Nuros cast himself along the ground at the feet of his master. His presence darkehe floor of most of the enormous audience chamber, though it didn’t diminish the light that flooded in from the far end, where hellfire flickered from an enormous, misshapen maw. He had no idea what the devourer had looked like before its st metamorphosis, but he doubted it had been anything like this. Varamemnon’s face was here, but the rest of his body – a mass of tentacles and eyes, grew throughout his city. In many respects, Varamemnon was his city.

  “Master.” Nuros said. “I am returned.”

  The shade had grown more powerful sihe st time he was here – mubsp;more powerful. The darkhat made up his substance could now resist the light to a degree and he mao extend himself ever so slightly up into three dimensions.

  He hated it here. The third hell was like any pne away from home – oppressively bright. The fifth hell was blessedly dark, vast ay, and it was one of the few pces that a shade could take on its true shape. Nuros, though, wouldn’t be straio such limits much longer. He was close. So close.

  “Nuros.” A voice that sounded like the roar of a thousand furnaces spoke his name. “My enemies nip at the heels of my vassals. K’Thanizar sees your failure and whispers of weako my peers. Anukthun prepares his servants for war and even Il’ka sends her hags into my realm to poach my crop. Why do you return?”

  “Great One.” Nuros said, trying to stay perfectly still despite the sudden urge to flee. “An Outsider interfered, granting great power to one of their pawns who destroyed the vessel before its time. I seized most of what it had gathered, but it was insuffit for my assion. Soon, though, I will prevail. There are other cities, and other armies stand ready for the harvest.”

  Varamemnon rumbled in thought. “Why, then, do you return?”

  “I seek your blessing, Great One. My host was destroyed by an imp named Dzhorianath – it was cleverly done and the method used was… not typical for one such as her. I wish to bio me. My servants tell me that it is bound by a human, a warloamed Bernt. Given the proper nourishment, she could bee an asset.”

  “An imp.” Varamemnon mused. “Very unusual… very well. Bind her in my name, but be wary. Fail me again in the sight of my enemies, and I may feed your power to her, instead.”

  Nuros groveled appropriately and backed out of the massive chamber. Then, he desded, ign the lesser supplits c oeps of the enormous ziggurat. The meeting had gone reasonably well, all things sidered. Soon, he would asd to bee a true demon lord. In time, he would found his own city deep iernal dark of the fifth hell. A pce where fear itself went to die, and he would have to bow to no one.

  But that was far off, yet. Soon, he would be summoned back to the material pne and resume his harvest of his little er of the mortal world. Ohat was done, he had a servant to poach.

  He o kill the foolish warlock who had sent the clever imp to break his host, both to break their pad for his own personal satisfa.

  ***

  The te afternoon sun was already casting long shadows whe made his way into the Crafters’ District out of the Uy Gate, only to be met by the sight of hundreds of gray-skinned dwarves.

  He’d already half-finished casting a fireball when he realized that the duergar in front of him weren’t armed. In fact, they were half naked and hauling rubble with stone-faced determination uhe watchful eye of the City Guard. He celed the spell and walked forward, looking around at them suspiciously as he passed.

  By the looks of it, the City Guard was f the prisoo rebuild what they had destroyed. That, in itself, wasn’t that strange. What surprised Bernt more was how well the odd dwarves cooperated. Bernt wasn’t really sure how these things normally worked, but it felt strange. How could these be the same people who had climbed over their owo try to kill them in the Uy?

  As he passed, he couldn’t help but look over his shoulders at them, expeg oo rush at him at any moment.

  Nothing happened. Leaving the odd se behind him, he hiked through the broken Crafters’ Distrid the Temple District, making his way into the Upper District, where Therion lived. He hadn’t heard from any of his adventurer friends since before the battle. The wealthy neighborhood felt like airely different world, even more so now. Everything was so , and there was no sign of the many people who had been dispced from the Lower District, many of whom were still camping ireets.

  Bernt supposed that most of them would eventually make their way into the Uy, but now that the danger had passed, they would have to fill out the proper forms before they could be assigned housing. It would take days, maybe weeks to process everyone.

  Here, children pyed out ireet a even saw someone fastidiously trimming an already well-groomed hedge with scissors. He khe ingruous sight would have ed him just a month or two ago, but he found he couldn’t muster any real ill will for them. At least someone had mao get out of this mess without grief.

  When he knocked on Therion’s door, a young girl that couldn’t have been more than ten years old ope. Her eyes were red – she’d been g retly. Did Therion have a younger sister?

  “ I help you?” she said in a tohat suggested that she did not, in fact, want to help him.

  “Hi,” Bernt said, an ominous feeling stirring in his guts. ”Is Therion around? I just wao drop by to che on him after the battle.”

  Wordlessly, the girl turned and disappeared into the house. Bernt stood there awkwardly for a minute, not sure what to do . Finally, though, Therion shuffled up to the door and offered him a tired but genuine smile.

  “Hey. I heard you guys took a beating down in the Uy. Gd to see you’re still with us.” He turned, waving for him to follow over his shoulder. “e on in.”

  Bernt followed him ihrough a foyer inte living room. It was rger than his entire home in the Uy, a idly wondered what someone could possibly want such a rge room in a private residence for wheiced the man lying on the massive couch filled one er of the room on his left, o an enormous firepce. It was Garius.

  His eyes were open, but he wasn’t looking at anything. The girl was sittio the man, trying to feed him from a bowl of what looked like pe and whispering to him.

  “He was in charge of the rangers during the attack.” Therion expined with a dead voice. “Ambrose ordered them in toward the Uy Gate to cover him and help him kill a bunch of warlocks. He wao break some kind of artifact they were using over there. The others said that my dad got hit by one of those shadow bolts wheried to kill their leader. They got most of them before they retreated. But… he’s catatonic.”

  “Oh man.” Bernt tried to find the right words to say. He knew what it was like to lose a parent, but no one had said the right things to him theher. It was supposed to hurt. He swallowed. “ the temples do anything?”

  “Syrah was here. She said the gods won’t touch the minds of mortals, not even to heal them.” Therion swallowed thickly, but then posed himself again. “She said he might get better on his own in time, though. The spell most likely caused some kind of mental trauma. We just o take care of him. Talking to him is supposed to help.”

  Waving for him to follow, Therion took him out the other side of the room, into the garden. He walked quickly, obviously trying to clear his mind. “What happened down below, exactly? I heard a few rumors, but it sounds… well, nothing that seems very reliable.”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard some of those, too.” Bernt said. “The truth is crazy enough to fit right in with the rumors, though.” He filled Therion in on what had happened, bag up a bit to expin his new sorcerous iure before describing the battle and his role in it. Too much had happened in such a short time.

  When he was done, he followed up with a question of his own. “So, Syrah was here – I guess she’s fine. What about the others?”

  Therion shrugged, settling down on a roear the edge of the property. They’d rouhe house and were standihe street under an old oak tree. “We fought together, c the fnks of the more powerful adventurers and making sure the Duergar couldn’t e around and cut off their retreat. Our area was retively safe – nothing we couldn’t handle. Furin took a spear in the leg, but it wasn’t serious. Syrah fixed him right there.”

  “Good.” Ber some of the tension release in his chest. “I’m gd it didn’t turn out worse.”

  “Yeah. sidering everything I’ve heard, we got lucky.” Therion said. He gestured back toward the house. “I knew something like this might happen one day. Adventuring is a dangerous job. I just hoped… well, that it wouldn’t.”

  Bernt nodded, but he didn’t reply. Sometimes, there just wasn’t anything to say.

  “So, liquid perpetual fme, jured instantly.” Therion said after a mirying to ge the subject. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that makes you against other spellcasters? You break through wards, entments and protective spells at will with this. Oren is going to be furious when he hears about it. You have no idea how much trouble he has to gh to get past an ented lock.”

  Bernt grinned. “Wreat for clearing slimes, too.”

  “I’m sure.” Therion ughed, and it sounded only a little forced. “What are you going to call it?”

  “Manaburn.” Bernt replied. “What else?”