After Geirhyrien took care of the illusion, the group decided to take a rest in the very same crypt. The fire in center crackled with its own calmly raging hymn, its warm light cast on the alabaster floor, ceiling and walls bathed them in a homely light. Even though the tomb in the center told otherwise.

“How is she?” At first, Geirhyrien felt nothing more than the usual headache, and her smooth blood flowing down towards her soft lips. Then after minutes passed by, the world started to spring as if it threw a party for her success. She quickly lost her consciousness, Yun swiftly rushed and caught her before she would have hit the hard floor.

“Nothing serious, she just needs a bit of rest before we continue on.” He answered while his large, muscled hands caressed her long, silky hair. In this moment, she appeared to be a magnificent doll that once belonged to a noble, who wanted to share their final resting place with them.

“Hope so. Can I be honest with you all?” Fridr said with a long sigh escaping her. A piece of Heten meat skewered onto one of her arrows roasted slowly above the flames, fat slowly dripped from the rich, red meat while its sweet scent permeated slowly the crypt.

“Sure.” Yun said while he gently cradled Geirhyrien.

“I know it is bad luck to say things like these, but I don’t want any of you to fail this trial. I just can’t imagine our band without any of you.” Fridr mustered her strength before she spoke those words.

“So, it may be early, but what will be your choice when we return?” Fram swiftly changed the subject as he felt awkward a little, surprising the others a little. While this whole dungeon delving was a rite of passage for the Nhilna’Skholbul, besides being recognized as a full grown adult, it also comes with the prize of an augmentation. The first augmentation out of the three to be precise warriors went through in the Host of the Dusk.

“Probably only for an Oghre arm.” Bjartur spoke up first with sharp conviction plastered on his face. Then his eyes diverted a little as he envisioned himself with even more muscular arms that were as durable as the precious metals of the Dhaugroon clan.

“The heart of a Jotunn. Or maybe the legs of a Varhaug.” Fram said swiftly after the last words left Bjartur. The others, including her sister looked at her with worried expressions. The procedure itself was the less fatal part, usually the one doing it shares their lifeforce constantly with recipient. It was the recuperation phase where the body had to get used to a giant, crystalline like organ, that has been downsized to fit into its place, where problems may come. In most cases the strings keeping it in place, pop like the strings of a faulty, overused lute. While healers made sure that it doesn’t happen, if the body decided it doesn’t want it, the recipient is as good as dead.

“I guess you haven’t spoken to Ma and Da about this?” Fridr asked in strict, interrogative tone.

“I did spoke with father. He was reluctant at first, but then said if I return, and survive that, the Nightscale truly smiled upon me then.” Fram answered, his voice broke once as he recalled his father’s words. “Well, mother will be a different beast all together.” Then he added with an awkward chuckle.

“Can’t imagine you taller than your sis or dad.” Uld chimed in as his eyes wandered into the dark, imagining the young man no taller than 175 centimeters while his sister and dad shot above him at least with three heads.

“Or bluer.” Yun added with a chuckle that spread to the others.

“But enough of me. What about you sis?” Then to direct the conversation, he asked her staring right into her eyes, deep down knowing the answer.

“Probably the eyes of Selesatal.” She answered plainly, as they are all aware of the creature famously known for its extraordinary sight, granting perfect visibility even in total darkness, the ability to see further than the eyes of the intelligent races can see. And helps with the arkharuine strains on the eyes after numerous inscriptions pouring into them.

“What about you two?” Then she turned toward them, her head slightly tilted as she asked.

“As weird as it may sound, I’m probably going to ask for a better spear rather than augmentation.” Uld answered as he lifted his somewhat crude appearing weapon. A long wooden stick with a rock fused to its end. Literally, the wood and harsh grayish stone melded together into one.

“Similar to Bjartur for me. Except I plan to augment mine with those of an Aydrvoegh.” Yun answered while lifting both his arms up, looking at them with gloom as he already felt missing them.

Aydrvoegh – in the language of the Dusk – were those deities and spirits whom allied with the Solemn King in his war against his brethren in the Dawn Age. Many of them remained in opposition with the Designs of the Almodo and with the inclusion of mortal races within the Host of the Dusk, they found new worshippers. A few of them though did return under the service of the Silent Shepherd and the Monarch of Finality.

 “Why not your leg?” Bjartur inquired quite out of the blue as he tended to.

“Honestly. I’m not sure. I just thought going for the arms first before anything else.” Yun said softly even though he knew the reason being that he may lose less of himself that way.

“Plus I have more trust in Grimslaukh. I had the pleasure to see his handiwork with those necromancers of the Dhau’Issz.” He added as he recalled the eerily graceful necromancers whom converged into the famous liches of the Host.

“Feel like now I should go that route too.” Fridr said while her body shook for a moment.

“Well, it has its dangers from what I heard. If the aydrvoegh deems you unfit for their blessing, your soul may get lost within the Beyond.” Yun added as he felt a little bad for the old shaman of theirs.

“What about our little sleeping sorceress?” Bjartur asked while scratching his chin under the thick beard of his.

“She decided to remain pure. At best, may seek a blessing from the Nightscale himself is what she told me.” Yun answered while caressing her cheeks to which she moaned softly. A smile curved onto her lips, as she subconsciously knew whose hand it was.

“Well, it is time to rest. I’ll start first.” Then as they finished eating their dinner, Yun spoke up offering to be the next on the lookout.

**

As I walked towards the gate, the snow blanketing the cold marble felt strangely softer than usual. Before I rushed to him, I looked down at my own hands, both strangely appeared smaller and even softer than I remembered them. With each step closer towards the gate guarded by Skoti the Elderly whose creases were prominent even under the layers of alabaster paint. And Ivothaer a fellow kin of mine with a stern look. They were both clad in our clan’s armor that compromised of white furred kirtills with red lining around the neck and hem. Over it large, sharpened plates of contrasting, deep black and red hues.

With each step closer, my heart beat faster while a gentle warmness spreads within me. With each step, the scenery shifted like waves, a meadow with grass caressed my exposed legs, painted in cold colors, a clearing in the forest with tender symphony of gracious animals stalking nearby. In each scenery, the only constant was my dear Yun holding his right arm out with a smile on his skeletal, almost malnourished appearing but eerily alluring face with his tusks poking out from under his lower lip.

Their lips moved yet I heard no sound came forth from their mouths as we greeted each other. He held out his muscled arm, that was still far from what it was presently. For a miniscule moment, I hesitated but then grabbed onto it and the we headed out into the blinding whiteness that surrounds the capital.

Along the straight path, the others popped up one by one. First Fridr and Fram appeared from the same side, with teasing smiles that made my white sharp cheeks blush in a cold, in a soft frost hue. Then our dimwitted but kind friend, Bjartur appeared with a wide smile as if he was in anticipation. And then lastly our little Gobokh friend, Uld slowly walked with an expression that told us to slow down so he could catch up as usual.

Our destination. The woodland surrounding the snow blanketed plains. Tall white trees lined up, circled around with their ethereally glowing leaves emanating a beautiful, mesmerizing color reminding me of the tender frost covering the lakes during the warmer summers of the North where we hunted wild beasts and the remnants of the kingdom in our youth.

As my right foot stepped over the boundary between the forest and the plains, the shadows started dancing around on the snow, taking shapes varying from humanoid to… hard to describe ones, but ones that creeped my heart. With each step further in, the shadows hardened devouring the light entering between the branches. The leaves themselves withered, fell onto the shadow that devoured them like a hungering beast.

As fear grappled onto my heart, I started looking around frenetically, noticing the others missing including my dear Yun. Whose harsh hands’ lingered as my last bastion against the fear that paralyzed me. As I opens my eyes slowly, a figure the same size as my beloved stood at the end of the road.

But whatever he or it was – it was wrong. It was a festering wound upon the reality of me, and the dream. A shadow shaped like a human or aldraelh carved haphazardly. No cold or warmness around him or it, just a sensation of loss, of unrelenting, hopeless finality. And as it or he raised his left arm, I felt my heart stopping, but not cause of death, but because it became devoid of feelings.

A part of me, felt curious. I wanted to take it and witness whatever may lie beyond the end of the path I knew he wanted to lead me on. But my reasonable part knew it was a path not to be taken as it may cost me more than my life. It may cost me him, and there may have been years of my life in which I could imagine a path of loneliness, now that I felt the touch of his lips, the warm touch of his hands, I could not take their hand.

I tried to turn my head away, to speak words of rejection I could not. I could only watch as the darkness swallowed my world. My eyes teared up as I saw my sister laid down, unmoving. Her frail body desecrated with festering wounds. I saw Yun crawling towards me, his silent words calling out to me while hundreds of arrows stuck in his bleeding back. I watched as all the others were struck down by unseen enemies in a thousand gruesome manners. And I could do nothing, just watch and ache.

Then she woke up, her body drenched in cold sweat. Her arms looped around the familiar waist that belongs to Yun, calming her heart down as she laid back, lids closed in a dreamless darkness.

**

The revolting sounds of small steps on blood and gut echoed through the long and dark corridor. A pack of goblins marched towards the scent of death that permeated from the darkness that filled the end of the path.

Dried, centuries old blood and decayed flesh decorated the tiled floor. The walls that depicted the glories of the fallen, the dreamers of the beyond. A battle in which an imposing orkh clad in primitive armor fought against sinister aldraelhyn figures clad in radiant vile segmented armor.

Another with a tiny human that stood its ground against a dozen Jottnar towering over him like mountains, their pack of garmogrs bore their fangs drenched in their murky saliva. All these and the others stood the test of time, and even the goblins and various other primitive monsters that stalked the cold wastes of the basin let them be as they understood the consequences of desecration.

“Garabakh gha okha rakh!” The tallest of the pack – the one that could pass as their evolved cousins, the Gobokhs – spoke in their primitive language lacking in syllables. The two shortest and frailest looked at each other with dread in their yellow, slit pupiled eyes. With a few groan noises they accepted their roles, fates and walked towards the darkness that chilled even their hunched spines. Their makeshift spears pointed towards as they made slow steps towards the unknown.

Then a warped growl made them screech before an ethereal, light blue energy swept through them. Their upper bodies slid down as they rotted away in mere seconds. The rest including their cowardly leader froze in fear as It walked towards them with Its jaw open, ready to satiate Its ceaseless hunger until It finds them.