The group slid down the ladder to find at least a dozen guildmembers staring at them, midstep, from scattered locations within eyesight. There was a pause in the whole section of the sewers. Sauerkraut dropped from a sandwich a guildmember was eating, the refuse-laden waterway between walkways trickled along, and sweat started to form on Eden's brow. After what seemed like a minute, but what was more likely a couple seconds, Vorol charged forward, spear at the ready. The shocked pause was no more, as the group followed Vorol and the guildmembers leapt into action, rushing to the nearest bridges to surround and cut off the group.

"Vorol, hold up!" Bran said, as they crossed the first bridge. Two dwarven guildmembers charged Vorol and found that they had fresh punctures below their ribcages and above their knees before falling into the brine that bisected the platforms. "Everybody take up defensive positions around me!" Bran faced the iron door. Eden stood in front of him, her back to his, Vorol took a defensive stance on her right, Raenaugh stood at the ready, sword ready to flash up at a moment's notice, and Sariel stood directly in front of Eden, right on the edge of the walkway. It seemed to Eden that the most amount of guildmembers were approaching from Vorol's side, so Eden started playing The King's Fourth. One note, two notes, three, notes, four, and five; Vorol's spear had flashed out twice already, felling two human enforcers wearing knuckledusters before they could reach him. On the fifth note, Eden pulled from her pool of magic and Vorol stood a little straighter and attacked a little faster, as if his spear had no weight.

A guildmember on the walkway across the brine from the group leveled a sizable crossbow at Vorol and let loose a bolt. Eden was about to cry out to Vorol, but a long, thin blade passed up though her field of vision, just shy of her lute, and batted the bolt out of the air before it could hit the other elf; Raenaugh was evidently pulling his weight. She turned and smiled at him appreciatively; he gave a smile in return.

"Brilliant Ra, who gives us light from without and fire from within, ward us from missiles, cruel and underhanded that they are." prayed Sariel, and at once a translucent orange barrier sprung up around the group and the next bolt shattered against the barrier.

Bran approached the iron door and knocked on it nine times. The door didn't budge.

"Dammit!" Bran yelled before taking his place at the rear of the group. "I really thought I had it figured out! Vorol," He called as Vorol felled three more enforcers, this time ones with clubs, who walked through the barrier, "carve a path onward! You remember the way?"

"Yeah, boss!" Vorol yelled back, over the enraged shouts of the guildmembers as he used the butt of his spear to knock a guildmember into the filth. Eden turned to look at Raenaugh, and he was faring almost as well as Vorol, several bodies lying around him, two of which were hobs, though it seemed he was having more trouble, having a fist-shaped bruise on his forehead and several cuts on his arms. It seemed he needed Bran there to help him.

The group moved forward as quickly as Vorol could dispatch his opponents, which wasn't a run, but was still fairly quickly. Unfortunately, it seemed Sariel's ward was stationary, as the group left it behind, though it stayed up for a few seconds after the group left it. The group crossed a bridge.

"Eden!" Sariel called behind him to the small elf, "ready a boomspell!" Without responding, Eden ended The King's Fourth and started Storm of Greensea. Sariel prayed, "Endow me with fire, Ra, most brilliant, that my enemies might know your light more intimately." While he prayed, he gripped his staff with both hands; a mote of fire generated at the top and grew larger with every word. When he finished the prayer, Eden called out to Vorol,

"Make way!" Vorol leapt back to Eden's side and Sariel stepped back to the other side. Then the whole party, sans Eden, made a push backwards, Vorol with his spear, Bran with a small crossbow in one hand and a short sword in the other, and Raenaugh with Grounder, all tearing through their opponents. Eden, having the spell prepared, tried to give them as long as she could, but a crossbow bolt embedded itself in her shoulder and she was hit in the face by a stout hobgoblin with knuckledusters. The pain from the bolt lanced though her arm; she could tell it went straight though the muscle and hit bone; she felt her jaw break as the armed fist struck her face and her vision went fuzzy. She stumbled and hit the strings of her lute on the beat, pulling on her magic and loosing a wave of vibration akin to a thunderclap out from her on all sides, dissipating just shy of her allies and shoving all the guildmembers a little over ten feet back. Sariel lobbed the mote of fire over Eden's head and it landed just behind the first row of staggering guildmembers before exploding. The blast of fire singed Eden's eyebrows off and left nothing of the guildmembers ahead but charred bones. She turned to look in shock at Sariel, but he was blurry. The group rushed forward through the opening, pulling Eden, who stumbled a bit on the bones. She cried out in pain as Vorol snatched the crossbow bolt out of her shoulder.

"Sorry, kid," he said in a tone that was somewhat less than apologetic, "it had to be done. Sariel?"

"Ra, lord of light, I beg that you bestow healing light on those that have been harmed doing your holy work!" Sariel prayed. He set his hand on her forehead and with a flash of light, she was alright again; her jaw was fine, there was no hole in her shoulder, and her vision was as good as it was before.

"How did you...?"

"That was one of my bigger spells." Sariel said, his golden eyes shining. Then he said to Vorol, "Let's pick up the pace--the bastards behind us are starting to get their courage back."

The group sped up, their speed aided by Eden's static effect. Sariel reached back and tapped Raenaugh on the head, praying, "Almighty Ra, please refresh your servant with your life-giving light!" With that, Raenaugh's wounds were gone and a grin replaced the grimace he wore. Another bridge was crossed.

The guildmembers started to crowd in behind the group, enforcers at the front with short swords and clubs, and guildmembers holding crossbows filing in behind them as they let loose a bolt and let the crossbowman behind them step up to aim and fire while the first reloaded. Eden heard the crossbows and looked back, worried, as Sariel hadn't put up a barrier to stop any bolts, but saw that Raenaugh was alternating between defending with grounder, and casting momentary shields to deter the bolts. The shield disappeared and Bran let loose a bolt of his own from his tiny hand crossbow; the bolt embedded itself in the skull of a crosbowman that was about to fire. Raenaugh slashed a line across the arm of an enforcer, who cried out in shock as the line on his arm revealed the white of bone and suddenly overflowed with red. This created an opening, with which Bran dashed forward with his short sword and skewered a reloading crosbowman through the eye before darting back to his position in formation.

"I hope you have an idea!" Raenaugh called to Bran. "I'm almost out of flickershields!" Eden took that moment to shift her song. Since her lute didn't require her to change songs to pull on her magic, she shifted Storm of Greensea into a minor key. Eden turned around and swapped places with Sariel, walking backwards; she pulled from the lute's magic and focused on the guildmembers. Almost all at once, the guildmembers stopped, dropped their weapons, and ran away. Before Bran and Raenaugh could turn to thank Eden, she bumped into Sariel, who was wordlessly casting small fire spells as fast as he could, no longer taking the time to voice any prayers. She fully turned herself around and saw an anakim with a mullet take three motes of fire to the chest and not flinch, but instead batted Vorol's spear away from his midsection and use his other hand to pick the elf up and slam him against the wall with a resounding thud.

The entire group shouted "Vorol!" at once. Eden didn't waste any more breath, but instead ended Storm of Greensea and started Rites in Mist. Mystical-sounding music rose up from the lute and Eden heard an,

"Oh, no, you don't!" from somewhere behind the anakim, and a mousey-looking mage jumped out from behind the anakim with his hands pressed together, lightning dancing between parted fingers. The arms jerked forwards and a bolt of blue lightning arced towards Eden, but it veered off at the last second and hit Raenaugh's sword, which glowed orange for a moment, then returned to normal, leaving Eden and Raenaugh both unharmed. Eden pulled on her magic and the anakim dropped Vorol, who was bruised and shaken; the anakim stumbled, struggling to remain awake and Vorol took that opportunity to shove his spear up through the giant's head. Sariel tossed a small mote of fire at the mage, who pulled up a flickershield to block it, but the moment the shield disappated, the mage found one of Bran's bolts pierced through his hand; the mage stared at the wound for a moment, then collapsed as the poison did its work.

"Every wizard wants a lightning spell!" Raenaugh cackled, triumphantly, raising Grounder in a grandiose gesture. The dead anakim fell into the wastewater off to the side of the platform. The group reorganized and charged forward and crossed another bridge.

The sewer walkways were filling up with guildmembers. By now an all-hands-on-deck alarm must have been sounded.

"Eden, do you have another boomspell handy?" Sariel called to Eden as he stepped from the bridge to the platform. "We need some room!"

"I'm not overflowing with magic at this point!" she complained back, nevertheless stopping Rites In Mist and starting Storm of Greensea again. Sariel recited a prayer and Raenaugh and Bran dashed forward, behind Eden and Sariel, who let loose their magic, first a thunderous explosion of noise and energy from Eden, knocking their pursuers back, then a giant mote of fire by Sariel, coming down on the bare surface of the bridge, which crumbled from the impact of both spells; half a dozen guildmembers fell into the water below as the bridge came out from under them.

Good, Eden thought. That should keep too many people from following them; now they only have those coming at them to contend with.

"Raenaugh, do you know any mobile shield spells?" Bran asked, panting as he let loose another bolt from his tiny crossbow.

"Only one worth a damn, and it'll cost basically everything I have left."

"Do it. The corner is coming up, and we need to hurry." Raenaugh nodded in acknowledgement, Bran continued, "Head to the front; Eden, one more boomspell, dead ahead to give our shield some breathing room. Raenaugh will need to be front and center, but I need everyone pushing on the shield." Without replying, they all did that. Bran shot two crossbowman as Eden passed Vorol and pulled from her almost empty pool of magic, letting the thunderous energy ripple out from her lute. Raenaugh sheathed his sword, pulled out a small book, chanted something unintelligible (to Eden, anyway--perhaps it might have been in the language of dragons?), and a slightly red-tinted, yet see-through ward sprung up, six feet in diameter, round at the edges, and flat across. The book was pocketed and Raenaugh pressed both hands against it. Eden shifted her song to Ring of Wishes, and looped the song, before slinging her lute over her shoulder, and joining the group in rushing the ward forward. The group positioned the ward at an angle along the wall, forming a wedge of sorts. With Eden's music, Raenaugh's ward, Vorol's athleticism, Sariel's support, and Bran's leadership, they forced the shield down the walkway, shoving guildmembers off the walkway, down into the filth below the walkway. Some guildmembers were properly shoved into the brine, some chose to dive off as opposed to taking injury, but yet some still chose to back up, battering the transparent barrier with clubs, maces, and even fists. An anakim strode forward through the crowd, grabbing hold of the barrier and peering down over the top with an expression of annoyance only to have a proportional (to the anakim) mote of fire (and Sariel's staff) shoved into his mouth. The resulting explosion showered the crowd and the group both with gore as the giant's body toppled off to the side.

The guildmembers seemed to decide all at once that they were not paid enough to deal with this particular threat, and all began running away or jumping off the walkway; the shield surged forward, bolstered by Eden's static speed effect.

The group rounded the corner with the shield, nearly toppling as they did, to find a small battalion of mages waiting for them in formation with various staves and wands pointed at them. The group's collective eyes widened, but it was too late to do anything about it, as the mages had all been waiting for this exact moment. Damn, Eden though. She could see the door they needed to go in, past the mages, across a bridge on the left. Still, it hadn't quite been enough, as the mages all cast a spell together that shattered Raenaugh's barrier. Sariel let loose a gout of fire that, in Eden's opinion, was the equivalent to Riverreign's dragonfire, though she would never tell the dragon that. The mages collectivey loosed ice magic in the form of a white winter wind that met and stopped the fire from proceeding. Eden's ears popped and the brine below started to form whirlpools and spouts. Sariel's staff caught fire and the spell ceased. The white wind ceased at the same time, but instead of any reprieve, the mages loosed their own motes of fire at the group, exploding in flashes of orange and yellow. Eden was launched into the wall by an exploding mote on her left and everything went black.

***

Eden faded in and out of consciousness, her vision returning and departing in various shades of grey. On a couple of occasions, she was aware that she was being dragged by her arms. Grey. Dark grey. Black. She tried to open her eyes: everything was white. She tried to close her eyes: everything was black. She shook her head, trying to maintain consciousness, or return to consciousness if she wasn't, in fact, conscious. The problem remained that she had no idea what was going on with her coworkers. She couldn't tell. When she opened her eyes, more white. When she closed her eyes, there was black. The elf's head was spinning. She couldn't make any sense of her surroundings. She looked around. And around. And around. More white. She turned around once more and came face to face with Garm. Everything went black, save for the fiery visage of the canine god.

"You're still falling behind. You're still too slow to save him. You're of no use to anyone, are you?" The god asked her, his breath reeking of charcoal and death. "If you were to go back in time a thousand times, you would fail a thousand times." So. She was fully unconscious. That wouldn't do. This wasn't an actual god. This was her fear: an inevitable, looming monster that's the cause of her problems. And now he was standing in the way of her helping her friends now. Friends. That's what they were, weren't they? When working in this capacity, together, could they be anything else? They were relying on her. She looked at the god in his burning eye sockets and said,

"Fuck you. I'm not trying a thousand times for anything past. I'm trying my damnedest for something now, and you are in my way."

Garm let out an enraged growl that was cut short as the visage turned to ash and blew away.

She had given up, in Almaz, succumbing to her fear, and thus had been too slow to catch Azrael's hand as he fell. There's nothing that she could do about that now. But her friends needed her. She looked down, and there was a hole, and opening of blackness in a stone road with a pale hand sticking out. She reached down and grabbed the hand.

***

Eden opened her eyes. She was holding Raenaugh's hand. He wasn't looking at her, but he had her wrist clasped in the fingers of his other hand, keeping track of her pulse. Her fingers tightened around his hand. He didn't notice. He was looking at something else. What was he looking at? As her surroundings came more into focus, the pain in her body did, also. And she hurt. It felt like she had pulled every muscle in her body. She had third-degree burns on her arms and legs and possibly her face, not to mention the bruises that she knew were on the right side of her body. Much of her hair was likely burnt, as well.

"...though it seems that my generosity was misplaced." Her hearing was coming back. The person speaking was...Eliyr. "It's times like these that I have to wonder if people actually have the ability to learn from generosity. Perhaps they can only learn from painful lessons. What do you think, Reggie?" An unenthusiastic voice off to her right replied,

"I agree with whatever you say, boss." Her vision came back to her fully and she understood her surroundings. She was laying on her back in the guildmaster's office, and kneeling next to her was Raenaugh, Vorol, and Sariel, all looking at a fixed point and surrounded by Guildmembers with drawn weapons. Everyone in the room was looking at Eliyr, who was standing just to the side of Bran, who was being held in place by a rather large hobgoblin. Eliyr was twirling a knife in his hands with the help of his eyelids. Behind Eliyr and in front of the party was the open guild vault. It appeared Eliyr was making good on his promise to kill the party while they witnessed his wealth.

"That's a very wise stance to take, Reggie. Now if only more people took that stance, the world would be a better place. Now, as I was saying, I was not only explicit in my instructions, but I was also intimidating! Do you think I was anything less than terrifying, Lord Leland?"

"I think Reggie, over here, has the right answer." Bran said in a ragged-sounding voice. Eliyr struck him across the face. Eden had to do something before this escalated. No one in the room had realized Eden was awake, yet; not even any of the guildmaster's eyes were focused on her. But what could she do? She was fairly certain that the group had been relieved of their weapons. But there was still the plan. In fact, here was the best place to enact the plan. Hopefully their plan actually started working sooner rather than later.

She inhaled softly, silently, and focused on a treasure mound in the open vault and she disappeared from her spot, taking an unwitting Raenaugh Joyautombe with her and reappeared standing on the treasure about ten feet into the vault. The coins shifted underneath her with the distinct clinking that only a hill of coins can provide. The whole room froze and everyone peered into the magically-lit vault, Eliyr turning around, despite his eyes giving him full view.

Raenaugh stood there, slack-jawed and dumbfounded as everyone else in the room, but Eden reached up to the jacket and declared,

"Panic." as she tore the panic button from the jacket.

"Kill her." Eliyr instructed in a cold rage. Then he yelled, "Kill her now!" Crossbow bolts launched into the vault at her. Eden, already ready to jump out of the way, tried to, but, as it turns out, she didn't need to. The crossbow bolts shattered against an invisible barrier. Eden grinned a painful, but satisfied grin; she could guess what that barrier meant.

"Hey, Eliyr." Eden called to the guildmaster. "Ichabod says hi." The elavis paled in fury, but his expression suddenly changed to fear as a glowing blue hand lighted on Eden's shoulder.

"Well done, young elf," came the slightly-echoey voice of Senator Mystern as she appeared behind Eden. Mystern then addressed the rest of the room. "By the authority of the City of Valekenport, everyone here is under arrest. I would ask, as a personal favor, that you resist, though, as I haven't disintegrated anyone in much too long." No one moved.