“Lucky for us, this is a list of fairly common ingredients, though I’ve never seen them put together,” Arilyn said cheerfully. “Half of these ingredients are poisonous or part of making poisons or paralytics. And I’m willing to bet our new friends would have this stuff available or know where to get it.”

  She started leading me toward the crowd and the councilors. Which was good, as the suppression potion was wearing off. The window for the stuff was just odd to me. I mean, why couldn’t the potion work for twenty-four to thirty hours? The only thing I could think of was that it had something to do with the glitches.

  The light seemed to brighten more, and I pulled my hood farther down to shade my eyes. I relied on Arilyn’s guidance, and she seemed to know what I needed. When we reached the councilors, I didn’t notice until I saw the gnome.

  He bowed low in my direction. “Thank you, Mage Finn. Your actions have freed us to leave this place.”

  “You’re welcome. I wish you had given me more information about what I was getting into.”

  “You’ll have to forgive me. We were limited in what we could pass on, per the ancient pact. If there is anything I can do to make up for this, just ask.”

  “Is there someone among you who sells or collects herbs?” Arilyn asked. “We need to make some potions.”

  Councilor Gullvant sighed and looked apologetic. “We don’t have much in the way of herbs; most didn’t grow down here with the low light,” he said. “We got most healing and remedies from the Sisters of the Night.”

  “The Sisters,” I said slowly. “Oh shit. I forgot about their coming down here. Where can we find them?”

  “Usually there are only one or two, but you can find them at their temple. Do you remember the fork in the road right outside of town?”

  I nodded to Gullvant. “I do, thank you. Just one question: how the hell are you going to get out of here?”

  The gnome laughed and put his arms out wide. “Why, the ramps! There are ramps that are now accessible that will take us all the way to the top. We’ve been waiting generations to rejoin our respective societies and take with us what we have learned down here in the care of the gods.”

  He and his fellow councilors went back to helping load carts, while we were joined by Harper and Vessa. Vessa meeped in concern and jumped onto my shoulders, sticking her head into my hood to look me over with concern.

  Harper took one look at me and then looked at Arilyn. “Heals, why is he looking like uncooked chicken?”

  The implication was clear: why hadn’t Arilyn healed me? I was a little annoyed with the description, but hadn’t seen my face since I had been infected. Maybe I did look a little foul.

  “It’s called leprosy, Harper, and it can’t be healed. Only treated,” Arilyn said. “He got a potion recipe to hold it at bay, so we’re going to go get what we need from the Sisters. Want to come with?”

  Harper shook her head. “We’ve helped the people of this town pack up their wagons, but we were mostly just waiting for Finn to get back. It’s time for us to find Juan’s body, or what happened to it. We’ll be heading to where he and the ogre landed.”

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  That was very important, and I frowned. I should be going with her. At the same time, I doubted I would be able to do a damn thing, as useless as I was at the moment. And getting worse the longer I went without the potion to suppress these symptoms. It must have been obvious on my face.

  “Finn, you don’t need to be there. Get the stuff you need to feel better,” Harper said, understanding. “In fact, it wouldn’t hurt to ask the Sisters if they knew anything or had seen anything.”

  “I can do that,” I replied gratefully. “Two birds, right?”

  “Many stones,” Harper said with a smile.

  I smiled back. Well, I smiled at her feet. The light had gotten painful, burning not only my eyes, but any exposed skin. I tucked my hands into the front pouch of my poncho and hunched into my clothing. Vessa did her best to help by playing the part of an umbrella to shade me with her wings. Still, this was not going to be a pleasant walk.

  My usual bodyguards, Sergeants Twinkle Toes and Jeb, accompanied the three of us on our hike to the Temple of Darkness. Even with my state, I still had to shake my head at that one. To me, it sounded like a place of dark deeds and virgin sacrifices. I must have chuckled.

  “What’s so funny this time? You lose a finger or something?” Twinkle Toes asked. “You’re looking a little pale.”

  “Oh, it’s just that we’re heading to the most ominous-sounding temple I’ve ever heard of,” I replied. “For healing herbs! It just strikes me as odd.”

  The blue Barbarian chuckled, but Jeb grunted in disapproval. “The Goddess Hiantsa is more decent than most, you know. Healing people and sending her priestesses to tend to the poor and the sick. She’s deserving of some respect.”

  “Damn it, Jeb! Don’t be so serious,” chided Twinkle Toes, rubbing his bald head. “She’s a good egg in my book, too. But come on, if she can’t take a little harmless fun, well, I’d—I’d be surprised.”

  This seemed to mollify Jeb somewhat.

  “Why does he rub his head like that?” Vessa asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, does he think it will grow back? His hair,” she added. “I think he would look funny with hair.”

  “Vessa,” I said. “I don’t think he’ll grow it back. It’s likely an old habit.”

  I winced as she moved, her right dipping enough that it flashed in front of my face with refracted sunlight, blinding me. It was the second time she’d done that. I’d never noticed how bright her scales were in the sunlight. It was just too much, and I finally gave in and pulled out my sunglasses and put them on. I relief was almost immediate, and I chided myself for not putting them on sooner. Toughing things out was not really worth it.

  Though the sunglasses helped, I still needed Arilyn’s guidance to deal with irregularities in the road and the moments I just had to close my eyes because the light was still too much. It was an unusual torture, in this world I still saw as a sort of hell. I chose this, I thought. Though the other option was unimaginably bad, I have to own this.

  The road to the Temple seemed to take forever, as we moved from stone-paved to gravel, then to dirt. I got the feeling that the road was still a road, well-traveled and taken care of.

  “It is still as wide as it was when we left town,” Vessa affirmed. “Finn, can I ask you something?”

  “Of course, Vessa. What do you need?”

  “Are you… are you dying?”

  “I don’t think this thing is going to kill me, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “Oh, good,” she said. “Because you sound like you are in so much pain and uncomfort…”

  “Did you mean discomfort?”

  “Um, yes. Discomfort. But you are okay, right?”

  “Yeah, Vessa. I’m okay.”

  “Vessa, Finn’s going to be fine,” Arilyn said. “We just need to keep a good supply of these herbs and potions so that Finn’s not like this. It’ll be just like it was. He’ll just have to drink a potion every morning from now on.”

  “Oh,” Vessa replied. “Thank you, Heals.”

  When we finally got to the temple, it had to be somewhere around noon. The sun was directly overhead, and it was too much for me to handle, so I had closed my eyes. The shade had been intermittent, so the coolness of the temple was a welcome change.

  Once we were inside, I was able to open my eyes again, and the darkness of the temple was amazing. I heard approaching footsteps, and I tensed up.

  “It’s okay, Finn,” Arilyn said, soothing me. “It’s just the Sisters.”

  Soon, I could see two figures, not noticeably feminine until they came closer. My eyes, still likely in shock because of the increasing light sensitivity and the overly harsh sunlight, hadn’t quite adjusted to the darker interior of the temple.

  “Welcome, friends, to the Temple of Shadows. May the blessings of Hianstsa be upon you,” the priestess on the right said pleasantly.

  “Good health and long life,” intoned the one on the left.

  “What brings you to our humble temple?” asked the one on the right.

  “I have leprosy,” I said bluntly. “And I need herbs.”

  Both of the priestesses took a step forward, which is the exact opposite of what I would normally expect for someone informed of a carrier of such a disease.

  “What kind of herbs?” asked the one on the left.

  At the same time, the one on the right asked, “Are you feeling alright?”

  “Whoa. Hold up,” I said.

  “The Voice awarded him a recipe for a potion that would suppress the leprosy,” Arilyn interjected, somehow knowing that I was likely to derail things. “So we have a whole list. Right, Finn?”

  At her not-so-subtle urging, I handed over the recipe. The priestesses snatched it from me and pored over it, muttering to each other. They seemed to be having a discussion about toxicity rates and other topics I wasn’t well versed in.

  “We have all of these, but I’m not sure how this would work. We would have to do some test batches, study the results…” the one on the left said.

  “We’ll just have to see how it goes! Come, up ahead there are comfy chairs and refreshments.”

  We followed them deeper into the temple, my eyes adjusting and feeling way more at ease in the almost cold temple. I noticed no windows and wondered how they got away with that. As I lowered myself into one of the chairs, I found it was indeed comfortable.

  The priestess on the right stayed while the other went to gather up the herbs and attempt the recipe. “My sister Emerie is much more skilled with alchemic processes than I am,” she said by way of explanation. “Oh, look at me forgetting my manners again. My name is Sister Anochria. Do you have any questions for me as we wait?”

  “Uh—” started Twinkle Toes before Jeb hit him on the shoulder and glared at him so hard I thought a bevy of woodland creatures were going to storm in and attack the blue man.

  She looked at him curiously.

  “I have a question, Sister,” I said, butting in. “Several weeks ago, two bodies fell from the sky. An old Ranger with one of the legendary bows of Harmon, and an ogre. The man was our friend, my mentor, and we were wondering if you knew anything that could help us find his body so that we could recover it and give him a proper burial.”

  “Oh!” she said, surprised. “Yes, I was aware of that. Several people who came by mentioned it, as well as more than a few monsters. I am unsure what happened to the bodies.”

  “Ah, okay. Bummer, I had hoped… Thank you.”

  “I’m sorry I don’t have more helpful information,” she said. “I know the more intelligent monsters would refuse human flesh on principle. But I can’t say for the less sapient ones.”

  I nodded thoughtfully. Maybe my tracking skills would come in handy. At least once I had the suppression potions.

  I wished I could bring back the Whispers, just so I could tell him to fuck off.

  Thanks for reading!