It was the valley from before, where I'd tested the portals. The smoke was no smoke at all, rather the steam from the many hot springs laced throughout drifting upwards in billowing plumes. I wasn't sure if I should curse, or laugh, or weep at the sheer irony. There was one thing certain though, I knew which way to go to get home, and that was worth cheering for. If any of those men had kept up their chase they'd be in for a real surprise when Durin's people fell upon them like wolves on a carcass.

As soon as I managed to break into the heated bathhouse I found a good spot and passed out. Dras' attempt at making a spa were dumb, but beggars couldn't be choosers and I'd soon be headed somewhere I knew I could be safe. The benches here may be unpadded stone, but they were certainly better than nothing.

The next morning I made my way to one of the heated pools. A few spells cleaned out the small amount of mess that had made its way into the steaming water and I slipped in. The liquid warmed my bones and calmed the aches of travel as I relaxed and let myself drift a bit. Someone had even been so kind as to leave behind a bit of soap, which was promptly used to scrub layers of filth from skin and hair.

I even took the time to do a quick wash on my clothes. I had a cleaning spell, but it behaved odd on a lot of things. Floors and walls, and other hard things were no problem, but on skin it stripped the hair and left everything feeling a bit dry, and on clothing it had a tendency to damage cloth over time. Between that and my self-imposed restrictions on mana use I'd ended up smelling something awful.

The missing hand was still bothering me something fierce. I'd managed to keep rebuilding down the arm and would have eventually fixed it up, but the sheer oddness of trying to move around without both was jarring me still. Time after time I reached up to grab something only to realize that I couldn't, and I still felt like there was something there, my mind not yet accepting the configuration of my body.

I didn't know how long I stayed in the bath, but eventually I had to leave. I needed to continue on, regardless of how much I wanted to stay I still had people after me, and just collapsing here would not do. So I rose, dried everything off with magic and began the process of packing to leave. If I hurried it wouldn't be too much longer before I was back at Durin's fortress, I could relax after that.

As I pulled my pack on and took a bite of the last bit of bear meat I was convinced was truly safe I heard a noise. There was an explosive crash, followed by the sounds of shouting. In an instant my blood turned to freezing ice, numbing me to my core. Surely I hadn't taken that long? Would my enemies have already caught up? I spun invisibility around myself and prepared to fight or flee, depending on what I saw when I left, then I headed for the door.

Captain Omar

I never really thought I'd be back to this place. After our stop during the testing of those new gates I did have to admit it was nice, but it was still rather... out in the middle of nowhere. Though if you really wanted somewhere where the researchers and soldiers from your secret ice base could relax I suppose it fit the bill quite nicely.

As it stood one of the new gate models, fresh from production was being put up. The pair of wizards setting it up was now under much heavier guard after reports of an assault on one of these teams. It was an easy enough job keeping an eye on them while they did their work. I'd been told in no uncertain way that these two didn't know how to make more, they were just here for setup, I was still to kill them if it looked like they may be captured though.

At the least they were making a quick job of it, we'd only been here for an hour or two and they were already finalizing the basic protections. Before noon we'd be ready to call for an inspection. If rumors were to be believed someone major wanted to give this place a look themselves, one of the generals or someone.

Rooke

By mid afternoon we'd crested the mountain and were looking for where in the world my erstwhile former student had run off to. Our last living knight Sir Leonard turned, hissing.

"You see something?" I asked, concerned. The last time we'd missed something important a lot of men had died.

"Smoke, lots of it. Wait, no, steam?" He looked confused, his eyes settling off in front of us and to the East a bit.

"Smoke or steam? It could be important."

"Steam, and movement, lots of it, people. Sir, she'll have gone, and we need to move fast."

I turned to what was left of our group. "Fall in everyone, I'm going to cast a rather big spell. Sir Leonard, find the girl and quickly, kill anyone who gets in the way." I looked at our bard, "Kaleb, take out everyone you can, screams, low burst, we need to disable fast, other than that I'll leave it to you." He nodded. Finally I set my eyes on the traitor. "Stay out of our way, keep the hounds close, to you, interfere and you'll suffer."

I was not as powerful as grandfather, but it mattered little. I spun magic out from myself in the same manner as his escape spell. Around us a ball formed of light and purest force, cushioning us as we sped off. The whole thing was mana intense, but there was little time to worry if we were to capture her.

I struggled to keep the magic in place as we flew though the air like a stone from a sling. This was the fastest I could go, but I hesitated to use it because of the difficulty and danger. They would know when we arrived.

Through the slight yellow haze of the magic I saw the mass of men pouring out around some central square and aimed to one side. I needed to take as many of them out as possible while still giving us good firing lines, and this was it. I'd have to depend on the shield's power as we landed, but it would be enough. This was some kind of military formation, with a man coming down the center, some leader. I'd want to take him out, but that would put us surrounded by all his men, and that was a fool's move.

"Make ready, for the king!" It was a shame I couldn't share my insights with the others in time. They were good though, and I could depend on their abilities.

We struck with an explosive force, and in a credit to training all came out ready to fight. Kaleb roared power into the crowd of surprised soldiers while I followed with a wave of force.

As my second spell blew away the dust though I saw something which both excited and sent a thrill of worry. Standing still in the center of the square, surrounded by the men we'd blitzed to the ground was a figure I'd not expected.

"My my, what an entrance." The false emperor said calmly as he brushed dust from his pitch black cloak. To either side a pair of guards had taken up defensive stances.

I smirked at him, false confidence flaring. "Well, I was coming for a troublesome escapee, but to find the arch-traitor himself, how wonderful."

"Take them," Durin said to his men, and the battle began.

Alana

I made a short range teleport out the building's door, covered in every defense I could manage and hidden well from sight. As the first light hit my eyes the ongoing battle spread into view. Everywhere around were men of the Empire, their black armor striking against the light dusting of snow on the ground. Many were down, many dead, but near the center the fighting was fierce.

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It was three on five, but that didn't mean the fight was easy. I saw Rooke, slinging spell after spell, beside him a knight with great-sword flashing in the sun, and if I had to guess from the scream attacks, a bard. Opposing them were four men I didn't know, a caster of some kind and three armored knights, all formed around... Emperor Durin?

While they may have been outnumbered Rooke's men were giving a magnificent showing. The casters slung attacks while the knight blocked the approach of opposing warriors. The bard's attacks may not have been too effective against his enemies, but he did enough to push back and distract the opposing guards, letting the knight hold his ground. Rooke was their big gun though, and threw spell after spell at Durin, enough that his own caster was struggling to keep them from the emperor.

I began to sing, for I knew which side I was on. It took a few moments to process and begin the spinning up of magic and in that time I watched two of Durin's guardians fall to the knight's blade. The bardic support enough to throw them off at critical moments, something a filed away for later.

The bard was my first target, and I used my new attack spell. As he drew in breath for another scream, one to throw the last guard and perhaps distract Durin himself he gasped. The man looked like his eyes would bulge form his head as a hand went to his throat, trying to find what was sweeping his breath from his lungs.

The knight moved to engage Emperor Durin, having not yet realized his support was gone. I'd never seen Durin fight, but he advanced without fear, having gained a two-hander of his own from somewhere. The two clashed steel and in an instant it became clear that the knight was out of his league.

"Hit him!" He screamed at the bard, not knowing that the man had fallen to his knees and was clawing at his throat. An instant later the knight's neck met an emperor's blade, and found itself wanting.

While this happened my former teacher proved that he was more than skilled enough to instruct others on magic. Durin's caster finally had his many shields and spells fail and was sent careening into a nearby stone building, where he crunched against the wall and fell motionless to the cold ground.

I was too busy with the bard, the concentration to defeat him with a very new spell too much for me to struggle with another spell at the moment. He'd realized it was a spell and was pushing as hard against it to resist as he could, something I'd never had to deal with before. Right as I feared he might shake it off a ragged looking man stepped in, impaling the bard with a spear he'd taken from one of the many fallen soldiers.

Durin

I didn't know what was going on, but that wizard indicated he was after someone. It could wait, for now I needed to survive this battle.

To one side a peasant-looking fellow was trying to kill that damnable bard. Something else was going on there though, even from the corner of my eye I could see the man had already been struggling against some invisible foe...

A missing captive? An invisible foe? Oh, this might be good, but only if I could make it through. I'd already activated my emergency items and soon enough backup would be here.

I recognized the mage I was up against though, and that was bad. I'd not seen him in decades, but he came from one of the most honored of families, and they were honored for a reason.

"Hello Rooke, an honor to do battle with you," I said.

"Shut up bastard, once you're dead nothing else will matter." As he spoke some spell formed between his hands, a hateful brilliant red light pouring from what looked to be a firestorm compressed into a small ball.

As if I'd let him. I pushed with my feet and rocketed forwards like an arrow from a bow to cut him down before he could launch that destructive blast.

There was a feeling like striking a wall of steel and I bounced. He must have put some kind of shield up, that was bad. With my armor and defensive items... not enough, nowhere near enough for a direct hit from a duke level wizard. My brain so used to battlefields struggled to speed, to find some route of escape.

With a sneer of victory Rooke loosed his spell, the projectile arcing towards me like a miniature sun. Before it could hit though the air shimmered. A small circle appeared before me, swallowing the magic like the horizon overtaking the brilliant ball it so closely resembled.

An instant later, not even a blink the light from Rooke's spell reappeared, right beside him. It struck, bathing the world in brilliant light as it detonated against the wizard. I was thrown like a rag-doll, laughing internally the whole way.

While I tried to catch my breath I heard the fast pattering of feet against the hard ground. "Shit, shit, be alive, please be alive." I didn't open my eyes until she'd approached close, leaning over me and beginning to sing. For a moment I let her spell happen, and felt the healing flow gently into my tired, but mostly uninjured flesh.

There was so much to consider in that moment. This girl had clearly saved my life, even at risk to herself. She'd taken down my enemies, and unless I was very mistaken that last spell was a cast portal, something nobody I knew of could do, magic of legend. In the past I worried that she'd had secrets, and clearly that was so, but... she was also clearly with me. I could kill her and remove any fear of what she could become, or I could bring her closer. A risk but I was never one to shy from a risk.

As I slowly slid my eyes open I took a look at her. She was clean, but... rough. Her dress was that of a prisoner, thin and now worn ragged, patched in places with some kind of animal fur, her face tired and a bit sunken from bad diet.

A gave the kindest smile I could. "There you are Alana, we've been looking all over for you," I said, trying to sound weaker than I felt.

"I imagine so, it's been a bad time, a really bad time."

I slowly sat up and tried to register everything else. One thing stuck out at me. "Your hand..."

"Lost it when I escaped, long story." I imagined someone's head would be ripped off by her father after he heard that.

"Tell me later child; for now, my men are hurt, can you help them?" I nodded towards the many injured soldiers, some still alive.

"Of course," she said as she turned back to them and got to work.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a man looking at us as he struggled to pick himself up from the ground. This was the one who'd killed the enemy bard, and I went over to him to see what I could. As I approached the man knelt, like the peasants had before my ascension when any high noble gave them audience.

"I mean you no ill sir. These men, the ones who attacked you took my city. They killed our people, so many of our people sir. They'd have killed me too."

Sometimes one could do a good deed while achieving their aims, so I gently smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Rise my friend, you saved my life, and tell me of your home. Let us go and save your people, together."

I knew from the look in his eyes that those few words had bought me this man's loyalty, and when I did free his city, it would be eternal.