‘Now!’ cried Blink as they sprang from the tunnel and charged the fray of creatures holding Danu. Blink had drawn the white bone sword. He wanted not to have to use it, but it was preferrable to fighting barehanded and leaving Danu behind. He could feel the anger and power within the sword. It seemed to pulse up his arm into his heart, filling him with every beat. Blink pushed down the feelings and focussed on the enemy in front of him. He slashed with it slicing through the golgeist closest to him that was holding Danu and again cutting away at the vine that threatened to strike. The blade flowed as if through water tearing the arm from the creature and renting the vine in two. It let out a blood churning screech and lunged at Blink with its other claw. Danu used the moment to push free of the other golgeist and scramble for her staff. As she reached it so too did Pavreck. Danu tried her hardest to wrench the staff from his grasp, but he refused to let go.

‘Let it go you ugly sack of potatoes!’ she said through gritted teeth. Looking around, the others were doing their best to manage the other golgeists. They seemed to keep coming in droves from deeper within the tunnels. Danu could see through the corners of her eyes the shifting dark green form of Ra’Handa whirling and dancing through the air with her blades. She tore the creatures apart with a series of elegant movements just like a bird effortlessly slices the currents of air with its wings. Nessus was not far behind her and although slowed from the still healing wound was managing to throw fire from their hands scorching the creatures and the vines. They hissed as the flames consumed them leaving twisted remains of charcoal as they fell. She couldn’t see Blink and Brigid. She hoped they were safe and then remembered the way she had seen them both fight in the past. She remembered the power of Brigid’s rune spells and the powerful rage that Blink had shown when wielding that strange sword. They could handle themselves. She needed to focus on getting her staff back. Danu stared down the gnarled wood of her staff at the vile being gripping it. He looked more disgusting than he had earlier if that were possible. His skin and hair were slick with sweat and his face contorted into a scowl of pure malice. Blightlings were creatures of vengeance and cruelty as she had always been told, but to have it given life before her was far worse. That shameful nightmare given form; a distorted memory twisted so irrevocably.

‘My lord will have you pretty thing. You will obey. You will bend to his will as all will whom think they reside in the light!’ he spat the words, his eyes bulging with zealotry.

‘I don’t give a bee’s fart about your rotten master!’ she said through gritted teeth. Oh if her mother had heard her now. She’d have had her switched so hard she’d not sit right for days. There was something thrilling about that.

‘Insolence! I am to be a God by his side! I will no longer be betrayed to the corruption and looked down upon. You will revere me,’ with that Pavreck gave one hard wrench of the staff tearing it from Danu’s hands. He swung it around and drove it hard into her gut knocking the wind from her. Danu hugged herself in pain and fought for breath to fill her lungs again. It burned as she tried to draw upon gasping desperate breaths. A pair of worn and blood stain boots moved toward her and entered her vision as he held her focus to the stony floor.

‘This staff… I feel it… I feel it growing and pulsing with life… The Mother’s life?’ Pavreck’s voice full of wonder and curiosity as he regarded the staff in his hands. ‘What? What is this?’ he said demanding an answer from Danu. She made herself look up. She could hear her friends fighting around her and the scrambling of the golgeists. It seemed they would never end; that they would never reach her in time.

‘Danu! Hold on! We’re coming!’ came the exasperated voice of Blink. So he was alive. She was glad to hear his voice and know he was coming. It was wonderful to have friends, people that would fight for her, to try and protect her. She thought about the friends she left behind in the woods, there had been few her age that she could tolerate in truth, but they had been her friends. Until she was cast out. Danu pushed their faces from her mind and looked up at the foul being of Pavreck. She stared hard at him in defiance. If only I could use it here. I promised I wouldn’t use it until the right time. The one he showed me before I left. But the staff… but my friends. Danu thought about the promise she had made to her people and Cernunnos. True she was no longer welcome with her people, but it was a promise of safety for all her people, one instilled in even the smallest of little ones. She thought of the wilds she spent all waking hours exploring. She thought of the great Cernunnos with his mighty horns and cloven feet. She thought of the gift he had given her. Maybe if I beast-shape I won’t have to use it. I might still be able to keep my promise.

‘No words?’, said Pavreck with a mixture of bemusement and superiority. He sounded as if he knew he had won this fight. If I can just get the staff from him. Danu began to focus her mind on the form she wished to take. If she could hold that in her mind, make every fibre of her body and soul believe it to be true, she could beat him. Her mind raced with all the animals of the wilds. A bear? No, too slow. Lion? Or maybe a wolf. Or should I just get away and come back for the others? A mouse maybe? The images and forms shifted so quickly it was hard to choose. It was hard to hold one of them in her mind long enough to become it. As her mind reeled it was replaced with the ringing throb of her head as one of Pavreck’s dirt covered boots kicked her. She tasted warm liquid metal in her mouth. Metal? Her head spun as she looked up at Pavreck. Why am I tasting metal? Blood… its blood. It took her a moment for her thoughts to catch up.

‘Arawn’Vyr will bring the Numinia to ground and make gods of us all. You would try to stop this? You?’ Pavreck said with crazed bewilderment. He gripped the staff and raised it above his head. Danu flinch awaiting the final blow. The blow she expected never came. Instead, he drove the staff into the stony floor. The putrefying smell of rotting plants permeated the air. Sickly green flows of The Torrent wove around him and the staff. Where the manifestation of the flows often showed glorious colour, these appeared to be slicked with a black oily substance. The Corruption? Here? He’s binding it to the flows of The Torrent. No wonder everything has felt wrong since we arrive, she thought viewing the terrifying scene. A blightling that had harnessed the The Corruption was unheard of; they were but victims of it, slaves to its control. This should not be possible. The flows that appeared were nothing like those of healing and life that came from Danu’s use of the staff. Where Danu’s sweetness and joy of life brought ever changing growth from the staff Pavreck’s did the opposite. The staff withered before her eyes, growing slimmer and harder. The bark cracked and to Danu’s ear it sounded as if the wood itself called to her in wailed despair.

‘This ends here! Bind them!’ he yelled and as he did the verdant green of The Torrent connected with the vines. They began to move with a newfound vigour and sprang to life. The vines grabbed at Danu and her companions, drawing and pinning them to the walls of the cavern. They were held fast to the walls and as Nessus tried to release flames to burn them away, he let out a yell of pain as the sharp needles pierced their skin. Danu and the others too called out in pain, and she found that all connection to The Torrent was severed. It was as if it never existed. She felt as though a piece of herself she had always taken for granted, would always be there, was suddenly torn from her. How? Nothing should be able to take away my connection to The Torrent… nothing! Danu searched her mind for reason. Nothing since their arrival in the town of Tory had made sense. The vines never grew this large and were not even native to the area. They certainly never turned people into golgeists or grew in dark caves such as this. They were small… they were opportunistic parasites that searched out the light. None of this should be possible, Danu thought to herself as she struggled against the pain and grip of the vines. How could a blightling have so much power? They were fell creatures abandoned by her people. How? It was then that it occurred to her that it was strange that a blightling should even be here. They were said to keep to the darkest parts of the woods, lowest of the lowly amongst their kind. Why should one be here? More questions than answers came to Danu as fear and doubt clouded her mind further. She struggled against the vines but with every movement she could feel trickles of blood flow more freely from the wounds of the needles. She turned her eyes as best she could to her companions. She couldn’t see them with head bound, but she heard them.

‘How’ve these things cut me off from Hennaka’s Will? How?’ said Nessus, the words like the suffering or a lost lover. ‘She is all things! It is not possible!’ they shouted.

‘You’re one of the Ghel then are you?’ asked Pavreck. ‘You’re people damned this world for your hubris as did you’re witch Hennaka. Arawn’Vyr will have you kneel before him in penance,’ he drew closer to Nessus’s face as he spoke the words. At least Danu thought he did. He moved out of her line of sight toward her side. Her head was held firmly against the cavern wall facing the tunnel depths from which the golgeists came.

‘Why are you doing this? How could you do this to all these people?’ came Blink’s voice.

‘When I get free from here you balls are gunna make lovely earrings for me you filth,’ was the gruff voice of Ra’Handa. Danu heard a chuckle come from Pavreck. He is insane, and vile and disgusting and… wrong… all of this is wrong. Wait! Why haven’t I heard Brigid or Wick? They have to be alive. They have to! By Cernunnos’s horns I pray they are safe. Please! Danu pleaded to herself and to Cernunnos. When she had finally been accepted as a druid of the Green Kin he had been there. He had saved her and given her the power to protect herself, he had given her a task, he had given her the staff. Of all those of his kin it was her he chose. He had told her that all she needed was the staff and to come to Dayargain. It was he that set her on this path with a promise. It had been her purpose.

‘Cernunnos… you would never have chosen me to leave the Wilds only to die, to see my friends die, to lose the staff to this monster…Would you?’ Danu spoke softly to herself. She looked toward the abyss of the tunnel before her. She felt it drawing her in, welcoming her to lose herself and all her doubts and pains. It was then that she saw something move in that darkness. Someone or something was there, watching, and waiting.

Brigid held her right arm and breathed against the wall of the tunnel from where the golgeists had come. She was bleeding heavily from one of those elongated claws. It felt like it was on fire and seething beneath the leather of her breastplate. She could hear Pavreck and his maddening ramblings and wished she were right back in the guild with Brinn and Rhett’Sa. She’d trade anything for one of Brinn’s motherly fussings. At this point I’d even settle for one of Innais’s lectures about proper rune control and not overstepping my mark. Not that she sees me much anymore… Not that Brinn even has time to fuss since she’s always with Innais. Brigid shook her head as if to shake the thoughts and longings free from her mind. It won’t help right now. No wishing or hoping is going to change anything. What would Innais tell me to do here? She thought to herself. Brigid thought about all the times Innais had lectured her on her proper form when using runes or that she would channel too much or too little of herself into them. She remembered begging her to let her join the guild on her thirteenth birthday. She had been upset because Dell and Terrick had been accepted into their own training long before her. They had only been mucking out stables and polishing boots and swords, but they were still part of something. They knew where they were going and what they wanted. Brigid refused to be left behind by them. She was the only one with real power. She’d been learning runes from Innais since before her parents died. Innais had become so hard and protective of her after they died. When she came begged to let her join, she refused and said a child had no place in that world. A child… she had been thirteen. No longer a child in the eyes of any seeking work in Dayargain, but also, not yet an adult able to make her own way. Brigid remembered those feelings of frustration and listlessness. She had, had such a desire and fire in her to get to her goal, to be something, to know herself. She decided then that she would find her own path and would no longer rely on Innais to give her what she wanted. Brinn had shown her the ways of the hammer and iron to begin with, but it was Brigid that wielded those learnings making them her own. When she became the guild blacksmith Innais had smiled at her and nodded her approval. Although she loathed Innais for her hardness, for never being the mother she deserved, she was grateful for the words that followed.

‘Where a girl stood before me and demanded she be given the world I now see only a woman having made the world for herself. You are most welcome here Brigid Leorossa’. That night she introduced Brigid to the guild members she had known all her life. They nodded and took her hand as though meeting for the first time.

There in the darkness of the cavern Brigid slumped against the hard rock wall and sighed. Innais showed her the way of runes, but Brigid was the only one that could show herself her own path, her own way. Brigid removed her pack and placed it next to her. Looking through all that she had brought with her, and a plan started to form. Just as she had made her own way to becoming a blacksmith so too would she use her own way to save her friends. She lifted from the pack some of the bog iron she collected from the cavern lake, and two small metal spheres. Handling the bog iron she thought carefully about the rune she wanted to form. She had not had time to study the iron enough to have it change its form, but she could imbue it with an explosive rune. With her index finger to she traced the shape onto the ore and lifting a lid in the metal sphere and placed it inside. With anther bag taken from her pack she filled the speres with a black power taking care not to get any on her hands or clothes. The black power was dangerous should it catch alight. The last things she needed was to set herself on fire the next time she used a flame rune. Carefully she sealed the lids and lay a final runic symbol on the outside of the spheres. The shape of the sphere itself would connect each of the explosive runes empowering them further, although she had kept them small, they would still drain her in the casting. I hope I’m right about the vines avoiding the bog iron. If not… the explosion should be enough of a distraction to get them out. Crouching low Brigid peered around the corner of the tunnel with the spheres in each hand. She was ready to make her move… to make her own way forward.

Blink struggled against the vines. The needle-like thorns piercing every part of his body made him snarl from the pain. Whatever he tried only made the pain worse. He could feel the swelling anger from within trying to find its way out. He had been trying to remain as calm as possible in the fight with the golgeists. He had sliced at them and maintaining a cool focus on reaching Danu, holding back the monstrous force within. He had been fighting two fights he realised and even now against the agony of the thorns he felt it pushing at the edges of his sanity. Where is the sword? He thought to himself as he scanned the cavern between grits of sharp tearing at his flesh. It lay on the ground far out of reach. He must have dropped it when the vines grappled him to the wall. Pavreck walked past it, ignoring it completely. He had been ranting about his lord and master. Some being that would be a god and free. It didn’t make sense to Blink. It all seemed like madness. He had known evil and cruelty in his life as a slave and Demera had taught him all he wanted to know about gods and their divine justice. The many nights he spent hearing Demera speak of Pethiarc and how he demanded obedience in all things. He had no love for the gods and this Pavreck was no better than Demera, doing terrible things in their name. Pavreck marched the length of them each pinned to the wall writhing in pain. Blink couldn’t understand how someone could murder an entire town, turn them the way he had, and think it purposeful and right. It had pained him to hurt those creatures knowing what they had been. Was this murder too then? Was this confirming him as a killer? No Danu needed help and it was the only way. It’s not murder if you have no other way…right? He asked himself, another internal struggle, another knot choking at his conscience.

‘When we have the numinian figures we will have the power to free him and you will know what it means to grovel before true power,’ he went on in his ranting. ‘We are so close now to the numinian…,’ he seemed to wake from his monologue and remember where he was. He searched the room with some embarrassment on his face. He looked to the golgeists standing nearby awaiting instructions. They wore the same empty expression with seemingly no awareness of what was happening.

‘Go! Finish digging! Go!’ Pavreck commanded. The golgeists shuffled to the discarded tools and resumed digging at a wall away from Blink and his friends. Strange, he thought looking at that wall with his grey vision, it appeared to be shaped stone slabs purposely paced. Something was within. Something was pas that wall for a reason.

‘We are so close. I can feel that Kolkiaravis is near. I know it!’ As quickly as Pavreck had returned to his senses so too had he returned to his mutterings and ramblings. Blink looked again to his sword on ground. He had been terrified of it when it had first appeared to him. He was still afraid of what it would do to him and why it continued to haunt him. He could hear the struggles and groans of his friends nearby. If only he could get free to help them. If only they had never gone to the guild. If only they had chosen another ship. If only Demera had not tortured him all those years in prayer to her own deity. If only… if only he had not been a slave. If only… he had a mother and a father to turn to. If only…

The thoughts and sounds around him began to subside and were replaced with a throbbing beat. His heart pounded in his chest and the blood seemed as though it would burst from his ears with each thud. He could feel it there. The anger and rage of his life and his circumstances. He could feel it willing to be released again. Has this always been there? This anger and regret? No… I accepted what my life was. I hadn’t felt it here until that sword arrived… had I? Deep inside himself he knew that there had been rage and hated there his whole life. It had never been allowed to escape. If he had ever showed it, he would have been hit harder, been strung up like some of the other slaves that wronged Master Horrog, or worse been made to disappear, no one ever knowing what had come of him, forgotten forever. No one to care or ask for him. The tempo of his heart grew wilder taking on a life of its own. It was like a gathering crescendo of drums mounting upon itself. His doubt and fear of the sword and this anger made up the thick veiled wall he held to keep it at bay. He looked at the sword intently. Hadn’t he summoned it before? Hadn’t the sword chosen him and come when he most needed it? Somehow Blink knew that all he had to do was give into it, to let it consume him completely. He knew that if in this moment he accepted it fully there was no return… Do I have a choice? When we have no good options in front of us can we really call it a choice? Can we really say there was another way? I have to. I have to. Fine!

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‘Get over here you stupid fucking sword! Fine! I’m yours! All yours! Just get us out of he…argghhhh!’ Blink’s voice broke off in a growl as the sword vanished from its place on the ground and appeared in his bound hand. He growled and gnashed and howled as he underwent the transformation. A heat like the one he first felt when he opened the box and held the sword licked around his limbs. The vines sizzled and hissed as the heat grew into flames. The vines around Blink fell away and he landed to the floor still holding the blade. His eyes were red, and his usual grey vision had become entirely consumed by the pounding blood red of his heart and body.

‘Blink don’t do this!’ he heard Ra’Handa call from behind. He ignored her. It was too late. He was angry. He was strong. He would cut away at Pavreck like the cancer he was for what he had done. He would make him pay for the suffering he had caused. For making Brigid cry, for taking Danu’s staff, for changing the people of Tory into these fell creatures of death.

‘Nessus do something to help him,’ Ra’Handa pleaded. Her voice sounded desperate at having to ask Nessus for help.

‘I cannot! Not until these vines are gone and I can touch The Torrent again,’ they said fighting against them. Ra’Handa struggled vainly and roared her half-orc plea. She was angry too and afraid for her friend. She didn’t want to lose her oldest friend to this, no, Blink was family, the only brother she had ever known. She didn’t want to have to ask Nessus for help. Blink stared down Pavreck as he turned on him. There was fear in his disfigured face.

‘I’m going to rip your arms off and beat you to death with them Pavreck!’ Blink’s voice was deeper than usual and with snarl in each word.

‘To me now!’ Pavreck called for the golgeists.

The creatures again returned in waves as they had before only now Blink was their only target. They had come much faster than their broken bodies would have seemed able to. As they lunged for Blink, he moved around them with ease. To him it seemed like they were moving through honey. As they raised their long-clawed hands to strike at him he sliced them clean away from their bodies, he dived and darted amongst them, and he bit and clawed at them himself in return. With each kill he felt the tides of anger rise and pull him harder into their tempest. This feeling was terrifying but better than anything he had felt in his life. He felt powerful and strong. He felt like he could do anything and nothing would ever stand in his way again. He would never be bound and made to suffer. He would kill whom ever tried, long before they could lay a hand on him. It was intoxicating. Blink wondered why he had been fighting this for so long. Why had he not given into it before? His pain could have ended long ago. As Blink continued his charge forward the small form of Wick emerged from his hiding place with a small knife in hand. The boy went first to Ra’Handa and began cutting at the vines holding her. Both he and the knife were small, but they were working. As Ra’Handa got one arm free she waved the boy away.

‘Get the others free. I can take it from here.’ The boy nodded and moved toward Nessus. Guttural roars and clanging rang out in the cavern behind, and Blink charged forward. No matter how many golgeists he managed to cut down more seemed to come. Pavreck too was making things difficult. Holding Danu’s staff pointed at Blink he was muttering and channelling flows of corrupted Torrent around him. A great gout of energy burst forth from the staff at Blink. It came as he was cornered on both sides by golgeists. He tried to move out of the way but took the brunt of the energy in his non-sword arm. The leather armour had melted away exposing skin that had blistered and rotted. It was blackened with free-flowing blood and puss from the decay caused by the magic. It didn’t stop him. He found within himself only more rage to draw from. It only made him want to fight harder. As Blink fought against the golgeists, Ra’Handa had gotten free and was helping Danu with her vines. Before long they had all escaped the needling grasp. They were bleeding and finding it difficult to stand. Nessus tried to connect to The Torrent but although the vines were gone, they were finding it difficult to do so. They could feel it there on the edges of his mind and skin, just out of reach.

‘Quick! All of you get back here!’ called Brigid from her hiding place. They saw her and made for her direction. All except Ra’Handa.

‘I’m not leaving Blink,’ she said defiantly.

‘We won’t have to leave him! Just trust me!’ she called. Ra’Handa only returned a stern look. She turned toward the battle before her. Blink an army of one against an onslaught of golgeists and Pavreck. She couldn’t leave him to that.

‘No!’ was all she said before running in to save Blink.

‘Curse you Ra’Handa!’ Brigid swore.

‘What are going to do?’ asked Nessus by her side. Danu said nothing. She was looking wide eyed at the rocky floor of the cave. It was only a staff. We can get it back or find another, Brigid thought to herself.

‘These will get us out of here,’ she said holding up the iron spheres. ‘Can you get Blink and Ra’Handa out of there? It’s going to make a real mess when they go off.’ Nessus gave her a worried look.

‘I… I can try… but I’ve not been able to connect with The Torrent,’ they said doubt and confusion in their voice. ‘There is one thing I could try… but it is ill advised.’

‘Do it. We won’t make it out of here alive otherwise,’ said Brigid. Whatever it is it’s going to have to work. This has to work. It has to.

‘Are you ready?’ she asked. Nessus began removing the gloves on their arms as an answer. The shifting colours of lights of The Torrent that were consuming their body radiated light in the caverns. They were beautiful and impossible to pin down any one colour or flow as they shifted. Brigid silently wished she could study them… if they ever got out of here alive she would do so. Once Nessus was done, they stepped out from the tunnel to view the fray. Ra’Handa was fending off several of the golgeists whist she tried to reach Blink. His movements had become more erratic and wilder. They were unpredictable and even when he found a moment to free himself from the waves of golgeists he moved further into the fight. He was enjoying this. It had become a sport to him rather than a fight for their lives. This was not the kind young man Nessus had met on the ship. The sight before them steeled Nessus’s resolve. They began making the hand movements that would channel the flows. As they did so their eyes glowed in vibrant violet, and The Torrent began to freely flow and form around their body. No this was not the same as channelling The Torrent. It was more alike that Nessus had become one with it and had given their body to the greater consciousness of The Torrent itself. Nessus now formed the same cage of hands and fingers that they had used once before to bind Blink. They focussed on all the creatures within the cavern and slammed their hand together locking it in place. As they did so the golgeists, Ra’Handa, Blink, and Pavreck all froze in their movements. Sweat poured in rivulets down Nessus’s face as they focussed all the will of The Torrent on holding them. It was like holding back a draft horse with one hand tied behind their back, but they held it determined that their will be done. Nessus sought out Blink and Ra’Handa in the mass of bucking force and energy. They carved out one last second sliver of will from the group and commanded they withdraw to his side. With rigid resistant in their movements they obeyed. Exhaustion took hold as both Blink and Ra’Handa came. Blink still wearing the ferocious visage he had in the fight, only now his eyes were turned on Nessus.

‘It is time Brigid,’ Nessus managed to get out. Brigid responded immediately and she came forward from the tunnel and hurled the spheres at the cavern wall behind Pavreck. It was the wall where the golgeists had been digging, where the vines had been growing the thickest weaving their way to whatever goal awaited them on the other side. As they impacted the wall Brigid dived to the ground and Nessus released the spell and collapsed. An explosion rang through the cavern and dust and debris came down all around them.

Brinn was finishing the last of the bandages on the elven girl. The wood beneath was stained with deep crimson as was both Brinn and the girl. She was exhausted from the multiple prayers of healing she had used to stabilise and seal the wounds. She had managed to halt death for a time but there would be long months of recovery before they were ready to venture out again. She sighed and wiped sweat from her brow, the curled mass of red hair sticking to her face as she did. The young man Dellweir was still standing by the door. He had refused her protests for him to leave and despite Rhett’Sa picking him up and removing him he had just persisted in coming back. Dellweir had his arms crossed and seemed lost in thought. The young male adventurer that had carried the girl in, her name was Lithrein, had told Brinn what had happened in the sewers. Even now the thought of what had happened sent shudders up her spine. To think that all of them were dead bar these two. They had sent more young hopefuls off to their deaths. Never to have great songs sang about them, never to drink ale and share stories of their exploits, just gone from the world. It pained her but it was a pain she had grown familiar with after all these years. Brinn was no stranger to loss. There came a loud clang at the large wooden entrance doors. Brinn sighed again exasperated but not surprised.

‘This’ll be your fault ya know,’ she pointed a plump finger at Dellweir. ‘Let them in Rhett. We’ve nothing to hide,’ she said waving at the door. Rhett’Sa opened the door and greeted those that entered with slow solemn nods of acknowledgement. There were four of them in total, the three guards all gave Rhett’Sa a wide berth and looked noticeably anxious at his presence. The leader of them showed no external sign he was affected and instead strutted forward toward Brinn.

‘Where is you Master, dwarf? Bring her to me this moment,’ he commanded. Brinn seethed. She was no housekeeper or simple barmaid to be ordered around. Certainly not by this self-important man before her. It would do her or Innais no good to challenge him on that at this moment. They were in enough trouble as it were.

‘And what shall I say is the reason for the visit Captain?’ she said holding back the words she would like to say. Bornwald eyed her, surprised that she had not simply done as he had asked.

‘I do not answer to likes of you, dwarf. Innais knows well that the guilds were to cease all action and here you have a half dead elf on your table that has been poking around in the sewers. Now how would you like to spend the next few weeks with your head in a stock as a reminder of my law,’ he towered over Brinn with increasing frustration and arrogance. She did not flinch. If he had been but one of the drunken guild members talking to her that way, she’d have had him on his ass in seconds without a tooth left in his skull. But he was no drunkard. He was Bornwald and had all the power and force of the Daybreakers behind him. Worse still his noble family held too much sway in the Council and trades.

‘My deepest apologies Captain. As you can see, I’m a little tired from saving the life of this young elf. Let me go fetch her for you, shall I?’ she said turning.

‘Yes, you had better,’ he replied, either ignoring her tone of abhorrence for him of not noticing it. As she walked toward the raised platform leading to Innais’s chamber she stopped to find her already there. Innais wore a long flowing silver dress trimmed with furs. Hanging from the furs around the collar of the dress were small gems suspended on threads. They swung and shifted against her body as she moved toward them. Her hair was up in a loose ponytail, and she had allowed for more of the grey to show through than usual. She was vain and usually covered it with illusion charms. She seemed to have hastily prepared herself as the same charms she used to hide her age failed to conceal the lines of exhaustion around her eyes. Despite that, her eyes were probing and intelligent as always.

‘The Daybreaker itself. My aren’t we lucky to be graced with such fortune in a humble little tavern,’ she said gliding forward barefoot on the stone floor. ‘What brings you here Captain Bornwald? Surely by dear Brinn has done all she can for you,’ she crooned. Bornwald looked displeased with her ignorance of his accusations.

‘Tavern?’ he sneered. ‘You are Guild Master Innais we both know this is no tavern and for that matter you know exactly why I’m here,’ he accused.

‘Captain, we have been a tavern ever since you and The Council ordered us to stand down all operations in Dayargain. How could we be anything else?’ she said unshakingly.

‘You have sent mercenaries out on jobs with the promise of joining your guild. Just look at your handiwork on the table here,’ he gestured to the elven girl asleep with freshly dressed wounds. Innais made a grand showing of only noticing the girl in that moment.

‘Brinn! Why didn’t you tell me she was hurt? Is she alive?’ she asked. Brinn sighed, tired and in no mood for theatrics.

‘Aye Innais. She’s alive. Young Dellweir brought her and the other one in from the streets. Innais looked upon the young man, Dellweir, her face as if carved from stone showed no emotion. ‘Thank you Dellweir. I do hope your Captain gives you thanks for your duty to the city’. Dellweir stood to attention and saluted her with both hands to his chest and vigorously returning them to his sides. Brinn rolled her eyes at the sight of it. She had known the scrappy rapscallion all his days as a youngling playing with wooden swords. Now here he was playing at a soldier. She thought him a fool and all the more power to Brigid for having disowned him from her life. Not least of all to think on how Lady Beatrice his mother had left the Guild alone since. How many times had she sent servants to drag Dellweir away by the ear. A guild hall of commoners was no place for a noble born such as they. The memory made her scoff loudly. Bornwald gave her a threatening look, mistaking it for a slight against him.

‘Captain Bornwald I am afraid to say you are most mistaken. We are a tavern and cannot be blamed if our patrons take it upon themselves to serve the city. We are certainly sorry for taking you from your post,’ said Innais drawing his attention back to her.

‘Innais did you send them out with such a promise as joining your guild or not?’ he was particularly prickly today and unwilling to budge.

‘If I had then what crime had we committed may I ask?’ she spoke softly with the voice of a high-court lady, but her face belied her as it dared the captain to speak.

‘All guilds in the city were ordered to cease all work, yours included. You have sent these members out on tasks interfering with the Daybreaker missives, raising concern across the city, and rabbling about monsters all through the sewers. Did you really think you would not feel our divine hand of justice Innais?’ As Bornwald spoke his heat and exasperation grew. This woman would hear him and obey. She would do as he said and remove herself from his path. At least that was what he thought and expected.

‘I believe you have answered your own question, Captain Bornwald. You have stated that all guilds cease their operations. Well, I sent no guild members out to do any work of any such kind throughout the city. These,’ she gestured to the elven girl and her companion, ‘are not members of the guild whatsoever but merely wishing to join when your orders have been revoked,’ there was an air of victory in her tone. She would not have some hot-headed, power-hungry man dictate her work. He was in her lioness den at this moment. It is he that should fear her least he be devoured.

‘We are but a tavern. Brinn is but a serving woman, with some skill at healing, Rhett’Sa a barman, and I a woman of prestige and business all of which you have no cause for concern Captain. Or is there a reason you do not wish for patrons to investigate in matters that you and your Daybreakers have done nothing to stop.’

‘Mind your tongue Innais. You are not above the laws of this land,’ said Bornwald seething with rage.

‘I will mind mine and mine own Captain,’ she said unflinchingly. With a scowl that seemed to last an age the two regarded one another. Neither wishing to back down and yet both aware neither would win.

‘Keep them out of the sewers Innais and away from the docks. We arrested the others you sent out there. They will spend the next weeks in the cells. You will keep your patrons in check, or I will bring the dawn down on this place. That I swear,’ he said as he turned to leave. His entourage following suit including Dellweir. When the doors had slammed closed Innais turned to Brinn with concern across her face.

‘Truly Brinn is she well?’

‘She’ll live Innais. Longer ‘an us if you keep goading that bore of a man any further,’ said Brinn in warning. Innais waved her concerns away and went to the elven girl. She looked long and hard at the wounds on her body. Her thin lithe form beaten and broken by whatever was down in the sewers. Innais felt heavy with concern and guilt.

‘I have sent them to their deaths haven’t I Brinn?’ She said forlornly.

‘None of that Innais. I’ve had all I can stand of your melodrama. You know as well as I that something had to be done, and I like this far less than you do I promise you that,’ she said resting her hand on Innais’s.

‘More importantly how are you?’ Brinn added gently.

‘I’ve not long before I’m drawn back there Brinn. Tell me what happened… but not here,’ she added as she saw the young man that brought the elven girl in. ‘Not here,’ she repeated.

Brinn and Innais left the girl with Rhett’Sa and the young man. Once they had seated themselves at a small table in Innais’s room Brinn spoke of what she had been told.

‘The boy said it was strange from the start down there. Not a rat in sight and certainly no sign of the missing catchers either. Said once they were near the dock end of things that the whole of the tunnels was covered with vines of some kind, and not a drop of water flowing. Seems they really have sealed off some of the tunnels to redirect flows; who knows to what end.’ Innais listened intently as Brinn continued. She nodded at intervals but outwardly showed no sign of her thoughts.

‘I asked what had attacked them an all he could say was that he saw someone down there with ‘em and before they could find out who, they was attacked. Said it was like all the shadows of the place had come together into some horrid thing. When I asked for more all he could say was that he grabbed the elven girl and ran from the screams of all the rest,’ Brinn searched Innais for some indication of what it all meant.

‘Is that everything Brinn? All of it?’ Innais said. Brinn searched her face and after a pause added, ‘there was one other thing. He said… he said that once they had gotten closer to the point it wasn’t just the vines covering the walls. There were also dead folk… hundreds of them all stitched together by the vines,’ her voice shuddered as she said this. Brinn felt a chill run through her body as she pictured it in her mind. She felt as if she had seen it herself, the image intruding upon her thoughts making it more real and terrible with every imagining.

‘Why haven’t the Daybreakers been down there? Why haven’t they said anything about this?’ Brinn asked finally.

‘If what you say is true then it is beyond them. Do you really think Bornwald would admit anything was beyond his capability to handle?’ she asked with disdain for the man.

‘Is that all though? Really? What about where you’ve been going… when the memory takes you?’ Brinn asked cautiously. Innais had been avoidant of sharing too much about it. The memory sickness had started several years ago, in small ways Innais had started to lose herself. She would forget things or what day it was. In the past year it had grown far worse with her losing herself completely. For days at a time she would forget who she was or think herself living in a time of her much younger self. When Brinn asked her about it she could not remember, she only knew that she had been somewhere else. She said she had been in the darkness, and someone was there with her. She looked visibly vexed at its mention. After a moment her expression eased, and she saw Brinn for the dearest and oldest of her friends. She was concerned and that was enough to chip at her pride. There were few things capable of such a feat.

‘You may be right old friend. I am certain that what the memory sickness takes hold my mind ventures to a place beneath the city,’ Innais looked away from Brinn and out a small window by which they sat. ‘Whatever he is… he is down there in the sewers somewhere. I can feel him growing closer to us… and you know… I think he is winning at the game,’ she said and something quiet inside her told her she had said too much.

‘Game?’ asked Brinn. ‘This is no game Innais.’

‘It is for him Brinn. We are playing at a numinia board and in his last move before I woke, he held the dragon,’ she looked to Brinn. She wished she could remember what it meant but all that came was a sense of dread and despair. Something was coming that none of them were ready for.