“I wish, I wish,” Hat hummed into the downpour.

Cold rain pelted the party as they slogged in search of the blue flash they’d seen in the west. The wind whipped and spit until they could not see five feet in front of their faces. Lhaz was a land of legendary shipbreakers, but this bloody cyclone was like nothing the four unfortunates had ever seen before.

“I wish, I wish, I was a fish,” Hat sang out. Rain streamed from the creased brim of his battered hat.

“You’re already doped to the gills,” Sters angled.

“I confess, I’m hooked.” Hat grinned.

“Would you two shut up?” Revel hissed.

Sters and Hat shared a look but held their tongues as they trudged uphill to the edge of the white pine forest. Revel hacked a path through the brush with his longsword, and they ventured within.

Ten paces into the wood, there was a solid thud, followed by a string of curses. They rushed forward, fearing an ambush. There was none. In the dim light, Revel had clouted himself with a low branch.

“Wet armor makes him cranky,” Hat observed.

“He’s just creaky, ‘cause his helm is leaky,” Sters teased.

“Sneaking is for weaklings! I’ll fetch that Fish a beating! We’ll be back in Lhaz by evening!” Hat puffed up his chest and performed an immaculate impression of Revel.

“Stop speaking,” El Sha La ordered.

It was too dark to tell if she’d winked or there was rain in her eye. Either way, Hat gave up the game. The sorcerer’s daughter had half of their food and all his cane.

“What are you doing?” El asked Revel. The swordsman rummaged through his bulging backpack.

“Getting a torch. I can’t see anything in this murk.”

“You’ll be an hour trying to light it. Here.”

El Sha La spoke a shining syllable. A soft, silver light swirled into being just above her brow and rose to hang above her head.

“Oooh,” Hat cooed. El’s silver sphere cast everything into tones of gray as if they were all etched into stone. He turned his hands from back to palm, marveling at the effect. The arcane light revealed how truly bedraggled they all were.

There were wet leaves plastered to Revel’s armor. El Sha La shivered in her sodden robes. Sters’ eyes darted at every sound, deck hook always at the ready. They were wretched as a pack of drowned rats.

“Why didn’t you do that sooner?” Revel asked. He peered curiously at the miniature magic moon.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“There is a cost. This little light is heavier on me than your armor.”

“Want me to carry your bag?” Hat offered. A half-formed notion to snatch it and run blossomed at the back of his mind.

“No thank you,” El Sha La wisely refused. Her stare lingered until Hat glanced away. An uncanny suspicion the sorceress could read his thoughts made his neck hunch.

By the light of El’s silver orb, they crept through the white pine wood. Their boots squelched on a springy carpet of needles, and cold rain dripped onto their heads from treetops hundreds of feet above them. The tallest towers of men were saplings before these grand pines.

The forest was in an uproar. Desperate shades melted from their path, wolves and who knew what else. In the distance, larger beasts lumbered. Nothing wanted to tangle in the unearthly storm.

The party made it through the pines and across the fallen giant that spanned the ravine. On the other side, they found deep boot prints gouged into the thick moss.

“It’s them. Eyes out. They may double back on us,” Revel warned.

Hat cocked his head, composing a stinger for the insipid order. El Sha La caught his eye, and the quip died on his tongue. Damn sorceress! But Hat saw she was right. Revel was at the brink. His eyes squinted against the downpour, and his head spun at every snap in the brush. The shant was afraid.

The trees grew withered and twisted across the ravine, slash pines and stunted ash. Many were infested with mushrooms and rust galls. The rain slowed to a miserable drizzle, and the stink of decay rose heavy in the air.

They followed the trail until they broke free from the blighted woods and found themselves at the foot of a stony waste. They’d found the feet of the Old Gods. Seven peaks rose across the blasted plain, the tallest of them was great Inaltazei. Beneath the red storm, the peaks shone like bloody spearpoints. El Sha La let her silver orb dissipate. They would make their way by moonlight.

“Hurry now, we’re almost there,” Revel urged.

The adventurers climbed over slick boulders and scrambled across rivers of clattering scree. Beads of rain glittered on shards of black lava glass. Higher up, the mountainside was strewn with broken pillars of obsidian. Some rose ten to fifteen feet high, cracked and fractured all over.

Higher up the mountain, they were broken to low stumps. Long ago, some great force had come from on high and shattered them all.

“Are they statutes?” Hat asked El between heavy breaths. The climb grew harder by the step.

“I think these used to be a forest,” El Sha La guessed.

“What happened?” Sters asked. He stared at a translucent trunk that cast strange shadows in the moonlight.

“Crystalized, and shattered by a spell, I think. I saw Arath do it once.”

“You saw Arath blast a whole forest to flinders?” Hat asked.

“No, it was just one man. A Wyrth Magus.”

“If he was Wyrth, he had it coming,” Sters grunted. “Can you do that? Turn a man to glass and blast him to bits?”

“No.”

Sters raised his chin. The Hook was forever calculating. He never missed an admission of weakness.

“I just burn my enemies to ashes. It’s faster,” El added.

Sters’ heavy brows rose, and he said no more.

The wind howled around them as they scaled the remains of the petrified forest. All was stark and lifeless, and not even lichen grew on these blasted stones.

“So, if that spell’s too much for you, who did all this?” Sters swept his hook at the sea of shards. El Sha La frowned.

“Not men,” she concluded.

“Great,” groused Sters.

“Pick up the pace. Let’s get Fish and get out of here,” Revel growled. His chest heaved with effort. Marching up the mountain in armor was murder. Red lightning roiled above, and thunder rolled all around them. Hat and Sters shared a look, but what could they do? They were in too deep to turn back.