The five of them camped in the mouth of the tunnel, after a bit of scouting around. Once they were assured nothing had nested in the access way and no creatures were prowling around the area, Erin, Layla, and Rory were asleep within minutes of hitting their bedrolls.

“Is it hard? Nae sleepin’, ah mean?” Maggie asked him.

“It’s nice, mostly. I’ve always been kinda solitary. I like my friends. And I sort of like the idea of people, but the reality is usually disappointing. It makes me happy to be able to watch over them, and that they sleep soundly knowing I’m here,” he smiled at the sleeping Chosen.

“Ah can see why he likes yeh,” she responded.

“I guess,” Jack shrugged.

“Get some sleep, Maggie. I feel like there’s more to this tunnel than fifty leagues of surprisingly smooth stone, and we all need to be ready tomorrow,” he quirked an eyebrow at her.

The elderly dwarf just chuckled, and laid her head down on the bedroll’s thick pillow. Jack quietly walked to the the end of the tunnel and stared up at the clear night sky, spattered with an endless riot of brilliant stars, two of the moons full and bright, one close to the horizon nearly so, and another only a fingernail in the sky. He squinted and looked for the final moon, but was unable to make it out.

Then he looked down from the otherworldly grandeur of the night, across the plains of the Hollow, out toward the storm, crackling with the occasional fork of lightning. The cool autumn wind blew across the mountainside, bringing a melange of scents to Jack’s supernatural sense of smell. He could make out a group of deer, each one the same smell, but somehow different. The overwhelming scent of the trees, in the beginning stages of their leaves falling. The wet mulch of the forest floors and the faint, not unpleasant scent of decay that accompanied the turn of the seasons.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

You there, big guy?

Jack felt his dark heart pulse in response, and the serpent’s titanic presence seemed to loom around him. The Nightfather’s voice was a whisper, though.

I AM ALWAYS WITH YOU, JACK.

Is this what it’ll be like? If we win?

THIS IS THE NIGHT, WHEN MY ESSENCE IS PRINCIPLE IN THE WORLD. IN THE TIME BEFORE TIME, ILANI PROVIDED ALL WHICH I AM NOT. WERE YOU TO SUCCEED IN YOUR TASK, AYRGARD WOULD RETURN TO A STATE MUCH LIKE THE TWILIGHT DREAM WHEREIN I VISIT MY BELOVED.

You mean it’s not real? The place where you two are together? I thought…

WHILE THE TRAITOR SUN STILL BURNS, ILANI AND I CANNOT TRULY BE TOGETHER.

I’m sorry. I can’t imagine.

IT IS A BURDEN OF WHICH I HOPE ONE DAY TO BE RELIEVED. YOU HAVE GIVEN ME HOPE, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MANY CENTURIES.

Can… can you tell me about… her? The other one? The one that’s hunting us?

I CANNOT. THE NATURE OF THE CHOSEN IS THAT EACH BEARS MY BLESSING AND A SLIVER OF MY DIVINITY. ONE FANG CANNOT CONSPIRE AGAINST ANOTHER, EVEN IF THAT FANG HAS GROWN ROTTED AND PAINFUL. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

Yeah. A little disappointing, but I sort of get it.

I UNDERSTAND.

What about Maggie? She’s been kind of a life-saver, so I guess I should say thanks for sending her along.

MAGGIE SHADOWBOUND IS CHERISHED AMONG MY REMAINING NIGHTPRIESTS, AND ONE OF THE VERY FEW EXALTED OF THE NIGHT REMAINING IN THIS WORLD. YOU MAY PLACE YOUR TRUST IN HER, JACK. SHE LOVED ONE OF YOU AS HER OWN SON, AND SHE WILL GIVE HER LIFE BEFORE BETRAYING YOU.

Well, that’s one less thing to worry about. I figured she was trustworthy when the party screen came up.

YOUR ESSENCE RUNS THIN. YOU MUST RETURN FROM THE WELL OF DARKNESS.

How? I thought you did this?

NO, JACK. FROM THE MOMENT OF YOUR BAPTISM, IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN YOUR WILL THAT FORGED THE BOND BETWEEN US. NOW, RETURN TO THE WAKING WORLD, NIGHTBRINGER.

Jack opened his eyes and took a deep breath. He could feel his mana drumming sluggishly in his chest.

“Heh. Didn’t even pass out that time. Suck it, Layla. Ooo… better not say that too loud,” he chuckled.

A shuffle of cloth behind him caused him to turn.

“Yeh alright, Jack?” Maggie was seated on the tunnel floor, legs crossed underneath her.

Jack could feel the Mark of Ouroboros on her chest drum in time with his heartbeat.

“Ah felt yeh call the Nightfather. Ah hope yeh dinnae mind me intrudin’,” she whispered.

“Never. I mentioned you to him, by the way,” Jack grinned.

The dwarf’s mortified impression was enough to cause Jack to burst into laughter, eventually forcing him to sit down in path between the mounds of gravel. The dwarf took a minute to regain her composure, but when she realized Jack was teasing her, the scowl of disapproval would have done his high school math teacher proud.

“Yeh should’nae kid about stuff like that, Jack,” she admonished him.

“Oh, I wasn’t kidding. I really did ask him about you,” he side-eyed her.

The dwarf’s eyes grew larger, and Jack bit his lip to stifle a laugh as she started to hyperventilate, then calmed herself again.

“Why would yeh do such a thing? Ah’m nae the thing you nor He should be concerned with!” she scolded him.

“Came up in conversation,” Jack replied serenely.

“Conversation… what now? Yer just callin’ up the Lord o’ Night as though he were on the other end o’ a Whisperwind spell?!” her voice had risen steadily.

“More or less. Costs me a lot of mana, though, so usually small talks,” he held up his fingers in a pinched gesture, a quarter-inch apart.

Jack laughed as Maggie sputtered, eyes wide, her incredulity rendering her completely unintelligible. Jack was sure she’d switched to speaking dwarvish halfway through her scolding, but now whatever she was saying apparently didn’t qualify as sentences to the translation power.

Over a minute of incomprehensible enraged blustering later, the dwarf finally calmed down enough to make sense.

“Yeh should’nae be usin’ a divine gift ta make small talk, Jackson! The Nightfather is… He… well… HE MUST BE BUSY, DON’CHA THINK?!” she fussed.

“Nah. I get the impression he’s sorta lonely and likes having someone to talk to,” the nightbringer responded blithely.

“Oh, Depths, Jack! He’s the Nightfather! He’s-” she started to reply.

“He’s lonely, Maggie. He can’t be with Ilani until we put out the sun,” Jack cut her off.

He watched the dwarf bite back the rest of her reply.

“And if making small talk with Big Noodle makes him happy, even a little, I’ll spend all my mana every sunset from now on doing it. It’s not like he didn’t give me double mana regeneration at night for a reason,” Jack’s voice was gentle, but his expression had turned stern.

“Ah suppose it’s not me place ta question yeh,” Maggie looked down.

“Question all you want, Maggie, but I’m gonna do what I think is right, regardless,” he smiled.

“Yeh really do remind me of me boy, Jack,” she sighed.

“What’s he like?” he asked.

“Dinnae know, now, really. Has been a wee bit. But back then. He were sure o’ himself. Stubborn. Strong. So strong. Could pull down the walls o’ a castle with his bare hands,” she mused.

“If you feel like telling, what was his… path, I guess?” Jack asked.

“He collected classes fer fun, but he were somethin’ called a software engineer back in yer place. He dinnae love it, really, so when he came here, he took Brawler, and the cave gave him Brewer as his second. Ah know he did somethin’ called craft brewin’ back home. He used ta call himself ‘brewmaster’ and ‘drunken brawler’, which ah guess were sim’lar ta some o’ the mountain empty-handed styles from Syndvold, over in Þorrvost,” she huffed as she answered, frustrated with the brawler’s antics even decades later.

Jack’s eyebrows had risen, progressively, as the dwarf talked.

“He really is just a big pop-culture nerd, isn’t he?” he whispered. “Wait, so, how did he become the Pirate King?”

“Well, tale is, when he went ta collect the Seal in Valla Corsa, some fool pirate crew tried ta mug him fer his belt… oh, Jack… he wore the biggest, most ridiculous belt. T’were big as a dinner plate. Said some nonsense ‘bout bein’ champion o’ the world on it. Anyhow, legend says some crew tried ta rob him, so after tossin’ em out o’ the tavern, he went down ta the dock and hauled their boat ta the shrine an’ broke it in half, then planted the halves in the ground like giant daisies,” she chuckled.

“I mean, is that true?” Jack quirked an eyebrow.

“Ah figure it’s likely. There’s a forest o’ such shattered hulls what make up most o’ the buildings in Valla Corsa now,” she winked at him.