The ruffling of sheets carried through the tent, stirring Brennan from his half-slumber. He looked up to find the Blade Witch staring back at him. There was a question hovering over her, as he'd expected there to be.

"Dost," Brennan answered. "No idea how he managed it, but he fought his way through hell and back to bring you out. He was half dead and a quarter sane by the time he arrived. Asked us to put him out of his misery and Elmont obliged."

She tried to say something, her words coming out unintelligible.

"The doctire made it clear how bad the damage to your face was," Brennan said, moving to stand over her. "Said there's a good chance you may never speak again. We brought in the only healer we could find. He claimed there was nothing more he could do, that magic much more powerful than his own had already been applied and it was likely the only reason you survived."

She brought a hand to her face, sitting up on the bed. Brennan reached over, picking up the mirror that he'd been keeping at his side for just this occasion. He handed it to the woman, waiting for her response. Her lips curled back as she caught sight of her ruined face, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes. The colossus's claws had parted her cheek from the side of her lips, to the back of her jaw. The rapid healing done afterward had left behind an atrocious scar through which the sides of her teeth could still be seen. To go along with that, one of her eyes had also been permanently stained red, no doubt an after effect of what she'd seen in the chasm.

"There's more," Brennan said, almost hating himself for being the one to tell her. "The Faith brought the rest of their force to take control of the city from Heston. They've been leading regular excursions into the catacombs, thinking they'll find something. Things in the city are pretty bad." He sucked in a long breath before he continued. "But in the long run, everyone will come out of this much better off, thanks to you."

That was everything, or at least as much as the Brennan thought she could handle. He watched her closely, waiting for her sobbing to begin, or any show of real emotion at all. Instead, she continued to stare blankly at the mirror, her thoughts somewhere far away. He wondered once again what she'd seen in the chasm. He himself had taken only a peek when he was a boy watching Helena's ritual and he'd quickly found that he couldn't withstand it. Whatever she'd witnessed, it had stolen away her humanity. The woman he stood over now was nothing more than a pale ghost of the fiery person he'd once known.

A mismatched pair of eyes turned his direction, not really looking at him, but through him. Her fingers moved in a clumsy attempt at the signs. Luckily for her, he'd studied the signs a little himself, so he understood her meaning. "Me? I'm going to Roehara. I've got demons of my own that need tending to." Thoughts of a man named Grim came to his mind. Memories that he'd kept submerged for far too long.

"Where will you go?" Brennan asked, hoping she'd offer to travel with him. Her hands moved again, telling him she didn't know, giving him the perfect opportunity to present his next news to her. "This came for you while you were out." Brennan passed her a letter, that had once been stamped with the seal of the United. A message that the bard had taken the liberty of opening and reading. "It's from a man I've been searching after for a long time... He's your father Estra. He wants to meet you. Asks that you travel across the sea to the continent of Roehara. That you find him in Brogden, the capital of Estifal. Where Elmont and I happen to be going ourselves."

"Then that's where I'll go," Estra signed to him without even making the attempt to read the letter.

"What about your faith?" Brennan inquired, unable to withhold the question. If he'd known what she'd seen he would have never asked.

"Fuck the Faith," Estra signed, her expression remaining distant and emotionless. "All that I have been led to believe is a lie. The gods are a fallacy and my religion is a delusion. I was blinded by the false light that the Faith veils itself with, but now I know the truth of the darkness that hides beneath. The second cataclysm is nigh. Soon the dance of gods will begin."

THE END

Wow! It's been such an amazing journey! I hope you all enjoyed The Blade Witch as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did, I'd be extremely grateful if you would take the time to leave an honest review on the novel's Amazon and Goodreads pages in the links below. thank you all so much!

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