Jasper stared down at the body of the Fey lord with a touch of regret. He didn't regret killing him - that had been necessary, especially after he'd 'opened the door,' whatever the hell that meant. But if they hadn't messed with the past, however unintentionally they had done so, he wouldn't have had to kill him. Of course, that's because Qas̆pûl had killed himself, Jasper reminded himself.

In the end, he supposed it didn't matter. What was done, was done, and even if Bēlet-Imtu could send them into the past a second time, any attempts to undo it would likely end up spiraling into some other unforeseen consequence.

Still, he felt the need to show some respect to the fallen lord. They didn't have time to bury him, but the least he could do was burn his body and save it the indignity of rotting away uncared for, or even worse, being torn apart by scavengers.

Crouching down, he straightened out the body, placing the man's fallen sword across his chest, and as he adjusted the man's head, something moved along his neck. Jasper jerked his hands away immediately, essence leaping to his fingers as he prepared for an attack, but none came. The light of his flames was reflected by a glittering necklace around the man's neck that seemed familiar.

He pulled it out carefully, rolling the long, silver cord in his hands until he pulled free the massive sapphire dangling at its end. Jasper remembered immediately where he'd last seen it, dangling between the priestess' generous cleavage. This was Lady Tahanat's - so why did he have it? Unless… Jasper grimaced as the most likely answer came to him. If she had tried to escape with the others, she had probably met the same fate. Just another person we caused to suffer.

Jasper started to stuff the necklace back into the man's shirt when an errant thought occurred to him. Belet-Imtu had warned them that they might encounter Qaspul, but she had said nothing of the priestess and he knew from his venture into the past that she had been an even more powerful mage than the Fey lord. Did that mean that she had died in the escape and could no longer bother them? Or was it possible…that she'd survived?

There was no reason beyond mere wishful thinking to leap to that conclusion, but the feeling in his gut wouldn't go away. After a moment's hesitation, he pulled the necklace back out and bound it around his neck. Then, straightening the man's body one last time, he rose and covered him in flames.

"You good?" Jasper hadn't noticed Ihra creep up on him, but he nodded his head. "Yeah, I'm fine. Nissilât's the one who almost died."

"I only caught the end of that fight, but I'm pretty sure she was the one saving you," Ihra replied teasingly.

"It was a mutual save," he shrugged, and the rolling of his shoulders caused the necklace to tumble out of his shirt.

"I've got to say, I'm not sure you're pulling that off, Jasper," Ihra said with a smirk.

"You don't remember what this is?" He raised his brow.

"Should I?" It occurred to him, then, that perhaps she shouldn't. While she had been the one inhabiting Tahanat's body, that only meant that she hadn't spent all that much time looking at herself. He had been the one who'd had a hard time not looking at the priestess' body.

"It belonged to the priestess," he explained shortly. "Qas̆pûl had it with him, so I'm guessing that means they tried to escape together. She's probably dead, but…I don't know, I guess I want to believe?"

Ihra's face softened in understanding, but whatever she might have said was lost as S̆ams̆ādur stormed over. The prince was looking a bit worse for the wear, with a bloody gash down his cheek and a noticeable limp in his left leg. Reflexively, Jasper cast Circle of Forgiveness on him as the durgu approached, and he grunted in thanks. "They're almost here."

Jasper didn't need to ask what he was referring to. "How close?"

"Maybe ten minutes, if that," S̆ams̆ādur stressed, "And there's too many to fight."

Abandoning their efforts at looting, the party ran toward the gates of the great hall. Unsurprisingly, Qas̆pûl had locked them from the other side, but Tsia and Jasper pulled on the dregs of their remaining essence to breach a wide enough hole in one of the doors for the group to crawl through.

In different circumstances, Jasper would have loved to pause and admire the scenery. Birat-Shahor may have been a fortress, but it was a Fey fortress, and the opulence and beauty that characterized the rest of the city were no less present here.

A stately avenue, lined with pink-leaved trees, led away from the keep toward the first of two curtain walls, each at least a hundred feet high. Rhomboid towers rose at regular intervals, their roofs glittering with the same gold as the rest of the city and their heights illuminated by the enchanted blue orbs.

Stolen story; please report.

The castle was enormous, easily large enough to accommodate a small town of its own. Indeed, a substantial residential section was lodged between the two curtain walls but like the rest of Iltabrit, it was nothing more than a ghost town. All it needs is a little bit of tumbleweed to really set the scence.

There was no one to hinder them as they fled from the keep, but the architecture itself fought their escape. When they reached the gate in the inner wall, they found it closed. The massive portcullis, more than two feet wide, was pockmarked by the scars of war, with massive chunks and deep ridges carved out of the solid steel, though by spell or artifice Jasper could not tell.

Unfortunately, despite the extensive damage to the gate, it held firm, and the winch that should have allowed them to raise the portcullis had been purposefully destroyed. Even if he still had essence left, there was no way they were getting through that.

"Try the tower." He followed Ihra through a small door on the wall, which led to a winding staircase that exited on top of the ramparts. If I had only had any essence left, I could just sprout wings and fly away but as it is… Jasper blanched as he looked over the wall. It was a long way down and, even if he could survive the fall - which he doubted - the dry moat filled with sharpened spikes at the wall's base would surely kill him. But maybe with rope, we could rappel?

Jasper wasn't sure if he had a rope long enough to work, but it turned out not to matter. "Catch."

He snatched the coil Tsia had thrown at him out of the air and quickly bound it around one of the rampart's crenellations. He made more than a dozen knots before he stood up and gave the rope a dubious tug. "Sure it will hold our weight?"

S̆ams̆ādur pushed past him and swung a leg over the wall. "Unless you want to fight a few thousand enemies without your magic, you better hope it does. Grabbing hold of the rope, the durgu lurched into the air, bouncing off the wall a few feet further down. Jasper dove for the rope as it slid further up the crenellation, but the knots tightened it, locking it in place before it pulled off, and the prince reached the bottom safely, carefully dismounting between the tightly spaced spikes.

One by one they clambered down the rope until Ihra and himself remained. "Ladies first," he offered, but his friend just shook her head.

"Nope, I know you - you're scared of heights. If I go before you, you might just get cold feet."

"I'm not scared of heights," Jasper protested. "I have a healthy respect for them-" he ignored Ihra rolling her eyes as he continued "and, besides, I'm not suicidal. Even if I were scared of heights, I'm not scared enough to choose 'fighting an army by myself' as the alternative."

"Be that as it may," Ihra gestured to the rope. "You first."

They didn't have time to argue, so Jasper did as she said. Swinging his legs over the rampart, he rappelled down with his eyes shut, a choice he clearly regretted as he reached the bottom and grazed his leg against one of the razor-sharp stakes. Releasing the rope, he stood aside and gestured for Ihra to come down.

She popped up on the wall, and then his mouth dropped as she drew a dagger and cut the rope. She tossed it down to them as she steadied herself on the wall, and then she leapt. Jasper surged forward, slicing his arm on one of the stakes as he tried to position himself to catch her fall, but he needn't have proved. When she was halfway down the wall, an amber shield sprung in place around her. She hit the spikes and, like a hamster stuck in a runaway ball, bounced over the moat, landing in a sprawl in the yard beyond.

Jasper ran over to her, fear and anger boiling over, but his wrath died away as she sat up, shaking the grass out of her hair with a laugh. "You-"

"That was not quite what I expected."

"Why the hell did you jump?" he spluttered.

Ihra smiled archly as he pulled her to his feet. "I'm sorry - were you planning on leaving an easy path for our enemies to follow? Now they'll have to find their own way over the wall."

"I-" Jasper sighed, knowing she had a point. "Fair enough, but you could have told me. Did you even know if the shield could protect you like that?"

"Seems like it worked," but Jasper sensed the evasiveness in her answer, and frowned at the implication. Even she hadn't been sure it would work.

"You didn't know it would work," he accused. "You could have gone splat like a bug on a windshield. You can't be so cavalier with your safety - if anyone should have-"

"It should be you?" Ihra's eyes glinted dangerously and Jasper swallowed. "We all get to make our own decisions, Jasper, and if I choose to protect my friends, who are you to complain? You already almost died saving us once today," she added as she pushed past him and started walking toward the outer gate, followed by the others.

"I-" As Jasper started to protest, S̆ams̆ādur clapped him on the shoulder.

"Don't you know it's pointless to argue with your lady friend," the durgu said lightheartedly. "Even when you're right, it's not worth the fight - and, in this case, you're definitely not right. Come on," he shoved Jasper forward and the two hurried to catch up with the rest of the party. "I'm sure she'll be happy to accept your apology when she cools off."

Slightly misogynistic humor aside, Jasper realized the dwarf was right. It was hypocritical to complain about Ihra protecting them. Today alone, he'd blown himself up and nearly been buried alive trying to rescue Tsia and Ihra, so he didn't get to complain when she did the same. "Wait up!"

He jogged past the others to catch up to Ihra. "If you're going to yell at me-"

"No, you were right," he cut her off. "And by the way, jumping off the wall like that was awesome - once I knew you weren't going to die."

"It was, wasn't it?" Her face brightened and a mischievous glint entered her eyes. "You know, once we're out of this bloody city, we'll be back in the mountains. Where there are plenty of cliffs. We could jump together."

Jasper had to laugh. "You know, back home we have a saying. 'Would you jump off a bridge just because your friends did?" I guess I finally know the answer - yes, Mom, I'll jump off the cliff. I might need a blindfold, though," he added beneath his breath.

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