When the time finally came for the Protectorate power to reset, I continued to wait. Not only did I want to give myself as much time toward my Ethereal Portal power resetting. I also wasn’t too keen on dancing to Grimstrom’s beat.

The small act of defiance coupled with the knowledge that I’d be irritating both the dwarves and Darkness gave me some solace, though it was hard to use the time productively. I made a few more rocks with the power I’d copied from Sania and chatted idly to her, Ewan and Danivra as we sat on the river bank.

Around us, our army busied themselves with various tasks. An air of restlessness seemed to be upon them all, knowing that this insane journey around the North could well be at an end in just a few short hours. Despite that, it seemed no one dared to be openly excited, for fear of encouraging fate into fucking us over.

We managed to gain a whole half hour before the next message from Johan came.

“The Dwarves are growing restless, my lord. They have brought out more troops into the town, and tensions are rising.”

“Are they threatening us?” I growled back, my hackles rising at the thought.

“Only with their presence and an unwillingness to communicate fully. We have all of our fighting people on high alert, and we’re watching them closely from around the town. We are ready to act if need be.”

“Hopefully it won’t come to that, Johan. I’m coming now.”

“We look forward to your return, Lord Clive.”

After the communication dropped, I took a moment. A few deep breaths, a face rub, then I stood up. My eyes fell on Ewan first. “You ready for this?”

“Indeed, I am. I’ll follow after you immediately. Have no fear on that score,” he replied, before morphing into his Amarok form.

I wrapped Sania up in a hug. While I towered above my twelve foot tall Woltar Soul Mate, she returned the embrace with fierce passion. Speaking quietly in her ear I made the usual promise. “This is gonna work out. I’ll see you soon, eh?”

“You better,” she replied. “And try not to be too difficult with him. At least until we can get there with you. Then you can say whatever you want.”

We parted, and I offered her what I thought was a winning smile. “I’ll be as diplomatic as can be, and I’ll use every last inch of my charisma!”

She nodded in reply, still clearly both worried and unconvinced by my words, but we had no choice. I couldn’t leave Far Reach at the mercy of the Dwarves.

I nodded to those closest as they watched me anxiously, then picked my point outside of Far Reach castle.

As always, the transport was instant, so I was quietly impressed when Wind of the Wild appeared by my side almost immediately, as promised.

The weather was notably nicer here, the sun was close to its highest point in the sky and its warmth was a rare treat. The same couldn’t be said for Grimstrom’s expression as he marched over to me. Stilbraker and Fakasta either side of him looking equally grim.

Behind them marched around a hundred armored dwarves and they looked ready for trouble. A combination of anger and nervousness etched into all of their faces. I must admit, that concerned me for what the immediate future held.

“You did right coming back, Clive. Now you need to come with us to Nuinaer.” “Come any closer with that attitude,” I said, holding up a finger to stop them. “And I’ll take it as a sign of aggression.” They wisely came to a stop around fifteen paces away from me.

“I came here to talk to you, Grimstrom. I didn’t agree to anything else. You come here trying to make me feel like some sort of criminal and it’s just not gonna fly.”

“Don’t make this more difficult than it already is, Clive. Darkness wants to speak with you, and you need to stand trial for your actions outside of Helvien. You can’t kill followers of Darkness and not expect to have to answer for your actions.” There was no heat in his voice, only the expression of someone carrying out an unpleasant duty.

“Grimstrom,” I said patiently. Keeping my voice even and slow, as if explaining something to a child. “I don’t know if this is coming directly from Darkness or not. But either way, I think you’re both mistaking me for some other Clive. So let me clarify a few things. You don’t come into my town and start telling me what to do. Because I don’t need to do jack shit what you tell me. In the interests of continued civility, I’ll tell you what’s gonna happen…in my town!” My voice may have been increasing in volume as I spoke. “Now, we can talk for sure. We are supposed to be friends after all. Despite this cock swinging competition we’ve got going on here. But right now, as I’ve been away for a little while, I’m going to go and speak with my friends over there,” I said pointing at Joel, Johan, Sazor, and Hek who stood looking ready for action at the doors of the castle, around the same distance as the dwarves were away from me.

I let my eyes rove around the rest of the town. On the walls stood our Wultr, primed and ready to jump down at a moment’s notice. They were interspersed with the Fensalfar, all with arrows on strings ready to draw.

To my left, stood all of our Nystiobek, Dokalfar and Krysan, silently watching the dwarves for any sign of aggression. Even Mal and the fifty Paladins of Devotion garrisoned, now lined the front of their temple, looking ready to fight.

Johan had done well in organizing everyone, which gave me a little extra confidence, but the tension was heavy on us all.

“I’m afraid I can’t allow that,” Grimstrom replied smoothly.

I ignored him, walking over to where my friends stood, Wind of the Wild moving with me, watching warily.

Joel’s eyes flickered to Grimstrom uneasily, before resting back on me. “So what’s going on, Clive?” he asked. “Johan told me what he could, but this is a sudden, unexpected change.”

I shook my head, smiling sadly before shouting so everyone could hear me. “Our payment for trusting Darkness comes due! But we didn’t work this hard just to bend over now and drop our pants, did we?” I shouted the last looking back at Grimstrom meaningfully. The people of Far Reach supported my words with cheering, and as the Dwarves moved closer as I spoke, but so had all of our soldiers. The net was tightening, though I still held hope this wouldn’t devolve into carnage. I had a strong suspicion the Dwarves had prepared for this turning into a fight.

“Don't do this,” Grimstrom warned, as Joel spoke again.

“I get that, but what exactly happened?”

“I was set up, mate. You know one of my aims was to protect neutrals and bring them here. That Darkness even encouraged that aim. Well I found a troop of Darkness’s soldiers apparently about to kill a group of Dokalfar who’d been captives of Destruction in Helvien. I only realized afterwards that Darkness wasn’t even bothered about killing them. He just wanted to push me into action against his followers so they could pull this shit.”

“Are you sure?” he asked disbelievingly.

“Ninety-nine percent sure. You’ll notice they didn’t come out to see me up north? Nope,” I said, shaking my head sadly for dramatic effect. “They want to use the threat of destroying Far Reach to get me to do what they want.”

Grimstrom looked outraged at the accusation and began to bluster, though I paid him no mind as I listened to Joel’s response.

“Gotcha. I’d heard bits. But it’s good to hear from the horse’s mouth. So what do you want to do about it?”

“Personally, if I’m wrong about this all being a carefully orchestrated set up, then we all really need to accept that mistakes were made all round. We need to be focusing on moving forward. Or, alternatively, we could have a trial in Far Reach for the King of Agorak, whose troops were attempting to kill the Dokalfar! There’s a good idea now that I think about it. What do you think, Grimstrom? Shall we let darkness' forces stand trial?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, lad. I don’t know what you think is gonna happen here, but it’s not the nonsense you’re spouting,” Grimstrom replied. His anger showing for the first time. I noticed the lack of an honorific and suspected the façade of friendship was slipping fully now.

“Nonsense? Was I, or was I not supposed to rescue neutrals in Kalabri?”

“Aye, but not dangerous prisoners,” he snapped back quickly. I shook my head.

“You didn’t know who they were. Not until after I’d killed half of them and told your guys up there. Grimstrom this is a fucking farce, and you know it.”

“That’ll be decided in your trial. Now come on Clive, we’ve tarried long enough up here and you’re not going to like the consequences if you keep this up.”

“Shit man. You’re not getting this,” I said, turning to fully face Grimstrom and his dwarves. “Let me walk you through something you might not understand. You say I did something wrong, and I say you did something wrong. Which means we’re the aggrieved parties. To have a trial, we’d both have to be assessed by an independent party. If I was to come to the Nideland it wouldn’t be for a trial, would it? I don’t know who you think you're trying to kid with this shit, but I’m not an idiot. I’ll make a suggestion though. If you use an independent, like Devotion, and I might consider it.”

Grimstrom rubbed at his face, the irritation clear to read. “I’ve been asked by Darkness himself to bring you down to Nuinaer for a trial, and that is what I’m going to do. I don’t know the details of any of the shit you pulled up at Helvien, but I know you killed our people and I know I’m going to do exactly what my god tells me to do, no matter the cost. Do you understand?”

I actually did feel like I understood the situation a little better now. This was going to turn to shit and there was nothing I could do about it except relent, which I really didn’t think was the right choice for anyone in Far Reach, despite the hardships resisting would bring.

“And what happens if I don’t come?” I asked coldly.

“We bring a lot more troops up and raze Far Reach to the ground including its people,” he said, meeting my eyes, but gritting his teeth. There was no doubt it was a promise, but it clearly didn’t sit well with Grimstrom.

“And you can't give me time to speak with my people? They need to know what’s happening.”

He shook his head. “We know about your portals, Clive. It’s not going to happen. Your army to the north is not returning to Far Reach today, or any other day, if you don’t come now.”

“Portals?” Joel asked.

“I can make portals now, mate. I can get everyone back here tonight.”

Joel's eyes bulged. “You’re serious?”

“Yeah. Except Darkness has decided he doesn’t want that for whatever reason. Hence the urgency to rip me away.”

Joel glared at Grimstrom. “Why?” He gestured around at Far Reach. “Why would you help us build all of this? It’s turning into an amazing place and you’d throw it all away?”

Grimstrom didn’t answer, but I sure as shit did. “Leverage and control, mate. We had nothing to lose at first. But building a home for us means he can grab us by the short and curlies and make us dance. At least that’s what he thinks. Tying Malatia to us is all part of the play too. Keeping them sweet until he’s ready to start taking over, then using this to turn on them too if they support us. If I don’t miss my guess, this isn’t about destroying us at all. It’s about control. The thing I agreed with Darkness wouldn’t happen in the first place.”

“I don’t know where you’re getting all this information from, Clive. But that’s just not true. This is happening because of the dwarves and Aragites you killed.”

“They tried to kill me first,” I shrugged nonchalantly, but I could feel the real sour turn coming, and I was ready for it.

He sighed. “Last chance, Clive. Either you come now, or we will attack.”

“Tell you what then, Grimmy. If none of this is true, then here’s yet another completely fair proposition for you. Once Sania and the others are back in Far Reach, I’ll happily come and speak to Darkness. And not before.”

“He doesn’t want that, Clive. You know how this works.”

“If he can’t wait for a few hours, then it’s just further proof of the games he’s playing and I absolutely can’t trust him or you. So…” I cringed as I spoke my next words. “…that’s the deal, Grimstrom. If that’s not good enough, then... so be it.”

In a completely unexpected move, he clicked his fingers at me. The result was twofold. A crackling shield encased me. Constructed mainly of Dark neuma, but also shot through with red and light gray. It was reminiscent of the powers the Triumvirate had used against me:

You have been affected by a Dark Shield.

Access to Neuma is unavailable.

At the same time, his soldiers spread out in a wide circle, their weapons leveled toward my people now. They in turn pulled their own weapons and moved within spitting distance of our enemy. The Wultr leapt down from the walls as one to join them.

Looking at the numbers through the hazy portal, there was only going to be one winner in this battle. Until a portal opened up within the circle they’d created. More high leveled dwarven and Aragite soldiers poured out so quickly. The space was soon full with close to a thousand more troops. Yet still more were visible on the other side of the portal, waiting to come through when there was space.

“You are coming with us Clive,” Grimstrom snapped. “How many of your people have to die before you accept this, is entirely up to you. You can watch the slaughter from within your Dark Shield and let me know when you understand your idiocy.”

Wind of the Wild transformed into Ewan beside me, and began shouting. “Grimstrom you need to let him go now!”

“Don’t get involved, Wind of the Wild. If all goes well, he’ll be back soon enough, and your interference will only make this worse.”

While they spoke, I focused on the red specs in the shield and used Singularity to change their frequency to a vibrant orange. The alteration caused little explosions on the shields surface prompting Grimstrom’s head to snap around to face me. The Shield was still active, but I smiled icily at him through the construct.

“You really sure you want to do this?” I asked.

“What are you doing?” he growled warily.

Lowering the frequency of the gray until it matched the color of the dark of the shield, I didn’t bother to answer him. Moments later, I swept the entire construct away to Grimstrom’s horror.

“That shouldn’t be possible,” he murmured, taking a few steps back. The fighting behind hadn’t actually started yet, as they all watched in a tense standoff, waiting for Grimstrom’s cue.

“What did you say to me earlier, Grimstrom? This isn’t going to go how you think it is?”

He replied, but I wasn’t listening. Instead, I attacked the pattern of the portal in the center of the dwarven circle. This time only the red Neuma acting as anchors needed to be altered.

As the portal disappeared, Grimstrom began screaming at his soldiers to attack.