Welcome back.

The snow crunched underfoot as I walked and every step felt like it sent shivers up my legs and to the back of my neck. The furs we had taken from the luckless merchant ship Aaron had arranged for us were thick but meant for floors, not clothing, and I could feel the cold trying to pry its way through them to get at my skin like daggers searching for a gap in armour. I had felt it on the ocean water as the ship steadily came north, the mild chill of the Eastern Kingdoms giving way to the cold of the open ocean. Then it just hadn't stopped getting colder, the temperature plummeting inch by inch until we hadn't left the lower decks unless absolutely necessary. Then the steel prow of the boat had screeched and screamed as it cut the ice away, and the launch had been lowered. The sun had been high in the sky but might not have been for all the warmth it brought us, as the crewman had ferried us across, silent and still, to the shores. One step from the wooden boards to the frozen sand was all it had taken. Even with my eyes closed I would have felt it.

Welcome back Elias, Northrend had said, sending cold air into my lungs like daggers.

How fitting.

The shore stretched before us for what looked like miles in either direction, the snow kept away from the wet sand by the tide that washed gently across it as one by one we climbed and staggered from the small wooden launch and looked out across the frozen earth. There wasn't much to see. Away of the water's grasp the snow rolled out before us like a blanket, covering everything from the edges of the sandy shore to the hills beyond it in a solid white. The only splash of colour – if you could call brown a colour – came from the dead forest in the distance, where the branches had simply been too weak to support the weight of the snow and dropped it to the ground, leaving them sharp and ugly in the air.

With my old memories coming back it felt familiar, like I'd only been gone days instead of years. I knew just above us there would be a rough road leading east and west, one to the coastline of the Borean Tundra and another inland, to the even bleaker expanses at the heart of the continent. Far, far to the south-west would be the small village and wooden shack we'd called home for those lost years, where the Alliance had tried to keep a foothold against the insane cold and the crawling undead. No doubt they'd make it bigger than a handful of buildings by now. Maybe even stone walls, or…

No point in thinking about it now, not when there's probably a price on your head. That place was another life Elias. You have to think about the here and now.

"Gods it's cold," Sara muttered through chattering teeth.

"Button up tighter then," Erinys said without sympathy, and reached across to yank up the hood on the other woman's jacket. "Trust me."

"This is nothing," Sonder said, and for once it didn't sound like his normal boasting. Coming from the huge blue lunk it sounded like a deadly premonition. Already everyone was falling back into old ways they remembered, double-checking every join or sleeve where skin could be exposed to the freezing air. Even I found myself going through the motions; actions I couldn't remember but my muscles still knew. The furs we had taken from the ship were just as much armour as the steel we wore in combat.

Even Saga looked uncomfortable. In the human-sized confines of a building or the Keep she had looked huge, out-of-place. Now stood with the rest of us on the stony shores of Northrend the scale was stripped away from her, and she looked shrunken down. Even the long mane of green hair was lank, pressed down against her back like Erinys' braid. "Hey," I asked, getting her attention. "Are you alright?"

"This is not the way I would have returned," the creature said.

"We're in total agreement about that," Erinys muttered, turning to me. "We need supplies," she went on, kicking the small backpack that lay at my feet. "This is for crap."

"She's right," Duran said. "We won't last a week outside a town if this is all we have."

And towns weren't a place we could risk going. News about us had to be chasing north as fast as it could, and would travel faster once it arrived. No way of knowing whether we were keeping ahead of it, or whether we would walk into an outpost and be arrested on the spot. "Alright, first we…" The words dried up and died on my tongue.

Ah. The memory. Right.

"Not all come back yet, eh?" Duran asked."

"You could have put it better but…" I felt my cheeks burn. "Yeah. Basically." I caught Sildri smirking from the corner of my eye. I sighed. "Help me out, captain." Duran had the decency not to look too smug.

"Nice to see the old folks can still teach a few tricks," Duran said with a smile of his own. He adjusted his own stolen fur and slung his meagre pack behind him. "I know a place we can go. You've chosen us a good landing-spot lad, we're within a days walk or so easily. They'll no turn us away, I guarantee it."

"What, even felons on the run?" Sara asked. "I know some of them are pretty stupid but I think most of the Alliance know murderers equal bad."

Duran's eyes twinkled as he looked at the young woman. "Did I say," he said self-importantly, "that we were going to find the Alliance?"

"Oh you have to be kidding me," Erinys said.

"An excellent decision! It will be good to see them again!" Sonder said cheerfully. Goddamnit how did he manage that, in this situation

I was reduced to a spectator along with Sara as both of us found ourselves watching old experiences play out in front of us.

Duran turned as Erinys. "Lass you of all people should have nae problems with going to meet them, especially after they saved your oversized hide from becomin' a popsicle."

She raised her hands like a shield. "Hey I'm grateful to them. They're just…" She gestured uselessly, and finally threw up her hands. "Infuriating."

"She's right, they are," Sildri said, nodding her head solemnly in agreement.

"Aye well beggars couldn't be choosers back then and they can't be choosers now either!" Duran snapped at them like a father scolding noisy children. "Less of this, and more walking. We have a ways to cover."

"So who are we meeting?" I asked Sildri when we were up and moving, voice coming muffled through the furs.

Instead of a reply she just smiled at me. "Oh you'll see."

I'd have sighed but I didn't want to waste the energy. "Is this some silly thing I'm going to be surprised at when we get there?"

"Yes," Sildri replied happily.

"Tell me."

"No."

"Tell me."

"Nooooope."

Defeated, how humiliating. "Tell me and I'll tell you what I dreamt on the boat ride here." My final card.

She looked up at me, eyes wide white orbs of surprise. "What about?"

"Memories. Of us."

"Deal," she said instantly.

"Alright, deal. You first."

She shook her head. "No way. I have the upper hand in these negotiations."

"Fine." It didn't take more than a moment. It was a picture though. Even though most of her face was hidden I could still see the blush start halfway through the story. By the end of it half of her face was a deep purple.

"Oh gods." Sildri hid her face with her hands. "I sounded like such a teenager," she muttered

"Hey, I was only a few years out of being one."

She smiled at me. "You were mature for your age though."

I tried to remember that far back. I could remember signing up for guild training on a whim. I could remember contests with the other cadets about anything and nothing, just to prove who was tougher or faster or stronger. I could remember brawling with Erinys on my first meeting with her, arguing with my father about my future and plans. "I think I was just very good at predending."

"What?"

"Nothing." I smiled and pushed it away. "Now you." As soon as I stopped talking the harsh wind settled on my breath again, and I pushed my ill-fitting fur back over my mouth.

She looked up into the sky, her breath fogging out in front of her like cloud of smoke. "We made a lot of friends here, before…before everything went bad."

"I can remember some of them, I think." Names and faces that made my stomach lurch when I said them to myself. Gaston, Ilyasa, others. But they were only in the fog, and nowhere else in my memory. I could only think of one explanation for that. "They're dead, aren't they?" I asked, almost a whisper.

Sildri was looking ahead, to where Duran and Sonder and Erinys were staring. She nodded, a quick jerk of the head that looked more like a spasm than a gesture. "Yes."

I turned away from it the same way she turned away from me as she said the word. I guessed I would find out sooner or later. "Who are we going to see then?"

The grateful expression on her face was somewhere between heart-stopping and heart-breaking. "Well, not all of the friends we made were from the from the Horde for that matter."

"You'll spoil the surprise," a third voice chimed in.

"Eavesdropping again?" I said pointedly as Erinys joined us.

"For the last couple of seconds, maybe," she replied, and I couldn't tell if she was being honest or sparing my feelings. "You'll love them though, I promise. They're mysterious as hell. Kinda like you pretend to be, but actually so."

"Well screw you too Erinys."

She smiled. "Better hurry. Nightfall soon." She picked up her pace and went back to join the others ahead of us.

Well, almost all of the others. There'd been someone missing from the group since the boat, and I wondered…I nudged Sildri. "Have you seen Saga?"

Sildri spun on her heel. "Back there."

I did the same, and saw nothing. We were still following the half-buried road west, and the only things I could see were hills to one side of us and the 'forest' to the other. No sign of our errant protector/guide. "Are you sure-"

"Watch the treeline."

I did, and it didn't take long for me to spot her. In the eternal winter of Northrend forests were dead things, acres of wood that pointed up into the sky with sharp branches, covered in white. Against that Saga's green shape stood out like a sore thumb. She stood out against the treeline, looking back and forth as if searching for something. I rose a hand and waved and for a second she stared at me blankly, before pouncing back into the treeline. "Still a little jumpy," I muttered. She'd been like that since we had made landfall. Without speaking she had walked off into the nearest secluded area on those clawed feet of hers and just…left. For hours at a time. When she came back into sight she had barely acknowledged us before going off somewhere else. It was almost like she was hunting for something out there, off the thinly-beaten path we were taken.

"It's absolutely what she's doing," Sildri said as I told her. "If you've ever spent any time among Nightsabers you'd know."

"I try not to." I preferred horses to Nightsabers. There was something fundamentally wrong about riding a giant semi-feral cat. I didn't want my mount to one day turn around and eat me in the saddle. It was rumoured in the canteen some brave souls had tried to tame and ride some strange kind of drake in Outland. Crazy bastards.

She hit me playfully on the shoulder. I didn't feel anything under the layers of fur. "Well elves do, and trust me, she is. We just don't know what."

"She isn't a cat," I said.

Sildri shrugged. "How do we know what she is?"

That one brought me up short. I'd spent so long around her now I didn't even think about it. I pictured her in my head and tried to really see what the woman (woman?) looked like. Then I compared it against everything I had ever seen, met or found myself trying to survive against since becoming a member of that strange semi-military job known as 'professional adventurer'. "A dryad?" I'd seen some of those around Kalimdor once, maybe…

Sildri shook her head. "Azeroth dryads are centaurs, remember. They're peaceful, too."

I saw Saga in my mind, back in Elwynn Forest, as she saved mine and Taelan's lives by tearing apart the nightmare-construct that had murdered the family at the farm. Seven-plus feet of claws and muscle shredding the thing like wet paper, and the expression she had worn when she did it... "Not a dryad then."

"It's a big world out there love. Always something new to find." We both looked as she came into view again just above us, surveying the ground ahead. Yes, I could see it now. The way her eyes, emerald pupils visible even from down here on the road, flicked about in her head. I wondered what she was looking for.

"Well whatever she is she should take a damn fur before she freezes up here."

"This is her home, I think. Maybe she's immune."

"God, I wish we were."

"Go away I already," I told Erinys. How the hell could someone as tall as her be so quiet?

"I would, but we're here." The woman pointed, her arm above my head to annoy me, and I swatted it away as I looked around. Looked around at nothing.

"Are you serious?" I asked, and shut my mouth before I could say anything more cutting. I'd been on edge since we landed and not because of hostile territory, or the men chasing us, or any of the other reasons we were here. Everyone had memories of this place, memories together, except me. Like we were walking through a goblin minefield and everyone else had to keep telling me where to put my feet. I was angry about it, with literally no-one to blame but myself.

Of course the other's desire to have a laugh at my expense wasn't helping. Although what was funny about a bunch of oversized animal burrows was a little hard to-

HOLY SHIT

"That wasn't funny." Sildri had her face buried against my chest and I could feel her giggling into it. "No, really guys. Not funny." I put my hands in my pockets to try and stop them shaking. Fuck.

"It was hilarious."

"God damn each and every one of you."

"Is there discord among you."

"No discord, old one," Duran said to the voice that had just spoken. if you could call it a voice. How he could be so calm standing so close to it I didn't know. Goddamnit, this wasn't funny at all.

It was a giant scarab-spider. There was no other way to put it. Duran was talking with it quietly and everyone else except Sara was just standing around like this was the most normal thing in the world. It wore tattered robes draped around it's…carapace? Everywhere else on its body was either a dark purple carapace that shined in the low light, or too-long limbs that bristled with hairs along every inch of the things body.

It was taller than I was, too. This annoyed me more than it probably should have.

"It has been long since your last appearance mountain-child. What brings you so far."

"We are in trouble, old one. Hunted by our kind. We need shelter and arms."

"Duran do you really think we should be telling…" I stopped as Duran just waved a hand at me, his intent clear; shut up. I shut up. Good thing too.

"It shall be so. Enter and be welcome." Without another word it turned, every limb moving like a crazy dance, and descended slowly back into the dark warren it had come out of.

Alright, enough of this. "Alright joke's over. Someone mind not being an asshole for five minutes?"

"Oh stop yer whining, you've played worse jokes."

"We got to do this one to you twice though," Erinys said happily. I glared daggers at her. They bounced off.

"You know I hate spiders." Hate. Haaaate.

"The Nerubians ain't spiders lad. You got over it once, you'll get over it again."

"Nerubians?"

Duran turned to the only other member of the party who looked off-put. "Aye, sorry Sara." he adjusted his cloak around him. "We met them, the last time we were in Northrend. We did a…well…let's say we did them a few favours, and the old ones have long memories. Now we get to call those favours in." He glanced from her to me; don't argue.

I sighed inwardly and shrugged. Sildri next to me gave me a little hug. "Be a brave little soldier, alright?" I heard someone behind me snort in laughter, and sighed.

"Oh shut up, all of you." I turned to the dead forest behind us. I couldn't see her, but I knew she was watching. I pointed down into the hole. "Well, let's go, I guess."

"There is nothing to fear! I, your old friend Sonder, shall protect you from the-"

"No really, shut up."

It was warm underground. It was also covered in cobwebs, and I could hear the tiny tink sound of the…old one…as he placed each leg down on the tiled ground. If Saga aboveground walked like a predator, then the Nerubian stalked.

"How fare the old homes?" Duran asked. He talked slowly, deliberately, clearly, free of his accent. He wanted to make sure he was understood, I realised. Talking with this insect-race clearly wasn't like talking with just a non-human elf or Draeni. "I do not see as many of you as I remember."

"They are elsewhere. Preparing for winter."

Duran walked in front of us, and behind him Sonder and Sildri. Sara and I walked side-by-side, with Erinys just at the back. At every step I was painfully aware we were walking deeper into the earth, through tunnels carved out by spiders like the…old one…in front of us. I leaned back. "Where are we going?" I asked Erinys.

"There's a few remnants that live down here, in one of the last…well…I guess you'd call it a city. It's more of a temple really, although damned if I know what they worship."

"A city of Nerubians?" I pictured a place like Stormwind, thronging with eight-legged, six feet-tall carapace-clad aliens. Well, shit.

"Relax tiger," Erinys said easily. "It's mostly empty. We won't be staying long, in any case. Let's just say we're the reason they still have one city to live in instead of just these tunnels. They owe us a favour, and these guys have a tendency to…hoard."

"Elias, look," Sara whispered.

I turned, and saw more tunnel, leading to more darkness, small lights in the distance. Fireflies or something probably. If we had to…

If we had to…

The tunnel ended, the cobwebs receding, and they receded out into...

I see what she meant now.

It really was a temple. The tiled ground below us became less haphazard, shaped into something smooth and polished and well-worn, that curved down above an abyss to what could have been a pillar of earth, with buildings placed on top. They were strange things, almost obelisks, with doors shaped wide and low to fit the spider-like proportions of the Nerubians. Cobwebs covered the spans above the…well, streets I guess you had to call them. Everything looked like it was built from some kind of strange shiny stone or metal, and bizarre sculptures stood at places where the streets met. Lights danced in the air, seemingly generated out of nothing. They lit the temple-city from above, like lamps suspended above a model, suspended itself. Like someone had chopped a huge earthen tree down, and placed the city on top of the stump.

"My god." I became aware my mouth was hanging open, and shut it.

"You said the same thing last time," Sonder said. He seemed in his element. "They are such in our debt because we saved it for them."

"Saved it from what" I whispered offhandedly, staring at the buildings as we passed them. It took me a second to realise we were the only people, Nerubian or otherwise, on the streets. "Where is everyone?" I asked.

"They gather. They sleep. They prepare to move. I have explained this once before."

Oh shit, not this again. I opened my mouth to speak, but Duran beat me to it.

"Elias Conray has suffered the loss of his time here," the Dwarf said.

The 'old one' (how Duran could tell he was old I had no clue) didn't respond, as if this made perfect sense to him and so needed no further explanation. Hell, maybe it did. Maybe Nerubians lost memories all the time.

"The last home becomes unsafe," he/she/it said, apparently to me, although it didn't' stop walking forward with that slow deliberate stalk. I glanced behind us, just in time to see the tunnel we had come from – now metres above us and even more behind – vanish behind one of the obelisk-style buildings. Now the only things around us were the strange alien architecture of the spider-people, and the slight wind that seemed to twist through the empty space the city was located in. I looked up, couldn't see a ceiling. How could a cavern this big exist, without caving in from the weight of the surface? There was mountains above us. I shivered. There was power here. "Our warriors seek a new home to grow in, else we must escape to the cold above." It stopped, all eight tips hitting the stone tiles beneath. A scarab skittered around it. "Here."

I looked up at the building we had stopped in front of, different from the others. Instead of just four blank smooth walls and a low doorway, this one was different. it was bigger, more ornate, with what looked like battlements or towers. There was a huge bas-relief carved into it, scrolling images and…words? I knew I couldn't understand it, and didn't try.

"Thank you, old one," Duran said, as with a low rumble the door split in two and slid away into the walls. Slid away into walls that weren't wide enough to hide them. More strange power.

"It is correct to claim an old debt. No thanks is needed. Replenish yourselves, arm yourselves, prepare yourselves. You seek an old power."

"How do you know?" I asked.

It turned to me, and this close up I could see it clearly. Eight featureless eyes, shining and set in the chitinous head like black pearls, stared down at me.

"I know."

Without another word it turned, and stalked away.

"So this is why we came here," I settled for, after spending a minute trying to think of something to say.

"Yep," Duran said. Now he didn't need to make himself clear for the spider-thing, he had went back into his normal way of speaking, and from his voice now I could hear apprehension, and just a little…resignation? I could see why.

The building was like a cross between a storehouse, an armoury and a tomb. From the doorway I could see passages cut into the walls for what looked like miles into a distance that from outside simply hadn't been there, and cut into the stone of those passages, box-shaped enclaves.

In every single enclave, a body.

"My god," Sara whispered.

The only sound to be heard in the tomb was my footsteps as I walked a little way up the first row, and just looked. All of them were wrapped up in something that looked like expensive silk and I suspected was, but not woven by any human hand. It looked like an army had come through and left its dead here. The 'normal' shape of humans and elves were mixed in with wide-as-they-were-tall orcs, and other huger shapes like Tauren that had their enclaves cut even deeper into the rocks. Gnomes, Dwarves, Draeni, all were the same, wrapped up in the shining-white Nerubian shrouds.

Duran stepped forward and clapped his hands. "Right, let's get to it."

"To what?" I asked, running my hand down a wall near one of the dead. It came away clean, dust-free. I imagined the spider-like shapes of the dwellers cleaning the enclaves, making sure the silk stayed fresh and didn't rot.

"Why, to get ready of course." He pointed, and I looked.

"You're kidding." I didn't seen it because I was too focussed on the remains. underneath every enclave with a body was another, smaller, thinner, and inside them I could see the gleam of metal. I looked again, and behind the bodies themselves I could see more.

"Bodies come down from the north, and some of the dying too. Whatever's found is brought here, and collected and…tended to…and finally put to rest here." Duran gestured down into the darkness. I wondered how many more were down there, resting forever in the spider-city.

"We can't do this."

"We have to," Duran said.

"I'm not a goddamn grave-robber."

Duran looked at me, and I could see the look in his eyes. Suddenly stood there, in an old stolen fur, he looked old. "We've a long way to go laddie. All the way to the top o' the world, if what Saga says is true." He reached into one of the enclaves, and when his hand came back out it was grasping a Dwarvish axe. The metal gleamed in the semi-darkness, and the leather of the hilt was un-frayed and perfect. It looked brand-new. "I know whoever is buried here," he gestured at the shape of the forgotten nameless Dwarf, "won't begrudge us. Go, everyone."

I heard footsteps and then…darkness again. Only Sara, Sildri and I remained, as everyone else went off into the darkness, searching for weapons and armour.

"I know," Sildri whispered in my ear. "But these people are dead, and we have to live." She looked into my eyes. "If I lose you later because of this, I'll never forgive you."

Against that I had no defence. I let Sildri take me by the hand, and together we went to rob the dead.

Greetings, deep lord.

Hail to you, child of the makers.

How fares the world?

Cracks in the darkness come further south, to the old homes. The whispers grow stronger and more insistent. More and more of us cannot resist them and go into the lost homes, to join with the lost swarm. A servant of the god dwells there now, and they worship it and its master.

I'm sorry. I can only offer consolation that the ones who travel with me may be able to stop the whispers again.

…

You don't believe?

These Allied People appeared before us once before, and helped us reclaim a small part of the old temple. Even though they stumbled blindly in the dark, they have some strength.

You didn't answer my question, deep lord.

To dam the whispers of the ancient god is a task I see no path towards.

…

My silence is yours now, it seems.

I don't even know if the path is there. All I can do is bring them to Ulduar and hope that they can find a way. I searched for miles around as we came from the southern sea to your burrows. Nowhere did I find any sign of my master working to hold back the darkness. We were the last made, and I am now the last of them.

Your swarm-siblings?

Dead, or lost to the whispers. All I have are the ones I bring.

Then I will ready my people to leave our final home, before the whispers enfold them too.

I think…I think you should.

Even though I am not the oldest of my people I remember when Azjol-Nerub sang with a million voices. I remember when the first human passed by, and took our king to make himself a god of the dead. I remember when the whispers began, and took my people to worship the great devourer, and made my city empty. Now we are mere hundreds. I will hope for your success, makerschild. But I will not expect it.

Farewell, deep lord. I hope to prove you wrong.

Then I pray you prove me wrong soon.

I gritted by teeth and struggled to pull the armour on as the cold pricked at my skin. It wasn't the harsh wind and killing cold of the surface, where I wouldn't have dared even take my fur off. It was more of a light brushing of ice that made me shiver as I tugged the gauntlets back on.

Whoever you were, thanks.

The dead man had no reply, wrapped in his silk shroud. I adjusted the gauntlets on my hand, clenching my hands until finally they fit perfectly. I turned to Sildri. "Got it."

"Finally. You take longer than me."

"That isn't fair. All you guys do is throw a robe on! It doesn't even matter what size," I said. An old joke, from those who wore armour to those who wore cloth. She still gave it a little laugh those. I beat a hand against my chest, and felt the solid crack of steel against steel. After weeks of ill-fitting hand-me-downs while chasing after Orion's constructs, and then days in the stolen furs from the boat, it felt indescribably good to be wearing real armour again. Whoever he was the man had been a high-ranking soldier in the Alliance, and probably a good one. The dark grey armour was ornate without the ludicrous ostentation that rank usually asked for, didn't have the massively over-worked shoulder-pads that so many commanders seemed to ask for, and the steel felt solid as a rock. I hefted the sword and shield that the man had been buried with. Like the armour they were simple, functional things, and they both felt good in my hands.

"Oh well if that's how we're playing it, we could just give you guys a chunk of steel to carry around and it would be much the same, right?" I had watched Sildri as she had searched and found her own armour from the tomb. She had stopped, and said a small prayer in front of the wrapped figure that could have been a Night Elf or a Blood Elf, and then pulled out something dark blue and red that even someone as grounded as me could see was flowing with unused energy. The shoulders were decorated with blindfolded faces and threads that trailed down them like tears, and when she stripped and put the raiment on for a moment she looked…otherwordly. She smiled at me. "What?"

"Just looking," I replied.

She picked up the small dagger that the armour had rested with, and put it into the sheathe at her waist. She would never use it, if the rest of us did our jobs. "Well if-"

Suddenly the darkness and silence of the old tomb was pierced as a noise slammed through it, bouncing off walls and deep into my eardrums. I recognised it, had heard it a dozen times before. When battles had ended and the survivors picked through the wreckage, searching. Sometimes when you found what you were looking for, you heard screams like that.

Then I realised who the scream had belonged to. I turned and began to run towards the sound. Or at least, I tried to. I found myself jerked to a halt and almost tumbled to the ground. I turned, and saw Sildri holding onto my arm with both hands. "What are you-"

"Don't go." I'd never heard her speak like that before. Not when I'd met her in Darnassus and asked her to come fight with me again. Not when I'd nearly died at Elwynn. She spoke with absolute certainty. She said it again. "Don't go."

I turned away and tried to move off again as my brain shouted comrade in trouble! "That was Erinys, we have to-"

"If you go she'll hate you forever." She looked into my eyes and I could see fire there. "Trust me."

I stopped trying to get away, and she let go. I thought for a second about running anyway, my ears listening for another scream or worse, but I heard nothing. "Alright," I said quietly. "Alright."

"Let's go to the entrance." We both looked around us, at the endless rows of departed, and the weapons and armour they had taken with them to the beyond. "I think we're done here."

I agreed. God, I agreed.

We were quiet as we gathered back at the entrance to the tomb and its great sliding slabs of doors. Maybe it was the fact that we had just spent hours walking through an army, or maybe that we'd went through them like picky shoppers looking for the best deals, but none of us really felt like talking. We had all found something though.

Sara was wearing something that looked like a leather version of my own armour, all dark browns and greys, knives and other weaponry strapped across her with leather buckles. The daggers at her side were nasty-looking twists of steel, designed to gouge and tear whatever they went through.

Duran was adjusting the links on something that could have been chainmail or thin plate, all dark bronze and midnight-blue steel. The gun slung over his shoulder was like my sword; simple, un-flashy. Something that did its job and wasn't meant to be displayed in a cabinet.

Only Sonder and Erinys looked different from the rest of us. Sonder's armour was simple like my own, but instead of dark steel and leather, his own plate was all reds and golds, and the hammer he carried looked heavy enough to break a castle gate down. "Not bad hey?"

"A little…noticeable. We good to go?" I looked at Erinys from the corner of my eye. The armour she wore was dark brown, ribbed as it went from the chest to the waist for greater movement, and the shoulders alone looked like they could kill a man, with metal spikes jutting from the bottom and high plates to stop a sword from coming over the top. The blade she carried was…it looked nastier than Sara's daggers. Serrated blades ran up from the hilt to the tip, and it ended in a huge curving hook, shaped to look like the mouth of a lion. It…it…

I know that sword.

"Are you alright?" Erinys asked, as if daring me to respond. For a half-second I wanted to ask about the unearthly cry from inside the tombs, but thought better of it. Sara stood next to her, and from the way she looked so pale and kept glancing between us, I knew I wouldn't have to ask her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said. "Let's get out of here."

It was back. Nuts.

"Did you find what you seek."

"Our thanks, old one," Duran responded to the Nerubian. "We did."

"You will go north."

"We will."

The tall spider-scarab stood there motionless – really motionless – like a statue, as if it had to digest that information. After a few moments, it spoke again in that dry raspy clicking that barely sounded like a voice at all. "When last you came you talked of luck."

"We did, yes," Duran replied, looking confused. From the looks on the others, they were too.

"Where your path takes you, you shall require a quantity. Take ours with you."

"I…we will. Thank you, old one."

"We no longer require it."

We walked in silence, back through the towering obelisks of the dark temple-city, back up through the tunnels burrowed by some gigantic creature. Finally I felt the cold grasping at me again from under my new armour, and twisted my cloak a little tighter. It didn't really help much as we emerged from the dark – but warm – underground and back to the ice-cold grip of the surface. The sun was falling now, casting blood-red swathes of colour into the air. I turned back to see the Nerubian stood at the precipice, half-hidden in shadow. "Thank you," I said, and meant it, "for everything."

"A debt has been paid, one of our last. Go with our luck, child of man." it twisted a little on its strange spine. "Go with our hope, child of the makers."

I turned and saw Saga sitting there in the snow, watching us as she perched above the burrow, her knees brought up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them, sat like a child waiting for something. She looked smaller, more vulnerable. "Hey."

"Hello Elias. We should go."

There was no disagreement, from any of us. I waved once, but the Nerubian didn't twitch so much as a muscle. We walked away from the burrow, headed east along the road, Saga now not ranging out to either side of us but together with the rest of the team. The last glimpse I saw of Duran's 'old one' were eight eyes like black pearls, staring out at us from the darkness of the tunnel. Then with a flick it turned and vanished, and was gone. I felt Sildri slip into step beside me as we headed out back on the road to the northernmost part of the world, and for some reasons as we left the hidden city behind I felt a sense of loss I couldn't place. Like there was something I had missed due to my own failings, and would never have a chance to find again.

I put it behind me, and walked on.