Morgan hesitated before he answered and Iridia was kept in suspense, Kaleb had already read the answer on his face and was smiling for the decision was the best.

“I-I have decided to stay.”

Iridia’s heart sank in her chest and she looked down. She didn’t want to lose Morgan for she had grown attached to him in more ways than one.

Kaleb nodded and was pleased with the decision, the romance brewing between his neophyte and Morgan would become a troublesome thing, not to mention Morgan's chances of survival were reducing daily. “It is an excellent choice, I am proud of you for making it. It seems you found a great woman to tend to you as well.” He looked at the lady who’d merrily joined Morgan’s flank.

“Yes.” Morgan smiled and tried to catch Iridia’s face, but she was staring at the ground.

“She’s a pretty one!” Flencer chuckled.

“Her name is Milith-a-al”

She corrected him, “Millitha-alm-al”

Morgan laughed and nodded, “Still getting my tongue around this language, I’m tone deaf too it seems.”

Millitha-alm-al hooked her arm through his and pressed in close.

“My, lady…” Morgan addressed Iridia, “You take care, I will say it was an honour to meet and serve you.”

Iridia’s voice had choked and she kept her face down to hide tears, instead, she ran up to him and hugged him tight. “Goodbye, Morgan.” She backed away with her head still down, “I must ensure the equipment is packed…properly.” It already was and had been checked twice over, but Iridia had to remove herself.

“Flencer, you are an interesting man...Dwarf…I wish with all my heart that you are forgiven and can grow with your love.”

Flencer smiled wide, “My lad, I couldn’t ask for anyfink more, and it looks like your love is budding too, I’m sure Kaleb will let you know if I am successful.”

Morgan beamed brightly and looked up to Kaleb, “Kaleb, thank you for everything, you took me in when I wasn’t wanted, and you taught me something very important,” he cleared his throat, “One’s true goal is not to have more, but to need less.” He smiled proudly as he rhymed it off, “I need for nothing.”

The two looked at each other a moment before Morgan broke away from his new lady and hugged Kaleb, the hug was returned gladly. “Now be gone.” Kaleb pushed him off gently.

Morgan wiped his eyes and walked away, glancing once over his shoulder as he disappeared into the welcoming crowd of his new family.

“Kaleb, I would like to speak to you briefly before we set off.”

Kaleb looked at Gin-rith and raised a brow, “We?”

“It’s clear that I am to accompany you.”

“I suppose it’s only fair I put you under my protection seeing the damage I caused.” Kaleb pursed his lips in thought.

Gin-rith chuckled, “I assure you, you’re the one getting something from my company, you’d be food for the worms. My exile was destiny, and I know for why that is, perhaps it’s the work of your divine heart.”

Kaleb looked at the pack stag that was now being loaded with his equipment. “You give us too much.”

“I do not give you enough, that blade sung a song that has captured me, I must serve it anyway I can, you must succeed, I have something more precious for you than a stag.”

Kaleb folded his arms, wary of gifts from strangers, a lesson learned well in his youth. “The thing you caused a big row about I assume? My diplomatic relations with your kin are already dripping into the sewage tunnels.”

Gin-rith took Kaleb by the arm and guided him to a table where two Half-Elves stood guard, their armour was uniform but tattered and missing bits. They clasped rusty weapons. The closer one looked at these people the more dire their situation is brought to light.

On that table was a dainty wooden box that was carved in such a precise and meticulous way. Anyone with an eye for craftsmanship could see an artisan had poured more than his talent and knowledge into each stroke of brilliance. The contents were sacred. Kaleb was concerned that taking this from the Half-Elves was a dreadful idea.

“In this box–” Gin-rith waved the guards away who looked at each other and moved aside, unsure of themselves, before continuing: “The Azure vault lays,” he opened it and Kaleb watched over Gin-rith’s shoulder with tentative fret at what he’d be plucking from their hearts. Sitting on white silk was a necklace, a blue gem the size of one’s thumb tip was held by a golden claw. Kaleb saw himself in the crystal staring back with a dumb look of ignorance that had guided him here in the first place.

“I’m not one for jewellery, it’s very pretty mind you.”

Flencer had joined them and looked into the box. “Fine gem that, might need that for me lady over in the Elven lands.”

Gin-rith smiled. “This my dears, is not a trinket made to impress, but a vault.”

“Ah, a magic chest.” Kaleb nodded knowingly, smug in his brilliance for just a fraction of a moment.

Gin-rith shattered that smugness with a patronising guffaw, slapping him on the back. “Oh dear, you really are that ignorant to magic. No, this is a vault not a box with a trick weaved into its wood.” Gin-rith took up the pendant and chain and dropped it over his head, it gleamed on his bare chest, his robe slightly open. “Take my hand, each of you.”

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Flencer and Kaleb did so.

Gin-rith sang a playful rhyme; “Imith-Idith-Allath-Igith” and the three were transported to a bare crystal cave. The walls reflected themselves infinitely like a kaleidoscopic dream.

Kaleb and Flencer turned around, trying to catch their sense of direction but were overcome with dizziness and confusion. “Where are we? What is this place of madness?”

“You are inside the stone, the stone now lays on the floor…vulnerable. Inside here you are to store the blade, it will be safe from all prying hands.”

“Unless we lose the necklace.”

“I assure you, the vault will be harder to snatch from your neck than it would a sword from a pithy box, you can also swallow the gem in a dire pinch.” He smiled ruefully at Kaleb, “Though, you will pay a price for that.”

“One can only imagine.”

“I ate Mertha’s dragon stew once, I dun need to imagine.” Flencer snorted.

“How do we get out?”

“With these words: Imith-Idith-Allath-Igith.” With that, the trio returned and the pendant was on the floor at their feet. “Those words Imith-Idith-Allath-Igith, you must remember, say them correctly and call them well and if holding the gem it will take you and all that you touch into the vault.”

“Someone could just carry me away while I’m inside.”

Gin-rith smiled. “This is true, in a way, the gem will weigh its contents, no normal man could have lifted it, but still, use it wisely.” Gin-rith paused and took on a serious expression. “This is a powerful artefact but I must warn you, if you forget the words while you are inside, you will be trapped, Also, if the gem is broken while you are inside, well I do not know but your escape will not be possible.” He picked the necklace up and placed it around Kaleb's neck.

“Thank you for this, you give me a great gift, I cannot repay you.”

“Yes you can, find the demon's name, have the Elves sing into the blade and vanquish that foul beast, free our woods that our people may live once again, that Morgan will see how his people flourish in these lands.” Gin-rith all of a sudden looked much older, the lines in his face were caught by the glow of a floating lantern, carried by a spell of the Half-Elves. “I must help your party through these woods.”

Kaleb patted him on the shoulder, noticing a dower-looking Iridia in the distance, he strode towards and tapped on her back. She was pretending to check the stag over, “Usually you should unbuckle the bags to check what's inside.”

Iridia placed her hand flat on the stag's side, not turning to speak. “You didn’t even try to convince Morgan to stay with us, it’s like you wanted him gone.”

Kaleb put his hand on her back. “It’s for the best.”

She turned, her glassy hazel eyes meeting his, “Best for who? You?”

“You and him,”

“I..”

“You must focus on your training, I assure you this pain is measured only half by that of losing him in another way.”

“What would you know?” Iridia scowled with impudence.

“I had a lady once, the Necromancer showed her to me again.”

Iridia bit her lip and looked down, listening but unable to maintain eye contact.

“She was married away to a dignitary and I thought that was that, it was not that.”

Iridia kept her gaze on Kaleb’s feet. “What was it then?”

“She had become a financier to a Paladin house in Angelspree and returned, she was siphoning money out to pay for her husband's mercenary business, which was cooking contracts by staging raids on small villages, bad stuff.”

“What happened?”

“I hanged and quartered them in Angelspree Square.” He paused, “I begged the Emperor in a letter to let someone else do it.” Kaleb licked his bottom lip, “He wrote back; he said he was aware of my love for her, and that there would be no better way to show my loyalty to the Emperor and my connection to the divine heart, than by spilling the guts of a whore I once loved.”

Iridia looked up at Kaleb.

“The letter was wrong though, because I still loved her, and she begged and pleaded, she cried and called my name as I bound her, she asked for a lover's mercy, and I gave her nought but the edge of my blade, I emptied the contents of her stomach onto the cobbles of that city and I walked away.”

“I’m sorry–”

“Your apology is not warranted, but I will warn you, as a Paladin if you keep the ones you love the closest, you will watch them die and if they fall to corruption and their artery becomes withered and black, pumping evil back into the heart, your piety will be tested and if you fail that test, I will be called upon to re-educate you, and that is a lesson you are taught only once.”

Iridia nodded and leaned forward to press her forehead into his chest. “I am not sure I can do this,”

“Your feeling is true, and I feel it the same.” Kaleb brought his arms around her. “I will miss Morgan too, and I am sure he will miss us.”

Iridia nodded into Kaleb’s breastplate, The steel was hard on her cheek but it still felt comforting knowing a heart beneath it beat alongside hers, drumming with fret and pumping worry and doubt, the blood carried with faith. “Seeing my father again felt so real, I couldn’t see through it without the divine heart’s intervention.”

“It felt real to me too.”

“You prayed to the divine like me? To see the truth?”

“No.”

“How did you know then?”

“I didn’t…”

“Then how did you escape?” She prised her cheek from his chest, her damp skin had adhered slightly to the metal. “How?” She urged Kaleb to speak, sensing his apprehension. “Do not make it another lesson for later, however clever you think it may be.”

“She came to me, she said she had escaped and we could run away together.”

Iridia nodded.

“She told me how she had money and could get me away from Angelspree and the cruel edict of the emperor to have me kill her in such an unbecoming way.”

Iridia stepped back and studied Kaleb's face, it was like stone and did not give way to the words he spoke, flat and forthcoming, true and immovable.

“I dashed her brains across the wall.”