One war. Two Sisters. One end.
There is no running from it. Fate shall have its way as both daughters of Stormband take to the field of battle. Each with one goal - vengeance.
Approximately 130k words.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Sometimes defeating evil requires one only to ask the simplest questions of it.
-Dwarven Proverb
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Sheala dashed up the remaining slabs of the staircase, each held together only by their weight and snug proximity to the next. Struggling towards the brightness like daylight itself, she was propelled on legs that burned from the climb up the spiraling stones. Clutched in her hand was the rock they had retrieved from below with its blue veins of crystal.
"Come on!" she called to Brentai and Sayra, who were both lagging behind and dropping further back.
Her thoughts were singular in focus, dedicated to seeing Cass again and hoping they weren't too late. Believing that together, they would defeat Lord Hedric. Once and for all.
A few scant strides from the top, the light began fading like a lantern being put out. Dimming with each new purposeful step she took, soon the dim orange glow of the magical flames contained in the urns was all she could see above her.
Sheala crested out of the pit like a whale upon the sea seeking a breath of fresh air. But what she saw forced both her eagerness and her progress to a crashing halt.
Lingering on the final step instead of entering the antechamber, piles of rubble surrounded the rim of the hole down into the mountain from which she was now emerging. The obvious and shattered remnants of the otaur statues lay in ruins.
"Cass?" she called out to her sister. "Cass?"
While Sheala searched for any sign of her twin, for the briefest of moments, out of the corner of her eye, she swore she saw Reane standing among the rubble.
"Reane?" But when she turned back to look again, there was nothing. "Cass?" Once more Sheala tried to get a response from her sister. Once more she was disappointed.
Frustrated, a forbidding coldness inside her grew. The sense was compounded by the fear she was alone now more than before.
Stepping into the destruction all around her, the silence was eerie. Broken only by Brentai's exclamation upon seeing the sight. "Whoa!" he exclaimed. "What in the name of Earoni happened here? Who broke all the statues? Where's your sister?"
