The captain stood mutely at the shore as she watched her ship sink to the bottom of the river. She had been standing motionless for several minutes now, but could not tear her gaze away as the aft deck, last to go, vanished and the waves clapped over it.

She finally turned away, and one could see even in the rain that tears were in her eyes. She tried to speak, but closed her mouth again and remained silent. She lowered her head as they stood huddled together in the rain, the boat securely pulled ashore.

Tam stood transfixed, and hardly noticed Mh'repha walking up next to him. It was a while before he could speak again, and even then he was badly shivering, partly with the cold and partly with naked terror.

“What d-did we get off the ship in t-time?” He wanted to know.

Mh'repha shook her head grimly. “You saw us leave. Nothing that we did not have on us. Just about our clothes, and nothing else.”

“I'm in luck, for my part,” Tam responded. He pulled out a pouch from his tunic and rattled it. “I always carry them around with me.” The assembled hunters, he could see, were similarly lucky. They took a similar view regarding their weapons, which were secured by their sides without exception. Mh'repha swore and suddenly grasped her own pouch.

It rattled heavily with gold. “The wrong one. I left my potions and herbs aboard.” She looked crestfallen. “I'm useless without them.”

“Never useless,” Tam retorted angrily, but switching to Novah. Mh'arriimh would be able to understand them, but that at least he didn't mind. “How can you think that?”

Mh'repha shook her head and looked around.

“I don't even know where we are. We're utterly lost and stranded.” At that, Chamh'rov, who had been talking to Mh'arriimh', came over.

“No, we aren't.” He held up a map, very much the worse for wear after the rain and the wind, but drawn on enduring parchment and spelled to last. “In fact...” he pointed a claw at the map, and said nothing more. Mh'repha's eyes lit up. Filled with a sudden cheerfulness, she went over to captain Siphra, who was still speechless, and began talking quietly to her. Tam went over a bit closer to make out the words over the storm.

“---not succeeded,” Siphra was saying. “It is at least two weeks on foot to Ratbane from here. I've gotten you stranded in the wilderness.”

“No, you haven't,” Mh'repha retorted. “We have arrived precisely where we meant to, captain, and we are very grateful.”

Siphra looked at the alchemist with the expected reaction. “Have you gone mad or something? There is absolutely nothing here. We are half-way between Bhardrow and Ratbane, and the closest sign of habitation is miles away. We are lost out here.”

Mh'repha lowered her voice further and whispered in the captain's ear. Siphra looked suspiciously around at the bedraggled group, then whistled, understanding at last. “Secret. I see.”

“Yes. And I would like to thank you for getting us here so promptly. For this, and by way of an at best inadequate repayment for the Starfish, I would like to offer you this.” She reached for the pouch she was still holding. “Where we are going, we do not need money.”

Siphra looked at the pouch in disbelief. Inadequate was at best emotionally accurate – Tam realized that the sum still remaining was many times their original offer, and while it would not quite cover the cost of a new ship, it would go quite a long way towards it. Siphra protested slightly, but Mh'repha would not hear any of it. “The next question is how you will get back.”

“Oh, that will be no problem.” Siphra gestured at the boat. “You can always go down a river. It's up is the problem.”

“We have---” Mh'repha was cut short by Tam, who put a warning hand on her shoulder. She turned around towards him and he began to signal.

<foes. hiding in the bushes, perhaps within arrow range>

<how do you know?> Mh'repha signalled back.

<magic.> he gestured to his pouch. <greywraith, I would guess.>

<then why aren't they attacking us?> Mh'repha asked.

<no idea, myself.> Tam went over to Chamh'rov and the other hunters and, signalling, filled them in.

Perhaps they are waiting for Siphra to leave us so she has nothing to witness. Tam considered briefly. That did not sound at all like the Greywraith he had heard about, however: It would have seemed more likely that they would just kill them all and be done. Instead, they must be biding their time.

The storm was lessening slightly. Tam first thought it was merely a short break in the weather, but realized as it faded ever more that it was in fact ending as suddenly as it had begun. Clearly induced by magic then, he concluded. And that implies that the Greywraith planned this disaster all along.

Chamh'rov and the hunters were getting their weapons ready, while Mh'repha and Mh'arriimh', protesting, took up cover after Chamh'rov had pointed out, still signalling, that they had no weapons and would be immediate casualties in the ensuing combat.

Tam reached for a new crystal. He tried to remember where he had sensed the other presences. It had been fairly close, for he had not required much power to sense them, even though they had cloaked themselves rudimentarily.

There is a spell for this sort of thing, he desperately thought. An ambush. We are helplessly waiting for them to spring the trap, but we have one advantage. We know the trap is coming. They do not yet know we know. He debated further. If I use magic, I set myself up as an immediate target. 'Go for the robe' is a maxim as old as ranged weapons. Then he reconsidered. They already know I'm the mage from my appearance. After Zadal, they knew us Vahnatai for what we are. That meant the best advantage must needs lie in a quick offense, before they could take him out.

Arrows trained on me. Eyes squinting up to aim. It is dark... and their eyes are accustomed to that... he grinned. His eyes darted around to make sure that none of his own group were looking inward, toward him. They faced outward in a half circle away from the shore.

“ka-tis'tam,” he whispered, clenching his fist over the crystal.

A silent explosion swept over the clearing, like frozen lightning, as the darkness was rudely torn open by the bright shaft of light. Shining Ones, did the armh'shar call us? Tam grinned again. Here's some shining for you. His figure was glowing brightly with the blinding light he had summoned up.

The clearing was immediately doused in daylight, and the surrounding bushes were brightly illuminated. Shouts of surprise echoed from the Claw hunters, but it could not match the yells of anguish of several of the Greywraith who had been looking too closely at him. At least several of their archers had been disabled for now, and the hunters, shouting a cry of battle, immediately took the initiative.

The fight initially seemed to go well for the Claw hunters. The Greywraith group did not far outnumber them, and four of their number were quickly dispatched by Phamh'rir's and Mh'rowan's arrows, which seemed to find their mark as swiftly and surely as was told of the arrows of their enemies. Iiphromh' was charging and felled another of the silent hunters.

By now, the Greywraith were recovering from the initial shock and blindness, and were fighting back. However, they were still at a disadvantage – Tam's spell held fast, and they had to fight while facing the light, being themselves in full sight the whole time.

Tam was waiting for the legendary 'fade and disappear' trick Phamh'rir had told him about and that he had read about in Zadal's journal, but either the old archer and the explorer had both exaggerated their claims, or the Greywraith were not able to perform their acrobatics while transfixed so utterly by his light.

Uh-oh. Battery's running low, he noticed. He wondered whether to end the charade right now, using the sudden surprise of darkness as effectively as the surprise of light, like Olidra had taught him. But he decided against. Firstly, he was convinced that the Greywraith could realign their eyes to the darkness more quickly than the Claw could, and secondly, if it was indeed what was preventing the Greywraith from disappearing and kicking their collective hindsights out of the shadows. The light was on the side of the Claw, but it was fading, and time was on the side of the Greywraiths.

He barely registered Iiphromh' falling – but out of the corner of his eye, he saw the fighter had been transfixed by at least three arrows at once. Dead. Time for the funerals later. Mh'repha, he was relieved to see, had not left her cover in the boat, and was safe from the crossfire.

Time is running out. The light was already beginning to flicker. It's a miracle they haven't managed to shoot me yet. Even without looking directly at me, they should--- an arrow grazed his arm. Hounds of Tindalos, that hurt! But even as the pain lit his arm on fire, he was relieved: They weren't able to aim properly. He had a chance still.

Time for some offensive. While the spell he had originally cast was using up the power he had drawn from the crystal, his own strength would still hold another few spells – just not another light spell, because this was the only crystal he had taken the time to enchant accordingly on the way here.

He spread his fingers in eight directions, and shouted for the first time. “Inf'ra lavih!” Little spheres of fire shot from his hand, seeking their targets among the assassins. Most of them missed – even while blinded, the Greywraith were experts at dodging – but he did manage to fell two of them.

The light was now fading irrevocably, and Tam decided to make the most of it. Quelling the spell, he turned the clearing as dark as, well, midnight – it must be long past midnight already, he realized.

He used the pitch darkness to quickly throw himself to the forest floor, and hoped that the other Nephilim did likewise, even as he kept his eyes open. Futile, for the moonless darkness was impenetrable now that the lightning had ended. Quite suddenly, he felt, rather than saw, the air filled with arrows, crossing back and forth. What kept them from shooting earlier? he wondered, but was too flabbergasted to think about it further.

Groans all around him told of terrible things. He feared to be able to see again, believing that he might well be the only survivor. But survivor I am, he knew, because no arrows had hit him yet.

But the groans were not those of the Claw hunters. Did they shoot each other? And then they faded away.

Silence.

Tam hesitantly lifted his hand and cast a light spell.

Emptiness.

Several bodies lay around him, but the Greywraith were only shadows fleeing into the night, away.

Tam wondered why for a second, when his answer came in the form of a single thunderclap that brilliantly lit the nightsky once more, and the shockwave that made the earth heave. He lost consciousness.