Session 40

Once everyone had recovered from the fight with Kas, Ebyn cast the seeming spell from the scroll, reshaping them into five wolf‑headed spider fiends. With the illusion in place, he linked their minds telepathically. Then, moving slowly to accommodate Tertius’s lingering weakness, they returned to the beach.

Hands hovered near weapons as they approached the first cluster of real fiends, but the demons paid them no attention, and the group slipped past without incident.

They were within a hundred feet of the citadel when a pack of smaller spider fiends skittered up, barking and circling them. Seknafret barked something back in Abyssal. The pack froze, then bolted away, leaving them to approach the disintegrating stone citadel unchallenged.

“What did you say to them?” Ebyn asked.

“I challenged one of them to single combat,” Seknafret said. “They weren’t keen to name a champion.”

Ebyn blinked. “But… what if they’d agreed?”

Seknafret shrugged. “They didn’t.”

A bizarre parade was underway on a cleared patch of ground before the massive doors. Several of the smaller fiends were being “drilled” by a humanoid officer, one of Kas’s soldiers, judging by the uniform. He barked commands in a harsh, unnatural cadence, and the fiends attempted to obey.

It was a farce.

Brabara had seen first‑day recruits in Neverwinter drill with more coordination.

“I guess weight of numbers helps if discipline and order are lacking,” she sent through the link.

“What?” Xalen said, then followed her gaze. “Oh. Yes. I see.”

They approached the stone doors. Xalen tested them. Unlocked, he pushed them open.

A glyph flared. Pain stabbed through Xalen’s mind.

The parading troops froze, staring at the five disguised intruders. For a heartbeat, it seemed the illusion had failed but then the fiends resumed their chaotic marching, as incompetent as before.

Xalen slipped through the doorway, one hand pressed to his temple as a thin trickle of warmth slid from his nose. The others followed quickly before anyone outside reconsidered.

Beyond the doors stretched a long rectangular chamber. A second set of open doors sat in the far‑left corner, seventy feet away. The low ceiling made the room feel even longer, and thick webs stretched wall‑to‑wall at the far end. Ancient carvings of monstrous, tentacled beings adorned the walls, worn by time, and defaced by crude wolf‑head graffiti daubed in black ichor.

Two enormous fiends – crab‑bodied, wolf‑headed – scuttled toward them, accelerating as they closed the distance. These ones were not fooled by the illusion.

Brabara surged forward, hammer swinging, intercepting the nearest fiend. Xalen darted behind her, driving his rapier into the joints where its legs met its body.

Seknafret slammed the doors shut behind them to avoid drawing attention, then unleashed a barrage of eldritch blasts. The second fiend was hurled thirty feet back into the sticky webs.

It righted itself and charged again.

Ebyn skirted the wall, avoiding the criss‑crossed strands, until he had a clear view of the open doors the fiends had been guarding. They were made of the same thick stone as the entrance, which sparked an idea.

“Try to bunch them up,” he sent through the link.

“Got it,” Brabara replied, shifting her stance to block the second fiend’s path while Xalen continued harrying the first.

Ebyn waited until the two monsters were side by side. He drew a pinch of powdered clear gemstone from his pouch, traced a sigil in the air, and spoke the words.

A shimmering wall of force snapped into existence, trapping both fiends.

“Move,” Ebyn said. “It’ll only hold for ten minutes.”

They slipped through the open door, Brabara pulling it shut behind them. A quick scan of the room beyond revealed no immediate threats. Ebyn traced a symbol on the doors with gold dust; the glyph glowed faintly as the magic settled.

“That should hold them for a bit,” he said.

“We could have killed them,” Brabara muttered. “Now we’ve got enemies behind us as well as ahead.”

“We can’t afford to linger,” Ebyn said. “Once we find the rod, I’ll teleport us out. We won’t need to worry about what’s behind us.”

Brabara exhaled slowly. “I hope you’re right.”

They stood in an empty chamber. A set of closed double doors occupied the far wall, with a wide opening to the left. More of the crude wolf‑head graffiti defaced the ancient bas‑reliefs of tentacled horrors.

“Someone needs an art class,” Xalen said as they approached the opening.

Beyond lay another chamber, similarly decorated. Three sets of closed double doors exited this space, two on the right, one on the left.

“Which way?” Xalen asked telepathically.

“Hold on,” Seknafret said. “There’s something odd about that door.” She pointed to the nearest set.

Ebyn moved closer. “Yes. A glyph used to be here, like the one on the front door. Only the residue remains.”

“Did someone set it off?” Xalen asked.

Ebyn shook his head. “Dispelled.”

“Naxa might be in here somewhere,” Seknafret said. “Vaeve said they were both spellcasters.”

“Good point,” Ebyn said. “We should investigate.”

Xalen crossed to the door and checked it for traps or other surprises. Finding none, he stepped aside and motioned for Brabara to take point.

Brabara pushed the doors open and peered inside.

Another long chamber stretched before them, filled with piles of armour, weapons, and banners half‑buried in mounds of webbing. Tiny spiders scuttled over the heaps, making the whole room ripple like a living thing.

“Looks empty,” Brabara said. “Might be worth checking for anything magical or valuable.”

“I can’t,” Ebyn said. “I need to maintain the force wall holding those two demons.”

“I’ll do it,” Tertius said.

“You can’t,” Seknafret gasped. “It will harm you.”

Tertius shrugged. “I understand my fate, Seknafret. What use am I otherwise?”

Seknafret lowered her eyes. “You will be remembered.”

Tertius began the ritual while Xalen swept the area immediately inside the doorway for traps. Finding none, he extended his search further in. He had just declared the room safe when Tertius finished.

The simulacrum’s face was ashen. He rose unsteadily and stepped inside, moving with even more fragility than before. His eyes scanned the mounds, picking out faint glimmers of magic.

“There’s magic in all the piles,” he said, voice strained.

Seknafret moved to support him and froze. Something invisible shifted at the edge of her vision, crouched behind the third mound on the right.

“There’s someone in there,” she said over the link. “Invisible. Hiding.”

“Naxa,” Xalen said aloud. “Your sister, Vaeve, asked us to find you.”

Seknafret shook her head. “She’s not coming out.”

“We look like demons,” Brabara said. “I wouldn’t come out either.”

Ebyn stepped forward and dismissed the illusion disguising him.

“Naxa,” he called. “I am Ebyn Soulward. Vaeve told us you were sent here to find me but became separated. She said our mistress, the Raven Queen, has a gift for me. We took on these forms to allow us to move through the fiendish forces.”

The invisible figure rose and dropped her spell. A shadar‑kai woman stood before them, pale and weary but unbowed.

“It is my honour to meet you, Ebyn Soulward,” she said. “May the blessings of the Raven Queen be upon you.”

“And to you, sister,” Ebyn replied with a solemn nod.

“My Queen bid me give you this.” She held out an ornate staff of polished black wood.

Ebyn’s breath caught. “Is this…”

“A Staff of Power,” Naxa said. “To help secure the future.”

Ebyn accepted it reverently. He had dreamed of such an artifact but never imagined he would hold one. “I am humbled, Naxa. Thank you, and thank your sister, for your courage.”

“There’s a whole pile of treasure in here,” Xalen said, scooping flawless black opals into his bag. “Swords, daggers, a bow… and a potion Brabara might like.”

“Oh? What is it?” Brabara asked.

“Strength potion, by the colour and smell,” Xalen said, tossing it to her.

“We should move,” Tertius said weakly. “The wall of force will fall soon, and that stone door won’t hold long.”

As if on cue, the doors behind them shuddered under several heavy blows.

They crossed to the uppermost of the three remaining doors. Xalen checked for physical traps and found none. He reached for the handle when Naxa spoke sharply.

“There’s a magical glyph on that door. You must dispel it.”

“Can you?” Xalen asked.

“Not anymore,” she said. “I have only cantrips left.”

“I’ll do it,” Tertius said, already raising a hand.

“Tertius…” Seknafret began, but it was too late.

Tertius uttered the incantation. The flesh blackened along his arm, and he staggered.

“It’s done,” he said, clutching his side.

Xalen pushed the door open and stepped into a long corridor beyond. Voices echoed from up ahead, chittering in Abyssal, at least three speakers.

He relayed the information through the telepathic link.

Xalen crept up to the wide opening at the end of the corridor and peered around the corner.

A massive chamber stretched before him, one side still hidden behind a partly collapsed wall, but what he could see spoke of the citadel’s once‑immense construction. The ceiling soared nearly thirty feet overhead. The room spanned the full width of the structure. Along one wall, the corrosive waters of the Styx had eaten through the stone, leaving cracks, holes, and shallow pools of dark liquid that hissed softly where they touched the floor.

The voices were louder now, echoing from behind the ruined wall. Xalen slipped forward, inch by inch, until he could see the rest of the chamber.

And froze.

A monstrous creature dominated the space – a spider‑like fiend with a humanoid torso fused to its abdomen, four arms jutting from its chest, and two wide‑mouthed wolf heads flanking its body. It towered over the chamber like a nightmare given form.

Two wolf‑headed crab demons stood guard beside it.

And at the far end of the room stood Kas.

But even he was overshadowed by the sight behind him.

A second spider demon – vastly larger, twin wolf heads snarling silently – loomed within an extra‑dimensional space partially revealed by a slowly widening rift. The Rod of Law, assembled in its tidy, ordered form, was jammed into the base of the tear. Four of its seven segments glowed a bright green.

A gossamer thread of dark, pulsing light stretched from the imprisoned spider god through the rift, connecting it to the smaller fiend in the chamber. An avatar, Xalen realised. A conduit.

As he watched, one of the glowing segments flickered and went dark.

The rift widened.

Not enough for the imprisoned god to escape… but enough to make Xalen’s mouth go dry.

He ducked back around the corner and hurried to the others.

When he finished relaying what he’d seen, Ebyn spoke first.

“Remember our goal. We’re here for the Rod. Everything else is secondary.”

“How long before the rift fully opens?” Brabara asked.

“I doubt it’s imminent,” Ebyn said. “Kas didn’t have the rod when we fought him over an hour ago. It’s likely been wedged in place since he arrived – a day, perhaps more.”

Seknafret nodded. “Four segments drained in twenty‑four hours. Unless the pace accelerates, it won’t finish in the next few minutes.”

“Let’s not risk it,” Brabara said. “Is everyone ready?”

A thunderous blow struck the doors behind them, followed by another. Dust drifted from the hinges.

The urgency in her voice needed no explanation.

Seknafret inhaled deeply. “I’ll go first. I’ll try to imprison Miska’s avatar, then summon the spirits of the underworld to blanket the rear of the room.” She looked at Brabara. “Avoid that area if you can.”

Brabara nodded. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Seknafret steadied herself, drew a breath, and stepped into the chamber. She rounded the corner, pointed at the towering three‑headed fiend, and uttered an arcane word. Crackling energy erupted around the creature, forming a barred cage of force that shimmered for a heartbeat before turning invisible.

Kas reacted first.

His eyes narrowed. In a blur of motion, he streaked to the far side of the room, fixing Seknafret with a stare so venomous it felt like a blade pressed to her throat.

The massive fiend howled, slammed once against the unseen barrier, then barked an order. The two wolf‑crab demons surged forward.

Brabara stepped out from behind the wall and unleashed her magic, growing until her head nearly brushed the ceiling. She planted herself in the corner, her enormous reach giving her command over the battlefield.

Xalen swept around the corner and loosed three arrows. Guided by Seknafret’s foresight, each shaft struck deep into one of the wolf‑crab demons, staggering it before it clambered upright again, claws clacking furiously.

Then Kas’s gaze fell on Seknafret.

A wave of terror slammed into her. Cold, suffocating, absolute. His grey eyes pierced her like flint daggers. Her hands shook. Her thoughts dissolved into a single instinct:

Run. Hide.

She opened her mouth to scream, but instead a torrent of vile darkness erupted from her, swallowing the back half of the chamber in impenetrable black. Faint gibbering and cackling echoed from within, a sound that clawed at sanity.

The moment Kas vanished into the madness, Seknafret’s mind cleared. She ducked back behind the wall before the vampire could escape the darkness and reach her.

Inside the blackness, the avatar of Miska reeled as psychic pain lanced through its mind. Its superior vision pierced the gloom, locking onto Brabara’s towering form. One wolf head licked its lips. The fiendish torso hissed an arcane word.

The creature vanished from inside the forcecage, and reappeared beside Brabara, trident poised to strike.

The wounded wolf‑crab demon, its mind shredded by the maddening whispers, bolted blindly. It sprinted past Xalen, who struck with lightning speed. His rapier pierced a nerve cluster at its base; its legs collapsed, and momentum carried it headlong into the water‑damaged wall. It slid to the floor, unmoving.

Naxa gasped as the massive three‑headed fiend materialised beside Brabara, and her eyes widened further as the slain demon crashed against the wall.

“Raven Queen preserve us,” she whispered, clutching her cloak.

“Stay behind me,” Ebyn said, guiding her back. He raised a hand and intoned a spell. A dolorous bell tolled above the avatar, and necrotic rot spread across its wolf heads.

The second wolf‑crab demon burst from the darkness and clamped its claws around Brabara’s leg. She tore free, leaving deep welts across her skin.

Tertius stepped forward and cast. Agony contorted his face even as a fireball detonated beside the demon, engulfing it and the avatar in flame. He staggered, bracing himself against the wall.

“I don’t have much left,” he gasped.

“Just make it count,” Ebyn said. “The fate of the multiverse depends on us.”

Tertius nodded, teeth clenched. “I won’t let you down.”

“I know,” Ebyn said.

Brabara and Xalen fought side by side against the avatar and the remaining demon, trading blows with ferocity and precision. Seknafret, Ebyn, and Naxa hurled spells from behind. The smaller demon finally fell, but not before Brabara had drained several healing potions just to stay upright. Xalen was bleeding heavily as well.

A thunderous crash echoed from behind them. Ebyn spun and sprinted down the passage. He reached the double doors just as the two wolf‑crab demons he had trapped earlier scuttled toward him.

With a shriek he slammed the doors shut and reinforced them with another arcane lock.

“That won’t hold long!” he shouted. “We need the rod. Now!”

“That fucker!” Brabara roared, pointing toward a gap in the eroded wall. “Kas! He’s here!”

Seknafret turned just in time to see Kas coalesce from a cloud of mist beside Tertius.

“No!” she screamed.

Kas’s blade came down in a blur. Tertius raised a hand, conjuring a crackling shield that deflected the first strike, but the pain drove him to his knees.

Kas laughed, brought the sword around again, and shattered the shield. The blade swept cleanly through Tertius’s neck. His body dissolved into liquid and vanished into the shallow water.

Kas turned, eyes locking onto Ebyn.

“Hello, apprentice,” he sneered. “Time for your first lesson.”

He moved with blinding speed. Ebyn squeaked involuntarily and bolted. Kas swept past Seknafret, shoving Naxa aside like a rag doll. Ebyn timed his run perfectly and teleported just as Kas’s blade carved through the space he’d occupied a heartbeat earlier. He reappeared near the far corner.

“You can’t run forever, worm!” Kas snarled, only to find Brabara blocking his path.

“You’ll have to get past me first, you fucker,” she growled, her massive form looming.

Kas looked her up and down. “Sure.”

Xalen was left alone with the avatar, fighting with desperate cunning. Even bolstered by magic, he couldn’t avoid every strike, but he carved deep wounds into the fiend, ichor spilling across the floor.

Ebyn teleported again, appearing behind Miska’s avatar. The rod was somewhere in the darkness. This was his chance.

“Seknafret, drop the darkness,” he sent through the link. “I need to see the rod.”

But Seknafret didn’t respond. Her eyes were locked on Kas, terror twisting her features.

The stone doors behind Kas shuddered as the trapped demons battered them.

“Looks like you’ll have company soon,” Kas said. “But don’t worry, pretty one. You’ll be dead before they reach you.”

Seknafret stumbled backward, retreating through Brabara’s legs until the wall stopped her.

“Fight me!” Brabara roared.

“I’ll get to you later, fatty,” Kas said without looking away from Seknafret.

“I’m pregnant, you bastard!” Brabara screamed.

Kas blinked, then laughed. “You are? I had no idea. Congratulations.”

Brabara’s eyes burned. “Don’t you dare congratulate me, cunt. You already killed one of my babies.”

“Oh no, Brabara,” Kas said softly. “I didn’t kill your child. You did when you stepped into that arena. And by coming here, you’re killing the other one.”

Brabara wailed and swung her hammer, but the narrow space made it impossible to land a clean hit. Kas slipped between her legs like smoke.

The stone doors burst open. Two wolf‑crab demons skittered into the passage.

Naxa shrieked, but Brabara’s hammer intercepted them just before they reached her.

Kas laughed as he carved into Seknafret. One deep cut. Another. A third. Each blow precise, elegant, devastating.

“It seems a waste to kill you like this,” he mused. “Perhaps I’ll make a spawn of you all. Brabara’s festering brat too. You can entertain me for eternity.”

Something in those words pierced the fog of terror in Seknafret’s mind.

Not just a threat to her.

A threat to an innocent.

A threat to a child.

She reached for the Weave – not with fear, but with fury – and plucked a thread of pure light. She hurled it down the corridor.

It erupted into a wall of blinding radiant energy.

Brabara yelped as the radiant barrier scorched her legs and leapt back, but Kas and the two demons shrieked as the light seared their flesh.

Kas dove away from the brilliance, retreating from Seknafret. “Damn you, bitch!” he spat. “You’ll pay for that.”

The darkness blanketing the chamber evaporated in the radiance, and Ebyn finally saw a clear path to the rod.

Beyond the rift, Miska thrashed in his extradimensional prison, but his gargantuan form couldn’t reach through the narrow tear. The faint thread linking the true Miska to his avatar pulsed, and the three‑headed demon turned its attention toward Ebyn.

The wizard knew he couldn’t face such a creature in his own flesh. He needed power. Overwhelming power. A desperate idea sparked, and he spoke a word of transformation.

His limbs lengthened. Leathery wings tore free from his back. His clothes and gear melted into hard crimson scales. His body expanded, bones reshaping, muscles thickening, until an adult red dragon stood where Ebyn had been.

Better, he thought, flexing his wings and digging his claws into the stone.

Brabara saw the avatar shift its focus and moved to intercept, planting herself between the fiend and the newly transformed Ebyn.

The demon lunged, but Brabara blocked its path, forcing it to face her while Ebyn reached the rod. He wrapped his massive claws around it and pulled with draconic strength.

Behind them, Naxa screamed as the wolf‑crab demon tore into her. Blood streamed from deep gouges even as the creature burned within the fading wall of light.

The second wolf‑crab demon reared back and spewed a glittering spray of gossamer web down the corridor. The shimmering strands struck everyone in their path. The twinkling pattern entranced Seknafret and Xalen, freezing them mid‑step, eyes wide and vacant.

The wall of light flickered out.

Kas, seeing Ebyn wrenching at the rod, cursed and moved to intercept, but Brabara blocked him again, hammer and blade clashing in a furious exchange.

She was running out of time. Blood soaked her armour. Her healing potions were nearly gone. If they didn’t turn the tide soon, they were all dead, or worse.

Naxa retreated, using her staff to keep the demons at bay as she backed toward the entranced pair. She reached Seknafret and slammed her shoulder into the warlock hard enough to break the spell’s hold.

Seknafret gasped, awareness snapping back. She saw Brabara locked with Kas, the avatar looming nearby.

“Wake him,” she told Naxa, pointing at Xalen.

Then she skirted the wall, found a clear angle, and unleashed four eldritch blasts – two into Kas, two into Miska’s avatar. The force hurled both fiends back, giving Brabara a precious moment to down what might be her final healing draught.

Dragon‑Ebyn roared triumphantly as the rod tore free of the extradimensional prison. The true Miska screamed – a sound of pure, cosmic terror – and a chord of deep power pulsed from the rift as it snapped shut. The shockwave rippled through the chamber, dissolving the gossamer thread and causing the avatar to wink out of existence.

From outside and within the citadel, thousands of wolf‑headed demons howled in a single, mournful chorus.

Ebyn turned just in time to see Kas staggered against the wall by Seknafret’s blasts. He lunged forward and unleashed a cone of dragon fire over the vampire.

Naxa shook Xalen awake and turned back toward the corridor, just in time to see the two remaining crab demons flee around the corner. Relief washed over her.

Then horror replaced it as Kas rose from the flames like a blistered phoenix.

Seknafret cast again. A ghostly skeletal hand materialised over Kas’s shoulder and clamped around his throat. His body shuddered, and he gurgled something hateful at her.

Kas blurred.

He appeared beside Seknafret in an instant. His sword flashed twice – brutal, precise – and then he rammed the blade through her chest, impaling her.

Seknafret coughed, dark blood spilling from her mouth as she spasmed. Kas ripped the blade free with a wet, sucking sound and raised it for the killing blow.

Brabara lunged, massive hands closing around Kas and yanking him off the ground before he could strike again. Seknafret collapsed, twitching, fighting for life.

“Thank you,” Kas hissed, baring his fangs and sank them into Brabara’s flesh.

He drank deeply.

Her blood fuelled him. Burns vanished. Wounds closed. Hair regrew. Strength returned to his limbs now that Seknafret’s curse no longer bound him.

Brabara groaned and dropped to one knee. Each heartbeat drained her. Each pulse fed him. She was dying, and she knew it.

Xalen darted in, rapier stabbing into Kas’s side.

“Yes,” the blade whispered with each thrust. “Kill him. Prove yourself worthy.”

Ebyn saw it all. Brabara weakening, Seknafret down, Kas regenerating, Xalen barely holding on. Victory was slipping away.

He released the dragon form, shrinking back into himself. He drew the Chime of Exile.

Now.

While Kas was still wounded.

Before he could fully regenerate.

He raised the chime and twisted the chain. The bells rang – discordant, piercing – and the magic coiled around Kas’s body like invisible shackles.

Kas’s head snapped up. His eyes locked onto Ebyn the instant he sensed something was wrong. He tore himself free of Brabara’s weakening grip, her blood still dripping down his jaw and neck. With a hiss, he launched himself at the wizard.

Ebyn’s breath froze in his chest. The vampire hurtled toward him, fangs bared, fingers hooked like claws. It took every scrap of resolve he had to keep the chime raised.

Kas was a heartbeat away from tearing him apart when – pop – he vanished.

Brabara collapsed with a heavy thud. The magic sustaining her growth flickered out, and she shrank to her normal size with a pained groan.

Xalen was already at Seknafret’s side, uncorking a healing potion and dribbling it between her lips.

For a moment, nothing.

Then she coughed, once, sharply, and pushed herself upright. “What happened?” she rasped, eyes darting wildly.

“Ebyn has the rod,” Xalen said, pressing the rest of the potion into her trembling hands. “Kas is defeated, banished, I think, and the demons are in retreat. We won.”

“Is everyone alive?” Seknafret asked once she’d drained the last of the potion, colour returning to her cheeks.

“Barely,” Brabara coughed. “But we’ll be okay.”

“Not for long,” Ebyn called from across the room. He was peering through a crack in the wall. “The demons are running, but Lolth’s forces are coming this way. This place will be overrun in minutes.”

“Can you get us out?” Xalen asked.

“I can,” Ebyn said. “But I only have one spell left, and we need to get Naxa back to her sister.”

Brabara pushed herself upright, wincing. “That’s fine. We should be safe enough on that ridge where we left Vaeve. Lolth’s armies have been trying to take this citadel. I doubt they’ll waste troops on the far side of the cliff. Not when their prize is suddenly within reach and Kas’s forces are still harassing their flank.”

Ebyn nodded. “Gather close, I’ll teleport us back to Vaeve’s position. If we can rest for an hour, I should recover enough to get us back to the portal and out of this blighted place.”

---

Xalen, Vaeve, and Naxa watched from their vantage above the valley as Lolth’s forces swept into the ruined citadel. The few demons too stubborn or too witless to flee were dispatched quickly and without ceremony.

Brabara, Seknafret, and Ebyn rested inside the tiny hut Ebyn had conjured, all three utterly spent from the battle below.

Vaeve and Naxa had embraced warmly when the group first teleported back to the ridge, but aside from that single moment of emotion, the sisters stood in silence, watching the shifting tides of war below.

Lolth’s forces halted their assault on Kas’s lines once the citadel was secured, but they held a disciplined front to prevent the humanoid army from advancing. With the skies cleared of demonic fliers, the massive citadel spiders could finally direct their volleys downward. Their burning webs rained across the humanoid ranks, turning once‑ordered legions into chaos and forcing them to retreat out of range.

Lolth’s forces had won the day, and it was because of what the party had done inside that citadel.

Xalen shook his head, still not entirely convinced he believed it. This was a conflict on a cosmic scale, and somehow, he – they – had tipped the balance.

Miska’s return halted.

Lolth ascendant.

A threat to the order of the multiverse sealed away again, perhaps for millennia.

“I’ve seen enough,” Xalen said, raising his voice over the wind. “They’re not coming up here.”

Vaeve nodded. “I concur.”

The three of them scrambled down the lip of the depression and rejoined the others inside the magical refuge.

“All clear,” Xalen said. “We should be safe up here for a few hours at least.”

“We’ll be long gone by then,” Ebyn replied, glancing up from his spellbook.

“Let me thank you again for bringing Naxa back to me,” Vaeve said, her tone reverent. “We remain forever in your debt.”

“We did only what decent people would do,” Ebyn said.

Brabara raised an eyebrow. “What are your plans now, Vaeve?”

“I have a scroll that will return us to the Shadowfell,” Vaeve said. “We must inform the Queen that we have discharged our duty.”

Ebyn looked up again. “Come with us to Sigil first. Rest there a few days before returning home. I assure you. Sigil will offer an experience unlike anything in the Shadowfell.”

The sisters exchanged a long, silent look. Some private communication passing between them.

“We will come with you,” Naxa said at last. “But only because you asked.”

“Excellent,” Ebyn said, returning to his book.

Their rest passed without incident. When Ebyn had recovered enough strength, he teleported the six of them back to the portal at the top of the cliff. With one final look over the wind‑scoured expanse of Pandesmos, they stepped through.

---

Alustriel rose from her seat beside Malaina and Tiny the moment the first of them stepped through the portal. Concern tightened her features, then eased into relief as the last of the group emerged, only to sharpen again when she took in the blood, grime, and exhaustion coating them all.

“By the gods,” she breathed. “What happened out there?”

Tiny didn’t wait for an answer. He rushed to Brabara and gathered her into a gentle embrace, as though afraid she might shatter if he held her too tightly.

Brabara let her hammer fall with a heavy clatter and wrapped her arms around him, clinging with desperate strength. “I’m here,” she whispered, the words barely intelligible through her sobs. “Still here.”

Tiny held her for a long time, silent and steady, brushing her blood‑stiffened hair with one hand and patting her back with the other as she wept into his chest.

“We got the rod,” Xalen said at last, voice hoarse. “And we banished Kas to Tovag. He won’t be bothering us again.”

Alustriel pressed a hand to her chest, her fist curling in a small, triumphant gesture. “That is fantastic news.” Her gaze shifted to the two unfamiliar figures. “And who are these?”

Seknafret waited for Ebyn to speak – but he stood transfixed, watching Brabara and Tiny with a haunted expression. So, she stepped forward instead.

“Naxa and Vaeve,” she said, gesturing to each in turn. “They were sent by the Raven Queen to await our arrival.”

“The Raven Queen?” Alustriel echoed, taken aback. “Welcome to my sanctum, ladies.”

The two shadar‑kai dipped their heads, offering weary smiles. “Thank you, mistress,” Vaeve said softly.

Alustriel nodded and opened her arms in a gesture of hospitality. “You all look ready to collapse. Go, clean yourselves up, rest. We’ll speak of what happened once you’ve recovered.”