Red and Skyeyes were having a lot of problems. They had managed to convince Thickhide to stop wearing his armor all the time, which was the only good thing they had managed. The villagers they spoke to were not as easy to persuade as the green kobold. Somehow, Skyeyes was not sure how exactly, the news of their travel had extended to the other villages after their first one. Group after group dismissed their proposal without even hearing it. Some didn't even allow them to come near the village itself, opting to catch them approaching and turn them away early. Each failure only made Red more and more angry, which left the white kobold trying to soothe her while the armor-clad one failed to comprehend what he'd done wrong the first time. The priest could only hope Merdon was having better luck with the orcs.

The trio of kobolds were checking one last village near the bay of Avant, some distance from Sedra. It was dangerous territory for them but, with the way Red had been fuming, Skyeyes was more concerned with the safety of any humans that tried to mess with them. After the kobold village on the beach, the priest was at a loss. They would have to go back to Verist and form another plan, scout more villages, something other than wandering around aimlessly. Even the serene surroundings weren't enough to lighten their moods. Waves crashing on the sandy shores seemed to only annoy the red kobold, while they distracted Skyeyes from his attempts to plan ahead. Only Thickhide cared enough to stop and gawk for a minute before running to catch up. He had never seen a beach before.

As they set up a small camp in a seaside cave for the night, Skyeyes took stock of their supplies with a sigh. Red had noted their steady decrease in food for a while. They were living on strict rations and none of them could hunt in the traditional sense. While the white-scaled kobold had suggested using his wolves to hunt something for them, Red declined on the idea of eating something a wolf, even a conjured one, had bitten. Their food supply wasn't that low and they could always return to the tower. At the moment, they just had to eat less and deal with it. It wasn't like they were starving, a fact Red was more than willing to point out.

“Hundreds of kobold slaves are suffering worse than we are,” she had told both of them the night Thickhide suggested they resupply at the tower. It was something Skyeyes remembered too well, and an argument the mage had brought up several times since.

They ate what they had and got as much rest as possible before dawn. Skyeyes was spurring them on as quickly as he could, trying to get ahead of this news of their arrival if they were able. It had to be something they could do, word of mouth just wasn't that fast and they hadn't seen any other kobolds traveling around and bringing word. At least not on their route. The priest was pondering it as Red and Thickhide awoke, the latter putting his armor back on before they got moving. He wasn't sleeping in it and that was all that mattered to Skyeyes. It could serve a practical purpose when he was awake after all.

Skyeyes led the way, with Red at his side questioning him about where they were going, just to be safe. He sighed and tried to recall everything he could. Most notably was how secluded the place was. Being near Sedra they had to be. The markings to find the village were even more hidden than the other ones and even less permanent. Certain marks in the sand that would wash out at high tide, pieces of driftwood placed in specific ways, signs the beach itself would take care of every day or so. Red was irritated by the cryptic ways of the kobolds too, but she had kept that better buried than her other problems. Until they started scouring the beach for wood. It took Skyeyes everything he had to not get angry back at her when the red-scaled girl threw a large plank into the ocean in frustration. He knew how she felt, but he also believed she was getting out of hand. The return to the tower would be good, and not a moment too soon.

“Is this what we're looking for?” the green kobold said, pointing at something that looked smashed against some rocks near the shore.

Skyeyes walked over and looked at it. He tilted his head, getting a better angle before nodding. “If it's not,” he admitted, “Then this is a very close accident.”

“Great,” Red muttered, following the priest. “So either we found it, or we're lost.” Back to square one with the beach and looking for driftwood.

The trio continued walking along the beach towards what they assumed was the village in silence. Skyeyes was watching for yet more clues that pointed to the kobold village, while Red was focused on bigger things. She started to notice tracks in the sand, faint at first, partly washed away by the tide. It was probably nothing, smugglers perhaps. Still, with a frown, she decided to ask Skyeyes about something important, something Thickhide wouldn't have been able to answer for her. It was just a matter of how to bring it up. Finally, she chose to be forward about it.

“Skyeyes,” she asked, getting his attention, “What do slavers that raid kobold villages normally do?”

The priest looked at her with confusion before replying. “Well, um, they normally approach in large groups. A dozen or so, with wagons, six men to a wagon, loaded with cages for transport. It makes them easy to spot for the few like Sarel that fight back, and for the guards that wish to protect the transports.”

Red nodded and glanced at the beach again. The tide was doing its job too well. She couldn't confirm anything anyway. There were no sure signs the marks were from wagons. Skyeyes, however, continued his talk.

“They also carry clubs, with a few more seriously armed with swords. Cuts and bruises heal easily enough on their own.” He shuddered at just how much he knew from his time spent traveling.

“What about spears?” Thickhide asked. “Merdon told me that you should watch out for spears with a sword. Their reach is deadly.”

The priest smiled and shook his head. He was proud of just how much awareness Merdon had drilled into the green one's head. “No spears,” Skyeyes assured him. “Or bows for that matter. Spears cost more than clubs, and since they'd be hard-pressed to avoid using the tip, it's easier to get a tree branch. Bows, much the same. An arrow will cause more damage than they want to. It's better to let one or two escape and try to track them to another village than deal with healing those they wound in such a manner. If they make it back to town with them alive at all.”

Thickhide shuddered. “Why wouldn't they live?” he asked cautiously.

“Infection,” Red guessed. “Too deep a wound and they'll get sick. A sword you can curb your blow, put shallow cuts. You can't half fire a bow.”

Skyeyes nodded. “Or, so I've been told,” he added with a shrug. “Suffice to say, such advanced arms aren't usually required for taking down kobold villages. In some cases, even a whip is more than enough to bring them in line. They would rather run than fight.”

Red huffed and went back to scanning the beach. Their unwillingness to fight was why they were having such a hard time getting the kobolds to join them. The few kobolds that were capable would have found these ones insufferable, as Red was, and left long before they came along. As much as it angered her, the mage was hoping that Merdon was having better luck with the orcs because they would need all the help they could get after the string of failures she had sat through. Perhaps he would bring some of the kobolds that lived up there back with him to drill sense into these ones.

She continued to tune out Skyeyes and Thickhide's chatting while they walked. The waves of the ocean helped a lot, but something slowly pulled her attention back to reality. Those tracks she thought she had seen were back, and they were a deal more pronounced. As the ocean's tide came in shorter and shorter, the trails became more obvious. Right up until she followed them to the horizon and stopped dead. The mage squinted and held out an arm to stop the other two.

“You said the slavers travel with a team of horses and wagons?” she asked carefully.

Skyeyes looked at her funny and then looked ahead. Now that he wasn't distracted by Thickhide and conversation, he noticed what Red had. Soft indents in the sand, lines, that trailed up into the distance. Lines that came to a stop at what looked like two wagons in a rough V formation ahead of them. The priest froze and his mouth gaped a little. He had no response, no idea what those were doing on the beach. Of course, the answer was obvious.

Red growled and sprinted, away from the beach and towards an outcropping of rocks that she could scale. Skyeyes hurried after her, with the armor-clad kobold in the rear. Thickhide opted to stay at the bottom of the rocks while the two lighter kobolds scampered up to the top as quickly as possible. From the vantage point, Red could see the village, just barely. Cages sat in the middle of it, each one occupied by two or more kobolds. With a quick glance at the wagons she could guess how many slavers there would be to fight. Two wagons, Skyeyes had suggested six per team, twelve slavers. Hopefully. The priest was watching next to her, getting the same information she was. The pair looked at each other and then descended the rocks to rejoin Thickhide and tell him what they saw.

Their plan of action was clear to Red. The villagers needed help regardless of what their stance might have been about their rebellion. Skyeyes was hesitant about their attack. Without Merdon or Sarel they didn't have a strong front line. If any of the slavers took down Red their hides would be skinned. Red had to remind him of Thickhide, much to the green kobold's approval.

“He's not exactly battle-hardened,” the priest told her. “It's not the same as Merdon or Quickclaw.”

“No,” Red agreed, “But it's what we have.” She looked at Thickhide and told him, “I'm going to start things. If, and only if, any of them manage to get close to me, you come in and get in their way. You only have to keep them away from me until I can take care of the rest.” She didn't imagine a couple of humans would like to risk their necks if the rest of their crew were dead.

The wannabe knight nodded eagerly, ready for his first real battle. An eagerness that made Skyeyes sigh. He had no idea what was waiting for him, but time was of the essence now. Something Red knew just as well, as she rose and started running towards the village. Thickhide sought to follow her until she pointed at some rocks to her side. The kobold dashed over and hid behind them, Skyeyes beside him, while Red stood to the front of the rock. Without delay, the mage ignited her hands and started raining fire down on the unsuspecting slavers. Those standing in the back near the wagons were the first to light up and their screams alerted the rest.

Red tentatively counted fourteen, just over Skyeyes' estimate, but well within her capabilities. She roared and started attacking them directly as they came towards her. The ones in the back had rolled enough to put their leather armor out, but the ones that rushed her were less fortunate. They were wearing simple clothes, likely the muscle just to watch cages. Their clothes and their clubs caught fire like kindling and left them shouting and rolling. One helpful man told them to run into the ocean to put themselves out. Unfortunately, the helpful man was unaware it was low tide, as was the mage. They watched with shock as a pair of flaming men dove into the water, only to scream and get sucked out to sea by a current. The one who suggested the act covered his mouth in horror, and the rest of the men wondered if they liked being burned alive or drowned. Red figured she would help them choose by launching more fire at them.

Skyeyes, in the meantime, found his way up the cliffs and down into the village as stealthily as he could manage. His staff in hand and the majority of the slavers investigating the fire, he found it easy to bash the head of the one unarmored guard amid the cages and set about freeing the kobolds locked inside with the unconscious man's keys. The only question he had then was where to take these freed kobolds. Their elder wanted to run, despite the gouts of flames spewing from the only direction out of the village. Up and over the cliffs was slow, it would expose them to the slavers, but they had little choice.

As he and Skyeyes debated that, Red faced her first and only real problem with the slavers. Four men in full armor appeared from inside the cove the villagers lived in. Her fireballs were largely ineffective against their steel shields. The flames weren't hot enough to melt them, nor did they linger long enough for the men to do anything other than walk through them. She started to back up, tossing fireballs at them even as the men chuckled at her seeming misfortune. Which was when Thickhide leaped from his hiding place, catching them at the side with his blade drawn. With a thrust and a battle cry, his blade found the gap in one man's knee joint, severing many important ligaments and tendons as he forced his blade through. The slaver yelled in agony and collapsed, giving Thickhide free access to his shield to help fend off the other three.

Their focus on the slippery armored kobold, Red was free to once more assault the less armored slavers. Her fire fell from the sky like the wrath of a god, lighting slavers and wagons alike. At some point, the horses were freed, which caused the beasts to whinny loudly and stampede around the flaming wrecks. The men were forced to avoid horse and fire until the creatures fled the battle and the carts burned around them. Humans choked and coughed in the smoke, trying to dodge the mage's spells. Some were more successful than others, but as they found themselves blinded by the aftermath of her attacks it was few who managed to escape towards her, their eyes filled with tears and smoke, leaving them sitting ducks.

Thickhide was having a much harder time with his enemies. One of them had managed to kick him to the ground once, but thanks to his tail he was able to rapidly right himself and reengage them. His goal was to simply keep two of them attacking him at all times, one against his shield, the other deflected by his swordplay. The third he needed stuck behind the other two. It was difficult maneuvering in such a way, but he was managing it with patience. Eventually, he recalled Merdon's lesson on flexibility in battle. Not every fight could be won with brute force, and so he tried to be more adaptable. After a swift parry with his blade, he dove between one of the men's legs, landing between him and the third slaver, who was just as shocked to see him there as the other two were to see him move. Surprised by his own success, Thickhide had trouble coming up with a way to capitalize on it until he saw the space between the man's chest piece and cuisse. An open hole to his stomach, which the green-scaled kobold took gladly, sinking his blade in and jerking it sideways as he dodged out of the way. With the other two spinning around to try and catch him, they watched as their friend was disemboweled before their eyes. A sight that caused Thickhide to pale considerably.

The smell of burning flesh, the screams of the dying, they brought a cackle to Red's mouth as she continued her vicious, fiery assault. To Thickhide, however, it seemed like an image from hell, and it wasn't until his opponents scraped a sword edge against his armor that he remembered what he was doing. His shield came back up and his sword went to the ready as their battle resumed with the two slavers more angry than ever. All of it was watched, silently, by the kobold villagers at the top of the cove. Their eyes were locked on the battle being fought, and won, by a mere two kobolds. To the ones that had lived sheltered and afraid it was like seeing a kobold fell a giant. They couldn't believe their eyes.

Those watching had no choice but to believe it as Red began to rout the slavers. The few that hadn't ran into her fire already started to see the folly in continuing the fight, unprepared as they were for a kobold with magic. After all, no one had ever heard of such a thing before, how could they have been prepared? They turned and fled back through the dark smoke created by their burning carts, while Skyeyes cheered Red on from the clifftop. Excitement and unsteady footing, however, led to a sudden problem, as a rock came loose and the priest slid. Try as he might to catch something, he ended up tumbling and sliding down the rock face to the sands below. His previous cheers had caught some attention, and so the armored slaver that had been stabbed in the knee was fast to react.

Skyeyes had been dazed upon landing, only a stone's throw away from the guard Thickhide had wounded at the start of the fight. The man's leg was destroyed, he wondered if a healer could even fix it, but seeing the white-scaled kobold gave him an idea. Using his one good leg and a great shout of pain, he propelled himself towards the priest and wrestled him to the ground, getting his sword out and holding Skyeyes hostage. His yell had garnered a few glances, but he made sure he got the red one's specifically.

“Stop!” he yelled, as loudly as he could over the chaos, “If you want to see your friend here live!”

Thickhide and Red both paused and looked at the injured man, giving the two sword-wielding guards a chance to bowl the green kobold over again and point their swords at him. Red, however, had a very different reaction. Her eyes widened and then narrowed in anger at the sight. She had shown a great affinity for flames in her training, but a marked difficulty with the other elements in a mage's bag of tricks. It was her greatest weakness. Whether because of her very focused mind pushing out other possibilities, or because fire was simply what she knew best, the other elements had eluded her. Until that moment of deafening rage.

Her ears filled with a rushing noise, whatever else might have been said was lost upon the mage. Anger flowed from her core out to her claws. The fight had gone on for too long, there were too many of them left. Red wanted to kill them all, to help her comrades. Not just the two that were pinned, but those on top of the cove's walls. Her fires dimmed, and the knight grinned at their victory. It was hard-fought, they had lost many men, but the capture of a magically capable kobold was the unicorn of their trade. A hefty sum, perhaps from the king himself, would be made from her alone.

Red inhaled and screeched, unleashing what had been building up inside her for the past several weeks in a single, soul cracking moment. Her claws crackled as she gestured sharply downward and let out a single word. “Verakt!”

Skyeyes looked at her with surprise for just a moment. In the next, Red's powers coursed through her and out into the world. The bright blue sky suddenly unleashed air shattering bolts of lightning upon the remaining slavers. In full armor, holding swords up like lightning rods, they were easy targets for her spell. All three of them were caught at once, as well as several more that had ran into the smoke to escape. Their vibrating shouts of pain came to an abrupt end as they all collapsed over onto the sand, which had turned to glass in places where Red's lightning struck. Thickhide pulled away from the bodies with a whimper, smelling the flesh that had cooked from direct contact with the electrified metal making him sick. He'd panicked the bolts may have jumped to his own armor, but discovered they remained contained to their targets. An act of magic, not nature.

Red collapsed to her knees and panted heavily, utterly spent from that last act of power. She felt like she could sleep for a week, but there was no time to rest. The kobolds needed to be relocated, spoken to, they needed to return from their travel before she could rest at all. Skyeyes, after pulling himself from under the dead slaver, rushed over to Red and put his hands on her. He focused and did his best to rejuvenate her, at least keep her on her feet until they were safe. Thickhide, the battle finished and his defenses no longer required, broke hard. He pulled his helmet off and ran past the two kobolds and vomited into the sea, much to Skyeyes' disgust. Still, the priest couldn't blame him. As Red recovered enough to stand, he turned and looked at the carnage the two had wrought, along with the kobolds coming down the cliffs. They seemed impressed.

Red nudged Skyeyes. “Go, give them your speech,” she told him. “I will rest here. I have a feeling this time you'll be heard.” It was the most positive she had been about their quest in weeks.

Skyeyes was a little hesitant to leave her, but he did. He sprinted over to the kobold villagers that were surveying the carnage first hand, some of who had gone straight over to Thickhide and started admiring him. The green-scaled kobold was shy about all the attention but he put up a brave face. The priest, meanwhile, gave his well-prepared speech to the elder and those that were gathered and listening. It took all of his effort, summoning up every drop of charisma he could muster, stepping into a role similar to a preacher rather than a plain devotee. When it was all said and done, the crowd looked fired up. More than likely it was because of what they had seen Red and Thickhide do, but Skyeyes was offering the chance to do it themselves.

“The other elders did you little favor,” the one before Skyeyes told him. “They sent word that you heralded false promises and doom, yet what we have seen you do is far above such descriptions.”

Skyeyes offered a tentative smile and asked, “How did they send word? We have not seen a kobold traveling near us. I thought we were being most direct in our paths.”

The elder smiled and pointed at the sky. “Birds,” he said. “We have trained many birds that can travel between villages, ones that are not targeted by hunters for their small sizes. Messages can arrive days ahead of foot travel and are rarely, if ever, intercepted.”

“Clever,” the priest admitted with a frown. “That explains why the other villages wouldn't even speak to us.”

“We shall see about that,” the elder reassured him. “After what you have done for us, it is likely the others will listen intently now.”

Skyeyes nodded and thanked the elder before asking next, “Where will you go? You obviously cannot stay here.”

“Yes, quite clearly we have been discovered, and the how is a mystery,” the elder admitted, looking at the smoldering wreckage of the carts. “Hopefully it was only misfortune and the humans have not figured out our signs.” Otherwise there would be no safe haven left.

Skyeyes shuddered at the suggestion. “It must have been luck,” he assured the elder. “Perhaps a scout from the town nearby saw one of you out hunting.” It was possible, even the leader of the village admitted it.

After some time, the elder told Skyeyes the village they were most likely to seek refuge in, and the priest gave him some idea of the traveling conditions that way. Of course, the villagers were not moving as a whole group. They were breaking up and traveling different ways, in smaller numbers. It would make them harder to find but more vulnerable if caught. Such was their world. With it out of the way, however, the priest was free to return to Red's side and see to her weariness, as well as prepare to take them back to Verist's tower where they could relax for a while and regroup. The only thing holding them up by that point was Thickhide and his new horde of fans demanding to know everything.

With some luck, he was able to dissuade them by mentioning the need to relocate. However, he also promised to discuss it with them all later, something Skyeyes felt he would regret in time. The green kobold joined the other two and asked about anything he'd missed. Red only shook her head and looked at the priest with a once more hardened expression. She reached into her robe and pulled out the coins, giving one to each of them while taking one for herself. Whether they needed it or not, she explained to them how to focus on the object and release the magic contained within. Skyeyes understood because of his experience with the magic ring on his finger, which he quietly noted would have been very beneficial in the fight before. His late realization both embarrassed and shamed him; he had never had much of a mind for fighting so it never occurred to him to use the ring. It should have. Thickhide took another run through to understand how to use the coin before being the first one to disappear. Red and Skyeyes followed shortly after.

Back in Verist's tower, the two late returners found Thickhide already animatedly speaking to the witch about his first real battle, all the things he had seen and learned, and glossing over the dirty details of death and destruction. A coping mechanism perhaps, the white-scaled kobold thought. Whatever the case, the witch asked the other two how their journey went more akin to the plan rather than individual experiences. Red was short about it, largely failure, one success, and she was tired. Skyeyes had to talk to her, later. For the moment, he sat down and spoke to Verist at length about their travels. Everything they had learned was integral to their plans, or it could be. Especially the birds the elders used to communicate with each other. It felt awkward explaining things to a human, but he was sure she would help them. For her own gain, if nothing else.

Verist took it all in, nodding thoughtfully. When Skyeyes was done, she told him, “Go ahead and rest up. We'll speak about the specific changes that need to be made later.”

The priest nodded and got up. He wasn't going to rest right away, however. He needed to speak to Red. Her outbursts during their travels had gotten worse over time. While he appreciated what it allowed her to do at the last minute before, he worried her anger would turn self-destructive with time. It wasn't too hard for him to find out where she was either. Verist's tower was large, but that only served to make it so the casual inhabitants had very specific places they liked to skulk. Red, for example, was fond of a small room with a view two floors down from Verist's own. She was sitting on a stool when Skyeyes entered, her eyes focused on the forest outside.

Skyeyes closed the door and cleared his throat to get her attention. “Can we talk?” he asked softly.

Red turned and tilted her head. “Sure? What about?” She didn't know why he'd asked or what he wanted.

The white kobold frowned and rubbed his arm. It was hard to bring up gently. “You seemed rather angry,” he started slowly, “for most of our trip. I know it wasn't exactly a vacation, but you appeared upset before we even left.”

The mage sighed and rubbed her face. “This again?” she complained. “Yes, I was angry. I'm tired of doing what humans want us to do. Verist, Merdon, slavers, I'm sick of it.”

Skyeyes nodded. “I understand, but the way you acted after we were turned away by the kobolds-.”

“Of course I was angry,” she interrupted. “We put our lives on the line and they acted like cowards.”

“Perhaps, but I want you to think about how all of that has affected you,” he finally managed to say. “You were angry, but the way you handled your anger wasn't … healthy.” Skyeyes had to stop himself from saying wrong. Wrong wasn't the right word.

Red stood up and crossed her arms. “So, what would have been 'healthy' ways to deal with it? Let them kill you?”

“That's not what I mean.”

“Isn't it?” she accused, stamping a foot. “Who knows if I would have been able to cast that spell if I wasn't mad.”

Skyeyes nodded again, he didn't know either. “That isn't what I'm talking about either,” he told her. “The way you slashed those kobold signs, how you spoke to Thickhide and myself, your short temper. If you act like this with us, how are you going to be with Verist, or Merdon?”

Red set clenched her teeth and scowled before asking, “What if I don't care?”

The priest blinked and stepped forward. “What do you mean by that?”

“What if I don't care what they think? What if I just hate humans.”

“You don't mean that,” Skyeyes said, reaching towards her. “You're angry, maybe a little hungry from the strict rationing, you just need time to cool off.”

Red slapped his hand. “I'm serious! I hate being in this tower, even if we are just here to plan how to free ourselves from the humans. I hate the fact we're working with them, that part of our stupid plan involves trusting them to help us after everything they've done.”

“What would Merdon think?” Skyeyes asked her. “After everything he's given up, what he did for you in Ardmach.”

“I didn't ask to be in Ardmach!” Red shouted. “I'm grateful he broke us out, yes, to him only. But, trusting Verist? His scheme to tell the world about the Eyes of Ethral and make the humans join our cause? It's insane, stupid.”

“I don't think it is,” Skyeyes said with a frown.

Red sighed. “You've always been too much of an optimist.”

Silence hung between them for a good while. Skyeyes didn't know what to say. Eventually, he murmured, “What happened to you, Skravna? To the kobold that risked herself to warn a stranger?”

Red shook her head. “Nothing happened to me, Shistra. You want to know what happened to Red,” she told him. “Red was the slave, the one that was broken, cowardly, afraid. I am the one that was free, willful. Now I am both of them. It is unreasonable to think I would be unchanged by my past.”

Skyeyes nodded once more and turned around. “I guess I just underestimated how much,” he said sadly.

“Perhaps so,” Red added, sitting back down and looking out the window once again.

The next few days were just as tense. While Thickhide and Verist spent much time together, Skyeyes and Red were apart. At least, until they were called to Verist's room one afternoon for an emergency. Despite their difference of opinion, the two did support the rebellion, one way or another.

“Avant's mages have discovered a way through my forest,” the witch told them as they arrived. She pointed outside at the troops marching through the trees. Behind them, mages were channeling a spell, allowing them passage. It would only take minutes for them to get through.

Red sneered at the sight. “Do you have a plan?”

“Of course,” Verist said with a wave of her hand. “I'll need some time to prepare it, however. I wasn't expecting them, you know.”

The red-scaled kobold huffed and pushed the window open, lighting a fire in her hand and throwing the flame out towards the forest below. The knights shouted and scrambled as the fire burst and spread around them. She would keep them as busy as she could. Skyeyes looked out with a frown. This was not good.

Their problems only grew when a flash of light caught everyone's attention, and in the middle of the room appeared Merdon. Carrying a bloodied and groaning Sarel in his own wounded hands. Skyeyes paled and rushed over to help them while Verist frowned and turned back to her preparations.

“When it rains it pours, huh,” Red muttered as she hurled another fireball out the window.

Merdon looked at them with confusion. “What's happening?” he asked. “Skyeyes, Red, why are you back?”

“Long story,” the priest said as he began healing Sarel. “What's important is … the tower is under attack.”

The knight's stomach sank. “And the majority of the orc chiefs were just slain by the Eyes of Ethral.” Everyone stopped and looked at him.

“Complete torrential downfall,” Red said through her teeth.