Galantyne shouted orders in a thundering voice to his troops. The ingrained prejudice most of his men felt at being on the land was deep and caused them to hesitate as Shadow Eaters overcame them. His sword flashed, as did his sister's, but although with each connection another Shadow Eater fell, two more leaped to take its place. His arm rang with contact. His men defended themselves haphazardly, having never been in combat or seen a comrade fall. Many turned tail and begun to run back the way they had come.

Kara followed the situation in Galantyne's mind. "Talisman! Cut them off! Force them back! Defend their flanks!"

With several huge swipes of gigantic claws hindering Shadow Eaters were knocked into the walls of the tunnels as the troops regained confidence and obeyed Galantyne's orders even through their deeply held fear of dying from the toxic air. Galantyne heard Kara shouting, "You will not die! You will not die! Fight! Fight! Fight!"

It was to Auditorium that Kara made her way. Blood ran freely along the drainage ditch and the stink turned her sensitive stomach. The trail was strewn with evidence of their recent evacuation. Kara kept her sword out before her, and her other hand blocked the nauseating stench. The leather shoes Rion had fashioned for her were suddenly drenched in sticky blood. Other predators were making quick work of the deceased. What greeted Kara's eyes weren't the bodies, but the bones and the hair, and the sightless eyes.

A pile of less decayed bodies, topped with greedy and vicious Pheroons and other reptilian looking creatures made Kara momentarily stop. Leftover blue and silver uniforms assailed her eyes. Her bile spewed over the confining cliff walls. The mad eyes of the smaller carrion eaters darted to her in timorous interest. Was she another about to die? A slightly larger pheroon scampered down from the pile, dragging a finger, the flesh still recognizable. Kara shut her eyes as she stomped her foot at it.

"I will run you through!" She spat hoarsely as it sat up on its haunches to nibble at the human digit. Kara gagged, realizing it wasn't afraid of her. 

Kara swung her sword. The feel of the deep slice and the screech of the dying pheroon was satisfying. She yanked her blade free of its convulsing body. Kara leaped other smaller piles, racing toward the bowl Galantyne had told her was there. If any were left, she must get them to the seaside, free their kai.

"Galantyne!" 

Skidding to a halt, Kara held both hands to her head as an intruder shouted into her Zalez. The call came again, powerful, unused, not like the sleek, gentle pulses Rion had directed gently into her mind. 

"Stop! Stop! Don't yell again!" She admonished in as forceful of a tone as she could.

"Galantyne!" The demand immediately tuned into her frequency. "I'm sorry. I hadn't thought to be using my Zalez so soon."

"I am not Galantyne." Kara pushed back along the wavelengths, trying to sense a friend or foe. She forced her bare skin to touch the rock as she had before. The contact with the planet had helped her. "I am his sister, Kara. Who are you?"

His relief flooded her. She realized she'd closed her eyes, and immediately opened them to watch for more predators. She couldn't afford to become swallowed up in Zalez. Balance, she told herself. Keep moving upward and keep focused inward. Her feet began to move again, and her step quickened.

"I am Dmitri, your Uncle!"

Kara smiled inside. Dmitri had always seemed to her a warrior out of place. He stood by Belakane, but he looked as if he belonged somewhere else. 

"Where are you? Why are you searching for Galantyne inside my Zalez?" She avoided a pile of flesh eaten bones and covered her mouth again.

"I am inside the Fortress. We just arrived from Aquaria, and found that General Wendar has taken over the reins of government in Galantyne's absence."

"And that is why you are looking for Galantyne. I realize he has the Zalez, but he is fighting through hordes of Shadow Eaters, quite detained at the moment." Kara projected the last image she'd had of her brother, flinging his sword at the hacked head of a Shadow Eater, thrusting it behind him at another.

She felt Dmitri's response instantly: eagerness to join him. Another step and she rounded a corner and stopped dead still beholding the monstrous bowl that encompassed what had been known as Auditorium.

"Kara! Where are you?"

"I am in Auditorium." 

"I will come to you! I will free you!"

"No! I am not here as a prisoner. I have come to free the remaining prisoners. Quildor has marched on Valdemar! He has abandoned those left in Auditorium and the village."

Dmitri's confusion was felt through her Zalez. "What is your purpose, my lady?" 

Kara cocked her head to one side as she viewed the carnage and destruction before her. A word came to mind: burn it.

"I will need to burn it. It is too much. I cannot return them to the sea. I need to burn it."

"You need my help. You are unfamiliar with the ways of fire, coming from the fireless city of Aquaria. I am coming to you." Dmitri ground out.

"You were right to find Galantyne." Kara protested, stepping out among the gross, and unimaginable destruction, wishing she'd never seen it, wishing this had been someone else's mission and not hers, wishing that her mind was not now irrevocably saturated with these images and memories. Scarred, she thought, I am wounded and scarring as I speak.

"You need me more, my lady. Belakane is dead. I would return to Carrigah or Valdemar, having discharged my duty to the Council of Ladies by bringing them here to the Fortress. I will now come to you."

 "Yes." She said eventually. "I need you more."

*******