Prologue

It was good to be home, and yet Leona Amithrada was always trying to leave it.

Leona hadn't meant to spend a year on the road – if you can call it that year "on the road." She fell into another world, woke up with a spirit-devouring curse she couldn't shake, gathered new help and tried to fight it off. She asked Kelemvor, the God of Death himself, to give it back. She touched the Wall of the Faithless – something no living person should ever see, let alone have to touch with a hand. Let alone, pry her own soul out of. She was spent.

But she made new friends: close ones, loyal ones. Of these friends, only Safiya came back with her. Safiya, a Red Wizard, thought she could go back to leading the Academy, but once it was rebuilt she grew bored and asked Leona if she could travel back with her. Okku the bear went back to his rest, to rise again when needed. And Gann…he was a good man, but the timing wasn't right. He took it well, but Leona knew that as she watched her physical wounds heal her inner wounds had a long way to go. They parted as friends, almost like siblings. He respected her need to grieve, and found he preferred wandering anyway, so no harm was done.

It hurt still, like a punch to the heart, every time she thought of her fallen companions. She'd been thrust back into her own world to see a Keep rebuilding, barely holding on through difficult times and scattered allies. Even a year later, the thought of her lost allies hurt too much to bear. That's why she accepted all offers to leave the Keep on missions. She had to get away from the memories.

It was bad enough that she'd seen one of her old companions, Ammon Jerro, while down there with Safiya. Months ago now, in a spiritless body, acting like nothing had happened. In debt to demons, still. Nothing had changed with him.

He told her that Casavir's back had broken while holding up pillars for others. Just like him, she had thought, as she'd wiped tears away. But this is what we do. We help, and then we die. It couldn't end any other way for people like us. It's not like we're going to stop this life, grow old in the country. And he got his wish: he managed to be noble to the last.

Bad enough, too, that she had to walk past the castle rooftops where they spent their last night together before winding their way to the King of Shadows. Bad enough she could practically see herself with him up there still, as if time had frozen for that one happy moment. But then, there were now haunted memories to keep the good ones company.

Leona couldn't stop thinking about the Wall of the Faithless. A purgatory for lost souls, frightened and wailing and begging for mercy. She had tried to tear it down. But she was lucky enough to escape with her own soul intact, and Kelemvor would not allow the Wall to fall. When she recovered her soul from the Wall, she was sent back from His Lair. It was one of her biggest regrets that she couldn't make that Wall fall before leaving. She hadn't stopped dreaming of it, hoping for a different ending where the Wall collpases while she picks up her soul. When she woke up at night for days on end after returning, it was Bishop's voice she heard. There on the wall and mocking her from it, as if he were free and she, imprisoned. He had all that frozen time and still, couldn't let his anger go. She could admit she wept for him, more than for Casavir. Bishop had given her the mask - straight from the Wall - that would ultimately heal her. His final good deed allowed him to pass from the Wall and find peace. His end was just as fitting, but even more tragic, in a way, than his life. It left her the gift of closure, but Casavir was gone too, so she was wide open, raw and angry.

When Safiya settled at the Keep she quickly paired up with Sand. They shared wizard secrets while walking the Keep at night. Seeing them happy made Leona happy too, but she ached for her lost loves even more. Elanee and her stepfather were also happy together, rebuilding West Harbour, but she saw them rarely, which suited her. That love could bloom in this now-ravaged land should have been a comfort to her. But she never slept well since returning from the Wall. If she wasn't reliving Bishop's pointed jabs or the wall of contorted limbs, she was dreaming of Casavir in a dark red room, emotionless and beaten. But she did her work dutifully, and left the Keep as often as she could.

Boarding the Vigilant should have been like every other mission, yet she found friendship in a young dwarf fighter named Grizelda Mums. Thrown together as allies after being shipwrecked, the two banded together to set things right all over the area. They rescued captains, defeated bands of Yuan-Tis, and continued on their own, exploring dungeons and hiring out adventuring jobs to anyone who could pay. Leona was as close to happy as she could get during this time. No pitying faces at the Keep: instead, constant motion. Nothing to worry about but meals, enemies, and bartering. And she was able to take her new rage out on anyone who dared cross her. Grizelda was as easy a companion as Khelgar had been; sometimes Leona felt she was with Khelgar, in the old days, before she'd even met the men who died. But she found Grizelda more level-headed, and found her own rage rising. Soon Grizelda was holding her back from fights, as she herself once did with Khelgar, long ago. All the same, she almost forgot her sadnesses. But then they got to Port Llast.

She made sure that in all her travels, no one knew she was Captain of the Keep. They were dangerously close to home, and she couldn't believe she hadn't been recognized already. She'd spent plenty of time here while gathering forces and supplies for the Keep. But so much had changed, and over a year had passed since the war against the Shadows was won. Port Llast had been ravaged by the Wars and was now under Luskan occupation. How Luskans got here, she didn't know, and she didn't care. Leona found herself reluctantly talking to the Captain of the Luskan occupants, for information on missions. Right then, she didn't want trouble. But the Captain was a chatty fellow, and before long he was talking about how he himself had been there close to two years ago now, when they found a paladin, left for dead in the Mere. "Just West of where the Battle of the Shadows was fought," the Captain said. "Broken ribs, broken leg…at first we thought his back was broken, until he managed to get up and limp. Looked all dusty, like he'd been in a cavern full of ashes." Leona's head turned so fast she got dizzy. She stammered out her question, hoping against hope: "What…was…his…name?"