We met on the heath – Tyr Kayn’s heath, the site of the death of Shadowcloud, the ‘death’ of Winterprince… Below, the trees of Ryntol Wood and Cadersglen were whole once more, their shadows lengthening as the sun started to sink. The mood was solemn as row upon row of champions assembled, forming a loose ring at the top of the tor where the dragon had crouched. Wizards had smoothed over the depression where she’d stretched out her enormous body, but they’d missed some grooves in one patch where her claws had dug into the earth, scratching narrow ditches in the dirt big enough for children to hide inside.
By the time we’d all left Timesnatcher’s, he still hadn’t shown back up. I asked Killstop to search the house but she couldn’t find any trace of where he’d gone. We decided to proceed without him.
The majority of the champions who attended appeared confused when they arrived, largely due to the fact that I’d been ambiguous in my messages. Many of them cast Ciraya strange looks. Sunspring managed to pacify the eldest champions, lots of whom seemed disgruntled at our sudden interruption of their holiday, and he did his best to explain what was going on – but he hadn’t been face-to-face with an eolastyr before and all his information was second-hand, so the old gnome’s advice could only take them so far.
Timesnatcher was absent, and Starsight never made it the whole way down into the arch-fiend’s throne room in the repurposed warehouse. Nighteye was ‘missing’. Dustbringer, Redgate, Shadowcloud and Winterprince were gone. Lovebright had evaporated into the air and Neverwish’s fate sounded even worse. While half the people on the hill probably knew the secret of Em’s identity, we didn’t know which, so Stormsword couldn’t step forward.
In the end I supposed it would fall to me, Killstop and Glimmer – three of the youngest champions, or at least the youngest-looking in Imrye’s case – to field the questions.
I started by expressing our gratitude for their attendance – it was Yearsend, after all – and then we got stuck into the specifics. The eolastyr’s appearance. Her strength and agility. Her shields. Her augmented pets and summons. Her circlet, capable of rebounding attacks. Her whip: the terrible dirge it produced, and its power to shake those who heard its crack…
Her disintegration effect. The way she’d destroyed Dustbringer.
Giving his soul to the dragon-kings, I thought, keeping it to myself.
By the time we were done, many of the eyes visible through the slits in masks were thrown wide in bewilderment, even stupefaction. It seemed most of them hadn’t faced creatures of this calibre often during Incursions. However, Netherhame’s arms were folded across her chest, the sorceress exuding confidence as she asked pertinent question after pertinent question. How long did the whip’s crack freeze time for? How high could she leap? How many eldritches did her fires summon at the same time? How long did her shields stay active and how many spells did they absorb? We did our best to provide responses, making clear which parts of our answers were evidenced by what we’d witnessed, and which parts were pure speculation.
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Then we started to dig deeper into the details. Eneleyn Arithos, Mistress of the Seven-Star Swords, had been imbued with the essence of the eolastyr after thirty-two of her friends had been taken… highborn fools, their corpses likely residing at the bottom of the bay with the sea urchins by now. Ciraya stepped forward at Killstop’s gesture to explain the signs of the old sorceress’s descent into possession, and everyone seemed to agree something was up.
We didn’t have to mention Everseer, Nighteye or anything about Heresy, not even once – we got them onboard, and almost every champion who’d answered our call decided to help. Ripplewhim, the new enchanter, again didn’t show, but Copperbrow was there, the inexperienced gnome wizard doing his best to sound cool and collected when he voiced the fact he would participate – but that voice was squeakier than ever.
“So I suppose the only thing left to do is contact the Magisterium and let them know what’s happening,” Glancefall said, the bells atop his jester-hat tinkling along gently behind his words.
“I got in touch with Zakimel on the way over here,” I said. “We’re good on that front. We’ll have back-up if we need it.”
The first magister who’d answered my call had been more than happy to pass me up the chain, once he realised who I was and why I was calling, and I was quite impressed – I only had to speak to three people before someone woke Zakimel up for me. The chief Magisterium diviner had looked like he’d been hitting the bottle pretty hard last night, given his red eyes and the dirty-looking stubble covering his chops, the usually prim and proper moustache quivering with long hairs. Nonetheless, the sheer focus and determination in his gaze couldn’t be denied. Had he been surprised by my news? Of course. Had he shrunk away from the prospect of confronting such a high-ranked demon? Not one bit.
“I guess we just need a plan, now?” Copperbrow cheeped, looking over at Sunspring.
“You’re not wrong, son,” the druid replied, keeping his eyes on us.
I looked over to Tanra and Imrye; Imrye was looking at Tanra.
Slowly it became obvious everyone’s attention was focussed on Killstop. Even the other diviners, Starsight and Dimdweller and Doomspeaker.
“Well, shucks, guys, thanks for the vote of super-confidence.” She put her hands on her hips and cocked her frowning head at the lot of us. “Fourteen-year-old girls grow up dreaming of responsibility like this.”
“Killstop,” I murmured.
“Fine. I’ve got an idea. But I sure wish Timesnatcher were here…”
“We’ll find him. Give us your idea to start with.”
She looked about at the ring of champions, and Spirit nodded to her reassuringly.
“Okay… okay, but bear with me on this.” She spun, taking us all in. “We need to circumvent her whip, but she knows it’ll be her weak-point this time, and she’ll put up her shield if she’s threatened. We have to get in close, move in waves, control the engagement. Get hold of the damn thing.” I could imagine her grin behind the mask as her gaze halted on Ciraya. “At first it’s going to sound crazy…”