After we left Vastiin, we traveled through the endless desert and made our way back into the deadly forest of vibrant colors and the demons that resided within said forest. Once again, we were met with resistance, but Luna, Stanford, and I were ready.

By the time we reached the wooden gate of Soren's fort, I had lost count of how many demons I had killed.

"How many demons did you strike down Stanford?" I asked him as I caught my breath and wiped sweat off my brow.

He grinned, sheathing his blade with a low rasp from the blade. "I stopped counting at forty."

"I got to fifty before I lost count," Luna chimed in, breathing heavily.

Stanford scowled, "Way to one-up me, Luna."

She gave him her best shit-eating grin, "Ha."

"Reaaal mature," Stan grumbled.

"Open the gate Stefan!" Soren shouted, ignoring the bickering that was going on behind him.

"Got it Soren!" Stefan replied, "One moment-Hey! Sasha! Behave yourself! Hey, hey! You're not helping either, Analise! Leave Dorrian alone and stop distracting me!"

My face fell, and I looked at Luna in silent horror. She returned my look and cringed.

Finally, -after five minutes- the gate opened and we were admitted inside. The first thing I saw was Dorrian crawling on the ground toward me. His hair looked like a hurricane went through it, and his eyes showcased his fear.

"H-Help me!" He breathed, "These crazy women have been trying to kill me!"

I heard laughter: "I've done nothing wrong!" (Damn it Analise!)

She walked over with Sasha and fist-bumped her.

I helped my terrified friend up while glaring at Ana.

I saw Nova raise an eyebrow as she stood over a portable workshop she brought with her. She was currently tinkering on her hand cannon while Pip hovered around her.

"Hey, 'Bout time you all got back here. I was afraid Dorrian was going to die," She began as she watched me dust my friend off.

"Not helping Nova!" Dorrian snapped.

She shrugged, "Hey, I'm just a bystander. You know the saying: 'Don't shoot the messenger'? Well, don't yell at me, bitch."

I saw Ben walk over to look at the scene before him with a faint grin on his lips. He had shaven recently, and he had his bow strung.

He grinned when he saw his frazzled colleague, "You okay Dorrian?"

"Peachy," He grumbled sourly.

Luna looked at me, "What did the red-heads do to him?"

Ideas popped up in my mind, but I pushed them away and died a little on the inside, "I don't want to know, you don't want to know, nobody needs to know."

"Oh, he was ganged up on?" Luna guessed, seemingly oblivious to my warning.

"Worse," Dorrian breathed, "Much...much worse. They tried to...suffocate me. It was...Sasha's idea, and Analise gladly carried it out..."

Luna grinned evilly. Damn it, I saw the gears turning in her head.

"Ah, death by cleavage. That's a classic way to go right there. I'm honestly not surprised that Ana was the one to carry out the deed."

Ana's face turned red, "Hey, don't get the wrong idea fuzzball."

Luna chuckled, patting Dorrian on the shoulder, "She's a keeper, Dorrian. Never forget that."

The poor guy fainted on the spot. Luckily, we were there to catch him before he ate dirt. We half carried, half dragged him to one of the tents that were set up for my team to crash in. Together, we laid him on a bedroll, and his eyes opened a tad.

"Thank you," He murmured before falling asleep. I chuckled and laid a blanket over him.

I looked at Luna, "I think you broke him."

She giggled, "I sure did."

Analise appeared beside us and glowered at Luna. She then chuckled and shook her head, "You are no longer a student, but a master now. Use your powers wisely, my dear ex-student."

I sighed, raking my hands through my hair, "I have a bad feeling about this..."

Luna only laughed quietly.

For the rest of the day, my team got used to life within the fort while conversing with Soren's team. I caught sight of Nova arguing with Grigori about things I was barely able to understand while Stanford and Stefan sparred.

After I talked to Soren, I woke Dorrian up and took my team outside of the fortress. When the gate of the fort closed behind us, we traversed the forested region around the encampment so my team could get used to the landscape of this realm, and so they could get a taste of what resides in this realm. We spent an hour butchering demons until we retreated back into the fort.

"How did your little excursion go?" Soren asked when we re-entered the fort.

I grinned, "Nova blew up a few demons, and if you find any demon corpses pinned to nearby trees, blame Dorrian and Ben. I still can't believe they were able to pin that one imp..."

Soren rose an eyebrow, "So I take it you all had fun?"

"Aye!" Analise chortled, "Minus the fact I couldn't slit their carotid artery, I had a blast!"

He shook his head. "Oh boy...Anyway, I'll be going to Vastiin again tomorrow morning. I can take your entire team with me so they could see the city for themselves. That sound like a plan to you Helix?"

I nodded, "Aye, it does. What do you guys think?"

Ana shrugged, "Sounds good to me."

Nova grunted as she continued to tinker on her weapon, "Lemme finish this beauty, and I'll be ready to go."

"We're going tomorrow, Sis," I pointed out.

"Oh," She replied simply, "Okay."

Dorrian's throat bobbed as he checked his quiver to see how many arrows he had left.

"Oh bollocks," he grumbled, pushing himself to his feet, "I gotta make more arrows..."

Luna popped her neck and cringed, "Ow..."

"Are any of us coming along?" Stefan asked.

"I'm not entirely certain," Soren replied, "I need people to remain here so I know the fort is protected. I'll consider having a few of you tag along, but I'm not certain."

He nodded, "Very well."

"How will we strike against Thaleous, Soren?" I asked curiously.

He contemplated my question for a few moments before shrugging, "I'm still figuring that out. Thaleous' fortress is a really tough nut to crack, but I believe there's a way to get in. There's another reason we're going to Vastiin tomorrow: My fellow inquisitors wish to speak to me, and they also want to meet you."

I nodded, "Ah, so that was what I felt when we left Vastiin today. I could've sworn someone was sensing my aura and sizing themselves up to me."

Soren grinned, "Aye, my colleagues are interested in you, Stanford, and Luna. Most of their questions were about you and Luna."

"Why is that?" I asked curiously.

"They haven't seen an Imagist in a long, long time. They told me the power they sensed from you two was unfathomable. They even asked me if I knew if you were an ethereal being, Helix. That's how powerful they said you are."

I looked at him in bewilderment, "I at least know I'm a huntsman. I didn't expect that title would come attached with a crazy amount of power."

Soren looked as if he were deep in thought, "No...there's more to your power than just that, but I'll be damned if I'll ever find it out."

After a few moments of silence, he sighed, "No matter. I'll introduce you to my colleagues tomorrow."

"Alright," I replied, "I know you're figuring out how to take down Thaleous, but do you have any ideas of what we can do to effectively terminate him?"

He nodded, "Aye, I do. Thaleous is extremely paranoid: He knows I'm after him, so he'll play dirty to stall my plans in order to buy himself time. If I can confuse him to the point he makes a fatal mistake, I believe we can swoop in and eliminate him. My fellow inquisitors believe that Thaleous has a smaller stronghold under his control that has access to very sensitive information, such as information on his generals, the locations of several secret entrances to his primary stronghold, and info on the defensive wards that protect his stronghold-as well as how to disable them. If we find the stronghold and capture his second in command, we may be able to find a weakness in his stronghold that'd allow us to get in and wreak havoc."

I grinned, "Now that sounds like a plan."

Soren sighed, "Yeah. The thing is, no one knows where this smaller stronghold is. Thaleous guards the locations of all of his bases so I wouldn't be able to find and burn them to the ground."

"Oh," I remarked, "That's not good."

"Yeah," He breathed, "Some of my colleagues have an idea as to where this stronghold is located, but we're going off of speculation alone at this current moment."

I shrugged, "Sure, it's speculation, but it's better than nothing at all. We can use this speculation to start the ball rolling. Then we can start to find concrete information that'll make the task of devising a plan of attack easier. That's how most of my missions go: we can't know everything right off the bat, so we collect info, then we come up with a plan to go off of the things we've learned. Whether or not this plan works determines our next move. Winging it isn't a bad idea. You just have to accept the fact that that failure is always an option."

Soren nodded, a grim smile on his face: "Yes, you're right. Forgive me Helix, my time spent here has turned me into quite the pragmatic pessimist. I've always told myself that a plan that isn't supported by concrete information is doomed to fail. I've devised so many plans to take Thaleous down, and every time, he slips right out of my grasp..."

He sighed, "Your team offers me a new sense of hope. Maybe I can see the end of this conflict-maybe all of the sacrifices I've made won't be in vain. Not a day goes by that I doubt my authority-my ability to lead a team. I constantly ask myself if this fight is worth the death, the loss, the grief. Thaleous has claimed so many of my dear friends...he deserves to die." He hissed the last statement out, "I ask myself if this war is worth putting my family at risk: My Tanis..."

He tried not to tear up, but he lost the fight, "I'm sorry, I'm rambling. I'm...tired of fighting. I know that my team would follow me to the bitter end, but I want them to enjoy their lives. I don't want them to die prematurely because of a mistake I made."

I nodded, "I understand your conflict. I've made a few decisions that have made me question my authority as well, but this is why you have to continue fighting Soren: if there's something worth fighting for, you can't let your doubts cloud your mind. You have to be sure of what you're doing. Doubt is a damnable thing: it makes you second-guess every single thought that pops into your mind, but we're warriors Soren-survivors," I remembered what Ben told me when we were in Seris, "People like us are hard fuckers to kill. If we keep taking chances and meeting each risk when they present themselves with confidence, we'll keep fighting, and we'll keep Thaleous paranoid."

Soren chuckled and nodded to himself, "Thanks Helix. I really needed that. As far as I know, dinner will be in about two hours. I've been told that I'm a bad cook, so...yeah."

I grinned, "I can cook."

"Really?" Soren replied, interest plain and evident in his voice.

"Yeah," Luna chimed in, "His cooking is legendary."

"Alright, be prepared to deal with a tough crowd tonight. Just a heads up, my team isn't very fond of burnt food."

I grinned, "Don't worry Soren, I won't screw up dinner."

He grinned, "Good to hear because Sasha would lose her mind if she eats burnt food again."

"Do I need to know?" I asked him.

Sasha's smile scared the shit out of me, "Let's just say that you should kiss little Helix goodbye if you fuck up dinner tonight."

My face went pale, and I looked at Luna, "Ahm...Shit."

Two and a half hours later, I finished dinner and watched as everyone dug in. Thankfully, my cooking was well-received, and I kept little Helix. Hell, even Sasha licked her lips and asked for seconds.

Luna sighed after she cleaned off her plate, "That was very delicious Helix. Thank you."

I grinned, "You're welcome Luna."

I looked at Soren, "See? I told you I wouldn't screw up."

He huffed out a laugh, "Congrats, you're not a victim of my wife's wrath."

Stefan barked out a laugh, "Wrath? Sasha is not that scary." (his voice is seriously accented. If I didn't know any better, I would've thought Stefan was from the Northernlands.)

Sasha rose an eyebrow, "Do you want me to show you how scary I can be, Stefan?"

His smile fell apart, "Ehm...no-no thank you. I'm not in the mood to die today."

Tanis chuckled, "I'd hope you aren't content with dying at all, Right Stefan?"

He blushed, "Right, right."

Everyone laughed.

After dinner had wrapped up, Grigori asked Nova all about her ethridial technology (Which is pretty much all of the crazy gadgets Nova has created using ethridium. It's just another name for it). He said he had access to only a limited supply of an ore called Lithicite, which had similar qualities to ethridium. He almost blew his face off when Nova handed him her hand cannon.

"Holy shit," He began, "That was awesome!"

Nova facepalmed, "Remind me to never hand dangerous weapons to a madman ever again."

I raised an eyebrow, "I thought you already knew this, Nova."

"Apparently I didn't," She retorted irritably.

The rest of the evening wasn't as random. (Or deadly.) I pulled out my flute and began to play a jolly tune while Ben got his lute out and joined me. The evening pretty much passed that way: music and alcohol. (I'm sure you're surprised, dear reader: Who knew? Helix is an alcoholic? Well, I'm not. I just really like me rum. Me rum? The fuck am I? A pirate?)

That night was...pure madness. Everything from that first night in Mareth is pretty cloudy, which is probably a good thing. The first bad decision of that night involved me, Soren, and about fourteen mugs of rum. I downed eight mugs while Soren was only able to get down six. Obviously, we both blacked out after drinking an almost lethal-amount of alcohol. The last thing Soren managed to slur out before blacking out was: "Goodnight, you jolly fucker!"

(There's a recurring theme in this book: don't drink, kids. I suddenly have a sense of déjà vu...)

When I came to, I realized that I was sitting on a bench. Luna snoozed beside me, her purring was soft yet still audible. I saw Dorrian lying on the ground with a knife in his back. Analise and Sasha were currently engaged in a round of poker. Only...wait, what the fuck?

"Don't...stare..." Dorrian rasped, dragging himself toward me: "Don't...do it..."

Their bloody tops were off. (And that's all I'm saying. You can fill in the dots, my dear reader.)

Soren was sitting at the poker table with them. Unfortunately, the poor bloke was still out cold. His head was laying on the poker table, and he barely stirred.

Analise saw me awake and grinned, "Come on over Helix." Her smile terrified the shit out of me, "I dare you."

I chose then to pass out again.

When I came to for the second time, I saw that Ben now laid beside Dorrian with a large knife in his back.

"...Shit," He grumbled, "Remind me again why I decided helping you was a good fucking idea?

"Because you're a kind-hearted person?" Dorrian offered.

Ben shrugged, "Eh, I don't fuckin' know anymore."

Nova obviously had a few drinks herself. I say this because I caught sight of her laying on her work table, and she was giggling like a madman-or in this case, madwoman.

"We should get more mutton 'cause my bra's stuffed," She mumbled as she continued to giggle to herself

I shook my head, "What has the world come to?" I mused to myself.

"Oh Heliiix!" Ana called in a sweet voice.

"Oh fuck," I grumbled, "Why?"

"Stanford! Stanford, I need your assistance!" I shouted hurriedly.

"Sure thing Hel! What do ya need buddy-?"

Stanford fell to the ground as a knife thudded into his back.

"Help!" He cried, "I've fallen and I can't get up!"

I groaned, "God fucking damn it. You had one job Stan Pines!"

He staggered to his feet and glowered at me, "You motherfucker!"

He started staggering toward me, only to get another knife in his back.

"Oh, this is fun!" Analise shouted gleefully.

"I agree!" Sasha chimed in.

I was trapped: Luna was out cold and holding onto my left arm while a homicidal blood elf was approaching me with a knife in her hand and a mad grin on her face.

"Ana! Hold up!" Dorrian shouted, "This has gone too far!"

"I agree," Soren grumbled as he continued to lay on the ground. (He had stood up from the poker table, only to get a knife in his back and fall to the ground.)

Simon watched this trainwreck in silence while Tanis had a petrified look on her face. Grigori was busting a gut laughing as he too watched the madness unfold. Gwyneth was nowhere to be seen, which was probably a good thing.

Analise blinked, then looked at Dorrian, "H-Huh?" (Her reaction made me wonder if Argus had taken control of my best friend. That dishonorable fucker...)

Dorrian pushed himself to his feet and reached behind him. After a few moments, he yanked the knife out of his back and dropped it with a dull clatter: "This has gone too far." He repeated in a stern voice, "Please, stop throwing knives at people. It's not nice-or appreciated for that matter."

Clearing the drunken stupor from my mind, I quickly healed the people who had sustained knife wounds.

"Oh...uh...sorry," Ana replied in a sheepish voice, shuffling her feet nervously. "I guess I...Got carried away, huh?"

Dorrian grinned as he idly rubbed his shoulder, "Don't sweat it, Ana. I'm used to this madness. Oh, and Ana?"

"Yeah?" She inquired.

Dorrian's face reddened a little bit, "P-Please put your top back on."

"Oh, "She blushed, "Shit. Sorry."

Luna was still out cold. (Oh, how blissfully naïve she is right now.)

After the madness subsided, everyone turned in for the night. After some struggling, I was able to wake Luna up and get her to a tent for us to crash in. I carefully set her down before laying down beside her. Almost instantly, I was out cold.