I started making my way through the underground passages that run under the Wyrwind estate. I got lost multiple times, but through a lot of trial and error I eventually managed to find a set of stairs leading upward. When I reached the top I thought I’d found a dead end. I felt along the wall and realized that unlike the walls of the staircase, the wall in front of me was simply a wood panel. I punched a hole through it and heard a scream from inside. I then tore a me-sized hole and walked through. A young servant was hiding behind a nearby couch, a metal sconce in his hand with which to defend himself. I gave him an awkward wave, unlocked the door to his room and found myself in an unfamiliar bedroom. I walked through a few more doors and halls until things began looking familiar, and from there I made my way back to the receiving hall.

There was blood, a lot of it, spilled on the floor. I recognized the bodies of several of the men who had been with us when we’d entered the throne room. Mills was among the dead.

It took some effort, but eventually I managed to find the spot that Percy had pushed on the wall. As it gave way I heard the creak of the trapdoor swinging open. I released pressure and the door snapped closed. I pushed it in again, drawing my sword this time. Once it was pushed in and the door was opened I jammed my sword into the gap between bricks in order to wedge it where it was. I approached the trapdoor, looking down at my companions.

“I’m going to get a rope from my pack” I yelled.

“Okay!” responded Hrig.

I ran back to the room and took the fifteen foot rope I had from my pack. I was thankful Stone’s new boots would spare him the embarrassment of being hauled up to rope by Hrig. I ran back to the opening and threw the rope down trying to give them as much to work with as possible while still allowing myself decent footing.

Kyren was up first, her natural climbing ability letting her fly up the rope almost before I even felt her weight on it. Next was Stone who took a bit more time and let out a few choice curses as he made his way to the top.

“I wasn’t made for this kind of climbing. Give me a mountain over a rope anytime.”

Last was Hrig, who managed to get up the rope in only a few quick motions. I pulled up the rope and went to remove my sword from the brick and return it to my scabbard.

“Let’s search the grounds, my brothers may have left a trail.”

We began a systematic search of the grounds, finding multiple scared servants and the corpses of several more mercenaries of all the different groups that had been skewered, crushed, or poisoned by traps throughout the fortress.

“Your brothers seem to have used their knowledge of the estate to rid themselves of their mercenaries,” said Stone.

“They must have been reactivating them over time." She shook her head. "After all the effort my ancestors made trying to make this a peaceful place again.”

After a bit more searching and a short chat with a very shaken stablemaster we concluded that Percy and Byren had made their escape, likely toward their cousins the newly independent elven barons. With a half a day's head start it was unlikely we’d be able to catch them.

We spent the rest of the day cleaning things up as best we could. Stone used his stone sense to locate and disarm as many traps as he could, focusing on the more heavily used areas of the house. Kyren found and organized the servants, doing her best to help them settle. Hrig and I moved to locate all the bodies of the dead and began digging graves. The Wyrwind house already had a sizable graveyard so the added bodies of the mercenaries did not add to it by a significant degree. After we were done Kyren performed a blessing over them and the servants were kind enough to act as mourners.

By the evening everyone was drained, physically and emotionally. The servants were given the rest of the day off and Stone made a simple soup for Hrig and Kyren. He went to hand me a bowl as well before smiling and shaking his head.

“Old habits lad. I wouldn’t be surprised if I try to do that a few more times.”

“That’s fine. I can keep pretending if it makes you more comfortable.”

“No Sevald, you don’t have to pretend with us,” said Hrig.

“I’ll probably pretend if servants offer me food. I don’t want to offend them.”

Kyren smiled at that, “I appreciate it.”

We sat in silence for a while, I could tell everyone still had questions, but there was a certain exhaustion that seemed to come from big revelations.

“I’ll have to figure out some other way to pay back the Wyrwind debts.”

“I think they’ll understand if you need more time. Your brothers killed their mercenaries and trapped you in an inescapable pit after all,” I said.

Stone started laughing. It began as a chuckle, but soon became so intense he was actually wiping tears from his eyes. “Your brothers are idiots.”

Kyren smiled. “True, but it’s less funny to me when their idiocy nearly brings my home to ruin.”

“No, not because of that. The pit, the one they trapped us in. They clearly knew about it, knew what it was?”

“I would assume so, why?”

“They had money problems and saved a trap just in case they needed to get rid of someone, but the trap itself has bars made of one of the rarest metals on the continent.”

Kyren’s eyes widened. “The elyrium… those idiots! This is exactly why grandmother thought they were useless. They could never see the forest for the trees.”

Stone and Kyren started laughing and Hrig and I joined in. After we settled down, Stone turned to me.

“So, Sevald, what really happened with the shipwreck?” he asked , “It’s been bothering me quite a bit.”

“Well, the captain of the enemy ship, a woman named Vash, was a child of Aurum.”

“Feels like it’s been awhile since we’ve had to worry about them,” said Hrig.

“Aye, though that almost makes me more nervous. What happened to her?”

“She’s alive I believe. She seemed different from Talen and Donyin. More in control. I got the impression she didn’t care for them very much. She told me she was there at Talen’s request. Wanted him to owe her a favor.”

“So they’re not a united front then?”

“That was the impression she gave me. She sent her crew to attack me and struck whenever she found the opportunity. She was skilled, it was a difficult fight. Eventually she pulled her crew back to make sure she had enough hands to sail her ships and we dueled. Shortly after that the kraken attacked.”

“Drawn by the blood and bodies in the water I’d guess,” said Hrig.

“I tried to drown her, and as I did I went to eat her.” That statement drew some brief flashes of concern.

“I wanted more information.”

“Of course Sevald. She was trying to kill you, we understand.”

“Well, I couldn’t do it. I felt a presence other than her wrapped up in her essence and it simply said ‘no’ and she escaped. She used a freshly grown tail to swim to the surface.”

“What then?” asked Stone.

“Then I dropped to the bottom of the sea.”

Stone’s eyes widened, “You can walk on the bottom of the sea?”

“Yes, it’s kind of my only option. I can’t swim after all.”

“If I were to tell you the tales of a few lost treasures down there, would you be able to retrieve them?

“I suppose so.”

“Stone,” said Kyren in an exasperated tone.

“Ah, we’ll come back to that. Go on lad.”

I told the group about the creatures I saw, the state of the shipwreck, and the tale it told me. I ended with how I’d found the group on the beach.

“All of these things happening so close together doesn't feel like coincidence. I wouldn't be surprised if the gods were taking an active hand in things." said Kyren. She then paused with the thought for a moment. "My healing hurts you?” she asked.

“Yes. Your healing, a blessing I received from a priest of Dur, and strikes from the children of Aurum. That’s what has hurt me so far.”

“Interesting. Dur’s oath didn’t hurt you though?”

“No.”

“Probably because it’s not something that affects you directly. So anything from a divine source and the strikes from Aurum’s children. That fits with the possibility Aurum is a god of some kind.”

“And a dragon apparently. Gods, a fight with a dragon would be spectacular,” said Hrig.

“I don’t recall hearing about the king dying in a shipwreck or any such thing,” said Stone.

“Well the wreck was very old and dragons have been extinct for a thousand years so it can’t have happened recently.”

“As always, we need more information. Caedun isn’t great about maintaining knowledge unless it's the church and they seem to be doing their best to hide Aurum’s existence.”

I thought for a moment. “The University at Usulaum. They have the most complete library in existence.”

Everyone looked confused.

“Pebble, my second meal, he was a student there. If there’s any information to uncover, it would be there.”

“It wasn’t Pebble In the Grass was it?” asked Stone, concern on his face.

“No, it was Pebble Under Sand.”

“Oh thank goodness. I thought you’d eaten my cousin for a moment. I’d’ve forgiven you of course, but it’s nice that I don’t have to.”

“Don’t worry, none of those I’ve eaten have any memories of you. I’d tell you if they did.”

“So, should we make our way to Usulaum?” asked Kyren, “Sounds like our best bet for more information.”

“What about your brothers? I’d certainly understand if you wanted us to try and find them first,” I said.

“No. I came here to set my house in order and I did. I don’t forgive my brothers, but I’m not going to hunt them down either.”

“We can kill them if we run into them though, right?” asked Hrig.

“Absolutely.”

…

The night passed uneventfully and in the morning we continued our clean up. Kyren spent much of her time writing letters, giving orders to servants, and drinking inordinate amounts of strong tea. Stone continued the process of finding and disarming traps, in the course of which he realized that many of them had been added recently, likely by Percy and Byren themselves.

Hrig and I helped the servants move the furniture they’d used to barricade various rooms and buried a final mercenary that had fallen into a pit trap the smell of whom was only noticeable today. After that we found ourselves with little to do.

“So, how strong are you really?” she asked after we finished setting a small marker above the mercenary's grave.

“I’m not sure of my limit exactly. I kicked a goblin hard enough that he exploded once. The bars in the trap we were stuck in were the first thing I haven’t been able to bend.”

She gestured for me to follow her and I did so. We moved over to an area the mercenaries had clearly set up for card games. She placed one arm on the table holding her palm toward me.

“Take it.”

“You want to arm wrestle?”

“Yeah, it seems like a good way to measure your strength.” I shrugged and took her hand. I felt a small flutter as I did so. Her hand was calloused and strong and I liked the feel of it.

“Go!”

She took me by surprise and I lost an inch. I braced my feet on the ground and started pushing back. I considered putting all my force into my hand, but decided to increase my strength gradually instead. I slowly began pushing her hand down. She had a few surges of strength, causing me to lose some progress, but eventually her strength ran out. I gingerly placed her hand on the table.

“Damn.”

“Don’t feel too bad about it. Your strength was earned, mine was simply taken or given to me.”

“That’s true, but losing is losing.” She started to look around, eventually catching sight of the smithy. She moved toward it and I followed. The blacksmith wasn’t in, but a young man that may have been his apprentice was doing some tool maintenance as we entered. He started to say hello, but Hrig moved immediately to the anvil. It was large, not the biggest my meals had seen, but larger than average for sure. Hrig set herself in a low stance, bent and with just a grunt of effort lifted it. She held it there for several seconds, the blacksmith’s apprentice staring wide eyed at her, then put it back down. She then gestured to me to do it, a playful smile on her face.

I went and taking a similar stance lifted it as well without pause or effort. I then Shifted my balance and raised it over my head completely. It seemed to be around 400 pounds, I could feel my feet sink several inches into the dirt floor as I held it.

“Showoff.”

I shrugged while still holding the anvil and then gently placed it back down on the floor. “Sorry for disturbing you.” I nodded at the apprentice and he managed a feeble nod back.

“No problem, ser.”

After that things just kept escalating. We went to the stables where Hrig managed to lift a colt, followed by me lifting a full grown horse. We then competed to see who could hold onto a bar the longest before falling, followed by a pushup contest, and finally a race. In the process several of the servants began spectating, then a few of them actually began competing as well. Hrig knew she couldn’t beat me, but she still performed incredibly with each feat. At a certain point I realized she wasn’t so much competing with me as seeing how far she herself could go.

The final thing we did was a tug of war. I wrapped a piece of thick rope around my arm and dug my feet into the ground. Hrig anchored the other team along with every servant who had been watching and participating. A few of the servants' children even joined in. I was concerned for a moment that they’d be suspicious of my strength, but decided that suspicion didn’t mean much since I was only a visitor.

They started pulling and I found myself needing to angle my body backwards. Though I didn’t give an inch I found myself moving closer to them, and also they seemed to be getting taller. I realized that while I wasn’t planning on moving, the ground beneath me didn’t give me much of a choice. Soon I was hip deep in mud and Hrig’s team had successfully moved the center of the rope over the line on their side. There was some cheering including a roar of victory from Hrig before she moved over to me and offered me a hand. She was smiling ear to ear and had a soft look in her eyes. I took her hand and she pulled me out of the mud.