to be a bone?\u00a0 That\u2019s stupid.\u201d\u00a0 Morin griped.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMust have something to do with your head,\u201d Deimos offered.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBury your head in your own arse, see how that smart-alecky tongue works when yer mouth is full of yer own\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cEnough,\u201d Sered held up a hand.\u00a0 \u201cPlease.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Addaweyr continued.\u00a0 \u201cLed by a thousand lives before would refer to a deva, of which there is only one choice,\u201d he waved at Sered.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know what the rest refers to, though \u2013 might knight their pawn<\/em>, perhaps a reference to Carifal Rath, but it might mean one of your own would be appointed to the throne.\u201d\u00a0 Addaweyr said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a possibility,\u201d I volunteered.\u00a0 \u201cIf we are unable to recover the king\u2019s brother, there is always that.\u201d\u00a0 When following that logic, looking at the bunch of us, the dwarves were out, as they belonged to a different kingdom entirely.\u00a0 Deimos and I, no, another Shadrim empire would not be ideal.\u00a0 That left Sered.\u00a0 As a Deva, his history would at least grant him some insight on how to manage a kingdom until a proper human could be found.\u00a0 He\u2019d make a good regent, I thought.\u00a0 Plus, having the backing of Pelor would supply his position with a halo of justice and hope that the kingdom would need after a war.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOne thing I would recommend on that course,\u201d Addaweyr added in.\u00a0 \u201cIf you choose that, I would say that the king you nominate not<\/em> be you.\u201d\u00a0 He pointed at me when saying this.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMe?\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t been thinking that, but why not me?\u201d I was a little surprised at the vehemence in his tone.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cJust not you,\u201d he said.\u00a0 I decided to let it drop.\u00a0 Whatever he was intimating at wasn\u2019t relevant to my future anyway, and taking insult from this fellow would only result in an ugly confrontation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhich leads to Boards and Games and Worlds made real<\/p>\n Carved on pages of mirror and glass<\/p>\n That will reflect old bindings in newly scribed chapters<\/p>\n Written with Man\u2019s own hand at last\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lady Syntira let the silence carry for a few extra seconds, then took a single step towards the center.\u00a0 I realized she hadn\u2019t moved her feet at all this entire time \u2013 most humans or Shadrim would have passed out by now,\u00a0 blood pooling in their legs and failing to circulate into the brain.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She said, gravely, \u201cAnd here, we have the final stanza \u2013 all the plans, demons, devils, and your kinds, all coming to fruition at once.\u00a0 Carved on pages of mirror and glass \u2013 the Mirror Codex.\u00a0 The Codex bounds history, and in it will be the resolution of this conflict.\u00a0 Written in Man\u2019s own hand, you will soon have your own destinies in hand rather than decided for you by forces of the Abyss or of the Hells.\u00a0 If<\/em>, that is, this comes to a successful conclusion for you.\u00a0 Prophecies after all are rarely literally true.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And old binding, recorded in newly scribed chapters.\u00a0 Asmodeus was bound in his deal with the gods \u2013 the Contract Diabolus<\/em> was written to bind him as well as elevate him.\u00a0 The others did not react to this, I doubt they took the same significance from it that I did.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And yet it fit \u2013 even if we won this fight, he would insinuate himself back into human affairs in a generation, maybe less.\u00a0 Infernals were a patient lot, and humans the opposite.\u00a0 The short-lived mortals were easily corrupted, and either agents from the Hells would tempt them into servitude, or the power-hungry would harness demons and obligate themselves to the Abyss.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But a new binding, to replace the old \u2013 would imply that either Asmodeus would be re-bound, or perhaps another bound in his place.\u00a0 I thought of the conversation I\u2019d had with Kineta, talking about the \u201cwhat happens after.\u201d\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t thought it through, but perhaps this was my fate being referred to.\u00a0 To be bound in his place, I didn\u2019t like the thought \u2013 would that not mean I would simply replace him?\u00a0 That a beating heart sitting in his throne is all it would take to continue the endless cycle?\u00a0 I wanted to effect a change, not simply take his place and resume the status quo.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But whatever the outcome, the reference to bindings brought the thought to mind \u2013 it was the Contract that both bound Asmodeus and gave him his power.\u00a0 An angel revolting against a god, it had never been before, and never since.\u00a0 Even with my limited recollection of the meager education I\u2019d had regarding religious matters, such an event would be disastrous to the order of heaven.\u00a0 I would have to consult further on this, but perhaps the Contract suspended punishment for the offense Asmodeus had committed\u2026breaking of the Contract, or its destruction, might render him vulnerable or even destroy him.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n I filed the thought away for future research.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They continued to debate a few of the niggling details while I scanned the skies.\u00a0 Acamar was not visible, of course, but I couldn\u2019t deny that its name had cropped up a few times in our adventuring.\u00a0 Of course, did this mean the prophecy was right, or was Acamar simply playing a large enough role in people\u2019s lives over history that it made a convenient marker for an author centuries ago to include it as a marker of time?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I saw the Lady Syntira conferring with Addawyr quietly to one side.\u00a0 He nodded, then turned and clapped for everyone\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After things quieted, she stepped forward \u2013 again, somehow appearing to glide without motion \u2013 and spoke to us all.\u00a0 \u201cYour missing scion, Carifal Rath, whom you have known as \u2018Bow\u2019, no longer wanders the Feywild.\u00a0 He is in Carceri.\u00a0 That much we know.\u00a0 We of the Court feel we bear some responsibility for his being there, as we chose to ignore his petitions for audience for what, in your eyes, is an interminable length of time.\u00a0 He took the Crimson Stair at its last appearance.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWell, guess that makes the search a little more difficult,\u201d Karac grumbled.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYes, but also a little easier.\u00a0 Carceri has only six islands, and one of those no mortal is permitted to set foot upon,\u201d I replied.\u00a0 \u201cGetting to, getting in, getting out and getting home will certainly be more difficult, but finding him once inside should be considerably easier than if we were to have to comb the entire Feywild for him.\u201d\u00a0 As I spoke, I remembered the man, sitting on an enormous tree root with his longbow across his knees.\u00a0 His silver pipe into which he\u2019d broken up one of my cigars, and the wine I gave him out of sympathy for his journey.\u00a0 If I\u2019d only known then who he was, if only any of us had known.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But then, of such moments regrets are always made.\u00a0 We had what we had for a situation, we would find a way to deal with it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI can perhaps help you with the issue of the tedium of finding and entering the Red Prison,\u201d Lady Syntira offered.\u00a0 \u201cYou have a helm, enchanted to take an appropriate vessel to the Astral Sea.\u00a0 I have such a vessel, and will grant you its use and its captain for the duration of your need.\u201d\u00a0 She held out one arm, and Shalvar stepped forward with a sheepish grin on his face.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe Waves of Grass<\/em> is at your service,\u201d he said with a small bow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Realization dawned on me.\u00a0 \u201cI wondered what you were doing here, Shalvar.\u00a0 Glad to have you with us.\u201d\u00a0 I turned to Lady Syntira.\u00a0 \u201cIt seems you have everything already planned out for us, and all we need to donate is our muscles.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPlanned out? No,\u201d her laughter didn\u2019t resonate like a human\u2019s or a Shadrim.\u00a0 Instead her voice lilted slightly, and the sound of tinkling bells echoed around her.\u00a0 \u201cNo, I merely present a possibility, and hope to influence your choices.\u00a0 But a plan?\u00a0 No, plans are for the ones you oppose.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sered obviously didn\u2019t like where thiswas going, but his face was determined \u2013 he\u2019d made up his mind to do it, despite the distaste it held.\u00a0 \u201cSo.\u00a0 That makes the getting there and getting back easy.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shalvar grunted.\u00a0 \u201cFast maybe.\u00a0 Easy?\u00a0 We\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sered looked at him without a reaction.\u00a0 \u201cWhat about the getting in and getting out?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lady Syntira turned her head slightly.\u00a0 \u201cIn the realm of Arvandor, a pathway exists that allows travelers to cross into and on occasion exit from Carceri.\u00a0 It is where the Great Hunt takes place, where we track down and dispose of those abominations which escape Carceri through craft or strength.\u00a0 Once there, our people can show you this path.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Deimos and I looked at each other.\u00a0 \u201cNot to put too fine a point on it, but will you be making sure that we don\u2019t get confused with the hunted?\u201d He asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe will make sure our hunters are well-informed of your presence and the importance of your safety.\u201d\u00a0 She replied.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOkay, so the getting in and out is handled too.\u201d\u00a0 I said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps the getting in, yes.\u201d\u00a0 She countered.\u00a0 \u201cCarceri is, after all, a prison, and was designed to contain its charges.\u00a0 At that it is very, very effective.\u00a0 Yet there are ways out, as abominations leak from it often.\u00a0 We are of the opinion that you will have to find a way out on your own.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cKnew there had to be a catch,\u201d Karac said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I wasn\u2019t so sure I liked this idea, but it sure seemed as though this might be our only option if we wanted a true king to rally the forces of Al\u2019Veydra and Banner.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sered looked over at me.\u00a0 I shrugged and nodded.\u00a0 Others gave their own confirmation in their own way.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When he\u2019d gotten everyone\u2019s assent, Sered turned to Lady Syntira.\u00a0 \u201cWe will undertake this effort, and return Carifal Rath from the prison of Carceri.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThen retrieve your helm.\u00a0 The Waves of Grass<\/em> stands waiting,\u201d she motioned to the tree-line, where the boughs drew back to reveal the double-masted ship sitting in the forest.\u00a0 Strangely, it remained upright, and it felt very disconcerting to see it without an ocean beneath it.\u00a0 \u201cI will also send along one of my attendants, as a representative of the Court to lend our strength to yours.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As she said this, one of her tree-like companions stepped into the circle before her.\u00a0 \u201cThis is Zatsa, it will assist you in whatever way it can to succeed in this quest.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The thing raised both arms and held them forward, then returned them to its side.\u00a0 Its speech was difficult to take up, but even without my Stone of Language, I made out the words \u201cHappy to join.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Addaweyr circled his gaze around the bunch of us.\u00a0 \u201cThen it\u2019s settled.\u00a0 Will you need help transporting your helm?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sered shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cNo, it is easy enough to move it around.\u00a0 We\u2019ll go to the keep tonight, and retrieve it tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThen our hopes and thanks go with you.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rain had settled in when we walked up to the gates of Shard Keep that night, and our cloaks, though largely water-proof themselves, could not prevent the wet chill from finding its way inside.\u00a0 Karac pounded on the gate loudly, with his warhammer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A guard appeared, looking over the door from above, and called out:\u00a0 \u201cThe keep takes no visitors after evening darks, return in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sered pulled back his hood and returned the challenge:\u00a0 \u201cWe are not visitors, we are returned home, and wish to sleep in our own rooms this night.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The tired man \u2013 who was considerably older than I\u2019d first thought, now that I looked at him more closely \u2013 climbed down from his perch and opened a man-sized door in the gate.\u00a0 When he looked Sered over more closely, his eyes widened just slightly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYes, sir. Master Sered, we had no word of your return, I apologize.\u201d\u00a0 He bowed slightly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Karac looked around.\u00a0 \u201cAre we planning on having a nice chat here, or are we going inside already?\u00a0 And since when is the front door locked against the people who actually live here?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The guard looked down to Karac.\u00a0 \u201cSir, it has been recently that we\u2019ve found the need to maintain a locked door after nightfall, purely for security.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I didn\u2019t have much to add.\u00a0 In what was rapidly becoming a city, young thieves with an itch to prove something would find an open door just too tempting.\u00a0 Apparently the others felt similarly, as no one voiced any complaints.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We were ushered into the council chamber, where we found J\u2019Tiel struggling on his night-robe, too small for his frame.\u00a0 \u201cWell met, all of you,\u201d he intoned in his basso rumble.\u00a0 \u201cYour rooms are being uncovered as we speak, and should be ready in short order.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Deimos looked up from his survey of the room.\u00a0 J\u2019Tiel noticed him, and quickly added, \u201c\u2026and guest quarters are already prepared for those of you who are new.\u00a0 Please, I\u2019m sure there is much to discuss, but unless it is an emergency, I\u2019m sure you\u2019d prefer a warm room and talk over a breakfast table.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n General assent was arrived at without a word, and we all went to our places.\u00a0 I found my room as I\u2019d left it, a fire going in the small hearth, not a speck of dust in the place.\u00a0 I undid my sash and belts, laying my gear down on the table by the bed.\u00a0 Dreaming Fire <\/em>went into the bed beside me, RIftspar<\/em> beneath my pillow, and Crownfire<\/em> hung from a bedpost-peg.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was good to be home, or at least in what passed for it.\u00a0 Helped to assuage a small bit of the hollow still aching inside me.\u00a0 I wanted to be grief-stricken, angry, I wanted to break something \u2013 but nothing would make a difference now.\u00a0 I would save this for a time when I could harness the anger.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I fell asleep with the smell of her in my nose.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The morning came more quickly than I wanted, but I struggled down to the dining hall anyway.\u00a0 There I found hot tea, scones, large rolls, and ham to take care of my rumbling stomach.\u00a0 A heavy red wine was also present, which I drank a little of, alternating with the tea.\u00a0 The rest of Dark Fellbane was there \u2013 Xirago, the dwarven priest; Thray, the dunkel Spider Knight we\u2019d met down in Erelhei-Cinlu.\u00a0 Of Gal-van, Jarim Hook, and Wynter there was no sign.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Their number reduced, those there appeared to be in good health.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBefore we begin,\u201d J\u2019Tiel said, standing at his table, \u201cWe offer a welcome home to Fellbane, our predecessors and comrades.\u201d\u00a0 He raised his glass, and we all acknowledged his gesture with thanks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe question that you are about to ask, we\u2019ll answer first.\u00a0 In our last expedition, Wynter was lost.\u201d\u00a0 He paused for a second.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Karac muttered quietly to Sered, \u201cProbably fell and couldn\u2019t get up.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n J\u2019Tiel continued:\u00a0 \u201cHe fell into a chasm and was killed.\u00a0 We had no way of recovering him.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Karac looked a little embarrassed.\u00a0 \u201cHmm,\u201d was all he could muster at that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I decided not to open the debate over whether a revenant \u2013 one already dead, but animated out of purpose and the power of Shadow \u2013 could really be considered to have been \u2018killed,\u2019 and simply filed away the inconsistency for future reference.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cGal-van and Jerim Hook met their ends in a slightly different manner.\u00a0 Both were found to have been collaborating with the Morvreyans, and we killed them.\u00a0 In fact, the College of Morvrey has spent a great deal of effort digging about in an attempt to ferret out information about the whereabouts of you all.\u00a0 They have brought up the Gaulus Prophecies<\/em> in our questioning of their agents.\u00a0 I will also add that while we have secured ourselves reasonably against their intrusion, their spies could be anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cEven among your own, it would seem,\u201d Sered pointed out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOh, we took care of that.\u201d\u00a0 Thray said flatly.\u00a0 \u201cGal-van managed to die before I was through with him, but Jerim, oh, he lasted a good long time.\u00a0 Told us a great deal, too.\u00a0 Around the third or fourth finger, he was singing like a bird.\u201d\u00a0 He twirled a thin stiletto in a small pile of ham.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIn spite of them, we did recover from the last expedition, and returned in time to refuse Hesryth Andelyn\u2019s demand for fealty and troops.\u00a0 We had no desire to participate in his consolidation of his kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 J\u2019Tiel sat back down.\u00a0 \u201cAnd that is the brief version of what has transpired.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We variously recounted our own adventures, including the departure of our own (former) Morvreyan while the groupwas acing entrapment inside the Dark Crucible.\u00a0 As well, what we knew of the situation in Banner, that they were facing not Andelyn\u2019s ambition, but instead an invading army of Shadrim led by a crazed infernal \u2013 and the true threat in the Morvreyans who \u201cadvised\u201d Andelyn\u2019s supposed court.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n J\u2019Tiel expressed a great deal of reluctance to supplying Banner with aid.\u00a0 \u201cHe tried to conscript the three Wards of the town into his army not long ago,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cThe arrogance, to think he could simply demand fealty like that.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I thought it over.\u00a0 \u201cPerhaps it would be best to assemble what troops you can and march to assist Banner as an allied city \u2013 thus you gain the benefit of a friendly and needed gesture, but also present the enemy with a unified force, and additionally you force Andelyn to acknowledge Al\u2019Veydra as a separate and independent entity.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He considered that, and nodded.\u00a0 \u201cThat would work.\u00a0 If he refuses, he loses our aid.\u00a0 If he accepts, he stands a much better chance during the siege, and we gain recognition in case he survives.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d still have to extract your troops as quickly as possible after any victory is won, to guard against his treachery,\u201d I went on.\u00a0 \u201cBut the public would see our banners flying, and soldiers who have just fought together side by side will resist the idea of turning against one another.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thray tapped his blade against the table.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s worthy of one of us, Shadrim.\u00a0 Good thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I bowed my head slightly.\u00a0 \u201cDespite your kind\u2019s reputation, you didn\u2019t invent sharp-edged diplomacy,\u201d I suggested.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOh, no, we didn\u2019t invent it \u2013 but we did perfect it,\u201d he appeared very self-satisfied with that answer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I shrugged, unwilling to concede the point, but also not interested in continuing that line of conversation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAll right, we\u2019ll assemble the Wards, and get what help we can from Spiderwatch,\u201d J\u2019Tiel said.\u00a0 \u201cBanner will receive our help, but only as much as we are comfortable in giving.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s all anyone can ask,\u201d Sered concluded.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWell, there is one other thing we can ask,\u201d I suggested.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhich is?\u201d J\u2019Tiel waited patiently.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOh, that,\u201d Sered said.\u00a0 \u201cYes, we want the helm, the one taken from Cozule.\u201d\u00a0 He looked over to J\u2019Tiel, who shrugged without concern.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll have it brought up for you now.\u00a0 It\u2019s yours after all, and we have no need for it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThank you,\u201d I said.\u00a0 He shrugged and nodded.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOne thing I do wish to know,\u201d J\u2019Tiel toyed with his food on the plate in front of him.\u00a0 \u201cIs there an army massing in the Trollhaunt Weld?\u00a0 I know you\u2019ve come from there, so I\u2019d appreciate an honest answer.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d Sered said.\u00a0 \u201cRefugees.\u00a0 The Al-Kabeth from Tarsis, some from Banner, and the Sestus Wyr.\u00a0 No army.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re welcome in the city, you know,\u201d J\u2019Tiel said.\u00a0 \u201cThey could join us here, there\u2019s plenty of room.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSome are not feeling so welcome,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cI know our people here did not take kindly to the Al-Kabeth, and blamed them for the undead attacks a few weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Xirago finally spoke, his gruff voice echoing in the chamber.\u00a0 \u201cYes, and they probably were,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cWe should have denied them coming here, turned them away at the wall.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good thing my Lady values fairness.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I withheld the barb I wanted to stab him with.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never liked the little dwarf, and one day I might just have to settle things with him.\u00a0 But dislike is not enough reason to kill, at least not for me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Not yet, at least.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n J\u2019Tiel sighed heavily.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve already established that what was here existed before them, priest.\u00a0 Give it a rest.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sered went on, choosing not to follow that course of discussion either.\u00a0 \u201cThey are establishing themselves there, whether as a satellite to Al\u2019Veydra or a community unto themselves is up to them.\u00a0 They pose no threat.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n J\u2019Tiel sat impassively.\u00a0 \u201cGood.\u00a0 Thank you.\u00a0 Bad enough a nest of spiders beneath us, having another possible source of enemies would have been unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We finished out our breakfast, and talked about a variety of smallish topics.\u00a0 When we were done, we thanked the others and moved out, back to the camp.\u00a0 The helm was in a narrow wagon, drawn by a single light horse.\u00a0 Two hours after we departed (both I and Deimos hanging back to observe for trailers), we arrived at the circle site.\u00a0 Sered and the others were conversing with Zatsa, which was apparently holding up its end of the conversation well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Great, talking plants.\u00a0 Bad enough there are some that are willing to eat me, but now they talk, too.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It didn\u2019t take long to mate the planar helm to the existing one on the Waves of Grass, <\/em>just a few muttered incantations by Shalvar and a couple of small pegs.\u00a0 The helm itself did the rest, extending small tendrils into the wood, anchoring itself solidly to the decking and the wheel-stand.\u00a0 The helm itself had a second, smaller wheel attached that sat perpendicular to the original ship\u2019s wheel, and a lever on its other side; both controls were reachable by the single helmsman\u2019s position.\u00a0 Taking an educated guess, I assumed the wheel to be a control for the ship\u2019s pitch, but it took Shalvar\u2019s first experiments to show me that the lever was to control the ship\u2019s velocity.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Most curious!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shalvar examined the apparatus, kicking it a few times and trying to shove it over, and then without much ceremony shrugged and looked over at us.\u00a0 \u201cI guess we can go,\u201d he said, then went belowdecks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Probably to get a drink.\u00a0 That\u2019s what I would have done.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The rest of us climbed aboard, some setting bags down on deck, others just taking a position near the masts.\u00a0 Shalvar\u2019s goblin crew bustled about at the ropes and netting, seeming unsure of themselves as to what to do.\u00a0 The sails were dressed tight, and the rigging was secured well.\u00a0 I suspected that for this sort of sailing, they were a redundant element.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Unless we needed damage control, that is.\u00a0 Which, knowing us, we probably would.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shalvar came back up about twenty minutes later, a foul expression on his face.\u00a0 I was standing closest to the stairs, and caught his eye as he came up.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cShe still doesn\u2019t like you, Shadrim,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSorry.\u201d I held my hands up passively.\u00a0 Wasn\u2019t sure what else I should say in response to that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t worry, same goes for most of your team here.\u00a0 I have nothing against you personally, but our one time together wasn\u2019t the easiest trip I\u2019ve ever taken, you see?\u00a0 And since then you yourself have become much closer to the one place I didn\u2019t want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I nodded.\u00a0 \u201cYeah, I can see that.\u00a0 We\u2019ll try to keep the trip short as possible, I suppose.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAs uneventful as possible would be nice, too,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNot so sure I can accomplish much on that front.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTry.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With that, he ascended to the wheel deck and took station behind the helm.\u00a0 Resting his hands on the wheel, he called out.\u00a0 \u201cAll hands ready?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The goblins on deck looked around from one to the other, variously shrugging and looking confused.\u00a0 One went over to the side of the ship and looked down, hands braced on the rails, then looked up at Shalvar again.\u00a0 It stood up and waved at Shalvar, croaking out in a high-pitched guttural.\u00a0 \u201cBoss, some of the guys, we\u2026well\u2026where\u2019s the water, boss?\u00a0 We can\u2019t go no place without water.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shalvar glanced down at him.\u00a0 \u201cJust say ready, Lob.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lob brought his gaze back down to the others, who variously expressed bewilderment.\u00a0 One of them made a circular motion around his temple with one finger and shook his head.\u00a0 Lob dropped his hands to his sides and said, \u201cOkay, ready.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shalvar muttered a few words, I recognized them as the inscriptions on the top surface of the helm by their rhythm.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nothing happened for a moment.\u00a0 I at first wondered if he\u2019d mispronounced something.\u00a0 Then, a sense of weight kicked in, as if we were somehow heavier<\/em>.\u00a0 Mutterings from the crew indicated I wasn\u2019t the only one experiencing the feeling.\u00a0 A soft hissing sound began to prickle at my ears, which I suddenly realized was the leaves and branches of the trees around us brushing against the hull.\u00a0 We raised about a yard off the ground before the rustling stopped and was replaced by a deadening silence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Looking around, the trees to every side suddenly receded in all directions, flying away into the distance, leaving nothing but a grey shadow of empty<\/em> behind.\u00a0 Before I really had time to contemplate that emptiness, it flowed over the deck in streamers of mist, cool and soft.\u00a0 Strangely, it was dry \u2013 perhaps that was the most disconcerting thing of all about it.\u00a0 I was expecting it to be a fog of sorts, wet and thick, but instead when touched it simply parted.\u00a0 I could tell it was there, but it left no trace of its presence.\u00a0 No damp, no odor, just a presence<\/em> in the air.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The muttering of the crew took a decisively more alarmed tone.\u00a0 All of the goblins were looking about frantically, until one towards the bow let out a tiny hiccupping scream \u2013 more of a chirp, really \u2013 and fled below.\u00a0 The rest followed rapidly, Lob the last to go, looking around with a little amazement before another goblin reached up and seized his belt to pull him down.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shalvar looked as intrigued as I felt, and he promptly reached forward and pushed the lever up on the helm.\u00a0 The ship accelerated forward, I could feel it gathering momentum behind its weight, and the mists began to flow directly back.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We were moving.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In moments, the mists we were in parted, and we emerged into the Astral Sea.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The mist formed a cloud behind us, which receded rapidly into the middle distance.\u00a0 It seemed to form a surface upon which we \u2018sailed,\u2019 a thin, gauzy indicator of where our travel took us.\u00a0 Before us, millions of stars pricked a twilit night sky that had no true horizon, just a faded distance where everything became purple and hazy.\u00a0 The stars continued above us, a perfect dome, broken only occasionally by tiny, distant whorls of color and faint lines.\u00a0 Watching, occasionally I would spot a star moving, sliding silently across the map of heaven on its own mysterious purpose.\u00a0 I found myself wondering if these were themselves ships such as ours, or perhaps entire worlds\u2026but time enough to explore when our mission was done.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Behind us, the grey mist congealed into a large cloud \u2013 I recognized this as a \u201ccolor veil\u201d from my studies a long while back.\u00a0 Around it were smaller blotches of mist, some flickering with an internal light, some glowing steadily, some merely inert.\u00a0 The smaller accumulations fell into the main or broke away from it, seeming to randomly choose their direction and destiny while we watched.\u00a0 Our world, obscured in mist, falling away behind us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I knew I had come quite a distance from home now.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I moved to the railing, to look over the side.\u00a0 I knew what I\u2019d see, clinically I\u2019d read about it, but nothing really prepared me for the vertigo of realizing the sky didn\u2019t end \u2013 it extended out below us, showing us as not so much sailing as falling <\/em>through a night sky, buoyed up by only the thinnest layer of insubstantial mists.\u00a0 The mist parted at the prow, extending a wake beside and behind us, like the surface of a mirror-smooth glass lake before the leading cut of a canoe.\u00a0 As the wake made distance from us, it settled down, and eventually flattened out, whereupon I lost sight of its dividing line.\u00a0 Perhaps there was no dividing line, and it just faded to the nothing that it had started as.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With Zatsa advising Shalvar, the ship sailed on for an hour or so, before I spied ahead one of the lines tracing the sky.\u00a0 Deep green in color, it was almost impossible to discern from the fathomless sky, but as it grew closer I made out its definition better \u2013 it traced an almost-straight path along the way, gentle curves and rises breaking up its otherwise-perfect smoothness.\u00a0 This was a \u201ccolor strand\u201d, one of the flowing connectors that tied all the realms of heaven to one another and the Middle World.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We sailed straight to it, before snugging up upon it and somehow \u2018lowering\u2019 our hull into the strand.\u00a0 As soon as we linked with it, the multitude of stars began to move \u2013 which I soon realized was because we were moving between them.\u00a0 It gave a measure of three-dimensional perspective that I had missed before, as the closer ones moved much more quickly than the further, and the ones fore and aft had less parallax to them.\u00a0 The sense of motion was uncanny, and the speed with which we moved must have been fantastic.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was entranced, and remained so for a time I cannot even begin to measure.\u00a0 Was each of these stars a world like ours?\u00a0 A ship plying this sea?\u00a0 Something else new and entirely unpredictable?\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t begin to guess.\u00a0 That didn\u2019t stop me from imagining, though, or from being stupefied with the vastness of it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My dreams would take a whole new scale now, I think.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Time loses some meaning when traveling the Astral \u2013 what I mean to say is that without a sun to rise and set, the passing of days is not noticeable.\u00a0 I became hungry at times which I suppose are predictable, I had to visit the head on a similar timeframe, but my waking and sleeping patterns were thrown out of synch quickly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The goblin crew ventured up on deck after the first day, studiously keeping their faces pointed at the deck.\u00a0 As they went about their business of scrubbing the decks and tidying the sails, it struck me \u2013 they used no water in doing so.\u00a0 They were doing what could better be termed \u201cdusting\u201d rather than \u201cwashing.\u201d\u00a0 It was then that I realized that this was no sea, but an enormous and lovely desert, for there was no water to be had here.\u00a0 Whatever a ship might need would be out of necessity brought along, and without magical aid, no ship would last long without a large water store.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We saw the clot towards the end of the second day.\u00a0 We had been riding the green line for the entire time, long enough for me to have seen it as consisting of a strange vaporous steam, its particles glowing faintly with their strange light.\u00a0 It even had a smell \u2013 it brought to mind the deep dark autumn of a pine forest on a mountainside, the kind where you expect to find children out picking mushrooms, or bears hunting out a honeybee nest (or hunting children, perhaps).\u00a0 I had wondered what other lines might be, as we\u2019d passed so many that I\u2019d lost count.\u00a0 The number and the colors were constantly different.\u00a0 I had also begun to analyze how to take advantage of such ribbons\u2026for instance, if they had a relatively stable placement, then junctions, where two or more ribbons crossed in close proximity to one another, would become very valuable strategically.\u00a0 Even more so for a raider, if one could predict intersections of the ribbons.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The clot, when I first saw it, was a deep charcoal smudge against the sky to the fore, barely large enough to be the nail of my smallest finger.\u00a0 As it grew, it became visible as a tattered cloud of mist, resembling smoke.\u00a0 Tendrils reached out from it and fell back within, and a reddish color stained portions of it, as if ink were spilled in a pool of deep water.\u00a0 It rested to one side of our color line, a little to the left \u2013 sorry, port \u2013 of where we would pass by.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It grew rapidly as we proceeded along the color line, expanding to fill fully a third of the sky as we flew along.\u00a0 The red stain grew darker, to become almost a brown, and small charges of lightning crackled around its periphery.\u00a0 I looked up at Shalvar and called out to him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat is that?\u00a0 Is it safe for us to pass so close?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He shrugged back at me, \u201cWhat am I supposed to know?\u00a0 This is my first time sailing this way.\u00a0 I\u2019m no expert.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t look all that good though \u2013 but it\u2019s hard for me to judge distance here, with no reference points to work from between us.\u00a0 At least on the ocean, I can count waves and space between them \u2013 here, I have nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shalvar tapped his forehead slightly, a victorious look crossing his face.\u00a0 \u201cNuggin!\u00a0 Arrow, shoot that, give me some distance.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One of the goblins ran belowdecks and returned moments later with a bow and quiver, which he quickly loaded up and fired an arrow from, targeting the clot, which had grown slightly larger just in the time he\u2019d been absent.\u00a0 The arrow winged over quickly, taking perhaps three seconds to traverse the intervening space and then vanish into the dark bulbous cloud.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A moment after the arrow disappeared, the cloud started to extrude a huge knob, a bulge that grew from its side like a giant reddish tumor.\u00a0 While not pointed directly at us, it was aimed slightly ahead, where I imagined it could catch us more easily.\u00a0 I wondered if this thing were somehow a living being, and whether we appeared to be prey for it.\u00a0 While I contemplated this, a small flash of red light lanced out from the bulge and struck the green color-line we were on, generating a wave that pulsed down to us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHold on!\u201d Shalvar shouted, bracing himself against the wheel.\u00a0 The wave reached us, and the ship bucked like a horse, dislodging from the line and careening sharply starboard as it found its bearings in the \u2018normal\u2019 space of the Astral Sea.\u00a0 I gripped as strongly as I was able, and saw that no one had fallen overboard, before looking back at the clot.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The enormous tumor had grown spikes, and had extended a much greater distance now \u2013 two or three lengths of the Waves of Grass<\/em>, at least \u2013 and was curving towards us.\u00a0 While I watched, the smoke and mist that comprised it tore, shredding from around its contents.\u00a0 It vomited out a huge construct of wood and iron, adorned with masts that extruded from all its sides.\u00a0 Its main deck was slick with blood, and crawling all around upon it were various insectile forms as well as a crew of imps and other infernals.\u00a0 Glowing brightly at its midships was a rotating furnace of crystal and metal, throwing sparks upon its soaked deck.\u00a0 In the distance, I could hear the tortured screams of the souls feeding its infernal engine.\u00a0 Standing tall on its deck, a blue-skinned deva with charcoal tattoos upon its face held position, blade drawn, while beside it a familiar form, enormous, covered in spines and bearing an enormous flail, spread its wings wide as it bellowed a challenge.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sariel.\u00a0 The war devil we\u2019d met in Vor Kragal months ago.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sered whispered under his breath, \u201cIt can\u2019t be,\u201d while drawing his own blade.\u00a0 At the time, I thought he was talking about Sariel.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As we watched, the Dominion vessel Seven Deadly Sins<\/em> hove to and moved to intercept us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few days passed while I came to grips with Kineta\u2019s sudden departure.\u00a0 I was pretty sure I understood what it all meant, but as I didn\u2019t really have any answers I just decided to abide by her decision and … Continue reading