"How often do we have large scale battles here?" I asked Andulin the next evening as we gathered at the Inn. Mary had another girl fill in for her so she could sit with us, and she leaned against me on the bench in the corner as we talked with Andulin and Dalmar.

"I would say rarely" Andulin answered after considering the question "but it is not unheard of. The orcs raid the surrounding lands periodically, and Telarin has sent forces into their lands in revenge for the raids. The empire has attempted to take some of the orc lands bordering the empire, but have not been able to hold them long. The dwarves and orcs fight constantly, and these battles can become quite large as a city is taken or destroyed. The empire and the elves engage in sea battles, though they tend to involve small numbers of ships and I believe may be due to acts of piracy on the elves part" he drank some ale before saying "the greatest threat we face here of that type is from the Desolation. It is rare, because the Ceremony of Sacrifice prevents them from leaving the blight unless directed by a greater mage, but the undead from those destroyed lands will gather under the command of a necromancer or ArchLich and will move west, destroying all in their path"

"The Desolation?" I asked, trying to remember if anyone had mentioned it before.

"The lands bordering the eastern sea were blighted by Cirnac the Necromancer. It was what led to the Sundering of the elves, after Cirnac, a dark elf, attempted to gain control of the dark and light elf kingdoms. The war between them ended with Cirnac's destruction, but not before he released the blight that devoured the elven lands. The dark elves fled east, while the light elves fled west, abandoning Tarinath in fear of the undeath they had released. Humans and dwarves had held the western lands before then, though the empire had not formed yet. Both elven nations abandoned your people, saying they wished to start anew without the corruption of human blood"

What a bunch of assholes. Released a weapon of mass destruction, then ran away and left it to be cleaned up by someone else. I had a feeling I wouldn't be liking the elves much if I ever visited.

"The empire formed when Varan Romar called the human clans together to fight the undead horde when the elves fled west" Andulin said with a grim smile "Watch towers are placed along the border of the Orc and Abandoned lands to warn of a massing of the undead. The last such was in my grandfather's time, and was a push into the Orc and Forbidden lands. The dragons were rumored to have taken a hand in the defeat of the undead when they were foolish enough to enter the mountains"

"The Ceremony of Sacrifice?" I asked, wondering if the various undead dungeons were tied to the blight in some way.

"It is why you are the lone Healer on this land Loser" Andulin said with a surprised look "The goddesses each sent their Healer to the border lands, to stand where the watch towers now stand. Each gave their life to create the barrier that prevents the undead from wandering freely, trapped between the sea and the barrier. Had they not, Tarinath would be a land of the dead as the blight eventually covered it all"

"Oh" I mumbled, wondering if I would have the cajones to sacrifice myself like that. Probably not.

"I hadn't heard about the priests sacrificing themselves" Dalmar said "though I had heard that the desolate lands would drain you dry of life if you wandered into them"

"Indeed" Andulin said with a nod "the blight is the life forces of dark elf necromancers bound into an eternal spell, that draws upon the life energies of the living to create the dead. None know how it was done, nor how it could ever be stopped, as there appears to be no central point of power, nor rhyme or reason to how it advances"

"Well, if the undead advance on us, this would be the best place to fight them. Telina's presence here would hurt them at the least" I said thoughtfully, my eyes on the far wall as I considered my options "The orcs would have to get past Telarin to reach us, so that's not a serious risk at the moment. The empire would be a major problem if they were serious about it, so that's probably where I need to focus on"

"For what reason?" Mary asked

"Peace" I said with a shrug "the empire would be the eternals base of operation if they made a grab for power, and I want to be sure they don't take that from the existing leaders. From what I've seen so far, the locals are complacent about the threat the eternals hold, and if the eternals from one of the major cities were to band together, they might be able to take the city away. I either want to ensure that doesn't happen, or that the empire is poised to react if it does"

"How do you know it wouldn't make things better?" Dalmar asked

"Don't" I replied "but it wouldn't be the people of Tarinath's anymore. The eternals I've met so far all seem to think of these people as some kind of toy for them to use as needed, not as people. I'm not going to stand by and watch someone start a slave society, so rather than fight it once it's entrenched, I prefer to let the locals handle it themselves, once they know they can" I shrugged and added "and I'm more worried the eternals would get power hungry than I am the locals"

"So what are you thinking?" Dalmar asked with a short laugh "talk to the emperor?"

"Probably" I said with a shrug "It's either that, or having to talk with each of the governors"

"It's a four week ride to the imperial capital" Andulin said

"Yeah, that would be a pain" I replied "but I'm thinking I might try to set a portal there since it's the seat of power"

"Is that possible?" Andulin asked, his face reflecting his doubt

"Yes, but it might require an intermediate one first" I said "If I set one in Riverbend first, it would give me a good southern spot, and maybe save me a week of riding later"

"Riverbend" Dalmar muttered thoughtfully "that's only a day east of Formil"

"It would take a lot of traveling initially" I said "First to Riverbend, than back here to set the first portal. Then take the portal back to Riverbend before riding to Mairailis to set another portal. I'd have to come back to Mudtown as soon as I did, but the trip back to Mairailis wouldn't take any time after that"

"Lot of riding" Dalmar said

It really was.

I met with Bob before leaving again to let him know what I was doing, then did a blessing on the north arch to start the process. It wasn't just a blessing, but choosing the portal spell, which sent a message to place the first blessing. The open middle of the arch rippled and turned black for a moment, then turned clear again after I cast the blessing spell. That was it. No message, no congratulations, absolutely nothing to tell you that you did it right.

Ariel and Sienna rode with me, but Dalmar decided to hang around Mudtown since I was just riding to Riverbend and back.

I blessed the whole group, Ariel, Sienna, and the three horses before we left, and found it worked great for getting a faster horse. Endurance was the limiting factor for the horses, but the stat upgrade extended that so we were covering a third again what we normally did. Sienna planned to meet up with Maria in Riverbend and start traveling with Maria's sisterhood, while Ariel went back with me to set her spawn point.

With the upgraded horses, we made Riverbend in seven days instead of the ten it took before, and I got a nod and "Welcome dragonsbane" from the guards as we rode through the gate. In response to a message I had sent, Maria had found me an out of the way passage between the main wall and a line of houses, but one that had an actual archway defining the entrance. I found her at the inn she mentioned, and after stabling the horses, followed her to the path and placed the first blessing. This time the message told me to place the first blessing on the second entrance to the portal, which I hoped meant the first blessing had worked.

"Kind of anti-climatic" Maria said when I finished.

"Yeah, and I get to do it three more times" I grumbled "couldn't have been a simple mumble and wave of the hand"

"Now don't be whiny" she laughed "you'll have your very own teleporter, so the return on this is pretty high"

I spent the day with the girls, but Maria grabbed up Sienna the next morning, and the whole group of them rode out to see if they could find Jess's buddy at a small town he was rumored to be ruling over. The other two pits had been built, so if they did find him, the guy would find a surprise when he respawned.

Ariel and I wandered down to Jess's pit that afternoon, what was now being called the 'screaming bridge' in honor of the screams that sounded once a day a couple of hours before sunset. Ariel actually laughed so hard she choked when we joined the crowd at the bridge and heard him spawn and fall screaming into the pit. There was a bit of a festive atmosphere to the whole thing really.

"I wish I had thought to put a message where he could see it every time he fell" Ariel said with a grin as we walked back to the inn.

"Well, he has 24 hours to do nothing but contemplate why he was in limbo, and who put him there, then get to fall to his death" I said "so as far as punishments go, I can't think of to much worse. This is like being buried alive, since you don't know if you'll be doing it for eternity"

"I don't know" she said slowly, squinting slightly as she thought "maybe water at the bottom so he drowned? That would be good, or leave the spears out and put something that would eat him down there" she kind of smiled at that and said "that actually might work"

Two eternals showed up the next day, and we bumped into them at Jess's bridge for the next spawn time. Ariel seemed to get a lot of satisfaction out of it, and I figured at the least it might be therapeutic. There were two male human warriors, both the standard big, muscled, and wearing plate chest pieces. One had a war hammer like Dalmar, the other a two handed sword like Bob. One of them, his name said 'Bron Bonebreaker', nudged his buddy 'Kane March' and nodded at us.

The two of them grinned when they saw the first part of my name, but I could see when the dragonsbane got comprehended. They both gave Ariel a good once over, something she really didn't like, but didn't say anything about.

"What the hell is going on?" Bron said. He was dark haired, with a long mustache and goatee, and a bit of an aggressive attitude for a guy who didn't know who we were or what level we might be.

"3 o'clock show" I said, nodding at the bridge

"What are you talking about? Show? What happened to that dick Jess's spawn point?" Kane asked. He was red haired, clean shaven, and had intelligent eyes that measured me and Ariel as he talked

"That's the show" I said, holding up a hand and listening. Ariel grinned and moved through the crowd as they started counting down from five. A second after the one, we heard the screamed cursing as Jess disappeared down the pit. Ariel was giggling as she rejoined me.

"That was Jess?" Bron asked, looking in confusion at the people walking away, then at the new bridge.

"Someone trapped his spawn point" Kane said slowly, his eyes going between Ariel and me, then settling on me.

"Governor approved it" I said

"And is he doing this to all the spawn points?" Kane asked as Bron yelped and said "Wait, is he?"

I shrugged, but said "Only the three who have been reportedly preying on people. Couldn't tell you where the other two points are"

Bron took off running the other way as Kane kind of chuckled and watched him for a second, then turned back to me to say "Dragonsbane? Heard the story from a minstrel. Figured it was Maria and Dalmar, but didn't know the other two. Since you have a mace, I'm guessing you're the priest"

"Dang it" I growled "never considered how easy that made me to identify" Kane chuckled, but waited until I said "Yeah, Priest Loser, that's me" I nodded at Ariel and said "My friend Ariel"

He studied her for a minute, then nodded a greeting before looking at me again "She obviously has a hate on for Jess, with good reason I'm sure, but I'm guessing you're the one who arranged this"

I shrugged, but said "Mostly. Telina is tired of eternals abusing her people and wants the worst ones, what we call the Cursed Ones, stopped"

"Telina" he said doubtfully "the goddess?" at my nod he said "You talk with her do you?" When I just nodded again he laughed and shook his head. He said to Ariel "and you? You talk to her too?"

"Nope" she said with a hard grin "but maybe some day"

"Ok" he said, looking around and sort of dismissing us "you two have fun. I need to find out if this is going to be a problem" then walked in the direction Bron had run.

"Moron" Ariel muttered as we headed toward the inn. I shook my head no and said "Dangerous man. He's stuck in reality think, but don't dismiss him. Once he figures out what's really happening, he could be a threat"

She frowned at me and said "Why him and not the other one?"

"Kane's smart and watchful" I said "didn't get excited, or react before he knew if he needed to. Guy's a thinker, so if you go against him, watch for traps or an unexpected attack. If he's willing to fight, its because he's decided he has some kind of advantage"

"How do you know that?"

"Because he reminds me of me" I said "guys killed before in reality, so he won't kill just for the pleasure of it. But he won't worry about doing it if he needs to"

"and he reminds you of you" Ariel muttered. I just shrugged and ignored the dig.

The morning of the fourth blessing, as Ariel and I were leaving town, a guard Captain stopped us as we were leading our horses toward the gate.

"Dragonsbane" he said, holding a hand up to get us to stop "Governor Brennen wished for you to know that the eternal known as Bron Bonebreaker attempted to destroy the bridge over his...rebirth point, and was subsequently killed. He has joined the other cursed one in Telina's punishment"

I huffed a laugh, picturing Bron running up to find his spawn point enclosed. I nodded to the Captain and said "Thank you Captain, and thank the governor for me, as well as accept my hope that the eternals will begin to cause you less grief"

The Captain and the two men with him all laughed as they turned to leave, with the Captain saying "If not, I believe we will appeal to Telina to punish them"

"Wow" Ariel said as we got on our horses and rode out the gate. I did a blessing on the horses again, before she said "Maria was right, it's something about you that makes the locals act more alive"

I got us into a trot as I said "Not really. Its because I treat them as if they're alive, because they are. They are as alive as you and I, so when you treat them as programs, you are essentially accepting that you are no longer a living person"

"We're not" she said, giving me a confused look

I shrugged, but said "Well, I am. It might be a different kind of alive than before, but it's just as real as the other was"

"But we know its a computer program"

"No, we knew it was when we were on the other side" I answered "but I'm not a program, so what we knew over there isn't the same as what I know over here. This conversation is no different than saying 'I think, there for I am' when we were back in the other world. Still the same thing"

Listening to people tell you that they weren't actually alive had to be one of the most surreal things I'd ever heard. And they said I was weird.

When we reached home I was very ready to call it a day. Riding slowly with Dalmar and Maria, joking around and just enjoying life was a lot different than riding quickly from point to point with a girl who thought she was a ghost, and spent time thinking about it.

"Thank the goddess" I muttered when I slid off the horse and exchanged arm grips with Bob and Andulin

"Rough time?" Bob asked

I jerked my head at Ariel and said "Ariel, maybe you can explain to Bob about the whole not being alive thing" She scowled at me a moment, then gave us a shy grin as she said "was I that bad?"

"Well, you almost had me convinced" I muttered as I walked over to the archway.

I pulled up the portal spell, and got the message to cast a blessing on the first archway. This time I got real results. There was a flare of light from the open archway, almost as if we had just connected it to the sun, but it disappeared in a blink to be replaced with a view of the alleyway in Riverbend. I thought it was going to stay that way, but it faded back into a view of the building behind our arch as I got the message

Portal formed

To allow others to use the portal, you must cast a portal blessing. If more than one portal exists, you will be asked which portal the person will use. A user other than the one casting the portal spell must receive a blessing specific to each portal they are allowed to use

Oh crap! I thought the damn thing would let anyone I had previously blessed use it. Now I had to go around and do it all again. Dang it.

"I'll be right back" I said, just before I stepped into the portal, then out into the alley in Riverbend.

Cool. I turned around to see the alley entrance, with nothing indicating it acted as a portal. I concentrated on not actually going anywhere and stepped through the arch, pleased to find I didn't actually end up back in Mudtown. Turning around again, I pictured it operating as a portal, then stepped through to find myself surrounded by my friends in Mudtown.

"Well, that works" I said with a grin "Who wants to visit Riverbend?"

Telina visited my dream again that night, interrupting one that kind of was a memory of what Mary and I had been up to before I fell asleep.

"Oh Man!" I yelled, sliding off the bed to find I was wearing clothes as Telina giggled into her hand. I looked down to see Mary sleeping, so I pulled the covers up a little to leave her a little less exposed, then frowned at Telina and said "Great timing there goddess"

She laughed out loud before waving a hand and putting us at my table in the tavern. I sighed and picked up the ale in front of me, before muttering "I liked the other dream better"

"I'm quite sure you did my priest" Telina said, leaning back in her chair "but it is hard to access your dreams unless they include only things from this world, and those seem to involve you and Mary doing...things" her grin was just plain mean, but she giggled before getting serious again.

"Dragonsbane" she said thoughtfully "potion maker. Portal creator. And bane of the cursed ones. You have been busy my priest"

"Yeah" I said "but you want to protect our people, so I want to neutralize the threat of the empire and eternals while it's just that, a threat. Word should be getting around about what happened to the cursed in Riverbend, which will drive the other cursed into either banding together or altering their ways. In the short term having them band together might be a pain, but it will make it easier to separate the sheep and wolves. The empire is going to be their natural base of operations since they'll want to protect their spawn points, so the portals will give me a means of quickly applying force when I need to. There's going to be some slop over of neutral eternals into the cursed camp, just out of fear, but we'll figure that out as we go. Overall the cursed are the cursed because they don't play well with others, and they'll drive away allies over time"

"What of your new companions?"

I shrugged and said "Ariel has potential, though she might do well spending some time with Maria or Dalmar. I don't really understand the whole, I'm not real thing, so I'm probably not the best one to convince her that serving something other than herself would be good for her. Sienna..." I considered for a second, then said "don't know"

"You underestimate your impact" Telina said thoughtfully "I think the warrior doubts because she buries her pain behind the belief it was not truly real"

"Oh" I mumbled, realizing that made a kind of weird sense

"But you are correct, my ranger would be the one best able to aid her through the dark periods ahead"

I chuckled and said "Your ranger? You know that whole laughing ranger thing is going to tick her off"

Telina passed my laugh back to me and said "You are quite wise in the ways of war my priest, but not so wise in the ways of women. She is mine because you are mine. The appellation pleases her greatly"

Say what? I'm not sure that actually made sense, or if it was meant to sound mysterious. Whatever. I nodded as if I followed, but said "Good then, glad that's cleared up"

She laughed as she stood up, saying as she turned to leave "You have created ripples that the powerful will soon begin to feel. My sisters will stir themselves soon to see what they can do to turn this to their advantage" she stopped at the door, looking over her shoulder to say "the Cup of Charity and the bowl in Telarin are links to my power, and as such, allow me greater ability to touch the lands of Tarinath" Then she left and I woke up in bed.

Yeah, yeah, I got it. Find more holy relic thingys.