Sol didn't know whether to laugh or cry. They stood in the center of an Elven ruin, stone walls broken and crumbled by the forest that sought to reclaim it, staring into a deep pool of water in silence with no idea what to do.

The green hive had been returned to the Tower through the gate, and Sol, followed by the suddenly helpful greens (she had no way of explaining that miracle), had searched Evernight for the Overlord, following a trail of blood and scorch marks.

He had been found in the ruin, surrounded by the corpses of rat creatures and minotaur. The whole scene was a complete bloodbath, and Sol was rather impressed. Minotaur were tough opponents, able to shrug off most attacks like they were nothing, but he had been able to take on not one but three. She was more than a little disappointed that she had missed the fight.

They had then followed a thick root from there, seemingly the last one, only to have it lead into the pool, the node lost in its murky depths.

Gnarl had been quick to volunteer Sol for the job of diving down to find it. She had to remind him that her people were not swimmers and trying would result in lots of screaming and flailing interrupted by occasional bouts of drowning.

"Even better!" Gnarl had proclaimed.

They opted instead to return to the Tower. Kaern had found all the ingredients Rose needed (the mental image of him picking flowers in between smiting beasts was a great source of amusement), and perhaps a solution would present itself while they sorted out Heaven's Peak. Now wouldn't that be convenient.

It would take some time for Rose to create her plague shield thing (or whatever she wanted to call it), so Sol decided to wind down in the sitting room previously reserved as a convenient sulking area but now claimed for her own personal use. Maybe she should stick her name on the door, redecorate so it looked a little less girly and pink. She had no fewer than twelve other rooms that looked exactly the same, so it wasn't as if anyone would miss it.

Sol lounged on a plush chair, head on one armrest and feet dangling over the other as she examined the piece of the green hive. She didn't know what to make of it. Minions had always disliked her, greens less so than others but they still pointedly ignored her, growled at her passing if they were feeling particular annoyed, only ever looking past that when they were sent out on missions for the Overlord. Sol hadn't really been all that surprised when they had thrown her to the troll. Now, however, she had seen a group of greens hiss at and stare down a rather vocalized brown. Sol didn't understand, and that made her easy. She half expected a trap to spring shut at any moment.

The door creaked open and Sol looked over to see Rose enter the room.

"Aren't you going to change out of that armour?"

"What can I say? The Kaern is rubbing off on me."

"I have a proposition for you, Sol, though I'm beginning to suspect I'll come to regret it."

"Don't you have something better to do than come in here and insult me? Something to do with the plague, perhaps, and not dying a horrible death?"

"It needs to sit for a bit before its administered. And last I checked, this room is mine and I can come and go as I please."

"Not any more. I've claimed it."

Rose sat in the chair opposite Sol and raised one slender eyebrow.

"Is that so? I wasn't aware that was the way things worked around here."

"Well according to paragraph seven, sentence three, word eight of the Geneva Convention, 'the'. So bite me."

"Must you be so childish?"

"Growing old is mandatory. Growing up isn't."

"For most of us that's true, but not for you."

Sol was struck speechless and Rose gave her a knowing smile. No use denying it, then.

"How did you know?"

"You look to be, what? 21? 22? Yet the last Overlord died three years ago, and accounts place you working for him at least a decade before that."

"Most people calk it up to graceful aging and skin care products."

"My father has… unusual companions. I know how to spot an immortal. It either makes them incredibly wise with an unimaginably deep well of experience to draw on, or the weight of all those years breaks them."

"Did you just call me broken?"

"You mask it well, and it does not hamper your abilities. I am rather curious to know whether it is common to your people as it is for the Elves, or something unique to you."

"The agelessness or the broken part?"

"I didn't mean it as a judgment, just making an observation."

"Well I am making a judgment when I observe that you're a bitch. And to answer your question, I'm a unique, broken immortal."

"Could we please just drop it and move on?"

"Maybe if I were a fully functional individual, but sadly, I am not."

"You're impossible!"

"I can't be impossible. I exist. At most I'm improbable."

Rose's eye started to twitch and she looked to be a step away from an aneurism.

"All right, I'll stop before your head explodes. What did you want to talk about?"

Rose took a deep breath to calm herself, then waved a hand at the door. A brown minion entered wearing an apron (?) and carrying a tray with a teapot, two cups and a few other small items. The minion set the tray on the table between Rose and Sol, gave the Wanderer a dirty look, then left.

"You came here to have a tea party?"

"Hardly. I find it adds an air of civility."

Rose poured it out and offered Sol a cup, which she declined.

"I am neither a little girl playing dress up and make believe or an old crone about to go on a rant about the youth of today."

"Where do you get those preconceptions?"

"I make most of them up myself."

Rose closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Can we please have a mature conversation for once?"

"Probably not, but go ahead."

"You were around when the last Overlord was in power. So tell me, doesn't this whole situation with Kaern seem rather odd to you?"

"How so?"

"A new Overlord is found so quickly, one that would be easy to manipulate with the memory loss and all."

"What memory loss?"

"You don't know? Kaern's entire past before waking up in the Tower has been wiped away. I would have thought you'd have noticed something by know."

"Hey, it takes a twisted sort of mind to become Overlord. I don't know how to tell the difference between amnesia crazy or evil crazy. Though that does explain a lot. Add that to the other things I've noticed, and you're right to say that something's up."

"So you agree?"
"I guess, though I can't quite put my finger on what's off, but Gnarl's bound to have his grubby little hands in it."

"And that is precisely why I've come to you," Rose said and sipped her tea. "I propose an alliance against anything that might come. Gnarl is intelligent and crafty. We'll need to work together to protect ourselves."

"Why come to me? I'm not a complete idiot. A blind man could tell you don't think much of me. For all I know you and Gnarl could be working together."

"While your character could certainly use some work, you are much more capable than you would have others believe. As for Gnarl, I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him."

"That would be pretty far, I bet, and something I'd pay to see," Sol snorted.

Rose's eyes narrowed. "You understand my point none the less. Between the two of you, you are much less likely to stab me in the back given the first opportunity."

Sol regarded her silently for a moment. She didn't trust Rose, not at all. She was hiding something, had some sort of hidden agenda.

"Before I agree to anything, tell me this: What were you doing at Castle Spree?"

"I've already told you, working to combat the plague."

"In a backwater like Spree? Without access to any materials besides the ones you managed to bring with you? There are no merchants around these parts who would supply the sort of things I'm sure you would need."

"It's close to Evernight, the only place where one can find the sort of things I needed."

"There are larger cities close to the southern outskirts of the forest, where there is more open trade with the Elves. But instead you went to Spree, a land filled with superstitious and fearful plebeians who do their best to isolate themselves from any and all nonhumans."

Rose sighed. "I think I preferred you as an obnoxious child. If you must know, I had heard tell another Overlord had risen."

"So, what? You came hoping you wouldn't get turned into a pile of smoldering ash?"

"Did you not do the same? The risks are sometimes worth the reward."

Rose wasn't telling her everything, not by a long shot. If she was hiding something wasn't the question, but rather if what she was hiding would harm Sol. Still, it wouldn't hurt to play along, at least for the moment.

"All right then, Rose. You have yourself an ally. Do you have a particular plan in mind, or are you making it up as you go?"

"I always have a plan, but for now I need you to just keep your eyes open. You have experience I lack and will be much more likely to notice any strange going ons.

Rose rose from her chair and left the room, leaving Sol by herself. She sat in silent solitude for a moment before her eyes landed on the tray on the table.

"Why not?" she muttered and grabbed the cup, the tea already poured but untouched.

She downed the now lukewarm concoction, and any strangely bitter taste was chalked up to being a part of some exotic brand.

Sol was floating, but at the same time her limbs felt leaden and weighed down. She thought she might be moving, but she wasn't sure why. Her head lolled to the side and slitted eyes took in a window cut into stone wall revealing a starlit sky. That was important for some reason. Sol struggled to figure out why.

By Sithian, why was this so hard? When had thinking become such a chore? It would be much easier to just not think, Sol decided.

Sol heard voices. Two of them, familiar sounding. One might have been Gnarl's, the other was deeper, watery. Mortis?

"The Master wants us to ensure everything goes as planned, and that means making sure the meddler won't be able to interfere," Gnarl said.

"The shock could kill her."

"No great loss there."

"A lot of time was invested in this experiment."

"And it could take that long again for it to finish without an extra push. The Master trusted me with this decision, not you. Kaern is becoming more powerful than we expected, and the Rose is slowly twisting him away from my influence. She never should have been sent, not before we knew for sure she would do as we wanted. If Sol survives we'll have some extra help for when he is no longer useful. If she dies, well, there'll be one less annoyance to worry about."

"Sol's addled mind couldn't keep up with what was being said. She tried to grasp on to the meaning but it quickly drained away like sand through her fingers. Concentrating was just so hard. Her hand twitched in irritation and a frustrated sound passed her lips.

"Are you sure the draught is working?"

"It isn't intended to render completely unconscious. She will not remember anything, however."

"Good, though did you see how the greens reacted when they saw her cup as being spiked? Nearly cut Mouldy in half before they were told what was going on. Since when were they so fond of her? Last I checked, the tribes hated Sol!"
"She has been gradually turning dark for quite some time, but know it is becoming much more apparent. Greens are more sensitive to that sort of thing than Reds or Browns and much more likely to adapt to a new situation."

"I think I preferred it when they all wanted to gut her. Will the tribes start acting that way?"

"You fear she will usurp your power," Mortis said after a pause.

"Don't be ridiculous! I am the Minion Master and top adviser to the Overlord! She will never be rise above me."

There was no response, and Sol got the distinct feeling of going downwards. The air grew cooler and she thought she heard the sound of chattering minions. And then there was something else, a humming noise that filled her ears and tugged at her mind.

Sol's eyes shot all the way open and suddenly her thoughts were no longer muddled. She was in the Minion Burrow, a place she had avoided along with all the tunnels beneath the Tower since that night she had awoken here.

She broke free of the hands that held her, startling those that had brought her here. They were not important, not when the humming song filled her mind and drew her towards the Tower Heart. The lure was stronger this time and there would be no breaking free.

The song was everywhere, both comforting and terrifying. She stopped in front of the Heart. A small part of her mind was screaming to stop, to flee, but it couldn't stop her from reaching a hand out.

It burned, but she embraced and welcomed the pain for it brought a clarity of mind she had not had for a long time. As her fingers finally touched the Tower Heart, the fire spread throughout her body. The doubt over her choice to serve the Overlord, the confliction over all the hurt she was causing, the lingering homesickness for her own people, long had they been pushed to the side and ignored, but now they were burned away completely, to be replaced by utter surety of purpose.

Parts of Sol were stripped away while others were nurtured and grew. She was still the same person, but now she would view the world from a new perspective and different things would take priority. The same but different, equal yet opposite.

Dark instead of light.

Her palm rested against the Heart. The burning was gone along with the pain, and the glassy surface felt smooth and cool beneath her hand. For one perfect instant, everything was clear, every plot, every scheme, all the ways to defend herself and all the ways to destroy those who would do her harm, all without the hindrance of morals.

And then all thoughts fled her mind, completely forgotten.

Sol collapsed to the ground.