"Cellocht, long time no see, think we could go talk somewhere a little quieter?" Mavec asked.

  "If it isn't the Cheese Acolytes, winner of the Festival of Blades, and the bane of the Dread pirate Crowley! I sure know how to pick them!" He grabbed another pint and downed it after first raising it in a toast to the team.

  "Yeah, thats great and all, but we'd like to chat more privately, think you can get us a back room for a few?" Mavec asked again a bit more pointedly.

  "Who do you take me for boy, of course I can get us a backroom. Give me but a moment to go speak with the barkeep. The halfling wandered a few feet away to speak with a tall gruff human man, who handed him a key and pointed him towards a door further back in the tavern. The group followed him as he lead the way. Even Echo squeezed into the crowded tavern and into the room with them.

  It was a simple room with a few beds and chests and drawers to store personal effects. Cellocht prattled at them absentmindedly as they took in their surroundings. "He says this room is only used by staff or traveling bards. Quickly, you must recant your encounters with Crowley. I'd love to turn this into a ballad that will have your names spoken for as long as you draw breath!"

  "While that do be sounding nice Master Cellocht, I think we be having more important matters to discuss with you. Alvec, could you..." She trailed off as she did her best impersonation of casting magic by waving her hands through the air at him. Alvec chuckled and obliged her. He carefully layered spells around them. If the Gold were trying to spy on him, he'd blind their eyes, at least long enough to discuss this privately. With his spells to shield them from prying eyes and ears in place, he gave a quick thumbs up. Cellocht chuckled.

  “Its an impressive layer of warding, but might I suggest one more?” the halfling said as he too wove an arcane spell around the group. “Now, if someone could go stand next to the door and talk to us to prove its working.” He said as he gestured to Naya. The girl shrugged and moved to the door and began talking. No one in the party could hear a word she was saying as her mouth moved.

  "We're good to go." Alvec confirmed as he waved Naya back over.

  "Wait! Shouldn't we... you know, test him? One of them was at his party after all..." Naya asked as she stepped back within the confines of Cellocht’s spell.

  "Ok, everyone, get out the ferrous mercury. None of us know who has the real thing, so we're all going to have to hold it up to him. If he freaks the fuck out, we know he's compromised." Mavec said as he pulled a flask from his clothing; everyone followed suit. The adventurers assembled and, towering over this halfling man, held their half-full vials of strange red liquid down towards him. Cellocht, to his credit, did not laugh nor ask any questions. He merely stood there, the wheels of his mind clearly turning.

  He whispered softly. "There's a big story to tell here isn't there? What is this all about?" Cellocht asked as he showed no visible reaction to the ferrous mercury and only curiosity at the strange group of adventurers pointing vials of liquid at him.

  "Do we think that's a clear enough sign?" Naya asked.

  "Bait like Cellocht, give fog horn, best horn."

  "Of course, we all like Cellocht, but that don't be meaning he's... safe to trust with this," Illaria said.

  "Look, two of us have the real deal, if he was going to react to it, he would have already. So lets put these away and get down to business." Mavec said. The group quickly stored their vials of ferrous mercury and Alvec stepped forward.

  "You're right Cellocht, we do have quite the story to tell you. Gods where do we even begin?" Alvec mused.

  "Ghol's in cahoots with something evil that existed before the first emperor," Mavec said as he pulled out his package of cigarettes and handed one to Cellocht, who took it bemused.

  "I see we're just going to dive right in," Naya said with a sigh.

  "Maybe we should back it up a little bit," Alvec said as he took a deep breath. "When we left your party, we stumbled across a man being attacked by a creature we weren't able to identify. The man was killed by some vicious poison, and he entrusted an encrypted journal to us, along with a name Tyir."

  "Then, once we arrived in Sha-Laial, we ran aground of some trouble. That property you gave Alvec was haunted, and we ended up on a quest to track down the missing arch-wizard of divination, Vato." Illaria added.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Wizard dead, but leave prophecy and strange monster! Tongue grab me and try to squeeze Bait to death." Bait said as he pantomimed being strangled.

  "Vato said the world was ending and that he was happy to be dead rather than to live through the return of Kavaas," Naya said as a small shiver ran down her spine.

  "Fast forward a bit, and we found someone who could translate that encrypted journal. It had belonged to an imperial sentinel. He was investigating the Gold Banner and had discovered alarming things." Mavec said.

  "For instance, several men and women had met with Ghol and dined in private. Shortly after their meetings, these people, all from various positions of martial or material privilege, began to act erratically. There were two notable exceptions. A known enchanter with a frail constitution, who I speculate died as part of whatever "corruption" Kavaas spreads... and the Paladi Iskala Ralel who was killed by Ghol when she 'attacked' him at dinner. The sentinel believed that the evidence against her was flimsy and likely fabricated. If my guess about the corruption is correct, then it explains what happened. Her divine power resisted the corruption, and she fought back."

  "That still wasn't enough to really understand what this whole Kavaas business be, so we sunk a ship as tribute to Shoalsatta and spoke with her on the matter. Turns out this Kavaas, whatever its nature is, is some creature from space which corrupts both flesh and spirits, turning them into monsters." Illaria said.

  "We then encountered Elder Bristlecone, first of the children of Akrixi. He's been going through the empire, placing people into the greensleep to protect them from Kavaas's return. He placed the entire village of Lom-Itoti into it. He say's its too late. That the only hope is to wake Akrixi." Naya said.

  "Hold on, that's not quite right. The strange TREE-spirit said that the only hope was for the Emperor to "dance upon the small mount. Wherever the fuck that is." Mavec said.

  "So, thats about the gist of it. We're trying to get someone to get in contact with the Emperor. Warn him about all of this and perhaps get him to go and help awaken Akrixi again so that we can thwart kavaas once more." Alvec said.

  Cellocht lit the cigarette he had been offered and took an exceedingly long drag from it as his eyes glassed over. He looked worlds away as he contemplated all that had been said. "I knew her well. The famous Paladin of Rebellion. She was a spitfire, to be sure, but I never could believe that she just up and attacked Ghol during dinner. That did always rub me the wrong way."

  "We also suspect that you were the intended target for "corruption" on your birthday. Priorities shifted the moment the sentinel broke into their long-distance communication. The whole plan would have been foiled immediately if he had made it back to report to Ageneon." Alvec added.

  "It's taken us a while to put the pieces together, but he made a sound choice entrusting the journal to us, even if it was a case of mistaken identity," Mavec said.

  "Mistaken identity?" Cellocht asked.

  "Turns out one of my cousins works for the Red Banner Army. Tyir is kin through my infernal blood." Alvec replied.

  "A fascinating story," Cellocht said as he again looked out to the distance, a look of contemplation and confliction. "I'm sorry, this is a hard tale to swallow. In part because believing it means that I must accept a dear friend of mine is, at the very least, under the influence of a strange power... or worse. That said, what you've provided caught my attention. I'll certainly pass this information along to the Emperor personally, but before that... would you like to travel into the green sleep? It just so happens that I, too, have conversed with the spirits on many occasions. Enough to know a secret song to let you slip into their spirit-blessed sleep."

  Naya's heart skipped a beat. "Would that mean i'd be able to see those who are currently affected by the green sleep?" She asked, scared to even voice her thought.

  "The last time I used it, I met only spirits, however. I suspect there weren't any humans for me to converse with then. So I can't say for sure, dear Naya, but I suspect it is possible." Cellocht replied.

  Naya cast wild glances at her friends, her eyes pleading with them to agree with it. Thankfully she met no looks of disapproval. "Please, lets do this."

  "Alright, you should all lay down in the beds, and I'll play to send you all into a dream of it," Cellocht said.

  "Not all of us," Alvec said as he reached up to his head and plucked rem from his horns. "You'll be in charge of keeping us safe should anything go wrong. Wake us up by any means necessary should there be trouble." Alvec told him as his hands scratched behind the fox's ears.

  "Should I also stay awake?" Sarbie asked. "There aren't enough beds anyway."

  The words had barely left her lips before Naya grabbed her and dragged her into one of the beds. "Absolutely not. We can double bunk!"

  "I call Alvec!" Mavec said as the two wizards headed towards one of the beds. Illaria grimaced and lay on the floor.

  "BAIT GET BED TO SELF!" He roared as he jumped onto his bed and hopped on it a few times before eventually settling down. Rem launched himself onto the highest shelf he could find in the room and glared down at Cellocht as if daring him to try anything funny.

  The man picked up his instrument once more. The melody was unlike anything Naya had heard before. She was used to hearing the songs of many instruments at her harvest festivals. None ever had stirred her soul so deeply. Perhaps, a bard that he was, the very music was infused with his magical-craft. Either way, she felt her heart rate begin to slow as her eyes became too heavy to open. As excited as she was, the world began to fade black. Soon. Soon, she'd be able to see them again. If only in a dream.