The woman they rescued, Karyna, was surprisingly useful to them. Before she was dragged off to be a sacrifice to the Spider Queen, she had acquired the Khazra staff, and it was the only way to get the goatmen to open up their fortress, the only way to Leoric's castle. Unfortunately, it had been abandoned with her now broken down cart, and the group had to hunt it down through heavy goatmen territory.

The Horadric portal stood before them, and Dahlia stepped on it, lighting it up. She was the only one who could seem to activate it, another sign to Kormac that she was more than she believed herself to be. But his immediate concern was with the large wound in her shoulder from one of the teeth of the Spider Queen. Dahlia was trying to shrug it off, but even Lyndon felt the need to say, "We should port back to town and get that looked at. I don't want you turning into that freaky hermit."

Dahlia downed one of her healing potions. The wound closed, but the poison was still sizzling her skin. "Fine. Let's go back. It's been a long enough day as it is," she said. She dropped to her knees on the portal, and by the time the magic brought them back to New Tristam, she was completely collapsed. Kormac picked her up and took her to the healer, who could only hope that his healing powers were enough to be a comfort to them. Dahlia curled into Kormac's arms sleepily as Leah came running.

"What happened? Is she okay? Did you find the angel?" she asked.

"We had an encounter with a demon spider. Praise be to the Light we all made it out alive."

"Oh yes, praise be," Lyndon said, "We've made it through another horrific encounter and now we have to do it again tomorrow."

"You can leave at any time, Lyndon."

"No, I'd rather be here," he said stiffly. He walked into the inn, and Kormac looked to Leah.

"She needs rest."

"I have some space in my room," Leah said, looking at Cain's now boarded up house. "It should be safe."

Kormac sat by Dahlia while she slept, but it wasn't long before she was awake. She stretched, her muscles aching from the residual poison that had coursed through her body. "We should get back to the hunt," she said, "Where's Lyndon?"

"I don't think we should leave yet," Kormac replied.

"Why?"

"You're not fully ready to take on our next task."

"Says who?"

"Me, Dahlia. I'm telling you, we aren't leaving."

Dahlia opened her mouth, but let her words turn into a huff. She played with small sparks jumping from her fingers. Kormac stayed quiet, keeping his eyes closed but listening carefully for any change in the room. Dahlia shifted uneasily, and then went into her pack to find one of her books. She sat it on her lap and looked at her friend. "This book was forbidden to me, but when my master died, I read it anyway. Without it, I wouldn't have known to follow the fallen star. I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't have done all the things I've already done."

"My order is led by intelligent men who know what books should be kept secret. Jondar read one of the forbidden books, and you saw what happened to him."

"Aren't you curious at all about what made him turn from your order?"

"He said that we had been lied to, but I didn't believe him."

"Knowledge is forbidden because it gives someone the same power as anybody else. It equalizes us. Why are you following an order that won't even let you know what you're fighting for or what your end goal is?"

"I fight for the Light and for the good of humanity to repent for my sins! How dare you question that?"

"You don't even know what your sins are. They tortured you until you lost them."

"I was purified!" Kormac stood up. "The Order is pure and the Light leads us!"

Dahlia sighed. "Can I at least read them?"

"You could try." Kormac said scathingly, "I doubt you would understand in the way someone purified would."

"It's your loss more than mine."

Kormac through his pack towards her and stormed out of the room. He wouldn't stay to listen to her blasphemous words, and he was afraid that she would start reading out loud. There was a small pull in his heart to go back and apologize, to stay and make sure she wasn't suffering from the poison, but he had to stay in the Light. She couldn't turn him.