Livia’s senses returned to her when the sudden snap of green and red light filling the room jump-started her brain. The last thing she remembered was Rajata’s face, and the next she knew, the red goddess and Livia’s own guardian goddess were doing battle right in front of her, exchanging powerful bursts of vivid, raw magic. Holes were being blown in the exceptionally well-made walls, and the entire tower was beginning to quake. She looked to her sides, and saw that Krey and Emilie were also coming to. Good, she thought. We’ve got to help Phyrn.

Almost as if she had read her mind, Florentina leapt to put herself between the goddesses and the three, drawing a blade the likes of which Livia had never seen before. “Take your hand off your sword’s hilt before I do it for you.” She smiled. “Oh, that’s right… if I did, you wouldn’t live to regret it.”

What? Livia thought she’d said that out loud, but had only thought it.

Florentina’s sword was entirely made of that same fiery orange metal that Hector’s sidesword had been made of. It was straight-bladed, though now that Livia thought about it, it did remind her of a sword a traveller had been carrying when he passed through her home village… though his had been longer, and the blade had been curved. The guard on Florentina’s sword was small, symmetrical, and square, while the sword she recalled seeing had a rounded guard. Overall, however… the design was reminiscent.

“You’d best not try to interfere,” Florentina warned. “The shallowest bite from Godslayer, and your life will be taken.”

“Then I better not let it bite me,” Livia grumbled mostly to herself. She swiped her hand across her body, using her petramancy to pull several now-loose bricks out of the wall and instantly reform them into a broad, circular shape. As it flew between her and the platinum elf, successfully parrying Florentina’s swing, Livia’s hand darted to Veridis in the same motion that had cast her spell, drawing the magic blade and activating its shield enchantment just in time to block a second attack.

“A creative trick for one of your kind, I must admit,” Florentina smirked, her face bathed in viridian effulgence. “But, as with all humans, I am already certain that I will find your aptitude for magic… wanting.” She broke the clash of swords, stepped back, and twirled her sword in one hand so that she was now holding it with a reverse grip. “Not that you’ll have the opportunity to display it further.” She thrust her blade backward, into a strange rift that appeared in that same moment.

Clang! Livia felt the faintest of touches cross her back as that noise sounded behind her. She turned to see that Krey, now in full control of his faculties once again, had knocked Florentina’s blade off-course with his shield, not quite rending it from her grip. It had emerged from another rift that had appeared directly behind Livia. As it dawned on her, what had nearly just happened, her eyes widened and cleared of any sleepy haze that might’ve still been clouding them.

“Kept you waiting, huh?” Krey mused with gravel still in his voice, as if he’d just awoken from an ill sleep.

Florentina just kept smiling, pulling her sword back through the rifts and closing them. Without a word, she extended her free hand toward Emilie and fired a golden arc of lightning from her fingers. Livia just managed to lunge Veridis out in front of the hierophant in time, the magic shield it was projecting absorbing the spell and dispersing it safely.

“Alright!” Livia croaked. “We get it! You’re an all-powerful bitch!”

“I’m glad you’re paying attention,” Florentina lilted. Behind her, the battle between the two goddesses still raged, tearing the room around them apart.

Emilie, too, had now regained her lucidity. It didn’t take her long to interpret the situation. Without hesitation, she clutched her rosary and began weaving her green magic in order to counteract the numbing magics that still lingered within them all. A warm breeze, accented by wisps of luminous aura, floated over her and her two companions, filling them with vigour and zeal. Her headache blew away, and Livia’s and Krey’s voices cleared up, all of them now back in top form. She locked eyes with Florentina, and declared: “we have you three to one. The odds are not in your favour.”

“Actually,” Florentina riposted, “they’re about even now.”

As the four mortals engaged in combat, Phyrn realised that she had to conclude this farce quickly, or she may just lose the last of her true followers. If they could see how powerful their opponent is, they’d be fleeing in terror, she thought. And yet, the platinum elf just seemed to be toying with them, almost disinterested in fighting them at all. In any case, it was time to put and end to the traitor before her. She projected a protective shell of yellow-green light around herself, curled up into a ball, and drew in all her strength. While Rajata continued to hurl blasts of destructive force at her, she focused her power into a single, concentrated point. When her shell collapsed, she darted behind the wooden desk at the far end of the room, using it as the last split-second of cover she needed… and then it was time. She hopped into the air and unleashed her attack, blasting Rajata across the room. The red goddess bowled into the other four, sending them all sprawling to the ground in different directions.

Nothing remained of the tower’s top room except for the floor, and even that was now starting to fail. Livia felt herself be lifted just off the ground and carried toward her friends by a thatched sheet of roots, and then saw Phyrn burst from them as if breaking the surface of water, her body glistening with midoroot sap; Livia felt her heart swell in her chest at the sight.

Phyrn knelt down beside her and helped her up as the roots dispersed into specks of yellow-green light. “Listen to me, Livia! You must summon Danu and ride from this place at once! Once all three of you are astride her, ride from this room down to the earth below!”

“You can’t be serious,” Krey objected from behind, shambling to his feet. “Nobody could withstand a fall like that!”

“Danu can,” Phyrn assured him, and in their hearts, Livia and Emilie knew she spoke the truth.

Livia called the mighty mare forth, and they all climbed up onto her back. Livia and Emilie exchanged a look, smiling, but Krey was still shaking his head.

“This is insane…” he muttered. “This is insane.”

“Sir Zoubor,” Phyrn said, pinching his chin lightly and urging him to look at her. They locked eyes, and Phyrn nearly whispered: “please… trust me.”

Krey gazed into those bright eyes. He felt a compulsion rise up within, but unlike the twisted yank of Rajata’s seduction, this feeling was all his own. He felt a smile finally break out on his face, and he replied softly: “Well… I suppose it would be sacrilegious of me to refuse My Ladies’ guardian goddess.”

As they mounted up, Rajata and Florentina retreated to the edge of the remaining floor and disappeared together through a rift. Phyrn wastes no time in pursuing, throwing herself into a rift of her own. Livia, Krey, and Emilie held on for dear life as Danu rode off the tower. Danu plummeted to the streets below, and though the ground fractured beneath, the mare’s legs never wavered. She just broke into a gallop, and before any of the Dunlark Spire members realised what was going on, they were out the other side of the city and back on the eastward trail.

It would not be long now before they reached the coast.