Umbra was relieved that her first trip through a portal without Master Otaro was a simple one, no connections and she knew exactly where she was going. Milo didn’t like the portals at all, probably due to the lack of magic.

When Umbra stepped out of the portal into Master Otaro’s world the first thing she noticed was the sounds, the waves crashing against the beach, the call of gulls and the grass rustling under the sea breeze. She breathed a sigh of relief, the Daemon World had been unsettling in its silence, it was nice to hear the sound of nature again.

Apithe who had been holding her wolf pup while they travelled through the portal set him down. Longclaw immediately set off wandering in wide circles around Apithe, nose to the ground. Milo snorted at the wolf’s behaviour sticking close behind Umbra as they moved towards the estate.

Master Otaro was waiting for them in the courtyard and when they arrived he looked at them both critically, Umbra in her rags, Apithe in her torn clothes, cuts and bites still visible. He took notice of both their companions and Umbra thought she saw a flicker of fear in his eyes when he saw Umbra’s sì cat, but it was gone as soon as she saw it, instead, he turned to Apithe. “A white wolf pup, ferocious when fully grown and exceptionally useful, impressive, well-done Apithe.” Apithe practically glowed from the compliment, her happy smile lit her usually somber face, causing Umbra to smile as well. Otaro’s eyes flicked back to Umbra, he looked uncomfortable Umbra noticed with surprise. “A sì cat, I did not know there were any of their kind on that world,” Otaro said.

“I don’t like him,” Milo’s voice interjected in her head. The cat stood partly hidden behind Umbra watching Master Otaro carefully. Umbra shushed him, worried Master Otaro would hear the disrespectful cat.

“It seems there are,” Umbra answered.

“How unfortunate,” Master Otaro said thoughtfully and his eyes widened in surprise, “Damn cat,” Master Otaro said to himself in a murmur, before turning around and walking back towards the estate without a goodbye. Apithe stood bewildered and Umbra could hear Milo’s soft laughter.

“That was weird,” Apithe said, still glowing from Master Otaro's compliment.

“Yeah,” Umbra nodded, “let's head back to the estate I want to see if Dovrag is around.”

Umbra watched the cat in front of her as they walked back towards the estate, what did you do Milo? Umbra thought knowing he could hear her. Milo turned his head to look at her with his emerald green eyes.

“Seems he voiced some of his thoughts accidentally, how unfortunate,” Milo said sarcasm dripping form his voice.

I thought you said you brought misfortune to my enemies. Umbra asked confused.

“Yeah, and everyone I dislike,” Milo replied lazily. Umbra shook her head in disbelief.

The two girls split at the entrance to the estate Umbra wanted to get new clothes as did Apithe.

After washing herself in the bath room, and putting on a new dress, Umbra went searching. Dovrag was not in the dining hall, not in the library and not in the courtyard, Umbra resorted to opening doors at random, hoping to find his room. It didn’t take long before she abandoned that activity, tired out by the futility of searching every room in the estate and Milo’s sarcastic comments regarding the search.

The next place Umbra checked was the lava pits Dovrag frequented when channelling, he was absent from there as well. Umbra sighed either he had already left or he was still in the swamplands looking for something to trigger a new spell. Night was coming, and Umbra knew it would only take her a second to get to the swamp, she might as well have a poke around.

Umbra let Milo out once making it to the swamp, he was fast but he couldn’t keep up with Umbra when she shadow jumped. He gave a haughty sniff when he saw the swamp, Umbra had forgotten how horrible it was, humid even at night, smelling of decomposition and insects buzzing and biting incessantly.

Looking for Dovrag wasn’t as hard as she thought it would be, she just followed the death magic that was drifting from much further in the swamp. Umbra bypassed the fort it smelt heavily of rotting bodies overwhelming the stink of the swamp.

It was easy to see the flash of flames once Umbra got closer to the death magic. It lit the surrounding swamp in oranges and reds. Umbra climbed up to the treetops with Milo, preferring the vantage point. Umbra refrained from using her shadow jump too much, she had expended quite a lot of magic getting here and depleting her magic more wasn’t something she was comfortable with.

From the top of the tree, she could see another fort much like the other Umbra had raided sometime ago. There were a few glaring differences, a young drow brandishing a white sword stood outside the walls, tentacles wreathed in fire surrounding him masking the bodies of over a dozen charred lizard corpses. Umbra could hear him, he was yelling, Umbra noticed in surprise, she had never seen him do that. “Is this it, a week of travelling and months of waiting, and you do not have anyone that is capable of harming me.” Umbra thought it best not to intervene and watched quietly from the sidelines.

Dovrag’s yelling didn’t go unanswered for long. The gates opened and a red lizard stepped out, tall, thickly built and Umbra could sense the magic roiling off him, in a pale imitation of a favoured presence. Umbra pulled her shadows over herself instinctively. “A tasty soul he has,” Milo said, staring intently at the lizard.

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“Is he favoured?” Umbra asked the cat.

“No, but he is quite close, that silly fire mage may have bitten off more than he can chew.” Umbra watched in concern as the lizard mage approached Dovrag, she knew the safe thing to do would be to go back up her friend, but he needed his second spell and her interference would not get him it.

Dovrag had dropped into a low stance on the Lizard’s approach and Umbra saw that he had shifted the tentacles' positions, they covered his flanks. Umbra noted with pride that her friend was able to summon 4 now, a lot more than what he was capable of when he had first shown Umbra.

The lizard mage covered the ground steadily and pillars of earth rose behind him forming themselves into hands of mud larger than the lizard himself. Dovrag took a few steps back, and Umbra readied herself, she could be there in less than a second, jumping forward into the darkness behind the lizard.

Umbra saw Dovrag’s release of magic a split second before a 5th fiery tentacle burst from the ground underneath the lizard’s feet, wreathing the mage in flames and obscuring him from view, Umbra smiled, Dovrag wasn’t as helpless as Umbra had thought. The fire didn’t hold the lizard for long though or really seem to harm him at all. The lizard seemed to be completely untouched, walking from the flames like nothing had happened, except for the fact that he now seemed to be lacking in clothes. Umbra averted her eyes in embarrassment but quickly looked back to watch the mud hands behind him start to fall crashing into the earth. They didn’t deform but rose again, and more joined the lizard as he walked slowly forward. Dovrag was backpedalling in earnest now as the mud-hands built speed rolling toward Dovrag like a gigantic wave.

Umbra watched as the hands collapsed onto Dovrag, he held his sword in front of him in a feeble attempt to stave off the crashing mud. An ineffective gesture as the mud still crushed him to the ground, Umbra could almost hear his bones breaking from her tree.

The lizard hadn’t stopped walking the entire time and now he stood in front of where Dovrag had fallen, swept under the mud. The lizard held out a hand and a long pole of earth formed in his hand and hardened, the end was shaped into a long spike. He lifted the earth spear above his head and Umbra ripped out Carn and jumped, just as a flare of blue fire lit the area.

The lizard had changed the angle of his spear when Umbra jumped driving it straight into the spot Umbra had just arrived at, she gasped at his speed, but she was fast too and managed to cast shadow jump again, appearing a few steps away from the dangerous lizard. He didn’t let Umbra recover though driving forward rapidly, thrusting with his spear of earth, he didn’t manage to drive it into Umbra though as a pillar of blue flame crashed into the lizard rocking him back. Umbra stepped back in surprise the heat from the flame was intense and Umbra could feel herself burning. The lizard and what Umbra assumed was Dovrag grappled on the mud floor. The lizard’s facial expression didn’t change as his hands started to melt, and Umbra saw a great fist of earth rise from the ground and pound into the blue flame that was Dovrag sending him flying backward. The lizard stood, showing no outward expression of pain and headed toward Umbra again another spear of earth appearing in his hand.

Umbra gritted her teeth and whipped Carn forward cutting into the lizard’s arm, but not severing it, Umbra ripped Carn backward in surprise, this was the first sign of resistance that Umbra had experienced when using Carn. The lizard was unfeeling and uncaring still coming towards her relentlessly, Umbra knew from experience that she wouldn’t be able to sap its vitality, it was far too strong for that. She jumped again further back, Carn floated through the air and lashed out with it cutting into the lizard’s legs and arresting its movement. She ripped it back out the sharp blades of the whip's edge tearing through his stone hard flesh, sending him stumbling to the floor. Umbra flicked Carn towards his face, but the lizard erected a wall of mud that impeded Carn much like his body had. Umbra shadow jumped behind the lizard, lashing out with the whip as she jumped. The whip caught in the lizard’s ribs, his bones seemed particularly hard even Carn having trouble cutting through them, Umbra pulled Carn back out again tearing another wide gash. The lizard wasn't bleeding Umbra noticed, and Umbra’s cuts with Carn only seemed to slow him down. The lizard was slowly getting to his feet and Umbra lashed out with Carn again, this time at his face, she caught him with the tip creating a gash as wide as Umbra’s finger across his face. She struck again, scoring a hit across the lizard’s cheek. She struck again and again, but nothing seemed to hurt the lizard and Umbra screamed in frustration as the lizard got to his feet unrecognizable, most of the flesh scoured from his body leaving parts of his skeleton bare to the world.

Suddenly Umbra was lifted into the air and she let out a scream of pain as she was crushed by a hand larger than her, Carn slipped from her grasp falling to the muddy floor beneath her. Umbra could hear her bones snapping, she desperately tried to shadow jump out of the hand but all she managed to do was phase out of existence momentarily before being forced back into the hand’s clutches. So she did the next thing available to her, Umbra fired off threads of her magic, towards the fort searching for something living, she could barely concentrate through the pain of her body being crushed by the massive stone hand, but she managed to sink her threads into some of the guards on the walls sapping their strength and health. Umbra gave another cry of pain as her body tried to fix itself under the strength of the stone fist. Bones newly mended broken again, Umbra fired off yet more threads into the fort, soon dozens of lizards were providing her with strength and health, and her body started to resist the force of the fist. She let out a pain filled grin and sent out yet more threads and started to push back against the stone hand, slowly opening its grip until it was wide enough that she fell to the ground. As soon as she hit the ground she rushed the lizard mage, Umbra could feel the heat increasing as she smashed her shoulder into its rock hard chest sending it tumbling to the ground. Dovrag, still wreathed in blue flames appeared, crashing down on top of the lizard mage, melting through its body. Umbra didn’t hesitate as Dovrag pinned the stone mage, she shadow jumped to its head, right beside Dovrag. The boy’s flames were unbearable even with the stolen strength from the dozens of lizards, but she ignored it and grabbed the lizard’s head and with the strength of dozens of the mage's brethren she wrenched and pulled and finally with a crack like the very earth splitting Umbra ripped the head from the body.

The air around Umbra exploded with death magic like nothing she had ever felt before, and without a care for anything around her Umbra forced open her channels, absorbing the death of the powerful stone mage, it was like nothing she had ever experienced, the entire world around Umbra became clear, and she could feel each individual life around her, Dovrag burning hot with magic, Milo off by the trees, and hundreds of lives in the fort. She could barely contain the magic that was flowing into her, and it started to leak from her grasp turning the air around her still, and cold. Umbra could feel Dovrag’s sudden gasp of air, and his magic stilling in Umbra’s presence, she could almost feel the magic that his death would release into the air. The temptation to rip his heart from his chest and adding to the death magic was immense, she knew she could do it too, but she resisted the urge turning to the hundreds of people in the fort instead.

Umbra had no control over herself when she jumped into the middle of the fort, where the lizards clustered waiting for the return of their victorious mage. The lizards closest to her collapsed paralyzed unable to withstand the death magic that leaked from Umbra, the ones furthest from Umbra were likewise affected but managed to start crawling away. Not one lizard escaped, Umbra could feel each individual life, and as they were snuffed out Umbra felt a surge of excitement and as death tainted the air, the lizards grew more fearful and Umbra grew more powerful, ripping up the floors of houses with her bare hands to reach hidden lizards in the basements. She didn't have Carn but she didn't need it, her hands sufficed, she could rip heads from body's with the ease of ripping paper, and soon there were none left in the fort.