EPILOGUE TO SESSION 37
Kyla woke with a start. She sat upright in bed, panting. All she remembered from her dream was the furious set of white teeth- each a full foot long, set in a grinning pink maw. She sat on the side of the bed and put her head in her hands, saying a quiet prayer to Pelor. She prayed for Jettok’s soul. She prayed to feel safe again.
She tried to stand up and found that she couldn’t. Her legs were absolutely sore- the battle had drained her. She had also forgotten to remove her armor. When they arrived back at Spellforge Keep, they’d all but collapsed where they stood. They had only barely survived a battle with a dragon at the peak of its powers.
The cleric knew she would sleep no more this night. Her mind burned with fear and horror, though her body cried for rest. She tried again to stand and managed to pull herself to her feet. Her fingers clumsily worked at her left arm’s bracer buckle. After thirty seconds, she unfastened the bracer and it clattered to the floor. She stared at it for a moment, then shambled from the room.
Kyla wandered downstairs to the kitchen and put on a pot of tea. She stood there until it boiled, then poured herself a mugful. She wandered out into the dining hall and sat at a long wooden table. She put the tea before her and didn’t drink it. The tea’s steam wafted upward, like it had all the time in the world.
Kyla blinked when she realized the tea wasn’t the only thing she was smelling in the air. Something was in the room with her… something foul. “Hello Vek. You can’t sleep either?”
Vek’s armored form silently shifted into view by the window. Standing in the shadows as he’d been, he was difficult to see. “I don’t sleep much anymore,” he replied.
“Oh. Yes. I suppose you wouldn’t.” Kyla sipped at her tea.
“Have you spoken to Rafflorn? What’s the plan?”
“No, he fell straight off to sleep, as the others did. Why?” She looked at the dark cleric of Wee Jas questioningly.
Vek turned his head back to the window. “We need to leave. First thing in the morning. It knows where we live, now.”
A chill walked up Kyla’s spine like a tiny spider. She hadn’t even thought of that. “How do you know it’ll come?”
“I don’t… but just imagine you’re a millennia-old ice dragon with cruelty and malice bred into your blood. You have incredible power, can see where your enemies live through magic… and you’re easily bored. If I were Accessiwal, I would come here as soon as I were rested. I would destroy everything I find in Verbobonc. We can’t let the dragon find us here.”
Kyla took another sip of her tea. “Why, Vek… I didn’t know you valued this town and the lives in it so much.”
Vek looked at her. His voice was like the whisper of a wraith on the wind. “I value my rooms in the dungeons below, and the secrets they hold. Death comes to us all, Kyla, my dear. Artifacts, knowledge, power… THOSE are worth protecting.” Though he wore his ever-present horned helm, Kyla had the most bothersome feeling that he was smiling at her, beneath it. Vek looked to the window again. “Besides, what with…” He stopped talking abruptly, staring through the window. “I was wrong,” he choked. “It didn’t rest.”
He backed away from the window. “Wake the others! TO ARMS!” he shouted as he ran from the room.
Kyla watched him go. Her exhausted mind couldn’t conceive of trouble at this impossible hour. She stood up and walked toward the window. Her breath was coming in little rasps. She barely noticed her muscles screaming at her. Her brain worked like a panicked animal in a trap. The cleric stepped in front of the window and looked out. She dropped her mug of tea, and it shattered like a bomb when it struck the stones.
Outside, it had begun to snow.