Looking about the newly liberated room Delde could see there were three exits from it, the first in the topmost section of the eastern wall where they had just come from. The second a flight of stairs descending downwards into darkness at the bottom of the western wall. Finally, there was another door in the middle of the southern wall, one that had a strong smell and the faintest of whisps of smoke emanating from the top of the frame, although the handle was cool and Dal assured them that there were no traps on it.

‘So, onybody have a preference fer where we heed next? If we’re followin’ Delde’s suggestion ah’d say we keep away frae the stairs fer the noo. Tha’ leaves the door reekin’ o smoke or one o the other ways we’ve aw ready passed’.

‘I say we keep moving forward, we’ve been doing well so far and if that bug is anything to go by, we don’t have anything to worry about in terms of monsters’.

‘Bugs can’t open doors though. Could be somethin’ a lot worse behind it’.

Baye still seemed somewhat reserved about traveling through the crypt regardless of their victory.

‘Phff, we’ll be fine, we can all smell that smoke coming from behind that door, can’t we? It probably leads to another trap room, and if what Roldare said was true then the trap will be safe for us to deal with. If there does happen to be some more skeletons in there, then we’ll deal with them like we did the rest’. He gave a little flurry of blows to an invisible foe with an imaginary dagger. ‘Anyways, I’ll keep doing my scouting ahead so if there is any danger, I’ll give you all a warning before you get to it. Everyone alright with that?’

No one had any objections, so Dal opened the door from the room and revealed a short corridor that bent sharply to the left. The painted battle scene on the walls here were all smoke stained, as was the ceiling, the actual source of the smoke was further down the corridor however. There was no sign of any creatures, either living or dead.

The gnome slipped down the corridor and out of sight only to return a moment later coughing and spluttering, one hand rubbing his eyes, the other covering his mouth. Dal didn’t seem harmed or badly out of breath but still took a moment to recover. A thick, greasy layer of smoke began to crawl up the ceiling from behind him, though whatever the source it didn’t appear to produce enough to go beyond that. Dal took a drink of water from his waterskin and poured some on his face as well for good measure, his recovery complete he looked towards the rest of the curious group.

‘Ugh, sorry. Opened the door at the end of the corridor and it looks like there’s a fire been going in there for a while now. Saw the smoke creeping out of it but I checked the handle, and it was cool, figured it was just another trick or some trap that had been set up. But the rooms filled with smoke so it all kind of burst out at once and I got a lungful of it’.

‘Did yie spot ony skeleton or the like in there?’

‘No, nothing moving about in there, but to be honest I didn’t get a good look in the room before I had to come back here. It looked to be around the size of this room, but with four pillars in the middle and a small bonfire between them. There wasn’t anything on the floor from what I could tell, but like I said, I didn’t get a good look inside’.

‘Pillars? Like the ones in the room with all the pitfall traps?’

‘No, these ones were a lot narrower, probably less than half the width of the ones in that room. But I didn’t manage to do a proper sweep for traps so if we go in there, we should be careful’.

‘So, there were not any other survivors within the room, no signs of anybody trying to fortify their position like Roldare did?’.

‘No, I don’t think anyone could survive in there for long, not with all that smoke. I didn’t see any other ways in or out of the room either, so I doubt it’s going to lead us to anymore townspeople. I don’t know, do you’s think that we should put out that fire in there or just leave it, I mean the whole crypt is made of stone so it’s not going to spread. It’ll probably burn itself out eventually I figure, right?’.

Delde considered the matter for a second before voicing her opinion, she didn’t especially want to go onto a smoke-filled room, but she hadn’t wanted to come to the crypt in the first place either.

‘I think that we should perhaps give the room a more thorough examination, and possibly put out the fire as well. This could be another one of the trials that we were expected to go through, the towns people might have hidden that key that Roldare was talking about inside the room, maybe even in the fire?’.

‘It’s a fair point yie make there. Problem is, we dinnie have that much water wae us just noo. Frae whit Dal just said it soonds like we’d need a lot mair than whit we’ve got in oor waterskins an aw. An while ah’m no wantin’ tae stay here fer too long ah dinnie want tae run oot a water either’.

‘True. However, Roldare did say that we would need to swim at some point, that would suggest that there’s a large body of water somewhere within this complex, the fact that there was a living giant insect making its layer in here would also support that hypothesis’.

‘Hypothesis?’ Dal asked uncertainly.

‘Yes!’ Delde replied enthusiastically, becoming more animated as she continued. ‘Also, the townspeople travelled here with a number of pack animals but don’t appear to have brought any supply of water with them, for either themselves or the animals. Again, supporting my hypothesis. In any case.’ She added, pride welling in her chest. ‘I can cast a ray of frost cantrip multiple times which should help put out any flame. Admittedly, it may take me some time only using the cantrip, but with some carefully placed castings I should be able to reduce it in size enough for it to be put out with a minimum amount of water needed’.

She tried to not seem smug in her assessment of the situation and arcane ability, but she had to admit that it felt good to be important to the group. Delde had grown accustomed to traveling with the rest of her temporary companions over the past few days, but as they had continued, she had begun to feel… unnecessary for the trials they were faced with. Baye had led them through the dangerous Fangwoods quickly and with ease, Igmar was vital to their successes in combat through both his tactics and willingness to act as the vanguard, Adriana could heal the group and harm the undead in equal measure with her magic, and Dal had been crucial in getting through the trapped pillar chamber. In comparison, Delde felt that she was not as important to the group. She had still helped them true, but she was never vital for success as the others had been. That was why she was trying to push herself to contribute more to the team, even if she would typically have been more reserved.

‘Well, if yer sure yie can put it oot then we may as well get it done the noo. Saves us havin’ tae find oor way back here later if there is somethin’ we need. We’re as well aw goin’ in, that way we can gie the room a gid search tae make sure we dinnie miss onythin’.

‘If we’re going in then I’d recommend everyone put a cloth or something over your mouth, I think the smokes blown away a bit with me opening the door, but it’ll still be pretty harsh’.

They all headed down the corridor, led by Dal, and at the end of it they saw the door that he had opened, acrid smoke still billowing out of the doorway. It was as the gnome had described inside; a barren room save for four pillars which surrounded a blazing fire. Delde held the sleave of her robes over her mouth and walked inside, eyes stinging with the thick smoke. She wanted to put out the fire as quickly as she could, but it was admittedly larger and more intense than she had anticipated so she took some time to work out the best way to go about it. The rest of the group began wandering around the room, searching for traps or treasure left by the townspeople.

As she was staring at the fire before her, she began to notice some of the shapes within it. At first, she thought that they were just tree branches or perhaps some wood that’s shape had been warped in its burning, but on closer examination she realised the truth. The fire was burning the remains of several human corpses, and judging from the contorted appearance of the corpses it seemed to Delde that they had still been alive when they were tossed in the fire. Even in the intense heat of the room she could feel a chill go down her spine and she had to turn away. Her stomach churned at the horror of the sight, knowing that the smoke that was forcing its way down her lungs was made from the burnt corpses, imagining the sheer agony the people had experienced in their last moments. She prided herself in her ability to maintain her composure, on being able to always think rationally, but the brutality of what was done to the people cast into the fire shook Delde to her core.

As she looked across the room, trying to regain her composure while hoping that nobody else had seen either her reaction or the bodies in the fire she saw something. It was only for a fleeting moment, it looked like a person of average hight, but Delde knew that Adriana was at the other end of the room. Igmar, Dal and Baye were all noticeably shorter than that, so who or what did she just see?

Delde looked around the room trying to find the shadowy figure, the ubiquitous smoke aggravated her eyes and hid everything in dark plumes. Delde began coughing as the harsh fumes started to overtake her, her sleeve poor protection from it.

‘Did anybody see something moving just now!? It looked like it might have been a -cough- person. I couldn’t make it out’.

‘I have -cough- not seen anything, are you certain that it was not some kind of trick of the smoke?’

‘Me neither, -cough, cough- hurry up and put out that fire anyway -cough- or else let’s leave’.

‘I – there!’ Baye pointed over to the western side of the room and Delde once again caught a fleeting glimpse of the strange shadowy figure. Unfortunately, it was only for a second as her watering eyes couldn’t keep track of it with all the smoke around.

‘Ah saw somethin’ there an aw! Dinnie look like a skeleton though! -cough- Too fast an too quiet! Think we should back oot o here! -cough- Ah dinnie like this’.

‘If you are a survivor please do not worry! -cough- We are from Kassen! We will bring you home!’

There was no response to Adriana’s appeal to the strange figure and Delde was concerned about what it could be. Igmar was correct, it was too swift and agile to be another skeleton and its behaviour didn’t match the others either. The undead that they had fought at the entrance had attacked them as soon as they formed, whatever this was it seemed to be… toying with them. Studying them. That suggested a degree of intelligence and that was very worrying. While the fact that it wasn’t talking appeared to rule out this being the “voice of death” that Roldare had warned them about, an intelligent undead could potentially be a much more deadly opponent, especially in such an environment that was so unconducive for living beings.

Delde began to shuffle towards the sole exit to the room but the relentless bombardment of her eyes by the smoke made it difficult to work out where everything was. As she tried to reorientate herself, she saw the figure again, this time it was stationary, and she could better examine it and she realised why she had such difficulty seeing it in the smoke.

At first, she had assumed that the creature was cloaking itself in smoke or shadow, but that wasn’t the case. The creature was not hiding in shadows, it was made of shadow, it was a shadow. It had the basic form of a human, but the proportions were all wrong, like a funhouse mirrors reflection come to life and stripped of all colours. The entire shape of it was fluid, growing and shrinking in inches, arms and legs swaying in a non-existent breeze. As the smoke shifted and writhed Delde could see the shadow had positioned itself behind Dal.

‘Behind You!’

She cried out as loud as she could, but without specifying who she was warning everyone looked around in confusion. In that moment the shadow raised its arm and brought it down upon Dal in a swift and vicious slash. If it had been a typical monster the blow would have knocked Dal across the room with the momentum, it would have been loud as well. But this was no normal undead. The blow went through Dal as Delde saw the shadows arm come out the other side of him. There was no blood, no sound, but she could see the colour drain from the gnomes face as he fell to the floor like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

‘DAL!’

Baye cried out and rushed towards his fallen form. In an instant Delde knew that they had to flee, they were not prepared to fight such a creature as this. Even running would be dangerous, but it was their only hope.

‘Adriana! It’s a Shadow! Everyone, we need to flee! -cough- Grab Dal and run!’

Even in the thick and cloying smoke Delde could make out Adriana’s face. She saw her expression fall and for a second she feared that she would either futilely run up to it and attempt to fight the shadow herself, or she would break into a panic. She did neither of these things though as she instead held her holy symbol with both hands and began to pray. Delde couldn’t hear the words but the more she said them the more resolve she could see return to her face. Out of all of them Adriana had the best chance of harming the shadow but even she wouldn’t be able to kill it outright. She hoped that she realised this as she began to head towards the door, staff gripped tightly in her hands as she used it to guide her way out.

She heard the clattering of scale mail as Igmar rushed past her for the door. She hadn’t expected him to move as fast as he was, but she then saw that cradled in his arms was the motionless body of Dal. Delde didn’t know how he had managed to collect him so quickly, the smoke made it difficult to keep track of everyone, but as she heard what she assumed was Baye following her she was reassured that they had a chance of survival now.

A now familiar feeling of warmth passed through Delde as she ran, this meant that Adriana had managed to channel the holy power of her goddess as she had done against the skeletons. Delde was certain through her studies that this would harm the shadow in the room, but she doubted that it would kill the creature. At best the attack would make the shadow pull back and reassess the situation, it hadn’t attacked them immediately upon entering the room so Delde was hoping that the shadow had a degree of self-preservation that they could use to get away.

Against her better judgement she looked behind herself to see if Adriana was following the rest of them. To her relief she was, but she was concerned over not being able to see where the shadow was. If they were lucky it had returned to hiding, if not then it was either waiting in the smoke to strike out at them again, or in the worst posable scenario it was attempting to cut off their escape. The young cleric was following as fast as she could, but it seemed to Delde that her scale mail was slowing her down more than it did Igmar. Still, no attack came so she just counted her blessings and ran as fast as she could. As they ran down the smoke-stained corridor Delde accidently slammed into a wall, losing her footing as she took the turn too quickly and was stunned for a moment. She froze for a second in pure fear as she felt something grab her arm but found it was just Adriana who had caught up and was trying to keep her going. They all ran together in an uncoordinated cavalcade, bumping, stumbling but never slowing or stopping their escape.

When they eventually stopped Delde didn’t even know where they were until she saw Roldare sitting mute in a corner. She didn’t know who led them back to the resting room or if they had all just run there on instinct, but she took the opportunity to catch her breath and tried to collect herself. As she did so she saw the others standing around Dal’s limp body full of frantic energy.

‘Igmar! Lie him on the ground gently, I need to take his pulse and assess his condition’.

‘What do you mean assess! Just heal him with your magic!’

‘I used the last of my healing powers warding off the shadow back there. I cannot use it again without some time to recuperate’.

‘That’s ‘im doon noo. Ah’ve got a healin’ potion here, yie want gie it to ‘im the noo’.

Adriana sighed in relief as she knelt over Dal.

‘Good he had a pulse’.

Baye sighed with relief as well and looked as though a great weight had been lifted from her. In her eyes though, Delde could still see that she was deeply concerned for her foster brother.

‘Wait a moment before giving him the healing potion Igmar, I want to use some normal medicine before we use magic’.

Both Baye and Igmar gave her a curious look, but Adriana was already rummaging through her backpack for her healer’s kit. Delde stepped forward to explain, feeling a need to do something.

‘A healing potion, or any sort of magical healing really, cures a person’s wounds but its indiscriminate when it does so. For example, if a person has a broken right arm and a papercut on their left hand a healing potion will repair both injuries. But they have a limited capacity for how much they can heal depending on the power of the spell or the quality of the potion. So, when a person has one especially bad injury that needs to be healed’. She glanced down at Dal as Adriana hurriedly bandaged the small cuts and bruises on him. ‘It’s better to treat minor injuries first with mundane medicine, that way the healing potion or spell will focus the bulk of its effect on the significant condition that needs to be healed immediately’.

It felt good to explain things, to have something to focus on while events before her spiralled out of her control. Even if she knew that Igmar and Baye were only half paying attention being able to concentrate on facts was a comfort to her. Her magic, for all its utility couldn’t do anything to help Dal recover any faster. Even if she did know a spell that could help, she had exhausted all the more powerful spells that she could cast for the day. Before they had set out to the “crypt of the Everflame” she had felt that her magic would make her utterly indispensable to the group, that the task she was being set was so utterly beneath her that she would walk through all the so-called trials without breaking her stride. Delde looked down at Dal, his chest only slightly moving with his breathing, and felt powerless to help.

Igmar and Baye both knelt next to the small gnome alongside Adriana offering to give what little help they could while reassuring Dal that he was going to be fine. She couldn’t do that. Delde had never been good with words, with people. It was why she fell into reading so many books, why she took to studying with such voracity, it gave her a reason to avoid attempting such things, a focus, a goal that she could accomplish. It was only comparatively recently, when she began her first steps on the journey to become a wizard that her bookish nature had offered her any other sort of advantage. The thought of being able to finally challenge her siblings in the realm of magic, to claim what she felt was a birth right denied to her through some cruel quirk of fate, it had only reinforced her drive to dive deeper into the world of knowledge and further from the world of people.

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Delde felt a as though a heavy weight was slowly crushing her chest. This was her fault, she knew it. She had been the one to press the rest of the group into the smoke-filled room. She was the one most knowledgeable in the different forms of undead but failed to consider that they might need to face a Shadow. She was the one who failed to give a proper warning about the Shadow. She could have harmed the Shadow itself if she had only chosen the correct spells at the start of the day. She could have done more. She should have done more. All these thoughts spun around in her mind, dragging her deeper into self-imposed despair.

She was jolted out of her stupor when Dal sat up, it was a slow deliberate action, but he was able to do it unassisted which she took as a good sign. Adriana, Igmar and Baye all looked visibly relieved to see him moving again but Delde could see that they were all still concerned for him in the way they hovered about the gnome.

‘Ugh… What happened?... I remember being in that room with the big fire, then Delde shouted something… Then I just remember getting really cold and falling. Was it a trap, was I poisoned?’

‘No, it wasn’t. You were attacked by some kind of shadow monster. It hit you bad. You fell and we ran out of the room. It doesn’t look like it followed us, so we’re safe here’.

Baye tried to comfort Dal but she wasn’t a natural at it and so wound up awkwardly hugging him.

‘Ouch, my chest is still a bit tender. That said I’m glad that I didn’t fall for a trap, Jimes would never let me live it down if he found out’.

‘You almost died Dal! If Igmar hadn’t grabbed you and gotten you out of there as fast as he did you’d be dead! We all would’ve been! What even was that thing!? Was it undead!? Was that the thing that took Roldare’s sister!?’

In the corner of the room Roldare whimpered but did nothing more to contribute. Delde, out of habit more than a real desire began to explain the nature of the creature.

‘I-it was a Shadow. I-it’s a type of undead, a very dangerous one. If you think of the skeletons as being corpses that are animated by the necromantic energies within this crypt, then the Shadow is what happens when the energies corrupt a soul. I don’t know if that is what took Roldare’s sister, he said that it spoke and as far as I know Shadows can’t speak’.

‘Voice of death, the voice of death’. Roldare muttered to himself as he began rocking back and forth again.

‘But I… I hadn’t considered that there would be such an undead in this crypt. I- I am truly sorry that you were hurt Dal’.

She bowed her head to him to show her sincerity. Delde didn’t know if he would accept her apology, if any of them would. She wanted them to, more than she expected herself to crave their acceptance. She had lived all her life in the same town as them without interacting with them in any meaningful way, but in the few days that she had been traveling with them a bond had begun to form between them. It was a fragile thing, it would probably fade and be forgotten by the time they got back to Kassen, but for Delde who had lived her life devoid of anything like friends it was like nothing she had ever known, and she desperately wanted to preserve it if only for a little while longer.

‘Huh? Yeah, its fine Delde’.

Dal brushed off her apology with casual ease, but it didn’t seem to her to be out of distain for her, more that he didn’t register what it was she would need to apologise for. Delde didn’t understand. She had failed, she hadn’t considered all of the potential variables and as a result of her oversight one of her teammates had come close to death. Yet nobody seemed to be blaming her, there were no looks of anger towards her, nor any obvious efforts to ignore her, not even from Baye who appeared to be the most worked up about what had happened. It was bizarre.

She felt a warm feeling at her ankle and saw that Onyx had made his way out of her backpack at some point and was rubbing against her now. He purred in a content manner that helped to quell the tempestuous thoughts and feelings within herself. Just as Delde was going to pet him though he darted off to Dal and curled up on his lap, continuing to purr.

‘Aww look! Are you happy that I’m ok too Onyx? Yes, you are. Yes, you are. Oh, you’re such a good little ball of fur, aren’t you?’

He was talking to Onyx like he was some common cat and not a familiar, but Delde reasoned that after all he had been through, she could permit him this. However, Baye seemed frustrated at Dal’s apparent levity in light of what he had just experienced.

‘Damn it Dal be serious! You almost died! We all almost died! Look we tried, but if there’s more shadows like that thing in here, we can’t stay!’

‘Roldare said that he will not leave without his sister, and even if you were to head back to Kassen on your own- ‘

‘I’ll damn well tie Roldare up and drag him out myself if I need to!’.

Baye stared down Adriana with a fiery intensity that belied her short stature, Adriana looked back at her with cool resolve that refused to submit. Perhaps to diffuse the rising tensions, or possibly to remove himself from the escalating argument Igmar turned and addressed Delde.

‘Yie said that this shadow monster was powerful, an from whit ah saw yer right aboot that. But dae yie have ony more details aboot it, ony weaknesses or strengths we should ken aboot?’.

Glad to have some distraction from Adriana and Baye’s argument Delde answered with slightly more enthusiasm than she otherwise would have.

‘Yes. Shadows have a wide number of abilities and attributes that make them dangerous opponents, but the most difficult to overcome is that they are insubstantial’.

‘Insub… Whit?’

‘They can’t be physically interacted with, at least not in a very meaningful way. That means that almost all attacks will just pass right through them’.

‘Well that’s kind of bullshit, how in the nine hells can you fight something that you can’t even harm?’ Dal piped in.

‘Almost all attacks, there are some ways to harm them. There are arcane spells which can affect them, some of which I can cast although I would need to rest before I could do so, but even then, I could only do so twice. Channelling positive energy such as what Adriana did also harms them as it does all undead. Then there is the use of magical weapons, but from what I understand while they are capable of harming Shadows, they still do less damage against them than they would a flesh and blood foe’.

‘So, unless a group of powerful soldiers or adventurers turn up at the crypt entrance and offer to let us use their weapons, we’ve got barely any way of hurtin’ the damn shadow’.

‘Actually’ Adriana piped up. ‘I am aware of another means of harming ghost like undead such as a shadow. You see from my readings of Sarenrae scripture there was a reference to casting the light spell that I used earlier on weapons to better strike down the unholy abominations that are the undead. It is a relatively simple spell for me to cast and would allow us a much better chance of defeating the shadow as we could all attack it’.

Everyone turned to look to Delde for confirmation, but she was not as confident as she typically was.

‘I… haven’t heard of such a technique being used to fight shadows myself’ Baye looked to be ready to say something, but Delde quickly continued to stop her from potentially escalating the growing argument. ‘But the principal does sound correct. Shadows are incorporeal undead, so they are highly resistant to physical attacks and effects, but as light is the opposite to shadow, and if the source was a cleric then… It may work. Most of my studies into the undead were only in broad terms and the Shadows happened to be more memorable to me due to their rather unusual nature. I can’t say that I know everything about them one way or another’.

‘So, it might work. Or it might be worthless’. Baye sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. ‘Look, I don’t want to abandon anyone here. I don’t. But we saw what happened to Dal. It almost killed him in one blow. We run headfirst into that thing there’s a good chance it’ll kill us. And if we die before warnin’ the rest of Kassen? Then more people will be sent up here. And they’ll probably die as well. We said we’d press on until we were over our heads. We’ve reached that point I’d say’.

She wasn’t shouting, she didn’t sound angry as she had earlier. Instead, she sounded like her normal self, calmly describing the facts as she saw them and how she felt they needed to proceed. Delde had always imagined the local rangers to be somewhat… simpleminded in comparison to someone as intelligent as herself, but she was beginning to reassess that now. Baye wasn’t being cowardly, and she wasn’t being callous, at least not in Delde’s eyes, rather she was doing what she had done the entire way through the Fangwoods. She was assessing the situation, the dangers of it and deciding if going froward was worth it or if another approach was needed. It occurred to Delde that this kind of thinking was necessary in a profession where overconfidence could easily lead a person into a position that they couldn’t escape from. A hungry bear didn’t care how good of a shot with a bow you thought you were, and the Shadow in that room wouldn’t be concerned about how noble their cause was. There was only success or death.

The chamber was silent. Even Roldare had ceased his moans for the time being. Everything felt muted, even the stink of the chamber, as they all tried to reconcile their own wants from the rest of the groups. Eventually Igmar spoke up.

‘Look, we’re no gonnie reach a decision the noo, an we’re gonnie need tae spend the night in here onyway tae rest up fer tomorrow, whitever we decide tae dae. So, hoo aboot we aw agree tae decide in the mornin’ when we’re aw feelin’ a wee bit better. Aw right?’.

It was putting off the inevitable, but they all agreed to it regardless. Nobody wanted to carry on arguing, nobody had the energy. They had a simple meal of dried jerky, hard cheese and stale bread. Dal, recovered as he was, still wasn’t in condition to do much exertion Adriana insisted, despite his protests, and no one else felt comfortable cooking. Their waterskins were getting low as well, if Delde was wrong in her theory about a water source being in the crypt then they would need to abandon their endeavour anyway.

Their meal as well as the rest of the evening was a quiet, subdued affair. Dal tried a few times to start a conversation, to bring the mood up, but his efforts all faltered. No one could muster up much enthusiasm for anything for the time being. They settled on a watch rota for the night, they had no illusions that they were safe. Even though the undead seemed to stay in whatever room they were found in none of them wanted to find out if there was some patrolling undead wandering through the crypt, or if perhaps they only travelled at night. Nobody bothered putting up their tents inside the chamber, instead they all took their bedrolls and found some part of the room that the assorted boxes and broken furniture offered some degree of privacy.

Adriana spent some time comforting Roldare and Onyx wandered amongst them all pandering for attention, but other than that their evening routine before going to bed was performed in near silence. Delde wasn’t sure what would happen the next day whether they’d carry on, leave or split up. None of the options seemed without risk but she didn’t know which would be the best for them. She found herself questioning her judgement, she had been wrong about the room, would she be wrong about anything else? She couldn’t afford it, not with both her and her companions lives on the line.

Delde had the first watch for the evening and was kept company by Onyx, who if he was bothered by the being in a crypt filled with violent undead monsters was being remarkably calm about it. Roldare retired for the evening with the rest of them at Adriana’s insistence, so it was just the two of them, watching the door. She also kept an eye on the shadowy corners of the room they were in, they had turned off the lanterns to preserve oil, but she was sitting next to one and could light it with a simple cantrip. The thought of the shadow somehow teleporting in through shadows or somehow slipping through the door was never far from her mind.

Her time on guard duty passed uneventfully however, even if she wasn’t especially relaxed throughout the duration of it. Once her time had passed Delde woke up Baye and then made her way to her bedroll and attempted to get a peaceful night’s sleep. She failed. Sleep came quickly to Delde, exhausted as she was with the day’s trials and tribulations, but rest eluded her. In her dreams she found herself lost in the smoke-filled chamber, unable to find her companions but hearing then being attacked by the shadow, incapable of fighting back against it. Eventually the smoke grew thicker and darker to the point where Delde was no longer in the chamber, instead she was trapped in an endless black void completely alone. She tried running, yelling, casting magic. All failed. Delde was utterly powerless. Then she felt the darkness around her change as instead of a void it turned into a mass of grasping, clawed hands made of darkness, just like the hand of the shadow that had struck down Dal. As they began to grab her, she felt coldness over take her before feeling a sharp sensation on her chest.

Delde woke with a start and found Onyx sitting on her chest, his face nose to nose with her own. She realised that the shape pain that had woken her up from her nightmare was his claws digging into her chest. Not knowing if he had somehow sensed her discomfort or if Onyx had simply grown bored being trapped in the poor smelling stone room Delde refrained from chastising his behaviour. Instead, she just sat up and rubbed her eyes wondering how long she had been asleep for, she hoped it was long enough for her to not need to go back to sleep and potentially endure another nightmare. It was times like these that made her wish she was a full-blooded elf, not requiring any sleep whatsoever.

With no way of knowing what the time was she peered around the old crate that she had slept beside to see who was on watch to find Baye sitting vigilantly on another box, her eyes fixed firmly on the door. Delde was annoyed at herself that she couldn’t even last a couple of hours without having bad dreams in the crypt and was just about to force herself back to sleep when she saw Dal walk over to Baye. She knew that it was rude to eavesdrop on a conversation, but she didn’t want to announce that she was still awake because she couldn’t sleep due to nightmares and she was close enough to be able to pick up on what was being said. Delde didn’t consider herself somebody who enjoyed spying on others, but for the moment she was glad for any kind of distraction from her present circumstances.

‘So… how you doing?’.

‘I should be askin’ you that. You almost died Dal. That… shadow thing almost killed you’.

‘Yeah, but it didn’t though. I mean it hit me pretty hard and I fell down, but I’m fine now so what’s the problem?’.

‘That’s the problem there! Why’re you actin’ like almost bein’ killed isn’t a big deal?!’

‘Easy, easy’. He raised his hands in mock surrender. ‘And here I thought that all you woodsy type folk were all calm and collected all the time. You’re acting like old man Wisslo that time when I filled his boots with mud. Ha, tell you what that man can run pretty fast barefoot for an old town guard captain’.

Baye sighed in frustration and resignation.

‘Dal please, be serious. Why aren’t you more upset? Or worried about bein’ here? We’re all out of our depth here, you’ve got to realise that’.

‘Well, now you know how the rest of us feel when you go wandering out in the forests all by yourself just to prove that you can do it’.

‘Is that what this is about!? Gettin’ back at me for bein’ a ranger!? Your goin’ to risk your life just to spite me!?’.

‘No no, it’s, it’s not that, I’m sorry I brought it up, its, it’s just. Sigh. Alright I’ll be honest with you, but you’ve got to promise not to tell anybody about this, seriously’.

‘Alright, I promise. So, spit it out’.

‘So, the thing is I’m not that stuck up on the whole almost dying thing because, and I’m going to ask you to let me explain myself before you go about telling everyone I’m crazy or something. But if I had to die, which I’ve no intention of doing by the way, I – I’d rather go out like that is all’.

Delde didn’t even need to see Baye’s face to know that she looked doubtful. Delde looked incredulously at Onyx and was half tempted to peer out from behind her crate to see their expressions. That desire was kept in check however by the fear of how they would react to her listening in on them having what was clearly a very private conversation.

‘Wh-what? You’d prefer to die chokin’ in a smoke-filled chamber. Being attacked by an undead shadow. In a crypt out in the middle of nowhere. That’s what your sayin’.

‘See, this is why I didn’t want to say anything. You’re making I sound weird by saying it like that’.

‘Really don’t need to try hard to do that’.

‘It’s – look, you remember how I came to live with you and everyone else?’

‘You mean with your parents dyin’. I don’t know much. Mum and Dad never talked too much about it. I just know they live out north of Kassen in the woods. Foragers I think?’

‘Yeah, well, one day my dad went out into the wood for something or other and found more than he bargained for. Some monster must’ve been passing through or trying to expand its territory, my dad got hurt by it but managed to get away, but whatever it was it was poisonous. By the time he got home he was already real bad and it took us a whole day to get him into Kassen. By then he was already gone’.

‘I – I’m sorry’

‘Yeah, me too, but that’s not where the story ends. See gnomes, we have this thing where we don’t age like most races, something to do with our fae heritage my parents said. The way they explained it was that so long as we feel joy, love, excitement, passion, basically so long as we enjoy living, we can live for a long time. But only so long as we enjoy living. See there’s another part to it that’s called the Bleaching, it’s what happens when we lose that love for life. On the one hand it’s pretty literal as we begin to lose our colours and just become kind of grey. On the other hand, our minds start to go, we get depressed, it becomes harder to think or remember things, we begin to go mad. Then we die. After my dad died, my mum never recovered. She started to go through the Bleaching fairly quickly after that. I didn’t see her much when she did, that’s when I moved in with your family. But when I did see her, it was horrible. It - it was like she was losing herself and she could barely even tell and when she could it was like torture to her because she couldn’t do anything to stop it’.

Dal took a sharp intake of breath and Delde realised that he may have been crying. She heard what sounded like Baye going over to him and patting him on the back, possibly hugging him.

‘T-that’s why… if I have to go, I want it to be quick. I don’t want to linger like my parents did. I just figure I’d rather go out fighting a monster, trying to help somebody, you know, doing something meaningful. I guess that’s why I’m not more… hurt by what happened’.

‘I. I understand. I’m sorry for bringin’ all that up with your folks’.

‘Sniff. It’s alright, you’re my sister, you’ve as much of a right to know as anybody. But for the record I have no intention of dying here or anywhere else for that matter. Nope, going to become a master of pranks and live forever annoying people and making everyone laugh’.

‘Sure you will… So… Is what happened with your dad the reason why you, Mum and the rest of the family don’t want me to become a ranger’.

‘Sigh. I don’t want to get into it’.

‘You don - ‘

‘– But if you need to know, yeah it is a part of it. For me at least, I don’t know about mum for certain, but I imagine it weighs on her mind. It’s just… I know how dangerous things can get out in the wilds, even if you know the forest like the back of your hand all it takes is for one monster to wander in and suddenly, you’re not the top of the food chain anymore. And when something like that happens, you’re almost always too far away from civilisation to get any help. It’s just that it's dangerous and I don’t want to see you get hurt. I’ve grown up with you, I still remember when you were just a little girl who was scared of dogs barking. I just find it hard to come to terms with you risking your life out in the wilds all alone’.

‘I… I get that. But I’m not doin’ this for a lark. Or to prove myself to anyone. I want to be a ranger because that’s what I am. I’m not that scared little girl anymore. Haven’t been for a long time now. When I’m out in the woods, just myself, it’s like everythin’ else fades away. It feels natural for me to be there. Hunting, trackin’, even just campin’. I like it and I’m good at it. It’s what I want to do with my life’.

‘I get that now. And for what it’s worth seeing you out here, in your element did make me realise that this isn’t just a phase or something. You are good at this whole… outdoorsy thing, a lot better than I thought you’d be if I’m honest. You seem happy out here as well, happier than you are when you’re in town at least. When we get back home, I’ll tell mum that she doesn’t need to worry about you being a ranger. You’re good enough that at it that you’re not going to wind up stuck or trapped, and you’re not going to rush into anything that you can’t handle’.

‘Thanks Dal, I appreciate that’.

‘Ha! Don’t thank me yet, you’re still going to have to deal with her wanting to stay in town. You think that my word is going to be enough to convince her to let you go galivanting about in the Fangwoods? And after she hears about what happened here? She’s never going to want any of us to leave her sight ever again!’.

‘Heh. Gods, you’re probably right. She’ll probably try and make us wear little bells or somethin’ so she always knows where we are’.

The two adoptive siblings enjoyed a chuckle together and Delde felt awkward about her listening in. It felt rude of her to intrude on such an intimate moment, but she also felt envy towards the pair. Delde had never had a good relationship with her siblings even though they were, supposedly, related by blood. Her being the only non-sorcerous one likely played a part in it, but she couldn’t help but wonder if that was the only reason. Was it something about her, about them, their father, how they were raised? What made one family close and warm and another cold and competitive? Sociology was never one of her strong subjects. Delde had resigned herself to never having such a family life a long time ago, but still, she did feel happy to vicariously experience such a bond, even if it was in such a voyeuristic manner.

‘So, what’re we doin’ tomorrow you think? You stayin’ in this death trap or headin’ back home?’

‘Honestly Baye, I don’t know. That fight with the shadow thing, if you could even call it a fight, it was intense, I mean I know how close it was and I don’t want to die. But at the same time, it doesn’t sit right with me just leaving people to rot down here. How about you, though admittedly you’ve made your stance pretty clear’.

‘Sigh. It’s not that I want to abandon anyone here. I don’t. But the most important lessons I’ve learnt from Miss Lastrid about bein’ a ranger is always know when you’re out of your depth and never be afraid to turn back. And right now, we are far out of our depth. Maybe Adriana is right, and we could have a chance against that Shadow. But if she’s wrong… Like you said, we’re a long way from help here’.

‘Let’s just sleep on it and decide in the morning. Besides, maybe we’ll wake up and all the undead will have been eaten by an owlbear that wandered in the crypt’.

‘Owlbears prefer meat to bones. They also can’t eat Shadow’.

‘I know I know, just let a man dream will you. Anyways, it’s about time for me to take over for the watch, you go to bed and try and get some sleep alright. We’ll all talk about this in the morning’.

‘Alright, well goodnight. And Dal. Thanks for the talk. You’re a good brother’.

‘Thanks. You’re a pretty good sister too, goodnight Baye’.

Delde smiled to herself and cuddled into Onyx as she finally managed to fall asleep. Her dreams were not troubled by smoke or shadows for the rest of the night.