"You have the sword," Enin noted.
"Yes, we can leave."
"Then let us do so."
All the Uton defenders in the dark realm stepped through the portal with Enin being the last to cross. When he did, he eyed the edges of the gigantic portal and sent his magical fury to bring them together.
The creatures in the dark realm reacted violently to the attempted closure. They threw themselves into the rift trying to escape, but they were all forced back by arrows, magical spells, and cliff behemoth strength.
The portal responded as Enin had expected. He had successfully removed the imbalanced nature of the rift that previously prevented him from closing the gateway. It disappeared from existence with a bone shuddering pop.
The portal was gone, only a somber view of Uton's badlands remained. The guttural shouts of the goblins, the buzz of caelifera wings, and the screeching shrieks of hook hawks disappeared in an instant. Those who stood safely in Uton did so in peace.
Sy Fenden, unwilling to accept such a simple resolution to the conflict, spoke first to his soldiers.
"Spread out! No more than fifty paces. Keep on the lookout for any stragglers that might have sneaked through."
Enin smiled. "Always the commander. You may rest, however, I sense no dark creatures in the area."
"Doesn't hurt to be on your guard," Sy countered. "Is the portal sealed for good?"
"Yes, another may open in the future… perhaps here or perhaps in Dark Spruce, but we have no control over that. In that regard, it will be as it has been in the past."
"What about Baannat?"
"Trapped in a dimension of his own making. Chained to emptiness."
The captain of Burbon's guard raised an eyebrow.
"Are we done with him?"
"Perhaps. Who's to say?"
"I don't like the sound of that," Sy admitted. "I was hoping for something a bit more final."
Ryson quickly joined the conversation, revealing what he understood to be an absolute certainty.
"I was hoping for more, too, but we did what we had to do… all we could do. It may not be as much as we want, but it's enough for right now. He can't hurt us like he could before, but we can't stop anyone from choosing a path that leads to him." Ryson then nodded to Enin and eyed the Sword of Decree. "We did the right thing."
"That is comforting to know," Enin admitted.
Linda joined them and Ryson placed her arm around her.
"You alright?" he asked.
"I think so. I just wished none of this had happened." She considered that remark, remembered what started it all, and made a quick look around. "Where's Heteera?"
Enin recalled the great power of the sorceress and her limited control. He placed a questioning glance upon Jure and Holli.
"Yes, where is she?"
Jure remained silent, but looked over to Holli. The elf guard explained.
"We had to separate her mind from the magic. It was necessary."
Understanding all too well what that meant, Enin's expression turned sorrowful.
"I'm sorry to hear that. What happened to her?"
"I left her in the care of several of the more reliable spell casters in Pinesway. They will look after her. I was hoping you and Jure might be able to find a way to help her."
"I would be willing to try," Jure offered. "It was my spell that did it to her."
Holli would not let him accept all the blame.
"Had I thought of it myself, I would have ordered him to do it. It probably saved Pinesway and the eastern plains."
"Very well," Enin allowed. "Perhaps we can find a way to use this to help her gain greater control. I now realize how important that is. I've made many mistakes myself these past few days. I have no excuses. There was no spell from Baannat. Just my lack of concentration. I am… all too human in that regard. I'm sorry to you all."
An uneasy silence fell over them all. To even accept his apology meant assigning blame to the wizard, and no one there wished to walk down that path. It would have accomplished nothing.
Ryson decided to turn the conversation towards questions of his own. He looked to Sy and Holli.
"I thought you were protecting Burbon… and you were in Pinesway?"
"We were," Holli acknowledged, "but Dzeb followed you south from the mountains."
"He came to Burbon first," Sy added. "He told us what happened and that he and the other cliff behemoths were going to try and help you. We decided to join with them, bring the fight to the dark creatures at the portal rather than waiting for them to come to us. With cliff behemoths on our side, it seemed like a good strategy."
Ryson then looked to Holli for her explanation.
"I had Jure go to the portal to check on it as a precaution," Holli offered. "He alerted me to the cliff behemoths arrival and I came as well. It was then we saw Enin and Linda on the other side of the rift. We entered to help protect them."
Dzeb walked up to the group just as they realized that the other cliff behemoths were all quietly heading north, back to the mountains.
"Please give them my thanks," Enin asked of Dzeb.
"I will relay your message, but we all followed the will of Godson." With that, the cliff behemoth turned to the delver. "And what of you, Ryson Acumen. You wondered which path to follow. You had many questions the last time we spoke. Did you find your answers?"
"Some of them… I think."
"Would you honor me by sharing?"
"I don't mind, but I'm not sure if it has anything to do with Godson."
"Let Godson worry about that."
For the delver, that simple statement accentuated his past doubts and his newfound beliefs.
"Actually, that's sort of what I'm talking about. I don't know about Godson, but ever since the magic returned, I started looking at things differently. I don't mean the obvious stuff-like dark creatures and magic spells. Believe it or not, that's actually the easy part. I'm talking about the things beyond even that. Unless we all want to just bury our heads in the sand, we have to accept that there's a lot more going on than just meets the eye. We've sure been shown enough to know that we can't possibly be alone, and I'm talking about more than the dark realm. I'm not sure if it's easier or harder to understand life now, but I know there's more to it than I thought."
He wanted to leave it there. He felt everyone's eyes on him, and revealing his personal feelings left him more than embarrassed. It made him feel vulnerable.
Linda, however, pressed him to continue.
"Don't stop. We need to hear this… I need to hear this."
Ryson grimaced, but he did explain.
"It's what's beyond all of this. It's actually kind of strange for me, maybe more so than anyone else. With all that's been happening, it's been almost too easy for me to simply accept… I don't know… something bigger than all of us-a power beyond this world. As a delver, I don't think it should be easy for me to just believe in anything like that, but I have to be honest with myself. I've seen monsters and angels. I've seen those who have died come back to life. It was all right before me. I didn't have to go searching for it. Some of it I just accepted, but some of it surprised me, scared me, even got me angry."
Ryson hesitated, but the cliff behemoth bid him to continue.
"Don't worry about offending me, say what's in your heart, Ryson Acumen."
"I thought I didn't like what was happening. It didn't meet my expectations. None of it did. I always thought that powers like Godson, or whatever, should be looking out for us, maybe even looking out for me. Didn't seem that way.Seemed just the opposite. That may seem selfish, and maybe it is, but it's the truth. I thought I did my part, but every time I turned around, something else terrible happened. I couldn't get away from it. I got angry with all of it… but eventually, I started to believe in something else as well. I started to believe that I wasn't cursed… that I was actually given a great gift. And I started to believe in being a delver again. That's what got me through this. Delvers look for answers. That's what you told me, Dzeb, and you're right. If I just keep searching for the answers, I believe I'll find them."