At the half-orc's veiled command, the group began to trudge forward. Karina kept her eyes on the doors that stood before them, attempting to gauge the distance they had to cover. But the land was nearly featureless; no point of reference allowed the dragonblood to make an adequate guess. The doors might have been a mile away - or they might have been even farther.
The cliffs that the group stood on were foreign to Karina, but she did not fear them. She was one in a proud race of dragonbloods, renown for their courage and nobility. Karina laughed inwardly at the thought. Courage and nobility, indeed, she said to herself wryly. I may have the noble part down, but the courage is severely lacking.
A presence interrupted her thoughts. Farrah had pulled back from the group and come to walk alongside Karina. “Hi,” the half-orc said. “Uh, I just wanted to thank you for getting the boy to talk to us. You have quite a way with kids — it’s impressive.”
The dragonblood smiled, clearly unused to being complimented in such a way. “Thanks,” she stammered. “I treat a lot of kids at the temple back home. They won’t cooperate if you’re not gentle with them… I figured this might be the same way.”
“Oh, you’re a healer, then? That’s amazing. Always need more of those.”
Farrah was clearly struggling to make adequate conversation, something that Karina also struggled with. The dragonblood tried to force words out, saying, “So are you from the ventral plane?”
Karina cringed at the awkwardness of her small talk, but Farrah humored her with an answer. “No, I’m not. I’m from the aqueous plane. Grew up in a little seaport village on one of the western coasts of Eile.”
“Far from home, then,” Karina said. “Same for me. I live in the capital of the terrestrial plane.”
“And your patron? You mentioned you worked at a temple.”
“Cré. You know, Earthshaker and guardian of nature. Par the course for the terrestrial plane; they go crazy for her over there.”
“You talk as if you weren’t part of things there — as if you were an outsider,” Farrah said.
Karina sighed, internally berating herself for showing her hand. “You could say that,” she began. “I wasn’t born on the terrestrial plane, so I don’t understand them there sometimes. I grew up… very differently.”
Farrah was silent, thinking it best not to press Karina for more. Instead, she decided to offer a little of herself to the dragonblood. “I understand what you mean. My mother is an orc and my father was a sailor. That household was different, to say the least.”
“Your father ‘was’ a sailor?” Karina asked, glancing at the half-orc.
Farrah paused. “Yes, ‘was.’ He’s dead now.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Karina began. “That must have been difficult for you.”
“It was for a little while. But that’s the way life goes, innit? Sometimes you’re riding the wave; other times you’re caught in the current.”
Karina shifted subjects, hoping to find something else she could talk about that wouldn’t be so personal. “What is it that you do for work, then? Or are you one of those adventuring sorts?”
“Ah, I suppose you could say that,” Farrah replied. “But I’m actually the captain of a ship. Her name’s the Bloodhound. My dad passed it down to me before he moved on himself.”
The half-orc hesitated, then continued. “We do a lot of cargo moving. Getting goods from here to there and all that.”
Karina felt Farrah’s hesitation and tried not to look too hard into what could be hiding there. She knew what “cargo movement” was code for in some circles, and was a bit bewildered that someone as seemingly nice as Farrah would be in that line of work.
“So you’re a pirate, then?” Aveline’s voice interrupted. The two turned and found the daímona close behind them.
“By Solas’ light, didn’t your mother teach you it was impolite to sneak up on people?” Karina demanded.
“She also taught me it was wrong to steal and kill, but you seem to have no problem getting friendly with someone who does all that,” Aveline retorted.
Farrah froze, a scowl growing on her face. “You know nothing about me, fiend. Don’t presume to.”
Aveline wagged a finger at the half-orc. “I know what your kind does. You steal, kill, and destroy everything in your path. You may have human blood in you, but you reek of orc.”
At those words, Farrah lunged at the daímona. A brief look of surprise crossed Aveline’s face before she was brought to the ground. She fumbled for her dagger but was unable to reach it before Farrah grabbed her wrists and pinned them behind her back. Farrah pushed the daímona’s hands closer to her shoulder blades; Aveline cried out in pain.
The others heard the commotion and rushed to meet the pair. Karina stood nearby, her mouth open and fear in her eyes. Vice scrambled to separate the two. “Stop it!” she shouted. “We’ll have enough trouble later — we need not make any now!”
Farrah felt Vice’s hands on her arms; she released the grip she had on the daímona’s hands. She held up both hands in a gesture of acceptance and took a few steps away from the group. Aveline clutched her wrists and rubbed them, glaring at the half-orc.
“While this hopefully will not last long, we have to get along with each other,” Vice began. “How are we going to deal with whatever comes at us if we’re too weak from fighting each other?”
Farrah shook her head, refusing to look at the theosian. “Fine, you’re right,” she said. “But that one” - she pointed at Aveline - “needs to learn some manners. I have done nothing to you - you don’t even know me. I shouldn’t have lost my temper. But you need to watch yourself, daímona.”
Aveline brushed off her tunic and hair, then said, “Let’s just get on with it.” She began walking once more towards the doors.
Farrah glanced at the others, her brow furrowed. Karina remained wide-eyed while Kafir merely shrugged and shook his head. Vice sighed and turned after Aveline. The rest followed her, continuing on their trek.
Several hours passed before the group neared the rock bridge that led to the Path of Iris. The doors were much bigger than they had anticipated; it seemed to Karina that the frame itself was several hundred feet tall. Even from the distance they were, the doors were enormous - large enough that Karina had to crane her neck to see the top of their frame.
While the doors appeared from afar to be made of iron, Karina was unsure as to their actual material as the group drew closer. She knew they were constructed of some sort of metal, but the material gave off a strange aura. Karina drew in a breath and allowed her mind to reach out towards the doors. As the two energies mingled, the dragonblood realized that the metal was not of this plane - not of any physical plane. This is celestial metal, she thought. Only the servants of Solas himself could have forged something like this.
Farrah reached the outcropping of the bridge first. It was shrouded in fog and several meters wide - large enough for the group to stand shoulder-to-shoulder and pass comfortably. Farrah tried to walk forward without looking down but failed a few steps in. The drop off the bridge was nearly as tall as the doors ahead of them were. Her vision swam and she felt her legs buckle under her weight; she fell to the ground with a heavy thud.
Karina rushed forward. “Are you okay?” she called out.
Shaking her head, Farrah tried to breathe in deeply but came up short. The air came in gasps and she could feel her heart racing as her shoulders shuddered with the effort.
“I… I…” she stammered.
“Shh, just breathe right now. Don’t try to talk,” Karina said. The dragonblood began breathing in and out rhythmically, gesturing for the half-orc to mimic her.
Farrah followed Karina’s lead and closed her eyes, breathing in unison with the dragonblood. After a few minutes, Farrah’s breath had evened out. “What happened?” she asked.
“You had a panic attack. You’ll be fine, you just need to rest for a moment.” Karina looked the half-orc over to make sure she was okay. “Do you know what could have triggered it?”
Farrah swallowed hard. “I, uh, think I’m just not used to being up so high.”
“Okay, that’s fine. That’s completely understandable,” Karina replied, her voice soft and sweet. “We do need to get across here, though. Is there anything we can do to make it easier for you?”
As Karina spoke, Aveline walked towards the two of them and knelt down. She placed a hand on Farrah’s shoulder and began to whisper in the arcane language. A soft, white glow radiated from her fingertips and was absorbed into Farrah’s skin. The light seeped into her veins and coursed across her chest, pooling in the spot where her heart sat. Farrah felt a calm happiness wash over her, much like the feeling she got every time she looked out across the ocean. She could breathe easy once more.
Farrah turned and saw that it was Aveline’s hand on her shoulder — not Karina’s. Surprise filled her as her eyes grew wide. “What did you do?” she asked.
“A simple charm of influence,” Aveline replied, already rising back up to her feet. “Just something to calm you down so we can get a move on.”
Farrah stood and watched as the daímona continued forward. “Thank you,” she called out after Aveline, still reeling from the gesture.
“Consider us even, orc,” Aveline said over her shoulder.
The rest of the group followed after the daímona. They were about a third of the way across the bridge when Aveline noticed a pile of torn clothing lying on the side of the path. She approached it and nudged it with her foot. Between the folds of the material was hidden a partial skeleton. Aveline jumped back in alarm.
Vice noticed the daímona’s reaction and drew closer to her. When her eyes caught sight of the skeleton, she knelt down and passed a hand over the clothing, inspecting the bones. “The Crow took them suddenly. The fear still lingers in these bones,” she said.
Aveline placed her hands on her hips. “But what happened? There’s nothing out here that could have killed them - not unless they fell off the edge. But then the bones wouldn’t even be here.”
Vice was about to attempt an answer when Kafir came running towards them, panic slashed across his face. “Guys, wait! Don’t move!” he cried out.
“What is it?” demanded Vice.
“The bridge! In my reading, it said that the Path of Iris was guarded by a sentry: the Silver Sentinel. I’m so sorry I forgot to tell you,” Kafir panted.
“Surely they will let us pass,” Aveline said. “We mean them no harm, nor do we anyone else.”
Under the group’s feet, the bridge began to rumble and shake. Dust kicked up across the stone ground and pebbles jumped from the motion. A large shadow appeared ahead of the group. Aveline strained to see what was coming, but could not make out details of the form.
Suddenly, a giant knight clad in black armor glided out from the veil of fog. In his left hand he bore a thick, round shield; in his right, a weathered greatsword. Aveline stared at the markings on his sword, her mind filling with fear as she realized that the markings were dried bloodstains. The knight dropped into a ready stance, his shield up and his sword above him, poised to strike.
“I don’t think he’ll let us just pass,” Kafir whispered.
The Sentinel charged towards them.
