"Hey Brad, can I catch a ride with you?" Kayla asked innocently on Monday as I was headed out to lunch with the old team. I'd kind of been dreading this moment for a day and a half now. She knew things I'd prefer to keep separate from my work life, and if I didn't play along... who knew what might happen?

"Sure."

As soon as we were inside, she started listing off facts. "So, let's see. The land belongs to you. Your Esott asked his crew to work to develop it for you; seems to think it's pretty important. And oh just by the way, Esott in question, leader of your congregation that you and Felicity attend willingly, is freaking Jonathan Daniels. Can you please tell me how any of that makes any sense at all?"

Well crap. "What's wrong with Esott Daniels?" I asked, mostly to stall her.

She gave me the side-eye. "You're not from here, so maybe you don't know his reputation, but... it's been months. You've heard him preach, right?"

"Yeah, he's a bit of a firebrand. But I've also seen how he acts, sacrificing his own comfort to make sure no one at church goes without. That's what really counts to me, the way he doesn't just talk about the Path; he lives it." To be honest I wasn't sure I actually believed that, but it was easy to say to keep Kayla away from the actual uncomfortable questions.

"'A bit of a firebrand?' Brad, the guy preaches hatred against Evil and is trying to incite an alignment war."

"Huh. I must have missed that sermon. When did you see it?"

"Seriously? They've been talking about that guy on the news since forever."

I looked over at her and smirked briefly. "Would this be the same news media that you're always ragging on for their malicious slander of us where they just consistently get everything wrong?"

"Come on, that's not the point."

"Isn't it? You don't know him. But you know me, and you know Felicity. Do we come across as fanatical alignment-warrior types to you?"

"You, no. Jury's still out on her."

"Come on. I know you two don't exactly get along, but—"

"So why'd you dump me on her like that?"

I sighed. "Sorry. That was kind of petty of me. But not entirely; I did want you to be with someone you actually know."

"You wanted someone who knew me, to keep an eye on me, you mean."

"And yet somehow you still found out a bunch of things to ask uncomfortable, pointed questions about."

"Oh, I haven't even asked the uncomfortable question yet," she said. "Felicity told me you got the money for the land from Sir Zephyr?"

It's a good thing we were at a stoplight at the moment, or I might have accidentally jammed on the brakes. "What? Why would she tell you—" Then I noticed her looking at me. "She didn't tell you that, did she?"

"No, but you just did. And also that she knows about it."

I gripped the wheel painfully tight. "I thought you didn't want to know stuff about him. Didn't you call it 'above my pay grade'?"

"Yeah," she said. "But you know what's not above my pay grade? Friends mixed up in bad stuff. Say what you will about Jonathan Daniels, but just look at Zephyr and tell me he's not trying to start an alignment war. And you and Felicity are working with him? Seriously, what the actual Abyss?"

"You're jumping to the wrong conclusions again," I said as calmly as I could.

"Well what conclusion am I supposed to jump to when faced with facts like this?"

"You're not. You really just aren't, OK Kayla?"

She scoffed. "I didn't find what I expected when I followed you on Saturday, but somehow I'm still getting a lame 'this isn't what it looks like' out of you. Well, here's what it looks like: Sir Zephyr wants an alignment war. He met you and Felicity that one day in the dungeon. He's probably the one who caused the earthquake somehow. Did something mental-magicky so no one else has a clear memory of him. He recruited you guys, because you have ties to a church with similar goals as he does. He gave you money to buy land, out in the middle of nowhere, that the church is developing for him, probably with covert financing from him one way or another. That's probably where he hides out when he's not going around pretending to be Meþas and stirring up trouble. And you're protecting him, and you're being all cryptic about it when a friend who's actually on your side asks some very reasonable questions.

"That's what it looks like, Brad. So what part of that isn't how it looks?"

"...wow. OK, yeah, I guess that looks really bad. It's also so completely wrong that I don't even know where to start."

"Start at the part where you two met him in the dungeon."

"Come on Kayla, you were there. You know that's not what hap...ugh. No, you don't know, because his stupid mind spell probably has it all muddled for you. What happened was I met him. Not we. Felicity was with you and the rest of the party while you were searching for me, and I was with him. She had about as much trouble remembering him afterwards as you did."

Stolen novel; please report.

"Just you. So he wasn't there arranging a meeting?"

"No, and he didn't cause the quakes that broke it open. What he was actually doing there, that's legitimate 'above your pay grade and dangerous' stuff, but it had nothing to do with the church."

"So why's he buying land for the church to develop?"

"He's not. I... this is actually so dumb you're just going to laugh, but I swear it's the truth."

"OK, what happened?"

"I didn't know who he was or what he was up to back then. Just that he was lost in the dungeon. I helped him out and did him a few minor favors. Nothing particularly serious. He repaid me with a gemstone that turned out to be more valuable than either of us really expected. I sold it to a jeweler and got enough money to buy some land. Again, nothing to do with the church."

She didn't laugh. "Why buy land out in the middle of nowhere?"

"Because the money was good but not that good, and have you seen the cost of housing these days? I figured my best shot was to build my own."

"No. That's a lie. I can buy you wanting a house, but you're a city boy through and through, Brad. You wouldn't try and build one, especially not way out in the middle of a monster-infested tract of wilderness, just to have one."

"OK, yeah, there's more to it than that, but I truly am building a house there."

"With the church's help. Because Esott Firebrand thinks it's just that important for you to have a house in the middle of nowhere."

"That was mostly Felicity's doing. I mentioned to her that I had no idea how I was going to actually get the house built, and she organized a bunch of church members to come help out as an act of service."

She shook her head. "No. Look, Brad, I know you. I worked alongside you for months and months before you were dumb enough to do something smart enough to get yourself transferred off our team. And that's not you. You wouldn't go buying land to build a house with no clue how you were going to actually get the house built. You don't act like that; you don't think like that. And you're not telling me the important stuff."

A random thought flashed through my mind. Was this what I sounded like to Terenaþ?

"Yes. I'm not. Because the stuff I'm not telling you is dangerous, and I know you too. You're the lighthearted, fun one, the life of the party. You visit a silly toy dungeon dressed in a ridiculous cosplay outfit and you don't care because you know full well there's no real danger, so you get to have your fun with some fake danger. And there's nothing wrong with that, but all this? The stuff I'm not telling you? There's very real danger here, and I want to keep you out of it. I'll tell you this much, though. Yes, I'm involved. So is Felicity. But we're not acting as part of the problem; we're trying to avert it. We want the same calm, peaceful, alignment-war-free world that you do, and frankly so does Esott Daniels. He just doesn't quite believe it's possible to avoid, so he's focused on the next best thing."

"Protecting his congregation?" she asked as the pieces fell into place in her head. "Building a refuge out in the middle of nowhere to take shelter in?"

I nodded. "I haven't asked him in so many words, but yeah, I'm pretty sure that's his motivation here. I don't share his pessimistic outlook, but I'm pragmatic enough to accept the help offered even if the reason for offering it doesn't end up materializing."

"Isn't that kind of taking advantage of them?"

"Not if I help them out in return when someone else needs something. Plus, just in case things do go wrong, it wouldn't hurt to be prepared."

"You know, I should probably be mad at you for saying that about me but..." she sighed. "You're not wrong. I do dungeons for the fun of it. Real danger? Count me out please."

"Yeah, I don't like it either. Scares the crap out of me sometimes. But I like even less what would end up happening if I can't head this off."

We were approaching the restaurant now. "Brad?" she asked as I started to pull in. "How sure of all this are you?"

"That there's real danger coming?"

"That you and Felicity can somehow do something about it."

"Pretty sure."

"Can you prove it?"

"In my experience, when someone says 'prove it' it's because they don't want proof and won't accept any evidence you offer."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. This isn't that. Do you have anything to show that you can actually make a difference here, that this isn't just a couple young people acting on their feelings?"

"Yeah, but you probably wouldn't like it."

"Hmm?"

"There's faith and gods involved. We're acting off of multiple Guidances that have led us this far."

"You're serious here? Actual no-joke Guidances? Like in the movies?"

"Pretty much. Voice changing, cryptic warnings, all of it somehow panning out in the end, the works. There are real powers working to head this off, and we're part of it."

She took a deep breath as I pulled into a parking stall. "Then I want to help."

"Didn't you just say you wanted to stay out of danger?"

"Yeah, but that bit about wanting what's coming even less? That's me too. I'm not really religious, but if this is something that has the gods concerned enough to intervene, I'd be a fool to not take it seriously. So yeah, I want in. Hopefully in some sort of safe role, if you've got one."

I put the car in park and opened the door. "Maybe. We'll talk later."

We went inside and gathered around a table with the rest of the team, chatting about whatever like we always did. It felt nice to just relax and get away from all the heavy stuff for a bit.

So of course that's not what happened.

"Hey Kel, why are you looking so down?" Kade asked after a bit. "You've usually got some fun video to show everyone, but today you're all broody."

Kelamek sighed. "Sorry," he said. "I just... I probably shouldn't... aww, screw it, yer gonna hear about it soon enough anyway. Got news from home. One of our border garrisons was attacked by Nether Goblins. No word on the outcome yet, but it sounds bad. And my cousin's stationed there."

This drew looks of alarm from just about everyone. "You saying it's finally starting?" Torrin asked.

"What is finally starting?" Apogee asked him, looking confused.

"You don't know about the Netherworld Tribes, the hordes that the Buffer States are a buffer against?"

"I know that there are goblins and deep dwarves down there that are not friendly. The empire is always in negotiations with them that seem to do a great deal of nothing."

Kelamek shook his head. "What they do is keep them contained, giving them reasons to focus on how much the tribes all hate each other and not attack us instead. For over a century now the numbers have been pretty clear: if they ever put aside their grudges long enough to unify, they'd come pouring out of the deep and wash over the empire like a tsunami. Vile things breed like bunnies and swarm like ants."

"And now you believe they are attacking?" Apogee asked.

"Could be just a skirmish," Kelamek said. "They've happened before. But if this is a for-real horde assault..." he looked somber. "Means we've got dark times ahead."

Oh gods. Oh gods. I felt sick to my stomach. I'd been so focused on Gareth and the possibility of an alignment war that I'd never even considered a for-real war against external Evil. But that was what the Guidance had said, both mine and Esott Daniels': the goal was not to avert the oncoming darkness; it never had been. It was to create a bulwark that could stand against it.

While everyone was looking nervous, Kayla must have come to the same conclusion I did. She met my eyes and silently mouthed "build it!" at me.

I texted Felicity and Esott Daniels with the news, hoping they'd have some idea of what to do. Because I certainly had no clue!