2/28/26 - The Day the World Got Brighter
Three months had passed since our last disaster, which felt generous considering we had not gotten any better at avoiding new ones.
We stoodwere still recovering from the massive fight at the base of that toweringstructure. structureNo battered,spells spell-drained,left. No safe place to rest. Everyone worn thin. Barty was worse. He’d been bitten — and profoundlynot aware thatin a longway restone forgets. He tried to cauterize it himself. It was abrave. luxuryIt wewas determined. It did not possess.go Barty bore the worst of it — bitten, marked, and quietly carrying the Blight like an unwanted houseguest. He attempted to cauterize the wound himself. Bold. Stoic. Questionable craftsmanship.well. The fleshwound sealed, but something in him dimmed.dulled after that. The Blight lingered.had Heits felthooks in him, and he could feel it.
We all did.could.
But riversthe doriver did not pause for existential dread.care.
The debris still blocked our path, and the crane above itthe debris was ourthe only option.way forward, so Eggie climbed to the control tower withwhile the confidencerest of aus mantook whopositions hasbelow. survivedThat’s worsewhen he found the levers — and discoveredthe whyreason no one else had succeeded. TheWhoever leverstried borebefore had lost their fingers to the grisly proof. Fingers lost.mechanism. Weeks old. The crane demanded payment.sacrifice.
And then there was the rope.
Pristine. Metallic. AlmostResting elegant.there like it belonged.
When Barty picked it up, it stirred.
NotJust dramaticallyslightly. —Enough justthat enoughwe toall suggestnoticed. It coiled faintly in his hand, like it was consideringtesting him. It shifted, coiled faintly,him, then settledwent againstill. likeNot anormal catrope pretendingbehavior. itNot hadn’teven moved at all. We exchanged looks. We had seen this pattern before. Relics never arrive by accident.slightly.
Below,We didn’t have time to unpack that.
Agnes and Emonie descendeddropped down to hook the crane.crane to the debris. Emonie landed like she expected applause. Agnes followed with clericalpriestly dignitygrace intact. Eggie lowered the crane perfectly, and we began to push.
It was heavy.heavier Insultinglythan heavy.it had any right to be.
Iron groaned. Timber protested. We strained together, musclesiron screaming,groaning bootsunder diggingpressure. intoIt soakedstarted earth.to move.
And then I pushed just a little too well.hard.
The bar snapped.
The crane whipped backbackward withlike violentan enthusiasm.angry god. Agnes went into the water. The control tower collapsed with a crash so thunderousloud it rolled across the marsh like a challenge.
Something answered.
The ground trembled.shook.
“They’re coming,” Barty saidsaid.
And the rope slid free and coiled around his arm aslike ifit in agreement.agreed.
FromWhat rose from beneath the wreckagestructure rosewas thenot subtle. The Blasphemy —emerged half flesh, half liquid, with yellow eyes glowing like jaundiced lanterns and posturethe suggestingconfidence sheof verysomething muchthat enjoyedhad annever entrance.once lost a fight. She slammed Eggie with terrifying forceforce, and nearlyfor foldeda himmoment inI half.thought we had lost him.
We did notdidn’t panic.
We simply retreated aggressively.very deliberately.
Elandra attemptedtried to bendSuggest the creature’screature will.back The Blasphemy declinedinto the suggestion.muck. It did not appreciate that. Shamblers closed in. A Broken Lord enteredjoined the fray. A Wretched lunged forat me and missed, which I would like formallynoted recorded.for the record.
Agnes anchoredplanted herself inlike faith,a boundary marker, her Toll ringing out likeagain aand warning bell.again. Emonie hauled bodiespeople toback safety and readiedtoward the barge. Barty struck fast and disengaged with the efficiency of a man who knows he cannot afford to linger.faster. I insulted things until they hesitated. It’s aan skill.art.
The Blasphemy melted across the battlefield as thoughlike she werewasn’t onlyfully pretendingcommitted to behaving solid,bones, reviving the fallen with grotesque ease. Enemiesshamblers we had putalready down rose again.dropped. Steely Dan fell.fell in the chaos.
ThereWe wasdidn’t notry grandto stand. No heroic final blow.win.
ThereWe wastried strategy.to live.
Step by careful step,step we withdrew towardto the river.barge. When I found myself nearly surrounded,got cut off, the rope extended toward me withouton beingits asked.own. I grabbed holdit and made it aboard as the others shoved theus barge free with poles and stubbornness.free.
Behind us, the Blasphemy just stood there in the shallows, watching.
We drifted into the mist — exhausted, diminished, and alive.mist.
Which,Alive. given the alternatives, felt like victory.Barely.
The dockLater we found latera wasdock quieter,with though no less strange. Anan iron bell sat at its edge whileand a crow peckedpecking at it withlike suspiciousit dedication.was being paid. Archimedes tookreacted greatstrongly interest into the rope, which didhelped notexactly help anyone’s nerves.zero. Eggie silencedfire-bolted the bell with fire.bell. Nothing answered. Which was somehow more unsettling.
Inside the nearby boathouse, Agnes and Barty heard faint chimingchiming. Not wind chimes — not wind, but metal striking metal. Religiousreligious fetishes arranged in the symbol of Lathander. Six inof total.them. Three inlaid with silver.silver inlaid.
Agnes replaced the silver with copper —of equal weight,number. equalRespect respect.given Nowhere desecration.it Nowas greed. Just balance.due.
Later,That night, she told Barty quietly that if the Blight claimedtook him, she would sendsee him beyondsent beforeproperly it finished its work.beyond.
ThatHe nightdid not sleep well.
In the morning, we rested.
Barty did not.
The rope, inlearned the morning light, revealed itsrope’s nature: a Rope of Climbing. A relic. Loyal, apparently. Eggie rebuilt Steely Dan into Jerichosomething —sturdier Owlbearand inrenamed spirit,him if not entirely in shape.Jericho.
We returnedcontinued to the river.downriver.
Gibbets lined the banks. Some empty. Some moving in ways they shouldn’t.moving.
And then we saw it.the monastery.
AIt was enormous — more temple than monastery so— massive it bordered on arrogant. Goldgold sun iconography blazing across its façade. Too grand. Too pristine.stonework. Dedicated to Lathander. Beautiful. Immaculate. Unsettling.
Inside, the air heldsmelled of incense ratherand thanmildew, rot.not death. Doors were barricaded from within. Something struck one as we passed.
At the end of a candlelit hall sat Brother Durst — ancient,ancient sharp-eyed,beyond impossiblyreason, calm.sharp blue eyes under a curtain of white beard. Alone for a year and a half. In service for nine centuries.
He knew we were coming.
Lathander had told him.
He entrustedgave Agnes withus a weathered box — meant for Lady Elspeth of Ebonmoor. The Ember Glass. He warned us not to touch it directly if it broke. He said he would join his brothers onceafter we departed.left.
Agnes lingered.stayed behind to speak with him a moment longer. He told her she was doing holy work.
We left with the box.left.
The stained glass exploded inwardshattered before we reached the door.doors.
Fireballs tore throughinto the sanctuary. Flames devoured pews and pillars alike. Nine raiders waited outside. Two with pistols — strange, sharp thunder-weapons.pistols. One wieldingwith a silver dagger. Jorick’s name surfaced in accusation.
We charged.
SteelThe clashed.fight Gunfirewas cracked.chaos. Fire roared behind us. Steel ahead.
Agnes fell while still clutchingholding the box.
It broke.
And then—
Light.
Not flame.firelight.
Not spell. Not sunlight.magic.
White radiancebrilliance burst outward withfrom suchthe forceshattered itcrate and swallowed the burning monastery in brilliance.radiance. It drowned the flames. It forced every shadow to retreat. It silenced even the roar of the inferno.
From the shatteredsplintered cratewood rose a hexagonal shard of gold-veined glass, hovering in the air. At its core,core something pulsed. Something breathed.
It called to Agnes.
She reached for it.
When her fingershand touched the Ember Glass, her wounds vanished. She rose,rose aliveto byher feet, standing in the narrowestinferno andas most deliberate margin, standing amid flame and falling timber with radiantthe light curlingwrapped around her like dawn itself had chosen a champion.her.
Everyone saw.
The light burned brighter than the fire consuming the holy place. TheIt worldfelt didlike notsomething feelancient thehad samejust afterward.opened its eyes.
The Ember Glass hovered near her, then settled —into a calm, dormant,dormant state — but undeniablyit awake.was awake now.
And as it did, Barty straightened.
The creeping weakness withininside him stilled. The Blight’sBlight advancestopped haltedadvancing. asThe thoughmark heldremained, atbut bayit byno somethinglonger ancient and uncompromising.spread.
The relic had chosen.chosen us.
When the raiders lay dead in the ash,dead, we searched them.
Weand found:
-
120 gold pieces
-
3 silver coins
-
60 iron clinkers
-
300 copper pieces
-
1 silver dagger
-
2 pistols
-
1 potion of healing
KenI claimedtook the silver dagger.
Eggie tookclaimed the pistols.SilverThe coinssilver werewas divided.
Barty kept the potion of healing.potion.
And we stood there,there smokein risingthe aroundashes us,of a monastery, holding something that had just rewrittenchanged the rules.shape of the world.
We had awakened the Ember Glass.