The only people left in the cavern, other than the party, were Alex and the Braxian lady who had betrayed her people, both of them lying bleeding on the ground.

Ceres sprinted over to Alex first.

‘Heal!’ she cried before she had even reached him, flinging out her hands. A familiar white light shone from them, and something like glitter fell in the air around his prone body, twinkling like starlight, with a faint musical ringing.

The mysterious white-haired man opened his eyes.

‘What happened?’ he said.

But Ceres was already attending to the Braxian woman, running to her in turn and casting the same spell.

Horatio was not so sure about this.

‘What are you doing, Ceres?’ he said as he reached them. ‘That lady is a Braxian!’

‘Yes,’ joined Primus, ‘what are you doing? She is of the enemy!’

‘I know exactly what I’m doing!’ said Ceres as she finished casting her spell. ‘You saw her with your own eyes! She stepped in and deflected that Braxian captain’s blow, then took one herself. If it hadn’t been for her then he would have killed Alexander with the Clarent Sword. She’s clearly not of the enemy. Everyone has the potential for good in them, and this woman has discovered it.’

‘Yes, that’s right…’ said the woman herself, blinking and sitting up. ‘I am no Braxian. At least, I’m not any longer…’ She looked down at the small pool of the blood she had lost that puddled on the cavern floor next to her, then at the tear in the shoulder of her blue robe where the Braxian champion had cut her with the Sword. Unmarked pink flesh peeked out from underneath, from which Horatio averted his eyes. ‘Oh. You healed me,’ she said to Ceres. ‘Thank you.’

‘Of course,’ said Ceres, ‘Qind’s kindness compels me. What is your name?’

‘Ursula.’

‘And how do you come to wear the trappings of the Cult of Brax, Ursula?’

The others all gathered round to hear Ursula’s story, even Alex, the hearing of his own mysterious story deferred for a moment in favour of this woman who had seemingly saved his life.

‘I was a Cultist in Braxia for many years,’ said Ursula, ‘A shaman, in fact. But then one day I realised that I could not serve Brax any longer, and decided to work against them instead, as a sort of undercover agent from inside.’ She had long, thick, flowing purple hair which fell down over her cultist’s robes, and a kind of furious sadness in her blue eyes. In many ways she was like a mirror of Ceres, Horatio reflected–a priest of the darkness, rather than the light. Although it had turned out that she was not so complicit with the darkness after all…

‘What made you betray them?’ Wyvera asked.

Ursula’s gaze went away for a moment, then returned. ‘I became sickened by their practices. Terrible things go on in Braxia, and among Braxians. Terrible, horrible, disgusting, perverse, wicked and evil things. And for many years I joined in with them, and loved them. But then one day something happened which changed me and…’ She paused. Her voice had cracked on “and”. ‘I am sorry,’ she went on quietly. ‘I cannot speak of it. Maybe sometime in the future I will tell you. All you need to know for now is that I am not a Braxian. I am, however, a very powerful magic user [maybe she should have used magic to stop Othello, rather than just pushing him out of the way? Like a Tornado II spell? Perhaps that would be more consistent.] I would join you in your quest to retrieve the Clarent Sword to defeat the Demon King, if that is in fact what you were trying to do.’

‘Of course that’s what they were trying to do!’ said Alex all of a sudden, breaking the silence he had briefly kept while he had apparently been waiting to find out Ursula’s story. ‘And now, thanks to you, all of you, the Sword has fallen into the hands of the Braxians! I can’t believe it!’

He seemed completely ungrateful that Ursula had saved his life–if he was even aware of this. [Is he aware?]

‘Where did the Braxians go, anyway?’ asked Silvia.

‘They will have teleported back to the southlands,’ said Ursula. ‘There is a spell which all Braxian magic users are taught which will instantly transport them and any Braxians or monsters in the vicinity back to Braxia. We are supposed to use it immediately if we ever capture a Qindian champion, or find any of what have come to be called “Qind’s Treasures”--items of great power prized by the forces of light, like the Clarent Sword.’

‘You mean there are other powerful items like the Clarent Sword?’ said Egea.

‘Yes–though the Clarent Sword is thought to be the most important of them, and the most powerful offensive weapon among them–the only weapon that can harm the Demon King Brax.’

‘That’s right,’ said Alex, ‘and I’ve been travelling around collecting them, not you! They’re my items of power, created by Qind for the Chosen Hero of Destiny, not for you!’

‘But how do we know that you really are the Chosen Hero of Destiny,’ asked [Horatio], ‘and that it wasn’t one of us who was meant to retrieve and wield the Clarent Sword?’

‘Hello! I’ve done this hundreds of times before! Supernaturally long life, remember?’

‘You seemed to go down pretty quickly when the Braxians attacked you,’ said Wyvera.

‘They took me by surprise! And there were so many of them! I was completely overwhelmed. I’ve never been attacked by so many Braxians in one of my equipment hiding places before!’

‘What is he talking about?’ said Ursula. Apparently the Cult were unaware of Alex’s mysterious claims to be the Hero of Destiny.

‘We’ll explain later,’ said Silvia.

‘I’ve done this hundreds of times before,’ repeated Alex, ‘but this is the first time that Brax’s followers have ever succeeded in holding me up, and it’s certainly the first time that they’ve ever gotten hold of the Clarent Sword! I don’t even know what to do now! And it’s all thanks to you; it’s all your fault, you useless “adventurers”!’ He jabbed his finger at all of them one by one as he spoke, but the bulk of his rage fell on Primus and Olivia, whom he identified (correctly) as the ringleaders of the quest. ‘You had to interfere and meddle and mess everything up!’

‘But…’ Olivia said, tears pooling in her eyes. ‘I had a vision…’

‘Yes,’ said Alex, ‘and thanks to you following your vision, you led the Braxians right to the hiding place of the Sword. Nobody’s ever succeeded in crossing all of the obstacles and dangers and fighting off all the monsters to get here before. I thought this was a good enough hiding place for it! But somehow you managed it, and the Braxians followed you here. That’s what happened, isn’t it?’

‘Er…yes,’ said Ursula. ‘At first they were only interested in you because you were growing into a powerful monster-slaying band, and because the mage’–she nodded at Primus–’had let slip that you’–she nodded at Olivia–‘were a powerful seer. But then one of our spies, who was sent to infiltrate your ranks when successive Braxian captains failed to assassinate you, discovered what it was that you were seeking, when you spoke openly about that on your voyage to the Wastes. When he did, he sent word about it. I imagine he must have tried to thwart you himself, but even though he may have failed in that, the damage was already done: The Cult had found out about the Sword, thanks to their spy.’

‘The Magician, Owen…’ murmured Horatio, working out what had happened.

‘That’s right,’ said Ursula. ‘Him. When we got word in Braxia a huge cohort of monsters and generals was assembled and teleported to the Waste by means of a great spell. I asked to be part of the ambush party, seeing this as the largest and most important opportunity to frustrate the plans of Brax that I would ever get. But I failed… I was scared, and waited too long to reveal myself and attack... They still got the sword…’

‘It’s my fault!’ moaned Ross. ‘I spoke openly of the Clarent Sword on the voyage to the Waste. If I had never done that, Oh, woe!’ He held the back of his hand to forehead, and wept openly.

‘Don’t be too hard on yourself,’ Ceres tried to comfort him, putting a hand on his shoulder. ‘Qind forgives all who sincerely repent. You weren’t to know. You were only trying to recruit more fellows in your noble quest.’

‘What do we do now?’ Horatio said. He thought it was a pertinent question.

‘What do you do now?’ said Alex. ‘What do I do now, is more like it! What you do is that you go back to your homes and families, if you have them, and pray to Qind that you will be spared in the coming onslaught of the Demon King Brax! He has never gotten hold of the Sword before, and now that he has Gard is in more danger than it has ever been in its entire history! The balance of the world has been broken! Until I somehow restore it and get back the Sword, you should go into hiding. I don’t even know how I’m going to get to Braxia fast enough to win back the sword before they summon Brax and put it into his hands. I don’t think I can. I don’t know any of these Braxian “summoning” or “teleportation” spells…’

‘Um,’ said Ursula, ‘that’s where I might be able to help.’

‘Huh?’ said Silvia.

‘Well, I am a former Braxian. I know the teleportation spell that can transport us there.’

‘How come it didn’t work on you when they used it, anyway?’ asked Egea. ‘Why didn’t you get teleported back to Braxia?’

‘The Braxian who worked the spell must have deliberately cut me out of it. They must have just had time to do that, but not to modify it so that it left the monsters here. [Or maybe some monsters were left, and there can be some more battles before all this dialogue? Hm.] (Normallly the spell only works on Braxians, or apparent Braxians [identified how?] and monsters.) But I can modify the spell so that it works on non-Braxians–that is, all of you and, now, me as well.’

‘You can?’ said Alex. ‘Do it! Do it now, lady!’

‘Hey!’ said Egea. ‘You’d think you be a little more polite and grateful to her? She did just save life, after all!’

‘Fools,’ said Alex, dismissing her with a wave of his hand. ‘You have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t need “saving”. I was doing just fine with the Braxians!’

‘You didn’t look like you were doing fine to me.’ said Helen. ‘You looked like you were unconscious, with a head wound.’ [Was he unconscious?]

‘Argh!’ grumbled Alex. ‘I don’t have time for this! Just teleport me to Braxia so I can get back the Sword as soon as possible.’

‘Hold on now,’ Horatio spoke up, ‘if she’s teleporting any of us to Braxia, then we’re all going.’ He looked around at the other party members. ‘We all want to come to help get back the Sword. Don’t we?’

One by one, they all nodded solemnly.

‘Qind wants us to try,’ said Ceres. ‘I know it.’

‘I’ll come if I can continue to serve as the group’s merchant,’ said Egea. ‘And Gramps hasn’t said yet that he won’t pay me for sticking around. Plus it’s not like I have any other way of getting back to [next continent down], anyway.’

‘Well, quite,’ said Primus. ‘Young lady, I have not said anything about continuing to pay you, but I do still owe you your pay for the journey thus far, and as far as I’m concerned, if we survive this ordeal then I will go into business with you and you can open a shop in Fyorda. If we survive. The fate of the whole of Gard is at stake here, so we have to at least try to help Alexander get back the Sword. In any case, I am sure my Granddaughter is thinking the same thing, and that I will not be able to dissuade her from this course…’

‘That’s right,’ said Olivia, sniffing and wiping her mouth with the sleeve of her dress. ‘If we accidentally sabotaged your mission, Alex, by leading the Braxians to the Sword, then it’s only right and proper that we try to help you get it back, to make up for our mistake. Don’t you agree, everyone?’

‘Sure,’ said Wyvera. ‘I see no reason to stop now. We’ve been through a lot together; this is my family now.’

‘Er, yeah,’ said Sylvia, shrugging. ‘What she said, I guess. I suppose you guys aren’t all that bad. I’ll stick around–even if it does mean going into danger and that we might die…’

‘Ouzo is coming too!’ said Ouzo. ‘Ouzo has not had so much fun in his whole life! It is a very great thing to be part of such an Important and Noble quest!’

The only person who had not spoken was Ross. He was stood misty-eyed, his mind

‘How about you, Ross?’ Horatio asked him.

The Prince of Xanadu came back to the present, his eyes refocusing on Horatio. ‘Do you even need to ask?’ he said. ‘It seems that, unintentionally, I am most responsible for leading the Braxians to the sword. Of course I will come to help win it back again. For myself. For my people. For Xanadu. For all of you. For Gard.’

‘Then it’s settled,’ Horatio said. He turned to Ursula. ‘We’re all coming.’

‘Fine,’ said Alex exasperatedly, having been made to listen to all of these proclamations. ‘Whatever. Teleport the lot of them in, for all I care, as long as you teleport me too. This is my quest and it is my job to retrieve the Clarent Sword and overthrow Brax again, so you need to teleport me now. Can you do it now, ex-Braxian?’

‘Yes–I can do it. Give me a moment to prepare the spell. The spell will take us to the outskirts of Braxia, to an agreed location where all teleportations converge. There will be lots of monsters there, so you had all better be ready… It’s possible that if we defeat enough monsters we may be able to buy ourselves some time to hide and then plot our next movements through Braxia [maybe something about taking some time to cast a spell of concealment here?], but it may be that we simply have to fight our way back to the Clarent Sword as soon as we get there. Are you ready?’

‘We are ready,’ said Horatio. ‘We have no other choice.’

‘You’re right,’ said Alex. ‘I don’t.’

‘Alright then.’

Ursula closed her eyes, put her palms together, and began to chant under her breath.

The party quickly readied themselves. Ceres cast a few more heal spells on those who needed them, but whose hurts were not as urgent as Alex and Ursula’s had been, then drank a tonic from Ouzo to replenish her mana. Several of the rest of them had one of these too. They drew their weapons, preparing themselves to fight. Horatio bounced up and down on the balls of his feet.

There was a whooshing noise all-consuming, bright, white flash of light, just like the one that had taken the Braxians away, but this time Horatio was ready for it.

His stomach lurched violently, which he wasn’t ready for, but he gripped his sword tightly and gritted his teeth.

When the flash of light rescinded, they were no longer in the cave.

There wasn’t any time to take in where they were, because they had teleported in amongst a massive group of monsters.

As soon as the monsters noticed them, they charged, one after the other.

Battle 1, then 2, then 3, then 4.