It was raining in the wasteland. The holes in the roof letting the heavy rain through as Lo rested. She couldn't pull a bow string, wasn't trained with any other weapons, any magic she used damaged herself, and on top of that she couldn't walk. She was for all intensive purposes, totally useless. But The Prophet was keeping her alive. He had made it perfectly clear that if they were going to escape it would be stealthily. It had taken a few hours to limp back to camp and then her friend had left to go back to the 'overlord's' camp and gather any supplies possible.

Lo was sat against the wall, Fengir lying at her side. She felt dizzy and light headed as the bandages wrapped around her shoulder, stomach and thigh inevitably turned red. She had to get rid of her dress, it was torn to shreds and she quickly realised that it wasn't the particularly suited to fighting, or even surviving in this place, and when the Prophet came back from the first trip she was given the remainders of the clothes from her captors and told to make do.

She'd chosen a mucky white top that was to big for her so ended up looking more like a dress that went down to her thigh before she tucked it in to the brown trousers she'd taken, and finally a padded blue leather coat that she tied a few armour plates to on her left shoulder to make sure she wouldn't be this useless again.

"You look more like the son I wanted."

Lo glanced up and saw her father, her adopted one, not the one that gave her a legacy of murder and destruction. "You can't be real, I've just going delirious from lack of blood. You're not my father, you never were."

"I raised you till the age of eight, and you are still my daughter."

"You didn't raise me, you paid for governesses to look after me with mother till the age of five and then it was mother and Baristan, he was a better father than you ever were."

"I worked to keep you happy, I didn't' have time for you because I was looking after you."

"That's not true. We both know it."

"According to you, I'm an illusion. I can only tell you the truth that you know."

"No, you can tell me lies, people lie to themselves all the time. I spent the past few weeks in the capital telling myself I wasn't the daughter of the greatest evil the world has ever known."

"The Overlord is evil, but it's part of who you are." Lo looked to her other side and saw Fay standing there. "I'm your mother, not the weak woman that raised you to be so soft and submissive, you should get back up and fight."

Lo leaned her head back and rolled her eyes. "The two worst parents I ever had, one ignored me, the other tried to kill me."

"What about your other father, the one with the elf witch?"

"I didn't know him, I can't judge him as a father so that puts him on neutral ground. Actually, he didn't sell me and tried to make sure I was looked after, he gave me a home."

"The home he gave you is covered in blood."

Fay shook her head. "So is the castle in Heaven's Peak. How many died in the war to keep that place standing? If they had lied down like the dogs they were then no more would have had to die."

"They gave their lives so no more had to suffer."

Lo closed her eyes, she was sure watching an argument between two figments of her imagination made her mad. She just wished there was a mediator to help stop it, then she realised her mistake as Parcid appeared as well.

"What's this other scum doing here." Fay spat.

"He isn't scum, he's my friend."

"Then why hasn't he saved you yet?"

"He's busy."

"Like your absentee father?"

"There's a difference, he actually spent time with me."

"Because he had to, remember, he'd have been killed for poaching."

Lo let out a groan, now she was arguing with her imagination, not just letting it argue with itself.

Lo's father burst in. "It doesn't matter now. Remember, why do we fall? To learn to pick ourselves up."

"Parcid's lessons were better, they had multiple reasons."

The only image she was glad to see gave a smile. "And what were they Lo, why do we fall?"

"Three reasons. It allows us a new perspective, let's us see who's willing to help pick us up and who'll kick us while we're down. Number two, it keeps us sharp, reminds us that were not invincible. And lastly, it let's us get a good shot at the enemy's underbelly."

Fay gave a slight smile. "It seems the man isn't entirely useless after all."

Lo's father looked less pleased. "Ladies shouldn't fight, they have no need to hit a weak spot.'

"I thought you said you wanted a son."

"You work with what you're given."

"Your far to pragmatic to be my father, he was always obsessed with tradition. Now all of you go away, learn to get along with each other or develop a better sense of humour."

"Alright lass."

Lo let out another groan. She felt tired, for once she felt happy that she was going to blackout soon. "Is this going to happen any time I say something mildly related to someone I know."

The image of Drez gave a shrug. "I don't know lass."

"At least Tristen's not here." Lo let out another groan as he came into the room and the whole world went black.

The group of three dismounted from their horses as Khalenhad appeared from one of the postern gate, holding leashes to three large dogs with brown and black fur and large pointed ears. He had ridden ahead of the others to get the hounds so they could just head straight through the gates.

Khalenhad shook his head. "This all seems too coincidental to me. The child of the elf queen, abandoned at birth but then stumbled upon by nobles. She was then raised to be queen of the humans but due to a single fault, was sent to a living hell, and then, when the noble king falls ill, his son rides off to rescue her. Add in a horde of darkness and a bard, then we'll know something's wrong."

"I am unsure if she is of royal blood yet." Mirah chided.

"It doesn't matter, we're still getting her back, it wasn't her problem, it was mine. She just wanted to know if I trusted her." John half whined.

"Can we just get this done with, I don't want to be in an area described as a living hell for too long."

A few minutes layer they were on the inside, going in the same way as Lo but given more supplies. Mirah moved forward and held a hand to each of the dogs' noses before they pressed them to the ground.

"What did you give them to smell?" John asked before following the dogs.

"I went into the girl's room and borrowed part of her clothing before they were thrown out."

"But that's stealing."

"Is it helping us now?"

"Maybe."

"Then be quiet and follow the dogs."

"You can't speak to me like that, I'm a prince."

"Not here, now you're just a boy with a sword, same as the other two."

"I have a staff as well."

"Nobody cares halfbreed."

"Why did you call him halfbreed?"

"Apparently my father raped my mother and then she abandoned me."

"That's, nice,"

"Can you three be quiet, one of you was saying that we shouldn't alert the abominations."

John let out a slight groan. He knew Tristen was right, he was a prick, but he was right. He was also smarter than he looked. He tried to hide it but the odd comment showed that there was some intelligence behind his eyes.

They followed the dogs for an hour before coming to a set of rotted wooden buildings and the dogs stopped.

"They think she's nearby, we should each check a building." Khalenhad said, moving to the first and walking inside.

Mirah looked annoyed before moving to another and heading inside. She didn't like taking orders from humans, or half breeds. She was three hundred years old, the half breed was barely into his thirties and thought he could tell her what to do. It was a good plan and she would have said the same but still, she'd been fighting since for the rest of the groups ages doubled and combined. She had watched the overlord burn the Nordberg sanctuary and was forced to leave when Fay commanded it. She'd been sent to the Evernight sanctuary and had fought to keep it safe till the humans had killed the beast in human skin. Then the humans had the gall to say it was a solo effort and that they had done it all by themselves. She'd been fighting the humans that followed the blue monster for years, and then they acted as if they'd done nothing wrong.

Most of the rooms were empty, but in the last room she checked, there was something. She examined the frozen chunks of flesh with her blade, flipping it over and examining another piece. This thing had been flash frozen, too fast to be by nature.

"The girl's got power." She whispered before leaving.

Tristen could hear a voice coming from the next room and instinctively took his sword out.

"At least Tristen's not here." Was what he heard before moving through the door and seeing Lo's head fall as she drifted away.

"Shit, what happened to you." He moved towards her and knelt down, looking at the red bandages before putting his ear to her chest. He let out a relived sigh as he heard her heart beat and then looked over her. She was clearly wounded. The bandages wrapped around her body made it obvious. He would need help to move her safely, otherwise it could have caused more damage. He went out the room to tell the others.

Morg watched as he left. The human may have needed to get help, but Gnarl had sent Quaver with him as well as half an army of browns. The girl hunting seals in Nordberg had gathered a high amount of life force, enough to make retrieving her possible.

The minions quickly leapt through the holes in the roof, surrounding the girl and six of them picking her up, another six taking Fengir while the others moved to the exit. When they came out of the door the group of humans and the elf all glanced towards them, before quickly being encircled while the browns carrying Lo paused.

Quaver jumped onto a rock.

"Those who are the forces of light,

believing what they do is right,

but their bones will shatter and guts will spill,

here on this lifeless hill."

The whole group drew their weapons and Tristen decided to speak. "Does it count if the bard's part of the horde of darkness?"

"Shut up farm boy, "Mirah snapped. "Give us the girl and we'll make your deaths quick."

Morg pulled himself onto the same rock as Quaver but pushed the other minion off. "The girl comes with us." He hissed. "We have you outnumbered and surrounded, what chance do you think you have?"

"We have you outmatched." John butted in.

Khalenhad leaned towards the others. "Actually, they have the strength of a man each."

"Did they know that?"

"Yes." Morg laughed. "We'll be taking the girl, and now, you die. Kill them! Kill them all!"

Before the minions could make a move the paladin made a low sweeping blow with his staff, the strike hitting the first and five others and making them fly into the others. Some of them moved into the gap and launched themselves at him, their crude clubs striking the man and denting his armour before Mirah sliced them off. Tristen moved to deal with the others but John had leapt over the minions head and started sprinting towards the group that were carrying Lo.

"Royal bastard." Mirah whispered before slicing at more minions.

"Is there no end to them." Tristen said before attacking another.

"There is but the blue's getting them back up."

"How do you know that?"

"How don't you know? Surely you've got to have some books on them."

"The overlord destroyed the knowledge we had on magical creatures."

"Of course he did, if your people hadn't lied down and taken it, we could have gotten rid of him."

"Sorry, I didn't see your people fighting him."

"No, we were to busy protecting ourselves from you."

"Is this really the time for this conversation you two."

Suddenly the blue minion started shouting. "Fall back, we have her now."

As the creatures started running, the group gave chase, following them until they came to a tunnel guarded by more minions with John trying to slice his way through. As each of the browns came to the hole they leapt into it, quickly followed by the blue until they had all gone and John tried to follow but was grabbed by Mirah and Khalenhad.

"What are you doing we? We have to get her back." He yelled, struggling and trying to break out of the hold as the pair dragged him away.

"The king would have all our heads if we lost you, and if you head down there without an army, we will lose you."

"What is down there?" Tristen asked nervously.

"That's where the overlord comes from, if those things took her, then he has her now."

"All the more reason for us to go and save here."

"Aren't you listening boy, we can't."

Any resistance from John stopped. "I couldn't save her. I couldn't save her."

"She doesn't matter any more boy, we have to get back, warn your father."

Mirah shook her head. "If the overlord wants her then perhaps she is more powerful than we think."

Morg was listening from inside the tunnel.Oh, they have no idea.