“No…I need more…mana…” Lupie was doing everything in her power to stay aloft. The blood wings she was using burned through so much mana to keep the blood firm enough to glide. “Just a little more…” but it was no use. The blood of the wings dissolved into droplets, and the three of them plummeted the final forty meters into the chasm. Lupie’s final action before losing consciousness was to harden the blood encasing Sam and Nul right before she impacted a ledge on the wall of the canyon and was thrown off deeper into its depths.

***

A pair of eyes with vertical slit pupils watched from a distance as the red streak fell from the sky. The creature supposed that seeing a wolf fall from the sky was novel and warranted investigation. Scratching his scaled jaw, the Naga uncoiled from around the beast he had just crushed and stored its body for later. He had new prey to harvest.

***

Cara stood silently over the smoldering body of High Priest Elris; she had known fanatics were unpredictable, but this man had truly surprised her. Elris had always preached kindness and unity to her; never once in twenty cycles had she known him to act violently, and yet here she was staring into his lifeless eyes after barely surviving his attempt at murdering her, and for no other reason than she left the organization he belonged to without its permission.

“You knew my mother.” The words were more of a statement than a question and served to pull Cara’s attention from the dead priest. Looking over, she saw a small grey-skinned woman with black hair standing a few meters away beside her daughter.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are,” Cara responded cautiously.

"I am Nara Evander, Moonblight Sorceress and rightful heir to the throne of Tenaris," Nara answered honestly. At Nara's words, Parish stepped in front of her defensively to protect Nara from Cara should the need arise.

At any other time, her daughter’s actions would have amused Cara. This, however, was not the time for amusement. Her drones detected more people approaching from Helms Peak's direction and the cave system above them. "We can discuss this later," Cara snapped, her face growing serious, "More attackers are incoming!" She checked her rifle and started charging it, prepared to defend her daughter to her last breath. “I don’t suppose you would be willing to flee?” She asked her daughter. Nodding toward Nara, she stated, “I believe you may have other priorities now, daughter.”

Nara looked toward the two approaching parties, and even though they were not in sight, she smiled, relaxing. Naris walked up to stand next to Nara, opposite Parish. He eyed Cara suspiciously but said nothing. Nara spoke up, directing her words to Cara, “You can relax; not all those approaching are enemies.”

“Oh, I can sense it too!” Parish said excitedly, “The quest must be directing them to our location!”

“That is most convenient,” Naris stated.

Nara could sense the approaching group was the five other quest members, or at least some of them were. During their travels, Nara had already noticed that every time Parish was fifteen meters away from her side, she would feel a mild sense of where Parish was, regardless of whether she was within her direct line of sight. Nara had wondered how far the sense would reach but never thought it would span a few kilometers. She needed Sam's map to tell their location accurately, but the sense Nara was getting told her the people approaching were somewhere around a kilometer or two away.

Her worries were alleviated, so Nara turned her thoughts to her friend. Looking in the direction Lupie had dashed toward, she worried about Sam. Nara knew Sam was resilient, but she also remembered the Pathfinder's state after being blasted by the priest. She could not help but fear for her safety. It did not help that all three had been removed from their party menu seconds after Lupie sped away.

Nara slightly jumped when Naris placed his hand on her shoulder. He patted her lightly and said, "Relax, Nara, I am certain Sam is okay. I also know she would want us to focus on our safety now." Nara nodded; Naris was right.

***

A few minutes later, the two approaching parties simultaneously made it to Nara’s location. Nara paused from where she was casting cleanse on what was left of the pants she had removed from Sam’s remaining lower half. She was pleased to see the people approaching were indeed who she had suspected. The Berserker sisters ran up first and all but tackled Nara and Parish when they reunited! Each woman was sporting a new blue tattoo in the center of their chest that their skimpy armor did nothing to hide. Unlike Parish, the rowdy quadruplets weren’t bridled by formality. They let their enthusiasm for life show through by picking Nara up, swinging her around, hugging her, and making over her happily! Each of them, in turn, told Nara how excited they were to have received and accepted the quest, pledging their bodies, lives, and weapons to her cause.

Nina was the next to arrive and gave Nara a formal bow, “Queen Nara,” she said by way of greeting, her cheeks coloring as she said it. Embarrassment aside, she held out her bow and pledged it like the others. Naris surprised everyone when he ran up and gave Nina a warm hug. After a second of hesitation, Nina reciprocated the hug. She allowed herself to be pulled away by the blight who had been quietly disrobing and looting the dead off to one side, out of sight of the others.

The quest members were not the only ones who arrived, though. To everyone’s surprise, or at least Nara, Parish, and Naris, there were more members of the two groups that Nara didn’t recognize.

An older-looking gentleman who looked like a traveling merchant who had decided to carry all his wares on his person arrived with Nina from the direction of the cave. He carried no weapons Nara could see and was wearing a light leather vest and pants, but that was where the normal stopped. He had dual bandoliers full of vials and crystals strapped across his chest and a belt with dozens of oddly shaped tools strapped to it. An imp was floating a few meters over his shoulder, carrying a giant war hammer like it was no heavier than a blade of grass to top it all off. The man had stopped to watch as Nina pledged herself to Nara, his expression unreadable as she did so. Nara assumed that he was Nina’s father, Alexander Batiste.

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The quadruplets had arrived with a man also, but unlike Alexander, this man was fully decked out, other than a helmet, in shiny blue armor with intricate gold inlay and a massive two-handed sword that Nara thought was at least two meters long. The armor matched the man’s dark blue hair. Upon arriving with the women, he stood back and watched as the berserkers made over Nara. When Alexander appeared, the armored man nodded and walked over to stand next to him.

“Cara,” the armored man said with what Nara thought was barely controlled anger in his voice.

“Duke Oberon,” Cara responded dryly, “To what do we owe the honor of a Duke’s presence here in the Beastlands? Aren’t you a bit far from your little throne in Helms Peak?"

“I received a report there was a Voidling sighting in the city and have come to investigate as is my—,” the Duke started to say.

“Oh, cut the act, Derrick!” Cara snapped, cutting him off, “Why are you really here? This is not your kingdom, and Void Spawns are protected here. Are you seriously saying you came here intending to create a diplomatic incident in the Beastlands?”

“I…you have no right to speak to me in such a manner.” Duke Oberon responded, seeming slightly flustered.

“Dad!” All four of the quadruplets shouted in unison, stopping the conversation.

The Duke, Alexander, and Cara all stared at each other with their mouths clamped shut after that.

Naris walked up with Nina and leaned close to Nara to whisper, “This is awkward.” As he observed the scene.

Nara grunted her agreement while watching the events play out before her.

Thankfully, the tension was broken a few moments later when two more individuals arrived.

Cara noticed their approach first with her drones and shouted a quick warning, “Incoming from above!”

Her warning came just before a large woman with beautiful white wings landed hard near them in an area cleared by the recent battle.

Nara was so overwhelmed by everything that she was almost ready for a fight. She charged one of the shield spells Parish had given her and pulled out her bow, an arcane arrow already on the string.

“Lady Jenath, what are you doing here?” Duke Oberon asked in surprise when the woman furled her wings and straightened up from her rough landing.

“I imagine the same as you, Derrick,” the winged woman retorted, cracking her neck.

“Chad?” Nara blurted out in surprise at the other person who had landed with the woman. Then she tried and failed to hold back a laugh. Holding her sides with laughter, Nara could not help but ask, “Why—” She choked back a laugh before continuing, “Why is this lady carrying you?”

“Nara!” Chad wriggled in the winged woman’s arms where she was holding him in a princess carry. When she did not put him down, he looked at her and said gruffly, “Mother, please put me down! And did you really have to land so hard? I feel as if my organs have been rearranged.”

“Sorry for the landing, dear. You are much heavier than I remember,” Lady Jenath said with a gentle smile, continuing to hold him.

“Yes, of course. Now, would you please release me?” Chad asked again, his face beet red from Nara cackling in the background. The quadruplets had joined in with the laughter, and even Nina covered her mouth and giggled.

Finally wriggling out of his mother’s arms, Chad walked straight to Nara and knelt before her, causing her cheeks to flush dark grey in embarrassment. He started in an official tone, “Nara…Lady…ahem, I mean to say, Queen Nara, I swear to you I did not—”

Brenda walked up and slapped him on the back of the head, cutting him off and saying, “For fucks sake, Chad! Just tell her you like her and accept the damn quest! Our parents are here to protect you and her while the soul etching occurs.”

Chad coughed into his hand and looked sheepishly into Nara’s eyes. Then he looked at Naris, who nodded his head once. “Very well,” He said, and a blue light shone beneath his shirt.

Nara clutched at her chest and looked at Parish in a panic. Before she collapsed, she managed to say, “Quick! Take my armor and shirt off! Sam’s not here to repair them!

“Just dismiss them into your storage item—crap!” Parish said as Nara’s eyes rolled back into her head, and she collapsed into Naris’s arms. Quickly kneeling, Parish and Brenda hurriedly started removing Nara’s chest armor and shirt before they could catch fire from the quest activation.

But before the two were halfway finished, the quadruplets, Parish, Nina, and Chad, clutched at their chests as their marks began radiating blue light!

The last thing they saw was the four parents forming a perimeter around the group without a word, their eyes hard and severe.

Naris stood protectively over Nara and the others. He stared daggers at Cara and the others, daring them to speak or act. They all averted their eyes from him as he made eye contact with them. He finally said, addressing all of them, "She will remember what you did. I remember what you did.”

***

Lupie’s pained whine woke Sam from her stupor. “Lupie?” She asked, trying to feel around in the dark for her friend, confused as to why she couldn’t see. Then she realized it wasn’t darkness but a Void Slime covering her face. “Nul,” she groaned and gently removed the little creature.

A quick check of her surroundings told Sam they had made it into the canyon. The light was dim, the waning sun casting long shadows across the rocky landscape at the bottom of the gorge. At least two hundred meters separated the canyon walls where they were lying by a small, slow-moving stream. The bottom of the canyon was surprisingly green and verdant, lending a muted calm to the high, ominous walls enclosing them. Sam guessed the walls of the canyon were over a kilometer high. “Not going to be climbing out of here anytime soon.” She thought.

Another whine from Lupie brought her attention back to the situation. Sam checked her mana and found it was nearly full, but since her quarantined reserves hadn’t been topped back up, her Rebuild skill hadn't been activated yet. Deciding that finding Lupie was more critical than having legs, Sam sent mana threads in all directions, looking for her friend.

She found the Bloodmorph thirty meters away, crumpled behind a boulder. Sam teared up when she touched Lupie with a thread, and her skill told her just how badly hurt she was. “Poor girl,” she whispered as she pumped all her healing energy into Lupie. Sam winced each time she heard a bone snap back into place in the giant body, eliciting sharp cries of pain from Lupie each time the crack of bone echoed off the walls.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, Lupie’s voice rang in Sam’s head, “It is okay now, Sam. You can stop.”

Sam relaxed and pulled her thread from Lupie. The Bloodmorph wasn’t fully healed, but Sam’s skill told her she would be fine on her own.

There was a large splash of blood behind the boulder, and Lupie walked out a moment later in her bipedal form to come sit by Sam. “How much longer?” Lupie asked in a whisper, picking up Nul to cradle the unconscious Void Slime in her arms as she stared at Sam’s slowly regenerating legs.

“Maybe a half an hour,” Sam responded, her eyes closed in meditation. She cracked an eyelid open to look at Lupie, “Also, thank you for saving us. You are amazing.”

Lupie preened at the praise and settled next to Sam to keep watch as she recovered. Looking at Nul, Lupie could not help but wonder how Void Slime tasted. Still, she refrained from trying a bite; friends do not eat friends…at least not without permission.