Bernt charged into the gap he had made with a roar, followed closely by those o him. He o get closer, to get to Jori. He felt her leg snap through their bond and shivered in sympathetic pain. As more Underkeepers rushed after him, he pushed the white fmes out ahead of him, clearing the way. If he could keep trol of them, he might be able to finish this on his own.

  Just as he had that thought, light fred in his peripheral vision as the fire ignited some kind of heavily ented armor on a Duergar corpse. Fire shot in all dires, including toward the oning Underkeepers. Bernt tried to seize trol of it and push it out toward the enemy, but it was too much.

  A goblin screamed as a spray of fire struck her, spttering onto one of the warlocks and then more people behind them. Heart leaping into his throat, Beringuished those fmes with an effort of will that cost him his trol over the remaining wall of fmes. The fire that was burning his allies was snuffed out almost immediately, but the affected defenders were still badly burned. At least they were still moving.

  Pushing the shod suffog sense of horror to the back of his mind as best he could, Bernt turned back the other way a his trol fme trip. He quickly shrank down the remaining bze, drawing mana out of it and dispersing it into the ground. If he couldn’t trol it properly, a giant wall of fire was as much a liability as a useful on. Just as he did, he saw a burst of reddish-e hellfire ahead of him and to his right. The cart was on fire, and Jori was in the middle of it. It hurt, but he could feel her triumph radiating through the bond. She was ughing.

  Through her eyes, he saw as fire ed the duergar leader from within, pletely destroying the body in seds. Then his armor melted, colpsing to mold itself to the shrunken and twisted remains.

  The odd, misty haze vanished first. Then, all around, purple fmes fred in rapid successio whirled to search for the threat, only to realize that the demons were disappearing, oer another. He had no idea what kind of pacts duergar warlocks used, but he guessed that their permission to remain on this pne was tied to the survival of either their demon overlord or his host.

  “Sit your asses down on the ground and surrender!” Dayle shouted, his voice amplified by magic. “You’re trapped down here now, sure as shit in a dwarf’s beard.”

  The duergar soldiers didn’t immediately ply, but they kept bag away, looking over their shoulders toward where their leader had been. The bulk of the duergar forces disengaged from the advang Beseri soldiers and adventurers, who were still streaming from the caverrance. For a moment, everyoheir breath, uain.

  Jori was o be seen, but Bernt khat she was currently ging to the underside of the still-burning wagon. Nuros’ specially armuards were looking around in fusion, as if they weren’t sure what was happening. If anything, they seemed even less certain than the regur soldiers. What was wrong with them? One of them sat down on the ground, followed by ahere was some shouting as another protested, but then the soldiers began to drop their ons and surrender.

  It was over in minutes.

  A few of the Underkeepers sat dht where they’d been standing when the fighting stopped, but Dayle quickly took charge and got everyone ba their feet. Those who hadn’t fought directly checked the injured and administered healing potions, while anyone who was still in fighting shape began the work of disarming the enemy.

  They’d barely started when Beseri soldiers arrived to take over. They piled the ons off to the side and marched the duergar out of the cavern in manageable groups, often much mhly than was strictly necessary. Bernt had no idea where they were going to take them, and he didn’t care. He had people he o che. As soon as he could get away with it, he borrowed a healing potion from one of the goblins treating the wounded and hurried toward the burnt cart where Jori was still hiding.

  He could guess why she hadn’t e out. If the Beseri soldiers saw her, they might attack. The Underkeepers would reize her, and maybe the adventurers would as well, but there were far more soldiers here now than anyone else.

  Signalihrough the bond, he approached to find her crawling out from uhe cart. Sure enough, a nearby soldier shouted and raised a sword as soon as he saw her, but Bernt waved him down.

  “Rex! She’s with me.”

  The soldier frow him suspiciously, but lowered his on. Ign him, Bernt turned back to grin at Jori. She was quite a bit rger now, standing nearly up to his waist. Her wings and horns had grown longer. Despite that, she actually looked more humanoid than before. Her arms and legs seemed more in proportion to her body and she stood straighter.

  “I did it!” Jori said proudly. “I stole the demon’s souls and I set his blood on fire! Wait till I tell Elyn about this – she’s going to write a song about me! I’m going to be so famous!”

  Bernt smiled at her and nodded. Maybe she would. “e on. We o see if Torvald is alright.”

  Carefully pig their ast the enemy soldiers, they made their way to the back of the Uy Market, where a single human still y sprawled face-down on the ground. Torvald’s leg was bent at a horrifinatural angle underh him a shuddered to think what that felt like.

  “He’s alive!” Jori said, skipping forward and turning him over onto his back with a heave. She was bigger now, but shifting that much weight was still a major effort.

  He didn’t look alive. Torvald’s skin was so pale that it nearly looked gray and his eyes were open, staring at nothing. One pupil inprick, while the other looked normal – an obvious cussion. Quickly, Bernt reached down and straightehe padin’s leg with a horrible crag hen he pulled the minor healing potion from his pocket and uncorked it.

  Someone grabbed his shoulder.

  “Ugh, back off with that thing. He ’t swallow while he’s unscious anyway. You’ll just choke him. I’ll do it,” Josie said and k dowo him. She looked like something the hells themselves had spat up, her hair and face covered with blood and worse. Her heavily ented robes, by trast, were not only undamaged but also spotless. Still, she hadn’t e away unscathed. Two fingernails on her right hand had been torn off and blood still dripped from them onto his shoulder, soaking into his robes. Her expression, though, was as determined as ever.

  Bernt backed up a step to let her work. The Solicitor pulled a small, rolled leather case from her poud ope, pulling out a gss syrih what seemed like an unnecessarily long needle. After filling it with some of her potion, she carefully ied it into the shattered leg and ied it directly into his bloodstream.

  Color washed bato Torvald’s fad he blihough he still didn’t look like he was all there. His leg spasmed and he made a strangled sound.

  “Hold him down!” Josie ordered as she moved up and held his head still. “There you are. Alright, drink it down, small sips.”

  Before long, Josie had their young colleague sitting up, looking around in fusion. A patch of hair on the back of his skull was missing, a wondered just how bad that cussion had been.

  “What were you thinking?!” Josie berated him. “You literally ran into an enemy army. That was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen in my life!”

  Torvald shook his head, though even that small motion still pained him. “She told me to do it. Ruzinia did. I had to.”

  Josie scowled. “Do you it suicide every time someoells you to?!”

  The padin gri her.

  “It almost sounds like you were worried about me,” he teased, but then adopted a more sober expression. “You don’t say no to a god. It was… intense. Besides, I wanted a calling – it’s why I joihe Underkeepers in the first pce.”

  “I told you!” Josie growled. “You ’t sign yourself over to a being who operates at that kind of scale. You’re less than an ant to a god, and it shows. Just look at you!”

  As the two of them fell into a familiar argument, Ber out a small sigh of relief. Torvald, at least, was going to be okay. They helped him up and slowly made their way back to the Underkeepers’ headquarters. Only then did Torvald finally notice Jori walking alongside Bernt.

  “Uh. Jori? What happeo you?” he looked from her to Bernt a little warily. Josie very carefully didn’t look at them, but he could still see the worried frown on her face. She kly what had happened, and what it meant.

  “I stole some of the power that Nuros was abs and I destroyed his host with it.” Jori expined helpfully, grinning brightly. “I wotle!”

  “I… see? What does that mean? Is he dead?” Torvald asked, looking from Jori to Josie. The warlock shrugged.

  “Not dead, no. Just gohe duergar warlocks will summon him back, most likely. But I doubt they’re going to do it here. There isn’t much left of his army, and it looks like he mostly got what he came for, anyway.”

  “Souls, you mean,” Bernt said, swallowing thickly. Hoeople had just died? “How much more powerful is he going to be ime?”

  Josie sighed. “That depends. If he had enough for his metamorphosis, he would have do. But… he might be close after that. Still, there’s no guarantee he’ll e back here at all. I’m sure there are softer targets out there.”

  Bernt looked around at the destru that filled the cavern. Hundreds of people had died here, and practically everyone he could see was injured in some way or another. Burn wounds were especially ong the duergar, and many of the corpses clustered around his earlier position were charred bck – his work. The stench of bur and hair hung in the air.

  They made their way into the Underkeepers’ headquarters, where they deposited Torvald in one of the bas with the other valesg guards. He’d be back to normal soon thanks to Josie’s expensive healing potion – well before many of the others who had taken much lighter wounds. They were on their way back to the courtyard when a skinny-looking dwarf woman with a nasty bruise on her face stepped out of the break room and held up a hand to stop them.

  “Dzhorianath, you have broken the bounds of yreement with the Solicitors, Archmage Thurdred, and Archmage Iria to remain on the mortal pne. Please step inside.”

  Beside him, Bernt could see Josie tense up, but Jori looked pletely rexed. The imp casually walked forward and past the warlock, disappearing into the room. Bernt made to follow, but the Solicitor took a half step forward to block his way.

  “You are not required to be in attendance for this meeting. You’re not party to the tract.”

  “I’m going to help.” Bernt said, shoving past her oo gently. Josie followed quietly behind him, aiced crossly that nobody tried to keep her out. The room was filled with the surviving solicitors – eight of them, including the young apprentice, who sat he back of the room by the kit, watg Gnugg and Trip as they made random cos out of the tea ingredients on the ter. Bernt guessed they’d spent the etle here.

  Radast stood up and nodded formally to Jori. There was a ritual circle on the grouo him with much the same figuration as the ohe Solicitors had made outside earlier, though this one was just drawn in salt.

  “I appreciate your timely intervention. Without your support, it’s uhat we would have been able to stop Nuros.”

  Jri him. “You’re wele, but I didn’t do it for you.”

  “I am aware,” Radast said with a severe frown. “You have advanced in power and exceeded the limits of reement. I’m afraid this means that you will be forced to leave this pne immediately.”

  “No, it doesn’t!” Bernt interrupted.

  Radast held a hand up to silence Bernt a his gaze on Jori. “I fear that you may not appreciate just how far I was already bending Beseri w to allow you to remain here as you have.”

  Jori’s grin turned a little sharper. “Maybe. But you weren’t doing it for me.”

  “Be that as it may,” Radast said seriously. “There are no further aodations I legally make, and no amount of heroism will vince me to defy the king. Adhereo the w is the bedrock that the Solicitors are built upon. It’s not the oute I was hoping for, but it’s the one we have. If you would step over here, I make your transition painless. You may, of course, return provided you do so under an approved pact.”

  That was his cue.

  Bernt cleared his throat and took a step forward.

  “Fihe’s do it! Weren’t you even going to ask me first?”

  Radast stared at Bernt with cutting skepticism written all over his features. Josie him encingly, though. She’d been trying to get him to do this from the first day they met. Jori, oher hand, felt surprised and then armed.

  “Underkeeper Bernard, as I’ve previously mentioo you, you ck the proper temperament for a warlock,” Radast said desdingly. “Managing an intelligent demon in the long term, even within a pact, requires force of will, ing, and an iron dedication to the letter of the w. You have repeatedly demonstrated a ck of caution and an uable flexibility in regard to both the spirit and the letter of the w.”

  Bernt scowled at the man. “You didn’t say she needed one of your warlocks, you just said she needs a pact that meets your standards. I’ve seeandards and there’s no reason I couldn’t make a pact like that.”

  Radast shook his head. “I will not accept it, regardless. You’d be a rogue warlock within a decade – or, more likely, a week. She may make a pact with a more suitable didate if she wishes, but in the meantime she will o return to her home pne regardless.”

  “She just saved practically the ey!” Bernt shouted. “She saved everyone!”

  The chief solicithed, tiredly. ”There is no need for you to be so defensive. She will be fine.”

  Jori spread her wings ahem down once, drawing everyone’s attention. She wasn’t grinning anymore a could feel her frustration. “I’ve seen the approved version of the pact too, and I’m not going to be bound by the Solicitors. Or anyone! Not now, and not iure.”

  Moving quickly, she stepped ihe salt circle and then lifted her gaze to look Bernt in the eye. She fshed him a quick, bright grin apanied by a plicated mixture of determination, grief and wry amusement. “Besides. I haven’t saved everyone. Not yet.”

  She leaned down and dug the razor-sharp cws of one hand into her palm, spraying drops of burning blood down onto the salt. The circle ignited in purple fme and she disappeared in a burst of fire that seemed to colpse in on itself even as it formed.

  Over by the kit, Gnugg wailed in horror.

  Bernt stared unprehendingly at the spot where she’d been.