Lilly, born and raised within the lively but confining city of Safehaven, found Vithia Rumblebean’s small, quaint home absolutely delightful. Standing outside of it, alongside her father, Kal, Windham and Icabod Deepshield, she wasn’t quite sure how one person could get by living in such a small house. Yet, at the same time, something about having so little space felt like it might be freeing somehow.

Set some distance away from the nearest village, the lush green land the house sat on was busy with wildlife. Deer grazing in the open grass, birds chirping in the trees. It was a stark contrast to the non-stop pace of the city.

As they approached the house, the front door opened. A woman emerged, holding a steaming mug. She appeared normal enough at first glance: an older woman with graying hair. But there was some sort of protrusion from her left shoulder, so large that the woman’s neck and head tilted subtly to the right. It rose to about the level of her eyes and was shrouded with a pretty silk sheet.

Icabod and the High Elder shared a quick, nervous glance before stepping forward. Lilly and Kal followed, but for some reason, Windham hesitated.

“Wind?” she asked. “You coming?”

“You know what?” he said to her, staring at the woman. “I think… I think I’ll wait outside. Maybe keep watch or something.”

Lilly shrugged. “Okay. Suit yourself.”

They reached the woman, and she spoke.

“Knew you were coming.”

“Hello, Vithia,” Deepshield said. “It’s been a long time.”

“Well, come in, if you must.” She turned away from them and strode back in the house. Deepshield and Lilly’s father shared yet another nervous look before following.

They entered a living area, a cozy little room with a single rocking chair. Vithia sat down in it and took a sip of whatever was in her mug, watching them from over the rim.

“I guess I’ll just get to the point,” Deepshield said.

“How about you introduce me to the two young ones first,” Vithia said. “Or have you completely forgotten your manners?”

Deepshield cringed a little. “Of course. This is Lilliana Centes, Rodum’s daughter.” Vithia studied her for a moment before nodding, clearly seeing some resemblance. “And this young man is Kal.”

“The…” Vithia started. She leaned forward in her chair and squinted at Kal. There was a long pause that Lilly felt compelled to fill with the word “farmboy.” Instead, she waited.

“The hero,” Vithia said matter-of-factly, and sat back.

They all turned to Kal, whose face had grown bright red. “What? I’m… I mean, I’m not…”

Vithia waved her hand at him as if she were trying to brush his denials away. “Yes, yes. I understand completely.

“All right then,” Vithia said. She put her mug down and turned her attention back to the High Elder and Deepshield. “Now you can get on with it.”

“Right,” Deepshield said. “Well, we could—”

“Not you,” she interrupted. She glared at the High Elder, who had somehow seemed to have shrunk into the background.

“Vithia,” he said, so meekly that Lilly felt embarrassed to have him as her father. There was much she and her father didn’t see eye-to-eye on, and most of their conversations of late had been contentious. But embarrassment was an emotion she’d never felt about him, until now.

“Pathetic. I’ll save you the trouble,” Vithia said harshly. She stood up from the chair, and when she spoke, she addressed not the High Elder, but the rest of them. “The Godknight is dead. He’s not coming back. Brightholme will fall, and fall soon. The gateway is destroyed, the mountains and river impassable. There is no escape for you. In a matter of days, you will all be dead or slaves.”

Lilly’s jaw fell open. She was stunned, not just at the devastating information Vithia had just provided, but that she had anticipated their questions before they could even ask them, and had the answers already prepared for them.

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“Your father already knows all this,” Vithia continued, this time speaking directly to Lilly. “But he’s too much of a coward to say it himself. That’s the real reason he brought you to me. So I can tell you the things he’s too afraid to tell you.

“Isn’t that right, ‘High’ Elder?”

The High Elder’s expression shifted, and outrage began to grow on his face. Lilly had never seen anyone speak to her father this way, and she fully expected him to finally break out of his shellshock and fight back.

“Oh, shut up,” Vithia spat, before he could even get a single word out. There was a familiarity between them—along with contempt—that intrigued Lilly. She’d never heard of this woman, but clearly she had some long history with her father.

“He also doesn’t want to tell you that there is an escape option,” Vithia continued. “Because if he led you that way, it would mean certain death.”

“That’s enough, Vithia,” the High Elder said, speaking up at last. “And stop speaking for me.”

Vithia raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Then, by all means… Continue.”

The High Elder sighed and folded his arms. He looked at each of them in turn, lingering on his daughter. “Father?” she asked him. Hopeful, expectant.

“There is one other way out of Brightholme,” he said at last. “But taking that route means…” He glanced over his shoulder at Vithia. “Well, it’s dangerous. And even if we do survive the trip, the destination is, quite possibly, even worse. Because there, in what is called the Voidlands, there is nothing but madness and death.”

“That’s an exaggeration,” Vithia said evenly.

“You would know, wouldn’t you,” the High Elder said.

Vithia ignored him. “He speaks of the Voidlands. I’m guessing none of you have ever heard of it, considering you’ve been trapped in Brightholme your whole lives.”

“I wouldn’t say trapped—” Deepshield began, more than a little defensively.

“Whatever,” Vithia continued. “Sheltered. That okay, Icabod? That feel better?”

Deepshield sneered, and Lilly saw a dangerous man beneath that look.

“The Voidlands is considered, by many in the old world outside of Brightholme, to be just what your father said: a place of madness and death,” Vithia continued. “Of chaos, and monsters, and the most wild, dangerous magic in all the world.”

Lilly looked at Kal, who had been watching quietly but attentively. His face was intense, as if he was trying to absorb every bit of this new information.

“And it is those things,” Vithia went on. “But that’s not all there is. In fact, there is a place deep within the Voidlands that is more beautiful than Brightholme. A place the refugees you will lead might one day call their new home.”

She paused and looked at the High Elder, giving him the chance to contradict her. When he didn’t, she continued.

“It’s called Oasis. And you—” she pointed directly at Kal and Lilly. “Along with the red haired girl, and one other, will lead them there.”

“What?” Lilly and Kal said in unison.

“What?” the High Elder said. “Vithia, she’s just a child.”

“She is not,” Vithia said. She looked at Lilly. “Are you?”

“How… how do you know these things?” Lilly asked. “How could you possibly?”

“I don’t,” Vithia said. “But my sister does. And my sister is never wrong.”

“Where is she?” Kal asked. “Your sister.”

“Sleeping,” Vithia said. “And she will likely be sleeping for some time. Providing you with this guidance has exhausted her.”

Lilly, as well as Kal, looked at the High Elder and Icabod Deepshield. Neither offered any contradiction to what Vithia was telling them, only stood there with solemn looks on their faces.

“All right,” Lilly said. “Say we believe what you’re telling us. That the Godknight is dead and that these ‘Voidlands’ are our only hope. If the mountain pass is destroyed and we can’t cross the river or climb over the mountains, how do we even get there?”

“I don’t want to go with them,” Vithia started. She seemed to not have heard Lilly’s question at all. Lilly watched her with confusion. Vithia noticed, and looked at Lilly. “I don’t want to go with you. But apparently I have no choice.”

“I… I didn’t ask you—”

She glared at the High Elder. “Save you the trouble of asking…” she muttered. “I’m tired. Tell them the rest. Or don’t. I don’t care. I—apparently—have to get ready to leave.”

Lilly looked at her father, who gazed at her with a tired, defeated expression.

“We can’t go over the mountains,” he said gravely. “But we can go under them.”

“Under them?” Lilly asked. “What do you mean? How would we even do that?”

“It won’t be easy. Vithia is right. Without the Godknight’s power to protect us, we are not likely to survive the trip. There are unspeakable dangers down there. Unspeakable… things.”

“Where, Father? Where are we going?”

“To the Voidlands, my Lilliana. But the only way to get there… is through the Underdark.”