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Kesi,
The noise of battle is replaced by the roar of a fire. But not the quiet of a fireplace. This is an inferno. A hellish, loud, roar of flame, as if the fire were screaming to break free and run across the world.
At first, the noise is terrifying - a raging pain with a sharp blade. But then, your senses - which were a jumbled mess - begin to settle and you recognize the fear and realize that it can no longer reach you. Instead, the fire in front of you seeps into your body and fills you with a sense of peace and security.
Quicker than the first time, you realize you have died. Again.
A sadness tries to displace the peace and security, but fails. The giant wall of white flame in front of you seems to keep all such thoughts at bay.
Time passes. You drift in and out of awareness. The ever-present fire seems to occupy your mind, its flames keeping you transfixed.
And then words step in to your mind. Seconds pass before you think to react. You turn to your right towards the voice, but more seconds pass before your mind interprets it all.
“Impressive, isn't it?” he asked.
A dwarf stands next to you. His armor is old and in desperate need of repair. He has no visible weapon, and the cloth of his outfit is in tatters. A thick layer of dust clings unnaturally to his beard and hair. He stares forward toward the flame.
“It was called 'Berronar's Pyre' by the man who triggered it. But in my day, we called it…” He pauses for a moment, as if searching for a word.
“Well,” he continues, “we didn't really have a name for it. There was too much pain and too little time for such details.”
You study his face for several seconds as he silently stares forward. You realize only after what seems like a very long time that you should say something.
But he turns to you just as you feel able to form a sentence. His face reminds you of Pavo - but is that just because all Dwarves look alike? Or is it more?
“I am Einerk. And this…” he waves an arm toward the flame, “is the entrance to the Long Deep.”
You turn back, following the sweep of his arm. But instead of the flame wall, you find yourself standing in a large natural cavern. The roar of the fire has been replaced by the shocks and flashes of combat spells being cast. At the center of the cavern, two men stand opposed. They are both armored, one in chain mail, the other in a breast plate. Both are human. The man in chain mail has light red hair sticking out from under a silvered helm and his armor is adorned by the symbol of two conjoined silver rings. It is a symbol you have seen before - in the abbey in the marsh. He holds a mace in both hands, but seems to wield it more as a holy symbol than as a weapon.
The other man has darker hair, over which he wears a silver circlet adorned with several moonstones and a large sapphire. He holds a black talisman in his hand. A symbol to a god you do not recognize.
Both men are casting spells furiously as they dodge around the room. The ground shakes as their spells hit. Bits of stone, dust, and dirt fall from the walls and ceiling. Some of the spells you recognize, having seen Roderick cast them before.
Suddenly, the earth screams as a fissure cracks through the floor, splitting the cavern in half and separating the two men. The man in the breast plate stumbles backward to keep from falling into the newly created chasm. The man in the chain armor holds his ground and casts a spell of brilliant flame.
The flame arcs across the cavern toward its target, who is still struggling against the unsteady ground. But as it crosses the chasm, it hits a wall of invisible gas venting up from some place below. The world turns white and the sounds of combat are replaced by a roaring inferno.
You find yourself back where you started. In front of you, a wall of white flame roars. To your right, Einerk stands silently staring at it.
The men who were battling so fiercely a moment before are nowhere to be seen. You are not even sure if they were ever there.
And then, without warning, you feel yourself falling backward, away from the fire. The sense of peace and security you were feeling is violently severed and replaced with a frightening sense of movement. And with it comes a pain.
You awake on a bed, with Roderick standing over you. Your body aches from deep wounds that Roderick's spell has not finished healing over. But even more, the transition from the calming effect of the fire to reality jars your senses. For several minutes, you feel colder than you have ever felt. And for several hours beyond that, you find yourself disoriented and disturbed by the lack of the white flame.