Back in the tunnels of the Nideland, we set moving once more at a good pace, arriving in the town where we found Grastad and the others already enjoying the Dwarven hospitality.

Again, our escorts sat purposefully apart from us. The only exchange was Halbraker coming up to me later in the evening to talk briefly.

“Long travel day tomorrow which sets us up for one more stop off before we get to Rushing. After that, we’ll be heading to Prismar. That’s where I hand you off and we’re outta each other’s hair, Lord Clive. Make sure your people are up and ready to move sharp in the morning. I’ll have pouches made up for breakfast.” He said no more and moved off toward the back of the hotel and the rooms beyond.

“It’s hard to believe how much his attitude’s changed. Not even stopping for breakfast now!” Sania protested.

“Well, from what Wind of the Wild told me, we need to hurry to Rushing, anyway. So this suits our purposes as much as they do his. And let’s face it, the sooner we see the back of the dour little arsehole, the better. Let’s hope whoever takes over as our chaperone is a bit more friendly. Now let’s get some rest. Sounds like we're going to have a long couple of days.”

“It did sound that way,” Sania noted. “Plus there’s something I need to talk to you about in private.”

“There is?” I asked, intrigued as we made our way to the room for the night.

She offered only a smile in reply until the door was closed behind us. Then she pushed me back onto the bed and straddled me, playfully pinning my arms.

“So, little man, it seems your fears have come true. How do you feel now that I am Woltar? Are you no longer attracted to me?”

“Ha, of course I’m not,” I laughed. “To be honest, I haven’t even thought about it much.”

She kissed me. “Good. I think it’s time we focus on the more important things.”

“Such as?”

“Having some fun with me before we have to walk through dreary tunnels for another day,” she laughed and kissed me again. This time going further.

Thoughts of Amaroks and annoying Dwarves fled my mind to spend some quality time with my beautiful Woltar Soul Mate.

As we rolled away from each other a few hours later, a hot sweaty mess, I romantically quizzed her on her meridians.

I was pleased to hear hers had also split. More than that, the racial debuff on her Intelligence had been lifted. The Dexterity debuff remained, but that hardly mattered. She was never likely to use an actual weapon.

“So, I found flight much easier with the extra meridians,”

“I’d noticed you moved much better in the air. I look forward to fly again. I am sick of being cooped up in these tunnels.”

“We should be at the Dokalfar city today. Might be a good chance to try them out.”

“Hopefully, we can stay in a hotel there tomorrow,” she replied sleepily.

“I’m not sure the Dwarves will be happy sleeping on the surface. They seem reluctant to be up there at all.”

“True, but a Woltar can dream, can’t she?” Sania said as she cuddled into me.

I found I didn’t care anymore. If there was a fancy Dokalfar hotel to stay in and it was safe enough, then that’s what we would do.

The following day, we left town, each receiving a breakfast bag from a couple of our Dwarven escort assigned to hand them out before Halbraker led us off at a quick march. I saw the Dwarves didn’t have food, and I assumed he had gotten them up extra early to have breakfast before we left, which irritated me more than a little. The mood was infectious, too, as we all walked in silence for almost an hour before I decided to do something about it.

“Anyone know any songs?” I asked to those behind me.

As one, the beast kin shook their heads. That didn’t actually surprise me as they traveled in wolf form normally in their day-to-day lives. The Dokalfar seemed reluctant. It landed to Rella to offer up an a Fensalfar song.

Her voice was melodious, and within a line, the other Fensalfar were singing along with her.

The light of the morning illuminates the ways,

Soon obscured by clouds, that blot out the rays.

The paths become shaded and difficult to follow.

In the end, we all stop and in darkness we wallow.

Was it childish naivete, that once was believed.

Or the disappointment that reigned as our heavy hearts grieved.

From the doubts and the injuries our travels have found.

To the bandages of hope that lay ragged, unwound.

The way now distorted through each grainy lens

Confusion and fear as the darkness contends.

Yet light comes again from the strongest of sources,

To show a brief glimpse of the…

“Stop!” Halbraker shouted, interrupting the song which had carried me away.

He was marching back through his men. I thought he was coming to me, but he barged past and went to stand in front of the Fensalfar.

“What do you think you're doing?” he shouted. “Preaching your anti-dark messages in his own tunnels?”

Rella looked shocked, but protested, nonetheless. “I am neutral, Master Dwarf, and the songs we sing speak of balance between the opposing forces of light and dark…”

“That’s not what I was hearing, and it stops right now,” he snapped.

“That’s what I heard,” I said to Rella, moving along next to Halbraker. “It was a beautiful song and I appreciate you singing for us, even if certain embittered Dwarves do not feel the same.”

Halbraker began to protest angrily at me now, but I ignored him and continued.

“Once we are in more civilized company, I would love to hear the rest of it.”

Rella smiled appreciatively at my show of support, while I turned to Halbraker.

“Aren’t we in a hurry, Master Dwarf?”

Halbraker huffed and puffed but headed back to the front of the column, muttering, all the same.

I spent some time walking with the Fensalfar, talking about their songs and their music, discovering that yet another one of their skills was in making instruments.

For the rest of the journey, I moved around the different groups, talking with everyone, trying to lighten the oppressive mood that both the tunnels and our escorts were encouraging.

The next day, we carried our breakfasts with us from the latest hotel, eating as we marched, though only three hours' travel separated us from our destination as we traveled east once more to the city of Rushing.

As we came to the guardhouse by the grand exit, the Dwarven guards stopped our exit.

“What’s the meaning of this? We have work to do,” Halbraker barked at the guard.

“Sorry, sir, but there’s fighting on the other side. In the actual tunnel.”

Halbraker harrumphed and turned to me. “We can wait, or we can go to an exit further north and walk back down to Rushing over land.”

“Or we could go out and fight,” I replied, worried for the Dokalfar of the area if fighting was taking place. I could feel Queen Danivra’s anxiety through the bond, too. “It’s not like we can't handle most things between us. And whoever’s fighting, they brought it down here. It’s in your fucking tunnels, man,” I protested.

“As long as they don’t attempt to enter our doors, there’s no problem.”

As if by magic, there was a huge thud on the doors. I gave Halbraker my best let’s do this look.

He shook his head. “One hit doesn’t count,” he said as everything went quiet.

Then another two heavy bangs against the door came in quick succession.

“The doors stay closed,” he said. The two guards from the gatehouse nodding their agreement.

He turned to them next. “Have you called reinforcements?”

“I have, sir. There’s a squad coming from Prismar and a troop of Grobblers coming along from Grunder.”

Halbraker nodded to the guard and returned his attention back to me. “This is a Dwarven matter. We don’t expect you to fight in this.”

“Of course we’ll bloody help. Is it not likely to be the Dokalfar fighting out there?”

Halbraker shrugged. “How would I know?”

“He knows and he happily sentences my people to death,” Danivra growled.

“I’ll keep trying,” I offered, knowing full well she was right, but also knowing there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. I was under no illusion that starting a fight in the Dwarven tunnels would see all of my people dead and me most likely imprisoned.

“Thank you, Lord Clive. But as much as it galls me that I know the truth of the matter as well as you do, we are at the mercy of the Dwarves, and beyond a swift death, there is little we can do. I only hope that one day I can right some of these wrongs that have been done to my people.”

I thought on her words for a moment and realized I agreed. Despite trying to keep Darkness happy up to a point and wanting him to remain as an ally, one day there would have to be a reckoning for his abandonment of the surface and the deaths of all the people out there. The ones that had been promised support and never received it.

“I do too, Danivra. I’m sorry this is happening.” As I spoke with Danivra, I looked over to Halbraker.

He was watching me intently, and I knew he was waiting for me to do something stupid. Or was it hoping. I couldn’t be sure.

“Are you really just going to wait until the battle is over out there?”

“Yes.”

“What if they break through? What about those lovely doors?” I asked, trying desperately to prompt action.

“Lives and plans are more important than doors. But they’ll hold all the same, and if they don’t, reinforcements will be here or much closer.”

The attacks on the door eventually stopped, and no reinforcements had arrived yet. It was Kalin, the mage with us, who announced the fighting was officially over and Halbraker smiled broadly.

“Looks like we’re up then. Stay alert though, everyone. There might still be fighting nearby. And, Clive, if there is a large army of Destruction nearby, we will remain within the tunnels.”

“Yeah, that’s about what I would expect,” I replied as I waited ready for the doors to open.

As they did, the smell of death poured in and my heart broke. I felt Danivra’s at the same time fill with more sorrow and rage than I thought possible. Mostly directed at the Dwarves, though she didn’t vocalize it.

A bloody pile of Dokalfar bodies lay heaped against the doors. It hadn’t been an enemy trying to get in, it had been the Dokalfar trying to escape.

Halbraker avoided my gaze, not quite as smug as he had been earlier now faced with the cost of his actions.

“This fucking stinks, Halbraker.”

“It’s war. People die!” he replied, somewhat muted. “Don’t think this doesn’t hurt me, too. Because it does. The Dokalfar have always been good trade partners, and I have nothing but respect for them. But we have to protect the Nideland and the followers of Darkness. That is the plan. We can’t save everyone.”

“Why the fuck are you helping us in the open in Far Reach, then?”

“Because it is not in Kalabri. I don’t know the fine details of our plan, but that seems to matter to our leaders. I’m not one to question them.”

The Dokalfar of our company were now among the bodies of the fallen, searching through for survivors. There were two people in what must have been a hundred dead Dokalfar. It was damning statistics, and those two, who clung to life, were barely with us.

I saw Danivra speaking to one of them, trying to heal them with a glowing purple power while Alial the healer worked frantically on the body of a mangled, half-crushed body that still drew ragged breaths.

I could only heal myself so far with my power, but I went over, ignoring the rest of Halbraker’s excuses, to see if I could offer any help. The one under the Queen’s care had made almost a full recovery, but they were sobbing and rocking.

The other under Alial’s ministrations didn’t seem to be making a recovery at all. I knelt by them. The Queen appeared too.

She began to force her own magic into the Dokalfar to assist the healer, but it wouldn’t take as the Dokalfar man slowly slipped away.

“Can you bind him?” she asked me “Save him?”

“I can’t. Not unless it’s what he wants.”

“They can’t answer, but I know they would choose life. I could always kill them if they didn’t want to be bonded.”

“God, that’s awful! We couldn’t kill him if I saved him with a bond.”

Danivra didn’t reply, but she looked lost and desperate, and my heart broke anew for her.

“I agree, bond him,” Sania said from my other side.

“I… fuck it, I’ll do it, for you two. But I accept reduced responsibility if he freaks, okay?”

They both agreed, and I felt a bit shitty for my attempt at a sidestep of responsibility. But this was all kinds of dodgy territory for me. Reluctantly, I pulled on the Dokalfar’s core. He resisted, which seemed to be a natural reaction. But I could hear his rambling desperate thoughts linked as I was.

“If you follow my power, you might yet live. Your queen is here with me, and we want to save your people.”

He was barely coherent, but I felt a relaxing of his core, allowing me to lead a tendril of his power over to my own without resistance.

His core was fading, and I had to work fast to save him, but thankfully, his bond attached to my own. The bond formed and the option to keep him alive appeared in front of my eyes to which I quickly chose yes.

Miraculously, his broken limbs and crushed ribcage began to put themselves back together. His eyes snapped open, then glazed as the notifications passed across his vision.

I received another notification and some XP, which I cast aside immediately. I didn’t even want to look at it. I felt dirty. This was the worst bonding I’d done so far to my mind. Sania had been a total accident. Grigor had killed me, and it was to save my own life. Danivra had begged me to do it to save her life. This poor fucker might have been happy dying when he realized what I’d just signed him up to.

Maex the Level 45 Dokala got slowly to his feet. I could feel a torrent of emotions, from pain and sadness to rage. None were of relief to still be alive.

He knew instinctively who he was now bonded to. I don’t think he’d even noticed the queen, despite me telling him earlier.

“What is this, demon? What have you done to me?”

Danivra put a hand on his shoulder. “Calm, Maex. You have been given a second chance at life by Lord Clive, the seed of Creation. He did it at my request.”

Maex’s eyes widened at the sight of her, and he dropped to his knee in front of her.

“Queen Danivra, your majesty… I do not understand what is happening. How can you be here? It was said you had died.”

“I am not dead. Thanks to Lord Clive, I too am bonded to him for the price of my life, and it was a price I am honored to have paid. I know you will feel the same in time, though I promised Clive that I would grant you death if you did not wish to be placed under the bond.”

“I.. will take your word for it your majesty.”

“Good,” she said, putting a hand on his cheek. “We have much vengeance to exact. Now tell me what has happened?”

“Rushing was attached much as Helvien was. Halak had tried to prepare for the assault from the encircling army, and I think we would have won if not for a portal opening up in the center of the city. So many came through at once, and the encircling army advanced at the same time. There were at least ten thousand demons, with ten Baatazu, two Gashadokuro, and around another two thousand Hycantha, though at least two hundred of those were evolved Hycantheria.”

“That is a larger force than the one which hit Helvien. There were no Gashadokuro then, and only eight Baatazu.”

“Even with Halak, we had no chance. He killed one of the Gashadokuro and four of the Baatazu before he fell.”

“He fell?”

The man nodded. “He was swarmed by the powerful ones. I didn’t see the end for him, but I cannot see a way he survived.”

The queen looked horrified. “Halak was the strongest among us. I must find his body at least.”

“If Halak is dead, then we should just move on,” Halbraker said from the doorway into the Nideland.”

“Silence, Dwarf,” Danivra boomed. “You have no say in this.”

I felt a shiver from the power she radiated in that moment. Halbraker looked taken aback with her outburst too, but managed to force a look of nonchalance on his face, and the tense moment ended with him remaining silent.

“It isn’t safe out there,” Maex continued. “You will die too.”

She looked torn and turned to me. “Halak is extremely resilient. If there’s a chance he is alive, I feel we must look.”

“If you go, you’re on your own,” Halbraker said, daring the queen’s ire. “If any of the enemy come too close, I will be shutting the doors too.”

I wanted to say something back, but I couldn’t. The Dwarves had made it clear from the first instance that they would not get involved in the fight with Destruction’s forces on the surface. That there were ten Dwarves who accompanied us in the first place was a big enough move for them.

“Do what you must,” I replied firmly. I felt hope bloom through the bond with the queen.

Sania was not as convinced, however. She touched my arm to get my attention. “Is this wise? There doesn’t seem much to be gained from going out there if the army Maex has just spoken of is still around.”

I met her eyes and sighed. “Wind of the Wild told me to hurry up, yet we stood in the tunnels and waited while all of this unfolded. I know I shouldn’t, but I feel a little responsible that we could have done more. I wish now that we’d raced here, without stopping for the night, and if Halak still lives, I feel I owe to him. What if it’s not too late?”

Sania didn’t look convinced but had the sense to continue her counter argument over our bond. “What if we lose everyone?”

“Let’s not take everyone. Just me and you, and Danivra if she has a stealth skill. It’s about time we gave these Hoodies of Darkness a workout.”

Finally, Sania smiled. “I forgot about the stealth on the hoodies. I suddenly like this plan. Danivra is strong enough to escape, and we can both fly if the stealth fails us. And no one else will be endangered. Let’s give this a go.”

She grinned at me, and I returned with a smile of my own before looking round to Danivra. “Do you have a stealth skill?”

“I do,” she replied.

“Good,” I said, putting my hood up. “We go quietly and slowly. If there are still enemies, we retreat. I’m not risking our lives for this, but with these stealth skills, we should be okay, right?”

“You know I can still see you?” Grastad asked.

“Well, I haven’t hidden in a shadow yet, have I?” I replied exasperated. “Okay everyone, stay here. Sania, Danivra, and I are going alone only to scout.”

“I should come,” Grigor said. “With your life, you hold my life in the balance. I would like the opportunity to defend you if necessary.”

“Sorry, Grigor, you haven’t got a hoodie and you can’t fly. What you can do is receive messages from me to prepare if we’re coming in hot.”

Grigor grumbled, but accepted the truth of the situation. “If you are in trouble, then let me know and we will come out of the tunnel to assist you.”

“Thanks, man. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”