The young spell weaver spent the next hour creating dozens of waste ranked seeds before he started to finally feel tired. Not wanting to waste this chance, he quickly packed up and went back to Qadir’s room. Regis used the cleansing spell on himself after taking off most of his clothes and then crawled into the bed. A minute or so later only the slow breaths of the sleeping dark elf could be heard in the room. When morning came, a slight knock resounded in the room the wake him up.

“Yeah?” He asked with a shaky voice as he tried rub his eyes.

“Sorry to bother you,” Sophie’s voice could be heard from the other side of the door. “But Quentin told me to wake you up. Breakfast is almost ready.”

“Thanks for telling me,” Regis said as he slowly got out of bed. “I’ll be downstairs in a minute or two.”

“Okay.” The girl noted before leaving.

The dark elf cleaned his clothes before putting them on and heading down to meet the others. As he entered the mess hall of the guild, the scent of something familiar struck his nose.

“Is that eggs and bacon?” He asked surprised, not daring to believe his nose.

“It is.” Fabien answered from the kitchen.

“But how? I didn’t think we could get eggs anywhere with things being as they are.”

“You can thank Cruz for them,” Valerie waved him closer, prompting him to have a seat. “She woke up early and decided to climb onto the roof of the nearby buildings to search for any bird eggs.”

“Looks like you found quite a lot.” The spell weaver noted as he watched Fabien bring along a large plate of freshly cooked eggs and bacon.

“It took me a while,” Cruz admitted. “But luckily for us, this whole undead disaster seems to have no major impact on the local bird life. I found a lot of pigeon and sparrow nests full off tiny eggs.”

“This looks delicious,” Quentin said as the infernal young man scooped some of the food onto this plate. “The last time I ate eggs was the day before I arrived to the Shardlands.”

“That sure was a while ago,” Osmond sighed as he took a bite, savouring it for a moment. “We had to eat a lot of weird stuff since we got here. To think that something as ordinary as a plate of ham and eggs would count as a rare delicacy. We really need to settle down and get some stable food supplies.”

“That might be a bit further down the road for us,” Valerie noted. “First we have to retake East Fork and leave in one piece, preferably with a hefty reward.”

“From what Hyord told us, all of the outer city gates had been successfully closed yesterday. That should greatly limit the amount of enemies we’ll have to face.” Quentin shared his opinion.

“We already managed to cull their numbers on the north-eastern streets and I’m pretty sure the others did the same on their end.”

“Even if all the high ranked undead are gone, we still have to comb through the entire town in order to eradicate the stragglers.” Cruz pointed out between two spoonfuls.

“Speaking of eradicating things,” Fabien finally sat down as well, turning towards Regis. “You were so busy last night with tuning up our kit that you haven’t even noticed me leaving you some food and tea.”

“It was a long and tiresome night,” the dark elf answered. “Thanks for the snack and tea, by the way. I really needed those.”

“Don’t mention it. So, did you manage to finish everything you planned?”

“I did,” he nodded. “And a little bit more, although I do feel like I forgot something. Doesn’t matter; I’m sure it will come back to me eventually. Anyway, we can head upstairs after breakfast.”

“Good morning youngsters.” elder Derris greeted them as he entered the mess hall.”

“Good morning sir.” The outlanders answered as one.

“You all seem to be well rested. I take it your beds were adequate?”

“It was more than adequate,” Sophie said with a beaming smile. “I haven’t slept so comfortably in ages. The bed at the smithy wasn’t bad, but it was nothing compared to this one.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” the old scholar nodded serenely. “I suppose you will be heading out to aid the locals in retaking the town today?”

“That was the plan,” Quentin confirmed. “After breakfast we’ll check out the results of our friend’s tinkering with our equipment and then we’ll head out.”

“Good. The sooner those abominations disappear, the sooner everything can return two normal in East Fork.”

Everyone agreed with the elderly scholar’s sentiment as they continued on with their breakfast. When the last crumbs of food were gone as well, they headed upstairs to the enchanters’ room. Regis entered first, walking over to the small piles of separated equipment. The rest of the group entered the room as well, stopping a few steps away from the large tables that held their prize.

“Ladies first,” the dark elf said as he waved his feminine companions closer. “As you would expect, I infused everyone’s armour with a plethora of enchantments ranging from the obvious armour value increasing rune to a large amount of elemental resistance runes.”

“Nice.” Cruz said after letting out a low whistle.

“As for your weapons, they received a similarly hefty upgrade. I put a universal damage rune on everyone’s weapon, along with your requested elemental damage runes. I increased their durability as well, while adding a spell cost reduction enchantment to Letty’s and Mary’s sceptres. And as a bonus, I made a cloak for everyone that has added defence, durability, and it’s also waterproof.

“Thank you darling,” Valerie spoke up first that she mediately grabbed the cloak to get a closer look at it. “You’re the best!”

“Thank you,” Mary also spoke up with a slightly shaky voice. “Amanda told me that you are able to repair damaged equipment, but I never imagined that I would get something like this. These must be worth a fortune. Are you sure that I can...”

“It's yours.” Regis cut into her words, reassuring the young woman about her new equipment.

“Now for the gents,” he called out to the rest of the group. “Your equipment received pretty much the same treatment, so you should be a bit safer and more effective while out there fighting. That beast of a plate armour set Quentin took from the fallen knight received some special attention, so make sure to wear it with pride.”

“Thank you Regis!” The paladin nodded as he stepped beside his almost royal looking armour set.

“Thanks,” Osmond said as he examined his iron grey cane that now sported a pair of extra runes. “You really outdid yourself.”

“That’s for sure,” Khan nodded as he examined his upgraded short swords. “You’re really getting better with all this enchanting thing.”

“It’s not like I don’t have plenty of chances to practice with you lot around.” Regis said with a smile.

“Mais quel beauté.” Khan whispered with a sigh as he watched his swords burst into flames as if in a slight daze.

A split second later he had to jump back as both a fire and a lightning covered sword was swung towards him.

“What are you doing?” Sophie asked practically screaming as she watched the infernal siblings attack their companion out of nowhere.

“He’s not Khan.” Valerie yelled as she and her brother chased after the retreating bladedancer.

“Khan doesn’t know jack shit in French,” Fabien tried his best to stab at his enemy that moved and parried far too deftly for him to successfully land a hit. “This bastard spoke in fluent French just now.”

“But...” Letty tried to speak up as Khan landed a stomp on Fabien’s side before bolting towards the door of the room.

A pulse of warm light rushed across the room faster that the fleeing man, forcing him to drastically slow down his movements as Quentin released his domain along with the question.

“Who are you?” He asked, but received no answer, only pained groans

Valerie switched her weapon’s form back into that of a whip, swinging it towards Khan. The whip ensnared him by the neck and she pulled hard, making him fall back on the ground.

“Who are you?” Quentin asked again.

Khan groaned in pain as he tried to speak, but only black fumes left his mouth. After a second or two, his expression changed from pain into that of fury. A strange and dark energy began to rapidly well up in the man, reminiscent to a charging bomb. Before it could go critical however, the tip of a blade pierced through Khan’s left eye, straight into his brain.

The light died out in his other eye and the foreboding energy dissipated in a split second. Everyone turned towards Regis, their face pale from the fast and precise execution they just witnessed, along with the hefty cloud of Amaranth that seeped out of the corpse towards the spell weaver. While the rest of the group was stunned by the dark elf’s ruthless efficiency, he was in turn frozen in place due to the burning words that flared up in his vision.

{Your act of vanquishing a hidden demonic collaborator did not go unnoticed. Your deed have been recorded and you have received 500 renown points.}

{Renown necessary towards caste elevation: 578}

“Demonic collaborator…” Regis muttered as he read the glowing message half-conscious of his surroundings.

“You...” Quentin stuttered.

“He was going to to cast some kind of suicide bomb spell,” the dark elf stated with the calm yet mournful voice. “I had no other choice. The Heart also just notified me that I vanquished a demonic collaborator.”

“Bullshit!” The paladin roared in anger as he grabbed the spell weaver by his shirt’s collar. “Khan would have never done anything like that. He might have been possessed or enchanted or something. You could have knocked him out, but you killed him!”

“And he saved us in the process,” Osmond spoke up as he stepped away from the corpse. “Whatever magic he wanted to use was not only fuelled by his arcana, but also his life-force. Knocking him out would not have stopped it from being cast.”

“Guys,” Amanda’s voice pull them out of their argument. “He’s not disappearing.”

The sudden remark forced everyone to look towards Khan’s body that lay perfectly still on the ground even though nearly a minute had already passed since his death.

“There could only be two reasons for the corpse to not disappear,” Fabien muttered. “Either he’s a local, or the planes have already moved too far apart from each other to make crossing over possible.”

“But that would mean...”

“That he’s dead for good and we’re officially stuck in the Shardlands.” Cruz concluded.

“The fuck?” Valerie stepped away from the corpse that began to squeak and morph as if someone was playing with a freshly moulded clay figure.

Barely a few breaths later the outlanders were staring at a dead dark elf that was not at all the Mongolian youth they were travelling with..

“That’s...”

“An Argent?” Regis guessed as he and likely everyone else thought of the same possibility.

“That’s impossible,” the paladin said as he kept staring at the corpse. “We would have known if something was afoot.”

“Apparently, Amanda let out a troubled breath. “We didn’t.”

“But how?” Sophie asked, still shocked by the events. “We’ve been together all the time. I’m sure that no one was left out of sight, so how could they have replaced him?”

“The better question is when did they replace him?” Osmond pointed out the important detail.

“Sophie is right,” Valerie agreed with the sun elf girl. “No one was left alone during the whole time we’ve been travelling here and even less so once we got here.”

“Which means...”

“Either he was an Argent from the start or he was replaced back in Hunor.”

“But...”

“I remember,” Quentin spoke up finally after being silent for a while. “There was a time before we headed to the river docks in Hunor when I had to talk with father Steon. Khan told me that he would go out and trade a few pieces of his surplus gear for some rations. That was the only time when I left him alone for more than five minutes. If I...”

“Don’t,” Valerie stepped closer, placing her hand on the paladin’s shoulder. “We don’t know if it happened back then, but even if it did, you couldn’t have known.”

“My sister is right,” Fabien nodded in agreement. “Don’t blame yourself for something you didn’t have power over.”

“What in the Saints’ grace happened here?” An aged voice broke the group out of their conversation as elder Derris appeared at the door of the enchanters’ room, staring horrified at the corpse lying on the ground. Everyone went silent, their gazes switching between the elderly scholar and the dead dark elf. In the end, it was Letty who broke the silence as she answered the question.

“We were in the middle of collecting our equipment when Khan said something in a language he shouldn’t know how to speak. Fabien and Valerie attacked him, hoping to capture him, but he wanted to use some kind of suicide spell to take us with him, so Regis killed him. He then turned into... well, that.” She explained while pointing at the dark elf’s corpse.

“Oh my,” the old man stumbled slightly after hearing what happened. “Did anyone get hurt?”

“We are fine.” Quentin answered curtly.

“We’re unharmed,” Regis stated. “For now, the most important thing is to look for any possible clues about this bastard’s origins.”

“I’ll search the body.” Cruz offered when she saw that the paladin was unable to will himself into action.

“Quentin and I will check his belongings.” The young spell weaver said as he patted the man on the back, prompting him to head towards the Khan impersonator’s room.The two of them left the group behind without saying another word, walking over to the small bedroom in question while in a complete silence. As they reached the door, Quentin finally let out a deep sigh.

“Regis...”

“It’s okay,” the dark elf said as he opened the door. “I understand.”

“Still; I’m sorry. I lost control back there. What you did...”

“Whatever happened, happened. There’s no point in blaming yourself for it. I know you were looking out for Khan since day one, but don’t blame yourself. Whoever this bastard was, he did a flawless job in mimicking him.”

“Not flawless,” the paladin argued. “I hate to admit it, but now that I think about it, I believe there were signs. I just didn’t realise it back then.”