Morwen sat wearily in the chair before her mirror. Her hair sat matted to her scalp from exhaustion. She’d spent the entire day in the bowels of the ship helping all the dwarves and a few of the mages from Eryn that defected with her to help with the cleansing. The work was hard but satisfying. With every patch of black blood burned away, she could feel her spirits climb.

“Sometimes, I feel like we might have a slim chance of pulling this off.” She told Rozien.

The Enchanted tome bounced in the air, the text upon its surface glowing as it spoke. “The dwarves are making extremely good progress, and the healers from Eryn that opted to travel with you are helping keep them in the work a lot longer than they could manage without. I’ve even heard a few of them discussing installing a brewery.”

Morwen chuckled at that. Give them a pipe and some water and they’d give you an ale in an hour. Less if they were really motivated.

“I don’t know what the stuff is, but I can’t help feeling like it’s important somehow. Either as a warning or a clue. Regardless, I’m glad we’re burning it out of the ship. How much of the systems and internal space have we restored?”

Rozien glowed for a moment as he tapped into the vessel. “We’re at about 50% efficiency at the moment and climbing.”

Morwen nodded. That was good. If the Thefaris, even at barely a quarter, could smash a Sauridius strike fleet, then it was worthwhile to get it. Now they just had to finish the fight. The question was, could she get the ship ready in time, and where would that fight be?

“How soon until we’re ready to go into the Umbral Plane? I want to be at New Eden as soon as possible.”

“Are you sure it’s wise to leave Eryn?”

Morwen gave Rozien a flat look. “They have the grand fleet at their disposal. If those ships can’t stop the Sauridius or slow them down long enough for me to get back? Then this war is already lost and we’re arguing a foregone conclusion.”

“ArchPriest Erlaut didn’t seem completely… stable last we saw.”

Morwen frowned, nodding slowly. The pressure of leadership sat poorly on Erlaut’s shoulders. Which came as a great surprise. He’d been such an accomplished arch weaver. But then, he’d been able to sit in his office, smoke his pipe, and ignore the dangers of the sector from the safety of his office. Times no longer permitted such frivolity.

“Ominek’s attack left Erlaut unhinged. And that’s only gotten worse with each passing day.”

Initially it was small, like tiny paranoia. But now he was full on manic. She worried his mania would prevent him from being able to protect their people. Ever since the attack by Ominek, something in Erlaut had just been off balance. Time had an uncharacteristically reversed effect on his long term mental state. Rather than improve, he’d regressed.

“If it comes down to it, can we alone defend the planet?” Morwen asked Rozien.

Rozien’s aura pulsed thoughtfully as the book bounced. Several moments passed before he finally spoke.

“It’s difficult to say without getting a good read on the opposition, no pun intended. I will say, however, that Sauridius is crafty, and I have to imagine his children are too. I don’t think they’ll make a move unless they are certain of their chances at victory.”

Morwen frowned, turning to face the dark leather cover of the enchanted tome. “I fear you may be right. I’m worried if I’m not making a misstep by venturing to New Eden.”

“You are wise to plug a gap in the Federation’s armor. Allowing the Sauridius to approach New Eden unopposed would spell doom for the sector. Eryn at least has its own magitech fleet with which it can mount a defense. How much of a defense that can muster against the Sauridius though, remains to be seen.”

“Then it falls to us to be shield when the time comes.” Morwen mused before resuming the work of combing her hair. She went about her end of evening routine as she always did. With methodical care. It was almost meditative for her. Few times during the day did she get to just be with her thoughts and in the silence before bed she found the time to unpack the day and digest all that she’d said, and done.

Once she was ready for bed she slid into the silk sheets and allowed the ache of her body to fade away as the light magic infused bed began to soothe her pain and any injuries with an aura of healing. As sleep came for her, something happened, her Divine Foresight triggered.

Unlike before, however, events were clouded, too many potential options spun off, and she wasn’t able to focus on a linear path of decisions. There were too many variables. Were she more awake, she might have been able to drive the vision better. Unfortunately, what she saw was enough to make her blood run cold.

In the end, a draconic demigod descended to Eryn after destroying much of the grand fleet of Eryn. Erlaut dies in battle. And worse… she snapped awake in a cold sweat. Heart racing.

She tried to reach frantically for the vision, but as she did, it slid from the grasp of her memory like water between her fingers. The more she reached for it the more elusive it became and she found herself beginning to understand why Erlaut had been driven so mad. Someone or something was out there missing with divination magic. But who could do such a thing? And just how powerful were they to obscure or distort possible futures?

There was still so much she didn’t know, and more still she didn’t fully understand. Morwen wished she had the time to truly study her power and master it. But so far, she’d only been able to apply it in field combat a few times to any kind of effectiveness. She wasn’t afforded the luxury of time and there was always some new enemy lurking in the background waiting for their chance to step forward and make life miserable for everyone she knew.

“Is everything alright?” Rozien asked, drifting closer to Morwen.

“No. I want to say yes, but I know I’d be lying if I did.”

“What’s wrong?”

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“I had a nightmare. A vision of a future. It was messy, chaotic, and violent. Eryn falls to a Sauridius assault, I think.”

“That’s unfortunate. What else comes of the attack?”

Morwen’s lips pursed as she wracked her brain for details. Anything she could glean of use. Frustrated, she shook her head. It was no use.

“It’s difficult to say, but the losses were heavy. It’s safe to assume the planet falls to the assault. But if that’s true, what difference could this ship? What if Eryn is just a feint?”

There were too many possibilities to pin down the correct route forward. The divine web was too difficult to chart, and worse, she feared someone was actively obscuring paths forward that would benefit her. That raised more questions. Could they interfere with Divine Foresight? Like divine sensor jamming or something.

“Rozien… how comprehensive is your list of spells?”

“It’s quite robust, but I have to confess to lacking a lot of the greater magic.”

“What about greater divination magic?”

Rozien pulsed thoughtfully before dropping in place.

“Not as comprehensive as I would like.”

“Are you aware of any ways to manipulate or obfuscate the Web of Fate?”

The Web of Fate, a divine instrument made alongside creation, tracks all trajectories of choice. Capable gods can read each strand of and follow it through all decision points to a definitive end. Morwen’s knowledge of the Web was limited and her exposure even less so. She’d only gained the knowledge of it during her trip into the Umbral Plane where she and the others discovered She-whose-name-won’t-be-spoken’s Crystal Palace in the void. Her exposure to the web was even younger than that, when she received the gift of Divine Foresight, a normal spell that exceeds 9th magnitude.

“I am not. But I know well enough to say that nothing is truly impossible without the correct amount of power.”

Morwen nodded. That was sufficient. “Thanks Rozien.” She laid back down to finish resting. Morning came swiftly, and she resumed her routine of preparing for duty for the day. Eventually she found her way to the furthest reaches they’d cleansed. The black blood oozed and writhed as this shift’s worth of dwarves scorched away the corruption.

A few of them kept working except for one plucky female. She swatted her compatriots across the back of their heads. “It’s the captain, you anvil monkeys!”

The group stopped and spun, approximating rough attempts at the position of attention, and one even saluted her. Morwen couldn’t help the smile that threatened to tease at her lips. She inspected their progress. They’d been blasting the corridors with what were effectively laser torches cast from their hands. She gave them a firm nod.

“Excellent progress today. I figured you lot could use some extra muscle. Mind if I tag in?”

They all bobbed their heads eagerly. “Aye!” The female who Morwen came to find out was named Siritalyn Graystone. Siritalyn was known as something of a community leader and, like Pack, she was good at wrangling cats and dwarves. Under her guidance, the Forge Dwarves had made great strides into the interior of the Thefaris. More and more of the great ship was being uncovered, though much of its function was beyond her for the moment. Content with the fact she had a divine artifact that she could wield against Ominek and the Sauridius, she’d settle for anything the ship chose to offer her.

Morwen assisted with Siritalyn and her group for much of the afternoon, cleansing the rest of the corridor and revealing the magitech core of the ship. The dwarves’ eyes widened to full saucers. Even Morwen herself was awestruck at the complexity of the core. The corruption covering it did nothing to dissuade them from admiring it.

“Alright lads, let’s get to work, eh?” Siritayln said.

The dwarves snapped into motion, circling the core and sizing the corruption up. None of them acted. They were simply gauging what they’d need. Siri stood on her tiptoes and then crouched and inspected beneath the core. As she circled around, the blood spread away from them. Morwen studied the blood and noticed it wasn’t avoiding them. It was being burned away in a sphere around them.

“Siri, what spell are you using that is burning away the blood?”

“Hmm? Oh, I cast an astral sphere around myself. Means anywhere I walk it burns away the corruption. Takes a big chunk of yer pool to maintain, but at the right magnitude it’s an effective area attack against this goop. Persistent shite it is.”

Morwen mused on that. An astral sphere meant a sphere that did radiant and reverberating damage. Morwen figured it was the radiant damage that was doing most of that damage. If Siri knew this, she was no doubt already planning a plan that factored that in. She couldn’t help a pleased smirk. If she’d had any doubts about coming to get the dwarves, they were purged clean now, and soon? They would purge as well the darkness.

“Alright. I’ve got an idea.”

“Does it involve beer?” One male asked.

“No, ya drunkard. It does not.”

“Does it involve explosives?”

Siri beamed. “As a matter of fact, it does.”

Morwen’s brow quirked even as she smirked. This lot definitely reminded her of her squad. They all turned to her curiously.

“So. She can smile. What’s got ya grinnin’, Captain?”

“Morwen. Please, call me Morwen. And I’m only grinning because you lot remind me of some friends of mine.”

“If the thought o’ blowin shit up makes ya grin, then those be good friends in my not so humble opinion.” Siri said with a sage nod. “Shall I explain?”

Morwen gestured for Siri to continue. “Please do.”

The blood on the core seamed to thicken, like it was massing in anticipation of a pending threat…

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