The climb and the tromp through the forest tousled my hair and worked up a sweat, nicely covering any tells about the sex. A few swallows of water took care of my breath.

Boe smiled when I stepped into the light. "Was worried about you, Valac."

I liked Boe. He was folksy and dependable. Elyvia said, "We were just discussing that page you found."

I nodded, a little distracted. "Yeah?"

"We need to do some research," Terese said. "But I think Moonfire needs to see this." She looked at my sullen expression. "What happened?"

Everything. I looked back the way we had come. "Let's find a campsite. And once I've gathered my thoughts, I'll tell you."
I had spent the entire walk stewing about Reyne instead of the ceremony. What was wrong with me?

I wasn't in love. It was just easier to think about Reyne than the sacrifice. The latter made me shiver and shake. And the former sometimes made me want to weep with my own heartache. I didn't want to talk about it in the dark. I was tired, and I wanted to discuss it under the light of the sun. They understood, and despite Elyvia's prying curiosity, Terese and Boe respected me enough not to wrench it out of me.

By morning, I had arranged everything in my head. I was vague, for their own sake. They didn't need to hear how awful it had been, all the little details that made it so much worse. Instead, I told them about the woman, but not that she was an elf because I thought Elyvia prized elven lives over human ones. I didn't think Elyvia would be remotely civil with me if she knew I hadn't done anything to stop it. She wouldn't care that I would have gotten killed. To her, that elf woman's life meant more than mine.

Maybe she was right; I had been told my entire life that my life had an innate value—the slaver had given my mother silver. My master had paid for me in gold. Maybe someone else's life was worth more than gold or silver, but I knew mine wasn't.

I described the ritual itself, what had happened, then how I had snuck back. While I talked, Boe carved Terese a small duplicate of her sword. Terese had once said that her blade was a gift from her swordmaster.

Elyvia had not been able to get a look at the dragon, but she was certain it was something draconic or similar.

No matter what was going on, no matter what they were after, it felt so much bigger than whatever was going on with the stone giants.

#

Terese bowed low to Lady Moonfire and Lord Telbor. When she straightened, Telbor said, "You were a day behind the refugee caravan. Why was that?"

"We stayed behind a day to do some reconnaissance," Terese said. She took a breath to explain. Moonfire's eyes tracked toward her human husband. Like I often did, her smile remained fixed in place. She stared at us, but her eyes conveyed all we needed to know.

She didn't want her husband to hear about my own report. I said quickly, "When Orlbar is attacked, it will be useful for us to know the surrounding countryside and the layout of the town."

Elyvia, a better liar than I, nodded. "We wanted to oversee the selection process for the evacuees. I admit we took our time coming back." A pause. "We were beset upon by orcs once, but nothing we could not handle."

The lie was so smooth and sprinkled with truth that they never even asked us why we didn't return with our own cart of refugees.

Telbor nodded, "Have you anything to report of use?"
Terese glanced at us. My eyes widened a little and I gave a subtle shake of my head, disguising the gesture by pushing back my braids. She frowned, then looked back at Lord Telbor. "The process is underway and they are training new conscripts, as expected."

Elyvia said, "What is the strength of Loudwater's walls, should the giants siege Loudwater?"
Moonfire said, "I fear our walls count for nothing against a stone giant. But we have begun training our own levy with the help of the Gauntlet and the guard. And perhaps we can enlist the Harper's guild for our defenses."

Telbor said, "There's an important task I would ask of you. Come with me to the war room."

It was not an invitation. He rose from his throne and we followed him. The war room was a well-lit space down a set of stairs. A broad table had a detailed map spread across it. Small tokens marked different Uthgardt camps. A stack of scrolls were in a basket on a shelf against the wall. A guard closed the door for us once we were inside.

We gathered around the map. Telbor gestured. "These tokens mark the last known location of different Uthgardt camps. Since the Blue Bear tribe is most inclined to join the giants, they are the ones we must treat with."

Boe was immediately interested. "I've been studying their culture," he said, beaming. "They are a proud warrior tribe, rooted in honor in combat and a respect for bravery. We might—"

Telbor waved that off. "We will not ally with barbarians, and we certainly will not fight with them. However, it would be better not to fight them and reduce the numbers of the army than to face them on the field." He gestured to the scrolls. "These are peace treaties. They will back down from Orlbar and Loudwater and refuse to join the giants—or they will die."

A silence fell over us. Boe said, "That's it?"
"It's all they will understand, and it's all they deserve," Telbor snorted.

Boe practically quaked with anger. Terese put a settling hand on his shoulder. She said, "With all due respect, my lord, this is a threat you expect us to deliver to them."

"They are our terms. If the barbarians will not see reason, I need their chieftains eliminated. Your secondary objective is that when they raided the Zhentarim mining camps, they absconded with black powder. Are you familiar with it?" He explained that it, to some degree, worked like a wizard's fireball, or even stronger spells in greater quantities. He said, "You can see how such a thing would be devastating in the battle." He tilted his head. "Orlbar will of course pay handsomely for their safe return, but destroying them is better than being used against Orlbar."

Didn't he remember that we were betraying Orlbar? But then, he was trying to minimize losses. The more there were defending Orlbar, the fewer Uthgardt and giants there would be against Loudwater.

Boe was angry, but bottling it. His hands fisted, jaw clenched, too angry to speak. Terese glanced at him, then back at Telbor. "I want to discuss this with my companions."

Telbor nodded. "Do not take too long. I expect an answer in two days."

She bowed, a bit stiffly, and we excused ourselves. He remained in the war room. We walked away from the guards and stopped on the landing. It was a bit crowded, but we needed to get close and whisper anyway. Boe said, "Unbelievable. They will never agree to those terms." His fingers clenched and unclenched. "They will just see it as disrespectful."

Terese nodded. "I'm afraid so. I don't like this at all. No one is going to agree to that and they'll probably attack the messengers just for delivering something that vile."

Elyvia shook her head. "They do have a clan chieftain. The Blue Bear Clan. If he could be deposed, and a more friendly chieftain put in his place, we might be able to accomplish the same task in a different way. A friend of mine is an exile from that clan. He told me that any Blue Bear can challenge the chieftain for his role."

Terese frowned. "The problem with that is that we don't have a viable candidate. And while we run around interviewing and trying to convince someone to risk their life for this, the problem will only grow worse. And there's only a few tendays before the First of Flamerule."

Boe beamed. "And that's why I have an alternative. A carrot to Telbor's stick." He frowned a little, looking down the stairs, then back at us. "It ain't much, but winter on the Frontier can be rough. I'd offer them a place for a winter camp. Land in Uluvin. We don't have a lot, but we do have that. Maybe we could even work out a way for them to teach us how to fight, so we can defend our towns."

I said, "We should take this task. If we take it, it will keep Telbor from giving it to the Zhentarim, and we all know how that will go."

Boe nodded grimly. "More death."

We all agreed that we had to try, or it would be nothing but pushing them further toward the giants. Telbor's plan reeked of imperialistic narcissism, and none of us, especially Boe, liked it. Boe's idea might not appeal, but it was better to offer them something than nothing.

With Telbor remaining behind, we had a few minutes to talk to Moonfire.

She was speaking to two farmers, resolving a dispute regarding a slain lamb and a dog. She saw us and wrapped it up quickly, then cleared the room to speak to us.

She said, "What did you think of my husband's machinations?"

Terese was careful about her answer. "We will likely do this task for you. We just need to put our own affairs in order before we commit to it."

Moonfire nodded. "And what of Orlbar?"

Elyvia stepped forward. "My lady, at great personal risk, under the understanding that Loudwater could not help us were we to be caught, we infiltrated their stronghold." She presented the page I had stolen. Moonfire accepted it. She opened it and grew paler reading it. When she looked up, Elyvia said, "But the tiefling saw more than I did."

I nodded. "Elyvia, probably rightly, fled when they started their… ritual. They sacrificed a woman."

"How many in attendance?"

"I don't think more than a dozen. I was well-hidden. I don't think anyone noticed me." Not during it anyway. "And I could not make out every face. But there was a priest. And a black dragonborn. Two Zhentarim initiates. One died during the ceremony, when the… sacrifice died."

Moonfire absorbed all of this with increasing worry. "I see. Hold a moment." She rang a bell and a page stepped into the room. She made a quick request and the page returned in a moment with a sort of portable writing desk and essentials. She scrawled a quick note, sealed it, pressed her ring into the seal, then said, "Valac."

I practically jumped out of my skin, but I stepped forward and she handed me back the stolen page and her sealed note.

She gave the waiting pageboy the writing desk and sent him away. She waited a heartbeat more. "You will need to go to the Smiling Satyr. Give my note to the tavernkeep. He will understand. You can trust them. Tell the one the tavernkeep guides you to everything you've told me. Do not delay."

We bowed, and made haste to the Smiling Satyr. It was a bit out of town, and I was tired by the time I got there. The others ordered mead. I wanted food. It had been a long and exhausting several days, and my nightmares were haunted by that sacrifice. I always woke with thoughts of Reyne's eyes and his lips on mine. I should hate him. Any normal person would.

I was between terror, and then self-disgust, and between the two, rest was not coming easy.

While Elyvia was flirting with the bartender, I pulled Terese aside. I said, "The ritual. I think I remember some of the words. But I don't understand them. They were in Elvish."

I had invited an artist's soul earlier to possess me, for I fully intended to try to sketch the woman, and anything else I remembered, but I remembered her words too. Or some of them.

Terese was patient as she tried to help me through words, never leading me to the answer, writing down half-remembered words, possibilities of what they might be. In the end, I only had a faint grasp on them. Something about a "pool".

It reminded me of the vision pool in the grove, but I doubted it was something that small.

After a meal, we were refreshed enough to continue with this mission. I passed the bartender the note. He was surprised at the seal, but broke it. He read it twice, then nodded. "This way."

He led us into a back room, which was empty. "You'll find Revil through here." He opened a trunk and removed a false bottom. Boe looked positively delighted at the prospect of a secret room. Terese was the first to go, then I followed, as ever. The stairs went down a few feet, then a ladder took us to the next floor. The room was clean, well-lit, and not at all stuffy. There was a variety of books on the shelves, maps, scrolls. A slightly plump man approaching middle age sat at a table, clearly having heard us coming down the steps. He smiled pleasantly, but was in the process of moving some of the books on the table to make space for us.

The chairs were a mismatched assortment, but none of them rickety. He said, "I'm Rivel. If my friend trusts you, then so shall I."

Terese said, "We were sent here by Lady Moonfire."

"Really? It must be important then. Please sit down. Apologies, I don't get out much." He looked from one face to the next. "You're the second place winner in the tourney, right? Was it Terese, I think?"

She smiled, but the "second place" clearly irked her. "That's right."

"Fine battle, that was. You fought well." A tight smile as he looked to Boe. "I feel like I'd remember an earth genasi. Have you not been in town long?"

Boe beamed. "Earth genasi? I haven't heard the term. Just a blessing from Chauntea, we thought."

"They are rare as elementals themselves on Torril. I am told that in other places, you will find many of them though." He looked at Boe's holy symbol. "A disciple of Chauntea is of course always welcome in these troubled times." He looked to Elyvia. "You must be from further north of here, by your manner of dress and your house sigil. The jackalope?"
She raised her chin, fiercely prideful. "That's right. Spent my life hunting fiends. Elyvia." She didn't look at me when she said it, but I knew very well what a barbed comment it actually was.

She still didn't really believe that I meant well. I looked away, content to just fade into the background, but Revil said, "I thought there was a tiefling in town. You are—?"

"Valac," I said quietly. I handed him the torn page. "I wish we came with better news. Lady Moonfire apparently thought you might be able to help."

He accepted the page and opened it. He read the words slowly, then said, "I think you ought to tell me where this came from. And maybe start at the beginning."

So we retold all that we had seen. Terese and Elyvia mostly told Revil about the meeting in the ruin, about Kayalithica, and the impending battle, and lastly about our stealth mission into the fort. I recounted all I had seen. Revil said, "Can you describe her?"

I smiled. "If you give me a charcoal pencil and paper, I might be able to draw her."

He handed over the supplies, and said, "All this serious talk. I think I could do with something to quench my thirst." He offered mead. We accepted and he poured into a set of mismatched glasses. They discussed what I could understand of the last words she screamed, what it could mean.

Elyvia looked at me with such hatred that I did not look at her at all, but I could feel her stare. She didn't need to speak to convey her thoughts. She thought I deserved to die for allowing this to happen.

The artist's talent flowed through me like honey—slow and crystallizing. Dripping. Leaving a traceable path behind it.

They poured mead, discussed the upcoming battle, while I worked. When I finished, I pushed the image across to Revil.

He smiled. "You are really quite talented," he said. "It's very lifelike." His smile faded as he studied it. "I can't say I know her." Elyvia looked at it, but she didn't know the woman either. "I will get this to my contacts, and see if we can find out who she was. If we do that, and decipher what her last words meant, it might give us a lead on what the Banites are after."

We mentioned the oracle to him, and we discussed a means of teleporting us closer, but that correspondence to get everything in place would take some time to arrange, if we were even allowed to use it.

Which left us with Telbor's request. Back at the Red Boar, we discussed our options in depth, and agreed to take the quest, but we would be going to the Uluvin refugee camp first, to see after Boe's idea.

However, we did not tell Telbor that—especially not after what he had said earlier. We just took the missives, were supplied, and went on our way—the opposite direction of where we needed to go; they were bound to notice.

Elyvia said it would take us nine days cutting through the forest to get to the camp, by the place Boe marked on a map. The road would take an additional five; we cut cross country. We didn't have time for anything else.

#

The tranquility of the forest was pierced by the din of battle.

Cautious, I dismounted and went to have a look. Elyvia was impatient. Boe was concerned. Terese went with me, which was to our folly, because she clinked and clanked so loudly in the armor as we crested the hill that it echoed around the valley—and not all the orcs below were actively engaged, but instead picking over the dead and slitting throats of the elves.

It looked bad for the elves. They were cornered and fighting for their lives, and the handful of big bruisers attacking them seemed to be drawing out their end for fun. A throatslitter absolutely heard Terese and pointed toward us through the trees.

"Shit," I said, drawing my bow. Terese did likewise.

Boe called, "What's going on?"

"Orcs. We have to help them or the elves will die," I insisted.

Elyvia apparently thought I was lying to get her to run headlong into a trap, for she slowly dismounted and crept forward rather than run up the hill, as Boe did, galloping on his horse. I pulled back my new longbow. Aimed.

The orc bellowed as the arrow hit his big shoulder. Terese loosed two, moving forward, reaching for another arrow. Our position meant the orcs had to charge up the hill right into our arrow fire.

The idling orcs broke from their positions, eager for combat. They spread out in the trees on their upward charge, lobbing javelins at Terese. None hit at that distance. She could have held position, but she ran to meet them, exchanging her bow for a greatsword.

I stayed back. I wasn't as heavily armored as she.

Boe's horse shot past the orcs, with all their attention drawn to Terese—which may have been the point. He rode hard, toward the battlefield, looking around desperately for any living. He swung his amulet above his head. I couldn't hear his prayer from where I was, with the battle cries and the clash of weapons around me, breaking tree branches, but I recognized the healing magic that poured out from him.

He was kind. I was glad of it.

Elyvia at last decided I wasn't lying and joined the fray. She poisoned her arrows.

Boe's magic healed the struggling elves and revitalized them against their attackers to see that not all hope was lost. It was a powerful thing—hope. It was what healing did.

My thoughts again strayed to Aela, her faith.

But the temple, while they had agreed my broken ankle should be healed, they didn't think the pain of it should be removed too. They thought I should suffer that pain to be closer to their god, so I would appreciate it when it was not hurting. So I would appreciate what the healing waters were capable of.

Maybe Chauntea was better. I didn't know a lot about the agricultural goddess. Maybe Boe would be happy to share it with me.

The spirits of the dead whispered, then howled as they tore through my foes. Terese cut into limbs and rendered armor. Boe focused entirely on healing as he charged the horse about.

As it stilled, I reflected on how many violent orcs we had come across. There were half-orcs and even full orcs in Loudwater. They were just people.

Boe had a shovel to bury the fallen elves. I helped to bury them, but I declined the prayers. What good were they?