A cosy fire was burning in the middle of Darlac's cave. Having mostly recovered from their ordeal, Guelder's team and their host were roasting dweomercat meat on spits above the fire and trying to sort out the answers provided and the further questions raised by Guelder's visions experienced through the eyes of the mysterious little songbird. The baroness seemed invigorated by the sheer fact that she could move and think without fever, nightmares, aches and pains, not to mention her very modest initial successes in controlling a spider swarm. At the moment, she managed to handle two spiderlings at a time and keep it up for thirty seconds. Darlac couldn't help but smile at the goofy idea. This childlike enthusiasm for playing with animals was something to treasure, particularly when one faced a millennia-old threat looming above her lands.

  "A thousand grains of a thousand kingdoms," mused the baroness. "I wonder how long this has been going on. Lady Bloom sets up a prospective ruler, topples them, sets up the next one, topples them… and the shorter their rule, the quicker her progress towards redemption. By this logic, Lady Jamandi’s generosity was to give her three potential kingdom grains."

  "Are you suggesting she is after all three of you?" wondered Darlac. "Yourself, Baron Varn and Baron Drelev?"

  Slowly and surely, her insides were turning to ice. Was Lady Bloom the ancient evil the centaurs had warned Maegar about? If she chose her tools of destruction based on what the land had to offer, maybe she was behind the zombie cyclops issues, too.

  "I am certain of that," said Guelder. "We will have to raise the alarm in the neighbouring states as well. First of all in Varnhold, our most reliable ally. Maybe even in Pitax, although I doubt that the great Irovetti would humiliate himself by paying attention to my warning. I would not shed a teardrop for Hannis Drelev, either, but even conceited jerks like him deserve to know what they are up against. It is high time for him to make himself available for communication. If I could get them all to cooperate, or at least to stop scheming for each other's downfall, perhaps together we would stand a fighting chance to stop Lady Bloom."

  "And how exactly do we stop her?" asked Darlac. "We can and will destroy the flower, but that only means we’ll break her toy and she’ll have to get creative again. We must face her in combat and kill her. I wonder if her curse makes it possible for us to eliminate her permanently. If not, we can still send her back to square one and buy some time for our countries until she regains her power to strike again."

  "Indeed, that will be our long-term plan," said Guelder. "However, we are not there yet. If she has been pulling the strings on the Stolen Lands for who knows how long, she must be a much more powerful enemy than I initially thought. As yet, we are unprepared for a fight of this scale. If we can make her face us at all, that is."

  "Then is there a way to sever the links between her world and ours, and simply shut her out of our plane? I mean, if a powerful mage can open a passageway between two planes, like in case of the Worldwound, the opposite should also be possible, right?"

  "Easier said than done, Darlac, mainly because we are not talking about a single passageway. The veil between the mortal plane and the First World is particularly thin on the Stolen Lands. It is more of a mesh than a veil. What you suggest would be as hard to accomplish as disentangling the roots of an oak forest from the underground mycelial network that... never mind. I mean, it is not viable."

  "What bothers me," said Valerie, "is that whenever we vanquish another... hm... formation that happens to have a king or queen, we involuntarily help Lady Bloom."

  "Let's look on the bright side instead," suggested Linzi. "The more enemies we conquer and break terminally, the better our chance that Lady Bloom gets the required number of grains and lets us off the hook."

  "Maybe," said the baroness. "The Stag Lord was a simple bandit with a strong bow, a big dream and a shrunken liver, nothing more. A very far cry from being a king. Why did Lady Bloom need me so badly to dispose of him? Just because he fell short of her expectations, or because he did yield her a grain after all? And why is Lady Bloom hellbent on crushing Nightvale before I could even think of upgrading it into a kingdom?"

  "Wow!" exclaimed Linzi. "Queen Guelder! I like the sound of that!"

  Darlac scrutinised the baroness through narrowed eyes. Did she relish the idea? Did she want more than she already had? Would Varnhold have to take up arms against its former allies to defend its independence?

  "I have no such plans, Linzi," said Guelder. "A barony is more than enough responsibility for me, thank you very much."

  Pangur, lying at the entrance of the cave and lazily putting his tail here and there, now got to its feet to make space for the two newcomers. Hazel sauntered into the cave, holding a bright blue lantern in their hand. Nok-Nok scurried past their left leg and disappeared in the shadows.

  Darlac jumped up from her seat in excitement.

  "Hazel, Nok-Nok! Did everything go according to plan?"

  "It was all smooth sailing, General," said Hazel with a confident smile. "Nok-Nok and I tested the lantern extensively. There are two layers or versions of this place, and the mist is the gateway in-between. The lantern negates the mist when lit and lets it work when unlit. Now we are in Version A, whatever that is. Also, take care not to visit this cave in Version B. It is home to a pack of stinky venomwolves."

  Darlac let out a relieved sigh. She'd been worried that Hazel would ignore her warnings and go about the mission in their own way, getting themselves in trouble. But her concerns had been unfounded: they had obtained a lantern without casualties. Next morning, the flower would perish, and... and the only escape plan Darlac had managed to come up with in six weeks would go out the window. Yet, she refused to give in to despair. Not when things were finally in motion.

  "Well done, both of you. This lantern will be a gamechanger, you'll see."

  "Thanks, ma'am," said Hazel with a mock salute, earning a glare from Darlac. Why would anyone want to salute when they didn't have the slightest idea how to do it properly? "What did we miss out on?"

  "We are struggling to establish the rules of the game the Lantern King is playing with Lady Bloom," said Linzi, passing a spit of roast meat to Nok-Nok. "Grains of kingdoms are apparently yielded by bandit leaders and barons and other wannabe kings and queens as well, not only real rulers of real states. Yet, he said: Make kingdoms fall. Why?"

  "Mfh-mfh," butted in Nok-Nok, ripping a piece of sizzling meat off the spit with his pointy teeth, without regard to possible fire damage. Valerie exchanged a glance with Darlac and rolled her eyes.

  "Nok-Nok," said Guelder, "please swallow your food and repeat what you just said."

  After some noisy chewing, the goblin obeyed.

  "Drop chance," he said. "You steal purse off rich longshank, you get good chance to find much gold or shiny jewel. You steal pouch off peasant, you get poor chance. You try anyway."

  Guelder raised an eyebrow.

  "Actually, Nok-Nok might have a point. What if a king yields a grain with 100% chance, a baron with, say, 50%, a bandit leader with 10%? If Lady Bloom is desperate enough to finish her quest, she will try anyway. Brilliant! Although... this is kind of bad news for us."

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "All the better!" Hazel grinned, jumping at the opportunity to add their two coppers. "No offense, Guel, but there will always be people who are unhappy with your rule. Now and again, they will even straighten their scythes and rebel against you, like Dima Dumbass and his friends did, and some of them will go so far as to set up a pretender to your throne. From now on, whenever you crush a rebellion, keep in mind that in doing so, you may or may not donate one more grain to Lady Bloom's cup, and perhaps that particular grain will be the last one she needs. If you are willing to play a bit dirty, we can even speed up the process."

  "Nonsense," said Valerie. "Are you suggesting Her Grace could satisfy Lady Bloom simply by raising the taxes to five times the current rate?"

  "Sounds like a plan," said Hazel. "You know, Valerie, sometimes you are quite brilliant. Indeed, we could create our own pretenders with minimum effort. Increased taxation and restrictive measures work like a charm. In fact, perhaps even the plague would have brought about something, had we let it go rampant for a little longer –"

  "Enough!" snapped the baroness. "What you are suggesting is equivalent to sawing off the precarious branch I am perching on. You should know how I feel about hurting trees. Well, I feel the same way about hurting the people of my land."

  "Shouldn't we try and rally the Skylark to our cause?" wondered Linzi. "As you recounted your vision, he seemed to be quite unhappy with the flower business, right?"

  "Indeed," sighed Guelder. "I feel sorry for him. He seemed like a nice person, but too weak to stand up to his mistress, and not shrewd enough to thwart her in secret. That said, I caution against thinking of him as a potential ally."

  "Why?" said Linzi. "If we could find him and talk to him, maybe he would be willing to help us."

  "We cannot build upon a coward's goodwill," said Valerie. "He assisted Lady Bloom in killing our people by the dozens, if not hundreds. He would betray us before we take a breath."

  "I... I am pretty sure that the Skylark was the bird that gave you the visions," mumbled Tristian from the depth of his hood.

  "That was not a skylark," said Guelder. "Anyway, let us not waste more words on him. At the moment, I will be content with destroying the flower and then finding a way back to Golarion. Then... the next wave will probably arrive. And the next, and the next, unless, or until, we grow strong enough to deal with the threat, once and for all."

  The baroness lowered her head and rubbed her temples.

  "Your Grace?" said Darlac softly.

  Guelder finally looked up, her eyes reflecting the light of the fire in green.

  "Sorry, friends. It is just that… the burden now feels a bit heavy. To think that I will have to steer our flimsy little boat against the wind, or rather the gale, and watch my people being killed left and right in various sophisticated ways because some fey chose to use us as pawns in their little games…"

  "It won’t be fun," said Linzi. "But you won't have to face it alone. We've got your back."

  "Mmnomnom," said Nok-Nok in agreement (probably), chewing on his half-stripped spit.

  "Whatever comes, Your Grace, Varnhold stands with you," said Darlac in a sudden surge of loyalty. "I don't know about Drelev or Irovetti, but you can count on us."

  Guelder was already smiling, however faintly.

  "Thanks, everyone," she said. "I will do my best to deserve your support."

  "We will build that monument you wanted," promised Hazel. "We will need something to look up to whenever it gets really tough."

  As the dinner ended and her new companions started their evening preparations, Darlac retreated into the recess of the cave where the portal had once been. At this time of day, it was pleasantly dark, almost like her room in the inn at dusk, with the curtains closed. Just what she needed. The claw marks in her side were getting harder to ignore. Out of healing energy, the best Tristian could offer was a batch of clean bandages, and all her emergency healing water had been used up to get the baroness into shape for the journey to Fort Kyle. As to a good healing sleep, that would have to wait, since Darlac had volunteered for the first shift of night guard duty, paired with Valerie. Also, the bustling life around her began to feel too much, the change too sudden after weeks of solitude. She needed some time for herself, to process the fact that she once again belonged to a squad, if only for a while. She still didn't completely believe that Guelder and her companions could get her home, but even if her exile was to last a little longer, at least she could use her boundless free time to make a difference for her allies. Wrapping herself up in her cloak, she indulged in a little rest while she could.

  "How have you been, Felicia?" asked Hazel's soft voice right beside her, making her jump.

  Oh, no. Did they really think a couple of lovebites had earned them the right to call her by her first name?

  "For you, it's still Darlac. Shall I start to call you Stormwalker to help you remember?"

  "You can call me whatever you want, my lady."

  "Careful now. I'm not sure you would like that."

  "Still well-endowed in the sass department, are you? Listen, I only wanted to say I am sorry to have caused your fall from grace. That was not my intention at all."

  "Don't think so highly of yourself, Hazel. And most of all, don't you dare make my fall about you."

  "Oh. So... other mistakes were made, right? Well, if I could open your eyes to possibilities you chose to ignore previously, then my efforts have not been entirely fruitless. I would be happy to hear of your... adventures."

  Darlac fought hard to restrain herself from exploding in anger. It would not do to strangle Baroness Guelder's significant other in the middle of a mission of crucial importance, and Hazel knew that very well. But why did they have to start tormenting her again? Did they have so much unspent energy, now that Guelder's health crisis was over?

  All she had to do was get to her feet and walk away. Still, she stayed, trying to determine whether their teasing or their indifference hurt more.

  "I will never be able to cleanse myself of you, now will I?"

  "Probably not," they said, chuckling. "Not as long as we have unfinished business between us."

  "As for me, it is finished," she growled. "Go now."

  Hazel leant close, so close that their face touched hers. Their breath was hot on her neck, their fingers sank into her hair.

  "You know the pool to the east, right?" they whispered. "Salty water, the shape of an eye. I will be there tonight. We could talk, just the two of us. And, you know... what happens in the First World stays in the First World."

  A soft kiss on her neck, and they were gone before she could punch them.

  Darlac remained in her nook a little longer, trembling, overwhelmed, a multitude of emotions whirling in her racing heart. After weeks spent living like a hermit, Hazel's touch made her feel painfully alive and craving for more. Still, she had learnt her lesson. Whatever she did, there would be consequences. What was Hazel's gambit? To cut her off from the squad that took her in? To turn the baroness against her? What was Hazel even doing, cheating on Guelder right under her nose? Or had Darlac been misreading the signs all along? Was she fine with being the low-hanging fruit Hazel comforted themself with until they braced up to reach for the stars? Be that as it may, whatever the ranger's goal was, Darlac would not accomplish it for them. It was simple enough not to go to that creepy, sinister pool.

  By the Inheritor, how she missed Maegar.