Loyalty of the Tiefling

by JHMLYNDALE

The events of Mask of the Betrayer, but with the twist of Neeshka having managed to follow her harbour-boy… who is hers rather than Elanee's. Prologue, 25 chapters, Epilogue.

10. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Blake looked up from contemplating the corpses and across at Okku. The bear-god was not subtle in his words and Blake knew that any hidden meanings found in what Okku said were more likely only in the mind of the person looking. That had been a rather ambiguous sentence though and Blake was not sure what part of it Okku had meant the 'thanks to you' to refer to. Was it that the Berserkers had a sanctuary to go to as Telthor 'thanks to' the Frost Giants being corpses or was it that the Berserkers might become Telthor 'thanks to' them being corpses? Which killing was it? Them or the Frost Giants? Before Blake could decide whether to ask Okku to clarify his statement there was the sound of a door creaking open and a long indrawn breath. Blake turned and looked at the Witch in the doorway.

"Fiend!" hissed Dalenka as she saw the carnage. "What have you done?"

"Defended myself," Blake replied, calmly but very firmly. "Nadaj wished me to incite a rebellion against you and, despite the temptation to repay your hostility by seeing you dead or imprisoned, I refused. She did not take that refusal well and ordered your men to attack us."

"Their obedience did them credit," rumbled Okku, shedding a little more of the blood from around his muzzle, "if not their sense in attacking a god-of-bears."

"Aye, seems Torm blessed them with loyalty as much as the Red Knight seems to have blessed Nadaj's mutinous plans," Blake nodded, adding as Dalenka continued to look rather than respond, "Madame, if this bloody scene was what I wanted then you would have been my first target. Both for your insults and to deny them your leadership…" Blake paused, thinking 'such as it is', and added. "And I'd have put my helmet on before starting the fight…"

"Believe me," said Neeshka, with a smile that was far closer to a shark's than to being friendly as she picked up her cloak and dusted the snow from it. "After you wished death on my harbour-boy I would have been happy to slit your throat in your sleep or poison your food or…"

"Hah-hrmm. Honoured Hathran," Gann interrupted, trying to smile and turn on the charm before Neeshka listed too many methods and despite his spearhead still dripping slightly with Berserker blood, "I assure you that we are all victims here. Us in Nadaj seeking to use us and your unfortunate Berserkers in Nadaj seeking to use them to remove us from this life."

There was a pause and Blake tensed a little as he waited. He was not sure if they had convinced Dalenka and he was not sure if he was hoping that they had or not. Part of him wanted her to give them an excuse to kill her while being able to say truthfully that they had tried to avoid this. Part of him also felt she might deserve death as the decision whether to fight her or not should already have been made. It was hard to judge time while fighting but it did seem, now he had the chance to consider, it had taken long enough and made enough noise that Dalenka should have emerged during rather than after it. Incompetence or cowardice had delayed her so she had not done her duty by either aiding her Berserkers in the fight or, better still, by ordering the fighting to stop and perhaps saving some of their lives.

"Mmm…" nodded Dalenka finally, to Blake's mixed feelings, "do not mistake my words for trust, but what you say corroborates a feeling I have had of late. I fear there is more to it than simple treachery though. Nadaj's last trip into the wood left her… unsettled."

"You fear something inside the forest," Gann asked quickly, "some spirit or power, changed her?"

"I do not know," admitted Dalenka, her arrogance slipping slightly into thoughtfulness. "I sent her there after the first attacks to discover the source of the Ashenwood's anger. She came back distraught, insisting that our Berserkers enter the forest and atone, that our very presence was an affront to the spirits."

Blake nodded. "An order she claimed you gave, and thus she dismantled your garrison."

"Indeed, and of this we may be certain," Dalenka replied, foregoing the usual insults, "something beyond simple ambition possesses that girl to act so against her sisters."

"So perhaps she fled back into the forest to return to the source of what does possess her?"

"Hmm, that reminds me of what I was going to say when we were approaching little one," Okku rumbled suddenly. "That maybe I could smell what overlaid the spirit of the Ashenwood better because we were approaching where that 'mist' was denser."

Dalenka saw Blake turn to Okku and saw his expression. As a foreigner he seemed to not understand that speaking to such as Okku was a gift in itself, and so he had no right to protest that the bear-god had not finished what he was saying before and warned them. He was spirit-eater and accursed and worthy of death but she decided to intervene before he drew mighty Okku's rightful wrath down upon himself. Better that he and the hellspawn's-spawn that seemed to be his paramour, and might defend him, survived long enough be used against Nadaj… though she could hope that they died in the process as one was spirit-eater and the other had insulted and threatened her.

"We must pursue, before she gains fresh strength or can set an ambush."

"Agreed," replied Blake with a curt nod, stabbing his sword into the ground. "I owe these Berserkers that much."

Blake's sword started to tilt, as he had not stabbed it that deep, but it had not fallen over by the time he had, finally, managed to put his hat away and pull up his chainmail hood so he could buckle his helmet on instead. Pulling his sword back out of the soil and shaking a little clump of earth from it Blake moved past the corpses and out the open gates onto the path. Okku rumbled as they left the garrison and there was a slight tensing around Gann's eyes. Even Blake could feel that there was some sort of presence watching them like a predator from the bushes.

There seemed no change in this feeling as they headed deeper back into the Ashenwood and Blake was unsure if this was a good thing or not. The stronger the feeling got then the stronger whatever possessed Nadaj might be. But if these woods were like a body it might be better if the whole of them were not as feverish, if it was more like how the skin became hotter in the area around an infected wound rather than the entire body being sick. As half expected when the path entered the clearing around the great tree they saw Nadaj standing beside it. What was less expected was the aura of light surrounding her and that there was a dead body at the base of the mound on which the tree was rooted.

"Is that…Yurkov?" Blake asked, having to think a moment to remember the name.

"How do you know Yurkov?" demanded Dalenka.

"We aided him against a follower of Malar," Blake replied, taking that as a 'yes it is'.

"Strange I did not hear about this," challenged Dalenka suspiciously.

"Not so strange," Blake replied, finally losing his patience, "after all you could not be bothered to leave your house to aid in attacks against your own garrison so I expect you could not be bothered to hear the reports of your scouts."

"How, how dare you…" spluttered Dalenka.

"Would he have reported to Nadaj," Blake growled, "yes or no?"

"Well, yes, but…" protested Dalenka.

"Then that is why you did not hear about that," Blake said, contempt edging his voice. "Torm blessed your Berserkers with loyalty and obedience, but he does not seem to have blessed you with a sense of duty towards them in return."

As Blake left Dalenka spluttering and led the others across to whatever Nadaj had become he admitted to himself that he was perhaps being unfair. There was the chance that rather than it being dereliction of duty that Dalenka had been trying to give Nadaj responsibility that she could learn from. That rather than Dalenka having disinterest in the fate of her men it had been Nadaj being able to answer all her superior's questions with convincing lies to build a false picture. Of course that would not explain why the first thing they had seen when arriving at the Lake of Tears garrison had been Nadaj fighting blighted creatures and Dalenka not. Blake knew he'd probably relied more on Kana to run Crossroad Keep than Dalenka had relied on Nadaj to run that garrison, but he'd had to travel to forge the alliances and he'd been at the bridges and on the walls and at the gate rather than skulking within the Keep while his Greycloaks fought and died.

"Your tasks here are nearly complete," said the strange voice that came from Nadaj's mouth, the light glowing from her forehead pulsing slightly in time with the words. "We wish to offer our thanks."

"We?" Blake asked simply.

"We," said 'Nadaj'. "We are the outrage, the fury, the vengeance. We are one. Long have we festered, desiring only to protect, yet bound and suppressed by the one who purports to speak for these woods. He has failed, has faded to nothing, now we are all that protects. We are the need, the distress, the suffering."

"You sound in pain, if those emotions dominate, and why send me into the forest if not to restore the Wood Man?"

"We were threatened," 'Nadaj' replied hoarsely. "We burned, we wilted, we yielded to parasites. Those same forces that freed us… they encroached upon us. We needed them gone and you obliged, we are grateful."

"Grateful enough to let me speak with Nadaj?" asked Blake. "Whatever you are she too has a right to exist."

"This woman," Gann warned, "she is little more than a shell, a garment worn by the feral instinct of the forest. Ashenwood, I fear, is about to shed this husk and our blood may soon follow."

"We needed a vessel, an instrument, one whose will could be fused to our own," added 'Nadaj', the glow intensifying slightly. "We took the Ethran. We are the protector, we are the land, we are one."

"If you 'took' her rather than her giving herself willingly then release her," Blake said firmly. "Let her choose whether to remain one with you, and supply me the information I require, and I will leave you in peace."

"No!" protested Dalenka. "We cannot leave the Wood Man subsumed beneath this… this… this malevolence."

"I must agree, little one," Okku murmured, visibly reluctant that he did have to agree with Dalenka, "this cannot be allowed to continue."

"My concern is for Nadaj…" began Blake.

"And she would want this ended," Dalenka interrupted.

"She would want you to perform one last service," corrected 'Nadaj' calmly. "To remove the remaining threat. To die."

With that the glow around the smaller trees and around Nadaj brightened. Blake lunged forward with the sword that was still in his hand but 'Nadaj' did not react as he swept it across at neck height. The glow did not impede Blake's sword but as the decapitated body and the head fell their separate ways to the ground it faded swiftly from around them. Unfortunately the same was not true of the smaller trees where the glow continued to intensify.

"Blast," Blake muttered, stepping back a little away from the corpse and towards his allies. "I was hoping to negotiate. Failing that I was hoping they were close enough bonded that one would follow the other into death."

"You seem quick to deal death," sneered Dalenka, "after all your fine words that Nadaj had a right to exist."

"Be cautious," Gann warned as the glow became yet brighter, "I feel the power gathering around its remaining focuses, something is soon to happen."

Blake nodded absently to Gann, not hearing the words as well as he might have without the interference of his anger at Dalenka and his guilt over having killed Nadaj.

"Of course I am quick to deal death," Blake growled at Dalenka. "Hesitation costs lives. The lives of your allies if you hesitate over beginning to fight. The lives of your foes if you hesitate over ending that fight when they are defeated and surrendering."

Neeshka fought back a giggle at how old and crusty her harbour-boy sounded. A few months in command of a Keep and he was lecturing someone three or four times his age. Then again it had been a very eventful few months and Lord Nasher had chosen well when he sent Kana. Following the Way of Swords had given her a great deal of knowledge and skill and experience but also made her philosophically incapable of trying to supplant rather than train and support Blake.

There was a slight flash in the glow around the smaller trees and Earth Elementals, Shambling Mounds, and Treants faded into existence around them and by the great tree like paintings on glass becoming more opaque. Gann glanced at these and then stabbed his spear into the ground before picking up Yurkov's Dwarven Waraxe. The shaft was not much thicker than that of his spear but the weight of the axehead compared with the relatively small spearhead made it feel clumsy to him. Even so Gann felt better with that in his hand as generations of woodcutters, some of whose daughters he had known, had proven an axe was a good weapon when 'fighting' trees. And to be respected by Hagspawns when being chased by angry fathers.

"Surprised you can use that," commented Blake with a nod. "Looks Dwarven and I know how awkward their axes can feel."

"There was, of course, a lady," Gann smiled back, "and she taught a young… innocent… Hagspawn a great many things."

Ignoring Neeshka's snort of derision at the idea that Gann was ever innocent Blake considered and rejected trying to get their backs to the great tree. There was little chance of forming a defensive line, especially with Gann swinging an axe around, and against foes of this size it would be better to have the room to dodge. In any case that position would leave them surrounded by the four smaller trees.

"Back a little."

"I will not retreat!" roared Okku, ignoring Blake and annoying him as he sprang forward at the nearest Treant.

The Treant swung the pointed fingers of its branch hand at the charging bear-god but too slow. Okku was within the swing almost before the Treant had begun it and his great haunches drove him upwards. He twisted and used the momentum of his charge to aid him in ripping one great paw across the front of the Treant's trunk. Wood splintered and tore and sprayed in pieces nearly small enough to be placed in a paper-mill's pulping vat. The Treant staggered back, bending where it should not as the remaining thickness of its trunk took the strain of the impact and the weight of the Treant's own crown of leaves and branches.

With a slight curse Blake saw the Earth Elemental lumbering towards Okku as the bear-god continued to tear at the Treant. Summoning the power of the weave Blake muttered an invocation and sent a Vitriolic Sphere arcing across to burst over the Elemental and burn into it. The Elemental paused a moment in surprise before its near mindless determination sent it back into motion to attack Okku's vulnerable back. Bubbling channels etched themselves into the rocks of the Elemental as it moved but these did not hamper it as much as when the acid reached the soil between the rocks and soaked in. Smoke and steam came from the Elemental's joints as the damp earth that lubricated them dried out in reaction with the acid and it suddenly had the equivalent of arthritis.

That it was painful to move did not stop it, but did reduce the power of the two-armed blow it drove down onto Okku's back as the bear-god finished dismembering the stricken Treant. Spirit flesh rippled and deformed under an impact that would have crushed the ribs and spine of any bear of flesh and even Okku was stunned. But then Blake was there and, with the stray thought that a mining pick might have been more suitable, he drove his sword into the joint of the Elemental's waist. With the strength of his magic and his belt and his well-trained muscles Blake dragged his sword across, magic discharging from it and disrupting the magic that kept the Elemental intact.

There was a sound like a tiny avalanche as the upper half of the Elemental lost contact with the lower half and the rocks of it fell apart with the dissipation of the animating spirit. Okku wheezed and turned to look as the Treant he had slain began to shimmer. The little-one had done fine work there but was retreating again. Okku pondered a moment whether to follow. Being attacked from the rear had drawn memories of the tales told him by wolves and deer, of the latter trying to not let the former encircle them and trying to move so all the pack were attacking from the same direction. It did not behove a god-of-bears to act like a deer, and Okku was confident Blake would not abandon an ally, but at the same time moving back a little made sense if you were a mortal and needed such subtlety.

"Are these real?" Blake frowned as the Earth Elemental he'd destroyed shimmered and vanished and another appeared to replace it.

"Real enough harbour-boy," replied Neeshka, dancing to one side of a Shambling Mound's hand as it tried to swat her down into the ground.

Gann swung the Waraxe he had appropriated, carefully making it a glancing blow to slice a gouge without trapping the axehead in his victim. "Real enough… yes. Completely real…no."

"Huh?"

"They are expressions of the Ashenwood's rage," Dalenka said, happy to demonstrate her greater knowledge to the impudent Tiefling, "illusions given solidity."

"But not solidity enough," rumbled Okku as he sprang at the Shambling Mound that Gann had wounded.

As small fragments of leaf and stem flew in all directions from where Okku was tearing the Mound apart with ease Blake nodded. There were spells that did a similar thing so Dalenka was probably right, and Okku was definitely right that these 'illusions' were not as solid as real Treants or Earth Elementals or Shambling Mounds. Unfortunately even if they were easier to slay than the blighted creatures they were being replaced as more faded into existence. The slight retreat meant they were all coming from the same direction but, though that helped with not being outflanked, Blake was unsure if he could use how that made them a better target for spells. The Elementals would not burn and even if the Treants and Shambling Mounds would that would risk setting fire to the Great Tree as well if they strode or shambled in the wrong direction.

Gann carefully watched a Treant as it approached and then as it began a stride he half-jogged forward and swung the Waraxe to bury its head deep into the Treant's trunk. As with Blake's sword against the real Treant earlier the blade stuck fast but, as with that real Treant, there was a cracking noise as the slice Gann had made at just the right point on its trunk at just the right time of its stride widened and grew. The semi-illusionary Treant split in two, freeing the axehead as it fell and began to fade.

Neeshka pouted a little as she saw Gann's success. It was all right for him with that axe he had grabbed and was all right for Okku with his huge claws, but she and her rapier were both more delicate. Her harbour-boy was meeting another Earth Elemental though so Neeshka quickly regained her place at his side. The great rock that formed one forearm swung at Blake and he ducked and struck sparks and chips off that rock with his counterattack. Neeshka did not approve of it trying to squash her sweetheart and stabbed, her speed letting her plunge her rapier into the Elemental's 'elbow' and withdraw it before the slim blade became trapped by the shifting rocks.

The Elemental's forearm drooped as the magic of Neeshka's sword disrupted the magic that was supporting them. Blake took advantage of it being distracted by this and swung his sword diagonally downwards, slicing his heavier sword through the soil of a 'knee' and lopping off the leg at that point. The Elemental tumbled to the ground in a jumble of boulders and soil and Neeshka took a chance and stabbed it in the face, hoping it would react to this in the same way as a creature of flesh would. It did not seem as bothered by this as most things, but it did convulse as the magic on her sword discharged and then Blake shoved his sword through what would be its neck and that seemed to finish it.

However even as this Elemental faded away another was fading in. The Mound that Okku had shredded and the Treant Gann had more neatly bisected had also both been replaced. Gann glanced at the Earth Elemental approaching him and then swung his Dwarven Waraxe again. Unfortunately although he was getting more used to the weight he was not yet completely used to it and there was a clang as the axehead glanced off the rock of a thigh rather than meeting the knee Gann was aiming for. Okku was close though and, with a roar, he sprang and bore the Elemental down. His claws were for fighting rather than digging but they still sufficed to get a grip into the crack between two of the rocks that made up the Elemental's chest. With one flex of his great shoulders Okku sent the two massive boulders bouncing in opposite directions as they left a hole behind them too large for the Elemental to survive.

"There seems no end of them…" breathed Gann as he saw that Elemental fade and be replaced.

"My claws do not dull, little one," Okku rumbled, "and with the energy of this wood to sustain me I do not tire. But this is still becoming tedious the more we slay."

Pointed branch-fingers daggered down towards Dalenka's unarmoured flesh but, despite the serious temptation, Blake moved. His sword flashed up to meet the descending arm and even had this been true Treant wood rather than a weaker illusion of such the result would have been the same. Magic imbued metal sliced though the wrist and the Treant howled like wind through the reeds as its hand parted company from its arm. Dalenka frowned under her half-face mask as this attack made it clear she would not be allowed to remain a bystander watching and hoping both sides would destroy each other. With some irritation she gathered power from the weave and chanted to release it in a spell of Disintegrate. The beam was well aimed and burned deep as it struck the Treant just below the knobbly protrusion that gave the appearance of a nose. Magic energy rippled out from the impact, wrenching at the illusionary substance and tearing it apart as the magic passed through it.

Blake allowed himself to look impressed as the Treant faded, though he was not sure if Dalenka had managed to completely disintegrate it or whether it had faded in 'death' like the others had. Theoretically he knew that if you killed something with that spell you should be left only with dust, but he rarely used the spell and not against foes weak enough to be killed by it alone. He did remember the fight in the dreamscape though, where his breastplate had been disintegrated, and was glad they had not needed to fight Dalenka as it looked there would have been the risk of losing his armour in reality as he had in that dream.

Neeshka grinned at Blake as she avoided an Earth Elemental's clumsy attempt to crush her and then stabbed it in the knee. "An endless stream of enemies coming for our blood… seem familiar harbour-boy?"

"That's it!" Blake said, pausing a moment in surprise and annoyance with himself. "You are brilliant!"

"I am?" asked Neeshka, before recovering and adding. "I mean… of course I am… why?"

"Those smaller versions of the King of Shadows were coming from the statues," Blake replied as he moved to stab at the waist of the Elemental Neeshka had hobbled, "and we'd have saved some time if we'd destroyed those statues then rather than when the large King of Shadows came back again."

"Yeah! I mean…" said Neeshka, managing to almost sound convincing, "did it take you that long to realise that?"

"I did say the power was gathering around the smaller trees," commented Gann mildly, "that those were where the power was being focussed."

"So you did," Blake said, stabbing his sword through the soil of the Elemental's waist and cutting deep enough that it fell, "my apologies, my friend."

"No harm done," replied Gann, putting another gouge into a Treant's trunk and noting with satisfaction this was one gouge too many, "this time at least."

As cracks spread across the trunk of Gann's opponent from the gouges he had inflicted Blake glanced about to measure distances to trees and distances to enemies and then began the closest he could come to a sprint in full armour. This was actually quite close thanks to his belt of strength making his armour less burden than even Mithril was in that quantity and thanks to the spell of Haste he had learned to make persist all day. Okku rumbled and charged parallel to Blake to protect his flank as he ran and protect him as he did whatever he needed to do to this tree.

"Wait," Gann cried, hurriedly following as behind him the Treant began to fade away. With a frown Blake paused, his sword brought back a little for a strike and noting that Neeshka and Dalenka had needed to also follow now Gann had moved. "Let me," Gann added, flourishing the Waraxe a little.

It did not much matter to Blake who did this so he nodded though he felt a little puzzled. This tree was quite small so it seemed his sword could cut through it with as much ease as Gann's Waraxe, or as much ease as his sword had been cutting through Treants. As Gann approached Blake moved a little away from the smaller tree with Neeshka joining him on that flank. Okku murmured at the delay and bared some teeth at enemies too stupid to be intimidated while Dalenka placed herself so Okku was between her and them. For a moment the Witch seemed to have returned to trying to avoid fighting but then she chanted a little and proved Okku was not so much between her and the foe that she was unable to see to cast spells past him. A Greater Missile Storm pelted the oncoming enemies.

Gann looked at the tree for a moment, visibly considering and studying it, and then swung the Waraxe down in a small controlled arc. Blake glanced over his shoulder at the sound of metal biting into wood and for a moment wondered what Gann was doing. That was a very small chunk to cut out of the tree compared with how Blake had smashed the statues of Illefarn and it did not seem to have had any effect. Then light burst from the tree and washed past them as the glow that had been clinging to it exploded outwards and faded away.

"There," Gann said with satisfaction, "we could just hack the tree straight through, but a precise cut can be enough at times to slay a foe… or release an infection."

"I keep on telling him that," smiled Neeshka, winking to Blake, "him and his clumsy great lumps of metal."

The Treants, Mounds, and Elementals had paused as the light passed them and as the spirit creating and controlling them lost one of its focuses, but now they started shuffling forward again. Another Greater Missile Storm from Dalenka flurried magical missiles against them and small chips of rock and a few leaves and branches broke free under the impacts. Blake looked at them and their approach and gestured to the others.

"Back a little, keep them in front of us, keep a line, three more to go…"

Okku almost chuckled as the mortal played the games his lack of divine power required. He knew they had the power to simply attack. He suspected Blake knew they had the power to simply attack. As Okku moved to keep his position relative to the others he decided it was fortunate for the little-one that rage at the enemies had been replaced by amusement at the antics of his allies. There was only so far across a clearing though that even this amusement would take a god-of-bears so Okku hoped that Blake was not assuming too much of his tolerance.

As the 'illusions' moved out into the clearing, between the still glowing smaller tree and the one whose aura had been dispersed, they clumped together a little in their advance. No drill sergeant would regard that as a line rather than a mess but as these were all creations of the same will Blake was not going to assume their attacks would be as ill coordinated as their formation. He began to mutter an invocation and was almost distracted as he thought he heard an echo. Then as he completed the spell and the mist of a Horrid Wilting billowed up from the forest floor he saw the echo had been Dalenka casting the same spell. The two areas of mist overlapped and as the strange illusionary plants spewed they doubly drained the fluid from the unfortunate Treant in the centre. The surviving enemies staggered as that Treant fell and faded and rock began to grate on rock. Although the elemental was nowhere near as vulnerable as its plant allies it did now have dry rather than moistly lubricating mud in its joints.

Blake saw a chance. "Gann, now… Okku, with me."

With that Blake charged to attack before the enemies could recover and Okku very happily followed as finally the little-one used a tactic worthy of the dignity of a bear-god. Neeshka was less happy as she was sure her harbour-boy had enough spells to continue killing these things from safely out of their reach, but with a sigh that mingled annoyance and fondness she followed to guard his back. Dalenka frowned and stayed where she was as physical combat was the work of Berserkers and no business of a Witch.

Okku chose to attack the elemental before it could recover what little speed it had. Sensing the bear-god with whatever it used for eyes it tried to swing one arthritic rock-fist but even had it been moving as fast as it could normally that would still have been too slow. Okku's great paw slammed into its waist as he dismissed the idea of trying to merely wound it and avoid it being replaced, in destruction, by one not suffering the effects of those wounds or the Horrid Wilting. With a grating noise that dwarfed those that had been created by its own movements the upper half of the elemental slid sideways under the impact and parted company with the lower. As the rocks came apart and bounced slightly across the ground they also began to fade.

Snow flurried from Gann's footsteps as he rushed at the second tree. He hoped that he would not see another foe fade into existence before he got there. Behind him he heard the snarl of the bear-god and the solid thunk of Blake's sword slicing through wood and he knew that with such powerful allies they might soon destroy a foe that would be replaced from this focus of power. Sure enough as Gann skidded to a halt and let his sense of the spirits show him where on the trunk the focus lay something began to become opaque. Ignoring this Gann took a calming breath and sliced his Waraxe across the wood to sever the physical channels through which the spirit power was flowing. Another burst of light erupted and out across the clearing.

"Two to go," Gann said with a smile as the thing that had been fading in faded away again.

"Aye," Blake growled, sending another hunk of Treant wood thudding to the ground. This one had come close to hitting Neeshka and he'd had the excuse of not wanting to finish it too fast in case it had been created and would be replaced by the tree Gann was attacking. That excuse was over though so Blake sent a more solid blow arcing into the trunk rather than continue to cut it apart slowly for nearly hurting the woman he loved.

The Treant staggered and bent as its trunk weakened from the cut. Okku had moved to join the little-one and now reared onto his hind legs, snapped his jaws up at a branch of the Treant's crown that had dropped to within his reach, and let his weight drag that branch down. This extra weight was too much for the Treant's weakened trunk as its root-foot dug into the soil and its lower half remained firmly upright. There was a snap and then a roar of annoyance as Okku found himself under the Treant's upper half he had pulled down onto himself. Then this upper half flew up into the air as Okku threw it aside, knocking over the lower half that had still been standing at an angle, before both halves faded out of existence.

Blake gestured for the others to form a line on that alignment. "I know you know how to circle prey, my friend," Blake commented, seeing Okku was looking reluctant "I remember you circling me."

"Yes," Okku rumbled back, "and I recall you circling me in my barrow and at Mulsantir. But are these worthy of such trouble?"

"Hmmm, maybe not, or not worthy of as much trouble now their numbers are less."

Okku nodded; he knew Blake was being cautious out of fear for his mate, and that was a fine motive, but Okku's oath was to end the curse and even his own life meant nothing compared with fulfilling this. They were all dispensable to that goal but the more concern Blake showed for his friends, and especially for Neeshka, the more concerned Okku was that Blake disagreed with this. That he would not sacrifice them as Okku would to end the curse.

They did not retreat as far as before since they did not need to. A Shambling Mound fell to Okku disdaining subtlety and simply tearing his claws across back of one 'calf' and ripping great strands of foliage free with the impact. There was a thud like a bale of hay falling from a barn loft as a chunk of the Mound flew a short distance and rolled a little way through the snow. Blake swung his sword down and to his side and sliced the edge across the fallen Mound's neck. His blade sliced deep through the stems as its magic discharged and the Shambling Mound began to fade.

Blake glanced at the remaining enemies and grunted as he saw a replacement Mound fading into existence near one tree. A beam of Disintegrate hissed across and into a Treant that was preparing to strike at Okku. This time Dalenka did not manage to kill her target despite the huge chunk it lost from its trunk to her spell. Okku whirled in his own body length and swept his paw in a similar blow as before. There was a splintering crunch as his claws ripped another chunk from the Treant and it fell. This began to fade and Blake smiled as he saw a form taking shape near the nearest of the smaller trees.

"There," Blake said, pointing, "that one fading in by that tree… Neeshka, my sweet, try to taunt it away and distract it from Gann while Okku and I keep the others back and Gann tries to look inconspicuous."

"A hard task for one who often draws so much attention" smiled Gann, "though I expect these creatures of wood and rock do not think my looks as striking as this axe has been."

Neeshka gave Blake a dubious look before she sprang forward, her lithe legs carrying her to the tree where she began flicking her rapier at the Mound even before it had finished fading into existence. Tiny painful cuts sliced away at its thin stems, each one with a measure of magic discharging into it, and it howled slightly and took a long stamping stride towards the Tiefling tormenting it. Neeshka easily dodged and took the chance to inflict a few more wounds on that leg before having to hop back and away from the fist falling towards her like a soggy green haystack.

Meanwhile Okku had decided to interpret 'keep the others back' as rend them into fragments faster than they could be replaced. His blood would be singing in his veins if he had either rather than a form of spirit energy. He still had a throat though to roar his defiance of the 'mist' subsuming the spirit of the Wood Man and claws to tear apart the illusions of its servants. Okku pounced and the Treant staggered backwards from the impact and then forward from the weight as it found a bear-god's claws sinking into the front of its trunk. Okku's spirit-muscles flexed and he tore those claws free, shredding bark and landing back onto his rear legs and then onto all fours before almost bouncing back upright into a classic bear-smash. More bark and the living wood it was supposed to protect shredded into pulp under Okku's claws.

Blake had a little more trouble as though he was confident his sword was tougher than the rock of this Elemental he was still reluctant to meet one with the other and this Elemental was being cautious. There was the chance that this Elemental had the memories of the others and had learned from the previous experiences that it should make it difficult to strike at its joints. Blake considered what he could do that would be more unexpected and whether he needed to do anything. The caution the Elemental was showing meant it was not helping the Treant against Okku and meant Blake was keeping it occupied and that was all that was required for now.

The Mound was striding after Neeshka who almost distracted herself with the giggles as she realised she had thought of it as shambling along and realised that a creature with that name would hardly do anything else. She darted in and sliced again at one side of it; cutting through more of the stems so the severed ends sagged and bobbed as the Shambling Mound walked and it began to look fluffy with those sticking out of it. Gann nodded and continued to circle in and closer to that Treant's mother-tree. Then a Scintillating Sphere flashed across the clearing and into the Earth Elemental Blake was fighting. Electricity arced through it, heating the rock and causing it to crack as different parts expanded by different amounts.

Being a creature of rock and mud rather than flesh it had no muscles to cramp and convulse as the electricity passed through them. Unfortunately Blake did and, though the edge of the sphere's effects only just reached him and much of it conducted through his armour, he grunted in surprise and staggered as one thigh muscle twitched. Neeshka's pretty smile turned into a snarl as she saw her harbour-boy be hurt and she took a few quick bounding steps towards Dalenka before she controlled the urge to go and stab her. The Mound moved to try to attack Neeshka, but paused as freed of the distraction of being stabbed it was able to think and have a moment to look around.

With some annoyance Gann saw the deep-set eyes of the Mound fix on him and it ponderously turn and begin striding back towards him. Gann rushed forward towards the small tree as the Mound also began to pick up speed and as Neeshka realised what was happening and began chasing it. It looked faintly ridiculous her chasing it but less so if you had seen a stoat chasing and killing a rabbit a dozen times its size. As with the stoat and rabbit though the Mound would be able to inflict serious wounds if Neeshka was not fast enough to dodge and this need for caution delayed her.

One huge hand swung to crush Gann but he was close enough to the small tree for that to hamper the Mound's swing. There was the temptation to return the attack but instead Gann flicked the Waraxe down in a short chop through the genius loci. The Mound staggered as the light burst away from the tree past it. Neeshka had managed to catch up and while it was off-balance stabbed it a few times. Gann though used this to retreat a little. "That way, please," Gann said, gesturing as he caught Neeshka's eye, "and then be ready to get clear, if you could be so kind."

Neeshka nodded, amused at how automatic it was for Gann to add the polite phrases, but before she retreated she stabbed the Mound once more for luck and to keep its attention. The Mound shambled one long stride after her, and then another, and then a third. Gann decided this was far enough away from the small tree. He began to appeal to the spirits and Neeshka rushed off to one side as she had been warned to do. A Burst of Glacial Wrath enveloped the Mound as Gann took the chance they would not need any other favour of comparable power before the end of the day. Ice suddenly coated the stems of the Shambling Mound and as they froze and became brittle they also began to break under the strain of the Mound's movements.

Gann charged and swung his axe into the mass of foliage. Even for a Mound its reaction to this was slow; seeing this Neeshka rushed in close enough to use the thicker blade on her bracer rather than her rapier. That would have been dangerously close before but as the two of them chopped at the Mound and began whittling it away its cold dulled movements left it unable to defend itself. There was a sound like a team of busy gardeners and the Mound writhed as it felt itself dying.

With a rumble Okku shook a few chunks of wood from between his toes and felt glad that the small pieces faded out like the rest of the enemy. His spirit-form might reject splinters but he was glad to not have to wait for the healing to push them out again. There was another Treant fading in though as this fallen one faded out and glancing across he saw the little-one had also been victorious with a foe fading away. Blake and Okku's eyes met and then nodded in mutual respect.

"Great Tree is close, and there will be a replacement Elemental soon…"

"No!" Gann called, chopping another chunk from the beleaguered Mound. "We should attack the final small tree. I feel that the genius loci of the Great Tree will be as tough as the Great Tree itself compared with these near saplings."

Blake nodded and began falling back to rejoin Neeshka and Gann. Okku noted this but his pride did not let him retreat as far. Instead he stayed closer to the Great Tree so that he did not have the indignity of retreat and would meet the Elemental fading in from there and shield the little-ones with his might. The Mound Gann and Neeshka were fighting finally fell and had the release of fading away and not being replaced. Blake looked at the Elemental that had appeared and Okku holding position to meet it and looked at the Treant that was approaching from the fourth of the smaller trees.

"Hells with it," said Blake, one corner of his mouth quirking, "let us learn from our colourful comrade…"

"What?" Gann began to ask, but Blake was already beginning an invocation.

A Vitriolic Sphere burst from Blake's hand and arced across to drench the Treant in acid. Leaves browned and blackened and a crater was carved into the trunk where the sphere struck. Steam and smoke rose from the Treant as the thicker acid that clung continued to rot away at its wood and weaken it. The Treant gouged at itself as it tried to rip away the bark and wood that was being eaten slowly and painfully away by this.

"How is that learning from…"

"Charge!" Blake cried, answering the question and beginning to run and suit actions to words.

"Oh, charge," muttered Gann, wondering if Blake really needed to learn that from Okku.

Neeshka shrugged to Gann and followed her harbour-boy. Gann was less sanguine about this as a tactic but after a split-moment also followed. The three of them quickly reached the wounded Treant. It barely managed to swing one blow towards them through its pain before Gann and Blake struck almost in unison, carving chunks from the Treant's flanks as they passed to either side of it. Before the Treant could turn they were chopping at the rear of its trunk as if they were woodcutters that had worked together for years. As each swung his weapon back for the next blow the other's weapon was biting into Treant wood.

Under this assault the wound in the trunk widened rapidly and as it did the remaining wood was soon not enough to hold the Treant's upper trunk and crown of branches aloft. Blake and Gann did not pause to savour the victory. Even as the Treant's trunk snapped across and there was the crash of its branches hitting the ground they were back in motion and rushing on after Neeshka towards the smaller tree from which this had appeared. She'd seen they had the situation under control and had continued on to be ready to start stabbing and luring the fresh Treant away from its mother tree.

Okku meanwhile was happy as he had a new Earth Elemental to play with. His claws gouged channels into the rock and staggered the Elemental back and he took this chance to glance over his great shoulder. "I am not as forgiving as the little one."

Dalenka nodded and decided to hold her spells back as the bear-god went back to dismantling his enemy with an intimidating level of power and speed.

Blake looked to where the Treant had just finished fading from sight and nodded to Gann, who returned the nod with a smile and swept his Waraxe down. The edge cut a precise shallow groove through the wood and though the genius loci that Gann being attuned to the spirits let him 'see'. The aura of light around the small tree quivered for a moment before condensing down around the groove and then exploding out and dissipating. The ground shook slightly as this wave of light passed and Okku grumbled as the Earth Elemental staggered a little and away from his claws.

This was actually better luck than Okku would think as now they were this close to victory Blake did not want a fresh Elemental appearing and the respite the Earth Elemental had from Okku's attack was enough for Gann to reach the Great Tree. Glancing at this and then back over his shoulder Gann sighed in thought. "Strike where I strike," Gann reluctantly said.

Blake nodded and, as they had on the unfortunate Treant, the pair set to work and began cutting into the Great Tree. This was a race between them and Okku's impatience to finish off the Earth Elemental but as precise gouge after gouge was made they managed to win. Brilliant light that made the previous eruptions seem like candles behind smoked glass blazed out and away from the Great Tree as tremors rippled though the clearing and shook the leaves on the smaller trees. Okku snarled as his toy was snatched away from him and the Earth Elemental faded.

The light continued to pulse and with each pulse the aura of light around the Great Tree seemed to become thicker, though no brighter, and Blake could see something was gathering its strength. He glanced at Gann who gave him a broad smile and nod and lowered the head of his Waraxe to the ground to show he thought there was nothing they needed to fight. Blake hoped Gann was right as with one last pulse the light condensed into a huge Spirit-Treant that looked to be able to shrug off the effects of their spells or weapons. There was something about its eyes though. The Treants that had been maddened by the blight had only rage in their eyes and the ones created from the smaller trees had eyes that had been empty of even that. These eyes though had a savage awareness shining from them and an impression of age and wisdom in their lustre.

"It is him…" Okku rumbled, his voice quiet in respect and a degree of awe.

As if that was the signal the trees rustled in a sudden wind that passed across them like the forest itself was exhaling. Small noises began to be heard as the unnatural silence broke and the Ashenwood seemed to come alive with those sounds of life. The great mouth of the Wood Man opened and it seemed like fresh vitality flowed out from it and into the surrounding woods as they yet further recovered. Blake considered the Wood Man a little more and decided on politeness. He bowed in respect, but only in respect and only from the waist rather than go down on one knee.

"This one's moods shift like the winds, even more so than mine…" Okku murmured, "a humble approach is best."

Blake's eyes flicked towards Okku as he tried to decide if the bear-god was approving of the bow or disapproving that Blake was still standing rather than having prostrated himself. This murmur seemed to draw the attention of the Wood Man away from the Ashenwood and to the creatures of flesh and spirit standing before him and he recoiled. The wind across the treetops faltered a moment as if the Great Spirit was drawing strength back rather than sharing it outwards and its huge eyes flashed as if in memory of pain.

"Will you always be here when I wake, devourer of souls?" demanded the Wood Man in a voice that echoed like organ notes in a Grand Temple. "Gorge on my life a hundred times and you will never be sated… nor will I ever die while the forest persists."

"We have never met," Blake pointed out, straightening from his bow.

"The face changes… the hunger remains the same," replied the Wood Man. "Why did you slay the parasite and call me forth if not to feast once again?"

Blake paused a moment in irritation as it became clear the Wood Man was seeing the curse rather than him. It had called him 'devourer of souls' and now accused him, despite his aid and the presence of Okku, of seeking to feast on it. He was irritated enough that the fleeting thought that enough fire and poison would stop the forest persisting and allow the Wood Man to die passed through his mind. "Sheva Whitefeather sent me here, to speak with you and to seek a cure for this curse."

"You still do not understand what you are," the Wood Man responded. "Neither did those other faces, which hid the same hunger that you bear. They called it a gift, you think it a curse, it is neither."

"Then explain, please, as understanding is what I seek here," said Blake, a little tersely. "If this hunger is neither gift or curse then what?"

"It is your nature," the Wood Man answered. "Hunger is what you are. You were not always thus, how your nature changed is not known to me, but yet I sense a wrathful touch upon your soul…the touch of a god… a god who is dead."

Blake nodded at this. "That would fit with what the shaman Nak'kai said and what else I have learned," he said, providing more information in return than he had been given. "This curse seems to be the work of Myrkul, his retribution upon his priest Akachi for his rebellion, and Myrkul was wrathful and is now dead. And how my nature changed was being kidnapped and placed in the chamber where Okku had trapped this hunger with the help of the previous host."

"I do not know if Myrkul it was," replied the Wood Man. "It is an unfamiliar god, a stranger to the Forest. Chauntea, Mielikki, Lurue… these are the gods I knew in their youth and their wrath is different in kind."

"Very well," Blake said, trying to convince himself that having it further suggested to be Myrkul was worth the days of travelling and solving problems and the blood they had spilt. Still there might be other insights to be found here so after a moment Blake continued, "The witches and others have spoken of you having fought spirit-eaters before. What do you remember of them?"

"Your hunger has but one face at a time," the Wood Man said, continuing to confirm what they already knew. "That face may change but always there is only one and always the faces perish. The more they eat the more they must eat and the hunger devours them, burns them from inside, and passes to a new face. The face that stands before me will also be consumed."

After restraining an initial response that had some degree of profanity Blake managed to reply more politely. "A fate I keep on being told is inescapable, and yet I am not giving up. Do you have any advice on how I might fight this?"

"You cannot defeat your own nature, you must be what you are, and in being you must finally succumb," said the Wood Man. "To change your nature, to return to what you once were… most such changes are impossible. Burn a forest to ash and you can only plant anew."

"Burn a forest to ash and the seeds protected from the flames beneath the soil sprout," Blake replied, impatient with the pessimism and not mentioning that this would be why it would need poison as well. "However barren the fire's hunger seems to have left the landscape there is still rich soil and the underlying strength."

"The fire of your curse will not leave any seeds buried," warned the Wood Man, "nor will the soil still be fertile for regrowth. It will consume everything."

"You have not been as helpful as I hoped," Blake said with a frown, ignoring Dalenka's hiss of indrawn breath at his impudence. "I was hoping for advice on ways to solve the problem rather than yet more warnings of Okku's oath being impossible to fulfil and my fate being certain. But having it confirmed the curse is the work of a dead god is worth some gratitude."

"You will speak to the Wood Man with respect!" demanded Dalenka.

"You will speak to my ally with respect," Okku growled.

"I think you are wrong," said Blake, continuing to address the Wood Man while concentrating and crushing the curse to his will. "I think this hunger will end with me but if you are right then to fight or advise the next host you should be at full strength. Using it to try to further revive you would repay the wounds of past hosts and whatever small debt I owe for your words."

"Do you expect me to stand by while you unleash your curse on the Wood Man?" Dalenka protested.

"I expect that to be the Wood Man's decision," growled Blake, "and who said anything about 'unleashing' it?"

"Such an act would defy the nature of your hunger," the Wood Man mused, before adding, "and teach it to obey you perhaps."

"With one lamentable exception, where I was taken completely by surprise," replied Blake, focussing his mind to the task, "it has always obeyed me and been unable to break the leashes I have placed on it."

Dalenka stirred but the glare of Okku's yellow eyes warned her to not break Blake's concentration and she could also feel the deep brown eyes of the Wood Man urging her to calm. She could see the tension in the foreigner's shoulders as he fought an invisible foe and then a dark spirit erupted from nowhere, its tentacles writhing towards the Wood Man as the foreigner flexed in strain. She could feel the waves of energy flowing between this dark spirit, its form the absence rather than presence of light, and the shining form of the Wood Man. This energy rippled out into the Ashenwood and returned stronger, only to be channelled back through the link between the two spirits and then back out to return again even stronger.

"Like the breath of the Earthmother herself…" Dalenka breathed, forgetting her disdain for the curse-bearer in the moment.

Blake straightened, panting with the mental exertion, as the visible form of the spirit-eater vanished again. That had been harder than expected as the curse had been so eager to taste the Wood Man again and the Wood Man's spirit had been undefended. He'd assumed such an ancient spirit would have thick 'walls' around its mind and that to allow the spirit energy to flow 'gates' would have been opened in these. But rather than having to only guard against the curse trying to disobey within those limited channels Blake had needed to control a curse that was unhampered by the Wood Man in where it could try to attack.

"Much that was lost, is restored," said the Wood Man calmly. "The forest breathes, and its anger fades to silence. Thank you."

"May the forest continue to grow and thrive," Blake replied, falling back on polite formulas. "The blessings of Silvanus, The Forest Father, be upon you."

"Ah, the influence of the Druid you mentioned knowing?" asked Gann.

"He never actually got to 'know' her," Neeshka whispered to Gann with a wink, "as much as she'd have liked that."

"It seems your hunger, as powerful as it may be," rumbled Okku, ignoring Neeshka though his ears were keen, "is nothing compared with your will."

"Saying it is nothing underestimates the struggle, my friend," Blake said as he turned away from the Wood Man and towards Okku, "and overconfidence could…" Blake's head snapped back around "Wait, where did he go?"

"He went nowhere," replied Gann with a smile as Blake looked around suspiciously, "the Wood Man is all around us, the living spirit of the Ashenwood, he simply saw no need to keep that form."

"One way to end a conversation," Blake commented, glancing at Gann and Neeshka and wondering what joke she had shared with him.

"Come on harbour-boy," said Neeshka, moving closer to Blake and slipping her shield-arm through his sword-arm, "we've done what we came for."

Blake hesitated despite his sweetheart's urgings and the pleasure of having her snuggle up to walk together. "I need to wipe my sword, as I did make poor Nadaj a corpse," Blake said, looking sad, "and there are the corpses here and back at the garrison to be dealt with. If I am not honouring Jergal with fatalism I can at least honour him with proper burials where I can."

"I will deal with those," stated Dalenka flatly. "There are death rituals to be observed and prayers to the spirits to be said, neither of which a foreigner would know."

"Madame, we can help", Gann said, placing Yurkov's Dwarven Waraxe back with him and retrieving his spear, "there are practical matters and the spirits will listen not only to myself and Okku but to the words of us all if we affirm the bravery and skill of your people."

"Be that as it may," replied Dalenka, "I will deal with it. Alone. As your leader so… politely… pointed out I have a responsibility to my people. This is my responsibility, not yours, and it will keep me busy until fresh troops are sent."

"Very well, may the Red Knight bless your plans," Blake said, "and may the spirits hear your prayers and the dead be blessed with the fate they deserve. Your people fought well, with skill and bravery, and the malevolence did not seem to have given Nadaj any choice in serving it."

"Thank you," responded Dalenka, for an instant almost not looking sour, "and may the spirits and your gods aid your quest in ending this curse or at least give you a less painful death than some of its hosts." Her face returned to its usual sneer. "Take what you wish from the garrison stores for your departure, which I assume will be soon. There is plenty now there is only one living mouth to feed here. Two if you count that stray cur."

Blake hesitated, and then decided it would be inappropriate to say how pleased he was the dog had made its way to the garrison or to ask questions to confirm it was the same dog. Dalenka was obviously not as happy about this and with all the bloodshed she would likely resent such an unimportant thing being mentioned and delaying Blake from leaving. There were other things he could say but that raised the question of if Dalenka worth the breath? Did he care enough about her opinion to seek to change it? Did he care enough about how she ran her garrison to seek to advise her?

The answer to all three questions seemed no so Blake simply nodded and resolved to enjoy the stroll back through the Ashenwood with Neeshka. They could not walk too close to each other as she still had her small shield on her arm with its spine and he still had his sword with its sharp edges and magic, but it was still pleasant now the forest seemed less still and dead to wander and enjoy the crisp air and weak sunshine.

Back at the Garrison Blake regretfully disengaged from Neeshka and crossed to the wagon that seemed to have been the shopkeeper's. There he sorted out cloths and cleaning potions for their weapons and armour as, unlike Okku's self-cleansing spirit-form, they would need some. Neeshka had been frowning at the corpses of the Berserkers as she decided whether they would have enough coin to be worth the extra ill will if Dalenka realised that they had been looted but seeing how little Blake was carrying her frown deepened.

"Is that all harbour-boy?" Neeshka asked. "She did say 'take what you wish' and I do have this lovely bag you gave me."

"It would teach her to be more precise in her language," added Gann with a smile. "That she should have said 'need' rather than 'wish' when dealing with your lady."

"There is that temptation," Blake admitted, "but I think we need good will more than goods for now."

"Spoilsport," Neeshka replied with a wink and her usual protest.

A quick search satisfied some mild curiosity about how the Berserker Barracks were arranged and confirmed Nadaj, like Dalenka, had taken the trouble to block the draughts in her hut. Neeshka was on the verge of pointing out that Nadaj's bedroom was cosy and private when she looked at Blake's face and decided against this. He was soft-hearted and as much as she knew he would give into the temptation she also knew he'd feel weird about killing someone and then using their bed for pleasure. Around the back of the barracks Gann found a freshly built and rather cosy looking kennel and a far better fed looking dog peering out from within it. The edge of some sleeping furs were just visible as were the remains of some hefty chunks of meat in a bowl. To Blake's pleasure this was the same dog but to Gann's unhappiness it sniffed the air and then growled and withdrew a little further back away from him and the others. Seeing Gann's puzzlement Okku rumbled gently

"It can smell the blood on us," murmured Okku, "as much as it appreciated the treats you gave it, spawn-of-hags, it knows we slew its new masters and fears us as much as it feared the malevolence in the Ashenwood."

Gann nodded and they went back to the resupplying. It did not take long to carry things the short way to the docks where the Witchboat still floated peacefully and to make some local fish happy as old food was discarded over the side and replaced. At least Blake hoped they were making the local fish happy and he did look a few times to see if any had floated dead to the surface and thus to see if they needed to return to the Ashenwood to kill Dalenka for poisoning their supplies. If any fish did die then Blake did not see them though.

This all took long enough for Okku to become bored with the tedium of watching the mortals plodding back and forth. Nothing had been large or heavy enough to be worth laying across his back and his spirit-teeth shredded any sack he tried to carry in them so he'd been unable to help. Finally though they finished. "What now little-one?" Okku rumbled as Blake emerged from Dalenka's house where he had used her desk to write and leave a list of what they had taken.

"Now we leave," Blake replied, looking around. "I have no desire to encounter Dalenka again and I think we can use the last light of this day to find somewhere to moor and do the tasks that need more room than the cramped conditions aboard the Witchboat would allow."