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Fenris? I don't fear him, not in the slightest. He may be powerful, but he is as weak willed as they come, and when the time for my revolution comes, he will either bow before me, or burn beneath my heel.

-Morgana La Fey

Aric never departed from his perch on the third floor, keeping watch throughout the entire night, descending only as his companions began to break camp. His eyes were sunken and dulled by exhaustion, but was determined that they set out at once.

"How much further to Tal'Krovak?" Kath asked, shouldering her pack.

"Nearly a week of walking, barring stops to rest," the dragon answered.

The jackal groaned, imagining the past month of walking playing out again, only with the significantly colder climate of the north to contend with as well.

"We won't be heading straight there," Aric said as the other two turned in surprise.

"Funny," Varg said, "I don't remember planning anything like that, so clearly I must have taken a blow to the head."

The crow didn't slow in his preparations and started out the door to their shelter without waiting for the others to catch up.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Varg demanded, the sudden raise of his voice echoing through the dilapidated buildings.

"The Imperilcaenum," was his response.

"The what?" Kath asked, jogging to catch up with the two of them, pausing as the dragon lay an arm in front of her path, preventing her from following the crow.

"What the hell is this?" Varg demanded, "I am the one leading this expedition, and we are not diverting nearly two-hundred miles just for some flight of fancy."

Aric stopped, but didn't turn to face them, merely staring off towards the far wall of the Deadmount, still nearly a day's march away.

"Morgana is not dead, Paladin," Aric said, his expression tired and emotionless, "and the blow we have struck her will only delay her so long."

"All the more reason to seek out our destination with the greatest haste."

"Stop," Kath said, pushing her way forward to stand between the two of them, "What the fresh hell are you two arguing about?"

"The Imperilcaenum is the draconic version of the college at Branburg," Varg hissed, "And I'll be damned if I'm taking this stone within a thousand leagues of that place."

"It is also the largest military structure south of Tal'Krovak, with a standing force of five-thousand soldiers in addition to the mages there," Aric added, "We can draw Morgana's horde there, and use the forces there to slow them down long enough for us to reach the capital."

"Or we could just head straight for our goal and stop wasting time so they don't have time to catch up with us."

"The dead don't tire in their march," Aric said, "the delay we have caused in our attack will not help us once they get on the road, and we will be overcome before we're clear of the mountains."

"Doesn't matter," Varg growled, stern-faced, "You being here is already enough of a risk. I'm not taking this thing to that place!"

Varg reached towards the chain on his neck, pulling the massive ruby out from under his armour, the gem glittering even in the low light of the Deadmount.

"We don't have a choice," the crow said, turning once more to start for the mountain-fortress' wall.

"Hold on a goddamned minute!" Kath shouted, her voice sharp with the air of command she hadn't deemed necessary since her time as a warlord, freezing the both of them out of sheer surprise.

"I don't care about your little pissing contest, and I think we can all agree we don't have the fucking time for it," she looked between them, waiting as they both nodded, albeit with a deal of hesitation, "but before I take one more step, I want to know what the hell that damn stone is, and why everyone seems to lose their shit about it."

The crow glanced at Varg, who nodded slowly, his expression still guarded and reluctant.

"It's a housing stone, as I said before," the mage said, "useless to the likes of you or Varg, but immeasurably potent in the hands of a powerful mage."

"It's the creation of Skjoll, and utterly unique in design and purpose," Varg continued, "I was tasked with retrieving it from the ruins of Easton bridge, and bringing it back to Tal'Krovak for safekeeping or destruction, in line with what the elders decided what to do with it."

"Yes, yes," Kath groaned, "all-powerful magical bollocks and all that, but what the hell does it do?"

"To take control of a demon," Aric said, "One must first bring it to this world from across the veil, though it's anyone's guess as to how such a thing is done; only then can the mage attempt to subdue the beast's mind and direct it to do their bidding."

"This stone," the dragon said, "this gem, eliminates the first half of that dilemma, by storing the essence of a demon within the mortal realm, contained within the jewel."

"There's a demon in that?" Kath asked, her voice suspicious, "And it's just locked away?"

"Dormant would be a better term, but yes."

"So..." Kath mused, "If Morgana got a hold of that gem, she could control the demon?"

"Fairly easily at that," Aric said, "in fact, nearly every mage at even half my skill could do such a thing."

"That doesn't make sense," Kath said, shaking her head, "Everything you've told me about Skjoll says he didn't care about conquest, and that he could summon these demons easily enough, why would he create such a thing if he didn't want that?"

There was silence, and her question was answered with two pairs of shrugging shoulders.

"Fenris was an odd one," Varg said, "He did plenty of things that don't make much sense to us. One can only assume he had a plan for this, but died before it came to fruition."

"So why don't we just destroy it now?" She asked, "Problem solved."

"Well, aside from the fact Morgana will likely torture and kill us just on principle at this point," Aric said, "Destroying it would likely be more difficult than it would be to create another one."

"The gem is enchanted to contain the essence of something far beyond any earthly power," Varg continued, "It cannot be smashed, nor broken. It would never melt, and can withstand the march of time with ease."

"Okay..." Kath said, pacing the distance between the others, "Where is this... Imperilcaenum?"

"Two days north," Varg said, "but a good deal farther east than Tal'Krovak. At least a day out of our way."

"Could they stop the horde?" She asked.

"Not a chance," Aric said, "they could only slow them down for a week or so."

"And you would just throw their lives away?" Varg demanded.

"If Morgana gets that gem," Aric said, "the fortress would be her first target. She could crush the rest of your army with ease, and be more than ready to tear Tal'Krovak apart."

"Well then," Kath said with a sigh, "I really don't see any way we can avoid this detour."

Varg began pacing angrily, tufts of flame licking from his jaws before he let out a defeated snort, "Fine. But we stay only long enough to warn the garrison, then we leave for the capitol."

The march through the rest of the city was slower than their frantic run the day before, hindered by the rubble and destroyed buildings that lay strewn across the street. They made up for a portion of the time lost with the scarcity of residents and guards that blocked their progress, and it was only a matter of hours by the time they reached the far wall.

"Any plan for this?" Kath said, hissing at the lowest volume she could manage.

They stood at the base of yet another gate, this one nearly twice the size of the one they had infiltrated, but with a great deal more undead and necromancers standing at the entryway.

"We could try the same thing we did to get in," Varg said.

"Doubtful," Aric responded, "This gate is much larger, and likely sees far less foot traffic. Add to that it's closer to the dragons, and the guards here are less likely to have their heads up their asses."

"What then?" Kath asked.

"We stop hiding," the crow said, moving to stand, brushing dirt and debris from his ebony cloak.

Before either of his companions could stop him, the crow had crossed nearly half the distance between their hiding place and the undead mass, locking into a combat stance as the necromancers overseeing the gate spotted him, calling the thralls to action.

The first several waves of undead were met with a fireball, incinerating a dozen within an instant and tearing another twenty apart with the disparate force of the spell. A second ball of fire struck the staggered line, tearing limb and flesh away from the force of walking corpses in a rain of giblets and gore.

One of the necromancers stepped forward and extended a palm, a burst of light and energy arcing across the chasm towards the avian mage. Aric turn to face the enemy mage, merely shifting the positioning of his foot, waves of energy warping the earth into a pillar that absorbed the blow, crackling and shattering as the lighting struck it.

Without so much as a gesture, the debris of the shattered pillar flung itself toward the attacking necromancer, the small shivers and stones forming a field of shrapnel that ripped through the black-clad mage with sickening ease, ending the man's life in the span of half a second while coating the nearby undead with his brains and blood, the wretched smell of offal and intestine wafting over to mingle with the horrid stench of burning flesh and fur.

Aric struck in simple, destructive spells, abandoning any sense of flair or honour, each gesture and motion signalling the death of another dozen enemies, often in horrifically gory ways. By the time he grew still, the floor beneath the grand gate was a veritable mat of rendered flesh and viscera.

Kath and Varg approached the crow slowly, keeping a modest distance from him as he fought for breath, the pair disgusted and horrified by the display, their fear matched only by the morbid awe of the act.

They stood there in silence for a moment, only the exhausted gasps of the mage punctuating the darkness, until finally Aric spilled the contents of his stomach onto the floor, adding his vomit to the wretched mess he had created. Given the sparse diet they could maintain on such a journey, there was little to expunge other than water. He heaved twice more, bending at the waist as his body fought to find more to expel, then ceased.

"Let's go," he said, moving forward without looking behind him, keeping his eyes focused on the greened bronze of the gate. His face seemed even hollower than it had earlier in the day, the look of simple exhaustion replaced by the appearance of wasting illness.

"What the hell was that?" Kath murmured, almost to herself, but in the relative silence of the newly abandoned gate, the words carried over to the others, though they didn't respond.

Aric reached the door and placed his clawed hand against the cold metal, pushing against it, though he made little progress until Varg added his own strength to the job, and Kath suspected the gesture was intended more to relieve himself of some of his weight rather than actually opening the gate.

The door opened with a slow groan, revealing a bare, stony cliff with a thick scattering of frost and snow over it, the decline of the nearby peaks granting them a view of the far side of the continent, the mountains opening up into a wide hilly valley, thick with blackwood forests and powerful rivers, all coated in a nearly permanent layer of snow and ice.

The light of the midday sun was astoundingly bright, and the trio stood in the doorway for a long while, blinking heavily as their pupils strained to adjust to the outside world.

"Well," Varg said, his voice strained with exhaustion, "here there be dragons."