“It is here. Slay the beast.”

“What’s this? Hello?”

Dread filled the hearts of the three companions huddled together in the flat as they recognized the voice of the creature outside. But it was muffled. Still possibly a few feet away, but the footsteps that echoed through the air were growing closer. Theihdow had seen the hatch, or so they all feared.

“You’re here early, little horn-biter. Dawn is still a few hours away, let me hold onto you.” Theihdow muttered to himself. Even though he was talking to himself, his voice was loud enough to make its way into the flat. And even though he was, or at least it seemed he thought he was, alone, his voice was the same monotonous and plain tone that conveyed very little emotion.

With no idea what would happen next, Flip and Dovhran shared a conversation of looks. Neither was entirely sure what the other was saying, but they seemed to be in agreement that they were both at a loss of how to proceed. And as they ended their conversation and looked to Selian, they saw the elf with her hands clutched over her mouth and her knuckles bone-white and straining to keep her silent. And both the wizard and mercenary understood immediately what she was afraid of. It was entirely possible that the moment Theidow asked himself another question she would be compelled to answer him truthfully and out loud. Flip realized that it was a small miracle she hadn’t blurted anything out already.

Anticipating the worst, Flip held up his hand and pointed both his index and little finger to the hatch. And with barely an audible word, he began to mutter an incantation.

Sound and fury, be not here.

Discovery coalesces into fear.

But I must speak loud and clear.

These secrets must stay close and near.

And no soul near or far may hear.

And with little to no warning, the sound of the creature outside ceased. Flip let out a loud breath, which immediately caused Dovhran’s eyes to bulge in alarm, but the wizard held up his hands to assuage his panic.

“I’ve cast a silence spell. It forms a barrier that sound does not pass.” As Flip explained quietly, his two companions relaxed. Selian even loosened her grip over her mouth and leaned back where she sat. “He should not be able to hear us, but we will not be able to hear him either. For now, that should be a worthwhile trade.”

No sooner than Flip had spoken, however, than the sound of footsteps resumed.

Flip had felt the spell succeed. He had felt the shift in the air as the sound beyond the point he chose had be obscured. But now it seemed that it had been just as quickly and easily undone. But before the spell could be cast again, and in truth before the wizard could adequately react at all, there was a knock on the hatch.

It was not a violent sound, nor was it excessive or inherently menacing. It was the sort of knock you tapped out on your neighbor’s door when you needed to borrow oil for your lamp because you had forgotten that your brother was riding into town late that night and he needed to be able to see which doorstep was yours and you didn’t have any oil to spare for the lamp that usually went out on the front stoop. Just three light taps. Not hard, but not so soft that they didn’t reverberate throughout the flat.

“Is anyone home?”

“Burn it away. Bash the door. Smite the beast. Tear it asunder.”

Flip ignored both voices. All he could do was glare at the relatively flimsy piece of wood that separated him from something so terrifying that he knew he would be slain by it in moments.

Selian was once again clutching her own mouth desperately attempting to delay any sort of forced response to the question. But she could tell it was a futile effort. It was only a matter of time before her muscles began to weaken and whatever power she was under took hold and forced her jaw to move.

Dovhran had silently moved close to the hatch itself. Without a single sound he had positioned himself, dagger in hand, to stab the creature when it came through. Because, for the changeling, it was not a matter of if it would be able to break through, but when.

And while all three waited in their various states of suspended horror.

Nothing happened.

Until the voice came again. “I can smell the three of you in there… and around my tent. I would like to talk to you without having to shout through this… wooden hatch in the ground.”

“And as soon as we crawl out you’ll kill us.” Dovhran shouted back. “We’re not stupid. You don’t want us to get any closer to where we’re going, and we don’t trust you to let us go back the way we came.”

“I wouldn’t think less of you for coming out to speak… nor would I want to hurt you. I’ve learned how dangerous you can be. And how tenacious you are. To have stricken me so close to oblivion and to have withstood my storm safely… then to find your way here before even I could. I am afraid you may be underestimating yourselves.”

“And I’m afraid that you seem to be overestimating your skill in deception if you think that is going to persuade us to deliver ourselves into your hands.” Dovhran responded again.

Neither Selian nor Flip had any interest in cutting in at that point. They were already defeated. They knew it. They could wait all they wanted in the frail safety of the flat, but eventually they would run out of food or water and then they would be as good as dead. Flip felt deep down in his heart that he was at a disadvantage, and he could see the same conclusion on the faces of his companions.

“I suppose you can’t know for sure. But you will have to come out to see me eventually. Or so I assume. Unless your wizard can transport you back to safety.”

Dovhran looked to Flip as their solicitor paused in his speech. The wizard shook his head in the negative. He had thought over the process of transportation magic, but it was not a field he was comfortable experimenting in; especially under duress. Even his uncle had left only passing notes on the topic, as he also had been timid in that field.

“And you’ve already made contact with someone else, so I suppose they’ll know what sort of predicament you’re in. So killing you to preserve anonymity, to a degree, is out of the question.” Theihdow paused again, this time giving the hatch a much stronger rap with his knuckles. “And really, it would be so much easier to talk to you if you were up here.”

With a look of confusion on his face, Dovhran turned back to his companions. He mouthed the words ‘made contact’ with a questioning look on his face, but was met with palpable confusion. No on in the flat seemed to be entirely sure of what that had meant, or if it was some sort of strategy to persuade them out of the flat. Flip suspected the cause behind it, but was unsure and so answered with outward confusion.

“You seem to be contemplating something. Perhaps a bargain will persuade you to risk at least one of your party. Selian Farwysher. Cursed daughter. Come see me and I will absolve you of your obligation to speak the truth to me.”

“Just me?” Selian called out, finally speaking up and leaving Dovrhan baffled.

“Just you.”

With a sigh and a shrug of defeat Selian rose to her feet and strode over to the hatch. There was still hesitation on her face, still that look of defeat, but now something akin to peace as well. Peace that she had accepted her fate, and almost certain death at the hands of an invincible monster.

When Selian opened the hatch and stuck her arm out to pull herself up and back into the real world, Dovhran half expected to see her be pulled clean from the flat in a violent attack and never be seen again. Flip had a similar image in his head. However, both anticipated outcomes never occurred. The elf pulled herself out of the hatch and stood, nearly face to face with Theihdow. Both took a step away from each other in mild discomfort, and then Theihdow sat down by the hatch with Selian following suite on the opposite side.

“Calf liver is delicious.” Selian announced to herself as a test. She was immediately satisfied with the discovery that she could lie again without restraint.

“A lie, I take it. I for one have never enjoyed the offal of a beast of burden.”

“Well. You have me here. I am alive. I can lie again.” Selian announced loud enough that her companions could easily hear from within the flat. “What is it that you want?”

“I acknowledge that you are all quite capable. You yourself are keen eyed and equipped with exceptional reflexes. You did managed to stab me after seeing merely a shred of my cloak out of the corner of your eye in the dark. And your wizard, he casts spells I have never before seen nor heard of… and he very nearly destroyed me. And beyond that, he has, I assume, constructed this very interesting device which has hidden you. Your changeling, while simple in thought, is possessed of a spectacular will. Even seeing me in such a nightmarish state, he threw a dagger at me, even amid his fears he sought to survive. And though he accomplished nothing in his pursuit of slaying me, I doubt either you or your wizard noticed.”

“You won’t win our trust through flattery.” Dovhran hissed from his post near the hatch opening.

Selian had left the hatch open, and though Flip knew that the spell that made the flat would only allow those that he specified to enter, being able to see into the outside world made him nervous. Whether or not Thiehdow’s abilities could penetrate into the flat remained unknown.

“I don’t plan to. I could have killed you all already… though perhaps you could have incapacitated me again just as quickly.” A slight smile began to play across Theihdow’s face as he spoke. “You might be surprised to know that my body is quite frail and always has been… though I suspect you still think of me as some horrible and un-killable monster. Such an assumption is only half correct. I am merely an elf possessed of some power and a desire to protect the world from the dangers that lie in wait within the heart of this region. However, as I know you three are also quite capable, indeed more capable than I initially suspected, I would like to come to a different arrangement than I at first proposed.”

“Are you talking about when you said you would kill us?” Flip interrupted loudly. The realization of what Theihdow was talking about made each person in earshot more uncomfortable than they already had been.

“I never announced as much, though it was what I had decided upon when I conjured my storm... just before you had torn my body apart.” Theihdow’s calmness had become haunting. “Though, I suspect now that such an endeavor would be incredibly difficult for me to carry out. Both because I am more acutely aware of your abilities and because I have come to admire your tenacity.”

With a sigh similar to Selian's, Dovhran climbed out of the hatch himself and sat down on the ground outside. The changeling placed himself several feet further away from Theihdow than Selian had and knelt rather than stood as he spoke. “I don’t trust you. But I would like to know your proposition.”

“I would like to accompany you to your destination and remain there while you carry out your business.”

“A horrible idea!” Flip shouted from within the flat.

“He’s right, that’s a horrible idea.” Selian confirmed the obvious assertion. “You have no way of reassuring us that you won’t try and kill us in the night… or at any other point along the way.”

“I presume you have some restriction which prevents me from entering your hatch, so I would be unable to kill you in your sleep. And you stand a fair chance at surviving a direct and conscious attack.”

“You said you could have killed the three of us already when two of us were still within the hatch.” Dovhran growled as he pointed out the inconsistency.

“The hatch was open. I do not believe I could harm you with the hatch closed. Though I could test that hypothesis. I may well be incapable of harming you even now with it open. As I said, this is magic I am unfamiliar with.” Theihdow analyzed the hatch from a distance as he spoke. “Regardless, I have no intention of harming you for the time being. If you happen to have a spell that would determine my truthfulness, we could speed this negotiation along much faster.”

Without waiting for permission or suggestion, Flip made his way over to the small pile of items that Dovhran kept stored away in the flat. He recalled. in their first encounter. the mention of a spell scroll that could create a space where lying was impossible. A truth telling spell. Such magic was common to certain holy figures, including the forger in Builend; a fact which Flip recalled with some unpleasant memories. After some rummaging Flip uncovered a crumpled spell scroll from the mess, and with some additional scrutiny felt confident that the scroll contained the pattern for that spell. Though Flip was not entirely sure, as the spell was entirely outside of his realm of knowledge.

“Here. Take your spell scroll.” Flip, reluctantly, raised his arm out of the flat and held the crumpled parchment up for Dovhran to take. “It reeks of floral wine, I think your flask is leaking.”

The interruption was timely, as Dovhran had become increasingly uncomfortable with the situation he had placed himself in. He had exited the flat as a display of confidence, playing in to the assertion that Theihdow had made regarding the abilities of their traveling party. He wasn’t sure if the stranger was being honest or not, but he wasn’t going to disagree in case the stranger was lying but wasn’t entirely sure how powerful their group was. Even as Selian and Theihdow had begun to exchange increasingly more puzzling logic based questions to each other regarding their ability to trust the other, Dovhran strode over and plucked the spell scroll from Flip's hand.

“Stay in there, wizard. This spell has a short range and I don’t want us all out here in case he decides to kill us for some reason.” Dovhran was careful to exclude Flip’s name as he addressed him, as he recalled that Theihdow only knew Selian’s name.

No one else moved as Dovhran smoothed out the parchment and began to follow the patterns and instructions laid out on it. After some hand gestures and the recitation of an incantation in a language Flip didn't know, the parchment began to smoke and then quickly dissolved into ash. Flip felt nothing, but saw the demeanor of the three sitting outside shift as the spell took hold.

It would finally be time for answers.