Sand,

Your sudden fit of curiosity is as baffling as it is unwelcome. Had you not vanished at the end of the battle, taking with you the remainder of the group's healing potions, you might have no need to trouble me with profitless inquiries about the past. Let me further remind you that your career as a legal advocate for hire ended some time ago.

Despite that, your former captain has asked me to humour you. I hope that the following description will put an end to what you apparently call your 'project'. If you choose to, you can show this letter to the girl's mother, on the condition that she burn it in your presence as soon as she has read it: if something originating from me should fall into the wrong hands, be warned that I will know exactly whom I should hold responsible.

When the King of Shadows fell, and the palace began collapsing around us, we were left to make our way out as best we could. As we now understand, but did not know at the time, the palace had been built over a marvellous feat of Illefarn engineering that channelled the waters of two rivers into caverns deep underground; as the walls and vaults were crumbling around us, so too were the long-hidden waters rising back to the surface.

You, the druid and the gith, of course, had made yourselves scarce before this occurred. The gnome and the blade golem were crushed beneath the collapsing pillars, as was the young sorceress, though in her case not fatally; a misfortune for her, I fear. The dwarf and the tiefling fled together, and I began to follow them with your captain. We were prevented from doing so by Bishop. He had re-entered the chamber while my attention was elsewhere, and, training his bow on us, stated his intention to kill her, then me, then anyone else he came across. I kept him talking, which was not difficult to do.

At some point, Qara must have noticed what was happening. She had enough power left to bring the rest of the ceiling down on Bishop's head, and upon her own. The spell she used was nothing that I recognised; it must have been one of extreme potency, for it shattered every stone in the granite chamber. That I survived and your captain too is owed rather to chance than to the whim of the sorceress. The last I saw of the chamber was that it no longer existed: it had collapsed into the hill from whose stones the great palace was first erected.

In normal circumstances, a creature such as Bishop would pose no challenge to me. However, my powers had been greatly drained in the course of the battle, and as I faced him, with your captain injured and half-blind at my side, I felt I had few useful options open to me. In consequence, I would agree with Lila's assessment that Qara saved her life. The girl also saved mine, for what it is worth.

I do not know why the sorceress acted as she did, nor do I care to inquire into it. But I have some understanding of the nature of sorcerers, and suspect that the desire to utilise her gifts in one last act of destructive 'glory' was more important to Qara than a sudden wish to atone for her treachery. If I could undo her death, I would; she was too young to fight in such a conflict and should have been at home with her mother until - or if- age and maturity taught her self-restraint.

Next time you feel obliged to dig up old graves, I advise you to cultivate self-restraint yourself, or at least have the nerve to ask your questions in person.

A. J.