Aftermath

“By the way,” you ask, “Just how long was I gone this time? And how did you know where to find me?”

She nuzzles your shoulder and gently kisses your bare flesh before responding, “It has been eight days and ten or so hours since you killed the Taig.” Your mind reels at the information. Last time it was only about twelve hours! “I knew from what you told me before the general area where you would return to the Realms, so I have been waiting on Little Roundtop for almost that entire time, but it was Riama who lead me to this canyon. I never even knew this was here, and I do not think anyone else did, either. I take it you have only just returned?”

You nod, still a little numb at the realization of just how long this respawn took. You were expecting it to have taken longer than the first time, but not almost seventeen times longer. The warning about consequences for burning little bits of your soul to use as weapons against your enemy returns to your mind and you grimace. You trail your fingers through Brighid’s unkempt hair and tell her, “I am sorry, my love, that must have been a terrible wait, and it is entirely my fault. Soulfire Blast uses a little bit of my soul to power it, and I had to expend a larger part to revive Cai. I got a warning when I returned that using my soul up like that extended the time it took for my body to re-form and worsened the other penalties for my death.”

She shakes her head against you, maintaining as much full-body contact as possible with you despite her denial of your words. “You do not get to absolve me of my guilt and then take on more than your own share, Master. Yes, your return was delayed because you expended some of your soul -- and we need to have a nice long talk with my mother about exactly why you should avoid that in the future, this result aside -- but really, did you have any other choice? Aside from maybe when we faced that Enhanced Manikin outside of the tunnel, you did not use either spell frivolously. You would not be the man I love if you had chosen to leave Cai dead when you had the ability to restore her to life. And I hate, hate, that it is true, but Phoenix Pyre was the only way we would have beaten the Taig. I got a good look at it, Aidan, right before the final wave of flames killed it, and it was level 52. It had a Heroic Class. The entire tribe could have fought it outside the city and it might still have won; we walked right into the very seat of its power, where it was at its absolute strongest..” She shakes her head again and continues, “It is even worse than that though, my love. Even while it was toying with us, it was controlling all of the manikins out in the hills and, even more, sending vines to kill and animate the corpses of the warband.” She lifts her grief-filled eyes to you. “Aidan, we lost over a hundred people in the battle. None of the wounded survived because they were unable to escape the vines. Over a hundred people, most of whom I have known for my, or their, entire lives, dead in less than an hour. I would say one of our neighbours would take advantage of our weakness, but…”

She hesitates, then plows forward. “I did not see it myself, but all of the survivors outside Bannagh Macht say that a great pillar of flame rose into the heavens with the call of a hunting hawk and two fiery wings spread out from it. The wings beat and every single vine and manikin burned to white ash in an instant. Then, the wings swept through the city, burning away all of the fog, and the pillar and wings vanished. Immediately afterward… you have seen the prompt? About the new Age?”

You stare at her, completely unable to comprehend what she is telling you. You even check the description of Phoenix Pyre again; it’s right there, 10 meter radius. Nothing about giant flaming birds in the sky or incinerating entire armies! Then Brighid’s question penetrates your mind and you pull up the Age prompt again, quickly scanning through it until you find what you’re looking for: ‘The Chosen champion of a deity has channeled divine energy to cleanse the world of an ancient evil and restore the dead to life’. You groan and roll your head back, glaring up at the sky for long moments before looking back to Brighid.

“Everyone saw it?” She nods. “And everyone in the entire Realms got the notification about the new Age, describing what caused it? The cleansing of the ancient evil and revival of the dead?” She nods again. “And everyone knows Cai died?” This time, mercifully, she shakes her head.

“No, as soon as we saw the prompts I swore our entire party to silence on that. No one but us knows for certain, but the timing is too coincidental. And with how long you have been gone and how completely silent the Council has been regarding you, they might just assume it was you yourself who died and returned. Certainly none of the people who survived Bannagh Macht have any real doubt just who caused the new Age.”

You groan again and say, “Well, fuck me sideways. Even with how little the nearby tribes talk to each other, word will get out. If I didn’t have a huge target painted on my back before, I do now.” You sigh. “At least that explains why I got credit for killing twelve hundred manikins and over four thousand dark vines.”

“We.” Brighid corrects you.

“What?”

“We got credit. You were still in the party, so the party shared in your kills. We all got a share of over a million experience -- and some extra from your Leadership rank. Riama, too, for that matter. Have you checked her status since you got back?” Wordlessly, you shake your head and turn to do so.

“What the fuck.” You state flatly. Then you check again. Yep, still there. Brighid giggles again. You stare at the level 12 glorified house cat, who studiously ignores you as she washes herself with one paw. “I will deal with … that … later, just like my own levels. Right now, as much as I love snuggling with you while naked, I would really appreciate some clothes and a ride back to the village. I could use a nice long rest on some soft cushions.”

Brighid laughs outright, then disentangles herself from you and pulls out a shirt and a set of pants for you from a pack on her back. She helps you into your clothes and kisses you very thoroughly, then says, “Well, there are your clothes, but the ride back will have to wait. There are some people outside the canyon who want to talk to you and would not take ‘no’ for an answer.”

You give her a curious look, but she just smiles enigmatically at you, so you sigh and take her hand in yours and lead her back out into the Realms.