“Highness!” Farin shouted as she vaulted over the window sill. “Klar!” She looked about the room. The drow left the door open after they ran through. They ran much to fast for Farin to catch up with, but there was no way she was going to leave her princess their captive. A muffled grunt caused her to whirl about with her weapon ready. Klar had climbed onto the sill, covered in snow. “Princess!” Farin exclaimed with relief.

Klar crawled into the room and brushed the snow off of her. “That was quite the charge, Farin. You’re a brave woman. I’ll remember that when this is done.”

“You hid in the snow,” Farin thought aloud.

“The drow ran right past me. Come, we’ve got to warn the others.”

They ran as quickly as they could to the Great Hall. Farin was impressed by Klar’s endurance, and her strength as well. She’d heard that slowborn dwarves tended to be hard and strong. Klar ran tirelessly, and when a goblin snuck around a corner and attacked them, Klar punched her sword so deep into its belly that Farin had to help her pull her sword free. All the way to the Great Hall Farin felt a growing fear. If goblins made it to the citadel, then what had become of the soldiers at the eastern gate? She dare not hink Koll had been killed. He was wearing mannarim armor after all, and not the diluted alloy blended with weaker metals, but pure mannarim. Surely no goblin weapons could harm him.

They turned a corner and were close to the Great Hall when they heard the sound of battle and a terrible scream. “Idana!” Klar cried. “We have to go to her.”

Farin hesitated for an instant, thinking of Nava and wanting to go to her .She then heard Nava’s voice in the distance and ran towards it. “She was with the human!” she shouted to Klar as she ran. The two women hurried through the many halls of the citadel, until they came upon Nava backed against an old metal door in a dark hallway. Three strange creatures had her cornered. They were of a height with dwarves, but much more powerfully built than goblins, and had flat faces and tusks jutting from the sides of their upper jaws. The largest of the three clutched at a wound in his side and there was blood on Nava’s sword.

Klar rushed in without delay, quietly thrusting her sword into the back of one of their necks. The creature grunted and coughed, then went into a convulsive fit. The other two turned and the unwounded one closed in on Klar. She struggled to get her sword out, then turned it toward her attacker, using her twitching victim as a shield. Nava sidestepped around Klar’s attacker and made a few quick swings at its head, which it dodged easily. It then lunged and swung it’s crude but deadly handaxe at her. Its first blow caught her helm on the chin, its second rang off her crown, its third found a crease in between her gorget and spaulder.

Her ringed hauberk held together, and the blow only bruised her shoulder. She lifted her buckler as she stepped back, keeping it raised in front of her opponent’s face. Klar had freed her sword and was now flanking the beast. The thing seemed undaunted by the two of them, and every time it lashed out with its axe it landed a blow, always to their heads or a join in their armor. Farin chanced a darting glance at Nava and found herself sprawling on the floor with the creature on top of her. She felt the thin blade of a dagger worming its way under her gorget and coif towards her collar bone. Klar roared as she charged and swung her sword pommel first, gripping the blade in her mailed hands. The beast rolled to the side, but Klar managed to clip its head with her sword’s hilt, knocking off its helm. Farin noticed two rows of small horns sprouting from the creature’s thick brown hair.

Nava was dueling the larger one by the door. She was hard pressed by keeping it at by. Farin desperately wanted to end the fight with her opponent so they could kill the larger one and get Nava to safety. She held her buckler close to her throat and rushed in, keeping her mace raised tightly over her shoulder and ready to swing. Klar ran behind their enemy and slashed at its heels. It jumped over her swing without turning its gaze from Farin. Just then Nava ran her sword through the larger beast’s throat and turned to the one Farin and Klar fought. The creature then unleashed a flurry of blows, each one measured and precisely timed. He hit Farin directly on the buckler, knocking her shield onto her nose and dazing her. When she hit the ground she saw the beast strike Klar on the shoulder and Nava on the elbow, then back to Klar. His axe hit her wrist as she swung downward at its legs. She let out a pained yelp and her longsword clattered on the floor. Nava lunged forward, but the beast already flung itself forward and was on top of their princess with its dagger drawn,

Farin rolled over quickly and with a powerful thrust of both arms vaulted backwards to her feet. She ducked as she turned to ran, scooping her mace off the ground as she did so. Nava reached their attacker first. It had its dagger through Klar’s visor, but the princess was holding its wrist with both her hands and kicking savagely at its groin. Somehow the thing managed to protect its loins by shifting its thighs and hips, but Klar’s kicks prevented it from mounting its full weight behind its dagger.

Nave thrust her sword, taking great care to avoid Klar. It was well she did, as the creature rolled to the side and dodged her thrust altogether. Farin pressed forward, trying to seperate it from Klar and Nava, but it managed to sidestep her charge and keep itself in the midst of them all. Farin swung forcefully across its face. It ducked and her axe struck Klar’s visor and sent the princess sprawling. Farin growled and tried to bring her buckler down on the creature’s head, but it darted forward like a huge bull frog and took her down. She felt the dagger creeping under gorget again. Steel flashed over her eyes and her foe ducked under Nava’s sword. She smelt its hot breath, pungent and musty like a bog, but with an unexpected sweetness to it.

It continued to work its dagger upward, slowed by Nava’s continued attacks, but ultimately undeterred. Farin’s mace had been flung from her hand when the creature jumped her, so she struck at it with her fist while trying to hook her buckler onto the hilt of its dagger. Somehow the brute managed to dodge both her fist and Nava’s sword. Why doesn’t she throw herself on top of the beast and pull it off me? As soon as she thought the question, she had her answer. She’s being careful not to drive the dagger further. Farin suddenly had a thought of sacrificing herself, of taking hold of her opponent’s arm at the elbow and aiding his thrust, giving Nava the chance to attack more freely, or to escape. She quickly realized the folly of the the thought, though, and managed to get her buckler where she wanted it. In the time it took her attacker to grab and fling her buckler away, she managed to pull the dagger back and wrap both her arms around the brute. She held it close to her body with all for limbs and all her strength, but the creature’s own power was terrible. It pried itself free with ease and sprung backwards into the air.

Farin rolled onto her feet without a moment’s thought, scooped up her mace and whirled around in time to see her foe coming at her. It had picked up its axe and dodged Nava’s clockwork strikes, and managed to close with Farin. She struck the monster in the elbow with her mace, but he still continued his swing and brought his axe down hard onto her collar bone. Her armor held under the axehead’s wedge, but her entire shoulder girdle shook from the impact. Her left arm was now hanging limply at her side, and it hurt to swing her mace.

Nava kept up her efforts, and their opponent turned more of its attention to her, only taking an occasional swing at Farin to keep her at bay. Twice it struck Nava with its axe, each time in a vital area, and each time it followed with a thrust to her underarm with its dagger. Farin was growing very angry and weary of this foe, and was frightened that it would kill one of them before they took it down. Please let it be me. She waited till it was about to thrust its dagger after landing a third blow, then threw herself forward. The creature seemed to have either guessed her move or seen her coming, and pivoted to the side and redirected its dagger thrust at her with its axe following with an overhead blow to her head. Klar came from nowhere and buried her sword deep into its unarmored side. It grunted and gasped, and dropped its axe on the ground. Its right hand clenched and it closed its arm down tight against its side, pulling Klar’s sword out of her hands, then it punched her hard with its other hand without losing its grip on its dagger.

Farin was slowly regaining feeling in her left arm, so she feigned a punch with it and followed with a swing from her mace. The beast dodged both her attacks, but Klar was able to grab one of its arms with both of hers. Faring clung to its other arm, and they were able to hold it still for a split second, giving Nava the chance to land a downward slash. Her sword cut all the way through the creature’s neck and halfway into its chest. It jerked its head sideways, then fell into a twitching heap.

The three women all leaned inward onto each other and took a long moment to catch their breath.

“What…” Nava said between gasping breaths, “who…?”.

“I was going to ask you,” Klar said.

“As if I’d know! They didn’t even give me a chance to introduce myself. Not that that’s unusual. I often lose people at ‘hello’.”.

Farin left the huddle and crouched by the creature that gave them so much trouble. What she thought to be thick brown hair was in fact a headdress. The hair was from some animal, perhaps a yak or bison, or some maned cat. She removed the headdress and saw that the creature’s head was ringed with stringy gray hair and bald in the middle. Streaks of dark green shone through the gray. The face was lined with deep wrinkles. She inspected the rest of its body and gear. It wore a wooden breastplate over a strong chest, under its long hide skirt it was undoubtedly male. All about his strong limbs was tough, wrinkled hide, dappled with the colors of a swamp.

“He’s old,” she said, “and he’s a person, not some creature. Look at his eyes.”

Klar and Nava leaned over her and look at their enemy’s eyes. They looked sad.

“He failed,” said Klar. “Were he a mindless brute, he’d look glad to have found worthy foes. But he looks mournful. He was hear to accomplish something important, and he failed.”

“maybe, Dread Highness,” said Nava, “maybe. They weren’t even after us, we just happened to be in the way. Whatever they wanted was through that tunnel.”

“Where’s Idana?” Klar asked with sudden concern.

“Long gone by now. Your queen mother sent a score of us this way when the beasties attacked. Your prince uncle saw them coming up the tempuses with packs of gobbs, and he sent word to us. I was tasked with guarding your aunt Idana and the children. The other women went the opposite direction to draw these here fellows away, but these three kept after their goal, which happened to be just where her Dread Majesty told Princess Idana to take the children. I saw them a good ways down the hallway before coming back to fend off these three fellows here. I clearly had no notion what I’d be dealing with. I don’t think your Queen Mother did either. She seemed more worried about the goblins. No one expected the drow. I feel I should have though. I feel we all should have.”

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“Why is that Nava?” Klar asked.

The girl looked at her feet nd turned pale. “I was on the summit with some soldiers and the Army Chief’s nephew.”

“Buri?”

“Yes ma’am. Your royal brother thought I’d make a good scout, so he sent me to Chief Yormun, and he sent me to the Brow to meet with the Owl Captain. I can’t say I minded that.” Some color momentarily returned to Nava’s cheeks. “They were investigating some drilling that was going on. I found a shodilly covered camp ground nearby, along with some other tunnels. The best we could figure was that the drow had been drilling into the vent shafts, but we couldn’t discover why. We made some japes and let it be. Whatever they were doing, they pulled it off, and we let ‘em.”

Klar put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “You can’t blame yourself, Nava. Buri and Neri should have known better. And Wulden, if he was there. He’s lead the Red Spears for a long time, and should know not to make light of any enemy, especially the drow.”

“Thank you, Dread Highness. So, what do we do now?”

Klar was silent for a moment, then looked back the way they came. “Idana and the children are beyond us. This hallway leads to an ohr-tempus that either takes one to a terrace on the northeast face of the mountain, or straight down to the mannarim mines and an army post. That tempus is hidden, though, to all outside our family and the Chieftains, so they’re most definitely outside the mountain by now. The children will know the way down the slopes, and I think Idana’s doughtier than she seems. I have a feeling they’ll be safe.”

“Then what for us, Dread Highness?” Farin asked, eager to be going somewhere and doing something.

“To the Great Hall,” said Klar. “We’ll regroup with the others and let my mother know Idana and the children are safe, and maybe find my uncle.”

Just then a sound gripped Farin’s heart and squeezed the life out of her. A long-drawn wail, high and powerful, with a throbbing echo that pounded inside her skull. It felt like the mountain was shaking, as if the old lava channels under the Brow were once again filling with molten earth, and Obrus were about to erupt for the first time in eons. Then the sound died away, and the women were left breathless, staring dumbly at each other without the will to move.

“That came from the Great Hall,” said Nava.

Farin gave her princess and knowing look as she picked her weapon up off the ground. All three women looked at each other and nodded, then went at a swift pace for the Great Hall.

The sound came again while they ran, and they were forced to halt and regain their composure. When they made their way to central living quarters, the entire citadel was in turmoil. The stout swamp men were everywhere, along with goblins and drow. None paid them any heed, and they past unnoticed through the crowds of enemies as they poured into mansions and tore through draws and chests. They’ve already begun to plunder. Farin’s belly turned to stone.

If she’d been feeling a growing sense of dread, it was turned suddenly to an icy chill when they reached the Great Hall. The main doors were broken open, and the entire room was filled with drow. They were pulling down banners and throwing them into a fire in the middle of the floor. A drow woman in red lamellar armor was sitting on throne and giving orders. Then another sound rang through the mountain, louder and more frightening than any Farin had ever heard. It was deep and low and unfathomable, a primal dirge that reverberated in Farin’s marrow. All stopped until the sound at last ended. Then it sounded again, this time fainter, and was cut short. “No,” said Klar, “no, no no no! It can’t be? How? No!”

“Klar?” said Farin, “What is it?”

“The Ringing Horn,” said the princess, her voice was quaking. “We’re beaten. Gund is sounding the retreat. Thrond is lost.”

She dropped to her knees, utterly beaten.

Farin looked about her. Nava seemed at a loss, and some of the drow in the Great Hall were marching toward them. Farin took Nava’s arm hard in her hand. “We have to go!”. Nava nodded. Farin heard her sniffle within her helm. “Help me with Klar,” she said. Together they lifted their princess to her feet and shook her until she regained herself. The three ran like mad, trying to fight their way through the horde of enemies to an ohr-tempus they might escape through. Klar led them away from the Royal Tempus towards the Porter’s Hall, where the citadel workers made their dwellings.

All around them a terrifying thing was happening. A thick and choking fog had gathered, and from it wraith-like beings emerged. Some glowed faintly, others were thin and wispy, on the edge of sight. They rushed past them like a wind, and seemed to be moving to the Royal Tempus.

When at last they were safe on the stage of one of the porter’s tempuses, they all embraced each other and wept. When the ohr stopped they charged through Ormazum with tear stung eyes. They all looked madly about the crowd of dwarves fleeing towards Malgond. Farin could hear the sound of it’s deafening roar, and turning towards it saw a thing that gave her joy amidst all the turmoil. There was Koll, not ten paces ahead. He carried a child in his arms, a boy of no more than three, his little beard with with tears streaming down his cheeks. Farin ran to him.

“Farin!” he shouted. “Oh Farin, thank Imanna! Can you take this boy? His parents were killed right in front of him by trolls.”

Farin took the boy and clutched him in her arms, stroking his hair and whispering to him softly.

“What are trolls?” she heard Klar ask. “Are they these other soldiers? Or the shadows?”

“The shadows?” Koll asked. “No, Dread Highness. I’ve seen no shadows. Only goblins and trolls. It’s what we’ve taken to calling the other… DOWN!”

Koll pushed them all to the ground and stood in the way of a storm of bolts. A squad of drow crossbowmen were marching slowly forward, killing at will and driving the panicked dwarves towards the gate. Koll drew the shield off his back and shortsword from his belt. “Take Nava and the Princess out of here,” he said firmly.

Farin stood. “No!” she cried through a flood of tears. “I’m not going without you. I’m not losing you again!”

Koll raised his arm and bolt bounced off his mannarim bracer. He then turned and pointed to the gate. The five of them ran as fast as they could. When they reached the door to Malgond Koll formed up with other soldiers that were guarding the people as they retreated. The dwarves all hurried as fast as they could across the bridge, walking two to three abreast, more if they could fit. When they made it across, Farin gave the weeping little boy to another woman and drew her mace. She looked desperately for Koll.

Malgond had opened completely, and dwarves were filling the trembling path. The Watchers on the Walls had descended and were guiding people into the walls, where they could be protected from enemy crossbows while they escaped. The blood red armor of the Watchers blazed ominously in the red light of the Titan’s Torch, wich was blazing in the black night, so bright it seemed almost a fourth the size of the moon.

Farin had only heard of the new star, and took only idle note of it. This was her first time looking upon it and it filled her with awe. It seemed to her the sky was angry over the blasphemy being done to Obrus. A tiny flicker of blue shone in the star’s center. To Farin it looked like a tear. The world seemed to go silent around her. She looked at this visage in the sky, a wanderer from strange lands, a power high above anything she knew, and wondered if there was an answer to their pain in that red light. The blue tear turned white hot for an instant, and the star itself was turned to blazing violet. That’s when she heard the explosion.

People were screaming and pointing, their cries piercing the veil of quiet that had enveloped Farin. She looked upwards, following the lifted hands and pointing fingers. Smoke rose from the Brow, followed by leaping jets of flame, and Magni’s Master Lense tumbled down the mountainside. The sky turned purple above her. She looked back at the star and a silver light was growing in its center, while the outer fire was pure violet, then the silver shined bright and violet became indigo. It seemed the star was forming into a shape like an arrow, or a spear, when the sky seemed to fragment into lines of shadow darker than the night behind them. The Torch grew bright and Farin could almost feel a hint of warmth coming from it, but the brighter and hotter the star got, the darker the web of shadows became. Eventually the star grew dimmer, and indigo faded to violet, then to red, and the core to a faint blue, and then the web of shadow was gone.

The next sound Farin heard woke her from her stupor. Koll was calling her and Nava’s names, and Klar was calling to her brother and Buri. She blinked, but between her dried, salty tears, sweat matted hair and thin eye slit she was all but blind. She lifted her visor. The crowd was beginning to push her backwards, so she ran back until she was out of the way of people fleeing into the walls, then found sparser path down the middle and made her way forward. She saw Buri’s head, and it looked like he was holding someone in his arms. Beyond Brui she saw the tall figures of drow. There were men in black scalemaille over back robes, and a woman in the finest black scale armor she’d ever seen. It fit her lithe body like a second skin, and her black helm glinted in the light of the bleeding sky.

She wielded a long spear and was battling with a dwarf in resplendent blue and gold plate. She recognized the armor as she had crafted pieces of it; it was Prince Balvor. He had slain half a dozen drow at least, and the woman closed in with him. He wielded a two handed axe with with two broad heads. He whirled it about him as deftly as if it were a quarter staff, parrying the drow woman’s spear thrusts and cutting down any of the men who tried to flank him.

Farin watched breathlessly, even though Koll and Nava had both found her and were standing by her side. Eventually the drow leader thrust her spear passed Balvor’s guard and swept it under his feet. It was difficult to see, but it seemed she hooked her spear’s tip on one of Balvor’s sabatons, then pulled his foot out from under him. The prince staggered, but held his ground until a cluster of the drow men in black dove on top of him. They fought to keep his limbs to the ground, but he was too strong and kept slowly rising. He killed two of them, crushing one’s throat effortlessly in his grip and driving his fist through the helm and skull of another. The woman pressed her spear against his helm and worked it through his visor. Farin had made the eye slit cunningly so that the visor locked solidly in place, and the eye slit was narrow, but so was the blade of this woman’s spear. She gave it a final press and Prince Balvor twitched rapidly for a moment before going limp.

What she saw next would forever torment her heart. Prince Ror bleated painfully and tore through the crowd towards his uncle. She hadn’t seen him till then, and he ran head first like a battering ram through the other dwarven soldiers. Buri turned and ran after him, along with several others. They lifted their prince off the ground and carried him back to the open doors in the walls. The Army Chief was one of the dwarves holding him aloft. Behind them was one last group of escaping dwarves; her own Chieftain Urum Brann, and fifty or more old men and women, followed by his personal guards. She hadn't seen Idana, nor her king and queen. Goblins poured out of the gate and shot arrows at them, driving them into the safety of the walls.

The drow gathered around their leader and held aloft a tall banner that rose high in the air. It was black, and bore only a thin white circle that looked like a wheel of flame. Koll took her by the arm and dragged her into the wall. The door closed behind her, and again all the world seemed muted. They filed through the wall until they exited a door further down, then they fled through the space between the walls and the Titan’s Arm and went northeast back towards the foothills. Goblins followed them late into the night, though they never closed within fighting range. They merely shot arrows and threw rocks until the dwarves were far from Obrus. They were now due north of the mountain, staying in the shelter of the neighboring peaks and their tall sloping sides. Farin looked over her shoulder, half searching for salvation from the star. The Titan’s Torch was hidden from view by the surrounding foothills, but she could see clearly the summit of Obrus, and the smoking ruin of Magni bleeding upward into the blackening sky.