Chapter 47 A Sliver of Hope

Usual disclaimers: Most of the characters in this story are owned by Bioware, Atari, Hasbro, and a whole lot of other people, other than a bear and paladin-lovin' ranger and an occasional NPC. Also, some of the dialog is paraphrased from MotB. Reviews, concrit, and advice always appreciated.

Okku's story might have ended that day if he had been any other creature while in life but a bear, as might have Dee's. Perhaps Meilikki had foreseen this trial two years before when she first chose the form of the bonded for her young ranger; perhaps it was only a lucky coincidence. Dee's new companions (those who were conscious) looked on in horror and disgust as something unclean, unholy, which manifested itself as a writhing mass of tentacles, flew out of her and towards the bear god to devour his spirit essence.

As the inky tentacles began to envelop him and bear god roared in pain and terror, Dee screamed, "NO! You will not have him!" She fought the ravening hunger within her with every fiber of her being. And once chastised, the hunger slunk away to sulk inside her until it could reemerge later when she was too weak to resist. She fell backwards and collapsed on the ground from the exertion as much as from her many wounds. She was weak, yet she felt stronger than she had in hours. And the Hunger felt sated.

It took him a minute to realize what had happened. Okku stood shakily and limped over to her, stood above her and stared into her eyes. "Little one...you fought the hunger and spared me."

She struggled to sit up with a groan and peered at the bear through a red haze. She pushed her spectacles up. "Blessed Meilikki, I did."

The enormous, colorful bear walked around her, sniffing her and drawing in her scent deeply. He lowered his head and licked her neck where the blood still flowed from his bite, though her ring was healing that and her other wounds. He stepped back and met her eyes. "Ranger you are, though you've strayed far from the wooded trails...You fought it back! I remember long ago...before my long sleep, another spirit eater spared me. I tried to help him end his curse, but I must have failed him if you are here. For sparing me, I pledge to help you overcome this curse. I swear will not fail you as I did him."

Dee croaked, "Curse?" She really didn't have to ask though. It was painfully obvious now that this was a curse. "How..." She struggled to get up again and frowned as she tried to think, filled with questions but unable to think clearly enough to put them into words.

Kaelyn raised her hands to the sky and sang a lilting benediction to Ilmater, which called down a powerful spell that rolled around the clearing, healing all her companions. Gann got to his feet, but Safiya, Kaji, and Cillian were still lying on the ground and just beginning to stir. Gann watched Dee and Okku talking for a moment, a look of puzzlement on his face as he saw the spirit energy of Kaelyn's spell envelop the bear god as well, and then he shrugged and turned to help her tend to their other companions.

The Rashemi on the wall staring at the scene below were shocked into silence. Then one frightened voice cried out, "Did you see that? What was that thing?" This voice was joined by a chorus repeating the same question. Finally, a venerable crone who had been carried up to the wall on a chair by her grandsons so she might watch the battle muttered, "That is a spirit-eater! The curse returns to Mulsantir!" Some of the Rashemi echoed her and began making gestures to ward off evil. Others shrugged and spoke with their friends and neighbors as they left the wall and returned to their homes and their work, about how unfortunate it was that one so young was afflicted with such a terrible curse.

Katya stared at the scene unfolding below then turned to Sheva. "That is the spirit-eater curse? My great-grandmother spoke of this curse once."

Kazimika added, her hysteria building anew, "She must be a very evil person indeed to be afflicted with such a curse. We should cast her off the walls of the city and watch as her bones shatter on the rocks below so that she does not taint Mulsantir with her evil!"

Sheva Whitefeather clicked her tongue as if scolding a dog and gestured at the scene below. "We will do nothing of the sort. Where are your eyes? Did you not see that she has spared the bear god and rebuked the hunger?" The younger witches exchanged looks, but neither was willing to openly question their superior. As they walked down the stairs, Sheva stopped and gestured to a berserker. "Are the merchants awaiting us?"

He bowed his head to her. "Yes, Mother Whitefeather. They are waiting in the stall of Azim of Calimshan."

She nodded crisply at him and continued on. As they reached the edge of the market, Kazimika's curiosity got the better of her. "Why are we speaking with the merchants, Sheva? Do you think they might have been contaminated by the cursed one?"

Sheva frowned and shook her head. This apprentice was sorely trying her patience today. "I simply wish to learn what manner of woman the cursed one is before I decide whether to help her, and these merchants spent some time with her when she first arrived. Remember Magda only saw her for a moment before she fled the theater and came to tell us about the Thayan attack."

They walked past several berserkers who where stationed around Azim's stall to keep the curious away. A berserker with a ridiculously long curved black mustache lifted the tapestry which served as a door so they could enter.

Azim, his family, and Mother Feodorra from a neighboring stall were seated on low benches strewn with cushions. They startled when the curtain lifted and blinked at the sudden light. Another bench across from them was empty, and Azim smiled nervously as he bade the witches enter and gestured for them to sit. Mavish stood and offered them tea and honey cakes, which Sheva declined with a sharp shake of her head.

"How may we be of service? Are you seeking a special item?" But Azim knew this concerned the pale-haired northwoman who had gone out to fight the bear god's forces. They hadn't joined the throng on the wall, even though there had been no customers in the market, because they couldn't bear watching her die. Word spread like wildfire throughout the market that she had defeated Okku, but also that she was the bearer of a terrible curse. Almost immediately after they heard the news, the berserker guards arrived and ordered that they shut down their stall and wait inside for the witches, and a few minutes later Mother Feodora was hustled in to join them.

The witches declined the bench offered to them. Sheva studied them for few minutes before she began. "Tell us about the blond foreigner—we have heard that she visited your shop yesterday. I want to know everything she told you about her activities here in Rashemen."

Azim gave them his friendliest toothy smile, which usually melted the resolve of the most recalcitrant shoppers. But to his dismay, these women were unmoved. "She and the woman with her had found some Imaskari artifacts in a ruin which they desired to trade for supplies. They paid fairly for everything they requested and didn't even haggle over the prices, so I naturally lowered my prices, since they were foreigners and ignorant of the ways of the market. I don't know what more you wish to know." Azim wrung his hands helplessly.

His wife Mavish had arranged her robes so that her swollen belly was obvious, and she stood and poured tea for herself, her husband, and Mother Feodorra and bade her second-oldest daughter serve, determined to be civilized even if these witches were not. "The woman told us she thought at first she must have fallen through an ancient portal in a ruin during a battle, and had lost everything—even her boot. She was very sad, and her story was so strange that we talked later about whether she was touched by madness, did we not, Mother Feodorra?" She gave the witches a defiant look, confident that they had done nothing wrong. "She seemed very confused too. She made odd gestures and spoke of finding Gnomish spirits—wondersneven I think she called them. Her mage friend explained that she had taken a blow to the head during the battle that had addled her brains."

Mother Feodorra accepted the tea, her hands shaking so badly that some of it spilled out of the cup. "Yes Wendersnaven I think it was, and then the poor woman began sobbing when I offered her some women's intimates that she said her husband would love. She was quite beside herself with worry about him, isn't that right, Mavish?"

Mavish nodded vigorously as she took a swallow of her tea. "Her husband is very handsome—she showed us a locket bearing his portrait. And he is a paladin of the northern god Tyr. She said they were newlyweds, married within the tenday. She told us she and her companion had determined she had been abducted and brought to Rashemen, but she didn't know by whom or when. Or why. She only knew she woke up in the bear god's barrow within the Imaskari ruin." The witches said nothing, though the plump one glared at them as if she didn't believe a word.

Azim added, "Yes, that is correct, and then she stopped by this morning asking, indeed begging, that I find someone to get a letter to her husband in the event that she died fighting the bear god. She left generous payment with me for the courier's trouble. As I said, she hails from the far north of the Sword Coast. She knew it would take a very long time for it to reach her homeland, but she wanted her husband to know what happened to her."

Sheva finally spoke. "Is that so? Let me see this letter."

Azim glanced at his wife nervously but replied firmly, "Please understand, I swore to see it sent to her home, and my word is my bond, even for such eminent persons as yourselves. I cannot give it to you. As you can see, my wife is great with child, but we will leave Mulsantir today if need be and risk the open road rather than betray my vow."

Mavish put her hand on her swollen belly and waddled up beside her husband. She hoped that these barbarians had enough honor to respect that. "Indeed. We were talking when your guards arrived of sending our oldest son in the caravan with the carpet monger as far west as the sea, where he could find passage on a ship to take him north to deliver it."

Sheva waved her hand dismissively. "I do not wish you to give me the letter. I only wish to see it."

Azim reluctantly handed it to her. "It is addressed to the High Justicar at the temple of Tyr in the city of Neverwinter. This is a fabled city of artisans in the far north of the Sword Coast, called The City of Skilled Hands and famous for its water clocks. As my wife said, her husband is a paladin of Tyr, and this man would see that it was delivered to him."

Sheva looked at the address on the letter to confirm what he had said then handed it back. "Thank you for your cooperation." She turned to her fellow witches and nodded sharply. "Come, let us return to the shrine. I'm sure the foreigner will want to speak with us shortly."

Healed of his wounds, Cillian ambled up beside Dee, who was still listening intently to Okku as he explained what he knew of the nature of her curse and questioning him when she could. Her curious companions had also gathered beside her to listen. Safiya had never heard of this curse; nevertheless, it was eerily familiar, though for the life of her she didn't know why.

Dee didn't find any more answers to her questions, only more questions. She put her arm around Cillian, burying her face in his rough golden fur to hide her tears. After a few minutes she forced herself to calm down. "I s'pose there's no point in my goin' on about how unfair this is or asking the gods why. I need to learn all I can about it so I can get rid of it. I beat the King of Shadows, and gods willing, I can beat this too. I need information. You said there have been other spirit eaters. How many?"

Okku chuffed. "Very many, going back for ages."

"And no one has ever overcome it?," she asked incredulously. "No priest can remove it?"

Okku looked down at the ground. "It was created by the dead god Myrkul, and even dead, the other gods cannot undo his work. Nor have any of the afflicted overcome it that I know of. It cannot be passed on to another while its host lives. The mage I tried to help...my memories are still sleeping, but I think we ultimately decided to contain it within a binding circle in my barrow since we could not find a way to end it. There is something else you should know, little one. Eventually, within a few months to a year, the presence will consume you until you are but an empty husk. It will devour you like a cancer. And if you are not careful, you can devour the souls of the living as well as the spirits of the dead to sate the hunger. Yet I still have hope that this curse can be lifted."

"Then I better get moving," Dee said grimly. At least she had one answer. She had been taken to that barrow because the curse was bound by the runes there. She voiced her questions to her new companions. Had she wronged someone that badly that they would go through all this trouble to get revenge? Was it the Hosttower? Or was Thay involved? Was she being used as a new weapon to be unleashed on the Rashemi as part of their endless war? And why her? And why take the Sword of Gith from her unless whoever took it planned to reforge it as well?

Safiya for her part cursed silently that her mother and her mysterious twin were no longer alive to explain why they had afflicted this stranger with this curse. But she was determined to do what she could to help, and said so again. "We might find answers at the theater if the witches will let us speak to Magda. Normally I would also suggest coming with me to the Academy, but with Mother gone, it will likely be in a state of total anarchy for some time until a firm hand brings it back under control." She shook her head at the state of them all. "I begin to understand why your Sand of Neverwinter always had several Clean cantrips memorized." She cast a few herself. "There, now we're not so frightful."

Gann had been listening to the telethors in the fields around them, who spoke the truth of what Okku was telling them. "We should go to the witches. Sheva Whitefeather may have additional knowledge of this curse."

Dee leaned on Cillian and struggled to her feet. "Yeah, let's go to the witches. Mayhap now they'll let me talk to Magda. There was that shaman at the lodge too, the one with the leopards who was starin' into the fire."

Kaelyn said softly, "Don't forget that book in the Death God's vault that we both seek. We should try to question the spirits of the scribes which remain there as well. I hesitated to do so alone because there were some very powerful undead there, but together..."

Dee smiled wryly at her as it occurred to her that fate was leading her to accept Brother Merring's advice to become a crypt ranger, whether she wanted to or not. She knew more about the various forms of undead than she ever cared to know. "I haven't forgotten my promise to you, but I'm not up to going today unless we can find a priest to heal our wounds. You saw those three death knights in that chamber we avoided? They only exist to guard someone...or something. I'd be guessin' they have that key we need. We can rest tonight and return to shadow Mulsantir just before dawn. For now, after I talk to the witches and Magda, I plan to go to that lodge and talk to the shaman then get stinkin' drunk on the local ale."

Kaelyn frowned and admonished, "Surely that will not help your situation."

Dee said prosaically, "Mayhap not, but sometimes it must be done."

The few bolder or more foolish gawkers who had been watching outside quickly stepped aside as they entered the gates. Few of the guards would meet Dee's eyes, and many of the citizens they passed as they walked through the town either gave her a wide berth, or they made mocking comments. A few spit at her. A few gave her pitying looks though, as if she was on her way to the gallows. One man who was chopping wood said cheerfully as he paused and patted his ax, "You are a spirit-eater, but I think your skull would split as easily anyone else's."

Dee smiled sweetly at him. "Yes, and so would yours."

He laughed heartily. "A woman after my own heart, and you are tall and strong. We could make many strong sons, if you weren't cursed. Pity."

Safiya offered to retrieve Dee's letter from Azim before he sent it on, not wanting to confront the witches at their shrine. "We can meet up at the theater, or outside it if the actors haven't returned." She gave Dee a friendly hug, though even as she did it, it occurred to her she wasn't normally inclined to be so affectionate. But there was something about her new friend that encouraged her affection. "I think it might be a good idea for you to rewrite it tonight with the latest news and send it on with the merchants anyway."

At the shrine, Sheva Whitefeather told Dee what she knew of the curse, but couldn't give her any more information, or hope, than Okku had. To her knowledge the curse was very old but had been dormant for years. "One of our legends tells of an ancient tree spirit in the Ashenwood, The Woodman, who survived an encounter with a spirit eater many, many years ago. Such an ancient being might be able to shed more light on the curse. It's nearly a tenday's journey on foot. But since you spared great Okku, I will give you permission to use one of our barges to travel across the lake to him in only a few day's time. I shall give you a letter of introduction for the witches in charge of our outpost there and send word to the dock master along with a password for you to use." She smiled slightly at Dee, but not unkindly.

Dee bowed her head to her. "Thank you, Sheva. I appreciate any aid you can give me."

The youngest witch listened quietly, while the plump witch interrupted her with further verbal attacks, but refusing to confront her directly. "Sheva, I still say she must have done something to deserve this curse! In the past people such as her would have been thrown from the cliffs or the walls." Dee dug her nails into her palms and ignored her and turned her attention back to Sheva.

However, Okku narrowed his small golden eyes at Kazimika and rebuked her in the same tone in which he had rebuked the telethor badger that dared to growl at him outside the Ice Troll Lodge. "I know you, witch. I know the secret desires that lurked in your heart before you became a witch, and still lurk there now."

The witch stared gaping at him, rendered speechless for a minute, then scowled and stalked off muttering, "You will all pay for aligning yourselves with the cursed one." Dee thought wryly that all that was missing was for her to shake her fist at them as she departed.

Safiya was pacing as she waited for them outside the theater and hurried up to them as they approached. "I have your letter, though Azim and Mavish agree you should still send it on. The actors have returned, but I thought it would be better if we all go in together." Dee took the letter back and put it in her belt pouch.

A dark-eyed little girl was squatting in the dust idly drawing with a stick. She stood and intercepted them as they neared the steps leading to the theater. "Excuse me, lady?"

Dee looked around warily. There were too many people who would stoop to using a child as a distraction before an attack. "Can I help you, little girl?" She kept a hand casually on her sword as Okku drew closer and sniffed.

"My grandfather is the leader of the hill tribe, and he sent me to give you a message. He has knowledge of your gift that the witches wish to keep from you."

Dee laughed bitterly. "I hardly think of it as a gift. What kind of knowledge?"

The girl drew back from Okku and from Gann, who were studying her intently. She looked around nervously, and not because of Gann and Okku's scrutiny. Dee could see something feral in the girl's eyes, but she couldn't say what it was other that it was disturbing. The little girl took another step back. "I must leave before the witches discover me. I can only tell you my grandfather sent me here to tell you he can help you, if you journey to our tribal lands near the Wells of Larue. It is but a short journey from Mulsantir. I must go now." She turned and sprinted off.

Cillian chuffed, and Okku told them, "The child is some sort of shapeshifter wearing a human skin. I have encountered her kind before, but my memory fails me as to where." Cillian agreed that the child smelled 'off.'

Dee snorted. "Yeah...my gift. Sounds like someone wants to teach me to use it so he can use me. And I'm starting to get really tired of being a tool." She frowned and threw her hands up. "Or am I just bein' paranoid?"

Gann pushed his long blue-gray hair out of his face. "No, I agree with you, fair leader. I was about to tell you it sounds like she is leading you into an ambush. On the other hand, it is a short journey, and her grandfather might know something useful."

Dee frowned as she thought about it. "This is my life we're talkin' about. I can't afford to turn down help, but I agree with you. The whole offer smells bad. We'll go there as a last resort."

Dee repeated to Safiya what she had learned at the shrine as they walked up the steps to the theater, where they were interrupted by Magda, an elegantly dressed dark haired dwarf, who threw open the door to welcome them. Her actors surrounded them as soon as they entered with warm embraces and profuse thanks for their timely rescue. After they had exchanged introductions, Magda declared, "I want you to know you all can share our home while you are here as well. If need be, I'll turn some of this lot out of their beds. If not for you, we might all be as dead as our dear Lienna."

One of the actors muttered to another, "Notice that our dear Magda didn't offer her own bed."

They listened as the actors reminisced about Lienna, but as much as the actors clearly loved her, none of them, not even Magda, knew her very well. "She was sweet, but there was a deep sadness in her as if she had lost her one true love, especially when we put on a tragic production about doomed love. She would watch, but she would take to her room sometimes for days afterwards. We got the impression she had lost someone very dear to her and had never recovered from the loss. And a few times it seemed that she was hearing voices. She also would forget to brush her hair at times unless I mentioned it."

It occurred to Safiya that Lienna forgetting to brush her hair would be perfectly natural if she was Thayan and had lived much of her life without hair, but she kept this to herself.

Magda told them how she had walked in on Lienna and the woman in red several times over the years, talking and laughing like old friends long parted. She reached into her ample bosom and withdrew a key that Lienna had entrusted to her when the Red Wizards attacked. "She described you and said you would be coming and that you might be very angry, but I should not be afraid. It opens the door inside her casting chamber." They had seen the door near Lienna's casting chamber, but Kaji had been unable to pick the lock. "I don't know what lies beyond that door, but I just caught sight of Lienna and the woman in red going through it nearly a year ago, and they did not emerge for a tenday. I also suspect that is how the woman in red arrived for her visits, because she certainly didn't use the theater door."

She screwed up her face in concentration as she tried to think of more information she could give Dee. " I never spoke with that woman, but I never liked the look of her or the way she looked at me. Bald as a newborn babe too. The last time I saw her was briefly a few days ago while I was backstage sorting through costumes. And then later that very same evening our lady in white came running out of her room wild-eyed, and she was covered with blood!"

One of the actors, Lothario, continued, "We rushed to her side. We thought at first that something had happened to her, but we discovered it was not her blood. She had this strange look of triumph on her face, and she began laughing hysterically. It was very unnerving."

Dee forced down the bile again. Her head was spinning and the floor was threatening to fall out from under her. Cillian sensed her disturbance, gave her a worried look and nuzzled her, and she curled her fingers in his fur to ground herself. She replied in a strangled voice, "My blood...Lienna and her sister cut a silver shard from a Githyanki blade out of my chest on a table back there in the shadow side of her rooms."

Kaelyn exclaimed, "You had a piece of Akachi's sword inside your chest? No wonder you have been led here!"

The actors looked at one another in disbelief. One of them scoffed, "Our Lienna, a mad vivisectionist? I cannot believe it!"

Dee looked at him coolly and opened her jerkin, gambeson, and the neckline of her shirt, exposing the fresh angry red scar three times as big as the one she grew up with. Morbid curiosity led them to all gather around to look. "Yeah? Mayhap you didn't know your Lienna as well as you thought. I'll show you. But first I really need that drink." One of the actors, an effeminate blond who was known as Sweet William, quickly fetched Dee a goblet of spicy Berduskan brandy, which she drained at once and held out for him to refill before she led them through Lienna's room and into the portal to show them the table.

Okku sniffed the blood on the table and on the floor. "This is indeed your blood, little one." He followed a trail of blood stains on the floor as the actors retreated to the safety of the material world, shaken by their discovery, suddenly remembering they were supposed to be anywhere but in this chamber of horrors.

Okku followed the scent of blood through the rooms right up to the mysterious door. They hadn't noticed the trail earlier in the semi-darkness that even magelight couldn't dispel. Dee nodded at her companions to get ready as she put the key in the lock and turned it then threw the door open.

A short hallway led to a room in which they found four dark portals and an inactive clay golem. Magic hung thick in the room. Even Gann's curiosity was aroused by the magical energies. Kaelyn examined the golem closely. "Odd that I didn't sense this place before in my travels through the shadows. This room exists in a nexus, a place between the planes. It took very powerful magic to find it, to create this, and to conceal it. What's strangest of all is that this golem seems to control the portals, though it is dormant now."

Safiya examined the portals. "Powerful, and very expensive magic. And this wasn't done overnight. This was a work of many years, perhaps generations." She walked over to Kaelyn standing in front of the golem. "Its core is burned out. I could revive it in time...but I believe Dee could use a spirit essence or channel some of her own spirit inside it to revive it." She didn't know how she knew, but she did.

And Dee nodded. As soon as Safiya said the words, she could see in her mind how she could take the spirit essence and shape it much like she took a piece of metal and shaped it to her will on the anvil. This was just a different kind of anvil. "Yes, I could." At least her curse had some benefits.

Under Safiya's direction she reached inside the crumbling clay of the golem elbow deep until she found the recess which held the core. Safiya handed her a pair of forceps holding the shimmering spirit essence, and Dee stuck it inside the golem then took it and the core in her bare hands and concentrated merging them. After a moment, she withdrew her arms and stood back to watch.

The golem straightened and turned its head from side to side as it became active. In a voice dry as the ancient sands it hissed, "What is your bidding, Mistress?"

Safiya held her staff out towards it. "Where do these portals lead, golem?"

It turned its massive head to hear her better, clay crumbling as it did. "Yes...mistress. The purpose of the portals is thus. The first, incoming. The second, containment. The third, disposal. The fourth, outgoing. Your servants have been awaiting you in the first portal."

Safiya whispered to the others, "It's essentially blind because it doesn't need eyes to perform its duties, only ears to hear commands. It's a good thing I must sound like my aunt, or perhaps my mother. Perhaps both of them."

Gann was examining the third portal. He quipped, "Disposal. I sense that this one leads to the elemental plane of fire. Convenient way of disposing of one's enemies."

Dee stood before the first portal and drew her swords. "I'd like to talk to these servants."

Everyone took up defensive positions as Safiya commanded, "Golem, open the first portal."

The golem gestured towards it, and a second later, it flared to life. "It is done."

Four nightmarish creatures that looked like shadowy gargoyles tumbled out, and Dee raised her swords in an attack position. The first exclaimed in a fearful growl, "She is here, and that means our mistress is gone. We are lost, brothers."

Dee said softly, though her voice trembled, "Wait. I seek only information, not your lives. I know what it's like to be a tool. Tell me everything you know about my abduction and about Lienna and her sister's plans for me, and I swear you can go free." She sheathed her swords as a gesture of good faith and dropped to her haunches to listen, with Cillian sitting beside her.

She bit her knuckle to stop herself from shouting, from screaming as the leader of the pack told her how they had been commanded to stalk her from the shadows, tracking her through the reformed sword. He was indignant though, insisting that they had saved her, and if they had not snatched her away as the ruin collapsed she would have shared her companions' fate. "Then my companions are..." She choked trying to say the word.

The second of the four answered, "Dead? By now they must be."

The first, fearing that she would go back on their bargain, quickly said, "No, only two were dead, perhaps three. The dwarf gave chase as we picked you up." He described Khelgar's attempted rescue, which he thwarted when he attacked him to give his brothers time to spirit her away. "And then the fearsome one, the warlock, followed us into the shadow plane but was caught by the Red Lady. I doubt he survived their encounter."

"Only two were dead?" She couldn't bear to ask which two, but she forced herself to speak her fears. "The paladin Casavir?"

The second creature, clearly not as cunning as their leader, answered, "We did not see the paladin among the living."

Their leader hissed angrily at him, "Nor did we see him among the dead." As far as they knew, only Qara and possibly Zhjaeve and Bishop were among the dead.

She had sworn she wouldn't say it again, but she couldn't help herself. "Why me? Why inflict this curse upon me if all they wanted was my sword?"

"I cannot tell you that, but I can tell you who can. Lienna and her red sister traveled to the east, along the shore of Lake Mulsantir to the sunken city. They went to the lair of the nine hags, the Sleeping Coven. They heard the hags' counsel and returned with a plan, and we were sent to shadow you through your sword."

The leader stepped closer and hissed, "There is nothing more we can tell you. Our mistresses told us only what we needed to know. Keep your part of the bargain."

Dee nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks, and whispered, "Go." The creatures melted into the shadows before she changed her mind.

Dee really needed that drink now. She let herself cry for those who were gone for sure then washed her face and went back to the Ice Troll Lodge accompanied by Gann, Okku, and Cillian. Safiya stayed because she wanted to explore Lienna's casting chamber further, and Kaelyn requested a quiet room where she could meditate and seek out Ilmater's favor before they returned to Myrkul's vault.

Dee walked along in stony silence not caring about the opinions of the Rashemi they passed or their reactions to her. The creature's words echoed through her mind—not among the living, but not among the dead either. At least this gave her a sliver of hope that Cas was alive and was looking for her. She shook off the words of the second creature. Her friends might be dead by now, but they were more resourceful than the average adventurer or sell-sword. Neeshka surely got out, and she was equally sure Sand had spells that wouldn't have served in battle but would be useful for rescuing himself and the others. Elanee as well, with her shapeshifting abilities could assume any number of forms that would allow her to escape their rocky tomb. Khelgar was alive and knew what had happened to her. Surely by now they had arrived back at the Keep. Surely by now they were looking for her. Not that they would know where to look.

The berserkers greeted them heartily and thrust a mug of the thick, black local ale into Dee's hands. She listened to several retellings of the battle before she finished the mug, which was immediately refilled. She wasn't up to more than an occasional grunt or nod in response, but Okku was more than happy to tell his own version of the battle. She drank the second mug then excused herself and approached Nak'kai, the elderly shaman, who stood staring into the fire, his leopard companions on either side of him. He was deep in thought, so Dee waited for him to acknowledge her, standing on the other side of the fireplace with Okku and Cillian on either side of her and Gann standing beside Okku in the center of them all.

Finally Nak'Kai spoke, though he never took his eyes away from the fire. "So, Ganayev-of-Dreams. This one has little wisdom if she allows you to travel with her."

Gann laughed deeply. "Perhaps not, but we share a common dream for the moment, old one. The spirits have told you of Deidre here. She seeks your knowledge of the spirit-eater curse."

Nak'kai told her what he knew. The curse was at least a thousand years old, but he had no idea of how it might be ended. He knew it came about after one of Myrkul's priests, Akachi, led a crusade against his god in order to free his lover's soul from the Wall of the Faithless. "It is said he succeeded in freeing her, but he suffered Mykul's wrath and took her place. His was a foolish quest. Rebellion against the gods can only lead to failure."

Dee nodded in agreement, but Gann snorted and turned to the elderly shaman. "You don't believe in these so-called gods, Nak'kai?"

He answered without taking his eyes away from the fire. "I do, spawn of hags. They are more powerful versions of the nature spirits we worship. But you are young and foolish. You will learn in time, if you can grow out of your youthful habit of haunting the dreams of the young women of Rashemen."

He had no further advice other than to agree that they should try to find the Woodman as well as journey to the Coveya Kurg'annis to ask the slumbering coven what they knew about how the pieces fit together. "However, your journey may be in vain as the hags do not grant just anyone an audience."

Dee finished her ale and thanked the shaman and took her leave of the berserkers, who thought it was too bad the northern woman was ready for bed after only two ales. But that was enough to help her sleep tonight. She didn't have the answers to the mystery, but she had a start.