The walk to the tunnel’s end was short. Rieren hadn’t expected it to truly lead to the outside world again. A strange bubble of emotions tried to burst out from her as she found herself in the open again.

For one, she was concerned far too much about Elder Olg’s condition. Powerful and ingenious that he was, he wouldn’t be able to stand against the Masked Avatar alone for long. For another, she wondered what had made him send her and the rest them of out to an Abyss Rent which was so close to the dungeon’s exterior.

A question that was compounded when she found the guests awaiting them on the mountainside.

Of course, Rieren’s first glance was aimed at what was left of Lionshard mountain itself. The destructive rain of red lightning had finally ceased. But the swathe of chaos it had left seemed unending.

The entire mountainside was now nothing more than blistered and cracked rocks, run through with streams of lava everywhere. Smoke roiled off the surface, several areas collapsing inwards even as Rieren watched. The lava and smoke were actually less than she had expected, but it was still horrific to see the mountain turned into the fairytale version of the Abyss.

The appearance of Essalina and the little army behind her only made things worse. Of course, Rieren hadn’t spotted the Arteroth woman directly when she beheld the mountainside. What she did observe, however, was a small camp flying the banners of the Arteroth clan.

“What in the world?” Amalyse asked as she joined Rieren.

It was impossible to tell if she was more flabbergasted by the state of Lionshard mountain or the fact that the Arteroth had set up a small camp on their mountain.

In normal times, it would have been a grave violation of security. One couldn’t expect to establish a clearly military camp on grounds so far from one’s own home without it being seen as a declaration of war. In normal times, the Sect would have responded to something like this with frightening, but deserved, viciousness.

Now, their presence was a direct insult in the face of Lionshard Sect’s current troubles. Vultures had alighted on their grounds to feast upon their body before it had died.

“It must be over a day since—” Amalyse stopped herself. “Since the last attack.”

Rieren looked up at the dark sky. She could have been fooled into thinking that it was still the same day the Sect’s grounds had been destroyed. But Amalyse was right. Essalina couldn’t have brought this entire group here unless some time had passed, though it wasn’t impossible she’d already had a contingent close to Lionshard mountain.

Folend spat to one side when he joined them. “The Arteroth aren’t alone.”

That was another confusing, and somewhat depressing, turn of events. Rieren only had to look further into the camp to spot some of the other banners. She recognized some, including one from Amalyse’s and Rollo’s families. It seemed it wasn’t just the Arteroth who had determined that the Sect had fallen.

“I suspect they intend to recover what they can from the Sect’s grounds,” Rieren said. “They wish to capitalize on the Sect’s destruction.”

Folend grunted. “And pull out the ones who had sent their scions here as disciples. If any of them survived.”

Of course, they had survived. Amalyse was right beside them. But Folend was speaking from their guests’ perspective, who no doubt had yet to determine the same.

“The way they’re together suggests this was a group effort,” Amalyse said, the grimness in her voice growing heavier with every word. “You don’t have that kind of thing happen normally. Unless…”

Rieren sighed. “Unless the Emperor asked for cooperation again.”

In other words, this excursion had been approved by the Forborne Emperor. That was going to make dealing with it a bigger pain than Rieren had thought at first. Just more fuel to add onto the conflagration they were supposed to damp down.

“Shall we go down then?” Amalyse asked. “Confronting them is why Elder Olg sent us here, right?”

Folend’s smile was a jagged slash across his mouth. “If he had any control of where we ended up, sure.”

Rieren agreed on meeting the delegation directly as well. They were going to be spotted soon at any rate.

As expected, the scouts the Arteroth had set out found them before they got close to the camp while they climbed down the mountainside. It wasn’t easy. With much of the ground devastated and pitted with cracks and lava, they had to be careful about the path they found themselves taking.

Avalien had returned the Malformed Root to Rieren, who had sold it to obtain some Credits. The disciples’ appearance was going to cause enough commotion in the camp on its own. They didn’t need to complicate things by showing up with a tool to channel corrupted Essence too.

“Thank you,” Rieren told the guardsman.

“What for, mistress? I am only returning what belongs to you.”

“I do not thank you for that. It is your reminder that is appreciated.”

At Avalien’s nonplussed look, Rieren answered by bringing up the topic of what they would tell the Arteroth and the rest that had gathered. In fact, what Amalyse might tell her family’s delegation as well.

They all came to the decision of not mentioning their most recent troubles. Nothing about the Avatar trying to use the Sect to secure the Dungeon Core for himself, nothing at all about their little excursion into the Abyss.

And certainly nothing about how Rieren had been personally targeted by the Masked Avatar.

They were greeted at the gate of the little encampment by just the person Rieren hadn’t wished to see. Essalina Arteroth was striding towards them as though they were entering her personal estate and not a military encampment she had set up on someone else’s mountainside.

“My, my, look who we have here.” Her dark eyes surveyed them with a naturally evil gleam that was as sharp as the daggers she would have used against them with no compunction. “Survivors! We thought you were all dead and long gone! What a shocking turn of events to see that some of you actually managed to survive. A miracle, no doubt.”

Her eyes were shrewd, but so were Rieren’s. While she understood the layer of meaning behind Essalina’s words all too easily—the Arteroth woman had hoped most of them would be dead—she also understood Essalina couldn’t blatantly wish harm upon the Sect and its inhabitants. Not with so many other delegates around.

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“Amalyse!” a woman shouted, making her way through the slowly gathering crowd. “You made it out!”

Beside Rieren, Amalyse choked a little. The woman who came out to meet them as fast as her dignity allowed was her mother. She sported much of the same features that made Amalyse striking. The same darker skin with auburn hair, the same crimson eyes, the same fierce set in her mouth.

“Mother,” Amalyse said faintly. There were too many feelings warring within her. That was all too evident to Rieren. “It is good to see you again.”

They embraced. Well, Lady Arraihos did, wrapping her daughter in her arms, never mind that she was significantly bigger. Amalyse did her best to bear it without struggling too much.

While she held her daughter, Lady Arraihos opened her eyes to smile at Rieren. “Thank you for accompanying her, Rieren.”

She gave the woman a little bow. “The least a friend could be expected to do, my lady.”

“It is appreciated, nevertheless. You will be duly compensated, of course. Come meet me at my tent when you have some time.”

“Mother!”

“Hush now, daughter. Let this old woman enjoy seeing her daughter whole and well.”

Amalyse harrumphed, likely at the formality of it all, but went silent. She tried to give Rieren an apologetic look, but found it far too difficult to twist her head in the required direction.

Rieren didn’t really mind. Odd, and somewhat demeaning, as it was for Lady Arraihos to assume that Rieren had helped in Amalyse in return for some favour, rather than something that had come about naturally due to their friendship, Rieren couldn’t mind. Not when she could simply cash in a few favours later, when needed.

“What a heartwarming reunion,” Essalina said, holding onto her razor-sharp smile. “Guards! Prepare a separate tent for our new guests, complete with food and drink. They look famished and tired. And add some soap. They’re quite dirty too.”

“Please, Lady Arteroth,” Lady Arraihos said. “Amalyse will come with me.”

“And we have no time for such pleasantries,” another man said, this one bearing the liveries of the Rollo’s clan—the Karlosyne, one of the Archnobles, the highest-ranking clans in all of the Elderlands. On the same footing as the Arteroth. “We must discover what has happened to the rest of the Sect, and of the disciples that they were supposed to protect.”

He was clearly agitated at not seeing his young master among Rieren’s group. His eyes alighted upon Folend, who had hung back while they had entered the encampment. The gaudily dressed man made to make a beeline of for Folend, but Essalina stepped forward first.

“Please, have a heart, Lord Karlosyne,” she said. “We will ask them once they have a had a moment to gather and compose themselves. I believe their survival merits such minor a reward at least, don’t you?”

“Of course,” the Karlosyne man said. Rieren wondered just how much of a lord he really was. He had a winced a little when Essalina had called him that. “We will convene with them soon, of course, to decide the course of action we must take. But first, they must recover.”

Essalina’s soldiers were efficient. No sooner had they finished the little exchange when a couple of them came up to her to announce that they finished preparing a tent for their new visitors. Essalina wasted no time ushering Rieren and the others to the tent, where they truly were granted some privacy. Supposedly.

Despite Amalyse’s half-hearted protests, Lady Arraihos truly had dragged her daughter to her own tent. At least that ensured she would be taken care of well over there. It also ensured she would be safe from Essalina, who wouldn’t dare pull anything with others, especially the Arraihos, around.

Rieren didn’t get to relax as much as she might have wanted. She didn’t wish to, of course. More and more, she was certain an alarming amount of time had passed since they had entered the Abyss Rent.

After all, it must have taken a bit of time for them all to prepare and come here together.

What she needed to do was find a moment to cultivate. The Abyss Rents provided her the perfect opportunity for doing so. She had forgotten about their strange temporal effects. While she and the others had clearly passed through an Abyss Rent that had accelerated time, it was possible to find one that had the opposite effect.

In other words, Rieren should be able to find one that effectively slowed time down to a crawl in a different Abyss Rent. There, she could use that property to cultivate as much as she needed and still come out in time to assist the Sect with the capture of the Dungeon Core and the expulsion of the Abyssals from the dungeon.

As they were only just beginning to wash themselves with the pail of water and cleaning rags they were provided, Folend was drawn away by the delegate from the Karlosyne clan.

“Come with me, please,” he said. “I must speak with you.”

Folend kept his face as equitably neutral as possible. In fact, it was the most blank Rieren had seen the lanky boy ever look. She wondered what exactly his relationship with the Karlosyne was. Perhaps not simply someone sticking with Rollo for the benefits of having a future Archnoble as a friend.

“This is strange,” the guardswoman said when they were relatively alone again. Avalien had granted them some privacy by taking a pail and his wash rags elsewhere. “One thing after another in an unending stream of surprise…”

Rieren rubbed off a patch of Abyssal blood on her arm. It had been stuck there for quite some time. No wonder Batcat had been eager to leave her head and wander about the camp. Though, that was a little concerning too. She didn’t want anyone else taking too much of an interest in its wings. “Things are rather unstable at the moment, yes.”

“I wish it wasn’t so.”

“I do not believe we get to choose in what times we live. Only what we can do with what we are given.”

The guardswoman looked up sharply. “Is that a teaching of the Sect?”

“I do not think so.”

She looked away, perhaps a little disappointed. “Then what makes Avalien follow you with such… dedication? It is uncommon to see any guard to be so taken by someone from the Sect.”

“I simply know a great deal, something that some people tend to appreciate.”

“Hmm.”

Rieren wondered if the woman had been expecting a different answer, perhaps something that put the Sect in a good light. Maybe she didn’t truly agree with many of the other guards holding the Sect and its disciples and Elders in secret contempt. Sometimes not so secret as well, she supposed, recalling her first meeting with Avalien.

“Do you know what has become of your fellow guards?” Rieren asked.

The guardswoman shrugged. “They are somewhere in the tunnels, working under the other Elders. We were separated in the chaos.”

“We will find them, in time.”

“Perhaps. I was a disciple once too, you know.”

She began undressing to wash more of herself, and Rieren turned away to grant her some privacy. Besides, she herself was as clean as she felt comfortable getting in such circumstances. The rest would have to wait, especially considering she would be diving back into the thick of things soon enough.

But the splash of water behind her reminded her of the guardswoman’s last statement.

“Were you—”

Loud clanking interrupted her question. It almost seemed to materialize nearby, as though their bearer had appeared out of thin air. Which, for all Rieren knew, might have been what had truly happened. Those sounds were familiar. She had a feeling she knew exactly who had come to interrupt her in such a seemingly vulnerable moment.

“Excuse me,” Essalina said, just outside the little tent to apparently give them some modicum of privacy while still keeping them right on their toes. “Are you finished? They are all getting quite antsy over a lack of answers, so I thought I’d come over and see if I could pull some of you away.”

Avalien hurried over on the outside. “Why, of course, Lady Arteroth. I will be glad—”

“Not you, guardsman. I wish for you to take as long as you need to recover. Rieren, dear. Would you come with for a moment? We have much of import to discuss. Especially before the other vultures get to you.”

There were too many subtle little jabs in that statement for Rieren to completely wrap her head around them all, though calling her dear nearly made her fall over. Dear was the last thing Essalina should have called her if she was being genuine.

But just as Rieren got properly dressed and presentable for the encounter, Essalina was interrupted by several servants from the Arraihos clan coming in.

“Our mistress wishes to speak with you,” one of the women said as Rieren came into view. “It is a matter of utmost urgency.”

Essalina looked quite annoyed at the interruption. “Now, you cannot simply—”

Some of the women gathered around Rieren physically and started ushering her out.

The first one who had spoken chose to ignore Essalina. “Right this way, mistress. Lady Arraihos awaits impatiently.”

“Come back here this instant!” Essalina shouted.

A part of Rieren honestly might have. She wasn’t at all certain what Amalyse’s mother might have in store for her. At least with Essalina, it would have been a lot more predictable, if also significantly more dangerous.

But at the same time, Rieren was more or less carried away by the gaggle of overly strong women Lady Arraihos had sent out, and she had to admit that her curiosity had been piqued. Well, if nothing else, at least Amalyse would be there as well.