Jeff Inlo - Nightmare's Shad

Enin sighed as he lowered his other hand to find the head of another happy canine appreciative of his attention.

"Don't you think I would have already sealed off the dark realm if such a thing were possible?" Enin pressed. "Do you really think I would have let creatures like river rogues and goblins enter our world freely if their world could be sealed off completely? I'm amazed you would think so little of me."

As if this consideration struck her for further fault, Heteera's eyes went wide and her small trembles turned to shudders of dismay. She felt the steep guilt of her mistakes stabbing at her. She did not wish to add to it, and though it meant casting some of it back at Enin, she tried to defend her actions.

"But you've resisted to act in the past. You believe in allowing all creatures to find their destinies."

Enin frowned, not upon the sorceress, but at the recollection of his own inaction in the past. In certain circumstances, he removed himself from the conflict, kept his power in check and allowed others to determine many outcomes. That was true. He could not deny it. That, however, occurred before he faced his own fate and the part he could play in helping Uton and its inhabitants. The sorceress was in essence accusing him of something he could no longer accept.

"And everyone still must find their destiny, but do not blame me for inaction now. There was a time that might have been true, but that time is past. I have accepted my role and my responsibilities. Why do you think I'm here? I'm helping to restore this city from the damage caused by goblins, bloat spiders, and shags. I no longer sit idly by. I have worked with both dwarves and humans here. They have set up trade between Dunop and Connel, using the tunnels below this city for access. They trust each other now, more than ever. Both cities are rebuilding, growing, thriving . I believe I have helped that trust prosper. Is that the sign of someone who would refuse to help?"

Again, Heteera could not respond.

"And do you think it's my destiny to simply allow creatures of nightmare to run free in this land if I had the power to stop it?" Enin asked. "The magic returned and made me what I am. It has made you what you are. That does not mean I am still willing to let evil go unchecked."

"You're saying you would have helped me?" Heteera finally replied.

"I'm saying I would have advised you of the truth. You could not have hoped to succeed. Dark creatures lost the ability to enter this land only when the magic was completely controlled by the Sphere of Ingar. But the sphere is no more. And even if you attempted to replicate the sphere, it would never work again. The magic will now always be free, and with that, portals will open whether we want them to or not. We must accept that."

"Then he was right," Heteera gasped.

"Who?" Enin asked. "Who was right?"

"Lief Woodson."

The wizard could not contain his confusion. His expression clearly revealed his bewilderment.

"Lief?"

"She brought forth the spirit of our comrade, Lief Woodson." Holli explained.

The wizard's confusion rocketed into unadulterated shock. The return of a spirit was no small matter, especially to Enin. He could sense the connections between the planes of existence, understood them beyond what could be contemplated by a mortal who had not yet passed through the veil of death and into a new state of existence.

His shock was clearly evident and this in turn surprised the elf guard.

"Can you not sense it?" the elf guard asked.

"No, there is too much magic within her," Enin offered, and he explored an explanation as if to satisfy his own concerns, "but she has no control. To me, she is like a wildfire burning everywhere at once. If I were to begin probing her for past spells, I wouldn't know where to start. You are able to sense this particular spell?"

"Her intention to summon Lief was as clear to me as your confusion is now."

"That seems odd. I can't imagine why it's so clear to you and not me. Perhaps it is your elf heritage. Perhaps also the bond you shared with Lief in entering Sanctum." He then turned to the sorceress.

"Why did you summon the spirit of Lief Woodson?"

Here, Heteera would not hide from the truth. "Because I believed he would understand. He wanted to stop the dark creatures. More than anyone else I knew. He was also an elf and he now walks the spirit world. I believed he had the greatest potential to assist me, to help me control the magic."

She spoke with such authority, that the underlying meaning almost escaped them all. It was Ryson, however, who finally spoke up as he found inconsistencies in Heteera's story.

"Wait a minute! How would you know that? Did you know Lief? He never spoke of you."

Heteera hesitated. She knew this moment would come. She had hoped to prepare for it, but her admission remained painful.

"I did not know him, but I watched him in his travels. I watched all of you. I needed to see how you handled all those challenges. I saw what happened on SanctumMountain… how you defeated Ingar. I didn't stop there. I watched the battle against the dwarves in Burbon, and then the battle here against the goblins. I saw how Lief, and Holli, were expelled from their camp. I saw how she came here to guard Enin and how Lief began to hunt all the evil creatures. That's why I thought he would be the best to help."

And so it was out. Heteera admitted she had spied upon them all. An uneasiness fell upon them. They looked at her with uncertainty, and most were at a loss for words, as if they confronted a close friend who refused to acknowledge an open debt.

Enin shook his head. He moved past the discomfort and upon the credibility, in which he found lacking. "I do not sense deceit in you, but your words don't ring true. If you had actually seen these things for yourself, that would indicate that you had been following us-all of us, including me. That's not possible. I would have sensed you."

"No, I didn't follow you during the actual occurrence. I called on the shadows of what have been, on the whispers of the past. I was able to witness everything that happened by recalling the images and sounds of time gone by but not lost. They still reverberate and can be retrieved. I even saw when you battled Baannat."

At this, the wizard showed dismay and clearly rebuked the sorceress.

"You called on the echoes of time to show you what happened? Someone of your power? Do you know how dangerous that is?"

Heteera clearly didn't.

"But I only called on the memory of the events. I couldn't change them."

"No, you can't alter the past, but your power could have recalled a spell caught between dimensions. Baannat and I cast many spells in that battle-dangerous and powerful spells. What if you released one of those spells here? You could have destroyed an entire city."

"You mean the spell could have been recast?"

"Not recast, but reenergized. Baannat created a dimension based on pure magical energy. That dimension disintegrated when he was destroyed, but some of the magic was trapped in that space. When you call upon the echoes of time, you do more than look upon the past, you risk spell reflection into this time."

Heteera was not ready to accept even more blame for her deeds.

"But no spell came out of the echoes! I'm sure of that."

"Then you were lucky."

Sy listened intently, but found the conversation had lost its purpose. They were all concerned over the past, while he remained troubled of what was to come.

"Maybe we were all lucky, maybe not," the captain pointed out. "What I'm worried about is what happens now? What kind of trouble are we really in here?"

Enin understood the captain's point. Yes, there were important facets of Heteera's tale, but they all led to the current predicament. The wizard believed that the summoning of Lief Woodson was not the true threat, but rather the talisman that stalked the dark realm. He refocused his attention on that point.