Isaac awoke in a strange state of half consciousness. He was vaguely aware of the scent of blood as well as the presence of two more people than there were when the ritual had concluded. There was a soft pillow under his head and he was draped in a warm blanket. All of that was fine, what was not fine was the blinding light. It was too bright for him to even open his eyes. He was fed some kind of liquid via a soft hand on his chin and a spoon. He couldn't remember what it tasted like but it was horrible. He also felt like he was rocking on a boat for a while but that didn't make any sense.

Lenna was in total agony, she lay awake in bed, with her eyes clamped shut under the blinding morning sunlight. "Helmet." She whispered and could only hope that someone heard her.

"It is right here, dear." A woman's voice smoothly replied from nearby. Her voice had the bearing of one who had lived a very long time and had even raised those who had lived longer than even Lenna had. "You are safe. Walter and Urren have made sure of it."

"Urren?" Lenna wondered in a whisper.

"You might know him better as Lord Ashborne or the Ashborne Patriarch." The woman explained. "He is my mate, my name is Jina." There was then some clanking of glass and movement nearby. "Open up, I have your medicine."

Lenna did as she was told and accepted the spoonful of 'medicine'. Lenna had to fight herself to keep from coughing from the bitterness that bordered on the impossible. She had eaten chalk, once, and that had tasted a hundred times better.

"That should soothe your soul for a little while. It will help the natural healing, slightly, but it is mostly a balm." Jina explained. "In a few minutes, when it has fully taken effect, I'll give you your helmet and you can sit up. Your mate is asleep, a bed over. He is in better condition than you, in a way, but his fever will not go down no matter what I do. It seems to be coming from you."

"My broken oath." Lenna whispered in reply.

"I assumed as such. That is actually a good thing. It means that the fever will go down and his body will adapt to the higher temperature in equal measure as the echoes of the wish subside." Jina informed her. "All you both need is time and everything will be back to normal."

"How long have we been asleep?" Lenna wondered. She could already feel herself starting to feel better. She knew that her soul still bore the stretchmarks of having been forced to reach the size of Isaac's but his own integrity now held hers firm. She could already tell that their mana reserves and regeneration rate were still entirely distinct but if one of their souls was overburdened then the other would help share the load.

"Only ten hours." Jina explained. "You should be fine to walk around by midnight tomorrow, especially considering your blessing, but a full recovery will take some time. Your mate would be fine now, if his fever was not hovering around the level that would make me worry for his life."

"Thank you." Lenna told her.

"Yes." Jina replied simply. She then sat Lenna's helmet in her hand and patted it. "Wait ten more minutes or so, then you may do what you wish. I have done all I can, for now, and as long as you do not try to use your aura or fight anything, you should not make anything any worse."

"I smell blood." Lenna commented.

"Ah, yes, well, some got on my shoes while we were moving you both here." Jina replied. "I'll send Walter in." She stated and walked out. Lenna heard the sound of a door opening and then closing behind the woman's retreating footsteps.

A minute later, Walter entered. "I'll fill you both in when his fever breaks. For now, just know that the old man, Xlen, Gypsy, and I handled it. You three are safe and are now just recovering. Everything went as well as it could've gone." He told her as soon as he noticed her head turn slightly in his direction.

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"Alright." Lenna replied and accepted his assurance. She understood that he was just trying to tell her to shut up, rest, and wait until Isaac was awake and available.

—

Isaac groaned. His head positively pounded and his entire body ached. He knew immediately that he was in the middle of a godsawful fever. "Water." He croaked with his eyes still sealed shut.

"I got you." Walter's voice came from nearby and the shifting of a chair along the ground and then footsteps preceded the handing of a glass of water into Isaac's slightly outstretched hand.

"Tha-" Isaac began as he grabbed the cup but then was hit with a wave of dizziness and weakness as a spell locked onto him and settled around the edges of his mind. He dropped the glass and it splashed water all over himself before it dropped and Walter barely caught it before it shattered across the floor.

"You good?" Walter asked but Isaac was in his own head hearing the voice of Alexander frantically blasting words into his mind.

"Darkness! We have an emergency. One of the caravans between Safeharbor and Ben's End was hit. Aria Tre'Bor and Claus son of Rock were guarding it along with ten guardsmen and a full team of rookie adventurers." Alexander went on as soon as he felt the spell connection solidify. "All twenty two are either confirmed dead or missing. Aria Tre'Bor is among the dead and Claus son of Rock is currently missing along with four guards and two of the rookie adventurers."

Isaac was frozen in a fever haze as Alexander bombarded his jelly-like consciousness with truths and facts as hard and sharp as construction nails. "Aria?" Isaac asked aloud.

"Darkness, are you alright?" Alexander questioned.

"I, uh, yes, no, we are in the… the capital of the place…" Isaac's mental and physical voice trailed off.

"You were going to see the Fatebreaker, were you not?" Alexander replied. "Are you in the capital of the high elven kingdom nearest us?"

"Uhm, yes." Isaac replied. "Pick us up." He told the court wizard.

"I have never been there." Alexander replied. "Are you alright?"

"Wish." Isaac's fever brain got out.

"Isaac, Isaac," Walter said and snapped his fingers in front of Isaac's face. "Tell whoever you are talking to to contact either me or Lenna. You are too out of it to be dealing with anything."

Isaac tried to nod but that only made him really dizzy. "Call Lenna, fever." Isaac mumbled out.

"Understood." Alexander sent into his mind and then immediately contacted Lenna in the same way that he had done with Isaac.

Lenna was quickly filled in on everything by Alexander and was stunned into speechlessness for a moment. "Was it Contantis?" She questioned the Court Mage.

"We are ninety nine percent sure. Every other raid that had been carried out recently has been from them. Their quality has been all over the place, however, so we believe that there is some level of internal strife at the moment." Alexander explained. "Some raids are total failures and others are complete successes without any living witnesses. The Guild Master and the platinum level team Thrice are escorting a few clerics to the scene, so they can speak with the dead and ask them about what has happened and if they wish to be revived. When they had missed their scheduled return time, and hadn't sent a message, a scout was sent out to look for them. Usually we would have given them an extra day, but with the increase in raids recently, we didn't wait. That scout just returned half an hour ago and the Guild Master has already left. I knew that I needed to inform you, but it sounds like Darkness is not up to the task of looking for the missing caravan members."

"He is not." Lenna agreed. "Walter, can you check with Jina and ask her if we will be fine to teleport within the hour? Also, can you teleport us to Safeharbor? We won't be able to help immediately but if there are prisoners that need rescued, then maybe…" Lenna's voice trailed off as she started to remember something from nearly two months ago.

"I'll ask her." Walter confirmed. "But I won't be able to teleport you there. The spell that can take you the whole way there is eighth level. I can get you back to Nualt and then you can take the circle from there to wherever you need to go though."

Lenna shook her head. "I'll keep that in mind as a backup." She then turned away from him slightly to continue her conversation with Alexander. "See if Karthen Eidi'Diasta can get us from Material de la Celestia and take us directly to Safeharbor. I'll try to have everything wrapped up here before Isaac is fully coherent and Karthen arrives, if he can be reached."

"I will do my best." Alexander told her with as much confidence as he could muster. He wasn't sure if he would be able to get his old mentor's cooperation, but he was willing to try. The Lord of Darkness and his Lady of Hellfire were Safeharbor's strongest and most potent resources as well as his personal friends. It was his duty, by every metric, to do whatever he could. Everyone knew that Aria and Claus were very close with Isaac and Lenna, so much so that when Alexander had received the report, there was even a special note mentioning that the Lord of Darkness should be specifically informed of the loss.

Lenna sighed as soon as she felt Alexander's spell leave her mind. "Shit." She swore under her breath.

"Lenna?" Isaac's voice came from a few feet from her. "Is Aria, is Aria actually dead?"

Lenna's heart ached for her husband. Her and Aria had butted heads a little towards the beginning but she would never forget how much Aria had helped Isaac, helped both of them, and the time that they had spent together. It made it even worse that it was most likely her home that had taken her husband's first friend away from him. As long as they could retrieve her body, and she agreed to be resurrected, then Aria could return. There was always that slim chance that she could be brought back, but Claus was another story all together. If Claus was missing, then that meant that he had been taken as a slave or had been utterly removed from existence. In that case, Aria's prophecy meant even more. If Claus was the reason why Isaac would have wanted to run directly into Contantis, then that meant that Aria's prophecy specifically told Isaac that he needed to leave his second ever friend in the clutches of people who would work him, under a whip, to death.

"Yes." Lenna replied after a moment of thought. "I am going to try to get someone to take us to Safeharbor. Hopefully they can do something about that, or at the very least, we'll be able to talk to her."

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