The first thing she felt was warmth. A pleasant warmth on her face. The second sensation was wind in her hair.
The thought "This isn't so bad," crossed her mind, and she took a deep breath through her nose.
"No...wait a second...if I was dead I wouldn't be breathing. Or I wouldn't need to. Does that mean I shouldn't be able to?"
In any case, something nearby didn't smell too good.
She opened her eyes and blinked up at an intensely blue sky and an incandescent sun. Squinting, she sat up.
Ebontyne was crouched before her with an impatient expression on her face. "So glad you've decided to join us."
"Are you dead too?" Rynn asked, not sure whether to be glad or upset.
Additionally, the War Mage wasn't someone she'd have chosen to spend her afterlife with.
"Unfortunately not," Ebontyne replied.
"You're not?"
"No."
"Oh."
There could only be one logical explanation, then.
"Am I a soul shadow?"
Ebontyne growled, then punched her in the stomach.
Rynn doubled over with a grunt but recovered quickly, her armour absorbing most of the blow. "What was that for?"
"It answered your stupid questions before you could ask them all."
"Go easy on her," Morghus said. The black dragon had padded up behind his Bonded and craned his neck over her shoulder. "She's been through a lot."
Ebontyne looked at him. "Arokh?"
"Just woke up."
"Wait," Rynn interrupted. "I'm alive? I..." she hesitated as Ebontyne scowled at her, but continued resolutely. "I could have sworn I died."
"You did," Ebontyne replied, "in there." She stood up and stalked away.
"Why's she angry?" Rynn asked.
Morghus looked uncomfortable. "Because... you made her afraid."
"Me? How?"
"She fears your death. She thinks you and Arokh are the only way to stop Navaros, and if you die... so will Drakan."
"And so will she," Rynn added softly.
"No." Morghus shook his great head. "She doesn't fear her own death. When we first met you and Arokh she was trying to find her Jewel to end her life, remember? She's not evil, Rynn, and neither am I. We didn't join the Dark Union to destroy the world, as Navaros plans to do. We joined it because we thought it would benefit Drakan."
Rynn glanced over to where the black-armoured woman was speaking with Arokh. "Did she save me?"
"She carried you out of Shiv'arass Ravine, yes. Had you stayed in there, you would have stayed dead. The reality of that place stops where the darkness ends, Rynn. You were breathing again as soon as light touched you."
"How did she get out?" Rynn asked, not knowing how to feel.
"Painfully." Morghus shivered. "She fears life, and she was alive every step of the way."
"I don't understand."
His scaled shoulders shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure I do, either, and I felt most of it myself. You could ask her, but she wouldn't tell me."
They were still in the Eastern Wilds, and close to the ravine, Rynn saw. Of course, Ebontyne and Morghus wouldn't have been able to carry herself and Arokh back west. The ground was a parched, dusty rock, and there was a stagnant pool nearby. Shadows were lengthening as the sun sank, and Rynn felt herself edge away from them.
"If you're ready," Ebontyne said, walking over with Arokh following behind her, "we'd best move right now. I don't want to stay in this place any longer than we have to. Besides, time is now against us." She held up the pouch Rynn had put the Jewels of Eternity in and nodded at the young warrior. "Nice work, by the way." She tossed it over and Rynn caught it, putting it in her own belt again.
"Can you handle the flight?" Morghus asked Arokh. The black dragon sounded worried.
Arokh stretched a foreclaw experimentally and nodded. "The stiffness is fading. I should be fine."
Rynn stared at him from where she sat in sudden realisation. "Are you all right?"
"Are you?" he rumbled.
"Y-" She stopped, her eyes widening as though someone had just punched her a hundred times harder than Ebontyne had. "Runeblade! I dropped it in-"
"It's on your back," Ebontyne said.
Rynn looked back over her shoulder. Sure enough, the hilt and the Rift Crystal were glittering there.
"It was lying next to you when I found you." Ebontyne's jaw tightened, then she reached back and put her helmet on, hiding her face. She turned to mount Morghus.
Rynn opened her mouth. She had so many questions. How they'd got out, how Ebontyne had found her... she settled for asking just one, for now. "What was the point?"
"Of going through all that, you mean?" Ebontyne asked, her voice hollow. The helmet turned in Rynn's direction. "For the shadows, we were just a meal. They feed off fear. The more afraid of something you are, the better it tastes. That's how I understand it, anyway." She settled on Morghus' back, her armour clinking against his scales. "When I said your fears eat you alive in there, I wasn't being metaphoric.
"If you mean what was the point for us, I guess it's whatever you make of it. Perhaps you learned something about yourself you'd rather not have known. I certainly did."
When Rynn didn't move, Ebontyne added, "We have to get to Mount Tibor."
Rynn closed her eyes as fresh fear washed through her. She drew a shaky breath. It was an insane plan. She had no chance of pulling this off, and yet it was too late to back away from it now. The alternative was killing her brother's body with Runeblade, and she couldn't do that.
"It won't happen that way," Ebontyne's voice said softly, quite near. Rynn looked at the woman's face through tears. She'd dismounted again and was crouched beside her, helmet off. There was sympathy in the ice-blue eyes. "I saw part of what you went through, Rynn. You won't fail."
"How can you know?" Rynn whispered, wiping her eyes. "I'm not ready."
"You will be."