The first thing that struck her after the portal snapped closed was the heat, they’d just left a cold dismal swamp still partially under a blanket of snow. Here heavy seedheads nodded on the grasses and the gentle breeze which swayed them smelled of green growing things and under it all the scent of rich earth that had never known the touch of ice.

The trees at the edge of the clearing amazed her, she was used to the huddled and short mean-spirited trees of the swamp. Trees which held onto their soil with a jealous and barely effective grip as the flowing water constantly tried to strip it away. These trees though were tall and straight, they’d never known what it was to struggle. They rose cleanly half a dozen man heights above the ground before a branch broke the smooth lines of their trunks, they’d grown with enough time and enough resources to truly grow beautiful.

As wonder at the sheer newness of everything faded slightly she looked back at where the portal had been and realised, she’d only travelled two horse lengths but she was further from home than any other of her tribe had ever been.

But it was not the furthest any tribesman had been. At the thought she felt a faint tug from the deep learnings, urging her onto the path she’d been shown. The first step was North, beyond the mountains.

Focusing on Aignew she sent, “What lies beyond the mountains? The path leads beyond.”

His cold voice whispered in the back of her mind, “I do not know, other than lands held by one of the Fae Chanar. My first master only ever paused here momentarily after crossing the barrier before teleporting far to the South, she did not like or trust the Fae Chanar who owned those lands and was concerned she may be ambushed every time she crossed.”

Pif had frozen and started trembling when she’d asked what lay beyond the mountains. She could feel his distress through the link and reached up to lay a hand on his shoulder.

He threw himself at her and wrapped his arms around her, trembling and broadcasting a dizzying, kaleidoscopic, mish-mash of random thoughts and images.

A man with the monochromatic colouration and severe features of a Fae Chanar who was identified as the ‘badbad-Master’ was doing things to the small Goblin while he was restrained on a table, cutting, injecting, slicing and stitching. All while chanting and all while Pif was wide awake and tortuously aware of every single slice and cut.

She saw Pif trying time and time again to do as he was instructed and failing, then another round of surgery as the Fae Chanar cut and sliced with greater and greater violence driven by his anger. She felt his pain, she felt the helpless terror of the next round of surgery every time he failed the tests.

But she also felt the hope and joy when another Fae Chanar man he thought of as the ‘good-good’ led him and the pitiful remains of his tribe out of a tall tower he thought of as the ‘place of PAIN’. Her eyes welled up a bit when she realised a large part of his current terror was she would be taken to the place of pain and suffer as he had.

She cuddled his trembling body and sent formless calming thoughts until he’d calmed down enough to receive more.

“Pffbt, we are strong together. Surely we can handle the badbad-Master.”

Still trembling he shook his head against her and sent, “No nice-nice. Badbad-Master makes those he makes go away stand and walk again. Devouring grey no good. Burnyburn no good. Can’t fight him. Don’t wanna fight friend after he makes them go away.”

Aignew sent, “If I got the fat dog’s jumbled thoughts right, this Fae Chanar is a Necromancer and that is not a fight we are well suited too. The animated dead are immune to curses, immune to mental manipulation, immune to Death Realm magic and incredibly hard to stop with damage.”

Nodding she sent to Pif, “By handle I meant avoid. But I would very much like to talk to this ‘good-good’ he would be a source of information, which we badly need.”

“Avoid fight? Talk to good-good? Can do!” Nodding furiously he wriggled to be let down then taking hold of her hand started tugging on it, “Come, come, we meet him at hidey barn.”

She swung up onto Horse’s back and settled Pif in front of her, clicking her tongue they set off toward the looming mountains peeking through the thick canopy.

Toward dusk the next day they reached the entrance of the pass and slightly apprehensive she set off. Banded cliffs of dark grey stone passed slowly as Horse’s hooves clopped softly on the clean stone in the centre of the path, avoiding the treacherous footing of the rubble and fallen boulders that lay against the cliff’s foot.

Darkness closed in, Raelea activated the enhancements she’d laid into her Implement and even in the gloom of the pass she could see as clearly as if it was day. Concentrating briefly she chanted the words of a small casting and Horse gained the exact same night vision.

The pass was long and Raelea’s eyes were dropping as they rounded a corner close to the end but she was instantly awake when she saw the lit windows of the small keep overlooking the path.

She wheeled Horse and galloped back around the turn, she hadn’t expected a guard post but she probably should have.

“Aignew, go see who is in that keep. Unless they are ready for a spirit you will be unseen.”

“Of course, my witch.” He left the back of her mind then she waited nervously for his return, sighing in relief when she felt him settle into her mind without an alarm being raised.

He said, “A dozen creatures lurk within. All but two are corpses that walk and those two are Fae. The keep is warded but only with vermin control wards and there are no living quarters so the guards must live elsewhere.”

“Hmmmm, how will we bypass them? Fighting the dead sounds like a fool’s errand and unlike you we can’t become invisible or intangible.”

“I will distract them, if I draw them deep into the keep you may pass safely.”

“That will work but we’ll need to know when the guardsmen changeover, meeting the fresh guards in the pass would not have a good outcome.”

“I can watch for that, my witch.”

“Do so and let me know. We’ll wait up the pass a bit.”

The silver lines of his face blurred as he nodded, turning away he vanished.

*******

The sky was brightening toward dawn when Aignew woke her and said, “The guard just changed over, two Fae arrived and two left. I checked what they were doing and the number of walking corpses has doubled, one is now spirit-ridden. The spirit is only a weak thing though and when it sensed me it trembled with fear.”

“So they know you were poking around. Excellent, a distraction will be easy to arrange then.”

“Yes, I have only to poke that spirit and it will wail most amusingly. I am certain I can separate the Fae and kill them easily.”

Her voice was sharp as she whispered, “No! I don’t want them dead. We do not want to alert any Fae Chanar that we are here at all. A random spirit, even a powerful one such as you nosing around can be ignored. Deaths will not be. I have no desire to be hunted again so soon.”

“But my witch, the dead can raise no alarm.”

“Really? We face a Necromancer, are you so sure the dead can raise no alarm?”

His voice quiet he said, “...you are correct. I had forgotten. Very well I will distract the guards as you sneak past.”

“I’ll let you know when we’re near the keep, ok?”

“Yes, but don’t be too long. I will go and plan out the distraction.”

Nudging Pif she woke him up interrupting his loud snores, getting out of the robe she started breaking camp as he dragged himself from the depths of the fur, grumbling loudly.

Munching on some cold rushcakes she rode Horse back to the curve that hid the keep from where she’d camped, “Aignew, I am ready.”

Soon she received, “My witch, they chase me through the catacombs under the keep. They are insane with rage and will not give up, I ate their spirit and half throttled one of them. You will be free to pass.”

She kicked Horse into motion and they swiftly galloped past the keep and out of view. Once they were well past she sent, “We are clear.”

He sounded annoyed as he sent, “I may have made a mistake, one of them while he is no Shaman has significant spirit handling skills. I have been bound and cannot flee the keep. No matter, I will allow myself to be banished. It won’t be harmful, as an added benefit they will ‘win’ and not think I had any other motive. I will see you in a day or so, my witch.”

“What? Are you sure, I can return and free you.”

“I am certain, remaining unnoticed is valuable and I will not be harmed.”

“Well, if you’re sure. I’ll see you when you return.”

Her sense of him was suddenly gone and she was alone as she hadn’t been since they’d been bound. The gateway of her magic was restricted but not by anything like as much as she’d thought it would be and the expected weakness the loss of her familiar should have caused was not present, odd. She put it out of her mind, she had other things to worry about.

She sent to Pif, “Which way?” and received no reply.

Contacting his mind directly, his thoughts were frantic and terrified, seeing the hooded form of the badbad-Master in ever shadow and darkened cleft in the rocks.

Driven by his terror she was compelled to wrap her arms around him and sent, “You’re safe, the badbad-Master isn’t here and Aignew has tricked his guards. He doesn’t know we’re here and he won’t learn we are so calm yourself, you’re perfectly safe.”

She felt his rigid body relax and he sent, “Badbad-Master was here when Pffbt left, nearly caught tribe. Naughty brain showing me, scared me. Pffbt feel better now nice-nice.”

“I’m glad, which way is good-good’s hiding place?”

He pointed along the path, “That way, little bit. Through trees to good-good’s hidey barn. Nice warm sleep and food.”

‘Little bit’ wasn’t very exact but the guard had just changed and it should be safe enough to follow the path, hopefully.

Horse ambled along the path which surfaced with loose stone and showed signs of heavy use, she sighed in relief when Pif pointed off toward a badly overgrown track after only a very short while. Pushing overhanging branches aside she urged Horse into the gloom under the trees.

She felt Pif’s confusion when they entered a clearing which held a large wooden building. It was ramshackle, weathered and greyed from years of exposure, the only paint left on it was in areas protected from the weather and even it was still peeling. The roof sagged at one end under the weight of years and there was a sense of long abandonment, this was not a place of people. Not any longer.

When she touched his thoughts Pif’s confusion was because this was not the building he remembered so clearly because of it’s association with good-good and the safety from the badbad-Master it had represented.

She sent, “How did you contact the good-good?”

“Had to kill a mark inside.” He tilted his head looking at the barn, “This not good-good’s hidey barn, was smaller. Had more furry-logs in walls. Is right place maybe mark still there. Pffbt can try.”

“Yeah. Might as well take a look since we’re here.”

Swinging herself off the horse she lifted him down and followed him into the dark interior of he barn, it smelt of old dirt and wet rot. Under the collapsed part of the roof an entire lake had formed, slimy looking wood fallen from the roof and greened straw from the hayloft above floated in it.

Pif scurried off toward the back wall of the barn which was built of larger rougher cut logs than the rest of the building. Charred patches marked it’s surface, hinting at what had probably happened to the rest of the original barn.

Dull grey energy ran up his arm and splashed over the wall, a rune on the wall flashed brightly as he ‘killed’ it.

“Nice-nice he’ll come now. We wait.”

She suddenly realised that if the Fae Chanar who came was hostile she was in a lot of trouble, she should have waited until Aignew returned at least.

“How long did you usually wait for the good-good?”

“Not long nice-nice.”

Almost before the thought had faded there was a muted crackle of thunder outside the barn and Pif spun with a huge smile on his face.

She heard a voice outside saying in Fae, “Who is that? Show yourself, slowly.”