It didn't take long for Lup to figure out that something was wrong. Taako's incredibly bland reaction to finding her body was the first clue - like, he probably should have recognized her robe, right? And obviously he had to recognize the fucking Umbra Staff. He'd seen her use it at least a zillion times. And his only reaction was to just sort of blandly say, "So now I have an umbrella." Taako was an aloof elf, with a penchant for pretending not to care, but he had never in his life reacted blandly to his sister. And neither Merle nor Magnus seemed to put the pieces together either.

And then they marched straight over to the goddamn vault itself, where she had sacrificed her body to ensure that the Gauntlet would be safely hidden, and opened it up. And Magnus fucking high-fived the thing. Okay, so part of her laughed. But most of her was worried. He made a Relic of his own. He knew they weren't to be fucked around with. So what was his deal? Why were none of them taking this seriously?

It got worse. The orc woman came back and they asked her what it was - and promptly acted like they couldn't hear her when she answered them. And that's when she knew for sure that something, somehow, was blocking their memories. Of her, of the Relics, and who knows of what else.

But no matter how hard she screamed, Taako heard absolutely nothing. So she decided to wait. To meditate. To find a way to communicate with him and get out of this staff and get back to putting the world to rights.

And she decided to listen. Because whatever happened to her brother and her friends, whatever had made Taako, of all people, forget her-whatever the hell was going on out there, she was going to fix it if she could. Even while trapped in her own staff.


It was hard, meditating while trying to focus on listening to what was going on outside, but Lup was very good at hard things, and it wasn't like she had anything else to do. And the trip back to Phandolin was pretty uneventful, relatively speaking.

And then she heard his voice.

Hearing Taako's voice had been a beacon to her, a ray of light that had burst in on her prison and renewed her determination and sense of purpose.

Hearing Barry's voice about broke her.

She couldn't even focus on what he was saying at first. It was just hearing him, his voice muffled through Taako's bag, and if she'd still had a heart it would have skipped a beat. If she'd had hands, they would have been trembling. He was okay. He was right there. And she couldn't get to him.

And shit was bad. Someone had the Gauntlet, and the boys were right in the thick of it. And all she could do was listen, and panic as it went from bad to worse. Barry was killed - killed by her own creation.

God, what if the power of the Light of Creation was enough to destroy his lich form? What if it was permanent?

She screamed into the silence, but of course no one heard her. Distantly, she could hear Taako insisting that they go back for Barry, but it was too late.