Rithys had been called to the mortal world at Cyrona's request. Her misgivings aside, Rithys left her beloved sanctum for the open expanses just south of the mortals' great city of Methrangia. When she appeared atop a tree, Cyrona floated along the ground to meet her.

"How did I know that this is where you would come?" the Water Angel asked with a laugh.

Rithys smiled, but did not provide an answer. Cyrona gently glided up to Rithys and pointed toward the mortal camp surrounding a small city along the southerly meanderings of the Keldras River. It was a tightly clustered little settlement with short rocky walls and stout little tan stone buildings.

"What do they call that one?" Rithys asked, pointing toward the city.

Cyrona glanced confusedly at the Night Angel.

"That city? That is Wovgrehnd," Cyrona answered with a sigh. "I merely ride the river past it most of the time and have never frequented it."

"Perhaps you should," Rithys cheerily chirped.

Cyrona's watery body quivered.

"Not after what Forynda did to Zarmand. I have no intention of subjecting myself to having to answer for that," she lamented. "I still cannot believe that she lost the Golden Aura."

Rithys frowned and looked out on the soldiers drilling on the grassy field. They wore heavy black iron armor and predominantly wielded pikes. She noted that they had a deflated air to them. She felt much the same from Cyrona and reached out her hand to rest it on Cyrona's shoulder.

"That was why you called me here, is it not?" Rithys asked.

"Yes. I need you to help Tathyk guard this area. Before you complain, I am not asking you to fight mortal or angel. Merely thwart, however you see fit, Parlon or any of the others coming this way," Cyrona said, pointing to the river's opposite side. "Without Forynda's threat hovering over them, they will come and soon. They very nearly did at the battle north here. Now, I am certain they will strike."

"Where will you be?"

"Helping Simel and Vorlan," she said with a dismissive tone. "It is unfortunate we were left with what we have, but that is what happened. I will plead with Forynda to descend here again. She is ashamed and I understand why. All of that granted, she is still stronger than anyone."

Rithys nodded lightly.

"Safe voyages, Rithys," Cyrona smirked and skipped on orbs of water to the river before riding the waters north.

Rithys floated motionlessly above that same tree for hours while she monitored the happenings near the city of Wovgrehnd. It was generally very quiet, even with continuous drills from the soldiers she learned were actually from far away Karmand, the sister city of the now destroyed Zarmand. Not understanding mortal sympathies, she at first wondered if they would feel a particular bond with those Forynda had slain and would therefore defect. Tathyk, who milled about in the fields nearby, gave her a far different perspective on the matter.

"The two cities are so far apart that they have neither affections nor resentments toward one another. Merely, they do not even think of the other's existence with any regularity," the Harvest Angel told her, his seed-like eyes turning upside down and the soil comprising his face drooped.

The city of Wovgrehnd, Tathyk cautioned, was a far different matter. It was close enough to Zarmand that news of Zarmand's destruction at Forynda's hands had been received with shock and anger. He told Rithys that it would not surprise him if there was significant sympathy in the small river city for revenge against the High Angel and her followers.

Indeed, there were rumblings up and down the river of both ordinary citizens and soldiers deserting to Emperor Duronaht's armies and the dissident angels who supported them.

In the early afternoon, Rithys suddenly heard something she had not in years. A strangely familiar melody coming from the east. It warbled across the skies like the tweets of songbirds, but it was far more pronounced. Tathyk, floating near Rithys and manipulating the growth of beautiful blue flowers nearby, surged forward to the east.

"Parlon," he muttered, his voice rumbling. "Rithys, protect the city. I will face him."

She floated rapidly toward the city of Wovgrehnd, which erupted in ringing bells and shouts for the citizens to take shelter. Rithys took to floating over its central clocktower, which had bells on either side that rang furiously as the citizens scrambled along the cobblestone streets to get back to their homes.

To the north, the soldiers in their black iron armor formed up into tight ranks and marched toward the Keldras River. Tathyk floated at their vanguard. Parlon's singing became louder and louder. At last, she could see him emerging from a patch of trees near the river's opposite bank. His skin was mottled between its typical golden hue and a strange sickly purple that spread across it. He weeved back and forth dramatically while he floated across the river, throwing his voice randomly from one end of the field to the other.

He glanced at Rithys as he approached Wovgrehnd. At first he kept singing as he had been, with his strange chirping melody. After staring at Rithys as she floated above the city, he changed his tune to something deeper and more sweeping in its character. It was almost sweet and seductive. His voice was now rich and resonant, rumbling the waters and windows as far as her vision could see.

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Then he stopped at once and hurled two bolts of purple and red flame toward Wovgrehnd. Rithys watched as the shots arced in. She summoned white disks and projected them forward at the shots. Both bolts bounced harmlessly off her shields and the flames splattered off to the sides of the city, singing the grasses, but quickly dissipating.

"That was no fun of you, Rithys," Parlon teased her while floating around the city walls. "There's a simple matter of vengeance, you see. Forynda destroyed Zarmand and I was rather fond of that city. This little place, I could take it or leave it. Leave it in flames, that is."

There was a quality to his voice she had never heard before. It was unlike anything from an angel. It was contorted and twisted.

"I will not let you, Parlon," she replied calmly.

"And why is that? Why do you care?" Parlon's amethyst eyes flashed a bright violet as he smirked. "You have scarcely ever visited the mortal world. You cannot even name a single mortal who lives within these walls."

Before Parlon could say anything more, Tathyk swiftly approached and pointed toward the Music Angel while floating just outside the city walls.

"Parlon! Leave this place at once!" the Harvest Angel boomed, his voice sounding as though the ground itself heaved upward.

In response, Parlon floated near Tathyk and placed a finger just under his own lips. He glanced at the regiments of black iron plated soldiers trotting toward him.

"Hmmm... No. I think I will stay," he said mischievously. "After all, Forynda can no longer just come down here and smite me."

"I am not to be trifled with, Parlon," Tathyk rumbled back.

"We shall see about that," Parlon cackled and let loose a strange dark pulse with a clap of his hands.

At once, the front ranks of the soldiers fell over onto the ground and rolled about in their armor. Rithys was baffled at the sight. Tathyk quickly snapped his head back at Parlon.

"Enough of this!" he shouted at Parlon, his eyes turning deeply downward.

Parlon grinned and shrugged.

"You are welcome to try to stop me, Tathyk," he lyrically declared and floated past Tathyk toward the regiments.

His music filled the air again. Frenetic and crazed notes bombarded all in sight. Many of the soldiers began fighting one another, albeit clumsily, while Parlon glided around them, his robes waving to his side as he moved his hands through the air.

"You leave me no choice!" Tathyk howled as he summoned great chunks of earth, ripping them from the ground, and floated them in the air at his sides.

Parlon stopped and advanced toward the Harvest Angel.

"What is this? Are you going to throw those at me?" he chuckled in amusement.

Without moving, Tathyk did precisely that. Each of the hulking pieces of soil and rock flew at Parlon, who gracefully dodged them before they hit the ground, shattering. Parlon then held his arms wide as he began singing an even more frenzied and maddening tune. This time, Rithys felt enfeebled by it and she saw that Tathyk did, too. He dropped closer to the ground, scarcely maintaining himself above it.

As Tathyk crumpled in agony, Parlon floated around him, still singing, and mockingly shot dark purple crackling bolts at Tathyk. A few found their marks, despite Tathyk's attempts to deflect them, and caused the Harvest Angel to growl in pain.

Then, Tathyk summoned a cube of soil that surrounded him as he floated in the air. It was a strange sight to Rithys, seeing that brown earthen container surround Tathyk. Parlon appeared perplexed by it as well. He hurled his bolts at it to no avail. He also tried heightening the power of his own voice into a horrible sonic blast that rippled across the whole field, dropping every soldier to the ground where they held their heads in abject misery. Tathyk's shell, however, remained undisturbed.

"Very clever, my friend," Parlon hissed. He began to summon a far larger purple bolt to counter Tathyk's defenses.

Just then, however, four pillars of earth from all sides rose up and smashed into Parlon, pinning him where he floated for a brief moment. It interrupted his singing for just long enough that the soldiers, who had been sprawled upon the ground in their terrible suffering, began to rise again. Tathyk threw open part of the thick slabs of earth and rock to stare back at his foe. Rithys was happy to see that he had not been at all harmed by Parlon's earlier efforts.

Parlon, squirming in the vice grip of the pillars, scowled at Tathyk. He then shrank his mortal form into orbs of light and shifted just to the right of the pillars. He then summoned three great bolts with a single shrieking note and hurled them at Tathyk's shell. The Harvest Angel quickly slammed shut the slabs again and braced for the impact of those crackling projectiles. Each hit with a sharp explosion, blowing large pieces of Tathyk's earthen shield all over the battlefield.

Tathyk then hurled the whole of his remaining shell at Parlon. The Music Angel leapt backward toward a small grove of trees, avoiding the incoming menace. Rithys heard, for the briefest of moments, a roiling beneath the ground that sounded like muffled scraping. Then a surge of roots thrusted upward like a nest of spears. Several of them pierced through different parts of Parlon's mortal form. The Music Angel yelped in pain, but quickly disentangled himself by again transferring his mortal form out of the trap.

Palpably flustered, Parlon began his singing again, this time his notes took on a wrathful pitch. While Tathyk had a ready solution with yet another earthen barrier he cast around him, Rithys did not. She fell downward toward the city, struggling to maintain herself above the city. She heard the soldiers collapsing to the ground again, but this time Parlon focused his ire most heavily upon his mortal foes, shooting toward them at terrifying speed.

Rithys saw Parlon summon forth a great wall of his strange flames that swept through a mass of some dozens of them, setting them alight and causing their horrible screams filled the air as they perished. Rithys considered moving away from the city to stop him, but realized that would just leave the city unprotected should Parlon rapidly change his focus to keep his foes off balance. This was to be a dance of soil and song and she had little part in it. Tathyk unleashed another assault of chunks of earth and rock as well as pillars from the ground, none of them landing blows.

Parlon paused the battle to look upon what he had wrought with his devastation of a good portion of the mortal soldiers, many dozens of whom were now naught but ash. He smirked and bowed toward Tathyk, who opened up his dirt cube to float before the Music Angel.

"I did what I wanted to do here," Parlon cackled, glancing between Rithys and Tathyk. "I look forward to our next meeting."

With that, he floated away, rapidly moving back across the Keldras River.

Rithys approached Tathyk, who surveyed the losses Emperor Rohmhelt's army had suffered due to that brief assault of Parlon's. The charred husks of the slain were a grisly sight, their blackened skin clinging to their bones.

"I should have intervened," Rithys said to Tathyk.

"No. You did what was right. You protected the city," he murmured gloomily. "Parlon came to do something heinous just to prove that he could. Whether it was these men or Wovgrehnd, he would exact his toll today. We will see worse soon."