“Ahhh! Ooof!” Dalen shouted before all the air in his chest left him in a painful woosh as he landed hard on his stomach.

Just a few feet away both Leo and Melisia landed softly on their feet but both of them fell to their knees as the exhaustion from the fight caught up with them. Leo looked better off than Dalen had feared but Melisia still raised her hand and caster her healing skill. Dalen breathed a fresh breath and pushed himself on his elbows only to come crashing down again as a sudden weight fell directly onto his shoulders.

“Ooompf…”

“You make for a terrible landing pad Scrawny. Maybe I should have used Leo instead, Ha!” Elendria cackled as the weight left Dalen’s back as she appeared on the ground next to Leo and Melisia.

Dalen grumbled some choice curses under his breath as he climbed to his feet and had a look around. His eyes widened as his eye caught the sight of several Crimson Dawn fighters moving toward them.

“Holy shit! Maybe she was worth the effort. We are already back at the camp. Wait, how did you know where it was? We hadn’t told you that yet,” Dalen asked.

“You can’t be that stupid Scrawny. As if a Warden of The Ways would fall to notice a few hundred people stumbling out of a crossing,” Elendria said with a crooked smirk.

Dalen frowned, “Then why didn’t you come to us?”

“Bah! I’d rather avoid you lot! But I hadn’t realized someone like Leo would be here,” The hagged snickered and winked at Leo.

Leo paled, “Uh… Perhaps we should speak with Jaliete. No use delaying things. If Elendria knew we were here it's possible that Dhinir’s paladins do as well.”

Elendria nodded, “Almost certainly Handsome, The Fifth Tower has too much influence within The Empire to lack space mages. Even lowly skilled space mages would have been able to detect your arrival.”

“Great…” Dalen thought before turning towards the fighters who waved to them in acknowledgment, “Let’s get moving then.”

Walking back into The Order’s camp felt almost strange after a few weeks on the road. Dalen couldn’t say he liked it but he could say that he was finally getting close to his goal. Several of the folk who often came to his chats cheered at his return, as many more spread whispers of The Prophet's return. They all saw Leo's injuries and the few scrapes and bruises they each had from their fight with Dhinir’s followers.

The order was always on the run from The Empire but this was different, this was a direct show of force from Dhinir specifically. Dhinir wanted them dead.

Dalen had already accepted that so he didn’t dwell on it, “Who cares? Dhinir’s followers were always dicks anyway.”

Elendria received as much attention as they did as she waddled through the camp, slowly. When she wasn’t taking the piss with every word she spoke Dalen could almost believe the fragile old lady's facade. He would have commented on it but he thought it was probably wiser to just enjoy the quiet while it lasted.

Another thing Dalen noticed was that everyone looked visibly better. Very little of the fatigue and damage caused by the foreign mana remained from what Dalen could tell and when they arrived at the elders tent even the orders most affected were looking their best once more.

Elder Jaliete rose from her seat at the table and other elders followed suit, “Good, you have returned and I see that you were successful. It is nice to see you again, Elendria.”

Elendria’s apparently blind gaze panned the room focusing on each of the elders in turn,” Yes, yes. Pleasantries, to you, you, you ,and you. Let's get down to business.”

A few faces of the elders twisted with irritation and Dalen couldn’t help but smirk when the weird hag's exploits weren’t directed at him.

Jaliete’s normal even expression hinted at a smile, “I see that you have not changed at all Elendria. Fine. Am I right to assume that Dalen has already told you what we wish to accomplish?”

Elendria vanished and appeared sitting in a chair next to Elder Traya with her legs hanging over its arm, “Yep, Scrawny told me everything. I can get it done. But I need more mages, preferably space mages but space attuned will do as well.”

Jaliete nodded, “Our order is gathering at The Vault. If you can take us there we will have the mages you need. We also have a small sample of Kalum Lesta’s blood in case you have need of it.”

Elendria shrugged, “Possibly, I have The Friend so it likely isn’t needed.”

The way Elendria said “The Friend” sounded like she was quoting something and come to think of it she had said it that way the night before, right before she agreed to help them.

Elder Jaliete didn’t react to the phrase at all though and simply nodded, “How long until we can depart?”

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Elendria chuckled and smirked Dalen’s way as if she was reading his mind. She knew something that either The Order didn’t or they weren’t willing to share. Dalen didn’t like feeling out of the loop but knowing the crazy hag knew what it was somehow made it worse.

“Oh… I can get you us close to practically anywhere but with a group this large it will take me some time to both recover and acquire the appropriate materials,” Elendria turned her gaze back to Jaliete, “ I will need an accurate description of the location, preferably along with the name of any nearby crossings as well.”

Dalen blanked out for a minute while the two discussed bits and pieces of space mana that he really didn’t think he would ever understand but his ears did perk up when he heard mention of space-attuned herbs.

Apparently, there was a surprisingly high amount of space-attuned herbs nearby crossings to The Fractured Path. The Order seemed to take that in stride but he wondered why none had been brought to him. Probably because they were stupidly expensive but he now had a desperate need to make a space bomb or something like it.

After that things started going far faster than even Dalen had expected. The Order quickly began tearing down their camp and small groups of scouts and fighters moved out to place two-foot-long posts into the ground in a seemingly random pattern at least to Dalen’s eye.

Elendria appeared out of nowhere to plop down in front of him, already mid-way through the act of poking him with her stick.

“Ow! What do you want?! You crazy old- Ow!” Dalen growled and shut up. It was clear she liked pissing him off.

Elendria cackled, “ Aren’t you wondering what that girl and her so-called elders are keeping from you,” she poked him again, “Hmm!”

“Stop that! You apparently know so why don’t you tell me? What’s with all this ‘Friend’ business?” Dalen grumbled.

“Ha! That would be too easy!” Elendria snickered, ”It is they who would tell you that you should trust the least boy. Be wary once we are at this vault.”

Then she was gone leaving Dalen scowling into empty air, “Bloody weirdo…”

Despite the crazy old lady’s strange demeanor, Dalen agreed with the last part at least. Soon he would be among other cells within the order, new faces and likely different opinions on Kal. Jaliete’s cell was relatively large and had a relatively even mix of Kal-worshipping weirdos and the more sensible cautious types.

Dalen was on the side of weirdos for now because they wanted Kal to return but he certainly didn’t want to believe the whole prophecy thing and he knew Kal would think the same way. It was half the reason Dalen had done his talks on Kal’s personality and what he knew of his story. That all got harder since Kal had saved them all but it had swayed many of those who both believed in the prophecy and feared his return to the side of the weirdos.

Dalen thought he probably shouldn’t call them weirdos considering the truth he had slowly come to discover over time but the whole prophecy thing reeked. Their desire to follow someone they hadn’t met or seen had bothered Dalen from the start but at least in the short term, they wanted what Dalen wanted.

The question was how did the rest of the order feel about Jaliete’s goal? Melisia had told him of the factions a few times already but her experience was mainly with Jaliete’s cell and not the rest of the order, so what she could tell him was limited.

Dalen shook his head and grasped his temples. Soon everything was going to get even more complicated.

“Alright! Boys and Girls! Hold onto your gag reflex, we are leaving!” Elendria’s voice echoed loudly across the entire camp and before anyone could react they were gone.

This time the nauseating effect of teleportation was much, much worse. Dalen felt like he was cartwheeling through the stars, propelled only by the sickening pull he felt over his stomach.

A single flash of gray made it through the sickening churning of the world around him and through it, Dalen felt something deep within resonate.

Kal jogged across a desolate landscape of twisted metal and stone. On his back clung a young boy that seemed smaller than his age on Kal’s now much larger frame. Behind him jogged a badly burned woman Dalen immediately recognized as Nyx. She looked pale and fatigued but her gaze remained locked on Kal’s back as he led the way and she pushed herself to keep up.

Dalen fell to the ground with a gasp as they arrived at their location and his mind struggled to process the flash of information he had received as well as combat the long-distance teleportation sickness.

“Dalen, are you alright?”

Dalen was half expecting it to be Leo but when he dragged his gaze up to see who it was he found one of The Order’s fighters. Gregor was his name. One of the men who was handing out the cleansing potions on The Fractured Path.

Still reeling, Dalen stammered,” I saw him… He has Nyx, and… Ander,” finally his eyes focused properly again, “They’re both alive.”

Several dozen people nearby had noticed Dalen’s discomfort and were listening as he said it. Immediately word of “The Prophet’s” vision spread.

He could tell that everyone wanted to extract another night of interrogation out of him immediately but they were professional enough to ignore the urge as they all got a look at their surroundings.

At first, all Dalen could see was an empty clearing in a forest much like the region around Farninghold, only warmer. Tall pines and large shrubs cramped the area around them but as Jaliete stepped forward toward the clearing the entire area shuddered, revealing the place's true appearance.

Huge black walls of stone darkened the clearing and Dalen immediately recognized it as the same stone as both the crossings and the strange ruin they had found Elendria. Almost nothing could be seen over the wall but a single monolithic column of the same black, just like the crossing.

“We are on the south side. Let us make our way to the east and make ourselves known,” Jaliete’s voice echoed through their minds.

They all moved and both awe and nervousness spread throughout the people of Jaliete’s cell. From the look of it, most of them had never been here and the few who had were all significantly older and probably hadn’t been here for years.

As they moved around the structure and to the entrance Dalen couldn’t help but feel the same. This place was different. Through the open gate the obelisk stood tall and perfectly intact, behind it was hundreds of people setting up camps almost identical to the one he had spent so much time within the past month.

But Dalen’s gaze passed over them and locked onto the structure behind them. A pyramid of dull gray stone dominated his view and like the obelisk it seemed to be crafted from one solid piece of stone. It was covered in illegible text like everything else but his eye caught a single readable sentence.

“Those who seek strength. Be welcome…”