Inside was dark and damp, the walls covered in mould and mildew. Eala shuddered as she felt something slimy slide past her leg. There were occasionally planks of wood across the murky pools of water, but very often they had to wade or swim. Flexen led the party on unerringly, followed closely by Tassa, then Ealandariel, with Cuculainn brining up the rear. The frogloks watched the four pass without comment, bulbous eyes glowing yellow in the eerie half-light.

Reaching a passage where the walls were etched with strange markings, Flexen halted. The warrior peered around the corner, and then withdrew his head slowly. Turning to the others, he grimaced.

"There are three guards." He murmured. "We shouldn't have too many problems though, unless some of the ghouls are drawn to us by the sounds of fighting, and decide to join in."

"I don't understand," whispered Eala, "Why do we have to kill these ones? The live Frogloks haven't threatened us in any way!"

Cuculainn answered her.

"They won't let anyone pass, Eala." He told her, "They're very fierce about guarding the boundaries between the living and dead side of the city. Even if we were to try and get by peacefully, they would attack us."

Eala nodded reluctantly, and Tassa smiled at her sympathetically.

"I know how you feel," murmured the enchantress, "But you know that if there were any other way…"

The cleric smiled wanly back at her, then focused her mind and began to cast a spell to fortify the resolve of the party. Once that was done, she quickly called on Tunare to provide armour of pure faith for herself and her companions, channelling her spell through her gauntlets, thus avoiding draining her mana pool. Cuch and Tassa were also casting beneficial spells on the party, and in mere minutes everyone was battle ready. Flexen made one last check, then, with a yell, rounded the corner and plunged into the melee.

The frogloks gave croaks of surprise as the wood-elf descended on them, in full battle fury. Flexen concentrated his attacks on the nearest beast, but that didn't stop the other two from trying to overwhelm him. Even as they moved to aid their slimy companion though, they felt a warm mist entering their minds, soothing, convincing them that everything was fine, just fine…

"Those two are mesmerised!" cried Tassa. "Don't hit them, or it'll break!"

Cuch was leaping about like a madman, casting spells to slow the frogloks, and inflicting diseases on the one Flexen was fighting. There was a howl as the shaman summoned a companion spirit in the form of a wolf, and soon its mouth was stained green with froglok blood.

Eala herself hung back slightly, watching the battle, keeping careful note of who was injured, and how severe those injuries were. As the first froglok was dispatched, she cast a spell of celestial healing on Flexen – he was not badly hurt, but that would keep him battle-ready for the next encounter. The second froglok offered no more resistance than the first, and at that point, the third decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and turned to flee. If he got away… what mayhem would ensue as the ghouls were alerted to their presence? With a cry, Eala called upon the judgement of the gods to slay the creature, and with a surprised croak, the froglok collapsed, unable to withstand that divine reckoning.

"Everyone ok?" asked Flexen.

A chorus of yes's answered him. He smiled, grimly.

"Then we press on."

The next encounters passed in a blur of blades and magic. Some other adventurers were already in the ancient city, slaying the evil undead frogs – some for profit, and some as part of a quest. These people had kept the passageways relatively clear, so the battles were not as numerous as they might have been. Until they got closer to the cells where Flexen said Sierradu was being held, that is. Suddenly there were ghouls everywhere, and the party was constantly under attack. Eala soon gave up trying to keep Flexen fully healed, and simply tried to keep him on his feet. Cuculainn was still skipping about, stabbing with his spear, and commanding his companion spirit to aid Flexen. Tassa remained calm, mesmerising and decreasing the foes magic resistance as she could. At last they seemed to reach a lull in the battle, all the nearby Frogloks dead.

Gasping for breath, the party halted briefly in a side corridor. Eala took advantage of the stop to quickly cast a group-healing spell, and the other three straightened as the worst of their wounds vanished. Flexen checked around the corner, then returned to the group.

"We're close," he said, " things shouldn't be as tough as they were just then. We get through any way we can, the cells aren't that far. Once get Sierra, we high-tail it to the exit, understood?"

Three heads nodded in response, Eala thinking to herself wearily that it was a good thing that the way ahead wouldn't be as difficult as what they had just been through. She was an experienced cleric to a certain extent, but the other three had seen far more battles than she, and she was feeling the strain of trying to keep up with their experience. If not for the spell that Nienor had cast on her before they arrived here, the cleric was sure that her mana pool would have been completely drained.

The four companions took off again, speeding through the dark tunnels towards the cells. The corridors were deserted, apart from a few odd, wandering ghouls, whom the party dispatched without many problems.

Rounding another corner, Flexen skidded to a halt, the others piling up behind him in their haste.

"That's it!" he whispered fiercely. "Down there, she's down there!"

Eala gasped. They had found the cells… but how many of the undead creatures guarded them? This would be… difficult.

"Erm… any bright ideas as to how we're going to tackle this, Flex?" Cuch said, in a slightly strangled voice.

Flexen looked at him, a cold light burning in his eyes.

"We kill them. We kill them all."

Cuch grimaced.

"Right. Thanks for clearing that up for me, mate."

Without waiting for another word, Flexen ran towards the frogloks with a wild yell.

"Sierra! We're here! Hang on, we'll save you!"

A figure appeared at one of the bars, a slim, pale woman with dark blonde hair. Eala was too far away to make out anything more, and fairly soon, she didn't have the time to think about her either.

The battle raged on fiercely, worse than anything before. There were too many ghouls for Tassa to keep them all mesmerised, so the party was taking much more damage. Gasping as she realised just how injured Flexen was, Eala cried out to Tunare to completely heal the Fier'Dal warrior. She felt the divine energy flow through her, but it was taking so long… And then she heard Tassa's scream.

Twisting her head round, she saw that some of the ghouls had shaken off their enchantment and were advancing on the enchantress. Tassa's thin robe was no protection against steel weapons – she needed help, but Eala was stuck casting the spell to heal Flexen…

"CUCH!" she screamed, desperately hoping beyond hope that he would hear her over the sounds of the fighting.

The Barbarian's head whipped round at her cry, and he followed her gaze to where Tassa was under attack. Cursing, he stabbed the Froglok who was attacking him, then, wrenching his spear free, he began to cast a spell, calling on the Tribunal to heal the stricken enchantress. Eala breathed a sigh of relief as Tassa's wounds vanished, and the ghouls attacking her charged at Cuculainn instead. With their attention diverted, Tassa was able to re-mesmerise them, and calamity was averted, at least for the moment.

The cleric's healing spell hit Flexen, who was nearly on his knees by that point from his wounds, blood pouring from several cuts. His opponents cried out in fear as suddenly the warrior was completely healed before their eyes. Laughing, Flexen resumed his the fight, and the ghouls fell before his fury. The tide of the combat turned the way of the party, and soon only a handful of ghouls remained. Breathing a sigh of relief – it seemed as though they were going to win, Eala concentrated on regenerating some of her mana, only throwing in heals as they were needed.

As Eala manoeuvred around the battle, she found herself right by the cell bars. For the first time, she got a proper look at the woman in the cell. For a moment her vision blurred in shock. She had been a child when Ealandariel last saw her, but it was undoubtably her sister…

"Sierradu!" she gasped.

The other Koada'Dal looked at her, and her face blanched.

"Eal… Ealandariel? Eala!"

Eala simply nodded, tears filling her eyes, her throat constricting so she couldn't speak.

Just then Flexen gave a cry of pain and surprise, and the cleric spun round in panic. All unseen, a ghoul wizard had entered the fray, and had summoned arcane magicks to attack the warrior. Pure magical energy ripped along Flexen's skin, forcing him to his knees. Eala wasted no time; channelling the energy of Tunare into a healing spell, she cast it on Flexen, who got to his feet and made towards the wizard as he was bathed in divine light.

However, the wizard no longer was concentrating on the furious Fier'Dal. Shrieking what sounded like a curse, in some unknown tongue, the ghoulish sorcerer focused his hatred on Ealandariel. Suddenly huge shards of ice appeared from nowhere, and slashed towards the cleric.

Even with the armour of faith Tunare had provided, Eala could not stand up to the power of that attack. She screamed in pain as the ice bolts sliced her skin, and then fell to her knees as something thudded into her chest. Looking down, she saw an icy spear protruding from just above her heart.

Why doesn't it hurt? She wondered. She felt warm… and tired, very very tired. So sleepy, just have to rest a little… As her cheek met the slimy floor, she vaguely heard, in the distance, someone crying "Sis, nooooo!" But it didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered. Light surrounded her and she saw the face of her Goddess. With a sigh, Ealandariel slid into oblivion.