The dust settled as Tina coughed, picking herself up from the floor of the stairwell landing. Pyre lay beside her, unconscious, having pushed the little priestess out of the way of the falling rubble. Rubble that now pinned him by his legs. She shoved at the stones but was too small to move the rocks that probably weighed more than her. She needed help to move the rocks before she could even attempt to heal her pyromancer. She scrambled to a small window in the stairwell that allowed light in, looking for sir Wogan, Brute or another beefy warrior type only to instead see the lizardman below in the courtyard with the small girl on a chain. She could hear the muffled shouts of Xerro from the window of the ballroom of, “Melodie!”

“No, no, no,” she whispered as she recognised the name if Xerro's love with the sleeping curse. She closed her eyes praying and drove the tip of her staff into the stone in front of her. Her ears complained when the bubble expanded around her plunging the already quiet hallway into complete silence. Peering out again from the porthole she watched as everyone visible from her vantage point dropped into instant slumber. She needed help, she needed to find anyone to help Pyre and the now defenseless castle. She made her way down the stairs, hoping to stumble on anyone not within the confines of unconscious slumber.

The bottom of the stair opened into the castle courtyard, but by the time Tina's tiny gnome legs reached the bottom the attackers were already leaving via the gaping hole in what was the castle gate, Xerro and Angeline in tow. Not exactly keen on trying to bring down the creatures that conquered an entire castle by herself, she continued searching for help. Brute would be able to track them later. Xerro and the princess would have to survive until then.

Brute and Stelletta lay in a corner of the yard, having been together when the curse hit. Their proximity made it easier to use one prayer to lift the curse from both. She needed to be smart, she could only do that prayer so many times in one day. Stelleta was on her feet before Brute had even managed to yawn and stretch.

“Brute, you need to go up the stairs and dig Pyre out from a collapse and bring him down to me, gently,” she began, indicating to the slow warrior where she had emerged. She turned to Stelletta, “where is the Kingsblade? We need him.”

“He was riding hellbent for the stables before everything went black.” She replied with a nod toward the stable doors.

The knight was found under his horse, buried in a pile of hay. Another prayer revived both man and horse, but the fatigue of channeling so much divine power was quickly taking its toll on the tiny woman.

“They have Xerro,” she informed him as he was coming around, “and they have your princess.” Wogan was on his feet and mounted faster than the priestess had ever seen in her many years. “Where are you going? The castle is defenseless!”

“But, Angeline,” he cried, “I have to get to Angeline.” Wogan looked about at the slumbering people scattered about the courtyard, “can you wake everyone else.”

“I'm sorry, no,” she regretfully answered, “that prayer takes a lot out of me on the best of terms. That girl's curse was extra hard.”

Wogan remembered seeing Melodie, and he knew Xerro would have not put up a fight if she was alive. He didn't blame him, if Angeline had died and was suddenly alive, his thought began only to bring his missing princess to the forefront of his mind. “Can one of your crew track?”

“Brute is a master tracker,” Stelletta offered, with a tone of almost pride, “not that the giant will be hard to follow.”

Wogan looked about intently, trying to weigh tactical decisions against the ache in his heart about to explode in his chest, “in the holy city, when her curse struck the market, people were only out a few hours. You can wait that long, I cannot. Follow me if your wild man can track them after.” Wogan looked at the priestess, leaning on her staff in obvious exhaustion from all she had done for them already. “Please, I will pay you well.”

“You won't need to pay, Wogan.” Tina said, hurt at the insinuation, “we would do anything for Xerro and Angeline. But let us go after them, your kingdom needs you.”

“She needs me more,” he said with his head hung, unable to look her in the eye. He snapped the reins to speed off through the gaping hole in the wall. She couldn't be mad, he was doing exactly what she had been trying to convince him to do.

The queen was next on Tina's list, along with Captain Corbin that Stelletta had dragged into the room and piled up with the queen and the guards still there. Tina had to be held up by the warrior woman after this last prayer. This and healing Pyre had her completely spent.

“You need to rest,” Stelletta told her, crouched down and hugging the little priestess.

“No time,” she groaned into the red dress her friend still wore. “Castle defenseless.”

Corbin and the queen's guard are headed for the gate now, and Brute is with them. And I will join them as soon as I get out of this dress, if you will lay down.”

“Come Miss Tina,” Amberlynn said softly, “the kingdom is in good hands. There is a soft bed in my chambers.” The queen picked the gnome up like a child. Carrying her to the bed strangely reminded her of taking Angeline to bed when she was young.

Corbin had five men. He stood guard at a literal hole in the castle defenses, with five men. The queen's guard were his equal in proficiency, but if another army showed up, there was little they could do. So when the torches first began appearing at the edge town, he was tempted to check his armor to see if it was soiled.

The lizards padded slowly down the street. Even if they were but a handful, they were confident in their conquest of a sleeping kingdom. They carried spears and the torches they needed to stay warm. Why these abominations couldn't have done what they did in the daytime when the blessed sun was overhead was anyone's guess. The appearance of the horse speeding down the road toward them was unexpected to say the least.

Wogan crashed through the loose formation of lizardmen almost before he saw them. Several were bowled over, most of the rest dove to the side. Even with torches in hand, the reaction times of the reptile men were slowed in the chill of night. What Wogan did not expect was for his horse to stop and turn without him ordering it so.

“Dirge, we don't have time.” He commanded as he pulled the reins to turn the animal. A motion the war horse nickered and bucked against. “Dirge! The princess needs us now.” When the big black horse did not move the knight sighed and slid off the horse, “as does the kingdom, I know.”

The lizards were slowly regrouping as Wogan stepped up to the first. A ponderous thrust was easily deflected by his shield, followed by a quick downward swipe that cleaved the spear in two, simultaneously slicing the reptile man from its chin to its pelvis.

Another lizard warrior attempted to spear the knight but instead caught a pair of hooves to the head. Wogan sidestepped a third and with an upward slice took the tip off the weapon before plunging it into the reptile’s chest. A pivot and a shield block allowed the knight to sever another lizard's spear arm. He stuck the blade in its leg before picking up the spear to hurl into another charging reptile. As the skewered lizard fell he grabbed his hilt again and opened the soldier up the thigh and across the sternum.

The rest, seeing their fellow warriors falling to the armored meat grinder, dropped their spears and ran off into the night.

“Why do we run?” Complained one reptile as they fled.

“Why stay in this cold land fighting a foe like that. Kuss is a fool and we are fools to have followed him.” screamed another back at him before turning and continuing south toward the warmth of the holy lands.

Hoof beats brought with them three horses, all Tina's mercenary crew. “Wogan!” Cheered Pyre, grateful for the skilled steel of the Kingsblade.

“You did not save us any?” Stelletta added mockingly in her thick accent. A cloth hung around her neck like a bundle a mother carried her baby in. The red hair of Tina Stuck out from the swaddling, the gnome still fast asleep. The leather clad warrior smiled, noticing his look at the bundle, “she wore herself out putting the castle to rights. Corbin said his guards will camp out in front of the hole until the wall is fixed, and that we are needed to help you retrieve the princess, and Xerro.” She added with a bigger smile at the end.

Wogan swung back up on his horse, “then we have no time to lose, they are already far ahead, and moving fast.”

Brute was already riding away, scanning the ground with precision for signs of their passing.

They rode for hours, it would have seemed logical that the stone giant would have left an unmistakable trail. But his strides were often lost in brush and bramble in the darkness, and having no discernible toes, often changed direction, forcing the nomadic huntsman to backtrack several times when he did not find the next step where he expected.

In all it made Wogan more and more furious. He nearly screamed when the trail ended at a river. There was no bridge. As near as Brute could figure, the giant simply waded across, probably carrying the rest of them with it. Brute was already down the embankment, testing the depth.

“At least forty feet at center, and swift! No fording!” Cried the barbaric elf.

“Skite!” Swore the knight. They would have to find a bridge, it was going to cost them time.

Brute had returned to the top and was peering off into the distance. He looked to a far off mountain range with one of its peaks spewing fire.

The assassin, still holding the sleeping gnome in a baby sling, put a hand on her brutish lover's shoulder, “you think that's where they are headed?”

The savage elf nodded, “each time when the giant turns, he again faces that peak.”

“I concur,” said Wogan, “that must be where they are headed.” The knight looked up and down the river bank, “the sooner we get across the sooner we can recover time heading right for that peak.” He spurred Dirge into a run, gambling south would have a bridge closer than north. Or so he hoped.

By daybreak they came to a small fishing village. They had no bridge but they did have a ferry barge, big enough to put all three horses on. Wogan and Brute both gladly aided the ferryman in pulling the rope to get the barge across as fast as possible.

“I don't reckon this old raft has ever crossed this fast. You fellers are stronger than even I was in my youth.” The old ferryman laughed as the two pulled the line in perfect enough harmony that the barge never really slowed between pulls. It felt more like sailing than ferrying.

Tina was waking and looked around confused, “what in the bloody hell am I in?” She asked, looking up at her friend who was looking down at her with a big grin. She struggled out of the sling while her friend laughed. “If you want a baby Stella,” she hissed in an angry whisper, “I have a prayer next time you and Brute get frisky. It will guarantee you a bun in your oven.” The warrior put her hands up at the threat, “then don't ever let me wake up in one of those again.”

“We had no time to lose.” Explained the half-elven plainswoman, “you needed sleep and we needed to get on the princesses trail.”

“Well I still need to perform my morning rites.” She replied, but looking around at the group, she noticed the only one who seemed well rested was the ferryman.

“We have time,” Stelletta responded to her diminishing tirade with a hug, “it's still over an hour on this barge to the other side.”

“Sorry,” whispered Tina, giving her a hug, “it's a gnome thing. Just because we are small, we are not babies.”

“I know, it was just the most efficient way to ride.” The warrior was all smiles as they broke the embrace, “but hold on to that prayer, one day I may want it. Just not right now.”

The dock was becoming visible in the evaporating morning fog. The wooden craft stopped with a lurch as it banged against the dock and ramp dropped nearly as quickly. The Kingsblade paid the ferryman and the horses were off.

The gnome priestess convinced Pyre to ride with her, so she could steer the horse while he at least tried to sleep. The warriors could benefit from a prayer she knew that could make up for lack of sleep, but if the pyromancer was too tired to cast he was useless to them. They rode hard, pointed in the direction of the glowering mountain, but still it was a full day before they crossed the path the monsters had brought their friends down. As Brute had surmised, they were indeed headed directly for the volcano. It was the whys that concerned both Wogan and Tina.

Her sanity wore thin in the numbing cold and disorienting silence. She could neither hear her own sobs, nor feel her own tears. Time and existence had lost all meaning. She could have been here a century as easily as a day. She once again tried to feel for the surface she sat on, but she could feel neither floor nor finger, not even her legs. “Is this oblivion?” she thought.

But her ears finally detected something drifting into the consciousness of her mind. A voice, barely perceptible but unmistakably familiar.

“...When I first heard your voice, I don't think I could have resisted following it if I had wanted to. And you were just as amazing as it sounded. You grew up in a horrible place, all by yourself for most of your life, yet you were so warm, and kind and happy. I don't know how you did it.”

It slowly grew in volume. It could no longer be denied that something existed here besides her. Xerro's voice sought her out, and far in the impenetrable darkness that surrounded her a star shone. His voice seemed to drift to her from it.

“I ran away from everything, all my life, closed myself off. I told myself keeping people away was safer for them. But I think eventually I was so scared of what I was missing that I didn't want to get close to people just because I thought if I did I would realize what I'd been missing, and it would hurt all the more.”

The light grew, what was once a far off star was now a beacon. And Xerro’s voice continued to call to her.

“I didn't tell you because I was afraid. I kept pushing the subject away because I didn't think you'd want me if you met someone better, and I assumed you would. That you would leave me when you found out about me, found out the price that comes with knowing me. Now you are paying it anyway and I should have just been brave enough to tell you! But I wasn't! As always I had my eye down the road instead of what was in front of me.”

She called out to him screaming and sobbing. She ached to see him, hold him, let him know she was here. But her voice was still silent. Her throat made no sound in this blackened void.

“I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Melodie. I should have told you sooner. I should have told you when I had the chance. Then you may not have been so insecure in the market. Then you might not have run away. Not if you had a real answer. Not if I had just told you. Because… because I do love you Melodie. I have always loved you.”

“Xerro!” Her voice shattered the stillness as the growing light enveloped her. The room was a dull reddish blurr. Her eyes refused to focus. But ahead was a shape leaned against a wall. And beside her two large things, people or beasts she could not tell, but they slumped to the floor affected by her voice. The human shape far against the wall moved still. She heard his voice from it and knew, “Xerro.”

She made her way carefully to him. The heat intensifying as she neared the orange glow. Her vision still clouded, she felt her way across the bridge with her toes.

She called his name, he watched the lizard guards crumple to the floor in her magical slumber as she walked across the bridge. “Melodie?” He asked hoarsely, the long speech and dry, sulfurous air from the heat had esanguated his throat. Her eyes were glazed still and she looked about her path, confused in her slow deliberate steps. The chain dangling from her collar dragged behind her, its tip dipping in the magma and slowly melting the links. She collapsed in front of the lad and felt with her hands over his legs for the buckles.

“Xerro, it IS you. I knew you would come for me,” she whispered as she attempted to open the straps, laying her head on his thigh.

“I think it is you who came for me.” He whispered back, unable to keep from smiling as she got one leg free. “Melodie, you were dead.” His smile fell, unseen by the girl as the shame overran him, “you were dead and it was my fault.”

The second buckle released as she pulled herself up by the vest he wore. She looked at the part of his blurred face she assumed were his eyes, “I don't care.” She said flatly. “You think it is your fault because you could not be some hero for me, I may say it's mine for not trusting you and running away. It might be my father's fault because he was a raging skitehole.” She placed her brow softly on his, “I don't care. I only care that you are here, and I am with you. Nothing else matters to me.”

They were both silent for a time while her words soaked into his heart. “Well, we are in a volcanic hellscape surrounded by the monster that experimented on me and turned the other children into nightmares.” He added softly.

She continued to gaze into the blurs of his eyes for a moment before responding, “yeah, we might want to get out of here.”

She undid the buckles on his wrist with considerably greater ease. When the last one fell away Xerro placed a hand on either one of her cheeks and guided her lips to his, kissing her deeply before parting.

Her breath was warm and sweet on his face as she whispered, “we were supposed to be leaving.”

“I did not want to waste another minute having not done what I should have done in the holy city, the minute we were out of the pit.” He smiled, his features beginning to become more defined in her vision. Their faces being a hair's breadth from each other at the lips certainly helped. “I love you, Melodie. I really do.”

“I love you too, Xerro.” She replied softly, giving his lips a other sweet and quick peck, “but we should go. And you should lead because I can't see that well.”

The cavern loomed like a dragon's maw, a fiery glowing gash in the mountain pouring acrid smoke into the night. They tied off the horses a mile back and crept up the mountain to the cave. The ground rumbled and scorched earth assaulted their noses without mercy from the rocky outcrop they crouched behind.

“So,”whispered Pyre, “how do we get in?”

Tina looked at the young pyromancer like he asked which way was the sky before gesturing at the gaping cavern and asked, “do you see another cave?”

The mage sighed indignantly, “I mean how do we enter, you know? I'm sure they are expecting us to walk in the front door.”

“There is only one entrance so we have little choice.” Added Stelletta, “I will ascertain their defenses, and return.” The leather clad warrior stepped around the rock and disappeared from his sight before the Kingsblade could blink. No sooner would he notice where she had gotten to, then would he lose sight of her again.

“She is very good.” The knight remarked quietly.

“She was trained as an assassin,” the gnome smiled. Wogan could tell by her expression she was recalling how they had met. “She had not been doing the job very long but she was already disillusioned and looking for something more to do with her talents than killing people for money. I was working at a brothel catering mostly to men who wanted to pretend I was a young human girl.” She visibly shivered at the thought of this before continuing, “and I was looking for something more meaningful than that, obviously. So we struck up a partnership, slowly gaining and losing members over the years, but always us two at the core. She met Brute and the two had this immediate connection. And we picked up Pyre about a year ago.”

“It sounds like you two are very close,” said Wogan.

“She is my best friend. You always find the people you are meant to be around that make the most of who you were meant to be.” the gnome replied in her usual wisdom.

Stelletta came running from the fissure in the mountain, the cloud behind her only visible in the glow of the magma within. She was waving her hands over her head at the cloud as she ran to the cover of the rock.

“The bug man!” Cried Wogan rushing out to aid her, Brute grunted and followed. Tina watched as Pyre climbed atop the rocks and set into one of his complicated hand movements as he chanted. With an outstretching of his hands a gout of flame shot across the air. As brute and Wogan reached the assassin, burnt insects began to rain from the sky on top of them. The swarm broke apart and flitted back into the cave.

Stelletta was covered in bites and welts and looked absolutely miserable. “That living swarm was waiting.” she wheezed, “circling the ceiling. Chances are now, they know we are here.”

“No time to lose then,” said Wogan, as the priestess rushed up to pray over her friend. “The longer we wait the readier they will be for us.” The knight unsheathed his sword and rushed for the cavern opening.

The diminished swarm swirled around the roof of the cavern. As soon as the Kingsblade stepped into the open space within the mountain, what seemed to be the greater majority of the back wall stepped forward, once more forming the stone giant. Wogan was forced to dive to the side as a rocky fist twice his size crashed down on the spot he once stood. The knight dashed between his legs, sparks flashing in the dim light as his blade drug across stone. He immediately regretted not bringing a hammer, or at least a pick ax.

The stone arm slammed into the ground again as he dived to the side, striking the rock again ineffectually with his sword. A resounding crack sent a chunk.of the hand falling to the ground. The stone man let out a howl of pain that sounded like a tower collapsing. Brute pulled his great ax up over his shoulder for another swing. Bursts of fire exploded across the giant's torso, as the rest of Tina's brigade poured into the cave. The stone monster struck about wildly with its arms forcing the crew to jump, dive and roll to avoid being crushed.

“We should have fought it outside,” complained Stelletta, “if we lead it out of the cave we would have more room to move.”

“No,” the knight protested, “he can only get so big in here. He is limited in size and shape if he wishes to still be able to move. Just keep moving, and we can slowly wear him down.”

As the giant's arm impacted the floor once more, the assassin ran up the arm, digging a dagger into the shoulder and prying a rock loose from the joint.

The goliath roared as the rock fell away. Stelletta slid down its back and landed running, not wanting to be caught by the stone monster standing still.

“We can only go so long before being worn down ourselves.” The warrior woman replied.

Brute charged and brought his large ax to bear on the giant's knee. With a crack and spark the ax cleaved through the rocky joint and the giant tumbled to the floor of the cave.

No sooner had Stelletta gotten out a cheer then the pile began to restructure itself.

The stones quickly tumbled back into the rough humanoid shape of the giant. The half a human face embedded in the lump of rock between its shoulders glared menacingly down at them.

“Skite!” cursed Wogan, as he watched all the damage that they had just spent become moot. This thing was ready to go again, surrounded by all the material it needed to fight on forever. “We don't have time for this.” He shouted, worried about what might have become of Angeline.

Tina could see on his face where his true concerns lie. “Brute, Stelletta! Concentrate on the legs! If we can keep toppling it maybe we can get a shot in on that face! Perhaps that is a weakness!” The tiny priestess made her way over to the Kingsblade. “I know what really vexes you, Sir Wogan.” She placed a child-like hand on his and closed her eyes, “that way!” she said, suddenly pointing down a side passage. “your love waits down that way. I feel her love for you. She is thinking of you at this very moment. We will handle the giant, don't worry. Remember this is a rescue mission first and foremost.”

Wogan placed his other hand over hers as he nodded. Then, he ran off down the passage. Now, Tina thought to herself, they just had to bring down an invincible goliath.

Xerro had picked up a spear from one of the unconscious lizards. He kept it in a one handed ready position, just as Wogan had taught him, as he led Melodie by her hand down the passageways. She was alive, she remembered him and if he could get her out of here, he would make sure she never left his sight again.

“Peasant!” the words were formed of a guttural roar. Like that voice you have in the morning just before you manage to get that gunk out of your throat. Stepping from the darkness further up the passage, emerged the pale visage of general Kuss. “From the moment I lay eyes on you you have sent everything into catastrophe. My people dragged so far from our wetlands and its warm sun, with nothing to show for our efforts. The sorcerer king, gone, by you of all humans! You, with no talent for war, no magic, faced down he who possessed the blood of dragons and destroyed him!” The lizard man swelled with a massive intake of breath and raised his warspear, “I don't care how much Kerkakelmak wants you alive, I am putting an end to you, now!” the massive reptile charged at them, his spear aimed directly for Xerro's chest.

The young lad pushed the girl behind him and planted his feet. He had set the weapon for charge as the knight had shown him but he was sure Kuss would still strike him down in one blow. Just before the weapon bore down on them a stream of flame separated them from the enraged general.

“He wants the subject kept ALIVE.” Crackled the voice of the walking bonfire. The pungent odor of sulfur seemed to increase as he approached.

“He owes me blood!” Screamed Kuss, it was obvious to Xerro that Kuss did not feel his current situation was ideal. “I was denied my kingdom. I was denied the head of the Kingsblade. I will have his blood!”

It was also clear that the contempt the both of them had for each other could fill a sea. Fire and ice. Neither magical, leaving his curse useless. But the hate they had for one another could be the only weapon he needed.

Primus turned to Xerro, leaving Kuss seething, “return to your cell experiment zero.”

“I believe I shall decline. Since it is obvious you won't hurt me.” Xerro replied.

“No, we will not hurt YOU, but I will roast HER alive if you do not.” Primus crackled, as he indicated Melodie behind Xerro.

Xerro reached around and pulled Melodie closer, until she was against his back. “You can't burn her without frying me along with her.”

Xerro could see anger overtake the face in the fire once more. The flaming man turned to Kuss enraged, “what are you waiting for? Separate them.”

Kuss growled threateningly before taking a step at the two younglings. Xerro could tell the tension between the two was at a boiling point. As the reptilian general neared him, Xerro put himself in his ready stance and jabbed the spear at Kuss. The general easily knocked the strike aside with minimal effort. Xerro exploded into a flurry of jabs with his spear. Pulling the spear back as it was knocked aside to spring into a new thrust each time. Kuss easily dodged or parried each thrust, but his ire was growing, like that fly when you decide to take your lunch outside and no matter how you wave and swat at it continues to bounce off your face like it keeps mistaking your face for your food. Xerro continued to step back with each poke, Melodie pressed against his back. The trouble was he ran out of cave.

Melodie let out a squeak as she was pressed against the stone by his back. Distracted by her yelp, he turned his head at the wrong time and the next parry from Kuss slashed Xerro across his cheek. The blade of the spear was so cold the cut did not bleed. But Kuss was past his breaking point, he swung the blade around in a large arc bringing it to bear overhead to drive it into Xerro's chest.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The blade stopped scant inches from Xerro's ribs as the fire person held it by the shaft. Steam poured off the haft under Primus’s hand as the absolute cold of Kuss and his weapon drank in the heat of his flames. The lizard's irritation had reached its maximum and he lunged at the man of combustion, grabbing him by what passed for his throat. Primus screeched and tried to flare his flames hotter but the entropic cold of Kuss just drank in his heat greedily.

Xerro pulled Melodie by her hand out of the cavern as Kuss slammed the flaming man against the stone floor. Primus was quickly dimming as he pummeled the frozen lizard, the literal fire of his life draining away. The reptilian general, used to combat and consumed by rage and too long suppressed bloodlust, ignored the combusting man’s blows like they were those of a child. Kuss held the fire monster down by his neck, rolled his heavy spear over the back of his hand and drove the frozen blade down into Primus’s chest. The flame being emitted a screech like metal stressed too far and snuffed out of existence. Kuss threw his head back and howled in extacy at the demise of one he hated so much.

Wogan followed the passage until it opened up into a large cavern. On top of a stone pillar a dozen feet off the cave floor sat Angeline, surrounded in an aura of sickly green light.

“Wogan!” She attempted to warn, but a watery tendril wrapped around his neck from the shadows in the cavern's dark recesses.

The bubbling laughter of the water witch assaulted his ears as she squeezed his throat pinching off his airway. “Welcome, gallant sir Kingsblade. You are here to save your princess, no doubt. Just like out of a storybook.”

In a single fluid motion, Wogan drew his sword and twirled it behind his head. The blade cut through the tendril like water, well in essence it WAS water. The laughter of the woman continued, it seemed not to cause her the slightest pain but the tentacle did drop to the ground as soon as it was cut. The milky puddle it created slithered back to the main body as she shot another proboscis toward the knight. Wogan swatted the liquidy limbs as they approached. Each time forcing the appendage to drop to the ground and slither back to her majority mass like snakes. It was apparent she could only hold a somewhat solid form while it was all in her main puddle. She continued to glide at him reaching out and having her arms cut off just to have the liquid return to her body, laughing what passed for her head off the entire time.

What remained of the woman called Thrace stopped suddenly and regarded Wogan with an unsettling tilt of her watery head. “You want to save her? Do you Kingsblade?” The laughter like a dripping sink continued before stopping instantly, as her head snapped in the direction of Angeline with a jerking motion. “I tell you what, sir knight.” Her head reversed itself without turning her neck, it was suddenly just facing Wogan with a speed that sent chills down his back, “I'll let you save her. I promise not to stop you. All you have to do is push the release.” She pointed at the smaller stone pillar. It took Wogan a few seconds to come to terms with the second pillar, as tall as he was floating a few feet above the first, with no visible means of support. On the top of the pillar attached more sensibly to the ground he saw the rune carved into the surface and glowing.

“No Wogan,” begged Angeline, “please don't.”

Wogan stared at the rune for several breathless moments before turning to the princess. She could plainly see the determination in his eyes as he asked, “is this really what opens the bubble?”

Angeline was in tears, enticing even more laughter from the water wench, but she nodded, “yes. But the stone…”

“I can figure what happens,” he interrupted. He turned back toward the liquid lass, “I have your word then, she can just walk out of here.”

“If you touch that dias, Sir knight,” she said between fits of watery laughter, “I would escort her out of the cave personally.”

Wogan could hear Angeline's sobs as he pondered the rune on the stone. The pillar was wide enough to almost reach his shoulder before his fingers reached the rune. The bottom of the floating stone was eye level to him which would mean he would have to duck to reach for it. Wogan berated himself internally, he rushed after her without a plan or a second thought. If he had found Xerro first the boy could have probably just touched the bubble and let her out. But he was rash and impulsive and in love. He rocked back and forth on his feet, judging the distance, his reaction time and a thousand other factors with the skill of a master swordsman. Finally, the knight reached out with his shield hand, the tips of his fingers hovering over the rune between the stones. After those long, tense moments Angeline screamed as Wogan taped his fingers on the rune and attempted to pull his hand out with the speed of a man who had spent many years training as a Kingsblade.

Pyre watched as the two warriors hacked and stabbed at the rocky monstrosity. They chipped at his hide just to have to run and dodge to keep from being squashed by the enormous stone fists.he had tried to use his spells on it twice, but the monolith of an opponent seemed Immune to fire. He kept guard over Tina instead, as the gnome felt out with her abilities, hoping to locate Xerro by his love for Melodie. A fool's errand at best, as her powers stopped working close to Xerro's curse. Curiously, at the edge of her awareness was not Xerro's love, but love instead for Xerro. Fading in and out like it was moving in and out of his radius.

The lizard man plodded along the passages, feeling along the dark corridor that led from the chamber where that horror had pierced into this dimension, smelling through the fetid sulfur choked air for the smell of outside. The ex-god that had seized its brain using its instinct for open natural spaces to his advantage. Arcos needed another host. A fully functional one with a potential to wield magic. One he could use to escape this world, away from that Peasant who could render him practically inanimate. The boy was something he had never encountered, someone who completely negated magic. Something the former God of magic feared. Ahead he saw the hazy air lighten as the confined space opened up into an immense cavern. Although Arcos could not hear in this host, it could feel the cavern shake as the stone titan stomped around, striking the ground in its attempt to crush the mercenaries that came to rescue the boy and the princess. Across the cave, behind some rock he could see the gnome and next to her the arrogant young pyromancer. A suitable host at last.

Xerro rushed through the darkness. The previous chambers had been lit by natural lava springs and flows, now he had to feel his way with one hand as he held onto Melodie with the other. The triumphant roar from Kuss, that he could only assume was him killing that man made of flame, spurred him on faster to put as much distance as he could before the reptilian general turned his rage on the pursuit of them.

The water witch danced ahead down the passage humming gleefully as the armored knight leaned heavily on the princess. It was by virtue of his skill as a swordsman and the speed of his reflexes that the stone only came down on his arm halfway to his elbow. The pain was so excruciating he could barely see, much less walk. The entirety of the forearm was a dark purple, and barely recognizable as an arm. He was pretty sure every bone was pulverized. But he refused to groan or complain, not in front of Angeline. He sacrificed it for her, and he will be damned if he let her think he regretted the decision for a second.

The blob of flesh colored water spilled out into the yawning entrance where Tina's crew still fought with the stone man. She bowed in mocking chivalry as she pointed through the fracas to the less dark of the mountain entrance, “there you are.” She giggled, “I said I'd escort you out, but of course I can't, and didn't, guarantee Duos will not smash you where you stand.”

She erupted into another fit of laughter that caught the giant's attention. The one she called Duos ambled over at them, now ignoring Tina and her group. Brute continued to peck at the back of the goliath's legs but he strode purposefully at Wogan and the princess, Boulder like fist raised.

As the stone descended, Angeline pushed her knight out of the way. He tried to grasp for her but his good arm faltered. He fell to the ground as the fist sped toward her. At the last minute, Stelletta dove under the fist and tackled her out the other side. Brute picked up the Kingsblade and wrapped his good arm over his shoulder, running to the cover of the entrance stones. The assassin pulled the princess to her feet and ushered her in the direction the barbarian had run.

Distracted by the mad dash, Tina was in the direct path of the living swarm, who had chosen to make use of their concern to attempt to do away with their leader and healer. The buzz of hundreds of wings caught her attention the last moment, she looked up as the cloud of bugs was a scant foot from her face. The swarm was incinerated by the flames that roared over her head. Pyre quickly snatched the gnome up in his arms and ran to meet the injured knight.

“Pyre,” she gasped, “thank you.”

“Hey,” he replied, “no one lays a hand on you on my watch, boss.”

The tiny priestess blushed and squeezed his neck with her arms, already around his neck.

As the princess ran after her fleeing knight, Stelletta behind her suddenly stopped in her tracks. She fell to her knees choking as a watery tentacle squeezed her neck in a liquid vice.

“Stelletta!” Angeline screamed

“Your pretty face is mine,” laughed Thrace, “you I have made no promises.”

Hearing the scream of the princess, the elf barbarian sat the knight down in the path of the approaching priestess and ran back to his lady in distress. Brute passed the panicking Angeline and tried to pull Stelletta from her grip, but for a tendril of just water, it was as strong as a steel chain. The light in Stelletta's eyes were quickly fading, he drove his ax down on the length between the witch and the assassin. The length around her throat lost its cohesion and splattered to the ground with the falling Stelletta. She lay there coughing through ragged breaths. Brute swung at the witch, over and over the blade split the living puddle, only to watch her flow around the weapon and reform.

“Ooo, he's cute,” she cooed, looking over at the still recovering Stelletta. “Mind if I have a go at him.” She seemed to leap at the savage warrior, engulfing him completely inside her. She formed into a large bubble, keeping him at the center. Brute was less than a foot from air but he might as well have been at the bottom of the ocean.

“Brute!” Screamed Angeline, “let him go!”

“And what fun would that be?” Sneered the face on the surface of the gigantic water droplet.

The stone giant had ceased his assault, bellowing a deep laugh that sounded a lot like two boulders being slammed repeatedly against each other. He seemed more keen to revel in the woman's cruelty than his own rampage.

The lizard puppet ran across the cave floor toward the retreating form of the young sorcerer. He had set the small woman down next to the knight, and Arcos took this opportunity to bear down on the fire mage. He only had to force the staff into his grip and he could use his full powers again.

Even injured and in excruciating pain, plus with only one arm, his reflexes and training were enough to spot the charging lizard man, draw his sword, and in one swift motion even from his kneeling position, take the head off the reptilian soldier. The staff of Arcos Magi flew from the hand of the instantly dead lizard and slid across the cavern floor.

Angeline stood in helpless fear as the thrashing of the elf slowed. Stelletta was crawling to him, still struggling to breath, the huge bruise around her neck showing that Thrace had nearly crushed her windpipe. Wogan was being looked at by Tina, Pyre was protecting the gnome. Hope, it seemed, had served notice and skipped town. Then she saw the staff just a few paces from her foot. She knew what it was, she knew what would happen. But it was a power that could turn the tide. She steeled her resolve and summoned every ounce of her will, and picked up the staff.

“The potential!” The words of Arcos Magi escaped the delicate lips and tongue of Angeline. “the untapped potential!” The sorcerer the former god had controlled had power. Honed and sharpened by training and experience, but the raw untrained power the princess had within her dwarfed his by comparison. She had not a second of learning in the arts of magic, but Arcos had complete knowledge of all the mystic arts and spells. She did not need training while he wielded her.

She turned her delicate neck to face the elf, trapped within the watery prison unmoving in the witch’s clutches, and swung the crook of the staff in her direction. Thrace had not the time to even scream as her watery composition was converted instantly into solid ice. A mock tap with the staff from across the way and the ball of ice shattered. Brute fell limply to the floor, Stelletta crawling up to him across chunks of already melting ice.

The stone goliath roared in rage at the sundering of the liquid lady, striding in great thundering steps. The possessed princess smiled as she turned, pointing the prison stick once more at the giant now. When his next foot landed it did not stop. It flowed like water forming a puddle as the stone up his leg continued to turn to mud. With a scream that sounded like an avalanche, the living monolith became a dead morass ankle deep in the cavern.

Angeline Let out a short laugh and waded through the mud toward Tina and Pyre caring for the Kingsblade. “Oh, and to think I was going to marry the princess to my sorcerer just to breed a better host.” She exclaimed in her sweet voice, “surely someone had to know the potential for magic she possessed.”

“Vacate yourself from her, you fiend!” Yelled Wogan, struggling to get to his feet.

The puppeted princess giggled and turned the crook to the knight. “No!” echoed the voice of Angeline in the back of Arcos's consciousness. Arcos looked out from princessly eyes to see the staff shake as the hand that held it fought against his control.

“Interesting,” Wogan heard the mad god remark in her sweet voice. He could see her struggle to regain control. She was fighting him, not with any chance of breaking free, but she was the first host he could actually feel resisting him. The others were not even conscious, but he felt her in the back of his mind, pushing against his control.

The princess turned and walked away toward another passage, “fear not, your highness,” Arcos spoke low to the mind of the princess within. “I have no inclination to harm your friends. But you will never see them again after we leave this world for one without that peasant to oppose me.”

Xerro entered the cavern, towing Melodie by the hand. Still dark, but significantly lighter than the passages they came from. The floor was littered in ice and mud, Stelletta sat in the middle of all of it weeping, Brute lying limply across her lap. He was wet and pale, and he was not breathing. Xerro helped the leather clad warrior carry his body over to where Tina was caring for the Kingsblade.

“Is he alright?” The lad asked.

Tina completed the prayer to ease his pain. “His arm is mangled, Healing it will be difficult. It would be simpler to remove and regrow it at this point.” She got up and joined Stelletta at Brute’s body and gave the grieving woman a hug. She placed her hands on his forehead and, once again said the prayer that would keep his body from decomposing. “we will get him fixed, sweety. I promise.”

Xerro looked about, “have you located the princess?”

“Wogan lost his arm saving her. But Xerro…” the gnome faltered as she spoke.

“She picked up that blasted stick of yours.” Answered Wogan, struggling to his feet. “ She did it to save us. But now that god has a hold of her.” He looked toward one of the far passages, “she went that way.” He indicated as he started to step in that direction.

“No,” Xerro said plainly, putting his hand on the big man's chest.

“She is my responsibility.” The large man protested.

“I will get her,” Xerro countered. “You know I'm the only one who can, and you are in no shape to fight a mad god. Please, you need to take care of Melodie for me.”

Wogan pondered his logic for a moment before nodding his head.

He looked about the group, his gaze lingering longest on Melodie. He sighed as he wrapped his arms around her, “you have to go with them for now.” Melodie shook her head, eyes wide with fear, “I will be back for you, I promise. But I am the only one who can help her. These people will keep you safe until I do. And then you will never leave my sight if I can help it.” He kissed the top of her head lightly.

“She will be safe,” said the knight, clapping him on the shoulder with his good arm, “You have my word, my friend.”

“And I will return your princess to you,” he replied. “The rest of you, get out of this cave. Take care of each other.” He kissed Melodie's lips and whispered, “take my love with you and I take yours with me.” And he left in pursuit of Angeline.

“Your love will protect each other,” said Tina to the girl. She helped her toward the entrance, as Stelletta laid Brute over Wogan's shoulder before helping the knight walk out.

The puppeted princess made her way through the pitch black passage, Arcos could sense the dimensional rending properties of the orb and followed it. His escape, his freedom, with the potential possessed by Angeline he would quickly concur whatever next world in which he would arrive.

The oppressive darkness wore quickly on his patience, however and with a wave of the staff the tunnel was flooded in light. For an instant, the stone appeared to be covered in black wriggling tentacles, but they vanished as soon as the princess blinked in the light. Arcos Magi could feel the invisible tendrils attempting to worm their way into the mind of his royal vessel. The massive ego of the former deity waved them away easily.

“You'll need to do better than that!” Laughed the delicate voice of Angeline into the darkness ahead. “I am no mere mortal, easily frightened and controlled. Today you face a god!”

The echo of Arco Magi's boasts were soon drowned out in the roar that rose from the darkness ahead and spewed forth a raging white lizardman. The possessed princess stood before the charge unflinching and as the cold pouring off the spear could be felt on her face, the reptilian general stopped instantly, hovering in place with both feet off the surface of the cave floor. Kuss hung there in the air, unable to move as the princess paced around him like a cat playing with a tiny lizard it had found.

“I am insulted, Kuss.” She sneered, his ire growing from once more being denied his vengeance. “How quickly you turn on your master after already abandoning me in the town.”

Kuss was confused by the prattling of the young princess. She spoke as if she had command over him. Like she thought she was the sorcerer king. “I should destroy you where you stand, general. You had pledged fealty to me. You and your armies.”

Kuss noticed the staff she held in her grip. The same stick the sorcerer wielded, the one the peasant held after the sorcerer disappeared. It slowly dawned on him that this was the sorcerer king. That somehow he was now in the body of the princess. “Master, we thought you had abandoned us. What is the meaning of your appearance?”

“Power.” She replied, “the princess possesses more potential than I have experienced in a long time.” Arcos watched the confusion on his face rise and fall and rise again, as perplexing details were missed, finally grasped and then brought on only more confusion as the reptile struggled with higher concepts than a warrior was used to. The body of Angeline held up the staff, shaking her head, “the princess is just a vessel, you thick skilled reptile. This is me. This staff is my prison, and I control anyone who touches it.”

“Then you are not descended from the ancient dragons.” Kuss spit with a growl.

The princess expressed the laughter of Arcos with a dainty twitter, “funny enough, general, the sorcerer I last possessed did get his powers from the ancient remnants of the blood of dragons in his veins. But I am more than a dragon Kuss, I am a god. I am the god of magic, Arcos Magi!” The shell of Angeline stepped up to the nose of the lizard man. “What it has done to you is truly amazing, I have to admit.” The princess’s body stepped back again, “reswear your loyalty to me Kuss and we will reap his power and flee this world to another that we can grind under our heel.”

“Don't you dare!” Boomed the voice in the general's mind.

Kuss was at the limit of his patience. He was angry at the god who now possessed the princess, but the treatment he received from Kerkakelmak was more than he could bear. “I swear,” he hissed, instantly wracked with pain by the alien horror that had restructured his body and chained his mind.

“Ooo,” cooed Angeline, “he's a jealous one, isn't he?” The princess tapped the lizard on his forehead causing both a halt to the writhing and Kuss to drop to his feet.

“He,” stuttered the general, “he's gone. His voice is no longer in my head.”

The pseudo princess ran a hand down Kuss's jaw, “I have closed your mind off to him. See I can be merciful. I don't have to be hard.” She turned and strode down the passage, Kuss following behind.

The cavern was gigantic, and barren. The swirling, pulsating light from the orb caused any shadows on the walls to dance and jump randomly. Arcos could sense the rift in the universe but the mortal eyes of the princess could not see it. The deity relaxed his resistance to the monster's probing mind and Angeline's eyes saw the hole in the back wall that opened into a world of nothing but cold lifeless eyes and wriggling tentacles. The beast’s form seemed to shift and move constantly, Arcos was experienced enough to recognize a seeming when he saw it.

“You are not even here.” laughed the princess, “you seem frightening, but you have no true form, do you?”

“What does that mean?” Kuss asked, as this conversation was well beyond him.

“Your former new master doesn't even exist, Kuss. A mind is all he is. A powerful mind, but just a mind nonetheless.” The princess’s face gave a smirk, “ we have nothing to fear from him.”

“Do not test me Kuss,” Boomed Kerkakelmak, “my power is beyond your comprehension.”

“Show him your appreciation, general.” Angeline's voice uttered with a flourish as Kuss growled.

The large lizard man was suddenly off in a charge, barreling toward the hole into the monster's world. He left at the portal, his spear out, but as the tip passed through the horizon it began to disintegrate. Already in mid air, Kuss was too late, his inertia carried through the membrane between worlds and soon he ceased to exist.

“As I thought, you tied their new forms to the physical laws of this world.” mused the god possessed princess.

“You suspected, and still sent kuss to his doom?” Questioned Kerkakelmak.

“He, like other mortal beings, are tools,” commented the body of Angeline with uncharacteristic coldness. “I use mortals to get what I want. But I need nothing but my own power.”

“Arrogant little god, you know nothing of power.” Thundered the elder thing.

“Time is meaningless to my kind. My essence was one with the weave of the universe at the dawn of creation.” Boasted the princess being. “I am the embodiment of fabulousness!” she posed with her chin high and both hands on her hips. The presence of the still clutched staff gave the feminine pose a strange phallic quality.

“I was, long before this universe was born.” The elder thing countered with a deep, booming chuckle. “And as you yourself told Kuss, I am just a mind, you can do nothing to hurt me.”

The lovely face of the princess sprouted the most frightening and inhuman of smiles, “my magic is vast, monster. You have no idea the kind of spells I have access to. Spells that can rend the mind as easily as the body.” Angeline gestured, and Kerkakelmak screamed.

Xerro could hear the sweet dulcet tones of Angeline's voice as he entered the cave from the dark passage, although it was her voice and even how she spoke, the words were things she would never say. Ahead was the colossal visage of the monster that had experimented on him and the others, standing before it was the princess, barefoot and covered in mud halfway up her skirt. She threatened and gestured and the monster screamed. She laughed and flicked her hands and fingers and the screaming continued.

The fleeing group outside the cave could feel the waves of pain the creature radiated out. They felt as if their skin was on fire, the bones were trying to turn to jelly and their eyes were melting out of their heads. They could see no evidence of this in each other, but they all felt it nonetheless.

Xerro moved cautiously up behind the princess, ready to snatch up the staff from her hand. She continued joyfully torturing the monster, a twirl of her body, a toss of her hair all reminding him of Angeline. Arcos acted nothing like the sorcerer king he had faced before. Other than her actions and motivations she seemed like Angeline. Xerro wondered if gods were so different from mortals that he required bits of the personalities and mannerisms of his hosts in order to simply interact with us. As he thought on this, when he should have been more focused on sneaking, the princess suddenly snapped around to face him.

“Stay back,” the princess commanded. “I'm warning you.”

“Or what?” Xerro asked, as he took another step forward, “there is nothing you are capable of doing to me.”

“No, maybe not.” She said as Arcos thought frantically for a credible threat. Then Angeline's face smiled, “but I can hurt her. Stay back or I will set the princess afire.”

Xerro stopped. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them. “Hand me the staff.”

“You must be joking,” she gasped, “whatever do you think would possess me to just hand it over to you so you can just put me back to sleep?”

Xerro looked away from the face of the princess and addressed the staff directly, “I wasn't talking to you.” He looked back up at the eyes of Angeline, “Princess. Your highness.” He paused for a moment, looking for the light in those eyes that was the woman he knew, “Angeline, please hand me the staff. I know you are still in there. I know how strong you can be. I have seen it. That hand holding it does not belong to him, it belongs to you. Just pass it to me.”

The god behind the princess laughed, it had been eons since he had laughed so heartily. “Foolish mortal! No one has ever resisted me. I. Am. A. God! There is no defiance…” The hand holding the stick that was his prison. The one that belonged to the woman he was inhabiting. Was beginning to move. “What is this? This cannot be. No one resists my will. I am ageless. I am eternal. Stop. Stop you foolish girl, I command you! You pitiful insect! Do you know who…”

The voice fell silent as Xerro's hand closed around the shepherd’s crook. The lad had to catch the falling princess in his free arm as she collapsed from the monumental effort the simple act of passing someone a stick had become under the will of Arcos Magi. He looked at the face of the princess. “That was foolish, you know, picking up the staff?”

She looked back into the face of her scolding friend, “I…had no…choice. Had to… save them.” She gave him a weak smile, “thank you.”

“Anything for my princess.” He smirked. “Do you think you can stand?”

“I… think so.” She replied, as she stood, albeit shakily, on her own two dirty bare feet.

When she was stable, he looked over at the hole torn in reality before him as he took a step towards it. Whatever Arcos had done to him, it had been vicious. Tentacles and eyes could barely hold cohesion. Black ichor poured out of the portal running along the floor of the cave. “My Xerro,” the boom was gone. The collapsing mountain of a voice was barely a rumble, “you have saved your master. As I knew you would.”

He turned to Angeline, “run. Get out as fast as you can. The others are waiting for you.”

“No!” She protested, “I won't leave without you.”

He hugged the princess and whispered, “I'll be right behind you. Follow this passage to the entry cavern and then outside. Now go.”

She nodded, rushing down the path through the rock. Xerro turned his former captor. His former torturer. “They're gone. The others like me. No one is coming to protect you.”

“I can rebuild them easily.” It replied, “a simple matter when I recover.”

“But not me.” Xerro began to understand. He could see what damage the mad ex-god had done to him. “But not me. You can't recreate me. I see that now. You don't really understand magic do you? You are terrified of it because not only can you not understand it, you have no defense against it.” He looked at the staff in his hand, containing the nullified god. “It is why you need me. But I will not come back to you. I refuse to protect you. I am no longer yours. In fact I have never been. But I will not be so cruel as to leave you alone. You two deserve each other.” Xerro pulled back and flung the staff into the open portal.

“No!” Screamed Kerkakelmak. Arcos needed a host to do, basically anything. The elder thing had no body, but when the staff made contact with the powerful field of energy that was Kerkakelmak's mind, the eldritch tug of war instantly began. As the god within the staff reached out to control the mind that touched the object, that magical energy ripped and tore at the elder horror.

The entire mountain shook as Angeline ran out of the cave. The gathered adventurers were attempting to stand as her kingsblade ran up to her, wrapping his one remaining arm around her.

“My lady, you are safe.” He cried.

“Yes,” she replied as she buried her face in his chest. “Xerro saved me.”

She looked back at the cave as the top of the mountain blew into the night sky. The incompatible energies warring inside that portal between worlds churned the magma inside, forcing the sleeping mountain into rage. Angeline saw no sign of the boy who had saved her life more times than she could count. She looked over at the young girl weeping in the arms of the gnome priestess. Angeline rushed over to the girl, taking her up in her arms.

“Melodie! I am so glad you are alive, sister of my heart.” The tears of the two mingled as the girl silently wept, all too used to stifling her sounds for others. “I'm sure he is fine. He will make it, he promised he would be right behind me.”

The new top of the mountain, after the last exploded, shattered in a thundering boom. Lava poured down all sides and rolled down towards the cave, assuring once it reached the opening, no one was leaving.

“Look!” Shouted Pyre, indicating a moving object running just ahead of the wave of molten rock. The pyromancer dashed ahead to the running peasant gathering up all the magical strength he could summon. The young sorcerer forced his arms forward just as Xerro ran by, splitting the wave of lava in two to flow harmlessly around the group, already cooling in the night air.

Xerro fell to his knees as Melodie plowed into the boy, arms around him. “I told you I'd be back.” He said hoarsely.

“Yes you did,” she laughed as tears still ran down her face, now that speaking was safe once again in the sphere of his curse.

The mountain let out one more thundering explosion, sending an object spinning down from the sky. It embedded itself into the ground near the gathered friends, prompting a shriek from the princess. The curled staff stood there, stuck in the ground and steaming.

“Oh, for the sake of all that is holy!” Exclaimed Wogan, “I thought we were rid of that accursed thing.”

“For skite sake, please,” groaned Xerro, “nobody but ME touch it.”

There was of course a grand party the next night upon their return. Tina and her crew could unfortunately not stay for the whole thing, as they needed to get Brute to the druid that Tina knew as soon as they could. Before they left however, Tina presented Melodie with a pin of the order of Alyssa. It guaranteed her acceptance into any temple of the Divine Harlot, and aid from any of her clergy. She also gave Xerro a scroll with the complete prophecy, to ease his worries. Queen Amberlynn made Xerro and Melodie an official lord and lady of Amberwyben.

It was almost a week later when Melodie and Xerro stood outside the town by the sign where Angeline insisted they ride by carriage to, “you could stay, you realize.” Angeline told them, wiping a tear from her eye.

“I don't know if Kerkakelmak is really dead. Skite, I don't know if it can die. So I am still a threat to anywhere I stay too long.” Xerro answered, before giving her a small hug. “but at least I won't be alone anymore. And I promise we will swing by as often as we can.” He readjusted the pack on his back, its heft included not only at least a hundred gold sovereigns but also a new lute.

Wogan eyed the lute with a smile, “do you even play?” Jest was more comfortable to the knight than the melancholy feelings of saying goodbye to someone he had come to regard as a friend.

“Your minstrel taught me a few chords. No more menial jobs to get by since I have someone to take care of. And if we bill ourselves as traveling performers I need an excuse to be on stage next to her.” Was his reply as he shook the good hand of the Kingsblade. The other was still in a sling, Tina was actually able to regrow it like she promised.

Melodie stood right next to Xerro, getting a long hug from Angeline, “I will always consider you my sister.” Angeline told her.

“Does that make me a princess?” The girl joked.

“It does to me.” was the princess’s response.

Xerro retrieved the staff of Arcos Magi leaning on the sign. “I really would have felt better if you had let me wall that up deep in the dungeon.” Wogan remarked.

“As secure as that sounds, there would still be the chance it could be stolen. It is better off if someone does get their hand on it that I am as close by as possible.” Xerro said as he took Melodie's hand, “ready?” The girl nodded and he gently kissed her lips as they headed down the road away from town.

Angeline stood there and watched them walk away until she could no longer see them. She breathed in deep to compose herself before turning to her Kingsblade, “now sir Wogan, I feel we must discuss the rather unbecoming behavior you have exhibited over the past few days. The nerve of you nearly sacrificing your arm just to rescue me. I mean, for heaven sake, your arm…” her tirade was interrupted by the knight pulling her close by her waist and giving the royal lips a long deep kiss. It was one of those kinds of kisses that people would describe as a long time coming. A great many years of longing, not to mention frustration, was passed between them in that kiss.

“Wogan?” She sighed breathlessly when the two finally separated.

“Tina was right. I will not let another moment pass without telling you how I feel, Angeline.” He told her in a commanding tone that would normally had him imprisoned for insubordination. “I love you. I believe I have loved you since I was a servant boy who brought you your meals in the playroom. That kind, generous and caring girl who treated a servant boy like a friend.”

“You were my friend, Wogan.” She replied. “you always have been. And I love you too Wogan. You have no idea how long I have waited for you to say it.”

“Even though I made the oath to keep my distance from my charge, I can do my duties without my love for you interfering.” He told her as she began to giggle most strangely until his expression forced her to explain.

“Oh Wogan, no one follows that oath. My own father was originally my mother's Kingsblade. It happens so often it is practically expected.” She said through her laughter as she slipped her hand softly behind his head to pull him in for another kiss. “Honestly, my mother expected us to have been wed already.” She added as their lips touched.

Epilogue

Stelletta waited outside the grove with Tina and Pyre. The druid had taken Brute inside the circle of trees hours ago. She paced back and forth, worried. Would it work, did they get here soon enough, what would he be reincarnated as this time? Tina took her hand as she passed, stopping her in her tracks.

“It's going to be fine, Stella.” The gnome said, patting her hand as she tried to comfort her. “However he turns out he will still be your Brute.”

The druid exited the trees. The elf was garbed in a gown made of living vines, her long silver hair flowing down her back from out of the circlet of branches that grew out like antlers from her head. “It is done.” She bowed her head with arms outstretched as she stepped to the side.

The hulking form that walked out from the trees had split the fine leathers tailored for an elven build. Muscular olive toned skin was visible through the tattered armor. Long black hair fell disheveled over the face but did not cover the two tusk-like lower canines that jutted over his upper lip. Stelletta's face was one of surprise as she stepped up and put her hand on the cheek of the newly reborn half-orc. Even with all of the drastic changes she recognised the eyes of the man she had spent many nights sleeping with, entwined together. She ran her hand down his neck and over the tight bulging muscles of his chest. She turned slowly to Tina and gave a smile, “I think I can work with this.”

Six weeks and two hundred leagues later

The young couple entered the tavern. It was early, and the late travelers and the usual dinner crowd had yet to pour in. They inquired for the owner, and the lad spoke with her about performing for a few days room and board, promising a large draw by the third night to more than make up for it. The few bars the pretty young girl sang in her astounding voice quickly convinced the woman they were good for what they claimed.

By nightfall of the same day, word of mouth alone had drawn at least twice the usual crowd from the surrounding area to Madeline's and the couple on stage had made a decent amount of bits and slivers in tips. His lute playing was passable but what they came for was her voice. Mugs of ale were left nearly forgotten on the tables while she sang, enraptured as they were while she performed.

No one noticed the six men enter until they shouted over her song, pointing crossbows at anyone who looked like they could put up a fight. The leader drew his rapier and produced a sack, telling the patrons to fill the bag and no one would be hurt.

The lad grabbed her hand, concerned for her safety as the girl stood. But she turned to him and with a wink put a finger to her lips. She spoke but one word into the crowd, “boys.”

The room instantly fell into deep slumber, and Xerro sighed as he stood. He had to find some rope and tie up the bandits before everyone awoke.