The stabbed warrior wheezed and pointed toward Arlen to warn the others. Arlen demonstrated. The spikes he'd made were fragile, narrow things that'd crumble from any real effort, but they were fast and narrow. He made the ground erupt in front of him in a dozen forward-facing stalagmites. Two men got impaled. The rest flinched.

"Shoot him!" said Juti. Two goons still had bows in hand. They timed their attack with one of Juti's; the shaman made the ground shake right under Arlen's feet.

Arlen dropped. The arrows passed overhead. He rolled and let fly with another, randomly aimed field of spikes. These were numerous enough to slow down the melee charge. "Meadow, you all right?"

"Yes!" she said from behind one of the old pillars.

Arlen began raising cover for himself as he got up to a crouch. He'd have a low wall against arrows. "Juti, give up now! I don't want to kill you all."

One warrior laughed; there were still four trained men and the shaman standing. One of the others muttered, "He's too strong."

"We're here to talk to your holy spirits! If they want us dead, let them do it." While shouting, Arlen was still raising his defenses.

Juti cursed. "You'll be sorry soon enough!"

Arlen stood his ground. The natives hadn't thought to spread out and surround him, though he glanced around for any other ambushers. "Get your wounded out of here."

The bowmen had drawn again, but the shaman growled and held them back. Without a word he turned to stomp back downhill. The rest picked up their fallen fellows and left too.

Meadow peeked out from her pillar. "That was terrible!"

"Different from fighting golems, huh?"

She just nodded.

Arlen was hurt and only starting to calm down and feel it. "Still have more hiking to do. You're probably safer with me for now."

They moved onward, up the trail.

#

Arlen was grim as he ascended. "My understanding is that the spirits live here, or they speak more clearly here, than they do on Decim."

"I don't know. I made the pilgrimage to Decim once but they didn't speak to me, or give me magic." She paused for breath. "Why is this happening? Why do we all have to fight?"

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"Change is coming to the islands, like it or not. That's always hard."

"Because we're fighting Thoko and all his use of hostages and exiles? And because you've got this new power?"

"Partly. Meadow, what do you think it means that the Roaring Storm is gone?"

"It... it can't really be gone. It's always there. It'll come back; it was just thrown around by whatever the magic was doing in the Catacomb."

"And if it doesn't?"

For all her boasting about wanting to explore, she seemed scared and young when considering the idea of a bigger world than she'd known. "There could be monsters out there, beyond the sea."

"I don't know who or what lives out there. But the Builders probably came from somewhere, and I'd bet there are people a lot like you and me in another land. Ones who've spent centuries knowing there's a mystery behind a giant storm they can't pass. And now, the way is open for them to find out what's here."

"These outsiders don't have to come here. They could leave us alone."

"How'd you react to the big, mysterious ruin on your home island?"

She went quiet.

They climbed a steep trail until they reached a wide crater rim. This place wasn't obviously rumbling with immediate threat of eruption, but there was a faint heat to it so that the shifting breeze alternated between the natural chill of the peaks and the warmth of a vast, banked flame below them.

Arlen spoke in a chant he'd heard, calling upon the spirits' favor.

The crater steamed. He took a step back. He'd seen multicolored light in the depths, swirling in agitation.

That illusion rose with the steam and brought voices with it, overlapping in hisses and snarls. "Troublemaking outsider! We gave you power, and you unsealed our domain!"

Meadow knelt and trembled. Arlen stood, though phantoms swirled before him. "You finally speak."

"This is your fault. You will bring ruin down upon our people."

"Seems to me they have plenty of trouble already."

"They had stability. Safety from the outside world. You know nothing of their ways."

"It's true, I don't know much. What I got from your first message to me was that you wanted Thoko stopped. So I tried my best, and I got a new kind of power that I can beat him with."

The spirits hissed and the colorful streams clashed in the crater's open air. "We disagree on Thoko's proper fate. You must prove yourself before long. You will see how. And then, you must stop the outsiders. They will come again."

Arlen clenched his fists and used bravado to hide the rapid thumping of his heart. "Seems to me, the islands' best chance is if they're unified. If we stop the killing, the prisoners, the raiding. The war will be bloody and destructive unless we work together to end it quickly. Right now, many of your followers refuse my help because they're afraid of angering you."

Seething, sulking elemental anger reigned in the crater. "You are an outsider. You will not rule the islands. Never!"

"That's fine," Arlen said.

"You will purge the islands of evil."

"Which evil? The Mire raiders? The undead of Newshore or Death Island, whichever you call it? The poison on this very island?"

"We cannot see that which poisons the Mire, but you will find it. Tend to these other things as well. Only then can the islands become strong enough. Finally, you must unify the people under a new high chief who respects us."

"Who?"

"You must find someone. This is your task."

Arlen turned to Meadow. "Would you like to speak, since they're so talkative today?"