Serena looked at the ritual before her. It had been about half a year from the time she had entered the Shadowfell. In that time the portal had barely filled its store of mana.

No matter what she tried, it simply didn't fill faster. Only direct donations of power had any effect. Even when she attempted to saturate its environment it drew power at the same slow steady speed.

Several days had passed from her fall, and she had finally gotten used to get new body. Mana flowed through her much smoother now, the lingering connection to the Divine she had possessed disturbing it.

Ragthur had visited the other day, as every adventure sensitive to power had reported a huge wave of mana. At the time Serena had pointed to her transformation and blamed it on her fall. She had a feeling he was suspicious that wasn't it though.

Peering at the ritual once more, Serena was forced to accept that it would take years for it to fill, even with her help. She needed to stop isolating herself from everything, of that was the case. It would be unfortunate of she turned into a hermit before it opened.

Moving through the air, Serena approached town. After a few trips the guard had become used to her dropping directly into the Adventurers guildhall, reducing the looks she received from people on the street.

Looking around Serena was happy to see Talsira sitting at one of the tables, repairing some of her arrows. Sliding into the opposite chair, Serena said, "Hey. Do you have any tasks you need help with?"

"Sure, always nice to have extra help. You need more friends though."Talsira said, before looking up, "What in the Abyss happened to you!"

"But no one can understand me! Only a few people in the area speak draconic."Serena said with a sigh, ignoring the question.

"So learn under common," Talsira responded, rolling her eyes, "though more people should learn draconic. They're adventures, what are they gonna do if they meet a dragon? It won't care if they don't understand, it'll just eat them."

"That's exactly what my teacher said, while beating it into my head."

Smiling at each other, the two girls continued on.

An hour later Hiemal joined them and the trio started moving. The Tieflings had selected a mission to aquire some wrethierin horns, evidently used for wand making and as an ingredient for runic paint (that's what Hiemal said, at least). Serena had seen some of the nasty creatures to the Northwest of her home, just beyond her territory.

Wrethierins where owl like things with a mouth that had razor teeth instead of a beak. Their horns where six tiny points on the top of their head, used to sense skiterlings hiding with Shadow magic, or any other use of magic for that matter.

Talsira moved ahead, the only one who could sneak up on the creatures. She circled around as Hiemal and Serena spread out into a triangle. Serena scanned the tree, counting the wrethierins. Seven in total, three more then they needed to complete the request. Those would be Serena's share, as she wanted to try her hand at reproducing some of the magic traps she had found in the dungeon.

Talsira and Hiemal moved to attack in a unison built by years of fighting together. Talsira's arrow catching one while Hiemal forced another to retreat towards Serena. The others quickly followed, one being caught by Talsira's follow up shot.

Serena threw up a web of mana to keep them from escaping. It wasn't Void, she didn't want diced nightmare owl splashing on her after all.

Caught in the trap, Talsira and Hiemal made short work of the remaining five wrethierins. Grinning at a job well done, the three adventures started their trek back to town.

Serena looked down at the trap in front of her. She had created it using the runic paint made from the wrethierin horns and a couple drops of blood, mixed with water.

It was by the main entrance to her home, she never used the door anyways as it was simpler to step through the Void.

Humming happily to herself, Serena started setting up defenses for when she was away.

This was the longest scout/patrol Serena had gone on, moving far away from the area she usually though of as her territory.

Casting her senses far out, she searched for any magic response. After two days of looking, she had found one.

Gazing down, she saw a goblin encampment. Not some twisted dark version of goblins, just goblins. Serena found herself mildly impressed that they haden't been eaten by some passing Shadow.

The camp was small, only having five true structures of any kind, if they could even be called that. The whole thing was surrounded by outward pointing spikes, with sentries posted at intervals. The magic response was coming from the one building that deserved the name. It appeared, from the paraphernalia covering it, to be the home of a shaman.

Deciding a raid was in order, Serena folded her wings and went into a dive. Landing in front of the hut she pushed in past the skins covering the entrance as the rest of the camp became a mess of screaming, flailing goblins.

Inside reminded her of the inside of every spellmongers shop, combined with an apothecary. The shaman was covered in strange charms, and wore an elaborate headdress with small bones hanging from it.

It (she couldn't figure out what gender it was) looked startled before raising its cane.

"VOIDBOLT" it incanted, while its free hand grabbed and broke a charm.

Serena's eyebrows rose as she looked at the attack.

Void? It's trying to kill me with Void? What an amusing creature.

Drawing on the Void herself, Serena banished the small bolt and the shaman's cane. "You think you can harm me with a tiny fragment of Void? I can walk through its core unharmed."

The poor creature feel to it knees.

"Sorries Great One! I will serve if Great One spares my life! Have my minions too!"

...What?