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.

26. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

The trip back to Eternity's End was not a long one and went better for the conversation. As they travelled towards the Scrivener's Temple they saw Kelthanos who nodded to them, looking calmly relieved at their return. That they were alive was good and that they were back showed they had dealt with whatever trouble had been at the Basilica of Lost Hope. The corpses of Paladins and the formerly reanimated corpses of Rammaq's servants seemed to have mostly been removed so things here could get back to what passed for normal in the City of Judgement.

Around the part of Eternity's End they had fought through were a pair of walls with a paved area between them at the top of one and the base of the other like stairs for a 400-foot tall giant. More normal sized stairs with walls to either side of them led up to a small paved area separated from the other buildings at that level by more of these walls and from the wall down to the lower paved area by an iron fence. This fence, its spikes reaching a little higher than Blake's head, also seemed to mark the edge of a more private part of this area.

Araman led the way across this small paved area to the doors of the building there. It was a far more normal looking temple than some Blake had seen and as they entered he saw the Scrivener matched his temple by being of more normal height and appearance than the Voice had been. The man did not look particularly welcoming though. "Blake, I have heard much of you, both good and bad," the Scrivener greeted them, after nodding to Araman. "Still, it pleases me that you had the wisdom to put an end to this foolish Crusade."

"You speak as if I had a choice," replied Blake, unable to keep a tinge of resentment from his voice at that and not sure what he had done that should be considered 'bad'. "The message Araman carried that Kelemvor would not allow me to recover my soul and end this curse until I killed those people was quite clear. As was that I'd not succeed without Kelemvor allowing me to."

"I speak as if you had a choice because you did," the Scrivener replied, frowning that Blake had not felt honoured to be given the task. "The path of the Crusade had been laid out for you and it would have been easy for you to simply follow that path and let it bring you into this city. But you chose differently."

"I chose to try to remain neutral," corrected Blake, "then Kelemvor chose I should follow the path he laid out for me. As much as I respect your God, and think he has more right to my obedience than that ancient hag of a Founder who had me kidnapped, I am not blind that I do have to obey and follow his wishes… unlike hers."

"We can discuss it another time, perhaps. Whoever's path you have followed here, Kelemvor's or your own, you are here for the Codex of the Doomed and to learn where your soul is. Be warned though, learning where to find your soul is only part of the problem. The Wall does not give up souls easily and when he freed the Red Woman it nearly destroyed Akachi."

"Then may Ilmater's endurance and Tymorra's luck and victory be with me," muttered Blake, "as well as the more tangible presence of my friends."

"The Codex is in the next chamber," the Scrivener continued, "we will not aid you, but we shall not interfere."

"Then that is good enough as that is more than the deal," replied Blake. "Araman did say our efforts were needed so Kelemvor would permit us to continue, not that we would gain anything else. As annoying as it was to have to return here, rather than you having sent the information with the messenger, I do owe you thanks for access to the information, and to him for allowing you to provide this. So thank you."

The Scrivener acknowledged this with a nod and Blake led the way into the next chamber where a giant book awaited them. Even with it being as tall as Blake and with how small some scribes could write it was obvious the information was contained more in magic than in paper and ink. Blake climbed the few stairs up to the platform on which the bookstand was placed and looked at the pages. To his lack of surprise the Codex was already open to the correct place and his eyes were drawn to the correct area of the correct page instead of them having to search across an area of paper large enough to make a fair size blanket.

Blake reached into his belt pouch and muttered a curse as he realised he'd not replaced the wax tablet and stylus he'd had for temporary notes and which had been stolen in his kidnapping. Neeshka gave a discreet cough to draw his attention and then showed how much they were attuned with what she was holding out. Blake smiled to her as he took the wax tablet and stylus and then looked back to the Codex. Most of the time he trusted his memory but he wanted to be sure here rather than wonder if he had remembered a '3' rather than an 'E' or transposed two letters or numbers in what section of the Wall of the Faithless they required.

"Here we part ways, Blake," said Araman suddenly. "Not by my choice, but by my God's."

"Ah, so you count under the 'we' the Scrivener said would not aid me? Kelemvor will not permit it?"

"Your curse is by Myrkul's decree," explained Araman. "Kelemvor will not intervene in the judgement of another god, even one who is dead… even one who has been consumed by a curse of his own making… lest his own judgements be annulled in kind. I cannot aid you, the rest of the battle is yours, but I do hope that you will find the peace that my brother was denied."

"Thank you," Blake replied, annoyed to lose their guide but pleased to no longer have to tolerate Araman.

As Araman went deeper into the temple Blake watched him for a moment before turning back to the Codex. Now they no longer had a guide they might need more information so Blake quickly sketched a map on the tablet and a few more details of where that section of wall was relative to this temple and other landmarks. It was fortunate the magic of the Codex was helpful in responding to the wishes of the person reading it and what information they wanted. Blake hesitated and considered what he had inscribed on the wax, and then slotted the stylus into its storage loops and shut the lid of the tablet to protect these notes.

Placing the tablet in his belt pouch Blake led the way back outside. With a sigh he noticed there was yet more danger and delay as waiting there was Kaelyn and her siblings Efrem and Susah. Their body language was not promising as it suggested violence of deed was planned rather than just of words.

"I see now why Araman decided to leave our company when he did," Blake muttered cynically to Neeshka.

"You have echoes of Akachi's memories inside you," said Kaelyn in disgust. "You know the injustice of the Wall. But still you will not break your shackles and fight for what is right. You betrayed the Crusade, denied these souls true justice, and for this you must die."

"Think again," Neeshka growled, her rapier seeming to appear in her hand with how fast she drew it. "I am not letting you hurt him."

"Is that it then?" sneered Kaelyn, looking Neeshka disdainfully up and down. "That you have been corrupted by your bond with Demonspawn?"

"Our 'bond' is called love," Blake replied calmly, despite how angry Neeshka being insulted made him, "and who is corrupt? Us for loving each other or you for trying to destroy the order of the planes to salve your conscience?"

"Righteousness is on my side, not yours," spat Kaelyn.

"Self-righteousness you mean," Blake snorted.

Seeing no need for further words Kaelyn struck out with her mace. Blake blocked the blow with his shield and then started swinging his left arm back and forth to sweep his shield ahead of him and drive Kaelyn back. His shield was quite a weight and the flat of it had to push enough air aside with each swing to fan dust from between the paving stones. Blake ignored this weight and drag as he swatted at Kaelyn and advanced. Behind him Gann retreated a little to the doorway to use it and the pillars of the open porch for cover from which to use his bow. Ahead and to his right Susah had a similar idea but took the more dramatic course of hopping onto one of the stone benches and then over the fence, despite this being taller than her. Her wings flapped as she leapt and then again as she landed to help her gain the extra height and balance she required. She nocked an arrow and peered through the fence posts.

Seeing his elder sister in slight trouble Efrem moved to attack Blake but with a low growl Okku sprang. Efrem was not concerned as he remembered the battle at Mulsantir and how Okku's might had depended on his army, an army that was not present here. However to his shock as he thrust his Greatsword at the oncoming bear-god Okku dodged slightly and even with how Efrem compensated he barely managed to hit him. And the wound was barely visible rather than being as deep as even such a graze should have been. Okku savoured the expression on the impudent mortal's face. He also remembered the battle at Mulsantir and was pleased at the chance to reverse the defeat. With his bond with Blake, and how he had rediscovered his memories and his power through their battles, he needed no army now to fuel his power and his rage.

Kaelyn realised she was being driven back into a corner by the relentless attack of the traitor and the further she was forced back the worse the angle became for Susah and her bow. To make matters worse for her sibling the Demonspawn lover of the traitor had turned to be almost walking backwards so she could protect his flank with her small shield. Kaelyn's air of calm disguised a growing concern as though she had expected this to have some challenge she had not expected herself and her siblings to seem overmatched. She had not thought that highly of the skills these people had displayed either in the battle or in the Death God's Vault in Shadow Mulsantir. But however difficult this was they must die for their crimes.

"Over!" Kaelyn snapped to Efrem. Once she was sure he understood she jumped back onto a bench and over the fence.

Okku charged as Efrem did the same but the bear-god was a moment late to catch him. As he struck the fence the metal of the posts and rails bent and bulged towards Efrem and stone and cement crumbled as the impact also uprooted several foot of it. Kaelyn being both shorter and in heavier armour had more trouble clearing the fence and landed more awkwardly than her brother. For a moment she was vulnerable but Blake's sword was not in his hand so he could not stab it through between the posts to take advantage of this.

As Blake belatedly drew his sword Kaelyn and Efrem moved quickly around to rejoin Susah and then on towards the stairs. Blake and the others chased them but with their wings they were fast and barely needed to break their stride as they leapt onto and off of the low broad wall in their way or to touch the stairs as they almost glided down the diagonal. To fall that far for that little forward progress would be something any bird would scoff at but it was a lot swifter a descent than Blake was able to attempt. He had scarcely got half way down when they had reached the bottom and Susah managed to turn and loose an arrow back up the stairs at them. Blake angled his shield to deflect this aside and Gann popped out from behind him to send an arrow back.

"Magic them!" demanded Neeshka, also using her harbour-boy for cover, as Blake's descent paused with having to keep his shield in position.

"Her skin tone is not the only thing Kaelyn shares with Gann," Blake grumbled, "it is likely my spells would simply fizzle against her and her siblings. Though that would not help against a Blastglobe as…"

"Used my last one back at the Basilica," admitted Neeshka, interrupting before Blake could say it was alchemical rather than magical.

"If this commotion continues," Gann commented, looking for a chance for another arrow, "then it might draw the attention of the Paladins and gain us some aid against these people. Or with enough time a patrol might pass so the delay caused by their retreat benefits us."

Okku roared with impatience and charged past the three mortals and down the stairs, caring little for the risk of tumbling down them and even less for the idea that they would need any assistance here. Susah's bow twanged again and sent an arrow into Okku's shoulder but he ignored this other than to give an extra snarl.

"Or that works," smiled Blake.

"I admit I was not expecting old father bear to settle for a stalemate for any length of time," Gann replied as Blake started moving again.

Neeshka stayed with her harbour-boy to give him the pleasure of protecting her and, more important, her the pleasure of protecting him. She could move a lot faster down these stairs than he could, even without his caution with his shield, and if that would have been best she would have gladly accepted the risk of a few arrows to make him safer. However she knew that if she did charge ahead like Okku then Blake would endanger himself trying to hurry and that he was a lot safer with his sexy Tiefling watching his back.

As Kaelyn moved out to the left of her brother and Okku got closer Efrem began to chant. A Greater Missile Storm arced out from him and in at the bear-god to pelt him with its magical missiles. Small patches of spirit form discoloured under the impacts but Okku's charge no more faltered from this than it had from the arrow or the second one Susah managed to loose.

"The Hells?" Blake commented eloquently as Efrem hurriedly shifted his hands on his Greatsword to use the blunt section at the base of the blade for the over and under 'spear' grip.

"Would have been nice," agreed Neeshka, "if last time they fought Okku they'd actually done all they could do."

With his altered grip Efrem stabbed his Greatsword out and though Okku dodged again the wall to his left meant he could only dodge one way. Kaelyn's mace swung in to meet him with a distinct thump. This almost seemed to affect Kaelyn as much as it did Okku, though the bear-god's head going a foot one way was more serious than Kaelyn's hand and mace bouncing slightly further back the other way. Despite how awkward it was with the wall also hampering his movements Efrem tried to sweep his Greatsword around, length following tip in the arc like a fish changing direction, to stab into Okku's left. The bear-god roar was more in annoyance than pain though as the tip bit into his spirit-flesh but did not slip between or break his ribs.

Susah darted across the width of the base of the stairs. Her siblings and Okku were in her way on her right so she needed a better angle. As she moved an arrow from Gann clipped a feather from her right wing behind her where she had flapped it for extra push. She noticed this but rather than repay the favour and put an arrow into something that would hurt the Hagspawn more she aimed for Blake. She was on his right on the opposite side to his annoyingly large shield and his demonic consort was not walking down the stairs backwards to protect him as she had across the flat. The arrow hissed up and across but Blake's armour proved equal to the challenge as this glanced off the pentagonal plate protecting the outside of his right arm.

"Hey!" Neeshka protested with a glare. Susah's lips tightened in mild annoyance as she returned the glare and nocked another arrow to her bowstring; an inch lower and that would have struck chainmail and probably pierced it.

Kaelyn moved a little to her left, still leaving room for Susah to loose arrows past her but making it harder for anyone to get past her at her sister. She tried a diagonal downward backhand blow to strike Okku's head again but as she swung the bear-god span to his right. Okku almost rolled down the last few stairs as he turned across their width and his hindpaws joined his forepaws on the pavement at their base. Efrem staggered back into the street as Okku's rear struck him and Kaelyn's descending mace struck Okku's brow rather than his temple. The force of her blow still stunned him slightly and she managed to swing her mace back down once more and worsen this. Using the distance he had gained in being knocked away Efrem set his feet and put his weight behind his over-under held Greatsword as he charged back in at Okku's flank.

In a near-blur of motion Neeshka sheathed her sword and dashed past Blake to jump off the stairs onto Okku's back. Her lithe muscles flexed under the fine chainmail protecting her thighs and rear as she landed and then sprang again to drive her left boot heel into the charging Efrem's face. The impact knocked him back again but he managed to keep his feet despite the force and the surprise. Neeshka was nearly stopped dead in mid-air as the collision stole the momentum of her leap and she fell almost straight down to land on her side. Her right leg and arm flexed as they absorbed the fall and before Efrem could regain his balance she had rolled back up onto her feet.

It was fortunate that Neeshka had moved so fast as not only had this haste saved Okku from a more serious wound but it had also prevented Blake from being able to fully appreciate the display of grace and agility. The long journey without a private safe clean room and the way she had teased him back in that abandoned house in Shadow Mulsantir had both taken their toll of his ability to concentrate while near her. Blake advanced on Kaelyn and took advantage of his slightly longer arm and much longer weapon for a quick dab at Kaelyn's unarmoured head and neck. She parried this easily with her mace but Blake was not displeased as this did prevent her from hitting Okku with it again. Okku roared and swiped his right forepaw out, driving Kaelyn back towards Susah but also blocking Blake a little.

Kaelyn and Susah retreated as Efrem began to advance on Neeshka. He had shifted back to a more conventional grip on his Greatsword and was sweeping it back and forth in front of him, keeping her back as blood streamed from his smashed nose. Neeshka drew her rapier again as though Efrem's weapon was too large for her to parry with it or her shield she wanted to be ready for any opportunity to wound him more. Perhaps if she frustrated him enough avoiding his sword he would make the mistake of trying to hit her with magic and give her the few seconds of distraction spellcasting would cause.

As Okku turned to his left Blake moved up to his right and they advanced towards Susah and Kaelyn, the latter of whom gestured to her brother and drew him reluctantly to her side. Seeing this Neeshka moved to Okku's left so both trios formed opposing lines. There was a slight pause in the fighting so Blake drew in a breath to speak and try to turn the pause into an end. "Kelemvor has already allowed me knowledge of where my soul is imprisoned…"

"Was that your price?" hissed Kaelyn, interrupting him. "Saving yourself?"

"Saving myself and future hosts and whatever spirits those hosts might devour," Blake corrected calmly, not surprised that Kaelyn, like Araman back in the Founder's Sanctum, needed this explained. "But yes, that was the price along with Kelemvor allowing me to retrieve my soul."

"If you truly wished to save people you should have helped us," sneered Kaelyn, disbelief and disdain tinting her voice enough she almost lost the serenity of her Celestial blood. "Once the Wall of the Faithless had been smashed not only would those within it have been freed but its hunger would no longer exist to fuel that curse, and that would also end."

"Even a tiny fragment of the Wall would be enough fuel," Blake replied, before pausing and changing the subject. "But we digress. My point was that Kelemvor has already given me the knowledge, so I have already satisfied his conditions, so your death was not part of that deal."

"You think if you offer us a chance to retreat we would take it?" asked Kaelyn in disbelief.

"I think if Kelemvor wanted you dead then his servant would be here to aid against you, so I think your death would serve no purpose."

"But yours would!" declared Kaelyn, her eyes narrowing. "It would show that your treachery would not go unpunished, would allow me to take the Sword of Gith from your corpse as a rallying point, and if this… curse… does pass from person to person on the host's death then I might even inherit Akachi's remains. And I would remain true to his beliefs rather than betray them like you."

"With the trouble I had with the Githyanki before it is tempting to hand over the Sword of Gith," Blake admitted, ignoring the non-verbal noise of protest this drew from Neeshka. "But I would not inflict this curse on anyone…" Blake paused. "Not even you. Not even with how much Ilmater's domains of endurance and suffering would fit being host to this curse and martyrdom with wanting it."

"And even if you did cravenly hand over the Sword of Gith I still would not let you go unpunished."

Pleased that the little-one had not managed to prevent the fight continuing Okku roared and charged at Kaelyn. Her interference with him fulfilling his oath and the blows she had dared strike at him had angered him enough, but that she seemed willing, and would even be proud, to become host to the curse turned this anger into rage. Efrem started to react to Okku's charge but then an arrow from Gann thunked into his right shoulder. Sometimes the effects of arrows were underestimated but getting two inches of anything driven into your shoulder, whether tooth or claw or blade or arrowshaft tipped with arrowhead, hurt and damaged it enough to render the arm nearly useless. Efrem's right arm went numb with the pain and limp with the cracked bones and pierced muscle.

Neeshka moved in to take advantage of this. She was being cautious and rather than try for a fatal wound she started slicing at him to inflict shallow cuts through his leather armour and the flesh beneath, to bleed and weaken him first before she moved in for the kill. Without Efrem's aid Kaelyn had to retreat a little but her mace swept in to again crunch into the side of Okku's nose. This seemed to little affect the bear-god other than alter the tone of his growling for a moment as his lips were squashed against his teeth. He snapped his great jaws at Kaelyn and she again had to dodge back.

With her siblings occupied Blake moved in to attack Susah before she could get enough distance to use her bow again. Though the plate on his arm had deflected the arrow and spread the impact across the padding beneath this had still been hard enough a blow to show, again, how dangerous her bowmanship was. Susah looked at Blake and then almost hugged herself as her left arm swung one way across her body to throw her bow at Blake and her right arm swung the other way and to the hilt of her sword. Blake's advance paused as he battled the bow away and this gave Susah time to draw her longsword.

Blake knew he should have ignored the distraction of the bow, just let it bounce off him, but he was not too worried as he still had a slight advantage in reach. Then Susah surprised Blake again as her left hand dropped slightly and she drew her other blade as well. He'd thought that a dagger like the one on his right hip and that it was a backup weapon for if she was disarmed or for close-in work. However as it hissed from its scabbard and Susah's posture shifted Blake realised it was larger, it was a shortsword, and she was going to use both blades at the same time.

Susah moved to the attack with impressive speed, her longsword and shortsword glinting and blurring to weave a deceptive pattern. Blake stayed calm and rather than try to match her swiftness he trusted his armour and the size of his shield and stayed more still, moving just enough to keep her and both her weapons at the same angle to him. She was faster and more agile, especially with her wings, but it only needed one mistake by her for him to wound her and slow her and rob her of that advantage.

Okku's left paw raked out and across Kaelyn's shield to spin her around a little as the quality of her shield worked against her. Most shields Okku's claws would slice through with ease but hers was magical and tough enough to resist being cut, so Okku's claws dragged at the shield and it dragged at Kaelyn's arm. She kept her balance though with a slight flaring of her wings and used the momentum of that spin to smack Okku in the side of the head with her mace again.

Efrem was not doing as well as with the sharpness of Neeshka's rapier some of the 'shallow' cuts were quite deep and with how many she had inflicted he was in considerable pain. He was feeling more weakened by how tiring it was to use a Greatsword almost one handed than by the blood loss but for now he could ignore that fatigue as he was angry. His sister was in danger and he was in pain and though he knew he might be imagining it he thought he could feel a grating inside his right shoulder of bone against arrowhead or shaft as he tried to move that arm.

From his position partway up the stairs Gann was not sure how to help. Neeshka was moving fast so it was hard to aim past her and though Blake was not moving much Susah was so it was hard to aim for her. And Okku was just an immense and bad tempered bear-god who would not appreciate an arrow in the rear. Gann began to wish he had taken a spear from one of the Militiamen slain by Blake's Wail of the Banshee as those had not been damaged by Fireball or blastglobe fire, but with how poor the similar spear had been, even when enhanced by Araman, this had not seemed worthwhile.

Susah's blades flashed in together from Blake's left and he blocked those with his shield, then parried a thrust from her shortsword with a clink as that met the flat of the double-diamond shaped section at the base of his much larger blade. Blake turned to bring his shield back more in line and then cautiously stabbed out in a counterattack from behind it. Susah sidestepped and brought her longsword in low, the tip of it dipping towards Blake's left ankle. Blake dropped his shield down, leaning slightly that way to lower his forearm, but with how fast Susah could react the genuine attack was almost turned into a feint. She pulled her longsword back to reverse how she was twisting to stab her shortsword forward again. Blake was already leaning away from the line of that attack so he moved aside rather than parry again. Susah started to step to her left to circle Blake and keep him moving rather than his feet being set, but then she flinched back to her right as an arrow streaked past her.

Seeing how far he had missed by Gann gave a small and rueful smile. Even with aiming cautiously wide of Blake he had hoped that good fortune, even with his lack of belief in Tymorra, would allow him to score a hit. This miss could still be counted as a success though as it had distracted Susah and broken her rhythm. Gann nocked another arrow and readied himself to loose it and continue to give Susah something else to worry about and keep an eye on aside from Blake.

Okku rumbled to himself. He was getting tired of being hit in the head and knew that if he was still a bear-of-flesh then by now he might have lost some teeth or had some part of his skull broken. It was time to end this so he lunged up onto his hindlegs to sweep both forepaws in for an attempt at a classic bear hug. Showing more courage than sense rather than dodge Kaelyn stabbed her mace forward to drive its head up and under Okku's rib cage. With her strength and the precision of the blow that could have ruptured his diaphragm and rendered him incapable of drawing breath into his lungs. Alas, as a spirit, breathing was something that Okku only did through habit or emotion rather than necessity so this was annoying rather than fatal or even able to wind him.

"No!" Efrem cried as Okku's forelegs closed around his sister and pressed her arms and wings to her body.

Fortunately for Kaelyn she was small enough that Okku had problems with trying to bring his head far enough down against his chest to bite at her and with trying to tighten his grip enough to properly crush her. With so much of the volume of what he was bear-hugging being her springy wings it was hard to apply as much pressure and to resist how she was squirming in his hold as her body moved within them. Okku tried to shift his grip to bring her head to his teeth or hook his claws into more than the feathers that were falling away as they struggled. The pain streaked up and down the bear-god's side as Efrem managed to drive his Greatsword into him. A moment later though Efrem collapsed as Neeshka cut deep into his right thigh. Giving up the bear-hug Okku twisted to his left towards Efrem and almost threw Kaelyn that way.

Another arrow hissed past Susah. She had been trying to ignore these but that one was close enough she had to react and this gave Blake a chance. He'd shown against Kaelyn that a shield was not just for hiding behind and he decided to demonstrate this again as he charged and hammered the blade-ridge on it into Susah's right forearm. This drove her back a step and loosened her grip on her longsword but also brought Blake into close enough quarters for her to twist to her right and stab her shortsword in behind his shield at his side. Susah found the gap between the plates but the tip of her sword scraped across the chainmail links there rather than digging in. Even so it drove some breath out of Blake with an 'oof' as this was still a hard prod just below the ribs.

Okku's left forepaw landed on Efrem's left leg with a crunch as the bear-god crushed the comparatively weak bones and cartilage against the pavement. Then he brought his right forepaw in and across to strike at Efrem's head. This paw met the antler jutting out from the left side of Efrem's helmet and with a crack this snapped off and the helmet went flying away to bounce across the street. Breaking the antler and the strap that had secured the helmet took some of the force out of Okku's blow so Efrem's head was not reduced to pulp. Instead the left side of his face 'merely' became a mass of blood and he was 'only' driven down to his right against the unyielding stones to lie motionless.

With a scream almost worthy of the Banshee that Blake's spell emulated Kaelyn launched herself into the air. With the aid of her wings she leapt impressively high before bringing her mace down onto the top of Okku's head with her weight and the force of her jump behind it. Even the bear-god's mighty forelegs buckled a little under this impact and his chin and belly sank a couple of inches closer to the road. Before Kaelyn could overcome the numbness in her wrist and elbow caused by her own blow and strike at the bear-god again fresh pain shot up into her back from her wing. Neeshka had stabbed at it and managed to slice into meat rather than just feathers. Blood started to dye the feathers around the wound red, fading to pink at the edges as the blood spread wider. Kaelyn whirled to attack Neeshka while Okku was still trying to get his eyes back in focus.

"Demon!" snarled Kaelyn.

"Devil," Neeshka corrected, with a mocking smile.

Blake brought his right arm forward in a rather awkward blow to hook his sword around and bring its edge against the back of Susah's legs. Even against leather and cloth and with the sharpness of Blake's blade this was barely hard enough to cut. However it was hard enough that the magic on the blade discharged and to make Blake glad Susah's shortsword did not have similar enchantments or the shock would have driven even more breath out of him. She fell backwards over Blake's sword as her leg muscles spasmed and this fall sliced the edge of it deeper.

With the wound to her wing Kaelyn was not moving as fast as before and Neeshka had already been faster than her. She still posed problems for Blake's beloved though as she was almost as heavily armoured as him and her armour plates and shield could deflect or absorb rapier strikes. In a one-on-one duel there might have been an argument to emulate Blake's tactics against Susah and try to hunker down and outlast but Kaelyn knew her time was limited. She wanted to kill this corrupter of the holder of Akachi's essence and she needed to do this before the bear-god or the traitor or the Hagspawn could aid the Demon… or Devil. Kaelyn swung her mace in a forehand blow and felt a scrape along her bracer as Neeshka sidestepped and turned and punched the tines of her small shield into that extended arm. Then Neeshka had to jump back, her tail whirling for balance, as Kaelyn whipped her mace back and down towards her knee.

Upending Susah over his sword blade had pulled Blake a little off balance and, like Zoab, her fall was cushioned a little by landing on her wings. Susah glared at Blake as she fought to get her legs to obey her. She started to sit up despite the lack of aid from those limbs as her back and rear flexed and her hands and wings pushed against the pavement. Blake had regained his balance though and he straightened and brought his sword up to slice it vertically down at her. Susah started to bring her swords up to form a V and block that blow, letting herself be supported by just her wings, but this was too late. At the last moment however Blake twisted his wrist so it was the flat of his blade that struck Susah in the forehead rather than the edge cutting in and down the middle of her face. The thump of metal on bone was echoed a moment later by that of bone on stone as she was driven back down and the back of her head bounced off the pavement. Blake was not really sure why he had done that as he hadn't tried to reduce the power of the blow and smashing her skull would be just as fatal as cleaving it.

Kaelyn was following Neeshka. The movement of this Demonspawn and of her own backhanded blow had made her turn a little. Sudden agony in her right leg showed her this had been a mistake as a still dazed Okku snapped his great jaws at her from slightly behind her. The armour of her boots prevented the bear-god's teeth penetrating her flesh but this metal and the leg beneath was still being crushed and flattened. Reflexively Kaelyn swatted back and down with her mace at Okku's muzzle and the agony in her leg faded, but only because it was drowned out as the left side of her neck was sliced open and the magic discharged from Neeshka's rapier down into her shoulder and up into her chin. Okku had ignored the feeble blow on his nose and now wrenched his head to one side so as Kaelyn collapsed she fell well clear of him. A puddle of blood rapidly formed and spread across the paving stones around the fallen Kaelyn as, like her siblings, she showed no signs of movement.

Okku rose more fully to his feet and looked around. "Hmm little-one, they yet live," he rumbled, his tone not making it clear if that was a comment or a complaint or a suggestion of a problem to be corrected. "Celestial blood is tougher than I thought from our experience in the Basilica."

"Perhaps Zoab and his Planetars were more fallen than he believed," Blake sighed, "more weakened by their far longer exile from Celestia."

"Maybe," nodded Neeshka, "but that doesn't solve this problem."

"I have no personal quarrel with them, save the insult to you my love," Blake replied, "but I doubt Kaelyn will relent from a single defeat."

"She could be just as dangerous to leave alive as The Founder might have been," nodded Gann, "and they deserve better than to be left to die slowly as they might without some healing. Kaelyn especially as she seems to be bleeding out and they might not regain their wits soon enough to staunch that. So we need to act one way or the other. You spared the Uthraki cubs, can we do less for this Dove?"

"And she is right you know," Neeshka added pensively, "rather than it being an insult. Well, aside from, as I said, I might be Devilspawn rather than Demonspawn."

"Very well," mused Blake, "if you can forgive her that?" Neeshka nodded. "Then…"

There was a slight flash and three Solars appeared, the one in the middle taller even than the other two who were both the size of Zoab. Rather than his head coming as high as where a mortal would keep a belly button the top of Blake's helmet was more level with that one's crotch. All three of them had a Greatsword ready in their hands and were armoured for battle, with the two smaller ones in their yellow and yellowy-brown armour also having leather helms. The tallest one stepped forward to frown down at Blake and the scene, his blue armour glinting slightly as he moved.

"Too late," Neeshka muttered as she moved back to her harbour-boy's side and took a defensive position.

"Kaelyn, my child, this is what pride has wrought," the large Solar sighed, looking sadly down at her and the blood. "To stand against the universe is arrogance not strength." The Solar raised his gaze slightly to meet Blake's eyes. "You, shadow-of-Akachi. I come for my granddaughter and her siblings to bear them to Celestia where they can be healed and recover."

"Then show some manners," Blake frowned. "If I were the shadow of that traitor then your granddaughter and I would not have been at odds."

"For a thing of half-measures, you are quick to cast aspersions," said Kaelyn's grandfather, his own frown deepening as he tried to loom over them. His shoulders relaxed though as he regained control. "I shall forgive your insolence though."

"As I shall forgive your insult," Blake said in return, too weary of the fighting to be intimidated, "and your granddaughter's actions. I meant her no ill will and this battle was of her choosing so you and she may depart in peace."

"I thank you," replied the huge Solar, with a slight nod-bow of the head. He was confident they could have killed these people, but less confident they could have killed them swiftly enough. Kaelyn's grandfather gestured for one of his subordinates to step forward and, as that Solar started casting healing magic to stabilise the fallen, he continued. "I cannot bless your greater battle to come, but I thank you for this mercy."

"Your thanks are perhaps misplaced," Blake admitted, forgetting the whim that had twisted his blade against Susah. "We were striking to kill and so your grandchildren's survival was not through us having held back."

"Very well, but nonetheless you still have my thanks since many would not have hesitated over finishing a fallen enemy or given her the chance to retreat before. I assure you Kaelyn shall not cross your path again."

"Please ensure that she does not," Blake replied firmly. "If she does I may have to consider her too dangerous to risk sparing again."

"If she does escape my sight and attack you again then her fate is her own doing," sighed the huge Solar. "My legions and I would have fought you to give her this chance but if she wastes it, and kill her you must, then I would mourn her but not avenge her."

With that and another muted flash the six winged figures disappeared, only the smears of blood left by Susah and Efrem and the larger puddle left by Kaelyn showing they had been there. Or rather only that blood and the severely dented fence near the Scrivener's Temple. Blake pulled his cloth from being tucked into his belt and started to wipe his sword as he thought.

"You notice," Gann commented, "that he said nothing about if her siblings would avenge her. Or if he would avenge those siblings if they failed."

"That first omission I did notice, but thank you for pointing out the second," replied Blake. "Hopefully he as much wants an end to this as I do and meant more than the bare minimum of what he said."

"Oh, undoubtedly," Gann smiled, "sometimes you can assume good faith so you should be safe enough. It is better to consider surprises though, as I expect your Red Knight would say."

"She would indeed," nodded Blake, sheathing his sword, "and if we are to be paranoid then I would also say that it has occurred to me that I have no way of seeking recompense, or revenge, should he fail in his promise or break it. Even if I do return to command of Crossroad Keep then as much faith as I have in my Greycloaks I think storming a Heaven is beyond them and me. And that Lord Nasher would not be pleased at that use of Neverwinter's forces."

"Never mind that, harbour-boy," Neeshka grinned, coming up and demanding his arm. As she slipped her arm through his she winked at him and continued. "They might have had some nice stuff… but 'poof, all gone' so still no loot."

Blake reached into his belt pouch despite the challenge of doing this one-handed and extracted the tablet again. Neeshka craned her neck and also looked at the map as Blake managed to open it without releasing her arm. "This way I think," Blake said, glancing to his sweetheart.

Neeshka did not object so Blake started walking. Even now it seemed the Crusade might have been defeated there were no people on the street. Nobody hurrying to check if friends were okay or to simply satisfy their curiosity. Blake was still alert for any hostile stragglers but being given more chance to pause and look around only made the City of Judgement seem even less welcoming and having to serve Kelemvor here even less appealing. Perhaps death would change your perspective as you and the city would share the lack of life but Blake was glad he was not a Kelemvorite and not False to the other Gods.

Eventually after many grey dreary seemingly almost identical streets they reached a small square on the edge of the city. On the far side of it a hideous wall of melted together people could be seen and Blake sighed. Seeing that in a Dreamscape was once too often and seeing it to either side of the Supplicants' Gate had doubled that misfortune. He hoped this third time would the final one as the more he saw the reality of it the less faith he had in his belief that it fulfilled the 'necessary' part of being a necessary evil.

"This place," Gann commented, "I remember it. The other side of that wall is where you encountered that black-hearted ranger from your past adventures."

"An unremarkable corner of my city," a deep voice said from one side, seeming to echo without echoing, "yet these cobbles have laid witness to the greatest injustice of all. Here the curse began… and here it can finally end."

Blake turned towards the voice and recoiled despite himself and Neeshka's reassuring presence on his arm. Kaelyn's Grandfather was just as tall and should have appeared larger with his wings spreading behind him and to either side, but somehow this man seemed to loom over them like a mountain. Simple robes of Kelemvor hid the details of his physique and a sculpted mask covered his face and made his expression unreadable as he looked down at them. Deprived of clues from his physical eyes Blake's Dreamer's Eye tried to compensate and was nearly blinded by the aura of immense power around this towering figure. Blake realised this was Kelemvor himself and the last tiny doubts about if they had needed to cooperate, if they could have succeeded against this God's opposition rather than doing his bidding, evaporated like snowflakes in a blast furnace.

"You have seen this place before, spirit-eater," continued Kelemvor. "Do you remember?"

"I…" Blake swallowed and tried again. "I remember a dream. I spoke to Bishop while he was embedded in the outer side of the Wall. Saw him dragged into it."

Gann's eyes were as wide as a kitten's as he too saw Kelemvor's power and realised how little had remained of Myrkul haunting his corpse and how much stronger this God of Blake's people was than even Okku. "A difficult dream to forget," said Gann, trying to rally and regain some composure, "though since then the unpleasant screams have reached a new pitch in their shrieking chorus."

"A dream, yes. But a memory too," Kelemvor said, his voice not as deep and rumbling as Okku's but still making it sound like the squeaking of a mouse. "One of the few that are left to Akachi with what he has become."

"Then he does have memories?" asked Blake. "Myrkul was wrong and what I have seen are not delusions?"

"Myrkul was so enamoured of his own cruelty that he couldn't see its flaws," Kelemvor replied, his tone expressing the sort of contempt only a God was large enough to encompass. "Akachi's essence was scattered, not destroyed. If he had been utterly lost then nothing would remain to hunger. He can be freed from his hunger… if he remembers who and what he is. And all that you need for this you have already found in dreams."

"The pieces of mask," nodded Blake as this was confirmed, "those are the scattered remains of Akachi."

"Good thing you didn't take my advice and burn that first one, harbour-boy," Neeshka muttered to him.

The empty eyeholes of Kelemvor's mask turned to Neeshka who shrank back a little against and behind Blake at his gaze. "That would have been a sad end to centuries of that being preserved against being consumed by the Hunger of the Wall," he said before looking back to Blake, who was attempting to give Neeshka what little reassurance he could. "Take back what is yours from the Wall and then return to Akachi what is his. Free your soul and then bring the fragments of the mask together and Akachi's hunger will end."

"Although I am appreciative," Blake said, with another encouraging pat on Neeshka's hand and a slight frown of puzzlement on his face, "why are you advising me in this? By freeing my soul from the wall and ending this curse don't I threaten your law?"

"Myrkul's punishment was… excessive," replied Kelemvor with bitter understatement. "Yet it is impossible for Akachi to redeem himself and there are laws even Gods must follow. One of which forbids me from simply undoing the curse as that would annul the judgement of another God. I saw in you a chance to end this and it seems I was not wrong." With an effort of divine will Kelemvor managed to make his voice soften. "But I warn you that as much as I would wish you to succeed I cannot aid you with deeds as well as words. I cannot make your fight against the Wall of the Faithless any easier and my Scrivener's warning was justified."

"I shall accept your neutrality of deeds with gratitude, Lord of the Dead," Blake said respectfully. "And I shall try to not let eagerness, or arrogance, blind me to the dangers still ahead."

"You have earned more than one mortal's wage in suffering," murmured Kelemvor, almost to himself. "All this and still you've tried to set things right."

"The little-one has proved himself worthy of my oath and my aid," Okku rumbled, managing to not sound any different from normal.

"In the matter of the curse I cannot help with more than advice," continued Kelemvor, "but I promise you, when you come to your judgement at last, know that I will let no evil fate befall you. Let the other Gods rage… I owe you that and more."

"Would it be inappropriate to mention the temptations that might engender?" Gann commented, raising an eyebrow and trying to lighten the atmosphere. "Not that I expect him to turn to evil in the assurance that he would not be punished in the afterlife."

"My deeds already weigh heavily on me," said Blake, sounding unamused as he looked to Gann. "However good my intent I have sent many to this plane on my travels and some to the lower planes more directly. That most were slain in the cause of preventing them from creating suffering for others does not affect that slain they were."

"Peace, my friend," Gann replied, holding up his hands in front of him. "With my Dreamer's Eye I can see the weight on you and I know you carry that because of your efforts to do good." He paused but could not resist adding. "Even if being a do-gooder does make your sweetheart protest about your helpfulness."

Blake grunted to this and looked back to Kelemvor. "So, my soul lies where Akachi's once was? And The Founder was truthful in saying I needed simply to cut it from the Wall? Even if she did not mention having to fight against a Crusade and that the Wall would resist the cutting."

"Your soul is there," Kelemvor replied. "There to suffer just as hundreds before have done in Akachi's place while thousands succumbed to his curse and the Hunger of the Wall. However there is deception. The Founder wanted too much to believe that Akachi's curse could be undone and Myrkul only told her the part of the truth that was what she wanted to hear. He deceived her as much as she deceived herself, but he also deceived himself." Kelemvor paused with the satisfaction anyone, God or otherwise, showed when reaching the punchline of a tale. "He wagered that the curse could only be ended by a sacrifice that no mortal would make, that the only way was for someone to take the curse willingly into themselves and remain in my Grey City for all eternity. But he was wrong both in what sacrifices some mortals might make and that this was the only way."

"Because he thought Akachi was empty and so there was nothing to be freed?" asked Blake. Kelemvor nodded fractionally so Blake continued. "And what of Bishop? If when I saw him it was both a dream and a memory was it also a reality?"

"It was and the ranger called Bishop is gone. The words he spoke in your 'dream' were his last and you saw his final moments. Most souls fight the hunger of the Wall but for those who do not the end can be quick. Bishop's was quicker than most."

Blake nodded to himself. He remembered how much Bishop had seemed to loath himself and the tale of how glad he had been all those years ago that he was going to die and be freed of his obligations and the consequences of his actions. How much Bishop had resented rather than been grateful for having his life saved by Duncan and had hated owing that debt for the unasked favour. Finding himself in a situation where to attain oblivion you simply had to embrace it would have been a blessing to him.

With a start Blake realised that Kelemvor had vanished. He looked around as if expecting to see a tall figure walking away down one of the streets and then looked back at the Wall of the Faithless. That was even less appealing now he had been warned again about its dangers but, reluctantly disengaging from Neeshka, he began cautiously moving towards it. Most of what could be seen were mere fragments of screaming faces and hands reaching out but as they got closer Gann pointed to a larger lump that seemed more intact though well embedded.

"Is that your soul?" Gann asked.

Very reluctantly Blake looked closer at it and from what he could see of the features and the sense of familiarity it gave him he nodded. "I hope so, after all this I do not want to free the wrong one."

"That Wall hungers as you do, little one," rumbled Okku in disgust.

Blake moved closer as he drew his dagger. It was rather unpleasant to be looking at yourself in trouble but Blake tried to concentrate instead on the feel of the blade as he began cautiously probing the wall around his soul. Gradually he started to slice down and around the pale trapped figure. It was a while since he had shaved rather than trimmed his beard but he used the same cautious small motions to cut down a fraction at a time around the soul without cutting into it. Suddenly electricity arced from the spines on top of each of the pillars to either side of this section of the wall and down into Blake. He jerked as this flowed through him and nearly cut his soul. Leaving his dagger embedded in the wall he retreated a little.

Gann smiled and beseeched the spirits and Blake's posture eased as the healing energy flowed through him and removed the muscle cramps. "Ouch," Blake commented, "and there is not much else I can say but 'ouch' as if I say that hurt then Neeshka might worry and if I say it didn't then that could dare the Wall of the Faithless into doing better."

As Blake started to move back towards the Wall to resume his attempt to free his soul the Wall started to bulge in three places. Blake retreated again and his hand went to his sword as these increased in size, the screaming faces and reaching hands embedded in them stretching and shifting, and began to form rough shapes. Then the shapes resolved and the link between them and the Wall narrowed and vanished and three Golems stepped free. Though much larger, and far uglier, the length of their arms compared with their body and legs was similar to the Uthraki. At least they had very little in the way of heads so unlike the Uthraki there were no fangs to worry about. Unless the screaming faces 'decorating' them could still bite despite being too close together for the skulls behind them to be intact.

These faces and the hands and the other visible body parts were pushed even closer together and then pulled away again as the Golems moved and the clay they appeared to be made of flexed. Blake knew it was likely his imagination but he thought he could hear a slight crunching as those Faithless souls unfortunate enough to have been inside the part of the Wall that was now those Golems were crushed and stretched by these movements. They were like food in a bird's gizzard being pulverised by the shifting stones inside it.

"It seems the Wall needed no dare," Gann smiled ruefully, "though what it would have done if you had mocked it does boggle the imagination."

"Hrnh," rumbled Okku, happy that there was something to fight, "we shall simply smash them back into the Wall from where they came."

"No," Blake said hurriedly, "try to draw them away from the Wall rather than back into it."

Okku glared a little and continued to rumble in dissatisfaction but he moved with Blake and the others back to halfway across the square. He glowered at the Golems and then turned his bright yellow eyes back to Blake, who he trusted had a good reason for this indignity. "Why have we retreated, little-one?"

"I am not sure if it was a story from mythology I am remembering, one of a giant who was sustained by contact with the ground, or it was intuition from what few memories remain to Akachi. Either way I had the image of you tearing great chunks from them and of them touching the wall and more of it flowing out to replace those chunks."

"Then it would seem wise to draw them far enough away that old father bear could finish his task of rending them," commented Gann, before adding with a nod back towards the Wall, "but unfortunately they also seem to know this."

"I am not sure if they are that smart," Blake said, eyes narrowing as his gaze followed Gann's nod, "or if they are just staying close enough to the soul to guard it, but then that's irrelevant as the result is the same. And they are close enough to my soul that some spells are too risky.

"Then I shall simply have to tear them apart fast enough," growled Okku, "to prevent you seeing your 'image' in more than imagination."

"Let us try to weaken or try to draw them to us first," Blake replied, to Okku's annoyance. "A century of your oath and tendays of our travelling so we can spare some minutes for arrows."

Okku's grumbling increased in volume and intensity as none of the mortals protested this delay and as Neeshka seemed happy to pull her shortbow from her pack and string it. Gann tried to pay no attention to the noise of the bear-god but raised one eyebrow when Blake loosened the straps of his shield and slid it from his arm.

"Do you not need that?" Gann asked as Blake placed his shield carefully on the pavement and Neeshka attached a quiver of arrows to her belt.

"I did intend to fight using my sword two-handed far more often."

"Ah," said Gann, in mild surprise and polite interest, "then what stopped you?"

"That is a good shield," Blake replied, pulling his Longbow out of his magic bag, "and the advantage I'd practiced for was switching quickly from using a bow to using a sword…"

"Which you did manage in the Dreamscape of the wall," commented Gann, "so you might manage here."

"Easy enough to drop a bow or to hold it in one hand and a sword in the other," Blake continued as he strung the bow, "but the problem was switching the other way. Real combat is messier than I'd thought and it did not take long before I realised just how unwise it would be to return my sword to my scabbard mid-fight to switch back to using a bow.

"Yes," agreed Gann, with an expression of distaste, "that would give that leather a rather… pungent… aura with what it would absorb."

"Ready?" Blake asked, ignoring Okku's disgruntled growl as the others nodded and raised their shortbows.

With a flex of his shoulders and back and arms Blake drew the empty bowstring back and there was a shimmer as the Longbow's magic created an arrow nocked to this. He released and the arrow streaked across the distance separating him from the middle Golem to bury itself deep into the Construct and release its magic. Then the arrow faded to leave a positive-energy scorched hole behind it. To Blake's left and right Gann and Neeshka drew their own smaller bows and released their own arrows at the same target. With slightly less power behind them and less magic to enhance them these arrows did not pierce quite as deep but stuck and waggled about as the Golem shifted in place.

Then to their surprise as they released a second volley these arrows seemed to be drawn into the Golem. This was rather sudden and far too fast for it to be the action of a barbed tip working its way deeper. Blake glanced to either side of him and saw that Gann and Neeshka were also looking to see what arrows the others were using. The second volley and then the third and the fourth had similar results to the first with Blake's magically created arrows making a hole and vanishing and the more normal arrows of the other two sticking in the Golem for a moment or two before being subsumed into it.

Gathering some arcane power as his friends continued to use their bows Blake chanted and cast a spell of Firebrand. The ball of fire formed in front of him and split into three to streak away and into the Golems but although the individual balls did blast craters from them as damp clay exploded into steam and fragments of dried clay this seemed to trouble the Golems almost as little as the arrows. If anything the craters looked harder than the substance surrounding them as if the impact of Blake's spell had emulated the action of a potter's kiln. Trying to not feel too discouraged Blake chanted again and this time cast one of his few remaining spells of Greater Missile Storm. The magical missiles arced out from him and into the Golems and as they discharged produced a few smaller craters on each of them.

"Our lack of progress reminds me of that huge earth elemental," Gann commented, speaking carefully to breathe with the rhythm of his archery, "and these do look damp…"

"I think you would freeze my soul as well."

"A pity..." Gann replied, before breaking off and squinting towards the Golem as he saw movement beneath its 'skin'. "Wait… I think we may have been counter-productive, well other than you and your vanishing arrows."

"Damn," breathed Blake as he followed Gann's gaze and saw a small patch of the Golem had begun to resemble a miniature log cabin. As they watched another arrow was squidged into position. Blake gave a rueful quirk of one corner of his mouth. "I was hoping to at least inflict enough damage to see if they could replenish themselves from the Wall."

"If we empty enough quivers into them maybe they will be too full to move," Gann suggested, semi-seriously.

"That would be a lot of arrows, my friend, and if we fell short of filling them enough I do remember being told how much stronger and steeper earth banks could be if logs were laid into them in that corduroy pattern. Explained, along with how rocky the cliff was, why there had not been a slip down across the trail up to Crossroad Keep."

"Then can we finish this waste of time, little-one?" Okku complained.

"We do seem to be getting nowhere," nodded Blake, "though it makes me wish for a squad or several of Greycloaks. Give them an hour or two and they could dismantle one of these buildings and use its timbers to build a trebuchet to throw its stones."

"Would that work on the Golems though," Gann cautioned, "or would they simply absorb those stones like the arrows."

"I was thinking more of the spines on the pillars," said Blake, nodding towards them, "and if they might release more energy." Blake paused and looked down at his hand before offering his Longbow to Gann. "Here, use this."

"Larger than I am accustomed to," Gann replied as he accepted it, and then raised one eyebrow to Blake, "and before you say it… yes, I have heard before."

"In your dreams," smiled Neeshka, slipping her unstrung shortbow back into her bag.

"Of course," Gann agreed smoothly, "though those dreams were mutual ones with the ladies in question."

Blake looked at the Golems again and muttered, almost to himself, "Those are large enough to be better to avoid than try to block."

Summoning the power for a minor spell Blake chanted and cast Shield and a small near-invisible bubble appeared around him. This had been very useful in the early days of having left West Harbour but it and the runes on his tower shield did not work together. He had continued to prepare it though despite it becoming so much more normal to use that physical shield. His tower shield was much more effective with the extra protection of the wood, and being able to hit foes with it, but the spell was good for this situation and for emergencies where he was unable to get his tower shield onto his arm.

There was a slight thump behind Blake as he advanced and Gann took advantage of his shield still being there to place his shortbow on it. Blake would have preferred to approach along the Wall and try to make the angle worse for at least one of the pillars but there was not enough room between the Wall of the Faithless and the buildings. The best he could do was to angle in from the right of the rightmost Golem and it looked as if that might be enough to help a little. The Golems were not moving much and rather than shift their line were shuffling in place and only turning to face them. As they got closer to the Wall the middle Golem did plod a few steps out from it to keep them in sight but that meant that it and the nearest one were both blocking the farthest one.

Neeshka glanced at the pillar as they approached. "Hold them off."

"Eh?" Blake replied, but his sweetheart was already in motion and too busy to reply.

Neeshka sheathed her rapier and jumped to begin climbing the pillar. As she did a hand tried to close around her ankle as one of the arms waving from the wall made contact. Whether that was accidental or deliberate Neeshka didn't care and, giving a hiss of annoyance, she kicked her boot heel down into the wrist to snap it. This problem solved she kept climbing and had nearly reached the top of the pillar and the spines she wanted to smash when her hairs stood on end and she realised the air was becoming charged as energy gathered around those spines.

More electricity arced out from them and into her at close range, knocking her back and off the pillar. Ignoring the pain she swung her left arm out to that side and dug the tines of her shield into the Wall of the Faithless. Her momentum dragged these down through it in a long cut until she pivoted on that arm and managed to get a foothold. Then she felt some pressure on her boot and this shifting and increasing and decreasing. Glancing down she saw she had shoved her foot into one of the screaming mouths and it was trying to bite through her boot.

"Eww!" Neeshka said, jumping free and down. She didn't even really want her harbour-boy nibbling her toes so she certainly didn't want that doing it.

Blake had turned to his right towards her when he heard Neeshka's slight noise of pain and his concern had distracted him enough for the nearest Golem to punch him. With his turn this struck Blake in the left pauldron and despite the padding beneath the chainmail beneath the curved plate he felt pain and his arm go slightly numb. Leather creaked as the pauldron shifted and its straps stretched and one dug in to give Blake some pain in his armpit. The pauldron wobbled a little as Blake tried to regain his balance and the Golem plodded forward a step to follow his stagger and try to punch him again.

Okku sprang in from the left at the Golem which staggered under this impact almost as badly as Blake had under its. The bear-god's claws dug in as he started wrestling with it and though these did not dig in as far as he'd expected he still growled in satisfaction as a few chunks fell free and he finally made a start on rending this thing apart. Raking one forepaw up as he pulled the other one down Okku worked his claws in deeper like a badger digging a new tunnel for its set.

"Behind you!" Gann cried.

The Golem that had been in the middle lumbered into range and grabbed at Okku to pull him away from the other one. Its long right arm swung around and in front of the bear-god so its forearm was pressing against the front of Okku's neck and then its left hand came in from the other direction and closed over his nose. Okku was not troubled by this as he no longer needed to breathe so the only inconvenience of the pressure on his neck and windpipe and his nostrils being blocked was the smell of clay. As the Golem started to wrench at his head and try to break his neck this did become more irritating though.

Blake was not sure as the Golem that had punched him reached out with its left arm for the Wall whether this was just for support or to let the thing that spawned it help the Golem repair itself. He was not willing to risk it being the latter so he stepped forward and brought his sword down in an overhand two-handed blow onto this arm. With his weight behind it and the size and sharpness of his sword Blake managed to cut nearly all the way through its upper arm. As Blake stepped back and dragged his blade along through the wound to deepen it the almost severed part of the arm flopped down to dangle on the remaining strands of clay.

Moving past her harbour-boy while he was busy with this Neeshka left her rapier in its scabbard. Instead she swung her right arm up above her head and struck at the right elbow of the Golem holding Okku as if her arm were the shaft and her bracer blade the head of an axe. This cut in deep enough for the Golem to lose the strength of that grip and for Okku to use the pressure it had been applying with its other arm against that grip to break its hold. As Okku turned and came back down onto all fours he raked his right forepaw down the Golem's 'guts'. Having freed the bear-god, and feeling impressed by the furrows he'd just left, Neeshka started to circle around that Golem and away from the wall to see what the third one was doing other than serving as target practice for Gann.

Pressing his advantage and the attack Blake used a few short powerful chops of his sword to finish cutting the Golem's arm off and as the clay was cut or stretched and parted this lump plopped to the pavement. This victory was one to savour but Blake did not get the chance as the spines on the pillar behind him again released energy and this time in the form of a scorching ray. This burned through his cloak and heated a coin size section of his backplate enough that if it were raining the drops would boil off that spot. Blake jerked forward half a step as he flinched away from the sudden pain in his back and the Golem met him with a right hook.

This blow clipped the fin on Blake's left pauldron and at least one of the already stressed straps snapped. As this rotated up on Blake's shoulder the punch continued into the side of his head and knocked him sideways into the Wall. His right side, including his right pauldron, thumped into the soft mass of clay and the Faithless souls trapped within it while there was a clatter as his left pauldron fell away onto the paving stones. Blake was rather stunned and only very vaguely noticed how the Wall was seeping a little away from him before flowing back and how the grasping hands were grabbing and then releasing hastily as they encountered his aura of persistent Death Armour.

The Golem brought its right arm back to smash Blake further into the wall but then Neeshka's rapier carved several small chunks out of its right thigh in a flurry. It felt no pain but still paused as its small simple mind needed to think for those moments to decide if she was a threat. Neeshka wasted a good glare on it and another few chunks of it fell to the pavement as she attacked again. The Golem turned slightly as this tipped the balance towards hitting her before hitting Blake and the delay had given Blake time to recover enough to realise he was lightly stuck in the Wall.

Growing up in a swamp had given him experience of when a boot got trapped in mud but not of that mud being vertical and having faces and hands sticking out of it, with the latter trying to grab you. Fortunately training so arcane gestures were unnecessary was just as useful for making it unimportant your right arm was trapped as it was for making it unimportant you were wearing armour and carrying a shield. Flames erupted around Blake as he completed the incantation to create Elemental Shield and for a moment the Wall recoiled again. This seemed enough to draw the Golem's attention again and make it decide to hit him first so Blake shoved himself away from the Wall and kept low as he moved. There was a deep thump as the Golem's fist passed just above him to strike the Wall where he had just been.

Blake was not sure if this contact would replenish the Golem so he quickly struck at that arm, swinging his sword back vertically across his body and through the Golem's elbow and along its forearm as if he was scraping meat off a chicken drumstick, except there was no bone here to scrape along. A long sliver of clay covered in partial faces and hands fell to the floor. The Golem tried to swat at Blake backhanded and pulled its fist out of contact with the Wall in doing so. Blake could taste some blood in his mouth as he stepped back and to his right outside the arc of the swing, and then stepped forward again the arm continued on away from him. He cut at the inside of the Golem's elbow and its arm bent a little the opposite way to how it should as the forearm continued on with the force of its swing. Blake's jaw worked a little to spit or swallow the blood-tinged spittle in his mouth and a very small pang of pain went through his face as he discovered a bruise by it rubbing against his slightly bent in cheekguard.

From his position halfway across the square Gann could see the third Golem hesitating over what to do. Part of it wanted to attack him and part of it wanted to move around the other two to attack the threats closest to the Wall of the Faithless. Gann heaved back on the bowstring of Blake's Longbow and felt another twinge as he had to again put more effort in than he was used to from his shortbow. A Longbow needed that bit of extra power and could put that into the arrow for a bit more range or penetration, but with how magical the arrows this created were Gann thought Blake could have made things easier on him or on Neeshka.

For a moment Gann wondered if he could get this Longbow to shrink a little to something more like he or Blake's lady used but decided that even if he could affect its reality the risk he would not manage to affect it back was rather high. He released the arrow and was satisfied to see this sink into one of the screaming faces on the Golem right between its eyes. Gann was not sure if those faces still had any consciousness remaining to them but he did hope that if he aimed for them then he could grant the mercy of oblivion and, more practically, deny the Golem those souls remaining strength.

Okku continued to rip at the Golem that had grabbed him and tried to break his neck. The front end of the bear-god's body wagged from side to side like the rear end of a very happy dog as he alternated blows from his left and right forepaws, tearing his dagger sized claws across the Golem's midriff, his forepaws taking it in turn to push against the pavement and his waist against his securely planted hindpaws. As more and more of it sprayed to either side and into the wall or onto the pavement the Golem tried to rally but seemed unable to do more than react to each blow as it came and this reaction spoil its attempts to do anything more.

With its left arm gone from what, if it had muscles, would have been mid-bicep and its right forearm close to useless with the damage to that elbow the Golem Blake was attacking was almost as unable to fight back. Trying to ignore how cold and vulnerable his shoulder felt with just chainmail over it Blake swung his sword in again to graze another chunk of hideously decorated clay away. Neeshka's slimmer sword came in and cut away a few smaller pieces as she flurried and retreated and Blake decided this was going reasonably well as slowly but surely they seemed to be wearing this Golem away.

As he pivoted to his left Okku caught a glimpse of the third Golem trying to lumber around the one he was destroying. He twisted to his right, raking his claws across it again, but then as he twisted back to his left Okku tried to dig his claws in deeper. This changed the blow from one that would slice at it to one that would shove it aside. It staggered and Okku rumbled in satisfaction as the Golem collided with the other one. The bear-god continued turning to his left while the two Constructs tried to disentangle themselves and, after a moment to set himself, ripped his left forepaw across the small of the other Golem's back.

Blake spared a glance for the pair of Golems as the uncoordinated flailing of their motions made it look like they might be merging rather than trying to shove each other away. That did not seem the case so he turned his attention back to the closest one. It had fallen to the knees of its stubby legs and as Okku struck at it again it slumped forward. Neeshka moved back a little in case it fell towards her but the Golem tried to brace itself with its wounded right arm. This held it for a moment until, with a slurping noise like an unclogging drain, its elbow gave way under its weight. It slumped down onto what would have been its face and Blake started cutting away at the back of the lump that seemed as much of a head as it had.

Meanwhile Gann was wishing that these Golems did not absorb arrows. Drawing and aiming and releasing he sent another one from Blake's Longbow into the still entangled mess. With satisfaction he saw that despite the way the Golems were almost wrestling each other this was on target. However it was less satisfying as the arrow faded and left only a small hole behind it in the screaming face it had struck. Gann knew these arrows were doing more harm than the less enchanted ones from his shortbow would, and that they would not have remained sticking out of the Golem anyway, but it would feel more as if he was getting somewhere if the Golems had begun to resemble some sort of pincushion.

Having finally untangled itself, in part by shoving the other Golem aside, the less wounded one lumbered on and towards Blake and Okku and Neeshka. Whether its lack of grace was normal and therefore how much this Gann's efforts had affected this Blake was not sure. However as poorly as it was moving it was dancing like a sprite on gossamer wings compared with the one Okku had inflicted so much harm on. Blake glanced down at the Golem they had downed and that seemed to have become inert under his and Neeshka's swords and Okku's claws. Then he looked back at the other two. His magic had not been that effective against these creations of the Wall and they were still rather close to his soul for some spells he might have otherwise tried.

Then the decision of whether to risk one of those spells went from Blake's hands as Okku whirled and charged. The bear-god had already been closer to the surviving Golems as he had been attacking the back of the other one and it took him only a couple of bounds to smash into the Golem he had been fighting before. It was still a little off balance from the other Golem's shove and this impact drove it back. Ignoring yet another arrow from Gann the less wounded Golem began to turn to attack Okku's flank. Blake decided to go around rather than climb over the mound of former Golem-stuff. He and Neeshka circled away from the wall and towards the flank of the less wounded Golem as it turned.

Seeing their approach somehow, perhaps through the eyes of the screaming faces, the Golem began turning back to its right towards them and swept its left arm towards Blake. He swung his sword to his right to meet this so the tip sliced the length of the forearm as blade and fist passed each other. This was more Neeshka's style of blow, though she was smart enough to do it to things that had blood to flow from the long wound and muscles to be sliced along. The Golem also had no tendons to sever on the back of its huge hand but Neeshka decided to still slice at this as its arm reached full extension.

Okku had noticed the Golem turning towards him. Sometimes he appeared blind to everything except what was beneath his claws but more often it was that he didn't care rather than that he hadn't seen that he was going to be attacked. Okku trusted that if the Golem had struck at him then the little-one and his mate would have used this as a chance to strike at it and would have hurt it more than it would have been able to harm a god-of-bears. That they had distracted it so he could continue ripping at the midsection of this Golem undisturbed was even better though.

The Golem gathered enough wits to attempt to counterattack but made the mistake of choosing to try to bring its clasped fists down onto Okku. Bending back to bring these together above its head widened the wound across its front as this tore slightly and Okku took the chance, while it was exposing more of its 'gut', for another paw rake. Then as the fists came down Okku dodged to his right towards the Wall so these missed and struck the pavement. The remaining thickness of clay across the Golem's back stretched and it folded in the middle far more than it had intended.

Blake pivoted back to his left and more pushed his sword ahead of him than swung it. The leading edge cut into the Golem's waist and Blake felt the strain in his wrists, even with the two-handed grip, as he forced it on through the tough clay. He staggered a few steps as the sword emerged and he was left suddenly pushing against nothing but air. Neeshka had to step away a little to avoid him and pouted slightly at this inconvenience. The Golem tried to bring its left arm down and back into Blake but he continued his stagger to keep moving and out of range of this before giving Neeshka a quick apologetic smile. Her sunny nature broke though at this and her pout faded back into her more normal smile.

As the Golem tried to straighten up Okku sprang onto its back and forced it down again as he started digging at it. It struggled but the extra weight of the bear-god added to its own was impossible to lift and the more strain it put on its waist the more damaged it became. The Golem tried to push up with its long arms to become more vertical and attempt to dislodge Okku but for its arms to lift it required there to be enough left of its back to connect its shoulders. There was a squelch as the Golem folded under Okku along the line of its wounds and for a moment the bear-god almost looked trapped. He appeared to have fallen through the covering over a too small pit-trap so just his legs were filling it but then Okku roared and flexed his mighty shoulders and hindquarters. It was not that dramatic as, unlike the Lich in the Sunken City, Okku did not waste effort to fling parts in all directions but it widened the hole enough for him to climb out.

Blake glanced at Okku and then cut at the last remaining Golem's knee. Seeing how carefully he had aimed Gann frowned and called across to him. "If you strike the faces you might be releasing them from their torment, so don't be concerned about hitting them."

"My concern was if they had skulls for my sword to become stuck in," Blake called back, "rather than if it was merciful or not to hit them."

"Ah, practical as always," chuckled Gann, putting another arrow into another screaming face.

This final Golem launched a straight right punch at Blake and Blake met this with a thrust that drove almost the entire length of his sword through the Golem's fist and down along its forearm. This trapped his sword but Blake hung on and used the hilt as a handle to wrestle against the Golem while Neeshka cut at its left arm to try to prevent it punching at him with it. Blake's boot heels were skidding across the pavement as he was wrenched back and forth but then Okku took the opening Blake had given him by holding the Golem slightly more in place. It had worked well before so Okku repeated the attack of twisting his body to put his weight behind raking his right forepaw across this Golem's rear and lower back.

Unlike the other one that had fallen forward this one began to fall backwards and Blake dug in his heels to let this draw his sword free. Okku moved on a little in the direction he was facing with how he had twisted and to the side of where the Golem would fall. Then he circled in his own body length and reared up to smash both forepaws down onto the front of the lump on the Golem's shoulders. This was more a horse's blow than a bear's but Okku was not fussy how he killed and knew how many of the spirit-wolves that served him had been smashed to pulp and into becoming spirit-wolves by descending hooves.

Blake shifted his grip on his sword to the over-and-under grip he rarely had his left hand free to use. Then he charged with the tip of his sword slightly down to stab this into the Golem's 'gut' and drive it along it like a ploughshare carving a furrow. The Golem's arms and legs twitched as Blake opened its front from near its crotch to near where it had been flattened slightly by Okku's paws, but it lay still as Blake pulled his sword out and stepped back. Giving this a suspicious look Blake paused and looked away to see if more of them were being bulged out of the Wall. All seemed quiet and still though so he stepped back in as he released his left hand and let his sword pivot around in his right so he could stab it down like a very large dagger into the Golem's remnants.

Releasing his sword so he had both hands free Blake stepped back again and started fiddling with the chinstrap of his helmet. "Stay alert," he said as he undid this and took his helmet off. "With the warnings we were given this seemed too easy."

"Hrm. Perhaps because it is not yet over, little-one," Okku rumbled as Blake pulled at the cheekguard to try to bend it back out a little. "Even if no more Golems are created you still have to finish cutting your soul from this foul Wall."

"Besides…" added Neeshka, frowning at Blake, "easy?"

Blake gave one more tug at the cheekguard and gave up. "Compared with having been warned by Kelemvor himself," he replied as he put his helmet back on.

"Maybe you didn't notice, harbour-boy," Neeshka pointed out, slightly peevish as she pointed at the pauldron lying on the pavement and then stepped closer to Blake to tap him on the helmet with one slender finger, "but if you didn't have good armour then your head might have been smashed. And if you didn't have a glow of more than exertion around you then the Wall might have got a good grip on you."

"True," replied Blake, fastening his chinstrap. He took a few steps and picked up his left pauldron, turning it a little one way and then the other to examine the dent left in its curve. "I was lucky, praise Tymorra…"

"You were skilled, praise Tymorra," Neeshka corrected him.

"And he had the aid of a god-of-bears as well as your lady Goddess," added Okku.

"But now, as Okku said, back to cutting free my soul," Blake said, deciding the straps were too damaged to put the pauldron back on. He placed it into a magic bag as he continued. "This could hurt and reminds me a little of the trial to enter Ammon Jerro's Haven that was supposed to test your determination." Blake glanced to Gann and smiled. "But I took it as a test of intelligence to work out what pattern the geysers erupted in and of agility to avoid their burning water."

"Which means you failed the first part," grumbled Neeshka, still annoyed at Blake having called the fight easy. "It wasn't smart of you to test your clumsiness against them rather than let me do it. And it wouldn't be smart of you to make the same mistake here."

"Whatever those spines spew out might be harder to dodge than the geysers, but you might be right," Blake replied, surprising Gann who had assumed Blake would be unwilling to allow his beloved to put herself in harm for him. As Blake continued though Gann's surprise faded. "Okku, if you stand to that side of my soul then I can stand this side and we can try to block the attacks…"

"I meant you should stand over there and let me dodge," Neeshka interrupted.

"Not going to happen," said Blake, moving back to pluck his sword from the pile of Golem remains. "Gann, if you can be ready to ask the spirits for some healing then that will help. Or help me at least as Okku will likely just shrug the effects aside…"

"Of course, little-one," Okku rumbled, glad Blake was acknowledging his might.

"And we can stay in the way and Neeshka can get this done as swiftly and neatly as possible."

Neeshka continued to frown at Blake as he moved across the square to pick his shield up and strap it on. She was annoyed enough to let Gann be the one to helpfully take Blake's sword so he had that hand free to tighten the straps. Blake finished securing his shield and after retrieving his sword moved back towards the Wall of the Faithless. It was difficult for him to ignore the frown with how much he loved her and wanted her to be happy, but that same love meant he'd rather hurt her feelings slightly than risk her body being hurt more seriously.

Okku took his position to the left like a great slightly glowing barricade of colourful spirit flesh and Blake moved to the right to try to be as wide as possible. He still had not got around to learning any size changing spells but he did not comment on this. Back in the barrow Neeshka had reassured him that did not matter as he was just the right size for her but from her expression she might make a rather less flattering reply this time. Gann stayed a short distance across the square where he hoped to be out of range and able to concentrate on beseeching the spirits to heal the others without the distraction of being injured himself.

Seeing the others were all following the plan Neeshka gave Blake one last glower as she stabbed her rapier down into the mound of Golem remains, doing this with rather more force than she needed to, and moved back to where Blake's dagger was still sticking out of the Wall next to his soul. Her irritation with her harbour-boy trying to protect her and getting the others to also protect her did not affect her skills though as she began very precisely cutting down and around. For a few moments it seemed the precautions had been unneeded but then from either side scorching rays of heat joined the pillars for an instant to Blake and Okku.

As Blake had expected the bear-god seemed barely to notice this, his colours swirled slightly and returned to normal but he showed no more concern than a swimmer having some water splashed at them. Blake was not injured either but that was because he had blocked the ray with his shield and now had the smell of burnt paint to annoy him and make him worried about how badly the wood had been scorched. He had been glad before that he was still wearing the cloak he had bought those tendays ago from Shelvedar rather than the nicer one the Othlors had given him. In this situation though he did wish they had found a fire-resistant cloak as that would not have been damaged and would have protected his back or been able to be thrown over his shield to protect that.

Neeshka continued to carefully cut and the Wall of the Faithless reacted again. There was a very faint thin ripple in the air between the pillars and where Blake was trying to protect Neeshka and Okku was just standing and ignoring things. This did not look as flashy as the electricity or the scorching rays but was just as painful as the focussed sound punched into them and tested the padding of Blake's armour as the plates vibrated against the chain. Fortunately for him it mostly passed this test and cushioned the impacts rather than the edges of the chainmail links being driven into his flesh. Okku's spirit-form wobbled a little like jelly but like waves passing out across a pond these soon vanished and died away.

Okku looked as if he was wondering when something dangerous was going to happen and as acid jetted from the spines and ran almost harmlessly off his spirit-form as it gave this nothing physical to react with his expression didn't change. That he was looking so unconcerned might have annoyed Blake if he'd noticed, rather than having his back to him, as he had a mild burning sensation in his left shoulder. Most of the acid had missed his shield and, with no left pauldron for this to run off the curves of, a lot of it had soaked through the chainmail and into the padding beneath. It did not seem strong enough to do more than tarnish the metal but it was strong enough Blake was sure he would need to replace that cloth and would find some nasty blisters.

The pain of these blisters swelling and then bursting as Blake moved, and fresh blisters forming in the raw flesh that had been exposed as the acid continued to work and irritate his flesh, was tolerable and especially compared with the sensation that followed of something trying to turn you inside out. Having failed to repel Neeshka and her neat swift dagger strokes with the different elements the Wall of the Faithless tried Death Magic that wrenched at them as it rippled out from the pillars. Blake turned to look behind him in concern as his fears and her repeated claims that she was delicate got the better of him.

"You can't protect me from that," Neeshka smiled to him.

"But you protect me," replied Blake, "having you in my life gives me more motivation to resist and live so we can be together."

Neeshka blushed lightly and started to cut again. Then Gann's familiar voice spoilt the moment. "That was unpleasant, but I had warded us against that sort of magic… so I protected you both. And myself."

"No offence, my friend," smiled Blake as he turned back away from Neeshka, "but I'd rather be without the blessing than without the extra motivation."

"A wise choice," Gann agreed.

Blake decided against mentioning that among the benefits of Shadow Shield, which he was in the habit of casting, was protection against necromantic effects so he would not have been leaving himself completely unwarded. As if to punish him for his lack of complete honesty electricity arced down again from the spines and then before he could straighten from the muscle spasm that caused a beam of focussed sound caught him in the head. It felt as if his helmet was being used as a bell and the world went blurry from more than the shaking. Blake's dazed mind began to wander as he tried to stay on his feet and the stray thought that it would be easier to block the attacks if he could grow in size turned into musing on the kinkier uses of size changing spells.

He'd managed to consider some of the different options before Gann asked the spirits for aid and healing energy cleared Blake's mind. Even then it seemed a more pleasant thing to be thinking of than ancient curses and walls of screaming souls so it was difficult for him to get his mind back to business. He did agree with Neeshka that they fitted together well without one becoming larger or smaller and especially without them both changing in size in opposite directions. It might be fun though, if he learned the spells, to try them both becoming smaller as that would make some places less cramped to 'cavort' in.

More death magic rippled from the pillars across them and this was painful enough Blake started concentrating again. However this was the final attack before his soul fell free and made a rather damp squelchy noise as it landed. Blake glanced over his shoulder at it and Neeshka. It did look rather slimy so he supposed she could not be blamed for not catching it. He waited a few moments more but now Neeshka was no longer cutting at the Wall it did seem to have lost interest in trying to kill them. Blake pulled his cloth from his belt and began wiping his sword clean of the few smears of clay sticking to it as he turned to give his soul a longer look.

This was rather disappointing. As well as being as slimy as a foal that had just emerged out the rear of its mother it was also limp and pale enough that if it was that foal you'd think it stillborn. And not in the sort of way where rubbing it vigorously and trying to clear its nostrils might work to revive it. Still Blake supposed it was better that it was just lying there as if his soul stood up and started talking then which of them would have more claim to be the real him? The body from which the soul had been displaced or the soul that had been displaced from it?

Blake shook off these existential questions as Neeshka finished wiping his dagger and offered it to him. His sword was clean so he returned that to its scabbard and took the dagger and returned that to its. The important thing for now was that he felt like him, he trusted Neeshka's judgement that he was her harbour-boy still, and regaining his soul to the right place would resolve the dilemma. Blake looked at the sliminess and wondered if there was a chance in this.

"The mask is still in fragments," Blake mused as Neeshka moved to recover her rapier, "but that slime looks as if it might make the skin of my soul a little sticky…"

"You think to arrange the mask on its face and hope it adheres?" asked Gann, offering Blake back his Longbow. Blake nodded as he took it and Gann continued. "That would be one way to fulfil the advice to bring the pieces of the mask together now we have freed your soul, but I sincerely doubt it will be that simple."

"I was speaking more in hope than expectation," Blake agreed with a sigh, "and I expect we would need to place the mask on Akachi's soul rather than mine. With luck if I simply get too close or touch this my soul will return to me, like that foolish Red Wizard student's, and in exchange Akachi's will flow into this."

"That also sounds too simple," commented Gann, "but what else to try, or where else to start, I have no ideas about."

Blake nodded and as Gann went to fetch his shortbow he looked to the others in case they had some suggestion. Okku gazed calmly back and Neeshka gave him a supportive smile as she finished wiping her rapier and sheathed it. They both seemed to have faith but nothing to say. Blake hesitated a moment longer with the excuse of releasing his bowstring and returning his longbow to his bag and of waiting for Gann to return. Then he pulled off his right gauntlet and crouched to reach down towards the pale but familiar features. This felt like a bad idea but there were no better ones to be found.